Elden Ring

[Fencers]

,

I'm trying to rank the Fromsoft games.

I really enjoyed Bloodborne in the moment. But it came out in a time when other games were doing more creative work, IMO. The result being Bloodborne is largely forgettable to me- in so far as I don't recall BB as I did Witcher 3, Undertale, Phantom Pain, et cetera.

I enjoy the Armored Core series more than the 'Souls' games. Not counting Armored Core, I personally like these in rough order;

1. Elden Ring
2. Demon's Souls
3. Sekiro
4. Dark Souls
5. Dark Souls 3
6. Blood borne
7. Dark Souls 2
8. King's Field

I replayed DS3, DS remake, and Sekiro in the weeks leading up to Elden Ring.

I feel ER is the game From Software has been trying to make for a decade plus. Or closer to.

Anyway, all I can say is we don't deserve Fromsoft. What they've managed to achieve in a decade cannot be matched by any game developer.

Peak 90s Capcom, Treasure, Nintendo, Sega AM2 and Squaresoft each put together a run of games that are still undefeated in execution and game design.

A Link to the Past, Gunstar Heroes, VF2, FF6, Mega Man X, SF2, are games still the subject of fan and academic consideration in the medium.

Games in 2022 are still being designed with the same notions about how games ought to work based on the aforementioned developer's games.

KOF15, Octopath Traveler, Ori & the Will of the Wisps, Doom Eternal, even Elden Ring- all these games have designs established primarily and principally in the 1990s 16 to 32-bit era transition; when input interactivity of 2D games was reconciled in 3D collision space.

We will never experience games like that again. The arrow of time only travels in one direction. There is only one Reign in Blood.

[Jastall]

Uhhh you never had to humanity/effigy/ember to see messages and bloodstains, PvP in souls has always been Opt in because you would have to use an item to make it so you could be invaded.

These buffs were kind of important. DS1 and 2 are a distant memory to me but being embered in DS3 was something like a 40% HP boost. If you're going through a tough area or boss they help a hell of a lot. I played most of my first run of DS3 and all of my SL1 run offline due to this.

Elden Ring's solution of being fully opt in with no strings attached is significantly better. I really, really wouldn't want my exploration to be interrupted by some doofus running an OP build that I couldn't care less about beating or not.

[Devilyaki]

Seen people complaining about player messages blocking Sites of Grace, but has anyone else had an issue of not being able to interact with undiscovered Sites of Grace just in general since the last patch?

I've noticed it in a few places, but a couple stick out in my head. The site at the windmills where there's a boss fight, the actual site seems to be misaligned from what's shown... it's off by a couple of body widths. The other is the site after the dragon boss fight at the end of the lift bypass to Altus... not sure if the NPC invasion was messing with it. Also, the last site before the Blood Lord boss room wasn't accessible until I left the game and re-entered. Pretty sure it's just the patch and not some NG+ shenanigans. Anyone else experiencing this?

Ya same to me, after I beat a boss the fire wasn’t working. Logged out and in and worked.

[Fencers]

Hold on... is this a prequel to Dark Souls?

This game is flipping me the fuck out. The story is incredible.

[hellhamster]

Hold on... is this a prequel to Dark Souls?

This game is flipping me the fuck out. The story is incredible.

How so?

Dark Souls is pretty much Newtonian worship with his third law of thermodynamics. How entropy affects the whole universe. Ancient dragons being slow and never changing getting pummeled by Gwyn's lightning and age of fire until they run out of fuel and it's always dark outside.

Elden Ring is more Close Encounters of the Third Kind but the aliens have a gold fetish instead of playing music.

[minteK917]

How so?

Dark Souls is pretty much Newtonian worship with his third law of thermodynamics. How entropy affects the whole universe. Ancient dragons being slow and never changing getting pummeled by Gwyn's lightning and age of fire until they run out of fuel and it's always dark outside.

Elden Ring is more Close Encounters of the Third Kind but the aliens have a gold fetish instead of playing music.

Whats funny is they kept one theme from ds1 and ds2. Both the dragons and giants got fucked over by marika lol.

[Jtbrig7390]

Finished my PS4 on PS5 run and legit almost raged. For whatever reason Radagon and Elden Beast both healed mutable times.

[dlld]

Finished my PS4 on PS5 run and legit almost raged. For whatever reason Radagon and Elden Beast both healed mutable times.

You were probably using holy damage.

[Jtbrig7390]

You were probably using holy damage.

Nope.

I was using the meme beam with the bow spell that fires 4 arrows and the spirit Black Knife Tiche....

Many times each one would tick for a lot of damage then heal a decent chuck of it. I nearly didn't get my EB kill cause he was at like 5% and healed a decent amount. I was legit one hit from death LOL.

[minteK917]

Nope.

I was using the meme beam with the bow spell that fires 4 arrows and the spirit Black Knife Tiche....

Many times each one would tick for a lot of damage then heal a decent chuck of it. I nearly didn't get my EB kill cause he was at like 5% and healed a decent amount. I was legit one hit from death LOL.

Could tiche be doing holy damage herself? That might be it, their daggers deal holy damage when you get it its art of war is 100% holy damage.

[Fencers]

How so?

Honestly. I don't remember. It was like midnight and Farum Azula was blowing my mind again.

It'll come back to me again at some point.

[Radaney]

Hold on... is this a prequel to Dark Souls?

This game is flipping me the fuck out. The story is incredible.

If anything Elden Ring is a sequel to Dark Souls.

The Erdtree came after the Age of Fire, when the Golden Order/Marika fought and beat the Fire Giants. Containing the flame in the giant...Lord Vessel...which requires the sacrifice of a Demigod to light...

Also in Elden Ring the Dragons predated the Age of Fire and Dragons are made of Gravel/Stone...exactly like Dark Souls.

I'm sure it's all a coincedence /s.

[Jastall]

Started running into the tedious duo boss fights. Duo gargoyles weren't so bad since the second one isn't active at first but the poison and heavy attack spam was still annoying. Duo Tree Sentinel was a nice bit of jousting I suppose, although they make the Draconic one that comes later look easy.

Duo Crucible Knights, tho? Man, fuck that fight. I ended up killing them by running around like a coward for 5 minutes easily, firing a few glintstone pebbles at them and then running ad nauseum. One was left and I could finally enjoy the fight, except I played super defensively since dying meant wasting 5+ more minutes poking the spear one to death again, and deciding to come back later meant running the basilisk+chariot oneshot gauntlet again and screw that.

Armor looks cool at least. But what an unfun, tedious fight. Seems it's the classic From Soft approach of "this enemy if fun to fight as a duel and clearly designed as such. But what if there were two??" Answer is, it's harder but higher difficulty does not equal higher quality.

[Sinured]

wish witcher 3 or cyberfail 2077 would be as fun as this game.
180h+ in and still not finished, mainly helping players to "gid gud".

[starstationprofm]

wish witcher 3 or cyberfail 2077 would be as fun as this game.
180h+ in and still not finished, mainly helping players to "gid gud".

Dunno how you can compare these games, Witcher and Cyberpunk have an actual story. Elden Ring is just a recycle of Dark Souls, which they've done in literally all of their games so far.

Like yeah no shit when the only thing you focus on is combat, the combat's gonna be good.

And even then they still have laughable crap like flying enemies getting stuck in 3D pieces and dying.

[dlld]

Started running into the tedious duo boss fights. Duo gargoyles weren't so bad since the second one isn't active at first but the poison and heavy attack spam was still annoying. Duo Tree Sentinel was a nice bit of jousting I suppose, although they make the Draconic one that comes later look easy.

Duo Crucible Knights, tho? Man, fuck that fight. I ended up killing them by running around like a coward for 5 minutes easily, firing a few glintstone pebbles at them and then running ad nauseum. One was left and I could finally enjoy the fight, except I played super defensively since dying meant wasting 5+ more minutes poking the spear one to death again, and deciding to come back later meant running the basilisk+chariot oneshot gauntlet again and screw that.

Armor looks cool at least. But what an unfun, tedious fight. Seems it's the classic From Soft approach of "this enemy if fun to fight as a duel and clearly designed as such. But what if there were two??" Answer is, it's harder but higher difficulty does not equal higher quality.

I just let my mimic solo the double crucible knights.

[Skirdus]

Nope.

I was using the meme beam with the bow spell that fires 4 arrows and the spirit Black Knife Tiche....

Many times each one would tick for a lot of damage then heal a decent chuck of it. I nearly didn't get my EB kill cause he was at like 5% and healed a decent amount. I was legit one hit from death LOL.

The bosses aren't healing. Tiche's red flame attack does % damage over time, but also has an additional effect that basically reduces her enemies' maximum health. What you're seeing isn't the bosses healing, but rather their max health being reduced and the visual of their current health evening out to reflect that

[Fencers]

It delights me to no end there is a dungeon that is a tribute to the endless forest in Legend of Zelda. There is no in-game indication I could find the dungeon works in that manner.

[Daedius]

Have to say, this game is a masterpiece.

It's not a mistake?

[omeomorfismo]

oh god, after 6 nights of tries i finally beated malenia D:
damn, the only real problem of the boss are these fucking wings in p2 that hide the sword, making her a nightmare to fight melee...
contestably even the double slash she do when in "neutral" (when she isnt doing anything and she is just walking), at least with light weapons like the daggers she just hyperarmor you and you cant do anything and without a buckler it makes any parry a 50-50 with the right sidestep...

definitely my most difficult fight of any fs game, but unlike isshin or owl father mostly because i just played a wrong setup...


(because im too proud of that )