Videogame Discussion Thread

I started Elden Ring last July, was almost immediately engrossed, paused for a bit to play through Dark Souls 1, finished Elden Ring and then started in on the DLC and wrapped everything in November. Love your review, I agree it's a real masterwork. I played a DEX/INT Spellblade for most of the run, and took so much time doing almost everything that by the end I was level 200+ and using a lot of FAI as well (Sword of Night and Flame etc.). It took me the better part of a week playing 2-3 hours a day to beat Radahn, but I finally managed it without cheesing. I didn't cheese anything, actually.

I spent a couple of months trying to find something else but nothing 'clicked' and have recently picked up Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. I've found it very enjoyable, coming as it did on the heels of a historical interest in the time period ableit in England and not Bohemia. I spent the better part of 50 hours doing side quests/leveling up skills before progressing the main story. I can't wait to see where the modding community takes it.

 

Honestly, I can see hitting those levels when you do the DLC. Most hybrids don't really kick off till 125-150. And the balancing for the DLC is like NG+. I personally don't bother capping unless I'm doing PvP meta. With the way the soft and hard caps work, every area plateus at certain points and you're doing lateral progression. You get steady little upticks in defense stats, but it mostly just makes it more interesting, allowing you to actually use more of the later game options provided and be more experimental in general. No such thing as over-leveled for late-game stuff. You will hit hard power caps and power becomes all about knowing how to create synergy.

I think my first character ever was also a dex/int spellblade, 80/80. Way more interesting than I expected, with a ton of very powerful offensive options. Yeah, you can be a stoopid spamwizurd. But the 'weaker' options are where efficiency and synergy make it interesting and arguably make you more effective than just using the strongest magecraft available. I never even bothered with the darkmoon greatsword. After I got tired of the moonveil, I actually went for the Wing of Astel, which is a curved sword that has a unique moveset - the regular R2 sends a magic projectile on the tail (charged sends a double volley.) And it costs 0 FP. The unique ash, Nebula, casts a field of exploding gravity balls in front of you that do a lot of poise damage. And there this little dance you can do using nebula, backsteps, and those R2's to control the fight dynamic. Nebula's barrier also gives you good opportunities to place gaps and start casting spells. Lots of cool chaining opportunities, which to me is the best part about magic casting in the game. Incants have more range to them overall, but they don't have that "magic" synergy that lets you slot handfuls of them in sequences that then let you systematically shut down anything and everything.

Sometimes I would just pair it with the mantis blade and take advantage of the curved powerstance set on top - just a lot of ways to continually apply pressure and punishment. Two handling the mantis blade gives you a charged R2 that's a fast-deploying EXTENSION attack. The blade unfurls like a mantis arm. I would use the stagger from it to chain into nebula and then send out R2 projectile volleys from the Wing of Astel in the right hand.

Did you ever use the Star-Lined Sword, the DLC katana? I think that's my favorite katana in the whole game, and it's contender for ultimate spellblade weapon with that sick 3-part-combo AoW. I enjoyed it even with my DEX/FAI because most of the scaling is in DEX. Things like winged sword insignia talisman (rotten version ftw,) twinblade talisman, and thorny cracked tear stack readily through the combo, allowing you to tab up hilarious damage quickly, but with way more style and fun-factor than something like Bloodhound's Fang. Can't wait to have two and dual-wield them.


My Tarnished's time in these forsaken lands, malformed by rot, has only broadened her conception of discord. Her spirit darkens, only brightening the flame within. As she gazes upon the rolling hills from atop the arduous plateaus of Dragonbarrow, each depraved biome virulently fertile with its own twisted contortions of life, she sees only kindling, and assurance that destruction shall be her only master.



Real talk though, when I visit Caelid, I think of that one time Werner Herzog talked about the jungle.

"The trees are in misery. And the birds are in misery. And I don't think they sing, they just screech in pain."

 

Wing of Astel is one of the weapons I fully upgraded in my playthrough. I found the Nebula to be very effective at doing damage to large bosses due to it's area of effect, and it does a lot of poise damage. I would get under the boss and dance around casting Nebula as you described. It also synergizes well aesthetically with the Spellblade armor you get relatively early in the game, and which I wore for at least the first half of the playthrough until I had enough Stamina to wear heavier gear.

I started NG+ directly after my playthrough and rolled a Samurai power-stancing katanas and using a bow instead of spells for ranged duties. I made my way deep into Altus Plateau and was still enjoying myself but realized I'd seen enough of Elden Ring for the moment. I'm not sure that Nightreign is something that's for me, as I don't have the time to coordinate cooperative games but I may be proven wrong. Until then I continue to play KCD2 when I have time for gaming, and intend to finish Dark Souls 3 on the PS5 at some point, which 'feels' the closest to Elden Ring combat of any of the Dark Souls games.