The Worst Feature in Every Souls Game (Including Elden Ring)

[@EmberPlays]

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[@greatswordsn636]

It’s not that bad heading boss area in ds2, We always have that option kill every single enemy and never see them again…

[@zlbm0]

Really well done video. Keep up this format, short intro and good points with clear examples.

[@callmejason3520]

@@greatswordsn636 except you need to kill them a shit ton of times for that to happen which is extremely boring

[@ninjajin8788]

2:08 Bad final fantasy game screaming did u say CHAOOOOOOOS I WANT CHAOOSSSSSS I MUST KILL CHAOOOOOOOOOOOS AHHHHHHHHGH IM FRRAKING OUT LIKE CHAOOOS WAIT I AAMMMM CHAOOOSS WUT D FUK WOOP D SLAP VS DOWN D STAIRS VS WUT D FUK CRAZIEST FIGHT EVER HOLY SHIIIT

[@maxmustermann-zx9yq]

Sekiro: Blockspam is way too easy, Metal Gear Revengeance has done it better by having a directional 2 button input

[@quasarone3083]

Im so glad that FromSoft finally seems to have given up on the idea of having to run through a thousand enemies for minutes to get another chance at the boss

[@thecourier7964]

Honestly as someone who’s only played elden ring that concept is the only reason I haven’t gone back to play dark souls 3 or bloodborne.

[@quasarone3083]

@@thecourier7964 You definitely should, it's pretty bad with some bosses in those two but honestly not that big of a deal, the really tough ones have short runbacks. Absolutely avoid DS 1 & 2 if you don't want runbacks, those have some _insane_ ones

[@shawnmarcum8078]

​@@quasarone3083 It's kind of making you work for getting your souls back.

[@OmRiWoLF]

@@thecourier7964 Most bloodborne bosses have shortcuts to them, usually the boss run-up is very short. But yeah it's not that case with every boss

[@nikolaip2]

@@quasarone3083 I honestly think Ds1 and Ds3 bosses are way better than Elden Ring's. I just don't understand why they recicled so much some bosses. But that's up to everyone's opinion

[@mikechapman1992]

The worst part of elden ring for me is that I can ride torrent 10000000000 feet away from any enemy and I still can't open my fucking map

[@Ivan-iy3ds]

That’s so true 😂

[@Baldyren]

Brain: Just find a grace, it's fine. Also brain: Can't find grace without map.

[@krugerstan]

Hah! this used to happen to me in all the elder scrolls games too. It was terribly problematic in morrowind IIRC. I've always felt you should be able to click a button that says, "here I am, I'm not coming to fight you, so come fight me in the next 10 seconds or let me do a damn map/quicksave/whatever."

[@xTrinity007]

Such a weird restriction too considering that we can explore the pause menu while the world remains active. Why not let us worry about dying while having the map open

[@dragonhearthx8369]

I keep soft locking at the bottom of the church in callid. Were you get that dagger and shield talisman

[@teknogothyk]

I thought healing and bullets were fine in Bloodborne. The inability to rest/teleport from the lanterns was annoying though, and felt like a big step backwards.

[@mrsombrero9956]

Agreed I don't know why a slight inconvenience like Blood Vials get such a violent reaction from people. Besides farming Healing items is RPG 101.

[@RX782GP03]

it was fine with grass and grass doesn't drop as often as vials

[@JohnDoe-kn7ex]

@@RX782GP03 You could basically have more grass than you’ll ever need by the midgame because of how cheap they are. Meanwhile you can max out on blood vials and still find yourself running out.

[@astrotecn]

@@JohnDoe-kn7ex skill issue

[@axis8396]

The quality of life in Bloodborne is abysmal, I think it has some of the more interesting gameplay in the series but there's so many things that just are objectively terrible: no respec option is annoying, RNG Bloodgems(even better if you need OoS ones because the best way to get droplets is basically the DLC Winter Lanterns which are only available past Maria and a good portion of the Fishing Hamlet), it's inconsistent on what it decides should be refilled with BHM's(bullets are, vials aren't like wtf I've got 500+ of both this should not be an issue, dying does refill everything but the only way to kill yourself quickly is the Chikage so hopefully you're playing bloodtinge), if you want to refill and you don't have a Chikage then you have to go to Hunter's Dream to the storage and manually refill everything item by item, and then it's another load back to whatever area you want or if you do chalice co-op that's the last one, but if you do actual game co-op/pvp then that's the load to the area you want and then there's 2 more loads of being summoned and coming back and then refilling items again on top of that. Also the game guts your health severely when being summoned like easily half or your normal amount and this isn't even password downscaling. I love the gameplay of BB but there's a reason I take long breaks when making builds.

[@n0isyturtle]

For Demon's Souls it absolutely has to be the runbacks. Having to do the entire level over again after getting killed once is brutal.

[@skaljacob5256]

@@K-O_S_S literally wrong bud

[@skaljacob5256]

@@K-O_S_S first stage tower of latria first stage storm place 2nd stage boletaria should I go on ?

[@skaljacob5256]

​@@K-O_S_S you really gonna argue the run to fools idol or allant or flamelurker is the same as the one to say abyss watchers, gael, or friede and yes ive heard of a fucking speed run but thats not what were talking about here

[@skaljacob5256]

@@K-O_S_S ok bud you have no idea what your arguing against

[@NexusKin]

There's also the Item Weight Limit, which kinda forced you to sacrifice upgrade points on Vitality to increase it, especially when you ran out of space to store items with Stockpile Thomas and had to personally carry them on you.

[@cardmossdn8058]

So many options to choose from in DS2 , but I have to say my most hated addition is being able to be damaged during the boss fog animation. It's such a simple, tiny change that destroys so much of what made the trial and error of previous games so fun and rewarding. I think it's sort of emblematic of DS2's artificial approach to difficulty.

[@EmberPlays]

For real, I totally forgot about that until I went to get gameplay for this video and I was like bro r u kidding me I totally forgot about how unfair this is 😂

[@gallow_]

Yeah I think this change combined with the 30 enemies following you really puts a damper on wanting to complete a second playthrough

[@alessandrofarina6064]

Same thing with chests and when you open doors

[@opethmike]

Nahhhhh, soul memory is way worse. Makes co-op runs a huge pain in the ass.

[@toxicdooby3590]

Same thing happened when elden ring first came out. If you kept the draconic tree sentinel alive before the maliketh boss fight he’d hit you with his fireballs as you were walking through the fog and after you pass through it

[@thomasraines1396]

One thing that annoys me about by Bloodborne is how you can’t teleport from one lantern to another, you have to keep going back to the Hunter’s Dream and select where you want to go.

[@DrDolan2000]

Yep; that's pretty tedious. I like the Hunter's Dream, but I don't always need or want to go there

[@lorcanzo2498]

@@DrDolan2000 yeah, that’s why I liked Elden rings teleportation system

[@Prplex.]

Played through 105 hrs of elden ring before figuring out you don't need to be at a site of grace to fast travel

[@rykerl6980]

Unpopular opinion probably but I actually really liked that mechanic. The fact it forces you to see it so often really hammers in that feeling of home and safety for most of the game, and then smashes that feeling once you get out of the nightmare and find the place burning down. I get its tedious but I find the payoff was bigger than any annoyance I got

[@nakedsnake4248]

@@lorcanzo2498 the ds games give you a check point system with bonfires

[@justrandomstuff6828]

I really don't get why people dislike fan service in DS3, like c'mon, everyone i watched loved meeting Siegward, Anor Londo is a sight to behold, they show some love to DS2 too with the Earthen Peak Ruins, and the beautiful Soul of Cinder theme, it's a game about cicles, seeing that you ended where you started is on purpose, fan service is cool c'mon

[@R1R1R2]

Exactly. It’s not like a memey ‘lol Ornstein but different color’ reference, it’s a respectful send-off to a masterpiece of a trilogy.

[@justrandomstuff6828]

@@R1R1R2 i like seeing him as an arch-nemesis, but to us players, a legendary dragonslayer loses to an undead with a pointy stick, he's chasing us across games to get his pride back

[@mingQWERTY]

Exactly. I mean, that's the point of the third part of a *trilogy* right? You're meant to close off the thing that you started and Dark Souls 3 with all of the converging lands from Lordran to Drangleic to Lothric shows just how desparate the situation in the world has become. The Soul of Cinder's transformation is a great example of visual story-telling with no dialogue and it was great to see what happened to Ariandel, the Pygmies, Demons and Anor Londo.

[@PaintBottle]

Some of the references/callbacks are a bit heavy handed or lazy but I too like most of them. Like I would had preferred to see another knight of Catarina instead of Siegwald who is just renamed Siegmeyer. Even if he is from another timeline and what not it still feels pretty lazy. I liked what they did with him and Yorm and I like the OG onionboi so I cant hate the new one either as he is basically the same guy. Just feels odd since Siegmeyers story ended in hollowing/death in DS1. Which is why patches for example is more understandable as he did not have an actual end. DS3 is a sequel and end of a trilogy after all so following many plotlines is understandable and totally different style in art direction would just feel off. Which is why returning armors and weapons are very understandable for me. I still kinda get why some ppl hate the way they connected the games especially after DS2 trying to be so different with it's approach. In comparison DS3 can almost feels like damage control.

[@0685ukoM]

Problem for me was that it had TOO much of ds1 Ofc ds1 being my fav it should make more sense to love the fanservice but theres really only so many references to previous games i can take without it getting stale Its essentially "having too much of something and getting used to it thus losing its magic"

[@pysan3477]

I think the worst thing about demon souls (At least the original, since I haven't played the remake yet) was the fact the types of item drops were assigned to different worlds. So for example, if you wanted to get health items because you ran out of them you could only really reliably go to the first world and farm there; if you wanted Mana items than you had to farm the third world etc. It made playing through it a monotonous slog of returning to locations you've been through already solely to eliminate the enemies you've killed dozens of times before.

[@lancegoins]

remake didnt change that 😒

[@rubles3143]

You could also just use the shops Buy fresh spice for 200 souls each, and Old spice for 1000 souls each in Tower of Latria Buy plenty of grass from the various merchants around the game, or get a guaranteed ton of grass from killing the horde of knights outside the Penetrator boss room Or just use the Regenerator Ring to supplement the healing

[@Falconhawk3784]

I actually thought it was kind of interesting, things like dex-bladestone weapons being in world 4 but the skeletons take the most damage from blunt weapons; which (afaik) they're aren't any dex blunt weapons. Getting through World 2 gave you a decent amount of basic, universally applicable upgrades etc. I didn't like DeS as much as the others but I really did enjoy the world design and how what build you're going for determines your route.

[@nitrocoldbrew3039]

sekiro’s learning curve is definitely smaller when its your first souls experience. the game clicked for me when i fought lady butterfly. im not sure about others but that was the point i got in tune with pressuring enemies, prosthetic tools, deflecting patterns, and all the perilous moves (except grabs, fuck those)

[@EmberPlays]

You might be right, but to be fair, it was REALLY tough for me to get out of my souls habits from the other games, so I don’t think experience with Dark Souls helps too much with Sekiro

[@MyPronounsHeWhore]

it was my first FromSoft (other than a bunch of Armored Core games) it was very tough, but I hear it's harder on people who've played DS and BB, because they had to unlearn the dodge button instinct

[@Kaiwala]

I tried Dark Souls 1 3 times but quit around Bell Gargoyles because I didn't know how to upgrade weapon or what humanity and kindling did, and found how obtuse the game was to be a big turn off. Friend got me to buy Sekiro and immediately I breezed through it, simply because it doesn't have any cryptic BS mechanics that make no sense. The only difficult thing to learn in Sekiro is how to fight, and they try to ease you in to that mentality for the whole game. The moment it clicked for me was Genichiro. I think it's telling that every Sekiro player who enjoyed it says that the game "clicked" for them at some point, and I think it's the big aspect that separates the souls fans who love it like I do, and the souls fans who seem to dislike it. I bet the people who turn around and say they didn't like it, simply didn't get it.

[@mannytprimeministerofthemanate]

Sekiro was my second from soft game with the demon souls remake being the first. However due to that games slower nature I never got used to the dodge roll system. So when I first played sekiro I got comfortable with the combat quickly. But it took me until genichiro to finally understand it fully.

[@josetomascamposrobledano4618]

I call BS and anyone who mastered Sekiro would agree. You can’t say that about Lady Butterfly. “I learned everything about the game, even the perilous attacks” and follow that up with “couldn’t dodge the grabs”. That hurt me physically! Lady B doesn’t have any Mikiri counters! So you couldn’t master the grab,sweep, Mikiri challenge in that fight. Also she is very limited on that aspect, she only has 2 sweeps, 1 on neutral and one after the a combo. And her grabs were super slow and could be interrupted completely by shurikens… meaning you didn’t master the prosthetic system on that one. Wow, I went full Redditor. But the point stands. Sekiro’s bosses bring new requirements of skill to the table and even if you “click” with the gameplay like most people do after Genichiro, it doesn’t mean the game won’t ask new skills from the player. Hell even Sword Saint Isshin who is a test of 99% of the skills of the game doesn’t ask for everything. Since Shura Isshin has grabs that Sword Saint doesn’t use.

[@TwighlightLugia]

I think my personal gripe with Elden Ring has to be the quest 'system.' ER wants to have its cake and eat it too about being an open world game, and for the most part it works, but it is nigh impossible to figure out some of the questlines without guides because of how obtuse the requirements are. I'm not saying I want ER to hold my hand with them, but damn, I'd rather the game hold my hand than the internet.

[@LeafyPeach]

Yes constantly needing to look through guides sucks. Takes the fun out of the game.

[@dustrockblues7567]

Dark Souls 3 was like this also. Fromsoft just makes stupid NPC quests I guess.

[@Devilspade]

True but yeah that is most souls games

[@GeneralTaco155555a]

​@@dustrockblues7567 Dark Souls 3's quests for the most part can be fulfilled (in one way or another) by progressing through the somewhat linear levels, or by doing what the NPCs tell you what to do. Elden Ring, you find the blind girl after beating the first main boss, and never see her again. 😂 Honestly, the open world hurts the game more than it adds. It's way more confusing to find anything (especially npcs/quests), and half of the dungeons and bosses were just copy+paste to fill out the map.

[@Devilspade]

@Mansory811 it's not eldenrings job to innovate, the npc case is the same for all souls games and people don't mind like I'm sorry you're not innovative enough to figure things out by yourself, wa wa the npc doesn't tell me exactly what to do for their quest waaa the game known for being hard isn't giving me a freebie, the npcs storylines are good anyways and I think that the way they do quest for eldenring works out way more for eldenring cause it encourages you to explore and think about the places you've been to which is why I personally don't mind cause I like being able to figure these things out myself and they're obviously not that hard to complete if there's like 100s of tutorials for every quest in the game:/

[@dogfellow3848]

Honestly I think one of my biggest issues with elden ring see that fact that too many weapon will occupy the same niche, with a lot of them being just objectively worse. That's why bloodborne had greatweapons, because all of them were unique and extremely distinct from one another, not just a worse greatsword

[@manuelcorvobelda1831]

Dark Souls 2 and 3 also had this problem tbh, a lot of weapons were outclassed. However, the addition of AoW, while very interesting, makes the problem worse in Elden Ring imo.

[@dogfellow3848]

@@manuelcorvobelda1831 Honestly the infusion system those games had was just the exact same problem, two different routes to end up at the same place: weapon oversaturation

[@axis8396]

I feel like the issue is more so that there's just not enough unique weapons and the combo system of ER means that weaker weapons suffer even more than they did in DS3, and I say this with my favorite builds being BKGA, Demon Scar, Aquamarine Dagger, and CotMK to name a few. Like if we take 49 Vigor in DS3 which is 1512 HP with Life/FaP+3 compared to ER having 1680 base HP at 49 but in ER you do like 4 times the damage output due to weapons(particularly aow damage) being broken and armor being terrible. Like even in DS3 looking at just the Dagger class I can name the Dagger(130 crit), Bandit's Knife(natural bleed), Corvian Greatknife(rollcatch vortex), MHS/Harpe(katana hitstun daggers), and Aquamarine Dagger(WA stance is sort of like a straight sword, really fun weapon on int builds) but in ER there's Misericode(140 crit), and Wakizashi(marginally better AR and inherent bleed) and that's about it unless you're specifically doing faith in which case the Erdsteel Dagger is the best for sacred/flame art since the faith investment increases both the physical and elemental damage

[@dogfellow3848]

@@axis8396 Well more unique weapons with the same movesets would just rearrange the issue, wherein weapons dont have niches to call their own, either invalidating other weapons or being invalidated themselves because of uneven scaling or fucked elemental damage distribution. Elden ring has the most unbalanced bits of weapons from the souls trilogy and it makes for a kind of frustrating weapon experience

[@RB26N]

i too like the idea of quality over quantity, they could go down the bloodborne route and make each weapon in upcoming "souls" like game unique not only by weapon arts but also by moveset themselves.

[@peri5552]

ER worst part: no solo host invasions. Tonight I wanted to prove a point to a friend, so I tried invading in DS1,2,3 and ER. I was able to find invasions INSTANTLY in DS games, whereas in Elden Ring I had to switch to “meta level” characters to find an invasion, even then it took way longer. And when I found it, it was a dedicated gank. So from my perspective it’s fun to jump in souls games every now and then to play invasions and singleplayer, but with ER multiplayer is kind of dead because of no solo host invasions.

[@gui874111]

I struggled the whole way through Sekiro, with the challenge constantly ramping up. But then once I started NG+ I was demolishing every enemy with ease. Shit was so magical I ended up enjoying it way more. By NG+5 I beat Genichiro without taking damage... the same Genichiro that killed me over 20 times on my first playthrough. I love this game so much, it really makes you F E E L like the Guitar Hero.

[@rfr_Foglia]

Do you follow Videogamedunkey by any chance?

[@jesuslikesdualswords8410]

Bro Geni killed me for over 20 hours on my first run lmao! But that is the fight that clicked the whole game into gear for me. i learnt the combat in those 20 hours and it's my fav game of all time!

[@dolphinpower1107]

Only 20 times that man killed me like 200 times

[@kevinfortsch]

I'd say sekiro and guitar hero are similar due to the fact their both rhythm games.

[@landobangs112]

You struggles through sekiro? I beat the game in like 8hrs on NG

[@SashaMasonVR]

Probably the most annoying thing in Dark Souls 2 for me, along with the boss runs, was the fact you could get hit as you were entering the fog, meaning that even if you reach the fog, you weren't safe. No other game has that.

[@TheStoso2]

That's what I like the most about this game, you can't cheese it like the others, in DS I feel like the areas are optional, they just there for cosmetic purposes, they don't even follow you for long, you can just "hey that enemy is new, anyways killed it once, bye"

[@carl_consumer.of.reality]

@@TheStoso2 Yeah Bloodborne is like that as well, for most areas. I usually make sure to kill all the enemies but if i'm running back to a boss after losing echoes it's easy to just run past them all no problem

[@GigaDonk99]

yeah I definitely prefer being able to run past enemies if I want. That way if a part of the game sucks and I hate it, I don't have to fight through it for fifteen minutes every time

[@3b9x]

That would be unfair if it wasn’t for the fact that DS2 allows for enemy despawning… so git gud and play the game for slightly longer, pleb.

[@spinyslasher6586]

@@TheStoso2 I swear to God Souls fans will take the most objectively god awful mechanic and try to come up with a shitty excuse for it.

[@duckyduckington9736]

When i beat elden ring for the first time, i really did enjoy it and felt powerful. I felt like the culmination of everything i beat was supporting me throughout my journey. I could feel the elden ring coming inside of me. Why is there so many people liking and commenting.

[@elitedonut1089]

🤨

[@deaddymanny7309]

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[@ImPaCt_ZxZ]

I hope there was consent…

[@Hoodinl]

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[@Dee_Law]

🧐🧐

[@irgendwer3610]

the worst feature in Bloodborne is not being on PC

[@DavidFerreira-yi6vw]

What I hated most about Elden Ring was that simply being in a new area could automatically lock me out of a quest I had no clue about because the map is huge and a lot of NPCs are hidden or give vague hints. Also the late game dungeons for me felt like a copy paste of most others. I think the game would have benefited by cutting a few of them out.

[@maxwellmcgee7114]

That same thing can happen in the other games as well. NPC's are vague and unhelpful and you can very easily do something to fuck up an entire quest line

[@justMonkle]

Like maxwell said here, that's the case for evey one of these games, except maybe sekiro

[@maxwellmcgee7114]

@@justMonkle i say things that are true quite a lot...people never believe me XD

[@Snoodle829]

I mean, no? The only times you fail quests are for doing major story beats. I guess it's pretty annoying that you fail a couple quests for killing rykard, but that's to be expected. Same with completing mountain tops, you'd expect that to be a failure point for a few quests.

[@justMonkle]

@Aurora62869 I get what you're tryna say here, but still, yes and no. If you never look it up, there's really no way you'd be sure of it, especially on your first playthrough. NPCs also barely ever tell you where they'll be next or what they need you to do.

[@AWholeLegionary]

My gripe for Elden Ring is that the dungeons aren't memorable and are rehashed, and how confused a new player can get with finding out how to progress due to the map size.

[@bigboi1068]

To be fair, the catacombs and caves aren’t supposed to be the ‘dungeons’. Only the legacy dungeons are actual levels. Just think how different Stormveil is from every other area. And I think the map design really helps with being lost. Most new players will try to make their way to the Erdtree- the only problem is that reaching Leyndell requires pretty specific stuff. It’s not the map size- it’s the distance between item locations and their uses. Like the dectus medallion. Half of it is in limgrave. Half is in caelid, and the lift is in liurnia. could have been placed better.

[@elk3407]

They are supposed to be like the chalice dungeons in Bloodborne but scattered in an open world

[@Hirotoro4692]

Dungeons aren't memorable? Are you for real? Leyndell? Volcano Manor? Stormveil Castle? Elphael? Elden Ring has insanely memorable dungeons. Naturally, as a huge 100+ hr open world game, there's a lot of copypasta mini dungeons to flesh it out. But that's expected: they couldn't reasonably make 50+ fully unique legacy dungeons, could they?

[@thecyclone9115]

@@Hirotoro4692 he’s confusing dungeons with catacombs, caves and mines. And I have no idea what he’s talking about the world being “so big it’s confusing for new players” when there’s graces that literally point in the direction you’re supposed to go

[@Murakami2077]

You don't know how much of an upgrade they are from the Chalice Dungeons

[@nenrima]

I have about 900 hours on Sekiro, and I can say that one thing I really wish was there is the ability to cycle skills like you cycle prosthetics and items. Even just 3 at a time. I know theres a mod, but I really think it should've been possible in the base game.

[@actualamateur149]

How the fuck did you manage to put 900 hours on that game? I’ve gone through it a few times, and I still doubt I have anywhere near 100 hours.

[@nenrima]

@@actualamateur149 I just really love the combat. And before gauntlets were introduced id just run through the entire game, boss to boss, sometimes more than once a day (While having some movie or show in the background). And mods like Resurrection and LMTSR also bring a lot of replay value, so I recommend checking them out

[@yourdad5799]

@@actualamateur149 people speedrun games Steve

[@zeallust8542]

@@nenrima im gonna check out those mods. Been trying to find a good reason to revisit sekiro

[@Freshwater121]

@@nenrima Same. I’d think “It’s time to try out a new game” and then find myself playing Sekiro for the nth time.

[@ilovetoby24_two83]

I have only played the Dark Souls Trilogy, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. I'm still working up to playing Demon Souls and Sekiro. The worst part of DS1 to me was the areas in the 2nd half of the game (Lost Izalith, Tomb of Giants, New Londo, etc.) The worst part(s) of DS2 to me was the enemy placement (I played SOTFS), Boss hitboxes, and how confusing and mashed together the areas were. The worst part of Bloodborne for me was the weird inter-connectivity of the Cathedral ward to so many other areas, to the point where I wouldn't know what to do next. The worst part of DS3 to me was the early game areas that were annoying to get through (Road of Sacrifice, Farron Keep, and Irythill Dungeon - later area). The worst part of Elden Ring to me was the frustration of the late game areas. Areas like Mountaintops of the Giants, Consecrated Snowfield, Farum Azula, and the Haligtree were painfully obtuse to get through.

[@KingCasual1986]

You ask me the worst part of Elden Ring is the open world. If FromSoft ever does this formula again, they need to do away with the whole dead world thing and put some towns and stuff in it. Pure danger can get really boring after 2 or 3 play throughs!

[@ukiya1160]

Biggest issue for Elden ring for me is the boss reksins/duplicates. I get that they gotta fill out the map and stuff but it's really annoying to travel through one area and see this dragon and then travel through another area and see it again. I don't know why but it just made the area seem less "special" or unique.

[@hastur2905]

Yeah specially seeing Astel get repeated was a slap in the face

[@spoon8035]

never really understood the problem with this especially when they have unique drops or dungeons

[@ahassani]

@@spoon8035 I'll explain it from my point of view. When I first saw flying dragon Agheel in the lake I was like damn thats a badass looking boss there, but at the end of the game I've fought like 6 other dragons that look exactly like Agheel, have the same exact attacks as Agheel just recolored, and it just made fighting dragons in Elden Ring extremely tedious and boring. When I started NG+ fighting Agheel just didn't feel cool anymore, because I fought the same dragon like 7 times before. Not to mention, bosses like Lansseax being copy pasted like 5 times in Crumbling Farum Azula made the fight with Lansseax feel worthless. It just feels cheap and worthless fighting the same boss multiple times int e same playthrough, because that initial amazing feeling of fighting the boss gets taken away and diluted when you fight them again and again and again.

[@spoon8035]

@@ahassani I disagree if I like a bossfight why shouldnt I want to fight it again with different rewards, not to mention the difference in scenery fighting an ancient dragon on a hill is way different than fighting it in a flying crumbling city

[@guitaraobscura8802]

Did that also bother you with Sekiro? Most of the mini bosses in that game are duplicates and I honestly viewed most of the bosses as the same in Elden Ring but for some reason people seem to only have a problem with it in Elden Ring.

[@AshtonHaggart9674]

Worst thing about all these games is how the game expects you to know how to finish certain quest Like performing a certain action in a certain place to a certain NPC When there is no way you could know to do that without typing it up on the internet

[@majortellandrus2552]

It's fine in all of them except Elden Ring. Elden Ring is such a large open map that it's near impossible to just run into an npc, in previous games you had such a tiny map to explore level to level that if you were thorough you'd eventually find what you needed to find. Kinda hard to find someone you meet in Elden Ring when the devs place their quests across the entire fucking map for you to try and find.

[@zeyadsaeed9580]

@@majortellandrus2552t is meant to increase replability since you usually wouldn’t be able to 100% elden ring at first playthrough.

[@AshtonHaggart9674]

@Rute Fernandes I know what your talking about and I love Sekiro but I agree

[@majortellandrus2552]

@@zeyadsaeed9580 I mean sure but that doesn't mean it works. Even if they gave you quest markers you still won't 100% the game first go, and they don't even need to give you markers to start quests (RPGs already don't do that anyway) but there are quests that even just mark stuff on your map, like the Volcano Manor quest, honestly if quest steps where even like Morrowind and they only told you the location and directions to take that'd be better for replayability (and playability in the first place) than this. What they have feels more like an oversight than intentional.

[@john.darksoul]

@@zeyadsaeed9580 I really don't understand this replayability argument. How does Nepheli saying her "no no no how could I say that" for 50 hours without any clue for what am I supposed to do encourage replayability? Or a character whose quest I really wanted to follow just disappearing never to be seen again without any form of conclusion for their story? When I see this, I don't think to myself "can't wait to try backtracking through the entire game to find these characters in my next playthrough", I think "yup, after all these years fromsoft's quests are still shit, gotta look up a guide". And I could understand if quests were connected to each other, and had different outcomes that could change direction of other quests, but no, it's just "guess which copy-paste ruins you have to check this time"

[@bakubread9308]

Dark Souls 3 is the game that got me into the franchise as well, and I have the same issue with its linearity. I'm someone who loves to replay games to death, and as a result DS1 became my favorite just for the sheer freedom you get for the first half of the game. Nothing saps the life out of me more than having to run through Farron again lol

[@EmberPlays]

Lmao seriouslyyyyy 😭

[@bubbajoe117]

It's linearity is it's worst aspect but at the same time it did have the strength of giving you a good idea of "where you're supposed to be" in terms of your character and weapon progression, you never hit a point that you're just objectively not equipped for which is a good thing imo, lets me plan out build progression/playstyles better.

[@lucasbeck1391]

@@bubbajoe117 unless you somehow found the dancer early and thought that the way to go

[@bakubread9308]

@@bubbajoe117 i agree its generally better for pacing on a first playthrough, I adored DS3 the first few times I played it. the problems arise after that, when you have no ability to experiment or do a different type of playthrough beyond what early game gear you equip. no starting with the master key and going straight to Quelaag or the Iron Golem (if you know the skip), no getting gear from across half the map before fighting any bosses, etc. Those things are what keep DS1 so much fun even after all this time, for me at least.

[@LuM4rex]

For me, this has never been a downside of the game, I began to appreciate the linearity of the DS3 much more with the release of the unbalanced Elden Ring. Although, I wouldn't mind the level design like the first half of DS1, but it just doesn't seem to suit a game like DS3. It's like a one-way trip, you're not an explorer anymore. Your goal is very clear, and you go just to get it over with without turning back.

[@gagebyers1057]

My problem with Elden ring is the difficulty scaling… some areas are super easy and then some are the worst time of your life! They don’t always find they comfort zone with difficulty, especially in the endgame

[@peterk.2108]

Isn’t that how open worlds are supposed to be though? I mean if you’re starting out going to Caelid you’re not gonna have the greatest of times (I’m not tryna flame I’m just curious on what you mean)

[@BullFrogFace]

​@@peterk.2108Most open worlds you can level and at least match or overpower the difficult areas and bosses. Personally I only find the endgame bosses to be obnoxious but the areas and most enemies were fine

[@JustLurking248]

Because it’s not linear, linear is easier to control because you can’t skip over area. So with each area it gets progressively harder.

[@charlotte2845]

@@peterk.2108 I was thinking the same, like even though it’s open world, some areas are obviously more difficult to encourage you to go places in a certain order, areas/bosses are scaled to the level you’re supposed to be at when u reach an area

[@DNYLNY]

That's why I used a guide to point me in the best area order. It kept the difficulty scale constant.

[@slipstream7324]

delayed attacks feel so unnatural. it doesn't feel like you're fighting an opponent in combat. Just feels like someone watched you play all the souls games and is changing timing just to hit you

[@adistantonion2202]

Delayed attacks feel natural, but not how Elden ring does it. Having different signals for delayed attacks would be lovely rather than just getting hit by something because the timing is specific. (Looking at you draconic tree sentinel lighting shield strike.)

[@zeallust8542]

Honestly, I disagree entirely. I appreciate occasional delayed attack bosses. Its a good break from the ENTIRE series 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 rythm for every single boss. I first tried so many bosses in DS3 and Elden Ring because it was the exact same rythm as every other boss fromsoft makes

[@jajasking9652]

@@adistantonion2202 yeah, blue smelter demon is not a good bossfight i know, but he has delayed attacks with a signals, which are the growls, also, mogh has delayed attacks, but It feels natural, because his weapon is Big af and is has to be heavy to like use it

[@dawe0039]

Delayed attacks are not the problem, the insane, pinpoint accurate tracking is.

[@chaseong9560]

Delayed attacks can be fine if they're intuitive or at least obey momentum. Nameless King's delays aren't too bad because they still fall within reasonable movement, psyching you out. Dragonslayer armor's delayed swing starts by him moving his torso half a second before the actual hit, which could be an actual thing you'd do in a fight. In Elden Ring, bosses stop mid-downward swing, brush their teeth, then land the rest of the swing at 300% of their basic speed. It's nonsensical and pretty much has to be learned through trial and error. Morgott in ER has the delayed slam cued by him tapping his foot before the hit, which is much harder to notice than DS3 dragonslayer armor's fake-out swings. Delayed attacks aren't bad if they've reasonable to implement, but lack of momentum coupled with bosses in ER being able to extend their combos abruptly just isn't fun.

[@SpoopyChicken]

I agree with Elden Ring's balance issue, however I would like to highlight a couple of things; firstly, I think that one of the main issues with Elden Ring's balancing is definitely damage scaling for the enemies, it feels like fromsoft expected every player to be running 40% absorbtion + 60 vigor by the endgame because some attacks genuinely feel unfair with how much damage they do (1shots, and fast attacks that do too much damage.) Secondly in terms of items summons I do believe that they really missed the mark on this one, but this can be something that can be fixed in future updates. and lastly I just want to mention that enemy scaling would not work and would actually be a detriment to not just Elden Ring, but to all open-world games altogether (Think Fallout 3 vs Fallout New Vegas' balancing,) it's extremely satisfying to go back to an early area to see how far you've come. Very well put together and comprehensive video here.

[@justak2121]

Also using blood weapons just makes the game a fucking breeze.... Basically an easy mode

[@mr.moonman5303]

@@justak2121 Not anymore since they nerfed bleed to high heaven.

[@justak2121]

@@mr.moonman5303 I didn't pick up the game in two months did they nerf it that bad 😭

[@mr.moonman5303]

@@justak2121 yea they nerfed it hard. It no longer proc's as often as it used too. And I believe the damage got a nerf as well. It's still usable. But trying to spam it is just not gonna work anymore.

[@mo_xd433]

areas are scaled from 1 to 15 when u get to the last one everything almost one shots you and also you need atleast 55 vigor to pass the vigor check

[@gabrielpirch1186]

Personally my list would be: Demon souls - Boss fights, for the same reasons mentioned in the vid Dark souls - Upgrade system, having to upgrade armor as well as carrying over the system of different paths having different materials was just too much given how little elemental types actually make a difference in most cases, this might be different if damage resistances were much higher Dark souls 2 - The level design, just the placement of the enemies as well as the way you work through some of the levels, there are entire sidepaths that look like the main path and just loop around, and there are main paths that are hidden in the corners of levels, I ended up enjoying later playthroughs much more than the first because I could explore the areas in more detail and spend less time hopelessly wandering. Bloodborne - The chalice dungeons, I know these have been talked about a lot and well I like parts of them they just weren't flushed out enough, especially given that gems, runes, and even weapons were locked behind them. Dark souls 3 - The weapons, everything in this game feels so similar. The strength weapons swing as fast as the dex weapons, the focus system feels limiting for both melee and casters, all in all I just can't enjoy making builds in this game. Sekiro - The dodge, in Sekiro each perilous move has a counter. Thrusts have to be perfect deflected or mikiri counterd, Sweeps have to be backed away from or jumped over, and Grabs have to be dodged. The dodge in this game has 6 frames of invulnerability, the reasoning behind that being so much lower than the rest of the souls games (11-17 from fat roll to ninja flip iirc) was so that deflecting became the primary tactic of dealing with incoming attacks, because of this *some* grabs become the most annoying to deal with because of jank hitboxes or tracking. IMO dodges should've had no invulnerability frames and instead had "intangibility frames" like fighting games where you can't be grabbed during certain moves, which would solve both the problem of janky grabs AND dodging being the #1 instinct of souls players. Elden ring - The difficulty and balancing problems, certain weapons (mostly strength) are just useless in this entry, along with this the game stretches so long that the back end of it just feels wrong, you kill bosses super quickly or get 1-2 shot which for a souls game isn't right, a lot of the time I beat a boss 1st - 3rd try not because I got better but because I just dealt SO much damage so quickly. Other times I struggled because of multibosses just stun locking you super aggressively, with no possible play to dodge both attacks (looking at you godskins) or Malenia and her mega combo 1 shotting me hard. All that said I enjoyed every single game, Thank you Miazaki and Fromsoft for all your work on these masterpieces

[@Kukakkau]

Would agree with this list more than the video one. Especially the Sekiro dodge - it seems to almost be more for moving away from a hit than i-framing through it. But you can run way faster than it so it's not even your best option for rapid movement.

[@kwible3682]

Elden ring bosses are easy? Elden ring was my first FS game, and I can’t believe how skilled everyone is. I’m about 115 hours in, and I STILL haven’t beat it. Each boss is around 30 attempts to beat. Hearing that you can beat a boss with around 1-3 shots and sometimes less than 2 attempts is insane to me, so the problem might not apply to average players.

[@gabrielpirch1186]

​@@kwible3682 Oh I definitely don't think the bosses are too easy, like I said I really think it comes down to the numbers at the end. A lot of bosses I would've struggled with much more and had a much more enjoyable time with if the builds were more balanced, but there are certain weapons that deal so much damage so fast that you can ignore learning a lot of a bosses moves. There's also the other side of the coin where a lot of the endgame bosses and enemies do ridiculous amounts of damage, and will take you down from full health in 1-2 hits, even with 50-60 vigor. The other thing I complained about was some weapons being useless late game despite being the best weapon for that particular type. Like I feel like greatswords in this game just suck compared to other titles.

[@666Kaca]

@@gabrielpirch1186 power stance greatswords/colossal weapons + increased posture damage flask + jump attack = op

[@gabrielpirch1186]

@@666Kaca Jump attacks are good on almost any weapon because of the extra posture damage. Whether or not you can stunlock an enemy doesnt make a difference in balance if both weapons can stunlock and 1 takes a minute and a half to kill and the other takes fifteen seconds.

[@TheCrow938]

For Elden Ring I felt like a lot of the bosses were pretty easy just had a lot of health. I was killed by Crucible Knights far more than the bosses in that game. I also wished there was a quest screen. I am not saying I want locators on the map telling me where to go but pulling up on a menu that tells me the last thing Ranni said to me for the quest is really helpful when many of these quests will have points where you can't continue or get something for another 10 hours of gameplay. I just want to be able to pull it up and be reminded of what my next step for that quest is.

[@cyprian626]

My only problem with Elden Ring is the bosses. You can find most bosses in multiple locations, making them barely anymore special then normal enemies. The duo boss fights also suck, they have no balance compared to the previous games and their arenas are almost always designed poorly. Some bosses spam way too much sometimes, it's just annoying.

[@theautisticbeaver4885]

Plus most of the bosses after morgott just suck

[@danejr9785]

@@theautisticbeaver4885 hows that

[@brandentaft5164]

@@theautisticbeaver4885 You're not forgetting that Godfrey is after morgott right?

[@endme2760]

@@brandentaft5164 He said most of the bosses, not all of them

[@brandentaft5164]

@@endme2760 I know just curious if he enjoys Godfrey first elden chad

[@ZX497]

In the original Demon's Souls, the biggest annoyance was the limited inventory space combined with the fact you couldn't send items to your storage box. This meant that if you stumbled upon an armor set and went overloaded, you just had to discard items to make space for that set or lose the set permanently. On my first playthrough I had to trash so many upgrade materials and healing items not to lose out on unique items, and even still I ended up losing some sets cause that mechanic you kind of learn the hard way. The remake fixed this.

[@NexusKin]

That was the biggest pain for me in that game. I had to sacrifice upgrade points on Vitality in order to increase the Item Weight Limit, especially when I ran out of space to store items with Stockpile Thomas and had to personally carry them on me instead.

[@catalin2766]

For me Elden Ring has a big problem, reused enemies. I knew from the start there will be reused enemies but.....it feels so awful going exploring new areas just to find an Evergaol with Godrick but blue....or the 14th Big Tree, or the 10th Ulcerated Tree and so on. It's not a problem for normal enemies but for Bosses and mini bosses it really sucks, I'm not even suggesting to change all of those 180 bosses just to add some more variety, different weapons, maybe spells etc. Also as much as I like the Soldier of God, Rick meme on a serious note it's probably the most stupid boss ever, even for a tutorial boss as Gundyr will remain forever the quintessential From Soft tutorial boss

[@crisunjackalD]

While I don't mind the recycled boss fights (being a frequent thing for Dark Souls), the majority of these are side content that can be skipped completely. Unless you're looking to find some of the hidden equipment and items, and tackle some of the most interesting puzzles. But for a completionist going for defeating all bosses, it becomes a long tired trek facing not-exactly-difficult enemies, and by the end of it you end up with so many Runes that it's easy to overlevel for the actual game

[@Pumba424]

To be fair, margit is the real tutorial boss of that game. But I agree. I love elden ring and it’s probably my favorite game of the last 3-5 years but reused mini bosses is a huge issue. Also, replay ability is drastically reduced after the first time because not everything in every cave is useful for every build. It’s really exciting to find new things and experiment with them the first time but after that when you know what you’re building, you won’t go to 90% of the side areas. Game could have really done with maybe a different currency for shops and an in game economy outside of runes and you could reward “gold” to spend or whatever for clearing side quests along with the potentially useful or useless spell/weapon at the end.

[@WeinerTouchy]

@@crisunjackalD that’s a terrible excuse though - especially if you go by the community rules of playing blind. You don’t know what is side content and what isn’t in your first play though, this is why everyone’s first character easily breaks 100 hours and the second play through is 30 hours, if you’re lucky. I played Elden Ring MAYBE half way through, probably way less, because half of everything I saw through the first two main areas was… the same boss repeated over and over and over again and it killed my want to explore the world - I was just going to see the same shit over and over and over again so I really don’t care to get to the end and kill a beefed up cat statue that will just 1 shot me and have 30 million HP.

[@gus2619]

Yeah fighting this cat with 3 heads for 7 times was really enjoyable

[@jajasking9652]

In bloodborne, technically, the first mandatory bossfight is glascoine, that one is even better than iudex gundyr, as well as the first or second best early Game bossfight, the other Early bossfight that i love is godric

[@windbrush]

I adore Sekiro, but the worst thing about it for me is absolutely the gank fights. Gank encounters “work” in the other souls games (for the most part, that is) because you have many more tools to deal with multiple enemies. Using ranged options to pick off enemies one by one or using big weapons that can do sweeping attacks, for example. Sekiro feels like it has a practically perfect 1 v. 1 combat system. When they throw more enemies into the mix, though, it can get really nasty really fast. It isn’t like this for EVERY gank encounter, like large groups of weak enemies or maybe a mid-difficulty mini boss with a few weak enemies. But there are some encounters that are genuinely dreadful, like that one balcony at the end of Senpou Temple or the final miniboss before the final boss. For a game that makes me feel like most of my boss deaths were genuinely just my own skill issue, they really made some of the enemy encounters feel like a design issue lmfao.

[@xxbggam3rxx421]

That one gank bossfight is total aids too

[@Enraric]

I really like the bosses in Demon's Souls, actually. I think the focus on puzzles and unique mechanics makes them really unique and memorable. Also a fan of World Tendency, though that can be a bit punishing for new players, as you mentioned. Really surprised you didn't mention the availability of upgrade materials. The way Crystal Lizards work in Demon's Souls is really annoying and frustrating. Failing to kill too many of them before they disappear can really screw you over. Not to mention how annoying it is to farm the highest level of upgrade materials, like the infamous Pure Bladestone farm.

[@celestesoranno7702]

Bosses in DS3 are by far the easiest. And thats ok. Its an opinion Video after all.

[@PantoniStrikesBack]

@@celestesoranno7702 I wouldn't call Sister Friede, Nameless King, Darkeater Midir and Slave Knight Gael "easy". Yea! I wrote the full names, cause they're really cool (and also deserve some respect) XD As for the original topic... I agree on almost everything, except for world tendency. I don't like it, and the fact that is not even explained (properly at least) makes it even worse. Cheers!

[@DemonEyeHelix]

@@celestesoranno7702 DS3 bosses are easy because the game's controls and combat are easily the best out of the dark souls line (not counting Bloodborne in this). DS3 bosses are also the best designed and are almost completely free of cheap attacks or mechanics that feel unfair, something that plagues the shit out of DS1 and some bosses in Elden Ring.

[@DemonEyeHelix]

I finished my first Demon's Souls playthrough with a +3 sword. I never found enough of the higher upgrade materials, but I never really needed to.

[@whitevulpineg7698]

Upgrade materials does suck. Much like Bloodborne. I can only get one +10 weapon per run unless I have dlc or do chalice dungeons... ew. Chunk farming is obnoxious and it sucks cause I REALLY want to try other weapons

[@bug.b3ar]

I really like the healing mechanics in Bloodborne because it promotes an aggressive style of play that you don’t get a lot the other games, and idk I never had problems with farming blood vials until I had to fight the moon presence. I definitely get why it rubs people the wrong way tho

[@thedarkestdarklink3150]

i liked it until i was constantly throwing myself at the brick wall known as Orphan of Kos

[@ZomBunny]

For me Bloodborne was my first souls game, so I just got to learn to be aggressive and farm. Its nice to be able to rest to get more heals, but very annoying to not be able to carry 20 at once right off the bat

[@flashdalsu9792]

me neither, i finished 2 pts with 60-70 +. every time i had some echoes left, i bought vials

[@rion7720]

Sekiro also requires you to be overly aggresive, relentlessly, without stop if you even want to beat the old man just like he himself says it

[@eclipse369.]

No shield = crap. Backstep = crap

[@Andres33AU]

Even though an optional boss, I remember the boss run to regular Smelter Demon in DS2 was unrelenting, to the point where I did it so many times that enemies started to despawn (guessing the game was forcing you to use Bonfire Aesthetics after too many times to get enemies back, lol). With Sekiro, it finally clicked during the Genichiro fight on the rooftop, where it was a combination of everything you'd learned up to that point, including parrying, jump stomping, and Mikiri countering, and it's probably why it was my favourite boss fight in the entire game!

[@Ares42]

All the normal enemies in DS2 has a set amount of times they can spawn (I believe it's 15). Once you've killed any one specific enemy enough times it will stop spawning when you rest. I remember clearing the boss runs until the limit for certain bosses on my first playthrough, just so I didn't had to deal with the actual runback.

[@Aycheffe]

using the lightning counter was so sick in that fight

[@silverraigirideviluke]

@@Ares42 Specific, but varying by area. I dont know the exact numbers, but for example the gutter has less spawns for each enemy, and the dlcs have more than average.

[@josephhudson6650]

You can also keep enemies from despawning in 2 using the Covenant of Champions

[@kedarunzi9139]

@@josephhudson6650 or by using a bonfire ascetic or getting to ng+

[@breadisred1]

i have to say dark souls 3 is the best way to end this trilogy. the way everything just crumbles into pieces, and how you revisit areas that you have seen in the previous games just to realize it all has turned into ashes always gave me chills. i know this video is about a bad thing in every game but i had to point this out

[@yourlordskeletor6081]

My biggest issue with sekiro is something that's probably unique to me, I'm colourblind, so when an enemy did an unblockable attack, the symbol that pops up to show that it's coming was basically invisible to me, which made things substantially more difficult

[@MrSideeXD3]

So you're playing Sekiro on Hard mode.

[@enidanni3919]

i really wish fromsoft had accessibility settings for this , i know theres mods but like what about console players

[@yourlordskeletor6081]

@@enidanni3919 and I am a console player, even if I could just change it to blue or purple it wouldn't be an issue

[@mk1gabriel570]

Skill issue

[@kedarunzi9139]

@@mk1gabriel570 smh just be born better

[@UmbrasMercy]

Honestly the bigest gripe i had with elden ring was how obvious the ai is over reading your imputs. It went from learning and predicting attack paterns to oh you attacked once and now the boss is a ballerina and dodges every attack.

[@cypher5009]

I first realised that with Godrick in Storm Vale Castle, I started with the prisoner class and they have a delayed spell arrow and I noticed every time I cast it, he dodged always without fail and it really ruined the fight for me because its beautiful stylistically but the input reading was so obvious. The spell always hit too because he dodged the cast but it only shot a second later.

[@maliciousbugman]

It can also screw enemies over (which is kind of unfun IMO if you're not setting out to cheese them) due to the AI's horrible priorities. Like how you can use a Flask just to bait some Night's Cavalries into going apeshit and yeeting themselves off of safe ground to their deaths.

[@robinsimon4176]

@@maliciousbugman well for night cavalries you dont even need to cheese them, just go horse mode and kill them without dying, but yes, elden ring reacting to pressing the button instead of performing the action is bs

[@milly-sy4bc]

@@robinsimon4176 "Trying to heal? I'm already mid-attack look out" -Crucible Knight

[@JoeyCentral]

@@milly-sy4bc or better yet “let me peg you while you’re about to sip” Malenia.

[@ioannesblasi2266]

2:59 FINALLY someone is saying this. I can't stand basically half the boss runs in ds2 (executioner chariot, smelter demon, sir alonne, demon of song, twin king's pets ecc) but blue smelter demon is by far the worst shit I have ever experienced in these games, it even made me quit dark souls 2 for like a year.

[@mcgrewgs]

I've platinumed every Souls game, and I've never beaten the blue Smelter Demon. Screw that BS.

[@WorldBeater123]

@@mcgrewgs what’s your PSN? I’ll help you today beat him. I can solo him

[@WorldBeater123]

I love the boss runs. I appreciate the challenge of doing it solo, it raises your skill level. Also it’s Super fun to summon a few of my buddies to demolish them as well.

[@ioannesblasi2266]

@@WorldBeater123 i can kinda see your point despite I completely disagree. The runs are complete bs and you are forced to kill the enemies or else in 99.9% of the times you enter the bossfight without max health or heals. Then you have to play with the fear to get killed and having to do that again. The problem might be small with easy bosses, but imagine if you had a blue smelter demon level of boss rush with something like Gael, or orphan of Kos

[@arutemisemtrai9769]

@@ioannesblasi2266 While I'm not on the dev team, the boss runs always made sense to me, Dark souls 2 has the most healing options open to you in the entire series, baring Demon Souls, so I always felt the liberal enemy placement was to compensate for the fact that if you're fairly decent at the game, you can enter a boss fight with 30-50 healing items, where boss fights are designed for barely having 5-10.

[@Trynagetdown0]

i think one of the most common complaints for elden ring is the questing. Considering how the souls game are much more linear compared to elden ring, I think they could have maybe streamlined it a bit more to fit the giant open world, but honestly that is one of the things that made elden ring so refreshing. No giant glowing arrows pointing you where to go or anything like that, they basically just say "fuck you, figure it out"

[@dalinar7351]

Agreed. Taking into account how huge the game is and the open world in particular it is just downright impossible to complete every questline on your own. During my playthrough I think I didn't complete a good half of the quests because I simply forgot about their existance. While I share your opinion that introducing giant glowing arrows would be a bad idea, a logbook of all your conversations with NPCs wouldn't hurt.

[@neme5649]

The problem in Dark Souls 2 is as you mentioned "The boss runs". A good example of this is the path to Sir Alonne. When i first got to the area/memory i tried to run through the area, but with no succes. On the next attempt i decided to kill all the enemies, only to get to Sir Alonne. I was then killed due to the lack of healing and exposure to the boss. This left me scratching my head since i really didn't know what to do. I then got to the conclusion of clearing all the enemies "15 times" to make them despawn. This and other areas simmilar aren't really the issue. The issue is rolls. If the rolls were like Dark souls 1 or 3, it would actually be possible to advoid the hoarde of enemies charging after you on your way to the boss.

[@arellajardin8188]

While most people emphasize the boss fights in these games, I enjoy “conquering” the levels. So, for me, Dark Souls 2’s run backs aren’t an issue. Because I take the time to clear a path, anyways. I memorize the enemy composition, how to pull them efficiently, and killing them with the least amount of healing. Which itself isn’t an issue, since Life Gems. (But screw Frigid Outskirts and Iron Passage) No, for me, it’s the 8 direction movement. It didn’t bother me the first time I played, but after going back from DS3 and ER, the controls felt seriously clunky. It’s something you can adapt to, and compensate for. But you really shouldn’t need to. If they did a Demon’s Souls style remake of SotFS, this is the one thing I’d ask them to fix.

[@ViscousV]

And with DSII after you kill an enemy around 12 times they stop spawning so that game REWARDS you beating the level each time you get to the boss. While Stakes of Marika are nice, there’s nothing quite like just taking a stroll through the land that you mastered by driving all the enemies out

[@patchesgaming9139]

@@ViscousV I still think the "walk of shame" is quite annoying. Maliketh is a good example of this imo. Assuming you beat the tree sentinel it feels like a massive pain to have to walk all the way across the bridge every time you fail. Most of the frustration when fighting bosses for me are often just having to run and evade enemies to get back to the boss fight, ER has very little of these situations which is good but the criticism is very valid imo.

[@ChuckFinelyForever]

I understand wanting to clear a path but if it’s your 30th time, you tend to just want to run through and DS2 just grabs you by the back of the neck and yells “NOT TODAY”

[@felixtamola319]

It's annoying but I kill them all until they stopped spawning lol. One time I didn't know that I had the infinite spawn emblem equipped and I was killing the same exact horde enemy for 3 days lol. It got me a ton of xp tho.

[@ViscousV]

@@ChuckFinelyForever in DSII by your 12th to 15th time you would have cleared most of the enemies on the way

[@LudwigAlbums]

The sad part about your problem with DS2 is that it wasn't always like that, vanilla DS2 was balanced fine enough but then with the Scholar of the First Sin update (Which is the only version you can buy now) they just made everything ridiculous and spammed mobs of enemies at you. Such a strange balancing decision, and it's definitely tainted peoples' perception of DS2 in the long run

[@alexscholz3438]

Yeah that's something I've heard from a lot of people. Some enemy placements are just straight up fucked, like when I was first starting out that dragon that lead to Dragonslayer almost made me quit the game. I feel like if you took SotFS's story and DS2's enemy placement it'd be perfect. Definitely something I noticed in Elden Ring too, sometimes you just get thrown waves upon waves of enemies when the game feels like it only really shines in 1v1 encounters. DS2 still best souls game tho

[@TheFinagle]

Did they also 'fix' the thing where enemies would only respawn so many times, or could you still extinct everything one at a time and just have free range after? I can only get through the intro, as soon as I lose a soul permanently (even 1) and it cant be replaced I lose all motivation to play that world forward.

[@soulrebel6309]

And they added those stupid branches..that's why I can't finish it

[@nobody5093]

@@soulrebel6309 Especially when most of them had nothing special behind them making it a complete waste of time and souls

[@soulrebel6309]

@@nobody5093 I know, so lame

[@aldraone-mu5yg]

Enemies in DS2 cannot enter a boss room, I think you mean they can hit you while your transversing the fog.

[@Someone-wn9hx]

it made me calculate my every step what enemy to kill when to sprint and when not to. It was awful but it made the runs more challenging and annoying

[@octocoq]

When you showed footage of the run-up to the Smelter Demon in DS2 I felt that

[@LWmusik]

The "late game problem" of Ds1 feels exactly the same in Elden Ring, both games first halves are legendary and then it suddenly just feels like a chore. I do like ds1 ending way better though, the Kiln is such a cool location and Gwyn is a much more lore-heavy boss than the random Celestial Slug in Elden Ring

[@are3287]

I felt the other way around. Limgrave was a chore, Liurnia is too large for the lack of content. The catacombs and side content in Limgrave were also of notably lower quality than the rest of the game. The second half of the game has so much more actual content in it, getting through the first half to get to the good part feels like a preparation phase. Stormveil being as good as it is mitigates this a bit.

[@Hearts2fap]

I totally agree. To be fair though, four Kings was dope. Not the most polished but probably the fight I liked the most.

[@Sytphc179]

@@Hearts2fap the depth perception in that boss fight is such a cool concept if it’s deliberate

[@Hearts2fap]

@@Sytphc179 it really embodies the idea of the abyss. I think it was deliberate considering none of the other bosses suffer the same lack of perspective. What are your thoughts,?

[@LWmusik]

@@Hearts2fap it's a great boss, but the runback is terrible unless you know about the parkour trick

[@carl.from.accounting]

The only part i would say for bloodborne is increased damage when hit during a dodge. the blood vial problem only bothered me one time, other than that i general relied on attacks and dodges rather than parries, except the church doctor guys. its an issue, but not too glaring. 20 vials is generous, and can carry you through if you are filled with them. I havent finished the game though so maybe it will hurt me more later

[@EmberPlays]

I completely forgot about that, ya that’s pretty insane cuz it instantly increases your chances of getting 1 shot

[@dakotatrue12]

@@EmberPlays Blood vials were a problem for me early game during my first playthrough, but its really easy to farm blood echoes with the chalice dungeon (the cummm one or whatever its called) and then you can just buy a bunch through the bath. Before that, if it's not your first playthrough, blood vials still aren't really a problem because you know how to play and you know the bosses attack patterns and how to counter them. Summoning is also always an option. Sometimes the blood vial system is inconvenient but I think it is better than the flasks that get restored in the other games.

[@pelikanvernichter]

Have fun don't use any exploits or guides because this souls game first experience is phenomenal

[@carl.from.accounting]

@@pelikanvernichter i dont like exploits in games, and i prefer an entirely untainted experience. so far its phenomenal, im in the forbidden woods, havent started going through yet.

[@KaroxNightshade]

Playing through BB for my first time in a mostly blind run. I’ve beaten Gascoigne but I haven’t played much past him. I’ll say I’ve not had a problem with blood vials, since I’m generally a more dodge-based player. And as for the farming taking forever, just let some rando enemy near spawn live so that it can kill you, so you don’t need the extra loading screen. Yeah, Bonfires are easier, but I quite like the idea that the Bonfire menu is its own actual place. Just more interesting.

[@drifter1063]

Great video man. I like how there was no needless outro with plugs, makes me want to check out your channel even more with the time I saved lol

[@teddylyon1189]

I personally didn’t think the level design in the latter half of DS 1 was that bad. After Anor Londo, it sort of gave a feeling of mastery of the world after experiencing everything the world had to offer. The rest of what happened after that felt like exploring the remaining dark corners where the bosses had explored. It felt like each main boss had their own corner of the world with unique aesthetics to them. Besides, you got the ability to warp between bonfires so interconnectivity kind of goes away after that. And that ability is earned by exploring the vast majority of Lordran since you know where everything is, making your feeling of mastery over Lordran feel more earned as you overtake each of the lords

[@JA-kr1lz]

Doesn’t change the fact that Lost Izalith and Tomb of the Giants suck ass in terms of level design. Also the more I play through the Dukes Archives and New Londo ruins the more I realise how much these areas are tedious and boring. It’s very clear the 2nd half of the game was rushed

[@wingsoficarus1139]

@@JA-kr1lz Level design wasn't even my issue. Its just that DS1's already ugly color pallet just looked even uglier for me. I couldn't stand dark areas man.

[@JA-kr1lz]

@@wingsoficarus1139 I know what you mean and agree to some extent BUT the game was made for the 360 and any bright colours would show how bad the textures real were lol. Also the game is about a dying world so it ain’t going to be bright and vibrant colours lol

[@wingsoficarus1139]

@@JA-kr1lz I was referring to the remaster. There's not reason for everything to be green and brown even when you're in a forest which is supposed to be beautiful to an extent.

[@jenjoe4359]

@@wingsoficarus1139the remaster isn’t even really a remaster honestly, barely changed anything graphically

[@Bonezlayer]

The worst part about bloodborne for me is the chalice dungeons. They detract from what makes bloodborne so great aesthetically and on a fundamental level. Having to search every nook and cranny to make sure you got a the ritual materials you need(including the damn side rooms) slows down the game dramatically. On top of that half of the fights are re-fights or just basic enemies as bosses. It’s a struggle to grind them out to just get to the unique bosses. Elden ring also suffers from this philosophy although you don’t need to find materials for those. I will give props to the cummmfpk dungeon though

[@EmberPlays]

I was waiting for the chalice dungeon comments. I agree tho, the only reason I didn’t put them as the WORST thing is because u can basically ignore them for the most part if u want to

[@okami9039]

Same lol i did all the story chalice dungeons just for the platinum trophy and never even touched them again and the defiled chalice is by far the most dogshit and unfun chalice

[@tekan5i466]

@@EmberPlays on my first playthrough i ignored them and i could finish the game, but when i went to dlc i was heavily underleveled, for like 30-40 levels, because of that i couldn't beat orphan of Kos, then on ng+ i did all of the dungeons i could find and then i was overleveled and one-shotted everything, imo chalice dungeons really bring the game's balance and feel of exploration down, not talking about how they all look the same and very boring to go through

[@kip8949]

For me it was only being able to fast travel in the hunter's dream. It just felt really inconvenient to have to travel all the way back to the hub just to go somewhere.

[@followerofmanus1]

Absolutely, its all a rinse and repeat feeling. Bloodborne has great lore which includes Chalice dungeons having it. Another thing is PvP gem farming. You have to use specific chalice glyph codes to get the best gems in the game. It didn’t make any sense to me. It almost felt like I was cheating. People will farm blood gems for months just to get the best ones for PvP. If they would have removed Chalice Dungeons and created more gothic/victorian style areas or cosmic/Lovecraftian areas and put more of the gems in Dungeons there I would have loved that.

[@noname772fp2]

As a big time DS2 defender I have to say that ADP is just the worst. I’m a defender of the ganking too. I think it really makes you play differently than other fromsoft games and isn’t too bad when you know what you’re doing, but yea iron keep boss run is horrid.

[@jajasking9652]

Some ganks are good, but some ganks like some of the second DLC, in the rooms that you have to pull a klank to progress, is horrible, but is totally bereable overall, but Adp is just: why ? Also, i don't like that stamina and equi load are increased by two diferent stats

[@bostash8442]

@@jajasking9652 your second complaint is literally in every souls game except dark souls 1 and honestly it feels OP to have that as an option

[@jajasking9652]

@@bostash8442 in elden ring, is like ds1 as well

[@bostash8442]

@@jajasking9652 i didn't know that I'm sorry

[@R14-v4g]

Nah since the meta is 150, adp shouldn't be a problem, it's redundant maybe but not a big deal ... (You should be worry about AGILITY) 100 agility is enough , 105 if you are into pvp, 110 if you have the points to invest and that's it

[@fennecwolfox]

My biggest issue with Sekiro was the Dragonrot, originally, because early on I had been told by a friend and a couple of early guides that if too much dragonrot built up, your NPCs would die permanently and your game could get softlocked or at least you'd never be able to complete everything. I need to go back to that game at some point.

[@Him-uq8wq]

Ik this is a very late reply but have you gotten back yet? 😂

[@fennecwolfox]

@@Him-uq8wq Nah. Probably will at some point, dunno when. Too many games I care about more, lol

[@naber_official]

Nah thats cap just play it bro i finished it without giving a fuck about dragonrot

[@hunterofhunters4395]

I agree with Elden Ring's inconsistencies with difficulty balancing. Another personal gripe on my end is, being a mage enemies just sidestep my spells. Makes end game bosses a real pain, especially Radagon and Malenia 🙄 (also the Godskins and their input prediction)

[@gunzkiller101]

Interesting fact, invisible spell actual prevent them from dodging or they don’t try to avoid it.

[@crazywolf917]

You should have stars of ruin by the end game if you’re on a mage. It has god tier tracking and does a lot of damage, only downside is it uses a decent amount of FP

[@hunterofhunters4395]

@@crazywolf917 I have that and I use it religiously. I just wish I could also use other spells too. Sadly, enemies can also sidestep some of the projectile on it but it's better than not hitting xD

[@Joyful_Traitor]

I have noticed in with the most recent update that enemies mostly bosses charge you way more when you use the flask to heal I swear they have added in for the ai to read your key inputs more often

[@patrickmorrey8722]

@@Joyful_Traitor that's a thing that from soft does a lot from what I've seen.

[@GuardianOwl]

The Blood Vial thing always seemed like an unintuitive change to me, some type of half measure closer to estus than grass would have been less frustrating. If the reason they made them 1 time use consumables is because you couldn't rest at the lantern to reset them like estus, they could of still had them auto-refill like estus when you die or return to the Hunter's Dream, but also let you scavenge them from enemy bodies up to your body's max carrying capacity like how it is in the game so you don't _have_ to return to the Hunter's Dream to top off your heals as you explore if you don't want to. Bullets didn't bother me as much since you could always protect your ammo a bit by using blood bullets instead.

[@LashknifeTalon]

What you're suggesting sounds pretty similar to Elden Ring's system where some packs of enemies give you some flask charges back; and it would make sense in Bloodborne. The Hunter finds some enemies, beats them up, and draws some of their blood out into vials.

[@scottbecker4367]

Meh. By the end game, there are going to be times where you don't have enough blood echos to level up. I always use those to get vials and bullets. You'll start stocking up pretty quick. I had over 200 vials in storage on my first completion and over 600 on my second.

[@GuardianOwl]

Which is another thing that annoyed me about Bloodborne, raising prices of consumable as the campaign goes on. You can kinda make the case for some of the things like bloodvials since their healing ability goes up as your max HP goes up. But weapon buff consumables add a fixed amount of elemental AR to the weapon, which means they get proportionally _weaker_ as the game goes on, yet the price is repeatedly ratcheted up.

[@Khunkurisu]

@@scottbecker4367 by end game blood vials are no longer a concern. The design is only really a punishment for new players, and detracts from the game because of it.

[@scottbecker4367]

@@Khunkurisu you get so many in the first few areas that it really isn't much of a punishment. You should easily be able to get a lot just by going through the area a couple times.

[@Thechimpanzeeanimator]

elden rings boss design just didnt stick with me. For me, dark souls 3 has some of the much more inconic, thematic, non-bullshit bosses. I will always remember Gael, soul of cinder, champion gundyr, and a few more. Always felt like elden ring bosses had one attack that was incredibly annoying. Godfrey had a nice first phase i feel, but i didnt like how he always had to stomp every damn sec suddenly, with an attack that hits the whole arena. We dont talk about Melania, we just dont. Godskin duo is dumb. Maliketh the black beyblade was flying around the damn arena. I can forgive Radahn, we get alot of tools to defeat him either way. Theres probably a few more.. I only remember some cause they were a pain in the ass to fight. I spent way too much time on Melania, despite being optional. Just my opinion Dont flame me, bois.

[@dracses4529]

You are perfectly valid! To me though, Godfrey is one of the best bosses in Elden Ring *because* of a lack of annoying gimmicks. He's closest to one of their classic boss designs. The stomping makes clever use of the new jumping mechanic I think, since you can use that as an alternative to dodge the stomps. Melania and some of the others I wholeheartedly agree. I will be the first to admit I'm not ONGBAL, and Melania just gets under my skin. Every time I've beaten her it feels like I was beating the system and not a legendary warrior.

[@boaz7028]

Agreed, i hate how almost every boss has a combo attack with swings in such quick succession u *cannot* roll through them (margit, godrick, morgott, maliketh first phase, to name a few). I also hate the super weirdly delayed attacks, and the random lightspeed attacks (godskin noble rapier pierce attack, 4x)

[@lemonzest8650]

I thought Maliketh was actually one of the cooler bosses his first phase is just lackluster

[@topgoose4818]

Right. The only bosses in elden that have really stuck with me are Morgott, Placidusax, and Malenia. Morgott because of how difficult he was for a first real boss. Placidusax because that fight was fucking cool. Then Malenia becuase holy shit was it exciting to kill her. Took about 30 attempts, which was less than Placidusax took surprisingly. I don't know, for some reason Malenia was just one of those bosses whose moveset and rythm just kinda clicked with me. Same thing happened to me with Pontiff in DS3, who ended up taking less attempts than aldritch of all people lol. It's fun watching friends play souls games just to see what bosses you struggled with but they're just gonna *get*. Know what I mean?

[@lucanagato_kogen]

agreed 100%

[@jakatak744]

I'm so glad that someone acknowledged my only problem with elden ring. My first run I did a faith strength build and it was pretty challenging but fair throughout. That is until I got to the last like 1/3 of the game. It went from a difficult and fun challenge like other souls games to damn near impossible. I just felt like I was whacking a steel gurder with a wet noodle hoping it'd eventually fall over. It wasn't until I respeced to an arcane dex build that I realized I wasn't bad, I was just playing the game wrong. It became an absolute joke, I basically just walked through the rest of the game.

[@almond.9797]

Oh no

[@v0iidb0w]

Dukes Archives and Tomb of the Giants get a bad rap because of Lost Izalith. Tomb is fairly short, but I found it really fun + the big skeleton creatures are some of my favourite enemies. Dukes Archives is just cool all around, and the whole cave leading up to seath is one of the most visually impressive areas in the game.

[@logancampbell3065]

Idc about dukes, but tomb of giants is just genuinely awful and my least favorite part of a ds1 playthrough

[@fruitytuesdayz5760]

@@logancampbell3065worse than Izalith? I also don’t think it’s that bad but I can also speedrun that area with no light so I might be a little unbiased. But even then you have prism stones telling you where to go not so bad intresting design

[@wingsoficarus1139]

@@logancampbell3065 Nah lost Izalith was pretty bad. Literally copy and pasted enemies throughout the area.

[@samwalmsley8799]

Crystal cave is a beautiful area but it’s obviously unfinished. There’s like 3 items and some recycled enemies and good luck ever getting to the boss without looking up where the invisible bridges are. Not as bad as izalith but it’s a terrible boss run that they slapped a name on and called it a new area.

[@wingsoficarus1139]

@@samwalmsley8799 It wasn't too bad. If you played the game in online mode, there would always be signs saying "here!" or something placed on the invisible paths.

[@shiroamakusa8075]

I think one thing that has to be said for Elden Ring is sidequest design. In the older titles they could already be pretty obtuse but because there was less "real estate" overall you had an easier time actually finding and meeting people. Elden Ring with its gigantic world in comparison makes it near impossible to folloe sidequests since those often spread all over the map. Take Yura for example, at one point you have to warp to the main gate of Raya Lucaria to help him fend off an invade... but unless your game progress is such that you arrive there just as his sidequest is at that stage there's basically no way for you to ever find out that you'll have to help him there because he never mentions going to the academy. And of course the final step of that quest is to find him dying in a random church on the Altus Plateau which he also never mentions as a destination in previous dialogue. I really think any potential ER DLC or follow-up needs to be tighter about this.

[@Edsabre]

Good stuff, I agree with most all of it. I think the difficulty fluctuation in Elden Ring is really the only thing I ever complained about, but you have so many options it's really up to you how easy or hard you want it to be. If you want a challenge, dont use spirit summons or bleed weapoons, but if you want to make it easier just grab your mimic tear and ROB spam everything to death. Also, Sekiro doesn't have a "lack of build variety" it has like... no build variety at all. Which is why, even though it's an amazing game, I dont consider it a souls game. It's more of a Tenchu-like with some souls elements.

[@bonoach2632]

In ds2 there is a spell you can cast that lures the enemies towards it, makes the run to blue smelter demon easy. I love this game, especially because it has the no death run and no bonfire run and their rewards! so fullfulling to complete those!

[@timothypryor7952]

I think that with elden ring, like many of the other games in the series, they were experimenting with new mechanics and new ideas. The crafting system for example opens up tons and tons of options to very quickly kill very strong foes if you know what to craft. I remember a moment during my mage playthrough where I got stuck since none of my spells worked against a type of foe. So I crafted some fire jars and NUKED EVERYTHING! For me it's all about trying new ways to kill stuff rather than just using one OP power or tool.

[@olavo.6526]

but still there were a lot of "meta weapons" that were far stronger than the others. Also there were a lot of fun and interesting weapons but they just weren't as strong

[@eelmimbo]

Demons souls: I thought the unique boss gimmicks made them all a lot more memorable for me, and personally it meant more to me than the memorization for every other boss in every other souls game. The bosses in the other games are all amazing, yes! but I just think that I liked demon's souls bosses more for having something other than a moveset, but a trick up their sleeve as well. Honestly I forgot the penetrator existed cause he's just a dude with a sword. That's just a different preference though. Dark souls: Honestly I think the only late game area I really dislike going back to is the crystal place, Seath's area. I never minded the lack of interconnectivity cause the teleporting really made it kind of inconsequential for me, wasn't a good or a bad thing. Also seeing Izalith from the tomb of the giants is pretty fucking cool you gotta admit. Dark souls 2: agreed. Bloodborne: I never really minded this. I don't know why but I never really had to grind in this game, or in any other souls game. I have never grinded in a souls game and don't want to just cause I hate games where you have to grind shit out tediously. As for the hunters dream thing... yeah it's annoying I agree. I just never really thought about it until now because I would really just be going there for a quick level, some upgrades, and to relax a bit. Often I'd spend 5+ minutes there so I didn't realize the load times were so egregious. I never really had to deal with your problem with bloodborne. Dark souls 3: I agree a lot. I kinda dread a lot of the areas in dark souls 3 and find them kinda bland and annoying. The early game is really just not that fun and I don't look at any of the areas in the game positively, except for the ringed city DLC... And Anor Londo actually just cause of nostalgia. Bosses really were the driving force of fun in this game, and pvp. Sekiro: Everything about this is perfect. Again actually I never had a problem with spirit emblems just like in bloodborne. And I loved using the tools. The combat is the best in every fromsoft game and I don't think the learning curve was that bad. Elden ring: I didn't really mind any of this. But also I oddly didn't feel too attached to elden ring despite having been hyped for it since it was announced and despite loving it through my first playthrough. After having finished the game I just kinda don't feel any certain way about it. If you love it great, if you said you didn't like it I would just say okay. It really felt like an adventure up till beating morgott though and I don't know why I still feel like it was an adventure thinking about it now. But something changed after morgott and I don't know what or why but it lead to me kinda just feeling meh about the game after that point.

[@sadbearsfan1603]

I agree a lot with what you said about Demons Souls bosses. One thing I appreciate about Demons Souls bosses was the surprise. Every time I went through the fog and encountered a boss, I didn’t really know what to expect or how to beat them. Couldn’t say the same for Sekiro, Elden Ring, and Bloodborne.

[@giulioceresini1435]

lost izalith from tomb of the giants is a png, the area is not really there...

[@eelmimbo]

@@giulioceresini1435yeah, but it's cool nonetheless and makes the game feel like a real universe, just like the actual connections in the first half did. It's not as good as actually connecting them but it does feel cool as fuck, or at least it does for me.

[@midastheunwise2423]

@@eelmimbo Having finished DeS: Remake, DS1 and now DS2 (just the DLC left) I can say that DS1's world is by far its most standout feature. The game in general is great, but for me that's what sets it apart from the other 2 games I've played so far. It's a very well-realised world that makes sense, and really elevates the shortcut system to new heights. Conversely, DS2 providing warping from the start really took away from the joy of discovering and unlocking a significant new shortcut.

[@midastheunwise2423]

@@sadbearsfan1603 I like some bosses being gimmicky. While it wasn't especially difficult, the Storm King fight on Demons Souls Remake was easily the most awe-inspiring and cinematic boss fight I've done, and is intensely memorable. I've only played 3 games in the series, but right now the issue with fighting dudes with swords is that I end up comparing them all to the fight with Artorias, and so far nothing has matched up to that one for me.

[@RosieJonesRules]

One of my most hated things in DS3 is how rare infusion gems are. For example, if you waste the Raw gem you get at the start of the game, the only other ways to get one is a fixed loot in Lothric castle (endgame area) or farm with a 0.5% drop rate.

[@R1R1R2]

should have been either available for purchase, or around 5% drop rate. And while we’re on the topic, change covenant item PvE drops to .5% from any normal enemy while the corresponding covenant is equipped.

[@iota-09]

THIS SO BAD Having a dex-focused jack-of-all-trades build has always been a pain in the ass for figuring out where to get sharp gens

[@nouvelhomme8990]

They aren't rare, as far as I can tell. I was always overloaded with them.

[@iota-09]

@@nouvelhomme8990 in all my ds3 runs(Except one) i always picked up everything and most of the time killed every enemy non-dlc enemy at least once, and in all of my runs it was quite rare to get more than 3 sharp gems per run.(that's in fact all the world drops you can find around, unless i'm forgetting some from the dlcs)

[@nouvelhomme8990]

@@iota-09 You can farm them I think in the catacombs and from those tougher dudes around the corvian settlement in the Ariandel DLC. Drop rates are pretty good. Chaos gems I never had enough of, but I couldn't be bothered to go back to smoldering lake to get more. I didn't think there were enough good dexterity weapons for you to need too many sharp gems to boost them more. I only infused to katanas with sharp. My play style is weird, though.

[@trooves4675]

I just started playing bloodborne a few days ago, and I've got to say that the blood vial system doesn't seem too bad. I have plenty of blood vials in my storage and never really run out, but then again I'm only 2 bosses in which I've first tried both of them so maybe I'll have to worry about farming later one. Adding onto what you said about ER I agree that the difficulty is a big issue and personally my first play through of over leveled by complete accident and did the first half of the game pretty much my first attempt.

[@CastleBannisher]

I've always thought a possible solution to Elden Ring's difficulty inconsistency would be a level cap that gets progressively higher as you beat mandatory bosses and progress through the game. Perhaps the great runes could've also functioned kind of like the talisman pouches where obtaining one increases your level cap (which also encourages exploration for the optional runes if you are stuck somewhere). I do think this may be hindered a bit by a "true" open world structure, but to be fair Elden Ring's world design, at least on your first play through, is a fairly linear trek through large hubs with the exception of Caelid whose difficulty varies from early to late/end game throughout the area.

[@EmberPlays]

Yesss that’s a fire idea!!!

[@yulfine1688]

I'd imagine the issues caused with speed running etc would basically ruin that part of the game and most people over level anyways or max their level for a certain area by exploring and that doesn't change how many areas you can summon either with spirit ashes which was given for many reasons and maybe have made it easier in some ways it hasn't and then coop works much better overall in this case which level is less of an issue as is your weapon level the highest weapon level restricts you more than your rune level does. As for some weapons not being viable this is untrue. All weapons are viable just some of them will definitely handicap you. And in some ways I do hope they nerd blood and rot damage as most enemies and bosses aren't immune to blood loss or rot or frost as well.

[@ChuckBrailsford]

So basically the memory/attack power system from Sekiro. I agree 100%

[@CastleBannisher]

@@yulfine1688 Well to be fair in most speedruns I've seen they don't even fight any enemies, or level up at all, so I don't think this would impact it all really. However, the overwhelming majority of time spent in this game is people just playing the game normally. People maxing their levels for a certain area also doesn't change much, because bosses should be designed for players at or very close to that specific level. Where as currently enemies need to be either: designed for players at a vast range of levels (which is nearly impossible), designed for players at a specific level range (which is currently done but the player's pretty much infinite scaling allows them to get overpowered even if they are staying in the same area), or extremely powerful to the point that you'll never quite feel like you're on par with them power wise (the end game bosses doing nuke damage, having super high defense, or both). I recognize that this would have to be implemented earlier in development, and could not simply be dropped into the game as is. Adding in coop/summoning is almost always going to make a game easier, but they should feel like tools in a player's belt rather than a necessity. Not sure if you're specifically @ing me with the weapons comment, but I do think they suffer from the same problem most of Elden Ring does. Elden Ring's difficulty and balancing rarely feels just right. The majority of things, whether they are enemies or weapons, feel like they are either a 10 or a 1/10 for difficulty and usefulness. When people say something is not viable it means that the negatives outweigh the positives not that it is impossible to succeed with them. Of course you can beat the game with a broken straight sword, but unless you're doing a challenge run why would you?

[@CastleBannisher]

@@ChuckBrailsford That's a perfect example! Now that you've put it in my head I'm surprised they didn't do something like that haha.

[@yo_mama_gaming4517]

Elden Rings difficulty is really something why I didnt have fun with it anymore after ng+2 though its still great of course as a game The worst is that it feels like they designed the bosses to be fought with spirit ashes and it makes them less fun I struggled a lot with some bosses but as soon as I used them they suddenly became too easy and it feels wrong that I can make bosses 5x easier by summoning In other games they have summons in mind but are still mostly designed to be fought alone and summoning only makes bosses a bit easier but not even always like they are useless in bloodborne, and sekiro had no summons at all, you just fight alone and that made it great Also the early bosses in ng+ have way too low health to be difficult and also some weapons are way too op, my first playthrough for the first half I was low level, used a normal weapon and didnt know about spirit ashes, and had a hard time, then I found sword of night and flame and saw a video about mimic ashes and with them suddenly everything was a cake walk and no other game had this much of a difficulty change by using one of the best weapons

[@the4given196]

Feel ya. I Had a blast Up until/including morgott. Such a great First half, but my breaking Point was maliketh who i Had a hard time to Beat due to my nonmeta build. ( I was running Double curved greatswords, but didnt know about how OP JUMP attacks are for poisebreaks) once ive explored anbit and found the mimic Tear and gotnto anpoint of going lets Test this in maliketh i First tried him without a big hassle. In my next Run i was deliberately trying to be overpowerd. Moonveil, sorceries, No mana cost comet Azur, mimic Tear (derquip your staff before summoning the mimic so it doesnt brainlessly use the wrong spells at the wrong time) and No Boss besided malenia gave me any Problems. Havent done another Run since. If angame makes me feels as If Id need to use a Meta build Just to have an enjoyable Boss Fight Id rather Just Play DS3 and Fall in Love with that Game again and again.

[@fallingsplat4431]

This might just be me but I don't really agree, even with spirit ashes a lot of bosses were/are really fucking hard. What I think sets the difficulty apart is if you explore the entire area before moving on to the next one you will have gathered so many levels the next one obviously won't be hard. This is why I felt it got a bit more boring since I wanted to explore everything the game had to offer, but in doing so the ''main bosses'' became a whole lot easier since I left them for last. I love the game to death but I agree that it's not fun after playing through it once or twice cause all the bosses either die really quickly or you get basically one shot. But I really don't agree that spirit ashes are a detriment, I found that exploring different ashes and different combos made for a lot more of a fun experience. However I do believe they should flat out remove the mimic ash, shit was broken beyond belief just like some weapons. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I'm merely stating my own :)

[@charlescourtwright2229]

I stopped playing Elden Ring after i was forced to cheese the AI on the first main boss, Margit, due to his relentless attacks, with no windows to punish, along with fairly high damage and health that a +3 great axe with 25ish str couldnt really scratch quickly

[@yo_mama_gaming4517]

@@fallingsplat4431 I should have mentioned that I specifically had the strongest of ashes in mind since they are quite a few weak ones, especially mimic tear since its a player like the usual summons in other games, and of course not literally every boss is that much easier by having someone help but still most were in my experience, actually when I think about it the only really hard ones that stuck so much in my memory are mogh, malenia, godfrey, radagon and maliketh, placidusax and godskin duo and the rest are relatively easy, and with good summons for me they go to at most a couple tries to beat and the ones that were already not very hard usually first try, except malenia always stays difficult and for radagon the summon usually doesnt last until the end

[@yo_mama_gaming4517]

@@fallingsplat4431 and I really agree with what you said about the bosses becoming either too easy or too hard, thats probably a bigger factor than what I mentioned originally since you can just use average summon and weapons making the bosses not much easier I think that everything is so easy and boring until late game made me not having fun anymore, since I would just play to fight those hard bosses I mentioned and then what made me think that about the summons was probably trying to make the fight easier since they were so very hard but using either mimic or that black knife guy had it become unsatisfyingly easier

[@austindobbs5341]

The one thing that’s gonna be a tragedy is when the DS2 death counter stops counting

[@zelatoth]

Honestly the thing I hate about Sekiro is the fact that the teach you stealth and then force you to fight. I like stealth so I used stealth though my playthrough so when it came time to fight a boss I wasn't any good at the combat. The game shouldn't have had it in the first place if it was just going to punish me for using it. Also on Elden Rings difficulty, I like my cheese. I'm not someone who has a level of pride boarding on stupidly. Refusing to use mechanics in a game like summoning, leveling, upgrading is called a challenge run.

[@mitchelrowe6915]

Yeah I love Elden Ring and I have 100% achievements but playing the bosses melee only (no AoW, Magic, Summons, Items, ranged) in the late game sucked (Apart from phase 2 Maliketh who was awesome). The way in which bosses can chain moves together means they can randomly decide if they will let you punish them or not. RNG NEVER felt like a factor with previous bosses, but a select few tougher bosses in Elden Ring did, which didn't feel fun like DS3 DLC tough bosses

[@winstonmi1263]

Elden Ring was the first and only Souls game Ive played but even I could notice that there was a problem with RNG. I beat the game melee and summonless, so Id often have to fight bosses at least a hundred times, while this definitely helped me improve as a player, id realize that runs where i would win depend on the moveset the boss uses, obviously there are certain ways to trigger certain moves but its not always that simple

[@thegamesforreal1673]

Radagon is also absolute fire as a pure melee. Sucks that he's tied to Elden Beast which just brings the greatness that is Radagon down to mediocrity.

[@archedin]

I did maliketh duel wielding blood infused daggers and I cant even count how many times I missed an attack on his first phase bc of his hurtbox

[@imstillaj]

@@thegamesforreal1673 I dont understand why people hate on elden beast i personally beat him in less than 5 tries his moves are telegraphed and chasing him isn't that bad if u levelled stamina abit

[@church6134]

@@imstillaj It took a lot of tries for me but Elden Beast is my favorite boss fight Radagon was ok but I fought him a lot for me to even get to Elden Beast so it got repetitive and easy

[@fnorgen]

I remember having a really hard time with all of Sekiro the first time through, mostly because I had honed my dodge timings razor sharp by playing every other FromSoft game a LOT, exclusively by dodging everything and keeping both hands on a greatsword. I instinctively attempted to dodge every attack, which just isn't efficient in Sekiro. It was only on my second playthrough that I finally managed to convince my brain that I was playing a completely different game, and got comfortable with parrying as my immediate instinct. I actually really enjoyed being forced out of my comfort zone and learning an entirely new style. It was hilarious to then replay DS1 and casually parry everything with the back of my left hand. By comparison the enemies move in slow motion in that game. I actually think Sekiro is my favorite FromSoft game. The combat is just tuned to perfection and the movement is really satisfying. My only complaint is that exploration is ultimately a bit under rewarded.

[@proddirtneck]

Yea sekiro is actually insane from a video game development stand point, there’s not a single boss in that game that is annoying or unfair (except maybe headless and those big cannon Mfs), the levels are linear enough to where even on ur second play through you can find new stuff while not being completely lost, and the mechanics are pretty much perfect except for the single skill use.

[@np_gaming6470]

Honestly the Sekiro problem comes from the game wanting you to play the 'Sekiro rhythm game' all the way through, but specifically in the beginning it throws too many other playing styles at you like getting fancy prosthetics, stealth, or using your flying speedy ninja skills to run circles around all the enemies, picking up all the items and running past everything. The first mandatory fight isn't a 'rhythm game' fight, it's the chained ogre which punishes early attempts at learning to parry. Many players like Ember here and myself won't really get it until the first playthough has ended. It's a great game once you figure it out though.

[@jadewhite766]

I agree the ogre is weirdly placed, but you can and should parry all of its non-grab attacks. I feel like the intent was to funnel newer players to Hirata to get the flame barrel and teach them that bosses often have a strong counter from a prosthetic tool, but that lesson might have been better after a mandatory skill check on combat basics.

[@ShyBug42]

While not every boss in Demon's Souls is a hit, to call them "gimmick fights" is kinda ridiculous It's the unique situations nearly each boss provides which gives Demon's Souls its charm for me, every boss is different or has quirks in their arena that make dealing with the boss easier or harder; there's the tunnel for armor spider, the archers for Tower Knight, the anti-climax for Astrea and True King Allant, etc. As the souls series went on you get more bosses that are just straight up fights with the boss, and those can be great, but it really makes them feel more samey when the only difference betwen them is how long they hold the anticipation for certain attacks, not helped at all with how simple the combat system for the souls series really is compared to other action games. Simple does not mean bad, I am not calling the combat bad, and I'm certainly not calling every boss from dark souls 1 onwards bad, just that they feel homogenous compared to Demon's Souls roster. Glimmers of variance shine through, such as Sif in Ds1 where as it's beaten it has difficulty continuing the fight, or Micolash in Bloodborne doing something truly uncommon for boss fights in all of video games: running away from you. This opinion was heavily informed by Matthewmatosis' video essay titled The Lost Art of Demon's Souls and I highly recommend it to anyone else watching this video two years after its release.

[@legendaryyetunknown6973]

Spirit emblems made me get sekiro on PC then get a infinite spirit emblem version.

[@EmberPlays]

I need to get on PC 😭

[@suhasop4919]

Shits so fun I love spamming One Mind that shit looks cool af

[@Boboexplosion]

There are Problems i have with Elden ring. The biggest is the Input lag. Hitting the roll button just so that nothing happens and after eating a hit to the face the char just suddenly jumps into the next attack is extremely annoying. The problem existed in darksouls titles before but omg this is the worst it ever felt before. Second is the unnatural delay attacks on literally every boss. While there have always been delay attacks in soul games they extremely went overboard with it to the point where they just don't make sense and go against your instinct. Third problem for me is bad boss design. Making huge bosses as big as a building is impressive and all but if you are fighting feet in a lot of the fights not seeing what the torso and head are doing you just want a shrink beam to finally see the boss. I know they took inspiration from shadow of colossus here but then you shoul let me climb their body.

[@maliciousbugman]

Yeah, they went way overboard with some bosses when it comes to baiting and punishing rolls. You could see hints of this design philosophy start in DS3 but there it usually felt much more fair and justified if you got punked on a mistimed roll.

[@dinohunter6450]

Two words: input reading. That's 90% of my problem with Elden Ring. No, the boss didn't dodge by chance whenever you cast that spell, or hit you out of his windup because you rolled at just the wrong moment, it literally read your input. Every boss does it and it's not very well concealed. It's not an inherently bad mechanic but they integrated it poorly. You can see the start of it in DS3 but it wasn't nearly as bad there as it is in Elden Ring. Oh, and Weapon Arts are bullshit. They deal way too much damage and if you aren't spamming them you aren't winning jack shit in PvP or PvE. They really fucked up the balance on that one. I feel like the player needs a 25% defense buff, some bosses need more hp (think Morgott and Godfrey). That would fix a lot of the difficulty problems. Aside from that, a few weapons need readjusted (like rivers of blood) and bloodhound step should be removed from the game entirely and replaced with.... something.

[@realkingofantarctica]

I recently returned to DS2 after dropping it at the end of the Iron King DLC because of one thing, or rather multiple things put into one. The run-up to Sir Alonne is filled with too many enemies, a fog wall where you can easily get hit, the fight itself is horrible with base ADP, and the length it takes to heal with the slow-ass Estus as well as your health constantly lowering from all the deaths on the run towards it. Many of the worst aspects of DS2 show themselves here, so I decided this time I would grind for souls on The Rotten and Last Giant to get my agility to 110 (which while I love the Bonfire Ascetic mechanic, I dont like how easy it is to get so many levels even by accident in DS2) and only then did I go back to the fight. Instead of dying before even landing hits like before, I was able to beat the boss in three attempts, all thanks to actually being able to dodge attacks. This invigorated me to do the Ivory King DLC which I also liked and the battle there felt even better. I will say that I now understand why ADP exists, because the enemy attacks in DS2 are so slow and basic even in endgame areas that they need to make it so the player will actually get hit. It took me forty minutes to die once in Crown of the Ivory King and I was fighting every enemy and exploring every path.

[@darkjackl999]

Agility also affects item usage so that slow ass estus heal gets a lot faster

[@StrappingYoungLadam]

It's funny how so many people still complain about ADP when A. It's actually more RPG like to have it B. You level up way faster in DS2 so it's really not a burden to put points into it C. Scaling in DS2 really doesn't make a huge difference. With the base stats needed to use a weapon you do plenty of damage D. One can dodge most every attack in the game with only 12 ADP if your timing is on point. And E. If you learn to play without locking on, you can dodge most boss attacks without even having to use the dodge button. 🤷

[@fnorgen]

@@StrappingYoungLadam ADP is fine only if you know how useful it is. The problem is that the stat is WAY more impactful than new players on blind playthroughs are led to believe, making it a reverse noob trap. A lot of people never realize that dodging is reasonably easy if you just level ADP beyond 20, and so they suffer through the game, endlessly frustrated by how often they randomly take damage mid roll. Tuning the entire game around a static dodge I-frame window, and axing ADP would have made player experiences way more consistent in this regard. Which is basically what they did in all following games.

[@hatefulgaming1800]

@@StrappingYoungLadam Oh yeah because having more dumb RPG mechanics is what we all want.

[@alter6243]

Hot take: I enjoy horrible boss run backs. It actually helps me from getting less frustrated. The pressure to not do the run back helps me stay more focused during the boss fight. Annoyingly dying to a boss just to annoyingly die to it again a minute later makes my frustration build up quickly.

[@ar_n0730]

my main problem with sekiro and elden ring is actually the lack of different bosses. in sekiro there is only a handful amount of different mini-bosses and they're just repeated multiple times and in elden ring it basically asks the question "what if there were more?" and then you have to fight 2 or 3 exact copies of a mini-boss you've already fought or just a basic tank like enemy.

[@Thomas_1030]

but in sekiro at least they always gave very useful things like Gourd Seed or Prayer Beads and the fights were fun, in elden ring they can give you any garbage, there are many dual fights that are not designed to be, Ulcerated Tree Spirit is one of the worst fights and for some reason they repeat it like 7 times.

[@proddirtneck]

@@Thomas_1030 fax, every single boss + mob in sekiro is fun to fight (except headless and those big cannon mfs) I got bored of that shit in elden ring real quick in sekiro I didn’t even really notice till I saw the big drunk dudes for the 3rd time

[@TheCosmicUprise]

3:20 just wanna point out cause I've seen this sentiment a few times lately, you didnt have to pay for any of the "co op areas" in the dlc's. They were put in as bonuses so people who didnt buy the dlc could play something with the people who did. They still suck but at least they were free.

[@ioannesblasi2266]

Ok but they are literally the worst area of their respective dlc by a mile

[@rockycuro7737]

I mean, technically that still means you payed extra for the levels and bosses to be in there.

[@TheCosmicUprise]

@@ioannesblasi2266 oh yeah they suck but if you're gonna hate something better to hate it correctly

[@TheCosmicUprise]

@@rockycuro7737 not...really? Nowadays buying base ds2 would be weird but if you did you could do the co op areas just not the rest of the dlc

[@stevenlureli3138]

Finely someone is mentioning it

[@adiveler]

In Dark Souls 2, I abused the anti-farming system just so I can get back to the boss fight much faster!

[@EmberPlays]

I did too on some of them hahaha

[@tobiasbehnke939]

I remember despawning every enemy in No Man's Wharf because they kind of forgot to allow you to unlock the shortcut in DS2 Vanilla.

[@nouvelhomme8990]

I think that was the point of this system. Not anti farming, but remedy for bonfire placement.

[@growarmygtvo8463]

Biggest problem with Sekiro in my opinion is that the boss aren't super hard most of the time it's just that their surrounded by 100 different enemies that you have to kill first before actually fighting the boss or else they will start hazing you.

[@pademelon537]

i definitely agree on the spirit emblems thing on sekiro. it is a bit of a nit pick because i had finished my first run with over like 600 emblems, and the learning curve just makes it all the more satisfying when you finally understand it atleast for me the linear design on ds3 also wasnt such a big deal for me since it was also my first souls game and elden rings balancing genuinely just made me spam rivers of blood past maliketh to see the final bosses. i just kind of felt burnt out from everything due to the sheer abundance of content in the game.

[@EmberPlays]

Yeah with Sekiro it was weird. My first character, I finished with 500+ spirit emblems, and my 2nd character I had 0. Glad you agree tho!

[@zakanyimen]

@@EmberPlays Beacuse on first play trough you most likely not use prostetics and weapon arts. The sword is more then enough to finish the game without actually using them and on the second playtrough it is mostly just stlye.

[@williamkingclift7324]

I legitimately love Elden ring with all my heart. I got the platinum trophy but my issue with Elden ring can is bosses becoming basic enemies which makes sense with a few of them but the best example of when it doesn’t make sense is the god skin duo and the spirit god skin duo fight. Why make the worst boss fight in the game TWICE.

[@Bill_9999]

Also I HATED seeing astel in the cave it takes away from his uniqueness

[@baconsir1159]

I actually don't mind spirit God Skins. Fighting them one at a time is much easier, and when you have to fight both at once it's not too hard to mollywhop the snail before it becomes a problem

[@allthatremain5357]

I didn't mind any of them at all. Except solo Apostle, or whichever one was in the Caelid tower. That was roughly the point that I'd decided I'd try to get through as much of the game at RL50 as possible (just beat it at 50 today, only Malenia as leftovers), perhaps leveling up to 50 for that fight in particular. I know I beefed up a little since it was such a tough one. Solo Noble or whichever the Volcano Manor one was wasn't too bad, besides the roll that eats through blocking and can only be negated with choice pillar alignment and a little luck. The spirit one was pretty tough, do they both fight you at once when the snail arrives? I honestly thought that was just a troll ending but destroyed him in like three seconds anyways since being ready for more was on the back of my mind. The duo was exciting to me, but was a very small chunk of my overall deaths to all versions. Summoned whatshisface and Greatshield Soldiers and took it to them before barely realizing their shared health bar allowed for revivals. The Watchdog pair (without turning one on the other) and the Valiant Gargoyle brothers were in a different league. I guess I hadn't been forced to be more adaptable and make use of more at my disposal with the 'Dogs or, even the Garglers, but they were still tougher than their respective point in the game, for sure.

[@baconsir1159]

@@allthatremain5357 Did you fight the Noble in front of the Divine Tower of Liurnia? Definitely the hardest of the bunch for me. It's on a bridge so there are no pillars.

[@allthatremain5357]

@@baconsir1159 Sorry, it's not ringing a bell. I spent 400+ hours over four months, so I only remember so much. Maybe there's a vid out there I can use to determine. These guys were decently common for a boss, but it didn't bother me. The Death Rite sons of bitches were much more irksome for me.

[@Blastros01]

I love, LOVE how everytime I hear something bad about Dark Souls 2 they find a way to mention the blue smelter demon. I breezed through the game so easily & then when I reach that boss I died so many times I couldn't keep track. The enemies are there to widdle down your resources so when you reach the boss you're running on fumes & then his moves set has inconsistent timing for abilities but consistently insane damage. I think that's the Souls boss that tilted me the most.

[@panicpille]

Fat armour, shield, greatsword and the healing over time stones. Dark Souls 2 is as of today the easiest Soulsgame. Blue Smelter is a cakewalk.

[@robinsimon4176]

@@panicpille maybe for you with this specific build, but for others with different builds??? pls think more before writing "that game/boss is easy you are just trash at it"

[@Ghorda9]

@@panicpille DS1 is the easiest, the boss runs and bosses are easy for the most part.

[@tomk6292]

I feel in some of the fights it’s balanced for the use of summons and OP weapon arts so trying the play it the same way as I have the other Souls games, it is the hardest one for me. Also ER makes the re use of bosses in DS1 look tame.

[@donquixote1577]

See with the Frigid Outskirts in DS2 if you use Vengarl as a meat-shield/bait for the Kirin you can easily sprint to the boss, de-summon Vengarl, and suffer through a double boss fight where phase two is near invinciblity for like 5 minutes lol.

[@SarudeDanstorm]

9:57 This! Every time I saw a streamer's chat lambast the streamer for using magic and summons, it was like no one believed that the developers were aware of what they put in their own game.

[@3slicessenpai]

"No, Nepheli, we can't team up for an epic fight against your grandpa." "Hell no, I'm not participating in this Radhan raid boss. I'll fight him alo---" *BOOOM* "A Jellyfish puzzle at the Mountaintops of the Giants? Pftt, I actively restart the game any time I get a pesky summon item"

[@Cloakner]

One of the things I didn't like about Elden Ring is how some enemies are just copy and pasted across the map with maybe new colors. It's not a real problem, but I think that it's a somewhat wasted potential.

[@SimplCup]

I don't think it's wasted potential, I think ER provides a world with some of the most diverse enemies in openworld games genre. In comparison to other openworld games ER has many different enemies that are placed throughout it's world. Dogs, different types of soldiers with different movesets, giants, monkeys, citizens, flowers, crabs, bosses, horsebosses, invaders, flies, and more. The Witcher 3, GTA 5, Horizon Zero Dawn don't provide such variety of enemies.

[@Cloakner]

Well the slightly changed Knights are kind of boring and some of the enemies can appear as bosses with more hp and damage. The different types of enemies like Soldiers are also mostly recolors with different stats or weapons. But other than that I have to agree with you.

[@SimplCup]

@@Cloakner I just got bored of comments like that. "DS and ER enemies are copy n paste, why they always do that, too boring". Souls games give us such variety of enemies, usually other games give us only a few types of enemies with different stats, maybe size and attack speed like: a tank bois; a medium bois; a smool rats. While in souls game literally anything could be your enemy. No offense of course, I just don't like when people start to complain about enemy variety in souls games because there is literally no any reason to complain.

[@Cloakner]

Well I gotta say again that I think it's a little boring that they reused them, it's only some enemies, but it doesn't take away any of the greatness of the game. It's one of the best games out there.

[@Ghorda9]

@@Cloakner it makes sense for the basic soldiers because humans are a dominant species and each kingdom needs their own.

[@Ragstag]

The lock on in Elden ring is HELL in crowds it screws you over so often

[@the_dennator7723]

I hear that comlaint a lot but never had that problem myself

[@Ragstag]

@@the_dennator7723 do the academy boss with lock on you will know it’s bs

[@migicalmerwee9018]

For Demon's Souls, it's definitely World and Character Tendency for me. They're decent ideas in theory, but pretty annoying in practice and its so poorly explained that you need to look up how to play around it.

[@Doudoussin]

I'm surprised about the spirit emblem thing. I've always ended up with like 400+ of thel without ever looking for them/buying them, and I don't feel like I use prosthetics particularly early. On the contrary, my problem with them was more how useless it is given how much you'll end up having so it might as well be an infinite auto-resplenish at checkpoints thing

[@Ghorda9]

the need to bank and buy spirit emblems doesn't add anything to the game and is just a nuisance early game or against a hard boss where you like using them a lot. Also shuriken is really good for picking off groups of enemies around mini bosses.

[@mrsombrero9956]

I know right I used those Emblems like candy when I realized that fire makes Mini Bosses way easier. And I still had plenty of Emblems left.

[@OmneAurumNon]

I actually don't hate the ADP system in ds2, though like many things I wish it was explained better. With that said, I absolutely agree that some of the boss runs are just infuriating. Especially if I'm struggling with a boss, I like the feeling that it's ok to die and I can come back as many times as I need to just to focus on learning the moves. But when it takes so long and is so annoying to get back to the boss, I can't focus on learning the boss moves and dying feels really bad. I gave up on the blue smelter demon because I was so tired of running through that ridiculous gauntlet over and over again

[@EmberPlays]

Ya I’m not a huge fan of moments where you can’t focus on just the boss

[@aldraone-mu5yg]

For me in Elden Ring the open world is pointless and so is the crafting. Other than that, perfect game.

[@EllieEames]

I did find the crafting pretty handy tbh. Being able to craft pots and greases made the game just that bit more streamlined. I found that just picking stuff up around the world meant that I was rarely without the resources I needed for crafting and it saved me from the grinding I had in Bloodborne for the few extra bits and pieces I could have just crafted. Especially on a second playthrough, crafting sleep pots for Godskin duo and greases for the tree spirits just made the game faster and more enjoyable.

[@maverick5169]

Something resembling a solution for quicksilver bullets is the up button. Those five bullets can be invaluable, expecially if people like to parry or use bloodtinge. If the player is good enough they don't even need to use a vial, you can rally and get the lost health back

[@shyguyrocks1]

Depends on the boss, the build, and what you leveled. Someone who barely upgraded vitality and using something that has less rally potential won't be able to heal up the massive chunk of their health bar a late game boss (really just the DLC tbh) just took out realistically.

[@phil5200]

I agree with the sense of rush that second half of ds1 had, but as an unpopular opinion, Tomb of giants is one of my favorite areas in all souls games, I loved the sense of anxiety that gives and it's a pretty well done area.

[@rathfoks5051]

DS1: Multiplayer as a whole DS2: Soul memory DS3: No passive poise / Rolling has too many I-frames Bloodborne: Console Exclusive Elden Ring: Netcode / crappy invasion mechanics

[@darknoyyt1729]

The worst thing in elden ring is soundtrack, when hearing dark souls soundtrack, elden ring has mid boss themes

[@chimeron260]

The inconsistencies in the enemy difficulty is something I enjoyed greatly in Elden Ring. I loved going to an area, getting my ass handed to me, leaving, finding something I could do, and coming back to hand deliver their ass back. I also enjoyed finding areas I missed and coming through it like I owned the place. I earned the right.

[@cheesy926]

Yesss that’s what made me so happy playing this game, I didn’t feel like I needed to just repetitively do a boss over and over again until I won because I could just look for another solution

[@junecheese2878]

i think a major flaw in Elden Ring also is the inconsistent difficulty scaling once you get further into endgame, because once you reach consecrated snowfield, or mountaintops you can feel how some bosses are starting to really hit harder than you would expect, such as commander Niall, its really annoying when you get frostbite procced on you, which takes away a huge chunk of hp, is topped off by an attack of Niall, which also take away a good amount of hp, which results in you being in one shot range fairly easy. i think its also more noticeable when you take a look at Malenia, while she is balanced by being super easy to stagger and get bloodloss, Waterfowl Dance is by far the most bullshit move a boss can do, yes you can learn it but its also fairly easy to die to it especially in NG+ because surprise surprise her damage is cranked up just enough so you literally can die in full hp by her grab attack or even just half of waterfowl dance, not even the entire attack. im pretty sure someone in the comments will go "i smell a casual that didnt kill her", it took a lot of attempts and i havent learned how to dodge her attack once she is on top of me, literally once i see her hp low enough for it to be in her arsenal i try to keep distance for that exact reason, its a bullshit move that is the entirety of the difficulty of Malenia

[@JimmyPizzaDelivery]

Just get good, Malenia is honestly not that hard once you learn how to dodge that waterfowl dance. And if the fight is too hard just pop on a mimic tear.

[@shyguyrocks1]

@@JimmyPizzaDelivery "just get good" How about just getting a better argument The boss is bad and people have a right to complain?

[@Zockanumber1]

The one thing I really hated about bloodborne was the Game automatically starting a NG+ after beating the Last boss

[@Gondaldin]

That problem isn't specific to Bloodborne, though. Dark Souls and Demons's Souls also have that problem.

[@Zockanumber1]

Yes, I know but it's Just so incredibly jarring that they got it right in Dark Souls 2 and still managed to f it Up in Bloodborne which came Out after DS2

[@Gondaldin]

@@Zockanumber1 That’s a really good point.

[@EmberPlays]

Fr, DeS & DS1 did too and it always annoyed me

[@er7776]

The only saving grace is that the moon presence is kinda shitty and that gehrman is the real fight so atleast you can bone out and still get gehrman his weapons after killing him