ELDEST SOULS BOSSES WINDOWS

As is so often the case in later fights when you’re scrambling to stay alive on but a slither of red in that top-left bar, playing it conservatively so that only the widest of windows are exploited to recover health. Now you may immediately be uttering the name Bloodborne as a means for easy comparison and there’s similarities here, the only difference being that players needn’t have to be damaged first to recoup said health. Capped off with a more powerful blow that depletes the bar but if successful, recoups a sizeable portion of health. Doing so, whilst of course making contact with said strike, initiates a Bloodlust state in which attacks are stronger, charge times for follow-up strikes are reduced and more importantly, valuable health can be recovered. Unlike most games where a sword strike may simply be a tap of a button - or at the very most, a tap so long as you have the accompanying stamina to fuel it - Eldest Souls requires you to charge a strike and aim in the direction you want to move. Naturally, the genius of the combat and natural progression is of course down to how you actually go about attacking. And I just about loved every minute of it Eldest Souls has lived up to expectations. Even the more “frustrating” moments are that of a positive sort - frustrating not through some technical shortcoming or mistranslated limitation on hit-boxes or the like, but frustrating in the sense Eldest Souls had once again, somehow (despite self-assurance I would not be duped again) got the better of me. Put another way: I was a few shy of 100 deaths by the time the credits rolled, but rarely did that “one more go I’ll get it this time” addiction slip during one’s time throughout. Providing you’re the kind of person who’s willing to push aside the repeated deaths and push through regardless.

You may feel a swelling of disappointment to hear that its grand total of ten bosses will (on first run) last you around three to four hours. Encounters that are tense, addictive and more cunning in their design than the preceding fight. Its visual style and meandering between one vaguely-expositing NPC to the next may feel at times like some checking-off of requirements the game deems apt to include.īut it soon becomes apparent that the world, the environment, the reason for you and your nameless, silent-protagonist avatar being here is mere secondary to the real beating heart that lies at Eldest Souls‘ core. Eldest Souls may not be the most lengthy or tangential of this crop of games. Originality, or at the very least a means to redefine that very modern standard, is what will truly sell your creation. But honest this inspiration might be, replicating one of gaming’s most recognizable contemporary traits in game design will only get you so far. Whether that’s one of curiosity, disdain or something in the middle Fallen Flag, like so many before (and no doubt after) them, aren’t shying away from their influences.

ELDEST SOULS BOSSES SERIES

And while a certain series with that word attached may not the undisputed purveyor of such things as apocalyptic settings, challenging boss fights and painstakingly-tight combat, it’s not hard to see why any game, let alone one entirely revolving around boss battles, would instinctively get a particular look thrown its way. It’s clear that you need a hook or two if you’re going to go about brandishing a name or game title with the word “Souls” in it. How it configures and handles the fundamentals of gameplay - how players are meant to survive, let alone move and hope to land an attack or two at the towering, godly monstrosity they’re up against this time. But it’s rare that a game captivates me like this purely from a mechanical aspect, to the point that one’s thoughts run the risk of sounding frivolous. No matter how baffled the figurative other side may be at hearing this. It almost feels turn-based, but it’s something I stand by and am far from ashamed that I’m haphazardly withdrawing it. Not just by the way encounters with its myriad of bosses play out, but more so with the unique interpretation of combat, which may have led to bizarre comparisons. Twice now I’ve covered Eldest Souls in a brief, first impressions-style form and twice I’ve come away impressed.

Eldest souls bosses