What game are you playing?

[wankerness]

Ohh, damn, that's one thing I'm definitely doing on this is combining areas into just what I think will all be one accessible space at the same time even if parts of it occur later. I don't know if I'll ever forget those god damn CKs as they fucked my shit up for a bit, and then to go from that and then INTO a boss fight? Shit was rude.

I definitely missed Seluvis's talisman the first time if its for casting, but it'll be relevant to me now

I never got it until like my fifth playthrough. His quest is pretty f'd and you have to beeline certain aspects of it. I didn't end up using that talisman much but that's just cause I was putting out more than enough damage for NG and figured Graven Mass Talisman was enough (plus then I didn't get the damage taken penalty). Also I'm not sure if it buffs Rock Sling cause that's physicla damage, and that was my primary spell vs most bosses that were in big enough rooms to hit them with it. I think it's still a critical part of most magic builds, especially ones that are doing magic damage (like what you're doing). I think it would become much more important on NG+ and beyond. Or any hypothetical nasty DLC we get.

If you end up wanting to do that comet azur "1-shot" build late in the game make sure you do sellen's quest to the end, and then go back to the sorcerer guys a second time after the quest is over. You get their armor sets. Azur's helm buffs Comet Azur (unsurprisingly). It also looks REALLY STUPID.

EDIT: For you and Ted -

Another easily missable questline is Latenna's, and that's one you don't want to miss. You have to get the half of the amulet from the guy in the pot in the albinauric zone, and then do some minidungeon that's on the southern edge of the liurnia lake. There's a grace point at the exit of the dungeon which is outside. There's a wolf there, and she's there. But, if you don't go there early enough in the game with the amulet, she just dies and you can't progress the quest. She joins you as an ash summon if you show her the amulet piece, and she's easily one of the best in the game. And then when you get to the second half of Mountaintop of the Giants she gives you one of the very few +10 somberstone shards. I definitely missed this on my first playthrough.

 

[TedEH]

I can't imagine how different a game like this would be without the community aspects - people talking through what they already know of the game, being able to google for cool bits you missed, etc. There are whole giant parts of the game I'd never know existed otherwise.

 

[Drew]

Ok, what the fuck game are you all talking about? I read back a few pages and still have no clue.

 

[wankerness]

Ok, what the fuck game are you all talking about? I read back a few pages and still have no clue.

Elden Ring of course. Why would we use the dedicated Elden Ring thread? Every thread must be the Elden Ring thread.

 

[MFB]

Elden Ring of course. Why would we use the dedicated Elden Ring thread? Every thread must be the Elden Ring thread.

Is this NOT the Elden Ring thread?

 

[wankerness]

I can't imagine how different a game like this would be without the community aspects - people talking through what they already know of the game, being able to google for cool bits you missed, etc. There are whole giant parts of the game I'd never know existed otherwise.

That's one of the things that makes these games so interesting. They're full of weird idiosyncrasies that are entirely the fault of this Miyazaki guy who has been the mastermind behind most of them since he was given the opportunity to rebuild Demon's Souls the way he wanted. Like, he was explicitly trying to recreate weird things from his childhood. Most publishers would have just gone "no, that's crazy and also stupid." Like, his explanation for story being delivered through item descriptions and only able to be understood through extensive sleuthing was that he used to read books as a child that were way beyond his ability to comprehend and he could only understand bits and pieces (especially the English language ones), and he wanted to recreate that experience for players cause he thought it would be cool. I guess he really got the bug for wanting to do videogames after seeing Ico sort of do that. I still haven't played that game.

And he's always had a real thing about trying to teach players to overcome hardships (hence how you will get killed a lot and there's no easy difficulty). Like, going on about how "if the game was easy our intention for players to really feel satisfied after progressing would be ruined." I sorta get it even though I get the accessibility thing where some players just plain are not good enough to ever progress without difficulty settings. This is also probably partly related to him growing up super poor.

Then it's a similar deal with forcing people to go to online communities for learning game secrets (both the in-game messaging and actual community forums). And the way death made you have to replay the level ala an NES game or something. Oh and of course his famous foot fetish (up there with Quentin Tarantino for shoehorning in barefoot women in weird places). He's a weird guy and these games have a lot of weird aspects because of it. It's nice to see some kind of personal stamp on games this big. Even if some of those stamps might not necessarily be enjoyable.

 

[Drew]

Elden Ring of course. Why would we use the dedicated Elden Ring thread? Every thread must be the Elden Ring thread.

That's the one they had GRRM consult on, for help with lore and world-building, since he absolutely had nothing else more pressing to think about and was fully on top of all of his other projects and obligations, and not at all in failing health?

 

[wankerness]

That's the one they had GRRM consult on, for help with lore and world-building, since he absolutely had nothing else more pressing to think about and was fully on top of all of his other projects and obligations, and not at all in failing health?

Yeah. TBH I don't know what he actually contributed to it. Probably just the super-confusing names (there's like four major characters whose names are some variant of Gofrey or Godrick, and then several more named Maleena or Malenia or Mileena) cause other than that everything else seems pretty right-in-line with everything else from Fromsoft. But that GRR Martin really likes making names for characters clear as mud. I like that the Game of Thrones show renamed Asha to Yara so everyone wouldn't get her confused with Osha, and got rid of at least one of the "Robert" names that multiple characters had in the books, etc.

 

[TedEH]

I've always felt that fantasy bs naming has been a big contributor to fantasy-stuff in general being kinda impenetrable for me. I can't care about the lore of a bunch of characters if I can barely distinguish who is who.

 

[Ralyks]

Crossed 10 hours in Persona 3 Portable. Yeah, the story seems to be taking it's time getting going, moreso than Persona 5. Still deciding if I mind the graphic novel nature of the Portable version. But at the same time, it's kind of fun when winding my night down, half stoned, just going through the grind of Tartarus. That said, doubt I'll go for the Platinum anytime soon, since I'll be jumping to Persona 4 Golden after instead of doing the second playthrough as the female protagonist.

 

[Drew]

Yeah. TBH I don't know what he actually contributed to it. Probably just the super-confusing names (there's like four major characters whose names are some variant of Gofrey or Godrick, and then several more named Maleena or Malenia or Mileena) cause other than that everything else seems pretty right-in-line with everything else from Fromsoft. But that GRR Martin really likes making names for characters clear as mud. I like that the Game of Thrones show renamed Asha to Yara so everyone wouldn't get her confused with Osha, and got rid of at least one of the "Robert" names that multiple characters had in the books, etc.

I understand an improbable percentage of his minor character names were shitting on Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the Patriots, too.

 

[wankerness]

I like that. He seems like a fun guy. I mean, too bad about his work ethic and the fact he'll NEVER finish GOT and it will be surprising if we even see the sixth book, but I don't blame him. If I had just had my most prized series of books adapted, functionally sequelized by different "authors" which turned into something that all the fans hated, and then I was given the choice between cashing easy paychecks and hanging out with various celebrities for the rest of my life or trying to live up to the unrealistic expectations of thousands and thousands of book zealots...I know what I'd choose!

 

[CTID]

Still trying to get through the capital. It's very deadly and I've been exhausted lately so haven't been playing as much. Got through the shunning slums or whatever only to find the final door locked because I haven't done some other thing. Also found the path to Mountaintop where the 3rd Volcano manor mark is but it's also locked. Yay. My filthy casualness is finally catching up to me, I think.

if it's the door i'm thinking of, you need to be naked. but it'll lock you into a specific ending unless you do a very long questline, so beware

I've always felt that fantasy bs naming has been a big contributor to fantasy-stuff in general being kinda impenetrable for me. I can't care about the lore of a bunch of characters if I can barely distinguish who is who.

it doesn't help in Elden Ring where every character is a G(eorge), R(R) or M(artin)

Godrick, Godfrey, Gideon, Godwyn, Godefroy

Renalla, Radahn, Radagon, Rykard, Ranni, Renna

Margit, Morgott, Melina, Maliketh, Malenia, Miquella, Mogh

that's just off the top of my head, i know i'm missing some

 

[wankerness]

if it's the door i'm thinking of, you need to be naked. but it'll lock you into a specific ending unless you do a very long questline, so beware

I'm sure he's referring to the door to the Mogh boss, which is blocked with a forcefield if Morgott is still up. I encountered this for the first time last playthrough, normally I never go down there till I'd finished the Capital.

 

[CTID]

I'm sure he's referring to the door to the Mogh boss, which is blocked with a forcefield if Morgott is still up. I encountered this for the first time last playthrough, normally I never go down there till I'd finished the Capital.

i actually forgot about that, i think i've only gone down there before beating morgott once. still, the door all the way at the bottom is probably something you want to avoid unless you're trying to get that ending for the achievement

 

[Leviathus]

God, that platforming is such a bitch. I don't think i've been back since getting the trophy for that ending.

 

[wankerness]

God, that platforming is such a bitch. I don't think i've been back since getting the trophy for that ending.

I've done the platforms after Mogh on every character, all 7 playthroughs. I got through it with 0 deaths on like two characters. On my sixth playthrough it took AT LEAST 20 tries. I hate it so much and have occasionally resorted to save-scumming it in the middle of the puzzle. It wouldn't be THAT bad but there's a couple parts that are just screwing with you, like one part where the geometry is such that you see the platform you need to get to, but if you jump to it from the wrong platform, you end up on a platform directly above it that you probably didn't even see depending on how you had the camera pointed, and then are totally screwed and have to die and start over.

The other platform sections that really, really stressed me out and made me miserable (Caelid's tower, both outside and inside, mainly) on first playthrough have all been more or less fine, I never die more than a couple times on subsequent playthroughs. But that one...ugh.

Actually I think the "solution" to the Caelid painting might be really awful on repeat playthroughs, too, but I haven't done that since my second character. Reward isn't worth it.

 

[wankerness]

i actually forgot about that, i think i've only gone down there before beating morgott once. still, the door all the way at the bottom is probably something you want to avoid unless you're trying to get that ending for the achievement

You get a seal that increases damage of the frenzy spells if you did the whole questline for Hyetta ("grape" girl) and go through that door, so I've done it on a few characters. But yeah, probably not a good move for first playthrough unless you're save scumming all the endings and don't go through that door till you've killed the final bosses.

Good thing it's impossible to go through that door by accident unless you're RPing as the classic Dark Souls "guy in underwear with big club" character.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Ok, what the fuck game are you all talking about? I read back a few pages and still have no clue.

When I read a name/place I don't recognize I assume the post is about Dark Souls or Elden Ring and keep scrolling. If Wankerness or MFB posted it here, there's a good chance I skipped it.

 

[MFB]

When I read a name/place I don't recognize I assume the post is about Dark Souls or Elden Ring and keep scrolling. If Wankerness or MFB posted it here, there's a good chance I skipped it.

😂

Spoiler

😭