Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: plat

Elden lord with the Elden Ring

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I platted Elden Ring last night, and I’m still flying high about it. As we all remember, I had four bosses left (well, five, but one was inconsequential–or so I thought), and my plan was to do one area with two of the bosses yesterday and then the last area with the last two (three) bosses today. That WAS the plan, but I blew through the second-to-last area in about an hour-and-a-half. The hardest part was people I summoned for the second boss fight either fighting the Tree Sentinel guarding the boss door and not coming in (at least I got the TS’s gear when they killed him) or peacing out at the beginning of the second half of the boss fight–the ‘real’ boss fight. Oh, and spoiler warning for the whole post.

I had that latter issue more times than I  care to remember, by the way. I don’t know why people do it. Actually, I have a theory that some people do it to be dicks. You get an added boss HP bump (a big one) for each summon you call on and that does not go back down once they die or leave the world. So, it’s a way to troll. Another reason I conjure is because several of the fights have two distinct bosses and they are good at the first boss, but not the second. It’s enraging, regardless, especially as I was just trying to get through the game as fast as possible on NG+.

I will say that summoning was plentiful. I never had a problem with getting a human or two to help me. I’m glad that so many people are still enjoying the game. Once in a while, I got a summon who died in one or two seconds–not good. But, for the most part, if people were being summoned, they were hard as nails.

I will say that I loved summoning NPCs for boss fights because of story reasons. I got to fight with Melania by my side, next to Alexander–the bestest pot boi ever, Bernahl–the one who sells me Ashes of War in the beginning of the game at the Warmaster’s Shack.

Side Note: Bernahl is the guy who made me think I would not be able to get my plat on the one playthrough plus save-scumming. You meet him early on in the Warmaster’s Shack where he sells you Ashes of War. This is within the first five hours of the game. He tells you his name and I’m sure I wrote it down (I was making a note of all the NPCs back then. Until FromSoft got smart and added them to the map), but then I promptly forgot it because I didn’t pay that much attention to Ashes of War. They’re very important, but most of the weapons I used had one tied to the weapon so I couldn’t change them.


Continue Reading

GeoffCon and Elden Ring

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Today is GeoffCon, which has caught me by surprise. I knew it was coming up because Ian was going to it, but I thought it was next week. It was not. He’s almost on his way now (flight delays. He was supposed to go yesterday) and will be there for the next few days. The conference itself is now, but there is a whole host of things happening outside GeoffCon itself.

Last year, this was when the official Elden Ring release trailer dropped. It was the last thing at the con and generated so. much. hype. It had been leak ahead of time, and my stomach sank with each announcement.

Side note: I realized a while ago that I don’t like video games in general. It’s how I am with pop culture–I don’t like 99% of it. It’s just uninteresting to me. I’m watching GeoffCon right now (with Oxboxtra) and am only waiting for Elden Ring DLC. No, it was not announced, but Ian suggested it and I cannot get it out of my mind. So far, there’s been an Aliens game and the game by the Dead Space creator.

I. Could. Not. Care. Less. Both are sci-fi in which I have no interest. I didn’t like Dead Space after playing maybe an hour of it. It’s just of no interest to me.

My brother and I have a long-standing joke about how he’s all sci-fi and I’m all fantasy. But he’s anti-aliens. He just like futuristic worlds–but no aliens! Which I think it odd, but he can shine on. I, on the other hand, am very much a fantasy person. I’m currently into urban fantasy, which I have been informed is a dead genre.

Anyway. Once Ian mentioned Elden Ring DLC, I could not get it out of my mind. Geoff has said that this year is going to be more about what has been already announced and less surprises, but who could blame him for closing it out with a trailer for Elden Ring DLC?

Speaking of, I’m racing through it at breakneck speed (for me) in order to get the plat. I just have to get one of the canonical bland boring normal endings (plus Elden Ring, which is getting all the trophies) in order to get it. I think it’s hilarious that I need the normal ending to get the plat because that’s the one I would usually get first.

But. I put in 200+ hours into the first playthrough. I knew of the different endings. I didn’t seek them out, but it’s nearly impossible to miss if you’re looking in the forums at all. There’s a point in the game of no return–after which you get cut off from an area. you’re told to get things done before doing a certain thing if you want to get your plat. So I did all those things. And I backed up my save. And did everything I was told I needed to do in order to get the plat in one playthrough.


Continue Reading

Hades is one hell of a good time

Posted on by • 0 Comments

In my quest for the next meaty game I can sink my teeth into, there have been misses and there has been one game I’ve been keeping my eye on. It’s called Hades, and it’s a rogue-lite-like by Supergiant Games. Supergiant Games in an indie company that is beloved in the indie community as it were. Their previous games include Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre. All three games were hailed when they came out, and I’ve tried each of them. I’m sure you can tell that I did not fall in love with them by the tone of what I’ve written, and you would be right. I tried. Honestly, I gave at least the first two a fair shake. I could see why they were held in such high regards, but neither of them clicked with me. The third just wasn’t my type of game at all, which I knew before I bought it.

I will say that each game looks gorgeous. Supergiant Games does aesthetics well, and while you can tell an SG game by the look of it, they change it up with each game. They all have vivid color palettes and a dreamy-like look to the graphics. From memory and a few stills, Bastion has earthy tones, Transistor is pastel-y, and Pyre has a more intense but darker color palette. Hades is just bright (but with the same richness of colors). I love the cartoony without being cartoonish feel to the characters (another staple of the games) and I love the theme of this game. I was obsessed with mythology when I was younger, so this is a nice way to scratch that itch.

I gave all three of their prior games more time than I normally would because they were so well-regarded in the indie community. I wanted desperately to like them, but I didn’t. Or rather, I didn’t feel compelled to keep playing. I thought each game was well made and could absolutely see why people were gaga over them. I couldn’t make myself like them, however, and I reluctantly moved on from each. Each time, I felt as if I were the problem, not the game, as if it were a personal failing that I couldn’t really get into the games.

This is the reason I was apprehensive when picking up Hades. In fact, I avoided it for a bit because I was worried that I would feel that way yet again. This game is more beloved than the others, if that’s possible, garnering outstanding scores across the board. The worst Metacritic score is 8.5. That’s the worst. I did watch a YouTuber try it out and liked what I saw, but who knew if it’d be the same when I actually played it? Still. I needed a game and it recently came out of Early Access. That meant it was on sale, so I picked it up. I was hoping it’d be like Binding of Isaac: Rebirth in that I’d be able to play it endlessly despite frustrations with it. BoI: R is far from a perfect game, but there’s something really comforting about playing it.


Continue Reading