Ah, interesting - I’ve got as far as the broken bridge, and I can see a windmill from there, so I’ll head in that direction later, thanks.
Went back and finally took on Royal Knight Loretta last night, wasn’t so bad. I took the jellyfish with me assuming some poison might help, but I think his main function was as a distraction (not that I’m complaining).
I had a much harder time with the double Crystallian bosses in the swamp area - I set the Kaiden Merc on those and they still managed to get me down to zero flasks. I had no real trouble with the two solo Cystallians I’ve met, so it’s a good example of how one extra enemy can throw a real spanner in the works. A couple of times I’ve been fighting something like a giant or knight and an annoyed boar or ram has decided to join in, and all it takes is one shunt at the wrong time to ruin your day.
This has made me think about how reliant I am on using the bow to kite individuals away from groups, but then I remember the first few hours as a samurai when arrows were a precious commodity, and I guess by the time kiting becomes necessary any character will have some kind of method available.
I started to play to Elden Ring this weekend. This is my very first step into the world of Fromsoftware. At this stage (8 hours of play), all I can say is that it’s tough but it’s exciting and captivating
Steady progress - beat the Red Wolf in the academy and I think I’ve now expored it all as far as the huge rolling ball (always a pleasure). I decided to put down my first summon sign as a helper for the wolf - died just as the Wolf did, so it counted as a victory, so I decided to just go for it and plough straight back in on my own rather than go away and cap off my runes as usual. Well, I say “on my own” but the Kaiden Mercenary may have made a guest appearance. At any rate, success there.
After that I explored the Plateau some more, found the Windmill VIllage @J3RK mentioned (unnerving, haven’t taken on the boss yet) and managed to cheese a giant exploding newt off a cliff edge. Seems you can just do a mad horseback dash around much of the plateau gathering seeds and lighting fires, which I suspect is true of all the earlier areas - but easier if you’re confident you can survive if you’re knocked off.
As usual I gathered a whole bunch of new gear that’s of no real use to a dex build, which is a lonely life. I suppose the real dex experts are running around naked and dual wielding daggers, but it’d be great to find just one weapon that requires 40 dex.
Oh, and I went back and took out the scion from the tutorial, that was nice.
I think my next jobs are to finish off the academy and take part in the Caelid festival, which I’ve now got Blaidd ready for. I assume I’m not really supposed to be poking around too close to the Erdtree at this point. It’s a bit nerve-wracking, even if nothing particularly terrible has happened so far…
I “completed” the game without even seeing the windmill village also annoyingly completed it without getting a flask item needed to beat Mohg properly. So journey 2 sorted the latter and I’ll taste a wee “holiday” jaunt to the Windmill Village for this play through…
Up to level 210 now so think I can handle anything the game gets cheeky enough to throw my way…
I made the mistake of talking to the 3 Fingers, so I was bound for a bad ending. I had to complete Millicent quest to get things right, this included finding a super secret Two-Headed Dragon in a hidden late game arena, as well as fighting an Uncerated Tree Spirit in a pool of rot. This game really…
That’s fantastic. I never kill NPCs in a Souls game until I know for sure. For example D’s brother is the only guy I killed and that was at the very end of his quest. I mean he called my hug- lady a w–re. So I went a little Will Smith on him.
I slaughtered Gostoc as soon as I learned what he was up to, and I regret nothing as it also gives you access to 1&2 smithing stones at the Roundtable shop. I did read that the last update added something to his questline, so maybe next time round I’ll leave him be. It won’t be easy, though.
Oh, do you get them back when you kill him? I didn’t even notice that. I suppose that’s quite a valuable service, potentially. But at the same time, he desperately needs straightening out. Well, I’ll cross this bridge the next time I come to it.
also annoyingly completed it without getting a flask item needed to beat Mohg properly. So journey 2 sorted the latter and I’ll taste a wee “holiday” jaunt to the Windmill Village for this play through…