Dark Souls III is my favorite FromSoft game. I probably don’t need to say that by now, but it’s worth repeating. By the way, I’m in NG+4 at the moment and was playing a bit for funsies. One of my favorite things to do is break everything once I’m this far in the game. I just cheesed the Curse-rotted Greatwood with Pestilent Mist which is the shit. It eats away at the humanity of any non-dead creature–including the caster. So ,with the Curse-rotted Greatwood, it is, indeed, a big tree. It has, ah, shall we say, danglies between its legs. In other words, great big balls. And you’re supposed to hit it in the balls. Pustules. There are clusters on its back and limbs as well. You can break any or all of the cluster of pustules. Once you break a certain amount of them, the tree breaks the floor and we both fall down to our death–no, of course not. We just fall down to a level below and continue the fight.
Here’s the thing, though. With Pestilent Mist (which taken 30 Intelligence and used to be massively OP when it was Pestilent Mercury. So much so, they nerfed it), the tree doesn’t break the floor. No idea why, but my guess is because you’re not actually breaking the pustules with it. But, the thing is, you can do the same thing with pyromancy. With the Chaos Bed Vestiges pyromancy, I’ve managed to also have the tree not break the floor. But Pestilent Mist is funny because you’re not actually attacking the enemy–you’re engulfing them (and you) in a mist that eats away at them over time.
Anyway, I decided I might want to try killing–*spoilers*–the Dancer because why not sequence break? But I also didn’t want to fight her alone even though I rarely have trouble with her. So I went online to see if I could summon someone. The second I went online, i was invaded. I let a tough-ish regular enemy kill me because I like robbing the invaders of their kill (even though they still reap the rewards) and went about my business. I have many many humanities so I don’t mind wasting one now and again. But I hate invaders. But I’m impressed that people are still playing this much later. And I love that I can get human summons with regularity, especially on weekends. Anyone who’s still playing at this point is very good. Me? Not so good, but I’m a decent summon for a few bosses.
I must say that I like cheesing bosses. Pestilent Mist is good for many bosses (Midir, for example)as is Dorhy’s Gnawing (little critters eating away at the undead), which I use for Sister Friede and Gael, among others. Look, I’ve beaten all the bosses in Dark Souls III solo, the old-fashioned way. So If I want to have a little fun now? So be it. Using Vow of Silence on Aldrich is a hoot. What is it? It’s a miracle that negates all magic–including the caster’s. So, if I use this to fight Aldrich, then I just go ham on him with my Lorian’s Greatsword, which is fire.
So. Sekiro. I have such mixed and complicated feelings about this game. I think it’s brilliant and maybe the best FromSoft game, objectively. But it’s my least-favorite FromSoft game and the one I’ve played the least. Well, I might have played it a hair more than I have Bloodborne, but that game is on a console, which I hate. If BB ever comes to PC, I guarantee that I will play it more than Sekiro.
Let’s talk about Elden Ring. It’s coming out in a month-and-a-half, and I cannot wait. I know that I’m going to be mainlining this game for the next half year at the very least; I have a hunch I’ll be playing it for the rest of my life. But I am a little nervous that it’s not going to be as good as everyone thinks it is. It looks amazing and I think it’ll be good, but who can know for sure? Also, I do have some trepidations about the open world situation because how is it going to mesh with the linear story? Watching people play the close network test is my happy place and I don’t care that I’m seeing the same thing over and over again. Christmas Kale, the merchant who looks like Santa Claus. Big golden boi on horse who is not meant to be fought right away. I love the look of the beaches and the caves and everything in between. It looks gorgeous and seems like it plays like butter.
I’m thinking about getting either God of War or Monster Hunter Rise (both are PC ports) because they both came out and they’ve both piqued my interest in different ways. Ian reviewed BOY and gave it a 9 out of 10. I’m curious about the new and sensitive Kratos, who looks good enough to eat. The combat system is combo based, apparently, which is not my jam. But it’s a big puck-off axe you can throw, which IS my jam. Then there’s MHR, which…I tried the demo and was not impressed. They just throw you into the quests with whatever armor and weapon they choose ( i mean, you get to choose which kind of weapon you want, but not which specific crafted weapon) and no explanation of anything. I have a problem with the maps in these games and i was not having fun. I tried the switch-axe, of course, and I just wasn’t grooving on it. Ian has a copy of the game and he’s been enjoying it. I still have Iceborne (the DLC for MHW) to play, butt that was not fun at all. There is a level of Monster Hunter called G Rank that’s above Low Rank and High Rank. I had a great time with LR and HR, but once I hit Tempered Elder Dragons, which was right before Iceborne and G Rank, everything I knew and was comfortable with went out the window. The chintziest armor in Iceborne was so much better than my best armor from the vanilla game. Same with my swaxes. I had one all tricked out, leveled all the way up. It was Nergigante’s swax that gave me health as I used it and negated much of the elder dragons’ ultimates. Once I reached the tempered elder dragons, however, it didn’t work. Which was a problem. I was talking to my niece’s husband about Iceborne when he first started playing (on console). Of course, it came out on console well before it did on PC. He was the one who said that it was deflating to be handed armor and a switch-axe (he was swax, too) that was basic, but better than anything he had crafted up to that point. He said it was deflating and he wondered why he was even playing the game.
I had the exact same feeling. Like, why did I even bother playing the base game if they were just going to give me end-game armor and a weapon? I knw, I know. It’s the experience, blah, blah, blah. And I don’t disagree. I had a good time with the game; I really did. But I lost all motivation once Iceborne dropped. It’s incredibly hard. Plus, the out-leveled equipment. I know why they did it–they had to get the n00bs up to speed right in the beginning.
I watched Ian play the beginning part of MHR on stream and it looks so charming! There are twin women who are creepy, but that’s par the course for Japanese anime. They have a big problem with women and how they portray them. But I quickly put that to the side when the palicoes started cooking. Yes, the cats do the cooking. It’s so dang cute! And in this game, there are palamutes, as well, which are doggo companions you can ride. It’s a game-changer, to be honest. I love riding the palamute across the lands. The graphics aren’t as good as in MHW or as realistic, but I honestly don’t care. The graphics in MHW were jaw-dropping. But that’s not why I played the game and honestly, it wore off after several hours. I find the graphics utterly charming in MHR and I don’t care that they’re not realistic.
I have more to say, but this post is getting long. Plus, I bought the game, so I have TONS more to talk about. See you in the next post!