Soulslike - Discussion, News, Memes
This is a community for discussion, news, and memes pertaining to the video game sub-genre "soulslike".
Given Lemmy's size, the definition of soulslike may be treated relatively loosely. While games like the numerous FromSoft titles, the recent Star Wars Jedi games, Lies of P, Nioh and similar games should be the focus, games that incorporate soulslike elements - like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous, for example - may also be discussed here.
Basic Lemmy-quette applies. Additionally, since flairs don't exist yet, please do make sure to include a marker to denote what game your post is about in square brackets for clarity's sake. An example could be:
[BB] This enemy is so difficult!
or
[DS1] Anyone struggling with the gargoyles?
Friends:
Should you have any questions, please do let me know.
- Druid
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Thanks for the juicy answers! and please don't apologize, I like your observations and insight. this is exactly what I wanted :)
Now, brace yourself for the imcoming infodump on the homage thing. This is what I got in regards to these particular bosses references/inpirations:
Nameless Puppet
As I see it, Nameless Puppet strongly parallels Lady Maria. For starters, he is an undead corpse (one that should've been left well alone) he's also part "doll" (well, puppet).-Both Carlo (after dying) and Maria were respectively the subject of Geppetto's and Gherman's fixation. (Both skilled weapon craftsmen and leaders of a workshop)This resulted in the creation of another being (P/ the Doll) made in their image, that despite being inorganic, is alive and connected to the "original one", through latent memories / other metaphisycal way.
-NP wields a weapon that transforms simmilarly to Maria's Rakuyo, and his moveset takes a lot from hers as well, but is cranked up to 11: ,They share the spining slashes, their attacks have extended reach on phase two, both do a delayed stab, go up in the air and strike down, etc etc... (Plus both fights use lots and lots of red vfx :V) I do see Artorias as inspo as well, now that you mention it.
-And (This one is a reach, but indulge me for a moment) Thematically P breaking his bond with Gepetto in the events that trigger the fight, (and later cutting NP strings as well) could somewhat echo a broken bond between Maria and Gherman (a possible father figure to her) after the events in the fishing hamlet.
Feel free to tell me if I'm tripping balls with this.
Simon Manus
Simon is more on the nose, as the reference is in the name. I played Lies of P and DS1 simultaneously; I did Simon Manus first, and later Manus, father of the abyss, And then I went: Ooooh...-Both started as human (but not regular humans) and got corrupted and transformed into something beyond.
-Design wise Simon phase 2 borrows the Big Hand ^TM^ and horn-like growths, DS Manus wields a big magic catalyst and Simon his ergo imbued mace.
-Moveset wise they both spin, do weapon sweeps, hand smacks/slams and take big leaps in the air,; they cast magical orbs in phase 2 that close in on the player.
-After defeating Simon, P goes down the elevator and meets his father in a location called "under the abyss."
Doing OG Manus actually elevated Simon's fight for me.
I think in these fights illustrate how the FS references were cleverly and seamlessly incorporated through out the game, and I greatly enjoyed catching these and othrr details.
Do try the promo weapon, it's seriously broken and fun!
Simon >Manus<, whose above the Abyss… Okay, super obvious when you put it like that. I totally missed that. Viewing the fight through that lense reveals all the other details you listed.
Yeah, I can definitely see Maria in the Namless Puppet fight: The Scissor weapon and the Rakuyo, both splitting in Phase 2. Also in Phase 2 the red glow around the weapon. Also, yeah, some of the acrobatics are kinda reminisced of her.
If those two thematically fit together… I don't know. I need think more deeply on the story of Lies of P after the DLC anyway. You can definitely make them fit together with the puppet parallels, but I don't know if this actually meant to appear that way.
One quick tought: Maria's has agency still in protecting the secrets. Nameless Puppet only ever had, if it had agency at all, hatred as it's driving force at least according to an item description (I think the boss amulet). So I think you can make the story connections around the characters, but not between those two characters specifically. Maybe, I don't, I need to think about more.
Anyway, thanks for the story insights and this Lies of P disussion as a whole :)
The similarities seem beyond coincidental to me, but I agree.in that it's probably not meant to be read as other than a collection of inspiration and references, similar to Simon hence: an homage.
You have a point (and I did purposely omit a tie to the angency issue) but, yeah I said strongly parallels which, may have been over selling it a bit . XD Chalk it up to my enthusiasm of actually getting to talk about any of this!!
Have a great week!