I got a buddy who has a physical disability and therefore can't react that well in gameplay. I still showed him Dark Souls 1 and while he struggles more than others would, it became one of his favorite Games, easily because it is so merciless to him and I find that beautiful. Great video, loved and enjoyed it every minute
@@MostPretentiousAnimeNerd-ri9ds really admirable that you showed your friend such a difficult game series, even more admirable is they stuck with it! Glad you enjoyed the video!
17:39 well actually shadps4 is an emulator and in the past 3 months the guys working on it managed to get BLOODBORNE RUNNING ON PC, CONSISTENTLY and without any bugs or data corruption/misplacemet, which is marvelous i tell you! all is left for us now is to wait for the mods^^ it is true what they say, christmas did indeed came early this year
@@KM-hk8tc it's why I always include timestamps on my videos! Glad you enjoyed it, if you fancy something similar I made another video essay around horror games earlier in the year you should check out 🙂
Wow wow wow, what an incredibly thought-provoking video. Your knowledge of these games bring so much to this conversation, and the ending was so moving! Bravo Rhino 👏
Great video man! Keep it up 👍… Sekiro is my current favorite … It took me 200+ tries to beat Father Owl for the first time and now I can’t beat him first try … seeing the progression is so gratifying
@@destinsather9757 thanks! Father Owl is a tough one but I'd be disappointed if he wasn't! That's the only thing with Sekiro for me, the replays just aren't as fun when you can't change up your build or anything!
Honestly...I always got nice answers and tips from the souls community every time I struggled with a boss, and asked for advice. Au this point I really think that the "toxic souls community" is some kind of urban myth. I keep dying to every boss at least a few times since dark souls 3 came out, and the community was always helpful, although I was once roasted for my weird turtle beach controller
Sittin down with my snack and my drink. Yes my padawans you must practice, develop your muscle memory, create those pathways for your nuerons. Develop intuitive understanding for all worldly things. This is what I myself mean, when I say “get good”.
I've checked off Demon Souls back in the PS3 days. Next one was Dark Souls and Bloodborne, now I'm struggling through Sekiro after giving up years ago... Definitely want to check this whole series off at some point including ER. Something about this makes me want to come back over and over again. Great video!
@@yipperdeyip thanks so much! Like I said in the Sekiro section the rigid nature of the playstyle means some people will just never like it, so if it's not for you I'd say move on to DS3 or ER, they're much more open for players!
@graciousrhino Oh I LOVE the living crap out of Sekiro. It just handed my butt to me and I gave up, but this time I'll beat it for sure! Playing with a guide and I've beaten Lady Butterfly first try lmao 😎
Nowadays, there's no reason to get good. If you're having difficulties with a boss or an area, there's always a cheese method somewhere. There may also be game mechanics you are unaware of or aren't using for some reason. Use them, that's why they're there.
Elden Ring is a wildly all over the place experience for me. I'm certainly not above using the tools the game gives me, so I always use spirits when I can (and usually the NPCs if they are available). I first tried a lot of things I probably shouldn't have (Morgott, Mohg, Rykard, Astel, Godskin Duo, Godfrey, most dungeon bosses). I find Alecto absolutely impossible and can't even get her in the cheese position where she's stuck (I keep falling off the edge of the arena). She would be a joke if I could summon. Weirdly, Radahn was a massive wall despite all the NPCs (granted, I first rolled up to him naked, with 27 vigor and a soreseal. finally beat him after Morgott at 50 vigor). Currently struggling with the fucking amoeba so I went to the DLC to collect more stuff because the only other major thing in the base game I have left is Malenia and I'm not touching that until I feel ready. Got most remembrances very easily (even Fire Giant only took 2 deaths). Cheesed Placi with Loretta because Fuck That. Somehow only died to Maliketh once. If only they took away half of Elden Beast's health bar and gave it to him. I'm keeping a death tally by category and by far the most dangerous thing in the Lands Between is gravity.
@@akechijubeimitsuhide that does sound like a massively uneven experience, to wipe the floor with some bosses and get hard stuck on others can be pretty common though! The key to ER tends to be a substantial Vigor stat, so maybe that'll help in spots?
@@graciousrhino I already have 60 vigor and I'm lvl 170-something. Not much help against Elden Beast. I spent the whole game as a mage and now I respecced into fth. Radagon is not even a problem with fire.
people think DS3 is the easiest souls game? that's wild. if those 'people' are the majority, then the 'majority' have no idea what they are talking about. It's not a hard game, sure, WAY easier than the marketing and word of mouth would have you believe, but DS1 is a million times easier. Please someone agree with me....I'm starting to feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
'at no point should be be complaining about options' This is the point where I disagree. As Ratatosker said, the lack of options is itself an option. You said you didn't understand why they went back to a rigid, restricted game like Sekiro after DS3 but you had already answered your own question when you said that when you beat a boss in Sekiro you know you've earned it. It's simply a matter of what their vision is for each game. Adding more options cannot be seen as a strict improvement. Personally, I feel like Sekiro is Fromsofts best and most complete work and I absolutely think the game would be worse if more options were added to bring it closer in accessibility to something like ER. I also genuinely believe that if a game like ER had restricted the player more particularly in the beginning it would have had the effect of less players sticking with it but also less of the players who stuck with it complaining about it's endgame content. Giving players options or restricting them are development choices each with unique benefits and draw backs and neither can really be seen as being 'better' in a broad sense imo. Anyway solid video.
@@BBQcheese the point I was trying to make was that being given an option you can ignore for the most part is something that isn't worth getting stressed out about. I agree that mechanically speaking their tightest game was Sekiro, where they clearly had a vision and essentially said to players if you don't like it there's the door. Very brave decision to do that and I think in this day and age FromSoftware are the only ones capable of being that ballsy. I totally understand where you're coming from, and maybe it can't be considered an improvement adding more options but I personally would never see it as a net negative. Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment!
@@graciousrhino Ok, but you also have to admit that sometimes, people don't know what they want. I won't go super in depth with it but again Ratatosker has an excellent essay about this idk if you have seen it. An example would be myself, I didn't think think I was the type of person to enjoy difficult games and avoided souls games until Bloodborne due to their reputation. However, at this time I've beaten them all without leveling and often with many more restrictions as well. This is not too gloat anyone can do it I'm saying that by restricting me they taught me something about myself and my own preferences. There is value in that. I also think it's interesting that the one that finally got it's hooks in me (Bloodborne) is on the more restricted side of the spectrum when compared to the other games. It's interesting that Bloodborne and Sekiro remain my favorites as well. I also hard agree with what you said at the end of the video though. Just because I choose to play ER at RL1, naked with a club that doesn't invalidate someone who uses every advantage given to them. It's just a matter of preference. Also, I apologize if I came off as combative because that wasn't the intention.
@BBQcheese no you didn't come across as combative at all it's totally fine! I haven't seen that essay but I'll definitely give it a watch! Bloodborne and Sekiro are also my favourites so I think we're on a similar wavelength
@@graciousrhino Unfortunately I can't direct you to it or my comment will be deleted but it's a bit old. You'll know you have the right when when he's taking at length about spaghetti sauce and I'm not joking. Thanks for responding!
I'm a little bit torn about the answer to the question of whether it is good. If I had to say yes or no, my answer is NO. This game series used to be about overcoming adversity and perseverance when something appears to be impossible. This is not possible in the Elden Ring formula; yes, you can self-impose the challenge, but that's not going to create thousands of stories of people who were saved in real life by the game. Is Elden Ring a great game? Yes! But nothing more than that. Is it a form of art? Maybe. Is it a flawed masterpiece like the Dark Souls series (excluding DS2-this was a mistake with great PvP), 100% no! Just a great AAA game like many others. I'm hoping that it will encourage more people to try the actual masterpiece of Dark Souls, letting them discover the true masterpiece. Paradoxically, the thing that popularized Souls-like games is also the death of it, and that is a loss for humankind.
@@PiotrWalecki-u8d I genuinely do see where you're coming from, but I do believe people can still have stories of adversity from the modern FromSoft games, a bit like with stress it's subjective. This is definitely the first time I've seen someone call Elden Ring a flawed masterpiece mind!
Okay, I can respect and understand the majority of what you're saying. But MAYBE art?! That, to me is beyond outta pocket. In this medium of audio visual design and storytelling, how many games do what it does on those fronts? It's an experience with a lot of things to say and show - the people who made it are communicating to you, with an experience. Not only is it art, it's arguably one of the most artistically-earnest titles to come out this decade. It puts a concentrated effort towards presenting a vision to you, like... that's the whole point of it. Every last bit of it prioritizes artistic merit... like to the point that it bothers people with the opaqueness that brings to the 'game' side of the experience. Honestly, if it presents as anything at all, it presents as art first. Most AAA games have nice visuals, some interesting ideas and writing, but they aren't trying to be pieces of art as much as they are entertainment products. There is art and creativity in them as a means to that end. Elden Ring started as a vision, while it treats the game as the medium. It exists because one guy specifically wanted to show people something. It's art, man. That's not up for debate.
This is a great retrospective about the difficulty in these games (puzzled as to why include Sekiro and not Armored Core), but I have a few critics. You are talking about a "hardcore community" as if it was some prevalent and a majority between the souls community, and it is not, usually git gud people are just very small and loud minority, or people that just got into the games and think that difficulty is all about these games. Also, I find you retrospective of Sekiro very bland and inconclusive, you didn't even explained how the difficulty over the length of the game changes. IMO Sekiro is not the most difficult, but it does have the steeper learning curve from these games, but once you master the basics, the game becomes much more comfortable. The game is not the most inaccesible, that crown goes to dark souls II which difficulty goes into the realm of the "unfair", Sekiro on the other hand even gives you a training dummy which you can use to master the basics of the game. Anyway, ultimately a nice video.
@@JonathanOrtegaLobo thanks for taking the time to comment! I think you might be right about the vocal minority, it just doesn't play well into the narrative theme into the video and I hadn't really thought about it being that. For the Sekiro section I actually noticed in editing that it seemed shorter than the rest, I did consider doing a video on just Sekiro so maybe one to revisit! And yeah DS2 had some unfair parts for sure!
Nah not really, you just gotta memorize the patterns and after that all difficulty disappears due to not having anything difficult in execution. Miazaki literally said “the difficulty is not dependent on the skill level of the user” there’s very little skill based in these games, all the difficulty lies in trial and error or memorization.
@@MakioGoHardio yeah I actually agree, that's the entire point of the games is to memorise attack patterns etc. What I'm saying is they added in various mechanics for people who struggle with doing so in order to make them easier. People learn at different rates and not everyone has the patience to smash their head against a boss for 50 tries, they just want to move on to the next one. I've seen a lot of different people play these games on streams and in person and they all react differently to a boss they're stuck on. It's an each to their own type deal
@ I feel that the reason people get stuck on bosses for 20+ attempts or struggle learning the movesets is purely due to frustration, if you approach these games with a calm level headed mind it’s pretty easy to learn the bosses at least from my experience and watching others play. I do appreciate the ways they allow players to make the game easier, ik a lot of people who used summons on their first playthroughs and now challenge run the games.
I got a buddy who has a physical disability and therefore can't react that well in gameplay. I still showed him Dark Souls 1 and while he struggles more than others would, it became one of his favorite Games, easily because it is so merciless to him and I find that beautiful.
Great video, loved and enjoyed it every minute
@@MostPretentiousAnimeNerd-ri9ds really admirable that you showed your friend such a difficult game series, even more admirable is they stuck with it!
Glad you enjoyed the video!
17:39 well actually shadps4 is an emulator and in the past 3 months the guys working on it managed to get BLOODBORNE RUNNING ON PC, CONSISTENTLY and without any bugs or data corruption/misplacemet, which is marvelous i tell you!
all is left for us now is to wait for the mods^^
it is true what they say, christmas did indeed came early this year
@@AlexCira-js1kb I usually do an annual replay of Bloodborne and once I get time I fully intend to play it this way!
Just here to tickle the algorithm. Hope your channel grows !
@@johnsherry6021 cheers John!
only 91 views? you need more recognition amazing video
@@Ja06. Thanks so much!
2.9k right now.
I loved this video! I totallly agree with ur thoughts on difficulty here and it’s cool to see people growing past the git gud days !!
Great vid mate. And yes, I need to get good, but I would rather have fun.❤
@@OrggsOrggs what it's all about!
Excellent video. I usually skip through most but I sat and watched and absorbed yours. Great work.
@@KM-hk8tc it's why I always include timestamps on my videos! Glad you enjoyed it, if you fancy something similar I made another video essay around horror games earlier in the year you should check out 🙂
Love videos like this. Please make more! It’s done soooo well
@@tanner_titus if you liked this one check out the other one in the Deep Dive playlist, slightly different theme but still about game design!
I'm loving your video. Great work. Keep it up.
Wow wow wow, what an incredibly thought-provoking video. Your knowledge of these games bring so much to this conversation, and the ending was so moving! Bravo Rhino 👏
@@herblore95 ❤️
🔥
Quality video. The algorithm brought me here. Keep it up!
Great video man! Keep it up 👍… Sekiro is my current favorite … It took me 200+ tries to beat Father Owl for the first time and now I can’t beat him first try … seeing the progression is so gratifying
@@destinsather9757 thanks! Father Owl is a tough one but I'd be disappointed if he wasn't! That's the only thing with Sekiro for me, the replays just aren't as fun when you can't change up your build or anything!
What a waste of time lol
Honestly...I always got nice answers and tips from the souls community every time I struggled with a boss, and asked for advice.
Au this point I really think that the "toxic souls community" is some kind of urban myth.
I keep dying to every boss at least a few times since dark souls 3 came out, and the community was always helpful, although I was once roasted for my weird turtle beach controller
@@norbertscheibenreif8336 I'm glad you had a great experience, I hope you're right about the community! I kind of want to see the controller now 🤔
well , then try having a different opinion . then you see the true colors of community XD
10:55 hitchboxes are not break at all
Sittin down with my snack and my drink. Yes my padawans you must practice, develop your muscle memory, create those pathways for your nuerons. Develop intuitive understanding for all worldly things. This is what I myself mean, when I say “get good”.
I've checked off Demon Souls back in the PS3 days.
Next one was Dark Souls and Bloodborne, now I'm struggling through Sekiro after giving up years ago...
Definitely want to check this whole series off at some point including ER. Something about this makes me want to come back over and over again.
Great video!
@@yipperdeyip thanks so much! Like I said in the Sekiro section the rigid nature of the playstyle means some people will just never like it, so if it's not for you I'd say move on to DS3 or ER, they're much more open for players!
@graciousrhino
Oh I LOVE the living crap out of Sekiro.
It just handed my butt to me and I gave up, but this time I'll beat it for sure! Playing with a guide and I've beaten Lady Butterfly first try lmao 😎
@@yipperdeyip I loved Sekiro too, glad to hear you gave Lady Butterfly what for 😂
Nowadays, there's no reason to get good. If you're having difficulties with a boss or an area, there's always a cheese method somewhere. There may also be game mechanics you are unaware of or aren't using for some reason. Use them, that's why they're there.
@@Blade-hf9po preach!
Can't believe there is a deepdive about a phrase people use who want to troll other people.
Liked. Subscribed.
Elden Ring is a wildly all over the place experience for me. I'm certainly not above using the tools the game gives me, so I always use spirits when I can (and usually the NPCs if they are available).
I first tried a lot of things I probably shouldn't have (Morgott, Mohg, Rykard, Astel, Godskin Duo, Godfrey, most dungeon bosses). I find Alecto absolutely impossible and can't even get her in the cheese position where she's stuck (I keep falling off the edge of the arena). She would be a joke if I could summon.
Weirdly, Radahn was a massive wall despite all the NPCs (granted, I first rolled up to him naked, with 27 vigor and a soreseal. finally beat him after Morgott at 50 vigor). Currently struggling with the fucking amoeba so I went to the DLC to collect more stuff because the only other major thing in the base game I have left is Malenia and I'm not touching that until I feel ready.
Got most remembrances very easily (even Fire Giant only took 2 deaths). Cheesed Placi with Loretta because Fuck That. Somehow only died to Maliketh once. If only they took away half of Elden Beast's health bar and gave it to him.
I'm keeping a death tally by category and by far the most dangerous thing in the Lands Between is gravity.
@@akechijubeimitsuhide that does sound like a massively uneven experience, to wipe the floor with some bosses and get hard stuck on others can be pretty common though! The key to ER tends to be a substantial Vigor stat, so maybe that'll help in spots?
@@graciousrhino I already have 60 vigor and I'm lvl 170-something. Not much help against Elden Beast. I spent the whole game as a mage and now I respecced into fth. Radagon is not even a problem with fire.
Like commented and subscribed 👍
people think DS3 is the easiest souls game? that's wild. if those 'people' are the majority, then the 'majority' have no idea what they are talking about. It's not a hard game, sure, WAY easier than the marketing and word of mouth would have you believe, but DS1 is a million times easier. Please someone agree with me....I'm starting to feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
30 minutes for a 30 second answer. This is the Dark Souls of video essay's & I'm now gittin gud
'at no point should be be complaining about options'
This is the point where I disagree. As Ratatosker said, the lack of options is itself an option. You said you didn't understand why they went back to a rigid, restricted game like Sekiro after DS3 but you had already answered your own question when you said that when you beat a boss in Sekiro you know you've earned it.
It's simply a matter of what their vision is for each game. Adding more options cannot be seen as a strict improvement. Personally, I feel like Sekiro is Fromsofts best and most complete work and I absolutely think the game would be worse if more options were added to bring it closer in accessibility to something like ER. I also genuinely believe that if a game like ER had restricted the player more particularly in the beginning it would have had the effect of less players sticking with it but also less of the players who stuck with it complaining about it's endgame content. Giving players options or restricting them are development choices each with unique benefits and draw backs and neither can really be seen as being 'better' in a broad sense imo.
Anyway solid video.
@@BBQcheese the point I was trying to make was that being given an option you can ignore for the most part is something that isn't worth getting stressed out about.
I agree that mechanically speaking their tightest game was Sekiro, where they clearly had a vision and essentially said to players if you don't like it there's the door. Very brave decision to do that and I think in this day and age FromSoftware are the only ones capable of being that ballsy.
I totally understand where you're coming from, and maybe it can't be considered an improvement adding more options but I personally would never see it as a net negative.
Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment!
@@graciousrhino
Ok, but you also have to admit that sometimes, people don't know what they want. I won't go super in depth with it but again Ratatosker has an excellent essay about this idk if you have seen it.
An example would be myself, I didn't think think I was the type of person to enjoy difficult games and avoided souls games until Bloodborne due to their reputation. However, at this time I've beaten them all without leveling and often with many more restrictions as well. This is not too gloat anyone can do it I'm saying that by restricting me they taught me something about myself and my own preferences. There is value in that. I also think it's interesting that the one that finally got it's hooks in me (Bloodborne) is on the more restricted side of the spectrum when compared to the other games. It's interesting that Bloodborne and Sekiro remain my favorites as well.
I also hard agree with what you said at the end of the video though. Just because I choose to play ER at RL1, naked with a club that doesn't invalidate someone who uses every advantage given to them. It's just a matter of preference.
Also, I apologize if I came off as combative because that wasn't the intention.
@BBQcheese no you didn't come across as combative at all it's totally fine! I haven't seen that essay but I'll definitely give it a watch! Bloodborne and Sekiro are also my favourites so I think we're on a similar wavelength
@@graciousrhino
Unfortunately I can't direct you to it or my comment will be deleted but it's a bit old. You'll know you have the right when when he's taking at length about spaghetti sauce and I'm not joking.
Thanks for responding!
I'm a little bit torn about the answer to the question of whether it is good. If I had to say yes or no, my answer is NO. This game series used to be about overcoming adversity and perseverance when something appears to be impossible. This is not possible in the Elden Ring formula; yes, you can self-impose the challenge, but that's not going to create thousands of stories of people who were saved in real life by the game.
Is Elden Ring a great game? Yes! But nothing more than that. Is it a form of art? Maybe. Is it a flawed masterpiece like the Dark Souls series (excluding DS2-this was a mistake with great PvP), 100% no! Just a great AAA game like many others. I'm hoping that it will encourage more people to try the actual masterpiece of Dark Souls, letting them discover the true masterpiece. Paradoxically, the thing that popularized Souls-like games is also the death of it, and that is a loss for humankind.
@@PiotrWalecki-u8d I genuinely do see where you're coming from, but I do believe people can still have stories of adversity from the modern FromSoft games, a bit like with stress it's subjective.
This is definitely the first time I've seen someone call Elden Ring a flawed masterpiece mind!
Okay, I can respect and understand the majority of what you're saying. But MAYBE art?! That, to me is beyond outta pocket. In this medium of audio visual design and storytelling, how many games do what it does on those fronts? It's an experience with a lot of things to say and show - the people who made it are communicating to you, with an experience. Not only is it art, it's arguably one of the most artistically-earnest titles to come out this decade. It puts a concentrated effort towards presenting a vision to you, like... that's the whole point of it. Every last bit of it prioritizes artistic merit... like to the point that it bothers people with the opaqueness that brings to the 'game' side of the experience.
Honestly, if it presents as anything at all, it presents as art first. Most AAA games have nice visuals, some interesting ideas and writing, but they aren't trying to be pieces of art as much as they are entertainment products. There is art and creativity in them as a means to that end. Elden Ring started as a vision, while it treats the game as the medium. It exists because one guy specifically wanted to show people something. It's art, man. That's not up for debate.
This is a great retrospective about the difficulty in these games (puzzled as to why include Sekiro and not Armored Core), but I have a few critics.
You are talking about a "hardcore community" as if it was some prevalent and a majority between the souls community, and it is not, usually git gud people are just very small and loud minority, or people that just got into the games and think that difficulty is all about these games.
Also, I find you retrospective of Sekiro very bland and inconclusive, you didn't even explained how the difficulty over the length of the game changes. IMO Sekiro is not the most difficult, but it does have the steeper learning curve from these games, but once you master the basics, the game becomes much more comfortable. The game is not the most inaccesible, that crown goes to dark souls II which difficulty goes into the realm of the "unfair", Sekiro on the other hand even gives you a training dummy which you can use to master the basics of the game.
Anyway, ultimately a nice video.
@@JonathanOrtegaLobo thanks for taking the time to comment!
I think you might be right about the vocal minority, it just doesn't play well into the narrative theme into the video and I hadn't really thought about it being that.
For the Sekiro section I actually noticed in editing that it seemed shorter than the rest, I did consider doing a video on just Sekiro so maybe one to revisit!
And yeah DS2 had some unfair parts for sure!
Nah not really, you just gotta memorize the patterns and after that all difficulty disappears due to not having anything difficult in execution. Miazaki literally said “the difficulty is not dependent on the skill level of the user” there’s very little skill based in these games, all the difficulty lies in trial and error or memorization.
@@MakioGoHardio yeah I actually agree, that's the entire point of the games is to memorise attack patterns etc. What I'm saying is they added in various mechanics for people who struggle with doing so in order to make them easier. People learn at different rates and not everyone has the patience to smash their head against a boss for 50 tries, they just want to move on to the next one. I've seen a lot of different people play these games on streams and in person and they all react differently to a boss they're stuck on. It's an each to their own type deal
@ I feel that the reason people get stuck on bosses for 20+ attempts or struggle learning the movesets is purely due to frustration, if you approach these games with a calm level headed mind it’s pretty easy to learn the bosses at least from my experience and watching others play. I do appreciate the ways they allow players to make the game easier, ik a lot of people who used summons on their first playthroughs and now challenge run the games.
Twin princes I can't beat.
Now do this vidoe again, without souls.
Bloodborne is kind of easy
every souls game is 'kind of easy' after the first time