I think it’s really interesting to compare a game like elden ring to something else like BOTW

My first time playing through elden ring I had an amazing time, and thoroughly enjoyed the open world experience. I made sure to explore every crack in every wall, not necessarily for the rewards, but rather for the exploration itself because that exploration felt magnificent

However, I’ve now played through elden ring four times over the years, and I quickly realised I was only playing for the bosses, with the open world merely being a hindrance to my journey. This problem quickly compounds, as the first few hours of a save is usually you running around buck naked looking for your weapons, smithing stones, flasks, etc.

This is opposed to something like dark souls 3, where your journey to get the build you want usually means you can a 30 second detour from your main path.

Compare this with BOTW, which I’ve also played through a fair few times, and it’s easy to understand why these games are different. Unlike ER, I honestly thought of the bosses as more like hindrances to getting the powers, which would help me traverse the open world. To me, that traversal was the most enjoyable thing about the game

This might just be a tinfoil hat theory, but I think this is because of the difference in rewards between the two. Unlike ER, which most rewards being clearly defined and memorable, in BOTW the vast majority of rewards are either

a) spirit orbs from shrines

or

b) korok seeds

While the shrines themselves can be memorised, I’d say it’s practically impossible to remember the location of all these things, mainly because there’s no point - there are so many, you’ll run into your fair share anyway. There are exceptions of course, with weapons and shields and the like, but for the most part it holds true

Anyway, this went on way too long lol

Is this loss?

Oh, that is HARDCORE

Did they get any flack for this? It sounds honestly abhorrent that they thought it was a good idea to show kids something that hadn’t been ok’d beforehand

Yeah, because it’s shit

Omg saaammeeeee

Ooooh, what distro did you go with?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the internet, is that if there’s one instance of ai, there are other instances of ai

Why are the stray hairs so much smoother than the rest of the animation

My brain read that as derpixon ×_×

Oh yeah. On my first viewing, I felt like season 2 was weakest, but on rewatch it hints at so many things coming up. It feels weird to say, but I honestly agree that season 1 is the worst of the lot

Australia used to be the fourth, but when a bunch of people claimed we didn’t exist we realised it was easier to not correct them

Her thigh highs say otherwise

I agree he had some good messages, but I remember watching a video of him reacting to something and he said something really transphobic. Big yikes from me

Have a friend who is obsessed with the borderlands series. Played through the pre-sequel with him. Was not a good time

He wanted to play through 3 with me after, and I noped the hell out

How on earth did we make this a three way???

I called spies showing up and trying to kill her. I did not call her getting ESP and a copy of Bush’s fingerprints. Like WTF

Later