Soulslikes

[final smelt]

the fire ones

[potent pewter]

ohh

what do they drop that pyros want?

[final smelt]

they can but the drop rate is bad

the yca ndrop the 3 fireballs

[potent pewter]

ah

fucked up

didn't know that one

[final smelt]

i think you can otherwise only get 2 copoies of fireball, 1 copy of orb, 1 copy of great fireball

meanwhile carlillion sells unliited copies of his spells

once you beat dragonriders

not to mention theres several sorcriy teachers with some overlap

that just doesnt exsist for the fireballs

fire kinda gets the short end of the magic stick in darksouls 2 kinda

i feel like just making rosabeth to sell more spells would help

or even devide it a bit

carllion is her teacher give him a set too

[crystal meteor]

yeah i just replayed 2 as a simple knight

mostly want to do some casting but i usually dont like pure sorcs

[flint pike]

https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin

More lies of P

[scenic hemlock]

Do you stream on weekends?

[flint pike]

I stream whenever my health permits, basically

[crystal meteor]

i keep looking at potential caster builds in ds2, think it looks complicated or comes online too late, and then going back to looking at Yet Another Strength Run lmao

i gotta find something neat

[final smelt]

i think other kinds are fine its mainly just pyro that takes a while

if you start as mage the hag sells another copy of the spell and you get the next level spell in the forest of giants

[potent pewter]

and you can blitz crystal soul spear

[final smelt]

then you can go and do heide then go to no man's warf for carhilloion and if you have the stats you get chair hexer guy, and straid is past the purserer

[potent pewter]

and other soul spears

[final smelt]

also dark orb is pretty good

even at base requirements

[potent pewter]

ds2 dark orb is probably the best "basic attack" spell in fromsoft game history

[final smelt]

both feklin and straid sell a copy

so thats 40 cats right there

[potent pewter]

it beats out any version of ds1 soul arrow, beats out glintstone shard easily, beats ds1 fireballs/orbs

convincingly wins out against ER fireball too

it's just so fast, efficient, and powerful

it's also imo better than the more easily compared-to ds2 starters in its own soul arrow

and certainly the very shaky heavenly thunder

[crystal meteor]

hexes do look fun

plus hexer drip is pretty solid

[potent pewter]

the lion mage set fucking rules

hexer hood also slaps

[crystal meteor]

any fun weapons to use as my backup to casting

probs a rapier?

or shortsword or smth

[final smelt]

there is a chaos rpaier felkin sells

fire damage

[crystal meteor]

i figure a low stat infusable would work

[potent pewter]

powerstanced crypt blackswords

[final smelt]

remember in ds2 you can stack infustion and buffs

silverblack spear is what i used on my hex run

[potent pewter]

for a serious answer (still powerstanced crypt blackswords) i'm a big fan of the silverblack sickle

although unless you get someone to drop it, that one's late late

[crystal meteor]

hmm late late is fun as an endgame piece just need something to use before then

[final smelt]

skeleton halberd is an optoin too

[potent pewter]

i quite like falchions if you're mixed into dex

and the gyrm axe

you can bum rush the doors of pharros, and royal rat authority isn't a huge sweat so you can also make it a totally safe area

[crystal meteor]

i just did a falchion run! very cool weapon

oh fuck royal rat authority LOL

im never doing that boss ever again

[potent pewter]

rip

[crystal meteor]

that said very funny that its

royal rat authority
is a dog

[potent pewter]

er, sorry

rat vanguard

[crystal meteor]

oh vanguard is fine

[potent pewter]

i always mix them up

mohawk one

is vanguard

[final smelt]

yeah i was about to say you dont need to fight authirity for anything itnesting

[crystal meteor]

authority is one of the worst bosses/arenas in the entire game imo

[potent pewter]

i don't even remember what authority's guarding

there's something right behind its arena

but idr what

[crystal meteor]

instant toxic rats, giant sif-hitboxes with a bad camera, etc

[potent pewter]

yeah

good news is!

hexers are the single best-equipped build type to fuck that dude up

[crystal meteor]

sweet

finally my revenge arc

[potent pewter]

because of lingering flame

which can meme on the adds before the boss aggros

and because both the royal rats are super weak to fire

anyway yeah, the gyrm axe infuses incredibly well for a mixed str caster

and it's pretty easy to both get the one that's sitting around and farm more if you want to powerstance

[crystal meteor]

muscle wizard

[potent pewter]

so i quite like it

[crystal meteor]

yeah the gyrm arent hard foes

just kinda chilling

[potent pewter]

otherwise, the chaos rapier is also incredibly easy to get and quite good

i am genuinely serious about loving powerstanced crypt blackswords, those things are fucking nuts

and the blacksmith's hammer is another great early weapon

[final smelt]

note about str vs dex

[potent pewter]

silverblack spear is pretty good for a hexer and at harvest valley, silverblack sickle is one of my favorite weapons for its quirkiness and raw dpr

[final smelt]

dex does sboost vasting speed

[potent pewter]

but is very late, being undead crypt

I could go grab one right now and drop it for you if you want, but otherwise it's v much a "dlc/endgame reward weapon"

uhhh, other dlc weapons that are broadly easier to get to are the disc chime (drippy as fuck hex-chime shield)

and the possessed armor sword (has to be farmed, massive pain, but not super risky and is quite interesting)

[crystal meteor]

might be blapshemous but i am not a powerstance enjoyer

[potent pewter]

:(

[flint pike]

https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin Lies of P!

[sour grail]

lies of tree

[flint pike]

Gods, the bosses in this game are SO GOOD

[velvet gorge]

Ladies and gentlemen, the result of a single excursion to cummmfpk

[potent pewter]

yeah the cum chalice is

fruitful

[velvet gorge]

I only did it because I wanted a really big sword

[potent pewter]

I'm sure there's a "fruit of their loins" joke somewhere

[long flicker]

Apparently the ghost dragonkin thing in the consecrated snowfield can damage the knight's cavalry, neat

[sour grail]

:O

[sour grail]

29/30 ears handed in

maybe i'll just grab the next on ng+2

i think I also have to farm the swordgrass too 😩

10 dregs, 30 swordgrass, vertebrae and tongues can be done if i can find a friend to kill 40 times

not horrible!

I've been listening to podcasts while doing the knights

[final smelt]

i would not wait

because more hp makes it harder

swordgrass is honestly the easiest

you can farm tonungs at the same time

[sour grail]

oh yeah, I'll do the others on ng+

[final smelt]

i would not due to it slows down the farm

[sour grail]

but i'll grab the 30th ear as the set item on ng+2 when I'm doing the rings anyways

[sour grail]

i'm sadly already on ng+ 😔

[flint pike]

Ears Ears Ears Ears Ears

[sour grail]

i'm all ears

[flint pike]

https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin Lies of P tim e

[sour grail]

lies of tree

might stop by in a bit

[flint pike]

Please do! Company is good

[sour grail]

even if it's lethal

[flint pike]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2240516478

[flint pike]

https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin Streaming more lies of P

[potent pewter]

there's a streaming channel on this server, isn't there?

would probably get some attention there

[sour grail]

lies of Z

I'm on the way home so i may pop in again when i get back

[tough ermine]

are there any soulslikes that focus on the magic/spells style of play, rather than trying to narrow on the weapon-play?

specifically when I call out soulslike, I mean multi-facted levelling system, third person active, and with a focus of timing dodges/blocks and retaliation

[scenic hemlock]

One day I’ll hop on I swear

[flint pike]

There is?

[sour grail]

a

i went to get food and completely forgot :((

sorry

[untold tendon]

https://youtu.be/nZNRWnZBeQM

[flint pike]

It's fine! I'll be back tomorrow in all likelihood

[flint pike]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2246342393

Smooth litlte fight

[sour grail]

oh it's these guys again

ezpz

[flint pike]

Mhmm

I'm currently doing a fresh run of Lies of P

motivity build this time!

thump thump thump

[flint pike]

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68XJHeY6ey9JhSyaoN0XIaC3u6kU2JQi

Got a playlist of my let's play again for Lies of P

[noble plover]

Man, I wish Elden Ring let you de-upgrade weapons, at least from max level

Having tweaked my build I've got a couple that I now regret spending the ancient dragon stone on

+24/+9 is still workable, but... meh

[willow ocean]

Elden Ring is already a lot better than DS games about it at least.

No - welp you are now stuck with this element on the weapon

[potent pewter]

uh

literally none of the DS games do that

dunno where you got that misinformation, but that's what it is

[willow ocean]

Dark Souls

[potent pewter]

correct, that's not how it works in ds1 either, because you can revert upgrades

that should even stick out to most people that play DS1, because of the occult club and lightning weapons

that can be reverted

[willow ocean]

But that's wasting materials. Abhorrent I say.

[potent pewter]

still confidently spoken misinfo

the most frustrating kind

[flint pike]

Moar Lies of P

https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin

[sour grail]

lies of agent 3

[tough ermine]

Lies of :3

[sour grail]

:3

[harsh shard]

Focus Interactive is having a publisher sale until Sept. 16, and not only is Atlas Fallen $22 USD and The Surge 2 $6 USD in the sale, the original The Surge is $2 USD which is an incredible deal - the series gets more mobile as it goes on and for that entry price it's not a bad deal to dip your toes in for the dip duck hops and parries:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/378540/The_Surge/

Steam

The Surge

A catastrophic event has knocked you out during the first day on the job… you wake up equipped with a heavy-grade exoskeleton, in a destroyed section of the complex. Robots gone haywire, insane augmented co-workers and rogue AI - everything wants you dead.Defy deadly enemies and huge bosses in tight, visceral melee combat. Target and slice speci...

Price

$1.94

Recommendations

7392

Metacritic

72

▶ Play video

[final smelt]

yeah suirge is great

get the park dlc

[tender orchid]

Agreed, good stuff all around

[untold tendon]

#video-game-discussion message crossposting this here: an indie dev is looking for feedback on their soulslike-dna blade and gun precision platformer https://store.steampowered.com/app/1841160/Amata/

Steam

Amata

Demo now available! Any progress made will carry over to the full game. let me know what you think!Come join me on discord! https://discord.gg/pu4FVaCgY7The path of broken stone is ended. The incursion of Amata is ended. Charlet must now escape from The Memetic Expanse, where Amata was formed and found. Where Amata was ended. Though Amata is go...

Price

$9.99

▶ Play video

https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1841160/ss_b850acaa9dcaad064d86d1b8df3bd445bcda11b0.1920x1080.jpg?t=1725890272

[spare summit]

okay yeah

I definitely fuck with Blasphemous Celeste

that goes nuts

[glossy cloak]

damn that does look pretty neat

[sour grail]

hell yeah

gonna grab the demo and give it a try when i'm done classes

visions of mountain...

[sour grail]

this is really fun so far! just tried the demo and i'm tempted to grab the EA lol

the movement feels smooth, a bit faster paced than celeste
you've got a jump and a leap (kind of a horizontal arcing dash, air OK), and 2 walljumps on the same wall, resetting upon jumping on an opposite wall

there was a floating slime up above me in a boss room that I couldn't reach and was unwilling to spend a resource on, so I jumped onto the right wall and walljumped twice then leaped over to it to smack it, very satisfying

in terms of combat it's got a simple R1 attack/L1 block for your sword with up/down attacks like Hollow Knight, block consumes stamina and prevents damage. the spicy part is Artifacts and Charms:

Artifacts have a charge system like Estus where they refill at bonfires. they include things like a gun, a close range hammer magic, and those vacuum fists that Winged mentioned in #video-game-discussion

then the Charms are like rings that have pretty cool effects and can cater to different playstyles
Agni Charm: 5% damage bonus per charge, max 10, gain 1 charge on kill, lose 1 charge upon getting hit (pretty neat way to reward spacing/blocking and parrying)
Raziel Charm: 10% damage bonus per charge, max 10, gain 1 charge on sword hit, lose 1 charge every 1.2 seconds, BUT if you have 7+ charges, receive 5% Max HP damage every 1.5s (probably good for a mid range caster build, get 6 stacks with the sword then dump all your spells at 1.6x damage, or even go all in and get 10 stacks)

The one that's really cool is a charm that restores some of your Artifacts every 12 sword hits, including gun ammo, vacuum fist charges, and a lot of other things that you have, so it strikes a balance between resource management and also making melee combat still important even if you're focusing on using Artifacts more, as well as giving you some bonus resources if you're more melee focused (a note that this charm doesn't recharge Estus)

2 things that I really like are

1. YOU CAN REFIGHT ANY BOSS ENCOUNTER!! even minor ones that might just be a collection of normal enemies :D you get a first time soul bonus for each fight, but you still get souls for killing the enemies within the fight on a rematch
2. no soul loss ever, I think this works for Amata because it's much more fast paced than souls games, and like Celeste, doesn't punish you for dying and allows you to instead focus on trying again

yikes this ended up being a bit more of a text wall than I normally like, there are a bunch of really cool concepts in here and I hope more keep coming in the EA/full version.

game feels super smooth and seems to be designed for both controller and kbm (mouse specifically because there's a scroll menu for some of your items, but everything has keyboard and mouse binds so full keyboard is possible)

definitely go try it out because I'm sure I didn't do it justice here, there's a short demo that gives you the tutorial and first main area, with progress carrying over to the full game

oh yeah! there's a visible enemy poise system too, poise regens over time after not getting hit, I'm not too sure what poise breaking does other than giving 1-2s of stun, but that's enough to get a bunch of damage in

[untold tendon]

Oh this is lovely thanks Danny!

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1841160/view/7320127107826801477?l=english

[sour grail]

and smoother camera at 60 fps too

there's a platforming section i want to retry, maybe it'll be a little smoother (or I simply have a case of skill issue)

[sour grail]

i do appreciate this message over the portal (and another side area) in the demo

grabbed the full game 😌

oh WOW

you can just level up anywhere through the pause menu, which is demonstrated pretty early on

when i was messing around to see how the poise damage/weapon damage changed with levels, I exited and re-entered the level up menu, and the changes stayed! being fromsoft brained, I thought
"wow that's nice, they remember the stats you allocated in case you're indecisive on a build"

fast forward to right now, I do the same thing then exit back to the game, but notice my xp has gone down

you can add and remove points from stats anywhere, anytime

infinite, on-demand respecs

you can put yourself back to SL0/SL whatever to test a build or challenge yourself, which is a really cool thing when boss refights also exist

ok I should sleep lmao

cool stuff

[potent pewter]

https://vxtwitter.com/hunterbunney/status/1835757308145758624

[noble plover]

Elden Ring: "let me tell you about this absolutely mind-blowing new spin on poison i've got"

it's red

[flint pike]

I really like how Lies of P did status effects vs how Elden Ring does it

[untold tendon]

https://fxtwitter.com/chosenundeadone/status/1835938915213091144 @glossy cloak @gloomy ibex

[long flicker]

I have no idea why the ancient wyvern’s head is so easy to miss

[sour grail]

amazing

[velvet gorge]

me walking up to a dragon i SHOULD NOT be fighting in shitty knight armor carrying a large sword and shield knowing damn well i'm about to get kentucky fried

[potent pewter]

just parry idiot

if it has a hitbox you can parry it

[dreamy flame]

||That giant dragon in dragonbarrow.||

[noble goblet]

yet another milf unfairly targeted by the ER playerbase smh

[flint pike]

I need to play MOAR LIES OF P

and stream more

but Satisfactory has had me in it's grip

[sour grail]

have you played Excellent

i hear it's ironically worse

[sour grail]

amata is pretty good 😌 some of the platforming is a bit hard for me but I got through it after many tries

then i trapped myself in a switch-activated wall and decided to go take a break, I'll join the discord and post it later to see if you can't get squeezed out of the wall

celeste handled it by not letting the wall phase back in if madeline was inside for the time block sections

help!

[final smelt]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GX04ZUxb0AApzcy?format=jpg&name=medium

[bitter ridge]

Why does this almost sound apologetic you made a great game

[flint pike]

Asian modest/yface, at a guess?

I'm not nearly up enough on this stuff, but there's a very you should be publicly "Ah, it's only soso" and hten otehr people should praise you in terurn type stuff call-and-reply

[bitter ridge]

Might also just be used to companies having to save face of late, helldivers and concord and whatall

almost thought this was a damn 'also we're closing sorry'

[flint pike]

https://preview.redd.it/4enah0vmnrpd1.jpeg?width=708&auto=webp&s=132d27105f1145dc3b2e1c62f4b12cdcc7559711

Here's the DLC previewe art

[sour grail]

the amata dev is super chill, i've been sending results of me screwing around and breaking stuff

it's a good time 😌

[long flicker]

https://x.com/guriomatchboxxx/status/1837123692226302202

グリ男 (@guriomatchboxxx) on X

why dis 🦑 look so mad

Twitter · Sep 20, 2024, 1:36 PM

[untold tendon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crT8t4e16ME !

[next hollow]

https://tenor.com/view/scared-wake-up-funny-open-eyes-sleeping-gif-16705162

new iron pineapple drop

[flint pike]

I'm glad to see him reviewing Enortia, because i want that to be good

but i'm very iffy on the previews i've seen

There are SO MANY SYSTEMS, and a lot of the animations and things seem off

and i'm off the opinion that souls games realyl liveo r die on the fine details

Like the *tuning8 really matters

[still garnet]

Yknow

Weirdly enough

The nine sols aesthetic kinda reminds me of final fantasy 13? In some ways

The like… weird biotech fantasy stuff

Like second boss kinda makes me think of

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/0/0a/Tyrant.png/revision/latest?cb=20140221152813

Okay

Not what I wanted

-the Taoism stuff but just the sci-fi biological stuff

[final smelt]

i played the demo and thought it was ok but not 40$

it was kinda rough but also felt like it had some potetinal

[potent pewter]

ngl i love the shit out of ff13 enemy designs

[still garnet]

[still garnet]

seems like iron's general impression as well

[flint pike]

The "Level up the spells" and stuff thing really put ome off

There's just al ack of polish etc

[sour grail]

omg they just put out a patch fixing the 2 things I brought up :3

[sour grail]

😭

[tropic vigil]

Hilariously Stormveil castle is giving me more trouble than any boss I've faced

[has only fought 2 (3 if you count godrick soldier) bosses] voice

[noble goblet]

in this house we always count soldier of godrick 😤

[tropic vigil]

Excellent

Honestly I was really proud of myself for nailing grafted scion

took me like, 10-12 attempts

Margit took 5

[sour grail]

[sour grail]

https://x.com/nekoashikombu/status/1837660841895968797

ネコアシ (@nekoashikombu) on X

【"赤頭巾" ガエル】
ジョブ：スレイヴナイト(CLASS1)
エレメント：火
所属：ローザン帝国

奴隷としてとある主に仕える、老練のマクシミリア。
多くの同胞を斬ったその大剣は赤錆に塗れている。

「儂には、やることがある…」

#30MF
#30MF冒険者名簿

Twitter · Sep 22, 2024, 1:11 AM

[flint pike]

Oh, that's a really nice Gael.

[crystal meteor]

God Rick is always in the list

[willow ocean]

I've been playing Demon's Souls on PS3 for the sorta first time.

Didn't got far when tried it way back and now is way past that.

I think I like it more than Dark Souls 1.

I've beaten Flamelurker and by amount of souls it feels like I shouldn't have beaten it.

It's something like 3 times the amount of souls of the last boss.

[gloomy ibex]

I think its vibes are impeccable

but the gameplay feels pretty clunky to me even compared to DS1

(and I got fucked over by a weird bug in an unpatched version of it that tanked my world tendancy hard)

[willow ocean]

I enjoy clunky gameplay I guess.

It feels like they were trying out a lot of things in Demon's Souls and I like that.

And the game has more of a rpg feel in a way.

[gloomy ibex]

yeah I definitely really enjoyed it

though the clunkyness was real (and again I had a bug where it put world tendancy 1 towards black on every death which hit everywhere max black pretty fast)

[willow ocean]

oof on the bug

I think I will not be getting pure white on everything because I died while having a body couple of times.

Including accidentally.

mostly staying as a spirit now

[gloomy ibex]

||it spawned a real tough samurai dude on the storm world that basically camped the absolute fuck out of me and took ages to kill, he basically oneshot me and took like 100 consecutive hits from me to kill but was very predicatable which took me forever bc you fuck up eventually||

[scenic hemlock]

You mean Rick soldier of god?

[long flicker]

What about God, soldier of Rick?

[noble goblet]

incredibly funny how lies of P has a character, according to the loading lying screens

named "Valentinus Monad"

thats Kojima level I love it

and ||who I assume is his daughter, 'Sophia'||

gee I wonder which faction these characters are gonna be connected to

||surely it wont be the ambigiously mysterious alchemy group with its vague christian imagery||

[scenic hemlock]

My bad

[forest shard]

blood starved beast is very very annoying

the fight itself wouldn't be that bad if you didn't need to restock on very overpriced antidotes after every attempt

getting it to 5% health then dying after spending 10 vials and 3 antidotes feels bad

at least there are a bunch of souls echoes on the boss run

[willow ocean]

Playing demon's souls on ps3 it's funny how some areas are basically what dark souls does again.

Not that they haven't done repeated themes of areas later as well

But DSes feel a lot more similar

[gloomy ibex]

yes definitely

[willow ocean]

It was fun to see more (questionable) ""advanced"" flying enemies in demon's than in following games

Gargoyle demon critters

That seem to be able to handle flying over nothing and gaining attitude.

[willow ocean]

So all ||4 end area bosses (not counting first area castle, I haven't been back there yet) are kind of a gimmick fights huh?||

In demon's souls.

||figure it out dragon fight, king in yellow summon, giant flying ray you pick up a weapon for and a maiden with npc defender who dies when you talk to her?||

[gloomy ibex]

||DeS just has a lot of gimmics in general which I kinda like, but they keep reusing them a bit too much in later games||

||and honestly the maiden fight is imo super cool, the king in yellow guy is supposed to be player controlled||

[willow ocean]

yeah I figured that about the turban menace, don't have any net connection to my ps3 tho

my ps3 controllers are quite dead, so I'm using a ps4 bootleg controller on which PS/home button doesn't exist/work

so there's another bootleg controller connected just to press that one button

[gloomy ibex]

hahaha

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2423720/Mandragora_Demo/ demo!

Steam

Mandragora Demo

Mankind has surrendered the world to the monsters. The people of Faelduum hide away behind walls of brick and palisades of ignorance, constructed by their leaders.This is not the world you were promised. Travel by night and take it back.Fight vicious creatures, challenge nightmarish bosses, meet new allies, enemies, and every shade in-between, a...

▶ Play video

[willow ocean]

Well this looks very pretty

[final smelt]

so im trying it and i see one problem thats very fixable

your stamina is bad

like run out of stamina killing a hollow in darksouls bad

rest of it is fine

just give the player more stamina please

[final smelt]

honestly yeah im enjoyign it quite ab it so far

i found a ring early on that gives you 20 stamina

and honestly if they just started you with like 125 or somethiing instead it woudl help alot

it does actully feel like a 2d soulslike

the item system is deffrent i noticed several items have stat boosts on them

or other stats on them which is nice instead of all just armor and poise

like i picked up an enemy headgear that gave +50 hp

[willow ocean]

Demon's Souls defeated.

What a neat game.

[gloomy ibex]

it is!

I honestly really liked the soundtrack

[willow ocean]

After beating it, yeah. I like it more than first Dark Souls.

[gloomy ibex]

which is a thing that stands out to me

it feels a bit raw compared to the other ones but thats kinda a good thing

[willow ocean]

Dark Souls has really nice moment but also really really low lows. (Given how second half is kind of unfinished)

[gloomy ibex]

hmm yeah

TBH DeS had up and downs for me

[willow ocean]

It being shorter also works in it's favour at least for me.

Demon's is probably way more unbalanced compared to dark souls.

[gloomy ibex]

oh yeah it is

you can buy tons of big grass

||and magic is even more juiced than ds1||

[glossy cloak]

||tfw you can start with mana regen||

[willow ocean]

what grass? regenerates to full from rings, blessed weapon and shield

[velvet gorge]

i do not enjoy DeS

i tried it once and got my ass beaten into oblivion because i ran out of grass.

[final smelt]

i think the ideas that do return are better handled in later games

except fp

i think demon souls had it better than ds3 did

[gloomy ibex]

honestly I think it handled atmosphere better than the later games

and just like a fantasy feel

[crystal meteor]

I would love to see them revisit an idea like World Tendency now

[final smelt]

Also would anyone curious to test out my layout for playing souls games on pc to see how it feels

[sour grail]

sure i can give it a try when i boot up ds3 again

[final smelt]

ds3 i remembering having a little wierdness due to weapon arts and the lockon camera not being good

[sour grail]

o

sadly i don’t own the other 2 atm

[final smelt]

well you can still try it

[sour grail]

ye for sure

[final smelt]

basicly most of it is default

but the attck buttons are changed

this was elden ring

its bascily the same

except twohand is just alt no jump

[sour grail]

[untold tendon]

https://fxtwitter.com/stephengiannart/status/1841501643038138577

[untold tendon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYjwjRyEtDE new void sols demo!

[velvet gorge]

god...elden ring lore is such a painful experience because of the emotions you feel

the cycle of violence ||started with the hornsent|| and ||may not even end when you beat the game||

[noble maple]

Some of the items talk about the fell god haunting the hornsent, the same way the hornsent's omen curse haunts the modern erdtree society. So the cycle of violence may go even further back

[velvet gorge]

aghfghgfhgfdhghffhdgdhfdgfhf

[tender orchid]

The only constant for man is that we hurt each other for no reason and every reason

Also fried dough

Every culture has fried dough

[noble goblet]

I think it definitely ||doesn't end in pretty much any ending||

well, except for the Frenzied Flame. I guess.

||Ending that sort of conflict and strife was Miquella's goal, and he never gets the age he wants.||

[noble goblet]

but it is kinda fucked how all the best intentions caused the world to end up so..... Elden Ring

that part gets me

[velvet gorge]

the road to hell

is paved with the things

[willow ocean]

wowie, Gascoigne is a way more fun fight than Cleric Beast

[long flicker]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GoksEFtmzi0
@final smelt

[potent pewter]

ooh, is this a race?

[long flicker]

Looks like a relay that goes through all the soulsbornering games

I think it’s scored based on which team is fastest/takes the least hits

[potent pewter]

rad

[final smelt]

there was a no hit run challange ortsdava was in

thats where i got my parry veldstat strat for sl1

i would i could find it again

i found the clip

https://youtu.be/8-2_4cv2xzg?feature=shared&t=247

[untold tendon]

https://youtu.be/ziYL9fqmd94

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2735580/Netherworld_Covenant/ demo!

Steam

Netherworld Covenant

Netherworld Covenant is an action roguelike game currently under development, where players utilize the souls of fallen comrades and dimensional traversal to conquer formidable adversaries. In the game, players will engage in battles alongside a variety of empowered spirits, deftly evading attacks while seeking opportunities to strike down foes ...

Release Date

To be announced

▶ Play video

[willow ocean]

So I got to the point in bloodborne where you ||see massive fucking things looking at you all over the place||

and I had to hastily make this

[bitter lotus]

I quickly booted up DS3 to show my kid the basics and dabbed on gundyr first instead of embarassing myself

Iudex, to be clear

which is not an achievement but I'm really bad at these games, just stubborn

but hey it would seem that playing other games did things for my ability to read patterns

[sour grail]

🧎

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2407270/view/4512135360806449037?l=english

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2736690/view/4540282858485918178?l=english

[long flicker]

@final smelt the code vein looking game has a demo

[final smelt]

yeah im playing it

its good

ill write up some stuff about it in a bit

[long flicker]

I'm assuming that's a training dummy?

Also damn that looks cool

[final smelt]

yeah

[final smelt]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2407270/AI_LIMIT/
Ok i just finished this demo and its pretty good
I think the game its most compareable too is code vien in both setting and gameplay style(it even has a control scheme you can change to that is litearlly just code vien's)

Therer is no stamina bar you instead have a sync bar it starts at 100% using ablities and getting hit lowers it hitting enemies raises it.
at 50% to75% you do normal damage and bove that you do extra damage, and below that you do less

One thing i find intresting is how your left arm works its a swapable tool from what i saw in the demo it was parry,shield and 2 others i didnt get and you just swap them mid combat you can't block and parry but you can swap with just a button press parry i think needs a few more parry frames or faster start up shield is pretty decent it blocks all damage at the cost of sync energy but if your sync energy goes to low the shield stop working and if you block enough attacks with the shield you can do a power attack with the shield which does help get that energy back and often stagger enemies.

my biggest issue with the weapons is some of them feel too slow mainly heavies and weapon arts attacks.
I do worry bout bosses being overturned but that could be just a demo thing even the qustionaire mentions what people thought of the demo boss.

Map design is good, lots of shortcuts and times the game brings you back around>

armor seems really basic, but in the post game demo mode you unlokc i did notice something called seals which feel like where a lot of build crafting comes from the starting one you get is just like +30 stablity but the others i saw there were more complex and evne saw 4 mini seal slots for smaller ones you could use.

one twist on the souls being droped on death thnig is you can't pick them up but you have a core called a "nucleus" and its stats determine how many you lose on death and how much you gain from enemies.

Steam

AI LIMIT

Explore the unknown apocalyptic worldAfter the sudden yet mysterious collapse of the artificial ecosystem, natural disasters and wars ensued, the civilization was wiped out. And in the centuries that followed, a strange substance known as the Mud spread everywhere, and monsters emerged.You will step into the last city of mankind - Havenswell, ex...

Release Date

2024

▶ Play video

[untold tendon]

thanks for the writeuup

[kind kelp]

hey anyone knows if code vein is any good ?

[tender orchid]

I enjoyed it, so I'd say it is

[crystal meteor]

I was not a fan but im a huge stickler for level design in souls; the combat itself is neat

[untold tendon]

https://youtu.be/YD2p9uwF3s4

[sour grail]

tried it a bit, seems fun

i'll have to play it a bit more to get a fuller picture

a bit intensive for my laptop but 1280x720 runs well enough

i really dislike not being able to remap sprint to hold dodge

they have to know many souls players are used to this

but they're on separate buttons, and then i start trying to tap the sprint button to dodge roll

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2022610/view/4523395357654122840?l=english
https://youtu.be/pR008PFxung

[dreamy flame]

Look like warframe but if it was made by H.R. Giger and Hidetaka Miyazaki (complementary).

[noble plover]

Ooo, I like that description

[sour grail]

instantly got access, will give it a try

[scenic hemlock]

This looks super interesting

[scenic hemlock]

Gameplays fun but I dropped it cuz there’s a noticeable difference between what male and female characters are wearing

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2438330/Pale_Coins/ pale coins has a demo now

Steam

Pale Coins

Explore the open world of Grenmark in Pale Coins, an old-school Fantasy Action-RPG with souls-like elements. Pale Coins features challenging gameplay and unique boss fights, tons of rare loot to find, dungeons to conquer, quests to complete, and stories to uncover.Explore a gorgeous handcrafted fantasy world, starting with nothing but an old wea...

Release Date

July 2025

▶ Play video

https://youtu.be/lF6qv6oMBzo

[sour grail]

ooh this looks neat

[sour grail]

i played a bit of the crete playtest, and have some early thoughts, didn't get too far

• pretty neat system with the built in sword and shield and rifle, more options later i assume

• early area had me dying a bunch and not making it to a deposit point for my metaprogression stuff, it'll hopefully change as i improve

• environment is very fuck around and find out, feels like it's out to kill you (explosives on the ground, plants that offer hp but bite you after which might be dodgeable), which can be great fun but i was too tired for that today

• biggest complaint is that the enemies don't really react to your attacks, maybe there were flinches here and there but i honestly could not tell, it felt like both sides were doing their own attacks and they only stop if you block their attacks

idk how ur supposed to chain your attacks to max out your energy when you get 2-4 hits max before you get swung at and have to block or dodge, but again maybe that's something I'll learn as i play more

[noble plover]

Yeah, with Crete I found that you have to dance around the enemy and not try to attack into their attacks or you're going to have a bad time

And you've got to have a sense of how long your own animations are vs the enemy's, very soulsy in that way

I didn't manage to clear the zone yet but I did stock up some DNA and unlock a couple of things

I think there's room for a lot more development and polish, but the foundation is solid, especially considering that it's a two-person dev team. For an alpha test it seems to be running really well

[untold tendon]

oooh thanks for the heads up

👀

[noble plover]

One thing I found intriguing about Crete was the health cost for depositing your DNA

Makes it feel like a bit of a gamble--do you want to lock in what you've already got, or do you want to risk it for a better chance at clearing the run entirely?

And of course it's a more painful cost the worse you're doing

...I was less thrilled about the devices that charge you a pip of health for a random upgrade

Since random upgrades drop for free regardless, I feel like if you're going to charge health for it then it should be a little better than random

Choice of three or something like that maybe

[final smelt]

im excited about ai limit

[final smelt]

ok i have crete a try and i think its needless hostile every step of the way

doing many things requires secriging health with few ways to get it back and one of the wyas to get it back has a chance to also just take 2 hearths away

[noble plover]

It's a roguelike. You're supposed to fail, improve, and try again

[final smelt]

yes but most arent hostile in an unfun way

[noble plover]

I mean I had fun with it

[final smelt]

like running out of stamina hurts you

[noble plover]

Right, you're dependent on random drops for health restoration so paying health is a gamble that you'll be lucky enough to recoup the cost and/or skilled enough to not lose what health you have remaining. It turns things that would otherwise be an automatic no-brainer, like depositing DNA at a checkpoint, into decisions that you need to think and strategize about

Like if that's not your vibe then I get it, but I think it's a feature, not a bug

[sour grail]

oh yeah it ran really well 😌

[sour grail]

i did have trouble with this part because you the camera is locked over your shoulder and your attacks move da camera a fair bit, but yeah I'll try it a bit more today if i have time

[final smelt]

you can canel animaions by blocking

attack animaions, i found the best strat is headshots then attack and block dodge felt unreliable

[noble plover]

Dodge is kind of tough, at least on keyboard and mouse, because of managing directional input while moving. I had the best luck with it while strafing sideways around the opponent

Otoh it seems to eat less animation frames than blocking, from what I can tell, so if you're trying to get more hits in it could be worth it to figure out

[untold tendon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ANyHuFMNcw

[bitter ridge]

Geometry Wars.. after all these years

[scenic hemlock]

Thinking about getting Ds 3 idk

[final smelt]

have you played any of the soulsgames

[scenic hemlock]

Elden ring

Code vein

[noble goblet]

probably then, if you liked them enough

obv its gonna be different from ER, much more linear, not as long
(And I dont know enough about how CV plays)

but its a good game

Controls are still fluid enough imo, area designs really sell the ruin, bosses nearly all have a phase change

Kind of archaic npc quest design

very easy to miss triggers and content unless you know what you’re doing

If you played ER a lot of it’s gonna be thematically familiar though

like the dlcs ||festering red-mushroom rot fields, crawling with bug people who shun fire||

[spare summit]

DS3 has a lot of Elden Ring prototype material in it

[noble goblet]

or the ||dragon worshipping sky temple older than anything else||

[spare summit]

it ALSO is like

hmm

[noble goblet]

The vibes are a little different but in a way thats hard to describe

[spare summit]

DS3 is both the Souls game that knows what it wants the combat to be the most, but also has the most rigid concept of how to approach combat

arguably moreso than Sekiro

[noble goblet]

ds3 feels ragged and run down, but its not any one thing so much as everything repeating that idea

[spare summit]

like you really have to play the game DS3 wants you to play

[noble goblet]

my friends and I joked it was the ‘arcade-version’ of souls

its one of the easiest to just play as a series of levels you run through killing things

[noble plover]

from my limited experience of the Dark Souls series, Elden Ring has a collapsed society but the world itself is still spinning on just fine, whereas the DS games have the world itself actively dying

[noble goblet]

which isnt a bad thing - its really good at making those levels

[noble plover]

the decay is metaphysical and affecting your surroundings, that kind of thing

[noble goblet]

Cathedral of the Deep is one of the best places in the series, imo

yeah

everythings at least a little grimy, a little caked in filth

its not like ERs broken vibe, its like walking into a damp basement or an older relatives house who hoards a little too much

At least thats how I feel

[spare summit]

Dark Souls is about the inevitable end of all things because it's a story about how power inevitably crumbles and those who cling to it are warped by the clinging

[noble goblet]

what if this time It’ll be different because shadowblade lady told me Im special

🥺

surely my age of hollows will be eternal and unproblematic!

[spare summit]

Elden Ring is about a whole different set of problems, which is mostly encapsulated by the question of how much power and rising to achieve it shackles you to the throne and deprives you of your humanity

which is why the environments are warped and broken but not decayed in the same way

Elden Ring's story is that of a new power rising to meet and overcome that which has failed, whereas Dark Souls's story casts you as the psychopomp, the reaper come to bring an end to that which ought have already done so

[noble goblet]

I find in the same way ER took the motifs and gameplay and wound them tighter

its also exploring an idea that souls series kept touching but never dedicated the focus to

power itself and what you do with it

the justifications you have for making an age at all

[spare summit]

They’re all explorations of power and its consequences

[noble goblet]

Yeah

[spare summit]

At least, Souls and Elden Ring and Armored Core

[noble goblet]

but not as much narrative weight is spent on the justification for the war against the dragons

questioning the idea of trying to enforce a better world metaphysically at all

[spare summit]

Sekiro is more about strength and the clash of individual might against the collective

Bloodborne is about something completely different lol

[noble goblet]

like Gwyn is usually portrayed as power hungry - and its not like Marika wasnt, but I think ||having those sympathetic elements|| helps underline the point better for ER

[final smelt]

ds2 is my fav of the 3

id honestly argue 2 is closer to elden ring than 3

[noble goblet]

mhm

[final smelt]

ds2 is non linear just like elden ring, theres more vairity in builds

[noble goblet]

“All effort will pass into nothing”

[spare summit]

3 is a bizarre game in truth

[noble goblet]

Oh I thought you meant thematically 💀

[spare summit]

It’s Souls pared down to the its moment-to-moment gameplay pretty brutally

[final smelt]

the requirements to beat ds2 is 1m souls or 4 lord souls

elden ring only requres 2 lord souls

[spare summit]

Which has upsides - it’s fast, snappy, responsive and generally feels good in motion

[final smelt]

and both the lord souls in both games are more sitated earlyer in the game rather than ds1 and ds3's late game

[spare summit]

But it also kinda tossed a lot of Souls stuff to the side for that

[noble goblet]

Im assuming Code Vein is probably closer to ds3 than ds2, just from what Ive seen

faster combat, more intricate boss movesets

[final smelt]

i wouldnt comare them that closely

its very much a dodge game(you cna build for block to work really well)

and you have a meter that fills up everytime you get a hit for ablities and spells

[noble goblet]

I liked that last system in Lies of P

with its Fable bar

[final smelt]

yeah

i like code vien's system more

[noble goblet]

good development tbh

[spare summit]

Lies of P good

Second roll was a brilliant idea

[final smelt]

fable is a bit restrictive and wierdly balanced with some ablties being over costed

code vien lets you equip ablities to slots with diffretn costs and you can even transfer ablties from other classes

leveling in codevien just gives you a flat boost to stats its your armor that has all your scaling for magic/defenses

so if you want to do more light/dark damage you change your armor for better of that type

[spare summit]

Someday we will see a great shift in how FS ARPGs work when they embrace 2nd roll

[scenic hemlock]

I could get a key for like 20 bucks that’s why I’m asking and idk why but the graphics and vibe of ds 3 just kinda hit the spot for me

Also ds 3 wasn’t the demon people beat with poop right?

[sour grail]

i think it’s worth it for 20, it’s a pretty good time

does the key come with the dlcs btw?

[scenic hemlock]

No but dlc key ain’t much more expensive

[scenic hemlock]

which of the soulsgames has the longest playtime (except er)

[final smelt]

fi you mean time to beat its 2

if your thinking of getting 2 get the schaoller version

that has all the dlc

[noble goblet]

https://x.com/shinobi602/status/1863626399568785857

Shinobi602 (@shinobi602) on X

Playstation ending the 30th anniversary video on this is pure evil

Twitter · Dec 2, 2024, 4:48 PM

[scenic hemlock]

If I don’t get bloodborne 3 by the time Im fully working I’ll just buy the rights to it and give everyone the sequel they deserve

[scenic hemlock]

That’s the one I heard the least positive stuff about (still a lot of positive stuff)

[sour grail]

I'd recommend that then

[final smelt]

id be careful about what your hear about ds2 online its not a perfect game and it does have problems but people like to make up stuff about it specificly

[scenic hemlock]

Coincidentally my uncle asked me what I want for Christmas…

https://tenor.com/view/dark-souls-praise-gif-25000256

Wrong game but

[final smelt]

people still to this day claim sotfs added more enemy spam and thats just not true, it actully removed several

and places that do have enemies your not meant to trigger all of them at once

like in the tree courtyard there are more enemies but you can ignore like 75% of them

since they only wake up when your close to them

where in the original all of them got up and went after you

[scenic hemlock]

Which game had the tree boss

[final smelt]

3

[scenic hemlock]

Alr

[final smelt]

its not a very fun boss

[scenic hemlock]

2 had fume knight right?

[scenic hemlock]

That’s why I’m asking

[final smelt]

yeah 2 is fume knight

[scenic hemlock]

Artorias was 1

[final smelt]

yeah

[scenic hemlock]

Man I gotta play them all some day

[final smelt]

the main thing about 2 you need ot watch out for is dying does lower your max hp but you can get a ring early on to lock your hp loss to 75% instead of 50%

and due to the fact you can buy lots of hleaing conusmables its not that bad

and armor being decent

also agilty effects iframes

[scenic hemlock]

So more agility means more iframes?

[final smelt]

yeah

[scenic hemlock]

That’s a cool idea

[final smelt]

theres target levels you want

[scenic hemlock]

Huh

[potent pewter]

crescent moon grass lifegems my beloved

[noble goblet]

I always kinda liked Curse-Rotted Greatwood

at least I had more fun with it than Deacons, and its a little more exciting than Crystal Sage

even when Im not picking up boss weapons I fight it

[crystal meteor]

funny tree is funny

[scenic hemlock]

Yep so I’m getting ds 3 for Christmas (with all the dlcs)

And then after that I might get

Ds 1 or 2

[noble plover]

Return to Lordran should be soon, right? It was in January last year

[final smelt]

when do you get to ds1 i recomend playing offline since the game lacks protections against savefile ruining

[crystal meteor]

i do wanna do whichever return is this year

when ds1 was active again it was a lot of fun

[scenic hemlock]

what's that?

[final smelt]

people can ruin savefiles if they invade you in ds1

[scenic hemlock]

how so?

[final smelt]

kill all npcs, force you into ng+, and curse/egg you

[scenic hemlock]

alr I'm gonna play offline

[scenic hemlock]

What’s return to lordran

[crystal meteor]

https://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls/comments/1h0j8pk/return_to_lordran_2025_january_3_17/

[scenic hemlock]

I don’t have ds 1 :(

[crystal meteor]

then dont worry about it haha, but this is what the event is

[scenic hemlock]

Is there the same thing for ds 3?

[noble goblet]

yup

idk the standard time but I saw 'Return to Lothric' before

and the ds2 one is long going (Return to Drangleic)

looks like the next ds3 one is June

[scenic hemlock]

then I should have enough time to prepare

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2107220/The_Legend_of_Capa_Negra/ demo for @spare summit @sour grail

Steam

The Legend of Capa Negra

"The Legend of Capa Negra" is a souls-like Action-RPG set in a medieval, dark fantasy world. As a new member of the Rebel Faction, your first mission will be to travel to a small village to meet a contact, find your way through dangerous landscapes and join the war against the King!• Skill-based combat system with dozens of spectacular execution...

Release Date

Coming soon

▶ Play video

very interested in this project, neat looking slow combat

[sour grail]

let's seeeee

oooh that's cool looking

[sour grail]

started up ender lilies, i LOVE it so far 😌

reminds me that i should get back to amata sometime too

after i got busy it slipped out of my rotation

[harsh shard]

Does it have save on demand or do you gotta find a bonfire?

[sour grail]

i think it's only at bonfires but the pause menu has a return to bonfire option, no death penalty as far as i can tell

[harsh shard]

That rules, I was looking at that one for something to do after my latest Salt and Sanctuary run

[scenic hemlock]

I was looking at that game for a long while now

[sour grail]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lstcr5y33wk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMRK2A6bXrs

my friend told me the ost was good so i listened to it when studying and i was sold

[scenic hemlock]

It’s amazing

[scenic hemlock]

Same

[long flicker]

IIRC the entire soundtrack of both games is done by mili

[pastel vine]

sl1 amana woe

[final smelt]

whats your plan for veldstat

i will note that if you have decent enough armor he can't oneshot you until phase 2

[pastel vine]

bash my face into it until i win probably

yeah armour is surprisingly good in DS1/2 SL1, i managed to facetank four kings

i know mace is the favourite for the armoured bosses but i like the short animation/stamina with the rapier

[final smelt]

parry veldstat

[pastel vine]

can you do that?? i've never tried lol

[final smelt]

ortsdid it a while back

also poison

i would poison him right before phase 2

[untold tendon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djtsw5k_DNc

[tulip cove]

oho

i only saw this now

[noble goblet]

look to the ground!

it burns!

Elden Ring, O Elden Ring!

[noble plover]

me: "yeah it'll be a while before we hear about From's next project, i'm sure"
From Software:

[tender orchid]

Wonder if this was always planned or if it was something they had as a backup in case Shadow did gangbusters

[long flicker]

https://www.ign.com/articles/elden-ring-nightreign-we-played-it

It's not directly said in the article but it sounds kinda like a roguelike to me

Except replace what most roguelikes do with abilities and such with getting different weapons from fights/chests

Oh hell yeah

[bitter ridge]

incredulous noises

[long flicker]

Oh neat

(Note: this is explicitly not a live service game with microtransactions and stuff)

The game sounds interesting and also very much My Shit so I really hope it ends up good

And also that my pc can run it but that shouldn't be an issue given I could run shadow of the erdtree decently enough

[long flicker]

I wonder how much nightreign is gonna cost, I assume less than the base game but 🤷‍♀️

[sour grail]

oooooh

[noble goblet]

I think I read from one of the interviews about as much as SotE

[scenic hemlock]

Moghwyns sacred spear times 6

[sour grail]

https://fxtwitter.com/darksoulsgame/status/1867384137361043506

i guess it's a crossover thingy

[ashen pumice]

I'm honestly kinda into defined characters with set kits

Cautiously optimistic

[potent pewter]

i love that the bird uses the fucking pursuer animation

[pastel vine]

all along the pursuer was a roguelite player and you keep ruining their runs

[crystal meteor]

would 100% play a game from the POV of the pursuer

[noble goblet]

I've mentioned before I wished they revisited challice dungeons as an idea

so I'm willing to give it a try

[stable lintel]

This is basically my mindset its not a "full game per say" but at least its honest in its spin off nature (shrugs)

[noble plover]

After Elden Ring and SotE I'm not really expecting a full game from that team (or however they have it structured at From) for another couple of years minimum

I was totally taken off guard that anything was announced at all

But I'm intrigued enough to see what this one is all about

[untold tendon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQEQsMQ2hQg

[velvet gorge]

Ladies and Gentlemen and Everything in-between and beyond, i need a bit of help

my gf has been really enjoying Another Crabs Treasure and That's good, and I think she'd really enjoy other soulslikes. have any recommendations? (the reason i'm asking at all is because she mainly uses the parry mechanic instead of dodging and other than Sekiro(which is a bit weird) and Bloodborne(not on pc YET) i can't think of any soulslikes where parrying can just replace dodging)

[ashen pumice]

Nine Sols

Lies of P as well

[final smelt]

yeha lies of p

[velvet gorge]

ok

[harsh shard]

The Surge 2 is $5 USD on sale and while dodge hops are a bit of a thing the active parrying in the direction of the attack is the main thing
https://store.steampowered.com/app/644830/The_Surge_2/

Steam

The Surge 2

On the way to Jericho City, your plane is shot down by a mysterious storm and crash-lands in the outskirts. You wake up weeks later in a derelict detention facility inside the city. Armor-clad soldiers enforce Martial Law, robots are on a rampage, and a dark, expanding nanostorm looms over the cityscape...With an expanded arsenal of weapons, arm...

Price

$4.49

Recommendations

6207

Metacritic

76

▶ Play video

[untold tendon]

nine sols, lies of p- dammit!

DX

beaten to it

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2259260/Tyrants_Realm/ demo @spare summit @sour grail

Steam

Tyrant's Realm

Welcome, Brave Hero, to a World Lost in Time.Embark on a roguelite adventure that pays tribute to the golden era of gaming—specifically, the nostalgic visuals and gameplay reminiscent of the PS1.For generations, your family has fought relentlessly to end the reign of the Tyrant, an ancient being who seeks absolute power and knowledge. The journe...

Release Date

Jan 16, 2025

▶ Play video

[sour grail]

👀

I'll give it a try after my new year's celebrations!

[tulip cove]

Hmmm
Is this also a place to discuss Souls lore

[potent pewter]

yep

[tulip cove]

Aight aight

So im playing dark souls 3 on a pc that can (barely) run it after only going thru lets plays and reading wikias and watching friends play it in the past

And coming back to it after nine odd years, the original stuff they added (the angel lore, the deep, etc) makes me sad in hindsight bc they never did get fleshed out.

Meanwhile the nostalgia bait sections (andre, siegbro, darkwraiths) just dont click with me. Theres continuity with the demons dying out and legend fading into myth but some of it just feels baity, now that im experiencing it first hand

I really did find the Angels fascinating

[crystal meteor]

the angel stuff is sick

[tulip cove]

Very sick

[crystal meteor]

the sort of church/beliefs of the hollows fascinates me a lot as a reaction to a truly dying world

[noble goblet]

named 'the deep'
is shallow
miyazaki why

I actually liked the demons bit just because the last demon & location is so sombre

on my first playthrough, it was the moment that really drove home how everything was running out of steam

even the Chaos Flame is just ruins

agreed on like 90% of the other fanservice though

[ashen pumice]

I did find a lot of the fanservice just falling kinda flat for me

doing Anor Londo just wholesale again was a bit much

[noble goblet]

I rolled my eyes at the blacksmith being Andre

[ashen pumice]

yeah it being literally just Andre was also kinda ehh

it's a big part of why I also generally find DS2 handled it a lot better in that regard at least

you still had some clear parallels between things, but it was much less 1:1

[noble goblet]

mhm

like the Giants also being stone, like the dragons

but its not just a copy paste

[tulip cove]

And the bearded king guy failing to conquer them

[ashen pumice]

the queens being shards of Manus was I think also a cool plot thread
still tying into something older, but also taking a new direction with it

[tulip cove]

The ds2 references too (outside of items) seem haphazard

Why is creighton still alive
Why is alva here, where's zullie
Why was gilligan a corpse cameo

[ashen pumice]

Ds3 to me seemed a little too preoccupied with going "hey remember this thing?"
and it kinda made the actually original parts of it, which i actually found very interesting, suffer a bit

[tulip cove]

I really do like the angels

The mini civil war going on in the high wall between the loyal knights and the upstart winged knights was neat

[final smelt]

im still disppoainted with ityhyll being a street

[tulip cove]

Then suddenly anor londo

[ashen pumice]

also Aldritch eating Gwyndolyn makes no sense and also just feels thrown in

[long flicker]

IIRC Karla is implied to be a shard of Manus so that’s one of the more subtle references

[tulip cove]

Thats fun, zullie/that one demons souls witch reference too
But also, its weird that yuria and her death cult would have no interest in her for that reason, or at least dont acknowledge her

[tulip cove]

its a good enough gut punch

Also iirc in the japanese text they said gwyndolin was granted the all-father moniker after lloyd was (rightfully) exposed as a fraud, and aldritch likes eating the best things to eat soo

[ashen pumice]

I just find it comes out of nowhere, and feels like just another bit of nostalgia bait

[tulip cove]

I wonder of the trajectory of the plot of the hypothetical ds3 where papal sully ended up being the final boss

[ashen pumice]

Pontiff deserved to be final boss tbh

[tulip cove]

Soul of Cinder couldve been a Moon Presence or an Elden Beast equivalent

Shows up after you fight the guy causing the most grief in the world

[bitter ridge]

Ds2 did a lot of neat stuff but also took a bat to a lot of like gamefeel, idk

[ashen pumice]

I like 2 a lot mechanically

[bitter ridge]

I don't want Adaptability

And the like.. the weight. Was off.

[ashen pumice]

Adaptability I'm kinda whatever on
I don't think it's great, but I don't mind it too much either

it's just a tax you pay early, and then you don't have to bother with it

[bitter ridge]

I don't want my leveling experience to have taxes in it

But that's just a portion anyhow

[noble goblet]

Soul of Curse-Rotted Greatwood clears im afraid

[noble plover]

T minus 40 minutes until i take another go at DS1

i haven't tried it since before i played and beat Elden Ring, so this will be an interesting experience

[crystal meteor]

good luck!! have any plans on what you wanna do in it?

[noble plover]

yeah, i decided to start as warrior and grab the zweihander from the firelink graveyard as my main weapon

everything feels so hefty and heavy compared to Elden Ring! it's an adjustment, but i'm enjoying myself

[final smelt]

i never liked the zwei

i liked the claymore a lot though

[noble plover]

heavy attack from the zweihander eats my entire stamina bar, but pancaking enemies into the ground is satisfying 😌

...i am keeping a short sword on hand for tight quarters, though.

[final smelt]

whats why the claymore is so good it has a stab as a heavy

while one handed

and its onehanded attacks is only a bit slower than a longsword

[noble plover]

i think the biggest thing i'm having to get used to is how high-commitment the animation for medium rolling is in DS1

i'm so used to ER's zoop-zoop-zoop iframe through everthing approach; now i'm finding myself using the roll to reposition and preemptively dodge as much as i am using it to iframe through stuff

[bitter ridge]

strangely this is the second zwei run on pilotnet recently

[crystal meteor]

Yeah def a game of much more deliberate pacing, where armor, shields and roll timing matters a lot. Enjoy!!

[noble plover]

big sword fun

[tulip cove]

And unlike the next two souls games, in ds1 you can actually have poise to swing and not be stunlocked

[noble goblet]

instead you get to bounce off every hallways walls 😌

[tulip cove]

And lost izalith aka the burning plane of endless dragon asses

[final smelt]

you can still poise swing in ds2 its just not as easy as 1

[tulip cove]

Is it better or worse than how poise works in 3?

[ashen pumice]

2 still has pretty good poise, though not quite as ridiculous as 1

[tulip cove]

I gotta go look for more lloyd items

The two ones i got in ds3 so far just ooze his slimy character

A ring that boosts defense and a ring that boosts attack, but only if youre at full health

Mr self proclaimed allfather who leads undead hunts for sport has items that benefit a comfortable user who hasnt felt any pain

[final smelt]

theres not much lloyd stuff i don't think

[noble plover]

gaping dragon sure does love to bait me in by plopping down its very vulnerable head and then run me over like a freight train

i figured out the pattern in the end, though

[tulip cove]

i slice its sides usually, but first its tail

the item you get is nice
and is also worth a lot if you feed it to a certain fellow who shows up when the bell rings

[noble plover]

yeah, i got that one

chopping the tail was a bit of a Monster Hunter moment, i enjoyed it 😁

[noble plover]

today's dark souls adventure: aggroing the undead drake in Valley of the Drakes and making it out alive with all of 3 HP to spare

[tulip cove]

Woo

[sour grail]

[tulip cove]

Dark souls 3, grand archives

Love the Melee, Ranged and Spellcasting trio of npcs you fight on the way to lothric

DnD ass party

[crystal meteor]

they'll get your ass if youre not ready for them, too

[sour grail]

yeah they're pretty fun

i like the dual katanas a lot

[tulip cove]

I just separated em and picked em off in the roof accessed via broken window area

First drangleic man, then spell gal, then katana guy

Also King of the Storm is kicking my ass right now
So this is what they mean when they say the boss fight here is the camera

[untold tendon]

https://youtu.be/IbYyc1YsJcw

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2259260/Tyrants_Realm/ tyrant's realm available! also demo

Steam

Tyrant's Realm

Welcome, Brave Hero, to a World Lost in Time.Embark on a roguelite adventure that pays tribute to the golden era of gaming—specifically, the nostalgic visuals and gameplay reminiscent of the PS1.For generations, your family has fought relentlessly to end the reign of the Tyrant, an ancient being who seeks absolute power and knowledge. The journe...

Price

$8.49

▶ Play video

[sour grail]

demo downloaded

[pastel vine]

AAAAH i keep falling through the floor

[noble plover]

tfw you open an illusionary wall and there's just. a naked guy standing there

[velvet gorge]

he was having a shower

[noble plover]

"d'you mind?!"

[noble goblet]

he's wearing illusionary clothes

[tulip cove]

so fellas im at nameless king

any tips

[potent pewter]

uhhh

several of his swordstaff hitboxes are like 2x the size of the actual model

also, one attack is just utterly broken and will swing on both sides of him

so just roll everything, even if it doesn't look like it'll be even close to hitting you

[tulip cove]

keep rolling
challenge after i got used to shielding everything
also uh, does endurance cap at 160

i wanted to endurancemaxx for dodging/shielding but i didnt see it go up beyond that

[tulip cove]

but i shall roll regardles thankyou

[final smelt]

make a lighting dagger to oblerirate the dragon when you poise brake it

[tulip cove]

oh pois break?
heavy weapon spam its face?

[noble plover]

Sen's Fortress was Suffering but i have perservered

[spare summit]

okay I'll explain

how to beat Nameless King

phase 1: dragons only take damage on their heads and the Storm King is no different, whack its face with lightning
phase 2: okay welcome to the hard part this is gonna take some explaining

Nameless King is a humanoid boss in a Souls game so your main concerns here are positioning to lure out attacks you can handle and taking smaller hits more frequently to whittle the enemy down instead of fishing for big cash-out hits. Nameless King uses lightning attacks and is weak to fire/resists Lightning contrary to his first phase, making him an asshole, but those are your element priorities. I carried a lightning weapon into phase one and then hardswapped to a Chaos Dark Sword for phase 2, YMMV depending on build and priorities and planning.

To actually beat the fucker, your first priority is staying close enough to prevent him from going for his charging attacks and his ranged lightning bolts; these attacks do NOT leave the Nameless King open for hits and will routinely punish your attempts to back off and heal after engaging with the Nameless King in an extended melee confrontation. Instead, your gameplan here is to stay close and watch for his AoE lightning stake, and bait out slower, more easily punished strikes that force him to reach for you, without straying so far that he starts charging at you, using quicksteps to get behind/around you, or resorting to ranged attacks like his lightning spears or calling lightning from the sky.

You cannot heal freely while engaging the Nameless King. Not ever. He's coded to blow you up if you try to drink from your flask and he's not doing something! In this regard, you need to either sip from your sippy cup during a punish window, bait him into missing with a charging attack and then sip while he's charging into nowhere, or posture break him and sip before the riposte.

Hope this helps

[crystal meteor]

thats better than my nameless king advice, which was "summon some sunbros"

[noble goblet]

He's pretty relentless

if you usually play passive, easy to fall into the trap of just dodging and getting one hit in - you really gotta know when to press aggro and get the hits you can

[tulip cove]

Hooo boy

Im still at the point where im 2/3rds empty of sunny D by the time i fight him

Ill have to time this well

[noble goblet]

luckily all of his moves look sick as hell

so be sure to take solace in that as he beats your ass

😌

[sour grail]

i always forget to double roll the one that sets the lightning field

[tulip cove]

I might get back to him after finishing both DLCs

God i hate hate hate hate hate the Ariendel chapel basement

Speaking of iceland

Any tips on doing Elfriede

[sour grail]

reallll

[tulip cove]

Three stages

I dread

[sour grail]

i screamed the first time i went in there and pulled out my torch

[tulip cove]

"leave this peaceful place alone Ashen lord :>" Girl you LIVE like this??

im setting this joint on fire sorry

[sour grail]

go nuts on her in p1, she has low poise so you can interrupt pretty easily without getting hit much >:3

circle around and hit the big man in p2 while keeping an eye on friede coming for your ass or healing

and for p3 i don't remember much, i think there is a scythe pull combo that isn't true but I'm not sure, it's been a while

[tulip cove]

Oh nice i can longsword combo her at least

[noble goblet]

shes just having a

you know what I mean?

eugh, I just looked at the painted world rot textures again

its so gross

[crystal meteor]

i wish i could become elfriedes knight

[tulip cove]

Sir vilheim(?) is pretty hot ngl i get it

That smooth voice telling me off for being too curious for my own good

[sour grail]

i never walked over to the chapel

cuz i did that thing where i went "hey that looks like the right way, I'll go explore the other way first"

then explored the whole village, got invaded by vilhelm, and went through the basement

fun fact, you cannot open that chapel door to the bridge from the inside

so when i was trying to go to gravetender, i was losing it because the video guides had that door open and i had no idea where it was connected to

[tulip cove]

soulsborne moment

[crystal meteor]

and hes got DRIP

[noble goblet]

I just like burning shit tbh

[tulip cove]

Half capes

I love knight capes

[tulip cove]

Also
I dunno whats up with anri's questline

I met her at the catacombs before reaching horace, killed the latter at the lake, then tried going back to where she was after besting wolnir

Only saw a glowstone, didnt see her in the boreal valley church unless shes in a dark corner somewhwre?

[sour grail]

i think she's to the right of the bonfire from the door where you come in from

[tulip cove]

Ill see if i can find her

[untold tendon]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2825880/Death_Howl/ demo!

Steam

Death Howl

In forgotten lands shrouded by myth, Ro—a hunter from a small tribe—is overcome by grief following the death of her beloved son. Guided by voices from another world, she transcends into the realm of spirits, in hopes of bringing him back. Death Howl weaves an atmospheric tale of grief, healing, and resilience. As Ro, you’ll face relentless spiri...

Release Date

Coming soon

▶ Play video

[crystal meteor]

finished the demo; seems like the game will have some neat stuff to say about grief/letting go, you can knockback enemies into each other for damage, a core part of the game is trying to get through encounters taking minimal damage and the bonfire mechanic lets you keep trying that over and over which is neat, deck crafting / unlocking new cards feels good so far

[untold tendon]

That's super cool

Thanks murdoc

[crystal meteor]

thanks for sharing it! its a combination of two of my fave genres and i think they're doing it justice

[sour grail]

👀

[still garnet]

I have a DS3 thought

Well I guess a dark souls in general thought

So ornsteins armor shows up a whole bunch in the souls series

Specifically in the case of DS2 and the dragon slayer armor in DS3, it’s NOT his actual armor

Which I kinda love? The idea that ornstein was so badass that he basically inspired an entire type of armor

I’m really having a lot of thoughts about DS3 because of this randomizer run I’m watching lol

like i love how ds3 handles demons

as like this completely dying race

[potent pewter]

demons are probably my favorite thing in ds3

fire turned to stone

[still garnet]

they remind me of like

the varl from banner saga

in the way that theyre both races whose means of reproduction have been destroyed

so theyre kinda just living to die now

[noble goblet]

I always liked how they were overtly demonic,

but the underlying theme of all the chaos stuff is Life

too much life

Animal parts bursting forward on the Witches daughters, the mixture of lava and tree-bits that makes up the bed of chaos

[still garnet]

[noble goblet]

they've got a lot of pathos in 3

[still garnet]

although in hindsight

i really don't get the demon princes

in how they fit into demon stuff

[noble goblet]

I just see it as like

[crystal meteor]

Lorian beat up the "demon prince" who had a power of the Flame of Chaos; however while the body was defeated the memory/soul of the Demon Prince lived on, and by the time of the Ringed City enough of the world had collapsed in on itself that the last two demons were able to become him

[noble goblet]

demons aren't different from man in the end

they've also got princes and kings and priests and cities

[crystal meteor]

Soul of the Demon Prince.
One of the twisted souls, steeped in strength.

Use to acquire many souls, or transpose to extract its true strength.

The demons, birthed from a common Chaos, share almost everything between them, even the pride of their prince, and his near-faded flame.

So that the last demon standing may rekindle it.

[noble goblet]

the demon prince was just a very powerful demon born generations after the birth of the chaos flame

Lorian and Lothric are very powerful humans born generations after the first age

🤷

[crystal meteor]

part of the implications i like is that the Chaos Flame is to demons like the First Flame is to humans

so the demons can have their "ashened ones"

[noble goblet]

I do wonder what the difference is between Pyromancy and Fire Sorcery

[crystal meteor]

flame sorcery is from pre-Izalith

[noble goblet]

but like, is it any different in outcome or way it works?

what makes pyromancy distinct from it

esp by 3, when pyromancy seems much more fundamental to the setting and how it works

[crystal meteor]

Unlike sorcery, which is a sort of study and intelligence art, pyromancies come from within, from (your) life

at the very least fire sorcery were lost to time due to the people who used it being turned into demons or similar due to the chaos flame debacle

[tulip cove]

trying to find that one miyazaki interview tidbit i read

where he said that he wanted the enemies to have some kind of dignity to them even as youre basically fighting their shambling husks
citing how the initial fight against the zombie dragon in the Valley of the Drakes had the thing be a squalid gross thing with maggots on it, and he asked the designer to tone it down

the reason why i wanna look for that tidbit from an interview is because im at getting puked at in the Corvian Settlement and these poor birds are not shown with any dignity at all

[crystal meteor]

"Hidetaka Miyazaki: Most people don't believe me when I say this, but a certain kind of refinement, elegance, and dignity are very important to me. I'll usually tell the designers that flat-out grotesque or splatter type designs will not get past me. This has everything to do with my own personal sensibilities, and it is something that I apply to every design that I approve. It's a little hard to describe if you were to ask me, 'Well, what do you mean by dignity?' I guess the best answer I can provide is right here in this book, in every design you see within these pages. My idea of dignity is something that I pursue with every project I work on and not just Dark Souls.

"Masanori Waragai: I remember when I was drawing the Undead Dragon, I submitted a design draft that depicted a dragon swarming with maggots and other gross things. Miyazaki handed it back to me saying, 'This isn't dignified. Don't rely on the gross factor to portray an undead dragon. Can't you instead try to convey the deep sorrow of a magnificent beast doomed to a slow and possibly endless descent into ruin?'"

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/asked-dark-souls-director-miyazaki-201545524.html sauce

[tulip cove]

oh thankyouu

[crystal meteor]

anytime!

yeah i think the painted world of ariandel is meant to be... not as dignified, its being robbed of its dignified death by an outsider

[tulip cove]

the thing the corvians in the settlement are conveying me is that Friede needs to die

Friede? Elfriede? forgot what her boss title was when she usurped Ariendel

also either my ears have gotten more sensitive these days or does Dark Souls 3 have more piercing monster noises than is bearable compared to the first two

[crystal meteor]

Elfriede is her Sable Church name, Friede is what she currently goes by

[tulip cove]

isee isee

[crystal meteor]

i may know too much about her i was obsessed with her for a while LOL

[tulip cove]

ahaha

[crystal meteor]

i think shes one of the really fascinating characters in the series

[tulip cove]

she's terrible but also not malicious terrible

doing what she think is best for those poor poor souls in Ariendel
like, the worst kind of villainy

could be emblematic of how Londor views Hollows? Misguided sheep that need their firm guidance

whether they like it or not

[crystal meteor]

its also like, shes also Ashened, so she was dead and brought back

[tulip cove]

oh yea forgot about that

so not wanting to burn as another motivator?

[noble goblet]

SotE really made me understand what he meant by this

[crystal meteor]

hard to say! Being unkindled/ashened means they tried/failed to link the fire, which is ultimately what the Sable Church and Yuria try to get you to do in ds3

[noble goblet]

walking in on something ancient and once grand

[crystal meteor]

so it means she failed, died, and now got brought back

[noble goblet]

it used to be more

[crystal meteor]

and then according to Yuria, "abandoned Londor"

[tulip cove]

so she was ash, then abandoned londor after?

[crystal meteor]

and found the painted world

its very neat to see her want to die slowly via rot over the purifying fire

[noble goblet]

she's clinging to- yeah

[crystal meteor]

since SO MUCH of dark souls is "die by fire / revive by fire"

[tulip cove]

hmm
painted world
the corvian behind you in the entrance to ariendel does tell you to find your own bed of sweet rot to lie on...

[noble goblet]

despite how clearly the painted world suffers for it

(with Father Ariendel as the big, in your face example)

[tulip cove]

painted world

what we know of them is that theyre related to corvians

[noble goblet]

can that sort of existence still be called life?

[tulip cove]

theyre artificial and need a painter

is velka associated with em?

[noble goblet]

uhhh

in ds1 a lot of velka stuff was in the painted world

[tulip cove]

gael prays to what might be velka's statue when you meet em

[noble goblet]

because it was where the gods shoved things they didn't want

[crystal meteor]

something hard to see with her model that i like as a small touch

her face is burned to hell

[tulip cove]

ahh

[crystal meteor]

you can see the scaring under her coverings

[noble goblet]

is there anything on the third sister?

[tulip cove]

nada

[noble goblet]

Its her, Yuria, and ???

kk

[tulip cove]

she just shows up in the hollow lord ending iirc

which is a shame

[noble goblet]

oh damn, really?

[tulip cove]

like, one of the fellows who bows to you

i thiiiink she just has yuria's model?

[crystal meteor]

Liliane is the 3rd

The third daughter Liliane, one of the founders of the Sable Church, is said to recount tales that portray the suffering and conflict of Hollows.

from the Dark Blade spell

[tulip cove]

the propagandist

heh

[crystal meteor]

the sable church is just so neat

[tulip cove]

they got spires

from the Morion Blade

desc

vivid portrait of a land

i like how distant places are given a lot of texture in the item descriptions

[crystal meteor]

definately a strength of the fromsoft games

[tulip cove]

like how Vinheim is a sorcerous land where black ops intrigue between scholars is common, Lindelt is a "holy" land founded on the cowardice and sin of its dragon-hunting forebearers, Carim is

uh

shit i forgot

[long flicker]

I now have this mental image of Gwyn seeing the first few demons and going “ugh, they just so ugly. I’n gonna grab my silver knights and put those things out of my misery”

[tulip cove]

in character for Plin Plin Plongerhead man

[crystal meteor]

Carim had the cursebite rings, which are like fullmetal alchemist experiments

[tulip cove]

i thiiink Carim was a land that knew Allfather Lloyd was full of shit from the start?

[crystal meteor]

and has a paladin/cleric system

good ole Eygon

[noble goblet]

Lloyd wasn't entirely full of shit, he was still related to gwyn afaik

kind of an asshole though, with those charms or whatever

why did Gywndolin have snakes for legs

its such a specific thing to be born with

[crystal meteor]

Gwyndolin is an odd duck, and its hard to pinpoint how much of that is Gwyn's fault

Gwyn was pretty harsh

[tulip cove]

oh Carim worships Caitha

[noble goblet]

I think in terms of minor soulslike kingdoms...

its not quite the same because you do see it in game

but I gotta hand it to him,

the Iron King knew how to decorate

"Yeah make the elevator look like the bowed and defeated body of those I crush beneath my empire"

ok kind of cooking. At least on the evil king department

[tulip cove]

such a comically evil bastard

[crystal meteor]

its funny that canonically he went TOO hard on his vision and made a castle so heavy it sank

[velvet gorge]

thats how you know that you've maxed out the style points

[crystal meteor]

kind of want to do another ds1 or 3 run but no idea what to do. ds1 pyromancy with ??? weapon sounds silly, and ds3 ive never really done sorceries