Elden Ring

[OsaX Nymloth]

So, the big moment is behind us.
THEY DROPPED THE TRAILER AND RELEASE DATE

I AM HYPED JUST LIKE LORD GWYN WHEN HE PROLONGED THE AGE OF FIRE

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asqWq8MIAWA

 

[Zloth]

You know, I'm starting to think that this Dark Souls thing may be more than a fad.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I prefer a heavily crafted world to most open worlds. I liked the Dark Souls series and Sekiro because every inch of the world is deliberate and scripted. Not small but there's no deliberate filler, no feathers or costumes to collect. Everything you find in the world has a use (almost ) and every location has something interesting to find, usually a fight, useful item and some lore that feeds into the wider world somehow.

It's the polar opposite of the UBIsoft/Bethesda style of making a massive nice looking world and packing it with filler to knock off a checklist. 10 hours of actual game content copied and pasted to make a 100 hour game. I wont go on, I know many disagree and those games sell like crazy, but you get how I feel about it.

Batman Arkham Asylum was way better then the sequels for this exact reason, come at me

Anyway all of this obviously made me apprehensive when I heard that Elden Ring was going to be open world. But having seen a proper trailer, I feel much better. It looks like it has the boss fights and the weirdness and the atmosphere of a Souls game.

I get the feeling (or maybe I hope) that the open world elements could be sort of in a hub world fashion. So that locations may be designed in a more wide linear way with branching paths similar to other Souls games. But then there's a connecting open map from which you can go anywhere.

I certainly hope there's not a damn map with ???? all over it. Breath of the Wild did this well, I want to look at the world and explore interesting places that draw my eye, not be looking at my mini map for symbols constantly.

I also wonder if they will incorporate any Bloodborne or Sekiro into the combat somehow, it would be great to see evolution or cross pollination there in some way. Although I'd honestly more than settle for going with a great sword and roll build again across a new world with new boss fights to learn.

 

[Colif]

its a release trailer, its not out yet, Watch video...

 

[Pifanjr]

I still haven't finished Dark Souls: Prepare to Die...

 

[Yggdrasill]

I wish I would be better at these games, but I still can't wait to watch someone else playing it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

A huge Elden Ring infodump just dropped

A meaty interview with IGN graces us with details about the open world, progression, multiplayer, and more.

www.pcgamer.com

There are six main areas, each the domain of a demigod boss character

There's a designed, apparent route through them, but "there are a lot of different ways you can approach each area. And there's a lot of freedom as to which order you tackle different areas as well."


Each area houses its own more traditional dungeon, where we'll likely do the more traditional Souls thing. It's likely the Arm King (the guy made of arms and primary antagonist in the trailer) is one such demigod, a child of Queen Marika who rules in The Lands Between.

Liking the sound of this part, just hope a more open approach doesn't make for a world so big it suffers from too much jank.

Progression sounds a lot more open than recent Souls games, with the ability to "freely interchange skills between a large variety of weapons." Miyazaki says there are around 100 skills in total, which already has our minds running.

These skills are probably an extension of the Battle Arts system from Dark Souls 3, which gave each weapon its own signature flourish. The magic system is open to every character as well, so as long as those 100 skills are distinct enough, Elden Ring's going to pump out more novelty builds than a Warhammer 40K figure painter that has no one to play with.

Not feeling too good about this part, I barely used weapon arts in DS3 or skills in Sekiro beyond levelling up attack power, poise, and the firecrackers. I felt the mikiri counter and ichimonji were just combat moves that felt more like a natural part of the flow than a skill you could do without.

I guess I used the flame attack more on my second playthrough of Sekiro, but mostly I found it more satisfying to learn the bosses attacks and take them out with parries and standard attacks with the odd bounce on the head.

Also tend to go for builds that focus str and dex so that I can use most any weapon effectively. I've hardly used magic or miracles, but not sure how normal I am in that regard.

 

[Ryzengang]

I am certainly curious about Elden Ring. I've actually never played any of the DS games (nor Bloodborne and Sekiro) so I'm interested to see how this game ends up. I've been trying more to diversify the types of games I play over the last couple of years so I'm willing to give most things a shot unless I know I really dislike the genre. With there being some sort of online component I may get the game as I know I have friends that will be playing it and that seems like an ideal way to get into it.

 

[Sarafan]

A soulslike game in an open world? Count me in. Maybe I'm not a Dark Souls fanatic, but I like the series. If From Software will stay faithful to DS values despite creating a game in open world, it'll be worth trying it. I include this game to my wishlist.

 

[DXCHASE]

It looks good...for a soulslike game. Cant wait to see the "beat the game on hardest difficulty w/o wearing any armor and only using my hands!" videos that spawn from these games.

 

[Sarafan]

It looks good...for a soulslike game. Cant wait to see the "beat the game on hardest difficulty w/o wearing any armor and only using my hands!" videos that spawn from these games.

Don't forget about beating the game on potatoes.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Don't forget about beating the game on potatoes.

Or even bananas!

Some of my favourite streams are Souls ones, dont know why theres something relaxing about watching Lobos, Happy Hob or someone beating all the games without getting hit. I cant even begin to comprehend getting that gud.

 

[Colif]

probably spoilers but its the trailer

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Elden Ring has been delayed into February

The highly-anticipated From Software epic has been pushed back a month.

www.pcgamer.com

Little bit disspaointed it'll be a month later. I dont usually have much to do in January so I was looking forward to really getting into to it. OTOH I prefer that they polish it up properly rather than releasing it early and buggy.

 

[ZedClampet]

Elden Ring has been delayed into February

The highly-anticipated From Software epic has been pushed back a month.

www.pcgamer.com

Little bit disspaointed it'll be a month later. I dont usually have much to do in January so I was looking forward to really getting into to it. OTOH I prefer that they polish it up properly rather than releasing it early and buggy.

Is this going to have more narrative than the DS games? They hired the Song of Fire and Ice guy (GRRM), but then it sounds like he just scribbled some notes for them. I'm good either way, but I feel like a more open world potentially creates a lot more lore/story possibilities. Honestly, I usually skip those, but if GRRM had anything to do with them, I thought I might check it out.

Edit: I really don't care about lore unless there's significant narrative, btw.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Is this going to have more narrative than the DS games? They hired the Song of Fire and Ice guy (GRRM), but then it sounds like he just scribbled some notes for them. I'm good either way, but I feel like a more open world potentially creates a lot more lore/story possibilities. Honestly, I usually skip those, but if GRRM had anything to do with them, I thought I might check it out.

Edit: I really don't care about lore unless there's significant narrative, btw.

From what I've understand its still going to be similar lore wise. George RR Martin consulted on the world building whatever that means. Most interesting parts of Song of Ice and Fire for me were the characters, rather than the world itself so I'm not too excited by that.

What Did George RR Martin Contribute To ‘Elden Ring’?

While everyone is hyped to see Elden Ring finally emerge from the darkness with an actual trailer during Summer Game Fest, I did sort of see that everyone somewhat forgot what George RR Martin is supposed to be involved in this project in some capacity.

www.forbes.com

I'm not super into the story parts of Dark Souls such as it is either. I like the atmosphere a lot though, and I'll listen to a bit of Vaatividya now and again, although I'm usually asleep before the end of it.

 

[Yggdrasill]

Elden Ring has been delayed into February

The highly-anticipated From Software epic has been pushed back a month.

www.pcgamer.com

Little bit disspaointed it'll be a month later. I dont usually have much to do in January so I was looking forward to really getting into to it. OTOH I prefer that they polish it up properly rather than releasing it early and buggy.

From Software means top quality, so I'm sure the waiting will be worth it!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

From Software means top quality, so I'm sure the waiting will be worth it!

I really hope so! Havent been dissapointed in a long time by From but theres always a chance. I like what I've been reading so far though.

 

[Yggdrasill]

 

[Ryzengang]

The gameplay preview looks excellent. Definitely a day 1 game for me.

 

[Brian Boru]

Not my kind of game, but the world is beautiful and I love the map mechanics—that you discover it via fragments in the world, and that you can set markers for places of interest.

Horse replaces grappling hook…

You guys enjoy

 

[Sarafan]

I'll paste here my Twitter posts:

I can't get rid of the feeling that this won't be a good game. The biggest advantage of Dark Souls was half-open (but consistent) construction of the world. The formula of Dark Souls doesn't fit properly into the open world IMHO. Elden Ring's world lacks the heavy atmosphere of Dark Souls games. It's quite blank and without character. It also feels empty as hell.

The graphics are also very mediocre. I think the game doesn't look much better than Dark Souls 3 (I don't even mention Demon's Souls remake here). Animations probably remember the times of Dark Souls 1. They're still better than in Skyrim, but definitely leave a lot to be desired.

Now something positive. The combat system looks good. From what I see it brings a lot of joy. A very solid element of the game. I'll still give Elden Ring a chance, but my expectations after the gameplay are lowered greatly.

Not my kind of game, but the world is beautiful and I love the map mechanics—that you discover it via fragments in the world, and that you can set markers for places of interest.

Looks like we disagree on this one.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I can't get rid of the feeling that this won't be a good game. The biggest advantage of Dark Souls was half-open (but consistent) construction of the world. The formula of Dark Souls doesn't fit properly into the open world IMHO. Elden Ring's world lacks the heavy atmosphere of Dark Souls games. It's quite blank and without character. It also feels empty as hell.

The graphics are also very mediocre. I think the game doesn't look much better than Dark Souls 3 (I don't even mention Demon's Souls remake here). Animations probably remember the times of Dark Souls 1. They're still better than in Skyrim, but definitely leave a lot to be desired.

Now something positive. The combat system looks good. From what I see it brings a lot of joy. A very solid element of the game. I'll still give Elden Ring a chance, but my expectations after the gameplay are lowered greatly.

I have reservations too, although more so before the last couple of months. I'd also much rather see a 'wide open' type of design with multiple wide paths interlinking, kind of like Dark Souls games have been already.

However a larger world is one way to change things up, and if they provide a different spin on it while retaining the slightly more linear dungeons as part of an open world I'd be into it. That's been suggested already, rather than a UBIthesda-like epic open landscape. Quote from an older PCG article I mentioned earlier. I took this as meaning the open world part is more like a connective space between the real dungeons, where the actual 'souls' happens

There's a designed, apparent route through them, but "there are a lot of different ways you can approach each area. And there's a lot of freedom as to which order you tackle different areas as well."

Each area houses its own more traditional dungeon, where we'll likely do the more traditional Souls thing. It's likely the Arm King (the guy made of arms and primary antagonist in the trailer) is one such demigod, a child of Queen Marika who rules in The Lands Between.

Its possible the animations just had to be kept similar to maintain the series own feel, there might be a fan backlash if they changed that too much. The deliberate way the characters move is key to the feel of the series.

I do agree the graphics aren't exactly technically mindblowing, but I still like the art design personally. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint!

EDIT: It does say that the gameplay is from an early build and not representative of actual gameplay at the beginning of the latest video too.

 

[Sarafan]

I have reservations too, although more so before the last couple of months. I'd also much rather see a 'wide open' type of design with multiple wide paths interlinking, kind of like Dark Souls games have been already.

However a larger world is one way to change things up, and if they provide a different spin on it while retaining the slightly more linear dungeons as part of an open world I'd be into it. That's been suggested already, rather than a UBIthesda-like epic open landscape. Quote from an older PCG article I mentioned earlier. I took this as meaning the open world part is more like a connective space between the real dungeons, where the actual 'souls' happens

Basically every location in Dark Souls had its unique style. I don't think it'll be possible to uphold this level of quality in an open world game. We have to be prepared for more generic locations. And that's a major downside in comparison to Dark Souls. Of course the formula of Dark Souls has more or less ran out and they had to think something that introduces some bigger changes. The developers decided to give a green light for open world design. Time will show whether it's possible to combine Dark Souls with this kind of gameplay. Like I said, I'm skeptical.

Its possible the animations just had to be kept similar to maintain the series own feel, there might be a fan backlash if they changed that too much. The deliberate way the characters move is key to the feel of the series.

I'd say it's more the combat system that makes the game feel like Dark Souls, not necessarily animations. But the truth is that the animations are highly recognizable. If someone presented me only fragments of the gameplay that focus on animations, I'd say it's still a Dark Souls game.

I do agree the graphics aren't exactly technically mindblowing, but I still like the art design personally. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint!

I wish the game looked like Demon's Souls remake. It would be a major improvement from Dark Souls 3. Elden Ring doesn't look bad of course, but we should expect a little more from a next-gen title.

 

[Frindis]

It could potentially be a lot of things: A love letter to what was once great, as a hybrid trying to wedge its hands in an ember or awaken from the ashes and to be reborn into a completely new game; We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land.” – Solaire of Astora.

I hope to see LESS reskin, fewer DS animations, and a bold move to try doing something completely new, yet having the spirit to grab the fallen and bring about exciting lore. I also hope some of dungeons/catacombs, etc will be as dark as possible/pitch dark. Only navigating using your torch, that would have been something