My #1 Thorn before everything is the change of R2. I wanted to give it time first and not moan as a super conservative, but after playing more what I see is, this change has really no purpose as many others said before. It Just renders the R2 useless in player control, except for the sprint feint.
What bothers me the most is while I receive a pass or control a ball, without R2 I feel that it is all too automatized now, no need to tune the press of R2 in time you control the ball, and the skill that turns over you to face opponent goalpost is with R1 now, which is also running. It is a set of unchained actions. The old set of functions of R2 were linked better, control-close control-special modifier etc.
The most sad part is that not a new combination is occupying the button, the most time after you control the ball is sitting there useless. It could stay like old times and the finesse “Iniesta” dribbling could be executed by R2+L3.
The
I am talking about the shooting+pass button feint, broken and useless. 9/10 you lose possession once the animation is done
I actually felt like this in the demo in the day couple of weeks. Took me many games to get used to it (feeling of touch is very important to me)
I think I ended up finding all the animations I needed. The inputs are different, but it's there
Things I noticed...
- it was harder to execute, but defense was also harder (!!!!!! Only on demo build!!!! It balanced out). This is my gripe with all the previous years of PES. They tend to balance things out, in a way that was like "something is easy, so we will make something else easy". To tell the truth, I thought both dribbling mechanics and defensive mechanics, before 20, was easy/easy balanced. Demo gave a moment for us to breathe and think about how to take a touch (simple touch, not even a feint needed, most of the time). And that was refreshing. To be aware of every touch and not needing to dance and to acrobatic moves to weave out of pressure (16 was crazy with this)
Same thing with shot feint. Nice while it worked, but it worked too well in older games. Worked so well that you'll meet guys who do nothing but shot feint, all the time. It was kinda amazing that no matter the momentum of your body, shot feint brings your body to a full stop, and the ball, also to a full stop, glued to your feet. When u see people doing this full speed, again and again, u can see the arcade element in it
I don't think the final game is well balanced, for the fact that u don't have moments to breathe (because defensive pressure can dispossess much easier coming from behind your body now). And R stick inputs don't register so well in the full game, compared to the demo. So what u have, is a more leveled playing field, and in my friend's words, the demo vs full game talk is like "a clash between players that utilize all details and corners of the game vs players who only use 60 70 percent of stuff, like running, shooting, and auto tackle (COM pressure)".
By coincidence, I scored a goal, utilizing the R stick and shot feint (both of which being discussed in the quoted posts).
It works in the full game, but it involves a lot of wrestling with pressure, a little too much maybe. In most cases I would've lost the ball in a collision. There are so many collisions in the full game, it's a very different beast from the demo.
Overall, I'd say the R stick and new shot feints, new touches, new body blocking features etc..... Worked well for the demo, in how everything was balancing out. But, definitely too much of a chore and a brawl in the full game
And it's the gripe I've with all the previous PES games. We shouldn't have to be dancing and doing large amount of feints to be able to deal with simple, one dimensional, one button pressure. And I say this as someone who use feints quite often and quite comfortably. It shouldn't be that stressful, all the time. It's not realistic