So far, I'd put the first couple zones of a par with what you'd experience in your usual soulslike experiences. The parry's forgiving, the dodge is good, the only real "flaw" is that it kind of guides you to go straight from the first to the second dungeon without hitting your upgrade station. Dunno if there's any kind of leveling system, either.

its punishing and difficult at the beginning, the first bossfight is difficult as newcomer.
after that it gets easier and easier with some bosses trickier than others. I unwillingly overfarmed my character and I stomped a good portion of the the game till one of the last (last i think, havent finished yet) islands

Originally posted by Teyar:

So far, I'd put the first couple zones of a par with what you'd experience in your usual soulslike experiences. The parry's forgiving, the dodge is good, the only real "flaw" is that it kind of guides you to go straight from the first to the second dungeon without hitting your upgrade station. Dunno if there's any kind of leveling system, either.

Leveling is done through upgrading your armor and weapons and placing sockets. The talisman system is also a way of boosting your stats and adding abilities.

It's more on the easy side for a souls-like, though it depends on how experienced you are with this genre. The game is really nice and I would highly recommend giving it a try if you are interested!

Originally posted by Watafaka:

It's more on the easy side for a souls-like, though it depends on how experienced you are with this genre. The game is really nice and I would highly recommend giving it a try if you are interested!

don't know how far you are
frankly the same issue i had with the EA seems to have gotten even worse in the "new" areas
there's a lack of shortcuts, a lack of "bonfires" and "leveling" takes quite some grinding
this combined with some strange balancing makes the later stages feel frankly quite annyoin
the artstyle is brilliant, the OST on point, the VO is great, heck i even like the plot, but the actual gameplay realy could need another serious look at. if you follow the story-course and hit the Solar Forge (for example) when the game suggest you should go there, it can be a literal nightmare. spongy mobs, 1-hit-insta gibs (especialy the large-shield-dual-laser-pew-pew-mobs).
up until Radix and Solar Forge the balancing felt fine and okay, but then it just got weird.
also the amount of materials you'd need to somewhat upgrade your gear (nevermind that you'd have to repeat the process if you want to wear other armor) is also kinda bonkers.
i did some grinding, i didn't switch weapons or armor (so either are as upgraded as it can be) and i do barely any damage (2-handed pure dps build) while beeing pretty much dead the moment i get stunned...that ain't normal, and i played pretty much every soulsclone.

Originally posted by rasabt:

Originally posted by Watafaka:

It's more on the easy side for a souls-like, though it depends on how experienced you are with this genre. The game is really nice and I would highly recommend giving it a try if you are interested!

don't know how far you are
frankly the same issue i had with the EA seems to have gotten even worse in the "new" areas
there's a lack of shortcuts, a lack of "bonfires" and "leveling" takes quite some grinding
this combined with some strange balancing makes the later stages feel frankly quite annyoin
the artstyle is brilliant, the OST on point, the VO is great, heck i even like the plot, but the actual gameplay realy could need another serious look at. if you follow the story-course and hit the Solar Forge (for example) when the game suggest you should go there, it can be a literal nightmare. spongy mobs, 1-hit-insta gibs (especialy the large-shield-dual-laser-pew-pew-mobs).
up until Radix and Solar Forge the balancing felt fine and okay, but then it just got weird.
also the amount of materials you'd need to somewhat upgrade your gear (nevermind that you'd have to repeat the process if you want to wear other armor) is also kinda bonkers.
i did some grinding, i didn't switch weapons or armor (so either are as upgraded as it can be) and i do barely any damage (2-handed pure dps build) while beeing pretty much dead the moment i get stunned...that ain't normal, and i played pretty much every soulsclone.

Not to far into the game just killed the first 3 bosses, first one took me 2 tries and the others killed them on first try. I have the main weapon at lvl 5 or 6, armor at 2 and 3 and 3 talismans. I found that shortxuts are quite a few and bells are enough as they are. I think the weapon matters a lot in this game. I went with the 2h stabbing for crit chance, axe head for crit dmg and the poison pummel + the first codex unlock for armor penetration. Everything dies really fast. For the armor I have 2 set bonus for 12.5% dmg reduction after a dodge and 2 set bonus for 10% chance to ignore any dmg. Hope this helps out a bit for who is struggling at the start.

Originally posted by rasabt:

Originally posted by Watafaka:

It's more on the easy side for a souls-like, though it depends on how experienced you are with this genre. The game is really nice and I would highly recommend giving it a try if you are interested!

don't know how far you are
frankly the same issue i had with the EA seems to have gotten even worse in the "new" areas
there's a lack of shortcuts, a lack of "bonfires" and "leveling" takes quite some grinding
this combined with some strange balancing makes the later stages feel frankly quite annyoin
the artstyle is brilliant, the OST on point, the VO is great, heck i even like the plot, but the actual gameplay realy could need another serious look at. if you follow the story-course and hit the Solar Forge (for example) when the game suggest you should go there, it can be a literal nightmare. spongy mobs, 1-hit-insta gibs (especialy the large-shield-dual-laser-pew-pew-mobs).
up until Radix and Solar Forge the balancing felt fine and okay, but then it just got weird.
also the amount of materials you'd need to somewhat upgrade your gear (nevermind that you'd have to repeat the process if you want to wear other armor) is also kinda bonkers.
i did some grinding, i didn't switch weapons or armor (so either are as upgraded as it can be) and i do barely any damage (2-handed pure dps build) while beeing pretty much dead the moment i get stunned...that ain't normal, and i played pretty much every soulsclone.

Totally understand the frustration. i recommend trying to build up health and armor runes. tankiness is actually the hidden OP build in this game. If you have high health and defense you can block tons of things. if you need more resources try taking a break from grinding and explore the ocean. there is a lot of floating loot that can really push your gear levels. hope that helps and I hope your experience with the game improves!

yep half berin half nomad two hander you go where you want

Some of the bosses are of the more difficult I've faced in a game of this type, but I think it's mainly because I've struggled with the parry timing and have probably been underleveled for much of the game. Some areas I'll go into and be fine with the basic mobs, but then the boss will 1 or 2 shot me. You could easily grind currency to level up a ton and make the game easier or you could be like me and try and brute force your way through areas. I'm currently in an area where every enemy feels like a boss where I have to learn the parry timing or risk dying in one or 2 hits. At first I was a little bothered by the lack of checkpoints, but when you find the shortcuts it's really not bad. Some of the larger more linear levels do have multiple checkpoints. You do outrun enemies and there is no stamina meter so you can dodge roll as much as you want, but sprinting is faster than spam rolling.

Having played and completed all of the mainline From Software souls games, and tons of soulslikes, I can definitely recommend this as a good entry point into this type of gameplay. There's a bunch of QoL features not found in many of these games (such as no stamina management. No weight limits, etc). But the basics of soulslike combat are mostly present, so it's probably at least worth watching a few videos on basic combat and gear / leveling strategies in these types of games. I have found it to be just the right amount of challenge so far. But you really need to pay attention to your gear, perks, etc. Just like with any game in this style.

As a souls veteran im finding this game relatively easy due to ONE aspect (apart from zero stamina management..but i feel its countered with tankier mobs); The regenerate HP 0.5% Spirit drink, its vastly overpowered to the point I clear all zones without using a single healing Bell, I only use Bells vs bosses and because there is usually only 1 Bellzone per area you cannot really afford to waste Bells. Also I then discovered stacking HP with runes is even more broken with the %hp drink.

I dont think this drink should of made it to the game to be honest but it seems the levels are based around having it, some of them are extremely long ie Radix Stronghold where you take chip damage and dont care. I was in Radix for 2 hours wandering around doing the quests and never used a Bell apart from the Skeleton bosses (where I used many)

Also if you never actually hit a bell respawn mobs dont seem to respawn (in Souls when you use a Bone it normally auto triggers the bonfire respawning mobs from memory), so you can actually clear a zone, leave and come back and im sure everything is still dead, because you can travel from the menu not the bell itself

I did find the Church area immediately after the first zone and did the boss without these drinks and died 10 times, then I killed it; got the Boss Pommel (corruption per second) got the Spirit Drink and basically cleared every zone up to the Flare Forge with maybe 1-2 deaths per zone. I die mostly to fall damage or Bosses currently, apart from the Church area ive only died a single time to a regular mob; because I didnt use a Bell and decided to keep fighting at 5%hp

Still a great game so far and having a blast

I would like to try this game. It looks very cool but i do not like souls stuff very much haha. We shall see

Originally posted by omgilovesteak:

I would like to try this game. It looks very cool but i do not like souls stuff very much haha. We shall see

I am no souls veteran and what I know is cause I played a bit some and watched friends and YTs this is not a pure souls, I think its more akin to a "difficult" diablo oldschool

Thank you for your replies. It's not exactly what I was hoping for as the consensus seems to be that it is borderline difficult, and that does not make my decision easier. I'm definitely not a Souls veteran - I like a little challenge, but I don't like being constantly stressed because overpowered enemies seemingly spawning you from nowhere can kill you with two hits, and I don't like trying everything over and over again if I do not follow guides. As a reference, the higher difficulty levels in the Witcher games was just right for me.
But at least it's not too expensive, so I might give it a try anyway! :)

i would take many an answer with a grain of salt
fact of the matter is that even fully geared (you need to unlock another "smith" to progress your gear further), with the max rune-level available (2 runes per piece at that point, either purple or blue, which is already an insane amount of grind mind you), and a fully stacked weapon completely build around damage you need way to long to kill stuff (apart from bosses, don't know what some people are on about here..bosses usualy die very and i do mean very fast: 1 buffed combo, 1 fully stacked spcial and most boss fights are over)
again: at the point i'm at i would need to unlock another npc to upgrade (tha's what the game tells me)
yet trashmobs need 2, some even just 1.5 good hits to off me (some rare "weak" mobs perhaps 3, which also includes thrown weapons chip damage, or ranged shots)
just as a math example: getting fully blue armor runes, takes a lot of other runes to be deconstructed (only way to get the currency to upgrade runes), you can at that point slot 2 runes per armor piece; i don't have the exact values now memorized these blue armor runes offer, but when slotting 1 to 2 my overall mitigation stat (in a best case scenario) increases by 1%, we are talking a decked out build ( at that stage) having 6-8% mitigaton.
the base values are just so tiny (armor doesn't realy provide mitigation, only flat health boni).
the only thing making sense at that point is slotting purple or blue health runes (they offer ca. 18 to 25% added health). nets you decked out around 200 to 250 health.
nevermind that you find some of the best armors quite late, aka the alchemical set and the 60% damage bonus on avoidance dodge, which would mean farming the currency and upgrade mats for 4 pieces again.

same goes for your "magic" buffs. increasing the level of the fire-book increases your fire attack buff by what? less than 1 per tick? and for the dodge perhaps 1 dps per tick? level 5 onward costs 5000+ currency. for the lightning damage buff it's atleast 10 more damage (not quite) for 1 strike.

now again: i haven't written down the exact numbers, but when an average enemy takes multiple hit combos, from a weapon which does around 120 to 150 damage without buffs...does increasing the level of your "magic" have any effect? again for the weapon-buff (fire) it's less than 1 damage per tick. ...for enemies with atleast having 500 to 600 hp at a minimum. nevermind most of the modification options for weapons at that point beeing useless or not working at all (parry doesn't exist, yet is mentioned even in weapon parts and especialy for slow weapons 6% or 8% on hit chance for triggers is just to little).

now as an average example of these later game areas. the way from the save point to the first shortcut unlock takes atleast a good 10 to 15 enemies, with a "miniboss" for good measure, ambushes and enviromental hazards. it's a long way. frankly with the Citadel of Cinder or what it's called (the dude in the cage) i started just running past most enemies and only "grinding" specific spots.

now i do fully recommend the game. for the price you get a very well presented action-rpglight. but they do need to look at their math again. it's all been absolutly doable. but come a certain point it stopped feeling "challenging" or fun, and just beeing annyoin and the balance beeing off. the fact that combat itself is rather "stiff" doesn't realy help.