How Hard is This Game, Honestly

[Blackcompany]

From someone who loves the setting of the Souls series, but usually found themselves frustrated at the cheapness of the each game's second half, how hard is this game?

I ask because I love the idea of exploring dead and dying worlds in games. Environments like this really appeal to me. At the same time, I have never been a fan of Dark Souls uber difficulty. Mostly because I simply do not have tens of hours to practice at a game and if I did, would burn out on it rather than enjoy it.

So...can some folks perhaps help me out here? Is this a little more forgiving, harder, about the same...and should I give it a pass rather than give up in frustration?

Thanks.

[arejang]

My answer is unforunately neither here nor there. The 2D space is quite a bit different than 3D. Because you have one fewer dimension to work with, it can be a double-edged sword since it means one fewer element you won't have to worry about the enemy utilizing, but it's also one that you can't take advantage of either.

Also, there is something inherently problematic when it comes to discussing difficulty because everyone plays the game just a little differently and they find certain things easier than others and it's hard to establish a baseline of how 'hard' something is. The best you have to work with is taking a survey of everyone's experience and taking an average of the number of hours they spent on each boss. Even then it might not be reflective of the time you'll spend on each boss.

So here's my personal experience and I'll try to give you an objective summary of the general feel of the bosses in this game to give you a rough idea. Just keep in mind it's probably not going to be the same as your own experience with the game. On average I spent 1-2 hours beating any given boss and the extremes take between 3 to 4 days to beat the hardest boss, which is optional, and about 5 minutes to beat the easiest boss, which is mandatory.

For the general feel of each boss, they all have a block animation for attacks that, once they start, they do not stop midway. So if you learn each block animation for a given boss, you can determine which ones are easiest to exploit and attack. Some attacks don't give openings throughout the entire attack animation, but every boss has at least one attack where the animation is long enough that you could dodge and quickly attack them.

Also, this game has some platforming that's absent from Dark Souls. If you're not used to timing jumps, you might find these sections a little hard.

Overall the take-home message is that the difficulty is something you really need to determine for yourself. It's a beautiful game with a very meticulously designed world with a deep narrative if you're willing to look for it. If you're willing to give the game a chance, you'll eventually see through it to the end. Most people do and loved the experience.

[Hiro Protagonest]

This game is about precision and quick turning. It's also harder. Souls games aren't that hard if you're willing to just... inch... forward...

So are you going to get frustrated? I have no idea. "Hard" isn't actually a good indication of much. It doesn't tell me what the game is like mechanically, its pace, options, core loop, guidance.

Edit: ...I spent some time cutting out words to trim down to my point, and then I see that wall of text.

[arejang]

lol, I should've done what you did. More or less say, "hard" is subjective, there's platforming, which DS didn't have, and I spent roughly 1-2 hours on average per boss. But I wasn't satisfied without really explaining myself. You think he'll read all of that? Maybe I wasted my time, lol.

[USM-Valor]

Pretty much every boss can be facetanked if you build correctly except some of the optional ones. It isn't too bad at all. Don't let the difficulty scare you off. The hardest parts of the game in general (platforming especially) can be skipped.

[Blackcompany]

Originally posted by arejang:

My answer is unforunately neither here nor there. The 2D space is quite a bit different than 3D. Because you have one fewer dimension to work with, it can be a double-edged sword since it means one fewer element you won't have to worry about the enemy utilizing, but it's also one that you can't take advantage of either.

Also, there is something inherently problematic when it comes to discussing difficulty because everyone plays the game just a little differently and they find certain things easier than others and it's hard to establish a baseline of how 'hard' something is. The best you have to work with is taking a survey of everyone's experience and taking an average of the number of hours they spent on each boss. Even then it might not be reflective of the time you'll spend on each boss.

So here's my personal experience and I'll try to give you an objective summary of the general feel of the bosses in this game to give you a rough idea. Just keep in mind it's probably not going to be the same as your own experience with the game. On average I spent 1-2 hours beating any given boss and the extremes take between 3 to 4 days to beat the hardest boss, which is optional, and about 5 minutes to beat the easiest boss, which is mandatory.

For the general feel of each boss, they all have a block animation for attacks that, once they start, they do not stop midway. So if you learn each block animation for a given boss, you can determine which ones are easiest to exploit and attack. Some attacks don't give openings throughout the entire attack animation, but every boss has at least one attack where the animation is long enough that you could dodge and quickly attack them.

Also, this game has some platforming that's absent from Dark Souls. If you're not used to timing jumps, you might find these sections a little hard.

Overall the take-home message is that the difficulty is something you really need to determine for yourself. It's a beautiful game with a very meticulously designed world with a deep narrative if you're willing to look for it. If you're willing to give the game a chance, you'll eventually see through it to the end. Most people do and loved the experience.

Thanks for posting. Read every word, and going to watch some let's play vids as a result.

Really appreciate you taking the time.

[Funpire]

For $9, it's hard enough.

[FDru]

The game is difficult and frustrating (not all of it, it's mostly just casual exploring but gets very hard in many places) but it's also beautiful and fantastic. You might be compelled to push forward just to see what else there is to see. It's the first game to keep my attention exclusively for several days in I can't even remember how long.

[Straikkeri]

Comparing dark souls and the like to a 2d platformer is not really fruitful. But comparing platformers you've played with this one might be. Thing is, I've not played many platformers so the chances that we've played the same ones is pretty nonexistent. So I'll just give you my personal experience.

And before we get to it, you need to know that this game is not linear, the bosses do not come in any particular order, you can reach half a dozen bosses at the same time depending where you choose to go. Many of these are optional while others are not. This also means that by the time you get to any particular boss from the roster of bosses, your character might be over or underdeveloped in contrast. For instance, what I considered to be the second boss in the game, took me some 30 tries to win, while my friend said he beat them on his second try. Difference is, for him it was one of the last bosses he fought in the game. The character development between our attempts was roughly the difference of 27 hours of playtime.

Moving on. Some bosses are easy, have an attack pattern of 1-3 distinct moves that give lots of time to react. Some of these I beat in 1 try. Most of these are of the "mandatory to beat for story completion" - type.

Some bosses have very little variance in their patterns, in other words the move in rigid patterns, attacks come from static directions, very little actual dynamic reaction required. These bosses are very open for cheese tactics. For instance, one hell of an annoying boss that is very hard in my opinion by normal means, is open to a tactic where you can just stand in one spot and jump to avoid all his attacks, while you can hit him every time you hop. It takes a bit more time but it's pretty much a guaranteed win.

Other bosses have RNG. I'm looking at you mawlek. For instance, they spray something or shoot something that has a dynamic range or direction. These can be an utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

What you should take from all of this? The bosses are varied, your playstyle and order of encountering them vary. Some are hard if you don't have a good reaction time, others are hard if you encounter them too early, yet some of them allow cheesy tactics if you figure them out. Impossible to say how you will play, but expect your boss encounters to be from 1-30 tries. For me, I'm running around 40 for the last buttface. Still not beat that effin thing.

[The Renderer]

I found the difficulty to be pretty much on par with the first half of Dark Souls 3 (having not played any other DS game before). Of course they play differently but I had a similar experience, i.e. in the beginning losing vs. enemies that are actually quite easy once you learn how to play, generally advancing at a nice pace, sometimes having to spend a little longer on a particularly strong boss (or come back later) and sometimes just making dumb mistakes. And then there are some really tough challenges to really test your skills and equipment... but they are completely optional and you can (re-)try them whenever you feel like it, even after completing the main story.

[Blackcompany]

Lots of good info. Giving this one a serious think, since the environment and theme really speak to me. Fictious, crumbling worlds are something I really love.

On the other hand...frustration inducing difficulty is not...so...need to really think this one over. Not because the game looks bad - on the contrary, it looks like a game doing what it does amazingly well, with a lot of time and care put into building it - but because I just dont know if it is for me.

Thanks for all of the info. Non linear and on par with the FIRST half of Dark Souls 3 I could get behind. Its the second half of that game that just straight up exhausted me...