Man, if you were gonna implement a strength system that makes combat feel so much worse to start, why didn't you say anything about it?

So, it looks like the big reason why the combat sucks so much more now is that there's a gradual system whereby Willie starts off weak in the progression and becomes stronger as he swings stronger things and moves through the main progression mode, which means everybody's first however-many-hours, and everybody's first impression, is of a significantly downgraded combat experience. I don't know how long it takes for this massive strength debuff to go away, but it's present and it exists. In a game where the combat is physics-based, strength is everything. It controls how finely tuned your control over weighty items in your hand can be, which is why Willie keeps twisting everything when you swing and can't properly follow through when swinging, say, a large two-handed axe.

Devman, brother, why would you change the best part of the demo, that people loved so much - the combat system - and then not tell anybody before release? In fact, why change it at all when we all love how it felt to fight to begin with?

My guy, all you had to do was ask. Or even test it with us, or add it to the demo. "Hey, I'm making it so you gain strength as you play, let me know how it feels."

You have alienated:

-Newer players who don't understand what a combat-capable Willie feels like to play
-Older players who expected the old combat-capable Willie they've spent hundreds of hours learning how to fight

And then, to top it all off, you still have a free demo available which both misleads newer players as to how the game will feel when they play it, and provides a free version of the combat we all want to all the players who have been around for a while.

My guy. My pal. Buddy in christ. What are you doing?