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[Gaiff]

I never had particular problems with it. Even without super-precise dodging, you back the fuck out as soon as you see the animation is starting and you are probably ok.

But you aren't because even with a full tank build and 60 Vigor, she will kill you with 3 flurries and take over half of your health with 2. You don't just run away because she will 100% catch you after the second flurry, stun you, hit you with the third, and probably kill you, and then hit you with the fourth and 100% kill you.

I had Malenia in her second phase since my very first try, and by the time I repeated that encounter other three or four times I had her dead.
She's relatively easy to stagger, for once.

She's easy to stagger in her first phase. Second phase is a different animal and she often just ignores stuns.

I never had ANY FS boss stonewalling me like Erlang did.

Erlang is straightforward. There's nothing complicated about him. You don't have to respec, figure out a complicated attack pattern that kills you if you don't dodge it, he doesn't invalidate shields, and so on. I have no idea how you struggled more against him than the top-tier Elden Ring bosses because they're far more complex and deadly than he is.

Erlang will never reach Malenia's status as a boss. I see people in the subreddit complain about him a bit, but nothing too crazy and I'd argue the final boss is considered as hard as he is. Whatever the case, most people manage, unlike with Malenia. Don't even get me started on Promised Bullshit Radahn and him blinding you with his attacks.

 

[Sentenza]

Well, if you want to insist on telling me what game boss I had more problems with be my guest.
If you aren't going to take my word for it not sure what more we have to say on the topic.

 

[Gaiff]

Well, if you want to insist on telling me what game boss I had more problems with be my guest.
If you aren't going to take my word for it not sure what more we have to say on the topic.

You're the minority. I don't see how someone can beat Malenia in a mere five attempts, not have too much trouble with Radahn, but then struggle mightily with Erlang. He's actually balanced, unlike them.

 

[GymWolf]

Fiuu yellow loong was a finger in the ass but he finally went down

 

[Sentenza]

There's also the fact that most of what you are stating about what Erlang "isn't" (dangerous, punishing, unforgiving to mistakes, lethal) rings as a flat out lie to me and my experience with it.

He definitely WAS all these things and it took me a lot of repetitions (or being outrageously over leveled in NG+) to go through it.
Even after learning the patterns it was a fucking long and exhausting battle as UNLIKE in ER bosses (where you are supposed to keep your focus for few seconds and land just some crucial hits) you have to keep not making too many mistakes for few minutes in a row, otherwise you'll loose the battle of attrition.

Struggling to build up 4 focus points only to see the fucker winning the coin toss and side step your nuclear hit as if it was nothing, while already out of healing, was occasionally painful too.

 

[SkylineRKR]

The problem with this game's bosses is the hitboxes on them. The spider moves way too erratically for example, its not the hardest boss per se but unreliable to hit. Actually, most chapter 4 bosses are unreliable. And they suddenly come up with some terrain bullshit like mud, slow and webs. The final boss of Chapter 4 is just shit, esp the final part.

Another problem is how unreliable heal and item inputs are. Items just don't register for like half of the time.

Erlang is hard, but kind of fair. He has a shield like the Non White boss. You can delete this shield with spirits, transformations or the fan and then he's a sitting duck for a while. He has some punishable attacks too. The biggest problem is his shield. Other than that he does let you heal up.

 

[Gaiff]

There's also the fact that most of what you are stating about what Erlang "isn't" (dangerous, punishing, unforgiving to mistakes, lethal) rings as a flat out lie to me and my experience with it.

When did I say he isn't dangerous or punishing? I never said that. I said he is challenging, but his mechanics are quite straightforward and he doesn't have an insta-death button (Waterfowl Dance) if you screw up.

 

[EviLore]

Another problem is how unreliable heal and item inputs are. Items just don't register for like half of the time.

That's one of my big complaints so far. Can cause a lot of problems when you want to heal or use an item during a boss fight and it just doesn't execute. And sometimes you'll see some other animation that looks vaguely like you're pulling the gourd out to heal in your peripheral vision, but it isn't.

 

[Sentenza]

I beat Malenia just twice in two different playthroughs, but

Erlang is hard, but kind of fair. He has a shield like the Non White boss. You can delete this shield with spirits, transformations or the fan and then he's a sitting duck for a while. He has some punishable attacks too. The biggest problem is his shield. Other than that he does let you heal up.

Yeah, I learned only after finishing the game that the fan can single-handedly remove a full instance of his shield in one go (beside basically stunning him during the process).
Wish I got that idea first, frankly.

 

[Gaiff]

Erlang is hard, but kind of fair. He has a shield like the Non White boss. You can delete this shield with spirits, transformations or the fan and then he's a sitting duck for a while. He has some punishable attacks too. The biggest problem is his shield. Other than that he does let you heal up.

Yeah, that's my point. He has his grab attack with his spear that does good damage (though nowhere near as much as Malenia impaling you), but when you're standing up, he doesn't attack immediately. In Malenia's case, she can begin her Waterfowl Dance just when you're done recovering and it's game over. In fact, whenever Erlang finished his grab, I always felt safe healing because he never immediately attacked me.

 

[Sentenza]

That's one of my big complaints so far. Can cause a lot of problems when you want to heal or use an item during a boss fight and it just doesn't execute. And sometimes you'll see some other animation that looks vaguely like you're pulling the gourd out to heal in your peripheral vision, but it isn't.

They are "unreliable" because the game has no "queuing" for commands. So you have to wait to complete certain animations before registering certain commands as a follow up.

 

[Gaiff]

On the subject of unreliable inputs, anyone sometimes has a hard time using their spirit with R2+L2? I use it and half the time, I do the staff twirl instead.

 

[Josemayuste]

On the subject of unreliable inputs, anyone sometimes has a hard time using their spirit with R2+L2? I use it and half the time, I do the staff twirl instead.

Stupid question, and maybe you already tried, but have you tried pushing R2 first, hold it, and then pressing L2?

 

[SkylineRKR]

On the subject of unreliable inputs, anyone sometimes has a hard time using their spirit with R2+L2? I use it and half the time, I do the staff twirl instead.

A fuckton. I haven't found the correct way yet and I am nearing my second completion. I think you need to press both buttons lightly. But maybe R2 is a modifier and you hold it and press L2? I never tried actually but holding R2 and then press L3 is how you can use the Fan etc.

 

[Gaiff]

Stupid question, and maybe you already tried, but have you tried pushing R2 first, hold it, and then pressing L2?

I think I tried the opposite. L2 and then R2, but I will try this as well.

 

[Hrk69]

In the beginning I wished for a from game with this graphics and production value... But now I'd sincerely kill for a nioh game in this style... Nioh builds and gameplay are still way above everything else

No game has come close to anything Nioh 2 has to offer.

It makes this game and every From game look like it's made for children

 

[Elios83]

Question about the endings for those who have finished the game and have read Journey to the West.

Spoiler

In Journey to the West Wukong was tricked into wearing the headband by the monk, but at the end Buddha removed the headset to reward him for his actions.
Now it's clear given the game's prologue that the headband wasn't really removed or was put there again against Wukong's will (he can't be tricked into wearing it again since he now knows what it is) when he decided to be free and fight the celestial court.
But this creates the question...the whole ordeal of scattering the six relics so that a new reincarnation free of the headset could be born doesn't risk to be pointless if a deity can simply make another headband appear on his head?

What do you think?

 

[Ramz87]

Does this have ray tracing on the PS5?

 

[Gaiff]

Does this have ray tracing on the PS5?

Has Lumen software ray tracing. The ray tracing on PC is a lot better though. Still looks good on PS5.

 

[Exentryk]

This is an awesome area btw.

 

[TintoConCasera]

I can see myself using this game to benchmark future PC upgrades.

Oh and btw... is it just me? Or do those little rock enemies in chapter 5 sort of have a nice ass?

 

[EviLore]

Chapter 1 boss was easy on the first try. Wandering Wight was harder, water priest guy too. An animation of a monk doing his laundry, interesting.

Chapter 2 so far: it's cool that it's more of an open area, but the constant invisible walls kill any sense of joy from the exploration.


Game is alright so far, 7.5/10 range, probably shouldn't have bought it at full price. All the fundamentals are merely okay, paired with a high end lighting engine. Below something like Team Ninja's soulslikes for me.

 

[Nasigil]

Five or so? With Waterfowl Dance that just kills you if you don’t know the very unintuitive way to dodge it? With the health regen on hit? With the two health bars that give her a whopping 33K HP, almost twice as much as the hardest bosses?

Yeah, no. Erlang doesn’t have overly complicated mechanics. Learn the timing of his attacks and don’t fall prey to his delayed moves. You also have many more tools at your disposal such as transformations that completely nullify damage (and yes, you can stay transformed without him removing it), Cloud Step to avoid getting hit and getting time to heal/buff, Rock Solid to counter him, Vessels to stun/incapacitate him, etc.

Come on. Unless you looked up the specifics to beat Malenia because there are ten million builds in Elden Ring, you can’t come here and claim she’s easier than him.

I don't know why you are so insisting on claiming Erlang is definitely not harder than FS bosses. What's so hard to accept that people have different experiences or opinions?

I was just providing my perspective, I stuck on Erlang longer than I did on Malenia or Radahn, that's my experience and you can't discredit it because you find it unbelievable. You are not me, you didn't play the game for me. There's a big overlap between Wukong's and Fromsoft's fan base and you can ask around, there are plenty of people got stuck on Erlang for a very long time.

His moves are much more complex than Malenia and Radahn, it's not even close. The combos are very long with odd unintuitive timings. He had plenty of moves that can wipe two third of my health bar and it took me a long time to figure out the precise dodge timing for those, such as those laser eye attack or anything involves red lightning. It's easy to get caught in the middle of a combo and just eat multiple hits in a row and die. Granted, I didn't figure out I could use the fan, which will make the fight a lot easier, but Elden Ring has even more broken builds that can trivialize the hardest boss fights, so it's not comparable. At the end of the day it took me 4 hours to finally beat him at lvl 95, while Malenia and Radahn took me about 2 hours each.

 

[Gaiff]

He had plenty of moves that can wipe two third of my health bar

He has literally one move that does and it's the big lightning slam where he spins in the air and it's delayed. The other one that might take a good chunk is his grab.

I find it unbelievable because he's not even necessarily considered the consensus hardest boss in this game. You may have had a harder time, but it's definitely not the norm, and yes, there is a lot of overlap between the two games which is why I even say that. By and large, everyone finds this game MUCH more manageable than Elden Ring, let alone SOTE.

 

[SlimySnake]

There's also the fact that most of what you are stating about what Erlang "isn't" (dangerous, punishing, unforgiving to mistakes, lethal) rings as a flat out lie to me and my experience with it.

He definitely WAS all these things and it took me a lot of repetitions (or being outrageously over leveled in NG+) to go through it.
Even after learning the patterns it was a fucking long and exhausting battle as UNLIKE in ER bosses (where you are supposed to keep your focus for few seconds and land just some crucial hits) you have to keep not making too many mistakes for few minutes in a row, otherwise you'll loose the battle of attrition.

Struggling to build up 4 focus points only to see the fucker winning the coin toss and side step your nuclear hit as if it was nothing, while already out of healing, was occasionally painful too.

there are definitely a lot of cheap mechanics during boss fights in this game.

- Spells getting interrupted and then put on cooldown. i cant tell you how many Pluck Of Manys i lost through out the game because of this.
- Charged attacks getting cancelled by enemy attacks. I am sorry but why? there is no real parry mechanic in this game and the counter mechanic is impossible to pull off so why is it that the bosses are able to nullify my charged attacks? It should be an automatic stagger.
- Bullshit chain attacks galore. Erland is the worst at this, even more than the final boss. I was legit screaming stop attacking!! at Scorpion king, erland, chapter 5 final boss and the chapter 6 final boss because they would literally chain together 6-10 hit combos. Each with its own bullshit pauses in mid air.
- Incredibly slow healing animations.
- R2+L2 doesnt work half the time. though this probably a dualsense trigger issue.
- Multiple health bars + way too much health leading to extremely long boss fights that like you said turn into a battle of attrition which you will lose if you get stunlocked and cant heal.


plus many many more. like using R2+triangle to do a parry, or L2+Up to deflect projectiles. Im sorry it should just be one button. Erland, Scorpion King and the final boss just expose these things the most because each fight takes forever. Erland shouldve only had one shield bar. Making it regenerate made it tougher than he ought to be. It couldve been the best most fun fight in the game but they made it super hard by having it regenerate every five seconds.

Edit: NG+ is so easy lmao. i finished the first chapter in 30 minutes with the weapon you get from erland. no boss stood a chance.

 

[draliko]

Yellow long and scorpionlord are literally farming me I need to change build with them, spellbinder is great for general bosses and level clearing but those 2 are way too aggressive for a build without spells and without a skilled player

I'm sincerely thinking about leaving some stuff behind to redo it in Ng+

 

[Gaiff]

- R2+L2 doesnt work half the time. though this probably a dualsense trigger issue.

Nah, I play on PC with the Xbox One controller and it’s the same problem.

 

[draliko]

Nah, I play on PC with the Xbox One controller and it’s the same problem.

Press first r2 and then L2 this works always and save you a lot of headaches

 

[Gaiff]

Press first r2 and then L2 this works always and save you a lot of headaches

Yeah, I was told that. Will try it next time.

 

[Represent.]

what are you doing? each chapter has a secret level that gives you an item that is designed for each of the chapter's final boss. you should not be tackling bosses without them. you are just making them harder when they are already hard.

the secret levels start from basic to full fledged questlines with their own stories and the fifth and final secret area is literally the main ending of the game.

if you are not going to bother doing these secret levels, you might as well drop the game now. without spoiling anything, they are crucial to unlocking the fifth secret area which contains the true final setpiece. the best most insane holy shit moment ive seen this gen. it is what god of war fans wanted from ragnorak. if you just do the final boss you wont see any of this.

Wow. What the fuck

Alright, let me go find this thing.

 

[GymWolf]

Fuuuuck, i wasted 4 gold things to craft a staff to see if there was another one down the tree that i could not craft without crafting this one first and it's a fucking unique useless weapon without tree so i can't get back the materials...fuuuuuck.

Are those gold things super rare? I only had 5 of them when i crafter the staff.

Also, yellow long was super hard and it gave me no new armour or weapon? Wtf?

 

[Gaiff]

Fuuuuck, i wasted 4 gold things to craft a staff to see if there was another one down the tree that i could not craft without crafting this one first and it's a fucking unique weapon without tree so i can't get back the materials...fuuuuuck.

Huh? Why did you do that? You don’t need to craft the previous staff to look at the next one in the tier. You just need to find the recipe and it will show up as unavailable until you crafted the previous ones. You need to simply press X (Square) to see the staff tree and navigate it.

 

[GymWolf]

Huh? Why did you do that? You don’t need to craft the previous staff to look at the next one in the tier. You just need to find the recipe and it will show up as unavailable until you crafted the previous ones. You need to simply press X (Square) to see the staff tree and navigate it.

I wasn't seeing any new weapon to craft and i was sure that yellow long left me a new weapon after the cutscene, so i tried...

 

[Gaiff]

I wasn't seeing any new weapon to craft and i was sure that yellow long left me a new weapon after the cutscene, so i tried...

He left you Yellow Lining, the transformation. Didn’t you see the big screen telling you this lol?

 

[SkylineRKR]

You can craft a previously made weapon for a small fee and some common Metal i think. Gold items are common from chapter 4 onwards. Not infinite, but enough to craft all weapons and a handful of sets I think. Shops from these regions also offer 2 per region i think.

And in NG+ it seems chiefs drop them from the get go.

 

[GymWolf]

He left you Yellow Lining, the transformation. Didn’t you see the big screen telling you this lol?

Yeah but i thought he also left me a weapon

 

[SlimySnake]

Yellow long and scorpionlord are literally farming me I need to change build with them, spellbinder is great for general bosses and level clearing but those 2 are way too aggressive for a build without spells and without a skilled player

I'm sincerely thinking about leaving some stuff behind to redo it in Ng+

Don’t. The real ending is tied to these secret areas so you need to finish them all.

Just YouTube the strats and respec. Spellbinder was indeed a lot of fun but it’s time to retire it for the rest of the game. You need pluck of many and you need to call them twice.

 

[SlimySnake]

Yeah but i thought he also left me a weapon

He did. Check the very first staff upgrade tree on the bottom right.

He left you a staff that summons a dragon when u execute a heavy attack when you are perched up in the pillar stance.

 

[Gaiff]

Never really used Pluck of Many. Too much mana that is better spent using other spells more frequently. A really underrated one is Cloud Step. It's amazing for stepping out of dicey situations and can give you free heals and buffing time. I heard Fire Ring is also really good. Saw a strategy of a guy just using Pillar Stance in the middle of the ring against Scorpion Lord and he didn't even use one sip. Whatever damage Scorpion Lord dealt, he recovered it inside the ring. Seemed like an easy cheesy strategy. People also don't use their vessels enough. Wind Tamer is a free stun that leaves bosses open for a few seconds. At the point you're facing Scorpion Lord, you might have also unlocked Yellow Lining or Ebon Flow. Both can do 30% of his health.

 

[Ramz87]

Great game, once you get the hang of the mechanics and how to fight the bosses it really hooks you in. It really is a looker too.

 

[GymWolf]

He did. Check the very first staff upgrade tree on the bottom right.

He left you a staff that summons a dragon when u execute a heavy attack when you are perched up in the pillar stance.

I swear i had the description of that weapon unlocked before beating him so i thought it wasn't new.

I was away from the game to play outlaws (i know, stupid of me) so i probably had scrambled memories about everything...

Btw, happy to see you communicate again buddy.

 

[GymWolf]

Never really used Pluck of Many. Too much mana that is better spent using other spells more frequently. A really underrated one is Cloud Step. It's amazing for stepping out of dicey situations and can give you free heals and buffing time. I heard Fire Ring is also really good. Saw a strategy of a guy just using Pillar Stance in the middle of the ring against Scorpion Lord and he didn't even use one sip. Whatever damage Scorpion Lord dealt, he recovered it inside the ring. Seemed like an easy cheesy strategy. People also don't use their vessels enough. Wind Tamer is a free stun that leaves bosses open for a few seconds. At the point you're facing Scorpion Lord, you might have also unlocked Yellow Lining or Ebon Flow. Both can do 30% of his health.

I swear i heard people saying that it's super op or whatever, so just for curiosity i wanted to try it against the blacksmith tiger and yellow loong after upgrading the whole thing to max, and they weren't really that helpful.

Kinda the same with spell binder and ring of fire, maybe i'm just dumb as a monkey and don't understand how to fully use them, but the clones are just a button press and go type of move so i should see something...

 

[Diseased Yak]

Finished the game at 49.9 hours. I missed exactly one optional boss, but did get all the secrets done including the Ch. 3 secret final boss, which was rough as fuck.

I absolutely loved it! A blast from start to finish. Hard but not too hard. Can't wait for the DLC.

 

[Exentryk]

Loving chapter 4's eerie vibe with everything being so still, dark and quiet, but seeing through the facade as you get closer.

I swear i heard people saying that it's super op or whatever, so just for curiosity i wanted to try it against the blacksmith tiger and yellow loong after upgrading the whole thing to max, and they weren't really that helpful.

Kinda the same with spell binder and ring of fire, maybe i'm just dumb as a monkey and don't understand how to fully use them, but the clones are just a button press and go type of move so i should see something...

Pluck is good when you can stagger the boss, but less useful against fast attacking bosses that don't stagger as much like Yin Tiger, etc. For example, watch this video against chapter 3 Cyan Loong (starting at 0:57):

 

[Gaiff]

He did. Check the very first staff upgrade tree on the bottom right.

He left you a staff that summons a dragon when u execute a heavy attack when you are perched up in the pillar stance.

Nope. You get the Golden Loong Staff before. It’s just not craftable. You get it after beating Cyan Loong.

I swear i had the description of that weapon unlocked before beating him so i thought it wasn't new.

Because you did. You just don't get the necessary materials until defeating Yellow Loong who drops the Kun Steel needed to craft it.

I swear i heard people saying that it's super op or whatever, so just for curiosity i wanted to try it against the blacksmith tiger and yellow loong after upgrading the whole thing to max, and they weren't really that helpful.

Kinda the same with spell binder and ring of fire, maybe i'm just dumb as a monkey and don't understand how to fully use them, but the clones are just a button press and go type of move so i should see something...

Upgrade them maybe? I've been told maxed Pluck of Many can take almost half of the health of late-game bosses.

 

[The Cockatrice]

I swear i heard people saying that it's super op

It was situational af but most of the times it helped. On some bosses if timed correctly, I could just cast the snake skill, the clones and just watch the boss hp get drained to half easily. Sadly most of the times they'd get crowd controlled or they couldnt do shit since due to the boss mechanics/invincibility moments. I would certainly invest points in it.

 

[Buggy Loop]

On the subject of unreliable inputs, anyone sometimes has a hard time using their spirit with R2+L2? I use it and half the time, I do the staff twirl instead.

You have to press R2 before then L2. Smashing both at same time is inconsistent

Also, just like gourds, sometimes i hit a spell and as I get hit, it just doesn't happen but its in cooldown. I wish at least that the cooldown would either be quick or just non existent.

 

[Sentenza]

Nope. You get the Golden Loong Staff before. It’s just not craftable. You get it after beating Cyan Loong.

You get it (or more specifically you can craft it) after beating all four dragons (loong), no matter the order you face them.And you can upgrade it after beating them again in NG+.

 

[Gaiff]

You get it (or more specifically you can craft it) after beating all four dragons (loong), no matter the order you face them.And you can upgrade it after beating them again in NG+.

I was able to craft it after beating Cyan Loong but did not have the materials. Both wikis say you unlock it after beating Cyan Loong, but you need to beat Yellow Loong to get the Kun Steel drop. I think for Yellow Loong to even spawn, you need to beat the three others. Not sure about that though.

 

[SlimySnake]

The sixth relic upgrade that lets you synchronize your heavy attacks with your pluck of many monkeys is so fucking cool. its a shame its tied to NG+.