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

Silvanus

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Well, I've got into Leyndell, & have started exploring the subterranean "shunning grounds" underneath. The game's made a bit of a jump in difficulty. Those golden-armoured Leyndell knights with their lightning spears can fuck right off.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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View attachment 5772

I mean with the exception of the graces I put red slashes through, this was how much I had done before what's her name brought me to Roundtable, and it required me to kill this random boss.
AFAIK the requirements to trigger the round table invitation are either resting at a grace site in a land other than Limgrave or defeating Margit and resting afterwards.
 

Terminal Blue

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So, it's a weird thing to notice, but it's really nice to hear British regional accents used as a character's normal speaking voice. I know the company which localizes Fromsoft games into English is based in the UK, but I feel like they went out of their way to squeeze in a bunch of seldom-heard accents this time.

It makes me realise how much I wish games and media in general would use regional accents more often in ways that aren't the Fable-esque comic relief peasants.
 
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CriticalGaming

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Well, I've got into Leyndell, & have started exploring the subterranean "shunning grounds" underneath. The game's made a bit of a jump in difficulty. Those golden-armoured Leyndell knights with their lightning spears can fuck right off.
It was around this point in the game where I felt the regular enemies became just fucking nonsensical bullshit and started running straight to bosses. Gold knights, Crimson rot knights, and more stop staggering to attacks and will just kill you in two hits. It isn't worth fighting at that point so i would run around gathering what I could from items on the floor or whatever and ran my way to bosses. If I died, I died, once I found where the boss it was easy and I moved on.
 

Chimpzy

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Sometimes I really have to wonder what kind of agreement BN/FROM have with Dark Horse.
For one, they would have to ask Hakusensha, the original publisher for Berserk. Dark Horse just licenses it from them for English release.

Anyway, I'm guessing From so far has made its many, many, many often really blatant Berserk references legally distinct enough that Hakusensha doesn't send in the lawyers. As for Kentaro Miura himself, afaik he's never made any comments on what he thought of the many, many, many things he's influenced, so who knows how he felt about it in life.
 

Elijin

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It was around this point in the game where I felt the regular enemies became just fucking nonsensical bullshit and started running straight to bosses. Gold knights, Crimson rot knights, and more stop staggering to attacks and will just kill you in two hits. It isn't worth fighting at that point so i would run around gathering what I could from items on the floor or whatever and ran my way to bosses. If I died, I died, once I found where the boss it was easy and I moved on.
That's the point the game actually got fun. 2/3rds of my late game was hanging out in the royal capital and the haligtree castle sherpaing people.

The knight class enemies actually made for fun moment to moment combat.
 

CriticalGaming

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Max plays -
I hate that fight.

When it comes to the bosses in the game, i don't feel like any of them were truly good. A mix of difficulty, speciticle, and enjoyable to fight. a lot of times when I won a fight it felt that i got lucky, more than learning or just being better than the boss. Almost every big boss has certain moves that are just stupid, and my winning fight usually was when they didn't use those moves for whatever reason.

The Black Blade was one such fight where he just fucking flips around like crazy and it's luck as to wear he lands and throws shit at you. It's not strategy or skill.

The Scarlet Rot lady, infamously ranking in the hardest fights in the game by a lot of people, has a ridiculous move set in general but one such move is a triple charge aoe that is probably not impossible to avoid, but it's fucking close. This fight is compounded by her healing massive amounts of health every time she hits you, which sets you back more than just a flask every time you make a mistake. Her fight requires you to be damn near perfect and also get lucky enough that she doesn't use the triple charge aoe very much. Plsu she has an entire second phase that is nowhere nearly as hard but does have a scarlet rot problem and huge aoes.

The last 5 or so big ending bosses, I just felt were luck based and that made the fights feel bad.

Compared to fights like Gundyr in Dark Souls 3, his attacks are quick and he can chain them, but they are also obvious and easy enough to read and manage that it makes the fight feel like a fair duel.

Obviously every fight in Elden Ring is learnable and you can 100% avoid damage (people already beat the game at level 1). But those people are pros at this type of game and I feel like what it demands from the average player is just wicked. Luckily there are summons and shit that can carry you through if you are just bad like me.

Shout out to by boy Mimic Tear whom without, I wouldn't have beaten a goddamn thing.
 

CriticalGaming

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This is why I skipped every end game normal mob. What the fuck are you supposed to do against something like this?

 

SilentPony

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Corner of No and Where
AFAIK the requirements to trigger the round table invitation are either resting at a grace site in a land other than Limgrave or defeating Margit and resting afterwards.
I found it after defeating Margit, and it kinda annoyed me. Not just because its apparently a core mechanic hidden behind hidden requirements, but because its SO obtuse.
I had never heard of Margit, never heard of Stormhill castle, had no clue who any of these mooks were, and then this big general man is all "You shall not pass!" and I was all "I won't? Why? Who are you? What's going on? Why are we fighting?", I kill this guy for no good reason, and then this whimsical ***** is all "Oh that was a test, let me take you to the starting point of the game 20 hours in." and...why? Why is Roundtable hidden behind arbitrary restrictions? Why did the big general man attack me? Why did beating him prove something to what's her face?
I get that the lore is purposefully obtuse, but in the other games at least there was a hint of a story. You're a hunter, go and hunt monsters and stop other monsters. Good. Great. The Lords of the Flame refuse to do their duty and end the world, so you have to go kill them and end the world. Little more obtuse, but sure its using understandable words and concepts.
Elden Ring? Seek the Elden Ring. Okay...why? What is the Elden Ring? Why would I want it? Why would someone want to stop me? Why is everyone hostile if they're not infected with beast blood or driven crazy by the prolonged heat-death of the universe? Why is there a magical deer god boss, who admittedly is one of the most gorgeous and cinematic bosses I've ever seen ever, and why is it trying to stop me from exploring an underground river I didn't even know existed? Can't we talk with over beers and salt licks?
Like just as far as the plot has been explained, it hasn't really justified why everyone and everything is hostile from the word go, nor why killing random bosses unlocks random abilities. That's the best word I have for Elden Ring so far. Random. I'm sure From has some great big bible of lore, but they sure as shit haven't shared it with the players.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Tehe.


That type of glitch is much preferred over the one I repeatedly encountered for the Queen Rennela boss fight when helping others in jolly co-operation, where the specific minions with the glowing halo heads you need to kill to lower her shield just never spawned, so everyone was left in eternal limbo trying to kill endlessly spawning normal minions with zero progress, until you died or quit from despair. Apparently word is that it happens if the host enters the fog door before the last summoned player fully materializes, but there's no way to communicate that in game to the player at all.
 

Dalisclock

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I found it after defeating Margit, and it kinda annoyed me. Not just because its apparently a core mechanic hidden behind hidden requirements, but because its SO obtuse.
I had never heard of Margit, never heard of Stormhill castle, had no clue who any of these mooks were, and then this big general man is all "You shall not pass!" and I was all "I won't? Why? Who are you? What's going on? Why are we fighting?", I kill this guy for no good reason, and then this whimsical ***** is all "Oh that was a test, let me take you to the starting point of the game 20 hours in." and...why? Why is Roundtable hidden behind arbitrary restrictions? Why did the big general man attack me? Why did beating him prove something to what's her face?
I get that the lore is purposefully obtuse, but in the other games at least there was a hint of a story. You're a hunter, go and hunt monsters and stop other monsters. Good. Great. The Lords of the Flame refuse to do their duty and end the world, so you have to go kill them and end the world. Little more obtuse, but sure its using understandable words and concepts.
Elden Ring? Seek the Elden Ring. Okay...why? What is the Elden Ring? Why would I want it? Why would someone want to stop me? Why is everyone hostile if they're not infected with beast blood or driven crazy by the prolonged heat-death of the universe? Why is there a magical deer god boss, who admittedly is one of the most gorgeous and cinematic bosses I've ever seen ever, and why is it trying to stop me from exploring an underground river I didn't even know existed? Can't we talk with over beers and salt licks?
Like just as far as the plot has been explained, it hasn't really justified why everyone and everything is hostile from the word go, nor why killing random bosses unlocks random abilities. That's the best word I have for Elden Ring so far. Random. I'm sure From has some great big bible of lore, but they sure as shit haven't shared it with the players.
I feel like you would appreciate the shadaversirty video a page back. He goes on for like an hour how he loves the story but hates how opaque it is.

Hell, I just found out the in game explanation of the death rune requires you to do an npc questline that takes you too an optional area you might not have even discovered or thought it was a late game area and he doesn't tell you that you need to go there to progress the questline.

So to find out about the vital nugget of lore about the death rune, you need to go search the spooky basement you might not realize is even there before an npc you might not have talked to tells yiu about it. Or go in YouTube and watch the story trailer. Which requires turning the game off and knowing it exists.

From has great lore but they hide it in dark file cabinets in haunted basements behind false walls in death fortresses. And some fans will get really mad at you if you suggest said vital points if lore should be a little more accessible then the incredibly hidden and convoluted process it sometimes is
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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I feel like you would appreciate the shadaversirty video a page back. He goes on for like an hour how he loves the story but hates how opaque it is.

Hell, I just found out the in game explanation of the death rune requires you to do an npc questline that takes you too an optional area you might not have even discovered or thought it was a late game area and he doesn't tell you that you need to go there to progress the questline.

So to find out about the vital nugget of lore about the death rune, you need to go search the spooky basement you might not realize is even there before an npc you might not have talked to tells yiu about it. Or go in YouTube and watch the story trailer. Which requires turning the game off and knowing it exists.

From has great lore but they hide it in dark file cabinets in haunted basements behind false walls in death fortresses. And some fans will get really mad at you if you suggest said vital points if lore should be a little more accessible then the incredibly hidden and convoluted process it sometimes is
*googles*

Ahh here it is -

I recall getting a kick outta that one, and it being where I kinda gave up trying to figure anything out and started listening to Vaati try for me.
 
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EvilRoy

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Well, I've got into Leyndell, & have started exploring the subterranean "shunning grounds" underneath. The game's made a bit of a jump in difficulty. Those golden-armoured Leyndell knights with their lightning spears can fuck right off.
Just made it myself - I got really lost in the city and ended up blundering into two major boss fights before more or less falling off a roof and down a well to find the sewers. I'm glad I did though - those sewers are honestly the most tense and exciting part of the game for me thus far. Not knowing where I'm going combined with the urgency that comes with getting jumped by Basilisks and watching my flask supply steadily dwindle as I run in circles has made it really fun for me. Right down to the pratfalls into pits by holes that I could have seen but just didn't because I saw a shiny and let myself get sloppy.

Thanks to those sewers I am, for the first time ever in a From game, actually using those fucking rainbow stones. And for the first time this game I'm actually using my flask of physik and paying attention to mixing it because once you're down to a single health flask having the ability to be extra durable for a little while is really attractive.

Also, I've found yet another fun fact: if you frostbite the Basilisks they don't seem to be able to hop or do their breath attack anymore. They just sort of slowly crawl around. I might actually try to get my hands on a frostbite giving ash/spell because slowing guys down is super useful.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Just made it myself - I got really lost in the city and ended up blundering into two major boss fights before more or less falling off a roof and down a well to find the sewers. I'm glad I did though - those sewers are honestly the most tense and exciting part of the game for me thus far. Not knowing where I'm going combined with the urgency that comes with getting jumped by Basilisks and watching my flask supply steadily dwindle as I run in circles has made it really fun for me. Right down to the pratfalls into pits by holes that I could have seen but just didn't because I saw a shiny and let myself get sloppy.

Thanks to those sewers I am, for the first time ever in a From game, actually using those fucking rainbow stones. And for the first time this game I'm actually using my flask of physik and paying attention to mixing it because once you're down to a single health flask having the ability to be extra durable for a little while is really attractive.

Also, I've found yet another fun fact: if you frostbite the Basilisks they don't seem to be able to hop or do their breath attack anymore. They just sort of slowly crawl around. I might actually try to get my hands on a frostbite giving ash/spell because slowing guys down is super useful.
Speaking of, was this you lol? -
 
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So since I'm done with Godrick the arm edge lord, I decided to check out a couple more spots before exploring elsewhere. Explored more of the castle and found my way to the long-fucking bridge the leads off to the east that leads to a tower that lets me activate the Great Rune I just got so that's cool. I explored limgrave some more and found that asshole Patches, because of course he's in this game. I wonder if there's some explanation how patches keeps showing up in all of these games with the same fucking personality and even VA despite them apparently not being connected(I believe he started out in Armored Core of all things) or if he's just a mascot character for FROM.

Been wandering around the lakes and man this place just keeps going on and on. Stumbled across a grace with an invader asshole who is apparently a cannibal, Found a portal that gets me to the door of Hogwarts(which is magically sealed because of course they're not letting the Plebs in), and even discovered the 4 belfiries, which has a bunch of portals and one key to activate them, so presumably I can pick one to use now and find the other keys elsewhere. I haven't decided yet so I stopped there for the night.

So fun times, fun times. It's got that thing where it doesn't matter which direction I go in it feels like there's like 3 other directions I could be going as well. It feels so fucking immense and even though I've probably exhausted limgrave/weeping pennisula I feel like there's so much more to see and that makes the game really click for me. Basically, it's what I loved about BOTW but with Souls stuff in it too, so pretty much what I wanted. Except the weapons in ER don't break every 30 seconds.
 
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