afterimage

[cyberbuddy]

Why does every dev these days have to copy fromsoft games difficulty. The game has been great difficulty wise up to the lvl60 mark. Find the pattern and use it. But once you hit the lvl60+ areas it's just die several dozen times and prey you get lucky. Thankfully not every boss is a cracked out pain with unlimited AOE combos. Right now I'm stuck on second fight with guider and the op peacock loss. Once they get to a certain point around the quarter to half way mark they go into this second phase crap that's nothing but a endless stream of AOE specials that never stops. If that wasn't bad enough they both do a insane amount of damage, there's no time to heal with the prayer you have and health viles are severely limited.

[Demajen]

Try the Pious Blessing afterimage. Speeds up the heal cast. Could pair it with Faithful Blessing for fast cast and an atk/def boost while healing over time. Probably half of the equippable afterimages help with defence or healing.

[Asakura Shinichi]

Originally posted by cyberbuddy:

Why does every dev these days have to copy fromsoft games difficulty. The game has been great difficulty wise up to the lvl60 mark. Find the pattern and use it. But once you hit the lvl60+ areas it's just die several dozen times and prey you get lucky. Thankfully not every boss is a cracked out pain with unlimited AOE combos. Right now I'm stuck on second fight with guider and the op peacock loss. Once they get to a certain point around the quarter to half way mark they go into this second phase crap that's nothing but a endless stream of AOE specials that never stops. If that wasn't bad enough they both do a insane amount of damage, there's no time to heal with the prayer you have and health viles are severely limited.

Why does every kiddo nowadays has to cry about a game being difficult and instantly think its cause of FROM SOFTWARE when especially metroidvanias where always difficult back in the days. If you suck at hard games why you pick genres that are supposed to be hard later cry like a little baby?

[Broso]

This game can become much easier than your usual soulslike by just leveling some more, improving your gear and equipping some good accessories and afterimages. You can also carry a bunch of potions which you can use to heal yourself. It's really quite forgiving.

I think the one thing that gets some people is the fact that the game is really nonlinear. You get the freedom to venture into high level areas quite early and there are several higher level bosses that you can encounter long before you actually need to defeat them. Usually if you go explore some other area in that situation, you're gonna have an easier time and when you come back later, the boss won't be as difficult anymore.

[Asakura Shinichi]

Originally posted by Broso:

This game can become much easier than your usual soulslike by just leveling some more, improving your gear and equipping some good accessories and afterimages. You can also carry a bunch of potions which you can use to heal yourself. It's really quite forgiving.

I think the one thing that gets some people is the fact that the game is really nonlinear. You get the freedom to venture into high level areas quite early and there are several higher level bosses that you can encounter long before you actually need to defeat them. Usually if you go explore some other area in that situation, you're gonna have an easier time and when you come back later, the boss won't be as difficult anymore.

Yeah, nonlinear is literally the definition of metroidvanias maps, you get chances to venture into various areas, some higher level and you have a lot of interconnectivity.
Honestly anyone who picks and pays for a game without doing his research or at least looking at the genres before he buys the game has some screws lose. Because there really has to be something wrong with people who buy games than complain those games are not what they wanted when the tags and trailers already did show what type of game it is.

[Samseng Yik]

People who play game just to taste victory are pity kin
People who play game to improve their sense/awareness/reaction are mean to be respected

[Lynfinity]

Hitting lvl 60 areas means you most likely have wall climb and i-frames on your dash. Abuse these to your heart's content. Also the extended air time from your normal attack, might actually save your life in some circumstances.

[shangerz86]

Can you grind and level up/get stronger indefinitely? or is leveling gated in any way/git gud is the only option? I have poor working memory - remembering and recalling short term stuff/ boss patterns is always difficult and I get frustrated at myself. So I usually have to resort to grinding or easy modes. I have this brain for life, don't fight me, I'm just asking for fair opinions.

[Asakura Shinichi]

Originally posted by shangerz86:

Can you grind and level up/get stronger indefinitely? or is leveling gated in any way/git gud is the only option? I have poor working memory - remembering and recalling short term stuff/ boss patterns is always difficult and I get frustrated at myself. So I usually have to resort to grinding or easy modes. I have this brain for life, don't fight me, I'm just asking for fair opinions.

Level 99 is max otherwise you can level as much as you want but obviously higher levels require more exp, as such leveling up in other areas would be better than farming in one. Than again the game world is highly interconnected with high level areas quite near the starting areas and nothing stopping you with venturing into them. And by actually exploring areas as much as you can instead rushing the story and bosses, you will be getting a lot of better gear to get even stronger.
Out of the whole roster of bosses in this I probably felt a challenge from like 4 or 5 bosses cause I was doing them way below their required level.

[AminoAcid]

Originally posted by shangerz86:

Can you grind and level up/get stronger indefinitely? or is leveling gated in any way/git gud is the only option?...

Leveling is not only option to get stronger. You'll get better items and talents point from keep exploring. Cooking and Potion also are very helpful. Dev is actually gave a lot of tools to help. Eventually, you'll overwhelm Boss with equipment and Stat without the need to be perfectly dodge every attack.

[Zengar]

You are deluded to think this has "fromsoft" difficulty. I 100% the game recently, and pretty much face tanked most of the game "hard" bosses with potions, including "Red" and the final boss.
The only boss that actually forced me to learn patterns and only barely was the first sword or knight (can't remember the name) that resurrects.

[shangerz86]

Originally posted by Asakura Shinichi:

Originally posted by shangerz86:

Can you grind and level up/get stronger indefinitely? or is leveling gated in any way/git gud is the only option? I have poor working memory - remembering and recalling short term stuff/ boss patterns is always difficult and I get frustrated at myself. So I usually have to resort to grinding or easy modes. I have this brain for life, don't fight me, I'm just asking for fair opinions.

Level 99 is max otherwise you can level as much as you want but obviously higher levels require more exp, as such leveling up in other areas would be better than farming in one. Than again the game world is highly interconnected with high level areas quite near the starting areas and nothing stopping you with venturing into them. And by actually exploring areas as much as you can instead rushing the story and bosses, you will be getting a lot of better gear to get even stronger.
Out of the whole roster of bosses in this I probably felt a challenge from like 4 or 5 bosses cause I was doing them way below their required level.

Originally posted by AminoAcid:

Originally posted by shangerz86:

Can you grind and level up/get stronger indefinitely? or is leveling gated in any way/git gud is the only option?...

Leveling is not only option to get stronger. You'll get better items and talents point from keep exploring. Cooking and Potion also are very helpful. Dev is actually gave a lot of tools to help. Eventually, you'll overwhelm Boss with equipment and Stat without the need to be perfectly dodge every attack.

Thanks a lot Asakura Shinichi and AminoAcid. Your responses put my mind at ease. I'll pick this up while it's on sale now.

[Asakura Shinichi]

You are welcome. As the other guy also said, to add to what i already said about overleveling and getting better gear, you can get passive buffs from eating and you can pasue mid fighting a boss and pick a potion from the menu and use it in a paused state. Game can be challenging IF you want it to be, but the devs added a lot of mechanics that scale the game down for those who dont want a challenge or are just stuck on a boss thats too hard for them.
So basically a lot of the games difficulty is based on how much YOU yourself want the game to be challenging. If you want a game where you can explore a really big map freely and get rewarded constantly by exploring and checking every nook and cranny than this game is perfect for you.

[shangerz86]

Originally posted by Asakura Shinichi:

You are welcome. As the other guy also said, to add to what i already said about overleveling and getting better gear, you can get passive buffs from eating and you can pasue mid fighting a boss and pick a potion from the menu and use it in a paused state. Game can be challenging IF you want it to be, but the devs added a lot of mechanics that scale the game down for those who dont want a challenge or are just stuck on a boss thats too hard for them.
So basically a lot of the games difficulty is based on how much YOU yourself want the game to be challenging. If you want a game where you can explore a really big map freely and get rewarded constantly by exploring and checking every nook and cranny than this game is perfect for you.

Thanks! I really enjoy exploration and always worry about it being roadblocked by very difficult bosses. It's happened to me in previous metroidvanias - most recently in 9 Years of Shadows. Really beautiful game, I loved the presentation but sadly I never finished it since it didn't offer much to mitigate difficulty if you were struggling. Glad to hear Afterimage has mechanics in place. I totally understand many players enjoy challenging games but I always appreciate games that let players customize the difficulty. It can help make an indie game, even just a little more successful, if players can enjoy them in their own way.

[Asakura Shinichi]

From what ive seen and heard from others 9 years of shadows, was more centered around figting and less around exploration. Afterimage is more closer to Ender Lilies in terms of exploration and in the fact that you can start the save after each ending which will let you see all endings in one playthrough. Also while there is a similar idea to Dark Souls series, its not as punishing if you dont get back to where you died to pick up your exp. In Soulslikes you lose all of the currency on death and if you dont pick it up before dying you lose it all. In Afterimage when you die you lose ONLY the exp progression for the next level, for example if you had half the exp to level up from 60 to 61 you lose that and if you pick it up before dying you get that exp back. This is not such a hard penalty since even if you dont get it back all you lose is a little of progression towards the next level, which usually you can get back in like 10 minutes.

[shangerz86]

Originally posted by Asakura Shinichi:

From what ive seen and heard from others 9 years of shadows, was more centered around figting and less around exploration. Afterimage is more closer to Ender Lilies in terms of exploration and in the fact that you can start the save after each ending which will let you see all endings in one playthrough. Also while there is a similar idea to Dark Souls series, its not as punishing if you dont get back to where you died to pick up your exp. In Soulslikes you lose all of the currency on death and if you dont pick it up before dying you lose it all. In Afterimage when you die you lose ONLY the exp progression for the next level, for example if you had half the exp to level up from 60 to 61 you lose that and if you pick it up before dying you get that exp back. This is not such a hard penalty since even if you dont get it back all you lose is a little of progression towards the next level, which usually you can get back in like 10 minutes.

That's good to hear; death isn't as punishing. I'm looking forward to this now. It's sounding more like what I enjoy in a metroidvania! Thanks again for all your responses.