|OT| Elden Ring - Foul Tarnished, in search of the Elden Ring
- Thread starter Durante
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There's a clear point after the capital where I feel the whole balance was thrown out the window. Enemies hit way too hard, even the basic ones, and have way too much hp. You also get a ridiculous amount of runes per enemy, 1k+ per basic version & 5k+ per harder versions, not to mention getting 300k, 400k, 500k per boss. At the same point your power spike is too limited, you're bound to have hit at least one soft cap in your stats, or even a hard one, it's hard to upgrade your weapon and even when you do there's a limit to how much dps you can output. I'm also finding armor to be more and more meaningless, you can die in 3 hits wearing light armor or survive with 5% hp while wearing heavy armor, which makes no sense. And while on this subject can someone explain how is it possible to be constantly staggered while wearing the heaviest armor in the game with the highest poise value?
It feels almost like the end-game was developed in separation from the rest of the game or even by a different team. They clearly need to nerf the enemy's stats and the rewards you get from the later areas.
I had trouble with it at first, but killing the bird can be done with about 95% consistency in about 10 seconds (subjective, I haven't timed it), with the right spot and rhythm.
Immediately after resting, move to the closest spot on the ledge. The bird is moving towards you.
Immediately click to shoot an arrow, before even aiming, and aim during the 2 sec it takes for the bow to actually fire.
Aim through the tree, in the biggest opening between the branches (there are three, top to bottom right). The arrow will hit the bird. Wait until it starts falling before moving to rest. (If you feel the arrow might miss, immediately fire another one in the third, bottom-right opening in the tree; the second opening has invisible branches, and is not suitable)
Most boring farm ever, but it works.
The Albinaurics on the ledge might be more efficient to farm if you have massive AOE attacks that one-shot them.
Yep, that farm is really effective if you get into the rhythm, also boring as hell, but it really helped.
This difficulty spike I also experienced became much less of an issue with that level boost.
Although as I mentioned, there's still some enemies that can wreck you very quickly if youre not careful. Its almost always easier to do bosses because you can bring ashes along (and let me tell you, the Mimic is an awesome companion
)
Yes, the Ashes are awesome and creative,... but I hate that they exist.Its almost always easier to do bosses because you can bring ashes along (and let me tell you, the Mimic is an awesome companion
In DS3, the bosses where tuned for solo play, and you could summon NPCs for easy mode --- limited by embers.
In ER (140h in) the bosses tend to be hyper-aggressive and relentless, obviously tuned for Ashes; you're supposed to use them, and if you don't use them as a distraction, you are in for challenge mode.
My favourite DS3 boss is Dancer, and she spends half her time walking menacingly. The tension comes from those quiet moments, the temptation of greed. In ER, there is no quiet moment, no contrast, no rhythm. Boss fights feel like low-grade heavy metal, constant aggression, constant noise, and I don't enjoy that. Keep the concepts and moves, nerf the aggression, and make Ashes a limited resource; that would make things much more to my liking.
The levels and map are great, though. But where DS3 bosses were a highly anticipated highlight, here they feel simultaneously like a chore and a speedbump, simultaneously utter bullshit and too easy.
Maybe they tried to make something that would be challenging even for the "broken" builds because they just gave up on properly balancing everything (or didn't have the time) or maybe they wanted to give veterans something to test themselves against... either way it didn't work, the strong builds easily clear everything anyway and veterans have to restrict their options if they want a challenge regardless (even Malenia is pretty easy if you allow yourself to use summons or certain abilities).
Dare i say difficulty options would've been a solution?
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After the capital I started abusing ashes mostly the broken Mimic tear in reality is as broken as your build is. Before that I soloed every boss
I see this is a bit of an expert discussions regarding balancing... for me as a novice (mostly) to those games, the bosses mostly were enjoyable and most of all doable.
The ones that were too hard I simply let stand, outlevelled them, came back later. And used the summons whenever I could.
I feel like people can make those challenges for themselves if they wish with these systems in place
Anyway, I wonder, what did you mean by calling the Mimic broken, curi0usBystander ? Or builds? (Genuinely asking as someone who hasnt playing FromSoft games before: Ive seen this before but Im unsure what people mean when they write it)
The ones that were too hard I simply let stand, outlevelled them, came back later. And used the summons whenever I could.
I feel like people can make those challenges for themselves if they wish with these systems in place
Anyway, I wonder, what did you mean by calling the Mimic broken, curi0usBystander ? Or builds? (Genuinely asking as someone who hasnt playing FromSoft games before: Ive seen this before but Im unsure what people mean when they write it)
This might be a smartass answer but the game already has difficulty options, that's what NPC summons, player summons, pet summons, magic, melee combat, ranged combat, ashes of war and all the other mechanics are. You have the option to engage with any or all of them and doing so makes your life easier or harder.Maybe they tried to make something that would be challenging even for the "broken" builds because they just gave up on properly balancing everything (or didn't have the time) or maybe they wanted to give veterans something to test themselves against... either way it didn't work, the strong builds easily clear everything anyway and veterans have to restrict their options if they want a challenge regardless (even Malenia is pretty easy if you allow yourself to use summons or certain abilities).
Dare i say difficulty options would've been a solution?
If you're talking about having an easy/normal/hard scalling option for combat/exploration/etc... I don't agree.
Yes, I ended up going to co-op on some boss fights. Which was super fun, since I haven't done that as much as in the other games. It was a blast, especially seeing repeat fellow cooperators get summoned along with me.@vigor: i know what you mean, xinek ... that's why i just did rune farming for that. Repetitive and boring, but gives you a substance boost.
Now I can even take a hit from a chariot
This is exactly it, how you've described it, especially the enemies' health -- there are places that I don't think I could clear myself in a reasonable number of tries, and ashes aren' t available. Instead, I summoned or just ran past. Armor being useless is actually kind of good, because of fashion souls.
Regarding runes, there was also more than one time where I lost 150k+ runes and just shrugged it off, because the amount you get is totally ridiculous. That helps make the area feel like less of a grind.
The Mimic will copy your entire equipment. So for example I was dual-weilding katanas (each with different status effects) so in practice is like we were attacking with 4 swords meaning my status effects build up faster meaning it was easier to inflict it and faster.
I believe the mimic has unlimited FP (unless they patched that) so if you have a magic build with very powerful spells it can spam them indefinitely.
Fine to see it that way and i really like the aspect that everybody is essentially playing the same game so we're all talking about the same thing, but then i don't understand why you were calling for nerfs to the late game enemies when you have all the tools at your disposal to adjust the difficulty to your liking? Go for one of the strong builds, use all the available buffs with 60 vigor and have a laugh.
Personally i've been in the "no difficulty options" crowd but i think i'm slowly switching sides given the huge variety of expectations people have for the games
The nerfs I mentioned where an attempt to balance the game and make it a bit more consistent. In my eyes it makes no sense that for 80% of the game zombies die in 1-2 hits and give you a pitiful amount of runes then all of the suddenly they take 3-4 hits and give you 2k/unit. After dealing with a small group of 3 or 4 you get more runes than killing a boss in the early-to-mid game or killing every single enemy in an early dungeon, like the stormveil castle for instance. The way things are "tuned" the first 80% of the game almost feel meaningless, you can just power farm the equivalent of all the runes you got throughout the game in a matter of a couple of hours.
At the same time they could apply the same consistency to the hp and attack values and make the whole thing a lot more coherent.
The runes/hp/attack/defence/... graph should be something like this (the a gradient represents the scalling)
instead of something like this - linear, almost stagnant, growth throughout most of the game and then suddenly an exponential growth
This is a topic for another time but it's clearly a problem cause by the scale of the game. In order to keep it interesting and challenging they felt the need to bump the stats in the later portions of the game, which imo wasn't needed or at least not in such an extreme manner.
There is certainly a big step up at that point and way bigger than any other in the game except for going straight to margit or directly into caelid (which might be even bigger but you can just go somewhere else). And while we'd probably come up with different solutions (maybe another time in a different thread) I'd also agree that there is no need for a forced jump like this and it could be done "smoother/better".
I met Melenia, Blade of something
She's not very nice
She's not very nice
OP
- Thread Starter
- #617
I'm not sure if there's as simple a solution to the after-capital "issue" as some people think.
In my opinion, it's very clearly just an instantiation of the same problem which exists in every open world RPG ever, and which no one has really solved in 30 years of game design. When you make an open world RPG, you can basically either add level scaling (and hopefully I don't have to explain how that is a terrible option) or you live with an "imbalanced" game progression, where people run into larger or smaller challenges depending on what they choose to tackle first, and how much optional content they do.
Now that I've progressed past the capital it's clear what's going on here: basically, design-wise, this is the one point in the game where there is a clear progress gate, and you can divide everything into a pre-capital and a post-capital part. So that's also the one point where they can change the scaling of everything fundamentally, from a design perspective.
Now I'm not saying they've done that perfectly -- but what I'm saying is that it's an instance of an age-old unsolved problem in game design, and that I don't think it could ever go away completely, or that an open world game like Elden Ring could ever have a relatively smooth difficulty curve comparable to a far more linear game like DS3.
In my opinion, it's very clearly just an instantiation of the same problem which exists in every open world RPG ever, and which no one has really solved in 30 years of game design. When you make an open world RPG, you can basically either add level scaling (and hopefully I don't have to explain how that is a terrible option) or you live with an "imbalanced" game progression, where people run into larger or smaller challenges depending on what they choose to tackle first, and how much optional content they do.
Now that I've progressed past the capital it's clear what's going on here: basically, design-wise, this is the one point in the game where there is a clear progress gate, and you can divide everything into a pre-capital and a post-capital part. So that's also the one point where they can change the scaling of everything fundamentally, from a design perspective.
Now I'm not saying they've done that perfectly -- but what I'm saying is that it's an instance of an age-old unsolved problem in game design, and that I don't think it could ever go away completely, or that an open world game like Elden Ring could ever have a relatively smooth difficulty curve comparable to a far more linear game like DS3.
All you need to do is run away to 10 zip codes away when she jumps and pray to the rng gods you're not near her when she decides to jump.
I agree that this is a fundamental game design issue of open games, not just open world, but at the same time we have examples of this same developer being able to tackle it in a graceful way. In DS2 the game starts up open, you can tackle any of the 4 great souls in any order, although there's an optimal route, and the transition to the 2nd half of the game is seemless. There's a noticeable bump, sure, but it isn't something as drastic as ER. The same weapons and armor you've been using are still useful even though enemies hit a bit harder, have a bit more health and come in greater numbers, in contrast in ER it almost feels like you start fighting with a cardboard sword and wearing tissue paper after a certain point. I'm not really sure how magic users feel about it as I never use(d) magic so perhaps the bump might not be as noticeable for them, but if the point is to force pure melee players to invest a bit in magic that's bad game design.
Let's look at a practical example, those big bears you find in practically every location. Are they ever easy? Not really, a bit annoying and unpredictable, hit hard and have a decently sized hp pool but still perfectly manageable, a tough but fair fight. Those same bears in the Consacrated Snowfield are a nightmare, either you deal half the damage you dealt to the same enemy type in the previous zone, meaning their armor/resistance doubled, or their hp bar doubled and their attacks deal twice as much damage now for some reason.
The same happens with world bosses. Compare the dragon in Altus with the one in the mountains, or the bird in Altus with the one in the snowfield or the night cavalry in altus or anywhere with the one in the snowfield. This last example is especially egregious since they literally doubled the bosses... From the capital to the zone immediately after the bump is unlike anything ever done in their previous games.
Bosses aren't comparable 1:1 but it's also very noticeable the differences between what they were able to do up until the capital and what they are able to do after it. They used to be good at one thing and bad at others which provided opening to evade/heal/attack but after the capital they can do everything, they are fast and strong and have almost 1-hit kill attacks/combos and have AoE and have gap closure and physical damage and magic damage... For god sake Malenia heals if you 100% block her damage... in what world does that make sense?
I would understand feeling underpowered if I rushed the game and skipped most or all the side content/areas/dungeons/bosses/etc, but I did it all. I explored every inch of the map and followed every quest. I'm pretty confident I did over 90% of the side content the game has to offer and still I feel like a ragdoll being tossed around by the most random enemies, not to mention the bosses.
Despite going on and on about it I want to emphasize that I love this game and I believe it's one of the best games ever made but that fact only makes this "flaw" even more frustrating.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #619
I think it's understandable that the "bump" is more pronounced since the game before the gate is much more expansive.
What they failed to account for, to some extent, in my opinion, is increasing the (effective) scaling limit on stats to an extent that fits the increase in enemy stats. The scaling obviously goes higher than it did in previous Souls games, but the limits did not increase to the same extent that would be necessary to fit with the increase in top-end level most people will reach (and which seems to be assumed by late-game enemy design).
I.e. INT stops scaling effectively at ~80 and I assume the same is true for strength and other primary attack stats. I wonder how much of the problem would be mitigated by moving this effective scaling limit to, say, 100.
Of course this would mean that people who play very extensively / min-max a lot might outscale pre-gate content even more than what's currently the case, but I don't think that's all that terrible really.
What they failed to account for, to some extent, in my opinion, is increasing the (effective) scaling limit on stats to an extent that fits the increase in enemy stats. The scaling obviously goes higher than it did in previous Souls games, but the limits did not increase to the same extent that would be necessary to fit with the increase in top-end level most people will reach (and which seems to be assumed by late-game enemy design).
I.e. INT stops scaling effectively at ~80 and I assume the same is true for strength and other primary attack stats. I wonder how much of the problem would be mitigated by moving this effective scaling limit to, say, 100.
Of course this would mean that people who play very extensively / min-max a lot might outscale pre-gate content even more than what's currently the case, but I don't think that's all that terrible really.
Managed to defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood, and it was a fantastic fight. Ultra greatswords seem kind of awful against him, since there are lots of obvious attack opportunities that you just barely can't use. I had to really learn his patterns to stand a chance. He's got really interesting ones though. He has like, 3 different ways he can finish most of his attack strings, and I felt like I had wandered back into fighting games with how much I kept getting mixed by them. Then the way he zones you out with blood in the second phase is so good. I usually hate this type of mechanic, since it feels so easy to get boxed in, but his moves don't last overly long and with the right moves, it feels possible to consistently dodge all of the bloodflame.
Honestly, I'm not sure I can agree that the post-capital difficulty bump is even a problem. I'm loving this part of the game even more than the earlier areas, at least so far (I haven't met Malenia yet). The challenge hasn't felt insurmountable or unfair, just tough enough that I'm not getting my wins for free (which is honestly what most of the game felt like, pre-capital).
Honestly, I'm not sure I can agree that the post-capital difficulty bump is even a problem. I'm loving this part of the game even more than the earlier areas, at least so far (I haven't met Malenia yet). The challenge hasn't felt insurmountable or unfair, just tough enough that I'm not getting my wins for free (which is honestly what most of the game felt like, pre-capital).
Just finished the game ....
I loved it
and hated it
but then loved it again
and subsequentely hated it some more
... etc
its really really good, and i went to do all the achivements as well.
just a note on the final boss difficulty: that boss is an asshole. and a huge difficulty spike in my opinion.
I loved it
and hated it
but then loved it again
and subsequentely hated it some more
... etc
its really really good, and i went to do all the achivements as well.
just a note on the final boss difficulty: that boss is an asshole. and a huge difficulty spike in my opinion.
More about the final boss
The thing that sucks about Elden Beast is just how much it runs away CONSTANTLY. If you are trying to melee it, you are literally running for minutes between swings. It's horrible. Like they planned to let you have the horse for the fight or something and then didn't enable it.
yeah I can see how it's is annoying to follow it through the arena. My first character was a STR/FTH so I had some ranged spells to use in parts of the fight. I'm curious if I'll dislike the fight as a Quality build now.
Finished Elden Ring, Age of Stars ending. Huzzah ! Like Miyazaki promised, it took around 30h.. huh wait... nope, 155h.
Well, "finished". The next step is obviously to hunt for whatever trinkets escaped me, stock up on smithing shards, and go into NG+. Still 5 endings to go
The last stretch (Haligtree, Crumbling Azula etc) was done on Linux, where the game runs impeccably, once I solved a package conflict --- EAC even starts faster.
Crumbling Farum Azula is probably my favourite area of all times; visually stunning, and the eviscerated buildings make figuring out the paths so much fun: you can pretty much see half the level at any point.
I love pretty much everything about the game. The one exception being the bosses' mechanics --- often kinda trivial with Spirit Ashes, SL1-level bullshit without --- which I've already ranted about. Deleting them with bullshit of my own (Mimic + Magic-boosting Physik + Terra Magica + Ranni's Dark Moon + Mass Graven Talisman + Godrey Icon + charged Stars of Ruin spam = how Malenia knew swift defeat, and I'm not ashamed) is kinda fun but I'd much prefer more sedate, solo fights, that make for more meaningful victories.
I'm so glad I was able to go all the way without much in the way of spoilers, despite occasionally using the wiki to find the locations of some specific items. I had no idea what to expect for most of the game, and some things -- surprise second phases, final boss -- genuinely floored me.
I still have so many questions about the lore...
Well, "finished". The next step is obviously to hunt for whatever trinkets escaped me, stock up on smithing shards, and go into NG+. Still 5 endings to go
The last stretch (Haligtree, Crumbling Azula etc) was done on Linux, where the game runs impeccably, once I solved a package conflict --- EAC even starts faster.
Crumbling Farum Azula is probably my favourite area of all times; visually stunning, and the eviscerated buildings make figuring out the paths so much fun: you can pretty much see half the level at any point.
I love pretty much everything about the game. The one exception being the bosses' mechanics --- often kinda trivial with Spirit Ashes, SL1-level bullshit without --- which I've already ranted about. Deleting them with bullshit of my own (Mimic + Magic-boosting Physik + Terra Magica + Ranni's Dark Moon + Mass Graven Talisman + Godrey Icon + charged Stars of Ruin spam = how Malenia knew swift defeat, and I'm not ashamed) is kinda fun but I'd much prefer more sedate, solo fights, that make for more meaningful victories.
I'm so glad I was able to go all the way without much in the way of spoilers, despite occasionally using the wiki to find the locations of some specific items. I had no idea what to expect for most of the game, and some things -- surprise second phases, final boss -- genuinely floored me.
I still have so many questions about the lore...
Very late game optional boss
Placidusax's time freezing lightning strike is possibly the coolest attack a souls game has ever had. The whole fight is amazing and he has a lot of cool moves but that one in particular is on another level.
Placidusax's time freezing lightning strike is possibly the coolest attack a souls game has ever had. The whole fight is amazing and he has a lot of cool moves but that one in particular is on another level.
Took me a while as well, looked at strategies online. Staying close to him (and behind) worked, using the horse whenever I he ran away + an Ash, of course
(when he does the shield attack, dismounting the horse in the right moment can save your life)
~
Regarding the final boss:
indeed, the constant running away was super annoying. Took me many many tries! Especially annoying since Radagon is already hard to do because of his attacks being so hard to time.
I eventually started cheesing Radagon and Im not ashamed of it
When you run to him right away, and stop right next to him, he will not attack you, and then you can kill him with the Carian Slicer easily, saving you precious flasks and the Mimic for the Elden Beast.~
oh and I did various different endings with save game backups. I missed a few, because I missed obscure side-quests but will probably do them in NG+
close to being done I looked at achievements and collected all the legendary stuff, but there was one weapon I was missing, did that in NG+ right afterwards. Speaking of NG+, its kinda amazing how I already forgotten how to do some stuff, like getting into the Academy. No clue anymore
So uh, I'm really enjoying the Haligtree. This area is brilliant. The initial descent with the bubble attacks is fantastic. The ones in the capital were meh, but toss a bunch of narrow paths in and they become interesting threats. Later on you get that great bit where you can jump out a window onto a tree branch to slip past the mages guarding the boss arena. It's a fine start to the area.
But then From turns things up to 11 with Elphael. It's so beautiful, and the combat encounters have been fantastic. You've got that amazing bit where you cross over to avoid the ballistae and prompt get jumped by cleanrot knights (that was such a good trap). There's the spot deeper down where you keep getting jumped by royal revenants. The absurd fight with the rotten avatar and a pair of juiced up knights near the grace (and the hidden path past them). It's just one awesome encounter after another.
Now granted, I am staring at another Scarlet Rot swamp now, so maybe my opinion will change after that, but so far, this is one of my favorite levels in any Fromsoft game.
I've put ~90 hrs into Elden Ring with a strength build using colossal weapons (and the mimic tear summon when I need the help).
And now I've reached
And now I've reached
Malenia
Blade of Miquella
Blade of Miquella
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BEAT HER?
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I'll put this in subsequent spoilers:
There is a weapon thats extremely effective against her
Rivers of Blood
You get it from the NPC invader Okina in the Church of Repose, Mountaintops of the Giants
Its special attack applies bleed and works super well against her.
Hehehe, while I thought the area was very beautiful, the encounters were a bit of a bullshit-best of
So uh, I'm really enjoying the Haligtree. This area is brilliant. The initial descent with the bubble attacks is fantastic. The ones in the capital were meh, but toss a bunch of narrow paths in and they become interesting threats. Later on you get that great bit where you can jump out a window onto a tree branch to slip past the mages guarding the boss arena. It's a fine start to the area.
But then From turns things up to 11 with Elphael. It's so beautiful, and the combat encounters have been fantastic. You've got that amazing bit where you cross over to avoid the ballistae and prompt get jumped by cleanrot knights (that was such a good trap). There's the spot deeper down where you keep getting jumped by royal revenants. The absurd fight with the rotten avatar and a pair of juiced up knights near the grace (and the hidden path past them). It's just one awesome encounter after another.
Now granted, I am staring at another Scarlet Rot swamp now, so maybe my opinion will change after that, but so far, this is one of my favorite levels in any Fromsoft game.
all the enemies I never enjoyed, all together to fuck me over but its good that you enjoy it! ~
meanwhile I'm doing NG+ so I dont suffer the post-finished game void
TIL that you can use spells on horseback Makes everything super easy.
Makes everything super easy.
After 6 weeks, 119h in-game (130h on steam), I have finally finished it and I am basically speachless. All I can muster is:
It might be a bit hyperbolic but I believe we've witnessed history. Gaming will change forever.
It might be a bit hyperbolic but I believe we've witnessed history. Gaming will change forever.
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Malenia down! Anime has been defeated!
That fight was messed up. Waterfowl dance is ridiculous. I tried Royal Knight's Resolve to force extra damage, but gave up on that in favor of Bloodhound's Step. I genuinely don't understand how you're supposed to dodge Waterfowl otherwise. It has so many active frames, and the way the camera whips around for the final flurry of attacks makes it hard to know what direction to dodge in. Even spamming Bloodhound's step I couldn't avoid all the damage.
Still, I'm really happy with the win. Managed to do it with just my Greatsword and no ashes or summons. Feels good to make it through without having to compromise much on what I had been doing up to that point.
Still, I'm really happy with the win. Managed to do it with just my Greatsword and no ashes or summons. Feels good to make it through without having to compromise much on what I had been doing up to that point.
Bloodhound's Step! Don't give up, skeleton!
I had to take a week long break from ER and now that I'm back into it Im completely lost! Feels like I don't even know how to play anymore.XD
The results of my NG+ prep are:
- I spent far too many ancient smithing stones on rapiers and estocs for dual wielding purposes, in an attempt to recapture the glory that was the rapier in DS2. (Thanks to Wave of Gold and the Palace-View Albinauric community for sponsoring me regarding the lesser stones. I respec'd from pure INT to pure FTH for this...). Antspur seems pretty good, even infused.
- I had missed a chill guy called "Placidulax", which is especially funny to me considering "placid" means "calm, chill". And you meet him by taking a nap in a grave, and interrupting his own, eternal nap.
- I had missed a few talismans and cookbooks and, it turns out, a bunch of caves. Leading me to those caves is probably the one use most of these cookbooks will ever have. I'm only interested in two crafting items: rainbow stones, and Gold Pickled Feet (but I found just enough material to make 7 of those in 155h, so...)
- Chasing a random larval tear I had missed, I discovered I had actually overlooked a significant chunk of Caelid, including ruins, caves, and a couple of unique weapons. Since it's bloody Caelid, I'm not surprised. Who in their right mind lingers there longer than necessary?
- There seems to be exactly one (1, un, uno, eins, S[0]) offensive miracle worth its weight in beans, and that's the usual lightning spear. And that one is very good.
- It seems there is no penalty for killing all the unnamed nomadic merchants, taking their bell bearings, and doing all one's shopping at home, Amazon style. Kale's dialogue seemed to imply that attacking one would anger them all, but no. For the ethical aspects of this strategy, see "Amazon".
90 hours of hitting things very hard with big sword. I want to hop back in and start up a new character, maybe check out magic this time, but I'm pretty sure playing this has slowed the recovery of my thumb's tendonitis, so I probably need to wait on that.
I don't have a whole lot to say except that I loved it. Between the improved combat mechanics, killer legacy dungeons, and the design of the open world, I think it sits easily above the rest of From's catalog.
Wait, don't you need all endings to get all achievements? Or at least Stars+Lord+Frenzied? So you did at least three playthroughs in only 90h ??
Backed up my save after killing the Elden Beast. You can just swap in the old save to see each ending with only one playthrough.
Ah yes, of course. I'm sure the Golden Order frowns upon such trickery, though.
I like to keep some end-goal for my NG+++++++++² runs. Six endings shall serve nicely.
I like to keep some end-goal for my NG+++++++++² runs. Six endings shall serve nicely.
Finished this today after 144 hours. The last 2 bosses as a quality build were brutal. Not much new to say, because what can you really say about this game? It is up there with the greats of all time. Everything I play going forward will be compared to this. Not just the gameplay or whatever, but the entire experience as a whole. I'm not sure if I've ever put that many hours into a single player game, and I can't wait to go into NG+. I need my life back, however.
80 hours in and only now did I peek at a walkthrough, feel little bad.XD But was little confused as to what to do at Volcano Manor, meaning I was there but couldn't get in and wasn't sure if I should join them.
But this game, man oh man.
But this game, man oh man.
WTF, thought I was getting close to wrapping this up, now I've just discovered Subterranean Shunning Grounds and Deeproot Depths, the Haligtree loooks massive, and I'm at Godskin Duo in Crumbling Azula
How big is this fucking game?
How big is this fucking game?
After biggie and smalls it's a pretty short treck to the finish line, only 3 more bosses.
I'm little late to Raya Lucaria, I'm level 100 haha. So only done the first boss in there and I felt little over powered! But I had to look up how to get in there, had completely forgot about the map that leads to the key.
Dash it all, that's the second time I kill Rykard out of carelessness and distraction.
I killed him early in NG, and missed out on the whole Manor and Rya quests. Me explore, me find boss, me smash boss. That was stupid in retrospect (I could have guessed killing the local pet demigod would not sit too well with Tanith), but heh, I was going in blind, it's only NG, live and learn, right.
So this time (NG+) I was careful; I'm holding off on killing bosses because who knows what doors that closes. Morgott, for instance, I avoided so far, and therefore I postponed the third assassination since it's in Snowland, which is gated behind Morgott.
A few questlines later, I remember about Rya; eee she's such a wee snaky cutie !
snek 
I get distracted by the cuteness and want to know how it ends; I read on the wiki that the last step is killing Rykard, and my brain opines "I see no downside to that".
The literal instant Rykard dies, my brain wakes up and I realise that I locked myself out of the quest again. Why are you like that, brain ?
Fortunately it seems there was not much left to it.
Bonus points: the more I think about it, the more I believe there is actually no quest that is broken by killing Morgott, so I held off for nothing. But I bet the instant I kill him I'll remember that actually....
I killed him early in NG, and missed out on the whole Manor and Rya quests. Me explore, me find boss, me smash boss. That was stupid in retrospect (I could have guessed killing the local pet demigod would not sit too well with Tanith), but heh, I was going in blind, it's only NG, live and learn, right.
So this time (NG+) I was careful; I'm holding off on killing bosses because who knows what doors that closes. Morgott, for instance, I avoided so far, and therefore I postponed the third assassination since it's in Snowland, which is gated behind Morgott.
A few questlines later, I remember about Rya; eee she's such a wee snaky cutie !
snek I get distracted by the cuteness and want to know how it ends; I read on the wiki that the last step is killing Rykard, and my brain opines "I see no downside to that".The literal instant Rykard dies, my brain wakes up and I realise that I locked myself out of the quest again. Why are you like that, brain ?
Fortunately it seems there was not much left to it.
Bonus points: the more I think about it, the more I believe there is actually no quest that is broken by killing Morgott, so I held off for nothing. But I bet the instant I kill him I'll remember that actually....
A new patch is out. It seems to fix a lot of stuff about impractical STR weapons and incantations.
I also had problems with dual-wielding estocs that look like they might be resolved.
I also had problems with dual-wielding estocs that look like they might be resolved.