u/Old-Pizza-9443

So, I've been playing it for about 50 hours or so, and I'm stuck at the Clown boss at Rose Street. I don't think I'm going to be able to go over this fight.

I'm slow. I'm legit slow, I have bad reaction times and poor coordination, I normally don't play these sort of games. I've played Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but as mage builds and bonk builds, but mostly I play turn based games. I can't do well on things that require precision.

It's been a very slow going. And I've been at the Clown for the past 10 hours, can only play like an hour or two a day at most, so it's all very slow.

I'm not sure how I managed to get this far, but I can't perfect guard unless by accident and I can't seem to dodge either. I just hold the block button and occasionally hit things with the Pipe wrench for guard reduction.

I've shelved both Hollow Knights, WoLong and BLackmyth this year for requiring too much precision and reaction, is Lies of P more of the same?

I really like the art, music and story of the game so far, it's legit interesting, but often feels like these types of games are designed for specific folks with tuned abilities.

Am I going to be stuck doing chip damage with this weapon for the whole game?

I'm going for a traditional knight sword and board run and the damage is bad. Like crazy bad.

I don't want to constantly apply buffs every I fight something, that gets very old very fast for me.

Would it be better to go for a bleed infusion?

I've recently been playing some non-FromSoftware Souls-likes, and while I've enjoyed some very much (Khazan), there were others that left me with a bit of a sour taste.

One is Lies of P, endlessly praised. I've tried to get into it several times, and until they added difficulty options, I never really saw myself completing it; the stats, P-organ, and weapons never really clicked for me. The game demanded a high skill entry for parrying and dodging, which I suck at.

And it just kept reminding me of how great FromSoftware is at adjusting difficulty in a lot of their games. I played these games from Demon Souls to Elden Ring. While they are hard and challenging, the devs have always made sure to accommodate players of various levels of skill.

You don't have to dodge/parry a single time in these games if you don't want to, and you will still win, because you can focus on using big shields, with big armor and a big bonk. Or if melee is too difficult for you, then you can make insane magic builds that delete enemies from afar.

When I played Dark Souls 1 for the first time, it was with big armor, great shields, and various spears for shield poking, and I utilized summons every time I found them. I don't even remember dodging the first time around; I just blocked everything.

It's honestly great to have this level of accommodation to different players. You can always play these games in harder ways, using fewer tools and coming up with restrictions later when you feel more skilled or knowledgeable about these games. Or not, just go make an all-powerful mage and delete every boss in the game!

I think this element, which is often ignored or forgotten, is one of the reasons these games are so incredible. Especially Elden Ring, which should be celebrated for taking this approach to difficulty to its apex.

I don't really like Soulslikes made by other studios because they fail to do what made DarkSouls/Elden Ring popular. Which is letting players of different skillsets play their games.

DarkSouls/Elden Ring doesn't require you to parry or dodge, you can focus on heavy armor, shields, shield poking or even magic builds if you aren't good at melee at all.

But non FromSoft Soulslikes are really hostile to players, except for the truly hardcore. I'm not good at games with reaction times and generally avoid them at all costs.

I've tried Lies of P recently, and it's a perfect of example of why I don't like soulslikes.

Aren't there any soulslikes that actually capture the approachability of FromSoft's Souls games?

So, I'm getting fairly exhausted of the game once again. I'm at the black rabbit gang fight on Malum and I'm getting very tired of the game.

I did a motivity build to rely on Guard. Been using the pipe wrench with baton combo and this just doesn't work. I block, block block and block and can barely get off a hit. But I need the guard boost because I can't perfect guard since I have the reaction time of a mollusk.

Is there a playstyle for people that are impaired in the reaction time department? Souls games have turtle builds or magic builds exactly for folks like me. Where are those in this game?

So, I tried Lies of P sometime ago, but I bounced off it because the game wasn't connecting with me all that much.

But I want to give it another go. I should start by saying that I've played every recent FromSoftware title except Bloodborne because of no pc port. From Demon Souls to Elden Ring. I've played Sekiro as well, and it's a favorite of mine, getting all endings and beating all bosses on NG+.

I've come to the conclusion that Lies of P is more akin to Sekiro, but the deflection window feels weird to me. I miss where I feel I shouldn't have. And I find dodging useless here, much like Sekiro; it's slow and clunky; I don't like it.

But most importantly, it feels like my damage is really, and I mean really, low. I was able to beat the Parade Master without too much hassle; it took only a few attempts, and I could deflect most attacks. Now I'm stuck at the Scrapped Watchman boss, and here I'm struggling. I'm still trying to learn to deflect everything and avoid that grab attack that somehow I have a hard time reading. But most importantly, my damage is incredibly low.

I picked Technique and have been using the rapier and the electric mace; I forget the name. Both are at +2 upgrades. And I'm doing the equivalent of chip damage; I have to deflect perfectly to guard break him and go for a crit for decent damage. I'm also playing on Legendary Stalker difficulty, I think, since it said it was the intended difficulty, and I'm not new to Souls games.

I'm not looking for guides since I find that guides ruin games for me. I just want some pointers and clarifications on the game's core systems.

Sword and board is my beloved, but I'm looking for something different. I've done it with square off and shield, which sort of negates the shield, but whatever. I've done with hammers and axes. I want something new and strange that hopefully I can carry all the way to PCR.