Not even that, most souls games will have at least a couple of decently accessible items that will help you turn down the early game pressure if you want to make progress without having to do the whole git gud routine for every next corner in the road with a stone troll sitting on it.
Git gud means repeating confrontations over and over and over until you get used to the minute differences in the enemies movements and timing, and then just doing that for the entire game?
Or is it more like wow grinding until your level increases? Cuz that never grabbed me either.
So do these games have a compelling story or is it just a series of enemies that go from like half a second Dodge opportunity to a tenth of a second Dodge opportunity?
“git gud” in fromsoft games covers a few important skills.
The most important is just paying attention. Way back when Dark Souls 1 was out, people would say the traps in Sen’s Fortress were “bullshit trial and error gameplay”. It’s a narrow hall with a pressure plate, and when you step on it darts shoot out of the wall at you. This can kill you. But if you pay any attention at all you can see the clearly raised pressure plate, and the holes the darts come out of. You can then just roll through the trap or use a shield to block the darts. It’s easy if you notice it. Many of the enemies are placed in ways that if you look around and go slow, you’ll see them with plenty of time to plan.
The second most important skill is probably staying calm. There’s a part in the first game where I fell through a hole and landed surrounded by death lizards. If I had panicked, I would’ve died an especially horrible death. Folks would describe that as “bullshit”- you fall a long way and then suddenly lizards and poisonous gas! But I didn’t panic. I looked around, found the stairs, and ran the fuck away. Once I had a little distance, I was able to kill the lizards. They’re not especially fast or deadly on their own, but their poison gas will ruin your day if you let it. But panicking would get you killed there. There’s also Stormgate in Elden Ring, where you can easily draw the attention of like ten dudes. You know what the answer is there? Run the fuck away. Don’t get tunnel vision. Don’t button mash. Turn around and run.
Third is probably resource management. This is closely related to staying calm. Most of the games have Stamina as a resource. If you just button mash you’re going to have a bad time. You need to not over extend. You’ll have a bad time if you empty your stamina and can’t block or dodge. There’s also spells and heals to manage. You probably don’t want to blow all your big spells on trash. Basic stuff.
Lastly, there’s the stuff everyone talks about and thinks is super important: Recognizing enemy moves and reacting in time. It’s kind of overblown. Most of the enemies attack a lot slower than they feel when you’re in a panic. Plus, you can really mitigate a lot of this by building towards your strengths as a player. I can’t parry, so I don’t try and don’t rely on it. If you’re not good at dodging, probably slap on a tower shield and heavy armor. You don’t really need especially good reflexes to win with a shield + spear build. Magic can also do it, if you’re decent at spacing. And if you really get stuck, use a summon.
People act like you need lightning reflexes to play these games and you really don’t.
Got it, thanks for explaining. That makes the games sound a lot more approachable.
Is there any exploration or world building to elden ring or is it strictly a linear progression from enemy to stronger enemy?
Git gud is definitely more the first kind of grinding more than the second
Basically the theory that even if it’s like bashing your head against a brick wall, it’s gonna be extremely cathartic when you finally manage to knock that wall down
