The combat is too simplistic and passive

[toughnails]

In almost all Souls games past DS1 the strategy for the boss is "how good can you get at pressing the circle button bro?" as the boss flails around with hyper armor delayed combo strings. Yes, you get to pick what weapon you're hitting R1 twice with (or what spell you're hitting R1 once with) to punish them after the string ends, and what support magic if any you're buffing up with. But the number of ways to actually creatively engage with bosses is quite low.

However, this in my opinion is where the "accessibility" and popularity of Souls games actually comes from. The game doesn't expect you to ever do anything more than hit circle and R1 at the right time. In fact it doesn't even really allow you to, intentionally restricting your capacity for action heavily to make the enemies feel more oppressive. It's sort of a false difficulty, where all it really demands is stubborn repetition over and over until you learn all the timings.

Whereas when you look at more complex action games, Sekiro being among them, the player character has far more offensive tools at their disposal and the game is designed with the expectation that they learn to employ them. Sekiro becomes far easier once you stop standing there waiting to see what the boss is gonna do and start taking initiative and forcing them on the defensive, because the vast majority of them actually react to your offense rather than just unga-bungaing through it, and the ones that do almost all have weaknesses to some prosthetic that stuns them and creates openings. Imagine if you could play through a Souls game controlling Dante or Hayabusa instead of a Souls character. You would breeze through that sh*t, probably wouldn't even die. But if you try and play through Ninja Gaiden or DMC on their hardest difficulty just standing there dodging through everything and then doing 2 basic attacks and going back to dodging you'd get your ass kicked.

A lot of the people who stan Souls combat the hardest are the ones who simply aren't great at mastering the larger more complex movesets of the typical action game character and thus are at a huge disadvantage in those games. Whereas Souls only asks them to just focus really hard on doing a couple things which they repeat over and over until they've honed it to an extreme focus. But consequently it becomes almost a "we have purposely trained him wrong, as a joke" situation when they try and branch out to more complex games and find their overall ability is suddenly extremely incomplete even though Souls made them think they were hot sh*t.

[Grizzly]

this has to be bait lmao, dont give that guy steam points guys

[Hemlock]

Thanks for sharing your opinion. I totally respect the fact that you have mental incontinence and had to share this awful text with us.

This text excresence makes no sense and you are a terrible communicator. Next time go straight to the point and present your terrible hot-take in a more attractive way.

Look at this:

Originally posted by toughnails:

ISekiro being among them, the player character has far more offensive tools at their disposal and the game is designed with the expectation that they learn to employ them.

Thats cope and makes no sense....but lets make it look better!

"BaD GaEm ZuKiRO HaZ MuOaRz OFFFeNzIVe TOOLZ LIEKZ FIERZCRAZKERZ LULZ...I UR LOEV FIERCRAZKERZ LUEARN TO UEMPLOY FIERYCRAZQUERZ".."But my man..Elden Ring has 90 something ashes of war together with a lot of spell"..."FIEEERY CRAZCKKEEERSZ KUATANAZ...IR A NUNJAZ BRRRRRRROOOOOOOOEEEAAAAAAAAAIIIEEE"

[vamirez]

...once you stop standing there waiting to see what the boss is gonna do and start taking initiative...

Which is what you need to do in ER. Ppl have complained on the forums multiple times that they have to wait too long for an opening fighting ER bosses, trying to play DS in this game.

[Senki]

It definitely does feel like that for many people the first time they play

but then you learn how to actually play properly and realize it's not really like that, bosses have tons of openings inbetween their attacks

Also Sekiro is not more complex than souls games, it's the opposite if anything because of lack of variety.

The only points I'll give you is that it is indeed simple and not that difficult even if your previous argument about boss attacks contradicts it by showing how you couldn't adapt well enough to these fights.

[Faust Wither]

You look like a guy that only use one weapon in entire game.

[An Irate Walrus]

"People who enjoy a style of game combat I do not enjoy are just bad at games, and should feel bad that they don't want every experience to be a hyper-diaper anime flipout.

Poor, benighted, conformist sheep, who do not share my preferences and think as I do."

FTFY, OP.

[vamirez]

Originally posted by An Irate Walrus:

"People who enjoy a style of game combat I do not enjoy are just bad at games, and should feel bad that they don't want every experience to be a hyper-diaper anime flipout.

Poor, benighted, conformist sheep, who do not share my preferences and think as I do."

FTFY, OP.

Poetry award for "hyper-diaper anime flipout" :D

[Rando the Crit Clown]

Souls games have always had mediocre PvE, decent PvP, terrible netcode, and a unique invasion system. The invasion system is the only reason to play them over games with better PvE like Monster Hunter or better PvP like regular fighting games.

[楊玄。杨玄。LangrisserWWE]

Another"My FAVORITE game is better than your game" clown. How do we reach this overgrown kids? HOW?

[An Irate Walrus]

Originally posted by 楊玄。杨玄。LangrisserWWE:

Another"My FAVORITE game is better than your game" clown. How do we reach this overgrown kids? HOW?

Simple, Mr. Cartmenez: we teach them to be like Tom Brady and Beeell Beeleechek.

[Despiser]

The thing is, AI is not where it needs to be to break the scripting routine so to compensate hits are of greater damage. I would love to see bosses able to adapt dynamically so you can't memorize movesets. damage would have to be toned down as a result because you would take more hits. Battles would be more engaging and force the player to respond to dynamic tactics instead of memorized scripts. Somehow, gaming AI has not kept pace as it has in video, audio and marketing. It's not just combat either. Many games suffer from poor pathfinding, dubious building priorities and such according to their genre. And despite many games promising an AI that evolves around your interactions it rarely works out that way.

[Weedsmell]

but older ring has melania, which is a sukiro boss so....
you are wrong! GG EZ

[nfinite.recursion]

Very interesting opinion OP. Especially since you don't own the game or any souls-likes for that matter.

[vamirez]

Originally posted by nfinite.recursion:

Very interesting opinion OP. Especially since you don't own the game or any souls-likes for that matter.

Good call :) I googled a piece of the text but it doesn't seem to be a Reddit repost.

[𝑀𝓊𝑔𝑒𝓃]

Okay