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[Boneless]

Kicking my goddamn ass, I think these are among the hardest fights in the entire series tbh.

I had to leave him, I thought I've become half decent with the combat and I still couldn't defeat him, I can get him down to his last health bar but I tried like 15 times and gave up. I'm wondering what is in that chest! lol

Tried about 10 times yesterday and now killed them on my 2nd try today.

Hitting him in the back does a good chunk of damage.

 

[DavidGzz]

I've watched a lot of videos and can't understand why everyone has kept the default controls. After hundreds of hours of Elden Ring recently, I needed to swap X and O. O is dodge and X is interact. Much better if you're used to Souls.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I get that but for me most the graphics don't matter because most of that whole section is on rails stuff. You follow extremely narrow paths most of the time there's nothing you can do in that environment to really take in how good it looks. Forget about the story and awful writing, it's all highly condensed areas of you walking in a straight line from one area to the next. There's cliffs and edges all over the place you could easily climb but you are locked in with blinders for most of it. Stuff like that kills immersion that the game is trying to show off to me.

This is a God of War game first and foremost. That whole Ironwood section is easily the worst part of any God of War game purely for it feeling like it was nothing like how a God of War game should make you feel when playing. It legit felt like Naughty Dog came in and shoved it in there. It completely kills any interest I have in replaying the game again.

Ironwood was a slog.

IMHO the problems are:

a) the section where you pick fruit and vegetables feels like unexciting busywork because it is unexciting busywork. It feels like a half baked solution to the problem of how to fit into the game the character development and dialogue they wanted to have.

b) the pit section is thoroughly boring: the location is ugly, hard to navigate, doesn’t tell a story and the enemies are disagreeable. Loki shouldn’t be doing pest control in what essentially is a sewer level.

c) because the sections are not very exciting, the devs chose to deliver emotional payoffs at the end of every section as a reward - the problem is these payoffs are associated with a level transition but because we don’t transition out but rather into another section of ironwood it feels like we’re being teased.

 

[Revolutionary]

Lunda's armor set (optional armor found in Vanaheim) is pretty wild. I'm playing on Give Me God of War and this set reduces boss battles into a basic Dark Souls boss where all you do is mash R1 and dodge/parry when necessary. Just ran into a dual boss late in the game and destroyed one of them in less than 30 seconds lol

If this was a competitive/online game I'd be worried about a nerf but since this is a SP game - I hope Santa Monica leaves it untouched, because it feels amazing beating the shit out bosses with just my fists .

 

[kyliethicc]

Hel's Touch is still bae

 

[Thirty7ven]

“Sit.”

Oh my days, this game is a litmus test I tell you.

 

[Vick]

Yeah it really sticks out like a sore thumb. Feels like a teen highschool Netflix show in the middle of something like a LOTR. Doesn't go together and feels out of place. It's intriguing and I'm right in the middle of it so no idea how long it will be but I'm hoping I'm close to end of this segment.

Okay, the climax of that section happened about an half an hour after I stopped playing, and it was actually so unique and good it kind of redeemed the section a bit.

It's still like five times longer than it should have been, and I think that formula doesn't and shouldn't belong in a God of War game, but Gryla actually unsettled me more than anything I can remember in years. I was definitely not expecting it at all. The mood around soulless animals was also spot on.

 

[yurinka]

I've watched a lot of videos and can't understand why everyone has kept the default controls. After hundreds of hours of Elden Ring recently, I needed to swap X and O. O is dodge and X is interact. Much better if you're used to Souls.

I did choose the same button mapping than you. It also fits better the PlayStation western standard: X to interact/accept and O to skip/go back.

 

[adamsapple]

I have the "press R3 to swing camera to objective path" turned on just so that's the last place I go to when moving around

 

[K' Dash]

Nice seeing people spoiling stuff a few pages back, you fuckers can’t just discuss shit in the spoiler thread…

 

[BbMajor7th]

Nothing is concise here storywise: you need to find one thing to do one thing, then the thing goes wrong and you have to find another thing and NOTHING really advances.

It's an issue of story leading structure, rather than structure leading story. In GOW, it was two characters on a journey who meet people and do things along the way. The gameplay informed the structure, which was then contextualised through the story. In Ragnarok, the story seems to be the starting point, right from the first scene. Why have Kratos and Atreus set up a make-shift camp three minutes from their own home? Why does it give the impression of two characters on a long journey far from home, when really it's the Fimbulwinter equivalent of popping out for groceries? Well, because that's what the writers envisioned. And it carries on right through the first ten to fifteen hours, finally reaching it's peak in Ironwood.

For example:

Spoiler: Early-mid game spoilers

You dream about Faye, then wake up; you go to a shrine in the woods, then walk back; you go meet Durlin, then you leave; you go find Tyr, then head home; you go meet the World Serpent, then you leave; you go meet Freya, then you go home; you go to a shrine in Alfheim, then you go home; then you dream-fly to Ironwood and meet Angroboda, then you go home.

There's this unavoidable sense that gameplay is forced to fit itself between all the important story scenes. Contrast this to 2018, where the big story moments are direct results of something envisioned in gameplay: beating the early troll sub-boss triggers one of the first crucial scenes with Atreus and the 'that's what you get' moment (establishing an element of his personality and his physical frailty). The combat encounter shortly after forces Atreus to kill his first human opponent. You learn about Atreus' affinity with animals and language in an early bridge crossing puzzle, and that's expanded further with later puzzles in the game. When Atreus collapses it's following an altercation with Modi, which only happened because of a boss fight prior. The important people you meet - Brok, Sindre, Magni, Modi, Freya, Mimir - you don't journey to meet especially and then leave again, you meet them along the way on your own journey to do something completely different.

 

[SLB1904]

“Sit.”

Oh my days, this game is a litmus test I tell you.

That all sequence was so good. Honestly I was so pissed before that. Really dropped my mood. Then when I saw it again. I was so happy. After what atreus did. Fuck yeah. Really my favorite moment of the all game so far.

 

[zkorejo]

Okay, the climax of that section happened about an half an hour after I stopped playing, and it was actually so unique and good it kind of redeemed the section a bit.

It's still like five times longer than it should have been, and I think that formula doesn't and shouldn't belong in a God of War game, but Gryla actually unsettled me more than anything I can remember in years. I was definitely not expecting it at all. The mood around soulless animals was also spot on.

Same here lol. Last part of that segment was really damn fun. Agreed, should have been shorter. Wasn't bad at all, just different.

 

[SlimySnake]

Game has a big difficulty increase as you get to explore Alfheim for a second time. So many mini bosses are level 5 or above with golden or purple health bars and they kill me in one hit. I cannot get to level 5 because my blades are level 3 and holding back everything. I have a level 6 armor piece and everything else is level 5 but because of those damn blades, i cant proceed above level 4. None of my level 5 items can be upgraded because im missing upgrade materials the game doesnt want to drop.

So i fight all these hard enemies in Alfheim and Midgard and none of them drop a single material i can use to upgrade past 5. Every mini boss takes like 30 minutes of constant getting killed in one hit. My vitality and defense stats are the best they can be, but that doesnt seem to be good enough. I basically have to be perfect in every fight. The moment i get hit its all over.

I really dont like games artificially limiting your progress like that. The last game felt very rewarding because every realm tear gave you materials you needed to upgrade or craft new gear. You were always leveling up.

 

[Kindela]

Game has a big difficulty increase as you get to explore Alfheim for a second time. So many mini bosses are level 5 or above with golden or purple health bars and they kill me in one hit. I cannot get to level 5 because my blades are level 3 and holding back everything. I have a level 6 armor piece and everything else is level 5 but because of those damn blades, i cant proceed above level 4. None of my level 5 items can be upgraded because im missing upgrade materials the game doesnt want to drop.

So i fight all these hard enemies in Alfheim and Midgard and none of them drop a single material i can use to upgrade past 5. Every mini boss takes like 30 minutes of constant getting killed in one hit. My vitality and defense stats are the best they can be, but that doesnt seem to be good enough. I basically have to be perfect in every fight. The moment i get hit its all over.

I really dont like games artificially limiting your progress like that. The last game felt very rewarding because every realm tear gave you materials you needed to upgrade or craft new gear. You were always leveling up.

What's the penalty when you're < enemy level? Do you get any stat bumps when you go up a level?
I have a piece of armor that would bump me up from 2 to 3, but it's a bit worse than what I already have so I didn't want to equip it. Am I losing something with that?

 

[Ulysses 31]

What's the penalty when you're < enemy level? Do you get any stat bumps when you go up a level?
I have a piece of armor that would bump me up from 2 to 3, but it's a bit worse than what I already have so I didn't want to equip it. Am I losing something with that?

Blockable attacks become unblockable, unblockable attacks will likely one shot you.

 

[SlimySnake]

What's the penalty when you're < enemy level? Do you get any stat bumps when you go up a level?
I have a piece of armor that would bump me up from 2 to 3, but it's a bit worse than what I already have so I didn't want to equip it. Am I losing something with that?

Yeah, you do less damage and take more damage.

If an enemy has a blue bar, you will do the max damage your stats allow. Gold bars will reduce that damage, not sure the percentage, but i believe it was 25% less damage in GOW 2018. Purple enemies would be even less. Probably around 50%. That wouldnt be too bad but you also take more damage so taking 50% more damage basically means one hit deaths whenever your health is not full. So many times i get revived and die in one hit because they dont revive you with full health.

Definitely get to level 3 asap. Perks are important but not that important.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Loads left

Wow this game is massive and absolutely incredible the further I get

 

[scydrex]

Game has a big difficulty increase as you get to explore Alfheim for a second time. So many mini bosses are level 5 or above with golden or purple health bars and they kill me in one hit. I cannot get to level 5 because my blades are level 3 and holding back everything. I have a level 6 armor piece and everything else is level 5 but because of those damn blades, i cant proceed above level 4. None of my level 5 items can be upgraded because im missing upgrade materials the game doesnt want to drop.

So i fight all these hard enemies in Alfheim and Midgard and none of them drop a single material i can use to upgrade past 5. Every mini boss takes like 30 minutes of constant getting killed in one hit. My vitality and defense stats are the best they can be, but that doesnt seem to be good enough. I basically have to be perfect in every fight. The moment i get hit its all over.

I really dont like games artificially limiting your progress like that. The last game felt very rewarding because every realm tear gave you materials you needed to upgrade or craft new gear. You were always leveling up.

Are you playing in god of war? Still in Alfheim for the first time exploring. 12hr in. The problem so far is the one hit death. If the progress get more difficult then maybe will drop to the no mercy difficulty. Sometimes i attack the enemy with a rune attack and the enemy dosen't even get distrubed and continue the unblokable animation and kill me in one hit. It dosen't interrupt the enemy attack or anything. The only way is to avoid the hit.

 

[SlimySnake]

Are you playing in god of war? Still in Alfheim for the first time exploring. 12hr in. The problem so far is the one hit death. If the progress get more difficult then maybe will drop to the no mercy difficulty. Sometimes i attack the enemy with a rune attack and the enemy dosen't even get distrubed and continue the unblokable animation and kill me in one hit. It dosen't interrupt the enemy attack or anything. The only way is to avoid the hit.

I am on No Mercy. It's definitely more challenging than it was in GOW 2018, but I figured im better at the game after having the first one for almost 300 hours, most of it in GMGOW. im still enjoying the combat, but not a fan of how quickly you can die just because the game is keeping weapon upgrades from you.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Lunda's armor set (optional armor found in Vanaheim) is pretty wild. I'm playing on Give Me God of War and this set reduces boss battles into a basic Dark Souls boss where all you do is mash R1 and dodge/parry when necessary. Just ran into a dual boss late in the game and destroyed one of them in less than 30 seconds lol

If this was a competitive/online game I'd be worried about a nerf but since this is a SP game - I hope Santa Monica leaves it untouched, because it feels amazing beating the shit out bosses with just my fists .

I just got this armor set but haven’t leveled it up

What’s so great about it?

 

[scydrex]

I am on No Mercy. It's definitely more challenging than it was in GOW 2018, but I figured im better at the game after having the first one for almost 300 hours, most of it in GMGOW. im still enjoying the combat, but not a fan of how quickly you can die just because the game is keeping weapon upgrades from you.

Damn... I'm playing in God of War... i can handle it but i get one shot killed and have to try a mini boss a couple of times. If it gets more difficult and the progress is slower than the first then i think i will lower it to no mercy. I finished the first one last week in no mercy and it was no problem for me but the progress is fine and less difficult than Ragnarok.

 

[TIGERCOOL]

Ironwood is beyond redemption. Confirms every uneasy feeling I've had about the game's narrative/tonal direction since the offset. When did the adults leave the room?

 

[Northeastmonk]

I feel like this type of God of War would be fun in VR. A lot of the strategy is hitting the enemy with your shield, dodging, or just pacing yourself around the combat arena.

Spoiler: Weapon and late boss spoiler

I was surprised the lady didn’t want you to perform a task for her before she crafted the spear. It was nice. I’m fighting blonde and I had to shut the game off during the third phase because I had to go to bed. It’s fun don’t get me wrong. The combat almost feels like a carnival attraction or something. It screams “this is a pattern”.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I am on No Mercy. It's definitely more challenging than it was in GOW 2018, but I figured im better at the game after having the first one for almost 300 hours, most of it in GMGOW. im still enjoying the combat, but not a fan of how quickly you can die just because the game is keeping weapon upgrades from you.

Are you doing the side quests?

 

[GymWolf]

Little hint for some people, maybe put your entire opinion under spoiler and not just a name, people are not retarded and it is easy to do 2+2...

 

[SlimySnake]

Are you doing the side quests?

Yeah, my comments were about the side content in Alfheim and Midgard. Main story bosses are fine. Challenging with some deaths but not souls like banging your head against the wall. Not having any healing items makes it tough than souls. Ive always maintained that sigrun is harder than any Souls fight for that reason.

 

[GymWolf]

Yeah, my comments were about the side content in Alfheim and Midgard. Main story bosses are fine. Challenging with some deaths but not souls like banging your head against the wall. Not having any healing items makes it tough than souls. Ive always maintained that sigrun is harder than any Souls fight for that reason.

Have you found the bullet time armour?

Also a million dollar question about upgrading the skills

Spoiler

can i use them in the training zone where you can't die to upgrade them? Like use this move 50 times, can i do that?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Yeah, my comments were about the side content in Alfheim and Midgard. Main story bosses are fine. Challenging with some deaths but not souls like banging your head against the wall. Not having any healing items makes it tough than souls. Ive always maintained that sigrun is harder than any Souls fight for that reason.

Interesting I thought I did all the side content in Alfheim but I haven’t got there the second time, maybe it gets a lot harder

I don’t mind harder side content, either wait until you are higher level or grind it out. Similar to Souls

I think GoW combat requires more mastery than Souls, the Souls games have very basic mechanics in comparison.

Elden Ring especially made it so that Boss fights never felt satisfying. They were unforgiving to the point of basically needing to level out of it or cheese it. You’d get brutally punished for camera jank.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Have you found the bullet time armour?

Also a million dollar question about upgrading the skills

Spoiler

can i use them in the training zone where you can't die to upgrade them? Like use this move 50 times, can i do that?

Yeah training zones count towards skill upgrades

 

[GymWolf]

Yeah training zones count towards skill upgrades

I don't wanna cheat...but the zone is literally a training zone so it kinda isn't cheating...

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I don't wanna cheat...but the zone is literally a training zone so it kinda isn't cheating...

For now I am trying to do the skill upgrades in the game

Each skill upgrade mod slot requires a lot of XP, so I am not trying to focus on those until I max out my character skill unlocks first

At which point I’ll probably go to the training area to unlock the mod slots

 

[Kindela]

Yeah, you do less damage and take more damage.

If an enemy has a blue bar, you will do the max damage your stats allow. Gold bars will reduce that damage, not sure the percentage, but i believe it was 25% less damage in GOW 2018. Purple enemies would be even less. Probably around 50%. That wouldnt be too bad but you also take more damage so taking 50% more damage basically means one hit deaths whenever your health is not full. So many times i get revived and die in one hit because they dont revive you with full health.

Definitely get to level 3 asap. Perks are important but not that important.

That's really bad. I don't remember it from the first game, maybe cause I didn't play on gmgow so I didn't care. But now that you say it, it could explain why I died 20+ times on some mini bosses and random encounters.

 

[scydrex]

That's really bad. I don't remember it from the first game, maybe cause I didn't play on gmgow so I didn't care. But now that you say it, it could explain why I died 20+ times on some mini bosses and random encounters.

Yep i'm in the same boat here...

 

[GymWolf]

For now I am trying to do the skill upgrades in the game

Each skill upgrade mod slot requires a lot of XP, so I am not trying to focus on those until I max out my character skill unlocks first

At which point I’ll probably go to the training area to unlock the mod slots

Yeah that's probably the smartest way, but on max difficulty every little bit of help or damage or elemental build up on enemies is significant

Enemies levelling up during fights are particularly nasty.

 

[Revolutionary]

I just got this armor set but haven’t leveled it up

What’s so great about it?

The chest applies poison when you unarmed attack and parry, and the arms + waist buff your melee attacks by 40% against poisoned targets. Apply some amulet and/or relic buffs for more melee/poison/stun damage and watch the health meters drop.

 

[GymWolf]

The chest applies poison when you unarmed attack and parry, and the arms + waist buff your melee attacks by 40% against poisoned targets. Apply some amulet and/or relic buffs for more melee/poison/stun damage and watch the health meters drop.

The trade off is that punching is not nearly as fun as using the other weapons.

But interesting nevertheless.

 

[Revolutionary]

The trade off is that punching is not nearly as fun as using the other weapons.

But interesting nevertheless.

I do wish that unarmed had a more versatile moveset like in the previous game (it had its own skill tree).... but it's still very fun to punch bosses to death with my fists.

 

[SlimySnake]

Enemies levelling up during fights are particularly nasty.

lol I swear they add another move to their combos once they reach the last phase. It throws me off every single time.

The chest applies poison when you unarmed attack and parry, and the arms + waist buff your melee attacks by 40% against poisoned targets. Apply some amulet and/or relic buffs for more melee/poison/stun damage and watch the health meters drop.

Poison buff build is very effective. Beat one of the mini bosses this way after struggling to use sonic arrows to build up their stun meter.

I miss my regular blue arrows from the first game.

 

[GymWolf]

lol I swear they add another move to their combos once they reach the last phase. It throws me off every single time.


Poison buff build is very effective. Beat one of the mini bosses this way after struggling to use sonic arrows to build up their stun meter.

I miss my regular blue arrows from the first game.

You are not playing on max difficulty so you should not have levelling enemies mid-fight...hard on 2018 didn't had them.

Blue arrows were trash, the yellow one with stun were the real shit.

 

[touchfuzzy]

Dear game designers - having one of the main enemies of Kratos, the god-killer, the Ghost of Sparta, the God of War, be little shin high lizards that scurry around and die in one hit, is super lame. I was happy to leave Svartalfheim assuming that was the last time I'd see them, and what's the first enemy encounter in Alfheim? You guessed it. Lizards.

 

[SlimySnake]

You are not playing on max difficulty so you should not have levelling enemies mid-fight...hard on 2018 didn't had them.

Blue arrows were trash, the yellow one with stun were the real shit.

What do you mean by leveling enemies? I have enemies that go from yellow attack + red attack to yellow attack + red attack + red attack once their health reaches 20-25%.

 

[DeepEnigma]

When I first got to Asgard I had to damn near pick my jaw up off the ground.

Just... wow! What a visual splendor.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I'm a fucking moron.

I've been playing with level 1 axe/blade runes, because I couldn't see a menu to upgrade them. Fuck sake.

You have to press r2 until the next level is highlighted then you can spend the XP. Why that isn't default is a mystery but then the whole fucking menu system is an atrocity against mankind.

The menu system is a mini game all to itself.

 

[GymWolf]

What do you mean by leveling enemies? I have enemies that go from yellow attack + red attack to yellow attack + red attack + red attack once their health reaches 20-25%.

Not sure what the hell are you saying but all the enemies in my encounters can go up 1 level, so you start the fight with all lev 3 enemies and if you suck at hitting them during the transformation you can end with all 4 lev enemies after a couple of minutes (yeah it can happen with miniboss aswell)
Also they are even more aggressive on GMGOW.

Pretty fun but sometimes super hard to deal with.

I'm not even exagerating this game make 90% of elden ring (or any souls game) encounters a fucking joke in comparison.

 

[SlimySnake]

Not sure what the hell are you saying but all the enemies in my encounters can go up 1 level, so you start the fight with all lev 3 enemies and if you suck at hitting them during the transformation you can end with all 4 lev enemies after a couple of minutes (yeah it can happen with miniboss aswell)

Pretty fun but sometimes super hard to deal with.

I'm not even exagerating this game make 90% of elden ring (or any souls game) encounters a fucking joke in comparison.

Ah I remember that mechanic in GOW now. Totally forgot about it.

Yeah, we dont have that in No Mercy. im talking about enemies adding one more move to their combos. Why is this so hard to understand lol

 

[GymWolf]

Ah I remember that mechanic in GOW now. Totally forgot about it.

Yeah, we dont have that in No Mercy. im talking about enemies adding one more move to their combos. Why is this so hard to understand lol

Ok now i get it, well many boss in many games adds moves the more health they lose, i didn't thought it was something worth mentioning.

 

[yamaci17]

magical forest spoiler

Spoiler: spo

damn I like how they did Angrboda.. she's so likeable lol. enjoyed the whole segment contrary to what I've read mostly. she's just so genuine and I felt bad for her for now. I hope loki choosing to be atreus has consequences that involves angrboda be back in prophecy!!

 

[GymWolf]

I have conflicted opinions on the black chick from the reveal trailer

Spoiler

angrboda

Spoiler

her being kinda cold when atreus gift her a flower was uncalled for, also maybe try to understand the boy incredible shock for seeing his shitty future and avoid to act so condescending

 

[DeepEnigma]

magical forest spoiler

Spoiler: spo

damn I like how they did Angrboda.. she's so likeable lol. enjoyed the whole segment contrary to what I've read mostly. she's just so genuine and I felt bad for her for now. I hope loki choosing to be atreus has consequences that involves angrboda be back in prophecy!!

To elaborate, don't read this if you have not been to Muspelheim yet.

Spoiler

The snake Atreus and Angrboda put the giant's soul in her grandmother's basement... is the world serpent Jörmungandr (Loki and Angrboda's "child" in the mythos). I kind of felt it was a travel through time so to speak (Ironwood), but her dropping that nugget was a cool touch when they meet up in Muspelheim for another soul sphere.