We have to confront a hard truth that few people seem to want to face about the Souls games, but here it is: the combat is nothing remarkable.
In terms of actual complexity there's not much going on. There's not much depth, and that wouldn't be a problem, except the series has increasingly leaned on its action elements more and more as time has gone by.
If you're a staunch defender of the series this is where you might be tempted to rattle off all the attack animations your favorite weapons has... It's true that there are differences in range and damage, but the effect on the enemy is usually identical. They lose some health, possibly suffer some hitstun which either lasts long enough to get another attack in or it doesn't, in which case you go back on the defensive until your next opening. Positioning is important, but that's about the extent of it.
In terms of defensive options the series is a lot better, with the ability to block, parry, or dodge most regular attacks...Unfortunately, against bosses, parrying is often completely impossible and blocking is often ill-advised, which leaves you with rolling as your one and only defensive action. So prepare to roll again and again, and again and again and again. When you're not rolling you'll generally be getting 1-2 hits in with whatever weapon you choose, hits that usually provoke no response from the boss whatsoever making every weapon basically the same thing apart from whatever damage types and numbers it has.
You go in, you learn the moveset. Maybe you die a few times along the way, until you know the boss's moves like the back of your hand. Then you dodge past them, punish at the right times, and win the battle. It's perfectly serviceable gameplay but doing it 20x in one game is just excessive.
I'm not saying you should be able to juggle Hollows or anything, but if the game is going to be so relentlessly focused on action then I have fewer reasons not to just play a better action game.
The problem isn't that the combat is too simple really, it's more than a lot of playstyles aren't given proper tools to actually handle the enemy design. Sekiro had simplistic combat with very aggressive enemies, but since you had the mechanics to actually counteract it it was still enjoyable.
Nolan Collins
Git gud
Evan Cox
For what purpose
Eli Thomas
To stop whining like a bitch
Nathan Jenkins
He is completely right. Memorize the circle press timings through trial and error over, padded out with runs back to the boss and having to deal with the first phase again.
Every boss is exactly the same thing: massive spastic just with the circle press timings rearranged.
Levi Sanchez
This has been the go-to boss design philosophy for Fromsoft ever since Artorias of the Abyss and fights have only gotten more "shounen-anime" over time. That's not to say that bosses like this can't be good. At their worst, they're camera-eating monstrosities with infinite stamina that blatantly read your inputs, cancel their recovery animations and have nonsensical tracking but at their best they're fair, challenging, and have great presentation. False King Allant is a great boss. So are Artorias, Ludwig, and Sister Friede, among many others, but they're also undeniably samey.
In a 2009 interview about Demon's Souls, Miyazaki said "When designing the bosses, I made sure that they would be varied and exciting. I prepared different gameplay strategies for each one so that players didn't get tired of the same fight every time. We wanted to surprise players and encourage them to figure out different tactics, to think on their feet."
If the Dancer of the Boreal Valley had been in Demon's Souls, I probably would've loved it. It has an intriguing visual design and the unconventional attack animations present a good challenge. The reason I don't enjoy it is because it's in a game filled with bosses just like it. FromSoft have long since figured out that one way they can punish players who carelessly roll around all the time is to hold the anticipation phase of attack animations for about half a second longer than you'd expect. They've completely abused this trick to the point where most bosses seem to have at least a few of those attacks and many basic enemies do as well. By the time you reach the Dancer, you've already had to adapt to a huge number of unconventional timings designed solely to catch you out. The thought of learning even more weird attack animations so I can roll and stab my way to victory yet again just isn't all that appealing anymore. When it's a foregone conclusion that every fight will be a dodge-and-punish affair, they lose their impact.
>He is completely right. No >Memorize the circle press timings through trial and error Nobody but retards does this In DS3 and ER there's delayed and variable chains to fuck you up for this OP's webm is a bad player that is losing a fight exactly for that
Charles James
I know dodge rolls are somewhat of a tradition in the series, but they still look retarded. Wish they went with bloodborne and sekiro regular dodges instead, but heh. at least there's that quickstep ash that looks rad
Jayden Flores
It unironically perfectly describes Elden Ring, to a T
Oh no no no no...
Joseph Ward
>t. only play as a knight with a shield and absolutely refuses to let go of the lock on
Xavier Sanchez
How is he always right?
Jayden Sullivan
I don't get what more he wants, honestly.
Hudson Jenkins
>When you're not rolling you'll generally be getting 1-2 hits in with whatever weapon you choose, hits that usually provoke no response from the boss whatsoever making every weapon basically the same thing apart from whatever damage types and numbers it has. lmao aged like milk
Thomas Roberts
>The problem with Bioshock Infinite is that not once did I hear a character utter the word "nigger"
His argument is that the gameplay becomes boring and repetitive because it's the same shit every time, he wants bosses that feel more like unique, memorable experiences where you can gain an advantage thinking tactically instead of just dodge rolling for almost every single one, and for From to take more risks. He doesn't think it makes sense for them to repeat this over and over without significantly improving the combat mechanics because the main appeal of Dark Souls was never that it was an action game, it was the world itself and how it immerses you and makes you feel like an actual adventurer who has to think on his feet instead of a player abusing the AI and attack patterns off the boss
Michael Sanchez
Is it, though? The Souls games have always been pretty combat focused experiences. Sure, exploration has always been the other big tentpole of those games, which Elden Ring actually emphasises above all else, but combat has always been your primary interaction in them. And that combat has always been based on learning enemies movesets and the ideal timing to dodge, defend and attack.
Joseph Taylor
It was definitely a mistake to have every single boss in the game be a Sekiro boss. There should have been more gimmick fights, even stuff like in Dark Souls where you can, and are encouraged, to knock the boss off the arena to their death.
Henry Jackson
He actually talks about not using the lock on being necessary I'm certain fights.
Aaron Myers
Filtered kys
Lucas Ortiz
Well, he is a fucking retard Nobody ever liked gimmick bosses Also Elden Ring has great combat
I don't understand rolling as a mechanic. Deflecting is way better in every way. You're actually defending instead of magically phasing through your opponent's weapon.
Liam Hill
Watch his DS2 video, he complains about the dragon raiders BECAUSE it doesn't play well with the lock on.
Austin Ward
Demon's Souls bosses weren't all like this, you had to use your head. Like hitting Tower Knight's legs to topple him and figuring out the Old Hero is blind
>spamming the same attack over and over to break the boss Wow, fucking incredible combat.
Austin Adams
Nah I think the big thing is that in DS1 and DeS you could make many more bosses a joke via questline or intended environmental interactions than the rest of the series.
Also personally a game that was just a Souls boss rush sounds like an absolute snorefest whereas I could see myself playing a game sole based around exploring. I mean ICO did it what more a good game that takes advantage of over 15 years of technology
Hunter James
Interestingly, that completely disregards how it's the DS2 lockon specifically taht is awful and broken, like most controla dn in general Shit Souls 2 Because it's an RPG and not Sekiro so not all classes should deny damage qith a button press
Wyatt Baker
>action isn't over the top where one button press does a 120 hit combo like muh devil may cry means its boring yea, another shazamtranny raped and filtered
