I love the FromSoft games. This is something most people know about me. We have an unhealthy relationship in which they repeatedly kiss my ass, and I go back for more. I’m a sub, yes, but this is taking it to the extreme. Just kidding! I used to be a sub, but now I’m a switch.
Anyway, back to FromSoft games.
I had the list of my favorites from before Elden Ring. Once I finished Elden Ring, I wanted to rank where I would put it, but I couldn’t. Why? Because I was overwhelmed by what I had experienced. 225+ hours for one playthrough. I had seen everything the game had to be seen (I hadn’t, but I thougth I had), and I didn’t know what to do with it.
Now, nearly a year-and-a-half laater, I have put over five hundred hours into the game. I’ve completed it three times for the plat (hundo chievo), and have four total characters. By the way, no matter what kind of character I make in the beginning, they end up being a strengthcaster. My current charracter started as a samurai and now is a strengthcaster with two grave scythes.
But, I’m ready to rank the games. I think. There are six that I have played (not Demon’s Souls), and I will rank them from least-favorite to most-favorite, with my perennial reminder that favorite doesn’t mean best.
6. Sekiro. I never clicked with the combat. This is the most restrictive of the games, and you either get it or you don’t. I didn’t. I have never been able to parry with consistency, and that’s all you can do in this game. Or rather, it’s the best way to play the game. I could get the deflect once every four or five times, which meant that I had to whittle down the health of each boss. Which was not fun. At all. I’ve watched people play it, those who can do the deflect with ease. It’s a completely different game when you can master the main combat mechanic than when you can (I assume).
In addition, you can’t level up. Well, you can, but not each individual stat. There is no customization in this game besides what you can attach to your prosthetic arm, and that seemed very underbaked. You had one sword and one ‘armor’, which I put in quotes because there were no stats for it. You had to play the game on its terms, which meant that you actually had to git gud. This is the least accessible of the From games, and it’s a shame because it’s a brilliant game. Really. I think it’s an amazing game–but it’s the least player-friendly and the one I probably will never get the plat in–unless they add co-op.
By the way, they never said why there was no co-op. I used to think it was because he was a shinobi, which meant doing it alone. But, now, just thinking about it, it might be because they didn’t want to host it themselves and Activision refused to. Bandai Namco Bandai hosts the games that they published by From. Sony hosts the Bloodborne co-op. Activision has co-op capability, of course, but it’s through Battlenet.
At any rate, without co-op, I will not be getting the hundo chievo for this game.
5. Bloodborne. This is weird for me because I should have loved this game much more than I did. I watched several Let’s Plays of it before I actually played it because i never thought I’d get a PS4. By the time I played it, I knew everything about it. Tthat’s not the ideal way to play From games, but it is, as they say, waht it is.
I love the Gothic setting and environments. It’s moody and gorgeous, and just dripping with doom. I drank in the visages, even though I had seen them several times before. I love the look of the game, full stop.
This is the community favorite, by far. People think it’s perfect and are always clamoring for a sequel. For whatever reason, I feel like Miyazaki is done with it and will not make a sequel. I have no rational basis for this, but it’s what I’ve always believed. When Sekiro was teased, there was a still image of just the prosthetic arm. It was hard to tell what it was, and people were shitting themselves thinking it was a Bloodborne weapon. People in the industry were convinced that year that BB 2 was going to be announced at E3. For whatever reason, I knew it wasn’t. There is not going to be a BB 2. Again, I have no basis for that, but I was proved right. It amused me that I, a nobody, knew it wasn’t going to happen when people in the industry were so sure it would.
This game is also more restrictive than the Souls games, but less so than Sekiro. You can level up and you can change your armor, but the latter doesn’t matter. The only real difference is what resistance they have. They’re cool AF, though.
There are something like 14 weapons in the main game, which is nothing. I always start with the Hunter Axe (I’ve started another character) and that is my main throughout the game. I use the Tonitrus (electric mace) and the pizza cutter (ah, Whirligig Saw) as my second, depending on the sittuation. I have high arcane so I can use the Hunter Tools, which are like a poor person’s spells and incantations.
Here’s the thing I hate the most about this game–there is no shield. Or rather, there is one, but it’s a joke shield. And there’s another in the DLC, but that’s only useful against magic. Instead, you have a gun that is used to stagger the enemy. If you time it perfectly, you can do a riposte for huge damage.
You may be able to guess that I could not get the timing down perfectly, in part because it’s different for each enemy, but mostly because my reflexes are terrible. Plus my eye-hand coordination isn’t great, either.
I pick up the Augur of Ebrietas as quickly as I can. It’s a Hunter Tool that shoots out tentacles, and nothing gives me more pleasure than yelling, “Tentacles to the face!” as I shoot them off. You can stagger the enemy, and if you time it right, get the parry. It’s more generous than the gun, and the stagger is better, too. I made as much of a caster character as I could in the game, but it was still a pale imitation.
I didn’t click with this game, either. I got the plat, but I had help doing it. Not only in summoning for the DLC (for three of the five bosses. Ludwig, Laurence, and Orphan of Kos), but in getting two slugs from the RKG Discord to help with bosses in the Chalice Dungeons.
That’s another reason I don’t like this game, by the way. The Chalice Dungeons are shit. I did the first few back when I was playing the main game. I got my favorite armor out if it (Bone Ash Set), but that was all I liked. every dungeon was the same and just so boring. In a game in which the different areas were crafted with such care, it was startling to have such boring dungeons. Run through a bunch of enemies and traps, find the lever, pull it, fight the boss. Rinse, lather, and repeat. There was no care taken with the dungeons, and it felt like they were in there simply for the grind. Which, fine. But don’t make it a requirement for the hundo chievo.
I finally did the Chalice Dungeons months ago to get the plat. Oh, right. It’s an actual plat this time. I was grimly wading through the Chalice Dungeons until I realized I only had to do one tree of them (to get the one unique boss–which was all that was needed for the plat).
Once I was done, I was DONE. I started another character to help Krupa with his plat when he gets to it, but I’m just doing the same thing I always do. I know what works for me, and that’s all that matters.