Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: open world

More on open world game design

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samurai in all black ronin armor (and straw hat)
My fit is (black) fire!

I want to ttalk more about open world game design. So, not specifically about Ghost of Tsushima (which I’m pushing through), but about the genre in general. Basically, I’m comparing  Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) and Elden Ring (FromSoft) because I haven’t played many other completely through. In fact, Skyrim (Bethesda) and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red) are the two I can think of off the top of my head. I really enjoyed Skyrim for the first 50 hours, but then I just started hating it. It was my fault because I tried to do all the covenants/groups in one go. And, I just had my fill about then. I finished it up in 75 hours and never touched it again.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was really enjoyable–until a cave mission about two-thirds of the way through. It was a follow Pippa (I think that’s her name) in the cave, and I got hopelessly lost. I think it was supposed to be a fifteen minute mission or so, but it took me hours. I hated it so much, I considered quitting. I knew I was near the end, though, so I stuck it out and eventually stumbled my way out of the cave. Disheartened and unhapp,y I finished up the game as quickly as I could. I hated the first DLC and did not play the second. The main game did have one of the best written quests I’d ever played, though (Bloody Baron). I think I put roughly 115 hours into this game.

In yesterday’s post, I made comparisons between Ghost of Tsushima and Elden Ring. I want to continue down that path today.

I have noticed that I play open world games in a way that makes me less and less enthused about them as I go. I explore every nook and cranny as I go, leaving no stone unturned. I play for hours on end and am super-absorbed. Then, at some point, my interest starts waning, but I still try to do everything available. Until I don’t. Usually, that’s when I stop playing the game. Or in the case of Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, start mainlining the main story.

With Elden Ring, I still explored every inch of the domain, but the luster dimmed as the game went on. Part of the issue is that the mid-to-late game was balls-hard. Also, it was set in a snowy area (which I love) with limited visibility (which I hate). I could not see anything in this area, and I plunged to my death so many times. In addition, I had no desire to fight the stronger enemies when I could not see them, and I started riding past them. Esepcially as they were all repeat enemies.


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End of the Elden Ring road

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I’m in the end game of Elden Ring, and I’m deep in my feels about it. How do I know it’s the end game? Well, settle down, wrap a comfy duvet around you, and listen up. It snowed, by the way, and actually stuck to the ground. That’s the best! It’s April 14th and we have visible snow. How great is that? Prince was right in that sometimes it snows in April, especially in Minnesota. He’s a Minnesotan through and through.

Reminisce with me as I remember back to roughly a hundred hours ago, Elden Ring-wise. Oh, wait. Before I go on, I will be talking about the end game of Elden Ring  so obviously:

*SPOILERS*

I was doing Ranni’s questline, which is MASSIVE. I first met her at the very beginning of the game in the Church of Elleh. You have to go there at night in order for her to appear. Or rather, the form she decided to take appears. She herself is–well, I’ll get to that in a second. She calls herself Renna, is blue, and has four arms and two faces. She gives you the spirit summoning bell, talks about Torrent (who you have to have for her to appear, I believe) and that’s that. I went back a few more times, but she wasn’t there. 

At some point, Kale, the Nomadic Merchant in the Church of Elleh tells you about his friend. Oh, this is after you hear the howling at Mistwood Ruins. Or maybe after you meet Renna. Either way, he gives you a gesture to use when you hear the howling. I tried it, but I could not get the howling to replicate because there are big bears in the area and I had to race around to avoid them. Plus the wolfmen who roam the lands as well. That meant I could not open my map to see where I needed to be. So I missed the first step of Blaidd’s questline, unfortunately.

Side Note: I’m glad that the questlines in Elden Ring are more generous as to if you miss a step along the way. I missed both this and D’s first encounter, but I was able to make progress in both these questlines. I also skipped Millicent invading me because I wanted to wait until I was stronger, but then missed it completely because I beat the boss of the area.


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Becoming the Elden Lord

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I have finished the second legacy dungeon. Let me rephrase that. I have killed the second boss of the second dungeon–which might be the last boss? She’s definitely the main boss of the second legacy dungeon. But after I fought her–I’ll get to that in a minute–I discovered that you can get to the second level of the area through the roof. I found this out by looking up where to find a certain item that I needed for one of the NPC’s questlines. That’s when I realized that I could get to the top level of the dungeon–which I had previously  thought was off-limits.

That’s the thing with FromSoft games. You have to look everywhere, including up and down. There is no place they won’t stick a shortcut or a whole new way to go. On the one hand, it’s very cool because that means that there’s something to see everywhere. On the other hand, it means I miss so much because I don’t think to look a certain way. My spatial issues are something I have to work around, but I’m not always aware of them.

The second  legacy dungeon is nowhere near as big as the first, but now I know why. It also makes me wonder if there is something I’ve missed in the first legacy dungeon. I have found a few bits and bobs in the first legacy dungeon that I had missed before. I think I’ve done a pretty good job clearing it out, though. For the second legacy dungeon, I feel as if I’ve barely touched the surface of the dungeon. It was surprisingly short, which was why I’m not unhappy that there was more to the dungeon.


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Elden Ring–no filler, very little fat

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I hate most traditional open world games. They’re filled with busy work just for the sake of making it appear as if the world is alive. You open the map and it’s crammed with icons of things you can do (which actually makes me anxious, by the way. That’s just way too much stuff). I think the way FromSoft has done the map is fucking brilliant.

You have to understand that From does not do maps. At all. They had one in Sekiro, but it was a joke map of the overworld that I think was pushed on them by (ugh) Activision. And it’s hidden in the menus under, I wanna say options, but I’m not sure. Anyway, it’s really funny and a way for FromSoft to push back on the ask.

When I heard that there was going to be a map in Elden Ring, I admit I was worried. I have a terrible sense of direction, but one reason I know the Dark Souls games so well is because I had to replay every area over and over and over again, dying several times in the process. And I’ve played each a dozen times at least. They are emblazoned in my brain and I can tell you where every enemy is placed.

So having a map worried me, even though I knew it was necessary for such a big game. I couldn’t imagine a map filled with NPCs and side quests and a million things you can do. Instead, From said, “OK. You need a map, but you’re going to have to EARN it.” To that end, the map is all fogged up when you get it. You have to find a stele with a map fragment on it to defog the area, and it’s done in sizeable chunks at the time. As you get closer to the stele, you can see a faint outline of it on the map. It’s usually best to rush to the stele to get the map fragment before you start exploring the area. There are icons on the map of what things are, but there are not a thousand side quests littering said map. I don’t have to collect five collectibles in each area–the same five collectibles to boot, just different amount in each area–or do endless identical fetch quests. There are fetch quests, but they’re unique and weird and all will probably end with someone dead. That’s the FromSoft way!

I’ve run into my second BAE–well, third, really–and I’m enjoying the idea of getting to know him until he is murdered. By me? Maybe, but he’s definitely going to die. And I haven’t met him, exactly, but his spirit form. He’s a wolf guy, and he’s fine. My first is in the Roundtable Hold–and I already know his fate because I read something else online and he was mentioned. That’s the trouble with Googling shit–you’re in danger of finding out things you’d rather not know.


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Blocked at every turn in Elden Ring

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Yesterday was a rough day, Elden Ring-wise, I mean. I had two or three areas I was exploring that did not like me. At all. In one, there was a really tough field boss (I mentioned her before, the one who’s similar to one in DS III), who could one-s-shot me with her magic arrow spell. Does that mean I’m not supposed to be there? I’m not sure because all the NPC invaders are really tough. This one is just super-hard and has loads of summoned undead sorcerers to help her. I can’t use my spirit summon, either, which sucks.

I tried to fight her melee. I tried to fight her with magicks. I tried a combination. I tried ignoring her minions. I tried taking them out first. Nothing worked. Ironically, my best attempt was my first or second (yesterday) in which I got her down to about a fourth health–I haven’t gotten even close since. Yes, I can run by her and have, but I really want her spell–the arrow thing she does. Or wait, it’s probably the showering rain thing she also does given the name (yes, I looked up how to beat her).

I also made it to an area that is crawling, literally, with really creepy hands. They can one-shot me as well. I tried to race around the area just to see if I can  get by them, but they kill me with such ease. Am I not ready to be there? Who can say? Hardcore Souls fans say it’s easy to tell when something is clearly meant to be played later because things are one-shotting you–but again, these are games that are notorious for being difficult. It’s hard to discern between hard, but fair and too hard for you n00b git gud lol.

Then I decided to go back to the first legacy dungeon because I had to not be under-leveled for that. And I got my ass kicked many times. Not as many times as when I was in other areas, though. But still, there was a shoe imprint in my buttocks that isn’t coming out any time soon. I made my way through the gauntlet at the end, saw the golden mist ahead of me, and looked around frantically for a bonfire, er Site of Grace. Just as I saw it to my right, one of the three sword raptors slit my throat. Or maybe it was the giant smashing me to bits? I can’t remember. Perhaps one of the soldiers burned me to death. Anyway, it was one of them and I could not activate the bonfire. Which meant I had to do the run again. And it was going to be a run because I was not going to be stuffed fighting each enemy only to die before reaching the bonfire.


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Open world in real life

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Despite my rebellious nature, I tend to follow the rules more often than not. I am not going around being lawless willy and nilly. I mean, I guess you could say my whole life is against the rules to some people. I have not managed to hit one ‘normal’ milestone–and, yes, I’m proud of it Not in the ‘give it to the man’ sort of way, but that I managed to hold firm to my own values despite great pressure from my mom–e,r society. But mostly my mom.

In video games, there is a genre of games called open world games. You can probably guess from the name that the world is, indeed, open–although that can be interpreted differently in different games. Mostly, it means that you can go anywhere you want at any time instead of having to progress down a linear path. The problem with many of them is that in order to fill the world, they add repetitive quests that you just do over and over (such as collect fifteen feathers in each section. Or they make you get things for people, snidely known as fetch quests. Or even worse, you have to escort someone somewhere and they walk at half your speed. Looking at you, Skyrim. I didn’t realize just how annoying that was until I played The Witcher 3 in which the NPCs jog along at a brisk pace.

Side Note: I cannot wait to play Elden Ring which is basically an open world Dark Souls IV. I will admit trepidation about it being open world, though, because the many dungeons dotted around the world have been described as this game’s version of Chalice Dungeons. Which I hated. Absolutely hated. Someone in the RKG posted that in his opinion (because of course it was a him), you hadn’t really beaten Bloodborne if you didn’t do the Chalice Dungeons. Which, I mean….I hate gatekeeping in general. Saying someone isn’t a true such-and-such fan if they don’t do x, y, or z annoys the fuck out of me. In this case, the Chalice Dungeons are mostly for grinding. Yes, there is at least one unique boss in them (can’t remember if there are more), but it’s still mostly for grinding. I tried to do them, but I just found them confusing and boring. One thing I like about FromSoftt games is how different each area is. All. The. Chalice. Dungeons. Are. The. Same. I got hopelessly lost in them and I gave up after doing…I don’t even remember which dungeon. My favorite outfit is in the dungeons, but fortunately, early on. (Bone Ash Set.)


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