The Absconder

[Snobby Hobo]

So I'm busy making a small video on displaying what 99% of the people playing this game will never see: the gameplay model pushed to requiring people to adapt to it (i.e. no heal, banning certain talents, no potions, no overpowered upgrades, hard mode obviously).

Just finished killing the Absconder at level 12 (which is a level 30 quest), and really it's such a fun but completely fair fight. Took me 12 tries. THIS is what the game could have been. Souls fans would have had a field day with it (but needless to say the game wouldn't sell nearly as well either). So basically the Absconder has 4 attacks:

- Bite once
- Bite, then Bite again which requires perfect roll timing on the first or the second will hit
- Bite, Bite, and Bite again, requires 2 perfect roll timings
- Spawn 4 accompanying spiders

All bite attacks instant-kill me, regardless of my health. Since the bites come out so fast they instant-kill me if the Absconder decides to attack during my parry or roll. This makes the little spiders dangerous as I cannot avoid their attacks UNLESS I break line of sight with the Absconder itself. This is possible as the map has exactly a single pillar at the center. The little spiders are also your friend as they generate Ancient Magic drops, which is - for someone at level 12 like I was, the only way to deal any form of damage to the boss. Furthermore the little spiders have a borrow attack with a fairly slow windup, which causes them to appear underneath your character. If this lands I get 1 shot by the boss as it stuns me. If I roll out of it there's a 50/50 chance I get 1 shot by the boss as they might get a line of sight to me and attack me in the roll recovery. So the little spiders channeling this move need to be stunned absolutely immediately or I pretty much just die. This requires you to use more than 4 spells or you might run into a cooldown that just kills you.

When attempting this the combat system just shines. The little spiders shoot at me, but because of the heads up I can react to it appropriately regardless of seeing them. When the boss does get line of sight to me, which happened a few times as I was avoiding other attacks, I can always react to it. It's not easy - but the game gives me a fair chance every time, unless I already ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up and it hits me in the recovery.

This gameplay model could have unironically fixed almost all my complaints with the Souls gameplay model. It reduces all attacks to either a parry or a roll, while allowing multi-enemy bosses to be completely fair still. It's really something else.

[Monstarella]

Why

[Bassilth]

Not all games are supposed to make you sweat blood and die to an enemy 12 times to beat them. It is not "what it could have been".
Congratz for making it into a Dark Souls game but the game is fun without it.

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by Bassilth:

Not all games are supposed to make you sweat blood and die to an enemy 12 times to beat them. It is not "what it could have been".
Congratz for making it into a Dark Souls game but the game is fun without it.

The VAC ban private profile monkey necro'd this thread as you might have noticed.

The point at the time was that a game that forces you to adapt is a dynamic game. Hogwart's Legacy has many broken mechanics that trivialize the game to childish degrees, so the player really just has to repeat doing 1 thing over. Despite this the combat system is well executed and communicates itself clearly.

[Stan]

Originally posted by Snobby Hobo:

Originally posted by Bassilth:

Not all games are supposed to make you sweat blood and die to an enemy 12 times to beat them. It is not "what it could have been".
Congratz for making it into a Dark Souls game but the game is fun without it.

The VAC ban private profile monkey necro'd this thread as you might have noticed.

The point at the time was that a game that forces you to adapt is a dynamic game. Hogwart's Legacy has many broken mechanics that trivialize the game to childish degrees, so the player really just has to repeat doing 1 thing over. Despite this the combat system is well executed and communicates itself clearly.

Many games are build in a way that you only do one thing over and over.
In shooters, all you do is pull the trigger, in dark souls, you swing a sword. (or in my case spam spells, kinda like in this game)

Dark souls is fun as its own, but i would hate to see it in every game.

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by Stan:

Originally posted by Snobby Hobo:

The VAC ban private profile monkey necro'd this thread as you might have noticed.

The point at the time was that a game that forces you to adapt is a dynamic game. Hogwart's Legacy has many broken mechanics that trivialize the game to childish degrees, so the player really just has to repeat doing 1 thing over. Despite this the combat system is well executed and communicates itself clearly.

Many games are build in a way that you only do one thing over and over.
In shooters, all you do is pull the trigger, in dark souls, you swing a sword. (or in my case spam spells, kinda like in this game)

Dark souls is fun as its own, but i would hate to see it in every game.

This is a bit of a childishly stupid reply. You can't just reduce everything to one core mechanic and pretend that's the whole input demanded from the player.

By your logic you can also say "chess is simple, you just move pieces". The point being made here is dynamic situations spawned from the challenge. If in a shooter you have to take cover and re-adjust your path of attack that's the game forcing you to adapt. Even if the core mechanic is just "holding the trigger".

[Bassilth]

The point is that not every game needs to be Dark Souls casual player slayer grindfest where you die to the same boss 12 times to beat it. Some are designed to not be like that specifically.

Some people like to be punished for playing the game and find pleasure in being killed over and over for some reason and good for them. Just play games that scratches that itch. Hogwarts Legacy was never intended to be anything close to it and it does not make it a bad game with bad mechanics. Which is the point.

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by Bassilth:

The point is that not every game needs to be Dark Souls casual player slayer grindfest where you die to the same boss 12 times to beat it. Some are designed to not be like that specifically.

Some people like to be punished for playing the game and find pleasure in being killed over and over for some reason and good for them. Just play games that scratches that itch. Hogwarts Legacy was never intended to be anything close to it and it does not make it a bad game with bad mechanics. Which is the point.

You clearly didn't read what I wrote. But whatever, this post is almost a year old. Go waste someone else's time. Thanks.

[Stan]

Originally posted by Snobby Hobo:

Originally posted by Bassilth:

The point is that not every game needs to be Dark Souls casual player slayer grindfest where you die to the same boss 12 times to beat it. Some are designed to not be like that specifically.

Some people like to be punished for playing the game and find pleasure in being killed over and over for some reason and good for them. Just play games that scratches that itch. Hogwarts Legacy was never intended to be anything close to it and it does not make it a bad game with bad mechanics. Which is the point.

You clearly didn't read what I wrote. But whatever, this post is almost a year old. Go waste someone else's time. Thanks.

You just wanted to make game harder because it was way too easy.

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by Stan:

Originally posted by Snobby Hobo:

You clearly didn't read what I wrote. But whatever, this post is almost a year old. Go waste someone else's time. Thanks.

You just wanted to make game harder because it was way too easy.

You're doubling down on your lack of elementary reading comprehension aren't you?