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:
Should you have any questions, please do let me know.
I liked the visuals of Demon's Souls a lot and appreciate the level designs, but even though I managed to finish the game, I found the levels themselves a little too hard sometimes - especially the poison swamp levels. A little too much going on for how little is available to you, I feel like.
How about you?
I hate ADP, Soul Memory, and the Netcode in DS2. But after playing it, I love it all the same.
Hilarious. Anything you like especially among Peak Souls' mechanics?
Powerstancing. Powerstancing is the best shit since the furtive pygmy split his Dark Soul amongst his descendants.
I played all the Souls games but wasn't very interested in Bloodborne because I didn't want a PS4 or PS5 to play it on.
Then I found out you could run it in a PC emulator and played it and it was awesome. It's like turbo Dark Souls with a lot of werewolves.
Then I went back to Elden Ring and figured out how to play Bloodborne style and got even better at ER. I customized my character to use left hand Smithscript Dagger and Uchigatana with Bloodhound's Step AOW added for Elden-Borne mode. Elden Ring enemies are not fast enough to deal with Bloodhound/borne zip dodging. The throwing daggers (upgraded) also make a lot of the bullshit mobs less of a hassle to deal with.
After years of attempting Souls games, Elden Ring finally clicked for me and im having a blast. Tryna push past the Fire Giant on my first runthrough now.
So once im good and satisfied with this and the DLC im going back to the rest. I know I've at least got Dark Souls 1 and 2 and Bloodborne on various platforms.
That's so awesome - glad to have you! What kinda build are you running? Fire Giant for sure is a tough one, though.
Can't really comment on DS at all since I've barely played the three, but Bloodborne is phenomenal. It was my first soulslike, and it was really tough to get into it. Once you've tasted blood though (heh), you can't get enough. Probably the soulslike I have most hours on at around 100-110h or so. So enjoy once you get around to it!
Thanks! I'm really enjoying it. I'm mostly using Bloodhounds Fang with Bloodflame and Golden Vow, Dex and Faith. I've got some lightning infused raptor claws that I really love too though, but at this stage of the game (im also trying to beat Commander Niall i think his name is, the one with the two adds) the extra reach from a greatsword is pretty clutch.
Definitely looking forward to Bloodborne and DS2 the most!
Whooped the Fire Giant's ass! You're the only person I had to brag to XD had over half my flasks left too.
Amazing, congrats! How many attempts did if take you? I remember struggling quite a while
Oof im not sure. Maybe a dozen or so? Once I figured out I could Torrent jump over the big blast attack it got a lot easier.
Low key. Skip dark souls 2 and come back to it last. It's kinda a mess compared to the others imo but the exploration is a blast in that game.
I was not a fan of DS at all, but Elden Ring clicked so hard. Thought I'd give DS another try, but nope. Even tried Lies of P, but still didnt get into it. I guess ER is just the perfect mix for me. I do want to try Bloodborne at least.
I started playing soulslike games when Dark Souls was still new-ish, and I'll be honest. I really didn't like it very much. But the thing was that even though I didn't really get it, I kept going back and trying it again shortly here and there. Finally something clicked and I loved it, so I continued my journey of masochism for the entire series lmao
What made you try the game in the first place?
I think it's a similar story for most people - at least it was for me
A friend of mine recommended it highly. I went in knowing absolutely nothing about it, and my friend is kind of a terrible communicator so pointers were few lmao
so you had the besy possible experience then :P
Absolutely!
Dark Souls Remastered was the first souls game I’ve played. The online talk of difficulty put me off from trying for a while. Then I was gifted DS 1 Remastered and gave it a shot.
I fell in love with the world design and the supporting characters. The way most areas connect was unexpected and fun to discover. Difficulty is high for a game of this era. I started playing video games in the Atari 2600/NES days so having little health and few or no checkpoints isn’t foreign to me. Still DS was a strong reminder to being a more thoughtful player. To better choose when and how to attack or defend. Maybe sneak or just flat out run by and hope at times.
I’m not saying that playing older games made things easier or better, just that I wasn’t put off by dying a lot and some of the long run backs.
Then I jumped to DS 3 as I didn’t care for the gameplay mechanics made in DS 2. I’ll give it a chance someday. DS 3 didn’t have the same magic as the first but technical gameplay (movement, fighting, jumping) were all improved.
After that on to Elden Ring. Wow! By the time I got to the base game the DLC had been out for several months. My method was to complete the main game in its entirety before starting DLC. The open world and exploration is really great. I took my time and thoroughly enjoyed playing.
When it was time for Shadow of the Erdtree I thought I’d be plenty leveled and ready. I was wrong. My character was around level 140 (possibly higher) going into the DLC and I was getting handled like a new player. The story, not as good as the main game. Still, something new, interesting and connected to a part of history in the base game. I do wish the map had more points of interest. DLC map size is plenty large but too many big empty spaces.
Old news for many but to anyone struggling with the DLC be sure to find those Scadutree fragments and spirit ashes. Or don’t and get good I guess.
I may have strayed a bit off topic and made a longer post than intended. :)
It's all good - enjoyed reading about your perspective and experiences with the games!
Thanks! Happy cake day! 🍰🎉
Getting back to your original post...Miyazaki has it bad for poison areas. I feel your pain.
Hold up, it's my cake day? I didn't even notice. Time flies... thanks :)
Yea, his soft spot for poison swamps is really remarkable and such a detriment to my psyche lol
I originally hated Elden Ring because of how they made the boss fights. Delayed attacks, way too many successive attacks, etc.
I completely dropped it for over a year after getting it. But then I tried it again and now it's my favorite.
Still hate their design choices, but it's nothing cheesing/overpowering the boss can't fix, lol.
Genuinely what’s with the hatred for delayed attacks? I see tons of people complaining about them but have never understood why. All the “delayed” attacks have consistent timings and pretty obvious tells, and many give you an opportunity to get some damage in before you dodge if you’re fast enough at reading them.
All the “delayed” attacks have consistent timings and pretty obvious tells
I can't agree with that. Some delayed attacks in the middle of the combos throw you off completely, has no indication that "on their 3rd attack will be delayed".
After fighting the boss once or twice you learn: with that posture they will use the 5 hit multi attack and the 3rd one is delayed. But the first time is annoying.
Yeah, that makes sense to me. I suppose I was imprecise in my original comment: the tells are obvious, but you do have to see them a couple times to learn what they are.
Personally I enjoy these process of learning the boss and figuring out its tricks, so the feints and timing mix-ups make the fight more enjoyable to beat because it adds depth and challenge to that process. I feel more like I’m fighting a smart opponent who will try to deceive me, and so eventually seeing through their tricks is a lot of fun.
It's just annoying in a rhythm game imo.
Elden Ring isn't a rhythm game though, it's an RPG where you play however you want. Sekiro you could certainly say has rhythm elements to its combat.
It's more of the combination of changes rather than the individual ones. They're just a bunch of small annoyances that combine into an experience that I didn't find enjoyable initially.
Yeah my problem with ER bosses is not the delayed attacks, it's the many-hit strings that can last several seconds and hit a significant percentage of the arena. There are some absolutely absurd boss attacks, especially in the DLC, that I just refuse to believe were ever playtested by traditional no-shield strength builds. The charge attack from the boar guy is a great isolated example.