Elden Ring: Breath of the From Software

Gary Sax wrote: I've heard some very bad things about the last few bosses difficultywise...

I'm fine with hard bosses. I'm less fine with this garbage it's just a super unfun encounter.

I'm hearing complaints about someone with insane life steal which sounds miserable.

I haven't had a PC capable of running a AAA title since Gears of War, so I'm not sure if I'll get to Elden Ring in this lifetime but I'm sort of avoiding spoilers just in case. Is the story any good?

It's a from software game, ie it's generally quite vague wtf is going on story wise but the vibe is excellent

Yeah, I'm familiar with their convention of telling the bigger story through NPC dialogue snippets and item lore. I started looking at the plot out of the corner of my eye because I was curious to know what a capital-W writer was bringing to the table. It looks a bit like a flip of the Silmarillion - destroy the tree/s of light to usher in an age of starlight - but GRRM's contribution seems to be that... the first letter of a bunch of boss names seem to share his initials.

My guess is there's a huge lore bible that GRRM wrote somewhere, but that most of it didn't end up anywhere near the game.

If you like fingers, you're in luck.

Some truly disturbing imagery in this game.

But... Hole?

I finally explored the woods, I'm pretty overpowered for it... and found the elevator down.

That's the thing about this game. The combat is just souls, for better or worse. I love it and I always have after my first From game but I'm open to the legit criticisms of that formula. On the other hand, the actual adventure game open world reveals in it are breathtaking and *are* new. That's why the d+d 1st ed comparisons are so spot on. Like, I could absolutely enter an Expedition at Barrier Peaks area in this game, anything is possible just like 1st ed. It is also so supremely confident. It doesn't care if you see it, because it knows even if you miss some stuff you're going to drop your jaw at some other thing you do run into.

After beating Godrick I went and explored Liurnia and Raya Lucaria. I beat . Despite my enjoyment of the open world environment, the structured Legacy Dungeons are clearly the best parts of the game and they hew very closely to the Dark Souls formula. I also started powerstancing my Estoc with Roger's Rapier and I fucking love it. Scholar's Armament to buff the Estoc means I can chew through enemies and bosses alike. The jump attack is amazing which delivers three hits in the time it normally takes one to land. The powerstanced moveset makes it much easier to deal with mobs as well whereas before I was tempted to kite things out for 1v1 battles.

I recently heard the game described as a single player MMO and I think that's an excellent description of the series but this game in particular. One general piece of advice is to read the item descriptions using square. There's a lot of good shit packed into those descriptions.

Ah_Pook, it sounds like while Radahn is bullshit, the vibe I'm getting is that the entire late-end game is kind of whack in terms of balance/difficulty. I'm not there yet but part of me is unsure whether its because From has subtly changed the meta (VIT is good now, soft caps at 60 instead of 40, etc.) and the online community hasn't responded well yet or if they just missed the mark when tuning the difficulty. I'm hearing it frequently enough for me to think it's the latter which makes me a bit apprehensive about getting there myself. I wonder if some patches will address the most egregious shortcomings.

hotseatgames wrote: I rolled up on a dude sitting by a fire, thinking it was just another guard. I immediately started wailing on him, and he started pleading, and I realized it was a merchant! He attacked me quite vigorously, but I escaped and warped away.

Will he be pissed at me forever?

Short answer, No. Long answer in spoilers:

I should do something else in this game besides fight Radahn, but I keep getting close enough that I don't stop. This fight is seriously anti fun though. Like making me want to sell this game anti fun.

Edit: beat it the next attempt. Fuck that guy forever.

Frohike wrote:

I killed the dragon as described in that video, and got something like 98,000 Runes. And I can use the help, I'm getting my ass kicked.

Things, uh, seem kinda bad in Caelid.

Those birds are so gross!

The whole area is just a shithole of woe and corruption. The giant dogs, the birds, all of it.

I’ve officially become a dual flail guy. Or lady as it were since my character is female. I’ve pretty much done away with using the shield except in situations that I specifically know it’s useful. The attacks are just ruthless, as long as I hit with the first I can put down almost any regular foe in one combo. Except those damn bears.

Village of the Alburniacs or whatever was really cool- a great example of how the game understates its story…and has a cool Alien reference if you catch my meaning.

I can’t be the only one that found the singing harpy, I’ve not heard anyone mention it.