I see “clunky” used to critique true Survival Horror combat a lot. I think this comes from a misunderstanding about the genre: the developers are trying to disincentivize you to engage in combat.

Its a big part of the game design of Survival Horror that is important: getting into combat should be a lost resort action, not a preference. How do you do that? Make combat feel bad. If the combat is fun and feels fluid, the player will want to engage in combat. But that goes against the entire point of Survival Horror. The peak, most optimal way to play should be to avoid any combat that is not mandatory to beat the game. This is because Survival Horror relies on the player constantly having to choose: Do I risk losing health and ammo in this fight, or can I avoid the fight and go around the enemy? Will I need to come back again, and if so, will I be able to make the same choice again?

So when someone tells me combat in a true Survival Horror game feels clunky, that is exactly what it is supposed to feel like. Otherwise the game will become an Action Shooter, like Resident Evil, Silent Hill Remake, Dino Crisis 2 and 3, etc.

Kuon’s story is just the result of poor localization, honestly. The Japanese audience could understand it much better. Us English speakers didn’t even get all the puzzles translated.