Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: second playthrough

Elden Ring redux

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I feel like talking about my second Elden Ring playthrough. Fair warningthat there will be spoilers as I want to talk about mid-to-late game events. I’ve mentioned before that there is an NPC questline that I would pay $30 for on its own. This is Ranni’s questline, which also encompasses War Counselor Iji, Blaidd, the half-human/half-wolf, and Preceptor Seluvis–the  ultimate asshole. In my first playthrough, it took me between thirty and fifty hours to do her questline in full. Well, mostly in full. I did not do a few steps, but I got there in the end.

The questline takes you underground to a gorgeous, star-speckled universe that is stunning. That’s saying something because the game in general is one amazing environment after another. It’s purple and ethereal and has a magical quality to it. I’ve described it before so I won’t get go into details again.

I finished the questline today in about 10 hours rather than the 30 or so it took me previously. The last boss you need to kill before you can do the very end of the quest is one I had so much trouble with in the first playthrough. I was not confident at all  going into the fight this time around. I walked through the golden mist and got the boss on the first–no, that’s not how it happened. At all. It smacked me around and I was deaded over and over again.

Here’s the thing. I was still skimping on my health because I wanted to boost my Int as fast as possible. And there were other stats I needed to boost as well. I had my Vigor at 20 for a bit, which is more than I had in the first playthrough at 100+ hours. In that playthrough, I had 18 Vigor at that point. Which meant every boss could one-hit me. With 23 or so health, I can usually take one hit, but with this boss, there is one move it does that will inta-kill me. And it plays into my spatial issues, too, which makes me so very not happy. The move is that it’ll disappear and then reappear somewhere. Oh, and the arena is the abyss (the name of the boss is Astel Naturalborn of the Void) which doesn’t help with my spatial issues. Now, the tip is to look to your left because if Astel respawns next to you, it’ll be to your left. That doesn’t seem to be the case for me and even if it is, I can’t see him in time to avoid his grab.


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Sekiro: starting anew

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*BONUS POST*

Ed. Note: I’m going to Sekiro you until the end of time. Spoilers. I guess? Sure. Why not.

same song, second verse.
So we meet again, Genichiro.

I started a new playthrough of Sekiro because I can’t quit this game no matter how hard I try. I really want to play Return of the Obra Dinn by Lucas Pope because I absolutely loved Papers, Please, his first game. It’s a game about being a border agent in a Eastern European country called Arstotzka, which sounds about as thrilling as watching paint dry, I know. Instead, it’s a tense, engaging, and surprisingly touching game that I gobbled up as quickly as I could. I had to decide who got in and who didn’t based on increasingly nitpicky specifications, and I had to decide if I wanted to let people in who shouldn’t be let in and accrue strikes against me. In addition, I had to deal with my home life, which was bleak. It was a fantastic game (and my name was in it! Lucas Pope asked for names for the passports, and mine got in!), and I was looking forward to the followup game. Why haven’t I played it yet? Well, Sekiro, obviously, but also because I’m afraid it won’t live up to the first game even though it’s gotten rave reviews.

Back to Sekiro. I started another playthrough even though I said I wouldn’t. I was so sure I’d be done with the game after my first run, but apparently, I wasn’t. I zipped through the first area (though not literally because I didn’t have my grappling hook yet) and saved my lord without a death. It was easy this time, but I did die during my first playthrough of this area, I’m pretty sure. Once I got my sword, I cut them all up including the leader. It’s amusing that he’s a mini-boss because he’s so easy. No one remembers him, but he’s really there to show you the basics. He only gives you Pellets (or maybe even just one) when you kill him, which is nothing. Most of the other mini-bosses give you a Prayer Bead and sometimes even a Gourd Seed. I made it to Genichiro is no-time flat, and I faced him with determination. I knew I was going to die because let’s face it, I’m just not that good without all my shit, but I was curious to see if I could at least get in a few good licks before he took me down. In addition, I had maybe a fifth of my Vitality and no heals. I wasn’t gonna waste Pellets at this point! You know what? I did ok. I got him down to about a fourth left of his first health bar. Hey, considering that I got maybe one block on him before dying the first time I met him in this part of the game, I consider that a win.

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