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[fart town usa]

As someone who sucks at Soulsborne games and usually gives up halfway through, is this going to be the game that wins me over as a Miyazaki fanatic?

I have a huge level of admiration for the games and can't stop watching videos on them all, I just never have the time to dedicate to "gitting gud" is all.

Have been fighting the urge to buy this all week.

Dude, it's a fantastic game. I mean, I hope it is for you at least.

As someone who also generally sucks at Souls games, this game is actually pretty chill if you enjoy exploring. Most massive enemies are easily avoidable, there are a shit ton of grace points (bon fires) and just a ton of stuff to do. It's so much more forgiving than other entries in the series. Some minibosses are too much but it's like, who cares, I'll just come back after a few hours of improving my character and handle them with relative ease, and if they're still too tough, I'll just go somewhere else, it's no sweat. I'm 40 hours in and still haven't been anywhere close to everywhere on the map.

Don't be afraid to use beginner guides if you're unsure how a certain item works, etc. The world is so massive and cryptic, I honestly don't feel like I'm ever spoiling anything cause there's so much stuff to see and do.

 

[Mossybrew]

As someone who also generally sucks at Souls games, this game is actually pretty chill if you enjoy exploring. Most massive enemies are easily avoidable, there are a shit ton of grace points (bon fires) and just a ton of stuff to do. It's so much more forgiving than other entries in the series. Some minibosses are too much but it's like, who cares, I'll just come back after a few hours of improving my character and handle them with relative ease, and if they're still too tough, I'll just go somewhere else, it's no sweat. I'm 40 hours in and still haven't been anywhere close to everywhere on the map.

Yes, very much this. I'm not a Souls fan. Elden Ring hasn't made me a Souls fan either, it's too different, as noted above. I've put about the same amount of time in and there is still a ton to explore and do, I'm not even really interested in "finishing" the game properly, I probably won't, may come upon some required boss that's just too frustrating, may just eventually get bored, who knows. But for now this game is still a lot of fun just exploring, finding new things, slowly getting stronger.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I feel like I’m the only one here using the marrionette soldier ashes. They are unbelievably good, they’ve even killed bosses for me by themselves in some areas.

I'm a fan of the Ancestral Followers. Because I fucking hate those guys in their area. I use them as my bitch constantly. They can tank, damage from range etc.

 

[Pejo]

I just went and watched a DS 1 video and it pretty much confirmed that the boss fights are significantly different in this game:


DS1, bosses aren't ultra fast with 5 to 7 hit combos that can blow through your stamina. You can usually gauge where they are trying to hit you, whereas it seems as if every boss has dhalsim arms and their weapons reach much further than you expect. They also don't have autotracking jump moves where they can spin and aim towards you in midair. Looking at ornstein and smough, if the boss jumped a certain direction, he just went in that direction and let you dodge him. If they swung in a certain direction, they just swung in that direction. they didn't automatically rotate to hit you.

This pretty much eliminates strategically positioning yourself and makes combat turn into something where you just have to hit the dodge button at the right time or maybe try to parry or just have a super strong shield to where their attack bounces off and you counter attack. Summons are there to be hit sponges and absorb some of those endless combos.

On the other hand:

Spoiler

This is the fight that really annoyed me last night. Imagine doing this boss fight without a summon. The misbegotten is super fast, has long range with nonstop combos. not fun when playing with a melee build. Best I've done is using a big shield and hopefully one of his attacks bounce off and then I get a hit or two in

I get what you're saying, but the whole point of "imagine doing this boss fight without a summon" is moot, because summons exist. There's an entire NPC devoted just to leveling up the NPC summons. Encounters were designed with them in mind. Can people beat any boss in the game without a summon? Absolutely. But the summons are here, they're useful, they're balanced (except for mimic tear), so just get used to them. I don't get why people are so against adapting to that particular mechanic. Nobody is losing their mind about jump attacks, despite them having much shorter startup and more stagger than any R2 attack. They're in the game to be used. If Fromsoft wanted to test you without letting you use them, they wouldn't make them summonable for that particular encounter (look at gaol fights for instance).

That said, I do wish we had more DeS/DS1 tier gimmick fights. There are a handful that I can think of in this game, that if you "know" the fight, pay attention, read the lore, etc, you can bypass a lot of mechanics for that particular fight. There are so many bosses in the game, it wouldn't have killed them to include more gimmick fights so not everything is a dodge timing sweaty match.

 

[Freeman76]

Caelid is a real shithole and for me has dulled the excitement a little as the game has lost the intricate feeling of exploration I got from Limgrave and Liurnia. It's too barren and feels half baked like ita an area from the second half of DS1, everything is too spaced out and feels like nothing of note most places I look.

Its amazing that I can say that, and still in the same post say this game is in my top 3 of all time. Im at the rune boss for the area now so I guess im 2/3rds through once I beat him, but if the last 2 areas go back to the quality of Limgrave, Weeping Pen and Liurnia it could easily turn out to be the best game ive played in my life!

 

[KAOS]

At the bottom of that crystal cave?

 

[Captain Toad]

Finished it this morning. No idea what my character did, why he did it or what the consequences of me doing it. I'll read more and try to make more sense of the plot on a future playthrough.

But, the game as a whole is a masterpiece and probably the best experience I've had with an open-world game since The Legend of Zelda on NES.

 

[Braag]

According to my notes I'm juggling 21 questlines at the same time at the moment and I'm only at Liurnia. As someone who kinda wants to get everything done it's a bit exhausting, but the moment to moment gameplay and exploration is definitely fun.

 

[WoodyStare]

This has to be the first campaign I’ve played for almost 100 hours, haven't even come close to finishing, and I’m still not burned out. I could probably go for another 100, which is entirely possible given the amount of content here. Just a breathtaking game.

 

[Ogbert]

That Rennala corpse run sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Caelid is a real shithole and for me has dulled the excitement a little as the game has lost the intricate feeling of exploration I got from Limgrave and Liurnia. It's too barren and feels half baked like ita an area from the second half of DS1, everything is too spaced out and feels like nothing of note most places I look.

Its amazing that I can say that, and still in the same post say this game is in my top 3 of all time. Im at the rune boss for the area now so I guess im 2/3rds through once I beat him, but if the last 2 areas go back to the quality of Limgrave, Weeping Pen and Liurnia it could easily turn out to be the best game ive played in my life!

Have you been to Altus Plateau or the Capital yet? Those areas are amazing and apparently the game just gets bigger from there. I agree that Caelid is a bit shit but I’m still absolutely floored by the game.

 

[SCB3]

Red Wolf of Radagon down, I hate this Area as a Melee character

I'm still not getting this fucking summon system either, for some reason I couldn't summon any ashes for this fight again, despite touching the summoning pool statue and having the right amount of FP, its so weird cause I can outside of this area

 

[AJUMP23]

Spoiler

west of raya lucaria academy, there are standing stones that teleport you around the map.

Are you talking about the belfries?

 

[The_hunter]

Are you talking about the belfries?

Yeah, there's one belfrie that teleports you to the island west of stormveil.

 

[AJUMP23]

Yeah, there's one belfrie that teleports you to the island west of stormveil.

Cool. I have 2 of the keys.

 

[The_hunter]

Red Wolf of Radagon down, I hate this Area as a Melee character

I'm still not getting this fucking summon system either, for some reason I couldn't summon any ashes for this fight again, despite touching the summoning pool statue and having the right amount of FP, its so weird cause I can outside of this area

Ashes won't work if you use the item to see other player summons.

 

[DonJorginho]

Thanks to everyone who left advice on whether or not to pick up Elden Ring.

I'm happy to confirm I have bought it today and will be venturing into it after work on Friday!

 

[near]

Spoiler

Red Wolf of Radagon

down, I hate this Area as a Melee character

I'm still not getting this fucking summon system either, for some reason I couldn't summon any ashes for this fight again, despite touching the summoning pool statue and having the right amount of FP, its so weird cause I can outside of this area

I don't think you're able to summon spirit ashes for this boss. You'll be given a prompt on screen in the bottom left hand corner just above your equipped items with a semi-transparent blue tombstone, when you see this you'll be able to summon spirit ashes.

 

[SCB3]

Ashes won't work if you use the item to see other player summons.

Ah I wonder if I had that on

Anyway, decided the Bloody Bastard Sword and the Holy Halberd are not working for me right now, so switched to a Bloody Uchikatana, man the speed and amount of blood damage I can build up destroys some enemies so fast

 

[mekes]

This game is a mature Ocarina of Time to me.

I mean it strictly in a personal sense to what OoT meant to me as a teenager when it first released. I was always so eager to get back into the game, progress more, find more. I’ve been losing track of time playing this and enjoying it so much, that it gives me nostalgia in the very positive sense to all those years ago playing OoT as a teen.

And I‘ve still only just scratched the surface on what the game has to offer.

 

[MastAndo]

Was about to respec, but panicked and ran away. I have 4 of the items needed, but I feel like they're precious, and I'm still not quite sure if I really need to change anything about my "quality" build.

I'm loving dual-wielding bleed weapons, with a blood Dismounter and a Bloodhound's Fang...but I recently acquired

Spoiler

Morgott's Cursed Sword

, and it looks pretty sweet and all but requires 17 Arcane, of which I still have the base 7 as a Vagabond. Not sure it's worth to respec just to use a weapon when I have something that does the job similarly. Hmmm, decisions decisions.

 

[Ezquimacore]

 

[Swift_Star]

Putrid tree spirit is another badly design boss. Why are you insisting on giving your bosses attacks thst can one shot is easily, From? This is NOT fun.

 

[j0hnnix]

Spoiler

Lord of Blood more like Lord of Cheese, I had to do the glitch. With my current bleed build(Two Katanas w/Sepukku on each) and Mimic Tear I brought him down to a sliver and let him kill me because I wanted to do the glitch.

I'm not sure if we are still tagging these spoilers but better safe than sorry.. the boss probably has already been mentioned anyways.

 

[Swift_Star]

Honestly considering dropping the game. The one hit kill cheap bosses are not doing it for me. I’m stopping to enjoy this. 42h playing and this is it.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

This game is so huge I don't know how I'm ever going to finish all of it.

Spoiler

and then there's the vast underground parts of the map too

Spoiler

FUCK

 

[Hawking Radiation]

I can see now why people are enjoying this game so much.

Lyndell Royal Capital is H U G E !!!! This fucking place needs its own separate map gud damn !

 

[near]

I can see now why people are enjoying this game so much.

Lyndell Royal Capital is H U G E !!!! This fucking place needs its own separate map gud damn !

I got lost there. That's just the surface level... hint intended.

 

[Balducci30]

I love this game. 50 hours here, ps4pro version on ps5, the game looks ugly in limgrave and altus plateu since there's no grass, and the textures are blurry, so I might switch to ps5 version. The mist and fog is the best I've ever seen in a game, they managed to simulate the aerial perspective in such an artistic way it's incredible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_perspective. The art is incredible all around.

Even when it looks like “technically” not great - the artistry more than makes up for it imo - you never know what kind of beautifully designed thing you’re gonna come across next

 

[Balducci30]

Yes, very much this. I'm not a Souls fan. Elden Ring hasn't made me a Souls fan either, it's too different, as noted above. I've put about the same amount of time in and there is still a ton to explore and do, I'm not even really interested in "finishing" the game properly, I probably won't, may come upon some required boss that's just too frustrating, may just eventually get bored, who knows. But for now this game is still a lot of fun just exploring, finding new things, slowly getting stronger.

I have never played souls games more than a few hours - this is fun just to roam around. I will also probably not finish the storyline as I’m not good enough to do that - it’s still fun as hell

 

[Balducci30]

This game is a mature Ocarina of Time to me.

I mean it strictly in a personal sense to what OoT meant to me as a teenager when it first released. I was always so eager to get back into the game, progress more, find more. I’ve been losing track of time playing this and enjoying it so much, that it gives me nostalgia in the very positive sense to all those years ago playing OoT as a teen.

And I‘ve still only just scratched the surface on what the game has to offer.

Exactly this

 

[BadBurger]

I have never played souls games more than a few hours - this is fun just to roam around. I will also probably not finish the storyline as I’m not good enough to do that - it’s still fun as hell

My most enjoyable session was last night, when all I did was quick travel back to the start and then march my way back through my initial journey. The first time I had to avoid most enemies and run through roads guarded by soldiers. Now I was powerful enough to take on everyone, it was like now I was the big bad guy to avoid. Taking on packs of soldiers and those big withered-looking dudes like it was nothing.

Still only have five bosses down though. I find myself more interested in simply exploring and growing more powerful than I do advancing the story. Besides, I have my own head canon on what is going on, and I am happy with it for now xD

 

[FunkMiller]

My most enjoyable session was last night, when all I did was quick travel back to the start and then march my way back through my initial journey. The first time I had to avoid most enemies and run through roads guarded by soldiers. Now I was powerful enough to take on everyone, it was like now I was the big bad guy to avoid. Taking on packs of soldiers and those big withered-looking dudes like it was nothing.

No other games come close to the way Souls games sell a satisfying power fantasy. Because you've earned it, and you know what the alternative is. Destroying bosses that destroyed you over and over (as well has co-oping to help other players) is one of the best things about the Souls experience.

 

[FunkMiller]

I can see now why people are enjoying this game so much.

Lyndell Royal Capital is H U G E !!!! This fucking place needs its own separate map gud damn !

I fucking love Leyndell. Love it. Everything about is fantastic.

 

[FunkMiller]

Finished it this morning. No idea what my character did, why he did it or what the consequences of me doing it. I'll read more and try to make more sense of the plot on a future playthrough.

Basically, every Soulsborne game has essentially the same plot (Sekiro excluded):

You are an anonymous lone adventurer, tasked with finding and destroying several malign and powerful entities, in order to either rule over everything, destroy everything, or just GTFO of the whole damn mess.

All the juicy lore stuff is hung around that.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I don't think so.

Did you manage to try this out?

Spoiler

I had to use my Greatsword and ride the horse. I stayed by his injured foot. His fire got me a couple times, but I’d imagine if I had a +25 with blood that I could have used that. My Greatsword was maxed out, so I was able to take more damage with that.

 

[TintoConCasera]

The boss fight in the Volcano Manor is probably one of the coolest, if not the most epic one they must have done so far. The scale is amazing and I loved the "special mechanic" it has.

I'm now at Leyndell, almost finishing it I think, and man, I wont be sure until a few days or so after having beaten the game, but right now I think this is the best shit I've ever played.

 

[BadBurger]

Stolen from Reddit, been in this situation several times

 

[Saber]

Me after my first hour or so of the game and ended up there with enemies that one shot me

 

[Hawking Radiation]

I fucking love Leyndell. Love it. Everything about is fantastic.

Every time i think of giving up on this game fucking something else just pulls me right back in. It does look amazing.

This game is HUGE in scope. I really can't imagine how much dev time went into all these environments. How everything is connected is just insane and then on top of it all the detail present in each room, corridor, hallway, building is just incredible.

I mean there are people playing this game being over 100 hours in and still discovering new areas. Lol this is nuts.

 

[Ezquimacore]

Me after my first hour or so of the game and ended up there with enemies that one shot me

I was lucky to run all the way down to the site of grace and leave that hellhole

 

[DavidGzz]

A couple things I hope they add to the game. When you're crouched and you fall off a ledge, it would be nice if you kept the crouch position. I keep alerting enemies because I think I'm still crouched when I start sprinting lol. Also, why can't we open chests, climb ladders, etc when crouched?

 

[Mossybrew]

Well 45 hours in and I just now for the first time found Godrick, with my secondary character lvl 50 Astrologer. With the help of my +2 wolfpack he was easy.

 

[OsirisBlack]

im having mad fun with the whip, quickstep and dagger combo, since the whip cant crit if the enemy is open i change to dual daggers to either combo into blood loss or do a high damage crit.

This is absolutely fucking awesome. If you love castlevania give this a listen……
Also I haven’t come across a whip in my play through and I’m fairly late in the game…. Now I want one.

 

[BennyBlanco]

 

[OsirisBlack]

One of the first areas I wandered into … oof bad start

 

[Hawking Radiation]

A couple things I hope they add to the game. When you're crouched and you fall off a ledge, it would be nice if you kept the crouch position. I keep alerting enemies because I think I'm still crouched when I start sprinting lol. Also, why can't we open chests, climb ladders, etc when crouched?

Do you go into crouch position jumping off a high wall? I certainly don't. Imagine the damage to your limbs after hitting the ground.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Fuck this place. Free rune grab just before the castle if you let the Ai duke it out lol.

 

[DavidGzz]

Do you go into crouch position jumping off a high wall? I certainly don't. Imagine the damage to your limbs after hitting the ground.

I'm talking about a short 1-3 foot ledge. And yeah, if you're smart you crouch to absorb the impact. All you have to do is not stand back up and you're still crouched...

 

[OsirisBlack]

Join us in the Night Calvary