Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

all sounds cool. I have no problem with spoilers, because not only will I forget by the time I get it, I can't play any of these games without walkthrough help anyway lol.

i have the same problem/gift with forgetting everything! really comes in handy on very rare occasions

Just finished that video and have some thoughts. One, I've never played Dark Souls II because I've ... well, I guess I just skipped it, but I've heard mixed things (and there are essentially two versions of it, for that matter). But it is interesting that some of its elements have made their way to other games, despite its reputation as a disappointment. For example, as I understand it your health can be halved in DS2, and a similar mechanic was brought into Sekiro. And according to this video, power stances from DS2 have made their way to this one, too. Second, I've never used magic in any of these games, because choosing magic is like choosing an entirely different, novel way to play the game, and if you're only going to play it once I'm not sure magic is the way to do it. But maybe it is in this game, because magic looks super cool. Third, I really hope this plays well on PS4 (and other last generation systems), but I have a bad feeling between it being open world and generally newer than the past several From games it might really benefit from the speed and power of newer systems. That's one advantage of (as this video points out) From never being on the tech vanguard, because it means the games generally don't *need* next gen tech to run. (I know Demon's Souls is PS5 exclusive, but those that have played it, do you think it could run on a PS4?)

Anyway, I can already tell there are going to be a lot of funny videos generated by this game.

Oh, also, looks like you don't take fall damage when you jump, which would have been a very perverse thing for From to do, so I'm glad they didn't do it! Or at least, maybe there are height restrictions/allowances? And I like how there is environmental damage that can be done by at least bosses, which I know was in "Sekiro," though I can't recall if it was introduced there.

Demon's Souls is quite a tech showcase, it wouldn't have been able to run at that framerate on ps4, and some of the lighting/particle effects look like they would have been a big stretch too

I like Dark Souls 2 to some degree, some dispiritingly shit world design like the infamous Earthen Peak Elevator Jaunt travesty aside. It's like a difficult 3rd album that isn't among the classics but fits a certain mood when you happen to want it. I found the DLC far too much of a grim slog though

Elden Ring looks unreasonably good, can't wait

This game looks fun, and by early accounts the open world design is supposed to be good, but I can't help but wonder whether the openness actually adds much to the Souls formula. The main draw of the world design in DS1 (admittedly the only one of these I've played) was for me, its labyrinthine density. Eldenringland just looks kinda vast and drab to me.

i was moderately interested in this game, but after watching some of those videos posted above i am now EAGERLY ANTICIPATING. my only problem is i don't have a system for it, and i was leaning toward getting a steam deck rather than a ps5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DWTt37khU

Fwiw, both videos note the difficulty of the first mandatory boss.

i showed the game a friend of mine who really likes dark souls, and he seemed to be a bit disappointed at first. i think he was thinking of it as a souls-like game, which, it is in some ways of course, very much so. but just being open world and adding jumping completely changes it. it reminds me of GTAIII or breath of the wild in terms of how those games were a departure from the games they built on

Souls-like.

And something else I was thinking about, given From's propensity for hidden walls/loot/enemies/NPCs/entire levels and/or alternate endgames, I wonder what that portends for an open world game? Gonna be a lot of OCD dudes slashing at every bush, rock or piece of foliage, looking for secret stuff, a la the first Zelda.

To be honest the open world part isn't particularly compelling to me. I do like the idea of all the new handcrafted zones that are the equivalent of large Dark souls areas, and a whole bunch of new build options and mechanics (and invasions, of course).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEypd23I0pQ

here's footage of the PS4 version - it seems like it runs without any serious issues or significant visual downgrades. i got into the network test on PS4 so i'll see how it is in a few hours from now.

i'm not at all concerned about the open world, all the footage of the network test has made it very clear that it's avoiding all the common open world pitfalls (repetitive content, big for the sake of being big, etc.) & is very dense with unique content. there are at least 10 bosses in the network test area alone (which is estimated to be around 1/12 of the full game's map). it's a big change, sure, but i don't think anywhere near as radical a shift as say GTA3 or BOTW were - the core gameplay is still very much the same despite the change in environmental scale.

For example, as I understand it your health can be halved in DS2, and a similar mechanic was brought into Sekiro.

DS2's max health decreasing on death (in increments down to a min of 50%) was more of an iteration on Demon's Souls' mechanic where you lost half your max health when you were in 'soul form' opposed to 'human form', which happened upon dying while human. in both cases, the game was generally balanced around the halved max health, with more than that being a bonus, but it was still kinda presented as a punishment. i think both were intended to give the player another incentive to go into human form, which enabled being invaded as well as summoning other players as well as removing the max health penalty. DS3 improved upon this by having embers, which worked the same way in enabling multiplayer, provide a bonus to your max health instead.

there wasn't any sort of max health restriction upon death mechanic in Sekiro though, and there doesn't seem to be in Elden Ring either.

DS2 is one of the weaker souls games but it's still worth playing. the issues with it are largely that the encounter design isn't quite as tight, the world design is clumsier & it rarely reaches the same sorts of high-point boss fights as the best of the series. i'd still put it above Demon's Souls at least.

i may be a minority opinion here, but i don't worry at all about whether something can run well enough on a certain machine. i can count the number of times i have been bothered by the framerate/slowdown of a game on one hand. i think part of it is that i came to gaming age playing games like LIFE FORCE. the slowdown was part of the game. the bug became the feature. aiming for this perfect-smooth framerate ideal is understandable but also kind of disappointing. it's just different, i guess

blighttown was pretty miserable at times in the original console versions of ds1 due to all the slowdown. it's certainly something to be concerned about & can make experiences much worse. with cross-gen games like this, it does happen sometimes that the last-gen versions are significantly inferior due to cutting corners trying to get the game to run on hardware they weren't focusing on, but that thankfully doesn't seem to be the case here at all.

IDK I think having a smooth frame rate is critical for a game like this where you have to time movements precisely. And while 60 is nice, 30 is perfectly good as long as it stays consistent. I played DS1 on Switch and it runs great!

As a relatively recent returner to games, I've learned my lesson the hard way. When I got "Doom" for the Switch it kinda ran like shit, even after a few updates. The slowdowns definitely affected game play in such a fast paced game, and even things like jumping were impacted. Like, you would run at a couple of spots (even with no enemies) and suddenly things would slow down, right before you pressed jump, and you would fall to your death. But tbf, "Doom" is almost uniquely busy and fast paced, and yeah, I can't think of another game off the top of my head with issues like that.

That said, I sort of suspect at least some of my problems with "Sekiro" were related to the frame rate. Usually I don't notice/care, but that game was all about timing, and while it could have been me (I mean, for sure it was me), it's also possible it was just that much trickier for me at 30fps than it would have been at 60.

there wasn't any sort of max health restriction upon death mechanic in Sekiro though

Oh, I just meant the mechanic that makes you lose half your souls or whatever. And gives everybody dragonrot. There's a cost of dying, which I found irritating since these games are built around dying over and over again. DS1 and DS3 don't have that cost, and Bloodborne gives you a shot to get some echoes back, too.

I never minded slow downs either, it's like slo mo at a dramatic moment.

Glad the PS4 version runs well, I never cared about graphics but had to admit that 60fps is really nice after playing the DS1 remaster and now DS3 on PS5. But I played all of the other games at 30fps for hundreds of hours and had a great time, so it's definitely not essential.

very positive impressions

https://kotaku.com/elden-ring-may-just-reinvent-the-open-world-genre-1848093261

I look forward to suddenly earning souls from some NPC that dies fighting enemies on the other side of the map.

I keep wondering if I should give the other From games a shot? I just got incredibly fed up with BB but maybe having a shield would make me feel better? (Probably not.)

On the one hand having experience in one of these games helps with all of them since they have some basics in common, but on the other hand, ER looks to be the most user-friendly of them all (from little things like the menus and upgrade systems, to how the combat system seems to align with what you see onscreen in a more intuitive way, rather than having to look up online how combos/poise/parries/etc work...that's mostly for pvp though).

Generally speaking though Dark Souls 1 and 2 are slower paced, while the combat in Bloodborne is faster (and DS3 is somewhere in-between).

Shields in these games are mostly there to taunt you and weigh you down.

i have played defense heavy builds to some advantage in these games on occasion; it's a preferred method. it makes me shit at pvp tho!

I haven't used a shield in DS3 since my first playthrough, but I might use one for ER! For one thing, there's a shield weapon art (or "ash of war" I guess) that acts as both a normal parry AND can parry spells (and turn them into little magic swords you send back):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BBLmt_DI50

In the pvp world, there's been a lot of talk of the big changes from Dark Souls 3, particularly:

-No guaranteed combos, ie hitting someone once doesn't necessarily mean you can hit them again if they decide to roll out of it. In DS3, most small and medium weapons had a guaranteed 2-hit combo on normal attacks, with a shorter stun window after that so the other person could get away.

-Backstabs are de-emphasized, and no one's sure if they're "working as intended" or not. Basically the backstab doesn't work if the other person isn't perfectly aligned with your character, or possibly if they're in any kind of animation. In DS3, it would work as long as the other person wasn't moving away from you, meaning that you could sneakily backstab someone if they were in a long animation (like after swinging a large weapon, or casting a healing spell). I enjoyed that system, but it makes sense that From is trying to smooth over elements that looked or felt weird to anyone not super versed in the mechanics.

I'm all for the changes if they make the pvp more intuitive and appealing to people. Although I hope there are some good unparryable attacks to use when someone keeps throwing out parries, since that still seems strong, and in DS3 you could run around behind them, use a kick, etc.

This looks really good. I mean, it's very Soulsy and sometimes these things can feel like Scategories. Just replace bonfire with lamp; souls with blood echoes etc...
But I'm down with this. It looks a lot more open and less fiendishly claustro than Bloodborne. I also like how you can actually jump. There also seem to be a few more NPCs about the place, so it's got more of a Witchery vibe to it. Yeah looking forward to it

This is gonna own me isn't it.

There has been much Oroboro watching in our household this past month

just bought the lil baby xbox series s in a chip-shortage panic, just in case they disappear again before this comes out

I also got the lil' baby Xbox, the first Microsoft console I've ever had! Personally, I think it's great as an affordable, stand-alone Game Pass machine

are they readily available?

though frankly i don't think i can hang with that joystick

got one at a gamestop on myrtle ave, looked like there were tons

https://kotaku.com/the-elden-ring-community-is-now-arguing-over-horse-crot-1848315650

They should split the difference between Dark Souls and Red Dead Redemption and make horse genitalia prominent, dynamic and a stat. Because you know there would be hundreds of level one players who will put every single soul into horse dick.

Counterpoint, you should have a separate character creation menu for your horse, complete with gender and appearance sliders

Why not both! Customizable horse would be next level From. Hell, you should be able to *play* as a horse, that would be rad.

If they did have horse dick, what stat would it scale with

Luck

girth

all horse dicks aside, i am really fucking hyped to play this game

I'm medium hyped! I literally beat Gael for the first time today yay

I cannot wait. I may have said this but the weekend it comes out I'm going to be in Florida playing a gig and visiting my folks, and it's going to be tough avoiding spoilers!

Josh is always worried about the horse parts

Haha, I actually never worried about my horse (named My Horse) in RDR2 ever! Nor did I ever notice its gender or genitals, come to think of it. Maybe I should have paid closer attention?

Wait, there were horses in Breath of the Wild, weren't they? I don't think I ever used a horse, except the one or two times a fight required it.

yes there were horses, and yes we had a many post discussion about it

Shows what an impression they made. All I remember is that they offered me no benefit so I stabled them. Where they remain, virtually, to this very day.

https://blog.playstation.com/2022/01/28/an-interview-with-fromsoftwares-hidetaka-miyazki/

had a bug the other night where both of the other players dropped out immediately and then none of the locations had any enemies so i simply had to wander round until i could get killed by the first nightlord. bug is a separate issue but seems bad there is no system for avoiding the dropout penalty if you are the only player left!

I’ve put a good chunk of hours into this since release. Had some good fun, playing with randos generally not as disastrous as you might imagine. Took several hours and runs to clear the first boss, really need to luck into a party with someone who knows the game and will take charge to prepare you for him. But it was a pretty thrilling, hard earned victory.

Game opens up after that and you’re almost always put with people who know what they’re doing. Playing the game as optimally as possible. And I’m not entirely sure I love what that looks like?

It’s a total mad dash from site to site, zero time to look at or consider the drops or how you’d like to arrange your gear. Find myself pathetically trying to catch up with my team as they’re zipping across the map, frequently arriving just as they kill a mini-boss. I don’t know the geography well enough to consistently navigate the spaces, so sometimes I’ll be right next to my team and look away for 3 seconds, turn back around and they’re gone. Map says they’re close, but they’ve descended into some hole, cave, or staircase nearby that I have to run around to desperately try to find. It’s a little too manic. I enjoy the boss fights when things finally slow down and feel more Souls-y. Not sure about the in-between.

Also don’t feel like I’m gaining anything significant after a failed run. Your character can equip 3 relics, each of which has 1 to 3 stat boosts, and every run win or lose you get a few of them. But 99% of these suck. Very oddball combination of benefits, some of them so hyper specific they’re useless to just about everybody. I did find you can sell these junk ones off to a vendor for currency to gamble on a new random one. Appreciated system, but overall these need a lot of tuning if they’re the core reward for every run.

Lot of potential here, great base, but it needs some work. And not having a duo mode is indeed a major bummer. Hope that’s in the works.

I'm having a similar experience, but getting used to the map and enjoying it. I can take the lead if necessary, but often I'm lagging behind too.

I'm still working on boss #3, had a perfect run going but one person quit out and we ended up with three sentinels as the night boss. The next one had some unfortunate incidents and we were behind on levels.

I always have such high hopes that all the pieces will come together. And when they don't it's so tempting to jump back in, but I don't have another 40 minutes.

I played a few matches with a friend and during one of them the 3rd, rando party member dropped out early. Probably got a sense of our skill level lol. So we had a run all to ourselves. Actually ended up doing pretty well, died at the boss right before the Nightlord. Wasn’t a blowout either, it was close.

Way more chill and enjoyable experience tbh. And suggests a 2 player mode isn’t some insurmountable balancing challenge. Very frustrating it’s not there.

Btw re: relics, so far I've found that the most useful perk is elemental/status effects for your starting weapon. Then you can actually guarantee you have something that matches up with the boss weakness and upgrade it, even if you only use it on the final boss.

I just read a review that called it a subversion of the From formula. It's fast, there's no time for exploration or reading lore or comparing stats, it's not lonely because it's more or less mandatory to have a cooperative team ...

Yeah it feels a bit profane, but in a fun way. It's also like Gank Squad: The Game, but with a whole bunch of mechanics that make it more challenging and interesting rather than getting to steamroll a meticulously crafted boss fight.

Like, your reward for having excellent teamwork, strategy, and luck in the run is getting to actually steamroll the boss at the end. And there are no shortcuts with premade builds or relying on certain OP gear.

I also haven't had much luck finding elemental weapons that correspond with the boss weaknesses, so I've had the best luck using relics that give 'starting armament is imbued with X'. I'll use whatever the strongest weapon I find is throughout the run, and then switch back to my starting weapon (even if it's weaker) for the Nightlord, because it makes a huge difference.

finally beat the first night lord yesterday evening with the exact strategy as above. had a very lucky run in getting a seal and talisman boosting the same elemental damage, and in managing to upgrade my starting weapon twice before the 2nd night boss. good teammates also an important factor.

curious about the shifting world element, am I basically going to have to ditch my team to go explore this crater area or does everyone usually head there as a team anyway?

I've never gotten anyone to go into the crater. :( Or at least we've only gotten as far as the first Fallingstar Beast before having to leave, even though I was trying to get everyone to run past it.

I was having a really good one yesterday, but night 2 I got stuck in the rain on the way to the boss and lost 120k runes, was hopelessly under-leveled for the nightlord. After the night 2 boss I seriously considered running back out into the rain to try and get them, but that probably would have ended in embarrassment.

I keep reading the relics as 'Great Drizzly Scone'

Finally had a perfect run tonight, with two Ironeyes and a Revenant. Even made it to lvl 14 without much trouble.

There really are so many little mechanics to learn that makes a difference, and are also different from ER. Like, I had been two-handing my bow, but in this game you don't get a bonus for that so there's no reason not to have an off-hand weapon (and this time it was one that kept spawning a phalanx of glintblades over my head).

It's amazing how a boss can feel like an impossible wall if your team is slightly underleveled and wasn't able to upgrade your weapons properly, vs how it can feel like nothing if you're level 13+ with a +2 weapon, along with some good team synergy (and having fought the boss a few times helps with dodging attacks, as has always been so).

Yeah, I'm having more fun with this the more I learn the ins and outs. There really is just a lot to learn to maximize the effectiveness of your character. And what sites are worth hitting depending on where you drop in and what day/level you're at. Getting some better relics via remembrance questlines and a few boss clears has helped too.

Do hope that 2 player option is in the works, the one friend I have playing this doesn't have a lot of available game time so he's a little behind on the mechanics. Don't feel like having that 3rd rando in the party who is either calling the shots or waiting on us to call the shots is the ideal way to teach someone the game. Can't really take your time and explain stuff without feeling like you're ruining someone elses run.

From stealth-dropped a bunch of fun Nightreign updates without including them in the patch notes, including a much harder version of one of the bosses that starts on phase 2 and goes to a crazy phase 3. I wonder if the other hard versions will rotate or be added cumulatively? Really hope it's the latter.

How is Nightreign holding up for you guys, generally and out of interest? I have, like, one good mate who says she'd be up for playing it but only if we could find a third friend with the will and dedication

Honestly enjoying it way more than I thought I would, especially the pre-made characters aspect. It lets them change and stretch the mechanics in cool ways that they couldn't do otherwise. Creating a 'build' on top of that on-the-fly takes some getting used to, but gets easier the more you do it.

A friend of mine complains about how same-y certain aspects of the runs are (the main map, people hitting the same progression of camps > castle > etc). But for me it provides just enough consistency to feel like I have a plan, and I still haven't scratched the surface in terms of learning the different characters. Maybe I'll feel differently after I've finished all the bosses (2 to go I think, not counting the current superboss?) and I'm doing them again with different characters, but I'm into it. And after the initial rush it feels satisfying to just do one run per day, win or lose.

It also seems like people are getting the hang of going solo. I've toyed with it, for me it felt much more approachable after doing a bunch of multi-player to get used to the flow. And it's kind of nice to be able to make all of the decisions yourself.