SKZ - Episode 2 - Making of a Masterpiece: Elden Ring

Episode Date: April 23, 2023

This episode discusses the flaws of each Souls game, how Elden Ring addresses them, and what this process teaches us about bitcoin and the therapeutic process.

Hey everybody, this is Joe. This is episode two of the SKZ podcast. Thank you to everyone who's tuned in and listened to either episode zero or episode one. I didn't want to say a special thank you to all those of you on Fountain Podcasts. I actually see on the distributor I'm looking at that 90% of my listens were from Fountain. So I actually really appreciate everyone who is listening there. And hey, if anyone wants to leave any kind of boostagram or stream sats to me. I mean, if you do a boostergram, I'll be happy to read whatever your comment is on the next episode of the podcast. And if there's enough, eventually, I'd be happy to even do just like a listener reaction podcast and react to your guys's comments about whatever we're talking about.

So feel free to do that, no pressure, but yeah, it would be greatly appreciated. It'd be a cool way to kind of interact and doesn't even have to be anything big could just be a few sats. So I'd be happy to just have some engagement. So today, I wanted to, I think I'm going to name this something, you'll see what the name is, but something like, you know, the creation of a magnum opus or the creation of a masterpiece. And one of my favorite games of all time was one that came out just over a year ago now. It's called Eldon Ring. If you're a video gamer, you've probably heard of it.

What I wanted to do in this episode is kind of talk about all the different pieces of previous from software games that led to the creation of Eldon Ring. And look at through the lens of like, what were the greatest strengths and especially the biggest flaw of all these different previous kind of souls like games? And how did Eldon Ring account for that, you know, the strengths and weaknesses and kind of take the best version of those previous games to make Eldon Ring? So I'm going to go through, you know, Demon Souls, Dark Souls, 1, 2, and 3. and Bloodbourne and Securo.

There are other from software games, of course, but a lot of them are armored core. They're not really Souls games. But those are the ones I'm going to go through. And I'm going to go in the order. I just read them. So start with Demon Souls and then Dark Souls 1, 2, 3. I know Bloodboring came out before Dark Souls 3,

but some of my commentary will be kind of more similar to the commentary with Sekiro. So I put those two next to each other. So first let's start with Demon Souls. And this is the first game in the series. say for me, I played this after I played all the other games. I forget if it was after I played Elton Ringer just before, but I had already played a lot of the other games. And by the way, I was playing an emulator of it on my laptop. That's not very fancy. And it was running at like 10 frames per second. And I don't have a PS5, so I didn't play the remake. So basically, I did not have the

greatest technical experience playing Demon Souls. But I will just say that. that like I feel like Demon Souls, it has great environments, especially Castle Ballateria. I love it, but it's a lot easier and just not very challenging compared to the other Souls games. There's not really anything wrong with that. I'm not saying it has to be challenging, but I do think that that is a flaw that I will say Eldon Ring obviously is a pretty challenging game, especially if you kind of choose to do certain things like not use summons, things like that to make it even more challenging for yourself. another flaw with the game with Demon Souls is having healing grasses rather than the Estes flask.

So this, you know, a lot of these ones in the earlier games in the series, it's kind of fixed even before Eldon Ring comes out, but that's something that, of course, Alden Ring fixes with having the flasks. Or, yeah, the flask. But even in Dark Souls 1 with having your flask, it's just so much better than having the healing grasses that you kind of have to farm up if you're having trouble with the boss. and especially with Bloodborne, they kind of repeat that problem. I don't know why they chose to do that, rather than just have an Estis flask or something similar. But yeah, that's what I think about Demon Souls.

And I'd say, you know, integrating that or the improvements that they've made with the healing flasks. And of course, in Dark Souls 3 they added in kind of the distinguishing, kind of the tradeoff between having more healing flas or more magic flask. That's great that they carried that over to Eldon Ring. and also adding in the customizable flask of wondrous physics and the Eldering was a really nice touch. So just emphasizing that, you know, I think one of the biggest flaws of Demon Souls

was it was not challenging enough and the healing system sucked and, of course, Elven Ring and a lot of the previous games already kind of fixed those problems. Next, we're going to go to Dark Souls 1. This is my favorite game in the series before Eldon Ring. I think it's kind of a masterpiece he's in its own right, but it's hard to truly put that word masterpiece on it because the first half

the game is nearly perfect, but even I will admit someone who loves the game, the second half is not nearly as good. That's a common criticism of it. But yeah, like the first half, I mean, Undeadburg is just a great place to kind of test out your training wheels with the combat. I know for me it was the first Souls game I played. I imagine for a lot of people it was the first Souls game they played. and Anne Orlando is really just amazing, visually stunning dungeon, and it's awesome to explore. But after Anne Orlando, the game feels kind of rushed compared to the first half of the game, especially with the bed of chaos fight and the whole demon ruins, Los Isoleth area. I mean, everyone hates on the fight, but even just the areas are mainly just big open spaces,

whether it be lava or stones or whatever, and just a bunch of things. of reused enemies so it's not very interesting and you know other endgame areas like you know the duke's archives is cool but then when you get to crystal cave or whatever it's called i mean it's just they needed better technology i think to make the whole snow falling on the path you're supposed to go on work with the invisible paths because you're basically just relying on the messages people leave to get out there and fun fact that that's the only area where um there's like uh uh developer created messages outside of just the very beginning tutorial because they knew that people kind of needed the messages to get around. But anyways, that's just two examples of how the

second half of the game is pretty rushed compared to the first half. And I think that Eldon Ring really addresses that by just being really consistent throughout. Like there's no drop-off partway through Eldon Ring. I definitely thought the game would end around with Landell, but then there's a whole, you know, mountaintops of Giants area with two big dungeons. So it definitely improves on that in terms of just being really consistent throughout not dropping off.

And I think the greatest strength of Dark Souls one in terms of just how it compares to other games in the series is the world interconnectivity. There were so many times where my mind was just completely blown that all of a sudden I'm back into Firelink Shrine. Or, you know, I remember like exploring Dark Route Bayson, finding the door that takes you where Havel is in Undeadburg.

And I was like, I had no clue those areas were even connected, but just the geography. It's just so well done. And even though, you know, Eldon Ring being more open world, it doesn't really let you, or it didn't really create that kind of central hub that everything links back to. But I'd say with the underground connecting to the overworld, there's a lot of different ways where those connections are really in cool and unexpected ways. So they definitely maintain that value of the interconnectivity that I think was best in Dark Souls 1 compared to any other game.

Moving on to Dark Souls 2, there's plenty of videos, podcasts, whatever, enumerating all different flaws of Dark Souls 2. I'm a fan of Dark Souls 2. I think it's a valuable part of the series. And I think there's some things that it's actually the best at, which is sometimes, you know, a hot take because a lot of people just hate Dark Souls 2. but I genuinely think it has the best story in the series. I mean, the part where Vendrick is in the undead crypt,

and like the whole game was leading up to you kind of finding this king that mysteriously disappeared, but you realize that he's gone mad and lost his memory. It really nails that theme of how kind of being immortal as an undead just leads to this like madness and memory and identity loss. So I thought that was fantastic. Also, the build variety is great in Dark Souls too. So now I'm talking about all the strengths of Dark Souls 2, but I will say.

I mean, there's plenty of flaws. For me, what I would point out is the biggest flaw of Dark Souls 2 is that the bosses are just not that interesting. Like, even though there's that one scorpion lady, maybe even two scorpion ladies, depending on how you count it. But I just think that they're mostly just like humanoids that might have one or two interesting mechanics, but it's not anything great. There's several just like a knight in armor or whatever. The Pursuer, for example, they're just not super memorable. They're kind of just there. I will say the looking glass night is an exception to that. I really like that boss, but even that is copying a mechanic from Old Monk and Demon Souls. I just love the animation of the player or MPC like

breaking out of the mirror shield. But anyways, I think Eldon Rie really fixed that because it has that consistency and all the bosses are very much. very unique rather than having just kind of humanoid X, humanoid Y, humanoid Z. I don't know. I just thought the bosses were kind of boring in general in Dark Souls 2. And I'd say that it maintains Dark Souls 2's greatest strength because the build variety is great in Dark Souls 2. And build variety is probably even better in Eldon Ring just because of the sheer number

of different, you know, different spells, weapons, things like that that exists in the game. And I think even though I really love the story of Vendrick, I think there's a lot of great stories in Eldon Ring that kind of match that. So like all the different shard bearers have really cool personalities and cool backstories. Now next let's move on to talking about Dark Souls 3. And Dark Souls 3 is a great game. I think it's my second favorite outside of Eldon Ring and then Dark Souls 1 and then Dark Souls 2 out of all these games. games. But I will say, I think Dark Souls 3 is a little too linear. Um, and the build variety dropped off a lot because magic is just way less viable. I mean, I did a magic play through,

but it's just not quite as good as in Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1 and 2, which it kind of forces you to play as a melee person. I mean, not forces, but it just, it's not nearly as, well, I don't want to say the earlier games were balanced necessarily. There's always ways to cheese in stuff like that, but it just felt like there were multiple different viable paths in the previous games that were more, you know, for the average person, usable builds. I will say also with Dark Souls 3 talking about its flaws, the story was way too reliant on the first game.

And I've heard that the developers weren't really excited about the idea of making Dark Souls 3 rather than a new IP. it was more just like the publisher, you know, wanted them to still use Dark Souls name because it was popular. And the story kind of repeats Dark Souls 1 story without adding much to it, which it does build on that theme of how these cycles are continuing and there's no change, even though the fire's being lit, things like that. And it just keep getting worse and worse. But still, I think it goes to show that they really wanted a new series with the Souls DNA, but just a new IP. And of course, Bloodborn and Securo were examples of that in the sense. But I think, of course, Eldon Ring also kind of adapts to that flaw because of,

because of it is its own IP, it has its own story and everything. Brought in Georgia Haramartin, I'm not sure how much you really added to it, but, you know. And just talking about Dark Souls 3 strengths real quick is that I think the dungeons are awesome. Cathedral of the Deep is one of my favorites. And there's just a lot of connections that loop back to. to bonfires, which of course is kind of a staple of the series, but I think they've really mastered that and made the dungeons awesome in Dark Souls 3, and I think that Eldon Ring definitely carried that over with having a lot of really great dungeons that are very unique.

And I think that Dark Souls 3 also had the most consistency in terms of the boss fights. So like I said, with Dark Souls 2 didn't really have great boss fights, but with 3, the bosses not only have their own personalities and cool backstories like we talked about, but they have very unique encounters. I mean, the first, and just talking about the major bosses, but the first boss, I mean, rips the dragon's head off and grafts it onto his arm. Second boss is this mage in a library where you end up in this dream world. And third boss is this badass warrior guy on a tiny horse in the desert.

And that's just the first three. Like I said, it doesn't really drop off. It stays consistent throughout, but it also fixes the linearity of Dark Souls 3 by being just very open and fixes the story issue by having its own unique story. So overall, I think Eldon Ring kind of addresses all the different flaws of Dark Souls 3. And again, Elven Ring just is a great game. And addressing those flaws is what made it great. So the last two we're going to talk about, there's some similar gripes that I have with them.

It's Bloodbourne and Securo. I really like Bloodbourne. I think it has an awesome atmosphere. I think some of that Dark Lovecrafty. in tone kind of carried over to the underworld in Eldon Ring. But I would argue that when it comes to Bloodmore and Securo, these games are trying to do something different, especially Sekiro, right? So I do respect that. But they really have a lack of build variety. Like there's not even any kind of build variety in Sekiro. You can argue there's a different tools. You can use them differently,

things like that. But with Bloodborden, there's at least some magic in the game and some unique weapons, but most of those you don't even get until towards the end of the game. So, like, it's not really viable until you're doing a new game plus, which I haven't really done. I've just only done the new, the, you know, regular new game. And, of course, Elton Ring really fixes this by basically going back to the soul's formula of having a lot of different viable buffs. And like I mentioned earlier, or viable builds.

And like I mentioned earlier, I think it has the best build variety in the series. another thing to mention when talking about bloodborn is the chalice dungeons which are very boring and repetitive and you know i think it was a cool idea to introduce some more side content that was dungeons but elden ring just obviously does this better by having you know i don't i didn't count but like definitely dozens maybe even hundreds of small handcrafted side dungeons and of course they kind of repeat bosses and some of those but i mean you you can't bite the hand that feeds you right I mean, Elven Ring gives you so much content. You can't really complain about some repeated bosses and side dungeons.

And again, I mean, the build variety in Elven Ring is great. So it addresses that problem with Bloodborn 2 and with Sekiro. When it comes to Sekiro, I got to just emphasize it's too hard. And you can call me soft, but to me, having a four-phase boss fight is just ridiculous. And Dark Souls 3 definitely upped the difficulty from the previous ones, which they kept in Sekirot. I mean, I was pretty pissed in the Dark Souls 3 DLC when Sister Friedi had three phases, and they kind of fake you out after the second phase, and you think that you won.

But having four phases in the last boss is just excessive, in my opinion. And I get, it's a different type of game, right? It's not like Dark Souls 4 or 5 or whatever. It's Securo. It's a different game, and it's trying to be something different. It's trying to be this very challenging, tight combat, which it does very well. But just personally, to me, I wish that I had more options to help either create some build variety, which in itself lowers the difficulty because if something's not working, you can try something different on the boss or just have other options. Even like co-op, for example, they don't have that in Sekira, which of course is an option of summoning someone in to help you want to fight.

That's tough. So I'm glad that Eldon Ring kind of fixed that by honestly not being that hard, like especially if you're using the summon system in Eldon Ring. it's probably one of the easier games in the series. There's definitely hard fights, but I would say, like, if you choose not to use the summons, even then Dark Souls 3 and Secura are probably still harder than Eldon Ring. Maybe, like, Eldon Ring and Dark Souls 3 are around the same level. But, yeah, like I said, I just think it's really good that they chose to give you some more options through build variety and just generally making the game not quite as hard to make it.

more accessible to more people and really just less frustrating, honestly, to play. I will say, I will admit that Sekiro, I played it in not the greatest environment, I will say, because I found out about the Souls games in, like, December of 2021. Eldon Rain came out March, or sorry, February 2022, right? So I was actually, and the games aren't super long. none of these games except Elton Ring. So I was very motivated to like try to beat all these games before Eldon Ring came out. And I had like one week to beat Sekiro before Eldon Ring came out, right, at that point.

So it was like not the great. Well, and by the way, it was only Dark Souls 1, 2, 3 and Sekiro. I'm pretty sure Demon Souls and Blood Born I played after Eldon Ring. But anyways, like I only had to beat a week or so to beat Sekiro and I was really trying to rush it and like just getting to the last boss and it was so hard it took me like a couple days worth of tries to beat it was kind of frustrating but um one thing that from seciro that i think is a really great aspect is how fluid the movement is and i mean it has a jump button for one thing none of the previous games really had that except if you like double tap be you while you're running or whatever

and just was kind of clunky um so you know the fluidity of the jump in elden ring when you're not on the horse at least isn't fantastic, but it at least added that element to the game. And I think the mobility in terms of the exploration in Securo was an improvement over previous Souls games. And I think that Eldon Ring kind of factored that in in terms of just having some more verticality to the exploration. So anyways, that's how I think that each of these games in the series was flawed

and also some of its biggest strengths, right? But that's how I see Eldon Ring kind of addressing those biggest flaws and incorporating those biggest strengths from each of the previous Souls games. So what can we take away from this? You know, it might sound simple, but sometimes it takes several iterations to find something that's right and find, you know, the best version of something. You need to try multiple times. And I will say, I mean, another example of this is if you look at the history,

of digital currencies, right? And I'm not an expert in this, so I'll defer to, you know, other sources. Like, I recently read the first couple chapters of Alex Gladstein's book, Check Your Financial Privilege. And I had a great chapter about this history. But like in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, there were a lot of different digital currencies that added different features throughout like blind signatures, proof of work, things like that. But I would argue that Bitcoin. brought all these innovations together and added in the difficulty adjustment, which basically prevented the issue and schedule from being manipulated, and ultimately kind of made it into a masterpiece, right?

Like, it made the best version of digital currency and, like, incorporate all the previous versions. And I will say that other souls games, other souls like games that aren't from, from softwares, I would say those are shitcoins, as we say, in the Bitcoin community, a lot of these other cryptocurrencies are shit coins. I've played some other Soulslight games that aren't from software, and I'm sure some of them are good, but a lot of them, they just, they don't have the same magic, you know? So Souls like games are shit coins is my tagline.

And I think in life, I mean, a lot of times we need multiple tries before we can succeed, like we're talking about with Eldon Ring and Bitcoin. And in my job as a therapist, you know, In a lot of ways, what I'm doing is helping people kind of notice their different habits of thinking and feeling and looking at the different strengths and weaknesses of each of those habits and reflecting on them and then coming out the other side as the best version of themselves, right? Integrating the habits or the strengths of each of those different, you know, habits or thinking patterns and trying to get rid of the flaws or kind of improve on the flaws to help them just, again, be the best version of themselves. and I think, you know, it might sound cheesy, but I think that's kind of similar to what we just been talking about here with how from software I imagine they probably had a lot of meetings. Look at the different strengths between this is what was received well, what was received poorly about all these different games, and came out the other side and really created a masterpiece. And what I consider one of the greatest video games of all time and one of my favorites.

So anyways, if you feel like you got anything out of this, please just let me know in, you know, any way. way that you can on your different podcast platforms or I think I'll post this on YouTube as well. So feel free to let me know in the comments or like or subscribe all that jazz. And if you want to leave a comment where you can or on Fountain Podcasts, you can do a boost to gram. I'll be happy to read that next time. And yeah, I'd love any kind of feedback on strengths and negatives of this, right? And help me create the best podcast that I can.

So I'm just getting started this episode too. But yeah, let me know if there's any other things you want to cover. you want me to cover in future episodes in terms of just different themes going about different things in life, right? Whether it be video games like I'm talking about now or Bitcoin or philosophy, psychology, anything like that, I'd be happy to talk about and I'm going to kind of do some more of these. So thanks so much for listening if you got this far and have a great rest of your day, rest of your week. And good morning, good evening, good night, whenever you is when you're listening to this. Thanks.