Yea that’s fair. I hate it when you, at its core, want to like a game and enjoy playing it but can’t because of some details core to the genre that you can’t handle well.

Honestly, it was like that for me too when I first tried Bloodborne. It was my first soulslike and I bounced off the game hard. I think I beat the first two bosses, not knowing a single thing about the game and being scared about progressing, so I ended up putting the game on hold a couple of years. Did the same with Sekiro where it took me three separate attempts over several years to get the hang of things and get better at the game to point of Sekiro becoming my favourite (soulslike) game.

Point is, it’s definitely worth giving games a shot if you feel like there could be something enticing about it that draws you in, but it’s also a-ok to just let it go when you’ve exhausted your willingness to try again. There’s so many games out there to play and so little time to play them, so the time spent should be worth it.

I do definitely get your gripes with the genre. I get annoyed and frustrated by all of them quite often too, wondering why I’m even playing the game in the first place. So far, I still managed to beat the games in the end, but it did cost me nerves and hours of playtime :D

Would difficulty settings help? It’s something so minute that people get so defensive about, not wanting to “casualise” their favourite game, but honestly, I wouldn’t care at all and it woild make the games more accessible to more people.

If you were to pinpoint the issue(s) you have with the genre, what would it/they be?

Yea, I guess it’s not too bad to have a little something different mixed into standard experience.

It took me ages too. It is quite a cinematic fight though and it feels very rewarding story-wise

As pet their recent 10-minute video showing more gameplay and explaining details about the game, Nightreign seems to incorporate some sort of meta progression that you take with you across runs. Think upgrades to your character, for example

There’s probably a proper link to the video, but I can only find a link to the reddit post at this time: https://www.reddit.com/r/fromsoftware/comments/1kfpa7a/a_spanish_news_broadcast_showing_ds3_pontiff/?embed_host_url

Damn. I don’t see it, but I do see it. There’s lots of hints pointing towards this happening ultimately and signs that this could happen to Sekiro too depending on the choices you make.

Parries are important, but I felt like dealing health damage was usually the way to go because he has quite strong posture. I’d usually apply Divine Confetti and hammer away at him whenever I have an opening. It’s been a while since I tried the fight legit, though, admittedly. Might have to give it another go!

all I’m gonna say is: I|I

Username checks out :D

Sounds like pain

Totally see what you mean! Those fights throw you for a loop because you wouldn’t expect them in the context Sekiro provides.

Oh yea, I’m not too fond of their overusage of certain bosses. For some reason, I struggle a lot with the first drunkard in the Hirata Estate because of all the enemies nearby you have to kill first. The second time you fight one and have a Lone Shadow (?) tag along in the fight, I’m just done, man, lol. It’s more manageable overall, but it still took me waay too long for such a rather simple boss.

Duskbloods is PvPvE, so maybe Duskbloods over Nightreign, then?

always has been 🌊🪸🦀🔫🦀

Yes, true, though wouldn’t an extraction shooter be also considered a roguelike then? Or a rogue-lite?

Could DS1 have been foreshadowing?

Good take, actually. The bosses leading up to Genichiro still feel a little off, in a way. Genichiro feels like a “real” Sekiro boss that fits the pace and flow of combat really well - clashing swords, parries, dodges and all. Both the ogre as well as the bull just don’t quite fit the game. They fit the game by the metric you apply in that you need to broaden your understanding of what is and what isn’t parriable but don’t offer that “classic” combat experience as someone like Genichiro, Monk, Owl, Lady Butterfly and so on do

I’ll mention one that hasn’t been mentioned yet: Abandoned Deck is my favourite. I get the appeal of playing face cards and I’m the last one to turn down a photochad. But I just love playing numbers. The smaller deck size makes the deck also more consistent in some ways and allows for relatively easy deck sculpting. Ride the Bus is fun too

Current least favourite is Red Deck because I can’t beat gold stake on it for the life of me :c

pov: average ante 2 big blind after picking only scaling, utility, and econ but not a single flat mult joker

Tied to the DLC right? Yea, I know of that. Pretty cool

Man, I wish I could

Thank! Yea it was flagged as NSFW to filter out unwanted attention I think? As to not draw too much attention to it. Although I’d wager Lemmy isn’t at that critical mass yet lol