Fromsoftware is doing another armored core game, wonder if this one will be more souls like
Edit also am I the only one looking forward to Lies of P?
Fromsoftware is doing another armored core game, wonder if this one will be more souls like
Edit also am I the only one looking forward to Lies of P?
Has anyone played Wo Long Fallen Dynasty? I know people loved the Nioh games and it’s the same developer so I was wondering if it was any good
A trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree is FINALLY dropping tomorrow at 10 a.m. EST/7 a.m. PST.
Really makes you wonder if the long rumored full stealth drop on the anniversary is going to be true. "Here's the trailer, and you can get the game.... next week." February 25 would be the actual second anniversary but thats a Sunday and games generally release on Tuesday, not on weekends, so...
@Robby are we gonna get an update on there next game you think? Hopefully the collaboration with Brandon Sanderson they hinted at
@Shiebs said in Souls Games thread:
@Robby are we gonna get an update on there next game you think? Hopefully the collaboration with Brandon Sanderson they hinted at
It's just a 3 minute trailer, not a direct. It's gonna be all on selling Erdtree which probably (hopefully) has a super imminent release.
And Bandai Namco saying to Sanderson "Hey we're sorta interested" doesn't mean anything has actually come from it, that he's gotten in touch with Fromsoft, or that even if he has, that there will be any tangible result for a decade.
June 21.
Well, I made a new character to prep for the DLC, since all my old characters were in NG+... but I went much much faster this time around and kind of... beat the game for the fourth time. Really easily. I did almost all the bosses first try this time around. Health build and knowing their patterns and how to just run through all the areas and I just... got through the whole game start to Elden Beast in 20 hours.Probably could have done it even faster if I hadn't stopped to get all the weapon and spirit bells again while also collecting a bunch of ashes I thought might be fun for the DLC. I had a pretty rough time at the very start with no stats and low level weapons but once I hit the lakes it was just smooth sailing.
I was expecting it to take 60-100 hours again since it's been two years, and my first two runs combined took about 250 hours. I didn't realize I'd retain THAT much memory of it all or that I'd beat so many of the bosses first try. I started prep for the DLC way way too soon. Oh well, the DLC will be able to surprise and kill me again!
Reviews are out
Man I hope they work with Brandon Sanderson on a game, especially if it’s Cosmere related
Cripes FROM/ This isn't a DLC, this is a full blown sequel.
My friend and I played all weekend, like 25 hours, and we still haven't unlocked at least half the map (that we know of), have only beaten 2 of the 10 main bosses, and the parts of the map we HAVE unlocked we have not in any meaningful way fully explored. It's nuts. (Have found two more bosses but cleeeearly not supposed to be fighting them yet.)
There's one castle that probably could have been a 10$ DLC all by itself. Full of floors and elevators and items and multiple bosses, it's nuts.
I'm curious how the technical aspects of the Shadow Blessing stuff works. My initial vibe is that it feels like it's a natural debuff on my character, as things felt more normal as soon as I did my first upgrade at the Grace. Is it meant to make me more powerful than normal, or is it just slowly removing the debuff to get to normal? It's been awhile since I played though, so maybe it's just rust or I don't remember things accurately.
It was a fun first several hours of just combing the wilds. I'll enter one of the areas to head towards a main boss next time. I decided to box everything that I wasn't currently using, so I can keep track of what's new easier and try some of that stuff out.
Played a chunk more. Found another part of the map, beat a third remembrance boss, some more weapons and summons I won't be using.
7 more big bosses to go! Maybe have found another three of them? I can probably beat one of them with a little more effort but the other two are massive nopes at the moment, so I'm going to keep exploring the map. (I say maybe because one of them might not be a remembrance boss, but the other two definitely are.)
@Marcotty said in Souls Games thread:
I'm curious how the technical aspects of the Shadow Blessing stuff works.
It's not a debuff.
Enemy damage and health is scaled per area. Starting area in the base game is 1x, lake area is 3x, Altus plateu and Caelid are 4x, Mohg's blood lake is 5x, snowfield is 6x, and endgame areas is 7.4. (Numbers are not exact, I'm not looking it up, but it's something like that) So that tracks with what your damage and vigor should be to keep up.
I'm not sure where the DLC sits at exactly, but it starts at endgame scaling, so somewhere between 6x and 8x. It's calibrated to deal with players that have 120-200 levels and 60 vigor and +25 weapons by default. And since levels have soft caps, and weapons have a maximum damage, there's an upper limit on how strong a player can be just from leveling. They scaled the enemies assuming you were reasonably maxed out with 60 vigor and a max damage stat, so For all intents and purposes your character is back to level 1, and the levels you have are mostly for your stamina and ability to use specific weapons.
What the erdtree fragments do is up the percentage of your damage and defense in ways regular leveling just doesn't touch. You can check your stats and see the yellow numbers, that will reduce when you return to the regular game.
The erdtree fragments are basically putting levels directly into your damage and defense in a way that regular levelling just doesn't and capped out on. It didn't remove a debuff, it just made you 5% stronger and that was enough to not feel overwhelmed.
Damage reduction is non-linear, so a 2% or 5% extra reduction is massive, way more than you'd think because the math isn't fully intuitive. this video explains it better than I can.
Huh, neat. Well, I have no issues with just upgrading my shadow blessing everytime I can. I think I'm at 4 now and I haven't fought a remembrance boss yet. Although that is the next thing on my list to do.
Wonder how many people out there are gonna argue for doing "pure" runs with no shadowtree upgrades.
Pure runs are going to be basically impossible since everything is more aggressive and will actively one-shot you and take 80 hits to kill if you don't upgrade at all. You can deal with the first boss or two raw, but I've tried some of the later ones and there's just no way with the amount of damage and health they have
Yeah you'll eventually get a few handfuls of crazy people doing no-hit runs who practice the same boss for days at a time, that have the patience to do 15 minute fights without taking a hit, but those are going to be few and far between. (And with that much health versus that much damage, it really is going to be that much.)
The system is designed to make you actually explore the map and engage with all the content instead of just grinding levels in one spot and then running from boss to boss. Which is amazing for a first time but is going to suck for replays. Base game you can just beat up a sleeping giant dragon to jump you to level 40 or warp to blood lake and blow up some albanurics for an hour... but the DLC there's not going to be any shortcut. Probably be routing to minimize it and just grab a handful of fragments to get a reasonable boost without getting all of them but most players are going to need them.
People are complaining a LOT on steam about the game being unfair, because they don't understand how the new system works and are pissed that their level 300 characters aren't just cheezing everything like they did before.
I’m still waiting for their team up with Brandon Sanderson, even though that’s probably like 10 years from now
Maybe 40 hours into the DLC. Using the ANCIENT METEORIC ORE GREATSWORD and having a lot of fun with it. haven't really touched some of the weapons that seem like a lot of fun Have what seems to be the entire map, have done 6/10 Rememberance bosses. I know exactly where one of them is (Messmer and his 18 inches of) and I suspect I know where two more are just judging by the map. At Scadoo level 15 and man it's making such a difference. One of the bosses was utterly destroying me before, just 1 or 2 shotting me so I backed off and explored the game some more and when I came back just completely tore them apart.
Definitely seeing a repeat of the main game though where it's super clear where their time and effort went...and man what an amazing effort and then theres a section that's big on the map but is mostly just scenery filling mountains... and another spot where they reuse main bosses but weaker and that's a little disappointing.
ALL accounts say the last boss is completely ridiculous and way worse than Malenia, so we'll see. I'll probably be wrapping it up next week.
(Messmer and his 18 inches of)
Won’t begrudge you if you don’t finish this line Robby.
So Bandai’s Twitter pulled an Insomniac.
Guess they knew what they were doing.
Is anyone going to get Black Myth Wukong?
Eh personally I’m over Souls/Soulslike games. I played through both Nioh titles though I haven’t finished all the DLC second.
And also haven’t gotten out of the the first area of Bloodborne.
And also want to get Stellar Blade………Yeah I going to probably get this.
@Shiebs said in Souls Games thread:
Is anyone going to get Black Myth Wukong?
It had a cool trailer when they announced it two years ago, but the gameplay they've showed isn't impressing me.
Plus after the crab game and the pinnochie game and Elden Ring 2, that's enough souls-likes for a while. there's just too many of them from too many publishers anymore, its harder to get excited than it used to be.
@Robby well the time in between now and the next big Fromsoftware souls game will probably be enough that everyone will be dying to play there next game, it takes a while to create these games
I’m still dying to see if Brandon Sanderson works with them, I haven’t played a video game in years but if Sanderson works with them I just might and if it’s a Cosmere game then I’ll definitely play it
Done with 8 out of 11 rememberance bosses. I was... probably supposed to fight that most recent boss a lot earlier, they were very weak.
Technically there's only 10 remembrance "main" bosses, but one particular enemy was definitely a unique model and set of moves, king of an entire area of the map, and a legit challenge... just for pure lore reasons he wasn't a remembrance.
He gives two different spells but I can only get one per play through. And because he's not technically a rememberance boss I can't clone it. That's frustrating.... not that I have the arcane to use those spells anyway.
Have one corner of the map to go. I suspect there has to be at least one more forge area, and boss 9 has to be there. (I know where 10 and the final boss are.) Getting pretty close to done, miiiight wrap it up tomorrow depending on how hard the challenges turn out to be and just how much time I put into exploring the last area.
I've heard baaaad things about the last boss.
Must be some shit if Let Me Solo Her is taking requests to help put them down.
I've only hit 2 remembrances so far. Feeling like most of the map's opened up to me now, so I'll probably start sweeping areas and then checking the online maps for stuff I've missed after I stop for that day.
Cleared out the last area of the map and the last boss before the final two. I beat the boss really, really easily. And the one before them too. Ooops. Was probably supposed to face them earlier at a lower scadoo level. At least one of the bosses was hard yesterday so I'm not feeling ridiculously overstacked.
Took a full 8 hour session to explore it top to bottom and I apparently STILL missed stuff that I'm going to have to backtrack on.
It's a very layered area with lots of nooks.
I've got all the spirit shards I can get at this point. I've missed a handful of scadoo fragments but I'm at rank 17 so getting a few more will make me a little stronger but won't really make me any tankier, so that's not going to be a difference maker.
Tomorrow I'm going to attempt Miquella and the final boss. I've heard Miquella is Malenia levels of difficult and the final boss is completely absurd.... so we'll see how I do.
@Marcotty said in Souls Games thread:
I've found a few new weapons I like, but overall not sure if I'd be capable of beating bosses with them. ______ boss weapon is the closest I have from switching, but just not sure how to use it fighting bosses...
Every weapon can deal with everything if you're comfortable with it. Obviously close range stuff has some disadvantage but reacting and moving against boss patterns is pretty universal once you know the sets. Bleed builds have some advantage since they take big chunks out whenever the effect activates, and frost increases all damage after it takes effect, but other than that...
Well, I beat Messmer with no effort on my second try. He does a looot of damage but I'm tanky enough it wasn't an isuse, he also takes a lot of damage. Was really dissapointed. I'm not even sure I got to see everything he could do.
The final boss however... I've spent three hours on, respecced twice, and died somewhere between 45 and 50 times. I've gotten close, and I think I have avoiding most of his moves down, but he is rough. First real stumper I've had in all the Souls games I've played. Even Malenia I beat pretty quickly, but my usual tactics don't work here too well.
Wooo, I did it! Beat the final boss. Took another hour? and another dozen? tries but I did it! (Hard to track time and attempts after a while since some wipes are the moment you enter the door or just very short runs and you don't feel like they counted.)
It's hard to say just how much time I spent on the DLC, I didn't write down my starting time with the character I used... and some chunk of time was spent just playing around with and levelling the new weapons so I wouldn't really count that as time, but I probably clocked 50-60 hours on it all told. That was a great DLC.
Gonna start a new character and throw some DLC weapons on them and do it all again from the start! Eventually.
@Robby said in Souls Games thread:
@Marcotty said in Souls Games thread:
I've found a few new weapons I like, but overall not sure if I'd be capable of beating bosses with them. ______ boss weapon is the closest I have from switching, but just not sure how to use it fighting bosses...
Every weapon can deal with everything if you're comfortable with it. Obviously close range stuff has some disadvantage but reacting and moving against boss patterns is pretty universal once you know the sets. Bleed builds have some advantage since they take big chunks out whenever the effect activates, and frost increases all damage after it takes effect, but other than that...
I know everything technically can work, it's more just weighing the time cost to get used to a new weapon set when it comes to boss fights. It's really easy to just default to swapping back to what I'm most comfortable with as soon as I die a couple times.
Anyway, I haven't found a 3rd remembrance boss yet. I've just kept sweeping the areas for everything and then stopping when it looks like a whole new zone is next. I'm almost finished sweeping to the point I have to pick a main area now.
@Marcotty said in Souls Games thread:
I know everything technically can work, it's more just weighing the time cost to get used to a new weapon set when it comes to boss fights.
Oh yeah, that I completely understand. I wanted to play with a ton of new toys but defaulted to my Guts sword and shield because the high end scary stuff is a hard time to experiment in. Why I plan to do a new run and drop off the DLC weapons onto a new character. Eventually.
Either the Shadow Keep, which seems to have multiple entrances, or I can go through the blue flower field, or I can go through the Dragon area.
Shadow Keep is a central hub point that will let you get to a lot of different areas. But it is MASSIVE and difficult and you probably won't be ready to deal with the bosses in it yet. But explore it as much as you can and see where it takes you.
Other two directions are good as well, there's absolutely stuff to do there.
Apparently the Shadow map fits perfectly into the original map. Neat.
Uh, spoilers if you haven't unlocked the entire erdtree map yet.
Progressed through the southern flower area and then did my major sweeping of Shadow Keep:
@Marcotty said in Souls Games thread:
Got a kick out of killing yourself to the tree lady. Kinda amusing to put a suicide booth into the dlc.
Have you talked to the NPC Thollier (the poison guy) and moved his quest along? He's got stuff to do there, unless beating the boss has already locked it out.
@Robby Oh, yeah, he was there. Not sure if there's gonna be anything more to it later.
One complaint for the DLC is definitely the NPCs feel even less clear than the main game ones. They also definitely should patch out that the first bunch of NPCs you meet "advance their story" just for getting too close to the Shadow Keep. I think I missed something with Moore at least.
Ymir is the one exception. His questline is probably the only one that actually feels right. Working on that now.
Finished up what I missed in the Shadow Keep
@Marcotty said in Souls Games thread:
@Robby Oh, yeah, he was there. Not sure if there's gonna be anything more to it later.
If he's there, then try talking to the suicide booth a few more times.
Moore's questline is super awkward because it has a requirement that's incredibly easy to miss before the castle trigger, and then he jumps ahead and you can really murk him depending on what you choose to say to him.
Had a boss rush session, after which I decided to cave and look at the remaining remembrances to see which ones I might want to duplicate.
@Shiebs said in Souls Games thread:
I’m still waiting for their team up with Brandon Sanderson, even though that’s probably like 10 years from now
Sanderson talked about that at length on his recent livestream. Either he's got the best pokerface ever (and we know he doesn't) or there's nothing going on there. He has a pitch, and he'd love to do it, and would basically need to do it for free (they can't afford to pay him for his time) but nothing going on,
He talked too long and too casually about it for it to be a cover. Maybe some day.
@Robby said in Souls Games thread:
@Shiebs said in Souls Games thread:
I’m still waiting for their team up with Brandon Sanderson, even though that’s probably like 10 years from now
Sanderson talked about that at length on his recent livestream. Either he's got the best pokerface ever or there's nothing going on there. He has a pitch, and he'd love to do it, and would basically need to do it for free (they can't afford to pay him for his time) but nothing going on,
He talked too long and too casually about it for it to be a cover. Maybe some day.
Damn I was really looking forward to there collaboration, seems like a perfect fit
I wonder if he does do a game with them, will it be swords and basic magic like Elden ring or will he make some intricate magic system that you have to figure out through talking to NPC’s and reading item descriptions like the usual Fromsoftware formula for figuring out how the lore works
@Shiebs said in Souls Games thread:
I wonder if he does do a game with them, will it be swords and basic magic like Elden ring or will he make some intricate magic system that you have to figure out through talking to NPC’s and reading item descriptions like the usual Fromsoftware formula for figuring out how the lore works
He talked about that at length too actually! Might be a stream worth putting on as background at some point. (And I say as background because its 2 hours)
Short version- game designers know game stuff. He knows story stuff. It's not his place to dictate the game stuff, but to meet the needs of what they want.
So it'd probably be more about him defining the lore and characters than it would be the combat or gameplay. He mentioned explicitly that doing something as complex as his magic systems probably wouldn't transfer well to a game.
More stuff checked off, not too much left now.
Let me solo her is now no-hitting the final boss. What a legend.
It's only been a few days, but still feels like a "Finally back to it" moment.
The entire horror/frenzy flame forest area is a pretty big swing and a miss on a last extra little game mechanic to try. The stealth wasn't remotely interesting and there's nothing even in the area to really collect to make it worth it. Not bothering to learn to parry them either. I just found paths with less of them and just outran/rolled them and healed off the madness. Just fill it up with new frenzy flame variants of enemies and throw in item drops instead.
The mansion itself felt a bit too short for my tastes. Was just starting to have fun with the area and it was already boss time.
I should get these last few boss mentions in before going to the final boss. I'll probably make a more comprehensive list after I've gotten through it.
I know it’s not technically a Souls game but I don’t know where else to put it so
https://x.com/germanstrands/status/1824451327839072541?s=46&t=i6_Gabqh_3-cD_sXw85PtQ