OK, let's try again. What I mean when I say whether a hit has landed, is whether the game counts it as a hit for the purposes of determining combo strikes. I found it extremely difficult to pull of combos because I could never figure out how many hits I was on. In 60 hours of game time I probably pulled like a successful combo, on purpose, like 5 times. The game doesn't give you any feedback as to which hits 'count' and which hits didn't 'count'.
But the game does give you feedback on whether a hit counts or not. You can even repeat practicing combos with Bernard to see it. And like I mentioned, combos can only be defended against by interrupting the first few sequence, either through perfect block/riposte or by avoiding them. If it hits properly, or it's only regularly blocked, then it counts. If an attack is perfect blocked/riposted, it doesn't count. If an attack is dodged, it doesn't count. And I'm pretty sure those are quite clear to you, no? The rest is simply to perform the combo sequence properly, which is to not just mash buttons and to time the sequences right.
I've practiced with him a lot, spent a lot of time with him building strength, weapon skill, etc. Could never figure out exactly how to land combos reliably with him. As in, literally the first combo tutorial I ended up just flailing madly against the guy because I just could not get the hits to register properly.
You should definitely try practicing combos again with Bernard. He doesn't try to perfect block/dodge during this session, only merely regularly block your attacks to show you that you need to carry on with the sequence, but don't just mash buttons repeatedly because he'll warn you that you need to hit him exactly three times. Three times! At least, that's what I discover playing on PS4. I tried just mashing R2 repeatedly for the second sequence, but Bernard just yell at me every damn time. When I try to do the sequence properly, only hitting R2 exactly at the right time to follow-up the first attack, it succeed every time. Sure, it's harder when you practice weapon with Bernard or in real combat against bandits, but that's the point of keep on practicing until you can perform it reliably.
Also, reading what your experience is after 60 hours, I think the problem lies in you not really trusting the game's feedback on whether a hit connects and count as a combo sequence or not. Because of it, you doubt when to continue the sequence or when to switch to defensive mode. I think I'm somewhere near 30 hours now, but I've performed combos more than 10 times during practice with Bernard, and had managed to perform combos against bandits maybe 5-6 times.
Well, for starters, the same rules that apply to me should apply to my enemies. If I get hit, I should lose hitpoints, not stamina. It's strange to me that when I don't defend myself correctly, I lose stamina, but when it happens to the enemy, they lose health.
Oh, the enemies have stamina, alright. Otherwise, why would some perks make your enemy lose 15% more stamina trying to block your attacks? Also, you misunderstood the game's system here. You will sometimes lose stamina, yes, but only when it's against a practice weapon and/or when the attacks are fully blocked by your armor. It does seems strange to me at first how an enemy's health easily drops as you hit them, but then the exact same occurs to me (immediately losing health when hit by an axe/club, even though I was heavily armored). Meanwhile, try to attack a fully armored enemy with a sword, and see for yourself how their purple bar didn't even drop.
Secondly, stamina shouldn't be so easy to replenish, 5 seconds to refill my entire stamina bar is just silly.
How silly it is compared to other Action-RPGs? Also, it would be dumb if the regen rate is any slower than this. It's already hard trying to keep up with multiple enemies, or heck one skilled opponent, and manage your stamina at the same time.
These two mechanics in concert mean that fights last forever. I mean my fight with Runt went on for like 30 minutes, 30 minutes of me constantly swinging a sword at him and having it deflected, occasionally I'd take a hit which would bounce off my stamina shield, from time to time I'd just get bored and flail wildly on him, sometimes he'd take damage from that (magically, I had no fucking idea what was happening), sometimes I'd empty my stamina shield and actually take some damage.
Again, as I mentioned before, not only enemies has stamina but there's also complex armoring system that factor in how a combat can happen. Since you're wielding a sword here, and Runt is heavily armored, it's no surprise it takes time to take chunks of his HP.
And even then, reading the main thread I notice some people 'accidentally' thrust at Runt's head, which is completely unprotected, and instantly killed him. Dunno if it's been patched, but that should give you a hint on how the game mechanics truly is.
I'm not asking for hyper-realism, but the game loses all immersion for me when I realise that I can fight effectively, in full plate armor, with a massive 2-hander, forever, with no chance of ever running out of stamina because I can just pause for 5s and get it all back.
Except that point in the game needs to be earned. You need to either be really good at the game, either through thieving, haggling, or combat, to earn a set of full plate armor and good weapon, and obviously you need to level up Vitality to actually have massive amount of stamina that regenerate very quickly. If anything you should be happy to get to that point at all, because from my experience it is full of struggling and overcoming challenges, which is very fun to me so far.
You say 'it's a videogame' but the entire purpose of the combat system is to replicate real-life combat.
But the real-life combat part is in the gameplay mechanics of combat techniques, like perfect blocks, master strikes, combos, etc etc. Asking for more realism in stamina system will break it. Just to demonstrate, you say that it took you 30 minutes to fight Runt. Now imagine if the stamina regenerate much slower than what it is now. Everybody would just be standing and moving about, waiting to regenerate their stamina. The gameplay challenge and engagement lies in getting around your enemy's defenses and successfully defending against their attack, adding 'waiting around until you have enough stamina' will break that moment-to-moment gameplay flow.
The movement, and the combat in general, feels awkward.
Awkward compared to what other games?
I've read countless guides, watched tons of videos, spent upwards of 60 hours in the game, I still hate the combat, can't figure it out. It's great that you like it, and I still think the game is excellent. I just don't like the combat at all.
Again, I think the problem lies in you mistrusting the game's feedback on whether or not a hit connects and count for combo sequence. Also, misunderstanding the game mechanics, thinking there's some special rules applied to the player in regards of losing stamina instead of health when damaged and how the enemy only has health point.
