Elden Ring

[Maf]

Hmmmmmmmmmm teetering, man. Maybe this is one of the modern greats, I dunno. I’m not willing to put it in GOAT status yet. Way to early for that. But best of the the past few years *bobs head back’n’forth* maybe.

 

Firstly every lazy journalist saying this is BotW. Shuddup. BotW still stands alone because no game understands how to make getting across the map fun. Even here, the points of interest are really interesting and cool. But the map is still something I feel like I’m on rather than in. It’s something that I run on top of to get to an interesting thing instead of actually engage with the map in a meaningful way and do interesting things to get to the destination. Maybe that changes, but as of now it’s just horse riding and warping. Not much really to speak of in terms of open world exploration. 

 

Now if you want to make the argument and say this game shines where BotW fails in that it’s points of interest are way more interesting, than absolutely. Dungeons, bosses, quests, mysteries, etc. This stuff is way cooler. It’s like if you could put the 2 together then you get the fantasy genre’s god game. 

I would still put BotW above this at this time, not that they’re really that comparable tbh, but if I had to pick one I’d still go Zelda. But this game is really good and maybe that’ll change.

 

The thing that is making me like this game but I still need more convincing on is it’s mystery aspect. Like I found a broken church with a howling wolf man on top of it. But what do you do? I was thinking about shooting him or respawning the bear and getting him to knock down the tower maybe, but the map labels teen wolf as a NPC so probably shouldn’t. 
 

And I’m in two minds. On the one hand, lots of stuff like that which is cool. On the other hand I have no idea what to do. It’s been a decade of Dark Souls and I get that it’s obscure like that. And if something becomes apparent later then great. But right now I have maybe 6 situations like that and I have no idea what it wants me to do. Sometimes - perhaps - these games can be too up their own ass. 
 

I imagine if you solve it you feel like a genius and that’s the point but so far I feel dumb and that’s the opposite of fun.

 

The other thing that I don’t really like so much is how Scrooge McDuck this game is with the money. I’m only at level 36 and it cost nearly 8000 souls to level up. But most enemies are dropping maybe 100-300 at a time. There’s the odd big enemy that gives a 1000 but it’s a lot of effort to beat them.

 

I just killed some spirit horse boss and got 13,000 souls and was like nice.

 

Went to the bonfire it was like you can level up once I was like what. 
 

The last thing is that despite this game doing shit I really like. That feeling or nervousness when in a new area. Stumbling upon a rare, valuable item and the fun of that. Hitting what is essentially leaps of faith and going fuck it. I’ll take the portal. Then ending up somewhere really crazy and it’s like man this is fun. 
 

But at the same time. It’s all been done before. I don’t know if I’ve technically seen a “new” thing, trick or idea that I haven’t seen in other Dark Souls games. It’s more just a really good one of these than a new one of these and I stand by what I said when they initially revealed the gameplay and such. I thought being a new title it would be a new game. They evolved the formula. It’s more like they’ve just spread it out.

 

I’m loving this game don’t get me wrong. But this is what I mean by teetering. Every time I start to think maybe this game is a 10 there’s this nagging feeling that some of it is a bit boring and I’ve seen it all before. The lack of innovation maybe holds back my full respect even though for pure enjoyment it’s really good. I dunno.

 

Anyway. This guy’s PFP is some bullshit. What is he hiding.

 

Spoiler

Am I at the end of the game?

 

Spoiler

And in a ridiculous turn of events I found a staff that has S for INT scaling and a spell that throws rocks. Together it’s so powerful it can stagger bad guys. I staggered a dragon with it lol. But it costs a lot of MP

 

 

Also unless there’s some gate that stops you I found a shortcut that lets you pass by Stormveil castle without going through it at all. Can you skip Golddick?

[OCH]

8 hours ago, Maf said:

The thing that is making me like this game but I still need more convincing on is it’s mystery aspect. Like I found a broken church with a howling wolf man on top of it. But what do you do?

Let's take this one step at a time. I found this out through random circumstance myself. But as he is a cool NPC, I'll give you a hint if you want to know...

Spoiler

Now you've heard the howl, talk to the first Merchant Kale.

 

 

8 hours ago, Maf said:

The other thing that I don’t really like so much is how Scrooge McDuck this game is with the money. I’m only at level 36 and it cost nearly 8000 souls to level up. But most enemies are dropping maybe 100-300 at a time.

As I understand, short of farming spots. You don't level up in this through regular enemies. You level up through bosses and (big) runes found throughout the world. 

 

8 hours ago, Maf said:

Am I at the end of the game?

😂 No. That's Caelid. Only one of the first three areas in the game. I'm guessing there are at least a few more areas after this. Based on how long the LP's on YouTube are.

 

8 hours ago, Maf said:

Can you skip Golddick?

Spoiler

Yep, completely optional. But the Great Rune you get for beating him makes him more than worth it.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

As a general rule you want to be exhausting all NPC dialogues whenever you meet them (usually, that means talking to them 3 times if they don't offer multiple choice)

 

I feel it's the opposite with runes in this game, at least for people who explore a lot. Some people find Elden Ring the easiest one but that's because they end up like 25 levels overlevelled over time without any grinding I think

 

Edge gave this a 10 btw, calling it a tectonic shift in gaming

[Maf]

Why is it, though. I'm still not seeing that part. 

 

EDIT: I explore a lot but I don't fight much. I was in that river area last night and all I did was run by everything on the horse looking for items. So not getting much in the way of cash. 

 

The other thing which I don't know if I like or not is when you die and corpse run you lose a % of your money. Why? Maybe it doesn't matter but it's making a game I think has a pretty hard economy even harder 

[one-armed dwarf]

The guy who you killed is taking posthumous revenge on you, your playthrough is cursed now. Your own fault

[DisturbedSwan]

Catching up on a ton of posts from over the weekend but I agree with @one-armed dwarf, this world definitely feels like an MMO world I agree. 

 

@Maf as a mage, use the tools in your arsenal, I don't get the point calling magic 'cheesing' and stuff when you've specced your character for that, just making the game harder for yourself for no reason in my view, there's nothing wrong with using Magic when you've specced as such. While I'm here, put some stats into Mind as well or you'll have no FP to use for spells the further you get into the game. Also Level 33 in 12 hours?! No idea how the fuck you did that but fair play. 

 

12 hours ago, Maf said:

I’m loving this game don’t get me wrong. But this is what I mean by teetering. Every time I start to think maybe this game is a 10 there’s this nagging feeling that some of it is a bit boring and I’ve seen it all before. The lack of innovation maybe holds back my full respect even though for pure enjoyment it’s really good. I dunno.

 

Also unless there’s some gate that stops you I found a shortcut that lets you pass by Stormveil castle without going through it at all. Can you skip Golddick?

 

I completely agree with the bit about it being boring. It's nowhere near a 10 for me though, think this is by far and away the worst SoulsBorneEkiroRing game I've played. I never got bored with the others and none outstayed their welcome, this is just too big. When people talk about bloat in other open world games, I feel like this is the worst offender. 

 

I did the same thing and completely circumvented the Castle, getting to the lake. Before returning to the Castle a bit later and tackling it. 

[one-armed dwarf]

There's potentially a cool playstyle to be had by maf with a low mind sorcerer. Get the accessory that returns FP on critical hit and try to get a good mix of high posture damage spells and invest in a slow but far ranging greatsword (with INT scaling) to inflict massive posture damage. Keep refilling your magic with critical hits

 

Just spitballing there, it's a kinda build I wouldn't mind trying out. It might not suit maf at all and he should probably do what blakey says instead. But there's basically a weapon and accessory kit for every build in this game as far as I can see. Nobody gets left behind but just means that some people will have to look a bit more if they are highly invested in one stat like maf is

 

What I think this game is good at, better than the other ones, is this kind of fluidity in your build options, and the flexibility in where you can go. You can go almost anywhere from step 1 and finagle a build together like this. Set yourself some parameters like not levelling beyond a certain range before beating a certain boss and upgrade lots of equipment and find a ton of different ways to play the game. But you almost have to come at it from a repeat playthrough to really enjoy that stuff I feel like

 

I wouldn't consider that a tectonic shift in gaming by any means. But at the very least, it's the one thing Elden Ring has that the other ones don't really have. Even Bloodborne, my favourite one which has the most cool and expressive kit of weapons, in that you have to complete a lot of the game to even see the cool kit.

[Maf]

17 minutes ago, DisturbedSwan said:

Also Level 33 in 12 hours?! No idea how the fuck you did that but fair play. 

 

Is that fast? It might be because I mainlined the beginning of the game. It's only after beating Golddick I went back and started exploring. I didn't step foot in to the east side of the map until after. Haven't crossed the southern bridge yet either. I just kind of mentally blanked them out lol. Only got the first tear upgrade last night. Maybe that's why I'm finding the levelling slow because I'm too high for these areas. 

 

EDIT: Also in terms of magic. I abuse the fuck out of the systems that's what I like about these games lol. But it's hard to stand on the other side of the screen zapping someone over and over and not call it cheese. 

 

But I'm here for it. I'm the big cheese. 

[DisturbedSwan]

It definitely sounded fast when I read it, I think I probably only at that level after something like 25+ hours but then I think we've pretty much come at the game completely differently. You went straight for the big imposing Castle in the distance whereas I went pretty much all round the entirety of Limgrave and the place across the Bridge to the South before going to the Castle a number of hours later. 

 

I get where you're coming from but zapping folks from a distance over and over is just part of being a mage for me, I feel 0 guilt for it lol.

 

You're right @one-armed dwarf definitely one of the strengths of the game is how many different builds, specs etc. you can go for and with the added number of smithing stones (I think I have hundreds of them) it doesn't feel like you can really spec yourself out of the game in the same way you could some of the previous ones. 

 

I could actually do with an INT scaling light sword I can use, I've been using the one I got at the start of the game as almost every other one I pick up I have too low DEX to wield. 

[OCH]

That's me (Screenshot adjusted, due to glare)

 

Today's session was eye opening. Yet again, I doubled back on where I said I was going. Those little hints you can buy from Merchants.. Some of them are really helpful. Went back to a previously discovered farming area and things went a lot smoother. I realised that I hadn't actually explored the farming area. Just tapped the bonfire and turned around. So then I did. This led to my first Dragon boss and a DeS style shortcut to a new area. Circumventing the "intended" way to go there. Running through this visually impressive area however, I knew I shouldn't be here. Damage isn't an issue for me. But as you've no doubt guessed from my stats, I haven't got the HP to take too many hits.

When you have bosses roaming the landscape, you know you have to give as good as you get.

[DisturbedSwan]

You probably know this already @OCH but if you hold down the share button on the PS5 it'll take a screenshot. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Y'all motherfuckers need to invest in vigor

 

This isn't glass cannon souls anymore

[OCH]

I know. Still completely offline though.

[DisturbedSwan]

I agree, 10 VIG at Lv. 47 is a bit 😬

 

[OCH]

Just now, DisturbedSwan said:

I agree, 10 VIG at Lv. 47 is a bit 😬

😄

I did wonder why some of these bosses were giving me so much trouble. As the old saying goes

"Who needs HP? Just don't get hit"

[OCH]

EDIT: What 10 VIG translates into via numbers is 414.

Meaning most boss AOE attacks are OHKO for me. Even some regular attacks, like the bonk overhead from the tree guardians. I need to pop one more point into Arcane ..For Reasons. Then I thought I should probably get some VIG.

[Maf]

I would put more points in health if the game gave me some fucking money to do so. It's why I went so hard in to INT. The levels were not coming and I needed my character to be able to do something. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Every time you call it money @Maf I'm like 'there's money in this game?' then I realise you're talking about runes (souls) lol.

 

I don't know why you went so hard into INT either, I'm Level 55-60 (or some shit) and have only got 26 points into INT. 

[radiofloyd]

About a month ago when that treasure chest in Limgrave transported me to the cave somewhere in Caelid, I hightailed it out of there at 100mph. One month and one corrupted save later, I went back there for the kick of it and cheerfully put the smackdown on every enemy in there. Near there, I ran into a kind of fun boss fight

 

Spoiler

Commander O’Neill. Just now, I had one of those classic Souls moments where he was down to a sliver of health, I had health potions left, all I had to do was take one step back, heal then hit him one time with anything to kill him. Instead, I kept swinging, and the bugger got me first.

 

[Maf]

1 hour ago, DisturbedSwan said:

Every time you call it money @Maf I'm like 'there's money in this game?' then I realise you're talking about runes (souls) lol.

 

I don't know why you went so hard into INT either, I'm Level 55-60 (or some shit) and have only got 26 points into INT. 

 

I call it souls/points/cash. Just depends what comes out when I type. 

 

In the other games the soft level cap for stats was 45-50. So got to get there as fast as you can.

 

Although I do need to level up health, mana and dex at this point too. 

 

@OCH is level 47 and I'm level 36 and it's costing me about 8000 souls to level up if rounding down. Not including the increase for each level. It will cost about 88,000 souls to get to 47. I just can't imagine getting there in this game. That sounds forever away 

 

The last boss I beat only gave me 13,000