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

[Skinwalker]

Yeah, this was so ubisoft style formulaic it hurts. It would have been almost less offensive if they had done something like an entire area having NO catacombs or caves at all, and maybe another area having a load of extra of that crap if they felt the need to add this much padding somewhere.

As it stands, it was unbelievably predictable. Every time you explored a new map "zone", you knew you'd face: another dragon, another erdtree guardian boss, another catacomb, another mine, another cave, another hero tomb, a church.. in more or less the same quantities, sometimes one extra, sometimes one less, but no variation that would make you feel like you've entered somewhere any different other than the place having a different coat of paint.

Every open world game is like that.

 

[Lutte]

Then maaaaaaaaaaaaybe, just maybe, open world is a trash design that shouldn't ever be attempted?

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

When I think of Ubishit style open world games I think of climbing towers and having every area of interest automatically revealed on the map. It's so fucking gay, and that doesn't describe Elden Ring. You discover things more naturally. I'm glad more open world games are moving away from Ubisoft's patented garbage. I fucking despise that company and all of their games.

 

[Skinwalker]

Then maaaaaaaaaaaaybe, just maybe, open world is a trash design that shouldn't ever be attempted?

I think everyone itt agrees that Elden Ring would have been better as a more traditional FromSoft soulsgame.

The question is, does Elden Ring still count as an excellent game, despite some repeated content? I say yes, and also: it's the best open-world RPG in the past 20 years.

You're out of your mind if you think that this level of quality pertains to anything ever shat out by Ubeisoft.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Yeah, this was so ubisoft style formulaic it hurts. It would have been almost less offensive if they had done something like an entire area having NO catacombs or caves at all, and maybe another area having a load of extra of that crap if they felt the need to add this much padding somewhere.

As it stands, it was unbelievably predictable. Every time you explored a new map "zone", you knew you'd face: another dragon, another erdtree guardian boss, another catacomb, another mine, another cave, another hero tomb, a church.. in more or less the same quantities, sometimes one extra, sometimes one less, but no variation that would make you feel like you've entered somewhere any different other than the place having a different coat of paint.

Every open world game is like that.

Morrowind, The Faery Tale Adventure, The Witcher III, Conan: Exiles, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Kenshi, and Outward beg to differ.

 

[Skinwalker]

The Witcher III

Witcher 3 is a billion times worse.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

The Witcher III

Witcher 3 is a billion times worse.

Did you play it on your PS4 while stuggling to hold onto your tv set?

Conan: Exiles

My ideal open world game. Every game should strive to be like Conan: Exiles, or the Dragon's Dogma games.

 

[Lutte]

When I think of Ubishit style open world games I think of climbing towers and having every area of interest automatically revealed on the map. It's so fucking gay, and that doesn't describe Elden Ring. You discover things more naturally. I'm glad more open world games are moving away from Ubisoft's patented garbage. I fucking despise that company and all of their games.

Do you really think the map markers are the only thing that makes ubisoft games what they are? ER's map is, in fact, in the same mold as an Ubi map, without the markers being revealed to you. Even though most open world games will have repeated content, ER's world map design and repartition of "activities" to do is very ubisofty. Oh, a camp of local mooks! oh, a carriage with an item at the back, I didn't expect to see that again! Oh, a dragon! good fking lord this game couldn't even resist spamming dragons. Of all the enemy types they had to do the copypasta on they had to make it seem like killing dragons is another saturday morning? is this skyrim? All the retards defending this right now wouldn't even have believed it if someone came on this thread before the game released and said this game would feature a spam of mediocre dragons to kill because this is too retarded by the standards From Soft used to set. If a leaker had mentioned things like these in a pre-release thread people would have called them a liar.

I don't get what's so subversive about this shit. It's an ubi game with Dark Souls gameplay. It's good because of the Dark Souls parts, and it's bad because of the open shit parts. They didn't change anything to the open world formula. Just removing the markers isn't a fking revolutionary move. You can remove the markers with a mod in Skyrim. Doesn't make the game any less shit.

 

[Skinwalker]

Oh, a camp of local mooks! oh, a carriage with an item at the back, I didn't expect to see that again! Oh, a dragon! good fking lord this game couldn't even resist spamming dragons. Of all the enemy types they had to do the copypasta on they had to make it seem like killing dragons is another saturday morning? is this skyrim?

Well, yes. This is Skyrim + Dark Souls. When was there ever an open-world game that didn't suffer from basically every "flaw" you've mentioned? Even Moronwind had plenty of repetition. Oh look another cave with an Ascended Sleeper, oh here's another ancient Dunmer fort, oh yet another Ashlander camp, oh noooo, not everything is unique in MY OPEN-WORLD?!

 

[Lutte]

Elden Ring clones key story encounters like Godrick, Loretta, Astel, Mohg (ok, the "real" mohg has a second phase.. whatever) and others. It's all about scale, magnitude, and predictability of the pattern. This game goes above and beyond in copypasta and fixed structure. No, Morrowind never felt this formulaic in practice.

There is no "le open world" excuse for turning fking dragons into a trash encounter or for reusing Godrick. It could continue to function without these additions.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Then maaaaaaaaaaaaybe, just maybe, open world is a trash design that shouldn't ever be attempted?

When I think of Ubishit style open world games I think of climbing towers and having every area of interest automatically revealed on the map. It's so fucking gay, and that doesn't describe Elden Ring. You discover things more naturally. I'm glad more open world games are moving away from Ubisoft's patented garbage. I fucking despise that company and all of their games.

Do you really think the map markers are the only thing that makes ubisoft games what they are? ER's map is, in fact, in the same mold as an Ubi map, without the markers being revealed to you. Even though most open world games will have repeated content, ER's world map design and repartition of "activities" to do is very ubisofty. Oh, a camp of local mooks! oh, a carriage with an item at the back, I didn't expect to see that again! Oh, a dragon! good fking lord this game couldn't even resist spamming dragons. Of all the enemy types they had to do the copypasta on they had to make it seem like killing dragons is another saturday morning? is this skyrim? All the retards defending this right now wouldn't even have believed it if someone came on this thread before the game released and said this game would feature a spam of mediocre dragons to kill because this is too retarded by the standards From Soft used to set. If a leaker had mentioned things like these in a pre-release thread people would have called them a liar.

I don't get what's so subversive about this shit. It's an ubi game with Dark Souls gameplay. It's good because of the Dark Souls parts, and it's bad because of the open shit parts. They didn't change anything to the open world formula. Just removing the markers isn't a fking revolutionary move. You can remove the markers with a mod in Skyrim. Doesn't make the game any less shit.

God damn, settle on an argument, dude. Is Ubisoft's style of open world bad or are ALL open world games bad no matter the execution??

I swear, if one more of you fucks comes in here and says "ER is bad because le Ubisoft", I'm gonna force you at gunpoint to write a twelve-page dissertation on what YOUR ideal open world game would be. What is this ever-elusive "Open-world with no Ubisoft-isms" platonic ideal of a game that lives in your heads?!

The grasping at straws when it comes to ER criticisms is unreal... especially considering how unnecessary it is. I would love it if y'all would more often bring up one of the game's actual, real flaws, of which there are many.

 

[Lutte]

My truest ideal is no open world. I am clear about that. But I /also/ think ER is a particularly bad example of open world because even cancer has varying stages and on a scale of open shit from morrowind to ubisoft I certainly find Morrowind more palatable.

All the reviews talking about it "revolutionizing" open world was really grating. No, ER didn't fix anything that was wrong with the genre and it in fact committed more sins than average. How often do you see story characters of great importance copy pasted the way ER did? No, I'm not letting up. When you see a second astel in this filthy game design it really breaks any thought of From having self respect and integrity. There's no world in which meeting a second Godrick is tolerable. They're not random mooks or knight in armor 101.

 

[Odoryuk]

Did people forget about Flamelurker. You can't get much more demony than him.

This is not my Flamelurker. The hacks did him dirty, and his arena as well.

 

[Terenty]

What is this ever-elusive "Open-world with no Ubisoft-isms" platonic ideal of a game that lives in your heads?!

Repeat after me:

Dragon's Dogma 2

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

I didn't even notice that was remake Flamelurker. It's been so long since I played the original Demon's Souls I forgot what a lot of the designs look like.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

 

[Cheesedragon117]

What is this ever-elusive "Open-world with no Ubisoft-isms" platonic ideal of a game that lives in your heads?!

Repeat after me:

Dragon's Dogma 2

"It has fast travel, it's a Ubisoft clone"

"It has a map with markers you can place, it's a Ubisoft clone"

"It has dungeons with rewards at the end, it's a Ubisoft clone"

"It has reused bosses, it's a Ubisoft clone"

What's something that both, can't be levied against DD2, but can against ER?

 

[Odoryuk]

I didn't even notice that was remake Flamelurker. It's been so long since I played the original Demon's Souls I forgot what a lot of the designs look like.

I find the area redesign even more blasphemous than the boss's one. They fucking added a dragon head as a part of the architecture, to a place where they were building a shrine many centuries ago when there was no dragon at all. Dragon God came to existence way later.

I hate Bluepoint so much, hope they won't touch Bloodborne with their dirty hands.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Meh, I respect the remake as a technical marvel, and aesthetics put aside it is extremely faithful to the original. More than most remakes.

 

[Odoryuk]

Meh, I respect the remake as a technical marvel, and aesthetics put aside it is extremely faithful to the original.

I pretty much play their games mostly for aesthetics, so it's a big deal for me.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Old Flamelurker definitely looks way more badass. I don't think all the changes were bad though. The Maneaters look better in the remake.

In the OG they just looked like generic gargoyles.

 

[Terenty]

What is this ever-elusive "Open-world with no Ubisoft-isms" platonic ideal of a game that lives in your heads?!

Repeat after me:

Dragon's Dogma 2

"It has fast travel, it's a Ubisoft clone"

"It has a map with markers you can place, it's a Ubisoft clone"

"It has dungeons with rewards at the end, it's a Ubisoft clone"

"It has reused bosses, it's a Ubisoft clone"

What's something that both, can't be levied against DD2, but can against ER?

DD is Gothics, M&M(6-9) open world sensibilities and design, ER is Ubisoft design. There's a gulf between the two.

Also DD2 topography is unmatched imho, forget gliders/horses to skip kilometres of map, because the map is fucking empty, no, every metre is handcrafted for you to explore and just moving, jumping and scaling things is a joy.

 

[Butter]

Looking for people to write a couple mini-reviews of Elden Ring. 250-350 words on why it's worth playing.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/rpg-codexs-best-rpgs-2024-vote-only-thread.150010/

 

[Skinwalker]

I swear, if one more of you fucks comes in here and says "ER is bad because le Ubisoft", I'm gonna force you at gunpoint to write a twelve-page dissertation on what YOUR ideal open world game would be. What is this ever-elusive "Open-world with no Ubisoft-isms" platonic ideal of a game that lives in your heads?!

This. "Muh carbon copy of Ubisoft open world design, what a PILE OF TRASH, just like S K Y R I M !!"

Die, Lutte.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I only have a cursory knowledge of Ubishit games, but from what little i've seen their brand of open world has jack shit to do with Elden Ring.

Ubifuck games feel like they came out of an assembly line. You can complain all you want about the recycling in Elden Ring but there's nothing that feels as inorganic and cut and paste as Ubifag open world shit. This is a problem with a lot of modern games in general but Ubicock is particularly bad with this, which is, everything feels very "gamey", there's no possibility of immersion because it's all just routine busywork masquering or LARPing as a game or living world.

Elden Ring at times feels as if Golden Axe was an open world 3D RPG, but the open areas are all distinct and everything you find in them feels hand placed and organic to the enviorment, even if there's an element that is arcadish to it. Like i said many times, Elden Ring's open world is only "bad" (or underwhelming) when compared with the traditional Dark Souls level design, which can still be found in the legacy dungeons of Elden Ring itself. But compared to modern AAA slopt, i had a far, FAR better time with Elden Ring.