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

[Doktor Best]

So whats the KKK on the dlc? There is some irregular amount of whining and complaining about it on reddits. Usually its nothing but praise for Fromsoft dlcs.

I played through base game without summons and spirit ashes and beat malenia solo so i think i can take some challenge. I just dont feel like constantly fighting against malenia type bullshit all the time.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I rated it 7/10 (scale based on FromSoft standards) in my let's play with bosses being around 8/10 or 9/10, their difficutly in my opinion being largely overstated, especially if you keep up with your scat tree upgrades. With max scadutree upgrades, i don't think even the last boss was anywhere near Malenia's levels of difficutly. I did a no-scadu blessings run and i was still able to outpace the bosses in damage except for Bayle and the last one.

Main issue is the same as in the base game: open world stretched their resources beyond their breaking point and the designers were forced to cut corners, giving certain portions of the game an "incomplete" feeling.

They did try to address some of the criticisms of the original game. For instance, the mini dungeons and caves are lower in number but higher in quality and there aren't many recycled bosses this time around. At the same time the legacy dungeons, while pretty good with some fantastic art design towards the end ended up being shorter than they might have been had they not spend so much time designing the open areas. The open areas for the most part aren't particularly interesting but the world map layout is actually quite clever and harks back to the way the world map was designed in Dark Souls 1.

Story wise, all the lore and archeology stuff is great. All the descriptions of the items is surprisingly coherent and all the stuff they describe is pretty cool and interesting. Less interesting is the main plot and everything related to Miquella. NPCs are also a mixed bag (mostly the female ones which are all boring, and i'm including Thiollier in this group) but there are a few that were pretty memorable, like Igon or Ansbach. Meeting St. Trina was also knewl. Her design is... unique, to say the least.

 

[Lutte]

So whats the KKK on the dlc? There is some irregular amount of whining and complaining about it on reddits. Usually its nothing but praise for Fromsoft dlcs.

I played through base game without summons and spirit ashes and beat malenia solo so i think i can take some challenge. I just dont feel like constantly fighting against malenia type bullshit all the time.

It's mostly the end boss that went a little too far, the other encounters are not all that bad if you use all the tools at your disposal rather than try to play this game like you would a normal Dark Souls. The end boss is really disgusting though and if you asked me which I prefer between Malenia and that.. I prefer Malenia, so... yeah.

The main issue of the DLC is that most of the content is just worthless. Very large empty maps. Mediocre encounter design that doesn't show the cleverness of the previous games. The biggest legacy dungeon style map of the DLC is almost entirely made of 1vs1 encounters against foes of medium difficulty (think, like having a gauntlet of 1vs1 against Black Knight style of opponents), and groups of extremely weak push over type foes, with not much mix up or clever placement. You know, as rushed as the latter areas of Elden Ring were in terms of open world, their legacy dungeon content (Crumbling Farum Azula, Haligtree) were all 3000000000% better than this stupid shadow keep in terms of encounter design. This was so boring and predictable. You go through the storehouse areas and fall asleep at the wheel really. At one point it feels like they want to replicate the tension of walking on a tightrope in Anor Londo by placing a few flying enemies in your path when you're always a few misteps away from falling but it just doesn't work in this game, this isn't Dark Souls 1 with your low regen stamina, mobility and lack of options to deal with enemies, this is Elden Ring.

The last legacy dungeon of the game is pretty decent in terms of encounters.. it's also extremely short.

This DLC isn't the most horrible thing in this world, there's certainly a lot of shitty games out there that outcompete it in shittyness, but does it really come up to the standards of From software? ah, nah.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I would put forward that the DLC is inconstistent, rather than uniformly average. It has hights and lows, and the highs are up there with what we expect from a company like FromSoft.

I think this is what makes it difficult for some of us to "dismiss" Elden Ring as a lot of people claim to have done. It's because if you loved what FromSoft excelled at in their previous games, a lot of that is still there. So the question becomes whether you are willing to miss out on the good on account of the parts that annoy you or whether you can tolerate the bad for the sake of experiencing the good.

It goes without saying i'm in the latter camp. I can probably say if you managed to finish and enjoy Elden Ring you should probably be able to go through the DLC no problem, especially since it's shorter. Elden Ring was likely a bit too large for its own good. The DLC is also kinda of large for a DLC, but taken as its own thing it is definitely more mangable than the original game.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Elden Ring seems like the weakest implementation of Fromsoft's "very unclear oniric mythology whatever BS" story schtick.
They should get out of their comfort zone and try something else. Maybe even something comprehensible.

 

[Lutte]

Elden Ring is an unholy blend of things that don't work well together in terms of lore and atmosphere. The DLC further delves into the weirder parts of ER, ie the lovecraftian stuff and I felt like I was playing bloodborne in some areas. The Abyssal Woods are very much a much inferior, less content packed version of the Forbidden Woods of Bloodborne, replacing most enemies with something like the Winter Lanterns.
Metyr felt like a discount Ebrietas.

ER doesn't have an identity so much as it is Dark Souls + Bloodborne + norse myths and aesthetics.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

I would put forward that the DLC is inconstistent, rather than uniformly average. It has hights and lows, and the highs are up there with what we expect from a company like FromSoft.

I think this is what makes it difficult for some of us to "dismiss" Elden Ring as a lot of people claim to have done. It's because if you loved what FromSoft excelled at in their previous games, a lot of that is still there. So the question becomes whether you are willing to miss out on the good on account of the parts that annoy you or whether you can tolerate the bad for the sake of experiencing the good.

It goes without saying i'm in the latter camp. I can probably say if you managed to finish and enjoy Elden Ring you should probably be able to go through the DLC no problem, especially since it's shorter. Elden Ring was likely a bit too large for its own good. The DLC is also kinda of large for a DLC, but taken as its own thing it is definitely more mangable than the original game.

Having spent more time again I think this is a fair enough assessment.

Much like the base ER you get into a good dungeon and you're off to the races, remembering what you love about these games. Then you're back to trudging across an open world that occasionally throws up a nice vista but is ultimately a rather dreary place to spend hours in. I found myself wanting to traverse the map 'honestly' so progression felt earnt but encroaching boredom and the scale of the thing pretty much mandate bonfire-hopping to save time. From did a very good job with overall enemy variety across the base game & DLC but you still end up fighting the same enemies, in the same way and too often by the end. The big open spaces also obviate the positional aspects key to a good non-boss encounter in a Souls title.

Don't think I'll replay it in the absence of new content as I said before. Too much interval time between the good stuff on a replay.

 

[Hell Swarm]

https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/2747?tab=description

Tarnished edition overhauls Elden Ring to make it very difficult and multiplayer focused. If you have a friend or 2 to play with (sorry Lyric, no fun for you) there's one hell of a challenge here. The games a lot faster, there are way more enemies and enemies have larger move sets. Players have larger move sets and now have built in combos. R1 - R1 - R1 is different to R1 - R2 - R1 and is still an actual combo. Loads of rebalancing and changes make no build viable for the entire game. You have to switch builds constantly or you will bounce off enemies. Bows are lethal now. All archers are snipers and fire fast. Players have access to much better archery and a lot of spells are vastly improved (and intelligence weapons will regen FP as you hit enemies to help mages keep up with the increased enemies).

I don't want to spoil some of the changes but be prepared to fight for every bit of equipment and upgrade you want. Nothing is handed to you any more. You're basically an end game character from the start, most areas have a similar difficulty level and you're expected to use your options and new move set (including dodges) to survive. Even your upgrade path influences what your equipment stats become and a normal shield made into a heavy one will take more STR to wield but block phys better.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So it's Elden Ring, zoomer edition.

 

[Stoned Ape]

10-15 FPS drop for a decent PC to run raytraced ambient occlusion.

​

Raytraced Ambient Occlusion: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/m...
Texture Improvement: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/m...
Snuggly's Cinematic Reshade: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/m...

It looks really impressive but I think I'll just stick to watching the video.

 

[notpl]

Couldn't even tell you what was different about that video from vanilla. Do people really care about this crap?

 

[Hell Swarm]

Couldn't even tell you what was different about that video from vanilla. Do people really care about this crap?

Yes. They don't play games, they spend all day modding them.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Any non-Fromsoftware souls-like worth playing?
I consider buying the funny crab game.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Couldn't even tell you what was different about that video from vanilla. Do people really care about this crap?

Yes. They don't play games, they spend all day modding them.

I have a friend who literally did that with Skyrim. Spend a whole year modding the game over and over, never actually played it at all. Wierdest thing i've ever saw.

The funny thing is that no matter how much high definition mods he would install the game still looked like shit to me lmao.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Any non-Fromsoftware souls-like worth playing?
I consider buying the funny crab game.

NIoh 1&2 maybe. That's about it.

 

[Multidirectional]

Any non-Fromsoftware souls-like worth playing?
I consider buying the funny crab game.

NIoh 1&2 maybe. That's about it.

Which is more of a middle ground between Souls and DMC than Souls-like.

 

[Lutte]

10-15 FPS drop for a decent PC to run raytraced ambient occlusion.

​

Raytraced Ambient Occlusion: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/m...
Texture Improvement: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/m...
Snuggly's Cinematic Reshade: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/m...

It looks really impressive but I think I'll just stick to watching the video.

The video you linked has some heavily crushed blacks, typical of reshade users who think pumping contrast to 11 is a form of improvement. Same type of people use Photoshop just to pump contrast on their photos and when you can see no detail in shadows or highlights they think they produced a masterpiece.

Whether it's the human eye or even the worst of digital cameras, they have more dynamic range than this dogshit.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Oh, and I already played Clash: The Artifact of Chaos.
It was fine. Gets a lukewarm recommendation. Maybe even a strong recommendation if you are artfaggy indie hipster like me.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Any non-Fromsoftware souls-like worth playing?
I consider buying the funny crab game.

Crab game is great. Worth a play
Lies of P is.. okay? It's soft bloodborne and about as good as you'll get if you want a bloodborne clone.
Lords of the fallen is good but it's own spin on things can be annoying.
Mortal Shell has a cool gimmick but the world feels linear and confined.
Nioh series is weeb souls. Much more complex combat but maps feel more gamey.
The Surge 1 and 2. Robot souls.
Ashen is an absolute gem. Very simple graphics but it feels like a souls game. Lots of exploration and depth with beautiful music.
Hell point. Souls set on a space station orbitting a black hole. Not many enemies but very creepy bosses.
Bleak faith. Ripping off a different manga than berserk souls. Complete jank top to bottom but the world is fascinating.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Hellpoint has good level design and decent atmosphere. Bosses were wierd and a bit janky though.

 

[Haplo]

Any non-Fromsoftware souls-like worth playing?
I consider buying the funny crab game.

Crab game is great. Worth a play
Lies of P is.. okay? It's soft bloodborne and about as good as you'll get if you want a bloodborne clone.
Lords of the fallen is good but it's own spin on things can be annoying.
Mortal Shell has a cool gimmick but the world feels linear and confined.th Surge
Nioh series is weeb souls. Much more complex combat but maps feel more gamey.
The Surge 1 and 2. Robot souls.
Ashen is an absolute gem. Very simple graphics but it feels like a souls game. Lots of exploration and depth with beautiful music.
Hell point. Souls set on a space station orbitting a black hole. Not many enemies but very creepy bosses.
Bleak faith. Ripping off a different manga than berserk souls. Complete jank top to bottom but the world is fascinating.

I relly liked The Surge, particularly part 2 (which I played first). Although environments were more interesting and varied in 1. But it was more janky.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Any non-Fromsoftware souls-like worth playing?
I consider buying the funny crab game.

Only Lies of P is worth playing. Don't listen to these shills saying there are other good soulslikes out there.

Nioh was alright, but far as achieving everything artistically, thematically and mechanically that, say, DS1 or Bloodborne did? No other game comes close. They are all either too low budget or too artistically shallow. Usually both.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Ignore the fanboy faggot. If you read his previous posts you will see he doesn't actually play these games. He cheese From games and doesn't like the genre other wise. He's only looking to cheat his way through pretty visuals and wants zero gameplay depth or player skill.

 

[notpl]

Calling Nioh a soulslike is inaccurate, and more importantly insulting to some of the best action games ever made.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Cheesedragon is completely right. Saying that Nioh even comes close to the likes of DS1 or even Sekiro in terms of its aesthetic is absurd. Nioh looks good enough but is also profoundly mid in many ways.