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

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

I'll just speedrun it. Shouldn't take longer than a handful of hours I would think.

 

[Haplo]

Lock on has always been terrible in FROM games, after a while you have to learn to play without it. It's not lik you're doing more damage if you hit certain limbs or whatever anyways.

I find playing without lock on is fine for horizontal slashes, but with thrusts and particularly with single target spells it seems pretty necessary for me. The hitbox for thrusts doesn't seem particularly forgiving and I can't work out how to get non-locked on lightning/fire casts to reliably end up anywhere near where I think I'm aiming lol

It would be nice if they had some kind of targeting reticule for the vague direction spells were headed if you aren't locked on.

Vertical slams are also fairly okay without lock on. Thrusts however... you really want lock on for those.

Thus I avoid thrusting weapons

 

[Reinhardt]

is it even gud?
i dropped fs games after ds 2, i think. prefered nioh combat.

 

[Haplo]

is it even gud?
i dropped fs games after ds 2, i think. prefered nioh combat.

Sorta?

On the one hand, its both peak Soulsbourne and peak open world game. Beautiful, huge, with nice exploration, some of the best Soulsborne dungeons (called legacy dungeons here), fun combat, some neat, epic bosses.

On the other hand, its infected with some nasty open world game diseases, like copy-paste locations / mini-dungeons, enemy reskins with level-scaled stats, and, to add insult to injury, even bosses casually re-skinned and re-used multiple times.
Some late game locations are just sad, barren filler, particularly Consecrated Snowfields and Mountaintops of the Giants.

I guess it depends if you like the Soulsborne games and open world games.
This marriage is not a bad one, but has its issues.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

this game performs bad on my laptop therefore it's bad game

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Okay, should be good to go for the expansion right off the bat. The game reminded me why I didn't want to play through it a second time. Traversing and navigating the overworld feels like a giant pain in the ass. It was fun the first time through but it's not something I want to do ever again. Hopefully this is From Software's last open world Soulsborne game. Elden Ring just doesn't hold up like their earlier games.

 

[MasPingon]

Infinitron can you create story related ER topic and move those spoiler there?

 

[Val Doom]

Unfortunately the leaks seem to be legit, or else this is most most elaborate fake leak ever.

Spoiler

I seriously hope the rest of the dlc is best content from ever made, or else there is gonna be some serious backlash and disappointment.

Final boss

The final boss is fucking Radahn. It even re-uses the same soundtrack. And he is the consort of Miquella somehow.

Spoiler

So even the DLC has a recycled boss in true Elden Ring fashion? As a final boss even

 

[Stoned Ape]

I wonder if they raised the soft and hard caps on attributes. You'd think they would have to since this is basically a whole new game, atleast in terms of size/length.

I think the suggested guideline level was 120-150 but apparently there's a DLC only levelling system that means your actual character level doesn't make that much difference. Someone said it was a bit like the system they used in Sekiro with gaining prayer beads when you kill bosses or something.

 

[Lyre Mors]

think the suggested guideline level was 120-150 but apparently there's a DLC only levelling system that means your actual character level doesn't make that much difference. Someone said it was a bit like the system they used in Sekiro with gaining prayer beads when you kill bosses or something.

No, level and build still matter. The DLC exclusive upgrading system is tied to shards you find while exploring, which you can apply only in the dlc area. These increase all attributes beyond what they currently are.

Every Scadutree Blessing level raises all of your stats by a set amount—the math is still unclear but it's a significant boost. Our premade characters for the preview were level 150 with weapons leveled up to +25 and I could tell I was hitting harder after gathering up a bunch of Scadutree Fragments. I can't say I noticed my Spirit Ash summons were noticeably stronger after using a few Revered Spirit Ash Blessings but I was busy testing new ones out, like a spider hand one that heals you. The exact benefits will be more clear once we get our hands on the full DLC.

It'd be pretty ridiculous in an RPG to make all your progression up until the DLC meaningless. That's not what is happening. It's just a significant power boost, if you so choose to use it.

 

[Elttharion]

Wtf is this lmao

Spoiler

Remembrance of a God and a Lord

In their childhood, Miquella saw in Radahn a Lord, his strength and his kindness that stood in contrast with their afflicted selves. And so Miquella made his heartfelt wish that Radahn would one day be his King Consort.||

Spoiler

Also the fight is terrible. Janky AI and animations, moveset lifted from other boss fights from ER and older games, reused music, terrible arena, etc. From has fallen, billions must die.

 

[9ted6]

Every male character is now gay for the whorish femboy who's also now the most important character in all of existence.

Honk honk indeed.

 

[Silverfish]

Every male character is now gay for the whorish femboy who's also now the most important character in all of existence.

Honk honk indeed.

Good day for Lovecraft's Cat, though. DS2 is looking even cooler in light of these leaks.

 

[Crayll]

I don't even need to look at any of these spoilers as I already know the story is simply the next step in a long line of Berserk references, now featuring Griffith.

 

[Talby]

I never liked From's tendency to rehash content from the main game in their DLC. Either in the form of recycled bosses with some changes, or an old area with a different look/enemies, it just feels cheap and lazy when it's something you're paying extra for. Shadow of the Sloptree looks like more of the same which is a disappointment.

 

[Spike]

Good job Codex, I guess we figured out another game 4 days before it released and don't have to play it even though we haven't actually played it ourselves yet, really proud!

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Good thing I don't play these games for the story.

 

[Spike]

Good thing I don't play these games for the story.

The story is always interesting but I come for the top tier fantasy worlds/designs/monsters/exploration and of course above all the hecking combat.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

FromSoftware boss addresses gaming industry layoffs: 'As long as this company's my responsibility, I would not let that happen'​

By Wes Fenlon
published 21 hours ago

Hidetaka Miyazaki describes FromSoftware's relationship with parent company Kadokawa and references Satoru Iwata's perspective on layoffs.

Between Embracer laying off thousands of employees and Microsoft shuttering studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, the recent wave of high profile multibillion-dollar acquisitions have proven to be terrible for the games industry. It's hard to look at any game studio that's been gobbled up by a new parent company and not be worried that it may soon be gutted just to promise shareholders 11% higher profits for the next fiscal year. This vile trend was on my mind when I visited FromSoftware in May for PC Gamer's cover story on Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree—despite seeming quite independent, the studio does have a parent company, Kadokawa Corporation.

Kadokawa isn't Microsoft big, but it is still big, with revenue of about $1.65 billion in its last fiscal year. FromSoftware is one of Kadokawa's major earners, but the company also makes significant money in the manga publishing and anime markets (Delicious in Dungeon is one of its recent hits).


With games like Elden Ring selling more than 25 million copies, you'd think FromSoftware would be free of any meddling—why mess with the golden goose? But that logic hasn't saved other game studios from short-sided across-the-board layoffs at mega publishers like EA, 2K, Sony… the list goes on. So I asked FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki what he could say about FromSoftware's business relationship with its parent company, and whether From was at risk of the same fate that's befallen studios under the Embracer umbrella in the last year.

"Speaking to myself and this company, I want to say that this is not something I would wish on the staff at FromSoftware in a million years," Miyazaki said. "I'm pretty sure our parent company Kadokawa understands that and shares that view."

So far FromSoftware hasn't just been immune to the layoff waves that have struck western game companies, but it's been expanding—the studio has grown significantly since it started Elden Ring, and is now big enough to develop at least two games simultaneously (as shown by last year's Armored Core 6). It's also not the only Japanese company in that position: this year Capcom made a point of raising employee pay rather than conducting layoffs (though Japanese wages are notoriously low, which may be one factor insulating them from layoffs).

During one of many brutal waves of layoffs this year, fans pointed to the two times former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took a pay cut instead of laying off workers, a move no current game CEOs seem eager to replicate. But when we spoke, Miyazaki himself also cited Iwata's reasoning in 2013 for not laying off employees even when the company was operating at a loss.

"I think it was the old ex-president of Nintendo, Iwata-san, who said that 'people who are afraid of losing their jobs are afraid of making good things.' I'm paraphrasing that, but I totally share this view," Miyazaki said.

"I think it's true. And I think the people at Kadokawa, our parent company, understand that I hold this view very strongly. While we can't say 100%—we can't say with complete certainty what the future's going to hold for From and Kadokawa—at least as long as this company is my responsibility, that's something I would not let happen. So hopefully our players and our fans can take a little bit of assurance from that."

It's a strong statement, particularly next to the usual CEO lines about hard decisions and rationalizing pipelines.

 

[Remain Nameless]

I guess Mohg being portrayed as a insane, demon looking abomination was considered too homophobic, and they are now trying to make up for it in the dlc.

 

[Child of Malkav]

 

[Elttharion]

Good thing I don't play these games for the story.

I dont care about the story and lore. I just really hate faggy shit.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Doesn't seem any more weird or gay than some of the shit you'd find in Dark Souls, or a lot of real world mythology for that matter. It's a world filled with strange demi-god incestuous relationships. I don't see what the big deal is. It's a fucked up, stagnant, decaying setting and this is par for the course.

 

[Raghar]

3 days to DLC.

 

[Lyre Mors]

48 hours if you're going off Steam. Several hours early than I thought.