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[TintoConCasera]

Working from home never was harder than now... The thrist is there but I can't let all this work pile up. It's the dark souls of wfh.

 

[DeaconOfTheDank]

Just wondering if any of the souls/from vets are going through bosses without using the summons?

They obviously make an insane difference in difficulty. I'm a from newb, but it's very apparent in 1st proper story boss in the castle -- I went from struggling to get him to 2nd phase, to a few attempts with the jellyfish and getting him down to something 10-15% a few different times.

Anyway... I'm pretty sure I'm well leveled for the fight at 30, but I'm struggling with the timing and avoiding damage. I put in a lot of hours this past weekend and am really loving it so far. The dungeon bosses have been really fun to go through "clean", without using the summons or coop or anything, but for someone like me who's not a good souls/from player it's clear the proper bosses are a different level.

The bosses in this game feel like they are built to encourage people to use magic + summons. I've managed to beat both Margit and Godrick and they definitely require the use of the jump mechanic + guard counters to stand a chance. Margit especially, since attempting to dodge roll through everything leaves very little openings to punish him. Using guard counters against him is very effective and makes the combat feel waaaay more badass than the usual "roll to win" gameplay.

I'm hearing voices at the starting location of the boss in gold on the gold horse and I'm hearing these voices in that location at night. But the boss is dead and there's no one around so I go around wacking trees and any fucking thing that moves. It's freaking me out

Go check out the ruins directly to the right near the lake/swamp area.

 

[Punished Miku]

Btw I'm talking for myself. These poisonous award shows and the likes of Metacritic and such that prove democracy is flawed if your population has low IQ and/or is indoctrinated to... Anyways.. Fuck THAT metric of succes. Folks commenting it can't be a GOTY on ground of graphics and performance should feel ashamed. Tells a lot

Graphics aren't a huge issue but irregular frame rate does suck for an action heavy game demanding precise parries and dodges constantly to avoid one hit kills. It's not like it's that crazy to ask for a stable 60 fps on a game that looks nearly identical to a PS4 game, and is an action game. People tend to cover up any critique of the gameplay with insults about getting good. I just platinumed Sifu and the combat feels a lot better than this combat system for multiple reasons. Very different games, but the tendency to discredit any criticism of these games as illegitimate is infuriating.

 

[SpokkX]

Yes

Nothing will touch this. Not even starfield or botw 2

 

[Spaceman292]

- DF recommends waiting for patch.

- People who actually play good games.

Those miserable duds don't play games, they just build computers and stare at numbers.

 

[R6Rider]

Not even close to done with my first character and I have so many ideas and plans for further playthroughs.

Will probably go Astrologer next since I'm currently using no magic, not even the spectral summons.

 

[22:22:22]

Graphics aren't a huge issue but irregular frame rate does suck for an action heavy game demanding precise parries and dodges constantly to avoid one hit kills. It's not like it's that crazy to ask for a stable 60 fps on a game that looks nearly identical to a PS4 game, and is an action game. People tend to cover up any critique of the gameplay with insults about getting good. I just platinumed Sifu and the combat feels a lot better than this combat system for multiple reasons. Very different games, but the tendency to discredit any criticism of these games as illegitimate is infuriating.

I wholeheartedly agree with all you said.

I'm not one to turn a blind eye to these very Important matters, please, don't get me wrong.

If I can recognize this, and still have this opinion about a game it says a lot. Well, in my world it does..

Beggars can't be choosers.

I didn't say there isn't room for improvement my friend

 

[Pejo]

Has anyone else not been invaded once yet?

Granted I played 35 hours in 4 days so I'm going to be a higher soul level than most, but I've not been invaded once, did I miss opting in to something somewhere?

In this game you don't get invaded until you're actively in multiplayer or if you summon a red sign. So if you've been clearing the areas solo and then summoning just for bosses or whatever, you can't get invaded. It also means that if you invade someone, you're dealing with at least 1v2 which kinda sucks.

 

[Draugoth]

Hidetaka Miyazaki Sees Death as a Feature, Not a Bug

Miyazaki has created the most difficult games of the century. In his latest, Elden Ring, he wants a broader audience to feel the pain.

www.newyorker.com

Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki says that while dying a lot in From Software games is now part of the studio's "identity", he is keen to "make death enjoyable".

I’ve never been a very skilled player. I die a lot. So, in my work, I want to answer the question: If death is to be more than a mark of failure, how do I give it meaning? How do I make death enjoyable I do feel apologetic toward anyone who feels there’s just too much to overcome in my games,” Miyazaki added. "I just want as many players as possible to experience the joy that comes from overcoming hardship."

Consequently, Miyazaki has no plans to "abandon" the challenge level of From Software's games, as "hardship is what gives meaning to the experience".

We are always looking to improve, but, in our games specifically, hardship is what gives meaning to the experience," he added. "So it’s not something we’re willing to abandon at the moment. It’s our identity. We gave the eagerly-anticipated action RPG a full five stars out of five in our Elden Ring review, stating: "When Elden Ring hits the rails, the momentum carries it forward and refuses to slow down.

My peaks of rage at being stomped on by towering titans never stopped being fun despite that, with that very particular form of masochistic joy you get from wrestling with FromSoftware games. It might not be as groundbreaking as its inspirations, but taken on its own terms, Elden Ring might be the best of its brethren - and that's something I'm still struggling to believe has actually happened.

 

[hollams]

Make sure you are fighting the simple enemies out in the field as that is where you get your different weapons and armors. It seems a bit like monster hunter where they will drop things at different rates.

Also wondering how much the time of day changes the different locations regarding enemies and random events.

 

[VN1X]

HAHAHAHA I just lost 11k runes because I put my controller down out of frustration and went for a piss. When I came back I saw that my character was slowly in between a bunch of enemies. I saw my runes on the ground but apparently I had already died once before as when I picked 'em up I gained zero.

That mini-boss at the Lake Ruins or whatever is so FUCKING annoying. Literally made me want to punch my TV and now I doubt I'll touch the game for the remainder of the week because of this shit lmao

 

[VN1X]

Returned my copy to GameStop today with the 10 day game guarantee.

With the lack of a pause in offline mode, broken performance and save issues. Along with other bugs and crashes. No thanks.

The lack of a pause in offline mode is seriously annoying.

 

[CeeJay]

Yes, they do. Theres not a single game in history other than this that both performed and looked like such shit and still got such high scores. Zelda is excused because of the hardware it's released on. I dont know why From gets such a huge pass.

You love the game, thats great im happy for you. But how much better would it be if it looked like Horizon? When a developer delivers on all fronts, thats when you approach materpiece status. You cant sit there and tell me the experience wouldn't be enhanced significantly.

As for TLOU 2, thats my GOAT, nothing close imo - I would definitely not appreciate the game as much as I do if it looked like shit. The graphics enhanced the atmosphere significantly, same goes for HFW.

Not remember the N64?

Body Harvest, OOT, Turok 2, Perfect Dark to name a few...

Elden Ring's performance is good enough and the visuals are really nice IMO. OK, from a technical standpoint it might fall a bit short but it's good enough for the vast majority of people.

 

[22:22:22]

The lack of a pause in offline mode is seriously annoying.

 

[22:22:22]

I'm itching for a cloak or at least a cape.. it's not much to ask for..

 

[R6Rider]

 

[22:22:22]

But Darth Maul is lame =/

 

[Aesius]

Working from home never was harder than now... The thrist is there but I can't let all this work pile up. It's the dark souls of wfh.

I did a speedrun of my work yesterday morning and then played Elden Ring the rest of the day. Lol

 

[rofif]

I think I got gud!!!! Radahn is dead :O it was very frustrating

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Yeah. Oldschool hard done without cheaty computer mechanics is a winning formula. Modern game design, gameplay and mechanics with meaningful, fair challenge will always be worthwhile.

Much better than I could've said it. Fully agree.

I play a lot of retro games, and that's what drives me nuts about some of them: they have bullshit/unfair difficulty where anyone with even a single digit IQ can tell that the computer is "reading your inputs."

 

[AV]

In this game you don't get invaded until you're actively in multiplayer or if you summon a red sign. So if you've been clearing the areas solo and then summoning just for bosses or whatever, you can't get invaded. It also means that if you invade someone, you're dealing with at least 1v2 which kinda sucks.

Oh, that... sucks. That seems like an objectively bad change when someone could just play the game offline if they didn't want to be invaded. Huh.

 

[R6Rider]

Oh, that... sucks. That seems like an objectively bad change when someone could just play the game offline if they didn't want to be invaded. Huh.

I'm guessing they made it this way because people invading would constantly be forcing you off your horse. Granted, I'd prefer the option to have invasions while solo still.

 

[Punished Miku]

Getting a little pretentious. Death doesn't give anything meaning.

What you're really talking about is the complexity of the combat system, and the satisfaction of executing it well. The only thing death is, is the amount of hard stops you experience in the time it takes to get to the point that you can execute the required actions. Mastery and complexity can give things meaning. There's many ways to get to that point, whether it's training modes, slowly ramping up difficulty throughout the game to help educate the player on the systems in the game and give them time to master it, or the brick wall approach where you're just stuck and teach yourself the patterns required.

And personally, I don't think a lot of the combat elements are that complex in Elden Ring, so I don't feel like I'm mastering complexity. I feel like enemies have lots of cheap tactics, and the player has lots of things stacked against them at times (frame rate, sluggish movement, poor camera, skills tied to MP, odd controls for weapon switching, enemies read your inputs, enemies magnet and home in on you during attacks, and much more). Nioh has far more complexity in the combat, and so does basically any fighting game or real action game, and you're given training tools to master it all.

A lot of the elation around dying in a Miyazaki game is tied to his cult status and the inability to critique anything in the game. The games also prioritize hiding all aspects of a normal story so that players search for exaggerated "meaning" in all kinds of innocuous and mediocre elements of the game.

He makes good stuff, but he's smelling his own farts a bit. I can't imagine that will change after the critical reception of Elden Ring.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I'm itching for a cloak or at least a cape.. it's not much to ask for..

There's one in the "dog pit" in stormveil, you know the one if you've walked past it.

 

[Captain Toad]

Miyazaki dies a lot? What a loser. Git gud, bruh.

 

[Spaceman292]

Also you can’t pause in this game? I went to take a shit and I was dead when I came back.

Sounds like you need to getgud at shitting. Do what I did amd buy a madcatz pro poop bucket.

Or just put your console into rest mode that works too.

 

[VN1X]

Loving the game but very disappointed in the performance on Series X. The loading takes ages sometimes (well longer than 10 secs) and it gets real stuttery in places (wonder if it even hits 60fps then on performance mode?).

So far this gen has had quite the false start imo. And I'm not even talking about visuals but just the performance for some of these games at 1080p is quite poor, considering.

 

[22:22:22]

There's one in the "dog pit" in stormveil, you know the one if you've walked past it.

Hmmm, I've been there. Dig pit doenst Ring any bell. Can you be more specific?

 

[TintoConCasera]

Hmmm, I've been there. Dig pit doenst Ring any bell. Can you be more specific?

There are two dogs and a pile of corpses, with a death troll hanging upside down. The pit is next to the room with all the hanging arms and legs, where you fight the tutorial boss again.

I think that you need to have advanced some NPC quests for the item to spawn there tho. More specifically, the one about the blonde girl you meet in Storm Hill, who has a red cape covering her head

 

[kikkis]

I think I got gud!!!! Radahn is dead :O it was very frustrating

Grats! I hope it's the worst boss in game.

 

[DaedalusGrim]

Theres something about that feeling of overcoming those difficult moments that no other games can match for me.

I don't wanna sound like a stereotypical From fanboy but there really is something about those games that you just can't find anywhere else.

 

[NickFire]

Not even close to done with my first character and I have so many ideas and plans for further playthroughs.

Will probably go Astrologer next since I'm currently using no magic, not even the spectral summons.

First time playing one of these games, and I went with Astrologer. I have quickly learned that distance is my friend. But how the hell am I supposed to be beat any bosses I wonder. Any tips on astrologers are welcome.

 

[AJUMP23]

There are two dogs and a pile of corpses, with a death troll hanging upside down. The pit is next to the room with all the hanging arms and legs, where you fight the tutorial boss again.

I think that you need to have advanced some NPC quests for the item to spawn there tho. More specifically, the one about the blonde girl you meet in Storm Hill, who has a red cape covering her head

I found the how there, but I can't figure out why it ended up there after she removed it. Also her bob cut is great.

 

[SJRB]

So what actually happens when I use for example the Bloodhound Fang and I have sufficient strength but not dex, does it reduce my damage output?

I've been swinging it around and it doesn't seem like I can't use it.

 

[thuGG_pl]

So this game is the first souls game I wanted to get into.

I'm on PC. As I expected, after launching the game didn't reckognize my Xbox One controller. It reckognized mouse, and some keys on the keybord (but not 'escape'). Getting into options there is nothing to change regarding controlls, and I couldn't event get back to main menu. Mission failed.
10/10 masterpiece.

 

[TintoConCasera]

I found the how there, but I can't figure out why it ended up there after she removed it. Also her bob cut is great.

Maybe she went there and left it as a goodbye gift to his previous companions, before moving on with her new life as a spirit tuner?

I dunno, when I found the item there I thought she just died. ^^u

 

[AJUMP23]

Maybe she went there and left it as a goodbye gift to his previous companions, before moving on with her new life as a spirit tuner?

I dunno, when I found the item there I thought she just died. ^^u

Well she

Spoiler: spoiler

change her look until you finish her round table quest line.

 

[Auto_aim1]

I found this farming method best for a sorcerer. 25k a run. Once you have 60+ intelligence you can speed it up drastically.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

Godfrey is not in stormveil

Godrick, my bad

 

[Dr. Claus]

That’s a you problem.

No, it is completely a *you* problem. Things are designed very specifically to evoke particular emotions. Fear, trepidation, joy, elation, stress, etc. By having an “easy” mode, that changes how one perceives the world crafted and can actively ruin/remove those emotions from the experience.

Learn to “git gud” (i.e. learn to be patient, explore, and strategize) and you won’t have any issues with the game (Or any Soulsbourne game for that matter). I get many modern “gamers” are treated as mindless children and given shallow systems that require zero forethought, but you should use the brain that was given to you.

 

[ssringo]

So what actually happens when I use for example the Bloodhound Fang and I have sufficient strength but not dex, does it reduce my damage output?

I've been swinging it around and it doesn't seem like I can't use it.

Try hitting an enemy. You do less damage without the stats to "use" it.

Used to be your character visibly couldn't swing the weapon properly. But being able to at least see and try the move set is good. Would suck to level stats and find out the move set isn't good or you just don't like it.

 

[kingpotato]

20 ish hours in on the ps5 version and this is the worst bug I've seen so far:

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I’ve always championed the difficulty in these games and it’s not because I’m an elitist or want my games to be super tough. It’s simply because as a community we have all had the same experience and understand exactly what it was like to pull our hair out fighting Ornstein and Smough. Or Margit in the case of Elden Ring!

 

[balls of snow]

Got to Godrick finally. That castle is the most intricate design place ive seen in a while. Apparently there is an underground place as well that I dont know how to access. As for the grafted one, he bleeds like mofo. Got him to half health through bleed proc. Need some fire protection.

 

[kikkis]

No, it is completely a *you* problem. Things are designed very specifically to evoke particular emotions. Fear, trepidation, joy, elation, stress, etc. By having an “easy” mode, that changes how one perceives the world crafted and can actively ruin/remove those emotions from the experience.

Learn to “git gud” (i.e. learn to be patient, explore, and strategize) and you won’t have any issues with the game (Or any Soulsbourne game for that matter). I get many modern “gamers” are treated as mindless children and given shallow systems that require zero forethought, but you should use the brain that was given to you.

I think From kind of dropped the ball with some bosses on elden ring. They just hit so hard often one shotting, and they are often really messy.

 

[Swift_Star]

As much as people whine for an easy mode, I still think difficulty has been one of the keys for the success of their games. It set them apart, gave them an identity and formed a community around a single carefully crafted experience with a unified challenge for anyone who plays it.
Even more casual players who aren't up to date with every more niche RPG had heard about that "challenging RPG", it spawned memes like being "the dark souls of ....", drove a lot of engagement to videos like "beating all the games without getting hit", "beating the final boss blindfolded", "beating the game using a DDR controller" etc which you rarely see get as much traction for other games even if they have an optional hard mode, etc.

They've also made the games more accessible over time. Because accessibility isn't necessarily an easy mode. Haven't played Elden Ring yet but Sekiro got more straightforward with tutorials, added characters like Hanbei who let you practice the core moves of combat, let you natively remap the controller (which still not every console game does), etc.

The bolded premise is false. It’s not the same challenges for everyone because you has multiple ways to play the game, including solo, with friends, cheating, using guides and whatnot. All that makes it not the same experience and challenge for everyone.

 

[Swift_Star]

So what actually happens when I use for example the Bloodhound Fang and I have sufficient strength but not dex, does it reduce my damage output?

I've been swinging it around and it doesn't seem like I can't use it.

If you have half what is necessary for the weapon (just need to be sure it’s actually half) and 2H it, you’ll be able to use the weapon fully I believe.

 

[MastAndo]

Some of the areas and enemies in this game trigger my trypophobia.

 

[GymWolf]

Did anyone already beat the half tiger half frog boss in the cathedral of the bloody hundreds? The one close to that little zone with 3 small dragons and a giant worm snake that looks like a miniboss? name of the boss is hamaldur creature of the deeps or some shit.

 

[March Climber]

Not sure if it's been posted yet but for those of you going for Belmont runs, here's the whip location: