The Shattered Elden Ring Thread: Tarnished Edition - (Shadow of the Erdtree p. 85)

[wings012]

I've started my journey. My friend kinda wrecked Margit with his overpowered character. I beat Godrick on my own though.

Generally flailing around being terrible at the game, succumbing to looking stuff online as to suck less. I've always liked using greatshields, so I looked up where to get a good one and also some rune farming guides so I could actually wield the silly thing. I've been farming vulgar militiamen.

Also turns out I missed the game's equivalent of havel's ring because I didn't talk to some woman before beating Godrick. I do hate the obtuse sidequest design and the whole missable shit thing. There is a more potent version of the Arsenal Charm but looks like I'll have to go on a bit of an odyssey to get it.

Definitely thinking of farming a bit just to get my vigor up some more. Currently running around with rags, Manor Greatshield and Golden Halberd.

I do feel like the game hates people who blocks. There's a lot of enemies/bosses with grab attacks. Some also have really aggressive combos and weapon arts and know no chill. Even with a greatshield I can have some random enemy just start spinning into me and shield break me with little issue. Whereas in Dark Souls 3 most enemies would get deflected allowing me to punish them. I appreciate guard counters being a thing, but I feel like it's never safe to use the bloody move and it sometimes whiffs/misses too.

Flying enemies are also turbo obnoxious. Maybe I should just respec into a ranged magic spammer.... though I haven't unlocked the means to respec yet.

As with all soulslike games, it's a love-hate relationship. I like the whole discovery and finding lots of stuff aspect, fiddling with builds, but I could do with things being less punishing. I could do with getting pounded in the dirt less by some bullshit enemy placement that I probably had to die at least once to know how to respond to. Then finally get through one hurdle and there's a Banished Knight around the corner that knows no fucking chill. I ended up sprinting through most of Stormveil Castle cause I got sick of getting my ass handed to me try to win all the enemy encounters.

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[CriticalGaming]

speedruns are under 30minutes now btw.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Hell even a day or two after release there were already videos of people one-shotting bosses with magic.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Hell even a day or two after release there were already videos of people one-shotting bosses with magic.

The problem with that is that those bosses were not arressive bosses and those magicks require a lot of set up which the hard bosses are not going to let you do before they fuck you up.

That's why the speedrun is done with a weapon art that requires no set up during the fight. Walk in, spam, win.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

The problem with that is that those bosses were not arressive bosses and those magicks require a lot of set up which the hard bosses are not going to let you do before they fuck you up.

That's why the speedrun is done with a weapon art that requires no set up during the fight. Walk in, spam, win.

Touché. With the amount of build variants possible and people getting their spreadsheet formulas out to maximize multipliers and whatnot, there was never any hope of “balancing” anyways. The typical FROM jank has also basically followed the same trajectory as the larger scale, or even exponentially exceeded it.

Meh, we’ll see if they patch stuff like this out. Doubtful unless it becomes commonplace though.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Further hijinks in the comments if anyone’s dastardly enough to go that route -

Matthias 31101 day ago (edited)
Hilariously enough Spiff, you could have easily made this nastier, in Limgrave on the ledge above Augeel Lake to the north there is a Scarab that gives the Ash of War: Determination which boosts the damage of your next attack but is consumed when you hit... except the programmers screwed up so it also boosts Spells while not being consumed by them. So what you do is you shove Determination onto a Dagger in your off-hand, activate it, then drink your Mixed Physick (pronouced Phys-ick) and let rip with Comet Azur for even more hilarity.


A Wanderer's Random Chronicles1 day ago
You can do more with this. There's a spell named Terra Magicus that boosts sorcery damage by 30%, and multipliers in Elden Ring are multiplicative. So if you stack Determination and Terra Magicus... Let's just say you rapidly approach war crime territory.


Andreas Fredriksen1 day ago
@A Wanderer's Random Chronicles you can takr this an aditipnal step further, in the volcano manor you can get an improved determination that has a larger dmg increase. IIRC determination is 50%, and knights determination is 100%.


So at the very least, it should put to rest the need for any easy mode in the game since it’s already in there in spades; just gotta do some digging.

 

[CriticalGaming]

So at the very least, it should put to rest the need for any easy mode in the game since it’s already in there in spades; just gotta do some digging.

It's funny you say that because this video by a bland content creator highlights a few things for me that really annoy me and the whole conversation that typically pops up every time FromSoft releases a game.
There are merits to some of what he says, things like menu navigation, subtitle text and delivery, color blind options, these are things that are absolutely warranted and should be including into gaming in some way. These are accessibility options, the ability for a person to actually play the game with as little hinderence placed on any disability they make have. All great things.

At the same time, some of what he wants crosses the line between an accessability feature into just being a core design change. Steve mentions markers to let the player know when an attack is coming from off screen. That's not a lack of accessability, that's changing the core design. Being ambushed is always a risk, or being attacked from enemies off screen as you run away has been a core risk in part of the travel throughout the game world. This isn't preventing any player from physically playing the game, this is a core design that he wants changed.

Steve also brings up no navigational assistance, and it's unclear whether he means map markers or directions of where to go on the map clearly defined, or if he is talking about some sort of assistance that would tell a player simply a direction they are going verbally. The lack of map markers is clearly a design choice and it is there to let the player explore and discover on their own. The obtuse nature of not knowing where everything is on the map is part of the core design of the game. If he wants something that simply helps the player get around somehow then fine. Because this complaint is unclear I can't really flag it.

I laughed when he said that item descriptions make no sense. Yep that's Dark Souls alright. Not really an accessibility complaint though, as it effects everyone the same way and it's up to the player to figure it out. You could argue that it's bad design in general though.

Anyway the point is that there are some things that Steve brings up that would be genuinely nice to have, but the rest of it is just complaints about the core design of a souls game, like the Tree Sentinel boss being too strong as a first enemy, or being able to accidentally skip the tutorial.

Look not every game is going to be a suitable experience for every possible player. And you can certainly argue that certain design elements are bad, I've absolutely done that. And we can try to encourage devs to add these fairly obvious accessibility options for things like menu navigation, subtitles, colorblind options, that sort of thing.

There is a difference between accessibility and game design though and at some point you have to separate what would be a nice option to have, versus what is core to the original design the devs wanted to create.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I’ve made a huge mistake in Elden Ring

I am the biggest Tarnished asshole in the Lands Between.

www.theverge.com

I met this dragon and let it lay undisturbed, even though its younger asshole friends/kids? harassed me to no end. Now I’m reconsidering….

Ah fuggit probably best to put it out of its misery. Yeah that’s it. NG+ will bring it back anyways.

 

[CriticalGaming]

snip

Adding to this thanks to character limit.....

They do talk further about how the game does fit with some with disabilities and it reminds me a lot of previous examples of players that have severe limitations phyiscally or otherwise who play games at either a competitive level or just for completion's sake. While accessibility options are wonderful to have, a lot rests on the shoulders of these players as to how far they'll push past whatever limits they may have for the sake of doing any activity they find interest in.

Just punch armless guitar player into youtube and there are suprising number of people who have learned to play guitar with their feet, or only one arm, whatever. I think when someone gets passionate about a hobby, they will find a way to get around almost any challenge. So this idea that every video game needs to be brought down to a certain level to be as completable by every possible limited player and it's just not a reasonable ask. To do so, would result in bland monotonous games....or Ubisoft.

Core options I think are great and should be industry standard. Subtitle customization, colorblind modes, things of that nature that don't really affect what the actual game is. That's what's important, not crying that the first optional enemy is too hard.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I love how the accessibility argument is always the exact same with zero deviation whatsoever on any side at all forever.

Anyway, Celeste has accessibility options that change core game mechanics up to and including invincibility without ever losing it's core Celeste-ness, so From Software could include that in Dark Souls Dark Souls 2 Bloodborne Dark Souls 3 Sekiro Elden Ring Armored Core without it damaging the game in the slightest.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Anyway, Celeste has accessibility options that change core game mechanics up to and including invincibility without ever losing it's core Celeste-ness, so From Software could include that in Dark Souls Dark Souls 2 Bloodborne Dark Souls 3 Sekiro Elden Ring Armored Core without it damaging the game in the slightest.

Those aren't accessibility options those are difficulty options and/or cheats and many games have those. Because XXXsouls does not also does not make it a problem with XXXsouls nor does it meant that Celeste is objectively better than XXXsouls for including those options.

 

[EvilRoy]

I’d blame Nito.

I mean, if you keep seeing open coffins and crawling into them, I don't know what to say.

I crawled into one more coffin, and now I have a girlfriend!

...

I know how that sounds.

In all seriousness though, the quests in this game are even more perplexing than a lot of quests in previous Fromsoft games. It seems like you get a lot more leeway in terms of how much you can do without fouling a sidequest which is a nice plus, but the world is immense so its damn hard to just "come across" somebody on a given map to continue a given quest and a lot of re-treading needs to happen if something is missed. Or alternatively, if the wrong thing is found or not found.

What I'm indicating above is just the very strange result of a series of decisions I made almost at random before ultimately getting a single hint and pursuing it doggedly for no reason other than I found it basically intriguing. I had to make a number of decisions that made no sense (climbing into multiple coffins, pissing around a lot, learning areas and then hitting a roadblock) before I realized there even was a quest, then I did what I thought was a wholly unrelated questline, latching on to a hint, before eventually getting something that I realized referenced the roadblock I had found previously by making bad choices. If I hadn't already done all this other stuff there would be no way at all I could have figured out what to do with the item I got - not only is it not particularly clear why a person needs the item received, but the barrier the item is used to pass is removed the moment you get the item. That is, I only knew there was a barrier that required an item I found because I found the barrier before I found the item. If I had found the item first I would have been able to proceed with no knowledge that I passed a quest related barrier and no understanding that I needed to be looking for something specific on the opened path.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Anyone else feel this? -

 

[BrawlMan]

This didn't take long to come up.

​

 

[CriticalGaming]

Accessability! This is very cool. Sony should just make this as like an attachment or something.

 

[Dalisclock]

This didn't take long to come up.

​

I'm unclear what in that video is considered spoilers. I guess because you see some of the bosses and enemies and locations but you're given no context to any of them and get like 5 seconds at most to see any of them. Without playing the game you'd basically see a bunch of "Fight monster, fight bigger monster, FIGHT HUGE MONSTER, died, horse butt"

I said something like that in the comments and a couple people got mad and said even seeing bosses and enemies are spoilers for them because.....spoilers are basically anything now, I guess. Maybe I need to make a thread on that or something because I was under the impression that a spoiler had to give away important information about something that's meant to remain mysterious or hidden early, which is a little different then "FIGHT BIG DUDE IN FROM GAME".

Like the difference between The Soul of Cinder is the composite of all the fire linkers for all of time and You're gonna fight the big dudes in the opening cutscene that the game strongly implies are gonna be bosses because the game flat out says "The lords have abandoned their thrones" and then gives you a rundown of the lords HINT HINT.

I’ve made a huge mistake in Elden Ring

I am the biggest Tarnished asshole in the Lands Between.

www.theverge.com

I met this dragon and let it lay undisturbed, even though its younger asshole friends/kids? harassed me to no end. Now I’m reconsidering….

Ah fuggit probably best to put it out of its misery. Yeah that’s it. NG+ will bring it back anyways.

That Dragon probably ate a bunch of babies or something.

Anyway, spent last night fighting some of he minor bosses in the mini-dungeons and the evergoals. I do appreciate how if you die in the evergoal your souls are dropped in the "real" world(not inside of the evegoal) so you don't have to retry the boss fight to get them back. No idea what those snake-like things do but they don't seem to aggro unless you attack them and even then only the one you attacked. I suspect they to keep the dude inside from ever escaping or something. Waiting for the Vaati videos. I'm curious what crime people have to commit to get locked in an Evergoal. Are you a giant dick, did you just pissed off the wrong people, are you a political prisoner or all of the above?

"I"m a political prisoner!"
"What did you do?"
"I stole the King's carriage!"

Found the Dragon shrine on the western island who gives you cool dragon spells for dragon hearts. So basically the dragon covenant for this game and it's not PVP based. Unfortunately, the spells require faith, which me being the dumbass who is rating INT along with strength and DEX.....yeah. Also found the beastman temple and that place is fucking creepy. Like Werewolves bound up on pillars that looks like something out of fucking Bloodborne. And there's a beast covenant inside where you trade stuff for "beast" powers or something, all of which require SOME GODDAMN FAITH!

 

[BrawlMan]

I'm unclear what in that video is considered spoilers. I guess because you see some of the bosses and enemies and locations but you're given no context to any of them and get like 5 seconds at most to see any of them. Without playing the game you'd basically see a bunch of "Fight monster, fight bigger monster, FIGHT HUGE MONSTER, died, horse butt"

I said something like that in the comments and a couple people got mad and said even seeing bosses and enemies are spoilers for them because.....spoilers are basically anything now, I guess. Maybe I need to make a thread on that or something because I was under the impression that a spoiler had to give away important information about something that's meant to remain mysterious or hidden early, which is a little different then "FIGHT BIG DUDE IN FROM GAME".

Like the difference between The Soul of Cinder is the composite of all the fire linkers for all of time and You're gonna fight the big dudes in the opening cutscene that the game strongly implies are gonna be bosses because the game flat out says "The lords have abandoned their thrones" and then gives you a rundown of the lords HINT HINT.

Honest trailers only uses the spoiler tag as a sensor formality at this point. It used to be for story-related stuff, but apparently even seeing early enemies and bosses are considered spoilers for people that are going in blind. But if you're going in blind, why bother looking at the trailer in the first place? They can get mad all they want, but they chose to go there. The video didn't force them.

Honest Game trailers I rarely ever look at anymore, aside from a few games I'm playing (and most likely completed) or if I don't care about spoilers. For a while they're writing quality was in the crapper and very vindictive. It didn't help that they were still part of Smosh games at the time, and the the original creators had long left already. The new owners of Smosh or just a bunch of corporate windbags and jackasses that don't know what they're doing and can't take criticism. Honest Game trailers is no longer part of Smosh games, thank god, is and it's part of a different channel now.

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[Casual Shinji]

So, I do quite like this game, but I have to ask; What exactly makes this open-world so apparently groundbreaking, that it has ruined other open-world games for people, makes other open-world games look like hackjobs, and that it's something other developers need to look at? Because in all honesty there isn't much going on beneath the hood of this open-world so far. I've been playing for a good 10 to 15 hours, and 90% of my time has been spent riding my horsey and fighting enemies with my horsey using pretty much the same tactic; charge in and out and timing my heavy attacks correctly. I haven't been interacting with the world in any meaningful way, or meeting any characters, and while the world is pretty cool it lacks the concentrated atmosphere and mise en scene of previous Fromsoft games.

Maybe I'm playing the game wrong, but so far I've kinda just been doing the same thing over and over and over, similar to other open-world games making you do the same thing over and over. And while the open-world in Elden Ring is pretty neat I feel that's mainly because the horsey riding is neat - if I had to play this game on foot I think I'd get sick to death of this open-world very, very quickly. And while seeing whatever weird, new enemy the game can come up with is great, in the end it results in pretty much the same tactic in taking it down.

So yeah, this hasn't really rocked me to my core when it comes to what an open-world truly can and should be as it apparently has with most people I've heard talking about this game.