What are you currently playing?

[Old_Hunter_77]

lol @ Renalla being optional...
Yeah, so is Godrick the Grafted. Since you only need two Great Runes, it doesn't matter which ones you get. Godrick and Renalla are the logical ones 'cause they're where most people will go if you play without looking up guides or playing in some crazy way to test the edges of the game. You don't even have to beat Godrick to get to Lurnia of the Lakes, you can literally just run around the whole freaking castle.

This is the same broken-gamer brain sentiment as marveling at how in Breath of the Wild you can just go right to the last boss. Technically true and interesting for replaying the game for the 10th time or for some stunt streamers but impractical and meaningless for normal people.

 

[Worgen]

Beat Monster Hunter Stories 3. Pretty cool end boss fight. Overall, really good game gameplay is top tier, but the story is the weakest of the MH Stories series. All the elements for good story are there, but they don't all work together. The war aspect they talk about in the trailer is really secondary and only barely comes up, feels like it exists for a couple cool battle cinematics with monsters in armor. There is a bit more to that but it kinda drags things down since it really is a rather poorly written kids show war. The encroachment and habitat restoration are the really interesting things. Speaking of habitat restoration, its pretty fun, but also kinda annoying. Like you collect eggs, hatch them then release the monsters back into a habitat and after releasing a few you rank them up from C so S rank and the higher rank the monster, the higher level they will be when you hatch and egg, also with better genes which are stat boosts and abilities. You also can find invasive monsters and when you chase them off you will get an endangered monster egg and can bring a species back, some of these invasive monsters are decently hidden and I know I'm missing like at least 3 endangered monsters after having beaten the game, tempting to go back and get them.

Anyway, very good game, but I was disappointed by the story, however the characters are good.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

For curiosity’s sake I looked up the no-glitch speed run records of ER and BotW.

Spoiler

The current Elden Ring glitchless speedrun world record is 59 minutes and 41 seconds, achieved by KEMIST_C10_H15N

Spoiler

The current official “No Glitches” Any% record for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is 22 minutes 51 seconds, set by MoldyMeatballs on Switch (amiibo) version 1.6

 

[Drathnoxis]

lol @ Renalla being optional...
Yeah, so is Godrick the Grafted. Since you only need two Great Runes, it doesn't matter which ones you get. Godrick and Renalla are the logical ones 'cause they're where most people will go if you play without looking up guides or playing in some crazy way to test the edges of the game. You don't even have to beat Godrick to get to Lurnia of the Lakes, you can literally just run around the whole freaking castle.

This is the same broken-gamer brain sentiment as marveling at how in Breath of the Wild you can just go right to the last boss. Technically true and interesting for replaying the game for the 10th time or for some stunt streamers but impractical and meaningless for normal people.

It really isn't that difficult to kill Ganon right off the bat in BotW considering Ganon's Castle contains a ton of really powerful weapons, you can't ever be killed in one hit as long as you are at full health, cooking hearty ingredients always fill you to full health and give you bonus hearts, and the game lets you carry an infinite number of healing items which are used from the pause menu.

It's not some master level skill achievement that requires you to know the boss attack patterns by heart and not get hit once. I think I did it on my second or third try after beating the game once.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

It really isn't that difficult to kill Ganon right off the bat in BotW considering Ganon's Castle contains a ton of really powerful weapons, you can't ever be killed in one hit as long as you are at full health, cooking hearty ingredients always fill you to full health and give you bonus hearts, and the game lets you carry an infinite number of healing items which are used from the pause menu.

It's not some master level skill achievement that requires you to know the boss attack patterns by heart and not get hit once. I think I did it on my second or third try after beating the game once.

Well first of all if you have to cook near infinite food then you're not going straight to the boss, you're gathering ingredients and cooking.

But my point is that I just don't think "you can go straight to the boss" (or even beat the boss) is the great selling point it's made out to be when people- still to this day!- praise the game.
To be clear I have nothing against the game, I know it's a good game. I just think the discourse is silly.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Well first of all if you have to cook near infinite food then you're not going straight to the boss, you're gathering ingredients and cooking.

But my point is that I just don't think "you can go straight to the boss" (or even beat the boss) is the great selling point it's made out to be when people- still to this day!- praise the game.
To be clear I have nothing against the game, I know it's a good game. I just think the discourse is silly.

You don't have to cook near infinite food, you can, but you don't have to. I think I took a 10 minute detour to pick something like 8 bananas on my winning run because I didn't want to have to keep playing the tutorial over again when I lost, and other than that it was straight to Ganon's castle. I don't even think I used all my food. The whole thing took me under 90 minutes.

I think it is a good selling point because if you play the game normally the bosses are nerfed to nothingness by the Master Sword, and Ganon loses half his health automatically if you've finished the 4 dungeons, so the fact that you are actually given the option to challenge yourself a little is a huge benefit to the game.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Well first of all if you have to cook near infinite food then you're not going straight to the boss, you're gathering ingredients and cooking.

But my point is that I just don't think "you can go straight to the boss" (or even beat the boss) is the great selling point it's made out to be when people- still to this day!- praise the game.
To be clear I have nothing against the game, I know it's a good game. I just think the discourse is silly.

Ehh…Merely being able to progress in an open world with a good amount of player agency is still a bit different than bee-lining it to the end boss though. In general it’d kinda suck on replays if people were forced to always follow a certain path, especially when trying to quickly put a different build together.

 

[BrawlMan]

Dante's Inferno - I finally finished Greed. I distracted myself with other games for too long. Dante's father wasn't that hard. It only took me two attempts. I got 7K+ souls and I am spending them on scythe moves. I will play more when I get home from work way later today. I literally have not touched this game about over two months now.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Also speaking of GRRM, pay attention to those initials and main boss names as you’re going through the game, lol.

TIL. Somehow never noticed that.

​

I mean, OBVIOUSLY most of us get it, but for those complete IDIOTS amongst us, maybe you should elaborate on what's PAINFULLLY obvious here? I'd hate for ANY of the dumb-dumbs who're slow on the uptake to miss out on the fun, y'know?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

​

I mean, OBVIOUSLY most of us get it, but for those complete IDIOTS amongst us, maybe you should elaborate on what's PAINFULLLY obvious here? I'd hate for ANY of the dumb-dumbs who're slow on the uptake to miss out on the fun, y'know?

Godrick
Rennala
Rykard
Radahn
Morgott
Mohg
Malenia

 

[Xprimentyl]

Godrick
Rennala
Rykard
Radahn
Morgott
Mohg
Malenia

Ok, I thought it might have been that, but felt it was a bit of a stretch to extend Easter Egg--worthy credence to. I mean, cool, but is that the best a best-selling author could manage to secret his initials throughout his work? I thought maybe I - I mean, the IDIOTS on this thread - might be missing something more substantial. Yeah.. the IDIOTS.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Ok, I thought it might have been that, but felt it was a bit of a stretch to extend Easter Egg--worthy credence to. I mean, cool, but is that the best a best-selling author could manage to secret his initials throughout his work? I thought maybe I - I mean, the IDIOTS on this thread - might be missing something more substantial. Yeah.. the IDIOTS.

Maybe there's more to it, that's where my mind went.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Question for the Elden Ring peeps, should I trigger the Radahn festival or just go explore Caelid/Redmane first? Is there a recommended order, do I miss out on anything?

 

[Worgen]

Question for the Elden Ring peeps, should I trigger the Radahn festival or just go explore Caelid/Redmane first? Is there a recommended order, do I miss out on anything?

I don't think it really matters, Caelid is on the way so its a good time to explore. But if you just want to do the festival, you should still be able to even without exploring first.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Question for the Elden Ring peeps, should I trigger the Radahn festival or just go explore Caelid/Redmane first? Is there a recommended order, do I miss out on anything?

I don't think it really matters, Caelid is on the way so its a good time to explore. But if you just want to do the festival, you should still be able to even without exploring first.

Agreeing with @Worgen. Don't take my word as any form of gospel as someone with a whole single playthrough under their belt who didn't even attempt o follow any specific questlines, but I think the effect of starting the festival is pretty nominal-if-important at all. It may affect the Ranni questline, but I'm not sure how or why; someone else will have to weigh in there, but I'm pretty sure that after beating Radahn, Caelid basically goes back to pre-festival "normal,", i.e.: there's a boss fight in Redmane Castle that is available both before and after the Radahn fight.

That said, assuming you're going for 100% completion, I'd not worry about it either way. Knock out your first playthrough with reckless abandon, then read up on the finer details during your clean up playthrough(s). There's only so much you can do in a single playthrough that I think fretting about any nuance and detail will only interfere with your appreciation of the game within the meta of trophy hunting. Which makes me curious, for anyone seeking to 100% Elden Ring, is there any reason not to go for the completion in NGs, or are their specific (efficiency) reasons to go into NG+? Assuming one doesn't have the option to revert to older saves, I've not heard much talk about necessarily using NG+ to get alternat endings. I mean, outside of carrying over weapons/spells, why suffer the increased difficulty if you can just clean slate it?

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Godrick
Rennala
Rykard
Radahn
Morgott
Mohg
Malenia

Godfrey
Godwin
Radagon
Maliketh

Then there’s a few in the dlc…

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

About the festival, Ranni’s quest will essentially be paused if it’s triggered due to involving Blaidd. Also if you killed that prick Seluvis, you’ll have to seek absolution at the church of vows before Blaidd will calm the fuck down. If Seluvis is alive, and you want his shit, then do that before giving Ranni any creepy presents! All should be ok otherwise.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I'll also chip in that defeating Starscourge Radahn at some point (the timing really doesn't matter, it's not like Usurp the Flame) is mandatory to completing Ranni's questline, so raising the Radahn Festival flag is eventually required. Since only Redmane Castle actually changes much while the Festival flag is raised, though, it doesn't matter all that much if you explore Caelid or raise the flag first.

 

[Worgen]

Agreeing with @Worgen. Don't take my word as any form of gospel as someone with a whole single playthrough under their belt who didn't even attempt o follow any specific questlines, but I think the effect of starting the festival is pretty nominal-if-important at all. It may affect the Ranni questline, but I'm not sure how or why; someone else will have to weigh in there, but I'm pretty sure that after beating Radahn, Caelid basically goes back to pre-festival "normal,", i.e.: there's a boss fight in Redmane Castle that is available both before and after the Radahn fight.

Wait, does the festival change things in Caelid? I don't think I ever left the castle after starting it and just took out Radahn in any of my playthroughs.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Wait, does the festival change things in Caelid? I don't think I ever left the castle after starting it and just took out Radahn in any of my playthroughs.

The festival halts all hostilities, locks some doors, activates a way gate and of course the NPCs all gather in the house of Jerren. Once Radahn is defeated, speaking with Jerren will effectively end the festival, returning the castle to its original state.