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[Raven117]

Blah blah blah.

Game is incredible. (As is BotW/TotK...The Witcher 3, GTAV, Skyrim, Red Dead 1&2). You don't need to mince these up.

 

[CLW]

I am so sorry you couldn't make it past Soldier of Godrick.

Who’s that?

 

[Gojiira]

Nope, The difference OP is the narrative of Elden Ring is reflected in the World itself. The world is caught in a spiral and everything is decaying. The Towns, Villages, Castles and University you visit have all fallen. This isnt inferior either, it fits the world, it fits the gameplay, it fits the narrative.
Also discovery isnt rewarding? But BotW’s is? Really? With a straight face can anyone say that the 900 boring korok seeds, no unique loot approach of Zelda is better to THE EVERY SINGLE dungeon/area/region etc has unique loot approach of Elden Ring? That might be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read OP sorry.
If the games not for you thats fine but ER is how to do a Open World right, theres a actual reason to explore, gameplay is deep and polished, interesting lore and genuinely beautiful landscapes and vistas.

 

[iorek21]

ER’s open world is just a in between way more interesting locations. The lack of markers was great and all, but that doesn’t make it a good open world.

Souls games work better on tight, interconnected settings, like Leyndell. Vast and empty spaces do a disservice to the overall quality.

 

[Ansphn]

So bascally you dont like it because you want to talk to and make friends with NPCs? Souls is a combat RPG. Maybe make friends in real life instead and touch ass and grass?

 

[Madflavor]

I'm pretty certain that Elden Ring has far more optional content than it it's Main Story content. They could've just littered the world with the same caves and catacombs over and over again, but they didn't. They went through the effort of giving us places like:

1. Siofra River
2. Nokron, Eternal City
3. Mohgwyn Palace
4. Deeproot Depths
5. Lake of Rot
6. Redmane Castle
7. Subterranean Shunning Grounds
8. Caria Manor
9. Haligtree

And that's just to name a few. There's even more. The amount of effort FromSoftware put into these optional areas is worthy of another game in itself. They're visually stunning, and wildly different from one another.

This is why I get so frustrated at people who think there was no sense of discovery, or that exploring the world just yields the same cave over and over again. It's such disingenuous bullshit. And people complaining about how Open World doesn't work for Souls games. Many of the heights of Elden Ring wouldn't have worked without the Open World. Everyone brings up the Well that brings you down to Siofra River, but the thrill of discovering a huge sprawling dungeon or zone because you set off the beaten path and explored the world more, would not have given you that feeling if it wasn't for ER's Open World.

 

[tomato shrub]

The simple truth is neither of these games are masterpieces. Devs figured out how to make engaging worlds worth exploring as far back as the 90s. Modern devs completely lost that skill.

Take a game like Ultima Underworld for example, where exploration was truly rewarding and most importantly there were no templates shamelessly copy pasted all over the map. Just a dungeon with 9 handcrafted levels which you could freely explore. You could meet a friendly NPC and have a conversation, maybe get a quest, a piece of lore, some information etc. You could meet hostile creatures. You could come across a puzzle or a place that you had to figure out how to traverse. You could find all kinds of cool loot and useful items. Everything felt organic, immersive.

I guess Deus Ex was the evolution of this design philosophy. This is the direction games should have been evolving. Instead we have devs obsessed with the size of their open worlds, quality of the content be damned.

When your game is so big you have to fill it with repetition something is not right.

Yeah, rn you will never fill any of these stupid big maps with enough unique content and sharp level design that a tight 8-15 hour campaign will offer. Maybe with AI it can change. Elden Ring was pretty crazy, considering that things only start blatantly repeating after several dozens of hours imo. Tears of the Kingdom has a lot more interesting things than BotW too. But now these games become exhausting because there's so much to do lol.

I actually like Elden Ring and now TotK a little better than BotW, which I found meh. But if I'm gonna replay these series in the future, it's gonna be Bloodborne, Links Awakening, Ocarina of Time, etc. Awesome maps with unique levels and items and tight campaigns that can be finished in a couple of afternoons.

 

[R6Rider]

I'm pretty certain that Elden Ring has far more optional content than it it's Main Story content. They could've just littered the world with the same caves and catacombs over and over again, but they didn't. They went through the effort of giving us places like:

1. Siofra River
2. Nokron, Eternal City
3. Mohgwyn Palace
4. Deeproot Depths
5. Lake of Rot
6. Redmane Castle
7. Subterranean Shunning Grounds
8. Caria Manor
9. Haligtree

And that's just to name a few. There's even more. The amount of effort FromSoftware put into these optional areas is worthy of another game in itself. They're visually stunning, and wildly different from one another.

This is why I get so frustrated at people who think there was no sense of discovery, or that exploring the world just yields the same cave over and over again. It's such disingenuous bullshit. And people complaining about how Open World doesn't work for Souls games. Many of the heights of Elden Ring wouldn't have worked without the Open World. Everyone brings up the Well that brings you down to Siofra River, but the thrill of discovering a huge sprawling dungeon or zone because you set off the beaten path and explored the world more, would not have given you that feeling if it wasn't for ER's Open World.

Exploring Elden Ring for the first time was such an amazing thing.

Brings back memories of playing through Morrowind the first time.

 

[DragonNCM]

I don't get it why people compering apples & oranges.
Elden ring is unique (open world) Souls game & don't have anything common with any other open world game like GTA5 or RDR 2 or AC. There is no 1000 npc's & there is no 1000 yellow markers & pings on map & there is no 1000 useless quests.It is only you & enormous map filled with enemies & do whatever you like in it. Sure you will have some basic quests & some side quests but you are not obligated to do any of that.
And most good thing in Elden ring is how you are reworded for exploration, every item you find has a grate value behind it.

 

[Elder Legend]

Who’s that?

Tutorial boss of Elden Ring.

 

[Alebrije]

Elden Ring is like Mad Max , the world is decaying and corrupted so you wont find happy villagers helping you on your quest.

If you explore and READ all descriptions plus pay attention to NPCs dialogs you will find how the towns , cities where active, by example the story of those merch that play "guitar" ...

Honestly if I where a villager living on Elden Ring I will be hidding under a rock most of time. Even if the player approach I would not know its intentions..so better hide than die.

Meanwhile on current Zelda game the evil is just beginning the world is not currupted so Link has hope to save it and plenty of villagers can help him or still are there trying to save their villages.

Both games are great on its way but Souls games and Elden Ring are dark fantasy..just imagine Link on one of them..

 

[Mozzarella]

For me the best open world was probably Skyrim or any Elder Scrolls, followed by GTA, these two games are the most interactive and dynamic in their open world, it feels alive and its fun to just ignore everything in the game and just play directly with the open world itself.
Now with the release of Tears of the Kingdom on the table, i think i have my holy trinity of open world gaming.

As for Elden Ring, it never was in it.
Elden Ring is a masterpiece but its open world isn't among the highest tiers in gaming, it does have other aspects to make up for it though.
But pure open world, it belong to the 3 above, and definitely not to RDR2, which comes close but doesnt surpass GTA.

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

While I would say (and I have been since Elden Ring first launched and everyone was still in the honeymoon phase with it), that I much prefer the smaller souls games, because the open world design makes replaying the game a chore (the first playthrough where you discover everything for the first time is great though), I do think that comparing it to other games is very subjective.

Zelda is good at giving you a physics toolbox to fuck with, but the combat is mid at best. Elden Ring has great combat and it focuses on that strength and the exploration rewards you with XP and loot to help with builds. Zelda’s exploration is more “I wanna see what’s over there,” and all you find is a korok. But you had fun doing it so it’s whatever.

Both are good in different ways and play to different strengths and obviously you just like one over the other.

Like man I’ve tried to play Red Dead Redemption at least three times but everything is so rigid and boring to play, and I really couldn’t give a fuck about western style stories. So obviously that games not for me. They went in on having a lot of details in the world to make it believable, so that was their focus, but I just don’t care.

 

[Woggleman]

None of the things that you described about the game sound problematic at all.

Why is the fact that "the only way to interact" is through combat a problem? This isn't fantasy GTA. It's a souls-like game in an open world. Combat and exploration are what these games are about. Expecting the developer to shove in some token open world fluff just to satisfy some nebulous need for "content" is exactly what led to Assassin's Creed series being what it is today.

Finding cool loot isn't really as much of a reward as finding a cool new place to explore with a unique new enemy or boss to fight. You want a dopamine hit from dropping a legendary sword at the end of a dungeon, go play Diablo. A new one comes out in a month, you should like it.

Not sure what are those empty spaces that you're talking about either because the game is filled with interesting places to explore and discoveries to be made.

Overall, it sounds like you want the game to be something else without really being receptive to the fact that it's just a different kind of open world game that doesn't bother with the established norms of the genre and tries to do its own thing.

I fully agree with this but at the same time why do open world games like Horizon get dragged all the time for not being more like Zelda or Elden Ring? If Elden Ring should judged on it's own merits why can't other games?

 

[Knightime_X]

that's always the take of people that suck at games

Don't make me shove my dick down your throat like a visceral attack, boi!
Joking!

Anyway..
What at if you have gotten the plat trophy and have managed to beat something like bloodborne deathless?

Play something long enough yyou're bound to be great at it, nevermind good.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Only open world game I actually quit. A very dull and unrewarding experience.

 

[sainraja]

People seem to be giving a lot of credit to Elden Ring that BOTW deserves. As for people having issues with Ubisoft style markers everywhere, well, you know you can turn those off, right?

that's always the take of people that suck at games

Who cares?

No need to take gaming that seriously.

 

[Drizzlehell]

I fully agree with this but at the same time why do open world games like Horizon get dragged all the time for not being more like Zelda or Elden Ring? If Elden Ring should judged on it's own merits why can't other games?

The way I see it, it's because Horizon is more cookie-cutter, and repeats a lot of the same tropes that many people are getting sick of at this point.

 

[hemo memo]

If you explore and READ all descriptions

That’s a lazy design. People used that sams excuse for FFXIII. It didn’t work there and it is not gonna work here. That’s bad story telling. Nothing wrong if the story is not the focus but people defending that remind me of the people that defend Pokemon lack of VA as “better”.

 

[Thief1987]

The way I see it, it's because Horizon is more cookie-cutter, and repeats a lot of the same tropes that many people are getting sick of at this point.

Oh yeah and fromsoftware making the same game for 15 years, with the same tired tropes, in the same boring setting somehow is not "cookie-cutter", eh?

 

[Fbh]

Completely disagree.
No open world does it all, and each focuses on different things. Other games absolutely do things better than Elden Ring. For example BotW and TotK have really fun physics and more ways to interact with environments while the likes of RDR2 really nails the role playing aspect of making the world feel alive and lived in with lively towns, great characters and best in class interactions with NPCs.

But the world of Elden Ring was still a blast to explore, there's a ton to do see and find, the enemy and boss variety is on a tier above most other open worlds, there's so many cool areas to find which are completely optional and all have their own unique look, and enemies, and bosses, and loot as well as compelling level design. The actual locations you get to have complex level design and well designed encounters, there's nothing remotely as intricate as Raya Lucaria Academy or Stormveil Castle in BOTW or RDR2.

The first time you get to Siofra River is one of the most memorable moments in recent gaming IMO

And I don't even know how one can describe the unique loot, armors, rings, spells, miracles, Spirit Ashes as boring and unrewarding and then praise BotW, where 99% of what you find is the same handful of weapons which will break after one or two encounters with the same 5 enemy types you face the whole game...... or 10 thousand korok seeds.
To me getting to new locations to face new enemies and challenge new bosses is also extremely rewarding, Mohg and Placidusax were some of the coolest fights in the game and they are completely optional.

What do you find in BOTW? A slightly different colored Lynel that's a bit stronger?

 

[Ge Os]

My man would step into a graveyard and go "wow, this looks dead AF."

 

[Woggleman]

The world itself is beautifully designed but it is true that the only way to really interact with things is through combat. The areas feel more like greatly designed combat arenas than real places.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[HazukiSensei]

By your logic...
Doom fans: "all we wanna do is jump around and click on enemies"
GTA fans: "all we wanna do is punch in a cheat code and kill some people"
Gran Turismo fans: "haha car go brrrrr"

That's not how it works, bruv.


Ask yourself: why is this important?

You're comparing ER to all those other RPGs as if they should be exactly alike, but who said they should? That's not the kind of game ER tries to be, and there's nothing wrong with that. Sure, if you're going to dumb it down to "it's just fighting in a big open space" to make your point, then obviously it won't sound like there's a lot to it. But just because you can't see past the surface, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with the game.

What all those other RPGs that you mentioned have in common is that they make their various internal systems very obvious to the player, and they always hold your hand and provide tutorials for their gameplay features, ensuring you won't have to experiment and can just follow a beaten path instead. In Elden Ring, and every other Souls game for that matter, the only things immediately recognizable about the gameplay are melee combat, the fact that most things want to kill you, and the presence of a vast open world to explore. That's it. From there, you have to figure it out on your own, inevitably walking into various traps or making cool discoveries, like Ash Lake or the Anor Londo twist in Dark Souls, along with hidden bosses, quest lines, NPCs, and more across all Souls games. And guess what? THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF THE BIGGEST DRAWS OF THIS SERIES. These games offer such a wealth of lore and hidden secrets that it can make your head spin. But you do have to work for all of it, and that's one of the things that make them such a feast to play.

If you've never played one of these games with your friends, discussed the various things you found in them, shared your discoveries among each other, or even sought tips from more experienced players on how to accomplish certain things, then chances are you won't immediately "get" the allure of games like Elden Ring. The game simply refuses to hold your hand beyond showing you the basic controls at the start. But just because you didn't take the time to examine it closer and instead viewed it as an "empty combat game," you approached it with the wrong attitude. If there's anything problematic about the game, it's certainly not any of the things you mentioned.

Honestly, this is exactly what I was trying to say when I made this thread:

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/i-hope-that-western-devs-will-be-inspired-by-elden-rings-success-to-make-their-open-world-games-not-suck.1654622/

I wish we had more games that put a little more faith in players' curiosity and ability to figure things out on their own.

At the end of the day, elden ring could theoretically also have towns, varied quests etc and STILL have the world that it has.

Trust me ive put 200 hours into elden ring, I beat it. It does secrets and enemy variety, and has really cool armor sets and cool ways to find them. It does that REALLY WELL. It also does a better job than all of those games at making you fear their world. They do a good job of making you not know whats coming next when you enter a new zone, or what enemies will be there. That stuff is great. It also did mage stuff better than all of these games. Except maybe black desert.

BUT, imagine that alongside towns and varied creative quests, the quests of the witcher WITH that world of elden ring is my dream.

Imagine finishing a dark brotherhood quest from oblivion (not skyrim), and then going out in the world to explore a bit and that world was like elden ring. THATS what I want, THATS learning from other devs and past games and making the perfect game.

My issue with Elden ring, coming from someone who played nearly every open world rpg, is that elden is a game thats basically about everything you do outside of quests. It just has that down.the sub-game. I'd argue it does sub-game better than all those games actually.

But I feel like thats incomplete, atleast the others tried to do quests, storyarchs, varied experiences and situations, and THEN you can STILL go out and find loot, explore, fight, level up (sub game). Elden ring only does the latter.

Witcher 3/oblivion story and quests, with elden ring open world. If FROM does that, THEN it would be a pinnacle. But witcher 3 did it all, main narrative and sub-game, or atleast came the closest.

 

[Rea]

It does work well though. Was Elden ring not the most appreciated souls game by far? Maybe you liked the the previous ones better but I played bloodborne and demons souls and felt Elden ring was far better than both

Most appreciated because of overhyped by medias. Elden Ring feels like crap when compared to Bloodborne and Sekiro.

 

[Macaron]

lmfao this fucking thread cant be serious

 

[Drizzlehell]

Oh yeah and fromsoftware making the same game for 15 years, with the same tired tropes, in the same boring setting somehow is not "cookie-cutter", eh?

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

Where you at in the

TOTK does some unique things compared to other open world games and other open world games do unique things compared to TOTK. Again, nothing really special but I know you love to sniff Nintendos ass so no point going further.

Where you at in TOTK?

 

[Balducci30]

Most appreciated because of overhyped by medias. Elden Ring feels like crap when compared to Bloodborne and Sekiro.

Or maybe this opinion that it’s somehow lesser than the previous souls games is in the minority?

 

[Gideon]

Honestly threads like these are just made to bait both fanboys and those who dislike said game who just seek confirmation bias and same goes for the "[Insert game] is the greatest game of all time" threads, it's all subjective but man, a lot of people really long for validation from strangers on the internet.

 

[Woggleman]

At this point ER, Horizon, Rockstar games and many others are cookie cutter. As long as I like the cookies I don't care.

 

[Jigsaah]

Deadly Premonition

Haven't played that one. Care to explain what makes this open world intriguing?

 

[Josemayuste]

I think Breath of the wild, Tears of the kingdom and yes, Elden Ring's approach to open world design, are the best the Industry can aspire to nowadays, honestly. All of them give the player tons of rewards both for exploration, meaningful items, or vistas, all of it, designed around gameplay cheffkiss.gif

Oh, and do not make me talk about artistic design..

Can't put any of those games over the other.

 

[Jigsaah]

I gave Red Dead 2 and BOTW as examples. Those to me are the gold standards, for different reasons.

And yes, RDR2’s mission design is dated and overly linear. But the open world itself is absolutely stunning.

Ok, I can agree, there's always the possibility of something happening in RDR2. I think there's a world where both can be great in their own way. I know that sounds like a terminal fence-sitting statement but I enjoyed them both and wouldn't consider comparing the two.

 

[CAPSOL]

If you like open worlds stuffed witha bunch of pointless things then COOL go play an ubisoft game, just keep that crap out of my Soulsbourne games.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Oh yeah and fromsoftware making the same game for 15 years, with the same tired tropes, in the same boring setting somehow is not "cookie-cutter", eh?

How is it a trope if they're the ones that invented said wheel?

 

[Chronicle]

This game often gets credited along with Breath of the Wild as a pioneer for modern open world game design and I don’t really see it. It does some things well for sure. The hidden areas are cool, and I like the emphasis on discovering things for yourself, without the assistance of Ubi style checklists and map markers. I liked being able to do things in any order. But I dunno, it feels like most of the “discoveries” are just items that don’t even fit with my build, so they’re just useless. At some point I ended up just using a guide to find the best weapons and abilities for my build so I didn’t have to wander around aimlessly only to get rewarded with useless crap.

The world barely has any non hostile NPC’s in it. There’s no towns or settlements. For me, one of the great things about open world games is seeing a new town over the horizon. It feels like a reprieve from the sprawling forests, green fields, and mostly empty spaces that occupy open world games. I love going around to whatever unique shops a town might have, and talking to NPC’s. BOTW keeps this aspect, while still maintaining its free flowing open world. Elden Ring has basically none of this. MGS V gets derided for being empty and barren but ER doesn’t.

The only way to interact with anything in Elden Ring is through combat. Makes sense because it’s an essentially a Souls game, I know. But it became extremely dull as the game went on. There was no “discovery”, just a different enemy trying to kill me. The “what’s over there” feeling dissipated as I realized this. The game is just a series of enemy mobs and mini bosses. Most of them are very cool, no doubt. The art design is tremendous. Not denying any of that. But there is simply no world interactivity beyond direct combat.

For me, Red Dead 2 and BOTW are far superior open worlds. They actually feel alive and lived in. You can literally just walk around like a normal citizen in RDR2 and vibe with the games atmosphere because it is so filled with life.

There was shit everywhere. I got annoying.

 

[Freeman76]

ER’s world is designed to be as it is, it never aimed to be a living colorful world in which you can do a lot of quests from NPCs, actually very few NPCs are alive, and most of them simply die, FS games are usually based on apocalyptic almost dead worlds.

I have the feeling this thread will be supported by totk and Demon”s Souls (PS) fanboys, so well

Some of the takes I read on here make me wonder why these ppl even bought elden ring.

The sense of wonder and discovery were class!

 

[HazukiSensei]

By your logic...
Doom fans: "all we wanna do is jump around and click on enemies"
GTA fans: "all we wanna do is punch in a cheat code and kill some people"
Gran Turismo fans: "haha car go brrrrr"

That's not how it works, bruv.

Also, I wanna add that GTA also had creative and varied missions. So it isnt a good example.

Remember the mission in GTA 5 Where you are say...Franklin sneaking into the michaels house. Fun little mission thay wasnt combat. Or in GTA IV when you have to assassinate that gay guy. You go to the internet cafe, find the gay dating site, find his profile, read it, and match with him. Then you email eachother, set up a date. You meet at a diner and actually sit through the date and then eventually pull out your shotgun underneath the table and kill him.

THATS what I'm talking about. Shaking up the pacing, creative experience outside of just fighting bosses. That can be done within tge layout of Elden Ring amongst all the sub game exploration and fights and grinding. I wanna go on gay dates in elden ring, dont you? Just kidding. But you know what I mean, creative quests. FROM needs them, until then I cant sit here and call it a GOAT.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I'm not sure Elden Ring did anything new. Morrowind had exploration, hand placed loot, no map or markers.
Never played it but I'm told Gothic 2 did the same.

It just seems like the industry kinda forgot

 

[NomadicAsiatic]

Nah it's incredible. Every path you take just keeps opening up new areas, new dungeons. There's never been a game that better rewards your sense of exploration

Bravo!

I fully agree with this but at the same time why do open world games like Horizon get dragged all the time for not being more like Zelda or Elden Ring? If Elden Ring should judged on it's own merits why can't other games?

It’s a constant purity test. It’s not enough for Zelda to be adored, Horizon/RDR2/GTA have to be hated on(despite said games being the obvious inspiration for the most recent Zelda games).

 

[The Cockatrice]

They could've just littered the world with the same caves and catacombs over and over again, but they didn't.

Did we play the same game? ER has copy-pasted catacombs, caves and bosses. Hell, even the original bosses are from previous souls games in different skins.

 

[Madflavor]

Did we play the same game? ER has copy-pasted catacombs, caves and bosses. Hell, even the original bosses are from previous souls games in different skins.

I'm saying it's more varied than just catacombs and caves. Breaking it down:

Minor dungeons consist of:

• Caves
• Catacombs
• Tunnels
• Hero's Graves
• Crystal Caves
• Grottos

Then there's the optional Major areas/dungeons which are:

• Redmane Castle
• Castle Morne
• Caria Manor
• Shaded Castle
• Castle Sol
• Ruin-Strewn Precipice
• Subterranean Shunning Grounds
• Ainsel River
• Lake of Rot
• Siofra River
• Nokron, Eternal City
• Mohgwyn Palace
• Deeproot Depths
• Haligree
• Volcano Manor

And those are all optional. There was copy and paste for their minor dungeons, which you could consider the "shrines" of Elden Ring, but FromSoftware put most of their effort into the larger optional areas of the game, which like I said, combined were worthy of an entire game. You can beat the game without setting foot in these places. You go there simply because you stumble upon them. So personally I think it's disingenuous when someone breaks down Elden Ring's exploration as "Just the same cave over and over." And I don't know if you specifically said that, I'm just saying in general.

 

[The Cockatrice]

I'm saying it's more varied than just catacombs and caves. Breaking it down:

Minor dungeons consist of:

• Caves
• Catacombs
• Tunnels
• Hero's Graves
• Crystal Caves
• Grottos

Then there's the optional Major areas/dungeons which are:

• Redmane Castle
• Castle Morne
• Caria Manor
• Shaded Castle
• Castle Sol
• Ruin-Strewn Precipice
• Subterranean Shunning Grounds
• Ainsel River
• Lake of Rot
• Siofra River
• Nokron, Eternal City
• Mohgwyn Palace
• Deeproot Depths
• Haligree
• Volcano Manor

And those are all optional. There was copy and paste for their minor dungeons, which you could consider the "shrines" of Elden Ring, but FromSoftware put most of their effort into the larger optional areas of the game, which like I said, combined were worthy of an entire game. You can beat the game without setting foot in these places. You go there simply because you stumble upon them. So personally I think it's disingenuous when someone breaks down Elden Ring's exploration as "Just the same cave over and over." And I don't know if you specifically said that, I'm just saying in general.

Fair enough, but recent open-world games havent had copy-pasted stuff in a while. Even Ubisoft stuff is getting more diverse. I mean it's still boring stuff but atmospheric wise, its been a while since i've seen devs reusing the same caves or the same outpost or the same towns.

 

[VR_RaidenXOF]

Wrong. This is bait.

 

[Inviusx]

I think the trope that I'm starting to find boring in From's games is that the state of the worlds we find ourselves in are always in the period after all the exciting stuff has taken place. Our characters are like archaeologists that learn about how amazing these worlds used to be and then spend the entire game killing off its inhabitants one by one and seemingly setting up the world for something interesting to happen that we can't participate in or witness.

I dont think this rings true for Bloodborne, where I feel like we are participants in a key moment in history and watch the world change before our eyes, but for the Dark Souls series and particularly Elden Ring, I can't help but feel like we're always entering the worlds at the most boring times in their histories.

The worlds are static, lonely. Political dies have already been cast, wars have been fought and everything is at a a standstill waiting for us to come along and move the needle. It's like if it weren't for our awakening the state of things would remain exactly as it was. There's never an impending event that we must intervene in. There's never armies on the move or characters who have intentions outside of just sitting in their lair waiting for us to come and kill them.

So I agree with OP. The worlds are a bit stale and lifeless. I hope From take a different approach with their next game.

To further this point, I think about if From made Oblivion or Skyrim, we would be awakened in Cyrodill, 1000 years after the Oblivion crisis. The worlds would be barren and decimated, we would find remnants of old Oblivion gates across the world and would have to peice together what took place. Likewise with Skyrim, we would enter the world hundreds of years after the civil war and the rebirth of dragons. We would find their bodies strewn across the landscape amongst old Imperial encampments, suggesting exciting events that took place in the past.

It's not necessarily a bad approach but its a trope they stick to with almost every game. To me, I much preferred to be their and playing during those key events in Oblivion and Skyrim, as when you hear about them in later titles, it's like you're hearing about your own history and the times and places you originally played those games, I love that shit.

 

[Gamer79]

Leyndel is a town.

But yeah, it's supposed to be a dead, barren, hostile world.

Just like every single one of their games. From software is a one trick pony.

 

[Arachnid]

Completely disagree.
No open world does it all, and each focuses on different things. Other games absolutely do things better than Elden Ring. For example BotW and TotK have really fun physics and more ways to interact with environments while the likes of RDR2 really nails the role playing aspect of making the world feel alive and lived in with lively towns, great characters and best in class interactions with NPCs.

But the world of Elden Ring was still a blast to explore, there's a ton to do see and find, the enemy and boss variety is on a tier above most other open worlds, there's so many cool areas to find which are completely optional and all have their own unique look, and enemies, and bosses, and loot as well as compelling level design. The actual locations you get to have complex level design and well designed encounters, there's nothing remotely as intricate as Raya Lucaria Academy or Stormveil Castle in BOTW or RDR2.

The first time you get to Siofra River is one of the most memorable moments in recent gaming IMO

And I don't even know how one can describe the unique loot, armors, rings, spells, miracles, Spirit Ashes as boring and unrewarding and then praise BotW, where 99% of what you find is the same handful of weapons which will break after one or two encounters with the same 5 enemy types you face the whole game...... or 10 thousand korok seeds.
To me getting to new locations to face new enemies and challenge new bosses is also extremely rewarding, Mohg and Placidusax were some of the coolest fights in the game and they are completely optional.

What do you find in BOTW? A slightly different colored Lynel that's a bit stronger?

 

[Madflavor]

Honestly this thread and all this talk about Elden Ring is just making me want to play the game again. I probably would if not for Diablo 4 being right around the corner. Goddamn I can't wait for Shadows of the Erdtree DLC.