this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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There's a lot about the souls games I like, but eventually I reach a boss I can't beat and the rest of the game gets locked behind that one boss; in dark souls 3 that would be the sword dancer boss, a literal gate behind which the rest of the content exists. Her moveset is extremely confusing because it looks very samey and it gets hard to learn what to dodge through.
Also you say 'dodge and block', but really it's just dodge; one thing that's really awful about these games (maybe just the later ones in the series? I can't remember how the older ones were in this regard) is that there's primarily only one way to play it and that's dodging and maybe parrying; you rarely are able to build your character to be super tanky (so heavy armor + high health); it may be an RPG, but you can't truly play it the way you want.
I recall back in demons' souls and dark souls 1, heavy armor and armoring up was entirely viable. In dark souls 1 they even added a steel (iron? stone?) skin pyromancy to add on top of the heavy armor you already had on. I can't recall if dark souls 2 allowed for that style, and dark souls 3 definitely didn't. The Havel set USED to be great for boss fights.
With those hard-stop bosses I either look up the cheese strategy. Or I just turn on an infinite health cheat. That way I can try and learn the boss without the wasted time of reloading again and again, and then I try doing it for real... and if it's still too annoying for whatever reason I just kill it with cheats. Promised Consort can go fuck himself, a lame plot twist boss deserves no respect.
I also cheat drop rates up, because I don't do grinding, and usually infinite materials, because I don't give a fuck about crafting systems any more. I like that they're there, but I have better things to do than collect hog butts. If a game starts wasting my time so overtly then I start thinking I should probably just read a book...
Incidentally, the Convergence mod made major changes to items in Elden Ring, by removing drop rates for equipment and just placing them in appropriate locations or as guaranteed drops from appropriate miniboss enemies. I really dig that.
that's a lot of systems to not engage with
Soulslikes are all about dodging things you don't want to be hit by, after all.
Turning into metal is in all the subsequent games too, I'm pretty sure.
There are fundamental aspects of a game where if you don't like it, you won't like the game, and you can't really avoid needing to roll, block, or parry attacks some of the time (though you virtually never need to do any one of them and can often just walk out of harm's way). That said, there are still lots of other elements to builds, like different types of casting and such.
I've beaten DS1 without rolling or partying a single time, just blocking and repositioning, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for everyone, but I thought it was fun.
I beat 2 and 3 as a tank armor slow roll shield build because my buddy was telling me the only way to play is light load rolling