Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes

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This is a community for discussion, news, and memes pertaining to the video game sub-genre "soulslike".

Given Lemmy's size, the definition of soulslike may be treated relatively loosely. While games like the numerous FromSoft titles, the recent Star Wars Jedi games, Lies of P, Nioh and similar games should be the focus, games that incorporate soulslike elements - like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous, for example - may also be discussed here.

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[BB] This enemy is so difficult!

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[Discussion] Which Soulslike will you be playing this weekend and auto-refilling vs. consumable healing - which do you prefer? (infosec.pub)

submitted 19 hours ago by v4ld1z@lemmy.zip to c/soulslike@lemmy.zip

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Healing is a staple of any soulslike. From the very beginning, Demon's Souls introduced healing items to the genre to fight off the dangers of the world. The healing items were consumable, however, forcing the player to either get good enough to use fewer healing items or find spots to farm the various levels of healing items to have a stash.

Dark Souls ditched the types of consumable grass and instead introduced the Estus Flask - the healing item that comes with several healing charges which auto-refill when you rest at a bonfire or die.

Apart from Bloodborne, which had Blood Vials (controversial), Estus Flasks or similar have become a mainstay of the genre. But which of these are better for the game and which do you prefer?

Estus Flasks come with limited charges, but they refill automatically, so you don't have to farm healing items and can just focus on the boss fight that's giving you trouble. Consumable healing usually comes in larger quantities (20 Blood Vials plus a couple extra if you use specific runes), so you have more healing at your disposal in a boss fight, hence you can be more aggressive and reckless, but you run the risk of running out of healing at some point, so you might have to farm them at some point.

Thoughts?

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[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I think the only thing that makes Estus too comfy in DS1 is the kindling. You can definitely get too many flask charges in a game whose bosses aren't that difficult to begin with. They struck a better balance in later games I think.

Which area did you go to in Enotria? I think you can go to either of two options after clearing the first area. It really does have some wonderful environments.

Also glad to hear you return to DS3. It's a great game. I don't love everything about it but it does have some great moments and great bosses.

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

I went to Falesia Magna, did the grand statue area and reached Veltha. haven't beat her yet tho, shes tough. I'll have to mess a bit with the loadouts but the colossal poison sword is going to be the strat, I think.

I love a dark nook in an otherwise sunny area. (I can almost smell the saltpeter, it's great). and the enemies are a bunch of hot guys in uniform, showing legs? and the ocational guy in full plate? sweet. I like the reverse trope with the gals being all ninja and shit, but some scantily clad ladies would have been a welcome sight as well. in general I notice a lack of ladies in this game. :(

I'm still trying to figure out my feelings about DS3, theres plenty to like, but it is missing some quirkyness, and charm of the first. feels too refined in a way... idk, but it's still very fun!

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 points 4 hours ago

Veltha was tough! I remember struggling with her a bit too. Bosses with a lot of ranged attacks are often tough because you can't use spacing as much. She's pretty fast too. Speaking of the colossal sword one thing I really liked about Enotria is that you can refund weapon upgrade materials fully as long as the weapon isn't maxed out. So you can really experiment a lot with weapons without needing to grind. What kind of build are you doing?

And yeah Falesia Magna has some really nice vistas. The statue cave was great and I also like that you had a lot of verticality in the pathing, climbing up and down scaffolding and cliffs and buildings with multiple levels. It's always a cheat code for making the level design feel impressive to me, haha. And I really like the ancient Rome theming, very appropriate for Italian Souls.

On the subject of women I hadn't thought about it but yeah, maybe there aren't too many female enemies actually. You'll get some in the next area, but they're not scantily clad. In fact, I don't think there are any scantily clad women in the game at all.

Yeah that could be a way to describe it for sure. It's definitely more polished and streamlined.

I also miss the open ended world in DS3, I know it's a common complaint but the linearity does earn negative marks from me. Fast travel from the get-go emphasises this, and further reinforces the feel of the game as a long sequence of hallways with checkpoints rather than a connected world. Some of the areas are great though, like the Cathedral. I also am not a huge fan of the super washed out, desaturated almost sepia look of the game, I think they went a step too far just in terms of look.

Also some of the enemy design is a little unfun to me. A lot of enemies are too fast, too long combos, irregular attacks, spammy, spastic... I don't know just not enjoyable to fight. Mostly talking about regular enemies here, the bosses are good for the most part.