To quote an old RockPaperShotgun comment about Dark Souls, the best decisions are the ones that you don't know you're making. DS definitely has storyline changes depending on where you go first, what you do and who you speak to, which is far more natural than a two-way dialogue option for "blatant RPG decision making".

The tragedy of Elden Ring is that it's far too long for that. I've played through DS several times and would expect to get it finished in about five hours, so can play through the various plot line resolutions in a long evening of gaming. ER has a variety of ways that the DLC can play out, you say? Best book a fortnight off work so that I can get a hundred hours of gaming in.

[–] 50_centavos@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can complete 90% of everything in one playthrough. Then complete the other parts in NG+ so you're not completely starting over. I believe you only need 2 great runes to face the end boss.

[–] addie@feddit.uk 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Well, yes. But I would argue that if you have the skills to defeat eg. the Draconic Sentinel with just two runes, then it's probably not your first rodeo. Stumbling over all the steps to eg. Varre or Hyettas quests on an unguided playthrough, which require specific things in a certain order in a huge world, are not particularly likely either. Its size works against it in that regard.

[–] 50_centavos@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Doing it in NG+ isn't that difficult at all since you already have your stats set and multiple weapons maxed out.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’ve played through DS several times and would expect to get it finished in about five hours

Do you think your experience here is at all the norm?

[–] addie@feddit.uk 1 points 3 days ago

For people that really love Dark Souls and have finished it repeatedly, including challenge runs? Five hours is probably taking your time, using rubbish weapons for a laugh. For your first time playing through, hell no - probably more like thirty. The first DS has some unreasonable traps for the unwary - one of the stats is a dead end, many of the weapons scale really badly. Maybe better to start with Scholar or 3, that are better balanced.