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

[Mortmal]

 

[Brickfrog]

Donating to humanitarian aid in ukraine but insisting the money only be spent on portable generators to let people play Elden ring

 

[thelegend]

After 98 hours I believe I have fully finished the game, completing all bosses and completing what I believe are all 6 endings to the game, although I'm convinced there's 7 and now confidently write my review on the game.

For the sake of not wasting much of your time with this review i will start with the bad

- Weird FPS stuttering issue, I didn't really get this bad compared to most people seemingly but I did encounter it in a particularly foggy and snowy area of the game. Hopefully they can fix up these PC port issues quickly.

- The worst PvP invasion system out of all their titles. The only way you can invade is if someone has summoned help already, that means the invader has to always 2 v 1 at a minimum but in fact most of the time they are actually 3 v 1ing as the person being invaded will summon in additional help. I personally think this invading system is absolute garbage awful design and it's especially tragic with how well the rest of the game is designed and it really cuts deep with the potential this title had in regards to PvP.

- Bad summoning multiplayer system. I believe this game has a level scaling system if you play multiplayer with your friends and use a password so your high level character can help out a friend, however for absolutely no reason, this is not the universal multiplayer system and they did not extend this level scaling system to the random summons to help people or the random invading PvP. This means that I, with my level 165 character are destined to never be able to use multiplayer system to help out new players kill early game bosses even though they actually have a system in the game that I should be able to use in order to do this.

- An issue that almost all open world games have towards the end of the game. Copy and Paste enemies and bosses where unfortunately due to the scale of the game that variety of bosses and enemies gets thin, and you get bosses that are 2 or 3 man of previous bosses. Also due to the nature of an open world if you explore and happen to successfully grind through a difficult or area you're underleveled for, this will ultimately mean you have thus overleveled another area. I had this problem myself where I explored and facesmashed through a couple of massive hidden zones and thus overleveled probably 2 main zones I had to progress through later. Having said that in the last 2 or so zones and especially the last hidden zone of the game I seemed to be at the correct level for them so it seemed to equalise regardless towards the end of the game.

- I believe the game actually tricks new players into a more difficult experience. At the start of the game you are given a direction of where to go through arrows on the map pointing you where to go. The arrows in Limgrave, and in Liurnia point you towards a major boss / zone that is actually substantially more difficult than the other major boss and Points of Interest in the zone. I believe for the sake of new players they should somehow adjust the arrows. I highly recommend new players, especially to the series as a whole explore zones to their maximum before actually following the arrows which seems counter-intuituve design.

Now let's talk about the good parts

- There are a couple of systems in place that make it the most accessible From Software title for new players. The main system is the Spirit Ashes system that is basically an offline summoning system that summons an upgradable NPC or group of NPCs to help you. This system alone makes the game exceptionally accessible for new players to the series as these NPCs are frankly and I believe intentionally busted, if a player ever gets bored and wants to progress a frustrating part of the game they can pop one of these and fly through it.

- Another major plus to this game compared to previous titles is the sheer variety of builds, especially through the Ashes of War system that allows you transform any standard weapon to scale with any stat. This with the sheer variaty of weapons, armour etc. that are already in the game adds massive replay value to the game over time. Also the game has a built in easily accessible respec function. I'm already looking forward to trying new builds through new game+. The culmination of this variety in builds really solidifies Elden Ring as the Magnum Opus of the Souls combat system, which once again makes how bad the PvP is sting extra hard.

- Open World, Storytelling and Characters. I really enjoyed the Open World myself and believe it was a great evolution to the series that just requires some kinks sorting that I've discussed previously. You can actually see landmarks on the map without having visited them yet. Caves, Towers, Churches and especially the Ruins are all clearly visible on the map before you have visited them although there are also some hidden ones for the people like me that also like exploring.

Overall I found the world and zones themselves very varied and interesting going between zone to zone, so that's definitely a big plus of the Open World design. Whilst From Software isn't the pinnacle developer of graphics, From Software has always been phenomenal at environmental design and they carry on their form in Elden Ring.

- I enjoy the Elden Ring story more than other Souls titles. I found it had a much stronger foundation that you could more easily understand and follow, it made you want to explore the world more and interact the NPCs regularly. Elden Ring didn't leave a lot of the story vague, throughout the game it solidified the lore into quite an easy to understand package and I believe this is a plus personally.

In my opinion Elden Ring has the most interesting NPCs and also Quests out of all the titles. I love the secrets in From Software games and fortunately Elden Ring has a good few of them that were a treat to discover with all the NPCs. The NPC quests were quite long, fleshed out, interesting to the story and if you explored the game fully weren't really terribly difficult to miss. They also contributed a lot to a few of the endings which I found really cool.

Middling things that can be positives and negatives

- The ambient soundtrack for the zones is the best out of all the From Software games, however I found a lot of the actual boss music quite hit and miss. Overall it was good enough for me to buy the Soundtrack so there's that I guess.

- They managed to make, in my humble opinion the worst 'poison swamp' area out of every souls game. Take that as you will. Hidetaka Miyazaki spared no expense in the creation of this area.

Closing Notes

To summarise this review, I strongly believe this to overall be the best From Software title for a singleplayer experience and possibly the worst for a multiplayer experience. New players and Veterans alike can have an absolute blast due to the systems they have implemented. The sheer freedom in this game is incredible from the build variety to how you explore and progress through the game which gives this game a ton of replay value compared to previous titles and also gives Elden Ring the strongest combat in a souls game so far. The story is interesting and in my opinion more concrete than previous From Software games which made it very fun to learn about as you played through the game, the NPC quests are the most interesting so far. The PvP invasions had the potential to be the best in all Souls games due to the aforementioned build variety but they messed that up, hopefully they will change it. The multiplayer with randoms is unfortunately hindered for absolutely no reason. Hopefully they fix the performance issues, luckily I didn't really have any except a little bit in one zone.

Naturally this review is all my opinion, if you disagree that's cool. If you have performance issues that's unfortunate, hope they fix them.

Your review is 4,745 characters too long. Please shorten it and try again. Bruh.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1245620/ELDEN_RING/


Looks i will be playing this game after a few patches.

 

[Eyestabber]

Anyone got a theory on the colosseums? Future DLC or cut content?

- The worst PvP invasion system out of all their titles. The only way you can invade is if someone has summoned help already, that means the invader has to always 2 v 1 at a minimum but in fact most of the time they are actually 3 v 1ing as the person being invaded will summon in additional help. I personally think this invading system is absolute garbage awful design and it's especially tragic with how well the rest of the game is designed and it really cuts deep with the potential this title had in regards to PvP.

Unsurprising, they've been nerfing invasions since DS3. Quick reminder that DS2 had THE best invasions of the entire series. I ruined SO MANY games by invading over and over. Fun times.

 

[deem]

thelegend this reads like a book report. Or an AI generated text. You've managed to say absolutely nothing of substance.

 

[randir14]

Fuck those piece of shit revenants, fighting them feels like getting cheesed in a corner in Street Fighter. I lost 450k souls at the bottom of Elphael because I had to try to fight five in a row to get my corpse.

 

[Great Deceiver]

After finishing Lyndell, I went back to clear Mt. Gelmir (too short and too easy because I was overlevelled) and a couple other crypts I hadn't finished before heading on to the Mountaintop of the Giants. There was a crypt in Altus Plateau where the boss was 2 Crucible Knights at once, but surprisingly I got them down after 2 tries - expected it to be more bullshit than it was. Copypasta reaching critical levels. The weird stone dog bosses of early crypts are now trash mobs. I'm clocking at around 80 hours/level 120 and frankly I'm beginning to forget about the good parts of the game, which were many early on. That's very bad.

I'm playing a greatshield/greatsword build (70+ str) and while it's serviceable, it's also very boring lategame because of enemy hp bloat. I found a str greatsword with bleed, which is alright but it doesn't scale even after upgraded - not to mention the disadvantage of not taking on oils and other buffs - which means that my early game greatsword that I have up to +21 is better. Difficult to get the bleed off with a greatsword anyway, I'd rather just do jump r2 and stagger. Poise, although seemingly better than in DS3, where it did nothing, is still not good enough and pretty useless on bosses. Might respec into int for moonveil for this final stretch.

Right now I'm almost inclined to rank Elden Ring below DS3, simply because it's too long and there's too much recycled shit, so much so that you begin to lose sight of the better parts of the game. DS3 at least had some very memorable bosses that stuck with you, even though level design was generally bad and game progression was linear crap. I might take a week off from playing so I can finish it with a fresh perspective. Pretty soured right now.

 

[Lutte]

Difficult to get the bleed off with a greatsword anyway

It's the problem of slow weapons vs dual wielding weapons that allow you to do a lot of L1 before having to dodge again. With the right bleed setup it's even better to just spam L1 after staggering some enemies than to do their critical.

 

[Lithium Flower]

I liked the Radahn fight but having now returned and explored Redmane, the place is a disappointment and a massive missed opportunity especially considering its fairly unique layout and compelling aesthetosphere (m'chorus *tips kettle helm*)

Unlike the labyrinthine nature of Castle Stormveil the place is a mix of courtyards with sparse cover and plenty of verticality. This could have been the ultimate one-man castle siege scenario with amazing group fight potential were there at least twice the amount of enemies, weapon emplacements, and so on. There was a whole path like that in Castle Stormveil but there it was basically the idiot route that you were meant to bypass whereas Redmane is open enough facilitate the player prevailing against overwhelming odds by leveraging their mobility and spacing, with good sightlines allowing for plenty of magic and ranged weapon use, and so on.

Instead you just phaseshift back into the castle behind a row of layered greek fire emplacements (the one tactically interesting part of the map...at least it could have been were it facing the opposite fucking way) and proceed to meet & fuck everyone's cockass with a +14 mydickericorde for fifteen minutes as if some trickster secretly modded SoS and Sexlab into your beloved TESV install.

Oh also the bossfight is exactly backwards, the Misbegotten starts the fight but the motherfucker is a glass cannon, like whaaaat???? So you kill the dumb motherfucker in thirty seconds and then it just becomes a solo fight against the Crucible Knight. Now were it reversed and you started off facing Crucible and his proud HP measuring approximately the size of your grandmother's prolapse(s,) only to be surprised by a large cat wielding an oversized circumcision knife coming straight for your foreskin, that would be quite something indeed.

Great shame considering this is as close as Caelid seems to get to a legacy dungeon and this ain't it, chiefster.

 

[Lithium Flower]

coming to think of it they should have called it Enamder Castle because the whole place is backwards aha

 

[thelegend]

thelegend this reads like a book report. Or an AI generated text. You've managed to say absolutely nothing of substance.

756 people disagrees with you. The post is the most helpful review as voted by gamers in steam.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Dark Souls was already a big deal but we didn't see everyone jumping on that.

I had the opposite impression, that now there is an inflation of "soulslikes". In particular in indie games. Every games, even a card solitare, is a soulslike now.

From what I've seen most of the soulslike indies aren't true clones. They selectively pick a few elements to copy and then run with their own thing, usually a 2D metroidvania-esque thingie. The most common elements that they borrow in my experience are the minimalistic and vague narrative, the aesthetic, xp/currency being squashed into a single resource that you drop upon death and stamina based combat. Most of them obviously can't make a full-scale Souls clone because they don't have the budget for it, which is why I focused more on the AAA industry who have the resources to do it but are too disconnected from the customers to understand why these games are popular.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

rom what I've seen most of the soulslike indies aren't true clones. They selectively pick a few elements to copy and then run with their own thing, usually a 2D metroidvania-esque thingie. The most common elements that they borrow in my experience are the minimalistic and vague narrative, the aesthetic, xp/currency being squashed into a single resource that you drop upon death and stamina based combat. Most of them obviously can't make a full-scale Souls clone because they don't have the budget for it, which is why I focused more on the AAA industry who have the resources to do it but are too disconnected from the customers to understand why these games are popular.

the other big philosophy taken is the melee combat. Dodge roll/dash timing, hit 2 times, dodge roll again.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

Just finished at 87 hours. Almost entirely rage quit at Malenia. I have no desire to ever play this game again.

Spoiler

Ranni is best waifu.

 

[toro]

I never cared much for PvP in DS3 and I doubt I'll care much for it in this game either, but I've heard the latest stupid PvP meme build is combining a spell called Fire's Deadly Sin and a weapon called Eclipse Shotel.
Apparently the shotel's weapon art makes your attacks build up the Death Blight status effect (functions basically like petrification in the old games; full gauge means instant death) and the fire spell sets you ablaze which damages nearby enemies.
The result is that you can just stand in the vicinity of people to build up Death Blight which kills them very fast.

meme game. no skills. just twinks

 

[toro]

I kinda feel that myself. I didn't have that problem with DS2 vis DS1 because of how balls different Dark Souls 2 was compared to the first one (for good or for bad) but Elden Ring is just a bit too familiar for my tastes.

Maybe that means you shouldn't have skipped Sekiro.

Possibly.

But i didn't "skip" it per-se, i was just waiting to get it at a sufficent discount but that never happened. I could have removed it from inventory, like i just did for Elden Ring but i just feel dirty when i do that. I'm feeling dirty right now too but fuck me man, 60 euros is a bit much.

Sekiro was 50% off during the last couple of Steam sales if I'm not mistaken. I think it's a way better game than Elden Ring.

How many times do we have to deal with Sekiro decliners in here?


Souls games are about choice, variety in builds and weapons, spellcasting and weapons, dark fantasy in a beautiful world. Sekiro is about collecting enough consumables to spam at the boss and spamming the 2 prosthetic upgrades you need to kill most bosses, while wearing the same outfit and using the same main weapon through the entire fucking game.

In Sekiro I beat all bosses without using any consumable or weapon art.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I kinda feel that myself. I didn't have that problem with DS2 vis DS1 because of how balls different Dark Souls 2 was compared to the first one (for good or for bad) but Elden Ring is just a bit too familiar for my tastes.

Maybe that means you shouldn't have skipped Sekiro.

Possibly.

But i didn't "skip" it per-se, i was just waiting to get it at a sufficent discount but that never happened. I could have removed it from inventory, like i just did for Elden Ring but i just feel dirty when i do that. I'm feeling dirty right now too but fuck me man, 60 euros is a bit much.

Sekiro was 50% off during the last couple of Steam sales if I'm not mistaken. I think it's a way better game than Elden Ring.

How many times do we have to deal with Sekiro decliners in here?


Souls games are about choice, variety in builds and weapons, spellcasting and weapons, dark fantasy in a beautiful world. Sekiro is about collecting enough consumables to spam at the boss and spamming the 2 prosthetic upgrades you need to kill most bosses, while wearing the same outfit and using the same main weapon through the entire fucking game.

In Sekiro I beat all bosses without using any consumable or weapon art.

But I bet you used a katana, didn't you? Weak.

 

[Curratum]

coming to think of it they should have called it Enamder Castle because the whole place is backwards aha

At some point, the castle gets populated with enemies and has a ton of unique loot in it, and doors open up too. Not sure what even triggers it.

 

[toro]

Jonathan Blow is enraged by the game.

 

[Shrimp]

coming to think of it they should have called it Enamder Castle because the whole place is backwards aha

At some point, the castle gets populated with enemies and has a ton of unique loot in it, and doors open up too. Not sure what even triggers it.

If you arrive early enough the castle will be populated with enemies as well as the double boss fight. I decided to leave it for later since it was too much to handle for my underlevelled and underequipped ass, but when I came back the festival had started and I thought it was odd the fight just had disappeared.
After defating Radahn you can revert the castle's state to normal by talking with the announcer inside the tower on the opposite side of the boss arena. I have no idea what causes the festival to start though, it was just completely empty when I revisited the place.

 

[Joyvankek]

At some point, the castle gets populated with enemies and has a ton of unique loot in it, and doors open up too. Not sure what even triggers it.
If you arrive early enough the castle will be populated with enemies as well as the double boss fight. I decided to leave it for later since it was too much to handle for my underlevelled and underequipped ass, but when I came back the festival had started and I thought it was odd the fight just had disappeared.
After defating Radahn you can revert the castle's state to normal by talking with the announcer inside the tower on the opposite side of the boss arena. I have no idea what causes the festival to start though, it was just completely empty when I revisited the place.

Didn't know about that whole event, dunno if other areas are affected, so far I am done with 2 main bosses, and have the quest to go to the(I assume) cause I got two pices of the elden ring, guys named Monarch or something.
Maybe i should stop fucking around the map and continue the quest. dunno.
Also I think covenants are no longer a thing, since people say I can just join every faction all at once.
Though I never played souls(Every port to PC has been a joke, so since they didn't give a crap about PC I did the same with their games) before, and sekiro simply didn't click with me.
So dunno how that worked before.

 

[Tyranicon]

You guys hyped me up for the foreskin duo like it was some kind of challenging fight but it turns out I was overleveled by the time I got there.

 

[cvv]

You guys hyped me up for the foreskin duo like it was some kind of challenging fight but it turns out I was overleveled by the time I got there.

What level?

I was able to handle the Apostle at the Windmill village quite easy but I needed like 10 runs at the Noble. I'm dreading this fight.

 

[Mojobeard]

I have issues with a lot of the enemy placement/encounters in this game, and they seem to appear in every single dungeon. They're increasingly apparent on a subsequent playthrough.
One type is where you have ranged guy/s you need to get rid of, but there's a strong melee that aggros at the same time as them, and it usually has a lot of health or a tower shield or whatever. It's constant running back to a safe corridor, like you're playing Pillars of Eternity. Sniping rarely works in these situations. Magic academy is almost exclusively these.
Second type is where the enemy is "hiding", hanging on the wall or pretending to be dead. Every undead does this, every imp does this, most ants do this, most bats do this, most hands do this, etc. Makes it a slog to get through their areas.
Then there's the ones where you're very obviously intended to sneak, but there's scripted enemy activity when you cross point X. Either the enemy turns just when you're getting close to backstab, or one appears around the corner.

All of these are fine in a vacuum, like yeah you can do them every now and then to shake things up. And you can certainly point an example of these in every single Souls.
But they are absolutely everywhere in this game. Every other encounter is one of these.
Isn't enemies simply standing or patrolling good enough?

 

[cvv]

And you can certainly point an example of these in every single Souls. But they are absolutely everywhere in this game.

That's DS3 legacy, it wasn't as bad in the previous games.