this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes
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This is a community for discussion, news, and memes pertaining to the video game sub-genre "soulslike".
Given Lemmy's size, the definition of soulslike may be treated relatively loosely. While games like the numerous FromSoft titles, the recent Star Wars Jedi games, Lies of P, Nioh and similar games should be the focus, games that incorporate soulslike elements - like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous, for example - may also be discussed here.
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[BB] This enemy is so difficult!
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[DS1] Anyone struggling with the gargoyles?
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Hell I haven't done her ending but I've still done the quest each time. There's cool stuff in there. I want to poke about in Nokron and fight Astel and Alecto
Sorry, you actively want to fight Astel? I don't know how to feel about that :D The first time around I had the displeasure of experiencing that fight, I must have had to try beating them for hours on end. That bullshit teleport grab attack was the bane of my existence. It came to a point where I looked up cheese strategies, like scarlet rot, to have a fighting chance. On repeat playthroughs, it's usually fine but still such a slog
I will admit it's more just because the design is so wild than the actual mechanics of the fight, but I didn't find the mechanics too bad! My first run through was str/fai melee and I managed to get it after a few attempts. I don't mind the bits where you have to run after it because they usually present some interesting dodging challenges and it still hangs about in one place long enough to let you get some good hits in (looking at you, every red wolf). The teleport grab is definitely one of the nastier ones but I figured out the timing and just counted down for a blind dodge after it did the initial teleport. The biggest frustration I had with Astel was actually on my second run through simply because the weapon I was using really struggled to actually hit all those spindly limbs high off the ground
The design is pretty awesome and otherworldly - I'll give you that. But yea, gameplay-wise there are definitely fights I enjoy more. But also some which are wayy worse lol (Commander Neil or Niall or whatever can go step on a Lego and his other Commander friends too)
The commanders bug me a bit because I really enjoy fighting the actual commanders themselves, I just can't be done with their backup squads. I found Niall (Castle Sol) way less troublesome since there's only the two knights, so I can just nuke down the dual wielding one as it gets summoned and handle the spear & shield one while Niall edgywalks in the background. I know there's the bewitching branch option but I have the RPG player allergy to consumables, especially if it's a very rare one that I can't easily replace when Niall lightning-dropkicks me in the head and I have to start the fight over. O'Neil over in Caelid, though, I just kind of resign myself to the fact that I'll be getting chipped by arrows for the entire fight. If he wasn't a mandatory obstacle on the Millicent quest I'd probably skip him more often than not
I don't like either of them. The rot one is awful because of rot and because his attacks deal way too much damage for how much reach they have, and the Castle Sol one is awful because of that lightning drop kick and because, you guessed it, his attacks deal way too much damage for how much reach they have :D
I think by the time I got to Niall himself, the rest of Castle Sol had already fully desensitised me to watching 90% of my healthbar disappear in an instant. At least he isn't that one goddamn banished knight. Everyone knows which banished knight.
I know which one you mean, but I actually found the castle itself ok overall. I just didn't bother clearing it fully and mostly just ran by the enemies at some point. Niall was a huge nuisance, though