I’m one weapon, 2 talisman and 2 endings away. 4 of those should be ticked off by end of tomorrow and then I’ll be in to journey 3 for a boss rush
Don’t usually care for trophies either but I don’t think I’ll be able to move on until I do.
And I’m still finding new areas ffs! The value for money in this game is outrageous.
I haven’t had much time to play Elden Ring recently as I’ve been in the process of moving house, however I had an hour or two with it last night and had a great time. I’ve been working on Ranni’s questline - currently underground killing ants and mudmen while gawping at the beautiful ruins and exploring every nook for hidden items. In a way it reminds me of the feeling I had from playing Tomb Raider back in 1996, the feeling of being a small creature in amongst enormous structures, scuttling around hoovering up items and proving for secret areas.
Same! Plus areas I walked in in the past and run out, like some hero graves…
I got all talismans and sorceries yesterday, I need to start NG+ to get the 2 remaining weapons, then straight to the boss rush to get the remaining endings.
This is me,a nd it just keeps on going. I don’t usually like respeccing in DS games, but as a katana user I really wanted to try the Moonveil, and the game’s so huge that I thought what the hell - I might play INT next time round, but I guess I’ll be focusing on staffs then, so this is my best shot. So I sacrificed some unused STR and ARC and got it set up, and it’s really proving useful - it shreds NPC invaders, and paired with the Mimic Tear it’s a great boss balancer for me.
It’s not a magic bullet, though, because last night I got to the Baleful Shadow and had to switch to my flail with Hoarfrost Stomp just to slow him down (pleased to say I was also successfully dodging most of his attacks by the end, though most isn’t really enough).
Currently in the Lake of Rot and have dealt with the guy on the raised plaftorm, but I’m going to have to go scavenging for bolus materials before progressing much further there. I’ve also got the fight before entering the city to take care of, but as usual whenever it start to feel like I’ve narrowed my options down to one or two paths, something else opens up and demands my attention, so we’ll see. I just remembered I’ve also got the big lad on the throne on the other side of the Lake of Rot area, for example.
Anyway, I do still feel a bit disappointed in myself for respeccing, and the slight changes have thrown me a bit (I hit Heavy Load for the first time afterwards), but I think the length of the game and the sheer number of options makes it less of a cop-out than usual. I’m going to try not to do it again, though, as I do want some discoveries left for future characters…
The more I play Dark Souls 3 the more I prefer it to Elden Ring 
I played a tiny amount of DS3 a month or so before Elden Ring came out and thought it was the hardest game ever. After beating Elden Ring once and trying a new Dark Souls build, DS3 is challenging but fair and fun.
The atmosphere and level design in DS3 are amazing, and I’m preferring the variety of enemies so far (just defeated the Abyss Watchers so I’m not too far in, I think). The boss fights have all been interesting too.
I enjoyed Elden Ring thoroughly during my playthrough but have had a harder time hopping back in for a second run than expected. Maybe it’s just because DS3 is providing something new, or perhaps the smaller scale makes for an experience which is a little less overwhelming for me.
I’ll be replaying ER again someday and maybe will come to prefer it after some perspective but for now I’m completely psyched on DS3 in the way I was playing through ER.
On my lunch there I’m now down to two achievements remaining. Both linked to completing with a standard ending. Not long now… just a boss rush really. Looking forward to it
I think there is an argument that ER’s size and scope work against it in some ways when compared to the DS games, which perhaps benefit from their denser, interlocking world designs and more focused progression. But also I remember feeling let down at first by DS3’s telporting hub layout as compared to the orginal’s more cohesive whole, and I think FromSoft have done a good job of filling those wide-open spaces with additions like horseback battle and dungeons.
I haven’t played any DS since starting ER, but I’ve been thinking that while DS would probably be OK, I might suffer from the lack of the expanded move set in the sequels. In DS3 in particular I think I’d really miss that jump button (I know you can jump, but y’know). Guard counters, too, I guarantee it’d take me ages to unlearn those.
I do miss fighting mimics, though, I’d certainly go back to DS for that pleasure.
It may be faith based but the Flame Cleanse Me spell is amazing for that little section.
ER is probably my favorite open world game and is likely objectively better than DS3 but for me it’s like the difference between a 9.5 and a 9.7/10 game - they are both amazing
Sweet NG+ revenge. All bosses so far are going down at the first try. Stormed Stormveil Castle from the front gate, went to settle the score with the Dragon Tree Sentinel and obliterated it into kingdom come…
Faith is something I’m completely lacking in. though I do have a few stat-raising items that might help if it has a low cost…
I just looked it up. Only need 12 in Faith, not bad.
Anyone else feeling ridiculously OP on their first NG+ play through? I finished the game at lvl 150 and have trivialized any difficulty up until the Altus Plateau where i left off. Not really complaining, it feels awesome destroying foes who took hours!
I haven’t been playing as much but I am at 110 or so and still don’t feel overpowered in the Consecrated snowfields or against the Fire giant yet in regular game . In fact I am trying to get my guy leveled higher because the Fire Giant has been whipping me, mainly due to taking a while to do damage to his ankle and then getting one shotted in his phase 2.
At level 178 I do feel a bit overpowered in NG+, which is good as I’m doing it just to get the endings I need for Platinum
DS1 is master class in layout. the way every zone twisted and turned and ended up back where you started. Everything was interlinked.
Agree. I got it when it came out and my mind was blown by the layout. It was genius and there really has not been anything like it since.
Makes sense since open world games are now the way things are going and walking across a massive land would ruin the game. Have to have checkpoints.
I will say that Elden Ring really has some genius map design in terms of going deep into the center of the world and also to it’s peak. They did an amazing job, which does not surprise me since DS1’s level design was such a masterpiece.
And full achievements obtained via a Journey 3 romp that I ploughed through in about 2 and a half hours 
I can now sleep well, get back to the music and work on my other half so that I’m not maidenless by the end of the Easter holidays…
Congratulations!
I just killed the giant at NG+, I’ll be backing up the savegame so I won’t have to do an NG++!
It’s at times like these that I wished I had a pc so I could do save game backups! Would’ve saved
an enormous number of hours!
Glad I did it though. And that final run through to 100% was great fun. Think I died maybe 7 or 8 times total racing through and was nice being over levelled to the extent that I could blast through it. The route to the finish line is actually incredibly straight forward when you cut all the content out! And still, while racing through I can’t across two sites of Grace I had never seen before. A true casual gamer will be finding stuff in this game for months.
Still can’t get my head around how someone worked out that Radagon cheese though