What are you currently playing?

[NerfedFalcon]

Well, with the advice as quoted above of @Xprimentyl and @hanselthecaretaker2 I managed to defeat Rennala. Haven't found how to get to her Great Rune tower, but with how obviously good Godrick's is (and my lack of PS+ making it hard to get more Rune Arcs) I'm probably not going to bother with any others regardless. Could go straight to Leyndell now, but I'm not playing this game just to beat it, and I'd probably get my ass handed to me anyway with a +5 weapon and 25 Vigor. So instead I'm going into Caelid to look for Radahn next (and hopefully a couple more Smithing Stone (2)s, though I doubt it).

Took a lot of deaths to beat the Putrid Avatar right at the entrance, but I managed it, so that's a start at least. Hopefully I can find whoever has the recipe for the consumable that cures Rot soon.

 

[thebobmaster]

After swallowing my pride and turning down the difficulty, been playing my way through Metaphor ReFantazio. I am quite liking it. It's got that Persona DNA to a degree, but it does enough to have its own identity as well. Plus, I'll easily take Gallica over Teddie (Persona 4) or Morgana (Persona 5), and I haven't disliked any of the party members so far. Granted, I only have about half the party so far (currently in the dead zone between having finished the infiltration for Louis's sky runner and waiting for the deadline for the soiree), but I quite like Hulkenberg and Strohl, and while I'm not AS big on Heismay yet, he does have a nice quality to his quiet nature.

My biggest issues with the game are primarily twofold. First, the dead time between finishing a dungeon and waiting for the timeline can feel a bit empty, just like in any other Persona/SMT game where you just feel like you are killing time. The second...if you've played it, you know what I mean here. "Time Marches On, And The Age Of A New King Draws Nearer..."

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

...Right. So it's like Deacons.



I still don't really like that the first phase has nothing whatsoever to do with the second, especially since it's technically against the same person and not a totally different one, but considering that I thought you were meant to hit the shield directly until it broke and only got through last time by a total coincidence, as I said I'll accept that it's not as bad as my experience was. For now, anyway, I'll see if I still want to go to Caelid instead after a few shots at the actual fight.

I did the same thing the first time, but the scholars annoyed me too much to ignore and inevitably figured the glowy ones must be powering her shield or something.

Caelid isn’t bad if you’re just hoofing around on Torrent finding stuff, but the bosses are rather tanky and generally aggressive. You’ll know which ones when you try them.

Vs past Souls games, this one’s overall difficulty level is basically tied to how much exploring the player does. It’s funny because for how huge it seems like 80% of the game is technically optional with only a couple of progression choke points.

As an aside, rune arcs aren’t really worth relying upon beyond last ditch efforts on attempts that feel promising. It’s more beneficial leveling up spirit ashes since they’re reusable and only cost some hp/fp. Catacombs generally have upgrades for those, and caves/mines have stones for weapons early on, until finding the bell bearings to just purchase them. There’s also a really cheap incant to deal with rot/poison, found at a church directly east of Raya Lucaria.