Elden Ring [2022-21-01] [PS, XB, PC]

Something I've noticed that makes me so impressed with the design of the game.

Unlike some other games (and even movies) when the bosses are revealed, there isn't that juvenile ROAR LOOK AT ME, I'M AN ANGRY BADASS. Instead, it's a more mature and realistic portrayal where the boss might say a few words, might not say anything, and sometimes there's just a sigh like, "Man, I'm so tired and don't want to do this, but I have no choice so I have to kill you now." And then there are bosses that have no introduction and are just immediately trying to smash your face into the ground.

It makes it all feel more adult than the majority of games and movies nowadays that have bosses/antagonists/bad guys always screaming about how angry and badass they are. In Elden Ring, they don't have to do that. Just their design, animation and presence is badass enough.

Regards,
SB
 
So finally i had a chance to gives this game more time than a quick session. I am very much amazed how great this game is, FS are truly geniuses when it comes to game design. This game is sooo good on so many levels that for me personally its not only probably game of the year already but it may be THE game of this generation.
I was listening to some podcasters and they said that this game reignated their love for playing games, i can fully see why. Exploration in this game is fantastic, no hand holding here it is wast amazing world to explore with so many secrets to uncover. Location design, how do you progress thru some places is something that FS excels at. You start form point A then progress to B , C... and when you get to point n faster route to n+1 is actually thru the shortcut that you uncover that leads back to A. This makes exploration so much fun!
And the combat, ahh yes if you ever in your life tried to learn how to play musical instrument you will recognise similarities. Its very satisfying when all chords comes along.
The best part is that the game is very toned down when it comes to where to go what to do. Its up to you, i often find myself very relaxed and calmed down when exploring and trying to decide where to next, calm music and very melancholic atmosphere. As SB said about bosses design, this is very mature approach that i enjoy very much.
 
I won’t lie I’m kinda sick of fighting variations of the same boss, and more damn pair boss battles! :p

But exploration is just as rewarding as it was at the start, it’s incredible. I also find that melee is generally underpowered, a lot of the bosses have very small timing window where you can even do anything.
 
Game is amazing…adventure/exploration dream come true. One of my favorite games in recent years.

As LB pointed out, the sword of night and flame is bonkers and super strong.

But I found another thing that carries me: an ash of war called Hoarfrost stomp…put it on a weapon and be surprised about auto pilot mode :)

PS: it seems that ashes of war scale strongly with weapon dmg, i.e. weapon lvl.
 
Also, if you are having troubles with a boss, don't forget summons. A leveled up named spirit ash summon can solo many of the bosses for you. :p Leveled up regular summons can often tank bosses for you so that you can get easy hits in. Using level 10 summons is like super easy mode, so I try not to use them too much.

Also, the hardest bosses in the game are the optional bosses that are kind of out of the way. Story bosses are easy bosses in comparison.

For some of the optional bosses, there is no way to out level them. You have to learn their mechanics and the fight. There's one optional boss in particular that I may never be able to defeat. She's just insanely hard. But I still want to try because if I can eventually pull it off ... man is it going to feel so good.

Regards,
SB
 
OK, so this is interesting. Watching Crendor play on Twitch. He's doing a pacifist run. Not allowed to do any damage himself. So, no weapons, no damaging spells, nothing that could result in him personally doing damage. So, the only way to kill things is via summons. Considering that summons are limited to specific parts of any given area ... that's a tough run.

If I ever finish this game (it's going to take forever with how I'm playing), I might give that a try.

Regards,
SB
 
Also, if you are having troubles with a boss, don't forget summons. A leveled up named spirit ash summon can solo many of the bosses for you. :p Leveled up regular summons can often tank bosses for you so that you can get easy hits in. Using level 10 summons is like super easy mode, so I try not to use them too much.

Also, the hardest bosses in the game are the optional bosses that are kind of out of the way. Story bosses are easy bosses in comparison.

For some of the optional bosses, there is no way to out level them. You have to learn their mechanics and the fight. There's one optional boss in particular that I may never be able to defeat. She's just insanely hard. But I still want to try because if I can eventually pull it off ... man is it going to feel so good.

Regards,
SB

The summons are very useful in dungeons, i am rokcing with colossal sword i always start with wolfs summon and when the boss is busy dealing with my wolfs i buff myself and go full berserker mode on boss :D So much fun!
 
I wish a more accessible game like Skyrim 2 would be made with these kind of graphics. Except it could be times 2 or 3 with a much bigger budget and current gen only. Just imagine. Imagine the dragons in the open world!
 
Not sure why you need Skyrim 2, when you can directly play Elden Ring right now? Furthermore, I am not sure if more budget turns automatically into a bigger world. I have no clue how From Software did this, but the game is so fully packed with million different things/enemies/areas/items...it really reaches the limit for me that even more of this stuff doesn't improve the experience anymore. I am 100% sure, that I missed a ton of stuff already in the first regions, as every little corner in this world has side tracks and secrets.
TLDR: just try out Elden Ring, you will see that it is quite accessible...in particular, if you dig into it a bit and listen to some guides out there.
 
I agree, it's absolutely acessible. You can level for nothing (just collect skulls, which drop 200 runes), if fighting is too hard. As with every souls game, stats in itself (and especially offensive stats) don't matter, the best strategy is to raise the stats that help you achieve a specific goal. If you struggle with fight, then you raise Vitality until fourty, before anything else. You don't raise Strength to fourty because you think you can out-damage the enemies. If you want to stay away raise Intelligence/Faith to fourty and fill your spell-book. Yes, there's a secondary component to these two branches (Endurance and Mind) to be able to be more offensive and versatile, but's not as important.
 
Not sure how any of you can put up with all those messages littering the game. Had to turn that puerile shit off straight away.
 
What messages did you have a problem with specifically

Every single player generated message. First of all, there's loads of them. I mean the first cave section must have had 10 messages scrawled on the floor in the initual area all saying similar things. It clutters up the UI, which is a shame given how much From try to unclutter the UI. But really, it's mostly the content - either just unhelpful hints (i.e. bullshit) or puerile "but hole" jokes. Like, I get it seems to be a Souls-game tradition of sorts, but it ain't for me. Switched off all the online stuff and feel better for it.
 
Not sure how any of you can put up with all those messages littering the game. Had to turn that puerile shit off straight away.

Mostly just ignore it. 90% of it is useless drivel, but 10% of it is actually helpful. It's kind of like the internet or social media. :p

The one thing I'm at least thankful for is that From Software knows that unfettered access to an anonymous messaging system like that would just be asking for trouble. So, they deliberately limit what and how people can say things by having a limited vocabulary with which players can craft their messasge. It doesn't, obviously, remove message griefing or infantilism, but it does greatly limit how bad it can be.

I only bother to look at messages where the message has a greater potential of having useful information. For example, in a side dungeon where progressing isn't immediately obvious and where I've already spent a fair bit of time looking. I could look it up online, but it's generally quicker and more convenient just to look at some messages. In these cases, I've found that greater than 50% of the messages I'll look at are helpful in some way. They'll either alert you to ambushes, traps, hidden walls (real ones) or point out where to look to find the way to the switch that opens the door to the dungeon boss. The rest, of course, is still the same drivel as you find throughout the rest of the world. :p

Regards,
SB
 
Finished it. And completed everything I need to complete to get the platinum - secret bosses, dragons, the whole lot - except the 3 different endings of course. Could do the whole save backup thing but I just started a NG+ So I guess I’m going to have to finish the game three more times!
Beast.
What will you dondifferently in NG+?
I started with casting but admittedly boring compared to melee.
 
Beast.
What will you dondifferently in NG+?
I started with casting but admittedly boring compared to melee.
So. I already changed my build twice.
I started as magic based (intelligence) then swapped before the last boss to Faith based (didn’t love it) and now I’m Bleed based which is insane with a double katana. And I can still use magic, just not like before cause to be honest it’s boring to just spam magic all the way through.
 
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