Better combat than Fromsoft games?

[Rando the Crit Clown]

Fromsoft games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring have somewhat unengaging PvE with only a few exceptions like Malenia, and are carried by their extremely fun & unique Invasion system. This game doesn't have Invasions, so is the singleplayer combat deeper to compensate for it? Or does it mostly boil down to the Fromsoft formula where you press the "Not Die" button when it's time to not die, and the "Kill" button when it's time to kill?

[Nauct]

I much prefer the combat in Lies of P. I'd say it has the best combat in any game.

You're mainly parrying, by hitting L1 in time with the attack, if you do it too early you get block and take chip damage, similar to Sekiro. When you parry you build a hidden posture bar. Attacks build it as well.
You have a dodge with iframes, but almost everything you can parry.

[Anatolius]

It's like Sekiro, but slightly off to my taste.
Malenia though, really has no place in ER, she would fit better in Sekiro.

[Zer0]

Not even close

[Poyzo]

I think it is. You have multiple options for defense (even though parry is most of it), while in From Software it's just one option: in Dark Souls series it's dodge rolling while in Sekiro it's parrying.

You also have different legion arms and grindstones to use.

[Forblaze]

I really liked Lies of P. It has a few things that I think really elevate the combat.

The guard system is *really* good. There's a lot more emphasis on guarding, but nothing has 100% physical reduction. You take a portion of your health as permanent damage and a portion as health you can regenerate. It's sort of like Bloodborne's rally system but only for damage you take while guarding. If you perfect guard, you don't take any damage. So you want the perfect guard, but there's mercy for missing it.

Enemies also have regenerative health, but they get it for all damage received. This makes it so you want to stay aggressive and in the fight, and the regenerating health from your own missed guards does a lot to enable.

There's no parry/riposte system. Instead, enemies have posture that you contribute to breaking with either heavy attacks or perfect guards. The latter means that if a boss is boxing you in and you're on the backfoot, you can still break the boss's posture from perfect guarding to reset and regain some momentum.

I don't think they've pushed their formula nearly as far as Dark Souls'. Elden Ring felt like it was nearly coming apart at its seams, where Lies of P definitely has some room to innovate. Supposedly the game was a lot harder at launch though, so maybe they just pulled it too far back. I didn't play it then so I don't really know.

[Anderson]

It's better than Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring, but less good than Sekiro. Bloodborne gets off better thanks to trick weapons and the way backstabs work, but i'd still put it below Lies of P.

So i'd say:
Sekiro > Lies of P > Bloodborne > Elden Ring = Dark Souls 3
Dark Souls 1 is the most different, because everything is heavier and slower. It works well, but feels different enough from the rest to not be ranked the same way.

[Lucky]

Absolutely not. The thing that makes this game "hard" is the terrible movement when locked on, especially in boss fights. I just beat DS3 for the first time and came to this game. Everything is easy except the bosses, and thats only due to the terrible movement.

[McREEEEEE]

If Elden Ring had LoP combat it would've been GOAT. But with this at least Sekiro's legacy lives on

[zmanbuilder]

Elden Ring feels floaty after playing Lies of P, i really enjoy the tightness of the controls in LoP more.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Lucky:

Absolutely not. The thing that makes this game "hard" is the terrible movement when locked on, especially in boss fights. I just beat DS3 for the first time and came to this game. Everything is easy except the bosses, and thats only due to the terrible movement.

I don't really get what you mean by the terrible movement. It does feel like it requires a bit more intention, but the controls are very responsive and intuitive.

[Slatepaws]

better balancing that the recent dlc from fromsoft at least.

[zmanbuilder]

Originally posted by Slatepaws:

better balancing that the recent dlc from fromsoft at least.

I'd say, safe and grounded describe LoP rather well.

[Lucky]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

Originally posted by Lucky:

Absolutely not. The thing that makes this game "hard" is the terrible movement when locked on, especially in boss fights. I just beat DS3 for the first time and came to this game. Everything is easy except the bosses, and thats only due to the terrible movement.

I don't really get what you mean by the terrible movement. It does feel like it requires a bit more intention, but the controls are very responsive and intuitive.

The movement is like Bloodborne but from Wish. When you lock on you dodge/slide instead of roll. But it’s a half baked dodge. Not fast enough and you don’t move far enough. The boss fights (so far) are just tedious and boring. Stand next to boss and block because you don’t move quick enough or far enough to consistently dodge the attacks. So the fights are just drawn out creating the illusion of them actually being a difficult fight. You’re left feeling relieved that it’s over rather than rewarded or a sense of accomplishment and achievement. A lot of that is down to the poor movement which means you basically just end up slow walking round them clockwise doing blocks or hoping that you can move a bit further round to the side. It’s very atmospheric and looks lovely. But the boss fights are significantly inferior to Bloodborne, ER and the other Souls games and a lot of that is down to the movement and being forced to fight them in just one way.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Lucky:

The movement is like Bloodborne but from Wish. When you lock on you dodge/slide instead of roll. But it’s a half baked dodge. Not fast enough and you don’t move far enough. The boss fights (so far) are just tedious and boring. Stand next to boss and block because you don’t move quick enough or far enough to consistently dodge the attacks. So the fights are just drawn out creating the illusion of them actually being a difficult fight. You’re left feeling relieved that it’s over rather than rewarded or a sense of accomplishment and achievement. A lot of that is down to the poor movement which means you basically just end up slow walking round them clockwise doing blocks or hoping that you can move a bit further round to the side. It’s very atmospheric and looks lovely. But the boss fights are significantly inferior to Bloodborne, ER and the other Souls games and a lot of that is down to the movement and being forced to fight them in just one way.

Can't say I had any of these issues. Obviously there are attacks that are better to block than dodge (and vise versa), but I would say that's just the game making better use of its mechanics than Dark Souls.

I never played Bloodborne due to a lack of a playstation, so I can't compare it to that, but dodging definitely works. Maybe you're just trying to rely too heavily on it?

If anything, I felt like bosses can die *too* quickly in this game. A lot of bosses feel like they just fall apart if you get a well timed stagger or two.

[effy p]

very much so