Withering Realms

Would you say that Withering Realms can be played without playing Withering Rooms beforehand? I'll probably play Withering Rooms eventually (partly because of your praise for it), but I'm currently not in the mood for a 2D game.

for once I am following the tenets of this community

I really enjoy your post in these discussion threads, and many of the games you talked about have landed in my bookmarks, like, for example, The Drifter.

I like a bit more distance between bonfires. So that it feels like an important occasion when you reach one. None of this seeing the next bonfire immediately nonsense -- looking at you, Dragonslayer Armour bonfire.
BUT I really like Stakes of Marika. One of the best things From has ever introduced. I hate run backs and love experimentation. Thinking about it more, I also like a Bonfire directly before a mayor Boss. Malenia and Consorts Graces are probably the Graces where I changed my build the most out of all places in Elden Ring.

I am finally going to play some DS3 again this weekend. It's been 2 weeks since I've played any video games at all, but now I've got the time. Well, where did I have my SL1 character parked… Oh, right before Friede -- this should be easy, right?

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Armored Core x Dark Souls

I would play it. Mechs vs Undead sounds so cool. The question would be from which perspective you would play. Mech or Chosen Undead? Maybe both? Conceptually this sounds so cool.

It’s not entirely unrealistic for this to happen (still pretty unlikely). Fromsoft takes canon in side-projects not that seriously — see Nameless King in Nightreign. But such a crossover would take much more work than Nightreign.

Fun fact:
In the first Armored Core (1997) there is a mission called "Stop Gang 'Dark Soul'".

Still no gaming for me this weekend. Too busy. Probably won’t have time to play something until the end of next week. I really want to finish up my DS3 playthrough.

My best teacher in all Souls games was still Central Yharnam, the first level in my first Souls game Bloodborne. Best teacher for environments -- dealing with groups of enemies, unlocking shortcuts, the whole nine yards. Also the two bosses Cleric Beast teaches you how to deal with giant enemies and Papa G humanoid ones.

(Is this truly "git gud?" Well, still the Central Yharnam prepared me for my journey through Souls games.)

Another thing that could fall in the category of me "getting gud": my first Rune Level 1 of Elden Ring. This was the first challenge run I did in a Souls game. I did at one point seriously plan to do a BL4 run of Bloodborne, but still to this day haven't done that. I think what my first RL1 really taught me was build making and looking for creative solutions. I did now RL1 Elden Ring multiple times and also SL1 DS3. Challenge runs in Souls games are really fun, it turns out. I even beat Elden Ring Randomizer at RL1 (that was so much fun).

I did not have time to play any Souls games this weekend. I did play a bit of DS3 during the week but didn't have time this weekend and probably won't have time in the near future due to irl stuff.

Bigmouth Imps are definitely hilarious. The Bigmouth Imp Ashes spirit you get at the Darklight Catacombs is also one of my favorite summons.

You can actually kill/deactivate the basilisk eyes with damage over time effects like black flame or destined death (This is a bug). There is a Zullie video about it.

I like the Dungeons in ER way more than Chalice Dungeons. In BB the Chalice Dungeons are a huge step down in terms of level design from the main game (which has some of the very best levels; Central Yharnam is still the best tutorial in all of gaming.)

The Dungeons in ER are way more deliberately designed. The first couple are tutorial and then you need to build upon what you learned; find the lever use spacial reasoning etc.

Also the loot is just way better in ER at least in my opinion. But that is also from someone who as Druid put it "knows what to do with". And in I will admit during a first playthrough only like 10% of loot is interesting. But I can think of a reason to go to almost all of the catacombs and other mini dungeons in Elden Ring for some reason or another (okay maybe not the first two mini catacombs in Limgrave).

The loot in BB only gets useful at the very end with the best Runes and the best Blood Gems. And I hate Blood Gems (that is a rant for another day). Until almost the very last dungeons the gems are better in the main game and the depths were you get the good ones is at a difficulty of about NG+6. (and the Runes also only appear at the very end.). To get there you need it either grid about 2 playthrough worth of dungeon's or cheat with online glyphs.

Bosses… Okay Bosses maybe BB is slightly ahead especially when we are comparing only catacombs. Still there not really any Bosses to make me go to Chalice dugeons just for them. The humanoids like the Watchers or Pthumerian are boring and I dislike Yharnam (the fight not the character; the character is awesome.). The headless Bloodletting Beast with the centipede does look cool though, even though it is a bit jank to fight.

Edit: Also Mini-Dungeons are pretty fun in ER Randomizers. Until now I have not given into the temptation of clicking "All Bosses" in the important item section. But one day I will do an all Bosses Randomizer run.

You are probably thinking of Auriza Side Tomb. It uses a number of teleport chests to wrap you between two slightly different copies of the same dungeon.

Leyndell Catacombs does something similar only without teleports. And the third-ish level in the Giants’ Mountaintop Catacombs also loops through two almost identical floors to confuse you.

A nice detail in the Leyndell Catacombs is that there is a dead Omen in the place where you would have killed an Omen in the other copy; just to further confuse you.

Giants' Mountaintop Catacombs was probably made by the same person who made Frigid Outskirts. I guess, my Ritual Pots will forever be stuck at 9 out of 10.

GMC Motto: And now we kill the player.

I also really like the DLC Catacombs. Each have a unique gimmick and are generally fun to do. I play through them on most of my runs.

Variety. The variety of ways I can engage with the game.

Many Souls are about the master of moment-to-moment gameplay. And Elden Ring is also definitely one of them. I can now pretty confidently have a no-hit parry fight with a Crucible Knight or a Bell-Bearing Hunter. But Elden Ring is also about choosing between a myriad of options outside and before fights. Where do I go next? Why would I go there? And then choosing between all your options in your toolkit for a fight. There isn't one definitive best option. It all depends on what you have access to and your capabilities in moment-to-moment gameplay.

On the other hand, Elden Ring has now become my comfort game. I know it so well, and this immense game knowledge flows perfectly into my points above to make each playthrough, heck, each play session, a fun one.

I don't know how helpful my description of what draws me back to Elden Ring again and again is in serving as a tip? But maybe you can glean something from it.

It could be argued that I bought my Steam Machine just to play modded Elden Ring?

That's not the entire truth but 75% of my entire playtime on my Steam Machine is Elden Ring Randomizer (most of the rest is vanilla Elden Ring).

Speaking of which: I'm addicted to Elden Ring Randomizer. I'm now doing my second RL1 playthrough with slightly tweak settings and a new seed and I'm getting incredibly lucky; I started with the Ringed Finger and have now for the first time in a Randomizer found Death's Poker (and it's just as busted as I remember).

This seems to be from the manhwa Oh! Holy. I can't find the exact chapter (there are 140+).

And sadly the girl on the left doesn't seem to be a trans character; she just has short hair in the flashback below. Also I think she is a ghost/astral projecting in the panel above(?).