Healing is a staple of any soulslike. From the very beginning, Demon’s Souls introduced healing items to the genre to fight off the dangers of the world. The healing items were consumable, however, forcing the player to either get good enough to use fewer healing items or find spots to farm the various levels of healing items to have a stash.
Dark Souls ditched the types of consumable grass and instead introduced the Estus Flask - the healing item that comes with several healing charges which auto-refill when you rest at a bonfire or die.
Apart from Bloodborne, which had Blood Vials (controversial), Estus Flasks or similar have become a mainstay of the genre. But which of these are better for the game and which do you prefer?
Estus Flasks come with limited charges, but they refill automatically, so you don’t have to farm healing items and can just focus on the boss fight that’s giving you trouble. Consumable healing usually comes in larger quantities (20 Blood Vials plus a couple extra if you use specific runes), so you have more healing at your disposal in a boss fight, hence you can be more aggressive and reckless, but you run the risk of running out of healing at some point, so you might have to farm them at some point.
Thoughts?
I’ve got a DS3 run on the go that I might finish. Just need to beat the Ringed City bosses minus Demon Twins, and Old Demon King because I forgot about him.
I think the refilling Estus system is best overall. Farming for heals in Demon’s Souls kinda sucked imo, especially when I got stuck in a few places and burned through all my grass.
I did like the lifegems in DS2 and their contrast to Estus, especially how the gems healed less but let you still walk while snorting them, versus the Estus making you stand still but healing more overall.