Hello, dev here! Thank you very much for the video! I see you had quite a ride with the bugs, sorry for that :) Most of them should be ironed out now and new stuff is added. Anyone who already got the game - keep an eye on automatic updates. Skallagrim, I hope you will try the game again in spare time to check out new stuff.
Hello, Dev! :) I absolutely loved playing your game. A few times, I played with Skall. I find it is best played with friends. An improved multiplayer infrastructure would be amazing.
I hope you pick up a lot of ideas with these critiques(especially when it comes to hit boxes and hit timings) amazing game, I hope it becomes better and better, more power and kudos
@@lustrazor44 true but still. A game with 5 developers beat ark survival. And all the other survival games on steam in 2 weeks. As a fan of survival games I think this is awesome. I just hope they listen to the comunity and maybe even have it in the workshop so we can get some sick mods.
@@YeoYolo Breh, this is like someone saying such-and-such "can lift 200 pounds, why can't you lift 200 pounds?" Not everybody can do everything just because someone else can. Making an indy game itself is tough but with 2 people it's impressive for sure.
@@davute9546 I imagine it would be a less Dragon Ball Z-esque equivalent of the Smash Melee pro leagues, honestly; crazy fast and hard to follow but downright balletic to watch.
@@ShatterPalm That sort of is irl, unequally skilled fencing matches are usually boring becuase it is over really quickly. When to people are equal is skill and conditioning, that is where the interesting stuff happens.
@@PJDAltamirus0425 "Fast" less in the "time it takes for a match to be over" sense and more in the "speed at which things are happening" sense is what I actually meant there. Basically just a ton of inputs really quickly, each person reading the other and countering accordingly. If you've seen high level Melee matches you know what I mean. I have actually seen the level of fencing you're speaking of and Yeah, that is awesome stuff.
If you want more downward (and upward) cuts, Isabella can switch guards. She can go into von tag by holding up and then Pressing (hold) the left trigger, or She can switch to the fool stance holding down and then pushing (holding) the left trigger. I LOVE It.
@@Skallagrim tapping back engages better defenses. It's also how you feint and fend. Learning to rapidly alternate retreats and attacks in tempo seems to be the main loop of combat.
There's a stamina mechanic where if you keep "auto-guarding", the higher the chance of an attack goes through Edit: There's also a lot of other things that can make an attack go through a guard as others have pointed out.
Also if you get non-lethal injures your max stamina decreases. Which is kinda how Marie often wins, she just wins stamina game with little cuts that deplete stamina.
Near the end you mentioned the "weird tentacle thingies" on his back. Those are actually sleeves, sorta, the fashion of the time included a kind of decorative overcoat with impractically long sleeves. Lords and gentlemen would wear this heavy coat/robe over their other clothing. Oversized sleeves were a sign of wealth and power since they kept you from using your hands. However it seems that over time they changed so that they were not actually worn and instead left to hang as a purely decorative feature.
I was about to comment about this. This was peak fashion in the balkans, and later in Polish Lithuanian and now Russian/Ukrainian territory. Seems to have started in Greece in the later part of the 14th century. Apparently that's where Italian and French got the idea for their overcoat sleeves in the second half of the 15th century. We know this because Italians called this style Albanian sleeves
So Byleth from fire emblem, with a long cape like robe things with sleeves that a too long to wear. Which doesn't make sense, as Byleth is not wealthy at all at the start of the game, heck Byleths starting class is Commoner.
To be fair about Byleth I think that was more of a professory thing they wore. I may be misremembering if they had it prior to becoming a professor however.
@@madmanthepope6448 In the demo, you could press F3 to enable the stamina bars on the UI. Not sure if that's still the case in the Early Access version.
This is out on EARLY ACCESS. Some people in the comments think it's just "out" as in "ready". It's not. No story mode, at least two characters that are in character select not implemented, etc. This is not a janky, buggy release, this is the very first days of Early Access release... Still good for what it is.
A lot of gamers - due to some games treating it as such - expect "early access" to mean "late beta almost launch-ready" or "about to die without getting any further work done" when there's a wide range of possibilities other than those two. This game looks promising and the devs seem legitimately invested in making it even better than it is so far.
@Rostislaw Hilt So you're saying there's no reason for Kickstarter to exist? And that nobody should have any options to actually profit off their game development projects without working for a big company that underpays and overworks them? And that the only way indie games should be made is as hobby projects with no way to mitigate the costs of development until you've already thrown your life savings into the *HOBBY* of game design? K then.
@Rostislaw Hilt your comment is gone. Anyway, the caveat here is that they are open about the state of the game, so the difference is tremendous. Take it or leave it, but at least they don't act as if this is "gold" and ask full price, like, you know, almost every Elder Scrolls game ever?
@Rostislaw Hilt I disagree especially for Indie projects. It's a good chance for the devs to get feedback. I'd rather they know the issues earlier when they're easier to fix. As opposed to being further down the line when the game is "almost launch-ready" realizing there's a bunch of issues, or thing's people don't like, and then having to delay it to fix said issues.
@Rostislaw Hilt Who are you to say that's what early access "should be"? That seems like such a weird unnecessarily restrictive opinion to have on this. What matters is how the developers communicate their intent for EA. Look at Larian studios. Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 both turned out great, and entered EA in a very early alpha stage. They're doing the same with Baldur's Gate 3 at the moment. Those games probably wouldn't have been as good if games in EA had to be "almost launch-ready". What's important is they were clear about that in their communication, and people understood what was going on.
I just love the fact that we now have a modern game showcasing/depicting real life sword combat/techniques. Yeah there are some limitations of course but I prefer this over the *"hollywood swing swords like a baseball bat, forget about defense n guard, and telegraph a lot like ya dont care"* style. It's just exhausting at this point at least for me.
Like cmon real life sword figthing techniques look so dope too! Like just imagine if in Star Wars Disney Trilogy, Rey and Kylo are both methodical and skilled especially by the end of the trilogy.
it shows fast accurate swings are possible in games and that with technique and form you can make powerful cuts look effortless but far more effective than a brutish swing.
2:49 and 9:36 Kubold (the main developer) mentioned that he has plans to expand "blade binding" mechanic over the current physical simulation, probably in form of some dedicated minigame. 3:27 Some types of minor cuts force the wounded one to drop their guard for a moment, rendering them unable to auto-block (similar to hand-to-hand push). Also, stiffness of ragdoll muscles (which influences the inertia for the cuts) can be configured in game options. By default it's maxed out, which works relatively fine for the saber and rapier but not so realistic for the longsword. 6:23 References for the rapier stance from the dev: ru-vid.comUgwVhPRM-shqv90PqhZ4AaABCQ 11:19 Physics engine also simulates strong and weak areas of the blade, which determine the "strength of blocking".
Okay, so it turns out that missed cuts carry even more effects. A couple minutes back I had a match where my Jacek has been wounded in the hip very seriously, but the cut hasn't been registered as fatal. After this, he almost lost his ability to move, limping every step and not being able to do proper lunge, retreat and a side dodge from long stance. I assume some cuts on arms not just impose "blocking pause", but will also influence the overall animations, in a similar manner.
@@joynelbonetdelgado4952 considering Skyrim is an 8 year old exploration RPG and not a fighting game, I think it does excuse it. You didn't play Skyrim for the combat, you played it for the world and the story. Sword and shield combat was definitely its weakest area by far, but if you want an action game, play dark souls, and even that just has heavy and light attacks.
@@cactusmalone To be fair, it's talked about as if it were a modern contender because Bethesda treats it as one. Bethesda seriously released another version of Skyrim despite the memes. The game has been rereleased several times, which typically implies that it's a game that aged well, which considering it's a Bethesda game, usually isn't the case unless you got a shit ton of mods to tint those glasses to a nice rosy color.
It's actually amazing how they captured the body posture of the winner, figuring out if it's over or if they have to keep defending. (13:24 is what I have in mind).
People used gauntlets, bucklers and shields before complex handguards were invented. There just wasn't a need for them at the time. I think that's the primary reason for lacking handguards
Yep! Even some early sword-and-shield techniques (I.33, Lignitzer) necessitates shorter crossguard (or even no crossguard like spatha/"viking" swords) so that you can thrust easily from behind your shield just above the rim at the enemy. Of course, complex handguards on swords still possible to do, the Bolognese renaissance system has sword and buckler as their principle weapon after all.
I have a feeling many people think mostly about swords as used in dueling. Even later swords often didn't have complex hand guards. I know about one example of historical european cutlass that has no guard at all. Yes, it protects your hand better but it also makes the sword heavier, shifts balance and limits the movement. If you are for example light cavalry, you use the sabre for passing cuts from horseback and you want to have it more forward heavy. You will not necessary fence with it. Same if you fight in formation from behind the shields and so on. Complex hand guards are also more pain to wear on side. There are pros and cons.
This, and also people have to remember that swords often were sidearms in military conflicts, and a basket dangling at ones side can be more cumbersome. What I found very interesting is that Chinese Han jian which usually have basically no hand guards were built with knuckle bars for training weapons only, 2000 years ago, so they did come up with it and still didn't use it for sharp swords.
Also I can't imagine having a full basket guard on a saber that's made mostly for swinging, that would be super uncomfortable, Rapier on the other hand is made for thrusting so basket guard does not impact your movement range that much
Actually, there is health mechanic in the game (bound with stamina). You can display it with F3, and with F4 the game displays how much damage each hit dealt.
Isabella also has low and high guard, you can get there by holding up or down movement, and then holding long guard (extending the sword) right now the low guard is kinda bugged where it can get your controls stuck. so watch out for that. i've found a move that you can do with the rapier, kinda corkscrew movement with the blade and then a jab(i am no expert in terminology) - it's down, forward and a basic lunge
Actually, all heroes have their special "combo" moves with particular sequence of inputs, they're just not documented yet (except of Jacek's which are used as a placeholder, and are called with Menu button on the gamepad). There are still some commonly-used ones, in particular head-legs (Y A) and advance (↓ → B), all current heroes seem to have those.
Yes i know, from the demo Jacek and Barabasz have very simillar movesets, i can pull of some stunts with Gedeon, I was talking about Isabellas stances because it's basically core of her fight style
Rapier is very different than the rest. Longsword seems proper, you can beat the opponent with your motions but it can be cumbersome, rapier on the other hand, is great at shifting angles and stabbing with counters. I try to get in and out of their range and just have quick piercing attempts.
I have noticed just standing blocking will fail for everyone eventually. You need to utilize footwork as well as deflect/cuts. And particularly with rapier, you need to take advantage of the fast stabs and keep distance as well as work with timing.
So far in my experience playing, once you learn each character's animations and moves (no surprise as any fighting game) you can really feel for the back and forth while mixing footwork. Also, there is a stamina system in the game, so constantly blocking will cause your character to fail eventually, same for being over-zealous in attacking.
Armored gloves were made to counter hand sniping and even reinforcements on leather gloves so that blades could glance off. The reason for not having a basket hilt, because they used the mordhau blows and that would have bent the basket, another reason the basket hilt was implemented because armour fell out of popularity due to more advanced firearms so people wore less armour.
looks really nice. a feature i immediately would want though: create custom characters. basically just a pick a weapon style, then pick how you want to look with some basic choices for faces and skin and hair and gender and physical build and such.
Yay it finally came out. Skall You actually got me into longsword and HEMA and now I am taking classes one a weeks, thanks. Edit: I made it easier to read.
It's actually amazing how few games of this type come out where it's sword-centric and focused on the duel, vs tons of sword games with big levels u run around in. The last good one I remember was the old Bushido blade game from way back. Way too few of these games for sword nerds. I'm glad to see this coming out.
And, have to ask: you clearly had fun, but would you personally recommend this game? Either as just a game, or as somewhat educational for historical martial arts?
@Benjamin Ale i should clarify that by 'somewhat educational' I don't mean you'd learn HEMA by playing, but you could see good demonstrations of how things are actually done. Eg as someone who has done kungfu for nearly 30 years, there are a few movies I've enjoyed because "hey that's actually pretty close to reality, neat" but I certainly don't expect anyone to learn from them. Well, perhaps a bit of stances and footwork, but, even then, you may be missing a lot of the subtleties without a teacher to correct you. 🤔 🤷♂️ food for thought.
The thing about complex guards/baskets I think is connected to armor and shields. When swords were used in conjunction with shields (mostly), there was no big need to protect the hand, both hands are protected by a shield. When shields became less common, armored gauntlets of different kinds were already in use. And after armor began to fall out of use, we start to see more and more complex guards on the swords, as both shields and armor became more and more impractical. But I still think that thick leather gauntlets were pretty common in 17th century fencing and they offered decent protection against odd cut. P.S. Ah, you covered the shields just few moments later.
The weapons are constantly active on screen, just because your attack animation finishes doesn't mean the weapon isn't there anymore. If you run into it, it'll hit you.
Sure, but you definitely wouldn't get killed by a sword falling out of a severed hand. Maybe slightly cut or scratched (worst case scenario, poked in the face), but definitely not killed or disabled.
@@Skallagrim I was referring to when you lunged into his thrust attempt, he stated his attack was over yet still you were still hit. That part where your hand was severed and it managed to phantom hit him, that was just game jank. Enjoyed the video, hope you play the game some more here on the channel, it has a surprising amount of depth.
I like how how the second guy mentions: "Why didn't they just port the barrels of the Henry rifle, or something." Funnily enough in the 1850's -1880's there was numerous experimentation with recoil operated firearms and various attempts at recoil dampening.
Yeah, I'm assuming he's confusing a few different devices, and doesn't really understand their different functions. He's probably thinking about flash hiders, which appear on most military rifles with muzzle breaks, and/ or compensators which look similar. One is designed to minimize muzzle flash to protect your low light vision and somewhat mask your position, but does little to control recoil. The other is designed to tame recoil, but generally results in excessive concussive force to the sides of the muzzle, and greater muzzle flash. Both negatives could be detrimental in a defensive situation, or can cause issues with the person shooting next to you in a military, or even range day situation. For mild recoiling hunting rifles, neither device is really necessary. The only device that can both reduce felt recoil, and minimize muzzle flash and sound is a suppressor (or silencer if you prefer). Those aren't common in the US because of arbitrary beurocrocy reasons, but they have a few cons as well.
And in the second weird moment I think what happened was that with the hand cut off, the sword went flying and hit the other player in the leg :P. I've got absolutely no idea WTF happened with the sudden auto-decapitation though.
@@GaldirEonai I've seen some bugs like "auto-decapitation" when my target physics simulation stepping had been set significantly lower than vsync framerate (in graphics options - 30 vs 144 somehow by default). It tended to cause some "delayed cuts" effect.
I swear Marie is the Cazadore of this game. You'll start by thinking 'Ok sure, this should be fi--' and then you live in fear for the rest of your life.
I was thinking the same thing. When you use an arming sword and shield/gladius/viking swords you don't really need a big hilt since you aren't parrying much with the sword to begin with. I also think it'd be easier to stab and thrust past your shield when your handguard doesn't constantly get caught on your shield. I don't know if the thrusting is actually a reason they had, but it sure does help regardless
One feature they should add in this game is controller vibration for binding, so that the players could feel how much pressure the other player is playing. For example, in binding the stronger the vibration means the player is putting a lot of force into the blade, while the other player can detect that pressure and adjust accordingly.
A point on guns is the reason why muzzle brakes are frowned upon in the military is because of the flash they generate and concussion for your comerades. This may sound weird but they are MUCH louder than flash hiders.
The entire tangent about people not coming up with putting guards on swords starting with 16:49 doesnt make sense in context of the shashka, which the cossacks adopted to replace a normal sabre with a guard. They seemed to prefer to not have a guard.
I’d suggest that the muzzle break didn’t appear on lever action rifles because recoil didn’t impact your follow up shot. By the time you manually chambered the next round recoil from the previous round had passed. However, with semi-automatic firearms the reduction in muzzle rise allowed for faster follow up shots, and with automatic firearms it would allow for more rounds on target before muzzle rise pulled you off target completely.
If you watch the idle animations on the Char Select Isabella has much more sass. There's a playful, smirky swagger to her movements. Marie just seems kind of aloof and pretentious.
The feb 23 update added a practice mode with wooden weapons and the fighters will even tap themselves on a round-ending impact to indicate where they were hit (it's usually accurate)
Loool. Kinda like how some fps shooters have guns that “feel” powerful because of their recoil. Maybe there are ways to address it with swords. I know in mount and blade there are unbalanced weapons or slower swinging speeds which give them “feeling”
A potential reason people didn't come up with basket hilts earlier was because armor in the form of metal gauntlets (or chain mittens or others) was supposed to protect the hand in battle. Adding a basket hilt on top of that seems rather excessive. Eventually as heavy armor got phased out due to gunpowder, having the sword protect the hand suddenly became a much better idea. Sure there were many people who lacked good hand armor before the invention of the basket hilt, but that was largely due to lack of money meaning there is no way they would have been able to afford a sword made by someone skilled enough to make a proper basket hilt. It would most likely just be cheaper and more effective to buy gauntlets AND a sword.
How the hell they made those characters, who are here with no context and don't talk, to feel way more characteristic, interesting and lively then many big companies video game characters?
With the saber vs rapier, long guard+T (false edge cut) is very effective, since Marie keeps a mainly low guard. Doesn't work with Gedeon, since he lost that from his moveset.
I feel like there could be an interesting challenge here. Anyone here familiar with the term "Flynning"? It's old movie sword tapping, named after Errol Flynn. I wonder if it's possible in this game and, if so, just how long two players could keep it up?
@@cactusmalone More eras? The problem with letting 1700s and 700s fight eachother is that weapon technologies can put fighters at a huge disadvantage (gladius vs rapier). I would like to see Florentine style (rapier and dagger) implemented.
6:16 given the animation there, seems to me that the one on the left was in the grapple finisher animation, while the one on the right out of synch in an iddle animaiton, thus the instant head chopping. There might have been a hotfix after you played that fixed some of those buggy interactions, but there's still some weird and funny situations, like me getting stabbed five times in the chest with a rapiers without even flinching, or my rapier getting stuck on the enemy's neck after he had already killed me.
The developer is planning on having multiple clothes choices for each character. As for an actual character creator, I doubt it shall be made, but never say never...
@@mythguard6865 Since the game seems largely rennaisance themed, rennaisance clothes are probably the best to focus on, at least in terms of the European characters, since they can look fancy without armour.
I think what happened at 4:00 was that the sword that was dropped still had an independent hitbox that could deal damage. Looking at the footage, it seems that the falling sword struck your opponent in the leg.
@@TheWhoamaters yeah i see too much hand for a basket hilt. Looks more like a saber guard. Like one in a cutlass perhaps. Not a basket hilt like the english or scottish used. Just my observation
And about "tentacles" those are actually a decorative sleeves. Thing is that Slavic aristocracy would wear a dresses with enormously long sleeves as a sign that they don't need to do anything with their own hands, and they have money to waste on fabric for those useless sleeves. However, since they actually had to do things with their hands, at least write, eat, drink etc., they would have a cuts-through in those sleeves to put hands through them to be able to manipulate. More manipulations needed, higher are those cut-throughs, up to what we see here, where fencing requires lots of actions, and thus those sleeves just hang from shoulders
About the question why they didn't always add basket hilts on bladed weapons: I think Matt Easton from Schola Gladiatoria mentioned in one of his videos, that weapons with basket hilts have the disadvantage of not been drawn as quickly as weapons with more open hilts, because you need to find the "open spot". This can be bad especially for side arms when you want to draw them quickly after the loss of your primary weapon (pike or halbert for example) or when you wear a helmet that limitates your vision. I'm however not sure if I got that right from Matt and I can't tell anymore which video it was specificly.
Not every gun has a muzzle break, plus they have big downsides especially on lager guns (arty and tanks). I suggest your cohost goes watch Lindybeige's video on the matter ;)
Muzzle brakes increase the level of noise experienced by the shooter and those next to him, along with other effects of the blast. They're not that common, either(flash hiders look similar so that could've contributed to the confusion).
They don't put muzzle breaks on all guns now, muzzle breaks give off lots of flash and concussion for your buddies and yourself especially in an indoor environment and are VERY loud. Flash-hiders usually provide some degree of recoil reduction anyway, and weapon systems such as the M16 don't have enough recoil to justify using muzzle breaks for military purposes, or at the least the pros don't outweigh the cons. Most things are compromises, you can either have good flash suppression or good recoil reduction (at the expense of concussion and dB), or a middle ground between the two. The Russians went with emphasis on recoil reduction with the AKM and AK74 at the expense of flash reduction. Newer AK designs like the AK12 have gone with a compromise between the two (though more skewed to recoil compensation). If you've shot or been near a .308 or similar with a muzzle-break, I think you'd understand why it's not standard. It fucking sucks to be around.
12:00 - according to one of the creators videos, the more you parry the more tired you get so eventually your defense will fail if you just stand there and let the opponent attack you.
@@Subutai_Khan How are you supposed to play without it? Even the dev says you need it or else you can only play local or online with friends through Steams Remote Play Together feature which just simulates local.
@@KalElRedK You start a game of our own or join one on parsec. You just need parsec open to play the game. But yes the client should be included in the game to make it smoother. I believe they are working on that.
With the basket hilt it could also be a case of money. Funding such things for the whole army could be very expensive. Small details in large amount mount up.
Full hand guards come later with the change of sword morfology, that also changes the fencing tecniques. In early treatises the tendency is to hold the sword more close to the body, on some of treatises they even put the plufg way back the waist, cause.. well, if someone is stupid enough to come at you with an extended guard, you can just attack his arms (Filippo Vadi even put counter cuts) or more easy, strike the hands with a quick lever action with the back edge point and broke some fingers. In general Fiore don't explain much the cuts or actions before the binding, when the blade contacts one another you can adopt extended guards to try to win the inner and the angle, but is not safe to try it before, rapiere's solved that with a full cup guard, but they are one handed swords designed to present a pointy menace. The later treatises are from periods when the longsword is rater residual and more used has a fancy salon thingy to play, so we see more front guards and a different set of techiques for it, and sadly that tendency is also adopted on the HEMA clubs today, reinforced mainly by the ''touch of death'' dinamics, even if swords are not magic wandsthat kill at touch. A poor attack is counted has a victory as long it touches you, even if in real life scenario dont do a lot and put the one delivering it in a terrible position and vulenrable to recive an actual fatal injury. Time ago we tried to have some full out combats with different rules. Light attack to the hands/head=you are fuc*** (The hands are delicate... they break easily) Any other zone requires actual force to be counted. It not takes long for the lightsaber jedi dinamics and the frontal extended guards to be discarded, and we end up using a lot more postas/guards, it was interesting: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fgKobZltoeg.html
Some of the "minor" cuts are actually vital, one time I got slashed in the leg, still able to fight but my movement was hugely diminished, my character was brought to a limping state where only dashing could move them fast. Very cool features! And I may be wrong, but I think you get tired faster if your sword hand was hit with a minor cut as well.
On the discussion of basket hilts and gradual change, one thing I can imagine being a factor is material cost. Swords were expensive, and a basket hilt means much more material and much more craftsmanship than making a simple sword. Whether outfitting an army or just one dude, cost and logistics are important factors to consider. It's like with Norse who went a-Viking. Many of them didn't go in full armour, not because it wasn't available, but because they simply didn't have the financial means to procure it (hence why they went a-Viking in the first place). So I imagine basket hilts could, potentially, have been present sooner, but the cost probably delayed its inception by a few decades, I could wager. On a different note, very good video. Love the little jokes you keep incorporating, keeps it fresh and fun.
You mentioned "his robe and little tentacles on his back".....it is called a "pelisse". It was a signature peace of military wardrobe originally worn by 15th and 16th century Hungarian Hussars (light horseman) to distinguish themselves from other types of cavalry. It was a long fur-lined coat with lots of fancy braided lace on the outside of the sleeves and on the front of the coat. It was fashionable to be worn in battle with it draped over the back and the sleeves hanging down with a clasp securing it to the front top buttons on the dolman (the "little" short and tight fitting coat that they wore). Evidently it didn't interfere with the Hungarian Hussars swordsmanship considering that they were considered the most elite, and most feared, cavalry in all of Europe at the time.
When you have a shield, buckler or armor, you don’t need a baskets. The adding of complex hilts coincides with the swords being available enough to be available to civilians. Also, complex hilts make a weapon less comfortable to wear and make it more back weighted. A minimal hilt is lighter , easier to draw out. To make a basket hilt with the same blade heft as a minimal hilt you end to make it overall much heavier.
the whole thing about how hilt get more protective probably come down to price vs popularity. I mean, during the medieval warfare time, sword would be much more usually use with a shield or just use it as a backup, so they would not think of putting much functionality on them; while in renaissance time, duels become much more popular, and gun also slowly becoming the meta of warfare, it just mean that sword become more utilized, and more use mean more practical proof of what works and what doesn't, and more demand on things that give people an edge.
By the way, stepping back and giving ground allows your character to defend more properly. Also, characters have stamina, blocking consumes stamina too, so if your character is spending a lot of enegry to blocking and moving around, a hit can just break through the block and end the fight entirely.
Muzzle breaks funnel the noise and blast sideways instead of downrange, and they really work best with fast-moving projectiles. Recoil also mattered a lot less before we had autoloading small arms, because you had to take your hand off the grip to work the action anyway. And, who needs a basket hilt when you're wearing gauntlets and using a shield? Even more so if your sword is just your backup weapon, and you'd have to spend most of your time with that big round hilt bouncing against your waist.
And one thing about basket hilts: apart from shields it would normally be used while wearing armor. Or while being mounted. Last one also doesn't suppose much of the fencing, actually. It is more about outmanuevering the enemy on horse and quite basic attacks
So I could be completely wrong but to my knowledge I think that "little cut" is supposed to be a harrying attack, where with the last inch or so of the rapier you would hope just to inflict a quick little cut to distract them (kinda along the lines of pain compliance) where the distraction is intended to create a wider more lethal opening or slow down your opponent through a series of quick cuts like that, dont need as wide an opening and all you need is some scratches just to divert attention
There is a good answer for why many one-handed swords didn't have basket hilts: costs and horseback usage. I mean, if you're primarily a cavalry soldier, you're not gonna clash blades and parry as often as someone on foot, so you won't need to worry as much about hand protection when wielding a cavalry sabre. And of course the cost of getting a bladesmith to add a fancy hilt to your sword might need to be considered especially if you're trying to arm a bunch of people vs arming only yourself (quantity vs quality). Also, if you are gonna use a shield, you probably want to minimize the amount of crap on your hilt so it doesn't get cumbersome with the shield.
Isabella has some issues with her animations, like mutual hit and cut off hand animation being triggered. These long tentacles, they are historically accurate sleeves of a kontusz, they could be ridiculously long
