Topic: Soulsborne Series Thread

@BruceCM i'm gonna clear the Weeping Peninsula and then head back to Stormveil for Goldrick I think. I wont get too much playtime in this week though. It may be TMI but I've got an interview on Wednesday and a surgery scheduled for next Monday. Between those and the normal stuff its gonna be a busy week. The good news is i've got two weeks off for recovery afterwords so I'll be able to catch up lol.

@alpacatears thats good to hear, since that is my approximate level and, as a prisoner, i've got a few spells that turn baddies into toast. I already got Margit, but thay was at level 16 and he made me work for it.

A lot of minibosses in the open world. I stumbled on some town after a dude warned me about it, discovered the enemies there don't die, then realized death was paddling around in a little canoe, and he was the one I needed to slay. Pretty easy battle, but conceptually neat.

Now I'm going through the castle after forgetting it a while back. Not a fan of giant birds with knives on their feet.

@Losermagnet I defeated Margit at level 16 as well. With unupgraded gear.

In retrospect, I could have made that easier for myself.

Cool, update us as & when, anyway, @Losermagnet .... Yeah, that sounds like the difficult way, @Ralizah! Still, if you managed that, you should be fine with just about anything else in the area

@Ralizah i think that was a moment where I was playing it too much like Dark Souls. I should've gone and explored, leveled up, and gone back. Btw, I'm not sure if this will help with the skeletons in the future but once you drain their health bar if you spank their sparkling corpse they die permanently from embarassment.

And those knifey birds got me too. They were hard to hit.

Well, I somehow ended up in an area of the map quite a way from anywhere..... Going to come back later for the boss there, though!

I think that I made a mistake when I chose the Wretch as my starting class. I keep getting brutalized by absolutely everything because I don't have anything in terms of my defense stat.

Honestly, the starting class thing is kinda weird. I kept being told it didn't really matter as you would make your build as you went. I knew I wanted to use magic, but with this in mind I went with the Hero because I wanted more health to begin with and everyone made it seem like once I got into the game I could make a start on my magic build straight away.

That just isn't the case. Since then almost every weapon I found either scaled with dex or required dex at a certain threshold to be used, one of the lowest stats the Hero has. If I ever get anything else, like say a weapon scaling with strength which is one of the Hero's higher stats, it for some reason has like a strength requirement of like double what I currently have, despite dropping in an area that was quite easily, so seemingly intended for my level.

And in a game where you really don't get an abundance of drops, you have to make a not very fun choice between either not using anything you're getting (which makes the game way harder, too) or building entirely in reaction to whatever drops you get, knowing full well that later on you might have sacrificed vital points in a stat you no longer need and have nothing left for the stat you do need.

Maybe I've just been really unlucky, but I feel like there should be a better distribution of all things in one area or just higher drop rates over all. But I also get that goes against the whole Souls thing, where player convenience is a sacrifice for the whole hardcore vibe, but for me it is sacrificing the fun too. One of the main reasons I have always longed to get into a Souls game is the depth and flexibility of it's systems, but really Elden Ring seems to be keeping that at arm's length so far.

And like I say, it might get super exciting later on, but that means you really have to push through a lot of stuff you're not enjoying to get there. And maybe again that is just the whole Souls thing so deal with it, but again it's just not a lot of fun for me.

@Ralizah That's pretty impressive. I'm a Souls "veteran" and I needed more levels and the help of an NPC.

Personally when I see that battles would take too long because I'm not doing enough damage, I prefer to search for items and other routes to avoid frustration. I enjoy the challenge in Souls games, but I like even more to find viable builds to make the game more accesible and there's usually plenty of tools to do that hidden throughout the different areas.

@BruceCM that kind of sounds like what happened to me, but I wont mention it in case of spoilers 😉 this game is big

I really appreciate that the minibosses all seem unique. My gut tells me we'll see some palette swaps later, but every single one i've encountered is unique. While there are still some things I'm iffy on, I'm starting to love this game.

You've been pretty quite since release day @JoyBoy, how're you liking Elden Ring?

Yeah, although I didn't face the actual boss there yet, @Losermagnet .... So, arguably not much to spoil yet! Fast travel is definitely handy for such situations

15 hours in, just defeated the first boss, (first as in the one you are guided towards).

First impressions:
So this feels a lot like BOTW, the design of the world especially, there are even a lot of nods to BOTW which I won’t spoil. It doesn’t have the “feel and presence” of the former and the music isn’t particularly great in the overworld but nonetheless it’s quite awesome and exciting to explore. Al kinds of nooks and crannies to explore which I absolutely love with some nice surprises added.

Sneaking didn’t feel like it added much to the gameplay until I came across and entered the castle. It’s kinda great exploring it and sneaking about. You feel like you are part of some hobbit or Lotr story and it changes and impacts a lot the way you go about things. And wow, that castle is awesome. There are so many ways to approach things, so many corridors, rooftops and windows to sneak in. It’s kind overwhelming at times for someone like me who likes to explore everything.

I haven’t delved much yet into al the customizations. I’m just bouncing around with my longsword and doing just fine.

Ah, I don’t like that the game is spoiling me with all this art of new enemies/locations while I’ve been so strict with myself not to look at any new gameplay… Oh wel…

So yeah, just defeated the lord of the castle and I’m seeing new vistas to explore already and the game just wants me to keep on playing. But I’m taking it slow, I want to enjoy every moment of it.

Wanted to get this game, but why does every fromsoftware game seem to have a problem with proper Coop? I just want to play a game like this with friends and it doesn't really let me without making it tedious.
Game itself looks fun, but not gonna play through this alone

I was playing last night after breezing through beating the first lord. I went to the next area thinking that I'd still be a bit too overpowered only to be immediately murdered by a giant lobster spitting at me.
It definitely reminded me of the dangers of complacency in a FromSoft title 😂

Oh, yeah, @alpacatears ....? Not even sure who the '1st Lord' is, though, so maybe I managed to miss them!

@JoyBoy thats a good assessment. Glad to hear you're enjoying it though 😁 i thought showing enemies and bosses during the loading screens was a strange choice too.

Regarding that area that leads north of stormveil - I found that shortly after beating the first boss of stormveil. I didnt explore too much, but I was definitely conflicted because it seems like an area with sorceries and I'm running a Dex/spell caster build. Its really cool that there are paths like that in the game. .

I think the game will offer a ton of variety in New Game+ play throughs.

Geez, that boss fight against Godric was nuts. Although I found the first half goes by easier if you get him stuck on the dragon and cheese him with arrows. Allowed me to Unsheathe spam him in the second half to stagger him.

@Ralizah For some reason that fight wasn't too bad for me. I learned the patterns quite fast I think and enjoyed it a lot. The boss fight before that though... I got my ass kicked and actually used a npc summon and my own spirits to beat him.

@Losermagnet Yeah, you know you are loving the game when you are already looking forward to a new run

@DomGC Glad you're enjoying the game as well!

Just found out you can actually hit from both sides when you are on the horse, with R1/R2/ and L1/L2. I guess I don't use the steed as much...

I'm probably going to redo my playthrough of this game, and pick another class, since I'm not really ready for Wretch.

@VoidofLight Is the Wretch the one that starts with low stats and is in nothing but a loin cloth? That would be a challenge. On the other hand, regardless of your starting class you should be able to build your character however you like. You mentioned your defense stat earlier - have you been able to find any decent armor? I feel like my defense is pretty low too (i'm at level 42 or so and my defense is hovering around 90 I think) so I got the best armor I could without fat rolling (the chainmail) and put a fair amount of skill points into increasing my HP.

@Losermagnet I haven't stumbled upon anything armor or weapon wise. I've just been running around in a loincloth, with a club the entire time. I did find a camp full of knights, and a massive giant, but I keep dying when I try to go towards it.