The combat systen is refined but only for pve. Theyāre different goals and the missteps of soulsborne games has been more often than not treating them as the same goal.
Anyway, itād be a dull deflect fest.
Same! I actually thought it was a leftover reference to cut content. I suppose they didnāt want to gate any boss fights behind a required tool
Still, it would have been great as an alternate solution to the knight
Yep I felt the same, castle dudes on the bridge talking up their armored beasts and I kinda glossed over the one right afterwards, came more to mind for Big Western Swordman.
ROBEEEEEERRRTTTTT
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Thereās always been one or a few easterners in these games, usually highlighted as peculiar foreigners. Subtext or not itās pretty funny to draw upon the whole ānimble nipponese steel VS big n clunky broadbladeā this time around punctuated by a topple down the mountainous ravine.
This game is monstrous in its scope, audacity, and demands; I played much of the weekend and am only starting to feel like Iāve put more than a dent in the game, in terms of places explored and system understanding.
RE: ryeās comment on feeling old or anxiousā¦ I mean, I think almost everyone has been at least a little taken aback by how harsh some of the bosses are? I think we got the hard mode cut.
Itās tricky to get a perspective mid-game, but it feels like the bosses just do too much damage (and that your healing options feel too limited early on ā health regen from a critical hit should have been default rather than an unlockable that can be missed as you blindly ascend the skill tree). Some bosses shut you down before you have a chance to really find a flow and internalize whatās going on, and given the increased focus on reading attacks, a tilt that keeps you in the moment for longer may have been better here? Granted Iāve never thought of Fromās bosses as their strength, and I donāt think the telegraphing and hit detection seem any worse than prior games, but I can understand why people are walking away from this one and I would not be surprised if a comprehensive balance patch comes along. Maybe base PS4 framerate is also a silent killer here.
On the other hand, I havenāt yet hit a Father Gasciogne-like wall where all progress converges on the critical need to Beat This Boss Right Now if I want to see anything else in the game. So far thereās always been a couple other paths to pursue and things to find that give an edge (Iām not sure the Mega Man comparison holds more than other From games, and weaknesses havenāt been as esoteric as Gasciogneās music box or a wooden windmill that only burns in one spot). And Iāve had breakthroughs that kept frustration from settling in ā I was sliding into Souls muscle memory doing chip damage on bosses, which seems doable, but the first time I just stood cold in front of Butterfly, breaking posture with half her HP remaining, was exhilarating. I went back to the fire bull after that, which I had been stuck at for an hour despite constant sprinting + firecrackers, and ā toro! ā nailed 4 of 5 parries and it was dead in under two minutes.
Itās too bad if boss difficulty becomes the āthingā that dominates all discussion, because thereās a lot of other great details to talk about. There is some tremendous mise en scene and environmental construction and presentation here, something I had not gleamed from any videos of the game. The setting is different than Souls/BB but yet has this similar feeling of strangeness, this sense of majesty and something apart from time. This might have some of the best encounter design Fromās ever done ā itās refreshing that thereās so little of the filler hallways with a few token enemies; almost every scene is precisely realized and vivid to play.
I noticed the mid-boss Generals shift between three or so different stances ā I wasnāt able to tell, but do these stances actually signal which moves they can do? Like if in X stance the perilous attack will never be a sweep?
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Boss discussion has been such a big thing because it dominates the playerās progression, experience, and, in this case one of the areas the devs sharpened most.
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There are so many in-world bosses surrounded by mooks this time. They collapsed the clunky, artificial distinction between ālevelā and ābossā and thatās a huge, overdue improvement.
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Totally agree. āBoss discussionā can be synonymous with āthis named enemy that killed me a ton of timesā.
1 Like
one thing that always bugged me in souls games is thereās always some evocative sounding area name that pops up when you enter a place, but then itāll be a little rinky dink area, itās just that the enemies all take forever if youāre not running through to make it seem more substantial the first time. it doesnāt feel that way at all here. that little poison pool section on the way to mubi is like what an entire dark souls 2 level feels like. but with a stealth route and less numerous and less annoying enemies.
I mentioned it above but it keeps rattling in my head how much this takes the encounter style western devs hav been working on in open world ā the base camp with patrols and maybe a boss and multiple approaches, and a movement-empowered player ā and by tightening every screw in sight, transforms it. Stealth is simplified even from modern action stealth, enemy awareness resets are much more generous, enemy communication is near entirely <30m to control base alert spreads, time-to-kill is so fast that the player can legitimately escape failed stealth before the base is alerted, camp bosses (Generals in this case) are so damn scary and so rewarding to stealth that they exert an enormous zone of danger, the enemy variety: crippled sentries, tiers of soldier, big heavies, sparse ranged units ā so defined as to create real meaningful approach differences. The areas have clear cliff face, castle wall, and void boundaries so they can constrain routes and choices while still building magnificently vertical and complex areas (the tengu rooftops ā incredible!). And best of all, they reserve budget for one-shot enemies to spice up areas in a way almost nobody does since 2D games; an approach that values memorable moments over repeatable systemic characters, at a certain sparseness.
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Thatās been a From trademark. Everybody remembers the skeleton wheels
i really wish From would stop making me murder the shit out of dogs. because 1. their dog enemies are always a pain in the ass to fight and 2. i dont wanna hurt doggo
the dogs are actually really easy in this one because i can sneak up and bung a shuriken at them for a 1HKO but that doesnāt exactly make me feel better
4 Likes
i just came across a guy sleeping on the ground who i assumed was an NPC and when i got close, he woke up and alerted the guards. i sprang away and when i came back later i found him stumbling about, because it turns out dude was hella drunk. Good game
5 Likes
Where is this?
Early in Hirata Estate
i was going to let him live, because he probably is getting wasted because he hates his job and i can relate, but he was guarding a treasure so instead i jumped off a roof and stabbed him in the neck. Then a dog ran around the corner and i shot it with a shuriken. And then the treasure was just a ceramic tile. 
edit: i just want to sheepishly admit i somehow didnāt realize right away this dude and his homies are murderous bandits and therefore, do not really warrant my sympathy
Thereās also a guy just around the corner taking a leak.
Looking at the trophies it looks like there are 3 bosses I havenāt deafeted. One is the final boss and one is the one lonelyfrontier posted. Anyone know of any others I may have missed?
christ this game is hard as nails
One of the endings apparently has a unique set of minibosses + unique boss just to that route.
Oh ok i guess Iāve seen all the secret/optional bosses then