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

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Thanks to messages, you can usually guess if there's a spot where you are supposed to find an NPC in the future, because it will be surrounded by various "love ahead" or something like that.

I do love you anon! I do!

 

[Shrimp]

I don't mind the messages too much. Some times you can almost tell what the contents of the message is before opening it. Message before a hallway? Probably warning you of an ambush from X direction. Message before the point where a path splits? More often than not it tells you what you can expect to encounter (item/enemy/bonfire) in one of the two directions. Message in front of an animal or some random small-sized structure? Most likely a parroted joke that stopped being funny the 3rd time you saw it.

The unfunny joke messages definitely feel more abundant than what I remember from the older titles but at least I can just mentally filter those out. What really bothers me is the huge, bright bloodstains littered in every location with a ledge, NPC or moderately strong enemy. I wish I could turn those off but keep the messages.

 

[Wunderbar]

The turtles on a plateau where you find moonlight greatsword were even worse, though they bugged for me and i had the barrier removed after finding just one.

 

[Strange Fellow]

How do I open evergaols? I got the one in Liurnia by accident, but haven't been able to replicate it.

Also, why are you guys killing turtles?? You brutes, you savages.

 

[Wunderbar]

How do I open evergaols? I got the one in Liurnia by accident, but haven't been able to replicate it.

look for an imp statue nearby, some of the evergaols are locked behind a stonesword key.

Also, why are you guys killing turtles?? You brutes, you savages.

there are wizard towers scattered around the world, they contain memory stones (+1 attunement slot). Those towers are locked behind a simple puzzle where you must find three ghostly turtles hidden in the environment around the tower.

 

[NJClaw]

How do I open evergaols? I got the one in Liurnia by accident, but haven't been able to replicate it.

Also, why are you guys killing turtles?? You brutes, you savages.

Evergaols are accessible by default. However, some of them require stonesword keys.

The turtles on a plateau where you find moonlight greatsword were even worse, though they bugged for me and i had the barrier removed after finding just one.

It's not a bug, you only need to find one of them. And, in fact, only one is visible at any given time.

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Also, why are you guys killing turtles?? You brutes, you savages.

Ugh. Reminded me of a reality show here on a tropical island where a celebrity killed a real turtle for its meat. Barbarous and pointless.

 

[oldbonebrown]

Also, why are you guys killing turtles?? You brutes, you savages.

Ugh. Reminded me of a reality show here on a tropical island where a celebrity killed a real turtle for its meat. Barbarous and pointless.

Though ugly it was necessary in Cannibal Holocaust

for the spirit of the thing

 

[Strange Fellow]

look for an imp statue nearby, some of the evergaols are locked behind a stonesword key.

Evergaols are accessible by default. However, some of them require stonesword keys.

There's an imp statue all right, but there's no option to use a stonesword key. Maybe it's a bug, then. I thought maybe I had to kill those anal beads standing watch or something.

 

[Cyberarmy]

There's an imp statue all right, but there's no option to use a stonesword key.

You just need to interract with that kind of imp statues, only then spirit turtles respawn.

 

[cvv]

Say what you will about Asmon but this was p. great

 

[Wunderbar]

look for an imp statue nearby, some of the evergaols are locked behind a stonesword key.

Evergaols are accessible by default. However, some of them require stonesword keys.

There's an imp statue all right, but there's no option to use a stonesword key. Maybe it's a bug, then. I thought maybe I had to kill those anal beads standing watch or something.

oh, then it's simple. The reason you can't access it is

Spoiler

 

[Cromwell]

I killed the Blood Lord. then I went down to the crows beat two of them and healed up completly, I had 90k souls, was attacked from behind by a dog and that thing oneshotted me with a blood proc. I went straight to the final boss, killed it (it was one of the most shit fights in the game, at leats the second phase, the first wasnt much better with all the aoe shit) and will probably not touch the game again.

I dont regret buying it its really good and was fun most of the time. But the things that annoyed me just got numerous over time, a problem I didnt have with the other games. It culminated in the final boss fight.

Afterwards I ported to the elden throne again and now I cant port anywhere I dont know why.

 

[Lutte]

Afterwards I ported to the elden throne again and now I cant port anywhere I dont know why.

Walk till the sandy area of the capital, leave the game and reload and it should fix it. I had the same issue postgame.

 

[Haplo]

The large world is impressive. And I kinda enjoy the ability to effortlessly customize my weapon with Ashes of War/enchantments.

Area checkbox design? Level scaled copied enemies? You can do better, FromSoft.

Reused special bosses? Disgusting!

Kicking up the tempo, spastic bosses, HP bloat... those things are not for me. Not for my old reflexes.


DS1 remains the best DS game for me, by far.
I deeply regret no other Souls game came close to its looping and interconnected world design.
And I'm missing the steady, methodical tempo of that game.

Edit:
DS2 was... okay I guess. Just uninspired and with far worse world design.
I'd rate it and Elden Ring about equal.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Idk how you can say that Nioh 2 is shit, it's basically the same game but bigger and more elaborate.

Diablo-like compulsive looting.
That alone is enough to make it structurally garbage... But that applied to the first as well, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Wunderbar]

Visited Divine Tower of Morgoth

Stepped on a road, suddenly everything around has gotten dark, and I was teleported into a Four Kings-style pitch-black arena. I thought, "dang, shit is about to get real!", but then the bossfight turned out to be just two Juzou the drunkards that I have already been killing in droves. What a letdown. What was even the point of a darkened arena?

 

[Kruno]

Afterwards I ported to the elden throne again and now I cant port anywhere I dont know why.

enter exit game

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I think some of the complaints about re-used content border into "delusional" territory, honestly.

For one, because NO FUCKING SHIT they are going to re-use something with a game this massive, be them enemies, minibosses or assets.
But especially because even putting aside anything "repeated" the amount of unique environments, enemy types, bosses and secret areas remains staggering and it dwarves the overwhelming majority of games I can even begin to think to... In fact, I think it may very well dwarf pretty much ANY other single player game I can think of.

If anything, I'm only positively surprised by the sheer amount of unique content (and places, and fights) the game has to offer. I can't think of many other titles where 80-90 hours into the game I was STILL crossing entire areas (or even regions) I wasn't previously aware of.

What I can concede on the other hand is that to some degree boss fights had to suffer to accommodate for the non-linearity and variety of builds. We are far from the tightness of some of the best Sekiro fights.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I think some of the complaints about re-used content border into "delusional" territory, honestly.

For one, because NO FUCKING SHIT they are going to re-use something with a game this massive, be them enemies, minibosses or assets.
But especially because even putting aside anything "repeated" the amount of unique environments, enemy types, bosses and secret areas remains staggering and it dwarves the overwhelming majority of games I can even begin to think to... In fact, I think it may very well dwarf pretty much ANY other single player game I can think of.

If anything, I'm only positively surprised by the sheer amount of unique content (and places, and fights) the game has to offer. I can't think of many other titles where 80-90 hours into the game I was STILL crossing entire areas (or even regions) I wasn't previously aware of.

What I can concede on the other hand is that to some degree boss fights had to suffer to accommodate for the non-linearity and variety of builds. We are far from the tightness of some of the best Sekiro fights.

Have you finished the game? It's not "re-using something". The recycling in the later portion of the game is really on a class of its own. It completely undermines any positive impact of cool bosses (of which there are few) to see them repeated, not to mention it really kills the player's good will. Surely if you've fought 3 Crystalians at the same time 3 times in a row in the same area, or if you've seen the Raya Lucaria wolf boss for the 6th time, or killed the Leonine Misbegotten as a trash mob for the 10th time, or finished Ranni's questline (killing 5 open world-style dragons in the same area) you know what I mean. Not to mention main bosses (even a shardbearer) getting recycled, although to a lesser degree.

As for the open world itself, it's alright and understandable to reuse some content, but using the exact same tileset for every copypasta ruins? The exact same mobs in every single mine shaft? The exact same chariot mechanic in 10 tombs? Come on.

It's inexcusable garbage.

 

[Andnjord]

Beat Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon yesterday. Really fun fight and a great improvement from the Deacons of the Deep/Prowling Magus style, atmosphere was beautiful. In true Souls fashion I had her almost down on the first try only to lose my timing dodging her tracking orbs when she was at 15% HP (which would have been two hits from my Winged Scythe), then it took me 4 more tries after that to finally get her down

Also:

Spoiler

Miyasaki, what the fuck is going on with your stillborn babies running theme? Oceiros, Mergo's Wet Nurse... Did his wife lose a kid like that by any chance?

 

[cvv]

For one, because NO FUCKING SHIT they are going to re-use something with a game this massive, be them enemies, minibosses or assets.

If anything, I'm only positively surprised by the sheer amount of unique content (and places, and fights) the game has to offer.

Very much this. I mean you can argue they wouldn't need to reuse so much - or maybe not at all - if the game wasn't so ginormous. But still, I'm not bothered by the recycling at all, I've played 300 hours of Nioh 1/2 where it's a trademark feature and never thought it annoying.

boss fights had to suffer to accommodate for the non-linearity and variety of builds

Yes, and for the Ashes. Many of the duo or triple boss fights are viable to solo only for like the top 1 percentile of players, they're clearly meant for you to utilize your Ashes. Problem is most upgraded Ashes are so powerful they straight up trivialize even the most difficult fights.

The Morgott fight is p. difficult to solo but I wiped my ass with him as soon as I summoned my Mimic.

I'm thinking the Ashes were a mistake. Without them maybe the game wouldn't need super spastic bosses with with deeeellllaaayyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeedddddddddd swings and 10-hit combos. Maybe slight delays and 4 hit combos would be enough. Maybe we would get bosses MOST people could solo, after the obligatory gitting gud phase.

 

[cvv]

The recycling in the later portion of the game is really on a class of its own. It kills the player's good will.

I have a huge problem with the second sentence. I'm nearing the end and I agree the recycling is unnecessary but flushing the whole game down the toilet because of that? The game is utterly amazing. It's a masterpiece. With many flaws, and I'm gonna list all of them soon, but a masterpiece still.

It's like saying Dark Souls 1 is a total, irredeemable garbage because Bed of Chaos is the worst boss ever and Izalith is the most offensively sloppy, unfinished level in any professional game ever. Both are true but neither prevent me to rate the game 10/10, because the good parts are so awesome they easily outweigh the flaws, however serious (and I'd say a level like Izalith is as a serious flaw as they get).

 

[Zizka]

For one, because NO FUCKING SHIT they are going to re-use something with a game this massive, be them enemies, minibosses or assets.

Hmm… but that’s the point though. By condoning it, you’re promoting it. Recycling assets isn’t a game design positive and should be treated as such. Justifying asset recycling because the world is too big is analysing the issue backwards. If enough people side with: “Well the world is big so it’s ok to copy/paste areas”, what kind of end result are we going to get in the long run? Is it a practice which should be encouraged?

Refusing to recognise the shortcomings of a great game is the best way to make sure said shortcomings are not addressed and end up as perpetual flaws.

“Far Cry world is big of course you’ll end up climbing 502 towers!”
“The map is the size of the solar system, of course there will be empty areas!”

Recycling assets is one way to curtail an oversized game world. It’s a cost effective solution but overall detrimental to the finished product.

 

[perfectslumbers]

Imagine if you were playing Skyrim and going through a dungeon. You were getting to the final room and suddenly there's a boss! It's Alduin the eater of worlds? Why is he in a random ass dungeon? Oh no... actually it's his little brother, with the same model and moveset, Aldloss the eater of villages... okay...