Defeat Maccus - Level 3

[Joey Jeckel]

I can't beat Maccus at the beginning of Level 3, it's the battle on the ship where you control 3 characters.
The only way I can hit him is to counter him (LS towards enemy + A) but this rarely works. When it does, it rarely gives me the LT prompt (my swordsman meter is half full)
What am I doing wrong?

[Animagi]

What I do (if you haven't figured it out by now) is just use the A,A,X,A combo. Which means you sword fight, punch, sword fight. That usually knocks him to the ground and fills your meter. After which you should be able to go at him with the "A" button and finish him off with a finishing move.

Hope that makes sense.

[housemdfan]

There should be other people around him to unleash your attacks on. Personally I had no difficulties. I shot him with my flintlock pistol...

[Gingras1]

There should be other people around him to unleash your attacks on. Personally I had no difficulties. I shot him with my flintlock pistol...

You need to hit him with a finisher, so this kind of doesn't work.

[angry]

What i did was kill the other enemies until my sword meter filled by using punch sword combos a,x,x,a,x etc and then once the meter was full i went upto macus and when the LT showen up on screen pressed that and then pressed X. Hope that helps you. :)... There i splenty of guides floatind around the site for you to use. Here is the 3rd level part of the walkthrough that i used:

Dutchman Encounter

Fight the enemies and defend the Black Pearl. Avoid fighting Ratlin (the hammerhead) until your finishing moves are available. Once they are, fight and defeat Ratlin. A message will appear saying "Find a way aboard the Dutchman". Go to the rigging on the rear left side of the ship (before the stairs, facing the Dutchman) and press the LB trigger button to climb it. Go to the top and cross the two balance beams. Once aboard the Dutchman, go to the right and jump onto the rope. Climb down the rope to the main deck and fight your way to the front-left door. Use the pitch barrel to light your sword and use it at the door. Once you have attacked the door, use the LB trigger button to open it and go down the stairs around and through the door behind the staircase. Fight across the room to the door directly opposite where you came in and go through. Go down the stairs on the opposite side and along the hallway through the door. Go left through the door and head through the cells to the door at the far end of the room, defeating the enemies along the way.
Go up the spiral stairs and then up the ladder in the center of the room. Defeat all the enemies and walk towards the organ to activate a cutscene. Defeat any enemies that appear and head back down the ladder. Defeat the enemies and use a finishing move to defeat Ratlin and collect the sheet music from him. Go down the spiral stairs and defeat the enemies. Use a finishing move on Maccus to defeat him and collect the sheet music. Go back to the Organ room, walk up to the organ and press the LB trigger button. Use the left directional stick to select which notes to play (follow the sequence of notes displayed by the sheet music) for Davy Jones' key to appear. Collect the key, defeat the enemies and exit through one of the doors across from the organ to activate the cutscene and complete the level.

I hope that helps you out.

[Joey Jeckel]

Thanks for the tips everyone. So frustrating... I couldn't get any hits in, the LT prompt never showed up, I had no skulls and no flintlock bullets. I actually started a new game and saved my items, hit him with 3 gunshots then unleashed a full jackanism. That sorted him out.

[Gingras1]

Maccus is the hammerhead, Ratlin looks like a lobster claw kinda.

[housemdfan]

I just know that I hit him with the pistol with stunned him for a bit then I hit his colleagues to get my combo meter up, then I laid into him like nothin' else. (If i remember the battle correctly)

[mike21878]

There's a lot of battles like that. You just need to use the sword, punch, sword combo then look for the LT prompt on the screen for a finishing move. Took me a while as well