And that alone makes ER infinitely better than BOTW.. Except the weapons in ER don't break every 30 seconds.
And that alone makes ER infinitely better than BOTW.. Except the weapons in ER don't break every 30 seconds.
On that front I'll agree. ER clearly took some pointers from BOTW but thankfully that wasn't one of them.And that alone makes ER infinitely better than BOTW.
Yeah, it was at the Lakes that it really dawned on me that ER is personally a good example of the old saying, “Getting lost in a good book” in game form. I think it’s what likely has been creating a bit of a divide, because a lot of people are probably playing merely with the goal of checking another game off their playlist, let alone another FROM game. And when it keeps going and going, and going (and they keep dying and dying and dying), those not completely on board will naturally fall off this wagon.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 issue 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.
On one hand there is a lot that Elden Ring does to reduce frustration. The shitload of graces, and the stakes of Marika near bosses is fantastic. The lack of a durability issue. The ability to do combat on horseback as well as resummon should the horse die with no real penalty. The map.On that front I'll agree. ER clearly took some pointers from BOTW but thankfully that wasn't one of them.
Every time I start a FROM game I pretty much commit myself to the idea that I'm gonna be deep in said game for a month or so. I think even Dark Souls took me like 50 or more hours to beat(plus the DLC) so that's the benchmark. And knowing it was an open world that's fucking huge is like "Yeah, I'm not finishing this anytime soon" so I clear my calander for the time being.Yeah, it was at the Lakes that it really dawned on me that ER is personally a good example of the old saying, “Getting lost in a good book” in game form. I think it’s what likely has been creating a bit of a divide, because a lot of people are probably playing merely with the goal of checking another game off their playlist, let alone another FROM game. And when it keeps going and going, and going (and they keep dying and dying and dying), those not completely on board will naturally fall off this wagon.
If you don't count my first playthrough struggling for 30 hours as a pure melee build that I gave up on because it's fucking impossible. My second attempt file i got every possible boss and achievement available in a single run of the game, (every legendary weapon, magic, talisman, and summon ashes. Plus every "great enemy felled" boss) I killed the final boss after 55 hours. However that is using a guide to make sure I completed as much of the game in a single run as possible to minimize replay requirements for the platinum.Every time I start a FROM game and pretty much committ myself to the idea that I'm gonna be deep in said game for a month or so. I think even Dark Souls took me like 50 or more hours to beat(plus the DLC) so that's the benchmark. And knowing it was an open world that's fucking huge is like "Yeah, I'm not finishing this anytime soon".
HHAHAHAHA Yeah those guys suck! Do you have Mimic Tear? Best advice is use Mimic Tear and run around until it pulls their aggro, kill the caster first, then spear guy and it's over after that.K alright I been mostly patient with these games and the expected bosses so far. That said, the triplet putrid crystalian boss lot in sellia crystal tunnel? Even with the wiki open, following all the tips and in jolly co-operation?
FUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck right off mate.
I do not have any such mimic tear! Nor have I found any. Am switching between various weapons currently: Frost axe, for the sweet weapon art, now rendered useless. Uchigatana with a blood slash weapon art I only just added so haven't been able to experiment with yet, temporarily a Heavy Battle Hammer for the required bludgeoning of their initial unspoken shields except I gotta 2-hand it as a bit underleveled, and a Digger Staff for all those useful sorcery needs that now have seemingly minimal effect so it's presently sidelined. Haven't even managed the task of just taking out the mage during a summoning yet, as am fairly confident once that one falls, the rest should be less trouble. But goddamn. No defense against scarlet rot neither.HHAHAHAHA Yeah those guys suck! Do you have Mimic Tear? Best advice is use Mimic Tear and run around until it pulls their aggro, kill the caster first, then spear guy and it's over after that.
Also are you using any weapon arts?
Haha no, I wish I saw it before going down there too. I only even thought of rainbow stones because I started trying to intuitively mentally map the area but the grade changes fucked with me, so I started marking areas with arrows but they kept despawning. Then when I went to make more arrows I saw I had a recipe for "rainbow stone arrows" which is when I realized I could just be dropping these fuckers on the ground instead of going through the extra four steps and wasting a bunch of thin bones.Speaking of, was this you lol? -
Strike weapons can kind of help against those guys, but honestly if you have a weapon that does decent damage and has reasonable reach that you're comfortable with just smack them over and over for a while. The shields account for something like 1/5th of their overall health and they break no matter what weapon you use to hit them. Also don't try to take them on face to face - they basically don't stagger until after the shield breaks and all their attacks are super spammy but the saving grace is their turnspeed is just as shit as their walking speed so you just run around them in circles and backstab over and over. I made it through by abusing backstab I-frames to avoid damage from the caster and the ring toss guy and just walked away from the spear guy.I do not have any such mimic tear! Nor have I found any. Am switching between various weapons currently: Frost axe, for the sweet weapon art, now rendered useless. Uchigatana with a blood slash weapon art I only just added so haven't been able to experiment with yet, temporarily a Heavy Battle Hammer for the required bludgeoning of their initial unspoken shields except I gotta 2-hand it as a bit underleveled, and a Digger Staff for all those useful sorcery needs that now have seemingly minimal effect so it's presently sidelined. Haven't even managed the task of just taking out the mage during a summoning yet, as am fairly confident once that one falls, the rest should be less trouble. But goddamn. No defense against scarlet rot neither.
Ugh. The only way I managed to beat those bloody tigers as melee was to roll straight into their attacks. Everything else failed. I think it was legit the first Souls boss I ever had to learn that with vs like, you know, avoiding them because the tigers simply said fuck all that bs. They kinda taught me that it might not always be best relying on instinct in a FROM game.Every time I start a FROM game I pretty much commit myself to the idea that I'm gonna be deep in said game for a month or so. I think even Dark Souls took me like 50 or more hours to beat(plus the DLC) so that's the benchmark. And knowing it was an open world that's fucking huge is like "Yeah, I'm not finishing this anytime soon" so I clear my calander for the time being.
The downside of that is I can't just play FROM games over and over again. I've beaten each game(Except Demons Souls, which I've been like 1 level of and that was 1-1) once and when I'm done I'm pretty much ready to move onto something else(normally something a bit shorter). I'll play Demons Souls through when I'm able to get a PS5 so I can play the remake, because of course the damn remake is on the hardest piece of currently in production gaming hardware to acquire and thus continues to be the most difficult souls game to even get to play. Good Job, Sony *Slow Clap*.
Then again you have people like Yathzee who' has apparently played Dark Souls through like how many fucking times because it's his comfort game but never played the DLC for DS3 or Bloodborne because he apparently didn't care enough to go back to them which is fine. I guess I'd rather play new content then revisit the old content for the X time and Souls games really don't have new content if you went and explored everything you could before the end. Granted, by the time I finish a FROM game I've normally visited every area unless they're clearly not worth the bother and finished off most of the bosses unless they're straight up Bullshit like the invisible Tiger duo from DS2(or like a bunch of bosses from DS2, really).
Ah thanks, yeah I've been definitely trying to take advantage of the backstab I-frames for this encounter as much as possible, and their slower turning does provide a false comfort somewhat which can be seen by how quickly cooperative players are insta-killed, yet even with a shield up they can insta-kill with a couple of hits or get the scarlet rot to finish the job either way. I decided to walk away and level up strength a bit more first, plus collecting some more ingredients for the alleviating of scarlet rot too, as it's quite likely I bumbled into this area underleveled and unprepared. Will return with the fattest, meanest fucking hammer for these irksome folk in due time.Haha no, I wish I saw it before going down there too. I only even thought of rainbow stones because I started trying to intuitively mentally map the area but the grade changes fucked with me, so I started marking areas with arrows but they kept despawning. Then when I went to make more arrows I saw I had a recipe for "rainbow stone arrows" which is when I realized I could just be dropping these fuckers on the ground instead of going through the extra four steps and wasting a bunch of thin bones.
Strike weapons can kind of help against those guys, but honestly if you have a weapon that does decent damage and has reasonable reach that you're comfortable with just smack them over and over for a while. The shields account for something like 1/5th of their overall health and they break no matter what weapon you use to hit them. Also don't try to take them on face to face - they basically don't stagger until after the shield breaks and all their attacks are super spammy but the saving grace is their turnspeed is just as shit as their walking speed so you just run around them in circles and backstab over and over. I made it through by abusing backstab I-frames to avoid damage from the caster and the ring toss guy and just walked away from the spear guy.
Funny, that’s essentially what cnet said about the size -I think it's nice that people who just want to fuck around and roam, can sink dozens of hours into the game without actually getting anything done. But for me I can't stand it.
I feel that with the size of Elden Ring (it is a lot bigger than you think), even those who love exploring are going to get bored of it before actually finishing the game. You'll reach a threshold where you'll go, "Alright fuck this, where is the main shit to do, let's move this along." And the path you take will stop being a roam and start being a b-line stright through the ending. Where that point lands depends on the player of course. But over time you realize that no matter what you discover, it's all going to be the same. Oh a new cave with enemies and a boss oh joy that's not the same as every other thing i've discovered so far.
I think ER could have really used some dungeons that were strictly puzzle based, or platforming challenges (because we can jump now), in order to give players a break from the non-stop combat.
I don't remember taking issue with GoW's world at all.IIRC you took similar issue with GoW 2018 and that was a much smaller, tighter designed game by all standards.
This is where i disagree entirely. This is not the penultimate Souls game. I wouldn't even call it a Souls game any more than Nioh is a souls game.FROM’s intent here was always to design the penultimate Souls game and that’s exactly what they did.
The same could be said for any puzzle game really. But often times the first playthrough is the most valuable one. And Dark Souls already played with the idea of puzzle dungeons in Darks Souls 2 DLC where you hit switches to move platforms around. Admittedly there is some of this in a couple of catacombs, but it would have been nice to find areas that had rewards not barred by dealing with combat. Even the mazey puzzley catacombs end in a boss fight and are litered with enemies. I would have liked to see more dungeons with traps, and switches and hidden walls to get to a nice treasure at the end. Especially since the combat can be very taxing, it would be nice for some repreive from it in a few places.Maybe a few puzzle dungeons would’ve been cool, but after finding the solution either through brain’ing/wiki’ing, the value is lost on further playthrough’s and becomes a hindrance to the core design.
Think about an island you could only get two by juggling those jumpy wind currents over a big lake? Or tight climbing challenges on small cliff edges to reach a treasure at the top? They could have done stuff and i think that's what bothers me the most. They've been more creative in the past. Hell even the enemy and boss designs here are fucking boring. Where are the crazy mashes of bodies? The giant hideous monsters? For the vast majority of the game you fight humanoids and dragons and nothing more. The craziest monster-like bosses are the first two in Mergit and Godfrey, and they are so similar that they might as well be the same fucking thing.As it is the Devine Tower in Caelid is about as platforming as one could reasonably hope for the game’s mechanics, and there’s probably other stuff involving the horse. I’ve had to do some tricky jumps to reach a shiny or two myself.
And there are people who beat the game at level 1. There are people beating the entire game in 27 minutes. There are plenty of people who are flat out good at this game.I finished the entire game as a melee build, 10focus,10int,10faith. The weapon ashes I ran were parry and shield bash.