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

hanselthecaretaker

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Is anyone bothered by how much there seems to be copied right out of Dark Souls 3. Animations, weapons, sound effects, all straight up ripped out of previous games.
I recall hearing this complaint during the network test, but it’s kinda old news by now.


There’s only so many ways to skin a cat.
 

Chupathingy

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I finally made my way through the infamous Haligtree, which wasn't as bad has people made it out to be (except the Revenant Alley, fuck that area), and now I think I'm staring at Malenia's boss room. Can't wait to fight her tomorrow and see if the legends are true!
 

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I finally made my way through the infamous Haligtree, which wasn't as bad has people made it out to be (except the Revenant Alley, fuck that area), and now I think I'm staring at Malenia's boss room. Can't wait to fight her tomorrow and see if the legends are true!
Good luck. Remember all you have to do is not get hit.
 

CriticalGaming

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I have finished my 3rd playthrough and have gotten the Platinum. I never want to play this again until next year or when mods come out.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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I have finished my 3rd playthrough and have gotten the Platinum. I never want to play this again until next year or when mods come out.

Does PS5 allow mods now? That would be cool. But anyways, this is basically what I meant with this post. You mentioned only going for Platinum on games that have reasonable requirements, but if a game leaves a person with that kind of impression, how reasonable is it really? It's a big reason why I got away from prioritizing those stupid lists.
 

Elijin

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I finally made my way through the infamous Haligtree, which wasn't as bad has people made it out to be (except the Revenant Alley, fuck that area), and now I think I'm staring at Malenia's boss room. Can't wait to fight her tomorrow and see if the legends are true!
I hated the tree part of Haligtree, but loved the castle. And really I hate anytime a from game thinks they can do platforming.
 

CriticalGaming

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Does PS5 allow mods now? That would be cool. But anyways, this is basically what I meant with this post. You mentioned only going for Platinum on games that have reasonable requirements, but if a game leaves a person with that kind of impression, how reasonable is it really? It's a big reason why I got away from prioritizing those stupid lists.
I have it on PC too. Actually I bought it on PC first but then the fucking patch made it run like dicks so I got it on PS5 where it played perfectly and stayed there.

AS for how I play games, i don't really know what to say. My beef is with people bragging about how different and great the open world is, not the quality of the game itself. Yes I tend to not like exploring too much in general because I just don't feel like it's a good use of my free time playing video games. Personally I would only stick around for an exploration heavy game if the combat or other mechanics were good, because I can always use a treasure map to not have to explore at all.

I play plenty of games that have bullshit trophy lists and often still at least beat them to end credits. In fact the vast majority of shit i've played is like that. Here is my trophy profile on PSN https://psnprofiles.com/Musicankane There are a few decent platinums and many other games where i just played and beat them and called it a day. It's not a deciding factor for me playing a game, it just decides how completionist I want to be with it.

Keep in mind that for ER I had to beat the game three times because I don't know how to back up and reload my saves in such a way that I could just save scum back to the final decision to get the endings. Which actually wouldn't have worked because two of the ends required quests that would lock you out of getting other endings. Still save scumable but believe it or not it was much easier to just rush through the game two extra times. NG+ took just under three hours because of quest requirements and NG++ took 90 minutes because there is little to gain from redoing stuff if you've already maxed your weapons out. The total save file was 65 hours, which will be low for a lot of people who let the world engross them, but I used a map and hit every location one-by-one and boom done.

Overall I still liked ER enough. I stand by rating it a 7/10. It's good, but I feel like Fromsoft has done better with other games.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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I have it on PC too. Actually I bought it on PC first but then the fucking patch made it run like dicks so I got it on PS5 where it played perfectly and stayed there.

AS for how I play games, i don't really know what to say. My beef is with people bragging about how different and great the open world is, not the quality of the game itself. Yes I tend to not like exploring too much in general because I just don't feel like it's a good use of my free time playing video games. Personally I would only stick around for an exploration heavy game if the combat or other mechanics were good, because I can always use a treasure map to not have to explore at all.

I play plenty of games that have bullshit trophy lists and often still at least beat them to end credits. In fact the vast majority of shit i've played is like that. Here is my trophy profile on PSN https://psnprofiles.com/Musicankane There are a few decent platinums and many other games where i just played and beat them and called it a day. It's not a deciding factor for me playing a game, it just decides how completionist I want to be with it.

Keep in mind that for ER I had to beat the game three times because I don't know how to back up and reload my saves in such a way that I could just save scum back to the final decision to get the endings. Which actually wouldn't have worked because two of the ends required quests that would lock you out of getting other endings. Still save scumable but believe it or not it was much easier to just rush through the game two extra times. NG+ took just under three hours because of quest requirements and NG++ took 90 minutes because there is little to gain from redoing stuff if you've already maxed your weapons out. The total save file was 65 hours, which will be low for a lot of people who let the world engross them, but I used a map and hit every location one-by-one and boom done.

Overall I still liked ER enough. I stand by rating it a 7/10. It's good, but I feel like Fromsoft has done better with other games.
I started Platinuming FROM games with Demon's because I liked the way the trophies looked lol, and it just felt like they put some extra thought into them so it seemed pretty cool. I didn't bother for DS2 or 3 though because it felt kinda redundant.

So, what would you consider to be their best game overall, after playing them all?
 

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Not really, developers reuse assets all the time. Why would it start bothering me now?
From in particular likes to reuse assets such as bosses. Not something I'm fond of but I'm not shocked by it either. One of my big gripes with Sekiro despite really liking the game.
 

CriticalGaming

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I started Platinuming FROM games with Demon's because I liked the way the trophies looked lol, and it just felt like they put some extra thought into them so it seemed pretty cool. I didn't bother for DS2 or 3 though because it felt kinda redundant.

So, what would you consider to be their best game overall, after playing them all?
That's a good question.

It would have to be between Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3. I think I would have to give it to Dark Souls 3 as the king of the Souls series because it's everything that they've wanted a Souls game to be, while still being tight and well designed throughout the entire game. The combat in that game is tight while being about as fast as it possibly can while still fitting the Souls combat style. Dodging and parrying are responsive and tight, boss attacks are dangerous but never unfair, and the level design is pretty great from start to finish.

Bloodborne is a really really close fucking second place though because it has all the same aspects of Dark Souls 3 but it falls short strictly because it lacks gameplay variety. DS3 has the freedom for being just about any build you want where Bloodborne lacks that combat freedom. The combat in Bloodborne is tighter, but more limited. Same thing for Sekiro, Sekiro's combat is insanely tight and responsive, but the trade-off is that there is no freedom of choice you play Sekiro one way and that's your only choice.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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That's a good question.

It would have to be between Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3. I think I would have to give it to Dark Souls 3 as the king of the Souls series because it's everything that they've wanted a Souls game to be, while still being tight and well designed throughout the entire game. The combat in that game is tight while being about as fast as it possibly can while still fitting the Souls combat style. Dodging and parrying are responsive and tight, boss attacks are dangerous but never unfair, and the level design is pretty great from start to finish.

Bloodborne is a really really close fucking second place though because it has all the same aspects of Dark Souls 3 but it falls short strictly because it lacks gameplay variety. DS3 has the freedom for being just about any build you want where Bloodborne lacks that combat freedom. The combat in Bloodborne is tighter, but more limited. Same thing for Sekiro, Sekiro's combat is insanely tight and responsive, but the trade-off is that there is no freedom of choice you play Sekiro one way and that's your only choice.
I’d have to agree on gameplay narrowly going in DS3’s favor, along with it being Dark Souls distilled down to its finest form overall. Some of the level design might be best in the original, and 2 had the most content, but 3 is most often firing on all cylinders.

In terms of presentation I’d have to give the nod to Bloodborne simply because it’s godlike. The art style, soundtrack, ambience, story, etc. all coalesce into arguably Miyazaki’s best work, which kinda makes sense as he himself has stated it’s his personal favorite.

That is a very difficult question, and by comparison, it is as if you have three or four children and someone asks 'which one is prettier?'. I will answer that they are all. But if I were to say which one stayed in my heart, it's Bloodborne. It is what most struck me. I believe I did it my way, the way I wanted it.

It really makes repeat playthrough’s all the more fun, knowing it was a passion project. If the gameplay had a bit more depth and variety like you said I’d probably put it tops.

Sekiro is an interesting beast, because in terms of gameplay mechanics it’s probably FROM’s best. The swordplay, posture system, mobility and depth to be had with various prosthetics, especially late game makes it a blast to play through. However, everything else is kinda lacking to various degrees. The presentation is lovingly detailed (activating sculptor’s idols, the “sugar” poses, those bloody executions, *chef’s kiss*), but it goes to show how far lore, world building, crazy boss designs, epic architecture and a sense of history go in adding appeal to these games.

*edit* I neglected to mention on other vital entry; the one that got me into these games, Demon’s Souls. In terms of design, it is often the most imaginative and raw. World tendency is an intriguing idea if impractical, the individual locations are very distinct incredibly well-realized, and boss designs are some of FROM’s best to date. In a way this game is the most engrossing throughly engaging proof of concept ever made. When I get a PS5 the Remake will still be at the top of my playlist.


Time will tell where Elden Ring settles. It like still has several patches ahead, and Vaati has barely scratched its surface. I can ultimately see it winding up having a few of the most polarizing extremes.
 
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EvilRoy

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I finally made my way through the infamous Haligtree, which wasn't as bad has people made it out to be (except the Revenant Alley, fuck that area), and now I think I'm staring at Malenia's boss room. Can't wait to fight her tomorrow and see if the legends are true!
This is the first boss where I'm finding summoning coop players really helps if your having trouble. Haven't gotten through yet myself but everytime I've summoned or been summoned I've been seeing people who know what they're doing and trying to perfect a build same as me.
 

Chupathingy

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This is the first boss where I'm finding summoning coop players really helps if your having trouble. Haven't gotten through yet myself but everytime I've summoned or been summoned I've been seeing people who know what they're doing and trying to perfect a build same as me.
I'm not playing with online, so if I end up struggling too much then it's time for Tiche to make an appearance, but I really wanna try beat her solo.
 
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Phoenixmgs

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That's just the thing though...in Souls you don't have to do that. When you simply want to block an attack behind you with shield raised, you simply flick the left stick back, or in any direction to do so without needing to cumbersomely swing a camera around with it. I've gotten knocked off narrow ledges far more often thanks to the camera swinging during lock-on than I ever have being able to maneuver my character into the most effective position when in a precarious environment. It's never going to be perfect but overall it fits this style of game better.
Flicking the left stick means you're getting some movement in that direction that you may not want. When I'm facing the enemy and moving backwards with my shield up because I want to move backwards, so many times I go through a doorway or around a corner or just move too far away to where lock-on breaks and my character stops doing the thing I'm currently doing, which is not good. I should be able to enter that type of strafing movement without locking on, every other game does this. Then, I would like never use the game's lock-on system if I could do that as I don't use lock-on in like any other game. Yes, maybe you can get really used to that and it's as good or better for some people but the muscle memory is there from every other game. It's like a game not having an option for inversing the camera like I remember FFXII totally fucking me up when playing a shooter afterward because the X-axis was inversed in FFXII and there was no way to change it and then it took me months of playing shooters to fully get used to a normal x-axis camera. Or it would be like going back to playing the orginal releases of RE4 that had you aiming with the left stick vs the right stick (normal convention now), there's nothing wrong with aiming with the left stick and it will work just as good but the muscle memory is going to say "fuck off with this bullshit" today. When RE4 released, there were no standard TPS controls so it didn't matter.
 

Chupathingy

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And that's Malenia done. Fucking hell, she makes Orphan of Kos look like Pinwheel. I'm disappointed her boss weapon is a katana, but i guess that makes sense considering all the Sekiro bullshit she pulls off.
 

CriticalGaming

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And that's Malenia done. Fucking hell, she makes Orphan of Kos look like Pinwheel. I'm disappointed her boss weapon is a katana, but i guess that makes sense considering all the Sekiro bullshit she pulls off.
Congrats, she ranks up there with the hardest bosses in the game. If you got her then the rest of the game is much easier.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Flicking the left stick means you're getting some movement in that direction that you may not want. When I'm facing the enemy and moving backwards with my shield up because I want to move backwards, so many times I go through a doorway or around a corner or just move too far away to where lock-on breaks and my character stops doing the thing I'm currently doing, which is not good. I should be able to enter that type of strafing movement without locking on, every other game does this. Then, I would like never use the game's lock-on system if I could do that as I don't use lock-on in like any other game. Yes, maybe you can get really used to that and it's as good or better for some people but the muscle memory is there from every other game. It's like a game not having an option for inversing the camera like I remember FFXII totally fucking me up when playing a shooter afterward because the X-axis was inversed in FFXII and there was no way to change it and then it took me months of playing shooters to fully get used to a normal x-axis camera. Or it would be like going back to playing the orginal releases of RE4 that had you aiming with the left stick vs the right stick (normal convention now), there's nothing wrong with aiming with the left stick and it will work just as good but the muscle memory is going to say "fuck off with this bullshit" today. When RE4 released, there were no standard TPS controls so it didn't matter.
Is your Return/Enter key broken lol? Really though, I guess I haven’t played many of these “every other game” that has strafing without lock-on recently because nothing stands out. At least nothing that can be put in the same genre as a Souls game, which automatically changes the requirements of a lock-on system. For instance, an arena style action game doesn’t need to take the environment into consideration, so the targeting system will naturally be different. There is no perfect solution for a Souls game unless you remove vital commands from other buttons. Every should button does something important for combat for instance, and the face buttons are designated for support items and rolling/dodging. Although again, lock-on can be very situational in Souls games depending on where you are and who’s being fought. This is a good write up on lock-on styles-


Aside from that, this is probably an “agree to disagree” issue, because from my personal experience and many others judging from forums and youtube videos, there is no one size fits all solution.