Elden Ring - From Software + George RR Martin

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Seananigans

Seananigans

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Kaige said:
Its funny when we talk about FromSoftware games not spoon-feeding you the story and how a lot of little visual clues tell the tale, then you realize all the other games that do hold your hand through the story and how much game time they waste doing it. Its obvious who knows how to make games and who doesn't.
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For a game to have this much playtime crammed into it, and NOT rely on 500k lines of dialogue taking up 40% of your playtime... just hilariously night and day difference between ER and other games.

HZD:FW is a great game. But at ~20 hours played on it, I don't think I'm overstating it saying probably 3-4 of those hours are just talking to NPCs and listening to exposition.
 
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Awanka

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Kaige said:
Its funny when we talk about FromSoftware games not spoon-feeding you the story and how a lot of little visual clues tell the tale, then you realize all the other games that do hold your hand through the story and how much game time they waste doing it. Its obvious who knows how to make games and who doesn't.
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FromSoft storytelling is on another level. I recently played Octopath Traveler, and the meandering wordy endless dialogue to convey their afterschool special moralizing made me realize how much I dislike most JRPG stories.

My favorite story of all time might be Hyperlight Drifter, because they convey it without saying a goddamn word.
 
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Kirun

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Seananigans said:
They used him to create a backstory for the world. Lore, etc. Then their own From guys built all of the current-day characters and stuff pulling heavily from his background lore. It has apparently worked out quite well, because this is honestly the first time I've given two shits about a FromSoft game story. I've appreciated that it existed in Dark Souls etc, but was always just "meh."

Elden Ring though, I'm very interested in what's going on in the game as I play through it.
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The director talked about how they used Martin's input/basic outline for "the world", but that was the limit of his input. They didn't want the GAME taking a backseat to "the story", because they know how to actually make fucking games that are fun as fuck.

30 years later and I'll remember a SHITLOAD more about the general feeling, gameplay, atmosphere, etc. of a game like Elden Ring than I will about some Orc's bleached asshole and why he had to have that done at such a young age as an Ogre slave.
 
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Rajaah

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Kirun said:
The director talked about how they used Martin's input/basic outline for "the world", but that was the limit of his input. They didn't want the GAME taking a backseat to "the story", because they know how to actually make fucking games that are fun as fuck.

30 years later and I'll remember a SHITLOAD more about the general feeling, gameplay, atmosphere, etc. of a game like Elden Ring than I will about some Orc's bleached asshole and why he had to have that done at such a young age as an Ogre slave.
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But how will we know that slavery is bad without games Using Their Platform to moralize?
 
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Kirun

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Awanka said:
they convey it without saying a goddamn word.
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The best game stories almost ALWAYS do, at least on some level. They demonstrate instead of constantly explicating.

About the only exception I can think of where there was a shitload of explication and dialogue, yet the "story" was still amazing is Planescape: Torment.
 
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Ambiturner

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Whatever they paid Martin was too much. The story behind Soulsborne games were perfect the way they were and his input isn't adding any value
 
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Seananigans

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Posting this here mostly for the newer guys, but it's worth a watch regardless since even I learned a few things from it. He's got another earlier vid with 30 things too.

Coolest thing I learned was you can jump over earthquake effects like Godrick's. Oh and weather affects elemental damage? Lol wtf. And the 2-hand shield strat seems hilariously viable.

 
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Hateyou

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Kirun said:
The director talked about how they used Martin's input/basic outline for "the world", but that was the limit of his input. They didn't want the GAME taking a backseat to "the story", because they know how to actually make fucking games that are fun as fuck.

30 years later and I'll remember a SHITLOAD more about the general feeling, gameplay, atmosphere, etc. of a game like Elden Ring than I will about some Orc's bleached asshole and why he had to have that done at such a young age as an Ogre slave.
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Which game is bleached orc asshole from? Asking for friend.
 
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Rajaah

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With all the talk about how good Bleed is in this game, I looked into switching up the Twinblade to proc it (in addition to the Darth Maul enchant I already have).

Looks like I'd lose a lot of Str scaling (and I have 50 Str) but not a huge amount of overall attack, plus I'd gain blood loss buildup. Should I switch things up?

20220302_151323.jpg


20220302_151335.jpg
 
Vorph

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Tuco said:
did you fight


he has razor thin margins for attacking for most builds, including greatsword. I'm not sure how many other bosses are like that.
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I see people talk about that dude being rough, but the Stormveil one was really easy with Unsheathe spam. The gaol one was rougher but still fell to the same tactic (I might've switched to Moonveil by then, can't remember). Haven't fought the others yet.

I haven't really found any boss that can deal with Unsheathe/Transient Moonlight well. Especially the latter, since it adds range (and damage if the mob is weak to magic).
 
Vorph

Vorph

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Rajaah said:
With all the talk about how good Bleed is in this game, I looked into switching up the Twinblade to proc it (in addition to the Darth Maul enchant I already have).

Looks like I'd lose a lot of Str scaling (and I have 50 Str) but not a huge amount of overall attack, plus I'd gain blood loss buildup. Should I switch things up?
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Blood affinity is bad, get a twinblade with built in bleed instead. Like Eleonora's Poleblade.

Also, there's better twinblades than the basic one too, especially for a str build. I'd think hard before investing any more into that one.
 
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Drajakur

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Tuco said:
did you fight


he has razor thin margins for attacking for most builds, including greatsword. I'm not sure how many other bosses are like that.
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Edited: I haven't fought him yet. He was the boss I was thinking about going back to. I went in there very very early and noped out after he killed me and yet mercifully left all my souls on the outside of his Gaol. I took that as a sign to come back later.
 
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Mizake

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Ambiturner said:
Whatever they paid Martin was too much. The story behind Soulsborne games were perfect the way they were and his input isn't adding any value
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It seems to me they used him for name recognition only to help sales. Honestly I can't see his footprint on this game at all. The world building and in-game story clues don't seem that much different from past Dark Souls games. He probably laid down just the basic outline and foundation, but the Elden Ring lore reminds me more of previous FROM games than something Martin has written in the past.
 
Khane

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Which is weird because this game would never need his name to help sales.
 
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Volto!

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How does parrying work in this game? I’ve been slamming my head against crucible knight for a while and decided to try to parry his slower attacks. Most of the time It looks like my timing is correct, but my parrys won’t break his stance or stagger him at all like I’ve seen happen in videos of people doing parry-only boss fights. He begins to swing, I parry, audio cue goes off, but I still get hit with damage but for only a fraction of the amount I would normally. I must be missing something.
 
Derkon

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Where are people going after Raya Lucaria? I went to Caelid and uhh

Radahn seems WAY beyond me atm. Level 55 and most everything in South Caelid has been fine but that boss seems like I need another 20 levels for. Great spectacle fight but seems a bit overtuned to me.

Maybe hit up Altus for a while? Not sure how much tougher that is in comparison to Caelid
 
Khane

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I dont think I've ever actually understood how parry/stagger work in any of these games. Like I get how its supposed to work, but... it's as goddamn mysterious as the game worlds themselves
 
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