I was quite interested to try this as a more linear souls thing...but extra faff on upgrading leaves me really cold. Can someone just do one of these games where you start of with a big sword and then you just work through the levels without all the rpg numberwang nonsense! Won't somebody think of the thickos?

Just started this, fuck it's dark not in tone but actual visuals.
Seems quite good fun, is it less brutal than a bloodsouls?

Played up to the first boss and despite some pretty visuals, I don't think I'll be continuing. I just kept thinking why I wasn't replaying Elden Ring instead. There's something about this kind of blatant and egregious rip off of another game that is just a bit shit. Like those terrible straight to DVD movies that follow in the wake of a big successful film.

Gremill wrote:

Played up to the first boss and despite some pretty visuals, I don't think I'll be continuing. I just kept thinking why I wasn't replaying Elden Ring instead. There's something about this kind of blatant and egregious rip off of another game that is just a bit shit. Like those terrible straight to DVD movies that follow in the wake of a big successful film.

I was the same. Beat first boss and had no inclination to continue

Rev wrote:

I'm renting this out and it should arrive tomorrow. Going to giving it a blast to see what all the fuss is about. Though after playing a few disappointing souls likes recently I'm not holding my breath to see if this wows me. Honestly I would rather a game did a blatant rip off and give me more souls but they all seem to want to be ever so slightly different, which is where they seem to fall off the rails.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on this, Rev. The combat, for me, is a mixture of Bloodborne (in that you can recover health from attacks), and Sekiro (in that parrying is the key to combat and the stun/heavy attacks, plus you have various trick arms you can swap in/out).

The Donkey boy is down but the combat seems floaty in some places. If parrying is one of your mechanics then goodness me, make it solid. Sometimes I was able to dodge through the horizontal slashes and other times it was hitting me. Blocking seems to always do chip damage which is fine. It looks great and is atmospheric but it gives the impression the scenery is created for gameplay. Souls games are very good for creating areas that you feel exist out with the game. I'm going to keep playing, using some kind of electric club that seems to do decent damage. Willing to give it a chance atm.

Syph79 wrote:

This is weird because there's visual/audible feedback and vibration when you land the parry right.

I'll check that out, thanks. I'm just getting used to things and the parrying is something I just need to get gud on

Rev wrote:

Took the bishop out...

Gave him a goold old bash, did you?

It's still got huge combat issues for me. This boss fight is the perfect example. For the big guy, you're perfectly capable of dodging most of the attacks that are thrown at you, but as soon as you get to the smaller lighter faster second stage, you're not nimble enough to react quickly to his dash attacks unless you get lucky. I didn't feel i beat them because I could counter everything they did, I felt I won because I got lucky.

Syph79 wrote:

I feel like I’m calling you out or highlighting your play style, which I’m genuinely not trying to do - so please treat this as something of interest and not a criticism.

Parrying forms a large part of the combat in this game, but you didn’t parry once in that fight. It’s clearly working, as you wouldn’t have succeeded otherwise, but maybe the sense that you’re winning because you got lucky is because you’re hampering yourself through not engaging with a core mechanic?

That's me with Bloodbourne. But that's because the parry was inconsistent and therefore shite

Rev wrote:

Some of the enemies seem to have intentional attacks which are designed to miss time the parry, something Sekiro didn't annoy you with.

There’s definitely some attacks where the enemy will swipe, swipe, pause or flail, then swipe again in Lies. They’re a bit more fake out than Sekiro, but that wasn’t without enemies with their own rhythm to learn. Despite being a Souls-like, I think it’s very much its own thing.

I personally found as the game went on I was parrying pretty much everything. I’d recommend using the dummies in the courtyard for practice to help get the window down. I started out struggling with it, but I found it to be consistent when it landed with me.

In terms of getting better, I think the game will allow you to play it on your terms. I pretty much exclusively used the shield arm, as I liked being able to block and charge it as an attack when I felt like the parrying rhythm had escaped me.

All I can recommend is experimenting. There’s so much variations of weapons, handles, arms, and perks that it can be overwhelming to the point I’d expect some players don’t step out from their comfort zone. Ironically, I used the starter blade (with a different handle) for most of the game. I did try some others, but I liked the speed of the lighter weapons.

The camera is absolutely frustrating though. Doesn't know when to pan out. Makes the Green swamp boss a bloody chore to fight. I think I'll be going down the throwing consumables route with this one.

Brooks wrote:

Did anyone work out what P's lies are.

Ironically, when you lie you are normally taking the human route, i.e. sparing peoples feelings or saving people from awful truths. It's not black and white lying. It actually works quite nicely in the game.

Aw man

This falls into okay boss Battle because the arena was big enough to allow movement.