Soulsborne Thread #7 (And Sekiro and Elden Ring and other shiet)

[BigBossBalrog]

Played holy shit; I have so much to say so i'll seperate everything in subheadings with spoilers when approiate. I've been up since 5:30, so mind my tiredness. 

Technical 

-Played on base PS4. Kept a steady 30 FPS with some drops during crazy shit with the weather. It runs really well. 

-Graphically it looks very good; shocked how nice it looked on PS4. Pop in is an issue however, but, what do you expect from the PS4  It runs as well as Dark Souls 3, and looks a good deal better. 

-Art direction is fantastic; if you thought D3 was too drab, then your in for a treat. Cause the game is oozing color. The lands Between is gorgeously rendered with lush landscapes, teeming with ruins and millitarised fortications. You can tell this is the best production value of any souls game, the models, lighting and textures are top notched, even when compressed on the PS4. There's a scene after the tutorial that shows the opened up Land's Between, and the sight is breathtaking. 

-UI is basic, but decent. Apparently it's a placeholder. The Map however, is awesome. You gather fragments that add onto it like a jigsaw, and is done in the style of an old, paper DND-esque one. You can even place custom markers around. There's this time counter in the menu and it's done like an old Middle Ages sun dial with vividly done paintings and silver antique bronze. I'm excited to see the final look! 

-Didn't run in to a single bug, which boggles my mind

Combat 

-It's some awesome frakenstein monster; it literally takes everything from every soul game. It has the power stancing from 2. The weapon arts from 3. The poise and feel of 1. Alongside elements from BB such as crazy weapon variety. Combat speed on the ground is a halfway point between 1-3, it's methodical and delibrate, but has a frantic pace in certain points. Until you get on the horse, where it goes right back up to D3/Bloodborne levels of insanely fast paced, but super fun. 

-Weapons feel all meaty; I mainly used the bastard sword. What's really cool is they changed the two hit combos to six hit combos; in D3 when you did attacks in rapid succession with the same bumper, they cycled between two animations, with Elden Ring that's been increased by six. 

-Weapon Arts (Now called Ashes of War) are super awesome; in 3, they had a weird place were they were cool, but not really that useful. Now?  They can be swapped between weapons, and are very powerful. Not only that, they change your scaling, For example; if your mage you can pop an int Ash onto a zweilhander and start using it right away. I mainly used one that gave my sword lighting damage and allowed me to call down bolts from the sky, which gave my strength character a range utitility that you could never really have before till now!

-Torrent is SO FUN. He's the horned spirit horse, and I think FROMSOFT has crafted the most indepth and fun horse combat. As basics; Horse Combat is very fast. During battle, using actions cost stamina, so you have to be careful. You swing weapons from each side, there's a heavy and light attack, and each weapon has it's own unique movesets on horseback. You can use magic and range on the horse. Jumping gives you I-frames so that and the dash (which I used to outrun fucking fire breath from dragons) and jumping is a sort of dodge for the horse. The combat is just as meaty on horseback, and the field bosses take full use of the added mobolity and jumping the horse brings . What i'm really happy about is there's en

-Magic is apparently super powerful, but I didn't tested it beside when I used my weapon's art. There's a ton of new spells, the visual effects are insanely cool, and there's shit like summoning a giant Dragon's head to spew fire. stab yourself to use your lifeforce to power your moveset, and a homing blue sword projectile. Shit is fire. 

World 

-I was wrong; the demo isn't just large, IT'S MASSIVE. It has a dozen dungeons, a dozen unmarked locations, and it's only about half of the first area of the game, with about 10-12 hours of content on offer. 

-Stormvale Castle only has a tiny section before your not allowed to procced. From what little I saw, it's very similar to previous design FROM areas. The openworld is vastly more open, while the "Legacy Dungeons" give you the carefully designed Metroidvania feel from previous works. 

-There was a ton of NPC's I already found; each is pretty interesting

A few hidden merchants; they belong to a nomadic group. 

-There's so much to do; I was worried the open world was going to be empty, but nope; there's ton to explore, and the game rewards you. There's a really cool momment were I found what looked like another ruin, but inside was the corpse of flame spewing Dragon that seems to be location of a coveant.

-Dungeons have alot of variety; there's smaller ones that almost seem like Chalice Dungeons, but there was one that ended up being a massive cavern filled with unique enemies and loot. 

-Enemey variety is through the roof, I ran into like twenty different mobs; ranging from these creepy stone cat guardians that act like Ewok's, to the mounted Vagarian Merceneries. Each of them feels different to fight and have behaviors they engage in the world. (soldiers will patrol and sleep, wolves hunt at night, and rest during the day with their pack). 

-The new Crystal Lizard are dung beetles

-I remeber us complaining how Beth didn't add naval themed Dragurs, guess what FROM did There's a really scary sea-monster esque foe I won't spoil. 

-Night time...jesus Christ nightime. 

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-Field Bosses are FUCKING AWESOME. They interact with the enviorment, dragons burn vegetation and tress with their breath. Mounted Knights rip apart trees with swings. One of the mounted bosses, a giant Mountain-esque Knight LITERALLY DESTORY's a ruined chapel to get to you if you try hiding from him there during his fight. 

-Each dungeon has a mini-boss; there fun, but unexceptionally. Kinda like Chalice Dungeon bossses; but these ones are called mini-bosses, and have at least a piece of lore attached to them. 

-There's one one major "story boss" guarding the entrance into Stormvale right before the demo ends. No spoilers, but he's insane. He feels like one of D3's late-game "super bosses" in terms of moveset variety, atmosphere, challenge, and general awesome factor, but he's early-game here! Has his own cutscene, and has dialogue during the fight! 

-Presentation is next level; the voice actors are great, the lore bits funs to read, and there seems to be a ton more story happening then usual.

I might do a Lore writeup later (really impressed by that too). There's a ton of stuff I didn't mention (like the crafting and shield that turns into a snake), but truth be told, i'm convinced this going to be a game that defines the next generation. It's everything that FROM has worked towards the last decade. It's an open world game that's really fun to explore.; but a majority of it's content seem to be of high quality. The game is in a great place technically, and the game around it seems amazing. 

Some spoilers for the NPC's and nighttime

-There was a ton of NPC's I already found; each is pretty interesting

 

-Crestfallen is in the game, he's the first NPC in the game and tells you to into a hole to die. 

-Melania is the new firekeeper (or Finger Maiden as there called now). What's really cool about her is you CAN SUMMON HER TO the PIECES OF GRACE (new bonfire), which means you no longer have to back to a hub zone to level up. She has a ton of dialogue and brings up a lot of story potential.  

-THERE'S A SECRET FUCKING MONKEY LEAPERCAUN HIDING IN THE FOREST  If you befriend him, he volunteers to steal shit for you. 

-Red Phantoms are back; but there called Blood Fingers now. I got invaded by one, and then this random NPC ran to my rescue; he's apparently hunting them throughout the land and trying to exterimane there order. He's this super badass Ronin-Viking guy, with gray hair, and you can find him and chat with him after the battle. 

-A few hidden merchants; they belong to a nomadic group. 

-There's so much to do; I was worried the open world was going to be empty, but nope; there's ton to explore, and the game rewards you. There's a really cool momment were I found what looked like another ruin, but inside was the corpse of flame spewing Dragon that seems to be location of a coveant.

-Dungeons have alot of variety; there's smaller ones that almost seem like Chalice Dungeons, but there was one that ended up being a massive cavern filled with unique enemies and loot. 

-Enemey variety is through the roof, I ran into like twenty different mobs; ranging from these creepy stone cat guardians that act like Ewok's, to the mounted Vagarian Merceneries. Each of them feels different to fight and have behaviors they engage in the world. (soldiers will patrol and sleep, wolves hunt at night, and rest during the day with their pack). 

-The new Crystal Lizard are dung beetles 

-I remeber us complaining how Beth didn't add naval themed Dragurs, guess what FROM did  There's a really scary sea-monster esque foe I won't spoil. 

-Night time...jesus Christ nightime. 

 

There's a black Knight Nazgul-esque nightmare mini boss who can be found patrolling the road on a shrouded mount when night fall, hunting the player. I ran like fucking crazy.  Spawns change and some enemies get new behaviors, like wolves are alot more active.

-Field Bosses are FUCKING AWESOME. They interact with the enviorment, dragons burn vegetation and tress with their breath. Mounted Knights rip apart trees with swings. One of the mounted bosses, a giant Mountain-esque Knight LITERALLY DESTORY's a ruined chapel to get to you if you try hiding from him there during his fight. 

-Each dungeon has a mini-boss; there fun, but unexceptionally. Kinda like Chalice Dungeon bossses; but these ones are called mini-bosses, and have at least a piece of lore attached to them. 

-There's one one major "story boss" guarding the entrance into Stormvale right before the demo ends. No spoilers, but he's insane. He feels like one of D3's late-game "super bosses" in terms of moveset variety, atmosphere, challenge, and general awesome factor, but he's early-game here! Has his own cutscene, and has dialogue during the fight! 

-Presentation is next level; the voice actors are great, the lore bits funs to read, and there seems to be a ton more story happening then usual.

I might do a Lore writeup later (really impressed by that too). There's a ton of stuff I didn't mention (like the crafting and shield that turns into a snake), but truth be told, i'm convinced this going to be a game that defines the next generation. It's everything that FROM has worked towards the last decade. It's an open world game that's really fun to explore.; but a majority of it's content seem to be of high quality. The game is in a great place technically, and the game around it seems amazing. 

 

[BigBossBalrog]

But yeah, playing a chunk of the game has convinced me the hype is worth it. 

[ColonelKillaBee]

On 11/9/2021 at 10:30 PM, BigBossBalrog said:

@The Good Doctor @TheCzarsHussar NVM Bitches; looks like papa sunbro is eating tonight, my loyalty to the flame has been rewarded  I got one! (For some reason it was for PS4 )

I don’t wanna hear shit unless there’s great old ones ._.

[ColonelKillaBee]

Wait, my zweihanders back?

Well, here we go again boys.

[BigBossBalrog]

3 hours ago, ColonelKillaBee said:

Wait, my zweihanders back?

Well, here we go again boys.

 Of course, the Legend never dies.

[BigBossBalrog]

Oh and since this is open world, I no longer feel the "Don't compare it to Elder Scrolls cause there different games!" dosen't work anymore; so suck it Todd! 

[TheCzarsHussar]

Thank you Balrog, you went above and beyond with telling us!

Question, is there swimming? All the YouTube with early access kept teasing this island but they never went there. 

That black knight is honestly one of the coolest things in the network test. If you manage to kill his horse, he fights dismounted for a little while before using his halberd to open a cosmic portal where the horse returns from.

[BigBossBalrog]

1 minute ago, TheCzarsHussar said:

Thank you Balrog, you went above and beyond with telling us!

Question, is there swimming? All the YouTube with early access kept teasing this island but they never went there. 

 

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That black knight is honestly one of the coolest things in the network test. If you manage to kill his horse, he fights dismounted for a little while before using his halberd to open a cosmic portal where the horse returns from.

 

Nope. You can go through shallows, but going into the depths kills you. There's a few Islands you can get to with clever thinking. 

[ColonelKillaBee]

9 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Oh and since this is open world, I no longer feel the "Don't compare it to Elder Scrolls cause there different games!" dosen't work anymore; so suck it Todd! 

*groans so loud it wakes Cthulhu from his slumber and he groans in turn, contacting his kin, opening portals into alternate dimensions where beings large and small all groan in unison, creating an inter dimensional choir of which the gods themselves all reflect my inner weariness of the bs that is to come*

[BigBossBalrog]

If it helps; there seems to be alot of cosmic weirdness that the background lore of TES has but is often unwilling to show outside of Morrowind, but it's displayed alot in Elden Ring's world and gameplay 

 

There's a terrifying field boss who draws you into a cosmic portal and forces you to fight them. A "bloodhound Knight" who draws alot to the Outrider Knights and acts in a super unsettling way

[ColonelKillaBee]

Balrog finna throw cosmic in front of everything until I play 

[BigBossBalrog]

Just now, ColonelKillaBee said:

Balrog finna throw cosmic in front of everything until I play 

Dude there's 

nightmarish Octopi monstrosities staight out of Lovecraft 

[TheCzarsHussar]

2 minutes ago, ColonelKillaBee said:

Balrog finna throw cosmic in front of everything until I play 

Maybe you'd get some cosmic bitches on ya dick if you stopped playing eso

[The Good Doctor]

@BigBossBalrog

How come your spelling is better after getting up at 5:30 and binging a Fromsoft game than it is when you sit down and dedicate your time specifically to writing a post?  

[BigBossBalrog]

Just now, The Good Doctor said:

@BigBossBalrog

How come your spelling is better after getting up at 5:30 and binging a Fromsoft game than it is when you sit down and dedicate your time specifically to writing a post?  

The power of the Elden Ring sustains me. 

[The Good Doctor]

Joking aside, thank you for the write-up. It sounds incredible. 

[ColonelKillaBee]

18 minutes ago, TheCzarsHussar said:

Maybe you'd get some cosmic bitches on ya dick if you stopped playing eso

No thank you I could barely handle all the Aussie bitches  

[ColonelKillaBee]

20 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Dude there's 

 

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nightmarish Octopi monstrosities staight out of Lovecraft 

Eh, wake me when we start talkin gods and entities vs just generic tentacle mob enemy

[BigBossBalrog]

Lore bits; I only had three and a half hours so I rushed through descriptions, but there's already a ton here.

-The Anglo-Saxon dudes are known as Northern Merceneries; they were viewed as Raiders before the shattering, but now the Demigods can't have enough of them, because they sell their swords to anyone who can pay, and Godrick seems to be swelling his ranks with them now that he's on the backfoot. They are described as being a norse-like people from the far north, and they have giant's blood within them (resulting them in being basically an army of Brienne's), and wield-large like curved blades. They can enter a beserker state when they loose enough health. 

-One of the first tarnished was Vargram the Bloody Wolf; he's the original owner of the Bloody Wolf Set. Came from the same Northern land as the sellswords to secure the Elden Ring for his people

-The Shattering was the cosmic event that lay ruin to the Land's Between; the Elden Ring is a universe princple and the source of power, that the Demigod's have fought over. The rules of magic and the stars flowed from them; and whomever could master it became an Elden Lord. When it was shattered, it split into thousands of fragement; the greater (great-runes) of which were found by the Demigods, and were subsquently driven mad by a combination of it's corruption and their own insecurities. An all out civil war broke out between everyone, resulting in millions dead, and the state of the world (still functioning and alive, but really torn apart)  is a result of this. They are all related (and the main ones are siblings) but their familiar ties have broken in lieu of their desire for power and the throne of the Elden lord. There's an uneasy stalemate currently, but that seems to be changing. 

-Numerous Elden Lords are mentioned; with their own backstories and how they became them. Reading alot is like an appendix from one of George's books, with family trees detailed. 

-Demigods seem to regard humanity as lesser; though there's one affiliated with them who doubles insulting you for being human (Like your kind has always done...be fearful of the Night)while also wholeheardley praiseing you for your skill in combat, and declaring you ("Thou has passing skill; I can tell warrior's blood runs through thy veins!") a worthy warrior. Seems to me they view humans as a favored "warrior-race" to use in battle (The British and French had this mindset with a few of their colonial subjects; and were very valured as soldiers) rather then outright disdain, so they aren't like the God's of Anor Londo. 

-The Demigods I know of right now are Godrick, "The Blood Lord" (who has an army of fanatical cultists who use forbidden blood magic), and Margit the Fell-Omen (the first "story" boss, and a super cool character). They have a lot of lore associated with them, and tons of story presense.  

-It seems the desperation of the conflict has driven Godrick army into pillaging their own territory to keep afloot; there's signs of rampaging army everywhere, with pubicly displayed executions, pillaged towns, and sacked wagons.  

-There's a really disturbing pratice known as grafting that has consumed Godrick and his nobles. They capture tarnished and anyone unlucky enough; brutally torture them, and then take their severed limbs and magically connect them to themselves! 

-Godrick reminds me alot of !book Ramsey Bolton. Dosen't seem like the best commander, but he's a terrifying brute whose keeping his followers in tow with fear and brutality.

-There's a ton of factions; it felt like I was reading Game of Thrones for the first time; they introduce a ton of names, organisations, kingdoms, characters, magical theroy, princples, species, fantasy creatures in the first hour that it's very overwhelming 

If I remeber more, i'll post more. 

[ColonelKillaBee]

[BigBossBalrog]

One of my favorite new mechanic is the flask mixing. You can actually make your own unique recharging estus flasks by mixing tears! (giving it special properties; like you can drink an estus that will explode, damage you, but also damage enemies around )

[BigBossBalrog]

Next test starts in an hour; if anyone wants me to check anything, just holler. I'll try to find more cool shit 

[TheCzarsHussar]

10 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Next test starts in an hour; if anyone wants me to check anything, just holler. I'll try to find more cool shit 

Could you try fighting the black knight?

[The Good Doctor]

9 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Next test starts in an hour; if anyone wants me to check anything, just holler. I'll try to find more cool shit 

I heard that a Black Knight guards a bridge in the starter zone and is very rough but only appears at night. If you could find him and report back that would be awesome. 

Bonus points if you beat him. 

[The Good Doctor]

You gotta be kidding me. 

Viking’d