Baron Dupek
Arcane
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- Jul 23, 2013
- Messages
- 1,871,365
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From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM
- Thread starter HoboForEternity
- Start date
To those who'd be interested in trying arcane but fear it makes you too much of a one trick pony, From was quite generous with the way some weapons scale with it once you attune them to occult.
For example, here's an originally dex oriented flail :
Used a str art but attuned to occult, ends up giving arcane scaling to pure physical damage. It's a nice little side arm against enemies that are vulnerable to blunt damage. Stamp actually launches crystalians with this.
Some other normal path weapons like the longsword also scale nicely.
For example, here's an originally dex oriented flail :
Used a str art but attuned to occult, ends up giving arcane scaling to pure physical damage. It's a nice little side arm against enemies that are vulnerable to blunt damage. Stamp actually launches crystalians with this.
Some other normal path weapons like the longsword also scale nicely.
I killed the magma wyrm in my blind NG and explored the area where he sits in Mt Gelmir, but I never heard a peep from him, and I'm definitely not deaf (Alexander is quite the attention whore, I would have noticed him there). Before going into NG+ after finishing the game, I went to every area where he's supposed to spawn after learning of the talisman he drops. Didn't see him anywhere.
Well, now I finally have this little overpowered thing and there's a dead jar of meat under my feet. Yipee!
cyborgboy95
News Cyborg
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2019
- Messages
- 3,066
The author of Stormlight Archive previously made a joke From choose to collab GRRM instead of somebody who actually plays their games (Sanderson himself) and look like From Software caught wind of it, so I'm glad he finally gets his wish.
Brandon Sanderson definitely feels like a good choice for expansive, detailed lore of the type Fromsoft are wanting. Yea, the dude recently had a "confession" video where he revealed he wrote an extra 5 books in secret over the pandemic on top of the like, 4 he was publicly working on. Dude makes books like rabbits make bunnies. Oh man, every item in his game is gonna have a book for a description lol
Other than Sanderson, I'd definitely love to see a @LordGrimdark inspired setting someday too, I could completely see the First Law setting in a DS style game!
Brandon Sanderson definitely feels like a good choice for expansive, detailed lore of the type Fromsoft are wanting. Yea, the dude recently had a "confession" video where he revealed he wrote an extra 5 books in secret over the pandemic on top of the like, 4 he was publicly working on. Dude makes books like rabbits make bunnies. Oh man, every item in his game is gonna have a book for a description lol
Other than Sanderson, I'd definitely love to see a @LordGrimdark inspired setting someday too, I could completely see the First Law setting in a DS style game!
It's hard for me to say because I wander so much, but as I recall (without looking at a spoiler map or anything), that's not the area he was in. That wyrm was in a different section.
IIRC, he was in a lava section that was outside of the Volcano manor dungeon area. He was hanging out in the lava and you could hear him grunting and such and you could talk to him from a rock nearby, you didn't have to sit in the lava for his conversation.
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2018
- Messages
- 585
I think they should've just made it so the NPCs are clear about where they're going next instead of this system where it's somewhat lenient on the objectives but than you miss half the questline and have no idea why the NPCs are there. I missed almost all the stuff with Blaidd and than he was just trapped in the evergaol which confused the shit out of me.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be handholded all the way through with quest markers and arrows but I don't think this system they had in the other more streamlined Souls games works for Elden Ring.
If only I wasn't complete dogshit at tekken, I could've played as Malenia while weilding agni and rudra.
Yeah, I agree. It'd be nice if they innovated a bit on their quest design and narratives. Although I love this game, I wish everything wasn't such a downer all the time. It's like: this guy's a bro, oh... what happens? Jesus Christ! ---> If you like a character in a From game, don't do their questline 9 times out of 10.
In other news, I sort of want to build a character around this just because this looks so retarded.
Alexander's quest can be completed by skipping the Liurnia encounter. I found him last after Radahn and then on Mt. Gelmir, no Liurnia encounter. Quest is progressing normally.
Anyone else experimenting with NORMAL weapons and ashes? I get the feeling the likes of Moonveil/Rivers of Blood/Blasphemous etc will get nerfed into the ground and then regular weapons will get a chance to shine. IMO they will be much harder to balance due to greater variance. Any REGULAR ashes you people enjoy? Other than bloodhound and seppuku that is.
Fun tip: buy assassin's gambit from Bernahl, put it in a dagger or another light weapon and voila. You can now safely bypass 95% of all shitty bullshit mobs in places like Haligtree. And the invisibility makes for EXCELENT PvP invasion usage.
Last edited:
Artyoan
Prophet
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2017
- Messages
- 733
I'm very impressed. Took me 200 hours and I finally finished my first playthrough. I'll likely revisit it when DLC comes down the line. I'll list some of my thoughts.
The Good:
-A massive world in which you can see where you will go, where you've been, and its like dark, beautiful fantasy novel art come to life. Its one of those games that felt like a genuine adventure to me.
-Exploration is well rewarded. New weapons, spells, ashes, upgrades, etc all over the place. I never felt put off by finding a new mini-dungeon to delve into.
-The first elevator into the underground city. God tier moment.
-For the first half of the game the combat held up better than I thought it would. I was blocking, dodging, jump attacking, poise breaking, block countering, casting magic mid-combat, and being rewarded for keeping a good mix of those going.
The Mixed:
-The latter half of the game the combat breaks down to the old habits. I cared less about anything but rolling and then using weapon arts. Weapon arts were better than most of my combat spells and weren't a hassle to use.
-This game is basically Dark Souls 4. It has an identical tone to Dark Souls, parallel themes of a dying world being reborn to a new age, and a hunting of powerful figures named right at the start.
-Roundtable Hold held some promise to me but then never reached it. I figured the open arena would be a mainstay of mini-boss fights through the game and that plenty of NPC's would arrive. Instead, it gets more desolate as the game goes on mostly.
-The lore is as vague as it is in DS games as well. Throw cut content and mistranslations into the mix and its hard to want to get into serious speculation.
-Summon Ashes likely enabled the devs to get loose with boss difficulty. They can make it harder and more unfair knowing the player has a safety net of being able to summon help. This makes boss balance either trivial or annoying depending on how cheap they felt like getting to stretch the game out. Multiple bosses in one arena was never a good fight.
-Magic is still a case of quantity over quality. When throwing projectiles, you need one or two and you will pick the most efficient or highest damage.
The Bad:
-Rehashing bosses goes into hyper overdrive. Ulcerated tree spirits, rune bears, crystallian gem things, dragons, crucible knights, and much more. They definitely pushed the limits here and its only going to not matter if you aren't thorough.
-The snow areas were lame, Farum Azula was okay, but the last quarter of the game is quite a bit below the first quarter
-About half the quests still require external guides to finish. Even if you saw you could talk to Ranni as a doll, did you really ask to talk more than twice when all you got was '...' in response both times?
The Ugly as Hell:
-Fromsoft loaded the game up with spells and encouraged their use. Then they left the system in place of thumbing sequentially through the order of spells one by one instead of making simple modifier keys on the bumper/trigger of the associated hand which would have been the most obvious upgrade in quality of life.
-More items than ever with a crafting system to boot and the player got four total quick keys for it. Actually just three since you will almost certainly have your horse as one. Yet another area that more modifier keys would solve the issue.
Don't let my bitching fool you though, this is a 9/10. Maybe 9.5 if they patch in a better system of using magic. I'd much rather play this than most games of the last several years.
The Good:
-A massive world in which you can see where you will go, where you've been, and its like dark, beautiful fantasy novel art come to life. Its one of those games that felt like a genuine adventure to me.
-Exploration is well rewarded. New weapons, spells, ashes, upgrades, etc all over the place. I never felt put off by finding a new mini-dungeon to delve into.
-The first elevator into the underground city. God tier moment.
-For the first half of the game the combat held up better than I thought it would. I was blocking, dodging, jump attacking, poise breaking, block countering, casting magic mid-combat, and being rewarded for keeping a good mix of those going.
The Mixed:
-The latter half of the game the combat breaks down to the old habits. I cared less about anything but rolling and then using weapon arts. Weapon arts were better than most of my combat spells and weren't a hassle to use.
-This game is basically Dark Souls 4. It has an identical tone to Dark Souls, parallel themes of a dying world being reborn to a new age, and a hunting of powerful figures named right at the start.
-Roundtable Hold held some promise to me but then never reached it. I figured the open arena would be a mainstay of mini-boss fights through the game and that plenty of NPC's would arrive. Instead, it gets more desolate as the game goes on mostly.
-The lore is as vague as it is in DS games as well. Throw cut content and mistranslations into the mix and its hard to want to get into serious speculation.
-Summon Ashes likely enabled the devs to get loose with boss difficulty. They can make it harder and more unfair knowing the player has a safety net of being able to summon help. This makes boss balance either trivial or annoying depending on how cheap they felt like getting to stretch the game out. Multiple bosses in one arena was never a good fight.
-Magic is still a case of quantity over quality. When throwing projectiles, you need one or two and you will pick the most efficient or highest damage.
The Bad:
-Rehashing bosses goes into hyper overdrive. Ulcerated tree spirits, rune bears, crystallian gem things, dragons, crucible knights, and much more. They definitely pushed the limits here and its only going to not matter if you aren't thorough.
-The snow areas were lame, Farum Azula was okay, but the last quarter of the game is quite a bit below the first quarter
-About half the quests still require external guides to finish. Even if you saw you could talk to Ranni as a doll, did you really ask to talk more than twice when all you got was '...' in response both times?
The Ugly as Hell:
-Fromsoft loaded the game up with spells and encouraged their use. Then they left the system in place of thumbing sequentially through the order of spells one by one instead of making simple modifier keys on the bumper/trigger of the associated hand which would have been the most obvious upgrade in quality of life.
-More items than ever with a crafting system to boot and the player got four total quick keys for it. Actually just three since you will almost certainly have your horse as one. Yet another area that more modifier keys would solve the issue.
Don't let my bitching fool you though, this is a 9/10. Maybe 9.5 if they patch in a better system of using magic. I'd much rather play this than most games of the last several years.
I just use evernotes app on my phone to immediately write any directions and instructions down, it has nice checklist feature too so i dont have much trouble remembering quests.
Mine has become basically a fallout quest journal style
Wunderbar
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2015
- Messages
- 8,825
I did Caelid and then went back to Liurnia to open that inverted tower where you find Ranni's body, it was completely natural.
The iron virgin doesn't teleport you to Erdtree.
It takes you to Volcano Manor.
So you didn't go there before doing Ranni's quest? because if you've unlocked the site of grace inside the tower you'll never have a reason to cross by him.
A good thing is that you might have missed the most infuriating enemy of the whole game. There's two versions of it and what you meet in the Ranni inverted mode isn't even close to the level of bullshit of the other encounter.
Wunderbar
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2015
- Messages
- 8,825
I didn't go there before doing Ranni's quest, but I also didn't immediately use a key so I was able to explore both versions of the tower.
Are you talking about Preceptor Miriam? (I figure the name only isn't really a spoiler. Apologies if you disagree.)
If so, now I know we have different tastes in games because I thought that fight at a relatively low level was a blast. Great times and part of what makes Souls games awesome.
PorkyThePaladin
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 5,392
After playing it some, I have to say Elden Ring is a continuation of From Software moving in the wrong direction, imho. They seem to be caught in this trap, where instead of improving the combat for its own sake, or adding elements their games were always weak in (story, dialogue, peaceful exploration, etc), they are stuck in an infinite loop, racing against players who just play looking for challenge.
There is nothing wrong with challenge in games per se, but it's only a meaningful and positive element if it helps support other gameplay elements, not when it's the primary goal of the game. You have certain players who would probably be better off playing competitive multiplayer games, and instead they are playing From Software games, looking for the next big boss to challenge them.
Dark Souls 1 had a good difficulty level of bosses, they were tough for the average RPG player, but could be overcome with some effort. But of course the kind of players I talked about above demanded something harder, for more challenge, and From Software has been trying to accommodate them since then. Maybe it's a good plan financially, but for a more typical RPG player, who plays not for challenge but for the experience, they are starting to lose me.
The regular fights are ok in Elden Ring, but the boss fights are just a really bad combination of difficult and boring. They took the worst of DaS3 bosses and Sekiro bosses and made them even more annoying. Tons of hitpoints, very high damage, ridiculous mobility, giant AoE 360 degree attacks with full tracking, all kinds of deception and tricks, and all that jazz. I get it that there are some people out there who are into this stuff, but again, from the typical RPG player's perspective, why would anyone continue to play this? Everyone I know who was excited by it at the start just abandoned it after some time.
The combat system is also utter shit, because other than challenging the player, it has nothing at all going for it. There is no inherent logic or consistent rules to it at all. You have stamina constraints, bosses don't. You have limited movement, giant bosses can zoom around the screen like mosquitoes. You have to aim your attacks, bosses have 360 degree tracking. You can be killed in 1-2 hits, they take 80-100. I mean, if you remove the graphical overlay (the textures and the 3D models), modern From Software games are just Skinner Boxes, where you are given a series of commands/stimuli: now roll, now block, now parry, now attack, now move that have no real cohesion or internal logic, you are just being put through silly hoops to feed some pavlov dog need to "git gud".
0/10 Would not buy again.
There is nothing wrong with challenge in games per se, but it's only a meaningful and positive element if it helps support other gameplay elements, not when it's the primary goal of the game. You have certain players who would probably be better off playing competitive multiplayer games, and instead they are playing From Software games, looking for the next big boss to challenge them.
Dark Souls 1 had a good difficulty level of bosses, they were tough for the average RPG player, but could be overcome with some effort. But of course the kind of players I talked about above demanded something harder, for more challenge, and From Software has been trying to accommodate them since then. Maybe it's a good plan financially, but for a more typical RPG player, who plays not for challenge but for the experience, they are starting to lose me.
The regular fights are ok in Elden Ring, but the boss fights are just a really bad combination of difficult and boring. They took the worst of DaS3 bosses and Sekiro bosses and made them even more annoying. Tons of hitpoints, very high damage, ridiculous mobility, giant AoE 360 degree attacks with full tracking, all kinds of deception and tricks, and all that jazz. I get it that there are some people out there who are into this stuff, but again, from the typical RPG player's perspective, why would anyone continue to play this? Everyone I know who was excited by it at the start just abandoned it after some time.
The combat system is also utter shit, because other than challenging the player, it has nothing at all going for it. There is no inherent logic or consistent rules to it at all. You have stamina constraints, bosses don't. You have limited movement, giant bosses can zoom around the screen like mosquitoes. You have to aim your attacks, bosses have 360 degree tracking. You can be killed in 1-2 hits, they take 80-100. I mean, if you remove the graphical overlay (the textures and the 3D models), modern From Software games are just Skinner Boxes, where you are given a series of commands/stimuli: now roll, now block, now parry, now attack, now move that have no real cohesion or internal logic, you are just being put through silly hoops to feed some pavlov dog need to "git gud".
0/10 Would not buy again.
Child of Malkav
Erudite
Miriam is one of the reasons that cheat engine tables exist.
Everyone's entitled to their opinions and such, of course. But this made me curious:
There are a few things here, but to unpack it:
1) RPG player: do many people look at Souls games as an RPG experience? This legitimately makes me curious, because I'd say they're atmospheric action games with an RPG progression system bolted on.
2) typical RPG players who play for experience rather than challenge: I don't think this is true except for female gamers. And Porky. But whatever, not looking for an action challenge (as opposed to a tactical challenge) I'd probably agree with. There's a reason I don't often play games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden and am not the guy busting out S ranks when I do.
Other than that, I still think this is very atmospheric, but I appreciate that it's growing stale for a variety of people.
I think the thing for me is that I've heard people describe No Man's Sky (after patching) and The Outer Wilds as the games they dreamt of as kids and so they geek out over it. Elden Ring and Dragon's Dogma are like that for me. Where you gear up your adventurer and roll around the wilderness, kicking the shit out of monsters and looking for treasure, like in a D&D game. One of the main things that Elden Ring does better than Dragon's Dogma is that you can actually mount up, grab a reasonably realistic horseback weapon like a lance or flail and charge at a dragon. That's something I've wanted since I was a kid and it's awesome.
I think it's great that the sound design is such that you can have invisible enemies that you can hear moving around by their footsteps and other environmental sounds that are distinct enough that you can also pick out directions (if you can't, try playing with a good set of headphones), or where you can hear scarabs and other things that clue you in you should be looking around for stuff, or getting ready to roll even though you can't see the attack coming, etc.
I also think it's great that my first time through a few areas had moments that made me jump either from being into it and getting ambushed, being creeped out by the environments and creatures, or even just geeking out over traversing some areas and environments.
It's alright if some of you don't appreciate this. Don't fret though. Bioware is releasing its next playersexual wife simulator soon™ and are hard at work on the experiences you crave.
There are a few things here, but to unpack it:
1) RPG player: do many people look at Souls games as an RPG experience? This legitimately makes me curious, because I'd say they're atmospheric action games with an RPG progression system bolted on.
2) typical RPG players who play for experience rather than challenge: I don't think this is true except for female gamers. And Porky. But whatever, not looking for an action challenge (as opposed to a tactical challenge) I'd probably agree with. There's a reason I don't often play games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden and am not the guy busting out S ranks when I do.
Other than that, I still think this is very atmospheric, but I appreciate that it's growing stale for a variety of people.
I think the thing for me is that I've heard people describe No Man's Sky (after patching) and The Outer Wilds as the games they dreamt of as kids and so they geek out over it. Elden Ring and Dragon's Dogma are like that for me. Where you gear up your adventurer and roll around the wilderness, kicking the shit out of monsters and looking for treasure, like in a D&D game. One of the main things that Elden Ring does better than Dragon's Dogma is that you can actually mount up, grab a reasonably realistic horseback weapon like a lance or flail and charge at a dragon. That's something I've wanted since I was a kid and it's awesome.
I think it's great that the sound design is such that you can have invisible enemies that you can hear moving around by their footsteps and other environmental sounds that are distinct enough that you can also pick out directions (if you can't, try playing with a good set of headphones), or where you can hear scarabs and other things that clue you in you should be looking around for stuff, or getting ready to roll even though you can't see the attack coming, etc.
I also think it's great that my first time through a few areas had moments that made me jump either from being into it and getting ambushed, being creeped out by the environments and creatures, or even just geeking out over traversing some areas and environments.
It's alright if some of you don't appreciate this. Don't fret though. Bioware is releasing its next playersexual wife simulator soon™ and are hard at work on the experiences you crave.
Yes I'm talking about Miriam, and no I am not offended or trying to avoid spoilers it's just a name I didn't remember.
Is there something I missed about the fight? I mean, this cunthole just keeps teleporting away and make you run in circles. I couldn't find a way to finish it in melee and had to resort to using an unupgraded bow.
Oh the spoiler thing was more aimed at people who may be more sensitive to it. I assumed you didn't care because you've run the entire thing already. I like to try and allow people who want to be spoiler free the chance to do so, certainly for a reasonable length of time until after release.
Re: something you missed. I'm not sure. Yes and no, maybe? I think I will spoiler this just because it talks about the fight progression, such as it is.
It's basically a gauntlet that can be approached in several ways.
You can do it in phases, smacking phantoms as you move.
You can sprint rush her with some rolling as required, smack her a few times until she fucks off and keep going.
Or you can rush past everything if you want and then start whacking phantoms from the top down and re-engage her when you hit the bottom, or cheese her, or whatever you want really.
When she hits the top, she'll stop porting. She's basically like that Castle Crystal Sage in DS3.
You can do it in phases, smacking phantoms as you move.
You can sprint rush her with some rolling as required, smack her a few times until she fucks off and keep going.
Or you can rush past everything if you want and then start whacking phantoms from the top down and re-engage her when you hit the bottom, or cheese her, or whatever you want really.
When she hits the top, she'll stop porting. She's basically like that Castle Crystal Sage in DS3.
Child of Malkav
Erudite
I almost killed him with poison arrows but it took a while and when he was almost dead he shot that arrow of his that also explodes on impact and killed me through a wall/railing whatever. And I was making an effort to stay away from walls and stuff precisely to avoid that shit but one "mistake? (Dying from explosions going through walls qualify as mistakes on player's part? No in my world.)"
At that point I tried melee, bleed, spells, spell parry, rushing, the cheese with the elevator (though honestly that was very unlikely to work) and I had enough.
PorkyThePaladin
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 5,392
They definitely have enough stuff on the RPG side to be considered RPGs. Very actiony RPGs, but still.
I think you are confusing experience with something else. Games like Fallout 1/2, Planescape: Torment, Gothic 1/2, Deus Ex, Witcher games, Baldur's Gate, Betrayal at Krondor, etc, all these games, which are beloved here, they weren't about challenging yourself, they were about the experience. Experiencing post-nuclear war wastes or conspiracy future or a cool fantasy universe, that's what RPGs and video games in general are about, the holy grail of gaming. Challenge and competition you can get in other stuff, but experiencing cool virtual worlds and actively participating in them, that's unique to gaming.
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