Board 8 > Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree trailer at 10AM Eastern tomorrow

(+) Yeah! (+)

kevwaffles posted...

Except the part where even without the Master Key there are multiple ways into Blighttown and you can beat the game without ever setting foot in Lower Undead Burg let alone Depths, something that a lot of people don't even realize.

There's literally two ways, Depths and past all the drakes. The key just lets you skip other areas and get to the drakes earlier. DS1 has brilliant world design that does an excellent job of disguising how it's funneling you into certain areas. Dark Souls 2 pulls the same trick of having paths converge sometimes but others it opens up a different route with another endpoint.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

There's literally two ways, Depths and past all the drakes. The key just lets you skip other areas and get to the drakes earlier. DS1 has brilliant world design that does an excellent job of disguising how it's funneling you into certain areas. Dark Souls 2 pulls the same trick of having paths converge sometimes but others it opens up a different route with another endpoint.

Even if you toss out early sections and dead ends from DS1 as openness for whatever purity test you wanna use, DS2 is still doing the same thing in the opposite order. Like the exact same thing.

The path to Lost Sinner is similar to getting to Blighttown albeit a bit more obvious. The only other time you have a real choice is whether or not drop down a well a bit more.

Ds2 is the most fun for me to play through so i think it's better. Qed

imo Dark Souls 2 is more fun than 3, but I recognize that 3 is the better game. I just thought 2's unique qualities (for better or worse) made it stand out more.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Dark Souls 2 to Sekiro is an unfair comparison

Wasn't really trying to compare the two which is why I brought up Demon's and OG Dark Souls.

It was more just love for Sekiro, because it doesn't get enough.

Sorozone posted...

Wasn't really trying to compare the two which is why I brought up Demon's and OG Dark Souls.

It was more just love for Sekiro, because it doesn't get enough.

Sekiro is now the third best FromSoftware game behind Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Sorry all you Bloodborne lovers, it does not compete.

Really couldn't get into Sekiro at all, it's just not the same type of game in a way that doesn't work for me. I really really wanted to like it! I'd say it's the only one of these games I wasn't able to finish, but again I don't consider it one of "these games".

Aecioo posted...

Sekiro is now the third best FromSoftware game behind Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Sorry all you Bloodborne lovers, it does not compete.

Bloodborne is so far above the rest of them that it just removes itself from the discussion, yes I agree.

Is Dark Souls 2 the best Sekiro-like?

https://youtu.be/-q72A1eNcBg?si=ErIJQDmj3Jt5SwfO

40 minutes. This man terrifies me sometimes.

ExThaNemesis posted...

Bloodborne is so far above the rest of them that it just removes itself from the discussion, yes I agree.

Preach.

Bloodborne sits at a comfortable fourth actually which is wild to think about

Bloodborne is a weird one for me because most of the good things about it are also bad.

The Rally system is one of the single most brilliant things they've ever done to the point that many games adopted their own take, but in practice 90% of the time it serves as bait to get you killed in boss fights if you try to take it seriously.

It upped the pace of these games and made people learn to dodge instead of shielding to the point I can barely stand to use a shield in their other games anymore, but they massively punish you for getting hit outside the iframes of a dodge that sometimes you're safer eating a hit.

They removed upgrade dependencies from healing items only to make them consumables that most people will run out of at some point when they're still learning.

Chalices are an "easy" way to give more content, but by not making the main progression ones actually procedural it kills any replay value. And most of the exclusive bosses are really not very good.

I played Elden Ring first. My first ever FromSoft game and while I loved it, my skill level was so low that I either had to powerlevel or get handheld by friends through a lot of the content.

Then I played Bloodborne and learned how to get good. The emphasis on offense over defense was what I loved the most about the gameplay. The story for Bloodborne is just second to none though IMO. Musically, stylistically, it's everything I think I've ever wanted from a game.

When I went back to Elden Ring after Bloodborne, I was just absolutely melting everything because it was like I'd trained in the hyperbolic time chamber lol.

Eventually I'm gonna go through the Souls series and also Sekiro, which I've heard is the most challenging.

It's funny because my preferred Souls playstyle is dodging over blocking and being Dex-y, but I like doing that more in Souls than in Bloodborne. Souls, and to that extent Elden Ring, just hits something specific for me that Bloodborne doesn't quite in that way.

Elden Ring was also my first From game too. One day I'll play Demon/Dark 1-3/Blood/Sekiro, one day...

My last Elden Ring playthrough was Reduvia assassin type. I got in and got out so fast. It was a lot of fun.

My next playthrough I was thinking of doing a dual magma blade build, but then I saw the drop rates for those and dreaded having to farm in my least favorite area of the game

ExThaNemesis posted...

Eventually I'm gonna go through the Souls series and also Sekiro, which I've heard is the most challenging.

I think the challenge comes from years of souls experience. My first time with Sekiro was definitely a challenge since I had to unlearn certain habits and pick up new ones. Like jumping over sweeping attacks, that took the most effort for me to nail down, since my reflexes were so dependent on dodging through attacks which isn't viable in Sekiro.

It also likely depends on how much you enjoy parrying, since spacing is much less important, in fact it's even detrimental to distance yourself from an enemy. Sekiro demands you stay right in your opponent's face and meet every attack head on.

It took a long time for this playstyle to sink in but once it finally did Sekiro became a top 2 game of all time for me, following Bloodborne.

Elden Ring is either in third or fourth place, switching back and forth with DS1.

Yeah Sekiro takes some time to figure out and even more time to click but once it does, my god, there's legitimately nothing else like it. Some of the best combat in any game, period - DMC5 and Nioh 2 are probably the only others I'd put in that class.

Yeah, once Sekiro's combat clicks with you it becomes sublime. Really should get back to my NG+ but backlog problems lol.

Bloodborne is great but I do prefer basically every Souls game. I like the Souls stories and especially the multiplayer and replayability much more. Never was too into the eldritch stuff. The multiplayer was so bad though, you really can't forgive it.

It's such a great Souls game though because they made it specifically to teach people how to play Souls. It's an investment in their genre. So by the time DS3 and Elden Ring came out, people would enjoy them WAY more knowing how to actually play properly. I loved DS3 because of that. Even a sword & board felt so different. I assume Sekiro also teaches you some core ideas that are useful in other Souls games.

sekiro taught me how to parry in Jedi: Fallen Order, that's for sure