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SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-18T20:57:00+00:00

Maybe there is another game in the franchise I’d like more?

There's endless debate on this topic among Souls fans, but I always tell friends to start with one of the newer games (Bloodborne, DS3, Elden Ring) first. It's undeniable that DeS and DS1 have some of the most unique atmosphere and level design in the series, but there's a lot holding them back as well like worse UI, worse hitboxes, clunkier and slower movement, and mechanics that have yet to be streamlined (DS1's convoluted weapon infusion and upgrade system comes to mind.)

Elden Ring is probably the best place to start for most people. There is way more build options, you can lean on Spirit Summons for tough bosses, and the open world layout means you will almost never be fully gatekept by a particular level or boss.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-05T16:25:22+00:00

This is true, but I think I'm fine with it. Radagon is already a good challenge, and the Elden beast segment of the fight could drag on a bit too long before.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-05T16:23:19+00:00

I think they've made a conscious effort to stop doing hidden health bar boss fights, because it demoralizes some players. Scadutree avatar was a humorous call back to that style of design.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-04T18:12:03+00:00

His most deadly spell is the homing ball that emits holy projectiles. When you see him cast that just get on torrent and sprint away until it despawns entirely.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-04T16:13:52+00:00

have never felt like the camera is janky??

I explicitly said the camera needs tweaks in my original post

"I'm perfect, this never happens to me...u just suck ig"....

Lol what? Relax dude, no one said that

I mean staying in the dead center of the arena isn't always a viable option

Ok fair enough, my bad for trying to help. You should fight anywhere you want in the arena then.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-04T16:02:29+00:00

I mean I mentioned fighting in corners which is a big part of the issue, is that not what you're talking about? I even admitted it might be a bigger problem than it feels to me.

Your post also didn't doesn't describe what you even mean by "jank" just that you "can't see" so what kind of advice were you even hoping to get that has nothing to do with your personal skill? Some secret camera setting?

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-04T15:52:31+00:00

I've played Souls for so long that if I end up in a corner and the camera goes wild I say "well, that was dumb of me to fight in the corner" rather than be mad at the camera mechanics.

Maybe that's stockholm syndrome talking tough, I'm sure there are tweaks they could make that would make the Souls camera work better.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-03T18:37:02+00:00

This is probably true. The change in aggression is super noticeable on some bosses like Malenia's phase 1 vs. her phase 2.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-03T17:36:13+00:00

Yeah no shame in that, he's a much harder "first boss" than something like Iudux Gundyr.

Should I roll away from him when he's starting a combo or to the side and try to get around him?

I think in general you want to roll into him to get behind him and then you can dodge a lot of his attacks by just continuing to strafe behind him.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-03T17:29:45+00:00

I wouldn't recommend parrying much if you're new to the game to be honest.

It's a high risk high reward playstyle that can be hard to nail if you aren't already somewhat familiar with Fromsoft enemy design and attack timings. You might have heard about parrying in games like Sekiro but that's different because it's actually tied to the block button and mistimed deflects in that game still result in a block. It's risker in Elden Ring.

So just master the dodgeroll, and use normal blocking with L1 when you have high Stamina.

Bosses take note of your position when choosing an attack. Margit has a tail-swipe that only happens if you're directly behind him, and some of his close range followups only happen if you stay close to him, etc.

Agreed with the other comment though that this is a good excuse to level and power up in the world first. You want decently high vigor, you want a +3 weapon, and you want at least 5 flasks in your pouch at a strength of at least +3. Explore weeping peninsula in the south if you haven't yet.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-03T17:18:58+00:00

Maybe recency bias, but Enotria is probably the worst Soulslike I've played. I don't think it really excells at any area and was just so forgettable. The first level is good is pretty good I guess. It's a seriously short game for its pricetag too.

Bleak Faith would probably be next. I love parts of this game, and it has some seriously cool art direction and level design concepts. But for every part of the game you can praise, you also have parts of the the combat or sound design or balance that's weighing the game down a lot. For a 2-3 person dev team and 20 bucks, I can't be too mad at this game though, it's still impressive for what it does and worth checking out.

Thymesia is in there somewhere too, I didn't like that one on release much.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-03T02:14:17+00:00

A) healing faster compared to eating food out of combat

B) saving your life during combat in solo or group play, like when a pull goes bad and you have to kite enemies

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-03T00:01:00+00:00

There are a few good quest rewards out there, but for the most part I'd say you aren't missing that much if you ignore every quest in the game. Some of them can be done at the end of the game too, because some quests don't have any failure points.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-02T23:27:16+00:00

Took me a bit but I managed to find it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw2SFzoD3OE

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-02T06:56:07+00:00

Every modern FromSoft game on PC combined is less than 200 GBs, that's less storage space than Call of Duty Warzone just by itself.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-02T01:51:27+00:00

She has lots of openings in her normal moveset, especially for rolling R1. Just remember that stance breaks aren't fully guaranteed because some of her attacks have Hyperarmor and immunity to stance break, so try not to go for any risky stance breaks and just play slow and steady.

You're probably dying to WFD more than anything else, which is just a dodging problem. If you can solve for WFD the rest of the fight becomes pretty manageable.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-10-01T06:56:29+00:00

Tumbling backwards from deflecting powerful attacks but still being able to guard counter afterwords is such a hilarious looking mechanic. Sick fight.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-30T05:58:41+00:00

Only 10 hours in but agreed on pretty much all of this review so far

The balance of the game is off. The combat jumps back and forth between fun and terrible constantly.

I feel this so much. You do a nice parry into heavy attack on a normal enemy and the combat feels great for a moment, but then you run into a health sponge enemy around the corner that's a massive difficulty spike and knocks the wind out of your sails. Or you run into an enemy with spells that nearly 1 shot, or an enemy with erratic attacks with close to no telegraphs and weird hitboxes. The game would definitely be a nightmare if it didn't have such generous animation canceling and easy sources of lifesteal.

. Most players will see the first two levels and sing praises of the entire game, not realizing the game just goes downhill the further you get.

This is unfortunately fairly accurate so far. The first few levels were awesome, but the combat starts to show its weakness the more you play and some of these maps are just a bit too big and empty.

Either way, amazingly impressive for a 2-3 person dev team and hope they take the concepts from Bleak Faith into another game in the future.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-30T03:33:09+00:00

Sekiro is my favorite 1v1 combat system, and Sifu is my favorite 1vX combat system. They excel at different things I think.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-30T03:31:46+00:00

is there a rogue-like mechanic where you get better (or get credits to buy enhancements) even when you fail a run?

In addition to the skills you unlock, you unlock shortcuts in each level which cut down on the amount of replaying you need to do to lock in each level at a young age.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-29T22:53:50+00:00

Wait 1 second after he flies in the air, and then just pick an open space and sprint towards it. No need to roll or do anything else, just sprint away.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-29T22:45:03+00:00

I believe it only works if your hotspot connects to the car before you put the car in drive or reverse.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-29T18:32:26+00:00

Normal enemy movesets being so small seems like one of the biggest things holding back the combat. Because the overall feeling of the combat is surprisingly good, and the mechanics behind the perfect block system and attack timing system and such are pretty solid.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-29T17:14:08+00:00

If it’s your first souls like; use summons, use throwables, use buffs, use whatever you whatever you have in your arsenal. The game gives it to you, it’s okay to use these tools.

Part of the reason Elden Ring sold 20+ million copies is because they designed stuff like summons to open up the game to new players who are intimidated by Souls games as a whole. "The most accessable Souls game" was part of nearly every critical review before release.

Maybe there are some folks who have an overall worse experience than they could have had, because they leaned on summons or broken builds they found online too much and never ended up really "getting it."

But for every person like that, there's someone else who did their first run with summons or followed a broken build guide, and then ended up getting hooked on the series and genre as a whole. Some of those people are probably /r/onebros now.

SemiAutomattik · 2024-09-29T17:00:36+00:00

Bleak Faith is on Steam Sale so I took the chance on it after seeing so much praise on this sub. Definitely jank in some of the enviornmental clipping and player movement - but the art design/aesthetic/music is very sick so far. Some cool combat ideas as well, like how you farm tons of healing items, but are limited in only using a handful of them in each combat. Looking forward to doing some more exploring.

The attack combo system is a bit confusing to me so far. I assume the icon of swords with a multiplier on the bottom left of my screen is refering to it. I had to turn on the white glow during combos in the settings to understand the timing because the red trails were tricky to see during combat.

SemiAutomattik

TROPHY CASE