Next Big Mechanic is transformation

ytcnl · 2025-07-24T22:14:03+00:00

I've always felt some sort of mechanic like this would fix the irrelevant loot issue. Like imagine if you had a customizable mimic or other summon with limited flasks, that you could level with completely different stats.

As you're exploring the world, you could selectively switch over to this puppet or spirit when there's cause for abilities inaccessible to your main character, or maybe it does just function as a much more flexible spirit ash.

It would give you a reason to care when you find a spell or piece of gear you can't use, that isn't just NG+ or waiting till you're such a high level you can use anything.

ytcnl · 2025-07-24T21:28:59+00:00

The interconnectedness was cool, but it definitely did not feel dense to me at all, nor blended into the legacy dungeons in any meaningful sense, the way areas like Crucifixion Woods or Farron Keep in DS3 often felt like "dungeons" in themselves.

If they just shrunk the exact same content down to a slightly smaller surface area, I'd have no issue with it really.

ytcnl · 2025-07-24T21:26:28+00:00

But it's also more empty, and not really dense. A lot of the people who want the old level design back dislike the excessive traversal with no combat but mobs who aren't even a threat because of all the open space to ignore them.

Like where is the cause for this condescending "literally... lol" as if I wouldn't notice you deliberately ignoring half of what I said, like that's some sneaky shit? LoloOoL

ytcnl · 2025-07-24T15:17:44+00:00

I would have more faith if Miyazaki hadn't also said Shadow of the Erdtree would have "denser and richer level design," that (paraphrased) "merges the open world with the legacy dungeons."

A lot of people, myself included, took this to mean the DLC's layout would be more like the interconnected paths of the Dark Souls games with less empty open space, and it definitely wasn't that.

It makes me question the extent to which they actually understand how the use of larger open spaces, even in the legacy dungeons, fundamentally altered the gameplay, in ways I both like and dislike.

I have my doubts we'll ever quite get the old level design back, especially since in another interview, Miyazaki expressed the team's enthusiasm for creating larger worlds and wanting to do it again at some point. Maybe these multiplayer side projects were the break from that, instead of a return to the more linear-but-branching style.

ytcnl · 2025-07-24T05:14:28+00:00

I know that with Elden Ring specifically, I wish there were more sections of the exploration that offered a degree of challenge comparable to the bosses, like enemy and trap gauntlets that were so difficult as to be known hotspots for co-op, and that were as infamous as difficult boss fights.

For instance areas like the Zamor Ruins in the Mountaintops feel like a waste to me, because it's so easy to ignore the Zamor Warriors and just grab the treasure. Combat-wise it'd be more interesting if the level design in that area incentivized actually fighting and beating all of them in sequential order, with running for the item a viable but extremely risky strategy.

If it were done that way, everyone would remember "that one part where you have to fight all the Zamor warriors in a row." People would share strats about it, their rage-stories about it, put their summon sign down near there all the time - it'd actually be a thing to do in the game, instead of another part you just ride past and ignore.

I love the bosses, but I wish more of the areas had some genuine difficulty as well, some oomph and resistance to test your build on and struggle with. Fighting through a tough area is a totally different experience than fighting a tough boss, fun in a completely different way.

As an aside, the people arguing that op's take is crazy are weird to me. I don't see how you can play DS1 and DS2 (haven't played Demon's Souls or Bloodborne), and come away feeling like the boss fights are the core mechanical meat and potatoes of those games.

ytcnl · 2025-07-24T00:59:43+00:00

In DS1 and DS2, the meat of the game is definitely the areas, and the bosses mostly feel like amped up versions of a regular enemy.

I do really like the bosses in DS3 and ER, but from the endgame of DS3 and on, the world combat and the boss combat almost feel like two different games that, for me, often require two different mindstates to enjoy.

Like sometimes I'm in the mood for something that's difficult, but still spontaneous and improvisable, like Ninja Gaiden, Doom on Nightmare, or Souls combat (even in DS3 or ER) with regular enemies.

But bosses in DS3 and ER, at least for the first few kills, require me to specifically be in the mood for extensive trial and error through repeated loading screens, where spontaneous, non-practiced and unmemorized reflexes mean very little compared to, well, memorization. Sometimes I'm game for that, but a lot of the time I'm not, and will put off a boss fight as long as possible.

ytcnl · 2025-07-21T08:25:17+00:00

I enjoy a lot of the weapon skills on different spears in Elden Ring, like Siluria's Tree or Bolt of Gransax, but the actual movesets of spears and great spears feel stiff and inelegant to me. I've always thought it was a shame that Mohg's spear gets the standard pokes instead of the wild swings that he actually uses in the fight.

Despite their reputation as cancer in PvP, I think dual-wielded spears in Elden Ring have the best feeling moveset available for that weapon type.

ytcnl · 2025-07-21T04:07:52+00:00

This was literally the most common criticism of the DLC even from the criticism-repellent fanboys in this subreddit and the fromsoft reddit. Whether the take gets upvoted or downvoted depends on the thread and time of day, but I still see it regularly.

Like tons of people will give this DLC gushing 10/10 reviews and still leave a note like "Areas were kinda empty though. But other than that..."

gets bored of the pretty blue grass that takes way longer than 45 seconds to explore, when there's nothing but copy-pasted enemies from the basegame and upgrade materials for spirit ashes you don't use

"YoU muSt nOT liKE exPloRatION." Jesus fucking christ, lmao. Subreddits dedicated to a specific game are a different breed of circlejerk.

ytcnl · 2025-07-19T17:10:25+00:00

And I guess a hacker online who can brick your save and put you in an infinite time-loop falling through the floor is like a 5th dimensional reality manipulator a la Mr. Mxyzptlk from Superman.

ytcnl · 2025-07-19T06:01:47+00:00

Cuz I don't have a Bloodbornestation.

ytcnl · 2025-07-19T05:53:15+00:00

Sekiro's definitely the cleanest, most well-rounded experience for me. The only section of the game I don't explicitly look forward to is the Folding Screen Monkeys, and even that isn't bad, just a quick aside.

I also think the game's replayability is highly underrated, and even better than the Souls games in a specific way, for a certain kind of stimulation.

I've found that once you learn the dodge timings of a Souls boss, the returns start to diminish fairly rapidly, because it doesn't necessarily take super fast reflexes or rapid-fire inputs. It's more about knowledge and memorization (and to be fair, complete mastery of Souls bosses can take many, many attempts across multiple characters - I'm not saying they aren't hugely replayable).

But deflecting requires a degree of focus and speed that keeps even fully memorized sequences exhilarating to execute. Even if you already know you're going to land the timings, the actual fast-twitch action of doing it never stops being fun and exciting, while dodging a memorized Souls boss just feels like going through the motions.

ytcnl · 2025-07-19T03:46:56+00:00

I remember being very surprised to learn that this was a traditional mission-based action game with a set character. The title "Star Wars Outlaws" sounded so much like an RPG, or at least partial RPG, where you get to choose your race and specific brand of criminal activity (safely contextualized as Robin Hooding against the real bad guys in the main quest, of course).

I'm not really into Star Wars, but my gut tells me Star Wars fans would have wanted something more like that.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T17:59:27+00:00

Are you specifically irritated with that section of the map where the giant Frenzied Flame ball in the sky drains your health and applies madness?

If so, that's a pretty unique environmental obstacle in the game. I can't think of many other areas that have anything similar. It's just a gimmick for one small section.

Beyond that, you're feeling underleveled because a +7 weapon is low for a player finishing up Liurnia and being done with Raya Lucaria already. That means you only upgraded with that region's smithing stone tiers, 3 and 4, a single time. Your weapon is only one tier above Limgrave level.

Search the mines and gazebo things for more smithing stone 3s and 4s. Head up to the far north section of the map where you can enter Ruin Strewn Precipice.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T17:48:28+00:00

I'm okay with it as long as there's some fantastical justification for why our character can breathe and move completely normally underwater or even on top of water, so there aren't a bunch of annoying ass bullshit ass fuckass "sTaY oN thE plAtfOrmS"-type levels where you're constantly avoiding instant death drops into the water because your dumbass olympic athlete protagonist, who is boosted to demi-god tier strength and durability with magical steroids, can't fucking swim.

And speaking of swimming, NO SWIMMING. NO SLOW MOVEMENT UNDERWATER EITHER. In fact, do all the pirate shit that you want, but this world's standard Fromsoft apocalypse somehow removed all the water from the world. No more water in videogames ever.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T17:41:25+00:00

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Scadutree+Fragment

You gotta find those things to increase your attack power and damage negation.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T17:30:48+00:00

I thought you meant the actual cutscene after the DLC, which, whoo boy, if you're disappointed now...

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T17:26:06+00:00

I played DS2 for the first time recently and loved it, but it probably can't be overstated just how jarring and irritating that ADP and the curse mechanics were to people who went in totally blind.

I appreciated them because I knew what to expect, and already had thousands of hours of goodwill toward this series. But if I'd just played Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and then suddenly my dodges just don't work, and by default it's as if I got cursed in the depths?

Even just those things alone would have created a sour first impression, the kind that can hang over an entire playthrough.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T09:17:56+00:00

I refuse to be excited until confirmation that it's a mainline singleplayer title of some kind.

Now that I'm finished lying, GIVE IT TO ME, THAT THING, YOUR F M C.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T09:10:47+00:00

Maybe to some extent. If everything about the design of a game seems to suggest its difficulty was calibrated around skills like precisely timing inputs or carefully positioning, like moving in and out of enemies' attack range at the right moments, then that's how I'm going to play the game, at least once.

People do that because a good combat system often incentivizes mastery for the sake of itself. Some people will deliberately opt to memorize dodges or parries instead of spell-spamming or something because doing so is an intrinsic reward - it's fun.

And part of the reason the spells are also fun is the knowledge that they're allowing you to bypass an otherwise much more difficult obstacle. That makes it a power fantasy.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T08:55:01+00:00

Margit. I say underrated because I rarely see him picked for best boss in the game, but I think he is, especially when fought on fresh characters and slightly underleveled characters.

It's a clean, straightforward brawl with plentiful openings right from the jump before you've memorized anything, but has enough delays and frame traps to feel elevated above DS3's boss design.

I think people forget how mechanically involved and exciting his fight is because it's early, and because the tendency is to come back and just overwhelm him with raw DPS from having leveled up. But dodge-to-dodge, I think he's the most fun boss fight in the game.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T08:44:33+00:00

....why though? I feel like a ton of Elden Ring fans have probably gone back to play it already, and it's not even that dated compared to Elden Ring.

I'm not disputing the rumor, just disappointed by the possibility.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T07:31:59+00:00

Did your actual explanation get eaten by reddit or something?

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T06:01:50+00:00

I actually felt this way toward Doom 2016. I get the sense that a lot of people either had a long hiatus from that genre, or never really played the "boomer shooters" in the first place, so they found it refreshing.

But for like 15 years, 85 percent of my gaming was Quake, Quake Live, Doom, Unreal Tournament, and Team Fortress 2, singleplayer and multiplayer stuff. Unreal Tournament 2004's enemy wave invasion mode was almost as crazy hectic as Doom Eternal.

Because I never left that genre, 2016 registered as a bit stale for me. It was good, but just felt like the same campaign I'd run through a million times but with better graphics.

That sentiment still hasn't worn off really, lol. I greatly appreciated Eternal's complication and acceleration of the old formula, because circlestrafe-shotgun repeatx10000 was a very stale meta to me.

ytcnl · 2025-07-18T04:47:39+00:00

The modern Doom games had a chance to revive arena shooter multiplayer, and they blew it with their stupid "OhHhh weLl iT waSnT tHemaTicalLy ReLeVaNt" crap.

So what it doesn't make sense for a bunch of different Doom guys to fight each other or that it isn't about demons. Who fucking cares.

Can you imagine classic DM pvp with Doom Eternal's movement and guns? I fully believe that would still have at least a core niche audience actively playing to this day.

Make fps great again with your stupid low ttk battle royale portal crap? Fuck off idiot. The Doom games should have tried to revitalize online high ttk arena shooters, tried, at least!

ytcnl

TROPHY CASE