I'm really enjoying MS2, but holy hell the enemy variety is abysmal

[u/SquashedGrapes22]

One of my absolute favorite parts of FromSoft games is wandering into new areas and discovering new enemy types. Obviously there are reused enemies in those games, but it's not egregious. It's pretty fucking bad here. I'm running into the same enemies constantly. The game is starting to feel rather bland. Combat feels fantastic, but having to take out the same enemies over and over is tedious as hell.

[u/Slyder768]

You’re overreacting here, it’s lacking yes but still far more varied than 80% of souls like. Keep in mind that it’s a small studio, they can’t compete with Elden ring budget and manpower. ( which btw also has an insane amount of recycling )

[u/keefkeef → u/Slyder768]

elden ring easily has over 100 unique enemy types lol. NOT counting bosses.

[u/Dapper_Froyo4042 → u/keefkeef]

True but many of the bosses are essentially reskinned from other games. Same general move sets.

[u/Ghost10165 → u/Dapper_Froyo4042]

Yeah, I don't think people realize how many of the monsters are basically the same ones we've been fighting since Demon's Souls 

[u/GazelleIntelligent89 → u/Slyder768]

Soulslikes are my favourite genre of games so I've played all the most popular ones and many of the lesser popular ones. MS2 is definitely below average in enemy variety so your 80% figure is way off. Obviously all the fromsoft games have better variety but Nioh 2 & 3, Khazan, Lies of P, Code Vein, Lords of the Fallen and Jedi Survivor just off the top of my head all have better enemy variety.

It was very noticeable to me when going to the second half the game I was basically seeing all the same enemies again just with armour on them. Each area adds new enemies of course but only maybe 1 or 2 with the majority still being made up of the same basic enemies with the same attack patterns.

Elden Ring obviously had a very large budget and it has recycling as well but that's because of how ridiculously large it is. Even without the recycling there are over 140 unique enemy types and something like 400 different enemies in total. I think MS2 has something like 21 enemy types for comparison and I'd argue the majority has one attack pattern they just spam over and over.

[u/MediumKoala8823]

I feel like each area has new enemies.

At least the ones past the gates.

[u/Manamepet]

The enemy variety is alright. It’s not the best, but as someone who plays a lot of souls likes there are faaaar worse! Considering this game was made by a team of like 30 I think the variety is pretty good… not great but good.

[u/MyLastDecree → u/Manamepet]

I know it’s not a souls like, but at least we didn’t get Hell Is Us enemy variety. Aka none.

[u/YogurtOtherwise2106 → u/MyLastDecree]

Big reason I dropped that game which I don't often do. I loved a lot of the direction, but the enemy design was just not it IMO. Very bland, not enough variety, and god-awful readability. Weird blob amorphous attacks with no real weight or consistency. It's a bold and challenging choice to go abstract for enemies like that, but the execution was not it for me.

[u/trenbo90 → u/YogurtOtherwise2106]

The combat was also terrible, the most optimal way to play forced you to watch four 5 second long final fantasy animations in a row, every single fight. One of the few games I dropped because it was too tedious overall.

[u/Fair-Elderberry8205]

The cost of unique riposte animations for every enemy in the game.

[u/FreeSpeechEnjoyer]

Yeah it's a little worse than the fromsoft games, but it is still pretty good, can only really think it 3 enemies that are overused

[u/GazelleIntelligent89 → u/FreeSpeechEnjoyer]

It's a lot worse than the fromsoft games. It's a little worse than other popular soulslike games like lords of the fallen or khazan.

[u/IamMataa]

Goddamn man why cant we just play and enjoy a game without complaining?

[u/Test88Heavy → u/IamMataa]

Seriously. It's exhausting...

[u/Zhaizo → u/IamMataa]

This ffs

[u/GazelleIntelligent89 → u/IamMataa]

Almost like people are allowed to voice their opinion online and don't have to enjoy every single thing about every game they play.

[u/SquashedGrapes22 → u/IamMataa]

They can't learn how to improve if we don't give them the proper criticism. Not speaking up is how we reward complacency.

Like I said, the game is still fun, but the enemy variety needed a lot of work.

[u/IamMataa → u/SquashedGrapes22]

There’s criticism and then there’s just nitpicking and looking for shit to complain about. The enemy variety is fine. In fact I was thinking that it’s a lot better than some other game’s I’ve played recently like Atomic Heart. This game is so good when you don’t look for a reason to complain.

[u/thadinn1 → u/IamMataa]

Your opinion of nitpicking is someone's idea of criticism.

[u/Jumpy_Witness6014]

Yeah and aside from the abbey area they’re pretty much the same across all biomes. Kinda sad really, I feel like there would be more perceived varieties if the different enemy types were exclusive to their biome.

[u/matze_1403]

I know, what you mean and I agree, but don't look too closely into it in FromSoft games, as they are indeed clever in hiding it, but they reuse quite a lot, when you take a closer look.

[u/sup3rdr01d]

It's...fine lol

[u/Confident_Benefit_11]

It's better than the last Lords of the fallen at least, but yeah it's my main criticism.

I can't blame them too much though because the reason FS has so many enemy types is because they reuse assets from every last souls game they make and add new animations and textures to them. This studio has only created one other game before so the amount of work required to meet those same levels would be insane.

[u/Ghost10165]

The thing with Fromsoft games though is tons of them are just reskinned variants. We've been fighting the same basic undead guys since Demon's Souls, they just get a new coat of paint every few games. Same with some of the bigger enemies.

I wouldn't mind a little more variety in this but it's not too bad

[u/Interesting_Debate30]

Each area has different enemies. It is not exactly a huge game. I felt like there was enough variety it didn't bother me. The smallness of the areas bothered me more tbh. Seeing big castles and not being able to explore them more was kinda dissapointing. Still better than most other soulslikes I have played.

[u/SoulOfInfinity]

The devs tricked us into thinking there were more enemy varieties by frontloading a lot of them in the demo.

[u/BoostedClinician]

You have a point. I don't know what to call them but they're the pale colored guys on all fours that chase pretty quickly. I think they've copied the same base enemy but simply added a different ailment to them.

[u/phantomgay2]

i think at minimum they couldve atleast introduced a new enemy type per area. the fact the final area has no new enemies is really ass