I’m into Chapter VII of Lies of P (which I always want to call Lies of Pi, by the way) (Neowiz Games/Round8 Studio) and the most recent patch says they nerfed the last boss I fought. Too late for me! They nerfed one in the future, too (at least I don’t recognize the name), so I’m happy about that. Someone in the RKG Dsicord said they were not waiting for the patch as they fight the Chapter VI boss because they are stubborn like that. I joked that I wished I had waited until after the patch to fight that boss!
*SPOILER*
Here’s the thing. I have said in the past that soulslike take the wrong lessons from From games. They focus on the games being HARD without really absorbing what makes them enjoyable. Again, this is a me-thing because this game was highly-reviewed when it came out. People were gushing about how it was Bloodborne 2, which, I mean, uh, no. It’s not that. It’s not even close.
The dodging is sluggish. The parry is impossisble for me to figure out for all but the most scrubbish of enemies. Blocking is what I do and desperately hope I get lucky to block enough or get the parry by accident. Then, once the boss (and let’s face it–it’s the bosses that are the problem) is staggered, hope that the specter detracts the boss enough so I can get the RT in. That’s not strategy–that’s just luck. Here’s my last post on the game.
The last boss I fought was the King of Puppets/Romeo. The first phase is the King of Puppets and then once you get rid of his entire health bar, Romeo comes out. He’s a fast fucker, and I had no chance of doing anything with him. I could avoid his attacks, barely, but I could not actually hit him. I was using the exploding pickaxe at this point with the police baton handle, and I had it upgraded to +6.
Here’s the problem, though. I only had 6 heals at this point, and I would be down to 1 or 2 by the second phase. And my specter barely survived into the second phase–the phase when I needed them the most. The King of Puppets could cover the entier arena with a swing of his arms. I have decent stamina in this game, but one combo from him would wipe me out. That’s my issue with the bosses in general. Dodging is shit. I can’t parry. Blocking takes up so much stamina. In other words, there’s nothing I can do to mitigate getting hit.
Here’s the thing. In the Souls games, I felt as if I could actually fight the bosses after learning their patterns. I have not felt that way in this game for the most part. I did learn the first boss’s patterns, somewhat, but he was the only one. Second boss, I got lucky and demolished him on the second try with the specter still alive. Third boss, I got SUPER lucky and demolished him on the first try with the specter lasting until the last few slivers of the boss’s health.
Fourth boss was my personal hell. Forty-five to fifty tries, and I did not feel like I knew it any better than I did after five tries. In fact, i reached the second phase on my second try, and it never got any better. I could not block the first phase’s attacks for nothing, and I would go into the second phase with only one heal. I looked up the cheese, which included throwables. Which is what I did. I hurled Thermites at him and used Flamberge to batten him down as fast as possible. Then, in the second phase, I still had the specter. I used the last two Thermites as the specter whaled on the boss. I got in a few licks, and we got the boss down to roughly a fourth of his health less before the specter died. Then, I pelted him with Throwing Cells, one after another, until he died. That was five Throwing Cells. No strategy. No tactics. No amazing fighting by me. Just hurling shit at him.
Someone in the RKG Discord said that throwables were very useful in this game. They were not kidding. At all. I keep my throwables as stocked as possible. once I unlocked the merchant in Chapter V who sold unlimited throwables, it was all over. I would farm for throwables, yes, but also for the Ergo so I could buy the ones I didn’t get from farming.
You can probably see where I’m going with this. I have killed all the mini-bosses and bosses from that point on with throwables. This is how I do From games. I learn how to exploit a boss, and then I do that. In this case, it’s the same thing every time–throw shit at them until they die. All the shit. And, this is probable one of the most damning things I can say about the game, I don’t bother to find all the secrets and the hidden pathways. There are two reasons for this. One, the fucking mobs. That come out of everywhere. Even places where you can’t see them. Not fun at all. And they are not spaced so that you can run through them. If you do hoon it, they will chase you for ages. The leash limit in this game is too much. Plus, it’s uneven. Some will give up rather quickly, but others will chase you well into other areas.
Two, everything looks the goddamn same. I can’t tell one turn from another. I get so hopelessly lost in this game, even if I’ve done something several times. Oh, there’s actually a thrd reason. So many of the shortcuts simply don’t matter. You can go through the areas and skip half the content. You could say the same for From games, but it doesn’t really feel the same. Those all feel crucial (shortcuts, I mean). In this game, as I mentioned before, I will open a shortcut and be perplexed because I just opened one a few steps before.
The fifth chapter boss was nothing compared to the fourth because throwables made him trivial. The sixth chapter boss, on the other hand, was a handful. That’s the one that got nerfed and I wsihed I could have waited until the patch to fight because he was such a pain in the ass. I will say that I got better at the first half by just bombing him with electricity over and over again (my arm) while the specter took care of him.
On the winning run, I got lucky as a winning run often is. I was able to evade his attacks (I actually find big, lumbering bosses easier than small and quick), and we got him down fairly easily. I still had four or five heals when we went into the second phase, and the specter still had health. I kept a careful eye on their health because I have a thing that can heal them once. Not fully, but just enough. I started throwing things at Romeo. Accid things. That’s what he’s weak to. I made sure to pop my specter heal in plenty of time because I was too late a few times before. I kept circling and chucking things, and then staggered him. I did a RT and then a RB, and he was dead.
I actually was trtiumphant after this boss because I felt like I had learned the first phase to a certain extent. It didn’t take me nearly as long, but the second phase was just me chucking things and hoping the specter didn’t die. That’s pretty much the game now. Me throwing things. I’m not happy about it, but it’s the only way I can get through it.