Real talk I've never liked anything soulslike specifically because of the kinds of difficulty-fetishists it attracts. After the first time it became clear the only thing soulsbros know how to say is "git gud", I wrote them off the same way I write off MOBA addicts and Riot fanboys. idk how y'all have the patience to have the same discussions that were being had during Dark Souls 1 like seven-to-twelve iterations deep into the format.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024
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Additionally, Dark Souls and Elden Ring have a sort of dialectical materialist worldbuilding in fantasy where ages/epochs are shown as unstable due to their oppressive nature and the (non-)choice is between propping up a dying age or letting it die. Elden Ring takes it a step further because there are also remnants of past ages that are fun to peer through.
In contrast most fantasy settings have this feeling where everything is well and good except for this one bad guy and once this bad guy is defeated everything will be good again which is kinda low effort to put it lightly.
Just to be clear, I don't mean to say that Elden Ring is the work of a communist or something. Just that it was crafted someone who knows and acknowledges that empires rise and fall.
Personally I have been enamoured by Elden Ring mostly because it applies the Dark Souls narration formula to high fantasy. It ends up presenting a story involving mostly demi-gods and gods with the mystique that religion does and it's very fun to navigate it.
In my opinion it wasn't until DS3 or Bloodborne (I don't recall which came earlier) that the balance of difficulty shifted from extremely annoying levels to tough boss fights. In my opinion DS2 and the ones before it feel terrible to play because of the annoyances I mentioned. I think DS3 and its DLCs struck a good balance where the boss fights were difficult but doable with the mechanics that the game afforded you.
With Elden Ring I think the boss fights have gotten a lot more difficult but there is a mechanic where you can summon a computer-controlled ally to make the fights easier, which balances it out. Some people are brimming with self-loathing and don't take advantage of this mechanic.
With the DLC though I think the bosses are very difficult with these summons too which is a bit of a bummer. I just wanna get done with this last fight so I can start diving into the game's text dump to decipher the lore.
I personally feel that the From style of telling a story doesn't really fit with a complex and intricate story that Elden Ring is trying to tell. Even if you aren't scrounging every item and npc dialog for lore, you can understand the underlying story of Dark Souls through it's themes and setpieces. I can't say the same for Elden Ring.
Considering the early games that spawned this mentality were piss easy, I blame FROM and Bandai for leaning on this perceived difficulty for marketing purposes.
I mentioned something similar in another thread here but the "git gud" fans are probably the worst consequence of fromsoft's games gaining popularity. Basing a large part of their personality on "I can beat this (perceived) difficult game and anyone who can't is trash" is just so pathetic. My 12-year-old nephew can beat these games so bragging that you can do something a pre-teen can is so weird. It's to the point that I actively avoid any kind of souls game community because interacting with them is so off-putting.
Hard game hard
I honestly think they went too far for the final boss, but maybe I'm just washed up.
Skill issue
Literally