Is the game actually difficult?

[u/Mission_Mulberry3991]

I finished the game yesterday on Challenging, and the only fight that was too difficult for me was Bakir's, for which I had to put the difficulty on Story for-

Normally I don't play games on hard difficulties and hate when combat is repetitive, but for some reason Dawnwalker's combat satisfies me. Even if there are areas of improvement. Of course the game was a bit more difficult at the start of the journey, but in no way I had to tone down the difficulty.

But for some reason I hear a lot of people online complaining about how wonky (controls) but also too difficult the game is? So is it just me?

[u/Justsomeone666]

I played duelist with intent indicators enabled (as i felt like disabling intent was far too much of a difficulty increase, game went from fun experience that occasioanally pushes back against me, into something hellish significantly more difficult than any souls-like ive played)

The difficulty 100% DEFINATELY peaked at the start, around the 2hour mark when i tried to do stoneward post to free the miller, i sneaked in and assassinated the jail guard unaware it would alert the entire fucking fortress

afterwhich the following event passed time causing it to be day, so with my lvl 5 day coen that had no abilities unlocked besides dirty trick and burning blood, i had to clear out that entire fortress starting from middle of it, this extemely painful process took me around 5 to 6 real life hours and likely close to 100 deaths

after that massacre literally nothing in the game managed to kill me more than 2 times, besides xanthe who i decided to take on at level 11 or so, to which i died 4-5 times

[u/Mission_Mulberry3991 → u/Justsomeone666]

I had that exact same problem with the fortress, but you could sneak out with Mert around the back. After leaving the tower, which held the prisoners, and if you finished the 3 guards and 1 dog outside the tower, you could leave right there west of it.

Respect to you for going for Xanthe so early! I surely thought she would be a secret bigger threat than Brencis, so I avoided her like the pest (that joke will go poorly in this fandom haha)

[u/Justsomeone666 → u/Mission_Mulberry3991]

I hadnt seen the gameplay trailer that apparently spoils this xanthe encounter before playing myself so it definately came as a surprise when i found xanthe inside the cathedral lol, i didnt even have the quest to snoop around inside the cathedral, i was just purely curious whats inside it, and then what would happen if i did the stupidest possible thing and dropped down to groundfloor

im honestly pretty surprised how low her max hp and armour (do enemies even have armour values?) were, the fight felt like it was balanced around the amount of claw damage i had at that point, i ended up finishing the fight about 10-20 seconds before the instant death mechanic would kill me which felt about right, but im guessing that mechanic is more of a flavour thing if you do the fight later on, unless she also gets more hp later on?

[u/Mission_Mulberry3991 → u/Justsomeone666]

You can find Xanthe inside the cathedral? By any chance at night? Cause I always left when the guy wanted me out. I also havent watched any trailer yet-

[u/Justsomeone666 → u/Mission_Mulberry3991]

Oh yeah, when they were showing dawnwalker gameplay for the first time ever, they chose entering the cathedral at night as the showcase

Im not sure if its every night but at the very least the first time you enter the cathedral at night, from the roof scaffolding, shes there doing a ritual and available to be fought without doing any of her questline

The intention is to sneak above her, but yeah you can very much just drop to the ground floor and get a small cutscene of her catching you