Saw a few lemmings recommending this one and it was super cheap on sale so I got it. I regret it.

The combat is floaty as hell and INCREDIBLY EASY as not a single enemy to this point (I am about 70% through the game rn according to the progression thingy on the PS5 homescreen) will actually stay facing you so you can pretty much dodge once and stay behind them the whole time.

There have only been 3 unique boss enemies so far; all other bosses have literally been shit mobs with an extra little dark energy effect on them.

There are return points/shortcut paths that save absolutely no time compared to the normal, non-shortcut paths. Multiple times have I opened a 1 way door that was only around the corner from the starting path. Like you go the only open way 10 feet, turn around and there’s a door going back the way you came that was blocked from being opened on the side you came from.

Hella side quests are given to you way earlier than you can access them, and not just because you haven’t found the traversal tools yet. Like the first sidequest needs all 3 tools to get to and a key. You are given the key before you even have 1 of the tools and even after getting the tools, if you immediately try to go where the quest wants you, you reach a gate that can’t be interacted with even though you have a key that says it is for THE FRONT GATE, you need to do a couple more parts of the main quest to trigger an unrelated event that opens that gate, and the FRONT GATE KEY opens the actual door to the building and not any kind of gate.

Enemy variety is literally like 6 guys. Axe guy, spear guy, snake guy, sword guy, wrecking ball guy, and fat fuck.

Just about the only thing I like is the dialogue. It’s well acted and very flowery with the use of words. I also like that it’s set in the real world and features actual historical figures. Like the BBG is King Louis 14 and your boss is Marie Antionette and you meet dudes like La Fayette and Robespierre. But it’s an alternate history where the guy who came up with “Animal Magnetism” actually had mystic powers, and those secrets are being used to create the robots you fight.

Note I didn’t say I liked the story. The story itself is fairly average. It’s not complex and I pretty much guessed the biggest reveal of it the first time I collected the game’s version of hard souls off a dead body.

If I had bought it on PC instead of PS5, this would be my Steam review and I would NOT RECOMMEND it.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialOPEnglish
    8·
    1 month ago

    I’ve played every major 3D soulslike other than Khazan, Nioh 2, Wukong, and Entoria so far.

    Nioh has some good ideas, but I find the Ki system a bit awkward, personally. Wo Long is basicslly Nioh without the Ki system. Nioh has more depth, but I didn’t care for the repetition. A lot of the game is redoing the same maps with different enemy layouts. Wo Long shares many mechanics, but it’s also fairly linear and also has map repeats, but far fewer than Nioh.

    I liked Lords of the Fallen despite it’s shortcomings. It’s just below Lies of P for me in terms of how close it comes to a Fromsoft souls game. Combat isn’t quite as heavy, enemy variety is small, and most of the weapons feel samey making different builds not really feel different enough to keep the game fresh. Plus the story feels very much like an edgy 14 year old wrote it.

    Mortal Shell was super short and also I have a bug in every version of the game (PC, playstation) where the enemies won’t render until you are literally touching them. So that fuckin’ sucked.

    Nier Automata and Nier Replicant were more about the story than the gameplay for me. Fairly generic, fast-paced anime combat. The esoteric quests and necessity to complete the games like 3 or 4 times to get the entite story was more compelling than anything else.

    Remnant and Remnant 2 were okay. First one is pretty decent, has an interesting story and worldbuilding but is also pretty linear despite having procedurally generated maps. This plays poorly with the second game, tho, as many quests and the ability to get different endings relies on RNG that you get the proper paths in the maps. The game wasn’t fun enough to slog through a ton of times tho. They also kinda destroy all the cool worldbuilding set up in the first game by retconning a bunch of shit.

    Thymesia I found to be even worse than Steel Rising. It has the same fast movement and floaty combat, the same lame enemies that you can dodge behind once and stay there, and horrible level and quest design. I didn’t even wanna finish it after about the mid-way point since the story wasn’t even being driven that much, either.

    Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor are just as good as Lies of P, but… Not for the same reasons? Like, they got the level design, the flow of combat, and everything of a soulslike but it feels like a Star Wars game still. Which, is good cuz it really makes you feel like a badass Jedi. The second one is better than the first, as you actually have vastly different combat stances that make it like having different weapons to play with even though you never change from using lightsabers. But it’s kinda lacking in the RPG parts. You pretty much can unlock every skill if you explore, and you don’t get different weapons just different modes to use the lightsaber in.

    Another Crab’s Treasure I think could be better if some the encounters were more thought out. Many of them just seem like cheap shots… It also is strange in that unlike most of these that lean into parries or dodges, it leans into blocking which can take some getting used to. Especially since the hitboxes on many enemies is shit. But the aesthetics are bright and colorful, the level design is decent, and the story is hilarious.