- Preordered the Launch Edition at 449 DKK.
- It is out February 25th.
- I have it now. I got a poster and stickers and stuff with the launch edition.
- I booted it up for the first time, created a quick Vagabond character, and went out into the beautiful starting area. I don't have time to play before next week, though.
- I have been thinking about this game during my trip to Iceland, and now finally get to sit down and enter this exciting new universe. I recreated my Demon's Souls character Templor, who shall punish heretics in The Lands Between as he did in Boletaria.
- Argh! I opened a chest and a teleport trap put me in a nightmare mine with horrible 'Prawn Miners'. And now I can't get back!
- I quickly found the way out of the Sellia Crystal Tunnel, but still wanted revenge on the miners. It was too difficult, and I had to leave. But a very tense and exciting moment right from the start of the game!
- After escaping the mining horrors, I got a quick victory against the Beastman of Farum Azula.
- And now I can level up.
- I was not ready for Margit, the Fell Omen, who's a real Souls boss. Even with NPC Sorcerer Rogier helping.
- I found the Stillwater Cave. I should come back with poison protection.
- On an unrelated note, I have now received confirmation that I have COVID-19.
- I found some fire dudes that were pretty strong and killed me a bunch of times. I did manage to clear them out and ravage their little camp. After that, I discovered the Village of the Albinaurics, which was a nice creepy surprise that reminded me of some of the better moments in Bloodborne.
- I completed the Stormfoot Catacombs, defeated the 'Erdtree Burial Watchdog', and started exploring more of Limgrave. The Night's Cavalry looks like Nazgûls.
- The Walking Mausoleum was amazing to encounter. When I brought it to its knees, it turned into a building that I could enter.
- I went south to the Weeping Peninsula, and breached Castle Morne. I defeated the Leonine Misbegotten on my 2nd attempt.
- I started using my old favourite from DS1, the colossal sword Zweihander. I'm learning how to scoop up enemies from horseback. It's very heavy, so I'm now half naked in pants and boots, starting to embody a truly fanatical Temple Knight. After defeating the Grave Warden Duelist, I felt ready for 'Margit, the Fell Omen', and defeated him in two attempts with the help of Sorcerer Rogier and my trusty sidekick, the Spirit Jellyfish.
- I'm getting lost in Stormveil Castle. I ended up finding a nice rooftop-based shortcut and a new Lost Grace.
- I fought my way through the castle and reached Godrick the Grafted. I might be a bit too difficult right now. Also, I got assassinated by a flamethrower bird in spectacular fashion while talking to the warrior Nepheli Loux.
- I killed a Black Knife Assassin and a Tibia Mariner. I found a weird ghost candle in a forest full of murderous bears. One of them was sleeping next to a dungeon, until I woke it up with my Zweihander. I found a lift that transported me down into a huge underworld area. This is almost too much. Is this game infinitely big?
- I explored a bit of the underground area, before starting a journey to the horrifying North East area.
- Caelid is horrible and I hate it / love it. I finally beat the Stillwater Cave, and started moving north to Liurnia of the Lakes.
- I finally beat the Tree Sentinel! Praise the Zweihander.
- I destroyed Fort Haight, a Demihuman lair, and a cave bear.
- Got the Shardbearer Godrick trophy. - I finally beat Godrick the Grafted. Actually, my Spirit Jellyfish got the last hit.
- My next target to progress the game should be the 'Academy of Raya Lucaria' in the 'Liurnia of the Lakes' area.
- I managed to steal the Academy Glintstone Key from the fearsome Dragon Smarag, and breached Raya Lucaria Academy.
- I killed the Red Wolf of Radagon in the academy. The next area was tricky, I was killed a couple of times by the horrible Abductor Virgin, seemingly an animated torture instrument. The I was killed by Moongrum, the Carian Knight, and finally killed by Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, who seems like this game's Rom, the Vacuous Spider. I gave up on Rennala for now, I need to be stronger.
- I found a teleporter to Greyoll's Dragonbarrow, an area that I seems incredibly underleveled for. However, when I carefully avoid the big demon guy outside, I can grind the little ninja dudes for 1094 XP each, which is a lot for my current level 44 dude.
- Erik and I recreated Kang Golos from Demon's Souls, and Erik masterfully defeated the first spider boss that you're supposed to die to.
- Got the Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon trophy. - I fought giant ants in tunnels, like I'm playing EDF. They led to Uhl Palaca Ruins, where I was completely destroyed by the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella. To get some redemption, I went and destroyed Rennala.
- I went back to Limgrave to clean up a few loose ends.
- I discovered Caria Manor and started exploring a bit. After that, I went to the Ainsel River Well and killed the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella.
- I bashed my head against the Misbegotten Warrior & Crucible Knight combo boss for hours, before I gave up. The Warrior is easy enough to kill with the help of a summoned spirit, but the Knight is very tricky.
- The Remembrance of The Full Moon Queen has very high Intelligence requirements and seems useless for my character. I should just trade it for 20,000 Runes.
- Shopping list:
- Trade Remembrance of The Full Moon for Runes
- Duplicate Remembrance of the Grafted
- Create both Axe of Godrick and Grafted Dragon, as they both seem cool
- Try to use Rune Arc when fighting against the Crucible Knight
- I should use the Baldachins Blessing to get rid of the hug debuff.
- I *finally* defeated the Crucible Knight, and in a comically tragic moment, he killed me at the same time.
- I want to start the Radahn Festival, but I read that I have to activate the Grand Lift of Dectus first. I found both halves of the Dectus Medallion, the 'Right' side of them was in Fort Faroth. After that, I activated the Lift of Dectus. I think I have to go to the checkpoint for the Crucible Knight/Misbegotten Warrior boss fight, and backtrack a bit.
- After talking to Martin F, I think I need to go back and talk to Ranni the Witch, after talking to War Counselor Iji about Blaidd.
- The flower enemies in this game are straight out of King's Field.
- I just had a thought when looking at the map - what is there is a boat in this game?
- I think I know what to do to start the Radahn Festival. I should talk to Ranni the Witch in her tower and start her quest.
- I did it! The Radahn Festival is now ready to commence. I had to:
- Ask to serve Ranni the Witch in Ranni's Rise
- Talk to Blaidd's spirit in Ranni's Rise
- Talk to Blaidd close to the Spirit Spring where you can jump the giant columns in Siofra River
- Ask Seluvis in Ranni's Rise about Nokron
- Show Seluvis' letter to Sorceress Sellen in the Waypoint Ruins
- Tell Sellen's story to Blaidd back in Siofra River
- Go to Redmane Castle Plaza
- Bjørk dropped by and created a new Elden Ring character and played for a while. He was a little bit frustrated with the structure of the game. After that, I demoed my character and did some very fun challenges, such as playing a naked guy with two shields, as well as a backstabbing monk with daggers.
- Malu played for hours with her sorcerer, she devastates whole groups of the enemies with the Glintstone Arc spell, and killed an Erdtree Burial Watchdog boss.
- Got the Shardbearer Radahn trophy. - When I finally unlocked the ability to fight Radahn, I was high enough level that I beat him without big issues. The War-Dead Catacombs were nearby, but were insanely difficult. I had to bail out again.
- I ventured north to the insane Dominula, Windmill Village and defeated the grotesque Godskin Apostle.
- After a very tricky but fun fight with the Draconic Tree Sentinel, I have reached Leyndell, the Royal Capital.
- Apparently, I should meet Blaidd at Fort Haight.
- I have reincarnated my Dark Souls III fist-based character, Fister. He is a large naked man with a mustache and a lot of upper body strength. The game was impossibly hard in the beginning, but after riding to the Isolated Merchant in Dragonbarrow and buying the Spiked Caestus, life got a lot easier. Tonight, I defeated Margit and several minor bosses.
- The other essential item I got was the Iron Whetblade, allowing me to make the Caestus scale solely on Strength.
- I breached Leyndell, the Royal Capital, and wandered around, carefully searching for a Grace Point. The layout is confusing, with a lot of interesting opportunities for jumping into other areas, and another Site of Grace was hard to find.
- I defeated 'Astel, Naturalborn of the Void', a horrifying monstrocity that could munch me in its mandibles and one-shot me. Now I need the 'Ring of Oath', which requires me to finish some other business.
- Oh no, the Baleful Shadow is a Blaidd wolf dude spirit.
- Templor is level 100 now
- I went through Mt. Gelmir, got tricked by Patches as usual, and reached Volcano Manor, where I got an assassination quest. I guess the next step could be to do the assassinations, and then go back to Leyndell.
- Erik showed me his end game character, and a very cool trick: Using the Wraith Calling Bell to fire a slow ghost projectile, and immediately deflecting the projectile with the Carian Retaliation Sorcery to generate high-damage floating magic swords.
- The site was getting real slow, it took around 5 seconds to reload a gamelog page. I had to optimize it. Getting the system names for a gamelog page took around 4 seconds. I made a quick system name cache, and now getting the system names takes 0.00 seconds. Big improvement.
- I should get the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +1 (13% physical damage negation) in the Sainted Hero's Grave on the Atlus Plateau, directly north of the Stormcaller Church.
- I traversed the Mountaintops of the Giants and reached Castle Sol, beat Commander Niall to get the 'Haligtree Secret Medallion (Left)'. That allowed me access to Miquella's Haligtree from Grand Lift of Rold. This area looks like Rivendale from the Lord of the Rings movies.
- This area is too difficult. I want to go back to earlier areas and find more dungeons and stuff.
- The final assassination mission was Juno Hoslow, Knight of Blood. I had a lot of trouble with this one, I kept bleeding to death after being whipped by him. I ended up using a ridculous heavy suit of armor, in which I could barely move, and a great shield, and then focused on counter-attacking and regaining stamina when possible.
- I then seeked an audience with Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy at Volcano Manor. The first battle with the God-Devouring Serpent was fairly doable, but Rykard was very difficult. I got the Serpent-Hunter spear at the entrance, but couldn't find it in my inventory. So many weapons.
- The calm forest valley on Atlus Plateau was full of horrible monstrocities, and it was a spooky trip through.
- I have taken a couple of months off from this enormous game, but am thinking about coming back soon. Here is my current TODO list:
- First, I should kill Rykard with the Serpent-Hunter.
- From the Consecrated Snowfield, I should enter Mohgwyn Palace.
- Next, I should come back and finish Miquella's Haligtree.
- Finally, I should go to Flame Peak and kill the Fire Giant and proceed to Crumbling Farum Azula
- Got the Shardbearer Rykard trophy. - After selecting the Serpent-Hunter and duplicating myself with Mimic Tear, stabbing the big snake to death was a quick affair. I got the Blasphemous Blade from Rykard's Rememberance, which seems like a very cool weapon for Templor.
- I started exploring the Consecrated Snowfield, which was complicated by giant bears murdering me over and over again. Wandering to the east, I found the Consecrated Snowfield Catacombs, which I carefully explored. Death lurked around every corner, and I ended up in a nail-biting situation where I explored the last parts of the catacombs with no health potions. I found the lever and easily beat the boss.
- I have leveled up the Blasphemous Blade, it is now the highest damage dealing weapon I have.
- I should level up the Erdtree Seal and use it instead of the Finger Seal, it should scale better with Faith.
- Got the Shardbearer Mohg trophy. - Mohg, the Lord of Blood was tough, but I managed to make a reasonable strategy to defeat him.
- I put on Lionel's Armor and Greaves, and the Stalwart Horn Charm +1 for added Robustness (bleed resistance).
- I mixed Opaline Bubbletear for damage resistance and Purifying Crystal Tear to counter Mohg's curse (this is essential)
- I used Protection of the Erdtree
- I created a clone using my Mimic Tear +7
- I tried to dodge most of his attacks, and to stun him with jumping attacks with my Blasphemous Blade +9, which also helped me do ranged attacks and regain health with the Taker's Flame ability
- I went back to the Haligtree area and quickly defeated Loretta. The next area, Elphael, is very tricky, with a lot of strong enemies between the two first grace points.
- Got the Shardbearer Malenia trophy. - Getting through Elphael was difficult, but Malenia, Blade of Miquella was the true challenge. She's an intimidating enemy, very fast-moving with combos that can drain an entire life bar, she inflicts Scarlet Rot, and even heals by inflicting damage. The key to fighting her is to fight all your instincts and be very agressive. I used the Mimic Tear to distract her, while pummeling her with my now fully upgraded Blasphemous Blade's Taker's Flames skill. She had an attack where she spawned shadowy clones of herself, which seemed essential to dodge.
- Got the Fire Giant trophy. - After Malenia I went back and defeated the Fire Giant. Using the Mimic Tear and being on horseback made this fight pretty easy. And now Melina set herself on fire, and I'm in Crumbling Farum Azula, a place I've heard about a long time ago.
- I traversed the surreal Cumbling Farum Azula, killed a dragon and the Godskin Duo. I think I'm getting close to the final boss of this area.
- I should make sure to get the Old Lord's Talisman (extends duration of Spells and Incantations). I think I'll automatically get the Blasphemous Claw on the way, which I probably need for the boss.
- Got the Maliketh the Black Blade trophy. - I defeated Maliketh, duplicated his Remembrance, and got both the Black Blade incantation and the Black Blade itself, which I immediately leveled up to max level and adopted as my new favourite weapon. I'm now at the Ashen Capital and can finish the game. There are two dragon trophies I can get first, for defeating Dragonlord Placidusax at the button of Crumbling Farum Azula, and for defeating Lichdragon Fortissax in Deeproot Depths, which requires following Fia's questline. I don't know if this one is locked out already, otherwise I will have to postpone it to another playthrough.
- Got the Mohg, the Omen trophy. - I spent a long time getting through the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, which felt like a very traditional Dark Souls area, with paths connecting back to a starting area, with unlockable shortcuts. I didn't like going through the sewer pipes, impossible to navigate without getting lost. Mohg, the Omen ... didn't I kill him already?
- I hit the altar in Mohg's ... church, and it gave way to a nightmarish area with contorted, madness-stricken corpses.
- Got the Lichdragon Fortissax trophy. - Before engaging the final boss fights, I wanted to get a few trophies. Fortissax was the first one, which required finding Fia (the hug lady) in Deeproot Depths.
- Got the Dragonlord Placidusax trophy. - Another trophy to clean up before the final fights, this one required finding a special, pretty well hidden, spot to go to sleep, and the fighting a monstrous two-headed dragon.
- Got the Hoarah Loux the Warrior trophy. - This was a tough boss fight, but was easier once I switched the close combat Black Blade for the Blasphemous Blade with its long range attack.
- Got the Elden Lord trophy. - As usual, the final boss was surreal and amazing. The design and movement of the Elden Beast is incredibly unique, it's like a Plesiosaur shaped mollusc with starlight inside it. Very cool.
- Completed the game.
- I should get all the 4 legendary X trophies: Armaments, Ashen Remains, Sorceries and Incantations, Talismans. Then I just need to complete the game twice and I'll have all trophies (sweating).
- First shopping list - Talismans: Radagon Icon and Erdtree's Favor +2.
- Got the Legendary Talismans trophy.
- Legendary Sorceries shopping list:
- Founding Rain of Stars
- Ranni's Dark Moon
- Comet Azur
- Stars of Ruin
- Legendary Ashen Remains shopping list:
- Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff
- Lhutel the Headless
- Black Knife Tiche
- Redmane Knight Ogha
- Legendary Armaments shopping list:
- Bolt of Gransax
- Dark Moon Greatsword
- I have finally restored the video page which has been out of commission since the site redesign. It currently has 2767 entries.
'Shadow of the Erdtree' has a 95 metascore, and I decided to preorder the DLC. Preordering a DLC sounds weird, but then, this is a 300 DKK DLC that is at least 30 hours long, so maybe it makes sense.
I finally got around to the DLC 'Shadow of the Erdtree'. The beginning was a little boring, riding around on huge plains without finding much. However, when I entered the Belurat tower, things turned around. It was an intense, scary trip through a scorpion-infested area full of horrible birds, human-fly mutants, and large horned knights that would destroy me several times. It felt like I was playing Dark Souls again. The boss 'Divine Beast Dancing Lion' was intimidating and cool, and I had to summon both the NPC help and my clone to defeat him.
After going through the cool Shadow Keep, I encountered the creepy Messmer, the Impaler. He's very difficult, and I'm considering saving him for later. There must be other places I can go.
Turning back from Shadow Keep, I went through parts of Scadu Altus, the flooded Shadow Keep Church District, and ended up in the Abbysal Woods, where I failed sneaking past the scary Aging Untouchables. I need to explore to the South where I should find the Cerulean Coast, Charo's Hidden Grave, the Finger Ruins of Rhia, and the Jagged Peak to the far east. I'm not sure how I can reach Scaduview and the Hinterlands to the North.
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