I have strong feelings on this, don't @ me

Last weekend, I played a little Elden Ring seamless co-op which was a lot fun! This week, I've been playing around with the PS5 I borrowed from a friend of mine. After jailbreaking it, I installed a couple games among which was Mortal Shell 2 and Wuchang. I've played both of them for a little while and enjoyed MS2 and didn't find Wuchang enjoyable at all thus far, sadly. Might play both of them for a little longer this weekend.

All soulslikes have specific distances you need to travel from one bonfire to the next. In Demon's Souls, you'd only get a single one throughout an entire level. In Dark Souls, there are a couple more distributed in an area and most are in walking distance. Sometimes there can be quite long stretches between them which can hinder the flow you get into when attempting to beat a boss. Elden Ring solved that issue through Stakes of Marika in addition to having a lot more graces in an area and shorter distances between the individual graces.

What's your preferred bonfire distribution in soulslikes? Do you like the Stake system from ER? Would you prefer them to be a little more rare?

Amazing video on what makes the game great with a heavy focus on its artistic side vs. focusing on its gameplay

First time I managed to join @Skua@kbin.earth and @sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz for some seamless co-op in Elden Ring. Thanks for having me, looking forward to the next time! 💜

Probably no soulslikes for me and likely more League or Warframe. :)

Soulslikes have branched out quite a lot over the past years in terms of settings. Similarly, many games have made crossovers with other IPs to cash in on both audiences. Think Overwatch releasing constant crossovers (Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, Le Sserafim) or Magic the Gathering (any Universes Beyond set - Spider-Man, Marvel, Final Fantasy, Walking Dead). Is there a "crossover" you'd like to see spun up into a soulslike?

The first thing that came to my mind would Red Riding Hood. Lies of P adapted Pinocchio really well and combined both lore from the original novel as well as the Disney adaptation. With their own additions to lore, they created something really beautiful that's worth playing and exploring.

The secret ending scene in the game teases that

Naturally, I thought Red Riding Hood or another fairy tale, like Hänsel und Gretel, would be cool to see adapted into a soulslike as well. Now, there might not be enough lore to use as a basis for full-fledged games but given some artistic freedom, the developers of these hypothetical games could pull it off.

I know it was a horrible movie but in the case of Hänsel und Gretel, I could see the game get similarly dark in nature and tone. Maybe allow you to switch between both of them who have distinctly different functions, gameplay and kits? The question is whether they'd have presculpted identities and kits like Sekiro does, so no class system and set weapons, or if they are just used as base archetypes and to player is allowed to experiment and maybe do otherwise "inefficient" builds. Like maybe Hänsel is a melee brawler and profits from equipment that suits that class. But maybe if you give him something more agile, like a rapier, it can have hidden mechanics or payoffs you'd normally not expect?

Spitballing here, but I could see this work. What are your ideas?

I just watched a video where it was argued that the focus on blind playthroughs being the "real" way to play a game does not hold up well for older games, like Diablo 1 or 2. Both games have a lot of obscure mechanics that are not explained well or in detail - same goes for many older titles or titles that are less handholdy, so I immediately thought of soulslikes.

In the video the person argues that the way you used to "look up" guides was to talk to friends and family about the games you play. You did not look up optimal builds or specific guides, but you'd just find information on the games you play through word of mouth or by learning from other's playthroughs. Additionally, manuals and instruction booklets were meant to be perused in tandem with your playthrough as they'd complement your run with additional information that was not explicitly mentioned in the game.

Now through the advent of the internet, guides have become very ubiquitous and the norm for most people to use. Having a go at DS1, for example, without a guide or some semblance of help, however, sounds like a miserable experience unless you have a vague idea of what you're looking for, where to look for it etc.

What do you think? Are you advocates for blind playthroughs or do you like having some help (in whatever form that may be) in your games?

I probably won't be playing any soulslikes this weekend, but my partner and I are deep in the trenches of Warframe, having traded one free2play addiction for another :D we're currently still clearing the star chart and doing all the main missions.

I've recently built Volt and Wukong and am currently getting Volt to 30 (might use him as a base once I can subsume Warframes). After that, I'll switch to Wukong for some leveling. That's the Warframe I've been saving up materials for for a while, so I'm looking forward to dipping my toes in there. Also earned my first platinum yesterday, so we might end up doing more Void Fissures for some more easy platinum. My partner apparently got a super rare mod on one of our missions that's only got like a 1% drop chance and sells for around 100 plat on the market which is crazy.

So for me, it took several attempts to get into soulslikes. Bloodborne was my first and my first attempt went ok I think. I got to Papa G and then called it a day because I thought I knew where I had to go - a corridor were I'd get ambushed by enemies jumpscare style, which was more or less fabricated lol - but then just stopped playing lol. Same goes for Sekiro which I ended up sticking with after three separate new playthroughs as well as several years between each. Bloodborne got quite hard by the end, but I managed somehow, and yet, Sekiro was a whole different beast. It challenged me in ways I could not have imagined prior. Hence, I'd say that Sekiro definitely was the one game that pushed me to my limits and had me "git gud" somewhat and prepared me for soulslikes to come. Not so much in terms of level design, finding my way around a complicated map, or using a specific build, since all of these are either nonexistent or not huge focuses of the game, but definitely in terms of hard mechanics and micro.

Which one was it for you? How did it make you a better player?

The Chalice Dungeons certainly aren't a home run for the average player, but overall, I did enjoy them a lot more than I enjoyed ER dungeons.

The layout was oftentimes repetitive, true, but so was Elden Ring in that regard. They could have seen the reception of BB's Chalice Dungeons and do something about it.

The bosses were, overall, a lot better than in ER. Amygdala can go choke on a brick, but the Pthumerians were cool, Abhorrent Beast and Fire Dawg are cool, the latter being a pain on your way to Yharnam, Queen fucking Yharnan who might be one of the coolest bosses in the entire game?! Compared to Watchdog 1, Watchdog 2, 2 Watchdogs, Yucky Tree Serpent in 10 of them. Like, what?

The worst thing is the rewards in ER's dungeons. I know some people here in our community that know what to do with these, for example the crafting materials you get, but to the average player, the rewards are bull. In BB, you get special variant weapons and materials to access deeper levels of the Chalices - not useful in the regular sense but useful to progress further, gaining meaning in that way at least.

I just woke up from a nap and maybe I'm being too combative right now but come on :D

Thoughts?