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

[Efe]

wow they did nerf radahn very hard
he hits like half as hard

Nooooo, i'll never get to experience it now.

Fuck you From, since when were you ever in the habit of dumbing shit down?

One of those cases where pirates enjoy superior product I guess.
or you can equip that moar dmg taken talisman (shabriris woe?)

 

[NJClaw]

I died once to Godrick, the Crucible Knight duo, the Godskin duo, and Placidusax. Twice to Radagon/Elden Beast. Three times to Maliketh and the first Tree Sentinel. Five to Malenia. I can't remember how many times the first Crucible Knight killed me, but I faced him severely underleveled as soon as I got to the evergaol.

Jesus fuck man, you two shotted the Crucible Duo AND the Godskin Duo? And you generaly one-shot or two-shot most of these crazy bosses?

Are you something superhuman...like a cat for example?

Both duos are more a test of patience than skill. By the time I faced them, I was already comfortable enough with their movesets that I could 1v1 the sword knight and the slim godskin without getting hit. With the knights, it's not hard to exploit their moveset to find a window where you can attack one of them without getting hit or getting hit once, so it's just a matter of dealing enough damage to kill him before these stray hit empty your flasks. The other duo is similar, but you can also exploit their longer combos and ranged attacks. Also keep in mind that I explored all previous areas trying to kill every enemy at least once and I never lost my runes, so I faced them at a disproportionally high level. My experience with the series also definitely helped, along with the fact that this is the first souls that I play for the first time at 60 fps, which, being used to the standard 30 you get on consoles, basically feels like cheating.

 

[Haplo]

Elden Ring is the 4th best open world according to IGN.
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-10-best-open-world-games

Where is Gothic and ELEX?!?!?!

Well, Elex has its issues but Gothic... yeah...
Shit list.

 

[Puukko]

I attempted to beat Maliketh without ashes at first and that forced me to get pretty creative with my strats. I was using the fire whip as well as fire incantations. Two fetid bombs would apply poison on him, but also on me unless I popped an immunity boosting item beforehand and waited a moment between bombs. All of this worked pretty well, but eventually I opted to just cheese it with Tiche. Thanks to the pillar hugging, the lock on screwed me over a couple times by disengaging at the worst of times, and I found the magic effect at the end of his combos to just be too big. What category does that HP draining effect fall under anyway? Is it possible to resist it?

Farum Azula itself was a great zone in my opinion. Archdragon Peak except condensed and with some Ringed City flavor thrown in. Right up my alley.

I haven't been super critical of the boss reuse so far, but Astel being reused was just lame in my opinion. Such a visually striking and (literally) alien boss being shoved at the end of some mine... They did him dirty.

 

[Tyranicon]

Nooooo, i'll never get to experience it now.

Fuck you From, since when were you ever in the habit of dumbing shit down?

I'm probably in the minority, but I feel like if anything, 75% of the story/major bosses need their health increased. Straight up can't use moonveil on ng+ because you'll 6-hit a boss. Switching over to greatsword....

Well, Elex has its issues but Gothic... yeah...
Shit list.

10. Miles Morales? Wtf.

8. Metal Gear 5? Solid gameplay, but the actual world was boring as hell.

The rest make sense since it's IGN.

 

[Lutte]

The rest make sense since it's IGN.

Well, they're obviously paid to talk bullshit. I can't imagine a normal human being enjoying red dead 2, the game that has long animations for the most irrelevant shit. It deserves a top tier list, but it would sit in the "worst, dumbest game design ever made in the history of video games".

 

[perfectslumbers]

The lategame is much more enjoyable with the talisman that reduces physical damage by 20%

 

[NJClaw]

The lategame is much more enjoyable with the talisman that reduces physical damage by 20%

With the Dragon Greatshield Talisman and the full Veteran's Armor set, you can really notice the reduction in damage taken. The Bull-Goat Armor is even better, but it weighs way too much and the poise increase didn't add anything to my greatsword playstyle (at least in PvE). The best part was being able to favorably trade blows with Malenia even despite the lifesteal.

 

[Haplo]

Only have Dragon Shield Talisman +1 ATM plus Banished Knight set (excluding gloves). But definitely feeling much more tanky.
Being 1-hit basically any time Radahn's aoes barely touches my model was.... not fun.

What I'm starting to lack is damage output. Seriously, together with my Mimic needed to wail at Astel for far too long (moved to Ruin +8 for this fight, a bit more damage then Greatsword +16 and the strong ranged Weapon Art helped also). Cool boss, but far too bullet spongy.

And I've noticed some enemies that were far too spongy for my taste lately: Gargoyle in Leyndell, fat Godskin on some bridge.

So I'm kind of in the opposite camp to Tyranicon.

 

[proxon]

Only have Dragon Shield Talisman +1 ATM plus Banished Knight set (excluding gloves). But definitely feeling much more tanky.
Being 1-hit basically any time Radahn's aoes barely touches my model was.... not fun.

What I'm starting to lack is damage output. Seriously, together with my Mimic needed to wail at Astel for far too long (moved to Ruin +8 for this fight, a bit more damage then Greatsword +16 and the strong ranged Weapon Art helped also). Cool boss, but far too bullet spongy.

And I've noticed some enemies that were far too spongy for my taste lately: Gargoyle in Leyndell, fat Godskin on some bridge.

So I'm kind of in the opposite camp to Tyranicon.

Aim his head manually, he takes huge amounts of damage that way.

 

[Matador]

People undertaking arbitrary challenges like "no summoning" really have no room to complain about the difficulty.

That's true, but I think is very reasonable not enjoying having to fight that way, unlike in the other games on the series were you always had a fair and enjoyable duel with the boss by yourself if you "got gud".

Is not matter of difficulty, but what game design do you enjoy playing. I have beaten every souls game except Elden Ring and don´t enjoy the fight design in this. Some people in this thread are treating other codexers critical with this game like soyboy gimped journalists, unwilling and unable to beat anything, and that is false.

Also wanted to say that I miss boss gimmicks. They were interesting thematically and atmospheric, like the blind boss in Demon´s Souls, etc.

I miss that kind of variation in situations and boss fights instead of amp up aggression and HP pools to avoid pro streamers to beat easily their game.

Also miss creative environmental threats as the center of difficulty design, instead of making every regular thug a mid boss. In Blighttown for example the enemies would be very easy, if not for the dangerous platforms. You can block their attacks easily, so they gave them a grab to make you more uncomfortable blocking and having to roll sometimes or go aggressively in those tight platforms, when you finish descending and worrying about gravity, you had a poison floor! That´s better design than making giant respawning birds and dogs with 8 combo delayed attacks and high HP in an open area.

Other examples would be Basilisks spreading cursing clouds in tight spaces in Depths, being ambushed by ghosts from walls in New Londo you could only retaliate consuming an item with timeout or special weapon, trapped environments like Sen´s Fortress that you could use even to your advantage!

You also had tough enemies, but more spaced. In summary more love and creativity making the game.

 

[Haplo]

Only have Dragon Shield Talisman +1 ATM plus Banished Knight set (excluding gloves). But definitely feeling much more tanky.
Being 1-hit basically any time Radahn's aoes barely touches my model was.... not fun.

What I'm starting to lack is damage output. Seriously, together with my Mimic needed to wail at Astel for far too long (moved to Ruin +8 for this fight, a bit more damage then Greatsword +16 and the strong ranged Weapon Art helped also). Cool boss, but far too bullet spongy.

And I've noticed some enemies that were far too spongy for my taste lately: Gargoyle in Leyndell, fat Godskin on some bridge.

So I'm kind of in the opposite camp to Tyranicon.

Aim his head manually, he takes huge amounts of damage that way.

Most hits I landed were on his head, actually. Can't say it were "huge amounts of damage". More like between 150 and 250.
I think the Art, if it connected well, was more like 400.


In general this was in stark contrast to most mobs in the previous areas: Nokron, Nokstella, Cloister, who did not have much HP.

 

[proxon]

First few tries i was hitting his body and my damage sucked as well, but his head is low enough and easy to hit. I than switched to L R Bloodhound weapon art combo and melted him.

Just gonna add, at that point of the game and after i only used weapon art against bosses. Regular hits sucked in comparison and would double encounter duration.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Only have Dragon Shield Talisman +1 ATM plus Banished Knight set (excluding gloves). But definitely feeling much more tanky.
Being 1-hit basically any time Radahn's aoes barely touches my model was.... not fun.

What I'm starting to lack is damage output. Seriously, together with my Mimic needed to wail at Astel for far too long (moved to Ruin +8 for this fight, a bit more damage then Greatsword +16 and the strong ranged Weapon Art helped also). Cool boss, but far too bullet spongy.

And I've noticed some enemies that were far too spongy for my taste lately: Gargoyle in Leyndell, fat Godskin on some bridge.

So I'm kind of in the opposite camp to Tyranicon.

I think Astel can be bled according to the wiki? Didn't fight him myself.

On sponginess - Margit at 1st encounter (4174) has nearly as much HP as Gwyn (4250) or Dragonslayer Armour (4581). Enemy HP is inflated for most of the playtime relative to the DS games. But, as Tyranicon notes, the player's potential damage output is much higher particularly if an enemy can be frozen or bled. At a certain point you melt anything you touch that's not Radagon or the Elden Beast. Probably explains the bass-boosted damage and anime moves of main bosses too. If they had good openings or didn't have absurd attack power they'd be pushovers. The transition point for player power is Farum Azula I think. You suddenly become very powerful due to massive amounts of runes and purchasable high tier upgrade materials. Combined with respec you can completely change your build to optimise for a single boss fight and repeat ad nauseam. The only thing that stopped me doing it was game fatigue.

Not sure how From could have feasibly improved it. It’s an open world after all. Needs a consistent level of challenge because certain parts of the fan base would have shat themselves if it wasn’t ‘harder’ than previous Soulslikes. However the player needs to be able to deal with the end game bosses when they get there. I think it explains the relative poverty re upgrade materials and runes prior to the burning of the Erdtree. It keeps a cap on player + gear progression till that point. One can get around it by going to Mohgwyn Palace and genociding the Albinaurics on the cliff but the average player wouldn’t be expected to get to that area early.


On a more positive note, how good is it finally having a dedicated jump in a Fromsoft Soulslike? Loved it in Ashen and Hellpoint, thought it added so much to the exploration in both those games. Adds just as much here too!

 

[NJClaw]

People undertaking arbitrary challenges like "no summoning" really have no room to complain about the difficulty.

That's true, but I think is very reasonable not enjoying having to fight that way, unlike in the other games on the series were you always had a fair and enjoyable duel with the boss by yourself if you "got gud".

Is not matter of difficulty, but what game design do you enjoy playing. I have beaten every souls game except Elden Ring and don´t enjoy the fight design in this. Some people in this thread are treating other codexers critical with this game like soyboy gimped journalists, unwilling and unable to beat anything, and that is false.

Don't get me wrong, I miss Dark Souls and Demon's Souls too. I don't think there's a single soul in this thread that would rate Elden Ring higher than those two gems. By now, I think it's clear they are the fruit of some kind of miracle and From Software will probably never reach those heights again. Even games that I consider legit masterpieces like Bloodborne and Sekiro haven't managed to recapture that same sense of exploration and discovery (despite getting very close). I still think they have it in them, but it would take another miracle for them to go back to the roots of the series, especially now that they've reached this kind of commercial success with ER.

I see this game as a step back compared to Sekiro, but still a (small) leap forward compared to Dark Souls 3.

 

[Strange Fellow]

The most obnoxious boss I've met so far is that bleed goblin accompanied by two dogs in the Leyndell sewer catacombs. Dear God.

 

[Wunderbar]

literally anything but this thing hey i found that thing you dropped

Spoiler

 

[Eyestabber]

Is the best build in the game actually STR and the gazillion katana sorcerers running around merely second best?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Open world is fine, and I don't hate it as some do. But at the same time, it's not fleshed out enough as a concept either.

I have come to the opinion that it is fleshed out as well as it possibly could from the perspective of traditional Souls design, which is both good and bad.

The open world in this game is NOT on the same level of inanity as Ubishit games. One of the reasons this game feels so large is that there's a ton of unique shit that you can encounter or discover in this open world map. A lot of the classic Souls design is there.

The open world of this game is only "bad" when compared to the traditional design of past From games. Other than that, it is leap and bounds superior to most of the open world bullshit one finds in AAA mainstream games.

I'm talking of what i've seen so far obviously. People say late game is made out of too much recycled shit. Once i'll get there i'll comment on that but so far the open world map is basically still Souls-like with diluted level design and some vacous padding.

 

[Riddler]

I died once to Godrick, the Crucible Knight duo, the Godskin duo, and Placidusax. Twice to Radagon/Elden Beast. Three times to Maliketh and the first Tree Sentinel. Five to Malenia. I can't remember how many times the first Crucible Knight killed me, but I faced him severely underleveled as soon as I got to the evergaol.

Jesus fuck man, you two shotted the Crucible Duo AND the Godskin Duo? And you generaly one-shot or two-shot most of these crazy bosses?

Are you something superhuman...like a cat for example?

I mean, so did I. The difficulty goes out the window very quickly.

I one-shotted the crucible duo without taking damage.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, it seems clear to me that From really wanted to make their ultimate game with this one, which is an unusual thing in this day and age.

People say for instance the open world is there because From has become casul, but that doesn't explain the size and complexity of the legacy dungeons.

I think they genuinely were trying to make the bestest game evar, probably running a bit on the fumes of their own hype. Some misguided decisions were involved in the making of this game but you can't argue with the sense of grandeur that seems to permeate though this whole thing which is, again, unusual in an age where games never step beyond the bounds established by marketing.

Ultimately, it seems the main issue here is that they bit more than what they could actually chew.

 

[Curratum]

They lied again

https://threatpost.com/dark-souls-game-elden-ring-killer-bug/179090/

 

[cvv]

It's done. 150 hours almost exactly, a completionist playthrough.

The last four bosses were p. fun, with caveats. That soulspear sorcery Ofnir uses is stupid, he can two-shot you under a second with 50 Vigor and all your anti-magic gear on. Otherwise a fun fight, even if it's over too soon since he has no health.

Godfrey is one of my favs. Beat his first phase first time (muscle memory from the Godfrey Golden fight) but I just couldn't be arsed to learn his second stage for an hour. After 150 hours I just wanted to see the end. It's a fun fight tho, looking fwd to playing NG+ in a year or so, in a boss rush style. Will try to solo all NG+ bosses, we'll see.

Radagon and Elden Beast are among the most spectacular boss fights I've ever seen (together with Rykard and Ancestral Spirit). The presentation is through the roof. Radagon was easy - at least for my Blasphemous Blade build - I could beat him reliably 9/10 but I struggled with Elden Beast. It's a great boss but it has a bit of a nuFS bullshit mixed in - a huge creature constantly juking you and blasting you from afar so if you're melee you spend 80% of the fight running after it. P. frustrating but god the vibe is through the roof. I could probably solo it, got it to about 10% of HP one time, but I was just tired, that day and from the entire playthrough, and didn't want to go through the Radagon fight all the time so after an 8th run or so I just summoned a Mimic and ended it.

I had a lot of issues with the game - boss bullshit (altho for some people ITT the game is apparently too easy, just shows the fundamental flaw of Miyazaki's one-fixed-difficulty design philosophy), constantly checking what I picked up (would a "Recent Items" tab be a huge problem?), most WAs are vastly superior to most spells, a world too big (at the very least Snowfields and Mountaintops could've been merged into a single area and nothing of value would've been lost), the copypasted catacombs got on my nerves after a while (not mines or caves tho, those were always unique and interesting), reused bosses (not a huge issue for me personally but still, copypasting Astel is just sad), NPCs moving to god knows where, as per usual, except in a world as colossal as ER this is a WAY bigger issue then in previous games.

BUT. The positives VASTLY outweight the negatives for me. I loved the open world. It's pointless gameplay-wise, sure, but it gives ER the kind of immersiveness I've always lacked in FS games. I loved the telescope function - discovering a new idea, grabbing a telescope and scoping the beautiful world. Or just standing on a cliff, looking around, imagining what crazy adventures await. For me the problem isn't the openness of the world but its size. I don't believe "the bigger the better", not in vidya. There IS a sweet spot and FS missed it.

Levels. Look, different people love different things about FS games - some love the lore, some the combat, some the PvP. Me, I'm a level whore. And I've creamed through dozens of pants while playing this. This is by far the most stupendous level design I've ever seen in any game ever. After the anemic, slipshod, deeply disappointing DS3....boy what a fucking return to form. P. much everything except the catacombs and the Redmane castle is straight up gold. And the amount of carefully crafted, completely optional areas is just staggering - the entire Caelid, p. much everything under ground, the Snowfields and Haligtree, with dozens of caves, mines, catacombs, unique creatures and bosses....christ.

Bosses. I've already accepted the DS2 DLCs was the last piece of FS content I could solo after some reasonable learning process. In DS3 I couldn't solo Sulyvahn, Nameless, Friede and Gael. I could solo SoC (took me 3 hours) and Isshin (took me 6 hours) but those times are not reasonable in my book. It's way past the point where I feel elation after finally succeeding. The difficulty is just over my natural limit.
In ER I couldn't solo a few bosses but honestly after seeing the BS they're pulling I haven't even really tried. I'm not doing another 6 hours boss. Maliketh, OG Mogh, Radahn, Morgott, Malenia, Fortissax, Godfrey, Placidusax, Elden Beast and all the duo or trio bosses were cheesed with a Mimic or a sunbro.

Itemization - well, what to say, there's so much it's bloated, frankly. Not complaining too much tho, I liked to collect useless trash I'll never use.

Dunno, there's so much to say about this game and this text is already a big, beautiful wall, but overall it was an incredible experience that left me totally exhausted and happy, like a glorious threesome with young Nicole Kidman and Meg Ryan. Gonna sleep like a baby tonight.

 

[Curratum]

Curious how the codex works. People would sperge out over much smaller issues with games that aren't even in their beloved RPG genre, yet a game like this, with tons of fundamental issues on many levels, issues that undermine the experience as a whole, will get a free pass with just a few raised eyebrows here and there.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Dude, i soloed everything in DS3 just git gud lul