spookybiscuits

mattachine meow machine

@spookybiscuits

beautiful but evil

a perennial summer homosexual. shining superstar vtuber. evil nasty catboy.

i stream indie games and indie music heavily. got a new game or album to show off? shoot me an ask!

cohost's dreamer, sweetboy, sickposter...

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spookybiscuits
@spookybiscuits

ever since we finished my first dark souls playthrough (and started my first dark souls 2 playthrough) i've been kinda kickin around this idea that they're better than elden ring. and that's hard. that's a hard idea to have. because elden ring is pretty damn good, but i can't escape this feeling that despite the advances in graphic power and cloth simulation and horse, i just don't like it as much as i loved dark souls and am loving dark souls 2.

edit: also like. i generally get what dark souls is about. there are still like 400 story aspects of elden ring that feel like "i dunno, man. just because."

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in reply to @spookybiscuits's post:

deafhobbit
@deafhobbit

Elden Ring has great parts, but it's too big, and too much of it is mid. older non-open world fromsoft games have a much better killer to filler ratio imo

thankfully, I think the shadow of the erdtree shows fromsoft is aware of this. it devotes much less square footage to open space and cookie cutter dungeons, and much more to big interesting dungeons. and even the open world parts feel more varied and interesting than they did in the base game. they're much more vertical and maze-y, and discovering their connections reminded me a lot of unwrapping undead burg in ds1, while also still working as lower difficulty break zones between intense boss fights

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deafhobbit
@deafhobbit

yeah, and I think Elden ring having that filler is actively good! it gives you space to cool off and do something satisfying when you don't have the spoons for higher difficulty parts, and it makes it easier for newer players to grind their way through problems. it's just the ratio of them is way way off.

ds2 is less memorable for me since it lacks a lot of the metroidvania-y interconnects and loop backs that made ds1 so great, but it's killer to filler ratio still crushes base elden ring.

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EarthShaker
@EarthShaker

dark souls 2 is treated like a weird step sibling and that's lousy because it's really good and enjoyable! I think hour for hour I've spent more time in Dark Souls 2 just figuring shit out without guides and having fun than in 1 and 3 combined.

2 isn't really open world or whatever, but it felt really free, like, here you go kid have fun wandering around. maybe you'll find something. go poke over there. dark souls 3 is like running through one long but pretty hallway

like

you're going Over There and there path is about ten feet wide no matter where you are and that's that

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EarthShaker
@EarthShaker

Definitely! it feels a tiny bit like life returning to the world as you gather people. it starts to feel like a living village again!

I've seen complaints that the world isn't realistic because there's a volcano above a swamp sort of thing and it's like... yeah, and also the dead walk and magic is real, are you really that out off by the fantasy geology? there are giants, this is a fairy tale!

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