I’ve finally played a soulslike again in what must have been months! Gotten the itch to play a little Elden Ring again - partially because seamless co-op looks to be fun and I’d like to get back into the game before participating in some jolly cooperation (you know who you are 🤗) and also because my fiancée really enjoys watching me play the game a lot, and it’s a bit of a disservice to her that I’m so vehemently against playing the game again. At its core, it’s objectively a good game and the DLC is also really good. Might as well finish that and then I can lay it to rest for a while, I think.
Turns out, Messmer isn’t the only thing for us to do right now, so we looked up a couple locations of Scadutree fragments and found that an entire section of the map was gated behind the tiniest of caves tucked in the bottom-right corner of the map. After dispatching the Ancient Dragon-Man and wiping out the entire dragon population of the map in epic duels, we fought Senessax who proved to be a bit more of a challenge than first anticipated. I used the sword that the Dragon-Man dropped upgraded to +10 for some really good damage to the head (like 3k, NG) and with some good positioning, I got the W eventually. We’re on our way to hunt Moby Dick now. :]
For me, it would probably be a toss-up between Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Lies of P. I’ve played all of them for roughly the same amount of time and have finished numerous playthroughs in all of them. The initial confusion I felt when I first played these games in terms of where to go, when and why is mostly gone except for some minor hiccups here and there for some obscure part of a quest or map where I usually just rush through. Sekiro helps here with the traversal to streamline rushing through the game somewhat, but I sometimes forget where I need to go after I defeat Genichiro and have 3 different paths to pursue for different items needed to progress the story.
How about you? :)
I know Elden Ring’s map by far the best; I know it like the back of my hand. I know every connection, every teleporter, and not only the overworld map but every dungeon from Legacy Dungeon to small Catacombs, and the same goes for the entire DLC.
I probably know Bloodborne the next best? But not nearly as well as Elden Ring
I got the Elden Ring Randomizer working on my Steam Machine this weekend. It was way easier than my research indicated. Runs without a problem, and it’s so much fun so far :)
Seamless Co-op for Elden Ring is very fun and very functional. It even worked well with Reforged if anyone is interested in that (slight jank here and there if you’re doing quests so we had some moments of “ok, everyone disconnect and talk to the NPC in your game and then reconnect”.)
Continuing my blind DS2 run. Starting to (literally and figuratively) hit walls in DLC areas and the Drangleic castle with my halberd build and this morning I decided that I’ll do what the game seems to want me to do and change to a strike weapon, probably Dragon Tooth (though I’ll play around with Smelter Hammer too). Get me that durability, easier mechanics (no sweet spot) and ability to better deal with what’s starting to feel like a bit disappointing stream of big-armored-guys-with-fast-and-big-sweeping-attacks. Slightly bummed to feel that I have to do that but it’s better than getting frustrated. Not that I mind swapping weapons generally, I carried a whole arsenal with me in Elden Ring but I didn’t have to respec or worry about upgrade mats in that. In DS2 it’s a bit more of a commitment. But, I did have a good run with the halberd I think and even after respec I can still use the basic one fine if the situation seems right (which in this end-game segment, it never seems to be -_-;).
I used to know the maps of ds1 and ds2 like the back of my hand, today I can probably still navigate them with no problem, but I’d only make that claim about DS2 now. That map is permanently etched into my brain. DS2 was my first souls, and I explored that entire game for every secret and item, and played it over and over. DS1 I played the entire game like 2 or 3 times, but only once did I bother doing “everything”. DS3 I played only once but without the dlcs, same with Sekiro (I actually restarted Sekiro not that long ago, but haven’t actually progressed much). And I haven’t finished Elden Ring yet (I’m waiting for a decent promo on SotE).
Hopefully some Sekiro if I have time, but I have a busy weekend so I might not! It’ll be there for me whemever I get to it anyway
The Elden Ring map is undoubtably the one I know best, for several reasons. First, it’s an open world game, so navigating it requires paying close attention to the map. Second, it’s the soulslike I’ve played the most. Third, I’ve spent ages staring at it while I try to draw my own version (which is a project I need to get back to)
The original Dark Souls is probably the one I know next-best. The shortcuts you unlock really are delightful little things. Oh shit I’m back at Firelink again?
What?! is this how I find out there’s a map in sekiro? Hahah Also, I’m glad that y’all have been enjoying that seamless co-op! Cool, not experiencing FOMO or anything over here :_)
Bloodborne and Elden Ring are the maps I know best (does ER count since it has an actual map? Feels like cheating haha)… I guess throw in lies of P as well since I played it so much last year. And DS1 I can map mentally pretty ok I think. Considering I have not played it nearly the same amount as the others. It really speaks of it’s memorable design. (Thanks to who pointed me to the dlc, Entrance though, wouldn’t have made it without ya’ll.)
Took a long pause in Khazan. And in video games in general. So, maybe no soulslikes for this weekend again
After approximately 84 years I am playing an actual bona fide Soulslike again. Early Access for Withering Realms opened a week ago and despite my usual principle to not play early access I simply couldn’t keep my hands off. The first game (Withering Rooms) quickly became one of my favourite games immediately after I played it at the beginning of this year, and so the sequel instantly shot up as my most anticipated game of the fall.
So far it’s been phenomenal and frustrating in equal measures. Everything that was good about the first game - the lore, the characters, the vibes, the music (all composed by the solo dev!), the weirdness, the setting, the design and art - all of that is still here and more. The story is interesting so far and I can’t wait to see whatever twists it has in store. It looks to be a direct sequel, so now we know which one of the four endings of Rooms is canon, too. The exploration feels really fantastic, the puzzles are great, the world is as interesting as the first game.
The big difference is in the combat. It’s not a roguelike anymore, but a Soulslike: you have bonfires and flasks that refill when you rest as enemies respawn. Most of the consumables have been removed (at least so far). The economy has been rebalanced to mana and stamina bars instead of limited use consumables and a curse bar. Combat and movement is still janky and clunky, but now it’s in 3D with a fixed camera instead of 2.5D, and that both takes some getting used to and also inherently feels a bit worse. The clunk is more noticeable, somehow.
A lot of that is just down to early access polish being needed, however. I have no doubt that on full release sometime next year it will be excellent. The bones of something really great are here already, and even though I am still reasonably early I can also already tell that the build variety is going to be even greater than the first game - and all the planned weapons and features aren’t even in yet.
The balancing is rough so far though. The game is pretty damn hard, and the difficulty curve is even more brutal than the first game. Some early encounters are way overtuned. The game has a bit too much of large groups of enemies swarming you with overlapping attacks that are almost impossible to engage with. Some bosses have very binary designs: boss X is almost impossible to melee while boss Y is almost impossible to fight at range. You’re expected to switch up your approach for the situation, but everyone won’t like that. But again, I expect that to be tweaked. The Discord is very active and this dev works insanely fast.
So, recommendation? For the most part I would hold off on joining early access unless you are truly Withered up like me. The game is playable from start to finish, but it will be an even better experience down the line. I couldn’t wait, though. And also, I will take any excuse to talk about this developer. The first game (Withering Rooms) is truly something special, and you should absolutely play it if you haven’t already. Once you do you’ll probably understand why I couldn’t wait until full release for the sequel.
Jesus, I was not prepared for that animation when the player character got caught by the axe in the Withering Realms trailer
I’m not usually one for roguelikes, with some rare exceptions. How important would you say that playing Rooms is for the story?
Can’t speak for the sequel but you should 100% play rooms!
It’s absolutely critical, I would say. Realms is a direct continuation, and despite what the Steam page says I would say you would be very confused by Realms without having played Rooms. At least if you care about story and lore. There are already tons of direct continuations from Rooms and the whole setting is built on top of what Rooms established.
Rooms isn’t a very traditional roguelike, though. It’s its own unique thing. And even it takes a lot of queues from Fromsoft. I think you’ll be just fine with it even if you don’t usually enjoy roguelikes. There is much more continuous progress in Rooms, it isn’t “run-based” necessarily. Much like a Souls game or something you constantly keep moving forward in the story, it’s just that you lose all your items when you die (apart from a select few you can “remember”). But even that very quickly becomes a non-issue as you get a very generous amount of remembrance slots quite quickly.
Honestly it’s just a great game, you’ll like it. Lore and world building is amazing too.
I just finished my SL1 run in Elden Ring, doing all remembrance bosses using nothing but a Great Sword, with my ass hanging out the whole game. I only did the main game, not the DLC and it was very hard but very fun. I’m debating whether to do the DLC and if I want to use skadoo fragments. The DLC is pretty rough and I don’t know if I would enjoy it. Without skadoo it’s worse. So not sure, perhaps I’ll just do another randomizer, that’s my comfort food and I’ve done so many.
The best map I know is DS3 I think, I know that game inside and out. I also know Elden Ring very well, but that map is so huge I always forget shit and get stuff wrong.
Which soulslike map do you know the best?
It’s a pretty even toss-up between DS1, 2, 3 and Elden Ring.
Bloodborne is the map I am least familiar with (and that shit is super confusing; played through enough to 100% it, and still could not tell a new player where to actually go 🤣).
I keep thinking about replaying Bloodborne or DS3. I’ve done a full playthrough and then some in each, but kept thinking about trying out different builds. A dex build for Bloodborne, some kind of caster for DS3. But I have a huge backlog so I have not started either.
I probably know hollow Knight’s map the best, if that counts? Mostly because of the Metroidvania nature of it, but also because the limited nature of the fast travel. Similarly I got pretty familiar with DSR’s map, but that was a long time ago. I was not that big on the game, so I never replayed it.
