From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[Great Deceiver]

Souls series bosses cannot be rated on a difficulty scale because they can always be cheesed by specific builds/overlevelling. Bloodborne bosses aren't that hard except for Ludwig and Orphan of Kos. Elden Ring has an infinity of bullshit/spammy/delayed attack bosses but it's a very breakable game, so it doesn't matter. Also, Souls fatigue is very much a thing and I can't remember 80% of the ER bosses even though I played it not too long ago.

Sekiro is different. It's an elegant game with a fixed system and there's no way around gittin' gud mechanically. I also think its bosses are on a league of their own (except for DoH), my favourite being Father Owl. I remember each one fondly, even mid-level bosses.

 

[Ashen_Shugar]

Sekiro is different. It's an elegant game with a fixed system and there's no way around gittin' gud mechanically. I also think its bosses are on a league of their own (except for DoH), my favourite being Father Owl. I remember each one fondly, even mid-level bosses.

Not sure fondly is the adjective i would use to describe my time with Sekiro better f word would be frustrating. However the overall game/story/combat mechanics were executed brilliantly and for that i rate it highly in terms of overall gaming experience. Went halfway through Dark Souls 1 but never finished, was determined to grind Sekiro to at least finish one FS game. Agree that Sekiro is an elegant game in every regard and yes you have to know the enemey moveset initimately to progress. Thank you for the advice in regards to Bloodborne, Elden Ring. Have been eyeing Elden Ring for the past year but just can't commit ATM to the time required to finish (but tempted and will likely happen).

 

[cvv]

One major difference between all the "Souls" and Sekiro - you can't summon any help in Sekiro (except in one, totally useless case).

So if you wanna talk difficulty you have to compare Sekiro with solo Souls play. Otherwise every single ER boss can be easily dunked on with a high-level Mimic summon (unless this has been nerfed? Dunno, haven't played the game for over a year), except Melania.

I think objectively Orphan, Saint Isshin and Melania are clearly the three hardest bosses FS have ever made. Can't really decide between those three coz never played BB and didn't have enough patience with Melania, coz I much, much prefer Sekiro bosess to Souls bosses.

 

[Skinwalker]

Storm King

The first phase of Nameless King, that's easy as shit?? Shirley, you jest!

 

[Great Deceiver]

One major difference between all the "Souls" and Sekiro - you can't summon any help in Sekiro (except in one, totally useless case).

So if you wanna talk difficulty you have to compare Sekiro with solo Souls play. Otherwise every single ER boss can be easily dunked on with a high-level Mimic summon (unless this has been nerfed? Dunno, haven't played the game for over a year), except Melania.

I think objectively Orphan, Saint Isshin and Melania are clearly the three hardest bosses FS have ever made. Can't really decide between those three coz never played BB and didn't have enough patience with Melania, coz I much, much prefer Sekiro bosess to Souls bosses.

Yes, the summon aspect trivializes every boss in Souls, but I always play those games offline, never cared for the online component (outside of the world tendency system in Des) and never will.

Even outside of PvP, I think the spammed messages ruin the atmosphere.

 

[cvv]

Yes, the summon aspect trivializes every boss in Souls, but I always play those games offline

Me too but in ER FromSoft decided offline players need help too, whether they want it or not, and gave us ash summons. Very powerful ash summons. And then tuned boss difficulty for them.

At least tried to. So for average player beating shit like Mohg, Godskin Duo, Maliketh, Morgott, or the final threesome is almost impossible while beating it with a high-level Mimic is relatively trivial.

 

[Ashen_Shugar]

One major difference between all the "Souls" and Sekiro - you can't summon any help in Sekiro (except in one, totally useless case).

So if you wanna talk difficulty you have to compare Sekiro with solo Souls play. Otherwise every single ER boss can be easily dunked on with a high-level Mimic summon (unless this has been nerfed? Dunno, haven't played the game for over a year), except Melania.

I think objectively Orphan, Saint Isshin and Melania are clearly the three hardest bosses FS have ever made. Can't really decide between those three coz never played BB and didn't have enough patience with Melania, coz I much, much prefer Sekiro bosess to Souls bosses.

Confused re the summoning help in Sekiro. Memory may be a little fuzzy or may be because i played offline but what help can you actually summon? I can't remember any, i had to solo the entire game.

Isshin is actually not that difficult for the first 2 rounds (for me at least), where he wiped my ass was in the third round (multiple times). So difficult yes same as Headless Ape. Also struggled with the first main boss on a horse with the spear. First round for both semi-easy and second round was a nightmare. If you want to talk difficult i completely forgot about Demon of Hatred. Now that was a tough fight...

Sekiro really is = get gud (to a point) for main bosses

 

[Skinwalker]

the Mergo's Moist Governess/Gehrman/Moon Presence trifecta

Defeated in the very first attempt, all three of them. Maybe FromSoftware didn't have much of a choice in terms of making boss fights harder and harder in each new game. Once you get a good handle of these games' mechanics through experience, it doesn't take much effort to tear through bosses, unless they are made into damage sponges and/or twitchy gravity-defying anime superheroes with twenty thousand different moves.

 

[Silva]

the Mergo's Moist Governess/Gehrman/Moon Presence trifecta

Defeated in the very first attempt, all three of them. Maybe FromSoftware didn't have much of a choice in terms of making boss fights harder and harder in each new game. Once you get a good handle of these games' mechanics through experience, it doesn't take much effort to tear through bosses, unless they are made into damage sponges and/or twitchy gravity-defying anime superheroes with twenty thousand different moves.

Gehrman is more challenging coming straight from base game. Once you do the DLC the old fella can't really keep up.

And Ludwig is the real show stealer. Lore, build up, moveset, the waltz. If you don't find it one of the best bosses in all Soulsdom you're missing something in the game.

But nothing beats Isshin and Father Owl.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

there's no way around gittin' gud mechanically

Pretty sure you can cheese to your hearts content with those shinobi tools. On my first playthrough I used that purple umbrella on those fucking flying ghost generals or whatever, yeah it felt cheesy but fuck those guys. Also the white umbrella against those huge 360 Ishinn slashes; I'm sure you can dodge those but the umbrella just lets you block them easily.

 

[Great Deceiver]

The prosthetics are very usable yes, and in some cases pretty strong - and an underappreciated/underused element of the game - but they're not on the same level of Souls cheese, not even remotely.

 

[cvv]

Confused re the summoning help in Sekiro. Memory may be a little fuzzy or may be because i played offline but what help can you actually summon?

There's a samurai you can ask for help against the first fat drunkard (right before Lady Butterfly).

 

[cvv]

The prosthetics are very usable yes, and in some cases pretty strong - and an underappreciated/underused element of the game - but they're not on the same level of Souls cheese, not even remotely.

Plus the emblem cost is annoying, a few botched attempts and you have to spend 20 minutes farming emblems.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

The prosthetics are very usable yes, and in some cases pretty strong - and an underappreciated/underused element of the game - but they're not on the same level of Souls cheese, not even remotely.

Plus the emblem cost is annoying, a few botched attempts and you have to spend 20 minutes farming emblems.

They should've had them work like estus, a lot of people just won't use/experiment with tools that can "run out".

 

[Great Deceiver]

I think the developers just didn't want to shift the focus too much away from the sword. I think it's a good decision. Prosthetics are a fun diversion but the main aspect of the game is preserved.

 

[cvv]

I think the developers just didn't want to shift the focus too much away from the sword. I think it's a good decision. Prosthetics are a fun diversion but the main aspect of the game is preserved.

Thing is with emblems prosthetics feel like a diversion at best and pointless and superfluous at worst.

I spent hours collecting and upgrading them and minutes using them.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I think the developers just didn't want to shift the focus too much away from the sword. I think it's a good decision. Prosthetics are a fun diversion but the main aspect of the game is preserved.

Yeah I guess that's fair, they do feel more like actual tools instead of "abilities" this way.

Spoiler

I want to play Bloodborne

 

[Great Deceiver]

It really is one of the more clueless decisions by Sony not to rerelease this almost 10-year old game on PC, especially given that their modern goyslop releases almost simultaneously for PC these days. Just plain stupid.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I think objectively Orphan, Saint Isshin and Melania are clearly the three hardest bosses

Saint Isshin and Melania are miles apart though, not even in the same ballpark. Isshin has 1 BS move, Melania is BS.

 

[Talby]

Most Sekiro bosses flopped for me, there were a few good moments like the undead ape coming back to life but in general I don't remember them, just various flavours of samurai guy that I beat on my third or fourth try and the occasional oddball like the long armed centipede giraffe. (what the fuck is up with that name)

 

[HeatEXTEND]

just various flavours of samurai guy

Wut? Genichiro is the only one lol

 

[911 Jumper]

Just posted this in the YouTube gaming channel thread, but posting here for anyone interested.

The Making of Bloodborne (2 hours 37 minutes)

 

[Egosphere]

text to speech, right?

 

[Alrik]

Visiting family over the holidays has given me access to a PS5 and consequently the chance to finally try Bloodborne. So far I love the level design of Central Yharnam, but the game feels disappointingly easy so far. I easily beat Cleric and Gascoigne first try and I felt like I played terribly each time, but the rally system and a seemingly endless supply of blood vials still made them trivial. Sure it's just the first couple of bosses and it might get significantly harder from here, but I looked up Father Gascoigne after beating him as I was curious about the lore around him and apparently he's considered one of the harder bosses which concerns me. I think I've only died twice so far; once to the gank wolves on the bridge where one hit me with a grab attack and ate my entire health bar and once due to mistaking the bullet stagger for a successful parry and getting comboed into a corner by a large huntsman when I went in for what I thought was a riposte.

Maybe all the Elden Ring hours have made an impact, but I've also recently gone back to DS1 and had to fight the Bell Gargoyles at least half a dozen times.

 

[Elwro]

Be sure, then, to enter the DLC area at your earliest convenience!