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Elden Ring


DisturbedSwan
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I'd say I'm nothing more than an average game player, and whilst I found the Souls games somewhat frustrating at times (repeating sections to eventually progress) I never found them "frequently unfairly difficult".

 

I picked through the games slowly, often using a shield, and I'd say at least 80% of the time I died were my own fault for pushing on that bit too far, or not talking sufficient time to learn what to do.

 

Use of summons make the games much more accessible, esp. boss fights, although invasions were occasionally annoying.

 

So I'm sure better players can whip through the games in about half the time it took me, but I found them a challenging and hugely rewarding experience.

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Yeah, Souls games are difficult but they are fair with it, the game expects something of you as a player, it expects you to learn and engage with its systems, if you don't want to do that or just want to kind of switch your brain off and play something mindlessly (nothing wrong with that :) ) then these games maybe aren't for you.


This one seems more accessible than others but for Souls newbies there will still be a lot to learn and a few eye opening moments I'm sure. But with patience and perseverance you can get through it.

 

I will be on hand to help folks once I get started, but that is only if you've got the PS5 version, Xbox folks will have to make do with randoms to help you out if you get stuck.

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I have mixed opinions on the difficulty of Souls games. Learning is frustrating, but nearly everything in the game can be beaten by a simple trick which I find can leave the games actually really easy and unsatisfying. You can be hammered by a boss and then learn, oh, if I just stand here, wait for this attack, roll to the right, punch, rinse and repeat I win. The game's are almost too mechanics heavy and not dynamic enough.  

 

Got a bit rambly so spoiler 

 

Spoiler

SoulsBourne is a series where knowledge is power. Probably more so than any other series I can think of. Despite seeming hard the skill required is quite low. They're really slow paced games, the fighting is very simple, bosses have patterns, shields are really powerful, etc. Struggling at a boss or section means you just don't know the trick yet.

 

But once you know the tricks the games kind of fall over. I've got the platinum in DS1, DS2 Bloodbourne, and DeS Remake all of which takes multiple playthroughs (Except BB where I save scum) and it's always the same. The first playthrough is 50-80 hours. Then the subsequent playthroughs are sub 10 hours (I think Dark Souls 2 I did in 5 hours). With exceptions like Smough & Ornstein which is difficult for various reasons, mostly it's just knowing what to do. The frustration is in the learning. 

 

One of the flaws, and maybe ER will be different because the shift to open world design, but because the games are really similar knowledge and skills are very transferrable. If the question is what is the hardest Dark Souls game the the answer is your first one. Then every game after gets easier and easier because they all rely on very similar tricks. Again knowledge is power. 

 

Short guide to beat Souls games. Wait a second before dodging, only level up specific stats, attack it from the ass. 

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People talk way too much about the difficulty in these games IMO, like it's the only part of them that matters and I think it ends up putting lots of people off. The reason I like them is exploring and discovery of lore, the reason why DSII is one of my favourite ones cause it has my favourite themes and backstory (it's all about kingdoms dying and being forgotten, very cool stuff)

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I think Souls games do have a higher difficulty curve in general, but I also agree with @Maf that once you've played one you've kind of got the knack to them (exceptions being Sekiro and to a lesser extent Bloodborne) and will find subsequent games much simpler to get through (or should in theory). 

 

People love Souls games for a variety of reasons, all of which are valid. One of the tag lines for the OG Dark Souls was 'prepare to die' the whole identity of these games is that they're difficult, From have built that reputation from the first DkS entry. 

 

Whether you believe they're difficult or not is subjective but they are intrinsically linked to that 'difficult game' moniker, for better or worse.

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Something a bit more substantive on that PC version

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2022-02-24-elden-ring-performance-first-impressions

 

Quote

The PC situation is also worth clarifying. As it currently stands the PC version using the latest 1.02 patch has a number of issues that will affect all hardware configurations on all graphical settings presets. Elden Ring is From Software's first foray into low-level APIs on PC and the game uses DirectX 12. As we have seen in other DX12 titles, there can be severe and distracting frame-time stuttering issues.

First there are stutters of up to 250 milliseconds in length when new effects, enemies, and areas appear on screen. These types of stutter lessen as the play experience goes on and enemies, areas, and effects are revisited by the player. A second and more pervasive stutter appears to be tied to loading new game areas - when traversing the terrain, moving from one area to the next can cause minor one-off frame drops a few times a minute, or at worst, tumbling frame-time issues that drop the frame-rate from a steady 60 into the 40s.

Variable refresh rate monitors using G-Sync or Freesync help alleviate a level of the distracting nature of some of these issues, but leaning on the technology is not a good situation in light of how the console versions do not suffer from these stutters. Other issues to note are the lack of ultrawide screen support, no support for frame-rates above 60fps, and unintuitive graphical options that lack visible scaling. As we have seen with other titles suffering from similar issues such as Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Halo Infinite, it could be sensible to wait for further patches before investing time into the PC version of Elden Ring.

 

So it sounds like it freezes (250ms stutter, 250ms is a lot). Good thing there's that 2 hour refund window on steam. I've already bought it but from experience they're pretty good at refunding if you ask. But FFVII Remake's stutter was really bad, if that's the one they are comparing it to. But it might also just be something that really pops up early on and lessens enough to not be a major issue. Hopefully anyway, I want to play on PC. 

 

But PS5 might be the best version right now

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Early talk isn’t great for Series X either. Sounding like it’s running on average 10fps lower than PS5. Only seen that from comments and not actual sites like DF & don’t know if it’s before the day 1 patch but worrying for me.

 

Nothing I can do it it now though, mines been despatched and I’m not fucking about returning it. 
 

Edit - just realised DF video is up now. Sounds like the SX version isn’t actually that much worse so should be ok. 

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5 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

But PS5 might be the best version right now

Reading into it, PS4 version running on PS5 seems to be the only way of getting a solid 60fps. Bit shit. 
 

Edit - Argh! Just seen there’s 10 classes?! Which one do I pick? This is one of those things I hated about Demons Souls. I always feel like I’ve picked the wrong class (that magic class was absolutely the wrong one for me BTW). Sekiro has it right, just one option, have at it. 

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FromSoftware aren't exactly the greatest when it comes to the actual performance optimisation... it's one of the things that kind've annoys with the whole review process, they'll get a pass on that that other devs wouldn't.

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