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

[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.

 

[cvv]

Dark Souls is eastern through and through except for a thin veneer of euro-medieval.

It's much more of a unique melange in my book, I've never seen this kind of blend of East and West before or since.

 

[Silva]

A much more reasonable take, cvv . Saying it's "just western high-fantasy" like our retardo friend above is nonsense.

 

[Hell Swarm]

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

European knights and most the locations being real world locations they put into a fantasy world doesn't make it eastern. Anor Londo is literally Italy and France locations copied exactly. How does that make it remotely Asian? Shiva is specifically Asian and they point out how weird that is within a Western fantasy. Elden Ring does the same with the Samurai set.

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.

Robot dinosaurs will always be cool. The games are stupid, but you can't deny robot dinosaurs are bad ass.

It's much more of a unique melange in my book, I've never seen this kind of blend of East and West before or since.

How do you think it's Unique? There's little in Dark souls you can't find in 80's western fantasy fiction or art work. There's very little originality in Dark souls universe and that's why it's such a fractured design.

 

[Lyric Suite]

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.

Guard counters work better on great shields because of the bounce effect.

Medium shields are more about parry while still having 100% dmg mitigation in case you need it.

Small shields, from my experience, appear to be completely useless in Elden Ring. They can be used for parry early on but once you get Golden Parry or Carian i don't see the point.

 

[Sukhāvatī]

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)

The Blacktongue Thief is a proper fantasy book of his which came out in 2021, and a prequel to it is coming this year.

 

[cvv]

Small shields, from my experience, appear to be completely useless in Elden Ring.

Small shields' parry window is twice as long as medium.

 

[Multidirectional]

The only Souls game where I could parry reliably was Dark Souls, cannot do it for shit in rest of them. ER is no exception. Trying to go with parry based build would just be torture to me.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Small shields, from my experience, appear to be completely useless in Elden Ring.

Small shields' parry window is twice as long as medium.

But Golden Parry or Carian are still better than all of them so small shields are only useful if you are a parry guy for early on.

 

[Hell Swarm]

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.

Guard counters work better on great shields because of the bounce effect.

Medium shields are more about parry while still having 100% dmg mitigation in case you need it.

Small shields, from my experience, appear to be completely useless in Elden Ring. They can be used for parry early on but once you get Golden Parry or Carian i don't see the point.

Small shields are the parry shields. They don't block enough damage to be worth anything but a panic block.

Medium shields can either buff your stamina or be 100% phys blocks and do a good job of that for most enemies. You're not blocking the big boss combos but you can block most of their stuff fine.

Great shields require a lot of str and equip load and you're going to sacrifice your armour to use one. Medium shields are better on builds not going into str and wanting a defensive option. The lowest medium shield with a 100% phys block is 10 str to use while the great shields 20 for jellyfish and 22 for a normal one. Weight is double and some times triple a medium shield. You're sacrificing a lot of stats and carry weight to go for a great shield over a medium one. Almost any build can fit a heater shield onto it and that's the perk of the mediums. You can include it in any build while a great shield has to be built around.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Guys, Golden Parry and Carian have more parry frames than any small shield. Medium shield + either of those ashes of war > small shields for parry.

 

[Silva]

How do you think it's Unique? There's little in Dark souls you can't find in 80's western fantasy fiction or art work.

Please point to me the 80s western fantasy with a creation myth based on Taoism, has a central conflict reflecting ying-yang, and Shinto all over the place (firekeepers/miko, kegare, etc).

Robot dinosaurs will always be cool. The games are stupid, but you can't deny robot dinosaurs are bad ass.

King Crispy , ban this faggot.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Please point to me the 80s western fantasy with a creation myth based on Taoism, has a central conflict reflecting ying-yang, and Shinto all over the place (firekeepers/miko, kegare, etc).

How about I point you to a woman writing in the 60's using similar ideas up until the 2010s? Ursula K. Le Guin.

Asian spiritualism was all over the place from the 60's onwards. The hippy revolution gulped down Asia the same way weebs do now. It's nothing new or profound.

 

[Silva]

Cut the crap and show me another videogame with Le Guin or Taoism and Shinto trappings, that managed to fuse it with western aesthetics AND produce something as good gameplay wise and ambience wise as From Software has been doing since Kings Field.

See, you won't find it. Because western art has been trash for a long time now. The result of profit taking precedence over artistic inspiration.

I'm still waiting for the great western modern settings. So far you only cited a laughable piece of trash, that I'm afraid you bring shit like God of War next.

 

[Silverfish]

How about I point you to a woman writing in the 60's using similar ideas up until the 2010s? Ursula K. Le Guin.

All you had to say was 'Berserk'. Fuck, even The Black Company would have been acceptable.

 

[cvv]

Cut the crap and show me another videogame with Le Guin or Taoism and Shinto trappings, that managed to fuse it with western aesthetics AND produce something as good gameplay wise and ambience wise as From Software has been doing since Kings Field.

The idea Le Guin is anywhere close to FromSoft is obviously silly.

As for great western modern settings, I'm not a fantasy aficionado but Witcher and First Law (Abercrombie) are genuinely great. I'm sure there are at least a few others but the genre is disorienting today because all the official outlets and reviewers and awards are pushing female-centric garbage and everything else's signal is being actively scrambled and jammed.

 

[Silva]

cvv what do you find interesting exactly in Witcher? Honest question. Felt like a run of the mill eurofantasy monster hunting to me.

(the more I played the more I wanted to play Darklands, damn they should remake it)

 

[Hell Swarm]

Cut the crap and show me another videogame with Le Guin or Taoism and Shinto trappings, that managed to fuse it with western aesthetics AND produce something as good gameplay wise and ambience wise as From Software has been doing since Kings Field.

See, you won't find it. Because western art has been trash for a long time now. The result of profit taking precedence over artistic inspiration.

I'm still waiting for the great western modern settings. So far you only cited a laughable piece of trash, that I'm afraid you bring shit like God of War next.

Go read The demon cycle and get your head out of your little yellow butthole. From aren't special and Japanese media isn't either. You don't spend enough time interacting with western media and you over value Japanese garbage because it makes you feel special to watch Japanese children's media. It's sad you think a bunch of cultureless thieves are superior to the original cultures. Japan is a slave nation used to make Westernised media and barely exist as it's own country after 75 years of Americanism being shit down their throats.

As for great western modern settings, I'm not a fantasy aficionado but Witcher and First Law (Abercrombie) are genuinely great. I'm sure there are at least a few others but the genre is disorienting today because all the official outlets and reviewers and awards are pushing female-centric garbage and everything else's signal is being actively scrambled and jammed.

Fantasy and Sci fi have always been dominated by the socially stunted and sexually bizarre. Almost every story comes back to the author's fetish, and it was usually children once the skeletons come out of the closet. Modern focus is still the same as it ever was but culture has decayed so badly the fetish is the story and not just the reason to write it. It's become very difficult to find what's worth reading through review channels now but you can always find some gamergate wannabe pointing you towards authors worth checking out or simply read older stuff with how easy it is to get ebooks for free. Archive.org can keep you in books forever.

 

[Silva]

Bitch plis, cite the supposedly great western vidya settings or gtfo. Cvv at least tried.And stop citing other media. This is a videogame forum.

Here lemme kick the ball...

Dishonored
Hollow Knight
Hunt Showdown
Witcher (under evaluation until CVV convince me)

What else?

 

[Hell Swarm]

Dishonored

Patient zero of the stronk sheboon right here. Such a great setting.