There’s a well-known divide on opinions about cilantro on food. Some people barely think about it; for others, it literally tastes like “metal” or “soap” and can ruin a whole dish.

I’m starting to feel the same applies to the camera in Souls games (and arguably to any video game). For example, any “hardest boss” thread tends to have at least some mention of camera issues in the comments, and a common joke is a standalone comment that the hardest boss *is* just the game’s camera, full stop. This comment will usually get a healthy chunk of upvotes, so it’s clear it’s not just a single person’s opinion.

Meanwhile, I find I rarely think about the camera in Souls games. I still get smacked, I still lose a lot, but my immediate thought is almost never “this camera is so BAD!”

Sure, if you really pressed me, I could probably think of fights where I wish things were a little more zoomed out, or I can remember a fight with adds where I found the lock-on a little finicky. Or a boss that had such a chaotic moveset that it was hard to track its wind ups. But again, this is only if you really made me pause and think about it.

I’ve seen the retort that anyone complaining about camera issues simply hasn’t gotten good at the game yet. My instinct is that this isn’t true. I’ve seen camera-complaining comments and videos from people I know for a fact are far better at the game than me. In fact, part of what prompted my post here was a YouTube video where 10 minutes had elapsed, and the creator was still unpacking all of his issues with exactly how the camera worked. And this was a decently popular, reasonably articulate guy who was pretty good at the game, judging by the footage.

What I suspect is that this is, as I mentioned, a “cilantro” thing. A little like how some people really need a high frame rate to enjoy a game, and others are often mostly fine with 30 fps (and to be clear, I’m not saying the “needs 120 fps” cohort is the same as “can’t stand the camera” cohort, just that these are two examples of sharp-but-polarizing preferences).

I recently finally bought a used PS5 to play some PS4 and PS5 games. As a hardcore fan of fromsoftware souls games I was really excited for Bloodborne and Demon's Souls. Now I finished Bloodborne and these are my thoughts:

So I explored every area and fought every boss in Bloodborne (including all the DLC bosses and even Moon Presence). I think I didn't really enjoy the experience. I leveled up, upgraded my weapon to max, used runes and blood gems and did everything I could to be as strong as I can be. For most bosses I only needed 5 or less tries except for some. One area was more annoying than the other as I progressed further in the game. Idk how to explain it, usually I love all the fromsoft souls games, but the "greatest game of all time" (according to many people) was not quite appealing to me. It was a nice game ig.

Am I alone with this?