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

[Skinwalker]

I remember finding the underground areas to be by far the most interesting and breathtaking. Coincidentally, they are more compact than the aboveground areas.

Also, the "legacy dungeons" are too big.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I don't mind having a bunch of empty space to roam around in, you've got easy free fast travel all over the place anyways, and most areas had plenty of interesting stuff to find, like dragons, quest npcs, spell merchants, and so forth. My main gripes would be that the questlines are still basically impossible to follow without a guide. Thankfully they got way, way easier after adding NPC markers but still total horseshit expecting you to fnd someone who just appeared randomly in the world some place you already explored. And the ending was too linear. The first half of the game is better, you can access 3 areas and the underground before even fighting a single boss, and there's two ways to get to Altus and the volcano. After that you've got a very specific set of locations and boss fights you need to do in a specific order. Actually resembles DS2 quite a bit in that regard.

They also needed to have put something more worthwhile in all those little mini dungeons and caves and shit. Like 10% of them were actually rewarding, the rest had like, a single shitty talisman or weapon as a reward. Sometimes not even that. Should have had more spells and ashes of war inside those, instead of on merchants or the stupid scarabs. Maybe that was the original plan; it would have explained why they felt the need to have like 6 versions of soul arrows if they figured you'd have a decent chance at missing 4 of them if you weren't thorough.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I remember finding the underground areas to be by far the most interesting and breathtaking.

Yeah, by far the best areas in the game. amazing looking, like you're in space.

 

[Dadd]

It would be very nice if this game had an elegant, long straight sword with a versatile and grounded moveset, like penetrating sword from Demon's Souls or Balder side sword from Dark Souls. Noble's slender sword is close but the moveset isn't satisfying and the yellowish color isn't nice visually.

 

[JarlFrank]

Reached the snow area after the capital. I like it visually, but it's getting a bit too long. Still like that they keep varying the landscape. The capital was the absolute highlight and I wouldn't have minded if the game ended there.

The open world is cool and works much better than most modern open worlds. There is no handholding, you actually get to explore. See something in the distance, go there. No markers beyond some sites of grace giving you a rough direction hint on the map. It's refreshing to have an open world game with this degree of freedom. The horse is fast enough to make it easy to explore, and I keep finding new things when I pass through an area I had been to before. I had to look up where to find the key to the Raya Lucaria academy because I completely missed it and already explored the Altus Plateau when I thought "wait, what about that academy?"

The key to enjoying the open world is to not obsessively try to be completionist or systematic about it. Just explore, go where you want to go, take notes about things you missed, return later when you feel like exploring that area again. I switched between Liurnia, Caelid, and the underground Siofra River constantly.

The legacy dungeons are the highlight of the game, but the open world is one of the very few modern day open worlds that are actually done right.

 

[toro]

Reached the snow area after the capital. I like it visually, but it's getting a bit too long. Still like that they keep varying the landscape. The capital was the absolute highlight and I wouldn't have minded if the game ended there.

true

 

[FreshCorpse]

Reached the snow area after the capital. I like it visually, but it's getting a bit too long. Still like that they keep varying the landscape. The capital was the absolute highlight and I wouldn't have minded if the game ended there.

The open world is cool and works much better than most modern open worlds. There is no handholding, you actually get to explore. See something in the distance, go there. No markers beyond some sites of grace giving you a rough direction hint on the map. It's refreshing to have an open world game with this degree of freedom. The horse is fast enough to make it easy to explore, and I keep finding new things when I pass through an area I had been to before. I had to look up where to find the key to the Raya Lucaria academy because I completely missed it and already explored the Altus Plateau when I thought "wait, what about that academy?"

The key to enjoying the open world is to not obsessively try to be completionist or systematic about it. Just explore, go where you want to go, take notes about things you missed, return later when you feel like exploring that area again. I switched between Liurnia, Caelid, and the underground Siofra River constantly.

The legacy dungeons are the highlight of the game, but the open world is one of the very few modern day open worlds that are actually done right.

The game starts to get a little hard after the snow bit. Best of luck

 

[toro]

The game starts to get a little hard full retard after the snow bit. Best of luck

fxd

 

[cvv]

I like the idea of having only legacy dungeons after the Capital.

I like the idea of having only legacy dungeons period.

Because fuck the open world in this game, seriously. Burned out on that shit before I even got to the Capital, and there were three or four more zones to go and my OCD didn't allow me to just blast through them. Goddamn, I'm probably never gonna go back to the base game.

 

[Skinwalker]

Reached the snow area after the capital. I like it visually, but it's getting a bit too long.

Ho-ho. Wait till you get to the second huge snow area after the capital.

 

[Kjaska]

I have been casually leveling every day in preparation of the expansion. I've killed the final boss, but haven't progressed to NG+1 yet. How are expansions usually handled by FromSoft? Can you just start the new area right away or do you have to start a new save/progress into NG+1 until some specific story state?

I get summoned a lot for the final boss, the snake dude and the fire giant. I've been using meteor for ranged dps, is there a more efficient and/or effective sorcery to spend my mana on? The rest of my spell slots are occupied by buffs.

 

[Caim]

How are expansions usually handled by FromSoft? Can you just start the new area right away or do you have to start a new save/progress into NG+1 until some specific story state?

All of these can be done from any point the moment you can enter, but these are very high level areas so it's best to at least be right before the final boss before you do them:

- DS1 requires you to have reached the halfway point to gain accesss to the portal and the key that brings you to the expansion
- DS2 requires you to finish two of the four paths in the first half of the game to get to the portals for the first two DLCs, with the key being found somewhere before that point. The third requires you to go past the halfway point, get the key, then go back to the portal you passed by getting to where you found the key
- DS3 gives you free access to the first DLC about a quarter of the way in, with the access to the second being right before the final boss of the base game or beating the final boss of the DLC
- Dunno about Bloodborne

With the structure of Elden Ring it is possible to access the DLC early on, but I wouldn't be surprised if you need to at least get to Atlas Plateau before you can enter the DLC proper. Also it wouldn't be very smart of them to put the DLC entry after Morgott, because it'll just take too long to get there.

 

[Abu Antar]

End game in Elden Ring can be very exhausting, imo. It was my least favorite part of the game.

 

[JarlFrank]

Reached the snow area after the capital. I like it visually, but it's getting a bit too long.

Ho-ho. Wait till you get to the second huge snow area after the capital.

I don't think the snow area is too long, just the game as a whole at this point. 110 hours in and explored thoroughly in all the previous regions. But I still feel more motivated than most open world games leave me after only half that much playtime.

 

[jaekl]

Once in a while I'll think of replaying Elden Ring. Then I think of doing 1000 crummy oblivion dungeons, and I would rather die than do that again. But I don't remember what items are in any of them so I'd have to do a bunch of research and figure out which ones would be necessary for the items I want. So I've got to sit around planning the whole game out just so I can skip 95% of it and only do the fun parts with a new character. Then I choose a different game instead.

 

[Bloodeyes]

I made a new faith build for duelist meta (RL125) but so far I've only been invading with him. I did a taunter's tongue run to make the build.

It took 4 days, mostly because the main guy who was invading me has been doing souls PvP for over a decade so I was constantly dying. The build turned out good.



The build:

Spoiler

Attributes:
Vigor - 58
Mind - 18
Endurance - 19
Strength - 25
Dexterity - 18
Intelligence - 9
Faith - 50
Arcane - 7

Talismans:
Crimson amber medallion +2 (swaparound slot for things like Stalwart horn charm +1, Clarifying horn charm +1 and blue feathered branchsword.
Green turtle talisman (can also swap but usually don't because 19 Endurance)
Erdtree's favor +2
Great Jar's Arsenal
Weapons:
Many weapons but mostly uses Banished Knight's Flame Art Greatsword with ash of war flaming strike and a softswap sacred broadsword with ash of war thunderbolt. Godlslayer's seal gives the best spellbuff with my stats. Also an offhand no skill spiralhorn shield for the status resistances that I only pull out when I need it because it looks shit with my armour.

Other cool stuff is my black flame tornado glaive, PSCS with flaming strike on one and endure on the other, spinning slash crescent moon axe, storm stomp zweihander, PS pikes with flaming strike and spinning slash (only used on absolute shitters), stormcaller chainlink flail, lion greatbow with golem arrows, jar cannon, flaming strike broadsword, inseparable sword (go to for water spawns), endure longsword (use it then swap to the glaive to blackflame tornado a group), quickstep omen cleaver, envoy's horn and envoy's longhorn (for clowning around), golden parry buckler, icon shield (for desperate times).

Spells:
Plasidusax Ruin (Almost aguaranteed finisher when you get their HP low).
Aspect of the Crucible: Breath (a good wakeup if you get a riposte, backstab or knock a jump attach out of the air).
Blessing's Boon
Flame, Grant me Strength Barrier of Gold
Black Flame's Protection
Golden Vow
Lord's Heal

Consumables:
Starlight shards (cry harder. I don't agree that only hosts should have FP)
Albinauric pots (I don't use these on new players)
Invigorating white cured meat (stack with talisman and shield to trade with bleed builds)
Clarifying white cured meat (same as above but for madness and sleep builds)
Raw meat dumplings in case someone uses winged scythe/albinauric pots on me or I just run out of heals
All the status boluses

 

[Damned Registrations]

The key to enjoying the open world is to not obsessively try to be completionist or systematic about it. Just explore, go where you want to go, take notes about things you missed, return later when you feel like exploring that area again.

explored thoroughly in all the previous regions

I get it though. I am, at times, compelled to play games in a way that sucks the fun out of it as well.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I like the idea of having only legacy dungeons after the Capital.

I like the idea of having only legacy dungeons period.

Well yeah, but what's done is done.

Either way, 100% the DLC will have another open world area. It's not even worth contemplating the possibility it won't. Game is what it is and FromSoft ain't gonna change that.

 

[JarlFrank]

The key to enjoying the open world is to not obsessively try to be completionist or systematic about it. Just explore, go where you want to go, take notes about things you missed, return later when you feel like exploring that area again.

explored thoroughly in all the previous regions

I get it though. I am, at times, compelled to play games in a way that sucks the fun out of it as well.

Ah, but I explored in an organic way. See something interesting, go there. Look at the map, see something scribbled there that looks like a building, go check it out. I'm fairly certain that I missed plenty of places (there's one of these statues that shows the way to a catacomb left in Caelid where I didn't find the entrance, so I just left it). Apparently I missed a few places in Liurnia too.

My thorough approach to exploration is: check out everything interesting, take notes if I get stuck/meet a roadblock, go on to the next interesting area, check my notes later and go back to figure out a solution.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Fair enough. I do more or less the same thing, except I don't really even try to be thorough. I'll spend a lot of time looking for somehting I want (like those stupid painting spots that never had any decent rewards ) but I also literally missed the first dragon in the game on my initial playthrough, along with Patches and basically that whole fucking area, because I was hyped to reach the edges of the map and try sequence break some shit. I probably spent half my playtime pounding my head into various boss shaped walls, but I don't regret it.

Even with the way I played, I was feeling pretty done with the whole thing by the end of the mountaintop. But I also left enough stuff unexplored that a second playthrough a few weeks later was still pretty interesting. Like I said earlier, I think the game would have been better served with multiple shortcuts to an ending. Would have given it more replay value. Basically any of the unique bosses required for a specific ending would have made for a decent end point for a run. Would have given the various quests a real payoff too, instead of just like, an item or two that are probably crap for your build.

 

[Bloodeyes]

I thought this build would be good for gank spanking because of the AOE. It isn't. Over levelled phantoms can trade into my ash and kill me before they bleed. Its decent in a 1v1 though, especially against a lightly armoured mage.

Spoiler

Attributes:
Vigor: 43
Mind: 14
Endurance: 15
Strength: 24
Dexterity: 14 (9 + Millicent's)
Intelligence: 7
Faith: 15
Arcane: 40 (32 + silver tear mask)

Physick:
Flame shrouding cracked tear and opaline hardtear. Using strength knot instead of hardtear gives a nice AR boost but it isn't worth losing the hardtear.

Weapons:
Moghwyn's sacred spear with offhand blood affinity great knife and softswap main hand reduvia.
Dragon communion seal.
Lots of blood affinity weapons I never use.
Jar cannon.

Spells:
Flame, grant me strength
Swarm of flies
Bloodboon
Bestial vitality

Talismans:
Crimson Amber +2 (swap spot)
Green turtle talisman
Millicent's prosthesis
Erdtree's favor +2

Consumables:
Just boluses and crab that I never use

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Man, if you're expecting a build like that to gank spank anything, I have some bad news for you...

I hate to say it, but you'd probably have more luck using Rivers of Blood's Corpse Piler to hit a bunch of grouped up Hosts and Phantoms, than trying to get off Mohg's trident's Ash.

It still blows my mind how much ass the boss soul weapons blow in Elden Ring. The normal weapons you find out-n'-about not only have more unique movesets, but also better Ashes. Not to mention dealing with constant ganks as an Invader wouldn't even be a problem if Micheal Zaki spent more than five minutes at the ass-end of development designing the Online aspects of Elden Ring...

 

[Bloodeyes]

I hate to say it, but you'd probably have more luck using Rivers of Blood's Corpse Piler to hit a bunch of grouped up Hosts and Phantoms, than trying to get off Mohg's trident's Ash.

I did want rivers on the build but I'd have to go up in level. Just can't spare the dexterity or swap any talis and have the build still function. I'm not going to waste any more time on that build though. I suck with a greatspear and there's no point making it a 90 because I've two builds at 90 that are much better.

Edit: But if I did want to fix it I'd go the more conventional route for a mid level bleed build. I'd ditch Mogh's and dump arcane to 11. Make it a keen affinity dexterity build and use bloodflame blade and drawstring blood grease when it wears off. That would be a better build.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

open world

I'll never understand the knee-jerk codex derision of open world games.

All the classic RPGs are open world. Ultima, Might and Magic, Magic Candle, etc. Not to mention so many beloved codex games like Fallout, Arcanum, Gothic, and even Underrail. Open world was the original dream of the RPG, endless adventure limited only by the players ability.

You really want narrow constrained levels, unclimbable waist high fences, invisible barricades, loading screens, gatekeeping, and plot doors?

 

[Silverfish]

You really want narrow constrained levels, unclimbable waist high fences, invisible barricades, loading screens, gatekeeping, and plot doors?

Yes.