Lurker > Fluttershy

but i will also note a easy mode would not invalidate your acomplisments

it's not about a sense of accomplishment or anything like that. it's about letting design choices function.

design choices where the player is rewarded for exploring and understanding the various systems. the only compatible easy mode with this basic idea would be one that goads the player into interacting with those systems -- that's why i say extra souls.

I'm not sure why you're throwing this like it's some sort of gotcha?

i'm not sure why you end statements with question marks. if you have hours to listen to vaati you have the hours to play the game. if you have the hours to listen to vaati, you have the hours to listen to online guides for the various flavors of cheese you could use. you could also save time by spending less of it making excuses. you just don't want to do it, but you're not going to admit to that.

if there are already builds and mechanics in the game (like summoning stronger players) that help to trivialize the game, why is there this vitriol against the idea of completely optional ideas at the start of a game to reduce the difficulty

because - and this is a point you seem to just want to miss - those are in-game difficulty tweaks you can make. fromsoft put effort into making how difficult the game is part of the game instead of a number tweak in some menu. because they aren't lazy and that shit would be tacky.

I don't have the dozens of hours it'd take for me to get good enough to actually achieve anything with them

[...]

I can listen to lore on From Soft games for hours

just level vitality ffs

i think the more interesting discussion is what the intended difficulty was, and how the games meant to communicate it.

like take dark souls 1. i think it's reasonable to think that we were maybe meant to take away from the tutorial/extended tutorial areas (asylum, burg, parish) an idea of what the game should be like. you can survive this many hits, and you have to deal this many.

The most common complaints I see generally stem from the insistence to continue brute forcing an issue when it's not working well.

you get as many tries as you need in these games. anything can work eventually.

between that and the idea that these games are supposed to be difficult, you have a system that practically encourages you to mash your face against it and brute force through it. practically. i say this because it seems to be where a lot of new players take it.

i think the question to ask concerns what the games themselves meant to communicate as their intended difficulty (and how they intended to communicate that). this one fucks up just a little by having all the graces point you north immediately.

is this some pet sematary shit where they're also big evil

i lost something like 15% on my running L1 and i don't like it

i think the nerf to dual-wielded weapons is reasonable if those weapons are small and don't have a major equip load investment; i'm using big fuckoff axes they should do big fuckoff damage

ooh, new hairstyles.

Everyone's arguing

i can't stop my fan club from hyping me up. i'm in-game.

i want to see how bad this nerf to dual greataxe damage is.

i knew all along

Okay you literally cannot back up your own words so you have nothing more to say.

no, it's that i shut you down and you're mad but i'm not gonna encourage the tantrum. take a shower bub. maybe tomorrow. not today.

since you lost the argument and need the last word, here you go. participation trophy courtesy of buttershush.

i said i wouldn't give you the time, lol. why did you respond?

saying ive never had a good faith argument and then defending the guy who made the fucking sparkling water topic is certainly a choice.

now am i defending a guy or am i defending an argument? again, you can't participate in good faith. consider shutting the fuck up instead of doing this. it's a bad look, and it makes you look desperate to win on an internet forum, of all things.

you can absolutely make the argument that single player games dont require balance patches to nerf things.

that's absolutely not what i said, but i'm not about to give you the time of day, lol. c'mon.

It kills me that people are so against a freakin pause button of all things.

i'm less against the pause button and more against the entitlement. there are countless other games you can go and play with a pause button if it matters so much to you. you know, instead of demanding the one series that doesn't have one - for reasons you don't even try to understand and certainly don't respect - change.

but also i understand why they don't have them in souls games and it'd be nice if everyone else caught on too.

God forbid you get a phone call, a knock at the door, or have to take a dump or something.

oh no, you might lose in a video game because of a real-life distraction. are you going to be okay?

the radahn's rain/rain of arrows nerf wasn't strong enough

i'm about to find out by how much they nerfed greataxe dual wield damage it better not be too much..!!

People care way too much about how others play their single player games

what an insipid argument; the functionality of the game itself is what's being discussed, here. you may as well be making the argument that they should never nerf anything that is clearly unbalanced because hey it's a single-player game. like, yes, the devs want to control the way people play their game. it's kinda the whole point of creating an experience. holy shit lol.

kajei i've never seen this guy approach an argument in good faith. don't waste your time.

I used Sekiro as a direct example of some of the inescapable ripple effects that one change has on the rest of game

and you made good points with that, in relation to the game balance itself. like, it's only been what, six games? holy fuck you'd think people would catch a clue.

that choice has other knock on effects on other parts of the design

it's that simple, though your examples pertain more to balance. they could theoretically go the route of tetris and just black out the screen so the pause doesn't buy you extra time to process what's on-screen. but that misses the point where the games have been designed in a really specific way as far as presenting a living world goes. you can join the world or leave it for a break, but you're not allowed to just stop time. you're a participant, not the thing the game is waiting on to make any moves.

note: game is definitely still just waiting on you to make moves. game is still definitely just cardboard cutouts that pop up when you walk by to present an illusion. i don't think people who make the 'gimme pause ;_;' argument don't quite understand the purpose of the lack. and i don't think they even try.

Just wait until you get older

you'd think that with age would come not caring about dying in a video game to a point where you'd piss and moan about them adding a pause button to a series that has categorically avoided having one.

it's obviously for the purpose of player immersion. the fact that it poses you an inconvenience and doesn't run on your time means that it's working. pretty simple shit if you ask me!

like, unless you're in an invasion or with a co-op phantom, you can quit out of the game at any time. that 'you can't quit out during an invasion' thing applies to NPC invasions, as well. why do you think that is?

make the 'defend' command worthwhile.

don't hide the enemy hand from the player. meaning: the player should get to know what the enemy is going to do, every turn. this is a step beyond ffx's ctb. give the player access to this knowledge but still pose a challenge to the player anyway. this is the platonic ideal design principle for turn-based rpgs to me; make a game that is capable of difficulty and complexity without having to rely on sleight of hand.

don't encourage the player to do chores in order to win. value their time as if it were your own. this is probably the most important thing -- don't leverage the players' time against them. stuff like gained JP up in fft is an example of bad game design where player time is what you're forced to act in the name of instead of your own amusement; it's inefficient to use anything else, so you'd feel like you were playing wrong if you were to.

Hey hey hey, stay out of my shed!

:O

the fact that every boss is soloable flat out ends your arguments.

so i mean, it doesn't. you can beat every boss at rl1, that doesn't mean they were designed for you to do that.

that said, i think the proof is in how the game handles multiple targets with its bosses. it can't. it gets stuck in uhhhh who do i target mode too often and for too long.

put them all into VIG instead until you're at like 30 VIG.

i have to make the recommendation that you go to 40 vig as a first action. the best gains are between 30 and 40 and getting them first means you don't put off gaining a huge chunk of power. i wish they tuned vig a little better (probably have more HP go to the player between 10-20 *and* 20-30) but i need to throw it out there.

Carian Slicer is wildly overtuned and is only "held back" by doing basically no stagger damage.

slicer legit messes with me because of that lack of feedback.

it would sell a million copies it's a brilliant idea print this shit

you can't see bloodstains or messages or summon signs any more

technically, yes.

ds2 had some great ideas, though, like weapons actually being usable in the left hand.

not only did this mean lefty builds but you had mix-and-match stuff like the stone spear + drakekeeper sword build of old (shoutout to pixels for birthing that god damned monstrosity). it was really good for the balance and variety of the game.

It's more so invasions from an invaders pov.

that's me, though. i like the invasions in er.

like, imagine ds1-ds3 invasions on a basic strength build, only now, you get access to tools like force because you can just slot in the +5 faith talisman. i have zero excuse to lose any invasion these days, as far as i'm concerned.

There was a diehard contingent of gankers from Dark Souls 2 who never stopped bitching about how they can't ruin people's day in Elden Ring due to players having to opt into the system.

are you referring to the invaders as gankers, here?

i don't think she drops a bloodclot.

you have very little time left to derust.

i need more albinauric bloodclots.

If you have a terrible sense of direction or purpose, you might have trouble getting into it.

i have a **terrible** sense of direction and i was really looking forward to getting hopelessly lost in the game but nope, map and compass, compass present at all times unless you just don't have a UI at all

but -- the ds2/er comparisons are kinda odd to me because just starting up ds2 you have the movement and it's just not as good as er. i loved ds2 and sunk hours into it but hoowee that movement.

That's hilarious. Elden Ring is superior in every fashion except for invasions which are garbage anyway.

i like the invasions more in er than in ds2 -- they actually push me to use every single skill and idea i've come up with across my time in the games because they're almost always 3v1. i like the arena in 2 more than er, though.

you're fine. i'm biased, though, i thought bof3 was the shit.

being scared doesnt give you the right to lash out and hurt others

i don't think anyone believes it does, but you need to understand that it's a thing people are going to do whether or not they have permission or the right. because of their state of mind.

i guess i'd say put yourself in their shoes. apart from the whole thing where they're sick or scared or in pain, consider how you'd feel if you acted the way they did. you'd regret it, right? you'd regret being needlessly caustic in a moment of weakness?

could have to do with them being at their most vulnerable. could have something to do with them possibly being afraid for their own lives. could have something to do with the pain that they could be in.

like, at best, try not to take it personally. these people aren't in their best state of mind. at worst, your attitude needs to change. they have it worse than you do.

can i invade other players as shadow link

ahh shit you awaken some memories

i played me some NEStalgia way back when

ate my input

could never stand him.

not even back when he was just egoraptor.

dark souls.

i'd have to learn the seathe skip.

scout

taco bella

Go swim up to your nearest snark and give it a hug

support your local jerks

i hate how right john k is about certain things; i used to read his blog before all the really horrible stuff came to light, and one point he made about modern animation (specifically why he hated animaniacs) is that some cartoons are made by artists, and some cartoons are made by writers.

comics are basically just that. remember cathy?

'thanks!' and if it's about your hair do a little toss.

could he swing an fmla thing if he got a depression diagnosis?

it was probably the wrong move to get such an old, out-of-touch 'comedian' in the first place, if we're being honest. maybe if he was any good he wouldn't have to pander.