for people that struggle with souls games, i recommend a magic user starting class, because using spells is the de facto easy mode. really though, the games are not for everyone and if you don't like them you don't have to play them
100%
So I cannot remember any names despite a few hundred hours of gameplay. I started within a week of launch and I remember seeing some video of a dude saying "Lets cheese Elden Ring!" Ran down into the swamps and teleported around to get enough blood echoes or whatever they're called in this game. Books it up to the castle with the horsey knight bitch and giant magic artillery and grabs the Sword of (I think) Night and Flame. From there cheese a bit more to fill out build. I loved it so I started playing a buddies copy and was running around murdering shit for ages until they nerfed it. From there I started to mix more magic with actual combat before going to full combat. I'm not AWESOME but I got to NG6 and I can hold off about half of the invaders.
I started my first playthrough of Elden Ring, day 1, as a magic user and after like 40 hours I started over as melee because it was too easy
That's how I've been playing through the demons souls remake
Souls fans seem to believe that their game is so hard and only dedicated gamers should play it. All complaints are answered with git gud.
I used to think like this, before the genre "clicked" for me. But I now understand that "git gud" is kind of what the experience is about.
Sekiro was what did it for me, and that game forces you to learn the enemies attack patterns. Seems insurmountable at first, but after dying a bunch, it clicks, and the enemies become much easier. Some to the point of triviality. And it's like riding a bike, you can come back a year later and after five minutes you're right back in it. That process itself has become enjoyable to me.
Elden ring was the one that clicked because it had more abundant save points. I just don't have time to do the same 45 minute trek to a boss only to get stomped in 20 seconds.
True... Sekiro doesn't have many (if any) long run-backs.
Also, the general movement and grapple hook make going anywhere fun
Lmao this is such a strawman. Most of the fans I know would say the games are actually pretty easy; that's why we like to do things like Level 1 playthroughs or randomizers to actually add a challenge.
I should also add that I generally find souls like games to be boring boss fights and block/dodging. The difficulty is meh but I just don't find them fun.
That's usually just it. Even though the series has had them in every entry, the games aren't about gimmicks. Souls games did a great job at giving players a 'what you see is what you get' experience. The game is about 'git gud' because the boss generally doesn't get easier because you did some dialogue, flipped a switch, or otherwise. The earlier entries really tempered power scaling too so the absolute answer to difficulty in RPG type games: grinding levels to get stronger, wasn't as effective either.
So it boiled down to just dodge the damage and deal it back. Revolutionary in its simplicity.
Just counter them with "If the games are hard why do almost all of them have a hard mode you can enable? You've been playing on easy all along"
I'm pretty sure they don't have a hard mode, the closest thing I can think of is in Sekiro there's two different opt-in challenge modifiers, but nothing similar in any of the souls games or elden ring
They do. Like you said, sekiro has the bell. Ds 2 has the covenant of champions. Ds 1 and 3 both have the calamity ring, which add extra difficulty because not only does it double damage received, but you also have to give up a ring slot which is an even bigger handicap in ds 1. But it sucks because in both games you get the rings super late.
Imo ds 2 does the hard mode best. Available from the start, more damage received and less delt, enemies respawn endlessly and you can't summon but still get invaded.
Elden ring really has ~~nothing~~ a talisman, like someone said below, it completely slipped my mind.
I downloaded the elden ring easy mod. This allowed me to enjoy a souls game for the first time while still teaching me the value of dodging and timing the attacks. Yeah, it was easier, but that is what i needed. About 6 months after this initial experience, the dlc came out. I bought it and played the game on normal. Now, whilst it was still frustrating, I at least knew the basics and got quite far before real life decided to hard mode me. Easy mode is nice to learn the game, that is why roguelites start at ascension 0.
Hi folks. You may frown upon this, but I think that if you truly can't play the game without a pause button:
It doesn't break the game to straight up freeze it unless you are in online mode. If you are in online mode, when you unfreeze the game, it will say that you were disconnected due to framerate issues.
You can't pause Dark Souls ? (I never played it)
The 'savepoints' in the game are where players 'pause/reset' the level. Otherwise quitting out the game entirely is quick, easy, and does mostly the same purpose. Unless you're in a few specific points you're right where you were when you quit out. Enemy positions reset, but otherwise progress is saved in realtime with the exception of bossfights. They reset the room entirely until defeated.
(Players can actually quit out fast enough that they can 'undo' falling off a cliff as the game resets their position to the last point on a solid ground.)
So there is effective pausing of the game, just not a pause while panicking midgame button.
Elden Ring you can, but it’s a weird workaround. You need to go into the menu, go into viewing an item, and select “menu explanation” or something like that and it pauses.
Lol is this really true? Or is this the new "try Alt+F4 to open the menu"
It’s actually real!
You can't pause but you can just quit out of the game and you'll be exactly where you left off so if you need to step away from the game just do that. Loading is super fast anyways.
Ah ! somehow that's still super weird, not being able to pause, but I see that's not an issue in practice
It's because the game is kind of always online. The way multiplayer works is that you can leave messages in your world and other players will see them, and you can also get invaded by other players if you open your game up to it (usually it's also a power up so you can be tempted to do this even when you don't necessarily want to fight other players). If you could pause, it would make things weird with the multiplayer because it's supposed to feel like a fluid real time world.
i doubt thats the reason seeing as you can easily just play offline and you still cant pause. not to mention there technically is actually a pause mechanic in elden ringy that being the tutorial popups which you can open whenever you want in the menu, fun fact.
It really is a big part of the games. Even when not playing multiplayer the online component was significant.
Not just player messages: bloodstains and phantoms are a big part of the storytelling.
You consistently see glimpses of other player phantoms in realtime and you see recordings of their deaths. I am not sure a pause button would work well with those.
Neither messages not bloodstains would require the game to not have a pause function though.
For player messages you're absolutely right.
But phantoms are shown in (semi?)realtime and bloodstains are a recording of the few seconds before death. Scenes of people pausing kind of undermines some of what the devs built around online play.
You can pause in Sekiro (best From Software game imo)
I enjoyed that game so much I immediately went for platinum.
It's my favorite game of all time (or top 3 at least)
You do have menus to interact with, but the game continues going while you're in a menu. Not typically an issue if there's no enemies around, but it can take some players by surprise if they try to use it to pause in the middle of combat.
It's kinda nice for advanced players though, since you're able to move through the level and swap equipment at the same time.
Just cheat at the game. I miss when games bad built-in cheats for these situations when you just couldn't be arsed
I wanted a Souls game with pause so I played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
I love that game but absolutely suck at timing dodges/counters. Almost every fight I restart because I forget or screw up the enemy patterns.
Still having a blast
Me too. Played on Story mode which was specifically implemented at the request of Maelle's English voice actress.
But I just started a new playthrough on Expert. I'm curious how far I come before going down to Expeditioner. Maelle's already whooped my ass a few times.
I've been playing through on Expert from the start, and it's been challenging but super fun. I've died a lot, but I much prefer that to JRPGs where you can just power through most normal enemies, and if you accidentally grind a bit more than you're supposed to, then even the bosses become trivial.
If you don't memorize attack patterns and get dodge/parry timing right, you are going to die. A lot. Also, a lot more strategy involved in selecting Pictos and abilities.
But Sekiro is one of my favorite games of all time, so memorizing attack patterns and timing parries is my bread and butter.
Sekiro pauses in the menu
The fact that you can’t pause when it’ the enemy’s turn is really frustrating tho, especially for foes that chain 5 attacks every time any character makes a move
Grosse Tête has entered the chat
Surely the attack will end after this next slam, right?...
whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp
It's a good thing the soundtrack for that fight was a banger lol
People hating on Alanah are so weird...
It's been happening since she started her career. I remember being confused seeing a post on Reddit about 10 years ago now about how a bunch of incels were talking shit about an article she wrote or something me
What is even the context? She doesn't have kids, as far as I know.
She's bery vocal about accessibility in video games and talks about how having a child can be seen as a situational disability. She says it's good that games becomes more accessible to all people and people hate that.
Edit: Here's the video, it's really good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lj7mzIRpQ
I'm all about more accessibility in games, and wouldn't have a problem with them having real pause. But I do understand why From Software has chosen not to have an "easy mode" for their games as the difficulty and risk/reward calculation for exploration is a core aspect of what makes their games great. Taking that away kind of ruins the experience. Which is why "git gud" is actual advice and not just snark.
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