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

Lyric Suite

Lyric Suite

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Silverfish said:
Lyric Suite said:
Take Gywn's knights for instance. Why are they taller than other humans?
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They're not human.
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Yeah but that's the point, why aren't they? Why is everything either this or that strange creature, even when they belong to the same faction? There's no consistency anywhere. There's always been an element of "whatever seems cool" in FromSoft games, it didn't start with Elden Ring.

I think the reason FromSoft aesthetics feel "grounded" is not that they stick closer to reality than the average animu or whatever, it's that the art is taken more seriously.
 
Silva

Silva

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Okay I was wrong and Lies of P is not better than Elden Ring. Past midgame and the linear maps & world really make the experience kinda boring. I think the appeal becomes unveiling the story, you know, like in a typical popamole game.

That said, I still posit it's combat (and only combat) is better than ER and among the best in soulsbornedom.
 
Multidirectional

Multidirectional

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Ivan said:
It's also prettier and runs a hell of a lot better. I'm usually at a fluctuating 40 FPS in ER's open world.
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It runs better because it's not open world. I also get drops to 50s and even below in ER open world, because CPU optimization is shit. ER is easier on GPU than LoP though.
 
Silva

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Lyric Suite said:
9ted6 said:
No one ever said there was nothing weird in DS1, it's that the scale and amount of weirdness is very obviously different between games.
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Is it really though?

This aspect of unreality in FromSoft games was always there, and was always something you just had to roll with it (the alternative being animu).

Take Gywn's knights for instance. Why are they taller than other humans? Why is Artorias even taller? What spieces is he? Why is his armor different? I mean this is not a world that seems to follow any logic. Rule of cool appears to be the only factor.
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There is a logic, albeit a very loose one: Gwyn's people are bigger due to receiving shards of his lord soul.

I agree that's too loose a logic though, breaking away at various places. The MC for eg: if he's been collecting those lords souls to himself, why does his frame keep small, and not giant like those beings?

Yep, it's rule of cool.
 
Skinwalker

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Gwyn, his children and presumably all people who lived in Anor Londo weren't exactly humans, but rather this world's version of "numen" - much taller than normal people (hence, humans being called "pygmies" in this world).

There's plenty of "creative" approaches to size, e.g. the wolf boss is normal-sized in the Artorias expansion, but is a giant wolf in the main boss fight. For some reason.

Again, this has been very consistent as the FromSoftware soulsgames style from the very beginning, and only total retards act as if they've just realized this in Elden Ring. Take it, or leave it.
 

Joryyyy

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Lyric Suite said:
Yeah but that's the point, why aren't they? Why is everything either this or that strange creature, even when they belong to the same faction? There's no consistency anywhere. There's always been an element of "whatever seems cool" in FromSoft games, it didn't start with Elden Ring.
Click to expand...
Size in Fromsoft games is supposed to represent power, not the canonical size of the creature/being. That is why size is often inconsistent. Most knights in Anor London are suppose to be of the same God race as Gwen but they have wildly varying sizes to represent different strength levels. This is a common Japanese media trophe, particularly in anime.
 
Ravielsk

Ravielsk

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Lyric Suite said:
This aspect of unreality in FromSoft games was always there, and was always something you just had to roll with it (the alternative being animu).
Click to expand...
Absolutely, but there is there has to be some kind of setup for what the player is supposed to roll with. Dark Souls for the most part bothers to set things up before it expects the player to just buy into them. Before you fight your first hollow the game announces where you are, what you are and later also what you will be doing. Then as you progress through the game you naturally get a greater understanding of how the world works, its state and the big players. By the time you leave Anor Londo you know mostly everything important to have some kind of investment into the world and its fate.

In Elden Ring the game asks you to become Elden Lord without ever, even at the ending when you become one, explaining what that even entails. Basic concepts that every single piece of the game jerks off like Marika, Elden Tree, Golden Order, Radagon, Outer Gods, Greater Will etc. are only named dropped and never elaborated upon. Even rudimentary character motivations like why Ranni helped you in the beginning or why she partook in Godwyn's assassination or why Rykard feed himself to a snake or even why the Elden Ring was shattered or... well basically anything of actual relevance.
None of those are ever really covered or explained. At best you get a non hint like the turtle medallion that only creates more questions. The end result is a world that is simply impossible to give a shit about because you have essentially 0 understanding of what that world even is. In fact I would argue that the further you go the less comprehensible it gets because of all the questions the game keep layering without ever even acknowledging.

Worse yet ER had so many opportunities to smooth all of this over with its NPCs and ghosts. Absolutely nothing prevented them from using Melina as a kind of narrator for the more important places and events. Ghosts could have easily spoken more than 2-3 sentences and the merchants could have easily sold some lore books along cookbooks and tips. They even had a cut mechanic where you could gather enemies into a sort of bestiary. The world and the story are simply very badly presented because the souls formula does not scale up to open worlds (at least not without major alterations).
 
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Lyric Suite

Lyric Suite

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I think it's the open world nature of the game that messed that up. I don't think Miyazaki had any clear idea of how to rework his narrative style to a game that was both less linear than his previous ones as well as three times as large, so he fumbled it up.
 
Bendu

Bendu

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The DLC has its own scaling, so you should be fine.

 
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