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.

oh wait this is also making me feel i have not been to the shaman’s village even tho i saw the lore video. fuck.

There's a really great talisman there you'll absolutely want for the Elden Beast fight, so definitely make your way over!

It's hard enough to know you're meant to do that thing with the O Mother gesture to access that whole bit of the game. Maybe I missed something but there don't seem to be many in game hints

Xp Holy crap, I missed that too when i finally went there just now. Dang. I think this is a problem with these huge, largely empty plateaus- it can be quite disorienting and hard to know if you've combed the whole bit.

I just went to Charos' Hidden Grave area and it's much bigger than I first thought, but again it's another large section of pretty flowers with few distinguishing landmarks. Apparently there's a gaol there but I couldn't find it.

I'm a bit confused about how I'm supposed to craft pots in order to take down these furnace golems. I never seem to have enough ingredients. And I'm not too sure exactly which pots to use.
And even when i csn, and try to get one from above, it usually mashes me up with fire before I get a chance to aim and throw a pot at it anyway

Any ideas about the gigantic pit that you have to ride around in the Hinterland area before the Shaman Village? At first I thought that might be where the Mother of Fingers might have crashlanded as a star, but I'm not sure it's in the right place

I missed a bunch of stuff in Charo's that I had to come back to, great gaol.

And I'm not sure but I think only the golems with armored legs can be taken down with pots? Tbh it's hard to tell which ones those are sometimes, since you can't see their health bars very well when fighting them.

You can throw pota into the golem's baskets if you take them down by hitting their legs. But even at level 19 I'm having to hit them about 132 times before that happens.

I'm not really into these different pots even though the DLC really wants me to invest time in them. Feels like a very finite resource to have to grind for. Is it more for PVP?

Ohhh I see. The hefty pots are definitely powerful in pvp. They would probably be good to inflict status ailments on bosses, I don't like to rely on consumables though. I don't think anyone does, which is why they introduced all these infinite throwing weapons!

dog

Oh dear

dog latin you know you can crit the furnace golems for half their health once they fall down? Aim for the face

Oh for real? I didn't know that. I haven't been able to farm pots, so I've just been hitting them in the legs but it takes forever for me to get them to even half health, and the drain on my stamina means I struggle to time the jumps right. Ill try this

They are not a challenge once you time the single leg stomp jumps right, and learn to summon Torrent when it’s a double leg jump. The only titan I used any pots on at all was the one by the cathedral, whose legs are armoured

Hehe, I get the theory. But my stamina runs out due to repeti4ive heavy attacking his legs, and Torrent refuses to jump when I want him to. Unless... do you generally dismount to attack the legs?

I had a go at parrying the Aging Untouchables in the Abyssal Woods. It was fun! Made an otherwise dull area a bit more exciting.

And then the Manse! Wow! I really wish there'd been a few more areas like this in the DLC. Only gave Midras a couple of goes, but seems like a cool and challenging boss

I had a go at parrying the Aging Untouchables in the Abyssal Woods. It was fun! Made an otherwise dull area a bit more exciting.

And then the Manse! Wow! I really wish there'd been a few more areas like this in the DLC. Only gave Midras a couple of goes, but seems like a cool and challenging boss

This is amazing... wish it was real

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32lrAbNPlY

Ha, wow.

I'm honestly shocked at how much I'm enjoying my second dlc playthrough, using my original dex character. I can actually enjoy striking out in various directions now that I know the shape of the map, and I'm not worried about missing things or remembering what to come back to. I'm running Milady so far which is a blast, and it's nice to get back to the dodge & slash/poke style. I've got Taunter's Tongue on the whole time too, which I know is an acquired taste.

I'm also taking a vacation on bosses, using Mimic + NPC summons really is a spectator experience so far.

> taking a vacation on bosses

My goodness, I sometimes need all of them just to get through! Scadutree Avatar is definitely a boss that will probably always be beyond my skills solo. My mimic in fact finished him off in time while I was disintegrating and was still able to claim victory...

We don't have to have the same conversation yet again, but I think anyone can take on these bosses solo if you're up for dying many many times! Eventually the cues and timings reveal themselves.

I can't

Although I said upthread that fighting bosses isn't really why I play these games. First playthrough at least, I just want them out the way so I can keep running around and finding stuff. Maybe I'll try and git gud. It would be neat if you could retry bosses without having to New Game

Speaking of bosses, I think all I have to do now is fight Midra, Radahn Consort, a random dude in Charros Hidden Grave, and the fire golems. I'm almost certain I've found most of the stuff in the game, although you can never really tell can you? I'm feeling like I kinda don't want to beat these last few bosses because then it'll be over. And I don't know if there's much reason to replay the DLC - there are no trophies to unlock. Are there even different endings?

I don't think so? Conversely, I don't care about endings or trophies, but I do like going again with different weapons that make me play differently.

It is nice to scream into the NG+ DLC with all the Scadu fragments. The bosses hit real hard tho.

I'm really struggling with Midra. Trying all sorts, especially lots of bleed. I'm fully focus-resisted too.

Like a lot of bosses he's not got a lot of openings or cooldowns. I found that meleeing him up close means he hits me less, but then I've no time to heal or buff or summon. I can stagger him sometimes but sometimes I can't quite do the follow up stab and I just end up slashing him back into action

Looking upthread it seems most of you had no trouble at all with Midra. Surprising. His health bar is insane and even with bleed, my weapon doesn't seem to do an awful lot. He's relentless too, and can one shot me from right across the arena if I'm not constantly healing (which I rarely get a chance to do)

Jordan jumped on and helped me - thanks Jordan! Although even as a tag team, his bonky build and my light greatsword/faith build it took two attempts.

Well, I guess I've just got Radahn to go. I'm not especially looking forward to it, and I'm not looking forward to the end of the game.

Fans are asking for a Bloodborne sequel, and there are rumours of an original new franchise called Spellbound. But honestly, I'd be happy with FromSoft just releasing a great Elden Ring DLC every couple of years. Or making that Mandy-Souls game I want them to make, I still think that would be rad

I really want another game to get into now the evenings are shortening, but I keep seeing a terrible review of whatever game I had briefly decided to buy, eg Wukong.

Yeah I just can't get excited for Wukong. Looks like a pretty procession of boss fights without the fun exploration stuff

LocalGarda, have you played the other FromSoft Souls games? Dark Souls 1/2/3, Bloodborne, Sekiro?

I really want another game to get into now the evenings are shortening, but I keep seeing a terrible review of whatever game I had briefly decided to buy, eg Wukong.

i realise “i need a break” doesn’t *quite* square with NG+. what i mean is i don’t really want to start another big game of this sort. plus all soulslikes seem in different ways inferior to me. nioh 2 was fun but… why play that when i could be doing a different build in DS3 for example.

Yeah there's something inherent in me that doesn't trust other software houses with making "Souls-likes", it's like, I dunno, a dupe of some sort. People are saying Lies Of P is good, but I played the demo and it was too much like a Diet Bloodborne with the Lovecraft stuff replaced by a Steampunk aesthetic. Either the copyists are going to overshoot the point of these games by simply copying the mechanics, or they're going to be copying it too closely.

At this stage there's very little out there in terms of big games I really feel like playing. And it's not because I only want to play Souls games. It's because I want to be treated like a grown-up I suppose, and Elden Ring has spoiled that. I can't go back to playing God Of War where all the puzzles are explained to me by the characters before I've even looked at them, combat involves just randomly tapping the buttons, and the story is exposited in long dialogue sequences. Baldur's Gate 3 is the closest I've come to a satisfying experience. I guess I could try Armored Core Vi again, but I didn't find it much fun to play.

Feel like the other From games will be too hard for me maybe? But maybe I'm wrong. Also can relate to Fizzles point about needing a break. I did play and thoroughly enjoy Still Wakes The Deep, basically just a v immersive horror film.

I wish I hadn't already finished BG3, also loved that.

Am considering also Disco Elysium, I played it a bit on my Mac but think on TV with a controller would be good.

Sekiro is the only From game that felt frustratingly hard to me, ditched it at this stupid giant monkey boss and am very confident I’ll never go back to it. Bloodborne probably my favourite overall.

LG, nahhhhh if I can beat Dark Souls you definitely can. It's not a million miles away from Elden Ring. It's also interesting to play those games and see where certain ideas and reference points come in. Not just stuff like Patches being in almost all the games, but there are certain environmental bits where you'll be like "Aha!". I've got something out of all of them so far. Started with Bloodborne (which I found hard, but it was my first one). Dark Souls is very good. I really really like Dark Souls II as well.

Oh, and actually Demon's Souls Remaster is amazing if you're on PS5 - top top game

I'm in the same boat, other games just seem kinda lame by comparison. I guess I could try Lords of the Fallen now that it's had a million patches, but that doesn't appeal right now, nor does Wukong after seeing some videos.

Re: boss fights, I think this is a valuable video from everybody's favorite meme Let Me Solo Her. It actually shows the learning process on Radahn from not knowing the moves and dying a hundred times, to being able to no-hit the boss as a phantom (2nd video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37GZkwXUaK4

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

Anyone know if Cyberpunk 2077 is worth playing now? I heard it had been patched to hell as well. I wasn't mad on the first-person-ness of it though

One hundred per cent yes. Absolutely loved it. It didn't get much fanfare after how terribly disappointing the first release was but once they fixed it up it is a brilliant game. P much as good as anything out there imo. Fighting etc is easy, tho fun, but driving around and the music and even the story all great.

ha - my first real post to this thread is me asking y'alls if I should get Elden Ring or Cyberpunk. Glad I went with ER

It'd not actuslly possible to kill the furnace golems. Even if I time my jumps to the second, still get hit by the flames. Its even worse if I'm mounted. There's no way to do it

Thanks FromSoft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4GHLhasT1g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEssT5VS7VQ

I don't understand how you're meant to stagger them. Everything online says you just heavy attack their legs, which I'm doing, but nothing happens. More often than not my heavy attacks mean my character is still within the animation when it's time to jump, so I just die

Oddly enough, I found the golems to be the easiest to time, but the most punishing if you fail. The first twenty times I fought Golem Numero Uno I extremely died horribly, but once I got the rhythm of it (and learned to quick summon Torrent for a double jump when the golem prepped for a jump himself), I found them very easy

I managed to stagger and riposte him once just now, but after that he just stomped me to death. There was no choice. I did not have time to stand up, summon, or heal, before he was executing his next stomp.

I'm getting better at timing the jumps when I'm dismounted but when I'm on my horse, half the time the horse just stands there being a big idiot, and then jumps after I've been burnt to cinders. Either that or I get knocked off my horse.

This is the second golem, the one near Shadow Keep entrance. I managed to do the first one

Not having much luck throwing pots from on high either. My lock on seems to aim somewhere in front of them rather than in the basket. Just chucked 4 of them at the golem below Charros Grave and none of them hit. Now I have to go farm for them again. Its so annoying, but I don't really want to admit defeat on these

Yeah, don't try and pot-kill any of them except the one you have to, the materials are a pain to farm. Sorry you're having trouble! Compared to some of the star-studded line-up (the multi-element lion before Enir-Elim, Messmer, Sunflower, the battle royale, and the Consort hisself) I didn't find the golems challenging after the learning phase