Slitterhead

A bizarre mix of action and body horror from Keiichiro Toyama, the creator of Silent Hill, Siren, and Gravity Rush, Slitterhead practically screams, “Not for everyone.” As Hyoki, an amnesiac spirit who must slay the Slitterheads, you can take over the bodies of different NPCs and leverage their powers. Combat can be enjoyable, but technical issues, jank, and repetition blemish the experience. It’s an acquired taste, though, and some may enjoy the body-hopping-focused gameplay while basking in the sheer weirdness of it all.

10. Final Boss –  Contra: Operation Galuga

Say what you will regarding the quality and length of Contra: Operation Galuga, but it’s definitely not lacking in difficulty. The bosses in particular are as hard-hitting as they come in the side-scrolling shoot-em-up genre. At the top of the food chain is the final boss. This antagonist appears in various incarnations throughout the Contra series, though it’s within Operation Galuga where its most horrific version yet surfaces with a design resembling a Xenomorph from the Alien films. And a giant it is, with its moving hands constituting the platforms you must shoot it from. Once you crack its skull, you must face its exposed brain whilst dodging a flurry of orbs. The battle has players frantically dodging and spraying in a truly Contra-like way, but no amount of co-op or Konami Code will ease you through this fight.

9. Sanctum Zealot – Enotria: The Last Song

Enotria was a surprisingly fun Italian soulslike this year that ended up giving us a lot of tough bosses. Boss fights within Enotria rely upon parrying skill and mastery over the clever mask switching system. Sanctum Zealot is an optional boss fight that requires all that and them some. Found near the end of the Sicilian-themed level, Falesia Magna, this helmed giant wields an ultra greatsword capable of killing characters in two to three hits. The first phase of the fight can be overcome by dodging or parrying its slow and devastating swings, but the second phase ups the ante with extra speed, elemental buffs, and ranged flurries. If you want to overcome Sanctum Zealot, it may be prudent to return later after finishing most other sections of the game first, as this masked warrior packs a punch.

8. Daigo, Saejima, And Majima – Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth

Even best friends fight sometimes, but they probably didn’t have to go as hard as they did in Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth. Chapter 12 starts with Kiryu and his old-time buddies hanging out, but of course, Yakuza have a different concept of having fun than you or I. After some of the coolest scenes in the game, a fight ensues between the group of friends. What really makes this turn-based bout difficult is managing the elemental resistances and weaknesses between the three opponents. Yes, this is technically a four on three fight, but unless you specifically hit each opponent with their weakness, there’s not much damage that can be done against the infamous trio.

7. Hive Tyrant – Space Marine 2

As the battlefield commander of the Tyranids, the Hive Tyrant isn’t one to be underestimated. Equipped with a long whip in one hand and a devastating cleaver in the other, this colossal Tyranid bioform absolutely punishes whether you keep your distance or decide to tank it up close. If you have a particularly good team, you may whittle down its health bar pretty quick…and then be shocked (literally) by the second phase and its constant wave of psychic attacks. Grenades are about the only surefire offense guaranteed to stagger the Hive Tyrant … if you haven’t already used them all on the waves of Tyranids during the fight, that is.

6. Dullahan – Dragon’s Dogma 2

Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Headless Horseman is among the coolest encounters that can be had in the game, even if there’s no horse to accompany the Dullahan in this case. Wandering around at night can be costly enough in this series, but doing so in certain areas while fog is out can be downright deadly. Dullahan comes out on foggy nights and is about as hard to hit as it is to see through DD2‘s dense fog. The spectral teleportation that Dullahan employs is tough to anticipate, and worse yet, it slices at players immediately after vanishing. And you don’t want to let a Dullahan catch you on the ground since its life-draining ability damages both life and loss bars to a devastating degree.

5. Kiana The Forest Queen – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has my favorite side-scrolling boss fights of any game since the release of Hollow Knight. Chief among those fights is the forest queen, Kiana. The fight comprises an impressive array of phases, attacks, and interesting animations, making it one of the most impressive in the game. Kiana’s three phases necessitate constant vigilance and concentration to overcome, yet never manages to feel unfair or cheap thanks to clear visual attack cues. The wolf/spear-wielder duo throws some clever combo moves at the player, such as the one-two punch of the spear throw followed by the wolf sweeping across the ground. Like other fights in The Lost Crown, Kiana makes sure players master every tool in their repertoire in order to come out on top.

4. Gallanza and Maglielle – Granblue Fantasy Relink

As one of this year’s best co-op action RPGs, Granblue Fantasy Relink is no stranger to tough boss encounters. Some of the most difficult battles occur within the many optional missions of the game – such is the case with the Gallanza/Maglielle duo fight. Players will encounter each of these commanders through the story, and individually they aren’t so tough to beat. But once you fight them in the ‘Wolf and the Veil’ Proud Quest, things get out of hand. Gallanza serves as the brutish tank with quick attacks, while Maglielle performs ranged AOE attacks from afar. The duo will occasional assail you together with devastating combo attacks as well, so it’s best to come as prepared as humanly possible before attempting to best them together.

3. Gilgamesh – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Final Fantasy’s returning eccentric swordsman constitutes not only the most difficult fight in Rebirth, but the most rewarding and involved to unlock. Cloud and company must first obtain every Protorelic in each of the game’s six massive regions. After doing this, a new landmass opens up, aptly called Gilgamesh Island. The final dual with Gilgamesh is quite the spectacle indeed, requiring post-game leveling and a whole lot of strategy to win. If the newly arranged ‘Battle on the Big Bridge’ theme didn’t convince you that old Gilgy means business, his dozens of unique (and often hilarious) attacks and huge HP will.

2. Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master – Black Myth Wukong

In a game as focused on boss fights as Black Myth Wukong, the Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master reigns supreme as the toughest. This centipede human hybrid monstrosity is incredibly hard to dodge and deflect due to its awkward attack positions and strange hit boxes. Every movement it makes seems just a tad bit delayed, and they’re all rather unpredictable. And then there’s the second phase which adds a lightning buff to its attacks for extra measure. There is one item that makes this fight a bit easier though, and that’s the stun-inducing Weaver’s Needle. But whether or not you choose to use the special item, Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master is one of those boss fights that warrants a celebration upon defeat due to its difficulty.

1. Promised Consort Radahn – Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

You didn’t think Shadow of the Erdtree wouldn’t make it on a boss fight list, did you? Well, to no one’s surprise, Elden Ring’s challenging DLC features more than a few tough-as-nails battles, and none are more difficult than the final boss awaiting players at the end. Promised Consort Radahn uses some familiar attacks from the original Radahn fight, but a majority are enhanced by Miquella. The first phase challenges the player against a bevy of gravity-based attacks that ripple multiple times in succession. The second phase is perhaps one of the few boss moments to rival the Malenia fight in the base game. Miquella controls Radahn directly during this second phase, infusing him with deadly Holy elemental buffs and occasionally inflicting an instant death move should the player get caught. Promised Consort Radahn serves as the ultimate conclusion to the DLC, distilling Shadow of the Erdtree’s philosophy on difficulty in one crazy boss fight. No matter the build or level, you’re going to have to fight tooth and nail to even stand an ounce of a chance this Miquella/Radahn duo.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

GSC Game World’s sequel isn’t a particularly challenging survival experience when managing hunger and radiation. However, patience and endurance are key, whether deducing and defusing anomalies, surviving encounters with Mutants or managing your inventory and dealing with the encumbrance. Doing all this without any fast travel is just the cherry on top. The lethality of firearms also goes both ways, ensuring each gunfight could be fatal with proper preparation.

TEKKEN 8 

Post-launch missteps notwithstanding, there’s plenty to love about Tekken 8 itself, and its visuals are high on that list. From the intricately crafted character models and the insanely detailed environments that all of the game’s explosive bouts take place in, to, of course, the fights themselves, everything in the game looks incredibly crisp and high-quality, helping elevating the on-screen action to even greater heights.

]]> 602689 https://gamingbolt.com/enotria-the-last-song-review-a-decent-soulslike-brimming-with-character Mon, 23 Sep 2024 17:38:52 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=599448 Welp, folks, we’ve got another Soulslike game on our hands with Enotria: The Last Song. This Italian themed Soulslike wears its inspirations on its sleave, but it does enough with its systems to avoid feeling too derivative. Enotria’s structure and combat is shamelessly taken from Dark Souls, but its emphasis on build variety and unique Mask Line system stands out as something original. Though Enotria may look like just another cheap Soulslike clone at first glance, its remarkable level design and unique setting help it rise above as a competent game worth checking out.

Before diving into what makes Enotria unique and interesting, let’s go over the litany of bugs that players are experiencing. Before the day-1 patch, the intro cinematic overlaid a death screen preventing players from progressing. This got partially fixed, but still occasionally shows the death screen overlay with mismatched visuals. What makes matters worse is that cutscenes are entirely unskippable, so you have to sit through that glitchy intro no matter what. At least players can skip the tutorial though.

"Bosses and enemies will occasionally stop moving and freeze in place, allowing an easy victory. Hopefully this bug gets fixed."

A common gameplay related bug that I’ve encountered freezes enemies and bosses in place, allowing for an easy unopposed victory. I’ve had enemies freeze in place at least four times during my first save game. Oh yeah, I’ve had to make multiple save slots thanks to random crashes deleting save files. I’ve had this crash file issue happen after the day-1 patch, so even if it’s a rarity, it’s still a potential game breaker for players. Besides these rather substantial bugs, Enotria runs at a consistent 60 fps, and the Graphical setting isn’t too far behind, hovering around at a respectable 40 fps.

You’d think from the sheer amount of bugs and technical issues plaguing Enotria that its graphical fidelity would suffer too, but that’s not the case. Enotria looks visually rich with its application of Unreal Engine 5 portraying a fantastical Italy. The draw distance is surprisingly good and textures on grass and castle walls impress with varied organic patterning and high resolution detail. I particularly like what they’ve done with the lighting. They nailed the atmosphere of the Mediterranean coast-inspired location of Falesia Magna; the place shimmers with salt-soaked rock edifices under a brilliant sun. You really feel the Italian atmosphere in Enotria, whether it’s in a densely compacted medieval hill town or some vibrant Tuscany-like fields.

Enotria manages to straddle the line between realism and vibrant fantasy really well with its color usage. There’s just the right amount of granular detail on clothing and wear on swords to make it feel grounded, mixed with high contrast lighting common in fantasy settings. This rich contrast is represented well with the almost Halloween-esque Monestary of Maja courtyard area. The hues of dark blue and purple contrast the bright sun-lit environments of other areas well, going to show just how diverse Enotria’s locations can be. No two areas look the same, with each of the four major zones portraying a theme and aesthetic wholly unique.

"One of the many Reality Knot checkpoints you’ll come across, allowing fast-travel access and health regeneration."

One of the main ways you’ll be going to and from each area is through the tried and tested fast-travel system. If you’ve played just about any Soulslike, Enotria’s fast travel and ‘bonfire’ system will be all-too familiar. Resting at a Reality Knot (or bonfire in Soulslike parlance) not only heals and resets your healing items and enemy encounters, but grant you the ability to fast travel between Knots. The Reality Knots in Enotria are evenly spaced apart with few instances of the boss lead-up problem some Soulslike games suffer from. I can’t be the only one relieved that I don’t have to travel through an entire town filled with angry enemy mobs just to reach the boss arena from the Knot checkpoint in this game. Along with the decent checkpointing are a fair spread of enemy mobs. I rarely felt unfairly overwhelmed by hordes of enemies like I did in Dark Souls 2, for example. Enotria’s enemy spread is similar to Dark Souls 1, allowing players the option to just run past every enemy to unlock a door or retrieve souls, or Memoria as this game’s experience and currency is called.

Memoria can be used to upgrade armor, weapons, and even your class-like Masks. Masks are what really differentiate Enotria from other games in the genre. There’s a ton of different Masks in the game, all of which confer different attributes and unique buffs. Combining Masks with Mask Lines, which are basically action abilities, allow for a wide variety of builds that you can employ. My issue with Lines is the strong emphasis on affinities in Enotria. A majority of enemies and bosses have a particular affinity, or element, that they exhibit. You will often need to take advantage of their affinity by using an affinity they’re weak to. This is done by infusing your weapon from any of your four Lines. The issue is there’s no visual indicator at-a-glance what affinity is set to which Line. You have to go in the menu and memorize what Line ability is infused with what affinity and what buffs you have equipped to infuse your weapon.

"Enotria’s skill tree covers a wide range of passive and active buffs"

The elemental rock/paper/scissors gameplay could have been awesome if it were more streamlined and easier to discern what affinity you are using. Speaking of affinities, Enotria’s skill tree is rather comprehensive with its various buffs and perks. I mostly avoided playing as an elemental warrior after realizing how much memorization I’d have to waste on the affinity system, but it’s a powerful build option for players who want to go for the battlemage playstyle. Overall, I enjoy the deep well of variety that Enotria’s Mask system allows but find the poor visual indications with affinities cumbersome, not to mention the hit-or-miss moment to moment gameplay.

Combat consists of a light attack, strong attack, and a strong emphasis on parrying. Even with the lightest of swords, your swings feel rather slow and cumbersome to pull off. Heavy attacks with greatswords take forever to connect with enemies, so my usual go-to greatsword build in games like this went out the window thanks to that. Connecting hits lacks viscerality due to lackluster feedback from the visuals and sound effects. Thankfully, a majority of enemies leave recognizable patterns and tells in their attacks, giving the player the opportunity to memorize and parry attacks appropriately, but there’s just something lacking in the viscerality department all the same.

"Combat hinges on an enemy’s break bar, requiring a solid command of parry timings."

I do like the parry/break system inherent in Enotria’s combat though. You inflict a lot of damage by depleting the enemy’s break meter, after which a finishing move can be pulled off for massive damage. The easily telegraphed attacks allowed me to time perfect parries more than other games in the same genre, but some enemies and most bosses just have way too much health despite that convenience. Bosses in particular are so overtuned and unfun to fight a majority of the time because of padded health. It’s not that the bosses in Enotria are super difficult like they are in Shadow of the Erdtree; no, oftentimes, I’d memorize their patterns and learn their parry windows fairly quickly. They just take too long to fight, requiring a great deal of patience and repetitive actions to overcome. Even when I started up a second game with a strong min/max build, bosses still felt a tad too repetitive.

That said, the emphasis on parrying may still delight fans of Sekiro in particular. The dodging in this game is quick and very convenient, and the ability to switch role loadouts in the middle of combat streamlines and opens up gameplay. I just wish swinging your weapon had more swiftness and oomph to it. The running attack is particularly clunky, striking a resemblance to the undead enemies from Dark Souls 1, and that’s not a compliment.

"Enotria’s winding roads and hidden pathways are intricately laid out, often looping in on itself to provide shortcuts."

Intricate level design is where Enotria truly impresses. It was deep within one of the dense Mediterranean locales when I earnestly considered giving this game an 8 out of 10 instead of my final score of 7. You’re constantly finding new shortcuts while looping in on previous areas. The sense of joy upon looping in on the other side of a locked gate rivals Dark Souls 1, a game whose inspiration is immediately made clear. But it’s not just that the Italian city streets and countryside hedge mazes are well designed from a gameplay perspective, they’re populated with various doodads and props that  enrichen each environment even further. The set dressing is simply brimming with liveliness in Enotria, even if most of it can’t be interacted with. I cannot stress enough how satisfying some of the stage design is in Enotria, and it’s pretty dang consistent with its quality too.

Unfortunately, the game does a very poor job of guiding the player where to go in between these brilliant labyrinthian stages. After the first major boss of the game, you’re expected to return to the very first location of the game where a gate randomly opens the way forward. A day 1 patch added a brief cutscene showing the gate opening, but even that confused players because you encounter multiple similar-looking gates leading up to the first major boss fight. A majority of Soulslike games guide the player through NPC dialogue or cleverly placed item descriptions, and while Enotria does indeed have these things, it doesn’t use them to give the player hints of where to go. Considering how organic and dense the levels are themselves, it’s disappointing how you just warp between major zones rather than traverse there yourself. Despite excellent levels in and of themselves, Enotria exhibits poor logical flow between levels and even worse guidance of how to proceed forward.

"Pulcinella acts as your tour guide throughout Enotria’s narrative. Though, he’s not the only curious character you’ll encounter."

Lastly, there’s the plot and story of Enotria. There’s not much to talk about here, but if you like the usual Fromsoft Souls method of storytelling, you’ll be at home within Enotria. The opening cinematic, when it’s not glitched, even lays out the lineup of the game’s biggest players and most noteworthy adversaries with dramatic narration. You have a recuring companion character named Pulcinella who prodes you on and gives you context to what you’re doing. Most of the deeper lore is found in Compendium entries scattered throughout the various nooks and crannies of Enotria’s dense environs. There’s even a bestiary that updates as you defeat more of a particular enemy, which goes further than most Soulslikes. But don’t expect much in the way of character development or riveting cutscenes here, this is a dyed in the wool Soulslike game without any attempt to push its storytelling further.

Despite my issues with game breaking bugs and questionable guidance in between levels, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Enotria’s fantastical Soulslike version of Italy. The looping shortcuts and dense environments are deserving of praise with how expertly crafted they are. I simply adored exploring these Italian-laden environments and wish some of the gameplay elements shined as brightly. Combat can feel clunky at times, but isn’t a deal-breaker for me. If the team can fix the remaining bugs and clean up the at-a-glance affinity issues I had, Enotria can easily be an 8 out of 10 game, but as it currently stands, it’s a rather enjoyable, though flawed Soulslike.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The decision to make those inside details public certainly seems to have worked for the studio. Taking to Twitter, Jyamma Games revealed that in the wake of its delay announcement and the reaction it prompted from audiences, Microsoft has finally got in touch with the studio, and the two are “now working closely” to bring the game to Xbox. 

“We would like to officially thank [Microsoft Gaming CEO] Phil Spencer and his team for reaching out to us so promptly and helping to resolve our situation,” the studio wrote. “We would also like to thank our amazing community for all the support shown in recent days. Your voice has been heard very loud and clear, and your commitment has been heartwarming.

“We are now working closely with Microsoft, and we hope this collaboration will lead to the game’s release for Xbox as soon as possible.”

Of course, when Enotria will be able to release for Xbox Series X/S is still unknown, but at the very least, we know that progress is being made on that front. 

In the meantime, Enotria: The Last Song will launch on September 19 for PS5 and PC. 

The developer has announced that the Xbox version has been delayed indefinitely. Despite its “best efforts and the hard work of our dedicated team,” there have been “challenges” with the release. It said the delay is “not a decision we’ve made lightly.”

Though the developer didn’t explicitly state as such, the Xbox Series S may be holding back the release. A similar situation occurred with Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 as it faced issues getting split-screen co-op to run on the console. It eventually had to drop it to launch in December 2023.

A similar situation occurred with Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong, which faced delays due to more polish required for the Xbox Series X/S version. Once again, it didn’t specify whether the Series S caused issues, and there have been mixed reports about some exclusivity deal with Sony. As always, stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.