Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 233 posts

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#141

Post by kabouseng »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #119
nikanj wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there's zero enemy scaling, and no level cap. If you want, you can go grind yourself to an absolute unit, then come mop the floor with the boss

Kind of. It helps, but especially in Bloodborne it's no guarantee. And Sekiro goes against that as well. While you do get some improvements in things like health, healing ability and weapon strength, the game still leans mainly on your own skills. It doesn't have an RPG style leveling system, any improvements are thanks to your own exploration and victory. It's really gratifying to get the deflects timed just right.…

Lucky for you there are multiple endings, so finish it, start a NG+ and achieve a different ending...:D

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#142

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rewgs wrote: post #89
TheBozzCL wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Avid Dark Souls fan here. Somebody in another comment said it... but they're not action games. They're puzzle games. The satisfaction of playing a Souls-like is in trying a challenge over and over again, recognizing the patterns and actions that will get you through it. The game puts a challenge in front of you, and through practice and tenacity you get through it. It's almost never unfair. Most of the time, if you f…

Chiming in to say that I think DS3 is the best intro the series. I tried a couple, including Bloodborne, and swore them off claiming I hated them. But then I tried DS3 and for some reason the whole thing clicked. It benefits from the faster gameplay and lessons learned from Bloodborne, but is a bit less difficult than Bloodborne, and still gives you a shield (very useful for newer players).

Yeah I agree; DS 3 is a lot more versatile in terms of playstyle than Bloodborne and especially Sekiro is.

DS3: Dodge, shield block, shield parry, stick to ranged attacks, heavy armor, your choice. Bloodborne: Dodge or parry with a gun, which sometimes works. Sekiro: Deflect or you die. Lrn2play noob.

I'm oversimplifying probably, but the point is DS3 is the most versatile while Sekiro is the least. That said, as one overly long youtube documentary took an hour and a half to say, Bloodborne's restrictions in playstyle can actually make you a better Dark Souls player. For a lot of players, they get a sword and shield and that's how they expect to have to play - defensive, turtling, slow, etc. But Bloodborne actually rewards aggression; if you get hit in that one, you can regain some of your lost health by damaging the enemy.

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#143

Post by Cthulhu_ »

deltaonefour wrote: post #84
sergiotapia wrote: post #39

No other games give me this feeling of melancholy, longing and revisiting once glorious places that are now dead and faded. Elden Ring is his magnum opus and I don't know how he tops this. What a tremendous achievement. If you haven't played Elden Ring, give it a try - you may be surprised how absorbed you are.

Shadow of the colossus did that for me. The thing with souls like games is that the locations are loaded with enemies and challenges. It adds to the game play but makes the places feel too video gamey and breaks the immersion.

Yeah, it feels like SotC was a big influence on this game; the article mentions that Miyazaki was inspired to go into video games from Ico by the same studio that did SotC, and Ico itself also has this feeling of an old, empty, fallen empire about itself.

Actually, most of From Software's Soulslike games have that atmosphere. DS3 is a cyclic world in one of its last cycles, society no longer exists as such and all that is left is ghostly and undead remnants. Bloodborne takes place in a city and area where the great heroes from back in the day have long gone, it's barely holding together. Sekiro is an old society that is still active, but war-torn. And old. Probably the least dilapidated of the three.

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#144

Post by unicornmama »

nassimsoftware wrote: post #27

I'm new to From Soft games and decided to buy Elden Ring because it's a similar game to Zelda Breath of The Wild which I really liked. I was afraid that the game would be too difficult. After playing 17hrs, the game is indeed difficult but there are many things you can do in the game to make it easier for yourself (Which I did because I'm more interested in exploring the world than mastering the gameplay). For exampl…

I hated BoTW, would I also hate Elden Ring?

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#145

Post by nikanj »

alpaca128 wrote: post #136
nikanj wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there's zero enemy scaling, and no level cap. If you want, you can go grind yourself to an absolute unit, then come mop the floor with the boss

Alternatively you can just never level up and still beat the whole game with enough patience. That's what I like about the Souls series compared to some other RPGs, it lets you do whatever you want and is balanced to make late-game enemies literally just more challenging, not some unfair instakill situations (hello Skyrim & Witcher 3).

Miyazaki games are always unfair instakill situations :)

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#146

Post by Cthulhu_ »

wyager wrote: post #14

I bought ER the other day after hearing rave review and was super disappointed. I ended up returning it after a couple hours. * Visuals: Disappointing. Looked like a cheap free-to-play MMO. Cheap-looking textures, stock-looking characters, bad rigging (e.g. characters holding things in unnatural poses), etc. * Controls: Unpleasant. Controls felt very sluggish. If this is supposed to make the game more challenging or…

> Am I missing something? This is my first souls game; is feeling cheap and clunky part of the aesthetic?

The visuals are... better than preceding games, but not as 'next gen' as they could be, definitely the same engine as they have used for a long time now.

That said, games like this need some time to grow; I've played Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 myself, I do feel like this one only starts to come into its own when you've passed through the first dungeon.

The combat being sluggish is a design choice; it forces you to move deliberately / with intent, instead of button mashing like in similar styled games (like God of War, uhhh. Devil may Cry. Maybe Horizon). Combat is more strategy than action oriented; once it clicks, it's really satisfying though. Can be, anyway.

Anyway, it might not be the one for you, that's fine. There's other games in the wider genre that might click with you better; I think Bloodborne for example has a much more compelling story and atmosphere (think of all the horror variants you know of). Hollow Knight plays very easily, doesn't have the clunkiness, but does have the challenge, the gameplay loop of die and try again, and the atmosphere of a half dead land well past its glory days. There's also Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, I haven't played it myself, but it has similar gameplay but set in the Star Wars universe.

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#147

Post by umvi »

yumiris wrote: post #122

Must admit, the article and comments have completely changed my impression of the Souls series. The "git gud" mantra has been drilled into my numbskull to the point where I would restart a boss fight even if I got hit once. I got a wee bit too persuaded into rushing and mastering (which, of course, can't be done at the same time), because anything less meant that I ain't doing it right. In the end, I gave up on the S…

Sekiro is very different from souls style combat - for me Sekiro was more like a rhythm game where you have to tap the deflect button to the cadence of enemy attacks. It's still very fair and rewarding though, if you persist through the initial learning curve

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#148

Post by me_me_me »

Trasmatta wrote: post #7

The popular discourse seems to focus on the difficulty of From's games, but that's just one part of the entire experience. FromSoft has a holistic approach to game design that very few other studios manage to match. There's just an incredible amount of depth to their world building, and the gameplay, difficulty level, online mechanics, level design, characters, music, story, and themes all work to reinforce and compl…

Genichiro Ashina fight from Sekiro took me 3 days of multiple 15-20 mins sessions.

With each attempt you learn the attack patterns and tells of which move-set boss will use.

Its immensely satisfying to slowly learn and see yourself improve.

When I eventually beat the boss I felt like a badass.

But most importantly its memorable experience, something that is hard to create.

From Soft can created hard but fair experience, and that's what makes the unique blend of emotions while you slowly master the game/boss.

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#149

Post by umvi »

me_me_me wrote: post #148
Trasmatta wrote: post #7

The popular discourse seems to focus on the difficulty of From's games, but that's just one part of the entire experience. FromSoft has a holistic approach to game design that very few other studios manage to match. There's just an incredible amount of depth to their world building, and the gameplay, difficulty level, online mechanics, level design, characters, music, story, and themes all work to reinforce and compl…

Genichiro Ashina fight from Sekiro took me 3 days of multiple 15-20 mins sessions. With each attempt you learn the attack patterns and tells of which move-set boss will use. Its immensely satisfying to slowly learn and see yourself improve. When I eventually beat the boss I felt like a badass. But most importantly its memorable experience, something that is hard to create. From Soft can created hard but fair experien…

Agreed, Genichiro is such a great boss fight. I remember the exhilaration of finally winning and just staring at the screen with my heart racing for a minute.

Re: Hidetaka Miyazaki sees death as a feature, not a bug

#150

Post by X0Refraction »

alpaca128 wrote: post #137
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that Sekiro doesn't have an easy mode as such; while you can often explore different areas and alternative routes, when it comes down to it you need to master the combat system. I'd argue it's possibly the least accessible From Software game. But, also the tightest in terms of combat.

Yes, it's one of the reasons I'm not a big fan of Sekiro. I especially dislike how the posture mechanic puts time pressure on the player, because just playing more defensively for a short time will deplete the enemy posture bar far enough that the whole fight until that point was almost for nothing. It's a good game but it just feels more restrictive in many ways.

The intention is that you do enough hp damage that their posture bar doesn't drop very much at all. In practice though that doesn't happen for most people with the vast majority of boss fights - you either get good enough at the combat that you deathblow them while their hp is still high through consistent posture damage or you die before you do much hp damage to them.
Post reply on HN