It sounded like what
@Terminal Blue was getting at is the fact that having limited free time can severely change how one approaches games like this, to the point playing with a goal of completionism feels more like a task vs a hobby. I’ve done it with previous Souls games among others, and I think not caring anymore about trophy hunting has been pretty liberating in how I approach games. It’s far more leisurely. I really don’t stress anymore over what I miss on a playthrough because outside of seeing the platinum by my username, I’ve mostly forgotten about those details anyways by the time I’ve moved onto the next game.
Games never used to have trophies or achievements, and I think adding that meta element is a double edged sword. It’s nice to have these somewhat arbitrary goals in games, but when they become the primary concern it kinda turns games into something to consume vs simply enjoy. I kinda miss the days before the internet enabled instant gratification so much. Back when seeing a Zelda hint in Nintendo Power or calling their help line was considered a luxury.
I don't typically go out of my way for platinums, but I do like to get them when they are easy or straightforward. I wont grind 400 hours for a platinum that shit can kiss my ass. I didn't get all the trophies in Elden Ring on purpose until I checked the PSNprofiles list and saw that I really only had like six trophies left.
And to be clear, I resulted to using the wiki after the open world bored me in the first place. When I saw that the vast majority of open world enemies were worthless to fight (becasue they rewarded pitiful runes for the effort and danger they were to fight) that's when I felt it became pointless to explore aimlessly. And I had a lot more fun just hitting the spots that mattered and having some direction.
I never said the game wasn't fun, the game was bad, that I didn't enjoy the game, i said the open world is bad. It didn't need to be there. It doesn't offer any challenge it just takes the Dark Souls "stuff" and spreads it really thin across a huge barren world. By the end of the game, I was wishing for more Dark Souls not more Elden Ring and it just shows how good the Souls formula is and how bad the open world formula is.
Now I feel like there are a couple if things that could have been changed to make the World feel a shitload better.
1. Add icons to the compass like in Skyrim. When you get close enough to a place icons appear on the compass in that game that will point you in the general direction of shit to do. Doing so doesn't impact the freedom in Skyrim, and it wouldn't change anything here except make the player curious especially when combines with the good looking vista's in the game.
2. Add value to open world enemies. Maybe not every enemy but enemies within barricade camps, ruins, and purposeful exploration points like swamps in Caelid. This allows the player to make more choices between fighting something to gather runes, or just skipping them, as right now the vast majority of stuff in the open world is not worth fighting. And some of the enemies that are worth fighting are strange. Like south of the Warmaster's Shack in Limgrave there is a field with five giants. These giants give 1000runes each and if you fight them on horseback they are trivial to fight, sometimes their AI breaks and they just stand there while you kill them FREE RUNES! Look at the Dunky video again where he showcases the armless Gargoyle worth 3000 runes who is zero challenge, then the Crucible Knight who is extrememly difficult and is worth 3300 runes (or something like that). The risk isn't worth the reward for much of the basic enemies in the game.
Frankly Elden Ring's balancing and jank is all over the place. Did you know that if you walk slowly towards a fog wall, and press the button to enter as soon as the prompt appears, tilt the camera to the floor for a few seconds before the boss realizes you are there, BOOM Ai is broken the boss will not move or react to anything you do and you can kill the boss without it fighting back? Or that you can make Torrent Fly and skip the whole world? The vast difference in power level between weapon arts is insane, some spells are fucking stupid as there is no reason any spell ever should 1-shot a boss. Status effects are broken too, did you know you can sleep both of the last bosses and hit them until they die without them doing anything?
Bugs and exploits are nothing out of place from Souls games and people have been breakign the games for years. But usually it's not stuff your average player might just do on accident and not realize it.
Elden Ring is a fun game, but the scope and scale of trying to make it open world have done considerable damage to the overall quality of gameplay we usually see. Open world fine, but I think this game got way too big for their own good. But since people are in the honeymoon phase and are phrasing the shit out of it, the next game will be bigger maybe. I really hope Miyazaki tries at least doing a different setting instead of yet another Dark Fantasy world.
