Happy holidays to all who celebrate! I’m on Easter school break, so I have no sense of time at all - my apologies. A day late, here’s the discussion post:
Some voices in the community want to have a distinction between different types of souls-games - games by FS referred to as soulsborne, games that come close to FS soulslike, and games that just take inspiration from FS and take a couple mechanics here and there are soulslites.
The distinction is a little arbitrary, I feel like, but it helps further distinguish games by their main characteristics which in a vacuum is absolutely fine.
Games like Hollow Knight or Darksiders 3 come to mind because they clearly take inspiration from souls-games without outright going for that kind of game.
Mine would probably be Hollow Knight, mainly for the fact I haven’t played Silksong as much and because I haven’t played too many soulslites overall. It blends the metroidvania genre with souls elements really well - the, at times, depressing atmosphere while maintaining a sense of hope, the challenging combat, the cryptic storytelling… It’s a very well-made blend.
So what’s your favourite soulslite and why?
As for soulslikes I’m playing right now: nothing. Been tinkering with my new home server for the past week, so that’s been taking most of my free time I’d normally use for gaming. If I do play something, it’s still back to League and more Slay the Spire 2. What about you?
I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I’m always nervous when people buy games because of my recommendations because I get this anxiety of “oh no, what if my taste sucks and I made them waste their money”. Which I know sounds weird coming from someone who fiercely recommends games all the time but, I never claimed my brain makes sense.
The art direction and visuals really are fantastic, and the environments are well designed too and fun to explore. I think it has some interesting gameplay ideas too, the status conditions having both positive and negative aspects is a really fun concept.
Let me guess, you went to Vermiglio pretty early? I did as well and was similarly stumped for a bit. I think maybe the idea is to come back there later? His weapon is great though yeah, I used it quite a bit as a ranged option.
There are some more friendly NPCs to come, even some minor NPC quests to do as is tradition. None are as charismatic as Pulcinella though.
I trust your recs and I already was planning on playing this one. So no worries, I also trust my intuition… So far I’ve never been wrong going off of vibes with a game and precisely the focus on art and the different setting was the appeal to me.
Yup, I was hoping for a jump in difficulty so I just thought that I’d gotten more than what I bargained for.
I was so ready to complain about how bullshit of a fight it was for a second boss tho, but… I also fought him without all the available flask upgrades and killed him with only 21 hp to spare and a well timed parry…
I had to snap a pic XD
. (Coming from sekiro, I kinda hate taking chip damage and the parry window feels tight for how fast some of the attacks come. )
Didn’t even see the path towards the upper part of the town, so when I noticed it was a dead end after beating the guy I had to backtrack to find it. In my defense, it was kinda late.
Good to hear there’ll be more npcs!
Quick question.
There was also this guy in a balcony in that first town area that looks like one of the perfoming actors you find, and I accidentally killed him before seeing that he was unarmed and non-hostile. After reloading he wouldn’t talk to me. was he also an npc with a questline?
Whew, well done! If I remember right I think I actually killed him at the same time as he killed me - also out of flasks - so similar small margins 😄 The phase transition ground swell you need to jump took me by surprise the first time and took a few attempts to understand I need to jump it. Also felt bullshit at first since it one-tapped me at that point.
I’m pretty sure the chip damage comes from which parry gem you have equipped? I think the physical parry gem gives chip damage when parrying magical attacks and the magic parry gem chip damage on magical attacks. Later on there is a gem you can get that parries everything but has a tighter parry window.
You also take chip damage on an imperfect parry, but those are hard to spot since you also stagger a bit.
I was the same I think! But the town is pretty maze-like with tons of winding paths so it’s easy to miss. Although I love that part of it. Fun verticality too, both with the way the town is on a hillside and all the rooftops.
I don’t think so. I did all the NPCs quests on my NG+ and I don’t remember that being one of them. Did he have a lute?
I think what offended me the most about Vermiglio whas the heal… But that was Gratia weapon status effect I think. Damn it
Ooh right, probably. I was still too sekiro-pilled trying to parry everything. ( 𖦹‸𖦹) So far, I still have only the basic 3 and purchased a red one in the hub. But from thr description that one doesn’t looks like it parries everything.
And yeah the fact that I’m missing stuff is a huge positive in my book. It’s the mark of interesting level design for me.
Npc guy was just standing there, no lute. Phew