Elden Ring - February 2022 (PC, PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE, XBOX SERIES S/X)

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Loving the game , not sure if I like it more than the other Souls games but its definitely in the god tier along with them + Bloodborne.

Just having regret on my build, fighting the urge to start a new character since i've sunk so much time already on mine.

 

[Tonneau]

Loving the game , not sure if I like it more than the other Souls games but its definitely in the god tier along with them + Bloodborne.

Just having regret on my build, fighting the urge to start a new character since i've sunk so much time already on mine.

You don't need to make a new character. You can respec like in past games.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

This game is seriously remarkable, unlike any other open world game I’ve played. Worlds are different, your hand isn’t held at all and the sense of exploration and discovery is wild. Just when you want to toss your controller, you get past a boss and a rush of adrenaline comes over your body.

 

[Voodoo Child]

EDIT: I agree with the people saying this game is refreshing because open world games have become little more than large sandboxes littered with reskinned enemies, busy HUD screens and quest/objective markers, and are in desperate need of a fresh take.

Breath of the Wild was a great game. Witcher 3 was a great game. Chrono Trigger and Mass Effect 2? Yeah.

But this? It’s very good, but I’d stop short of placing it up with them - I actually preferred Ghost of Tsushima, although it’s clearly better than the last game I played, which was Valhalla.

I’m about 60 hours in, level 92, STR 40, Faith 37, some discretionary points in Vigor, Mind, Endurance and Intelligence, Royal Remains Armor, Godslayer Seal, Turtle Shell Shield, Longbow, Crystal Sword and the venerable Golden Halberd (I’ve found stronger weapons but nothing that rides my character’s attributes as well as it does, and I’m switching out the Crystal Sword for the Sword of Night and Flame when I get my INT a little higher).

I don’t know how people are beating this game at level 70, I personally plan to cheese the level spot at Mohg’s Palace to get to like 200 before even trying for the endgame.

The music is great and the world is gorgeous if empty, but a few things are sticking in my craw.

1. The core gameplay loop is getting stale. That loop is: arrive in new area, explore a bit, find the legacy dungeon, slog through it, reach a boss character who turns my ass into a hat at least 3 but up to 25-30 times, watch a YouTube video about the boss, die a few more times while slowly whittling the bar down, then say ‘f*** it!’ and cheese Rotten Breath/Flame of Frenzy/jump attacks with the Halberd. Because this game is so unforgiving you almost need to cheese it a lot of the time.

2. Tied into that, I feel like a sense of progression is lacking. I have Better looking gear and weapons than at the start and the numbers beside my character are bigger, but I can still get one hit by those stupid little goblin things you mow down near the Bestial Sanctuary for 1100 runes a pop (the early rune farming spot, which until the end game is the only rune farming spot…). The f*** is that?

3. I get that FromSoft makes real games for real gamers and you can’t say you’re hardcore until you’ve beaten every DS game, Sekiro and Bloodborne, but…no character glossary, bestiary, side by side stats comparisons? How are you going to not go on the internet to figure out how to Complete major side quests?

4. As cool as the game’s lore is, it keeps a ton of it hidden. Again, you need to go online and read up on it because the game gives very little exposition.

The boss fights, as corny as some of them are, are very cool and well done, they have a tension and a sense of accomplishment that most games lack.

The boss that I had the toughest time with was Rennala, took me at least 40 tries, mostly because her second phase calls for you to play very aggressively and after 40 hours of having my ass made into a hat it goes against the grain.

I’m currently in Volcano Manor, then there’s the capital, then whatever comes after that and I’ll be done. I can see why people love this game and why some will be playing it for years like Skyrim, but not me.

 

[Kranix]

EDIT: I agree with the people saying this game is refreshing because open world games have become little more than large sandboxes littered with reskinned enemies, busy HUD screens and quest/objective markers, and are in desperate need of a fresh take.

Breath of the Wild was a great game. Witcher 3 was a great game. Chrono Trigger and Mass Effect 2? Yeah.

But this? It’s very good, but I’d stop short of placing it up with them - I actually preferred Ghost of Tsushima, although it’s clearly better than the last game I played, which was Valhalla.

I’m about 60 hours in, level 92, STR 40, Faith 37, some discretionary points in Vigor, Mind, Endurance and Intelligence, Royal Remains Armor, Godslayer Seal, Turtle Shell Shield, Longbow, Crystal Sword and the venerable Golden Halberd (I’ve found stronger weapons but nothing that rides my character’s attributes as well as it does, and I’m switching out the Crystal Sword for the Sword of Night and Flame when I get my INT a little higher).

I don’t know how people are beating this game at level 70, I personally plan to cheese the level spot at Mohg’s Palace to get to like 200 before even trying for the endgame.

The music is great and the world is gorgeous if empty, but a few things are sticking in my craw.

1. The core gameplay loop is getting stale. That loop is: arrive in new area, explore a bit, find the legacy dungeon, slog through it, reach a boss character who turns my ass into a hat at least 3 but up to 25-30 times, watch a YouTube video about the boss, die a few more times while slowly whittling the bar down, then say ‘f*** it!’ and cheese Rotten Breath/Flame of Frenzy/jump attacks with the Halberd. Because this game is so unforgiving you almost need to cheese it a lot of the time.

2. Tied into that, I feel like a sense of progression is lacking. I have Better looking gear and weapons than at the start and the numbers beside my character are bigger, but I can still get one hit by those stupid little goblin things you mow down near the Bestial Sanctuary for 1100 runes a pop (the early rune farming spot, which until the end game is the only rune farming spot…). The f*** is that?

3. I get that FromSoft makes real games for real gamers and you can’t say you’re hardcore until you’ve beaten every DS game, Sekiro and Bloodborne, but…no character glossary, bestiary, side by side stats comparisons? How are you going to not go on the internet to figure out how to Complete major side quests?

4. As cool as the game’s lore is, it keeps a ton of it hidden. Again, you need to go online and read up on it because the game gives very little exposition.

The boss fights, as corny as some of them are, are very cool and well done, they have a tension and a sense of accomplishment that most games lack.

The boss that I had the toughest time with was Rennala, took me at least 40 tries, mostly because her second phase calls for you to play very aggressively and after 40 hours of having my ass made into a hat it goes against the grain.

I’m currently in Volcano Manor, then there’s the capital, then whatever comes after that and I’ll be done. I can see why people love this game and why some will be playing it for years like Skyrim, but not me.

Have you fought Radahn yet?

Respeccing is going to happen for sure, as one of the best swords I've seen in the game yet (I'm level 81) is a straight INT/FAI requirement split.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

I don’t find the world empty at all. There’s enemies everywhere, in my experience.

 

[Voodoo Child]

Have you fought Radahn yet?

Respeccing is going to happen for sure, as one of the best swords I've seen in the game yet (I'm level 81) is a straight INT/FAI requirement split.

I have, and he didn’t give me nearly the trouble Rennala did.

Naturally I died easy about 5-6 times from those beefy purple arrows - which nuke 75% of my health but somehow can’t get through the wooden debris piles.

Then you summon your guys, dodge for a minute and then fly by when they have him occupied.

Second phase same thing, summon guys and fly by.

…Or you can cheese him with Rotten Breath (you need to get him 3-4 times with it, or at least more than once, so sayeth the YouTube) and spend the battle running away.

 

[Kranix]

I have, and he didn’t give me nearly the trouble Rennala did.

Naturally I died easy about 5-6 times from those beefy purple arrows - which nuke 75% of my health but somehow can’t get through the wooden debris piles.

Then you summon your guys, dodge for a minute and then fly by when they have him occupied.

Second phase same thing, summon guys and fly by.

…Or you can cheese him with Rotten Breath (you need to get him 3-4 times with it, or at least more than once, so sayeth the YouTube) and spend the battle running away.

It was the opposite for me. Rennala was annoying, but with every attempt I was learning more about her moves, and developing a strategy. Radahn I just go in to get oneshotted by a random attack with no tell.
I got him down to 10% twice in my first few tries with the flyby re-summon method, but was oneshotted both times. I've now tried many times, and can't get him. He's completely random, with super speed and no tells, it seems. If he aggros me, I'm dead too, or I have to run far away, but then get one shotted by the purple meteors at long range. I'll get him eventually. Trying to avoid rotten breath method.

 

[Voodoo Child]

I don’t find the world empty at all. There’s enemies everywhere, in my experience.

Well it cuts both ways - not having a world filled to the brim with stuff does a really good job of cutting down on load times, looking at you, AC: Valhalla…

But - and I don’t know, maybe I haven’t gotten this far and there is one, but why can’t we get a town or an inhabited fortress or two, add a little bit of life to the game?

The closest thing I’ve found so far aside from the Roundtable is Volcano Manor and its five people.

I still have praise for the game and am enjoying it, but the repetition is starting to get tiresome.

 

[Kranix]

Well it cuts both ways - not having a world filled to the brim with stuff does a really good job of cutting down on load times, looking at you, AC: Valhalla…

But - and I don’t know, maybe I haven’t gotten this far and there is one, but why can’t we get a town or an inhabited fortress or two, add a little bit of life to the game?

The closest thing I’ve found so far aside from the Roundtable is Volcano Manor and its five people.

I still have praise for the game and am enjoying it, but the repetition is starting to get tiresome.

I'm really glad they don't have any NPC filled villages. The world was shattered an age ago. Plus, it's just not Fromsoft's style. This is what I was hoping for with BotW, no populated villages, but they did a few of them. That's just me though.

 

[syz]

The boss in Volano Manor is the most metal thing I've ever seen. You could take a screenshot at any point in the back half of that fight and it'd work as album art.

But also apparently if you kill them too early it f***s up like 3 quest lines, so uhhh I recommend going through the Capital first. It's like they expect you to start the quest lines in the Manor and then leave and come back later.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

I'm really glad they don't have any NPC filled villages. The world was shattered an age ago. Plus, it's just not Fromsoft's style. This is what I was hoping for with BotW, no populated villages, but they did a few of them. That's just me though.

I agree. Every open world RPG doesn't need bussling towns with dozens of NPCs that just sell you everything and give you everything you need to adventure, so there's no need to really explore. Plus it doesn't really make sense in this game to have those.

But yea you're not supposed to go on YouTube and look at cheese strats of every fight lol, I mean you can be most people I doubt are doing that. You're supposed to die, learn and adapt. These games have been like that since the first one. Like a boss has magic attacks? Ok next time I'm equipping some magic resist gear, and throwing some magic resist Consumes on the quick bar.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

Well it cuts both ways - not having a world filled to the brim with stuff does a really good job of cutting down on load times, looking at you, AC: Valhalla…

But - and I don’t know, maybe I haven’t gotten this far and there is one, but why can’t we get a town or an inhabited fortress or two, add a little bit of life to the game?

The closest thing I’ve found so far aside from the Roundtable is Volcano Manor and its five people.

I still have praise for the game and am enjoying it, but the repetition is starting to get tiresome.

Every open world game becomes somewhat repetitive at some point. You mentioned botw as a great game, yet you probably did over 100 of the puzzle shrines, which for me became repetitive after like 10. Witcher 3 too (which is one of my favourite games), also had a lot of repetitiveness in its world.

 

[Andrei79]

EDIT: I agree with the people saying this game is refreshing because open world games have become little more than large sandboxes littered with reskinned enemies, busy HUD screens and quest/objective markers, and are in desperate need of a fresh take.

Breath of the Wild was a great game. Witcher 3 was a great game. Chrono Trigger and Mass Effect 2? Yeah.

But this? It’s very good, but I’d stop short of placing it up with them - I actually preferred Ghost of Tsushima, although it’s clearly better than the last game I played, which was Valhalla.

I’m about 60 hours in, level 92, STR 40, Faith 37, some discretionary points in Vigor, Mind, Endurance and Intelligence, Royal Remains Armor, Godslayer Seal, Turtle Shell Shield, Longbow, Crystal Sword and the venerable Golden Halberd (I’ve found stronger weapons but nothing that rides my character’s attributes as well as it does, and I’m switching out the Crystal Sword for the Sword of Night and Flame when I get my INT a little higher).

I don’t know how people are beating this game at level 70, I personally plan to cheese the level spot at Mohg’s Palace to get to like 200 before even trying for the endgame.

The music is great and the world is gorgeous if empty, but a few things are sticking in my craw.

1. The core gameplay loop is getting stale. That loop is: arrive in new area, explore a bit, find the legacy dungeon, slog through it, reach a boss character who turns my ass into a hat at least 3 but up to 25-30 times, watch a YouTube video about the boss, die a few more times while slowly whittling the bar down, then say ‘f*** it!’ and cheese Rotten Breath/Flame of Frenzy/jump attacks with the Halberd. Because this game is so unforgiving you almost need to cheese it a lot of the time.

2. Tied into that, I feel like a sense of progression is lacking. I have Better looking gear and weapons than at the start and the numbers beside my character are bigger, but I can still get one hit by those stupid little goblin things you mow down near the Bestial Sanctuary for 1100 runes a pop (the early rune farming spot, which until the end game is the only rune farming spot…). The f*** is that?

3. I get that FromSoft makes real games for real gamers and you can’t say you’re hardcore until you’ve beaten every DS game, Sekiro and Bloodborne, but…no character glossary, bestiary, side by side stats comparisons? How are you going to not go on the internet to figure out how to Complete major side quests?

4. As cool as the game’s lore is, it keeps a ton of it hidden. Again, you need to go online and read up on it because the game gives very little exposition.

The boss fights, as corny as some of them are, are very cool and well done, they have a tension and a sense of accomplishment that most games lack.

The boss that I had the toughest time with was Rennala, took me at least 40 tries, mostly because her second phase calls for you to play very aggressively and after 40 hours of having my ass made into a hat it goes against the grain.

I’m currently in Volcano Manor, then there’s the capital, then whatever comes after that and I’ll be done. I can see why people love this game and why some will be playing it for years like Skyrim, but not me.

Just reading points 1 through 4, it sounds like you don't like a lot of what makes From soft games what they are, which is ok.

 

[syz]

 

[SpookyTsuki]

That’s pretty crazy.

 

[pistolpete11]

EDIT: I agree with the people saying this game is refreshing because open world games have become little more than large sandboxes littered with reskinned enemies, busy HUD screens and quest/objective markers, and are in desperate need of a fresh take.

Breath of the Wild was a great game. Witcher 3 was a great game. Chrono Trigger and Mass Effect 2? Yeah.

But this? It’s very good, but I’d stop short of placing it up with them - I actually preferred Ghost of Tsushima, although it’s clearly better than the last game I played, which was Valhalla.

I’m about 60 hours in, level 92, STR 40, Faith 37, some discretionary points in Vigor, Mind, Endurance and Intelligence, Royal Remains Armor, Godslayer Seal, Turtle Shell Shield, Longbow, Crystal Sword and the venerable Golden Halberd (I’ve found stronger weapons but nothing that rides my character’s attributes as well as it does, and I’m switching out the Crystal Sword for the Sword of Night and Flame when I get my INT a little higher).

I don’t know how people are beating this game at level 70, I personally plan to cheese the level spot at Mohg’s Palace to get to like 200 before even trying for the endgame.

The music is great and the world is gorgeous if empty, but a few things are sticking in my craw.

1. The core gameplay loop is getting stale. That loop is: arrive in new area, explore a bit, find the legacy dungeon, slog through it, reach a boss character who turns my ass into a hat at least 3 but up to 25-30 times, watch a YouTube video about the boss, die a few more times while slowly whittling the bar down, then say ‘f*** it!’ and cheese Rotten Breath/Flame of Frenzy/jump attacks with the Halberd. Because this game is so unforgiving you almost need to cheese it a lot of the time.

2. Tied into that, I feel like a sense of progression is lacking. I have Better looking gear and weapons than at the start and the numbers beside my character are bigger, but I can still get one hit by those stupid little goblin things you mow down near the Bestial Sanctuary for 1100 runes a pop (the early rune farming spot, which until the end game is the only rune farming spot…). The f*** is that?

3. I get that FromSoft makes real games for real gamers and you can’t say you’re hardcore until you’ve beaten every DS game, Sekiro and Bloodborne, but…no character glossary, bestiary, side by side stats comparisons? How are you going to not go on the internet to figure out how to Complete major side quests?

4. As cool as the game’s lore is, it keeps a ton of it hidden. Again, you need to go online and read up on it because the game gives very little exposition.

The boss fights, as corny as some of them are, are very cool and well done, they have a tension and a sense of accomplishment that most games lack.

The boss that I had the toughest time with was Rennala, took me at least 40 tries, mostly because her second phase calls for you to play very aggressively and after 40 hours of having my ass made into a hat it goes against the grain.

I’m currently in Volcano Manor, then there’s the capital, then whatever comes after that and I’ll be done. I can see why people love this game and why some will be playing it for years like Skyrim, but not me.

I share #2, half of #3, and #4 about Bloodborne (which is still one of my favorite games) and Elden Ring so far. #1 though, that's the core of FromSoft and what keeps me coming back. I try not to ever cheese a boss, but banging your head against a wall against a certain boss until you 'git gud' is part of the fun.

If you haven't played Sekiro, you might want to give it a try, though. I think it improves greatly on most of these points. You do upgrade health/power, but it's a different currency than what you use to learn new skills or get new tools. There's not really a need for a character glossary, bestiary, or stat comparisons, and there's not a ton of side quests. The few that there are can usually be completed right away so you won't forget about them. The story is rather simple and there is some lore, but it's all much easier to follow. It does have the FromSoft brutal difficulty, though, and there's not really any way to cheese the bosses. So if #1 is a major hang up, then it's probably not for you either.

 

[pistolpete11]

I was traveling so I had to take a break for a while. Frankly, I thought I'd miss it more and be more excited to pick it back up. Something with the combat is still not clicking with me. I've still got to get the parrying down or to ditch a shield all together because as it stands now, I'm stealthing, guard countering, range attacking, or running in for a jumping attack and getting out. It's not very engaging for me. I'm quite surprised, too. I thought I'd hate the open world stuff and love the combat, but it's been almost the complete opposite so far.

 

[Kranix]

The boss in Volano Manor is the most metal thing I've ever seen. You could take a screenshot at any point in the back half of that fight and it'd work as album art.

But also apparently if you kill them too early it f***s up like 3 quest lines, so uhhh I recommend going through the Capital first. It's like they expect you to start the quest lines in the Manor and then leave and come back later.

Yeah, I got to Volcano manor pretty quick following Rya's questline but one of the missions requires you to have already arrived at the land of the giants which I assume you need to have at least made your way through Leyndell,
Also it's becoming apparent that most of the game's actual story is gated behind Radahn. That fight is annoying. Long walk to the fight, long fight, oneshot kill. But I will get him.

 

[Jovavic]

I won't be getting the game for a few months but is there any penalty for dying in a Souls game? Loss of money or anything?

 

[aleshemsky83]

Imagine how much money they could make if they charged 4.99 for breakdance emotes.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I won't be getting the game for a few months but is there any penalty for dying in a Souls game? Loss of money or anything?

Upon death you lose your souls/runes (the currency of the game) but if you get back to where you died you can pick them back up.

 

[Jovavic]

Upon death you lose your souls/runes (the currency of the game) but if you get back to where you died you can pick them back up.

Ah, like Hollow Knight, so it wouldn't be a new mechanic for me, thanks!

 

[aleshemsky83]

I played 20 hours without realizing you could go south of the starting area, lol. Morne castle is so easy.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

I played 20 hours without realizing you could go south of the starting area, lol. Morne castle is so easy.

I went there early and it was a good starting point. I imagine 20 hours in is a breeze.