Topic: Soulsborne Series Thread

@Ralizah Ah, I see. Thanks!

Yeah, so far, while the main enemies aren't too difficult, unless you get unlucky, @Losermagnet ..... Bosses certainly still are generally tough!

Margit, the tree sentinel and the Night Cavalry (or whatever they are called) all kicked my ass but everything else, even the bosses at the end of the mini dungeons, were way easier than I expected. It seems like outside of major bosses, the main way to die here is to think this is an action game where you are the hero. You have to really slow down, be patient, pick your battles and think of yourself as a trash NPC in any other game. Stealth is pretty vital. If you just charge in, you are doing to die. Hell, even taking on two enemies at once, even if individually you could kill them in your sleep, is usually a death sentence.

@Losermagnet Search for the Mariner boss at Summonwater Village in the northeast part of Limgrave. He's hilariously easy and then that NPC will appear and mark your map with the location of a portal to reach the Beastial Sanctum. That same NPC first appears before the boss fight so search for him in that area and talk to him before defeating the boss, he's quite visible since he's just standing there and you'll probably see him at arrival. After defeating the boss, he appeared again right were I was in the water.

So I've been meaning to ask, since this happened in a blink of an eye... but in the starting area, before You get sent into the cave, what the heck was that beast that tried to fight me? I legit couldn't register that since it was instantly taking me to the cave.

@roy130390 ah, thanks 😁 i'm gonna check that out later today.

@VoidofLight souls games have a habit of throwing you into an introductory boss fight that completely destroys you (think Asylum Demon from Dark Souls). Chances are we'll learn more about that boss and area later in the game when we can extract our revenge. I only managed a couple of hits before he smooshed me.

@Losermagnet I didn't even have enough time to register that I was even hit, because the thing just came close to me at rapid speed, and then I got the cutscene.

@VoidofLight im speculating here but i'm wondering if a significant amount of time passed between when that monster kills our protagonist and when you wake up later. You do wake up in a crypt more or less. And the backstory has to do with a war being waged. Maybe the intro scene occurred during that war and for some reason we've been sent to The Lands Between. Or maybe I'm completely wrong lol.

I'm also getting references to Norse mythology.

@Losermagnet Maybe The Lands Between is like an afterlife or purgatory situation.

@VoidofLight that could be. Most of the enemies appear dead or have wounds. The giants are impaled with swords . Of course that doesnt explain the normal wildlife 🤔 but I think there's something to it.

That 1, @Losermagnet ....? There's plenty of cool ones! It's a huge game, I'm only in the 4th region & aren't there 13!?

So, I started Elden Ring today. First, before impressions, a bit of back knowledge.

I've tried to get into Souls games with at least half a dozen entries. Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, Demons Souls, Nioh, Sekiro, Bloodborne, and other Souls-likes such as Remnant From the Ashes and The Surge 2.

But it's just never grabbed me. In a way it has- I can feel the fun and addiction starting, but it never grows strong enough to keep me glued before becoming frustrated and giving up, usually from dying and losing 30-40 min worth of XP, then failing to retrieve my bag. At which point I'm like screw this, I'm done, and I never come back to it, because that memory sours my taste on it. That went doubly for Sekiro, which I absolutely hated. That game was way too hard.

However. My brother is a Souls diehard, as much as I'm a Monster Hunter diehard. He's tried time and again to get me into the series, and when he comes over and coaches me in person as I play, I do have fun. It feels less stressful. And sometimes I hand him my controller to get my bag back, or beat a boss I'm struggling against. I really enjoy these games when he's here with me helping me with advice.

But then once he leaves, I lose any desire to play. One would think co-op would be the solution, the problem is, co-op is typically a limited resource item in Souls games, and, opens you up to online invasions as well. They seem to always force the player to experience the game how they dictate, rather than how the player would most enjoy it.

I thought Switch would be the solution. I figured if ever there was hope of me getting into Souls, it would be DS Remastered on Switch, since I tend to play games more on that system and have an affinity for not giving up as quickly. And yet... it didn't help. So I'd pretty much written the series off as being not for me.

Enter Elden Ring. At first I thought it was going to be a different type of game. The whole "George RR Martin" thing made it seem as if it would have a grand, epic narrative and wouldn't follow the same Souls blueprint. Turns out, it's basically Dark Souls 4: Open World Edition. Not that that's a bad thing, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

Nonetheless, I bought it with the intention of giving this series one last hail Mary attempt before abandoning it for good. It's said this game is easier for newcomers, and the open world allows for avoiding certain enemies if need be. It also has bonfires closer together and less spread out, all of which helps to make the game less frustrating.

I still hate that there's no pause, and I wish the game wasn't so intentionally obtuse about things (is it really so hard to clearly explain what each stat does, and what each gift does?), but even so, I'm having fun thus far.

I've only played about an hour, so these are early, early impressions. But so far I've only died once, to that super strong enemy on horseback with a halbeard as soon as you enter the open world. He's right on the path you need to traverse, but I did manage to get my bag back and sneak past him on the next try.

I've dealt with the weak enemies fairly well so far. I'm not a complete noob to Souls. I've put at least 10 hrs into DS3 and another 5 into all the others. So I know about weight and heavy rolls and all that. Left my helmet off to get under the weight threshold for a fast roll, for example. I also like that the game allows simultaneous mouse input, so mouse gyro aiming works for ranged weapons (though I don't have one to use just yet).

The world is interesting to poke around in, and I like the item gathering and crafting (even if you have to buy a crafting kit which I don't yet have coin for). I turned the resolution down from 4k on High settings to 1440p on Highest settings since I was getting a bit of stutter. But it still seems to be present, despite running on an Nvidia RTX 2080 ti GPU + Intel i9 9900k CPU, and despite having VRR on which normally relegates framerate issues irrelevant. So I have to conclude it's the DRM or something. Hopefully they get that sorted soon.

So far though, I'm enjoying it. Much more than I've ever enjoyed other Souls games. I think that comes down to having played for an hour now and only having died once. Usually I've died a dozen times by this point on some crazy early game boss where it's sink or swim. So that's good. Much better difficulty curve this time around.

I may wait for the SteamDeck to play more though. I really would prefer this in handheld. And by then the stutters should hopefully be resolved for the Steam version.

Glad you're enjoying it, @JaxonH .... It's still the Souls writers as well, you can look up articles on GRR Martin's part if you want
So, where have you got to now?

@BruceCM
I put it down for the day after writing that post. Just haven't been in the mood for gaming lately, and gotta get in my 2 hrs of walking (currently losing weight, was a 130 pound stick man all my life, but in my 30s somehow gradually crept up to 187, borderline obese for my height, and have dropped almost 30 pounds to 159 over the last 3 months- gotta stick with it and yet these last 20 pounds off).

@BruceCM no actually! Although i just fought the one you posted an image of. That was a pretty good one. [says in affectation of Barney Fife ] Dont wanna brag but, uh, he didnt even hit me once. _{although he did kill me a few times first} .

The boss i mentioned is actually one you access after you open up an imp gate in the starting crypt.

@roy130390 found it! - thanks for the tip. Boosted almost 10 levels in a short amount of time.

OK, @JaxonH ..... Let us know when you get further! How many areas have you done now, @Losermagnet?

This is not on topic exactly, but this thread is hilarious to me because it is very clear there must be up to four extra people posting in here that must all have me ignored/blocked, so all I see are like five posts in a row from Bruce or Void, having one half of a conversation.

@BruceCM I still haven't completed Stormveil Castle lol. I tried, but a combination of difficulty and distraction made me venture elsewhere. Funny thing is i've actually made it to the area North of Stormveil by stumbling upon a secluded route. So that makes about 4 areas total, if we count the Southern Weeping Peninsula as seperate from Limgrave (the 4th area being the Eastern one, thanks to roy130390 suggestion). I'm really bad about taking a ton of time to play through a game. Compared to the averages on the 'how long to beat' website I'm always well over lol.

Well, I'm not much further, if at all, @Losermagnet .... I don't entirely trust 'how long to beat' with some of the times it's got for games I've played, anyway! I think you'll have to face Goldrick later, if that's who you mean, though. There seem to be plenty of guides covering him & Margit, including avoiding both to fight them after a lot more exploration, etc, lols

I'm really enjoying the game so far. I did get so distracted exploring that I ended up being super over-levelled for the fights with Margit and Godric. They melted to my spells as a level 40+ Astrologer.