I jumped into TTYD recently after playing some other notable timing-based RPGs (Clair Obscur, Super Mario RPG) and having a blast with those. I know it’s a really beloved game that isn’t known for it’s difficulty, but I’m about “eight hours” (minus deaths) in at Chapter 2, stuck at the Shadow Sirens boss fight, and am finding it to be a really hard game.
There’s been several occasions where I make significant progress in a dungeon and then get defeated by regular enemies and lose a lot of progress after making enough timing mistakes.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong with my character builds. Overall, I feel like HP, FP, and BP are all bottomless pits, and no matter what I put points into, I never have enough of any resource. Right now, I’m level 7 with 10 HP, 15 FP, and 15 BP. Not enough health to have an error margin, not enough FP to use abilities much at all, and being introduced with a staggering number of badges without the points to equip even half of them.
The lack of a consistent healing ability is also a bit annoying. Sweet Treat is tied to SP, puts you into a minigame, and isn’t a consistent way to get HP back. And I haven’t encountered a game with more restrictive item management since Mother 1 on the NES. I think the challenge there is the number of enemies impervious to regular abilities, so (I think) you have to always have POW Blocks and Fire Flowers to deal with them instead of more mushrooms.
Koops and Goombella aren’t very good allies at the start either. Multiple boss fights so far have been multiple enemies, so I’m fairly worn down by the time Goombella is done Tattling them all. So that’s why I’m stuck at the Shadow Sirens.
In regular encounters, I’m consistent about dodging and stylish moves with Mario, and am decent at Superguarding. Getting the timings right in boss fights, though, can be tough because if I die, it’s all the way back to the save point, so not many consistent opportunities to practice. And very little margin for error.
A lot of people online say TTYD is easy, and they’re probably right. Are there any experienced players here who can point me in the right direction?
When leveling, I often prioritize BP and if I need more of the other stats I equip the badges that use 3bp for 3 hp or fp.
I often save the star points to use Sweet Treat which is a reasonably reliable heal if you can get good at it. In certain situations I’ll use the other star powers for high damage.
I regularly switch which characters I’m using and their builds depending on the enemies in the area. Do you need high single target damage or AOE? Are there fliers? Are there spiky things?
Gombella is not bad early game and Koops is quite good IMO. Koops can hit all grounded enemies at once, which is very useful AOE, and Goombella has some decent jumping single target damage.
I feel like a lot of this advice also applies to Expedition 33.
You should only need to use tattle at most once per enemy type, I’m not sure why you would use it after that.