• Bosses gradually become bigger and bigger HP sponges, causing boss fights to take far too long. A boss fight that drags on because the boss has so much HP and you do so little damage just becomes boring and unfun.
  
• Weapon upgrades feel absolutely worthless. I have a +6 weapon (highest I can get it to right now) with I think 25 Technique and my damage is non-existent, and it feels like I do as much damage with this +6 weapon as I did with it at +0. It is extremely unsatisfying when you upgrade a new weapon and... it doesn't make any difference at all.
  
• As the game progresses, bosses become more and more hyper aggressive and they give you little to no openings for attacks. They tried so hard to copy Bloodborne but missed what made BB's combat so good by light years, and it really shows that they were just hoping that making the game look like BB would bait people into buying it (seems to have worked).
  
• Perfect Guarding is an absolute joke. Not only do you have to perfect guard the entire combo string (which can be upwards of 10 attacks for some bosses), but Perfect Guarding knocks you away from the boss so you can't even punish them if you do get through the whole combo.
  
• The timing for Perfect Guarding and Parrying is way too small. I'm willing to bet it's probably a frame perfect window, and a large majority of gamers are not going to be able to hit that most of the time, especially with how fast most attacks are in this game. It needs to be a little more forgiving so that it can be a mechanic that most players can actually use.
  
• Openings for attacking bosses are far too small. Due to a combination of bosses having little to no recovery time on their attacks, and being able to chain right into their next combo, and also the player having so little reach, which leads into my next point...
  
• Weapons in this game have far too small of reach. Even a weapon like a spear barely hits out in front of you, and it's just plain stupidity.
  
• Stamina regen is far too slow. This is another factor that ends up making boss fights feel like they drag on forever. Especially as you get further into the game and bosses start to use combos that take your entire stamina bar to dodge. Then you're just stuck backing off and waiting for it to regen constantly and never getting an opportunity to attack. Even with an item that increases your stamina regen, it still feels slow as hell.
  
• Two-phase bosses are horribly imbalanced. You are already extremely limited on your healing (especially if you don't invest in the +1 healing item perks) and the first phase of the boss is extremely HP-spongy already... well, hope you like fighting a second, full-HP phase that's just as much of an HP sponge as the first, and unless you had a perfect, no-hit fight against phase 1, have fun not having any healing.
  
• Healing, better dodge, etc., being locked to an extremely crappy and restricting skill tree system is probably one of the most idiotic things I've ever seen a Developer do in a Souls-like game. It makes Dark Souls 2 Adaptability stat look genius (context: Adaptability was a stat in Dark Souls 2 that determined how many i-frames your roll had, so you had to put levels into it to get a better roll).
  
• Bosses have ridiculous attack speed despite having gigantic weapons. One boss has a huge sword that makes Cloud's Buster Sword look like a toothpick, yet the boss can swing it around as if it were a tiny, light-weight dagger. This is something that always annoys the hell out of me in games (and yes, plenty examples of it in Fromsoft games too).
  
• Using that same boss as an example, hitboxes in this game have to be some of the worst I've ever encountered. Not only does the boss I just mentioned have stupidly fast attack speed for the size of his sword, but the hitbox of the sword is also longer than the sword itself is as well. Just one of many instances of that kind of bullshit in this game.
  
• You can get stuck on bosses. I don't mean stuck as in can't beat them, I mean stuck as in you're trying to run away from the boss because it's about to do some big attack, but you end up not being able to move because you're stuck on the boss's toe. Happened to be several times against one particular boss that costs me multiple near wins and it was frustrating as hell.
  
• Throwing items are stupidly overpowered, and most of the time will do more damage than your weapon will. I mentioned my weapon in  a point above, and throwing items still do 200-300+ more damage. I can just buy 5 of every throwing item, which is the most you can hold at a time, and spam them to chunk like 70-80% of a boss's health bar off in mere seconds because you can spam throw them.
  
• It feels like they really wanted to push you into using the summons for boss fights to have openings to attack, and I hate it. I hate when a game feels like it balances around using shit like that (I have the same problem with Elden Ring and its Ashes summons).
  
• While nothing to do with game play mechanics, I also feel like the level design is pretty boring and the linearity of the game is a huge missed opportunity. So far I've been on a rail and have encountered zero optional areas to go explore.
  
• Durability is a joke. A huge chunk of weapons can't even make it to the end of a one-phase boss fight, but two-phase boss fights? Pfft. Have fun trying to find a safe time to use your grinder to restore your durability. Did they forget they were trying to copy Bloodborne and ended up copying Monster Hunter for a bit?
  
• The weight is also a joke. Despite having put more points than I would have preferred in Capacity, I'm still struggling to stay in the light category of weight. The defensive equipment is far too heavy than it has any right to be.
  

The devs missed everything that made games like BB good and took everything bad about the Souls games and compiled them into one huge pile of cow dung. Shame because the first three or so bosses of the game are fine, but then you progress further and further and the game just nosedives into the ground. Each new boss I get to ends up being "Ugh, time for another shitty boss" instead of "Alright! Time for another boss, can't wait to see how amazing this fight is!" because I know it's going to be another slow, boring fight because you can't be aggressive at all, and the bosses have such long combos that you just stand around waiting for that one attack you can get it every 10 minutes.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Weapon upgrades feel absolutely worthless. I have a +6 weapon (highest I can get it to right now) with I think 25 Technique and my damage is non-existent, and it feels like I do as much damage with this +6 weapon as I did with it at +0. It is extremely unsatisfying when you upgrade a new weapon and... it doesn't make any difference at all.

I don't think I have anything beyond a +2 right now (maybe one thing is at a +3) but generally I've found increasing damage in any form seems very minor in the game so far, whether it be through upgrading weapons or levelling up. I've been noticing that when I level up any stat that affects my weapons, it'll increase by 1-4 points at most. I don't know if that's also due to the weapons I've been running (Greatsword of Fate, Salamander Dagger, Electric Coil Stick) since the last two are the ones that I've noticed get negligible increases whereas the GoF at least goes up by like 11 points per upgrade/level up. But it does make it discouraging for me to care to upgrade a weapon when the number goes up so little that it doesn't feel like it'll make a difference and I'd be better off waiting to see if I find another weapon later that I like that benefits more from upgrades.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Perfect Guarding is an absolute joke. Not only do you have to perfect guard the entire combo string (which can be upwards of 10 attacks for some bosses), but Perfect Guarding knocks you away from the boss so you can't even punish them if you do get through the whole combo.

Yeah I've found Perfect Guarding to be hit or miss when it comes to where you end up after doing one successfully. Against King's Flame, Fuoco I would stay in place when PG'ing the red overhead smash, but when it would perform the red thrust along the ground attack I would sometimes remain directly in front of the boss, get pushed aside, or I wouldn't move an inch and the boss would just keep moving as if I never blocked the attack. I wonder if it's an issue with the hitboxes trying to not overlap and sometimes it pushes the player and enemy apart because the game thinks clipping is occurring, especially for attacks that smash you into the ground and can put you beneath the boss.
As for the combo strings, I haven't really come across anyone with combo strings apart from the one enemy I encountered for the first time last night, which is the chunky Decay dude with the armour plate arm you first fight at the top of the wooden room with all the gears and cogs in it. PG'ing those combos wouldn't be too bad if not for that the enemy would be pushing me backwards each attack until we end up at the walls and then the camera can't cope with it. Sekiro has enemies with 6+ combo strings (it might be higher but I know 6 is a good actual number) but you aren't moved when blocking and those attacks are done in a rhythm of sorts so you can naturally pick up the timing for blocks. I don't know if this game does that or not, but if it is failing to make the PG mechanic work well with combo strings that's definitely a case of the game failing to make the mechanic work rather than bosses having chains that are too long since other games like Sekiro managed it fine.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

The timing for Perfect Guarding and Parrying is way too small. I'm willing to bet it's probably a frame perfect window, and a large majority of gamers are not going to be able to hit that most of the time, especially with how fast most attacks are in this game. It needs to be a little more forgiving so that it can be a mechanic that most players can actually use.

The only struggle I've had is mostly being able to get the timing correct on attacks that have a weird delay to them or come from an angle such as overhead where it gets hard to track the movement in the heat of the moment due to needing to move the camera upwards to keep it in frame (very notable on the one big robot enemy in Venigni's Factory). I've been heavily relying on the Perfect Guard ability that the Greatsword of Fate handle provides for when I need to block an attack that I'm not managing to block by myself, but that only works if I have the Fable for it. I don't mind using it while I'm learning the patterns of an enemy but it does start to feel a bit shit when it turns from a learning aid to a crutch.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Openings for attacking bosses are far too small. Due to a combination of bosses having little to no recovery time on their attacks, and being able to chain right into their next combo, and also the player having so little reach, which leads into my next point...

This as well as the opening for landing a heavy attack when the Stagger meter is flashing. I know there are upgrades to make that meter last longer but sometimes it feels like the game is punishing me until I pick that upgrade. I don't expect to be able to get a heavy attack in every time that meter flashes, but the risk/reward system of it feels like a blind coin toss sometimes and other times like you're at the mercy of attack pattern RNG.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Weapons in this game have far too small of reach. Even a weapon like a spear barely hits out in front of you, and it's just plain stupidity.

Had this last night actually after my last post in here. That aforementioned Decay enemy had the Stagger meter flashing, and I proceeded to entirely miss a double heavy attack despite being what felt like more than close enough to hit it, and I was using the Greatsword of Fate which isn't even a short weapon.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Stamina regen is far too slow. This is another factor that ends up making boss fights feel like they drag on forever. Especially as you get further into the game and bosses start to use combos that take your entire stamina bar to dodge. Then you're just stuck backing off and waiting for it to regen constantly and never getting an opportunity to attack. Even with an item that increases your stamina regen, it still feels slow as hell.

My gripe with stamina regen right now is just that stamina is used when running outside of battles. After playing Elden Ring where stamina only depletes during encounters it feels like a step backwards.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Two-phase bosses are horribly imbalanced. You are already extremely limited on your healing (especially if you don't invest in the +1 healing item perks) and the first phase of the boss is extremely HP-spongy already... well, hope you like fighting a second, full-HP phase that's just as much of an HP sponge as the first, and unless you had a perfect, no-hit fight against phase 1, have fun not having any healing.

Elden Ring has I think two bosses that are "two-phases w/ full-HP" style, which is Malenia (who also heals health every time she hits you in either phase) and Radagon/Elden Beast (granted this is two separate bosses but given they occur back-to-back they pretty much fall into the style of a "two-phases w/ full-HP" boss) but they work well because you can get like 12+ healing pots and there are upgrades to also make those pots heal more per use too. I don't know how high this game goes with the total number of health pots you can have on you (although I do like being able to always regen one pot by being aggressive when you run out) or if they heal more as the game progresses, but given how I've often run out of pots before getting a boss to half health I can't imagine a "two-phases w/ full-HP" is going to be anything but a slog by the time I fight one of those bosses.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Throwing items are stupidly overpowered, and most of the time will do more damage than your weapon will. I mentioned my weapon in  a point above, and throwing items still do 200-300+ more damage. I can just buy 5 of every throwing item, which is the most you can hold at a time, and spam them to chunk like 70-80% of a boss's health bar off in mere seconds because you can spam throw them.

Oh yeah I've noticed this too. I used one of the basic fire throwables you first get in the game against one of the big titty Decay throwing enemies and it one shot the things, while my Salamander Dagger would take 5+ hits to kill them. It probably explains why throwable items seem to be incredibly rare in this game, whereas in any FromSoft game I've played they felt pretty common and like they were meant to compliment your weapons rather than always be on par or surpass them.

(Sep 26th, 2023, 08:14 AM)Dragon Lord Wrote:

Durability is a joke. A huge chunk of weapons can't even make it to the end of a one-phase boss fight, but two-phase boss fights? Pfft. Have fun trying to find a safe time to use your grinder to restore your durability. Did they forget they were trying to copy Bloodborne and ended up copying Monster Hunter for a bit?

I've not had a fight long enough to encounter this but a streamer I watch who finished the game already was saying that in later fights they were having a real hard time not having their weapon break by the time they got into a bosses second phase and that it was a pain to start ending fights by fixing their weapon before finishing off the boss because they wouldn't know if that boss was going to enter a second phase or not and didn't want to get potentially screwed.

To give you an idea of how stupid the damage is in this game, I decided to see just how ridiculous using throwing items against a boss can be. I was stuck on a boss with a VERY annoying second phase, and so I decided to put my pride to the side for once just to test this out. Lost to his second phase a good... 6-8 times maybe. Went in with a full stock of throwing items (there's a merchant you should be finding soon from where you are that sells all of them with an infinite stock) and not only did I first try the second phase with them, I did it in less than a minute. My damage with a +6 normal weapon/+2 boss weapon was like 150-250 damage a hit. Each throwing item did 500-600 a hit. Plus you can spam throw them stupidly fast. I don't see why I should go into any boss fight from here on out and not just plan on spamming throwing items.

I've heard that perfect blocking with that sword is much better, but since I went with a TECH build instead, using it is a pretty bad loss for my already pathetic damage. Perhaps in NG+ when I'm running through to get second copies of the boss Ergos for their other items that I didn't take, I might build up a strength build and play around with those weapons.

Also yes, I forgot to mention how stupid trying to get the stagger on a boss is. They should have just made it so that the boss falls over when the stagger meter is full, like in Dark Souls 3/Elden Ring (and some Bloodborne bosses), instead of this stupid, "Okay, it's 'staggered', but it's still going to go batshit crazy with its endless attack combos so good luck getting that charged attack in kekw".

As you get further in, bosses start to combo more and faster. The next boss you're coming up to (if you haven't encountered it by the time you read this post) can just combo you near infinitely if you stay right next to him. It's pretty stupid. I've already seen some bullshit with bosses, and apparently it just keeps getting worse and worse as you go on.

While the Souls games do have phased bosses that regain their entire HP bar in the next phase, they are no where near as big of HP Sponges as the bosses in this game, and in Souls games when you upgrade your weapons and characters, you actually get stronger and can see the difference. Not in this game where it's like, "Oh, I do 100 damage with this base level weapon. Oh, I do 105 damage with this +200 weapon." So while the FromSouls games do this as well, it's not nearly as imbalanced as Lies of P is with its double phase bosses. Also as you mentioned, getting a decent stock of healing items to last you through all phases, where as in Lies of P, you're screwed if you don't perfect the first phase (or near perfect it) and go into phase 2 with all of your healing items (because so far from the multi-phase bosses I've fought, Phase 2 always ends up being ridiculously aggressive and combo heavy, and you're gonna eat steel at some point).