Souls rule
Souls rule
They do. Like you said, sekiro has the bell. Ds 2 has the covenant of champions. Ds 1 and 3 both have the calamity ring, which add extra difficulty because not only does it double damage received, but you also have to give up a ring slot which is an even bigger handicap in ds 1. But it sucks because in both games you get the rings super late.
Imo ds 2 does the hard mode best. Available from the start, more damage received and less delt, enemies respawn endlessly and you can’t summon but still get invaded.
Technically the covenant of champions goves the best ring in the game so of you pain through 30 invasions, you do gain benefit.
Also, by invasions I meant forced offline NPC imvasions in known spots where they easily respawn.
I used to think this was the case, before the genre “clicked” for me. But I now understand that “git gud” is kind of what the experience is about.
Sekiro was what did it for me, and that game forces you to learn the enemies attack patterns. Seems insurmountable at first, but after dying a bunch, it clicks, and the enemies become much easier. Some to the point of triviality. And it’s like riding a bike, you can come back a year later and after five minutes you’re right back in it. That process itself has become enjoyable to me.
True… Sekiro doesn’t have many (if any) long run-backs.
Also, the general movement and grapple hook make movement fun
That’s usually just it. Even though the series has had them in every entry, the games aren’t about gimmicks. Souls games did a great job at giving players a ‘what you see is what you get’ experience. The game is about ‘git gud’ because the boss generally doesn’t get easier because you did some dialogue, flipped a switch, or otherwise. The earlier entries really tempered power scaling too so the absolute answer to difficulty in RPG type games: grinding levels to get stronger, wasn’t as effective either.
So it boiled down to just dodge the damage and deal it back. Revolutionary in its simplicity.
I love that game but absolutely suck at timing dodges/counters. Almost every fight I restart because I forget or screw up the enemy patterns.
Still having a blast
Me too. Played on Story mode which was specifically implemented at the request of Maelle’s English voice actress.
But I just started a new playthrough on Expert. I’m curious how far I come before going down to Expeditioner. Maelle’s already whooped my ass a few times.
I’ve been playing through on Expert from the start, and it’s been challenging but super fun. I’ve died a lot, but I much prefer that to JRPGs where you can just power through most normal enemies.
If you don’t memorize attack patterns and get dodge/parry timing right, you are going to die. Also, a lot more strategy involved in selecting Pictos
Surely the attack will end after this next slam, right?..
whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp
It’s a good thing the soundtrack for that fight was a banger lol
It really is a big part of the games. Even when not playing multiplayer the online component was significant.
Not just player messages: bloodstains and phantoms are a big part of the storytelling.
You consistently see glimpses of other player phantoms in realtime and you see recordings of their deaths. I am not sure a pause button would work well with those.
For player messages you’re absolutely right.
But phantoms are shown in (semi?)realtime and bloodstains are a recording of the few seconds before death. Scenes of people pausing kind of undermines some of what the devs built around online play.
You do have menus to interact with, but the game continues going while you’re in a menu. Not typically an issue if there’s no enemies around, but it can take some players by surprise if they try to use it to pause in the middle of combat.
It’s kinda nice for advanced players though, since you’re able to move through the level and swap equipment at the same time.
In Elden Ring the “Menu Explanation” gives you descriptions of keywords and other fields on the status menus. The game pauses when this is used.
It’s a menu within the menu and using it this way isn’t intended.
The ‘savepoints’ in the game are where players ‘pause/reset’ the level. Otherwise quitting out the game entirely is quick, easy, and does mostly the same purpose. Unless you’re in a few specific points you’re right where you were when you quit out. Enemy positions reset, but otherwise progress is saved in realtime with the exception of bossfights. They reset the room entirely until defeated.
(Players can actually quit out fast enough that they can ‘undo’ falling off a cliff as the game resets their position to the last point on a solid ground.)
So there is effective pausing of the game, just not a pause while panicking midgame button.
100%
So I cannot remember any names despite a few hundred hours of gameplay. I started within a week of launch and I remember seeing some video of a dude saying “Lets cheese Elden Ring!” Ran down into the swamps and teleported around to get enough blood echoes or whatever they’re called in this game. Books it up to the castle with the horsey knight bitch and giant magic artillery and grabs the Sword of (I think) Night and Flame. From there cheese a bit more to fill out build. I loved it so I started playing a buddies copy and was running around murdering shit for ages until they nerfed it. From there I started to mix more magic with actual combat before going to full combat. I’m not AWESOME but I got to NG6 and I can hold off about half of the invaders.
Hi folks. You may frown upon this, but I think that if you truly can’t play a game without a pause button:
It doesn’t break the game to straight up freeze it unless you are in online mode. If you are in online mode, when you unfreeze the game, it will say that you were disconnected due to framerate issues.