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

[Brickfrog]

Maybe unpopular opinion, but I think the hardest Fromsoft bosses are in Sekiro. No summons, no main weapons besides a katana, everything is a duel.

Saint Ishin is the height of Fromsoft boss design, not only in "fair difficulty" but because he perfectly encapsulates everything you've learned throughout the game.

Fuck, i gave an heretic book to the priest in Roundtable Hold. Hope i didn't fuck up something.

I think most of them (if not all) are heresies but he happily teaches them anyways.

Honestly the shinobi tools are incredibly good against bosses in sekiro. If you watch a speedrun there's a lot of axe/spear spam.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Maybe unpopular opinion, but I think the hardest Fromsoft bosses are in Sekiro. No summons, no main weapons besides a katana, everything is a duel.

Doesn't strike me as a controversial take at all. Much more difficult encounters because of how limited your options are. Rigid and grueling are the words that come to mind.

 

[DemonKing]

Elden Ring Ubisoft Version:

 

[Curratum]

This game is categorically too fucking big. I love Souls gameplay and exploration of spaces and locations made by their art team so much that I'm still onboard and enjoying it all, but I'm at 77 hours.

I've barely set foot beyond the grand lift and on the plateau (opened the route through the tunnel first). Haven't even seen anything beyond those areas.

I suspect someone who is less fond of From's games in general will be starting to get really fatigued by now and would just plough through to the end, only to be cockblocked by the brutal later bosses and just throw the game away.

 

[Curratum]

This feels insane and senseless to say that way, but I just feel like it's not the open world or "filler" that is the issue, I just think that while the content is all great and meaningful, there is just too much of it to handle by one person in one playthrough. It's all good content, it's great locations and it's entertaining combat and new enemy types and gimmicks and new items to find, but goodness, there's so much of it, your brain starts to blank out after a point.

I spent this entire evening going around Caelid, Limgrave and Liurnia and doing "loose ends" types of things and even while doing that I ran into more new dungeons, quest threads and areas and places. They're all meaningful and beautifully constructed, but my brain is just so overloaded with what's going on at this point, I just can't process it all and stop caring after a while.

It's like I've eaten a whole box of chocolates and I can no longer feel the taste. This is what I've mostly very thoroughly explored after those 77 hours and what I haven't. Full world map spoilers etc.

Spoiler

 

[Lutte]

The uchi is too good not to use early on. Good reach, speed, damage, and bleed. It just sucks for poise breaking. I think it's the best weapon you can find in Limgrave, hands down, for any build. Just add ashes/affinity to taste.

No, it's only a little inferior to heavy weapons if you use the L2-R2 to stagger break.

Just tried another magic weapon, they never seem to disappoint, this time : dark moon greatsword, this game incarnation of the moonlight sword. After using the weapon art to buff it, R2 launches projectiles that cost no fp and can one or two shot common enemies in one of the worst area of the game, the haligtree city. It also pushes people away slightly and works on the heavier dudes that take 5 hits to kill.
Did I also mention, it staggers break the tree defenders in a few hits of R2 too?

It's not just the moon katana boyz, all INT weapons seem pretty good. I also recommend Wing of Astel.

 

[Curratum]

The uchi is too good not to use early on. Good reach, speed, damage, and bleed. It just sucks for poise breaking. I think it's the best weapon you can find in Limgrave, hands down, for any build. Just add ashes/affinity to taste.

No, it's only a little inferior to heavy weapons if you use the L2-R2 to stagger break.

Just tried another magic weapon, they never seem to disappoint, this time : dark moon greatsword, this game incarnation of the moonlight sword. After using the weapon art to buff it, R2 launches projectiles that cost no fp and can one or two shot common enemies in one of the worst area of the game, the haligtree city. It also pushes people away slightly and works on the heavier dudes that take 5 hits to kill.
Did I also mention, it staggers break the tree defenders in a few hits of R2 too?

It's not just the moon katana boyz, all INT weapons seem pretty good. I also recommend Wing of Astel.

Posted a screenshot of a chest I couldn't access a few pages back. Now I found the way up there and literally got the Wing tonight. I had to follow a wiki quest guide for it, but such is life.

 

[Lutte]

Maybe unpopular opinion, but I think the hardest Fromsoft bosses are in Sekiro. No summons, no main weapons besides a katana, everything is a duel.

Saint Ishin is the height of Fromsoft boss design, not only in "fair difficulty" but because he perfectly encapsulates everything you've learned throughout the game.

Yet I managed to kill Isshin multiple times (although it took me a long while to master him and kill him the first time) but I don't ever see myself killing Malenia the legit, no mimic, no bloodspam way.

 

[Curratum]

I have accepted that I will be using whatever cheese is available to me. I am not that hardcore and I would rather experience the content than waste my time and nerves over perceived "proper" ways to play. I do love From but I am not a masochist and the game's design offers me these tools so...

 

[Tyranicon]

there is just too much of it to handle by one person in one playthrough

I think some of us are suffering from content fatigue because we've spent basically a full work week+ playing the game since launch.

If you approach the game over a longer span of time, I think your opinion will change.

That being said, there is a lot of content in the game, and I can see a lot of people revisiting areas they fully cleared looking for new things.

Yet I managed to kill Isshin multiple times (although it took me a long while to master him and kill him the first time) but I don't ever see myself killing Malenia the legit, no mimic, no bloodspam way.

Fromsoft bosses are designed with the player's tools in mind. More hardcore players will probably scoff at using any kind of summon or cheese, but the game is likely designed around those features.

To the very good soulsborne enjoyers, I expect this is just From raising the ante. Sure, there's plenty of complaints now, but I wonder if that will change as the better players explore more if the game's mechanics.

 

[MajorMace]

I think some of us are suffering from content fatigue because we've spent basically a full work week+ playing the game since launch.

Probably.
I only poured 16 hours in the game despite buying it last monday.
Every fucking step I take, there's something new, weird, interesting, horrific.
It's Dark Souls on steroids, but also more fulfilling, chiller, bigger. The overbearing contrast of these big ass magnificent trees and the soulless devastation of the world is brilliant.

Just came through some forest full of giant grizzly bears, this shit just naturally flows between errant knights infested meadows and some charred hellish landscape.

That's yet another milestone for these fuckin japs. 15 years of dunks.

Stepped a foot in the first castle (after the Margit fight). Feels like visiting the stronghold where Guts cleaves Bazuso's head in two. Same vibes from Boletaria, pretty much, but with some dazzling impression that there are layers upon layers of shit under and/or above. This shit is insane.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Every fucking step I take, there's something new, weird, interesting, horrific.
It's Dark Souls on steroids, but also more fulfilling, chiller, bigger. The overbearing contrast of these big ass magnificent trees and the soulless devastation of the world is brilliant.

I think that's what sets the open-world exploration in this game apart from just about every highly-touted openworld sandbox game released in the past 15 years, the ones by by Ubisoft in particular. There's a stronger sense of exploration and discovery in this, of not knowing what the fuck you could find lurking in some crypt, wandering in a forest or occupying some distant fort. Be it a weapon, spell, armor set or ungodly monster.

As opposed to yet more radio towers, yet more rundown villages, and yet more squadrons of mooks dressed in black and red.

 

[Lutte]

This sentiment doesn't actually stand the test of time. After a while, you know this mine will net you another crystalian boss, or this catacomb will have another cat dog or similar, this tree's going to have the putrid pus of man like spazzy or the asylum demon reskin etc.

Also every "area" has that repetitive pattern of always having : dragon, catacombs, mines, erdtree defender (the putrid tree or asylum demon), hero tomb with its inane chariot waiting game shit, a tower with a dumb puzzle (find the three spirits around and r1 them, or jump into it) etc.

The loot is cool but the charm is gone. It's far more formulaic than the fanboys give it credit for and the only thing it has going for it over ubisoft formula is the quality of souls combat and the variety of loot.

 

[Brickfrog]

I was charmed tbh. A lot of the areas are pretty damn cool and I don't mind the repetitive boss fights since there are a significant number of interesting uniques.

Somehow iv only seen one catdog 80 hours in tho.

This isn't the forum to be a fanboy about new games but Elden ring ranks towards the top of from soft games for me.

 

[Lutte]

I was charmed tbh. A lot of the areas are pretty damn cool and I don't mind the repetitive boss fights since there are a significant number of cool uniques.

Somehow iv only seen one catdog 80 hours in tho.

Ya prolly missed a decent amount of catacombs. In some it's even a normal mob instead of a boss too.

Of the open world, the only areas I found decent to explore were the underground areas, which feel more like a real traditional level but bigger, and the area northmost in the map.

 

[Brickfrog]

I probably saved myself some boredom by skipping over a fair number of open world dungeons. Iv still had an incredibly dense experience without them.

 

[Bigg Boss]

My friends ps4 burned up playing elden ring.

 

[Brickfrog]

My biggest problem with the open world is that riding around is really only going to be fun once or twice. Going from a to b in the overworld is just a waste of time once the magic of the first experience is gone.

I think the tighter level design from previous games doesn't get old as quick.

That said Elden Ring is still a 9/10 or 10/10 for me.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

I've never given a fuck about the stroytelling in these things. I think that might be why Dark Souls 2 is my favorite. That game is about everything except storytelling. If some faggot made a lore video I ain't seen it and I never will.

 

[Mortmal]

Plenty of them.. you sadly missed quests.

Can you name a few (not asking for an exhaustive list) that appear in early boss fights in a spoiler tag? I'm quite curious, I know I've missed quite some questing but I was a little more completionist in the early game, of the NPCs I did some of Fia's stuff (before she does what you know at the roundtable), D, the whole witch questline, Neph until she goes all depressed, Seluvis (lied to him), Roderika and maybe one or two I forgot about.

Milicent , braid for exemple. Not so early although.

 

[Eyestabber]

Any tips on low investment/high return magic? No pyromancies this time around, so should I just stick to STR/DEX or is there something worth investing a couple points into INT/FAI for?

 

[Brickfrog]

There is a seal that describes itself as scaling with strength and gurranq hands out incantations with low faith reqs.

Seems like a way for high str low faith builds to get some ranged damage in

 

[Talby]

Bros who have beaten the game already, does the game shunt you on to NG+ automatically or can you choose to remain in NG like in Dark Souls 2/3?

 

[Mortmal]

Any tips on low investment/high return magic? No pyromancies this time around, so should I just stick to STR/DEX or is there something worth investing a couple points into INT/FAI for?

Dont go for a mix of int and faith, get a focus scaling S and either go full int or full faith. Mixing gives mediocre results. Sorcery is easiest by far, go to caelid early loot a meteorite staf , it's already S by default but not upgradable , and close in the area loot the rock sling spell . With that you should be king for a while.

 

[Sunri]

Finally, a cool looking armor