Forum Overview :: Demon's Souls
 
The difficulty is fine, but it's kind of a boring game by Rafiki 12/09/2017, 9:47pm PST
I breezed through the tutorial and the first level until I got to the ship boss, then I died a whole bunch and got probably as frustrated as you did. The game kind of front-loads the difficulty in that you're really really weak at the start, and I was just whittling the boss's health down and feeling like I wasn't making progress. Then I fought the witch boss that darted around the room on the second mission and got pissed all over again for a few deaths until I finally realized how to dodge her attacks. Then I rolled her. The next couple of bosses weren't that hard, but middling like the rest of the game.

This game copied the Souls style, but missed the point of what made Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 so great. In addition to providing a variety of enemies with like 40 moves that constantly surprised you and kept you on guard, the games also challenged you in very specific ways and pushed you to your absolute limits. The zombies in Demon Souls giving way to the first knight where you really have to start learning the combat system to survive, the dragon on the bridge, the spider boss on level 2 forcing you to charge in and out instead of staying close and dodging, Maneater making you juggle TWO bosses, the skeletons on 4-1 that were deliberately impossible to just run past, the Capra Demon in Dark Souls challenging you to fight in a confined space, Tomb of the Giants challenging you to fight with limited visibility, etc. It wasn't just a great combat system, it was the combination of that and the designers constantly thinking, "ok, what if we make the player do THIS. Now let's push them to do THAT." Also, the bonfires, particularly in Demon's Souls, spread enough far apart that you really had to learn to perfect a level, and when you succeeded you felt like king of the universe. Then replaying on New Game+, decimating it, and realizing you didn't just flub your way through the first playthrough. You learned to kick the game's ass.

In contrast, Nioh just feels like a bland mash-up of Dark Souls and Diablo. I did all the missions and sub-missions in World 1 and a few missions in World 2 (game puts me at 15 hours). I think I've only encountered 8 different enemy types, and it feels like 2. The zombies, skeletons, and humans are all basically interchangeable with 2-3 hit combos, and the trolls, ogres, and mammoth ogres all feel like the same enemy with similar moves as well. And the strategy for fighting them all is the same: run close, bait them into doing the one combo they always use, attack 2, maybe 3, times, and back out. There's a Diablo-style skill tree where I can learn new moves, but I haven't found much use for them. There's different stances that change speed and damage of your attacks, but I don't understand why I should favor any of them beyond the rare enemy that attacks too fast for high (slow) stance. Worm mentioned the button tapping to restore stamina, but it restores a pretty paltry amount. I get by just fine forgetting to do it. None of the enemies have shields or defenses either, so every hit is a guaranteed hit.

They have lootable corpses on the ground just like the Souls games, but it's all Diablo-style items with randomized stats and quality. Going out of your way to loot items in Souls was a treat because you could almost always count on getting unique equipment or a valuable item. In this game, you'll try and go out of your way only to be rewarded with garbage. The only reason to scour levels is to find the little goblins that increase the amount of healing items you replenish at bonfires altars.

The levels themselves don't present any unique challenges, and other than the first one they feel super small.

There's no PVP invasions or bloodstains to see how people died, instead just a crappy combination of the two. You can see corpses of other players where they were killed, and then summon AI ghosts of them to fight for more trash loot. You will probably do this a few times and then never again.

There's crafting, but everything is randomized so who cares?

I'll give it a few more missions, but the game is mediocre. Don't pay full price if you even play it at all.
PREVIOUS REPLY QUOTE
 
Nioh so frustrating you might as well give it a 9.6 to avoid masochists bitching by Worm 02/08/2017, 1:44pm PST NEW
    This just came out on PC. I love it by Entropy Stew 11/12/2017, 12:53pm PST NEW
        Re: This just came out on PC. I love it by Mysterio Lollerson 11/12/2017, 1:03pm PST NEW
            I don't like the obfuscation as badge of honor trend it started by fabio 11/12/2017, 9:45pm PST NEW
                I'm fat, slovenly, and have the world's highest, squeakiest voice. Someone film NT by me! That video is amazing. 11/13/2017, 3:42am PST NEW
                    Pig & Bald NT by the series 11/13/2017, 7:09am PST NEW
        Were any of the boss fights actually good? by Worm 11/12/2017, 10:53pm PST NEW
    Learn the Sloth spell - it's like a legal cheat code NT by Souls Lawyer 11/13/2017, 10:09am PST NEW
    The difficulty is fine, but it's kind of a boring game by Rafiki 12/09/2017, 9:47pm PST NEW
 
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