Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: Elden Ring

My 2025 game awards, part eight

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I have one more post in me in which I lavish praise upon Elden Ring (FromSoft). I have to say that no matter where FromSoft goes from here (and I have a feeling I may not be along for the ride), I will always have Elden Ring. Before I get into it, here is the post from yesterday in which I just gush about Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree.

I don’t believe in perfection, but this is as close as it gets for me. They got rid of several of the things that made previous games frustration such as excessive boss runs, elaborate upgrading systems*, and weirdly named stats. They added a guard counter in addition to the parry and a dedicated jump button. Plus, Torrent, the spirit speed, which makes traversal much easier. Horse combat isn’t great, but it’s passable.

I’m doing the DLC with my dex(ish) character, and I’m astounded at how much easier it is when I just attack endlessly. I love my incants, but I need to use them sparingly. I did not put all those points into dex and endurance just to fiddle around the edges with my spells. Though I do love my spells. So much.

It’s funny because I’m a big pyro person in From games. That’s not the funny part; the funny part is that  I don’t use that many fire spells in Elden Ring. I use some, but there are so many great sorceries and incantations in the game, I like to keep a wide spread. One thing I appreciate about Rory (the R in RKG) is that he will try something new just for shits and giggles. And he will drop things without thinking twice about it, even if he absolutely loved it for several episodes. In the previous games, he was mostly a sword and board guy. In this game, he had a lot of fun dabbling with the incantations.

It sparked so much joy when he showed love to the Lightning Spear, Rotten Breath/Ekzyke’s Decay, and Swarm of Flies. I never thought he would becomeso enamored with the dragon heads, but it was great to see.  He cycled through weapons every few episodes. Mostly because he got bored, but also because the lads insisted he change it up now and again.

His build was all over the place because Krupa let him put his points pretty much wherever he wanted, which meant he spread them all over the place. That’s what I do, even though I know it’s not optimal. i can’t help myself, so it was nice to see Rory do it as well. One of the guys affectionately nicknamed it the smorgasbuild, and the name stuck. Many people were frustrated with it and urged him to do a real build. There were plenty of people who had Very Strong Ideas as to what those builds should be.


Continue Reading

My 2025 game awards, part seven

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Let’s talk more about Elden Ring (FromSoft) just becaause I can. This is my FromSoft game of the year, and here is yesterday’s post why Nightreign is not the one. It feels weird to not give the award to a FromSoft game that released within the calendar year, but I just could not do it.

I’m doing a dex(ish) run in Elden Ring, and I am in the DLC. As with many FromSoft games, getting to the DLC is not as easy as firing it up. It’s not hard to access, per se, but you have to be pretty far into the game in order to do so. Well, technically, you can get there fairly early, but you have to be really good in order to do that. If you go along the normal path, then you probably won’t do the second thing you need to do until the last fourth of the game.

This was one of the reasons that people were not happy with Shadow of the Erdtree being nominated for Game of the Year last year–the fact that you have to play three quarters of the base game in order to access the DLC. I don’t quite get that as sequels are considered fair game to be game of the year as well.

I mean, I do understand that it’s asking a lot. FromSoft always asks a lot from the player in order to access the DLC. The first game is notorious for how elaborate it was to get into the DLC. You had to kill the hydra in the lake in Darkroot Basin. Then, you had to kill the golden golem in the lake to release Dusk of Ooolacile who was imprisioned within. Then, you had to go to the Duke’s Archives to kill a specific crystal golem to get a necklace. Then, you had to go back to  the lake to access a portal at the very end of it.

You can’t even get to the Duke’s Archives until the second half of the game. FromSoft had to tell reviewers how to get the DLC because no one figured it out. Dark Souls III isn’t so bad, and the entrance to the DLC is in the first fourth of the game.

With Shadow of the Erdtree, there are two bosses you have to kill. The first one makes sense, and it fell in line with what people speculated would happen. The second, though, was a complete mystery. There was a lot of speculation why that particular boss needed to be killed in order to access the DLC, but there was no good answer until the DLC was dropped.

I have to say, I really don’t understand the furor over the SotE nom for game of the year last year. In addition to the aforementioned complaint, another gripe I heard was that Elden Ring already got its recognition, so it should sit down and shut up (basically). This also didn’t make any sense to me because as I said, sequels can be nominated for game of the yaer, so why not DLC? Any other company could have called this game a sequel and gotten so much praise for it. It’s very meaty–it took me over seventy hours to finish it. And I fucked up all the NPC questlines, which probably shaved off an hour or two.

In comparison, I put in over 200 hours for my first playthrough of Elden Ring. So the DLC was roughly a third the size and cost under half the price. That’s way more than most companies would do. Miyazaki has jokes for days when it comes to the size of his games. Before the DLC dropped, he said it was about the size of Limgrave (the first area of the base game). Well, yes, if you don’t count how vertical the DLC  is. It may be the size of Limgrave horizontally, but boy, did it go deep. I have not heard/seen so many people say/write the word ‘vertical’ over one game.

It’s apt, though. Miyazaki is known for his exquisite level design. Any game in which he is the lead shows how immaculate he is in this area. Well, at least when he has the time to execute it properly. And he went over the top with the DLC for this game.


Continue Reading

My 2025 game awards, part six

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Now we’ve come to the part of my awards giving where I’m the most conflicted I’ve ever been. Here is yesterday’s post on Hades II (Supergiant Games), a game that reall yhad me conflicted. I felt really weird that I wasn’t more enthusiastic about the game, but I can only be honest–I prefer the oreginal. The sequel is an excellent game, but there is nothing new in it that blew me away. And, I preferred much of the original to the sequel.

That was hard, but today is even harder. I have had an ongoing schtick in which I bestow an award to  FromSoft game every year, regardless of if they release a game that year or not. In a year in which they launch a game, it’s unheard of that I would not give that game the FromSoft award. Even if I could not play the game or it did not gel with me, it would automatically get the award.

Until this year.

Elden Ring Nightreign dropped this year. It used the assets from Elden Ring, but it was a standalone game. I knew from the trailer that it was not going to be my thing, but I hoped.

Why did I know it was not going to be my thing? Because it included everything I hate in a game. Multi-player, fast-paced, no time to  stop and think, very little story and lore, and RNG for each run (sort of).

What do I love about FromSoft games? The exploration; the slow, deliberate pace; the gorgeous level design; the NPCs; and the feeling of overcoming difficulties. I have no qualms over-leveling if I can and making the boss fights as easy as possible.

I’m split on the boss fights themselves. Yes, the bosses are incredible and memorable, but From has been making them harder and harder over the years. I have known for several games that I will one day be not able to play one of their trademark hard-as-nails action adventure games, and we’re almost there.

I tried to like Nightreign; I really did. I put dozens of hours into it, playing the Recluse (the witch). I lucked out in that the first run I had was with two incredible randos, and we beat the first Night Lord (the big boss at the end of three days that is incredible hard. I mean, this one is the first one, so not as hard, but still).

That gave me a false sense of hope, and I did not come close to victory again for dozens of hours. I was mostly playing with randos because the people in the Discord are all PlayStation people and because I suck so badly, I felt bad playing with–well, anyone beacuse I was the one dragging everyone down. It did not help that the Recluse is the hardest character to play, well, one of them, anyway. The other character I liked (the Revenant) was considered difficult, too. Plus, unlocking her was a pain in the ass as well.


Continue Reading

What games define me, part six

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I have one last post in me talking about the ten games that define me. Or, more to the point, the one game that is my favorite game of all time AND that is important to who I am now. Here was my post from yesterday, which was also about Elden Ring (FromSoft) and what it means to me. I also want to expand more on why it’s so important to me and how I fear that it’s the last FromSoft game I will play.

Let’s tackle the last part first. Ever since the DLCs of Dark Souls III, I have noticed that the content has been getting incrementally harder. That’s only to be expected given the nature of the games and how they became known for being hard. That’s not why I play the games, though, so it made me uneasy to see the constant upping of the difficulty. When I played Sekiro: Shadows Died Twice, I realized I had hit the upper limit of my ability. Granted, that’s a different kind of game and you can’t summon human beings, but still. It made me realize that my time playing From games was short, and I should just enjoy the ones I can play until I can’t.

Speaking of can’t. Sigh.

Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon came out in late August of 2023. I knew from the trailer that it wasn’t going to be for me, but it was FromSoft so I had to buy it and try it. I started it up with little hope in my heart. It wasn’t my kind of game at all, and it looked antithetical to anything I enjoyed in a game. And yet.

There’s always giong to be a part of me that thinks I’ll warm up to any From game if I just give it enough time. I tried; I really did. I made it to the tutorial boss, and I just could not do it. Parrying was a big thing in the game, much to my dismay. Or rather, deflecting like you do in Sekiro. Plus, there were two different boost buttons, which broke my brain. In addition, you could go out of the fighting area, and you would be rudely reminded that you could not go in that direction. It wasn’t just a wall that you run into–it was, if I remember correctly, flashing red lights.

In addition, you had to boost in order to fly, and I just could not get the hang of that. Oh, and there was definitely fall damage in the game–lots of it. If you don’t land on a platform, you take damage. Since I have almost no depth perception, landing correctly was not happening with any consistency.

I fought the tutorial boss for over an hour. I was not getting it. I’m stubborn, though, and I kept going. I eventually got the boss, but I didn’t enjoy it. Nor could I tell you how I got it. Could I do it again? Probably not. I did a few missions after, but I did not enjoy that, either. After dying several times by not being able to boost properly and falling over and over again, I put it aside. I wasn’t enjoying it, and it was not for me.


Continue Reading

More about my perfect game–and the end of things

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I’m at the end game of Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works), and as is true for most games, I play, I’m rushing to get to the end of it. Oh, by the way, this is the post from yesterday. I started Act 3…yesterday? The day before? Something like that, but then I promptly put it on the back burner and tootled around cleaning up all the side quests.

Speaking of which, I am even more a believer in trimming the fat. My god. The amount of side quests/mini-games that are available is mind-boggling. I know it’s that way in the Yakuza series, too, and I found out a fun fact. It’s in the trailer I included in the post yesterday, and I’ll whack it in this post as well.

The main character, Michi, is voiced by Takaya Kuroda, who is the voice of Kazuma Kiryu in the Yakuza series. It’s a testament to Takaya Kuroda that I did not sus that out. Granted, I don’t play the Yakuza games, but I have heard his voice often enough that I could have put it together. Michi and Kazuma are similar men. They’re yakuza, obviously. Both  are honorable men who took a dive for their families. They are bottled up and anxious to do the right thing. They are repressed, diffident and distant, and they are goddamn hot.

I don’t know Kiryu very well, but Michi has wormed his way into my heart. He’s compassionate in that he cares about the people around him, and he wants to do the right thing. In addition, he’s encouraging to his friends and truly wants to help them realize their dreams.

The characters are the best thing about the game. Each mascot has a distinct personality and is memorable. The art work is impeccable in the game, and I love the use of color. Music is appropriate and really adds to the environment. Most of the time, the game looks like an anime/manga in style, but then once in a while, they throw out the chibi version of the characters–who are adorable.

I have my favorites, of course. Of the mascots, I mean. To-Fu is the first mascot I recruited, and he holds a soft (heh) spot in my heart. I just recruited the 20th and last mascot, and he’s adorably charming, too. Even the ones who are creepy, though, are so in a lovably quirky way. I can’t think of a single one that I don’t at least mildly like, and I truly adore most of them.

That said, I don’t love the busy work of sending them out on jobs. I know! That’s ironic given the name of the game, but I have twenty mascots that I have to send out on jobs. I have roughly 80 available jobs now, which is way too many. In the beginning, I would carefully match the mascots to the jobs when I had three mascots and maybe ten jobs available. Now, I just go down to the ones that pay the best (I have them listed from least lucrative to most) and rapidly assign jobs as quickly as possible.

And, because I still have to participate in the grand prix mascot regionals even though I’m number one, that means I have to keep one mascot held back so they are ready to go when need be. I think at some point, this should just be automated. I know the name is Promise Mascot Agency, but it is honestly one of my least-favorite parts of the game.


Continue Reading

I lied. More on why SotE is my GOTY, part five

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I have more to say on Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoft). Yes, I said that yesterday’s post would be the last, but it’s not. Why? Because I started watching RKG’s Retry Dark Souls II/Scholar of the First Sin (the first series they did after starting their own company), which led to me starting my own playthrough. I chose the same starting class they did (knight), and I vowed to follow their path. Which I have, but I quickly remembered that I simply cannot play the game without a ranged option. Yes, they added a bow, but, ah, let’s just say Rory and bows do not get along.

Side note: It’s incredible that people are still playing this game. When I got to the second bonfire in the Forest of Fallen Giants, there were so many summoning signs! Also, I forgot that you can’t play offline (without a lot of fuss) with this game. Anyway, I summoned Kanye West for

*SPOILERS*

The Last Giant, and that was a lot of fun. Later, I summoned someone for The Pursuer, and I was able to use the ballistas to make quick work of The Pursuer (my summon knew to jump out of the way). Then, in Heide’s Tower of Flame, I summoned a human to do the Old Dragonslayer (I had already killed the dragon along the way), and they died three times before even reaching the boss. I kept running back to summon them without resting first, so by the time we got to the boss, they had all their stuff. They were a sorceror.

This game is pretty generous with NPC summons for boss fights, which is nice, but it’s even nicer to be able to summon humans. More fun, too! I love that there are still people dedicated to this game as with all the other From games.

Back to Elden Ring in general and Shadow of the Erdtree in particular. There were complaints about Elden Ring (and Dark Souls III before it) not being innovative enough. I’m not going to get into that because I’ve written about it before, but my belief is that they were endlessly tweaking their formula and in some games, the tweaks were significant, but not game-changing. Yes, in Bloodborne and Sekiro, they completely changed the combat (notably, my two least-favorite From games), but in Dark Souls II, Dark Souls III, and Elden Ring, it was more about polishing and adding things that made life significantly better to an already-existing formula.

It’s tinkering with the engine rather than adding spinning rims. It’s nowhere near as flashy, but it’s much needed.

I have often thought that the more popular FromSoft gets, the less credit they get for what they do. It’s become expected that they will do amazing things. So much so, many people don’t even bat an eye any longer. Or they think that From should be doing more.


Continue Reading

Last post appreciating Shadow of the Erdtree, part four

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I haven’t played Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoft, Elden Ring DLC) in a hot sec, so it’s been great to be able to revisit it. The more I write about it, the more I remember how truly breathtaking it was. Watching Krupa (of RKG) go through it in Lore Masterclass (additional show to their Elden Ring Retry series) makes me want to get back to it. Even though–I’ll get to that later. And, of course,

*SPOILERS*

I think we take for granted somewhat how consistently excellent FromSoft is. I’m not calling out anyone because that’s just the way it goes. It’s human nature to become used to whatever the current situation is.

Side note: This is what happened with my medical crisis, for example. It was so shocking and it was such a miracle that I survived, and I thought about it every day for a year. Every fucking day. It was that big a deal, and I think I can be excused for thinking that. Then, slowly, over time, it became less and less of a big deal. And this is fine! It should be that way because it’s not good for the brain to go around thinking that any one event is A Big Deal all the time. It’s still something that is important to me, obviously, because I would not be here if I had died permanently. But, and I don’t know how to put this delicately, there’s no way to feel it every minute of the day. I’m still going to be angry, upset, or pissed off. Hell, I’m going to be bored or even just waste hours playing Balatro (LocalThunk). Ahem.

Side note redux: I think I’m going to quit Balatro. I just can’t quit playing it, and it’s detrimental to–well, my life. Plus, I’m in the grinding time in which I have to play tons of meaningless games in order to unlock two legendary jokers I don’t yet have. There is only one way to get them, and that’s to open packs of cards. Arcana packs or Spectral packs. At least that’s what the internet has deemed to be the one true way, and there is not a consensus about it.

Here is the deal. You need The Soul card in order to get a Legendary Joker. I did not know this as I was originally playing, and I came across three The Souls cards naturally. Just because it was so different (and immediately special), I chose it. I got three different Legendary Jokers, and now I can’t find the other two for love nor money. I have come across The Soul two or three more times, but it’s only had a dupe.

I looked up for the quickest way to get the Legendary Jokers, and it’s tedious farming. Basically opening up pack upon pack upo,n pack in the vain hope of hitting the .3% chance of getting The Soul. It makes it more irritating when I get a dupe, obviously.

This is not fun. I hate playing the game this way. I don’t have to get these jokers, obviously, but they are suposed to be really good. There’s also one other joker I have not unlocked. It’s a Rare Joker, and you have to get 100,000,000 chips in one hand to unlock it. The only way to do  that is to use the Plasma Deck (for reasons I’m not going to get into here). I haven’t been able to do that, either, because I’m shaky on making the most of that deck.

I’m not as annoyed by that, however, because at least you can math it (if you can math properly). With the Legendary Jokers, it’s all a matter of luck. It’s enraging, honestly, and it’s sucked the fun out of the game for me. As well as having to do the increasingly more difficult stakes with the different decks.


Continue Reading

Why SotE is my GOTY, part three

Posted on by • 0 Comments

In yesterday’s post, I talked about what I liked about Shadow of the Erdtree (Elden Ring DLC, FromSoft, my GOTY), and one thing that I really didn’t like. The latter was how easy it was to fuck up the NPC questlines, which was somewhat my fault, but also the fault of the strength of the game, too. The intricacy of the level design. It spins me around, which is great for grandeur and epicness, buut not great for my sense of direction.

Since I want to talk about the whole DLC, there will be

*SPOILERS*

When I reached Shadow Keep, I was already turned around and disoriented. Because of the ladder I mentioned in the last post, I approached from the back. This is not especially hidden, and I’m sure that many people went in the back way.

Shadow Keep is both amazing and frustrating as fuck. The two entrances lead to different floors, though you can get to one of the floors you reach from the front by jumping down to it from one of the floors you reach from the back. This legacy dungeon is so labyrinthian, I was constantly turned around. This is where two of the NPCs are, and I completely missed one of them (Ansbach) in his hidey hole. I found the other one, Redmane Freyja, near the Site of Grace on the seventh floor. She was trying to puzzle something out and said she should talk to Sir Ansbach.

This is where I fucked up. What you’re supposed to do is go back to Ansbach and tell him what Freyja had said. He’ll give you a letter to give to her, but the wikis warn not to give Ansbach the Secret Rite Scroll you find in the keep BEFORE getting the letter to give to Freyja because it might block the progress in her questline. If you do things in the wrong order, you won’t be able to give her the letter–and she just stays stuck in the same place for the rest of the game. You can get her shit at the end of the game, but you can’t finish her questline.

The NPC questlines are off the charts difficult to follow in the DLC. I mean, they’re never easy to follow, but From definitely kicked it up a notch for this DLC. The only NPC questline I did right was Igon’s, and that’s because it’s ok to miss one step in his questline AND he’s literally on the road where you’re going. You can’t miss him the first time, and I will admit that I looked up where to find him later on.


Continue Reading

Shadow of the Erdtree is worthy, part two

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Yesterday, I revealed my actual Game of the Year, and I’m sure it was a huge surprise to exactly no one. Most of the time, I have to make up a game of the year award that I can bestow upon FromSoft because it’s not as if they have a game releasing every year. This year, however, is one of the blessed years in which they released a new game. Well, at least a new DLC. I will admit that it feels like a lifetime ago, but it was definitely released within this year.

I shan’t go into why this year was so difficult for me because I did it in the last post. Suffice to say, I’m ready to throw 2024 away and not think about it any further.

There was such a big brouhaha about Shadow of the Erdtrree being nominated for Game of the Year. It’s funny. Now that FromSoft has entered the mainstream (somewhat), people are beginning to turn on them. It’s the weird thing when an indie band gets popular, then half of their hardcore fans don’t like them any longer. Or accuse them of selling out. That happened to Liz Phair when she released an album that she admitted was meant to be more popular than her previous works. Oh, the gnashing of the teeth by her older fans! Oh, the calls of ‘sellout’. I never got it because that old stuff was still there, and you could still enjoy it. Also, if more people bought her new album and listened to her older stuff, they might like that as well. And even if you didn’t like her new album, why would you be against her trying something different?

This was actually one of the issues with the second Dark Souls game. There were way too many expectations for it, and some of them were diametrically opposite. People wanted it to be like the first game, and yet, they wanted it to iterate as well. They did not like the things that were different–like losing health every time you died until you had half-health. There were ways to mitigate it, but it was pretty brutal in the beginning of the game.

And yet. That was similar to Demon’s Souls, which many people didn’t realize. You only had half-health when you were in soul form, but it was better for world tendency (never mind). This meant that people would jump off a high point in the Nexus after beating a boss and ending up in body form. There was a ring that mitigated that, which you could find in the first area. If you wore the ring, then you were able to have three-quarters health. There was a similar ring in Dark Souls II, so it was clearly a nod to Demon’s Souls.


Continue Reading

My actual game of the year for 2024

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Alright. I have been dilly-dallying long enough. I have stretched out my games of the year in my usual fashion. Yesterday, I talked about two indie games that are on my top five non-From games of all time list, and today, I am finally going to announce my game of the year. As if I need to. I’ll do it, anyway, just in case it needs to be said.

My game of the year (GOTY) for 2024 beyond a shadow of a doubt despite the controversy it stirred up for even being nominated

Shadow of the Erdtree (Elden Ring, DLC, FromSoft)

Man. It’s been quite the year. It flew by, and yet, at the same time, it’s dragged out because of a personal tragedy. When the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer was surprise-released back on February 21st, my personal tragedy started. I was not able to really participate in the joyous celebration on that day or the next, when the real tragedy struck.

By the time the DLC rolled around four months later, I was ready to play it. I was still in pain and sorrow because of what happened four months earlier. I can’t think about that time without tearing up, still, nearly a year later. Even while I was rejoicing about a new Miyazaki world in which to roam, a part of my heart was still quietly breaking. The fact that the name of the DLC included the name of my beloved who is no longer with me made it even more bittersweet.

Before my medical crisis, I had so many plans for Elden Ring. I saw the first real trailer for it at GeoffCon in summer of 2021, and I lost my shit. Another Miyazaki world in which I could wander  endlessly? Yes, please! I had all these grandiose ideas about what I would do in the game. I would have one solo play chaarcter and another for co-op. I was going to get the plat, of course, because apparently, that ws a thing with me now (except Sekiro. Ain’t no way in hell that’s happening).

Then, the medical crisis happened, and all that was wiped from my brain. Once it was established that I was fine, more or less, after what happened to me, all I cared about was that I had another Miyazaki game to play. Any ideas of soloing or playing in a certain way was wiped from my brain. None of that mattered, and it seemed silly that it ever had. I even wrote an article about it for a gaming website, and it really crystalized for me what the From games meant to me.


Continue Reading