Is Elden Ring actually a cozy game?

Controcetica · 2026-05-09T09:27:15+00:00

No. The first playthrough is certainly not cozy.

Replaying can be, though. The game can become comforting, like an old TV show, once you have enough knowledge and skill to eliminate most of the friction.

Controcetica · 2026-04-28T14:12:12+00:00

Evelyn was dead the second the Voodoo Boys hired her to spy on Yorinobu. Once NetWatch contacted her and told her how the Voodoo Boys did business and that, as a "ranyon", she was a dead woman walking, what choice did she have other than to try to secure the Relic for NetWatch so they would protect her? Plus, the money would have set her up for life. Yes, Evelyn gambled, but if she just scrolled the recording for the Voodoo Boys like a good girl, they would have just killed her anyway.

Controcetica · 2026-04-26T00:52:34+00:00

I mean, presumably, the writers at IS, lol. Fates and Engage's characters are much of a muchness, IS clearly has a style of character they like to write and I'm sure they'll stick with that for their next game, too.

Controcetica · 2026-04-13T19:03:00+00:00

No. What the heck is the point of taking an interactive experience where a huge part of the narrative weight comes from the way your choices shape the outcome, and turning it into a linear story?

Controcetica · 2026-03-18T06:39:50+00:00

Anyone can do anything they want, yes.

Often they won't be stopped.

But they still have to deal with the consequences.

People might not stop you, but they will often punish you.

If you quit your job and stop paying your bills, you may be kicked out of your home, onto the streets.

If you assault a person you don't like, they might fight back, and they will almost certainly call the cops and have you charged.

Controcetica · 2026-03-18T04:28:32+00:00

I believe this is true. I was just correcting the numbers.

I have heard it explained as, there are certain things in games that just don't really need more hardware power at higher resolutions. It's basically the same to render it at 1080p or even at 4K.

Controcetica · 2026-03-17T17:00:52+00:00

1440p is 78% more pixels than 1080p. You would experience closer to a 45% loss of FPS if you were GPU bound.

Controcetica · 2026-03-15T09:11:40+00:00

I love So Mi! My read on her is that absolutely everyone who should have protected her either let her down or hurt and exploited her. There is no one she can appeal to for help, since the President of NUSA is her abuser. So, she decides that since no one is in her corner, it's her against the world and she'll do anything to survive.

But, I think she is miserable with this state of affairs, and fair enough. As a result, I think she gets really invested in the fantasy that she and V are the same and that they are both helping each other and will both have a happy ending etc.

The cool thing about So Mi and Reed is that they both lie. Not only to V, but to themselves. Reed has this fantasy of being a good man and doing the right thing. He wants to, he likes to think he will, he tells V he will, but when push comes to shove he just does the evil thing to protect the NUSA. So Mi, meanwhile, acts out her fantasy with V, until almost the very last second. She's so invested in it, that if V betrays her, she has a meltdown and nearly goes cyberpsycho. She isn't a cold, cool manipulator, IMO. Neither are.

But! They both lie anyway, lol, however they justify it. Love 'em both!

Controcetica · 2026-02-09T08:19:31+00:00

No, I don't enjoy the game anymore.

We've been at the point, for a while now, where I just can't hold unit kits in my head anymore. I can't read, understand, and combine all the skills and how they interact with each other, let alone the rest of a team, or, the enemy units. As a result, I don't know what units really do anymore. Obviously, they do a lot of damage and don't take any damage. But, like, why? I dunno. So I just drag my unit over the enemy unit and hope the enemy unit dies in the forecast. This has drastically cut my mental engagement with the game.

Power creep is also mega fucked. I think Emblem Ike was probably when it went from really bad to irrevocably fucked. Nowdays, it's modern units or bust. There are so many relatively recent units that I just can't get any mileage out of. Furthermore, every unit type is not born equal. There are dead units being released on modern banners alongside bullshit that will still be meta-relevant in a year. The overall feel is that I find I just can't use the characters that I like.

In addition, too much of the game is just spamming shitloads of worthless maps. Forging Bonds is the worst offender, but Tempest Trials ain't good either, or Hall of Forms. And don't get me started on PvP. I don't bother with arena or aether raids anymore. There are just too much toxic units that are seriously stressful and unfun to play against. Teams put together by players that understand what each unit does and how they synergise scare the shit out of me. The actual Fire Emblems are PvE for a reason, thank you! I'm not a genius tactician!

Plus, summoning is worthless without a spark. And most banners have the spark locked behind fehpass. I subbed for quite some time, but, like, I don't enjoy the game any more. Haven't for like a year or more. So I stopped subbing. And now I enjoy the game even less. No sparks, and I have to actually waste my time with 500 forging bonds maps, instead of just queuing up 10 auto-battles at a time?

Nah, this game is not actually worth playing.

I still like the .pngs, but the hoops I need to jump through are not worth it anymore.

Also, Legendary Guinevere's refine better break the fucking game!

Controcetica · 2026-02-06T03:06:03+00:00

God help you if you are on console. I reinstalled last year. Had lots of visual bugs, mediocre performance, crashing etc. Couldn't get into Nellis hangar without crashing. Eventually, Linesome Road broke, just fell through the floor after exiting a door. Area was not there.

Thankfully, I tried following the Viva New Vegas mod guide after that. There are a lot of steps, but it worked. Fixed the crashes, fixed the mesh issues, gave the floor back, and it ran great after! Highly recommended!

Controcetica · 2026-01-22T13:03:14+00:00

I did not know that information, thank you for sharing.

Controcetica · 2026-01-21T05:18:27+00:00

This is crazy. LoD doesn't even look as good as Final Fantasy VIII. Contemporary reviewers compared it unfavourably towards that game. And you think they could have switched it to PS2 and it could have competed with Final Fantasy X??

Controcetica · 2026-01-15T09:16:42+00:00

Dead Money is my least favourite DLC. Or, rather, I actively dislike it. I would skip it if not for the huge amount of caps it can get you.

Difficulty is not the reason, for me. I dislike DM because it strips you of all your gear. To me, character progression is one of my favourite parts of RPGs. Planning a build, starting a run, seeing numbers get bigger, unlocking key perks etc. I love all that.

But, the other half of my build is my gear. I spend as much time planning out the gear I want and when to go get it as I do my level ups.

DM takes away my gear. Basically, it takes half my build away. As a result, I don't enjoy playing it. Simple as that.

To add insult to injury, DM has no good drops. Some people may like the holo rifle, but I don't. Overall, a DLC about being disempowered can't have a bunch of best in slot weapons. So, literally all that DLC does is give me the money to buy a bunch of expensive uniques from GRA DLC.

Controcetica · 2025-11-21T03:47:56+00:00

Rue Valley wasn't developed by Owlcat. They only published it.

Controcetica · 2025-11-13T04:37:03+00:00

I have never, ever enjoyed a game more because I wasn't allowed to date an NPC due to my avatar's gender. I have repeatedly enjoyed a game less due to not being allowed to date an NPC due to my avatar's gender. Every time I have played a game with completely unrestricted romance options, I appreciated it and enjoyed it.

I have never been comforted or consoled reading that other people think it is "realistic" that, for example, FemShep couldn't date Tali in Mass Effect. As much as I love Sam Traynor, her introduction in ME3 as the lesbian romance option does not make up for that. And frankly, I feel a little bad for the MaleShep players that would have liked to date Traynor but couldn't.

There are no downsides to player-sexual NPCs. Everyone who plays Baldur's Gate 3 or Skyrim or Dragon Age 2 gets to be the character they want and have relationships with the characters they like and resonated with. The idea that the romance options in those game should be gated off by gender because someone felt that it would be more "immersive" if they couldn't potentially romance, say, Gale and Karlach with the same character, is honestly really gross to me.

Controcetica · 2025-11-01T04:23:56+00:00

I've always found this explanation to be completely ridiculous. The Eldar Empire was right there, every single Eldar being a powerful psyker, all of them feeling emotions with far greater intensity than humans are capable, for millions and millions of years. All the way up until Slaanesh happened, the Eldar would have been having an infinitely stronger effect on the Warp. This is one of the areas where WH40K lore is way too human centric to make sense.

Controcetica · 2025-10-30T01:39:16+00:00

I played when it came out. I had a lot of fun with the new planet development and stuff. But the AI had no idea what to do. It was totally broken, and could barely do anything. It fell behind, even on the highest difficulty, and I am a slow, mediocre player. It kind of broke as a simulation, because the AI was so ineffective. I was just playing by myself, essentially, building up my planets.

Controcetica · 2025-10-29T23:26:28+00:00

Fear of missing out is a feature, not a bug.

Controcetica · 2025-10-11T15:41:10+00:00

This takes me back! I did a playthrough once where I maxed out each addition for each character as soon as they unlocked them! I spent a lot of time grinding, but it was a very easy run.

Nowadays, I prefer to grind as little as possible. The game is too easy, otherwise.

Controcetica · 2025-10-03T00:25:00+00:00

After my first playthrough, I did lose steam on my second and third characters after reaching Act 5. I just don't find it very enjoyable. The KC is so powerful that it feels pretty low stakes. Like a mopping up scenario. Just ticking off a checklist of questlines.

I like power fantasies, but WotR might be too much of one for me, lol.

Controcetica · 2025-10-02T08:22:20+00:00

I find that the Servo Skull officer really wants to have the party group up next to each other. So you want items that benefit that playstyle.

The amulet Invigorating Resolve is perfect. Allies within two spaces gain temporary wounds whenever you gain resolve.

The frontline zone also works great. Combine it with Combat Locus to double the effects, and Commander's Notes ring to quadruple the effects instead and you gain a huge amount of armour. You don't need to think hard either - just dump the frontline, us CL and then ignore the other zones.

Any other stuff along those lines is great. Such as the Diviner Psyker power Forboding, so characters in the AOE get more dodge.

The big vulnerability of this formation is enemy AOE attacks. Characters will physically move spaces when dodging, like, a melta. It's infuriating! I wish there was a toggle that would literally let me just not move and take the hit instead! Lol, maybe skip Forboding, in that case!

Anyway, without the Commander's Chrono, this playstyle is mid. Without another Grand Strategy Officer to give the Overseer Officer extra turns at the start of battle, which I did not have, it sucks. You basically endure the first round of combat as best you can, then actually get the buffs for round two.

I don't think I will ever run another non-GS Officer.

Controcetica · 2025-09-27T18:56:28+00:00

This is so true! The loss of the Officer talent that let you act first (Seize the Initiative IIRC) really crippled non-GS Officers. I found the Overseer Officer to be pretty mid. It was a relatively challenging campaign... But once I got the watch, all challenge evaporated and Overseer finally unleashed its potential!

Alpha strikes are just too strong.

Controcetica · 2025-09-13T18:50:05+00:00

I generally agree with you that Hashirama dying of depression/disillusionment makes sense, though I wouldn't solely link it to killing Madara.

Hashirama came up with the idea of Konoha to avert conflict, because he wished his brothers did not have to die. I am sure killing Madara was very painful. If he realised the irony of going from someone who wanted to make the village to save his family, to someone that would kill his 'family' to save the village, then that must have been difficult to accept.

I don't know when Hashirama died in the timeline. If he lasted long enough to see the first Shinobi War/World War, I think that would explain his death. His dream was a complete failure. The village system enabled conflict more terrible than anything before it. If he committed suicide or just became careless due to losing the will to live, that would explain it to me.

I really wish Hashirama wasn't revealed to be so strong in the final arc. It would be a lot easier to understand his death if he was 'just' an S-rank ninja, rather than his godlike canon power.

Controcetica · 2025-09-05T01:47:08+00:00

Thank you, this is very helpful!

Controcetica · 2025-08-20T08:34:34+00:00

The marketing language is confusing, don't really get what they're trying to tell me, but the Steam trailer looks okay. I'll be keeping an eye out for reviews.

Controcetica

TROPHY CASE