So, as a FromSoft fan, I played all the Dark Souls and Bloodborne with the mentaliy that I had to solo the bosses, otherwise, I’m not hard–and I’m not a real gamer. I did summon a few times, but only as a last straw. Then, I went back and beat all the bosses solo. Except for three bosses in the BB DLC and the gank runs in the DS II DLCs.
When I started Nioh the original, I had the same mentality. No summoning. It’s a crutch that only fake gamers needed. Except. Here’s the thing. I quit the game a third of the way through because I hit a boss that I found too grueling. I fought her for hours and then switched my weapons. I proceeded to beat her in thirty seconds, quit the game, and did not go back except for a brief moment.
I know you’re saying, “Minna, you beat the boss. You’re not making the point you think you’re making. But it’s part of the point. If I hadn’t spent hours against the boss, I would not have felt as infuriated that merely switching weapons did the job. I will say that my one big dislike of both games is that once you start a mission, you can’t quit out of it without losing all your XP, amitra, money, and any progress you made in the mission. So, you can’t dip out and go to an earlier mission to grind, which bugs me.
Anyway, Nioh 2 by Team Ninja was the game I was playing when I ended up in the hospital. The last message I sent to Ian was about the forge boss we had both just beaten. The second main story boss. It had been really difficult for me because I poured all my points into Omnyo Magicks, but you can’t actually use them until late into the second main mission. So, yes, I had some magicks available by the time I reached the boss, but not much. And I had no health or stamina.
I had heard that Omnyo Magicks were very powerful in this game, but then later found out that meant midway through the game. Of course. Which meant that I was highly under-tuned for the first two story mission and three or four sub-missions. Actually, I’m still underleveled now. My general marker for what level I should be is the suggested level +5 or +10, but that’s not easy to do in this game. I’m level 30, and the next batch of missions are suggested 35 or so.
I beat the forge boss the day before I ended up in the hospital. Or at least, that was when I messaged Ian about it. I died to that boss 100 times. Nioh 2 keeps track of your deaths. Ugh. I do not need that on my permanent record, thank you very much.
Ian started playing Nioh 2 again because…I’m not sure why. Just because? Maybe! Anyway, he’s been storming it because he’s better at these games that I am. He beat the third story mission and is now on the sixth or seventh. He has done a bunch of sub-missions, too. He’s loving the game and has really clicked with the combat system. He told me that beating the original Dark Souls has made him become more relaxed about dying in these kinds of games.
He has a pretty chill personality in general. I watched him stream a bunch of different FromSoft games, and he rarely shouted as he played. I, on the other hand, curse constantly when I play these games. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but I let the expletives fly during the tense moments. I am particualrly foul-mouthed when I face a boss, and because I watch a bunch of Brits, there’s one word that has been coming out more often than not. I’m not proud of it, and I’m trying to change it, but it’s still happening.
Watching Ian play Nioh 2 has inspired me to play it myself. It’s really interesting to switch back and forth between that and Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin), but I tend to glom onto one or the other. Currently, it’s Nioh 2 and I just beat the boss of the third main story mission with the help of a human summon.
Side note: There are AI summons you can use that are based on the builds of other players. You can put down your Benevolent Grave by using a Righteous Jasper, and an AI based on your build will be summoned. If your Benevolent Grave is used, you get an Ochoko Cup that you can use to summon other AI or humans. You also get Glory that you can use at the Hidden Teahouse and sometimes Righteous Jaspers. You can have three at a time.
Ian found out about this because he had left down a Benevolent Grave then didn’t play for months. When he returned to the game, he had something like 40 Ochoko Cups. So now I leave one as I play and when I’m not playing. I have gotten several Ochoko Cups, which is nice. I have also tried fighting the Revenants (Bloody Graves), but that hasn’t gone as well. Even though it’s AI, I am still very bad at it. I did get a sweet corrupted kusarigama from it once, though.
Do I feel guilty for summoning a human? Yeah, a bit. I did it because I was worn out by the level and just did not have the energy to learn the boss and beat it properly. Could I have beaten it by myself? Yeah, eventually. But, as I said to Ian, I did not want to take another few hours and another thirty tries in order to do so. He said that it took him about that many tries to beat the boss (he gave me tips), which surprised me. I thought he dealt with it fairly handily, but I was thinking of a different boss.
I don’t know how much more of this game I’ll play. I love the Niohs. I think they are terrific games, but they are above my capabilities, especially now. I remember during a GI stream of one of the From games, one of the guys (I think Kyle) said something about another memmber of the team not in the playthrough who refused to summon during the original Dark Souls. Dan Tack (the GI From guy when he was there) said that was correct and how he played the games. Kyle said, “Yeah, but he quit playing the game, so he didn’t get to see the whole thing”, which is one of the massive downsides to that mentality.
In addition, games are meant to be enjoyed. If you want to have a go at all the bosses solo, have at it! That used to be me, and I took great pride in doing it. I am terrible at these games so the fact that I could say I’ve beaten every boss in both the original and the third Dark Souls games without an asterisk made me happy. I’ve hundo chievo’ed all the Souls games, BB, and Elden Ring.
I rarely summoned for Elden Ring, but I didn’t forbid myself from doing so. In addition, I did use the Spirit Summons very liberally. I enjoyed the game very much, but I don’t think I would have as much if I forced myself to truly solo every boss.
We’ll see what happens with Nioh 2. At this point, my thought is that whatever pushes me forward is fine by me. We’ll see if that changes or if I stop playing the game. I have a hunch I won’t finish it, but I would not mind being pleasantly surprised.