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

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I don't want to spoil myself using wikis, but i had to look up again what certain NPCs told me since a million years have passed since i've met them and who the fuck remembers.

Elden Ring is such a prestigious Old School RPG that it expects the player to take written notes of NPC dialogue!

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, nice of the game to fuck up my match making by dropping a +8 weapon on me (the rapier the guy with the hat gives you).

I have a bunch of +3 weapons that i ketp switching around but now i gotta pick one since i don't have enough upgrades for all of them. Gay.

It really doesn't matter that much in the long run as weapons do insane damage and PvP is very quickly over.

Normal weapons go up to +25 in this big boi btw :D

Meh, so no weapon variety. I gotta pick one and that's it. Lame.

 

[Surf Solar]

BTW, nice of the game to fuck up my match making by dropping a +8 weapon on me (the rapier the guy with the hat gives you).

I have a bunch of +3 weapons that i ketp switching around but now i gotta pick one since i don't have enough upgrades for all of them. Gay.

It really doesn't matter that much in the long run as weapons do insane damage and PvP is very quickly over.

Normal weapons go up to +25 in this big boi btw :D

Meh, so no weapon variety. I gotta pick one and that's it. Lame.

Nah, it's ok, I have around 6-7 different weapons I cycle through depending on my mood, you can buy smithing stones later on and upgrade a lot of stuff.

When I find a new area in the game, I usually make a beeline to the mines you can visit to get bell bearings to buy the smithing stones. They look like little red buttholes on the map.

 

[Wunderbar]

BTW, nice of the game to fuck up my match making by dropping a +8 weapon on me (the rapier the guy with the hat gives you).

I have a bunch of +3 weapons that i ketp switching around but now i gotta pick one since i don't have enough upgrades for all of them. Gay.

It really doesn't matter that much in the long run as weapons do insane damage and PvP is very quickly over.

Normal weapons go up to +25 in this big boi btw :D

Meh, so no weapon variety. I gotta pick one and that's it. Lame.

use somber stone weapons, they are way easier to upgrade.

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Yes, oddly the special weapons are easier to upgrade than the standard ones.

 

[Funposter]

Gotta walk a mile through rot and fight a boss half way, then you get to Astel who immediately fires a death ray at you.

did you miss the bonfire

 

[Wunderbar]

Gotta walk a mile through rot and fight a boss half way, then you get to Astel who immediately fires a death ray at you.

did you miss the bonfire

not even a bonfire, there's an unmissable stake of marika right in front of Astel's fog door.

 

[Efe]

to be fair stakes sometimes do not work

 

[Haplo]

Yes, oddly the special weapons are easier to upgrade than the standard ones.

That's true.

But the downside is you cannot customize them with different damage types to be particularly effective against enemies you're facing (which makes a pretty big impact in ER - like the glintstone miners went from needing 4 hits to 1-2 hits with Sacred... and Crysalis bosses simply melt to it; undead don't need to be killed twice, etc.; Frostbite and such makes killing enemies significantly faster too).
And of course, can't choose Weapon Art (although some uniques have the strongest jrpg fleshy weapon arts).

On the other hand, needing 12 of each of 8 sizes of Smithing Stones (+1 Ancient) for a standard weapon is just... disgusting.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

still getting shredded in seconds by certain dogs.

I think one (some?) is bugged or something, it as good as oneshot me on full HP lategame, but this only happened once. Might be some fuckery.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, i think i have to say it but so far armor sets in this game are a let down.

Everything is goofy or has a gimmick, or its just plain garbage. I miss the simplicity of some of the armor sets of DS1, especially the ones made of metal, the Knight set, the Iron set etc.

 

[Haplo]

...stone giant set

 

[Bigg Boss]

BTW, nice of the game to fuck up my match making by dropping a +8 weapon on me (the rapier the guy with the hat gives you).

I have a bunch of +3 weapons that i ketp switching around but now i gotta pick one since i don't have enough upgrades for all of them. Gay.

It really doesn't matter that much in the long run as weapons do insane damage and PvP is very quickly over.

Normal weapons go up to +25 in this big boi btw :D

Meh, so no weapon variety. I gotta pick one and that's it. Lame.

You are annoyingly retarded at times while other times you obviously have the gift of God's Wisdom. I don't know man.

 

[Salvo]

BTW, nice of the game to fuck up my match making by dropping a +8 weapon on me (the rapier the guy with the hat gives you).

I have a bunch of +3 weapons that i ketp switching around but now i gotta pick one since i don't have enough upgrades for all of them. Gay.

It really doesn't matter that much in the long run as weapons do insane damage and PvP is very quickly over.

Normal weapons go up to +25 in this big boi btw :D

Meh, so no weapon variety. I gotta pick one and that's it. Lame.

You are annoyingly retarded at times while other times you obviously have the gift of God's Wisdom. I don't know man.

True neutral

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, nice of the game to fuck up my match making by dropping a +8 weapon on me (the rapier the guy with the hat gives you).

I have a bunch of +3 weapons that i ketp switching around but now i gotta pick one since i don't have enough upgrades for all of them. Gay.

It really doesn't matter that much in the long run as weapons do insane damage and PvP is very quickly over.

Normal weapons go up to +25 in this big boi btw :D

Meh, so no weapon variety. I gotta pick one and that's it. Lame.

You are annoyingly retarded at times while other times you obviously have the gift of God's Wisdom. I don't know man.

Well, i had just about enough upgrade materials to take my Claymore to +7.

Maybe later on you'll be swarmed in smithing stones but for now i'm locked to this weapon.

 

[Child of Malkav]

They've been alternating between a safe game and an experimental game for a while now. DS2 - safe. Bloodborne - experiment. DS3 - safe. Sekiro - experiment. Elden Ring - safe. The next game will probably be something unexpected that breaks the formula more.

What the shit? DkS2 and Sekiro are the most experimental ones, gameplay wise. BB just removed shields and brought speed, great atmosphere, setting, lore and aliens.
Everything else besides these has been safe, especially ER.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I want the Dark Souls 2 directors making these games from now on.

This is the only thing I agree with you on.

 

[Kruno]

BTW, nice of the game to fuck up my match making by dropping a +8 weapon on me (the rapier the guy with the hat gives you).

I have a bunch of +3 weapons that i ketp switching around but now i gotta pick one since i don't have enough upgrades for all of them. Gay.

It really doesn't matter that much in the long run as weapons do insane damage and PvP is very quickly over.

Normal weapons go up to +25 in this big boi btw :D

Meh, so no weapon variety. I gotta pick one and that's it. Lame.

You are annoyingly retarded at times while other times you obviously have the gift of God's Wisdom. I don't know man.

He is pretending to be retarded!

 

[NJClaw]

With Ranni, I got stuck almost immediately. Found Blaidd in Mistwood but didn't know how to speak to him. Didn't occur to me you have to talk to a certain NPC I was never planning to go back to. Then I didn't notice you can talk to her after obtaining certain item in the fucking grace menu (my bad, should be more observant). Then she tells you something about "Baleful Shadows are bad". What the fuck am I supposed to do with the information? Never in a million years would it occur to me I have to go to a certain place - that, again, I was never planning to go back to since I had explored all of it previously - and fight an invader. And then I completely missed a certain hole in the ground coz it's dark AF in there.

So most of it is due to things being p. hidden and easily missable if you're not super observant, plus one FS' trademark BS - scour the world in the hopes that SOMETHING happens (maybe an invader somewhere).

Here you highlight three points:

Spoiler

(1) talking to Blaidd in the Mistwood, (2) talking to the doll, and (3) the "shadow" invasion. The only real problem here is the third one, because:

(1) - this entire interaction isn't required to progress the quest. Once you meet Ranni, everything will progress as expected;
(2) - as you said, not noticing a new voice in the grace menu is kinda the player's fault.

As for the third point, I didn't know the shadow was missable. But I think this only happened to you because you missed (2). I didn't go through the area before talking to the doll and everything happened as I was exploring it for the first time. They should fix this and allow you to complete the two actions in any order.

 

[Haplo]

Well, I'd say the dialogue option with the doll is VERY missasble. I did not rest immediately in Siofra river area, but instead ported to explore elsewhere - and at the other sites of grace I did not get that option - only there, at the site of grace, near where you find the doll.

 

[NJClaw]

Well, I'd say the dialogue option with the doll is VERY missasble. I did not rest immediately in Siofra river area, but instead ported to explore elsewhere - and at the other sites of grace I did not get that option - only there, at the site of grace, near where you find the doll.

Then I guess it's just sheer luck, but resting at every newly unlocked grace seems like a very basic action that most players will do. Still, some kind of hint in the doll's item description would be appreciated. I didn't think about this step in particular because in my playthrough it happened organically while exploring the underground, so I was thinking mainly about all the steps you have to take before, jumping from one place to the next and figuring out what to do inbetween. You always have an NPC directing you toward your next goal, apart from when you have to find Nepheli in a place that you have probably already fully explored.

 

[Cromwell]

Then I guess it's just sheer luck, but resting at every newly unlocked grace seems like a very basic action that most players will do. Still, some kind of hint in the doll's item description would be appreciated. I didn't think about this step in particular because in my playthrough it happened organically while exploring the underground

you organically spoke to the doll 3 or more times? because she doesnt answer the first few.

 

[cvv]

Well, I'd say the dialogue option with the doll is VERY missasble. I did not rest immediately in Siofra river area, but instead ported to explore elsewhere - and at the other sites of grace I did not get that option - only there, at the site of grace, near where you find the doll.

Then I guess it's just sheer luck, but resting at every newly unlocked grace seems like a very basic action that most players will do.

You don't have any reason to rest at the nearby site coz you get teleported to Ansel River Main from one of the towers, you don't have to fight through a difficult area. It's almost certain you're fully rested and healed when you get to the River Main area.

 

[cvv]

Also lulz, I can't even cheese Melania with my Mimic, this is incredibly hilarious.

And here I thought Sword Saint is the most insane boss FS ever made lol.

 

[Salvo]

Also lulz, I can't even cheese Melania with my Mimic, this is incredibly hilarious.

And here I thought Sword Saint is the most insane boss FS ever made lol.

Sword Saint is a fun fight with fair moves, Malenia is just shit