nkarafo
Member
Or at least it is compared to all other Souls games. A LOT easier.
Like the others, it's hard early on and gets easier as you progress. This is something all Souls games have, they are harder at the beginning, maybe because your character gets stronger at a faster rate compared to later enemies/bosses. But in Elden Ring this is much more unbalanced in favor of the player.
First of all, the "bonfires" are plentiful and usually close to each other. The process of getting to the closest one in order to use your souls/runes is also easier/safer. I remember this being one of the most nerve-racking things in Dark Souls 1. Finding the next bonfire was like finding an oasis in the desert after days of thirst. This got easier in later games with the bonfires being more plentiful and closer to each other but in Elden Ring they went one step further allowing you to teleport to one without even needing to be resting in one. If it wasn't for the catacombs where you aren't allowed to teleport, the item that sends you to the last used bonfire in exchange for your souls/runes (in case you got stuck) wouldn't need to exist.
As a result, it's far easier to level your character. In my 150h playthrough so far i don't think i lost more runes than i'm comfortable with, more than a couple of times. And those couple times were because i let my guard down and died for stupid reasons. Or because of some stupid platforming jankiness.
Speaking of runes, the game has too much to find, it has a ton of mini-bosses that give many runes and offers a shit tone of golden rune items to use/sell. For someone like me who explores every corner i can, there are a lot more opportunities to gather a lot of runes without ever needing to farm them, compared to the previous games. I still haven't finished the game (i should be close though since i uncovered the whole map) and i'm a level 171 freak. That's without farming or trying to level my character to become stronger. I reached the point where i don't really know what stat to increase anymore. And i always have so many runes on me regardless. "I have way too many runes" is something i never thought in a Souls game. And even now, the last boss i killed offered me 400K runes, which is enough to level up twice, even at such high level. Guess i'll get vigor to 60 or something. Or increase my INT (on a strength build), for some extra magic resistance, dunno.
Then you have the summons. That's literally an easy mode build in the game. Especially the mimic tear. So not only i'm an over-leveled beast, now there are two of us. Every new boss i find is demolished in less than a minute, without even needing to learn it's... tactics? What is even that? After, what, 100+ encounters there was a single one where i had to be patient and use proper tactics, only because it's one of those few ones where you can't summon and because the boss had a grappling move and a kill combo where my OP shield was useless. Other than that i just brute force any boss in my path, without caring about whatever they unleash on me and i usually beat them first try. I actually feel sorry for them, they have their fancy intros, do their fancy moves and screen filling spells, with their huge swords and the epic music in the background thinking "Durr, i'm a Souls game Boss, i'll punish this mofo like we always do"... Only for me to roflstomp them first try.
Not sure if it's my fault or my build. I always play tanky builds (except in Bloodborne and Sekiro ofc) that allow me to absorb a lot of hits later on in PvE (i only play offline) but i don't remember my build being so cheesy in the previous games without even trying to cheese the game. I'm pretty sure i'm playing the game the way it's intended, yet i feel like i should hold back because it offers me way too many tools and goodies to beat it.
I still love the game and i do feel rewarded for exploring/finding everything. Being so powerful is my reward, i get it. It's just that the previous games weren't that eager to reward me so generously.
Like the others, it's hard early on and gets easier as you progress. This is something all Souls games have, they are harder at the beginning, maybe because your character gets stronger at a faster rate compared to later enemies/bosses. But in Elden Ring this is much more unbalanced in favor of the player.
First of all, the "bonfires" are plentiful and usually close to each other. The process of getting to the closest one in order to use your souls/runes is also easier/safer. I remember this being one of the most nerve-racking things in Dark Souls 1. Finding the next bonfire was like finding an oasis in the desert after days of thirst. This got easier in later games with the bonfires being more plentiful and closer to each other but in Elden Ring they went one step further allowing you to teleport to one without even needing to be resting in one. If it wasn't for the catacombs where you aren't allowed to teleport, the item that sends you to the last used bonfire in exchange for your souls/runes (in case you got stuck) wouldn't need to exist.
As a result, it's far easier to level your character. In my 150h playthrough so far i don't think i lost more runes than i'm comfortable with, more than a couple of times. And those couple times were because i let my guard down and died for stupid reasons. Or because of some stupid platforming jankiness.
Speaking of runes, the game has too much to find, it has a ton of mini-bosses that give many runes and offers a shit tone of golden rune items to use/sell. For someone like me who explores every corner i can, there are a lot more opportunities to gather a lot of runes without ever needing to farm them, compared to the previous games. I still haven't finished the game (i should be close though since i uncovered the whole map) and i'm a level 171 freak. That's without farming or trying to level my character to become stronger. I reached the point where i don't really know what stat to increase anymore. And i always have so many runes on me regardless. "I have way too many runes" is something i never thought in a Souls game. And even now, the last boss i killed offered me 400K runes, which is enough to level up twice, even at such high level. Guess i'll get vigor to 60 or something. Or increase my INT (on a strength build), for some extra magic resistance, dunno.
Then you have the summons. That's literally an easy mode build in the game. Especially the mimic tear. So not only i'm an over-leveled beast, now there are two of us. Every new boss i find is demolished in less than a minute, without even needing to learn it's... tactics? What is even that? After, what, 100+ encounters there was a single one where i had to be patient and use proper tactics, only because it's one of those few ones where you can't summon and because the boss had a grappling move and a kill combo where my OP shield was useless. Other than that i just brute force any boss in my path, without caring about whatever they unleash on me and i usually beat them first try. I actually feel sorry for them, they have their fancy intros, do their fancy moves and screen filling spells, with their huge swords and the epic music in the background thinking "Durr, i'm a Souls game Boss, i'll punish this mofo like we always do"... Only for me to roflstomp them first try.
Not sure if it's my fault or my build. I always play tanky builds (except in Bloodborne and Sekiro ofc) that allow me to absorb a lot of hits later on in PvE (i only play offline) but i don't remember my build being so cheesy in the previous games without even trying to cheese the game. I'm pretty sure i'm playing the game the way it's intended, yet i feel like i should hold back because it offers me way too many tools and goodies to beat it.
I still love the game and i do feel rewarded for exploring/finding everything. Being so powerful is my reward, i get it. It's just that the previous games weren't that eager to reward me so generously.
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