First of all, I want to say that it’s wonderful to see all of you here, and your critical support of the nation I proudly call home. But more and more recently, especially reading through Chinese internet too, there has been a sense of overconfidence and overglorification of China. It is honestly a little worrying at times for me, because as much as I love my homeland and is proud of what we are doing, I know full and well that we are still a long way to go. I see this sentiment of China being the glorious land far away as a bastion and utopia against Western Imperialism and while there’s a lot of truth behind that sentiment, and I definitely understand why one not living in China would choose to believe this (I live in the US now and I understand your pain, fellow US comrades). I just want to remind everyone to exercise dialectal materialism on this subject and try to look at China in a less idealised way. We cannot grow to be better without recognising our mistakes. Anyways that is my little message to you all. Have a nice day!
boss design is deteoriating with each release. Instead of the old fair and rhythmic bosses, elden ring bosses are basically "wait for this boss to do its anime bullshit combo now with dark souls 2 180 degree pivots mid slashes added, dodge at the right time, and get a couple hits in.
Every boss has its own list of bullshit delay timings that you need to learn that don’t make you a better player, it just makes you better at that specific boss. But this point is neither here or there, it could be good or bad depending on your perspective on game design.
I won’t even get into how their npc quests are still garbage, “i need your help, i’ll give you zero clues about what you actually need to do to help me, now fuck off as I teleport to literally any location in this BOTW sized map bye removed, oh and I’ll probably die at the end no matter what you do, now this is deep writing”.
Speaking of, soulsborne story are all basically “let me copy paste from this book into the item description, this is truly the peak of storytelling.” It was cute in Demons and Dark Souls 1, but at this point I’m completely over it since it’s just not knowing how to tell a story.
You’re in my post and you don’t know it. Soulsborne need to go back to basics and remember what made them good and unique, tight levels, dangerous trash mobs, unique bosses that follow the same rules that you do, great telegraphs, no input reading which elden ring does and abuses. These games were never about being hArD, it was always about being a fair trade and rewarding good play. Not “let the boss spam attacks for 20 seconds then get a hit in, repeat.”
Monster Hunter gameplay shits on soulsborne gameplay. Weapon variety, movesets, all with the same fair trade style gameplay that the original Demons aped. In Monster Hunter, good positioning also matter, you can stand in a specific spot and lol as the monster whiffs you, in souls it used to be like that, now after DKS2 all bosses get some drone laser guidance mid swing so they can defy the laws of physics to either 360 no scope you on the last 5 or 6 frames of their fully committed swing.
Artorias is rolling in his grave, he’s never seen bullshit like melania or *every boss having some kind of “me spam wind around me lololololl fuck you” type mechanic to do nothing other than “haArD”."
I actually dislike the controls and game of monster hunter world. Playing feels off and the controls aren’t tight. I dislike that games approach to gameplay loop with chasing a monster for 20 plus minute with chunky health bar. I prefer more of a duel type fights that doesn’t last long. Demon’s souls and dark souls boss design were lacking and are too basic. Many off them are way too passive and too much health with boring move set. Ds1 dlc actually fixed this issue with the boss design. I like ds1 interconnected world but the levels themselves are just tight corridors with weak enemies. I personally enjoy the dynamic bosses from ds2 dlc and ds3 bosses. Gael and soul of cider from ds3 are peak boss design in gaming where the insane amount of movesets and variations of attack are just too enjoyable for me. But that’s just me. Everyone just different taste. I love talking about game design since I want to form indie studio after finishing university.
This I agree, Artorias is still the greatest game boss ever. Some weapons in monster hunter are definitely loose feeling like you said, but go try lance, charge blade, great sword, gunlance, those all have insane tightness that puts Souls gameplay to shame. Souls gameplay also feel loose af until you get it.
I think relying on anime combo bullshit like in elden rings is taking a step lack. It should always be a trade of 1:1 even if the boss is being fast af, Artorias achieved this, even before his triple flips, you could still get a hit in with good timing.
The issue with Elden Ring bosses to me is that they don’t feel like duels. They feel like "look at me danceee, okay now you have one chance to at… PSYCH LOOK AT ME DANCE. You can literally feel how obnoxious their input reading BS is too where the mobs do literally nothing for up to 30 seconds and then stab you at the precise moment you press a key, like any shield spear soldier.
Half these bosses feel like they’re straight up cheating. Carian Knight before renalla is another example of the most obnoxious input reading possible. Dude has no recovery frames from being staggered either, you stagger em, and he can instantly parry within 10 frames of being staggered.
tl;dr: a lot of bosses don’t feel like duels, and souls games always feel like a downgrade in gameplay from the side games like bloodborne and sekiro.