Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asqWq8MIAWA

I'm reading Russian interviews with Miyazaki and I can't wait to find out what "less annoying" means for invasions (also, invasions!):

https://www.igromania.ru/article/31725/Pogovorili_s_Hidetakoy_Miyadzaki_ob_Elden_Ring._Otkrytyy_mir_multipleer_i_yadovitye_bolota.html?from=mpp

Elder Bling

So unless I misunderstood, it sounds like GRRM's contribution was the back story of the bosses/demi-gods you must face, which sounds fine to me, because it's not like Miyazaki has ever really needed someone's help before, let alone a name ringer.

https://www.ign.com/articles/elden-ring-miyazaki-hidetaka-full-interview-summer-of-gaming

Yeah it sounds like he just wrote the mythology for the world and backstory, split and let From take it from there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/o0680a/miyazaki_famitsu_interview_translation_part_1/

Oops here's a link to the rest of that interview:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/o0bvgi/miyazaki_famitsu_interview_translation_part_4/

looks absolutely incredible, sounds like it's trying to deliver on everything you could possibly want from "open world dark souls" and even more (there's a summonable monster collecting mechanic, combat is taking on some aspects from sekiro too), and bc it's fromsoft i believe they can actually pull it off. world design sounds like it's taking a lot from botw while directly addressing the biggest problems i had with it too

there's one more interview out there, in german but it's comprehensible enough with machine translation: https://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/Allgemein/Vorschau/40800/84122/0/Elden_Ring.html

I mean, it basically looks and sounds like another Dark Souls, which is fine with me.

Dark Souls (or at least some of them) are basically open world games anyway so i'm bout it bout it

Yesss, perfectly happy with how Dark Souls (except with added horse, jump button, wayfinding, stealth, and NPCs moving their mouths) this looks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JldMvQMO_5U

that looks really cool, definite Breath of the Wild things going on with it

Super cool, super glad this is coming out on PS4. Nice to see so much comfortably familiar stuff recycled from Souls/Sekiro games (and borrowed from BotW), plus new stuff.

Witcher RPG structure, Elder Scrolls sprawl, Dark Souls dialogue/lore/design/combat/UI and Breath of the Wild improv/central castle mechanic sounds like just what i'm looking for. just keep the stakes continually high and the procedurally generated shit minimal and you got me.

The summoning spirits thing seems intriguing, as is the absence of health bars and the like in those clips.

Oh the HUD is definitely just turned off for the demo, to make it look more cinematic I'm sure.

Ive never played Dark Souls (the way everyone talks about how hard it is put me off - I dont play games to get MORE stressed out). I love and still play Skyrim and BOTW, would I like this? It looks very nice.

The thing about Dark Souls and all its successors is that they're difficult in a very specific way; it's all about paying careful attention to things like the timing of your own attacks. It's not hard the way a bullet-hell game is hard. It's a slower-paced, almost meditative challenge. I didn't think I liked "hard" games either, but I did get pretty into DS1. I found it frustrating and I did eventually slide off it. A few boss fights aside, I didn't find it "stressful" exactly. YMMV of course.

That having been said, I'd love to see From embrace the recent trend of allowing players a temporary assist if they're stuck, a la God Mode in Hades, or the assist features in Celeste.

I think so? The difficulty of the games is way overstated imo, and this one is sure to be the most user-friendly version so far. It's more that you can't rush through or brute force it, at least not on a first playthrough. And there are so many different ways to approach the game, you can summon helpers and use magic from a distance if you don't want to get deep into the melee combat.

Forks otm...like, I get to enjoy the 'aimlessly riding around on a horse' mechanic of BotW and Red Dead Redemption, except when you get off the horse, it's Dark Souls? Yes please.

xp

Definitely overstated imo.... you mostly just have to pay close attention and remember things, and you're rarely put in a position where you can't take a breath (admittedly the only souls game I've played is demon's on ps3 but they apparently get easier from there)

To expand on X's point, I'd say the "taking a breath" aspect is a huge part of these games, eg. bonfires. The moments of peace and quiet are all the more delicious after having slogged through lugubrious combat

*part of the appeal of these games*

A lot of these games are indeed pretty meditative, in mood and design. They're lonely and emphasize exploration and experimentation. All the dying and setbacks become amusing after a while, with the reward being how easy stuff that once challenged you becomes later on in the game, as if to emphasize, "See? you've come so far!" The only real stress comes with the boss fights, imo, which is where the real challenges lie, with a few specific areas or enemy exceptions here and there. The bosses, on the other hand, both impede progress and are the least forgiving, plus are more or less the only enemies where you can see just how close you are to beating them while still dying. Or, you know dying in just a couple of seconds, which can be frustrating, too. Don't think I found any/many enemies in Dark Souls 1/3 or Bloodborne as annoying or frustrating as many of the enemies in Sekiro, though, but clearly different strokes, etc. Maybe I'm just blocking them out. I'm sure I can find some posts of mine to the contrary.

Also the boss fights are designed to psyche you out with their epic scale and music, but almost all of them are a matter of learning the boss's moves and how to avoid them, and picking your moments.

Yeah, I remember reading a recommendation that sometimes when you hit a wall, just turn off the sound. Though sometimes you miss certain cues when you do that. Regardless of moves or scale or whatever, there will always be some bosses that some people can beat with their bare fists blindfolded the first attempt, but you'll fight 50 times and barely make headway. I tend to get bored after a while more than frustrated, which is another reason to turn down or off the sound.

I definitely turn off the music sometimes (you can do that and leave the sound on).

!

Yeah! Just go into settings and there should be separate volume sliders for music and sound fx.

I never had a PS3 so it was interesting to come to the Demon's Souls remake after playing all the other games. Some of the levels, one bonfire and all, seem monstrously punishing compared to later stuff, but the bosses don't really have any capacity to surprise when you've been through all the more developed, multi-stage/gimmicky ones from later games

I beat most of them in one try so far

Didn't get a network test code :(

Tons of info & videos out there today from people who have early access. I'm trying to avoid spoilers for the most part, except for stuff about the mechanics.

Standing poise (instead of Dark Souls 3-style hyperarmor) = in (not sure how I feel about this)
Powerstancing (ie you can equip two weapons of the same type and get a different dual-wielding moveset) = in
Mixing your own combo potions that can make you explode = sure why not
Solo hosts can't be invaded unless they use a few items = ok, fine
Invaders get a compass to see what direction the host is = sick
Invaders also get an item to quickly vanish from the host's world and reappear nearby = oh my god

It really does seem like a blend of all their games plus a bunch of new stuff, can't wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzFR5HsPcng

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.

Not killing Gostoc can yield an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone if I remember correctly...

Yeah. Best not to as those stones are really hard to come by - much as it's tempting. I did hear there's a way to catch Gostoc in the act, or meet him at various locations in Stormveil other than the initial one at the start.

Speaking of which here's also a very strangely placed Site Of Grace if you dash through the main gate, avoid the ballistas and immediately double-back on yourself to the left.. Not sure exactly what it's doing there, but it's right above where you meet Gostoc meaning there are something like 3-4 SoGs right near each other

I've known about the Transporter Virgin at the bottom of the waterwheel in Raya Lucaria for a while. But I never really explored that area before - I'd always just get eaten by the Abductor and sent to Magma Mansion. But there is stuff around there, including the Long Cat Talisman

This playthrough feels harder and less fluid than my last one which I played in anticipation of the DLC. That one felt quite effortless in terms of challenge as well as sequencing and structure for some reason. I remember getting through it quite quickly and never really getting too stuck.

Not totally sure why that might be. It has been two years since I last played it. Everything was going very well up to Liurnia and Raya Lucaria. I'm just on my way to fighting Renalla and I feel really quite underleveled. Raya Lucaria's enemies can be really tough and gang-y. I seem to be dying to standard enemies quite a lot.

I'm also not too sure on what I should be doing next. Feels like in previous playthroughs there'd always be some NPC giving me hints about where I should be going, but they're all just sitting around the Roundtable Hold saying stock phrases.

As such, I've ended up relying on glintstone spells and OP weapops like the Moonveil more than I wanted to, which is what I did in my first playthrough. I was having fun with a halberd up till recently, but if the game's going to give me a cool katana that dishes out magic damage and a really useful ranged spell, it's hard to pass these up.

I'd like some suggestions for more interesting builds. At first I Thoguht it would be fun to do a Dex/Arc build since I've never really messed with that. But the game is such that on a clean playthrough you're sort-of introduced quite naturally and gradually to the different elements. Liurnia is pretty-much designed to get you to stat Intelligence and use glintstone sorceries - it's very hard to fight those wizards and robots with just melee; and there aren't really a lot of Faith or even Dex-based weapons in the game at this stage, so increasing stats to do with that is pointless.

Usually by now (50 hours in) I would have beaten Renalla, but instead I'm riding around trying to find other ways to get more powerful without outright farming. Last night I went up to the Madness Village (I always forget it's there) and beat Vyke. Didn't know you could use his maiden to soak the rag Varre gives you to get to Mogh's Palace.

Speaking of Mogh's Palace - the enemies there are one-shotting me. I can't even get to the Site Of Grace neaer the Albinauric farm, I just die!

The one thing I will say on this playthrough: Much as I love everything about this game, it peaks extremely early on with Stormveil. Playing Limgrave, Weeping Peninsula and Stormveil always feels like I'm discovering things for the first time all over again. Whereas once we get to Liurnia my enthusiasm slips ever so slightly, and I'm not sure why that is.

I'm not really looking forward all that much to Altus Plateau and the rest of the game - they all feel very familiar to me, like I've combed every section of those areas, whereas Limgrave, Stormveil and Volcano Manor just give and give.

yeah - I'm playing a new fresh play through myself, and it really is remarkable how richly dense Stormveil and the Weeping Peninsula are. Throw Caelid in there as well, despite it being "too much" at my current level.

Things are much more spread out in Liurnia, and the challenge absolutely steps up.

For interesting builds, my first build was a pretty fun one: arcane/faith focusing on dragon incants and bleed weapons. Was great for melee fighting, but lacked oomf for ranged attacks. Was an absolute Malenia killer, but really challenging against Radagon/Elden Beast.

That said, the DLC makes up for the sparseness of the Mountaintops and the accelerated cadence of the last 1/3rd of the game. With the intent being to delve into that and the Haligtree around that time, the game feels more "balanced" with things to do and explore. Shadow Keep is just as intricate and rich as Stormveil imho, and the DLC map itself feels more like a "grand legacy dungeon" with how it gnarls its routes in various ways using depth.

Did you go straight to the Academy before Caria Manor? Usually I hit that up first before I delve into the Academy and Renalla.

Yeah I did. Perhaps I should go Caria Manor first. It just doesn't feel "natural" to do so yet as it's further up the map, and I'm not sure if i've come against any story beats that would point me there, other than Iji telling me not to. Maybe Blaidd says something? Are there even any clues to tell you how to get through the illusory wall in Kingsrealm Ruins? I remember being so annoyed about that in my first playthrough - the fact a whole area of the map is blocked by a secret wall. But then I went back and played the Souls games and realised this was a whole part of the vernacular

Octobeard, not sure I agree about the DLC making up for the Mountaintops. If anything I'd say a lot of the DLC areas most resemble them. The Keep was a highlight, but it wasn't quite as intricate as Stormveil.

FromSoft are masters at creating the illusion of choice but actually funnelling you down the path they want you to go. The progression of a lot of the previous games is very linear despite it feeling like there are loads of branching paths.

The DLC didn't do a great job of this, I thought. Too many long, empty plateaus where the aim is to go in a straight line from one end to the other. So many lootless dead ends too. I fairly enjoyed playing it but in retrospect the whole thing felt unfinished in gameplay, story and "vibe".

I think there were too many moments in Shadow Of The Erdtree that reminded me I was playing a video game. The Firebasket giants (or whatever they're called) were so cool to look at but absolutely horrible and boring to fight - I think I managed to beat one of them. The rest I didn't bother with, especially as the rewards weren't worth it.

Actually I'd say SOTE felt like From were forgetting that this is an open world, and instead going back to the "spoke and wheel" design of Dark Souls 2 where you pick a path and just follow it till you get to the end, then teleport back to the start and choose a different path. That worked fine in DS2 because it wasn't a sandbox game and it made for some tight level-based gaming. SOTE saw me riding for ages and ages through beautiful fields of flowers, but often never encountering anything much

Yeah very very fair criticisms of the DLC! I def feel like there might have been a bit of "stretching out" of the map a bit to offer the illusion of "more than is really there". That said, for all its faults I love it and it fills out the main game better for me. Some of my favorite boss fights in either game are there (Bayle, Metyr, Midra). However, there's a "mystique" that seems to be missing from it in some ways, and despite leaning into equally grotesque imagery (pots/shaman mutilation, Abyssal Woods).

Regarding Caria Manor, I originally was so intimidated by the Academy upon arriving in Liurnia, that I felt I needed to explore everything else first before hitting it up (similar attitude to Stormveil Castle). After doing that I felt leveled up enough, so it's part of my "order" when delving into that region now.

Yeah I agree about the "mystique". There's just something missing about the vibe of the DLC. It does feel quite apart from the other game. Maybe it's all those copy-pasted shadow grunts, but I don't think so. You got plenty of regular zombie grunts in Limgrave and that was fine.

That's not to say it didn't have some cool setpieces. The Manse was great. Although the woods leading up to it did nothing for me - especially the "Ooooh this place is so spooky dooky" developer messages, which totally killed any sort of vibe they were trying to build.

I generally don't play these games for the boss fights: They're barriers to the progression of my adventure and I'm usually fairly happy to get through them as quickly as possible. The ideal number of attempts on a boss, for me, is 3-4. If it gets above 6 or 7 I start getting bored and frustrated. It's not what I'm there for. But I will grant you: the DLC'S bosses are metal as fuck as setpieces. I love the Lion carnival puppet especially

I didn't play Erdtree but I did watch a few playthroughs. I can see it being dull to play but it was really cool to look at

oh no doubt. some beautiful moments and stunning set pieces. just didn't quite hold up compared to the main game

It's DLC, it's not going to be the equal of the main game. It was still p great imo.

oh I don't know - it's generally thought the DLCs for Bloodborne and the Souls games are equal if not better than the base games

Elsewhere I'd say the most memorable moments of playing Witcher 3 came from the excellent DLCs.

Sorry to be down on Shadow Of The Erdtree - it's definitely a good play, just more resemblant of the base game's later stages. That said, almost every Soulsborne game could be criticised for starting extremely strongly before dipping in the second half (it's why Dark Souls 1 is quite low down on my list of favourites)

Something I've been forgetting to do is get hugged by Fia. I thought she just gave you that weird Baldachin's Bleesing thing, which was why I didn't bohter. But I'm forgetting she gives you dialogue that progresses certain quests

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:anufsbiaegx32eglbqzi6c6g/bafkreig2jm6qt7zuum2du366bjgwrnnvzhkwdgeepexyrjq4jxnjslagei

Didn't realise Limmy has been livestreaming Elden Ring and the Soulsborne games a fair bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PWvKLCMyyU

dying at this

That is hilarious.

I have played this game for about 1000 hours total and it strikes me i still don't know how certain areas are shaped or link to each other. Mount Gelmir, for example. What is that about? Is there a way to get to Volcano Manor without warping there? Who knows - i don't think I've ever done it

One thing I did do this time was warp to Volcano Manor via the Abductor Virgin trap in Raya Lucaria and beating the bosses before taking the lift or the "coward's path" to Altus Plateau. If you do this, and go exploring around Gelmir there's a rare encounter with Patches you can do

In other news filming of the Elden Ring movie reportedly wrapped today! Now for 18 months of post production

Yea I saw someone post on Reddit that had worked on the film noting its wrapped (but is still gagged from discussing anything for ages).

Also some photos someone took in Iceland that were clearly sets for Liurnia (random bits of buildings poking out of the ground)

Still on my big "Roomba" replay of ER, doing all the quests and trying to hoover up everything in an area before progressing. Honestly, I'm enjoying this third or fourth playthrough almost as much as my first. Yes, the shock and awe is diminished, but the way it fits like a glove and I'm still discovering or rediscovering stuff I'd forgotten - it's still a huge joy.

I'm at the Mountaintops of the Giants now. Everything after Leyndell is less exciting to me in my mind than what comes before. But I've been pleasantly surprised. I wasn't looking forward to the Subterranean Shunning Grounds, for example, but it turned out to be SO MUCH FUN! And also: I'd totally forgotten there's an alternative route to the Deep Root Depths via the area with the Three Fingers!

SSS - is that the place with the pipes where I always get lost? I remember on my last replay I really tried to figure it out by myself, and ended up running around in a loop for quite awhile. Also invading there and trying to find the party is truly ridiculous.

After burning out on Nightreign, this has been the longest period without playing a From game for me since Dark Souls.

Yeah, Shunning Grounds incorporates those pipes. It's a real twister. There's, like, one Site of Grace area you keep coming back to with lots of Omens around and lots of ways-in which you unlock as you go. You start off walking on top of the pipes, either sniping or training-around imps that are hanging off them. Then later you go inside the pipes, which I agree is a nightmare but for some reason I didn't find too bad this time. I was really lucky and seemed to find my way through really quickly. Then I went back and hugged the left wall all the way to make sure I hadn't missed anything.

In this playthrough I'm finding a lot of use in three things:

- Cannon of Haima - which is useful for clearing those pipes of slugs as it does a fairly massive AOE explosion
- Night Maiden's Mist - a sorcery that I can't believe I didn't know about. Seriously, this is one of the most useful spells in that it creates a cloud of mist that kills anything within it. Perfect for slow-moving enemies and crowd control. You can even use it in situations where you're being chased through a tunnel, or there's an enemy round the corner
- Death's Poker - this is a fairly rare weapon dropped by one of the Deathbirds. It has two attacks - an AOE similar to Cannon of Haima, and an area-denial attack similar to Nightmaiden's Mist.

If I do a New Game with this playthrough I think I'll re-spec to a pure melee build. I am admittedly reliant on magic when I play ER and start glintstoning things as soon as I can.

Another fun thing is to give my character a backstory and age them as the game progresses. As I'd recently come off the back of Bloodborne, I decided to base my character on the Cainhurst dynasty, but make her a young half-Albinauric vampire who greys and gets older as I play through. I only dress her in clothes she would actualyl wear - lots of fancy dark robes etc.

It's funny how some weapons are very Nightreign-coded for me now -- I never used the Death's Poker in ER, but am now extremely familiar with it through NR.

On to Mountaintops of the Giants. Just beat Commander Niall in Castle Sol. Mountaintops gets a bad rap compared to some of the other biomes, and yeah I see why. It's a big white space (followed by another even whiter space in the form of the Consecrated Snowfield).

But again I've been surprised by how much I've enjoyed it. There are still lots of little hidden parts to explore. And for anyone wondering if they're overleveled, the enemies get MUCH tougher and smarter. Especially at Castle Sol, which is only a small fort but again full of tough-to-find items and tricksy enemies

Enjoying the DLC so far. Yet to find any new weapons as effective for a Strength / Dex build as bonking things with my trusty Axe of Godrick though.

iirc DLC encourages you to try out DEX builds, which are underrepresented in the base game

Will most likely be revisiting the DLC once I'm done with this run. I was so-so about it on first playthrough but hoping to be pleasantly turned around on it this time. By nature, these games merit replays seeing as almost all elements of the story are only explained in hindsight. Generally speaking I have no idea what is going on until I play through again

Fought Mohg the other night. Shame the Mohgwyn Palace / blood zone is so under-baked as it's a fun fight that took me a good few tries, even with a summon to help me.

Decided to pop my head into the Scadu-realm for a bit and I have to say my heart sank when I emerged from that little passage. For all that really quite stunning vista first represents, the reality feels so much more hollow and gamey - much more like a sandbox than when one arrives on the First Step in the base game. I don't know how to describe it.

I think it's the fact I'm presented with just this big wide open plain with no real direction to run in. With Limgrave you can go in different directions, yes. But at least it seems to be funnelling you towards a goal. The DLC just presents you with this big flat plateau with various landmarks on the horizon and field bosses peppered over it. Pick a cardinal direction and run there until you hit something.

Much was made about the DLC's use of a Y axis - you can be really high up on a ledge and see a load of stuff happening below. But this is largely illusory. Rather than an intricate network of cliffs, landbridges and tunnels, it's more like a bunch of large interlocking tectonic plates set at various angles. You're essentially running around a bunch of enormous dinner plates with stuff strewn around the edges of them.

As someone who loves finding loot, the DLC doesn't scratch that itch half as well as any of the other games. Item placement feels liberal and randomised. So often I feel I should be following a little hidden path around a cliff edge or along a wall only to find... nothing... not even a crafting item. Meanwhile one might find an important item just lying around in the middle of one of the many great open fields, with nothing special around it to give it a bit of environmental significance.

I'm not mad on how the various NPCs and their quests are introduced either. The NPCs in the base game feel like they belong in the world, living independently from you. You stumble into them while they're in the middle of some sort of personal dilemma, and it only becomes apparent WHY they figure into the main story as you progress their quests. Think about Boc, Hyetta, Irina, Millicent. That, or you get the impression they're manipulating you into a web of half-truths (Ranni, Varre).

With the DLC, from the get-go Needle Knight Leda introduces the DLC like some sort of D&D Dungeon Master, in a "Are you ready to take on an exciting challenge, gameplayer?" type of way. When you meet Ansbach, he also just introduces himself upfront in a "I am Ansbach and this is my quest, and this is why I am important to you" type of way. Apropos of nothing, he gives you a very gamey fetchquest to perform: "Find the six crosses of Miquella scattered around the map and report back to me" - guhhhhhh really?

Overall the DLC isn't great at dispelling the idea that you are in a computer game. Picking up power-ups rather than accumulating runes to level-up doesn't help either: Why should I even bother fighting enemies at all if that's the case?

And the only "gamey" thing that made sense in the base game - acquiring trophies and achievements - doesn't exist here. So why should I bother exploring the whole map? Especially as there are so many big open plains full of dead ends? The base game rewards playing like a Roomba - exploring every inch of the map to find hidden items and legendary weapons. Without this, you're just largely wasting your time: You could spend 30 minutes exploring a huge open field only to find it's a landlocked area serving to funnel you on to the next landlocked area.

I'll probably still play through the DLC. I hope to be pleasantly turned-around on it. But my memory is that, despite some wonderful setpieces, there were some really dull parts, the flow and timing of the quests was stilted, and the exploration kind of sucked

Yeah - the DLC definitely lacks some of the cohesion and tightness of the base game. There's locations even more sparsely populated than the entry point! It shines when it falls back to classic hallmarks like tight, interwoven dungeons (Shadow Keep, Enir-Ilim), locations with heavy and dark themes/vibes (Bonny Village, Abyssal Woods) and either insanely epic or breathlessly beautiful boss fights (Bayle, Midra, Mother of Fingers). Implied narratives are more compelling than most of the NPCs for sure. Places like Bonny Village, Midra's Manse, et al really are amazing to take in. The sparks are there! But it indeed starts slow. I didn't feel really "into it" until I got to the Shadow Keep.

It feels disjointed and an expression of unrealized ambition at times - like they wanted this to be that much more rich and full of depth and detail, but had to pull back without altering the physical map, so it is what it is.

That said there's unique locations like the Ruins of Rauh which is a well designed dungeon that requires the use of Torrent to navigate, or the Fissure Depths, which is a fun expression of that "Y axis".

To use a musical analogy, the main game feels like an extremely well produced concept album (a bit front loaded, but still) that hits the spot end to end. The DLC feels like a companion piece of leftover songs that don't quite work as cohesively together but still contain some all time bangers.

I very much enjoyed after all is said and done.

Agree with all that, although I'm cool on Ruins of Ruah. Shadow Keep was pretty great and at points gave me the same special feeling as Stormveil

All I really remember about the dlc is the boss fights, which are up there with some of the best in the game iirc. Some of the forge dungeons were decent too I think? But I respect your opinion as an ER slow run connoisseur.

I was actually pretty disappointed by most of the forge dungeons actually! Felt they were too short, easy or lacking.

The Catacombs on the other hand felt extremely large, overly challenging and more in depth. I still have yet to complete a few of them, actually. So much inconsistency across the DLC in this regard!

oh boy I really am anticipating the new boards edit feature. Pretend I never typed the word "actually" above. FML

The catacombs were fantastic, yes. Not enough of them though

I was struggling and struggling with the Fire Giant. Switched weapons to the Dark Moon Greatsword and OMG it MEEEELLLLTTEEED him. Barely got into the second phase before he totally died. I actually feel a bit disappointed.

I wish there were a way to replay old bosses. Usually I'm so keen to get on with the quest, or carrying loads of gems I don't want to lose, so I'll use every trick in the book (summons etc) to beat them as quickly as possible. But it does mean I don't really get to learn their moves, or experiment with different methods. I guess that's what NG is for.

The new items available with the Tarnished Edition are fun. There's an NPC invader with an outfit that's a very obvious tribute to DSII character Lucatiel. You get this weapon that lets you take on enemies like a bull-fighter. It's a lot of fun. Plus - yay, Goth Torrent!

I've heard the Tarnished Edition buffs parries? They supposedly now have the same frame count as the Carian Retaliation: 12. I enjoyed using that spell for a brief bit, but if it's that much easier to parry I'd be keen to try it out again and use it as an actual counter on the regular.

I'm not really all that great at parrying. I can do it with low level enemies, then once I get to a certain level my ripostes seem to miss all the time

I was getting quite good at them in Bloodborne and DS3 though

Started NG+ and it feels like the only thing that is going to kill me is falling off a cliff. Assume it will get a bit more challenging as I progress but I’m massively over-levelled with a dex / arcane bleed setup (Eleonora’s Poleblade) and can melt bosses in seconds.

There's always the Taunter's Tongue

Just walk around with no armor and try out weapons you wouldn't normally use! But yeah it's not going to be a challenge really until you get to Caelid or Leyndell.

I am playing Control Resonant but really I want to just play Elden Ring. Souls games have kind of ruined gaming for me