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

[Child of Malkav]

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.

Also better NG+, bonfire ascetics, rewards for doing no bonfire and no death runs, extinction mechanic, good covenants with one of them having a secret and good boss fight, various hidden effects and stat increases on armors. The boss fights, generally, are not the highlight of the game.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

(even the rats have infinite stamina, once they started attacking you they will keep going until you die if you don't dodge away).

No, no they don't.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Why does every random enemy have infinite stamina??

I thought every enemy since DkS1 had infinite stamina. The difference is just how often they attack. Based on proximity, positioning of the player character in relation to the NPC they use various attacks or spam others but I never noticed anything resembling stamina system for NPCs. They probably have a cooldown system or something.
Elex 2 has stamina bar for enemies and you can see it under their health bar.

 

[curds]

Your post makes me assume you never played a Fromsoft game before, so go play Dark Souls 1-3 first.

He has a Dark Souls avatar, safe to assume he's played them.

Might be a random pick. If he knows Fromsoft games then its a really strange question.

Fair point, although I happen to know he was the dude who submitted the Dark Souls avatars. And he recently (re)played 2 and 3 and posted pics in the screenshot thread. It's all in my (mental) codex.txt.

 

[Curratum]

Has anyone here managed to successfully solo Radahn?
This fight is a complete clusterfuck where it seems like your luck matters more than skill.

 

[Agame]

For me, in terms of raw enjoyment and without trying to do the objective ranking :
DeS = DS2 = Bloodborne > DS1 >>>> Elden Ring >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dark Souls 3.

Looks correct to me, though I have not played BB, I would probably put Sekiro between DS1 and ER. And yea DS3 is so eminently forgettable, for better or worse the open world design in ER does make it far more memorable as a different take on the souls series. DS3 would be on the bottom of the list to replay if I ever wanted to go back to earlier games.

I would say now I can see more value in the open world stuff, it does provide a nice change of pace after grinding on bosses to take a ride around and look at the scenery, admire the scenic views etc. But in the past if I got burnt out on a boss I would just play a different game for a bit or do something else and come back. Not sure if the net value of the open world is positive when you weigh it against the negatives, like bloating overall game length and the danger of making everything begin to feel generic.

 

[Nathir]

yet believable, world like DeS, DS1 or Bloobdorne did

How exactly are these believable where ER wouldn't be? I'd say Souls games always exhibit a dream/myth/fairytale-like vibe akin to for example E.Y.E., Pathologic, Killer 7 etc. Sekiro is sort of an exeption but not all that much.

Lots of reasons. For once, DS1 cites lots of realms and lands beyond the game scope and gives you views hinting at those lands in the horizon...

...while Elden Ring lore hints at groups and realms and intrigue etc. within the very place the game is running, but then doesn't show how any of that could be plausibly the case, since there isn't even a population for that to happen. Except if the conflict is among dogs and mosquitoes.

The Kenneth Haite quest in Limgrave is the worst offender here: you find a noble on the road asking help to expels invaders from his castle, and citing he is the next in line for Limgrave throne, and that Godrick is an incompetent ruler.

I mean, wut? Where are this Haite fella serfs, court, farmers or their homes? Nowhere to be seen. What nobility is that which Godrick is ruling over? Nowhere to be seen. Where is the daily live of this realms, with commerce, diplomacy, sustenance, etc. hapenning? Nowhere to be seen. Do we see that court in the castle after the quest is accomplished? Nope, the place stays derelict.

The game world is simply too fragile in backing up what's claimed by the lore, in a way that past Souls games weren't (be by backing it up or smartly evading it altogether). All there is, is a theme-park of adventure for the player to romp through with little in the way of causal resonance to the lore that's presented in items and NPC dialogues.

I know what you mean. It's annoying me aswell. In Demon Souls you visit specific locations, where everyone is hostile to you. A castle, a swamp, a tower, a shrine and some mines. In Dark Souls you travel to Lordran. Lordran is completely fucked up and it was not a land where humans lived. But gods. The only humans are other undead. All the kingdoms that are named in item descriptions exist outside of Lordran. And their knights traveled to Lordran.

In Elden Ring you have this land that is just comprised of wildlife and ruins. Is there a story reason for this? Maybe, I don't know. But then you have locations like castle Morne, where the castle is under siege by monsters. And except for the NPC commander the defending soldiers attack you on sight, even if you just kill the monsters. You are clearly on good terms with the commander and the soldiers will keep attacking you. Does everyone just hate Tarnished so much? The guy in charge of castle Haight (?) talks like he is the rightful ruler of Limgrave. You kill the invaders in his castle and afterwards there is nobody at the castle but Haight himself. No servants or anything. Why would this even be important for him? Looking at the land there are no cities, no people but Godrick soldiers on the road etc. No signs of a functional society, even if characters behave like it. Redmane castle is supposed to host some kind of an event but there is no effort put into making it look like it. The castle is just empty, populated with soldiers. All you get are a few NPCs.

It just feels weird to me. They made it open world, but it doesn't feel like a real world at all. Maybe it's story related idk.

 

[Egosphere]

Why does every random enemy have infinite stamina??

I thought every enemy since DkS1 had infinite stamina. The difference is just how often they attack. Based on proximity, positioning of the player character in relation to the NPC they use various attacks or spam others but I never noticed anything resembling stamina system for NPCs. They probably have a cooldown system or something.
Elex 2 has stamina bar for enemies and you can see it under their health bar.

It was bloodborne where the infinite stamina became egregious, when you fought other hunters like Djura and the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst

 

[Curratum]

This disgusting fucking piece of shit game, man... Shaking, going for a smoke...

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure at least half of the retarded reviewers who have been moaning how hard FromSoft games are for YEARS didn't beat this boss, yet gave the game a 10/10.

Also, stop trying to summon humans for the fight. You lose your horse when you summon and the fight is so so so much easier when you have your horse instead of a random other human, both of you dismounted and needing to deal with this shit at melee range with no fast retreat option.

 

[Wunderbar]

Finally whacked the fucker. The worst story boss so far.

The fight was so RNG I managed to do that with 8 out of 10 gulps of estus unused, simply because I got lucky. Lv 50, Lordsword greatsword +13.

I wonder why, of all bosses, Radahn was the only one who got a fancy pre-rendered cutscene before the fight?

 

[Curratum]

Level 71. I think I'll just level up two more points of stamina so I can land that final blow, you know... Fucker's got 25 000 HP.

 

[Seigneur Locklear]

I mean, you can literally beat Radahn by just running around and doing summons. It's bullshit and it's tedious and the only real threat are the instagib balls of death that whoever has implemented should lose his job for.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

They made it open world, but it doesn't feel like a real world at all.

Neither do any of the other DS games (by your criteria, but without the blinders on), you people have been watching too many lore videos.

 

[Hassar]

yet believable, world like DeS, DS1 or Bloobdorne did

How exactly are these believable where ER wouldn't be? I'd say Souls games always exhibit a dream/myth/fairytale-like vibe akin to for example E.Y.E., Pathologic, Killer 7 etc. Sekiro is sort of an exeption but not all that much.

Lots of reasons. For once, DS1 cites lots of realms and lands beyond the game scope and gives you views hinting at those lands in the horizon...

...while Elden Ring lore hints at groups and realms and intrigue etc. within the very place the game is running, but then doesn't show how any of that could be plausibly the case, since there isn't even a population for that to happen. Except if the conflict is among dogs and mosquitoes.

The Kenneth Haite quest in Limgrave is the worst offender here: you find a noble on the road asking help to expels invaders from his castle, and citing he is the next in line for Limgrave throne, and that Godrick is an incompetent ruler.

I mean, wut? Where are this Haite fella serfs, court, farmers or their homes? Nowhere to be seen. What nobility is that which Godrick is ruling over? Nowhere to be seen. Where is the daily live of this realms, with commerce, diplomacy, sustenance, etc. hapenning? Nowhere to be seen. Do we see that court in the castle after the quest is accomplished? Nope, the place stays derelict.

The game world is simply too fragile in backing up what's claimed by the lore, in a way that past Souls games weren't (be by backing it up or smartly evading it altogether). All there is, is a theme-park of adventure for the player to romp through with little in the way of causal resonance to the lore that's presented in items and NPC dialogues.

I know what you mean. It's annoying me aswell. In Demon Souls you visit specific locations, where everyone is hostile to you. A castle, a swamp, a tower, a shrine and some mines. In Dark Souls you travel to Lordran. Lordran is completely fucked up and it was not a land where humans lived. But gods. The only humans are other undead. All the kingdoms that are named in item descriptions exist outside of Lordran. And their knights traveled to Lordran.

In Elden Ring you have this land that is just comprised of wildlife and ruins. Is there a story reason for this? Maybe, I don't know. But then you have locations like castle Morne, where the castle is under siege by monsters. And except for the NPC commander the defending soldiers attack you on sight, even if you just kill the monsters. You are clearly on good terms with the commander and the soldiers will keep attacking you. Does everyone just hate Tarnished so much? The guy in charge of castle Haight (?) talks like he is the rightful ruler of Limgrave. You kill the invaders in his castle and afterwards there is nobody at the castle but Haight himself. No servants or anything. Why would this even be important for him? Looking at the land there are no cities, no people but Godrick soldiers on the road etc. No signs of a functional society, even if characters behave like it. Redmane castle is supposed to host some kind of an event but there is no effort put into making it look like it. The castle is just empty, populated with soldiers. All you get are a few NPCs.

It just feels weird to me. They made it open world, but it doesn't feel like a real world at all. Maybe it's story related idk.

From doesn’t know how to make an organic world with actual characters. Or maybe Miyazaki just does not want to. It’s the same old “the world has gone to shit” setting over and over again. I’m wandering this open world with ruined towns and signs that someone used to live in these places. But there is no sign that these people did anything. You see a house. You walk inside. There is no bed, no clothing chest, nothing at all indicating that someone used to live there. It’s so empty. I’m galloping around on my super jump horse but there is really no where to go. There’s nothing to do but fight. Could have a broader conversation about how video game designers don’t know how to write or structure adventures so they’re stuck with just combat systems and graphics.

Gonna give Returnal a try. A Plague Tale looks good, too.

 

[Perkel]

They changed how armor works from DS3. Previously it was:

DAMAGE RECEIVED = (DAMAGE - RAW MITIGATION) * %MITIGATION

DAMAGE - damage dealt by monster to you
RAW MITIGATION - raw number by which damage will be negated. It is your lvl * armor piece (so 4 max for 4 pieces)
% MITIGATION - self explanatory.

Now:

RAW MITIGATION only cares about your lvl. There is no multiplier to lvl points defense you get.

Which means that % mitigation is more important and that you don't need all 4 pieces to get any kind of good damage reduction.

 

[Curratum]

Eat my whole ass, you fat footless piece of shit!

Spoiler

There is no sense of accomplishment here, there is just relief. There is no skill, just ganking mindlessly time after time, getting in there and mashing attack until both the bleed and frost on the katana proc and he suddenly loses thousands of HP at once, hopefully before he managed to pull off his homing one-hit kill bullshit. What a terrible fucking boss, glad this is over.

Also, Wunderbar also at 6 out of 8 heal flasks because the fight is one big game of bingo with Dragon Ball Z animations.

 

[Lutte]

I mean, you can literally beat Radahn by just running around and doing summons. It's bullshit and it's tedious and the only real threat are the instagib balls of death that whoever has implemented should lose his job for.

Talking of losing one's job, the person who designed Malenia should also KYS. Talk of guaranteed death? how about a repeating combo where the boss jumps onto you no matter how far you go, then unleashes this :
3 lightning fast 360 attacks, jumps onto you again, 3 lighting fast 360 attacks, 3 more again, then a final jump onto you with 3 more AoE.

EACH of these 5 waves of absolute hurt will instantly bring you down to 0 hp from full with 40 vigor and Morgott's Great Rune activated (a great rune that does quite a good health boost). They're undodgeable because if you dodge one part of the wave another part will hit you, you will survive the wave but the next will hit and finish you while you're staggered.

 

[Curratum]

PSA - Be good little autists like me and spend 10 minutes combing Radahn's battlefield on your horse to grab the "hidden" dungeon that is in there.

 

[N0rn]

Talking of losing one's job, the person who designed Malenia should also KYS. Talk of guaranteed death? how about a repeating combo where the boss jumps onto you no matter how far you go, then unleashes this :
3 lightning fast 360 attacks, jumps onto you again, 3 lighting fast 360 attacks, 3 more again, then a final jump onto you with 3 more AoE.

Yeah, fuck that shit. I almost got her today, but the second phase fucked me over when she had maybe a quarter of her health left. It's also fun how she changes from superfast, lifeleach sword moves to hard to dodge AoEs AND fast sword moves in her second phase.

 

[Lutte]

Someone made a nice video about the inherent brokenness of this :



From the author who's been autistic enough to try this all too many times without the mimic and without greatshields :
>You can only outrun it if you're already a few meters awat from her when she starts it ; a close range flurry is unavoidable until something new is found

This is the most broken boss in souls history. A move you literally can't do anything about if you're not 1/ already at a decent distance from the boss when it starts it 2/ a greatshield user

 

[Curratum]

Quick question for people who are further ahead or generally understand builds better than I do (which is not hard).

I'm currently at 40 vigor, 10 mind, 15 endurance, 30 str / dex. Vigor drops hard from 40 up and I am unwilling to spend more on it. STR and DEX also look like they have very limited benefits pumping them further.

1 point of stamina for 1 levelup / endurance point seems like a waste too. Should I just dump some points in Mind so I can afford the fat boy summons that need 100 FP later on?

 

[Lutte]

Quick question for people who are further ahead or generally understand builds better than I do (which is not hard).

I'm currently at 40 vigor, 10 mind, 15 endurance, 30 str / dex. Vigor drops hard from 40 up and I am unwilling to spend more on it. STR and DEX also look like they have very limited benefits pumping them further.

1 point of stamina for 1 levelup / endurance point seems like a waste too. Should I just dump some points in Mind so I can afford the fat boy summons that need 100 FP later on?

You should absolutely level up mind.. so that you can use more weapon arts. Please, don't underestimate weapon arts. The amount of stagger you cause to bosses can be very helpful. Late game, I only used weapon arts moves, even on basic enemies, because normal R1s became too underpowered.
Quality builds aren't what they used to be.. I'd recommend you respecc to replace either STR or DEX with INT or FAITH. The unique weapons with those kind of stats will give you a far better return on stat investment and you'll gain some utility along the way - sorcery for example has a spell that is like a black hole that absorbs all other spells.

Going pure physical in this game is just gimping yourself, anyhow, even if you intend on never using any spells, the int/faith paths are simply better. Arcane is also very, very good if you focus on bleeding weapons.

 

[Curratum]

Quick question for people who are further ahead or generally understand builds better than I do (which is not hard).

I'm currently at 40 vigor, 10 mind, 15 endurance, 30 str / dex. Vigor drops hard from 40 up and I am unwilling to spend more on it. STR and DEX also look like they have very limited benefits pumping them further.

1 point of stamina for 1 levelup / endurance point seems like a waste too. Should I just dump some points in Mind so I can afford the fat boy summons that need 100 FP later on?

You should absolutely level up mind.. so that you can use more weapon arts. Please, don't underestimate weapon arts. The amount of stagger you cause to bosses can be very helpful.
Quality builds aren't what they used to be.. I'd recommend you respecc to replace either STR or DEX with INT or FAITH. The unique weapons with those kind of stats will give you a far better return on stat investment and you'll gain some utility along the way - sorcery for example has a spell that is like a black hole that absorbs all other spells.

Going pure physical in this game is just gimping yourself, anyhow, even if you intend on never using any spells, the int/faith paths are simply better. Arcane is also very, very good if you focus on bleeding weapons.

I will start pumping points in mana, will stick with that 30/30 for now, but will keep your advice about an eventual respec in mind!

I haven't got a single boss / unique weapon just yet and don't feel the need to push for this.

When it comes to weapon arts, the hoarfrost stomp seems very broken. You can clear a whole room of even medium-strength dungeon/world mobs by just spamming it twice. The ice spikes deal damage both when appearing and when retracting and it seems to really wreck. I have no idea if it's fixed damage or scales with something on your person or the weapon +X but it feels really powerful and accumulated frostbite too.

 

[Lutte]

I haven't got a single boss / unique weapon just yet and don't feel the need to push for this.

To put things into perspective, it takes me two weapon arts use, one of the most broken of the arts too, to kill basic enemies in late game with a fully upgraded weapon and 70 INT, and I do more damage than I did as a pure DEX user. The tankier enemies are more like 5 arts use.

The game is broken, so you should go for broken builds. I'm surprised you haven't seen any unique weapon though. They're even laying around in dungeons/caves etc. some are obtained by killing npc invaders, pretty much anything you do will end up getting you some unique shit along the way.

 

[Curratum]

I haven't got a single boss / unique weapon just yet and don't feel the need to push for this.

To put things into perspective, it takes me two weapon arts use, one of the most broken of the arts too, to kill basic enemies in late game with a fully upgraded weapon and 70 INT, and I do more damage than I did as a pure DEX user. The tankier enemies are more like 5 arts use.

The game is broken, so you should go for broken builds. I'm surprised you haven't seen any unique weapon though. They're even laying around in dungeons/caves etc. some are obtained by killing npc invaders, pretty much anything you do will end up getting you some unique shit along the way.

Maybe I have some, but am not counting them as uniques. I've cleared pretty much every dungeon in Limgrave and the majority of them in Liurnia, and a couple in Caelid.

Also, I keep dying to From's inept coding. My keyboard is perfectly capable of outputting 3+ simultaneous keystrokes at once but ingame, if I hold W+A to run forward and to the side, pressing the "down" arrow to cycle my flasks no longer does anything because the game won't register a third simultaneous keypress...