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How do you feel about Elden Ring now that the hype has cleared?

I really liked the game and put a ton of hours into it. However I found the final boss to be quite terrible. Never liked chasing final boss all over the place. Plus the performance is quite unstable in the game. Not to mention the visuals are quite disappointing.

With that said the huge open world and the amount of content is fantastic. Hopefully they apply this to future souls game since it really adds a freedom that they didn't really have when it comes to exploration.
 
Pretty good, but comes no where close to DS3 combat or Ds1 lore. The way they did open world was interesting, but I honestly dont want another open world souls game from them. The sameness of the enemies and the fact that the goal at the end is the same as the other Souls games was uninspiring. 8/10
 
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Swift_Star

Banned
Seem to be a lot of people in here who agree that it's not even one of the better Souls games.
It isn’t. Bloodborne and DS3 shits all over ER when it comes to enemy and boss encounters, designs and balancing. Shits all over the place in ER. Hope they fix all this on the inevitable sequel.
DS3 and BB felt like cohesive packages whereas ER is simply disjointed.
 
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After finishing Elden Ring I had to go back and replay BB and DS3 in order to confirm that my love of those games wasn't misplaced. I liked Elden Ring in general, but it is defined in my mind as being a compromised version of previous From games... the open world was a mistake, there's no danger whatsoever in exploring it so it's not meaningful except as a backdrop, yet you spend so much time just galloping between points of interest on the map. The boss design is fundamentally bad, and in most cases the winning strat is to be as passive as possible until the RNG allows the boss to use a guaranteed punishable attack. The irritating thing is that they clearly put a lot of effort into the bosses, but the basic design was bad.

e: also I think the level design in the main stages, other than Stormveil and partially Volcano Manor, is not good. The capital gets praise for being so open but the actual encounter design is mostly just about putting strong enemies in your path. Pretty much all of the other levels are bad... special mention to that one underground area where you have to light the fires while avoiding floating blobs of electricity. Also Haligtree is a shit area.
 
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Phenomenal game that has a few glaring issues. Bloodborne is the more consistent title and my favorite Fromsoft game, but Elden Ring is a joy to experience the first time through. I feel like it's a little too big for its own good and the combat isn't well balanced.

I prefer a more 'focused' Fromsoft game, but I did greatly enjoy the open world in this.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
The game is amazing. I'm still chipping away it.

Killed all the shard bearers, and all but one of the optional bosses. Some dragon you access by lying down in a grave. That thing is a bitch. I'm at the last boss too but he's a tank. Gathering up the last few sacred tears and using guides to find dungeons and whatnot. Leveling up Arcane. I'd like to kill him with my build and not respec. Debating too if I should do some of the gear trophies. Not that it's a difficult one to get but I'll probably end up getting the platinum.

One thing that really stands out to me since I only play it here and there, the game isn't very difficult. Yea the last boss has me stuck but overall, the game for the most part is kind of easy.

All in all, easily one of the best games ever made, one of the best games I've ever played, and hands down the best coop experience I've ever had. 10/10 all day.
 
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Barakov

Member
It's not perfect but I'd still put it up there with the greats. I put close to 300 hours into it over two playthroughs. I can't remember the last time a game made me want to play through it twice. We're a little over half-way through the year but I can't see any game topping it for GOTY for me.
 

RyRy93

Member
The open-world is stunning, the build variety easily beats these others and the combat is a nice blend of them all but it's not my favourite.

Bloodborne>Dark Souls>Elden Ring>DS3>Sekiro

Elden Ring's bloated nature (I thought Liurnia would never end), lack of intricate level design and forgettable boss OSTs put it somewhere in the middle of the Fromsoft games I've played but even Sekiro is a 8.5/10 to me, they're all great.
 
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Duchess

Member
For anyone who's played both, how does the difficultly compare to Returnal?

I'm having my arse kicked by that game, and it's beginning to make me wonder if my patience is wearing thin as I get older (taken me 5 attempts + 7 hours to beat the first boss in Returnal - oof).

Elden Ring harder? Same? "Different"?
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
One of the greatest games ever made.

Leagues ahead of almost every game released recently and what the west thinks is an decent open world game.

I adored every minute with it and will be back at it no doubt. Can not wait for dlc.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
The open-world is stunning, the build variety easily beats these others and the combat is a nice blend of them all but it's not my favourite.

Bloodborne>Dark Souls>Elden Ring>DS3>Sekiro

Elden Ring's bloated nature (I thought Liurnia would never end), lack of intricate level design and forgettable boss OSTs put it somewhere in the middle of the Fromsoft games I've played but even Sekiro is a 8.5/10 to me, they're all great.

To put sekiro last.....wow. each to their own I guess.

Bloodborne is amazing but I would take a sekiro sequel every day over a bloodborne sequel. Bloodborne is perfect as a single game...sekiro could actually be fleshed out in my opinion and the gameplay is perfection.
 

engstra

Member
For anyone who's played both, how does the difficultly compare to Returnal?

I'm having my arse kicked by that game, and it's beginning to make me wonder if my patience is wearing thin as I get older (taken me 5 attempts + 7 hours to beat the first boss in Returnal - oof).

Elden Ring harder? Same? "Different"?
I would say it's very hard to compare them. Returnal is all about speed and constantly moving, getting into a flow. ER and Souls series is a bit slower paced, standing off and waiting for a chance to strike.
The strength of ER is that when you reach a boss you're having trouble with, the open world allows you to just go in the opposite direction and explore and level up in order to then come back and beat that enemy that previously felt impossible

PS. Stick with it in Returnal, in my opinion the best game available on next-gen and best movement and combat I've ever experienced in a game. First biome is tough because the weapons are low powered. Once you get through it, it does become easier
 

mekes

Member
I find it difficult to drill down into the minor critiques that the game deserves for a question like this. I spent 130ish hours with the game and really enjoyed my time. I loved it.

I feel like I appreciate Blood, Sekiro and Souls more tho. I love the structure in those games brought by the world and level design. Elden Ring also has my least favourite lore of all recent FS games. And I love all of their games for the lore.

I'd buy a sequel. I'd buy a DLC. It will probably be my game of the year. It's just not my favourite game that they have made.
 

Fredrik

Member
For anyone who's played both, how does the difficultly compare to Returnal?

I'm having my arse kicked by that game, and it's beginning to make me wonder if my patience is wearing thin as I get older (taken me 5 attempts + 7 hours to beat the first boss in Returnal - oof).

Elden Ring harder? Same? "Different"?
I went straight from Elden Ring to Returnal.

Elden Ring is like a kids game.

I wasn’t as frustrated even after 3 days of struggling at the final boss in Elden Ring as my first boss encounter in Returnal.

The thing is, even though ER can be brutal and you can die in a second at a boss, one hit, it still just takes a few seconds to do another attempt at a frustrating boss.

In Returnal I had played for about 2 hours or so in an awesome run, carefully searched the map and found everything, had great weapons, extra life, a parasite that would give my life back at death with some penalties, and a respawn point. Perfect setup I thought.
Let’s do this! Let’s kill the boss!

Lost at the third (last?) phase.

Respawned mid map, phew! There is still a chance, nothing lost besides the parasite and extra life. I can still do it!

Died at the second phase.

Bam! Back to the crash site. New map. The 2 hours clearing the map. Wasted.

Exited the game. Haven’t started it again.

There are enemies on the map that can easily kill you as well too, so you might not even get to do another try at the boss at your next 2 hour session.

It’s absolutely brutal.

I googled on it and unless I missunderstood you have to clear the level 2 boss as well to get a permanent grappling hook, which could sort of feel like you have a new spawn point since you can reach level 3 from the crash site. I think.

What annoys me the most is that every single thing besides the brutal restart is amazing. They’re so close at making a new Super Metroid here. It’s awesome! Feels awesome!

But imagine having to start at the space ship with no new weapons or missiles in Super Metroid when you die fighting Kraid. That’s Returnal.

It’s available on PS+ Premium, so go try it yourself. Have fun!
 

BabyYoda

Banned
I think it's fair to say ER has become the Souls game I had the most fun with, loved it till the end (200hrs-ish).

But Dark Souls 1 will always be my first love, it was my first foray into the mind of Miyazaki's twisted genius and so left the biggest impression on me.
 
Game was more hype and style over substance.

The game gives you too much and too many options to deal with bosses. Either making them ridiculously easy or extremely hard.

Radan for example. Seemed impossible at first but after coming back to it 20 lvls later and dual wielding katanas he dropped first try.

Or summoning especially the mimic just breaks the bosses.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Its excellent, the best game I have played this year. But I didn't really come back to it after I completed it. I think the tight level design of DS is more fun to replay. I do think the bosses are unbalanced. They can be one shot with a mage build, and a physical build can have a very hard time. A lot of them ignore poise, and cancel their animations when you do something.
 

Fredrik

Member
Beat the first boss after spending over an hour preparing. Only just beat him, though..!
Congrats! I don’t have the time needed to do it, I rarely feel like gaming is a waste of time but I did after that Returnal run. I got the permanent sword, everything else was lost. I realize it’s just not for me, I just get angry and that’s not why I play games.

Jumped into Miles Morales instead, it’s so much more enjoyable to play, love it, would’ve had it on my GOTY list if I played it last year. Underrated gem for sure. 👍
 

95mellow

Member
Good game. It's not my favourite Souls-like or From title, but good nonetheless.

I feel like the game has a noticeable dip in quality after Lyndell.
 

K2D

Banned
I feel like I had to much cake and want to vomit at the thought of returning to the land between.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
I never played it but it was very entertaining to watch Twitch streamers like DizzyKitten play it
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
I "only" played for 15 hours and gave up after doing the same tower "puzzle" that required me to find ghost turtle, again. Good game, just not for me.
 

RyRy93

Member
To put sekiro last.....wow. each to their own I guess.

Bloodborne is amazing but I would take a sekiro sequel every day over a bloodborne sequel. Bloodborne is perfect as a single game...sekiro could actually be fleshed out in my opinion and the gameplay is perfection.
It's a great game and my second favourite game of 2019, I just preferred the bosses of DS3 and that edged Sekiro into last.

I loved the atmosphere, bosses, level design and lore in Bloodborne and the rally mechanic, quickstep and trick weapons make the combat so satisfying. My only big criticism is the choppy framerate.
 
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Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
Still a good solid 7/10. Lots of content but got pretty boring and reptitive after the first area and the platforming was ass
 
Amazing game as a 35 year old gamer who gets bored from single player games now elden ring brought my love back for gaming.
 

Sygma

Member
Literally finished it tuesday after huh 65 hours, managed to snag the way of the stars somehow and for me it hasn't really been anything "special". Still in love with Bloodborne. Game's like a solid 8/10. Insane amount of content, tons of fun to be had with character builds, some of the locations were amazing (Stormveil especially) but honestly almost all the boss fights were nothing special and while the world had a great artistic vision I personally felt it lacked something very distinctive. Story was also trash. Also was disappointed with Malenia after reading everywhere that she was the second coming of Lucifer in From's games and quite honestly she was nowhere near Kos / Isshin in terms of difficulty nor that memorable

Radahn was awesome however
 
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-MD-

Member
Stopped playing after 50 hours, really good game but the open world is bland and it's boring riding from one boss to the next.

Just felt like a really padded out Souls game to me.
 

itshutton

Member
I fully support the open world design decision, but towards the end, it did feel a little bloated.
I think after the Subterranean Shunning Grounds I started to get tired.
 
For anyone who's played both, how does the difficultly compare to Returnal?

I'm having my arse kicked by that game, and it's beginning to make me wonder if my patience is wearing thin as I get older (taken me 5 attempts + 7 hours to beat the first boss in Returnal - oof).

Elden Ring harder? Same? "Different"?
I think they are slightly different experiences imo. I find Elden Ring, Bloodborne and the Souls games in general easier and more forgiving than Returnal. Honestly, I completed all the Souls game and Bloodborne multiple times and plan on starting my second playthrough on Elden Ring eventually and I still haven’t completed Returnal yet. It could be me though. Not only is it very difficult, but it’s randomized as well. You might get an item, power up or weapon that really helps in a tough battle and then next time you get another item that makes everything more difficult. Levels randomize as well.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
I don’t think it will be memorable, great game. Gamers were anxious to claim it’s the GOAT.
 

Ribi

Member
Not a 10 maybe like a 9. By the end of it I was kinda disappointed that there weren't more secrets or cool secret bosses?
 
It's probably the best game I've ever played. Hype had nothing to do with it for me personally. I always enjoy From Software games but I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was.
 

clarky

Gold Member
I bought and played all of the souls games and never got on with them. Got this against my better judgement and what to you know, its finally (sort of) clicked. I do't think its the best thing since sliced bread like some but the art direction is fantastic. I'm about 40 hours in and still don't know what the fuck half the shit i've found does or what the fuck is going on but yeah decent game.
 
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