Elden Ring. I’m back to playing it instead of Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin). Why? Because I miss it and because I’m at the DLC for SotFS. I am in the minority, but I think the DLCs are too try-hard with too much emphasis on being HARD. Also, as a very squishy caster, I had a really bad time the first time I ventured through them. So many deaths. So. Many. Deaths. I hated it. I hated it so much. I don’t hate it now, but I still don’t like it, either. I think the idea of three distinct DLCs with a different king/story to each one is neat. I love leading a squad into the Ivory King fight.
But. I hated the gank runs in each DLC. I did them with the NPCs because I just didn’t care. Watching Rory from RKG take them on solo was amazing, but I know when something is above my abilities, and more to the point, I know when I don’t want to try to push that limit. Especially when the runs are clearly meant to be co-oped.
So, yeah. My SotFS playthrough is on the hold right now. I’ll probably get back to it at some point, but I need a break from it right now. I decided to dip back into Elden Ring because it’s been a few weeks, and it was my life for months. I ate, slept, and breathed that game, and I was happy to do so.
Even when I stopped, it wasn’t because I was sick of the game. I just wanted to get back to the other ones for a bit. And, man, but SotFS suffers in comparison. I wrote many posts about this, but I’m shocked at how much my mindset about that game has shifted. I was one of the people who thought it was a good game, even if not a good Souls game. In my personal ranking, it was before Bloodborne and Sekiro in terms of From games I liked to play.
Side Note: I always rank the games in terms of how much I enjoy them because I don’t believe in objective rankings. Mostly because rankings are never completely objective. I mean, we can say objectively that the first Dark Souls is a better game than the second, but there are qualifiers to that. Also, up until a certain point in time, I would say that I enjoyed playing the second game more than the first because of fast travel from the start. Yes, that’s the whole reason I preferred to play the second game over the first.
I went into my replay of SotFS with low expectations and because I had just rewatched the RKG lads’ series on it (their first as an independent company). I played as a sorcerer because it was the closest to a pyro that I could be. I still have no idea why they took away the pyro as a character class. It’s in every other Souls game and Elden Ring, so why not this one? I can’t help but think it’s solely to differentiate them from the first game.
Ed. Note: This is Minna from the future. There isn’t actually a Pyro class in Elden Ring, but you can get the first two basic pyros as soon as you get to the Roundtable Hold. And the seal for casting them. So that’s a slight negative because it took me ten hours to get to the Roundtable Hold.
The first time I played this game, I hated the first few hours. As a sorcerer, you have a crap shield and a itty-bitty stabby dagger that is useless. In this game, too, the durability of the weapons is shite. There is one area in which you pretty much cannot make it through with just one weapon unless you use a Repair Powder. That’s not fun. No one is playing the game in order to worry about the durability of weapons–no one.
I’ve been rewatching Krupa’s plat-run for Dark Souls III because he’s picking it up again after a long hiatus. He plays on the PS4, and I picked it up with all the DLC on steep sale so I could help out. I was not a good summon the one time I got called in because of the difference between my screen and the stream, and because an invader invaded in one of the harder areas in the mid-game. I got ganked, unfortunately, but I was not the first to die of the three phantoms. We all died before he did, which is highly unusual. Most of the phantoms are phenomenally good at the game.
I still have my character on my PS4, but I hate playing on the console. On the other hand, you can probably still summon on there whereas you cannot on PC. In rewatching the episode in which I was summoned, I was surprised to see that I had Lorian’s Greatsword and Chaos Bed Vestiges, which means I’ve gone well beyond the place where Krupa was. Lorian’s Greatsword is made from the Twin Princes’ Soul, which is much later in the game.
Anyway, I’m thinking of playing it again on PS4 and allow myself to be summoned in order to get ready for the next Krupa stream. It’s been so great to watch his Dark Souls plat stream and his Dark Souls III plat stream. Most of the people in the chat are devoted FromSoft fans, so we can gab about it to our hearts’ content. We can totally nerd out without anyone making fun of us. Plus, if anyone has questions about the games, we can answer without making THEM feel bad. Because of Krupa’s Dark Souls plat run, I started my own non-plat run for the game. Since then, I have gotten all the Dark Souls plats and the Elden Ring plat to boot.
I’m in NG+ with my second character in Elden Ring. I had done a mad dash through the main storyline in this NG cycle because I wanted to get the plat done and over with. Then, I just went around doing all the bits and bobs that I hadn’t done before. In doing it this way, I cut myself off from certain things, which makes me sad. But I have no regrets, really, in doing it this way.
This character is now a higher level than my first character, but just. I really did things in the ‘wrong’ way in my first playthrough. It’s my M.O. in general, really. Fucking things up because my brain does not think the way other brains do. In this case, I started as the Confessor, which was not a good choice because it did not have an offensive spell. And, because I did not get to the Roundtable Hold for the first ten hours.
As far as I can tell, Melina comes to take you there if you sit at one of three Sites of Grace. One of them is the one before Margit. The other two are…elsewhere. Which, ok, fine, but I managed to go ten hours without touching any of the three. I wasn’t going to go to Margit until I had explored the area around me, which I thought was the normal thing to do.
So in my case, I was penalized for not following the main story and for exploring because I managed to miss all the ways you could get to the Roundtable Hold. This wouldn’t be a big deal except that the faith teacher is there–and he will sell you pyro spells. Which is exactly what I needed and wanted!
By the way, the fact that I was able to miss all three ways to get to the Roundtable Hold just underlines how broken my brain is. My way of exploring is to completely ignore the main story for as long as possible, exploring everything to all sides of me. But I didn’t go north into Liurnia of the Lakes because it was a different area and I wanted to put that off for as long as possible.
I feel like I made it to the Smoldering Church before I made it to Margit, though. And that’s one of the ways you can get to the Roundtable Hold. That may just be my retcon memory, though. At any rate, I know it was the first time I fought Margit and died to him before returning to the Site of Grace when I finally got Melania to offer to take me to the Roundtable Hold.
I’m not mad. Now. I was mad then. That’s a long time to go without any offensive spell, let me tell you. I did so many things wrong in my first playthrough, including not leveling up my Vigor past 18 for the first 100 hours. That was probably my biggest mistake of all–spreading my levels too thin. I do this every time because I don’t like being locked into one path. And if you’re a caster, you need points in Mind in addition to either Int. or Faith, plus Vigor and Endurance. And because I am the way I am, I want both Intelligence and Faith, not or. So that does not leave much room for health. At all. I only went up past 18 because I wanted to use the Mimic Tear and you needed at least 21 to summon it, and you’ll only have 20 HP left at that level.
Running long per yooz so I’ll end it here for now.