Comment on How do y'all feel about using summons in Soulslikes? [Lies of P endgame spoilers]
MrBobDobalina@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
My only soulslike games have been Sekiro and Lies of P (some bloodborne years ago but didn’t finish it).
Like others have said, play the way it feels right to you. I get that you’re saying it’s somewhere in between - getting frustrated solo, but too easy with summons. If you get to that point again, maybe try using summons to learn the boss (EG get to the second phase every time to then learn the second phase) but don’t allow yourself to complete it during that round. Then when you feel ready, back to solo.
Personally, what I enjoy about these games is the design of each encounter. I feel like I only experience the full intended design of the fight if it’s 1v1, hitting a boss that is attacking some other npc isn’t engaging to me. So I don’t touch summons.
If the game is well designed, even a really hard boss should feel fair - when I die, I should be able to understand what I did wrong and what I still need to learn, and once I’ve seen it all I need to hone my reactions to each tell and pattern. Then it doesn’t matter how many tries it takes, as long as I’m still enjoying that process (yes it’s still frustrating at times but that usually just means the win will feel even better).
If I’m not enjoying the process, I’ll put it down for the day, and play again when I’m into it. If it’s so bad that I don’t ever feel like playing it again, then that’s that I guess. Hasn’t happened yet (except Bloodborne, but I wasn’t as much of a fan of the genre back then, will play it again at some point. Remaster when?)
v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
The point about preferring solo play against bosses is something I resonate with. Their movesets rarely translate well into 1v2 fights, so it feels like something’s off when I go in with a summon. It’s not something like Monster Hunter where the aggression of the monster shifts dynamically between hunters whereas many Soulslike bosses feel “locked in” on a single player
Also, that’s a good tip with using the summon to get the second phase quicker. Hadn’t thought of that before. The temptation to keep them alive for as long as possible to get to an easier win was always a factor prior lol
MrBobDobalina@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Yeah I feel like it would be a nice in-between option for ya, as you mentioned the second phase troubles in your edit. It really is harder to learn a second phase when you’re only getting through the first on every 5th try or so (Laxasia was a pain in the ass for this, I never really got a good feel for phase 2, just managed it somehow on a lucky run with wild and terrified inputs haha)
I think having Sekiro as my first soulslike taught me that there’s a big gap between surviving a phase and really nailing a phase though, so I try to take that with me and get phase 1 to point of just warming up. And looking for more and more windows to inflict damage - it’s amazing how quick some of the fights can be when you find more of them
v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
I hear that, dude. I remember struggling a lot with Isshin back on my first playthrough. Having played through the game multiple times now, charmless and with the bell too, the fight got kinda trivial, actually. Once you get the rhythm down again, it’s all just muscle memory. I hope to get there with Lies of P too
MrBobDobalina@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Haha well as much as that mindset helped me (and yes transformed some Sekiro fights from hard as hell to seeing how quickly I could put them down), a lot of Lies of P still came down to desparate messy scraps for survival. Especially in NG+, I got smashed by that damn green monster so hard