Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

hit commander gaius before either messmer or the scadutree. oddly easy - mainly because maliketh’s black blade special attack absolutely crucifies him, as does maliketh’s black blade spell.

i would absolutely not hit most things if i didn’t lock on. though bosses inc Commander G i don’t.

jori, elder inquisitor was a *dick* an unsociable sort, however.

After switching over to jumpy anchor build, and at Scadu 19 by the end, it wasn’t challenging. I confess I beat final boss first try— there was an “I’m gonna die” combo moment where I was actually saved by a “your message was appraised” prompt. But yeah he died.

I backed up my game just before beating Bayle tho so I reloaded and I’m gonna try the endgame again with a less brain dead minmax situation

ugh i had scadutree down to near zero health on third phase on my second go and and no i’m barely making it into the second. ffs.

now

Ok I found Messmer, getting properly wrecked so far (which is well & good). Got to phase 2 once, the screen filled with snakes, I died, and thought that was a good place to leave it for the evening.

snakes... why did it have to be snakes???

Last night I decided to go back and find all the furnace golems and deal with their fiery asses. I remembered the area at the terminus of the river, where one finds the Electric Perfume, and headed there. But: I clocked the location incorrectly, thinking that it was below the Village Of Flies. I found a new area with dual hippos waiting to be smacked. This map is really quite ingenious.

I have to do Ruah again, as a result of my Time Machine backup. I’m looking forward to it, it’s one of my favourite legacy dungeons. Like, “finally, a legacy dungeon for horses”. Looking forward to the final area, too, the way that it interfaces with a previous area below is breathtaking.

I’m playing dexarc for now, lotta blood, pata and Serpent Bow, attempting bosses again and having a good time.

This DLC is good and I can’t really find any fault with it in its execution, but I also think I’ve had my fill of From’s whole format and I am happy to move on from these games

I don't understand Ruah yet, I accessed it via the teleporter and from the (unexpected!) Shadow Keep connection that brings you out on top, but I haven't explored it yet. Really feel like I haven't scratched the surface of the DLC yet, it feels like there are a million routes I need to go back to.

It is insanely convoluted - i keep remembering forks where i've gone down one route and said to myself 'i'll come back later for the other one' and never do, because the route i took itself went on a fractal multidimensional route of new paths and open spaces. It's... a lot! (too much?)

Yeah, there is specifically one path that seems like “oh I’ll just poke my head in here and see what’s up” and then two hours later you’re in the abyss. A part of me wishes I had the messages turned off, so that I might feel less-assisted in my explorations… but I also realize that I’d more-likely just be missing everything

yeah it's crazy big for sure. also sometimes you are sort of hurrying because of scary/dangerous enemies or swarms or whatever.

“sort of hurrying” = equals spamming gallop like a mf for me.

exactly the same. some areas scare the shit out of me also.

Ok I have phase 1 down, I just need to figure out these goddamn snakes.

This is so sick btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDZUMfFkH10

So apparently Ansbach's dialogue changes if you find a bunch of the Miquella crosses, but only BEFORE the Shadow Keep point-of-no-return.

The thing is, some of those crosses are super tucked away, so the chances of finding them before you go galloping up the road check out the big black castle on the very obvious critical path are absolutely nil unless you're super-rigorous about scoping out an entire area before moving on.

I think I'm quite a cautious and careful player, but I only found the Scaduview Cross way up on a plateau to the east of Moorth Ruins last night after a good bit of digging around.

I think I found that one while running away from something. In general I found the crosses are sort of plonked on the more well-trodden paths? There are a few massive entire areas that I'd never have found without reading about them online tho. Just a series of steps I'd never have followed and which I don't think anyone could ever take organically.

yeah the area with the Tree Sentinels and Elden Beast... oh mother!

Xp some of those crosses are insanely well hidden. There's one in Belurat that I only happened to find by random luck. But then I've done this multiple times, it seems. God knows how I managed to get down that hole that leads to Bonny Village. Or happening to leap over the side of a bridge while being chased by a fire knight in Shadow Keep only to land on a long ledge leading to a tiny doorway and a long passage thst eventually opens into a whole new area. It's crazy how convoluted a lot of this is, and yet...

I’m just annoyed that I accidentally ducked into Messmer prematurely and now I’m cut out of hiring Hornsent for the job

Playing rogue-likes my whole life has given me a taste for “resolutely meeting obscure conditions to achieve a difficult goal” but yeah that one was a pain. I blame myself, there was a fog wall, I should’ve seen it and said “I’m gonna google who’s behind it before I enter”

Heh I'm getting close with Messmer (now starting to enjoy the fight, which is a sign of progress), but I was not able to put the pieces together on my 3rd session with him. Hornsent's sign is constantly taunting me in the arena like "are you suuuuure you don't need my help?"

Ok I just looked it up and not summoning will cause his questline to end, but I want to finish this fight solo so we'll just have to part ways. I wonder if it would still work if I summoned him and then sent him home?

(nevermind! someone on reddit says he will still appear later on if you don't summon him. once again thanks to someone on reddit.)

I wish this game had a plot that made any sense

When it gets to Reddit threads and Kotaku articles trying to explain to me that Miquella being kidnapped by Mogh was “all part of a greater plan” on Miquella’a part, I just start to lose all faith in the narrator

The problem with From games is they feel compelled to allow the player to challenge and kill everyone in them. There are never any good guys! Except the turtle pope. As a result they need to build a plot where everyone deserves to die. It’s nuts!

possibly because i’m unbalanced in some way i quite like the relentless “there are almost zero gaps in this universe for selfless good, only more or less deranged characters and different levels of suffering.” good cheer in the face of it all - such as onion knight and alexander - and irritable loss of patience - early castle dude in elden ring (forget his name) are about the best you can expect. they’re all trapped by the fate of a poisoned bloodline. *love it*. even if it is a little claustrophobic.

benign but clearly aging turtle pope aside obv.

I wish this game had a plot that made any sense

When it gets to Reddit threads and Kotaku articles trying to explain to me that Miquella being kidnapped by Mogh was “all part of a greater plan” on Miquella’a part, I just start to lose all faith in the narrator

The problem with From games is they feel compelled to allow the player to challenge and kill everyone in them. There are never any good guys! Except the turtle pope. As a result they need to build a plot where everyone deserves to die. It’s nuts!

― Frank Costanza’s lawyer (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, 24 July 2024 16:22 (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I dunno, I don't want to be Cap'n Save-A-Miyazaki but part of the whole fun of this series, for me, is the research I've had to do outside the box of the game itself in order to piece-together the plot. I honestly think the convolution is deliberate, and if one just happens to be observant and rigorous enough, the lore is actually out there and does make sense.

But I also think that the developers encourage a healthy amount of discussion among fans, and for people to go out and watch VaatiVidya and Smoughtown YouTubes or follow podcasts, or chat about it on Reddit, read Fextralife etc.

But the good thing is that you don't HAVE to do all that if all you want are hack-n-slash fighting thrills. In that respect, you can play pretty much the whole game and listen to very little dialogue at all.

Compared to God Of War Ragnarok, a game that makes me verge on anger for some reason, it's the total opposite. You don't spend hours menially picking fruit or climbing up a wall while someone endlessly exposits the backstory to you. Likewise, the fights are always fresh and fun and challlenging and the buffs and special moves feel worthwhile, rather than just a bunch of fancy graphics.

Oh no! I’ve always been invested in lore-based-storytelling and have cited it as one specific (of many) example of Miyazaki’s genius

But there is something disappointing about the DLC plot. Maybe. Maybe I’ll read it again and see if I like it more

I've not got to the end yet so I don't know the whole plot. I guess there's something a bit strange about the whole "Ah so you're tarnished, come help us find Miquella for very little apparent reason while we wander aimlessly around the map"

Ok, we've all died when the boss was one hit away, but this was ridiculous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SKqP32vr2s

Apparently it doesn't count if he's a snake. Anyway, this was the real fight, after at least four cumulative hours of attempts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l20B6AU-i_k

Hornsent was sitting there afterwards all dejected because I didn't summon him.

My brother has been playing the main game recently, his first From game, and he said to me he finds the vague story sort of disappointing also. I kind of don't care. I think other games push too hard to connect you emotionally to the story while failing to connect you emotionally to the world.

I don't really care that much about reading up on what's happening online, I tend to just play it as I am a ghostly tortured figure and so is everyone else, but I can kill them and become more powerful, so why not. Much the same as how I live my life.

A funny thing speaking to a family member about the game is my brother said he hates the fighting and finds it incredibly difficult, so he went off and levelled up about fifty times beating the easiest possible enemies before going near any of the early bosses. I was chatting to my other brother about this, who doesn't game, and we were like "yeah that makes sense" based on personality.

Much the same as how I live my life.

Haha. I definitely let the story waft over me like a cool (sometimes chilling) breeze, it's mostly vibes.

The stories that develop through invasions on the other hand are much more concrete, though unfortunately this was mostly a Dark Souls 3 thing since invasions were much more drawn out in that game, and there were also a lot more opportunities to accept surrender and give them some items etc. Now people just spam crazy weapon arts at each other.

Summoning Hornsent for Messmer is such a pain, I died twice just negotiating the yes/no

oh god, the charaters of my younger brothers, who are twins, are very visible in how they approach games. One of them psychopathically cautious and risk averse - it's painful to watch him edging about, and he *always* camps/snipes in multiplayer games. other one complete opposite, rushing in, dying, then giving up.

I think other games push too hard to connect you emotionally to the story while failing to connect you emotionally to the world.

and yeah this is otm, i really l*like* the attenuated storytelling, especially combined with the quite vivid sense of fear, tension, risk and occasional relief that just going around the world gives you.

yeah the malevolence of the world does more than most stories. the story actually is so dumb whenever i've come across bits of it that attempts to understand it annoy me.

my brother is a bit like your cautious brother. except maybe with added anger at difficult games. i can actually imagine him getting furious at any difficult fight and having no patience, and thinking 'fuck that' and going off levelling up for days and days with those poor scythe dudes in the main game.

a lot of otm - I have v little clue about the story, don't understand any boss motivations, don't understand my motivation, am unsure of who's evil and who's just a bit misguided, like I basically do not know what's going on but that sort of feels elegant - I feel like my tarnished does not know either, he's just dying and dying and killing in this confusing, cruel murder universe full of finger and tree cults. It's a visceral sense of being in the game = being in the world.

otoh whenever I do read about the lore I find its depth and coherence really astonishing - it's the work of a maniac to hide all that shit in item descriptions and environmental detail.

entire religious systems, their origins, schisms and ultimate destruction worked out somewhere just so you can provide the description for a dagger you find in an otherwise pointless room, discovered via a secret wall, in an optional region, which connects with why there is a particular type of monster in a church on the other side of the map

i do get a thrill from it. it's the sort of creative act you might expect from a remote victorian parson or institutionalised philologist, that never sees the light of day and is burned by their housekeeper after their death. it's worse than tolkein in many ways - not only am i going to create an entire lore and cosmos, only parts of which will be visible in the actual game, but it will be almost entirely malign and involve completely new systems of morality and metaphysics.

otm, terrible and magnificent secret profligacy.

Miyazaki do some conlangs you lazy fuck.

tbf possibly already has & is sorrowing because no-one's reconstructed the grammar of middle liurnian from hints in placenames.

was about to make a joke about albinauric dialects but have gone down a bottomless albinauric rabbit hole, rather like the actual topographical rabbit holes in shadow of the erdtree.

which connects with why there is a particular type of monster in a church on the other side of the map

I think the MVP, plot-wise, with regards to lorytelling, is all the Frenzied Flame stuff. That character (whose name I can't remember) who is looking for the grapes. The imprisoned merchants left to die, gradually turning to Frenzy. Vyke's story. The fact that you'll be in a beautiful verdant area somewhere and then turn a corner and see this sad ruined village and everybody is dead or crazy and the only evidence as to "what happened" is a Frenzied Flame shield left behind. It's very emotionally effecting, gives one the impression that they're putting the pieces together like an investigator, like they're actually there.

Every plot element in Elden Ring, ranked, from "liked it the most" to "liked it the least":

Frenzied Flame narrative (incl Vyke and the alt. endings)
Radahn vs. Malenia conflict, scarlet rot, and their respective outcomes
Renalla / Radagon tragedy
Renalla / Ranni / Carian lore
Omens and their banishment, incl. Morgott's sadboy allegiances
Melina and whatever she's about, I didn't really understand it but her monologues were terrific
Loser Godrick and his grafting
Godwyn and his murder, Black Knives and all of that
Horah Loux and Marika and all of that
The plight of the Hornsent
Miquella wants a hot undead daddy
Mogh and "the blood" in general
Fuckin' Rykard and all of that
Fuckin' aliens (Astel)

i haven't played this but my kids are into it and one thing that has struck me is how it taps into the same kind of vast loneliness that tomb raider did, where you're this wandering character, in search of this or that, and constantly stumbling onto the abandoned remnants of a lost colossal age, and getting to just kind of examine it, pull it apart, solve it, awaken whatever malevolent spirit has set up shop in it and vanquish it

*do you know* it was *literally* a couple of hours ago when i dropped into the lower cavernous galleries of of the upper ruah area that i said to myself, “this has something of tomb raider about it”.

sunlight was shining via some sort of outside aperture and illuminating the massive stone walls, overgrown with vines and lichen. all apparently deserted by the people or things that made it, and now occupied only by poisonous insects, shades and other scavengers, and indeed whatever it is that has “set up shop” there, in your good phrase.

there’s a lack of puzzles as such, though plenty to be pieced together and worked out, even if basic survival is at a premium.

but there was a mood of discovery about it all. i think it helps that it feels like ruah is a sort of jungle or meso-american environment.

I loved Ruah. Horse dungeon!

I liked the horse dungeon too, and now I find myself in Enir Ilim. Hopefully I'm not messing things up by doing this before exploring a lot of other parts of the continent.

Did you guys find the Euporia there? Great example of how the dlc lets you go down one little path that you're not even sure is a path, and suddenly you're down the rabbit hole. Same for Ruah and Shadow Keep and all the connections, honestly think this is some of the freshest world design they've ever.