Recently finally gotten around to playing Lies of P, and I've been enjoying my time a lot - I'd probably put it right between Sekiro and Bloodborne for my favourite Soulslikes. The boss fights have been pretty cool throughout the playthrough. However, the last few bosses, especially Laxasia and Simon, have been kicking my teeth in, so I used a summon to kill both easily.
Now, when people complain about players not playing "the right way" - aka bashing your head in for 10 days straight, using melee only, no summons, magic, cheese, whatever - I'm the first to say that it doesn't matter how people play the game as long as they enjoy it and that they don't have to prove they're "more" of a gamer than someone who did adhere to these self-imposed rules.
After finishing these two fights (I'm at the Nameless Puppet now๐ซ ), however, I kind of feel like I've robbed myself of a "worthy" victory because it was soo much easier with the summons than without them. Like, 30+ tries without and basically first try with a summon. It kind of took away the whole challenge and doesn't feel like I've actually beaten them.
Ultimately, thinking that I've spent so much time learning their patterns and trying to kill them "the proper way", it doesn't feel as bad since I had grown frustrated quite a bit by the end, so I just wanted an easy out. Still nagging on my mind.
What are y'all thoughts on this subject? Is it warranted that I feel like I robbed myself of a proper victory? Should I just get over it? Anything similar happen to you?
Thanks!
Edit: Just remembered that I used summons quite a lot more often than initially thought. I used a summon for both Rabbit Gang fights as well as the Puppet King and the Green Swamp Monster too.
The Rabbit Gang fight felt quite cool like that, especially the first one, since it felt like a real brawl of two equal parties. I consistently got to phase 2 of both Puppet King and Swamp Monster easily but always ended up dying quickly, so the summons took the edge off quite a bit.
Edit 2: Beat Nameless Puppet, probably got a bad ending with Gepetto dying and calling me a useless puppet. But idgaf - I beat that fucker ๐
My only soulslike games have been Sekiro and Lies of P (some bloodborne years ago but didn't finish it).
Like others have said, play the way it feels right to you. I get that you're saying it's somewhere in between - getting frustrated solo, but too easy with summons. If you get to that point again, maybe try using summons to learn the boss (EG get to the second phase every time to then learn the second phase) but don't allow yourself to complete it during that round. Then when you feel ready, back to solo.
Personally, what I enjoy about these games is the design of each encounter. I feel like I only experience the full intended design of the fight if it's 1v1, hitting a boss that is attacking some other npc isn't engaging to me. So I don't touch summons.
If the game is well designed, even a really hard boss should feel fair - when I die, I should be able to understand what I did wrong and what I still need to learn, and once I've seen it all I need to hone my reactions to each tell and pattern. Then it doesn't matter how many tries it takes, as long as I'm still enjoying that process (yes it's still frustrating at times but that usually just means the win will feel even better).
If I'm not enjoying the process, I'll put it down for the day, and play again when I'm into it. If it's so bad that I don't ever feel like playing it again, then that's that I guess. Hasn't happened yet (except Bloodborne, but I wasn't as much of a fan of the genre back then, will play it again at some point. Remaster when?)
The point about preferring solo play against bosses is something I resonate with. Their movesets rarely translate well into 1v2 fights, so it feels like something's off when I go in with a summon. It's not something like Monster Hunter where the aggression of the monster shifts dynamically between hunters whereas many Soulslike bosses feel "locked in" on a single player
Also, that's a good tip with using the summon to get the second phase quicker. Hadn't thought of that before. The temptation to keep them alive for as long as possible to get to an easier win was always a factor prior lol
Yeah I feel like it would be a nice in-between option for ya, as you mentioned the second phase troubles in your edit. It really is harder to learn a second phase when you're only getting through the first on every 5th try or so (Laxasia was a pain in the ass for this, I never really got a good feel for phase 2, just managed it somehow on a lucky run with wild and terrified inputs haha)
I think having Sekiro as my first soulslike taught me that there's a big gap between surviving a phase and really nailing a phase though, so I try to take that with me and get phase 1 to point of just warming up. And looking for more and more windows to inflict damage - it's amazing how quick some of the fights can be when you find more of them