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

[Brickfrog]

The "legacy dungeons" can be found everywhere but few if any of them have important loot so feel free to skip them.

The ruins on the other hand should always be explored.

"legacy dungeons" are big story-related locations, like Stormveil castle or Academy of Raya Lucaria.

Ahh I got bad info then. The small caves and catacombs can be pretty safely ignored but anything marked as "ruins" will usually have an item or npc that's worth completing. (Some exceptions for quests)

It's funny that they call the major story locations "legacy" because it's kind of hard to imagine the game without them.

 

[Shrimp]

Now that this thing's been out for around a week, what's the Codex Consensus on it? Technical shit aside, is this a good Souls game for someone who likes then generally?
Speakin' as someone who liked Souls 1, was neutral-positive on Souls 2, and felt a strong distaste for Souls 3 (The levels in particular). Bloodborne's a given, and I haven't touched Sekiro.

Was all that guff about a free, immersive open world, filled with mystery and secrets where you can explore to your hearts content and build your tarnished your way true or not?

What I'm asking is, can I still spam sorceries like a dumb wizard or piss people off with one of those excessively acrobatic greatsword movesets coupled with flash-step?

I haven't beaten the game yet, but I think I'm something like 50-70% through it depending on how much stuff there actually is left. It's hard to tell honestly because the game genuinely does have a ton of side stuff.
When you say that you didn't like DS3 levels, do you mean their layout (verticality and interconnectivity within the level itself) or just the way they looked (primarily crumbling cities)? The big cities in Elden Ring have the same sort of layouts full of interconnectivity where a lot of paths end up leading to shortcuts or other paths of the same overall area. These castles feel pretty big, especially when you're first exploring them and you have no idea how much there actually is in them. I think the best comparison would be something like Cathedral from the Deep from DS3 except there at least aren't two 'Does not open from this side' doors in the first bonfire room.

Regarding builds, you can of course build whatever you want, but to be honest it does feel like the game sort of expects you to play an INT-based hybrid build. You'll find a ton of random spells and a lot of the weapons you find in the mid game have INT requirements as well.
Can't really speak for the PvP side of things since I haven't done much of that.

 

[Removal]

is this a good Souls game for someone who likes then generally?

yes, the only real beef I have with it is some of the copypasta enemies/dungeons
The boss quality is across the board though. Some of the bosses are very poorly designed too in the vein of long combos/input reading/spastic actions/ability to consistently one shot you, Radahn comes to mind in this regard, he's pure cancer. Other bosses like the dragon fights are pretty uninspiring so far.

 

[Smocaine]

I still cannot quite grasp why people always focus on the specifics of what they can do in Souls games. To me the biggest draw is the mood, environments, atmosphere, feels and mystery, paired with generally punishing gameplay and careful exploration. Everything else, no matter how good it might be, comes second, and ER delivers those first things in spades.

In a recent interview Miyazaki said this game is what he and From wanted DS to be from the very start, but they didn't have the skills, money and technology to pull it off so they took it step by step.

I agree with you that the unique appeal of From games is in their atmosphere, exploration, challenge and for me, memorable boss fights. I don't agree however that Elden Ring delivers on any of these fronts besides challenge, which is more due to the schizophrenic ADHD nature of the bosses and frustrating poorly designed duo battles

for me the game has next to zero atmosphere, the only time it feels close to atmospheric and grounded is when you're in a Legacy Dungeon or anywhere but the open-world, and even in the Legacy Dungeons you're jumping across rooftops and skirting the edges of castles as if you're Spider-Man.
the overworld itself is not atmospheric at all, you teleport everywhere constantly (#1 sign of a poorly designed open-world), double-jump all over the place, mow down endless trash mobs and loot everything you see, and when you see a mine, cave or ruin you skip over it because you know exactly what's in there, which only reinforces the feeling that you're playing a game with repetitive content, not undertaking an actual adventure of some sort, gamifying the feeling of the world and removing that sense of wonder

the careful and methodical exploration of Boletaria, the suffocating atmosphere of Latria and its bloody depths, Elden Ring could only dream to reach those heights
and in regards to what Miyazaki says, what does it really matter? the final product is what matters and what I'm judging, I couldn't give much of a shit on what he personally thinks. Miyazaki also said "All of Dark Souls 3's design is basically based on my own personal preference," and we all know how that turned out
creative director of the Oddworld series Lorne Lanning says that Soulstorm is what he originally envisioned for Abe's Exoddus, yet it's an abortion of a game, so why should I care about his opinion?

 

[perfectslumbers]

strong distaste for Souls 3 (The levels in particular).

The levels are somewhat similar to ds3 but imo a big step up. Jumping especially adds a lot to levels. The biggest thing I noticed wrt the dungeons was that there was an insane amount of branching paths and hidden areas in each dungeon, moreso than any other game. The enemy design on the other hand is closest to ds3/bloodborne unfortunately, with combos and mixups and delayed attacks. That said the combat is still an improvement over DS3 since armor is more powerful, and rolling has been nerfed, and while the enemy design is similar to ds3 there is greater variety.

free, immersive open world, filled with mystery and secrets where you can explore to your hearts content and build your tarnished your way true or not?

The open world has a great sense of discovery, there are tons of bizarre and unique encounters. There are also some repetitive dungeons with repeating tilesets, but they aren't the entire game like Skyrim. As for it being immersive, eh. On foot it works well, stalking through the grass. But you'll probably spend most of your game on horseback which makes the open world feel far too dense with encounters, feels better on foot.

What I'm asking is, can I still spam sorceries like a dumb wizard or piss people off with one of those excessively acrobatic greatsword movesets coupled with flash-step?

This game has the best build variety since ds2. Builds are also more important than usual, many people I know respecced (vomit) multiple times to deal with difficult bosses who had particular weaknesses.

Overall I think the game is much better than ds2/ds3, and a bit worse than ds/des. I would definitely recommend it.

 

[toro]

It's a disjointed mess. I've started teleporting all over the map. The immersion, the atmosphere are gone.

Good point, open world design is a failure if it requires instant teleport travel from anywhere. Another reason virtually every AAA open world game is trash.

It doesn't require instant teleport but you know that you have the option and the tension is gone.

Also I think in caves/mines you cannot teleport but I'm not sure.

 

[Lutte]

The quality of the main dungeoning seems to severely go down in the end game. The capital suffers from Anor Londo style excessive gigantism of empty spaces with sparse encounters, apart from the sewers areas that are jam packed with the sort of things I don't even bother fighting (do we really need more rat spam again? wasn't there enough in the entire damn game). It even does the tight rope moment (painting guardian zone) of anor londo in the sewers this time. A few areas that might seem packed with content just have those dumb white balls enemies with no poise that just die to r1 spamming. Even if you gather them all around you they pose less of a threat than the darn rats. And the occasional content reuse like a mini boss that's yet another copy pasted encounter there. (I spotted two at least, one of which is the tree slash flailing pus of man thing which was a fun novelty the first time but is now a rather unwelcome sight)

It's well made in terms of pathing, shortcuts to unlock, tricks to get to a place sooner etc but despite all that it's really a boring, uninteresting place that encourages to just sprint away from things considering the severe lack of well designed ambushes and positioning of enemy packs. Anor Londo wasn't very good apart from the solid aesthetics and this is just Anor++++, minus the quality aesthetics (haha).

The end boss of the area also left me so disappointed, only took a single retry to take down and it didn't have the visual flair and uniqueness of the academy boss to compensate in being gameplay trash. Also is it just me or is that boss character model.. a reuse from a certain other boss? eh?

 

[toro]

Elden Ring Publisher Raises All Employee Salaries in Japan

Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has informed its Japanese staff that they will all receive a pay increase from this April. The average monthly salary will be increased by 50,000 yen.

That's like 500 bucks.

 

[Silva]

Yeah, the open world, while beautiful looking, is just too formulaic and nonsensic in behavior to make for a plausible, atmospheric experience to the degree that DeS or DS1 had. The more time you spend on it, the more the game feels like a normal videogame and less of a unique experience. Reminds me of base DS2. Even the poor AI starts to grate in this environment in a way that didn't in the corridor worlds of the past. I mean, a wolf can't hear your sneaking behind it until you're 1 meter upon it, which is bizarre. This is passable on the old corridor maps since the wolves would be behind corners and wouldn't leave time for your brain to process anyway, but here it's immersion-breaking as fuck. EDIT: and that horse, oh my, it makes world exploration even shittier with it's far away cam, super speed and twitch controls. I would say it turns the game into a Mario Kart mini-game but that would be unfair as Mario Kart has better physics and simulation than this.

On the other hand, the "legacy" dungeons and the lead up to them are amazing and totally evokes the old feeling: Stormveil Castle and the road leading to it, is simply amazing, as is Raya Lucaria (and that boss... I'm in love). It's as atmospheric as the best FROM have put so far, and makes you forget any problems for the moment.

So, the game has this tension between a videogamey-feeling openworld on one side, and superbly atmospheric legacy dungeons on the other. If videogamey parts don't bother you, or you're the type of person who can selectively shut down your brain so you don't mind it anyway, you'll probably love it. If not, well, I would rate the experience positive regardless, just be ready to grind your teeth now and then.

 

[Brickfrog]

Once youv teleported into an area for the tenth time it gets old but a lot of the areas are pretty impressive the first time you explore them.

I guess I'm in the "shut off part of your brain" camp because rolling around on the horse doesn't bother me too much.

 

[perfectslumbers]

and that horse, oh my, it makes world exploration even shittier with it's far away cam, super speed and twitch controls. It's like you start a Street Fighter or FIFA Soccer mini-game everytime you call it. Super Mario Kart is a better simulation than this.

Yeah honestly I feel like I ruined a lot of the game for myself by using the horse too much. The most fun I had in the open world was before I got the horse and was stalking knights from bushes and taking down enemy camps. Once I got the horse I'd just ride around in circles killing the entire camp in one go like it was dynasty warriors.

 

[cvv]

Has anyone tested how split damage works in ER?

One of many reasons DS3 is shit without mods is split dmg and infusions - infusing your weapon with anything except the physical stones straight up makes it worse bc of how damage mitigation works. Is it the same for ER's affinities and greases?

 

[perfectslumbers]

One of many reasons DS3 is shit without mods is split dmg and infusions - infusing your weapon with anything except the physical stones straight up makes it worse bc of how damage mitigation works. Is it the same for ER's affinities and greases?

Not exactly sure how the calculations work but I played most of the game with a magic halberd and it kicked ass. Frost is also very very strong. Not sure about the other infusions.

 

[Silva]

Yeah honestly I feel like I ruined a lot of the game for myself by using the horse too much. The most fun I had in the open world was before I got the horse and was stalking knights from bushes and taking down enemy camps. Once I got the horse I'd just ride around in circles killing the entire camp in one go like it was dynasty warriors.

Perhaps there's hope for the horse to be improved through updates. A tad more inertia, gradative acceleration and slightly reduced final speed could do wonders.

Also, I think there's a bug with it's burst? After I press the burst button and STOP the horse in place, if I push forward again it goes away in full burst speed instead of, you know, the normal speed as it should. Feels weird as fuck and made me fall from a cliff. Does it happen to anybody else?

 

[perfectslumbers]

Perhaps there's hope for the horse to be improved through updates. A tad more inertia, gradative acceleration and slightly reduced final speed could do wonders.

Although the horse does feel arcadey I don't think that would fix the problem. The game world is too compact and too "levellike," to work that well with a horse, compared to games like Shadow of The Collosus that often have huge fields.

 

[Talby]

I'm annoyed with the game for the first time. I think I got screwed out of a boss fight.

Spoiler

At Redmane castle, the fight against the lion guy where a knight shows up halfway. I tried it a few times and lost, and decided to explore elsewhere for a while. When I returned, the fog wall was gone and there were some NPCs hanging around in the arena. Is there any way to fight them still? I didn't know exploring would cause bosses to despawn. Makes me paranoid about doing stuff when content is just going to be taken away, feels like a punishment for exploring.

 

[perfectslumbers]

I'm annoyed with the game for the first time. I think I got screwed out of a boss fight.

There's only two points this happens in the game, what just happened to you and a pretty clear point of no return right before the games final dungeon.

You have to beat the final boss of the area and then talk to the man that announced the festival and reload. At least, that's what other people say worked for them.

 

[Kruno]

I'm annoyed with the game for the first time. I think I got screwed out of a boss fight.

Spoiler

At Redmane castle, the fight against the lion guy where a knight shows up halfway. I tried it a few times and lost, and decided to explore elsewhere for a while. When I returned, the fog wall was gone and there were some NPCs hanging around in the arena. Is there any way to fight them still? I didn't know exploring would cause bosses to despawn. Makes me paranoid about doing stuff when content is just going to be taken away, feels like a punishment for exploring.

You can come back after main area boss is beaten and then just TP into the bonfire. I got pissed off as well thinking that the boss duo disappeared, but it is only temporary!

 

[Brickfrog]

I was running around stormveil long after having cleared it out and found a new piece of equipment in an area Im pretty sure i had already fully looted.
Now I'm paranoid that new sets of equipment spawn in old dungeons after certain breakpoints.

Did anyone find the crimson hood in stormveil during their first visit?

 

[Bahamut]

Did anyone find the crimson hood in stormveil during their first visit?

I was doing stormveil and entered that room bit later second time and it appeared

 

[Brickfrog]

I feel so bad for the ocd people that are going to have to comb through every dungeon twice now

 

[mediocrepoet]

I've been finding all sorts of stuff that I missed the first, or even second time through areas.

The funny thing to me is that I was still looking for homeward bones or something and figured that you could only fast travel from grace point to grace point like in the other Souls games, not from anywhere to grace point as long as you aren't in a dungeon or in combat. That difference is pretty huge in terms of reducing challenge and immersion, so I've decided to keep playing the way I had been and only using it at grace points as otherwise it'll actually reduce my fun factor. For similar reasons, I tend to dismount for pretty much all fights unless it seems it's really intended for you to be mounted.

Even though I'm generally very positive about this game, I absolutely hate those catdog statues. I get why they move the way they do from a logic standpoint, but what a shitty, shitty boss. It looks awful and isn't fun to fight, just a miserable time waster all around.

One of the things I like most about the game is that it actually makes light sources useful. Like Dragon's Dogma, the dark gets dark af, so the torches, light spell and items are actually useful and significant choices about what to use and how, unlike in From's previous Soulsborne games.

 

[deem]

Oh yes, I loved Zwei pancakes in DS1! Used it exclusively there.

I abused this move so much back in the day. It even staggers bosses including Ornstein & Smough.

 

[Lutte]

Wew, that fire giant fight has to be the most dogshit fight in the history of souls games. It's always been a pain with too big enemies but DS2's giants didn't flee from you all the fucking time literally rolling on the floor for kilometers away while spamming AoEs in phase 2 that are guaranteed deaths and having Midir's level of HP. When you melee him you literally can't see above the ankle and I'm not locking on, this is just how retarded the character model is.

Elden Ring is really a mixed bag between the truly good stuff and the completely retarded.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

In a recent interview Miyazaki said this game is what he and From wanted DS to be from the very start, but they didn't have the skills, money and technology to pull it off so they took it step by step.

That's interesting and a little sad to know. I find the structure and content amounts of DS1-3 much easier to digest. I have clear memories of nearly every location and encounter from DS1 and 2 because of how concentrated those elements are in both games. I'm somewhat struggling to hold onto specifics with Elden Ring already.

It's a problem of scale that's a bit like massive CGI action sequences in movies. You can have 1000s of CGI goblins on screen destroying a city or whatever but it’ll struggle for impact or significance due to the overwhelming visual noise. Smaller scale action sequences tend to be a much better watch in comparison precisely because there's a more manageable amount of visual information to process. The filmmakers can better focus on high level details of the craft when shooting it too.

Similarly the amount of raw content on offer in new open world games is huge but almost inevitably diluted compared to a similar title with a more focused structure. There's so much going on that everything just blends together after a while, not helped by occasional repetition of content. Because you’re free to go anywhere pacing just goes out the window unless you’re disciplined enough to impose your own set of restrictions. It must be impossible to maintain a consistent top end level of attention to detail in design once a game world gets to a certain size these days. Too many different assets and people to manage.

Impressed by the effort by From here but as ever it’s the well made major levels & dungeons that really keep me playing.