Back with part four about the difficulty in FromSoft games. In the last post, I ended by rambling on about fun and how *gasp* different people find *double gasp* different things fun.
*SPOILER WARNING*
The people who are ‘disappointed’ in Rory using the Mimic Tear say it’s not fun to watch the Mimic Tear do all the work. Which is fine as an opinion. But they tend to state it as if it’s facts. As if no one in their right mind would ever enjoy watching that!
Several months ago, there was one guy who declared proudly in the Discord that ‘we’ had won when Gav implemented the ‘no summons for the gold fog gated bosses’. As if this was a good thing. As if everyone would agree with him. Which, much to his dismay, probably, most people most emphatically did not agree with him.
Within this current discussion, someone mentioned that it didn’t seem like a lot of hardcore From fans actually enjoyed the games. They talked about beating the bosses and how hard they are, but not about the actual games themselves. Which was really good insight. It’s about how much of a badass they are and how they are better than everyone else because they did it the right way. The pure way. The only way. The one true way, you might say.
I fear that this is the fork in the road for the two camps beacuse there really is no middle ground. Well, there is, but I don’t think it would satisfy anyone, really. Although some of the dissenters said begrudgingly that they would be ok with it. It’s that Rory be able to summon anywhere but the main bosses. Someone else suggested that Mimic Tear not be allowed because it’s too powerful.
This is a microcosm of the community at large, sadly. I thought the RKG community would be devoid of it, but I was wrong. They are not nearly as plentiful or as rude as in the general FromSoft community at large, but it’s becoming more of a problem every week. It’s funny because my brother was over today to help me with my phone. I described the situation to him, and he was so puzzled.
“It’s in the game,” he said. “How is it cheating?”
How, indeed.
This has been a part of the community ever since I started playing the games, and it’s only gotten worse. Some people posit it’s the new fans who are pushing it, but it’s not. It’s the OG fans who are more proud of beating all the bosses solo than they are invested in the games themselves. Here’s the thing about the Laurence episode (who, as I mentioned yesterday took them fifteen hours to beat). People like to say it’s the best episode and so epic, but it’s not because of Rory repeatedly beating his head against the wall. I would have found it just as enjoyable if it had taken them half the time. Because I’m not here for the boss fights.
Demon’s Souls was the playthrough they did before this. Rory did not summon at all for that one, but the bosses are considered some of the easiest in the series. It’s the first game, and the bosses were not the focus of the games as they are now. Rory beat most of the bosses in less than five tries–it was the areas themselves that were more of a trial.
I am not being contrary when I say I like it when Rory summons the Mimic Tear or Jarwight to join him in a fight. There was so much joy back in the day when he would summon Aurelia (the jellyfish). It adds an uncertainty to the fight that is very spicy!
People have a hard time grasping that Elden Ring is fundamentally different than the previous games. The bosses are tuned to spirit summons, and it can be an uneven rhythm if you don’t summon. Again, I’m not saying people *should* summon, but I am definitely saying that people should not whine and moan when other people summon or they struggle mightily trying to solo a boss. That’s a challenge run now, and that’s the other side of the coin. People who like to think they’re hard complaining when the bosses are too hard because they’re playing in a way the game is not meant to be played is something else, I’ll tell you what.
There was the same issue with the DLC in the first few days of its release. People were complaining about how hard it was. First of all, the DLCs are always a significant jump up from the base game. It’s FromSoft’s thing, and I knew without a doubt going into the DLC, it was going to kick my ass. Miyazaki himself said that Malenia, the hardest boss in the base game, was the start of where they wanted the bosses in the DLC to be. So of course it was going to be hard!
Secondly, the Scadutree Fragment system. And the Revered Spirit Ash system. Both of them are the way you level up in the DLC. Actual levels don’t matter, so you need the ScadFrags and the RSAs. And you can only find them by exploring. I guarantee without a doubt that the people complaining about how difficult the DLC was (and this was on day one and two) did not take the time to explore for the ScadFrags and the RSAs. It makes a huge different how many of each you have (more the former than the latter), and it got so bad, BamCo put out a tweet telling people to look for the ScadFrags.
Some people were mad about that. They had to explore and not just do a boss rush? What kind of bullshit was that? As you can probably tell, I’m not very sympathetic to them. I don’t understand why you would play From games and NOT want to explore. Their worlds are exquisite, and I want to wring every bit from them that I can.
With my mixed emotions about the ScadFrags, I will say that I’m supremely happy that they carry over to the next NG cycle. That means that I can go back in every NG and not have to hunt them down. But on the other hand, it takes away some of the reason to go exploring. I don’t know if there’s a way for that not to happen, though. Once you’ve experienced something, it is not going to feel fresh again. Ever. That doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable–just that it’s not the same.
More tomorrow.