As of yesterday, Binh and I are Elden Lords! At the end of the night, we managed to double team Malenia and the Elden Beast twice, though the second time for the Elden Beast felt like it was cutting it pretty close. Altogether a fun way to finish my first soulslike game! I am really glad that we took the time to seek out finding Malenia because out of everyone, she felt like the most fun fight! Something about her high damage, lifesteal, wide range of combos, and easiness to stagger made her feel like a really fair boss UNLIKE Radagon who just felt so tanky and punishing. But anyways. Enough talking about the bosses!

I started playing Elden Ring near launch, and completed it about 100hrs later. Because of the open world nature of the game, I learned a lot about what to do and where to go from the general Elden Ring community. I mean, the world is so vast, there are so many hazards that it can be tricky to figure everything out on your own, especially without prior knowledge of any fromsoft games!

(fun fact - I just started Nioh before playing Elden, so unlearning the controls I just learned was a challenge in itself)

Looking back (as well as in the moment), I never had any regrets about looking things up for Elden Ring. Some of these things I feel I would have never found out on my own. But I don’t know! I think an open world like Elden Ring really makes engaging and seeking out community knowledge that much more satisfying. It’s like the online wikis/youtubes/reddits are quest-givers that simply live outside the game. In the end, I still have to do the exploring and dying! 

The way Elden Ring just throws you into the game set up the stage for big satisfaction for when I eventually got strong. The game was only really hard when I was baby and when I was no longer a baby, I had a completely different relationship to the places that used to be so precarious. Near my endgame, I felt the confidence to explore pretty much anywhere on the map while having a nice general idea where traps could be. All this sounds impressive and YAY GROWTH, but in my day to day, I still managed to fall off 6+ ledges a play session and always managed to backtrack to dungeons I already completed. 




I named my character “Stickifingas” because I just finished the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind arc before starting Elden Ring. After finishing the entire Jojo series, Bucciarati has to be my favorite character! Bucciarati always has a way of staying cool when things get heated and even death can’t hold that man down. Plus, what is better than the sticky fingers call out?? Mid way through my Elden Ring adventure, I gave him a bug head and played as the stand of Bucciarati, though near the end game, I just wore whatever.





Video games have been a great way for me to really decompress and chill after a busy day. I can slip directly into the world of a game very easily! The game I completed before Elden Ring happened to be Red Dead Redemption 2. I did a little bit of Resident Evil biohazard, and the intro was STUNNING, but idk, overall it kind of felt like an itchy horror like very bodily, visceral, and the places just looked like they SMELLED. I do want to try some other horrors eventually though I need my game times to be at least a little bit chill!! I guess we will see whatever I’m feeling :)