I'm digging the spooky ghost girl with pale skin and runny eyeliner aesthetic. Personal favorite look, although I like it with the classic white sheet dress thing. I have noticed that "bad writing" gets thrown around quite a lot as a phrase. Personally, the worst context in which it's used, my absolute least favorite, is when people use it to mean that a story fails to unfold narratively in line with their moral or social expectations. "The bad guy didn't get punished! That's bad writing!" That's silly. Since when is a story obligated to specifically affirm your biases, cultural or otherwise, in order to be "good"? This sort of conflation of "I don't like it" with "it's bad" is an incredibly common and shallow approach. And personally, it's tiresome. I think the idea of applying some absolute, orthodox ruleset for writing with commandments like "show don't tell" is... Downstream? Upstream? of this mentality. I also think that now that you mention it, the whole notion of difficulty as a moral discourse fits directly into this. "I don't like it" and "it's objectively bad" and "it's morally transgressive" are just all too often mixed into this strange slurry of completely distinct concepts that people have seemingly just become more reactionary about in many ways. It's like... I think it can be attributed to people searching for different levels of rationalization, almost. They can't bring themselves to simply stand by "I just don't like it" on its own merits, as a self-justifying claim, because of all sorts of social forces like the toxic hypercompetitiveness and false rationality of capitalism or the imposition of moralistic attitudes in all aspects of life by reactionaries. Not enough to just say you don't like a ship or a kink, oh no - it has to be "wrong" and "evil". Not enough to say you just don't like how a story ended - it has to be "objectively bad" lest you look like a fool for not acknowledging the "objective fact" that it's good. People feel pressured to defend their opinions in ways that really shouldn't be necessary, I think, because culture has gotten more hegemonic and exclusionary about these things. And I think that sucks.

Photography is a fitting comparison to make in this scenario. When photography was first coming into its own in the late 1800s, there was a movement called Pictoralism which pushed for photographs to be more like paintings; soft focus, portraits with poses resembling classical paintings and such. People didn't really know what photography was or was capable of at that time, it wasn't appreciated as its own art form yet. There are some pretty clear parallels with video games in the present day, we still don't fully appreciate games as their own form of art yet. Like you said we still apply terms and ideas from film when talking about video games. Your videos are always thought-provoking and interesting, please keep up the awesome work!

I'm big Dark Souls fan but even the base ER game was screaming to me "you can't beat this game the same way you can beat Dark Souls/Bloodborne" and the faster you'll have this realization the smoother experience you'll have. This game REQUIRES for you to be much more flexible than other soulsborne series. Also I think that accessibility should be more about controllers and options, not about difficulty..,

Also, that bit about "the story of Dark Souls is your story" fits perfectly into the themes of... So to speak, positive nihilism underlying Souls games. The whole idea of letting the old order die to bring about something uncertain, but potentially more free and less bound by orthodoxy and stagnation, is perfectly in line with the philosophy of making one's own meaning and defining one's own future that "positive nihilism" represents. Say, what do you think of the story and lore of the DLC specifically? I think it's fascinating seeing how obviously Christian its imagery is... and more importantly, how savagely critical it seems to be of the underlying moral assumptions that Christian (and more broadly religious) cultures take for granted. Ideas like the inherent virtue of self-denial and self-sacrifice, for instance. Of purity, of holiness. Even of compassion, at least when it takes a form that overrides other people's will and desires. I think this sort of story that so clearly criticizes fanaticism and fundamentalism is a very topical one.

I've found that as I let the story of the DLC sit in my mind for a bit, I've come to appreciate it more. I think a lot of the upset about the story is from some characters seemingly not being touched on at all in the DLC (especially Godwyn), and also about Miquella and the final boss not being what people had expected. At first I had some similar reactions, but after some time this is no longer the case. Not to mention that the DLC definitely has more info than we think, and we need to wait a bit for people to discover it. I also saw a number of people complaining about the map being worse, which just baffles me. IMO the map is a step up from the base game by quite a bit, retaining the nonlinear nature but with the same kind of criss-crossing between, over, and under different regions that the first Dark Souls had. Stuff like the convoluted path to the Abyssal Woods, a scadutree fragment hidden behind a secret platforming challenge that has you descending all the way down the final dungeon along the outside, the verticality of the dungeons in general, and much more manages to weave some of the magic of DS1's map into an open-world map in a way I didn't think was possible. I loved the way the map was, but a number of people seem to actively despise it.

What's funny is when I brought up the idea that Elden Ring doesn't have an extremely concise story, that it has tons of gaps for us the player to fill in on Reddit a LOT of people thought I was being stupid. So it's nice to see other people agree. I just got to the final boss and I am so stuck haha been on it for over a day but that's fine I'll get there. TBF I am making the fight unnecessarily difficult. I'm using the entire Leda Knight set and sword(I like the look), I am using the wolf shield and trying to parry most of his attacks not dodging around like I am making this fight extra challenging for no reason other than it's fun. I know if I wanted to there are so many better builds that I could use to murder the boss right now, but I am enjoying the challenge. I don't care if it takes me a week to beat him, I want to beat him on my terms and when it happens I will be sooooo hyped

Been following some stream vods post essays i loved (wolfenstwin) looking forward to more

I swear even in these less scripted casual videos you say such thoughtful things that always stick with me. Love the book recommendations btw

Coming from someone thats been playing these games and involved in this community for a very long time, people throwing around phrases like "pandering to Radahn fanboys" and "terrible writing" is just so funny to me. Time really is a flat circle. Every time Fromsoft (specifically Miyazaki) make a DLC, there's always a subsection of players that begin frothing at the mouth the moment Miyazaki doesnt confirm their old asf headcanons (something he has NEVER done), and instead of seeing how the new content recontextualizes thinks they just throw their nose up in the air. Same thing happened in Ds3 with people that wanted to go to Londor in the dlc. Same thing happened all the way back in Ds1 with Velka. Except this time, it's an army of Godwyn bros.

28:55 the Joseph Anderson review and its consequences have been a disaster for Elden Ring criticism discourse

actually we still don't understand video games in general i'd say that a lot of people claim to hold position that "games are art!", but they are often viewing gameplay, the element that actually makes games games, purely from the perspective of immediate entertainment every aspect is being reduced to notion of it being "fun" and a lot of mechanics that they don't like become "a waste of players time" (kinda similar to a "but what does it add to a story?" discourse about sex scenes)

Love your take "story of dark souls is your story" because for me DS was about... Well death and acceptance of your own mortality. And it was 100 my own conclusion of what this games tried to say by both it themes and ending.

23:00 I was going to suggest that maybe the Spirit Ash restrictions in multiplayer may be due to PvP, but that's undermined by the fact that 1) most areas don't let you summon spirits until you enter the fog gate, which sends any invading players home* and 2) they added an option for Spirit Ashes in the Colosseum game mode released later on**, so PvP Spirit Ashes is something they definitely considered doable. *doesn't apply to field bosses, which you can summon for in singleplayer AND can also get invaded during in multiplayer **the Colosseum wasn't added until almost a year after the game's release, so maybe they hadn't yet figured it out in time to include it as a basegame feature

I'm watching this because you are such a fount of knowledge when DemonMamma is playing Souls games. With regards to looking for explanations of Souls games I always recommend Aegon of Astora's "Lets talk Lore" series. I was talking to a friend last night who is a die hard Skyrim fan and he was explaining how he couldn't play Elden Ring because a) he couldn't find the "Story" and b) he hated the fact there was no map guidance to the next part of the story (apart from the pointers at Sites of Grace).

Really great video, I've been trying to figure out my feelings about difficulty vs accesibility. I've reached a point in my fromsoft worship where if a game isn't hard or just doesn't frustrate me with it's difficulty then I just won't play it. I smashed my head against margit day one and loved it, and a year later beat all bosses sl1. I have 100% achievements in all their souls-y games. All this to say, sometimes when I'm talking with people who don't play these games sometimes I end up feeling out of touch, and I think it's important to recognize that in myself and adjust how I talk about these games and art in general.

"Being bad at video games is not a disability" made me laugh out loud

I had only 4 gripes. 1) No ending integration... 2) DLC map felt a little more empty (but that's what they intended) and I loved exploration in base game... 3) No characters in base game in DLC... 4) Lore seems off I did a quick Google search and George didn't help write the DLC and that was Miyazakis mistake unless they didn't have the budget (doubt). I loved the lore but it seems rewritten or something. Like Miyazaki and his team just came up with whatever they thought was ok for a continuation of the story. Other than that, I loved the DLC. I loved Elden Ring in general. A lit a fire I thought had disappeared when gaming was peak or if I was just outgrowing video games. I was bored, games sucked, they want you to spend with microtransactions. But then this game came and I found myself losing sleep sleeping past 12am when I had to be at work at 6am. Excited to go home and play hours on end. Gaming isn't dead (yet), just AAA games we used to love.

I think most difficulty issues could be solved by devs just bringing back cheat codes. I adore Elden Ring and Erdtree, it's one of my favorite games. I don't think the bosses are 'too hard' or whatever. But I also just don't enjoy that part of the game. I've never gotten a big sense of enjoyment or excited accomplishment from defeating a hard boss. To me they're a frustrating barrier to getting to experience and explore more of the world and story. And yet I love Elden Ring's combat. 2nd to last boss was my favorite to play. And I appreciate the boss designs on others too. Messmer is incredible. Also despite their frustration, I rarely had that big of an issue on any boss. I 1 or 2 shot a few. The only time I know I spent more than an hour on any boss was probably Radagon and Messmer, maybe original Radahn? But at the same time, I also have little patience for these things. I haven't even fought Malenia 10 times. I just don't want to. I tried twice after reaching Erdtree final boss and got her to 2nd stage on my 1st try. But I just don't care. It's not enjoyable to me. Likewise I just chose not to deal with the frustration of Erdtree's final boss after trying for a while. I think where this comes from for me and others is that Elden Ring opened the doors to a new way of enjoying the game. You could enjoy the Souls games for the story and world. But you couldn't -only- enjoy them for that. If you didn't also enjoy or at least tolerate the difficult bosses, you're blocked from experiencing everything else. This is fine, that's what those games are. It's a clear design decision, and it benefits from setting clear expectations for players so they can quickly tell if the game is for them. Elden Ring is different. You can play Elden Ring for hours and not engage with the real challenge of the game, but then eventually hit a point where you must do so to progress. I'm reminded of World of Warcraft that has SO many diverse features and ways of playing and enjoying it, that they frequently annoy their audience by trying to integrate them. PVE players get annoyed at events that require PVP. PVP players get annoyed at gear gated behind PVE. These are not flaws. But they are challenges that arise from the type of game that Elden Ring is that are very different from their past games, and the audience they attract. Oh, I will say, one thing that I will directly criticize Erdtree bosses for is rushing the player at the start. Either allow players to safely spirit summon or don't include the mechanic at all. Yes it's an easy mode modifier option. But again, why include it at all as an easy mode option if you're going to punish and annoy players for trying to use it? And fights are obviously not tuned to make trying to spirit summon mid-fight an interesting challenge.

🎉

You mean you don't one shot everything first try? UGH, unsubscroobed. Can't believe I followed an unskilled gamer. /jk

I understand it. Lol, not really, but I think I have a pretty good handle on it and it's getting better all the time. The primary theme is legacy. That was clear from the start. Miyazaki and Marika are very closely aligned. They came from nothing and struggled and strove to build their great kingdom according to their principles. And then there came a time when they had to start thinking about the future. That there was an end coming, whether it was in sight or not, and that failing to set up the next generation to succeed without them is a vital part of their role. Marika (Miyazaki) sets up her (his) children (games) to be her (his) legacy. But realizes that this is not sufficient. That she (he) is not an island and that others who come after her (him) will need some guidance now in order to carry on her (his) legacy in the future. To be strong enough to stand on their own two feet without her (him). We see this now with the changes Miyazaki has made at From since becoming the guy in charge there. They've started up a bunch of new projects and Miyazaki has set up other people from within the company to direct these projects. He is taking more of an overseer role to make sure that their games live up to the standards people have come to expect from From Soft. He's preparing them, and us the audience, for the future. Whatever it may bring. All the rest is elaborations on the things which have always interested Miyazaki. Religion, faith, skepticism of religious authorities, stagnation, decay, the ways traditions can become dangerous etc. etc. Even the complicating factor of George Martin having written a ton of stuff isn't that obscuring, as I've seen some people claim. You just need to know a bit about his interests. If you don't recognize Conan the Barbarian in Godfrey, you're missing out. If you don't recognize Richard III in Messmer, you're missing out. If you don't recognize the Albigensian Crusade in the story of the Misbegotten, you're missing out. It's a new layer. But it's not inscrutable. All that aside. God what a perfect game. In the base game I made a Castlevania inspired build. It was never really complete though as there's no analog for a throwing axe. Well wouldn't you know it? We get a whole slate of throwing weapons so I'm not stuck using consumables and spells to compliment my whip anymore. There's so much stuff packed into that little island. I'm on my 3rd playthrough now and I'm still not tired of it. Helps that all of my builds are fairly diverse (god the whip is such a struggle, Radahn is going to be miserable).