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[Davevil]

OP how many games have you played in your life? One?

 

[_Idea_of_Evil_]

Sekiro and Kena ask more of you in average combat encounter( I don't even need to bring up the like's Devil may cry and Ninja Gaiden.)

Throwing Kena in there is just....

 

[gaming_again]

Why do you need an empty traversable landmass with nothing in it to feel epic?
Doing nothing is boring - that's not why you play games. What's epic about doing nothing while going to a place where you can do something?

You don't need to actually be able to walk everywhere for a feeling of scale. 99.99% of games only allow you to go to certain spots within any place - the rest of that place is alluded to and that's more than enough to give a sense of scale.

That tommib poster has a great insight was that the scale is the game - overwhelming and intimidating.

 

[BbMajor7th]

I loved my time with it, but much as with Breath of the Wild, I didn't consider the sense of exploration or discovery that transformative. If it was simply a case of creating minimalist maps, then anyone could do it, but where both ER and BotW let the side down is that the potential for discovery is always limited by the game mechanics. By the time you leave Limgrave the die is already cast: you'll find caves, catacombs and large, Souls-like dungeon areas, and in them you'll fight mobs, bosses, sub-bosses and occasionally traps, switches and invisible walkways. Outside that you'll find merchants, occasional NPCs and lots of ruins, but most of what you'll find in these places is crafting materials, weapons, armour and items.

It's all beautifully crafted and expertly directed. The combat is excellent, the dungeons are stellar and the bosses are up there with FromSoft's best and though I don't know what's around the next corner, most of the time, I can be fairly certain of what I'll find there: enemies, loot, traps, merchants, bosses. The Witcher 3 still takes the exploration and discovery crown, because, sure, you might have waypoint markers, and sometimes it's just a cheap mob and a loot chest, but just as often it'll be something quite unexpected, something that will spin off into a multi-part side-quest that all started because you picked up a soggy letter.

 

[Ar¢tos]

That's a multiplayer game.
Elden Ring is a single player game with opt-in multiplayer content.

There's exactly 0 technical problem in implementing it like "do not allow players to be invaded while paused, do not allow players to pause while being invaded". It's not rocket science...
It's not like it's fun for the invader, either, to invade someone who's just AFK.

Quit and Continue is the pause.
You can't change spells/gear mid combat, so I don't see what is the need for a pause. Do you want to reflect on the state of the world in the middle of a boss fight? Or rethink strategy? That would completely break the immersion and go against the essence of "souls", it would reduce the tension of the fight. The only reason I can think for a pause that Quit and Continue can't be fast enough is if you have IBS and need to pause urgently before you shit yourself and hope you make it to the toilet in time.

 

[Uiki]

It's not even the best FROM game.

 

[Soodanim]

Bosses? world assets? combat animations? Caves? Recycle X5 & mix. Winning formula.

Say we send gamers back to caveman-era gaming with no way to pause? Force folks online to garner bits & pieces of the incoherent storytelling? Absolutely brilliant design & nothing wrong there!

Towns? Villages? Inhabitants? Any actual world interaction? Fuck that. Take your braindead one-liner NPCs & enjoy it.

Elden Ring AI: If boss see MC -> attack with janky animations till MC dead. Else -> Nothing. Just roam round damn spot forever like a moron.

Same mediocre FromSoft tech? *Overworld Stuttering Intensifies*

ER's an Iteration. Not an evolution. Same shit Souls have been about, but HEY NOW here's a horse! an open world hub! We added jumping!
Saying that these "major additions" are groundbreaking for open-worlds is subjective, but incorrect imo.

Okay but very flawed game. Lotta what's being hailed here have already been done elsewhere & better.

For all the arbitrary moaning and derisive reductionism this does, there are snippets of truth in there. I've been a fan since Demon's Souls, and this time round it seems like they leaned too heavily into obscurity. I don't get the impression that the devs know the full story like they did in previous games, too much is impossible to figure out and that seems more of a mistake than an intentional mystery.

Elden Ring, in many ways, is iterative. That's not necessarily bad, but it is undoubtedly more old than it is new. Lots of refinement, but by definition things have to be old.

From aren't great technical programmers. They don't make wonderfully optimised games.

That doesn't make the rest of the points less nonsensical, but credit where credit is due.

I wish I knew what you wanted bosses to do though. Have a daily NPC routine where they walk to a market and buy some fruit? It's a game, they're there to be a challenge and they don't pretend to be anything else.

 

[MagnesD3]

Not gonna lie I low key agree with you, it is a legitimate argument for the greatest video game of all time. Now I think there are games that are slightly more well rounded (aka basically no flaws) but the sheer amount that they do amazingly is insane, whether people can conceive why that is or not "it should not exist" its crazy. There are very few games I'd bring to the table able potentially the greatest game of all time and Elden Ring is definitely one of them.

This is coming from someone who's beaten idk probably 300 -500 games I wanna say (maybe more now).

 

[TintoConCasera]

Why do you need an empty traversable landmass with nothing in it to feel epic?
Doing nothing is boring - that's not why you play games. What's epic about doing nothing while going to a place where you can do something?

You don't need to actually be able to walk everywhere for a feeling of scale. 99.99% of games only allow you to go to certain spots within any place - the rest of that place is alluded to and that's more than enough to give a sense of scale.

It's called sense of exploration, discovery and adventure. Also pacing.
When you are doing epic stuff 100% of the time, it stops feeling epic at all. Having empty spaces allows the player to find stuff on his own, rather than following map markers on a map that feels more like a theme park than an actual world, like most other games do.

 

[Fools idol]

it was a 7/10 for me. I hated the open world and honestly it's the weakest story and world of the Fromsoft games by far.

Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1 will forever be the best for me. ER is the first Fromsoft game that I didnt finish. I have zero desire to beat the final boss and do any of the content I missed tbh.

 

[chixdiggit]

A year has passed and now the cycle of hate begins, darkness falls and the scrubs are loud once again…

Yup. Like clockwork.

 

[drganon]

No.

 

[Ic3man]

I agree, it's one of the best game ever made.

 

[ikbalCO]

Achievement in art and level design w/out any comparison.

I oft find myself thinking of this game out of the blue. And also i see elden ring in everything.

I was getting high with my friends and we started watching drone videos of worlds beautiful vistas. Half of the scenes i was like wait shit, thats exactly like elden ring.

Few examples.

Ephesus - turkey

Elden ring graveyards

Mont saint michel - france

Academy of raya lucaria

Tombs of madain saleh

walking turtle buildin elden ring (brought down)

 

[The artful mincer]

Throwing Kena in there is just....

I knew that would trigger some of you. ( That's why I put it in there)

But in some way's it factually is (No matter how many funny gifs you put up)

You have more abilities in Kena that you can fluidly combo. Unless your a mage or have items but there clunky as fuck to switch in the heat of battle.

Happy to discuss the differences between the two and what you perceive as depth or we could have childish gif responses instead!

 

[The artful mincer]

My view: the complexity isn’t in the button presses (a la Nioh) but the punish windows.

For example, two-hit combos branching into three-hitters with little tells, learning the timings to avoid delayed roll-catch hits, finding out which strikes you can jump over, or hyper armour through with an ash of war, where you can jump to avoid AoEs.

If you go in with an OP weapon you’ll miss most of this as you chaotically spam roll and get in enough lucky hits to defeat the boss. This was the defining feature of my first run through.

Godfrey the first Elden Lord will sometimes do a little stab with his axe face-on, a little move I can’t figure out how to avoid. Champion Gundyr did something similar in DS3 but you could roll out of it. Working this out is where the pleasure is.

I prefer complexity in reading animations and recognising patterns to stance-changing, face button combos and build min/maxing. It feels more… emergent and less perscriptive?

Good response I've never really thought of it like that. I think I lack the patience to do a low level run through.

I see where your coming from but I would still like more offensive options in the heat of battle.

 

[brian0057]

Play Daggerfall.
Every open world game is still living under its shadow.
Including the ones you like the most. Yes, even the one you're thinking of right now.

 

[gaming_again]

Achievement in art and level design w/out any comparison.

I oft find myself thinking of this game out of the blue. And also i see elden ring in everything.

I was getting high with my friends and we started watching drone videos of worlds beautiful vistas. Half of the scenes i was like wait shit, thats exactly like elden ring.

Few examples.

Ephesus - turkey

Elden ring graveyards

Mont saint michel - france

Academy of raya lucaria

Tombs of madain saleh

walking turtle buildin elden ring (brought down)

There is a house near me with a rock garden and nestled within it is what is definitely a somber smithing stone. Need to grab it to get my dick up to +1.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I thought like this until my realisation that the game isn’t designed for 100% runs.

You can do a fresh play through in like 10 hours if you know what items you want and plan accordingly.

I think the gradual mastery of the world through game knowledge is where the joy of Elden Ring is.

The point of a game like this is to see and live the world, and you’ll never live that first time again. Planning and speedrunning it is not the way to enjoy the good things the game has to offer. Unfortunately, the unrelenting nature of the game means no run will ever be a pleasure cruise to see the sights and challenge a few interesting bosses. The linear nature of the Souls games makes this approach more feasible (even if it makes some parts even more of a chore, see anything post Anor Londo in DS1).

I’m perfectly happy to never go anywhere near the end-game boss triad of ER ever again in my life, but even if I wanted to do the Ranni quest again I’d have to endure several hours of other stuff that, frankly, nauseated me after finally beating ER. Nothing in the game is so compelling to make me play through it again just for it. I see no joy in making and following a detailed roadmap of steps to do to become ”op” quick in a game like this, unless you’re into speedrunning. There’s just too much stuff to reduce everything to that, but this also means there’s a world of stuff between you and the good bits. And that, in the end, is what makes me and others not wanting to bother with ER altogether again.

 

[nemiroff]

I think we're finally seeing the honeymoon phase end with Elden Ring and people are now able to be critical of its flaws

Well, when the honeymoon lasts for 400 hours it would be absurd to not pick up a bit of constructive criticism along the way.

It's basically a masterpieces, and more universally acclaimed so than most. But it's still a game, and no game can escape criticism from subjective opinion and preference.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

All of the Souls games are overrated. Especially this one. I've been consistent with that for a long while.

I so see the appeal and did try. It's just ran it's course with me.

Great for those who want to make threads to preach about it.

I should be fair and say that the art and certain aspects are not bad. Just not even close enough to keep my interest.

 

[Rockondevil]

It's definitely a masterpiece and one of the greatest games made and there's absolutely no reason some people can't see it as the best game ever made.
I hate souls games generally but I loved Elden Ring and did absolutely everything I could in my playthrough.

 

[rofif]

All good aside from bloat and repeated caves with bad rewards. I also don’t like many repeated bosses and too fast bosses combat. It’s just super fast and too frantic.
I think souls games are better. Ds3 with dlc is incredible.
Ds1 is perfect.
Ds2 is my personal fav.

I gotta say tho, I need to replay Elden ring and don’t do everything

 

[Holammer]

It's an alright game and I rate it highly, but as the Swedish idiom goes: "Taste, like your ass is divided".
I'm currently playing Breath of the Wild using CEMU and I'm having much more fun with it than I ever had with Elden Ring.

 

[Sybrix]

BOTW and to some extent Skyrim, more so BOTW are both games where you have the freedom to do what ever you want and your own pace, much like ER.

I brought Skyrim in 2011, i've played 100s of hours and have never completed it, i never did the main quest line, i did my own thing.

BOTW is so hands off, it lets you take on the final boss in the first hour of the game if you want to.

 

[gaming_again]

The point of a game like this is to see and live the world, and you’ll never live that first time again. Planning and speedrunning it is not the way to enjoy the good things the game has to offer. Unfortunately, the unrelenting nature of the game means no run will ever be a pleasure cruise to see the sights and challenge a few interesting bosses. The linear nature of the Souls games makes this approach more feasible (even if it makes some parts even more of a chore, see anything post Anor Londo in DS1).

I’m perfectly happy to never go anywhere near the end-game boss triad of ER ever again in my life, but even if I wanted to do the Ranni quest again I’d have to endure several hours of other stuff that, frankly, nauseated me after finally beating ER. Nothing in the game is so compelling to make me play through it again just for it. I see no joy in making and following a detailed roadmap of steps to do to become ”op” quick in a game like this, unless you’re into speedrunning. There’s just too much stuff to reduce everything to that, but this also means there’s a world of stuff between you and the good bits. And that, in the end, is what makes me and others not wanting to bother with ER altogether again.

I agree that the first time shouldn't be planned. I bumbled through it completely and missed so much, but it was a great experience. Loads of people probably stopped there.

But I think that multiple runs, gradually working out your ideal route for the talismans and upgrade materials you need for a specific build you've already planned is just as much fun but in an entirely different way. It's the pleasure of mastery. You make this huge, hostile and scary world that killed you hundreds of times and made you lose sleep at night through sheer rage at the unfairness of it into your own playground.

The only downside is that I could have poured all of that mental energy and time into something... useful.

 

[VeganElduderino]

I never played soulsborne games before Bloodborne , then i played Bloodborne i fell in love with it , i put in soo many hours in it and i never finished it ! Since then i tried Dark souls 3 and Demon souls Ps5 and i can't get into them ! I own Elden ring on ps5 and i never really started it , it feels like Bloodborne took everything out of me.

 

[Lasha]

Why do you need an empty traversable landmass with nothing in it to feel epic?
Doing nothing is boring - that's not why you play games. What's epic about doing nothing while going to a place where you can do something?

You don't need to actually be able to walk everywhere for a feeling of scale. 99.99% of games only allow you to go to certain spots within any place - the rest of that place is alluded to and that's more than enough to give a sense of scale.

Shadow of the colossus was amazing because it was just a big empty world with a handful of bosses. Elden Ring is the first world evoked the same feelings as when I first entered the forbidden land.

 

[rofif]

It's not even the best FROM game.

I agree but it’s still one of best games ever

 

[balls of snow]

I wonder if assassins creed origins and odyssey had god tier combat it would probably be in the same league as elden ring.
Every new thing ER adds to souls formula is bog standard open world stuff.

 

[Hobbygaming]

It would be interesting to see if the people who think Elden Ring is the best game ever, did their playthrough without looking up guides or watching Youtubers

 

[LostDonkey]

If Elden Ring is considered "The greatest game of all time" then I give up gaming.

Forever.

Because I must be a million fucking miles out of touch.

 

[Naked Lunch]

I feel like people who say this is the best game ever never played the past From games.
ER is just the same exact shit theyve been doing for years but somehow worse - and easier.
I hate to say it, but the formula has gone stale - ER is basically Dark Souls 4. The way you summon stuff - write/read messages/combat - its the same old shit.
The game is still fine and quality but been there done that (multiple times).
Sekiro is still their crown jewel with this formula.

 

[nkarafo]

Why do you need an empty traversable landmass with nothing in it to feel epic?
Doing nothing is boring - that's not why you play games. What's epic about doing nothing while going to a place where you can do something?

You don't need to actually be able to walk everywhere for a feeling of scale. 99.99% of games only allow you to go to certain spots within any place - the rest of that place is alluded to and that's more than enough to give a sense of scale.

I disagree. I prefer the game world to feel organic and realistic. Not as if it was made with you in mind. I need empty traversable landmasses to... traverse. You are not doing "nothing". You actually travel in it. Why do you need every inch of the land to have something to find or interact with? That would feel like a video game land, a theme park or Truman's Show world.

 

[Ar¢tos]

It's not even the best FROM game.

"The Adventures of Cookie & Cream" ("Kuri Kuri Mix" in Japan) takes that title.
Playing it single player without the extra time cheat was a massive challenge!

 

[gaming_again]

"The Adventures of Cookie & Cream" ("Kuri Kuri Mix" in Japan) takes that title.
Playing it single player without the extra time cheat was a massive challenge!

How tf did you do that? It was difficult enough with two people.

 

[boomcrab]

It's strange I've played all the souls games and have enjoyed them quite a bit but for some reason after 30 or so hours I put Elden Ring down. I'll eventually pick it back up and finish it but this game just feels off to me a little bit. I hope I change my mind when I jump back in but I don't know. The game isn't even that difficult it's just the boring combat, everything else seems great but I quickly got tired of swinging my sword the same way I've always swung it for like 5 other games.

 

[Soodanim]

All good aside from bloat and repeated caves with bad rewards. I also don’t like many repeated bosses and too fast bosses combat. It’s just super fast and too frantic.
I think souls games are better. Ds3 with dlc is incredible.
Ds1 is perfect.
Ds2 is my personal fav.

I gotta say tho, I need to replay Elden ring and don’t do everything

You have donkey brains for having 2 as a favourite, but you're right about the speed. ER is in some ways the easiest of the game because of the number of options the game presents, but it's still fast. 1 feels like the most intentional, and because of that it feels like the most fair. If 2 hadn't tried to be an anti-DS1 and fucked up too many parts of the fundamentals, it would have been up there as one of the best, because it didn't try to be Bloodborne.

 

[Majukun]

no game will ever be the best ever...you will have your personal best, like anyone, but that's about it.

take elden ring, for some people the open world destroyed the progression and balance of the typical souls game, and, well, it did.
but while some people are gonna miss the more structured "keep hitting that wall until either him or you concede", many other will relish the ability to say fuck to the wall and go find another one to bash their heads on.

both are perfectly valid points and both true at the same time, it's up to you if you like more structured and balance or more freedom and broke, because you can't have both, it's fundamentally impossible from a design perspective.

 

[Graciaus]

Elden Ring would be significantly better if it wasn't open world though. The best parts of the game are the legacy dungeons.

 

[Ar¢tos]

How tf did you do that? It was difficult enough with two people.

Without the extra time cheat I never even beat the first level!
But if you think of it has playing piano (learning to do different actions with both hands at the same time) it is possible to play it solo.

 

[_Idea_of_Evil_]

You have more abilities in Kena that you can fluidly combo.

Differences in individual taste. For me, nothing about how Kena controls and plays feels fluid. It's clunky and decent at best. Where you feel clunkiness in Souls combat, I feel tight, fluid, weighty, and satisfying combat.

While I mostly agree that your mentions, aside from Kena, arguably have more engaging combat than Souls combat, all (except Nioh) are different genres so I wouldn't even compare.

 

[Raonak]

Souls games are legitimately overrated at the point. The souls combat loop peaked in bloodborne.

 

[ParaSeoul]

The weekly "elden ring is the best game ever" thread to farm reactions and circlejerk

 

[Spaceman292]

Possibly the most overrated game of all time imo.
Its innovation on the Souls formula's exaggerated tbh & it's major flaws somehow escaped actual criticism.
But hey whatever works with you man.

Shit what a car crash of a first post.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

I need empty traversable landmasses to... traverse. You are not doing "nothing". You actually travel in it.

No, that's what the character is doing in the game.
What I'm doing is "press analog stick in one direction" with my brain shut off (cause it isn't needed for that).
That's as close to nothing as it gets. Which is, again, not what I play video games for, especially not a Soulslike. I want action, I want to be challenged. I don't want to be bored by "walk from A to B".

That would feel like a video game land, a theme park or Truman's Show world.

It's a video game!

Sounds to me you need to go hiking or something... not asking games to put more non-content in for you to satisfy your hiking needs.

 

[Spaceman292]

I really want Bloodborne to come out remastered just so people can finally let go of it… it’s great but SO overrated.

I think the word overrated needs to be banned from this forum

 

[DragonNCM]

The fact that this is my first souls game & still playing it regularly after one year on my sixth character, speak for quality of this game.
Usually when I finish the game it is over & rarely I do replays. This is not case with Elden ring & I'm glad it was my first experiance in souls universe.

 

[rofif]

You have donkey brains for having 2 as a favourite, but you're right about the speed. ER is in some ways the easiest of the game because of the number of options the game presents, but it's still fast. 1 feels like the most intentional, and because of that it feels like the most fair. If 2 hadn't tried to be an anti-DS1 and fucked up too many parts of the fundamentals, it would have been up there as one of the best, because it didn't try to be Bloodborne.

ds2 is easily my fav. (not the best)
That is vanilla. Not sotfs and not dlc. these are quite annoying with traps and gank squads

 

[Moses85]

No

Is better