I hate FromSoft fanbois. Not the community in general, mind you, but the assholes who have a very rigid idea of what should and shouldn’t be. I’ve talked before about gatekeeping and how much I loathed it. I’m of the mindset that play the game as you want to play it. Enjoy it how you want to enjoy it. And that’s how I play the games myself. I know myself. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. Now.
When I first played Dark Souls, I had no idea what to do. Looking back, it was not the smartest thing for me to do–play Dark Souls when I’d never played anything remotely like it. But, something about the fantasy world captured my attention and, yes, the difficulty was something to be conquered.
I slogged my way through the game, first going to the graveyard. I got my ass kicked time and time again, but I thought that was supposed to happen. I mean, what’s the one thing most people know about the game? It’s brutally hard. I’ve heard Souls fans laugh and say it’s obvious by how difficult the skellies are that you’re not supposed to go that way. Sure–once you see the actual initial path, but if you go first to the graveyard, you have no point of reference. What is appropriately hard and what is too hard? Who’s to say?
The other way you’re not supposed to go is down the stairs and the lift to New Londo. Why? Because there are fucking ghosts you can’t attack without a certain consumable item (or a certain kind of weapon). Again, FromSoft fans point out that the fact you can’t attack the ghosts should let you know that’s not the way to go. But in a game where everything is supposed to be brutal, what’s a few non-attackable ghosts?
Even going the right way doesn’t mean you’re going to have an easy time. I totally sucked at the game. I wanted to quit so many times, but there was something about the game that just kept drawing me back in. Plus my own stubborn pride. I wasn’t going to let some game beat me down! I made it to Andre’s bonfire and then–I did something horrible. I accidentally attacked him when I was trying to talk to him. In that game, if you hit an NPC, they are permanently aggroed until you get your sins absolved. Which you can’t even do until after you beat the boss of the area (The Bell Gargoyles) and rung the first Bell of Awakening. When you climb back down the ladder, there’s Oswald of Carim, the pardoner. He can forgive your sins, but it’s not cheap. It’s 500 Souls per level. I was probably level thirty or forty by that point. You do the math. I couldn’t afford to get my sins forgiven, but I also couldn’t approach Andre without him trying to punch me in the face. I could have started over, but the thought of doing that made me really depressed. I hadn’t killed the Bell Gargs at this point so I decided to do that and then get my sins pardoned.
Side Note: When the remastered first came out, I bought it and gave it a whirl. When I got to Andre, he was dead. Someone had hacked their way into my game and killed him. I was mad, yes, but not devastated. I went offline and started over again. I got back to Andre in an hour and it was fine. But imagine if that had been my first time playing! I played the rest of the game offline with no problems. It was a great reminder of how far I’ve come.
Anyway, apparently there is a subset of the community that is upset with the graphics of Elden Ring because they aren’t next gen. I saw a video on YouTube decrying it for looking bad. And I rolled my eyes so hard, I nearly strained them. Look. I will admit that I don’t give a shit about 4K/next gen, whatever. I can tell the difference between HD and non-HD, but not anything more granular than that. More to the point, I don’t fucking care. There was a video I watched that talked about the difference between that stuff and art design, and why the latter was more important than the former. I can’t tell you how bored I get with games that are gorgeous, but empty. The ones that care more about dazzling players than giving quality content. Ray-tracing and shadows? Don’t care. Intricate level designs that interlock and intertwine? I am all over it. I found it. It’s Skill Up in the video I included above. He said (after saying how much he loved the looks of the game):
I’m aware of the discourse complaining about the fact that Elden Ring doesn’t look next gen enough. Ok, whatever, I don’t fucking care.
That’s pretty much how I feel about it. I think the game is gorgeous and so full of rich colors (FromSoft, you spoil us!). Every video I watch has me drinking in the visages.
And look. I get there are people who are really into graphics. I don’t understand it, but I know it’s very important to some people. If it bothers you that much, then don’t get the game. There. Solved that problem! I know that’s snarky of me, but I’m pretty tired of all the naysayers.
I’m normally not someone who cares if other people like what I like (because I normally don’t like what many people like), but in this case…I’m all in. I haven’t even installed the game yet and I’m already stanning for it–even if it’s only in my own head. During the reveal of the game, someone in one of the chats I was in said, “The game looks like shit.” And in the RKG group, someone early on ragged on the game for being tired. It was clear the former was just trying to be edgy and the latter fully recanted (maybe wait until there’s more than a few trailers released?), but I was so irritated. I try to keep my negativity for things under my hat because I don’t want to rain on other people’s parades, so why can’t they return the courtesy? The latter really bugged me because he posted it in the RKG group after the first trailer (which was like ten seconds long) and bemoaning how this and that was going to be the downfall of the game.
Again, it’s not so much that they didn’t like the game. I don’t care about that. It’s not given an ounce of grace for a developer who has produced consistently solid games. They may not be your cuppa and we can argue about which is better (Dark Souls III is my personal favorite), but I think we can agree that they’ve been delivering the goods for a decade.
I’m trying to not let it get to me. I have unbridled enthusiasm for this game, which is so unlike me. Normally, I’m pretty meh about–well almost everything in pop culture that releases to the masses. Dark Souls is niche, yes, but it’s taking the industry by storm. Elden Ring, I mean. Less than two weeks until I can play it. I can’t fucking wait.