I feel like it’s really a mixed bag. Like some of the other comments I think overall I’d rather them go back to a smaller more interconnected world though. If I’m really honest I don’t think any game has been as good as the first half of dark souls 1. Purely on level design. I liked the almost metroidvania layout.

I like that you can go the wrong way, although accidentally sitting at a bonfire could screw you if you were too far into the catacombs. While you aren’t gated by skills like in a true metroidvania I like that you either have to find keys or find alternate routes to areas. While going through undead burg and beating the gargoyles is clearly the intended route you don’t have to do that. I like that taking the master key opens up whole new routes for you and I love the amount of times you open a door back into an area that you know. Taking the elevators down from the parish and seeing firelink again might still be one of the best feelings I’ve gotten from any game.

Since then they’ve only gotten more linear. DS3 in particular feels really linear with just occasional forks in the path that dead end. For being one of my favorite games in most other ways the layout and progression is really lacking IMO. Even within areas I didn’t feel like they were as interconnected as I would have liked.

The open world of Elden Ring does provide some of what I liked about DS1. You can absolutely go the wrong way and are likely to with things like chest traps sending you to Caelid. You can skip over an amazing amount of the game which I feel like is a strength. It keeps the game from feeling too linear and giving players options to explore more before taking on certain challenges. I loved finding extremely hidden caves and tombs and treasures in the world. And I was often shocked at how much bigger the map was getting. Going underground and seeing stars and realizing that this whole underground world is as big as the surface was awesome.

But I do feel like I could have done with something in between. Areas that are a bit smaller with more interconnected features. Ladders to open shortcuts and one way doors and elevators that loop around to familiar spots and less caves and tombs to keep them feeling fun and relevant. I personally understood the amount of re-used assets but you could have done away with a lot of them and kept the really interesting ones and been able to re-use things more sparingly, cut down on the amount of dungeons with a regular enemy as a boss, less watchdogs, less tree spirits.

If the next game is open world it certainly won’t keep me from playing it but I’d be happier with a little less space between the “legacy dungeons” and making those legacy dungeons and bit more expansive and interconnected I think. Keep the areas that you stumble across fun and meaningful where now it’s a really mixed bag on whether or not a given cave is worth the effort or not.

Yeah I skipped that one on release. Glad I did now but I appreciate your sacrifice and review. I really haven’t played many souls-likes outside of the ones made by fromsoft other than lies of p, which I personally really liked. I also thought about picking up wuchang but haven’t quite pulled the trigger yet.

Do you have any others that you’ve tried that you think are worth checking out?

I’m also purposely sticking close to the souls-like definition here, 3D action RPGs, with a similar style of progression and difficulty. I love games like hollow Knight and silksong but there are too many to note here that I’ve played. So if you’ve got a suggestion outside of that I’m still interested but I really haven’t found many closer to the original that seem good.

I recently went through a bunch of souls games so I might try either nioh 2 or first berserker khazan. Favorite areas are probably the safe zones, firelink majula, etc

Gözlemeius

I need to start watching this show. I loved the game changer. I haven’t had time to start yet? How are the first two episodes for people that have watched?

To some extent I get what you’re saying, people do need to evolve and things change but also while we have humans with jobs I also feel like they should be comfortable. Some of the things that you’re listing as failings feel perfectly reasonable to me. Like having water or having a comfortable place to sleep if you need to be on location for a job. We’re all going to have to evolve and see what work looks like as things change but that’s not a reason in my opinion to price ourselves into unsustainable conditions or pay. Once that’s the case then we clearly need some other way to make things work or unionize to protect each other.

Man this game is looking so good, I loved the original so I didn’t think it needed an update but I’m getting excited the more I see of it.

Underrated joke

I haven’t had the chance to watch the direct myself. Of the ones I know I’m probably most excited for mina the hollower. Any other particularly good ones in the list?

Honestly I could also go with Archon

I also read StarCraft and was trying to think of what names they could have picked

deleted by creator

QI could be right, I couldn’t have recalled that fact but I also learned it and I watch QI but not lateral.

Maybe I should be checking it out though

Time fore to share this weird beautiful animation https://youtu.be/w_MSFkZHNi4

Thanks!

What comic is this from? Some justice league dark run?

Allergy medicine

I’m pretty excited for this one. Can’t wait until we hear more about it.

Yeah I get that it’s not for everyone, it’s different from their single player stuff but I think I’ll probably play it enough to get my money’s worth out of it. But I am hoping I can get at least two friends to pick it up