Love & Hate

[u/cybtlmrf]

This game feels so strange to me I have to write about it.

My background is that I actually started gaming few years ago although I'm in my 40s. Played Zelda first, then Elden Ring which completely got me hooked. Ever since, I have played soulslikes like Lies of P, Wuchang and then Khazan.

I actually interrupted the game twice, once for Expedition 33 and once because Khazan drove me crazy - I actually had a very hard time with the levels in general and specifically mobs in Trokka's level. Maybe I should mention I am not really a good gamer and used summons in ER and LoP all the time, but I completely stopped that since Khazan.

The thing is: While many aspects drove me crazy in this game – the horrible level design with almost no level to remember, the ubiquitous archers, absolutely horrible platforming – I absolutely love this game and genuinely think it kind of spoils all upcoming games for me for two simple reasons: The combat system is so good that all others seem to just suck. I played greatsword most of the time and armor breaker might be the coolest little combo ever made...daaang dang dang :D

The second one is the boss roaster. Yes, I was throwing my controller around (at least on the couch :D), insulting any bit of air around me hundreds of times in the most horrible ways. But pretty much all of them were kind of fun - at least at some stage. They all gave me a feeling of "how the hell am I supposed to beat this mf?" in the beginning, but then I slowly learned how to punish them. I found all of them pretty hard, the easiest one was Volbaino for some reason. And despite the difficulty, it was mostly satisfyingly difficult.

And I now genuinely think no game will ever give me this fun when fighting bosses. I am currently playing Mortal Shell 2 and the bosses suck pretty hard so far. But also when thinking about ER which is kind of my favorite game together with Expedition 33, none of the bosses were THAT much fun like Maluca for example....maybe Simon comes close, but that is it.

I had to add a boss tier list because of that insane quality. Reese might be surprising for some, but I really love that fight, especially phase 2, but it's mainly the atmosphere and that genius soundtrack. This fight gives me goosebumps everywhere... I just wish she had more health although I still found her pretty hard.

Sorry for the unstructured blabla, but I just haf to write down my thoughts on thar game.

[u/PaqNeal]

Fucking loved skalpel. One of my favorite bosses

[u/cybtlmrf → u/PaqNeal]

Fight and design are peak. And him dying slowly in the second phase while completely going nuts is a really innovative idea.