Fromsoftware / Souls likes

I’ve heard nioh 2 is better. Do i need to play then in order?

 

Cheers dude Gonna give this a crack next then, before the Elden ring dlc. It’s a game I keep meaning to go back to but always forget that I even have

 

The 2 crucible knights fight and the godskin duo are the 2 that seem to give most problems to players, and the more notorious multi boss fight for some reason. You won’t have got to them yet (the crucible knights are in a dungeon and completely optional as well). I don’t agree with that though, I found both fights relatively manageable and not that tough. The gargoyle fight is not manageable at all. You can’t separate them when the second one joins, the are both on you at all times!

The gargoyle fight is an absolute nightmare for me. The second hardest fight in the whole game without using a summons, outside of Melania! I’ve just had a recent play through and that still took me a 15-20+ goes, and I’ve beaten them multiple times with no summons. And even then it was by the skin of my teeth! The trick is taking out the first gargoyle as quick as possible. All out attack until he’s done, then you have a chance. You have to take constant risks to do this. If you’re using a spirit ashes make sure they are tanky and upgraded as much as possible. If you’ve followed d’s quest his brother will be outside the boss room. If you give him the armour you can also summon him as well and have 2 npc helpers. If not you’ll have to struggle on. They are optional but definitely worth beating

 

I’m half way through lies of p and it is a fantastic game! The bloodborne influences are obvious visually and the storyline. Has many of the same mechanics like the rally system (which actually works far better in lies of p) and a really unique weapon system that improves on from soft games because you can match weapons handles with blades. This means you can create unique weapons and every weapon is viable no matter what you put you’re skill points in

the combat itself is basically Sekiro! You need to be able to dodge, there are some iframes but without guarding/perfect guarding, this game becomes exponentially harder (it’s already a tough game). There’s a structure bar (that’s hidden) and you can also break the enemies weapons with multiple perfect guards, even some bosses. You have a mechanical left arm just like Sekiro. The combat isn’t as fast and not quite to the standard, but it isn’t far off either

The real + points for this game is the weapons. The handles control the move set and scale with skill stats. The blades/attachments are upgradable and have the special moves attached to them. I’m using a rapier handle/move set with a great sword blade, for a mixture of speed and damage reduction when blocking. You can also adjust the handles scaling with a certain rare item so every weapon and moves set is available.

The rally system works when you block (chip damage), not when you’re hit. If you’re hit you can’t get that health back so you have to be carefully aggressive when you take chip damage. You only take no damage when you perfect block. This works so much better than bloodborne, it actually gives you enough time to regain the chip damage and is one of the best features of the game imo.

the boss fights have been generally difficult so far. I would say harder to the halfway than any of the from soft games I’ve played, even Sekiro. They all have big health pools so you can’t blast through them, they are long fights. Same strategy does not work, you need to dodge some, parry others, and a mixture of both for most of them. There’s a genichiro type skill check fairly early in the game to make sure you can parry! If not he’ll beat on you mercilessly. Most of the boss fights have been really good tbf. They apparently get much tougher as well.

the downside is the level design. The game looks great, really interesting lore but the level design is just not to from softs standards. It’s very A to B with some side alleys! And almost all of the difficulty in the game lies in the boss fights. The areas in between are fun but not that challenging imo


The game is not original, but they seem to have taken some of the best bits from bloodborne (rally system and weapons) and actually made them with better. The boss fights have been fantastic so far and when the combat system clicks, it feels really smooth. This is ‘almost’ as good as the games it’s been so heavily influenced by

 

congrats and FU twin gargoyles!

if you’re outnumbered it’s not cheesing them imo! This is a genuinely difficult fight even with a fully upgraded mimic tear, and it is the biggest BS fight in the game trying to beat solo. I had a mimic tear and d’s brother on my first play through and it still took me many many goes to beat them. As per my last post, only Melania gives me more trouble with no summons. She took me 4-5 hours when I last fought her a couple of weeks ago.

 

What build have you gone with? And are you more melee or magic?

 

I second this. O&S, sister Freid and maybe the 2 apes in Sekiro are the only well done ones imo. They’re all really hard though

I personally like the crucible knights in Elden ring as well. They were an absolute nightmare first try, I gave up and summoned! They’ve kicked my arse so much in this game I know all their parry timings. Same with all the big hitting knight type enemies. They’re all my bitches he’s now!

 

I’ve had a few runs through in this game with different characters and ng+s, and I always end up with a dex build, and either faith or luck (for bleed). As a melee character faith is really good for weapon buffs, and character buffs. 25 points in faith is enough for me to use the things that I need. I don’t really like rolling around at distance waving a wand! Dex or strength/faith builds are generally really good for melee in this game


Good luck getting to Melania. It’s a secret area at the end of the game, a ball ache to get to and it is filled with the worst enemies from top to bottom (worst as in tough). The whole area is really difficult and at the end of it you get to die maybe 100s of times to Melania. Summons makes this fight so much easier but still not easy. Keep distance and let your mimic tank the waterfowl dance.

To beat her solo you have to find a way of dealing with waterfowl. She will do it at least once each phase. It’s a death sentence for me as I can’t figure out the dodge timings. She can be at stunlocked so the sword your using may give you an advantage. I run a light build (under 30% weight) so I can only use light weapons. She also bleeds so blood hound fang is a really good weapon to use as you can stagger her with it as well

i didn’t beat her solo first time btw

 

Finished bloodborne meets Sekiro… lies of p. Absolutely brilliant game! It isn’t a from soft game, but for me personally, it’s as good as the more recent ones. The level design isn’t at DS1/BB level but that is a ridiculously high standard to reach. There’s loads of quality of life improvements and the only letdown for me is the areas aren’t as challenging as they could be. However, the bosses most certainly are.

The last 3 bosses took me hours to beat but it was fully worth it. All of the main story boss’s range from difficult, to really difficult, though they all feel fair and there are no obvious cheeses from what I can see. They also get gradually harder. It felt like a real achievement beating this game

dlc comes out later this year and they are making a follow up.

 

Shadow of the erdtree (ER dlc) is out today. It appears to be a new open world area called the shadow realm, about the size of limgrave and is getting great reviews. 95% on metacritic. Its reported to be 25/30+ hours of content (dependent on the skill of the gamer) so pretty much the size of a new game. Seems like you need to jump through the usual hoops to get there, just like all of the recent dlcs. You have to beat an end game boss in a secret area to even start the dlc

I stopped at that boss in my current ER play through. I didn’t want to be over levelled so have started another NG cycle. I’ll be jumping straight in when I’m finally done with lies of p

 

yeah you have to beat mohg. He’s a bastard as well! I’d say you’re still a fair distance away. You’ll have to kill a certain boss in the mountain of the giants to get access to the area that leads you to mohg. You then have to find a portal to get there (in the secret area that also leads you to Melania/halligtree). When you get to the consecrated snowfields I would check where it is online if I was you. You’ll really struggle to find it otherwise

 

Ah good to hear dude. It is a great game but I can understand why a lot of souls vets prefer the more linear fromsoft games. The level where mohg is I just run through. There’s literally no need to walk through and fight everything. There’s a couple of items worth grabbing if you run a bleed build, but nothing else. The dlc is supposed to be about the size of limgrave, maybe a bit bigger so I think it’s gonna be fairly well packed with content, rather than large expanses with little to do

I like the Melania fight other than the waterfowl dance. How did you deal with it mate. I had to throw freeze pots at her the moment she starts the animation as this is the only thing I found that could interrupt it. This means I’ve got to cycle through my shit to heal If I take a hit. That in itself accounted for a couple of dozen deaths. I just couldn’t figure out the dodge timings. I have to fight her up close as I’m a dex build using daggers and a light roll. She was a nightmare last time out! She seems to have gotten harder for me?

have you got to crumbling farum azula yet? I thought that and the halligtree are the closest Elden ring gets to dark souls type level design. Both tough areas as well, but I’d argue that the top of the halligtree is mostly unfair and frustrating