Nioh 2

[Anonona]

Anyone can define "soulslike" as they please but for me the genre is not just about the combat, it's the overall feel.

I've seen people saying the only real soulslikes are DeS/DS/Bloodborne. I guess I'm on the opposite end, in my book even something like Hollow Knight is a soulslike (and one of the best I've ever played to boot).

The thing is that I would consider the term soulslike as a name for a genre actually a bit redundant, because I always considered that, at it's core, Dark Souls was a "metroidvania" (which I know is a term many hate, but I will use to ilustrate my point better), in fact it is strinkingly similar to Castlevania SotN and game of those styles. Interconnected levels with a strong emphasis in level design, RP system with a big focus on equipment you find by exploring, action combat that is simple but requires finesse. Dark Souls is an amazing translation to 3D of those kind of Castlevanias, with a bigger emphasis on the RP systems. Hollow Knight is comparable to DS precisely because both belong to the genre of metroidvania (although I'll argue Hollow Knight is closer to the metroid part than the castlevania one)

 

[cvv]

Yeah good point. I've been a PC gamer all my life, hadn't been exposed to metroidvanias at all as those were almost exclusively console games, so when I finally bought Dark Souls a few years ago I was floored. Everything felt so new and original but now, after a few metroidvanias under my belt, I can see the inspiration.

 

[Silverfish]

Soulslike is like Immersive Sim. Useless as an actual descriptor, but great shorthand.

 

[Doktor Best]

I also came to the genre Metroidvania over Dark Souls as i heard in a podcast about SotN being such a huge inspiration.

I then played Super Metroid and i was hooked instantly. Those games perfected exploration, just like Fromsoft games.

The only issue both games have is that i have to take breaks in between because they follow their formula so closely that you can burn out on them easily if you binge the whole Dark Souls trilogy for example.

I believe Elden Ring for example has the "issue" of being such a huge game that people even burn out on it during a singular playthrough.

 

[cvv]

The only issue both games have is that i have to take breaks in between because they follow their formula so closely that you can burn out on them easily if you binge the whole Dark Souls trilogy for example.

I believe Elden Ring for example has the "issue" of being such a huge game that people even burn out on it during a singular playthrough.

I burned out in Elden Ring twice in a single playthrough. It might be the game tho, not the formula. Initially I was elated about an open-world soulslike and defended Elden Ring ITT but I retract my words. The game was a lot of fun but I do prefer the DS/BB model, hands down. After all the only areas in Elden Ring that really shone were the "legacy dungeons", i. e. areas modeled after the classic DS experience.

 

[Multidirectional]

Yeah I had to take a couple months break in the middle of first ER playthrough and then when I came back I started getting tired pretty soon again. I was glad to be finally done with it and still don't have any wish to reinstall.

 

[cvv]

Yeah I had to take a couple months break in the middle of first ER playthrough and then when I came back I started getting tired pretty soon again. I was glad to be finally done with it and still don't have any wish to reinstall.

I was very much glad I could leave ER behind...but shortly after I jumped into one of the Nioh 2 DLCs, then I replayed Mortal Shell and Ashen and then jumped into Ori 2 and Hollow Knight.

In other words, it's not the formula.

 

[Anonona]

I know is pretty much impossible, but for ER2 or whatever the next entry on the "souls" saga is, I would like for them to try and make the whole game just legacy dungeons. I'm talking the size of regions in ER. Imagine something like the Capital, with its interconnected paths, secrets and even a small legacy dungeon inside of it (the sewers), but actually huge, with different districts connected in a myriad of ways and the open-endness of ER to explore said legacy dungeons. Maybe the next game could take place in a sort of "megadungeon" instead. Even if the game would end up smaller and shorter than ER, I think it would be quite amazing. Of course, considering how difficult it would be to design a whole game like that (even DS1 fell off later on) it may be just a pipe dream.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Still going, game still bangs. I'm rarely more than 3-4 hits from Death in Nioh 2 but I've never resented it. If I die there's always a mistake I made that I could have feasibly avoided or corrected.

Lesson for FromSoft here with their recent trend towards faster, more memetastic enemies with the player remaining relatively slow - if the enemies are getting faster and more anime they'd do well to give me the basic tools to respond in kind and not gate them off behind very specific abilities or items. Also good that Nioh 2's enemies are always actively trying to kill me with their moves rather than bait out an early roll or deploy some other eye-rolling startup frame counter bullshit.

 

[KIss My Ass]

I resigned to the fact that I'm never going to be good at a Team Ninja game. They are like kryptonite to me.

 

[Silverfish]

You don't need to be good when you have ninjutsu.

 

[Dadd]

This game is aggressively ugly.

 

[KIss My Ass]

This game is aggressively ugly.

I give it props for letting you make a female character that doesn't look like a gorilla suffering from proteus syndrome. I wish From Software would take notes.

 

[Dadd]

This game is aggressively ugly.

I give it props for letting you make a female character that doesn't look like a gorilla suffering from proteus syndrome. I wish From Software would take notes.

It's possible to make non-ugly female characters even in old Souls games, but it normally takes a lot of trial and error. Their animations are far from attractive. This detracts from the characters. Nioh 2's female characters tend to look much better, in facial features and animations.

 

[Wunderbar]

Fromsoft are just cheapskates who prefer to reuse the same animation rigs for both male and female bodies, hence the overly wide shoulders and disproportional arms.

 

[Multidirectional]

Well, NG+ seems like easy mode so far. Should I expect game to become difficult again in the next mode? Because right now pretty much nothing gives me trouble, outside of Dojo missions.

 

[Biscotti]

Well, NG+ seems like easy mode so far. Should I expect game to become difficult again in the next mode? Because right now pretty much nothing gives me trouble, outside of Dojo missions.

Yeah NG+ is pretty whatever. Luckily starting from NG+ it's no longer required to complete every story mission so I'd honestly just do the bare minimum required to advance to the next NG cycle, that's when the cool stuff starts unlocking and the enemy placement and movesets change significantly enough for it to feel fresh again. Unfortunately it'll take all the way up to NG+4 for everything unlock.

 

[cvv]

Same as the first game, things only start heating up in Way of the Demon. Wise and Nioh is where the game is at.

 

[Multidirectional]

Got total of 5 deaths so far since coming back to this, all of them because I fell to death from dodging into a pit I haven't seen. I need to git gud against these fucking pits.

 

[Multidirectional]

This game is aggressively ugly.

The only really ugly thing in it is horrible shadow pop-in. And it looks like they are sticking with that for Wo Long, judging from promo videos.

 

[Falksi]

I'm gonna return to this pretty soon I think. Some of the repetitive running between check points and bosses got on my nerves first time around so I stopped playing (even though I was enjoying it), but I was also snowed under with real life so had little patience for stuff like that at the time.

Hopefully I can appreciate it a bit more now.

 

[Multidirectional]

I like that I can just avoid missions I don't like NG+. Just noped out of Mausoleum of Evil, fuck that confusing map. Avoided the one with Lady Osakabe boss before that, not doing that shitty fight again. I'm at the last main game mission now, I guess I'll have to do a couple more from DLC chapters to unlock NG++.

 

[NJClaw]

Just noped out of Mausoleum of Evil, fuck that confusing map.

Lol, that's probably my favorite area in the entire game. I wish more levels were structured as that one.

 

[Multidirectional]

Do I need to have a ton of Onmyo Power to have a decent buff duration? Buffs is what I use it for now with Ninjutsu for Shadow Arts spells and explosive arrows. I have Onmyo Power 237 now with Magic stat at 30 and I find the duration of buffs kinda lacking.

 

[cvv]

Yea buffs are kinda useless without a few good points into Onmyo.