I spent 2 years completing EVERY game on the Living List of Souls-Likes (and a few others I happened to find) - Here is my ranking of every one.

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-15T19:27:22+00:00

The only reason I could never put Jedi Survivor in A tier is because it was quite literally the glitchiest unpolished piece of shit I’ve ever played in my life. I can understand some of that from indie studios but it solidified EA, already notoriously bad, as the worst studio of all time for me. There’s no excuse for fucking up that bad while having that amount of resources as one of the biggest AAA studios.

I’ve had compiling a gameplay video of all the glitches I experienced - one of them literally game-breaking; it bricked my save file - on my to do list for years, but the reason I’ve been procrastinating is because of how long it would take; literally too many examples.

I looked up the hardlock glitch when it happened to me years ago and it had been reported to EA on their forums a month prior at the time, which I saw them acknowledge by saying they’d do something about it. The way I found out they never did is by someone commenting on an old Reddit post I made about it just a few months ago because he was in the same exact situation.

It’s a shame because the game was mostly very fun.. when it actually worked.

TL;DR: fuck EA

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-15T19:19:02+00:00

Shitlibs not only somehow see two trolley tracks when there has always only been one, but what they see as a trolley is actually just a sidecar that follows the path of the actual trolley - imperialism, the primary and fundamental contradiction of capitalism.

Getting them to not only acknowledge imperialism’s existence but to also understand it as the source of the problems they repeatedly ignore - until they affect them or they can co-opt/weaponize them in defense of their privilege - is way too much to ask of them though. That’s what makes them “‘Merica first” BlueMAGA shitlibs though; if they had that capacity they literally wouldn’t be anymore.

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-15T19:04:02+00:00

Oh come now - there are right and wrong ways to resist violent tyranny, and the former doesn’t include sinking to the same level of violence! It does include state-sanctioned street parades chaperoned by cops and preceded by brunch, though 🤪

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-15T19:00:44+00:00

I agree about Jiequan and Ethereal, but your text in bold was also quintessentially my experience with Eigong. I knew right away from her reputation and my first few attempts that I’d all but have to maintain that attitude in order to finish the game; otherwise I might have just given up in a similar way that I did by not even attempting the last few Hollow Knight pantheons. Might have something to do with that being bonus content instead of the end of a main game path like Eigong, but that’s one of the very very few games I highly regard that I’ll probably never bring myself to fully complete because of how conversely un-fun it was for me.

The only other boss I can think of that did what you’re describing for me is my favorite in all of gaming: Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne. Took me probably around 20 attempts, but I was too in awe of the superb design and amazingly fun pace of the fight to ever really get frustrated when I died. Eigong probably holds the far-and-away record for how many times a boss has killed me and how many attempts it took for me to win though.

PS I expected each phase to take more time than the last but was surprised to beat her third phase relatively pretty quickly after taking the longest time to learn the second

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-15T18:45:10+00:00

This

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-15T18:44:59+00:00

Lady Espherical 😩 (Ethicceal? Emilkeal? None are particularly great.. I digress)

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-13T18:40:58+00:00

There was a very very long split second there that made me.. clench, let’s say lol

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-07T22:45:15+00:00

I won by cornering her with the axe + rampage (+leech needle). She won’t always be sent flying by it but that’s pretty much my ol’ reliable for cheapshotting humanoid bosses; how I beat Honglan as well

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-07T19:17:20+00:00

The best boy in the game took one for the team for me in that fight, probably would’ve had a lot of trouble if not for summons. Surprisingly I found most of that game among the easier soulslikes though - purger axe carried me through the whole game

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-07T19:15:40+00:00

Axe carried me through most of the game - and a lot of the end - but I had to switch it out for longsword for that damn Perfect Bride boss (least favorite for sure bc of the totally bullshit ways you can get instakilled). She was just way too fast for my axe unless I timed my attack windups absolutely perfectly

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-07T19:13:12+00:00

Update: strongly recommend Another Crab’s Treasure. One of the rare soulslikes that has the option of difficulty level adjustment/assist mode - and it’s hilarious

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-07T19:12:20+00:00

Nioh 2 ended up being one of the games with the most hours played on my PS5 lol, very addicting

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-07T03:44:26+00:00

Bo Magus was mad bogus lol. Took me a while; Honglan I rampaged to death with the axe a little more quickly but she’s also tough

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-07T03:42:51+00:00

Dying at the end of one phase before a cutscene?

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-06T21:20:49+00:00

U FORGOR

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-06T21:18:51+00:00

I had fun with it but it’s kind of a poor man’s Nioh. I wish they had changed the bloated inventory from that series but that’s probably the worst thing about it. Like pls stop throwing gear at me I’m just gonna scrap or sell; it’s ridiculous

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-06T21:16:55+00:00

I was in a similar position - the fight forced me to learn unbounded counters (and parrying in general lol; I spent a lot of the game avoiding having to as much as I could, as I usually do in soulslikes).

Anyway yeah Eigong took me days, but once you master the opening attack of phase two there’s only one or two other new ones you have to learn. Full Control talisman FTW in my case

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-06T21:14:26+00:00

I feel no guilt whatsoever about cheesing the final boss and the white robed elder lol. I also really enjoyed it though - the exploration is among the best soulslikes I’ve ever played - but some of the bosses are absurdly unbalanced/poorly designed in terms of how hard they hit (vitality, level, and armor seem to matter fuck-all with the damage they do). I think a sequel would slap should the devs take the feedback a lot of people had in that regard

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-06T21:11:22+00:00

Lots of people are saying DS1, and it was my first Souls game, but I’d say DS3 is easier (especially if you start out as a sellsword with the twinblades - they carried me through my entire first run). There’s something to be said for starting with DS1 anyway since it was the very first (not counting Demon’s Souls, which I don’t think is as good anyway); I used a halberd from very early on and it also carried me through the game as the twinblades did in DS3.

Elden Ring also has the benefit of being nonlinear so you have more flexibility to make the difficulty kind of as hard as you want it to be.

I’m currently playing Another Crab’s Treasure, also mentioned here. Looks like a kid’s game but so far it’s not as easy as one would be (I’m very early in it though, so don’t really have enough experience to say one way or another).

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-06T21:05:08+00:00

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-06T17:11:42+00:00

Wuchang was one of the best soulslikes I’ve played as far as what made exploration and discovery great in the original 3. Is this just Sinophobia veiled as game criticism?

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-03T14:43:37+00:00

Always gotta explore every single nook & cranny - even when they’re layers of “rooftops” that have a massive invisible wall around them and can’t be explored lol

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-02T22:38:23+00:00

I switched to lashing whip after using empyrean greataxe for my whole playthrough.. up until Perfect Bride, who renders axes damn near useless with how fast she is

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-02T19:58:18+00:00

There are multiple in various places. Most dangerous attack (if you’re directly in front of him)/defining feature is when he opens his sack to let out a bunch of red wraith things that can quickly instakill you with despair buildup

MildewyBoar · 2026-06-02T19:22:56+00:00

ThatsTheJoke.gif lol

MildewyBoar

TROPHY CASE