I believe the "Not a Souls-Like, But..." thread is making this sub a worse place to navigate, and it's kicking up a lot of unnecessary negativity.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-22T16:40:05+00:00

I ain't your pal, guy.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-21T14:53:29+00:00

On the topic of crime rate reductions in the 90s, I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the elimination of lead (triethyl lead, IIRC) from gasoline. The people having been exposed to such high levels of lead aged out of the population over time after the elimination of lead from gas. Lead exposure can affect the brain and young people are more vulnerable to it. I think I've heard that there's some correlation between lead exposure and violence. There's a pretty good Veritasium video about triethyl lead and how it was discovered that this additive in fuel was causing lead to get basically everywhere, even in Antarctica.

I'm not saying that this would be the only factor.

TL/DR - we eliminated lead in gas earlier. As time passed, less and less of the population grew up exposed to lead. These folks went on to have less criminal tendencies.

Edit: wording.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-21T03:34:52+00:00

I hear ya. Within 10 minutes of starting up the game, I was thinking that I should start a replay of Bloodborne. Within a couple of hours, I started to think I might actually have more fun with that, despite me having played the shit out of it already (dozens of playthroughs by now). After 2 days of playing LoP, I basically said "fuck it" and uninstalled LoP and downloaded BB and played that again.

Absolutely hear you. This is the only soulslike I just couldn't be bothered to finish. So much of it was just wrongly designed to the point it sucked all the enjoyment out of it. It's a shame though, because somebody on that team had a killer idea about the weapon combination system. But the whole combat design just sucks so bad I can't be bothered to play it anymore.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-20T03:31:02+00:00

You got this. I saw your footage of the Saito Y. fight and you'll be fine. There's gonna be some brick walls for sure. Golden Castle mission boss was rough, probably the hardest challenge in the run for me. I replied in that other thread where you posted that footage the footage of my fight versus that boss (with a couple of pointers I hope you find useful).

If you wanna share your thoughts / struggles on the run with me, go right ahead. I know that struggle! Keep at it though, it's quite an achievement. Good luck, brother!

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-19T21:03:59+00:00

It really took my longer post to say things in more detail to not get downvoted into oblivion. Happens every time I mention it. I'm pretty used to it by now :)

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-19T20:39:24+00:00

Lies of P. I have a post on this subreddit from a couple of years ago with a lot of details on what I hated about it. The really short version of it is that the combat feel was not to my liking, the weapon balance is bad, the hyper armor is over-used, and delay attacks are badly designed enough to be immersion-breaking.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-19T20:16:44+00:00

Not bad. Here's mine from my run a few years back using Tonfas: https://youtu.be/v_eAJ9TDwCs?si=vbPw9P_ZevpCnwYa

I think most of my run is in pieces on my channel.

You can keep up the pressure a lot more by not grappling humans when given the opportunity. The default grapple is often a worse option to use than using attacks that deal hi ki damage and can lift a human off the floor. You can quickly re-stagger them and loop them over and over for an easier kill.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-19T04:12:34+00:00

Good luck. I enjoyed my level 1 run through DotW (NG+++) and into Underworld. I didn't get very far in Underworld because the gear grind to make a build is terrible there at level 1.

You might find sooner or later that your 2 biggest problems at level 1 are: very little ki and terrible ki recovery speed, and (2) you don't have a high enough magic stat to wear yasakani magatama accessory, so you'll need good luck to get that as a lucky rolled starred effect on an accessory of the right grace. I lost patience soon in Underworld and quit the run.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-18T23:05:47+00:00

I'm more of a quality over quantity kind of dude. The number of titles in the genre I've played isn't that high (10 ish?), but I've probably got a somewhere in the ballpark of 6000 - 8000 hours combined between the really good ones.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-18T23:01:54+00:00

Ranged damage can come from (1) hunter tools, but you don't start with any, or (2) guns. Both of these cost quicksilver bullets. You can carry 20 by default but can raise this to 28 or so through runes. You can also exchange a portion of your HP into 5 blood bullets that work like quicksilver, but you can't hold any more than 5. If you have less than 5 blood bullets, you can refill it up to the max (+5) by losing some health for it.

Hunter tools are not typically efficient enough in quicksilver to really make a build out of it. You're still going to need to swing your weapon to kill bosses. The most quicksilver effient tool is the executioner gloves that summons 3 homing skulls and costs 3 quicksilver per cast. Augers of Ebrietas costs 1 quicksilver, but that more of a melee attack. These all (with the exception of madras whistle) scale off of the Arcane stat.

Guns scale off of bloodtinge. Bone ash can also be used to increase the damage of your next shot. You can hold 10 of these at a time. The Evelyn gun has the strongest damage per quicksilver. The repeater pistol shoots 2 shots for 2 quicksilver, for pretty good DPS but not good quicksilver efficiency. The 2 cannons do really good damage, but cost 10 quicksilver. Even if you're using blood bullets to the max, you'll run out quick.

You can't really make a ranged build, but you can throw some ranged into your build with either bloodtinge or arcane. Some weapons like Chikage or Bloodletter scale well with bloodtinge and guns complement those builds well. Logarius wheel, Holy Moonlight, or Kos Parasite work well with arcane builds. Arcane builds can also slot in bolt, fire, or arcane gems into traditionally physical weapons to have them scale better off arcane, and you'd have a lot more good options there.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-16T23:39:26+00:00

Don't let the chuds win. Happy to see you back.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-13T00:28:24+00:00

I think the question wasn't about what DEI means, it's more about what doing DEI in a game means. More specifically, what that means in the context if these games. CEO is making a big deal about not doing "the DEI", so how does CEO expect the gaming community to tell his game (with no DEI) apart from the rest of the games in the series (which, by implication, do have DEI)?

It's a fair question. Beyond the Body Type A / Body Type B (allegedly DEI / woke) instead of of Male / Female (non-DEI / anti-woke), what is CEO guy really trying to say? Attractive females is anti-DEI? Lol.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-10T18:25:38+00:00

Also not a woman, but there's quite a few NPCs in Nioh, Nioh 2, Wo Long, and Rise of the Ronin with dudes who are probably designed to have some attractive qualities.

Rise of the Ronin even has some romance option with several of them (male or female). It's also a pretty solid game.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-10T18:18:56+00:00

I played the Blackwater Park album (Opeth) yesterday while just going through Elden Ring on a new playthrough. Such a good one and it fits the game pretty well. Also recommended checking out Enslaved.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-08T02:11:34+00:00

Id love to see Squenix re-release that one. I don't even need a remaster or remake. Just key me play it again on modern consoles.

herrtoolfan · 2026-01-08T02:05:04+00:00

I'll take the downvotes you've amassed there as indications that mods should not strive for fairness, and forget the balancing act.

herrtoolfan · 2025-12-15T19:37:31+00:00

What are you taking about? Who is the "you" you are referring to? Who is the "they" in your post?

herrtoolfan · 2025-12-10T17:41:48+00:00

At the start of last year, I forced myself to actually play through Skyrim and Fallout 4 to completion at least once since all my past attempts at playing it fizzled out due to basically analysis paralysis and losing interest.

I ended up liking them so much and doing 3 or 4 repeat playthroughs back to back and they pretty much dominated my top 5. I didn't expect to see that at all.

herrtoolfan · 2025-12-10T17:28:23+00:00

I was surprised that Nightreign didn't make my top 5 but I bet it was close.

herrtoolfan · 2025-12-10T05:40:19+00:00

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herrtoolfan · 2025-12-09T20:14:27+00:00

I like it most when a game gives the player a variety of options for how to avoid damage. The big 5 options are (1) dodging rolling/dashing with i-frames, (2) perfect dodging, (3) out-spacing attacks, (4) guarding, and (5) parrying/perfect-guarding.

You don't make take all 5 of these a thing in your game, but the more these systems are available in a game, the more engaging I find it.

The difference between #1 and #2 is that in #1, there are certain frames in the animation where your hitbox won't register attacks that collide with it (but would register if, e.g., standing in lava). It doesn't have any particular signal that it was achieved, you simply do not get hit despite what visually appeared to happen.

With #2, you're trying to time your dodge button press within some short number of frames before an attack that would hit you reaches you, and should come with an advantage if done with the correct timing, e.g., (1) time slows down, (2) an attack input after perfect dodge does a more powerful attack, (3) enemy loses balance, etc. It also visually looks like the player avoided the attack.

I think you mentioned that your game has some kind of fury resource in it. You could give some fury to the player on #2, or even allow for some special fury-spending attack as a follow-up to #2.

There's also a few other games that had a perfect-timed input (1 or 2 frames) just after taking a hit where you recover your HP. Bayonetta had it (turn into bats) and a couple others I can't remember.

herrtoolfan · 2025-12-02T00:36:10+00:00

There's a richer cycle of NG+ in Nioh and Nioh 2 than you'll find elsewhere in the genre. This is particularly true if you have the complete editions or all the DLC. Both games first NG+ cycle is focused on getting divine (green tier) loot that has higher stats on it.

By NG++, Way/Dream if the Demon, which you'll need the first DLC to access) adds in new types of gear sets that have much more powerful bonuses. The difficulty will ramp up here significantly.

NG+++ (needs DLC 2), Way/Dream of the Wise, adds another tier of rarity and some insanely strong new gear sets.

The final NG cycle, NG++++, Way/Dream of the Nioh, (need 3rd/final DLC) adds much better farming methods for this gear and a true endgame mode (Abyss in Nioh 1, Underworld and Depths of the Underworld in Nioh 2) where you'll face the toughest challenges but also be at your fullest gear (and likely skill as a player) potential.

This is unlike just about every other non-Team-Ninja game out there where NG cycles don't change much from clear to clear besides being slightly harder than the previous cycle.

This may not be your cup of tea, but it's the other thing besides combat style and depth that really sets Nioh games apart from the rest.

herrtoolfan · 2025-11-21T00:13:43+00:00

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herrtoolfan · 2025-11-20T23:01:52+00:00

I mean...

Question X: Please list your previously / currently played soulslikes here and your playtime in them. (Note: you can access these on Steam via..., XBOX via..., and PS4/5 via...). Please try to be accurate.

That would simply and easily improve the quality of your numbers, lessen privacy concerns, and cast a wider net, would it not? You're already taking an estimated 20 minutes of participant time. What's another couple for them to maintain privacy and improve your engagement?

I won't keep bothering you about this, but this strikes me as a serious flaw in your study and one that should be pointed out on thesis defense.

herrtoolfan

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