I'm a little torn on the mechanics. On the one hand, I actually found it cool to pop back in to the Hotel and harvest some coins that are tied IRL time progression. It wasn't a chore and felt natural to check out every now and then. And it's actually a nice reference to the original novel where the cat and the fox trick Pinocchio into planting his gold coins for an alleged gold coin tree and stealing them in the process.

On the other hand, the cube did kind of feel underwhelming from a gameplay perspective and didn't have anything to do with the story, really. Most of the effects were exclusive to the Specter too and didn't feel as substantial as the different grindstones.

Overall, I don't mind them, but you could cut them from the game and I wouldn't mind, probably

Thought I was going to have to fight this guy in an enclosed space and start pleading to the gods. I HATE this clown puppet.

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So, after 132 hours I've done it all. Plat and maxed out all stats. I could upgrade all weapons to the max but can't be bothered.I had a blast. Beautiful game. One of the best soulslikes I've played. Doesn't beat elden ring for but it's up there.Nice bosses, Laxasia and NP where pretty hard for me the first two playthroughs, even as a dark souls veteran.I had only had two glitches. One in an elevator, the other in the area with all the big balls rolling down at you. For 132 hours that's pretty good result, I'd say.Putting this away now and looking forward to the DLC.

[Original Post]

As a few might have seen, a couple months back I had posted to c/patientgamers@sh.itjust.works about my thoughts on using summons in Soulslikes in general and using Specters in Lies of P (https://lemmy.zip/post/18734971).

I'm on my NG+ rerun and am about to finish the game. Throughout this playthrough, I have been more liberate with using the Specter for "annoying" boss fights or bosses where it would have taken me too long to beat them whilst actively hindering my enjoyment - it was awesome!

Some select boss fights feel a lot better with a summon, the Rabbit Gang fights especially since they feel like a true backalley brawl, and it just takes the edge off some really difficult fights for me.

Now, I arrived at (spoiler for the second to last boss in the game) Laxasia on this rerun. I kept trying the fight probably a dozen times yesterday evening and couldn't get her at all: the damage scaling is absurd, the weapons I was using didn't click with me too much, and even with the help of a Specter, I got my teeth kicked in. Fast forward to today, I gave it a couple more shots - without using a single Specter summon - and got it on my 7th or 8th attempt! Since Laxasia is weak to acid damage, I used the Acid Spear head and the Live Puppet handle for good motivity scaling in phase 1 and switched to Bonesaw-Cleaver blade + Dancer's handle or what it's called (ol' reliable) with the acid grindstone for higher DPS and acid damage. It was very clutch in the end, but I got it.

Just felt like sharing with you guys. How have your experiences with Specters been? Do you use them often? Which fights do you use them often with?

Ever since I've beaten the game on NG for the first time a few weeks ago, I've been enamoured with the themes of the game, the mechanics, music etc.

Naturally, all I've been watching on YouTube were numerous video essays about the game that I felt like sharing with you guys. In no particular order:

https://youtu.be/LIrUQjjsDYg?si=VOa0EE_3lMWejkv1

https://youtu.be/b6o9bt1SMEM?si=Ckb7pIUE1rOGtUza

https://youtu.be/6upgZB_yqrM?si=9Ze1O5m4J3AVLcSg

Enjoy!

It's not really the final final boss in that there is the Nameless Puppet as the last boss, which seems to be widely regarded as a really good fight, but I'm a little on the fence when it comes to Simon Manus.

From a visual standpoint, the second phase is pretty awesome: it feels grand and bombastic, and the lighting when the Arm of God reaches down from sky looks stellar. However, from a mechanical standpoint, I didn't vibe with the fight too much.

The first phase feels a little all over the place. The long and wide-reaching attacks reminded me of Godrick, the Grafted from Elden Ring but with a little less oomph to it somehow - they felt kinda sluggish. It didn't feel super engaging and a little lack-luster. The second phase added a lot of ranged attacks that hadn't been utilised in the game too much leading up to the finale which I also didn't vibe with too much since you couldn't interact with them like with Laxasia's bolts in the second phase, which you could deflect similar to the numerous fights with Ganon in the Lebend of Zelda series.

All in all, if it wasn't for the visuals and the lore significance, I'd forget about the fight quite quickly when compared to Nameless Puppet, Laxasia, Rabbit Gang fight 1&2 and many others that felt really memorable.

What are your guys' thoughts? Did you like the fight at all?