Lorem ipsum

  • 1 Post
  • 43 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: 4 June 2025

help-circle



  • Elden Ring is a fantastic game and by far my favorite in the Soulsborne series. It’s also at the same time both the hardest and the easiest in the series. If you explore and make use of the tools at your disposal, it can be the easiest. But you can also simply bang your head against every challenge, and then it can be the hardest. Don’t get me wrong; that can also be very fun.

    Also, Elden Ring is just incredibly beautiful. Every frame looks like it is straight out of a fantasy novel. The music is fantastic. The story is a bit cryptic, but I personally enjoy that kind of storytelling, and the world-building in Elden Ring is my second favorite in the Soulsborne series - barely behind Bloodborne.


    Should you start with Elden Ring? I’m not sure. It’s pretty long and complex. If you just want to play one, I would say play this one. If you simply want to play one of them to see if you like the series, I would say play Bloodborne, which is an excellent teacher. But you said you only have a PS3 and Steam Deck, and Bloodborne is a PS4 exclusive. It can be run with an emulator, but that’s pretty resource intensive.

    I would argue against starting with Dark Souls 1 unless you plan to tackle the whole series from the get-go. The combat is pretty clunky when compared to the other titles, and the second half is notoriously rushed.

    Dark Souls 2 has a special place in my heart, but the RPG mechanics are the most obtuse in the series. Not beginner-friendly.

    Dark Souls 3 would be my recommendation to start if you can’t play Bloodborne. The combat mechanics are mature, and the RPG mechanics are relatively understandable. DS3 is also pretty linear, which I personally view more as a negative, but as a newcomer, you are never confused about where to go. Also, Dark Souls 3 is just a pretty fun game.

    And yes, you can definitely story-wise play the Dark Souls games out of order. Dark Souls is more about lore and worldbuilding than a story in the strictest sense.

    I also want to give a shout-out to the c/Soulslike community here on Lemmy. If you have a question regarding Souls games, you can always ask there.


  • M.int@lemmy.ziptoGames@sh.itjust.works*Permanently Deleted*
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    Did you end up enjoying Elden Ring later in the playthrough?

    I love hearing so many people voice their opinions on Elden Ring’s difficulty. It’s way too hard! Artificial difficulty! Delayed attacks are too hard to dodge! It’s way too easy!
    And I agree Elden Ring is both the hardest Fromsoft game and the easiest: the bosses have intricate, difficult movesets with great variety and get even more complex later in the game; on the other hand, you have so many different tools to deal with the challenges of the game; if you explore a little and try out some of the many options the game gives, you can make the game incredibly easy for you.

    Did you know that there are two Ancestor Spirit (stag bosses)? The fight can be quite interesting, but they just have too little health. The second one with a more complex moveset should especially have more health since you have to beat Radahn to access it.



  • M.int@lemmy.ziptoGames@sh.itjust.works*Permanently Deleted*
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 month ago

    Okay, this is splitting hairs: the tutorial pop-up is talking about the golden symbol in the bottom left. But it calls the symbol “Roundtable icon,” which doesn’t help. This symbol pops up at quite a number of places and prevents you from killing NPCs in those areas. Still, not FromSoft’s best communication with the player.

    You can actually fight in the Roundtable Hold before Ensha (the guy in the skeleton armor) invades: When you jump down from the balcony to the lower floor, you get invaded by Mad Tongue Alberich. (He is relatively easy). This area is useful after defeating him, when you want to try out weapon move sets.

    Ensha is not guaranteed to invade you. He only invades if you pick up either of the Haligtree Medallion halves and only if you do it before defeating Fire Giant.

    Another character that can also violate the supposed safety of the Roundtable Hold is Fia. In one version of her side quest, she kills D in the Roundtable Hold.


    For people who are further interested in video games that violate safe rooms: here is a video essay by Daryl Talks Games about the topic.