I’m writing another post about streaming becasue why not? In the last post, I allowed myself to be distracted by the new FromSoft trailer because how the hell could I not be?! Funnily, I’m stlil not going as hard into it as I did with the last trailer, albeit a month late.
I’m a weirdo in that I don’t like to read/watch other people’s lore that much because I prefer to come up with my own. At least not before going into the thing. Watching any FromSoft trailer ahead of time is so dangerous because tehy show everything–and I mean everything. For Dark Souls III, they had the last boss on the box art.
The thing is, though, that you won’t know what any of the trailer means before you actually play the game. Krupa said this to Rory and Gav before they started the game–he could tell them exactly what was going to happen, and it would mean nothing to them. He’s right. However, if you want to go in completely unspoiled, you will most certainly not want to watch any of the trailers. They show EVERYTHING, and I mean everything. This was another thing Krupa said to the other two about the story trailer for the base game–and it was why he refused to show it to them. I watched it after watching that exchange, and he was so right about how much it revealed. I don’t remember watching it at the time, and I probably didn’t because I wanted to be fresh. I did watch this one because…well, I just wanted to watch it. Probably because I was robbed of the full joy of the last trailer.
I haven’t gotten deep into the depths of this trailer beacuse I don’t want to make myself sick of it before the DLC even drops
Anyway. I was talking about how a small, but very vocal minority of the RKG community are gate-keeping as hard as they can, and how I feel the boys are absorbing some of it to a certain extent.
I want to make it clear that I love Retry. I have been a fan since their Prepare To Try days, and I aprreciate that they are fairly toxic-free. I know that sounds damning with faint praise, but it’s really hard to find on YouTube, especially in the FromSoft community. When I dip into other FromSoft content creator chats,I leave within a few seconds. They are just so gross af toxic, I feel as if I need a shower after dipping a toe in.
Anyway. I hope Rory never reads the comments. I mentioned that in the last post, but I wanted to expaind on it. As I said, I rarely read the comments on YouTube, but even on the Patreon, there are some complaints.
Some of the common ones are: He’s OP; he’s under-powered; he needs to level up Vigor/Endurance/whatever; he has to focus on a build; he should not use spirit summons for bosses; he will never survive without more Vigor/leveling/leveling his weapons, etc.
It would be one thing if they just said something like, “Hey, Rory is low on health. Maybe he could level up his Vigor a few times”, but no, it’s “He won’t survive without more helath” with the heavy implication that only a total dumbass would not level up health.
Then there’s another subset that criticize how he killed whatever boss is their particular bugaboo. The Red Wolf of Radagon took an hour to beat and Rennala took two (and they were back to back in the boss fight video). More than one person said that Rennala was the easiest boss in the game (and the second easiest FromSoft boss ever) and stated that Rory was going to have trouble later on.
Look. My dude. You can state your opinions as facts all you want, but that doesn’t make them facts. Almost everyone agrees on the easiest boss in all the FromSoft games (Pinwheel in the OG Dark Souls, barring the joke boss in Sekiro), but I doubt that there would be a consensus as to the second. Hell, I bet some people would say Rennala isn’t even the easient boss in Elden Ring. It depends on your build and how you approach her for one thing. And when. But also, Rory beat Margit on his second try and Goddrick on his first. And did really well with Radahn. About a dozen or so tries? Well, maybe twenty. At any rate, though, Rennala was probably the hardest boss for him so far–at least time-wise. Of the almost twelve-hour video, she was two of those hours. And there were…48 bosses in the video. Granted, most of them were field bosses–meaning of varying difficulty. But still.
My point is that Rory got stronger as the game went on because, you know, RPG. He did Radahn more easily than he did Rennala–and Radahn is considered more difficult by far.
Rory is good at these games. Despite himself, yes, but he is. Even with his smorgasbuild, chaotic choices, and the attention span of a gnat–his twitch responses, reading of the bosses, and his ability to persevere all help him succeed at these games.
What I don’t understand is that clearly, these are people who like the guys? I mean, the ones leaving the comments. At least, they are watching the shows. If they truly can’t stand it or it pains them that much, then just don’t watch. There are ilterally millions of things to watch online. Thousands of channels specifically related to FromSoft. Thousands of people playing the games in the ‘proper’ way. The boys have always said that it’s not champagne Dark Souls. If you want that, go watch another channel.
The first season of Prepare To Try was subtitled, “Can a Dark Souls Noob finish Dark Souls before Dark Souls III Comes Out?” or something like that. Rory was young (24) and had never even heard of the game. Watching that first season makes me marvel how young they all were. And how they weren’t quite comfortable with the format yet. And how short the vids were. In the RKG community, we like to joke about a Gav edit because the early videos were under a half-hour each.
Rory had no idea what he was doing, and more to the point, he was out of his depths. He likes gun games and Zelda games. Those are his two favorite genres. So this was something very much out of his comfort zone.
People complain about how he doesn’t remember things from game to game (and, to be fair, Krupa has sniped at him about it occasionally, too), but he plays the game once (except the first Dark Souls), and they are spaced every two to three years (except th efirst few seasons of PTT). Plus, FromSoft likes to change juuuuust enough of the basics from game to game to keep the players on their toes. And, related to having the attention-span of a gnat, the same goes for his memory. Weirdly, he’ll remember odd little details, but not general things like combat.
I think it’s one of his many charming qualities, myself. One of the reasons I watch him is because he’s so innovative in the way he sees things. He’ll try things that have no business working, but sometimes do! (And, more importantly, most times, don’t.)
If you want to see someone pick the ideal build, min-maxing all the way, there are plenty of channels for that. That’s what I can’t get past. They claim to enjoy the show, but all they want to do is complain about Rory being Rory.
He is going to call things the wrong things (like he calls the Runes (Souls) his jewels), go the wrong way, not min-max, and I lwould not have it any other way.
In addition, he will never see a Site of Grace even when it’s right in front of him. This is because he does not wear his glasses and because he’s always looking at a million different things.
It’s funny. Both Krupa and Gav have said that Rory is the most positive person they know, but that he’s very stubborn, too. You can see it as he’s playing. They will suggest something, and he gets the look of a mule on his face. He will rarely say no directly, but he will offer a millions reasons why he should continue to do what he’s doing.
I am in awe of what he does, though. Not only is he playing a hard game, he’s bantering with the other boys at the same time. That’s not just talking to the audience–it’s having to listen and respond, while cracking wise.
He has said that when he gets in the zone while fighting a boss, that’s when he goes silent. Which is fair! He has to concentrate on fighting the boss. That’s when it’s up to Krupa and Gav to do the heavy lifting, bants-wise.
Another thing I admire about him is that he rarely gets too heated while fighting a boss. I mean, he gets upset and/or frustrated as we all do, but he rarely loses his cool. I can think of a few times it happened, but it’s few and far between.
That’s all for now. More tomorrow.