Elden Ring: New Fromsoft rpg
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Try again later when bored. It’s a game you do need to commit to. Read a little on the wiki’s when curious. For a new souls player the first game is so hard to get into. Elden Ring is much better than many of the other games. But there are a few mechanics you need to get going and that takes a while. It’s a game that doesn’t give you any hints or tips. So reading a little online is necessary. Once you get over the hump you still get a lot of humiliation throughout the game. But, all that difficultly and a bunch of unknown game mechanics make it super hard to get over the initial learning curve. You and I like the same types of games and I think you could get hooked on this one once you get comfortable with it. But if you did the uninstall frustration, now is probably not a good time. Coming from God of War it’s a big difference in combat. GoW is all about overwhelming your enemies. Elden Ring you are the underdog in every encounter. So, you need to cautiously plan every move of your attack and defense. That’s probably the biggest gameplay difference that trips up new players. Combat has to be slow and careful, not just a flurry of attacks. Every button press has to mean something or you get punished. It does make combat a beautiful thing when done correctly. But it takes a while to get decent at it. The game forces you into practice makes perfect mode at the beginning of the game. Learning under fire means you progress much slower than in game like GoW. Luckily, the world of Elden Ring is just packed with things to discover along the way.
Personally, I’d play with a controller if you can. WASD in the middle of tense battles can get clunky IMO. The game doesn’t require any precise aiming. So not having a mouse isn’t really a disadvantage. I never tried it, so maybe I am wrong. I just gave up and use a controller on all PC games that are 3rd person action like this. Unless, of course, precise aiming is a big part of the game. I do wish all game company would create standard controller buttons for things like attack, block, and dodge. I went from Elden Ring , to God of War, and now Witcher 3 and they all have different button mapping that you can’t change. I usually spend the first hour of the game getting needless hit because of muscle memory from the previous game. It’s especially hilarious when the dodge button from the previous game is now the crouch button on the new game. Lol.
SD-[Inc said:
Hey man, thanks for your post and tips. I doubt I will go back as my vacations are over and I won’t be able to commit this much time to the game. Also every time I say something about the genre/games, people take it personally here so I have stopped speaking my mind. Game is not for me and I am OK with that just like flight sims aren’t for me.
I did go back to God of War even though I usually never try to 100% games due to lack of time. Ended up spending 4 hours on it and finishing all dragons plus 3 additional Berserkers. I think I also have only one Asgard rift to close. I also did the stags and the tears. Trying to build a realm shift build and it is keeping me busy. Probably will need to read a guide for builds as well lol. I also did 42 ravens. Plus I found the real Tyr and freed him.
However, back tracking in GOW sucks quite a lot. There are long sections without a fast travel especially in Vanaheim and going around for that last artifact or lore piece is a PITA. So only doing the mains.
I digress. Elden ring is not for me. Let’s hope the mob here doesn’t start giving me ban threats but to be fair I never said Elden Ring sucks ass and is a janky POS designed for kids living in their mum’s basement.
Oh, you are much further than I thought you were if you have the mimic already. I like spawning the mimic wearing Shabriri's Woe Talisman so he takes all the aggro for me. Spawn him and then switch out the talisman is a cheesy way to drop bosses. My character is a little tanky so I can add some defense and give him a shield and he does a pretty great job distracting the boss for a long time. The mimic uses any consumables you have on you when you spawn him too. So pick some that will help him tank even more too.
Yeah I ended up using the mimic for most boss fights, fully upgraded. Took forever just to find all the upgrade materials. My mimic is quite useful although it is.interesting to see how he somehow doesn't take as much damage from certain attacks as me, but I suppose he doesn't really heal himself either so it's clearly some weird calculation going in in the background.
I finally finished the game after 90 hours. It was quite brutal at stages and easy in other places. Maliketh's 2nd stage nearly broke me. I tried him maybe 60 times and although phase 1 was doable solo after ~20 tries, I couldn't get a read on his attacks in phase 2 but finally managed to spam some damage quick before I died. I first fought him at level ~85 and ended up killing him at ~115. So that's 30 levels (~20 hours) of going out and trying to find stuff that people used to kill him, including a new weapon that needed fully upgrading and some talismans etc as well as some rune farming to buy it all. This grinding loop happened a few times for me with bosses and I don't care for it. I didn't use real players much. In many cases I looked for players but there were none around so I just went and tried myself. Maybe it only finds local players?
Overall it's a huge game, amazing scale, great enemies, awesome setting, horse is great, combat is mostly good. Some of the bosses are good fun. Some areas offer a good challenge.
But I could not play this without a guide. Here's how I played: meed upgrade materials -> check wiki for item location -> item in area A -> how to get to A -> first go to area B -> Find out that the area B is not available until I kill a boss after going through a castle -> my face
KAC was right to give up early lol.
I finally finished the game after 90 hours. It was quite brutal at stages and easy in other places. Maliketh's 2nd stage nearly broke me. I tried him maybe 60 times and although phase 1 was doable solo after ~20 tries, I couldn't get a read on his attacks in phase 2 but finally managed to spam some damage quick before I died. I first fought him at level ~85 and ended up killing him at ~115. So that's 30 levels (~20 hours) of going out and trying to find stuff that people used to kill him, including a new weapon that needed fully upgrading and some talismans etc as well as some rune farming to buy it all. This grinding loop happened a few times for me with bosses and I don't care for it. I didn't use real players much. In many cases I looked for players but there were none around so I just went and tried myself. Maybe it only finds local players?
Overall it's a huge game, amazing scale, great enemies, awesome setting, horse is great, combat is mostly good. Some of the bosses are good fun. Some areas offer a good challenge.
But I could not play this without a guide. Here's how I played: meed upgrade materials -> check wiki for item location -> item in area A -> how to get to A -> first go to area B -> Find out that the area B is not available until I kill a boss after going through a castle -> my face
KAC was right to give up early lol.
Thanks for the post nut. Further strengthens my resolve not to indulge. (1) I simply don't have 90 hours available (2) It just doesn't seem like fun?
Did you enjoy the end boss fight? Was payoff worth the toil? (I know redundant questions - maybe you did enjoy) but the YouTube video of end boss fight was just utter garbage.
Compare that to some of the recent games I finished like Bayonetta 3 (which can be incredibly hard with diff turned up a notch), or God of War Ragnarok (Berserker fights piss me off), Gotham Knights (last boss fight was a PITA and I had to learn attacks to beat that bitch) etc; Elden Ring was just not fun and there was no pay off to look forward to.
Anyways, reading wikis and shite, man it's not for me lol. Now imagine you did most of it without help then you are probably looking at over 200 hours or some such. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Did you enjoy the end boss fight? Was payoff worth the toil? (I know redundant questions - maybe you did enjoy) but the YouTube video of end boss fight was just utter garbage.
Compare that to some of the recent games I finished like Bayonetta 3 (which can be incredibly hard with diff turned up a notch), or God of War Ragnarok (Berserker fights piss me off), Gotham Knights (last boss fight was a PITA and I had to learn attacks to beat that bitch) etc; Elden Ring was just not fun and there was no pay off to look forward to.
Anyways, reading wikis and shite, man it's not for me lol. Now imagine you did most of it without help then you are probably looking at over 200 hours or some such. Ain't nobody got time for that.
I played it totally different. I casually explored every nook and cranny I could find. So my progression through bosses is much slower. I am higher level than when you finished and am at the fire giant. Not sure I will finish it. But I enjoyed much of the world. I agree with the From Software criticisms. The fact that you need to depend so much on guides to fully enjoy what the game offers is too much. The addition of severe punishment for mistakes you make with little information is stupid. Levels where gravity are the worst enemy should go away. But the world they created is massive and full of content. It’s an amazing achievement in gaming. It’s relatively bug free. That’s especially impressive considering the complexity of levels and abilities to traverse almost anywhere.
I think in hindsight I would have explored areas a bit more thoroughly and done some more side tombs/caves earlier. But honestly some places are super easy to miss (even with a guide I found locating some tombs hard) and some places I explored fairly well I still missed things (e.g. there's a fort where you can drop down to a site of grace and miss an NPC). Also beating bosses really accelerates progress and gives you more areas so the game seems to pull in two directions. Part of the reason I progressed and missed things was because I got on the horse to explore at my pace and got grace locations to help myself out in terms of navigation. Maybe the game is designed for players to almost go over each area with a fine-tooth comb? Maybe I rushed it too much (it didn't feel like it honestly at 90 hours as I'd had enough)? For most games I generally progress forward on the main route when I've had enough exploring, and in this game I felt held back a few times because of tough bosses most of the time.
I finished the game at level 126 but I saw somebody having trouble with Maliketh at level 155 lol. When I got to Crumbling Farum Azulam, I found it all a very fair challenge until the tree sentinel just outside maliketh and so I don't even know what level the game wants you to be.
As for the payoff? It wasn't really worth it. The finale was way too brief and the last boss is two bosses which is super annoying with a (skippable) cut scene before each. That said, just before finishing it, I went went back to complete some mid-range tombs I found almost all of them absurdly easy, which is I guess a curse and benefit of enemies that don't scale with level.
I finished the game at level 126 but I saw somebody having trouble with Maliketh at level 155 lol. When I got to Crumbling Farum Azulam, I found it all a very fair challenge until the tree sentinel just outside maliketh and so I don't even know what level the game wants you to be.
As for the payoff? It wasn't really worth it. The finale was way too brief and the last boss is two bosses which is super annoying with a (skippable) cut scene before each. That said, just before finishing it, I went went back to complete some mid-range tombs I found almost all of them absurdly easy, which is I guess a curse and benefit of enemies that don't scale with level.
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I spent a lot of hours with it. But I can’t get motivated to finish it. It seems like the end levels start to dry up on interesting things to explore. Just more BS bosses. Maybe someday I will return for
more punishment. Still think the game is GOTY based on the amazing amount of detail and content. So complex, so many combat options, so many weapons and skills. You could literally, and some people probably have, spend a 1000 hours on the game and still find something different or unique either hidden secrets or a new build/combat tactic. No other game in history has come so close to it. If only From Software would stop forcing the same Dark Souls vague and impossible to understand story lines, over repetition of boss fights, and ridiculously hidden secrets. The true veterans of the genre love this challenge. Us normal people would like for them to cut us some slack!
more punishment. Still think the game is GOTY based on the amazing amount of detail and content. So complex, so many combat options, so many weapons and skills. You could literally, and some people probably have, spend a 1000 hours on the game and still find something different or unique either hidden secrets or a new build/combat tactic. No other game in history has come so close to it. If only From Software would stop forcing the same Dark Souls vague and impossible to understand story lines, over repetition of boss fights, and ridiculously hidden secrets. The true veterans of the genre love this challenge. Us normal people would like for them to cut us some slack!
I really don’t understand the combat part. All I have seen (and trust me I have seen over 10 different build and OP videos including most boss fights); is dodge roll like a maniac and then land 1-2 hits in before dodge rolling and regen. Or if you are a caster or a combo then cast stuff but then go in a holding pattern for regen while dodge rolling.
There is no rhythm to the combat. It is just dodge roll ad nausem and then get surprised by a lunge that happened out of pattern by the boss.
Not sure what builds would change this gameplay. I even saw gameplay from a dude at level 700+ and even then he had to dodge roll until he landed his OP hit.
I will reinstall coz I need to get some value out of the 32 bucks I spent on it but yeah. I don’t get the amazing combat comments. Btw this formula has been consistent in all souls games. Heck only diff in Elden Ring was the dragon fight and me on a horse. I was able to run around like a moron and get dragon health down to 25% or less but then he did something unexpected - which is fire up his own feet and I died lol.
There is no rhythm to the combat. It is just dodge roll ad nausem and then get surprised by a lunge that happened out of pattern by the boss.
Not sure what builds would change this gameplay. I even saw gameplay from a dude at level 700+ and even then he had to dodge roll until he landed his OP hit.
I will reinstall coz I need to get some value out of the 32 bucks I spent on it but yeah. I don’t get the amazing combat comments. Btw this formula has been consistent in all souls games. Heck only diff in Elden Ring was the dragon fight and me on a horse. I was able to run around like a moron and get dragon health down to 25% or less but then he did something unexpected - which is fire up his own feet and I died lol.
SD-[Inc said:
Yes the last third of the game is overloaded with bosses. They have a few directly after each other with no mobs in between. The bit after the fire giant has 4 bosses in a row. More in the middle parts might have been better.
And yes there are so many areas in this game you can miss: deeproot depths, several underground areas, the haligtree region, several bosses are hidden behind lighting fires, volcano manor has a secret wall that leads to a whole new area. Game needed to be less obtuse but maybe people like that and like finding things out of the way.
Yes dodge is a big part of the combat. The basic idea is to dodge when attacks are meant to hit, but bosses with similar attacks (like an overhead spear) have different timing so you have to basically relearn the moves for each boss. Also I find the dodging a weird mechanic because many attacks look like they'd hit you but because you dodged at the right time they miss. e.g. a ground stomp clearly damages the whole ground but you're safe because you rolled over the ground lol. Also the timing windows for dodges can be pretty small. The other thing about bosses is that most of them have a phase 2 which often changes their attacks and means you have to relearn when to dodge and attack. The game is unforgiving in that you get hit twice in a row by the boss = you're probably dead. But you have to hit them 20+ times to kill them. I used a shield most of the game and it does block a considerable amount of damage in most cases, sometimes it blocks it all (but uses endurance) other times you might get a small bit of health taken off. But it depends on your level, the enemy level, and the shield rating etc. Also if you lose lock-on and don't have the shield faced the right way = it does nothing and you're probably dead. Some of the big enemies really mess with the camera and obstructions break lock.
For me the combat is generally good against non-bosses, in that the health situation is more fair and you can die quick and also kill quick.
There are 4 ways to avoid damage: Dodge, Block, Parry, and Jump.
Dodge - like everyone said is about the timing. From Software does everything they can to vary timing to make this hard
Block - A good shield is valuable and blocks some big attacks that you wouldn’t think it would
Parry - Super powerful counter attack once you get good at it. At first it seems impossible. But the more you do it it becomes natural. Crucible Knights can eat it!
Jump - Stomp attacks can be avoided by simply jumping when they are about to hit. Jump is better than dodge because you don’t take your eyes off the enemy and can punish easier
Shields really are worth checking out. They have their own abilities and can be used in various situations. For example: There is an ash of war that allows you to parry spell casts right back at the caster. Really good. And, also do yourself a favor and find this shield. If you have a melee build it’s amazing.
Dodge - like everyone said is about the timing. From Software does everything they can to vary timing to make this hard
Block - A good shield is valuable and blocks some big attacks that you wouldn’t think it would
Parry - Super powerful counter attack once you get good at it. At first it seems impossible. But the more you do it it becomes natural. Crucible Knights can eat it!
Jump - Stomp attacks can be avoided by simply jumping when they are about to hit. Jump is better than dodge because you don’t take your eyes off the enemy and can punish easier
Shields really are worth checking out. They have their own abilities and can be used in various situations. For example: There is an ash of war that allows you to parry spell casts right back at the caster. Really good. And, also do yourself a favor and find this shield. If you have a melee build it’s amazing.
Getting the dragon down to 25% means you were just one or two tries from taking him out. That's pretty good considering how low level you must still be. The dragon will always signal a big attack like that so you can flee. You just have to learn to spot it in time. The gameplay is about finding the right windows to do damage and not getting too greedy. Dodging and rolling too much can be counterproductive. Don't always roll. Also, be really careful about the weight of everything you equip. Pay attention and avoid going past Medium equipment load if possible. If you are Heavy and you are trying to dodge and roll you will be a slow and easy target. You can put points into Endurance eventually to increase your ability to carry more. Early in the game I would focus on vitality instead as armor isn't really a big difference in the game.
The way I avoid frustration in the game is just to walk away often too. Maybe do some youtube videos read more before jumping back in if I get too frustrated. Go to that Gatefront Ruins Grace a few times and pound on those guys for practice if you want to work on your timings or try out different weapons or spirit summons.
I went back and killed a few side bosses (specifically ancestral spirit x 2 and the void monster thingamabob) all 3 were easy as pie since I was pretty strong with a fully upgraded bloodhound fang.
I also then went to the haligtree region(missed it before) and found myself running along tree limbs. I'm not a huge fan of the platforming in the game and there seems to be a bit of it (trees / rooftops). Anyway I died because I rushed in and got swarmed and tried again and fell to my death so I lost 130k runes. Anyway that's me finished with this game for the foreseeable future.
I did have a moment of insanity where I thought I could have another go of Dark Souls again now that I've got my foot in the door but then I remembered the fun I had with Maliketh and that moment passed.
I also then went to the haligtree region(missed it before) and found myself running along tree limbs. I'm not a huge fan of the platforming in the game and there seems to be a bit of it (trees / rooftops). Anyway I died because I rushed in and got swarmed and tried again and fell to my death so I lost 130k runes. Anyway that's me finished with this game for the foreseeable future.
I did have a moment of insanity where I thought I could have another go of Dark Souls again now that I've got my foot in the door but then I remembered the fun I had with Maliketh and that moment passed.
I think the melee combat in the game is about 15 years out of date. Needs some serious overhaul. For me, the trick to this game is to stop using Dark Souls methods and make use of the new tricks they gave players. Just as an example, the rusted anchor with the wild strikes ash of war. There’s a talisman that (can’t remember the name) that radically ups your attack power if you attack when an enemy is attacking you. Use those along with some decent armor. The tree sentinal outside Leyndell is one of the worst, and he went down to wild strikes in literally 10 seconds or less. Regular combat he’s just such a p.i.t.a.
Meh, fwiw. Fight different than usual souls and profit.
Meh, fwiw. Fight different than usual souls and profit.
Suck it Melania! Believe it or not, I am still plugging away at Elden Ring. Took a short break and am now back in again. Just found my way through a thorny side area to meet this bitch on her home turf and beat her. It took about 20 tries. But she is one big cheater AI. She finally made a final move I was ready for and we ended her. Yes!! I needed my spirit buddy Tiche to help out and she was an excellent partner. That waterfowl dance BS was annoying as all heck.