Topic: Soulsborne Series Thread

Well, a couple of levels can be enough to make quite a difference, @Losermagnet .... As well as I had better weapons than the starting pair, so probably a bit underlevelled

@Losermagnet I set mine to performance as well. It's pretty noticeable without headphones on, and the pitch changes whenever I move the camera to take a look at the character from another angle. It's mostly the character customization, given that's the only part so far that I've tried out. I feel like I probably should try and clean out my fans later, just in the case that they have a build up of dust or something.

Edit: I was also playing while it was still installing the game, so it might be that I need to let it finish before continuing.

@VoidofLight that would make sense. I let the game install all the way before starting it. I did notice that if i tried to rotate the character model while adjusting a slider the game started to chug. Hope that the problem is fixed for you.

I spent most of my playtime today exploring the starting area and that was a lot of fun. I got a better weapon and leveled it up, and i'm at level 27 myself. I can tear through pretty much all of the enemies which feels great. I'm gonna take a break and when I pick it up again I'm gonna storm Stormveil Castle.

I had a feeling this thread would pop up again. As someone who has never played a Souls game in their lives, I feel absolutely overjoyed for everyone loving it so far. Hope youse are having a good time

I still can't beat Margit, lol. And I'm at the point where it costs enough to level up where it actually feels kinda tedious needing to go back to the same set of locations getting tiny dribbles of currency, then waiting for everything to respawn and so on until I can finally level up.

Swapping the wolves for the jellyfish and staying back and using a crossbow got me further than ever before, but the deeper you get into the second phase, the worse it becomes. Combos full of weirdly delayed animations and convoluted, ultra fast, sequences of moves crossing close, range, light and heavy. Like at least with a Monster Hunter game, the enemy has very rigid AI/moves, you die enough you figure out patterns, telegraphs etc and can win. Here, it just feels like at some point in the fight Margit is just mashing the buttons on their controller and has zero openings. I know they are beatable, I am just not sure I physically have the dexterity and skill to actually beat them, no matter how much I grind it out.

It is also frustrating because arrows/bolts of course cost you your level up resources, so it basically doubles the grind, as I need to portion it between my ammo and my level and so when I use up like thirty arrows in a try and die, it feels doubly frustrating, too. At least with spells, you just need to top up your mana, but you get that for free from the grace sites by topping up your flasks. A part of me does wonder if maybe I should just start again and play a magic character instead, but I dunno whether I can be bothered to go through all the grind to get back to the place my existing character already is.

I dunno, I gave it a better go than I really ever expected I would be able to, but I am not sure I can be bothered to either make the slow, tedious grind or just keep slamming against this until I maybe eventually do it.

I'd maybe feel more determined if the game itself was more interesting in general, but I guess all of the stuff people spoke to about the fascinating world and build diversity come after Margit, because right now I feel like I am just playing Skyrim with the difficulty turned right up, and the drop rates turned right down. I'm not finding any interesting loot, spells or ashes of war, even when taking the time to slog my way through the mini dungeons.

@Fizza thanks 😁 did you end up getting it? You should join in the fun.

Gonna start it up again. My body is ready.

I booted it up again after my ps5 finished installing the game, and it didn't really do the noise, aside from towards the end of me making my character to test out. The only gripe I have at the moment is just how wide the noses are.

@Losermagnet Level 40, Uchigatana and summoning the NPC was what did it for me with Margit mate. As for leveling up to there, there's a great zone that I can point out as well as my strategy for doing it if you don't mind me telling you.

@roy130390 please do! Level 40 sounds crazy. I'm level 29 and the runes i'm getting dont seem to be for very much.

I beat the dragon Agheel (I think that was his name) and he only got me once so I feel a little redeemed lol. Good fight.

@Losermagnet Have you reached the bestial Sanctum? if not, you have to fight the mariner and talk to one npc (I forgot his name but it's a knight with a cool armor) that will appear right there after that. He'll mark the location to reach that place. From there, you have to go south until you reach a place called Farum Greatbridge. There you can find some midget like warriors that, while can one shot you, are very easy to defeat, specially with the Uchigatana. On mount, circle them and do a hit 3 combo 2 times, after about 6 hits they'll get bleed damage and get stunned. If you have limited stamina wait a second or two and repeat the first step until they are dead, which will take just a few more hits. Each of them gives more than a 1000 runes and take about 30 seconds or less to die. Sorry if it isn't more clear haha.

where's that one, @Losermagnet ....? Not around that castle? I finished that area, I think & I'm not too sure where's good to try next

I killed a turtle with blunt force trauma, and then brutally got murdered by a pack of wolves.

@Losermagnet No Playstation/PC unfortunately, I've only got a Switch. I'm literally the definition of this image right now:

Played Elden Ring for a solid 10+ hours and I'm not sure I'm feeling it yet.

I like the other Souls games because the level design was great and they were allowed to focus up the game and have tighter pacing. The world here is really cool but the pacing for me so far is all over the place.

It's also becoming more and more frustrating for me to walk in a direction only to be bottlenecked by a boss that kills me in 1 hit and then trying to force myself to go the other way.

Maybe a few more days with this game will improve my opinion. At least it's pretty to look at.

I have no idea where I am going, or what I should be doing. Does this game have skill point allotment like DS1?

@VoidofLight You unlock leveling after you meet Melina, who comes to you after you unlock your third Site of Grace. That's also when you gain access to your magic horse.

@Fizza You're going to miss out on a LOT of games if you only own a Nintendo system.

Best to have a power platform as a secondary console for the occasional non-Nintendo game you might want to play.

@roy130390 i havent gotten to the beastial sanctum even 😳 where's that?

@BruceCM there's a swamp East of the starting area, happy hunting!

@Fizza ah, bummer. Fwiw at this point I would still recommend Dark Souls as the first souls game to play. It's my personal favorite so I'm bias, but it's also a darn good time.

@Varkster I totally get where you're coming from. While I'm really enjoying myself in Elden Ring, I prefer the intricately designed maps of the other games. What helped me (and apologies if this is repeating stuff you already know):
-I followed the path given by the lost grace until I got to stormveil. That seems to be the way the game wants you to go and once I got there I decided to go goof off.
-when you're wandering keep your eyes peeled for ruins, dilapidated cabins, and fires. All ruins i've explored (they get added to your map) have had a treasure chest in them, and most cabins have had NPCs in them.
-in the dimmed areas on your map you may notice a small icon that is lit up slightly. These seem to designate an in-world marker that, once reached, fills in a portion of your map. Once the map is filled in, points of interest will be added as you pass them.
-there is at least one area that is very tightly designed and reminiscent of Dark Souls design. I kept thinking "that looks like a secret or an alternate path". And i'm pretty sure it even has the classic elevator shortcut lol, I just havent found the elevator yet.

@VoidofLight yes! If you follow the main path eventually you will be able to level up. As previously mentioned, the lost grace (the "bonfires". I really want to call them bonfires lol) will show you the path you should follow. Its a gold, glowy trail and I think it even gets added to your map.

Just been exploring around there, @Losermagnet .... Didn't notice it's name but I just defeated something that seems likely to be what you mentioned

@Ralizah It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

@BruceCM it was one of those boss fights that really had me on edge, but it felt great to get him. Most of the boss fights for me have been pretty tense actually. I thought they'd be too easy since the enemies seem to go down like chumps but that hasnt been the case. I miss getting trophies for all the bosses though, especially because I can't remember their names! I fought this really cool tree root monster boss last night but I have no idea what its actually called.