shadowsfollow
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Sounds interesting, any more recommends I'm all ears as I am very new to this genre, I only started playing DS1 since 2017.
Souls-likes
- Thread starter jro
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Nioh is a must play if you haven't already. In many ways it is better than DS. The combat for example. Although, DS is the better game. Both are great.
Demons Souls is still a great game if you missed it. Bosses are not as good, but the atmosphere is much better IMO. Past its prime though since the servers are down for good.
Remnant is very active though, and fun. I had to play it for about 5 hours before I realized how good it is. Lots of really cool weapons, and the rerolling of levels gives it a lot of replayability.
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Remnant is an especially interesting case considering that Immortal Unchained basically tried something very similar and failed miserably.
I started Nioh 2 this weekend. Was planning to get through the DS3 DLC first, but after beating my head against the Black Flame Freide wall for an hour I thought NM and moved on (she's ridiculous in general, and especially on NG+).
Anyway, Nioh 2 is really good after five or so hours, not shocking of course. Burst counters and the dark realm thing make it even more complex than the original, which I know puts a decent number of people off playing them, but it's all just impeccably made.
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Just beat the boss from the N2 demo that gave me fits (the cat thing that jumps on the trees). Having a decent build and level helped a ton, and, I gotta admit, it's actually a really good boss fight. Really nails the mechanics and forces you to play strategically instead of just attacking.
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Finished Nioh 2 today. All the main missions and almost all of the side missions, just short of 94% mission completion rate according to the stats, just a few left to finish the Interim stuff. About 104 hours.
I liked it quite a lot, but ultimately it has some serious flaws and I'd say the original is still superior overall. Thoughts/opinions:
Pros:
Burst mechanic - it adds a high-risk, high-reward moment to lots of the fights, especially bosses, and feels like it absolutely rewards skill and mastery of the game.
Yokai shift is nerfed in favor of Burst- in N1, Yokai shift was like a Get Out of Jail Free card in boss fights. If you put points in the right stat it could knock out 1/4-1/2 of most boss' health in one shot. In N2 it's still useful, but it maybe a quarter of the damage and also requires more skill to use. The effectiveness of the burst counters is the clear tradeoff, and it's a good one.
Super flexible builds - two more weapon sets, more magic, and it's easy to reset your attributes if you want. Very liberating compared to Sekiro or Bloodborne.
Some really good bosses - final boss is better than either of the final bosses in N1 (Hundred Eyes or Nobunaga, take your pick, though the comparable epilogue boss in N2 is... dumb), Kamaitachi is really good, so are several others.
Cons
Repetitive level design - every level plays out the same way. Locked door one way, go around the other way until you loop back and unlock it. Repeat.
Too long - very padded. About half of the levels just drag on, and there are about 5-6 too many main levels.
Late game relies on cheap difficulty - lots of cheap deaths due to hidden enemies knocking you into water or pits. That's just bad design. The last level takes place mostly on a thin platform with two AI companions and a TON of enemies, all of which can push you off. Fall and you die. Ugh.
Summoning is OP - way too many people seem to play the game by just summoning two people at the start of the level and going from there. Every single boss in the game dies in less than a minute against three players. From games buff the bosses to properly account for extra players, but N2 just makes them absolute pushovers. It's an I Win button unless the summoner plays like an idiot.
SO MANY reused assets - even a handful of the main missions use the same maps as others in the game, and the sub-missions all do. Maps from N1 are reused. Also about 80% or more of the enemies are from N1.
I liked it quite a lot, but ultimately it has some serious flaws and I'd say the original is still superior overall. Thoughts/opinions:
Pros:
Burst mechanic - it adds a high-risk, high-reward moment to lots of the fights, especially bosses, and feels like it absolutely rewards skill and mastery of the game.
Yokai shift is nerfed in favor of Burst- in N1, Yokai shift was like a Get Out of Jail Free card in boss fights. If you put points in the right stat it could knock out 1/4-1/2 of most boss' health in one shot. In N2 it's still useful, but it maybe a quarter of the damage and also requires more skill to use. The effectiveness of the burst counters is the clear tradeoff, and it's a good one.
Super flexible builds - two more weapon sets, more magic, and it's easy to reset your attributes if you want. Very liberating compared to Sekiro or Bloodborne.
Some really good bosses - final boss is better than either of the final bosses in N1 (Hundred Eyes or Nobunaga, take your pick, though the comparable epilogue boss in N2 is... dumb), Kamaitachi is really good, so are several others.
Cons
Repetitive level design - every level plays out the same way. Locked door one way, go around the other way until you loop back and unlock it. Repeat.
Too long - very padded. About half of the levels just drag on, and there are about 5-6 too many main levels.
Late game relies on cheap difficulty - lots of cheap deaths due to hidden enemies knocking you into water or pits. That's just bad design. The last level takes place mostly on a thin platform with two AI companions and a TON of enemies, all of which can push you off. Fall and you die. Ugh.
Summoning is OP - way too many people seem to play the game by just summoning two people at the start of the level and going from there. Every single boss in the game dies in less than a minute against three players. From games buff the bosses to properly account for extra players, but N2 just makes them absolute pushovers. It's an I Win button unless the summoner plays like an idiot.
SO MANY reused assets - even a handful of the main missions use the same maps as others in the game, and the sub-missions all do. Maps from N1 are reused. Also about 80% or more of the enemies are from N1.
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Thanks for this detailed review. I liked the first one but kind of burned out on it. The Tower of London was my favorite part of the entire game. Maybe a sign that it wasn't going to hold my interest. I could not make any sense of the crafting system in the first one, gave up on it and just sort of stopped playing. I am sure one day, I'll go back and finish it. I'll pick up Nioh 2 at some point, I'm sure.
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Yeah, the crafting/blacksmith is probably the best example of the game being overly complicated just to be complicated. There's no good reason to use it until post game or NG+, then it turns into an annoying grind. Even after finishing N1 twice plus all the DLC, I still managed to waste a bunch of gear because I forgot how Soul Matching works and it definitely isn't intuitive.
I finished the rest of the Interim missions and started Dream of the Strong. If the DLC is like that in the first game it'll take nearly a second full playthrough to be leveled and geared properly for it, but the way Nioh handles NG+ makes that surprisingly decent to work through.
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The Ringed City is an awful piece of DLC and I'm kind of amazed that Miyazaki was cool with ending the series with it. Ashes of Ariendel wasn't great, but it was more good than bad.
Went back to my NG+ in Bloodborne instead and the more I play it the more I appreciate it.
Went back to my NG+ in Bloodborne instead and the more I play it the more I appreciate it.
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There have been rumors of a Bloodborne PC port recently, but the latest one suggests a remastered version is heading to both PC and PS5. This one in partuclar has been backed / hinted by some reliable ppl (including Wario 64 and Imran Khan)
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I noticed a few weeks ago that rumors are stirring of a Demons Souls remaster on PS5 as well. Let's hope both get a PC release.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/202..._souls_remake_and_bloodborne_remaster_for_ps5
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As much as I want PC ports, I anticipate the multiplayer being full of cheat engine griefers.
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Rumor has it the PS3 emulator already has Demon's Souls running at 4k/60fps on PC
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That is very likely to happen as a remake, as BluePoint has been working on two projects, and Demon Souls is one of the multiple games they teased about (which includes SotN and Legend of Dragoon)
At least one of these projects is confirmed to be on PS5, and they descriped it as their most ambitious project.
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I actually play DS on emulator a few days ago and it runs pretty good. Takes awhile to load up the world though when you enter. The tutorial I followed said if you try and run Demons Souls higher than 720p it's very unstable. Mayne I missed something.
It definitely looks amazing though on PC even in 720p on my 2k monitor. Much better than I ever remember the PS3 version looking.
Montatez
Aero Fighters Flyboy
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Now thats some good news.
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SWEET. If Sony can really get Bloodborne running at 4K60 I'm gonna be a really happy bunny.
And I was just thinking I should start NG+ in Demon's Souls, but now I think I'm just gonna drool over those new screens and wait for the remake there, too.
Mostly related - finally put aside The Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3 and went back to just finally finishing NG+, and that game is just so strange. Having a DS game run on the BB engine makes for a weird hybrid that doesn't really feel like the first three games in the series and isn't as good as BB. Still fun, for sure, but I'd drop it way down my personal From rankings to second-to-last just above Sekiro.
And I was just thinking I should start NG+ in Demon's Souls, but now I think I'm just gonna drool over those new screens and wait for the remake there, too.
Mostly related - finally put aside The Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3 and went back to just finally finishing NG+, and that game is just so strange. Having a DS game run on the BB engine makes for a weird hybrid that doesn't really feel like the first three games in the series and isn't as good as BB. Still fun, for sure, but I'd drop it way down my personal From rankings to second-to-last just above Sekiro.
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Playing Dark Souls (remastered) for the first time. Never played a souls game before. It is a successor the Makaimura in various ways, really happy to be jumping on this
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Agreed i hope blue point games will included the cut content for this remake as well.I figure as well vaatividya would have a video on this remake given his souls series lore video's.
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Always good to hear someone new is getting into them. It's just such a satisfying series (and genre) when you put the work in and start to really feel it. How far are you?
I just finished my NG+ run a couple hours ago. The second half or so, in particular, settles into such a smooth groove of progression. Good levels, some fantastic boss fights (L and L, Cinder, and Champion Gundyr are all fantastic), yeah, I wasn't giving the game enough credit.
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Dark Souls is a bad game.
So many badly designed areas. And Gwyn on NG+, whatever.
Miyazaki's admitted that Demon's Ruins was a rushed POS, I'd assume he's very aware of how bad the rest is also.
OKAY on to either DS2 NG+ or Sekiro NG+ I guess.
So many badly designed areas. And Gwyn on NG+, whatever.
Miyazaki's admitted that Demon's Ruins was a rushed POS, I'd assume he's very aware of how bad the rest is also.
OKAY on to either DS2 NG+ or Sekiro NG+ I guess.
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Games fucking amazing. Best game of the last few gens. Just cause you tried to go through tomb of giants without a lantern and couldn't beat Gwen doesn't make it a bad game. It makes you a bad player.
First time i played the game I went through TOTG without a lantern and before placing the Lord Vessel. Had to walk my ass out of there in the dark. One of my favorite gaming memories.
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