From an atmospheric and aesthetic point of view? Yes. I've only gone so far as the dragon near the map.
The Shattered Elden Ring Thread: Tarnished Edition - (Shadow of the Erdtree p. 85)
- Thread starter hanselthecaretaker
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Eh, GTA5 says otherwise. So do the myriad of phone games that make profits that would make Elden Ring's look like peanuts.
I mean, it's always nice when a critically acclaimed game is fully embraced by consumers, but that's hardly the rule.
I have played around 15 hours of the game, and so far really enjoying it. Gonna document my experience below, so spoiler warning.
Started out as Wretch, as I like to maximize stats and I rarely use starting equipment much after the first couple of hours of play anyway. Also started with the golden tear starting gift, because I feel getting extra flasks from the start of the game is a good call considering I am otherwise bare naked. Went through the tutorial without issue, then got into Limgrave. Talked to the shady dude near the firstbonfire site of grace, and followed the way the light lead me. I like this generally hands off approach. It gives you a general idea of where the objective is, yet otherwise doesn't tell you much further.
I found the tree sentinel, and decided I would go get some armor before trying my luck with him. Found the church, got the crafting kit and continued on the way the light showed me. Killed some soldier dudes, got a set of pants, and found a cave with a grace in it. I decided to look around, fought a pack of wolves and found a bossfight. Boss was easy enough; two-handing the club and heavy attack stunlocked him through the fight, and his attacks were easy enough to dodge through. Back on track, I reached the ruins, found the bonfire, got a girlfriend, and decided to look around these ruins. The enemies there were easy enough, only real threat is the knight, and that one was dealt by using hit and run tactics (backstab, charged up R2, then running away until he de-aggros, repeat.). I mount my horse and continue following the light.
I run past the enemies, seeing as, equipped with nothing more than a set of pants and a club, I wouldn't fare well against the giant and all those guys firing crossbows at me. Reach the next place, get another flask, meet with the lady, and keep going up. I reach the castle, manage to scrape my way through the ballista, acquire gloves and reach the next bonfire. Seeing as it leads me to a bossfight, and I am still rather naked and only holding a big piece of wood, I decide now is a good time to explore around limgrave.
So I go back to the ruins, and go south. I find the lordsworn greatsword and flail (I missed the fact that the carriages hold treasures in them the first time), then continue on. Fight some varagian-looking dudes on horseback, and I get their helmet and chest piece. Starting to look pretty nice now. Go past the bridge, and see two giants carting a carriage. I sneak behind them and loot the Greataxe, and I'm pretty happy with it. Could use a bit more reach but it'll do well considering I am raising strength. I continue that way, find a church and get a flask upgrade, as well as the wondrous physic. It seems like a novel idea, though depends on what you can do with it. I notice that on places where you don't have the map for, the location of it is actually marked with a little drawing. That's pretty welcome, considering how well the map in general works to communicate various landmarks without the need to be obvious (like Witcher 3 is, for example, by littering the map with question marks.)
Seeing some form of fort to the south, I head there, fight my way through it. It's a fun challenge, with so many enemies. I almost died when I started my way to it, as I got hit by a ballista on the wall. On top I find a half of the dectus medallion, though who knows what that is for. We'll see! I now have enough strength to wield my greataxe two-handed and, feeling cheeky, I decide to fight the tree sentinel.
Tree Sentinel is a fun enough challenge. It hits like a truck and is quite mobile, but its attacks are rather well telegraphed so it's a simple matter of learning its moves. Thankfully after looking around so much I have enough flasks to be able to last through any mistakes I make, and after two deaths, I beat him on the third try. His halberd looks really damn powerful, though I am in no position to wield it yet. Will be building towards it though. I then head down to the lake and find a dragon. I feel confident enough after the tree sentinel, and fight the dragon on horseback. It's a very fun emergent setpiece, though also challenging, as I'm dead in two hits. Thankfully the dragon doesn't do many attacks in quick succession, so I can heal if I fuck up without much danger. Funnest part of the fight is definitely riding towards the dragon as it breathes fire, strafing it and attacking its hind legs. Takes me four tries, but I slay the dragon and get its heart. Metal.
I fall for the trap in the ruins, and find myself in the middle of a mine. Shit's terrifying. I open my map and see I'm way to the east, and the map's expanded greatly. I love this detail. Most open world games would show you the scale of the map from the start, but Elden Ring withholding it and only expanding as you explore is awesome. Keeps you guessing about how much of there world there is to explore, which naturally makes me want to explore more. Enemies in the mine are pretty strong though, and I am holding 10k souls from killing the dragon, so shit's pretty intense. The fact that I cannot teleport out only makes it worse. After a couple of deaths, I decide trying to take on these enemies a bad idea, so I try to sneak around. I find the bonfire at the start of the mine have a sigh of relief at being able to spend those souls, and go outside to find myself in a hellscape. I am conflicted between exploring and teleporting out, but I decide to look around the place on horseback. This area is absolutely amazing in terms of atmosphere and design. I cannot stress it enough. I find myself in a ruined city of mages, and seeing as they kill me with two magic missiles, I decide I have looked around enough and get back on track.
Girlfriend tells me she wanted to see if I got the chops to visit her house, and that she thinks I'm worthy to crash at her place. I go there, meet some interesting personalities, including a lady that wants to hug me. Wary of what that might mean, I tell her I am seeing someone and leave the bedroom.
I explore the lake area a bit more, finding a mine. I make a mental note that mines appear on the map as red cave entrances, and venture deeper, getting a lot of crafting materials and beating the boss. I also find Patches to the north, doing his usual Patches things. After upgrading my Greataxe, I head southwards, and find the Weeping Peninsula. Once more the map expands, and I realise that I am repeating myself, but I really love the wonderment this little detail causes. I find a blind girl who asks me to find her dad to the south, and I head southwards, though take a turn west. Damn, but this peninsula is bigger than I thought. I look around, and find a couple more churches, and a couple more flask upgrades. It seems the game is telling me that churches = better flasks, so I'll be looking out for them in the future. I find a huge cathedral-bearing stone turtle, and decide to see if I can fight it. I figure out how it stops moving, and I am happy to no longer hear the bell. I also find the merchant who sells the Bass Cannon. I will be switching to that when I get enough materials to upgrade it.
I return back to the road and go to the place the blind lady asked me to, killing a giant and getting another flask in the process. I go through the castle, which is absolutely swarming with enemies, and fight the boss, which is actually quite easy considering how it staggers with regular hits. I beat it first try, and find the GRRM reference. I meet the girl's dad while looking around some more, and he tells me he is grateful for my help. I return to the girl and it's a happy ending! (No, it's not.)
With that done, I also go the mine in the peninsula, and then go back to Stormveil Castle. I have been putting off for enough, and I go in to fight the Fell Omen dude. It's a very nice bossfight. I like how the boss fake-outs some of its attacks, by holding back and only attacking after a veteran player rolls on reflex. It's a good way to catch old players off guard and provide some challenge. I am glad I did not come here from the start, as I would be no match for him without getting some more items and flasks. I beat him second try and go into the castle.
Castle's fucking massive. There's so much to explore, so many alternate paths with secret items, it's a delight. Enemies are also pretty challenging, so I stay on my toes. I must have spent at least 3 hours in the castle just looking around, and am not confident I have found everything. Probably the highlight are the depths of it, though, and that... thing just lurking there. Also Squidface. What the hells is this guy?
I reach the boss, which I will henceforth call the Habsburg. He's a pretty interesting design, and I do like his moveset. Finally, a boss that rolls as much as I do! First phase rolls through rather easily, only real threat is double stomp attack. Then he lets out the most satisfying scream in video games, becomes a scalie, and shit gets serious. Second phase was rather more intense, with more attacks, flame aoe, and expanded combos from ones he already had. Very fun fight, pretty challenging, for an inbred Austrian. Beat him 5th try.
I go through, and find a new church, talk to the guy in there. I head further north, and find a new map. Holy shit, how much is this map going to expand?
And that's about as far into the game I am. It's an absolutely amazing experience. After really disliking Sekiro, DS2 & 3, I am glad that ER is an absolute hit. Game has ironed out the gameplay, and the open world is extremely fun to explore due to the fact that there's so many items to find that are not just more random loot like in other open world games, but things that have a mechanical uniqueness to them, be it different weapons, new talismans, or upgrade materials. It's an open world which is not a chore and actually inviting to explore, and that on its own is high praise given what most open worlds are.
Started out as Wretch, as I like to maximize stats and I rarely use starting equipment much after the first couple of hours of play anyway. Also started with the golden tear starting gift, because I feel getting extra flasks from the start of the game is a good call considering I am otherwise bare naked. Went through the tutorial without issue, then got into Limgrave. Talked to the shady dude near the first
I found the tree sentinel, and decided I would go get some armor before trying my luck with him. Found the church, got the crafting kit and continued on the way the light showed me. Killed some soldier dudes, got a set of pants, and found a cave with a grace in it. I decided to look around, fought a pack of wolves and found a bossfight. Boss was easy enough; two-handing the club and heavy attack stunlocked him through the fight, and his attacks were easy enough to dodge through. Back on track, I reached the ruins, found the bonfire, got a girlfriend, and decided to look around these ruins. The enemies there were easy enough, only real threat is the knight, and that one was dealt by using hit and run tactics (backstab, charged up R2, then running away until he de-aggros, repeat.). I mount my horse and continue following the light.
I run past the enemies, seeing as, equipped with nothing more than a set of pants and a club, I wouldn't fare well against the giant and all those guys firing crossbows at me. Reach the next place, get another flask, meet with the lady, and keep going up. I reach the castle, manage to scrape my way through the ballista, acquire gloves and reach the next bonfire. Seeing as it leads me to a bossfight, and I am still rather naked and only holding a big piece of wood, I decide now is a good time to explore around limgrave.
So I go back to the ruins, and go south. I find the lordsworn greatsword and flail (I missed the fact that the carriages hold treasures in them the first time), then continue on. Fight some varagian-looking dudes on horseback, and I get their helmet and chest piece. Starting to look pretty nice now. Go past the bridge, and see two giants carting a carriage. I sneak behind them and loot the Greataxe, and I'm pretty happy with it. Could use a bit more reach but it'll do well considering I am raising strength. I continue that way, find a church and get a flask upgrade, as well as the wondrous physic. It seems like a novel idea, though depends on what you can do with it. I notice that on places where you don't have the map for, the location of it is actually marked with a little drawing. That's pretty welcome, considering how well the map in general works to communicate various landmarks without the need to be obvious (like Witcher 3 is, for example, by littering the map with question marks.)
Seeing some form of fort to the south, I head there, fight my way through it. It's a fun challenge, with so many enemies. I almost died when I started my way to it, as I got hit by a ballista on the wall. On top I find a half of the dectus medallion, though who knows what that is for. We'll see! I now have enough strength to wield my greataxe two-handed and, feeling cheeky, I decide to fight the tree sentinel.
Tree Sentinel is a fun enough challenge. It hits like a truck and is quite mobile, but its attacks are rather well telegraphed so it's a simple matter of learning its moves. Thankfully after looking around so much I have enough flasks to be able to last through any mistakes I make, and after two deaths, I beat him on the third try. His halberd looks really damn powerful, though I am in no position to wield it yet. Will be building towards it though. I then head down to the lake and find a dragon. I feel confident enough after the tree sentinel, and fight the dragon on horseback. It's a very fun emergent setpiece, though also challenging, as I'm dead in two hits. Thankfully the dragon doesn't do many attacks in quick succession, so I can heal if I fuck up without much danger. Funnest part of the fight is definitely riding towards the dragon as it breathes fire, strafing it and attacking its hind legs. Takes me four tries, but I slay the dragon and get its heart. Metal.
I fall for the trap in the ruins, and find myself in the middle of a mine. Shit's terrifying. I open my map and see I'm way to the east, and the map's expanded greatly. I love this detail. Most open world games would show you the scale of the map from the start, but Elden Ring withholding it and only expanding as you explore is awesome. Keeps you guessing about how much of there world there is to explore, which naturally makes me want to explore more. Enemies in the mine are pretty strong though, and I am holding 10k souls from killing the dragon, so shit's pretty intense. The fact that I cannot teleport out only makes it worse. After a couple of deaths, I decide trying to take on these enemies a bad idea, so I try to sneak around. I find the bonfire at the start of the mine have a sigh of relief at being able to spend those souls, and go outside to find myself in a hellscape. I am conflicted between exploring and teleporting out, but I decide to look around the place on horseback. This area is absolutely amazing in terms of atmosphere and design. I cannot stress it enough. I find myself in a ruined city of mages, and seeing as they kill me with two magic missiles, I decide I have looked around enough and get back on track.
Girlfriend tells me she wanted to see if I got the chops to visit her house, and that she thinks I'm worthy to crash at her place. I go there, meet some interesting personalities, including a lady that wants to hug me. Wary of what that might mean, I tell her I am seeing someone and leave the bedroom.
I explore the lake area a bit more, finding a mine. I make a mental note that mines appear on the map as red cave entrances, and venture deeper, getting a lot of crafting materials and beating the boss. I also find Patches to the north, doing his usual Patches things. After upgrading my Greataxe, I head southwards, and find the Weeping Peninsula. Once more the map expands, and I realise that I am repeating myself, but I really love the wonderment this little detail causes. I find a blind girl who asks me to find her dad to the south, and I head southwards, though take a turn west. Damn, but this peninsula is bigger than I thought. I look around, and find a couple more churches, and a couple more flask upgrades. It seems the game is telling me that churches = better flasks, so I'll be looking out for them in the future. I find a huge cathedral-bearing stone turtle, and decide to see if I can fight it. I figure out how it stops moving, and I am happy to no longer hear the bell. I also find the merchant who sells the Bass Cannon. I will be switching to that when I get enough materials to upgrade it.
I return back to the road and go to the place the blind lady asked me to, killing a giant and getting another flask in the process. I go through the castle, which is absolutely swarming with enemies, and fight the boss, which is actually quite easy considering how it staggers with regular hits. I beat it first try, and find the GRRM reference. I meet the girl's dad while looking around some more, and he tells me he is grateful for my help. I return to the girl and it's a happy ending! (No, it's not.)
With that done, I also go the mine in the peninsula, and then go back to Stormveil Castle. I have been putting off for enough, and I go in to fight the Fell Omen dude. It's a very nice bossfight. I like how the boss fake-outs some of its attacks, by holding back and only attacking after a veteran player rolls on reflex. It's a good way to catch old players off guard and provide some challenge. I am glad I did not come here from the start, as I would be no match for him without getting some more items and flasks. I beat him second try and go into the castle.
Castle's fucking massive. There's so much to explore, so many alternate paths with secret items, it's a delight. Enemies are also pretty challenging, so I stay on my toes. I must have spent at least 3 hours in the castle just looking around, and am not confident I have found everything. Probably the highlight are the depths of it, though, and that... thing just lurking there. Also Squidface. What the hells is this guy?
I reach the boss, which I will henceforth call the Habsburg. He's a pretty interesting design, and I do like his moveset. Finally, a boss that rolls as much as I do! First phase rolls through rather easily, only real threat is double stomp attack. Then he lets out the most satisfying scream in video games, becomes a scalie, and shit gets serious. Second phase was rather more intense, with more attacks, flame aoe, and expanded combos from ones he already had. Very fun fight, pretty challenging, for an inbred Austrian. Beat him 5th try.
I go through, and find a new church, talk to the guy in there. I head further north, and find a new map. Holy shit, how much is this map going to expand?
And that's about as far into the game I am. It's an absolutely amazing experience. After really disliking Sekiro, DS2 & 3, I am glad that ER is an absolute hit. Game has ironed out the gameplay, and the open world is extremely fun to explore due to the fact that there's so many items to find that are not just more random loot like in other open world games, but things that have a mechanical uniqueness to them, be it different weapons, new talismans, or upgrade materials. It's an open world which is not a chore and actually inviting to explore, and that on its own is high praise given what most open worlds are.
You know what he was going on about. Difference being, all those other products are pieces of shit. ER is a game with actual effort put into it. Not my style of game, but I'll play ER over most of the other crap that comes out.
Out of curiosity I looked up Far Cry 6 sales, and well…
February 2022 NPD: Elden Ring is a smash hit
Elden Ring is a dominant sales force. It is the best-selling game of 2022 so far this year, according to NPD tracking.venturebeat.com
FROM can probably make anything they want at this point with that kind of dosh rolling in.
Not only did it beat out Horizon Forbidden West, but it also did better than Battlefield 2042 and Far Cry 6.
Yup that’s the raw Google search results, one after the other. All I can say about that is maybe Ubisoft can still find a way to screw themselves with all that disappointing money.
Cheers to Wretch class. Also wondered what was it about the other FROM games you really disliked? Because even by their own admission, ER is the culmination of these other games. Did the latest combination of it all just finally click? I haven’t really heard yet someone that didn’t like any of the other games really liking this one is all.
All three of those games had things in them that spoiled the game for me, each for different reasons.
Sekiro was three times as long as it needed to be. The basic premise of the game is fine, but for me it didn't hold my interest. Just about every boss fight is a dance of parrying attacks, attacking when the boss lets you, and jump on them when they flash red. I am exaggerating for dramatic effect, but I felt the game's difficulty slide off the deep end after figuring out how the dance works. The spear dude at the flashback dream was the point where how the loop works clicked on me, and after that the game kept getting progressively easier. The fight with Genichiro on top of the castle, despite suddenly introducing a third phase out of its ass I defeated in one try, because there really isn't that much more to the gameplay than that. I didn't really care for the stealth of the game, so when the boss fights are the only thing I really enjoy, and the boss fights feel pretty samey, my interest started plummeting when the game has 10 more hours to go. Also absolutely didn't care for the story. I honestly don't remember anything about it.
DS2 is a mess in terms of world design. I will say that the inconsistency of how the world was set up didn't bother me as much, what was my issue was that a lot of areas were just kinda bullshit. The boss designs were also a huge downgrade from 1, and gameplay-wise it was just kinda eh. It had some interesting things to it, I liked how the focus was more on the curse and its effects. It felt like the logical next point in terms of story, as 1 already brilliantly said everything that needed to be said about the vicious cycle that was keeping the Age of Fire going. Speaking of...
DS3 has no point in existing. It feels like a tired mish-mash of ideas that have already been done before, and doesn't bring anything meaningful to the story until the last DLC. I hated all the call-backs to DS1 things, because it felt like that's all the game had. All the good parts were already done in DS1, and the rest just wasn't any good. Do we really need to literally re-do all the story beats of DS1, including the last goddamn boss, including the last goddamn boss's music? The gameplay screamed "I want to be Bloodborne", and, oh boy, the bosses sure love to act like Bloodborne bosses considering some of them do like 15 attacks uninterrupted at lightning speeds. I don't know if the bosses in Elden Ring will reach that point of egregiousness in terms of pure aggressiveness in the future, but I hope not. The aggressive bosses in Bloodborne worked well because you were made to be aggressive. DS3 tried to bridge that gap, but absolutely failed in my opinion.
I can respect that reasoning. Best thing about Sekiro to me is the increased mobility and the tug of war feel to combat, especially with the late game prosthetic abilities often giving many unique advantages. The atmosphere and lore has a cool, unsettling feel to it too. Not quite as creepy and foreboding as in Bloodborne, but the locations are more varied and the increased mobility made them more fun to play though.
DS2 is…yeah. Basically the ‘kitchen sink of the series but one redeeming factor to me was the sheer variety available. Also the individual locations were interesting enough on their own, and the game’s dlc still holds as a high point. Maybe not quite as high as its bookend games though.
As for DS3, to me it feels like Dark Souls distilled into its overall finest, most playable form. The story might’ve retread familiar ground, but it really didn’t bother me as I personally love when games revisit places and show the effects of time (which had its own kind of twist here), and it was meant to close out the series anyways. Also both dlc’s really shined for me, as well as the bosses being largely the best in the series. Ashes of Ariandel, in addition to some classic Miyazaki level design, had my favorite in Sis Friede and The Ringed City’s (what is Miyazaki’s obsession with rings and ashes anyways lol) buildup to Midir was fantastic.
HEHHEHEHEHEE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! OH boy! I can't wait for your impressions when you get a bit further. HAHAHAHHAHAAHA!
The only reason it exists is to fix the screw ups on story and lore of Dark Souls 2. That's the only reason why it exists.
I keep crawling into coffins and it goes weird for me every time. Now that I've written that out I recognize that I haven't been making the best decisions for myself lately but I don't think that excuses what happens to me.
I mean, if you keep seeing open coffins and crawling into them, I don't know what to say.
i die way too much to bother with rune arcs.
I'm still not sure what they are or how to use them. I've been getting them from being bosses as a Sunbro(whatever they're called in ER) but have no idea how to use them.
I found a portal that took me to Calied. Yep, that place is creepy as hell and It made me feel a long way from home pretty quickly. A really jarring shift from Limgrave which despite it's dangers feel more and more inviting in comparison.
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That style of lock-on in Souls games is kind of needed though. If the camera was centered behind the character and always facing forward, that would mean you’d need to swing the camera around constantly whenever enemies are shooting arrows, bolts, spells, etc. at you. instead of just turning your character quick to face it.
Souls games have a lot of area where environmental awareness is critical, like the platforms In Blighttown, the ledges in Anor Londo, Sen’s Fortress, etc. where things are moving and you’re not always free to roll through everything. It’s a lot easier and quicker being able to turn your character with shield up to block that crap. Otherwise you’d risk rolling off and falling to death.
Lock-on is situational and for engaging a single enemy, or cycling through a small group, and even then it’s not always best to use, like if you’re on a narrow platform or with a highly mobile boss where it messed with the camera.
It’s not so different from some action games like the old God of War’s where you freely move the character in any direction, although blocking was pretty automatic there.
When you defeat a story boss you get a rune that you can equip. However you must use a rune arc to activate it once it's equipped. Think of it like Humanities from the souls games.
Some Vaati Tips and such
If anyone wants to listen to Plague of Gripes talk way too much about Elden Ring for the next year or so, you're in luck because he's gonna stream the entire way through and no doubt analyze every brick wall in the game.