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

[cvv]

An example - I DID beat Saint Isshin eventually coz I didn't have a choice coz you can't summon help in Sekiro but it took me two separate sittings, 6 hours in total. That's WAY beyond what I consider fun. I didn't feel elation or sense of reward for my persistence like you typically do in soulslikes.

Are you saying you were banging your head against the boss for 3 hours straight? That's just wrong in my opinion. When I get stuck on a boss I take a break from the fight every 30-40 minutes.

That's obviously the reasonable thing to do and normally I'm a calm, reasonable man. But Miyazaki gives me autism.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I'm really not sure where this resistance to difficulty options is coming from. Is gud for everyone.

Putting in difficulty options is itself a different design choice requiring a certain mentality with regard to how your game will play. Additionally, since each option would have to be balanced separately, it would require additional QA time that no company will actually give. Most can barely do a proper balance pass over one difficulty, nevermind multiples. As a result, you end up with resources spread more thinly and generally a "normal" difficulty that's usually game journo retarded-tier and then a bunch of untested shit for anything aside from that, whether on the harder or easier side.

Not having difficulty options and expecting players to learn the systems and improve is also a valid (better imo) game design choice and one that's sadly underused these days.

 

[jaekl]

I don't care if it's hard or not, though there's something to be said for having a consistent experience across all players. It kind of grounds the world, makes it less gamey. I do wish they'd shift the focus away from bosses and back to navigating mysterious, deadly environments. I don't understand how getting trapped in big wide arenas with fucko tornadoblade, puker of particles became the highlight of the game for everyone. More perilous and atmospheric dungeons, less flopping around trying to play fantasy punchout IMO.

 

[cvv]

The best review of the game and the only one you really need:

 

[Spike]

The best review of the game and the only one you really need:

View attachment 40728

I saw this the other day only the text read "GAME" and "GAME (open world)" and it's still just as true.

 

[cvv]

The best review of the game and the only one you really need:

View attachment 40728

I saw this the other day only the text read "GAME" and "GAME (open world)" and it's still just as true.

I was actually shilling for ER right after the release, positively allahu-akbaring the game and arguing with my prestigious colleagues on this prestigious interweb site.

But I've come to see the light. An open-world Dark Souls is more idiotic than a transwoman dildo.

 

[Spike]

The best review of the game and the only one you really need:

View attachment 40728

I saw this the other day only the text read "GAME" and "GAME (open world)" and it's still just as true.

I was actually shilling for ER right after the release, positively allahu-akbaring the game and arguing with my prestigious colleagues on this prestigious interweb site.

But I've come to see the light. An open-world Dark Souls is more idiotic than a transwoman dildo.

Oh, Elden Ring still rules. All of From's work does. It's still enjoyable, I just think their talents are best served in something like another Demons' Souls but better.

 

[Skinwalker]

musings on the ending

It would have made much more sense if Radagon was the one who was keeping Marika (and therefore himself) imprisoned inside the Erdtree. Not as a puppeteered dead body, but willfully so. It's established throughout the game that the Radagon/Marika entity is divided not only along the lines of male/female, but also along being loyal/rebellious.

It seems that Marika somehow... concentrated all of her loyalty to the Greater Will into a separate personality (Radagon), and then tried and failed to convince Radagon to go along with her plan. After she became convinced that this would be impossible, she went ahead and shattered the Elden Ring. Radagon then tried (unsuccessfully) to mend it. All this is established in the game's lore and kind of makes sense.

What isn't clear is what happened immediately afterwards. It would have made sense for Radagon to decide "I and/or my rebellious alter-ego must now remain imprisoned inside the Erdtree for this great transgression, until and unless the Greater Will sends a communication telling me exactly what to do". He and Marika would then remain imprisoned in a battle of wills, until the PC broke the seal and bust inside.

However, FromSoftware decided to throw in a random curveball, and an unexplained new entity (the Elden Beast) emerges, confuses everything and doesn't really fit into the hierarchy of the Golden Order (and contradicts character motivations). I don't think there's any deep meaning behind it. They just wanted the game to have its own "and now comes the Moon Presence, bet you didn't see THAT coming" moment.

P. S. Yes, I know there's a spell description that mentions the Elden Beast, but that, too, is a confusing line that explains very little.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

musings on the ending

It would have made much more sense if Radagon was the one who was keeping Marika (and therefore himself) imprisoned inside the Erdtree. Not as a puppeteered dead body, but willfully so. It's established throughout the game that the Radagon/Marika entity is divided not only along the lines of male/female, but also along being loyal/rebellious.

It seems that Marika somehow... concentrated all of her loyalty to the Greater Will into a separate personality (Radagon), and then tried and failed to convince Radagon to go along with her plan. After she became convinced that this would be impossible, she went ahead and shattered the Elden Ring. Radagon then tried (unsuccessfully) to mend it. All this is established in the game's lore and kind of makes sense.

What isn't clear is what happened immediately afterwards. It would have made sense for Radagon to decide "I and/or my rebellious alter-ego must now remain imprisoned inside the Erdtree for this great transgression, until and unless the Greater Will sends a communication telling me exactly what to do". He and Marika would then remain imprisoned in a battle of wills, until the PC broke the seal and bust inside.

However, FromSoftware decided to throw in a random curveball, and an unexplained new entity (the Elden Beast) emerges, confuses everything and doesn't really fit into the hierarchy of the Golden Order (and contradicts character motivations). I don't think there's any deep meaning behind it. They just wanted the game to have its own "and now comes the Moon Presence, bet you didn't see THAT coming" moment.

P. S. Yes, I know there's a spell description that mentions the Elden Beast, but that, too, is a confusing line that explains very little.

Souls characters are infamous for being extremely unreliable. Especially the factions being hinted at being the good guys, they are using you. Them lying is not out of order (no pun intended). I think that's why they introduced the mute monk, that's followed by the dumb priest. He notices it and gets the charade, and tries to restore what was unmade by these gods. In a way, it's kind of an hellenic tale, with gods being more like agents of mischief than anything else. I dig that angle too, because most rpgs take the judeo-christan angle of it and sell it to you at face value.

 

[Skinwalker]

Souls characters are infamous for being extremely unreliable.

Yes, that's obvious. My strong impression isn't so much that only the characters are unreliable, but the storytellers (Myazaki, etc.) are unreliable and inconsistent as well. I think FS just throws things into the narrative simply because they think it looks cool, and not because it makes sense. Elden Beast being the prime example.

How does it make sense for the Greater Will to rule through a "god" that has the Elden Ring inside of her, the "Elden Lord" who is the consort of the "god", a number of Fingers advising them and their demigod children, but also to have an additional secret "vassal" - the Elden Beast, which actually ranks above the "god", and also somehow houses the Elden Ring, but also didn't do a single thing to stop Marika from shattering the Elden Ring... despite being capable of fully possessing her body, and even transforming it into a giant sword during the fight.

However you try to put the pieces together, the Elden Beast just doesn't fit. As a result, the ending ends up being meaningless fluff, because the sequence of events is nonsensical.

This system makes less sense than DS3's system of "Lords of Cinder" and "unkindled ones".

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Souls characters are infamous for being extremely unreliable.

Yes, that's obvious. My strong impression isn't so much that only the characters are unreliable, but the storytellers (Myazaki, etc.) are unreliable and inconsistent as well. I think FS just throws things into the narrative simply because they think it looks cool, and not because it makes sense. Elden Beast being the prime example.

How does it make sense for the Greater Will to rule through a "god" that has the Elden Ring inside of her, the "Elden Lord" who is the consort of the "god", a number of Fingers advising them and their demigod children, but also to have an additional secret "vassal" - the Elden Beast, which actually ranks above the "god", and also somehow houses the Elden Ring, but also didn't do a single thing to stop Marika from shattering the Elden Ring... despite being capable of fully possessing her body, and even transforming it into a giant sword during the fight.

However you try to put the pieces together, the Elden Beast just doesn't fit. As a result, the ending ends up being meaningless fluff, because the sequence of events is nonsensical.

This system makes less sense than DS3's system of "Lords of Cinder" and "unkindled ones".

The whole flame thing was purely smoke and mirrors in the Souls games. Similarly, there's more than one person telling you that the Fingers and the whole deal is just a scam as well.

 

[Skinwalker]

Ok, who's running the scam, what are its goals, and are the goals achieved in any of the game's endings? And how does Marika shattering the Elden Ring and then being imprisoned in the Erdtree by the Elden Beast play into this?

 

[cvv]

Oh, Elden Ring still rules.

Sure, I have 200 hours in the game.

All I'm saying is Souls-likes don't need open world. It's actually a detriment for this subgenre.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Ok, who's running the scam

The writers

Whole thing always struck me as a paradise lost/snake apple allegory, except paradise was a farce to begin with, yaldabaoth and all that. The Erdtree looks broken into, right? That thing probably didn't grow a fissure and door all by itself. So everything was going along according to the tree, at some point for whatever reason it gets broken into, and from there everything becomes fuzzy and eventually turns into the mess we start the game at. Feel free to fill in the blanks yourself

 

[Ravielsk]

The writers

The only Souls game that was narrative wise finished was Dark Souls 1. Every other game is either unfinished or cobbled together mess of multiple contradictory ideas. Pretending there is an actual through line connecting all three is just pure retardation. FFS Dark Souls 2 was literary not even made by Miyazaki and had a huge make over mid development, literary nothing from that game should be treated as even remotely canon. Dark Souls 3 was literary a whole different game during development, the released product is more like a abridged version of that.

Elden Ring is no different in this regard. The cut content clearly hints at last minute reshuffles of major narrative points that ultimately, as per usual with From software, resulted in a mess of a story where you either ignore chunks of it or pretend that its supposed to be "2deep4you" lore that only Miyazaki can explain (spoiler alert: He cannot because its mostly spur of the moment bullshit)

 

[cvv]

Dark Souls 3 was literary a whole different game during development, the released product is more like a abridged version of that.

Sauce?

 

[Ravielsk]

Sauce?

Every single piece of cut content. The easiest one to point out is the bonfire making system which is shown in the gameplay reveal trailer around 1:10 and is the sole reason why DS3 is so swamped with bonfires. They cut the mechanic late into development and had to compensate by spamming normal bonfires all around the place because there was no time to properly rework levels and enemy placement.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The writers

The only Souls game that was narrative wise finished was Dark Souls 1. Every other game is either unfinished or cobbled together mess of multiple contradictory ideas.

Demon's Souls is even more coherent in terms of narrative than Dark Souls. It's only after the success of Dark Souls that FromSoft became quite lazy in regard to world-building.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

The mistake people make often about FS games is that the lore is meant to actually count, or be relevant. It's not. They follow the John Carmack school of game writing. The issue here is twofold: the translations they comission themselves are shit more often than not, and the whole "the timeline is blurry" deal allows for more flexibility for them and allows players to keep their suspension of disbelief activated at all times, because it's the perfect excuse.

 

[Skinwalker]

They put a lot of effort into trying to make the lore/story look interesting and relevant. Those overdesigned bosses and cutscenes must take up a huge chunk of the game's budget. The problems are the result of an azn mindset that doesn't value regularity and consistency as much as the Western mindset does.

Random wacky things that come out of left field are totally "normal" for azns. So are wild and abrupt tonal shifts.

 

[gabel]

The point is that you can ignore the story completely, or go full retard, read every item description, and watch Vaati videos if you want to, and anything between.

 

[Skinwalker]

I've read most item descriptions, but I am certainly not watching videos made by idiot lorefags on youturd. I have my own brain, thank you very much.

 

[gabel]

Sounds like my approach to From titles.
Isn't it great that they let the player choose how deep he wants to immerse himself in the story/lore?!

 

[Spike]

Sounds like my approach to From titles.
Isn't it great that they let the player choose how deep he wants to immerse himself in the story/lore?!

Totally! I love Fromsoftware™ and Fromsoftware™ products!!!!

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Vaati's vids are mostly retarded fanfiction. It's obnoxious.