King Flame was a lot more manageable for me with the fire resistance frame that the mini boss right before him drops (I ran pst that guy a few times.)
I think the other optional boss is good to get too for the drop!
NG+ was just an unmitigated delight, due to the availability of an amulet that prevents all "tier 1" status effects from occurring at all and your P-organ collection getting positively silly, plus a "perfect guard restores durability" ability so you don't ever have to worry about grinding your weapon again. It's just a nonstop dopamine feed to absolutely tear through every zone and boss without breaking a sweat, while ergo rains from the sky like water.
I had no idea NG+ had extra goodies like that. I will definitely have to give that a go before the DLC.
I also struggled most with the Swamp Boss. Screw that thing indeed.
This is really a different animal with the blocking mechanic. To benefit from it, particularly in boss battles, you need to time the block perfectly - which I am just not able to do.
Blocking is definitely emphasized, but you really only need to block the fury attacks perfectly, or just dodge them. You can safely block most attacks with normal blocks as long as you're getting a few perfect blocks along the way, particularly once you get P-organ upgrades to get guard regain health back from parries.
If you haven't already figured this out, a good approach to parrying is to time your blocks as perfect parries, but hold the button until the next attack rather than simply tapping it. This will let you block attacks that you tried to parry too early.
I may have made a mistake with Lies of P by choosing a dexterity class when I really should have chosen the heavy weapons or balanced one. I'm hoping I can trade up to a much more damage prone weapon than what I got sooner rather than later.
Try a blade with high block value if you haven't yet. I tried a low block value blade for my second run, and I was having a significantly more difficult time than I did in my initial motivity playthrough with the wrench. You should be able to use a high block value blade with a dexterity handle without issue. You will be able to respec before too long if you want to try motivity instead.
Thanks for the tips.
Yeah, I'm still moving through the game. I'm focusing more on dodging now, and just unlocked an extra dodge via the p-organ upgrade. I do block from time-to-time still and am gaining back more health if I do. But I'm finding mixing in a block (not perfect) with a bunch of dodges in-between the next block works well. By then I usually have my health back from attacking.
But I'm never going to time the perfect block right. It happens of course but rarely. And I get myself in trouble quick if I go into a fight thinking to attempt perfect blocks all the time.
Leveling seems a bit odd. It's like you peak in stats pretty quickly where the gains for leveling up are insignificant. I haven't upgraded Technique in a while since I think it gives me maybe 2 extra points of damage. I'm just upgrading whatever is giving me the biggest boost - even if I want to upgrade a different stat.
In the Cathedral area now. Had a dumb death to a giant electrified ball rolling over me after I got turned around for a second. That'll do it for the night.
I had no idea NG+ had extra goodies like that.
Well, that particular one is one of the two things you can make from the last boss, so it's technically available in NG but there's nothing really to do with it until NG+. Fortunately if you didn't build it in NG you can assemble it early in NG+, as long as you didn't use the reward on building the weapon.
Leveling seems a bit odd. It's like you peak in stats pretty quickly where the gains for leveling up are insignificant. I haven't upgraded Technique in a while since I think it gives me maybe 2 extra points of damage. I'm just upgrading whatever is giving me the biggest boost - even if I want to upgrade a different stat.
Maybe a bit sooner than similar titles, but probably not as much as you're thinking right now. You'll be badly wanting more capacity through your entire first playthrough, and weapon boost stat soft caps I think were 40 but not sure on my memory there. Vigor is the only stat that quickly falls to trivial returns. Also if you have something like a double C handle...obviously the impact of a single stat put into one of those Cs is going to be much lower than if you crank something to a single-stat A handle.
Capacity is the MVP stat here for sure. I coasted my health and stamina stats to 20 and now I'm just dumping points into my damage stat and capacity for the foreseeable future.
Hitting a bit of a brick wall with the Walker of Illusion. Really need to get down the perfect block with her and I just gave up on it as I could never get the timing right. So have been dodging attacks this entire time, which has worked out fine. But she doesn't allow you space for more than a second or two. So dodging isn't doing it.
Boss battles, after the first few, have been pretty easy up to this point. Particularly when you call a Specter to join. But for this fight you can't call one.
Weapon choice doesn't seem to be helping. Tried both my trusty quick Winter Rapier +9 (forgot what the handle was) and the Two Dragons Sword +4 which is also quick. But without the perfect block those are not helping and not dealing out enough damage. Also tried the Puppet Ripper +4 but its too slow - although good when an illusion does appear.
I'm sure I'll get it eventually but pretty frustrating to go from plugging along at a nice pace along to a dead stop. Particularly so far into the game.
If I remember correctly that was one you can actually run away from if you need to. That said it's dangerous. I used the dragon sword at that point like you, but I rarely dodge mostly blocked. Getting behind her from the right side worked as well I think.
Oh and at this point you can respec points and skill if needed I think. Being able to use fire element buff twice is great for this sort of thing.
Getting behind her was a good tip. I've gotten her down to a sliver of health just dodging in behind her and attacking. But so far no luck actually defeating her.
I get a few good runs at her and then she just destroys me till I quit for the night.
One of these nights I'll get her.
I need to return to this for the final push. I got pretty far through and then distracted by Alan Wake 2, which I am nearly finished!
How are you liking Alan Wake?
Well, I got past her finally using the Puppet Ripper, which I didn't expect. But got it done. Then got stuck again on the Parade Master for a bit. Now I'm at, what I expect, is the final area.
They pretty much made the same mistake that the Lords of Fallen designers did in their game with their last real zone. The designers just decided to up the difficulty by throwing lots of monsters and mini-bosses at you constantly. It's just not fun gameplay. To make matters worse its sometimes-long periods of time in-between unlocking the next shortcut ladder to the save point. If that wasn't bad enough, they stick monsters in hiding that push you off ledges, or shoot from you from above, and other designer a-hole decisions.
I was pretty much ready for the game to wrap up by the time I got to this zone and now it's just a slog to the finish line. Exactly how Lords of the Fallen was. Not sure why game designers think this is a good idea.
In any case I'll finish it but after my umpteenth cheesy death from yet another mini-boss to appear right after defeating one I had to rant.
I had the same realization as you and I basically sprinted to the top. Ignoring all enemies and loot. It's not like I needed any xp at that point. And it's just so long. Most the enemies moved slowly so I could just outrun them. The boss at the top was so bad I chose to cheat to get through it too. That said I heard it got nerfed pretty hard after I did that. So yay for self justification. The bit after that though was excellent though.
TheHarpoMarxist wrote:I need to return to this for the final push. I got pretty far through and then distracted by Alan Wake 2, which I am nearly finished!
How are you liking Alan Wake?
Loved it. I think it knocks so many things out of the park. At the same time, I definitely don't think its for everyone, but I'm really glad it is for me.
I finally booted this up and played for about 90 minutes and found myself just adoring the style of the game. Robot Bloodborne? I’m so in. Beat the first boss after a few tries (yeah I’m Souls rusty, and playing on a Deck), and made it to the presumed hub.
In the final area, looking to put this one to rest as a final game of the year. It's going to land my GotY list, probably somewhere in the middle.
I appreciate that there are less screw you moments, except the bosses that can combo away an entire life bar on hard to avoid / block combos. Those boss attacks are crap.
Just started. So far beaten the Mad Donkey and that was a fairly easy cheesed boss. I just need to walk around and backstab him. I think I like the bosses so far. They don’t feel unfair and I have a notion on how to be better.
Lords of the Fallen bosses were cool shit fast and hope you can survive. I think that style is BS in my older age.
Just started. So far beaten the Mad Donkey and that was a fairly easy cheesed boss. I just need to walk around and backstab him. I think I like the bosses so far. They don’t feel unfair and I have a notion on how to be better.
Lords of the Fallen bosses were cool shit fast and hope you can survive. I think that style is BS in my older age.
Not sure how far you are now, but I know the flame boss is often considered a solid bar to entry and I would agree. The boss fight after that absolutely wrecks more people than expect it, as well. It definitely moves into more difficult bosses but I personally haven't felt like they're punishing. It's different than a souls game, but I like how it's different.
Only 3 pages for the Catch All? 
I finally got around to playing this and it's very impressive. One of the most well polished games all around. I can't recall a title that looked this photorealistic and detailed where everything visually is so crisp. The game also runs as smooth as anything I've played this gen or last, no crashes or fps issues at all.
I'm probably about 6 hours in and enjoying it for the most part. Couple of very minor gripes (linearity, emcumberance and parry window) but just a really fun and refreshing game. The story is very coherent and the gameplay systems are unique. Can't wait to finish it.
I started this back when it dropped but haven't gotten back to it. I feel like I need to make it my focus given the difficulty of the game, so I'm likely to take it up as my main game toward the middle of the year.
I started this back when it dropped but haven't gotten back to it. I feel like I need to make it my focus given the difficulty of the game, so I'm likely to take it up as my main game toward the middle of the year.
Yeah, I picked it up a little while after it released and made it through the first main boss or two, but then way too many other excellent games released which distracted me. I still have it installed and ready to go though. Maybe it'll make an appearance in the Action Game Club sometime? Hmm...
Still the best non-From From game IMO. I'm about 60% through but got distracted by other releases. I haven't pulled it off my PS5 library though so I hope to circle back.
Yeah I found it weird that it isn't more popular. Souls like are a fairly popular genre but only the actual fromsoft game seem to break into major mainstream appeal. Perhaps it's the pvp side since that adds a certain amount of longevity most other games lack.
Isn't it quite popular though? News say 7 million have played it, 1+ million copies sold, with the difference presumably being mostly Game Pass?
Isn't it quite popular though? News say 7 million have played it, 1+ million copies sold, with the difference presumably being mostly Game Pass?
It does seem to be quite popular for a souls-like, but I also expected it to be a bit more popular. To be honest, I'm not sure if I would have picked it up before a deep sale. I played it because it was on Game Pass.
At this point, I've simply become conditioned to write any non-From souls-like off almost immediately. Lords of the Fallen (the first one) came out in 2014. Since then, there hasn't been a single souls-like that I've liked enough to finish. Lies of P is the first. I wonder how many others feel the same as me.
Also, the game only has an 80 on Metacritic. That's a good score, but it's lower than I would expect given the quality of the game. It surely affects perception to some degree.
Yeah I wasn't really basing it on any hard numbers. More feel then anything and general internet chatter. You did make me curious and I did some light googling. Definitely think the game was a success but noticeable smaller compared to fromsoft. Which most of there games in 10 million copies sold. Which is ignoring elden ring which 23+ million.
Here was another neat if probable meaningless bit of numbers I saw. Most of the fromsoft souls games had a peak steam player count between 80-120k. While most non-fromsoft games ranged from 10-30k. About 20k. So even if game pass triples that number is still noticeable lower.
Once again flawed data and all that, but it is fun conjecture. Regardless I do hope the make a sequel. As I agree it is the best non-fromsoft souls game.
I still see people streaming it, and I think it’s acquired a really good reputation among souls-like fans. I think if they get to make sequel it’ll be even more successful.
Just a thought, but maybe the fact that it doesn't have Coop or PVP might have something to do with the lack of internet buzz, to a degree. Not that much of a meta game, which seems to be what keeps a lot of the more buzz-worthy souls-likes en vogue.
Yeah I sort of agree. The pvp, coop, and world lore give the game legs that none of their competitors have. Ok some of them have tried to copy the lore style but basically all failed. Usually being rather boring.
Course it doesn't hurt that fromsoft is so much better at making these systems then their competitors.
It pains me to say this but I had to bail on Lies. I'm around 50 hours in, level 75 and finishing Act 9 of 11. The first 3/4 of the game was very enjoyable but this last 1/4 is a combination of lazy level design, ridiculously convulted mini-boss/boss situations and boring plot. It feels like the game has gone beyond where it should have ended and all of this is forced. It was close to a 9/10 up until this Act, it's unfortunate that a rather stellar game took this turn.
You bailed in time. The last Chapter (11) is a total slog and I hate-pushed through that one up to the final boss. It was obvious after fighting that last boss multiple times that I was never going to defeat him easily. And I'd likely have to spend a few more hours throwing myself at it to actually win. So I quit at that point pretty disgusted with the game.
If I had quit as I reached that Chapter I wouldn't have had as bad a view of this game as I do now.
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