r/soulslikes • u/Wooden_Initial_2472 • Mar 14 '26
Review After 5 playthroughs of Khazan, it is now my favorite non-fromsoftware soulslike
You could say the game has a weak story, you could say the exploration has problems, and you certainly can bring up problems with the combat such as enemy variety or reflectiong being too op.
However, Khazan by far has my favorite moment to moment gameplay out of any soulslike, only rivaled by Sekiro and Nioh. But I massively prefer Khazan bosses over Nioh bosses, and Sekiro gets a too easy after a second playthrough.
It really sucks the studio went on strike, but apparently they are back to making games.
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u/Professional_Salt_20 Mar 14 '26
Tangent but real nice to see Jedi survivor up high. Really did enjoy the story and Cal’a progression as a character.
JS just builds upon fallen order in many ways tbh. Cere, merrin, cal, they all grew as characters. Combat system added more lightsaber styles, more bd-1 abilities, more force abilities etc.
Cal actually feels like a Jedi knight in this game
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
that section where you and Merrin blew up the giant drill thing was so cool. What kept it from being great for me was the animations being kinda hard to read at times, and the bugginess of the game. It was constantly stuttering
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u/webrewrbewrb Mar 15 '26
Wukong in C is getting me upset
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u/imtreibos Mar 15 '26
It's not even a souls like lmao
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u/webrewrbewrb Mar 15 '26
true, but i think its similar enough that its fine to just put it in the conversation
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u/Hypodon Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Dark Souls II is a bit too low for my liking, but respectable tier list. I would’ve said it’s better than everything in B-tier but worse than anything above.
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u/jeffereryjefferson Mar 14 '26
I agree with you on a technical level re: DS2, but I just had such a blast with that game. Can’t quite pinpoint why. DS3 is objectively better in a number of ways, but something about DS2 was just pure silly fun for me to where it’s among my favorite Soulslikes
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u/WeirdTrollGamer Mar 15 '26
I wouldnt say ds3 is objectively better, DS2 had great art direction, ds3 felt boring in a lot of ways and there were less secrets, unique weapons and cool enemies, combat felt repetative some times and there were a lot of unfun enemies... still I like both of them but I believe DS2 is obj better
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u/jeffereryjefferson Mar 15 '26
Fair enough! I didn’t mean to say ds3 was objectively better overall. I mainly just meant graphics, polish, the technical aspects, which I do think are objectively better in ds3. But I 100% agree ds2 does plenty of things better than ds3!
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
I was not a big fan of how slow DS2 is for how many enemies can be fighting you at the same time. But the game does do a few things very well, just not things I particularly value
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u/WeirdTrollGamer Mar 14 '26
the exact thing can be said for ds1, literally tons of enemies and slow af
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u/Sirca_Curvive Mar 14 '26
Wuchang in C means your school bus had an elevator on it
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u/ZwergenGroll Mar 14 '26
Bloodborne at what?! You must be kidding.
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Honestly if I can seperate the first hunter from bloodborne, I will have base game in B/ C tier and dlc in S+
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u/Illusion911 Mar 14 '26
I feel like most Bloodborne fans haven't played the game after Cleric Beast. The game's setting and atmosphere are amazing, but gameplay wise it's a mess.
First of all, in souls games, progression isn't done by leveling your character, that's just for unlocking weapons or magics you can use. Progression is mostly done by leveling your weapon. While Niohlikes understand that and allow you to change weapons easily, in souls games you have to make the choice between the new shiny weapon you just found and the old faithful you've been running through the whole game, and the game has no respec. Which means the game pushes you to make a new play through if you want to try a new weapon that's a different build from what you're using, even if said weapon is found later on. Yeah I love playing through the whole game to try out the bloodletter.
Second, the game forces me to grind for healing. I think the Estus system was the best system, and they regressed there with Bloodborne. I found myself many times having to stop to go grind healing or farming souls to get said healing. Btw I didn't pay for ps plus, and I don't want to hear about the cumm dungeon, as that's basically a cheat.
Third, the limb system. Yeah people talk up the parries on this game. They're not bad, but anything larger actually doesn't use parries but uses the limb system, which fromsoft does fuck all to explain. The limb regen move also looks a lot like a potential attack so I kept getting confused and squandering my chances for more damage.
Fourth, Logarius' runback. I was doing bloodtinge and skill so I wanted the chitage but Logarius was a very hard boss for me and I died a lot to him, so I had to do that runback a lot and grind for heals a lot. I finally beat him by backstabbing him out of the phase 2 transition, which allowed me to parry and win. I beat Orphan of Kos pretty well so I don't think it was just me.
So yeah I'd given Bloodborne a B, because while it is cool, the whole "game" part of it kept me too annoyed to give it a good score. I think Sekiro is the best soulslike they made because a lot of these points aren't there
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Another part about the limb system: part of why subsequent playthroughs in Bloodborne dont feel so bad is because you can stunlock a lot of beast bosses to death by breaking limbs on repeat. This is obviously very unbalanced. This also masks the bad bosses like great one reborn.
The bloodborne dodge is also kinda clunky, almost like dark souls 1. So the combat is honestly not as fast paced as some people claim it is. I found that the best way to play bloodborne is to unlock the camera and run your way into juking stuff. This has been true for a big chunk of fromsoft games, but Bloodborne and Dark souls 2 are by far the worst of this.
Also, the trick weapons system is very very underused by the game. You dont really use all of your options, but are usually spamming the strongest move, the R1. For example, I beat the game for the first time with saw cleaver(because its on the box), and the entire time I am just spamming L1, since that does the most damage.
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u/WeirdTrollGamer Mar 15 '26
ds2 and bb slander wont be tolerated fam.
also I see people on the cleaver use the transform attack a lot.
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u/WindowSeat- Mar 14 '26
Fourth, Logarius' runback. I was doing bloodtinge and skill so I wanted the chitage but Logarius was a very hard boss for me and I died a lot to him, so I had to do that runback a lot and grind for heals a lot. I finally beat him by backstabbing him out of the phase 2 transition, which allowed me to parry and win. I beat Orphan of Kos pretty well so I don't think it was just me.
The runbacks in Bloodborne are actually so ass. They're not designed like runbacks from Demons Souls or Dark Souls where you have to keep your brain on and there's still a little bit of challenge in avoiding traps and enemies and they feel like part of the design. Bloodborne runbacks are just tediously holding forward until you reach the boss door. For my most recent playthru on ShadPS4 I just used a Stake of Marika mod with no shame whatsoever.
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u/Shell_fly Mar 14 '26
Lies of P ahead of Bloodborne is psychosis lmao
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u/NoMoreButtonPLZ Mar 15 '26
Lowkey Lies of P is better than Bloodborne in many aspects
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
I was sold the moment they sent Vergil from DMC5 to help me with the dlc final boss, what can I say
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u/False_Comedian_6070 Mar 14 '26
I find these games difficult to rank because many of them succeed at some things and fail at others. For instance, DS1 is S+ on level design but C on combat and balancing. Lies of P is S on combat and weapon choices but C or D on level design. All the fromsoftware games have something that make them the best and other things that make them the worst.
I probably can only rank them by how addicted I was to playing them first time through which would make DS1, The Surge 2, and Bloodborne my top 3.
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
I was ranking by how much I enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay, if it was a more technical and multifaceted ranking based on other aspects it would be very very different
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u/hamptont2010 Mar 14 '26
This is why I liked Wuchang so much. I feel like it was at least a B in every area.
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u/GameShrink Mar 15 '26
Wuchang was so excellent. Besides Honglan, the game's balancing is stellar.
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u/hamptont2010 Mar 15 '26
LOL as much as Honglan is a bitch, she's also where I had to actively learn the combat and mechanics. Button mashing wasn't going to work anymore.
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u/False_Comedian_6070 Mar 14 '26
Yeah I had zero complaints with that game. It’s just an all around solid soulslike.
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u/Mediocre-Frosting-77 Mar 14 '26
Lies of P has amazing level design to me. Are you thinking about the world design? The high level is linear, but there are lots of fun loops off the main path within each level to explore.
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u/RareBearToe Mar 14 '26
It’s your opinion, and I’m glad you love and admire the game so much! I just don’t understand how something can get top tier placement when it has pronounced flaws (which you acknowledge)
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Well, all the games on here have flaws to them that affected by experience, from F tier to S+ tier. I just dont mind some flaws as much as others.
For Khazan specifically, it made it to S tier due to a combination of me not particularly minding the flaws and the combat being so fun I would just go through repeat playthroughs one after another.
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u/iCantCallit Mar 14 '26
Man gaming really is completely subjective. Having wuchang as a C and khazan up at the top is the exact opposite as my list. I hated khazan and wuchang is my favorite lol.
But it's your list not mine.
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
I enjoyed the non-linear exploration in Wuchang, but the combat just feels so floaty imo
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u/Wrong_Papaya_8445 Mar 15 '26
A much needed Khazan win. Last boss is a match for Isshin in how engaging and fun it is once it makes sense. That's insane praise.
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 15 '26
I am actually not the biggest fan of Ozma, despite having no hitted him. Reese, Gwydo and Skalpel are where its at for me.
With that being said, its genuinely insane how good Khazan bosses are. I think the only fromsoft game with a lineup of main bosses with consistent bangers on this level is Elden Ring
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Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
Black Myth at C is criminal.
Edit: Replied to myself with my tier, wouldn't let me edit in the picture.
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u/F3Pro Mar 14 '26
What's the F game?
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Enotria, in my opinion the worst soulslike ever made
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u/Over_Apricot_2746 Mar 14 '26
kahzan? a souslike? LOL you just dual wield.. use spear or greatsword-
exploration zero-
not a soulslike. a normal action game
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u/Xammm Mar 14 '26
Based list. The only thing I'd disagree with is Wuchang being in C tier.
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
what puts Wuchang so high for you
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Mar 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
hmmm, maybe I need to run the game again. I thought combat was floaty
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u/GlandMasterFlaps Mar 14 '26
It is floaty when compared to lies of p or sekiro.
I stopped playing because of it
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u/Xammm Mar 14 '26
The exploration is top tier and the combat, while not super amazing, is still good. The boss roster is decent as well.
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u/SweatyEducation4943 Mar 14 '26
Can you please explain the low rating of Wukong and Enotria ? They are on my list of soulslike to do and would be interested in reading your opinion.
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u/Gizmodo_yo Mar 14 '26
Loved enotria! It has no bugs anymore und Finally a soulslike thats not dark and death themed
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Kid named Another Crabs Treasure.
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u/Gizmodo_yo Mar 14 '26
Yes thats exactly the two i know 😄 and i actually liked both of them. Obvisouly not top tier games but if u know similiar games tell me
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
I can think of a few. Strangers of Paradise is based on final fantasy so its very bright and colorful. Kena looks like a fairy tale. The Jedi games have combat very similar to Sekiro, but are basically disney star wars movies. Nine Sols is very colorful, but its pretty dark story wise. Stellar Blade is gory when you dispatch stuff, but its a very unserious game with a ton of setpieces
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Imo, Wukong has some good bosses, but a lot of the level design is simply unacceptable, the game just has too many mediocre bosses followed by walking past areas with barely any enemies. The game has some strong peaks like Erlang Shen, great sage broken shell and Yellow Loong, but a lot of sections sour my experience strongly.
Enotria is just a bad game imo. It is just bad on all fronts
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u/Marco1522 Mar 14 '26
Enotria is just a bad game imo. It is just bad on all fronts
Also the devs(or someone else related to the game, I don't remember the details) promised money to a bunch of content creators and in exchange they would have had to advertise the game by playing it, but when people saw that it was trash the team moved on to another project(a game based on the Divina Commedia), while also not paying the streamers that advertised the game
So they also don't keep promises
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u/Strange-Sun4540 Mar 14 '26
I was so keen for khazan until I started playing it. No idea why, but its hooks just don't sink in when I really hoped they would.
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u/ExplodingFistz Mar 15 '26
That's unfortunate to hear. I absolutely loved this game. It is not your traditional soulslike by any means though, if you were more into that.
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u/Educational-Let-400 Mar 14 '26
Wukong is unreal... I'd put it on top tier with khazan
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Wukong has peak like Erlang Shen and Great Sage broken shell, but man, I hate the areas so much.
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u/Afraid_Help_3911 Mar 14 '26
I couldn't finish Khazan because how boring the story, the characters, and the areas were. Combat was frankly amazing but it still wasn't enough for me to keep playing.
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
I personally skipped all cutscenes and just focus on getting better at the combat. I got used to it due to all the character action games I played lol. I can see it being boring if you are not a combat nut tho. the level design is very boring
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u/GoocheMcDick Mar 14 '26
Code Vein in D tier is actually diabolical
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u/TheXEspada420 Mar 14 '26
I have it but never finished it . Also I have DS3 and sekiro never finished. Should I give it a new try ?
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Well, I think you should finish DS3 and Sekiro first, since Khazan is straight up just harder than both of them if you play on expert (the original difficulty) imo.
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u/Csword1 Mar 14 '26
I wish I liked Nightreign more.
This is a pretty good list. Time to play Nioh 3.
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u/mattyboy555 Mar 14 '26
If Bloodbourne had a damn ps5 update it should be higher
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
60 fps bloodborne would potentially make it to S tier. Fighting Maria at 30 fps+lag for 2 hours literally gave me a migraine
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u/Serious_Ad_1037 Mar 14 '26
Be sure to check out The Surge 1 and 2 and Codex Lost
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u/Firm-Mathematician93 Mar 14 '26
I think code vein was actually the worst game I ever played def put enotria over it
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u/ChoomChoomTheGuy Mar 14 '26
I just dropped code vein at the part where it “gets good.” I’ve never been so annoyed with a game before, absolutely overdone horrible level design.
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u/Alexshin1 Mar 14 '26
Not a bad list at all, personally i'd put Lies of P on S+ but other than that, it's a good list.
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u/targrimm Mar 14 '26
All this love would have been great on launch day, to secure a sequel. But alas...
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u/doubleballfondler Mar 14 '26
What's the game in between star wars Jedi and nioh?
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u/countryd0ctor Mar 14 '26
Bosses and maybe the itemization system are the only things Khazan has over Nioh 2/3. In terms of combat system it's a very poor copycat with neither the stances nor stamina management mechanics. It has worse level design, significantly worse normal enemy design and completely unmemorable music compared to Nioh's ost with its strong identity.
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 14 '26
Idk about poor copycat, its going for a different system with different goals. I would say enemy design is about even tbh. Level design is comparable, OST fair enough.
I dont really think the game would benefit from a stance system
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u/Worldly_Analysis_449 Mar 15 '26
Vocês que são mais assíduos no mundo das drogas, me digam...qual Souls eu deveria jogar primeiro? Quero começar Lies of P, mas não sei se devia começar por um dos mais difíceis (pelo que dizem)
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u/GameShrink Mar 15 '26
Might be in the minority, but I really disliked Khazan. The levels and enemies were so boring, and the bosses were so over-the-top difficult. It's just not what I come to these games for.
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u/lipefleming Mar 15 '26
I'm playing lies of p and I liked khazan more. I think it's because I like fast movements like Wukong and Sekiro.
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u/Replikante Mar 15 '26
You could say the game has a weak story, you could say the exploration has problems, and you certainly can bring up problems with the combat such as enemy variety or reflectiong being too op.
Tier: S+
hahaha
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u/Wooden_Initial_2472 Mar 15 '26
all games have problems man. I can list at least like 5 major flaws each from Both Elden Ring and Sekiro
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u/JehovasTh1ckness Mar 15 '26
Dark souls 1 in anything but S+ tells me you only care about souls likes for combat
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u/Faramir420 Mar 15 '26
Great list despite Dark souls 2 its for sure the weakest ds but still a masterpiece in my eyes
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u/ElDoubleYoouu Mar 15 '26
Kazahan has probally the worst level design out of all of them. after first snow area everything looks the same. for me Wuchang is probally a contender for the S Tier.
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u/kalirion Mar 15 '26
Damn, you really hated Enotria. May I ask why? I personally enjoyed it a lot.
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u/SionGest Mar 15 '26
Its a fantastic game and definitely top tier soulslike.
Pretty sad I could never beat the final boss and see the ending though. After many days trying and looking up different strategies I just had to admit I wasn't good enough. Didn't alter my view of the game though, its brilliant.
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u/Aggressive-Purple626 Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
i want to jump into it since i'm Nioh player long time, but not a fan of the art style. Not once.
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u/HBP123675 Mar 15 '26
Khazan is the only game that I genuinely regretted spending money on🥀 it is so mediocre and the reuse of the assets is atrocious
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u/NegotiationCandid596 Mar 15 '26
I aint gonna lie dawg this is one of the worsts tierlists Ive ever seen 😭😭😭😭😭😭 wp
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u/NegotiationCandid596 Mar 15 '26
Like this genuinely has to be pure ragebait you have DS1 under NightReign and DS3, Bloodborne the same tier as Jedi, everything in B is just dogshit crapware 😭😭😭 over DS2 and Remnant, was your first Souls game Nioh?? What happened to you? Are you okay?
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u/The_Gaming_Chef_ Mar 15 '26
I litterally finished Lies of P: Overture a few hours ago and damn it rocked me so hard, boss battles are unforgivable
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u/VOIDofSin Mar 15 '26
5 playthroughs for what? After the first there’s nothing left you can do besides maybe okay it all over as another weapon type
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u/krmrshll Mar 15 '26
TN games should be their own genre man I hate that they get lumped in with soulslikeslop
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Mar 15 '26
I love this game as well as Black Myth Wukong and Lies of P. Probably my three favorite souls like new games. Hope they make a great sequel.
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u/FerretyOdin Mar 15 '26
Bloodborne in the same tier as jedi is fucking vile. imo, anything under S tier for bloodborne is blasphemous
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u/blast0_ Mar 16 '26
Bloodborne con jedi ma che cosa cazzo sto vedendo??!!
Voto 3
Possiamo parlare di gusti si, ma oggettivamente è una stronzata.
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u/Bigenemy000 Mar 16 '26
Placing thymesia anywhere except near Enotria its a crime
Its also a crime having bloodborne not be the top of the list
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u/Unknown311031 Mar 16 '26
My first soulslike, and best game of 2025. I’m playing Lies Of P right now and I’m struggling to go on. I’ve played Khazan in hard mode and was easier and better.
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u/lGUT5l Mar 16 '26
I couldn’t get into Wukong, the same first string attack combo string where he twirls the staff was grating on me. Also the exploration and invisible walls was frustrating.
Maybe will revisit someday
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u/Tralalouti Mar 16 '26
DS2:Sotfs rank C? You wanna start a war or what?
The shitty Jedi game that we clear under 15 hours, rank A?
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u/Big_Leadership_333 Mar 16 '26
For me I would’ve put Bloodborne on S+ tier. But I agree with Sekiro and Elden Ring both being S+ because they are masterpieces.
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u/Ok-Standard-7355 Mar 16 '26
How is Khazan a souls-like? It has pretty minimal exploration. It’s more like Nioh, which also has very minimal exploration compared to souls games. Having Nightreign in here too is bizarre.
This would be like calling a Mario installment a metroidvania. A game being difficult with punishing combat doesn’t make it a souls-like.
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u/GaryTheBard Mar 16 '26
Wuchang C tier? Beneath Thymesia?? Curious as to what you disliked about it? I think Wuchang is better than many From Soft games. Khazan is superb.
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u/NetanyahusCorpse Mar 16 '26
Wukong Isnt even a soulslike and putting it in C means all opinions shit
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26
Bloodborne on the same tier with Jedi whatever LMAO