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Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes

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This is a community for discussion, news, and memes pertaining to the video game sub-genre "soulslike".

Given Lemmy's size, the definition of soulslike may be treated relatively loosely. While games like the numerous FromSoft titles, the recent Star Wars Jedi games, Lies of P, Nioh and similar games should be the focus, games that incorporate soulslike elements - like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous, for example - may also be discussed here.

Basic Lemmy-quette applies. Additionally, since flairs don't exist yet, please do make sure to include a marker to denote what game your post is about in square brackets for clarity's sake. An example could be:

[BB] This enemy is so difficult!

or

[DS1] Anyone struggling with the gargoyles?

Friends:

!liesofp@lemmy.zip

!bloodborne@lemmy.zip

!sekiro@lemmy.zip

!eldenring@lemmy.world

!shittydarksouls@lemmy.world

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I've played through most of the soulslikes I put my mind to but I still haven't played/finished DS1/2.

I started a playthrough of DS1 and got to Quelaag but didn't actually fight her because I was cursed and wanted to cleanse it first - couldn't find my way back, unfortunately, and didn't want to look up guides lol. And now the save is gone, so I'll have to start over - ie. I probably won't play anytime soon :D

Haven't played DS2 yet because I wanted to play them in chronological order.

What about you?

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[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago (15 children)

Previously Sekiro the parrying scared me for the longest time. I'm still sure the game will absolutely kick my ass, but maybe not that bad.

Right now... DS2 , the mechanic that punishes you for dying sounds awful, I'm dumb and die a lot on a first playthough so.... I'm tempted to skip to 3 and then come back.

[–] Bonson@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (9 children)

DS2 was a lot easier to me than other dark souls entries (Didn’t play DLC) which helped soften the blow of that mechanic.

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Really? What made it easier in your experience?

[–] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm not the person you asked, but I can tell you the DS2 punish mechanic isn't as bad as it sounds. You pop a human effigy (humanity) and it's gone. You can get a ring that mitigates the effect in one of the first areas, and you can wear 4 rings instead of just 2 like in DS1.

Bosses are generally not that difficult. There's no noob trap where you end up in Tomb of the fucking Giants early and have to climb back out. You can teleport between bonfires immediately.

There are some tough areas for sure, but you can actually make enemies go extinct by killing them 12 times.

/DS2 fanboy

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I've read so many complaints about the health nerf over the years that I assumed there was no way to reverse it but leveling up again. I still wanted to play because of how divisive the game is, ha.

I actually enjoyed a lot not being able to teleport from the get go in DS1. It made exploration higher stakes and so very satisfying, It's what I like the most about the game. Which brings me to ask, is exploration good in DS2?

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I also enjoyed the exploration and the no-teleport in DS1, but due to the (in my opinion pretty slapdash and poor) way the world in DS2 is constructed it would be torture to not have fast travel from the get-go. It's basically all dead-end areas branching off of a central hub, and without it you would do an insane amount of meaningless backtracking. The world doesn't connect back on itself like in DS1 (though no other game really does).

There is a lot of secrets to find and stuff like that though, but the joy of just discovering how the areas fit together isn't there.

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I wonder why they didn't went with the same concept for the map in the other entries. Lore? Because Miyazaki did not direct Ds2 ? Too much a pain in the ass? A shame since it's so good.

[–] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 4 points 18 hours ago

is exploration good in DS2?

Yes, but not as good as DS1, because they nailed the interconnected world in that game. DS2 is more like branches off from the main hub, and you can access most of them right away or very early. DS1 was built different than the other Fromsoft games. You'll still have plenty to explore and the DLCs are especially massive, but you won't have those "omg I'm back at firelink!" moments. It's similar in the way you go through Catacombs/Tomb, or Duke's/Crystal Cave, a series of areas that eventually hit a dead end.

[–] Bonson@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

I agree and feel as though you showcased better reasons than I could articulate. Thanks for your input.

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