#but elden ring and DS1 too

[shinozaki-ayumi]

you guys ever get into a game (or some other media) and feel like, "yeah this is exactly where i'm supposed to be" or like "coming home" even though it's new to you? been feeling that so hard with soulsborne games over the last few months

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Elden could have been actually good if it had like 50 bosses that were unique instead repeating the same ones again and again

[indiiglow]

Impeccable vibes indeed 👌

^ those are the SAME GOD DAMN COLORS as that iconic Dark Souls 3 image and I cannot tell you how happy this makes me. So fucking good. 10/10

[gayleviticus]

i am a bit disappointed why later soulsbourne games moved from spell slots to an MP system. i think the cool thing abt ds1 was that you could have the perfect spell that never necessitates the use of anything else... and only 5 copies, meaning you need to suck it up and use less-than-ideal ones.

whereas elden ring it seems like so many spells are just not worth it over spamming the same one or two depending on the circumstance. and since they all use the same resource there's no reason not to just stick w the same old familiar ones.

and i get why esp for elden ring they'd use MP, bc i think it makes sense for the more kind of fluid exploration vibes of open world gameplay. whereas spell slots makes sense for ds1 which is more linear. but still.

[the-punforgiven]

Oh shit Seamless Co-Op has invasions now, that's neat

I like that you can choose to turn them on or off though, that's a cool feature for the people who don't care for pvp

That said, the thing I am most worried but also excited for though is that Seamless Co-op doesn't have any kind of anticheat at all as far as I know, so I'm really curious as to how the "Everyone can cheat as much as they want" thing is gonna affect the meta lol

[tarnussy]

ohh you have no idea how much I love the ancient forest area... it's like they took that one area in the Witcher 3 and made the trees 100x bigger and the area even more atmospheric asfsdcgsajdhvghdsvgfvsgdhfv

[sausage-rolll]

“You need to spend dozens of hours reading item descriptions and watching lore videos to understand the story of fromsoft games” factoid actually just statistical error. Lore hunter Georg, who spends upwards of hundreds of hours analysing the story and lore of these games and cross referencing interpretations of the plot is an outlier and should not have been counted.

[sadlazzle]

tbh i already kinda wanna do an incantation build after im done w the blood build. bc im doing bleed & blood now, im thinking maybe specifying again .. perhaps dragon communion incantation run ? who knows

[demilypyro]

All righty Scarlet, lemme get your thoughts on this.

How would you rank the Fromsoft hubs?

Firelink Shrine (Dark Souls 3)

Majula (Dark Souls 2)

The Roundtable Hold (Elden Ring)

Firelink Shrine (Dark Souls 1)

The Hunter's Dream (Bloodborne)

Before you say I ranked Elden Ring or Bloodborne too low. I just don't like how both hubs are permanently on fire at endgame. It's a little annoying to me.

DS1 Firelink loses points for how you lose it as a bonfire for a good percentage of the game (assuming you don't cut off one of the NPC questlines off early.)

DS3 Firelink and Majula both win a lot of points from me just for having a lot of NPCs that I care about still alive at endgame, and very calming music.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

im today year old when i discover the Princess Guard covenant symbol (DS1) literally has a depiction of Gwynevere that looks just like Marika 😭😭

and that's not even the only parallel:

Divine Blessing - Blessing of Marika

all the healing spells

Princess of Sunlight - "the Erdtree was once as warm as the gentle sun"

Twin Princes being implied to be Gwynevere's sons (or grandsons) - DLC final boss

Angelic faith of Lothric (with the Divine Pillars of Light spell that is literally a less damaging version of Light of Miquella incantation) was found by a holy maiden who is also implied to be either Gwynevere's daughter / or granddaughter

im so in love with the idea that they literally just took the one character that was so underdeveloped in Dark Souls (and the butt of the "faith build is viable" joke) & made her THE character of all time with a perfect story from start to finish in Elden Ring (& make faith build ACTUALLY viable too). that's so peak.

(and if you want to broaden it a bit more, there's parallel between Messmer and Halflight Spear of the Church too - a spear-wielding warrior guarding a slumbering princess at the edge of the Abyss, like how Messmer guarded Marika's village - her people's final resting place, that is situated right above Abyss region.

also Messmer - Manus parallel: a man losing someone he loves and so his humanity went wild and he succumbed to the Abyssal darkness. but despite it all, at the core, he's still a viscous, lukewarm lump of gentle humanity, eternally finding something dear that he had lost.)

[r0zeclawz]

is it just me or is the souls games weapon upgrading system completely useless. it was like fine in DS1 but it felt so awful in elden ring past the mid game

i just dont think theres literally any purpose in having to upgrade your weapons to make them be able to do any real damage. you already have stats that define your build and restrict the weapons you can effectively use anyway, so why restrict it even further. it feels so fucking bad to find a cool new weapon and go "huh thats cool. too bad its going to take so long to farm for upgrades to have any hope of using this" like. whats the fucking point!!!!!!! let me experiment let me have FUN

[mohgreal]

final boss sote spoilers again

i see some people saying how people upset at the final boss of radahn/miquella have never played a from game or that they should just not play them anymore but like.

ive played ds1,ds2,ds3,sekiro, armored core and elden ring and i can tell you that i cant remember when the writing and boss fight was pulled out of nowhere like here. i would argue its natural to be upset at a reused boss fight that feels like a undercooked concept with lore that came out of thin air. i feel like people forget fromsoftware can make mistakes too. theyre not perfect and if you really have been a from fan you would know how many times people hated a design choice they made (though this time its more reasonable tbf)

it just feels like fanservice which is something from has done (ahem ds3) but i dont get why they did it like this ?? okay ill shut up about the final boss thanks

[corviisquire]

Creatures have colors!!

Left to Right: @moonchild-in-blue @leonsleftbicep @ghxstly-death

@pear-island

Left to Right: @a-s-levynn @foundationsofdecay @polteergeistt

They have been colored along with making some minor adjustments. If anyone wants anything changed please let me know! These creatures are yours so name them whatever you want, develop lore if ya want, and do whatever you want with them. Possible next batch will probably be made later next week.

Art notes under cut :D

I put some music drops because music inspires me too much.

Moonchild-in-blue: The blues and purples!! Opals and the insides of muscle shells inspired me a lot with the coloring (particularly the stars and moon). There’s another shell that has that shiny blue and green lining on the inside but I can’t remember the name of it. It was a full moon last night but I forgot to take a picture! Thought of you but anyways I loved coloring the lady. It was fun but I first I struggled on deciding if I wanted more blue or purple.

Some songs I listened to a lot while coloring this:

Sweet Disposition - Temper Trap

Moon Child - F16s

The Night Does Not Belong to God - you know who

Leonsleftbicep: Colors go crazy! Idk what your favorite colors are but I chose The Blue. I also incorporated some red (for yummy contrast and complementary colors). I realized this looked very vampire media core. EyAH enjoy the critter!

Some songs I listened to while coloring this:

Blue Monday - Orgy

Military Fashion Show - And One

The Apparition - do I really need to say who?

Ghxstly-death: Per your request, red and black was incorporated! Was inspired by Mohg, Lord of Blood, from Elden ring cause he has cool robes and a trident thingy. I really like how it turned out. Like I’ve been doing with every design is adding the bling and I felt gold would work well.

Was resisting the urge to put the entire One EP right here:

Get The Balance Right! - Depeche Mode

Mascara - Deftones

Jaws - Slep tonka

SEVEN HOUR SHITTER (pearisland/perryisle): You use bright colors in your art all the time so we got the colors goingggg. Little guy reminds me of Pumpkin Patch protagonist or Hollow Knight. Idk. Not much to say except TRIPLE DEATH SLIME BARRAGE!!!

No normal music for you. only Kevin Macleod and Pizza Tower ST.

A-s-levynn: More Dark Sun Gwyndolin inspiration… (you can tell I have my dark souls art books open next to me right now). As requested, tendrils/tentacles were added! I think it improved the design a whole lot because it was originally very symmetrical and the tentacles added just the right amount of asymmetry to balance out the overall look. I’m a huge fromsoft fan (playing Elden Ring, waiting for new DLC, have dark souls 1 remastered but haven’t started it yet, have bloodborne Elden ring and DS1/3 art books) so lots of my art has elements from Fromsoft games (neutron activation).

And just like everyone else, some music for the soul:

Too Late - 311

Scared Together - Silversun Pickups

Dark Signs - eepy coin

Foundationsofdecay: Again, taking more inspiration from your blog, colors and stuff. The design had subconscious influence from the game sky: children of the light. Had lotsa fun coloring it. I don’t know much about you like favorite colors or flowers but I tried my best!

Songs that inspired me:

Let It Happen - Tame Impala

Flux - Bloc Party

Rain - tired currency

Polteergeistt: The oarfish colors… A lot Of these characters have cool blues so I tried to use some teal blues to contrast the red/pink(?). “Nintendo switch core” I’m sobbing. I fixed the feet. Now my Pinterest is filled to the brim with fish images (specifically oarfish, sea jellies, and blue lobsters).

The music!!!!!:

UNDERWATER BOI - Turnstile

The Illness (Teenagers Remix) - GoodBooks

Descending - exhausted dollar

Thank you so much. All of you are such lovely people. 🫂💕🫶

[girlballs]

what are your thoughts on the viability of blocking in elden ring? i haven't played a similar game since DS1 and loved being a chonky heavy armor and greatshield build

i think elden ring is at odds with itself regarding blocking.

on the one hand, there's more ways to buff blocking itself and guard counters are a really powerful tool when used properly, and i think that's awesome. on the other hand, the stamina economy for a lot of bosses is kind of fucked since there's still a lot of situations where there's just too many consecutive hits to block safely so you need to roll a bunch Then block, and so many enemies have sometimes-followups clearly meant to punish you trying to guard counter attacks that look safe to punish (and are safe to punish 50% of the time).

the deflecting hardtear was a nice addition for shield builds though but i just wish it was a base game feature or a talisman instead of something you basically need to beat half the game to get that needs to eat up a physick tear slot

[areas-of-fromsoft]

I got really into ds3 after I played it years ago, and then I tried ds1 and loved that too, but I rage quit ds2 after a few hours cuz I couldn't get used to how different it was.

I wanna try it again. Do you have any tips for making the first bit of the game less rage inducing?

OKAY sorry this took so long to get to, I had to think on it and decided @fun-mary was better equipped to answer (and o boy did they answer, I’ll put it under the cut).

My personal advice is of course not to go in expecting the same game as dark souls 1 or 3, but I’m sure you get that by now. It plays very differently and the experience as a whole I find very different to the other two games.

Also, if it - or any other game - is frustrating you that much, there’s never any shame in taking a break and playing something else and coming back to try again later ! I know smashing your head against a brick wall with these games is the least effective and enjoyable to go about it.

Anyway, @fun-mary ‘s advice below:

“1: ADP is the most important stat

2: Don't let your stamina run out because ds2 has a penalty for using the last of your stamina

3: The ring of binding from Heide's tower of flame is your friend

4: Running past enemies is no good because they can hit you while you open doors or traverse fog gates.

5: Take it slow. There are lots of enemies, and they stop respawning after you kill them enough times, so any kill is progress.

6: Chests are breakable, and the loot inside gets ruined if the chest breaks.

7: This ain't ds3. Spam rolling just drains your stamina, and r1 spam only drains it more. Roll with purpose and attack when you have more than enough stamina. Otherwise, your attack will be slower, do less damage, and leave you without stamina.

8: This still ain't ds3. If you're having trouble with an area, there's almost always at least 3 other areas you have access to so you can return when you are stronger.

9: Strength weapons are fantastic. The large club's R2 attack pancakes most enemies and has the potential to carry you through the whole game if used correctly.

10: Dex weapons are fantastic. They use less stamina than strength weapons and usually weigh much less so they can easily be dual wielded. Dual wielding does the full damage of both weapons but uses the full stamina as well, with careful stamina management. Dual wielding has the potential to carry you through the whole game.

11: This ain't Elden Ring. Bleed sucks in ds2, so don't bother.

12 The stone ring from Things betwixt is your best friend because it increases the poise damage you deal to enemies.

TLDR: level ADP, stamina management is essential in ds2, spam rolling will get you killed, take it slow, wear the stone ring, explore.

Also most enemies are weak to strike damage”

[fat-fuck-hairy-belly]

I've yet again descended into the rabbithole I'd playing all 3 dark souls games and then obsessively watching a ton of videos and reading a ton of Reddit threads about dark souls. And man, DS2 slander really pisses me off. DS2 is my overall favorite dark souls game because it's unique. Even if it has a lot of gameplay flaws, atleast they actually tried something new. DS3 basically just took Bloodborne combat, took all the cool parts like healing and damaging limbs and then put it into dark souls. Giving us infinite stamina and making combat more reaction based turned combat from the slow methodical combat of DS1 and DS2 into a generic hack-n-slash spam R1 and panicroll through 99% of the bosses deal. And I fucking hate that everyone just ate it up and signaled to Fromsoftware to lean into it even more in Elden Ring.

And while DS3 might be a better game in terms of gameplay, if only because it's just a much more modern game and DS2 really did fuck up with ADP and making combat animations too floay, in terms of lore it's literally just repeating the lore about the cycles form DS2 with a bunch of DS1 fanservice, it doesn't actually add anything new. You can play DS1, then DS2 with DLCs and then immediately jump in Painted World and Ringed City DLCs without playing base DS3 and you won't actually miss any major lore, it's insane how little new stuff base DS3 brings to the table. And the way they did references to DS1 is absolutely fanservice, Its actually wild how the B team without Miazaki actually stayed more true to dark souls storytelling then the fucking A team with Miazaki. DS2 actually had a ton of references to DS1 despite all the mouthbreathers on the internet saying DS2 basically only connected to the franchise through its name. It just did those references in the same way DS1 told it's story - through scraps of info hidden in item descriptions and throwaway dialogue lines from npcs. DS3 on the other hand just literally hits you over the head every 15 minutes with blatant DS1 references. For fucks sake, one of the first NPCs you meet in the game is the damn Andre.

Overall, DS3 is only saved by the DLCs. Without them it would have been just rehash of DS2s story with bloodbornified combat and a bunch of DS1 fanservice. Which makes for a great game, don't get me wrong, but it's a shame they didn't do something new and unique for the last game in the series. The DLCs saved the game for me, even if I'm kinda pissed they spent the whole game to retelling the lore from DS2 and then ended the whole series in a damn dlc.