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

[Silverfish]

Goosebumps isn't exactly high art.

Ahem.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Goosebumps isn't exactly high art.

Ahem.

Strange. I figured your reading level was more advanced.

Well, whatever works for you.

 

[Silverfish]

Strange. I figured your reading level was more advanced.

On and off the court, straight fundamentals. No funny business. This shit ain't nothing to me, man.

 

[Silva]

GRRM's involvement in this game was probably a mistake. Modern westoid authors don't have any sensibility for myth anymore. There's too much psychological and individualistic projection to allow for the kind of impersonal, almost esoteric approach a Fromsoft game requires.

Yep. I don't remember what was the last western setting that got me hooked. Maybe STALKER in what, 2007?

 

[DJOGamer PT]

GRRM's involvement in this game was probably a mistake. Modern westoid authors don't have any sensibility for myth anymore. There's too much psychological and individualistic projection to allow for the kind of impersonal, almost esoteric approach a Fromsoft game requires.

R. Scott Bakker
Guy Gavriel Kay
Christopher Buehlman

Nice try though

 

[Hell Swarm]

GRRM's involvement in this game was probably a mistake. Modern westoid authors don't have any sensibility for myth anymore. There's too much psychological and individualistic projection to allow for the kind of impersonal, almost esoteric approach a Fromsoft game requires.

R. Scott Bakker
Guy Gavriel Kay
Christopher Buehlman

Nice try though

Which of these authors books would you recommend and why?

 

[Nathir]

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Any one defending Japanese writing and saying it's superior to Western stuff needs to look at the amount of light novels and VNs Japan releases barely above fanfic.net's quality. I read Martin's books and found them incredibly boring, except he'd write 1 or 2 characters you would get invested in and have to slog through the rest of the crap to get to their chapters again.

Martin was never anything more than a marketing ploy. He free lanced the background for content they already had planned from what we know. His name attached brought the game additional attention but it's unlikely it brought in many more sales. If you weren't interested in From games before Martin's fanbase were not going to get along well with them. Elden Ring's intro is so badly botched I can't imagine being new to gaming, running into the Tree sentinel and then Margott. It would have put me off gaming for life if I thought the base line of difficulty was 2 very difficult bosses you weren't equipped to deal with.

I crawl around in the west. The japs do everything better.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

Ah Elder ring or Souls lore. Basically a bounch of item descriptions and snarky one liner by npc that bred a set of lore doctors youtubers that have no clue what the lore is. And all they do is theorize or simply give a personal interpretation on stuff.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Any one defending Japanese writing and saying it's superior to Western stuff needs to look at the amount of light novels and VNs Japan releases barely above fanfic.net's quality. I read Martin's books and found them incredibly boring, except he'd write 1 or 2 characters you would get invested in and have to slog through the rest of the crap to get to their chapters again.

Martin was never anything more than a marketing ploy. He free lanced the background for content they already had planned from what we know. His name attached brought the game additional attention but it's unlikely it brought in many more sales. If you weren't interested in From games before Martin's fanbase were not going to get along well with them. Elden Ring's intro is so badly botched I can't imagine being new to gaming, running into the Tree sentinel and then Margott. It would have put me off gaming for life if I thought the base line of difficulty was 2 very difficult bosses you weren't equipped to deal with.

I crawl around in the west. The japs do everything better.

I'll take your opinion more seriously when you don't have to cheat to beat easy monsters in Monster Hunter. Until then it's safe to assume you're projecting wanting to be a woman into video games since you will never be one.

I'm replaying Dark souls 3 with a different play style to see if the game experience is different enough I can understand why some people defend it so much. I was going to stop and read all the lore and try to figure some more stuff out for myself but stopped almost immediately. Once you realize the writing style is a way to save money and it's re-written on a whim there's no point trying to figure out the lore any more. Is Nameless the son of Gwyn? From doesn't even know/care. He's just a boss they wanted to do and never had to lock the decision in place. Fans will speculate if it's him or maybe Ornstein's final form but it doesn't matter. It's a video game with random trivia discarded through out. Modern lazy writing that has dominated the industry since Bioshock and would be better left in the trash.

 

[Multidirectional]

I have hundreds of hours in Souls games and still don't know what the lore is in any of them nor why I should care. Actually one of the things I loved when I played Dark Souls for first time was that it would just let me have fun exploring the levels/killing stuff/picking up loot without interrupting it with some boring story. And it came out during time when most games kept doing just that, forcing their shitty stories down my throat. Often developers were so high on their own farts they would even make cutscenes unskippable. Sometimes a game comes along that actually manages to get me interested in its story but that is really rare. Last one to do that to me was Kingdom Come Deliverance, I think. Mostly when I'm in storyfag mood I'll just read a book. Even a silly pulp book tends to be way more satisfying in that regard than 99% of video games.

 

[Child of Malkav]

It's actually 3 parts. 35 hours total of lore.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

I crawl around in the west. The japs do everything better.

I'll take your opinion more seriously when you don't have to cheat to beat easy monsters in Monster Hunter. Until then it's safe to assume you're projecting wanting to be a woman into video games since you will never be one.

I'm replaying Dark souls 3

What a fucking badass. I'll never stand a chance against this guy.

 

[Hell Swarm]

I crawl around in the west. The japs do everything better.

I'll take your opinion more seriously when you don't have to cheat to beat easy monsters in Monster Hunter. Until then it's safe to assume you're projecting wanting to be a woman into video games since you will never be one.

I'm replaying Dark souls 3

What a fucking badass. I'll never stand a chance against this guy.

You spammed a thread about how easy the game was and then you had to get another player to beat a boss for you because you weren't good enough and didn't want to engage with the systems. You're clinically retarded.

I have hundreds of hours in Souls games and still don't know what the lore is in any of them nor why I should care. Actually one of the things I loved when I played Dark Souls for first time was that it would let me just let me have fun exploring the levels/killing stuff/picking up loot without interrupting it with some boring story. And it came out during time when most games kept doing just that, forcing their shitty stories down my throat. Often developers were so high on their own farts they would even make cutscenes unskippable. Sometimes a game comes along that actually manages to get me interested in its story but that is really rare. Last one to do that to me was Kingdom Come Deliverance, I think. Mostly when I'm in storyfag mood I'll just read a book. Even a silly pulp book tends to be way more satisfying in that regard than 99% of video games.

One of the reasons BOTW did so well too. It got out of your way and let you play. Once you finished the minimal tutorial you had full freedom. TOTK is diversive because it's way more in your face with the story and won't step aside.

 

[Silva]

Any one defending Japanese writing and saying it's superior to Western stuff needs to look at the amount of light novels and VNs Japan releases barely above fanfic.net's quality. I read Martin's books and found them incredibly boring, except he'd write 1 or 2 characters you would get invested in and have to slog through the rest of the crap to get to their chapters again.

Martin was never anything more than a marketing ploy. He free lanced the background for content they already had planned from what we know. His name attached brought the game additional attention but it's unlikely it brought in many more sales. If you weren't interested in From games before Martin's fanbase were not going to get along well with them. Elden Ring's intro is so badly botched I can't imagine being new to gaming, running into the Tree sentinel and then Margott. It would have put me off gaming for life if I thought the base line of difficulty was 2 very difficult bosses you weren't equipped to deal with.

I crawl around in the west. The japs do everything better.

Yep.

SMT Nocturne
SMT Strange Journey
Persona 3, 4 and 5
Dark Souls
Bloodborne

Give me the analogous top 5 western settings that are so badass as those (STALKER doesn't count since Slavs are not westerns).

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

You spammed a thread about how easy the game was and then you had to get another player to beat a boss for you because you weren't good enough and didn't want to engage with the systems. You're clinically retarded..

The game IS easy. It has two retarded difficulty spikes, one in base game (Behemoth) and one in Iceborne (Velkhana). I'm getting older, I work all the time. I can't smash that shit like I used to. You act like I'm just disrespecting the game. I've been playing it every chance I've got for well over a month now. Calm your no-lifer ass the fuck down.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

the dudes making 38 hour lore videos are the same who later claim to be suffering from mental health issues. i wonder why

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I've completed Dark Souls with a medium roll armor set and a claymore. Will it work here too?

yes, but along the way, you will notice that the game really wants you to use all those extra bits they put in. there's also this boss, in the room with the giant skeleton in the throne, that mostly flies and doesn't land. that's gonna be a bit difficult if you don't have a ranged option.

 

[Multidirectional]

I've completed Dark Souls with a medium roll armor set and a claymore. Will it work here too?

yes, but along the way, you will notice that the game really wants you to use all those extra bits they put in. there's also this boss, in the room with the giant skeleton in the throne, that mostly flies and doesn't land. that's gonna be a bit difficult if you don't have a ranged option.

I had a tradition to do a first run of every new Souls game with a sword and medium shield guy, because that's the way I did my first run of Dark Souls. DS III was really annoying to me with that style and ER even more so. Although ER tricked me in early stage of the game that I will be fine playing like that because the guard counter mechanic is actually really good early on. But then later on it became rape. Looks like this game is really made for mages.

 

[Hell Swarm]

SMT Nocturne
SMT Strange Journey
Persona 3, 4 and 5
Dark Souls
Bloodborne

Give me the analogous top 5 western settings that are so badass as those (STALKER doesn't count since Slavs are not westerns).

Are you serious about these being badass Japanese things because they're barely Japanese. The stuff presented here is the end of a human centipede with Japan stealing ideas from else where and presenting them back to you poorly.

SMT uses global mythology and it's bare bones in most other areas. The original 2 games settings are more interesting than the later ones. Strange Journey is The Thing and was designed as a westerner appealing game. Persona is scooby doo with mythology and if you think high school students are badass you should look up Doom guy.

Dark souls and Bloodborne are just western high fantasy and lovecraft repackaged. It's not really worth debating how much content is original here because most the Japanese inspirations are taken from Western ideas like Berserk.

Horizon Zero dawn is a more badass setting than any of those. Vampire the masquerade (World of Darkness). Halo universe has plenty of really cool things going on in it too. If you want pure badass then Terminator and Gears of war are both high on the badass factor but Doom, Quake and most western FPS games have better, fleshed out bad ass universes. Especially if you think high school kids using brooms to attack blobs is bad ass.

I've completed Dark Souls with a medium roll armor set and a claymore. Will it work here too?

yes, but along the way, you will notice that the game really wants you to use all those extra bits they put in. there's also this boss, in the room with the giant skeleton in the throne, that mostly flies and doesn't land. that's gonna be a bit difficult if you don't have a ranged option.

I had a tradition to do a first run of every new Souls game with a sword and medium shield guy, because that's the way I did my first run of Dark Souls. DS III was really annoying to me with that style and ER even more so. Although ER tricked me in early stage of the game that I will be fine playing like that because the guard counter mechanic is actually really good early on. But then later on it became rape. Looks like this game is really made for mages.

Sword and board works throughout Elden Ring. The game expects you to use summons, weapon arts and status (probably bleed) to over come some of the later challenges. It's a good idea to exchange your early weapon for something found later in the game though. The damage fall off is pretty hard when you start finding the special weapons and have 2 stats (Str/Dex + Magic stat) buffing them. Sword, Medium shield and a bow for pulling enemies covers pretty much every scenario you're going to encounter.

 

[Anonona]

sword and medium shield guy (...) But then later on it became rape

While I don't disagree with the sentiment than medium shield is a relatively weaker tool compared to powerstancing, spellcasting and two-handing, did you tried the Ash of War Barricade? Can be obtained very early and is very strong, to the point it received nerfs, but still remains strong. For a small amount of FP you consume pretty much no stamina. While it does have its problems with bosses like Maliketh and Malenia, both who punish blocking, in my sword and shield playthrough I found that for the latter it was a very effective way to deal with Waterfowlf Dance, as you could block the first attack with Barricade and dodge the second and third.

 

[Multidirectional]

Sword and board works throughout Elden Ring. The game expects you to use summons, weapon arts and status (probably bleed) to over come some of the later challenges.

Well duh, probably any build can work when you use summons. I was still playing with mentality that summons = bad. It took me getting raped by Mohg for few days straight to get completely exhausted and stop giving a fuck. If I played the game now it would be strictly for exploration and I would use any possible cheese to trivialize fights as much as I could, I know better now.

While I don't disagree in the sentiment than medium shield is a relatively weaker tool compared to powerstancing, spellcasting and two-handing, did you tried the Ash of War Barricade?

No I don't remember this one at all, probably never got it in my inventory.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Which of these authors books would you recommend and why?

All of them are good

Bakker has dabbled in many genres, but his primary body of work is "The Second Apocalypse" fantasy series (two triologies and some other stories)
Obvioulsy start with the first book - "The Darkness that Came Before" - and if you like it finish the first triology
Be warned the series deals heavily in philosophy

Some might recognize the name Guy Gavriel Kay from "The Silmarillion", that's because he was a student of Christopher Tolkien and his assistant with editing the work
Meaning he got a real close look into Tolkien's personal notes and scripts, so it's unsurprising his first published work - "The Fionavar Tapestry" - was clearly inspired in them
But that triology is seem as some his weakest work (though this doesn't mean it's bad), they are also one of his few books which are high fantasy, the majority of his work is low fantasy
The commonly agreed upon best works are: "The Lions of Al-Rassan" ; "A Song for Arbonne" ; "Under Heaven" ; "The Sarantine Mosaic" duology
Though personally I would recommend you start with "Tigana" - it's his best high fantasy book and a very good introduction to the author as it's still early in his career so you can get a good sense of his emerging, personal style

For Christopher Buehlman the only recommendation possible is "Between Two Fires", as it's his only "fantasy" work (I use quotation marks because it's actually historical fiction - set in France during the Black Plague - but demons are roaming the Earth and worthy Christians performing miracles and using relics)

 

[Silverfish]

I'll take your opinion more seriously when you don't have to cheat to beat easy monsters in Monster Hunter. Until then it's safe to assume you're projecting wanting to be a woman into video games since you will never be one.

"You cheat at video games because you're a closeted tranny and that's why you can't comprehend the Souls lore that you read." A second or third pass might have worked wonders.

Horizon Zero dawn is a more badass setting than any of those.

I particularly like how, once the robots took over, they took on animal shapes and intelligence levels so that humans could bring them down with bows and spears. Very sporting.

 

[Silva]

Dark souls and Bloodborne are just western high fantasy and

Here you confirmed your ignorance. Dark Souls is eastern through and through except for a thin veneer of euro-medieval.

Btw, it's expected that authors get inspired by whatever came before. Whats important is how they spin it into something new and cool, which is the exact case of Dark Souls. Otherwise we should be ditching Lovecraft for sucking Lord Dunsany or Tolkien for his bible allegory, etc.

And LOL at Horizon Zero Down being a cool setting. It's the exact uninspired western trash we're talking about here, and if you think otherwise, all I can say is, you deserve Elden Ring.

I'm still waiting on the other good western settings. Specially ones with as good an ambience as Demon's Souls, Nocturne or Bloodborne.