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Elden Ring is a crowning achievement for open worlds & is quite possibly the greatest game ever made.

Kindela

Banned
finally beat the game but not sure if I care to go through the whole puzzle to get to the haligtree or whatever it is called. I want to do the content but it seems like a drag to do that whole thing just to unlock access. Is there an easier way to get there?
Never really understood this complaint. There's no "puzzle" here. You have to climb 4 structures and click a button. It's a puzzle in the same way exploring a dungeon and finding graces/items is a puzzle.
Plus the town is really really small. And fighting enemies (especially the ones on the rooftop) is fun as you have to jump around a bit to reach them.
 
Never really understood this complaint. There's no "puzzle" here. You have to climb 4 structures and click a button. It's a puzzle in the same way exploring a dungeon and finding graces/items is a puzzle.
Plus the town is really really small. And fighting enemies (especially the ones on the rooftop) is fun as you have to jump around a bit to reach them.
It’s a total ballache.
 

manfestival

Member
Never really understood this complaint. There's no "puzzle" here. You have to climb 4 structures and click a button. It's a puzzle in the same way exploring a dungeon and finding graces/items is a puzzle.
Plus the town is really really small. And fighting enemies (especially the ones on the rooftop) is fun as you have to jump around a bit to reach them.
I beat the haligtree like 3 days ago, chill. lol
 
By being an openworld. You can't think of another more casual friendly trope than being an openworld game.
That’s a bit of a stretch. Plenty of people still found the game way too hard and probably won’t complete it. I do think that people who feel for the hype and didn’t really dig in may have inflated the early sales tho.
 
Dont know about casuals, but IMHO is the easiest soulsgame by a mile, Im level 80 , 60 hours into the game, the game is too easy, and when is hard it feels cheap hard and not "get good" hard, the open world element made From make choices and for me it didnt work, as a souls fans of course I like the game, but is the worse From game, even ds2 is much better.

As for casuals, well just check the thread, full of souls fans saying is not so great and at the same time people saying "never liked souls game but this one is tha bomb!"

Nevertheless is a comercial success just hope it stays its on thing, keep dark souls intact
Lmao you guys must have some insane skills. I found the game(at least after the plateau) to be ridiculously hard. I do agree it does feel cheap; From didn’t attempt to balance the fucking game.
 
I'm playing it now for the first time.

I like the way the world is designed so you are ferried to the important stuff without needing any kind of sat nav or quest markers like a Ubisoft-esque game nor any kind of crawl through small space stuff that was apparently needed in God of War to funnel the player to the right place or whatever excuse they used (but really was a load of bullshit). The level design is really good then in that it's fairly obvious where to go without it being gamey like most other games.

The open world is completely dead of course but not every game needs to be RDR2 and I think being open world gives the player a different kind of experience to a normal Souls game as I've spent a lot of time just exploring.

Finding it ok difficulty wise and it's more a test of patience than raw skill. There are plenty of games that I just don't have the co-ordination or reactions to play but this is fine so far.

I'm guessing I've missed 90% of the story as the game doesn't exactly beat you over the head with it but the atmosphere alone is enough to keep me wanting to play.

The graphics are simultaneously completely shit and breath-taking in equal measure. At times it looks like a PS3 game and at times one of the best things I've ever seen.

I'm definitely not in 'the greatest game of all time' club but I'm glad I bought it for sure.
 
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Deanington

Member
umm.....then dont agree? But thats not gonna stop people from expressing their love for the game, if you tired of people praising it then dont go to Elden Ring related thread.

Isn't it easy to stay out of threads of games you don't like? People did the same for Zelda, I didn't agree, and you would never see me in threads of those games. It's pretty easy. Who is telling you that you must agree?

The thread title is challenging the reader. If the thread was titled a little bit differently to an I statement, then comments on an opinionated gaming forum might be different? Regardless forum users should not have to stay out threads that challenge the reader to non factual statements.
 

Fredrik

Member
It would had been...If the PC version (which I played) wasn't running like ass in critical moments and quit by itself in random momens.
Quit? Like, crash?
I’ve played over 400 hours and haven’t had the game crash once.
I’ve certainly experienced the fps freeze thing though. Usually happens a couple times per session in new areas, after a couple times it’s fine. I feel like it’s worse on Windows 11 than Windows 10, can’t verify it though.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Only issue I have with the game is that once you kill all the bosses in an area, you can't coop there anymore. The game is so damn fun to just run around with buddies and fight invaders, explore, etc. Blocking off areas as you progress is just a bummer.

I also wish there was a boss rush mode. Boss fights are damn fun in coop.

I still have yet to kill Elden Beast. I can get through Radigon (or whatever his name is) with ease but Elden Beasts area is so effing huge, hard to get maintain stamina. Such is life though, I've done pretty much 100% of the content in the game and still have fun when I play coop with friends, I'll get EB at some point...
 

MagnesD3

Member
I'm playing it now for the first time.

I like the way the world is designed so you are ferried to the important stuff without needing any kind of sat nav or quest markers like a Ubisoft-esque game nor any kind of crawl through small space stuff that was apparently needed in God of War to funnel the player to the right place or whatever excuse they used (but really was a load of bullshit). The level design is really good then in that it's fairly obvious where to go without it being gamey like most other games.

The open world is completely dead of course but not every game needs to be RDR2 and I think being open world gives the player a different kind of experience to a normal Souls game as I've spent a lot of time just exploring.

Finding it ok difficulty wise and it's more a test of patience than raw skill. There are plenty of games that I just don't have the co-ordination or reactions to play but this is fine so far.

I'm guessing I've missed 90% of the story as the game doesn't exactly beat you over the head with it but the atmosphere alone is enough to keep me wanting to play.

The graphics are simultaneously completely shit and breath-taking in equal measure. At times it looks like a PS3 game and at times one of the best things I've ever seen.

I'm definitely not in 'the greatest game of all time' club but I'm glad I bought it for sure.
Read item descriptions they are a goldmine for the story
 
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SweetShark

Member
Quit? Like, crash?
I’ve played over 400 hours and haven’t had the game crash once.
I’ve certainly experienced the fps freeze thing though. Usually happens a couple times per session in new areas, after a couple times it’s fine. I feel like it’s worse on Windows 11 than Windows 10, can’t verify it though.
Sorry, I meant the game crashed multiple times.
But yeah, I don't know why these happened, especially when I was in the ghost snow town, but it was REALLY frustrating...
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Lmao you guys must have some insane skills. I found the game(at least after the plateau) to be ridiculously hard. I do agree it does feel cheap; From didn’t attempt to balance the fucking game.

The only thing that feels “Cheap” In this game was the optional area involving the Haligtree, and that was only because it was balanced around having around 120-140 SL. Most players are around 80-100 by the time they reach that point in the game. Going back in NG+, it feels much more natural and well curved. I get the feeling that the area was originally designed specifically for NG+, but I don’t have anything to base that on other than anecdotal evidence.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
By being an openworld. You can't think of another more casual friendly trope than being an openworld game.
I disagree. The most casual-friendly way to make a game is to give constant objectives, corridors, next steps, etcetera. Casuals love map markers, pop-ups, sidekicks talking, everything that gives them a constant source of what to do next. Elden Ring was correct to almost completely throw that kind of trash away and leave the game silent, putting the decisions on the player.
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
Lmao you guys must have some insane skills. I found the game(at least after the plateau) to be ridiculously hard. I do agree it does feel cheap; From didn’t attempt to balance the fucking game.
Im still going to get to the "hard" part of the game as it seems, but this "unbalance" and "cheapness" is the open worlds fault, You cant balance the dificult because you cant predict things as usual for progression in soulsgames, and in the end you have to make things cheap because everyone is overleveled.

But 60 hours in, just finished NOKRON and DEEPROOT .. and Im just cruisin through bosses with the occasional stupid mistake death
 
Im still going to get to the "hard" part of the game as it seems, but this "unbalance" and "cheapness" is the open worlds fault, You cant balance the dificult because you cant predict things as usual for progression in soulsgames, and in the end you have to make things cheap because everyone is overleveled.

But 60 hours in, just finished NOKRON and DEEPROOT .. and Im just cruisin through bosses with the occasional stupid mistake death
Idk about it being unbalanced because of open world. The legacy dungeons are fairly straightforward but still feel cheap due high damage and enemy placement. Maybe those aspects were done better in the older games due to rapidly-changing tastes but I haven’t played DKS or Sekiro…yet.
 

ByWatterson

Member
Basically the only game I've ever played that drives the player via his intrinsic motivation. I don't just want the story to progress, or a questline, or XP, or a weapon.

I WANT TO SEE WHAT THE SHIT IS OVER THERE
 

chriskun

Member
This game is so boring to me, all you do is roll and slash and do that over and over again. This might be an apples to oranges comparison but I wonder why stylish action games dont get the same sort of cult like obsession souls games do. Combat is way more dynamic, forcing you to adapt on your feet and experiment with the battle system. I definitely think Elden Ring and souks games are the mumble rap of gaming and are only popular due to social contagion.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
This game is so boring to me, all you do is roll and slash and do that over and over again. This might be an apples to oranges comparison but I wonder why stylish action games dont get the same sort of cult like obsession souls games do. Combat is way more dynamic, forcing you to adapt on your feet and experiment with the battle system. I definitely think Elden Ring and souks games are the mumble rap of gaming and are only popular due to social contagion.

All you do in character action games is dodge and slash And you do that over and over again.

All you do in shooters is point and click and you do that over and over again.

All you do in racers is press RT and occasionally press left and right. And you do that over and over again.

See the flaw in that level of logic? If you discuss anything in such broad strokes, it makes it seem very repetitive.
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
Idk about it being unbalanced because of open world. The legacy dungeons are fairly straightforward but still feel cheap due high damage and enemy placement. Maybe those aspects were done better in the older games due to rapidly-changing tastes but I haven’t played DKS or Sekiro…yet.
Sekiro and bloodborne are my absolute favorites .... sekiro for me is the most repayable and harder, specially the gauntlets
For me os BB=SEKIRO > DEMONS > DS3 - DS1 - DS2
 

chriskun

Member
All you do in character action games is dodge and slash And you do that over and over again.

All you do in shooters is point and click and you do that over and over again.

All you do in racers is press RT and occasionally press left and right. And you do that over and over again.

See the flaw in that level of logic? If you discuss anything in such broad strokes, it makes it seem very repetitive.
You don’t just dodge and slash in character action games. There is usually a large amount of weapon switching, stance switching and a high degree of mobility(double jumping, air dashing teleporting).

All the characterizations of the other genres you pointed out are not valid either. I wouldnt consider souls-like games a genre, more of a sub-genre if anything.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
You don’t just dodge and slash in character action games. There is usually a large amount of weapon switching, stance switching and a high degree of mobility(double jumping, air dashing teleporting).

All the characterizations of the other genres you pointed out are not valid either. I wouldnt consider souls-like games a genre, more of a sub-genre if anything.

That. Is. The. Point.

I am illustrating, using your logic, how retarded what you said was.

Dont Play Yourself I Love You GIF by Music Choice
 

MadPanda

Banned
Lmao you guys must have some insane skills.

Yeah, I agree. I've completed bloodborne, sekiro, ds 2 and 3 and still found Elden Ring to be very difficult but engaging and fun. I'm still thinking about it and I'll probably start it in a month again when I'm over with some real life stuff. I'm at the end of ng+ on my save, can't wait for ng+2.
 

Boneless

Member
This game is so boring to me, all you do is roll and slash and do that over and over again. This might be an apples to oranges comparison but I wonder why stylish action games dont get the same sort of cult like obsession souls games do. Combat is way more dynamic, forcing you to adapt on your feet and experiment with the battle system. I definitely think Elden Ring and souks games are the mumble rap of gaming and are only popular due to social contagion.

Show me an action game with an interesting open world, stat progression, different classes and tons of weapons and armour's that are actually different and I would expect it would get very popular.

There is tons of customisation in Elden Ring, different ways to build up your character, from a mage, blood satanist to barbarian and samurai. They all approach combat very differently. This deep RPG element is what attracts a lot of people.
 

CZY

Member
Game is good enough to warrant lots and lots of disagreement & discussion, that’s for sure. I think its biggest strength is unquestionably in its raw adventure/discovery/wanderlust/exploration component, but I understand that’s been souls-games’ strongpoint from the beginning so it’s maybe slightly old-hat at this point.

My biggest complaint is that I consistently find the atmosphere lacking. It’s passable and even good but by no means is it THICK AF like I wish it was.

Kind of a cliche criticism at this stage but I’d agree with those who’ve said this game could be a third the size but more focused and it would likely be much better.

Excellent game, great game even, but I think at the end of the day it’s a bit of a standard-fare 8.5/10 when juxtaposed with the rest of the soulsborne titles, and not really anything special.

It’s much more “Dark Souls 2 Part 2” than it is “Bloodborne+Dark Souls+Demon’s Souls” like it maybe should have been.
 
Only issue I have with the game is that once you kill all the bosses in an area, you can't coop there anymore. The game is so damn fun to just run around with buddies and fight invaders, explore, etc. Blocking off areas as you progress is just a bummer.

I also wish there was a boss rush mode. Boss fights are damn fun in coop.

I still have yet to kill Elden Beast. I can get through Radigon (or whatever his name is) with ease but Elden Beasts area is so effing huge, hard to get maintain stamina. Such is life though, I've done pretty much 100% of the content in the game and still have fun when I play coop with friends, I'll get EB at some point...
It’s not worth it. As per usual with FromSoftware, the endings are short, unrewarding, lazy, low budget trash.


I’m only this angry because the fanbase just enables FromSoftware to not improve anything. And this includes all their boss fights with big things like Elden Beast being atrocious.
 
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Fredrik

Member
Lmao you guys must have some insane skills. I found the game(at least after the plateau) to be ridiculously hard.
Are you playing with a melee build? Sword and shield? Any particular area or boss you’re struggling with?

In general melee is more difficult since you’re quite close up and need to learn when to attack, dodge, parry.
If you’re using daggers it’s even worse, then you’re always in their face. There are some crazy potent dagger builds that can, in time, become brutal though.

I think most who say it’s easy use a classic magic build, astrologer. Plus most people use a maxed out mimic tear.

But they’ve patched it a lot since launch so beware of day 1 players saying it’s easy. I’m still playing it and it’s definitely a challenging game. Your build will matter a lot though and you often don’t even realize you’re getting overlevelled if you start exploring the world, but just when you think it’s easy you stumble onto a boss that is stomping you over and over. I love trying to figure out that perfect strategy, like using sleep pots on the annoying rolling godskins, so satisfying 👌
 

MagnesD3

Member
No I want FromSoftware to stop acting like an indie dev
No actually its good game design, it adds to the reward system of items besides thier actual function. If you aren't gonna/cant use the item you are at least rewarded with a little more knowledge. in a game largely about exploring a huge world and finding interesting stuff this is incredibly important.

Also imo some of the older from software games don't so as good of a job with the item descriptions but in Elden Ring they step the fuck up on thier lore game (I imagine In part due to George RR Martin's involvement).
 
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hemo memo

Gold Member
No actually its good game design, it adds to the reward system of items besides thier actual function. If you aren't gonna/cant use the item you are at least rewarded with a little more knowledge. in a game largely about exploring a huge world and finding interesting stuff this is incredibly important.

Also imo some of the older from software games don't so as good of a job with the item descriptions but in Elden Ring they step the fuck up on thier lore game (I imagine In part due to George RR Martin's involvement).
It is not good design. It is actually lack of it. They didn’t do it as a reward system of items for the player but to save on a lot of time and cost instead of doing a proper story that will be ignored by the majority of their fanbase which only cares about the gameplay and that will certainly be a waste of resources as it will not increase sales to the point of being worth it.

Saying this was intentional as a design benefit instead of cost saving is like saying GameFreak’s Pokemon lack of voice acting is for tor the player to enjoy reading. I mean c’mon. You can defend the game you like but don’t spin it because you like From.
 

rolandss

Member
Would honestly love to play this game and experience all it has to offer except souls type games are inaccessible to me. I’m currently playing through horizon forbidden west on easy, which is the level of time commitment I have to enjoy games these days. There was a time when I had time and patience to sink into a game and learn its mechanics and master it. Now I just want to spend the precious couple hours I week I have advancing through it while having fun, without constantly getting my ass beaten so I end up replaying the same part over and over.
 
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It is not good design. It is actually lack of it. They didn’t do it as a reward system of items for the player but to save on a lot of time and cost instead of doing a proper story that will be ignored by the majority of their fanbase which only cares about the gameplay and that will certainly be a waste of resources as it will not increase sales to the point of being worth it.

Saying this was intentional as a design benefit instead of cost saving is like saying GameFreak’s Pokemon lack of voice acting is for tor the player to enjoy reading. I mean c’mon. You can defend the game you like but don’t spin it because you like From.
Miyazaki has stated multiple times that he loves fragmented storytelling, stemming from a childhood spent reading barely understood fantasy in English.

It’s a core part of all of his games and millions of people love it.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
Miyazaki has stated multiple times that he loves fragmented storytelling, stemming from a childhood spent reading barely understood fantasy in English.

It’s a core part of all of his games and millions of people love it.
You can have both or a proper story that can be ignored by hardcore fans who don’t care about it but at least the rest get to enjoy it.
 

MagnesD3

Member
It is not good design. It is actually lack of it. They didn’t do it as a reward system of items for the player but to save on a lot of time and cost instead of doing a proper story that will be ignored by the majority of their fanbase which only cares about the gameplay and that will certainly be a waste of resources as it will not increase sales to the point of being worth it.

Saying this was intentional as a design benefit instead of cost saving is like saying GameFreak’s Pokemon lack of voice acting is for tor the player to enjoy reading. I mean c’mon. You can defend the game you like but don’t spin it because you like From.
Lol, my logical reasoning of why it is good design and the logic of the video game is sound, now not every game should present its story in this way but in Elden Ring it works phenomenally. It's easily one of my favorite lore filled worlds in gaming, the story is incredibly interesting and getting bread crumbs of lore is an excellent part of its reward system.

Also to note idk if it was it was understood by the developer as good rewarding game design that's just an assumption (miyazaki himself supposedly says he doesn't understand why ER was a hit compared to the others so he may have done this unintentionally but i somehow doubt it), I just know that it is good design.
 
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A design decision you don't like = indie dev?

Grow up...
It is purely a cost-cutting design decision. Just like how they always use post-apocalyptic worlds because it saves costs and they don’t know anything else. Just like how they’ve been using the same engine for god knows how long. Just like how they never fix their camera. Just like how cutscene animations are still horrid. Etc.

FS is overly frugal and they’re enabled by their fanbase. You know it and I know it. Don’t tell me to grow up because I’m pointing out the obvious.
 

chriskun

Member
That. Is. The. Point.

I am illustrating, using your logic, how retarded what you said was.

Dont Play Yourself I Love You GIF by Music Choice
I understand your point, but its an unfair one, because literally all you do in Elden Ring is roll and slash. All the other mechanics they included in the game are garbage. Compared to other games/genres which are more dynamic. Once again, def a mass delusion that in ten years people will look back and laugh on(like pronouns).
 
Are you playing with a melee build? Sword and shield? Any particular area or boss you’re struggling with?

In general melee is more difficult since you’re quite close up and need to learn when to attack, dodge, parry.
If you’re using daggers it’s even worse, then you’re always in their face. There are some crazy potent dagger builds that can, in time, become brutal though.

I think most who say it’s easy use a classic magic build, astrologer. Plus most people use a maxed out mimic tear.

But they’ve patched it a lot since launch so beware of day 1 players saying it’s easy. I’m still playing it and it’s definitely a challenging game. Your build will matter a lot though and you often don’t even realize you’re getting overlevelled if you start exploring the world, but just when you think it’s easy you stumble onto a boss that is stomping you over and over. I love trying to figure out that perfect strategy, like using sleep pots on the annoying rolling godskins, so satisfying 👌
I already played and beat 4x.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I understand your point, but its an unfair one, because literally all you do in Elden Ring is roll and slash. All the other mechanics they included in the game are garbage. Compared to other games/genres which are more dynamic. Once again, def a mass delusion that in ten years people will look back and laugh on(like pronouns).

Danny Devito Lol GIF by The Animal Crackers Movie
 

Gideon

Member
I understand your point, but its an unfair one, because literally all you do in Elden Ring is roll and slash. All the other mechanics they included in the game are garbage. Compared to other games/genres which are more dynamic. Once again, def a mass delusion that in ten years people will look back and laugh on(like pronouns).
Ash of wars, magic, summons, guard, guard counters, parry and critical hits.. hello?? That isn't "just roll and slash" lmao
 

Arioco

Member
I don't like "Souls" games anyway so I'm not even trying this one. I'm not saying they're bad, they're just not for me, I guess. I bought Sekiro because I liked the art and it's feudal Japan setting but when I started playing... My God!
 
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