The enemy pattern design is such a cluster fuck in this game. You'd think engaging a GUN USER in melee would be better right? Well no. This thing killed me more than any of the real bosses and I only came back to it after killing Genichiro. I started randomly playing like in a souls game and realized this thing poses no threat whatsoever if you are always at a distance and just keep block mashed real hard while stepping backwards to avoid melee range, at which point I selected the spear and just spammed spear attack + sword close the gap thingy and heals without a care in the world and promptly ate its fucking face filled with a crazy amount of health and posture for what is supposed to be a random leading runt.
Despite being nothing more than a tiny humanoid this thing does more posture damage to you on the slightest of parry mistiming than many, many other things in the game. And god, does it hit hard when you slip up.
Every fight in this game feels like a dumb puzzle that bangs your head on a wall but becomes trivial once you understand what makes the thing's AI break.
Might end up finishing the game at some point, but this will be the first From software game whose optional content I'll mostly avoid. I don't feel enthused by much in this. The best moments are the samurai style boss fights, I really enjoyed Genichiro. I don't enjoy when I encounter mini bosses surrounded by adds though. And things like the bull can eat dick.
