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

[mediocrepoet]

Hey, if you're having trouble waiting for the Elden Ring DLC, Steam has an awesome recommendation for something that should scratch the itch in the meantime. I never would've thought of it if not for the helpful algorithm coming in for the win!

Spoiler

Don't thank me! Thank Steam, the true hero!

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Plunging into the dungeons of Detroit is akin to the many dangerous caves of the Lands Between.

True, true. I learned that from that 80s documentary, Robocop.

 

[Abu Antar]

Still on melee run. Two-handed, light load, barrel rolling everywhere. Rennala, Radahn felled. Got the Mimic Tear Ashes. Also faced myself as a boss. Progress is being made. Died 10+ times at Radahn boss fight. I suck so bad at the game, but still getting through. The camera while locked on, and rolling makes me dizzy.

This run is mostly to see if I have the git gud in me, and also I missed a crapton of stuff on the spellcaster run.

 

[NJClaw]

Abu Antar how often do you play a game more than once?

 

[Abu Antar]

Abu Antar how often do you play a game more than once?

I replay lots of games. This is the seventh game that I have replayed in 2023.

 

[Grunker]

Made it to Anor Londo last night. Blighttown was still cancer, but I’m doing way better this run than my previous DS attempt.

However, DS has been much harder than ER for me so far. I can maybe agree that bosses seem easier, but ER lets you hop bonfires at will meaning you almost never have prolonged sections of gameplay that must be completed in one bonfire, and moving past sections is more tricky in DS. Areas are also way more cramped in DS making it harder to maneuver, so getting overwhelmed or ambushed happens more regularly. Statuses also get applied more rapidly. As such, I’m dying way, way more than I did in ER.

 

[volklore]

Made it to Anor Londo last night. Blighttown was still cancer, but I’m doing way better this run than my previous DS attempt.

However, DS has been much harder than ER for me so far. I can maybe agree that bosses seem easier, but ER lets you hop bonfires around at will meaning you almost never have prolonged sections of gameplay that must be completed in one bonfire, and moving past sections is more tricky in DS. Areas are also way more cramped in DS making it harder to maneuver, so getting overwhelmed or ambushed happens more regularly. Statuses also get applied more rapidly. As such, I’m dying way, way more than I did in ER.

Ha the good olde days where from would ambush you in a corrodior too tight to swing your weapon :D
Did you already do the anor londo archers on the walls section ?

 

[Grunker]

Made it to Anor Londo last night. Blighttown was still cancer, but I’m doing way better this run than my previous DS attempt.

However, DS has been much harder than ER for me so far. I can maybe agree that bosses seem easier, but ER lets you hop bonfires around at will meaning you almost never have prolonged sections of gameplay that must be completed in one bonfire, and moving past sections is more tricky in DS. Areas are also way more cramped in DS making it harder to maneuver, so getting overwhelmed or ambushed happens more regularly. Statuses also get applied more rapidly. As such, I’m dying way, way more than I did in ER.

Ha the good olde days where from would ambush you in a corrodior too tight to swing your weapon :D
Did you already do the anor londo archers on the walls section ?

Nah, I *just* got to Anor Londo.

Also, just to highlight how bad I am at these games:

After doing Gaping Dragon, I ran around the area trying to find the way to Blighttown. I decided to try jumping down the water shaft, promptly dying with my 32k souls. Panicked and tried rushing back, got cursed by the basilisks and died and since I'm playing blind, had no idea where to find a purging stone. So for 1½ hours I ran around underleveled (due to "missing" the 32k souls) and with half HP until I finally found the purging stone @ undead lady in firelink. If there was ever a humbling experience in a video game

 

[volklore]

Made it to Anor Londo last night. Blighttown was still cancer, but I’m doing way better this run than my previous DS attempt.

However, DS has been much harder than ER for me so far. I can maybe agree that bosses seem easier, but ER lets you hop bonfires around at will meaning you almost never have prolonged sections of gameplay that must be completed in one bonfire, and moving past sections is more tricky in DS. Areas are also way more cramped in DS making it harder to maneuver, so getting overwhelmed or ambushed happens more regularly. Statuses also get applied more rapidly. As such, I’m dying way, way more than I did in ER.

Ha the good olde days where from would ambush you in a corrodior too tight to swing your weapon :D
Did you already do the anor londo archers on the walls section ?

Nah, I *just* got to Anor Londo.

Also, just to highlight how bad I am at these games:

After doing Gaping Dragon, I ran around the area trying to find the way to Blighttown. I decided to try jumping down the water shaft, promptly dying with my 32k souls. Panicked and tried rushing back, got cursed by the basilisks and died and since I'm playing blind, had no idea where to find a purging stone. So for 1½ hours I ran around underleveled (due to "missing" the 32k souls) and with half HP until I finally found the purging stone @ undead lady in firelink. If there was ever a humbling experience in a video game

I've lost so many souls to stupid shit in all of these games. Everyone sucks at first. I still have my first Demon's souls playthrough burnt into my memory. I bought the chinese version of that game (before it was sold in the west) that had english translation for some reason, at the time where it was crazily shilled by one member of the JRPG forum I was hanging around. I was in sunk cost fallacy mode because I bought a PS3 for FFXIII and it sucked so hard, I needed a good game.
I died so many time in the first section of the first level, I think I still remember where every single enemy, and all of the traps are and I haven't replayed it in 10 years.

I still suck initially at every new From soft game tbh. It just takes me less time to get in the groove with each new release.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Cut Sekiro DLC boss (Tomoe)

 

[Cyberarmy]

I've lost so many souls to stupid shit in all of these games.

Yeah, I've become immunie to hating myself after losing 650 k+ souls to random mob that I could kill my eyes closed.
Git Gud and Die Trying.

 

[Multidirectional]

Made it to Anor Londo last night. Blighttown was still cancer, but I’m doing way better this run than my previous DS attempt.

However, DS has been much harder than ER for me so far. I can maybe agree that bosses seem easier, but ER lets you hop bonfires at will meaning you almost never have prolonged sections of gameplay that must be completed in one bonfire, and moving past sections is more tricky in DS. Areas are also way more cramped in DS making it harder to maneuver, so getting overwhelmed or ambushed happens more regularly. Statuses also get applied more rapidly. As such, I’m dying way, way more than I did in ER.

Yeah environmental challenges are definitely harder than ER. But it's really just a matter of figuring out how to deal with them once, it becomes easy after that.

 

[gabel]

As I said before, the world is way more interesting than Elden Ring's, and the bosses way less spastic.

 

[Grunker]

Did you already do the anor londo archers on the walls section ?

Fuck.

Those.

Guys.

 

[Grunker]

Seriously.

 

[gabel]

They're really not a problem.
Multiple ways to deal with them.
Grow a dick and decide how you want to get past them.

 

[Multidirectional]

Yeah it's one of those things that looks like bullshit at first, then once you figure it out it's never a problem again and you wonder why you had a problem with it in the first place.

 

[gabel]

Souls games in a nutshell.

Edit:
Part of that is that your dick grows too big on the seventh playthrough though, and things like the archers become a problem again, lol.

 

[volklore]

They're fucking great though. From soft doesn't really design sections like this anymore.

 

[gabel]

They're fucking great though. From soft doesn't really design sections like this anymore.

You're absolutely right, unfortunately. There are still difficult sections, but now they're "mini-bosses" or gimmick sections like DS3 DLC Ringed City for example. The rest is banal/shit/boring (except graphically, where everything is lé épiquè (lêl), and bosses, which are the sole reason for FromSoft games to still exist. It's fucking sad. FromSoftware created its very own path of decline, which is completely different from the rest of the industry's decline, and which happens at a higher quality level, but which hurts even more.
When I think back or replay Dark Souls, and then compare it to the Elden Ring's wasteland, I get sick.

 

[volklore]

I still think from soft does top tier dungeon crawling tbh, but yeah they don't design elaborate traps with positions of enemies that much anymore, like they did in DeS and DS.
Or maybe I just know all of their tricks at this point.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I must have hallucinated the million billion little dungeons full of boulders and spike traps and guillotines and pressure plates and chasms and invisible floors and teleporting chests and spiked chariots on rails and those little fucking scythe-wielding gnome fuckers.

 

[Caim]

The repeated dungeons in Elden Ring would have been better if there was one of each and they were legacy dungeons: one mine, one cave, one catacomb and one Hero's Grave. Slap their best gimmicks together, make it one long dungeon, put a unique boss and the end and job's a good one.

 

[Grunker]

Man I'm hooked. Instant regret that I only bought DS:R and not DSII and III as well while they were 50% off

 

[Multidirectional]

DS and DS II are special games to me. Rest of the Souls games leave me colder, though they are still better than most of the competition in the genre.

After you finish DS I would strongly recommend doing a fresh second run as a light load/dex guy too. It's a nice change of pace and much easier to do on the second run as you already have moveset of enemies down. That's what I did almost immediately after first run and it made me love the game even more.

 

[janior]

don't skip demon's souls, it's the most well made game from start to finish in the series, doesn't dip in quality also will be interesting to see how the series declined and didn't innovate much