Elden Ring (FromSoftware)

[schild]

Are any of the From games less depressing?

why? should they be?

also, no

[Trippy]

[Khaldun]

I kind of agree they shouldn't be less depressing. They almost remind me of Gormenghast, in an odd way--weird and gothic and with almost everybody kind of gross or ruined in some fashion.

[schild]

Gormenghast

jesus i haven't thought about gormenghast in 20+ years

[Typhon]

Are any of the From games less depressing?

why? should they be?

also, no

It just feels like the same game again and again (that said, i haven't played the shooter or the samurai/ninja versions).  Mechanically, that's a very good thing, because I love the combat, I'm not asking for that to change.  I was just wondering if they played around with the tone. 

[Jeff Kelly]

In Elden Ring’s lands between death as we know it doesn’t exist. Marika removed “indiscriminate death” when she established the golden order and she gets to decide if and when you die (destined death)

Only the Fell Omen and the Nightwatch have the power to end a life and they seek out and kill you when Marika acknowledged that it’s time for you to die.

That’s why Melina is on the mission to end destined death and restore the promise that everything must die eventually. Because that fact that no one dies has completely fucked is the lands between.

Then Ranni stole the Rune of death from her brother Mohgwyn to be able to kill herself and escape the hold the golden order and the two fingers had on her. her goal is to ascend to godhood free from the shackles of the two fingers, the golden order and the greater will because only then can she be able to replace the greater will and the golden order with a new order free from the influence of those powers.

This makes actual death a Happy End for the people whose quests you do. They fulfilled their destiny and are therefore allowed to die.

[Falconeer]

[Jeff Kelly]

[Typhon]

That was why I was going for Ranni's end;

[Trippy]

[Cyrrex]

Meanwhile, I am about 70-80 hours into my sorcery dude, level 128, and only just at the snowy giant mountain place.  This is the most impressive thing that has ever been pulled off in gaming, both in relative and absolute terms.  Did someone say they made this in three years?  Fucking how??

[Trippy]

Five years. Three years was reveal at E3.

Edit: also they didn't start from scratch. E.g. they are using their same game engine they've used on their other games and many of the model skeletons and animations are borrowed from Dark Souls 3 and other games.

[schild]

Three years or five years, what they really had was institutional knowledge. These folks know how to make a souls game. Bethsoft , etc starts from square -1 constantly.

[01101010]

Having embraced the open world rather than any of the story (did the same in FFXI) - I have zero idea of what the fuck is going on with any of these NPCs. I will say I am having a blast wiping out camps around the map and having to deal with more challenging areas like Farum but the other end game zone with Malenia can fuck right off. As for endings... I couldn't say one way or another what the hell path I am on.

[Trippy]

If you aren't actively working on NPC quest lines you'll get the default ending.

[Khaldun]

Working through Crumbling after the Godskin Duo. They were kind of a pain but not all that bad, but I have a couple of ashes fully levelled at this point. It really is becoming kind of an extreme thing that certain trash combinations take way way more thought than the bosses, to the point of being a bit deflating.

[Jeff Kelly]

The path from the site of grace to the Gazebo with the dragon past the flock of giant eagle like creatures and the flashes of lightning is legit harder than some bosses and cost me about an hour worth of tries

[schild]

The path from the site of grace to the Gazebo with the dragon past the flock of giant eagle like creatures and the flashes of lightning is legit harder than some bosses and cost me about an hour worth of tries

lol

[Typhon]

I didn't find that section super-hard.  I did find the mob immediately before Maliketh SUPER hard (no horse, no ash's allowed).  I ended up cheesing it with dragon rot breath and the powerful "running and hiding" technology.    :shame!:

Practice dodging now!

[Khaldun]

I got that guy after a couple of tries. (The lightning dragon was a pain but at this point I'm Pavlovian enough that I knew what to do.)

Maliketh has so far beat me on the first 4-5 tries but I think I've got it soon.

I'm trying to make sure I have all the spirits and weapons levelled because it sort of feels like the Roundtable will be gone soon, judging from the dialogue.

Poor Alexander the Jar, I fucking killed him in three hits without taking any damage. I feel bad.

[Jeff Kelly]

The path from the site of grace to the Gazebo with the dragon past the flock of giant eagle like creatures and the flashes of lightning is legit harder than some bosses and cost me about an hour worth of tries

lol

Yeah it’s hard because the engine and camera  isn’t super great at letting you hit flying enemies and they hit very hard. Then you get past the dragon and head left, fight more giant eagles perched on top of the trees, then jump down several floating rocks, fight a misbegotten, climb up a ladder, fight two more misbegotten, go up in an elevator, get assaulted by more giant eagles and fight misbegotten and a crucible knight and get up another ladder. All without any site of grace in between.

Then you realise that the only prize you got is a talisman, that this wasn’t the path forward and that you should have gone right from the dragon at the gazebo instead.   

That whole passage was harder than a lot of bosses.

[Typhon]

I got that guy after a couple of tries. (The lightning dragon was a pain but at this point I'm Pavlovian enough that I knew what to do.)

Maliketh has so far beat me on the first 4-5 tries but I think I've got it soon.

I'm trying to make sure I have all the spirits and weapons levelled because it sort of feels like the Roundtable will be gone soon, judging from the dialogue.

Poor Alexander the Jar, I fucking killed him in three hits without taking any damage. I feel bad.

Wow, that guy for me was harder than Malenia (~5-8 tries, but I had put effort into learn2dodge by that point), and Malekith I did in 2.  The "all by yourself" knight was 20+.  I guess I was seriously dependent on the blasphemous blade at this point, and slash is crap against armor? Maybe? Or maybe I just sucked against that guy.

It's weird that no one seems to talk about it, but from my experience both Malenia and Maliketh were vulnerable to the "do a fuckton of damage" approach.  Maybe I had just significantly out leveled her.  Maliketh with Tich.  Malenia with mimic.

I felt pretty bad about Alexander as well.  For me, he was their best character.  I was hoping maybe he'd retire to Jartown.

[Khaldun]

Crucible knights still bust my ass--there's one not that far from Maliketh that I found really difficult. I think anything that has untouchable poise is hard for me because I'm 100% about STR with a max-levelled Greatsword, so I just want to hit shit hard enough to rattle it and then burst it down.

[01101010]

Crucible knights still bust my ass--there's one not that far from Maliketh that I found really difficult. I think anything that has untouchable poise is hard for me because I'm 100% about STR with a max-levelled Greatsword, so I just want to hit shit hard enough to rattle it and then burst it down.

Hated that one in the City with the spear/polearm that had a longer range than most incantations... he was rough. The one in the Gaol surprised me and was really the first area Crucible I faced and he promptly sent me packing a few times before I got lucky.

[Khaldun]

Finished first play and started an NG+1. I was a bit surprised you don't get the chance to respec right there and then--gotta go do the Academy, I guess; if I'd known that I would have gone to talk to Rennala before moving on. Oh well, not a big deal in terms of what it takes to get to her. Did the Age of Stars ending.

[Typhon]

I was caught off guard by losing all the ball bearings (bell bearings?).  I'm now getting weapons I missed on the first play through and I can't level them up.  Humph!

[01101010]

I was caught off guard by losing all the ball bearings (bell bearings?).  I'm now getting weapons I missed on the first play through and I can't level them up.  Humph!

Definitely needed to stock up on stones for at least 3 weapons and maybe a few shields before hitting the finale. But then again, I cheated and read ahead.

[Khaldun]

Doing dual-wield dex build with the Okina Blood Sword and Hand of Malenia and it's fun. Every once in a while I miss the ability to stunlock things with a colossal weapon and getting around a shield takes a bit more thinking.

[Typhon]

I'm hopelessly addicted to my shield.  I've tried dual wielding, but my dodge game is still so weak.

[Rasix]

Just do it for a NG+. You'll do so much damage that you can forgive the occasional shot to the face.

[Trippy]

I'm hopelessly addicted to my shield.  I've tried dual wielding, but my dodge game is still so weak.

I thought you meant dual wielding shields at first. And yes you can do that, though it doesn't give you a "power stance" moveset like regular weapons do.

[Khaldun]

It does make me realize how much I'd gotten used to just fucking brutalizing Leyndell Knights with a couple of swings of the Guts Sword. But I'm also discovering how often I got swarmed by bullshit things like rats because I couldn't swing around fast enough. Bosses and big shit pretty much melt, but shielded things take a ton of thoughtfulness and dodging by comparison.

[Typhon]

I'm hopelessly addicted to my shield.  I've tried dual wielding, but my dodge game is still so weak.

I thought you meant dual wielding shields at first. And yes you can do that, though it doesn't give you a "power stance" moveset like regular weapons do.

 , I did that by accident once; dual wielding shields, I thought it was awesome, ridiculous, and made complete sense that they wouldn't bother coding something to stop you doing that, all at the same time.