Elden Ring / Sekiro / Souls / Bloodborne / Souls-likes

Salt & Sanctuary actually feels more like Dark Souls than Dark Souls to me. What I mean is, that unforgiving difficulty and reliance on pattern recognition the series is so famous for I find to be even more prominent in Salt & Sanctuary than it was in Dark Souls. Certainly more than in Dark Souls 2.

This game is really tough so far.

Finally finished Salt and Sanctuary. Playtime of around 18 hours. Fantastic game. Lots of content, really challenging gameplay that rewards versatility and being willing to strategize and mix things up. A good open feel to the exploration. Closest to Bloodborne - to use a Souls-borne comparison - in that it's rarely apparent what content is required and what is optional. You just have to go with its flow.

I did get a sense that maybe the team was rushed when developing some of the late game content. The areas got noticeably smaller, and while the boss quality remained high throughout, the progression became very simple and straightforward at an obvious point. The story is compelling, if every bit as difficult to piece together as in the souls series, but I do feel it lacks the elegance of a Dark Souls game, particularly DS1, DS3 and Bloodborne. It's even more reliant on vague item descriptions, with less in the way of environmental storytelling. The levels are beautifully detailed, and I loved the game's art style, but it's all place-setting. (To be fair, the story actually justifies the lack of relationship between some of the areas, but my point stands).

I can't recommend it enough for Souls fans, and I know I'll be playing it a lot more.

Demon's Souls is on its way from Gamefly. Could get it today, but tomorrow or even Wednesday are more likely. I'm going to continue using this thread for general Souls discussion. Keep an eye on this space.

Demon's Souls Talk

Been too busy to post, but I'm here with my first proper report. Here are the quick hits:

- This game holds up so well. I mean, I've never played it before, so by "holds up" I mean it's not near the proof-of-concept, bad-in-the-rearview type experience I expected. Of course a lot of my intuition comes from having played all the others, but this game feels much more complete, more Dark Souls than I expected. 

- Item burden? I'll take the fact that this mechanic never shows up again as From's own admission that it's dumb.

- The lack of a regenerating health item is interesting. As I press further into new levels, I start to really run low, so that's scary, but I like that I have no reason to turn back. As long as I've got healing items, I'm no less prepared to move forward than I was before the latest encounter. Makes explorations higher risk, but more engaging.

- I know that the max health you forfeit for losing your soul is the exact same mechanic as in Dark Souls 3, but because they show you how much health you're missing in Demon's Souls it feels so much worse.

- I want to complain that I only have two ring slots, but I haven't found hardly any good rings, so meh. Mostly rocking the Cling ring to up my health (since I'm usually in phantom form) and the one that increases my equip burden.

- Had designs on building another halberd warrior, but I only just got to the point I could buy one, I'm too invested in my other path now.

- That path is: +4 Claymore with Steel Shield. No magic.  (I really, really like the Claymore in this game. Huge reach, good damage and pretty fast).

- Maybe I'm just missing shortcuts, but with the notable exception of Phalanx (shortest boss run ever, though I didn't die so it didn't matter), the boss runs are hefty in this game. It's a real pain in the ass if you don't beat them the first time.

Progress Report:

Soul level: 42
Bosses defeated: Phalanx, Armor Spider, Fool's Idol, Vanguard (SoS version), Adjudicator, Leechmonger, Tower Knight
Bosses faced: Flamelurker, Maneater

- I remembered hearing that you're not supposed to play all the way through a single level before moving on, that within one's own comfort and skill you're supposed to beat all the first bosses, then all the second bosses and so on, so that's how I've been playing.

- I thought I'd screwed up when I went to Stonefang Tunnel and everything had such high physical defense. That place sucks so hard for my build. When I first arrived, before finding my Claymore, I would have to hit the basic mob something like 8-9 times to drop them. It was so frustrating I ended up grinding out some levels. Not easily done, since the base enemies in Boletaria drop so few souls. I ended up grinding that black knight with the winged spear over and over (not a very efficient run, but the guy drops 2000 a pop and full moon grass).

- Tower of Latria is creepy as hell, and the 2nd area with all the bridges and wind and the gargoyles is just a masterpiece of atmosphere and level design. The big heart thing, the use of darkness and shadow, the out-of-nowhere swamp area ... man, hell of a level. Like something out of a completely different game.

- Shrine of Storms was really annoying with the things in the sky pelting me with spears. It's a good thing the Adjudicator is such an easy boss, because I did NOT want to play that shit again. Just barely scraped through.

- Valley of Defilement was really easy, at least through to the Leechmonger. Probably the easiest level for me so far. Weak enemies which took a couple hits at most. I did get plagued by some rats, with no means to cure it, so I ended up completing the 2nd half of the level while slowly losing health. And even then it was a waltz. 

Cool, I'll look forward to them. Are all of the 3rd areas as short as Latria's?

Demon's Souls Talk:

Finished it up on Sunday. Really, really good game that still feels fresh even with so many (IMHO) superior spiritual sequels now in its lineage. Atmosphere and world design stand out for me. Tower of Latria and The Valley of Defilement overflow with personality, setting the stage for so many great and consistent dark fantasy settings throughout the series. Meanwhile, Boletaria Palace is a masterclass in level design: lateral and vertical spaces, use of vantage points, strategic enemy placements and combinations, meaningful backtracking and by far the best implementation of shortcuts in a game that otherwise didn't do this signature element too well. You can tell that they took the best lessons from this game when they went on to make Dark Souls.

I do have some problems with the game, most of them informed by my experience having played all the others first. Item burden is needlessly fussy. It just creates an extra step between each run. You could argue that forcing the player more or less choose a load out (or two) rather than walking around with a golf bag of weapons and armor makes the game more strategic, but I don't know that I'd buy that. At least they had the kindness/forethought to let you spend shards for upgrades even when those shards were sitting with Stockpile Thomas. Tendency is also too mysterious, even by the standards of this series. In my first run I dont' think I ever tipped the tendency noticeably in any direction, so that's frustrating.. Compared to the other games there was a dearth of equipment, especially armor and melee/combat-focused rings. And the weapon upgrade pathing is incredibly obtuse. 

Finally, and again this is solely due to my perspective having already played the other games, Demon's Souls feels slight overall. Less areas, shorter areas, less equipment, less enemies ... just LESS. Not itself a problem, but the rest of the series has me used to more content. (And of course I understand that having not dealt much with tendency or other of the more obscure features, I didn't experience all of the content by any measure).

And, final progress report:

- The final areas of Boletaria Palace are great. As stated above, really excellent level design that uses the game's systems to full advantage. It rewards the careful and clever player. Both Penetrator and King Allant were epic fights, definitely among the better bosses in the game. I beat them both on the first try, but at least they made me work for it. 

- Valley of Defilement ... man, poor Maiden Astraea. That whole final area was heartbreaking - and with the creatures in the pool, incredibly creepy as well. I think Garl Vinland maybe glitched on me though. He basically stayed in place. He would attack if I came near and took a swipe, but rather than aggressing further, he would just walk back to his spot and wait for me. I can't imagine that's how it's supposed to play, so bummer on that. Great idea for a final boss, though.

- Shrine of Storms. Since I hated all areas of this world, in this case I was happy the final area was blessedly short. Storm King was a cool boss, though. Easy, but I love the scale of stuff like that.

- And the finale was much more satisfying than really any Dark Souls finale. You got an actual sense of what happened just from playing the game, not having to dig into lore, and although it hardly counts as a boss, I liked the confrontation with pathetic Old King Allant. The design of the Old One was terrific as well.

Same. I'm happy for this to be the last Dark Souls. I feel they've told that story pretty thoroughly at this point. 

I would hate for this style of game to end - and it won't, "souls-like" is its own genre at this point - so I hope that From takes this opportunity to extend their other IP (i.e. give me a goddamn Bloodborne sequel) and introduce new IP. I've seen a ton of interest for a sci-fi or future-set souls-like, though I'm not sure how much that appeals to me. I'm definitely curious to see how they continue to grow from what they've already built. This is a studio that puts out product pretty often, too, so I can't imagine we'll be waiting forever.

As for remakes, well .... I am weak. Take my money.

By the way, where were you going with that Bloodborne asterisk?

Ugh, everyone is saying the new DLC trailer is spoiler-y, but now the "review the trailer" videos are hitting from Vaati and the like, and it's physically painful not to watch them.

First session was good. I tourist-ed through a bunch of areas, saw some awesome sights, talked to a few NPCs, unlocked shortcuts, found four(!) bonfires and took out the first (optional?) boss. The first boss was a good challenge, and a great setting, but not particularly creative. Beat the boss on my fifth try.

The encounter design is leaning heavily on group combat. I can only think of two encounters across the areas I played that pitted me against single targets. And with most groups having a combination of melee and ranged attacks in their arsenal, there have been some truly fiendish situations.

It's hitting those classic notes that make me love the series. It's great to look at, they're building up some mystery, and the exploration has that fraught, breathless energy that only first-time runs in Dark Souls can provide. I don't think I'll be able to play again for a couple days, so even though I'm up late at this point, I'm glad I stuck it out and put that boss to rest. I'd hate to have to come back to it.

Well done! That is a hoss setup.

Twin Princes are definitely up there on my difficulty scale as well, though I personally have more trouble with Champion Gundyr (without summon) and the Dancer. Twin Princes is possibly my favorite boss fight across the entire series. I love how it looks, I love how it plays, I love the run up to it, I love the lore behind it. I love everything about it. It's so ... Dark Souls.

I'm working from home this week. On my right: my work setup. On my left: my home PC, on which I have - all day - been playing Dark Souls and Bloodborne lore, critique, etc. type videos.

In other words, what the fuck is wrong with me?

Yay!

Bloodborne is my favorite of the 5 of them. I know you've already played it some.

Congrats and have fun! I won't be a likely viewer, as my schedule only really allows me to dick around with this kind of thing late late, but I supposed if you're ever streaming late late then I might check it out.

I like Amygdala. Visually impressive, but not so tough. Takes awhile to fight though. Big health pool.

I caved and bought DS3 on sale. Even though I loathe the idea of this series and hated what I played of DS1, I'm gonna do a blind run through soon and try to finish no matter what, but I got another game I am gonna attend to first.