Continuing on with my thoughts on how I’ve changed concerning the FromSoft games. Here is part two. The last time I played the game, I was breezing through it like it was nothing. I had the Zwei maxed out and all the most powerful Pyromancies. I went in the back way to Blighttown because I could, and I took down O&S without even sweating. I was shadow-matching Ian as he made his way through the game for the first time. I quit when I hit the Tomb of the Giants because I just couldn’t be stuffed and because he was crushing it.
Did I do the DLC? I don’t remember. Probably not because I normally wait until right before Gwyn to do that. I was frustrated because there’s a glitch in the remaster version that doesn’t allow for saving or connecting online, which I don’t care when I play for myself. But if Ian had needed to summon me, it would have been a problem.
It’s incredible all the different way you can play the game. Games, really. I watch videos and the amount of people who just mess around is insane. Fists only runs, Soul Level One runs (onebro), no hit runs, bows only runs, and more. naked runs, and more. I am proud of myself when I can kill Kalameet and it only takes five or six tries.
I tried a onebro run in Dark Souls III, which I read later that it was much harder to do (and technically can’t because there is no level one character) than in the original. I made it about a fourth of the way into the game (to the Deacons of the Deep) before conceding defeat. I just did not want to go on any further and gave up the good fight.
Side Note: I made my onebro a male character because I always play as a female. I thought it would be fun and much to my surprise, one of the NPCs, Anri, is a different gender depending on which you chose to play as. They are the opposite gender, I mean. There is a reason for this (spoilers, I guess). You ‘marry’ Anri and stab them in the face, so I guess we have to reinforce the het norms that men and women can only marry each other.
Imagine my surprise when I met Anri when I was a onebro and she was a woman. I had only known the male Anri, so it was weird when she was a she. I don’t watch playthroughs of the current FromSoft game until after I’d played it, so I didn’t know that was a possibility until I did my onebro. Then, of course, once I started watching playthroughs, it was 99% men who played as men so their Anri was a woman.
I have played both Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin) and Dark Souls III since completing Elden Ring. I still love Dark Souls III unabashedly, but I do miss the jump button. I can never live without a dedicated jump button again. Do you hear me, FromSoft? But I love the ‘legacy dungeons’ (in quotes because that term was what they called the traditional Dark Souls dungeons in Elden Ring) more than I do the ones in Elden Ring. By a skosh.
SotFS, though, has been treated roughly in the comparison. The areas are not as tightly woven as the ones in the other games and the legacy dungeons are better in Elden Ring than in SotFS. Even though I have not had much permanent damage form my medical trauma, I do think I’m a step slower. In fighting the bosses in the last two DLCs for SotFS, I just cannot react as quickly as I need to. This has always been the case, but it’s even more so this time around.
My roll is shite. I can’t blame adaptability because I put more points into that than I normally would specifically because I know that I’m a step slower. I had plenty of experience fighting the Fume Knight, and I had a really hard time of it the first time around. But afterwards, it wasn’t too bad with help. But the two NPCs aren’t great for this fight and that was all I had.
Weirdly, I actually had more trouble with Sir Alonne the first time around rather than the Fume Knight. I never thought I was going to beat him. And Aava, the King’s pet in the last DLC is just tedious. She’s not particularly stout, but she jumps all over the place and is resistant to almost everything. Come to think of it, most the bosses are in the DLCs. Which is one reason it’s anti-caster.
I only have the Ivory King himself in the last DLC. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t do the co-op runs any longer. I don’t see the point. To me, I play the games for fun. I don’t begrudge anyone playing the way they want to play, but I’m not into making it harder for me. That’s not where I find enjoyment in the games.
It’s pretty funny that people like to say it’s not the difficulty, but the same people hasten to say that they would never, ever summon. Oh, it’s ok if other people do, but they would never! I don’t mind that people draw their own lines, but it bugs the fuck out of me when they judge others for having different lines. I was watching the RKG lads beating Dark Souls on the plane and a large chunk of the comments I read were disparaging them for being filthy casuals because the shortest speed run of the game is blah-di-blah. I had thought it’d be safe to read the comments because the RKG community is lovely, but I was mistaken. There are over a million views on the video, which probably contributes to the cesspool of negativity.
I honestly don’t care how hard you are. Play the games however you want and enjoy them to your heart’s content. But don’t shit on other people for playing them differently. The reason to play a game is to enjoy it. It’s not fun if you have people constantly screaming at you for playing it wrong. I would never play a FronSoft game on stream. Or if I did, I would have strict rules as to what chat could and couldn’t say.
There was one streamer who was streaming BLoodborne. He made it explicitly clear that there were to be no backseat drivers. He did not want any hints, tips, or spoilers. There were people in his chat who had the gall to argue with him. I mean, it’s his fucking stream. He can set the rules however he wants. If I were to stream a new From game, the rules would be absolutely no spoilers unless I’m about to miss a bonfire and I’d list in detail what a spoiler actually was. Yes, there were people trying to rules-lawyer it.
Honestly, I would give one warning and then block with impunity. I have no patience for joy-killers. I don’t care if they aren’t trying to be dicks–my house, my rules. It’s not a democracy, and I am the sole ruler.