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

[ElectricOtter]

Holy flippin’ Christmas. You sure do love your From Software games. Better than UnderRail, Fallout 1 & 2? Baldur’s Gate? Final Fantasy Tactics? Jagged Alliance 2? Better than Link to the Past? Prey? Chrono Trigger? Resident Evil 4? Final Fantasy 6?

usually when u do this u actually list good games btw

just a tip and trick for future ref :3

and before ur dumbass decides to combat me lemme remind u:

underrail - autistic

fallout 1/2 - modern day slogs

baldur's gate - wrpg shit

fftactics - like a bajillion better tactics games out there

jagged alliance 2 - nobody rly plays this lmao

link to the past - zzzzzelda

prey - literally who

chrono trigger - babys first jrpg alert

resident evil 4 - killed the series in terms of quality

ff6 - is this reddit lmao xd

 

[Ramnozack]

Any of you guys have the magic scorpion ring? Would you be willing to trade that to me, I missed that shit the first time around. Can just backup your save beforehand so that after we trade you just restore that backup and we both keep the ring

 

[Cromwell]

So while I cant play as mucha s others I have enough time to follow the thread and by now a lot of people are burned out. I get why especially if you run aroound the map and check everything. I finished Volcano manor last night and got my third rune. Something I never really understood about any of the games is their item system. Normally in an rpg you start weak you get xp and level your character and you also stumble over better equipment, either its stronger +x or its situational stronger, lets say a flaming sword which you keep for everytime theres some enemies weak to fire. In Souls games, those I played, thats not really the case, you get a weapon you like you upgrade it and then you wreck everything until the end. Theres no real reason to switch because it would mean to farm upgrade stuff again for no real reason since your weapon works just fine and theres not really an upgrade thats vastly better (I am probably wrong ont he details but I think in general thats the case). Of course there are people which absolutely have to beat the game with weapon X because it looks so cool and I always saw these kidns as a bit retarded but if its fun for them why not.

Now we have ER where its more or less the same, get weapon finish game with it. Of course you have some special weapons which are probably a lot stronger than the normal ones so assume you have one of those there are probably enough accessible early to midgame. Now we also have a large open world where you dont stumble upon potential ooler weapons like in the other games but you have to look for them (and burn out in the process because you check every fucking cave). What would now compell me to check these caves and all that other shit? I already have weapon x which I like which does a fuckton of damage and is upgraded. This wasnt as much a problem in the other games since they arent as large and exploration mostly means look for secrets in cool dungeons.

Theres also the story which is still told in "froms signature way" which everyone would call lazy storytelling if it wasnt from doing it. For me again it works in the other games since they arent as big so I will stumble on most stuff meet most npcs and even if not I could treat them as more arcadey meaning I dont really need a story if I stust smash my way from a to b and kill everything that moves. Normally in a game this big I could meet npcs they communicate clearly what they want from me, I would call that a quest then I would move to a dungeon do shit soak in atmosphere and story, get rewarded and do the next one, and I could do this over and over if I like the story and the world. Maybe I find some udnerground passage wonder whats down there go down find awesome loot, save some slaves that are held there, help them get back, they show me the way to their village I go there learn more get more quests and so on. Not in ER, I go down in a dungeon find a miniboss and some loot that is probably absolutely useless for me like 90% of the talisman or whatever Items I have in my inventory.

I was in some windmill villages with crazy people which I killed, got up because I was interested what was there, found another crazy one killed it to and that was that. Nothing more. I remember having read somewhere some NPC I dont know whill show up there as part of her "questline" if you do x y and z. I dont care.

I am interested in story and lore but I wont search for it like a maniac and get burned out just to find almost nothing and then have to listen to spergs how thats the best storytelling since cave paintings. I have no reason to check the dungeons because I dont really need loot becaus ethere probably is nothing thats really more useful than what I already have and the way they structure there quests means I probably wont find an npc there in most cases and have no story related reason to got here either. The Game is so big with so many little things that not using a wiki for whatever you want and looking where its at is just wasting your time because every location that doesnt have what you need has nothign else of value.

I have a lot of fun with the game but almost none of it is related to the open world which only served, imho, to show where the shortcomings are in froms way to design games. So I just go to the locations I want to see, probably everything with shardbearers in it, and finish them.

 

[cvv]

I don't think the same types of mobs in later areas with more HP qualifies as level scaling though (even though it's an equally shit mechanic)

This. It shouldn't exist but it's not level scaling.

Funposter, level scaling literally means mobs scale according to your level. It's right there, in the Codex headline.

In ER mobs don't scale according to your level, it's just the same kind of mob has different HP values in different parts of the world. If you go to Caelid on lvl1 or lvl150 you meet the same 1k HP rat.

I'd prefer they created unique mobs for all areas but alas, this solution is less resource taxing and afaik most open-world games do this shit too.

 

[Tacgnol]

Yes, it's simply lazy enemy design/asset reuse rather than level scaling.

They are static enemies rather than being placed dynamically.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Excerpts from a typical souls discussion thread:

"Playing with summons is equivalent to an easy mode. It should be banned because easy mode means that I am a casual."

"Playing with any talisman should be banned as an easy mode."

"By the way, also using weapons is basically a way to cheese the fights. It is easy mode too!... Using only bare hands is the way the game is meant to be played(tm)."

"Yesterday I removed my left eye and hammered my right hand to a pulp. Now finally I can enjoy my souls game even more!"

 

[Agame]

Done Stormveil Castle and Raya Lucaria, started the Capitol, and the fatigue is real.

I will repeat what has already been said here over and over, "Legacy" dungeons are great and feel like classic DS.

The open world is a mistake, or at least its to fucking big. I do think it could work if it was simply a smaller area. In previous DS games you are trained to scavenge every inch of the map as you want to find every item possible that may give you a leg up for the challenge. So this ludicrously sized open world has an inherent disconnect with its own gameplay, do I lawnmower every square foot thereby meaning I never finish the game after dying from exhaustion and dehydration in my mums basement? Or do I possibly miss out on crucial items/weapons/talismans that could be necessary for my 'build'. Am I supposed to trawl through the wiki spoiling the game to create a list of stuff I need to get? What a shit design...

And what I think is even worse than the open world and the biggest issue with the game is the summoning. Yes the stupid ash summons, and yes I have seen the memes. Here is the problem: at its core DS gameplay is about the boss fights, these are generally speaking 'mano el mano' and this is critical to the entire experience of the game. I see them as tennis matches. You have a court (the arena), yourself and your opponent. A set of rules, which is the boss moveset. Everything comes down to how you perform within this construct, your timing, your reactions, reading the opponent and even your psychological mindframe. The summons are as if you can suddenly tag team someone onto your side of the net and now have two players. It fucks with all the timing and nuance of the boss, no need to time healing, wailing on the bosses back as he ignores you, it trivializes these fights completely.

Yes I know "just don't summon them if you don't like them", but as already said previously here, its a large part of the game loop with so many summons to collect and upgrade. From Soft want you to use them. And we all know the reason they are here. Its a way to make an 'easy mode' without having it as an obvious toggle option on game start. So Miyazaki can get all his articles about 'holding firm against the cuck journalists and not changing the difficulty.' What is actually happening here is the gradual stripping away of the hardcore experience started in DeS. Its the same with the bonfires. Remember when it use to be a big deal when you saw one round a corner? I also remember someone complaining, I think re DS2 that there was a bonfire so close that you could see the last one from it. And that was a big deal. Well fuck, in ER you are falling and tripping over bonfires there are so many of them.

Decline, massive decline, Dark Souls is doomed, its just a matter of time till it becomes another Skyrim/Ubisoft clusterfuck.

Oh and by the way we also have 'body type A' and 'body type B'. Fuck this gay, pozzed earth, why do we have to ruin everything that is beautiful and righteous?

 

[Tacgnol]

"Yesterday I removed my left eye and hammered my right hand to a pulp to make the game harder. Now the game is too hard, make the fights easier!"

Fixed.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I got the game working on my system though it has no right to run it....or so the story goes. No more demanding than DkS3 or Sekiro. Fuck their dx12 req. But there are ways around that shit and EAC. Get white screened From. Anyway.
Been playing it for 47 hours. Level 60. Using Int and Faith plus Sword of Night and Flame. No main boss done yet but I have to say this: one of the main attractions for me to Soulsborne games was the boss fights and somehow they managed to completely and utterly destroy it. With the exception of Margit in Stormveil Castle, every boss I've fought absolutely sucked. There were none that I enjoyed fighting. Magma Wyrm can go to hell (oh wait, it's already there), I don't understand how someone made that boss and then went "This is peak boss design". Horrible, it's not even a fight, it just runs against you and one shots you and if you somehow survive that you're going to die in the next second because when it sperges out like that it leaves lava behind that kills you. It can spam that thing too. Often it did it 4 times in a row, covering almost the entire area in lava. That attack must be avoided completely by running sideways. Occasionally it uses a sword but the main "attack" is that bullshit move.
Back on topic, all of them have 180 - 360 degrees attacks, AoE attacks with explosions added, so called "helicopter attacks" where the boss spams a 360 attack for a few times, flying and or teleporting all over the place no matter if it makes sense given the size or posture of the boss (the bullshit that Tree Sentinels pull with their shields and horses is the real reason aliens stayed in fucking space), series of 5 - 10 attacks or more (I stopped counting at one point).
Because of this, literally every boss feels the same, it's like I'm fighting a shape shifter, same attacks but different forms.
The fights are shit but the spectacle of the fights (visual and aural design) is great.
The open world I like in the way it looks, also spectacular, epic, grand, mythical etc. It has verticality and secrets, the legacy dungeons (I looked around a bit in Stormveil and Academy if Raya Lucaria) are huge and well done and feel like classic Soulsborne levels. The reuse of enemies and bosses is already at holy shit levels but it's not surprising for me since I anticipated this will be the case. I was hoping that From might have a different vision on how the open world is populated or functions. But no. How this game got such high scores is beyond my comprehension. It's DkS3 with open world and horse expansion mod. And some QoL improvements.
Also not one boss OST that I liked. Again, shocking considering previous deliveries in Bloodborne and DkS3 (the only good thing in that game together with their respective bosses).

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I feel like dynamic combat music in open world games always sucks. I hate enjoying the games nice atmosphere and then some crab or octopus spots me and suddenly it's generic combat music.

This apply also to 99% of games. It is the reason why I usually turn off the music in games. However there is a place in ER where I genuinely was in awe how the music was integrated in the combat...

Spoiler

the capital city

I never experienced something similar in any game before.

 

[Tacgnol]

ER has some decent tracks, they just get a little overused like most open world games.

 

[Lutte]

I think re DS2 that there was a bonfire so close that you could see the last one from it. And that was a big deal. Well fuck, in ER you are falling and tripping over bonfires there are so many of them.

That was DS3.

 

[Wunderbar]

The infamous Dragonslayer's Armour -> The Grand Archives duo.

 

[Gruncheon]

Yeah that never happens in FromSoft games. Or games in general. But especially FromSoft games.

When you fight Vicar Amelia, and she raises her hands together, it looks like what it's going to be - a ground slam. You can get better at avoiding it, but the visual cue tells you what you need to know from the start. In Elden Ring, it's like you're fighting an action figure piloted by a spastic 6 year old. Slamming you constantly, rotating on its own axis, jumping to Mars if it feels like it, reading your inputs and, most importantly, you never feel sure that the boss is done with its combo. It's not satisfying.

usually when u do this u actually list good games btw

just a tip and trick for future ref :3

and before ur dumbass decides to combat me lemme remind u:

underrail - autistic

fallout 1/2 - modern day slogs

baldur's gate - wrpg shit

fftactics - like a bajillion better tactics games out there

jagged alliance 2 - nobody rly plays this lmao

link to the past - zzzzzelda

prey - literally who

chrono trigger - babys first jrpg alert

resident evil 4 - killed the series in terms of quality

ff6 - is this reddit lmao xd

planescape - lol so gay

vtmb - ur a faget

majoras mask - havent played so just gonna say zzzzzeeelda

dmc3 - cry moar lol

also fuk u zizka im not 'retarded' its actually ADHD and lots of people have it so fuk u lol git gud fr fr no cap

 

[Agame]

I think re DS2 that there was a bonfire so close that you could see the last one from it. And that was a big deal. Well fuck, in ER you are falling and tripping over bonfires there are so many of them.

That was DS3.

Great, one more reason to send that game to the naughty corner.

 

[cvv]

And what I think is even worse than the open world and the biggest issue with the game is the summoning. Yes the stupid ash summons, and yes I have seen the memes. Here is the problem: at its core DS gameplay is about the boss fights, these are generally speaking 'mano el mano'

Yes, that was true in previous FS games, altho some NPC summons made the fights way harder bc they ramped up boss' HP while being utterly useless.

But in Elden Ring...some boss fights are so hard (Radahn, Godskin Duo, Melania, a few others) most people won't be able to solo them, no matter how gud they git. It's as if they're actually designed to utilize the ocean of Ashes you're collecting. It's like the Cancer Trio in Sunken King - game doesn't specifically tell you "this is a co-op fight" but it just screams "lol you better get a sunbro" at you.

I don't like it, getting help in Souls always FEELS cheap, and in ER it feels even cheaper with how OP some Ashes are if you upgrade them to the max (which is p. easy), but that's where we're at.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Summoning other players as well as the other multiplayer mechanics (Messages, shadows, invasions) are fundamental mechanics of the experience of these games and they also were core elements in the design of the original Demon's souls. To the extent that there's one boss in that game that was designed to be controlled by another player, having things like the reward that you get for one of the two endings is an unlimited item to invade other players. Keeping this in mind the new summoning ashes are not an issue. Do they made the fights easier? Well, that's their point alongside the whole concept of summoning players to help you. The big issue is that, despite how important these mechanics are to the design of these games, Fromsoft bosses never were balanced around multiple players, and that's a fundamental flaw they have been carrying since 2009. They had examples like the monsters from Monster hunter or the creatures of Dragon's dogma, examples of how to design the attacks and the behavior of a boss to be dangerous to multiple players at the same time. And they didn't learn.

 

[Curratum]

Looking forward to Vaati trying to make a twenty minute video out of the wacky circumstances that lead Leonine Misbegotten reskin and Evergaol Crucible Knight #2 (of 50) to team up to fuck me in the least fun boss fight since Smelter Demon.

I was thinking LITERALLY the same thing - can't wait for Vaati to come up with retarded "lore" explanations to defend the nauseating boss and enemy reuse through massive swathes of content and boss encounters.

Doing the last stretch of Haligtree before Malenia.

There really isn't a single unique enemy from the lift of Rold and all the way into the ridiculously huge frozen north and haligtree, right?

Vulgar militia, zamor knights, Caelid crows and dogs, reskinned giants, enlarged Caria manor hands, gigantic skeletor buddies from 5 other places, winged misbegotten, zombies, flowers, battlemages, cleanrot knights and human soldiers with a new tabbard, asylym demon trees... Area is bigger than Limgrave and doesn't have a single new enemy type.

 

[Cromwell]

"lore" explanations

while were at that whats the explanation for the shadows? I mean for example the guy showing up in the roundtable hold, the red one when his body is elsewhere. another one would be

Spoiler

fight against blaidd

 

[Curratum]

"lore" explanations

while were at that whats the explanation for the shadows? I mean for example the guy showing up in the roundtable hold, the red one when his body is elsewhere. another one would be

Spoiler

fight against blaidd

Massive spoilers, obviously...

Spoiler

I think there was ingame dialogue / text that explains that the Two Fingers appointed Blaidd as personal protector for Ranni, but they really meant to use him to control her and eventually kill her if she does stuff Fingers don't like. So that's why he was a red spirit and why the giant blacksmith put him in that evergaol, to keep Ranni safe. Balidd was faithful to Ranni to the end but in that red ghost encounter, he was not himself anymore. There was a bunch of dead Black Knife assassins in front of Ranni's tower when you see Blaidd as the red shadow, and it seems he killed them, in a final attempt to protect his princess, but he was too gone and you get to put him down, I guess.

The dung eater showing up at the hold makes no sense to me. He has an ending associated with him, which I don't see the logic for. If you feed him enough seedbed curses picked from the corpses of his victims, he gives you a thing you can put inside Marika as you mend her body and the ring in it.

As a whole, the entirety of the story and lore was absolute shit, I didn't understand any of it and I read a bunch of item descriptions too. Motivations are vague and partial, nothing is ever resolved or clarified. Nothing ever gets meaningful clues. I hated the "writing" and world lore in this game more than any other DS.

 

[Seigneur Locklear]

2 and a half hours of my life down the drain with 80+ arcane and 20+ silver fowl feet. Fuck, grinding this chestpiece is hell but god does it look good.

 

[Cromwell]

"lore" explanations

while were at that whats the explanation for the shadows? I mean for example the guy showing up in the roundtable hold, the red one when his body is elsewhere. another one would be

Spoiler

fight against blaidd

Massive spoilers, obviously...

Spoiler

I think there was ingame dialogue / text that explains that the Two Fingers appointed Blaidd as personal protector for Ranni, but they really meant to use him to control her and eventually kill her if she does stuff Fingers don't like. So that's why he was a red spirit and why the giant blacksmith put him in that evergaol, to keep Ranni safe. Balidd was faithful to Ranni to the end but in that red ghost encounter, he was not himself anymore. There was a bunch of dead Black Knife assassins in front of Ranni's tower when you see Blaidd as the red shadow, and it seems he killed them, in a final attempt to protect his princess, but he was too gone and you get to put him down, I guess.

The dung eater showing up at the hold makes no sense to me. He has an ending associated with him, which I don't see the logic for. If you feed him enough seedbed curses picked from the corpses of his victims, he gives you a thing you can put inside Marika as you mend her body and the ring in it.

As a whole, the entirety of the story and lore was absolute shit, I didn't understand any of it and I read a bunch of item descriptions too. Motivations are vague and partial, nothing is ever resolved or clarified. Nothing ever gets meaningful clues. I hated the "writing" and world lore in this game more than any other DS.

Spoiler

I didnt see him standing at her tower and I only knew he was imprisioned from a wiki but not what for. Which shows how shit the way they structure the quests is. I fought him just as a baleful shadow in the undergroudn and that was it, no explanation given. Talked to the giant and only got told "blaidd has shit to do, dont worry"

Which reminds me that the from guy said that the way he "writes" stories comes from his inabillity to read english and had to make up shit in his mind. For whatever reason everyone found that great and groundbreaking. when I imagine reading a good book and some retarded jap comes around the corner, rips out a lot of pages and tells me its betetr this way, more mysterious for imagination, I dont think I would be pleased.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Which reminds me that the from guy said that the way he "writes" stories comes from his inabillity to read english and had to make up shit in his mind. For whatever reason everyone found that great and groundbreaking. when I imagine reading a good book and some retarded jap comes around the corner, rips out a lot of pages and tells me its betetr this way, more mysterious for imagination, I dont think I would be pleased.

Not to mention that what Memezaki does is not quite the same thing. The theories that the fan base come up with are not anything definitive or clear but the stories that Memehackzaky read did have a beginning and an ending. He only needed someone to translate the stuff he didn't get and he would have understood the whole story.

 

[cvv]

Eh, there IS some head and tail to Miyazaki's plots and lores, it's not a total world salad, it's just not my thing.

I guess I prefer it to the insipid, fanfic-grade garbage excreted by the armies of dangerhair diversity hires in Western studios but I'm not a huge fan of something this vague and disjointed.

 

[Cromwell]

Not to mention that what Memezaki does is not quite the same thing. The theories that the fan base come up with are not anything definitive or clear but the stories that Memehackzaky read did have a beginning and an ending. He only needed someone to translate the stuff he didn't get and he would have understood the whole story.

well ER does have beginning and ending "go forth tarnished become elden lord" > "good job you are eldenlord now!". It just happens that the 100? hours in between raiding samey caves isnt really supported with story and structure which would probably help keeping players engaged.