Underneath my yellow skin

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How I rank the FromSoft games

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Before I get to 1 and 2 on my favorite FromSoft games list, I want to explain the criteria I used to rank the games. I don’t know if I ever have, and even if I have, I am going to do it again.

First of all, there’s vibes. Yes, vibes. Vibes include atmosphere, environment, level design, and just the overall feel of things. FromSoft is beyond compare when it comes to atmosphere and level design. You can’t help but gasp in awe and amazement. When they are at their best, the level design is true art.

I remember a time in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC where I  had been exploring for what seemed like ages. The DLC is brutal, and I had to dump 20+ points into Vigor at the beginning of the DLC in order to stand a chance (and not get one-hit). It’s recommended in the base game and beyond to have 60 Vigor points. I played the first 100 hours with 18 Vigor. I only added pointts in Vigor when I got the Mimic Tear beacuse it takes health and not FP. You need 660 HP in order to summon the Mimic. 18 Vigor is 598. 21 is 680, which, obviously, leaves you with very little HP if you use Mini-Me.

The thing is, though, once you use Mini-Me, you’re not going to stop. For the most part. It’s by far the best spirit summon out of the thirty or so that are available. Every playthrough, I think I’m going to try a different spirit ash, and every time, I d othe same thing. Lone wolves and jellyfish are my two main ones. Until I get Mini-Me. Then it’s me and Mini-Me until the end. Except in my intelligent playthrough. Mini-Me not quite as good for whatever reason. I still used Mini-Me quite a bit, but I also used Tiche, which is the second-best spirit ash (and the hardest to get). Oh, and Tay-Tay frem the DLC (that’s a nickname so I won’t spoil it). That spirit ash is a tank and can take out some bosses by itself.

I can get lost in the weeds with all the games. I can talk forever about them, but I’ll try to rein myself in.

Another thing I judge on is innovation. But, I will be honest. It’s not the biggest part of my ranking. I mean, I value it. I’m blown away by the innovations big and small that From has made. The perfect example is the map in Elden Ring. See, FromSoft does not do maps. At all. There’s a joke one in Sekiro*, but no one even knows it’s there. Their belief is that you should traverse the areas enough to memorize them rather than rely on a map.

And, for the most part, FromSoft fans adapted to them (as usual). We accepted that we would have to die a million times to learn the differerent areas. And, boy, did we. We parroted what they said and kept falling down over and over until we knew every nook and cranny of those games. Map? We didn’t need no stinking map!


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Continuing my ultimate FromSoft list

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In yesterday’s post, I started my list of FromSoft games in honor of the fact that Nightreign is dropping in a month. They just released a trailer about the Recluse, who is considered an advanced character (who does magicks). I am going to buy it and play it, of course, but I have a  hunch it won’t be for me. I’ve watched gameplay about it, and the biggest thing I’ve noticed is the constant speediness of the game. You’re not given any time to think, which is not how I play these games. Added to that the fact that it’s multi, and it’s os not my thing. At all.

I have always maintained, though, that these games aren’t made for me. I love them, but they don’t love me back. Oh, also, I did a list like this in July of 2023, which is a year-and-five-months after Elden Ring came out. In that list, I put–well, let me say that I played Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin) in entirety a few months ago. Not for any specific reson–just because. In my last ranking, I had Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin) in my 4th spot. I mentioned that I played it more than I had the first game, but that the first game got the nod because it had a superior first half.

I said that the game sufferedin comparison after playing Elden Ring. Do I feel the same now? Let’s see what I put fourth.

4. Dark Souls

Gasp! Shock! Quelle Horreur! Did I really put Dark Souls below Dark Souls II? Yes, yes I did. Look. Here’s the t hing. Sekiro and Bloodborne are permanently placed at six and five, respectively. That will not change. I mean, maybe if Bloodborne comes to the PC, I may play it again and love it more. With my Xbox Elite 2 controller. I hate the DualShock. So much.

Dark Souls And Scholar of the First Sin (Dark Souls II) are roughly even in my estimation. I like them about the same, but for vastly different reasons. I usually put the second game in this slot, but I have to be honest. I do it out of a sense of tribute to the first game. But, to be even more honest with you, I have played the second game probably twice as much as the first–at least the full game. I have platted all three Souls games, so you can tell that I’ve played all three plenty.

I have played and finished the second game probably two dozen times. I have started the first game that many times, but I have seen it all the way through maybe half that. Why? Because the second half of the game is not great.

All the accolades to the first half of the game. My issues with it are mine alone or a feature and not a bug (like no fast travel, the esoteric nature of the game, how gruelling it is), but the first half is a sublime experience. Once you get a handle on everything, I mean. And to end it with the Ornstein and Smough fight? It’s still such a highlight boss fight, even if it’s no longer the back/mind-breaker it used to be.

Now that I am looking back and past how the game absolutely broke me the first time I played it, I can marvels at what a masterpiece it is. In the first half.

It’s hard to overstate what a drop the second half was. I think the New Londo area is incredible for atmosphere and ambience (creepy AF), but the boss run is…not great. There is no bonfire in the area, which makes it very arduous. And the boss is just a DPS fight. I actually like this boss, though. The Four Kings. It has a neat mechanic to it, and I’ve never had much difficulty with it (in NG).

Because of the shitty second alf (and, yes, it’s pretty shitty), I’m moving it down one spot, but really, 4 and 3 are virtually interchangeable.

3. Scholar of the First Sin (Dark Souls II)

I did it. Finally. I swapped 3 and 4. I have been feeling it for quite some time, but my loyalty to the first game forbade me from putting it fourth. However, I recently played the second game, and it really holds up. Maybe I was just in the mood, but I really got into it. Yes, starting with only two estus flasks is brutal. Yes, swigging from the estus flask is painfully slow. Yes, the level design is not quite as elegant or intricate as the first game. And, yes, the enemy hordes are brutal and borderline unfair.

However. this game is a lot of fun. I like the nugs (what Rory from RKG calls the lifegems) which many people did not like because it really changes the balance between the bonfires. Some people felt like FromSoft ramped up the difficulty between bonfires because they were betting you would use lifegems along the way. Which I did. Yes, it lessened the need for estus flasks, but considering that they start you with one (you can get one more right away), that’s a good thing. And, yes, there was a point where I had 99 on me all the time (I always replenished my supply when I was back in Majula), but I felt I earned that shit.

One thing people did not like is that you started with a slow roll. You had to put points into ADP in order to get the basic Dark Souls roll. I will admit that was frustrating as fuck, and it was not a good choice on the part of the developing team.

This is one of my biggest  issues with the second game. I thought that the team didn’t quite understand what made th efirst game so good. They went for difficulty by adding enemy hordes and unfair enemy placement. And the weird weapon durability bug that still isn’t fixed. And the level design is not nearly as good. However, they tried new and innovative things like lifegems, adding different enemies to bosses in NG+, different ways to kill bosses (still not sure that’s intentional), and one thing I appreciated, having NPC summons for nearly every boss.

Other innovations were messing with the lighting (and having the one area where if you light all the sconces, you get an invader NPC and the best armor of the game), going into memories to get certain items to fight a certain boss, and many different lock systems.

I have more to say, but I’m calling it quits here. More tomorrow.

 

Let’s talk about weapon forms, bay-bee

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I’m back for a second day of ranking my weapon forms. I spoiled it by saying what my favorite is. I just took twenty minutes to look up Double Sword Forms. They are thin on the ground on YouTube. The ones I can find are mostly Chen style, which is not my style (Yang style). And a few that I found were…not good. I did find a review of a premium set–from the website I used to get my double saber set. The review was positive for the premium double sword set, which got my juices flowing.

This is the problem. I am obsessed with my weapons. I love them to pieces. I think of them as my children (no, not really, but it’s a good comparison–if limited). In the last six months or so, I have gotten really serious about the weapons. I’ve always loved them, but now, I’m elevating my game.

I can’t tell you how glorious it is to feel like I’m not a newb or novice any longer. Both emotionally and intellectually. I have liked the weapons from the moment I started them, but I have also felt like I’m a dilettante because I did not dedicate a solid amount of time to it. My teacher’s life is Taiji (and other martial arts, but the basis is Taiji). Same with some of her classmates and her teacher. It’s a huge part of my life, but I would not say that it was my life. I would say that it’s an important, intractable part of my life, though.

In the first decade of my study, I had an inferiority complex. When I went to my teacher’s home studio’s yearly Lunar New Year demo, I would be filled with awe at what her classmates could do.  I was intimidated and wondered if I would ever be that good.

Clarification: many of her classmates love the weapons the way I do. There’s one who has studied for roughly as long as I have, but is much further along. There’s another whose dedication to the sword is legend (and whose Sword Form is exquisite), and another who was slightly ahead of me in terms of which weapons they were demoing.

While watching the last demo, I had a few realizations. First, I was on par with several of the people demoing. I no longer had to feel like an imposter. There were two people besides my teacher and my teacher’s teacher whom I would say were clearly better than I was (the two I mentioned above), but the others were at par with me or even not as good.

(I have included a really cool Double Sword Form below. Not in my lineage, but amazing, nonetheless.)


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FromSoft games ranked, part 2

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Yesterday, I started ranking the From games that I have played. That means Demon’s Souls is not on the list because it is not yet on PC. Believe you me, I will play it if and when it is ported to the PC, but until then, it remains off the list. I have played 6 From games, and the ranking has remained pretty much the same until Elden Ring.

To recap, 6. Sekiro 5. Bloodborne.

4. Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin). Now. I want to say that in terms of how much I play the games, I have played this more than the first game. But, I would say that the first half of the first game is better and more incredible to play than this game. Much more so. I put these two very close together, and I could flip-flop them easily.

Let’s talk about this game for now, though. It got a lot of shit when it came out, and I’m not saying there weren’t valid criticisms. There were. The mobs are ridiculous and very much feel like they wanted to prove they were harder than the first game. In the first game, there were mobs, yes. But you were able to carefully draw them out one by one and could deal with them patiently. In this game, they’re thrown at you and you have to deal with them as best as you possbily can. Especially in the DLCs. The amount of mobs (and the enemies don’t stagger) was ridiculous. I still don’t like the DLCs for this game–well, actually, I don’t like the DLCs as much for any of the From games BECAUSE they are deliberately hard. Yes, the games themselves are hard, but it rarely felt as if that was the main purpose of the games.

I appreciated the sequel for trying to be innovative. I didn’t always agree with how they did it, such as cutting your health every time you died and starting you with one Estus, and you had to find Estus Shards to get more sips. I wouldn’t have minded as much if they started you with, say, five and made you find more, but one was very skimpy. There was one in Majula (the hub world), but it wasn’t easy to find. And two was still very little.

They did add Lifegems in that game, which mitigated the pain somewhat. They were consumables that could be crunched to slowly (oh so goddamn slowly) regain health. I cheerfully abused the situation by loading up on 99 Lifegems (the limit) when I was able to afford them and crunched them throughout the level. There were two other versions of the Lifegems (better), but I rarely used them.


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Ranking the From games

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I love the FromSoft games. This is something most people know about me. We have an unhealthy relationship in which they repeatedly kiss my ass, and I go back for more.  I’m a sub, yes, but this is taking it to the extreme. Just kidding! I used to be a sub, but now I’m a switch.

Anyway, back to FromSoft games.

I had the list of my favorites from before Elden Ring. Once I finished Elden Ring, I wanted to rank where I would put it, but I couldn’t. Why? Because I was overwhelmed by what I had experienced. 225+ hours for one playthrough. I had seen everything the game had to be seen (I hadn’t, but I thougth I had), and I didn’t know what to do with it.

Now, nearly a year-and-a-half laater, I have put over five hundred hours into the game. I’ve completed it three times for the plat (hundo chievo), and have four total characters. By the way, no matter what kind of character I make in the beginning, they end up being a strengthcaster. My current charracter started as a samurai and now is a strengthcaster with two grave scythes.

But, I’m ready to rank the games. I think. There are six that I have played (not Demon’s Souls), and I will rank them from least-favorite to most-favorite, with my perennial reminder that favorite doesn’t mean best.

6. Sekiro. I never clicked with the combat. This is the most restrictive of the games, and you either get it or you don’t. I didn’t. I have never been able to parry with consistency, and that’s all you can do in this game. Or rather, it’s the best way to play the game. I could get the deflect once every four or five times, which meant that I had to whittle down the health of each boss. Which was not fun. At all. I’ve watched people play it, those who can do the deflect with ease. It’s a completely different game when you can master the main combat mechanic than when you can (I assume).

In addition, you can’t level up. Well, you can, but not each individual stat. There is no customization in this game besides what you can attach to your prosthetic arm, and that seemed very underbaked. You had one sword and one ‘armor’, which I put in quotes because there were no stats for it. You had to play the game on its terms, which meant that you actually had to git gud. This is the least accessible of the From games, and it’s a shame because it’s a brilliant game. Really. I think it’s an amazing game–but it’s the least player-friendly and the one I probably will never get the plat in–unless they add co-op.


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