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

bender

What time is it?
It's wonderful but it ranks pretty low in my Fromsoft Souls-like list. Demon Souls and Bloodborne are still my favorites with Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 the next tier down. I wish Elden Ring was about half of it's length and that there was a lot fewer filler side dungeons and repeated bosses.
 

Rac3r

Member
It's a very good game, but the world just isn't that interesting. Some areas feel cheap, bosses feel recycled, and there were glaring technical issues at launch. It's definitely not a 10/10 for me, but I can see how others might see it as a masterpiece.

Bloodborne is still my favorite souls game and I'm not sure if it'll ever be surpassed.
 
There's gonna be a RTX patch??
They announced I think just before release that ray-tracing was going to be added at some indeterminate point, but who tf knows if that will be next week or next year.

Also can we all stop calling ray-tracing "RTX". Do it for me and my obvious autism. (DLSS would be nice though ngl... but there's no way they're adding that)
 

Kabelly

Member
I built a PC for it. I was a bit late to play. So I'm still on my first run. It's a great game but there's SO many repeating enemies. I took a break. It's a long ass game. But it'll hold me over for a long time. Fighting dragons is always cool.
 

j0hnnix

Member
I put Elden Ring next to bloodborne as my favorite souls game. Waiting for a sale to double dip and get it for steam deck.
 
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Relique

Member
They announced I think just before release that ray-tracing was going to be added at some indeterminate point, but who tf knows if that will be next week or next year.

Also can we all stop calling ray-tracing "RTX". Do it for me and my obvious autism. (DLSS would be nice though ngl... but there's no way they're adding that)
I hope they do (DLSS) so that if I ever decide to replay it would run better. It ran like ass on PC especially after you go to a new area for a while.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Yeah it's an amazing achievement and might even be one my favorite games of all time through several decades of playing videogames.
 
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GymWolf

Member


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!
Opposite opinion from me, returnal is way easier.

Boss shoot a lot of projectiles but they do shit damage so you can be hit a lot, you can't do that in er.

Also camera and movements are way better in returnal and not an obstacle like in er.

And it was the first bullet hell game i ever played in my life (because i'm shit at them).

Er level of challenge is all over the place because of his open world nature, but the hard boss\zones are way harder than anything in returnal imo, you don't even need precision aiming in that game, just being good at dodging while shooting in the general direction of enemies with most weapons.

You can level up in er but you can also level up the weapons in returnal so you still get stronger with time if you encounter an obstacles.
 
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Cyborg

Member
I love the game but I would prefer a more linear experience. There is so much to do that it just distracts me from the main plot/story. You are constantly exploring doing things that when you end up on the main path/story you think WTF just happend?
 

Majukun

Member
it's a great game.
the new direction for the souls genre is both a blesing and a curse...
like for the difficulty...it technically has not been made any easier than past souls, but between the open end nature and the lack of balancing due to it, the game is pretty much as hard or easy as you want it to be, except for maybe some encounters that are not well designed..but they have been nerfed in following patches as far as i heard.

great level design is now more sparse, but it also means that you are not gonna stay stuck in a particularly hard spot over and over trying to get to the next bonfire since you can just go elsewhere if you want and come back later.

quests are still as obtuse as ever though, with many hidden points of no return and you kinda NEED a guide if you don't wanna miss stuff.

it definitely loses some luster on some of the later zones, when the small repetition of bosses starts to be more noticeable.
 
Good game, worth the hype, wouldnt go as far as saying its the best thing since jesus christ but its the game to come out so far, still prefer dark souls 1 though
 

Fredrik

Member
you can also level up the weapons in returnal so you still get stronger with time if you encounter an obstacles.
How do you do this? I had found a weapon with extra power-up dots as loot but after restarting I still had the starter pea-shooter without any power dots, old school shmup penalty at death.

Only thing I had left after playing for 2 hours was that sword to go through the red barriers.

Plus the very first permanent things to use teleporters and secondary fire.

Do I still have to find the key and explore that house again to get the astronaut life?

Idk, for me it’s a ton more difficult than ER where you keep everything you’ve found at death minus the runes, which you can reclaim. In ER, die and you can try again after a few seconds using another strategy, a new weapon, ash, magic, item, etc. The difficulty is really just being plain stubborn. Can still take a long time to bring down the bosses but I never feel like I forgot to save so the frustration isn’t as severe.
 
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engstra

Member
How do you do this? I had found a weapon with extra power-up dots as loot but after restarting I still had the starter pea-shooter without any power dots, old school shmup penalty at death.

Only thing I had left after playing for 2 hours was that sword to go through the red barriers.

Plus the very first permanent things to use teleporters and secondary fire.

Do I still have to find the key and explore that house again to get the astronaut life?

Idk, for me it’s a ton more difficult than ER where you keep everything you’ve found at death minus the runes, which you can reclaim. In ER, die and you can try again after a few seconds using another strategy, a new weapon, ash, magic, item, etc. The difficulty is really just being plain stubborn. Can still take a long time to bring down the bosses but I never feel like I forgot to save so the frustration isn’t as severe.
The weapon pickups are randomized, so sometimes you'll find a weapon with more dots than others. However the progress on upgrading those dots carries over between runs
 

Fredrik

Member
You upgrade simply by using them, no need to the shop etc
Thanks! I’ll give it another go

Edit:
E engstra
Im Not No Way GIF


A couple more hours at Returnal, another death at the boss, and nothing left afterwards. No progression at all. Some bullshit trophies and I learned that the sword is great but that’s about it. No weapon upgrades. I’m at 9 hours total now. Level 1. Pea-shooter. I’m doing a classic rage quit on this nonsense now. I’m not having fun. It’s a waste of time.
 
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engstra

Member
Thanks! I’ll give it another go

Edit:
E engstra
Im Not No Way GIF


A couple more hours at Returnal, another death at the boss, and nothing left afterwards. No progression at all. Some bullshit trophies and I learned that the sword is great but that’s about it. No weapon upgrades. I’m at 9 hours total now. Level 1. Pea-shooter. I’m doing a classic rage quit on this nonsense now. I’m not having fun. It’s a waste of time.
Shame it didn't click for you as that game has been the one truly next-gen and best gaming experience I've had so far on the ps5. But yea no need to force it if not having fun
 

engstra

Member
Finally finished the game. What bosses or areas we're people referring to when mentioning that it soured the overall experience of the game?
 

Vaelka

Member
My view is basically the same, incredible but also disappointing game.
The environments and designs are incredible ( except armor design, it's boring as hell previous games were better in this imo ).
However the bosses are the weakest part of the game and aren't balanced well at all and too many of them are just cheap bullshit.
There's also too much op bullshit imo, it feels like the game was designed around abusing op shit, the bosses just aren't as good as in previous games imo.

Rykad is probably the most disappointing his gimmick just sucked and the lava around him kinda ruined the fight.
On a visual level tho he's incredible it's just sad it gets ruined by unnecessary bullshit.

The open world can also be a curse if you're just interested in doing a more streamlined and quicker playthrough.
It's not as good for those fast one sitting playthroughs like previous games and there's too much tedium.
 
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