Hey everyone, this is a reupload from my psychology focused channel. I wanted to have a channel dedicated to these types of essays so I am in the process of moving a few videos like this one to this channel. I hope to make more over the coming months, thanks for watching!
ive been teaching my roommate's seven year old how to play elden ring. from being unable to kill the beastman of farum azula in his cave and exclaiming "i can't do it!" to now having beat him and a few other minor dungeon bosses, i've seen his attitude improve a lot. i told him "don't go in trying to win, because you'll have a harder time. go in trying to play a little better than your last run, and you'll get closer every time." and "see, you want to have played the game, which is different from wanting to play the game. enjoy the road up, man." by now, the "i can't do it" is much less frequent and when he wins he says "that was me." what other game can do that fr?
that 7 yo is better at the souls games than my brother(he’s 23😭). my brother just kinda gave up on the game bc he couldn’t beat some tough open world enemies(think it was the kaiden soldier or something)
@@sylokthedefiledyour bro can do it too! He just needs to understand the game, and realize you don’t play it like other action games. Normally the first enemies you fight are scrubs that you can mash X against and later on you need strategy for the tougher guys, but in Elden ring there is not a single enemy like that. Every enemy requires patience and respect. He can def beat the Kaiden dude!
@@sylokthedefiledI recommend he finds a greatsword, since the heavy weapons will stun the enemies more and make them easier to fight. Heavy sword and shield is how I was able to get through Elden ring. Or go the magic route
I like to ask myself a hypothetical when playing the Souls games; "who would win, an undefeated champion, or a warrior who has known a thousand defeats and will know a thousand more"
There is a quote from Batman the animated series that lives on in my mind. It goes as such: "Defeat can be more instructive than victory." And I think this is a vital life skill to learn. What to do when one loses? Or when one fails? I think too few have learned these difficult yet vital life skills. Or haven't been taught to even imagine them being options. As such, there should be a re-think on how people view failing, losing, being defeated or bested. If Souls games can help more people begin to puzzle this all out, then that's amazing.
@@samus4799 "how to defeat a powerful enemy stronger than you? simple. you just keep getting back up after defeat. and challenge them again" - Aizen (FBtJE) which is easily applicable for fromsoft protagonists who literally cant die.
Malenia can keep killing you and you'll always respawn. You just need to kill her once and beat her definitively forever. (Twice if you consider the phase 2)
Tree sentinel helped me overcome the giant sized enemy and dodging. I’m finally on the last boss of today and it is amazing how far I’ve come getting stomped on by the tree sentinel for 6 hrs.
I beat him without leaving to level up and I thought that would better prepare me for the rest of the game. I never got that feeling that it did because the next two bosses crushed me for hours and hours.
@@Ghorda9 700 hours here, treesentinel is in no way an easy boss if you have low vigor. I beat him at level 1 after 12+ hours. the problem with treesentinel is that you have to be very accurate with where you dodge compared to most bosses, he turns and swings his axe in many unpredictable ways, he has many attacks and combinations. it’s so easy to get hit in the foot and die, most attacks kill you in one hit. The move where he jumps up in the air and smashes down is really hard for a beginners since it cant just be doged normally or run away from it. You have dodge and time the invisible shockwave, the only attack that is more difficult to dodge than this is waterflow dance and Relannas 3 moons.
Maybe my mindset was made for games like ER. But as soon as i encountered that first tree sentinel i was so focused on defeating it. I'm still on my first playthrough, but as soon as l got torrent i just went and defeated the sentinel when i was still under level 10.
Elden ring was my first souls game and the sheer satisfaction I felt on becoming elden lord the first time was like nothing else I've ever played...havnt felt that way about a game since I started playing super Mario when it came out and I was little
In the last months i've been...beaten up by Life, in multiple aspects. As a veteran souls player, i don't experience this powerlessness much anymore in game. But i realize i feel It right now, in real life. I don't know id souls games helped me to have a resilient mindset, but i will like to think that i received i slight help from those experiences over the years. And somehow, this video arrived right when i needed to remember this. Thank You so much. Don't We dare go hollow.
Every bit of damage is a small victory. You land a hit because you learn to live long enough to strike and then keep going in the fight. These demigods and monsters can bleed, if they can bleed they can be defeated. Meaning we can win if we keep trying.
Myself ASD late diagnosis. CPTSD from decades of abuse. Always had others speaking for me. Making my decisions for me Saying I couldn't or shouldn't. Then one day I realized it was all a big lie. Just in my head. And those saying those lies were just manipulating me. My point...Late to the party in Elden Ring. Started in Feb this year. Always wanted to play. But for 2 yeats in my mind thought it was too difficult for me to enjoy or fell. Like it was a bad thing. Or I would rage quit. I'm almost 500hrs in. Dlc ready. Probably the longest and best gaming and personal experience from Elden Ring. The game has taught me a lot about myself. My identity. Fear and to overcome. To look at things in many ways. Come at beauty and pain from different perspectives. If too much. Put down and try again come back later. To be knocked down and killed over and over to just to be made stringer and wiser. Such an enlightening exp besides being a top notch game in many aspects.
@@uss_liberty_incident ASD, while being quite annoying, did give me unnatural patience with these kinds of games, it's my mistakes that are making me lose, not other people.
The minion thing you brought up is super interesting. In the Asylum in DS1 Oscar really would be the hero in most mainstream games, and you really are no one special. Its random chance that you end up on your journey at all.
Elden Ring was my first soulslike game. I fell in love with it! I have over 600 hours played and I still come back time and time again. I’ve also beat DS2, DS3, Lies of P, and am currently halfway through Sekiro. I work a very stressful corporate job, and I find myself being more confident in myself and my work when I’m actively playing Souls games. I don’t even get frustrated anymore, I just get more determined. It’s probably so cheesy to say, but playing Fromsoft games literally gave me more confidence in myself. Like you said in the video, they’re a safe way to learn resilience. Love the video ❤
One thing I've never liked about the Soulsborne easy mode discussion is that advocates of an easy mode always come across as a bit - insulting? - to the people they're arguing on behalf of. The cycle of failing and improving is the point of the game; it's a bit infantilizing to say that some people are somehow less capable of improvement than others. I feel it echos a larger problem in the world today, where many people seem unable to accept hardship as a part of life and feel that it's a bad thing if they're ever made to feel uncomfortable. Soulsborne games don't have an easy mode, but neither does life. In a Soulsborne game you're going to fail again and again, and you have to learn from those failures to improve, just like life. And sometimes, a task may simply be beyond your capabilities, in which case you may need to call upon the help of a support structure, which is something the Soulsborne games allow for in their gameplay with summons. Saying that all of this is beyond the capabilities of some players is like saying they're incapable of growth or improvement, which is really damn insulting to those people's capabilities. And if they're talking about themselves, it demonstrates a really sad lack of belief in their own abilities; I believe those players are capable of more than they know.
At its core these games are reducible to a small handful of individual skills: positioning, timing, game knowledge, and perseverance (or rather the ability to learn from your mistakes). Sure, you could do even better if you have good reflexes, but it isn't at all a necessary skill. It definitely takes a long time to get good at, but like you said I absolutely believe that literally anybody can succeed in these games if they simply have the right mindset.
Yeah i was about to say. The Souls games have no easy mode, neither has life! If you get to an obstacle you have to grow to overcome. Or you can go away, improve and come back stronger later. Or you just can seek for help. You can't just quit. Such an epic game series man. They teach you more about life, than modern society does.
Getting good at a video game does not mean you have the same determination in real life. I cannot tell you how many fromsoft fans I've talked to who talk about "overcoming impossible challenges" while being morbidly obese and doing nothing to change it. You people love to talk about memorizing patterns in a video game as if it's equal to actually accomplishing anything in real life.
I think that there shouldnt be a blanket “easy mode” cuz different things are easy or difficult to different people. I think accessibility settings that are done in the way that the game Celeste did would be awesome. I think a lot of people forget that some gamers are disabled. We need accessibility options in order to play a game as intended. For example: I have developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia) and I personally struggle a lot with fine motor control so things likes needing to hold the joystick at an exact angle is impossible for me, genuinely. I learned to handwrite as a child and even when i try my hardest, my handwriting is only barely legible with lots of wrist strain. Things like enemy lock on or increased defense with every death a la Hades’ God Mode would make the game have even more players who would get a healthy challenge from it.
Don't think there should be an easy mode, but neither should the infamous "git gud". Because "get good" is a meaningless phrase, it doesn't hold direction, tactics or any helpful information whatsoever resulting in an insult, people are insulting others because they tried and failed instead of ether encouraging them to try again or helping them tactically, explaining some parts of the enemy that they missed. It's jolly cooperation too you know, it's helping each other to overcome. Try saying "try again" sometime instead of pointing your finger down because random guy lost to your RoB build. And stop throwing stones at mages ffs, they have it easier where you have it harder but they have it harder where you have it easier.
Was an enjoying watch! The Soulslike genre is a genre i've always been fascinated with, this video was very informative and enjoyable. You've earned a sub, Can't wait for more!
I still can’t believe people called these games unfair and impossible, Almost stopped me from trying them. These games are as hard as playing on hard difficulty in most games. I think I died to bad platforming more than the bosses. The things i love most about these games are: enemies actually use attacks that are possible but “seem unfair”, and also the atmosphere and world building from what you see, read and how you have to interact with the environment. One of my favorite things is level design, it feels almost unmatched by similar genre games. The feeling of beating a boss with a fantastic moveset that just destroys you. There are moments that are harder than most games but the game itself gives everyone easy mode with magic and summoning friends or cooperators. There is no wrong way to play, and I would suggest this to everyone! Even people playing Pokémon, Barbie island, Minecraft, even people playing Ubisoft games. the difficulty sliders are hidden in the game mechanics. Anyone can beat these games, you just have to not fold when the first boss kills you 5+ times.
I always questioned if by playing all the souls games from the age of 20 years old(I am now 28) and conquering them on my own, without any use of wiki or external information have actually affected my personality. I now think it really did. I grew up gritty, I understood my potential and remained firm in the face of adversity and I know that the dark souls games had something to do with it, even if by a small margin. I absolutely love what these games represent to me, alongside demon souls, sekiro and elden ring. They make you want to be a better person, a more skillful character, learn new things and utimately, survive.
How the hell did you figure out you had to enter into the tree dreams at the very end of Ds2. I never would have figured that out without the wiki. I can understand beating hard bosses without wiki but figuring out what to do sometimes is so hard
How much can you actually lift though? Do you have a job? If playing the souls games is your crowning accomplishment for those years, you need to look at your priorities
There is a fine line between challenge that’s fun and flat out frustration with boss fights regular enemies. it would be important to point out that Elden Ring gives the tools to players to experience the vast game world and story that was crafted by giving more tools to players who don’t find enjoyment in frustration. I know many who once they kill a boss that gave them a lot of trouble, it ended up being far more trouble than what they were worth, and there was no satisfaction, just the relief of one road block that could have been removed sooner. A perfect example of this being the godskin duo, a fight that left myself feeling relieved I don’t have to kill them again until my many new game plus runs where I preemptively had cheese strats ready for them. Flat out I don’t find parry spamming fun or engaging gameplay, there are far more tools so yeah as many can say it’s an easy fight that a level 1 character can beat with a club and a buckler, that’s great for them, however, i don’t find pulling teeth enjoyable, and unlike many games FS has made prior, Elden Ring gives you more options outside of just using bare minimum game mechanics. Sleep, fire, lightning, and poison arrows, a WIDE range of weapons, magical attacks and buffs, while short in list the actual number of tools number in the hundreds for players to use and progress their character through the story. Elden Ring toed the line in allowing separating frustration from fun and it was a great benefit to them and bringing in more players.
this was a masterpiece of a video. inspired me to finish what i started in elden ring and after that im going to play dark souls 1,2, and 3. was so surprised to see that you only had 1.33k subscribers. well, you earned yourself a sub.
The whole fighting game concept is so true. The recent Virtua Fighter games were brutally fun because you had chances to rank up and if you lost certain matches, you would be demoted.
really well structured video. you are very well-spoken and knowledgeable on this subject. I loveeeee dark souls and i love the themes that you explained
Watching this today with Shadow of the Erdtree in mind, the difficulty in that dlc felt cheap. I am new to souls games, so perhaps it is just outside of my comfort zone, but I just didn’t get that sense of accomplishment from defeating the bosses. No matter how much I tried to study move sets and patterns and “get gud”, I just kept getting destroyed. And when I decided to use cheese methods and actually ended up beating them, the story left me wanting. Honestly, from my own personal experience, the main thing that keeps me coming back to Elden ring is the exploration of the amazing world Miyazaki and his team created. The dlc did not disappoint in that area. And I’m not going to say it isn’t fun. However, when I stood in the empty arena after having finally defeated the final boss, I just felt empty…
Id say use a different clip for your margit section. Us elden ring players know anyone wearing melanias armor isnt going to be to worried about margit. Because we all know, the blade of miquella has never known defeat..
What I want to know is why the community tries to put down new players. You people love to dump thousands of hours into games while ignoring your increasing waistlines, and act like you're superior for it. Yes, overcoming challenges is good. But acting like getting good at a video game is a lifetime accomplishment is foolish.
I found the first crucible knight before Magrit and I upgraded my character to the point I could defeat him, I was obsesed and felt great when I did it, then I found Magrit and maul him in the first try.
"Yes, indeed", Dark Souls has saved me from going hollow. At that time (damn already 15 years ago!), video games were too easy, but also shallow. They didn't bring me as much joy as before. I was just a powerless, rageful, teen. Dark Souls has taught me perseverance in gaming, patience in real life. So many years later, even if i find Miyazaki's games too easy (especially Elden Ring), the atmosphere is still enchanting. Thanks to dark Souls, i got a tiny bit gudder Instant sub. Also, you have such a smooth voice
Thanks! Awesome to hear how the souls genre impacted others positively. A few more videos like this will be dropping this week that are transferring over from my old channel and I am hoping to make more in the coming months.
Souls games aren’t about being powerless but about finding and earning that power, I don’t mind being op and crushing bosses because I feel like I earned it
All of this begs the question... then why design Consort Radahn the way they did? XD I count myself as a decent souls player. I've no hit Godfrey and Messmer but it took me 95 attempts to solo Consort Radahn the first time. Grated I don't use bleed builds and what would be considered the strongest or most META strategies but its never taken me that many. Even with Malenia lol. Everything aside, good vid!
I think this has alot of truth I bought elden ring in the first month or 2 it was out after 4 months of struggling and did beat malania but I took a 6 month break than played 1 month than another break 6 months to a year just on one character and I finally beat every boss waiting on dlc now doing co op
I think the key point is that difficulty and failure becomes frustrating when it feels cheap and unfair. Souls games always feel like you can eventually figure it out and git gud. And of course the game is fun and interesting enough that you want to keep trying. Some games are so boring or obnoxious that you don’t even want to keep trying.
"Death being present is a positive experience". Of course it is, it feeds into a simulated delusion that true failure is possible to overcome or come back from. When in reality, it cannot. That's why the concept of game's has always been present in history as a small distraction that had to be created to enjoy reality for a short while. It'd be more worthwhile to put more focus on shaping what reality is into something thats inherently enjoyable instead of something we need any distraction from. And if we can't, then that impossibility has been intentionally placed by whatever entity/s or force/s responsible for our reality's creation & development, and its their obligation to be made to held responsibile for that slight to our existence, or to least be blamed for it instead of remaining in ignorant bliss of it having been an offense without being questioned much less understood.
“In Dark Souls, the curse of the Dark Sign prevents those branded from death, In Sekiro, the power of the dragon heritage allows rebirth, in Elden Ring the Guidance of Grace ushers the Tarnished towards their purpose.” Bloodborne: GET THE FUCK UP GOOD HUNTER, YOU AIN’T DEAD YET. YOU GOT GODS TO KILL!
For me, battling giants and marching doggedly through hard areas corresponds strongly feeling like I can handle overwhelming things in real life. I can beat the Elden Beast, so maybe I can survive systemic abuses, personal trauma, or daunting health issues.
I can’t wait until From Software introduces a recurring “smart” enemy that learns from you and adjusts is behavior to counter your play style perfectly
He also asked why do people struggle to get degrees like thats equivalent to struggling in a video game. There’s an obvious answer there but maybe not to him.
I get it but when you put 100 + hrs in a game and then you get to the end game content and its just so much harder than everything else so far in the game you dont feel like you’ve overcame shit, you feel like the game just keeps scaling past your ability to even level because of soft caps and you are being punished for trying to get farther in the game. No area exemplifies this more than Haligtree where regardless of how much you level you are meant to feel powerless in that area and there are restrictions put on your character’s growth to make sure you do. If it wasn’t for that one specific area I’d probably agree with the gist of this video but that area to me specifically proved to me that Elden Ring was no longer about being fair but challenging or overcoming and growing but just about frustrating the player and making sure they die for the sake of being hard. And I beat Maelenia on my fourth try FYI when I played her and only used Mimic Tear for two of them, so really I only actually tried twice on that boss. The boss wasn’t even that bad compared to that whole area which is just full of nonsense I was getting on shot by bubble attacks with 60 vigor. Like what….
Believe it or not, I believe that racing games are the closest to souls games you can possibly get, there's a HUGE SKILL GAP! but if you can cross it, you have the availability to keep inching your skill in by mere milliseconds of time off your lap times, inadvertently I started to like these type of games because the way I felt about racing games is the way I feel about souls games xD
I've probably died like 50+ times against Malekith but im still trying. Yes im pissed that i'm failing but at the same time I REALLY want to bwat Malekith
All the hard enemies are way bigger than the player... :me who gets two shot in the DLC by a demihuman swordsman that is one quarter my size. Welp, don't have that excuse anymore.
Ok buddy, your ideas are interesting and I quite agree with everything you said. But I have to give you my honest feedback on your work here, because you might be willing to take it into account (or not, you are free to ignore my comment ofc). - Speak a bit slowly, you are giving food for the mind, let the viewer chew on it - If you want to illustrate your point with a graph, please use proper labeling for both axes, and a title. This is basic scientific grammar, and will do wonder to help viewers understanding your point - If you wanna show a lot of text (for a definition or a quote), you should try to emphase the part that really matter or try not to dump the whole text on the screen at once. That was an interesting video nonetheless, that tackled a key topic when it comes to the philosophy of FS games ❤
It's all a power fantasy. DS takes you down a notch up front so the scaling is higher. If you rofl-stomp the content from the beginning it's less exciting mid and endgame. That's also what a seasonal game does, the season starts you off with nothing so you experience the whole power scale again.
Hey everyone, this is a reupload from my psychology focused channel. I wanted to have a channel dedicated to these types of essays so I am in the process of moving a few videos like this one to this channel.
I hope to make more over the coming months, thanks for watching!
I start up the game not thinking "you Died" but rather team four star pops up got picolo screaming in my ear DODGE!!!
ive been teaching my roommate's seven year old how to play elden ring. from being unable to kill the beastman of farum azula in his cave and exclaiming "i can't do it!" to now having beat him and a few other minor dungeon bosses, i've seen his attitude improve a lot. i told him "don't go in trying to win, because you'll have a harder time. go in trying to play a little better than your last run, and you'll get closer every time." and "see, you want to have played the game, which is different from wanting to play the game. enjoy the road up, man." by now, the "i can't do it" is much less frequent and when he wins he says "that was me." what other game can do that fr?
👌❤️
Buddy is gonna be a problem for souls bosses in a few years
that 7 yo is better at the souls games than my brother(he’s 23😭). my brother just kinda gave up on the game bc he couldn’t beat some tough open world enemies(think it was the kaiden soldier or something)
@@sylokthedefiledyour bro can do it too! He just needs to understand the game, and realize you don’t play it like other action games. Normally the first enemies you fight are scrubs that you can mash X against and later on you need strategy for the tougher guys, but in Elden ring there is not a single enemy like that. Every enemy requires patience and respect. He can def beat the Kaiden dude!
@@sylokthedefiledI recommend he finds a greatsword, since the heavy weapons will stun the enemies more and make them easier to fight. Heavy sword and shield is how I was able to get through Elden ring. Or go the magic route
"To embrace pain is to embody excellence"
It’s all GPT, this generation of “essay UA-camrs” all have AI helping them write
@@josephmiranda-steele9487why do you think so? probably true but i’m curious 😅
@@josephmiranda-steele9487wtf? Stoicism has been a philosophy discussed for centuries. Only ai can come up with themes and lessons?
I like to ask myself a hypothetical when playing the Souls games; "who would win, an undefeated champion, or a warrior who has known a thousand defeats and will know a thousand more"
There is a quote from Batman the animated series that lives on in my mind. It goes as such: "Defeat can be more instructive than victory." And I think this is a vital life skill to learn. What to do when one loses? Or when one fails? I think too few have learned these difficult yet vital life skills. Or haven't been taught to even imagine them being options. As such, there should be a re-think on how people view failing, losing, being defeated or bested. If Souls games can help more people begin to puzzle this all out, then that's amazing.
Statistically probably the undefeated champ.
Who won more times, you, or Malenia?
@@samus4799
"how to defeat a powerful enemy stronger than you? simple. you just keep getting back up after defeat. and challenge them again" - Aizen (FBtJE)
which is easily applicable for fromsoft protagonists who literally cant die.
Malenia can keep killing you and you'll always respawn. You just need to kill her once and beat her definitively forever. (Twice if you consider the phase 2)
@@thatchstringfellow1432 hax -Malenia
Tree sentinel helped me overcome the giant sized enemy and dodging. I’m finally on the last boss of today and it is amazing how far I’ve come getting stomped on by the tree sentinel for 6 hrs.
I beat him without leaving to level up and I thought that would better prepare me for the rest of the game. I never got that feeling that it did because the next two bosses crushed me for hours and hours.
@@AstonishingRed tree sentinel is a really simple boss, even beast man of farum azula is slightly more complicated
@@Ghorda9 700 hours here, treesentinel is in no way an easy boss if you have low vigor. I beat him at level 1 after 12+ hours. the problem with treesentinel is that you have to be very accurate with where you dodge compared to most bosses, he turns and swings his axe in many unpredictable ways, he has many attacks and combinations. it’s so easy to get hit in the foot and die, most attacks kill you in one hit. The move where he jumps up in the air and smashes down is really hard for a beginners since it cant just be doged normally or run away from it. You have dodge and time the invisible shockwave, the only attack that is more difficult to dodge than this is waterflow dance and Relannas 3 moons.
For me it was Margitt and for the Tree Sentinal it kicked started that feeling of serotonin when beating a boss. Margitt gave me that 10x more
Maybe my mindset was made for games like ER. But as soon as i encountered that first tree sentinel i was so focused on defeating it. I'm still on my first playthrough, but as soon as l got torrent i just went and defeated the sentinel when i was still under level 10.
Elden ring was my first souls game and the sheer satisfaction I felt on becoming elden lord the first time was like nothing else I've ever played...havnt felt that way about a game since I started playing super Mario when it came out and I was little
Did you use summons tho
@@Eizengoldt getting help when you feel hopeless is a necessary part of growth
@@Eizengoldt The man shares one of his best gaming experiences and you feel the need to ask him if he did it wrong😂
@@piotr78 i felt like being mean for some reason lmao
@piotr78 there's no such thing as "doing it wrong" in elden ring lol. summons are a part of the game intentionally given to you to use
This was perfection.
Don't you dare go hollow
I loved this video. Can’t wait for more!
In the last months i've been...beaten up by Life, in multiple aspects. As a veteran souls player, i don't experience this powerlessness much anymore in game. But i realize i feel It right now, in real life. I don't know id souls games helped me to have a resilient mindset, but i will like to think that i received i slight help from those experiences over the years. And somehow, this video arrived right when i needed to remember this. Thank You so much. Don't We dare go hollow.
Every bit of damage is a small victory. You land a hit because you learn to live long enough to strike and then keep going in the fight. These demigods and monsters can bleed, if they can bleed they can be defeated. Meaning we can win if we keep trying.
“The path to greatness starts with conquering your doubts”
I love the topic and your focus on video games! More please! 👍🏻
Myself ASD late diagnosis. CPTSD from decades of abuse.
Always had others speaking for me. Making my decisions for me Saying I couldn't or shouldn't.
Then one day I realized it was all a big lie. Just in my head. And those saying those lies were just manipulating me.
My point...Late to the party in Elden Ring. Started in Feb this year. Always wanted to play.
But for 2 yeats in my mind thought it was too difficult for me to enjoy or fell.
Like it was a bad thing. Or I would rage quit.
I'm almost 500hrs in. Dlc ready. Probably the longest and best gaming and personal experience from Elden Ring.
The game has taught me a lot about myself. My identity. Fear and to overcome. To look at things in many ways.
Come at beauty and pain from different perspectives. If too much. Put down and try again come back later.
To be knocked down and killed over and over to just to be made stringer and wiser. Such an enlightening exp besides being a top notch game in many aspects.
Being ASD gives you an advantage in being better suited for repetition. Good on you for working through all of your stuff though.
@@uss_liberty_incident ASD, while being quite annoying, did give me unnatural patience with these kinds of games, it's my mistakes that are making me lose, not other people.
The minion thing you brought up is super interesting. In the Asylum in DS1 Oscar really would be the hero in most mainstream games, and you really are no one special. Its random chance that you end up on your journey at all.
Elden Ring was my first soulslike game. I fell in love with it! I have over 600 hours played and I still come back time and time again.
I’ve also beat DS2, DS3, Lies of P, and am currently halfway through Sekiro.
I work a very stressful corporate job, and I find myself being more confident in myself and my work when I’m actively playing Souls games. I don’t even get frustrated anymore, I just get more determined. It’s probably so cheesy to say, but playing Fromsoft games literally gave me more confidence in myself. Like you said in the video, they’re a safe way to learn resilience.
Love the video ❤
"Pain is temporary, glory lasts forever!"
Good video man!
One thing I've never liked about the Soulsborne easy mode discussion is that advocates of an easy mode always come across as a bit - insulting? - to the people they're arguing on behalf of. The cycle of failing and improving is the point of the game; it's a bit infantilizing to say that some people are somehow less capable of improvement than others.
I feel it echos a larger problem in the world today, where many people seem unable to accept hardship as a part of life and feel that it's a bad thing if they're ever made to feel uncomfortable. Soulsborne games don't have an easy mode, but neither does life. In a Soulsborne game you're going to fail again and again, and you have to learn from those failures to improve, just like life. And sometimes, a task may simply be beyond your capabilities, in which case you may need to call upon the help of a support structure, which is something the Soulsborne games allow for in their gameplay with summons. Saying that all of this is beyond the capabilities of some players is like saying they're incapable of growth or improvement, which is really damn insulting to those people's capabilities. And if they're talking about themselves, it demonstrates a really sad lack of belief in their own abilities; I believe those players are capable of more than they know.
At its core these games are reducible to a small handful of individual skills: positioning, timing, game knowledge, and perseverance (or rather the ability to learn from your mistakes).
Sure, you could do even better if you have good reflexes, but it isn't at all a necessary skill. It definitely takes a long time to get good at, but like you said I absolutely believe that literally anybody can succeed in these games if they simply have the right mindset.
Yeah i was about to say. The Souls games have no easy mode, neither has life!
If you get to an obstacle you have to grow to overcome.
Or you can go away, improve and come back stronger later.
Or you just can seek for help.
You can't just quit.
Such an epic game series man.
They teach you more about life, than modern society does.
Getting good at a video game does not mean you have the same determination in real life. I cannot tell you how many fromsoft fans I've talked to who talk about "overcoming impossible challenges" while being morbidly obese and doing nothing to change it. You people love to talk about memorizing patterns in a video game as if it's equal to actually accomplishing anything in real life.
I think that there shouldnt be a blanket “easy mode” cuz different things are easy or difficult to different people. I think accessibility settings that are done in the way that the game Celeste did would be awesome.
I think a lot of people forget that some gamers are disabled. We need accessibility options in order to play a game as intended. For example: I have developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia) and I personally struggle a lot with fine motor control so things likes needing to hold the joystick at an exact angle is impossible for me, genuinely. I learned to handwrite as a child and even when i try my hardest, my handwriting is only barely legible with lots of wrist strain. Things like enemy lock on or increased defense with every death a la Hades’ God Mode would make the game have even more players who would get a healthy challenge from it.
Don't think there should be an easy mode, but neither should the infamous "git gud". Because "get good" is a meaningless phrase, it doesn't hold direction, tactics or any helpful information whatsoever resulting in an insult, people are insulting others because they tried and failed instead of ether encouraging them to try again or helping them tactically, explaining some parts of the enemy that they missed. It's jolly cooperation too you know, it's helping each other to overcome. Try saying "try again" sometime instead of pointing your finger down because random guy lost to your RoB build. And stop throwing stones at mages ffs, they have it easier where you have it harder but they have it harder where you have it easier.
"the horrors persist, but so do I."
Was an enjoying watch! The Soulslike genre is a genre i've always been fascinated with, this video was very informative and enjoyable. You've earned a sub, Can't wait for more!
I still can’t believe people called these games unfair and impossible, Almost stopped me from trying them. These games are as hard as playing on hard difficulty in most games. I think I died to bad platforming more than the bosses. The things i love most about these games are: enemies actually use attacks that are possible but “seem unfair”, and also the atmosphere and world building from what you see, read and how you have to interact with the environment. One of my favorite things is level design, it feels almost unmatched by similar genre games. The feeling of beating a boss with a fantastic moveset that just destroys you. There are moments that are harder than most games but the game itself gives everyone easy mode with magic and summoning friends or cooperators. There is no wrong way to play, and I would suggest this to everyone! Even people playing Pokémon, Barbie island, Minecraft, even people playing Ubisoft games. the difficulty sliders are hidden in the game mechanics. Anyone can beat these games, you just have to not fold when the first boss kills you 5+ times.
I always questioned if by playing all the souls games from the age of 20 years old(I am now 28) and conquering them on my own, without any use of wiki or external information have actually affected my personality. I now think it really did. I grew up gritty, I understood my potential and remained firm in the face of adversity and I know that the dark souls games had something to do with it, even if by a small margin. I absolutely love what these games represent to me, alongside demon souls, sekiro and elden ring. They make you want to be a better person, a more skillful character, learn new things and utimately, survive.
Lololol!
Awesome comment I feel the same way
How the hell did you figure out you had to enter into the tree dreams at the very end of Ds2. I never would have figured that out without the wiki. I can understand beating hard bosses without wiki but figuring out what to do sometimes is so hard
How much can you actually lift though? Do you have a job? If playing the souls games is your crowning accomplishment for those years, you need to look at your priorities
@@uss_liberty_incident stop projecting.
Very enjoyable and thought provoking. You do a great job of tying the theme of perseverance in their as well. Thank you!
Awesome sentiment, great script and presentation. Hope your channel grows more and more, man!
There is a fine line between challenge that’s fun and flat out frustration with boss fights regular enemies. it would be important to point out that Elden Ring gives the tools to players to experience the vast game world and story that was crafted by giving more tools to players who don’t find enjoyment in frustration. I know many who once they kill a boss that gave them a lot of trouble, it ended up being far more trouble than what they were worth, and there was no satisfaction, just the relief of one road block that could have been removed sooner. A perfect example of this being the godskin duo, a fight that left myself feeling relieved I don’t have to kill them again until my many new game plus runs where I preemptively had cheese strats ready for them. Flat out I don’t find parry spamming fun or engaging gameplay, there are far more tools so yeah as many can say it’s an easy fight that a level 1 character can beat with a club and a buckler, that’s great for them, however, i don’t find pulling teeth enjoyable, and unlike many games FS has made prior, Elden Ring gives you more options outside of just using bare minimum game mechanics. Sleep, fire, lightning, and poison arrows, a WIDE range of weapons, magical attacks and buffs, while short in list the actual number of tools number in the hundreds for players to use and progress their character through the story. Elden Ring toed the line in allowing separating frustration from fun and it was a great benefit to them and bringing in more players.
this was a masterpiece of a video. inspired me to finish what i started in elden ring and after that im going to play dark souls 1,2, and 3. was so surprised to see that you only had 1.33k subscribers. well, you earned yourself a sub.
Good God this is such a good video! The entire Helldivers 2 community needs to see this.
Man this is so good we need more
Instead of being unbeatable, Souls games make you unkillable. Meaning: If at first you don't succeed? Try, try again.
This is one of the best videos I've ever watched. Thank you for creating it!
Well done! Great essay, i appreciate your explanations.
The whole fighting game concept is so true. The recent Virtua Fighter games were brutally fun because you had chances to rank up and if you lost certain matches, you would be demoted.
"Dont you dare go hollow". I say that in real life all the time
7:58 bro was spittin lowkey
I have been talking about this exact thing for years.
Solid video 🙏
Best essay of 2012
thank u very much for this video. this was very good and deffo worth watching
Great video. Insightful details and examples cited throughout 👍🏻
Excellent content! Thank you for teaching us about this psychological link that explains why they are some of the best games ever created!
interestingly enough, i am currently writing a story about this concept, mainly inspired by my and my friends' experiences in the Souls games
Very well said my perspective on Elden Ring has changed and even life!
really well structured video. you are very well-spoken and knowledgeable on this subject. I loveeeee dark souls and i love the themes that you explained
need more teaching from soulborne absolutely loved this content
Never ever go hollow y'all!
We've got this! :]
these type of games have gave me more patience and take things in a different approach and keep trying and don’t give up
Watching this today with Shadow of the Erdtree in mind, the difficulty in that dlc felt cheap. I am new to souls games, so perhaps it is just outside of my comfort zone, but I just didn’t get that sense of accomplishment from defeating the bosses. No matter how much I tried to study move sets and patterns and “get gud”, I just kept getting destroyed. And when I decided to use cheese methods and actually ended up beating them, the story left me wanting.
Honestly, from my own personal experience, the main thing that keeps me coming back to Elden ring is the exploration of the amazing world Miyazaki and his team created. The dlc did not disappoint in that area. And I’m not going to say it isn’t fun. However, when I stood in the empty arena after having finally defeated the final boss, I just felt empty…
Id say use a different clip for your margit section. Us elden ring players know anyone wearing melanias armor isnt going to be to worried about margit.
Because we all know, the blade of miquella has never known defeat..
God damn it, Dark souls was a masterpiece. I really wish we could have seen a product that was not rushed
First time here. Thanks
For the video, very interesting perspective
This is an amazing video
Great vid, keep it up
Dope vid 💯
Great video!
What I want to know is why the community tries to put down new players. You people love to dump thousands of hours into games while ignoring your increasing waistlines, and act like you're superior for it.
Yes, overcoming challenges is good. But acting like getting good at a video game is a lifetime accomplishment is foolish.
Great video.
13:26... Character growth & development
You can actually do something they can't.
ROLL OVER!
So one of the things that such games taught me: in any difficult situation, roll over.
I found the first crucible knight before Magrit and I upgraded my character to the point I could defeat him, I was obsesed and felt great when I did it, then I found Magrit and maul him in the first try.
"Yes, indeed", Dark Souls has saved me from going hollow. At that time (damn already 15 years ago!), video games were too easy, but also shallow. They didn't bring me as much joy as before. I was just a powerless, rageful, teen. Dark Souls has taught me perseverance in gaming, patience in real life.
So many years later, even if i find Miyazaki's games too easy (especially Elden Ring), the atmosphere is still enchanting. Thanks to dark Souls, i got a tiny bit gudder
Instant sub. Also, you have such a smooth voice
Thanks! Awesome to hear how the souls genre impacted others positively.
A few more videos like this will be dropping this week that are transferring over from my old channel and I am hoping to make more in the coming months.
Excellent
Souls games aren’t about being powerless but about finding and earning that power, I don’t mind being op and crushing bosses because I feel like I earned it
All of this begs the question... then why design Consort Radahn the way they did? XD
I count myself as a decent souls player. I've no hit Godfrey and Messmer but it took me 95 attempts to solo Consort Radahn the first time. Grated I don't use bleed builds and what would be considered the strongest or most META strategies but its never taken me that many. Even with Malenia lol.
Everything aside, good vid!
With power comes responsibility
I think this has alot of truth
I bought elden ring in the first month or 2 it was out after 4 months of struggling and did beat malania but I took a 6 month break than played 1 month than another break 6 months to a year just on one character and I finally beat every boss waiting on dlc now doing co op
Subbed to get you closer to 1K
From soft games taught me how to appreciate incremental improvement. Like that “oh i can actually do it, i can get better!”
Elden ring is like the only souls game that kind of never leaves you powerless.
People negatively reviewing Shadow of the Erdtree should take this as mandatory viewing.
9:47 Best part of the video 😂
I think the key point is that difficulty and failure becomes frustrating when it feels cheap and unfair. Souls games always feel like you can eventually figure it out and git gud. And of course the game is fun and interesting enough that you want to keep trying. Some games are so boring or obnoxious that you don’t even want to keep trying.
"Death being present is a positive experience". Of course it is, it feeds into a simulated delusion that true failure is possible to overcome or come back from. When in reality, it cannot. That's why the concept of game's has always been present in history as a small distraction that had to be created to enjoy reality for a short while. It'd be more worthwhile to put more focus on shaping what reality is into something thats inherently enjoyable instead of something we need any distraction from. And if we can't, then that impossibility has been intentionally placed by whatever entity/s or force/s responsible for our reality's creation & development, and its their obligation to be made to held responsibile for that slight to our existence, or to least be blamed for it instead of remaining in ignorant bliss of it having been an offense without being questioned much less understood.
“In Dark Souls, the curse of the Dark Sign prevents those branded from death, In Sekiro, the power of the dragon heritage allows rebirth, in Elden Ring the Guidance of Grace ushers the Tarnished towards their purpose.”
Bloodborne: GET THE FUCK UP GOOD HUNTER, YOU AIN’T DEAD YET. YOU GOT GODS TO KILL!
What? I just feel super powerful.
For me, battling giants and marching doggedly through hard areas corresponds strongly feeling like I can handle overwhelming things in real life. I can beat the Elden Beast, so maybe I can survive systemic abuses, personal trauma, or daunting health issues.
I can’t wait until From Software introduces a recurring “smart” enemy that learns from you and adjusts is behavior to counter your play style perfectly
knock knock
who's there?
hoarfrost stomp
“Destined Death”
Quote "Seek strength ...the rest will follow" some random npc in dark souls ...
Good video. 🤔👍
Just like in sports, im no fan but if i had to pick a team id pick the losing side and hope for best. Imagine the feeling when they actually won 🏆
Just 699 subs? Didn’t feel like that
3:41 Chosen Undead
I beat the duo crucible knights and mastered parrying (I still can’t parry)
Did you just compare playing Elden Ring to being a recovering alcoholic?
He also asked why do people struggle to get degrees like thats equivalent to struggling in a video game. There’s an obvious answer there but maybe not to him.
“It’s not who I am underneath, but what i do that defines me.”
Tell that to my level 140 spellsword build lol
It’s unbelievable how much Fromsoft got right in their very first open world game.
I get it but when you put 100 + hrs in a game and then you get to the end game content and its just so much harder than everything else so far in the game you dont feel like you’ve overcame shit, you feel like the game just keeps scaling past your ability to even level because of soft caps and you are being punished for trying to get farther in the game. No area exemplifies this more than Haligtree where regardless of how much you level you are meant to feel powerless in that area and there are restrictions put on your character’s growth to make sure you do. If it wasn’t for that one specific area I’d probably agree with the gist of this video but that area to me specifically proved to me that Elden Ring was no longer about being fair but challenging or overcoming and growing but just about frustrating the player and making sure they die for the sake of being hard.
And I beat Maelenia on my fourth try FYI when I played her and only used Mimic Tear for two of them, so really I only actually tried twice on that boss. The boss wasn’t even that bad compared to that whole area which is just full of nonsense I was getting on shot by bubble attacks with 60 vigor. Like what….
Believe it or not, I believe that racing games are the closest to souls games you can possibly get, there's a HUGE SKILL GAP! but if you can cross it, you have the availability to keep inching your skill in by mere milliseconds of time off your lap times, inadvertently I started to like these type of games because the way I felt about racing games is the way I feel about souls games xD
pov: me after trying to hit 2 light attacks on DLC radahn after dodging for 2 mins non stop
I've probably died like 50+ times against Malekith but im still trying. Yes im pissed that i'm failing but at the same time I REALLY want to bwat Malekith
If you play passive for the first 15 seconds of the second phase it gets easier.
All the hard enemies are way bigger than the player...
:me who gets two shot in the DLC by a demihuman swordsman that is one quarter my size.
Welp, don't have that excuse anymore.
Hey! Asura is my ingame name in like EVERYTHING anime or jrpg! How daaareee you 🫨🫨🫨🫨 that’s funny ^^ also: great video! Thank you for that. 🎁
Meanwhile, 2008 Miyazaki: "Let's make a game where I get beaten mercilessly while looking at ladies naked feet!"
Fromsoft: "Sweet!"
;)
Tho whole point on the souls games is to "get good". Meaning put in the effort to over come the odds
Ok buddy, your ideas are interesting and I quite agree with everything you said. But I have to give you my honest feedback on your work here, because you might be willing to take it into account (or not, you are free to ignore my comment ofc).
- Speak a bit slowly, you are giving food for the mind, let the viewer chew on it
- If you want to illustrate your point with a graph, please use proper labeling for both axes, and a title. This is basic scientific grammar, and will do wonder to help viewers understanding your point
- If you wanna show a lot of text (for a definition or a quote), you should try to emphase the part that really matter or try not to dump the whole text on the screen at once.
That was an interesting video nonetheless, that tackled a key topic when it comes to the philosophy of FS games ❤
And I have to add, as a teacher, that the part on ZPD was really on point
I find souls games to be more relatable
It's all a power fantasy. DS takes you down a notch up front so the scaling is higher. If you rofl-stomp the content from the beginning it's less exciting mid and endgame.
That's also what a seasonal game does, the season starts you off with nothing so you experience the whole power scale again.
Well Done MF, subbed!
"Powerless" I would not use that word to describe any Souls character I made. More like accidentally op is a more fitting title