Tbh, is there any individuality on assisted passing? I doubt that. When playing assisted, every pass goes directly to the players feet, no matter whom I chose to pass. The only stats where I see a difference between players is pace, body strength, agility, kicking power and height.
But not really in passing. Also not on manual. Passes are either well aimed or not and if not, an opponent might have his foot in between.
Couldn´t ever go back to assisted passing. The only stat on manual passing that matters is my aiming.
And then it´s me when like I have Iniesta or Kroos, I automatically strain myself to perfoem a nice pass.
Pulled off a beautiful throughball between two opponents which I doubt that I had ever managed to do on assisted.
Game still plays very well. It´s about time looking for an OF to finally start a ML.
I agree with the somewhat weak stats implementation for both settings. We've kinda had a similar discussion a month back:
https://www.evo-web.co.uk/threads/p...discussion-thread.76425/page-186#post-3161419
People need to realize that assisted passing has a huge "snap" correction, where the ball always gets played to feet when you use X button, unless you have an outrageously bad aim. Even then, it's still a binary situation - if you miss the first player, it just gets "snapped" to the next player. The way the pass assistance bails you out of situations, makes it very difficult for the COM to collect possession from your mistakes, coz, you know, even if you make a mistake, half the time the pass just goes to a different player on your team.
To illustrate this, I made a video:
I don't play with assisted settings, so it was just a quick test. In the video, I was testing PA1, looking for those in-between balls, trying to create passes that falls between the space of my players, instead of having it go to my player. I sprayed passes aimlessly, filled the power bar full..but it didn't work. I couldn't get a pass that falls between my players. My stick direction, and my power input, gets heavily corrected by the game, and it just chooses either the player close to me, or the player beyond him, and the ball gets redirected to his feet. It's difficult to break free from the binary decision the game makes for me.
For me, that's weak stats implementation. I think it exists in every setting, even manual. But less apparent in manual maybe, I'm not sure. Manual is less binary, it has more gradation. Some of that gradation comes from stats, but a lot of it comes from the stick and power inputs too.
My experience with manual in 17, is that first touch passing is heavily nerfed. The player ability matters, with a stronger team you can try it more, with a weaker team, some first touch passes has the strength of a wet noodle.

That part of it, has stat influence for sure. Body angle also matters a lot, the manual passing accuracy increases, when you try to manage your player animation, and use the correct body posture that corresponds with the type of pass are making, when it's done right, the pass feels *almost* assisted. When you fail to use the correct body posture, the gulf in passing gradation starts to appear, between players with good stats and those with poor stats.
I don't see this gradation much in PA1, it's probably too binary for details like this to matter. I tried some quick short passes using the wrong body posture, they just give a wild animation of big body movements, passing while turning, and then the pass just kinda snaps to the receiver. There's not a whole lot of gradation (passes that are halfway there, but ultimately falls short etc.).
Both setting, however, falls apart when performing 180 passes. Somehow it's possible to send 180 passes, using the wrong body posture etc etc, in assisted pass and in manual pass. For this, I prefer FIFA's implementation. Players actually have animations that they would try and bend their body, swing their leg awkwardly, only lightly skinning the ball, while the ball rolls away softly, and the player falls on his behind. That's something I would enjoy seeing in PES, something that would stop us from performing these knee twisting, body bending, back breaking, self rotating 180 pass. It's weird to see in the game, coz defies physics and human anatomy, passing without turning first.
One thing I perfer on assisted passing tho, is the swerve on X. There is more swerve programmed into the pass, and it corresponds to the players' use of inside/outside of foot. This seems to be missing from manual X passes.
Here's my expanded view on stats implementation for manual vs assisted settings:
https://www.evo-web.co.uk/threads/p...discussion-thread.76425/page-117#post-3156624
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