Druid[Discussion] Which Soulslike will you be playing this weekend and what would you like a potential second DLC for Elden Ring to be about?
CoelacanthProbably will play some more Rise of the Ronin. I caved and bought two games during the recent sale that I am very keen on, but I should make an effort to finish games before getting sidetracked. I might crumble though, we’ll see. One of them is a Soulslike and the other has Soulslike-ish combat, so they might be of more interest to this sub than Ronin. But one thing at a time I guess.
Can’t really give any input on Elden Ring DLCs unfortunately as I haven’t even played Shadow of the Erdteee.
How far along are you in Rise of the Ronin? Seems like you’ve picking away at the game for quite a while now.
What are the games you got? Can’t just drop that and not share what you’re playing :D
I am in the third and final major area of Ronin, after this is a return to the Edo area for the finale of the game as I understand it. I’ve played a ton of it but the game is really long, especially if you not only 100% the areas but also spend some time just fighting bosses for fun in the dojo. This last week I’ve played less of it though as I was hit a bit by open world fatigue, so I took a break and checked out the Out Fishing demo and played through INMOST finally (which was super good).
Well, I want to build suspense you know! I like talking about games so I don’t want to blow my load early! But as a little bit of a teaser I bought Withering Rooms and Death Howl.
I hear you, especially the part about open-world fatigue as we’ve also talked about at some point iirc. Good on you for squeezing every bit of game out of it tho! Unless you’re not enjoying your time, that is.
Alright alright, I’ll let you cook :D I’ve played Death Howl for a couple hours and enjoyed my time quite a bit, actually. It was a little difficult at times, so I didn’t pick it back up again, but it’s a really good combination of games I’ve played before and loved. It’s like a mix of Inscryption, Dark Souls, and Into the Breach: quite a wild mix, but it works! Haven’t heard of Withering Rooms before, though. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts if that was your plan. :)
Death Howl looks amazing but hearing it’s that hard makes me little hesitant. I’ve also heard that it can be a little grindy. But it looks like such a wonderful work of art that I couldn’t resist buying it. I hope I can manage.
Withering Rooms is a game I’ve had my eye on for ages but have been trying to wait for a deep sale on. But it has never been below 20% and so when it was 30% off just now I finally snapped. I’ve heard some really amazing things about it, it has some dodge-based combat that should appeal to souls fans, as should the vibe and storytelling. And I didn’t want to keep postponing it because the sequel is supposed to come out later this year so it would be nice to play through it before then.
sad_detective_manI’m trying to start a new DS2 run. Haven’t ever beat SotFS version before so might as well see what all that’s about.
I’m pretty fucked up there wasn’t an expansion on what the heck was going on with Godwyn’s corpse. I know it has its own ending but with all the foreshadowing in the game you can’t just leave the rest of all that offscreen.
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 If they did a second DLC for Elden Ring (aside from what will probably come with the Tarnished Edition) I would hope they add in more MP-centric stuff like they had in DS3. Not the grind, but the factions and stuff like Halflight or Belltower/Mirror Knight. Maybe make it a max of 6 players again.
Exactly this is what I feel like Elden Ring has been missing from the start - factions with rewards to encourage multiplayer engagement. I even miss Aldrich invasions and being a mound maker. Half the invaders in Elden Ring play like mound makers anyways and attack everything indiscriminately… may as well get some shackles for it.
That and the removal of the ember/humanity requirement made it less likely that people would be exposed to invasions. I remember beating bosses, forgetting I was ember-ed, and run into an invader at the worst/best possible moment. I know that some people hated being forced into PVP, but it got the blood flowing and made every play-through feel just a little unique. It added character to the world, made it feel alive.
With SOTE and Nightreign, (still need to do the dlc) I think I’m good on Elden Ring/ adjacent content for a while. The world and story are already so expansive… What I’d like more lore on could be addressed with an official comic,. that would be very nice. Melina, Outer God stuff, Family drama you name it. I don’t think they come up with anything else but if they do, I’ll happily partake.
What I’m playing…I’m busting at the seams with reverence for this game right now. Apologies in advance ‘cause I’m about to be an annoying fuck, proceed at your own risk.
Sekiro is an elegant display of artistry in every level. truly a gaming achievement of the highest category. I’ll sing it’s praises ‘till the day I die.
Amongst all the recent DLSS 5 talk, and what feels like the imminent slopification of all visual media, being immersed in a word this beautiful feels like a balm for my soul, I needed it. they did such a fine job with these landscapes and scenery (it’s FS so I wouldn’t expect less) but the setting is so different and I’m completely taken by it. The music and cutscenes and are all incredible as well, character design and animation… Ugh, fantastic. As a whole it has brought me to the brink of tears a couple of times.
the fight design…It was a surprise discovering the variety of the encounters. not every boss needs to be addressed the same. It’s also very nice in terms of pacing as some are more like a puzzle (?) or just pure spectacle, and those serve as palette cleanser between the tough stuff, a lovely balance.
The combat system (yes, again) ahhh the sweet dopamine release of the combat. The simplicity of it, it’s joyous. at this point I feel like I have it down pretty well, and my gameplay feels fairly clean-ish which, again sparks lots of joy… (thanks Lies of P ♡ ). Even though the game does not demand perfection, I do feel incentivized to give my best performance. I want to match the challenge that is presented to me, and honor the fight’s design.. Wolf needs to look good.
Some major story points have happened, so I feel i’m very close to the end. My very surface level knowledge of Japanese history and lore leave my with a feeling that there’s much nuance that I’m missing. so I wanna dig deeper once I’m done with this run. (If anyone has a good recs for some essays or videos on the game please share, I’d appreciate it a lot)
other random thoughts:
-Lots of hidden stuff to find. Revisiting areas also yields some fun surprises, tho I’m inclined to think I did several things in a weird order, which also explains the gameplay friction I experienced in the beginning.
-Man, when did we lose our spark as apes? Apes are great.
-The Guts-Wolf parallelz are a little deeper than I thought, always love the berserk refs.
I’m glad you’re enjoying your time with Sekiro as much as you are. The game’s always brushed off as lesser because it’s not a “true” soulslike, but come on. I’d say it’s better than its predecessors in some regards even.
I’ll have a look what I can find in terms of video recommendations outside the usual suspects like Vaati. Since the story-telling is a little more straightforward compared to the average affairs, there’s not too much to speculate on, but I’ll look around :)
The game’s always brushed off as lesser because it’s not a “true” soulslike.
Lesser??? This is news to me D: completely unacceptable. is it it’s own thing? yeah, but wtf with that reasoning.
there’s not too much to speculate on
I’m thinking more about the significance of stuff that we as a western audience might miss. There must be some interesting things, I’ll look around as well.
eezeebeeJust about to finish Demon Tides, and then I’m not sure what I’m playing next. Interestingly I found an interview with the devs that confirmed my suspicion that they were in fact influenced by Elden Ring! Very cool for a 3D platformer.
Good question about DLCs. Maybe something way back in the past to further explore/illustrate the lore that GRRM wrote. Or, I’d be interested to see what becomes of things after the Ranni ending. Maybe she goes full baddie and is the final boss?
M.intThe classic answer to this is Godwyn. There is quite a lot of room in his story. While he kinda has his related ending in the Duskborn Ending, he is still a pretty mysterious figure. You could go the classic time travel route and go to the Night of Black Knives or to just after at the beginning of the Shattering. But such a setting wouldn’t lend itself to an open world, at least in my mind, since you would either be confined or just retread the Lands Between.
I would be interested in a DLC focused on the Outer Gods. Mainly on the Mother of the Gravebirds and the Mother of Truth (Blood-goddess worshipped by Mogh and the Bloodfiends). The Mother of the Gravebirds is probably a Bird like creature because of her children and her envoys who are twin-birds; I imagine her as a giant Phoenix - Fromsoft didn’t have any phoenices yet, right? I could also see a focus on the elements of the outer gods. Only Rot has ever been clearly stated as an element, but maybe also frenzy, verdigris, and blood(?). Also maybe a bit more insight in to the life cycle of gods since they can apparently die like the Lake of Rot, which is just the corpse of a Outer God, or the tomb under the capital, where the three fingers are. We could even find out in this hypothetical DLC the fate of Placidusax’s god (the vessel of the Elden Ring during his Order). Many plot-hooks you can combine in this Stories of the Outer Gods.
I beat the final Boss of the Lies of P DLC. Very cinematic fight. Very fun DLC overall. I usually don’t enjoy tag team fights that much, but this was very enjoyable. Also some really nice voice lines.
I will carve dread into your eyes that will haunt you forever!
This was probably my favorite mid-battle line. Very nice voice acting by Lea’s voice actor.
This weekend I’m probably going to be using the rematch feature to battle the Overseer and Markiona again, since I easily trounced them earlier.