video games – Gamer Peak

Martyr Logarius: An Unskilled Guide

When discussing “what is the hardest boss in Bloodborne?”, you cannot expect the same answer from everyone. If you miss a trick with an ‘easier’ boss, then it will feel harder to you. If someone confidentially claims one boss is hardest, players around them will be quick to agree/offer up who they think is hardest/explain why that boss isn’t actually hard at all.

For a long time, Martyr Logarius was my hardest boss. By the end of the first playthrough, I had not completed the Chalice Dungeons and DLC, and he remained at the top of my list. He was the only one I doubted I could beat on my next playthrough.

Even when I beat him once, I was not confident. By the end of my second win, I knew how I’d beaten him, and I think I can get you there too.

As always, if I can do it so can you!

Preparation

This is an optional midgame boss. There’s nothing making you come here, and there’s especially nothing wrong with waiting a few extra bosses and levels to take a shot or come back later after a few boss and extra levels.

I had a stack of Bolt Paper to thin his health a little faster.

Other than that, just take your time getting back to him. The run across the rooftops is an uncomfortable way to get to a boss. It always left me unsettled.

Tactics

Part 1 – Phase 1: When you first arrive, Martyr Logarius will be at the back of the arena, and will be in defence mode. Use the cover provided to circle around to him.

My major issue with Logarius was the range of moves and trying to remember them all. The main thing for this fight, is to try and chase him as much as you can. He will occasionally use his dagger and/or scythe, but it’s the magic that will mess you up fast.

If you move around to his right side (your left), you will start to see some magic miss you. If you get close and circle ML, the big orb he summons has a harder time finding you. If he uses the spread of skulls, it’s easier to side-dodge out of their way. If he does choose to use melee, I found back up better to back up once or twice, then risk on swing at the end of the combo.

Importantly, bit hits from axe or sword will potentially stagger him, so being in his face and aggressive can interrupt his blades and skull magic. But only go for one hit at a time. H won’t be rocky for long.

You might also note as he attacks that sometimes the shape of the map is helpful. If he’s above you on the central walkway, attacks have a tendency to miss from time to time. No way to guarantee this, but its good to know aggression can find reward.

If you check the time on this video, you’ll see that the first phase is so much shorter. He really does suffer in the magic phase if you circle. My main issue was finding an opening in phase 2.

Part 2- Phase 2: normally I’d explain different phases separately, but in this case the phases are so different that it needs to be built into your strategy.

It will be super obvious when he pauses to change phases. Whilst he meditates, heal up, then get behind him. Charge attack enema. He will be thrown to the ground, and he won’t be as tough for his second phase.

LM will go from defensive stance to an offensively offensive stance, with only a few matching moves. The pace change is what really took me a while to overcome. Many of the moves are similar, but I would say that stage 1 LM is 80% magic and 20% melee, whilst the second stage is about 80/20 in favour of melee.

He will use some of the same melee moves as the first phase, which are best backed away from. If you can time when the last swing finishes, to step in and hit and back out again, you are doing better than me on your first playthrough.

I had the most luck hitting him after he goes into the air. It’s a scary attack, but by running forward and rolling under him, he will often miss. If he missed, he’ll give you time for a couple of hits.

The camera is mean once in a while when he leaps. If you lose sight of him as the camera shifts, roll and dodge where you think is went… and hope.

The sword in the roof is where this fight can get complicated. He will take the sword and plunge it through the tiles. There will be a local burst of magic, and then blades will come a-raining down. To prevent this, wait until just after the blast, run in and smack the sword (I’ve seen people say shoot it but we don’t have the skill). If you time it right with a reach weapon, you might get a free slice on LM too.

If you can’t get the sword, get away. The blades don’t do a lot of damage but they can pepper you and interrupt everything you do. Pick yourself up and sprint to the other end of the roof. Make LM come to you. From a distance, the blades strike the roof and spires more than they will hit you. It’s not ideal, but its better. Plus, whilst its going off he can’t use that move again until it runs out.

Beat him first try on my second playthrough… panicking the entire time…

As rough a time as I had, if you can time the dodge under his flying attack, and maybe time his pauses between melee strikes, you can slowly whittle him down. The roof can also be your friend too. If you keep to the slopes you make it slightly harder for him to connect with you.

Watch Out For

Most has been said at this point. The sword in the roof makes much tougher, so take it out if you can. Sometimes he’ll put it down behind one of the spires and nerf his own attack somewhat, but its still not worth staying nearby if you can break the main blade.

The air attack is a massive hit but your biggest opportunity. Look out for where he lands, and also be aware that sometime the attack won’t actually complete. The slope of the roof sometimes throws him off. Could be a moment to attack, but it also means he’s going to be ready to attack again faster.

As mentioned, the camera can betray you, and because he can dash and leap you can lose sight of LM for a scary amount of time. Best advice I can give here is to run for a spire. Put scenery between you and where he might be, give yourself a chance to resit.

In Other Words

Circle him and be mean in phase 1.
Back up and look for an opening in phase 2.
Practice avoiding the leap attack for the best window.
Hit the sword in the roof ASAP.

This boss is as optional as they get, so coming back later is always an option. He was my nemesis because he seem to vary things so much as well as being aggressive. Walking up and circling him no longer worked. He really does miss a lot if you make him come after you, and he takes fairly obvious breaks.

It the first of many fights that was more of a dance; circle forward as he throws out defensive magic. Skip backwards as he advances.

Keep on Hunting!

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Amygdala: An Unskilled Guide

When my attempts on a Soulsborne boss reach the double digits, I like many, scan the wiki articles for what I might need to do differently. For the most part, these are only so helpful, because my level skill limits how I might implement the friendly advice.

In the case of Amygdala, I actually needed to ignore the guidance I first read, because it was making things more difficult than it needed to be. As with most bosses, I found a clumsy, simple, brute force method that works. It won’t work every time, in this case, but it’ll get you there eventually.

Father Gascoigne – An Unskilled Guide

Hopefully, this is boss number 2 for your first playthrough of Bloodborne. If not, I highly recommend seeking out the Cleric Beast first. It’s not just because he’s easier (whether a Souls boss is easy often depends on the player, but CB definitely feels more like a training boss). It’s also because a win before Father Gascoigne will give you a well-needed confidence boost.

Gascoigne is a tough boss this early into proceedings, and has turned a lot of players away from continuing the game. But with a bit of confidence, and advice from this clumsy, bumbling gamer, and you can win even if it doesn’t seem likely.

If I can do it, so can you.

Cleric Beast – An Unskilled Guide

If you’ve found this monster, it is either your very first Bloodborne boss, or you’ve found after meeting and/or beating Father Gascoigne. If it’s the latter, hopefully this encounter will be less stressful for you.

Gascoigne is the real test of whether you want to play this game. The Cleric Beast is (a little bit) easier to train your skills on.

As with most things in Bloodborne, this will not be easy, but the Cleric Beast is very manageable, and with a little bit of preparation and planning he can be beaten.

If I can do it, so can you.

Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Mackled Malaclaw

When bird poops on you, it’s good luck. If a cat crosses your path, that’s bad luck. Rabbits bring good or bad luck depending on where you grew up.

Most animals are burdened by a superstition. Even lobsters. Apparently eating them at New Years is unfortunate. Being bitten by one, however, brings neither goods luck nor bad. Though I suppose if you are being bitten by a lobster you’re unlucky enough already.

In the Harry Potter universe, a bite from the lobster-like beast known as the Mackled Malaclaw, brings lots of bad luck. For an entire week.

Fantastic Beasts and How to Slay Them: Imp & Pixie

In Dungeons & Dragons, size isn’t everything, but it is important.

Whether a creature is ‘tiny’, ‘large’ or ‘gargantuan’, size has a mechanical affect. A human-sized sword will usually to one die-worth of damage, whereas a giant is going to hit you with at least three dice loads of damage. Health depends on how many ‘hit dice’ a character has, but the size of a creature changes the dice you are rolling. A regular spider will have d4s, whilst a giant spider gets the eight-sided guys.

Size often informs the other stats a creature has. A small creature is likely to have a much lower Strength Score. There’s no defined rule in-game, but there’s a logic to it. A mouse, try as they might, is not going to win a tug-of-war against an elephant. Larger creatures are going to be naturally stronger because of their sheer mass.

All of these leads me to this point: building monster stats for the Imps and Pixies of the Potterverse required some careful thought.

Late Review: The Last of Us

Most people can simply enjoy what they do. I nitpick, poke fun at things I enjoy and appreciate them even more so, whilst others are quite content to be content. Yet there are those vocal few that find it difficult to just have fun.

There are those that like to take the adversarial stance. The more a game, a movie or a show is popularised, the more likely they are to find fault with it. On the other side, some people cannot enjoy something if they know critics find fault with it. You can usually find these two groups bickering about their most/least favourite thing online, whilst everyone else enjoys that thing without issue.

The Last of Us is a hill on which many people have squabbled. I’ve heard the words “prefect game” and “total garbage”. It cannot be both of these things, and its really neither. No game is without issues, and something so popular must have merit…

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Late Review: Final Fantasy VII Remake

I recently replayed Final Fantasy X, and when I was nearing the end I made a comment to a non-gamer friend that I might play Final Fantasy X-2 again.

They immediately had questions:

Why is it called ‘Ten Two’? Why not call it ‘Eleven’?
Why is only one of the numbers in Roman numerals? Were they worried people would see ‘X-II’ and think they had skipped a game?
Why is it written as “X-2”? Looks like ‘ten minus two’. Is it secretly Final Fantasy 8?

I didn’t have the heart to break it to them that there are actually three Final Fantasy XIIIs. With all the other spin-offs, prequels and pseudo-sequels out there, I honestly don’t know how many Final Fantasy games are out there myself.

And now we have Remakes in the mix.

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Late Review: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

“It’s like Dark Souls.” That was how Fallen Order was first introduced to me. I’ve heard the comparison made with other games, so I didn’t really react. Since diving into the game, there’s definitely truth to the statement, but it overlooks a lot of other games Fallen Order resembles.

This game is what happens when someone asks “what do people like in games?” and then puts all the answers into one game. There are elements of Fallen Order that are very Dark Souls. There are platforming, wall-scaling moments reminiscent of Uncharted. Metroid influences are everywhere in the level design and progression. Enemies light up when they are about to attack à la Batman. It has the additional story-through-collectables from, well, every modern game.

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Late Review: Subnautica

I am not a particularly adventurous person. For example, I would never, ever go skydiving. I have however, been swimming in the ocean once. I can’t say I entirely enjoyed the experience. I’m glad I did it, and it was a great experience, but I wasn’t ever completely happy about being there.

That’s because the ocean is a scary place. Floating in an expanse of seemingly endless water, knowingly surrounded by life that can move much faster and more gracefully than you that may, at any time, want to investigate your level of tastiness, creates a very daunting atmosphere.

Of course, I could leave the ocean at any time. I wasn’t trapped there. Whilst Earth’s oceans do contain dangerous sea creatures, I was no where near exploding fish or leviathans the length of two football pitches. I also didn’t have to arrive at the ocean on a crashing space ship. All these things would make the ocean much more terrifying, and part of the reason why Subnautica is such a fascinating game.

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