I treated Bloodborne very differently, but I consider the ‘canon’ approach to Dark Souls being to cheese everything, using your wits and the stupidity of your foes to win. You ain’t no gallant hero. Get yourself a big sword, a shield and a hundred poison arrows; the most satisfying swig of estas is on the backs of your slain enemies.
If you’re wondering, the ‘canon’ way to play Bloodborne is get your ass beat while you wonder why this isn’t Dark Souls, then get with the program and attack everything like a rabid animal.
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
I love that last page of "here's the weapons I use" because my runthrough of DS & DS2 were both hybrid caster/fighter types that would cast, dodge, hit, block, and whatever else I needed for my toolbox. Basically I had no one direct approach but rather several concurrent approaches all at once. That said, my favored weapon was always a claymore enchanted to key off Int in terms of scaling, and a shield with 100& physical block, along with a sorcery and a pyromancy casting implement. That and a handful of other tools (a bow, some extra weapons with similar sweep/stab movesets of the claymore, and a small variety of shields) got me through both of the first two Dark Souls games, and is thus far serving me well in my Dark Souls 3 run.
A little harder is Bloodborne, though I think maybe just maybe I'm about where I need to be to finally get my Arcane build in that to start paying off. I like Ludwig's Holy Blade but I still miss the block ability and I'm in the damn forest the terror snakes and shit.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
I always do runs focused on a particular weapon/magic type. Or specific weapon if the weapon's truly unique...in which case I'll often just cheat engine it in at the start of the game. Maybe a build type run but that often turns into just another straight sword run, but like my weapon has blue effects, if I'm not careful about my rules.
It's always fun to discover a fight is going to be a brick wall with the wrong weapon when it's never even been challenging before...
I think Owl might be my favorite boss out of all of Froms' games.
Which one?
The second one was really damn hard without parries! The fight itself was pretty cool but my biggest problem was those damn pillars in the arena. Ugh. UGH!
Oh I love both of them. But the second one that's more intense definitely has the edge there. Its just the culmination of everything Sekiro's combat had been preparing you for. Better than either versions of the final boss.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Oh I love both of them. But the second one that's more intense definitely has the edge there. Its just the culmination of everything Sekiro's combat had been preparing you for. Better than either versions of the final boss.
Ah! Interesting!
One thing that I really liked about Sekiro is that, for me, the last boss really was the ultimate challenge.It really did feel like things kept getting more challenging and then ended on the most challenging but still very fair fight. Owl 2 was the hardest fight I had before the last boss. But also some of that was due to camera wonkiness and pillars which took a little away from the impact. But also he had less patterns to find openings for so the last boss still took the cake. Especially with the evolving styles and needing to look for different patterns in each stage.
Oh I love both of them. But the second one that's more intense definitely has the edge there. Its just the culmination of everything Sekiro's combat had been preparing you for. Better than either versions of the final boss.
Ah! Interesting!
One thing that I really liked about Sekiro is that, for me, the last boss really was the ultimate challenge.It really did feel like things kept getting more challenging and then ended on the most challenging but still very fair fight. Owl 2 was the hardest fight I had before the last boss. But also some of that was due to camera wonkiness and pillars which took a little away from the impact. But also he had less patterns to find openings for so the last boss still took the cake. Especially with the evolving styles and needing to look for different patterns in each stage.
I spent two or three hours on Owl 2, and like most of it without seeing the second phase, comparable to the time I spent on harder bosses in my SL1 runs. Easily the hardest boss 'as intended' in any From game for me (I've yet to fight Orphan of Kos in BB, though).
The final boss took like...20 or 30 minutes? After I figured out how to rush down the first phase the rest went in a few pulls. Pretty much the same time investment and frontloaded difficulty as Demon of Hatred.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Oh I love both of them. But the second one that's more intense definitely has the edge there. Its just the culmination of everything Sekiro's combat had been preparing you for. Better than either versions of the final boss.
Ah! Interesting!
One thing that I really liked about Sekiro is that, for me, the last boss really was the ultimate challenge.It really did feel like things kept getting more challenging and then ended on the most challenging but still very fair fight. Owl 2 was the hardest fight I had before the last boss. But also some of that was due to camera wonkiness and pillars which took a little away from the impact. But also he had less patterns to find openings for so the last boss still took the cake. Especially with the evolving styles and needing to look for different patterns in each stage.
I spent two or three hours on Owl 2, and like most of it without seeing the second phase, comparable to the time I spent on harder bosses in my SL1 runs. Easily the hardest boss 'as intended' in any From game for me (I've yet to fight Orphan of Kos in BB, though).
The final boss took like...20 or 30 minutes? After I figured out how to rush down the first phase the rest went in a few pulls. Pretty much the same time investment and frontloaded difficulty as Demon of Hatred.
Yea last boss deffo took me more tries than Owl 2.
Granted I played the game weirdly(no parries woo) so it's hard to judge how things went for me compared to others. I have seen a fair amount of people say the last was the hardest for them so even for some normal players it swung that way.
Demon of Hatred was definitely the easiest of those 3 though.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
I think the Demon is the least fair of all of those fights though. Owl and Sword Saint offer more approach options and don't dictate the spacing. Demon AI I feel completely dominates the spacing and the fight can devolve into a war of attrition that just isn't very fun.
I think the Demon is the least fair of all of those fights though. Owl and Sword Saint offer more approach options and don't dictate the spacing. Demon AI I feel completely dominates the spacing and the fight can devolve into a war of attrition that just isn't very fun.
Oh man the last fight felt like more of a war of attrition. I had to constantly re-adjust my finger on the analogue stick with my face. Had to keep moving but I would be pushing in a direction for so long that my thumb would be sliding out of position.
It took me a whole bunch of attempts to get sword saint down. A whole fucking bunch. Owl 2 on the other hand took maybe 7 or 8. Was probably about average for me.
I actually didn't really like the increased speed in DS3. I feel like Bloodborne influenced it too much in that regard. I liked the more plodding combat from the first game, and I did my first play through by parrying. But I did start with the first game so that could be why.
Owl 2 on the other hand took maybe 7 or 8. Was probably about average for me.
I genuinely can't wrap my head around this, literally the only boss in any game I have ever spent more time on than Owl (Father) in any video game (barring MMO raids) was Burnt Ivory King in DS2 at SL1, which was like...4 hours of misery.
In other 'things other people have an easy time with but are insanely difficult for me' news I decided to try a pure mage run through DS3 and like most of my attempts at pure mage runs in any of the games, a lot of encounters feel like pure RNG.
Like, will the enemy allow me to attack it with my attacks that are slower than the slowest ultra great? If yes, win effortlessly without being touched. If no, die. I feel like I have minimal control over the outcome of any difficult fight.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
You can force Sword Saint into a predictable pattern that is more favorable with light attacks when he's in range. Example: when he puts his sword in his scabbard before an Ashna cross attack if you attack him once he'll block it and immediately follow up with relatively easy to deflect 4-string combo. It doesn't build up as much on his stagger meter as a perfect parry of the cross attack but it's considerably easier and less risky. With tactics like that I found I could get through his first two forms consistently without using any resources or taking any non-chip damage.
You can also run around and kite Saint away from less favorable terrain which I did not find effective against the Demon. The Demon pretty much goes wherever the AI wants. Even if you cheese him with the tower trick it can take a while for him to finally try and hunt you down.
I admit I am worse about From boss fights that rely on patience as the primary strategy but I still don't think the Demon is a fair or fun fight. Almost every attack from the harder bosses in Sekiro has a window where you can do something that is safe or rewards you with an opportunity to do some damage. But with the Demon half the time it feels like luck if you are able to avoid unblockable fire damage and end up close enough to get in even minor attacks.
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
It is absolutely essential to master countering when you take on Sword Saint. Properly reacting to his tells adds a ton of stagger and removes a lot of headache.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
edited August 2020
What made sword saint particularly challenging from a no parry standpoint is that his opening windows are MUCH shorter than other bosses. And with how long the battle is it means you have to be very precise with your positioning and spacing for quite a long time. And then the slight adjustments between phases made it even more difficult to keep that precise spacing.
But that's what made it really fun. It felt fair but just really hard and required me to be on my game that I had been working on all game. It really was like the ultimate test of positioning. Which was cool given that I was definitely not playing as expected but the battle still played out so well.
Whereas due to demon being slower and my strategy was already all patience and hit and run, his bigger openings made it much easier to just get in do damage and get back out.
You can force Sword Saint into a predictable pattern that is more favorable with light attacks when he's in range. Example: when he puts his sword in his scabbard before an Ashna cross attack if you attack him once he'll block it and immediately follow up with relatively easy to deflect 4-string combo. It doesn't build up as much on his stagger meter as a perfect parry of the cross attack but it's considerably easier and less risky. With tactics like that I found I could get through his first two forms consistently without using any resources or taking any non-chip damage.
You can also run around and kite Saint away from less favorable terrain which I did not find effective against the Demon. The Demon pretty much goes wherever the AI wants. Even if you cheese him with the tower trick it can take a while for him to finally try and hunt you down.
I admit I am worse about From boss fights that rely on patience as the primary strategy but I still don't think the Demon is a fair or fun fight. Almost every attack from the harder bosses in Sekiro has a window where you can do something that is safe or rewards you with an opportunity to do some damage. But with the Demon half the time it feels like luck if you are able to avoid unblockable fire damage and end up close enough to get in even minor attacks.
I didn't watch any videos or read any tips about sword saint until after I beat him. It took several hours a day for multiple days.
Owl 2 on the other hand took maybe 7 or 8. Was probably about average for me.
I genuinely can't wrap my head around this, literally the only boss in any game I have ever spent more time on than Owl (Father) in any video game (barring MMO raids) was Burnt Ivory King in DS2 at SL1, which was like...4 hours of misery.
In other 'things other people have an easy time with but are insanely difficult for me' news I decided to try a pure mage run through DS3 and like most of my attempts at pure mage runs in any of the games, a lot of encounters feel like pure RNG.
Like, will the enemy allow me to attack it with my attacks that are slower than the slowest ultra great? If yes, win effortlessly without being touched. If no, die. I feel like I have minimal control over the outcome of any difficult fight.
Watchdog of the Old Lords in Bloodborne is my longest. Half health combined with the giant fucking hit box of that dog. I had to get my buddy to help me beat it after days of trying. Probably 50 deaths at least.
Watchdog of the Old Lords in Bloodborne is my longest. Half health combined with the giant fucking hit box of that dog. I had to get my buddy to help me beat it after days of trying. Probably 50 deaths at least.
Same. Got so frustrated with him that I quit playing entirely for about nine months. When I got the bug again, something just clicked, put him down with a combination heavy hammer/silver sword on my own. Probably my proudest Dark Souls boss kill
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
edited August 2020
I didn't watch videos for Sword Saint either. I learned to probe boss responses with light attack by beating my head against the wall with Genichiro. On my second play through I learned a lot of the bosses trickier attacks can be prevented with light attacks at startup. They usually block or deflect but their follow up is highly consistent so you end up reducing the amount of move sets you need to remember the counter for.
KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
My longest Dark Souls boss was the Fume Knight, I should think. I spent two days worth of gameplay just trying to beat that one boss. To this day, I hate him the most of any boss in all the games thus far. The win wasn't even satisfying, I just wanted the crowns. I had to have the crowns.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
My longest Dark Souls boss was the Fume Knight, I should think. I spent two days worth of gameplay just trying to beat that one boss. To this day, I hate him the most of any boss in all the games thus far. The win wasn't even satisfying, I just wanted the crowns. I had to have the crowns.
My longest was (don't laugh) the Crystal Sage in the Crucifixion Woods.
IN MY DEFENSE this was my first Souls game and the Sage was my first mob boss.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
My favorite boss fight is still the Dancer of the Boreal Valley.
When you get that fight down it actually feels like a dance. It's just so immensley satisfying.
Think my favorite was the Twin Princes fight in DS3, in that it was the first boss where immediately upon beating it, my thought was "shit, I wanna try that again, I bet I could've done it without getting hit"
My favorite boss fight is still the Dancer of the Boreal Valley.
When you get that fight down it actually feels like a dance. It's just so immensley satisfying.
I remember watching a streamer have a ton of trouble with the Dancer and being kinda scared to fight her. I was able to beat her in a single try, which felt good after how long Sulyvahn took me.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
It is absolutely essential to master countering when you take on Sword Saint. Properly reacting to his tells adds a ton of stagger and removes a lot of headache.
Essential is definitely not the word to use!
With proper spacing and timing you can get through without ever touching the block/parry button.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Twin Princes was the one fight where I really felt like I never got the rhythm and was panicking the entire time. Even though it took me fewer tries than Nameless King it never felt smooth and I was never able to re-clear smoothly (whereas on subsequent NG+ runs I beat Nameless King first try multiple times).
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firewaterwordSatchitanandaPais Vasco to San FranciscoRegistered Userregular
Favorite bosses are probably a Abyss Watchers and Wolnir.
Watchers because it just can get crazy with you fighting watchers, watchers fighting you, watchers fighting other watchers, etc. Just a very cool melee.
Wolnir not because he's hard. Like at all. But because the boss itself was such an unexpected spectacle and has what I think to be a pretty damn cool design.
Watchdog of the Old Lords in Bloodborne is my longest. Half health combined with the giant fucking hit box of that dog. I had to get my buddy to help me beat it after days of trying. Probably 50 deaths at least.
Same. Got so frustrated with him that I quit playing entirely for about nine months. When I got the bug again, something just clicked, put him down with a combination heavy hammer/silver sword on my own. Probably my proudest Dark Souls boss kill
Saw Spear in Trick mode is your ticket to victory here. Feint forward to draw an attack, dodge back, R1, repeat. In phase 2 and 3 (signified by his fire blast thing) he attacks an extra time per round, so make sure to dodge the extra lunges. Takes patience but it works.
It is absolutely essential to master countering when you take on Sword Saint. Properly reacting to his tells adds a ton of stagger and removes a lot of headache.
Essential is definitely not the word to use!
With proper spacing and timing you can get through without ever touching the block/parry button.
Yeah but that's harder than just using the ridiculously op parry with its massive window and killing each phase in a couple of handfuls of seconds.
I mean, I admire that you managed to play this game on hard mode but you didn't have to.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Mortal Shell is weirdly uneven.
The weird temple library job is a giant level with some of the best intimidating views I've come across in a game. It really captures the cyclopean ruins thing from Lovecraft.
Then the boss is
Kuato from Total Recall. Although escaping afterwards was bloody hard. I don't understand how you're meant to do anything but sprint across the archer bridge
And then I did the fire place and it was just a couple of rooms with nothing standout or interesting going on.
I'm curious what the last one will be like
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
And that's Mortal Shell finished.
It's very good. It's more than a Souls clone. Probably the best of the non From games by a good margin.
NG+ has some extra lore stuff going on. I'm half tempted to give it a go but I'm not big on playing things multiple times.
Also, from reading around I missed something entirely.
If you speak to the mask seester with a fully upgraded shell she opens a glimpse shop and sells a fast travel item. I never did that, I was trying to max everybody out
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
It's very good. It's more than a Souls clone. Probably the best of the non From games by a good margin.
NG+ has some extra lore stuff going on. I'm half tempted to give it a go but I'm not big on playing things multiple times.
Also, from reading around I missed something entirely.
If you speak to the mask seester with a fully upgraded shell she opens a glimpse shop and sells a fast travel item. I never did that, I was trying to max everybody out
I always considered Nioh the best of the ones I have played. Even with the loot system.
It's very good. It's more than a Souls clone. Probably the best of the non From games by a good margin.
NG+ has some extra lore stuff going on. I'm half tempted to give it a go but I'm not big on playing things multiple times.
Also, from reading around I missed something entirely.
If you speak to the mask seester with a fully upgraded shell she opens a glimpse shop and sells a fast travel item. I never did that, I was trying to max everybody out
I always considered Nioh the best of the ones I have played. Even with the loot system.
Dark Souls just has several different "things" with each having fans that consider that thing to be essential to the Dark Souls experience including but not limited to:
- FIghting system with high risk/reward and stamina managament
- Interconnected level design with unlocking shortcuts
- Non-explicit Storytelling throug environmental clues and item descriptions
- Large selection of potential builds and playstyles
Nioh is my favourite of the non-From games (even like it better than some Fromsouls) and I couldn't make it through the Code:Vein demo and am completely uninterested in The Surge, but others had the complete opposite opinion, probably based on which parts of Dark Souls they like.
Just gonna kind of ramble through my thoughts comparing them, maybe it'll help someone else decide which to try.
I don't like Nioh much at all, compared to other Soulslikes. I dropped Nioh not out of dislike or frustration but out of pure apathy like two or three times before I finished the base game, and have never touched the DLC. It's still probably a 7/10 for me, it's just...eh.
Nioh and Code Vein both have more 'anime' combat systems, fast and weightless and devolving into skill spam if you min/max; Dark Souls vs those is a lot like the difference between Street Fighter and 'anime' fighters, or Monster Hunter and God Eater. I like Code Vein combat over Nioh combat by a wide margin, though I can't really articulate why. Whether I'm struggling with enemies or demolishing them because I've completely mastered fighting them, I don't really enjoy either in Nioh as much as I do in other games. edit: Maybe because it doesn't feel like controlling my spacing means much in Nioh?
Code Vein I beat multiple times in a row immediately after it came out. I'll probably do it again a few more times after I finish my current set of DS3 runs, unless I pick up The Surge 2 next.
The Surge I'd have played straight through, probably a few times, but because I was supposed to play through streaming for someone else and they dropped off the map I only recently finished my first complete run through it. I'll probably go through it again soonish.
Story and setting no doubt play a role for me, because I love Code Vein's dumb anime story about sorta-vampires in a post-apocalypse that's almost certainly the
God Eater setting or an AU of it
and could not possibly care less about bland ass William or the six billionth interpretation of Sengoku Japan But Yokai Are Real (which was also a major ding against Sekiro for me before I layed hands on it, I was pleasantly shocked that Sekiro barely used the setting except as backdrop). The Surge setting and story are interesting but not supremely so.
Nioh also has fewer builds and you never find new movesets, though if you treat each stance separately it's not too barren in that area. It has relatively bad enemies in terms of unique-but-fun, though The Surge shares that problem and is fine despite it (Ashen is the worst about this to the point that it's ruinous). Code Vein has plenty of unique enemies across its zones, though it still reuses its basic guys a bit much it's the best of these imo.
Environments, people ding Code Vein for but I don't really get why. It's hardly the infinite identical areas of Nioh, or the slightly less identical (unless you're in the maintenance tunnels) of The Surge. They're kind of simplistic but eh.
Every single Soulslike ever does everything about items better than Nioh, in terms of getting gear feeling better and all items having plot behind them and whatnot. I resented gear in Nioh, and only ever felt like I was expected to do a fuckton of busy work to keep up my power level rather than gaining anything new, except when first unlocking whatever gear set you would proceed to duplicate forever as it went from Good to Bad as you leveled. Gear only ever made me feel bad in Nioh.
Bosses in Nioh mostly suck and I forget the vast majority of them. Literally every boss I remember: the first area boss, the Nue miniboss, lightning dogs man, the centipede, succubus lady, THAT historical domain character, Frog. Bosses are mostly fine in The Surge, but there are like 4 of them. Bosses in Code Vein are great and there are plenty of them.
So yeah, my instinct is that Nioh is well put together, probably better than Code Vein or The Surge. And yet when I think about it I personally dislike it more than them on literally every point.
It's very good. It's more than a Souls clone. Probably the best of the non From games by a good margin.
NG+ has some extra lore stuff going on. I'm half tempted to give it a go but I'm not big on playing things multiple times.
Also, from reading around I missed something entirely.
If you speak to the mask seester with a fully upgraded shell she opens a glimpse shop and sells a fast travel item. I never did that, I was trying to max everybody out
I always considered Nioh the best of the ones I have played. Even with the loot system.
Dark Souls just has several different "things" with each having fans that consider that thing to be essential to the Dark Souls experience including but not limited to:
- FIghting system with high risk/reward and stamina managament
- Interconnected level design with unlocking shortcuts
- Non-explicit Storytelling throug environmental clues and item descriptions
- Large selection of potential builds and playstyles
Nioh is my favourite of the non-From games (even like it better than some Fromsouls) and I couldn't make it through the Code:Vein demo and am completely uninterested in The Surge, but others had the complete opposite opinion, probably based on which parts of Dark Souls they like.
You forgot the whole process of carefully engaging enemies for maximum advantage... or, well, minimum disadvantage in many cases.
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If you’re wondering, the ‘canon’ way to play Bloodborne is get your ass beat while you wonder why this isn’t Dark Souls, then get with the program and attack everything like a rabid animal.
A little harder is Bloodborne, though I think maybe just maybe I'm about where I need to be to finally get my Arcane build in that to start paying off. I like Ludwig's Holy Blade but I still miss the block ability and I'm in the damn forest the terror snakes and shit.
It's always fun to discover a fight is going to be a brick wall with the wrong weapon when it's never even been challenging before...
Which one?
The second one was really damn hard without parries! The fight itself was pretty cool but my biggest problem was those damn pillars in the arena. Ugh. UGH!
Ah! Interesting!
One thing that I really liked about Sekiro is that, for me, the last boss really was the ultimate challenge.It really did feel like things kept getting more challenging and then ended on the most challenging but still very fair fight. Owl 2 was the hardest fight I had before the last boss. But also some of that was due to camera wonkiness and pillars which took a little away from the impact. But also he had less patterns to find openings for so the last boss still took the cake. Especially with the evolving styles and needing to look for different patterns in each stage.
I spent two or three hours on Owl 2, and like most of it without seeing the second phase, comparable to the time I spent on harder bosses in my SL1 runs. Easily the hardest boss 'as intended' in any From game for me (I've yet to fight Orphan of Kos in BB, though).
The final boss took like...20 or 30 minutes? After I figured out how to rush down the first phase the rest went in a few pulls. Pretty much the same time investment and frontloaded difficulty as Demon of Hatred.
Yea last boss deffo took me more tries than Owl 2.
Granted I played the game weirdly(no parries woo) so it's hard to judge how things went for me compared to others. I have seen a fair amount of people say the last was the hardest for them so even for some normal players it swung that way.
Demon of Hatred was definitely the easiest of those 3 though.
Oh man the last fight felt like more of a war of attrition. I had to constantly re-adjust my finger on the analogue stick with my face. Had to keep moving but I would be pushing in a direction for so long that my thumb would be sliding out of position.
I actually didn't really like the increased speed in DS3. I feel like Bloodborne influenced it too much in that regard. I liked the more plodding combat from the first game, and I did my first play through by parrying. But I did start with the first game so that could be why.
PSN:Furlion
I genuinely can't wrap my head around this, literally the only boss in any game I have ever spent more time on than Owl (Father) in any video game (barring MMO raids) was Burnt Ivory King in DS2 at SL1, which was like...4 hours of misery.
In other 'things other people have an easy time with but are insanely difficult for me' news I decided to try a pure mage run through DS3 and like most of my attempts at pure mage runs in any of the games, a lot of encounters feel like pure RNG.
Like, will the enemy allow me to attack it with my attacks that are slower than the slowest ultra great? If yes, win effortlessly without being touched. If no, die. I feel like I have minimal control over the outcome of any difficult fight.
You can also run around and kite Saint away from less favorable terrain which I did not find effective against the Demon. The Demon pretty much goes wherever the AI wants. Even if you cheese him with the tower trick it can take a while for him to finally try and hunt you down.
I admit I am worse about From boss fights that rely on patience as the primary strategy but I still don't think the Demon is a fair or fun fight. Almost every attack from the harder bosses in Sekiro has a window where you can do something that is safe or rewards you with an opportunity to do some damage. But with the Demon half the time it feels like luck if you are able to avoid unblockable fire damage and end up close enough to get in even minor attacks.
But that's what made it really fun. It felt fair but just really hard and required me to be on my game that I had been working on all game. It really was like the ultimate test of positioning. Which was cool given that I was definitely not playing as expected but the battle still played out so well.
Whereas due to demon being slower and my strategy was already all patience and hit and run, his bigger openings made it much easier to just get in do damage and get back out.
I didn't watch any videos or read any tips about sword saint until after I beat him. It took several hours a day for multiple days.
Watchdog of the Old Lords in Bloodborne is my longest. Half health combined with the giant fucking hit box of that dog. I had to get my buddy to help me beat it after days of trying. Probably 50 deaths at least.
PSN:Furlion
Same. Got so frustrated with him that I quit playing entirely for about nine months. When I got the bug again, something just clicked, put him down with a combination heavy hammer/silver sword on my own. Probably my proudest Dark Souls boss kill
My longest was (don't laugh) the Crystal Sage in the Crucifixion Woods.
IN MY DEFENSE this was my first Souls game and the Sage was my first mob boss.
When you get that fight down it actually feels like a dance. It's just so immensley satisfying.
I remember watching a streamer have a ton of trouble with the Dancer and being kinda scared to fight her. I was able to beat her in a single try, which felt good after how long Sulyvahn took me.
Essential is definitely not the word to use!
With proper spacing and timing you can get through without ever touching the block/parry button.
Watchers because it just can get crazy with you fighting watchers, watchers fighting you, watchers fighting other watchers, etc. Just a very cool melee.
Wolnir not because he's hard. Like at all. But because the boss itself was such an unexpected spectacle and has what I think to be a pretty damn cool design.
Saw Spear in Trick mode is your ticket to victory here. Feint forward to draw an attack, dodge back, R1, repeat. In phase 2 and 3 (signified by his fire blast thing) he attacks an extra time per round, so make sure to dodge the extra lunges. Takes patience but it works.
just mind your spacing, don't over commit, slow and steady
Which is funny because I was using the threaded cane is trick mode. Maybe I had lower vitality than I should have, but it stomped my ass.
PSN:Furlion
But you died in the most dapper manner imaginable, and that’s worth something.
Yeah but that's harder than just using the ridiculously op parry with its massive window and killing each phase in a couple of handfuls of seconds.
I mean, I admire that you managed to play this game on hard mode but you didn't have to.
The weird temple library job is a giant level with some of the best intimidating views I've come across in a game. It really captures the cyclopean ruins thing from Lovecraft.
Then the boss is
And then I did the fire place and it was just a couple of rooms with nothing standout or interesting going on.
I'm curious what the last one will be like
It's very good. It's more than a Souls clone. Probably the best of the non From games by a good margin.
NG+ has some extra lore stuff going on. I'm half tempted to give it a go but I'm not big on playing things multiple times.
Also, from reading around I missed something entirely.
I always considered Nioh the best of the ones I have played. Even with the loot system.
PSN:Furlion
Dark Souls just has several different "things" with each having fans that consider that thing to be essential to the Dark Souls experience including but not limited to:
- FIghting system with high risk/reward and stamina managament
- Interconnected level design with unlocking shortcuts
- Non-explicit Storytelling throug environmental clues and item descriptions
- Large selection of potential builds and playstyles
Nioh is my favourite of the non-From games (even like it better than some Fromsouls) and I couldn't make it through the Code:Vein demo and am completely uninterested in The Surge, but others had the complete opposite opinion, probably based on which parts of Dark Souls they like.
I don't like Nioh much at all, compared to other Soulslikes. I dropped Nioh not out of dislike or frustration but out of pure apathy like two or three times before I finished the base game, and have never touched the DLC. It's still probably a 7/10 for me, it's just...eh.
Nioh and Code Vein both have more 'anime' combat systems, fast and weightless and devolving into skill spam if you min/max; Dark Souls vs those is a lot like the difference between Street Fighter and 'anime' fighters, or Monster Hunter and God Eater. I like Code Vein combat over Nioh combat by a wide margin, though I can't really articulate why. Whether I'm struggling with enemies or demolishing them because I've completely mastered fighting them, I don't really enjoy either in Nioh as much as I do in other games. edit: Maybe because it doesn't feel like controlling my spacing means much in Nioh?
Code Vein I beat multiple times in a row immediately after it came out. I'll probably do it again a few more times after I finish my current set of DS3 runs, unless I pick up The Surge 2 next.
The Surge I'd have played straight through, probably a few times, but because I was supposed to play through streaming for someone else and they dropped off the map I only recently finished my first complete run through it. I'll probably go through it again soonish.
Story and setting no doubt play a role for me, because I love Code Vein's dumb anime story about sorta-vampires in a post-apocalypse that's almost certainly the
Nioh also has fewer builds and you never find new movesets, though if you treat each stance separately it's not too barren in that area. It has relatively bad enemies in terms of unique-but-fun, though The Surge shares that problem and is fine despite it (Ashen is the worst about this to the point that it's ruinous). Code Vein has plenty of unique enemies across its zones, though it still reuses its basic guys a bit much it's the best of these imo.
Environments, people ding Code Vein for but I don't really get why. It's hardly the infinite identical areas of Nioh, or the slightly less identical (unless you're in the maintenance tunnels) of The Surge. They're kind of simplistic but eh.
Every single Soulslike ever does everything about items better than Nioh, in terms of getting gear feeling better and all items having plot behind them and whatnot. I resented gear in Nioh, and only ever felt like I was expected to do a fuckton of busy work to keep up my power level rather than gaining anything new, except when first unlocking whatever gear set you would proceed to duplicate forever as it went from Good to Bad as you leveled. Gear only ever made me feel bad in Nioh.
Bosses in Nioh mostly suck and I forget the vast majority of them. Literally every boss I remember: the first area boss, the Nue miniboss, lightning dogs man, the centipede, succubus lady, THAT historical domain character, Frog. Bosses are mostly fine in The Surge, but there are like 4 of them. Bosses in Code Vein are great and there are plenty of them.
So yeah, my instinct is that Nioh is well put together, probably better than Code Vein or The Surge. And yet when I think about it I personally dislike it more than them on literally every point.
You forgot the whole process of carefully engaging enemies for maximum advantage... or, well, minimum disadvantage in many cases.
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