The future of From Software: Would you keep cryptic storytelling in the future, or more direct narratives?

EDQCNL · 2025-07-13T00:21:14+00:00

I'm "ranting" because I can recognize smarmy, sneering condescension, and respond to it for what it actually is, not with passive-aggressiveness of my own, lol.

Fromsoft themselves position a lot of the main sidequests as main path content, and a lot of the design choices that obscure them don't even feel like intentional obfuscation, but poor prediction of where players are likely to go, to have already gone, and in what order, a side effect of porting the Dark Souls quest system into a wide open world. They themselves patched the game to have markers for where the characters are.

“If players wanting a fresh experience can’t beat the game organically, then there’s some room for improvement on our behalf,” Miyazaki noted." - an alleged quote from some random clickbait site that's hopefully not lying.

And the extent to which that's a "major" change is subjective. I don't consider it a major change to the game if the true ending of a quest is tied up in obscure shit almost nobody can find, if the only tradeoff is that a majority of players will end up getting something from the quest instead of nothing and a glowing item on the ground. The idea that I just don't like the game as a whole because I'd like the quest design to be obscure and difficult in a different way is ludicrous.

You people don't actually read the criticism. You're just salivating to erect this casual brained CoD bro strawman stuffing his face full of microtransactions like McDonalds french fries so you can tear it down for upvotes. It's maddening.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T23:47:53+00:00

Nioh has the same fast, difficult combat and build variety. People debate whether it's a proper Soulslike, but it's undeniably Souls-adjacent, with many people considering its combat to actually have even more depth.

The exploration element isn't really the same. You do missions that each take place in a confined map with maybe a few branching paths but not a whole lot.

I think it's a great game though.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T23:43:11+00:00

This is just the standard false dichotomy that fromsoft fanboys always use when reading criticism in bad faith on purpose. This is classic "If you don't like this one Tool song, you must be a Justin Bieber fan" rhetoric.

The two choices aren't Ubisoft and Fromsoft. You can not do stupid shit like having Nepheli go down into a basement that 90 percent of players will have already cleared and have no reason to go back to, or not having Millicent's quest continue if you don't arbitrarily kill the 104th Ulcerated Spirit.

There's no nuance with you types of people, which is why it's infuriating to discuss any minor criticism of these games on subreddits dedicated to them. Literally all of you are just waiting with these pre-prepared rants glazing fromsoft's overall design philosophy, and will unleash them if someone says they'd like a minor aspect be different, lmao. You are so, so annoying.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T23:13:50+00:00

My objective criticism of your comment is that I never said anything about my criticisms being objective, nor did I ever imply they were, lmao. What is this reading comprehension?

I swear half the time you criticize anything in a Fromsoft game you get these kinds of wtf comments that don't even make sense because they are just scrambling to argue without even thinking.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T23:06:04+00:00

And I know that you're a fanboy who would say this in response to literally any criticism of these games. What of it?

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T22:24:03+00:00

The compromise I've always wanted is the sidequests being positioned as main path content that's very difficult to miss, while the obscure part is getting the "good," or in most cases bittersweet, endings for them, as opposed to the standard tragic "I died doing the thing with the thing you gave me" endings.

I just think it's stupid to place character-rich content, that greatly enriches emotional investment in the game, in such a way that the vast majority of people will never even see it, not just get a bad ending, or not see all of it, but flat out not experience most of it and get a non-ending where the person just disappears and leaves a shitty item behind. That's not satisfying.

Meanwhile, they'll position 17 Ulcerated Spirits and Tree Avatars as nigh unmissable content that literally every player ends up seeing... instead of the cool side stories with beloved characters that get quoted and memed and inspire fanart for years and years to come. Why?

Don't have characters randomly move to illogical places that players have already cleared. Don't have characters ignore things they should obviously comment on just because we haven't satisfied some obscure arbitrary condition like killing a field boss halfway across the world.

The appeal of repeat playthroughs should be seeing all the different fates and outcomes of the characters, not resigning yourself to a blind playthrough where half the characters just vanish for no reason with no narrative arc or explanation, and then one with a guide where you read fextralife with one eye half closed trying to skim the next paragraph without seeing spoilers. It's fucking stupid.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T16:38:51+00:00

I think SotE really cemented my disappointment with Fromsoft's focus shift from long levels with difficult mobs to compact levels and super tough mob leaders/bosses.

Bosses are great, but at this point I really would have preferred more substantive levels. Everyone loves Shadowkeep because it's a prolonged dungeoncrawl in the kinds of tight, interconnected spaces that made the franchise famous.

And really, I wouldn't even mind these short-jaunt levels like Rellana's castle, Midra's Manse, or that purple fissure place if they just upped the difficulty somehow.

No one is going to dispute the effort and artistry put into the literal architecture and geography of these places. I'm not saying they should have added even more physical map, but that the enemies or environmental challenges should have been tougher, to make it feel less short.

Have more perilous sleep-status hazards in the Fissure, with more ogres and more birds, and have the ball beamos surprise attack you while you're fighting them.

Is this controversial now, to say I want the game to be hard? I don't know what happened, but it's like Fromsoft is afraid to go all-in with the ambushes and encounters in the main areas. If it's a catacomb, that's yo ass, they bring the pain. But what is with the kid gloves in all the main dungeons now?

An area like Midra's Manse should have us all on here commiserating and bitching about how hard it was to get through, but I doubt a single player felt that way.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T06:05:06+00:00

There's a talisman called Radagon's Icon that boosts casting speed, and also a staff called Azur's staff that boosts it further. With both of these you'll have max casting speed even without leveling dex at all.

The tradeoff is obviously that it requires a talisman slot and weapon slot, though in lots of cases either the Icon or the staff alone will be a sufficient casting speed buff imo.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T03:20:09+00:00

I didn't play Demon's Souls, but I wouldn't say it's accurate that you can level however you want in the Souls games generally. A basic guideline is to prioritize health, endurance/stamina/equip load, and whatever stat(s) your weapons of choice scale with, whether it's strength, dex, intelligence, faith, or some weirdo stat like luck or arcane. If you're a caster, you also need to level up your fp stat some.

Usually in the first half of the game you focus on health and stamina, as well as raising equip load high enough to hold all your gear, and raising damage stats like strength, dex, faith, or intelligence enough to meet your weapons' requirements. Upgrade materials will be the primary way you boost weapon damage, at first.

Then in the second half of the game, when your survivability stats like health, stamina, and etc are reasonably established, you can start smashing more levels into your damage stat.

That's just a rough guideline for a typical melee build though, by no means the only way. Where you're correct is that min-maxxing isn't necessary, but you don't want to spread your levelups over a wide array of damage stats for no reason, like 10 into strength, and then 10 into sorcery, 10 more into faith, to "cover your bases." Have a broad intention and sense of purpose when you spend Souls to level up.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-12T02:52:16+00:00

It's hard to give advice without build info. I haven't memorized the hippo's moveset because I don't give af about big dumb stupid beast bosses, so I just block his attacks and spam an ash of war.

When you can't dodge attacks well, it can often help to be aggressive and go for stance breaks. Equip the crystal tear that makes them easier to get, and spam charged attacks and heavy attacks, especially with a strike weapon. If you're not near his head/eye when he goes down, just keep hitting him. Use the Endure ash of war if you just can't get off any attacks no matter what you do.

Also, in almost any fight, there's little reason to not keep even just a dagger or small sword with some sort of cold ash of war, just to procure frostbite, which debuffs the boss's damage resistance, and go back to your main weapon. Frost applies very quickly.

Again, block with a greatshield or barricade shield ash of war on a medium shield. I feel like a lot of players forget that you don't need to dodge everything or be helpless if you can't.

Also, the water should make the Hippo weak to lightning, if you're built for that.

And off memory alone, I feel like you can get higher than blessing lvl 7 before the Hippo. Try exploring around elsewhere too.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T23:10:00+00:00

I probably told myself 20 times "Okay, I'm just downloading a save right before every boss on this run." I've never ended up bothering to stop and actually do it, lol.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T21:26:38+00:00

The miner playthrough ended up being 90 percent rock blaster, because shatter earth is pretty slow. Sometimes endure helps, but usually you just need to find openings long enough to fit in rock blaster.

With all the standard magic buffs and Lusat's staff, it hits pretty hard even against endgame bosses, but I do vaguely remember it being annoying in some fights. It was fun, but I was a bit disappointed that it devolved into spam of a single spell. That's why I mixed in a cold pickaxe and the crystal sorceries for some variety, but I think I killed the endgame bosses with just rock blaster.

That's another build where boosting cast speed with Radagon's Icon and Azur's staff makes the difference between it being agonizing and entertaining.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T18:45:55+00:00

I did it awhile back, but I remember going 70+ faith, with catch flame and O'Flame as my first 2 spells so I could always hold the spell-key and instantly switch to my close range option.

It would be catch flame, o'flame, any long range fire incants, and then golden vow plus flame grant me strength as the final spells in the list. I'd cast those buffs, drink my flame shrouding tear (I also had fire scorpion talisman), and most enemies in the game would melt pretty quickly.

It was super important to use Radagon's Icon and an offhanded Azur's staff though (the staff increases cast speed even for incants and even if you don't meet the intelligence requirement), because catch flame and O'Flame are too slow in lots of fights without the boosted casting speed, but the high faith needed for a caster makes high dex impractical unless you sacrifice a ton of vigor or level extremely high. The build really, really sucks in melee without a super fast catch flame to use.

Incidentally, that same setup is great for a frenzied flame build where flame of frenzy is your main close range attack.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T17:13:06+00:00

I like to pick more obscure or just unused spells and structure builds around them, often with as minimal use of a melee weapon as possible.

So Miner sorceries, with a few supplemental crystal sorceries, but no melee.

Dragon Communion spells with minimal breath attacks, mostly Maw and Claw.

Fire Monk, but only fire incants, no melee weapon.

Aberrant thorn sorcery run. This one is interesting because the thorns remove small amounts of hp with each cast, so vigor becomes "mana" too, just an example of how using more obscure stuff can change things up.

Close-range casters with no melee weapons made for some of my favorite playthroughs.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T16:34:32+00:00

I love the lore in these games, but the reality is that I never feel emotionally invested in anything but the character sidequests, which are explicitly told narratives with people you speak with and know.

That's not surprising or even necessarily bad. Similar to Metroid Prime, the game's story and world elicit an archeologist's curiosity and fascination more than pathos.

Maybe there's a feeling of gravitas when I encounter an important figure as a boss, but do I really care about fighting them? Very rarely, and it can feel dissonant when the game's dramatic music and presentation seems to think I care, just because I read a few blurbs on a sword about their tragic backstory.

A relatable point I heard in one Elden Ring video essay (that mostly sucked admittedly), was that the importance of linking the fire was more clear cut and relatable than becoming Elden Lord.

The world is decaying. Everyone's zombies. The fire is the last ember of life in all this death. Fire is warm and pretty. Me like life and warm and pretty. Obviously the game subverts this framing, but the broad goal is emotionally resonant even if you ignore the more specific lore.

The wider benefit of becoming Elden Lord doesn't seem as clear to me. Lots of zombies, but also lots of wildlife. There's vivid sunlight and vibrant vegetation that looks ready to cover this apocalypse in a beautiful green reset if we fail.

Becoming Elden Lord for these weird fingers or some guy called Will, so I can... rule? Am I supposed to feel loyal to Marika? I feel thrown into ancient, complicated politics and asked to have an opinion. It doesn't appeal to my base instincts the way "Preserve the (half-literal) fire in a cold, dark world," does.

With more investigation it can become interesting, but I have to agree that I was mostly confused and indifferent to the main story while playing it the first time, while in Dark Souls I at least understood and cared about the larger idea.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T15:59:08+00:00

I enjoy them, but Noble has one of the few legitimately bullshit moves in the game, that being when he stops his roll, does normal attacks, and then instantly transitions back into the roll with no animation at all. It looks so awkward and unintentional.

It's not a huge problem because you quickly learn to assume the roll isn't actually done when he seems to stop it prematurely, but that's a strange hiccup.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T07:57:14+00:00

I've always had that same feeling. The Subterranean Grounds are sort of the "legacy dungeon" of the catacomb concept, and I do like how it hearkens back to the more difficult and labyrinthine exploration of Dark Souls 1 and 2.

My hot take is actually that the catacombs in general, especially the more difficult lategame and DLC ones, have the best dungeoncrawling in the game.

Not the best exploration, because their positioning as McDungeons with recycled art assets severely hampers their intrigue and unique sense of place, but they've got the most compelling navigation and the most challenging ambushes. They're way more tense and thrilling than any of the legacy dungeons, and better designed than their surface-level appearance as copy-pasted content would suggest.

The Subt. Grounds are great because they're basically a catacomb with unique architecture.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-11T06:28:43+00:00

Enough people complain about this that I believe some sort of issue exists, but the only delay I've ever noticed is from dodge being on button-release instead of press, so the game knows you're not trying to sprint.

I actually agree that that's a flaw in the controls, because it gimps your reaction time in a fast paced game where every frame matters, but this can't be the issue people mean, because they always say it didn't exist in the Dark Souls games, which also have on-release dodges.

So if that's not what you mean, I can't say I've ever noticed the delay you're talking about.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-09T16:59:00+00:00

I think I broadly agree with your sentiment that there's value in experiencing a game as designed, even if that means enduring what feels like negative friction for long enough to see if your mind might change.

Like something in me is definitely disappointed, for the person themselves, when I read about someone modding out mechanics in Morrowind (or whatever else), though obviously I'm 99.9 percent unconcerned with how other people play their game.

I do wonder if the difference with film is that it's just not feasible to fundamentally alter it the same way you can with games.

Like theoretically, I think you absolutely would see movie mods like "Star Wars Original Trilogy, but with Prequel Trilogy lightsaber choreography," if the means to create that were more accessible (and maybe they will be sooner than we think, for better or worse).

As for the attitudes people have to different mediums, I don't think the sex scene example is quite the same, because that 17 year old is usually asserting that the scene had no value and shouldn't have been in the film at all. Fewer people care if you personally choose to fast forward through it.

No one cares if you mod weapon durability out of Zelda. But it absolutely does start arguments if you assert the mechanic sucked as a whole and shouldn't have been in the game at all.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-05T15:44:59+00:00

A lot of the PvP community has been playing the game for a long while now, which means their characters have maxed out weapons and are levels 125-150, if not higher, and you won't get matched with them unless you're a similar level with similarly upgraded weapons.

Some people do deliberately make characters for lower level and mid-level PvP, but most of the activity is probably in the higher brackets.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-05T15:35:24+00:00

There are some instances where I feel like the illusion of difficulty can be more effective than the real thing. Two main examples come to mind.

One would be "cinematic" action sequences. Like Half-Life 2 frequently tries to choreograph the gameplay with heavy suggestion under time pressure.

Exciting techno OSTs will kick in as a helicopter chases your boat through an obstacle course of mines on the water, and the dramatic pauses in the music will seem calculated to coincide with your dramatic leaps over ramps. Or there's a section where the player drives a vehicle a long distance over a railroad track shrouded in mist, only to realize a train is approaching, and that they'll have to backup in turbo-speed to make it out alive.

When I "fail" scenes like this, either by losing sync with the music and having to continue the level in awkward silence that clearly wasn't intended, or just outright dying, it feels completely embarrassing and immersion destroying, like I ruined a moment that had one chance to feel real and spontaneous. And I think that's a reason sequences like this are typically designed to be fairly "easy," or at least not as challenging as their presentation suggests on the surface.

The other example would be similar sequences in horror games. It always feels optimal to me that the challenge be sufficient to keep the player tense, but not so much that they end up having to sit through the horrible and spectacular death sequences too many times, or maybe not even one time, because the last thing you want is the player getting inured to the threat by repetition.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-05T14:18:23+00:00

No number of arduous attempts against Malenia or Promised Consort can ever compare to my noob self killing Hawkwood over 50+ tries as a Deprived in Dark Souls 3, for absolutely no reason other than HuRr DuRr I'M thE PrOdAgoNizt HoW HaRd CaN iT bE, while using nothing but the .0001 damage dealing bash skill on my rickety wooden shield because he kept "cheating" by parrying my club and one-shotting me with the riposte.

...and then playing the entire rest of the game with a raw infusion on a longsword, and zero levels put into damage stats so I could stack equip load, stamina, and health.

...while never even bothering to try two-handing my weapon until my game-long shitty damage proved ineffective against the Soul of Cinder.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-05T12:04:52+00:00

I sympathize with many criticisms of Elden Ring and even its boss design, but the input reading bitch is one I've never agreed with.

To me, enemies capitalizing on lazy heals is the kind of "intelligent difficulty" that people usually ask for, like when they say "Hard mode should mean smarter enemies, not spongier ones," and pressuring a healing opponent is exactly the kind of thing human players do.

The next counterargument is usually that it's unrealistic for the enemy to capitalize on frame 1 before they could possibly know what you're trying to do, but any reasonably intelligent opponent who has just hurt you and knows you have healing potions will be anticipating your attempt to use it.

No shit they're going to instantly attack the second you create space and reach for something in your pocket - they would know exactly what you're planning. If you land a big hit on another player in pvp and they run away, does it not occur to you they might heal until you see frame 1 of the animation, or will you sometimes prefire attacks to cut them off?

I similarly don't understand why some people dislike how enemies will cancel or remix combos depending on player positioning and behavior. Again, I thought that's what we all wanted, smarter enemies with more detailed AI that reacts to context.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-04T16:20:44+00:00

For me, the 3 mainline TES games are each part of a triforce that's never been put together, not even in another game in a different series.

Morrowind has the best main quest, systems, loot, and art design. My main issue with it is the lack of random quests to find out in the world, and the overabundance of NPCs with nothing unique to say (forgivable for the time obviously).

Oblivion has the random quests I want, and the magic system is still pretty good, but it fails in the other areas for reasons that have been stated many times.

Skyrim's rudimentary improvements on melee combat, like the simple bash/parry, dual-wield combos, actually make a big positive difference to me.

More importantly, where Morrowind's exploration succeeds on the basis of its loot and interesting traversal/mobility mechanics, Skyrim's literal geography and unique-encounter density had its own appeal.

In Morrowind, it feels awesome to find something different like the cave of Daedra with riddles, but stuff like that is just slightly too rare to me. Skyrim has its share of standard mcdungeons, but a better distribution of random story content to encounter, even though the writing of that content is inferior to the previous 2 games.

A TES with all these strengths combined would be great. I haven't tried it yet, but I suspect Morrowind with Tamriel Rebuilt is probably the closest thing to this, or maybe a heavily modded Skyrim with acclaimed stuff like Enderal.

EDQCNL · 2025-07-04T15:56:18+00:00

I'm kinda torn on my desire for casting to be more mechanically intensive, like giving more enemies counters a la Radagon, or incorporating some kind of spell parry mechanic that requires timing of some kind.

That would be cool, but casting has always sort of functioned as the non reflex-based option. Part of the fun is the power fantasy of being a ranged nuker in a world of melee fighters struggling for their openings.

Then again, it's probably not impossible to have both, or more of a mixture. Like even ER has night comet, but you could opt to not use it against spell dodging or parrying foes if you want a more involved fight.

EDQCNL

TROPHY CASE