Damn I find this game frustrating....

[Disabled Velociraptor]

I havn't rage quit at something in a fairly long time but honestly, I have to say... this game started as a wonderful experience and has slowly become something I'm just really not enjoying... there are things I simply don't understand being in the game in the first place...

1) Not enough rest points, nor any before major events in the game, often resulting in having to backtrack through things you've already cleared just feels benign and frustrating. It doesn't add anything to the fun of the game, just makes it more of a chore to move from one place to another.

2) Getting your body back is often a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I've had numerous occasions where the boss spawns between my soul thing (which is attacking me) and itself... resulting in a situation where you simply cannot avoid the damage, feels like I'm being punished twice, once for failing the boss and again for attempting to get my body back... you've already dropped health before the boss fight even starts.

3) The things that I do find in the game don't feel rewarding or satisfying, they change the game mechanics slightly but generally don't ever make me feel more powerful or make life feel easier in any way what soever.

4) Game generally feels like a totally unplanned mess... their isn't any logic to where you're supposed to go next. You start the first two areas and it makes sense, then all of a sudden it makes no sense what soever....

Fanboys probably going to hate on me for saying half of this, it's not really complaining, just my perspectives of a game, I don't feel it's for me at all at the minute, usually with games like this I'm head over heels in love but damn I'm beginning to hate this one...

[Vellutia]

1. Now you can open up a dream gate by spending 1 essence if the boss fight or place you want to go is quite far away from the nearest bench.

2. That's the main reason some people called this little Dark Souls. I mean in positive way (challenging).

3. You do get more powerful (charms and ability) as well as the future bosses. LOL

4. I think this is going by with personal taste. I find it interesting exploring through the edge of the map searching for secret pass or hidden door.

Too bad this game isn't for you.

[Disabled Velociraptor]

Half of me is enjoying it and the other half of me completely hates it..... I think I have to find an item to drop dream gates? Dark Souls actually feels a hell of a lot more enjoyable than this if I'm honest, perhaps it's because it's 3d and it's much easier to generally see what and where you're supposed to go. I never felt lost on Dark Souls, in this I feel like I'm lost in a deep caving system with little hope of finding anything... 0.o *sigh* perhaps I need a break and should again try to approach the game in a different way. At the minute I'm just not enjoying it.

[God's Chosen Procrastinator]

Personally, I disagree on all of this, but especially #4. I really enjoyed exploring the world on my own.

[Burguul]

Originally posted by SGTLioncash:

Half of me is enjoying it and the other half of me completely hates it..... I think I have to find an item to drop dream gates? Dark Souls actually feels a hell of a lot more enjoyable than this if I'm honest, perhaps it's because it's 3d and it's much easier to generally see what and where you're supposed to go. I never felt lost on Dark Souls, in this I feel like I'm lost in a deep caving system with little hope of finding anything... 0.o *sigh* perhaps I need a break and should again try to approach the game in a different way. At the minute I'm just not enjoying it.

2D mess with your sense of direction, so in this way it's worse than Dark Souls. Also if you don't use the Navigation Compass, things seem really hard to guess.

But overall, I felt this very close to Dark Souls on many aspects. Also, in Dark souls if you lose souls you lose possible level ups. Here geo is only money. After you buy everything, it's basically useless. Also you can farm it kinda easily, I think. Fragile greed helps. There's a bank, too (just don't deposit more than 2.450 there!)

One last thing: if your soul is on a difficult area, just go to Confessor Jiji and get your shade back. I only lost 2 lives before I knew that mechanic. In this aspect it is easier than Dark Souls.

[Disabled Velociraptor]

Originally posted by Athetos:

Personally, I disagree on all of this, but especially #4. I really enjoyed exploring the world on my own.

Hey you're welcome too, I mean nothing bad by any of it really, just my experience so far.

[256MB of SPAM]

Originally posted by SGTLioncash:

Half of me is enjoying it and the other half of me completely hates it..... I think I have to find an item to drop dream gates? Dark Souls actually feels a hell of a lot more enjoyable than this if I'm honest, perhaps it's because it's 3d and it's much easier to generally see what and where you're supposed to go. I never felt lost on Dark Souls, in this I feel like I'm lost in a deep caving system with little hope of finding anything... 0.o *sigh* perhaps I need a break and should again try to approach the game in a different way. At the minute I'm just not enjoying it.

This is meant to be more like Symphony of the Night than it is Dark Souls, hence the Metroidvania tag. You might not be used to the design approach used here as it seems you were expecting something closer to Dark Souls.

Have you played many Metroidvania titles?

My experience playing earlier Metroidvania titles like SotN (and the NDS follow-ups) had more of an effect on how well i adapted to Hollow Knight than Dark Souls, by a long shot. The only true comparison i could find, game mechanics wise, was leaving a ghost upon death. There i would draw from my experience in getting my bloodstain back in Dark Souls, but only as much as deciding to play ultra-conservative until i reached it. Similarly, it would serve to tightening up my game a bit.

I just think you need to give this more time and you're right to put it down, for now. My first foray into SoTN was pretty damn rough, back in the day. Come back to it another day when you're feeling fresh and get back up on the horse. ;)

One thing i will say is that you should explore as much as you can before doing a boss, at least to ensure you've found the closest bench. It is possible to overlook a closer bench and make that walk longer than it has to be (theres also a Dream Nail ability you get which completely negates this as well).

And, theres a way to get around having to go back to get your ghost completely, by unlocking a particular NPC who has a fondness for a certain type of egg.

[Dequanacus]

The point of this genre of games is non linearity. It's not supposed to lead from one zone to another (at least, not always) but give you the freedom to explore and do things in what ever order you discover them in. Perhaps you simply do not like that style of that game but to act as if it's a design flaw when it's intended to be that way sounds silly. It was built to not flow naturally. It was intended to be that way.

As far as rest points, benches are almost all equidistant from each other and every zone has more than one. Stagnests lead to every area in the game and you have Tram and now Dreamgate on top of that. It really shouldn't take more than a minute to get anywhere if you know where you're going. If you don't, it shouldn't take only a minute to get through unexplored territory.

I have never had an instance where I had to pull a boss before my shade. I was always able to aggro my shade before activating the boss. I believe that it is your fault if you are fighting the shade and the boss at the same time.

Overall, I think your problem is that you keep comparing the game to Dark Souls when Dark Souls is not a Metroidvania and this is. This game plays like a Metroidvania and your criticisms are aspects of Metroidvanias and not aspects of Dark Souls. This isn't Dark Souls and it isn't trying to be. The issue with comparing everything to Dark Souls is that you start to think everything should match Dark Souls when a game can have different mechanics/design mentality from Dark Souls without it being objectively bad on those grounds.

On a side note, I think trying to preemptively dismiss criticism of your criticism by implying anyone who disagrees with you is a fanboy is worthless. Any one can come up with a title for someone they disagree with and use it to try to devalue the logic of their posts. You can claim that the statement was only directed at 'those posts' and not 'these posts' but to start a discussion by associating disagreement with you with being a fanboy doesn't really imply that you have a lot of confidence in what you're posting or in having a discussion to begin with. If you disagree with people, just explain why. Don't start a discussion by handing out titles to people.

[goldenjw]

I almost feel the obligation to reply this in a Souls‘ fashion which is "git gud."
This game is not for you, but that's totally okey. Some of things that don’t make sense to you is exactly what defines the Metrovania genre; You don't have to suffer to make it click with you just because this game is widely appreciated.

[WZ]

Aye same as most of the above, #4 is what makes me wonder why you bought the game.
It is not a linear genre, you were always going to do a bunch exploring/backtracking.
(alsothe path seems pretty obvious until you get you get "slam down"?)

But I agree HK has too much backtracking, at least it does if you are going for 100%.
I very much enjoyed how it does not spoonfeed you the main story waypoints though.
You have to find/unlock said waypoints, much more rewarding.