Narrative action-adventure game Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II may have relatively simple combat compared to other action games, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be mastered. Like I said inside my review, the battle itself has a narrative feel to it, with Senua’s successes or failures in battle feeling harmonious with the themes of struggle and perseverance explored in the plot. And yes, you can learn it Hellbade‘s relatively difficult to read systems to come out on top in every battle.
Read more: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II: The Kotaku Judgement
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The game doesn’t communicate much about the combat – no information is conveyed to you via a HUD or lists of combos that you can view in a menu – so there may still be interesting movesets for players to discover in Hellblade II. Here’s what I’ve found so far when it comes to shaping Senua into the perfect warrior against the forces of darkness.
You can put the battle on autopilot
If you’re just here for the story and puzzle solving, you can radically simplify the combat or put it completely on autopilot, allowing Senua to do the attacking and dodging on his own. Navigate to Settings > Gameplay > Accessibility and under Actions you’ll see Standard, Simplified and Self-Play for both offensive and defensive actions, meaning you can automate Senua’s attacks or her defenses, or both.
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This is a great way to simplify the game so you can focus on the story, OR see the battles in action without your input.
Basics of blocking and parrying
In Hellblade II, you want to be very active in blocking (and dodging). Combat in this game is all about paying attention to each individual opportunity to strike or avoid an attack, especially on the higher difficulties.
If you hold RB/Ctrl, Senua will block attacks. This allows you to withstand most normal blows quite well, but enemies have a few tricks up their sleeves and can find ways to break Senua’s stance. An example is when an enemy’s weapon glows red before striking: while you can still block such an attack, it will throw you off balance, leaving you open.
However, if you block for just a few moments (and by moments I mean milliseconds; the time period is incredibly small) before an attack hits, Senua will instead parry her enemy’s attack, leaving them open for a fatal finisher from her. This also applies to the more powerful attacks where an enemy’s weapon glows red.
Dodging is just as essential as blocking
If you press A/Spacebar, Senua will take a step back. If you move and press A/spacebar, Senua will duck and move towards your analog stick (or WASD input). This is the best way to deal with an enemy’s heavy attack (when his weapon glows red). You can also put some distance between you and an enemy by holding back and pressing the dodge button/key.
You can cancel attacks by dodging and blocking
Canceling attacks is quite important to the overall flow of Hellblade II‘s fight. Senua is perhaps most vulnerable when she is in an attack animation that has not yet taken a hit. Good news: blocking and dodging cancels an attack animation.
This is perhaps most important for severe attacks. When an enemy is in a blocking stance (or using a shield), quick attacks won’t do much. You will have to perform a heavy attack, the completion of which is quite slow. If you try to perform a heavy attack but see that an enemy is about to hit you before Senua completes her attack animation, simply dodge with a directional input and press A or the spacebar and you will cancel the heavy attack. You can also block with RB/Ctrl and cancel attacks. (It’s hard to know for sure, but it seems like I’m more likely to perform successful parries by canceling an attack with a block, so maybe the parry window changes during a cancel).
You can also undo quick attacks (X/left mouse button), but these are usually so fast that you don’t have to worry about them. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind.
Mash dodges to get up or use Focus
If an enemy gains the upper hand and knocks you to the ground, you can get back up in two ways. You can press the dodge button (A/spacebar) or activate your focus ability to get up faster.
Evasion is the key to fire breathers
Fire breathing enemies are a bit annoying Saga because you can’t block flames. Instead, you have to dodge their bursts of fire with a directional input + the dodge button/key. Fire Breathers attack left and right as well as head-on. The latter is the most disorienting, because the camera does not make it clear how to steer. In general, going back with directional input combined with dodging is the best way to avoid the flames.
You can also sprint in combat
If you’re trying to quickly close the distance between Senua and the enemy, sprinting can help. If you hold LB or Shift while moving in combat, Senua will sprint forward. If you press the attack button while sprinting during Senua’s Focus skill (RT/E), Senua will perform a jumping attack.
Don’t waste Senua’s focus ability
Senua has a focus ability that slows down time and allows her to perform a number of quick strikes. You can strengthen this skill by attacking, taking damage, and performing perfect parries.
But Focus is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for Senua. It is possible, especially during the more challenging brawls, to miss your attacks when using this ability, and you can still be hit depending on the enemy’s stance. If you activate it remotely, make sure to sprint forward to perform a jumping attack on your enemy.
Senua’s Saga combat difficulty options explained
In Settings > Gameplay > Combat Difficulty you will find four options that you can change at any time (including during combat). How exactly Dynamic adjusts the difficulty is difficult to discern with certainty, but easy, normal, and hard seem to affect how many hits Senua can take before being knocked to the ground, where an enemy can easily stage a coup. Based on my research (which I did by allowing the first enemy in the Draugar battle to attack me), Senua would be sent to her downed state after the following number of attacks:
Simple: five strokes
Normal: four strokes
Difficult: three strokes
It’s hard to say exactly how difficulty affects the power of Senua’s attacks. Without standard HUD elements like health bars and floating numbers everywhere, we’re left with nothing concrete to go on. That said, after going through “Draugar Battle” a few times on different difficulties, I feel like Senua is able to chew through enemies a bit faster on the easier difficulties
Where you can practice fighting
Once you start making progress Hellblade II, you get access to chapter selection. This is a great way to practice Hellblade II‘s fight for subsequent runs on hard mode if you wish. After saving Fargrimr, you’ll have access to the “Draugar Battle” sequence, which contains about four to five minutes of battles. You can skip the cutscene at the beginning of this sequence by pausing and selecting ‘Skip Cinematic’ (only allow the scene to play for a second or two before this option appears in the pause menu if it isn’t there).
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Starting a specific chapter will not overwrite your current playthrough by selecting ‘Continue’ from the game’s main menu unless you play past the point where you last left off. So if you’ve played chapters one through four and go back to chapter two, you won’t be able to overwrite your playthrough unless you go through chapter four and on to chapter five.
Hellblade II is more than anything else a play of mood and tone. While it doesn’t feature long lists of combo moves or upgradeable skills and weapons, the battles are still very rewarding and energetic to play once you get the hang of it.
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