Is it just me or is this game really, really hard?

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

I don't know if it's just me sucking at Metroidvanias but this game is extremely difficult to me. It's a mix of the grinding for health, the extremely annoying enemies and the questionable design choices that make it as difficult as it is for me. I died in the Scoll of Heket corridor and it took me ages to get past those annoying skull things, kill all the undead soldiers and get my gear back.

So how is everyone else finding it? I find it very hard to believe that people actually find this game "easy" as some reviews put it.

[Snooples]

That’s kinda the point of the game.

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

Originally posted by Snooples:

That’s kinda the point of the game.

I imagined as much. Which makes me scratch my head a bit when I see people in reviews calling it "easy".

[vic]

I was enjoying it until I ending up dying. I got to the point where those 'brains' break from the jars and bounce around, and I ended up dying in the middle of that hall way. I spent about an hour trying to kill my dead self but getting passed those brains seems to be near on impossible with the measly pee shooter you start with. I ended up getting way too angry and just exited the game. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to continue without repetitively banging my head against those brains until I get lucky enough to kill them. They'r far too annoying to fight, and there's 0 pattern to their attacks. I was really enjoying the game too...

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

Originally posted by KosmicHorizon:

I was enjoying it until I ending up dying. I got to the point where those 'brains' break from the jars and bounce around, and I ended up dying in the middle of that hall way. I spent about an hour trying to kill my dead self but getting passed those brains seems to be near on impossible with the measly pee shooter you start with. I ended up getting way too angry and just exited the game. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to continue without repetitively banging my head against those brains until I get lucky enough to kill them. They'r far too annoying to fight, and there's 0 pattern to their attacks. I was really enjoying the game too...

I think I just ended up running past them - I'm doing that with a lot of the enemies now, especially those flaming skull things. Those can go kiss a toad.

[HE NEEDS MOUSE BITES TO LIVE]

One of the games functions is dying. Like dark souls you are pretty much going to die. That's why there's a mechanic of your previous self having all your equipment. That's also where the problem lies. It's ALL your equipment. So if you die in a harder part of the level you have to deal with both the normal enemies but the undead version of you as well. Maybe if you kept the health you gain but not the guns seeing as the stock weapon is well rounded then maybe it would feel more balanced.

[Sinister-Sama]

I don't understand why you all are dying so much. I only died 4 times total and most of that was bosses. Honestly, what weapons are you all using...??? Because once you get Harpoon, the game becomes painfully easy.

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

Originally posted by Raziel X: Jaguar REVOLVER!!!:

I don't understand why you all are dying so much. I only died 4 times total and most of that was bosses. Honestly, what weapons are you all using...??? Because once you get Harpoon, the game becomes painfully easy.

It's not the weapons, it's the enemies.

[Sinister-Sama]

Originally posted by Deuterium the Sentient Mattress:

Originally posted by Raziel X: Jaguar REVOLVER!!!:

I don't understand why you all are dying so much. I only died 4 times total and most of that was bosses. Honestly, what weapons are you all using...??? Because once you get Harpoon, the game becomes painfully easy.

It's not the weapons, it's the enemies.

Again, once you got Harpoon, there are few weapons later that can match that power..... My problems ended once I got Harpoon.

[vic]

I only ever died at that one part. Game was super easy other than that. But there are certainly some super annoying enemies that will ♥♥♥♥ your day up if you aren't careful, and getting back without weapons is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard and super frustrating. But yeah, the game isnt that dificult other than that.

[Kopuz]

Its pretty hard and annoying at times but its nothing like dark souls like all the new age kids are raging on about.

[PurpleXVI]

Part of the "hardness" of the game is that the game is really unforgiving with dodges. Some boss pattern dodges are, as far as I can tell, pixel perfect, or functionally impossible unless you're already in the right position when the tell that allows you to see what attack it is comes in.

Some of it's also just annoying mechanics, like having to recover not just your gear, but also your ammo and health, after dying. Because woo, having to grind up health drops, since there's no resupply site that repowers THOSE...

And if you died, 99% chance it was to a boss, since that's where the REAL challenge of the game is, and if you died once, you WILL want to go back in again with full health, not anything less.

It's less hard than a Shantae final boss dungeon, but I definitely wouldn't call it an absurdly hard game. Definitely requires some actual effort to play, though.

[sirby9019]

It's definitely not in the hard category (eg. Cuphead, Super meat boy, or Ghosts 'n' goblins, Shadow of the beast 2...).

I think the problem of this game is that the enemies don't have really interesting mechanics, so they make up in quantity and/or cheap attacks, which added to the infinite spawning, requires the player to be fairly attentive.
But this is essentialy old-school gaming, which is the whole point of this title.

My strategy is to be a bit patient and learn to farm health. In some areas it's quite easy to do.

Defintely, the death/undead is a bloody dumb idea, and I always quit the game shortly before dying. There's no way I'm wasting my time for that.

(For reference, I'm at around 40%)

[FateWeaver]

Originally posted by KosmicHorizon:

I was enjoying it until I ending up dying. I got to the point where those 'brains' break from the jars and bounce around, and I ended up dying in the middle of that hall way. I spent about an hour trying to kill my dead self but getting passed those brains seems to be near on impossible with the measly pee shooter you start with. I ended up getting way too angry and just exited the game. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to continue without repetitively banging my head against those brains until I get lucky enough to kill them. They'r far too annoying to fight, and there's 0 pattern to their attacks. I was really enjoying the game too...

There is a pattern to their attacks, you just run under them and shoot up. They jump over you.
Each time they jump over your head you shoot straight up, and then you eventually kill them.
Their jumps are predictable, they do one small and a large. Avoid during a small jump, then go under them for their high jump. Hope this helps you. :)

[FateWeaver]

Originally posted by PurpleXVI:

Part of the "hardness" of the game is that the game is really unforgiving with dodges. Some boss pattern dodges are, as far as I can tell, pixel perfect, or functionally impossible unless you're already in the right position when the tell that allows you to see what attack it is comes in.

Some of it's also just annoying mechanics, like having to recover not just your gear, but also your ammo and health, after dying. Because woo, having to grind up health drops, since there's no resupply site that repowers THOSE...

And if you died, 99% chance it was to a boss, since that's where the REAL challenge of the game is, and if you died once, you WILL want to go back in again with full health, not anything less.

It's less hard than a Shantae final boss dungeon, but I definitely wouldn't call it an absurdly hard game. Definitely requires some actual effort to play, though.

Yeah, I agree with you there, the game isn't so much hard as it is grindy. I lost my no death run to Ammit, The Devourer of Souls, but so far he is the only thing giving me much trouble. Killed him of course. The only things bothering me now are the mummies and "wraiths"(the ghosts dashing at you from their sarcophagus). I bloody hate those ghost things, they get off their attacks so fast, they rip off a good chunk of your health tank, and they spawn infinitely. Along with cheap shot spawning mummies that rip off decent chunks of health from spawning directly under you infinitely. Sandy London is not a fun place to be, no wonder the tourism tanked after princess Ahmanet came by for a visit. Guess the Tories forgot to build a wall to keep out undead princesses.

Only real issue for me though is the damn grinding for health, the game could do with some health refill stations at the save points.

Other than that I love the game. A Castlevania-like game with guns, who would have thought.
I love pitting modern weaponry against supernatural fantasy beasties. So much fun. ^^

[Kev The Galaxybender]

Originally posted by Friendgineer:

One of the games functions is dying. Like dark souls you are pretty much going to die. That's why there's a mechanic of your previous self having all your equipment. That's also where the problem lies. It's ALL your equipment. So if you die in a harder part of the level you have to deal with both the normal enemies but the undead version of you as well. Maybe if you kept the health you gain but not the guns seeing as the stock weapon is well rounded then maybe it would feel more balanced.

oh wow, thanks for the description. That just killed this game for me. I don't mind hard games but games where one of the mechanics is death isn't appealing to me. I rather play a Ninja Gaiden game where death isn't a mechanic but, a failure to assess, approach, react and execute.