I am bad at FromSoft games. I have said this from the beginning, and it only gets worse the older
I get. I hated Dark Souls by the time I finished it, and sometimes, I wish that I had ended my FromSoft journey there. I’m not being snarky;I think I might have been happier overall because my god, these games push me to my very limits.
I’m mostly kidding. Mostly. I think? I’m not really sure sometimes. I have more to muse about Nightreign, and here is the post I wrote about it yesterday. I am still frustrated with this game, and I think I need to admit to myself that beating it (defeating all the Night Lords) is just not going to happen–especially since I don’t have a squad to roll with. I got lucky on my second run ever to have two great rando teammates who carried me to a win against the first boss. I have joked ruefully that it’s the worst thing to happen to me because it gave me unrealistic expectations as to how it would be to deal with other bosses. I mean, I never thought they would be easy because it’s FromSoft, but I did think it would be reasonable to do in this time-frame. I’ve gotten the second boss down to about a quarter-health, but then I was the last one alive. That is never good.
It’s hard because I see other people cleaning out bosses like it was nothing (in the Discord). Some are even first-timing the bosses (together on PS5. That’s what most people are playing on). I have envy, but I know that even if I were playing with the top-tier players, I would not be able to do that because I am the weakest link. Not always, but usually.
I have some hard decisions to make. One is whether I want to continue playing the game at all. This is where the meat of this post was going to be (we’ll see if I stick to that or not), so let’s get to it.
Am I having fun playing this game? No. In fact, I’m pretty miserable as I’m playing. Here’s the thing. I play From games for the exploration, which is slow and deliberate. At least when I do it. In my first playthrough of Elden Ring, I did not make it to the first story boss until after ten hours of exploration. That was not a smart idea because the first time you meet the first story boss and don’t beat him, Melina comes to say she was taking your measure. Would you like to go to the Roundtable Hold?
This is the hub world, and more importantly for me, it’s where you get your initial fire incantations. I had started as the Confessor, which is a faith-based (incantation) class. Well, strengthcaster, really. However, they only started with a small heal incantation (Urgent Heal) and one called Assassin’s Approach that muffles your footsteps. But not well. That meant I had to use melee for the first ten hours, which was miserable for me. I did buy a bow, but bows suck in From games (except Nightreign, apparently).
I got some sorceries, but I did not have a staff. There was no place to buy one in the first area. You could get one by killing a field boss, but I did ntot find this field boss naturally on my first playthrough. There is also one that is in a much later area that is the best for the first half of the game at least (and I’ve used it for the whole game before).
Now, when I’m not trying a specific build, I choose the Astrologer because they start with with a staff. I can get to the RTH in ten minutes to buy a seal–I don’t know why you can buy a seal in the RTH, but not a staff. It’s mystifying–and irritating.
So. I am at a crossroads with Nightreign. It’s the second day of no progress, and I know that if I want to keep playing, I have to read all the Visual Codex and the guide. I also have to memorize the magic cocktails of the Recluse–or, switch characters. As is my wont, I unerringly went for the hardest character. I always gravitate to that character, and I don’t know why. Well, in this case, it’s because she’s the mage. Apparently, they’re going to add a more traditional sorceror to the game–or maybe that’s just a rumor.
She’s supposed to be a huge DPS character, but that’s predicated on using her well. Which I am not doing. Part of the problem is that in order to do her best spells, you need to yoink the last element someone was hit with. I just learned it could be your own teammates who were hit with it–which explians why I was getting lightning when no one on my team was inflicting lightning. In FightinCowboy’s review, he mentioned one of the issues with that is that you can’t control what the last element is.
As I said, all the best and most powerful spells combine three different elements. If I need to apply those myself, that’s really difficult without someone doing something else in between. And it’s too much in my head. The coolest one was one that froze me for ten seconds or so, but I could not tell you what it practically did. Ok. It’s lightning, holy, and magic. It freezes the caster for, ah, an amount of time and creates an ice storm around her. She’s invulnerable while she’s in it.
The other option is to pick a different character (and not the Revenant–another one I like. Why not her? Because she’s just as squishy and nearly as finicky to learn as the Recluse), but I’ll be honest. I’m not thrilled with most of the melee chaaracters. I’m not a melee-only player, and the only one who’s a mix is a dex character.
I have tried all the characters. Today, I took out the melee characters for a spin. Wylder is the all-around good-for-noobs character. Decent stats in almost everything; he is just a solid character. But there is not much that draws me to him. I’ll be honst. The birdman (Guardian) is my fave, but the meta is that he’s not a great character. Or rather, hes’ not good for DPS like most of the other melee characters. He has a shield, though, which is nice. And his ultimate is really sick.
The problem, though, is that I’m the weakest character no matter what because of my issues. Today, I was in a mine and ran into something I had not seen before. There was a spiritstream in it (the jump pad, basically), and I could not figure out for the life of me how to get the hell out of the mine. I was hopelessly lost, and I just had to let the ring of fire take me. That meant losing a level, which I could ill-afford.
I feel like I’m fighting so much for every gain and then one time getting lost means I lose a level. You can level up to 15, and I don’t think I’ve ever had more than 12. It’s hard to believe it’s not even been a week, and I’m pretty much done with the game. I’m done for today. I probably have one more post in me.