[io]

Beat

Spoiler

Godskin Duo

last night in Farum.  I'm seeing a lot of CAG group bloodstains and notes now, so someone here is playing in the same area!

 

My son had heard that boss was one of the hardest but I found it to be one of the easiest.  Beat it first try without even using a rune arc.  After 1.0.3 they added Bernahl as an NPC summons.  So between him and Mimic Tear and my own damage I got through it pretty effortlessly.  Did some coop afterwards and the hosts kept doing stupid things during that fight and getting killed.  I think one guy thought once you killed one of the pair, it was gone forever.  Oops.  Also just did a lot of coop running around Farum and dealing with the occasional invader.

 

I expected once I teleported away from Farum that the capitol would be gone. It was not. I can still go there and do all the normal stuff.  I was actually disappointed because I wanted to get the talisman that's only there once it changes.  I guess maybe you have to complete Farum first?

 

And for whatever reason I was able to teleport out of Farum almost immediately while my son who's several sites of grace into it, cannot.  That's weird.

[Vigilante]

Beat

Spoiler

Godskin Duo

last night in Farum.  I'm seeing a lot of CAG group bloodstains and notes now, so someone here is playing in the same area!

 

My son had heard that boss was one of the hardest but I found it to be one of the easiest.  Beat it first try without even using a rune arc.  After 1.0.3 they added Bernahl as an NPC summons.  So between him and Mimic Tear and my own damage I got through it pretty effortlessly.  Did some coop afterwards and the hosts kept doing stupid things during that fight and getting killed.  I think one guy thought once you killed one of the pair, it was gone forever.  Oops.  Also just did a lot of coop running around Farum and dealing with the occasional invader.

 

I expected once I teleported away from Farum that the capitol would be gone. It was not. I can still go there and do all the normal stuff.  I was actually disappointed because I wanted to get the talisman that's only there once it changes.  I guess maybe you have to complete Farum first?

 

And for whatever reason I was able to teleport out of Farum almost immediately while my son who's several sites of grace into it, cannot.  That's weird.

Correct, killing the boss at the end of Farum triggers the capitol change.

[io]

Proceeded further into Farum.  Man, that last optional boss is really out of the way and easy to miss.  Don't think I would have found it on my own, though there was a CAG group message with someone pointing backwards from that last site of grace (at the bridge) saying to go back and encounter a dragon.  So that might have helped me, though it was really hard to see where to drop down to get there.

 

Then, I took a break for more fashion souls .  I looked at a list of armor that was ranked (S-tier, A-tier, etc) and realized I didn't have a few of the top-ranked ones.  Went to farm those - the ones that randomly dropped from enemies like Blue Silver and the Fire Prelate sets.

[cruxdude]

I am locked out of Hyetta's quest :(. I need a Fingerprint Grape and that is supposedly gotten from an invader called Vyke. Since I cleared all the bosses in Liurnia before I reached this church he never invaded. Randomly remembered Hyetta yesterday and went googling on how to proceed and I realize I am out of luck. Do I miss out on anything special by not completing this quest?

 

Finished Ranni's quest and working on Fia's next. After that thinking on going to the Capital. Is Mt. Gelmir supposed to be before or after the capital? 

[io]

I am locked out of Hyetta's quest :(. I need a Fingerprint Grape and that is supposedly gotten from an invader called Vyke. Since I cleared all the bosses in Liurnia before I reached this church he never invaded. Randomly remembered Hyetta yesterday and went googling on how to proceed and I realize I am out of luck. Do I miss out on anything special by not completing this quest?

 

Finished Ranni's quest and working on Fia's next. After that thinking on going to the Capital. Is Mt. Gelmir supposed to be before or after the capital? 

Interestingly enough, my son just encountered Vyke and got that grape and he's completely done with the game.  Even picked an ending. I'm pretty sure it was after he picked the ending anyway.  If not, he was at least done with Farum and very close to the end.

 

Hyetta did not give me the frenzied flame seal though.  Also, I realized I didn't have the Dragon seal that you can get in that tomb you unlock with 2 keys right in the starting area.  Somehow I never went all the way up and beat the guy up there.  I think I ran past him and got an item from there but didn't realize he dropped something.  We saw it mentioned in a video about the best weapons, though it pales in comparison to my Golden Order Seal, which I never see listed in these rankings.  Yet for me it has by far the best incantation scaling.

 

Now that we both beat the game (I did all 6 endings just for kicks - they really aren't all that different anyway, at least 4 of them), we went to watch those speed runners.  And man is that disappointing.  I'm talking about the 15 minutes one (that is apparently now down to 8).  They don't talk about what they are doing (what's the point of an effing stream if they don't!?) and all it is is a bunch of force quitting and mega zips that require a specific frame rate on PC.  I was super disappointed in that.  I want to see a speedrun on console I guess where they aren't relying on system crap to cause glitches.  I don't see the appeal in what they are doing *at all*.  At least in the 15 minute run he had to beat one boss and showed at least some skill there.  But I think in the newer ones they can skip all of them.

[io]

Some screenshots from the endings. The first one is what you see when you touch the statue and have all 3 optional runes in your possession. These are the 4 similar endings.  Also note the two CAG clan bloodstains in the background:

Spoiler

And then some other random ending screenshots:

Spoiler

Frenzied Flame:

Goldmask's ending:

Dung Eater's ending:

Fia's ending:

[cruxdude]

Interestingly enough, my son just encountered Vyke and got that grape and he's completely done with the game. Even picked an ending. I'm pretty sure it was after he picked the ending anyway. If not, he was at least done with Farum and very close to the end.

Hyetta did not give me the frenzied flame seal though. Also, I realized I didn't have the Dragon seal that you can get in that tomb you unlock with 2 keys right in the starting area. Somehow I never went all the way up and beat the guy up there. I think I ran past him and got an item from there but didn't realize he dropped something. We saw it mentioned in a video about the best weapons, though it pales in comparison to my Golden Order Seal, which I never see listed in these rankings. Yet for me it has by far the best incantation scaling.

Now that we both beat the game (I did all 6 endings just for kicks - they really aren't all that different anyway, at least 4 of them), we went to watch those speed runners. And man is that disappointing. I'm talking about the 15 minutes one (that is apparently now down to 8). They don't talk about what they are doing (what's the point of an effing stream if they don't!?) and all it is is a bunch of force quitting and mega zips that require a specific frame rate on PC. I was super disappointed in that. I want to see a speedrun on console I guess where they aren't relying on system crap to cause glitches. I don't see the appeal in what they are doing *at all*. At least in the 15 minute run he had to beat one boss and showed at least some skill there. But I think in the newer ones they can skip all of them.

I totally don't see the point of those speed runs. They literally don't play anything and just zip around the world and say done. Crazy that someone found all these bugs but still what is the point?

[io]

I totally don't see the point of those speed runs. They literally don't play anything and just zip around the world and say done. Crazy that someone found all these bugs but still what is the point?

Yeah especially since it is PC-only and requires 60 FPS and then some combination of guarding and walking and letting go of the guard on the exact right frame.  There was some discussion of system things they do to their PCs to facilitate it.  I don't want to hear about that.  They even use metronomes to count the frames.  I suppose if I looked there is probably an Xbox or PS5 speed run out there.  Maybe we'll watch that later.  I'm more interested in the in-game things you can do to speed run - which items to get/places to go, and in what order and what can actually be skipped without glitches.  Plus them beating bosses while being under-leveled to get through it quickly.

[Z-Saber]

Sounds like y'all are just not into Any% speedruns. Usually there are a variety of categories. For Elden Ring, All Rememberances runs fight plenty of bosses, so maybe check that out.

[io]

Sounds like y'all are just not into Any% speedruns. Usually there are a variety of categories. For Elden Ring, All Rememberances runs fight plenty of bosses, so maybe check that out.

Yeah but All Rememberances is different.  I want to see someone get through the game as quickly as possible, but not with PC system glitches.

[Z-Saber]

Then you're looking for the normal Any% category.

The zip category is Any% Unrestricted. Zips are banned from the other categories, so your gripe is with just a single category.

If you don't like wrong warps, there's a category for that too.

[Jodou]

The 30 min clears are far more entertaining to watch IMO. It uses a few glitches but still has an impressive amount of skill on display. Once the zips started, I stopped caring TBH. Those are just buffer cheats and not actual speedrun meta IMO. Kinda like how Oblivion can be beaten in 15 minutes by book hopping over the Imperial City wall to the final boss room which simply triggers the ending and is not actually 'beating' the game.

 

IDK why but I'm just not compelled to come back and play this right now. Been playing the shit out of Tiny Tina and I really need to start Lego Skywalker because there's a TOOOON of content this time with a little more focus on RPG elements. So many developers delay into Q1 now that Christmas was actually boring AF last year and now I'm overwhelmed.

[io]

My son and I watched some interesting boss-vs-boss videos tonight.  Now those are cool!

 

I got the platinum and am taking a little break.  But I get back on every so often and do coop trying out different weapons.  I need to duplicate a few more remembrances too.  Gotta figure out which ones I still want to do.  I did Placidusax right away because I feel like it was pure luck I beat that guy, even with summons.  (Not a lot of people help there because it's a pain to get to).  My son gave up on it and started NG+. He had beaten every other boss.

 

I'm surprised how much I'm still getting summoned at level 160 and beyond.

 

I may go back to Horizon Zero Dawn, which I had just started after beating Bloodborne, about a week before Elden Ring came out.  Got them both through the PS4 hits thing on my PS5.

[cruxdude]

Finally finished Elden Ring! Really loved the game. Only complaint is it goes on a bit too long.

[bob330i]

Received notification that Future Press is going to release 2 Elden Ring "Books of Knowledge".  Been trying to get to the preorder page from the email, but it's just the banner ad that loads.  Anyone been successful in getting to the preorder page?  Or maybe the site is just getting slammed?

 

EDIT: PO's are also through Amazon so I just preordered 2 copies of each there.

[Jodou]

Ordered mainly as compendiums to the other souls game guides I own already. Easily my favorite franchise of all time.

[io]

I haven't been on here a while.  I got my older son to play Elden Ring and he loved it.  He had been mostly a Switch player before that - not too much Xbox/PS stuff.  Then he played Bloodborne.  Then I decided to get Dark Souls Remastered.  I hadn't played Dark Souls since it first came out (like 11 years).  I remember Firelink shrine and a few other things, but the late game stuff I do not remember at all (and I got a platinum back then).  It's weird how memory works (or doesn't).  Amazingly, I was able to do a small amount of coop - and was getting invaded constantly in Anor Londo.  So people are still playing.  One thing that surprised me as I remember those games being so hard - it is actually considerably easier than Elden Ring, especially the boss fights.

 

I'm considering upgrading to PS+ Extra to play Demon's Souls but I may want to get DS2 and DS3 again too.  Dark Souls Remastered holds up pretty good now - it is great playing DS with a solid frame rate in any case.  I remember it got a little iffy at times on the PS3.

 

And it seems like we ought to be hearing about Elden Ring DLC sooner or later!