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Was Cuphead as hard as a FromSoftware game for those of you who played it?

Was Cuphead as hard as a FromSoftware game for those of you who played it?

  • Yes

    Votes: 840 63.4%

  • No

    Votes: 485 36.6%
  • Total voters
    1,325
OP
OP
ScOULaris

ScOULaris

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,831
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico said:
Yeah, you are somehow very good at Cuphead. Congratulations.

it doesn't change a thing. Any skill that can be leveraged to be good at Cuphead gives you an edge in the "Souls games" as well and the latter are far less demanding/punishing than the former.
I can have the pattern of a Cuphead boss down to a T but I need just to be hit THREE paltry times across the entire battle (five with a specifically dedicated upgrade) to be send back to the menu.

I can go through an average Souls boss fumbling and stumbling like a mad man for entire minutes and as long as the mistakes aren't back-to-back in the span of few seconds and I don't get entirely nuked, I can keep chugging down healing items and stay into the battle.
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I've seen your posts in this thread, and we'll just have to agree to disagree. That has never been my experience with Souls games at all. I think that their core design where bosses have huge health pools but can kill the player in one or two consecutive hits with intentionally deceptive attack strings is just much more punishing than Cuphead's far more telegraphed, straightforward boss fight designs.

I'm not bragging about my Cuphead skill. I genuinely believe that it's a less demanding, more forgiving game than anything FromSoft has put out. I'm way more impressed by people that can 100% the hardest FromSoft games than someone beating Cuphead.
 
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico

Tuco Benedicto Pacifico

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
8,466
ScOULaris said:
I think that their core design where bosses have huge health pools but can kill the player in one or two consecutive hits with intentionally deceptive attack strings
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That's not even true.
Did you play these games making "naked runs with un-upgraded weapons" or something?
One of the appeals of their boss design is usually precisely the fact that they are just as vulnerable to your damage as they feel lethal toward you and you can typically dispatch them quickly if you know what you are doing. And moves (ESPECIALLY the most lethal ones) are often widely telegraphed.

P.S. Case in point: this is the same boss battle that took me 4 minutes or more in my previous video, this time done quickly by a far better player:

 
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Necromanti

Necromanti

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,566
ScOULaris said:
I've seen your posts in this thread, and we'll just have to agree to disagree. That has never been my experience with Souls games at all. I think that their core design where bosses have huge health pools but can kill the player in one or two consecutive hits with intentionally deceptive attack strings is just much more punishing than Cuphead's far more telegraphed, straightforward boss fight designs.
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I'd say Cuphead's bosses are significantly tankier unless you're doing a challenge run (e.g. not leveling up) in a Souls game. If anything, I'd say it's almost the exact reverse of what you said (RE: dying in few hits, health pools, etc.).
 
Magic Mushroom

Magic Mushroom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,506
Cuphead is harder imo. There is so much going on onscreen at pretty much any moment that you need some good reaction times and hand eye coordination. I was playing the DLC yesterday and even when you know what to do, it's so easy to make a tiny mistake and get hit or parry-bump into a projectile, whereas in Souls you can ofte hang back more and use healing items. Cuphead is more like Sekiro than Souls in a way.
 
HeartlessNobody2134

HeartlessNobody2134

Member
May 10, 2018
5,738
I bought the DLC but will try to beat the base game first. Maybe this time I can beat King Dice.

The instant retry in Cuphead gets brought up but King Dice is the exception and if you die you start back over.

Cuphead is harder for me than any From game with maybe Sekiro coming close. In those games I can level up, heal, upgrade weapons.

People talk about "Git Gud" with From games but Cuphead is the real Git Gud.
 

Ghostwalker

Member
Oct 30, 2017
582
I found Cuphead easier, despite the fact the bosses are harder.

I think it is because in Cuphead their is almost time wasted between you dying and restarting the fight.

In Cuphead if I die I just restart the fight and get straight back into the action, while in a souls game if I die I am faffing about with about loading times. traveling to a boss, dealing with death penalties, replenishing lost resource, wating for summons ect.
 
Diogo Arez

Diogo Arez

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 20, 2020
17,799
I'm fighting the dragon now since he was one of the only bosses I didn't A Rank originally, it's been 2h and I can't even defeat him, always reach the end flag at the death screen but he refuses to die.

His main issue aren't the patterns is the fact you can get hit from literally anywhere in the screen, that makes Cuphead infinitely harder than Souls for me
 
Sande

Sande

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,045
To those who have done both solo and coop, is Cuphead significantly harder solo?
 

TGB86

Member
Jan 27, 2021
1,159
Sande said:
To those who have done both solo and coop, is Cuphead significantly harder solo?
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I guess it depends on how good your partner is, but I think the consensus is that co-op is more difficult. There's even more chaos on-screen with an additional player, and the bosses health pools are a lot bigger.

I played through most of the base game with my wife, who is a pretty casual gamer at best. She noped out of the last couple bosses, and I found the experience considerably easier solo due to being able to focus solely on the boss (the revive system meant my focus was split in co-op, as I frequently needed to try and get to her ghost to revive her).
 
Odinsmana

Odinsmana

Member
Mar 13, 2019
2,326
ScOULaris said:
After hopping back into Cuphead for the first time in years to play the DLC last night, I'm even more confused by the responses in this thread. Even as rusty as I am I'm still steamrolling every new boss, with only the hardest of them taking me upwards of 5-6 tries. Even in that scenario that amounts to like, what? 15-20 minutes at worst to beat the hardest ones?

How anyone in here can claim to struggle with any of the early-game Cuphead bosses while also having beaten the likes of Orphan of Kos utterly confounds me. I don't see how that's remotely possible.

There's something very interesting happening here with Cuphead's design I think. Either that or my experience with shmups makes Cuphead significantly easier to me than most people. Because the hardest FromSoft bosses are SOOOOO much more punishing and demanding to me than anything in Cuphead. Most of them take like 20 hits or more to kill while being capable of one- or two-shotting you in the blink of an eye, and each attempt takes much longer than a Cuphead boss as well.
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Having schmup experience is obviously a big advantage in Cuphead since it's basically just a schmup with platforming controls (and sometimes it's literally just a schmup). If you on the other hand are not as familiar with third person action games it's going to be harder to play souls games.

I also just don't feel familiar with your description of souls bosses. They almost never one shot you and rarely two shot you. And you can heal afterwards unlike Cuphead where it's three hits and you're out while throughout the whole fight. Cuphead and Souls fights take around the same time to complete, so I found Cuphead way more punishing personally. I spent longer on the dragon than I have on any Souls boss other than optional super bosses. I did beat it though.
 
Diogo Arez

Diogo Arez

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 20, 2020
17,799
perfectchaos007 said:
Yeah Cuphead really isn't that difficult once you memorize the patterns and phases of each boss. On that note, going in blind and beating a boss first try on cuphead is nearly impossible.
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Patterns don't help much when the trajectory of the projectiles in bullet hell phases and sometimes even in normal phases are random
 
shadowman16

shadowman16

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,306
Diogo Arez said:
Patterns don't help much when the trajectory of the projectiles in bullet hell phases and sometimes even in normal phases are random
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But then most levels dont have bullet hell phases outside of one notable flying boss. The dragon final phase which you mentioned doesnt pepper the screen with shots, even on expert mode, they expect you to not shoot the bubble shots (which when shot, break up into smaller shots), and keep an eye out for the dragon heads turning into flame throwers (which have insanely long start up animations, its very obvious when its happening). You stick to the top set of clouds, then drop if the top head goes flame thrower on you. My point is - the shots are slow, and its all over telegraphed and its clear how to dodge the attacks. Not going to say its an easy fight, but there are basic patterns there that you can follow to victory.

And a tip for the second phase especially - as you are jumping around to avoid the pesky critters at the bottom of the screen the homing shot is marvelous for this bit - as your just jumping around holding the shot down, focusing on evasion rather than hitting the boss AND evading the things. You should have enough super bar from phase 1 that you unleash your super move (for me - I like Cupheads super beam) to deal serious damage. Dont use the homing weapon on phase 3 though, it'll home in on the bubble shots, just makes your life harder than it needs to be at that point.
 
Diogo Arez

Diogo Arez

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 20, 2020
17,799
shadowman16 said:
But then most levels dont have bullet hell phases outside of one notable flying boss. The dragon final phase which you mentioned doesnt pepper the screen with shots, even on expert mode, they expect you to not shoot the bubble shots (which when shot, break up into smaller shots), and keep an eye out for the dragon heads turning into flame throwers (which have insanely long start up animations, its very obvious when its happening). You stick to the top set of clouds, then drop if the top head goes flame thrower on you. My point is - the shots are slow, and its all over telegraphed and its clear how to dodge the attacks. Not going to say its an easy fight, but there are basic patterns there that you can follow to victory.

And a tip for the second phase especially - as you are jumping around to avoid the pesky critters at the bottom of the screen the homing shot is marvelous for this bit - as your just jumping around holding the shot down, focusing on evasion rather than hitting the boss AND evading the things. You should have enough super bar from phase 1 that you unleash your super move (for me - I like Cupheads super beam) to deal serious damage. Dont use the homing weapon on phase 3 though, it'll home in on the bubble shots, just makes your life harder than it needs to be at that point.
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I know all that but sometimes you accidentally hit the balls and the screen is littered with it.

BTW everyone mentions the Robot bullet hell but I always found it easier than some of the other bullet hells like the genie throwing jewelry at the start, the game is unforgiving with projectiles at times, that's where it becomes infinitely harder
 
Viale

Viale

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,632
I feel like FS games are harder, but maybe them being so much longer is distorting my perception?

I also remember Cuphead being a game that was harder when playing coop which was always kind of funny to me.
 
shadowman16

shadowman16

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,306
Diogo Arez said:
I know all that but sometimes you accidentally hit the balls and the screen is littered with it.

BTW everyone mentions the Robot bullet hell but I always found it easier than some of the other bullet hells like the genie throwing jewelry at the start, the game is unforgiving with projectiles at times, that's where it becomes infinitely harder
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Gonna have to disagree with the fight being "littered" with them. There's enough to keep you on your toes but its not exactly Cave levels of craziness going on in the fight. Sounds more like your just holding down the fire button with reckless abandon rather than being a little more picky with when you attack.
 
Viale

Viale

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,632
Timu said:
Yep, since they increased the health of the bosses in co-op for that game. Not to mention the platforming stages.
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Yup! Patterns/attacks were a lot more erratic in coop as well (I think because it would switch targets randomly). There were multiple times going through where my pal and I would be stuck until one of us died and the other had an easy time clearing the rest of the fight haha.
 
Diogo Arez

Diogo Arez

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 20, 2020
17,799
shadowman16 said:
Gonna have to disagree with the fight being "littered" with them. There's enough to keep you on your toes but its not exactly Cave levels of craziness going on in the fight. Sounds more like your just holding down the fire button with reckless abandon rather than being a little more picky with when you attack.
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Maybe although I ended up doing it with the lobber, but besides that fight Cuphead requires an extraordinary amount of spatial awareness to the point you are really likely to bump into damaging things a ton of the time, that's where I struggle the most
 
Mirage

Mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,610
I feel like they're comparable and which you find easier is probably what kind of game you're more used to. I definitely wouldn't call Cuphead an easier game.
 
Cordy

Cordy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,534
As someone who's played platformers since the early 90s as a kid and someone who dives into these From titles, nah Cuphead is harder. From a reflex and movement standpoint its harder to react to Cuphead than a From title. It's just more skillful. No From titles aren't easy, they're hard too, but it's just a slower pace and less frantic than Cuphead.
 
Foltzie

Foltzie

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
6,818
I might have to give some FromSoftware games a shot. . . Cuphead wasn't too bad to me.
 

Deleted member 29639

Banned
Nov 1, 2017
1,111
I certainly don't think FromSoftware games are easy but in my experience Cuphead is way harder. I tried picking it up again last night and two early stages shattered my confidence and blistered my thumbs.
 
OP
OP
ScOULaris

ScOULaris

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,831
Martinski said:
I have a platinum trophy in these games.. Sekiro, Returnal, Nioh 1 and 2, Bloodborne, Elden Ring x2 .

Can't even beat the easy mode in Cuphead.
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Okay, come on now. Is this for real? How?

For comparison I've beaten Sekiro and Returnal, but Nioh is just insufferably frustrating to me. Like, if Nioh is a 10 in terms of punishing difficulty then Cuphead is like a 5 IMO. Not even close.

I'm not saying you're wrong since this is so subjective. I'm just utterly fascinated by it.
 

Deleted member 23046

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,876
Cuphead doesn't offer any margin for error or individual variety in fight comparable with From's game while providing a simplier layout. Maybe Hollow Knight would be a better client than Souls for that debate to understand where the difficulty is in all these games and why we are reacting differently to it.
 
PKrockin

PKrockin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,260
ScOULaris said:
Okay, come on now. Is this for real? How?

For comparison I've beaten Sekiro and Returnal, but Nioh is just insufferably frustrating to me. Like, if Nioh is a 10 in terms of punishing difficulty then Cuphead is like a 5 IMO. Not even close.

I'm not saying you're wrong since this is so subjective. I'm just utterly fascinated by it.
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Sounds pretty unbelievable to me as well, unless it's one of those situations where you spend many weeks on Nioh whereas you boot up Cuphead for the first time, get stuck somewhere, drop the game and say "I couldn't beat it."
 
Martinski

Martinski

Member
Jan 15, 2019
8,436
Göteborg
ScOULaris said:
Okay, come on now. Is this for real? How?

For comparison I've beaten Sekiro and Returnal, but Nioh is just insufferably frustrating to me. Like, if Nioh is a 10 in terms of punishing difficulty then Cuphead is like a 5 IMO. Not even close.

I'm not saying you're wrong since this is so subjective. I'm just utterly fascinated by it.
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Yes i had to use a trainer to get through Cuphead. I sucked at Sifu too but i could at least finish it on the new easy mode.

Cuphead is the most difficult game i have played probably, at least as an adult.

Don't remember if it was the easy mode or not tbh, but i never got to the last areas in the game anyway. Think parts of the game were locked also if you played on easy mode and i never got there.
 
NekoNeko

NekoNeko

Coward
Oct 26, 2017
18,614
Not even close. Cuphead is very easy to me but i'm good at those types of games. I rarely needed more than 2-3 tries for a boss. I struggle quite a bit with FROM bosses.
 
Graefellsom

Graefellsom

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
1,659
As a Souls games fan I find Cuphead insanely difficult. I think I maybe got halfway through it before throwing in the towel. I just didn't have the co-ordination/reaction times needed.

I don't think I tried on easy because I read they removed phases of the boss battles(is this correct?). Which I didn't want to do since seeing the delightful animation was the entire point of the game for me. Music was great too. Just really not a fan of the gameplay
 
Timu

Timu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,747
Graefellsom said:
As a Souls games fan I find Cuphead insanely difficult. I think I maybe got halfway through it before throwing in the towel. I just didn't have the co-ordination/reaction times needed.

I don't think I tried on easy because I read they removed phases of the boss battles(is this correct?). Which I didn't want to do since seeing the delightful animation was the entire point of the game. Music was great too. Just really not a fan of the gameplay
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Yes, it's true. And you can't get to the 2 final bosses on easy either.
 
IIFloodyII

IIFloodyII

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,246
Pretty much any pretty hard platforming heavy game I find much harder than any Souls game. I'm really bad at platforming.

Despite the "get gud" reputation From's games have, there's plenty of super basic stuff that will carry you through most of it, like spacing and being patient and there's plenty of tools to make it easier. Games like Cuphead you will eventually just need to get good.
 
devenger

devenger

The Fallen
Oct 29, 2017
2,737
I can roll/dodge from most Dark Souls bosses all day. I'm only 2/3 of the way thru Cuphead and took a break when I saw the final boss.
 
SigSig

SigSig

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,777
Cuphead is hard. Souls games are "you might need a couple of tries for this section" hard. So yeah, it's way harder.
 
two_headed_boy

two_headed_boy

Member
Jun 6, 2020
710
Cuphead is way less frustrating because the time to restart is so quick. When you die in Dark Souls it's so exhausting to trod back and collect your souls.
 
Hoa

Hoa

Member
Jun 6, 2018
4,343
It probably is what another poster in here said, if you already have experience with shmups or maybe even experience buster running some Megaman stages/bosses it's probably easier to approach Cuphead.

It was just not that hard for me, whereas I can struggle getting the timing down and figuring the enemy's (sometimes jank) attack hitbox on Elden Ring bosses. Then again as I posted before, I play shieldless and armorless in my first playthrough so almost everything likes to kill me in one hit.

Tuco Benedicto Pacifico said:
I have no idea what this is even EXACTLY supposed to mean but I'll call bullshit on it anyway.
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Cuphead is much easier to read. I feel like this is some of ya'lls first difficult 2D platformer. I'm not going to pretend my skill levels aren't skewed since I've played I wanna be the guy fangames and buster run Megaman games, but I feel Cuphead is pretty lenient and fair to me.
 
Birds of Paradise

Birds of Paradise

Enlightened Shinra Employee
Member
Sep 20, 2021
762
ScOULaris said:
But 100%-ing Nioh 1/2 and Bloodborne?! If one can get through that then they can surely beat Cuphead on Normal pretty easily, let alone Easy.

To me that goes beyond the differences between the games.
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Funny anecdote but I finished Nioh 1 and 2 with all the DLCs in the last two weeks and I was running through those games like the terminator, did almost every boss on my first or second attempt including Maria, the Hayabusa Ninjas and Tate Eboshi.
My 10 year old nephew came over and wanted to take turns with me playing Astrobot. I suck so hard at platformers that I died more often in one of the zones than probably the last 20 Nioh bosses together.

........Now imagine me playing Cuphead, kinda want to buy it now haha xD
 
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