The Shattered Elden Ring Thread: Tarnished Edition - (Shadow of the Erdtree p. 85)

[CriticalGaming]

Because you repeatedly say souls combat is gone, melee only isnt viable, and the game is purely about spamming ashes of war.

You present those things as absolutes and deviations from the souls formula. But its not. You just werent good enough at the basics, and need to stop spouting about how the basics were impossible and only xyz is doable.

I never said it was about spamming arts. i said it was designed around building around arts. There are plenty of arts that are buffs, debuffs, heals, immunities, etc. Parrying is even technically a weapon art in the game. The point I made was that players are expected to build morr around their choices than just running in butt ass naked with a big stick and expect that Dark Souls tactic to work.

Even players doing the solo level 1 things are using a collection of items and equipments to make it possible. Which is fine that's what makes Elden Ring not a Souls game imo. In souls games you can beat the game without anything specific, no special set ups, no required gear sets, nothing but raw skill. That is not possible in Eldren ring, you are required to build yourself a set of tools to get through it. However there are a LOT of tools, so it's a matter of gathering up what works for you and putting it all together, assuming you can find it.

There is a reason why speedruns of the game are 15 minutes of gathering, and 10 minutes of fighting.

Fundamentally I think a tiny bit of guidance, maybe some direction of "starter" items would have gone a long way.

So I don't think it's simply "get Gud" at the basics of combat because the basics of Elden Ring have dramatically changed from what Souls games are, much in the same way that you couldn't take Souls experience into Sekiro really. It's a new set of combat skill required with a bigger focus on itemization help over raw player talent.

For example, take Mohg, the Omen boss fight. This fight is absolutely impossible to complete without a build and item's to set yourself up for success. Because at 40% health he swaps to phase 2 i which he deals an unavoidable aoe which heals him and deals roughly 750-850 points of damage to the player every time. The solution is to either be good enough at the fight to have 3 remaining flask chugs available which is certainly possible and fine for a character who's leveled up enough, or there are weapon arts, mixed flask combos, or spells that can render you invulnerable to the damage which is the only way a level 1 character would survive (because not enough health to survive the ability) but also is actually the best way to fight the boss for ANYONE because by preventing the damage to you, you also prevent the boss from healing. So rather than dealing with a nearly fully health phase two boss, you can instead punish him while he spams a useless ability and only have to deal another 20ish% of his health to finish the fight making phase two much shorter and less stressful.

All this is fine, it's the way the game is built. But I don't believe it fits as strictly a Souls game anymore. The combat has evolved, the way they want you to play the game has changed, and it's no longer got that slow methodical feel to it the same way Souls games did. Even if you sped up souls combat a little like DS3 and BB did, it was still the same methocial combat approach.

In my reply to @hanselthecaretaker I merely argued that ER is not a Souls game, From isn't making Souls games anymore. Some of the core elements of Souls still remains sure like runes, estus, bonfires, respawning enemies, etc. But the rest of the game is fundamentally different in both the way the world is designed and presented as well as the combat.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

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.

In like every game you have to swing the camera around constantly whether some other melee combat game or shooter. Every other game when you L1/L2 to change your "stance", your character movement changes automatically to strafing when you put up a shield up in some other sword/shield game (or even MGS4 with a shield) or in a shooter (1st or 3rd) when you aim down sights movement changes. There's been many times I'm trying to increase distance between me and the enemy in Souls with a shield up and my character turns around because for whatever fucking reason the game unlocks from the enemy and I get hit in the back. Especially considering enemy strikes go through walls (even though your strikes get stopped by walls) and walls tend to cause you to get unlocked from the enemy. I've taken way more damage from the games lock-on system (that you need to switch movement types) than damage it has saved me.

 

[Gordon_4]

So apparently this fucker sold 12 million copies. Lot of closet masochists out there it seems

I kid of course, while not my cup of tea, it’s a well earned milestone. Well done FromSoft

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I don't remember taking issue with GoW's world at all.

This is where i disagree entirely. This is not the penultimate Souls game. I wouldn't even call it a Souls game any more than Nioh is a souls game.

I kinda misquoted it, but it pertained to the first part of this Miyazaki quote from Edge issue 367,

"Elden Ring is based on a culmination of everything we've done with the Dark Souls series and our games thus far. That's the best way to look at it. So it's not necessarily about what we couldn't do then that we could do now, it's more about what Elden Ring has allowed us to do thanks to the experience of developing those games. So in that sense, it couldn't have come first. But there's a lot of different things with each of these games, and Elden Ring represents the culmination of all of that knowledge and experience coming together. And that creates a brand new whole that wouldn't have been possible before."

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

In like every game you have to swing the camera around constantly whether some other melee combat game or shooter. Every other game when you L1/L2 to change your "stance", your character movement changes automatically to strafing when you put up a shield up in some other sword/shield game (or even MGS4 with a shield) or in a shooter (1st or 3rd) when you aim down sights movement changes. There's been many times I'm trying to increase distance between me and the enemy in Souls with a shield up and my character turns around because for whatever fucking reason the game unlocks from the enemy and I get hit in the back. Especially considering enemy strikes go through walls (even though your strikes get stopped by walls) and walls tend to cause you to get unlocked from the enemy. I've taken way more damage from the games lock-on system (that you need to switch movement types) than damage it has saved me.

That's just the thing though...in Souls you don't have to do that. When you simply want to block an attack behind you with shield raised, you simply flick the left stick back, or in any direction to do so without needing to cumbersomely swing a camera around with it. I've gotten knocked off narrow ledges far more often thanks to the camera swinging during lock-on than I ever have being able to maneuver my character into the most effective position when in a precarious environment. It's never going to be perfect but overall it fits this style of game better.

 

[Dalisclock]

So apparently this fucker sold 12 million copies. Lot of closet masochists out there it seems

I kid of course, while not my cup of tea, it’s a well earned milestone. Well done FromSoft

I wonder if this will give Sony the kick in the balls to allow a PC port of Bloodborne. I mean probably not but I'd love to think that maybe it'll happen someday.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I kinda misquoted it, but it pertained to the first part of this Miyazaki quote from Edge issue 367,

"Elden Ring is based on a culmination of everything we've done with the Dark Souls series and our games thus far. That's the best way to look at it. So it's not necessarily about what we couldn't do then that we could do now, it's more about what Elden Ring has allowed us to do thanks to the experience of developing those games. So in that sense, it couldn't have come first. But there's a lot of different things with each of these games, and Elden Ring represents the culmination of all of that knowledge and experience coming together. And that creates a brand new whole that wouldn't have been possible before."

I mean I can understand that in a sense. You can see the evolution of the Souls series from the very begining.

Demon's Souls, didn't have very sprawling level design and couldn't have an interconnected world (or if it could, they didn't know how) so you have these archstones which lead to various level sections that by themselves aren't very long. The combat is very slow, and even clunky in areas but this built a fairly tight design. Demon's Souls also have the unqiue thing of giving almost every boss a gimmick. Abjudicator, Tower Knight, Phalanx, Dragon God, Old Monk, Maneaters, etc etc. Very few bosses in that game didn't have some clear idea or almost puzzle around them to solve. Alant, Flamelurker, and Penetrator are probably the most "traditional" Souls bosses from that game.

Dark Souls 1 has a very well done interconnected world for the first half of the game. Ringing the two bells, Sins Fortress, all the way up til you get the lord vessel where I think the budget probably ran out. The back half of Dark Souls has a shit load of issues with terrible bosses, terrible levels, just giant fucking legs everywhere randomly, It's clear that we could all see where they wanted to take the series with this game but just ran out of time or budget to finish it the way they wanted. Which is why the DLC was so much better. Here the combat becomes truly Souls combat, methodical but if you learn the bosses enough you can get really ballsy with it. It's faster than Demon's Souls but not by much. And some of the lumbering feel to this game might be due to the engine. Whatever the restrictions that sort of "hold back" the combat system, it made the game feel tight and reasonably well crafted which is why this one ranks so high on best souls game lists. There are a couple puzzle-lite bosses here like Seeth the Scaleless, moonlit butterfly, and bed of chaos, but for the most part you are just dealing with straight up fights.

Dark Souls 2 I will skip because Miyazaki wasn't really involved.

Bloodborne is where I think we can really see where Miyazaki wanted to go with the series. The levels are all fantastic and fit into the world, most of which loop upon themselves extremely well, and every boss is tightly tuned. Combat is further sped up try and pull players away from hiding behind shields and there basically isn't really magic so the OP level of ranged is gone here. Miyazaki wanted you to get in everything's face and rip it apart. Because this combat was so tight it is probably the best feeling combat to play of the entire series without also being super demanding. However boss gimmicks are now totally gone and every boss except Witches of Hemlock is a straight up slugging match, and even that's kinda debatable. But the trade off here is that the bosses are memorable abominations, horrors that leave an impression in your mind because of how monsterous they are. Something souls bosses don't have much and I would argue the few bosses that are of monterous design are the most memorable, Gravelord Nito, Manus, Centiple demon, Ceasless Discharge (though I remember him cuz of the name). Bloodborne has so many memorable bosses that it's basically all of them, and I think it's strictly due to their design because mechanically they are just kind of normal fights and not really that special outside of how tight and good it feels to fight things in this game.

Dark Souls 3, keeps the interconnected world well in tact for damn near the whole game, but also has a great flow to it all as you progress you can feel yourself reach new places that all fit perfectly within the world. Combat in a nice compromise between Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, enemies and bosses are faster and smoother than in Dark Souls 1 but also not quite as fast and relentless as in Bloodborne to keep the Souls feel. While enemys have combos here it's usually no more than about 3 attacks before they take a break allowing for punishes. They add weapon skills here but because the Souls formula is intact, they are just extras that I feel were mostly ignored.

Finally there is Sekiro which expands the world greatly, adding a lot of verticallity to it while also having entire areas lead to and double back on previous areas. Sekiro's combat is very very tight, leaving very few options to the player, and as a result it was quite polarizing especially because timing was so important. The parry mechanic was tight and it made the combat feel good if you could get it down.

The common theme I feel is that Miyazaki always wanted bigger worlds to everything. Bloodborne and DS3 might have been limited by expectations or my engine which is why they didn't get as open as maybe they wanted. Bloodborne was a Sony license game and they probably wanted From to make a Souls game and keep it like Dark Souls 1 which limited the design somewhat. I don't know that's speculation for sure.

Elden Ring feels like FromSoft finally told Miyazaki to do whatever the fuck he wanted and gave him all the time he wanted to make it. Thus we have the open world game with very fast combat and wild build variety available to the player. But in so doing I think we've reached beyond the scope of the Souls game. Not just in the world but the combat design as well, because the speed as gotten so fast that it's not as tight as I feel combat used to be. It's loose, chaotic, the monsters are super powerful but so to can the player be if they want. Fights feel like a clash of superpowers rather than the duels between man and monster that the previous games had. And it's fine, I'm not saying they went in the wrong direction. But at some point when does a Miyazaki game break away from being a Souls-like and instead start becoming something else entirely?

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I mean I can understand that in a sense. You can see the evolution of the Souls series from the very begining.

Demon's Souls, didn't have very sprawling level design and couldn't have an interconnected world (or if it could, they didn't know how) so you have these archstones which lead to various level sections that by themselves aren't very long. The combat is very slow, and even clunky in areas but this built a fairly tight design. Demon's Souls also have the unqiue thing of giving almost every boss a gimmick. Abjudicator, Tower Knight, Phalanx, Dragon God, Old Monk, Maneaters, etc etc. Very few bosses in that game didn't have some clear idea or almost puzzle around them to solve. Alant, Flamelurker, and Penetrator are probably the most "traditional" Souls bosses from that game.

Dark Souls 1 has a very well done interconnected world for the first half of the game. Ringing the two bells, Sins Fortress, all the way up til you get the lord vessel where I think the budget probably ran out. The back half of Dark Souls has a shit load of issues with terrible bosses, terrible levels, just giant fucking legs everywhere randomly, It's clear that we could all see where they wanted to take the series with this game but just ran out of time or budget to finish it the way they wanted. Which is why the DLC was so much better. Here the combat becomes truly Souls combat, methodical but if you learn the bosses enough you can get really ballsy with it. It's faster than Demon's Souls but not by much. And some of the lumbering feel to this game might be due to the engine. Whatever the restrictions that sort of "hold back" the combat system, it made the game feel tight and reasonably well crafted which is why this one ranks so high on best souls game lists. There are a couple puzzle-lite bosses here like Seeth the Scaleless, moonlit butterfly, and bed of chaos, but for the most part you are just dealing with straight up fights.

Dark Souls 2 I will skip because Miyazaki wasn't really involved.

Bloodborne is where I think we can really see where Miyazaki wanted to go with the series. The levels are all fantastic and fit into the world, most of which loop upon themselves extremely well, and every boss is tightly tuned. Combat is further sped up try and pull players away from hiding behind shields and there basically isn't really magic so the OP level of ranged is gone here. Miyazaki wanted you to get in everything's face and rip it apart. Because this combat was so tight it is probably the best feeling combat to play of the entire series without also being super demanding. However boss gimmicks are now totally gone and every boss except Witches of Hemlock is a straight up slugging match, and even that's kinda debatable. But the trade off here is that the bosses are memorable abominations, horrors that leave an impression in your mind because of how monsterous they are. Something souls bosses don't have much and I would argue the few bosses that are of monterous design are the most memorable, Gravelord Nito, Manus, Centiple demon, Ceasless Discharge (though I remember him cuz of the name). Bloodborne has so many memorable bosses that it's basically all of them, and I think it's strictly due to their design because mechanically they are just kind of normal fights and not really that special outside of how tight and good it feels to fight things in this game.

Dark Souls 3, keeps the interconnected world well in tact for damn near the whole game, but also has a great flow to it all as you progress you can feel yourself reach new places that all fit perfectly within the world. Combat in a nice compromise between Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, enemies and bosses are faster and smoother than in Dark Souls 1 but also not quite as fast and relentless as in Bloodborne to keep the Souls feel. While enemys have combos here it's usually no more than about 3 attacks before they take a break allowing for punishes. They add weapon skills here but because the Souls formula is intact, they are just extras that I feel were mostly ignored.

Finally there is Sekiro which expands the world greatly, adding a lot of verticallity to it while also having entire areas lead to and double back on previous areas. Sekiro's combat is very very tight, leaving very few options to the player, and as a result it was quite polarizing especially because timing was so important. The parry mechanic was tight and it made the combat feel good if you could get it down.

The common theme I feel is that Miyazaki always wanted bigger worlds to everything. Bloodborne and DS3 might have been limited by expectations or my engine which is why they didn't get as open as maybe they wanted. Bloodborne was a Sony license game and they probably wanted From to make a Souls game and keep it like Dark Souls 1 which limited the design somewhat. I don't know that's speculation for sure.

Elden Ring feels like FromSoft finally told Miyazaki to do whatever the fuck he wanted and gave him all the time he wanted to make it. Thus we have the open world game with very fast combat and wild build variety available to the player. But in so doing I think we've reached beyond the scope of the Souls game. Not just in the world but the combat design as well, because the speed as gotten so fast that it's not as tight as I feel combat used to be. It's loose, chaotic, the monsters are super powerful but so to can the player be if they want. Fights feel like a clash of superpowers rather than the duels between man and monster that the previous games had. And it's fine, I'm not saying they went in the wrong direction. But at some point when does a Miyazaki game break away from being a Souls-like and instead start becoming something else entirely?

I think the jump button really changed things up. I mean it was in Sekiro too but the focus was very different with the posture system there. Here it's literally Souls with a dedicated jump mechanic that you're actively encouraged to use during combat. It can lead to a significantly different feel and flow and I've just now been adjusting to it after a few dozen hours really.

It sounds like FROM might go back to Armored Core after this, so we'll see how that plays out given everything they've done in between.

 

[Brokencontroller]

It sounds like FROM might go back to Armored Core after this, so we'll see how that plays out given everything they've done in between.

I hope its xbox exclusive. Just...so they get something.

 

[BrawlMan]

I hope its xbox exclusive. Just...so they get something.

That's probably not happening. For one, the franchise has almost always been a exclusive to a Playstation console from what I remember. Second, most armored core fans are more than likely PlayStation fans, and most Xbox console players don't even know what it is, nor will care for it. If it's happening, it's going to be multiplatform and PC.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I hope its xbox exclusive. Just...so they get something.

Unless MS buys BN next, it won’t be.

 

[EvilRoy]

I got groped by a hand and now everybody hates me :/ I dunno why a trigger to completely change the game ending is hidden like 80 hours into the game but I guess I blundered into it - definitely one of the downsides to avoiding wiki use and playing so soon after release.

That said, I found there is a way to undo my filthy body that doesn't involve using a dozen bars of soap in game but does require me to go ham on what is apparently the hardest boss in the game. I was going to do that anyway, but now I have purpose - nothing will stand between me and my perfect storybook anime ending with my girlfriend. Well, okay. This is probably more of a sugar-momma situation. But I'm going to get there and if that means absolutely murdering the hardest boss in the game then that's what it means.

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

What’s impressive is having over 185 hours in across those four NG’s and still having time to edit together a video of it. If we allow a couple days for that it’s close to a full eight hour work day of just playing since release.

I also agree about balancing issues, and I’m really not sure how much one can hope for that given all the variations. It's kinda what I meant about FROM not really knowing what’s possible until millions of users start playing.

 

[Catfood220]

So either I'm getting good at this or I'm ridiculously over powered for the starting area. But ever since I got the axe from killing Deathbird and leveling it up a bit, bosses have been falling to me like dominoes. Except for Leonine Misbegotten who I killed on my second try after stun locking him with wolf summons and the halbard I got for killing a friendly NPC, he went down in seconds. I felt slightly bad about killing the NPC whose name escapes me, but his castle was in ruins and his daughter was dead. What did he have to live for? Also, that halbard makes a joke of the Bloodhound guy in the Evergoal.

Everyone else seems to miles ahead of me, at this rate I should this game beat in about 3 years. Hopefully the scary looking end of game bosses will be properly balanced by then.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Location spoilers -

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

They've been more creative in the past. Hell even the enemy and boss designs here are fucking boring. Where are the crazy mashes of bodies? The giant hideous monsters? For the vast majority of the game you fight humanoids and dragons and nothing more. The craziest monster-like bosses are the first two in Mergit and Godfrey, and they are so similar that they might as well be the same fucking thing.

I dare you go look up every boss in the game and count how many are humaniod or dragons. It's fucking like all but two or three.

At risk of spoiling I did, since I’ll most likely forget them again until I see them, but here’s a few that seem every bit as Miyazaki-esque as prior games -

Spoiler

Ulcerated Tree Spirit | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Ulcerated Tree Spirit Boss Guide: Where to find Ulcerated Tree Spirit, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Miranda the Blighted Bloom | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Miranda the Blighted Bloom Boss Guide: Where to find, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Erdtree Avatar | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Erdtree Avatar Boss Guide: Where to find Erdtree Avatar, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Magma Wyrm Makar | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Magma Wyrm Makar Boss Guide: Where to find Magma Wyrm Makar, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Godskin Noble | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Godskin Noble Boss Guide: Where to find Godskin Noble, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Magma Wyrm | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Magma Wyrm Boss Guide: Where to find Magma Wyrm, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

God-Devouring Serpent | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring God-Devouring Serpent Boss Guide: Where to find God-Devouring Serpent, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy Boss Guide: Where to find Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Astel Naturalborn of the Void | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Astel, Naturalborn of the Void Boss Guide: Where to find Astel, Naturalborn of the Void, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

Dragonlord Placidusax | Elden Ring Wiki

Elden Ring Dragonlord Placidusax Boss Guide: Where to find Dragonlord Placidusax, how to beat it easily, strategies, tips, and tricks to win this boss fight.

eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com

It’s also not counting at least a couple dozen others on the list that appeared neither humanoid or dragon. So it seems maybe you’re already being a bit nostalgic or fatigue from “seeing it all before” is setting in. Which could be understandable. I suppose also even Miyazaki’s imagination has its limits, but on the whole it seems he went all-out here.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Tried it out for a couple hours at my cousin's. It's ok. Still don't see why they needed to make Dark Souls open world. Kind of kills the mood to be running around the sinister woods mashing triangle to pick up berries and bits of gold speckled excrement or whatever. Though so do all the stupid player messages, makes me glad I've always played the other games in offline mode.

The rest points and your bloodstain are surprisingly hard to see. I've spent a fair bit of time running around trying to find my runes while also trying to avoid what killed me only to finally notice that it's obscured by a patch of tall grass. Not nearly as obvious as the big blue swirls of Dark Souls.

On a first impression, the sense I get is "Dark Souls... yet again." Even the intro cutscene seemed to play out the same, except the animation budget got cut and they could only afford still images this time. I guess you can't really blame people for repeating what works, though.

I'll probably get it for myself in a couple years when I finally get a PS5 and find it cheap somewhere. After I've played through Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.

 

[Silvanus]

On a first impression, the sense I get is "Dark Souls... yet again."

It's funny how your impression is pretty much the polar opposite of CriticalGaming's, then.

I'm not making any particular point here. Its just notable how much YMMV with games like this.

 

[Piscian]

Tried it out for a couple hours at my cousin's. It's ok. Still don't see why they needed to make Dark Souls open world. Kind of kills the mood to be running around the sinister woods mashing triangle to pick up berries and bits of gold speckled excrement or whatever. Though so do all the stupid player messages, makes me glad I've always played the other games in offline mode.

The rest points and your bloodstain are surprisingly hard to see. I've spent a fair bit of time running around trying to find my runes while also trying to avoid what killed me only to finally notice that it's obscured by a patch of tall grass. Not nearly as obvious as the big blue swirls of Dark Souls.

On a first impression, the sense I get is "Dark Souls... yet again." Even the intro cutscene seemed to play out the same, except the animation budget got cut and they could only afford still images this time. I guess you can't really blame people for repeating what works, though.

I'll probably get it for myself in a couple years when I finally get a PS5 and find it cheap somewhere. After I've played through Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.

Same. I'm sure it's great for what it is, which is apparently the best version of the same shit everyone else is doing these days with Open Word Action RPGs. I shrug to see past the fact that its Basically the same as an Elder Scrolls game, but with better action mechanics and less lore. There's a certain ominous claustrophobia that's lost in the move to open world. Dark Souls shared a lot in common with Resident evil and I think thats lost here. I keep hearing I'll love the game if I just put 20 hours into it, or maybe that was FFXIII idk. I'm too old to not immediately enjoy a game. Like Spawn my total available heartbeats are always ticking down. I'll get to it eventually, but I just beat an Open world game recently and I can't talk myself into wandering around aimlessly flipping over rocks atm.