Topic: Souls-likes (& dislikes)

@Jimmer-jammer So, I’ve been fairly shameless in my admission of cheesing many a FromSoft boss. I’ve spammed poison and magic, used aggro trigger points to safely attack from a distance, and taken advantage of quirky hit-box bugs so I could attack and hit through walls. I won’t say I’m proud of it. But I also find a certain dopamine rush from fooling the game like that, like discovering a secret solution to a puzzle.
…And so I actually considered doing a cheese on Capra Demon whereby you can stand in a certain exact spot outside the fog gate and shoot fire arrows over the wall and onto Capra Demon and supposedly kill him before you even enter the fog gate.

In the end, I decided that was a bridge too far, and so I was able to beat it finally by sheer trial and error. I tried so many times to make it up the stairs where supposedly you can have an advantage and he can’t reach you but it never worked for me. In the end I think I lucked out with him getting stuck somewhere else in the scenery and that gave me valuable seconds to move away and hit him from an advantage point.

@Th3solution yeah I think a lot of people (myself included) struggled with the Capra Demon our first playthrough. As you alluded to, the small arena and those damn dogs just mean there’s no breathing space or safe area. Eventually you find that if you can get in to the space quickly and beat Cap to the stairs, then you can start picking off the dogs, drop down from the mezzanine as Cap is going up, kill a few more dogs and then scale the stairs again as Cap drops down… rinse and repeat. Took a while to work that out though.

I still haven't beaten the final boss in Sekiro. I started playing another game, planning on going back to it, and that was a few games ago now...

@woollypump it is a tough one to go back to tbh… as you need to sharpen your skills again. I went back last year to finish off the platinum and I was surprised at how quickly it all came back to me.

@colonelkilgore yeah, I had a few goes over xmas. I did manage to get him to the spear phase a few times. I would like to finish it sometime, but then again the FS games normally end with an obtuse 5 second cutscene anyway so perhaps I shouldn't flagelate myself too much

@woollypump A break can be a good idea, as that would sometimes work for me in the past. I would be wary of leaving it too long though, as I know some people can struggle. I personally find most of the time I can pick up games quite quickly after a long period away from it.

@LN78 I get you bud… but sometimes after a break, some sleep and a decent breakfast you make that trudge back with a clear head and surprise yourself.

@LN78 In fairness, during my NG+ run I'd say that the Door Guardian was probably in my top 3 most challenging bosses. NG was tough enough, but NG+ was savage.

I agree with you on parrying also. I love LoP, but the parry window is so small you'd struggle to post a letter through it...

Great game though right? My favorite 3D non-From Souls game for sure.

@LN78 good to hear

@LN78 Haha I know right.... how are From's legal team not banging down the door yet?!

Crazy to think this was/is the dev's first release also - just imagine what they'll follow up with. The rumored DLC will be a day #1 for me without doubt.

@TheBrandedSwordsman yeah the LotF I’ve played was the original… I do plan on playing LotF 2023 this year though. From what I‘ve seen in reviews and the like, it looks awesome… it’ll be nice to go back to a souls-like set in dark western-fantasy (like Demons Souls and Dark Souls).

Oh Cool to see this list of souls like game @colonelkilgore. Have anyone played Wo long Fallen? Its seems as a pretty cool game to me and is a game that Iam very interested in playing soon maybe.

@oliverp yes I can see that @Jimmer-jammer included his most difficult bosses from Wo Long on his list. It does look good tbh… and think that the Chinese mythology does appeal to me more than the Japanese mythology of the Nioh games. It’ll be a while until I get around to it though as I probably have at least 6 other souls-likes in the backlog and want to space out my playing of Nioh 2 and Wo Long as far as possible to keep it fresh.

@colonelkilgore Hm yeah I would also like to play the other older souls like games but yeah I honestly dont think I will make time for it (not right now at least). Wo Long looks a little bit to interesting to me.

I just watched the promo posted for AI Limit, which I guess is a anime souls-like.

It reminded me of Code Vein, which I just couldn’t quite get into, despite my initial interest with the proposition of a cool anime aesthetic with a Souls formula. I think CV didn’t click with me mainly because I didn’t care for the battle systems and it was all a bit too complicated. But after watching the AI Limit footage, I do think that one of the issues Souls-like games face, and especially one that is anime styled, is translating the visceral impact of combat. Souls games feel ‘crunchy’ and ‘heavy’ for the most part, which relays a sensation of realism, or maybe not ‘realism’ but ‘genuine’ or ‘affective’ combat.

Without the 3D realistic rendering, the animated style of Code Vein (and maybe AI Limit) just can’t carry that feeling of weight. Maybe it’s just me.

@Th3solution yeah I know what you mean about Code Vein… it felt like I was waving a seven foot great sword around that was made out of polystyrene 🤣.

Haven’t seen anything of AI Limit but will check out some vids when I get the chance.

@colonelkilgore There is an article on AI Limit on the front page of this site, if you fancy checking it out.

@JohnnyShoulder 👍 looks pretty decent 🤔… not excited in the way that I was by the Lies of P and Black Myth: Wukong trailers but will keep tabs on it for sure.

Can I dump this here?
Gameplay impressions from fextralife on No Rest for the Wicked. Quite in depth and technical which you would expect from these guys.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kmd9lu5AOMA

Looks really good. Nice to see it features coop and I quite like the once its dead, it's dead change of pace from the normal souls likes although what does that mean for grinding.

Great topic 👏

I started Elden ring 3 weeks ago and promised myself I would push through and get good. I've never been the biggest fan of the souls formula, losing a ton of progress is soul crushing for me. Fortunately I found a farming area in Caelid with 4 dudes worth 1024 points each, so when I'm close to levelling up I make a b-line there, level up and go on my merry way.

I think Elden Ring is one of the best games I've ever played. Because I have the option of finding other stuff to do when I hit a wall. Others may run round naked with a pot on their head having the reflexes of the world thumb wars title winner. I on the other hand will do everything but that main boss and go in slightly overlevelled when I have no other choice. It's taken me 75 hours and I've just been battered by a gargoyle in Leyndell rofl 🤣

I'm playing strictly offline and trying bosses with only low level summons (Except Radhann when I pulled everyone with me which was epic). The immersion is second to none. Playing it this way, I'm learning the enemies and have beaten everything I have found thus far.

I don't get the 'flow state' a couple of youtubers have mentioned. I think the gameplay is a little to janky without significant training to perfect in the same way as say the contra series or tetris. But it's still one of the best implementations in 3d for sure.