From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[Great Deceiver]

If you only saw a single walking mausoleum, the encounter would have been much more meaningful than having like seven of them all over the map.

In fairness, at least the mausoleums all have different puzzles to bring them down. Some requiring quite careful use of the environment to get to the skull stone things.

Not all of them, I can count at least 3 that were identical - the one in the peninsula, the one in Limgrave and the one next to Castle Sol.

It's funny, I had this exact same thought that everyone seems to be having today. First time I saw one of those walking mausoleums it was so fucking cool. But then I saw another. And then two almost right next to each other. And then a couple more. It reduced the entire experience to rote repetition. Much of Elden Ring is like that. Such a shame.

 

[d1r]

Post your chars fags.

ok

Switch that helmet. The white doesn't fit with the gold at all.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

Post your chars fags.

ok

Switch that helmet. The white doesn't fit with the gold at all.

it fits with lances though (not that apparent during night time) and i like the plumage

 

[mediocrepoet]

Post your chars fags.

ok

Switch that helmet. The white doesn't fit with the gold at all.

it fits with lances though (not that apparent during night time) and i like the plumage

Dual lances seems like a weird choice. Is it actually good?

 

[Zizka]

The game isn't a job, you can take a break, play something else, do something else.

I think that’s beside the point of what is being criticised here. Let me explain:

Taking a break won’t alleviate recycled content or padding. It’ll still be there when you resume playing. This shortcoming isn’t solved by taking a break.

2) After 60+ hours in a week, the game became repetitive!

It’s more nuanced than that. It’s not that the game as a whole is being repetitive, it’s that the content of the game is, regardless of much time you’ve spent on it.

Dark Souls followed the same repetitive game loop but didn’t suffer from as much recycled content as Elden Ring does. That’s the difference.

A game could be too long which detracts from its quality overall without being shit.

Definitely! I don’t think anyone is saying that Elden Ring is shit, can you point out in which message this was mentioned? I personally think it’s a great game, it’s just not a 10/10. I think what’s jarring about it is that the open world bloat feels jarring coming from Fromsoftware. It’s typically something Ubisoft does with those towers and other busywork but not FromSoftware.

It seems to me that the general consensus is that the game could’ve been “edited” to a smaller scale for a more optimised experience (to use your movie analogy). Trimming the superfluous would’ve gone a long way. Actually, it probably would’ve been pretty much perfect without the padding.

 

[Ramnozack]

MLGS/Dark Moon Greatsword is amazing in this game, the thing fuckin chunks shit. The weapon art on the thing buffs its AR and I believe frost buildup even higher, and lets you shoot infinite sword beams that all hit for 1k+ damage for me. build up frostbite, and cost no fp. Hitting with the beam and the sword makes it even more sickening.

For even more craziness, use the magic buffing physick flask and hit the enemy with ranni's dark moon for the -30% magic absorb debuff.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

Post your chars fags.

ok

Switch that helmet. The white doesn't fit with the gold at all.

it fits with lances though (not that apparent during night time) and i like the plumage

Dual lances seems like a weird choice. Is it actually good?

Yes, they deal great damage (jumping dual attack is a plunge type, but lances are almost horizontal, providing good range and it hits like a truck) and have good range. Speedwise they are slower than dual spears (initially i used dual partizan), but make up for it with better damage, range and jumping attack animation. Getting two requires a trade with another player though, as the lance is not an enemy drop but a world loot. I also went dual lance in DS2.

 

[MajorMace]

I found the Blood Blade art in the lake region and am now oneshotting everything

Every 1h 1h30 session is loaded with shit to find out. Moment to moment gameplay is the best in the series so far.

I get it, it gets repetitive after 50hrs and whatnot. It's still miles ahead other open worlds in my book, since these get repetitive after 5hrs.

I still don't think going open world, in most cases, makes sense, but at the very least this time, I gotta admit that they did make some use of it. Roaming the land is always rewarded in this game. Good stuff.

 

[Curratum]

That's the thing - I'm not against the open world per se. It's not badly executed for the most part, I enjoyed it, but there is just too much of it and some of it is too barren. Again, I just wish the entire game was contained in a region the size of Liurnia and Limgrave only. Would still be plenty big and probably a little larger or on part with something like Skyrim, I think.

 

[Multidirectional]

I would suggest that it's like how people described Sekiro where you had to approach it as its own thing and not just take a Souls approach to it. I can only suggest/assume this as I really hated Sekiro and never got gud at it, I bounced off of it pretty hard in the early game and was pretty awful at the game.

I was awful at it throughout entire first playthrough and it took me months to finish it, way longer than most other people in Codex thread that were reporting their experiences at the time needed to finish it. I was actually stuck on some bosses for a fucking week and I was sure that after I finish it I won't want to do another run in a long time. But then after finishing I got curious anyway and tried a completely fresh run. I flew through more than third of the game in one sitting and that's when I suddenly realized I really like the game. One of best "git gud" journeys for me, actually reminded me a little of my very first run of DS1 in that way. I ended up replaying the game few more times throughout that year. Enough to kill block/deflect button on xbone pad.

 

[Eyestabber]

TL;DR of the criticism regarding open world: ER prioritized setting up a record for "largest map ever" over providing a fun experience from start to finish and the game suffers for it. Late game especially.

 

[hackncrazy]

I think we're probably past the time of judging if a person enjoyed the game based on how much time it spent with it in a determined time window.

I no-lifed Bloodborne for way more time after I started playing and never felt tired as I feel in ER. If one spends 100 hours a week with the game or 20 hours a week with it, it doesn't change the FACT that the game becomes quite too long.

That's not at all my point. You seem to be looking at the game as if it's worthless if you don't complete it. I'm looking at it more as an experience that you can enjoy whether you complete it or not and whether the enjoyment you got out of it was worth the price of entry. This is a completely different point about whether game length is a valid criticism of the game as a whole, etc.

A game could be too long which detracts from its quality overall without being shit. As a non-game example, there are movies that I love the first half of, but find the second half to be shit whether due to a crappy plot twist or bungled resolution, etc. That doesn't mean that I can't watch and enjoy the first half and take it on its own merits, while at the same time criticising the film as having missed the opportunity to be truly great by fucking up the second half. But it doesn't mean I wasted my time or money on the experience.

Well, speaking for me at least. I never said that the game is shit for being too long, far from it. Now that I'm able to go wherever I want from the start and call just focus on bosses and specific locations, I'm still having a lot of fun with it because I know exactly what to wait for. I don't think is wasted time or money as well.

Keeping your film example, one film that fits this is The Lobster. The first part is absolutely mesmerizing, while the second part is complete shit. Even with it, I've watched like 5 or 6 times at this point and enjoy it even with the caveats.

The main problem here, is that some people seems to go defensive as hell if you criticize ER for a obvious problem it has.

 

[Silva]

Do you think From could fix/mitigate the problems we pointed here through updates or DLC?

 

[toro]

there are 146 bosses identified until now

My question is: Are these 146 bosses identified by a name and a healthbar? As an example, I consider the Draconic Tree Sentinel before Leyndell as a boss because it has a name and a healthbar on the screen. The same enemy appears right before Maliketh, without these features, so in that case I guess it isn't considered a boss.

No idea. But it looks like there are only 63 unique bosses. 146 with repetitions.

 

[hackncrazy]

I would suggest that it's like how people described Sekiro where you had to approach it as its own thing and not just take a Souls approach to it. I can only suggest/assume this as I really hated Sekiro and never got gud at it, I bounced off of it pretty hard in the early game and was pretty awful at the game.

I was awful at it throughout entire first playthrough and it took me months to finish it, way longer than most other people in Codex thread that were reporting their experiences at the time needed to finish it. I was actually stuck on some bosses for a fucking week and I was sure that after I finish it I won't want to do another run in a long time. But then after finishing I got curious anyway and tried a completely fresh run. I flew through more than third of the game in one sitting and that's when I suddenly realized I really like the game. One of best "git gud" journeys for me, actually reminded me a little of my very first run of DS1 in that way. I ended up replaying the game few more times throughout that year. Enough to kill block/deflect button on xbone pad.

I don't think we'll ever see a combat so well made as the one in Sekiro in any videogame to come. The joy of parrying every enemy's attack along with applying a Mikiri Counter is unbeatable. Also, the fact that you can destroy a boss even without landing one single direct hit in it is great, shows total dominance over your opponent.

The only thing I fairly disliked in the game is the secret super boss (Demon of something, can't remember the name), because it requires you to play in regular Dark Souls gameplay, with dodging and stuff, which is something I don't think it goes well with Sekiro's gameplay.

 

[hackncrazy]

Do you think From could fix/mitigate the problems we pointed here through updates or DLC?

With updates I don't believe so. For better or worse, the vanilla game is what it is, so that's the experience they intended us to have.

Speaking of DLC, as I said before I'd be very happy if they add like 2 Legacy Dungeons linked to the already existing open world and call it a day. But we all know they'll add AT LEAST 1 new open world region. My hopes is that this new region comes with completely new content, and not only catacombs, caves and mines the same way we've seen in vanilla.

 

[toro]

I would suggest that it's like how people described Sekiro where you had to approach it as its own thing and not just take a Souls approach to it. I can only suggest/assume this as I really hated Sekiro and never got gud at it, I bounced off of it pretty hard in the early game and was pretty awful at the game.

I was awful at it throughout entire first playthrough and it took me months to finish it, way longer than most other people in Codex thread that were reporting their experiences at the time needed to finish it. I was actually stuck on some bosses for a fucking week and I was sure that after I finish it I won't want to do another run in a long time. But then after finishing I got curious anyway and tried a completely fresh run. I flew through more than third of the game in one sitting and that's when I suddenly realized I really like the game. One of best "git gud" journeys for me, actually reminded me a little of my very first run of DS1 in that way. I ended up replaying the game few more times throughout that year. Enough to kill block/deflect button on xbone pad.

I don't think we'll ever see a combat so well made as the one in Sekiro in any videogame to come. The joy of parrying every enemy's attack along with applying a Mikiri Counter is unbeatable. Also, the fact that you can destroy a boss even without landing one single direct hit in it is great, shows total dominance over your opponent.

The only thing I fairly disliked in the game is the secret super boss (Demon of something, can't remember the name), because it requires you to play in regular Dark Souls gameplay, with dodging and stuff, which is something I don't think it goes well with Sekiro's gameplay.

Demon of Hatred. I was doing rounds around him :D

 

[Multidirectional]

I never bothered to git gud at Demon of Hatred, just couldn't be arsed. I agree that it doesn't fit Sekiro's gameplay but I also don't think its placement in the game was without purpose. It's an optional highly infuriating boss placed at the very end of game, it doesn't play like any other boss in the game and it's called "Demon of Hatred". That's a very deliberate troll.

 

[Shrimp]

Do you think From could fix/mitigate the problems we pointed here through updates or DLC?

Enemies and locations being reused (which seems to be the most frequent complaint) is probably too big of an issue to be dealt with in a patch - the damage has already been done.
But a lot of my minor gripes with the game such as being unable to open the map when a hollow 500 metres away sets his eyes on you, upgrade material scarcity and vendor price, bell bearings not carrying over to NG+ etc. are all things that easily could be remedied in a small patch.

 

[Lutte]

Lutte I've respecced into Moonveil/Int and this thing really slaps. However, I think I fucked up by only putting 20 points in Mind. I underestimated how good the weapon art on it is.

What would you say is a good value? I see that from 20 to 50 you get 6 FP per point spent, unlike from up to 20 where you mostly only get 3. Do you go as high as 40? My Int is 60 atm (lv 119).

I have 30 mind and 174 FP (a little boost from talisman), flasks still restore more than my FP, you can go as high as 40 before they top out. But that's with maxxed out flask power, people early in the game with few sacred tears don't exactly need to throw many points into mind to be effective in their FP use/restore.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I took a couple of day as a break before continue playing the game. I think it's really good, but it can be very overwhelming if you play it no stop exploring all regions and shit. It almost feels like a Dark souls MMO.

 

[hackncrazy]

To the ones that knows about lore:

Is there an explanation for a) Why there are so many empty cages at Raya Lucaria and b) the origin of the pots? Are they some kind of freaky experiment from Lucarians that went wrong?

 

[perfectslumbers]

Do you think From could fix/mitigate the problems we pointed here through updates or DLC?

I think they could with a Scholar of the First Sin type of update. The problem isn't only that the game is repetitive (in fact that isn't a problem for me,) but that it's also grueling (as From Soft games generally are.) I think changing the open world and making it less grueling so it contrasts heavily with the dungeons would make the game feel much less fatiguing. I started a new playthrough of the game and really enjoyed the first few areas, whereas I hated the lategame areas. I believe that is because the early game areas have less enemy density and are more relaxing and immersive, and when I feel ready I can take on one of the legacy dungeons and go into the fray.

Dunno if anyone here has played WoW but I was a fan of it in the past. The lategame areas of WoW (vanilla,) like The Western Plaguelands have few/no friendly towns or inns, an insane density of very tough enemies, very few isolated friendly npcs, and are very dark with a grim atmosphere. This is great in WoW, you've journeyed through comfy forests and beautiful locales and now for the last few levels you have to go through hell. In Elden Ring nearly the entire game is like this, there are no friendly towns, very few friendly npcs, and the entire world is covered in difficult enemies that want to kill you. That can only be enticing for so long before you just get fucking sick of it.

 

[mediocrepoet]

To the ones that knows about lore:

Is there an explanation for a) Why there are so many empty cages at Raya Lucaria and b) the origin of the pots? Are they some kind of freaky experiment from Lucarians that went wrong?

I don't have any answers for these questions, but I can't be the only one who had flash backs of the Kool-Aid Man the first time I got pummeled by a huge jar blasting through a wall.

 

[Silva]

With updates I don't believe so. For better or worse, the vanilla game is what it is, so that's the experience they intended us to have.

Speaking of DLC, as I said before I'd be very happy if they add like 2 Legacy Dungeons linked to the already existing open world and call it a day. But we all know they'll add AT LEAST 1 new open world region. My hopes is that this new region comes with completely new content, and not only catacombs, caves and mines the same way we've seen in vanilla.

I think they could with a Scholar of the First Sin type of update. The problem isn't only that the game is repetitive (in fact that isn't a problem for me,) but that it's also grueling (as From Soft games generally are.) I think changing the open world and making it less grueling so it contrasts heavily with the dungeons would make the game feel much less fatiguing. I started a new playthrough of the game and really enjoyed the first few areas, whereas I hated the lategame areas. I believe that is because the early game areas have less enemy density and are more relaxing and immersive, and when I feel ready I can take on one of the legacy dungeons and go into the fray.

Dunno if anyone here has played WoW but I was a fan of it in the past. The lategame areas of WoW (vanilla,) like The Western Plaguelands have few/no friendly towns or inns, an insane density of very tough enemies, very few isolated friendly npcs, and are very dark with a grim atmosphere. This is great in WoW, you've journeyed through comfy forests and beautiful locales and now for the last few levels you have to go through hell. In Elden Ring nearly the entire game is like this, there are no friendly towns, very few friendly npcs, and the entire world is covered in difficult enemies that want to kill you. That can only be enticing for so long before you just get fucking sick of it.

Does From have a history of rebalancing areas or levels? I don't know since Elden Ring is the first game I buy on release. Assuming it's possible, perhaps adjusting late areas density of enemies and their HP would be a good first step.

And I agree that they should make a more "tight" DLC. But I doubt it. It seems logical they will stick to this open world formula for some more time.