First round against Radogan with my mimic today was about perfect - took him down straight away.
Elden Beast - the same, got a series of easy attack patterns I could avoid - got it down to a few hits left. I had full health. Mimic had quarter health. This was it.
My AV receiver I put my PS5, HTPC, Switch etc through decided to randomly switch inputs. Screen goes black. Controller rumbles. By the time I found the remote to switch back to the PS5 I’m dead.
The universe does not want me to finish this game.
Usually the way it works for me is that if I die with the boss almost dead I have a hell of a time repeating my success in fighting the boss, and die quickly a few times.
Congrats! The closest I had to your EB woe was messing around with cloud saves on console to try to unlock all the endings. At one point, I learned the hard way that my local save wasn’t synced to “after defeating Elden Beast” but was still at “fight Godfrey” and what was supposed to be a “I can quickly get some Achievements” became “I gotta do the gauntlet again.”
This save SNAFU happened after I had the luck of dying right at the end of the Hoarah Loux phase, but Tiche’s DOT killed him at the same time and I got the reward/credit for defeating him just in time, and that lucky run was negated and I had to fight him all over again.
Late to the party (and congrats to Sam) but for me the first time around I was obscenely over-leveled and neither Radagon or the Elden Beast presented much of a problem. This time around though I was really struggling. I checked out a bunch of videos to get some ideas and the one I landed on was using the Fallingstar Beast Jaw for it’s weapon art and using my Mimic and the Shabriri’s Woe talisman (the one that makes them aggro the wearer). For the Radagon part you want to get through as fast as possible with the Mimic still relatively healthy and plenty of health potions. At the start of the EB you remove Shabriri’s Woe but the Mimic will still have it and draw 100% of the aggro from EB. Trying to stay on the side opposite of the mimic get in close and spam the Beast Jaw Gravity Bolt. Idea being to stagger EB often, keep it from flying around so much, and then just whittle it down.
Thanks! I got the Ranni ending so maybe I am not the Elden Lord? or I am the Elden Lord with her on the moon for 1000 years or something? Who knows?
Starting NG+ and seeing all those grace points empty was kind of dispiriting. I think I will just roll a brand new character and go full on magic with that.
I can’t remember if this was covered in this thread already but I’ve had a question on my mind for a long time now.
How many here were veterans of or at least very familiar with Miyakaki’s prior ‘soulsborne’ games? For me, all I knew of them was their reputation for being ‘hard’; that aspect of trying for hours to learn the pattern to beat a boss sort of ‘hard’. I have never had time for that kind of game so I just simply passed on them all; not for me.
Whether it was the GRRM tie-in, or the promise of an ‘open world’, or the over-the-top 5 star, 10 out of 10 reviews about it, I decided I’d give Elden Ring a try. And I’m certainly glad I did - hands down this is one of the very best games I’ve every played, all-time.
But the part I never knew anything about was the PvP aspects in the Soulsborne games. I think if I had known about ‘invasions’ it would have turned me off. On the other hand, in ER anyway, invaders can only happen if one is in multiplayer and I know that is not an aspect I’ll be using much if at all so it would not apply. And, should the mood arise, I could still challenge or be challenged to duels on my terms.
So I guess what I’m asking more or less… if you’ve had experience or even just known about Souls’ PvP; how does the iteration in ER make you feel? And if you’re a newbie like me; what are your thoughts on PvP, invasions or dueling, in ER today?
I’ve played Dark Souls 1 and 2, and Sekiro. Never did the multiplayer in any of them, just don’t care for it.
Never finished any of those games, so don’t know if I would have hit a wall where I would have needed help to defeat a boss.
With ER, I have been ao addicted and played so many hours (a big chunk of it just farming when I only had a short amount of time to play), that I am high level enough that the last few bosses I ran up against were challenging, but doable. I think I am level 200 at this point and just going around the map to see if I missed anything and still discovering caves and places.
I’ve played Dark Souls 1-3, Bloodbourne, and Sekiro (after Elden Ring). For my first play through I loved the open worldness of Elden Ring and how much discovery there was. I don’t think subsequent play throughs are as enjoyable though due to the open worldness. Also in Dark Souls it was more obvious if I needed to grind a little bit to gain some power because the path ahead was much more limited. In Elden Ring I wonder if I should have just gone somewhere else first.
I wouldn’t mind alternating styles of games from the developers as they each have their pros and cons. If I had to pick one, I think I would pick Dark Souls because they still retain some sense of discovery as I find shortcuts and see the elaborateness of the areas - and still allow for multiple play thoughs without being bogged down by the open world.
I have played all 3 Dark Souls games and Bloodborne. The games have evolved over time into quicker, more weapon skill based games with ER being the pinnacle of weapon skill overkill.
By the time I played DS1 and 2 the games had been out awhile and invasions, while a fact of life were rarely for me more than at least an intrusion. In fact I often welcomed them as a fun diversion. Sure I would lose 75% of them but when you won it was a truly wonderful thing. I don’t remember doing any invading myself and I never did any duels. Dueling has always been for the hardcore.
But, in DS3 I always played the game with a covenant symbol that could get me summoned, I spent a lot of time helping people fight bosses and I even did some invading on my own. Again, I probably only won about 25% of the time but it was always fun.
In ER the invasion mechanic is truly broken. Half the time as a blue you are summoned as fodder for a couple guys who play together and use you for bait. As an invader you are either fighting 3v1 or 2v1 or you are fighting some guy solo who wants to be invaded and is maxxed out for it. Plus the weapons in ER can be so OP in PvP that many 1 shot you. Fights can end in seconds instead of the long drawn out fights that often occurred in DS3.
I get why some people hated invasions in the DS games. Often the bonfires were far apart with enemies in between, but starting with DS3 even that statement isn’t really true. And in ER the Graces are so numerous that you literally can pass a couple by and not notice it. Retrieving lost runes is really not a problem.
I predict ER will not have the shelf life of the other games and one of the reasons will be because of the demise of PvP. I also think it is no coincidence that the servers for the DS games are still not up and so no online play can happen. While I know everyone was happy when ER came out there was still a lot of activity in DS3 at the time.
ER newbie here, and I have to say the invasions seem like a weird, kludgy mechanic that makes no sense. Like, it’s just baffling someone would put something like that in a game. Me and my mimic have no interest in it at all.
The game was meant to be challenging. The DS games are more challenging than ER. People have begged FROM for an easy mode since DS1 (maybe since Demon Souls but I have no experience there) and with the addition of Spirit Ashes and the changes in PvP, ER has an easy mode. The DS community tends to be a little vocal about that and sees invasions are just another game mechanic. FROM even puts NPC invasions in the game so people playing offline can experience it. An invader, in most cases, is just another enemy to overcome.
Thank you, Scuzz. This was the next talking point and the logical progression from how do veterans feel vs. noobs.
I’ve really appreciated several things about the ‘Soulsborne’ community since getting on the bus with ER so to speak. I enjoy the wealth of youtube videos and twitch live play and most of the discourse that comes with it. This is a very vocal and active community. To single out one aspect, I absolutely LOVE how so many players delve into the game lore and the cut scenes still hidden in the game; all of that type of thing. And while I do not actively participate in PvP myself, I enjoy content from the more congenial content creators like ChasetheBro where he showcases different weapons and their weapon arts in duels and invasions. I love that people are really passionate about how their characters look and not everybody is obsessed with min-maxing but enjoy making less optimal builds work.
And I also respect that the game is meant to be tough and no less than it’s creator, Miyazaki, has said there were always only ever be a single difficulty level… Hard. For a variety of reasons but not the least of which is it forces people like myself to seek advice and learn from others in the community a’la YouTube and Twitch. And it is genuinely satisfying; more satisfying I should say; to finally get over on the boss after spending hours to learn it’s moves. More often than not anyway.
As for the PvP aspect, and the tradition from past games, I guess I can’t miss what I never had so I probably shouldn’t comment. I know I’d feel different if I couldn’t opt out or there was no way to get relief from constantly being invaded. PvP is just not for me anymore. Or I don’t need it messing up my RPG experience. (The last FPS type games I played and loved were probably DooM and DooM ][.)
