It’s 82F right now. I had to run to the pharmacy to pick up a med, and it was hot. H-O-T, I say. It seems we’ve skipped spring altogether and went straight to summer. Except, we have a low of 41F for Tuesday, so winter may not be done with us yet. That is the weather in Minnesota right now, but not what I want to talk about.
Oh, and my sleep has been creeping back again. But I did get over eight hours of sleep last night, so that’s good. But I don’t want to go to bed past three in the morning. That’s my goal. Four at the latest (which I did not meet last night). I let myself fuck around too much last night–and I found out.
One thing, though. I don’t want to let one off day completely wreck my schedule. I have the habit of giving up if I mess up once. I know that’s not a good thing, so I’m trying to not spiral.
Also, I want to up my daily writing from one hour to two (for the fiction side of it). That’s very doable as I used to write 2,000 words a day before my medical crisis. One hour is nearly 1,000 words, so I should be able to do 2,000 in two to three hours if I’m diligent.
That’s not what I want to talk about today, though. That would be my love for things that sit somewhere in the shadowy (heh) realm of niche and mainstream. There are two things I want to discuss, both in pop culture. Today, I will focus on FromSoft–I have not talked about them for a while.
Below, I have included a video of someone no hitting my BAE, Messmer, with what I think are the Dryleaf fists. (The martial arts weapons in the DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree. Very cool, but not my style.) I absolutely adore this OST and this boss. Funnily enough, he was the face of the DLC so everyone assumed he would be the last boss. Not even close. FromSoft loves to fuck with fans like that. Not saying he’s not important because he is, but his fight is roughly halfway through the DLC (if you do tihngs properly, which I did not).
I still get chills watching this boss fight and listening to the OST. It’s just so epic and grand. I love how From has major setpiece bosses, and this is definitely one of them. In fact, many of the bosses in tthe DLC for Elden Ring are major spectacles.
I’ve been thinking about how FromSoft went from the little studio that could (back in the 10s) to the powerful juggernaut it is today. Now, every game that is anywhere near the action adventure genre adds Fromlike elements to their games, and games in other genres do so as well. There has been a different focus at different times, and right now, it’s on the deflect/parry. Which, yuck. I hate it so much. Not only is it ableist (which it most definitely is), it’s just so boring.
I don’t mind if it’s one of the options, but when it’s the main/only option, that’s when I check out. I surprise everyone when I say I never got the hang of the deflect in Sekiro and that I firnished the game. “I thought it wasn’t possible to beat the game if you did not learn the deflect!” was what I heard more than once. My answer, “It’s possible, but it isn’t fun.”
I had to whittle away the health of each boss rather than deflect away their posture. And each of them had at least two deathblow dots, one of which could be sneakily removed. In fact, that was the case with almost every boss, so why bother having them? It got so annoying after the fifth or six boss. Just take away that meaningless deathblow and let me fight the boss for real. There was one boss before a patch whom had three deathblows, and you could stealth deathblow two of them. What is the point to that? One of those deathblows was meant to be done like that, but not the other because they patched one out.
It’s because of Sekiro that now every game that is even vaguely like a From game emphasizes deflecting/parrying. It used to be whwen a soulslike came out, I would eagerly see what it was about. Now, I sigh and roll my eyes when I see that dreaded word included in any game’s description. Honestly, I’m soulslike-fatigued. No one does it like FromSoft, and I can’t think of a soulslike that I’ve played that I’ve enjoyed anywhere near as much as I did an actual From game.
It’s because for me, the thing that makes From games special is not what most other people value about them, it seems. I like the exploration and the level design, the weird-ass stories/NPCs, and did I mention the exploration? It’s not the difficulty and/or the bosses; I suffer through those to get to the good parts.
Before my medical crisis, I was somewhat brainwashed by the hardcore fans into believing that if you didn’t solo the bosses on your first playtrhough, you were doing it wrong. Then again, they also believed if you Haveled it up, you were doing it wrong. Or used the Giant Dad Build. Or used the Zwei. Or magic. Or, or, or. Seriously. If you read any of the forums, you would learn that the way you played was WRONG AND YOU WEREN’T A REAL GAEMER!!
It didn’t mater how you actually played–it was wrong. You leveled up your weapon to max? Wrong. You used any of the consumables? Wrong. You used a bow to draw out an enemy? I’m not sure, but probably wrong. Basically, if you weren’t a deprived onebro who didn’t use any sorceries, spells, or miracles and you used anything other than the broken weapon, you weren’t a true From fan. And, of course, no summoning. That was the absolute worst, and there was no coming back from that.
It was really annoying, but I did buy intio it–at least in my heart of hearts. Especially the part about it being cheating if you didn’t solo the bosses on your first playthrough. I did that with all the Dark Souls games* and Bloodborne**. I will admit that I cheesed a few of the bosses, and I feel no guilt for it.
In fact, some of my funnest times with the games were when on subsequent playthroughs, I cheesed bosses in well-known ways.
I have more to say about this, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
*Except the fucking gank squads in the DLCs of the second game.
**Not the DLC. Only soloed 2 of 5 bosses in that.