It makes me sad that many people who get into these games don’t play them simply to play them. They play them to be able to say they’ve beaten them. But there’s so much to enjoy about them besides just conquering the difficulty. The story, the gameplay, the worlds to explore. It’s all amazing. The badge of honor for me is that not only have I beaten these games, but I had fun and LOVED them.
I have almost 700 hours in Elden Ring and have still not beaten it. The difficulty means once you overcome a challenge, you actually feel accomplished. So I don't want that to end.
Being summoned for co-op is one of the best experiences in gaming, even if half the time I get summoned I’m going “nooo buddy don’t get one shot, buddy noooooo”
You always end your videos with such a positive message. Thank you so much for the genuine thought and attention to detail you put into this video. It may not be much, but hearing you talk about something you care so deeply for always encourages me to do my best to!
After 56 hours I beat the DLC all while wearing the yellow scarab mask, on new game+, and forgetting I still had Fias Baldachin Blessing active about a third way in. I completely forgot about jumping, died a bunch of times, and cheesed many of the bosses. But playing this game was way funner with friends, summons, and randos you meet online. In a world where everything is fucked, you're absolutely right: you dont have to do this alone. Powerful vid!
I loved the Skeleton Chariot boss in DS2 so much that I spent every evening for a week just putting my summon sign down for it. It was so fun guiding other people through the obtuse gimmick of the fight. I'd also bow or kneel to them after, regardless of their contribution in the battle, and they would always fist pump or bow back. I didn't even mind if they stood back and let me do everything. It felt fitting even, since I was their summon and they were the main character of their story. I think that these players who advocate staunchly that beating the game independently simply can't imagine the joy that comes from helping someone else succeed. Really makes me curious about how they interact with people in their lives outside the game, and whether they would consider charity or kindness to be signs of weakness as well.
An extremely soulful & well put together video. Thank you so much for sharing! I hope more people come across your work, you've got a great balance of comedic timing & strong emotional beats.
My biggest takeaway from this is that stuff like summons and spells and what not are THERE TO BE USED. They probably put like. Weeks into designing and implementing them and making sure they were balanced and worked properly and shit. They didn't do that for fun, they did that so you can use them. If you do a thing solo, you still did it by yourself, using a summon or spell doesn't detract from that. They put that there for a reason. Use them. Also really loving how much of your own personal experiences are in each of your video essays. It's really nice to see. This video has such a heartwarming ending.
Summons and spells are not balanced in the slightest, people would have no issue with others utilizing these mechanics if the enemy AI could compensate accordingly, spam AoE attacks to wipe out multiple opponents and reflect/dodge spells to keep you on your guard. They play with the concepts somewhat but then completely nullify them by adding spells the AI won't react to and spirits that are so strong they can defeat bosses on their own. All in all the issue stems from the failed execution of these ideas, not the ideas themselves.
@@anitaremenarova6662 Even if the balance isn't perfect, my point stands. Lots of stuff we take for granted in games takes FAR longer than we imagine to produce and get running and working. They put in the effort to produce things like summons and spells in order for them to be used. It feels a little weird to see several arsenals designed to be used just. Brushed aside because they're seen as dishonorable or cheating. 'I feel like summoning other players is cheating', why would the developers include that mechanic if it was? The devs probably made something like the Mimic Tear because they went 'hey, wouldn't making a copy of yourself to fight alongside you be cool?'
@@RicePrezPip You're not listening, the balance isn't there whatsoever. These games might seem incredible on the surface but the reality is that most of their systems are massively outdated. Summons are just reused PvE mobs that fight for you instead, it's not like there's an entirely unique roster of creatures they spent developing just for this purpose. It's not cheating as much as it is bypassing game mechanics by confusing the enemy AI which is not designed to be able to still provide a challenge when multiple opponents are there. You can completely cheese bosses like this by simply running away and waiting until your summon takes aggro again, rinse and repeat. There's no random target switching or increased use of AoE attacks, at best the boss gets more health and even that only happens if you summon players. You can absolutely play the game like this however I will always insist the first go-around you should engage with the mechanics to be able to accurately judge the game because you understand it fully.
@@RicePrezPip Summons are just blue shaded enemies with the aggro switch turned the other way. Spirit ashes are cheap to create which is why they’re all over the place to pad out the loot pool
I picked up Elden Ring a while back when it was on sale as sort of a "rainy day/open world escapism" game but hearing all the hubbub about Eldtree kinda put me off of booting up. Watching this to the end made me feel a lot more motivated to get around to it. Great vid o7
Hey man, thanks for the shout-out and the tongue-in-cheek criticisms! I really enjoyed the video, but there are a few things I'd like to touch on. Of course, part of my own video was spent trying to highlight how I enjoy games, and I wasn't trying to say that this is better or worse than anyone else's, but in general, I found myself enjoying the boss design less than previous FS games and even the base game. I have the knowledge to use all the tools at my disposal, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll enjoy it as much if I used them vs. my preferred way to play. Beyond that, I think Elden Ring could do a better job facilitating people into using its tools by making them more accessible in general. Like I said in my video, it's kind of a pain having to farm materials for consumables, particularly when they can't be purchased with bell bearings or anything like that. Who really wants to farm Aeonian Butterflies from Basilisks at the Lake of Rot with a base 8% drop rate? You'd either need to respec to an Arcane build to increase the rate they drop, or take the L and spend the time farming. I think they could have done a number of things to make fighting bosses more approachable for players such as: adding new spells that have increased buff times since now boss attacks chain longer, (you'll be hitting them more infrequently as a result,) having more bell bearings to buy consumables, NOT having a limited amount of larval tears for respeccing, etc. I liked your point about "fairness" against facing bosses, which I agree with to an extent, but it doesn't make me enjoy fighting them more by using a strategy that I don't want to use. For instance, I used my game knowledge to switch things up against Gaius and Radahn, and I beat them without too much trouble, but I would have preferred to beat them my way. There wasn't any one thing "wrong" with the bosses, but it felt like death by a thousand cuts, where if one or two things were tweaked here and there, I would've enjoyed the game much more than I did. Also, wth were those attacks you could jump over!? Definitely showed me a few ones I didn't know about. I do wish the game did a better job at telegraphing which you could jump over, because it's NOT intuitive for a number of them, like the Putrescent Knight's flames...or Maliketh's Rock Sling. ;) Anyway, thanks again for the video. I reacted to it live on stream if you're curious for my takes on that, it's on the live section of my channel. Peace
Hey, thanks for watching my video and for being such a good sport about it. Was awesome to hear from you so quickly after this went up! Keep on rockin' in the free world, brother.
you dont get to hit bosses less frequently. sure, bosses are more aggressive and have longer combo's, but you can actually get just as many punish windows on them than in previous games, sometimes even more. jumping over a move and coming down with a jump heavy, ducking followups with jump attack recovery, hitting bosses during windups of delayed attacks, proper positioning, sometimes even crouching. the list goes on. these things change the way you fight any boss and it adds a lot more depth to the combat than just rolling and waiting until the boss stops attacking
if your own way to play is what is making the bosses less approachable, how is that not just a self imposed handicap tho? like, that's not the game doing that, that's you. I feel like there's a distinction between my own way to play = however I end up playing, and my own way to play = the way I always played other games and never want to change. It's more about your expectations being set in a way that doesn't match up, and instead of addressing your own assumptions you blame the thing you're making those assumptions about, in the way some parents have their attention grabbed and blame the child for 'trying to get attention" like what should be directed internally at your own response is somehow directed externally at what you responded to so that you can remain correct and not have to do anything differently. Although I guess I can't be surprised at main character syndrome from someone calling themselves a protagonist right
I think the issue is the language context creep where what used to be reflective language (“I don’t feel good about the way I had to fight that boss”) has shifted in our day-to-day into more opinionated and faux-objective language (“Unfair, overtuned, unbalanced, unreadable”). The former invites self-reflection and an opportunity to ask why do you feel this way - is there something wrong with the limitations you’ve decided for yourself where if you can’t “intuit” a boss but you don’t want to spend time to study it or look up tactics, then it’s trash? The latter only protects oneself from that self-reflection and is a way to guard against a perceived loss of self-worth or status - “if I gave in and sought help or changed my playstyle, I’d be admitting that I’m not as good as I know I should be and people will judge me for it”.
Excellent points, and I found this right after Joseph Anderson’s latest video where me makes much of the same complaints you touch upon. I commented there about interrogating all of these assumptions about emptiness or the purity of a first run free of outside guidance, too, and was wondering just how we’d gotten here when I’ve always approached these games like I was playing a FromSoft game for the first time and knew nothing and could expect nothing (besides that Asylum Demon butt slam). This community had built up institutions around these games, and at some point like all institutions it was the ladder climb that mattered to people, not the guided and curated quest to personally improve with the support of everyone else.
i mean, miyazaki made these games. ofc he is gonna end up trying all and everything. he plays through this game in a way we can hardly even imagine. there is no surprise for him we have throughout our journey
26:28 I did this exact same thing BUT I had arguably the worst experience as I kept getting summoned to help ppl kill the Black Keep Hippo. I must have helped kill about 50 hippo's that day. I said to myself I'd rather just listen to my gfriend talk than fight another hippo so I logged off. I hope I never see another golden hippo.
The Elden Ring dlc made me summon for the first time in forever too! All of the back and forth discourse about too difficult or too easy or whatever just completely faded away as I found myself aiding other players, all with unique builds and playstyles of their own, with a tough boss. There was one time another summoned player and I both had the gravebird set and before and even during the fight we were spinning the feathers around in a circle inbetween taking aggro and dealing damage. As a huge fan of fromsoft for their souls games as well as their early games like armored core, evergrace, and kings field, I feel like they have always stayed true to their philosophy of game design; feeling joy and immersion in their worlds through learning and engaging with their mechanics. One last note but shadow of the erdtree might be their actual peak in terms of visual design.
yes, pls can we go back to the good old days of living in the sunlight? loving in the moonlight? having a wonderful time, even... 😞 i miss jolly cooperation
Seeing this video has definitely inspired me to jump back into Elden Ring and do some more co-op myself. I've always used every tool at my disposal to defeat bosses, including summoning other players that would often lay down their lives so I could defeat a boss. It's a wondrous thing to see so many mighty heroes come to my aid, and then take those efforts to become a powerful ally myself.
Another banger from Kuu ShinigamiEater jokes aside I always love seeing your look into stuff like this. Music choices are always so soothing too. very comfortable essay if that makes sense.
really wanna thank you for those miyazaki quotes about how he sees the world and the stuck car experience. so much art, beauty, and very specific human view point goes into these games and its what has always kept me coming back to them over and over like a warm blanket. its always been frustrating to see them reduced over and over to a really disposable d*ck measuring contest. great video thanks for all the work that went into it
I actually learned the power jumping had when fighting the dumb skeleton horse. I knew jumping was an option for dodging, but it always felt like there was no real opportunity to do so anywhere in the boss movesets. Then here comes horse fucker with his dumbass fire waves and I realized "Oh shit! I have to jump this because the wave is too big to roll through!" Legit felt like the horse was Miyazaki slapping me in the face with that one.
One thing that I fail to understand is why so many players are so concerned with someone else's experience of the game. You already experienced it, watching someone do it the same way you did won't let you relive your experience, but watching someone else do it might teach you things you wouldn't otherwise know. People always insist that invasions are an integral part of the franchise, yet using summons for a boss are robbing you of your experience? Who are you to tell me the right way to experience a product I purchased with my own money?
Fantastic video, perfectly encapsulates how I feel about the "drama" surrounding this DLC. I am a massive fan of Last Protagonist but it really did piss me of when he refused to engage with the game's most basic mechanics and then complained that the bosses were too overtuned, the fuck did he expect to happen?
Banger video as usual; the ending in particular made me think of Fallout 76 funnily enough. I know that a lot of people still hold the game in disdain, but particularly because of the initial reaction and hatred towards the game the community that formed around it was all the more welcoming to new players. Over the years, there were unwritten rules developed to support the new players, protecting them during events and giving them recipies and items that they might need. I think its pretty cool how communities like this can develop in so many games.
Been loving your other content, but there's a certain energy you bring to all of these fromsoft related vids that always has me coming back to re-watch. W vid brother.
First video of yours I found was after playing Bloodborne (and first Souls game) for the first time a handful of months ago. Funny thing was I found it while going through a horrendous low point and it gave me something to focus on besides negativity and anxiety....then I saw "A World Without Hope" and was surprised you had found it under very similar circumstances. Definitely enjoying your content, glad I found your channel.
This video resonated with me. The first time I beat elden beast, I did it with a mimic. Despite that, the feeling I got after beating it was something I couldn't remember feeling since I was a kid. I remember thinking specifically that even with all the shit I had going on, I could do it, and I didn't have to do it alone. Sure I went back and beat the game without mimics, and it made me feel awesome too. I would've never thought getting through something with the help of others could feel so good.
Another BANGER Kuu video essay. Yknow when you started talking about how the game is "only as difficult as you want it to be" I thought you were going to bring up your Lies of P streams from last year, where there were some aspects of the game you weren't fully engaging with (mostly as a result of it being a blind playthrough) and how that may have impacted your experience. Is that something you had thought about in developing this video or did it not really cross your mind at all?
i just wanted to say that this made me rethink how I played elden ring. I'm not very good at 'difficult' games, but i really loved elden ring's lore and game design. i had, however, just felt defeated and bad about myself cause i couldn't really do it n felt like i was hitting my head against the wall. but this helped me a bit with the 'git gud' mindset that I had adapted from the community, and I've been playing it for several days now actually feeling good about the progress that I have made. I have absolutely done more in the past few days than I had during my other attempts at it. So thank you for talking about the 'git gud' mentality n how it can affect one's play style. this is kind of what i needed to hear.
I have perhaps a different perspective. I think the real issue can be summed up from a comment I read about dark souls difficulty discussion. Paraphrasing it but was basically "dark souls is not a badge of honor no matter how much you want it to be, there were always tons of easy ways to win". That's true. If your goal is to beat dark souls or elden ring or something similar, and your only restriction is like, don't hack the game, they are all fairly easy. You generally have to give yourself some kind of restriction, avoid some tools, or straight up not use entire systems in order to be challenged and thats because the point of these games is not the challenge, it's only one aspect. The thing is, if I want a "badge of honor" game to play in the genre, something that you have to be extremely skilled at to even beat at all, even using every tool, where can I turn? The annoying fact is that there just isn't a game like that in the genre. The only option I have left to pursue that interest of mine, is to find a game thats not made for it, and try my best to alter it to become what I want and thats put me in the same community as people wanting something else. In fact, at other times, I want another thing from souls thats its not meant to be, which is a fun pve co-op experience with friends. When I play with my friends, I don't want to be interrupted by invaders (solo it's fine) but the game just isn't designed that way. However, if I do want a co-op game with fromsofts gameplay design, I don't really have any options. The closest is probably nioh, which I do also play with my friends, but it is still a fairly different. I don't shame people for playing the games differently, because it's me trying to make the game something it's not, but that does run counter to my interests. There's definitely a temptation to try and get rid of fans that are going to incentivize the developers to take the game even further away from what I want (as was the case in nioh 2 which was easier mechanically). Live and let live simply results in me just not getting the games I want made. Playing games is my favorite thing to do in this world, I love it, but I couldn't give you my favorite game because every possible contender has some real huge issue I have with it and that sucks. My interests within the genre are just too niche I guess. I want to pick up from where I left off back with demon souls where I got good and then...had nothing to really ever get good at in the genre again. I had so much fun with sekiro because it was different enough that I had to cultivate a new skillset and man was that fun. I guess I'm the odd one but if I'm losing to a boss for 3 hours, I'm having fun for that whole 3 hours. It's not just the eventual satisfaction of winning, it's the constant gradual visible improvement in my ability that is just fucking intoxicating and I can't get enough of it and I want more but I've kinda reached the peak of the mountain in this genre mechanically. Yes, I can always use weaker gear and ban certain systems, but ultimately that isn't making the fights mechanically better, just more punishing. Upping the punishment makes me better at that fight in particular, but not really at the game or genre as a whole. I need to be pushed to learn better. More complex and larger movesets, more things to keep in mind during the fights, more defensive mechanics that all must be used to succeed. When we do get a new fromsoft game, and it is more challenging than the last, it's so nice for me. I get to have that feeling of fun again. I absolutely loved fighting consort in shadow of the erdtree and it just makes me sad to see so many people dislike that level of challenge. It worries me eventually fromsoft will stop making things that hard and rather than the occasional scraps I get now, I'll be truly starved for what I want from the genre.
ANOTHER CERTIFIED BANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET'S FUCKING GO on a more emotional note, some of the most fun i've had playing ER and other soulslike games has just been sitting in a VC and either parallel playing or actively co-oping through them, just shooting the shit and cracking jokes during downtime running around, or discussing strategies and lore stuff while fighting bosses there's something so warm and almost comforting about doing co-op in these games, this idea that even in such a bleak world there'll be someone there to offer a hand. whether it's an NPC or someone you've never met online - or one of your closest friends, yapping away in a call with you, you're never truly alone. not really.
I always co-op in Souls games to be summoned and help others-it’s just so enjoyable and fulfilling to help others achieve their goals with the boss or in the world. To date, my most thrilling moment in a Souls game was being summoned in DS2 as a cleric for the Ruin Sentinels boss fight, and healing the main to power through killing the last boss. My clutch heal saved him and helped him kill the boss, even though I died doing it. Top tier, can’t replicate that kind of awesomeness.
Forbidden memories was one of the most difficult games as a kid. The mirror wall card in that game was the equivalent of mimic tear in elden ring. Completely removed the difficulty entirely.
ngl 60-70% of my playtime is being a summon for other folks the group battles are fun and you can play a bit more freely knowing your own runes aren’t on the line
The only problem is that most hosts die so quickly that you can't take your attention off the boss for a moment, or else the host will die. People should invest more in survivability
Woah.... a Shinigami video?!?! I hope youre doing well man! I loved seeing the intro because you always make your videos such high quality. I can't wait to finish this video and watch whatever video is next. Once again I hope you are doing good.
I am playing ds3 right now with my best man. Not with summons or multiplayer. Just streaming to each other on discord. I struggle a lot more with the bosses than he does, however he just waits for me. He just watches me play till I beat them. It is cathartic in a way I can't describe. We don't have much game left but I already can't wait for the next one.
another banger, hot off the presses. i remember definitely having that "git gud" mentality creep in for my first Bloodborne playthrough (the first FromSoft game i actively played instead of just watching videos about). i remember loving the kirkhammer and the stake driver, and decided that the only way i could beat the rest of the game was to use those weapons alone. this went fine until i hit The One Reborn, and for whatever reason, that boss was a HUGE wall for me. enough to get me so frustrated that i totally stopped playing, and dropped the game for like, a year and a half. up until that point in my playthrough, i was having an incredible time just absorbing this world and exploring all its little horrifying little nooks and crannies. but the second i decided to stubbornly hit my head against a brick wall, all that magic fell to the wayside. it was no longer an experience, but a grind, and i was so caught up in my inability to surpass it that it sapped away ALL the atmosphere that Bloodborne had worked so hard to set up. the only reason i ever decided to pick that game up again, was because of my friend excitedly talking about FromSoft lore in a call. which is to say, much like this video touches on, From Software very intentionally designs their games to have difficulty dictated by the players themselves. if you're someone who enjoys to keep the pacing of a game consistent, please do yourself a favor, and don't lose that momentum to a self-induced limitation. at least not on the first playthrough. cuz if you're anything like me, those first impressions are SO important.
I'm playing a Game of Thrones story in a Dark Souls world. You play the game as a Tarnished, I play it as a Targaryen. You play it to beat the bosses, I play it to read book 6 (Elden Ring) and book 7 (Shadow of the Erdtree) to complete G.R.R. Martin's saga A Song of Ice and Fire. Dragons and Incest.
I got into these games late, so it's cool to to see my assumption on the whole "difficulty" push *was* with from &/or bandai, just i only went as far back as ds1 ptd edition as proof. Great video all around, forbidden memories was 1 of my first 3 video games i owned myself, alongside spyro 2 & megaman x4. Not played, just owned for myself Love how you dont even have to discuss the dlc much at all to get the points across either 😂 like there really isnt anything new with what people are bugging out about & most of it is self inflicted. Tired of bosses that feel like theyre from bloodborne or sekiro? Congrats, you have almost 10 different ways to get bloodbornes hp regen mechanics at this point & to w/e degree you wish, and now we even have sekiro style deflections. Endure often gets overlooked, but it's deadass a brief "ds1 poise/resist" button. Seriously, there cant be THAT MANY PEOPLE trying to no hit the game where they arent willing to trade slight amounts of damage to CREATE new attack/heal windows where there were none at all. Bayle's 2nd phase transition is a good example of this, endure around blessing 17~ doesnt even take 1/4th your health *as a 2nd sunbro.* That ability is in limgrave btw, but so are throwing daggers & kukris, & you pointed out yourself, most people cant be bothered to add ANYTHING to their character beyond the 1st right hand weapon slot. People really went hollow years back & didnt even realize it lmao
These games are a large part of why I'm still here. I'm not a great player, I'm not amazing, I'll use cheap tactics and cheese and any help I can get. But I LOVE These games. I'm invested in them. Their story, their gameplay, their difficulty, all of it. I rage, I bitch and complain, but I also laugh and have a damn good time. I wouldn't Still be here without them, as sad as that is to say.
Personally, i prefer to actually dance with the bosses by learning their patterns, but with the bad first impression that i got during the first few hours I just mimic teared my way to victory, which is a shame because that means that i didn't really engage bosses the way I usually do. I just wanted to get it over with.
As someone who does use spirit ash, I can confidently say there really is one way in which most of the DLC bosses are incredibly different than the base game. In the base game, most bosses are slow to engage, giving the play a large window of opportunity to call a spirit ash for support right at the start of the fight. Try doing the same thing in the DLC, however, and most of the bosses will instead punish the player with an immediate ranged attack or gap closer. In the DLC, the first thing a player has to be prepared to do when crossing that fog gate is dodge the boss's opening attack, and only after that will they maybe have an opening to call in a spirit ash. Having said that, contrary to what the "git gud" crowd might say, I don't think this design decision was made to intentionally nerf spirit usage or even to force players to think more tactically about when to use a spirit. No, I think this hightened boss agression right from the start of fight was instead meant to deny that opening window for Comet Azure one-shots, and spirit ashes were just an unfortunate peripheral casuality.
Equal parts beautiful, clever, and insightful. I still have some complaints vis-a-vis SotE's difficulty that I feel could be wedged into the dialogue (such as it is), but overall I think it's a fair assessment to say that what made me come away from the DLC feeling so soured on it was that I was trying to win a fight by playing by _my_ rules, instead of doing much to adapt - and that ultimately what _won_ me the fight _was_ adaptation. It only felt bad to me because I wanted to do it On My Terms, and if I'd gone into it the way I'd _first_ played the game, which was I think a very healthy "this game will try to stab you in the back at all times, so learn to stab its back first" - or, bluntly, _use whatever it takes to win because the tools are being offered_ - approach...things woulda been a lot different, I think. I wonder how I'd feel if I gave it another shot. I've been tongue-in-cheek referring to my situation with the game as "we're not on speaking terms right now", but for how much I loved Elden Ring (I don't often _replay_ a game, and here I am with Elden Ring doing two full playthroughs, planning to do NG+, and two other _partial_ playthroughs, one with an overhaul mod installed), I wonder how healthy it is of me to have put it down so suddenly and forcefully.
So, I did most of the things you said you should do. I crafted cool things, jumped a lot, summoned allies, etc, and I still had a rough time. Then I grabbed the Scoobie snacks (Scadu Fragments), and the game became "easy." Except for the final boss. I do not know why the designers thought making a boss give people seizures was a good idea. That aside, I think tying difficulty to damage modifiers is a poor way of implementing difficulty, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. 7/10 DLC, slightly better than the main game.
Having just beaten both Rellana and Messmer at level 1 while not being especially skilled, I can't help but think that the people making these criticisms are just trying to rush through the DLC for the sake putting out this content as quickly as possible in order to maximize engagement. While the final boss in particular has some significant flaws that make him (IMO) not very fun, the rest of the bosses are extremely well-designed and in many cases a big upgrade over much of what's in the base game. If these people actually took the time to learn and internalize the flow of these fights, they'd be singing a different tune.
I think even people who don’t wanna summon folks to help them best the boss still get help with beating the boss by looking up guides on how to dodge certain attacks or even how to make your build or what’s optimal or whatever . The game isn’t great at communicating how to play, it kinda just tells ya to go play and for me it gets a bit overwhelming but I’ve always relied on content creators and it’s all part Of jolly cooperation to me. I do wish though that there was a way for the game to inform players on how all the systems work. Even just like hints, stuff like this ash of war will keep you in the air long enough to dodge some attacks while doing damage. Because this isn’t a turn based game where you have time to make decisions in the middle Of battle, the path of least resistance really is going with what’s worked for ya so far and then when it doesn’t, there’s two ways you can go: get frustrated and say the game is crap or find something else but finding something else isn’t always easy because of the RPG mechanics and the upgrade materials. Part of me wishes they got rid of upgrades and just allowed every weapon to be viable if you’ve got the stats to wield it. I feel like that would really help folks to experiment without feeling like now they have to go find a bunch of upgrade materials. Thinking back, there just aren’t enough upgrade stones in the game to level up more than 2 or 3 weapons at the same time and that sucks cause there’s 100s of weapons and there’s really no reason why upgrade materials should be scarce or even exist as a mechanic.
I hadn't realized I was struggling with the concept of "Gitting Good" until watching this video, but I'm really glad it helped me dissuade that feeling of inferiority. Thanks, Kuu!
I almost fell into this mindset that the DLC was too hard, but on my second playthrough I'm no-hitting all the remembrance bosses with pure melee builds and no summons etc. so... clearly I don't feel that way anymore. The cycle literally repeats every game.
I Have had a long history with the from series, with the exception of bloodborne just because i never had the right system to play it. Elden ring was the first i ever managed too 100% since DS1. I didnt find any boss too much to eventually overcome. DS 2 i never got though the Fume knight (so have never actually fought Alonne). And Ds3 I only recently took out the nameless king for the first time.
I've beat elden ring 5 or 6 times at this point. I'm still not done. I'm playing a build only using the spear and only spells with 'spear' in their name.
I don't make the game harder to challenge myself. I like to play melee because I enjoy it this way. I have nothing against magic users but I just played from DS1 a strength build and it kinda stuck. I'll use anything the game offers. I wear armors use shields upgrade my weapons etc. However I couldn't bring myself to like the spirit ashes. The AI in the game is not programmed to handle more than one enemy. I can summon a fully upgraded mimic and watch him take out Malenia solo better than I'll ever do. Suddenly the duel and the fight turns into a joke. It becomes an entirely different experience. I have no problem that the option exists for struggling players or those who enjoy the game that way but don't balance the game around it. Don't give me a boss with 15 consecutive combos and if I don't like it's not the problem of the game it's my problem for not using the option in the game. So I either suffer in silence or play a game of piñata? That's not a valid argument that's poor balance. Neither Malenia nor DLC Rhadan are properly balanced for solo melee builds imo. It's easy to make a hard fight but it's difficult to make a well balanced fight. I'll take Gael or Isshin over them any day.
I think From got it into their heads that people liked the games because they’re hard, rather than because the game is unforgiving. The old games didn’t pull punches and forced you to take the challenges seriously or get vibe checked. Shadow of The Erdtree is just hard “because” and is more focused on fucking with the player and killing them a lot than providing a tangible representation of a merciless world.
It makes me sad that many people who get into these games don’t play them simply to play them. They play them to be able to say they’ve beaten them. But there’s so much to enjoy about them besides just conquering the difficulty. The story, the gameplay, the worlds to explore. It’s all amazing. The badge of honor for me is that not only have I beaten these games, but I had fun and LOVED them.
Likewise. I treat the games like a vacation. LEss as a challenge and more as a visitor taking in all the sights.
For some reason I find it hard to get into video game stories so I end up just playing them for the gameplay. Hopefully I'll change this with silksong
. Ha.. Silksong. That's a good one.
that can be sai about many games. Some people care about vibes some love pure gameplay. You can't make everybody happy.
I have almost 700 hours in Elden Ring and have still not beaten it. The difficulty means once you overcome a challenge, you actually feel accomplished. So I don't want that to end.
Being summoned for co-op is one of the best experiences in gaming, even if half the time I get summoned I’m going “nooo buddy don’t get one shot, buddy noooooo”
I think its so much better than invading, and so much easier going 3v1 against invaders 😂
LET US ENGAGE IN JOLLY CO-OPERATION!!!
sudden shinigamieater video jumpscare in my subscription
You always end your videos with such a positive message. Thank you so much for the genuine thought and attention to detail you put into this video. It may not be much, but hearing you talk about something you care so deeply for always encourages me to do my best to!
After 56 hours I beat the DLC all while wearing the yellow scarab mask, on new game+, and forgetting I still had Fias Baldachin Blessing active about a third way in. I completely forgot about jumping, died a bunch of times, and cheesed many of the bosses. But playing this game was way funner with friends, summons, and randos you meet online. In a world where everything is fucked, you're absolutely right: you dont have to do this alone. Powerful vid!
I loved the Skeleton Chariot boss in DS2 so much that I spent every evening for a week just putting my summon sign down for it. It was so fun guiding other people through the obtuse gimmick of the fight. I'd also bow or kneel to them after, regardless of their contribution in the battle, and they would always fist pump or bow back. I didn't even mind if they stood back and let me do everything. It felt fitting even, since I was their summon and they were the main character of their story.
I think that these players who advocate staunchly that beating the game independently simply can't imagine the joy that comes from helping someone else succeed. Really makes me curious about how they interact with people in their lives outside the game, and whether they would consider charity or kindness to be signs of weakness as well.
An extremely soulful & well put together video. Thank you so much for sharing! I hope more people come across your work, you've got a great balance of comedic timing & strong emotional beats.
as with all things in life, yu-gi-oh really is the glue that brings it all together
My biggest takeaway from this is that stuff like summons and spells and what not are THERE TO BE USED. They probably put like. Weeks into designing and implementing them and making sure they were balanced and worked properly and shit. They didn't do that for fun, they did that so you can use them.
If you do a thing solo, you still did it by yourself, using a summon or spell doesn't detract from that. They put that there for a reason. Use them.
Also really loving how much of your own personal experiences are in each of your video essays. It's really nice to see. This video has such a heartwarming ending.
Summons and spells are not balanced in the slightest, people would have no issue with others utilizing these mechanics if the enemy AI could compensate accordingly, spam AoE attacks to wipe out multiple opponents and reflect/dodge spells to keep you on your guard. They play with the concepts somewhat but then completely nullify them by adding spells the AI won't react to and spirits that are so strong they can defeat bosses on their own. All in all the issue stems from the failed execution of these ideas, not the ideas themselves.
@@anitaremenarova6662 Even if the balance isn't perfect, my point stands. Lots of stuff we take for granted in games takes FAR longer than we imagine to produce and get running and working. They put in the effort to produce things like summons and spells in order for them to be used. It feels a little weird to see several arsenals designed to be used just. Brushed aside because they're seen as dishonorable or cheating.
'I feel like summoning other players is cheating', why would the developers include that mechanic if it was? The devs probably made something like the Mimic Tear because they went 'hey, wouldn't making a copy of yourself to fight alongside you be cool?'
@@RicePrezPip You're not listening, the balance isn't there whatsoever. These games might seem incredible on the surface but the reality is that most of their systems are massively outdated. Summons are just reused PvE mobs that fight for you instead, it's not like there's an entirely unique roster of creatures they spent developing just for this purpose.
It's not cheating as much as it is bypassing game mechanics by confusing the enemy AI which is not designed to be able to still provide a challenge when multiple opponents are there. You can completely cheese bosses like this by simply running away and waiting until your summon takes aggro again, rinse and repeat. There's no random target switching or increased use of AoE attacks, at best the boss gets more health and even that only happens if you summon players. You can absolutely play the game like this however I will always insist the first go-around you should engage with the mechanics to be able to accurately judge the game because you understand it fully.
@@RicePrezPip Summons are just blue shaded enemies with the aggro switch turned the other way. Spirit ashes are cheap to create which is why they’re all over the place to pad out the loot pool
fromsoft also added the glass shards that patches sells for a reason. so that means you have to use them for every fight
NOO TARNISHED GET AWAY FROM THAT BISEXUAL LIGHTNING
random phobic comment out of nowhere
@@Xanderj89 search up what bisexual lighting is
@Xanderj89 you can choose to interpret their comment as bigoted if you really wanna, I guess 🤷♀️
I’m all about that pansexual lightning
@@Xanderj89 bro getting mad over nothing
The hardest thing shown in this video is the intro
I picked up Elden Ring a while back when it was on sale as sort of a "rainy day/open world escapism" game but hearing all the hubbub about Eldtree kinda put me off of booting up. Watching this to the end made me feel a lot more motivated to get around to it. Great vid o7
Hey man, thanks for the shout-out and the tongue-in-cheek criticisms! I really enjoyed the video, but there are a few things I'd like to touch on. Of course, part of my own video was spent trying to highlight how I enjoy games, and I wasn't trying to say that this is better or worse than anyone else's, but in general, I found myself enjoying the boss design less than previous FS games and even the base game.
I have the knowledge to use all the tools at my disposal, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll enjoy it as much if I used them vs. my preferred way to play. Beyond that, I think Elden Ring could do a better job facilitating people into using its tools by making them more accessible in general. Like I said in my video, it's kind of a pain having to farm materials for consumables, particularly when they can't be purchased with bell bearings or anything like that. Who really wants to farm Aeonian Butterflies from Basilisks at the Lake of Rot with a base 8% drop rate? You'd either need to respec to an Arcane build to increase the rate they drop, or take the L and spend the time farming.
I think they could have done a number of things to make fighting bosses more approachable for players such as: adding new spells that have increased buff times since now boss attacks chain longer, (you'll be hitting them more infrequently as a result,) having more bell bearings to buy consumables, NOT having a limited amount of larval tears for respeccing, etc.
I liked your point about "fairness" against facing bosses, which I agree with to an extent, but it doesn't make me enjoy fighting them more by using a strategy that I don't want to use. For instance, I used my game knowledge to switch things up against Gaius and Radahn, and I beat them without too much trouble, but I would have preferred to beat them my way.
There wasn't any one thing "wrong" with the bosses, but it felt like death by a thousand cuts, where if one or two things were tweaked here and there, I would've enjoyed the game much more than I did.
Also, wth were those attacks you could jump over!? Definitely showed me a few ones I didn't know about. I do wish the game did a better job at telegraphing which you could jump over, because it's NOT intuitive for a number of them, like the Putrescent Knight's flames...or Maliketh's Rock Sling. ;)
Anyway, thanks again for the video. I reacted to it live on stream if you're curious for my takes on that, it's on the live section of my channel. Peace
Hey, thanks for watching my video and for being such a good sport about it. Was awesome to hear from you so quickly after this went up! Keep on rockin' in the free world, brother.
you dont get to hit bosses less frequently. sure, bosses are more aggressive and have longer combo's, but you can actually get just as many punish windows on them than in previous games, sometimes even more. jumping over a move and coming down with a jump heavy, ducking followups with jump attack recovery, hitting bosses during windups of delayed attacks, proper positioning, sometimes even crouching. the list goes on. these things change the way you fight any boss and it adds a lot more depth to the combat than just rolling and waiting until the boss stops attacking
if your own way to play is what is making the bosses less approachable, how is that not just a self imposed handicap tho? like, that's not the game doing that, that's you.
I feel like there's a distinction between my own way to play = however I end up playing, and my own way to play = the way I always played other games and never want to change.
It's more about your expectations being set in a way that doesn't match up, and instead of addressing your own assumptions you blame the thing you're making those assumptions about, in the way some parents have their attention grabbed and blame the child for 'trying to get attention" like what should be directed internally at your own response is somehow directed externally at what you responded to so that you can remain correct and not have to do anything differently. Although I guess I can't be surprised at main character syndrome from someone calling themselves a protagonist right
I think the issue is the language context creep where what used to be reflective language (“I don’t feel good about the way I had to fight that boss”) has shifted in our day-to-day into more opinionated and faux-objective language (“Unfair, overtuned, unbalanced, unreadable”). The former invites self-reflection and an opportunity to ask why do you feel this way - is there something wrong with the limitations you’ve decided for yourself where if you can’t “intuit” a boss but you don’t want to spend time to study it or look up tactics, then it’s trash? The latter only protects oneself from that self-reflection and is a way to guard against a perceived loss of self-worth or status - “if I gave in and sought help or changed my playstyle, I’d be admitting that I’m not as good as I know I should be and people will judge me for it”.
Excellent points, and I found this right after Joseph Anderson’s latest video where me makes much of the same complaints you touch upon. I commented there about interrogating all of these assumptions about emptiness or the purity of a first run free of outside guidance, too, and was wondering just how we’d gotten here when I’ve always approached these games like I was playing a FromSoft game for the first time and knew nothing and could expect nothing (besides that Asylum Demon butt slam).
This community had built up institutions around these games, and at some point like all institutions it was the ladder climb that mattered to people, not the guided and curated quest to personally improve with the support of everyone else.
i mean, miyazaki made these games.
ofc he is gonna end up trying all and everything.
he plays through this game in a way we can hardly even imagine.
there is no surprise for him we have throughout our journey
26:28 I did this exact same thing BUT I had arguably the worst experience as I kept getting summoned to help ppl kill the Black Keep Hippo. I must have helped kill about 50 hippo's that day. I said to myself I'd rather just listen to my gfriend talk than fight another hippo so I logged off. I hope I never see another golden hippo.
I should hope you’d rather be with your girlfriend than a hippo….
The Elden Ring dlc made me summon for the first time in forever too! All of the back and forth discourse about too difficult or too easy or whatever just completely faded away as I found myself aiding other players, all with unique builds and playstyles of their own, with a tough boss. There was one time another summoned player and I both had the gravebird set and before and even during the fight we were spinning the feathers around in a circle inbetween taking aggro and dealing damage. As a huge fan of fromsoft for their souls games as well as their early games like armored core, evergrace, and kings field, I feel like they have always stayed true to their philosophy of game design; feeling joy and immersion in their worlds through learning and engaging with their mechanics. One last note but shadow of the erdtree might be their actual peak in terms of visual design.
yes, pls can we go back to the good old days of living in the sunlight? loving in the moonlight? having a wonderful time, even... 😞 i miss jolly cooperation
Excellent, excellent video. Speaks to everything that makes Fromsoft games special.
Instantly got my like and my attentiok by using Cthulhuseeker's arrangement, big respect
This is a phenomenal video. Well done my friend. This definitely deserves more views.
Oh! Old Yugioh Video Game Fusion mechanics! I remember doing that in Dark Duel Stories!
Seeing this video has definitely inspired me to jump back into Elden Ring and do some more co-op myself. I've always used every tool at my disposal to defeat bosses, including summoning other players that would often lay down their lives so I could defeat a boss. It's a wondrous thing to see so many mighty heroes come to my aid, and then take those efforts to become a powerful ally myself.
Another banger from Kuu ShinigamiEater
jokes aside I always love seeing your look into stuff like this. Music choices are always so soothing too. very comfortable essay if that makes sense.
really wanna thank you for those miyazaki quotes about how he sees the world and the stuck car experience. so much art, beauty, and very specific human view point goes into these games and its what has always kept me coming back to them over and over like a warm blanket. its always been frustrating to see them reduced over and over to a really disposable d*ck measuring contest. great video thanks for all the work that went into it
Oh boy, and its a video from the guy that got me to buy Bloodborne.
your videos are actually so good bro i love this shit
I actually learned the power jumping had when fighting the dumb skeleton horse. I knew jumping was an option for dodging, but it always felt like there was no real opportunity to do so anywhere in the boss movesets. Then here comes horse fucker with his dumbass fire waves and I realized "Oh shit! I have to jump this because the wave is too big to roll through!"
Legit felt like the horse was Miyazaki slapping me in the face with that one.
One thing that I fail to understand is why so many players are so concerned with someone else's experience of the game. You already experienced it, watching someone do it the same way you did won't let you relive your experience, but watching someone else do it might teach you things you wouldn't otherwise know.
People always insist that invasions are an integral part of the franchise, yet using summons for a boss are robbing you of your experience? Who are you to tell me the right way to experience a product I purchased with my own money?
I felt the same with most of the furnace golems
@@wesleyeberly228 Oh absolutely. Jumping the stomps is mandatory. After you figure that out they're easy, which as Khu put it, is a knowledge check.
Bro you without a doubt upload some of my favourite videos to watch on TH-cam. Thankyou:)
Fantastic video, perfectly encapsulates how I feel about the "drama" surrounding this DLC. I am a massive fan of Last Protagonist but it really did piss me of when he refused to engage with the game's most basic mechanics and then complained that the bosses were too overtuned, the fuck did he expect to happen?
It’s been so long that I’ve rewatched your bloodborne video 3 times and shared it to all my friends… they thought I was weird
Banger video as usual; the ending in particular made me think of Fallout 76 funnily enough. I know that a lot of people still hold the game in disdain, but particularly because of the initial reaction and hatred towards the game the community that formed around it was all the more welcoming to new players. Over the years, there were unwritten rules developed to support the new players, protecting them during events and giving them recipies and items that they might need. I think its pretty cool how communities like this can develop in so many games.
Great video, great message. For a future of more jolly cooperation and less toxic behavior.
bro this video is such a good response to the SotE discussion, I love the Andersen roast in the middle
You've managed to make another wonderful, heartfelt video that brought me to tears once again. Bravo, Kuu!
Been loving your other content, but there's a certain energy you bring to all of these fromsoft related vids that always has me coming back to re-watch.
W vid brother.
That right there is why you're the best, boss
First video of yours I found was after playing Bloodborne (and first Souls game) for the first time a handful of months ago. Funny thing was I found it while going through a horrendous low point and it gave me something to focus on besides negativity and anxiety....then I saw "A World Without Hope" and was surprised you had found it under very similar circumstances. Definitely enjoying your content, glad I found your channel.
10:26 I like how you've included Handler Walter in their mix-in with the others.
watching this with my two stuffed fish on my couch with my twitch partnership blanket on it
ok
great vid kuu, i enjoyed it a lot!
This video resonated with me. The first time I beat elden beast, I did it with a mimic. Despite that, the feeling I got after beating it was something I couldn't remember feeling since I was a kid. I remember thinking specifically that even with all the shit I had going on, I could do it, and I didn't have to do it alone. Sure I went back and beat the game without mimics, and it made me feel awesome too. I would've never thought getting through something with the help of others could feel so good.
Another BANGER Kuu video essay. Yknow when you started talking about how the game is "only as difficult as you want it to be" I thought you were going to bring up your Lies of P streams from last year, where there were some aspects of the game you weren't fully engaging with (mostly as a result of it being a blind playthrough) and how that may have impacted your experience. Is that something you had thought about in developing this video or did it not really cross your mind at all?
i just wanted to say that this made me rethink how I played elden ring. I'm not very good at 'difficult' games, but i really loved elden ring's lore and game design. i had, however, just felt defeated and bad about myself cause i couldn't really do it n felt like i was hitting my head against the wall. but this helped me a bit with the 'git gud' mindset that I had adapted from the community, and I've been playing it for several days now actually feeling good about the progress that I have made. I have absolutely done more in the past few days than I had during my other attempts at it. So thank you for talking about the 'git gud' mentality n how it can affect one's play style. this is kind of what i needed to hear.
I have perhaps a different perspective. I think the real issue can be summed up from a comment I read about dark souls difficulty discussion. Paraphrasing it but was basically "dark souls is not a badge of honor no matter how much you want it to be, there were always tons of easy ways to win". That's true. If your goal is to beat dark souls or elden ring or something similar, and your only restriction is like, don't hack the game, they are all fairly easy. You generally have to give yourself some kind of restriction, avoid some tools, or straight up not use entire systems in order to be challenged and thats because the point of these games is not the challenge, it's only one aspect.
The thing is, if I want a "badge of honor" game to play in the genre, something that you have to be extremely skilled at to even beat at all, even using every tool, where can I turn? The annoying fact is that there just isn't a game like that in the genre. The only option I have left to pursue that interest of mine, is to find a game thats not made for it, and try my best to alter it to become what I want and thats put me in the same community as people wanting something else. In fact, at other times, I want another thing from souls thats its not meant to be, which is a fun pve co-op experience with friends. When I play with my friends, I don't want to be interrupted by invaders (solo it's fine) but the game just isn't designed that way. However, if I do want a co-op game with fromsofts gameplay design, I don't really have any options. The closest is probably nioh, which I do also play with my friends, but it is still a fairly different.
I don't shame people for playing the games differently, because it's me trying to make the game something it's not, but that does run counter to my interests. There's definitely a temptation to try and get rid of fans that are going to incentivize the developers to take the game even further away from what I want (as was the case in nioh 2 which was easier mechanically).
Live and let live simply results in me just not getting the games I want made. Playing games is my favorite thing to do in this world, I love it, but I couldn't give you my favorite game because every possible contender has some real huge issue I have with it and that sucks. My interests within the genre are just too niche I guess. I want to pick up from where I left off back with demon souls where I got good and then...had nothing to really ever get good at in the genre again. I had so much fun with sekiro because it was different enough that I had to cultivate a new skillset and man was that fun. I guess I'm the odd one but if I'm losing to a boss for 3 hours, I'm having fun for that whole 3 hours. It's not just the eventual satisfaction of winning, it's the constant gradual visible improvement in my ability that is just fucking intoxicating and I can't get enough of it and I want more but I've kinda reached the peak of the mountain in this genre mechanically. Yes, I can always use weaker gear and ban certain systems, but ultimately that isn't making the fights mechanically better, just more punishing. Upping the punishment makes me better at that fight in particular, but not really at the game or genre as a whole. I need to be pushed to learn better. More complex and larger movesets, more things to keep in mind during the fights, more defensive mechanics that all must be used to succeed.
When we do get a new fromsoft game, and it is more challenging than the last, it's so nice for me. I get to have that feeling of fun again. I absolutely loved fighting consort in shadow of the erdtree and it just makes me sad to see so many people dislike that level of challenge. It worries me eventually fromsoft will stop making things that hard and rather than the occasional scraps I get now, I'll be truly starved for what I want from the genre.
Really Really excellent video man.
ANOTHER CERTIFIED BANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET'S FUCKING GO
on a more emotional note, some of the most fun i've had playing ER and other soulslike games has just been sitting in a VC and either parallel playing or actively co-oping through them, just shooting the shit and cracking jokes during downtime running around, or discussing strategies and lore stuff while fighting bosses
there's something so warm and almost comforting about doing co-op in these games, this idea that even in such a bleak world there'll be someone there to offer a hand. whether it's an NPC or someone you've never met online - or one of your closest friends, yapping away in a call with you, you're never truly alone. not really.
I always co-op in Souls games to be summoned and help others-it’s just so enjoyable and fulfilling to help others achieve their goals with the boss or in the world. To date, my most thrilling moment in a Souls game was being summoned in DS2 as a cleric for the Ruin Sentinels boss fight, and healing the main to power through killing the last boss. My clutch heal saved him and helped him kill the boss, even though I died doing it. Top tier, can’t replicate that kind of awesomeness.
This is very good video. One of my favorites so far.
beautiful video as always, keep up the amazing work man!
Forbidden memories was one of the most difficult games as a kid. The mirror wall card in that game was the equivalent of mimic tear in elden ring. Completely removed the difficulty entirely.
Us sunbros have always believed in the ways of jolly co-operation
ngl 60-70% of my playtime is being a summon for other folks the group battles are fun and you can play a bit more freely knowing your own runes aren’t on the line
The only problem is that most hosts die so quickly that you can't take your attention off the boss for a moment, or else the host will die. People should invest more in survivability
Absolutely awesome video, locked in the whole time
Woah.... a Shinigami video?!?! I hope youre doing well man! I loved seeing the intro because you always make your videos such high quality. I can't wait to finish this video and watch whatever video is next. Once again I hope you are doing good.
I will beat the bosses in the cheapest way possible. And I’ll have fun doing it.
I am playing ds3 right now with my best man. Not with summons or multiplayer. Just streaming to each other on discord.
I struggle a lot more with the bosses than he does, however he just waits for me. He just watches me play till I beat them. It is cathartic in a way I can't describe.
We don't have much game left but I already can't wait for the next one.
This looks like it’s gonna be good!!!!!
I hope one day you make a video about full-released Lies of P 🤞
This is my favorite video on the net 🐟
You should do more video essays, this was great!
another banger, hot off the presses.
i remember definitely having that "git gud" mentality creep in for my first Bloodborne playthrough (the first FromSoft game i actively played instead of just watching videos about). i remember loving the kirkhammer and the stake driver, and decided that the only way i could beat the rest of the game was to use those weapons alone. this went fine until i hit The One Reborn, and for whatever reason, that boss was a HUGE wall for me. enough to get me so frustrated that i totally stopped playing, and dropped the game for like, a year and a half.
up until that point in my playthrough, i was having an incredible time just absorbing this world and exploring all its little horrifying little nooks and crannies. but the second i decided to stubbornly hit my head against a brick wall, all that magic fell to the wayside. it was no longer an experience, but a grind, and i was so caught up in my inability to surpass it that it sapped away ALL the atmosphere that Bloodborne had worked so hard to set up. the only reason i ever decided to pick that game up again, was because of my friend excitedly talking about FromSoft lore in a call.
which is to say, much like this video touches on, From Software very intentionally designs their games to have difficulty dictated by the players themselves. if you're someone who enjoys to keep the pacing of a game consistent, please do yourself a favor, and don't lose that momentum to a self-induced limitation. at least not on the first playthrough. cuz if you're anything like me, those first impressions are SO important.
Great video dude! Since DS1 my favorite thing to do in these games is the co-op
I'm playing a Game of Thrones story in a Dark Souls world. You play the game as a Tarnished, I play it as a Targaryen. You play it to beat the bosses, I play it to read book 6 (Elden Ring) and book 7 (Shadow of the Erdtree) to complete G.R.R. Martin's saga A Song of Ice and Fire. Dragons and Incest.
12:24 This... This is the time to buff and/or cast spells. This is as close to neutral as you need.
I got into these games late, so it's cool to to see my assumption on the whole "difficulty" push *was* with from &/or bandai, just i only went as far back as ds1 ptd edition as proof. Great video all around, forbidden memories was 1 of my first 3 video games i owned myself, alongside spyro 2 & megaman x4. Not played, just owned for myself
Love how you dont even have to discuss the dlc much at all to get the points across either 😂 like there really isnt anything new with what people are bugging out about & most of it is self inflicted. Tired of bosses that feel like theyre from bloodborne or sekiro? Congrats, you have almost 10 different ways to get bloodbornes hp regen mechanics at this point & to w/e degree you wish, and now we even have sekiro style deflections. Endure often gets overlooked, but it's deadass a brief "ds1 poise/resist" button. Seriously, there cant be THAT MANY PEOPLE trying to no hit the game where they arent willing to trade slight amounts of damage to CREATE new attack/heal windows where there were none at all. Bayle's 2nd phase transition is a good example of this, endure around blessing 17~ doesnt even take 1/4th your health *as a 2nd sunbro.* That ability is in limgrave btw, but so are throwing daggers & kukris, & you pointed out yourself, most people cant be bothered to add ANYTHING to their character beyond the 1st right hand weapon slot. People really went hollow years back & didnt even realize it lmao
Another banger of a video, see you in a year
These games are a large part of why I'm still here.
I'm not a great player, I'm not amazing, I'll use cheap tactics and cheese and any help I can get.
But I LOVE These games. I'm invested in them. Their story, their gameplay, their difficulty, all of it.
I rage, I bitch and complain, but I also laugh and have a damn good time.
I wouldn't Still be here without them, as sad as that is to say.
how could you dont even have 100k subs if ur vids are this good bro 😢
Awesome video just keep going 😮
Personally, i prefer to actually dance with the bosses by learning their patterns, but with the bad first impression that i got during the first few hours I just mimic teared my way to victory, which is a shame because that means that i didn't really engage bosses the way I usually do. I just wanted to get it over with.
that intro earned you 1 subscription from me
16:09 this is what I like about souls games
Part 4 reminded me of my time walking in Journey.
...It makes me...think I should play it again.
Mained a bleed build with mimic. No regrets.
AND ANOTHER KUU BANGER ⁉️
your best type of videos
Babe wake up ShinigamiEater uploaded a new video!
As someone who does use spirit ash, I can confidently say there really is one way in which most of the DLC bosses are incredibly different than the base game. In the base game, most bosses are slow to engage, giving the play a large window of opportunity to call a spirit ash for support right at the start of the fight. Try doing the same thing in the DLC, however, and most of the bosses will instead punish the player with an immediate ranged attack or gap closer.
In the DLC, the first thing a player has to be prepared to do when crossing that fog gate is dodge the boss's opening attack, and only after that will they maybe have an opening to call in a spirit ash.
Having said that, contrary to what the "git gud" crowd might say, I don't think this design decision was made to intentionally nerf spirit usage or even to force players to think more tactically about when to use a spirit. No, I think this hightened boss agression right from the start of fight was instead meant to deny that opening window for Comet Azure one-shots, and spirit ashes were just an unfortunate peripheral casuality.
more like shadow of the nerdtree
Equal parts beautiful, clever, and insightful. I still have some complaints vis-a-vis SotE's difficulty that I feel could be wedged into the dialogue (such as it is), but overall I think it's a fair assessment to say that what made me come away from the DLC feeling so soured on it was that I was trying to win a fight by playing by _my_ rules, instead of doing much to adapt - and that ultimately what _won_ me the fight _was_ adaptation. It only felt bad to me because I wanted to do it On My Terms, and if I'd gone into it the way I'd _first_ played the game, which was I think a very healthy "this game will try to stab you in the back at all times, so learn to stab its back first" - or, bluntly, _use whatever it takes to win because the tools are being offered_ - approach...things woulda been a lot different, I think.
I wonder how I'd feel if I gave it another shot. I've been tongue-in-cheek referring to my situation with the game as "we're not on speaking terms right now", but for how much I loved Elden Ring (I don't often _replay_ a game, and here I am with Elden Ring doing two full playthroughs, planning to do NG+, and two other _partial_ playthroughs, one with an overhaul mod installed), I wonder how healthy it is of me to have put it down so suddenly and forcefully.
So, I did most of the things you said you should do. I crafted cool things, jumped a lot, summoned allies, etc, and I still had a rough time. Then I grabbed the Scoobie snacks (Scadu Fragments), and the game became "easy." Except for the final boss. I do not know why the designers thought making a boss give people seizures was a good idea. That aside, I think tying difficulty to damage modifiers is a poor way of implementing difficulty, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
7/10 DLC, slightly better than the main game.
Literally bought ps+ just to help others with the final DLC boss after beating him. So glad to hear that this isnt an individual experience
Having just beaten both Rellana and Messmer at level 1 while not being especially skilled, I can't help but think that the people making these criticisms are just trying to rush through the DLC for the sake putting out this content as quickly as possible in order to maximize engagement. While the final boss in particular has some significant flaws that make him (IMO) not very fun, the rest of the bosses are extremely well-designed and in many cases a big upgrade over much of what's in the base game.
If these people actually took the time to learn and internalize the flow of these fights, they'd be singing a different tune.
I think even people who don’t wanna summon folks to help them best the boss still get help with beating the boss by looking up guides on how to dodge certain attacks or even how to make your build or what’s optimal or whatever . The game isn’t great at communicating how to play, it kinda just tells ya to go play and for me it gets a bit overwhelming but I’ve always relied on content creators and it’s all part
Of jolly cooperation to me.
I do wish though that there was a way for the game to inform players on how all the systems work. Even just like hints, stuff like this ash of war will keep you in the air long enough to dodge some attacks while doing damage. Because this isn’t a turn based game where you have time to make decisions in the middle Of battle, the path of least resistance really is going with what’s worked for ya so far and then when it doesn’t, there’s two ways you can go: get frustrated and say the game is crap or find something else but finding something else isn’t always easy because of the RPG mechanics and the upgrade materials. Part of me wishes they got rid of upgrades and just allowed every weapon to be viable if you’ve got the stats to wield it. I feel like that would really help folks to experiment without feeling like now they have to go find a bunch of upgrade materials. Thinking back, there just aren’t enough upgrade stones in the game to level up more than 2 or 3 weapons at the same time and that sucks cause there’s 100s of weapons and there’s really no reason why upgrade materials should be scarce or even exist as a mechanic.
I hadn't realized I was struggling with the concept of "Gitting Good" until watching this video, but I'm really glad it helped me dissuade that feeling of inferiority. Thanks, Kuu!
I almost fell into this mindset that the DLC was too hard, but on my second playthrough I'm no-hitting all the remembrance bosses with pure melee builds and no summons etc. so... clearly I don't feel that way anymore. The cycle literally repeats every game.
incredible stuff
Another banger, M'Lord
I Have had a long history with the from series, with the exception of bloodborne just because i never had the right system to play it. Elden ring was the first i ever managed too 100% since DS1. I didnt find any boss too much to eventually overcome. DS 2 i never got though the Fume knight (so have never actually fought Alonne). And Ds3 I only recently took out the nameless king for the first time.
good vid
I've beat elden ring 5 or 6 times at this point.
I'm still not done.
I'm playing a build only using the spear and only spells with 'spear' in their name.
I don't make the game harder to challenge myself. I like to play melee because I enjoy it this way. I have nothing against magic users but I just played from DS1 a strength build and it kinda stuck. I'll use anything the game offers. I wear armors use shields upgrade my weapons etc.
However I couldn't bring myself to like the spirit ashes. The AI in the game is not programmed to handle more than one enemy. I can summon a fully upgraded mimic and watch him take out Malenia solo better than I'll ever do. Suddenly the duel and the fight turns into a joke. It becomes an entirely different experience. I have no problem that the option exists for struggling players or those who enjoy the game that way but don't balance the game around it. Don't give me a boss with 15 consecutive combos and if I don't like it's not the problem of the game it's my problem for not using the option in the game. So I either suffer in silence or play a game of piñata? That's not a valid argument that's poor balance. Neither Malenia nor DLC Rhadan are properly balanced for solo melee builds imo. It's easy to make a hard fight but it's difficult to make a well balanced fight. I'll take Gael or Isshin over them any day.
I think From got it into their heads that people liked the games because they’re hard, rather than because the game is unforgiving. The old games didn’t pull punches and forced you to take the challenges seriously or get vibe checked.
Shadow of The Erdtree is just hard “because” and is more focused on fucking with the player and killing them a lot than providing a tangible representation of a merciless world.
Okay..... seeing the jumping being way more broken than I thought makes me feel like such a chud...
My 7 year old killed Radhan.
He's back 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
whenever someone complains about the smithing stones I'm very dumbfounded because it's like, it's just more materials for free to use on more weapons?
Here's the truth looking up guides to beat bosses and summoning is not fun. And frankly i am tired of being gas lit that it is
@@Jables97 unfortunately I did I had a shit time.
Does anybody know the song that plays @24:47? It sounds a lot like the Final Fantasy theme, but which version?
"The Orchard At Peace" from the OST of 1000xRESIST.