Lies of P (Neowiz Games/Round8 Studio). The game I can’t quit, even though I’d rather be playing a From game. Why? I don’t even know, honestly. I think it’s partly because other people in the Discord are playing it. It’s also because I’m playing along with Rory in Elden Ring (to a certain extent), which means only playing a little bit at a time. Yes, I can play with my other characters, but I’m just not doing that at this time. In addition, this game is adequate enough to keep me pushing on, but it’s not great. If I was to grade the fourth chapter on its own, it would get a failing grade.
Here is the post from yesterday about the fourth chapter boss and how much I hated that boss. I had hoped it was a one-off, but it has not been. I’ll get to that in a second.
My biggest issues with this game are the following. One, there is no poise. Even when you get the enemies into the stagger state, they still attack you. Someone in the Discord mentioned there are I-frames (invincibility frames) after a dodge, but not nearly as many as in the From games. You can upgrade it, but I’m not going to waste my precious quartz on that when I can get more heals. The dodge is useless in this game. I don’t care that they said they improved it. Itt’s not worth a lickle of spit. This is not a real phrase, but I don’t care. I like the way it sounds.
You cannot expect the enemy/boss to get stunned. Ever. Which means that the groggy state is useless for someone like me who has bad reflexes. Yes, it’s a good idea in theory. Hit the boss enough to get them into the groggy state as indicated by the white border around their health bar, then do a charged RT to get them stunned, and then follow up by RB, so long as you’re in the right place. With the boss I was talking about yesterday, that’s an orange circle on the ground by his face. So if you’re whaling on his butt as I was because the specter was dealing with his front end, I had to run around and find the orange circle in time because the specter couldn’t be bothered to get the visceral.
*SPOILERS*
I still can’t tell you what the fourth boss is like in the second phase because I simply did not engage with him at that point. He was already hard enough in the first half with his ability to stunlock me with his combos. Which, by the way, I note, I can’t do to enemies, let alone bosses. In the second half, though, it was ridiculous. I have said that one of the issues with soulslikes is that they don’t know what it is that makes From games work. They think it’s being hard and throwing in tons of systems and environmental hazards, then calling it a day. Even From gets it wrong sometimes and errs on the side of being too much. They’ve actually gotten better at paring down their systems and maknig them less cumbersome.
In the sceond half of this boss fight, the demon angel thing does a wide sweeping attack and a poke you with its spear (I think?) attack. Then pulls up from the ground to do AOE damage. The archbishop does even more decay damage and a laser attack that can get you almost anywhere if you’re close enough. That can do up to a one-shot kill, depending on youn HP. It did not one-shot me because for once, I have put more points into health than I normally would.
He also gets up on his legs (he’s normally crawling about) and does a red attack that he doesn’t do in the first phase. This really is the opposite of Ornstein and Smough in that it goes from one boss to two instead of the other way around. Which means it gets harder because in O & S, the only thing that gets harder in the second round (igfg you choose to fight SuperSmough) is that he gets electricity. If you fight SuperOrnstein, he gets massive and adds the butt slam that Smough had. But it’s only one dude, which makes it easier. Nominally. Plus, you can have up to 20 heals, depending. Most people probably will take in 10.
I was numb when I finally beat this boss. I collected my shit and moved on to get the bonfire and then went back to the hotel to level up and do my shit. After I was done with that, I moved onto the fifth chapter. This is the one that is in an area that is like the Forbidden Woods in Bloodborne. And there’s a mini-mini boss that I just avoid after killing it once. I hate the mini-mini bosses. They’re not actually bosses, but they are way harder enemies who respawn. I don’t get the point, honestly, and they cheapen the mini-bosses, whom I hate, anyway.
Again, soulslikes often don’t understand the WHY behind the what. Hard bosses aren’t hard just for the sake of being hard. And they’re usually fair. There are some exceptions, but in general, you can find ways to beat them that aren’t the approved method. In games other than Sekiro, that is.
Chapter V was…uninspired. Oh look. Go through the woods with decay characters and beat the mini-mini bosses that are just a beefier version of a regular enemy. And, this is on me, everything looked the fucking same. I got lost so many times because I could not tell one branch from another. I will say that at the beginning, it was kind of cool because the Red Fox and the Black Cat, two characters I met previously, were there to accompany me…no wait. This was later in at the next bonfire. They told me they would accompany me, but that I should go first. I was convinced they would push me in some trap a la Patches, but, no. They helped. Only on the first time, though, and to a certain point. Then they ‘got tired’ and refused to continue. Which, what?
It was cool, but it felt half-baked. And why did they only accompany me on the first time? So many questions with no answers. When I reached the end of the level–by the way, there was another mini-boss that I cheesed by getting on a ledge and throwing shit at it until it died. That’s becoming this game’s version of walking backwards and casting spells that I did in Elden Ring. When I got to the boss, I was not into it. It wasn’t hard, per se, but it was anonying. It was the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, and I had to beat the eldest, while the others would hop in (see what I did there) at certain intervals. I wanted throwables for the fight because that was the cheese (yes, I looked it up. Shows how into these bosses I were), and there was supposed to be a merchant that I hadn’t found. I found him, paid his bribe, and then was treated to a supply of unlimited throwables. Yes, please! I had to farm to get the souls (Ergo) to buy the throwables), but it was worth it.
I bought maxed-out Thermite, Throwing Cells, and other powerful throwables. There are actually three places you can put items. Two belts with three slots each and a bag with four. To access the bag, you have to press A and then the directional pad of the item you want to use. And I rinsed the Eldest Brother while ignoring his siblings. I let the spector deal with them. I think I got it on my third or fourth go. I did try to fight him honorably once or twice, but then I couldn’t be stuffed because he had a big meat cleaver that did more than half my health bar’s worth of damage. He was basically the Mad Donkey from earlier on stereoids.
What have I learned about this game? The throwables are OP and there’s no reason not to be continually stocked up on them. I cannot learn the parry for the life of me, and I have tried. I have been using the same two weapons since the second chapter. The police baton and the holy sword. The latter is a boss weapon, which means you can’t change out the handle. Which is another negative. That’s the bottom line with this game. For all the systems and the difficluty and the whatnot, it discourages you from experimenting if you’re not good at the parry mechanic. I can’t even get comfortable with one weapon, let alone a new one every chapter. I’m midway into Chapter VI and enjoying my new mask (a cosmetic), but that’s about it.