I just tried AI Limit the other day (it’s a post-apocalyptic science fantasy anime-themed Souls-like game) and first of all I love the aesthetic - especially the main character. she’s really cute and well-animated, all of her outfits look so good, and it seems like no matter what weapon I equip her with she looks incredibly stylish with it

but unfortunately it’s designed to force the player to play at least somewhat aggressively. there’s a complicated system where you basically get debuffed the more you block, and buffed the more you attack. if you get debuffed too much you can’t block at all until you start landing attacks (which will do very little damage at first because of the debuffs)

also, enemies (especially boss enemies) tend to attack in a fast-paced flurry, so that you have to precisely dodge-roll each attack in the combo. every boss enemy kind of attacks like Lord Gwyn, where they hyper-aggressively pressure you with terrifyingly fast flurries of attacks, one after another

from what I had read online, people were saying that this game is a good bit easier than Dark Souls, but I disagree. I think it might be easier than Dark Souls 3, but I find Dark Souls 1 much easier because it’s possible to play Dark Souls 1 very defensively and cautiously until you feel confident enough to take risks. so you can stay on the back foot while you observe and figure out what to do, then try to attack when you feel safe to do so. whereas AI Limit has systems in place to punish you for being defensive for too long

these are roughly the same complaints that I had about Dark Souls 3 and it seems like this is what Souls-like games have become after around Dark Souls 2 or so. so that’s a shame. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get into this game but at least I still have Dark Souls 1, and I might try 2 at some point

(I also have another minor complaint: in Dark Souls you’re frequently given vistas where you can see the layout of the areas ahead, which lets you orient yourself and build a mental map of where you came from and where you’re going. but in AI Limit the levels that I played were mostly claustrophobic sewers and I felt constantly lost because I couldn’t see any area from any other area. there are some areas of Dark Souls 1 like that (the Depths, for example) but for the most part I never really felt that way about the game)

@kasdeya Even the depths has some touchpoints, in particular the central room containing the big rat that you usually see at least three times, and you overlook the boss arena once prior as well. It's really well-designed given the limitations of a claustrophobic sewer!