It’s that time again when I go on a long, angry screed about how magic is not OP in FromSoft games. Or rather, it’s not the only thing that’s OP, depending on how you want to frame it. In the latest episode of Roundtable Hold (companion show to the Elden Ring Retry by RKG), there was a question sent in asking if Rory was going to be allowed to use magic. Or something like that. There has been a long-standing toxic masculinity bullshit meme that magic is OP in From games.
I have ranted about this before, but I need to do it again. Even, sadly, Krupa buys into it to a certain extent, and it’s because you don’t “get in there” and get “up close and personal”. Except that’s not right, especially not in the actual Souls games.
Let me step back a second and explain. Apparently, in Demon’s Souls, magic was OP. I do not know because I have not played it, but there’s a ring that steadily (but slowly0 regens your MP. FP. Mana. Whatever it’s called. And the spells look siiiiiiiick as fuck. Anyway, I will grant that it seems like it might have been OP in that game. However.
In the first Dark Souls, I started as a Pyro. Pyromancies did not have stats in the first game, which made them great for the onebro run, apparently. And they were considered OP. I did not find them OP because you had limited casts. Once I ran out of casts, I had to use my plink-plonk axe, which did not do much damage because I did not level up my strength. Or rather, I leveled it up enough so I could use the Battle Axe, and that was it.
Also, the magicks in Elden Ring are incredible. I was skeptical that they would be better than they were in the previous games, but they are. So much better. So much more varied and diverse, and such a wide array. You have glintstone sorceries, night sorceries, gravity sorceries, and more. Then in incantations, there are buffs and cleansers, holy order incantations, lightnings, pyros, and so. much. more. Let’s not forget the dragon incantations, which need a bit of arcane.
In addition, the way Rory plays, he will not have access to the most powerful spells because he’s very much into spreading his levels around. In addition, he rarely remembers to level up at all. It’s fascinating, actually, how he’s foregone leveling up, keeps switching weapons, and hasn’t leveled up his weapons much or his spirit ashes at all. Also, he refuses to have more than three spells becasue that’s all he can handle. Sometimes, he forgets he has magic at all.
In other words, he’s very chaotic, which is both one of his best qualities as well as one of his worst. I feel bad for him because viewers constantly complain about the way he plays, no matter what. I know it’s part of being a content creator, especially someone who streams a popular niche series of games, but it has to be disheartening.
In the latest episode (early access0, he did really well. People griped about him being OP and how it’s not as fun. If he spreads his points around, they complain about that. The fact that he doens’t two-hand the weapon he’s using (which is a two-handed weapon, to be fair), they complain about that. This isn’t just on the
YouTube comments, by the way. It’s in the Patreon comments as well.
Honestly, I hope he doesn’t read the comments. He doesn’t need the steady stream of negativity. I don’t understand why people can’t just enjoy it for what it is. I loved the old series when he was a newb who had no idea what he was doing. But then he ‘git gud’ and came into his own in the Sekiro series (he was so good at that game).
Demon’s Souls, he creamed the bosses, but struggled with the areas quite a bit. In this game, he’s honestly done better overall, but he’s had his tough times, too. With some of the common enemies like the imps (who suck!) and with The Tree Sentinel, whom he took on fairly early.
We are still in the first area of the game. It’s pretty unrealistic to expect him to die a hundred times to a field boss/boss this early on. Granted, he’s done much better than most people including I thought he would, but that’s not always going to be the case. There are absolutely going to be bosses he has trouble with, and there will be times when he’s beating his head against the same area over and over again. I feel like the people who are complaining don’t have any long-term memory.
Those who complain about him being OP, did they see The Tree Sentinel episode which I included above? Again, yes, he went at The Tree Sentinel fairly early on, but it was quite the battle. In addition, there are times in the field when he just loses it–as he admits. This makes him very entertaining to watch–if frustrtating at times.
Anyway, the magic part of it still irritates me beyond all get out. Even asking if he will be ‘allowed’ to use magic is insulting. I’ve always had an issue with gate-keeping of any kind, and in this case, especially because magicks are so amazing in Elden Ring. Aoife Wilson from Eurogamer commented in one of their videos that she watched some people playing the game (as content creators) and it was so boring because they were using a big sword and it was just hit, hit, block. Hit, hit, block. Back off and heal. Rinse, lather, and repeat.
That was her reasoning for adding magic into the mix. And I agree with her. I will admit that using a big fuck-off sword and smacking things on the head has been very satisfying on my NG++ run, but I still have my magicks.
And, again. Do what feels right for you. But I would hate for Rory not to see all the majesty of the game. That includes the magic. Again, he’s not going to be disciplined enough to level up Intelligencce to 60 to use Comet Azur, what is commonly called the boss melter. But, you know what else is a boss melter? Having a sword that does 1,000 damage a hit. I’m not sure if that’s possible, but there’s probably a sword that does something similar with all the buffs you can have.
And, more to the point, who the fuck cares if someone is OP or not? I do understand that RKG is doing this for entertainment purposes so they have to factor in that to a certain extent. But because I love this game so much, I want Rory to love it, too. And putting needless restrictions on him does not seem to be the way to do it.
I’m tired and not feeling great, so I’m going to wrap this up now. I may pick it up again tomorrow.