How hard are the Soulsborne games?

[Cairhiin]

Want to see something cool (if you haven't seen it already) check this out.

That is pretty incredibly, I remember the raging I did when I first fought the Pursuer.

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Quality build using the Old Wolf Great Sword, yeah. I used to be a heavy shield user, but it became clear to me pretty early on that From didn't like shield builds the deeper into the game you go.

This is why I was so disgusted with the Nameless fight, since it was 10x easier as soon as I slapped on a greatshield. But you'll notice Freide has a grab that she can spam to get around that, same with Slave Knight whatzisface. And as you mentioned, a shield is pretty useless against Midir(you have to face his face or claw to block, and lockon is useless for this).

Yeah shield game play is pretty neutered later on in the series. Granted, it was almost ridiculous in pre DLC DS2. Many bosses could be trivialized with a good shield (either a great shield or just a decent 100% physical damage reduction medium shield and for NG+ a King's Shield). A shield is also pretty crappy against Friede but I zerged her with Sunlight Spears in p3. Hated that fight. She is really not that bad till phase 3 when she turns from a nuisance into a hell witch that just owns your face relentlessly. Phase 1 it is mostly about finding her. Phase 2 I focus on the big dude while trying to dodge her ice crap but in phase 3 she just goes full on mental. No shield can save you from that either.

[SirCowdog]

Yeah shield game play is pretty neutered later on in the series. Granted, it was almost ridiculous in pre DLC DS2. Many bosses could be trivialized with a good shield (either a great shield or just a decent 100% physical damage reduction medium shield and for NG+ a King's Shield). A shield is also pretty crappy against Friede but I zerged her with Sunlight Spears in p3. Hated that fight. She is really not that bad till phase 3 when she turns from a nuisance into a hell witch that just owns your face relentlessly. Phase 1 it is mostly about finding her. Phase 2 I focus on the big dude while trying to dodge her ice crap but in phase 3 she just goes full on mental. No shield can save you from that either.

I think I died to Freide like 10 times before I finally figured out I could just run up into her face when she turns invisible, then smack her to break the stupid invis-grab. God...that fight was so much easier after that.

Anyway, yeah...shields. I REALLY like the block/parry gameplay. I just wish they'd expanded on it more instead of going with unblockable attacks and massive attack chain spam. Bloodborne just doesn't even have shields(And for some reason, I swear the attacks are harder to read and parry. But that might just be console low framerate and motion blur nonsense...uhg...).

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Want to see something cool (if you haven't seen it already) check this out.

That's someone with waaaaaaay too much time on their hands, and an unhealthy addiction to Dark Souls 2. xD

(Dark Souls 2 is the worst in the series. Yeah, I said it! )

[Cairhiin]

I think I died to Freide like 10 times before I finally figured out I could just run up into her face when she turns invisible, then smack her to break the stupid invis-grab. God...that fight was so much easier after that.

Anyway, yeah...shields. I REALLY like the block/parry gameplay. I just wish they'd expanded on it more instead of going with unblockable attacks and massive attack chain spam. Bloodborne just doesn't even have shields(And for some reason, I swear the attacks are harder to read and parry. But that might just be console low framerate and motion blur nonsense...uhg...).)

I seriously dislike the whole couch game play of a console. I have an Xbox. I never use it, and as much as I'd love to play Bloodborne I won't be getting a PlayStation just for that. I also really don't like the controller, and I play Dark Souls with mouse and keyboard.

Friede in phase 1 is really hard if you fail to get her out of stealth. I had the same problem as you did in the beginning, and was just stood there, trying to dodge that sneak attack which worked sometimes but most of the times she'd grab me. The problem isn't so much that the attack kills you, but you have to start using Estus which you really cannot afford to waste. It is basically a survival race that fight. You must preserve Estus.

One thing I like about Friede, and all (I said all but I really didn't mean the Gravetender) the DLC bosses, is that they are really well designed. Sure we find them annoying at times, but it also means that From did a pretty decent job. Gael, Demon Prince, Midir, Friede, Alonne, Fume Knight and Sinh are some of the most memorable bosses in the series. Sure, there's also a couple of misses like the aforementioned Gravetender and that ganker trio in Sunken King. Oh yeah and that Smelter Demon recolor that just fell over with a decent magic shield (and the horrendous horrendous horrendous - how many times can I say horrendous - area before him).

[SirCowdog]

I play Dark Souls with mouse and keyboard.

Seriously though, you're not missing much. The PS dualshock controller is ass. I mean, the worst of all controllers. I play many games on my PC using the standard xbox 360 controller. It's fine. Good, even. But that dualshock controller for the PS4 is gaaaarrrrbaaaagge! Small, cramps my hands. The triggers suck. That stupid track/touch-pad thing in the middle is useless. The start and select buttons are tiny and hard to hit without looking at.

Basically trash all around. They REALLY need to port Bloodborne to the PC. Probably some filthy lawyer somewhere has a contract preventing it. Console exclusives are the DEVIL. Literally the worst thing to happen to gaming ever. Worse than loot boxes.

Gael, Demon Prince, Midir, Friede, Alonne, Fume Knight and Sinh are some of the most memorable bosses in the series. Sure, there's also a couple of misses like the aforementioned Gravetender and that ganker trio in Sunken King. Oh yeah and that Smelter Demon recolor that just fell over with a decent magic shield (and the horrendous horrendous horrendous - how many times can I say horrendous - area before him).

I've literally never fought half those bosses. Like I said, DS2 is the worst, IMO. I beat it, but never played the DLCs. Couldn't be bothered. I'd rather play Lords of the Fallen than DS2. Uhg....

[SinAscendant]

Seriously though, you're not missing much. The PS dualshock controller is ass. I mean, the worst of all controllers. I play many games on my PC using the standard xbox 360 controller. It's fine. Good, even. But that dualshock controller for the PS4 is gaaaarrrrbaaaagge! Small, cramps my hands. The triggers suck. That stupid track/touch-pad thing in the middle is useless. The start and select buttons are tiny and hard to hit without looking at.

Basically trash all around. They REALLY need to port Bloodborne to the PC. Probably some filthy lawyer somewhere has a contract preventing it. Console exclusives are the DEVIL. Literally the worst thing to happen to gaming ever. Worse than loot boxes.



I've literally never fought half those bosses. Like I said, DS2 is the worst, IMO. I beat it, but never played the DLCs. Couldn't be bothered. I'd rather play Lords of the Fallen than DS2. Uhg....

I couldn't disagree more. Dualshock is light and easy to use, I really don't care about the start/select buttons because you barely use them to begin with, and they're not really that hard to press anyway.

For me, the xbox controller is clunky, I'd rather have the hanging triggers than xbox's skinny triggers, and I prefer the flat buttons over the glossy curved ones xbox has. But then again I've been playing Sony since ps1 and their controller design hasn't changed much so it may partly be that I'm used to it.

[Cairhiin]

[IMG]Seriously though, you're not missing much. The PS dualshock controller is ass. I mean, the worst of all controllers. I play many games on my PC using the standard xbox 360 controller. It's fine. Good, even. But that dualshock controller for the PS4 is gaaaarrrrbaaaagge! Small, cramps my hands. The triggers suck. That stupid track/touch-pad thing in the middle is useless. The start and select buttons are tiny and hard to hit without looking at.

Basically trash all around. They REALLY need to port Bloodborne to the PC. Probably some filthy lawyer somewhere has a contract preventing it. Console exclusives are the DEVIL. Literally the worst thing to happen to gaming ever. Worse than loot boxes.



I've literally never fought half those bosses. Like I said, DS2 is the worst, IMO. I beat it, but never played the DLCs. Couldn't be bothered. I'd rather play Lords of the Fallen than DS2. Uhg....

meh I dunno, never been a fan of console nor the crappy controllers. Used to play some Tekken Tag at a friend's place while drinking way back but they always hurt my hands. I really just like keyboard and mouse. I tried playing with my Xbox controller and I sucked worse than with my keyboard and mouse, and I couldn't be arsed to go through the whole learning curve again. I agree keyboard and mouse is a pain in DS1, but it's no real problem in DS2 nor DS3.

DS2 might very well be my favorite Dark Souls as it's the one I really really got into first. I had played DS1 before that, but the keyboard&mouse issue in there stopped me from really enjoying it (will definitely get the remastered edition in May). Dark Souls 2 has many many many flaws but it does a few things exceptionally well like replayability and multiplayer. And where it really failed, level and boss design, it redeemed itself massively with the DLCs which are all three really good. If you've not played the DLCs then you are seriously missing out on some incredible areas and bosses. I must admit, I played the SotSF edition of DS2, which made already huge changes and made the game more challenging over all so I might have had a bit different experience to begin with.

Wish I could one day play Bloodborne however, but I am not holding my breath. Exclusives suck.

[Velshin]

I've literally never fought half those bosses. Like I said, DS2 is the worst, IMO. I beat it, but never played the DLCs. Couldn't be bothered. I'd rather play Lords of the Fallen than DS2. Uhg....

Pity...even though DSII is imo the worst and my least favorite Soul game but the game got saved by the masterpiece DLCs. The main game sure sucks compare to the rest of the franchise for sure but the DLCs? super great almost fixes all the issues of the main game had including the difficulty and awesome bosses.

[Wrecktangle]

Yeah Frieda mechanic wise is easier than Midir. The annoying part about Frieda specially if you fought her the first time you will be surprised because it's three encounters in the row which kills most players. Funny thing I find Kos is way easier than all of them manage to kill it the first time I played the DLC in Bloodborne I think Laurence was way harder than Kos imo.

I actually got Midir pretty easily. Took me like 4-6 tries I think? I just used a hit and run strategy and it worked great 1h sword build.

Ironically enough, I had the hardest time with the first boss LOL Gundyr. I was new to souls and It took me like 30-40 pulls to understand that I have to be patient and manage stamina and actually pay attention to movesets, not just respond to them.

I then breezed through most bosses until Aldritch who really gave me a hard time when he got the fire. I was having a hard time spacing it and kept getting clipped. The next hardest boss for me was Demon prince. I spent 99.96% of the time running. Didn't get a ton of uptime on him.

In BB:

Paarl must have killed me dozens of times. Ludwig before he got the sword also killed me dozens of times. Once I got him into last phase, he went down easily. Maria was pretty tough, but I got through her ok. I had a really hard time with Orphan too.

Everyone else died extremely easily.

In DS2 - all i remember is every single boss just died from me looking at them. I don't particularly remember any being terribly difficult.

[Jtbrig7390]

That is pretty incredibly, I remember the raging I did when I first fought the Pursuer.

Ya you and me both lol.

[ryanmahaffe]

"the game is hard until you learn how to do it"
That is basically what you just said, that is true yet the context is ridiculous.
"Oh hey mythic raids aren't hard at all, you just gotta learn how to do it and win"
The reason they are hard is because of the time it takes to learn and master the boss, once it becomes easy for you, that doesn't mean the game isn't hard, it just means you have improved as a player and jumped over the hurdle.

[Jtbrig7390]

Basically trash all around. They REALLY need to port Bloodborne to the PC. Probably some filthy lawyer somewhere has a contract preventing it. Console exclusives are the DEVIL. Literally the worst thing to happen to gaming ever. Worse than loot boxes.

1) Bloodborne is owned by Sony, Only way its coming to PC is if it comes to PSNow.

2) Exclusives breed competition and that breeds innovation, Each platform has exclusive things that make it stand out. If it wasn't for Sony we wouldn't have Bloodborne.

[RobertoCarlos]

Hate to admit it but I'm having trouble with dragonslayer armor on Ng+3

I breezed through him normally but now his damage is so high his combo's are super dangerous and he never stops attacking.

Maybe I should shield more with the lighting res shield but thats not my playstyle, born and bred roller

Im a quality build btw mostly using astora greatsword / lothic straight sword

[Tech614]

Basically trash all around. They REALLY need to port Bloodborne to the PC. Probably some filthy lawyer somewhere has a contract preventing it. Console exclusives are the DEVIL. Literally the worst thing to happen to gaming ever. Worse than loot boxes.

Bloodborne wouldn't exist if it wasn't a PS4 exclusive.

BN had every chance to fund a game like Bloodborne... but as a 3rd party they wanted sequel milking and that's what you got. It was Sony who approached from about doing a new IP and is the very reason Bloodborne exists.

Not sure what magical world you think existed where Bloodborne was 1 month from completion and Sony rolled in with some money bags saying keep it exclusive. They fully funded the game from start to finish. Half of the dev team was also Sony Japan Studio. The game doesn't exist unless it's Sony exclusive, so I guess you would rather have a world without Bloodborne at all.

Instead of complaining that a company like Sony actually invests in funding new IPs, play them. PS4s don't cost much these days there is really no excuse.

[Jtbrig7390]

PS4s don't cost much these days there is really no excuse.

To add to this Bloodborne is free this month with PS+ and its easy to get a 7-30day PS+ free trial and play thought the game.

Also the DLC is on sell for $6 in the US.

[Lollis]

If my experience of playing Dark Souls 3 is anything to go by, their difficulty is vastly overstated while other things are completely overlooked. It's true some parts are unforgiving but some stuff in the core game mechanics are just pitiful. The targeting system is pathetic and glitchy and for a relatively modern game the actual combat mechanics with stuff like being locked to attack direction is pretty laughable.

[SirCowdog]

1) Bloodborne is owned by Sony, Only way its coming to PC is if it comes to PSNow.

2) Exclusives breed competition and that breeds innovation, Each platform has exclusive things that make it stand out. If it wasn't for Sony we wouldn't have Bloodborne.

Competition breeds innovation and excellence. Exclusivity is the opposite, because you can't complete in that situation. The competitor can't respond. Xbox or PC couldn't make a better platform for the game, or better options for buying, or whatever, because the only way to get access to the game is by having a Playstation.

I don't want to deal with console nonsense. It's a sub-optimal way to play games in most cases. Lower framerate, worse processing power, and worse interface. We might not have gotten "Bloodborne" without playstation, but we almost certainly would have gotten something BETTER on PC.

I have no sympathy for console exclusivity. It's forcing games that would be better on a PC to be tuned-down just in order to work. That might breed a certain type of innovation(pounding a square peg into a round hole), but it's not the kind that we want(outright better games).

[Jastall]

I was using a STR and stam heavy build and did find Midir harder than the Nameless King (once I was able to reliably kill the King of Storms, seriously fuck the camera screw on that guy). But honestly once I struck the head and learned to run like hell from his fire attacks it wasn't that bad. I had almost more trouble with the Rogue Knight before him. In general I find humanoid opponents harder since their attacks tend to be a lot less telegraphed and I'm dogshit at parrying.

[Tech614]

We might not have gotten "Bloodborne" without playstation, but we almost certainly would have gotten something BETTER on PC.

You wouldn't have gotten jack shit until Dark Souls 3 from from.

The reason Bloodborne was even possible was the programming muscle from Sony Japan studio, From did not have the man power to make another game in that window, not sure what you're smoking.

[SirCowdog]

Instead of complaining that a company like Sony actually invests in funding new IPs, play them. PS4s don't cost much these days there is really no excuse.

I own a PS4 already. I stupidly bought it to play with real life friends a few years ago. I did not buy it to play Bloodborne, nor did I buy it because of any imagined pressure or desire to play an exclusive title.

It's a simple truth that Bloodborne would run better and be a better gaming experience on a PC. That game SUFFERS for being forced into a console. It's not so much that I'm complaining that Sony invests in new IPs, it's simply that companies like Sony refusing to acknowledge the larger market of PC gaming is harmful to the gaming community.

Unless you think that Bloodborne wouldn't have sold like wildfire on Steam, or even a Sony-based market(PlaystationStore, or whatever nonsense they call it)?

[Jtbrig7390]

It's a simple truth that Bloodborne would run better and be a better gaming experience on a PC.

No it wouldn't because if it wasn't for Sony the game would have never been made.

Unless you think that Bloodborne wouldn't have sold like wildfire on Steam, or even a Sony-based market

You do realize a majority of multi-platform released games actually sell better on console right?

Nier,Doom,GTAV,Nioh and manyyyyy other games sell better on console than PC.

Competition breeds innovation and excellence. Exclusivity is the opposite

Actually it isn't and even PC prides itself on what it does exclusive compared to the other platforms.

#TheMoreYouKnow.