Immortal Umbral Parasite - No Fun

[Arhat]

I do not like this mechanic at all, it disrupts the flow of the combat. I can tolerate the parasite that heals the enemy because I can usually 1-shot enemies or brute force through them. But the immortal parasite is just annoying, you rush forward tank 1-2 hits to remove it and feel like a idiot afterwards for taking damage.

Do you like engaging with immortal parasites? If yes, please write down why, maybe you can turn me into a believer. I would celebrate if the parasite gets removed, farming a route over and over again with immortal parasites is hell.

[Kobeth]

Never had any issue with any kind of parasites. Usually, if you are observant, you can even tell from a distance if enemies have a parasite thanks to the faint strand of blue string that connects them, but even if you don't, it becomes very apparent when you lock on them. From this point on, dealing with the parasite is just a matter of formality.

[Nafiganza]

It's very annoying when you're already surrounded by hordes of enemies and then you have to shine a lamp at one of them and you're interrupted from all sides.

but I accept that as mechanics. What bothers me more is that in order to do this you have to switch the range attack slot to the lamp every time and because the symbol display is so strange, it's not always clear what is currently equipped.

[Arhat]

Originally posted by Kobeth:

Never had any issue with any kind of parasites. Usually, if you are observant, you can even tell from a distance if enemies have a parasite thanks to the faint strand of blue string that connects them, but even if you don't, it becomes very apparent when you lock on them. From this point on, dealing with the parasite is just a matter of formality.

I have no problem of detecting them, visual cues are very visible, nor do I have any problem handling them, my point is that the novelty gets old and it turns into an annoyance, specially when you farm routes.

[mayhem523]

The only thing that bothers me about them is you can't target them, and if you have the host targeted they usually are out of view. It's annoying having to turn off lock on and manually look at them, but the actual mechanic is fine and adds a little depth to combat.

[Livy]

The one at the miniboss leading up to the ice area was fun...

Three dogs, and an enemy with a ranged attack with slowing water or one of the skull umbral chasing you...

[sagequeen]

Originally posted by MrFox1231:

The one at the miniboss leading up to the ice area was fun...

Three dogs, and an enemy with a ranged attack with slowing water or one of the skull umbral chasing you...

Yep, lots of fun... I soulflayed the boss to semi-cc him while running to the far right to where the parasite was, far enough the skullhead wouldn't hit me, then prayed as I let my little light shine. Somehow, I pulled it off.

**edit: I said running, but I meant madly rolling like a fool

[Celto]

Agreed, feels like every boss or miniboss is a gimmick boss bc of this or some other issue. Really does ruin the pace of combat

[Serpentarius]

If you already are in the umbral, you don't need to use a lamp you can literally kill it with a normal attack.

[Cyriann]

my own strategy depends on the type of the parasite, if it's a flying one following the enemy I'll just try to stun the enemy and/or have dealt with every possible disruption around before taking care of said immortal enemy.
If it's a stationnary parasite I'll just lure the enemy away and deal with it before it realizes it isn't immmortal anymore.

I find the concept as interesting as it is disruptive, these enemies make themselves a priority that you can't really work around you HAVE to deal with them because it makes even the puniest of enemies into a nearly unstoppable thing.

[ShivaX]

I'm tired of them attaching it to Infernal Enchantresses and their ilk. It's dumb. You have to get close enough to drain it, but the Enchantress will kill you for standing there. Then if you go Umbral they toss in stabby boys so you'll die for sure.

Then for fun they're like "also there are 6 other guys in this room too".

The last zone is really getting tedious tbh. Up until now I've enjoyed the hell out of the game, but this place just feels like non-stop cheese and horsecrap, so I end up never fighting anything because almost every fight is a gotcha fight.

"Oh you closed with the Trapper, well you didn't see his buddy The Other Trapper who shoots you 3 times in a row. And don't forget their 6 flaming zombie boys that for some reason have 1.6k health!"

Just... let me have fun instead of whatever this is. It happens many times in the game, where they setup gotchas that kill you or are silly hard to deal with. Dark Souls did it occasionally too, but it used it sparingly. Here it's everywhere and the last level feels like they thought "it's our last chance to do this crap" and made half the encounters be like this.

[sagequeen]

Originally posted by Serpentarius:

If you already are in the umbral, you don't need to use a lamp you can literally kill it with a normal attack.

You're right, and sometimes, this is the strategy you have to use, due to the lamp's limitations. Though as someone mentioned earlier, there are often very difficult enemies waiting for you in Umbral. Plus, I kinda like having the second life as a backup, lol.

As for what the devs could fix now, I'd recommend shortening the channel time to pop the parasites, making the lamp range longer to pop them, or applying a brief stun/freeze to the enemies being buffed by the little bugger DURING the channel. Casters destroy you, and the non-caster enemies in this game can cover an absolutely ABSURD amount of distance with a single swing (another little gripe of mine paired with narrow pathways), a lot of which cancels the channel.

In terms of criticism for future games, I'd say this: the difficulty of a game should increase - obviously. However, the reasons for that difficulty should vary. I think the gameplay feels tedious after a while because it's the same type of difficulty, just more of it. I make liberal use of the vestige seeds to avoid playing parts of the game again. (Disclaimer: I've just entered the snow area.) I'm not sure I want to NG+ this one or play an alt.

TL;DR: adjust parasites, vary the types of difficulty

[Rubyeyed]

I also hate those things but if possible I would just try to get them through geometry. Lamp light kind of goes through everything so often I would just destroy the parasite through a wall/platform or some rocks.