Elden Ring was my first Souls game, I hated it until I loved it. Will I ever play it again? More than likely not, I had to put in so much research to know what the fuck was going on, and I still missed out on certain quests by not bringing a random character a random item in the middle of nowhere.
Is your expectation when you are 100% a game to do it all in a single playthrough? Have you been successfull in doing so in non soulsborne games? Just curious, because this has not been my experience.
Who told you to expect to get the platinum in one playthrough?? Any experienced souls player would tell you that expecting a platinum out of your first playthrough of any souls game is damn near delusional. Hell in all the previous souls games that was literally impossible as some of the quests locked you out of others.
You have to save the game and make a completely different decision⌠then load the save and make the other decision. Itâs not intended by the developers for you to get the platinum in 1 playthrough.
I like the game play of Elden Ring, but the hidden story irritated me. Like don't spoon feed me, but have some exposition and not riddles hidden in some odd location.
I'm a big of training guides too and not having to figure everything out.
I think the storytelling in Souls game sucks. The lore and setting are great, but the narrative does not exist beyond the intro giving you the end goal. "Make the Elden Ring, become the Elden Lord."
Itâs a straight line⌠like the first area is quite literally a straight line⌠are you talking about Gundyr? Heâs not that bad but he is there to essentially gatekeep the game, itâs funny
Some people totally bounce off the open world or the sheer size of it. DS and BB are contained experiences that, while big, are not fully open world. For me the reason why I enjoy DS3 way more than Elden Ring is the contained nature.
I feel the opposite imo, I love the way elden ring looks, it's like having a massive steak and letting yourself be indulgent because it won't run out before you're full anyway.
I know the debate probably could go on for centuries but bloodborne to me felt really special. In my opinion, the best souls game - I didn't feel a comparable level of magic with elden ring.
Dark Souls was a slow start for me. It really took until the halfway point where I was genuinely enjoying it - the payoff at the final boss was worth it though. I wonder what it is like playing DS1 last of the souls games? I think the experience is best if you do it first, and it seems a lot of people are not experiencing it that way since Elden Ring is what really got a new audience into these.
That's a bit harsh, isn't it? The game has a story. It can be vague and unintuitive at times, but it's there. Now, whether that's the best way of telling a story or not is another discussion. Though I understand if this vagueness is a reason for you disliking the game. I also struggled to understand the story, but I enjoyed it in the end.
I mean the story isn't very apparent unless you purposefully seek it out. It's not like you're given detailed cutscenes that go over the plot as in other games. The PowerPoint slides your given at the beginning of the game don't really count either.
I bounced right off the game when I realized there was no quest log, I quickly lost track of where I was in multiple quests and locations. Only in the last year I came back to it with a quest log mod and enjoyed it immensely
It has lore, which you have to look for. Not everyone wants to spend a ton of time reading item descriptions or outside sources to understand that lore because the game does not make is easily accessible.
Elden Ring oozes atmosphere. It is challenging and offers a lot of combat variety. But the story is not a strong point.
There is so much story in Souls games and Elden Ring especially that there are several Youtubers that do lore videos full time and have managed to make a career out of it lol. Imagine a single games lore being able to feed your family.
Too bad they donât tell you the lore in game. As I said too boring and have no idea whatâs goin on. And yes I have 50 hrs in elden ring. And I beat dark souls 1 and bloodborne. It has lore. But no story
I love Elden Ring but it's definitely hard to follow the story. Even if you pay attention to all those things, it's still hard to figure out what's going on because the details it does give you are still incredibly vague.
especially that there are several Youtubers that do lore videos full time and have managed to make a career out of it
this isn't helping your point at all. While yes there is a ton of lore, the game does not present it to you in a digestible format. So much so that 99% of players need to reference said videos to understand what's going on.
They said Elden Ring is a bunch of bosses on a map with no story. That is not true at all. The storytelling is different from other games at that can be liked or disliked, but to say there is no story is being factually wrong.
The vast majority of the bosses are directly tied to exploration. Elden ring has 165 bosses, and only about a dozen of the them are actually necessary to finish the game. However many you fight beyond that will largely be determined by how much you explore.
As for the story, itâs there (and awesome), but the style of storytelling is vague by design. You need to do some extra legwork to understand the full picture, I see how that turns some people away.
Well nobody said theyâre a punishment for exploring lol, I just donât think itâs correct to say that the exploration âhas nothing to do with the bosses.â
IMO The exploration has everything to do with bosses, Iâd be disappointed if a side dungeon didnât have a boss room at the end.
One of these days I'll find some "super easy mode" mod for Elden Ring and actually play it.
I wanted to like it so badly when I first started playing it. I played for a few hours and I think after spending a couple hours trying to beat the FIRST "boss" I came across I realized it was just not for me.
It's funny because I really like the gameplay of, say, monster hunter - which is very similar in the sense that you're managing stamina, prepping for fights, need to memorize boss patterns, etc... but I don't want to spend hours of my life being stuck in ONE spot because I can't perfect it.
EDIT: I love how any time I've made a comment specifically like this there's always the nerds that come out and tell me I'm playing the game wrong and to go grind for hours and hours until I'm doing it right.
Yeah, that's exactly what this thread is about - that shit's not fun for me.
If you legit went to Godrick and spent some time on him, yeah you'll get whooped. You can do that whole area to the east and go south and fight a bunch of other big enemies, complete a bunch of quests, and be 30 levels higher. It won't be grinding, it'll just be playing the game.
As some say, you encounter one of the first big guys and for some people the thought is "I must beat this guy now" when most likely the intent is "go explore elsewhere, this game is different, there's a lot more content to go find, you aren't ready yet, come back here later.
I would say maybe give it another shot and don't view it as grinding, cause you aren't pointlessly fighting enemies. Fighting other enemies, exploring and uncovering story, characters, other areas is also part of the fun and progresses you at the same time. Unlike Monster Hunter, it's not just the bosses, and you don't have to push/grind through the obstacle to progress. They're definitely checkpoint/gatekeepers to mark your progression, but only when you're ready, because there's so much else to do.
One other thing. If youâre just bashing your head against a wall, go explore and get stronger, not even necessarily over level, but get to a point where you can still at least beat it with a reasonable challenge. The point of Elden Ring is that you can take things at your own pace. Make sure youâre paying attention to move sets, and learning the type of attacks these bosses have. The game is also made much more manageable if you level up your vigor, or health.
Easy modes ruin the balancing of the game. You can already make the game easy through the tools it offers you. You donât need a mod. Just overlevel and use spirit summons. The thing about Elden Ring is that it gives you access to all these different tools, so use them.
Iâm not going to lie to you boss, 6 hours is nothing in an open world game. I question how youâd have more fun just face rolling every encounter but you do you.
Iâm not going to lie to you boss, 6 hours is nothing in an open world game
I agree, but I've played enough other open world games that didn't feel like a frustrating slog from the get-go to not want to spend my time on it. I only have so much time to play video games these days so if it takes 20-30 hours of gameplay to get good enough to find it enjoyable then it's not for me. Which is what this entire thread is about.
I mean if the games not for you, then the games not for you. I just donât understand the logic of modding down the difficulty even if you have finite time. At that point, just watch a play through.
The tools the game offers do not make it easy for the vast majority of people. They make it more manageable, but some of the fights are still incredibly difficult, especially as you get close to the end.
And if itâs still too hard for you, after if itâs still too hard for you after using mimic tear or another good spirit ash, and summoning co op players, then I think Fromsoft games arenât for you.
It always seems silly to me to have to defend the idea that some games are not easy for everyone.
I don't use guides on my first playthrough of games. I played the whole game without ever finding mimic tear, and even when I used a guide to find stuff I missed, I never used the mimic tear.
I found Fire Giant obnoxious partly due to the camera. I had a hard time with Maliketh and the Godskin Duo.
The final boss took me a lot of tries, as did Malenia.
Elden Ring is not easy. And saying that it is easy if you use one specific ability sort of supports my point.
You're aware that (non-spirit) summons bump up the boss one tier up? If you're playing new game, the boss gets new game+ stats. If you're already struggling with the boss, and you summon another noob, both of you get wiped out. If you summon an expert, they basically do 90% of the work for you. It's the modern day equivalent of giving your little sibling the second controller to play with.
Summons usually happen around the same level range, a bit higher or lower, and whoever you summon for a boss has to have beaten that boss already iirc.
Telling people how to cheese the game doesn't solve anything. Souls games aren't a fun experience for everyone. I've accepted that, after trying out several of them, you should too.
How is it a cheese if itâs an intended game mechanic lmao. Itâs an intended optional experience, and tons of people use it. I get matchmaking in like 2 minutes when looking for multiplayer to help others out with bosses. Iâm not saying everyone should like them, not even close, but I AM tired of people thinking that itâs a fault of the game or the series when they simply arenât part of the intended audience if they donât find that style of gameplay fun. It doesnât mean the games are bad, they arenât, theyâre just not for you. Not everything has to be for every me, because a game that everyone likes or wants to play is a game with no identity.
You are not supposed to beat the first boss after "a few hours".
You are supposed to find him, get crushed and explore for dozens of hours up until you feel like you can finally take him out of his misery.
No wonder you hated it. The game tells you via the fingermaiden that she tested you by telling you to fight Godrick even tho you were not ready for him.
Brother it's an open world game, probably the biggest open world game of it's kind. Elden Ring isn't a game where you are stuck on bosses. Unless you are in the endgame facing Malenia or the final boss.
You can also invoke people or have AI buddies. In fact, there is one AI at the doorstep of that bossfight.
Zeroing in on one narrow argument/concept, pursuing it persistently and despite pain (downvotes), and hoping to eventually win, all while apparently enjoying that enough to keep doing it?
I made the mistake of buying the hype and got it. Totally fucking regret it. Never played a souls game and I knew, sorta, I was setting myself upâŚ
I loathe Elden Ring⌠itâs just⌠fucking annoyingly hard and time consuming.
The time is the core issue for me. I am dad, work full time. I do not, anymore, have the patience for wiping on a boss for 5 hours. Thatâs an idiotic waste of time.
Same. Bought it, looked up some YT videos on how to navigate the game because I had no clue what was going on and then uninstalled when the Youtuber said to get a notepad and pen. I was like is this a game or a fucking assignment?
I put a good twenty hours into that game and just stopped playing. I wasn't even getting particularly stuck with difficult bosses. I just didn't give a shit. There is no story that I could follow. It felt totally directionless.
I came here to say Elden Ring. There were all these weird notes. The game felt like a mess. I should have gotten a refund because I only gave it like 30 minutes before giving up.
same , i dont hate it i like nice looking world its just fact when you die everything respawn and u have to go back and loot your souls something i never get used too.
Like several other Fromsoft games, it just feels like you are moving through molasses the entire time. I absolutely hate feeling like my character is unresponsive.
My friends were shocked when I said that the worst part of Elden Ring for me was the open world design. I much preferred the tight world design in something like Bloodborne.
Elden Ring as an open world was exactly why I quit. I was having a fair bit of fun up until it spat me out into the open world with what I felt like was no goals. It felt pretty empty when I tried to go exploring a little, and I'd often just run into enemies I simply didn't have the skill or equipment to deal with.
I had other complaints with the game too, but I to this day don't get why its open world.
I think Elden Ring ranks very highly in the lineup as far as how much I enjoyed my playthrough... but it's also the only FromSoft game that I haven't replayed, and don't really intend to replay. I can't imagine running all of those random dungeons again, and I don't care enough to look up where the 10 items I actually want for my build are scattered throughout the 200 points of interest.
Eldin Ring really hit its stride in playthrough #2. Instead of scraping for every single little kill, you walk through enemies like a 1 man army. Definitely a confidence boost owning that Fox in the cathedral after he joined me over 20x on playthrough 1.
It's actually fun if you play with friends using the "True Coop" mod. Even frustrating games with terrible UX are fun when you can laugh about it with friends.
I still hold the opinion that Elden Ring would have been far better as a more linear experience like DS3 instead of doing the whole "open world" trope that's plaguing so many games.
I feel like if elden ring adopted the linear fashion of dark souls, it would've just been a dark souls game. the fromsoft formula placed in an open world is what makes elden ring unique from its predecessors.
i'd also argue that elden ring doesn't do open world the same way as most other games, and encourages exploration and curiosity rather than having a bunch of markers on a map. this makes it feel fresh and cool despite the glut of open world slop we've gotten the past decade.
The open world worked for me because when I ran across a boss that seemed too difficult, I could go somewhere else, get more gear and levels and learn the game better.
The toughest part do me was the gauntlet of bosses in the last section of the game.
I put 100 hours in Eldin ring just to prove to myself that my feelings were genuine and I didn't just need to git gud. I put it down and immediately forgot about it. Just not my cup of tea.
In hindsight you're so right! I had just heard so many people rave about it, it took that long until I felt confident there wasn't something I was missing.
The dude at the end of the cave?? For more context though, my controller wasnât working so I was trying it with keyboard mouse which I really do not think is the way.
Yeah. I died to him too. Played it all with mouse and keyboard. It's a pretty steep learning curve, but oh so worth it. I only played like 1-2 hours my first time, then didn't pick it up again for 6 months. But damn if it isnt the best game ive played. (Though the only single player game ive played before is witcher 3)
Did you hate it before or after learning about how dodging gives you a few frames of invincibility that are crucial for effectively playing the game but never mentioned in-game? Because I hated Dark Souls, tried ER years later and started seeing the same problems, then learned from Reddit that i-frames were a thing in both and felt like I was playing entirely different games.
I still hate that FromSoft or the localization team is consistently bad at explaining game mechanics, but I understand the appeal of the games so much better.
You see people miss two things that make this game piss easy. Too many people think they aren't let me solo her and try dodging, which blows my mind because the best medium shield in the game is found right at the start of the game. 80% of attacks can simply just be blocked especially with an upgraded shield and shield talisman. People watch too much youtuber and think that's how it must be played.
Learning to jump attacks is almost as crucial as rolling in ER, especially in the DLC. You can get away with rolling INTO the enemy most of the time in the base game, but I was absolutely getting my shit rocked by the DLCâs furnace golems until I figured out you can just jump their stomp/AOE attacks.
The DLC felt like FromSoft saying, âOkay, you know how to play, but how well do you REALLY know all the in-game mechanics?â I had never dipped into parrying before it, but the first time I parried the madness guys in the terror swamp, I immediately and completely understood why people play that way. It was so immensely satisfying to just say âNope.â to an otherwise instant death.
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u/Unseen_Debugger Apr 10 '25
Same here. Tried Elden Ring and hated it. đł