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Post by mediocreogre on Aug 31, 2021 13:42:16 GMT
I noticed we don’t have a thread for this game. I highly doubt there will be prominent LGBTQ characters, but the Dark Souls franchise has had coded lgbtq characters (some very, very fustrating, like Gwendolyn (who deserved better)) and has had themes that lgbtq players have generally found appealing. DS3 even had one of the most interesting characters be dressed in medieval garb reminiscent of male kink wear.
Details:
January 21, 2022 initial release date. Now February 25th, 2022
FromSoftware, and their lead Hidetaka Miyazaki with minimal involvement of A Song of Ice and Fire’s George R. R. Martin.
An action, semi open world, “RPG” with optional cooperative play.
set in a collapsing Medieval themed kingdom separate but inspired by the Dark Souls world. It’s standalone and you don’t have to play any previous game to understand this game.
supposedly this game is a less intimidating game than Sekiro or the Sousbourne games, having multiple ways to progress, multiple ways to create builds, cooperative play, more helpful NPC summon options, a mount with mounted combat, stealth, jumping and sleep arrows (to skip combat).
It’s apparently being released on current and last gen consoles and PC.
I’ll probably play this and will definitely be interested in cooperative play. But I wanna see more info… I’m personally ambivalent about these games and their lgbtq legacy. If I see more retrograde stuff… I can’t forgive another potentially hurtful representation like Gwendolyn.
Edit: I’ve decided to keep up maintaining this thread with new info cause after playing in the Closed Network Test, I am more interested in this game… I even decided to talk to some of my trans and non binary friends who like Dark Souls and I got a more complicated and sympathetic view of Gwendolyn from them (although they agreed there are also uncomfortable symbolisms, especially concerning his death) but apparently his transition from being assigned girl at birth by his Dad to being solely identified as male by DS3 is appreciated by some of my friends. I dunno.
anyways here is the cinematic trailer:
here is the first gameplay trailer
The Story?
Long ago, the Lands Between were a perfect realm blessed by the Elden Ring and the Golden Grace of the Erdtree and the rule of Queen Marika and her unnamed Husband and their 12 Demigod children (Godfrey, Godric, Milenia, Melina, and 8 others). The Tarnished were a race of people who lived in the Lands Between and shone with the golden light, but somehow became tarnished losing their grace. They were then exiled by the Queen/King. Sometime after, the Elden Ting was shattered and the 12 children warred over the pieces, destroying the land itself and warping into disturbing monsters. Now the Tarnished return to the Lands Between, across the Sea of Fog, to fulfill a prophecy to restore the Elden Ring.
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Post by mediocreogre on Nov 5, 2021 13:38:05 GMT
They released a gameplay trailer for this. It looks really good, looks like it will play sort of like Dragon’s Dogma more than Dark Souls.
There will be more an emphasis on builds. Stealth, jumping, multiple types of spells, archery all look viable. Crafting exists. Etc. it also looks to have the better facial/character customization of the re-made Demon’s Souls on PS5. It appears you can also mix and match weapon derived abilities. The mounted combat includes mounted spellcasting.
Multiplayer is set up to be more cooperative than PvP and you can even have summoning NPC builds which might help people who struggled in the past with the difficulty of these games.
The world looks beautiful and unique and very vertical (for a FromSoftware title).
I did not see anything lgbtq related in terms of content, but the most realistic expectation for this game would be to not have anything annoyingly frustrating, like Dark Souls 1 and 3 with Gwyndolin, but more like Bloodborn which had nothing explicitly lgbtq (either positive or negative), but had very lgbtq friendly themes. I wish you could hope for more, as these are my second favorite types of video games, but alas.
I’ll still wait to know for sure that there isn’t some sort of gross phobic surprise, but if not I’ll buy it and play it (probably on PC) and will gladly co-op with anyone who wants to from here.
the release date is also now tentatively February, it was moved back like a month.
edit: Here is the gameplay preview
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Post by mediocreogre on Nov 10, 2021 20:30:14 GMT
A media embargo lifted. Tons of gameplay videos Here’s a real good one but Fextralife has a really in depth one I can kinda see why the git gud fuck boys think the game looks easier, but I really think with these types of games you should be free to make the game harder by say not leveling up, not using summons, not upgrading weapons, etc instead of like removing hit and run, terrain exploits, or summons. I think this looks much more player friendly than past games. And that’s good. there are rolling deer. They literally tuck into a ball, and roll  basically, unlike past games, magic/miracles (and an unknown still Arcane special magic) looks incredibly good. Weapons can have interchangeable weapon arts, including magic ones. All spells have two attacks, and you can dual wield any weapons. I saw dragon magic, fire magic, cosmic magic, lightning magic, wind magic, BLOOD MAGIC, the tried and true blue magic, and divine magic. So that looks fantastic. sleep arrows, archery, stealth, and interesting bombs and things. talking monkey people! the mount can double jump basically to the top of vertical surfaces. ahhhhhhh!!!! so cool now I just gotta hope there’s nothing phobic |
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Post by mediocreogre on Nov 11, 2021 14:45:25 GMT
Co-Operative and PvP Details:
Co-Op and PvP disables the mount.
Co-Op is less restricted than in passed games, it’s being reported there are no Co-Op barriers, so if you want you can play with a person or friend the whole game.
There is a more coherent Co-Op summoning system, you can either leave your sign somewhere specific or search at a common interactable.
You will not be invaded unless you Co-Op or use an item that lets you get invaded while playing alone.
There are items that teleport you near to the Host, so open world friendly.
It’s platform specific I believe. PS 4/5, xboxes, PCs only within their platform.
I wish PS5s weren’t so expensive, as while I have a nice PC, I used to play FromSoft on my PS4 but I do not want to play this on that. PC is fine, but you are more likely to meet a hacker in PC.
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Post by mediocreogre on Nov 13, 2021 2:29:50 GMT
I played the game on PS4! (No network test on PC)
It ran pretty well, the graphics look a bit more smudged than the PS5 and I got some stutters, but all in all it ran better than I thought.
The game is still hard, it took me a while to kill the main boss of the demo, but I really enjoyed it. Felt more fun than when I played DS3 for the first time.
I had a few friends doing the test with me and we had a blast playing together.
There’s a really interesting lgbtq “lens” to read some of the little bits of plot in the game (kinda like the feminist interpretation of Dark Souls I subscribe to).
Still wanna see more of the plot before I’d think of buying it but it was a very fun 3 hours.
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Post by mediocreogre on Dec 1, 2021 1:28:58 GMT
So pretty, and more kick ass music. link (Twitter)
Here’s the OST that I can find |
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Post by mediocreogre on Dec 10, 2021 5:13:21 GMT
Story Trailer!!
I guess Elden Ring won some sort of “most anticipated of year” for 21 and 22. Kinda neat.
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Post by mediocreogre on Jan 30, 2022 14:40:36 GMT
As per usual, life post the holiday season has caught up to me and I’m too busy lately, but I did piece through the new info about this that dropped the last few days from the game informer hands on.
I’m personally looking for hints as to if there will be any stuff in the game that will ruin it for me (like weird stuff about race, gender, or whatever) and while I haven’t seen anything major, it looks to be the typical vague FromSoft game (which I like cause I turn my tired brain off and kill things with swords), but I did see one of the NPCs you “collect” (these games don’t pretend to not be gamey) is a woman who you “embrace” to get her special items. Which, on the one hand these games always have female NPCs that you have to do something metaphorically sexual with (sticking your hand in the darkness within the fire keeper to level up in DS3, or drinking female NPCs blood in Bloodborne) but on the other this feels a little more explicit, so maybe it’s not actually embracing, maybe it is a metaphorical embracing, but the FromSoft waifu trapping is maybe the worst.
Still nothing where I’d refuse to buy the game, but between this and the PC version being unsafe to play online (there’s an exploit where if you play with someone they can literally take control of your PC) I’m not sure I will buy this for a while. Especially cause I’m busy and might try to prevent myself from falling down a rabbit hole.
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Post by mediocreogre on Jan 31, 2022 13:57:53 GMT
Some good news is that they’re going to use the same anti cheat software now as Fortnight, which I would assume is better that we had with DS3 and stuff. So that might fix the risk of serious data loss/ system damage potential to the PC version.
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Post by mediocreogre on Feb 22, 2022 16:09:11 GMT
The game comes out in a few days. Still no review I trust as of yet. So not only do I not really have any idea what this will be about, I hear rumors the game is kinda bad on PC, at the moment, so I am definitely holding off buying this until I get more info
But here’s a cool trailer, hinting at cosmic horror stuff. Too bad the game looks so unique and cool. Making it hard to be a good consumer of video games.
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Post by mediocreogre on Feb 23, 2022 1:33:27 GMT
I do have some good news though, it seems like FromSoft is committed to choosing between body type a and body type b instead of “male or female” which is honestly great. Though I have not seen it for my eyes in the final product it was that way in the network test.
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Post by mediocreogre on Feb 23, 2022 21:26:17 GMT
Game is getting great reviews, you can change character appearance and body type (gender) at any time, but… apparently the performance on PC is bad, some people claim it is anti cheat running in the background. We’ll see.
I’ve also heard the story is very, very good for a FromSoft game (probably George r.r. Martin’s work), and that the game is much more approachable for new players or people afraid of difficulty. I’ve also heard the new magic mechanics and weapon customization make more builds possible and greatly expand character personalization opening up many more viable builds from pure magic to archer to stealth to barbarian.
here’s a review by one of the chiller/kinder FromSoft veteran PvP people. He talks about difficulty toward the end and why difficulty in these games can be an illusion, and Elden ring’s changes make it more approachable for the intimidated.
So I did buy it, I am pre loading it… hopefully I either don’t regret getting it or ruin my life playing too much. God that’s kinda pathetic to say anymore… but considering the state of the world… I need fantasy escapism and to kill monsters with shiny swords in front of glowy gold trees. I am a simple man.
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Post by mediocreogre on Feb 26, 2022 14:46:28 GMT
I’ve been playing a bit. The real game is definitely harder than the network test so progress is slow. The biggest reason it’s hard, and maybe even I’d argue harder than DS3, is the stuff to make it easier is tucked away, so like your spirit summons are weak until you figure out how to convince an NPC to make them stronger.
I also made the mistake of choosing a more undergeared class. Anyone who says it’s better to start undergeared for you to appreciate item drops… is being a fool. Game is hard. Items are well hidden. The music is amazing. It’s super fun, but it does not need to be any harder. Unless that’s your thing.
but I can’t really explain how cool the game is. Enemies, music, world, characters… all cool. So many ways to take on tough fights. Awesome abilities. Fun puzzles.
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Post by Lee on Feb 27, 2022 15:03:39 GMT
I've been watching videos! Even though the challenge aspect still scares me,it does actually look pretty awesome. The footage for the ps5 version is pretty impressive, and I love a good eye candy game (even if the visuals are varied from wow to meh depending on the area it would seem).
The magic looks pretty interesting. I also like the fact you can play a stealth(ish?) archer. I am not ready to go in at full price though. Sorry, I'm a cheap ass gamer most of the time. I look forward to getting it later on though!
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Post by dgcatanisiri on Feb 27, 2022 23:19:01 GMT
I've been watching videos! Even though the challenge aspect still scares me,it does actually look pretty awesome. The footage for the ps5 version is pretty impressive, and I love a good eye candy game (even if the visuals are varied from wow to meh depending on the area it would seem). The magic looks pretty interesting. I also like the fact you can play a stealth(ish?) archer. I am not ready to go in at full price though. Sorry, I'm a cheap ass gamer most of the time. I look forward to getting it later on though! Yeah, I ended up getting yanked onto the interest train here, but there's just no way I'm getting it in the near future, cuz I'm just too broke at the moment - I'm still waiting to get Guardians of the Galaxy and Horizon Forbidden West, and those are definitely ranked higher on my priority list at the moment. |
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Post by mediocreogre on Feb 28, 2022 6:41:22 GMT
I've been watching videos! Even though the challenge aspect still scares me,it does actually look pretty awesome. The footage for the ps5 version is pretty impressive, and I love a good eye candy game (even if the visuals are varied from wow to meh depending on the area it would seem). The magic looks pretty interesting. I also like the fact you can play a stealth(ish?) archer. I am not ready to go in at full price though. Sorry, I'm a cheap ass gamer most of the time. I look forward to getting it later on though! I completely understand. I bought DS3 on sale when it came out, was terrible and then years later played again, beat it, got pretty good at PVP and then move d on to Bloodborn. So this game is not intimidating and I kinda became a souls fan, and even pretty good somehow. Unfortunately I am on PC too, otherwise I’d offer to carry anyone through the game like I did my friends with DS3. As per game itself though… my god! everything is fun. I went faith and holy magic, cause I normally go for sorcery and the Moonlight Greatsword. But after 15 ish hours, I just finished the FIRST zone and first main boss/dungeon. The open world is huge… and there’s an underground (that blew my mind it’s so pretty). Basically, by the time I ran around the open world in the first zone, geared up, and finally did the boss I needed to kill, the fights were hard, but with online friends or the generic npc summons and my levels from having fun exploring, it was not that hard (for me) and I didn’t even optimize stats (I put very few points into health). but yeah the stealth system works great in the over world, but bosses are sometimes immune to stealth. A few aren’t, but they’re side bosses. But so many difficult fights you can truvualize with stealth especially with the stealthy spells. Anyways, I do recommend the game 100%. I fully support not buying it full price though, but for me, I actually wanna avoid spoilers so getting the game full price ensures I get to experience it. But if this were a game I was worried about, I’d wait. the first zone is kinda subdued visually, but in the game you get teleported occasionally to other zones (I’d b line back to finish my thorough play) and… it gets truly bizarre and beautiful. but this game has great magic compared to DS3. It seems like going sorcery might make the game a bit easier too? I went mostly strength and faith but I kinda want blood magic abilities but I got a shiny golden magic imbued into my swords that I kinda like too much. |
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Post by farferello on Feb 28, 2022 13:18:55 GMT
I've been watching a few of the streamers I follow on Twitch play this. It does look interesting from a visual/story point but I have never been any good at Souls-like games and I would probably find the combat frustrating enough to either quit, or to go offline and cheat it so I could enjoy it. It's the same issue I had with the other games, I liked the look of them and the lore but the combat was not for me.
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Post by mediocreogre on Feb 28, 2022 13:50:44 GMT
Yeah I was curious if the gossip that this game would break the FromSoftware formula and embrace a new player base was true but it really is just the best of these types of games. The overworld is fun, the story is interesting my theory Is that the Elden ring is connected to a weird eldritch thing going on that a ton of characters are falling to and there’s this insanity inducing color yellow But it takes a certain type of person I think to play it and beat it. Especially early. Months from now all the cheese will be discovered and usually there are ways to trivialize even the hard bosses and helpful how to videos. Though if you’re like me, the game kinda becomes rhythmic and it gets you out of your head. And yeah I die, a lot, but death is an encouraged mechanic and there is infinite currency so if you do lose your precious runes, you’ll get more back later. I dunno it gets me into a childlike zone and I enjoy myself where as I can get fatigued by cinematic story RPGs and complicated quests anymore so sometimes I like just turning on a game, following shiny golden trails, and learning move sets or relying on instincts to kill big scary guys and gals and enbs. But again if anyone is playing this now, or in the future, in our small community and is on PC (for me the game runs fine, and I have a middle tier, maybe less than that now, PC, there’s some areas that stutter but it gets better with updates), I will gladly play with them and help. also anyone new to these games and just curious if they could play them, I recommend the YouTuber Emma from Emmalition, she’s new, did Demon’s Souls remake then Bloodborne and now Elden Ring. She’s not really good at the games, but she really likes them, and manages to decimate hard bosses by leveling her character in certain ways (health investments) but failing that, just find a really good thorough lore guy like VaatiVidya and just watch their videos. That’s a completely valid way to play these games honestly, just don’t and be okay with that. |
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Post by farferello on Feb 28, 2022 14:41:00 GMT
I've watched a lot of different people both on twitch and youtube play these types of games and it never looks easy to me. One stramer I'm currently watching who has played through all the games before is rapdily approaching 300 deaths. I think I would have quit by about 50. I'm just very bad at memorizing tells and patterns of enemies and I'd probably get bored long before I finally 'got it.' I might check out a few of the people you recommended though.
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Post by mediocreogre on Mar 1, 2022 2:31:38 GMT
Yeah it’s hard for me to give advice cause I don’t think I memorize anything I just respond in the moment. I do know people who analyze moves but that trips me up I just have to go in. And I’ve definitely died a lot, I just think these games, as is with no easier settings, are kinda divisive. Like, I get wanting the accomplishment, and I get not wanting the temptation to flip a setting, but I am not sure they answered it this game. Like, I definitely can cheese some fights with the new mechanics… but it still might be on average tougher than DS3, that said, I’ve not died to any boss more than 8 times, which is low, but maybe I’m just improving, and the last time I played one of these I did a level 1 on,y challenge where I died….. a lot. I also have not really explored the spirits. It’s hard to get them as you can only use them some places so I kinda just forget about them.
the overworld is also kinda just designed to get cheap deaths. So many things pop out and kick you off ledges. But I like that stuff, I dunno.
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