Before the hospital, I was into three different kinds of games: soulslikes, roguelike-lites, and cozy games. I was playing Cozy Grove by Spry Fox (cozy game, of course. It’s right there in the name), Dorfromantik by Toukana Interactive, which loosely fits into the cozy games category as well, and (sigh) Nioh 2 by Team Ninja, which can be crammed into the soulslike category if you use a shoehorn, elbow grease, and squint real hard. I had just watched the trailer for Elden Ring (FromSoft) before going into the hospital and was stoked about that. The release date has been pushed back a month, but I’m fine with that. I would rather they release it fully playable at a later date than release it on time and it’s riddled with bugs. I had just beaten the first boss in Nioh 2 and was messaging with Ian about the second main mission the day before I collapsed. Apparently, I had done the sub-mission and didn’t remember it. That is neither here nor there, though.
After I left the hospital, my thinking about video games changed drastically–along with many other things. Before the hospital (BH), I had this grand plan for Elden Ring. It’s their first open world game and one you can play completely with other people. I was going to have two characters–one with whom I would play the game solo as I played all FromSoft games. Soloing all the bosses and exploring the environments. With my second character, I was going to play with other people (mostly Ian) to see what that was all about.
After I got out of the hospital, I thought about the game much differently. I was going to explore the new fantastic world that Miyazaki had created and that was it. Once I start playing the game, however, I might change my mind. I certainly am not chill about playing Nioh 2. How’s that for a segue? Ah, Nioh 2. Before I get into that, let me give you a brief primer about how I felt a bout the first game. I played maybe a third of it (I kept thinking it was half, but it was not), struggling the whole time. I could see why it was a good game and why so many Souls players gobbled it up, but I could never get into it. The player interface was awful (and I’m saying this as a Souls fan myself); the combat system was impenetrable; and, I never felt comfortable with–well, any of the game. I quit after fighting a boss for hours. Oh, not because I couldn’t beat her, but because I beat her promptly after switching weapons, which should not be a thing. I get that there are better weapons for different bosses, but they should be beatable with any weapon. And it’s not as if I switched to the weapon I’d been using all game–I switched away from it!
The sequel was an improvement over the original in many ways. The user interface was a bit more streamline and maybe it’s because I had played and beaten Sekiro, but the basic combat system (which was the same as the original) didn’t seem as difficult as in the first game.
That’s before you add in the yokai abilities. See, this time around, the playable character is customizable instead of a bland shinobi Geralt with a ridiculous square jaw. Not only can you customize your character, you can customize your yokai form (you are half-yokai) as well. Since I always go magicks in my first playthrough of these kinds of game, I chose the phantom yokai, which is based on onmyo powers. I had heard that magic was much more viable in this game, but I did not learn until I started playing that you don’t get your first onmyo point until the second main mission–and near the end of the mission. Which is a long-ass mission.
Once I got my first onmyo point, though, I got many more in rapid succession because you get points as you use a skill. So during the fight with the second boss, I got a bunch of onmyo points–enough to have water magic or purification talisman, third level steel talisman (strengthens your defense) and life-leaching talisman in which you leech life from an enemy as you damage them. I had three uses of the steel and water/purification and two of the life-leeching. The talismans are replenished at every shrine. I got all these magicks from fighting this boss over and over again.
There is a jolly little feature in the game that tells you how many times you die to each enemy, including bosses. How many times you kill them as well ,but that’s not relevant here. I died to this boss who I called the forge boss (because we were in an abandoned forge or at least so I presumed) 96 times. That’s quite possibly more than I’ve died to any enemy in any game, including Biggie & Small in the original Dark Souls. I hastened to add that more than half of these were within the first thirty seconds or so and I pretty much gave up. I would say thirty to forty of these deaths were from legit fights.
The thing is, and I know I risk sounding bitter when I say this, he wasn’t that hard; he really wasn’t. The problem was that if you go the onmyo route (which, I cannot stress enough, do not do on your first playthrough if you’re mediocre at these games the way I am), it’s all for naught until you reach the chest right before this boss. That’s when you get the mumble mumble lock that when you use, you get your first onmyo point. Then, using the magic you create from that point (water talisman for me), you get more points. that’s how I got a shit-ton of magic talismans by the time I actually beat this boss.
Oh, right. I was explaining how this boss wasn’t actually that hard. He telegraphs his moves (except one combo that can either be three moves or five moves depending on how he feels and they look exactly the same until he either stops after three or continues on with four and five) and there are long breaks between each move. Most of the time.
Here’s my point about not doing a magic build. If you use the spear and pour your points into…uh, the one that gives you life. I think it’s constitution? The first one on the level up list. That and ki, which is this game’s equivalent of endurance. Then, you might be able to survive a combo hit in the yokai realm without dying. If you’re a dumbass like me and insist on going the onmyo route when you suck at the game, well, then, you’re in for a very bad time. At least until you finally get enough onmyo points to make all the talismans in the world. I relied on the steel talisman in the first game and I hurriedly crafted that and leveled it up in this game as well. I have it at level three, I believe. I know there’s a slow your enemy down talisman as well somewhere down the line. Looking forward to that one, too.
Anyway, my point is that in most of these games, there are ways to get around the main conceit of the combat if you’re willing to do things the hard way. Even in Sekiro, I didn’t master the deflect and managed to beat the final boss once. It made for bad times and I did not enjoy Sekiro, but I did beat it without consistently deflecting. I naively thought I could do the same with Nioh 2, though I don’t know why as I hadn’t been able to do it for the original game and they added a shit-ton more combat mechanics in the sequel.
After only two bosses in the sequel (the first one I beat my first proper time facing him), I can confidently say that I will not be able to beat this game if I don’t master the main conceit of the combat system–the burst counter. When an enemy flashes red (and it’s a huge flashing red line through the enemy), you have to hold down RT and then when they hit you, press B to do the burst counter. The problem is, like with all these games, the timing is different for each kind of enemy. The window is generous, but it’s hard to nail it down. I managed to fumble my way up to the second boss without mastering it, but the second boss was a long, slow slog without it. Now, because the window is generous, you can hammer the B button (and thank Ian for giving me the tip about holding RT when the red started flashing and pressing B during the actual attack) and hope to get it, but it’s better to learn the actual timing.
If you pull it off, you stun the enemy, allowing you to get in several hits before they recover. If you miss, however, it’s death for you or at least being heavily stunned, losing most your health, and probably demolished with the next hit. Because of my shitty health and ki recovery, I could take one combo at most from this boss before dying on the next hit. So while he wasn’t hard, I had to play super cautiously. Which is not how you should be playing this game at all.
I will say that learning how to use the yokai form was a game-changer as well, but this is getting long, so I’ll end it here. We’ll pick it up again next week, hopefully with more progress in my pocket. And I haven’t even mentioned corrupted weapons yet! More on that next week as well.