Most people will have their own definition for Challenging or Punishing; but considering youre someone who knows the difference between Challenge and Punishing, you might like this game Its fighting style is more like Sekiro, but as youve heard, the theme and challenge might be about as hard as the tougher fights in God of War. As long as you know Sekiro mechanics (like how not to spam the attack button, and using special moves in careful situations) you should be good

Is there something specific you didnt like about the game?

@@Altaz-Review plenty 1. You don't actually get to play as wukong in this game about sun wukong 2. Everything looks the same so progressing in the first few hours was tedious 3. There's no way to heal other than the shrines and the drinking 4. stamina draining way too quick paired with the almost non existent dodge make the dark souls wannabe bosses also tedious as shit I had fun in the opening that actually had sun wukong but everything after that just got worse and worse, if I could refund it I would without a second thought

@@Sundowner13 Thats a pretty fair outlook actually. Even games like Stellar Blade and Fallen Order didnt double down on difficulty. Might have been nice to start off with some Devil May Cry type flashy action

​@Altaz-Review I wish stellar blade had DMC combat it would've been 10X better

@@nepoeditzxthablackpopethen it would’ve been a bayonetta rip off

Id say you have a pretty fair opinion. Im not really saying its impossible or unbeatable, but im basically separating the “Difficulty” of a boss like Malenia (Or Consort Radahn) vs a boss like, say Midir. Theres alot of Bosses that might be too hard to beat, but it can be overcome by learning timings and body language. Elden Ring uses AI tracking like a mechanic that you have to dodge. But in most cases, youre expected to strafe until the hit comes and THEN you dodge or run away. Malenias Waterfowl Dance is more of a boss fight than the rest of her. But in all honesty, I actually agree with you, partially. Close to the end of that topic, I mentioned that the problem is having so much health regen and Waterfowl together. I can of a hundred ways to try to manage Waterfowl dance, and health regen isnt the end of the world; but combining those mechanics feels out of place for a FROMSOFTWARE game. No matter how crazy the fights have been, theyve always left some level of punish window or ease that makes you think “that could have been harder if the devs wanted”. Malenia becomes a little too hard to be reasonable, if shes possible to beat

@@Altaz-Review Thank you for answering and being nice (This comment is way too long You will be forgiven for bot reading all of it) I think what Fromsoft is struggling with right now is that they have grown too wide of a player base to please. There are players that are very good at making builds (hp argument) or really experienced fighters (regen argument) And there are those who are both or neither. Ironically the best fighters are often those who WANT to struggle the most. There are people who are perfectly content with using summons to help them out but many fall into the category where its too easy with summons and too hard without, leaving them frustrated. (This part is overly long and might not be very interesting xD) Elden ring was my first souls game and I sucked. I used Mimick tear for Malenia and Radagon in my first two playthroughs and it still took hours! When I saw Nihil I sad „no way I can do this“ and then I utilized my entire Arsenal to kill him before his second phase and honestly that felt great! I continued to play the game for hundreds of hours, now solo, underlevled, I played the other souls games, did a Rune level 1 (with summons), and challenge runs. I learned so much. Im always fighting mogh without the physic to limit my heals…. then Rl1 Malenia solo which took 15 hours. And for me shes just not scary anymore: I learned her so well I know so many openings, shes just nit scary anymore…. After 1200 hours playing this game and prob an equal time watching people play it I got gud and found myself wishing for something harder… Then the dlc came and FS delivered what I wanted which is insane difficulty and people were complaining its too hard while I intentionally handicapped myself to make it harder... There is as I said a huge gab in the player base. Promised consort Radahn Is a boss that I think is specifically designed to be hard even to the best players like LMSH hes honestly more comparable to the hardest Malenia mods than to actual Malenia looking at the openings. He is hilariously overtuned compared to the rest of the game (even though he does profoundly little damage per hit). FS made an imensly hard boss because they were scared it would be too easy for the finally…. Leaving most people not me but most people unsatisfied… Holy shit this was way too long 🙄 hope were good and that you’re reading this Good night (where I am)

@@schadowsshade7870 I think you more or less explained both sides of the argument pretty well. My problem with Malenia, and more importantly Consort Radahn, is that, as you said, theyre tuned for players with experience and a taste for hardcore challenge. Even though Elden Ring is FROMSOFTWARE; I didnt feel like I wanted to pour the same level of accuracy as I did with Dark Souls and Sekiro Thanks for taking the time to respond; discussions like this are half the reason I enjoy making videos!

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Depending on the difficulty options, Nier Automata isnt TOO hard. Although good plug-ins can help, you can make a good build with some common chips and keep retrying on certain areas. And I guess save-scumming is always an option. More importanly, being an RPG, hoarding and losing valuable items isnt too uncommon. You find alot of duplicates as you keep playing, and 2B's dodge spam can let you dodge most attacks without worry. I get the annoyance, but I think the game is super fun when you can just roll with some of the tougher aspects. It's not easy, but its not unbearably hard. I hope you end up going back to it

Hard to say these days. We all know there been a lot of controversy when it comes to games no longer being available physically. Id say it depends on how well physical copies sell in other countries before we get the physical copies in North America

Nier Automata needs a lot of focus on the details and lore. For me, it depends if I'm ready to play a game that requires my focus; and in if I just want a game to keep me entertained, something like Stellar Blade might end up being more fun at that moment.

Nier Automata really is in a league of its own

@@joshwhipps7158 I think our sense of “Git Gud” has gotten warped after all the cool Ashes of War. DS3 forced you to fight the DLC enemies like theyre bosses without health bars, or just run away from everything while catching stray attacks and projectiles. The DLC is hard, but not necessarily harder than any other FROMSOFTWARE DLC. And it makes sense since this is Super End Game for Elden Ring

@@reezethevampire I can understand some people just having difficulty with it since the bosses and enemies are pretty tough, but I feel like the majority of people complaining, just want to the game to be easy enough to avoid having to use Summons and “overpowered” weapons. It might be ego, or might be naivety, but its, so far, not justified

@@Altaz-Review Agreed. Much of the criticism I've seen is pretty unfounded. I remember watching a review where the guy complained about the boss knight in the Western Nameless Mausoleum and how that boss had a one-shot kill. The video in the background showed the guy dying repeatedly to the flaming repeater crossbow attack...an attack you can easily avoid by walking directly left or right. Either the reviewer is a fool or was deliberately misleading the audience to stir discontent. My older brother also complains constantly about the difficulty. We often play in the same room together. I'll watch him constantly complain about moves that are unfair, impossible to dodge, deal too much damage etc. Such as the Carian sword sweep Rellana does. While he dies to it repeatedly, I simply equip the Spelldrake Talisman +3 found earlier in the DLC, and tank the damage. He immediately accuses me of cheating because it doesn't one-shot me. Sorry I'm using the tools provided by the game as intended.

Use tools to not got One-Shot = “Cheating” Get One-Shot = Too Hard

@@Altaz-Reviewgotta love the logic of gamers lmao. I’m personally having a great time. I’m stuck on radahn and has taken over 70 tries so far but I like that the game is challenging me to think about the move set. Elden rings late game is just as hard as the DLC in fact I definitely struggled more with the base game than the DLC. I may be getting my ass beat but goddammit if I not enjoying every second of it cause I know when I beat radahn I’m gonna feel that dopamine rush and that’s the stuff that hooks you on these games. I think people saying it’s too hard just don’t wanna take the time to actually explore the map and find stuff to make you more powerful. Who would’ve thought the stuff the game gives you helps you lmao

@@Altaz-Reviewgreat video tho my man got a new sub from me

@@vosdraug4628 She Got Too Gud

I think the Dark Souls format doesn’t work for Elden Ring since DS community and ER community are pretty different. 70% Elden Ring players aren’t Dark Souls fans

I understand your points, but I feel like not all of them are completely justified; As far ive seen, the controls arent anymore different than the base game, and if theyre a problem, then thats not a specific problem to the DLC And the “cheapness” is valid, but it brings us back to the lack of difficulty in the base game and the excess difficulty of the DLC. If we actaully use all our crazy spells and extra tools like Summons, our own character can be as cheap as these other characters. I think the DLC just gives a reason for us to go all out with all the tools available. Without having to feel bad about using some overpowered weapon, spell or “cheese” tactic. And that creativity of using all the tools was one of the fun parts of the OG Dark Souls

@@Altaz-Review I've played and beaten all of the souls/Bourne games I have never had to smash the flask button to get a heal before. Had it been only 1 or 2 times I would say it could be the controller but it's the games response time that's causing the problem. Difficult is any of the bosses in the old hunters or ishin in sekiro, but hitting you 3 rooms away with magic that just appears above you is cheap, spamming glint magic that bounces from the end of a hallway is cheap, having 99 vigor and getting one shot by a rando is cheap, heat seeking magic that goes through objects is cheap. Being hit from distances that you can't hit back is extremely cheap. (Rain of fire, or the giant archer)

@@Altaz-Review in dark souls if you hit a boss you couldn't be you would grind till you could. Now souls/runes mean nothing so there's no way to grind except to find the seeds which in a lot of cases are in places you're not strong enough to get to

Yeah, I can get that. I guess, the way ive played, most of the other games were tough enough in the endgame and DLC that levelling up wouldnt be feasible nor would it help as much. But that said, those games had much more room for getting good hits or finding a way to survive their tough attacks. I havent gotten too many Scadutree Fragments myself, so I dont know how much of a difference it makes, but as far as ive heard; having all of them does help out with the DLC Your points make sense in a lot of ways, but I would still say that there are so many other aspects of this DLC (like Lore, Gameplay additions, exploration, playtime) that the skewed difficulty takes away a few points from its score, but its still Overall a great DLC. And if I compare to the Ringed City, I think DS3 had some cheap moments too, which I didnt appreciate,(Ghost Archers, Midir Fire Hitbox, Omen enemies damage) but the good stuff outweighed it

@@zainaltaf1 definitely, the lore is great ,the atmosphere is great, it's just the bosses are easier than some of the NPCs. Messmer I beat first try but the crucible knight is a cheese master. The controls being iffy and the cheap NPCs bring it down in my eyes

Theres alot of games that are remembered for great Gameplay instead of any story; Stellar Blade focused a bit too much on the looks, so I cant say anyones gonna “remember” it’s gameplay 5-10 yrs from now

@@Altaz-Review Nier Automata story is honestly overrated outside of the ending….i put over 100 hours into it… stellar blade beats it in every other category even IF i concede on story

As long as people can respect both games the way the directors can, itll always be a win win for the gaming community

The whole snake stuff made me think of Rykard, but I guess Snakes with some Fire is different from Snakes Made of Fire . Plus Rykard has more volcanic flames while Messmer has a very Reddish color in his flames

The story is not that bad in my opinion it's not great but still is aright

The combat is clearly very different, but theres some moments in the exploration and music that feels a bit like Nier, while the setting; the robot characters and some of the Character Designs, along with the Story presentation does remind some people of Nier. If it reminds people of Nier enough, and those people think Nier is better, it makes a subconscious comparison and leads to our current situation. It might not make sense, but thats what ended up happening

It starts out basically the same way, and you have a droid flying around you that can shoot projectiles. To anyone outside of action gaming, one is a ripoff of the other.

@@St4rTr3v1Ut10n Exactly! Anyone unfamiliar with one or the other, might point out the few similarities as being a rip-off. Its happened with other unrelated games before; Like Immortals fenyx rising and Breath of the Wild

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Thanks for watching! I hope you keep coming back to watch my future videos

No, because I wanna give Eve a chance

Thats why Nier Automata is a superior “experience” overall, no matter how much we compare gameplay or story or any one element. Stellar Blade isnt a big AAA game, so having a few annoying mechanics isnt too bad (Even Arkham Knight had the BadMobile) but those kinds of mechanics put Stellar Blade one step behind, while Niers unique ideas and gameplay out it one step ahead. So Nier ends up being two steps ahead overall since it doesnt have as much obvious weaknesses

Like you said; that familiar feeling isnt good for Stellar Blade, because it makes it feel unoriginal. Stellar Blade has great designs, but whether by accident or on purpose; the devs should be aware of how similar it might feel

@@Altaz-Review Idk. I feel like with 2B the design actively stands out and creates the Nier Automata brand. It also makes her easily recognizable and distinguishes her from other protagonists. Sure, she has an attractive and sexy design but it's also polished and unique. Eve's design is definitely pleasing and polished, but it doesn't really stand out as much as 2B's does. I think with a more distinct aesthetic and brand, Stellar Blade would be able to become more marketable. That and they need to separate themselves from becoming too similar since it just feels like a low end version of Nier Automata. Either way, I am excited to play Stellar Blade!

@@ambercastillo7863 I get what you mean. 2B has an easy point out dress, hairstyle, hair color, and a blindfold. Eve doesnt have enough that reminds you specifically of Eve. If you cosplayed both characters, 2B would be easily recognizable, but Eve might be harder to point out

@@Altaz-Review Exactly! 2B just has a more marketable design. But overall Stellar Blade needs to develop more in terms of originality for it to stand out.

Definitely play Nier Automata. Forget about comparisons for now; its just a very good game that everyone should try

@@Altaz-Review You are convincing. I will put NieR Automata on my list. Thank you. Right now Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Stellar Blade, and Final Fantasy Intergrade are taking my game time at the moment.

@@duannehaughton4893 Im loving your taste in games. And seeing your current list; you should Definitely play Nier Automata

@@Altaz-Review I initially only got PS5 for Kingdom Hearts and I stepped out my zone. Would you also recommend NieR Replicant? More green money for Sony I guess😅.

@@duannehaughton4893 to be honest, I wouldnt really suggest Replicant the way I would with Automata. Nier Automata is a masterpiece, but I would only suggest playing Replicant for the sake of Bonus lore. Replicant is a prequel remake, so all its mechanics and story feel like a step back from Nier Automata.