Why deflection though?

In the face of an uncaring universe, many deep questions plague the human mind. Is this reality just a cruel joke? Or perhaps the machinations of a capricious deity? Who are we, and what is our purpose? What happens after death? Why does Hex, a turn-based game, feature fucking Sekiro parries?

Okay, I'm giving myself a little too much credit comparing two circles trying to smooch each other to a 3D action game, but still, I think it might seem like a weird decision to have a mechanic more commonly associated with action games in Hex, though there is a method to my madness. The answer is: because of auras.

Huh? What do auras have to do with deflection?

Everything. Allow me to explain.

One-turn wonder

To save on healing, optimal play in most turn-based (J)RPGs will revolve around killing most normal/weak enemies before they can even act, or otherwise very quickly. There are a few ways games facilitate this. Persona, for example, has their "one more" and "all out attack" systems (collectively called the "Press Turn System"), that allow you to wipe out enemies quickly if you can hit their weaknesses. Many, many games have some sort of "advantage" system, where you hit the enemy first while in the field in order to gain a first free turn before any enemies can act, or something to that effect. Other games have stun or stagger mechanics, or even just very effective speed stats.

The point is, in most games, you are encouraged to use various mechanics to kill the enemy before they can do much, only really ever needing in-battle tanking or healing when you fight a boss. This has two knock-on effects, I think. For one, most fights are incredibly short, and secondly, your tactics against normal mobs differ wildly from your tactics in boss fights. This means that whatever cool rotation your party is built around probably doesn't come into play against regular enemies, e.g., 95% of the game.

And that's not a problem, per se. Many great games are built this way, and I certainly am no game design guru to tell these wizened greats how to make their games. But I want aura management to always matter in Hex, and I want your strategies for most fights to just be smaller or simpler versions of what you'd do in a boss fight. In order for auras to come into play, though, fights have to last three or more turns. If fights last that long, you're talking about considerable damage to player HP, which is annoying.

You see, the reason I think most turn-based combat is designed this way, rewarding player skill or tactics by making most fights extremely short, is because the reward is efficiency. In most of these games, HP is your main resource determining how deep in a dungeon you can go or how much money you have to invest it potions. So efficient combat is rewarded with not having to waste potions or MP on heals.

The best defense is a good offense. These mechanics are, in a weird sot of way, damage mitigation.

Deflection is damage mitigation

Deflection is a tanking move. It's intended to mitigate damage so that normal enemies can be engaged with you in longer fights than would be considered optimal in most games. The skill or tactical elements of bringing the right elemental weakness of slipping around an enemy for an advantage strike is replaced by an in-battle interaction. Efficiency can still be rewarded, the longer a fight goes, the greater the chance you'll miss a deflection, or the greater the chance an enemy will crit, making the deflection interaction very difficult.

I feel that deflection allows me to lean into longer fights, which allows players to use more of the aura system and engage more in the actual gameplay systems I've designed. Of course, longer fights can be more tedious, but Hex isn't gonna toss fights at you like a JRPG dungeon, so having longer fights shouldn't be as big of a problem here.

Hex's combat is about "satisfaction"

Another thing that I think is important to me is not whether Hex's combat is necessarily easy or hard, or whether the fights are long or short, or whether your brain is activated or you're just on auto-pilot. What I want to achieve, more than anything else, is a real feeling of satisfaction. I want deflections to feel good, just hard enough that there's some tension, so that when the circle goes green and that "thunk" sound plays, you feel like you've already won in a way. Same with stacking up a large amount of auras only to consume them in a large blast of damage.

Who knows if I can accomplish that, but the point isn't to have players stressing about efficiency or struggling against a difficult enemy who tests their knowledge of every mechanic. I want it to be like popping bubbles or playing with a yoyo. That probably sounds a little dumb, but it's sincerely my goal with the game's combat. Satisfaction is king!

A higher difficulty mode

That said, more challenge could be interesting, if done right. Something I am going to do in the future is a higher difficulty mode called "intense mode." This mode won't just have higher stat values for enemies or something, instead I want to do something more interesting, like upping crit rates across the board for both the player and enemies and make auras much more powerful.

The goal will be more to make combat feel even more swingy, so that more weight rides on each turn and on each deflection, rather than just making things longer or making damage numbers higher. This is a long term goal though; something I only plan to do after I feel that normal difficulty combat feels just right.