Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one that has this problem, thanks for talking about it! Having too much to do and feeling like there's not enough time is the source of my anxiety in life too lol That's why I tend to prefer older videogames
@marcos_vipets yeah. As I'm going through my games old and new I do prefer how older games didn't explode with content. I can actually focus on the main game
I recently finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider and I felt the mundane side quest fatigue so much. Wanted to 100% it because I loved the first two games but by the end of all the side quests I just wanted to be done with the game. There are some really interesting ones but most just feels like busywork. To your other point I definitely feel the social pressure from soulslikes. I just started Sekiro and I love it but every time I take what I see to be too long on a fight, I get down on myself like "dang I'm just bad" lol, knowing others get the hang of it way quicker. Great video!
i think what matters most is sidequests need to not feel like filler. make the side things feel like theyre worth doing. i think some game devs forget that.
final fantasy 14 has loooots of side quest i dont think a single one felt like filler too much. i felt like they were a nice way to learn more lore and the rewards arent too shabby either not amazing but i love the minions i got from the quests that give them to you.
Great assesment, but I think you missed the mark on the Fromsoft thing. There is a specific strategy behind all subsequent Souls game's design, but it's not just ramping up difficulty for bragging rights. Fromsoft's entire thing is "more of the same", they constantly release games with elements of previous game like "haha remember this thing from 'insert older title'?". They still ride on the success of the first DS and the games are designed to invoke that feeling of nostalgia, to make you remember the first game. DS3 was especially bad with this since the entire game was just full to the brim with callbacks to the first game. The "cheapness" and difficulty was mainly a quality of the first DS game. Anor Londo archers became so famous that other Souls games and even Elden Ring's DLC tried to replicate it at one point or another. I don't get why you feel as though Elden Ring is meant to be hard for hardness sake, when the game has mechanics that can make the game significantly easier like Spirit Ashes and the open world. If anything those qualities make the game way more accessible to newcomers to the series. Want to simply enjoy the game? Cool, just use what's available. Want to make it painstakingly hard as a self-imposed challenge and make it more similar to older titles? Cool, just ignore those mechanics. Just beating Souls games was never considered a thing to brag about. People outside of the community don't give a damn and inside the community nobody thinks that's impressive. It was always about level 1, hitless, speedruns or whatever self-imposed challenge you chose if you wanted to earn bragging rights. And even then people mainly did them for fun. Fromsoft just links the games in a way where you think of the series as a whole. "Hey that boss/enemy/weapon etc. reminds me of 'whatever from previous title'" is the feeling they want to invoke. The Elden Ring DLC literally has an enemy that's a carbon copy of the most infamous Bloodborne enemy. The DLC also does nothing to innovate, it's just more of the base game which is why it's to praised. I completely agree with you on modern open world games, though. Back when I was a kid/teen I ate up games like AC or the Witcher III and played for hours on end just doing side quests, but now when I play similar games I already get fatigued just seeing the side content. I think I barely did any sidequest in Cyberpunk 2077 and played the main story first and foremost. I prefer shorter games like the Resident Evil franchise nowadays. I still love Souls games, but even then I don't play them the way I used to. I usually just beat one or two bosses and end the session afterwards.
@derricklevi3005 originally just beating a souls game was a brag. This is way before challenge runs were common. Even now I played Elden Ring in away that some would not approve but simply having the trophy for beating it garners some respect from both fans and gamers in general. The reason I say they are focusing on making the game harder and not in a fair way is because using the most commonly given tool the summons breaks the game. The bosses aren't designed to deal with you and a summon. Outside of just not having to deal with the difficulty I don't imagine anyone would view this as satisfying. It's too obvious that playing that way is broken. So if you try playing a different way now it feels like a challenge run which those are supposed to feel unbalanced as you are purposely habdicaping yourself. What's the way to play for balance ? There is none. Not in Elden Ring at least.
@@Grimpachi I don't know what kind of communities you were chilling in, but nobody ever gave a damn about just beating the game. Maybe the only thing was if you managed to beat a boss like Orphan of Kos first try or something. When I first started playing those games I didn't even think "damn I play a difficult game" less so than "damn this game is different from the ones I'm used to". Also the summons don't break the game in any way. The summons compensate for the bosses new movesets that incorporate delayed attacks, erratic behaviour, extremely high damage and razor-thin punishing windows. If you put those summons in a game like DS3 they'd destroy the boss completely on their own, because DS3 bosses gave you massive punish windows and you were almost always good with just reaction rolling, but in ER they're pretty well-balanced. I think it's funny how you immediately think summons = Mimic Tear when that is the strongest out of the bunch. And even then Mimic Tear is only powerful when combined with status effect builds or stance-breaking AoW, since his damage is way too low otherwise effectively making him a subpar meat shield. Flame of the Redmanes is way more broken than any summon in the game. That ash of war literally trivializes the entire main game if you use it, yet all you're on about is Mimic Tear this, Mimic Tear that. The bosses are even better equipped to deal with summons, they can even change targets mid-swing and throw out AoE most of the time anyway, so even their tankiness isn't that helpful. I don't get it. Yeah, Elden Ring has mechanics to make it a lot easier like bleed builds or OP Ash of Wars, but almost every Souls game has those. DS1 had OP sorcery and poise tanks, DS2 had OP sorcery, DS3 had shield turtling and twinblade builds etc. Why is Elden Ring the exception? I've played through the DLC with summons, because I just want to enjoy the game, not spend 50% of my playtime on boss attempts in my first playthrough. Yet I also beat the game on RL1 without summons up until Elden Beast as a challenge run. To me it seems that you as the player try to make it "yes Fromsoft, hard game" and if you don't get that level of difficulty from your earliest experiences with souls titles playing the game the intended way you immediately think it's "broken". And if you don't use them you still think it's broken, because it's way too hard which isn't surprising if you play the game in an unintended way. This isn't Dark Souls IV, the game is balanced differently which isn't just 1v1 against the boss. Also the minority of players would actually criticize you for playing the game in the way you did. Just look at reddit, those people get downvoted most of the time. I've had a blast with the game + DLC and it was a satisfying experience through and through, summons or not, and I'm a veteran of the series, having played every single title except for the DeS Remaster.
@derricklevi3005 we just disagree. You say you are a veteran but I'm not sure at which point you began because if you played these games at least since the first dark souls you would know that just beating the game was and still is a feat. Maybe you are hanging in some elitists groups idk. Also summons in every souls game have been unbalanced as against the bosses aren't designed to deal with 2 enemies at once. They will agro one and ignore the other. Summons in other souls games however weren't handed out like candy and most required you to do something special to use them. Summons are now a core mechanic completely unmissable and yet still broken. I'll just make another video to explain better
@@Grimpachi yeah, I'll keep an eye out for that vid, I liked your breakdown in this one. I started with DeS and came back during the DS3 days and played everything from then on and I never got the impression that people were impressed by beating the game. As I've said, inside the community it was mostly about challenge runs (maybe that's what you call elitist) and outside of it people couldn't really grasp the difficulty of the game. I still think summons are balanced in ER moreso than in earlier games, because bosses didn't one or twoshot you back then and were less aggressive. If they attack your summon and ignore you that just gives you a little room to breathe if anything which I think is the intended effect of them (except for a couple select ones that can actually contribute in a meaningful way).
When it comes to extremely difficult games, mate I'm playing to have a good time and unwind from daily life, not to get pissed off and frustrated bc I can't beat this bloody boss 😂 When a game is too much, I just give up and leave it, which isn't easy to do but it's best for my mental health
i like it when i like companions in games yo the point im a little anxiousmakingchoices related to them will this choice make me lose this friend i made on my journey?,will he or she die if i do this thing? i like it when characters get me to the oint i care what happens like that.
![GRIMPACHI [Gaming]](http://yt3.ggpht.com/FUvXe-h54yxbtpYmIPbCcitrJV1dr3XmPL3JKt-sKHs_XMECfiKtA3d-12Fm7asinuz3Cw-mvg=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)