how didn't the difficulty filter casuals?

What difficulty? Magic is piss easy and melee devolves into role + m1 spam plus it being open world means it's incredibly easy to be overleveled. It's the easiest souls game

Did you somehow miss how the game is literally designed around having a bunch of different ways to circumvent the difficulty if you find something too hard? This is a big part of the appeal of ARPG's

timing rolls is baby ez mode
you rollslop casuals would faint at the first boss in god hand.

>>714628176
we got a badass over here!

>>714627624 (OP)
The open world. It gives you the option to just fuck off and level up somewhere else doing something else. The other souls games have a lot of linearity to them. If you don't like getting your ass handed to you in Elden Ring you can go somewhere else far away and feel like you're progressing. You level up and come back later and its like oh its easy now! A lot of the harder encounters in the game aren't even required to beat it, they're optional

I'm a high level gamer and a soulsvet and yeah this game is pretty easy

>>714627624 (OP)
because the 'difficulty' is learning and remembering how long the boss will be faking an attack to bait a roll before it actually hits

ER had tons of tools to help casual gamers like summons, spirits and an open world where you could get strong weapons and a decent level before "having" to kill story bosses.

There were tons of guides and articles to help whenever you got stuck as well.

Because From gave youtuber tranny grifters like Vaati early access so they could spam their GET GORILLION BAJILLION RUNES AND TRILLION LEVELS AND ONE SHOT BOSSES IN FIRST 5 MINUTES videos.

Also there are literally sites selling runes for ER as well (pic rel), i can tell some fucking retard fell for it.

You get coop, summons, and a massive list of nutty tools to steamroll the game's challenges with minimal effort. You can clear everything without learning fights if you don't limit yourself.

Overleveling and phantoms/spirits are only able to carry noobs in Elden Ring because arena boss fights are fundamentally less complicated than dungeons.

It didn't

>>714627624 (OP)
the lack of runbacks did it for me, i would always drop dark souls because you have to run past enemies for 3 minutes to retry a boss

>>714627624 (OP)
no run backs
summons
bleed/broken building crafting

>>714627624 (OP)
1.) The game isn't that difficult.

2.) FromSoft are experts at designing intuitive difficulty. The entire purpose of Varre, the guidance of grace, the Tree Sentinel, and Margit is to deliberately bitch slap the player for playing the game "incorrectly". If you exclusively follow the guidance of grace, here's what you get
>the golden halberd
>1x smithing stone [1]
>a flame resistance talisman
>storm stomp
>1x golden seed
>the jellyfish
>the +10 STR physick tear
Note how the game gives you a little taste of everything, but each one is actually fucking useless. The golden halberd has the highest requirements of any somber weapon in Limgrave. The smithing stone is worthless because you need 2 to upgrade a weapon, and there isn't a somber smithing stone to upgrade the golden halberd. The flame resistance talisman is useless in Limgrave. Storm stomp is a great ash of war for PvP, but for PvE it's terrible. The jellyfish and +10 STR physick tear are good, but you don't get the key items to use either on this path. The golden sneed is the only worthwhile item between you and Margit.
All of this is so Margit reams your asshole, you think
>Hmm, I should leave and explore more
and that's when Limgrave vomits a dozen different useful weapons, spells, ashes of war, and other pieces of equipment - including the spirit-summoning bell - at you, the second you step off the prescribed path and begin exploring the Lands Between like FromSoft wants you to.

tl;dr they throw good items at n00bs, and experienced players just choose not to use them because they understand how FromSoft does difficulty.

>>714627624 (OP)
None of the souls games are notably difficult. There's very rare exceptions like Promised Consort and Malenia, but 99% of the stuff in these games is only at an average level at best.

>>714629194
ER especially had to rely on BS and artificial difficulty to avoid getting steamrolled.

>1 button game

How did it not filter casuals, but did filter /v/? Is /v/ so bad at video games that they get mogged by normalfags who'd never played a Souls game in their life?

>>714633443
It filtered /v/ because /v/ is obligated to dislike anything popular.

Only good thing to come of this game is the stone imp porn.

>>714627624 (OP)
it filtered me because i hate running around exploring

>>714628076
That's part of what I didn't like about it, because while there's so much character customization, there's a real feeling of "I want to use this really cool-looking build, but it's playing the game on easy mode!" Dex/arc being the main one I'm thinking of, between the communion seal and varied bleed weapons. Helice/Eleonora's/Rivers gives you a lot of options for gameplay on top of just having shit like claw and rot breath, but somehow they're cheating, but just spinning a fucking prelate's around with Lion's claw isn't.

The ashes are legitimately the worst thing about it in this regard. At least make them actual character models instead of the stupid ghost shit. Give me some pocket waifus.

>>714627624 (OP)
magic + mimic tear, just spam mimic tear and spam magic from range and congratulations, you will kill 99.99% of bosses with ease.

>>714627624 (OP)
The open world means that anyone who actually spends time exploring in the exploration-focused game will be overleveled and overgeared by the time they get to the more significant parts of the game.
That plus spirit summons means it's really not any harder than a Zelda game or something.

>>714627624 (OP)
Souls games aren't that hard. Play old arcade shit if you want games designed to kick your ass and take your money. Console and PC games have always been easy because they want to steal your time instead.

>>714634148
>give me some pocket waifus
Your Lhutel? Jellyfish? Tiche? Nox Sisters?

>>714627624 (OP)
Because there is a built in easy mode to souls games.

Magic.

>>714627624 (OP)
Summons trivialize.

>>714634429
They're ghosts and don't say anything. They also made this whole mechanic garbage without variety by just making Mimic Tear, far and away, the best summon in the game.

>>714629080
Yup. Once I got into the groove of the game I started beating bosses on the first try. I had to google the Nihil meme because Mohg never got a chance to use it on me.

>>714634479
What about the people who didn't use magic?

>>714627624 (OP)
too many crutches
remove summon ashes and colossal greatswords and you filter 50% of normies, make rollspam more pushing and then you have a game with a proper skill floor
I fucking hate casuals

>>714634885
>make rollspam more pushing and then you have a game with a proper skill floor
that exist as is called dark souls 2 and people hated it to death

>>714627624 (OP)
normal experience (souls games were never hard)
>consumable craftable items which trivialize offense and defense
>ashes of war which trivialize offense and defense
>refillable potions that trivialize offense and defense
>shield that negates 100% of physical damage (the most common enemy damage type)
>unlimited access to i-frames that *literally* negate all damage from all sources except status build-up
>craftable items and spells that outright delete status build-up
>spirit ashes which trivialize offense and defense for any boss that allows them
>player and NPC summons which trivialize offense and defense for any boss that uses them
>absurd upgrade scaling for every weapon (somber smithing stones and weapons obsolete normal ones in every way)
>spells, status effects, and procs that just break enemies in half
>jumping meta that negates all damage
>jumping heavy attack meta that staggers every boss in a few hits
>unlimited do-overs
>absurd health damage and stamina scaling via stats
>skip content you don't like
>can run away from everything in the game that isn't a mandatory boss


what chuds turn souls games into (le hardcore veteran, lol)
>ignore 99% of the content that makes the game easy
>self-imposed challenges that result in less content (e.g. no bleed)
>sequence break metafag builds from wikipedia that require 5 hours of uninterrupted horse riding to set-up.

>>714633443
The biggest meme for ER was a guy that beat the hardest boss for the casuls. And then you have a mod that removes invasion and killed vanilla multiplayer, because they couldn't cope with the one trade-off summoning brings.

>>714627624 (OP)
>difficulty
it's mario galaxy every normie kills a boss in like 6 hits

>>714634190
i love how this thread reveals the cazzies kek. The reality is the game is fucking hard ass dick if you play blind and don't google anything

>>714635173
the only i boss i really was going bald was the twin gargoyles, that fight suck ass.

>>714635173
>The reality is the game is fucking hard ass dick if you play blind
It's not hard it's slow.

>trial and error to figure out enemy AI (40 hours)
>runbacks from dying to bosses (20 hours)
>figuring out where to go and how to get there (30 hours)
>loading screen because you died (4 hours)
>literally looking for upgrade materials (80 hours)
>trying to grind because bosses give no souls (30 hours)
>realizing you get that amount of souls by just speedrunning legacy dungeons (100 hours)
>beating black blade kindred (20 hours)
>figuring out what killed you was an invisible aoe and not a mis-timed roll (60 hours)
>figuring out the attack was unparryable and not a mis-timed parry (never, you are never figuring it out)

If your game has women finishing it without looking, no hands, using all types of objects like dance pads to finish the game, you can't call it difficult.

>>714635173
The only boss you have to check is Malenia. The rest are the same garbage you are used to in soulsborne.

>>714635517
maybe if you play it like it's chess

>>714635785
elden ring was mine and most people first soulsborne

>>714629050
There is no way people are buying runes when you can simply cheat them in with CheatEngine, right?

>>714635950
Nah. Dark Souls 2 was popular and so was Dark Souls 3.
Then you had Sekiro which won GOTY and sold well.
Then the exclusive Demon's Souls which also sold well and was the flagship of PS5.
Elden Ring got released during covid so that's why it got that boost.

>>714627624 (OP)
the amount of cheese and crutches you get offsets this. It's actually challenging if you play without being a faggot

>>714636309
>It's actually challenging if you play without being a faggot
The amount of content that makes you a faggot outweighs the amount of content that doesn't. Eleonora's Poleblade is fun as fuck, but it's really gay and trivializes any humanoid enemy. Breath incants are fun as fuck, but the strongest one is one of the biggest cheeses in the game (rot breath). The only way to play the fucking thing without either gimping yourself or cheesing it is a fucking colossal sword, and even then it's "only sometimes."

Saw some dude no-hit kill Melania on NG+7 and even if he didn't use summons, he's still swinging on her with Rellana's blades, because he's so overleveled he has all four of the stats they scale with capped.

>>714636752
colossal sword are literally baby mode though

>>714636893
That's why I said "only sometimes." A colossal sword at least forces you to learn some attacks to dodge and play aggressively to stance break. They're a cheese when they can fucking flinch on top of stance breaking. They're also morally grey, though, because I don't see a way to deal with Godskin Duo solo without either using them or using a bleed weapon.

The alternative is, what, swinging around a standard rapier like that's the most fun thing in the world? You're barely above swinging on them with a club in a level 1 run, but you don't get to say "I did a level 1 run" afterwards.

>>714627624 (OP)
It has plenty of tools to get around the difficulty. Even the worst of players can breeze through the game with mimic.

>>714636752
>The only way to play the fucking thing without either gimping yourself or cheesing it is a fucking colossal sword
Just use your class starter weapon, perfectly fair

>>714635517
well my game got bugged after fire giant and i couldnt go to farum azula, so i was fucking wandering around forever managed to kill malenia, and was just so fed up i had to google what the fuck to do, the only solution was to do some glitch where it wrong warped you to farum azula. i mainly used the hoarfrost stomp the entire game and i think i just did a quality build with 2 longswords, but i got lucky finding the most broken shit i didnt even try any of the new stuff cause i can never be bothered until i was getting my shit pushed in somewhere around volcano land probably, if you were entirely new you would be fucked especilally and i can imagine you would be inclined to google the meta build and what to do and so on

Every post in this thread is wrong. Its because they're able to summon coop buddies to play the game for them. Its the reason Sekiro made so many rage quit. Even though Sekiro is the more fair game.

>>714637717
>Uchigatana
>Fair
Rolf
lmao

>>714627624 (OP)
Because the games easily exploited with ashes of war.

>>714627624 (OP)
ER is the easiest Souls game to break by getting stupidly OP.

>>714638275
Even with the keen affinity it's really not a super great weapon, poor poise damage vs stamina cost, bad ash of war, mediocre bleed buildup

>>714637267
I'd say the subset of daggers that don't have status, the better R2, or busted skills like Reduvia Blood Blade or Blade of Death are the closest you get to hard mode, aside from meme shit like torches. They're the only ones with prominently poor stance damage, range is dogshit, and their main selling point of crits is offset to an extent by both low AR and default Rapier also having boosted crit. Everything else feels like a fairly level playing field outside of player poise. Even thrusting swords can stance break bosses in 3-4 charge R2s, which aren't meaningfully slower than a colossal R1, while having the backup option of fast R1s for DPS.

>>714638585
>poor poise damage
The charged R2 fucking slays bosses. It's fast and has a good reach. What the shit are you even TALKING about?
>bad ash of war
We have to use the starting weapon AND the base ash of war it comes with to not be a fucking faggot?
>>714638770
Dual daggers is also the most boring moveset in the entire game, aside from dual poleblades.

>>714639073
>We have to use the starting weapon AND the base ash of war it comes with to not be a fucking faggot?
Yes you retard, that's the point of not cheesing
>charged R2
lol

>>714627624 (OP)
It's not as hard as you tell yourself it is.

>>714639710
Katana is easily the best moveset in the game outside of a colossal sword. I'm not even kidding when I say I could just fucking pick samurai and just hit that button, and I'd probably get all the way to fucking Leyndell without dying.

Poor poise damage my ass.

>>714635173
You literally just need to go all the way on a build around an idea and you have a strong build
Just to give you an idea
>Mimic tear
>Shield poke
>Magic
>Strength jump r2/ash of war spam
>Bleed
>Stance breaking with specific ashes of war
>Parrying

All can just break bosses, some are more situational than others but they work most of the time.
On top of that
>Any higher level spirit ash
>Some amount of buff stacking (Holy damage negation on its own trivializes a suprising amount of fights)
>Rot pots
Are all pretty much free to use regardless of build and massively ease a fight

>>714635173
Are you implying the Mimic Tear is hard to get or something? Almost every blind playthrough I've seen of Elden Ring uses it.

>>714640206
you find it in a hidden questline. Why do you think there are more people finishing ranni ending compared to the normal one? Normalfags don't play blind in their first playthrough

>>714640675
You don't need to be doing Ranni's questline to access Nokron, you unlock it after defeating Radahn regardless.

>>714640896
...and why do visit this early area after defeating a mid game boss? there is no red icon in the map back then by the way. it was added later because a bunch of people miss the location

>>714639967
NTA
>Poor poise damage my ass
It's not poor but it also isn't exceptional in anyway its basically the standard stance damage.
Its practically tied in stance damage to
>Twin blades(jump heavy is slightly weaker), Straightswords, Curved swords, spears, Halbreds, Scythes
And worse to any weapon type that isn't
>Claws, Whips, daggers, piercing swords. fists (deals same stance damaged only on charged attacks)

The ash of war is faster than the charged r2 but hits for less at 30 and there's a fair few ashes of war better suited for stance breaking that the katana can use alongside another fair few that it can't that massively outperform it.

So the main advantage is either gonna be the weapons bleed or its moveset.