Devlog 19: Fighting System (Prototype build)

Hi! I'm a bit late, but the build is ready! So today's devlog is about this build and the next steps.
As I wrote earlier, the new combat system is built around guards and a new attack type — grab-style love attacks!
You can try the build right now, but let me warn you up front. THIS IS A PROTOTYPE! There are bugs, and I know about some of them (for example, the missing prompt during a grab attack!). So for the most part this is just a slice of what the combat system will look like in the future — its foundation.
It's a more dynamic and more interesting system than the one before it. Guards in 3 positions are easier to use and they have the simplest possible timings. You pressed guard — you blocked the attack!
But if you play, you'll notice that when you just hold the guard, your stamina regenerates far more slowly! So standing without a guard will be more profitable if you want to finish the fight faster.
And if you tap the guard right before an attack… you'll be able to parry it! Yes, parrying is in this game, and it rewards you by regenerating your stamina when you parry successfully, because blocking an attack drains your stamina! Right now it's fairly hard to tell whether a parry happened, since the proper sound effects and visual effects still need to be added, but that will come later.
I also played around and made the enemy attacks themselves more modular. Previously the attack warning was a single color, so it was quite hard to read the timings, but now every warning has its own color! The basic ones are: green, yellow, red. And the enemy's attack comes right after red! But that's not all — the speed between the color changes and the attack is static right now, but I can change it, and that change can produce attacks the enemy is able to use very quickly! That opens up one more way to raise the difficulty and add variety to fights.
And although there are currently some problems with how the attacks are displayed and with how the new enemy — the goblin — looks (it's still just a sketch, after all), all of this will be updated (I'll release a new build of this system with more polished visuals in the next devlog).
What about the further development of this combat system? Honestly, even right now the system already plays more or less satisfyingly. There are problems with how slowly the player's animations play, and with not being able to spam attacks when they're charged, but overall the current build isn't bad. I'd give it a 5 out of 10. But as I wrote in Discord, I've come up with a ton of ideas that could be added to this combat system, and I'll lay them out now — and I hope you'll share your opinion about them in the comments. Whether it makes sense to add them, or whether there's no need to complicate things.
  1. Stagger — several successful parries can cause the enemy to become staggered and be unable to fight for a while. This will give an additional stamina regeneration boost. This mechanic will reward players who have learned the enemies' attack patterns really well, which adds + to the enjoyment of the minigame.
  2. Grabs by the player — a mechanic tied to stagger that will do the same thing the monster girls do to the player! Only now you're the one "beating" them. It could be a normal attack, or an additional one (hold the attack button) to enter this mode. I still need to think more about how exactly an attack like that should work, so that it doesn't completely repeat the enemies' attack (i.e. so that it isn't a tug-of-war like it is with the monsters right now).
  3. Guard breaks — if the player is standing in a guard position and has no stamina, their guard can be broken, which will put one of their arms out of commission (a debuff on using it for some time). A guard break can also be a special attack for some enemies, one that doesn't need to be blocked, since it deals no damage. The fight with the arachne comes to mind straight away…
  4. Upgrades — weapons and stamina charges. This will be added later, but how many upgrades there will be depends on the total number of monsters.
Those are the main ideas for developing the combat system, and in my opinion they can make the combat system one of the best gameplay mechanics in this game. Of course it might be too much for casual players, but I want to try adding and testing even simplified versions of these mechanics.
That's all for today — a bit chaotic and a lot of text, but the next devlog will be more about your reactions to this build, and about a more polished new build.

Thank you for your support!