In the last post, I was talking about why I think I’m nearing the end of my relationship with From games (it’s them, not me. But it’s me. But it’s also them). I don’t play the games because they are difficult, and I have the feeling that the Elden Ring DLC is going to be above my station.
Once, when I was watching Ian stream Elden Ring, his brother, Z, was in the chat. We were talking about how great the game is, and he (Z) said that he wished there was an exploration mode in Sekiro because he had friends he would love to see the game, but they would never be able/want to play it because of how hard it is.
I laughed. Not at him, but because From will never ever do something like that. I love their games, but they don’t care about traditional accessibility. I will say that with Elden Ring, they have done things to make it accessible, but not in the obvious ways. I actually thought they tried to be more accessible for Sekiro, and my completely un-thought-out opinion of why was because they were working with Activision–and the latter demanded that they do things in the more traditional way.
To that extent, there was a sort of aim-assist, big red kanji that tells you when the enemy is doing an unblockable attack, and an actual map! I include the last as a joke because it was clearly forced upon FromSoft. It’s buried in the options menu, three layers deep. Plus the map is a blurry image of the overworld and nothing else. It’s not useful in the least, and it’s obvious that From made it as minimal as possible.
This is one reason I don’t care for Bloodborne and Sekiro. There is very little accessibility in any of the games, but you have so much more flexibility in the Souls trilogy and in Elden Ring. Quite frankly, I’m astonished that I finished Sekiro. It’s because I’m stubborn, but there is no way I could do it now. The last time I tried the game, I went back to Father (Owl) in the Hirata Estate. He is my nemesis, and I went at him for hours. I got to his second phase maybe three times, but had nothing at that point. I gave up and never went back.
This game has no give. I have heard so many times, “Once you click with the game, it’s easy!” I’ve also heard, “It’s like a rhythm game (or a fighting game)!” I’m also shit at both of those, by the way. I have rhythm in real life, but I don’t have game rhythm. I can feel music in my body, but I can’t intellectually parse when I need to deflect, for example.
I tried so hard to learn the deflect in Sekiro. I just could not get it. Here’s the thing that most people don’t get–if you cannot get the rhythm, the game is slow, laborious, painful, and not any fun. If you can play the game the way it demands to be played, you can do a boss in under a minute. If you can’t, then you better settle in because it’s going to be hours.
The last boss took me twenty minutes every run. He has four phases (well, one phase is not him, but it goes immediately into his three phases). This boss fight is beyond the pale, quite frankly, especially if you cannot deflect.I feel like From made it so hard because they presume that you are going to be able to do the combat. Even then, it’s not easy, per se.
Well, that’s not true. I’ve seen people destroy him in two minutes. THat is not me. I can’t feel the rhythm, no matter how hard I try. I would tell someone to try playing it blindfolded–that’s how it feels. There are people who play these games in that way, but most people do not.
Bloodborne is a bit more relaxed than Sekiro, but it’s still more exactting than the Souls trilogy or Elden Ring. And it’s all about offense rather than defense. There isn’t even a proper shield in the game. I did not play it until much later than its release, and I had seen several playthroughs of it by that time because I didn’t think I’d ever get a PS4.
Normally, I would not want to see a playthrough before I play a From game, but I’m fine with it for this game because it was so brutal and so…not what I was hoping for. I love the gothic looks. I love my beloved Hunter Axe. I love some of the Hunter Tools that act like magicks in this game. But I did not love the combat or the trick weapons. “You can get health back by attacking!” Yes, and then get more taken away beacuse you get hit as you desperately try to regain health.
It was never worth it to me to try to regain health because I would lose more than I regained. I felt like I was fighting the game as often as I was fighting the enemy. In addition, there was no real magic in eiether Sekiro or Bloodborne, but at least there were Hunter Tools in the latter which were in the same neighborhood.
I cannot with no ranged option. In Elden Ring for my Strength run, that was the only time I could deal wit hnot having ranged. And that’s only once I had enough might to bonk things repeatedly and not die.
Again, it’s not a won’t but a can’t. I simply cannot play the game in the way that most normies can. I have had an ongoing argument with someone about invasions in the game. He keeps insisting that I can learn to PvP in the same way I learned how to PvE. But that’s simply not true because I can find ways to get around the brutal combat in the PvE. It’s going to be the same every time, so even though it’s hard, it’s predictable. That is not the same with PvE because humans are not predictable. Also, everything I hate about a dex build is doubled in PvE. I let it drop beacuse he cannot see things from other people’s point of view, and I was just getting frustrated.
More later.