Ben, Brad, and Isla become tarnished and spend an abundance of time talking about their experiences with Elden Ring. The crew also discusses Infernax, Lost Ark, and Session.
TIMESTAMPS
Opening – 00:00
Elden Ring – 00:20
THE SIZZLE: What direction do we want FromSoftware to take after Elden Ring? – 01:09:06
Infernax – 01:13:18
Lost Ark – 01:21:17
Session: Skate Sim – 01:38:40
HOTTAKE: What would make a new generation of Pokemon exciting for people who have checked out of the series? – 01:54:36
Email 1 – 02:06:26
Email 2 – 02:18:33
Email 3 – 02:24:04
Thank you to these wonderful “Shout-Out!” tier patrons:
Elthanas
Greg “TheDarkKnight” Kettering
Caleb “Togi” Crawford
Nik
Raymond Wheeler III
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Graphics – Joe Ellis (@Joe_David_Ellis): Concept & Design
Chris Leroux (@ChrisLeroux): Animation & Motion Graphics
Music: “Illuminate” by Ethan Rank – https://artlist.io/song/4423/illuminate
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For the next FromSoft project, I hope they go more modern/futuristic. I want to see them try new things with world and enemy design as far as world settings and art style.
My dream Pokemon game would move the combat from turn based to action rpg. You get to control the pokemon yourself and run around in 3d space when battling.
If nothing else tops Elden Ring this year, it'll continue the pattern of EZA (GT) giving GOTY to every FromSoft game that doesn't have "Souls" in the title. 😉
Elden ring might take the place from Ocarina of time on my all time game list. I doubt I have played on the last 10 years a game of this magnitude. Maybe Breath of the wild comes close but not really.
From Soft doing BioShock game in Rapture.
34:07 That's so true, my first FromSoft game was Blood Borne and I couldn't believe that Cainhurst Castle was a totally secret level with vague requirements to even unlock….it seemed like a ton of effort/lore was put into it too! I didn't even know about it until after my 1st playthru, can't imagine how many hidden content areas there are in Elden
"Have you gone underground? Have you seen bears?"
Me: OH OH OH I KNOW WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT!
I love these discussion panels
Hard to recommend it over Elden Ring right now, Ben, butt I would suggest you get through Rohendale (just a little more judging by your hours played) and finish those abyss dungeons before coming to any conclusions. That's all still tier 1 content so your character won't really control the way it will at end game (tier 3 papunika, legion raids), but the training wheels come off. Glad you're loving it keep it up
I wish frame trap was weekly, its the best EZA content
My only gripe with Elden Ring so far is all the frame stutters on PC. I'll be fighting a boss and then the next second everything pauses and skips ahead and I'm dead. I can deal with it in the open world sections but for everything else it gets iffy.
How does a game just keep getting BETTER! It NEVER stops!
After seeing the whole map opened up, holy shish kabab, this is the most amazing game world ever constructed! For the sheer amount of cool places to discover, so dense with awe, i dont think anyone can criticize the idea that random generation is the only way to deliver such variety in mere level design and geometry.
This game has me so excited to play that I haven't felt in awhile. It puts a smile on my face every time I play. It's such a great experience. I can't believe I'm keeping a journal while playing too.
2:29:45
This made me laugh. No, I don't like Bay's Transformers flicks but I also see very little quality difference between them and most movies put out by the MCU, which I also think are boring crap appealing to the lowest common denominator and contributing to people's lack of attention and nuance.
I say let Souls have difficulty modes, both hard and easy. Easy modes DO make a games more accessible and some are better at it than others, playtesting is still needed. Why it would be ok to ease up parry timings in an accessibility screen but not by default with an Easy mode is beyond me.
But it's not like FromSoft HAS implemented these things, whether it's Easy mode or a cheats menu or accessibility options.
I want to be able to set it so that if I die 10 times throughout the whole game then it's permadeath for me but to also be able to start the game with fully upgraded equipment and stats.
Or let me start the story over while keeping my armor, item, and character progress.
Or let me have the option of having multiple manual save files — I don't care if you lock me out of achievements.
Have difficulty modes and find ways to incentivize me to bump the difficulty up. Also look out for those players who aren't being too challenged by your "creator's intent" default difficulty.
It's funny these last 2 weeks, it's almost like i should feel bad that Horizon Forbidden West became my one favorite games ever and i'm a person that doesn't like open world games that much…
Elden Ring = GOAT
I totally agree with Isla, I love looking at a thing and trying to get to it and you can see how to do it
Aw man, wish I hadn't heard about the teleporter chest.
I'm sad there was no conversation about the intro cutscene and the way the narrator said 'THE LOATHSOME DUNG EATER' lmao – Enjoyed the conversation. I think there is an interesting disconnect between reviewers who are all Souls fans and general gamers. For me personally, this is my second Souls game after Dark Souls 2. I am enjoying it but don't really agree with the 10/10. Only because for me I'd reserve it for stuff that pushes genres forward – essentially to me this feels like Souls and BOTW mixed together, while BOTW was so unique. Red Dead 2 was insanely realistic/detailed and Witcher 3 pushed open world quests forward – so I understand the 10s abit more there. I also feel technically Elden Ring lacking. Animations are so dated at this point and graphics need some work. Anyway enjoyed the convo!
When are we getting the next part of Ben’s play through? Looking forward to seeing him beat the golden knight.
What I want FromSoftware to do next is TENCHU.
I'll come back to this later … I kinda don't want to hear anything about this game been loving how everything is surprising me as I've played so far
PS5 is so rough on my eye, made me feel sick. Had to buy for the Series X to play on a VRR screen. Smoother, but not ideal.
45:25, now to be fair, if From Software has a legitimate inspiration it's Berserk, WITHOUT question.
So did they name it "Lost Ark" so that all participants in a raid can be just a collective Indiana Jones reference?
Damn, currently about to finish Demons Souls remake and after this talk I want to immediately jump in to Elden Ring. The graphical downgrade is a bummer but hearing all the advancements to the design are very enticing
2:16:15
What?
not going to watch this video
For Email 2: I'd argue knowing less about Portal the better. Unfortunately the villain is so infamous now and the Cake meme kinda gives away there's something nefarious going on. They're not even required to use for enticing new players though, the concept of portal guns/puzzles was plenty of innovation to check out the title back when we all thought it was just test rooms.
I've been playing Elden Ring nonstop since release. I haven't been this obsessed with a game in a long time. I spent the whole day today just invading people… I've always loved the PVP, but so far this game is even better in that aspect. It's so damn good!
Beautiful. Just beautiful. A masterpiece podcast about a masterpiece game–maximum enjoyment of it all, maximum passion. Thank you Allies, This, is Gaming and Gamers at their finest. Bravo, From
Controversial views. They've essentially made the game easier for people who need it. You can get many upgraded flasks and decent items before doing a boss, plus there are areas that are pretty easy. Yet, the people who were vehemently against difficulty changes aren't finding the game broken like they said it would be and think it's their best game? I mean, that's great, I've ordered the game cause it looks like fun exploration BotW style is an option for me.
Also, I've seen several streamers, some of which are big FS fans saying best game, but then spending large chunks of the time complaining about the following things. Framerate, sluggish inputs, bad UI, bad AI outside bosses, not being obvious what the stats mean, lack of direction, certain types of weapon being terrible, annoying bosses that take a minute to get to, dumb physics, pop in, graphics, having to ask chat how to do things like Co op cause the game doesn't make it obvious.
I find it difficult to believe its the best game ever with all the complaints and I wonder how it would have been viewed if made by say Bethesda. However, I fully believe in the fullness of time the jank will not be remembered and it will be considered as one of the greats.
Skater XL is a better version of Session.
Give it a try
I'll wait until im like 30 hours in to watch this just in case of boss spoilers etc.
Gow will still be my goty. The lore alone
I'd never played a Souls game for more than a few hours before bouncing off because I just couldn't get on the same frequency as them. 6 months ago I beat Bloodborne and then I just finished Dark Souls 3 not even a week before Elden Ring came out. After loving Bloodborne and being less hot on DS3 I've now put an absolutely obscene amount of time into Elden Ring and it's one of my favorite games ever. I think my problem with FromSoft games initially was that I couldn't enjoy the lack of explicit direction in combination with the difficulty and deliberate style of combat the games have. I remember just sprinting away from mobs in Bloodborne years ago and not at all having fun because I was lacking a baseline of ability and competence with the game's combat which prevented me from being able to really explore the environments. Having that baseline now for Elden Ring has made this such an utterly engrossing and rewarding experience that very few other games have ever come close to.
Eldon Ring was too easy. I'd rate it 4/10.
The hair is FIRE Isla.
Elden Ring has made me completely lose faith in how gaming media reviews games. Regardless of how good it is, this game's performance is unacceptable on every platform and should have been taken into account. Why punish some games on performance and not others? The video Digital Foundry put out about this game is eye-opening. Apparently the 'best' way to play this game, is playing the ps4 version on a ps5… What a joke. I'm glad I decided to wait.
I've got to the third legacy dungeon today at 30 hours and I can honestly say it's the level design from has ever done, so many directions to go and I know hand on heart it's gonna loop right back to the beginning of the castle, pure magic