Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

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.

yeah, the path to finding it was so cool.

"path" lol

Ok, I broke my rules again and summoned a spirit for the npc gank fight, we just need to even the odds a little bit, lol.

I've been putting my sign down for that fight (wasn't even sure if that would work!) and it's really fun, particularly because everyone has a different combination of enemies and allies depending on what they've been doing with the quests (I had Leeda, Hornsent, Dane, and Moore vs me and Ansbach). Another quirk is that if the host dies while you're still alive, you end up back in their main world to try again without re-summoning.

I was on my own for that fight and after the NPCs made a load of convoluted speeches I had them all dead within about thirty seconds.

Felt good tbh

Wow, I would love to see that clip to see where I'm going wrong, lol. They felt very strong, Dane and Leeda chasing you down is just relentless, and Moore is a tank with that stupid two-handed greatshield.

As ever I'm not really sure why these varied experiences happen, like obviously builds but I've definitely seen people itt describe easily beating a boss that I found really difficult.

Similarly my brother is at the point of quitting the main game as he said he got to Mountaintop Of The Giants and everything is suddenly two-shotting him. I googled and saw others saying this but didn't happen me for whatever reason, and I am not a particularly skilled fighter really, I sort of steam in instinctively and I never observe the bosses too much besides getting out of the way of major moves.

Omg, the new patch finally changes it so the default option to resummon your horse with a flask is "yes."

oh my god thank you Miyazaki

User needs being met

jfc fumbling around with that while a dragon is opening its maw to spew whatever and *why would the answer be “no actually i’ve changed my mind*

also i think i’ve fucked the freyja ansbach quest by giving the scroll to ansbach at the wrong point. i’ve been avoiding spoilers and generally just following my nose but it’s reaching that stage where i feel i need to get my bearings in the story a bit.

I did that too, I think it messed up Freyja but Ansbach is still hanging around. Hey soooo should I do, like, the rest of the dlc before beating the last boss of Enir Ilim?

wondering the same but I think I'm going to try and beat him and leave the abyssal woods till after. I did not like the vibes in the abyssal woods

It's so horrible

Those... things

i hid from the things but got inexorably lost and decided to leave for the moment because of the bad vibe.

also wtf torrent you’re a *spirit* and you’re just going nope to an area i could really do with you.

add a preposition there somewhere.

I got caught by them a couple of times and then shot off. FOR NOW

There's something about the madness bar filling that gets me going shit shit shit even more than the death bar. I think it's because I see it so rarely.

On that theme, the biggest dread of any Souls game is hearing the winter lanterns singing in Bloodborne imo. You're going to die, because of line of sight, and it's going to be Eldritch. Killing them frenzied flame tower lads in Liurnia almost feels anticlimactically like battering some kids who interfered with your allotment and realising you've gone too far

If we've sorted the torrent potion issue can we finally make the switching weapons/equipped item a bit less clunky and pedantic, do you think

Abyssal Woods were a cool change of pace, shame they were so… empty. The boss in the Manor House there (which felt kind of Resident Evil almost - I think there was even a bit where you had to push a bookshelf to jump across a gap) is the last one I need to kill before going back to Radahn again.

And yeah it’s funny how different builds/play styles give such different experiences with the bosses. Messmer took me fucking forever but Gaius got wrecked second try and I no-hitted Jori first go (Jolan and Anna spirit ashes and me spamming r1 stun-locked him and he couldn’t move/hit back. Took about 10 seconds.

)

I think I've made a straight line to the end of the dlc, I haven't even glimpsed these other places you guys are talking about, haha.

I have so much left to do but I'm honestly looking forward to going through it again with my dex character.

xp

I went in search of the Cerulean Coast last night, and realized I was already on the cusp of it, I just hadn't gone through that last little tunnel near the furnace golem. Either I didn't notice (likely) or went back to the main path and forgot to return. Now we are once again going doooowwwwwn.

Feel like there are about five or six paths very close together in and around that bit. I missed all of them at first. One thing that didn't happen me in the main game but has happened here: I can't really be bothered fighting the final boss. I've heard it's really hard and tried it a few times, like twice maybe, and did okay, but just as the end of the game when I've done everything else it doesn't appeal that much. Other bosses I want to defeat them to continue exploring.

i get that tbh.

not that i’m anywhere near the final boss but i’m a bit “yeah ok we done now”

when i get to the final boss i mean. jesus. arduous posting. i’m wandering around periodically drinking a glass of wine and picking up my phone. not really elden ring behaviour.

is the only booze in fromsoft onion knight’s siegbrau? feels like people would need to drink *hard* in the lands between.

also “i am extremely hungover” energy to the various lords after the shattering.

extremely pissed off at minor irritations like a lowly tarnished and going absolutely ham.

rocking back and forth in pain etc

Ha. I for one will not be missing the opportunity fight Radahn in his youthful prime. Especially when I've done everything else and the alternative is either starting over with a different character or not playing Elden Ring.

I think it's having finished everything else. I don't find myself thinking after work "great now I want to sweat a lot and test myself against an incredibly hard boss" even though I enjoy that a lot after two hours of wandering around to get there, or knowing more wandering is the reward. Tho with the Elden Beast I was very determined to beat it.

Fair enough, although maybe it's a good opportunity to really get to know a boss without feeling like it's getting in the way of more exploration & progression!

Bosses are maybe my least favourite bit of these games. Like, I appreciate them as set pieces and the whole sturm and drang of a cool boss like Rykard (y u break heart fgti? Magma Mansion is one of my favourite lore areas of the base game). But yeah, I have little interest in gitting gud enough to really work these guys out. I'm always happy to get them out the way so I can carry on exploring and finding new stuff

Honestly I wasn't always a huge boss fight fan. But since the pvp doesn't captivate me like Dark Souls 3 did, I've found myself really enjoying these dlc bosses and getting into fighting them without too many bells & whistles.

Playing Sekiro again probably helped too. In previous Souls games there were always a few bosses I got really into (Midir comes to mind as a memorable marathon, and Manus in DS1), but my appreciation for Elden Ring's boss fights has only grown with my second playthrough going into the dlc. They have a wide enough variety of moves that you're always on your toes, but it's not too many to learn. And what they do often depends on your position, so you have a degree of control and prediction. And they're obviously excellent at punishing heals, so you almost always have to dodge an attack and trade a counterattack opportunity in order to heal.

In general I also really like the boss fights. Think I'm just sad it's over besides the last one.

That said, I do not love fighting the dragons in this game, and now I find myself on Archdragon Peak.