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

[Ivan]

thoughts after making it to the capital (3 demigods down, 2 to go):

The adjective that comes to mind to describe Elden Ring in comparison to what's come before is Odyssey. I'm dumbfounded how gargantuan the game world is. Just when I thought the first zone was huge, I didn't realize that each Demigod has their own respective continent. Now to start off with things I think are quite weak:
-mounted combat feels flimsy, only really worthwhile when you can 2 shot enemies, otherwise just dismount
-I tired of dismounting in the overworld to battle trash mobs, thankfully I learned to pick my battles. I'm sure this game would drive you mad if you have a specific OCD that dictates you comb every square inch or do battle with each enemy.
-I was hoping the game would include weapon crafting, but what's here is mainly just for tools that I've seldom used. Lame, I was hoping to find schematics to craft unique weapons or accessories
-there's a grotesque amount of unique interiors in here, each cavern has its own feel, better than the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne. I've seen some boss repetition here and there but nothing major
-because you aren't locked in a room with its specifically designed layout, all of the dragon fights have felt the same for me. not that they're shitty, but I wouldn't be able to tell you one dragon fight from the other

All things considered I would prefer a tightly designed/planned gameworld like the titles we're used to, but I'm glad FromSoftware got their chance to unload this massive behemoth of a game on the gaming world. I'm about 50 (FIFTY!) hours in and I've not come close to filling in the entirety of the map. I like that the game makes me take notes b/c there's no quest log. There are some loose threads I'm keeping track of, NPCs that need help, or mysteries/loose ends that need revisiting.

Performance has been very spotty, but I'm not letting that get in the way of my experiencing this. One thing I know for sure, once the credits roll on this beast, I am in no rush to replay knowing just how massive of an experience this is.

I'd appreciate some vague clues for the following loose ends I've written down:

Spoiler

1- any suggestions on how to help Alexander the 2nd time he gets stuck? He mentions something that would make him slippery. I'm thing a very specific spell might be in order.

2) a comet crash landed (somewhere) after the Radahn fight. I suspected maybe in Sellia (the mage town in Caeida

3)can't find the item needed to place on the pedestal @ Carian Study Hall. I figured maybe it would be in the manor but no dice there...maybe it's a reward for helping Reena down the line? Doubt it, you can tell from the map that it connects to the Divine Tower for that zone.

4)any clue where to find more "grapes" for the blind girl? Magic zone

also, me personally, one of my absolute favorite moments in the game happened in an optional cave dungeon: anyone else smile with mad glee when you get to :

Spoiler

jump down and ride the fucking chariot trap to traverse the lava? AWESOME

 

[HoboForEternity]

Btw what's with the "open world is booring" schtick ITT? I've blundered into an elevator in the woods, ended up exploring a Blackreach-like underground area for 3 hours (those fucking snipers mang).

I've resurfaced in a Lovecraftian area full of monstrous beasts a giant archers, blundered into blood marches, tombraided a town of dead sorcerers. All in a 5 hour session after work.

This gaym man.

I think the problem is that it uses a Piranha Bytes approach to open world, where areas are effectively level-gated. Add to that the mechanical difficulty in defeating bosses (compared to most RPGs, anyway) and the result is that you're running over zones with a fine-toothed comb in order to ensure that you're able to beat a boss blocking progression or to ensure that you're adequately prepared for the next zone.

Siofra River spits you out in Caelid - OK, that's nice, but what can you actually DO there? Several of the regular enemies are as fast as your horse, can two-shot you, and will probably take about 10-20 hits from you in return. There's a sense of wonder present for about 20 minutes when you hit a new area, before realising that you're either underlevelled/under-prepared for it, or realising that you're going to be spending the next 10 hours there combing through all of the mini-dungeons and trying to find upgrade materials.

I'm 35 hours in and enjoying the game still, but it's starting to wear out its welcome. If this were Dark Souls 4, I'd have finished the game 10 hours ago and probably have excitedly started a new character. Instead I'm aware that I'm only about halfway and it's really starting to feel like a slog.

So basically they were criticized by doing the right thing

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO LOLOLOL YEP

Btw what's with the "open world is booring" schtick ITT? I've blundered into an elevator in the woods, ended up exploring a Blackreach-like underground area for 3 hours (those fucking snipers mang).

I've resurfaced in a Lovecraftian area full of monstrous beasts a giant archers, blundered into blood marches, tombraided a town of dead sorcerers. All in a 5 hour session after work.

This gaym man.

I think the problem is that it uses a Piranha Bytes approach to open world, where areas are effectively level-gated. Add to that the mechanical difficulty in defeating bosses (compared to most RPGs, anyway) and the result is that you're running over zones with a fine-toothed comb in order to ensure that you're able to beat a boss blocking progression or to ensure that you're adequately prepared for the next zone.

Siofra River spits you out in Caelid - OK, that's nice, but what can you actually DO there? Several of the regular enemies are as fast as your horse, can two-shot you, and will probably take about 10-20 hits from you in return. There's a sense of wonder present for about 20 minutes when you hit a new area, before realising that you're either underlevelled/under-prepared for it, or realising that you're going to be spending the next 10 hours there combing through all of the mini-dungeons and trying to find upgrade materials.

I'm 35 hours in and enjoying the game still, but it's starting to wear out its welcome. If this were Dark Souls 4, I'd have finished the game 10 hours ago and probably have excitedly started a new character. Instead I'm aware that I'm only about halfway and it's really starting to feel like a slog.

So basically they were criticized by doing the right thing

 

[Kruno]

Btw what's with the "open world is booring" schtick ITT? I've blundered into an elevator in the woods, ended up exploring a Blackreach-like underground area for 3 hours (those fucking snipers mang).

I've resurfaced in a Lovecraftian area full of monstrous beasts a giant archers, blundered into blood marches, tombraided a town of dead sorcerers. All in a 5 hour session after work.

This gaym man.

I think the problem is that it uses a Piranha Bytes approach to open world, where areas are effectively level-gated. Add to that the mechanical difficulty in defeating bosses (compared to most RPGs, anyway) and the result is that you're running over zones with a fine-toothed comb in order to ensure that you're able to beat a boss blocking progression or to ensure that you're adequately prepared for the next zone.

Siofra River spits you out in Caelid - OK, that's nice, but what can you actually DO there? Several of the regular enemies are as fast as your horse, can two-shot you, and will probably take about 10-20 hits from you in return. There's a sense of wonder present for about 20 minutes when you hit a new area, before realising that you're either underlevelled/under-prepared for it, or realising that you're going to be spending the next 10 hours there combing through all of the mini-dungeons and trying to find upgrade materials.

I'm 35 hours in and enjoying the game still, but it's starting to wear out its welcome. If this were Dark Souls 4, I'd have finished the game 10 hours ago and probably have excitedly started a new character. Instead I'm aware that I'm only about halfway and it's really starting to feel like a slog.

I somewhat disagree with you. You aren't really gated by the damage you take, but by the damage you deal. The moment you figure out how to output more damage you can increase your overall power and these soft gates become less of an issue. I was using starting equipment and at level 15 in the red zone to the east of the starting lands and I was still able to kill shit and find loot. If I knew what loot to look for then I would be in a much better position to optimise my damage capability.

I have played the previous Souls games with a deficit in HP and found that learning an enemies timings and attacks are key to not getting hit, even then it might be a best out of 10 situation, but it is doable.

Being a glass cannon is the most important thing in a Souls game.

 

[ElectricOtter]

god i dont even know why im helping u losers out but ill make the game actually playable since most of u are old as fuck and partially brainrotted from kwan politics

for starting class roll BANDIT

first off when u start the game go to where the patches cave is, murkwater or some shit. u will get invaded by some fag named nejus or whatever. now normally most of u would be little retards and give up cus he moves fast and heals when low, but luckily for u a scripted npc comes in to help u kill him. when u kill him he will drop a dagger it is called reduvia.

now i dont care what ur retarded plans were from the beginning, how u want to larp whatever game of thrones character u rule 34 on, because from now until respeccing is unlocked u are now a dexfag dagger user.

for leveling up u want to up arcane, dex and vigor, arcane affects bleed build up

u will notice ur brand new reduvia dagger has innate bleed build up. for now u will be mainhanding this. u will make this really kewl discovery: bleed loss procs are sick af cuz they do percentage based hp damage. daggers are the fastest weapons you can use.

u will now go to stormveil castle but dont get 2 comfy in it because ur only going to get the misericorde or whatever that dagger is called in the armory portion of the castle. this dagger and reduvia will now be dual wielded. sink all upgrade mats between them, good thing is reduvia uses somber stones while miser uses regular smithing stones so u dont have them overlap.

now u will go down south of limgrave to fort haight. when u reach this place clear through it, shouldnt take long, then go and kill a unique enemy knight. he will drop an art of war called bloody slash.

now u overwrite whatever shitty skill the misericorde has on it with bloody slash instead (knowing u geeks u prolly put some cringe shit like storm stomp on it xd). you will be mainhanding misericorde no matter what. when prompted, choose blood as the prefix for misericorde so you give it innate bleed build up. bloody slash for whatever reason deals stupid high dmg and has little wind up. because u are smart and using percentage based hp damage with fast as fuck dex weapons u can shred almost anything that crosses u.

the world will start to become your bitch with the only enemies that provide contest to u being ones that cant be bled, which there arent that many compared to those that can be bled.

if u got more ambition do stillwater cavern and castle morne. these both give good talismans for daggers as they make each successive hit do more damage and make the final attack in the L1 chain do more damage.

there now u can stop being lil whiny fags that are like "man this boss is 2 hard im gettin wrecked cuz i use 2H swords and axes like a cringetard :*((("

if u wanna be cringe u can respec out of this by midgame even though a sensible man wouldnt cuz ur shit build will pale compare to this

dont get used to me being this merciful u fuckin faggot n00bs i only did this cuz i felt bad for some of u geezers and i just watched kewl anime :3

 

[Lutte]

Ivan

Spoiler

2) a comet crash landed (somewhere) after the Radahn fight. I suspected maybe in Sellia (the mage town in Caeida

There's a hole to the east of the first area of the game. You can go down the rabbit hole.

3)can't find the item needed to place on the pedestal @ Carian Study Hall. I figured maybe it would be in the manor but no dice there...maybe it's a reward for helping Reena down the line? Doubt it, you can tell from the map that it connects to the Divine Tower for that zone.

This is part of a quest you get from an NPC after you're done with Caria Manor.

Spoiler

Ranni the Witch

You need to be deep in that quest before you get the item.

 

[cvv]

When do people realize the only alternative to level gating is level scaling?

 

[BlackGoat]

And you can SL1 these games so the only real gate is git gud

 

[Wunderbar]

SL1 runs are a metagaming material, the gating is indeed your damage output aka the distribution of smithing stones. Which is pretty uneven.

 

[BlackGoat]

I went to Caelid first after Limgrave and made my way through quite a bit there before I decided to go try some easier areas. The gating isn't as hard as is being suggested. You can actually kill these things. Compare it to the red skull enemies in Witcher 3 which you really don't have a hope of beating until you're leveled up.

 

[thelegend]

Did anyone resolve the stutter issue with amd cards for bosses especially with Tree Sentinel? Please let me know

 

[perfectslumbers]

Unlocked what I assume (based on dialogue,) are two of the games endings. They both involved very long quest lines that start from the beginning of the game and have lasted until 35 hours in, and one of them unlocks a few large areas that can only be unlocked through the quest. They also both had absolutely amazing and beautiful bosses (although one of them killed my fps...) While the game has some shitty DS3esque fights (and some unique fights that are bound to be controversial,) the bosses I fought in those two quest lines were amazing and better than anything in ds3. I've killed 3 out of the presumably 6 main bosses, so I'm maybe half done?

Unfortunately I also encountered a gamebreaking bug wherein my horse would not spawn no matter how many times I called it. After doing some testing it seems that the horses ability to spawn is somehow tied to the framerate or performance of the game. I was also dealing with a memory leak, once i restarted the game it got better and I could summon the horse 4 out of 5 times (but it would still refuse to spawn sometimes.)

 

[Kruno]

 

[perfectslumbers]

sterling

Have we gotten the "Git gud is macho toxic masculinity caused by the white supremacist organisation of society!" yet?

 

[Cromwell]

Did anyone find the jellyfish ashes in the wild? I checked and should get them from the npc but seems like I did not talk to her enough. So the fextra wiki said I can find them on a graveyard with jellyfish, I went and found godrick soldiers ashes. where are the jellyfish?

 

[Thac0]

Did anyone find the jellyfish ashes in the wild? I checked and should get them from the npc but seems like I did not talk to her enough. So the fextra wiki said I can find them on a graveyard with jellyfish, I went and found godrick soldiers ashes. where are the jellyfish?

I just got them from spamming talk to the waifu after meeting her. Very eery but well voice acted dialogue at that.

Spoiler

You're all on your own, are you?
And heading to Stormveil Castle?
Enticed by the one in the white mask, I suppose. Oh, you've come to be one with the spider?
Well, that makes us two peas in a pod.
But I don't have your courage.
It's scary, you know. Having your arms cut off. Or legs. Or your head.
I want to be like everyone else, but I'm just too scared.
I'm nothing but a craven
Oh, can you pass on a message for me, if you see the little chrysalids in Stormveil Castle?
Tell them I love them. And that despite my craven heart, I'm sure I'll be joining their club soon enough.
I'm finally getting the hang of this whole "pain" thing, you know."

From what I know the only way to get it is from her, but I found comments that said she will give it to you when you progress her personal quest if you miss it in the shack.
Either talk to her and the smith alternatingly, or bring her something Cryssalid from the Stormveil Castle.

 

[Funposter]

So basically they were criticized by doing the right thing

To an extent. I think the problem for me is that worlds feel artificial when they're level-gated like this in what are sometimes illogical ways. Of course there's no sense of reality to the world of Elden Ring anyway, so it's not as big a problem as it is in say, Elex. Maybe I'm just getting a little burned out on the game due to its length, but the feeling of being "stuck" in an area starts to grate when you know there's 30 more hours of content ahead and that moving onto later areas will be somewhat fruitless since you're just exploring, rather than progressing.

I somewhat disagree with you. You aren't really gated by the damage you take, but by the damage you deal. The moment you figure out how to output more damage you can increase your overall power and these soft gates become less of an issue. I was using starting equipment and at level 15 in the red zone to the east of the starting lands and I was still able to kill shit and find loot. If I knew what loot to look for then I would be in a much better position to optimise my damage capability.

I have played the previous Souls games with a deficit in HP and found that learning an enemies timings and attacks are key to not getting hit, even then it might be a best out of 10 situation, but it is doable.

Being a glass cannon is the most important thing in a Souls game.

Obviously damage-dealing is always the most important thing due to your ability to dodge, block and theoretically never take any damage at all, but HP has always been an issue when dealing with non-boss enemies across every game in the series. Enemies in later areas are liable to one-shot you if you don't have enough VIG (or good armour, for whatever it's worth) because iirc, damage from boss enemies does scale to your level somewhat to make sure that they never one-shot you with regular attacks, which is why an SL3 run of the original Dark Souls as a squishy Sorcerer isn't a no-damage run. I do agree that the one benefit to exploring later areas is the ability to find equipment that you "shouldn't" have, especially if you're happy to try and do suicide runs into mines. You'd usually be able to get at least a few Smithing Stones before you actually aggro'd anything, even better if they're Somber Stones since that upgrade path is so quick.

 

[Shrimp]

They also both had absolutely amazing and beautiful bosses (although one of them killed my fps...) While the game has some shitty DS3esque fights (and some unique fights that are bound to be controversial,) the bosses I fought in those two quest lines were amazing and better than anything in ds3.

I feel like the boss difficulty levels are all over the place, and I don't think it's solely due to you out levelling them.
While I'm sure the experience might be different for someone who's playing this as their first Souls game, it feels like this game has more "cleared on the first try when you randomly came across it" tier bosses than the three DS games combined. At the same time I've run into bosses that adopt some of the first DS3isms while other bosses increase their difficulty level by just having you face two bosses at the same time.
I think most of the bullshit bosses I've seen so far have been optional fights that aren't required for story completion, so maybe this is what FROM meant when they said the game would be more accessible or something like that.

Margit's been making some waves on most of the online discussion platforms I've looked at, but I think the general consensus is he's an early game wall deliberately placed to get you to explore. Similarly you frequently see people say they were surprised when Godric felt easier than Margit, so it could be there's not much of a difficulty curve and more of a difficulty roller coaster? Dunno, there are definitely also some exceptions to this rule and since I haven't beaten the game yet I suppose I shouldn't try to think too hard about it.
Yesterday I briefly dipped my toes into my third shardbearer fight and I can already tell this will be one of the most polarising encounters in the entire series. I left the area to go and explore somewhere else but I already dread having to go back and fight him.

 

[perfectslumbers]

third shardbearer fight and I can already tell this will be one of the most polarising encounters in the entire series.

Yup, he will be the most controversial From boss ever imo.

And yeah, there was a big difficulty spike midgame from my experience, although maybe it's because I did Caelid before Altus.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I removed game from inventory 'cause i'm too broke at the moment. Seriously tempted to break my rule to always play games like this legit just so i can join you guys.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Maybe I'm just getting a little burned out on the game due to its length, but the feeling of being "stuck" in an area starts to grate when you know there's 30 more hours of content ahead and that moving onto later areas will be somewhat fruitless since you're just exploring, rather than progressing.

this feels like common souls-like problem especially early on sometimes it feels frustrating because you don't really progress or if you do push forward you'll lack the souls to level up so you don't feel like progressing. i feel this in almost every souls like game I play to some extent, which is mostly focused in the early part of the game.

 

[Wunderbar]

Maybe I'm just getting a little burned out on the game due to its length, but the feeling of being "stuck" in an area starts to grate when you know there's 30 more hours of content ahead and that moving onto later areas will be somewhat fruitless since you're just exploring, rather than progressing.

this feels like common souls-like problem especially early on sometimes it feels frustrating because you don't really progress or if you do push forward you'll lack the souls to level up so you don't feel like progressing. i feel this in almost every souls like game I play to some extent, which is mostly focused in the early part of the game.

other souls games don't have the clear distinction between somewhat fillery open world and tightly focused legacy dungeons.

 

[Kruno]

Ok! Do not do a pure strength build. If you want to enjoy melee go Arcane!
I just got the Executioner's Great-sword and it is a magic weapon. My inventory is getting full of weapons you get later on, which all look amazing, but have Faith or Arcane, but 90% Arcane.

After this play-through I will go Arcane Melee.

Too many weapons in my inventory require Faith or Arcane and it is pissing me off because I can not use them! Many of them are fucking dope too.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Unlocked what I assume (based on dialogue,) are two of the games endings. They both involved very long quest lines that start from the beginning of the game and have lasted until 35 hours in, and one of them unlocks a few large areas that can only be unlocked through the quest. They also both had absolutely amazing and beautiful bosses (although one of them killed my fps...) While the game has some shitty DS3esque fights (and some unique fights that are bound to be controversial,) the bosses I fought in those two quest lines were amazing and better than anything in ds3. I've killed 3 out of the presumably 6 main bosses, so I'm maybe half done?

Unfortunately I also encountered a gamebreaking bug wherein my horse would not spawn no matter how many times I called it. After doing some testing it seems that the horses ability to spawn is somehow tied to the framerate or performance of the game. I was also dealing with a memory leak, once i restarted the game it got better and I could summon the horse 4 out of 5 times (but it would still refuse to spawn sometimes.)

Can you say what quests you mean? I started

Spoiler

Rannis quest with those 3 npc(Blaidd, smith and sorcerer) where we are currently looking for eternal city Nokron.

What would be the second quest/ending? The questline you start at

Spoiler

Volcano Manor with Tanith

by any chance?

 

[Lutte]

Too many weapons in my inventory require Faith or Arcane and it is pissing me off because I can not use them! Many of them are fucking dope too.

You wouldn't be able to use them anyway because getting upgrade resources is horrible in this game, I can barely manage to find the stuff for my main weapon, I haven't yet upgraded a side arm, my inventory is full of weapons I'd like to give a try for but I can't because there is no way I'm going to use a +8 weapon in the areas I'm currently exploring, that would be more painful than doing a SL1 run.

This wasn't ever a problem in the other souls games. DS1 made it difficult to get to +10 on other weapons, but +9 hit hard enough anyway for solo fun, DS2 had areas that was littered with enough materials to upgrade multiple weapons and you could use the bonfire ascetic to reset the area and get even more, DS3 gives you all you need in end game areas..