Well the funny thing about the Black Swordsman arc is...it's technically the first arc of Berserk (as in it was how the manga started), and Guts in that is very...different. Different enough that by the time the Golden Age arc concludes that the Guts from that is a substantially different character and Miura kinda tried his best to justify the Black Swordsman arc post-Golden Age, but it ultimately kinda comes across as a bit goofy and still very OOC for Guts at that point. Needless to say it's generally agreed upon that Black Swordsman is kind of the worst arc, not for lack of bad writing, but kinda aged like milk sitting out in the sun due to how far Guts' character was fleshed out throughout the Golden Age and how it ultimately clashed with what was originally presented.

Black Swordsman arc is some silly shit

But on the flipside doesn't that mean no Elden Ring either?

Because this was meant to be an anniversary title, except everything from development to marketing to the actual game itself went so horribly awry in JP that it led the then series producer at the time to leave the company and become the literal laughing stock of the JP game industry, and yes it was almost entirely his fault Zestiria turned out like this.

Sounds like Zestiria is exactly what I would expect from the game that almost completely killed the franchise.

i mean it was better than buying it at full price, on its own, and on launch like the fool i was. i made it worse on myself too when i waited too long to trade it in for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and saw the price of the game take a massive nosedive so it ended up being a bigger loss for me in the long run (but XB3 was okay i guess so it sorta worked out?)

oh my lord you actually went and got Valkyrie Elysium. i only hope your journey won't be as painful as mine was.

Ahh yes, it isn't a true Dark Souls experience if you don't find Bed of Chaos to be the most horridly executed, half-baked idea in the entire series because even FromSoft feels that way about her.

I'd say lower than that and pre-owned tbh. It boggles my mind that we have action game staples like DMC, Bayonetta, MGR, or even going in the ARPG direction I would say (modern) Ys, or any Team Ninja game recently (Nioh, SoP, Wo Long, etc.) are fine examples, and yet somehow Elysium just manages to bungle almost everything that the genre had already defined and perfected upwards of 20 years prior. This was kind of meant as a "haha would be funny to play this as filler for the real tri-Ace game a month from now" except I stopped laughing at around Chapter 4 and whatever little good comes from the game from here on only seems to get completely overshadowed by the game's fundamental flaws or something really stupid cropping up that makes me blow a gasket because who on Odin's Green Midgard thought [insert absurd level/enemy/boss design choice here] was a good idea. This isn't even getting into the story...

Yes, the elemental races are immune to any "mind-controlling effects" which does include charm (this includes the spell Ghost Light, dunno about Bokohn's Marionette skill), so taking one is never a bad idea, especially for Rocbouquet and the final boss.