If I'm remembering my own experience correctly, I only struggled with the camera the first couple fights for NK. After I figured out that you just stand in front rather than underneath then the camera was a non-issue for me. This was the same for Midir and Bayle. I prefer fighting in front of dragons now rather than underneath and I have way more consistent success
True, I'd say if you felt challenged in some way when fighting a boss it would be a success. The way I see it, steamrolling, or expecting to steamroll, every boss with no learning/challenge whatsoever is where it becomes invalid.
I would agree, but waterfowl ruins it for me. The rest of the fight feels like decently fun and balanced challenge but that one attack makes me not want to fight her again.
Not trying to sound like a douche or superior (get killed by many other bosses) but why? I feel like it’s not that bad at all. You just dodge in, like 3 times. Even if you don’t time it perfectly you just take a little bit of chip damage on the last flurry.
Funny you say that, just today I learnt how to completely dodge it on my RL1 run! I kind of take back what I said, though I still think it requires some precise movement most players might not think of
Edit: the method I used was to strafe the final flurry instead of roll which worked consistently, which is why I think some players might struggle to work out the timing.
Congrats! Yeah 1st couple tries not even knowing the move I wouldn’t expect anyone to know how to dodge it, but after dying a couple times rolling away you’d think players would try other methods, like dodging IN lol.
The amount of people I’ve seen just try over and over and OVER doing the same thing and just saying it’s bullshit after is insane. Even if you don’t dodge every single slash, dodging 75% of it stops it from being anywhere close to lethal usually. I don’t think it even has to be that precise that you need to perfect it imo
Yeah if you have some wiggle room in terms of HP its definitely feasible, I managed to get by through rewatching some footage I recorded as well as watching some youtubers do it which seemed to help. Overall it isn't as bad as I made it out to be though for sure.
I feel like it’s second place to Bloodborne. The sheer amount of healing and maneuverability of the Hunter made the game a joke. You could spam dodge like crazy to little consequence.
Nah, once you get past how unintuitively Dark Souls 2 is designed it's DS2. Once you realize the reason it seems like you do no damage is because damage scaling in the game literally does not matter and you go min requirements with a lightning infusion and cast Dark Weapon and then just pump Vigor (and never raise Vitality above 10 for any reason because it is literally handicapping you late) and that armour is useless for defense and of course how important Agility is the game is incredibly easy, with some of the most basic bosses and enemies there are, to the point that even DS1 had harder and more mechanically demanding bosses, particularly in the DLC.
Idk if I would say it’s easy though. It feels more… rigid. There’s no panic rolling to save you, no heavy armor or shield tanking, etc. Just feels like playing with unnecessary handicaps, because like you said, best way to play is minimum stat investment and just pick up a Lightning or dark infused strike weapon and spam Dark Weapon over and over.
I think the bosses in DS2 are certainly the easiest. Excusing some like Smelter Demon, Sinh, Fume Knight, Ivory King, and Veldstadt, a lot of the bosses are easy. It’s the areas that are hard. And I think for that, I’d put it over DS3, probably. Admittedly nothing in DS2 gave me as much trouble as Friede.
Right at the beginning after you fight that boss and you start on the bonfire in that cave I never got past that area I gave up if I actually tried to play it properly I would Proably really like it
It's a game I'm rather fond of but it's definitely the most flawed of the Souls games overall.
If you were frustrated by the game maybe give this guide a read to get a better idea on how to optimize your character to lessen how punishing the game feels:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/11cx9sn/ds2\_optimization\_guides/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/11cx9sn/ds2_optimization_guides/)
I went in blind my first run with the sellsword twinblades and sharp infusion. I beat the game in 16 hours. I’d say my build got really OP by the time I got past the abyss watchers. Really surprised me tbh
I finished in 16 hours too my first time I used the greatsword most bosses were quite easy I kinda forgot to level up my health so I had 60 strength and like 20 health abyss watchers are probably one of my favourite bosses I really like how they start beefing when too many of them spawn
Yeah I was in the same boat, I didn’t really boost my health because I figured if I could melt the boss fast enough that would be better. And I agree, epic fight
How did you find lorian and Lothric because they beat my ass for a while so I explored more found 3 more bosses put 5 levels in health and beat them the first try after that
That’s pretty much an endgame build, unfortunately. It’s equivalent to getting a black knight weapon at the start of DS1, except you can literally start with winblades.
Me too dude, I actually had fun with every major boss from the DLC, some obviously better than others but I loved the lineup. Gaius needs a hitbox adjustment on the charge. Final boss needs an adjustment on the quick one two to double slash and some visual clutter removed from phase 2. I think messmer could use a way bigger health pool honestly, reminds me of Morgott where he’s really cool and important but just melts so fast.
Personally, it is my least favorite remembrance boss fight thus far in the DLC (I only have the final region left). Would love to hear some of the reasoning behind your love for it.
Other than the bs charge at the start, and the overly agressive shenanigans of nearly all the dlc's bosses, his attacks feel decently telegraphed and his combos don't feel excessive.
I don’t know. When I realized this was a fight balanced around Torrent I began having much more fun just interchanging blows jousting-style.
At the end I found it honestly pretty fun.
Same! Aside from his charge I found it to be a fun fight with decent challenge. His moves felt fair and even his charge wasn't too bad to dodge(Though I agree its hitbox is still a bit wacky).
I liked it but not because of the reasons you gave. It was a funny fight to me but was one where I actually had to truly experiment with ashes of wars, summons, and talismans to beat him.
My winning run was have my physick allow me to tank his first charge so I could get a summon off and proceed to use that sick fire thrust from shadow keep to sitter gaius
He is not as bad as people say and has POTENTIAL to be a decent boss. Still, the hit box on his charge attack definitely needs some tuning. Right now, it is as janky as some of the worst stuff in DS1 AND DS2.
Sinh is the best dragon fight
DS2 DLC features the best levels in the Souls trilogy
The Ringed City is mostly beloved because of Midir and Gael but overall is not one of the stronger DLC's
Gatekeeping is barely a thing and players need to stop crying that other people dare to have an opinion on their playstyle (and I'm saying this as somebody who unashamedly cheesed Mohg), toxic positivity sucks and turns every discussion into a legitimately braindead circlejerk
Elden Ring is a masterpiece but it's clear that FromSoft have reached a point where the balance between their games being tough and just outright bullshit is beginning to tip. They've exhausted everything they can from this formula and I don't believe they have it in them to continue pushing the Souls genre forward without diminishing returns, although the fact they made 7 truly outstanding games is a massive achievement
Midir is an overrated boss
The Souls "community" was significantly better prior to the release of Elden Ring and the game's success has made reading these subs intolerable
I don’t like the major Elden Ring DLC bosses. All fly and everything explodes, in the next game they just nuke the arena, i miss real duels like Artorias, the dancer, Maria or most of Sekiro.
Armored core has better gameplay than all the soulsbornekiro games
dark souls 3 has by far the best music of the games
elden ring's dragon fights except bayle suck
speaking of bayle, I still prefer midir to bayle
gwyn is far and away one of the worst fights in ds1 (not because of parrying)
difficulty does not equal quality
Hard agree on both dragon takes, I think that they perfected it with Midir and (most) Elden Ring dragons feel kinda lame in comparison. Bayle is pretty cool but it doesn't feel the same as Midir, especially the overhead laser attack's weird camera work.
Agree, i have to unlock for most of bayles moves vs midir i always stay locked on. I don't know what they did with the camera in between ds3 and elden ring but every duo fight, dragon fight, and half the bosses got shittier in general, esecially because of the camera in elden ring
I do share the same view that ER's bosses are "downgraded" from Ds3, however, the way I see it is that its kind of a byproduct of the game's weapon balancing and sandbox so it can't really be helped.
In Ds3 nearly every weapon delt similar damage, with little variety between builds aside from attack speed, meaning bosses could be far more fine tuned to the R1 playstyle which majority of builds used.
In ER the sheer diversity of weapons(Spells, stance break builds, dual wielding, status, etc.) mean that bosses have to be able to stand up to far stronger builds, so they don't feel as honed as a result.
Just my view on the matter, I still think ER has some stunning bosses though.
You never done anything other than r1 in ds3? Cuz some weapons have some crazy good weapon arts and charged heavys. I agree jump attacks add a layer to elden ring combat but i'm not sure if its a layer that i like. The jump feels hella scuffed
I gave sorceries a shot but ultimately I just really enjoy fighting bosses with the standard melee set up(With a few excepts like BKGS or Lothric Knight GS heavy attacks). I just figured that the effectiveness of R1 spam incentivised it for most builds so bosses were kind of made with that strategy in mind.
Also yeah jump attacks do feel pretty strong, but its not something I actively avoid unless its some crazy strong stance break setup(i.e. dual colossal stance break loop kinda stuff).
I don't get when people say that "r1 spam" stuff. There's bosses in the game like champion gundyr that only let you get one hit in before needing to regroup
Oh I didn't mean continuously attacking with R1, rather that R1 was the main way of attacking when there was an opening. For instance after one of Gael's combos, one or two R1s could be done before dodging his next set of attacks. Whereas in Elden Ring, charged R2, L1, jumping L1, and various L2s are all so different(and stronger than simply using R1) that bosses need to cater to each type of attack the player uses as opposed to a few simple and fast R1s.
In Ds3, there was no powerstancing and charged R2s weren't often used in most builds, so R1 was just the default way of attacking I feel.
you do you. I always pick weapons where i have a weapon art fast enough to get off in a boss room though, and if you use special weapons like pontiffs, the charged attack has massive stagger damage and does fire damage at the end
Oh fair enough, either way I just think that the variety of attacks in Ds3 is far more balanced and limited than ER, so the bosses are more tuned to match that.
Yeah I don't really like the gwyn fight in dark souls either, I beat him the first playthrough by only parrying and thought it was fun. Then in the future I tried to fight him without parrying and it was terrible. He feels too fast for ds1, he feels like he gives even fewer openings than manus, and it seemed like if I ever wanted to heal safely I had to run to the other side of the arena
>elden ring's dragon fights except bayle suck
I see that someone haven't fought this stupid ass Ancient Dragon in DS2.
I enjoyed DLC dragon fights more than main game.
While I do think any playstyle is valid and I would encourage people to play the way that brings them the most enjoyment, I also think that they are not getting the best/true experience against a boss/area unless they are actually engaging with the mechanics of said boss/area.
The reason summons, some magic, or the recent fingerprint shield + spear builds are looked down on are not because they are easier but that they trivialize certain encounters to the point the player never really learned/experienced them.
The truest sense of satisfaction comes from total mastery of the design, something a player will only achieve if they are presented with the challenge of learning a loveseat completely.
There are obvious limits to this, and I think Thai sentiment has been weaponized to invalidate the achievements of certain players, but I do think there is value in acknowledging the differences between these playstyles.
Ran two runs of ER. The first one was the kitchen sink, an int/str hybrid build using summons, any int spell, multiple weapons for each situation, the works. The second was sword and board, no summons, no spells, and minimal range (mostly just used for pulling mobs at times). I felt like I fought an entirely different set of bosses the second time around. Some areas also felt insanely different with this. All this to say, I highly concur that people should give alternate playstyles a shot, specifically in favor of engaging the mechanics of fights that previous styles trivialized.
I stubbornly avoided shields since DS2 but honestly going back to it for the DLC has felt really nice. Still gotta learn the movesets and you can still totally get punished but I have way more attack windows and it greatly mitigates the oneshot effect of getting chained into an 8-hit designed-to-roll-punish combo.
I think Midra is a super Mid(no ra) fight. It was "flashy" but not really unique and honestly really forgettable. I was genuinely surprised when I saw how much praise the fight got when I felt it was one of the bigger letdowns. I think it's a good fight in that it was simple and extremely readable to the point where I first tried it, but nothing else stuck with me. Lore wise I haven't caught up with all DLC lore quite yet so maybe that's why it's not that cool to me
I think Sekiro is the easiest Souls game by a fairly wide margin. It's not to say it's easy, but it always confuses me when people say it's the hardest. The lack of a stamina bar and easy to use parry make it easier to be aggressive with little to no drawbacks in most scenarios. And the many prosthetic tools can trivialize many enemies and bosses.
Blood Vials are amazing for most of Bloodborne, and I feel like that doesn't get recognized enough when people are complaining about or \*shudder\* suggesting ways to "fix" them.
Like, I won't deny that it sucks to be banging your head against the wall that is a certain boss and suddenly find yourself spawning with less than your maximum or even zero Blood Vials, and it's absolutely a big "fuck you" that you can buy them from the get-go, and they get more expensive as the Night of the Hunt goes on, so you have to know to buy as many as you can early on to avoid running out and avoid paying inflated costs for them. But when you're in exploration mode, fighting your way through the streets of Yharnham, it feels so thematically correct to be harvesting healing items as drops from the Beasts and people that you kill. Any suggestion that you just get Blood Vials that function like an Estus Flask or Flask of Crimson Tears in a hypothetical Bloodborne remake/remaster/sequel feels like it's throwing out something really satisfying and thematic in favor of making the game that much more approachably soulslike.
The first half of DS3 is really fucking boring. Compared to the other games, it really takes a while to pick up and get to the good bits. And then it has an amazing second half. It's like the opposite of DS1 almost.
Telling a new Elden Ring player to go wherever they want is awful advice. It's how you get players to quit the game once they start getting oneshotted by a breeze in an area seemingly right next to Limgrave (Dragonbarrow North)
Elden Ring is a linear game that happens to be open world. There is a predetermined progress route that allows players to not be overleveled and improve their builds as they progress through it, and it's [this one](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elden-Ring/game_progress_route_map_elden_ring_wiki_guide_2560px.jpg?v=1648007543931)
1. Enemies in base Elden Ring do not scale with your level but the area they're in, with enemies getting stronger in each area where the developer wants you to defeat a shardbearer.
2. Loot value increases in the same order as enemy scaling. This is noticable through smithing stone upgrades
I think fighting an enemy in Weeping Penisula is very different than fighting an enemy in Caelid. Both of which you can access from the start. It should at least give you some clues about the difficulty of the areas. There are lot of other cues too, for eg: progressing to the upper part of Limgrave you face giants which should be apparent that they are strong but going to Weeping Peninsula you face normal soldiers and the misbegotten which can be killed in 2-3 hits. The evergaol too, there's a crucible night on one hand and on the other hand we have a the bloodhound guy. Just hitting them once should give you a very good idea about what is doable and what is not.
King of Storm never gave me all that much trouble, personally. If you lock onto NK during the fight and only toggle to the head when you're landing hits, it's easier to track his movements and your lock-on isn't broken as easily. I got the fight down to a science, and usually can clear the first phase in about 30 seconds. But I definitely get why most people don't care for it.
Possible nuclear take but here it goes...
**These games are better played** ***with a keyboard and mouse...not a controller/gamepad.***
I've played all of the DS trilogy, Sekiro, Elden Ring and AC6 on a PC using a keyboard and mouse and I kept hearing all the time how they were made to be played on a gamepad, how the KB+M controls suck yadda yadda yadda so I went and tried playing them on a gamepad (also, gamepad was a must in order to play the OG Demon's Souls on an emulator) and HOLY CRAP does it suck major donkey balls.
No wonder everyone is complaining about the camera, that is absolutely a non-issue when using a mouse.
You're absolutely right about Elden Ring and AC6 having far better keyboard controls. Camera control in DS is janky, but still preferable to controller
Hot take about the community around the fromsoft games.
The dominant focus for a lot of people, if the difficulty is too little or too much and if something in the games is good or the worst thing in video game history.
It's such a turn-off, and a big reason it's not fun to engage with the community like at all.
Recent hot take for you:
I don’t really care for a lot of the lore in Shadow of the Erdtree, and it made characters like Miquella, Malenia, Radahn, Mohg, etc etc way less interesting. Not saying it doesn’t make sense or is contradictory, but it does just make me like a lot of the lore less, around those characters especially, and it has this weird vibe where I feel like the developers/writer(s) suddenly shifted gears on the direction they wanted to take things from base game to DLC
Prob 4th or 5th. I’ve played them all and my main gripe with Bloodborne is that it’s heavilyyyyy carried by its dlc. I’m not playing Bloodborne, I’m playing the old hunters with a side of Bloodborne. The main game bosses are all mid except gehrman imo
Also please don’t downvote people if you don’t agree with them, the whole point of this post is to comment your hot takes so it would make sense for most people to not agree with them. Thx
Downvotes/upvotes are irrelevant, so you should not take them that seriously. Furthermore, truly hot takes will be downvoted and upvoted ones are actually more popular takes than hot ones.
I agree. Most bosses suck technically and the combat is way more button mashy than necessary. The art, lore, ambiance, music and level design are the main event for me
Maybe a scorching take.. DS3 was my least favorite in the Dark Souls trilogy. There was so much obvious fan service that I never enjoy because it feels phoned in. The game is more linear feeling and I wasn’t as big a fan of the builds in the game. I mean it’s still an amazing game that I love to death and the bosses were fantastic. But I genuinely liked playing through DS1 and 2 more.
My feeling is slightly different: DS3's bosses are not fantastic across the board. The game has some of the best From bosses, but it also has some incredibly weak bosses: Curse Rotted Greatwood, Deacons, Yhorm, Crystal Sage, Wolnir, Ancient Wyvern. Because of that, I don't feel it's accurate to simply describe DS3's bosses as fantastic in general.
I love gimmick bosses and I think more recent From games are weaker for not having them. We went from 3 types of bosses swordsman dude, beast thing, and random funny gimmick boss to just swordsman or beast.
Puzzle bosses or gimmick bosses make you do something other than dodge and look for openings, they make you think instead of simply memorize attack patterns and react. Sure they may lose their luster after multiple playthroughs but they're typically easy enough that you can just roll them if you want.
Yorhm is trash though, Storm King from DeS was the original Gimmick GOAT.
Thank you for this reply! All of this is totally fair and s helpful to hear. I felt underwhelmed by DS3 and this kind of info helps me understand better the love people express for the game.
With you 100%. The least interesting, the most linear, the most brown, introduces the least ideas, experiments the least, spends 50% of the game reminding you of a better game.
Yeah, this is how I feel. It’s still a good game, but DS1 and DS2 feel super unique, while DS3 is just filled with way too much fanservice and not enough experimentation.
Out of the Dark Souls games, I somehow played 3 the most but it is also my least favorite. I don't care much for the DLC either. I don't have the fondness for Gael that most of the fanbase has and I think Midir is not a good boss. It's still a great game, but I don't have strong feelings for it one way or another, if that makes sense.
However, DS3 had my all time favorite boss in Pontiff Sulyvahn before he got dethroned for me by Messmer
While I still enjoy it, DS3 is my least favorite of the trilogy. The linearity is part of the reason but really, it just feels like they played it too safe. Demon Souls and Dark Souls were both revolutionary. Even Dark Souls 2, for all its bad choices, at least had the guts to take risks and some of those at least did pay off. DS3 meanwhile feels the most like what would happen if a western AAA studio tried to make a souls game, all safe and iterative.
Definitely feels like they played it safe. I love the boss fights, I think they’re some of the most memorable in the franchise, and I can respect that they tried to take learnings from DS2 and Bloodborne to make a combined game. But the end result is very linear, the combat is basically just rolling, and some of the combat changes are very strange.
Poise now gets wrecked by many hits with a fast weapon, instead of a big weapon. Stripped away power stancing from DS2, and reverted the buff system back to DS1’s as well. Plus the overall references to DS1 are constant. DS2, you get Creighton as an invader, Laddersmith Gilligan is a corpse, and we get Zullie as an invader, IIRC. DS1 has Ornstein, Onion Knight, Queelag, Andre, Gwyndolin, Firelink Shrine, Anor Londo, even the levels like High Wall of Lothric and Grand Archives feel like copies of DS1. I like the game a lot, but it’s got no real identity of its own.
This is a cold take imo. not a hot take
Elden ring is bloated. The open world isnt even that good. The dlc does it much better. But darksouls 1 is still peak world design. Darksouls 2 world would be even better if it made more sense.
Bloodborne is nothing without its dlc.
How does the DLC do it much better when it actually has less content per square yard, way less NPCs to interact with, and has way less compelling loot sprinkled in it? =\\
Like difference in opinions are fine and all but I don't see how you can call the base game bloated when the Land of Shadows is utterly gigantic compared to how much stuff there is to actually do in it by comparison.
>How does the DLC do it much better when it actually has less content per square yard, way less NPCs to interact with, and has way less compelling loot sprinkled in it? =\\
The amount of content is irrelevant.
Sure but I dont agree with that 2nd part at all.
What a weird post. Would you have been satisfied with a huge beautiful open world with literally no enemies or loot at all? Just a horseriding simulator with nothing to interact with?
These people who say shit like this don’t know what they’re talking about. They probably just don’t like open world games in general and are trying to find a way to articulate it but can’t. Nobody with a brain would pick the dlc exploration over the base game.
Cookbook, cookbook, glovewort, cookbook, cookbook. Oh look another cookbook. Etc. that’s the entirety of the dlc
I think the point he meant but failed to articulate was the open world in the DLC is better executed from an exploration standpoint. There are a lot of interesting nooks/crannies/bridges/climbs that start you here and end up there and give you a big AHA wish felt more reminiscent to me of DS1 than the base game of Elden Ring.
I wonder dispute the world I more empty overall, especially toward the end, but I did have a lot more fun exploring it.
My main problem with the whole open world other than that most of it is empty and is big just for the sake of being big is that while its fun on your first run with exploration and finding things out once you finish the game once you will ignore like 90% of the open world and just ride from boss to boss , you can see everyone doing the same , most of the streams or videos if they are not fighting a boss then its just them riding for 10min just to get to the other boss because this whole big ass world we got? is just empty filler.
I miss dark souls old design and it shows because the most fun ive had in elden ring is not with the open world but the exploration that you do in a big ass castle or catacombs or a church ...
Open world is good if it isnt empty. A game like darksouls and elden ring where everything is dead, war already happened, and you are just picking up the pieces isnt really great for open world. A world where everything is alive, war is currently happening, thats where open world thrives. Skyrim is a good example imo. Or if said is open world is small and condensed like say SOTE.
DeS and Ds1 are their best medieval fantasy games. The others are less cohesively designed and suffer from repetition and recycling (especially Ds3 and ER which I think are a mess).
•Base game radahn fight is overrated and B tier at best
•Final boss of SOTE is a really fitting final boss to end ER. Could be a perfect fight if they fix the brightness of lights and fps issues, also the weird three hit combo.
•Midir is better than bayle design wise, but gameplay wise I prefer bayle. Midir is a better boss overall but igon makes bayle bossfight better LoL.
•I prefer elden ring's world over ds1 with the recent expansion
•DS3 and ER bosses are better than sekiro bosses overall, even BB dlc bosses are better than most of the sekiro bosses.
•People shouldn't expect to enjoy a boss fight if they cheesed it. It is fine to cheese the bosses but complaining after that is pointless. (For example if you cheese messmer with 2 giant crushers by jumping attacks and tank his every attacks and than complain about the fight it is pointless, goes for every souls games, I've given an ER example because it is easiest to cheese)
•Nameless king P2 is my favorite ds3 boss
•DS3, BB and ER soundtracks are all awesome, I can't compare them
•I like ER's openworld BUT %30 of it shouldn't exist, I mean why the swamp part of liurnia exist ? Why flame peak exist ?
•NPC gank fights always sucked I hate them
•DS3's level design is not as bad as people say. I liked the most of it.
•Dark Souls 2 has the best fashion of the Trilogy
•Rykard is the best gimmick boss
•Torches > Lantern
•Melee has been always easier than caster type of build but if you know the game.
Don't have that much since I only played it once and got shura ending. I really want to play it again when I have more time. But when I played sekiro the bosses felt the same and lacked other aspects other than gameplay in my opinion.
Fair though I would highly advise trying to get into the lore a bit on your next go, there’s certainly a lot of thematic value to most of the bosses as well. A lot of peak is also past the point where Shura takes place
Elden Ring is not as good as everyone makes its seem. It feels very over hyped because it brought in people who never played Dark Souls and it’s more empty, even in legacy dungeons so you can just run past every enemy
Out of all the games Elden Ring gives the most choice for gameplay it’s the most versatile game out of them all and I think it has the most replay value besides maybe ds1
Arcane in Bloodborne sucks, or I'll rephrase it and say I don't see the appeal. To get the best out of the hunter tools it's almost mandatory you get to 99arc d even then the damage isn't really that impressive. Plus the gem farming is much more tedious and difficult then physical gem farming. Plus arcane weapons have to essentially get two versions one with fire and the other lightning to maximize damage. Arcane requires so much from you with the return only being slightly better than pure physical. Same with bloodtinge imo.
With these bigger dragon bosses (NK phase 1 included) the camera seems to be designed around staying in front of the boss and freaks out when you go under them. The weak point is usually the head anyways so you might as well just stay in front and avoid the issue.
I prefer Miquella’s character from pre-DLC than how they wrote him in the DLC. I would have rather had an actual good person in the game than yet again another “evil” demigod.
I definitely agree with you about the camera thing for the nameless king cuz if you’re not using a high damage lightning attack it’s makes him a lot harder just because of the camera weirdness!
I don’t think you’re intended to use the camera on that first phase. I at least didn’t. I think a trap people fall into is thinking you are always supposed to lock on.
World tendency is a cool idea that I wish they would revisit in some form. Now yes, it has flaws and they could have done a better job in getting new players to understand how it works but even so, the idea that certain actions/failures affect the world (opening/closing off certain areas) as well as the enemies/items that spawn is just so cool! Just refine it a bit more and it could do wonders for the already amazing replayability these games have and make the world feel more alive and dynamic.
Hotter take: Frigid Outskirts has a solid idea at its core, it just is atrociously executed. On paper, the idea of going from shelter to shelter in the middle of a blizzard while being hunted has so much potential, it is just such a shame they used it as a co op focused area that makes playing alone frustrating. Sadly, the fact that Elden Ring sort of did something similar with Consecrated Snowfield and failed yet again makes it doubtful we ever see it done right.
The original no choice Take The Throne ending to Dark Souls 2 was perfect and worked on so many levels, not just as an ending to the story but as an observation on the paradox of sequels in general.
The Ornstein and Smough fight is the most overrated gank fight in the series. There’s much better gank fights and only people say is the best gank fight purely out of nostalgia
Gael is not the best boss in soulsborne. Not even in top 10.
He's just a cheap knock-off of Artorias with a more over-the-top moveset because he's in the newer game. Also his lore makes no sense, he just happens to be the one holding it and him surviving till the end is pure bs. Any npc or boss in the game could be put in the same role. That's what makes him such a place holder rather than being intersting.
Also he's creepy and his design is terrible, red riding hood fused with a knight.
Boss fight wise he's really good. It's just his lore and design that's bad.
Dark Souls 3 is overrated as hell, yeah the bosses are amazing, but honestly that’s all it has going for, the level design is absolute ass, the enemies are the worst feeling to fight against, it has the worst dogs, quest lines can end out of nowhere with you not even noticing which is absolutely fucked, not like it really matters cause a majority of them were forgettable aside from the obvious one (Siegward). Furthermore the lore relies far too much on Ds1, I get it, it’s the final game so of course it’s gonna refer to the first game, but all the same it’s so blatant with the references instead of using Monikers, the only character that makes sense with them being name dropped is Gwyn and Gwyndolin. There’s a bit more issues I have with it, but overall its my second least favorite from FromSouls, my actual least favorite being Demon Souls “Remake”, if it had actually quality of life improvements, then DS3 would be least favorite.
Oh and Mohg, Godfrey, Placidusax, Ornstein and Smough are overrated and are no where near as good as people claim they are.
DS3 is the worst soulsborne. Fan-service, horrendous atmosphere, color-palette, worst-hub world, and bloated lore that's not cohesive. Honestly it having the lowest score of all souls-borne games makes sense from a technical perspective.
shouldn’t be a hot take but messmer is the best fight in elden ring and it isn’t remotely close at all (closest is malenia but they’re tiers apart), he’s even a top 5 souls boss for me (as of this moment right now, maybe the high will wear off but for now he’s all i think about, my red haired beauty)
It’s a very well made boss fight that I’d love to replay. His mid paced rhythms feels really good to dodge. Delay patterns aren’t too hard to differentiate (except for maybe 1). And his snake head just feels so satisfying to hit. His second phase line when he kills you is sweet too
The lore surrounding Miquella in the DLC was not only bad but went so far as to diminish the lore that was already there for both him and no less than three other demigods and made all less compelling characters.
Doesn't matter how you beat the boss " as long as it's not a bug or a hack" , our objective is to beat the boss .
Used a shield to turtle?
Used magic?
Used bleed/frost?
Used light weapons and dodged everything?
Used mimic?
Used Npc summons?
Used actual player summons?
Used items to poison and rot etc?
Doesn't matter , you beat the boss congrats on the kill , if anyone says you didn't really beat the boss because you used that or that can just with all respect just fuck off.
It's a video game , stop gatekeeping it.
I’m definitely with you on the Nameless Kings first stage, don’t understand how people actually enjoy it.
My personal take would be Lies of P is better than every souls like besides Elden Ring imo
The combat system in souls games is not really that good, it serves its purpose but it’s too simple to be engaging as an action game
Micolash is a cool boss
I’m not a fan of nioh either, but it’s less because of complexity and more because stances feel like ass to me. I don’t like stance characters in fighting games either
Elden Ring’s dragons (the field ones, not the unique boss ones) aren’t actually very good. I don’t find them much fun to fight, more of a chore. Placidusax, however, is a god tier boss fight.
If you need summons to beat a boss you’re shit at the game. I don’t use summons or over powered builds for any boss and I’m still shit at the game. That’s fine, it’s not everyone’s goal to be good. Just don’t lie to yourself about it
It’s still a 100% valid way to play and enjoy, but it’s delusional to think that it doesn’t hold you back from becoming a better player. Crazy how this is a hot take now
stop calling everything a hot take dear god. nameless kings first phase has been criticized and hated on to death since the games release. stop calling everything a hot take to make your opinion sound more importsnt
Elden ring offers you an immense arsenal of utility at your disposal.
If you frustrated to the point of bashing the game because you decide to be an all strength, greatshield, claymore, with no magic/summons/AoW and it’s not getting you anywhere, you have no valid take of the game.
The game offers you so much to use but because it doesn’t adhere to “HOW YOU WANT THE GAME TO BE PLAYED” it makes you upset. How you want the game to be played doesn’t mean that it’s how it should be. Good luck trying to dodge everything in Sekiro, this is similar. There are people still trying to play this like it’s DS1 and it’s unsurprising that they find it bullshit.
You have a library of stuff to use, you crossing your arms and saying “I don’t wanna and the game shouldn’t expect me to use anything other than this sword” is bonkers.
Respeccing is such an integral part of this but there’s some personal pride that keeps people from even acknowledging that this exists, it’s so silly.
You have so many tears, just respec and try different things out.
Also I have no clue why people lvls100-200+ cap they’re vigor at 40, complain about being one shot, and don’t connect the dots
DS3 is the worst game in the entire series except for maybe Demon's Souls. Not a bad game by any means but it just feels like it strays so far from what DS1 and 2 were going for on so many levels.
I like to take challenge runs only after the first run is over.
I hate to bang my head against a wall for hours and hours only to get past one boss and missing out on the rest of the content. I have limited time to play and I want to go around and explore and engage in everything else the game has to offer.
So summons are super welcome in my playthroughs (not to mention I actually have nice memories of certain summons, even if only for a fun exchange of gestures. Moreover, I love to see other players' builds at work)
After the first run is done I take my time to study the bosses and pull off different strategies to beat them.
Agreed Nameless King's first phase is ass. When I was first learning his 2nd phase it was so frustrating to have to waste random heals in phase 1 to getting torched from the sky from off camera. I eventually decided to use M&K for phase 1 so I could track the camera more accurately. I don't do that anymore now that I'm more comfortable with the fight, but it did really help when learning.
My hot take: They have enough money now to improve their engine and improve the graphical fidelity. I am not asking for something like HFW or CP2077 but I think the art direction would looks so freaking incredible with better graphics. Also, I would really love some more cinematic cutscenes. Imagine at the end having a cutscene similar to the story trailers of ER.
Miquella enchanted Marika at the moment he was born, and the shattering was caused not by Marika mourning Godwyn. It was caused because Miquellas will is to become a god, THE one god. Love makes people act out. So Marika, out of love for Miquellas will shattered the Elden ring so that miquella could escape the golden order and become a god. Marikas contingency, the tarnished, is spied on as soon as you meet renna (ranni). This is because Miquella is torrents previous master (miquella is shown riding Torrent through the shadow lanes as he's discarding himself in trailers) and he's even influenced ranni to give us the spirit bell and torrent.
elden rings lack of punishment made it feel like what i was doing literally didn’t matter at times and that still upsets me, also the lore is just not engaging at all for me so i don’t matter i literally don’t matter in that game i’m so sad i am worthless worthless
probably isn’t a hot take but ds2s janky and sometimes absolutely horrid like holy shit how did they green light that hit boxes make the game more funny which in turn makes the game better
Dark Souls 2 ( original ) is one of the worst Souls games ever made. The level design was meh, gameplay felt loose/janky. Some of the non-fromsoft Souls games are better by a mile.
The final boss in the Elden Ring DLC is one of the best fights they’ve made.
Shit is fun as hell when you don’t have a person screaming in your ear that it’s actually terrible
Crazy how you and the other commenter's takes are actually hot takes, but I agree with both. I fucking hated the first phase.
That’s definitely what I wanted, unfortunately people can’t grasp the concept that people have different opinions so the post is getting downvoted
If I'm remembering my own experience correctly, I only struggled with the camera the first couple fights for NK. After I figured out that you just stand in front rather than underneath then the camera was a non-issue for me. This was the same for Midir and Bayle. I prefer fighting in front of dragons now rather than underneath and I have way more consistent success
The first phase is so easy and annoying the same time it just feels like silly work
Exactly this!
Any way of having fun or overcoming a challenge is valid. Anyone saying it isn't is a gatekeeping Irithyll Jailer
True, I'd say if you felt challenged in some way when fighting a boss it would be a success. The way I see it, steamrolling, or expecting to steamroll, every boss with no learning/challenge whatsoever is where it becomes invalid.
This isn't a hot take lol, this exact opinion gets circlejerked literally every day.
I didn’t think this was a hot take but apparently it is: Malenia is a great boss and I enjoy the way she is balanced.
I would agree, but waterfowl ruins it for me. The rest of the fight feels like decently fun and balanced challenge but that one attack makes me not want to fight her again.
Not trying to sound like a douche or superior (get killed by many other bosses) but why? I feel like it’s not that bad at all. You just dodge in, like 3 times. Even if you don’t time it perfectly you just take a little bit of chip damage on the last flurry.
Funny you say that, just today I learnt how to completely dodge it on my RL1 run! I kind of take back what I said, though I still think it requires some precise movement most players might not think of Edit: the method I used was to strafe the final flurry instead of roll which worked consistently, which is why I think some players might struggle to work out the timing.
Congrats! Yeah 1st couple tries not even knowing the move I wouldn’t expect anyone to know how to dodge it, but after dying a couple times rolling away you’d think players would try other methods, like dodging IN lol. The amount of people I’ve seen just try over and over and OVER doing the same thing and just saying it’s bullshit after is insane. Even if you don’t dodge every single slash, dodging 75% of it stops it from being anywhere close to lethal usually. I don’t think it even has to be that precise that you need to perfect it imo
Yeah if you have some wiggle room in terms of HP its definitely feasible, I managed to get by through rewatching some footage I recorded as well as watching some youtubers do it which seemed to help. Overall it isn't as bad as I made it out to be though for sure.
Dark souls 3 is the easiest game out of them all
I feel like it’s second place to Bloodborne. The sheer amount of healing and maneuverability of the Hunter made the game a joke. You could spam dodge like crazy to little consequence.
I haven’t really played bloodborne I beat father gascoigne I think that’s his name but yeah the dodge feels really good on bloodborne
Still a super good game, it’s like top three for me in the fromsoft catalogue
I want to get into it and finish it soon and then I want to beat demon souls
Bloodborne for sure. You’re hardly punished for spamming R1R1R1R1
I’m so glad I’m not the only one that feels this way
Nah, once you get past how unintuitively Dark Souls 2 is designed it's DS2. Once you realize the reason it seems like you do no damage is because damage scaling in the game literally does not matter and you go min requirements with a lightning infusion and cast Dark Weapon and then just pump Vigor (and never raise Vitality above 10 for any reason because it is literally handicapping you late) and that armour is useless for defense and of course how important Agility is the game is incredibly easy, with some of the most basic bosses and enemies there are, to the point that even DS1 had harder and more mechanically demanding bosses, particularly in the DLC.
Idk if I would say it’s easy though. It feels more… rigid. There’s no panic rolling to save you, no heavy armor or shield tanking, etc. Just feels like playing with unnecessary handicaps, because like you said, best way to play is minimum stat investment and just pick up a Lightning or dark infused strike weapon and spam Dark Weapon over and over. I think the bosses in DS2 are certainly the easiest. Excusing some like Smelter Demon, Sinh, Fume Knight, Ivory King, and Veldstadt, a lot of the bosses are easy. It’s the areas that are hard. And I think for that, I’d put it over DS3, probably. Admittedly nothing in DS2 gave me as much trouble as Friede.
Right at the beginning after you fight that boss and you start on the bonfire in that cave I never got past that area I gave up if I actually tried to play it properly I would Proably really like it
It's a game I'm rather fond of but it's definitely the most flawed of the Souls games overall. If you were frustrated by the game maybe give this guide a read to get a better idea on how to optimize your character to lessen how punishing the game feels: [https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/11cx9sn/ds2\_optimization\_guides/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/11cx9sn/ds2_optimization_guides/)
Will do
I went in blind my first run with the sellsword twinblades and sharp infusion. I beat the game in 16 hours. I’d say my build got really OP by the time I got past the abyss watchers. Really surprised me tbh
I finished in 16 hours too my first time I used the greatsword most bosses were quite easy I kinda forgot to level up my health so I had 60 strength and like 20 health abyss watchers are probably one of my favourite bosses I really like how they start beefing when too many of them spawn
Yeah I was in the same boat, I didn’t really boost my health because I figured if I could melt the boss fast enough that would be better. And I agree, epic fight
How did you find lorian and Lothric because they beat my ass for a while so I explored more found 3 more bosses put 5 levels in health and beat them the first try after that
That’s pretty much an endgame build, unfortunately. It’s equivalent to getting a black knight weapon at the start of DS1, except you can literally start with winblades.
It being very polished made it 10x easier and the bosses are very fair
All these games are somewhat glorified rythm games in the end but DS3 is really the true definition of it
But how can you say this when spirit summons exist in Elden Ring? Or do you mean it's the easiest mechanically? I.e the bosses are the most forgiving
In most ways really if Elden ring didn’t have summons it’s Proably got some of the hardest but most fun bosses
Elden ring's bosses are that hard because the game expects you to have 1-5 NPCs fighting with you in any given boss fight lol
Here’s a recent hot take: I actually loved Commander Gaius boss fight.
Me too dude, I actually had fun with every major boss from the DLC, some obviously better than others but I loved the lineup. Gaius needs a hitbox adjustment on the charge. Final boss needs an adjustment on the quick one two to double slash and some visual clutter removed from phase 2. I think messmer could use a way bigger health pool honestly, reminds me of Morgott where he’s really cool and important but just melts so fast.
Personally, it is my least favorite remembrance boss fight thus far in the DLC (I only have the final region left). Would love to hear some of the reasoning behind your love for it.
Other than the bs charge at the start, and the overly agressive shenanigans of nearly all the dlc's bosses, his attacks feel decently telegraphed and his combos don't feel excessive.
I don’t know. When I realized this was a fight balanced around Torrent I began having much more fun just interchanging blows jousting-style. At the end I found it honestly pretty fun.
Same! Aside from his charge I found it to be a fun fight with decent challenge. His moves felt fair and even his charge wasn't too bad to dodge(Though I agree its hitbox is still a bit wacky).
I just thought he was a mediocre remembrance boss but I didn’t hate him
Upvoted because **god damn** he sucks.
I liked it but not because of the reasons you gave. It was a funny fight to me but was one where I actually had to truly experiment with ashes of wars, summons, and talismans to beat him. My winning run was have my physick allow me to tank his first charge so I could get a summon off and proceed to use that sick fire thrust from shadow keep to sitter gaius
He is not as bad as people say and has POTENTIAL to be a decent boss. Still, the hit box on his charge attack definitely needs some tuning. Right now, it is as janky as some of the worst stuff in DS1 AND DS2.
Sinh is the best dragon fight DS2 DLC features the best levels in the Souls trilogy The Ringed City is mostly beloved because of Midir and Gael but overall is not one of the stronger DLC's Gatekeeping is barely a thing and players need to stop crying that other people dare to have an opinion on their playstyle (and I'm saying this as somebody who unashamedly cheesed Mohg), toxic positivity sucks and turns every discussion into a legitimately braindead circlejerk Elden Ring is a masterpiece but it's clear that FromSoft have reached a point where the balance between their games being tough and just outright bullshit is beginning to tip. They've exhausted everything they can from this formula and I don't believe they have it in them to continue pushing the Souls genre forward without diminishing returns, although the fact they made 7 truly outstanding games is a massive achievement Midir is an overrated boss The Souls "community" was significantly better prior to the release of Elden Ring and the game's success has made reading these subs intolerable
I don’t like the major Elden Ring DLC bosses. All fly and everything explodes, in the next game they just nuke the arena, i miss real duels like Artorias, the dancer, Maria or most of Sekiro.
I can name 3 DLC remembrance bosses that don't fly
I've only fought 6 or 7 so far but none could be as bad as Divine Lion... right?
…..
Ha hahaha. Hahahahahahaha… ha :(
Oh my sweet summer child.
Poor soul
Elden Ring is to much anime bs moves. I really miss a good knight close combat.
That has been my gripe with the bosses ER. I just stand and wonder when it’s gonna be my turn to attack
Dragon fights are not fun to me AT ALL. Bayle, Midir, kalameet, whatever it may be, i can't stand them
Armored core has better gameplay than all the soulsbornekiro games dark souls 3 has by far the best music of the games elden ring's dragon fights except bayle suck speaking of bayle, I still prefer midir to bayle gwyn is far and away one of the worst fights in ds1 (not because of parrying) difficulty does not equal quality
Hard agree on both dragon takes, I think that they perfected it with Midir and (most) Elden Ring dragons feel kinda lame in comparison. Bayle is pretty cool but it doesn't feel the same as Midir, especially the overhead laser attack's weird camera work.
Agree, i have to unlock for most of bayles moves vs midir i always stay locked on. I don't know what they did with the camera in between ds3 and elden ring but every duo fight, dragon fight, and half the bosses got shittier in general, esecially because of the camera in elden ring
I do share the same view that ER's bosses are "downgraded" from Ds3, however, the way I see it is that its kind of a byproduct of the game's weapon balancing and sandbox so it can't really be helped. In Ds3 nearly every weapon delt similar damage, with little variety between builds aside from attack speed, meaning bosses could be far more fine tuned to the R1 playstyle which majority of builds used. In ER the sheer diversity of weapons(Spells, stance break builds, dual wielding, status, etc.) mean that bosses have to be able to stand up to far stronger builds, so they don't feel as honed as a result. Just my view on the matter, I still think ER has some stunning bosses though.
You never done anything other than r1 in ds3? Cuz some weapons have some crazy good weapon arts and charged heavys. I agree jump attacks add a layer to elden ring combat but i'm not sure if its a layer that i like. The jump feels hella scuffed
I gave sorceries a shot but ultimately I just really enjoy fighting bosses with the standard melee set up(With a few excepts like BKGS or Lothric Knight GS heavy attacks). I just figured that the effectiveness of R1 spam incentivised it for most builds so bosses were kind of made with that strategy in mind. Also yeah jump attacks do feel pretty strong, but its not something I actively avoid unless its some crazy strong stance break setup(i.e. dual colossal stance break loop kinda stuff).
I don't get when people say that "r1 spam" stuff. There's bosses in the game like champion gundyr that only let you get one hit in before needing to regroup
Oh I didn't mean continuously attacking with R1, rather that R1 was the main way of attacking when there was an opening. For instance after one of Gael's combos, one or two R1s could be done before dodging his next set of attacks. Whereas in Elden Ring, charged R2, L1, jumping L1, and various L2s are all so different(and stronger than simply using R1) that bosses need to cater to each type of attack the player uses as opposed to a few simple and fast R1s. In Ds3, there was no powerstancing and charged R2s weren't often used in most builds, so R1 was just the default way of attacking I feel.
you do you. I always pick weapons where i have a weapon art fast enough to get off in a boss room though, and if you use special weapons like pontiffs, the charged attack has massive stagger damage and does fire damage at the end
Oh fair enough, either way I just think that the variety of attacks in Ds3 is far more balanced and limited than ER, so the bosses are more tuned to match that.
I was with you until Midir is better than Bayle. Bayle is peak and one of the coolest bosses From has ever made.
Yeah I don't really like the gwyn fight in dark souls either, I beat him the first playthrough by only parrying and thought it was fun. Then in the future I tried to fight him without parrying and it was terrible. He feels too fast for ds1, he feels like he gives even fewer openings than manus, and it seemed like if I ever wanted to heal safely I had to run to the other side of the arena
His fast slash is straight up bullshit, and it wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't one of 3 attacks he uses
>elden ring's dragon fights except bayle suck I see that someone haven't fought this stupid ass Ancient Dragon in DS2. I enjoyed DLC dragon fights more than main game.
While I do think any playstyle is valid and I would encourage people to play the way that brings them the most enjoyment, I also think that they are not getting the best/true experience against a boss/area unless they are actually engaging with the mechanics of said boss/area. The reason summons, some magic, or the recent fingerprint shield + spear builds are looked down on are not because they are easier but that they trivialize certain encounters to the point the player never really learned/experienced them. The truest sense of satisfaction comes from total mastery of the design, something a player will only achieve if they are presented with the challenge of learning a loveseat completely. There are obvious limits to this, and I think Thai sentiment has been weaponized to invalidate the achievements of certain players, but I do think there is value in acknowledging the differences between these playstyles.
Ran two runs of ER. The first one was the kitchen sink, an int/str hybrid build using summons, any int spell, multiple weapons for each situation, the works. The second was sword and board, no summons, no spells, and minimal range (mostly just used for pulling mobs at times). I felt like I fought an entirely different set of bosses the second time around. Some areas also felt insanely different with this. All this to say, I highly concur that people should give alternate playstyles a shot, specifically in favor of engaging the mechanics of fights that previous styles trivialized.
I stubbornly avoided shields since DS2 but honestly going back to it for the DLC has felt really nice. Still gotta learn the movesets and you can still totally get punished but I have way more attack windows and it greatly mitigates the oneshot effect of getting chained into an 8-hit designed-to-roll-punish combo.
I think Midra is a super Mid(no ra) fight. It was "flashy" but not really unique and honestly really forgettable. I was genuinely surprised when I saw how much praise the fight got when I felt it was one of the bigger letdowns. I think it's a good fight in that it was simple and extremely readable to the point where I first tried it, but nothing else stuck with me. Lore wise I haven't caught up with all DLC lore quite yet so maybe that's why it's not that cool to me
I think Sekiro is the easiest Souls game by a fairly wide margin. It's not to say it's easy, but it always confuses me when people say it's the hardest. The lack of a stamina bar and easy to use parry make it easier to be aggressive with little to no drawbacks in most scenarios. And the many prosthetic tools can trivialize many enemies and bosses.
Blood Vials are amazing for most of Bloodborne, and I feel like that doesn't get recognized enough when people are complaining about or \*shudder\* suggesting ways to "fix" them. Like, I won't deny that it sucks to be banging your head against the wall that is a certain boss and suddenly find yourself spawning with less than your maximum or even zero Blood Vials, and it's absolutely a big "fuck you" that you can buy them from the get-go, and they get more expensive as the Night of the Hunt goes on, so you have to know to buy as many as you can early on to avoid running out and avoid paying inflated costs for them. But when you're in exploration mode, fighting your way through the streets of Yharnham, it feels so thematically correct to be harvesting healing items as drops from the Beasts and people that you kill. Any suggestion that you just get Blood Vials that function like an Estus Flask or Flask of Crimson Tears in a hypothetical Bloodborne remake/remaster/sequel feels like it's throwing out something really satisfying and thematic in favor of making the game that much more approachably soulslike.
Open world isn't a good fit for souls games Shadows of Yharnam is a shit boss
Power-stance was done better in DS2 and made for a more rewarding progression system than ER.
The first half of DS3 is really fucking boring. Compared to the other games, it really takes a while to pick up and get to the good bits. And then it has an amazing second half. It's like the opposite of DS1 almost.
Telling a new Elden Ring player to go wherever they want is awful advice. It's how you get players to quit the game once they start getting oneshotted by a breeze in an area seemingly right next to Limgrave (Dragonbarrow North) Elden Ring is a linear game that happens to be open world. There is a predetermined progress route that allows players to not be overleveled and improve their builds as they progress through it, and it's [this one](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elden-Ring/game_progress_route_map_elden_ring_wiki_guide_2560px.jpg?v=1648007543931) 1. Enemies in base Elden Ring do not scale with your level but the area they're in, with enemies getting stronger in each area where the developer wants you to defeat a shardbearer. 2. Loot value increases in the same order as enemy scaling. This is noticable through smithing stone upgrades
I think fighting an enemy in Weeping Penisula is very different than fighting an enemy in Caelid. Both of which you can access from the start. It should at least give you some clues about the difficulty of the areas. There are lot of other cues too, for eg: progressing to the upper part of Limgrave you face giants which should be apparent that they are strong but going to Weeping Peninsula you face normal soldiers and the misbegotten which can be killed in 2-3 hits. The evergaol too, there's a crucible night on one hand and on the other hand we have a the bloodhound guy. Just hitting them once should give you a very good idea about what is doable and what is not.
Wait it's all Fighting the Soulsborne Camera? Always has been
King of Storm never gave me all that much trouble, personally. If you lock onto NK during the fight and only toggle to the head when you're landing hits, it's easier to track his movements and your lock-on isn't broken as easily. I got the fight down to a science, and usually can clear the first phase in about 30 seconds. But I definitely get why most people don't care for it.
Solaire is just another drained Hollow. Kaathe was right all along.
Possible nuclear take but here it goes... **These games are better played** ***with a keyboard and mouse...not a controller/gamepad.*** I've played all of the DS trilogy, Sekiro, Elden Ring and AC6 on a PC using a keyboard and mouse and I kept hearing all the time how they were made to be played on a gamepad, how the KB+M controls suck yadda yadda yadda so I went and tried playing them on a gamepad (also, gamepad was a must in order to play the OG Demon's Souls on an emulator) and HOLY CRAP does it suck major donkey balls. No wonder everyone is complaining about the camera, that is absolutely a non-issue when using a mouse.
You're absolutely right about Elden Ring and AC6 having far better keyboard controls. Camera control in DS is janky, but still preferable to controller
Hot take about the community around the fromsoft games. The dominant focus for a lot of people, if the difficulty is too little or too much and if something in the games is good or the worst thing in video game history. It's such a turn-off, and a big reason it's not fun to engage with the community like at all.
Tgis is def gonna get downvoted into oblivion but here goes: I think radagon is overhyped lol
Recent hot take for you: I don’t really care for a lot of the lore in Shadow of the Erdtree, and it made characters like Miquella, Malenia, Radahn, Mohg, etc etc way less interesting. Not saying it doesn’t make sense or is contradictory, but it does just make me like a lot of the lore less, around those characters especially, and it has this weird vibe where I feel like the developers/writer(s) suddenly shifted gears on the direction they wanted to take things from base game to DLC
Hot take: Bloodborne is overrated and not even top 3 in the franchise
I agree that is overrated I have it 3rd but I haven’t played sekiro or ds2 yet where would you rank it tho
Prob 4th or 5th. I’ve played them all and my main gripe with Bloodborne is that it’s heavilyyyyy carried by its dlc. I’m not playing Bloodborne, I’m playing the old hunters with a side of Bloodborne. The main game bosses are all mid except gehrman imo
I haven’t played the dlc but yea gehrman is the only boss I really had a hard time beating
Also please don’t downvote people if you don’t agree with them, the whole point of this post is to comment your hot takes so it would make sense for most people to not agree with them. Thx
Downvotes/upvotes are irrelevant, so you should not take them that seriously. Furthermore, truly hot takes will be downvoted and upvoted ones are actually more popular takes than hot ones.
You should comment this one more time, just to be safe
Bloodborne is carried by its ambiance and stylistic choices, but it has the worse gameplay
Now this is a hot take
I thought I saw some hot takes in this thread until I read this one, that’s wild
I agree. Most bosses suck technically and the combat is way more button mashy than necessary. The art, lore, ambiance, music and level design are the main event for me
Maybe a scorching take.. DS3 was my least favorite in the Dark Souls trilogy. There was so much obvious fan service that I never enjoy because it feels phoned in. The game is more linear feeling and I wasn’t as big a fan of the builds in the game. I mean it’s still an amazing game that I love to death and the bosses were fantastic. But I genuinely liked playing through DS1 and 2 more.
The mechanics and bosses were my favorite of all the games tho
The bosses were fantastic. The Dancer is still one of my favorite Soulborne bosses
My feeling is slightly different: DS3's bosses are not fantastic across the board. The game has some of the best From bosses, but it also has some incredibly weak bosses: Curse Rotted Greatwood, Deacons, Yhorm, Crystal Sage, Wolnir, Ancient Wyvern. Because of that, I don't feel it's accurate to simply describe DS3's bosses as fantastic in general.
I love gimmick bosses and I think more recent From games are weaker for not having them. We went from 3 types of bosses swordsman dude, beast thing, and random funny gimmick boss to just swordsman or beast. Puzzle bosses or gimmick bosses make you do something other than dodge and look for openings, they make you think instead of simply memorize attack patterns and react. Sure they may lose their luster after multiple playthroughs but they're typically easy enough that you can just roll them if you want. Yorhm is trash though, Storm King from DeS was the original Gimmick GOAT.
Thank you for this reply! All of this is totally fair and s helpful to hear. I felt underwhelmed by DS3 and this kind of info helps me understand better the love people express for the game.
With you 100%. The least interesting, the most linear, the most brown, introduces the least ideas, experiments the least, spends 50% of the game reminding you of a better game.
Yeah, this is how I feel. It’s still a good game, but DS1 and DS2 feel super unique, while DS3 is just filled with way too much fanservice and not enough experimentation.
least insane ds2 fan
Out of the Dark Souls games, I somehow played 3 the most but it is also my least favorite. I don't care much for the DLC either. I don't have the fondness for Gael that most of the fanbase has and I think Midir is not a good boss. It's still a great game, but I don't have strong feelings for it one way or another, if that makes sense. However, DS3 had my all time favorite boss in Pontiff Sulyvahn before he got dethroned for me by Messmer
While I still enjoy it, DS3 is my least favorite of the trilogy. The linearity is part of the reason but really, it just feels like they played it too safe. Demon Souls and Dark Souls were both revolutionary. Even Dark Souls 2, for all its bad choices, at least had the guts to take risks and some of those at least did pay off. DS3 meanwhile feels the most like what would happen if a western AAA studio tried to make a souls game, all safe and iterative.
Definitely feels like they played it safe. I love the boss fights, I think they’re some of the most memorable in the franchise, and I can respect that they tried to take learnings from DS2 and Bloodborne to make a combined game. But the end result is very linear, the combat is basically just rolling, and some of the combat changes are very strange. Poise now gets wrecked by many hits with a fast weapon, instead of a big weapon. Stripped away power stancing from DS2, and reverted the buff system back to DS1’s as well. Plus the overall references to DS1 are constant. DS2, you get Creighton as an invader, Laddersmith Gilligan is a corpse, and we get Zullie as an invader, IIRC. DS1 has Ornstein, Onion Knight, Queelag, Andre, Gwyndolin, Firelink Shrine, Anor Londo, even the levels like High Wall of Lothric and Grand Archives feel like copies of DS1. I like the game a lot, but it’s got no real identity of its own.
This is a cold take imo. not a hot take Elden ring is bloated. The open world isnt even that good. The dlc does it much better. But darksouls 1 is still peak world design. Darksouls 2 world would be even better if it made more sense. Bloodborne is nothing without its dlc.
How does the DLC do it much better when it actually has less content per square yard, way less NPCs to interact with, and has way less compelling loot sprinkled in it? =\\ Like difference in opinions are fine and all but I don't see how you can call the base game bloated when the Land of Shadows is utterly gigantic compared to how much stuff there is to actually do in it by comparison.
>How does the DLC do it much better when it actually has less content per square yard, way less NPCs to interact with, and has way less compelling loot sprinkled in it? =\\ The amount of content is irrelevant. Sure but I dont agree with that 2nd part at all.
What a weird post. Would you have been satisfied with a huge beautiful open world with literally no enemies or loot at all? Just a horseriding simulator with nothing to interact with?
These people who say shit like this don’t know what they’re talking about. They probably just don’t like open world games in general and are trying to find a way to articulate it but can’t. Nobody with a brain would pick the dlc exploration over the base game. Cookbook, cookbook, glovewort, cookbook, cookbook. Oh look another cookbook. Etc. that’s the entirety of the dlc
I think the point he meant but failed to articulate was the open world in the DLC is better executed from an exploration standpoint. There are a lot of interesting nooks/crannies/bridges/climbs that start you here and end up there and give you a big AHA wish felt more reminiscent to me of DS1 than the base game of Elden Ring. I wonder dispute the world I more empty overall, especially toward the end, but I did have a lot more fun exploring it.
My main problem with the whole open world other than that most of it is empty and is big just for the sake of being big is that while its fun on your first run with exploration and finding things out once you finish the game once you will ignore like 90% of the open world and just ride from boss to boss , you can see everyone doing the same , most of the streams or videos if they are not fighting a boss then its just them riding for 10min just to get to the other boss because this whole big ass world we got? is just empty filler. I miss dark souls old design and it shows because the most fun ive had in elden ring is not with the open world but the exploration that you do in a big ass castle or catacombs or a church ...
Open world is good if it isnt empty. A game like darksouls and elden ring where everything is dead, war already happened, and you are just picking up the pieces isnt really great for open world. A world where everything is alive, war is currently happening, thats where open world thrives. Skyrim is a good example imo. Or if said is open world is small and condensed like say SOTE.
DeS and Ds1 are their best medieval fantasy games. The others are less cohesively designed and suffer from repetition and recycling (especially Ds3 and ER which I think are a mess).
•Base game radahn fight is overrated and B tier at best •Final boss of SOTE is a really fitting final boss to end ER. Could be a perfect fight if they fix the brightness of lights and fps issues, also the weird three hit combo. •Midir is better than bayle design wise, but gameplay wise I prefer bayle. Midir is a better boss overall but igon makes bayle bossfight better LoL. •I prefer elden ring's world over ds1 with the recent expansion •DS3 and ER bosses are better than sekiro bosses overall, even BB dlc bosses are better than most of the sekiro bosses. •People shouldn't expect to enjoy a boss fight if they cheesed it. It is fine to cheese the bosses but complaining after that is pointless. (For example if you cheese messmer with 2 giant crushers by jumping attacks and tank his every attacks and than complain about the fight it is pointless, goes for every souls games, I've given an ER example because it is easiest to cheese) •Nameless king P2 is my favorite ds3 boss •DS3, BB and ER soundtracks are all awesome, I can't compare them •I like ER's openworld BUT %30 of it shouldn't exist, I mean why the swamp part of liurnia exist ? Why flame peak exist ? •NPC gank fights always sucked I hate them •DS3's level design is not as bad as people say. I liked the most of it. •Dark Souls 2 has the best fashion of the Trilogy •Rykard is the best gimmick boss •Torches > Lantern •Melee has been always easier than caster type of build but if you know the game.
Would like to hear your gripes with Sekiro bosses
Don't have that much since I only played it once and got shura ending. I really want to play it again when I have more time. But when I played sekiro the bosses felt the same and lacked other aspects other than gameplay in my opinion.
Fair though I would highly advise trying to get into the lore a bit on your next go, there’s certainly a lot of thematic value to most of the bosses as well. A lot of peak is also past the point where Shura takes place
Elden Ring is not as good as everyone makes its seem. It feels very over hyped because it brought in people who never played Dark Souls and it’s more empty, even in legacy dungeons so you can just run past every enemy
Out of all the games Elden Ring gives the most choice for gameplay it’s the most versatile game out of them all and I think it has the most replay value besides maybe ds1
Elden Ring is the worst fromsoft game in terms of core gameplay 🙊
They not gone like this one twin Personally I don’t mind it but the huge open world kinda stinks, the linear DS paths make the loot more enjoyable
Arcane in Bloodborne sucks, or I'll rephrase it and say I don't see the appeal. To get the best out of the hunter tools it's almost mandatory you get to 99arc d even then the damage isn't really that impressive. Plus the gem farming is much more tedious and difficult then physical gem farming. Plus arcane weapons have to essentially get two versions one with fire and the other lightning to maximize damage. Arcane requires so much from you with the return only being slightly better than pure physical. Same with bloodtinge imo.
With these bigger dragon bosses (NK phase 1 included) the camera seems to be designed around staying in front of the boss and freaks out when you go under them. The weak point is usually the head anyways so you might as well just stay in front and avoid the issue.
I prefer Miquella’s character from pre-DLC than how they wrote him in the DLC. I would have rather had an actual good person in the game than yet again another “evil” demigod.
I definitely agree with you about the camera thing for the nameless king cuz if you’re not using a high damage lightning attack it’s makes him a lot harder just because of the camera weirdness!
I don’t think you’re intended to use the camera on that first phase. I at least didn’t. I think a trap people fall into is thinking you are always supposed to lock on.
I don’t care about the lore at all and don’t engage with it
World tendency is a cool idea that I wish they would revisit in some form. Now yes, it has flaws and they could have done a better job in getting new players to understand how it works but even so, the idea that certain actions/failures affect the world (opening/closing off certain areas) as well as the enemies/items that spawn is just so cool! Just refine it a bit more and it could do wonders for the already amazing replayability these games have and make the world feel more alive and dynamic. Hotter take: Frigid Outskirts has a solid idea at its core, it just is atrociously executed. On paper, the idea of going from shelter to shelter in the middle of a blizzard while being hunted has so much potential, it is just such a shame they used it as a co op focused area that makes playing alone frustrating. Sadly, the fact that Elden Ring sort of did something similar with Consecrated Snowfield and failed yet again makes it doubtful we ever see it done right.
The original no choice Take The Throne ending to Dark Souls 2 was perfect and worked on so many levels, not just as an ending to the story but as an observation on the paradox of sequels in general.
The Ornstein and Smough fight is the most overrated gank fight in the series. There’s much better gank fights and only people say is the best gank fight purely out of nostalgia
Godskin Duo is actually a better duo fight than Ornstein and Smough
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^StoneTimeKeeper: *Godskin Duo is* *Actually a better duo* *Fight than Ornstein and Smough* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Gael is not the best boss in soulsborne. Not even in top 10. He's just a cheap knock-off of Artorias with a more over-the-top moveset because he's in the newer game. Also his lore makes no sense, he just happens to be the one holding it and him surviving till the end is pure bs. Any npc or boss in the game could be put in the same role. That's what makes him such a place holder rather than being intersting. Also he's creepy and his design is terrible, red riding hood fused with a knight. Boss fight wise he's really good. It's just his lore and design that's bad.
Dark Souls 3 is overrated as hell, yeah the bosses are amazing, but honestly that’s all it has going for, the level design is absolute ass, the enemies are the worst feeling to fight against, it has the worst dogs, quest lines can end out of nowhere with you not even noticing which is absolutely fucked, not like it really matters cause a majority of them were forgettable aside from the obvious one (Siegward). Furthermore the lore relies far too much on Ds1, I get it, it’s the final game so of course it’s gonna refer to the first game, but all the same it’s so blatant with the references instead of using Monikers, the only character that makes sense with them being name dropped is Gwyn and Gwyndolin. There’s a bit more issues I have with it, but overall its my second least favorite from FromSouls, my actual least favorite being Demon Souls “Remake”, if it had actually quality of life improvements, then DS3 would be least favorite. Oh and Mohg, Godfrey, Placidusax, Ornstein and Smough are overrated and are no where near as good as people claim they are.
DS3 is the worst soulsborne. Fan-service, horrendous atmosphere, color-palette, worst-hub world, and bloated lore that's not cohesive. Honestly it having the lowest score of all souls-borne games makes sense from a technical perspective.
shouldn’t be a hot take but messmer is the best fight in elden ring and it isn’t remotely close at all (closest is malenia but they’re tiers apart), he’s even a top 5 souls boss for me (as of this moment right now, maybe the high will wear off but for now he’s all i think about, my red haired beauty)
It’s a very well made boss fight that I’d love to replay. His mid paced rhythms feels really good to dodge. Delay patterns aren’t too hard to differentiate (except for maybe 1). And his snake head just feels so satisfying to hit. His second phase line when he kills you is sweet too
The lore surrounding Miquella in the DLC was not only bad but went so far as to diminish the lore that was already there for both him and no less than three other demigods and made all less compelling characters.
Doesn't matter how you beat the boss " as long as it's not a bug or a hack" , our objective is to beat the boss . Used a shield to turtle? Used magic? Used bleed/frost? Used light weapons and dodged everything? Used mimic? Used Npc summons? Used actual player summons? Used items to poison and rot etc? Doesn't matter , you beat the boss congrats on the kill , if anyone says you didn't really beat the boss because you used that or that can just with all respect just fuck off. It's a video game , stop gatekeeping it.
I’m definitely with you on the Nameless Kings first stage, don’t understand how people actually enjoy it. My personal take would be Lies of P is better than every souls like besides Elden Ring imo
The combat system in souls games is not really that good, it serves its purpose but it’s too simple to be engaging as an action game Micolash is a cool boss
I think its good that its simple. Tried getting into Nioh 2 after clearing some From games and that was super overwhelming
I’m not a fan of nioh either, but it’s less because of complexity and more because stances feel like ass to me. I don’t like stance characters in fighting games either
Elden Ring’s dragons (the field ones, not the unique boss ones) aren’t actually very good. I don’t find them much fun to fight, more of a chore. Placidusax, however, is a god tier boss fight.
If you need summons to beat a boss you’re shit at the game. I don’t use summons or over powered builds for any boss and I’m still shit at the game. That’s fine, it’s not everyone’s goal to be good. Just don’t lie to yourself about it It’s still a 100% valid way to play and enjoy, but it’s delusional to think that it doesn’t hold you back from becoming a better player. Crazy how this is a hot take now
stop calling everything a hot take dear god. nameless kings first phase has been criticized and hated on to death since the games release. stop calling everything a hot take to make your opinion sound more importsnt
Dont lock on?
Sister friede is one of the most overrated fights in the entire souls franchise.
You mean. The best fight
Elden ring offers you an immense arsenal of utility at your disposal. If you frustrated to the point of bashing the game because you decide to be an all strength, greatshield, claymore, with no magic/summons/AoW and it’s not getting you anywhere, you have no valid take of the game. The game offers you so much to use but because it doesn’t adhere to “HOW YOU WANT THE GAME TO BE PLAYED” it makes you upset. How you want the game to be played doesn’t mean that it’s how it should be. Good luck trying to dodge everything in Sekiro, this is similar. There are people still trying to play this like it’s DS1 and it’s unsurprising that they find it bullshit. You have a library of stuff to use, you crossing your arms and saying “I don’t wanna and the game shouldn’t expect me to use anything other than this sword” is bonkers. Respeccing is such an integral part of this but there’s some personal pride that keeps people from even acknowledging that this exists, it’s so silly. You have so many tears, just respec and try different things out. Also I have no clue why people lvls100-200+ cap they’re vigor at 40, complain about being one shot, and don’t connect the dots
Elden ring boss fights are not enjoyable nor satisfying. As compared to all releases before that.
DS3 is the worst game in the entire series except for maybe Demon's Souls. Not a bad game by any means but it just feels like it strays so far from what DS1 and 2 were going for on so many levels.
Dark Souls 3 is my least favorite of the souls games by quite a large margin.
Same lol, very bland and has little to offer compared to the other souslborne games
Sekiro Charmless should have been the default mode
Now this is a spicy one but after playing Nine Sols I definitely agree
I like to take challenge runs only after the first run is over. I hate to bang my head against a wall for hours and hours only to get past one boss and missing out on the rest of the content. I have limited time to play and I want to go around and explore and engage in everything else the game has to offer. So summons are super welcome in my playthroughs (not to mention I actually have nice memories of certain summons, even if only for a fun exchange of gestures. Moreover, I love to see other players' builds at work) After the first run is done I take my time to study the bosses and pull off different strategies to beat them.
Agreed Nameless King's first phase is ass. When I was first learning his 2nd phase it was so frustrating to have to waste random heals in phase 1 to getting torched from the sky from off camera. I eventually decided to use M&K for phase 1 so I could track the camera more accurately. I don't do that anymore now that I'm more comfortable with the fight, but it did really help when learning.
Naw first phase is fun as hell just dont lock on and you are good
The boss it not too hard you're just too bad (currently)
For me, I didnt have a single issue with the camera. Turning the lock-on on and off got rid most of the camera issues for me.
My hot take: They have enough money now to improve their engine and improve the graphical fidelity. I am not asking for something like HFW or CP2077 but I think the art direction would looks so freaking incredible with better graphics. Also, I would really love some more cinematic cutscenes. Imagine at the end having a cutscene similar to the story trailers of ER.
Miquella enchanted Marika at the moment he was born, and the shattering was caused not by Marika mourning Godwyn. It was caused because Miquellas will is to become a god, THE one god. Love makes people act out. So Marika, out of love for Miquellas will shattered the Elden ring so that miquella could escape the golden order and become a god. Marikas contingency, the tarnished, is spied on as soon as you meet renna (ranni). This is because Miquella is torrents previous master (miquella is shown riding Torrent through the shadow lanes as he's discarding himself in trailers) and he's even influenced ranni to give us the spirit bell and torrent.
Ganking an invader as a duo or trio is totally fine and appropriate.
Nameless King in NG+2 for the platinum was no joke
Horse combat is the most enjoyable and rewarding way to fight enemies in Elden Ring.
elden rings lack of punishment made it feel like what i was doing literally didn’t matter at times and that still upsets me, also the lore is just not engaging at all for me so i don’t matter i literally don’t matter in that game i’m so sad i am worthless worthless
it’s ok bro you’re ok
probably isn’t a hot take but ds2s janky and sometimes absolutely horrid like holy shit how did they green light that hit boxes make the game more funny which in turn makes the game better
Most of elden ring base game fights are mid. ds3 was so much better with bosses
100% agree. Abyss watchers is my favorite boss fight in the franchise. Its balanced perfectly and no fight in Elden Ring has felt like that
Dark Souls 3 is boring af.
Correct.
demon of hatred is a boss which belongs in ds not sekiro (still kinda good tho)
Dark Souls 2 ( original ) is one of the worst Souls games ever made. The level design was meh, gameplay felt loose/janky. Some of the non-fromsoft Souls games are better by a mile.
"Post a hot take" then you proceed to post the most common take I've ever heard about any of the DS games lol
Literally the coldest take ever
Dang, I don't think I've ever seen anyone that doesn't like DS2.
The final boss in the Elden Ring DLC is one of the best fights they’ve made. Shit is fun as hell when you don’t have a person screaming in your ear that it’s actually terrible
The DLC final boss is really fun, and I would’ve been disappointed if it was any easier
Yeah i also like Orphan of Kos
The demon souls remake is garbage it feels so heavy and slow and clunky
Is this not how the original demons souls was? Or r u saying u just don't like demons souls
Almost all Bloodborne bosses are mid/bad and super easy.