Elden Ring – what is it what it is after Demon`s Souls?

Despite the fact that many fans reproach Elden Ring for indulgence in casual players, I did not have the first acquaintance with her. Not really understanding what options there are, I chose a tramp in the editor of the characters, because he was the highest level. Not far from the first fire found a two -handed sword and was sure: now I have a solution for all problems that will meet in the way. Moreover, I carried a shield with me, holding a two -handed man with one hand. This led to a very slow pace of attacks, low mobility and inability to adequately respond to opponents’ attacks. At first I was hoping, then the pumping would smooth out all these shortcomings. But when I got to Margit, all my hope was trampled and dropped into the abyss.

I know that there are a number of players who go through the Soulslaiki only with huge weapons. Probably, they perfectly possess the character of the character, know the patterns of opponent attacks by heart and perfectly control timings. But I am not such. Therefore, after the twentieth-thunder attempt, he strangled and abandoned Elden Ring onto the far shelf. Once it was with Demon`s Souls and C Dark Souls.

Several years passed, and the PlayStation 3 emulator fell into my hands. It was decided to try his luck again in the first and the most relatively-badly, game from the Fromsoftware Soulslow line. It so happened that I was ripe for its passage only after many years, although Demon`s Souls itself has long been in my collection of disks. And now, last summer, my legs again stepped on the approaches to the Palace of Belotaria.

At first, I even began to get used to the slow movements of my character. Fortunately, the first opponents in the Palace of Belteria are hoplites with shields and very sluggish zombies of various types. Demon`s Souls smoothly introduces nothing to the player who does not know anything, giving him introductory ones, but not chewing everything at once. Therefore, I played in relative comfort, but at some point I still started to get bored. This feeling was especially aggravated by meetings with blue -eyed and red -eyed knights. Not only are these guys hidden in full armor, but they also move much more vigor than my character. It was extremely difficult to fight them, although some of them can quickly reach the very first fire, even being a zero hero. I tried different methods of confrontation, but there were few of them. Pharmil grass, acting in the role of leggings in order to have more chances in the battle. Tried to spin around them, tried not to be greedy and beat only once, in small windows between their attacks. But none of this was effective.

Once, when I once again aimlessly investigated the fortress after a series of humiliating defeats from the knights, I was lucky to stumble upon the back streets, where I found a new weapon – a co -chimper. The curved sword pleasantly surprised at the swiftness and assertiveness of attacks, breathing a new life into my character, who and there drove dirty rags there and there are all laziness. And then I wondered what other guns are in the game and how they differ among themselves.

At first, I thought that you need to play on your own and without the use of Vika, because, according to some fans, it simplifies the game and deprives it of interest. My friends, who passed all the games from Miyazaki naked, claimed that the real “challenge” is equal to the true “pleasure”. And how was I mistaken, listening to true hardcores! It’s great that the Solsliki allow you to play like this, but Vicki is indispensable for a simple player who does not want to spend a couple of days on killing one boss. (It will still be, but about then) someone shuts and repel, because in real life there are already enough difficulties. And so, I began to regularly read Wikipedia on Demon`s Souls, realized the charm of quick attacks and the game was held in almost one breath.

The demons were revealed for me. I did not google everything, but I turned to articles during the piles or in case of questions. The game stopped permanently strangling me, leaving the challenge. Most importantly, I stopped stupid in the game for hours, and the passage moved forward. And this approach stayed with me until the end of the game.

And this approach, as I understand it, is applicable to all the games from the galaxy of the SOLSLAKS. It is worth deciding what you will fight most of the time and choose when creating the character "Class", already equipped with this weapon. If this is not, do not hesitate to google where you can quickly get your weapon interesting and go there first. Comfort is your main task, and it is important to do everything to minimize the influence of the environment. It will not work to protect yourself from everything, but allow yourself not to be in constant tension that you can’t even really answer the opponents – your most important task for the first hours of the game. This will allow you to systematically move forward by locations and win the bosses. The most important thing is not to stagnate in the chosen battle tactics. Yes, one weapon will remain the main one until the very end, but it will be useful to have pumped tools with another type of damage in reserve, since there will probably be an enemy who will not be scary. Plus, some bossfights pray about the presence of a player of weapons, which will apply high damage in one blow. Do not forget about the long -range types of weapons – bows will help during the next passage of locations with a large number of opponents. Consumables are an important part of the combat mechanic. It is better to google their purpose in advance, since descriptions do not always give a clear understanding of what this or that subject does. It is one thing to waste a thing that often falls out with opponents, and it is quite another to use humanity, thinking that this is an analogue of a first -aid kit that simply restores health before the maximum.

And now, after all these insights, it became more interesting and pleasant to me to play Elden Ring too! I immediately started a new passage with a class equipped with a himitar, with which I run most of the time and now, being at the 200th level. I told about the “approach”, now I want to go to the rest of the impression of the game, for some of which he influenced in direct way.

What I want to tell about

Picture

As a concept designer, I really appreciate the visual component in games. It is worth separating the graphic part, as such, and a stylistic approach. Graphics are manifested in technical aspects such as polygonage models, detailed a frame, competently tuned materials, effects and lighting. The stylistic approach is expressed in working with images and a non -standard approach to visualizing a variety of ideas. And if the graphics in the games from Fromsoftware have always been on the middle-cooler level, then it was the design that clung to the soul. I think I will not be mistaken if I say that Dark Souls has made a significant contribution to the popularization of dark fantasy in games. The artists of the studio do not stand still and worked well on Elden Ring, although there were no shortcomings.

The stylistics in Elden Ring, in my opinion, has become more diverse and “color”, but at the same time a little more “ordinary” in point elements of stylization. I will explain what I mean. The variability of biomas in the game has become noticeably richer than in most previous FromSoftware games. It contains dungeons, swamps, mountains, fields with forests, and palaces with entire cities at their foot. The color scheme is diverse, the mood changes from place to place, but at the same time the effect of “wow” in accessing specific images no longer arises. Perhaps I was simply fed up by the designer feast of Miyazaki games, but most likely, the artists of the studio shifted the focus of details for a global impression. As a result of this, the visual style seems less concentrated, diluted and without the previous distinct taste.

There may be several reasons for this. The world of the Interight is greatly referred to the Middle Ages, which has become even more “classic”, despite the point woven up of Japanese motifs. Although the fantasy element is present in abundance, the general types of biomes, architecture, the appearance of characters and opponents are largely inspired by classic designs from our reality

In addition, the volume of the game has increased very much. Now we are walking around a huge open world, which can be filled with art for too long – much longer than a series of games developing a similar scale. Because of this, copy-paste and general uniformity are noticeable, especially in natural locations. Most likely, the team expanded in the process of working on the project. I do not think that Elden Ring was made by the same composition as the previous games. Probably, the scale of the project did not allow us to pay enough attention to the “flight” of the thoughts of artists, and the studio constantly had to balance between available man-hours and the general level of stylization in the project. And as if, they would not always have to find this balance: some elements look incredibly impressive, while others are inferior to them.

Assetes in the game are made beautifully and stylish. However, due to the fact that the size of the world became so monstrous, she, as it would, would not have enough variety in the art, which was created by the artistic department. Artists really did a great job, but they did not have enough tools. This is especially noticeable in large locations consisting of one biom.

If you turn to the official artbook on Elden Ring, how many work is done as efficiently as possible with minimal means. A lot of arts with interiors and exterior are slightly more fun than completely – collected from pieces of troops and fragments of photographs. The processing is still good, but it feels that there was no time to “tear out” of concepts stupidly. A lot of metricity in frequent repetition of the same elements. Forms often hit the masses too primitive in space. Some “images” are not enough for individuality.

With landmarks (separately standing self -sufficient structures) and some small places of interest the situation is much better. Here, the repetition of ascets is not so clearly striking. In particular, I was impressed by the locations of the Academy of Rays Lucaria, some streets in Dominul, the architectural part of the capital of the Kingdom of Lyndell and the underground city of Nokron. It is architectural locations that cause a sense of integrity and diversity. I believe that more experienced employees worked on these locations, while empty open spaces were possibly transferred to less experienced team members or freelancers.

This does not mean that I did not like the natural areas at all. Sometimes they look picturesque and interesting for examination. However, it seems to me that the visual and leveledery of such locations are sometimes very lame, which is why clusterness and repeatability of approaches to the design of the environment are striking in the eye. Although this can be partially justified by narrative, some elements, such as, for example, clearings with swords in the ground, do not quite fit into the general context. Sometimes it seems that the card is made in the editor of the cards of some strategy. And this card is beautiful, undoubtedly, but with a regularly visible “pattern” here and there.

Perhaps if they reduced the scale of some locations, white spots became much smaller. This does not mean that it was necessary to remove all large fields at all, but if they were diluted with a more diverse set of structures – the open world of the game only won from this.

But the design of enemies in the Meotemmia is two heads higher. Despite the fact that some mobs migrated from previous games, many new rivals turned out to be memorable and spectacular. This is especially true for an increased number of a wide variety of knights. The militarized Middle Ages, backed up by constant regional turbulence and feuds, is felt here vividly. The armor of the enemies are functional and logical, but at the same time covered with a thick layer of fantasy and exalted dreaminess, which gives them a special charm.

In fact, the most worked Rouge Casino review out and bright is what we interact most often. In mobs, this is still supported by sounds and animations. The environment, although inferior to the images of opponents and bosses, is still made at a good level. Yes, I criticize him and think that it was possible to make it better, but, as you know, there is no limit for perfection.

Level Design

Open World turns out to be a coin about two sides. The spaces in the game are really huge. For the first time, walking around these expanses is curious, since traders, forts, camps or caves \ crypts are scattered everywhere. However, it is worth focusing on some purpose or passing a large location again, as the environment begins to depress and annoy. The groups of opponents are scattered everywhere, and topology often relies on verticality. You can get stuck for half an hour, trying to figure out how to get down from the next tall plateau down or find a path for lifting to another height. Enemies often move in groups, and running around them can turn into the fact that you will get a spell or a two-meter arrow in the back of the head (yes, I’m talking about you, admirers of ancestors from the Siofra River). This “cluster” and conditional drawing into zones with certain opponents create the feeling that you play MMO, and not in solitary RPG. In past games, this sensation was probably not due to the lack of an open world. Enemies were often specialized and were in specific places. Whereas in the open world Elden Ring scattered random animals, giants and humanoid opponents. Although they are modified from region to region, in fact, remain typically the same mobs.

To mitigate impressions from aggressive verticality, several decisions were provided. In some places, “jump points” are placed, allowing a player sitting in a saddle, one high jerking to a great height. In the opposite situation, in the sheer cliffs, vertically located tombstones are rastied, along which you can jump down, as if on platforms. However, this is not enough. Often there are no such structures within a radius of several kilometers, and you have to wander along the obstacle, looking for thresholds and paths that will help to overcome it. And they are far from always fast.

It would be too simple and obvious to arrange the structure simplifying the route here and there, therefore, the most difficult navigation sites are blocked. They are very tightly scattered around the world and have an interesting lorne justification: these are the points where the roots of the Tree Erd came to the surface and grace oozes from them. Since the tree is huge, its root system wraps over the whole world, and this convention is easily perceived, since the golden glimade can be seen from almost any nooks of the internello.

And with the help of blessings, at some point, the player begins to move almost constantly. Interest disappears for the hundredth time to run through the same swamp or forest. Personally, I stopped teleporting only in city locations, and I began to pass large spaces and roads already at the 20th hour of the game. Over time, you, in theory, study the topology of the terrain and begin to navigate in this pile of obstacles. However, their monotony nullifies all interest in the bypass if you have no goal to explore the world and you are moving towards a specific task. And when explining, you sometimes get confused because of, now and then, repeated nooks and dead ends.

Fortunately, the situation of the location of grace has become much more convenient in relation to the boss files. In past projects, Miyazaki were locations where a significant part of the path had to run after each death on the boss, but in Elden Ring this is less common. All thanks to the large number of “bonfires” and Mariki’s wedges, who make the way to the boss even shorter. This does not allow you to get bored and does not force you to spray on jogging through ordinary enemies, which far from always allow you to pass by without consequences for the character. Errors caused by bustle when sprint to the Boss arena became less, which I think a big plus. For example, in Demon’s Souls, to get to Lurker, it was necessary to pass several caves with scaly miners and go down the platforms in a deep hole. Do not count how many times I broke and fell down with a stone, going back to the fire.

It can be argued that the world does not have to be “convenient”, as well as moving the player along it. Sometimes it is really justified and works. Note, I didn’t say anything about the poisonous swamps. They just often take their place and skillfully balancing on the complexity and monotony of their adventures. For example, the lake of rot required me much less time than wandering along lake lurnia, which in most places is just a puddle with objects sticking out of it. Problems arise in vast territories, where even riding on a torrent you can go for several minutes without any interesting activities. The path is just for the sake of the way – it’s not always good.

I would also like to mention how the game simultaneously meets the player, but does not give concessions with the assistance of grace. In the same capital, the topology is very confusing and vertical, because of which you can spit along the corridors for a long time. And the opponents there are far from harmless. Therefore, after each long -term site, we are met by grace, which avoids annoying repeated runs and constant skirmishes with strong mobs. This path has provided for navigation by locations, sometimes it can save a lot of time if you want to go further, but the path traveled contains some particularly evil and difficult, at the moment, enemies.

The very concept of the open world helps the player even more when he faces an irresistible obstacle. Almost always, especially in the early stages of the game, you can go the other way: look for adventures to the fifth point in a new location, raise the level, find equipment and try again, but with new strength and experience. On the other hand, the problem of excessive pumping of the character arises. The player is gaining strength that is excessive in other places designed for a lower level hero. For example, being at the 110th level, I decided to go north and stumbled upon the Castle Morn. Private mobs and local boss, Bastard Leonin, flew off on the first attempt. But again, I did not meet so many such places. Basically, the fact of pumping rather made the passage of some kind of location more comfortable than primitively simple.

And what is interesting, despite the high level of the player, the situation with alternating lightness and sudden complexity occurs more than once even on small locations. For example, reaching the capital, I realized that my character at the 120th level is too uncertainly holding the blows of local knights, although most mobs did not pose a threat to me. And the knight of the crucible and completely returned me to the sensations of the beginning of the game, killing for two blows. Although before that I had investigated the surroundings for about ten hours and did not meet such a serious resistance, focusing on the study.

I understand that special opponents are special – the battles with them should provide a call compared to ordinary enemies. But sometimes there is a feeling that this challenge is many times higher than the "average temperature in the ward". This is also affected by the presence of small things nearby, which will not pretend to be in the back of a series of strokes that distract you from the main threat. We have to aim all ordinary mobs from onions, clearing the battlefield for a fight with a special enemy. Well, not all such special opponents are of interest and justice. Probably, one of the most exciting and interesting battles for me was clashes with the knights of the crucible. A Knight from Farum Azul, armed with a shield and a sword, turned out to be a very difficult enemy, but it was this battle that gave me a feeling of a real duel. You fight with an extremely dangerous opponent, who, against the backdrop of the opportunity to pour huge damage, is inferior to you in speed and maneuverability. This is a real death machine, which honestly punishes for arrogance and negligence. But there are some problems with the opponents-zver.

Combat system and opponents

It’s like a soil, a combat system in the Soulslaiks is one of the deepest in a similar game genre. We have a large number of a wide variety of weapons, each of which has its own characteristics. There are slow and fast, magical and ordinary tools – for every taste. All this obeys the “pumping” system, which allows you to carry almost any weapon with you until the end of the game. I have already painted above that the variety of weapons is not just a “hymn”, but directly affects the capacity of the character in certain situations. Some opponents have resistant drops, which means it is better to beat them with large clubs. Others, on the contrary, are less afraid of crushing damage, but a chopping blade with the effect of bleeding – will be a great choice against such enemies. I noticed that the more “high -level” some bosses become, the more often there is a temptation to take a larger weapon to apply more damage. Some of them have Helsbars with tens of thousands of HP, which over time begins to tire.

The main annoying aspect for me is the system of equipping and switching weapons during the battle. There is a change of grip from one hand to two. It would seem that everything is done logically. There are combinations of buttons that may even seem intuitive, but in reality I constantly get confused because of their number. Calling a horse is one ligament. Call to the ashes is another ligament. Take weapons in two hands – another ligament. But changing the weapon with two hands on a horse will not work. We take two hands in two hands, we take the shield in two hands, but to intercept the blade also to be ready to jump off the horse and start pouring on the enemy, it is not allowed.

I slightly imagine how this can be fixed, honestly. The only thing that comes to mind is to make a separate menu for the choice of equipment, which, even if it would not put the game to a pause, but at least slow down it. In this menu it would be possible to switch the weapon and choose a grip. However, I am sure that any self -respecting fan of games in the style of Souls will say that no menu should put the gameplay on a pause, as this contradicts the main logic of the interface. There is, after all, online. Perhaps you can come up with something else, but what is now is definitely inconvenient. There were fewer options in the games before, the cities did not occupy part of the keys, but the management logic remained the same. Now, frequent switching between different combinations of buttons more strongly violates the pace of the game and more often leads to the death of the character.

Most opponents have a diverse and rich set of attacks. But sometimes it seems that the artificial intelligence of enemies is extremely straightforward and does not track obvious things. Когда у противника есть атаки, бьющие по площади с огромным радиусом или такие, которые невозможно силой заблокировать в определенных ситуациях прокачки персонажа, это нормально. But when the enemy, at some point, begins to spit the same attack, preventing the character from recovering after the first blow, this becomes a disadvantage of the game design. This situation does not give a real challenge, but turns into an annoying element that simply wipes his legs on the player’s time spent on the game.

The enemy’s big Muvset is excellent. Когда у него есть связки атак, плавно переходящие одна в другую в случайном порядке, это действительно интересно. Only this works better if the enemy is a humanoid (for example, Alekto, the leader of the black knife, a cool boss) and not much larger than the player’s character. My most beloved opponents and bosses are knights armed with a variety of equipment. Most of them have readable animations, and if you have seen all of their muvzet, you can predict their actions. But with large enemies, the situation is worse.

Dragons, giants and other large opponents force the player either to run from them throughout the battlefield, shooting from onions, or staying as close to their “heels”, picking sharpening until blue. Yes, the game allows you to alternate weapons and select equipment for a particular boss. For example, I killed Astel with a bow, because my pumping and shield did not allow me to fight effectively near. But to pick up something qualitatively new in order to persuade the scales of the scales in your direction, it turns out not always. Problems also arise due to poorly located points of the camera binding to the enemy. Some large enemies move quickly enough and due to binding the camera can often disorient.

An example of an annoying boss is a fiery giant. It is quite understandable at the stage of the battle in the first phase. Its attacks are understandable and logical for such a massive creature. Until he begins to become impudent, regularly waking up with attacks on the square, constantly stepping aside and opening under the hit of the character, enthusiastically picking his leg. One attack knocks the hero down, and while he rises, the giant manages to apply the same attack that kills the hero. It doesn’t seem honest. I believe that not all attempts of battle with bosses have the same chance to win. In one entry on the boss, you can safely get to his heel and, from three or four suits, transfer the battle into the second phase. In another, the giant constantly rolls from one part of the arena to another, stuck in stones where the player cannot turn around and constantly finds himself in an increased risk zone. Because this image steps over the stone and puts the leg above reach, and even applies to a basin. And the player even can not run away to the side, clinging to the crooked conflicts of objects on terrane. And it turns out that in one attempt I moved to the second phase in a couple of minutes, and in another boss stupidly filled me up with a series of identical blows, not even letting me go to the right distance.

It can be fended that in reality the enemy does not choose a “fair” sequence of blows. He wants to kill you, but in war all means are good. Yes, right. But Elden Ring is a game, and it is obliged to contain mechanics that will not endlessly strangle the player. Masochists like it, but ordinary players who cannot play under a hundred hours in a month – no. This is bad. I suspect, it is because of this that the Shadow of the Erdtree addition is scolded. Bosses will mercilessly bewitted with attacks, and you can wait for a window for a long time. This is not a challenge. This indicates a bad balance of action to the TIKA unit of time.

Well, or you need to look for yoba-bilds that burst in all tons of damage. The very fact that many players consciously use this and say that this is how to play is the failure of the game design. Why then do you need pumping if most of the builds are unable to contrast at least something to some opponents? And no one will warn about it in advance – you just bury yourself and that’s it. Most likely, this is why in the games of Miyazaki there is the possibility of redistributing pumping glasses. This is, so to speak, a crutch that propagates the controversial aspect of the gameplay.

And also, I still could not understand how to find out whether the character attack would be damaged when he makes a roll. At first I tried to reason logically. There is a swing and a blow, you roll and get invulnerability for a moment, although you clearly see how the weapon passes through the character model. It works like this with one enemy, but not with the other. The same conditions, but the rifts simply do not work. There is also some incompatibility in logic. The giga pelvis will turn into a roll, although you are still covered by a huge canvas. And the Building Bug of the Beginaulite in Farum Azul, armed with a huge des, will not go out.

Why not add ways to a simplified murder of bosses? Demon`s Souls had the ruler of the storms and the god of dragons, who were much easier to kill with the help of weapons found right in the arena with the boss. Why not saturate the arenas with such a meaning for each boss? For example, the fiery giant, as it turned out, had a way to force him to jump from the hill, as a result of which he himself broke his leg and immediately moved to the second phase. From it it was also possible to reject the repetition of the “jump” of the boss, because of which he was completely dying. When I stumbled upon this method, I was delighted! This is a cool chip, but why I myself have not thought of it before? And because it was a bug that was corrected in a recent update. Because this variability is absent in battles with bosses. Why? I am sure that at least some optionality at the level of a jumping giant or special weapons in the arena did not hit the income-based development budget for the development budget. It would be possible to sketch items on the approaches to the arena, from the description of which one could come across an awareness of the decision! Understand the chip and deftly apply it in battle. I myself did not think of it, because I have no habit of expecting that the battle with the boss may contain such a “wrong side”, that very left thread, an alternative way to pass the boss even with bare hands.

Moreover, here I am interrupted right now with the beast of Elden. Radagon does not cause me strong difficulties, but the ten -story Mr. Global, who goes immediately after the battle with the alter of the Ego Marika, causes me only rejection and unwillingness to contact him at all. And I still play after the DLC exit, when you can call torrent in the arena. What happened before the patch of the builds tied to the near battle, I am scared to imagine. It is sometimes problematic to get to the boss even with a torrent, because his attacks on the area are forced to bypass the beast on a wide parabola. I often do not have time to run to him at all – the boss after a ligament from a variety of indecentities, just diving under the arena and “teleport” to another end. It is felt so absurd that you also do not have time to make a single blow to it, fascinatingly observing the gold shells flying in you, the splashes from the swords of the sword and the flame afterwards. Perhaps I have not yet picked up tactics or equipment. And I will continue to try, but so far it is all felt very painful and dishonest.

Everything, the beast of Eldena fell. I accidentally learned that if you call on a tear, holding a cup an amulet for a spell cast, then it will act as a bastard tank. As I understand it, she has no restriction on Manu and she can cast as much as she will fit. As a result, even the beast often managed to agise on it and get the windows in order to get to him, get off the torrent and burst a pack of charged strong strokes with a heavy drain. The boss is still boring, and an accident helped me. Now I can calmly postpone Elden Ring for an indefinite period, then to somehow return to the study of the world. And I haven’t gotten off to the waving yet.

Plot or how we came to the ashes.

Fromoma stories do not know how to tell. More precisely, they do not know how to classical, as is done in most games. Usually, their plots are a complex ball that has already been wrapped in a tight lump before the player first enters this world. As a result, the plot is almost always presented contextually – through descriptions of objects, mean conversations with rare characters and bosses. This approach to the presentation takes place, but it has disadvantages that I would like to mention.

Due to the low concentration of important events in the watches of the main gameplay, the thread of the narrative is lost very often. I don’t understand why there is still no diary in Souls games in which the events important for passing could be refresh in memory. Nobody asks to make katsen about and without reason, but why not add a regular text magazine in the form of notes, as it was in Morrowind – a riddle for me.

There are also vague formulations in the dialogs accompanying some plot lines. For example, in the ruins of the next temple on the territory of the Red Wasteland you can find a millisent – a girl with a red rot. She lies against the wall, says she is the end, and drives us away. We cannot ask her about what she is doing in this damned place, and we do not know what to do with her. It’s just a point event or you can somehow help? Nobody tells about it. Hope a random meeting with a wizard named Goury, who will mention his adopted daughter, sick with red rot, and ask her to help her. Further events logically follow each other, but after a meeting with a cured by Millisen in Gauri Lachuga, actions again become non -obvious. You should be lucky to notice her in a completely different location standing in the area of ​​one place of grace. There she complains that without her right hand she cannot become a worthy warrior and help the hero. This prone hint indicates the possibility of getting a prosthesis somewhere in the Interight. But where to look for him? Who can give a guide to the hero? Who can you talk about this with? As far as I understand, with anyone. The prosthesis lies in a particular chest in a particular castle, but you can find it only by accident, wandering around the open world. Moreover, before passing the chain of quests of my daughter, I was already in this castle, I killed the boss and was sure that there was nothing interesting there. If not for Wikipedia, I would most likely have not completed this quest. You can rush back and forth around the world for an endlessly long time. It would be a location of a huge castle, where you can logically go to its parts and figure out where it is still worth looking at the searches. But we are dealing with an open world of huge sizes with dozens of locations.

Because of all this, the story does not add up to the overall picture for the player. Fragmentary information is drowning in other active actions in which he participates. The main tasks regarding the main plot are thrown to you. They sound more global in the town stories and it is not so difficult to get confused there. Although, most likely, you will advance on history automatically, stupidly arriving where you need and killing the next boss. As a result, all the same, the story turns into a liquid soup in which pieces of Laura and small grains of local stories and events float.

Apparently it is calculated that the player will vacuum every square meter available to him spaces. Holding everything that happened in your head, you can probably not miss the moment and realize that the next item found is important to promote the storyline of a character.

The importance of Wikipedia

If you do not study every corner of the world and do not read the description of each found object, understand what needs to be done now is not always easy. There is no magazine or intelligible marks on the map in the game, which greatly complicates orientation.

Most likely, Miyazaki and Ko were inspired by two games that left distinct traces in the industry: Tes V Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Botw. Both games, first of all, are sandboxes, where the main story with a thin layer is smeared around the world, in which in addition to it there is something to do. Much more than the rest of the story that serves only a certain core of the world. You run in different directions, find interesting things, bosses, locations, equipment, and the plot passes along the tangent trajectory. I do not ask to add thousands of markers and hundreds of explanations for "stupid", but at least give me a diary ..

In the role of such a “diary”, the Wikipedia acts just. With its help, you can remember where in the end you need to go to move on. Recall that some NPC casually mentioned the character, who now became the boss, and that he needs to get something important for promotion in the plot. The game itself very rarely reminds of what the player needs to do at the moment. Forgot, but nowhere to see? Well, go for a walk, maybe you accidentally stumble upon a trigger or boss, and there it will be seen.

Luta’s “hiddenness” is another problem. Dozens of caves and crypts are scattered in the world, and anything can expect at their ends. Suppose I want to pump weapons, and for this you need blacksmiths. They either fall out of some enemies, or are on corpses or in chests. At first, I spent several hours, the pharmamas of the grandfathers in some kind of quarry, where I noticed that the type of stone I needed was dropped from them. However, it turned out that in the game you can find the "spheres" that unlock a certain type of goods from the maids in the fortress of the round table. How did I have to find out? I found the first sphere far from the starting locations, and it allowed me to buy gloom stones 5 and 6 of the category. And where to look for spheres for the first, second, third, fourth? Is there a sphere for them in general? Vicki will answer all these questions.

This dispersion, coupled with the accumulated fatigue from daring into each hole in the floor, at some point leads the player to a certain “Loku” in development. Leads to an increased waste of time on a dull farm of the necessary consumables, which are accurately mined to a particular place, because there are a lot of potential searches and unequivocal logic in the distribution of Luta – there is no.

There are also the characteristics of opponents. Often it is necessary to sort out the sharpening in the inventory to finally understand that none of your guns can effectively fight the enemy and the enemy. As a result, you remain in a state of misunderstanding, and where to go in order to solve the problem? Where to find a weapon that will help kill these specific monsters? Sometimes such “guns” can lie on locations, but this does not always happen. The game too often relies on the Brownian movement of the player around the world with random stumbling on certain useful things that can suddenly facilitate the fate of the hero wandering around the Intermeline.

Double bosses and pierces.

Double bosses, and sometimes triple, are an interesting topic in theory, especially if opponents clearly differ among themselves and observe a certain “gentleman” distance when the player encounters each of them in turn. So far, I consciously fought with only a few double bosses – with brave grogs and two of divine skin. Gorguli pretty much drank blood from me, but thanks that they start the battle not at the same time. Apparently, the developers could not balance them so that they did not leave a wet place from the player in most situations at the same time. But two of the Divine skin! These two bosses are very difficult to kill, if you do not use the ashes, and best of all, the specific one is a sleeping arrow doll. Only with her help, firing bosses with lulling arrows, I managed to win them. Without prahs, I often found myself in the corner of the hall, where the camera fixed on the boss began to go crazy. They don’t wait, but just fly on you together. Everything is spinning and spinning, the character is clamped on both sides, and he cannot roll out of this corner even by rifts, eventually dying. Sometimes these guys began to repeat the same attack, because of which the same dust died in fifteen to twenty seconds, leaving me alone with them.

I also met two steel girls who need to be won to get out of the dungeon in the Vulcan estate, but a small arena and, apparently, undercamut, forced me to spit on attempts to kill these enemies. It seems that you need to bury maximum damage for at least strokes, because there is nowhere to maneuver, and both virgins have a large radius of attacks.

But somewhere there are triple bosses, and I, in truth, do not even want to try to go there, based on the experience that I have now.

The situation is partially corrected, which for a player like me (without friends) make a game easier in some situations. The executive knight Engwill accompanied me with the initial bosses, acting mainly in the role of a tank. Now I mainly call a false tear and I cannot agree that it is some kind of imboe. Yes, she tumbles most enemies well, but this is basically all that she is capable of. Without yoba-bit, when your character is an average warrior who is not able to apply several thousand units of damage in one blow, a tear simply becomes a help. Когда у тебя есть «соратник», драться с очередным шкафом не так уныло и грустно. Dust is not always useful, but in some situations it turns out to be indispensable. At least, some bosses part with their HP strip a little faster, which reduces the overall soul of some bossfights.

I foresee that some people will hasten to explain that I played the game incorrectly. Why should the game have a “right” way to play it? Why does Miyazaki’s division often does not behave like a “game”, but throws a player to bolt into the ice hole without any parting words? The more I play the games of Miyazaki (although so far there was only one), the stronger I have the feeling that their games are work on persistent 4 plus. When you see completely stupid mistakes or deliberately crooked moments, although thought and approach to solving problems were true, it becomes annoying. When you turn to the experience of Demon’s Souls and Elden Ring, there is an understanding that some dubious things have not been almost changed in any way after so many years. The maximum that has been done is crutches that slightly improve the situation. As if the development of games in the studio occurs according to the same Brownian movement, which is present in the game process: development in width, and not in depth. What FromSoftware will do after Elden Ring? I would like to believe that they will find something new and make a more “concentrated” project, but will the generation of the faned Openvorld Games from the maestro are actually awaiting us, in fact?