Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asqWq8MIAWA

I'm reading Russian interviews with Miyazaki and I can't wait to find out what "less annoying" means for invasions (also, invasions!):

https://www.igromania.ru/article/31725/Pogovorili_s_Hidetakoy_Miyadzaki_ob_Elden_Ring._Otkrytyy_mir_multipleer_i_yadovitye_bolota.html?from=mpp

Elder Bling

So unless I misunderstood, it sounds like GRRM's contribution was the back story of the bosses/demi-gods you must face, which sounds fine to me, because it's not like Miyazaki has ever really needed someone's help before, let alone a name ringer.

https://www.ign.com/articles/elden-ring-miyazaki-hidetaka-full-interview-summer-of-gaming

Yeah it sounds like he just wrote the mythology for the world and backstory, split and let From take it from there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/o0680a/miyazaki_famitsu_interview_translation_part_1/

Oops here's a link to the rest of that interview:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/o0bvgi/miyazaki_famitsu_interview_translation_part_4/

looks absolutely incredible, sounds like it's trying to deliver on everything you could possibly want from "open world dark souls" and even more (there's a summonable monster collecting mechanic, combat is taking on some aspects from sekiro too), and bc it's fromsoft i believe they can actually pull it off. world design sounds like it's taking a lot from botw while directly addressing the biggest problems i had with it too

there's one more interview out there, in german but it's comprehensible enough with machine translation: https://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht/Allgemein/Vorschau/40800/84122/0/Elden_Ring.html

I mean, it basically looks and sounds like another Dark Souls, which is fine with me.

Dark Souls (or at least some of them) are basically open world games anyway so i'm bout it bout it

Yesss, perfectly happy with how Dark Souls (except with added horse, jump button, wayfinding, stealth, and NPCs moving their mouths) this looks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JldMvQMO_5U

that looks really cool, definite Breath of the Wild things going on with it

Super cool, super glad this is coming out on PS4. Nice to see so much comfortably familiar stuff recycled from Souls/Sekiro games (and borrowed from BotW), plus new stuff.

Witcher RPG structure, Elder Scrolls sprawl, Dark Souls dialogue/lore/design/combat/UI and Breath of the Wild improv/central castle mechanic sounds like just what i'm looking for. just keep the stakes continually high and the procedurally generated shit minimal and you got me.

The summoning spirits thing seems intriguing, as is the absence of health bars and the like in those clips.

Oh the HUD is definitely just turned off for the demo, to make it look more cinematic I'm sure.

Ive never played Dark Souls (the way everyone talks about how hard it is put me off - I dont play games to get MORE stressed out). I love and still play Skyrim and BOTW, would I like this? It looks very nice.

The thing about Dark Souls and all its successors is that they're difficult in a very specific way; it's all about paying careful attention to things like the timing of your own attacks. It's not hard the way a bullet-hell game is hard. It's a slower-paced, almost meditative challenge. I didn't think I liked "hard" games either, but I did get pretty into DS1. I found it frustrating and I did eventually slide off it. A few boss fights aside, I didn't find it "stressful" exactly. YMMV of course.

That having been said, I'd love to see From embrace the recent trend of allowing players a temporary assist if they're stuck, a la God Mode in Hades, or the assist features in Celeste.

I think so? The difficulty of the games is way overstated imo, and this one is sure to be the most user-friendly version so far. It's more that you can't rush through or brute force it, at least not on a first playthrough. And there are so many different ways to approach the game, you can summon helpers and use magic from a distance if you don't want to get deep into the melee combat.

Forks otm...like, I get to enjoy the 'aimlessly riding around on a horse' mechanic of BotW and Red Dead Redemption, except when you get off the horse, it's Dark Souls? Yes please.

xp

Definitely overstated imo.... you mostly just have to pay close attention and remember things, and you're rarely put in a position where you can't take a breath (admittedly the only souls game I've played is demon's on ps3 but they apparently get easier from there)

To expand on X's point, I'd say the "taking a breath" aspect is a huge part of these games, eg. bonfires. The moments of peace and quiet are all the more delicious after having slogged through lugubrious combat

*part of the appeal of these games*

A lot of these games are indeed pretty meditative, in mood and design. They're lonely and emphasize exploration and experimentation. All the dying and setbacks become amusing after a while, with the reward being how easy stuff that once challenged you becomes later on in the game, as if to emphasize, "See? you've come so far!" The only real stress comes with the boss fights, imo, which is where the real challenges lie, with a few specific areas or enemy exceptions here and there. The bosses, on the other hand, both impede progress and are the least forgiving, plus are more or less the only enemies where you can see just how close you are to beating them while still dying. Or, you know dying in just a couple of seconds, which can be frustrating, too. Don't think I found any/many enemies in Dark Souls 1/3 or Bloodborne as annoying or frustrating as many of the enemies in Sekiro, though, but clearly different strokes, etc. Maybe I'm just blocking them out. I'm sure I can find some posts of mine to the contrary.

Also the boss fights are designed to psyche you out with their epic scale and music, but almost all of them are a matter of learning the boss's moves and how to avoid them, and picking your moments.

Yeah, I remember reading a recommendation that sometimes when you hit a wall, just turn off the sound. Though sometimes you miss certain cues when you do that. Regardless of moves or scale or whatever, there will always be some bosses that some people can beat with their bare fists blindfolded the first attempt, but you'll fight 50 times and barely make headway. I tend to get bored after a while more than frustrated, which is another reason to turn down or off the sound.

I definitely turn off the music sometimes (you can do that and leave the sound on).

!

Yeah! Just go into settings and there should be separate volume sliders for music and sound fx.

I never had a PS3 so it was interesting to come to the Demon's Souls remake after playing all the other games. Some of the levels, one bonfire and all, seem monstrously punishing compared to later stuff, but the bosses don't really have any capacity to surprise when you've been through all the more developed, multi-stage/gimmicky ones from later games

I beat most of them in one try so far

Didn't get a network test code :(

Tons of info & videos out there today from people who have early access. I'm trying to avoid spoilers for the most part, except for stuff about the mechanics.

Standing poise (instead of Dark Souls 3-style hyperarmor) = in (not sure how I feel about this)
Powerstancing (ie you can equip two weapons of the same type and get a different dual-wielding moveset) = in
Mixing your own combo potions that can make you explode = sure why not
Solo hosts can't be invaded unless they use a few items = ok, fine
Invaders get a compass to see what direction the host is = sick
Invaders also get an item to quickly vanish from the host's world and reappear nearby = oh my god

It really does seem like a blend of all their games plus a bunch of new stuff, can't wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzFR5HsPcng

all sounds cool. I have no problem with spoilers, because not only will I forget by the time I get it, I can't play any of these games without walkthrough help anyway lol.

i have the same problem/gift with forgetting everything! really comes in handy on very rare occasions

Just finished that video and have some thoughts. One, I've never played Dark Souls II because I've ... well, I guess I just skipped it, but I've heard mixed things (and there are essentially two versions of it, for that matter). But it is interesting that some of its elements have made their way to other games, despite its reputation as a disappointment. For example, as I understand it your health can be halved in DS2, and a similar mechanic was brought into Sekiro. And according to this video, power stances from DS2 have made their way to this one, too. Second, I've never used magic in any of these games, because choosing magic is like choosing an entirely different, novel way to play the game, and if you're only going to play it once I'm not sure magic is the way to do it. But maybe it is in this game, because magic looks super cool. Third, I really hope this plays well on PS4 (and other last generation systems), but I have a bad feeling between it being open world and generally newer than the past several From games it might really benefit from the speed and power of newer systems. That's one advantage of (as this video points out) From never being on the tech vanguard, because it means the games generally don't *need* next gen tech to run. (I know Demon's Souls is PS5 exclusive, but those that have played it, do you think it could run on a PS4?)

Anyway, I can already tell there are going to be a lot of funny videos generated by this game.

Oh, also, looks like you don't take fall damage when you jump, which would have been a very perverse thing for From to do, so I'm glad they didn't do it! Or at least, maybe there are height restrictions/allowances? And I like how there is environmental damage that can be done by at least bosses, which I know was in "Sekiro," though I can't recall if it was introduced there.

Demon's Souls is quite a tech showcase, it wouldn't have been able to run at that framerate on ps4, and some of the lighting/particle effects look like they would have been a big stretch too

I like Dark Souls 2 to some degree, some dispiritingly shit world design like the infamous Earthen Peak Elevator Jaunt travesty aside. It's like a difficult 3rd album that isn't among the classics but fits a certain mood when you happen to want it. I found the DLC far too much of a grim slog though

Elden Ring looks unreasonably good, can't wait

This game looks fun, and by early accounts the open world design is supposed to be good, but I can't help but wonder whether the openness actually adds much to the Souls formula. The main draw of the world design in DS1 (admittedly the only one of these I've played) was for me, its labyrinthine density. Eldenringland just looks kinda vast and drab to me.

i was moderately interested in this game, but after watching some of those videos posted above i am now EAGERLY ANTICIPATING. my only problem is i don't have a system for it, and i was leaning toward getting a steam deck rather than a ps5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DWTt37khU

Fwiw, both videos note the difficulty of the first mandatory boss.

i showed the game a friend of mine who really likes dark souls, and he seemed to be a bit disappointed at first. i think he was thinking of it as a souls-like game, which, it is in some ways of course, very much so. but just being open world and adding jumping completely changes it. it reminds me of GTAIII or breath of the wild in terms of how those games were a departure from the games they built on

Souls-like.

And something else I was thinking about, given From's propensity for hidden walls/loot/enemies/NPCs/entire levels and/or alternate endgames, I wonder what that portends for an open world game? Gonna be a lot of OCD dudes slashing at every bush, rock or piece of foliage, looking for secret stuff, a la the first Zelda.

To be honest the open world part isn't particularly compelling to me. I do like the idea of all the new handcrafted zones that are the equivalent of large Dark souls areas, and a whole bunch of new build options and mechanics (and invasions, of course).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEypd23I0pQ

here's footage of the PS4 version - it seems like it runs without any serious issues or significant visual downgrades. i got into the network test on PS4 so i'll see how it is in a few hours from now.

i'm not at all concerned about the open world, all the footage of the network test has made it very clear that it's avoiding all the common open world pitfalls (repetitive content, big for the sake of being big, etc.) & is very dense with unique content. there are at least 10 bosses in the network test area alone (which is estimated to be around 1/12 of the full game's map). it's a big change, sure, but i don't think anywhere near as radical a shift as say GTA3 or BOTW were - the core gameplay is still very much the same despite the change in environmental scale.

For example, as I understand it your health can be halved in DS2, and a similar mechanic was brought into Sekiro.

DS2's max health decreasing on death (in increments down to a min of 50%) was more of an iteration on Demon's Souls' mechanic where you lost half your max health when you were in 'soul form' opposed to 'human form', which happened upon dying while human. in both cases, the game was generally balanced around the halved max health, with more than that being a bonus, but it was still kinda presented as a punishment. i think both were intended to give the player another incentive to go into human form, which enabled being invaded as well as summoning other players as well as removing the max health penalty. DS3 improved upon this by having embers, which worked the same way in enabling multiplayer, provide a bonus to your max health instead.

there wasn't any sort of max health restriction upon death mechanic in Sekiro though, and there doesn't seem to be in Elden Ring either.

DS2 is one of the weaker souls games but it's still worth playing. the issues with it are largely that the encounter design isn't quite as tight, the world design is clumsier & it rarely reaches the same sorts of high-point boss fights as the best of the series. i'd still put it above Demon's Souls at least.

i may be a minority opinion here, but i don't worry at all about whether something can run well enough on a certain machine. i can count the number of times i have been bothered by the framerate/slowdown of a game on one hand. i think part of it is that i came to gaming age playing games like LIFE FORCE. the slowdown was part of the game. the bug became the feature. aiming for this perfect-smooth framerate ideal is understandable but also kind of disappointing. it's just different, i guess

blighttown was pretty miserable at times in the original console versions of ds1 due to all the slowdown. it's certainly something to be concerned about & can make experiences much worse. with cross-gen games like this, it does happen sometimes that the last-gen versions are significantly inferior due to cutting corners trying to get the game to run on hardware they weren't focusing on, but that thankfully doesn't seem to be the case here at all.

IDK I think having a smooth frame rate is critical for a game like this where you have to time movements precisely. And while 60 is nice, 30 is perfectly good as long as it stays consistent. I played DS1 on Switch and it runs great!

As a relatively recent returner to games, I've learned my lesson the hard way. When I got "Doom" for the Switch it kinda ran like shit, even after a few updates. The slowdowns definitely affected game play in such a fast paced game, and even things like jumping were impacted. Like, you would run at a couple of spots (even with no enemies) and suddenly things would slow down, right before you pressed jump, and you would fall to your death. But tbf, "Doom" is almost uniquely busy and fast paced, and yeah, I can't think of another game off the top of my head with issues like that.

That said, I sort of suspect at least some of my problems with "Sekiro" were related to the frame rate. Usually I don't notice/care, but that game was all about timing, and while it could have been me (I mean, for sure it was me), it's also possible it was just that much trickier for me at 30fps than it would have been at 60.

We're about to learn more about the tangled backstories of Grendlemare, Garintigue, Grent and Gorefeld and their rivals for the throne, Redilmane, Roddiful and Reechurgle. Plus pretenders from foreign lands, Malignatent, Magistratia and Macklemore.

Lol the fact there are characters called Margit, Morgott, Maggie and Margo in this really makes me laugh

I'm so confused. Why does everyone know thats Miquella, who is apparently a "young boy" and not this lass riding a steed?

Is Miquella like Radagon?

Am I even getting the names right ffs

Miquella is the one demigod we don't properly encounter in the game and that whole quest seems to end in a bit of an abrupt cul-de-sac. So it's long been speculated that the DLC will cover him.

There's some deep lore somewhere that Miquella was cursed at birth to never become an adult. We don't see much of them other than a big hand coming out of an egg at Moghwyn Palace, and a slightly obscured hand-painted image in the opening scenes of them being taken away by Mogh. In that photo we can see Miquella has long golden tresses very similar to the ones on the rider.

Somewhere, it's also applied that Miquella and St Trina are the same person. St Trina is the patron of sleep, and there are a few items to do with St Trina (St Trina's Sword, St Trina's Lily, and also the Slumbering Egg and Nascent Butterfly which are used to make Sleep Pots) which are all associated with Trina/Miquella. So this points to a Marika/Radagon, Ranni/Renna, Gurranq/Maliketh thing where Miquella is more than one person somehow - possibly both a boy and a girl

FFS I'm not very good at this hidden text thing. Apologies

I guess anyone reading this far will be fairly familiar with the story now anyway. It's pretty hard to discuss the lore without some sort of spoiler

There is lore that directly alludes to Miquella being androgynous. The Kotaku article about the DLC is pretty illuminating

Yeah I'm seeing that now from other lore pics. Certainly makes sense as yr right its the one character spoken of frequently and not yet seen at all.

VaatiVidya and Smoughtown are the best YouTube authorities on lore as far as I'm concerned.

Her'es a deep dive on Miquella:

Oops

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

Wonder which is coming out first, this or Armored Core? Either way I need some new From in my life rn.

Had so much trouble with Radahn this go round.

I'd get him down to second phase and then he'd just start chasing me around until he was able to one-shot me. Somehow I wasn't able to revive my festival pals fast enough before he could catch up. Also, quite annoyingly for some reason, I'd sometimes go to blow my steed whistle and instead I would drink a potion(!)

I read you could use dragon breath and inflict scarlet rot on him, but as I was doing a mage build, I had to re-spec for more Faith. Unfortunately that then meant that I couldn't use my trusty Moonblade which I'd upgraded. What a palaver!

Anyway, in case anyone cares, this was about my 15-20th attempt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXqy7rjOg28

I love the small handful of really big From arenas.

Anyone here subscribe and listen to Bonfireside Chat podcast? I highly recommend it.

There's a really well hidden catacombs in that Radahn arena you can visit. I wonder if it's reachable during the fight - that would be pretty mad

It's interesting how the Radahn fight starts out all red and Martian-looking but goes to a night-time blue after he jumps in the air

I always remap my steed whistle to one of the quick slots. :)

Yeah I have up as the steed whistle, left and right for my tear flasks, but sometimes my controller seems to think I'm pressing left instead of up (or I'm doing it in a panic, I dunno)

I have a second build I'm doing more of a speedrun on, and I found Margit, godrick and Radhan easy this time round (FAI/STR build with a reasonable leg up on dex/int). But yea its rotten breath that does the trick. I tried using the black key crossbow with the rot bolts, but it didnt seem to have the same impact as rotten breath did?

No matter what happens, I generally find Str/Int is the way to go for the first part of the game respeccing to Str/Fai shortly after Caria Manor

Shamelessly nicked from reddit;

https://i.imgur.com/ktPS0Ip.jpg

This is perhaps the most useful thing I could imagine for anyone playing the game. A diagramatic guide to all the various NPC quests

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/11lfopv/guide_all_npc_quests_endings_w_points_of_failure/

Played through the whole of Ranni and Fia's quests over the last few days. Needless to say, a highlight of the game but also absolutely and easily skippable if you don't know what you're doing.

Now I've married Ranni though, I'm unsure as to whether I've got the stamina to play through the rest of the thing yet again.

If I have a qualm about this game (and it's a small one) it's that no matter how you play it, you're always forced to play Leyndell, Mountaintops and Crumbling Farum Azula on every playthrough. And man, I just cannot be bothered - especially with CFA. That said, I think I'm still interested enough to revisit Volcano Manor and the Haligtree

Still think they should make a Souls game based on the film Mandy

i would like to hear more about this idea

I mean, it writes itself. Film has psychotic hippie cultists, chainsaw-wielding demons, flasks of stuff that makes you go insane, vodka, chainsaws, super long chainsaws, crossbows, a cool forest, underground dungeons, a mystical horn you can blow, a soundtrack that swerves from neoclassical ambience to prog to death metal, eye-wasps, motorbikes, pickup trucks, lore you can glean through TV adverts and food product packaging, cheddar goblins...

At least make a mod

Get fuckin SunnO to do the soundtrack. Boom.

also, caelid

i would like to see caelid at night, with ATVs buzzing

Film has psychotic hippie cultists, chainsaw-wielding demons, flasks of stuff that makes you go insane, vodka, chainsaws, super long chainsaws, crossbows, a cool forest, underground dungeons, a mystical horn you can blow, a soundtrack that swerves from neoclassical ambience to prog to death metal, eye-wasps, motorbikes, pickup trucks, lore you can glean through TV adverts and food product packaging, cheddar goblins...

Kinda sounds a bit like FarCry 5 tbh!

“…”#ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/x0ufnLNKtq

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) April 4, 2023

So I ended up getting this game over Cyberpunk. Started it out in earnest back in April/May, mostly blind, and just got pummeled into infinity, even with the Confessor. Definitely was not used to the controls and some of the basic ways to go about playing and exploring. First 10-15 hours of game play were just not very fun, honestly. Stuck with it because the art direction and immersion are truly compelling.

What helped me finally appreciate the game and make progress was remapping the controls to be more Breath of the Wild like (R1/R2 is now Square and Triangle), diving into some guides for rune farming early, and realizing instead of continuing to attempt bashing my head towards Stormveil Castle, I should head south to the Weeping Peninsula. Was able to level up nicely near the Bestial Sanctum, spamming those ninja like vulgar militia dudes that drop 1000 runes each and eventually that giant dragon. After finally feeling buffed enough to take care of most of Limgrave's bosses and dungeons, including the Tree Sentinal I went up north to the castle. BTW that bleed knife Reduvia is super dope and happy to push towards a faith/arcane build with it in tow.

I just beat Godrick the Grafted and am now in Liurnia. Finally have been feeling the joy of the game loop and appreciating the rewarding nature of a Souls game. Definitely feel a bit over buffed now (beat Godrick on level 50), but perhaps that is best for my newb ass.

Pretty stoked for the rest of this game now, and was def not feeling that a month ago.

enjoyed this post ob. how did you get on with the rest of it? v recently completed tho haven’t yet finished haeligtree or indeed killed moghwyn (not sure i cbf’d on that one tbf)

Wired: For the DLC

Tired: It's a bit frustrating that I spent my first playthrough combing almost the entire game (a good 200-300 hours) for every hidden nook and cranny, only to have all my gracepoints wiped on subsequent games. I also started a fresh game a while back on PS5 but wearied a bit around Altus Plateau / Gelmir.

I'm hoping this won't affect my ability to play the DLC once it comes out, if you see what I mean, i.e. I don't know how far through the game I need to be to access it. I wish I could just reload my original game with all the Grace sites intact - that would be sweet

You mean after going into new game+ with the same character?

I've lost track I think.

Playthrough one: Did absolutely everything there was to do, all the quest lines, Age Of Stars ending

Next two playthroughs: Bit quicker just for the sake of platinuming the game. By the third time I was just running through it as fast as possible.

Then I think I started a fourth NG where I was just mucking around, killing merchants and generally being a nobber but soon giving up.

Then I started a brand new game with a clean slate on PS5 as a wretch. And that's where I am now, but I'm only just at Altus really

Aside from a week of snoofing Slay The Spire like it was crack cocaine, I've been video-game free since March, hoping to keep it that way until a major illness or something

I did peek at a Chase The Bro video yesterday, and it seems that poise has been revamped? to a point that Hand Of Melania is now a viable AoW? sounds fun. Probably won't be coming back for the DLC until years from now if all goes well

It struck me just now watching the latest Vaati 'Prepare To Cry' video how many of the NPCs remind me of Game of Thrones characters.
Had to Google to see if Seluvis and Varys are the same actor, but they're not.
Fun aside, I found out recently that I have worked more than once by the guy who voices Patches, and didn't even know!

Yeah, apparently there was a huge pvp patch that changed a lot (poise, easier backstabs, lots of weapon and magic values). But I lost interest a few months ago for some reason, to the point where I don't even know if I'm particularly excited about the DLC? I've just been playing the older From games a bit, although mostly doing a video game fast before Armored Core. I'm sure I'll get back into it at some point.

Xp !!!

A lot of the voice actors *have* been in TV shows. Pip Torrens is the obvious one of course, but also Kenneth Haight was him off of Silent Witness, Mohg of course was in Our Flag Means Death and Happy Valley and a few of the other guys pop up in random procedurals all over.

Haha yeah, I had to look up Pip Torrens after seeing him on Succession and recognising his face. Very pleasantly surprised to find out who he played

enjoyed this post ob. how did you get on with the rest of it?

Thanks! Even at that point of beating Godrick I wasn't locking on enemies until that fight! Literally played for 30 hours, getting to level 45-50, and hadn't locked on a single enemy. One of my friends actually was impressed at my ability to get as far as I did without this tactic. *sigh* But suffice to say, I was playing the game very inefficiently while blind those first hours.

At the time I wrote that, my character was not really yet specializing. I waffled and leveled Strength, Endurance and Dexterity in an effort to try early weapons and wear better armor and I ended up creating an overall weaker character who under performed at level 50. I'm now extremely buffed out at level 140, with a really focused build and direction. Love the dragon incants, using the Dragon Communion Seal, and focused most of my levels on Faith and Arcane. Using bleed weapons like Reduvia, Mohg's Staff (which is incredible), Rivers of Blood and Star Fists. Just got the Blasphemous Blade, too. I'm moving around and able to kill most things, bosses I beat within the first 1-3 tries (with some exceptions - the Valiant Gargoyles still smash me) and now I'm at Mountaintops of the Giants. I consider my build a "Dragon Blood-Priest" and I'm loving it.

Sadly, while I've focused most of my "what should I do next" actions on pursuing specific items and rune farming, I have closed off or stunted some quest lines: Rogier, Nephali, Kenneth Haight, possibly others, which sucks. I guess I can pursue those on a NG+. This game is probably TOO inscrutable, honestly. For the size of it, it really doesn't need to be this "mysterious" with certain quest lines and definitely detracts a bit from the experience. I get that this is a very "From Software" thing, but it's still not ideal. Many of the quest lines/NPCs offer some hints, but it's already a challenging and rewarding enough game when you're constantly referencing guides and online wikis to sometimes move things forward.

Not played online at all - so I suppose I'm missing out on the rich interactive culture of invading and being invaded, as well as PvP arena play etc. Not really caring about that.

Leyndell, Volcano Manor and Altus Plateau are really beautiful. The capital especially. The mystique of the stone dragon Gransax, the music, and just how massive both the city and Erd Tree feel. It's a marvel just wandering around that space and despite my many tools of death, there's still challenges and places I've yet to bust through. Yet to hit up the Haeligtree, Farum Azula (whatever that is, only seen the name and location here and there online) and Deeproot Depths.

When the DLC drops I'm there day 1 lol. This game is pretty incredible - I've stopped playing TotK entirely, and it almost feels unsatisfying to play now.

Blasphemous Blade is OP. I love it

From experience: I wouldn't worry too much about breaking some quests or even missing a few things on your first playthrough. I tried to do EVERYTHING, but it was impossible and by the time I completed it, I wanted to try a second run immediately afterwards but was disappointed there wasn't too much more to discover, save the few quests I'd broken.

I'm up to the Rennala fight and this meager progress is easily the furthest I've ever progressed in a From game. There is a lot of opportunity to level up even if you aren't progressing the story forward.

xp Yeah it's all good - I definitely want to reclass and try different builds and play styles too. I'm only using a small slice of weapons, spells and armor and would be much more curious to play through as a pure Strength/Dexterity build or Int build and rain down comets and moons on fools. Also really need to get buff enough so my drip/fit can be tops and be not so concerned about getting reamed.

I got as far as Farum Azula then TotK came out and I havent touched this since lol. I must get back into it. But Cities Skylines is also calling to me. Argh.