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

[Nifft Batuff]

This thread should be moved in retardo land.

 

[deem]

Imho that is huge decline.

This is why Demon's Souls imho still has the best design. Because all shortcuts really meant something if you had to play from start level everytime you died and only get new bonfire when you kill level boss. So not only you had to kill your way through level to master it but also you had to deal with boss at the end of the level with resources you were left with.

Removal of above mechanic lead to increase in skill difficulty rather than player prediction/strategy/logic difficulty. Now in elden ring there are bonfires everywhere and before bosses you have shrines which completely cut walking to boss in most cases.

Obvious different people like different things but i loved initial design. Superb bosses are great but nothing beats the feeling when you find some cage you go up in it and you realize that you found a way to skip 50% of level increasing your chances to beat boss.

I like the idea on paper, but in practice after you lose to a boss you want to have another go right away, with the adrenaline pumping and all.

This thread should be moved in retardo land.

What the fuck is your problem?

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Worst FromSoft game ever (well, in two decades or so).

Have you even played DS2/3? Retard.

With Dark Souls 3 it's close, yes, but I still like it better than Elden Ring. Dark Souls 2 is a masterpiece in comparison to ER and DS3 though.

Not trying to attack you or anything, but I have a really hard time to figure out if the praise that Dark Souls 2 gets over here it's some kind of internal joke or if people really believes it. I say that because the codex is unironically the only environment that I'm part of that has people praising Dark Souls 2 over any other game in the souls series.

Level design in DS2 is horrendous, and the boss fights are pretty much forgettable. I've seen people shitting on ER for having repeated enemies, and then again the first "major boss" of DS2 is a fucking giant that has two attacks. And things don't go much better from there in terms of bosses. Hell, give me 35 fights with Crucible Knight over this shitty stuff that has 2 or 3 patterns.

The DLCs makes things better (at least in terms of level design), but if you compare vanilla DS2 with every other souls games it's kinda of bizarre to think it's from the same company.

I'd really like to see people pointing out what exactly DS2 does better than any other souls game because this praise gets me really curious.

Great weapon and armor selection, powerstancing was fantastic, and a lot of weapons (at least the DLC ones) had great movesets. And ... uhm, that's about it.

Similar tragic mythic fantasy atmosphere to DS1 too. A rare thing in games. From have struggled to replicate it since. Post BB games trend towards grimdark and Lovecraftian instead, including ER to a certain extent. Funny enough Sekiro is probably the one that comes closest to getting the old vibe back despite the gameplay differences.

 

[oldbonebrown]

Partly the reason I play offline. That and the fucking overbright bloodstains ruining my wonderful screenshots.

Powerful agree on that there should be a way to turn off all the ugly messages laying about. I never want to read them and I think they make the game worse, at the very least they are far too many.

 

[Lutte]

D_X
You forgot the exquisite NG+. The changes in NG+ are large enough that they made running it again with the same character real fun. The encounter design was also top notch, people complained back in the day about the larger amount of enemies but now we have both the large amount of enemies AND the endless stamina thing (I still remember how butthurt it made people that ONE mob with a hammer after the dragon aerie that was endlessly swinging. Now it's every mob in the newer games.) everywhere in DS3 and ER and nobody cares anymore.

I liked the atmosphere of the game too, it was quite relaxing despite the desolate world and a good change of pace from the traditional FromSoft fare. Rather than being purely dark and depressing, it was.. greyish? the world felt like you were just witnessing the ruins of what was once great, but without the constant crushing feel that it's still going to go downward from there. NPCs aren't as depressing and suicidal as in other souls too. Even the soundtrack reflects this, Majula's theme is quite melancholic sounding, rather than outright dark.
It even had active antagonists, showing that the world still has some strength and ambitions left in it, while in the other games, everyone is just waiting for demise passively. Nashandra wasn't a good fight, but I liked her surprise arrival.

 

[Ghulgothas]

I like how all the ghosts dialogue is pure subtitles with only a faint whisper for audio.

 

[Brickfrog]

Worst FromSoft game ever (well, in two decades or so).

Have you even played DS2/3? Retard.

With Dark Souls 3 it's close, yes, but I still like it better than Elden Ring. Dark Souls 2 is a masterpiece in comparison to ER and DS3 though.

Not trying to attack you or anything, but I have a really hard time to figure out if the praise that Dark Souls 2 gets over here it's some kind of internal joke or if people really believes it. I say that because the codex is unironically the only environment that I'm part of that has people praising Dark Souls 2 over any other game in the souls series.

Level design in DS2 is horrendous, and the boss fights are pretty much forgettable. I've seen people shitting on ER for having repeated enemies, and then again the first "major boss" of DS2 is a fucking giant that has two attacks. And things don't go much better from there in terms of bosses. Hell, give me 35 fights with Crucible Knight over this shitty stuff that has 2 or 3 patterns.

The DLCs makes things better (at least in terms of level design), but if you compare vanilla DS2 with every other souls games it's kinda of bizarre to think it's from the same company.

I'd really like to see people pointing out what exactly DS2 does better than any other souls game because this praise gets me really curious.

I asked this exact question like a week ago and some oldhead here told me that the codex prefers ds2 because it has the greatest build variety in the series.

 

[Mojobeard]

I finished the game. It was too hard. Didn't like it.
Now I'll play it again.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

This game is so big that playing it is almost anxiety inducing. My autistic brain wants to lawn mow, but each time I try to lawn mow, I end up stumbling into something interesting and getting completely off track. I've been trying not to look at maps online, but I did for one area I thought I'd completely explored, and I noticed a whole cave I'd missed.

 

[Curratum]

Fuck now I feel like dropping ER for a bit and go finish my DS2 playthrough.

edit: Even the story was good. DS1 had the Rekindling of the Flame plot which was nice. DS3 just redid that but made it more epic and depressing. DS2 was set in the same context of the First Flame fading but I liked how it tended to reflect more about the nature of those who would attempt to rekindle the flame and how, at least with the DLCs, it suggested there might be another path beyond and between the flame and the dark.

To me, DS2 had the best "story". For some reason, the plot and setting resonated with me better than DS1.

I really loved all the flavor and didn't mind the occasional disconnect in locations / placement. DS1 pulled off some incredible mood pieces and the interconnected world was great, but for some reason I just *felt* DS2 at a deeper level.

Can't explain it or put my finger on it, I just felt it more. I am willing to ascribe this to the "first From game experience" infatuation factor, but it just stuck with me, even after playing DS1 in full later.

I never played PtD beyong Sen's Fort, because my save glitched and I was just falling forever without dying and unable to use my inventory and just went to play 2. Only played DS1 in full when the remaster came out and loved it a lot, but I'm still a bigger DS2 fan.

 

[hackncrazy]

This game is so big that playing it is almost anxiety inducing. My autistic brain wants to lawn mow, but each time I try to lawn mow, I end up stumbling into something interesting and getting completely off track. I've been trying not to look at maps online, but I did for one area I thought I'd completely explored, and I noticed a whole cave I'd missed.

I had the same feeling. For 3 days, I started my play session saying: "Today I'll enter Raya Lucaria". And for 3 days I ended up in different places doing different stuff. I even killed one of the main bosses as my second major boss because I did stuff completely out of order.

 

[Curratum]

Tried summoning humans wearing Radahn's armor set who can obviously beat him, none of the signs worked.

First time I ever put the game in online mode, because honestly, fuck this. Later read you can't mount your horse if you summon players. Went back to offline and now trying to find graveworts so I can get Banished Knight Oleg as high as I can and just keep my fingers crossed the RNG is on my side so I can some day progress the game.

Will probably go do the Plateau first, because I just don't feel like dealing with Radahn's bullshit right now.

 

[Tyranicon]

I think the main problem with Elden Ring for some people is the unevenness of content. Superbly designed levels vs poorly designed areas, great boss fights vs ones that feel unfair, etc. Since there is SO much content in the game, more than any of From's previous offerings, this is especially noticeable. What we are seeing here is From falling victim to one of the biggest flaws of open world games: content fatigue.

This is p. funny - a retarded journalistic dildo bought 2m runes on eBay for real money, the first thing he did with his new character was to raise his Str to 99. And then he actually went to the Tree Sentinel with his starting gear, expecting an easy fight.

Peak retardation.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-03-04-i-bought-elden-ring-runes-on-ebay-so-you-dont-have-to

I'm having difficulty believing that someone actually paid money for runes when cheat engine exists, and I'm having even more difficulty believing that someone actually decided to write about it and broadcast their shame.

Whatever gets the clicks I guess.

*sigh*

Went into Radahn's combat zone.

What even is the point in all of this?

Spoiler

He keeps killing all summons in literally 2 hits and they don't help ME much get in there, because his 200-meter hitboxes flailing around erratically doesn't make for hitting him.

I tried doing that fight solo melee and it was pain.

Spoiler

I ended up doing most of the fight on horseback, running around to summon the NPCs, and spammed magic. Lorretta's bow kills him fast.

Went back to offline and now trying to find graveworts so I can get Banished Knight Oleg as high as I can and just keep my fingers crossed the RNG is on my side so I can some day progress the game.

For Radahn? You can't use spirit ash summons in that fight IIRC.

 

[thelegend]

 

[Egosphere]

Fuck now I feel like dropping ER for a bit and go finish my DS2 playthrough.

edit: Even the story was good. DS1 had the Rekindling of the Flame plot which was nice. DS3 just redid that but made it more epic and depressing. DS2 was set in the same context of the First Flame fading but I liked how it tended to reflect more about the nature of those who would attempt to rekindle the flame and how, at least with the DLCs, it suggested there might be another path beyond and between the flame and the dark.

To me, DS2 had the best "story". For some reason, the plot and setting resonated with me better than DS1.

I really loved all the flavor and didn't mind the occasional disconnect in locations / placement. DS1 pulled off some incredible mood pieces and the interconnected world was great, but for some reason I just *felt* DS2 at a deeper level.

Can't explain it or put my finger on it, I just felt it more. I am willing to ascribe this to the "first From game experience" infatuation factor, but it just stuck with me, even after playing DS1 in full later.

I never played PtD beyong Sen's Fort, because my save glitched and I was just falling forever without dying and unable to use my inventory and just went to play 2. Only played DS1 in full when the remaster came out and loved it a lot, but I'm still a bigger DS2 fan.

Not a fan of 2, but I think it had the most compelling ending of escaping the cycle, transcending it just like Aldia, of all the Souls games. Also, the emerald herald was the most memorable of all the fire keepers.

 

[Curratum]

Just checked, you really cannot summon spirit ashes against Radahn. Well, fuck me...

On a positive note, I'd like to take a moment to point out some things I'm grateful for in this fucking bullshit game:

1. Stakes of Marika. This shouldn't have taken nearly 15 years to implement.
2. Very subtle ambient chords and music during general gameplay. Sorely missed in previous From games I played.

 

[hackncrazy]

I am willing to ascribe this to the "first From game experience" infatuation factor, but it just stuck with me, even after playing DS1 in full later.

I feel this has a lot of weight in deciding what you love the most. My first "souls" game was Lords of the Fallen, and for much shit as people throw at it, I thought it was a nice game and I had fun with it. If it wasn't for it, I wouldn't even play DS1 and the rest.

 

[cvv]

Did anyone said ITT the Radahn fight will be "controversial"?

What exactly is controversial about it? It's probably the stupidest boss fight FS ever made. Boss is the mother of all kitchen blenders, on steroids, cocaine and meth. Plus he's got all ER's trademark funtime features - AoEs up the wazoo, extremely delayed swings and doesn't stop attacking. Plus it's big, if you wanna hit him you have to get close but then you can't see what is he doing.

There have been bosses that were very hard for me, maybe over my natural limit, but at the same time objectively brilliant - Friede, Gael, Nameless, Sword Saint, Father Owl. But this not about hard, with these kind of bosses I don't even wanna git gud.

 

[Brickfrog]

Do you even need to kill radahn to beat the game?
You don't need him to get to the capital. I think if your stuck on him you can safely ignore him until later.

 

[cvv]

Do you even need to kill radahn to beat the game?
You don't need him to get to the capital. I think if your stuck on him you can safely ignore him until later.

He's one of the main bosses, afaik you have to beat him to get the Great Rune. (Just assuming you need all Great Runes to do majicbob in order to achieve thingamajic).

 

[Brickfrog]

Do you even need to kill radahn to beat the game?
You don't need him to get to the capital. I think if your stuck on him you can safely ignore him until later.

He's one of the main bosses, afaik you have to beat him to get the Great Rune. (Just assuming you need all Great Runes to do majicbob in order to achieve thingamajic).

I'm not 100% on if you need him to end the game but you definitely don't need to kill him to access extreme late game areas, which makes me think he might be an entirely optional boss. Or at least, it shouldn't be necessary to kill him until very far into the game.

 

[Jermu]

Is there

Spoiler

mimic chest/s? Been hitting every chest but none so far only 1 with the teleport

Also regarding boss

Spoiler

Mimic boss was probably the easiest boss so far most likely because my build is so shit :D

Getting bored with my dex/mostly faith build think I respec into str now.

 

[Agame]

Fuck now I feel like dropping ER for a bit and go finish my DS2 playthrough.

edit: Even the story was good. DS1 had the Rekindling of the Flame plot which was nice. DS3 just redid that but made it more epic and depressing. DS2 was set in the same context of the First Flame fading but I liked how it tended to reflect more about the nature of those who would attempt to rekindle the flame and how, at least with the DLCs, it suggested there might be another path beyond and between the flame and the dark.

To me, DS2 had the best "story". For some reason, the plot and setting resonated with me better than DS1.

I really loved all the flavor and didn't mind the occasional disconnect in locations / placement. DS1 pulled off some incredible mood pieces and the interconnected world was great, but for some reason I just *felt* DS2 at a deeper level.

Can't explain it or put my finger on it, I just felt it more. I am willing to ascribe this to the "first From game experience" infatuation factor, but it just stuck with me, even after playing DS1 in full later.

I never played PtD beyong Sen's Fort, because my save glitched and I was just falling forever without dying and unable to use my inventory and just went to play 2. Only played DS1 in full when the remaster came out and loved it a lot, but I'm still a bigger DS2 fan.

DS2 is my favourite Souls game, and yes I played DS1 first so I don't buy into that "first love" BS. As you say there is something about the whole package that makes the game work for me, hard to pinpoint exactly why. I like the disconnected levels, even the elevator upwards into a lava pool that people lose their minds over ("It's physically impossible reeeeeeeee!!!" as if any of the architecture and giant trees etc from DS1 are somehow possible in the real world?) The disconnectedness adds to the overall surreal feeling of being in an 'Alice in Wonderland' world. Also Majula is the best, most serene and beautiful hub zone. All the differences between it and DS1 set it apart into a unique experience, which I guess is why it gets so much hatred from the internet hivemind that want to be served the same greasy burger over and over again.

In my opinion DS3 began the trend of a tired rehashing of previous games that we see playing out in Elden Ring, recycling the same stuff over and over. Demon souls, DS1 and DS2 are all dramatically different creating unique gameplay/aesthetic experiences. DS3 is like a 'greatest hits compilation' which is fine if you really love the band... Elden Ring is starting to feel like that 'final tour' from a geriatric rock band who just will not give up and retire respectably.

 

[Riddler]

DS3 just redid that but made it more epic and depressing. DS2 was set in the same context of the First Flame fading but I liked how it tended to reflect more about the nature of those who would attempt to rekindle the flame and how, at least with the DLCs, it suggested there might be another path beyond and between the flame and the dark

But DS3 did this in both the base game and in the DLC? It clearly wasn't just about relighting the flame.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Worst FromSoft game ever (well, in two decades or so).

Have you even played DS2/3? Retard.

With Dark Souls 3 it's close, yes, but I still like it better than Elden Ring. Dark Souls 2 is a masterpiece in comparison to ER and DS3 though.

Not trying to attack you or anything, but I have a really hard time to figure out if the praise that Dark Souls 2 gets over here it's some kind of internal joke or if people really believes it. I say that because the codex is unironically the only environment that I'm part of that has people praising Dark Souls 2 over any other game in the souls series.

Level design in DS2 is horrendous, and the boss fights are pretty much forgettable. I've seen people shitting on ER for having repeated enemies, and then again the first "major boss" of DS2 is a fucking giant that has two attacks. And things don't go much better from there in terms of bosses. Hell, give me 35 fights with Crucible Knight over this shitty stuff that has 2 or 3 patterns.

The DLCs makes things better (at least in terms of level design), but if you compare vanilla DS2 with every other souls games it's kinda of bizarre to think it's from the same company.

I'd really like to see people pointing out what exactly DS2 does better than any other souls game because this praise gets me really curious.

To give a properly holistic answer to this question, I think DS2 is the better game because it still tries to use encounter design, enemy placement, and environmental hazards, to provide challenge, rather than giving every second enemy unpredictable 7 hit combos and calling it a day. I'm not going to defend some of its shoddy content, but it's the last Souls game with serious dungeon crawler roots, whereas the games after Bloodborne are all just edgy combat simulators, Elden Ring included.

Let me give you an example of what I mean by this. You complain about bosses in DS2 having limited movesets. Well, one of the hardest bosses in Demon's Souls, the Maneaters, also have like 4 different moves, of which maybe 2 are actually dangerous. So, how are they difficult with such a limited moveset? There's two of them, they can fly, and the fight takes place on a narrow bridge, where you have to constantly be careful of rolling off the ledge or getting knocked off. The way this constrains your mobility and positioning is what makes the fight hard.

To put this a different way, I recall how after DS1 release, you'd have fans trumpet about how the game wasn't that hard if you were just patient and careful, which I think was mostly true. This is still mostly true about DS2, but not about the post Bloodborne games - in them, it's more about how good your dodge timing is.

I can elaborate if you want. You can read my thoughts on DS3 back from when it released here, they apply to Elden Ring just as well insofar as I've played it.

On level design in DS2 specifically, for all of its shoddy areas, I'm pretty sure that it still wins over Elden Ring on average, with its empty theme park open world and copypaste crypts and mines. Even on an individual level, comparing apples to apples, Lost Bastille > Raya Lucaria, for example. Have yet to see anything as good as DS2 DLC levels in Elden Ring, though I'm still far from finishing the game.