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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[Discussion] Which Soulslike will you be playing this weekend and Sword & Board or Dodge & Weave - which do you prefer? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 7 hours ago by v4ld1z@lemmy.zip to c/soulslike@lemmy.zip

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I'm deep in the trenches of learning Hunt Showdown, so no soulslikes for me right now but a very challenging game nonetheless. Imagine if Hunt had dodge rolls and parries!

I've never played with sword & board because the games I played first never allowed for it. Bloodborne explicitly mocks you with the few existing shields in the game, implying that using them "engenders passivity". Sekiro is also very fast-paced with its massive focus on parries - iT's LiKe A dAnCe. Lies of P and Khazan also focus on parrying and dodging.

Come to think of it, none of the newer soulslikes put such an onus on blocking attacks with a shield like the original souls games do. The only time I tried playing with a shield was in Demon's Souls and even there I usually went for a two-handed uchigatana for bosses. And as the Dark Souls series matured, the third entry made enemies a lot more aggressive and fast compared for the two entries before, so ducking behind a shield wasn't as viable as adapting your playstyle with a similarly more aggressive one.

What's your stance? Which do you prefer? Has any of the two shaped your taste in soulslikes/-lites/whatever?

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[–] ThunderComplex@lemmy.today 3 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Glad to see you’re enjoying it. I’m also still going thru it leisurely. The cat and dog petting is still the highlight tho and going forward I’ll deduct points from any action RPG that doesn’t let me pet cats /s

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'm looking forward to trying to master the combat, there is a lot of cool tech with stance switching and weapon switching and whatnot. Looks like it's very deep if you want to get into it, I'm already struggling with remembering everything I can use in combat and I haven't even unlocked all the stuff yet!

[–] ThunderComplex@lemmy.today 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'm still somewhat mixed on the combat. The stances and being able to integrate weapon switching into a combo do seem great, but I also feel like that in general the different stances don't really feel different enough. Though one thing I'm struggling with (and tbh gave up on entirely) is remembering which abilities are tied to what stance. I'll just hit an ability and hope it connects with the target.
And I'm not even sure anymore if this isn't just apathy creeping in that makes me feel way more meh about the combat than it deserves.

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

I don't know, I haven't unlocked even half of the stances and they seem pretty different so far. Especially those stances with mobility or gap closing moves can be useful to switch into and then there are skills that refill your stamina when using weapon switching which can be super useful on top of blade flash. I've seen some cool combo tech videos.

[–] ThunderComplex@lemmy.today 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Yeah I think this is a me issue. Whether I do the tornado move, the gap closer, or the pole vault, I don't really feel anything during the combat. And I think it's the difficulty. While the attack combos of the enemies are a bitch to parry, fucking it up rarely ends in failure. I've been coasting thru the game fucking up parries left right and center and always coming out on top because I ated more pills than a columbian drug lord.
This is basically me during the epic boss battles:

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 points 1 hour ago

I mean, it's kind of a Team Ninja classic to some extent. You get as much fun out of it as you out in. You can clear Ninja Gaiden 2 by spamming Ultimate Techniques and iframing through everything but once you get bored of that and start exploring the combat is when it gets much more fun.

I guess the same goes for most character action games.

[–] MissingInteger@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I want to pet the cat in Lies of P, but it keeps hissing at me when I try :(

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 hours ago

Don't get discouraged just yet!