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ELDEN RING |OT| One Ring To Rule Them All

R6Rider

Gold Member
My PS App on my phone just sent me a notification to let me know Elden Ring is out now. Thanks Sony, I didn't realize this after already clocking 50 hours.
 

Keihart

Member
Bloodborne was my favorite from game before Elden Ring and i haven't even finished this.
What a treat.

Somehow playing Elden Ring feels a little like playing the MMO i always wanted, even if it isn't an MMO.
I just love discoversing shit left and right and still be amazed by the next shit i discover.
 

Termite

Member
Man, it's kind of amazing to me that anyone can play this game and have this take, but to each their own I guess. I've put 40 hours into the game, still haven't explored half of it, and already this is one of the greatest fantasy worlds created in games bar none. In fact, only the Witcher games probably compare. And I've played through Dark Souls twice, but this is the far superior world.
I mean, are you talking visually or in terms of lore / story?

Because obviously visually it's spectacular, but in terms of the rest... what has you interested? There's absolutely nothing to sink your teeth into. It's like the Silmarillion by Tolkein - just a bunch of lore dumps that don't, without proper characterization, hold the interest.

The only actual stories that happen during the game (as opposed to happening before the game starts, and as far as I could tell) are Ranni's and Fia's and neither is particuarly compelling.
 
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Orbital2060

Member
Wait did they make it so summoning disables achievements? Am I reading that right?

I generally don't summon much but that is absolutely brutal compared to previous games if that's the case.
No I just meant the sense of achievement when getting past a tough encounter.
 

Keihart

Member
I mean, are you talking visually or in terms of lore / story?

Because obviously visually it's spectacular, but in terms of the rest... what has you interested? There's absolutely nothing to sink your teeth into. It's like the Silmarillion by Tolkein - just a bunch of lore dumps that don't, without proper characterization, hold the interest.

The only actual stories that happen during the game (as opposed to happening before the game starts, and as far as I could tell) are Ranni's and Fia's and neither is particuarly compelling.
That's how all Soul Games are structured, there is no quest log or anything, the story you get out of the game is the one you uncover.
There is something special about wondering about the world and putting the pieces together yourself, youll be told stuff by npcs and it's up to you to make something out of that.

It makes a lot of sense since Miyazaki is a fan of both Kentaro Miura and Fumito Ueda's work.
 

Termite

Member
That's how all Soul Games are structured, there is no quest log or anything, the story you get out of the game is the one you uncover.
There is something special about wondering about the world and putting the pieces together yourself, youll be told stuff by npcs and it's up to you to make something out of that.

It makes a lot of sense since Miyazaki is a fan of both Kentaro Miura and Fumito Ueda's work.
I've been playing Souls games since the release day of Demon's Souls, I've beaten them all, I'm familiar with their storytelling style. And like I said, they've proven it can be done well enough with Bloodborne. But my problem with it isn't having to piece it together, it's that once you do - it's boring. It's just shite lore, shite story. It's dry. There's no emotion to it, no drama. It doesn't have to be that way.

But fans will say "You didn't put it together" even when you did, and you didn't like it. There's always a consideration of how fun it is to put all the lore pieces together, but never any consideration of whether the picture is any good once the puzzle is completed. And here, it's not.

EDIT: You mention Fumito Ueda. His work could not be more different. It is the opposite of dry. It is deeply personal and emotional. Lore doesn't feature too heavily at the expense of the core relationship and the core conflict in his games. I can't even see the comparison.
 
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o4jds8ya5fl81.png


Horizon dev, all these flavours and you chose salt

salt salting GIF
Only a bunch of hacks would cry about a metacritic score for a different game.
Season 2 Tommy GIF by Martin
200.gif
Yelling What About Me GIF by Australian Survivor


Bunch of sad fucking losers, a shame studios are saturated with them.
 

SCB3

Member
I've teleported to some of the later areas and they definitely look and feel incredibly bleak. The game is a dark fantasy to the core. Actually it's worse - it's like black fantasy or something. The worlds in these games have gotten fucked up in a thousand different ways over thousands and thousands of years. And you're fighting a constantly losing battle trying to contain it. Miyazaki must have had one seriously messed up childhood or something, or maybe he was just born that way, because the man has a twisted mind to say the least.
Nah, just read too much Bezerk as a kid

Anyway, I actually beat Godrick on my second try, he was pretty fun but this Bloody Bastard Sword is amazing and bloodletting the bosses. With that I think I may be done with Limgrave aside from a few small caves/tombs, checking the Interactive Map on Fextralife seems to confirm this, but I still feel I am just starting
 
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JokerMM

Gay porn is where it's at.
it's gonna be interesting where they will take the souls formula from here, open world is the only way moving forward, i've came to this realization after trying DS3 today, game felt like it was light years behind elden ring
 
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season 1 s1 GIF by Dream Corp LLC

OKAY i'M BACK TO REALITY

Good freaking lord, this game sucked me in. I think I'm 48 hours into it? What is time, really? I'm an intelligence kind of player that loves to cheese bosses.

Anyway good fucking god this game is huge. This is got to be the largest open world game ever. The scope is just fucking massive. Full stop. After doing some YouTube research, I'm about to go on a quest for the best sorcery and armor for my dude. Not since Bloodborne have I been this exhausted from a game. This is truly a masterpiece and I'm not sure I've ever said this about any other game. FUCK ME THIS GAME IS HUGE.

Okay, time to jump back in now.


Carl Sagan Space GIF by Feliks Tomasz Konczakowski
 
Just hit 30 hours and wrapped up the Academy. That end boss was no joke and in the end I used a summon to help me out.

I’ve done a bunch of shit surrounding the lakes and after noping the fuck out of Caelid I’m gonna go to Atlus and see what’s happening there.

Still an amazing game and the map is absolutely massive. I’m surprised I’ve managed to put this much time into it already!
 

rofif

Banned
o4jds8ya5fl81.png


Horizon dev, all these flavours and you chose salt

salt salting GIF
pc graphics? stability?
The game looks amazing and runs fine. Few stutters? how is that a problem. ps5 is also only about 50fps... but you play the game and get used to it.
Horizon had the usual very boring, long quest talking all the time. Repetition too.
Game user interface is still the best in Dark Souls 2 lol. but it's close
 

Freeman76

Member
I don't think that really makes sense in this game, if you're following the lore. I'm 30 hours in and still barely scratched the surface though.

The Demigods waged war against each other, killing everyone and destroying the lands. Since the Death Rune was stolen prior to this, the dead don't stay dead anymore so not only do you have the Demigods war, but an undead plague on top of that.

This is the situation you're dealing with at the start of the game lol.

I dont think the guy you quoted has ever played a game in this series. None of them have 'bustling towns' lol
 

MastAndo

Member
Just hit 30 hours and wrapped up the Academy. That end boss was no joke and in the end I used a summon to help me out.
Same. I had been steamrolling/brute forcing main bosses due to taking my sweet time getting my levels up, but her 2nd phase is the first of the main boss battles to give me trouble. I think some consider her relatively easy, but for me, it was a lesson learned in patience and evasion.
 

Rex_DX

Gold Member
Bloodborne was my favorite from game before Elden Ring and i haven't even finished this.
What a treat.

Somehow playing Elden Ring feels a little like playing the MMO i always wanted, even if it isn't an MMO.
I just love discoversing shit left and right and still be amazed by the next shit i discover.
Take some time to judge it in retrospect too. It's interesting how your perceptions change.

I freelanced for a small-city daily paper for some extra cash while in grad school. Did a lot of local music scene reviews. It's super important to get some thoughts down on paper the night you see the show, so to speak, while your emotions are fresh. It's equally important (if time/deadline permits) to reflect on the experience at a later date and to form a meaningful opinion from both mindsets. You may well find that after you shelve Elden Ring you still remember Bloodborne more favorable - or vice versa.

Sadly time isn't a luxury most journalists have, gaming or otherwise, and is often the reason a game is remembered in a light contrary to how it was received on launch day.
 

Hestar69

Member
I’m using a meteorite staff, with the following three spells attached.

1. Swift Glintstone Pebble - Faster than the regular version and still good for normal enemies
2. Rock Sling - Really good at damaging bosses (from a distance)
3. Carrian Slicer - This is the sword spell I had mentioned, it can be slow to get started but it picks up the pace after the first swing and works great against bosses or foes that want to keep close
damn,those the 3 ive been using.Was hoping there was another spell worth using because all the others seem worthless.I'm trying to get 60 int for that spell but only 44 INT atm.
 

Rex_DX

Gold Member
Just hit 30 hours and wrapped up the Academy. That end boss was no joke and in the end I used a summon to help me out.

I’ve done a bunch of shit surrounding the lakes and after noping the fuck out of Caelid I’m gonna go to Atlus and see what’s happening there.

Still an amazing game and the map is absolutely massive. I’m surprised I’ve managed to put this much time into it already!
I just hit 30 hours and am exploring the peninsula in Limgrave. Only on my second map fragments :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 

Keihart

Member
I've been playing Souls games since the release day of Demon's Souls, I've beaten them all, I'm familiar with their storytelling style. And like I said, they've proven it can be done well enough with Bloodborne. But my problem with it isn't having to piece it together, it's that once you do - it's boring. It's just shite lore, shite story. It's dry. There's no emotion to it, no drama. It doesn't have to be that way.

But fans will say "You didn't put it together" even when you did, and you didn't like it. There's always a consideration of how fun it is to put all the lore pieces together, but never any consideration of whether the picture is any good once the puzzle is completed. And here, it's not.

EDIT: You mention Fumito Ueda. His work could not be more different. It is the opposite of dry. It is deeply personal and emotional. Lore doesn't feature too heavily at the expense of the core relationship and the core conflict in his games. I can't even see the comparison.
just mentioning since your complain was focused on nothing happening during the game. Most of this games had most stuff happen before your time and some while you play, very little usually.

Not even arguing with you liking it or not.
 

jadefire66

Member
it's gonna be interesting where they will take the souls formula from here, open world is the only way moving forward, i've came to this realization after trying DS3 today, game felt like it was light years behind elden ring

Tbh DS3 is super linear and trash compared to DS1 level design (which is way better than Elden Ring imo).
 

lifa-cobex

Member
So what's the deal with Redmane Castle? I beat the first boss....

I then go up to the old guy and he's telling me about a festival. What do now?
 

JokerMM

Gay porn is where it's at.
Radahn is down. best fight in the game imo, what an absolute unite of a beast, this dude on his prime would probably solo all the other demigods with fucking ease
i kinda feel sorry tho,i went for him at lvl80 and made him my own bitch
 

hollams

Gold Member
Played for 30 hours and just found Patches. For some reason I never went that direction until tonight. The world is just massive.
 

Keihart

Member
Elden ring trashes all the soulsborne games from the highest highs
there's no going back for me now
on one hand, i can't see them going back to the smaller games or fans being alright with that even.
on the other hand, i don't see how would they even attempt another big game like this, feels humungus and levereging the years of assets and experiences from previous games.

The game truly feels like those stupid pitchs you would make as a kid, "what about a game with this and that, and that" and you would never shutup about features, that's kinda Elden Ring for me.
 

mekes

Member
It’s been tough going so far, playing about 1 hour per day. I did some exploring of the map for a few days, but now I’ve beaten Margit and entered the castle grounds. This place is mammoth, so many nooks leading off to hidden items. It almost feels nonstop.

The game is ultra impressive to me. You could easily be overwhelmed and perfectly fulfilled all in a one hour play. The moment you think the area is too large you find a cave, camp, fort etc with a boss fight. You can sense the influence and growth they have acquired over the years with their previous releases in this game, which is wonderful being a fan of them all.

I’m having a good time 👍
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Game looks amazing. I haven't gotten around to it yet, but looking forward to it. Bloodborne was incredible, one of the best games ever. Elden Ring seems to be a notch above it.
 
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RPS37

Member
So I managed to sneak past the knights at storm gate ruins and grab the third grace.
I got torrent and then raced past them then got murdered by the big ol’ boss in the next area.
I also couldn’t grab the map fragment…
Why is this like this?
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I have a weird question. My right hand with my weapon was in the 140’s in the level up screen (to the right of the screen when you add a point to your stats) and then I leveled up my strength a couple times and it zoomed to 400+. Is that reflecting my overall strength attribute or is something going on? Usually I’ll see my base strength and then my total attributes strength plus whatever my weapon pushes it to. It’s normal to have your right hand strength at 110 (an example) and then you press Y or Triangle and you see your total strength attribute at 300 or whatever. Now my right hand is at 400+ and the rest is probably sub 140 or something. I pressed Triangle to confirm what my overall strength was and it was close to 500. Maybe I’m just confusing myself on something I’m already aware of. The only thing I can think of is somehow I scaled my weapon by adding points to strength.

Then I took back the stats in strength and my overall strength went back to the 100’s. I thought I already met the requirements for this weapon.
 
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Thanks, good thing I only paid $30 for it, I'd still like someone to show me the ropes. Kinda like in real life when you don't have go into battle completely alone. And then make that decision myself. I followed a YT guide to OP my character and weapons. I'm just really just looking for someone who's willing to walk me through the finer details and I'd rather it be someone from gaf than a redditor or rando from the xbox.
 

Rex_DX

Gold Member
Thanks, good thing I only paid $30 for it, I'd still like someone to show me the ropes. Kinda like in real life when you don't have go into battle completely alone. And then make that decision myself. I followed a YT guide to OP my character and weapons. I'm just really just looking for someone who's willing to walk me through the finer details and I'd rather it be someone from gaf than a redditor or rando from the xbox.
I'd give you a hand man but I'm on PC. What exactly are the problems you're facing?

If you insist on videos I'd try to find some stuff that are more of a primer to the game in general - discussion of the stats, weapons, mechanics etc. - rather than a guide just to get "op." You'll just end up with decent weapons for a new character and still no idea what to do and likely drop the game.

I'd also strongly recommend the Firelink Pub Discord. It's one of the largest DS communities and has some of the most knowledgeable people around online all the time. I know they have a whole channel just for newbies.

Best advice I can give you is be patient and try to learn as much as you can. This applies to combat but also to the game in general. Have the patience to go into the menus and click around. Set a goal like, okay how do I change into a different helmet or how do I check to see how my hit points I have. Then take the time to look for that info. It's not that obtuse. Small gains in understanding lead to big gains in understanding.

Hope you stick with it man.
 
These are all really good points. I was wondering the same thing about your average casual gamer. I'm guessing there's a lot of people who might be enjoying the game but are still coming to terms with just how to play this type of game.

To us it's a no brainer to kind of enter a new boss arena, poke a little, dodge a lot, count how many swings are in a combo and learn their timings, take note of tells like "oh, he's lifting his cane over his head: he's about to do the three swing horizontal combo with a possible two swing follow up. Then he's open to three hits" etc. etc. And even if you learn to think like this some of these bosses are still really fucking hard. I guess I'm trying to take myself back to playing Dark Souls for the first time and I realize it took me three attempts spaced out over two years for me to become an advocate. Hopefully Elden Ring will hook some new players like Souls hooked us.

I sometimes forget that almost ten years of muscle memory and (repressed) memories makes such a massive difference.

Also, what percentage of those people play enough hours in one week to reach Margit.
 

Fools idol

Banned
The boss in the Academy is classic fucking Miyazaki trolling.

The first phase I'm just thinking to myself heh... this is pretty easy. I down her only for her to 'respawn' as a phase 2 and she *instantly* one-shot kills me with some bullshit magic attack before I even have a clue whats going on.
 

WoodyStare

Member
55 hours played within a week. I can’t even remember the last game where I played this much in such little time, and I’m not even close to completing it. This game is like crack.
 

Rex_DX

Gold Member
Whoa just found a neat field boss in the Weeping Peninsula id missed before because it was daytime.

First one I've seen other than the Night's Calvary which it seems like everyone knows about.
 
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