Had a really weird few days with work and other stuff so I’m all mixed up now, sorry about the late post. My schedule is all over the place. Hopefully next week we’ll be back to normal.
Had a really weird few days with work and other stuff so I’m all mixed up now, sorry about the late post. My schedule is all over the place. Hopefully next week we’ll be back to normal.
I already knew I didn’t like soulslike combat because it’s slow and nearly all attacks are annoyingly high commitment so it relies more on pattern recognition, strategy, and patience than quick reflexes and high-speed improvisation.
Playing Stranger of Paradise this week made me realize why even Nioh was a bridge too far for me: stamina bar.
I just can’t help but see it as a made up problem: I’ll give you an arbitrary limitation that sucks the fun out of combat… and a bunch of advanced mechanics to overcome it and give you your fun back.
I just play these games and I wonder why these combat designers hate me, and why am I not playing action games that actually let me have fun without passing some arbitrary rhythm test.
I know the answer is curiosity, but I often wonder if it’s worth it.
It’s not even a question of difficulty: no permutation of factors will make Nioh or Stranger of Paradise as difficult as fighting Gracious and Glorious on Infinite Climax in Bayonetta. It’s gating fun behind arbitrary busy work… for reasons.
I know this isn’t a real response on your opinion of souls likes, but did you play Ninja Gaiden 4? Was a really, really fun action game. Based on your Bayonetta playtime it feels like you would enjoy it!
Patiently waiting for it to drop below $20 in my region. I love Ninja Gaiden and Platinum.
Thankfully, we got a bunch of new indie action games this year: Homura Hime, Mahou Arms, Dead As Disco, Jenny the Witch, and Kijutsu Rider, so waiting hasn’t been difficult.
Not everyone has the same idea of fun, and not every game needs to be catered to every player. I happen to love soulslikes specifically because of their combat, but I get why others don’t like it.
I’d be curious if you’d like Sekiro.
Traversal was fun, but the rest not so much. Passive combat, limited offense, and it’s an action RPG with quest lines, loadouts, consumables, and a skill tree, so naturally I need to do a lot of exploration to squeeze all the juice out of combat. I consider all of this anti-fun, so not for me.