I’m still riding the Elden Ring (FromSoft) high. I’ve watched the gameplay footage several times and will watch it again several times today, I’m sure. There’s a closed beta for it this weekend, but it’s only consoles, unfortunately. I’m going to pre-order the game, but I’m not sure which edition. Normally, I–well, back up a minute. Normally, I would not pre-order a game. I don’t believe in pre-ordering in general because it encourages bad habits by the devs. Especially before Steam had a refund policy, there was little to no recourse if the game turned out to be terrible or broken. Now they have a policy which makes it a little better, but I still prefer to wait until a game is actually out before buying it. FromSoft, however, has earned my trust and my loyalty. I know I am going to play any game that comes from the brilliant mind of Miyazaki* so why not give him all my monies as quickly as possible?
But, which edition? Normally, I just get the standard edition because I don’t care about the soundtrack (even though they’re always fantastic) and I’m not hyped for digital artwork (even though it looks better in some fashion than artwork on physical media). The collector’s edition has a statue of the level up lady, who actually has a name and a story this time! Melina. I mean, other Fire Keepers have had names, but very few of them had stories. And maybe she can travel from one bonfire to another? Rather than be rooted at one bonfire. Ahem, sites of grace. Yeah, no one is going to call them that. They’re bonfires, FromSoft!
One thing I love about Souls games is that the NPCs have their own lives. Or rather, NPCs in the original and in the third game. In the second, they had stories, but most of them were rooted to Majula, the hub bonfire. In one and three, however, they had their own motives and storylines; if you didn’t catch them at the right place at the right time, you could miss them forever–and the sweet loot they give you. In the original game, Laurentius of the Great Swamp is my first Pyro teacher, has an interesting story. You find him in a barrel in the Depths. He thanks you when you save him and says he would have been ‘her’ dinner. Meaning the butcher. All the butchers in the games are female, which is neat.
You meet him up at Firelink Shrine later on. He’s sitting cross-legged and you can level up your Pyromancy Flame with him. Up to +15. He will also sell you the Pyromancy Flame and a few basic pyromancies. If you talk to him later in the game after doing one of a few specific things pertaining to the Daughter of Chaos covenant (such as joining it, which nets you the Great Chaos Fireball), he’ll ask you where you got such a spectacular pyromancy. If you tell him, he travels down to Blighttown and goes hollow. That’s the main gist of the Souls stories–if you lose you fulfill your reason for existing, you go hollow. So, Laurentius finding the spectacular spell takes away his reason to live. You find him hollow in the swamp and he’ll attack you if you see him. Putting him down is sad, but it’s also a mercy.
The thing is, you can go the whole game and not see him. You don’t have to go in the room where he’s in a barrel. And his spot in Firelink is tucked away. The two most beloved NPCs of the original game are Solaire and the Onion Knight, but Laurentius is my boo in this game.
In the sequel, there were a few NPCs whom you could meet in different places. One was Lucatiel of Mirrah, who was my favorite NPC of the game. She’s a beast! And you see her throughout the game. If you bring her into three boss fights and keep her alive, she gives you her gear. I think I actually got this one on my own, but normally, I look up this kind of shit. Anyway, she’s a great swordmaster, but she talks about her brother, whom she says is even better. If you do everything right, you can get her gear, dress up in it, and then fight the ghost of her brother who invades you while wearing her gear. You don’t get any unique dialogue, but it’s pretty cool. It’s right in the new area near the bonfire you get her gear at.
I’m hoping that there will be NPCs with their own stories in Elden Ring. You can help them or hurt them or completely ignore them–they’ll keep doing their thing. I love that shit, but it enraged me in Dark Souls III because there was a storyline that got cut abruptly short if you did a certain thing. I did that thing because it was a new thing and you always do new things in Souls games. In doing the new thing, my favorite NPC, Yuria of Londor, refused to talk to me any more and disappeared from my game. As she was the queen of the dark magics, I was furious. That’s when I started using the Wikis with abandon, not caring if I spoiled things for myself.
It was a good lesson to remember, though. FromSoft is gonna do what FromSoft is gonna do. They don’t give a shit about conventions and your feelings. It’s funny because there are dividing feelings in the community as to how the FromSoft team views their fans. Some believe that Miyazaki cares about his fans and is trying to encourage them to do and be their best. Others believe he hates his fans and wants them to die, die, die. The third group, and it’s the one in which I fall, believes that he (and the games) simply doesn’t care about you at all. The games are what they are and you can adapt to them or not.
I choose not to adapt to them, which means I make the games ever harder on myself. You’re supposed to learn the combat system in order to have an easier time. The problem is that my reflexes are not great for a variety of reasons. So, I can’t do the parry/riposte/deflect the way you’re supposed to. I have cobbled together ways to get around this impediment, but it means that the games are much harder for me than many in the Souls community.
I have maintained for quite some time that I’m not the target audience for Souls games. Ian has argued with me that I’m the exact target because I’m not hardcore. But with these games, it’s hard to be a casual fan of them. I’m sure there are some who could take or leave the games or play them once just to say they played them, but in general, you either love them or hate them. As for me, I hated them until I suddenly loved them. What made them click for me? Much tears many pain. More seriously, it was my second playthrough of the original game when I finally saw the beauty of the games. And, it was playing the third game that cemented my love for the series.
Dark Souls III is my favorite game of all time. Is it the best of the Souls games? No. That would be Dark Souls–or some would say Demon’s Souls, which I have not played. Dark Souls III is the cumulation of all that FromSoft had learned from their previous games, wrapped up in one beautiful shell. It’s the reunion/retirement tour of an an old band who wanted to give it one last shot before disappearing into the ethers. They took the best of the previous games and made the best amalgamation possible. I’ve played it dozens of times and I enjoy every minute of it. Well, except when I did the not-plat (what I call platinumming the game). That made me hate the game because of the goddamn covenant bullshit. Having to spend hours farming for certain items is not my idea of fun. And, yes, I know you can do it in PvP, but that’s my idea of pure hell.
It took me at least a month to stop hating the game. It’s the first game I played upon returning home from the hospital and it brought tears to my eyes, not going to lie. It really was coming home and it made me feel settled. I couldn’t exactly see anything, but I didn’t need my vision. If I could just see the general shape of things (which I could), then I could play the game. In the first session, I just ran around Firelink Shrine and killed the scrub enemies outside. It wasn’t much, but it felt so good.
What am I looking for in Elden Ring? It’s real simple now. Before the hospital, I had a laundry list of things I wanted from the game and things I wanted to do. I dissected the release trailer to see what I could glean from it. I watched the reaction videos to see what other people gleaned from it as well. Now, after the hospital, well, I’m still obsessing over every little detail, but I’m more content to just wait for whatever the game is. I’m not planning anything other than to explore a new twisted and gorgeous world of Miyazaki. After what I’ve been through, that’s more than enough.
*Do not @me about Dark Souls II–just don’t. It was a good game, even if it wasn’t the best Souls game. I’m talking about Scholar of the First Sin (SotFS), by the way. I did not play the vanilla version.