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 500x in one game is just excessive.
He missed the point and ER proved that by being a literal unparalleled success. This thing is on-track to outsell Skyrim.
Jace Carter
I counted 12 times where you could have had an opportunity to attack. nah im just kidding
Daniel Ramirez
Honestly I'd like it more if there wasn't so much rolling around, it looks silly. Maybe change it into a dodge or do it like Sekiro, combat in that looks much nicer.
Colton Morris
so you concede that minecraft has better combat than elden ring, based on sales?
Liam Walker
Didn't ask. Don't care. You will never be a women.
Anyone got the "your life ends 15 minutes from now" image?
Carson Bennett
Truth. Despite them shoving a million new spell types into the game, despite them adding a hundred new weapons to the game, despite them adding a jump button to the game you still only ever end up spamming the same button over and over and over and over and over until you inevitably win.
Nicholas Bennett
>but the effect on the enemy is usually identical
Are you that stupid? Complaining that attacks remove enemy health? What the fuck else is supposed to happen? Have you played ANY other video game before?
Though if this is just bait, congrats.
William Price
i cant believe this webm, morgott is the easiest of the demi gods and look at this shot
Jaxon Richardson
I don't know what the point of this diatribe is. But it does remind me of the fact that what I enjoyed most about the souls games was the level design, with levels serving as treacherous gauntlets full of traps and tricks and rewarding cautious methodical play to overcome challenges, or being sufficiently skilled knowledgeable of the enemies/placement/levels that you were able to juke everything and run through levels that way.
But in ER? There's ZERO challenge to any of the levels themselves, except I guess a handful of the hero's grave mini-dungeons with the chariots (and even those are trivial now that the chariots have been nerfed and don't even one-shot you like they used to). ALL the focus is on the boss fights, and the levels just feel like window dressing on the way to the boss. There's no challenge at all in any of them. You never see anyone talking about the actual levels like you used to see people talking about places like tower of latria, shrine of storms, sens fortress, catacombs, brume tower, shrine of amana, etc.
As the games have gone on, it seems more and more attention is put on the bosses to the detriment of everything else. In ER it might as well just be a boss rush with the open world and legacy dungeons just acting as breathing space between bosses. And even then it turns into a literal boss rush in the last part of the game where you fight Maliketh/Gideon/Godfrey/Radagon/Eldenbeast back to back with zero dungeoneering between them.
Landon Parker
Morgott can actually be fairly challenging depending on your level and upgrades. The issue is that most players do a ton of content that's available before setting foot in Leyndell, like the underground eternal cities and volcano manor. So they get to Morgott and they're high level with heavily upgraded gear, and Morgott goes down in a few hits.
Caleb Parker
>the combat is nothing remarkable combat is fine if you use a quick weapon like a katana anything else and it's a joke, be it magic or jump attacking colossal weapon didn't read past your first paragraph because you're a faggot bitching about morgott which is one of the best fights
Cooper Thomas
So, Defensive play is S-tier, Offensive is B-Tier. It's the inverse of DMC and Netta'. You're meant to struggle if you don't have a good defense.
Anthony Barnes
Complexity does not mean good. It doesnt even mean depth. Simple mechanics can also be deep. Its about how the level design makes use of them.
Robert Wright
When are you pathetic fucking shazamtrannies going to give up? It's been three months, you lost, move on >surely THIS time I'll get them to stop liking it
Samuel Flores
this but unironically. only normalfag mouthbreathing midwit jarpig consolefags shit on chad of duty
Jaxson Richardson
I don't like shooters all that much
Benjamin King
>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.
Versus what? You don't seem to like this gameplay (something a lot of people would disagree with you on as a matter of opinion), but you're not even suggesting an alternative here.
Imagine being that over leveled but still having less than 30 Vigor
Jace Cox
It's fun that's all it needs to be, I don't know why rolling is so maligned reacting to enemy attacks like this is about as good as it gets and a lot more fun than similar games and most people...agree with that? Look at that star wars game with the ginger protag, all everyone talks about is how fun the gameplay loop is and it's just slower dark souls without player customization. Also anons are so adamant of blocking being bad when it really isn't.
Isaiah Lewis
who asked
Daniel Peterson
>We have to confront the hard truth: the Souls games were ALWAYS action games. Even in Demon's Souls, at least half the bosses were combat encounters and 99% of the game was combat against mobs.
>Demon's Souls is an action RPG entirely centered around its combat mechanics. It's a game that puts setpiece after setpiece of mob encounters in a linear fashion. It has more in common with Resident Evil 4 than any exploration or adventure game. You kill enemies going through setpieces while gathering resource to further upgrade your combat capabilities.
>The beauty of Souls combat is in tight timings, low time to kill, the inherent differences in the movesets of each single piece of equipment and its hitbox ranges and how that relates to all of the level design and enemies you are put against. With each hit no effect on enemy is similar: Poise, poise break, damage, stagger, status build up,... every part of the "RPG" relates to combat and adds depth.
>If you're a staunch defender of the e-celeb tranny this is where you might be tempted to rattle off all the "gimmick" bosses Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have like Maiden Astrea. They are now called NPC questlines because Miyazaki got funds this time around.
>In terms of actual complexity, there's not much going on in Matthewmatosis "analysis". He accuses From of not being able to discern what made Demon's Souls great while failing to understand what makes Demon's Souls great. He also never mentions elements like NPCs walking and fighting and navigating the map without being summoned, small cutscenes during story relevant dialogues or the larger sense of scale that was sacrificed for interconnected maps.
>I'm not saying you can't have preferences, but If you claim that DeS wasn't an action game and that Souls combat lacks depth because it's based around a small pool of attacks over combos then you are a disingenuos faggot badmouthing Demon's Souls core mechanics with your fake praise.
>morgott is the easiest of the demi gods Rennala and Godrick are brain dead easy, Margit is harder than both.
Angel Murphy
i mean it's not like players should be doing nokron or gelmir after leyendell though. open world threw a wrench into progression that they simply failed to compensate for
Evan Peterson
matthewmatosis is the most based video game critic to ever live
Wait so Minecraft can sell a shitton without the combat being remarkable? It's almost like you're proving his point
Benjamin Powell
they could use some more complexity, but what souls games need is just a plain new combat system. It doesn't have to be better, it just has to be different, because they've exhausted more and more design space and it's also why they have to push all the bossfights to be more and more difficult, bullshit anime fights. We've played similar games for like 5½ titles already, people are experienced. Just make a new combat system, even more different than sekiro, and they can make 3 more games pushing into even more bullshit anime boss fights without breaking the entire game.
Jason Jenkins
I think it's fun but I like abusing I-frames in action games, Ninja Gaiden 2 is my favorite hacky slashy for that reason
Jason Collins
Blah blah blah don't care, you miserable shitstains started crying about Elden Ring 3 months ago now and you don't seem to want to stop anytime soon... Meanwhile I'm having fun reading your manchildren tantrums. >BWAAAH ELDEN RING TOO HARD >BWAAAH ELDEN RING TOO EASY >BWAAAH ELDEN RING TOO UGLY >BWAAAH ELDEN RING TOO UNFAIR >BWAAAH ELDEN RING TOO ELDEN RING give it a rest niggers. Or don't, it's not like if I'm about to enjoy the game less because of a smelly forever a virgin overweight fuck in its underwear covered in dried semen shitting on the GOTY.
