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

[Odoryuk]

Demon's souls didn't sell very well. It was Dark souls that took off.

Right, I mixed two things together. Though, them already publishing Demon's Souls helped to get Dark Souls as well.

But the interview is "Miyazaki stood in the back and I spent 5 hours talking to Adam and recording lines in what could have been done in 10 minutes". Which isn't a glowing endorsement. Sounds wasteful and hard on people's voices for no reason.

Based on the performance it was well worth it. I remember people making fun of English Gyobu Masataka Oniwa voice acting in Sekiro and memeing it because it felt kinda funny.
Igon's voice lines are being almost worshipped, it sounds so powerful and sincere. There's a lot of memes with his voice and they all fucking badass. You can't make something like this in 10 minutes.

Not summoning Igon for Bayle is playing the game wrong™, and it's all thanks to his voice acting.

I missed him sadly. I went in to die to Bayle to see what he could do and then he was dead by accident. I would have summoned him. He's a brilliant actor and deserves all the praise. So does this Adam dude who actually directed him and helped him understand how game voice acting works. Which is why I don't like all the Miyazaki praise. At least 2 other men did a more important job but he's the one having smoke blown up his ass the entire article.

Miyazaki is known for participating in audio recordings and castings and it's him who was giving direction and wasn't satisfied with the recorded lines for 5 hours straight.

 

[Nathir]

But I was left dissapointed with the narrative and story. Miquella - Radahn connection was non-existant and came out of nowhere. Did Malenia really go after Radahn just so that Miquella could have his body?

Milenia had to kill Radahn so his soul could be implanted into a new body as part of the God ceremony.

Romina really bothered me, not sure why we needed a random area with rot pests and a related boss.

She's one of the best bosses and she's supposed to contrast with Millenia. She accepted the rot and became strong while the other rejected it. It's an interesting contrast and the fights one of the coolest in the DLC IMO.

Why force Radahn as the promised consort for Miquella?

Real reason is the same reason Solaire is mentioned over and over after Dark souls 1. Fans demanded more of him and From will give the fanboys what they want. There was so much talk about him non-infected that it lead to them making it a fight. I agree it was forced and I wanted to fight the twink instead. A boss trying to charm you and using illusions could have been an amazing boss fight. Imagine him using illusions to change the environment as you fought. And as he gets not damaged the illusions start breaking like mirrors. There's so many ways to use him that weren't a single grab attack.

- Yeah, I get that. It's not about that it doesn't make sense or that it is a plothole or whatever. It's about me not liking it.

- Disagree, for me it was one of the worst fights. She reminded me of a DS3 boss visually, and her movements were too weird and all over the place. I'm not saying it was hard, she's probably the easiest boss in the DLC, I just didn't enjoy fighting her at all, or the visual design. I don't think there is a contrast with Malenia here. Malenia was strong without the rot. Her whole story is about resisting the rot and still being a champion despite the affliction. Giving into the rot to defeat Radahn is a sin of immense pride and Malenia herself literally shatters her personality into 5 pieces and never regains a sense of "self" again (Milicent questline).

Even if such a contrast was the intention and I would have loved the fight... I still don't get why we needed a rot related boss? It's the same with Midra, where I really loved everything about it... but why do we need a frenzied lord for a boss? We had Vyke already. Our character can become one... What is the point here?

- Maybe, I also saw some people clamoring hard for a "prime Radahn" fight online. But would From really take such feedback into account? The company that hides whole areas and bosses like Placidusax away? Maybe, not sure. Agreed with the rest. Again, the whole point of my original post was that I just expected something else.

 

[Reinhardt]

finally found somber stone 3. already had some 4s and 5s and even one 6 for yellow pigdog in crystal mine. upgraded my doggo sword from 2 to 6 in one go. feels gud.

 

[Hell Swarm]

- Maybe, I also saw some people clamoring hard for a "prime Radahn" fight online. But would From really take such feedback into account? The company that hides whole areas and bosses like Placidusax away? Maybe, not sure. Agreed with the rest. Again, the whole point of my original post was that I just expected something else.

A solaire Amiibo exists and he's mentioned in Dark souls 2, which has nothing to do with Lordran... So what do you think?

 

[smaug]

killed like 7 or 8 bosses in the DLC but haven't unlocked the last places (?) yet. This DLC is a fucking sham, a single DS2 DLC is better than this entire DLC

I guess the bosses are fine (exciting enough for those who care) but the level design is AWFUL. The main levels I played through so far are tiny, easy, and so un-interesting you could teleport to the boss fights and not miss anything substantial

the DLC has quite a few copy pasted enemies (and in it the DLC itself, I.E multiple fire giants things) as well from the main game and the open world is just as boring and retarded as it is in the main game

like just give me a level like the Lyndell Capital from the main game or something fucking hell ANYTHING

also the loot in dungeons once again being useless craftables and smithing stones +1/2/3 just LOL

 

[FugueLah]

Shadow Keep is great.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Sucks that the randomizer won't be updated for the DLC for quite a while. Was going to do a seamless coop randomizer game racing to see who could beat 5 bosses the fastest. Seemed like a real blast but the latest patch breaks the mod.

 

[Bloodeyes]

I'm up to the final boss. I haven't beaten him yet. I've had to change my approach to these games over the course of this playthrough. Normally I solo everything but trying to do that with Bayle broke me. After 6 hours of getting knocked off my feet by explosions I summoned the NPC and got him first try.

I'm having to re-learn how to invade as well. The new meta is pretty insane. I've been forced to play smarter.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Elden Ring has 2 mangas. A Korean/Chinese style one with barely any dialog designed to be read vertically on a phone screen. It's about a knight murdering the bosses. Starts with Margott and Margitt and then goes back to Stormveil. The arts nice but it's so bare bones it's boring. The other is a Japanese one that's a joke. The hero starts out naked and has his flasks glued to his ass cheeks. It's extremely silly and not that funny (as much Japanese things aren't) but it tries to tell an actual story.

While reading the former I was reminded how disappointed I was with grafting in the game. Limgrave makes it out to be a big deal and one of our most important companions is very upset by it... And then it's forgotten. 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.

 

[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.