![]() They are frightening and powerful, but they aren't out of reach. #Half life blue shift unlocked skinYou construct a routine to harvest them more efficiently, even wearing their own skin to optimise the process. Compare this to Monster Hunter, where the monsters – no matter how menacing or large – are resources. Beat them, and you're erasing an irreplaceable being. As soon as that health bar pops up, it's a signal that you've got to prove you can survive a gauntlet with a creature that demands excellence. Spectral beings and dog statues that orbit an all-powerful tree. Meanwhile, Monster Hunter's tussles are messy psychological scraps which can last for up to an hour, where the challenge lies more in unpicking a beast's behaviour and knowing that it's just as vulnerable as I am: the person bashing them over the head with a honkin' great hammer.Įlden Ring's bosses are deities and rulers. At all times you can see the finish line dangling under your nose and the key is – quite literally – hit the baddy and not get hit by the baddy. Elden Ring's bosses want you to feel like you're up against insurmountable odds and uses its health bars as a tool to both apply pressure and encourage bravery. Literal scraps of monster litter the landscape after you've been in a proper scuffle.īoth games view challenge differently, I think. Make those numbers pop up, though, and they'll start to tire and wobble and even flee the scene entirely! Elden Ring's bosses do nothing of the sort, only ever growing stronger if you chip them down enough. And as you learn to follow your gut, you learn that the monster's behaviour is the equivalent of that red health bar and the complete rejection of it too.Īt first, monsters in Monster Hunter are like athletes who are taught not to give anything away emotionally, soaking up blows as if it's nothing. #Half life blue shift unlocked how toBut then you learn to follow your intuition and figure out how to make those big orange numbers appear, which is the first step from amateur trapper to Gon Freecs. At first, it's a weirdly esoteric process, where you're barraged with 7 and 31 and 14 and have no means to glean their meaning, apart from occasionally turning orange if you've tickled a weak spot. You smack their scales and some damage numbers pop up. At the most basic level, it tells me how much pain I'm dishing out with every blow, but beyond this it's also a timer that doesn't tick down unless I act upon it a reminder that if I'm to emerge the victor, I've got to punch the hourglass and get that sand to budge.īig lizards in Monster Hunter Rise don't have health bars. In the thick of battle, I'm not only ducking and weaving between some claws, I'm also gleaning info from a horizontal strip of red. But it's something that I've become much more aware of since I've bounced between Monster Hunter Rise and the Lands Between. Of course, the health bar isn't a feature exclusive to Elden Ring – I get that. Either you'll see a nice big chunk evaporate, at which point you'll be charged with renewed energy, or you'll barely witness a dent in it, at which point you'll probably fling your arms open and accept death's warm embrace. You'll clip the boss with your halberd and watch closely to see if the health bar reacts in the way you'd like. Wander through a fog door in Elden Ring – or any Souls game – and you'll be met with a horrible thing and its equally horrible health bar. And I reckon much of their differences come down to the simple health bar, or lack of it. Since I've been playing Monster Hunter Rise, which is largely a succession of ever escalating boss fights with big lizards, I've begun comparing these scuffles with Elden Ring's boss battles. And, of course, the tricky boss fights with deformed dragons and Fell Omens from the West Country. Or a bald man cackling as he kicks you down a hole. ![]() Think FromSoftware and your mind instantly flits to a skeleton doing a forward roll doesn't it? Or an electrified goat that rolls. ![]()
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