I've put a couple hours in and I just can't get into it. If I had to describe the game in one word it would be, "unfocused." Tons of confusing, overlapping, seemingly redundant systems, a bajillion items whose uses are vaguely described at best and just pile up in my inventory, imprecise combat mechanics that seem to encourage cheesing, and not even much of an explanation about why my character is doing what they're doing or why I should care. Like I get FromSoft games purposefully don't use straightforward narratives but I just don't see any narrative hook to grab my engagement other than that I should want to be "Elden Lord," for some reason.
So what's the attraction? It looks gorgeous, I'll give it that. But so did Sekiro, which felt a lot more focused mechanically and narratively.
Not trying to be contrarian, I genuinely want to know what people see in this game that I'm missing.
I think this type of "unfocused" can be a pro rather than a con for a lot of people. You can go do whatever you like with whatever build you want and the game's never gonna tell you you're doing something wrong.
Also the combat is just DS3, which is still fun. It doesn't feel imprecise at all to me
Not a problem, just not the game for me. I was just a little disappointed at that, given how much a lot of folks seem to really enjoy it.
it is the current fromsoft game, if you like fromsoft games, it is the newest one
as someone who bounced off every other soulslike, this one has held my interest a little longer than usual, though it made me want to replay dragon's dogma for the 10th time, so i have been doing that instead lmao
TVTropes actually had a good summary:
Newbie Boom: Oh Elden Ring. Thanks to the nature of its hype cycle (years of silence followed by a lot of information all at once creating buzz), followed by absolutely incredible reviews on release (it charted a 97 on Metacritic, which is the highest average score a From game has ever gotten by at least 7 points) has led to the most incredible newbie boom the "Souls series" has ever seen. By March 5th, it had managed almost nine times the peak player concurrency of Dark Souls III on Steam, and outside estimation put the total sales of the game worldwide at somewhere between five to ten million copies in the first week. By comparison, DS3 took a year or more to accomplish that.
I actually see references to Elden Ring IRL, before I even knew what it was and that it was the latest FROMSoftware game.
I'm not super versed on all the builds, scaling, poise, customization, and technical stuff, but for me, I enjoy the difficulty of the bosses and learning how to beat them, which is satisfying. The game is also really massive, which is awesome but also a little overwhelming. I love the look of Caelid; the red deserts contrast with the forests of the first area, making Caelid stand out like Mars, if it were overrun with weird plants that look like tube worms.
It's essentially just a great Fromsoft game welded onto an open-world. It has the same "Oh cool, I discovered this new place." process that Skyrim and Breath of the Wild do, but it has combat that's just genuinely enjoyable on it's own.
Sure, the sheer quantity of stuff means there's a bunch of reused enemies, some bad level design, some good level design that gets repeated to the point where it really wears out it's welcome and a really bad habit of having bosses that are just two other bosses jammed in the same room - but the basic game flow carries it.
It's like dark souls, which has an addictive gameplay cycle, except I get to run away from things that I think are too difficult. That loop is why I keep coming back. To be fair, I don't know what a lot of the items or spells do because I haven't bothered looking into them
The dark souls games kind of always encouraged cheesing, and I consider it a part of the gameplay experience because I acknowledge that I'm bad lol
When I was getting into the fromsoft games, I had to give up on bloodborne and sekiro because of brick walls, but I was good enough to beat DS1 and DS3 afterward. I was having fun the entire time, but then I REALLY started having fun
i can throw myself at a group of enemies a dozen times, and when I get tired of that brick wall, I can run in the opposite direction and bash my head against a different brick wall. Usually while listening to a podcast or audiobook.
edit: i should say, you are right about the lack of narrative hooks. I'm 80hrs in and I still don't know what I'm "supposed" to be doing. I don't care who claims ownership of this broken world, I just wanna see how many enemies i can parry
I don’t care who claims ownership of this broken world, I just wanna see how many enemies i can parry
I guess this is the spirit I should try to approach things with, but it's hard to get invested even in that when so many of the fights I've already been in devolve into "throw a pot at their heads, then run away and wait five minutes."
As someone who plays every game on the easiest mode, I'd also like to know if there is any point at all for me to check it out.
There's a streamer who couldn't get into FromSoftware games at all, then tried Elden Ring with a Sorcery build and seems to be having a ton of fun. He still dies a bit, but it's not nearly as punishing as the people who choose to go melee, while still being rewarding.
yeah being able to cast spells from a safe-ish distance makes a bunch of encounters easier, but there are definitely some close-quarters encounters that will be a challenge
Which to me is a good balance between "so easy it's boring" and "i'm getting flattened by random mobs because i'm not great at rolling". If only certain bosses/mobs are challenging, you're still enjoying the buildup to them.
Metal shield + spear/pike/rapier make the game much easier early on as you can attack while shielding but you'll probably need to learn the fundamentals later on. It's very good, and the spirits and co-op summons can be used 100% of the time now instead of rarely.
The summoning item is just crafted from the very common flowers in the game, and you are rewarded a new summoning item and a rare buff item every time (+5 all stats +large health buff) you use the idol to help someone else successfully. Those summoning statues that look like crucifixes are how you enable co-op (idol for joining, remedy for summoning players).
You don't lose anything when you're helping other players and you accidentally die, being able to run dungeons repeatedly and help other players at any time is the biggest change from older Souls games. It's the best way to learn this type of game.
It's really good, give it time and feel out which enemies you can take on and climb your way up. Try everything you can get your hands on and play lots of co-op.
You can take the caves on, use a metal shield if you're really struggling but be proactive and you'll get the rythm. It's very similar to Halo in that it's basically a game of speed-chess against your enemies.
Timing isn't that important compared to learning the right positions and learning the best directions to dodge and which openings to exploit.
Also lots of jump attacks to break shields.
