Hells yeah, you're the freaking man! I never doubted you if that means anything. I have a hard time understanding the story in FF14 as well sometimes. It helps that you can read the completed quest descriptions to kinda figure out what's going on, but taking several months or years off from the game takes it's toll.

Well, I'm very glad you were able to beat the boss. I'm at Hidden Forest and it's the only way I can progress right now. Every side path up to this point I've explored to the best of my ability, and have beaten every mini boss along the way. Will for sure be playing more of this this weekend.

So you're going to play Yakuza next? I've never played one of those games, so I don't know much about it. Seems like we have similar tastes in games, so maybe I'll check that out.

I wonder if when all is said and done, the overall opinion among Souls/BB veterans and newcomers alike will be that From went a little overboard with the difficulty of some of these bosses.

RaptorChrist said: AngryLittleAlchemist said: Going by this thread, I guess we really do need an easy mode in Souls games! :P I've never been a big fan of difficulty options in games. The exception for me are survival horror games, or games that people might play just to experience the story. But for skill-based games, at least for the first time through the game, I generally prefer one difficulty level, and I tend to like it more when it's challenging.

I agree. It's one of the things that I consistently love about the From Software Soulsborne titles. I like a nice hand-tuned defined difficulty experience. 

What made you beat him on the third try? Sheer luck? Or did you finally find a good strategy against him? 

Isn't the Surge kinda like a Souls game? I played their last game, Heroes of the Fallen, and that most definitely was a Soulslike; I enjoyed it. I'm considering playing that when it goes free next week as well.

And my thoughts on the difficulty of this game is that it's pretty similar to the other "Soulsborniro" (sounds like a mexican dish) games. The difference is that in a Souls game, you can grind out levels and become strong enough with enough time to beat most bosses. There doesn't seem to be many options when it comes to "armor/defense" in this game, so mitigating damage can't really be done, and can only really be offset with a larger vitality pool. That and the fact that you take extra damage if you're in the air or are hit from behind and it makes for even weak attacks doing large amounts of damage depending on when and where you get hit. And in addition, as John mentioned there being cheese, there isn't nearly as much of it in this game as the other games in the series. The mechanics seem to have only gotten better with time, and there's no more bosses jumping to their own death, getting stuck in a weird position, and also, you can't summon for help if you get stuck.

I might have more to say about this after fighting some of the late-game bosses, as I'll be there soon.

I would almost always use an NPC summon as it was occasionally quest-related, but on my first time through I don't use co-op for my own boss fights. I do, however, keep the online mode running as the thrill of being invaded has led to some of my most memorable moments (plus the messages on the ground are helpful). Speaking of which, exploring in other Soulsborne games is so much easier as the jump mechanic isn't used too much. The traversal mechanics in Sekiro make the levels very open-ended and sometimes I think I'm going into a secret area but it ends up just being the right way to go. The farther I get the more I worry that I'm missing items.

Man, I feel so far behind. Just beat the shit monkey in the valley and now I have no idea where to go. I presume, since I got the flower, I'm heading back to Kuro?

You're not far behind me, so no pressure. But yeah, that's pretty much how I feel. Everyone else seems farther ahead.

My co-worker has been playing this game as well but he is just encountering the kamikaze nightjar for the first time, so he is way behind.

What is this boss that took you 6hrs, I thought Genichiro is the hardest Ive fought, after him the bosses only took 6-7 tries max for me and thats only the hard ones, and Im at the end stage, at least I think it's the end stage.

Yeah he was quite overwhelming the first two tries, but after the the next ones he was quite easy to read compared to my nemesis, took down daddy'o after the 5th try, his actually fast for his build, and as for the True Corrupted Monk, you're right about the first two life pools, he can be taken down without a fight, then the third one is just like the first meeting, so you wouldn't have as much trouble as when you first beat him/her, unless you were really struggling with him/her at the first meeting.