Mastering combats without having to remember the controls

One thing that i really don't like in games is when i have to always remember all the different controls and combos because the moment i stop playing it for 1, 2, 3 days i Just lose tracks of everything. Or i would be playing another game during the same period and everything gets mixed up in my brain. You might be familiar with the forgetting curve from Ebbinghaus which basically shows how information is lost overtime when it doesn't get refreshed.

everyone should be able to feel and fight like spidy

Now, to prevent information loss that would lead the players to get annoyed and frustrated because they forgot how to fight, the game keeps giving you tips on how to beats the ennemies. What the game does is showing you in the lower left corner the right action to trigger to beat the ennemy you are currently fighting. The thing with controls displayed on the screen is that it can reduce immersion in the game and creates a reminder that there is still this medium (the machine and screen) separating you from what you perceive. To avoid this issue, the game only displayed this information when you use the wrong action. For example you would start punching a ennemy carrying a shield. First you would notice that the visual and auditory response you get from it is different than what you get when you deal damage to an ennemy. Then you get this buttons displayed at the bottom of the screen to show you what would solve the problem you are facing

So basically what the game does is telling you that you are doing something incorrectly and gives you the solution to the problem. So many games would only tell you that you are doing something wrong but if you don't know how to change it, then you are basically stucked . The same idea applies to other ennemies :

To finish it up, another thing that the game does very well is to teach you new tricks steps by steps (by unlocking special moves with skill points that you gain slowly by progressing in the game) and by teaching you by doing which is the best way to increase retention in memory. And in case you would like to have a look at the list of the controls to refresh your memory, you can always have a look at the move list to see all of them.