Elden Ring is finally real

[Oathbreaker]

I started my magic character tonight and was having a lot of fun shooting beams at everybody. Sadly, it all went south when I tried to join somebody’s game at the Margit boss, and my game froze on the loading screen. After I eventually quit the game and started it again, it worked fine. I sure was worried, though! I think I’ll put the game away for a while. I may have played it too much.

Nah this is just a common bug that happens when you try to co-op. It's happened to me several times. Pro tip: don't mistake it for a hardware freeze and forcibly power the hardware down, the game HATES power outages for some reason and it will simply negate any progress you made the entire session.

Also on PC don't use Task Manager to End Task from the main menu after otherwise quitting from the game correctly, it can bug out your stats to impossibly low numbers.

 

[Adrenaline]

I am on the final fight of the game. I wish it was a more interesting enemy than an amorphous blob, but so it goes.

 

[Regulus]

I thought it was a pretty amorphous blob, at least.

 

[Ludendorkk]

I started my magic character tonight and was having a lot of fun shooting beams at everybody. Sadly, it all went south when I tried to join somebody’s game at the Margit boss, and my game froze on the loading screen. After I eventually quit the game and started it again, it worked fine. I sure was worried, though! I think I’ll put the game away for a while. I may have played it too much.

I've had hard freezes when being summoned 3-4 times, definitely seems like an issue

 

[estragon]

Every time this updates on PC I think it's made performance worse, until I remember that updates apparently make the game auto-recalibrate what it thinks the graphical settings should be. For some reason it thinks it should be trying to render the game at much higher resolution than my monitor, so it was killing the frame rate and stability to do something that I literally cannot perceive. (Probably to do something that makes it look worse, because it wasn't even a 1:1 ratio...) So, if you're getting crashes on PC after this or any patch, it might be worth double checking to make sure it didn't shift you into an excessively high resolution.

On a completely separate note, I did the Great Jar Challenge yesterday for the best equip load boast charm, the one where you duel AI NPCs based on other player builds. My generalist Faith guy died horribly a few times to sets of extremely trendy challengers all using the Moonveil and/or bleed-frost inducing katana builds before I just went offline to get the preset generic adventure party challengers instead. The preset version is actually a pretty fun and fair challenge, I think, with a mage, a rogue, and a tank. I knew that Moonveil and dual-katana bleed+frost builds are popular, but they really do seem overwhelmingly popular among whatever set of builds that the Great Jar challenge pulls from. I don't remember the player builds being this samey and perfectly following the meta when I did this with my Strength guy, although maybe the AI just had no solution for jumping Greatsword attacks so I never even had to really notice their builds that time.

 

[Paul le Fou]

One curious thing I noticed while farming Cuckoo Knight Armor outside Raya Lucaria: The seal outside the academy also features a diagonal crosshatch pattern.

Oh, nice catch! Thinking back, yeah, I really should have caught that on my second playthrough.

On the subject of Ranni... I have some thoughts on both her and Melina.

Spoiler: Lore Spoilers & Speculation

Basically, I think there's some pretty significant circumstantial evidence linking the two.

• Melina states she's "burned and bodiless". Due to the black knife ritual, Ranni herself is also bodiless. And when we finally discover Ranni's corpse atop the tower in Liurnia, it appears to pretty severly charred.
• Both of them keep one eye closed at all times, with some kind of mark or seal over the closed eye. If we take Ranni's "spirit face" to be her "real" face, then both of them have the same eye (their right eye) closed.
• Both of them have some connection to Torrent. As far as I know, they're the only characters that do.
• The game features a handful of other characters with some kind of shared state of existence; Marika/Radagon (two souls in one body?) and D/Darian (one soul in two bodies). Could Ranni and Melina be similar?

Taken alongside this, there's also some circumstantial and symbolic evidence that Ranni may not be Rennala's biological daughter:

• Rennala is betrayed by a Liurnian faction known as the "Knights of the Cuckoo". As you may know, the cuckoo is a bird that is known for brood parasitism; it leaves its eggs in the nests of other birds, tricking them into raising its offspring. Since they're not directly linked to Radagon, I wouldn't normally put too much stock in this, but...
• Radagon famously leaves Rennala with an egg before he leaves her. Since we don't have a concrete timeline of events, we don't know if this predates the "birth" of any of their children. Is it possible that Ranni was born from this egg? Did Radagon cuckold her?
• Ranni is stated to be an Empyrean - a candidate to succeed Marika as an representative of the Greater Will. We don't know exactly what makes someone eligible for Empyrean status outside of being chosen by the Two Fingers, but the other two in the game whose lineage we do know (Malenia and Miquella) are implied to be such because they were both born of Marika and Radagon.
• It's suspicious that Rennala's amber egg has a Great Rune at all. Radagon gave it to her before the Marika shattered the Elden Ring, so where did the rune come from? The second phase of the Rennala fight is technically not Rennala; it's actually an illusion conjured by Ranni. In a sense, Ranni herself is one of the shardbearers we fight, but she's said to have cast off her rune when she cast off her Empyrean flesh. Maybe the "Great Rune of the Unborn" is her rune?
• The Great Runes themselves are designed such that if you overlay them properly, they (unsurprisingly) form the shape of the Elden Ring itself, the main body of which is formed by four layered rings with a single line running through them. In game, the shards held by siblings occupy the same "space" on the Elden Ring. Morgott's and Mohg's are stated to be similar and appear to occupy the central ring. Radahn's and Rykard's occupy the rightside ring, and while Miquella's rune is unaccounted for, Malenia's appears to form the left ring. Curiously, the Great Rune of the Unborn lines up with Malenia's rune. I find that pretty suspicious.

In addition to this, there's some pretty strong evidence that Melina is Marika's daughter... the most direct (but arguably not necessarily most reliable) being her internal name within the game's files - "MarikaOfDaughter" presumably an awkward translation of "MarikaNoMusume" or something similar. Alongside the above evidence, I feel like there are three main options:

1. Ranni and Melina are supposed to be thematically parallel, with Ranni being Radagon's offspring and Melina being Marika's. Ranni's motivations specifically run contrary to Radagon's (who would prefer to maintain the Golden Order), and by the end of the game Melina states that she's following her own purpose rather the one given by her mother... but I'm not entirely sure yet what Marika's motivations are, so I'm not sure if they mirror each other here.
2. Ranni and Melina are twins, like many of the other demigods (Malenia/Miquella, Morgott/Mohg... maybe Radahn/Rykard? There's no direct evidence for the last one, but who knows?)
3. Ranni and Melina are the same person with a split soul or some similar state of being. Potentially a side effect of the ritual that allowed Ranni to destroy her body? Melina said she was born at the foot of the Erdtree, and the Erdtree is where souls are supposed to return under the Golden Order... maybe that has something to do with it?

There's definitely a lot of evidence connecting Ranni and Melina, yeah. Another is that they appear and disappear the same way, which is also the way Torrent does.

But there are still some holes that I haven't figured out how to fill from that yet.

Spoiler: Thoughts on M

1. If Melina is the daughter of Marika, why doesn't anyone ever talk about her, even through oblique reference? It would make her a demigod, wouldn't it, and potentially the bearer of a great rune? And when the family history is documented and recounted so extensively, without her having been mentioned, it seems a glaring omission. She could be a secret child or one who died, sure, but it seems odd.
2. The burned and bodiless thing definitely hints at Ranni. But at the same time, Melina is the Kindling Maiden, and her purpose is to serve as kindling to burn the Erdtree. Burned and bodiless may refer to her future fate of, well, getting burned and becoming bodiless. She also has burn scars all over her hands, so it seems she was burned at some point before?
3. Melina's memories. Something is up with her - for the first half, she doesn't remember her purpose and has only vague memories; she wants to be taken to the foot of the Erdtree where she was born (and when you get to Leyndell, she says she's there). So she was born in Leyndell or somewhere nearby, most likely - one of her few memories is being born where Ranni definitely was not (even if it doesn't mean Leyndell). They also would have grown up apart, as Ranni grows up at Raya Lucaria and/or the Carian Manor.
4. Then she remembers her purpose - Kindle the fire so the player can be Elden Lord. Kindling the fire and burning the Erdtree (and then her being burnt up as she does) doesn't seem to mesh with her being the same person as Ranni. Ranni doesn't even particularly want an Elden Lord - her plan was to take the journey and bear the burden of darkness and loneliness alone. You go ahead and make yourself hers so when she takes the Order, you become her Lord (Elden or otherwise, that's not clear).
5. Melina can relate to us the "echoes" of Marika's spoken words at various sites of grace, which seems like an unusual thing to just be able to do if she's not tied to Marika somehow. Maybe Ranni or any demigod could as well, if they wanted to?
6. She mentions Destined Death a few times - her purpose in burning the tree is to return true death to the lands between. Ranni's purpose seems very much unrelated to this, though it also requires the tree being burned.
7. Blade of Calling, i.e. Melina's dagger, says this: Dagger given to one who set out on a journey to fulfill her duty long ago. The power of its former owner, the kindling maiden, is still apparent. The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death. That last line being a quote Melina says as she burns. So either she's been on her journey to fulfill her duty for a very long time, or she did it once before. Or there was another kindling maiden in the past, and this is a different dagger from a different kindling maiden? We know Melina has been burned in some form or another though, between scars and "burned and bodiless."

The big sticking point to me is Melina's role in the Frenzied Flame ending. If she leaves you when you take the flame, and you burn the erdtree yourself, she appears in a cutscene after the ending. Her hair is frazzled and darkened, possibly by soot (so she was at least singed?). Her open right eye is now clouded over and blind, the mark over her left eye has faded, and the eye is open, showing a deep purple-blue color (different from Ranni's brighter greenish eye, though that's explainable). She promises to hunt you down and deliver unto you Destined Death.

One theory is that she is or was the Gloam-Eyed (or Dusk-eyed) Queen. As a refresher, the GEQ was an Empyrean chosen by the fingers (possibly a daughter of Marika or some other god?), she used the godslaying Black Flame and led the Godskin Apostles. They got their power from the Rune of Death, or Destined Death, and were cut off from the source of their power when Maliketh defeated the GEQ and sealed the rune away. (I have all sorts of questions like, they were in a god hunt?? That seems pretty major, when the fuck did this happen??! They slew gods and flayed them and took their skin?? WHAT GODS?! WHEN?!) Her connections to returning Destined Death to the land may or may not have to do with its being the source of the GEQ's power, and black flame could be a connection to burning. Was the GEQ a rebellious daughter trying to rise up against the gods? If Marika was already goddess, what other gods were there to hunt and flay?? Anyway, I don't know that I necessarily buy Melina = GEQ but I can't discount it just yet either. (Melina may also be the daughter of the GEQ, maybe-kinda? but that just raises further questions.)

Side note: in Crumbling Farum Azula, there's a seal of a more complex Elden Ring design. Underneath it is a statue of a woman with three wolves. CFA is where Death is sealed away and presumably where the GEQ was defeated. When Renna (Ranni) gives you the spirit summoning bell, the spirit she gives you with it is three wolves. Spirit ashes are, explicitly, cremated ashes that still retain some spirit - cremated ashes possibly relating to the kindling maiden...somehow...? (Get me my red yarn and a shitload of thumbtacks.)

My main line of thought right now is that Marika created Melina, or brought back the spirit of the kindling maiden (also her daughter?) who had kindled the fire for some reason long ago; the salient point and the one I'm the most sure of is that Melina is part of the grand overall plan Marika put into action to get the Elden Beast and/or Radagon and/or herself killed. That plan had several major prongs, including at the very least:
1. Revoke Godfrey's grace and exile him to go found and lead the Tarnished, specifically so that in the future, grace could be restored to them so they'd come back and one could become Elden Lord.
2. Imprison a blacksmith and task him with making a weapon that can slay a god, specifically for one of the tarnished (which is why she put him at their hangout in the Hold).
3. Smash the Elden Ring to weaken its power and spread its pieces. There can't be a new Elden Lord if the Ring stays whole and united in herself since she's also Radagon, who wants to preserve the golden order (which is him).
3b. She also knows (or somehow orchestrates?) that none of her children will end up with more than one shard and become Lord, which means the Greater Will/Fingers will get desperate and extend grace to the Tarnished, which is why she exiled Godfrey to set up that piece on the board in the first place.

There's one problem though - the Erdtree is sealed by the golden order, which means there's only one way in, which Marika has to get her Tarnished through, which means burning it. Which leads to a 4th part of the plan:
4. Marika personally sets Melina into motion, tasked with finding the tarnished who would be Elden Lord and burning the tree so they can get inside where she and Radagon are.

Side idea: Torrent is known to both Ranni and Melina, and the spirit ash bell is said to belong to Torrent's "former owner." Another idea I had in this meanwhile: perhaps Torrent's former master is Marika herself. Not sure what that says about Ranni knowing Torrent though.


One last major vein of thought: as Kindling Maiden, she may have something to do with the flame of the giants. Either related to a or the reason that Marika went to war with them, or a side-effect of the flame's not being able to be extinguished, or something to do with Radagon likely being of partial giant descent somehow. Not sure where they fit in with all this but the connection to her and the flame of the giants is something that can't be overlooked.

 

[Oathbreaker]

I can fill in a COUPLE gaps. (I may have gotten carried away talking about all this and have already made edits to include more)

Spoiler

The first thing I can tackle is WHEN the Gloam-Eyed/Dusk-Eyed Queen stuff with Maliketh went down. Enia states that Destined Death was "plucked from the Golden Order at its creation" which a TON of people have interpreted as removed from the Elden Ring but unless someone who knows Japanese can pinpoint another mistranslation here that's a total misunderstanding and would cause a bunch of inconsistencies. What seems to have happened is that the Golden Order could not be established until Destined Death was sealed away because it kills souls, and if souls die they can't be taken by the Erdtree, so the system The Greater Will established can't function (this is also why adherents like D hate Those Who Live in Death so much, they have to kill the undead with special holy effects so they stay dead and the soul can be taken). So the defeat of the Gloam-Eyed Queen and sealing the Rune of Death essentially signaled the advent of the Golden Order. Godfrey's conquests all took place in the name of the Golden Order, and it seems like he wasn't part of the picture yet when the Gloam-Eyed Queen was dealt with. It doesn't seem like she was ever able to follow through on her intent to slay gods, but everything acknowledges the Rune of Death has the power to, even when disseminated to her apostles through Black Flame, before the Rune was sealed at least.

The Giant's Flame is the tool that you burn the tree with, right. The mark over Melina's eye is very distinctly Three Fingers, and as far as I can tell the Flame of Frenzy is the god of the giants which seems to be a detail a lot of people don't realize (based on the Giant's eye in phase 2 and the changes to the player's eyes if you meet the Three Fingers). Marika, along with other parts of her plan you listed, also forced Radagon to allow the Giant's Flame to remain when otherwise he would have extinguished it. So it seems like Melina was burned by that flame in much the same manner that Ranni killed her own body with the fragment of the Rune of Death she stole. Having their bodies killed while their soul remains (which Ranni achieved by substituting Godwyn's soul) seems like a way Empyreans are able to escape the influence of The Greater Will. In Melina's case the tool used was directly connected to another Outer God, which is what I think gave her that mark on her eye.

Going along with this it's possible that Marika also intentionally allowed the Rune of Death to remain in a similar manner as the Giant's Flame by sealing it inside Maliketh's sword instead of more definitively removing it from the picture. After all, her intended eventual Elden Lord can't claim the remains of the Ring from her and (literally) uproot the Golden Order if they can't kill a God. Likewise it IS very possible that Melina is the Gloam-Eyed Queen based on her special eye (Gloam is also a shade of light-ish purple). She could just be keeping the eye closed to hide her identity (and Ranni never opens that eye so... maybe they're BOTH the Gloam-Eyed Queen, one reborn through the Great Rune, and one reborn through Marika? But that's a TOTAL blind guess) If we go further in speculation that Melina is the Gloam-Eyed Queen, the key thing is that the Queen wasn't a God, she was an Empyrean. And I'm pretty sure Melina is also an Empyrean (though I can't remember exactly where I got that from), which is distinct from a demigod. Melina's origins are shrouded in mystery when even the most reaching speculations of Ranni not actually being Rennala's child has more foundation to it than anything beyond Melina calling Marika her mother. In my mind the Gloam-Eyed Queen is not a child of Marika, but after her defeat (and they never say she was sealed or killed as they often elaborate with other things like the unnamed Goddess of Rot) it's possible Marika concocted the lie that Melina is her child to explain Melina's Empyrean existence despite not being formally acknowledged by a Two Fingers; no reason to be acknowledged a second time. Likewise given that the Gloam-Eyed Queen wanted to slay Gods, it's likely she also wanted to escape their influence, and Marika would have been the perfect way to get out. Now with Melina's motivation for delivering you your Destined Death during the Frenzied Flame ending, I believe it's because her purpose as imposed by Marika was to enable the slaying of a god, but not the destruction of the land. Melina is clearly personally invested in the continuation of life, and the Frenzied Flame is too far. Also in that ending you act as the kindling, you are touched by flame, and thus you are on the road to your Destined Death.

Then we get into weird territory with Marika shattering the Elden Ring after Ranni made her move and Godwyn's soul was killed. To my eyes this wasn't done out of grief like a lot of people speculate, but was catalyzed by the knowledge that another Empyrean was putting similar plans as her own into motion. It looks like an act of desperation to get her own plans out ahead of Ranni's. And thanks to Radahn who decided to FIGHT THE STARS FOR SOME UNEXPLAINED REASON (my guess is at Radagon's behest), that very narrowly succeeded until the player Tarnished enters the field. It could also be that Marika needed to create THE BIGGEST POSSIBLE DISTRACTION to keep The Greater Will's attention on her once an Empyrean capable of ascension finally, FINALLY began acting of their own accord to become something of their own making. Taking that action is something Melina relays that Marika was very critical that her children and the Tarnished should try to do (and aside from Ranni and the player Tarnished, none even try to except maybe Miquella).

It's basically an open secret that Melina and Ranni came into contact at some point. Melina is the only one known to have been with Torrent before you, so Melina near certainly had Ranni give you the Wolf Ashes to signify what you pointed out about Farum Azula, with extra layers of plausible deniability so that The Greater Will wouldn't catch on to the design of slaying a God. Melina's purpose and Ranni's own goals align perfectly which is probably why they cooperated. While Marika's own intent was likely different, Melina's purpose doesn't distinguish between outcomes, so long as the Erdtree is burned and the Tarnished can confront and kill a God (without ending all life in the process).

 

[Paul le Fou]

I'll respond in more detail when I have more time, but the first thing that jumps out to me is, what makes you think that the god of the fire giants and the frenzied flame outer god/three fingers are the same? Nothing I've seen in-game actually indicates that they're connected, and all the references seem to point in opposite directions. None of the fire giant stuff refers to madness or the three fingers, and points at a different god, nor does the frenzy refer to any giant thing.

Side note while I'm thinking about it from looking up item descriptions: a number of the frenzied flame spells are only effective against Tarnished, which I think may have interesting implications from a lore perspective.

 

[Oathbreaker]

Nothing I've seen in-game actually indicates that they're connected, and all the references seem to point in opposite directions. None of the fire giant stuff refers to madness or the three fingers, and points at a different god, nor does the frenzy refer to any giant thing.

It's the eyes. Eyes have distinct importance in the game though not in the same way as in Bloodborne. If you kill a bunch of other Tarnished in PvP you get Blood-red Eyes. If you learn a ton of dragon incantations you get Dragon eyes. If you meet the Three Fingers, you get eyes that are extremely similar to the Giant's eye in its chest in the second phase of the fight. Likewise Melina's closed eye could be called Gloam-colored which would signify a connection to the so-named Gloam-Eyed Queen, and Ranni never gives up what her closed eye looks like but it has a mark signifying something in much the same way Melina's does.

The descriptions that say "God of the Giants" I don't think are a different god necessarily. The theme of flame is consistent with both and other Gods don't share that much consistency (The Formless Mother's blood flame is first and foremost blood-themed for example, but in the God of Giants and Frenzied Flame's case the themes are both primarily flame). I think being referred to as God of the Giants instead of Flame of Frenzy is a red hairing (heh, I bet one of the writers loves puns as much as most people here do) based on the eyes you get when the Flame of Frenzy inhabits your body.

 

[Adrenaline]

I finished the game with Ranni's ending. Great game, but I think it will be nice to play something else now.

 

[jpfriction]

Yeah, I started a NG+ to try and power my way through to one of the other endings but definitely need a break, keep deciding to play something else every time I sit down.

 

[Issun]

So I just got Rivers of Blood and combining that with a Cold Uchigatana is DPS city.

 

[Paul le Fou]

It's the eyes. Eyes have distinct importance in the game though not in the same way as in Bloodborne. If you kill a bunch of other Tarnished in PvP you get Blood-red Eyes. If you learn a ton of dragon incantations you get Dragon eyes. If you meet the Three Fingers, you get eyes that are extremely similar to the Giant's eye in its chest in the second phase of the fight. Likewise Melina's closed eye could be called Gloam-colored which would signify a connection to the so-named Gloam-Eyed Queen, and Ranni never gives up what her closed eye looks like but it has a mark signifying something in much the same way Melina's does.

The descriptions that say "God of the Giants" I don't think are a different god necessarily. The theme of flame is consistent with both and other Gods don't share that much consistency (The Formless Mother's blood flame is first and foremost blood-themed for example, but in the God of Giants and Frenzied Flame's case the themes are both primarily flame). I think being referred to as God of the Giants instead of Flame of Frenzy is a red hairing (heh, I bet one of the writers loves puns as much as most people here do) based on the eyes you get when the Flame of Frenzy inhabits your body.

Mmm, I still disagree. The only similarities in the eyes are that they're both fiery; If you look up high-res images of each, despite the very fine detail put into both designs, they're simply different. The frenzy-flame eyes with the yellow glow and the giants' god's eye are still just as differently-colored as their respective fires, and the giant's eye has a very distinctive pattern of 8 swirls around the pupil which is nowhere to be found in the frenzied eyes or elsewhere related to them.

Spoiler: Various fire musings and differences

There are, let's see... at least 5 different kinds of fire in this game. There's the red-orange fire of the fire giants, the yellow fire of the frenzied flame, the godslaying black flame, the cold pale-blue ghostflame, and the formless mother's deep-red bloodflame. It's also worth noting that the Fire Giant incants and Fire Monk incants are technically two different groupings of spells, but share a common color because lore-wise it's clear that the fire monks' magic came from the fire giants' flame of ruin (they were originally set by Leyndell to guard the flame but came eventually to worship it instead) - it's clear that they thought through the connections of different schools and between Frenzy and Giant I only see distinctions and distance.

The theming of the two flames are completely different - Frenzied shows up in "lands afflicted by frenzy," where groups of people and animals suffer madness, their eyes blazing yellow, gripping their heads and wailing. The spells very distinctly all come from the caster's eyes, usually in uncontrolled bursts (or in one case, a very focused laser), and some only affect Tarnished. The spells names include chaotic elements like Howl, Unendurable, Inescapable. The fingerprint pattern is very distinctly linked to the three fingers, and is absent from any of the fire giant/monk descriptions or imagery. The caravan summoned the FF with their laments.

Meanwhile, fire monk/giant-related enemies and their fires show up in entirely different areas and are of entirely different types. Their spells are cast from their hands, and all the spells are direct and purposeful invocations to the flame of ruin (Flame, cleanse me! Surge, O flame!). The flames are all pretty standard fireballs, bursts, and pillars, without the chaotic element of the frenzied effects. The flame is housed at the top of a mountain with a guard cursed to an eternal post, whereas the frenzied flame was locked away deep beneath Leyndell. The one-eyed fell god is a recurring theme, including his direct presence locked away in the last fire giant and the monks' armor depicting the same.

Lore-wise: when you're on your way to the flame of the giants, Shabriri points you away from it to inherit the frenzied flame instead, implying that the source of that fire is not where the source of the fire giants' flame of ruin lies. Melina purposely, even gladly, uses herself as kindling to ignite the flame of ruin, but when you even get close to the flame of frenzy she warns you to stay well away from it, and if you take it she not only leaves you but swears to hunt you down and kill you. That seems about as opposing as you can get, to me.

And meanwhile, in a game rife with breadcrumbs and clues linking all sorts of seemingly-disaparate things together with minor references, I've found next to nothing suggesting that they're actually related. At the end of the day, I just don't see it.

Great game, but I think it will be nice to play something else now.

Yeah, I started a NG+ to try and power my way through to one of the other endings but definitely need a break, keep deciding to play something else every time I sit down.

I'm nearing the end of my second playthrough, which will take me a bit past 250 total hours, but I still have however many build ideas I want to mess with. I have my first character's NG+ which is a whole new build (arcane bleed/dragon) and which has only gone through Godrick. I have an NG+ build idea for this sorcerer character (Equal faith/int, with Death sorcs and Order incants), and a build I want to play for yet a third new character (UNGA BUNGA) but I might need time to play something else for a bit. Or, like, read a fucking book or something.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Today's Gunnerkrigg Court:

Technically part 2 but you really only need this one.

 

[Oathbreaker]

Mmm, I still disagree. The only similarities in the eyes are that they're both fiery; If you look up high-res images of each, despite the very fine detail put into both designs, they're simply different. The frenzy-flame eyes with the yellow glow and the giants' god's eye are still just as differently-colored as their respective fires, and the giant's eye has a very distinctive pattern of 8 swirls around the pupil which is nowhere to be found in the frenzied eyes or elsewhere related to them.

Fair. I'll have to go back and check again because I swear I thought the character eyes had that 8 swirl pattern too but I might've been mistaking gaps in the flame detailing for it. That was kinda the one big reason I made a connection there so if it's wrong that's on me.

I'm still proud of my pun though, I so rarely come up with them.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I'm still proud of my pun though, I so rarely come up with them.

Never let anyone make you feel ashamed of a good pun.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I probably should have done the Ranni ending for my sorcerer build, since some cool magic stuff is locked behind her questline. I’m doing it again, but only up to getting into the Divine Tower of Liurnia.

Going through the college engaging in magic shootouts is a very different experience than going as a barbarian hitting everyone with a big club.

 

[Issun]

The latest patch lets you cheese Godskin Duo with Corpse Piler. I did so and I will never apologize for it.

 

[lincolnic]

I probably should have done the Ranni ending for my sorcerer build, since some cool magic stuff is locked behind her questline. I’m doing it again, but only up to getting into the Divine Tower of Liurnia.

I highly encourage you to get to the end of the questline, because the spell you get from beating Adula absolutely honks. I got it a couple of days ago on my own sorceror and it's been fantastic.

 

[Ludendorkk]

The latest patch lets you cheese Godskin Duo with Corpse Piler. I did so and I will never apologize for it.

They are also highly vulnerable to sleep, which instantly moved that fight from "intensely annoying" to "a pushover" in one attempt once I realized

 

[Alixsar]

I ran out of steam on this for a while (open world games exhaust me) and took a break, and then FFXIV put out a bunch of new content, but I've been picking away at it...I beat Malenia tonight and...she was easy???? Well, "easy"...I mean pretty much every attack is a one or two hit kill, so you can't call it easy. I basically (I'll do a big effort post when I beat the game, but for now) had redone my build about 2/3rds of the way through the game, and I was getting to phase 2 but struggling with that...then I switched back to my original build and it just annhilated her. I still have no idea how to deal with her big attack (you know the one) but whatever. Don't have to dodge when you just bully the fuck out of someone.

I've said before that this game lets you become too strong and I feel like that's still true. I accidentally, by virtue of leveling up when I could and upgrading weapons (AKA playing the game normally), became stronger than I have ever been. It's wild. I know I said I switched builds, but my OTHER build made me skip entire sections of boss fights and rendered other bosses completely useless too. It's a wild game. I'm in the last area and should wrap this up soon.

 

[Issun]

The latest patch lets you cheese Godskin Duo with Corpse Piler. I did so and I will never apologize for it.

It's a good thing I fought them before today because it looks like they "fixed" that.

I'm really starting to wish I'd waited a year to get this game, as there's no way to know right now from one week to the next how viable your build will be to drop all boss damage by 40-50% and health by about 20-25% and bam, it's a lot more fun. I am glad I've started playing other games while I peck away at this because it's becoming less and less enjoyable and discovering that the bosses are about to get even more frustrating starting with the next one makes me not exactly gung-ho on pressing forward.

 

[estragon]

Personally I am just enjoying and appreciating the game more the more that I play it. I thought that a second playthrough might be a slog and I'd quit my second character after fooling around a bit, but to my horror I'm loving every play session and always excited to come back to it. I'll stop after this character, but mostly because I know I've spent more time than I should have with it already, rather than because I want to stop. I will definitely want to take at least one of these guys through whatever expansion is eventually released, assuming the make it possible to access from the endgame.

I am definitely Seeing the Matrix a bit more this time around, but it just makes me realize how thoughtfully designed it. In particular, I'm realizing many "wow I can't believe I stumbled onto that!" experiences actually had multiple redundant forms of signposting to try to lead you to important discoveries in a way that feels completely natural but in reality is extremely cleverly crafted.

Also, on a more basic Fun Factor level, I'm continuing to love the versatility of Incantations.

 

[estragon]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1519452096226992129

Fact Check:

TRUE

 

[Paul le Fou]

Personally I am just enjoying and appreciating the game more the more that I play it. I thought that a second playthrough might be a slog and I'd quit my second character after fooling around a bit, but to my horror I'm loving every play session and always excited to come back to it. I'll stop after this character, but mostly because I know I've spent more time than I should have with it already, rather than because I want to stop. I will definitely want to take at least one of these guys through whatever expansion is eventually released, assuming the make it possible to access from the endgame.

I am definitely Seeing the Matrix a bit more this time around, but it just makes me realize how thoughtfully designed it. In particular, I'm realizing many "wow I can't believe I stumbled onto that!" experiences actually had multiple redundant forms of signposting to try to lead you to important discoveries in a way that feels completely natural but in reality is extremely cleverly crafted.

Also, on a more basic Fun Factor level, I'm continuing to love the versatility of Incantations.

Earlier today on FB there was a post asking people where ER fit in their Soulsborne rankings overall, now that some time had passed. Before, I would have said DS1 was probably on top, with DS3 very close after it, then Bloodborne, then Dark Souls 2 much farther down. Sekiro would be up near the top, possible contender for THE top, if it were included. I started to explain that ER probably fit in somewhere just above or just below DS3 on that, so maybe spot 2 or 3... but then I realized something.

I love this series, but the things I like about it most have always been:

1. Character building. Coming up with ideas for weapons, spells, armor combinations, playstyles, everything. Each character I play, I end up having ideas for 2-3 more builds by the end.
2. The lore, doing deep dives into the theories and analyses and story backgrounds and such. They're all so rich and full of interesting puzzles and possibilities. I'm just a total mark for the way they're presented.
3. I love exploration in games in general, and the series has never disappointed. Finding secrets, items crammed into nooks and crannies, finding a path over rooftops, getting into these amazingly crafted worlds and locations. And they scratch that epic itch too, with gigantic castles and cities, lava caverns with the ruins of massive temples... Lots of huge places and huge things. I like that. And ruins in general being a recurring theme and also something I'm a sucker for without fail.

And as I wrote this out, I realized that, breaking it down element-by-element, Elden Ring really outclasses the other games in those regards.

1. It has the most weapons and spells, plus new elements like weapon arts and craftable items that are actually good. It has by far the most support for making any given weird hybrid build you can think of work, and work well. In some of the other games, you get a build idea and then realize that the spells you were gonna use kinda suck, the weapon isn't very good, there's no support for mixing and matching these two different elements, whatever. In ER, you can absolutely do it, and it works.
2. Elden Ring definitely satisfies here. It ticks all the boxes of the stuff that captured my attention from the DS games and BB. Plus, this time I'm diving in further than ever, even doing my own primary research. I'm seriously considering making a video or podcast series where I talk about lore analysis from the perspective of the original Japanese and the translation, and how it interacts with some of the theories we develop. Is it better than Bloodborne or Dark Souls? I dunno, maybe. It's easily on par with the best they've done yet. It works for me!
3. There are definitely some valid complaints about the game being too big, but combining the amazing level design of the previous games with an open world that manages to preserve all the basic approaches they've always had? It's so good. It's a huge world but it's still shockingly packed with secrets and things to find even on a second, third, fourth playthrough. And the legacy dungeons are mostly Very Good. And with all the extra things in it (see point 1), there's always stuff to find.

I think Elden Ring might be my favorite game in the series. Also, I'm nearing 250 hours on it, when typically I make it about 100 hours, 125 at the outside, into any given game (including From games) in a single stretch of consistent play before I lose interest. I'm feeling my Must Play Elden Ring drive wane a bit...but it definitely still has its waxing moments. And while my second fresh character has ended up being way more thorough than I expected, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to push through at least one NG+ run that just tears up the Main Content and skips all the side stuff I already have.

ER isn't perfect, and there are plenty of things it doesn't do quite as well as other games, but this is long enough already so, that can come later.

 

[Issun]

At the final area with maxed out Cold Uchigatana, maxed out Rivers of Blood, and maxed out Mimic Tear. My vigor is almost at 50, my Endurance and Dex above 30, and my Arcane above 20. I should be ready for the final boss rush, but I'm not sure that I am.

Also Maliketh went down like a bum with my build. I was really surprised.

 

[lincolnic]

Took my sorceror into the Leyndell sewers today. I feel very lucky to not have gotten lost even a single time. Turns out that area can be a lot shorter than you think it is!

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Fighting General Radahn as a spellcaster is not fun. He’s so fast that getting in a single cast is perilous, and he seems to have higher than normal magic resistance.

I am getting burnt out playing Elden Ring after two months, but I want to do this second run while everything is still relatively fresh. I need to find a good strategy to optimize my magic damage, so I can blast through the second half of the game.

 

[Adrenaline]

it's easier to cast spells at him if you're riding a horse at the time

 

[Issun]

I tried fighting the final boss(es) a few times a week ago and haven't touched the game since. I'll give it another go soon, but just thinking about it makes me feel tired.

I love Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls II, but it feels like, from Bloodborne on, that From has been trying to top and top and top themselves. Bloodborne, Dark Souls III and Elden Ring have fights where you have to be on for every second of increasingly more marathon-length fights and they've become exhausting to play. Bloodborne was the absolute limit for me because, as hard as the bosses were, when the health bar is gone, so is the boss. These multi-stage fights in DS3 and Elden Ring where both fights are fuck-you difficult and if you die to version 2.0 you have to fight both again are going beyond what I originally loved about these games, and I just don't think I want anything to do with any future releases.