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.

NPCs summoned outside of arenas add to the boss's health pool, right? That's one way to get help but not too much help, though typically it's more hindrance than help.

They do, but I found that it more than evened out. The npcs in the dlc are incredibly tanky and do decent damage, and if you add the mimic (especially if they double a status effect that you're using), well.

In my first solo playthrough I would fight each boss easily 20 - 50 times, until I learned their entire moveset and figured out an approach. In my second playthrough with npcs and sometimes mimic, they were totally trivialized, I would win after 1 - 3 attempts and didn't really have to know what the boss was doing. You can argue that this was aided by my first attempt, but I had most definitely forgotten most of the timings by then, lol.

The way I look at it is that the games throw so much bullshit at you that there's really no reason not to use every tool they offer you. Like the sleeping dudes on the cliff from the base game? What purpose do they serve other than farming? And given how many of the bosses can come close to one shotting you, and have infinite stamina and spamming and stuff, why not whoop their ass by any means necessary? There are so many roadblocks the game allows you to set up for yourself, from playing in a diaper with a broken sword on up, people can tweak things to make it as difficult as they want. But the games are inherently difficult, so I don't see what the point necessarily is. It'd be like raising the rim of a basketball net, or running in flip flops. Sure, you could do it, but why?

I did find magic (or at least incantations) more useful in this DLC than in any other From game or DLC. Primarily as an alternative to traditional ranged weapons, if memory serves, but also for buffs and a few other tricks. For example, those furnace golems? Standing under them and using one of those dragon lightning spells can stagger them pretty quickly while they are busy with your ash/mimic.

Sure, you could do it, but why?

To appreciate the design (every attack has a tell and a way to avoid it without getting hit) and get the most out of each encounter rather than feel like I'm rushing through or getting it over with. But really I just like that particular kind of challenge, of course, since there are other parts of the game that I do rush through and other people clearly luxuriate it (ie getting platinum, reading all the item descriptions and piecing together the lore, etc).

yeah, fair enough. for example, I don't care about the lore at all and rarely know what's going on, lol. Ds1,2,3 and ER all kinda feel like the same game to me, tbh, with tweaks. Bloodborne and Sekiro are pretty fresh and novel, or I assume they would be if I played them again.

Funny, I played a much more melee style in the DLC compared to the base game where I was glintstoning pretty much everything in the first half, and then faith casting in the second. One of the best things in the DLC was the Qulaity Milady with that enhanced charge Wing Stance art - great fun to use.

The beauty of these games is that they're highly appreciable for many many different reasons, and those reasons will vary from person to person.

For example, I have barely touched PVP and while I appreciate the spectacle of a good boss fight, I see them as rather frustrating and tedious roadblocks to my adventuring that I would rather cheese than go to the trouble of learning how to beat. Other players see the bosses as a highlight, and get frustrated on subsequent playthroughs that they have to go and do all the tedious exploring again before they can find a certain boss.

I think one of the reasons I went heavy on incantations, despite still essentially remaining a strength build (though tbf, for most of this DLC most of my stats were pretty high across the board, save intelligence), is because there were so many cool or useful magic things to do, but not much in the way of interesting weapons. In fact, I think I stuck with bloodhound's fang for most of the DLC, for its speed, bleed and sheer damage. But I also used a couple of boss weapons for specific purposes, the Sacred Blade for its massive AOE and the Blasphemous Blade for both health regen and modest range damage. Ranged weapons/spells were key in the DLC, given how many groups of enemies you encounter, or ambushes hiding up high or whatever.

Did anyone else find that a couple of the regular enemies, like curseblades and horned warriors, were often as or even more challenging than some of the bosses? The curseblades in particular, from the one you immediately meet on, are so aggressive and relentless that eventually I usually just found some way around them. Same with those laser shooting caterpillar things. Oh, and those dopey forge trolls, too, why would anyone bother with them? They are a huge PIA to take down, but generally move slow enough to avoid, and I don't think they drop anything good. At least those grabby things in stealth spookyland sometimes dropped skibbidi fragments, right? (I didn't bother killing them).

And what about bear-land, that region full of aggressive bears? Seemed more like a gag/gimmick than anything else. The forges, too, for that matter, I can't remember what, if anything, made any of them particularly memorable or worthwhile, especially with no bosses. Just another head-scratcher of the DLC (which again I liked and thought looked and played great!), like those big empty towers that look like they'd be important but really aren't. Maybe whatever seemingly missed opportunities do stem from fgti's apt observation that the base game already feels pretty complete, satisfying, which may explain why the DLC also felt, in terms of its relatively linear "narrative" (as such), almost more of a stand-alone adventure or sequel.

I don't remember bear-land in particular but I had a good laugh in angry lightning sheep land.

In playthrough 1 the finger gardens seemed very nothing-y, but I used my horse to stick to outskirts and had my giant hammer to one-shot the lampreys. In playthrough 2 the enemies at least got to do their thing when I was on foot (mostly because I kept getting invaded via Taunter's Tongue), and I got to experience being continually paralyzed by one while another teleported in to attack, lol.

I totally forgot about electric sheep land!

And oh yeah, finger gardens were big and empty, too, save for that one esoteric NPC quest. It's like, here's this huge dramatic imposing area! Now zip on through, because there's nothing there.

Yeah it really was weird how densely and sparsely respective areas were laid out in the DLC.

bearland, electric sheep land and dog land.

Personally I am most interested in seeing how Elden Ring's universe might transfer over into a purely online structure. I feel that it's a dev cycle away from being an amazing MMPORG. But I dunno. I haven't actually ever played an MMPORG.

Have you all seen the seamless co-op mod for pc? I don't play on pc, but it's pretty crazy...up to six players can play together, plus invaders, and everyone can use the horse, with no forced disconnects after beating bosses. Also everyone gets credit in their own world for making progress (bosses etc). Pretty wild.

Wow really!! I wish I could play that, sounds amazing

I love reading about and watching clips of mods. I've played all of these games exclusively offline, so I already feel like I'm missing out, but some of the mods look super fun, I imagine especially for those familiar with every nook and cranny. Like, you enter a room expecting one enemy or treasure, but you get something totally different.

A FromSoft MMORPG is an interesting idea but I doubt I'd want to see an Elden Ring one

I would definitely play a Dark Souls randomizer if I were on pc, normally I'm not into rogue-likes but love the idea of getting a new & surprising experience out of one of these games (which I do think pvp can provide at its best).

I love watching clips where someone enters a room expecting a scrub but instead is surprised by a random boss.

Watched the dunkey video of the new Zelda game, and through ER eyes it looks like all the combat is based on spirit summons, lol.

just noticed that the new Dummy album Free Energy has a song on it called "Opaline Bubbletear". Elden Ring/Madchester cross-over anyone?

Haha, I always thought Pest Threads would be a good name for a metal band

A working title for my album was Ivory Sickle for a few weeks

i like that. although i'm imagining a future where Gen-Beta kids are doing nothing but release music that references obscure FromSoft ephemera

Ha, nice. It's so tempting to do so but I've tried to avoid it for the most part, although on my recent record there's a track called 'The Quickstepper' that while also being an uptempo dancehall tune, isn't NOT referencing Bloodborne & ER.

Bloodhound Step

'Refined Claymore' is my favourite Silver Jews song

Any of you nerds watching Bingo Brawlers? It's a lot of fun!

Ok it's my turn to ask - what's that? A mod?

I just heard about it myself. It's a competition where two players are dropped into the game and there is a bingo board, and working in parallel they have 2 hours to either get a bingo row, or a majority of squares, with each board featuring a variety of randomized in-game tasks and achievements. It's kind of like watching a scavenger hunt. I've watched a couple and they are tons of fun. There are commentators and judges, and it rewards and challenges players who know the game inside out.

For example, here's a good match:

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

OKAY THEN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djtsw5k_DNc

I'm gathering this is a...3-player cooperative survival roguelike that's also Elden Ring but also Dark Souls and Sekiro??? I don't know what's happening but I hope we can find a time in 2025 to put together an ILG team, lol.

So apparently it's literally a battle royale (and MMO, kinda?)?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/12/13/new-details-on-what-elden-ring-nightreign-actually-is/

This all feels un-From, but I'll certainly play it and I hope it makes them a boatload of money to fund their next non-ER game.

Looks a bit like those Monster Hunter games.

Weren't there some colosseum fights in Elden Ring? Does that still happen?

Yeah, I had some fun with 3v3 in the colosseum when it first came out, but the last time I tried it (a few months ago) I couldn't get any activity. That's pretty standard for the arenas in all their games, it dies down fairly quickly. The Raya Lucaria dueling scene died too as far as I could tell, I could still get invasions but the good & fun ones were too scarce for my tastes.

is it battle royale? the description i read made it sound more like destiny co-op missions

It also seems like this takes cues from the randomizers & mods that people have made for From games.

Definitely not what I usually want out of these games, but it could be nice to use different characters & styles without having to spend 30 hours playing through the game to make a build.

xp not battle royale in the pvp sense, but apparently there are maps that shrink as time elapses

It sounds like they’re tipping their hat back at Dead Cells, very much that progressive roguelike vibe. I am weary of Soulsborne but would absolutely make time for this

Out May 30, just when it's getting nice out of course. Looking forward to it but I'm curious how much longevity it will have (hopefully the next real From game isn't too far away). My main worry is that people will be on voice chat, which sounds awful if you're playing with strangers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gPFoIUA1s4

Additionally, it has been confirmed that voice chat will not be available during matches.

Oh hell yeah (via fextra, so hopefully that's true)

While I think it's cool that From is experimenting with something different, this just isn't what I come to these games for (moody atmosphere, building a character, the almost meditative aspect of the challenge/playing through the same bit over and over until you get it right)

Yeah, we're a long way from the solitude of DS1. On the other hand I do love the combat, so I'll try a fun normie sugar rush version of a From game while they work on something new.

I was sceptical when I heard about this - was worried it might just be a bit of a cash grab, but no it looks good

idgi so it's a rogue-like boss rush mode (kind of like God of War Valhalla)? It's designed for single player or ... three players? But doesn't seem to have the customization (class, stats, costumes) of other Souls games?

OK, I watched a video and I get it now. Pass. I don't like rogue-likes, and From in that style of games imo misses the point of gaining power, experience, patience, etc. This seems like it should be free DLC, like "Valhalla."

I'm down for this. There are countless trad Souls games out there and surely many more to come, let em get weird.

Also this is gonna be 40 bucks.

I probably won't rush to buy this on first day of release but I can't say I'm not curious. The only question is the longevity really. Like with a lot of multi-player games, managing to find time where two willing mates are up for playing can be tough. And I don't know about playing with randos

The mage character seems like a cool unique idea that they could only implement in a co-op game ('mixing'/charging spells on the fly with different elements, either by painting an enemy with them or absorbing them from a teammate who's been hit by an elemental attack?).

It's sort of hilarious that you revive downed teammates by hitting them, sort of a meta-commentary on how the only way to solve problems in these games is by swinging a weapon.

That's ridiculous. I wonder how much this game takes an interest in lore, or do they just NGAF about that? Essentially I wonder if this isn't just Concord with an Elden Ring skin