In my opinion, cutscenes, a shitton of NPC dialog, and visual design are more than enough to establish a theme. The main theme for DS2 is about the curse and the destruction of self that it brings. And the curse is very, very central to DS2. Since, as a gameplay example, when you die, you permanently lose a chunk of HP until you use a human effigy, which helps you remember yourself.
The central theme of DS2 is that you're the Cursed One and that the Curse is slowly eating away at you so that you don't know who you are anymore, where you are, or why you are there.
Gascoigne and his whole family form such a tragic story. It still hits me in my heart every time…
Also, wtf, how could I forget Father G. when I wrote my comment, and how has no one before you mentioned him? He is such an obvious answer to the question, and many of the commenters, myself included, are massive Bloodborne fans.
Celebrating after a Level 1 run with a high damage run is always fun :)
After I did my SL1 run in Elden Ring, I did an Int/Faith run with the OP ^Sword^ ^of^ ^Night^ ^and^ ^Flame^ and so many busted spells, and I had a blast.
Congrats on beating your SL1 run, and have fun with your Meat Cleaver run.
Solaire was so gut-wrenching the first time… This fall into despair.
You can, of course, save him from it if you know how to, which, of course, no one knows the first time.
[You either pay 30 humanity to the Daughter of Chaos, and she opens the shortcut and you kill the bug, or you can kill the bug through the door with something like the Dragon Greatsword heavy attack.]
But did you know that, if you save Solaire and summon him to the fight with Gwyn, he can actually kill him alone without your assistance? It’s heavily, heavily RNG-dependent, but it’s possible.
You aren't fighting that many sad Bosses… A number of sad things happen to characters, especially to the Onion boys and Alex, and a lot of sad things happen before the start of the game…
I must admit I didn't find the Sif fight sad in my first DS1 playthrough. Oh, a dog [swings Zweihander a couple of times] Oh, a dead dog and a ring. I didn't see the limping or the know the related lore. In retrospect, if you know the Artorius lore, have played the DLC, and maybe even seen the special cutscene where Sif recognizes you from the Abyss in the DLC; yes, it's really sad.
Romeo is also very sad in retrospect and makes me realize that I definitely need to replay Lies of P at some point. In NG+, I could hear the messages from the puppets, but I really want to start from a fresh save file with the promo weapon. Well, the solution is to play it twice more ;)
A third one that comes to mind is Orphan of Kos. Sure, on your first playthrough, you were more focused on the placenta that crushes your skull to paste and maybe the YYYAAOOOOWGGHH. In retrospect, you are fighting the ghost/manifestation/dream(?) of an unborn child, which is pretty damn sad.
(Also, as an aside, I just realize that the game never actually genders the Orphan. Wikis, books, etc., always assume that Orphan is male, but it's never stated in the game.)
On the whole, sad Bosses in Souls games are mostly sad in retrospect/on repeat playthroughs. Also, I feel like I missed some really obvious Bosses.
I'm going to start a new playthrough tomorrow. Probably of DS3. The SL1 routes for DS2 and DS3 sound really interesting. The problem is just that I suck at DS2 and DS3 that I just don't know DS2 and DS3 nearly as well as Elden Ring, and I'm going to replay DS3 with a high Vigor and refamiliarize myself, and I'm probably going to press ╳ a bunch expecting to jump.
Das Inhaltslieferungsnetzwerk, wo ich es heruntergeladen habe, hat Schwachsinn gebaut und mir ein AVIF Bild mit .jpg Endung gegeben.
Es wundert mich eher, dass nicht früher einer ein Probleme hatte.
Ich habe jetzt das Bild durch ein tatsächliches JPEG ersetzt.
Es ist ein ganz normales JPEG. Ich hab es extra nicht bei meiner Instanz hochgeladen, damit es nicht zu AVIF konvertiert wird, für maximale Kompatibilität.
Es könnte an meinem Bilder-Gastgeber liegen: imageupload.app
Ich hatte damit bis jetzt immer gute Erfahrungen gemacht, da er direktes Einfügen erlaubt und nicht geblockt wird wie catbox.
Elden Ring is a fantastic game and by far my favorite in the Soulsborne series. It’s also at the same time both the hardest and the easiest in the series. If you explore and make use of the tools at your disposal, it can be the easiest. But you can also simply bang your head against every challenge, and then it can be the hardest. Don’t get me wrong; that can also be very fun.
Also, Elden Ring is just incredibly beautiful. Every frame looks like it is straight out of a fantasy novel. The music is fantastic. The story is a bit cryptic, but I personally enjoy that kind of storytelling, and the world-building in Elden Ring is my second favorite in the Soulsborne series - barely behind Bloodborne.
Should you start with Elden Ring? I’m not sure. It's pretty long and complex. If you just want to play one, I would say play this one. If you simply want to play one of them to see if you like the series, I would say play Bloodborne, which is an excellent teacher. But you said you only have a PS3 and Steam Deck, and Bloodborne is a PS4 exclusive. It can be run with an emulator, but that’s pretty resource intensive.
I would argue against starting with Dark Souls 1 unless you plan to tackle the whole series from the get-go. The combat is pretty clunky when compared to the other titles, and the second half is notoriously rushed.
Dark Souls 2 has a special place in my heart, but the RPG mechanics are the most obtuse in the series. Not beginner-friendly.
Dark Souls 3 would be my recommendation to start if you can’t play Bloodborne. The combat mechanics are mature, and the RPG mechanics are relatively understandable. DS3 is also pretty linear, which I personally view more as a negative, but as a newcomer, you are never confused about where to go. Also, Dark Souls 3 is just a pretty fun game.
And yes, you can definitely story-wise play the Dark Souls games out of order. Dark Souls is more about lore and worldbuilding than a story in the strictest sense.
I also want to give a shout-out to the c/Soulslike community here on Lemmy. If you have a question regarding Souls games, you can always ask there.
Did you end up enjoying Elden Ring later in the playthrough?
I love hearing so many people voice their opinions on Elden Ring's difficulty. It's way too hard! Artificial difficulty! Delayed attacks are too hard to dodge! It's way too easy!
And I agree Elden Ring is both the hardest Fromsoft game and the easiest: the bosses have intricate, difficult movesets with great variety and get even more complex later in the game; on the other hand, you have so many different tools to deal with the challenges of the game; if you explore a little and try out some of the many options the game gives, you can make the game incredibly easy for you.
Did you know that there are two Ancestor Spirit (stag bosses)? The fight can be quite interesting, but they just have too little health. The second one with a more complex moveset should especially have more health since you have to beat Radahn to access it.
I actually enjoyed Elden Ring even more with subsequent playthroughs and I'm looking forward to playing through it quite a few more times. Different people different tastes…
Also as an aside: I've never heard the idiom 'hot buttcheeks' in my life.
Okay, this is splitting hairs: the tutorial pop-up is talking about the golden symbol in the bottom left. But it calls the symbol “Roundtable icon,” which doesn’t help. This symbol pops up at quite a number of places and prevents you from killing NPCs in those areas. Still, not FromSoft’s best communication with the player.
You can actually fight in the Roundtable Hold before Ensha (the guy in the skeleton armor) invades: When you jump down from the balcony to the lower floor, you get invaded by Mad Tongue Alberich. (He is relatively easy). This area is useful after defeating him, when you want to try out weapon move sets.
Ensha is not guaranteed to invade you. He only invades if you pick up either of the Haligtree Medallion halves and only if you do it before defeating Fire Giant.
Another character that can also violate the supposed safety of the Roundtable Hold is Fia. In one version of her side quest, she kills D in the Roundtable Hold.
For people who are further interested in video games that violate safe rooms: here is a video essay by Daryl Talks Games about the topic.
Elden Ring has some fantastic skyboxes. It really makes every frame look straight from an epic fantasy novel. The stormy Stormveil, the blue magical Lucaria, and the Erdtree always looming over everything.
The DLC takes it to the next level. You are always reminded that you are in the Shadow of the Erdtree. There are so many beautiful places where you can just stand in awe: the initial look over the plains, the view back from Enir-Ilim, and the view when the weather clears when you go to the dragon-painting. The Scadutree is always the star; combined with the grave shroud, it gives it such an amazing fantasy look, and the entire DLC looks so different at each time of day. Changing the time of day at Gravesite Plain is really worth it.
Another skybox that comes to mind is Shrine of Amana. I know not everyone likes to play bullet hell there, but have you ever looked up? The Cursed goes to some cool places. The roots that hold up the 'sky' and the light that shines through… Shrine of Amana really looks cool.
And of course Bloodborne: the longer the hunt goes, the more the world changes. First "Day" and then Evening, and then Night (You thought it was dark before???) and finally Blood Moon, where shit gets (even more) crazy. The changing skybox really enhances the immersion in Bloodborne. My favorite is when, at the very, very end, the Blood Moon finally arrives in the Hunter's Dream; the Dream looks so awesome then.
(I do have a small gripe with the skyboxes in Bloodborne, or really only one: Why does Cainhurst not have a Blood Moon skybox? That would have looked fantastic! And not having that also breaks the immersion a tiny bit.)
I definitely need to play more Nightreign. Limveld's skybox is kinda bland, but the skyboxes in Nightlord fights really do look phenomenal.
It's been quite a while since I played a Point-and-Click games. But the next time I feel the itch, I will definitely look at The Drifter. The artwork really is incredible; I just looked through the steam page gain and this looks fantastic.
Withering Rooms is a solo dev game!?! That doesn't look a solo dev game… That looks like a small team Unity game. But yeah, it's a solo dev and they seem to be developing a spiritual successor/sequel to Withering Rooms.
I think I saw this speedrun years ago.
The Merger of action gameplay and eldritch vibes is something I really enjoy. I wouldn’t for example be as interested in a Point-and-Click game with lovecraftian aspects or not really more interested than in any other types of Point-and-Click games.
For me, Bloodborne is not about story or setting. For me, it’s about gameplay and vibe. In a sequel, Yharnam doesn't even need to be mentioned. I just need this eldritch nightmare vibe, this wrongness; the feeling you get when Amygdala looms over the chapel. Oh, and also gameplay: fast gameplay with unique weapons and gun parry? I want more of that.
Many people connect Bloodborne with a pseudo-Victorian setting, but for me that’s not essential. A sequel could be in an epic fantasy setting or a steampunk setting or, and this would be my favorite, a sci-fi setting. I love Lovecraftian stuff in a sci-fi setting. Imagine an Amygdala hanging on the side of a spaceship! Or an energy blaster in place of a flintlock pistol.
For me, the more difficult question would be which unlikely sequel would I want more: Bloodborne 2 or Elden Ring 2?
No Soulslike, no video games for me this weekend. I’m traveling and visiting family.
I’m also not sure what I’m gonna play next weekend. I just completed two RL1 playthroughs in Elden Ring back to back and I’m think I should play something different then Elden Ring next. Maybe a playthrough of DS2 or DS3? Or I’m leaving the 3rd dimension behind and finally play a 2d Soulslike?
In my opinion, cutscenes, a shitton of NPC dialog, and visual design are more than enough to establish a theme. The main theme for DS2 is about the curse and the destruction of self that it brings. And the curse is very, very central to DS2. Since, as a gameplay example, when you die, you permanently lose a chunk of HP until you use a human effigy, which helps you remember yourself.
The central theme of DS2 is that you're the Cursed One and that the Curse is slowly eating away at you so that you don't know who you are anymore, where you are, or why you are there.
For me, that is a pretty surreal setting.
Gascoigne and his whole family form such a tragic story. It still hits me in my heart every time…
Also, wtf, how could I forget Father G. when I wrote my comment, and how has no one before you mentioned him? He is such an obvious answer to the question, and many of the commenters, myself included, are massive Bloodborne fans.
Celebrating after a Level 1 run with a high damage run is always fun :)
After I did my SL1 run in Elden Ring, I did an Int/Faith run with the OP ^Sword^ ^of^ ^Night^ ^and^ ^Flame^ and so many busted spells, and I had a blast.
Congrats on beating your SL1 run, and have fun with your Meat Cleaver run.
Solaire was so gut-wrenching the first time… This fall into despair.
You can, of course, save him from it if you know how to, which, of course, no one knows the first time. [You either pay 30 humanity to the Daughter of Chaos, and she opens the shortcut and you kill the bug, or you can kill the bug through the door with something like the Dragon Greatsword heavy attack.]
But did you know that, if you save Solaire and summon him to the fight with Gwyn, he can actually kill him alone without your assistance? It’s heavily, heavily RNG-dependent, but it’s possible.
Cursed knowledge: The Four kings have feet.
No. I’m part of her very being! I could never betray her!
The final fight with Blaidd really is super sad. Then the one-two punch of telling Iji about it and him dying in covered in Black Flame.
You aren't fighting that many sad Bosses… A number of sad things happen to characters, especially to the Onion boys and Alex, and a lot of sad things happen before the start of the game…
I must admit I didn't find the Sif fight sad in my first DS1 playthrough. Oh, a dog [swings Zweihander a couple of times] Oh, a dead dog and a ring. I didn't see the limping or the know the related lore. In retrospect, if you know the Artorius lore, have played the DLC, and maybe even seen the special cutscene where Sif recognizes you from the Abyss in the DLC; yes, it's really sad.
Romeo is also very sad in retrospect and makes me realize that I definitely need to replay Lies of P at some point. In NG+, I could hear the messages from the puppets, but I really want to start from a fresh save file with the promo weapon. Well, the solution is to play it twice more ;)
A third one that comes to mind is Orphan of Kos. Sure, on your first playthrough, you were more focused on the placenta that crushes your skull to paste and maybe the YYYAAOOOOWGGHH. In retrospect, you are fighting the ghost/manifestation/dream(?) of an unborn child, which is pretty damn sad.
(Also, as an aside, I just realize that the game never actually genders the Orphan. Wikis, books, etc., always assume that Orphan is male, but it's never stated in the game.)
On the whole, sad Bosses in Souls games are mostly sad in retrospect/on repeat playthroughs. Also, I feel like I missed some really obvious Bosses.
I'm going to start a new playthrough tomorrow. Probably of DS3. The SL1 routes for DS2 and DS3 sound really interesting. The problem is just
that I suck at DS2 and DS3that I just don't know DS2 and DS3 nearly as well as Elden Ring, and I'm going to replay DS3 with a high Vigor and refamiliarize myself, and I'm probably going to press ╳ a bunch expecting to jump.Das Inhaltslieferungsnetzwerk, wo ich es heruntergeladen habe, hat Schwachsinn gebaut und mir ein AVIF Bild mit .jpg Endung gegeben.
Es wundert mich eher, dass nicht früher einer ein Probleme hatte.
Ich habe jetzt das Bild durch ein tatsächliches JPEG ersetzt.
Es ist ein ganz normales JPEG. Ich hab es extra nicht bei meiner Instanz hochgeladen, damit es nicht zu AVIF konvertiert wird, für maximale Kompatibilität.Es könnte an meinem Bilder-Gastgeber liegen: imageupload.appIch hatte damit bis jetzt immer gute Erfahrungen gemacht, da er direktes Einfügen erlaubt und nicht geblockt wird wie catbox.A feature I like about Lemmy is that the mod-log is public and that you can go from comments in the mod-log directly to the related discussions.
People should really check out OP's mod-log and make up their own minds.
Especially about the things he wrote about in his "Lowlights" section.
Elden Ring is a fantastic game and by far my favorite in the Soulsborne series. It’s also at the same time both the hardest and the easiest in the series. If you explore and make use of the tools at your disposal, it can be the easiest. But you can also simply bang your head against every challenge, and then it can be the hardest. Don’t get me wrong; that can also be very fun.
Also, Elden Ring is just incredibly beautiful. Every frame looks like it is straight out of a fantasy novel. The music is fantastic. The story is a bit cryptic, but I personally enjoy that kind of storytelling, and the world-building in Elden Ring is my second favorite in the Soulsborne series - barely behind Bloodborne.
Should you start with Elden Ring? I’m not sure. It's pretty long and complex. If you just want to play one, I would say play this one. If you simply want to play one of them to see if you like the series, I would say play Bloodborne, which is an excellent teacher. But you said you only have a PS3 and Steam Deck, and Bloodborne is a PS4 exclusive. It can be run with an emulator, but that’s pretty resource intensive.
I would argue against starting with Dark Souls 1 unless you plan to tackle the whole series from the get-go. The combat is pretty clunky when compared to the other titles, and the second half is notoriously rushed.
Dark Souls 2 has a special place in my heart, but the RPG mechanics are the most obtuse in the series. Not beginner-friendly.
Dark Souls 3 would be my recommendation to start if you can’t play Bloodborne. The combat mechanics are mature, and the RPG mechanics are relatively understandable. DS3 is also pretty linear, which I personally view more as a negative, but as a newcomer, you are never confused about where to go. Also, Dark Souls 3 is just a pretty fun game.
And yes, you can definitely story-wise play the Dark Souls games out of order. Dark Souls is more about lore and worldbuilding than a story in the strictest sense.
I also want to give a shout-out to the c/Soulslike community here on Lemmy. If you have a question regarding Souls games, you can always ask there.
I must admit I did not. I just google 'Elden Ring skybox' and found this. Here is the post I got it from.
I should make some Elden Ring collages myself at some point. I have quite a number of screenshots…
Did you end up enjoying Elden Ring later in the playthrough?
I love hearing so many people voice their opinions on Elden Ring's difficulty. It's way too hard! Artificial difficulty! Delayed attacks are too hard to dodge! It's way too easy!
And I agree Elden Ring is both the hardest Fromsoft game and the easiest: the bosses have intricate, difficult movesets with great variety and get even more complex later in the game; on the other hand, you have so many different tools to deal with the challenges of the game; if you explore a little and try out some of the many options the game gives, you can make the game incredibly easy for you.
Did you know that there are two Ancestor Spirit (stag bosses)? The fight can be quite interesting, but they just have too little health. The second one with a more complex moveset should especially have more health since you have to beat Radahn to access it.
I actually enjoyed Elden Ring even more with subsequent playthroughs and I'm looking forward to playing through it quite a few more times. Different people different tastes…
Also as an aside: I've never heard the idiom 'hot buttcheeks' in my life.
Okay, this is splitting hairs: the tutorial pop-up is talking about the golden symbol in the bottom left. But it calls the symbol “Roundtable icon,” which doesn’t help. This symbol pops up at quite a number of places and prevents you from killing NPCs in those areas. Still, not FromSoft’s best communication with the player.
You can actually fight in the Roundtable Hold before Ensha (the guy in the skeleton armor) invades: When you jump down from the balcony to the lower floor, you get invaded by Mad Tongue Alberich. (He is relatively easy). This area is useful after defeating him, when you want to try out weapon move sets.
Ensha is not guaranteed to invade you. He only invades if you pick up either of the Haligtree Medallion halves and only if you do it before defeating Fire Giant.
Another character that can also violate the supposed safety of the Roundtable Hold is Fia. In one version of her side quest, she kills D in the Roundtable Hold.
For people who are further interested in video games that violate safe rooms: here is a video essay by Daryl Talks Games about the topic.
Elden Ring has some fantastic skyboxes. It really makes every frame look straight from an epic fantasy novel. The stormy Stormveil, the blue magical Lucaria, and the Erdtree always looming over everything.
The DLC takes it to the next level. You are always reminded that you are in the Shadow of the Erdtree. There are so many beautiful places where you can just stand in awe: the initial look over the plains, the view back from Enir-Ilim, and the view when the weather clears when you go to the dragon-painting. The Scadutree is always the star; combined with the grave shroud, it gives it such an amazing fantasy look, and the entire DLC looks so different at each time of day. Changing the time of day at Gravesite Plain is really worth it.
Another skybox that comes to mind is Shrine of Amana. I know not everyone likes to play bullet hell there, but have you ever looked up? The Cursed goes to some cool places. The roots that hold up the 'sky' and the light that shines through… Shrine of Amana really looks cool.
And of course Bloodborne: the longer the hunt goes, the more the world changes. First "Day" and then Evening, and then Night (You thought it was dark before???) and finally Blood Moon, where shit gets (even more) crazy. The changing skybox really enhances the immersion in Bloodborne. My favorite is when, at the very, very end, the Blood Moon finally arrives in the Hunter's Dream; the Dream looks so awesome then.
(I do have a small gripe with the skyboxes in Bloodborne, or really only one: Why does Cainhurst not have a Blood Moon skybox? That would have looked fantastic! And not having that also breaks the immersion a tiny bit.)
I definitely need to play more Nightreign. Limveld's skybox is kinda bland, but the skyboxes in Nightlord fights really do look phenomenal.
Those are some interesting recommendations!
I don't think I've heard of any of them before (maybe some screenshots from Still Wakes the Deep?).
Is the fighting gameplay in the The Sinking City any good or is this more about the world?
When I finally want to play something other than Soulslikes again, I will definitely look at these games.
It's been quite a while since I played a Point-and-Click games. But the next time I feel the itch, I will definitely look at The Drifter. The artwork really is incredible; I just looked through the steam page gain and this looks fantastic.
Withering Rooms is a solo dev game!?! That doesn't look a solo dev game… That looks like a small team Unity game. But yeah, it's a solo dev and they seem to be developing a spiritual successor/sequel to Withering Rooms.
I think I saw this speedrun years ago.
More strictly in the Soulslike genre.
The Merger of action gameplay and eldritch vibes is something I really enjoy. I wouldn’t for example be as interested in a Point-and-Click game with lovecraftian aspects or not really more interested than in any other types of Point-and-Click games.
That artwork is beautiful!
I think I saw a speedrun of this game a while back? It didn’t look that interesting then. But maybe it’s worth another look. I’m bookmarking it.
Need? No…
Want? Heck yeah!
For me, Bloodborne is not about story or setting. For me, it’s about gameplay and vibe. In a sequel, Yharnam doesn't even need to be mentioned. I just need this eldritch nightmare vibe, this wrongness; the feeling you get when Amygdala looms over the chapel. Oh, and also gameplay: fast gameplay with unique weapons and gun parry? I want more of that. Many people connect Bloodborne with a pseudo-Victorian setting, but for me that’s not essential. A sequel could be in an epic fantasy setting or a steampunk setting or, and this would be my favorite, a sci-fi setting. I love Lovecraftian stuff in a sci-fi setting. Imagine an Amygdala hanging on the side of a spaceship! Or an energy blaster in place of a flintlock pistol.
For me, the more difficult question would be which unlikely sequel would I want more: Bloodborne 2 or Elden Ring 2?
No Soulslike, no video games for me this weekend. I’m traveling and visiting family.
I’m also not sure what I’m gonna play next weekend. I just completed two RL1 playthroughs in Elden Ring back to back and I’m think I should play something different then Elden Ring next. Maybe a playthrough of DS2 or DS3? Or I’m leaving the 3rd dimension behind and finally play a 2d Soulslike?