In the last post, I ended by saying controversially that Dark Souls III is the best of the trilogy. Overall. That’s not the most controversial opinion about the series (I have heard tell of a few people who actually believe the second game is the best game. That will get them run off the forums every time. The thing is, I can see their train of thought, and I don’t entirely disagree with them. No, the second game is not the best of the three, but it really did try to be something different than the first game. It deserves more credit than it gets for that, and it’s still eons better than so many games out there), but it’s still readily dismissed in the community.
There are sneers of fan service (but the second game got dinged for not being connected, really), but as someone in the RKG Discord pointed out, why not put in things that appeal to your fans? If fans like something in the game, why not put more in there? He was very eloquent about why the game is great, and I really appreciate it because I get tired of trying to defend the game. I remember there was a woman who played it (she loves the first game) and she was so down on it. She said she played it in thirty-five hours, and she was sure she had seen everything. I’m sorry, but no. There was no way she saw everything, even if she one-shot every boss. My guess was that she missed two of the big optional areas, which, fine. It’s not easy to find everything in the ga;me, but to say a month or so after the game was released that she had seen everything? That’s hubris.
I try not to say how long it would take to play one of these games because I’m terrible at them and take a time-and-a-half that most people take. People talk about playing Elden Ring in a hundred hours, and I was only halfway through the game at that point. My first playthrough took over 200 hours, but I actually saw almost everything in that one playthrough. Not many people can say that.
A friend of mind has suggested that I have imposter’s syndrome when it comes to From games, and it’s possibly true. The thing is that if you spend any time in a From forum (even RKG Discord), you get the toxic mindset of there is only one true way to play these games. RKG are less toxic about it than most content creators (as are the slugs, what we fans call ourselves), but it’s still a throughline of the comments, apparently, especcially on Reddit. And it’s annoying to see the results of those comments in the playthrough itself.
If I were to ever play a From game on camera, my main rule would be: No fucking backseat gaming. No exceptions. Well, one exception. Let me know if I missed a bonfire/checkpoint, but other than that, shut the fuck up. I remember one time I was watching a content creator play Bloodborne on his channel. He made it crystal clear that he was not having any backseat gaming. His commenters kept breaking that rule and worse yet, were pushing back on him for having that rule. He finally said, “It’s my channel. I get to say what I will and won’t tolerate.”
This is common with FromSoft content creators and their chats. It’s one reason I rarely watch the content, even though I love the games. RKG has mostly been free of it, buti it’s starting to creep into the content in the Elden Ring series, and I’m not happy about it. And you know, fine. If they want to go in that direction, that’s their choice. But Rory is clearly not happy about it, and I might actually quit watching if they insist on going down that path. I don’t want to contribute to the toxic atmosphere, and I feel setting these ridiculous rules is playing into that. Yes, they have always made some rules restricting what Rory can and can’t do, but I think they’re moving too much in that direction.
I don’t play the games because they are hard. I don’t watch people play them for that reason, either. I get that Retry is about that life (as was Prepare To Try), but I don’t think they need to push it so hard. Rory is getting better at the games because he’s played all of them and because he has really good twitch reflexes. Not Twitch reflexes, but those, too. I don’t mind when Rory himeslf says that he doesn’t want to use the tools beacuse he wants to go hard on a certain boss, say. But I do object when Gav pushes him to do it, especially when Rory is clearly against it.
One of the best things about the Souls trilogy and Elden Ring is that you can play the games in so many different ways. I’m currently doing a dex run, which I’m hating. I’ve never done a pure dex run before because they are so not me. Dex emphasizes everything I’m terrible at. I need to upgrade my bow, but it’s harder to use a bow during combat than magicks because you have to aim. With magicks, you just lock on, and you’re fine. Arrows do a lot of damage, admittedly, but I find the bow awkward to use when I’m faced with mobs of enemies.
I did add pots to the mix. I’m up to nine of them! They’re useful and do good damage. That may be my way forward. A pot run. I am currently relying on fire pots, but there are several other ones that can be crafted as well. I’m up to Rennala, and I’m flagging, honestly. I can’t play the game without some kind of range, and as I said, I found it hard to shoot arrows at the asshole sorcerers guarding the way to the Red Wolf of Radagon.
Side note: That is an awful run. The fact that it’s the boss run just adds to the awfulness. It’s one misstep by From that falls into the ‘mobs make it hard!’ mentality that they get tripped up on now and again. From the site of grace, there is one sorcerer who uses a sword. Then there are two facing in opposite directions who use magicks. Then, further down the hall, there are four or five with a big pot in the mix. This was when I tried to use the bow to pick them off, but they could fire faster than I could. I was difficult to position myself so I could hit them, but they could not hit me.
Then, up the stairs, there are three or four more sorcerers placed in such a way that you can’t just pick off one at a time. On one run, I tried to be so careful only to miss one and get rushed by him and the big pot. And I died. And I was disgusted. That’s not fun. At all.
More later!