Continuing on from: https://hexbear.net/post/6064592
I have been neglecting my work and playing anyway. Probably 10 or so hours in at the moment.
I'm curious how your impressions are changing as you play? I've unlocked a new moveset that seems to knock enemies back more with wider sweeps which has gelled with me better, and I'm struggling in combat less.
Overall I would still say I'm really mixed. The game seems to get easier the more I play which is a curious decision, the music is still very much taking a back seat which seems tragic to me given how strongly the HK music shaped my impression of zones. I have discovered a handful of tools but would say that experimenting with them seems actively discouraged, I'm always out of shards and a combination of the enemy types and level design mean I'm just not getting many anymore.
Emptying my set in a boss fight is about 80 shards, which to stock up for would be ~20 minutes of traversal and farming. Consequently I'm mostly just sticking with the "safe" set I'm used to. Bummer.
The world is beautiful, maybe a bit spread out. Hornet is more expressive than the Knight, something which shone in a particular involuntary sequence (if you know you know). Still very minimalist though.
Boss difficulty seems to swing wildly around, my experience is that the final phase often comes down to a DPS race and luck, particularly when ads are a feature. There's just so much on screen and enemies move in more complex patterns, I get mind-flooded something I rarely felt in HK where almost every boss fight felt like a careful dance.
How are you finding it?
I'm in act 2 and think this game is generally better than hollow knight. Game has some hard bosses (I think widow kicked my ass like 10 times) but you have so much utility with hornet with tools and aerial mobility, plus different crest movesets, this game just feels better to play.
I think a lot of the difficulty complaints are people who are i frame spoiled. I have to actually space unlike with hollow knight where face tanking and down spell I framing is king
There are some annoying moments, some of the run backs do suck ass (lies of p did this right, just put a damn bonfire right before the boss).
Losing rosaries early game does suck but it gets less annoying with the enemies in act 2. It makes sense story wise too but idk I feel like it would help if bosses dropped a few
Cogwork dancers is one of my favorite boss fights ever, such a fun fight
I think lies of p was a garbage, joyless, game :p
I actually like runbacks, although a few have been a little annoying so far. Maybe they get worse.