Elden ring!
- Thread starter BusinessMan
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TedEH
Cromulent
Sweet jebus, I did it. Blood Sword Lance, and then completely gave up on avoiding anything in favor of the heaviest armour I had and just tanking everything from behind a shield. Made it to phase two without the mimic at all, then seppuku + mimic cheesed phase 2 before he had a chance to do that giant jump into the air for phase 3. Oh, and a rune arc, and the mixed thingie right at the beginning.
MFB
Banned
Bruh, this shit is offensive to watch after all the time it took me to beat him; like, I knew parrying made things easier, but this is downright insulting to me, and I'd say even FromSoft.
TedEH
Cromulent
I feel like I did the opposite of a no-damage run. Was more like a "how much damage can I take and still survive" run.
MFB
Banned
Ah yes, the Rocky 3 finale, I'm quite familiar with it unfortunately as an "unga-bunga" player with no signs of reforming
narad
Progressive metal and politics
This is sort of why I don't buy all the reddit guys complaining about this game being too hard in general. There's always going to be some guy who puts out a video like this. Just from the video I learned a couple things to try to save my ass at two points where I typically get my ass handed to me.
gasolinedreams
SS.org Regular
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You can do this on PS5 as well, if you've got PS+, by uploading your saves to the cloud. I've got friends who did it for the base game to platinum it in one playthrough.
TedEH
Cromulent
Now that I've gotten through the DLC, I feel pretty disappointed at how so many folks are tearing it a new one. Yeah, it's difficult, but it's a From game. Maybe I've not played that many of them, but every one I've encountered had moments where you hit a wall and feel like the game is BS right up until you figure it out and move on. One guy on youtube complained that the fragments forced you to explore the game. ....isn't that the point?
wankerness
Well-Known Member
I don't think this kind of thing is good evidence for the game not being hard. Like, yes, that video makes it LOOK easy, but the way parries are in this game, even if this guy was max level, if he'd whiffed a single one by a frame, he'd have gotten his stamina taken down to about 0 and also taken a ton of damage, and then he'd be screwed for parrying the follow-ups. If you do this PERFECTLY it looks easy, but I would wager this guy took hundreds of attempts before filming this.
Parrying in Dark Souls 3/Elden Ring is way, way more difficult than Sekiro! In that game, if you mistime it but hold down block, you still block and it's fine, you take regular block damage. Here, if the boss hits you in the wrong part of the parry animation you get huge consequences. And with the way parry, even buckler parry, has a tiny "wind-up" it is not that intuitive to figure out the perfect timing, it's more trial and error.
You should probably play Dark Souls 3. I think you'd appreciate it. It doesn't have the open world of Elden Ring, it's basically a string of "legacy dungeons," and it's definitely got a ton of the same DNA as elden ring but without some of the systems being fully developed (IMO weapon specials are mostly useless for most builds, while they were turned into the incredibly good Arts of War in Elden Ring. And dual wielding was removed in this one after being in DS2 - you can't truly dual wield except with some specific weapons that are designed to behave differently when 2-handed). But like, the boss fights are all designed around the player not having any summon or ashes, and thus they kind of feel better to fight instead of the DPS races/aggro juggles that Elden Ring bosses often turn into.
I think a ton of people are trying to play Elden Ring like Dark Souls 3, when the game is tuned to make it so even if you use the Mimic Tear it's going to be tough. If you intentionally gimp yourself and play on "hard mode" by not using any summons, then it does seem insane compared to Dark Souls 3. I keep hammering on about this comparison cause DS3 feels almost identical to Elden Ring gameplaywise, like many of the player animations and timings were exactly reused in Elden Ring, as are some of the enemies.
So basically yes, the game really may be too hard, if you play it with self-imposed restrictions like an idiot.
The guy's complaint about fragments shows how a lot of people play the earlier Fromsoft games, which is trying to figure out optimal routes to get to bosses as fast as possible while skipping enemies as much as possible and only picking up like, weapon upgrade materials. They really DO think having to explore the game is a chore. I've never had this mindset at all and was one of those dorks that could never go through any new door in a Dark Souls game without first going around the back to make sure there's no item there.
MFB
Banned
For real, I didn't think I'd like DS3 as much as I did, but it's my #3 favorite FS game, right above Elden Ring
TedEH
Cromulent
I started DS1 at one point, but got distracted by other things I wanted to play. The plan had been to do all DS1 through 3 just to say I did. I can certainly say that ER and DS1 feel vastly different. DS1 feels like the arcade-y eat-your-quarters kind of BS difficulty that Demons Souls had, but Elden Ring by comparison feels like it has a much more modern / forgiving kind of difficulty, and I really enjoy it for that. I also never finished Bloodborne, which I'd like to.
wankerness
Well-Known Member
DS1 has some sections that I absolutely hate like Sen's Fortress and the first half of Anor Londo and the Crystal Caves where it just has insanely punishing balancing on (in one zone, INVISIBLE) walkways while enemies attack you and if you so much as get breathed on you go flying off to your death. And then my least favorite zone is Tomb of the Giants, which is pitch black (unless you know how to farm one of TWO lighting objects in the game, and one of those takes up your left hand slot so it severely gimps your defense and/or attack), filled with pitfalls, and loaded with enemies that can annihilate you in seconds or just push you right off the cliff. And then there's one level with zero checkpoints in it whatsoever, you have to run back from the start of the game every time you die. I like the game overall but it's definitely a lot harsher than later entries. Maybe a little less harsh than Demon's Souls in terms of the runbacks on death, and definitely a lot milder as far as consequences of dying, but really nasty compared to Elden Ring thanks to how sparse checkpoints are.
DS3 is probably the most noob-friendly of these games before Sekiro and Elden Ring added a ton of quality of life features. It still has sparse checkpoints compared to Elden Ring, and almost all the boss fights will spit you back in the level a ways every time you die, but the difficulty ramps up gradually and nothing in the game (at least before the considerably harder DLC) is remotely as bullshit as some of the stuff in DS1.
Bloodborne is like, midway between DS1 and DS3 in terms of user-friendliness. It's often as confusing as Dark Souls 1 in terms of level layouts and figuring out where to go, but once you adjust to the combat system, and if you build your character with some certain overpowered weapons that are easily accessible, it's not too bad. It has the best world design and "atmosphere" of any of these games. DS3 is definitely more user-friendly though.
