Trying to get through Ryse on Legendary can be trying for a couple of reasons. A couple of things you depended on during other difficulty settings of the game will be diminished, like the extra execution bonuses and the red flare on an enemy right before a heavy attack. Not only that but, maybe while going through Ryse your first time you may have thought the combat was pretty well polished. Actually, it’s not bad, but the problems of it can become very clear during Legendary where you can’t make any mistakes. I finished Ryse on Legendary this morning and figured I’d try to help others out.
Be prepared – I can’t write that without hearing Scar from the Lion King singing it, anyways. You will need to be prepared before heading into Legendary. By prepared I mean having most, if not all, of the executions and abilities unlocked for Marius. Now, your execution bonuses will be all but taken away. You’ll need to have them as maxed out as possible if you’re ever going to survive. You’ll see what I mean the first time you go for a health execution and you barely see any life added. Unlock as much as you can before trying Legendary. One play through in Ryse on Soldier should be sufficient, that’s when I started.
Don’t get hit, duh – Not to mention the fact that Marius can only take about 4-5 hits to be defeated in Legendary, you’ll need high combos. While I played through Ryse on Soldier difficulty, I would get 40-45 hit combos and think I was awesome. During Legendary, that has to be the regular. Always be prepared to dodge and block, not getting hit is numero uno. As I said above, your execution bonuses are all but decimated. The only way to counter that is to get high combos with many consecutive executions.
Heavy attacks – From the very beginning of Ryse on Legendary you’ll notice that even the minion enemies have heavy attacks and will use this quite often. For me, this was probably the hardest learning curve. You’ll need to either learn to dodge much more or learn to time your block just right to stop the heavy attacks, I went for the former. I learned that anytime I saw an enemy running up on me a heavy attack was coming. I would dodge that enemy, then go back to attacking whoever I was previously focused on.
Also with your heavy attacks, use them, very often. You can perform a heavy attack by holding down the X or Y buttons. After learning this about halfway through Trial by Fire, my time in Legendary became much easier. I used to wait for some of the larger enemies to attack me before fighting back. After I learned to use my heavy attacks more, I could juggle two to three of the larger enemies easily.
Juggle enemies – All enemies in Ryse on Legendary can and will use their heavy attacks quite often. Not only does dodging help out, but you’ll need to juggle enemies. If you’re surrounded by three enemies attack them all at different times. Attack the one on your left, then the one at the top of the screen, then back down to the bottom screen enemy. It doesn’t matter if you hit each of them once. Don’t stay focused on one enemy, eventually you’ll unbalance one of them, even while attacking them sporadically. As long as you’re attacking or knocking back the enemies, they won’t be attacking you. The best defense is a good offense in Ryse.
Boss fights and blocking – I was dreading these as soon as I started Ryse on Legendary. After I came across the first fight with Boudica, I realized I may be able to get through these with considerable ease. The key for me was knowing when to block. You’ll have to stay calm and block when need be, but it’s not that hard, really. Ryse is actually pretty intuitive with the block system. Don’t over think it, just block when you feel like you’re about to be hit and try to find the rhythm in the combo. When you block a boss’ heavy attack they’ll be automatically throw off balance. I followed that up with a heavy X button attack, then heavy Y button. I juggled those two as much as I could until the boss blocked me, then repeat. After I was done, the boss fights may have been the easiest part.
Don’t be scared, homie – The learning curve on Legendary can be hard and maybe slightly brutal. But, all it’s trying to do is teach you how to play differently. As I played Ryse on Legendary, I realized I had shrugged off much of what the combat system offers because I didn’t need it to complete the game. After I learned to adapt, I was impressing myself. The change happened for me during Trial by Fire. Ryse was brutal during the first three chapters, after that I got good. During the first part of Pax Romana I realized how much I had adapted, I may have gotten hit twice during the first part of it.
Now for some suggestions – The hardest and most frustrating part for me of Ryse on Legendary (other than the delayed input) was the level, Trial by Fire. Only one specific part of it drove me nuts, the stupid kill the archers with the broken pilum system. I tried and tried to get through on my own, but to no avail. So, to YouTube I went. This video by TeamTurboProductions saved me headaches and a broken X1 controller, thanks!
Also, may I suggest using damage executions more in Legendary? I only ask, because I never really used them myself during my first playthrough or really my second. During Legendary, my executions were set to health for about 90% of the time. There were times towards the end where I went for damage executions because some enemies were taking too long to drop and it seemed to work very well. Since the enemies in Legendary take more hits, it seems that increasing your damage with each execution only makes sense. If you can keep from getting hit that is.
That’s it, those are my suggestions for you gamers out there. If this helped, please let me know. If I missed something or you have something to add please do in the comments below! Peace out, homies.
