Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: resignation

Nightreign (FromSoft) is killing me, not vice-versa

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In yesterday’s post, I was talking about how I had made no progress in two days. I was dispirited, and I felt as if my time with the game was coming to an end. One of the biggest problems with the game is that for someone as bad as I am at it, I’m not going to make it to the final boss every run. In fact, I’ve seen the second boss four or five times. Maybe six. And the best I’d done was a quarter health left.

Today, I had three or four really bad runs. Bad runs are mostly when my teammates decide to take on a difficult field boss on the first day (you should usually wait until the second day), then stubbornly continue to try after dying time and time again. One person either got disconnected or left the game, and there was one run in which a Duchess single-handedly killed the second night boss on her own when both the other teammate and I were downed. The boss had roughly a quarter of their health left. The Duchess had revived our other teammate and me more than once, and–by the way, this is such a terrible mechanic in the game.

The revival system, I mean. My god. I really liked the idea of it hitting your teammates in order to revive them. However, in practice, it’s awful. I’ve explained it before, but quickly, it’s a circle made of three segments. When you die once, the first segment fills with purple. As your teammates hit you, the purple goes down and once it’s all gone, you can get up again.

Oh, and about that. If you’re anywhere near the enemy/boss who downed you, they can hit you again before you can stagger away. And kill you again. So that’s cool, too. I have screamed to my teammates to leave me before because I knew it was futile to try to revive me. And, I’ve sometimes ignored a downed teammate if I and my other teammate were close to downing the boss. It doesn’t feel good, but it’s better than futilely hitting my teammate and watching the bar fill back up.

People have said that if one of the bars is depleted, it should stay that way for that round of revival. I agree. I know that From likes to make things hard, but this is ridiculous. Especially since the hitbox for hitting a teammate is bullshit. It’s so hard to actually hit them, and it’s fucking frustrating. Let me reiterate that I like the concept of the revive, but it was horribly implemented.

Back to that one run–the Duchess manaaged to down the Ancient Dragon on her own. I was feeling pretty good as we went to meet the Nightlord. Could this be the run? In short, no. We got barely halfway before we wiped. I was the last person standing, which, as I’ve said before, is never a good thing. And it was so dispiriting.


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Nightreign (FromSoft)–I can’t versus I won’t

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I am bad at FromSoft games. I have said this from the beginning, and it only gets worse the older
I get. I hated Dark Souls by the time I finished it, and sometimes, I wish that I had ended my FromSoft journey there. I’m not being snarky;I think I might have been happier overall because my god, these games push me to my very limits.

I’m mostly kidding. Mostly. I think? I’m not really sure sometimes. I  have more to muse about Nightreign, and here is the post I wrote about it yesterday. I am still frustrated with this game, and I think I need to admit to myself that beating it (defeating all the Night Lords) is just not going to happen–especially since I don’t have a squad to roll with. I got lucky on my second run ever to have two great rando teammates who carried me to a win against the first boss. I have joked ruefully that it’s the worst thing to happen to me because it gave me unrealistic expectations as to how it would be to deal with other bosses. I mean, I never thought they would be easy because it’s FromSoft, but I did think it would be reasonable to do in this time-frame. I’ve gotten the second boss down to about a quarter-health, but then I was the last one alive. That is never good.

It’s hard because I see other people cleaning out bosses like it was nothing (in the Discord). Some are even first-timing the bosses (together on PS5. That’s what most people are playing on). I have envy, but I know that even if I were playing with the top-tier players, I would not be able to do that because I am the weakest link. Not always, but usually.

I have some hard decisions to make. One is whether I want to continue playing the game at all. This is where the meat of this post was going to be (we’ll see if I stick to that or not), so let’s get to it.

Am I having fun playing this game? No. In fact, I’m pretty miserable as I’m playing. Here’s the thing. I play From games for the exploration, which is slow and deliberate. At least when I do it. In my first playthrough of Elden Ring, I did not make it to the first story boss until after ten hours of exploration. That was not a smart idea because the first time you meet the first story boss and don’t beat him, Melina comes to say she was taking your measure. Would you like to go to the Roundtable Hold?


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Nightreign (FromSoft) is testing my patience

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I’m stuck on the second boss. This is partly my fault and partly not. Which is the theme of this game, really. Or rather, my reaction to this game.I am stuck on the second boss, and it’s frustrating as fuck. I’ve only actually seen the boss three times. At least I think it’s three. Maybe two? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s  three. I was lucky enough to be carried for a win on the first boss on the first night by two beasts of players. We demolished the boss in a rather quick fashion, too. Even though it wsa three or four hours after the game dropped, they were pros.

Here is my post from yesterday.

The problem for me is that I’m following one or both of my teammates because I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. Still. I mean, I know to hit the churches and the sites of graces, but that’s about it. Some people seem to prefer fighting all the field-bosses to get the perks for that while others just run through all the dungeons to get the perks from that (which includes a field boss at the end).

I have to note that a patch came out today, and one thing they focused on was making solo more balanced. Someone in the Discord posted a pic of their first solo win (after patch) and said it was much more reasonable now. I tried it, and I still didn’t make it past the first night. And this is with my main character. So solo will not be for me.

I had a few runs today on the second boss. Here’s the frustrating thing. Each of my teammates seem to know what they are doing. Then, on the first or second night boss, it all falls apart. To be fair, some of it is my fault because I die to the goddamn ring. This is because oftentimes, my teammates like to fight something that is in the ring, get the rewards, and then hurriedly get out of the ring. Because I don’t know/can’t navigate the map, have difficulty with spatial observation and reflexes, that means I can’t cut it as close to the line as they can.

At this point, I think I need to watch videos on how to optimize if I want to continue playing. Which is no fun for me! I hate all that shit, and it’s antithetical to how I play From games. Other people in the Discord are making it to the third and fourth bosses, and it’s making me sad. I don’t think I’m going to roll credits (I think that’s killing five Night Lords). I can’t even see a way to kill the second Night Lord, let alone the last.

It’s really frustrating to have a really good team that demolishes the first night boss and even the second, but then falls to the Night Lord on the third night. The three times I’ve seen the Night Lord, we did the best on our first run. We got it down to a quarter of its health. The other two times, we got it to the second phase, but just.


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Nightreign (FromSoft) isn’t really for me

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Nightreign (FromSoft) is not me, and that’s…I was going to say it was ok, but it’s kinda not. I have done a series of A Quick Look at the game, and this is part three in which I listed several negatives about the game. I’m going to continue in that vein, pointing out what is on me and what is on the game (or both).

The last point I made was about the loot, and I want to expound on that a bit more. My M.O. is to follow one of my teammates because everyone is better than I am at this point. I just figured out how to ping on the map, but I rarely pull it out because there is no time. I just try to stay with a teammate, and if I lose them (happens a fair amount of time), I run to one of their pings. I try to spot them on the way, but even if I do, that doesn’t always help. I ‘ll get to that later.

I noticed that my teammates rarely stop to bust through crates with loot or if they do, they rarely pick up shit. And I’ve started to do that as well because the loot is so terrible. I mentioned in the last post how dispiriting it was to get shit that I can’t use–either because it’s not for my chaarcter or it’s too high level for me. Then I have to think about whether I want to take it with me in hopes I’ll reach that level. If it’s a Level 3 or a Level 7, I’ll probably take it with me. Anything higher, and I leave it because no way I’l get past a Level 10. I think you can get up to Level 15, but I have only reached Level 10 once. See, when you die, you lose a level. I think that’s too punishing. The whole death mechanic in general is way too much.

In addition, many of the consumables are just trash. I don’t need boluses for the most part or exalted flesh. I mean, both have their uses, but with very limited inventory, I’m not going to take them over, say, Starlight Shards (refills your flask of FP slowly) or boiled shrimp/crab (boosts defense for something like 30 seconds). You can have six weapons (three on each hand), and the passives work even if you’re not using them. Ther e are four consumable slots unless you buy the item that gives you two more (I want to say). There are plenty of item drops, but 90% of it is trash. I would much prefer less loot, but make each drop better/useful/relevant.

Each Night Lord is weak to a certain element. The first is weak to holy. The meta is to find something that does holy because it makes a big difference. You can look at the map and see where there is church/ruin/cave that is holy, but you are not guaranteed to have one on the map. There are greases you can pick up that add that element to your weapon, but I don’t think they work on staves and seals.

I only played with randos today, trying to do the second boss. It’s weak to poison, and I found a few poison things–but again, I don’t think they can be affixed to a staff or a seal. By the way, I have found a seal that has Black Flame on the RB and Lightning Spear on the RT. That is by far my favorite because both of those are really solid incantations.

Here’s the thing. I am not really enjoying the game. It’s too frenetic and fast-paced for me. If I take four seconds to look through my choices after a defeated boss, I feel guilty that I’m dragging my teammates down.

By the way, that’s one reason I don’t play mulitplayer co-op at all; I feel like I’m a drag on my teammaates. I mean, I am. The best I can do is not fuck up, not die, and revive my teammates if they do die.

Here are the things that are my issues that make the game not fun:

1. I have spatial/depth perception issues

As you might imagine, this makes it hell for me to try to get around the map.I can see where my teammates are, but I can’t figure out how to get to them. I spent one frustration Day One stuck in a mine, and I could not get the fuck out. I was contemplating quitting out because I was so frustrated.

It’s especially bad because of the breakneck speed. If I overshoot something and fall all the way down, then I have to find my way back to the starting point again before even attempting to go where I need to go. I have done this so many times because I’ve misgauged the distance of where I am and where I need to be. Or how to get there. I have died to the fire so many times because I simply can’t figure out the way to get away from it.

This one is on me, obviously, but it’s especially bad in this game.

2. No voice chat

This is probably a good thing with randos, but I do find it easier when I can hear my teammates and one of them is telling me where to go. In a game like this, you need someone to take point, and it’s easier to do this over voice. Today, most of my teammates just did their own thing, which was really frustrating. I tried to follow one or the other, but without them being together, it was kind of pointless.

That’s on the game, and it shows that From still has a way to go with multiplayer.

3. Progress is way too slow for mid players

Look. I don’t pretend to be amazing at From games. I’m decent at the Souls games and at Elden Ring, but I’m shit at the Bloodborne and Sekiro. I didn’t think I’d be good at this game, btu I also didn’t think I’d still be this lost after four days. And my interest has dropped every day. I managed to finish up the first chunk of the Recluse’s Remembrance Quests which gave me her personalized relic. Relics are placed in chalices. You equip three relics before you go on an expedition (run), and hers is quite good.

Which is great beacuse the ones I’ve gotten so far are piddling or not for my character. Again, they should have made it so you get a relic related to the character you chose for the run. These are the little things that really make a difference in a game like this.

This is on the game, and it seems like it would be fairly easy to implement some of the changes.

4. The little things

There are a bunch of little things in the game that would be a nice addition. One, have a way to abandon the run if it’s not going well. There are times when you know early on that it’s not the run. Once, we made it from not the run to almost the run, but not quite. Other times, though, there is just no way it’s going to be a good run. If I die twice, I feel like I might as well give up. But I don’t want to bail on my teammates like that. Funnily enough, the last run I did, one person eiether got disconnected or left, leaving me and one teammate. I followed them around, and we got to the second night boss. Where we died. Which leads me to the next thing.

5. Re-tune the bosses

Oh my goodness. I’m not even talking about the Night Lords, though I will get to them later. I’m talking about the field bosses, especially the ones that end the first two nights. If it was just the boss themselves, that would be one thing. But before each night boss, there are a ton of mid-to-hard ads that are just filler. It really feels like they’re added just to whittle down all your resources before the actual boss–and it’s not enjoyoable in the least.

More tomorrow.

 

How to self-soothe during the dark days

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I’m still reeling. I ‘m not the only person who is. The deep anger is bubbling, and I’m not sure what to do with it.

Tangentially, I’ve had the longest writing drought (except for blog posts) that I’ve had in my life since I started writing–which was when I was seven. Back then, it was poetry. A bit later, I wrote a short story for school that was a murder mystery (I found my love for it at a young age). It was about a young girl, Birdie, who was ostracized by her peers (yes, I was drawing on real life. Which is still what I do). There was a teacher found murdered, I think? There were red herrings galore, but it turned out that Birdie killed her. I drew the illustrations to accompany the story as well (they were shitty). For some reason, playing cards played a part in it as well? I can’t remember why Birdie committed the murder, but that was very Agatha Christie of me–writing from the point of view of the killer. And, no, I hadn’t read Agatha Christie at that time.

By the way, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the book to which I’m referencing, is one of my favorite Poirot novels. If I remember correctly (and I’m not going to Google it, so I’m right in my own head), it was controversial at the time because while some people thought it was brilliant, others thought it was cheating. The reason why? Because the narrator was the murderer. Yes, I’m spoiling a book that came out nearly a century ago. Deal with it.

It was different to begin with because Captain Hastings isn’t in it. I have to admit that I prefer to have him there because he anchors the stories. Plus, he’s a good stand-in for the reader while simultaneously making me feel smart (because he’s not the brightest bulb in the garden). He has a good heart and an impetuous nature. He is credulous and susceptible to women who have hair that was a certain shade of auburn.

In this book, Dr. Sheppard is the narrator. Poirot has retired and moved to the countryside. He has dedicated himself to growing the perfect marrow, which I never knew what that was. It’s a courgette, which is zucchini in American English. The book opened with Poirot gardening and being angry because the marrows weren’t doing what he wanted. He was throwing them around, and one landed in Dr. Sheppard’s yard.

They struck up a friendship and when a murder happened, Poirot leaned on Dr. Sheppard to do the legwork. The book is written from Dr. Sheppard’s point of view as a journal of sorts. At the end, after Poirot denounced him as the murderer, Dr. Sheppard revealed that he had intended the journal to be his magnum opus after he got away with it. I have some quibbles about how Christie wrote the book because she did have the tendency to dance on the line of being not fair.


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