u/InfernoWraith

I'm currently looking for an area to build a base for my squad, and I've been looking around for forever now with no luck. I'd simply like a place for my little farmers and exiles to escape to and live out the rest of their days in peace (besides the raids), with a view to behold alongside it.

The key features I'm looking for in a base are:

• Outside of the Border Zone
• Near another city/town/village that isn't HN or UC
• Scenic (Valleys/Canyons, mountainous, beach shore, etc.)
• Fertile land

I'm willing to give up convenient iron and copper nodes for an area that meets all these features! I'll also work with whatever crops the land offers, too; they're not very picky eaters.

I had a blast with this one! I was lucky enough to have a friend on board as well, and journeyed through the entire playthrough with him, a feature I'll always welcome.

This one only took roughly 60~ to complete my first run. I went with an Umbral build simply because of the unique aesthetic I couldn't pass up on. The spells that came with it were amazingly fun, too, like going from slow, heavy dual-wielding hammer + halberd to quickly switching to the Pestilent Blade for a lighter attack when the situation called for it. Some spells were just vastly superior to others, though, such as Umbral Agony, that useful AOE projectile for clearing anything in your way, no matter what. It was one of the few spells I actively restrained myself from using all the time, just so that my buddy and I could experience what the enemies had to offer without being blown up on sight (bosses included). This was enough for me to pursue the umbral ending and eventually encounter the putrid mother, my favorite of the three faction leaders. The fact that it's also the canon ending of the game is great too, perfectly setting me up for the sequel (I'll be getting that too when it comes out!!!)

My favorite part of the game, though, was the umbral lantern mechanic, something the game is probably most praised for. I really enjoyed switching back and forth between the two parallel worlds to unlock new secrets, whether it was a quest item, new equipment, or a straight-up new path/shortcut that could be taken advantage of. It made it super refreshing for reexploration, as I would've never guessed that a building in blazing fire could be traversed this way lol. One small mechanic I also enjoyed was the stigma mechanic, a nice way to add tidbits of context without the need for reading, and characters that are already long gone during the events of the game.

I can't exactly praise the bosses of the game, though. Only some of them were memorable, mainly the early bunch like The Hushed Saint and The Congregator of Flesh. I was fairly disappointed by The Hollow Crow, which had the sickest cutscene of them all, only for a ghost with mobs to be the actual boss fight. On the opposite end, some cutscenes were oddly stiff, like Sundered Monarch and Judge Cleric, with the one breaking the game the most being Elianne's. The first viewing had us watch a PNG and an out-of-bounds camera angle the entire time. Their fights were not bad and carried some interesting moves and gimmicks at least! Maybe I'm just too spoiled by FromSoft's bosses and would say they're in a league of their own here.

I'm hoping the upcoming sequel is just as good as this one, if not better! Maybe I should do another build and pursue a different ending like Radiance?

My character's name in the pictures is Unsleeping Eorin, and with the game's incredible graphics, combined with its sets and photo mode, makes taking pictures way too damn easy!!