In the RKG Discord, it’s Return to Drangleic month. Drangleic is the castle in Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin), and I joined in with enthusiasm. I am in the minority that I thought the game was good when I first played it. I started with SotFS; I must say atht it is far superior to the vanilla game. I tried the latter years later and did not think it was worth it. I stopped roughly a fourth of the way into the game.
I’ve maintained from the start that FromSoft had a thankless task in making the sequel. Dark Soul became a surprise hit that swept a very small niche within the gaming community. Those who were drawn to it loved it to distraction, and they had very rigid ideas of what made the game good. There was no way the sequel was going to live up to the hype. How could it? It had to have all the hallmarks that made the first one so popular and yet, it also had to innovate so it wasn’t called a carbon copy.
The few innovations they made were not well-received. One was that you lost your health by increments every time you died. Maximum health, I mean. It capped at 50% and you could get a ring that capped it at 80%, I think, but people were not a big fan of this. I didn’t like it the first time I played it, but I can understand why they did it. The first game was lauded for being so hard, so they probably felt they had to up the difficulty to make the sequel stand out.
They were also going to have a light mechanic bassed on the torch. Things were going to happen when you lit all the torches in an area, but they cut it for time. The few places they kept it, one was for receiving a certain armor set (my favorite in the game. One time, I lit all the sconces, got the invader, and she dropped her armor in a spot I couldn’t reach. I was NOT happy), but the others didn’t seem to have a tangible reason for doing it.
The one thing that they did differently that I really appreciated was that on NG+, there were differences in some of the boss fights. Like in the Flexile Sentry, they added rising water and two of the manikins. In the Lost Sinner fight, they added two Pyros. In the Freja fight, they had her come out early and if you beat her back, you could take a hunk of health off her bar. I thought that was an interesting mechanic, but you had to reach NG+ to see it.
The game also caused the enemies to despawn if you killed them 10 times in the vanilla game and 12 times in SotFS. People were so very not happy about that. There is a covenant that changes that, but it also makes the enemies much harder. It’s good for when you need to farm for the plat, though.
I think if it hadn’t been billed as a Dark Souls game, it would have been better received. It’s a good game in and of itself, but it pales in comparison to the first game. But, I enjoyed playing it more than the first game because there is fast travel from the start. I have played the first game maybe ten times. I’ve played the second game at least fifteen times if not more. The third game? Dozens. DOZENS, I tell you.
I’m halfway through the Great Souls in SotFS, and I’m pretty much done with the game. The frustractions of this particular game are flaring up, and I have to admit that it’s partly because the game has just not aged well. Having to put levels into a stat (ADP) in order to have a roll approaching the one you have at the start of the first game is ugh. Having no Pyro class? Bush league. The agonizingly slow Estus chug is enraging. The mobs that you can’t see until you turn a corner? Not fun at all.
I kind of hit my limit when I fought the Old Iron King. He is not a hard boss. In fact, he’s probably one of the easiest. But. He’s at the end of a shitty area that is the worst for me because it’s all fire. And, yes, I ended up as a Pyro again.
I have my build and I’m sticking to it. Sue me.
The Old Iron King is in a small-ass arena with a big hole in the middle of it. The whole arena is surrounded by lava, and you have very limited area in which to avoid the Old Iron King’s attacks. I can tank a lot of it because I use Flash Sweat (anti-fire spell), but I have to be careful about rolling off. The first time I fought him, I had him down to a sliver of health and then rolled off the edge to avoid one of his attacks. This happened another time. Yet another time, the NPC died within seconds, and I don’t even know how. I assume she got hit off the edge as well. The boss himself is tanky and tedious. It’s just me pinging him with magicks until he dies. Or hitting him with my greatsword, depending on my build. This is one of the most generic bosses in a From game ever. Big demon fire guy. Yawn. Avoid his three attacks and get in your licks. Yawn. Make sure you don’t fall into the lava. ARGH.
I jumped back into Elden Ring because I’m watching Ash from Playstation Access play it (as a wretch). As I’m riding around on Torrent, cleaning up some lose ends, I marvel anew at how fucking good this game is. How breathtaking the landcapes are. And how fresh it feels. I will admit I still don’t like the caves/catacombs, but I can avoid those if I don’t want to do them. I got the Moonveil, thinking I’d main it, but I just don’t get along with it. I didn’t in my other playthroughs, either, but I figured that I just needed to give it a chance. nope. I don’t care for it. I went back to the Bloodhound’s Fang and am now aiming to get enough stats to wield the Sword of Night and Flame.
I will admit that my favorite weapon in the game thus far is the Royal Greatsword–which is Blaidd’s weapon. It’s so badass and has a great weapon art that includes a somersault and hoarfrost. The weapon art is called Wolf’s Assault, by the way. It’s a colossal sword, and it’s by far my favorite. It really plays into the strengthcaster build of my second character.
It’s believed that DLC for Elden Ring will be announced on the year anniversary of the game. That’s in a week and would be incredible. My first character is ready to take on the DLC–ready and willing.