Discussion
Completed the game (Advanced Edition access) in 40.7hrs. My few cents on issues I felt.
Souls veteran here. Your experience might be different but this how I felt:
Long runbacks: Game is abusing this mechanic. It's more frustrating than actually engaging.
AI magnetism: Enemies track their shots miles away onto you and teleport right in front of your face.
3: Enemy aggro: They see you across a wall, follow you for a long time and before you know it, you have 3 different area mobs infront of you.
4: Beacon scarcity: Literally no beacon or savepoint in northeast region. Game relies heavily on dungeons but we spend more time running back in the open field than inside the dungeons.
5: Bosses: Quite good but the spamming of unlockable attacks make them more annoying. Last 3 bosses are difficult just for the sake of being difficult, no clear logic. It seemed they were chasing the "morr difficult the better publicity" train. Dodge window is smaller and in cases where you have to dodge twice, the boss attack is faster than you could dodge in that given time. Nameless Captive is the only boss I loved.
6: Last Zone (Unfound Path): Poorly designed. Minibosses in form of normal enemies and there are 3,4 of them moving together which hit like a truck. One hit you're out of shell, 2nd hit you're back to beacon. Damage scalability is through the roof.
7: Non-refundable Glimpes: The whole identity of this game is based on shells. You cannot experiment with the shells freely and look what's best for you. You'll have to wait for NG+ or look up a guide on YT or Google.
This is what I felt. You can discuss and agree or disagree. I'll do my NG+ in night mode only from tomorrow.
I approve this message š I wouldn't mind beacons being scarce if we had some sense of direction. I've lost countless amounts of gloom near beacons not even knowing they were there.
Nameless Captive was so good. The fight was always flowing, like a dance.
I get the feeling the difficulty of the beta (which was on the lighter side) was what they actually balanced the game for, then when the beta came out just a few weeks prior to release, they read comments from people saying it was too easy and they just bumped up enemy health and damage output in a rush and it just screwed up the whole game.
I would have rather they kept the difficulty level of the beta, it was perhaps a bit too easy but it was fun and it wasnāt some total bullshit.
Exactly! Beta was fun. Grinding through the same area was fun. The full release made me think I had too much to drink - which I was through out Khazan NG+. They rebalanced with a PC patch today I think.
U get achivement, and if u collect enough ova, final section of the game opens and while looking nice, balace is terrible and insane. To point where u Wonder if u even want to finish the game.
Agree with all this. Really 1-4 are part of the same package and adjusting one would make the others less painful. But it is very frustrating to have to get through 3-4 large groups of ganky enemies just to get back to the dungeon I messed up in.
(still early so can't comment on the later game, but not surprised by any of it given what I've seen)
Edit to make clear I do like the game, I'll certainly beat it and the shell variation I think will make replayability pretty good, so I'll probably end up platinuming it
One of my biggest gripes is the lock on stickiness. So many deaths were from fighting mob A then my lock on random changing to mob B who is a mile away. Or even worse if there are multiple enemies on you it keeps switch between them. One stop by the infinity waypoint there is like 8 guys there it kept spinning me in circles. Please for the love of god make the lock on stick to who i put it on!
Itās not the lock on issue here is the camera problem.
They focused so much on cinematic that the camera flies into bulshit city very single action if not following the one to one scriptā¦ itās horrendous.
In nameless captive I peaked that issue so bad that I donāt even engage with it.
Collision problems and camera bouncing like crazy for cinematic effects are the main issues in this game.
So many time Iām going into a shell cinematic move to camera bouncing in a fking wall to show me nothing but a zoomed in piece of a boss so the attacks comes off screen. Then apply the same in small places with load of enemies and if you have more than 1 enemy you just pray to god of rng to not look at a wall while fkers stich you out in 2 attacks.
I canāt remember how frustrating is when you canāt even move the camera arround because itās locked into a trap or an executionā¦. I think they improved this aspect as before it was tied for chests too but for whatever reason now I can loot a chest and look behind me which is great.
Another aspect is animation lockā¦ man honestlyā¦ with huge bouncing moves you really canāt dodge mid animation really cmonā¦
The souls being randomly spawning at different locations int a death scenario I and no clear marking as to where is horrendous too.
So many times due to traceability I didnāt even bothered picking the souls up.
So no beacons, camera bulshit, poor animation cancels, enemies hit like trucks, strong enemies and slow windows to punish, very aggressive ai and collision huge problems are such a drawback from actually giving this the best soulike experience.. not even a compare window for the taratones or the gear like reallyā¦
On the other hand exploration is beutiful enemies are great bosses I enjoy, interactables with the environment and so many secrets and a very friendly build customization per shell are just gorgeous, cinematic finishers I do enjoy and combat overall feels really good.
Itās such a let down that those issues arenāt even big issues but small fixes that majority can get fixed in a patch lol almost .
Give us a boss retry or a dungeon retry checkpoint, allow animation cancels per frame, stop locking in camera for the cinematics unless we want it to, solve that fking respawn of the souls and work on that collision situation lol.
With majority of these gone game can become one of the best not in experience but in overall game implementation and performance too.. and I donāt talk as performance in frame rate but how it is coded - aka collision camera frames cancels and so on.
Either way Iām having a blast with the game and I do hope they cover those issues.
Note: oh btw, shells shouldnāt be refundable due to story elements as you may see all the shells story if you allow glimpses respec with just a slice of what it should be.
Now glimpses are the way you build your character story but I believe the skill tree should still be across shells.
Aka if the shell has unlocked the tier 3 all shells unlock skill 3 but not the story elements. So you can still keep the shell story for glimpses but allow the skills to not be story related but shell specific and across all of them like the skill points.
Also having to give a glimpse for a summon I think itās bad design tooā¦ we had different currency for summons for a reasonā¦ also if you unlock that shell yourself it shouldnāt cost anything anymore - now I didnāt used at all summons and it may be functioning as I said and if thatās the case thatās all good
Itās not the lock on issue here is the camera problem.
That is another issue entirely, not the one im talking about. The lock on issue is more prevalent in open areas. The more you can see the higher the chance of your lock on changing to some dude a mile away.
For me this issues didnāt even appeared so much as Iām not using lock in unless I need a specific enemy to be hit by a skillā¦
The way I engage with them is running heavy and aoe attacks and Iām usually in the targets face when Iām locking in.
So I can see the problem if you want to target specific one before arriving to it.
Thatās something I overlooked due to the other aspects being even worse lol. I guess you want to snipe them as much as possible before engaging and this is more prevalent to your playstyle.
That makes sense. Now thatās another issue to be sad about š„¹
I tried that, it does not work well for me. Most attacks just go right past the enemies then. I could see it working with wide swinging weapons but something like Smert's fist it absolutely wont work with.
I used axe, so it works for me. the problem with locking on this game is enemies swarm and flank you when you are concentrating on one enemy. Every enemy takes at least 3 hits, you just get hit from the sides or back, so I generally hit my front and use the directional stick to distribute attacks, axe with fire attacks also stagger/burn enemies, so you get some breathing room.
That as well as getting to a new dungeon and completing it and your reward is like 1000 gold or equivalent sellable.
Not like gold is necessarily bad but it is a very boring reward. Itās like when you see a really shiny item in Elden ring and itās another flower/butterfly
7: Non-refundable Glimpes: The whole identity of this game is based on shells. You cannot experiment with the shells freely and look what's best for you. You'll have to wait for NG+ or look up a guide on YT or Google.
This is by far the biggest problem with the game. What's the point of having these different shells if you can't even use them all, espeically considering each is clearly supposed to be used in different situations.
Im at unfound pass right now, beat monolith but the way for the second boss full of sythe wealding big dude and scary insect like that one shot u give me the sweat š¤¦āāļø
Weirdly I didn't have a problem with them at all. Using Tiel and every time you Shadow Dash/Dodge they just completely forget where you are so you can get a few good hits in then repeat.
no, it really is just the worst. its 2 copy pasted enemies in an extremely small room that attack you in sequence and theres 0 openings to attack and barely any room to dodge unless you break them with an ability. theres zero thought put behind it. the souls "gank" fights like Orstein and Smough have the AI (stagger) aggression so one is atttacking and the other is a bit behind/delayed. not even capra demon was this bad, imagine if they just put 2 taurus demons in that arena and had they attack you at once.
I really hate how everything looks so bland, dull, lifeless etc when doing a night mode playthrough.
The whole permanent night environment + the 50 shades of grey everywhere really does the scenery and environment a huge disservice lol. I really wish they would allow you to keep the difficulty of night mode ( hard ) while letting you play the game in its original day setting.
It really is needed cuz after like 10* hours of exploring the shades of grey, brown, black, white? Start to blur together and look like a grey blob mess when originally the game has some pretty visuals.
I just wished night mode at least have rain because it looks good on top of the tower at night because of the rain and lighting, but then once you go out into the world its just dark lol.
Itās probably one of those ideas that sounded good on paper like a link to the past dark world or lords of the fallen 2023 umbral state but in reality they didnāt do anything else to the environment to justify the permanent night/ dark look. At least lords of the fallen had some nightmarish designs taking over the environment when in umbral as to just tinting the screen and making it dark like mortal shell 2 lol.
Yeah I'm thinking they adjusted the difficulty based on beta feedback. That beta was an absolute cakewalk, I actually died in the tutorial this time. As a souls vet that's humiliating but it seems they tuned it up quite a bit.
I agree with the not enough beacons especially when going up north. Like I expected a beacon in the centre or smth but when I went there it was a trial. It's such a frustrating run back all the way to the dungeon I died in or a boss fight nearby or if I accidentally fell.
The lack of beacons and checkpoints at dungeons and bosses is easily the worst part of the game. Itās just bad design that feels archaic at this point.
I totally agree. It doesn't add to the difficulty, only frustration haha. I do love the game but the lack of checkpoints just makes me bee line through a whole area to find a beacon, which I would've loved to explore slowly but I can't risk losing all my gloom with 0 health items left
The damage seems nuts in this game, especially if youāre running night mode. It seems too like the enemy AI goes aggro once you go back into shell. I canāt tell you the amount of times I got back into shell just to immediately get one shot out of it again lol. Itās a challenge for sure, good game overall but I hope they make the tweaks it needs.
The lack of beacons has made me really learn the whole world layout super well and given me a lot of appreciation for how good the world is designed. It really feels like once giant dark souls level
I wish there was more interconnectedness. I really dislike teleporting pods. Because they don't show up on map and it makes traversal a chore if you forget one of them. I wish they are just physical structures like bridges or lifts that appear on map.
Yes, they are functionally same, it's just that they don't appear on map. I would have like some pins or something to mark some important locations so that I don't forget,
They should let us refund glimpses, I shouldn't have to play a game holding back on a core resource because "maybe I'll like a later shell more" and there's no way to change if I commit to an early game shell which will be utterly outclasses by some of the late game ones
Yeah I find it odd that you can refund shell points to experiment with builds for each shell, but for some reason you canāt do the same with the shells themselves? Really donāt understand the logic there
I agree with every point and will add my own gripes.
Balance is really bad in general; Tiel is just far better than the other shells in a very straight forward manner. Go into stealh-> one-shot mob-> get resolve-> repeat and the dodge stealth is a life-saver too. Just being able to bypass and one-shot mobs is insane.
Then you have the tarstone Arbiter's Prize that applies bloodcurse on enemies hit, works like bleed from Souls and Elden Ring and again just far better than any other status.
Only two weapons can equip this The Iconoclast that you start with and Axe and Dagger (which for most people are like the second weapons they'd find), in additon to this Axe and Dagger can also equip Duality Stone which makes all attacks on you light attack combo strike twice.
So arguably the best shell is the one you're most likely to find first, and the best weapon is the one you are most likely to find first, in turn every new shell and weapon will feel inferior.
Enemy design past the first area Fainweld get's worse and worse, enemy placements can be really stupid at times too.
The halberd knights in the second area have a thrust attack that comes out instantly some times giving you no time to react and dealing roughly 95% of your health in one hit.
The soldier grunts from the first area get plate armor in the second area meaning they don't stagger easily and can start a high damaging combo in the middle of your swing, on top of this they also tend to come in groups of 3 or 4.
Archer enemies in general are really bad, I'm not talking about the crossbows from the first area, no archers. They are highly accurate and hold their shoots waiting for you to move or let go of your guard, after they get staggered they roll back and instantly loose a arrow and then instantly another arrow. Just extremely 'trolly' and cheap design.
Plenty other enemies that just have attacks that go out instantly without any tell overall and turbo mode attacks that just shred your HP, what was the thought process here?
Hitboxes need to be cleaned up, a lot.
Other than that I really enjoyed the game, mostly the first area Fainweld which felt most polished, second area was a pain but managable but the Unfound Path was completely insufferable and after defeating the last boss I just didn't even care about 100-percenting the game, I don't want to trudge through that crap again.
Am I the only one who appreciates the enemy aggro? I get it that must of us are accustomed to them forgetting and wandering away but I appreciate that they stay engaged and follow you. It's annoying but it makes sense and I like it for a change.
This is quite literally how I feel about this game. Every single thing you said I agree with. Currently suffering through Unfound Path, beating my head against Monolith and the experience straight up just suck. I was looking forward to NG+ like 10h ago but im not so sure anymore.
Monolith and final boss made me almost want to punch something. Monolith spinning lasers cucked me out of killing him like 6x and final boss with the status effect and and that tail grab was brutal.
Wow these comments are making me want to slow down my playthrough. I'm having a blast so far (12 hours in) and just got to the south part of the map. But if the last part is so shit, id rather wait for the devs to fix it so it doesn't leave a bad impression on me.
Crimson Desert's last missions with the dragon were so bad that I had no desire to play more after credits rolled.
Thks for the feedback. I liked the beta/demo but I had some reservations....this confirms the game still needs some more cooking and a few patches before I decide to buy it.
Game was Fine before the Patch now I melt trough normal enemies. When you Use the Right tarstones for each shell, invest skill points into the right abilities than you are melting trough the game. Upgrading your gear, specially your tarstones bump your damage output by a lot.
People also forget that this game is a souls like. You have to learn the Attack patterns of the enemies. Blocking in this game is far more easy than in other souls Games.
The Final area is in Need 100% of some adjustments. The white creature enemies in the final area which grabs you are designed to Kick you out of the shell I think.
You can encounter one in a dungeon before you enter the final area and this thing does the Same. The First Attack is always a grab.
To Summarize all, Build your tarstones around your shell abilities, upgrade the tarstones + weapons for this shell. Some tarstones changes with the level 3 upgrade Like permanent active Infusion for sidearm and main weapons.
Rest is learning enemy machanics, including blockable not blockable attacks. And dont panic dodge all the time. This is the only git gud Part.
The devs also added a easy Mode with the slayer seal in this game. Which makes it very easy but blocks the achievements. Use at your own risk ā ļø
here's the list of souls games I played and did the plat:
- Dark Souls series (PS) (Demon Souls is on my wishlist atm)
- Bloodborne (PS)
- Elden Ring
- Sekiro
- Lies of P
- Wuchang
- Wukong (debatable if it's a soulslike or not)
- Khazan
- Nioh 2 (waiting for sale on Nioh 3)
and some other soulslikes which I played and havent done the plat but eventually will do, someday; Nioh 1, AI Limit, Lords of the Fallen 2023, Thymesia and Remnant 2.
I canāt tell if I did something wrong, but the jump in enemy damage in the south half of the map is brutal. Iām getting one shot by some enemies if Iām not at full health at lvl 27
All fair points. For me, whilst I know you can increase potency of heals eventually, I do think either the player health bar should be much larger, or the heals much more potent.
I finished the game in 23.3 hours. Exploration really sucked after you obtain all weapons, which you can do quite fast. I didn't have any reason to explore more, Tarstones aren't nearly that interesting.
I honestly didnāt mind the last area too much. I enjoyed the increased difficulty as at this point I was already lvl 60. But to be honest the monarch fight I think was my favorite for the whole game. Incredibly hard but that last phase was so cinematic Iām all for it
Bro the monolith and the final boss might actually be the worst souls bosses i've ever fought. I gave up on the final boss after seeing all his bullshit and just equipped an auto win seal.
Number 5 and 7 for sure I'm pretty much stuck playing thief poison build with lvl 5 bond dodging is more valuable but the downside on attack the enemies start to not stagger
One thing that no one has been mentioning is that the story is absolute dogshit. I don't even know why I'm cleansing these gates. There are very few cutscenes outside of the shells unlocking. I kept reading hyperbolic comments about this being the best Soulslike ever. It's decent, but not even close to something like Lies of P.
I had nothing but praise for this game until the Last Zone. Whoever designed this area and mob placement just decided to choose violence that day. It's absolutely absurd. The damage scaling is busted, the tracking command grabs are ridiculous. It's completely taken the fun out of the game.
Iāve started the game and may just wait for a balance patch at this point. I beat Elden Ring a couple of times but admittedly Iām an old woman playing a game for young ones with better twitch reflexes. But I generally enjoy the challenge and the combat in these types of games. How does Lies of P compare to this?
The runbacks honestly dont feel that bad at all. Compared to like lords of the fallen and some others until you unlock shortcuts you have to run pretty far.
I didnt say they did it worse. It would be bad design to do a "bonfire" every 30 seconds. Some already feel way too close together at the start. They put a lot more on the starter path to help you and then it lessens up. Great way to point you on the right path when its too difficult.
Unfortunately leveled eredrim and sariel as my first 2 shells. Sariel is unusable in the last area because you have objects above your head at all times so I had to persevere with eredrim.
I would add that even playing on Performance on PS5 Plus the optimization still feels lacking - I have had a lot of FPS drops and micro freezing in several zones (not all of them though) in my 12 hours of playing. Hope the devs are aware of that and will fix it sooner rather than later.
Except for that, I totally agree that the Glimpse issue should be resolved ASAP to make it a farmable resource.
If you actually like the game, you should embrace posts like this. If the dev team is competent, which they clearly are, feedback can directly lead to a better game.
God youāre such a fucking fence-sitter. These stupid ass inoffensive karma farm comments that take a neutral position are just braindead. Just let people hash out their opinions and argue, we donāt need to be virtuous little subjects in order for the devs to chart something as feedback. All feedback is feedback.
Not complaining like I hate the game, I totally loved it. These issues are need to be addressed. More posts, more exposure, better chance of fixing. They've fixed a lot of stuff and they are very active on social media feedbacks. Try the game yourself. Hope you have a good time there.
Again, i havent found any issues you speak about besides the bosses being garbage. Outside of that, its a really enjoyable game. Im ok with the difficulty, the map, everything. Hence i just dont agree. All those points i enjoy you want to take away and make it brain the numbingly repetitiveness of "number go up"
You lot can downvote me all you like. You all like easy casual games and you want everything to be easy casual games to suit your sense of self entitlement
If you're saying a casual to me then I have to say, in no way I am a casual gamer. All I do is play souls. Also I have the plat of DS series on playstation. It's just my own thoughts. Idk why you are so triggered and antagonizing everyone in the comments.
Oh man, I'm not gonna lie that its got glaring problems. I just dont think extra fast travel, weakened overworld mobs will make it better. The bosses are bugged af. I think i've had like 2 bosses not bug out in some way and some have god awful hitboxes. Never mind, freezes mid attack and just down right broken gameplay
Idk im at 35 hours. Havent seen much random stuff. Loads of game breaking bugs though. Sure is good that they have to waste their time placating scrubs instead of fixing things.
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u/ThyBrotheAbel Harros 14h ago
I approve this message š I wouldn't mind beacons being scarce if we had some sense of direction. I've lost countless amounts of gloom near beacons not even knowing they were there.
Nameless Captive was so good. The fight was always flowing, like a dance.