I want to talk about brand loyalty, and I want to tie it into my musings on tradition. Will I be able to make connect them? I don’t know, but I’m sure as hell going to try. Why am I thinking about brand loyalty? Because From’s The Duskbloods is purportedly coming out soon, and I have been musing on it. Why? Because if there’s one ‘brand’ I’m loyal to, it’s FromSoft. And, this feels almost like heresy, I am starting to lose trust. But first. Here is my post from yesterday in which I talk about what traditions I eschewed when I was in my twenties.
Here me out.
I have never been the target audience for From games. I suck at them, and it takes me twice as long to finish one as it does most people. The first time through, I mean. Quickest I’ve done a playthrough is 10 hours to get the last achievement I needed to plat the game, and that was on NG+. It can be done in two hours or less, but I didn’t want to rush that much. I felt pretty accomplished doing the whole game in 10 hours when my first playthrough took 250+ hours.
I adore Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree. Put together, it’s my favorite game of all time. I’m doing my umpteenth playthrough beacuse FromSoft released…uh, it’s like this. They put the game on the Switch 2. Which, fine. Put it on as many platforms as possible. In addition, thouugh, they sold the Tarnished DLC on all platforms. It was five dollars for…horse arrmor. I’m not joking. Well, I’m making a pointed joke beacuse when Bethesda sold horse armor DLC for Skyrim there was an outcry.
In this case, I forgive it because I like being able to dress uup Torrent, my beloved spirit steed. He is best boy by far, and he deserves a ‘fit or two. I’m going to spoil what’s in the DLC because it’s relevant to this post, so this is your warning.
FromSoft is in love with making things as obtuse as possible. Most devs would just give you the armor and call it a day. Not FromSoft. This is the same devs who had to show jourrnalists how to access the DLC for Dark Souls, by the way, beacuse it was so obtuse. In this case, there are three Torrent armors, and where you find each makes sense in terms of areas. However, the exact place you find two of them don’t really make sense. And in the case of the first one, it’s put in a room I hadn’t been in since my first playthrough because there was nothing in it.
The second one was in a room with a bonfire, so I did spot it–though I missed it on my first go-through of that room. The third one, I finally looked up because I was almost halfway through the game and had not found it. I could have missed it, and certainly, it could have been in the second half of the game, but I had a hunch it would have been in the first half. It was–just. And it was in a remote graveyard that I would NEVER have gone to. I’m glad I looked it up, but it also made me grumpy that it was so obscure. There’s a thin line between a satisfying difficult puzzle and a frustratingly difficult puzzle. Two of the three skins fall on the frustrating side, and the other one wasn’t satisfying because you’re going to stumble over it if you do this specific bit of optional content–which you probably will. I will say that one of the skins is sick as hell, though. The third one that I had to look up to find.
The two armor and weapon sets that you could get were, ah, disappointing (the first one) and cool (the second). I wasn’t keen on the way to get them (defeating invaders wearing the fits and carrying the weapons. I hate the invasion mechanic), and, again, there was no way I would think about it. I mean, I would have gotten there eventually with my current character, but I just did not want to wait. So I looked it up and went there with my first character, who is near the end of NG+. With my current character, I would have run across the first invader fairly soon, but not the second.
The problem is, though, that I have to actually baet the invaders. I suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck at PvP. It’s one reason I don’t care about The Duskbloods being an exclusive on the Switch 2. I was able to defeat the invaders with my first character fairly easily because I’m OP at this point and my blue bar (mana, essentially) is monstrous.
The DLC was shoddy. I’m just going to say it. Yes, there were two new classes, but they didn’t really add anything much. I tried the more ‘all-rounder’ new class, and I grabbed the reverse-blade early on, switched to it, and never looked back. Yes, it’s a new weapon (kind of. It’s in the actual DLC, and is pretty cool), and it’s been fun to play with. But it’s not earthshattering, and the class itself is meh at best.
I’m glad I got to dress up Torrent and one of the armors is fire, but was it worth five bucks? No. Yes, it got me playing Elden Ring again, but that’s a given. I always have a From game on the go, and I’ve already played Elden Ring a dozen times. Though, to be honest, I’ve only actually finished the game a half dozen or so times. There definitely is a bit more meat than needed to these bones. I would have cut about a quarter of the content, especially in the second half.
My point is that I’m starting to waver. I used to have complete faith in them, but now, I wonder. I have no qualms with them trying new things because they’ve earned it. Plus, who knows what they will come up with from their other endeavors that they will then apply to their next action adventure game?
The problem is twofold for me. One, I’ve been well aware for several years that the games are going to above my level at some point. It started with the DLC for Dark Souls III, and it’s only gotten worse since then. I use the word ‘worse’ deliberately. I can barely beat some of the bosses now (with spirit summons in Elden Ring), let alone what monstrosity they will come up with next.
Hm. I have ruminated my way through an entire post without acttually getting to the point. Be back tomorrow.