Lies of P

Without spoiling it there is more to the lore than just puppets, which includes the enemies you fight. It's a more straight forward story when compared to a Souls game, but that's not to say there's nothing there. There's a bit of mystery and they do some interesting turns with it.

Ended up beating it last night. I had heard the true ending was some kind of convuleted way of getting it like a Souls game and I guess if you make the wrong choices you can lock yourself out of it, but I ended up getting it without even realising it. Anyway, what a game. What else can I say here other than I think it stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best in the genre and might even do things more interesting than others. There's no boss fight that's reused so they all feel memorable, the weapon durabliity was pretty interesting, swtiching out handles and blades to make your own weapon was cool, one of the best looking games in the genre. When I first heard of the game as Pinnochio Dark Souls I was rolling my eyes and now here I am loving the game encouraging anyone to play it. It's that good.

That was the only real disappointment for me. I dont know if other builds would be different but the boss weapons out-performed the normal mix and match weapons so dramatically that I never really used them after I got the trident. I know they have rebalanced them to compensate for that, so new players probably wont run into it but unless you were exploiting a very specific weakness, its better to stick with the uncustomisable ones.

I fucked around with a couple but stuck with rapier as my weapon of choice. Like you say tho, boss weapons are just better all round, better stats with unique movesets and inbuilt parries and movement options for some. I think the umbrella had better stats at +2 compared to the rapier at +5. But I don't necessarily mind that, boss weapons should be feeling powerful. But the weapon swapping was at least interesting to do, on a repeat playthrough I can def see myself fucking around more with it. Opened it up so that motivity or advance weapons could still be usable with my tech build, which is something you cant do in Souls games

It's essentially the same as any Souls game for me, I find a weapon moveset I like and stick to it. Plenty of cool weapons I didn't try in Souls games but I always figure to leave those for another playthrough. Agree that they should have more materials around for the normal weapons. I think the balance for boss weapon materials is fine, its just rare enough to level one of them to max. Think I had Two Dragon Sword at +5, Trident at +2 and Umbrella at +2 by the end.

As an Advance build, I couldn't actually use any boss weapons effectively as none seem to scale with Advance. So, I stuck to my elemental weapons, the salamander dagger, the electric coil stick and chainsaw, the acid spear and late-game to the steel cutter. These I upgraded as high as I could and changed their handles around mostly to improve their speed.

I do intend to respec and use the Two Dragon Sword in NG+ though...

It's also because you meet up with the various NPC's to advance their quests, stories etc., but that's a valid comment as far as leveling up is concerned.

I said it a few pages ago but, Souls/Elden Ring generally solve this by dumping merchants and blacksmiths in the hub and letting you level up anywhere. Theres enough stuff in there to keep you coming back regularly.

I know the idea is to force you to interact with the fairy but 'I'll use my power to help you' x1000 isnt particularly engaging dialogue most of the time.

Yep, that sounds like shovel prick.

Its no 'Bearer of the..Seek..seek...lest'

Steady on chap it was a light hearted response to bichiis post.

Im dealing with a lot of pricks today and seeing passive aggressiveness everywhere

Sweet..found the chap who gives you boss weapons..I remember reading about two of these being great. If only I hadn't consumed all the boss souls already.