TobbRobb

@exploiteddna: Haha, I didn't expect a tip of mine to be read this far down the line. :D

Kinda funny, I played some Witcher 3 early this year and had to relearn this exact thing. Stupid trophy merchant.

While things like the Subnautica monsters and the Amnesia things are appropriate (very strong) answers. It's not quite in the spirit for me, I tend to just avoid horror games and that helpless/anxious feeling. They successfully make me anxious, but I also don't really play them. Perhaps that's just to their credit.

I have a bit of a weird relationship with more action focused anxiety. That overwhelming feeling when you get pressured by a very powerful enemy or swarmed by hard to handle smaller ones is strong. But it dissipates as you play more.

I know Gracious and Glorious from Bayonetta used to stress me out HARD, but now they are probably my favorite enemy to fight, they really encapsulate the dancing flow of the game.

Same effect with a lot of Souls enemies. The Cyclops in Nioh I found very stressful to deal with, but I can play that game in my sleep now. I guess if we are talking about examples that stand the test of time and experience, I am kind of blanking.

Big city life, so it really doesn't matter. They are all fine here. I just go to whatever is closest and has a good time for the movie I want to see. Very convenient.

Either DMC 5 or Fire Emblem. I think if we are only comparing DMC and Three Houses then DMC wins.

But honestly, the vast majority of this year has been FE colored. I've played through Three Houses twice, Awakening, Shadow Dragon, Path of Radiance, Binding Blade and I'm halfway through Radiant Dawn. And it's been an absolute blaaaaast.

There's maybe two or three games I would consider higher quality or that I like better overall. But Dark Souls had by far the biggest impact on me. It's just incomparable. That game changed me as a person, largely for the better. And I can't think of any other media that even comes close.

Looking at the rest of the thread, it's not the most original answer. But man, that game is very special, and back then, even more so.

It was only really the top 5 that I put the time I wanted into, because they were SO GOOD. The bottom half I think are good but I either haven't finished or don't feel done with.

But here's the list

1. Devil May Cry 5 (Absolutely amazing, favorite action game ever)
2. RE2MAKE (Easily my favorite Resident Evil, even above 4)
3. Sekiro (Really satisfying combat and exploration, unfortunately low replayability)
4. Fire Emblem Three Houses (consumed the largest portion of my time this year, kickstarted a bizarre retro rampage through the franchise)
5. Bloodstained (Super fun metroidvania, closest we've ever been to the feel of SOTN)
6. Tetris 99 (It's tetris)
7. The Outer Worlds (Good writing in an rpg, weirdly nostalgic)
8. Astral Chain (Fun Platinum game)
9. River City Girls (Just a good beatemup)
10. Total War Three Kingdoms (A refreshing update on Total War. My favorite version of the genre/franchise so far)

Nioh has a bit of an awkward difficulty curve. It starts off very hard, then it only gets easier and easier up until about the 85% mark, and then the last couple of missions are fairly difficult. The very last one being a notable spike.

Arguably Hino-Enma is top 3 hardest bosses in the entire game for a first playthrough. I think everyone gets destroyed by her initially. I know it took me 20 something tries as well. Most of the midgame bosses I did on first or second try. That's the difference we are talking about here.

And yeah I think the game requires faster reflexes than Souls. Maybe comparable to bloodborne, but I think BB maybe has a more forgiving window for dodging (and definitely more forgiving healing).

All this said, you can probably build or overlevel yourself out of your problems to a decent extent. If you pick up higher level equipment sets from phantoms on the floor and abuse the set bonuses you get from Warrior of the West or other common early game sets, you can definitely feel more powerful much faster.

You could either bulk up quite a bit so you can survive more mistakes, or you could try more of a glass cannon thing. As a glass cannon you can actually play very safe. Just focus on dodging and only go for single safe hits when you know its ok. You will do about as much damage in that one safe hit as you do risking your life by wailing on the enemy with a lower damage build. Killing the enemy faster results in less chances for it to try and kill you overall.

As for my personal opinion. While the game's setting is very cool, and it's fun to have a really good samurai game. Nioh is 95% mechanics to me. The combat is everything. I don't necessarily think it's worth playing for the setting or the story alone. You kinda have to be in for the gameplay to enjoy it. It turns into a HUGE slog otherwise because of the sheer length of it. And updates on storybeats just get less common as you go.

Honestly. Since I pretty much never get rid of old books or games, and I've been working on rapidly increasing my backlog stack for AT LEAST 10 years now. I will actually legitimately never run out of something to play or read even if my two most modern playing devices and my internet broke at the same time. So I honestly don't need a backup hobby. I've got corporate 4G internet I can use as well so I technically have a backup for my connnection too..... This question is weirdly unrealistc to me, which, uh, I'll try not to think too hard about what that means.

All that said. If my PC would break, the first thing I would do is try and fix it as much as I could as soon as I could. Not because I need to go back to games, but rather because it would bug me that I had a broken computer in the house when my job is making sure computers aren't broken.

If that then ends up being a thing where I have to wait for parts to deliver or shops to open or whatever. Then I'm p likely to just do house work or something, might as well. If I want to fix somehing it's much harder to relax and play games, so I'd rather do something constructive that demands at least a little concentration.

The egg mechanic sucks

It's basically when I have to concentrate to an extreme level, especially in a competitive game. I can play fighting games and hardcore action games without sweating most of the time. But it's those rare particular instances of just INTENSE moments where the palms start slipping. It's more common when I'm first learning how to play a particular game or genre.