This game needs villages

[nedle]

Big towns and settlements bursting and teeming with life, you walk in are greeted by the gatekeeper, see children playing near the pond, workers putting up building structures, a villager shouting at you to come over to the item shop and buy something before your next adventure starts, full of life.

But instead we have a cold, empty and dead world... kinda sad.

[Len's]

That's why they all want to kill each other , bored to death

[Havok]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoHan_V-WQk

This isnt skyrim, where kids steal sweetrolls.. The soulsbourne series has *never* been about happiness. The entire premise of the game is that you are losing your mind. Only the true that praise the sun, and avoid going hollow, see the light and the beauty.

[justfaded]

Also sidequests where you grow crops and get married and play pool.

[opus132]

Threads like this show that introducing open world to the Souls formula was a mistake.

[Koala 4peace]

This is hardly an RPG. Villages wouldn't add much.

[Tyler McRae]

A village bustling with life would completely go against the atmosphere of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. The worlds are meant to be dead/dying, bleak, and lonely. You are one of the few sane people in the world, while all the rest of the people here have gone mad from hollowing/beast blood/madness. We aren't meant to find more than a couple people here or there. A village would 100% ruin this game's atmosphere, man. This isn't a social RPG like Skyrim. This is a dark, depressing, post-apocalypse RPG, where most people we meet are either too mad to be able to talk, or are actively against us.

[chrstnmonks]

I think they could have added the kaiden settlement to in the mountaintops. It is all hostile naturally but some cool specific items could have been placed there and it may have made that region feel a little less empty. Depending on how the village is done it could add to the atmosphere

[Wushiba]

Originally posted by nedle:

Big towns and settlements bursting and teeming with life, you walk in are greeted by the gatekeeper, see children playing near the pond, workers putting up building structures, a villager shouting at you to come over to the item shop and buy something before your next adventure starts, full of life.

Literally the entire game is about the opposite of that. If you want to play Skyrim then just install the Elden Ring combat mods and play Skyrim. I love Skyrim, but this isn't that game and trying to turn it into Skyrim would just ruin it.

Originally posted by nedle:

But instead we have a cold, empty and dead world... kinda sad.

Correct. That is the game they've made. Not Skyrim.

[[DARK]NET]

It's not about that

[fauxpas]

I could see one or maybe two small hamlets being used as contrast effectively given that pure bleakness loses its potency and makes Melina's plea to not burn the world due to the inherent beauty of life and birth rather hollow.


Granted, given the nature of the world said hamlets would probably not be colorful happy places and would feel grim and medieval Gothic.

[Wushiba]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

I could see one or maybe two small hamlets being used as contrast effectively given that pure bleakness loses its potency and makes Melina's plea to not burn the world due to the inherent beauty of life and birth rather hollow.


Granted, given the nature of the world said hamlets would probably not be colorful happy places and would feel grim and medieval Gothic.

There's a village actually where you can even see all the women happily giggling and dancing around with nice flowers and stuff everywhere. (Though they are probably just mad.)

There are plenty of beautiful and calm moments in Elden Ring but the game world is a world that has been dying and decaying for thousands of years, the game is trying to show how the normal way of living life is long over. Having a lively town or village with a tavern and blacksmith would go completely against that. This isn't Witcher or Skyrim. It's basically a living hell or purgatory for the people who live in this world.

Originally posted by Big Booty Otter:

A village bustling with life would completely go against the atmosphere of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. The worlds are meant to be dead/dying, bleak, and lonely. You are one of the few sane people in the world, while all the rest of the people here have gone mad from hollowing/beast blood/madness. We aren't meant to find more than a couple people here or there. A village would 100% ruin this game's atmosphere, man. This isn't a social RPG like Skyrim. This is a dark, depressing, post-apocalypse RPG, where most people we meet are either too mad to be able to talk, or are actively against us.

^ Exactly. Though one correction I would make is that the player character is not necessary sane. Lol.

[Generic-Raider]

Originally posted by Wushiba O .. O:

Originally posted by fauxpas:

I could see one or maybe two small hamlets being used as contrast effectively given that pure bleakness loses its potency and makes Melina's plea to not burn the world due to the inherent beauty of life and birth rather hollow.


Granted, given the nature of the world said hamlets would probably not be colorful happy places and would feel grim and medieval Gothic.

There's a village actually where you can even see all the women happily giggling and dancing around with nice flowers and stuff everywhere. (Though they are probably just mad.)

There are plenty of beautiful and calm moments in Elden Ring but the game world is a world that has been dying and decaying for thousands of years, the game is trying to show how the normal way of living life is long over. Having a lively town or village with a tavern and blacksmith would go completely against that. This isn't Witcher or Skyrim. It's basically a living hell or purgatory for the people who live in this world.

Thats there village festival - it;s to skin the men of the village and offer there skin to the godskins

[Wushiba]

Originally posted by Generic-Raider:

Originally posted by Wushiba O .. O:

There's a village actually where you can even see all the women happily giggling and dancing around with nice flowers and stuff everywhere. (Though they are probably just mad.)

There are plenty of beautiful and calm moments in Elden Ring but the game world is a world that has been dying and decaying for thousands of years, the game is trying to show how the normal way of living life is long over. Having a lively town or village with a tavern and blacksmith would go completely against that. This isn't Witcher or Skyrim. It's basically a living hell or purgatory for the people who live in this world.

Thats there village festival - it;s to skin the men of the village and offer there skin to the godskins

I guess that's why the last boss is a Godskin or what then. That's good to know actually, but my point still stands. They are happy, celebrating, dancing, giggling. It is a contrast to what you usually experience at other places.

[fauxpas]

Originally posted by Wushiba O .. O:

Originally posted by Generic-Raider:

Thats there village festival - it;s to skin the men of the village and offer there skin to the godskins

I guess that's why the last boss is a Godskin or what then. That's good to know actually, but my point still stands. They are happy, celebrating, dancing, giggling. It is a contrast to what you usually experience at other places.

No it doesn't, that village falls under the "Strangers welcome for Dinner" Trope.


And remember Melina's own plea, she is implying that pockets of actual life worth living still exists, so either she's lying (wouldn't be the first time) or they do but the player is just never shown them.

Besides, bleak grim-dark loses its potency without contrast, and I don't agree about occasional calm and pretty scenery is sufficient.

[Colonel Tyborc]

Originally posted by nedle:

Big towns and settlements bursting and teeming with life, you walk in are greeted by the gatekeeper, see children playing near the pond, workers putting up building structures, a villager shouting at you to come over to the item shop and buy something before your next adventure starts, full of life.

But instead we have a cold, empty and dead world... kinda sad.

they used to have those, but the world had a cataclysm called the shattering and everyone's gone mad from thousands of years of not dying, you sadly are far to late to see the height of erdtree society.