From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[Matador]

Great poast. Even as a huge fan of action games, I've only played a little bit of Ninja Gaiden. What's the best way to get into the series now?
.

If you don´t have Xbox360 or XboxOne, Ninja Gaiden Sigma is on Steam and is great, although I prefer NGB for the better pacing and no filler Rachel chapters.

 

[Matador]

The only thing I disagree is about bosses delaying attacks. I really, really like this, and bosses that uses this a lot (Margit, Godfrey, Radagon) have an extra layer of challenge because just spamming roll when they bring up their arms is not enough, you really have to adapt.

Different from Malenia that has speed of light fucking combos that on top of all that heals her. That's a fight I have absolutely no desire in play ever again.

I have no problem to some reasonable delaying, in fact there is some of it on Bloodborne and Sekiro to mess up your rolling and parrying timing, which were well designed games.

Can we agree that in Elden Ring it has been brought to some new ridicule levels that make the fights not fun?

 

[perfectslumbers]

But at the end, I know I'm in the vast minority here. I love being puzzled by stories, which is why I love films from directors like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Shinya Tsukamoto and other similar ones. For me, creating a lot of questions and theorizing about them brings more satisfaction then just receiving the answers.

Me too, Elden Ring was my favourite From story yet. That said it's apparent that certain things in the lore of these games has no clear answer that can be found, no matter how much digging you do, which is frustrating to me.

 

[hackncrazy]

The only thing I disagree is about bosses delaying attacks. I really, really like this, and bosses that uses this a lot (Margit, Godfrey, Radagon) have an extra layer of challenge because just spamming roll when they bring up their arms is not enough, you really have to adapt.

Different from Malenia that has speed of light fucking combos that on top of all that heals her. That's a fight I have absolutely no desire in play ever again.

I have no problem to some reasonable delaying, in fact there is some of it on Bloodborne and Sekiro to mess up your rolling and parrying timing, which were well designed games.

Can we agree that in Elden Ring it has been brought to some new ridicule levels that make the fights not fun?

We definitely can.

Also, I saw you mentioning Ninja Gaiden Black, so let me ask: Is that game is locked in OG Xbox? There's no way of playing it anywhere else?

 

[perfectslumbers]

Can we agree that in Elden Ring it has been brought to some new ridicule levels that make the fights not fun?

I already felt that with lots of DS3 bosses. Pontiff Sulyvhan felt like playing vs a fighting game player with all the mixups and animation canceling he was doing at me.

 

[Matador]

Can we agree that in Elden Ring it has been brought to some new ridicule levels that make the fights not fun?

I already felt that with lots of DS3 bosses. Pontiff Sulyvhan felt like playing vs a fighting game player with all the mixups and animation canceling he was doing at me.

With the difference that in Fighting games you also have those mixups and cancels, and blockstun and frametraps to open your oponent.

 

[Matador]

The only thing I disagree is about bosses delaying attacks. I really, really like this, and bosses that uses this a lot (Margit, Godfrey, Radagon) have an extra layer of challenge because just spamming roll when they bring up their arms is not enough, you really have to adapt.

Different from Malenia that has speed of light fucking combos that on top of all that heals her. That's a fight I have absolutely no desire in play ever again.

I have no problem to some reasonable delaying, in fact there is some of it on Bloodborne and Sekiro to mess up your rolling and parrying timing, which were well designed games.

Can we agree that in Elden Ring it has been brought to some new ridicule levels that make the fights not fun?

We definitely can.

Also, I saw you mentioning Ninja Gaiden Black, so let me ask: Is that game is locked in OG Xbox? There's no way of playing it anywhere else?

It can be played on Xbox360 and Xbox one with upgraded resolution. It´s on the digital store usually for cheap price. I only keep around the XB360 for NGB and NG2. Beating NGB on Master Ninja is one of my best memories in gaming, very satisfying and fun.

Playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma on PC is also good option.

 

[Brickfrog]

Finished the game. clocked in at 85 hours with far from all optional content completed. I killed all the end game optional bosses but had no interest in clearing every random dungeon. Fatigue set in around the mountaintop of the giants so I stopped playing for about a week. I didn't really mind the reused mobs because at the end of the day theres a fucking LOT of unique content in there. I was one hitting the rats in stormveil just the same as the rats in the capital sewers anyway, so I never really noticed significant hp bloat even though mobs were reused.

Exhaustion from no lifing was definitely an issue. I'm not sure how often I'll be up for embarking on another 80+ hour playthrough. It's like one of those 100 hour rpgs from the 90s or early 2000s, when am I ever gonna have the time to replay it?

I liked the game a lot though. It has great build variety and bosses. The environments are all as well made as one would expect. The legacy dungeons feel like classic dark souls. Bosses are hard as shit. Etc etc

The open world doesn't really bother me too much because i have no qualms about skipping content that isn't entertaining me. I can see how it would annoy the shit out of the completionists who need to hit every heroes grave and catacombs. I can also see how having a tighter level design like older from soft games would have saved people a lot of exhaustion/fatigue and made the experience more edible. Not many people are going to be slamming out a full Elden ring playthrough over a weekend.

Wer all used to no lifing the latest from soft release and seeing almost everything in a about a week or so. This new 80-100 hour playtime is a whole different beast. This is the first From Soft game where I didn't kill every single boss and I have absolutely no regrets about that decision. Most of the fun, meaty challenges are unique bosses anyway. I think if you approach Elden Ring with the goal of really cleaning out the entire game then your gonna have a bad time unless you're sufficiently mentally deranged.

Still, I don't think it's fair to say that they padded it out because it's not like there's any point in the game where you stop discovering huge, well designed areas with unique bosses. (Unless you are among the aforementioned completionists)

Spoiler

fighting zangief in the final boss rush was fucking sick

Tl;dr Game was fun.

 

[hackncrazy]

Can we agree that in Elden Ring it has been brought to some new ridicule levels that make the fights not fun?

I already felt that with lots of DS3 bosses. Pontiff Sulyvhan felt like playing vs a fighting game player with all the mixups and animation canceling he was doing at me.

My memory must be bad, but aside from Sulyvahn, I can't remember any other boss in DS3 that felt like this. Friede and Gael were hard, yes, but all their movements were very predictable and enjoyable to learn. The only problem with Friede was the second phase with Father Ariandel, which really can be a clusterfuck at times.

The game got faster, yes, but nowhere near where ER is heading to.

 

[hackncrazy]

The only thing I disagree is about bosses delaying attacks. I really, really like this, and bosses that uses this a lot (Margit, Godfrey, Radagon) have an extra layer of challenge because just spamming roll when they bring up their arms is not enough, you really have to adapt.

Different from Malenia that has speed of light fucking combos that on top of all that heals her. That's a fight I have absolutely no desire in play ever again.

I have no problem to some reasonable delaying, in fact there is some of it on Bloodborne and Sekiro to mess up your rolling and parrying timing, which were well designed games.

Can we agree that in Elden Ring it has been brought to some new ridicule levels that make the fights not fun?

We definitely can.

Also, I saw you mentioning Ninja Gaiden Black, so let me ask: Is that game is locked in OG Xbox? There's no way of playing it anywhere else?

It can be played on Xbox360 and Xbox one with upgraded resolution. It´s on the digital store usually for cheap price. I only keep around the XB360 for NGB and NG2. Beating NGB on Master Ninja is one of my best memories in gaming, very satisfying and fun.

Playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma on PC is also good option.

I've played Sigma 1 on PS3 and NG2 on X360. Never had the chance to play Black, but if it's available for 360 I'll give it a try.

 

[Silva]

But at the end, I know I'm in the vast minority here. I love being puzzled by stories, which is why I love films from directors like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Shinya Tsukamoto and other similar ones. For me, creating a lot of questions and theorizing about them brings more satisfaction then just receiving the answers.

Me too, Elden Ring was my favourite From story yet. That said it's apparent that certain things in the lore of these games has no clear answer that can be found, no matter how much digging you do, which is frustrating to me.

The more I unravel the lore the more I came to like this family drama that Elden Ring does pretty much, yes. It seems the central conflict is more complex and nuanced this time, with more sides involved and distinct agendas than in From previous games.

It's mythos is also good with the eardtree and golden order and how they did the gold color as motif for divinity, etc.

What I didn't like is that NPC quests seems as flimsy and prone to breaking as DS3, and the euro-pastiche world aesthetics with faery tale blue glitz magic and anime armor nonsense.

 

[Zizka]

Another interesting quote from Miyazaki.

[Question] Given that an open-world game requires more visual assets than your previous projects, did you have to expand the team considerably? Or was it more about leaning on outsourcing partners for assistance?

Yes, of course, both the team's scope and our outsourcing needs increased with the scope and scale of the world and the content required to fill it. But we managed to explore some new systemic procedures as well that allowed us to fill out the world in ways that didn't require people to always be hands-on and do it manually. So there were a lot of ways in which we were able to use not only our existing team, but expand our skill set in that sense, and to apply it to this new challenge with this new world.

Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/elden-ring-fromsoftware-hidetaka-miyazaki-interview/

He then mentions trees and foliage whereas I thought he meant the recycled areas.

Also:

[Question] What prompted the decision to push back the game's original release date?

The level of freedom that we wanted to ultimately achieve in Elden Ring exceeded what we were initially planning for.”

They probably realised the bloat at some point but it was too late then.

 

[perfectslumbers]

The game got faster, yes, but nowhere near where ER is heading to.

I decided to watch some videos of the fastest bosses in DS3 and the fastest in Elden Ring, and it seems that other than Pontiff you're correct. The bosses in Elden Ring are faster, notably they have more combos that you have to roll out of rather than iframing through, and they have much smaller recovery periods in between attacks.

I was quite surprised by this since ds3 felt like the faster game to me, but I guess that's just because it had stronger rolls whereas the rolling in Elden Ring has been slightly nerfed. Guess every boss was designed with the spirit ashes and overpowered weapon arts in mind.

 

[hackncrazy]

The game got faster, yes, but nowhere near where ER is heading to.

I decided to watch some videos of the fastest bosses in DS3 and the fastest in Elden Ring, and it seems that other than Pontiff you're correct. The bosses in Elden Ring are faster, notably they have more combos that you have to roll out of rather than iframing through, and they have much smaller recovery periods in between attacks.

I was quite surprised by this since ds3 felt like the faster game to me, but I guess that's just because it had stronger rolls whereas the rolling in Elden Ring has been slightly nerfed. Guess every boss was designed with the spirit ashes and overpowered weapon arts in mind.

I feel people got really bothered because in fact DS3 is MUCH faster than DS2, even though is way slower than Bloodborne (which not everyone played). I think everyone that played BB before DS3 adapted pretty easily.

 

[Brickfrog]

 

[Eyestabber]

The way to play ER without burning out is looking up dungeons and their rewards ahead of time and just doing the least amount of effort for the highest reward. Which is the exact opposite of good exploration.

All those catacombs, for instance, are places I decided to avoid due to the overabundance of instadeath BS. "Haha, u triggered my trap that couldnt be countered except by knowing it ahead of time " *twists his own man tits*

Yep, Elden Ring sometimes feels like a tabletop session with a deranged neckbeard DM.

 

[perfectslumbers]

I feel people got really bothered because in fact DS3 is MUCH faster than DS2, even though is way slower than Bloodborne (which not everyone played). I think everyone that played BB before DS3 adapted pretty easily.

I just disliked DS3 cuz it barely felt like an rpg to me. Despite Elden Ring having stupid bullshit cunt motherfucking horrible terrible nightmare bossfights I feel like I have a lot more tools to deal with them and that I can easily break the game with overpowered builds.

 

[Curratum]

I feel people got really bothered because in fact DS3 is MUCH faster than DS2, even though is way slower than Bloodborne (which not everyone played). I think everyone that played BB before DS3 adapted pretty easily.

I just disliked DS3 cuz it barely felt like an rpg to me. Despite Elden Ring having stupid bullshit cunt motherfucking horrible terrible nightmare bossfights I feel like I have a lot more tools to deal with them and that I can easily break the game with overpowered builds.

The thing is though, once you get that broken build / item etc, you realize beating the boss doesn't feel good at all.

 

[Brickfrog]

Do people find that they have to respec frequently?
I didn't have much trouble taking a single build and weapon through the entire game as per usual. At most I would shuffle some talismans around and bring a consumable for a tricky boss.

 

[perfectslumbers]

The thing is though, once you get that broken build / item etc, you realize beating the boss doesn't feel good at all.

I sort of feel the opposite. After beating the game I made a faith character, grabbed rot breath, and breathed sensually at Radahn. Then I ran away and hid behind a hill while he died in 20 seconds. I cheered, that was one of the greatest Elden Ring moments, like looking at your school bullies facebook page and seeing they're twice divorced with five kids and a job at mcdonalds.

I'm a big fan of using overpowered builds in difficult games though so maybe it's just some weird autistic part of me.

Am I the only person here who just took a single weapon and build through the entire game?

No, but even in my toolkit of sorceries and two int weapons that I switched between I felt like I had different ways to approach fights. Whether it was using a specific spirit ash or swapping my ash of war or using consumables or focusing on staggering enemies who were easy to stagger and focusing on dps vs enemies that I couldn't stagger easily. Even with my pretty narrow build the game never was just R1 spam like ds3 was. And the game is a very different experience with different builds.

 

[Silva]

I feel people got really bothered because in fact DS3 is MUCH faster than DS2, even though is way slower than Bloodborne (which not everyone played). I think everyone that played BB before DS3 adapted pretty easily.

I just disliked DS3 cuz it barely felt like an rpg to me. Despite Elden Ring having stupid bullshit cunt motherfucking horrible terrible nightmare bossfights I feel like I have a lot more tools to deal with them and that I can easily break the game with overpowered builds.

The thing is though, once you get that broken build / item etc, you realize beating the boss doesn't feel good at all.

This reminds me of advanced play in cardgames like Magic or Android Netrunner, where that initial rush for basic, moment to moment play, is gone and replaced by pre-made combos that everybody copied from some wiki or reddit and just fire away at each other. The simple fun of poke and shield is gone.

 

[cvv]

I feel people got really bothered because in fact DS3 is MUCH faster than DS2, even though is way slower than Bloodborne (which not everyone played). I think everyone that played BB before DS3 adapted pretty easily.

I just disliked DS3 cuz it barely felt like an rpg to me. Despite Elden Ring having stupid bullshit cunt motherfucking horrible terrible nightmare bossfights I feel like I have a lot more tools to deal with them and that I can easily break the game with overpowered builds.

I grew to loathe DS3 not because it didn't feel like RPG. It felt like an incredibly half-assed, sloppy and disinterested RPG.

Systems-wise it was shocking. Poise didn't work, armors didn't make a lick of a difference, there was a sin-forgiveness mechanism but no sin, weapon durability with weapons never breaking, nonsensical split damage calculation that rendered split dmg weapons a joke and elemental infusions pointless, rolling consumed so little stam and flask sips were so fast that PvP was almost as bad as in Bloodborne, WAs felt like a first draft, copypasted covenants gave the same rewards, build variety was terrible and the level design felt like a shadow of former FS selves.

All that could be missed by gamorz who only care about graphix and fluidity of movement but for me DS3 immediately felt like FS outsourced most of it to China or some such. Like most of their team was still busy with the end of BB and beginning of Old Hunters development and nobody really gave a shit about another DS game.

None of that is an issue in ER. Systems wise it's almost as good as DS2. This game has it's share of problems but most of them aren't related to systems. It's clear a lot of care has been taken this time around. I kindda regret we don't get proper covenants anymore - you'd think an open-world design would be a great fit - but alas. Otherwise I don't have many systems-related gripes.

 

[Silva]

kindda regret we don't get proper covenants anymore - you'd think an open-world design would be a great fit - but alas. Otherwise I don't have many systems-related gripes

Agree. The open world and lore with so many actors and factions would be ripe ground for covenants.

Is it possible the covenants are implemented through updates or DLCs? I see reports of missing things like NPC questlines, scaling in certain weapons, etc. Maybe they're taking it slow this time?

 

[perfectslumbers]

Is it possible the covenants are implemented through updates or DLCs? I see reports of missing things like NPC questlines, scaling in certain weapons, etc. Maybe they're taking it slow this time?

That's possible.

Honestly I have a suspicion with the missing quest lines that they had to rush it out the door and couldn't implement them last minute. There's lots of things that seem like covenants, maybe they were meant to be but it was cancelled last minute. Hopefully they'll actually add these things in instead of letting the game be missing them forever.

 

[Silva]

What does that statue beside the big turtle do, if there's no covenants? I thought it was this entry pardoner?

I'm playing offline so I don't know.