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

[Caim]

Lmao, i totally cheesed the Wyrm in Volcano Manor with spells.

Enough is enough of this shit.

Onward to the fatso.

If it exists in the open world outside of an arena, it can be cheesed.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The open world Ulcerated Tree Spirit in Mt Gelmir was funny, because for the first time i was able to actually see wtf he does lol.

 

[Vibalist]

We need to have a discussion about how Elden Stars is the worst fucking spell in any FromSoft game ever. And if we have already had that discussion, we need to have it again:

 

[d1r]

We need to have a discussion about how Elden Stars is the worst fucking spell in any FromSoft game ever. And if we have already had that discussion, we need to have it again:

For the most times, they balance shit for PvE, and sometimes ... they do for PvP.

The fact that they still not going the Guild Wars 1 route of balancing skills for PvE and PvP seperately is evidence of incapacity of the highest magnitude.

 

[Suicidal]

Finally finished it at 123 hours.

I played a faith caster/melee hybrid although I spent most of the game just melee-ing and spamming weapon arts.

Game is great but I greatly disliked some of its parts. It's been said many times already but the open world dilutes the experience way too much and combined with the fact that you pretty much stop seeing new enemy types after Caelid makes the second half of the game a boring slog with occasional moments of excellence like Leyndell.

Most major bosses were fun but I think they would be more fun in a different game, where your character is faster and has more defensive options. In this game your character is a disabled person that runs out of breath after two swings but you keep fighting powerful godlike enemies that fly/teleport all over the place, wield weapons twice your size, do 10 hit combo after 10 hit combo, yet they keep losing to this dude whose only superpower is a barrel roll that makes him phase out of existence for half a second. This makes every fight feel like this weird unrealistic situation where I feel like I won not because my character bested the enemy through superior skill but because he went through a choreographed circus performance that involved barrel rolling through obstacles for 2 minutes or something.

My favorite boss was Morgott. It was the only boss in the game that I felt some sort of narrative connection with. It was cool to have a re-match with a pretty fun early game boss that gets a lot of new moves and tools. Reminded me of Vergil from DMC3. Still have no idea why he hates you so much and why he wants you dead but I have never cared for From's "Zanzibart, forgive me" style of storytelling and I don't think I ever will. The fight itself was very good, Morgott is very aggressive and it is hard to find an opening but at the same time he didn't have any bullshit nearly unavoidable moves like some of the later fights.

Shittiest boss (not counting all the endless re-skins and normal trash mobs the game sometimes pretends are boss fights) was the Fire Giant, because 95% of the fight consisted of either running after him or standing under him and left clicking his ankle.

Hardest boss was Malenia. Seems to be a popular choice, I've seen even veteran Souls speedrunners spend several hours trying to beat her. 80% of the difficulty of the boss is just one move though, I think we all know which one. Because of that the fight felt a little bit like RNG - my chances of success each run decreased proportionately with how many times that move was used. In my winning run, in her 2nd phase she didn't use the move at all and all I did was unga bunga jump attack that stunned her every 4-5 hits.

Favorite area was Leyndell, although I really enjoyed all of the big dungeon areas except Radhan's castle, which was dogshit. Feels like they forgot to properly design it or something. It was less complex that the smaller optional castle areas you find in each zone and when I arrived the festival was happening so there were no enemies and none of the locked doors were interactable and the only way to get around the castle was to use teleporters. When I first saw this, I legitimately thought my game was bugged.

So overall, even though the game was fun, it feels like a step back in some ways from Sekiro, which I enjoyed more because it was a much more tightly focused and better designed experience that didn't overstay its welcome. It's unfortunate that so many people praise Elden Ring as some perfect 10/10 masterpiece, so we will definitely be getting an Elden Ring 2, which will most likely have all of the same problems because the fanboys will eat it up regardless. Still, as far as AAA releases go, this is the best (or rather, the only good one) we got in years.

 

[cretin]

everyone should subscribe to and watch jeenine's vids on youtube if they want to understand just how busted the PVP is in this. He's a legendary sperg of the DS3 PVP scene. The game being similar to DS3 in the broad strokes and his skill level being so high he still wins almost all of the time even when outnumbered 3 v 1, but it's interesting to see a guy who is very good at the game just be completely disgusted with it and rail on all the many ways in which it is just a major step back and lacking any sense of balance whatsoever.

 

[Suicidal]

We need to have a discussion about how Elden Stars is the worst fucking spell in any FromSoft game ever. And if we have already had that discussion, we need to have it again:

Offensive spell balance in general is trash in this game. Not sure about int spells, but I tried a lot of different faith spells over the course of the game and few things beat out simply chucking the black fireball which you unlock in the first zone.

 

[Lyric Suite]

OK, I'M GONNA LEAVE THE SNAKE GIRL ALIVE.

Watch me as i fuck something up and she'll die horribly.

 

[Caim]

The open world Ulcerated Tree Spirit in Mt Gelmir was funny, because for the first time i was able to actually see wtf he does lol.

That one also drops one of the most powerful crystal tears in the game, allowing for both extensive spellcasting and access to all the summons in the game.

OK, I'M GONNA LEAVE THE SNAKE GIRL ALIVE.

Watch me as i fuck something up and she'll die horribly.

Welcome to the genre.

 

[Bloodeyes]

So in the first area I killed a dragon by riding my horse round in circles then vomiting fire on it when it landed. I demolished the whole first act by vomiting fire on everything. I killed a fucking Crucible Knight by sneaking up on him, vomiting fire, running away, then doing it again. I nearly shit myself when he started chasing me but I ran behind an elevator shaft and he dropped in lol.

Second area I killed another dragon by riding my horse round in circles and throwing black flame fireballs and lighting bolts at it. Even my sword does ranged damage thanks to Sacred Blade. Being a cleric is awesome once you get rid of Flame Sling.

It's been a long, painful process but I've got to 36 Vigor, 20 Endurance. These stats have made a huge difference but they're so boring to level. Just 4 more into vigor and I can resume improving what I'm actually relying on: mind and faith. More spells, more damage.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Finally finished it at 123 hours. ...

You know, I agree with almost everything you said, especially this:

This makes every fight feel like this weird unrealistic situation where I feel like I won not because my character bested the enemy through superior skill but because he went through a choreographed circus performance that involved barrel rolling through obstacles for 2 minutes or something.

I've been saying this (in other words) for months: ER is the perfect Pavlov's Dog game (which is why people like mediocrepoot, njcluck, and zed doink of banville get so butthurt at me, being the ultimate Pavlov's Dogs). Nothing about its combat system is satisfying in any way that a good aRPG (or video game) combat system should be satisfying in. It's not even about me, for example, I struggle somewhat with Sekiro combat because it's so high speed, but I respect its structure, even if I am not great at it. But ER combat is just utter shit. you are just a circus freak following dev prompts, jump here, roll here, jump here again. Why would anybody enjoy this?

So then I am confused why you also say this:

Game is great but I greatly disliked some of its parts.
...

So overall, even though the game was fun,

I mean, are you just comparing it to straight up trash like Skyrim/Ubisoft games? It's not a very good game. We need higher standards!

 

[Vibalist]

Bloodeyes FYI, you don't have to be at 40 vigor in the beginning/middle of the game. You can go into other stats now if you want.

 

[Mauman]

Offensive spell balance in general is trash in this game. Not sure about int spells, but I tried a lot of different faith spells over the course of the game and few things beat out simply chucking the black fireball which you unlock in the first zone.

The spooge spell (aka pest threads) you get from creepy uncle Gowry in Caelid is better for large targets.

For distance, frenzied burst is still king. Even with the madness nerf.

And of course there's many better incantations if AoE is what you need (I like the dragon breath spells, the basic ones).

Don't get me wrong, the Godslayer fireball is good, but I think you're being a bit unfair because (at least for incantations, haven't messed much with sorceries) there are many MANY at least as good if not better options.

 

[Suicidal]

Offensive spell balance in general is trash in this game. Not sure about int spells, but I tried a lot of different faith spells over the course of the game and few things beat out simply chucking the black fireball which you unlock in the first zone.

The spooge spell (aka pest threads) you get from creepy uncle Gowry in Caelid is better for large targets.

For distance, frenzied burst is still king. Even with the madness nerf.

And of course there's many better incantations if AoE is what you need (I like the dragon breath spells, the basic ones).

Don't get me wrong, the Godslayer fireball is good, but I think you're being a bit unfair because (at least for incantations, haven't messed much with sorceries) there are many MANY at least as good if not better options.

Is frenzied burst the eye laser one? That's another one I used, it's good for sniping roof-camping archers and similar shit but its damage per mana efficiency sucks dick. I'm not saying all offensive spells are trash, but more often than not when learning a new spell my excitement was immediately killed upon using it and discovering that it barely does more damage than black fireball at 3 times the mana cost, on top of often having longer casts and delays.

For example, at one point I tried using the black flame pillars against large targets (like the dragon lord optional boss in the crumbling city) and it seemed effective. But after that I noticed that I can do the same amount of damage at the same amount of mana spent by throwing 2 black fireballs, which is safer, faster and easier.

 

[Suicidal]

Finally finished it at 123 hours. ...

You know, I agree with almost everything you said, especially this:

This makes every fight feel like this weird unrealistic situation where I feel like I won not because my character bested the enemy through superior skill but because he went through a choreographed circus performance that involved barrel rolling through obstacles for 2 minutes or something.

I've been saying this (in other words) for months: ER is the perfect Pavlov's Dog game (which is why people like mediocrepoot, njcluck, and zed doink of banville get so butthurt at me, being the ultimate Pavlov's Dogs). Nothing about its combat system is satisfying in any way that a good aRPG (or video game) combat system should be satisfying in. It's not even about me, for example, I struggle somewhat with Sekiro combat because it's so high speed, but I respect its structure, even if I am not great at it. But ER combat is just utter shit. you are just a circus freak following dev prompts, jump here, roll here, jump here again. Why would anybody enjoy this?

So then I am confused why you also say this:

Game is great but I greatly disliked some of its parts.
...

So overall, even though the game was fun,

I mean, are you just comparing it to straight up trash like Skyrim/Ubisoft games? It's not a very good game. We need higher standards!

To me Elden Ring is more than just combat. In fact, even though such a big % of this game is spent killing shit, the combat occupies a very small amount of my mind when playing this game. At the end of the day I still found it fun to run around and immerse myself in the beautiful world, explore the cool dungeons, overcome the challenges no matter how bullshit they were.

I much prefer more mechanically rich action games like Devil May Cry or Nioh or games where you and the enemy are at similar power levels like Sekiro. Even some third rate souls clones have better designed combat than ER. Still, I gotta give credit where credit is due - ER is the first game of such scale that released in many years that doesn't play like complete rancid dogshit and made me want to keep going on despite the drawbacks. Like last year I played through Assassin's Creed origins for example. Now THAT was some trash ass melee combat, complete with glitchy animations, mobile game lootboxes and MMO leveling mechanics. And unfortunately AC Origins represents what a typical modern AAA game is. Maybe if we lived in a better world ER wouldn't be very special but in a sea of sewage water it shines through.

 

[toro]

everyone should subscribe to and watch jeenine's vids on youtube if they want to understand just how busted the PVP is in this. He's a legendary sperg of the DS3 PVP scene. The game being similar to DS3 in the broad strokes and his skill level being so high he still wins almost all of the time even when outnumbered 3 v 1, but it's interesting to see a guy who is very good at the game just be completely disgusted with it and rail on all the many ways in which it is just a major step back and lacking any sense of balance whatsoever.

link plz

 

[Lyric Suite]

Wait, Rykard is a gimmick fight?

How lame.

 

[Caim]

What's lame about devouring the very gods together?

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

Wait, Rykard is a gimmick fight?

How lame.

Small spoiler on content you might miss at Volcano Manor:

Spoiler

After killing Rykard, speak with Lady Tanith. Then return to the boss area and speak with her again there. Then kill her and enjoy the following event.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Lmao, ten connections, ten times the host gets killed, five of them in the first stage. Fucking scrubs.

 

[Child of Malkav]

 

[Bloodeyes]

Bloodeyes FYI, you don't have to be at 40 vigor in the beginning/middle of the game. You can go into other stats now if you want.

I just wanted to get it over with. I find CON boring as hell and it's often a borderline dump stat for me. Stupid, but I just like damage so much. It's done now anyway.

One thing I'll say about having a giant health bar is that it's very helpful but it takes some of the tension out of exploration and combat. My last character prioritized endurance more and didn't go to 30 vigor until quite far in. He could take on and beat some things this character struggles with because of that. Much more effective shield. But you only got one mistake. Lots more deaths. Lots more lost runes. Slower levelling. More exciting though. Having a stupid big health bar is letting me wear stylish light armour though and prioritize looking cool over DR. So that's a nice bonus.

 

[cretin]

everyone should subscribe to and watch jeenine's vids on youtube if they want to understand just how busted the PVP is in this. He's a legendary sperg of the DS3 PVP scene. The game being similar to DS3 in the broad strokes and his skill level being so high he still wins almost all of the time even when outnumbered 3 v 1, but it's interesting to see a guy who is very good at the game just be completely disgusted with it and rail on all the many ways in which it is just a major step back and lacking any sense of balance whatsoever.

link plz

JeeNiNe Media - YouTube

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Spoiler

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Bloodeyes FYI, you don't have to be at 40 vigor in the beginning/middle of the game. You can go into other stats now if you want.

They nerfed more enemies/bosses? Good lord...

I remember back in my Elden Ring days you needed 50 vigor just to take a few licks. Times are a changin.