Call and Response: Bonfireside Chat: Altus Plateau
Added 2023-01-26 15:00:02 +0000 UTCHey folks! It's time to write in with your responses on Altus Plateau in Elden Ring. Altus was big so... let's stick to Altus. Submit your response as a comment on this post! As always, keep some guidelines in mind.
1. Keep your responses and stories specific to Altus and story beats that take place there.
2. Please keep your responses brief. Think two short paragraphs, or around 200 words.
3. Specificity is preferred over generalities.
4. We tend to get a lot of responses, so please don't feel bad if we omit your response, or edit it for length.
The deadline is the end of the day, Tuesday January 31.
Umbasa.
Comments
I loved the shock the shaded castle gave me. When I first saw it on the map I thought “wow that looks like a grassy area. Let’s check it out”… it wasn’t grass. It wasn’t grass at all
Patrick
2023-01-30 21:20:25 +0000 UTCThe Altus area gave me a feeling of a season change. So breathtaking, I just enjoyed looking and taking it all in. I found myself losing to Magma worm a couple of times. I was weak, too🔥. After overcoming that wall, I had to fight uphill the Omens and another damn dragon fight. luckly some told me to skip that particular fight because it's runs alway after a certain point. O man, I had that same Skeletor action figure, too. I would poke him all the time.
Mcav86
2023-01-30 14:56:07 +0000 UTCRe: the weird slabs of rock that look like toppled pillars or projectiles (in Altus and Liurnia). They remind me of the strange leaning hills in Super Mario World. I assume the Land Octopi are a reference to Zelda's Octoroks, and suspect the Gold Tinged Excrement is a reference to Breath of the Wild's Korok "seeds." So, only fair that Mario gets a reference. #solved? #iWish
Micah Tillman
2023-01-30 14:04:07 +0000 UTCPS, I stumbled across Bonfireside Chat a little over a year ago and have been binging it insatiably ever since. This is the first time I’ve been caught up in time to respond to an area, super excited!
Daniel Barclay
2023-01-30 07:02:19 +0000 UTCAltus was the first region where I felt FromSoft was going for “maze-like, interconnected design,” but in the open world itself. I remember seeing so many places tantalizingly out of reach, due to a cliff face or chasm. I didn’t find the Shaded Castle until a 2nd visit dozens of hours later. I’m actually a little surprised this didn’t happen more often in the game. Limgrave is mostly wide open. Liurnia and Caelid each have one prominent area only accessible through underground traversal, but are otherwise open as well. I suppose the legacy dungeons provide more than enough labyrinthine design, but to me, Altus was the first place to translate this to the above-ground world.
Ben Taylor
2023-01-29 23:31:49 +0000 UTCAltus is possibly my favorite region in Elden Ring, right up there with Limgrave. Back in the beginning of the season, I think it was Gary described Limgrave as "heaven after an apocalypse" and I love that, but I think it applies as much or more to Altus. It's an incredibly, unnaturally beautiful area, and the eternal golden sunrise feeling of it brings to mind the sun of Anor Londo. It shares a lot with Anor Londo from a story perspective too, our hypothetical goal which only makes things more complicated when we get there. But it also has the same density as Limgrave, the ruins and marks of evil and conflict that mar the gorgeous landscape, and just SO MANY tiny, atmospheric novellas like the First Defense, the Wormface Valley, the Sunken Castle, and the Windmill Village. Altus represents all the things I love most about Elden Ring, and gives me the same vibes as my first steps exploring Limgrave
Nat Isnice
2023-01-29 18:49:20 +0000 UTCThe Mirage Rise and the Wormface Forest provided me with my favorite feeling in Elden Ring so far. I hadn't explored the area much until I briefly saw a mirage of the Mirage Rise after visiting the Second Church of Marika. Intrigued and slightly confused, I dropped down into the forest to look for what I thought I saw, and found the statue with the puzzle for the Rise. While sneaking through the dark, foggy forest, looking for those phantom crests, avoiding the Wormfaces, I felt a heightened version of the way I feel in real life when I'm in a woods alone. Woods are eerie places, with obstructed sightlines, creaking trees, and strange animal noises that seem to come from nowhere. To me, the Wormface Forest has that same enchanted feeling, in a menacing Grimm fairy tale sort of way. I felt like anything could happen there. I'm impressed that From is able to generate such elemental feelings in this game. Are there any areas where you feel that sense enchantment?
Jordan Rippy
2023-01-29 16:45:38 +0000 UTCWhen Margit was blocking my way in the early game, I had a lot of fun exploring in all directions until I encountered anything that was too hard. The Draconic Tree Sentinel was this but irritating. I thought for sure I could find some back way into Leyndell because I couldn't imagine that this chucklefuck was mandatory (he's not, sort of). It didn't take long to explore Mt Gelmir, and then I was just running across dead ends and Hero's Graves. This sort of mid-game drag is something I experience in a lot of open world games, and I was really hoping From would fix it.
Autumn M
2023-01-29 00:26:47 +0000 UTCSo drunk, in the Limgrave sun(?), and thy true heir is Kenneth Haight
Casey Francis Alger
2023-01-27 22:24:15 +0000 UTCHow have I found such kindred spirits??
Austin Mathis
2023-01-27 22:02:57 +0000 UTCI did say go back to your gold mask and keep your address to yourself in one of these episodes. -GB
Duckfeed.tv
2023-01-27 20:45:44 +0000 UTCAltus may have one of my favorite areas in the whole of Elden Ring; the Windmill Village. It’s an aesthetic triumph, and though it may seem slightly out of place, it feels right at home in the Lands Between. I do, however, have a bit of an extra read on the place for you guys. You ever hear tell of the Dancing Plague? It’s one of those “did it really happen?” stories from the 1500’s so historical data is unreliable at best. Long story short it was, supposedly an incident where a woman became sick and literally danced in the streets until she keeled over dead. Then it spread, not unlike a sickness, until somewhere between 50 and 400 people may have died from this Lovecraftian-ass incident. Why do I bring this up? Well, there’s a little alcove off to the side with the non-hostile Celebrants. There are several just lying on the ground, clearly dead, but one is still alive, leaning against the wall and still shuffling from foot to foot. Now it could be that it’s just a little reference or it could speak to some form of horrible compulsion, I’m not entirely sure. Either way I thought it was cool and creepy as hell.
Jonathan Scratch
2023-01-27 20:15:00 +0000 UTCAltus = Gold Soundz by Pavement, I cannot explain this but it is true.
Casey Francis Alger
2023-01-27 20:08:06 +0000 UTCThe terrain & enemy difficulty made Altus the densest nugget of tarnished gold I’ve ever melted. The map piece reveals are so intriguing (with the erdtree/capital structure) and all throughout is this new sense of grandiose government and authority. It took me a long time to not die to the enemies within Leyndell capital but the new lightning and perfume combat still felt like such fresh encounters, I think perfumers are so badass. The Leyndell Knights can still kind of fuck off, but they did feel like a perfect enemy to symbolize the religious/Big Brother authority of the capital.
Austin Mathis
2023-01-27 13:23:08 +0000 UTCHave you ever made any fun builds that were difficult to set up? I recently started a new playthrough of Elden Ring where I would roleplay as a Godskin Apostle: rush the Peeler and Apostle outfit as early as possible and wreak havoc on the Lands Between in my nifty face coat with my swirly sickle and blackflame pocket sand. All went according to plan until I got to Dominula, Windmill Village. Now, having beaten every Souls game multiple times, I consider myself a veteran, but am I good enough to beat the Godskin Apostle at level 29 with a Lordworn's Greatsword +1? Absolutely not. About 4 hours of grinding my teeth on that stretchy boi and I finally had the Godskin Peeler. Now, I remember reaching the Divine Tower of Caelid way earlier than Altus in my first playthrough, so surely that Apostle would be easier, right? NO. Have I learned nothing? That one took me almost as long at level 45 with a Godskin Peeler +12. Now I have my endgame equipment 24 hours in and the rest of the game should be a breeze... right?
Jared Mogen
2023-01-27 03:15:34 +0000 UTCAltus is one of the most visually striking areas from Fromm (nice). The oncoming view of the capitol and it's great walls, the looming ghostly banners, and the vast land around you culminate into a beautiful locale. The lighting might be my favorite in the game, and the war torn nature of the land evokes strong imagery. However, I feel that the combat encounters don't entirely take advantage of the beauty within the level. That bridge teleporter is so boring.. let me run!
Comrade Jake
2023-01-26 21:12:33 +0000 UTCAltus presented some of the most and least memorable moments for me in my first playthrough. Arriving on the plateau for the first time (coming from either route) was breathtaking. Finding the Windmill villages and the Godskin Apostle at the top was a great example of a relatively self-contained and concise atmosphere and mechanical buildup. Stumbling into the forest and meeting the Wormfaces was horrifying and exhilarating. However, by the time I reached Altus, I felt I had become too accustomed to the game as a whole to appreciate it for what it truly was. I find myself enjoying it a lot more on my most recent playthrough, taking my time to explore random directions when I feel like it.
Daniel Barclay
2023-01-26 19:52:54 +0000 UTCtl;dr: I'll take a dozen Blighttowns or Shaded Castles over a Midir or an Isshin.
Mystic Referee
2023-01-26 17:51:52 +0000 UTCOf the many things I loved about Altus, nothing will ever outshine the first time I stumbled into Wormface Nightmare Forest. It was at night and I was holding a great deal of runes and circling about trying to find a site of grace to come back to (part of my heuristic). I jumped down a cliff into some woods and heard… THAT awful sound. I hadn’t encountered wormfaces before, and that horrible gurgle cough/laugh mixed with their inscrutable silhouette while plunged in darkness created in me a horror that went unmatched for the rest of the game until I finally found a cave and got the fuck out. Thank you, Fromsoft, very cool.
Matt K
2023-01-26 17:50:39 +0000 UTCWhy was the Forest-Spanning Bridge built? It doesn't seem to save any time between Gelmir and Leyndell. People, horses, and even wagons could take the hill without too much trouble, at least in peacetime, and I doubt Gelmir could build the bridge during war. My thought is that you need flatter, more even terrain for heavy machines which couldn't handle the slopes. What would qualify? The only thing I can think of is the abductor virgins near the elevator in Leyndell. I don't know what the stated reason for the bridge was when they built it, but I think someone powerful wanted to get their hands on those abductors.
Zaynation
2023-01-26 16:55:34 +0000 UTCShaded Castle has become one of my all time favorite FromSoft levels. There’s a trend of (even if jokingly) mocking From’s poison levels as a meme, but I think the ingenuity and purpose of those levels is sometimes under-appreciated. In a Miyazaki interview for Elden Ring he said he doesn’t know himself why he gravitates towards poison levels as a design choice, but he mentioned that it’s something that comes naturally to him and the team. I want to venture a guess as to why From prefers these levels. It goes back even as far as the King’s Field games, where they put the poison gimmick front and center (thinking of the starting mines in KF4). It highlights the studio’s core design ethos of preparation and meaningful exploration. To me, status effect levels have always been about slowing down the player into tunnel vision, asking them to carefully plan their trek and use every available option in their inventory. Because players feel so trapped and pressured, every other design element of these levels is also heightened. This is why From’s swamp levels are infamous, but also memorable. This applies to Shaded Castle as well. For being a minor legacy dungeon, it is very striking in my memory. Even with all the options available in Elden Ring, it manages to be quite challenging. You’re moving slowly, but so are most of the enemies here, bar a couple of exceptions. There’s status effects everywhere, but it’s a neat enough closed loop design that you can make small treks and handle it without too much pain. And finally, it’s a great little contained story with a cool boss that lingers in your head and poses some interesting questions (especially if you’ve already fought the open world version). Love it!
Mystic Referee
2023-01-26 16:07:46 +0000 UTCNear the Sainted Hero's Grave where the dragon shows up (apparently! I took the lift and never encountered it in the first spot, so there was no dragon here when I first got here) there is a scarab with the Lightning Ram ash of war. You too can bleat and roll like our goofy furry friends/bone sources. Another example of Elden Ring willing to be pretty silly, and it's great!
Timothy Post
2023-01-26 15:20:02 +0000 UTCI love/dread getting to the Altus plateau. I think it is one of the most unique areas From has created, with an interesting story of war destroying a living city. However, I wish the city was more living. it feels like the only people you find alive in the Altus are enemys, For such a lively area, very frew people are avalible to talk to. The Shatering feels like a recent event here, but it is spoken of like a historical event.
Brandon glauner
2023-01-26 15:15:58 +0000 UTCAltus is probably my favourite region of Elden ring, tied with the approach to mount Gelmir. I stumbled into it pretty early, when I was doing a collectible sweep in the lakes and found my way through the cowards path and (having been somewhat spoiled on Agheel by the early content creators) Lanseax was the first time a dragon got the jump on me in a really memorable way, as she knocked me back to the my sight of grace.
Artalam
2023-01-26 15:12:52 +0000 UTC
