I played 7 MORE Souls-Like games you've never heard of (AGAIN)

[Music] a Souls slick is a game that's kind of like Dark Souls maybe that means your character can roll around maybe you have to worry about a stamina bar or maybe big monsters just want to sit on you whatever it might be I like to find Souls leges that you probably haven't seen so if that sounds interesting this is episode 24 of steam dumpster diving all right first up we have sword card the title pretty much Nails it you play is a car with a giant sword strap to the hood this is an early access game by a solo developer and somehow it's gotten zero tension zero coverage hardly any reviews whatsoever despite this incredible premise and yes obviously this is a huge stretch to call of souls like but the reason I'm including this is because this is one of the top reviews like Ultra kill in Dark Souls conceived a child within a Dodge Charger out of 10 that's one of the best descriptions I've ever heard for a game let's check it out oh man I'm so this I'm ready right trigger to enter blade Rush while in Blade Rush right stick to aim your sword okay all let's try that oh okay okay hold on check out this dritic this Kick's ass oh okay hold on you can spin I thought you could just like I thought it was just drifting hold on you can just fully spin this game is doing something it's a little tricky it's a little tricky to like finesse it the trick is you want to be close but not too close like see I [ __ ] it up there so first of all I do have a Dodge roll I think this gives me eye frames and I do have a stamina bar at the top it's a little blue meter you know kind of souls sure whatever and then while I'm boosting I can jump around to like jump over things I have a special deflect move which like just lets me spin but I think it also would shoot projectiles back or block melee attacks I don't know and I also have a blood spell let's TR try that oh it's a shuriken you can just throw shurikens that's awesome okay okay I get it this game this game might be cooking Choose Wisely wait that's the font from like you wouldn't download a car my one complaint right now I do wish the music was like longer than a 4 second Loop robot spiders sweep the legs sweep there they don't die one hit they don't die one hit oh no gun spiders my one weakness just kidding go dude this is hard okay I'm not loving how this feels right now cuz like I'm slashing them but they don't always die in one hit so it's like I don't know this combat feels a lot more awkward when they're not dying instantly like you kind of get stuck sometimes go go go go go go I did it I got it off I think that's the best strategy just keep spinning just keep spinning just keep spinning keep spinning genuinely think that's the best way to do it cuz like again they don't die in one hit so you have to hit mult mple times and spinning seems pretty good at that I'm driving in oncoming traffic right now unironically modern boost Sonic games need to take inspiration from this just imagine this game play but Sonic but he has like a sword he's swinging back and forth visually it's hard to see what's happening when I'm like slashing guys but you know that's part of it that's part of the charm almost got him I knocked a few legs off I think I got him okay we got the stamina bar it's it's kind of souls like just let me have this is that a Gundam knife arm head of security we're fighting a Mech now we have boss fights Dodge Dodge okay go for the legs I don't think I heard him there I can't tell all right let's try that again so lock on let's Dodge that yep there we go going to keep just boosting into [Applause] him there we go you know what in a very weird way this almost feels like a Souls boss fight if you like really squint your eyes and don't think about it too hard see look I'm dodging away I'm watching his attack I've spit in my sword oh there we go these cut scenes are great they did the thing okay ow that one person H Mondays so I'm now in some just like random office go for the neck I'm guessing I want to like jump over it jump spin that didn't work that didn't work jump spin no see I don't think the spin move either doesn't do damage or does very little damage I'm not I'm not sure oh okay wait I have bullet time I forgot about that okay I was being kind of dumb I think bullet time does help a decent bit with like actually aiming your attacks it is wonderful to make your acquaintance despite your pic ideology believe me you still alone I will make you fre the manager all right got the moon in the background great framing oh [ __ ] there he is does he have the gut sword I think he [Applause] might okay [Applause] boost almost got [Music] him got him look who's come to join the party oh [Applause] good it's a bird it's a plane it's sword car how did I get so much air I don't know man I think I genuinely don't think it's possible to play this game like precisely in the way that You' play a game like Ultra kill but I think that's okay I don't think every game needs to be like that boost in bullet time I can just repeatedly boost in okay yeah you can break the game like that just boost bounce boost bounce boost bounce this ends here [Applause] [ __ ] you sword thanks for early support oh I guess that's the ends it's just one level before I finish there's actually other cars you can play with so let's try out the AF 87 with the Gat this is cool though like it's a different play style because the swords are coming out of the back like it is trickier to hit them all right let's try out the gat yeah that's the top combo so even though this game is very early on and it's like basically a demo in terms of the amount of content there is I think this game is hilarious I would love to see more Goofy and original games like this yes it's kind of clunky yes I'm skeptical how far you can take the concept Beyond what's shown here and you know there's clearly some Jank but that was extremely entertaining sword cardv if you're watching this keep cooking all right next up we got slay the Minotaur this is a roguelike Dungeon Crawler set in ancient Greece it's about surviving the Labyrinth I believe this is a solo developer game and even though it doesn't have the souls leg tag it's a third person action game with a stamina bar and a Dodge roll and I don't know it seems like a pretty good fit for this series so let's check it out all right here's my guy looking very good I can attack I can stab I think that's a Parry and it can roll can also jump there we go okay interesting so far what am I just blind did I miss that okay I see this like fog effect is covering it up so I need 40 currency to open this got it oh [ __ ] all right back up back up oh my God just use the fire can I jump on the Fire okay okay bad idea bad idea all right you know what let's just run let's just run okay go go go go go oh my God all right this game is this game is hard also I'm noticing that I don't think the map is randomized each time like it seems like the same layout which means I can learn it piece by piece oh I hear The Stomping I don't know if I can fight this guy oh [ __ ] it's a cyclops maybe they'll fight each other nope they're not dude how do he's throwing [ __ ] there's no way there's no way so this game's called slay the minitar which makes me feel like the minitar is the final boss so maybe maybe you're supposed to avoid the minitar until you're strong enough to fight him who's this oh my God holy [ __ ] those thighs dude anything strike your interest is she like the shop I can't afford any of this got a helmet nice uh the helmet gave me Spartan surge it looks like slash forward rapid l oh [ __ ] okay wait wait wa wait that replaced my Dodge roll oh [ __ ] that's the minitar okay well yeah I have this Dash now instead of the Dodge roll which I don't know how I feel about oh man this sucks I think you just lose when the Minotaur spots you and I'm on fire okay this is a cool looking area like this area right here this is where these Graphics are really working for me ow yeah you know what let's try that whenever the Minotaur has your scent you will be alerted to the Mina current location cuz I mean that's the whole game it's avoiding the Minotaur so I'm not seeing any alerts right now oh there's a [ __ ] Cyclops though would have appreciated a heads up for that maybe I can actually fight this guy maybe I can fight him let's Okay Okay drink the potion roll oh my god I've actually hit this guy so many times is he Invincible like is maybe the starting sword just like really bad I don't understand [ __ ] oh man I don't understand this game all right lesson learn though don't Agro the Cyclops don't Agro the minitar don't Agro anything big oh man I was mid roll Wonder If the roll doesn't give eye frames actually what the [ __ ] hit me I didn't hear anything coming oh man I I want to beat this just out of like stubbornness now okay no no no dude this attack is bugged look it only attacks forward so if they're not directly in front of me I can't hit them like I try to attack to the side and it's not working okay hold on that Spin Attack though wait if I can launch them like that that's that's something let me let me try playing with mouse and keyboard I feel like the controller controls are just not good and maybe that's part of my issue yeah this feels better cuz I can aim and attack attack at the same time which you can't do with the control scheme on controller o what is that oh what is that okay hold on that's Medusa what the [ __ ] I I'm stunned I can't even get up I don't understand these like Boss Designs like are they supposed to be unwinable cuz that's what it feels like oh good the Minotaur is coming great great great and I'm stoned awesome [ __ ] kill me minitar just kill me oh god oh my god oh I'm stuck wow you can actually just get stuck that's crazy how do you kill this thing rolling doesn't give you eye frames like what are you supposed to do I'm really triy man yeah I don't know I don't know I have enough money for this super chest so let's check that out okay hold on aerion spare axe attacks are very slow but deal a great amount of damage okay this could be gamechanging depending on how strong it is oh [ __ ] yeah okay okay maybe I can kill a cyclops you know what maybe okay that did 200 damage that does 60 really I got him oh my God oh my God okay hold on that was a [ __ ] ton of money I can buy a bunch of upgrades now let's do increase Max health and restore all Health uh all attacks deal more damage that's good I'll take the increase movement speed special attack time has decreased and then I'm also going to buy if your health reaches zero while holding this item you will respawn with half your health okay cool I think I'm pretty geared up this ax is busted it's like a whole different game so Helm of Aries stun nearby enemies so my role is now a stun I don't know how I feel about that I guess that could be fine oh I think the minaur might be coming up if he is I'm cooked oh yes he is okay all right I'm going to try to run but I might just have to fight him dude the St move doesn't work on him I have no defensive move oh [ __ ] I'm getting revived I guess okay all right cool so at least I got revived not next to him so I have a chance to make a comeback okay what do we got it's got a bunch of upgrades the Minotaur is [ __ ] close though look how fast I am now though holy [ __ ] those movement upgrades dude I can like maybe outrun the minitar now dude having that minitar sensor is like a game changer like it's so important I feel like it should be a core skill okay wait this is huge replace your jump with a roll yeah the jump is worthless so I actually have a defensive ability now so I can stun guys like this but still roll I still don't know if I'm strong enough to fight the Minotaur but like I'm feeling better at least okay the minotaur's down there I'm trapped up here I don't know maybe I can kill the medusas all right oh come on come on dude dude no no I hate this enemy I hate this enemy this is this is insane okay can I escape without running to the Minotaur probably not yep okay but you know what I'm pretty fast now I can maybe out run this guy cuz he has to slow down a little bit when he takes turns oh no please don't kill me I've made it so far okay yeah I don't think you can escape him I think he's going to follow me forever um damn this sucks wait talk to her talk to her hold on wait I can buy Sunlight temporarily stun the Minotaur the Minotaur will lose track of you but is Invincible while stunned the price is only 100 pearls when the Minotaur is actively chasing you okay yeah oh wait I have 93 I can't afford it [ __ ] I need $7 please please please okay okay I got it I got it I got it the Minar is too close no okay I'll do another loop I'll do another loop all right all right here we go here we go minitar is too close by okay all right here we go okay sunlight let's buy it oh wait I think I have to actively use the item hold on I see so let's use it there we go now I got to run away okay man I still don't feel strong enough for the Minotaur he just feels like such a [ __ ] encounter I don't I don't know you know oh no oh no oh [ __ ] me dude no no no no no no no I hate this game I hate this game oh my God that was the run I was so strong oh my God I want to cry going back to the level one movement speed brutal no longer take fall damage oh you know what I could use that to jump off this Tower okay the minitar is coming but I have the upgrade that gives me no fall damage you're [ __ ] kidding me I hate this game I hate this game you're [ __ ] kidding me you're [ __ ] kidding me so I have him stuck on this I have a flaming sword I think I can just Whittle him down I feel no shame in this oh cool his armor breaks off okay the enemies keep spawning which is a little annoying but yeah I don't feel bad about this because I really feel like I would have won that one run where I fell down the hole okay okay all right so close so close burn oh my God I did it it's [ __ ] game it took Pine 15 minutes B rank all right so while I did find parts of this game to be very frustrating I still think it's pretty neat in addition to the art style grabbing me I think the premise of this game is really cool getting chased around by the Minotaur which is an enemy that you're too weak to fight for most of the game is an idea that I haven't seen in a rogue like before and it creates this interesting Dynamic where you need to constantly be moving and constantly being aware of where the Minotaur might be while you're leveling up and collecting things and fighting other enemies and just having that like anxiety in the back of your mind where oh my God he's going to show up at any minute it's cool so yeah it's a very janky game I don't think I'm interested in playing more and I wouldn't recommend it to most people but I still think it's pretty cool for what it is and I think the dev did a good job I hope they stick with it all right next up we Have No Rest For The Wicked This is the latest game from Moon Studios the dev behind the AI games and it just released in Early Access I avoided most of the pre-release coverage of this game but one thing I kept hearing is that this game is apparently Dark Souls meets Diablo and it's apparently surprisingly Souls likee even though it's not marketed as one as such it seems like a pretty good fit for this series even if yes this is a higher profile game that doesn't really fit in with you know the whole title of games you haven't heard of but if I didn't put it in one of these videos I just wouldn't talk about it at all and I really do want to talk talk about it cuz it looks pretty cool also I'm playing this on release day I'm surprised to see it has mixed reviews I kind of thought this would be a slam dunk well yes a lot of the negative reviews have to do with performance which is apparently not great A lot of them also just don't like the game so yeah pretty surprised anyway let's check it out create character look at these proportions I look perfect wouldn't change a thing oh is that me look at my hat so I can Dodge with a button have that stamina bar and then X's attack and you can break [ __ ] these are some quality Barrel physics I've seen a lot I'm going to rest in this bed and then we're going to get attacked by like sea monsters and then we're going to crash lands that's how it goes oh there we go blood rusted sword equip the sword cool inventory scream also the game is not paused when you're in your inventory so good to keep that in mind all right let's test out dodging okay pretty slow oh okay getting a feel for like the pace of combat let's do a charge attack okay combat feels interesting so far very like deliberate and chunky okay let's try blocking oh they get like stunned for a second oh ran off stamina okay stamina management is actually an issue here like like three attacks is basically my whole stamina bar Sprint off surfaces or Ledges to jump across gaps okay go my God I thought I died press a against an object to clamber up oh and climb [ __ ] oh I like that o okay wait that makes that already makes the exploration a lot more interesting enemy vulnerability okay here we go stagger an enemy to briefly lower their guard weapons deal Poise damage increasing the white Poise meter above an enemy once full the enemy is staggered alternatively left trigger Parry just before an enemy attack lands to instantly stagger them wait so I can't see the Poise meter hold on is that like a thing in the options I don't know okay anyway let's try to Parry there we go man these enemies are tanky pairing feels pretty good okay yeah here show enemy Poise bars yeah I think I want that on cuz the tutorial mentioned it and that sounds interesting um also going to turn on damage numbers cuz I do like seeing those so let's sneak and back up nice climbing surfaces like Vines will consume stamina okay oh we got like the breath of the wild jump as well this game looks so good oh this Kick's ass oh get him let it fun show these mainlanders P Sakura is our Island I love her see now I can see the Poise bar and the health bar I kind of wish that was on by default yeah all these enemies are like very tanky like I'm not saying that's a bad thing necessarily but like I'm noticing it immediately Sprint and Dodge press X for a combo attack ooh okay combo ATT oh I see okay dude my stamina is so low yeah this is interesting like it's very chunky fights go on for a while oh my God look at this guy oh this guy's awesome you shouldn't be here Sarah it's too late for Fairy Tales it's too late for any of us all right I lived but I lost my hat the shallows moderate is it telling me how hard it is gathering resources is key to to progression survival okay all right I feel like I'm at to start of a survival crafting game now hey what's up crab hell yeah I knew it should have never brought you on board you'll never make it a Sacrament from here so I got to make it the sacrament the map reveals your path throughout Isola however the world is constantly shifting so the path will gradually fade over time revisit these shrouded regions to discover new dangers and loot that's a cool idea the fog of War returning to areas you've already been press y with a pickaxe there's mining dude how much resource Gathering is in this game press y with a wood cutters axe to cut down the tree oh my God this is actually like getting into survival crafting tier weight class controls the Dodge you perform so quick step roll slow roll plus stagger enemies with shoulder barge oh that's cool so being heavy isn't necessarily a bad thing cuz you get a new move at fire pits you can cook meals using obtained resources so I have the recipe for soup let's craft to soup and you can catch on fire okay I always have to test that every game I play oh oh that's awesome that's a fun animation focus and runes spend gained focus by unleashing your weapons runes runes are powerful special attacks unique to every weapon okay so if I press left bumper there's nothing I press right bumper okay there's a special move let's try that okay so I have like a special thrust attack that I can do by building up Focus which I get by Landing attacks got it I like that let's climb this oh [ __ ] this is a secret should I jump nice and then I think I can jump on those Vines yep nice scrap bomb what the [ __ ] was what is that what is that it's like a tentacle huh dude what are those tentacles it's freaking me out all right what are you Whispers at serum Whispers you can rest and record your progress if death should find you you will incur a durability loss wait durability loss oh man I didn't realize this game had durability okay let's rest of the bonfire I wonder if that brings enemies back like a bonfire it might not cuz it didn't restore my health oh man this is making me so nervous oh my my God I'm alive I'm alive so here's the issue okay the climb button is context sensitive it's the a button which is also the Dodge button so if I'm not lined up perfectly there's a good chance I'm just going to fall to my death like right there it worked that time last time it didn't work do you think he'll just like be dumb and run off the ledge no he's smart okay okay don't turn around don't turn around don't turn around don't turn around there we go that's so satisfying oh that's so much damage oh my God holy [ __ ] durability loss oh no wait let me check my let me check my equipment okay the durability went down 86 okay that doesn't seem like a huge durability loss all right sneak I'm going to try something here I'm going to run away and see if I can back set him again if like he loses aggro all right I'm thinking maybe I can't lose aggro all right and in that case time to use the bomb hell yeah Poise defense enemies can deal Poise damage that can interrupt your actions and stagger you yep yeah that guy definitely staggered me wait holy prisoner Piller is a helmet that's hilarious look at that thing this is cool though like the way this world is put together and the way this camera perspective works really liking it so far like look how high up I am look how far in the distance I can see yeah this is this is doing it for me yeah some of these basic enemies have like very simple attack chain like it's just those two attacks and I think that's all they have basically so like combat can kind of turn into this waiting game oh level two every level up grants you three attribute points so we have health stamina strength dexterity intelligence Faith focus and equip Lo okay those all seem pretty straightforward and very similar to the soul series uh I'm going to start out with health and stamina cuz can't really go wrong with that okay wait can I Parry without a shield let's [ __ ] find out you can nice oh I got a staff and some pants hold on so the damage is a lot lower but it says Fireball and channel how does that work wielding a wander staff allows you to cast powerful spells using their unique runes casting a spell consumes Focus okay that's what I figured know let's try magic also I like how this walking animation you actually are using the staff as a walking stick that's a really cool touch got to test out my Fireball on you buddy okay eight damage but maybe he like takes burn damage yeah that's kind of underwhelming honestly cuz that was all of my focus for those two attacks what about channel the [ __ ] was that oh I think I just sacrificed my health to get some mana and I didn't even get that much that doesn't seem worth it dude I don't know I feel so underpowered oh wait hold on charge spells charge spells must be held to successfully cast okay maybe that's the issue you have to do charge spells to get decent damage ooh there's plunging attacks I'll keep that in mind let's kick this got a shortcut now nice what the [ __ ] is that what is that let's back up a little bit oh he hit himself that's cool I really like that okay let's make him do that again oh I love that go Fireball nine damage that's so bad and they can block the fireball all right you know what I think I'm putting this staff away yeah okay you know what I'm I'm switching back to melee for now H wait also hold on I'm in the heavyweight class now so how did the shoulder bash work so I think it's the left and right bumper at the same time I wonder if that's actually good I hope it is yeah also just want to confirm enemies are not coming back even after you rest or after you die shoulder bash oh I knocked them over that shoulder bash is kind of good like it takes a lot of stamina but like not knocking them over for a couple guaranteed hits is like pretty decent so I have an issue now I've run out of food and basically what that means is I have no way of getting my health back unless I backtrack to the last campfire and cook some more or I just die and get my health back I'm feeling like I don't love this Cooking System already like there's a reason the Estus flask is kind of like an elegant solution to to stuff like this but I don't know maybe it'll work I don't want to be too hasty hey what's up guys the story is a true I got to do a 3v one with low Health excellent good thing of a bomb oh there we go I think that's the trick run around and then just like land charge attacks and then back off again thank you stranger thought I could sabotage the gate to keep more of these Savages from reaching sacraments walls oh wait repairing is free it must not always be free Yeah we actually just have mining all right at least it's a fun visual you know right now I just made a bunch of uh just made a bunch of crab chower so like that's weird right like I just be walking around with 13 crab chers in my inventory and just have access to a bunch of healing you know like I just I just don't know I don't know how I feel about that yeah I don't know I'm like I'm very wary of if I'm actually interested in all this resource Gathering like I can't tell how much it matters yet like if it actually matters and I have to be like doing this [ __ ] constantly it is going to get kind of annoying who feel so weak against this guy man nice all right fishing time let's go yeah why can't I pick it up oh my God it's my inventory full no way my inventory is actually full the resource tab is completely full God damn it I [ __ ] hate that [ __ ] this is crazy this is [ __ ] crazy why are we doing this the [ __ ] comedic timing oh [ __ ] I just emoted just [ __ ] emoted hit the wrong button what was that emote I like put my fist up what the [ __ ] is that thing holy [ __ ] that's so cool let me just get a feel for the move set oh no I'm [ __ ] yeah okay yeah so again kind of interesting like none of the enemies are here it's literally just a run back okay can I backstab big enemies I hope I can oh you can't there's no like button prompt H okay in that case I have a different idea what if instead I use this ledge for a jumping attack excellent fantastic work oh my god oh wow that's so cool the way he like destroys those things oh I'm going to go for it I'm going for it [ __ ] it shoulder bash oh my God it actually worked shoulder bash works on big enemies can I actually get stuck like this no way wow almost got [Music] him wow cannot believe that worked that's stupid shoulder bash get up shoulder bash get up shoulder bash oh oh surely my plunging attack will finally work please there we go what the [ __ ] is that what is that whoa whoa okay I underestimated you man I'm sorry just kidding shoulder Bash all right yeah this is just the shoulder bash game now I guess o a claymore all right I like this thing I like it seems like he has a very similar move set to the other big guy it's a little different oh he fell over okay good claymore's fun though like you really feel the weight and the impact of it like they they nailed the game to the animation for that oh 30 damage I'm officially Claymore pilled like the slow paced and like chunkiness of this combat makes way way more sense when you're using a giant strength weapon definitely feeling better all right something bad happened here we got a trail of blood oh [ __ ] first boss okay here we go finally hey what's up man I'm just going to run over here holy [ __ ] dude oh Manan the way he breaks everything is [ __ ] awesome um all right all right not going great so slow just keep running around yep oh I missed my uppercut damn you know what I can just trade hits actually okay maybe I can't maybe I can't maybe I can't [ __ ] okay so what feels bad about that is I used like a bunch of consumable healing and that's just gone now so like what does the game expect me to do do I have to like farm and get some more cuz that seems really shitty okay I switched some stuff around and unequipped my helmet and changed my chest piece so I can medium roll yeah okay I'm medium rolling this time feels way better for this boss oh I need to wait 3 seconds okay wait there's a cool down on eating I didn't realize that was a thing right he's going poison mode now oh can I fight him on this bridge not that I really want to but that's cool you can uppercut oh huge go go go go got him oh my God ooh new weapon 22 strength oh that's so sick though look how much better this is it has way more damage four special moves and all these like special effects on it I guess I'm going full [Music] strength State your business quickly don't think just because you failed the Beast you're an ally it's all right Winnick I apologize for the lack of hospitality my friend here has his guard up for good reason welcome to [Music] Sacrament yeah fast travel unlocked huge wait that actually is huge we prepared lodgings below a humble room to be sure but safe and warm I love the idea of him just like sleeping in bed with his Claymore welcome to your new lodgings you can stash your inventory and share it with other players by using the community chest what okay wait I know what this is this is for multiplayer if you're playing with your friends but that hasn't been added to the game yet just like walking around the city looking around like genuinely just a work of art with my hands and your copper we can make sacramental blue me okay so here we go so I can build all these different things and they take real time it seems 4 hours interesting I guess let's just do the first one CU it's only 15 minutes oh can I do multiple yeah let's upgrade the Smithy that seems useful yeah I mean I guess that confirms it though I need to be getting a lot of wood a lot of ore yo I got a new hat let's go okay so I can Infuse my weapon here I can give it fire damage that sounds cool oh hell yeah oh and a light source No Rest for those of us keeping chaos Bay the wicked what do you say all right bounty hunting what do you got we have dailies and weeklys interesting torn Colossus in the war room that's inside the city that seems like a pretty important Bounty I'll take care of that all right who's in the War Room it says dangerous oh wow that's a lot of Health I think this guy might be a significantly higher level than me little by little oh oh my God I'm so focused oh my God I got it wait I went to level six holy [ __ ] I got so much xp from that one thing I do really appreciate though is that like taking on enemy that you're clearly underleveled for is actually like viable if you just play well enough sometimes like in arpg it's just not possible but that's always something I've enjoyed about like the souls games for example oh you can backstab the combat oh wait I assumed it was stealth only okay that changes things I feel like I broken the game and they really did take inspiration from Dark Souls huh okay yeah so like I'm backtracking through this area cuz they supposed to be a warlord in the area for a side quest uh this gate was not burned down before so this is now a new area Ellsworth arms field Huns and farmers and sends them to the slaughter I wonder by the time we breach sacrament's Gates will anyone be left inside oh hell yeah oh wow this is bad okay oh [ __ ] okay definitely get the little guys first oh my God I have no stamina no stamina okay let's just hold let's get a feel for the move set oh my God oh my God my teammate's getting him my teammate with one Health is doing it how is he still alive get him teammate get him oh there he goes these bosses are really cool I love how this is animated like okay he gets kind of like a little tired after that move I wonder if I can Parry any of this probably can't Parry The Shield but when he does the SL attacks maybe there we go can oh that's so satisfying oh you're fighting for a dead man Elsworth can't protect Sacrament he can't protect anyone oh guess you ran away first try though that was fun well I'm going to test something out okay that's cool they can kill each other like see what I'm talking about I can just ignore his entire move set I do appreciate by the way that even though I'm coming back to an area I've already been to already at least it is different enemies like that does help with not feeling super repetitive even though it is a little Autumn coming back here already whoa oh [ __ ] oh [ __ ] oh [ __ ] oh [ __ ] eat e eat eat go down go down go down no that was a real [ __ ] ambush tactical ladder holy [ __ ] oh there's the guy I got to rescue I'm up on top of the old bridge yeah I can see that Gods reach finally someone heard so I got to find a way to lower this ladder I think oh wait Western Bridge key hold on I don't know what door that's for it might be back in the fort though one of my bounties was let me check kill the brutal couplet in the shallows all right there's the pair of hulking bruts maybe I can Agro one at a time though let throw a bomb yeah he's got the skull next to his health bar definitely underleveled oh they both see me all right wait they can hurt each other hold on hold on that's I win yes this is going to work wow that actually worked awesome oh that was awesome I really like that you can just do that like you can you can fight stuff you're underleveled for also like using them against each other like that really really fun and very good news now enough strength to use the legendary sword I got yo check it out it's got like this darkest effect on it oh the move set's different too I think it's like even bigger oh oh they get like poison now too look at that oh my God 50 5 damage on the charge attack this might be the locked door let's see it is okay yeah I'm just one shotting guys now God damn oh my God that was my berserk flurry move oh man this game looks so good like God kick down the ladder you're saved all right this is very interesting so far um going to keep playing on my own and I'll get back to you with my thoughts after I finish so I finished all the content that's currently in the Early Access version of the game after clocking in about 13 hours then I did a second faster playthrough with a spellcasting build to get a fuller view of the game the short version of my thoughts is that the core combat and exploration of No Rest For The Wicked is mostly excellent if you're a fan of souls L games this is one of the very few Indie titles that you probably don't want to skip however I find many things surrounding that excellent core questionable and I would highly highly suggest waiting to play the game until it receives more updates or ideally fully releases into version 1.0 it's very clearly in the feedback stage of Early Access and on top of desperately needing improvements to Performance I expect multiple systems in the game to receive overhauls and tweaks also the game's just incomplete with it only containing act one of a larger game and story so just trust me if you want to try it for yourself you'll have a much better experience if you check back in a few months or a year from now let's start with what this game Nam first of all holy [ __ ] this is such a beautiful game the environment the art style the colors the animations I wish I had the words to properly express how much I love what this game is doing visually simply wandering around the world can be jaw-dropping what makes this all even better is how the developers took inspiration from Animal Crossing and implemented a curved world where the 3D environments literally curve away from the player this works wonderfully for the camera perspective as it does a great job of framing everything and allows you to see further into the distance combine that with some really dense and vertic iCal level design and you got something special this is paired with some of the chunkiest and most deliberate combat I've experienced in a Souls Lake and when it works it works attacks are generally telegraphed quite well and most encounters are slow and methodical just like a Souls game group fights can shift the flow of combat into something more fast-paced and frenetic while still retaining that chunkiness weapons like the great sword have an immensely satisfying weight to every swing but there's also room for faster play styles that reward good Parry timing and aggressive combo attacks I was happy to see that nuking enemies with spells is also a viable strategy even in a melee Focus game I'm curious to see if they'll continue to evolve the range play Styles as development continues well clearly taking a lot of influence from Dark Souls and Diablo no rest for the wicked still very much has its own distinct flavor of gameplay there's nothing else that looks or feels quite like this and that goes a long way for someone like me who craves distinct experiences in a genre filled with games that don't always do quite enough to set themselves apart on the flip side I think this uniqueness might push some people away I've seen people describe the combat as clunky and unresponsive and while I disagree I do understand that sort of knee-jerk reaction and think it takes some getting used to the first couple hours in particular can be rough because you'll be especially weak and coming the grips with the combat mechanics and I totally understand why people would bounce off a game like this when it feels like the whole experience is going to be spongy enemies and constantly running out stamina it's also worth considering that since this game wasn't marketed as a Souls Lake some people came in expecting something closer to Diablo or another arpg but make no mistake this game is extremely soulslike when you mix in performance issues and a few questionable design choices I'm not that surprised at sitting at mixed reviews I do genuinely understand the disappointment in a title like this and I even feel some of that myself but let's not get it twisted the core of this game is superb combat feels great and it's a joy to take in the SS as you explore different environments I've seen quite a few reviews from people quitting the game early because it's too hard and at the risk of sounding annoying as [ __ ] I actually wish the game was harder if you make it through the intro section and beat the first boss Things become far easier with both my strength and intelligence builds I was just one-shotting most enemies at a certain point and I found myself a bit disappointed by the lack of challenge in the encounter design of the Overworld I was also hoping the bosses would pose more of a threat as aside from the first boss and the final Crucible boss I beat them all my first try that being said this is a matter of preference and not necessarily a big deal not every game needs to be super difficult and if we being honest the difficulty is mostly in line with the souls games if you are truly struggling though Co-op is one of the first major planned updates and once that gets added I think it would be a great way to experience the game it would likely ease the combat friction for a lot of people any anyway there's also a fair bit of Diablo influence and that's seen most clearly in how gear and loot is handled the loot inside of every chest is randomized and then if that loot happens to be a piece of gear there's an additional layer of RNG in the form of potential random effects rolled onto it so yeah Diablo Neo you've seen stuff like this before I'm not always a fan of this approach to gear but I think it works decently well here because the passive effects you'll get are actually noticeable too often I'll play a game that gives me something like a 1.2% bonus to fingernail growth rate and I'll never actually notice it while some of those boring bonuses still exist exist here I also found plenty of special effects that I felt the impact of like a helmet that significantly boost the amount of healing I receive or life steal on a weapon or a burst of damage from a Parry on a shield or a 20% damage boost on a ring this is the type of game where gear matters and can actively change your play style and my main point of feedback for it is that I hope the full game continues to add more interesting gear modifiers they're on the right track but yeah still a ways to go somewhat related I also really appreciated how many different move sets weapons seem to have like for example each great sword didn't share the same Basse move set and they actually seem to differ from each other I know we take that for granted sometimes with fromsoft but that's rare to see in a game like this so those were the positives it's everything else about the loot and inventory system that I dislike one of the main culprits here is a strict inventory limit and the awful Inventory management that ACC companies it items are split into different categories like wearable gear consumables and resources and when you fill up a category you can't pick up anything else that falls into that category this will happen to you constantly even if you go out of your way to empty your inventory whenever possible it'll keep happing and when it does happen what's the solution you need to stop fast travel back to town put stuff in storage and sell everything else you don't need it's very tedious and it baffles me that this is what the devs envisions same thing with how durability is implemented I simply disagree and don't think it should be in the game on paper sure losing durability on your gear as a penalty for dying could keep the player on their toes but in practice it's meaningless after the intro section all you need to do is fast travel to town pay a very small amount to repair and you're all set its current implementation is pointless and and never once affected my gameplay keep in mind that I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to adding mechanics like inventory limits and item durability to games there are ways to do it that makes sense and lead to a more compelling game not to get to armchair game design 101 but things like inventory limits and item durability should only exist in your game if they lead to the player being thrust into interesting situations or being forced to make interesting decisions that wouldn't exist without those mechanics in other words it needs to be a core mechanic that meaningfully interacts with the rest of the gameplay no rest for the wicked does not do this and the only resulting gameplay is unfund Inventory management and more frequent trips to town again I'm on board with frictional game design and eliciting negative emotions out of players but it needs to be in service of making the game more interesting right now it's just mildly inconvenient in a way that detracts from the game Inventory management is the bigger issue though and at a minimum I really hope they increase the stacks of resources you can carry to cut down on some of the TDM of running back and forth the storage speaking of TDM we haven't even talked about the resource Gathering yet oh my God the game wants you to collect obscene amounts of wood copper clay and a bunch of other raw materials to upgrade the town and access game mechanics like crafting workbenches and an interet it would be one thing if this could be achieved passively in the background while you're exploring around but the amount you need to gather means you need to genuinely just go out and farm and grind have fun standing still for 15 seconds to get a singular piece of wood out of the couple hundred you need those seconds add up and a noticeable portion of my play time was spent watching resource Gathering animations it just doesn't make sense for this game I don't hate resource Gathering as a concept and there are plenty of survival crafting games that I love where farming and grinding is a core part of the gameplay Loop and makes sense but like this isn't what's going on here it's not a survival crafting game it's a souy action RPG with tacked on resource Gathering that feels at odds with the rest of the game's level design and structure what's even worse is you'll be required to wait real life hours for building projects to complete whenever you start them why what does this add I'm sure some people will enjoy the grind and the waiting but I really feel like the devs missed the Mark here and I question the ultimate vision they have for this game when real life waiting is paired with daily and weekly quests how much do they expect me to play why do these elements feel inspired by mobile games I hope the full game minimizes these grindy aspects since it gets in the way of the good parts of the experience at a minimum though the durability on resource Gathering tools needs to be increase it shouldn't take nearly as long to gather from a resource node the real life waiting needs to be completely removed and ideally the cost of building projects should be reduced anyway there's more to discuss cooking and the healing system so I'm mixed on this one basically you're source of healing is cooking meals from ingredients you find scattered around the map if you had 10 bowls of soup use five and then died you're respawning with five bowls of soup left in other words it's not an Estus flask within the context of enemies not respawning after you die I think your healing also not coming back is mostly fine the real issue is boss fights while I didn't get stuck on any story bosses I can easily see how it would potentially lead to a very unfun gameplay Loop of you spending all of your healing resources dying to the boss and then needing to spend the next however many minutes Gathering more ingredients or buying them from a merchant look I love bloodborne but blood vile farming is not one of the reasons for it this is basically a worst version of that but also once you reach the later parts of the game having enough healing becomes a complete non-issue like most of the time I'd have well over 100 meals in my inventory and the consequence of this meant that I would never run out of food and I no longer cared about taking damage outside of boss fights since I could always just heal back up the fool so this Cooking System leaves us with two scenarios the early game has the potential for tedium if you run out and are forced to grind and the later game has essentially un limited healing both of these scenarios are kind of boring however I will say that I think the cool down on eating is a smart one because even if you walk into a boss fight with 100 bowls of soup you'll still need to wait 15 seconds between eating each one so you can't outright face tank your way to Victory anyway yeah cooking is a mix bag here not every Souls L needs to emulate frof with an Estus flask but I want the difference in approach to lead to something that's still interesting one of the craziest things this game does though is how it handles the last portion of the game the serum Crucible this is unlocked after you finish all of the story content of the Early Access version of the game and it's a gauntlet of seven challenging rooms back to back followed by an incredibly difficult boss The Twist if you die you get sent back to the very start and need to repeat it all and a single mistime Dodge can be enough to kill you with how much damage some of these enemies do the overall structure and design of the section is laughably bad as it asks you to repeat these rooms over and over and over every run it's the same seven rooms chosen randomly from a pool of only 10 the rooms themselves are only slightly randomized like maybe an enemy or two will be switched out for a different one but it's a essentially the same room every time basically imagine a Rog like where almost nothing changes between runs and you go in with the exact same build every time that's what this is and in turn it's one of the most tedious and mind-numbing runbacks to a boss I've ever seen in a game like this as it takes upwards of 20 minutes just to get to the boss each time actually longer than that because remember between each attempt you'll be going back to town putting resources into storage selling loot repairing your equipment and restocking your healing and other consumables and the sad part is that I actually like the encounter design of some of these rooms they can be quite challenging and memorable like a spellcaster in a cage shooting Fireballs at you while you're forced to deal with melee enemies the boss itself is especially great and was incredibly fun to learn the difficulty of these encounters is definitely going to push some people away but this is more in line with what I wanted from the rest of the game it's simply the tedium of needing to spend half an hour repeating the exact same thing every time that crosses the line for me and it ends The Experience on a weirdly sour note like it feels like the devs just threw this section in as a wall for players to mess around with until they add more content which if so fair enough I guess but I don't know if it was the right call and I seriously hope grinding Out The Crucible for hours is not how progression in the game will work when it's fully released because another thing I didn't mention is how the entire game scaled to level 21 once I reached this point even though I had completed the story at level 14 that meant that I actually just had to grind for a while to stand a chance because all the gear that was dropped couldn't even be equipped until I hit Level 21 the entire Crucible section of the game took a whole 5 hours to get through or over onethird of my whole play time on my first playthrough and I think that was relatively fast still given the difficulty Spike and level disparity I had to deal with so yeah just a lot of odds design choices that led to an uneven and repetitive experience also another nitpick please please add the ability to Respec the stat requirements on gear are ridiculously high and I wish I had the chance to try more weapons out here's a few more points of feedback I'll throw onto the screen because I don't want this section going on for too long pause if you're curious I know it must sound like I hate the game after all that but that couldn't be further from the truth I still really like this game there's a deeply satisfying core to it and most of my issues are tertiary to that core this is one of the prettiest games I've ever had the pleasure of wandering around them and it has the potential to be a truly exceptional game for the genre in fact it's already one of the most impressive games I've featured in this entire video series even in its current state I'm just baffled by some of the design decisions and think a lot needs to be tweaked it's only been a few days since the game came out and already patches are rolling in to rebalance things for the better so again do yourself a favor and hold off for now this is a game that needs a bit more time to cook if any of the devs happen to watch this I think you're creating something special here and I hope the full game shapes into something that I can recommend without any hesitation all right next up we have the demo for death bounds so I found this game after this post on Twitter got a fair bit of traction this guy smashes enemies with his bare feet mam is a warrior who leverages his capoa skills a captivating martial art rooted in Brazil so there you go this game quickly got the reputation as the capaa souls Lake which as the video says is a martial art that comes from Brazil and that makes sense because I believe the developers themselves are Brazilian although it's not really the capira souls Lake the better better description would be it's the party based Souls Lake where the gimmick is you switch between multiple characters while you're playing on the Fly that sounds like a really interesting hook for a game so yeah let's check it out all right yeah so this pre-alpha and everything is subject to change got it all right I got like a little short sword dagger and a crossbow this is an interesting setting there's like a highway above me so we're going for like some fantasy mix with sci-fi a bit in death bound you find new characters along the way and absorb them as Essences each Essence has its own Independent Health and stamina but if one of them die you die interesting okay so I kind of like a quick Rogue character two-handed Warrior and a spellcaster let's just go for it I guess um a lot of blood health and stamina in death bound the stamina bar overlaps the current health bar maximum stamina is bound by the current health when you lose health your maximum stamina is reduced by the percentage of Max Health loss okay that's an interesting idea I'm trying to think if I've seen that before I think I may have so normally I feel like I wouldn't love a system like that but I think it might work here because I guess that encourages you to switch between characters more so here's the bonfire future Cube not really sure what they're going for Thought level up Jesus Christ it seems like they're may be going for like a Path of Exile upgrade tree something like that okay so I have lightning bolt flamethrower freeze ray and then I have like flame enchant or something all right cool why did that why did that happen Okay okay hold on it says spell casting produces heat casting a spell at full heat will trigger an overheat explosion gotcha so here's what I'm curious about if I build up heat like that and I switch characters does the heat go down it does it does okay so again that's a thing where they're trying to encourage you to switch and not go like pure spellcaster all right combat right now is feeling a little I don't know something about the combat is feeling a little off to me right now it's like I don't have to pinpoint it hell yeah we got that Demon Souls ladder climbing speed when you deal damage all inactive bound Essences are healed based on the damage dealt oh okay go lightning lightning all right on my heat's built up I got to switch to the Rogue go crossbow all right absorb what is this did I unlock a new character oh yeah I think I did all I'm this guy now do I have to like play through this dream sequence to unlock him fast attack heavy attack block Perry all right let's try the Perry nice there you go all right cool so I got four guys now oh wait did you see that so it healed me but at the cost of all of the other characters greetings fellow Dean any news from our commanders no what if I switch characters okay Jud that's cool so I was Blended in before I was undercover wait if I switch back okay no they're on to me they understand so you can morph while attacking for a special big hit but it also requires the sink meter at the bottom of the screen to be full I think or maybe just uses a charge all right morph straight [ __ ] let me try again okay he blocked it it didn't work at all there we go okay I did it I did it that feels like a little too clunky and slow for me I guess in my head I was picturing it being a little more seamless like I think the idea of like switching characters midswing mid combat is super cool but I want it to be just a little snappier um I don't know that's just my knee-jerk reaction though maybe it's fine how how did you hear me all right that's a cool morph strike got another new character a spear woman with good speed and great reach can use piercing attacks and slash attacks yeah and it looks like she just replaced the Rogue I had so you can only have four at a time which I assumed [ __ ] the door okay get him yeah so I mean like I guess the animation has to be that slow if it's going to be that strong this is like what I always struggle with like my first impressions it might not be right like maybe the mor being slow works for this game it might work let's go freeze r on this guy I haven't tried that out yet oh it actually freeze them okay okay I'm really feeling the stamina now um like for this guy his health is so low I can barely swing twice that makes it really tricky to use him ancient helmet and it's a football helmet so I guess that's confirmation on like the setting being post-apocalypse which I already assumed but you know Essence conflicts and synergies Essences with opposing ideals and adjacent slots in the party can create conflicts indicated by an orange line connecting them or a Synergy line if they share common ideals okay so right now I have a conflict between the spear woman and the warrior but I have a Synergy between the warrior and the Mage is there a way I can like read those anywhere the conflict gives plus 10% damage minus 10% defenses and then the Synergy is plus 20% Max heat okay that's cool and I like how the conflict is not just a debuff cuz I actually kind of want to leave it like that cuz 10% power for minus 10% defense I'll take that the stench of burning flesh don't get just love it these are my comrades you're talking about there only a am I talking to get do not call me dear I think that was like me talking to myself that was the spear woman talking to the warrior that's cool I hope that continues throughout the whole game a little party chatter based off if you have them equipped or not and like the conflicts what the [ __ ] is that thing that's awesome all right I like this guy getting some interesting enemies finally Boom come on they keep doing that every time boss cut scene seen a bunch of guys speared to the wall and ceiling I feel like that's foreshadowing no no [Music] please okay impending truth I'll show you some truth ow ow that did so much damage [ __ ] oh dude I'm taking so much damage wow oh there's no way I beat this guy he has so much health and does like half my health forth one hit okay he's pretty bad at attacking this so maybe wait does this actually work if I just no way what come on wait did I win nope it's going to be a pH too okay that was very weird cut scene okay is he different now he might be faster yeah that's a little faster I think hell yeah hell yeah [ __ ] [ __ ] oh my God phase three oh taking off the blindfold what the [ __ ] what the [ __ ] hold on it's so over it's so over it's so over what is he doing what the [ __ ] oh my God what is that I don't know how I'm alive still all right yep it was about time refuse by death all right yep just stay behind him first phase is actually really easy cuz he has like two moves almost got me with that all right let's switch to the row get some CR crossbow shots in crossbow I want to save my ranged attacks for phase three all right phase three here we go let's just try to stay on him all right I'm going to back up a little bit let's do crossbow a few times reload up that nice more crossbow all right I think might just run to the side I'm good yeah okay that one's not that bad I was panicking last time here we go big big big nice nice I keep running out stamina dude the stamina management is interesting all right I'm starting to get into this kind of all right that was good all right you know what there might be something to this I enjoyed that a lot more like when I actually had to switch between three different guys there in relatively quick succession it started to make sense to me so I think the main thing for me is that this game has a lot of really cool ideas and that really does go a long way for me you know as someone who's played a bunch of these games every time I see some genuinely cool ideas Blended together even if the execution is off that means a lot to me my gut reaction is that this is going to be the type of game that's like kind of difficult to recommend see cuz the thing with this game is that if you strip away the character switching you have a pretty buy the num Souls like in terms of like enemy design level design all that stuff like it's all serviceable and fine fine now is that enough for me to like be like really excited about it uh maybe not but like that's a super high bar and the fact that I'm even considering that like that means something this is definitely a cut above a lot of stuff I've played I just wish the execution was a little different I wish the setting was a bit more interesting wish the enemies were a bit more interesting like I wish I wish a lot of things but that's that's asking a lot for a small Indie team anyway I wish the devs nothing but the best and I hope the full game turns out great all right next up we have Rogue Masters this is a six-player co-op horde Survival game with Souls like combat and the top review just says it's killing floor meets Dark Souls I like Killing Floor I like dark souls and I have five friends I can play with so let's check it out entropy entropy a force of chaos and Corruption entropy all right so I can customize my guy here's my guy feeling good wow these are they are straight out of Dark Souls Perfect all right let's do the tutorial all right this is all pretty basic stuff yeah this pretty much feels like dark souls or Dark Souls 3 like nearly one to one at least that's what they're going for it seems like okay so before I start it seems like there's an in-game store for different armor and fashion um and I have 10,000 coins to spend all right feeling feeling good with my load out got on some heavy armor now I got a broken sword and a club all right let's play we got the boys in here all six of us I'm liking the fashion everyone has going on uh I'm not going to be in a call with them by the way cuz I feel like six people talking over each other is too much but they are my friends I'm playing with right now all right let's do it fellas all right here we go wave one of seven strengthen your willpower entropy is near oh [ __ ] they're here guys oh my God there's so many enemies bro there's so many enemies got the backstab on the big guy keep attacking fellas yeah I don't really know how much strategy there is involved with this you know you kind of just Mash attack I guess there is some positional strategy kick this guy nice I still have all my healing left which is pretty nice all right Last Enemy all right wave two upgrade your gear interesting oh okay that's how you get better weapons I like this one that gives me some health you can buy consumables too which is interesting yeah I think I'm going save the rest of my money but I'm feeling good what was that explosion what do these guys have is it the firebomb maybe wait let me try Fire Bomb oh it is oh wait that's good you know I think it's funny that there's like Parry mechanics and stuff like when the [ __ ] are you going to land a Parry in this absolute chaos it just doesn't make sense okay yeah seeing how you just have to like cleave through like multiple enemies constantly I'm feeling like I should have gone with the great sword you know what I might go all in with the consumables okay yeah bigger enemies are coming out oh this is starting to get bad go fire bombs save us fire bombs okay so visually this is a lot to take in and I think everything looks a little similar at a glance like I'm not parsing this information super quickly oh [ __ ] I'm buff my weapon got a lightning sword now yeah not a whole lot to say just kind of run around keep mashing attack so unless I'm missing some big mechanic my main thought right now is it doesn't feel like I'm being super Cooperative with my friends in terms of like I don't know if there's any synergies with weapons or ways to heal each other uh ways to off each other stuff like that and I feel like that would be essential for a game like this I'm going to try buying this great hammer oh yeah this is doing way more damage I just got [ __ ] back snapped all right I'm going for a plunging attack I got one guy oh look at this guy Shrek I missed you buddy o ooh coni died okay I think there is a way to revive but there's so many enemies I don't think I can get it another man down he got backst out of the revive get it get it get it nice so now that we're in wave five I am seeing more enemy types but I don't know if I feel like I'm dealing with them differently I feel like I'm treating them all the same I just run up and mash the attack button you know so it's like this game design is not making me feel like there's variety even though there is a decent bit yeah I'm also realizing that having armor with decently High boys is huge what the [ __ ] is that thing holy [ __ ] I'm just throwing [ __ ] oh my god oh wait you can heal your allies I hadn't noticed that for like the entire game okay if you're near them and you heal it heals them a little bit too that is something I do appreciate that all right I'm trying the big great sword here we go this is so goofy man I don't even know what to say it's just it's something it's interesting it's interesting I've never played a game quite like like this we did it wait that was way seven though it said 7 out 7 defeat the champion of entropy all right final boss oh [ __ ] I got to take off my chest I can roll oh cool I revived him with that nice he's so tanky dude staggered him [ __ ] him up [ __ ] him up what the [ __ ] F oh my God oh my God everyone's dead okay yes yes we're good we're good we're good dude he attacks so fast I'm just guessing if I can hit him every time okay I got aggro maybe go for the revive go for the revive got it got it oh my God his dead body's moving what is happening okay whatever we got him your willpower is Incorruptible top of the scoreboard let's [ __ ] go coni died 11 times good job man all right there's also PVP apparently um so I'm going to mess around with that a tiny bit 1 V one PVP let's go oh [ __ ] wow my shield does not do [ __ ] save me fire bombs going for the Parry well I tried so I don't hate it I think fighting hordes of enemies with dark souls combat is a pretty unique idea and it did deliver on that promise I think the fundamental issue with this game though is that it does try to emulate Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3i combat nearly one to one and that style of combat is just not well suited for fighting dozens of enemies at the same time like if you look at Souls games you will fight groups of enemies sometimes but very very rarely will you have 30 guys on top of you because the slow paced tactical nature of the souls games kind of goes out the window when it's that much of a cluster [ __ ] so yeah I think a game like this would benefit a lot from leaning Less on souls and adding more action games stuff like maybe there's abilities you can activate that are on a cool down maybe the combat is a little faster Pace with your movement those types of things just seem better suited for the sheer number of enemies you're fighting and then lastly despite being advertised as this like six player co-op game it didn't feel super Cooperative most of the time so there is the Estus healing mechanic and you can revive your teammates but other than that I felt like we were mostly doing our own thing for the majority of the match just running around kiting enemies mashing back and yeah I think there's a version of this game where you give players abilities to more directly and impactfully affect their teammates and that version would be a lot more fun so while I don't think I'd recommend this game I still think it's pretty interesting and it has the bones to potentially be a decent game down the line but it would need to fundamentally change a lot I think yeah neat game next up we have the demo for stone machia I found this game thanks to this comment it's apparently an Italian Souls leg based on chess pieces I think that actually sounds like it could be awesome and these screenshots are very cool so let's check it out holy [ __ ] dude this setting what is happening this looks so [ __ ] cool okay so I'm a chest piece I'm fighting another chest piece oh this is badass okay all right let's go so I can move around I can roll I can jump I can parry and I got my attack all right yeah I mean chest piece Souls like seems like an accurate description so far okay let's try pairing these guys I I think I'm doing it okay oh the Parry just outright kills them okay I wasn't sure if it did interesting just look at this setting though this [ __ ] rules man like wow this is already kind of overwhelming I have three different enemies going for me uh I don't know if I have a health fire oh [ __ ] I think I lost maybe that's one of those fights you're supposed to lose though so okay yeah I was definitely supposed to lose that thousand wings were severed and Heaven dies this game is some really cool imagery Okay cool so I think I'm a pawn and I just fell from heaven so like I'm thinking way too far ahead now but I really really hope since I'm a pawn there's some sort of mechanic with onp pasant why am I not dead why uh uh who are you what do you want I want to get out let me out if only that hores shaped Angel hadn't swallowed the gate lever I know the Aesthetics of Fallen kingdoms are kind of overdone with Souls leges a bit but um mixing it with chest pieces is making it work for me so far you are beautiful BL I want to be with you what what is this like a little guy now oh a sword finally so like gameplay wise this seems like very very simple so far um I hope they do a bit more with it but we'll see is this accomplishing anything wait where's my sword my sword's gone oh [ __ ] I need that this enemy is [ __ ] sick oh there's another sword okay maybe it just broke dude this enem is so cool I have to like hit his floating chain get it it's not breaking what do I do uh what do we have here a pawn uh uh uh uh uh uh uh fler darn listen there's a shield in the castle take it and get this thing off my legs swords aren't working thanks okay my sword broke again all right so so I guess your sword just breaks really quickly that's a bit of an interesting choice so far but I'm open to it what I have no shield no sword what the [ __ ] do I do that's so cool that's so cool oh that's such a cool design what do I do though just run just run follow the trail oh I'm safe okay all right they're pulling some Asylum Demon [ __ ] I'm guessing I was supposed to run I bet that's the shield finally you've obtained The Shield the sacred Relic made of angelic metal from like the little intro sequence it seemed like parrying does a lot of damage if not just outright killing enemies so I guess having a sword is optional which is maybe part of why they're breakable there we go okay cool one shot all right now I got to get this thing off this guy What if I Parry an enemy near it and the explosion hits the crystal there we go yep it works so this is kind of interesting so far I hope there's more to this game's combat than like just having the time a singular Parry on most enemies yeah I guess we'll see so I know this is the chest piece Souls like right and I'm upon I'm killing some Knights right now I do wish the chest was reflected in the game play somehow like if I'm fighting a knight somehow it attacks in an L shape you know that would be really interesting it just feels like a missed opportunity if there's not like just a little bit of chest mixed in you know what I mean all right dropping down oh there's the boss okay let's wait till he stop spinning there we go all right bring him in there's one yeah this is pretty easy he's already almost dead I mean the attacks are well telegraphed they're well telegraphed but this is pretty simple I mean I really like that design I I think the Aesthetics of that boss and just the idea for it very very cool I can finally leave cuah crap why are there crabs what happened to the chest piece es what is this oh my God is this like a rook hell yeah I like the design of that guy it kind of reminds me of um kind of reminds of Alexander from Elden ring hello eyeball what are you oh unlocked all right it's kind of ominous I have this Angel eyeball just following me now see I like that I like how it doesn't explain things I just got something weird and it's just letting me sit with that wait is this moving wait is it breathing wait is this a crab oh wait wait I think this is like the crab's head or a hat for it oh here we go beautiful okay we're in some sort of Cathedral or Castle now all right monkey help please free me all right I'll try are you good phew yeah that's fair stay away from me with that filthy sword or I'll tear you apart this is really pretty yeah the environments of this game and just the imagery that's created from it definitely my favorite part so far listen little thing our paths diverge here I have to chase after that statue that attacked me before it Stole My Sword I I need it holy [ __ ] oh my God oh my God they're singing that's awesome that's nightmare fuel though I [ __ ] hate that oh and it keeps looking at you even if you move okay God that's so unsettling also it's a little weird like I feel like this combat system is already easy enough and the fact that I'm healing off of every single enemy and hit I do just odd from a design perspective okay what's this press and hold y to heal so I unlocked more healing I was already talking about how this game has too much healing and they give me even more that's interesting giant fish swimming around I'm into it random train car sure oh my God it's a baby oh my God it rolls man dude some of these enemy designs are so fun I just wish there was more to this game than pressing the Parry button you know like it's just begging for more combat mechanics I don't understand oh you're an enemy sure you know when your game is themed around like so many different objects being enemies I feel like that gives you a lot of potential to play around with parts of the level coming to life like that so I hope that's explored more there we go and this fish is swimming really low is it supposed to swim this low right there's a rook okay okay wait see this move set the way he went to the side and then like charged in like that okay wait he's actually behaving like a rook kind of finally we're getting that okay it's the monkey it's the guardian ape Lilith all right all right pretty straightforward I like the rolls oh what's what the [ __ ] is that what the [ __ ] is that do I pick that up oh I I stole its sword oh that's cool oh that's sick it's way faster all I really like that stealing the boss's weapon just using it against it super hype super fun I wonder if this sword just won't break now yeah I actually have like combos now oh yeah also I have like aerial attacks finally camera's a little tough sometimes what the [ __ ] is that oh those are nutcrackers oh that's sick that's fun see this is what I'm talking about this is sick just a [ __ ] Building walking around so goofy I love it unironically lies of P needed more [ __ ] like this just a little goofier you know what the [ __ ] was that what the [ __ ] oh my God this just turned into Frogger see look now we're cooking this is where this game is at its best like look at how weird and cool this is I'm so into this uh I'm just going to walk past you guys oh is this a boss fight oh am I playing I'm playing I'm playing I'm parrying I'm parrying what happened wait what was that just like a cut scene saying I can't go forward they're like carrying rocks I wonder if I can ride them that would be cool no wait I can use them to launch me speedrun tech oh is the door going to come to life it's is oh that's sick okay oh okay wait it has disjointed hands I like that oh [ __ ] okay okay okay ow ow oh my God I got [ __ ] petrificus interesting okay got to jump it maybe okay that's cool oh God per okay this boss is definitely a little tougher than the other one ones nice nice all right I'm starting to get into this game more actually yes yes that was actually a pretty fun fight I want to give some serious credit for just the sheer amount of different enemies in this game so far like even though the combat's very simple it's still kind of working because of that what the hell is this you can't get in for now okay are you attacking me oh my God I don't think I commented on the music yet but uh the music's actually really well done look at that thing it's like a giant manay fish with a sailboat lodged into it hey Zephyr it's barakiel talking to you we're almost at the end of the demo this map is a work in progress I want to thank you for getting this far and as a reward I've decided to give you all the chest pieces [Music] wait what this game was holding out on me the whole time okay hold on suddenly the chest piece thing makes sense you can morph into different characters with different abilities and they kind of corresponds with their chest counterparts Why didn't it introduce that at the start all right so here's the bishop pretty fast and you can like launch these light beams uh here's the Knight which charges around oh my God okay hold on this game just jumped up so many points for me this game finally makes sense man it finally makes sense I don't know what this move is doing it's like pulling him in I think oh it is yeah I think it's like pulling him in like a wormhole all right look how [ __ ] fast I can go man this looks so cool I wish the frame rate wasn't so bad could the camera use some work you know maybe maybe maybe a bit yeeha who what the [ __ ] is this move I can just do this this is sick this like a whole different game now look they're little windmills wait what did I just do did I did I pick him up look at this [ __ ] this is so cool man I'm just H I really think there's some potential here this is neat I think that's it though I don't really think there's much else to find or progress with so I'm going to call it here you know what that was actually really cool it all finally clicked into place at the end I think the developer has created this beautiful world with so many cool enemies and Boss Designs in it like there's some real inspired stuff here and then when you mix that in with the idea of switching between chest pieces that have different abilities there's some serious potential my main point of feedback is I wish there was mechanically just a little more to the game than just parrying and I think that's explored a little bit at the end with the Transformations um I want that to be taken farther with the different chest pieces being more distinct from one another and having even more abilities I don't know this is like one of the more creative Souls likes I've played and the whole time I was just smiling and laughing at how cool this game is yeah no great job please stick with it man all right next up we have the demo for codex lost this is a Souls like from a solo developer but the hook is that it focuses entirely on spellcasting I think that's a fantastic premise so yeah let's just jump right in uh okay we're selecting a class I mean I guess it makes the most sense since I don't know anything about this game to just go with the one that's mid mid mid all right here's my guy um we got like the plague doctor looking thing oh wait actually I think I might just be a bird straight up I can't tell if that's a mask got like a library this game looks pretty cool so far spell crafting I think I need to find recipes before I can actually craft maybe okay so this is my basic spell Arcane pulse I think it's only melee range then I have Arcane blast it's like AOE and then I have this Arcane bolt which is a ranged attack I'm in the library so let's teleport to penal Village be wary of Elemental Affinity these foes resist fire but are weak to lightning okay well I have neither so probably good so that just cost a bunch of Mana to do all that um yeah my Mana comes back very slowly over time I'm hoping there's another way to get it back I'm sure there is so we got the Dodge button and we can dodge across gaps it seems like the basic Arcane pulse doesn't use Mana so I can kind of just melee this guy yeah I wonder if defending costs Mana or just stamina I think just stamina I'm watching the bar yeah I think it's just stamina X to heal nice right shortcut on locked what's this you you can't be serious you're a curator aren't you yeah you've got a lot of nerves showing your beak around here mate after what you've done it's all going to put mate and it's us crows that get in the nick straight up discrimination is what it's B down to so I guess that also does confirm that I am in fact a crow and this isn't the mask oozing sack just what you want to find in a chest that guy's shooting really slow moving Fireballs at me like really non-threatening also I no there's like a stagger bar beneath his health bar I'm assuming that's what that is O I got a recipe okay finally I found a recipe I'm guessing that's a spell by the way I got to say I'm sorry navigating the menu with a controller I hate navigating menus like this with this like really slow moving cursor oh my god oh [ __ ] Barrel the classic should thou Parry an attack spent Mana will be recovered by a small amount okay cool let me see if I can do that I think I did it I didn't see how much it gave me I I can't tell am I recovering Mana hm I don't know all right so I got two guys shooting at me that's a m melee guy and there's a mage guy on the left this is kind of interesting take out the melee guy switch to range for this guy and then I'm going to run in use the blast nice that was kind of neat I liked how I had to use like all three there or I didn't have to use all three but all three were useful at least I'm into this so far it's a slow introduction but I can already sense the potential here oh my God although they've done the same barrel trap on me three times oh you know what I wonder if I need Fire magic for this that would be interesting if there's like Elemental stuff you need like the specific element oh my God what the [ __ ] I can't tell if he drop kicked me or if I parried him and he slipped memory fonts save thy location only one can be active at a time okay can I go back to the hub doesn't seem like it Pages turn yet the library sleeps I like this guy's design like this giant Globe head and I feel like I wish I had more magic to spend on like the the cooler spells has a lot of Health I'm not even hurting it maybe I can like Parry it back at it no oh my God oh God not another one [ __ ] that I'm leaving all right death all right I'm back in the hub area and I lost all my money awesome but the good news is I'm guessing I can craft all those spells I found ignite looks like I'm missing magic powder damn it can I craft anything else no I'm missing at least one thing for all of these man I found all these spells I can't craft any of them [ __ ] also I'm confused I activated that checkpoint why did it set me all the way back okay one thing I will say that I really think should be a thing I think your basic attack that doesn't cost any Mana should also restore your Mana with every hit because I feel like I'm using this standard spell way too often when I have the other cool spells you know and I don't like how it's a viable strategy to just like wait in place for several minutes to get all your Mana back like that just sucks like I know the game is not directly encouraging me to do that but it's not ideal that that's like viable did I just poison myself oh my God I did God damn it oh okay this enem is a little more interesting he like throws Boulders whoa back back ow oh [ __ ] I like how he just knocked me on my [ __ ] ass all right giant Fox okay oh it's not friendly is he just going to sit there all right in that case [ __ ] you oh [ __ ] okay okay it's Arcane blast him am I am I even hurting him he's inin ible he's Invincible [ __ ] this [ __ ] this maybe it's because I'm Arcane and like he's immune to Arcane damage or like mostly immune to it oh man that case I really need to get more spells hold forth thy compass then activate by attacking am I activating this thing oh cool memory font activated dude I want to go back to the hub area and spend my money without having to backtrack to the beginning of the game I haven't found like a teleport location yet what the [ __ ] was that okay now is it going to send me all the way back why do the checkpoints not work what am I missing can I craft anything nope can't craft that I can craft this hold onah Let's test it [Music] out okay it kind of misses the target I mean this could be good but I feel like a lot of these are going to miss let's let's try it on this guy I'm going to guess guess they're all going to miss horribly uh no it's it's okay is this a boss yep okay go ice volley go ice F dude they keep I knew this spell was going to be horrible they go over his head [Music] [ __ ] and I got to walk all the way back dude is the checkpoint system [Music] bugged oh that's how it works okay I get it now you use the one that's in the hub and it teleports you back okay all right my bad okay I feel so slow it's got place like SRO knocked him over carry carry I don't feel like a mage I feel like a really clunky SEO got him come on oh my God that was like a really clunky fight but I don't know it's whatever oh my God wait yes I found finally made back to the start oh thank God I can teleport back to the hub and level up all right I have enough to craft volcanic sigils all right let's try it that could be good and now since I have a fire spell I want to go back and burn those Vines oh hey it worked that's cool I hope they do more with the elemental stuff than just like a lock and key situation you know where it's just like you see Vines use fire spell I want there to be more creative uses um like using ice to create a platform but have it be like a little more involved than just freezing and walking across it I don't know if that makes sense but I feel like there's a lot of potential with like the puzzle aspect and the environmental aspect of like different Elemental spells I've brought this game up before Maga is such a good example love that game all right I guess time to jump down the hole Church undercroft surprisingly not super expensive for that spell too so I can like cast a good amount oh man oh man please be weak to fire they are they are okay that confirms like how big Elemental Vantage makes a difference cuz Arcane was doing nothing before dude we have we have an actual dungeon here we have like traps and [ __ ] everywhere secrets I'm into this found a checkpoint hell yeah man that's the first permanent checkpoint I found I've been playing for a while that's very rare to see these days in Souls likes and I kind of like it oh [ __ ] you seem the perfect height for ice B [Music] though all the crucifix attacks that's awesome all right that's a quick attack good Lord all right I guess I'll just volcanic sigil you and win ow all right you know what volcanic C might not work it does kind of lock me in place okay let me just like get a feel for the attacks so just move around I think if I just keep running to the side I'm mostly safe problem is ice volley only works at like a very specific range so I got to get like kind of close for the optimal range there we go that's good damage though yeah he's the perfect H for this perfect there you go that was neat that was cool you know like I feel like the ideas for these bosses are they're close they're close to being something really interesting like it's not quite there for me but like I can see it I can see it dark claws tear through the air before the Caster ripping into the very Souls of one's enemies the damage dealt by these Unholy Talons is nothing short of outrageous yeah 264 damage seems significantly higher than all my other spells oh it's like a melee I like that it's outrageous so go this is a long demo boss time I'm pretty little magic but let's just see what happens Dawn guidance tomor I thought we were done with this fine I shall attend to this Duty once more [Music] oh very [ __ ] all right I can tell this is going to be a little tricky could go with all reliable volcanic sigils never mind that's way too slow okay all right this time I'm going to play a lot more defensively okay do your thing yep okay [Music] okay there's just enough time yeah I don't know I'm I feel like my spells are just too slow to deal with that like even after a Parry I'd parry and go for the hit and it's not enough just got to treat like a puzzle figure out what my moves are I wish I could craft more stuff but I'm missing all the ingredients as usual oh actually you know what hold on I haven't crafted a poison spell yet maybe I could just poison him and sit back super toxin you know what I bet super toxin will work all right let's let's try this okay so it's short range it's just in front of me I think this could work Parry poison how do I know when he's poisoned he's going green I got him let got to sit back and not die oh the Poison's doing good damage actually hold on yeah the Poison's sick okay it ran out finally still though like that applies instantly that's really good what the [ __ ] this is awesome man this would be really hard if I didn't have [Music] poison poison no no no God damn it I was so close I don't love how this boss feels but part of me is okay with it if I look at it as a puzzle and like all my different spells are puzzle piece [Music] options oh my God oh my God die die yes all right you have completed the demo so I'm kind of mixed on this one but I do want to give credit where credit is due this is a solo developed game that has some really cool ideas a great premise and I think it'll at least be interesting cuz that's how I feel about this demo it's interesting you know having a Souls like that centers around magic is a great idea I like trying out all the different spells I think of the Spells I tried out they felt different enough but at the same time I feel like there's still so much more potential with what you can do with a game like this like exploring spells Beyond just pure damaging spells it seems like there's very little of that level design is decent they definitely understand what makes a Soul's game tick when it comes to that I wish I wish there was a little bit more to the bosses and enemies and how they can respond to you as the player I don't know it feels like this game is on the cusp of being special it's on the cusp I just I don't know I don't know if there's enough for me here to like really latch on to but maybe maybe there were moments when I was playing this where I was getting like big kingsfield flashbacks and I liked thinking about all the Spells I had as tools where sometimes like one of them would work in a specific scenario and sometimes another one would work better in a different scenario and as far as just like minor suggestions go I do wish that Mana was replenished just by using your basic no Mana cost spell uh I wish the control scheme was a little different especially when it comes to selecting your spells cycling through them on the d-pad like I know that's how fromsoft does it there are better Solutions out there genuinely look at Lords of the Fallen look at the new Lords of the Fallen game how they approach magic I think that could fit really well here for those curious how it works like you hold down left trigger and then like all the face buttons become different spells you can c C anyway I enjoyed this a lot I see the potential so I'm going to keep an eye on it hey thank you very much for watching so yeah this video is pretty long my longest video ever I apologize didn't mean for it to be this long um I just wanted to show off more than I usually do I guess I hope people are into it still should the No Rest For The Wicked section have been 40 minutes long maybe not but um I don't know I think it's fine I think a game like that of that caliber deserves a bit of a deeper look anyway as always I really appreciate any feedback any recommendations there's always a couple games in this list that I would never found without people commenting about them uh believe it or not I'm actually planning to upload two more videos this month I think but yeah that's about it hope you're all doing well and uh take it easy [Music]

Channel: Iron Pineapple

Views: 2,578,806

Keywords: soulslike, souls like, iron pineapple, dark souls, elden ring, gameplay, funny, co-op, review, guide, commentary

Id: haYQiFc7peI

Length: 113min 18sec (6798 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2024