Before my medical crisis, I was very much into FromSoft games, in part for the difficulty and pride in beating the games. When I heard Elden Ring was coming out, I had this elaborate plan about how I would have two different characters. One would be for my solo run and the other would be for co-op. Then, I had my medical crisis and all that went out the window. The only thing I wanted was another Miyazaki world to explore. Lovely, bleak, tense, gruesome, and achingly heartbreaking at the same time.
I got all that and more with the game. It’s incredible; it really is. However (and you knew there was going to be a ‘however/but’ after that statement), I have been havinng a problem with the difficulty since Sekiro in 2019. Actually, since the DLc of Dark Souls III a few years earlier, but Sekiro really underscored that the games were going in a direction I wasn’t comfortable with.
I was relieved when they went back to Souls combat in Elden Ring, but the brutality in the last quarter of the game really drained the enjoyment for me. I’ve talked many times about how From has bought its own hype and makes the end of their games way too hard. Yeah, I said it. They are too hard at the end.
Well, let me rephrase that. They are too hard for me because that’s not why I play the games. Not back then and doubly so now. And I am tired of feeling like I suck at the games. Whether I do or not. (I do, but maybe not sa much as I think I do.)
Side note: The new thing in soulslikes is making the parry/deflect king–like in Sekiro. I. Fucking. Hate. This. I can’t parry. I have never been able to parry. I don’t mean ‘won’t’; I mean can’t. I spent hours trying to parry the Silver Knights in Anor Londo. I got to the point where I could parry the sword guys 75% of the time. The spear guys? Maybe 15% of the time. 20% if I was feeling lucky.