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

[Multidirectional]

Anyone who thinks this game needs a fucking DLC is an insane person.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I'm thrilled there will be a DLC. Might even do a focused replay if it's an endgame DLC.

The only time I felt fatigued on my first 100 hour playthrough was maybe the last couple hours. Enjoyed the whole thing immensely. Though I tend to pace myself with massive games.

Something tells me you're going to be playing that DLC when it releases yourself.

 

[Multidirectional]

Something tells me you're going to be playing that DLC when it releases yourself.

You should really check your sources because I'm still sick of this game just from my first playthrough. I even tried to force myself to get back into it, reinstalled and started a fresh mage run couple months ago and then very soon after I entered open world this strong feeling hit me - no fucking way am I going through all that again. I might need at least 5 more years before I can try this again.

 

[Lyre Mors]

We'll see. We shall see.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

We all need that scarlet rotussy

 

[Ivan]

I'm sure the DLC will be dope. The game ran like shit on my 1080, so I may wait until I upgrade before giving that a go. I wonder what their next big project is.

 

[AlwaysBrotoMen]

Generally the dlcs are better than the main game.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Something tells me you're going to be playing that DLC when it releases yourself.

You should really check your sources because I'm still sick of this game just from my first playthrough. I even tried to force myself to get back into it, reinstalled and started a fresh mage run couple months ago and then very soon after I entered open world this strong feeling hit me - no fucking way am I going through all that again. I might need at least 5 more years before I can try this again.

The world can be traversed quite fast though, it's really not that bad.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Elden Ring was an excellent game and was a nice change of pace after playing the grimdark Bloodborne and the mostly gray Souls games before that. I played the majority of the game wielding the Executioner's Axe with two hands and being near naked, depending mostly on dodge rolls. Once I brought my strength into the 70s I started to pump more points into Endurance and Vigor, ending the game around Level 130 and wearing some decent armor for the end bosses. Some thoughts:

+ I enjoyed the various NPCs and their quests. The blacksmith's story was probably my favorite despite the subtlety. He's finally released from being a slave yet can't seem to free himself. And the girl stays with him since she can't convince him to move. That one will stick with me.
+ I most of broken several quests because so many NPCs ended up disappearing or dead before I could finish their quests. This makes it tempting to go for a replay.
+ I enjoyed the brighter environment and vivid colors, though this was still a Souls game underneath the hood.
+ I got to kill Patches again.
+ I really enjoyed a lot of the main boss fights. The one versus Godrick the Grafted was particularly memorable
+ They really went all out with side quests. I liked the one with the dude in the sun mask and his clerical follower who was trying to decipher the sun mask dude's religious creed. I never finished it, though. I did end up doing the entirety of Ranni's quest and ended up hooking up with her and getting the alternate Age of Stars ending. That was pretty enjoyable.
+ The summoning ability was a welcome addition. I loved making a mimic copy of myself, but that summon was so OP that I was able to beat Godfrey on the first try. It helped that I had Nepheli Loux on my side for that battle, too. Hot barbarian chicks for the win.
+ I played this game for more than 100 hours and didn't get bored of trying to explore every nook and cranny until the final few areas when some of the mini-bosses and side areas started getting repetitous, and by that I mean...
- There's only so many floating cat statue mini-bosses and side mission dungeons with chariot dudes that a man can take.
- I explored almost all of Caelid, but that area was still shit. I eventually learned the pattern for fighting the giant hounds and the giant crows, but I didn't like how you encountered one of them every few meters. A really annoying area and exploring it felt more like a punishment.
- I feel like the 2nd to last boss and the final boss should have been switched. The 2nd to last boss was quick-paced and challenging and fair. The final boss took me a long time to beat, but was mostly just annoying with a lot of bullshit moves. Fun fact: On one of my last tries against the final boss I had an alternative rock station blaring out some old hits and Tori Amos' "God" came on. In the lyrics, Tori says, "Will you even tell her if you decide to make the sky fall". The answer is no, Tori, that final boss and the game camera will conspire together to make sure it's a surprise.

Anyway... great game, would recommend.

 

[9ted6]

I know Dark Souls isn't really supposed to make sense, but I've still never figured out why in 1 Gwyn cursed humans to become undead so they'd buy into his prophecy to come link the flame, but then gathers a bunch of monsters, demons, and his own men to stop the undead from getting to the flame.

It's the only plot point that's given any real explanation but then it's contradicted by the rest of the game.

Did he go crazy and forget his own plan? Better yet, why didn't he just link the flame himself? It makes sense if you work with Kaathe but no sense if you work with Frampt, who being a "friend of Gwyn" could just go tell him that you're on your way to do what he set up the entire curse to get you to do.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I barely paid attention to the Dark Souls plot but when you face Gwyn he is also hollow. I always just assumed the very fabric of the world this game takes place in was coming apart at the seams reguardless of what anybody plotted.

 

[Caim]

I know Dark Souls isn't really supposed to make sense, but I've still never figured out why in 1 Gwyn cursed humans to become undead so they'd buy into his prophecy to come link the flame, but then gathers a bunch of monsters, demons, and his own men to stop the undead from getting to the flame.

It's the only plot point that's given any real explanation but then it's contradicted by the rest of the game.

Did he go crazy and forget his own plan? Better yet, why didn't he just link the flame himself? It makes sense if you work with Kaathe but no sense if you work with Frampt, who being a "friend of Gwyn" could just go tell him that you're on your way to do what he set up the entire curse to get you to do.

Gwyn actually did link the flame, but it burned him out so much he turned hollow himself. This caused the curse of undeath, which made other people go hollow. A good number of hollows carry out their final orders before their sanity left them, which is why you have the black knights trying to kick you in the dick in the runup to Gwyn because they protected their lord in life. Demons are the product of the Witch of Izalith trying to make a new fire instead of the whole "use yourself as kindling" plan, but she fucked up and life ran rampant, creating demons.

In Dark Souls there is a cycle of dark and light. There used to be dark, then the Four Lords created light and stomped out the dragons, but when the cycle of reality turned to dark again they resisted, just like the dragons did. Their unnatural prolonging of light is the main reason reality went to shit.

 

[Nathir]

I know Dark Souls isn't really supposed to make sense, but I've still never figured out why in 1 Gwyn cursed humans to become undead so they'd buy into his prophecy to come link the flame, but then gathers a bunch of monsters, demons, and his own men to stop the undead from getting to the flame.

It's the only plot point that's given any real explanation but then it's contradicted by the rest of the game.

Did he go crazy and forget his own plan? Better yet, why didn't he just link the flame himself? It makes sense if you work with Kaathe but no sense if you work with Frampt, who being a "friend of Gwyn" could just go tell him that you're on your way to do what he set up the entire curse to get you to do.

You are overthinking everything too much. The monsters/demons/whatever aren't there specifically to stop the player character... And did Gwynn even curse the humans to link the flame? I thought he did it because he was either afraid of them or hated them or something along those lines. He tried to link the flame himself and it backfired, he didn't need the undead. He went hollow and I doubt he had any sense left. The chosen undead fable I always thought was a scheme of the serpents, just to try and get anyone to attempt to link the flame.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

The dark age is coming no matter what, your actions (should you choose to do what Frampt tells you) only delay its coming. By 3, the world is in a state of disarray because you're living through the very final moments of the age of fire.

Which is why the alternate paths all involve calling out the gods' charade and putting an end to things.

 

[Ezekiel]

I don't remember the Souls games taking so long to get significant price cuts. Going open world must have really worked for them financially. I'll just have to keep waiting. Not dying to play it anyway.

Edit: Or maybe it's inflation. The publishers waiting longer to cut their prices because the games are so expensive to make.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't remember the Souls games taking so long to get significant price cuts. Going open world must have really worked for them financially. I'll just have to keep waiting. Not dying to play it anyway.

Edit: Or maybe it's inflation. The publishers waiting longer to cut their prices because the games are so expensive to make.

For what it's worth, Elden Ring is truly massive, so even if you pay full price, you'll get your money's worth (assuming you don't hate the game). I thought it was fantastic, but I like both Souls-likes and open world games so it was like PB&J for me.

 

[9ted6]

The dark age is coming no matter what, your actions (should you choose to do what Frampt tells you) only delay its coming. By 3, the world is in a state of disarray because you're living through the very final moments of the age of fire.

Which is why the alternate paths all involve calling out the gods' charade and putting an end to things.

I prefer how 1 ended. I read the team never wanted to make sequels and I can believe that with how bad 2 and 3's development cycles were.

2 and especially 3 really undo 1 with their multiverse of paintings and the fact they make the unambiguously "good" ending of 1 be working for Kaathe.

It wasn't clear that the Age of Fire was a bad thing or not and there was player agency in making the decision, but the sequels got rid of that and it doesn't really matter since 1's now just one of many paintings you're stuck inside of if I understood right.

I guess the lore doesn't really matter and has always been pretty nonsensical and obtuse anyway, but 1 had a satisfying enough story and conclusion that 2/3 shit on, IMO.

 

[NJClaw]

since 1's now just one of many paintings you're stuck inside of if I understood right.

What gave you this impression? There is a world that exists outside paintings and I never suspected that DS1 wasn't part of it.

In Dark Souls there is a cycle of dark and light. There used to be dark, then the Four Lords created light and stomped out the dragons, but when the cycle of reality turned to dark again they resisted, just like the dragons did. Their unnatural prolonging of light is the main reason reality went to shit.

I know this may be irrelevant, but I think "there used to be dark" is inaccurate. The DS1 opening cinematic makes it pretty clear that during the age of the everlasting dragons there was neither light nor dark, both of which were caused by fire.

 

[Caim]

The dark age is coming no matter what, your actions (should you choose to do what Frampt tells you) only delay its coming. By 3, the world is in a state of disarray because you're living through the very final moments of the age of fire.

Which is why the alternate paths all involve calling out the gods' charade and putting an end to things.

Dark Souls 2 has you take the Throne of Want and decide after that whether you want to rekindle the flame or not, but that's a choice made off screen. Aldia's point in SotFS was that the cycle repeats either because someone rekindles the fire or it flares up enough that someone can take it once more, and the alternate ending introduced in SotFS gave you the option to step away from the cycle to find an alternative (which is why you are not given the actual choice to link the fire, because it does not matter in the long run). This leads to Dark Souls 3 where reality itself starts to come apart during the game: the sun itself becomes a Darksign as you reach the endgame. We reach the point where the First Flame itself is trying to prolong its own existence by raising those undead that touched it before but didn't have the mettle to link it alongside several previous lords of cinder.

If you make it to the First Flame in Dark Souls 3 and rekindle it, very little happens. Contrast it to the conflatation of linking the fire in Dark Souls 1: the bonefire barely becomes bigger and it just sorta sets you on fire instead of consuming the entire arena. The alternative is getting the Fire Keeper to put the flame out to put an end to all things, but it doesn't work. You can also steal the flame by killing her as she takes it, but it's not really shown what happens afterwards. The secret ending of Dark Souls 3 has you actually try something different, an amalgamation of the plans of Kaathe and Aldia. By creating a lord of dark to replace the lords of cinder the cycle of staving off the dark by prolonging the light is broken... except it's now likely inverted, with the dark constantly trying to prolong itself by suppressing the light. Who knows what horrors can spawn from such a thing.

Or, you know, the devs just wanted the series to fucking end already.

 

[kites]

I don't remember the Souls games taking so long to get significant price cuts. Going open world must have really worked for them financially. I'll just have to keep waiting. Not dying to play it anyway.

Edit: Or maybe it's inflation. The publishers waiting longer to cut their prices because the games are so expensive to make.

Looking at sale history, ever since right before ER Bandai’s pricing/sales for Souls games has been worse and less frequent; My PC is failing so I was browsing the PS store Tokyo sale last week, and they wanted around $23 for base DS3 and $43 for the complete edition. I believe it was the first discount for PS DS3 this year, at least that I saw. Nuts. Just like KOIE games, now, even grabbing them on sale you’ll feel it hit your wallet.

 

[9ted6]

The dark age is coming no matter what, your actions (should you choose to do what Frampt tells you) only delay its coming. By 3, the world is in a state of disarray because you're living through the very final moments of the age of fire.

Which is why the alternate paths all involve calling out the gods' charade and putting an end to things.

Or, you know, the devs just wanted the series to fucking end already.

They definitely never wanted sequels to begin with, at least Miyazaki didn't. 1's got a complete story with two endings open to player interpretation, it didn't need a sequel, especially one with lore that either copies and retreads the original or makes up new things that are disjointed and convoluted and don't even amount to anything.

 

[gabel]

And the sequels still turned out better than anything else AAA or even AA.

 

[MasPingon]

I know Dark Souls isn't really supposed to make sense, but I've still never figured out why in 1 Gwyn cursed humans to become undead so they'd buy into his prophecy to come link the flame, but then gathers a bunch of monsters, demons, and his own men to stop the undead from getting to the flame.

It's the only plot point that's given any real explanation but then it's contradicted by the rest of the game.

Did he go crazy and forget his own plan? Better yet, why didn't he just link the flame himself? It makes sense if you work with Kaathe but no sense if you work with Frampt, who being a "friend of Gwyn" could just go tell him that you're on your way to do what he set up the entire curse to get you to do.

Gwyn actually did link the flame, but it burned him out so much he turned hollow himself. This caused the curse of undeath, which made other people go hollow. A good number of hollows carry out their final orders before their sanity left them, which is why you have the black knights trying to kick you in the dick in the runup to Gwyn because they protected their lord in life. Demons are the product of the Witch of Izalith trying to make a new fire instead of the whole "use yourself as kindling" plan, but she fucked up and life ran rampant, creating demons.

In Dark Souls there is a cycle of dark and light. There used to be dark, then the Four Lords created light and stomped out the dragons, but when the cycle of reality turned to dark again they resisted, just like the dragons did. Their unnatural prolonging of light is the main reason reality went to shit.

Actually there was no Dark before creation of fire - there was no time, no dark and no light, only everlasting dragons. Four Lords had nothing to do with creating the light, they just gathered the most powerful souls afterwards. And there was a Pygmy who took dark soul.

 

[gabel]

"Vaati and all his followers over-analyse Dark Souls' lore"
"Yeah, pathetic!"
"..........."

Fucking retards.

 

[NJClaw]

"Vaati and all his followers over-analyse Dark Souls' lore"
"Yeah, pathetic!"
"..........."

Fucking retards.

How the fuck do you equate simple literal interpretations of the very few plot elements the game shows you to what vaatividya does? Come on