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

[Vic]

it's called a webtoon

 

[Stoned Ape]

We could have had some great body horror made of different body parts but end up with basically giant hands and the spiders and nothing else. Bloodborne's crows are so fucking cool and we didn't even see things like those. Dogs with other animal heads or people with crab claws. The joke manga has a crab claw with little limbs attached to it as a joke and it reminded me how lazy From was with one of the most interesting concepts in the series. All it needed was to be pushed further. Even if it was a lot of work to animate so many body parts. Even just showing worse abominations in what Godrick was willing to attached to his knights would have been cool.

I don't think the hands (Fingercreepers) have anything to do with grafting TBH, I think they're something to do with the Fingers. The Revnants and Grafted Scions are obviously linked to grafting, though.

 

[Hell Swarm]

We could have had some great body horror made of different body parts but end up with basically giant hands and the spiders and nothing else. Bloodborne's crows are so fucking cool and we didn't even see things like those. Dogs with other animal heads or people with crab claws. The joke manga has a crab claw with little limbs attached to it as a joke and it reminded me how lazy From was with one of the most interesting concepts in the series. All it needed was to be pushed further. Even if it was a lot of work to animate so many body parts. Even just showing worse abominations in what Godrick was willing to attached to his knights would have been cool.

I don't think the hands (Fingercreepers) have anything to do with grafting TBH, I think they're something to do with the Fingers. The Revnants and Grafted Scions are obviously linked to grafting, though.

Correct. The DLC gives them an origin and it's nothing to do with grafting but it's still a form of body horror.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

The japanese Elden Ring manga is pretty good. It touches on important lore matters:

 

[Mauman]

The japanese Elden Ring manga is pretty good. It touches on important lore matters:

I read some scans of this. I think Melina had what I would call the appropriate reaction to this....situation.

Spoiler

it involved caving a skull in with a club

 

[Odoryuk]

The person who decided to make a comedy manga out of Elden Ring is genius. We all know what happens when someone tries to replicate their games in a comic/manga format - it's shit. You cannot replicate a FS game in any static storytelling format and preserve even a tenth of its impact.

I didn't read all of ER manga, but I had my share of fun with it.

 

[Mauman]

Evidently the writer is on hiatus so he can play the dlc.

Lord knows how THAT is going to be adapted.

 

[Socrates]

The thing which bothered me the most is that we got thematically recycled stuff from the base game. For instance did we really need a rot related boss in the game? Romina really bothered me, not sure why we needed a random area with rot pests and a related boss. Midra is frenzied flame related. Really cool atmosphere and fight, but still. The putrescence knight is undead related. Gaius is a mounted warrior using gravity magic. We get a dragon boss. Dancing lion is crucible/omen related, just like all hornsent, but this is done well enough I admit. Rellana is carian royalty... Not sure where I'm going with this but all these bosses have unique models and animations and I loved fighting them and they are all super cool... but they all remind me of a concept from the base game. Except for Metyr.

Not saying they are badly made or implemented... but I expected something different?

The story I think was intended to be mostly focused on the enigmatic background of Marika because the base game left much of her background unclear like how she ascended to divinity and her relationship with the greater will that put the whole shattering plot-point into motion.

I thought it was pretty good how they also finally explained what Melenia said to Radahn at their final confrontation. I Actually DO think that there are a lot of things still unexplained that a second part DLC would be able to cover but it appears that will not be the case and Miyazaki is moving on to his next project.

 

[Odoryuk]

I Actually DO think that there are a lot of thing still unexplained that a second part DLC would be able to cover but it appears that will not be the case and Miyazaki is moving on to his next project.

They planned two DLCs, but in the end they merged them together. I think the first one was supposed to add more weaponry to the base game, and the second one is about the Shadow Realm. They said everything they wanted/intended to with it. Leaving things unexplained is series staple.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

I Actually DO think that there are a lot of thing still unexplained that a second part DLC would be able to cover but it appears that will not be the case and Miyazaki is moving on to his next project.

They planned two DLCs, but in the end they merged them together. I think the first one was supposed to add more weaponry to the base game, and the second one is about the Shadow Realm. They said everything they wanted/intended to with it. Leaving things unexplained is series staple.

....except The Old Hunters for Bloodborne and The Ringed City for DS3 didn't do that. In fact, they wrapped up every loose end and gave us a strong feeling of closure for the over-arching plot. That's one of the reasons this DLC feels somewhat unfinished. The narrative gave us some answers but felt meandering and directionless.

SotE is practically begging for a smaller, Ringed City-style follow-up DLC that answers big questions but as mentioned before, probably not happening.

 

[Suicidal]

Turns out Elden Ring was Dark Souls 2-2 all along

Spoiler

 

[Odoryuk]

....except The Old Hunters for Bloodborne and The Ringed City for DS3 didn't do that. In fact, they wrapped up every loose end and gave us a strong feeling of closure for the over-arching plot. That's one of the reasons this DLC feels somewhat unfinished. The narrative gave us some answers but felt meandering and directionless.

These DLCs absolutely left some questions unanswered, sometimes even gave us new questions. And they also answered some questions. Just like SotE.

Turns out Elden Ring was Dark Souls 2-2 all along

Spoiler

 

[Socrates]

I Actually DO think that there are a lot of thing still unexplained that a second part DLC would be able to cover but it appears that will not be the case and Miyazaki is moving on to his next project.

They planned two DLCs, but in the end they merged them together. I think the first one was supposed to add more weaponry to the base game, and the second one is about the Shadow Realm. They said everything they wanted/intended to with it. Leaving things unexplained is series staple.

SotE is practically begging for a smaller, Ringed City-style follow-up DLC that answers big questions but as mentioned before, probably not happening.

Yeah I agree strongly. It feels....somewhat unfinished. But as a whole I thought the DLC was very high quality. Boss fights were great too.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Spoiler

 

[Reinhardt]

first problem. in caria manor, in the room with sword of night game died when i opened the map. had to restart pc.

 

[Ravielsk]

....except The Old Hunters for Bloodborne and The Ringed City for DS3 didn't do that. In fact, they wrapped up every loose end and gave us a strong feeling of closure for the over-arching plot. That's one of the reasons this DLC feels somewhat unfinished. The narrative gave us some answers but felt meandering and directionless.

SotE is practically begging for a smaller, Ringed City-style follow-up DLC that answers big questions but as mentioned before, probably not happening.

I would not say "wrapped up" more like both retconned their respective games and offered a conclusion within that retcon. The Hunters DLC twisted all the events of the Yharnam around Kos who in the vanilla game was barely a name drop and for the most part was just cut content. It basically makes the moon presence look like a non-factor and side steps the Pthumerians and the Vile bloods completely. Its not so much a conclusion to the vanilla game but more like a conclusion to what the game could have been.

The ringed city similarly made a major retcon by making Gwyn directly aware and allied with the Furtive Pygmy and the Dark Soul. Thus making turning all of DS1 on its head because in that game the dilemma around the "dark soul" and the "age of humanity" was built entirely on the fact that nobody knew what it would look like or entail. He was holding back the age of dark because he could never know if it was just a different state of the world or straight up apocalypse... or so we though because after the ringed city Gwyn was essentially retconned into a power hungry clown who basically fucked up the world and himself because he did not feel like retiring.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

first problem. in caria manor, in the room with sword of night game died when i opened the map. had to restart pc.

Hmm, that's an odd way to crash.... Hold on. Did you just.... call a location by it's proper name?!

By Jove, he's doing it! He's learning English!

....except The Old Hunters for Bloodborne and The Ringed City for DS3 didn't do that. In fact, they wrapped up every loose end and gave us a strong feeling of closure for the over-arching plot. That's one of the reasons this DLC feels somewhat unfinished. The narrative gave us some answers but felt meandering and directionless.

SotE is practically begging for a smaller, Ringed City-style follow-up DLC that answers big questions but as mentioned before, probably not happening.

I would not say "wrapped up" more like both retconned their respective games and offered a conclusion within that retcon. The Hunters DLC twisted all the events of the Yharnam around Kos who in the vanilla game was barely a name drop and for the most part was just cut content. It basically makes the moon presence look like a non-factor and side steps the Pthumerians and the Vile bloods completely. Its not so much a conclusion to the vanilla game but more like a conclusion to what the game could have been.

The ringed city similarly made a major retcon by making Gwyn directly aware and allied with the Furtive Pygmy and the Dark Soul. Thus making turning all of DS1 on its head because in that game the dilemma around the "dark soul" and the "age of humanity" was built entirely on the fact that nobody knew what it would look like or entail. He was holding back the age of dark because he could never know if it was just a different state of the world or straight up apocalypse... or so we though because after the ringed city Gwyn was essentially retconned into a power hungry clown who basically fucked up the world and himself because he did not feel like retiring.

The end of Ringed City certainly recontextualizes Gwyn's character, but it's a bit of a stretch to say it was an out-and-out retcon. There WAS nothing to retcon, since we knew less than nothing about the Furtive Pygmy beforehand. And Gwyn was always power-hungry and tyrannical. He sealed the Pygmy Lords and their civilization into a pocket dimension out-of-time. He still definitely might have thought the proliferation of the Darkness of Man would lead to an apocalypse (which it sorta does, look at what happened after you woke up Filianore...).

Same with Old Hunters, they gave us the origins of Bergenwerth, the Healing Church, the horrific experiments, and how the Hunters and the Hunter's Dream came to be. It doesn't feel like they were trying to sidestep anything that happens in the base game, just give a greater context to certain events. Again, there was nothing really to "retcon".

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Turns out Elden Ring was Dark Souls 2-2 all along

Spoiler

The lead for DS2 is also a lead in ER. ER vindicates almost everything he did in that game.

 

[Reinhardt]

call a location by it's proper name?!

it's short name. and the only other thing to identify it is bunch of severed hands.

 

[Silverfish]

it's short name. and the only other thing to identify it is bunch of severed hands.

You have to admit "you know, the place with the hands" has a certain ring to it.

 

[Reinhardt]

it's short name. and the only other thing to identify it is bunch of severed hands.

You have to admit "you know, the place with the hands" has a certain ring to it.

"place with the hands" is blood

 

[Silverfish]

Bloodborne 2 confirmed.

 

[Hell Swarm]

He still definitely might have thought the proliferation of the Darkness of Man would lead to an apocalypse (which it sorta does, look at what happened after you woke up Filianore...).

Filanore has nothing to do with the Dark, it is Gwyn locking time and someone breaking the seal so time catches up. The problems we see with Dark are often because someone fucked with it rather than left it alone and let nature take it's course. If Manus was never messed with the Abyss may have never expanded and taken over the forest hunter area, but even then it doesn't fully consume it.

What are some weird and fun ways to play Elden ring? I'm considering a NG+ run using a dumb build. I'm thinking maybe sleep and eternal sleep? I want to see what this game has to offer so I was tempted to respec into arcane or something.

I really really hate From nerfing things that weren't a problem while the DLC runs rampant with broken stuff. The medium bubble weapon was really good at staggering but it had a long wind up and made you really vulnerable. The DLC patched it so it no longer staggers (it can but it's effectively impossible before you kill things). I'd gone through the game using exclusively bubbles and done a pretty good job of things. But the nerfed version is completely unusable for it's weapon art. If they had lowered the damage I could have accepted it, or made the stagger a little worse but it's pointless now. It's a really sad state of affairs. There's no balance in Elden ring's bullshit so why did the bubbles of all things take a hit? No one was breaking PvP with bubbles and a lot of bosses resisted holy on top of a long casting time.

 

[cvv]

SotE is practically begging for a smaller, Ringed City-style follow-up DLC that answers big questions but as mentioned before, probably not happening.

Which are?

From my PoV this lore is so entirely fucked up I don't even know what the questions are, let alone the answers.

 

[Silverfish]

What are some weird and fun ways to play Elden ring? I'm considering a NG+ run using a dumb build.

I've always been partial to class runs, wherein you stick with your class' starting gear, other than consumables of course. ER seems particularly well suited for it, considering samurai, thief and vagabond all have great shit.