"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game”; therefore, “One of the responsibilities of designers is to protect the player from themselves" Sid Meier and Soren Johnson
This obsession with “meta” is one of the worst things that happened with games and especially gamers. With competitive multiplayer games, it makes sense. Otherwise, just no.
to this day i dislike every competitive aspect of all games. Even when im playing fucking lol i just do random shit until one team beats the other (Yei to my 35-40% winrate but im actually having fun)
tbh, this is an issue in all game genres, RTS, FPS, etc. People gravitate toward the meta and then nothing else. Make fun of "noobs" and anyone just trying to have a good time. Eventually its just two guys left, checking each move with the meta counter. I guess a certain type of personality finds that fun
Meta only matters to pvp in this game. Everyone else is just trolling. You don’t understand the real player-base if you think people are actually “obsessed” with meta in Fromsoft games. Streamers aren’t real player-base, they’re entertainers with egos. And they want to look like they’re amazing at every game, so they use the best weapons. I don’t know any real people who care about meta
@@SnailHatan your very mistaken. You can make 90% of the builds possible in elden ring, and you definitely would NOT casually enjoy the game.... it is definitely partly meta, but meta is a stupid word. It's literally just damage. These games are so ACTUALLY boring and old school, it's amazing this game is called GOTY imo.. the last few years of mediocrity have made THIS possibly GOTY...
people weren’t making fun of musk’s build because it wasn’t meta, they were making fun of it because it’s idiotic. two nearly identical shields, next to no health, defense reducing talismans, and heavy rolling is a funny combo for such an “intelligent” person to come up with. simple as that. i do really agree with your comments on meta though.
Musk is nowhere near as intelligent as the dumb masses think he is if you look into his actual history. He's mostly a character that the dumb masses will listen to so they use him to push all sorts of agendas. No different to gates or jobs.
His build is the closest you can get to “playing the game wrong” tbh as it was pretty obvious he had a fundamental misunderstanding of the mechanics by having two shields equipped and fat rolling lol.
I mean if anyone else had posted that build they would have just got advice like "don't have 2 shields", it's just the extension of hating musk, so it's a really bad example which shouldn't have been included as an argument imo
Further, people are kinda just looking for anything to dunk on Musk over. Not that they're wrong, much of the time, and on more important matters than this.
My biggest gripe is the atrocious quest design. I have to read guides just to complete them which often spoils the little bit of narrative there is. I think there’s a way to make a vague quest/journal in a game like this. Hell, even Melina could play that role.
@larzprissel5983 It's not perfect in the earlier games either, but at least most questlines are structured in a way where it's easy to run into reoccurring characters on your journey in those other games. Meanwhile, it feels like Elden Ring expects you to run laps around the world map like we're in Skyrim. I have no idea how you're expected to do most of these quests blind.
that is very true. i never played a soulsgame before and it took me like 50 hours and the Wiki to figure out that the vague oneliners some npcs drop are part of quests you can do
"Meta is the enemy of fun" Truthful words. It goes for multiplayer shooters too. Try to play outside how the meta is formed and your teammates get pissed. God forbid you add a little "roleplaying" flavor, or just trying to have some fun.
You guys aren't understanding what he's saying. Having negative experiences with metagaming in multiplayer games is completely different to the complaint in this video. He's saying the fact that the difficulty in the game is such that is compels people to look up the strongest builds is a problem. You guys are just airing your irrelevant grievances about the time someone flamed you for playing an off meta build in a multiplayer game lol
I also did my first playthrough blind, aside from getting absolutely lost in Lyndell and looking up where to go next to progress the story. I did not get stuck on Malenia because I simply was not able to find the keys to the consecrated snowfield.
@@zenks5883 It's probably sarcasm regarding either looking up a guide because of getting lost or someone being snarky over "blind" playing. It could also be that they never found their way to the "secret" area being that it's a secret.
“Gitgud” to me is to learn from my mistakes and improve. But this game doesn’t make you feel like your mistakes are your own. I basically had to pump up vigor and lion claw my way through the game because I was flat out not understanding where I was going wrong. Even rewatching my streams after the fact to study my gameplay and learning nothing
I checked your vods, and I picked up a few things. There’s stuff like not getting enough flask or weapon upgrades, but the main problem I noticed was that you failed to discern what the game was asking of you, or that you genuinely were meeting its demands. You called Godrick’s axe slam BS because the second hit doubles the radius, but after you picked up on that, you never got hit by it again. When the cemetery shade sliced through you with his million hit combo, you asked how you could be expected to dodge that, just like the rest of us did. One life later, though, you were dodging it perfectly. You demonstrated good game knowledge and were learning most of the boss’s attacks at a reasonable pace, but you seem to have interpreted your own progress as using exploits or gaming the system. Part of that is because you used summons on Margit and Godrick and felt cheated out of those wins, but part of it seems like a flaw in mindset, as if any diversion in your path was an inconvenience you had to laboriously circumvent rather than a new curve to take in stride, which is a poisonous mindset for a game that’s expecting you to experiment and explore. Hell, in this comment you said that leveling vigor felt like cheesing the game, when that’s the first piece of advice any veteran player would give you. For me, _the_ Souls experience is walking into a boss room, getting my ass kicked a few times, then learning the tells and lampin’ ‘em one but good. If a boss you’ve never seen before uses an attack you weren’t expecting and hits you, that’s not bullshit, that’s step 1 of a lengthy process that ends with you kicking that guy’s ass. In the moment-to-moment gameplay, your biggest blind spot was positioning. If a boss had a 5 hit combo, you felt the need to dodge or block 5 times, even if 2 dodge rolls could get you behind the boss and out of range of the last 3 hits. Not all bosses allow for this, but learning which attacks can be avoided entirely will really help with your stamina usage. Get that down, and you’re already well on your way to being a good player.
"Because F the lands between, I know nothing about this place, and F these people. They mean nothing to me. But a hug, a hug is something I can understand." Epic. My thoughts exactly.
i think one of elden ring's problems is that part of the enemy's design is based on sekiro. In sekiro you don't have a stamina bar and with skill and timing you can parry most attacks. In the elden ring you have a stamina, and when an enemy starts a barrage of attacks, you are sure to dodge being hit. Similar how some of bloodborne migrated to dark souls 3, some parts of sekiro came to elden ring, the problem is that in the first case the games had similar mechanics and systems, therefore they were compatible, in the second there are significant differences that make this combination incompatible.
@@unknwnn7673 spam rolling won't kill you if you time it right. With Elden Ring's bosses that attacks in consecutive succession, the player is forced to roll over and over, until the bosses' stamina depletes. I'm just pointing out to J B that if Sekiro is just spam deflect then all other Fromsoft game is spam roll, meaning it's pointless to compare Sekiro and Souls games from a hater's perspective.
The size of elden ring does not work with the traditional fromsoftware questing format. At least give us a journal to keep track of things in case we don't play the game continuously. This does not ruin immersion
Most of the game was me looking up guides because I had no idea where I was supposed to go, and where certain quest lines were located. It’s not only a world where it’s fun to get lost in, you’ll actually get lost, it became annoying for me.
@@kush6846 bro if you unironically got lost in this game than maybe open world RPG's aren't your forte there's fast traveling, clearly defined paths, etc. you can't get lost in this game in terms of literally being lost
or make the character write stuff by hand on his map...I think games that implement their map system this way, making it obvious it's an item the character is carrying, have the perfect idea here.
@@titanscar2183 in terms of finding where to go to progress the main story, it wasn’t a problem, but it’s the side quests, certain characters and locations to trigger them that I couldn’t find.
This video gave me solace in knowing that I'm not crazy to have a take contrary to the mainstream. I agree with a lot of these points, which were a lot more fleshed out than my own opinions. If anything, this video further expands upon my dislike for this game. Not to say that it's bad, it's just bloated.
Other streamers resorted to using meta weapons or meta builds. Jerma resorted to roleplaying a 1950's comedian in the middle of the fight and flashed his ding dong at the end.
For the meta comment: all the streamers I've watched beat Malenia went the same way - - try for hours to beat her solo, learning the moveset to instinct level. - getting so good at it that they get to almost finishing even Phase 2. - getting caught off-guard at the last moment, being infuriated. - summoning Mimic just to beat her on the "first try" - feeling so fcking unfulfilled.
That was me in a way too. I remember the first time I fought her, I played the whole game solo and had maybe 30 tries just to beat her first phase. I was playing blind, so when I realised that was only half the fight and I was only just surviving, I decided maybe I’ll use mimic tear so I can get to the second phase quicker and practise it so I’ll learn quicker for the solo kill. Horrible idea, because once Malenia was on half health on the second phase, I realised my mimic tear didn’t need me AT ALL to kill her (pre nerf, didn’t know how op it was). He ended up killing her before she killed me, and it was incredibly unfulfilling. I remember beating myself up for not just closing the app that night before sleeping.
@@mercylavigne brother if you go on my channel I have stored videos beating her on ng+7 and rl1 solo. I have platinumed every fromsoft game in the souls-like genre from demons souls 2008 to now, some twice because they’ve been re-released. I’m allowed to have criticisms of the game, especially considering I have been a long time fan of the franchise. And unfortunately I am not a fan of the balancing around summons, neither of some unfun gameplay mechanics in Malenia’s fight.
@@fahimtajwaar2521 I never used summons so i don't know anything about them. Malenia is bad designed, yeah, but it's not that hard without Waterfowl Dance. Her moves are pretty predictable, but phase two is pretty annoying for Faith/Strength builds. Elden Ring has no unbalanced fights, really. Some bosses are REALLY FUCKING HARD, but you get used to it. Closest boss to be nigh unfair is Commander Niall.
@@mercylavigne for me it’s less about being unfair and more about being challenging to the point of being unfun. Yes I can beat a boss with 15-hit combos that two shot me with 3 second delays on every hit and 5 aoes that have after effects and combos that they can extend from animation reading and then getting ganked, but quite frankly, I don’t have fun doing it. Previous games never had 15-hit combos with 2 second attack windows, or optional extensions, or delays on every hit, and they sure as hell didn’t two shot you with endgame vigor. But Elden Ring takes every measure it can to trick the player and at a point I just get tired of it. Bosses like slave knight Gael might be a pushover compared to Elden ring bosses because they have standard damage and predictable/sight-readable combos, but I find they’re simply more fun because they don’t pull a “sike - you thought” on every move.
In regards to a map not having a player marker, a really fun mechanic I encountered was in the indie game "Salt." In that game the map is a huge seed-generated world of small islands in a vast ocean. When you start the game, your map is blank except for your starting island and you have to basically make your own map as you go. You have a compass which you use to determine the direction you're going and you have to add islands to your map manually, estimating the distance and direction you've travelled onto the map. It's difficult to gauge how far and what direction you're going so you map is rarely 100% accurate. Its super immersive and tons of fun since you can add different kinds of flags and notes to your map. It really is one of the best exploration games I've played, in terms of travel and navigation.
I use a mod and play with no map marker in kongdom come deliverance. It really enhances the immersion. It's nice to still have the map to look up directions to get between towns but you have to navigate there yourself and really do get to know the landscape
Out of somewhat newer open world games, Outward is built on some of the old-school design principles and it also does not have a player marker, so you have to orient yourself by learning its geography. It's really satisfying, especially when played in local coop. Though it does give you a map from the get go, so that is chance missed.
Hollowknight has somewhat of that approach as you have to give up a vital charm slot to be able to use it…so you get your marker but with an added deficit
Not only is the story bad, there literally isn't one. There is not a single character in the entire game that isn't a one-dimensional copy-paste of some common archetype from mythology: a warrior succumbed to madness, a proud noble making a faustian deal with a creature of darkness, a self-loathing religious zealot etc... But there is no narrative, because literally no one understands what's at stake. After reading endless lore, I still have no idea what the erdtree, greater will, elden ring, or any of this stuff is. I have no idea what godhood means in this universe. And the game doesn't give me any info on why I should care. I don't even understand what these royals are supposed to be ruling over? Are there 'normal' people in this world engaged in agriculture, because it just seems like a monster theme park? So we have some godly royals querraling with each other, but none of them have any personality, and are fighting over things that are never explained. There are no character arcs, internal conflict, moral dilemmas or any of the stuff that a narrative requires to feel meaningful. I may be old fashioned, but I require a story to feel engaged. The game at this point is just a medieval fight simulator to me, because I simply do not care about the world, at. all.
Thank you! This is something I clocked in the base game that was only made worse in the DLC. Fromsoft's presentation and art direction is immaculate, as always, but their storytelling skills are subpar and wholly derivatives of their previous work. It's alright to be vague and esoteric with Worldbuilding but NOT the story as a whole. The reader/player needs to know what's happening to fully understand what the narrative it. But fromsoft fails to deliver it. We need to know the character motivations, we need to know what cautionary tale From is trying to explore but we don't get that. We're not given enough info to be invested in the plot. Every sublot and character is flat and boring because they're just archetypes with no personality and garner no emotional connection with the player. Partly due to fromsoft not knowing how to write interesting characters and resorting to "and then they died" or "and then we killed them" resolutions to their questlines. Fromsoft only cares about spectacle and presentation over an actual well crafted story.
@@sugarhoneyprincess6025 Your point about vagueness and mystery being acceptable for world building, but not for the narrative itself as a whole is such an important distinction. I study literature, and unanswered questions and multiplicity of interpretations is very much part of the whole game, but it needs to be grounded in something that functions as a starting point, from which a MEANINGFUL narrative can be constructed. Mystery is fine. Nonsense is not. And I feel like Elden Rings world-building went so out there with the esoterocism that it made it kind of impossible to build a narrative. I can't even name a solid theme that Elden Ring is exploring. I've seen a lot of people say 'repeating cycles', but this drives me up the wall! This is the most unoriginal, universally applicable thematic trope that can quite literally be applied to anything, if you're lazy enough by just going "circles dude"! The classic, 'and then he woke up and everything started from the beginning' is not deep lmao. And in the context of Elden Ring, cycles of WHAT? Nobody knowing what's going on? Religious fanaticism? Power struggle? Cycles of religious inquisition leading to tragedy is a fine theme, but it needs to be EXPLORED. Elden Ring just tells you 'x has occurred, but we won't even explain to you the most basic meaning of x'. I've spent way over a hundred hours in the game, and watched hours of lore videos. But I can't for the life of me actually explain the ideology of the Golden Order, as in what all of it actually means. In comparison, in His Dark Materials, literally a children's book, the religious institution known as the Magisterium is obviously modelled after the catholic church, and they believe that a mysterious substance called the 'dust' is the basis of original sin, and therefore try to remove it from the world. There. One sentence, and it explains to the reader what's going on, while retaining a sense of mystery, and unanswered questions (which the narrative can then explore). If you can't summarize some basic world-building without a 3h lore video, which leaves you with more questions than answers, it's bad writing, and goes from the realm of 'world-building retaining mystery', to 'even the writers didn't know what they're trying to do with the narrative nor the world-building'. Because that much 'mystery' just makes it impossible to have a meaningful narrative. Mystery exists to be filled with narrative, not just left there (unless it's some background lore for a faraway land, that is never visited). If the narrative never even reaches the mysterious parts of the world-building, it begs the question why is the mystery there to begin with? Yes, the art style is impressive, but story-wise this game is literally style over substance.
@@jonirischx8925 Exactly. Every theme in Elden ring is half-formed or barely there. Godhood is bad. Why is it bad Fromsoft? You've only showed us one(1) god lineage that's screwed up. I understand that Marika might have divested herself of humanity to get there but it's never explained WHY that's a necessary part of apotheosis in Elden Ring. And even still with the DLC we learn so much of Marika's action was due to trauma and suffering her people endured AND how her children suffered due to OUTER God meddling. Shouldn't they be the real enemy? Beings with no morality or humanity who only want to remake the world in their image? Not traumatized mortal gods who do care about something more than themselves but aren't petfect beings. The issue with Gods in elden ring is their lack of wisdom and foresight for how influential their existance is. Genocide of a people is bad. Fair and understandable. But don't say the victim of one turning around to wipe out the culture that murdered their people is the REAL villain, From?! From took the time to show us how Marika's people were brutalized only to turn around and say she shouldn't have inquisitioned the Hornsent for it but never say the Hornsent also shouldn't have killed her people for looking down on them. Something her society does to tarnished but she herself seems to still value their contrubutions. And the omen but that's whole other can of worms that from is incapable of writing a narrative for because the only way we, the player, interact their world is by killing things or stopping things from killing us. It once again made the victims the villains, muddying how a reader/player might interpreted the situation. Cycles, the world in decay, fallen god empire, etc. Fromsoft has already TOLD these stories and better. The kicker is, there is a whole world OUTSIDE of the lands between that is disconnected from all of it. The lands between and the Shadow lands are hidden microcosms of a larger world. A god's playground. We aren't told what fixing the elden ring actually means for the greater world. Or given a choice NOT to. To make matters worse, From did have some compelling character plotlines that they cut. Merchant Kalé and the frenzied flame and Asime, the mimic tear lord of night. Kalé would have succumbed to despair at learning how the Golden order wiped his people and culture out, something we the player are shown and might have an emotional response to, and begs us to wipe away the world because of how cruel it is to the innocent. Very emotional compelling, (to me at least) And Asime, a mimic tear who acknowledges to Nox's goal of creating a Lord of Night and wants to use us as template. The possible narrative might have been that the Nox could never create a lord of night, only imitate one. Their advancements as a society would always be second to the golden order. Gold being better than silver etc. Within the game's narrative none of these themes are addressed to a full extent or brushed over entirely. The plot feels like lip service to the visuals and not the other way around.
They leaned way to far into making every character go crazy or evil. The interesting characters were clearly based off of previous characters, and were kind of pale compared to their inspirations.
The way Jerma beat Melania was so perfect. He used the goofiest looking spell in the game, face contorted in a mix of terror and adrenaline, making inhuman noises of anxiety, until FINALLY he beat her second phase and all the tension came out in one exhale, before he suddenly became concerned his fly was open when he jumped up in excitement, and deflated his own moment of victory.
The "Accessible" Difficulty section mimics my experience of playing alongside a friends. He looked up locations for bosses, and I didn't, and every time I asked him how he did on a boss, his attempts and time were so much lower than mine simply because he was completing bosses in the correct order based on level. I didn't know this, and genuinely thought I was just terrible at the game. lol Still had a blast with it, and wouldn't have wanted to do it differently otherwise. Though part of the reason was because I had eventually found a weapon I really liked the look of and how it fit my character, only to realize it's Art of War it had could stunlock large amount of enemies and bosses at a long range, while doing quite a lot of damage. This was a happenstance find, but I could imagine the later parts of the game being far more difficult without it. Funny enough I didn't see many people with the weapon.
@@angerayne Ruins Greatsword It was most likely more common than I thought, but none of my friends said they got the weapon when I joined them and used it. But as someone that always uses the chunkiest of big weapons, while theming my character around smashing earth and shooting lightning, this weapon was so perfect I would have been sad to find out about it after the fact if I had missed it on my first run. Would have been happy enough with the Starscourge Greatswords, but Ruins is more rough and lightning oriented in its look and ability, so definitely prefer it.
@@HalikBun ruins great sword is good. One of my equipped load weapons I use is the bastard weapon and the Astel wings. I love using them because they are powerful fun and really pretty to look at.
@@HalikBun _and genuinely thought I was just terrible at the game._ I _am_ genuinely terrible at games like this. So,... are there difficulty settings which I could set to be very easy? Or should I just forget about this one?
The input reading was a major problem at launch, it's better now but still a problem. So many enemies and bosses start an attack on the exact same frame that you begin healing. The godskin duo and their single versions would always throw a fireball at you the instant you heal. Ironically giving a little bit of a delay to this input reading actually makes the enemies feel smarter because it feels like a fellow consciousness reacting to your actions in a realistic way, as opposed to a machine making a perfect calculation every single time based off your button presses.
it's still fucking awful and extremely obvious, the boss walks around doing nothing for five seconds while you are standing in place and the millisecond you press the attack input they attack you back, a lot faster of course and deal a lot of damage to you which is essentially unavoidable unless you stand around doing nothing for even longer, waiting for the boss to do fucking anything that isn't reading your inputs (technically it's reading your animations but it makes no difference)
The input delay is alive and well in the DLC, as is the concept of getting knocked onto your back and still being susceptible to attacks, which is pretty great. Loved taking damage while waiting for the "getting up" animation to finish playing. Good times.
This is my main problem with fromsoft games. It’s unacceptable that the character dodges after you release the dodge button, not when you press it, because there is a delay between you wanting to dodge and your character starting the dodge animation. This is because dodge and running are set to the same button so the game needs to process whether you are holding to run or releasing to dodge. It’s appalling game design because it makes combat feel so unresponsive.
I think it'll be hard to go back, and maybe Elden Ring tried too hard to appeal to everybody. Loads of options, but still really hard, but also the traditional souls levelling, stamina, and healing systems. I think the solution is to make different games of about the same difficulty, with significantly different systems.
Elden Ring is literally the first From Software game I didn't finish, this critique is on point about everything. Elden Ring might be a good game, but an horrible Souls Like. Almost no fights are balanced, way too many copy pasta, and a story that makes no sense. The good things about the game are the scenery and the combat, but since there is so much recycled content, the scenery isn't really that magical, and since almost no fights are balanced, the combat feels secondary to your stats. What the hell From Software. The saddest part of it all, is since Elden Ring made so much money, they'll probably just continue to do more open worlds, and we will never see another traditional souls like from them.
@@sauceinmyface9302 You don't have to go back, there is a way forward. It's called giving the player less information and making specific information less documentable. It's possible, but no one's doing it. Everything is controllable, it's all a bunch of control systems with inputs and outputs. Which control systems are the most fun? Imo, the ones that give less information while still being deep/complex enough to be discoverable.
@@poisonated7467 I suppose? Games like Outer Wilds and Tunic are good examples of this, but even then, it's so easy for people to get stuck, look something up, and accidentally see too much.
@@sauceinmyface9302 True, the basic systems will be the same. That's part of the culture problem in gaming and I don't know how to fix that. Regardless, we should take every step we can to war against it with intelligent design.
Personally, I feel like Sekiro & Bloodborne are the natural successor of Fromsoft's Dark Souls series. Improvements over storytelling, npc quest and dialogues as well as the meat of souls game, the combat from both those games can be seen compared to their Dark Souls era of game design. Whereas Elden Ring felt like a massive step back from their progression. Instead they fall back into their comfort zone of making 'Dark Souls 4' with open world & horse riding. The combat and storytelling part especially felt dumb down compared to their other games.
I think that, from a purely gameplay standpoint, Sekiro is the best fromsoft game, but Bloodborne is the best overall experience. Even with the limited healing items (which, honestly, is only a problem briefly in the mid game, since, by the time you get to the endgame, the amount of blood echoes you gain by just playing normally is more than enough to buy enough healing items and still level up if you so choose), even with the chalice dungeons, even with the Mikolash gimmick fight. I love Elden Ring, but I genuinely believe it would have been even better if it had a lesser amount of unique weapons, but each of them has a bigger and more varied moveset, like in Bloodborne, and if it had a visible posture metre, like in Sekiro. And a deflection mechanic. What I love the most about Sekiro is that you are not trying to inflict death by a thousand cuts to your enemies, nor are you creating massive combos of obscure items and mechanics to one-shot them; instead, what you're doing in Sekiro is trying to find an opening to land a decisive hit. That can be done by landing a lesser hit (which in and of itself is not something you can just walk to the boss and do, they can block and deflect you as well), by deflecting their attacks, and by pressuring them. I was into historical fencing for a while, and even practiced it. Because of the mechanics I just mentioned, Sekiro is the only game I tried to this day that creates a rhythm and feel that is similar to an actual sword fight. As much as I love Elden Ring, I wish it had gone that route instead of being open world Dark Souls. Open world Dark Souls is still awesome, though
This is what i've been telling people about, fromsoft CAN but on elden ring they DON'T. As usual though fromshit fanboy defend this crap like their life's on the line. The combat now is just roll and hit like a caveman and people can't see this shit, literally massive downgrade compared to sekiro, and because of how massively "success" elden ring is it start to creeping on other games trying so hard to copy paste soulshit gameplay instead of trying something new and literally creating a new slop of genre
I enjoy Elden Ring just because it scratched the itch I've been looking for in a game for a while. I can see how its not some peoples cup of tea, but I enjoyed it personally.
@@istheworldrealyeah not too much agreeable when you use terms like soulshit, seems like you're not on the same page of fans that want improvements if you talk like this
22:55 That's a fair criticism. There should be lore reasons why these dungeons exist and why the bosses are there. None of the bosses in the Legacy Dungeons should ever be repeated either.
I feel the opposite. I agree with the criticism about the repeat bosses but saying the amount of dungeons in the world makes it feel like a video game... well yeah we're playing a video game. I have never played a Souls borne game and my friends basically walked me through the early part of the game as I learned how to play the game. I had so much fun going through the different caves & catacombs with my friends. Sure they were repetitive and on a new game plus, I'll probably avoid half of them, but for the average player, they're going to find a quarter or half of these dungeons.
There *are* lore reasons. Elden Ring's "fanbase" is plagued by casual gamers who come from western gaming and don't understand that From Software thinks about everything they put in their games. They just don't spell it out for free as if the casual audience can't be intelligent enough to research and learn their lore.
@@lorenzocassaro3054Magma Wyrms are humans who participated in dragon communion and eventually after overdoing it, ended up turning themselves into that. Everything has a reason dum dum.
@@adamiadamiadami if you have to google and read a wiki instead of just playing the game and getting the lore through gameplay then its a failure of the game.
Sad to see they just doubled down on all these issues in the DLC. Makes me worried about the direction the franchise is headed in especially when they seem to be getting praised for it.
Exactly, it seems to me they’re going down the same formulaic and unfun path as other major studios in the past. Shadow of the erdtree proved that no studio is exempt from poor decision making
I do really enjoy this game for the most part, but I am actually worried for the trajectory of future From Soft games. Particularly in the boss design department. And if they decide to do another open world, the balance department.
@@starhammer5247 well after the success of this game it would be idiotic not to make another game similar. Also the money they made from this can help them increase their resources and be able to work on multiple games at once
Open world is not the issue. It’s the scope. A smaller world would allow for more uniqueness and better balance. There is no need to have dozens of similar boss battles and similar catacombs. More playtime hours does not necessarily equal more quality hours.
I know one of their next projects is a new armored core game, then I heard they have another game in the works but I don't think anyone knows what it is. They did say though that they might do an Elden Ring 2 but aren't sure yet.
In many ways a lot of these criticisms mirror what people lament about MMORPGs. How in the "good old days" you were encouraged to explore and experiment, while the modern experience punishes you. I wonder how much of that is really down to the simple evolution of the gaming community.
The game is pure open ended exploration no check lists or hand holding or side dungeon markers, across a massive landscape, and can be rerouted at players whim. The legacy dungeons are peak complexity and scale in the series, the free form overworld exploration and traditional legacy dungeon crawling are meant to contrast and compliment each other, and they do. Yet some ppl can mistake the forrest for the trees and make 2hr vids where they missed the point lol
@@JavaSchoolBlues No, it's pretty much the best counter to the real "dumb take" which is that exploration and experimentation is punished in Elden Ring.
@@hiscores9282 but the overworld exploration is really bad compared to the legacy dungeons, if i just want a game with no check lists or handholding i could play ultima 6, the GOAT
I think one issue is that alot of bosses feel like they belong in sekiro with how fast they are. If they were slightly slower and had more varied timing then it would feel better
@@cardmossdn8058 I also would like to know, because I have seen this EXACT same comment multiple times and every single time not one person even bothered giving examples.
@@randomlyrapid8996 I mean if you’re using heavy weapons, you should know that you’re not an anime character swinging that weapon like a straight sword and they still complain.
Welp the DLC has come and this video is more relevant than ever. Seriously the main bosses and even some regular enemies are complete infinite stamina, 10 hit combo, arena sprinting beasts that you are a child against
First souls game? Every dark souls, demon souls, even bloodborn boss has “infinite stamina”. Elden Ring just takes it to the next level with combos. Learn the combo you learn learn the boss.
@@nakiangoderich3014 how to reveal you have never played any other souls game: but sure go and argue how nito and artorias are just as aggressive and relentless as maliketh or pcr, lol only boss in ds1 that comes close to elden ring levels is manus, only ones in ds3 that comes close are pontiff and maybe gael. meanwhile ds2 doesn't have such a boss at all. even sir alonne and fume knight gives you plenty of breathing room compared to most elden ring bosses
@@advakart4208 Then you just simply don't know timings. You don't know enough to care, or care enough to know the bosses move sets. I mean they aren't hard at all, you're just so caught up on the ds3 mindset that you don't even bother to learn how to play elden ring. Maliketh/PCR give you plenty of time to heal, they(just like other bosses in the previous games) will punish you trying to heal while they are still in their "aggressive phase". You say "go and argue how nito and artorias are just as aggressive and relentless as maliketh or pcr" but you are completely divorced from the fact that yes, artorias is just as aggressive as Maliketh or pcr. If you fight artorias and heal from neutral, you will get punished, like every boss in every souls games. It's not rocket science.
@@illustriousclips4236 exactly, i literally fought maliketh and his first phase w/ an unupgraded colossal weapon and it was not even that hard, felt perfectly fair. almost everyone complaining about boss design in this game just sucks at it
I played blind as a sorcerer, it was my first Fromsoft game. I've had a lot of trouble discussing my time with it with my friends because they mainly did meta bleed or strength builds and the bosses that were hard for me were completely different from them. I actually found Malenia to be one of the easiest bosses in the game, I was well leveled by then and I accidentally bullied her to death with staggering spells, I never even knew she healed on hit until someone told me. Meanwhile Malekith, Placidusax, and even damn Tree Sentinels destroyed me repeatedly. Overall my experience was incomparable to my friends, and I wasn't even able to communicate why because I was doing it blind so I just got accused of lying whenever I tried. Afterall how could I struggle against Tree Sentinels a dozen times but kill Malenia on my second try? I was just poorly fit for both fights in different ways.
@@yellowbelliedslider6719 First time I used Rock Sling, but I wasted all my flasks because I didn't realize she had a second phase. Second time I mixed rykard's rancor and adula's moonblade, with the former doing most of the work, though the latter has been nerfed since then IIRC. I had effectively about 80 Int and all the quick casting options (except for the staff since it increases cost and I like to open with Ranni's Dark Moon for fun). Make sure you keep your distance, like as far as possible, there's no reason not to with all of those spells except for moonblade which I only used briefly whenever she ended up close enough. Just start rolling away whenever she goes up in the air, she almost always misses if you do (at a good distance). At the time I was also experimenting with adding faith since I'd maxed Int so I had black flame's protection and golden vow on, and flame cleanse me IIRC ready. I can't remember if I actually needed them though so they're probably optional. Also relevant to note I'd invested a lot into endurance for dodges and armor since I had like no vigor, so I had the altered Banished Knight armor on at the time (I needed the best equip talisman for it still though). Edit2: (Should note I only switched spells the second time because I was really tired of throwing rocks at that point in my playthrough, Rock Sling is honestly probably the best bet, as it is in almost every fight sadly, unless it's been nerfed and no one told me. I did hear Rykard's Rancor was buffed though and it's more fun so I still rec that too).
@@yellowbelliedslider6719 Try the Night Sorceries like Night Comet and Shard. I avoided them my first playthrough because they cost more FP and have less range than their glintstone counterparts, but the benefit of them is that the NPC don't dodge them which really helps against Mel.
They punish you in another way when you do go and search out the world. You constantly risk breaking side quests by talking to the wrong people, killing a boss in the wrong order, or even just opening some other quest before you were "supposed" to.
This. Other issues, especially level gating, I can live with. But this is a big no-no for me. New Vegas has level gating, but you generally don't break quests by doing things in your order. Witcher 3 has level gating, sort of, and you generally don't break quests by doing things in your order. And these are less forgiving examples. Things like BotW, Elder Scrolls/Fallouts, or Ubisoft games are absolutely scared to keep people out of content. Not asking anything to that level, but having quest not broken by doing open-world things in an open-world game, when there are so few quests.
1:36:01 Finally someone who understands it. That's exactly how I felt about it. If you follow the questline, Fia does use you and betray you, but in the end she's one of the few people who offered you any kindness and comfort. Everyone else tells you to go there, do this, do that, but they won't elaborate as to why, and they don't seem to particularly care about what happens to you.
Well, there are a lot of other characters that don't just try to use you and are quite nice. Boc is an example. Same with Millicent, Nepheli, Thops, etc. There are a rather large number of nice people in the lands between so long as you ignore the thousands of enemies that don't have characters.
@@Choco____1 Even when Sellen says: if you cannot become Elden Lord, you will always have a place in the Academy. This is...... Edit: the sad thing is that Nepheli is the only one with a semi good ending provided the player does not burn the lands between.
@@Choco____1 Boc is a good example, yes, but he's not really connected to any of the runes, and he's not a "waifu'. I found Nepheli annoying, but I really loved Sellen, for example. She's also one of the few caring characters.
The problem for me is that; I don't explore because it's fun. I explore because the developers put whatever they put in the game for me to see, and so I fear that if I dont explore, I will lose out on equipment or important items. I explore out of fear that Im playing the game wrong.
I can relate to this! I explore because I am afraid that I miss a estus flask upgrade. In the past from software game, you can almost get all the estus flask upgrade without looking a guide.
@@xEcuador1 it's absolutely boring lol. Fighting the same enemies is fun maybe twice, but afterwards I'm tired of copypasted dungeons or just riding past them on a horse, trying to get to the next area. There's hardly a feeling of uniqueness or depth to it, and the rewards are just another item. Elden Ring is an aRPG trying to act like an RPG, without including any of the important elements of one
An addition I think is worth mentioning in brief is the enemy AI aggression and input reading has been turned to 11 from the previous title DS3. It is so highly strung and overtuned, on the night of the launch, I found myself playing Input chicken with the enemies. Malenia is the best example of this system at play. I went back through all the Soulsborne games to see which entry was the worst offender and aside from DS3 having a few enemies which make it abundantly clear there's elevated input reading involved (The games particularly put an emphasis on punishing healing), Elden Ring takes this system and makes it egregious. An overly aggressive system like this will cause players to play a certain timid way. It should not be a thing anyone should even notice. Yet here the machine cogs underneath the bright colours and layers of lore are on full display for all to feel.
@@theholypotato7763 The game 100% has input reading. It's also closely related to the fact that beside the animation of light attack of you avatar, all main bosses have attacks that are faster than anything your avatar might do ( like drinking a flask, casting a spell, heavy attack, ash of wars ). They also have long range attacks that are also faster than your animations. So basically your input is read by the enemy AI and then you get punished. It's really obvious against Malenia or Margit.
Okay I'm with you for most of this, but it is not a twist at all that the Greater Will is behind the Golden Order. It's painfully and obviously spelled out with the Two Fingers in Roundtable hold. Also the Golden Order isn't corrupt because of the Greater Will, they're corrupt for valuing appearance and strength over the actual guidance of their higher power and teachings
I think what he was trying to say was you still aren’t sure what a greater will or golden order even is after finishing the game or even care much about it. The story feels like george rr Martin wrote something and from soft smashed it apart and took pieces of it to make it into a obscure from soft title. In dark souls the story had a cohesive story that made sense is what he was saying with illustrations that are clear, and even more so in sekiro in elden ring it’s so vague to the point you just don’t care about the story and can tell neither did they. It’s a game focused on the game play , all immersion is broken when each dungeon is the same shit over and over and bosses are re-used so many times, and in an open world that contains almost no human life or settlements.
@@TheVioletBunny That’s not entirely true. Sekiro has one of if not the most concise stories in any Fromsoftware game and it still had a lot of loose ends. It’s their style of story telling. For example, much like the greater will, the divine dragon is never explained fully even though it’s a primary plot point. The only thing we know about his origin is that he “came from the west”. Making the greater powers in your story have very little known about them helps build a sense of scale, it shows that the world portrayed in the game is incredibly vast, but to the overarching narrative it’s just a small part of something much bigger.
The game really explores pride. Every story boss struggles with pride and it is the fundamental reason why they all need to go down so that the world can be made anew
“It was the 14th of June, at 7:14 pm when I first met Malenia, blade of Miquella…..and it was the 14th of June at 9:31pm when I first killed Malenia blade of Miquella…….. and it was at 9:32pm that night that I realized something was wrong-“ captures the unique horror every blind player experienced. Amazing video in citing things I hadn’t considered and very well done and was marvelously entertaining living through your eyes you first experience with the game.
I mean idk, I like that there's obscenely difficult enemies hiding in games. Why was he so desperate to kill Malenia? Why did he feel entitled to beat her with ease with his yolo character?
@Stanzbey69 I award you fromsoft cult member of the week. This prestigious award is only given to the most chronically online cultists who attack anyone that dares criticize the game 🏆
@@christianbaker3564nitpicking the game to death and watching long video essays about a game you don't even like is much more indicative of an individual that is chronically online. you people put a lot of effort into being utterly fucking miserable, and for that i pity you.
The only thing I think is comparable to what you're feeling with Elden ring is what old Fallout fans must have felt like when Fallout 3 came out and it was basically undeniably more successful than the rest of the series but didn't have the same magic that made the original series and trying to fight the wave of millions of people who only played the new game and only like the series for the new game
@Krinab I played Dark Souls 1 for the first time Dark Souls 3 for the first time, and Elden Ring for the first time all within a year of each other, I can safely say I did not like elden ring and loved the others. What a weird way to brush of valid criticism lol
@Krinab You'd think that, but no. I'm also one of those people that played Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 many years after Fallout 3. Same thing with Dark Souls 1, my first playthrough was last year. Today I think Fallout 1 and 2 are a lot better than Fallout 3. Dark Souls 1 also has something that's missing from Elden Ring.
@@Dimebag-wx2rs Probably because it plays more like Bloodbourne than a traditional Dark Souls. Bloodbourne and Elden Ring are both my favorite SoulsBourne games because of the pacing of combat. They're very similar but very different games. Elden Ring also is a lot less linear so its easy to get lost while trying to track certain things. I feel like guides help the experience but not if you read it point for point and follow it to a T. I found a great in depth guide that was also able to just be glanced at. After reading the first few things to do in an area, you usually get the jist of everything. I've also been playing since DS2 and things just seem to get better.
I didn't grow up with Fromsoft games I've played all of them and while Elden Do g is phenomenal something is missing but I can't pin it. I've enjoyed it more on my Guts build second play through but by the end game it still doesn't feel right.
Personally I'd rather outlevel a region than have to deal with something like Level scaling. I really hate level scaling. Morrowind had it right and skyrim has it so wrong.
There's no reason to hate a game mechanic at a fundamental level. You could easily implement a soft level scaling mechanic. Something that would buff weak enemies a little when you're way ahead, and bring down harsh enemies just a bit when you're behind. Level scaling doesn't have to mean "the enemies are always an even match", and you can still maintain hard difficulty while doing it.
@@pantonearqm2791 "it ruins player progression and immersion" Except it literally doesn't have to if it's handled subtlely. You just think that "player scaling" instantly means equalized challenges for every player level, when that's not at all what it means. Nobody would notice or care if it took one less sword swings for a low level character to kill some of the mobs in Caelid
Skyrim's level scaling holds the entire game together, the fuck are you on? Without it there will be a completely, absolutely different game, a game similar to elden ring's fuckups in fact. Level scaling is the only way to make openworld progression work besides making the open world closed.
I love Elden Ring and I love that you care enough about Elden Ring and FromSoftware that you made a near two-hour critique of it. Thank you for doing what you do!
If you ever get to the point where you’re passionate enough about something, you can’t help but say something. Because yes, some people actually care about things like quality and substance. Funny how that works huh?
@@GothJedi some people do, yes, just not neverknowsbest haha. what he really only cares about is how "mainstream-popular" a game is, and if it is, he cynically does everything he can to dig for anything he deems as a flaw to justify his negativity he is so infamous for, in this case, ironically taking the form of unoriginal disappointment he carries on about so often. hilarious for someone so hellbent on being critical of uniqueness.
@@lyrithvalthier2236 critical of uniqueness? What drug are you taking? Elden Ring is the combination of two tropes which have been around for decades, souls combat and shitty Skyrim esc. Open worlds. You’re brain dead.
On the open world point, a big issue is that because most items are only useful for specific builds, it means a lot of the rewards you get for finishing dungeons ends up being useless. I remember playing a DEX/INT Sorcerer build on my first game, and the amount of times I'd get incantations or STR based weapons as a reward for going through a whole dungeon got annoying. If you're not playing a magic build at all, then the sheer number of spells as rewards is also a pain. What ends up happening is on future playthroughs you just look up where the loot you want is, and then go do that dungeon. The open world is also a huge issue wrt normal upgrade materials. Did a club only run recently and literally had to Google where to find enough smithing stones of each level just to get this ONE WEAPON up to +25. Hell, didn't even reach +25 until after beating Godskin duo and getting their miner's bell bc finding enough Smithing stone (8) was becoming a chore. And that was for a single normal weapon. Madness
I actually prefer the upgrade system here than in the previous games where you needed specific gems to infuse weapons and in ds 1 you had to figure out for yourself what boss weapon creates what.
@@QuiksilverX7 Oh DS1's weapon upgrade system especially was awful lol. Especially having to go and find specific blacksmiths in the world and not even being able to upgrade beyond +5 weapons until you found a key item. Yeah I agree that the infusion system specifically is way better in Elden Ring than previous games, but actually upgrading your weapon is definitely worse imo. Especially if it's not a boss weapon, you're not getting those upgrades unless you actively go searching for mines to clear out. For me that sucks ass.
Honestly fast travel and Stake of Marika were needed in a huge game like this, things that need to be improved in the game is Camera movement for Giant enemies and enemies attacking through walls!
I agree with Stakes of Marika I actually think it was a great idea and I personally love them. But I personally think and think this is what NeverKnowsBest was trying to say is being able to fast travel at any point is will not punish the player for playing bad. Granted this probably won't happen a lot but pretty at anytime except for dungeons and I think bosses never tried on bosses you can just fast travel to a grace I personally think that's a little dumb and I think fast travel should be based upon closeness to graces so then you can actually be punished and can't just fast travel to a grace. Also I agree with your point on camera and also enemies attacking through walls.
@@japanesepasta7191 The problem is NeverKnowsBest is comparing these things with older titles. Whatever argument you bring up it will not REALLY work with Dark souls 1 2 or 3. Those games are simply not that big in comparison. They are closed off areas compiled of small and big rooms with little to no side roads. Elden ring is one giant side road. One giant optional encounter. Can you imagine not having a map or any kind of tracking?? Can you imagine figuring out your location with coordinates or landmarks every single time you enter a new area? Sure it probably will be fun..the first few times. But there is an outstanding number of unique locations in a game like Elden Ring. It'll become tedious and annoying to not be capable of fast travelling. Imagine a quest like Sellens' or Rannis' without fast travel. Pretty much a giant nuisance.
@@alix6270 what i took away from nevernknowsbest's point is that having fast travel means you never have the feeling of going on an expedition far away from known territory. like when he gave the example of him traveling down Blightown in DS1 and feeling like he was going deeper and deeper into hostile territory without knowing if he could get back. If he could fast travel he could teleport out at any time. having fast travel makes a game lose the feeling getting lost in a world. I think the solution to keeping this feeling while still accounting for a giant open world would be to allow fast travel from only SOME bonfires and most bonfires could not be teleported to and from. These could be like little home bases and would keep the feeling of getting lost while preventing the inconvenience of having to walk across the whole open world to get somewhere.
@@japanesepasta7191maybe fast travels can be a finite resource that is refilled by killing bosses, maybe until a certain point in the mid-late game, making players have to put more thought into it, and punishing not committing to an area till it’s completed
Finally a "too many bosses" criticism i agree with. The fact that it doesn't make canonical sense for these bosses to exist at the end of dungeons is an issue. Maybe in future games they could all have a joint story, like all being knights of a certain king, or all being Skeleton type enemies
Biggest problem with bosses is that you are fighting legit 90% of them atleast twice most of them 3 or 4 times. Even the legacy dungeon bosses gets reused like margit, mohg and godrick its so disappointing
@@stuckstepsis6976 that's the criticism I don't agree with. Smaller bosses being repeated, although not amazing, is better than nothing, and the bigger ones that are normally have lore reasons for it. Also, that's only if you fight every boss. You can't really get mad for an optional repeat boss, because you chose to fight it. Sure, 100% unique bosses would be cool, but isn't reasonable. So instead of complaining about there being multiple of a boss, just enjoy that you get to fight good bosses an extra time
@@nalidhardstyle8551 I would generally agree except for Astel 2.0. That grab attack is bs, and Astel seems like the kind of enemy that should be unique given that he’s a fallen star who destroyed one of the underground cities. That’s too epic for copy paste with a bs grab move that insta-kills. Really cheapens the og Astel. Godefroy also feels totally out of place. Godrick should be unique as the inheritor of a great rune. Other than those two, I can see an argument that the repeats are not bad as a rule. It could be done better, though.
@@kolbywilliams7234 I agree that astel shouldn't be copied, that's definatly one that should be unique. And although yes the repeats could be done better, I'd rather have this than have a game that's half as big
Yeah I came to actually love ruins to a degree because its like a 50/50 chance that theres a boss at the bottom of the stairs, or just a treasure chest lol- and when it was just a treasure chest, and not a shitty general enemy with a health bar I was pleased XD
When it comes to seeing the big tree instead of having a player marker on the map, that (or lack of map entirely) was actually planned but was scrapped in development. Probably for similar reasons the NPC markers got added post-launch.
With all due respect to the developer, I had no chance of finding Blaidd without knowing he had to be there because of the map pointer. Can I really be rationally expected to churn every rock in a giant open world game to get to the NPCs relevant to the story? Too little hand holding can make the game unplayable. I mean, why have visuals at all, let's make a game where you have to orient on sounds alone - even less hand-holding! Would be a really nice experience actually, but making it open world would go downhill fast.
@@ArgumentumAdHominem yeah but the organic feeling of discovery just isn't there with waypoints or other distractions, so you've gotta find a healthy medium.
@@killval849 Indeed. I would appreciate a bit more of a nudge towards where to expect things at the beginning of the game, so I don't miss everything. Later one develops a habit, and nudges are unnecessary. I certainly agree that waypoints are too much
@@ArgumentumAdHominem maybe they shouldnt have pumped the open world full of ubisoft tier slop side content to give the impression the game has more to offer than it really does
@@killval849 But an organic feeling would also mean you actually TALK to these people instead of just standing there waiting for their monologue to end. You know, simple questions like "Who are you?" "Where do you come from as you seem to be a pot guy?" or "Where are you planning to go?".
Elden ring>>> Bloodborne and dark souls 3 and if you say I'm a elden ring player my first one is dark souls 1 lil bro so cope harder elden ring is better from gameplay and graphics seals ost bosses only sekiro is equal and dark souls 1
The “Are you sure?” when trying to resummon the horse in a fight got me killed so many times. The biggest raging moment I had in the game was trying to resummon the whose right as I was about to kill a hard boss underleveled. Absolute cheap as hell. They shouldn’t ever interrupt your gameplay while fighting. For combat that’s known for being super tight timingwise, the fact that they casually kill you trying to resummon your horse was a horrible idea and I’m surprised they haven’t patched an option to turn the warning off.
@@ericstaples7220 Ah yes the classic “if you just don’t do the problem the problem doesn’t exist”, I swear ds fans are incapable of taking criticism about balancing or combat lmfao
The question of motivation seemed to be a rather simple one to me. If you look at this game it's tonally more of an adventure than a desperate struggle to end an existential crisis to humanity. If you look at the class descriptions and armor sets, there's two things they all have in common. They all have something to prove and nothing to lose. So they come to the warring kingdom of the hands between in search of glory and a name for themselves. Your goal in this game is not to prepare to die or to ensure a future for humanity. It is to RISE. And to do so, you take out any of the factions that are a threat to the land, such as Godrick and his profane grafting and human experiments or Millenia and her kingdom of rot, and are given the choice to side with any of the factions that will reestablish order with you at it's head. You are even given the option to deny the current order and attempt to forge a new path for mankind or to decide this place isn't worth the trouble, just say fuck it and burn it all. Yeah, it's an intrinsically selfish motivation, but it's also been a major motivation for characters in fantasy roll playing games since at least the creation of dungeons and dragons. I can understand it they doesn't appeal to some people, but to say your character has no reason for what they're doing seems to miss the point.
Moreover, the opening cinematic explains your motivation quite straightforwardly. to stand before the Elden Ring. And become the Elden Lord. That's it. That's your character's motivation. Why is up to the player. How is up to the choices they make in the game. But the motivation is spelled out in no uncertain terms.
just because the motivation is obvious doesn't mean it's a good motivation. like okay... i guess my character just wants to go on an adventure... why though? people don't do things for no reason.
@@cerealexperimentsgrain Power, glory and wealth are powerful motivators. They're essentially the only reason that people have jobs. This adventure will lead to literally being a ruler of a country. You might not want that, but it seems easy to understand why SOMEONE would want that. And given a lot of the class descriptions it's very likley your protagonist... Isn't necessarily a good person.
@@levishawback1218 that's a fair take actually. just hard to relate to. i guess i relate a lot more to DS1's character motivation of being pushed around by greater forces with little that can be done about it.
My big hope for Elden Ring was definitely that it would play in a more "alive" world, especially because of the Open World aspect and after Sekiro which seemed to go more in that direction, so I would have hoped for some small villages that are actually inhabited by people with daily routines or something like that. I like Dark Souls but with this new IP I hoped for something more different, not once again a world fallen "from Grace" that is 99% inhabited by some form of undead/hollow people and creatures.
Most of the enemies you fight in this game are just normal people like the knights and scholars they only look undead because they can’t die from natural causes so they are really old.
@@jinx5673 Have you ever even played a souls game before elden ring or are you just choking too hard on the games cock? Literally every point he just made is true.
Funny how it seems like they have learned something regarding the storytelling and the sidequests, but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING regarding the gameplay and difficulty by actually just DOUBLING DOWN on the bullshit unbalanced mess. Litteraly spend 3h trying to beat Rellana on my own before giving up and beating her FIRST TRY with a Spirit summon and I haven't even reached the final boss yet... Honestly I think this DLC might be the single most frustratingly unfulfilling gaming experience I've ever had. The expansion's insane quality seems to only be matched by the depth of its atrocious execution.
I literally wouldn’t have completed a single side quest if I didn’t look up a guide. I tried to play blind I really did and honestly I think I was having more fun blind, but I had this overwhelming feeling that I was missing out on a lot of stuff especially cause I’m using a mage type build. Bruh I literally missed comet in the library because I didn’t check the right book shelf!!! Even while I was playing blind I didn’t consider elden ring as hard as everybody was saying but after I looked up a guide the difficulty shot down even further! It’s a great game and I understand the praise. But this shit just feel like Dark Souls 3+ season of discovery type vibe.
Thats all on you guys fomo killed the experience for a lot of people. No one understands this game be here in 10 years too. It's about bragging you played it at launch to make yourself seem relevant to strangers.
That’s the eternal struggle of a souls game. You want to look something up because you are afraid of missing content, but you also don’t want to ruin the fun. It was a little quicker and easier in the linear style of dark souls or bloodborne or sekiro but with Elden ring the world was so massive it takes hours of looking at things online while playing the game if you don’t want to miss quests, and honestly it was exhausting.
@makoto3212it’s not about finishing it fast. It’s about finding literally anything to do. Do you seriously enjoy finding a cool secret spot and then one a treasure chest at the end, only for its contents to be a single mushroom? That’s not “fun and rewarding” that’s an insult. That’s spitting in my face and saying “we don’t respect your time.”
Interestingly enough, the Ranni side quest was the only one I managed to complete without a guide. I agree with you on that I prefer the more controlled game design found in the earlier FromSoft titles, but that doesn't mean I didn't love my time with Elden Ring. For me the best part of these games was always exploring the world, hence why Dark Souls 1 is my favourite, and why the open world of Elden Ring was something I enjoyed, even though it brought many issues with it.
What the dark souls games lacked heavily was Elder Scrolls levels of storytelling and "more realistic level designs" where the enemy placement wouldn't have broken the immersion so oftenly. I also don't mean that the cryptic nature of Dark Souls lore should be removed and changed into an hyper explained/encyclopedic lore that you get to understand right away when i compared it to Elder Scrolls, but it would've been great to at least have more than 2 dialogue options with the NPC's in order to create more interesting questlines with different outcomes that way.
Yeah but when the world is lifeless with repasted enemies and non unique bosses, reused assets, reused dungeons and ruins. It suddenly it becomes boring. Which is why I had the most fun exploring Raya Lucaria academy. NPCs give you a vague exposition as to what you have to do and you end up missing a quest and you have to replay. Thats intentional bad game design to get you to replay. The same way runbacks are intentional bad game design to make a 15 hour game into a 40 hour game. What makes open world games work is the need and desire to interact with said world. This is nowhere to be found in Elden Ring it has NOTHING to support it being open world. Enemies dont even scale their difficulty is mostly based on where the devs thought the average player would be. This has caused me to play 2 hours, get bored, drop the game for months, watch content on it, get the desire to play again. Rinse and repeat. And I still haven't finished it.
@@slendydie1267 Elden ring and the other souls games need Skyrim type npc interaction BADLY. It would be a bit more interesting to be able to say more than just "Yes" and "No" during dialogues. The npcs are incredibly minimalistic
I only looked up two things and got Ranni's ending my first playthrough, where Blaidd was in Siofra because I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like spending ten minutes to just miss him and look it up anyway, and what the doll did, which was critical to me getting the ending admittedly. It didn't occur to me to use it at that site of grace the teleporter took me, because it had been like 80 hours since I last spoke with Melina at a site of grace. That's a big complaint I have about the game, is it kind of throws obvious waifu characters at you and gives you no reason to form a connection with them. I assumed Melina got lost to do her own business, I didn't realize she was still "travelling with me." And Ranni's ending was not worth it, Bloodborne and Sekiro's different boss fights made different endings worth it. But this is like Dark Souls 3, a game I do love, but the endings are just a bit of flavor with no true meaning.
My biggest fear is what Elden Ring's massive success could/will mean for the future of FromSoft Souls games. Hundreds upon hundreds of hours in DS 1, 2 and 3 with many hundred more to come, yet I only barely managed to force myself to finish Elden Ring once...
I don’t mind honestly, I’ve spent well over 1000 hours in ds3 and I can keep playing it for the rest of my life lol. Just wish ds1 gets a remake like demon souls and I’d be fine if fromsoft never makes a game again
I have a friend who compulsively reads every wiki and meta resource for every game and implements "best practices." I prefer to play games for the surprises and experimentation. Co-op with him became insufferable, so we haven't bothered in years. The mindset is so radically different that it's not even the same hobby.
@@Phex1 Just last week, I was playing PSO2NGS then a person in our guild told the guild chat that he's making a tank build, then here came the "meta players" that are saying playing tank is useless. To make the other member not feel bad, I told him that I, too, use a tank build that is so thicc that I can take 4-6 hits from an Ancient (the strongest enemy in the game) where most players die in 1 or 2 hits. Those meta players then told me that it's stupid because players hit enemies more often than getting hit by enemies. IDK about them but because of my build, I am able to solo Ancients but when they learned that I use a tank build, they immediately think that my DPS is low (it's not the case tho. I still hit harder than others) so they stopped inviting me to join party quests. I'm planning to leave the group once I find a better one to join. I'm playing the game to roleplay and to have fun but "meta players" are just ruining my time. I muted the guild chat so I can play in peace. Fk those guys.
someone needs to work in this world, glad there's better candidate than me sounds like the kind of person who will make their boss happy, so maybe should try finding a job instead of playing videogames
Yeah your friend doesn't deserve to play games, imagine being that way, I know I can't. Letting guides and wikis play a game for you before you've played it for yourself is a insult to the devs.
While I agree about your overall point about people relying on wikis and things like that as guides I don't really agree with using Ranni's ending as an example of it. Her quest is by far the easiest to find and complete because the odds that someone just finishes Caria Manor, (a pretty big landmark in the area that most people will see and go to) turn around and leave instead of going forward and meeting Ranni is really low. Since for most of her quest she's just sitting in her tower you don't have the problem most other quests have of the npc just going to some random point on the map without any indication. The only part I can reasonably see people having trouble with if they're paying attention is the part where you need to kill the shadow in the area connecting Noskella and the Lake of Rot, because Ranni only tells you what to do once and if you talk to her again after she basically says "I said something I shouldn't have, pretend you heard nothing". I got Rannis ending in my first playthrough without looking anything up and I think implying that just because more people got that ending than the default most of those people looked it up is a bit unfair. I want to reiterate though I do agree with the overall point of people relying on wikis and guides too much.
Yeah, I agree. The video was really good overall, but on my blind playthrough literally the only questline I managed to complete was Ranni's, and honestly, that was reason enough for me to choose her ending: She was literally the only thing that connected me to the story of the game. For the most part they told you how to continue her quest and the progression was logical.
Yeah, agreed. Ranni's quest is the part of this game that I truly enjoyed. It is well telegraphed - npcs give you clear objectives and either stay in the same place or tell you where they are going next. Apart from that this was probably the only part of Elden Ring that was coherent narratively. Most of the game story is a disjointed mess. Every area has a theme which does not connect with others and is never used elsewhere. Limgrave - grafting, Liurnia - moon, Caelid - rot, Volcano Manor - blasphemy, Leyndell - glowing tree, Mountaintops of the giants - nothing, Haligtree - Malenia, Mohg's Palace - blood, for some reason, Farum Azula - random "here be dragons". Ranni's quest was the only thing that managed to span multiple locations and make a goddamn sense. You're helping a sorceress, escape the clutches of fate forced on her by Two Fingers. It manages to incorporate cosmology of Lands Between, Radahn, Golden Order, Black Knifes and living death into one coherent story. And then it branches out into Fia's quest. Honestly that's the only part of Elden Ring that is genuinely good, apart from level desing of some legacy dungeons.
The fact you have to talk to the doll *3 times* in a very specific grace kinda negates your point. I fucking adore this game, but ridiculously cryptic questline steps and scattered lore as primary mean to storytelling in an open world where there's no specific order to do things makes things pretty messy. 60 hours in I have absolutely no idea what's going on, what npcs talk about even if I listen to every conversation and read every item description ingame. I didn't have this problem with demon souls or bloodborne, for example.
My personal gripe with the community at large is their inability to take criticism of the games. If you make nay observation, complaint, or criticism they're just toxic and call you casual and to git gud. Which I feel is exactly why ER is the way it is. A lot of strange and poor game design choices were made because the loudest part of the community never addresses what is wrong with these games
My biggest issue with the game are the side quests. I don't mind not having a quest log to follow but it's literally impossible not to miss quests or mess others up by progressing too far without a guide and even with a guide it's still convoluted.
That was my biggest complaint as well. There's questlines you have to speak to an npc that was never involved or mentioned in order to continue the questline that's located across the world. You could never know how to advance a lot of them without help from online. For an open world game, it's pretty frustrating. Other than that though the games amazing.
@@yaldabaothofgalar2618 How many times do you have to play the game before you figure out every side quest without using any guides? A lot of times I'm guessing.
I started as a strength build too, as I've always done with older all souls games. And by mid game I've been made to realize that jump attacks are just too strong not to utilize... but they're just too boring in terms of playstyle. There's just so little opportunity that you can smack a boss and not die, and this is especially harder to come by with how slow strength-based weapons tend to be. Even if you stack HP and armor so you can take a hit or two as you attack, bosses or even regular mobs in the late game just hit too hard and will melt you.
same same. i love UGS and solo'ing in all of souls games ( Not for bragging rights or purists reasons, i just enjoy the anticipation of slow heavy swings and like the impactful animation, but poking at boss with toothpicks utlntill it suddenly falls and d^es seems boring to me) jump attacks are too effective, but the animation looks so lanky and boring. so i totally ignored it and i totally forgot about jump attacks until malenia cuz it is almost required if u are trying to posture break her, but jump atks just feel like lameplay
my mans it's 50x better than the light spam in other dark souls games, plus nearly every boss in the game has openings for the more effective charge heavy
Attacks in older souls games had very little variety in comparison. Spam light because the damage build up on strong attacks isn't worth the risk and slowness. Elden ring has a ton of ways to attack; use jump attacks to avoid sweeps, crouch and poke to avoid horizontal attacks, guard counter/strong attack and thrown items for posture breaking, powerstancing for speed and extra damage... The game wants you to use all the tools it gives you to CREATE opportunities to deal damage. People don't seem to see it as a problem in games like GoW - why is it a problem here?
"Disappointed that the lessons Fromsoft is likely to learn from this are the wrong ones" is the exact reason I begrudge the metacritic score and the blind loyalty of Fromsoft git guds. Have fun fighting Melania clones 30 times in the next game.
@@frogglen6350 nothing wrong with liking the game. Elden ring is a great game with a handful of fatal flaws that will become prevalent in future from soft games if no one is willing to point them out. I don't want to deal with waterfowl dance again nor do I want to deal with combos that require my melee only character to have to roll more than five times in varying tempos to finally get a chance to counter attack. My hope is from soft balances things out a little better on their next outing. To quote the video "at what point does hard become too hard"?
@@jwilliam6743 And this is precisely why Team Ninja is my new friend now. After the 60th hour of Elden ring, i was just... done, while at the same time im clocking almost 180 hours in Nioh 2(with 4 new game+'s and now working my way through the end game content). The reason why is quite simple: The game just gives me more tools to deal with bosses, and many of these tools are usually perfectly viable. It doesn't matter what weapon you use, as long as you practice the core mechanics of the game(which are all crucial compared to the 'Guard counter' that i only ever used once) you will be able to make basically any weapon, or magic style or w/e work. And yes some might feel slower, however if you enjoy it, just play it and you'll be completely fine.
@@itIsSpite bro people can say all they want about how they'll think Nioh 2 is easy (even though it's literally not going to be in any shape form or way)but when the actual game starts they'll be limping back to Elden ring. Heck people crying about Malenia have no Idea about the creature mission that Team Ninja actually incorporated into the game and named it "The Dragon Clan" fuck Ren and his Old school methods.
Ya, I can already tell, no one will be enthralled with the sequel. It all will be more of the same and even git guds will git lost. Or if not, their minority will remain the only ones forming a jerk circle around it lol
@@facundovera3227 ah yes. i remember how i got DS1 and played it at a Friends place thinking it was going to be a adventure game ala elder scrolls Oblivion. we got Stuck at some boss and we looked at eachother and at the same time said "this game is bs. lets play something else" and we never touched it again.
The reason people stick to these fights is that after those 30 minutes have passed, they can feel that they are tangibly closer to beating the boss. They’ll understand how to avoid certain attacks, when to get in counterattacks, and how to exploit weaknesses. Beating these bosses feels like an accomplishment because the time invested directly translates to competence at the game. Also, they’re not all hour-long ordeals, it’s mostly just the major bosses. There’s always a few Pinwheels or Soldiers of Godrick thrown in.
Malenia was the first boss in the whole series to make me stop, analyze my life choices, and realize that beating a hard boss in a video game clearly wasn't worth hours upon hours of torment.
I think she took me... 22-23 tries pre patch. And that was using everything at my disposal, Mimic tear, spells, buffs, frostbite. It's only been 1-3 tries on every subsequent playthrough, but they really messed up with that Waterfowl dance. She'd have easily been the hardest boss in the game without that still. I honestly wish they'd used the previous animation without the wild tracking. I think I can count on one hand how many times I've successful dodged all of that attack. She really was the first boss I'd say it wasn't a fair fight. Even for how hard Gael, O&S, and Sister Friede were, I'd still say they were absolutely fair fights. Only boss to push that envelope was Orphan of Kos, who you could just outpower if you grinded bloodgems.
@@Frostman411 I felt that way with Mohg, the first boss that had a truly unavoidable attack felt like a betrayal after the no hit community was keeping the older games alive
Not a single curse word uttered and yet I feel your pain with Malenia so hard dude. I haven't even played Elden Ring but your account gave me some very unwelcome flashbacks to some of the toughest bosses I've encountered in games.
This comment section is honestly just reinforcing my notion that Elden Ring players are the most insecure people ever, so desperate for any form of accomplishment that they build their entire personality around a video game
Yeah that’s like 80% of Fromsoft players. These are the people that shit and piss themselves over summons and magic being “too easy” and then have a strength jump stagger build but they’re playing the game “how it’s supposed to be played” so it’s totally cool and they’re better than you 🤑
I replayed Majora's Mask recently and was delighted by the amount of content and creativity crammed in such a small game. It has to do with the limitations of the time but to me it's better to have a small world that feels like it's bursting with cool ideas than a ginormous one littered with repetition.
I personally believe that a open world game doesn´t need to be less enjoyable than a linear one, always that is done right of course. I personally had a blast with BoTW and his sequel but because even in their somewhat repetition I could do whatever I want , in the moment I want, at the pace I want. You could beat the game in 20 or 100 hours. And almost every area felt equally relevant as all have something to offer me independently of how much I advance. A lot of people says that "Hmm, ER should had been like Dark Souls", but shouldn´t be more like BotW in that aspect? Isn´t ER an open world game, after all?
@@JoseViktor4099 We all have different view about what dark souls his For me it's the constant fear of dying because everything can kill you when you explore, in elden ring it's not the case at all since you spend most of your time running on your mount like an idiot instead of really exploring, you just travel in a big map without noticeable thing ( i've explored 100 % of the map and it felt like i was losing my time doing this) For me it's fair bosses, elden ring didn't have that too most of them have unreadable move ,or hitbox who stay so long you can't even roll you have to flee The summons were bad idea too bosses are not made to fight multiple ennemies You're too overpowered because a lot of weapon had ashes of war who can destroy almost everything Magic again is too powerfull against most bosses like the old games ( except DS3) The reuse of bosses was really too much for me , if i want to farm bosses i can play monster hunter, i'm not here for that in dark souls, each boss should feel unique ( i can accept the 2nd gundyr in DS3 because it's a really different fight, and probably one of the best in the game) Elden ring is a good game, but it's probably my least favorite souls with DS2, and it's the only souls i've never replayed even tho i've done most of them at least 10 times( DS2 2 times, DS3 probably 70 times because i've speedrun it ) We can't agree with open world, i find them boring most of the time The game want you to explore boring shit An open world can't be as well made as a linear game because it's too big, it's simple logic Quantity over quality, that's what open world are ( even botw suffer from that, sanctuary are boring, koroks are boring as fuck and most of the time you discover nothing relevant in the game )
@@Elyakel They way of how you say it, seems that you simply don´t like the open world concept, as (correct me if im wrong) you find it boring and without an stablished progression. Thus, would be no wonder that you didn´t enjoyed nearly as much as me. Bosses are a completely diferent thing and im not want to argue about that (but if you ask me, I enjoy the design and that they do more stuff, no offense) Coming back to the open world, I have my own set of issues, that at the end of the game ER doesn´t give much freedom or rather is a big and mostly empty area with a poor point of interest placement (really you can find 3 bosses in the spam of 1 minute what??) My biggest gripe being how abuse of stadistics in the endgame, is based on a formula but all spikes when the game dont acknoledge that theres a soft cap for vigor. Apart of that? I enjoyed ER a lot, I played all of previous games and I liked this point of view, if you didn´t, well sorry. Btw did you know that magic is not *that* good in ER? You need like 300 buffs in order to do that oneshotting some videos implies.
@JoseViktor4099 for magic i know i've tried some but you can still do a lot of damage before the boss came to you it's not " broken" if you dont play Meta but it's still strong enough to midlife some bosses before they're near you Yeah i'm not an open world fan , i find them really boring most of the time , most of them are just here to make you losing time ,elden ring was alright in this aspect , he just lack " new " thing to do , most of them were similar I hate doing the same thing but open world like to reuse thing A LOT I don't have a problem for bosses doing a lot of thing , i just want to stay close and use my knowledge to evade them , but most of the time you can't, because the game want you to flee on lot of move ( margit is one of my favorite boss in the game , but i can't say he is a well made boss.Margit for example can punish you because you tried to punish him at the end of some combo, you can't evade the full combo sword >double dagger > staff if you're too closed for example you have to flee or having a good position even before he start the combo, you don't have enough I frame ) Yeah the last part of the game was awfull once you reach the snowy mountain , it felt rush or the world was too big I don't know, the game needed at least one more year of development , it had too much problem day one , balance was awfull ,some quests didn't work Like i said before the game is " quantity over quality " it's a fact ,not a criticism I just hope the next game will have less flaw because elden should have been a masterpiece, but it's just a good game
@@Elyakel No problem, theres no issue if you don't enjoy how open world works. It is true, after all, that im not nearly upset as others about repeating bosses and dungeons , I expected It and im glad that at least they put a great variety of them (like 80 diferent) but I get that fighting the Erdtree Avatar for 10th time is a bit tiring. Apart of that, as I said , I enjoy It because I need to have an strategy of how they work, and how to manouver as well .ER abuses of slow attacks, but a lot of them you can use them at your favor, some of them are even freaking hidden windows somehow. Same with input reading and such. I felt like I was fighting against a real someone and not a piece of code waiting for doing his Next move, more like another player, you know? My biggest gripe about them (and you could imagine) is the enemies stadistics in the endgame. No sense that a Lizard oneshots me by moving just because I am in the funny snowy mountain. And for the Next FromSoft game? There are rumors , yes. About a game revolving Magic this time and ranged attacks (Armored Core like?) suposedly setted in a main interconnected area with the quality of ER legacy dungeons but with DS style and surrounded by an open world not as Big as ER one (like Caelid, Limgrave and Liurnia together size) Again, this is just a rumor, but is a rumor that got a lot of attention lately, maybe its true.
One problem that I always find myself encountering when starting a new game is that the difficulty at the beginning causes me to resort to using the most OP weapons and gear, which then makes the game too easy. Even if I intentionally go out of my way to NOT use OP spells at the beginning of the game, such as Dragonfire, I will still upgrade weapons to as high as possible as soon as possible which makes the early game a bit of a breeze, at which point I feel like I'm just repeating content with no added challenge.
@@PointlesslyNecessaryConvos I just have a habit of starting with Uchigatana and hitting the mines right off the bat for the smithing stones and a few other places, always shreds bosses until like lvl 40 or so. Maybe it's my fault for doing that and ruining the difficulty though.
@@GlassesAndCoffeeMugs Well heres your problem. I just started again and using Uchigatana but sticking to the "recommended levels"-guide (for instance, +4 weapon and up to lvl40 @ Godrick) and I've been having an absolute blast. I also switch weapons around a lot due to that capping mechanic and getting way too many smithing stones. But this is nothing new in souls series. All previous games also have been total ezmodes if you went for the easy options. Limit yourself and the challenge stays.
@@Gretstarret Yeah… I dunno… I’m still on my first play through (I didn’t by the game when it first came out or anything so it’s like it’s taken me 5 months to get where I’m at) because I don’t have a crazy amount of time to play but I never went out of my way to level and honestly haven’t even used my runes unless I’m a couple thousand away from a new level and I don’t trust myself to remember to remember that I didn’t put the elevator back up and I’ll run off the ledge and lose my shit. Not using spells or incantations. Not using bleed really (I sometimes double poleblade and my other one is Elora’s but that’s as far as I go), though I do dip into cold from time to time. Not optimizing weapons and stats and just playing what I want to use (so right now I have dual Magma Blades which honestly didn’t take more than 30 mins to get 2 of them and a Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword). Not using summons or ashes. I’m just not finding this game very difficult. I can’t imagine people pumping their power up and trying to use the most broken weapons and mechanics. It would seem like a snoozefest I could imagine.
they basically designed the game to force people to respec and try different builds, when in the other souls games you can keep the same playstyle the whole way through. all of the nerfs and buffs they have done supports this as well, they basically just nerfed whatever the speed runners were using for like 5 patches in a row now.
"So clearly players get great enjoyment from meta gaming, and I think that's fine. What I don't think is fine is creating a difficulty so high that players who don't want to play this way feel forced to", couldn't have explained it better myself. I love Elden Ring, it's my 2nd most played game on Steam. But I agree with that the difficulty is way too high. In some cases, especially the end game, it felt like they were trying to outdo what they've done before and as a result, Elden Ring is hard for all the wrong reasons. Bloodborne and Sekiro's enemy and boss aggression makes sense to me, because there's design tools around it. In Elden Ring, it feels like there's nothing of the sort. And if there is, it's not communicated to the player very well, if at all.
I'm helping others with Messmer and Radahn and most of the hosts I see now use a big ass shield and they don't even bother to roll anymore or they spam the same spell( especially the scadutree thorn incantation) constantly without engaging with the boss up close at all.
1:36:30 this is so funny to me because Ranni's quest was just Blaidd's quest to me on my first playthrough. I was just doing things for her cause it meant I got to hang out with Blaidd more. It didn't even click to me that the whole ring bit was us proposing to/marrying her cause i was like "oh this must be like a magic ring or whatever that she needs for some reason." Litteraly only sided with her cause it meant more time with Blaidd lmao
@@nugsboodlepoo his ‘questline’ is literally all about Ranni. She is a demigod and Blaidd was basically created by her two fingers as her vassal to be loyal to her and protect her etc. She killed her two fingers and strayed from the path of becoming Marika’s replacement so he was essentially ‘programmed’ by her two fingers to go mad if she went against the greater will. That’s why Iji jails him, that’s why we kill his shadow, and ultimately kill him because he went mad and attacked us.
I mean I like Blaidd but I love Ranni. Blaidd loses his mind because of a bad drug addiction or something so definitely not a good influence on our tarnished, I also heard he kicks it with some really shady characters down under the bridge that leads to gurranq, Marika knows what they do down there, I've heard some awful stories. The worst of which was blaidd was broke down and out he had already sold everything he could sell so he resorted to sexual favors for dung eater for hits of Goldy locks ( that's a drug made by fermenting gold tinged excrement).. You don't even want to know what this stuff does to a man. I heard omens in the shunning grounds make the good stuff and last week I had gone down there to look for my mom's ring that fell down the kitchen sink and wouldn't you know it, there's blaidd sucking omen D#&K for the stuff.🤮. It's a real shame he was a good kid. But now you'll want to cross the road if you see blaidd coming.last week I was walking with a friend of mine and blaidd was like " come on man I only need 5 runes bro I'll Suck your D," get out of here junkie, I told him. Then me and my friend laughed. I felt guilty cause you could really see the shame in his eyes.
It's honestly funny to me hearing all the people say "I played the game blind too" as if playing a game without looking at a guide is weird. to me if a game needs a guide then it's bad game design
This is one of the most popular and difficult from soft games of course people are gonna make guides and of course the fans are gonna look for them. You do not need a guide at all to beat elden ring but of course they’re going to exist just like any other game
@@dundundundundundun6589completing elden ring w/o a guide as a normal person w a career would just be a chore, taking the fun out of gaming with hours of guesswork
There’s isn’t a single game in the world that requires an external guide to play. But it’s a curious thing that pretty much every single has one. Also I’m not sure if youve been to a book store but game companies sell paper back and hard pack 100% in depth guides for the people that are interested in it. This idea that “a game that needs a guide is a bad game” seems to me very close minded to the broader reality at hand.
The lack of a player marker already exists in numerous games though, granted they are indie games or AA. The most recent one I’ve played that I can think of was Outward which, while not perfect, was only made by 10 people and is damn fine.
Yep, I legit love the lore of this game, much more than I ever did the dark souls trilogy.. but bosses deal far too much damage in one hit, they ALL have some hard-hitting AOE, and it’s virtually impossible (save for rng/luck) to heal even once during a fight
I liked the story critique a fair bit because I felt this was the least I ever cared about a "Souls" narrative and lore. I got the Frenzied Flame ending because stumbled across it and the maiden traveling with us (I have now forgotten her name) never gave me a reason to care about her intentions. In fact, I didn't know them. I wanted to finish Ranni's questline but it's basically impossible without a guide. And I found Fia, but didn't know how to conclude hers either. Elden Ring really feels like it did a lot of things just because older games did, without understanding why they worked in context. And the game's lore might be vast, but there's nothing compelling me to engage with it. Also, nothing told me the three fingers were just going to hug me when I found them, and I would be locked into that ending. But in the end, the world gave me very little reason to even care about it, so I didn't, and when my character suddenly burned it all down, I didn't even feel remorse. Which is a shame, because I feel like I was supposed to.
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon yeah but what i meant is below surface level if you try to get more info on the story it’s very good, it’s just that FS didn’t do very great with the storytelling
They worked the exact same way in the older games though.. At least for me, almost every fromsoft quest has required a guide. It seems like you either are okay with that or aren't, idk what about an open world changes it.
"I have seen the meta destroy entire genres" yup RTS and fighting games, nowadays even their campaign/story modes are programmed to be played in a competitive multiplayer way.
You’re wack. Blood borne is way better than this shit. From software is going against their core values. Quality. The bosses are horribly designed and even the lore is worse in every way. I don’t understand you’re thoughts on this
I’ve just started playing so I don’t wanna be too harsh.. but I’ve played BB and DS3 - those are my only introductions to souls games.. I knew going into them - but I sank into the games so easily - from the lore to the gameplay. This just has… no charm? The lore is super cool from what I’ve seen. But I’m spotting enemies from 100 metres away and it just feels off. It hasn’t grabbed me like the others did.
@@firstlast9846 same with me, I'm a longtime FromSoft fan but Elden Ring could've been so much more and unique because they marketed it as such, and the trailers made it look like not just my dream game but many others' as well. Elden Ring is proof that FromSoft are running out of ideas and the unique vision they once had. It's my most disappointing game of all time and definitely the most disappointing in recent years, when what they did was makng just another Dark Souls game with a couple of new mechanics, like all sequels do, but Elden Ring was never supposed to be a sequel to Dark Souls 3, it was supposed to be Elden Ring, but it only did sequel things with the Dark Souls series, the changes that Elden Ring made could've been made in a potential Dark Souls 4 as well. And no, just because it had new lore, is not enough and doesn't justify it being a new IP when Bloodborne and Sekiro were new IPs that also had different lore than Dark Souls, and yet they felt like actual new IPs, unlike Elden RIng. Gameplay is really what separates these games, but Elden Ring didn't bring anything new to the table that a Dark Souls 4 couldn't have done just as well, unlike Bloodborne and Sekiro.
@questionablezoomer764 - admittedly it has grown on me since writing the previous comment… but it still just doesn’t have whatever it was that pulled me into BB and DS and I can’t put my finger on it. I loved walking around Stormveil Castle cos it felt like FS game - but again - idk it’s beyond aesthetics I just don’t know why this feels off for me.
This video is bang on and the fact that it has gotten 10k dislikes shows that people will defend their favourite toy and never find faults in it. I have a few friends who are like this and they are insufferable. Edit: lol 14 likes on a comment on a 2 ywar old vid. People are defo cheesed off at the dlc like me 🤣🤣🤣
This analysis has made me realize why I get low key annoyed when I see bleed and magic builds that obliterate bosses. It's because the lack of balance between builds rewards metachasers and doesn't allow a fair discussion on boss experiences. Mohg took me over 200 attempts, and when I posted the clear to Reddit, people were saying my struggle was my fault for using the Grafted Greatblade since it can't be made to be broken. On the other hand, I am thankful I didn't min/max my build. It would have diminished my extremely satisfying progression with learning his fight. Plus, I love the look of the Greatblade, and it was important to me that I beat him with that weapon. Thanks for helping me understand exactly why this bothered me.
Tbh the only issue with heavy weapons in er is there are a lot less windows to punish bosses, especially later, leading to spamming jump attacks being the only effective choice for UGS's, a very effective method at that. Good, but bland
Totally agree, It seems although the devs don’t want the game like this either, but are just really incompetent at making it balanced due to recent patches, but I just hate how the reddit community ACTUALLY wants this, like literally any other gaming community would say that the way balance is in Elden ring is dog shit. I actually can’t believe that the redditors of elden ring think that there should be massive weapon and ability imbalance for the sake of players making their own difficulty rather than just adding a difficulty slider. And when this dog shit way of thinking gets called out, they literally only can say “It’s always been like that” like wtf, just because something has always been around doesn’t make it good, do I have to name the many historical examples of this. Like what if you actually want to be a duel wielding samurai blood build but not have the game be easy mode, or what if you want to use daggers but not have the game be a nightmare. This is stupid ESPECIALLY for an rpg where the whole point is the freedom you have to build your character how you want, which shouldn’t make you significantly stronger or weaker by playing a traditional role that you like to play. It’s ridiculous for an rpg to force you to play only a certain playstyle or role to actually have fun or be practical, it just shows how redditors and other social media users definitely not the average casual player base for games.
Good job defeating Malenia cheater of Miquella, its known now that she cheats by not only ignoring animations to block attacks but even will pull out of a stagger strait into her water fowl to prevent being stagger locked.
@@brojakmate9872 souls fanboys have gotten so bad that they just ignore bad game design out of the sake of dicksucking competition for fromsoft. imagine if people like you existed for DS1 and where defending bed of chaos. absolutely pathetic manchild shit
Hey! I didn't do Ranni's ending first because I'm a simp. I just ended up going all the way through Nokron and the Ainsel river during my first playthrough and didn't want to do it all again because it was a lot of work and ants. Burning everything to the ground was much more satisfying and more my style. It's unfortunate that I had to use a walk-through for almost every sidequest though. It really ruined one of my favorite parts of open world games. I don't need a ridiculous amount of handholding, but I would appreciate some form of in game hints or some way to take notes about where an npc is headed (when they actually disclose such information). I didn't enjoy the game enough to play it 40 times in hopes I'll eventually find and do every side quest correctly. That's why quest design is at the top of my personal complaints for the game. Story and the way side quests are presented could use a good amount of work to make them more of a fun discovery and less of a confusing, missable mess.
You could argue they’re supposed to be missable. It’s almost impossible to find every single thing in the game blindly, kinda similar to games like Hollow Knight. It makes finding those easily missable things really exciting, at least for me, after putting 80 or 100 hours into a game and thinking I’d already discovered everything. But on the other hand, for a completionist like me, it can also get pretty stressful trying to find everything at times. I guess it being worthwhile just depends on how much an individual loves that particular game. I love Hollow Knight and Elden Ring, so for me it’s worth it to sink 150 hours into them and search for every little secret and sidequest.
yea trying to keep track of the quests was fucking awful, they didn't need to give me map markers or anything but I would have at least liked some kind of journal where what quests I had taken on would be listed and some details about it that I have gathered so far and get updated as the quest progresses. Having just that would make the quests much easier to deal with
@@Saltbreather I think what makes elden ring's quest design less enjoyable for me is that quests aren't just missable, but can be completely gone if you progress too far in other seemingly unrelated parts of the game. I wouldn't mind not finding everything right away or spending time to find them later, but that's not always an option. So without any guidance it can become tedious to screw up a side quest and not be able to try again unless you start the game over possibly more than a handful of times. I'm not a big fan of new game plus and feel like I'm abandoning everything I built up to and would like to 100% everything in one playthrough even if said playthrough is 500+ hours (like my first skyrim save). It's just kind of immersion breaking for me to spend 160+ hours on a character and build just to be told at the 5th from the last boss that most quests are cut off now and you'll have to start over and pretend like none of your progress ever happened if you want to see it all. Heck, I didn't even find Jarburg until after I killed a certain someone. That really backed up the quest dialogue with Jar-Bairn and made the whole thing seem pointless. It was definitely a ruined quest in terms of pacing and maybe could have been avoided if Alexander was less vague about where Jarburg was or something (I'm aware it's supposed to be a hidden village, but I should have some special treatment as the protagonist haha).
@@ecksluss theoretically though i imagine that if they’re building this game to be enjoyed by the players you’d think they’d want you to actually be able to experience the storylines they put in rather than just miss them because it’s “realistic”. might as well not even play the game and just go outside at that point
"Elden Ring uses vagueness not to serve its story but as a mask to hide behind." Killer line that sums up how I've felt about the story. It's story says nothing, and it means nothing.
Isnt meaning more so derived by the audience from the work itself? To me Elden Ring basically means it is to create a way of your own morals and values, your ambitions, and the principles you would follow. To know this, one would have to venture along the Lands Between, fighting monstrosity after monstrosity, facing the Demigods themselves. Learning of Marika's Folly, the Fingers that deceived her, and the Greater Will that imprisoned her. To know every suffering, every sin, every curse. And from that, build upon the age you would offer to the world. Its essentially a journey to enlightenment, stretched, morphed, and colored into the style of a souls game. Sure its just a game, and it shouldn't really have any real affect on how one may choose to approach life. But maybe it serves as an example, a story that tackles many ideas and leaves it upon the audience to ponder further. Atleast that's what I got from the game.
@@thekaelixchamber totally OK if you derived meaning from the story as I'm not here to hate on others experiences or interpretations. But my personal experience with the story is similar to Never's. There is no core emotional center of the story. Not on Marika's side, not on the players side. You don't actually get clarification on why you want to be Elden Lord or even what Marika wants from you (you get like 3-4 different theories from the game said by different NPCs). So if you can't definitely say why you're even doing what you're doing I'd argue the story failed at the most basic level.. I held out hope the DLC would shine a bit more light on the story and bring the individual lore bits together to make it more cohesive but they actually went in the opposite direction by introducing new bits that they never bothered to foreshadow in the base game. It leaves the overall story feeling less planned out and more "throwing stuff at a wall to see if it sticks" To me, Elden Rings story is comprised of really cool background lore that mostly does not serve the main story. For example, The game doesn't even acknowledge the player getting all Demi-God runes if you go out of your way to collect them all. Getting 1 Rune is the same as getting all of them.
@@shadowSquall1 Ahh I see your point... I'm guessing its my type of people that Fromsoft is attempting to cater to? lol Those who derive their own meaning from their own journey without really thinking too much of it. I would assume one's reasons for becoming Elden Lord is because of the world presented to them, its fractured. Everyone is warring against each other, there's so much bad blood and so much history. Marika is essentially asking us to fix it. But why should we? Well for one, you bought this game and you sure as hell gonna get your 40 dollars worth. Second, there not really a reason other than inherent morals I guess, wouldn't you wann be that hero who unites the world? And third, lets say this game was free. There's nothing really stopping you from just not doing it, just like Dark Souls I assume one would just become a hollow if you quit... but there's no such thing is there? Hmm...
Your criticism of the story is spot on and is likely the reason why, in successive playthroughs, I decided my characters aren’t interested in becoming Elden Lord. They’re more interested in exploring or treasure hunting or invading. They might have been sent to the Lands Between but what they do once they’re there is up to them. I still haven’t done the Elden Lord ending because, as you say, what’s the point?
@@MrFRNTIK For other Tarnished NPC’s perhaps, but not for you as the protagonist. Most people’s first boss encounter Margit speaks of your “ambition” like it’s pre-ordained and almost everyone you interact with seems to know that’s what your specific end goal is without question. It’s not like you can say to any of these bosses “oh, I couldn’t give a shit about the throne, I’m just here to loot so, if you don’t mind…” Edit: this is also why Ranni’s ending is my favoured one. It’s interesting because you achieve something for the benefit of someone else rather than yourself.
@@MrFRNTIK maybe, until you meet him as Morgott and he’s still going on about it. Or when Gideon talks to you relentlessly about it. I mean, I’m not saying it’s bad to have a clear goal in mind but that the video’s criticism of the motivation given to players to achieve it is valid.
@@alansquared it's no different than skyrim constantly calling you the dragon born, destined to kill Alduin, when you can clearly go any direction you want and never touch the story. Fighting morgott at the throne means you're on the main story path so you shouldn't be surprised that you get some main story lines.
I LOVE the ending of this video lmao. HUGS MATTER. I played blind and had a good time but my biggest problem was that every boss fight feels like an exercise in brute forcing over actually learning and improving. I ended up using dual pickaxes which ended up being pretty op despite being so off meta. Also I used the Pumpkin head ash once and a while who I loved
Elden Ring's a tough one for me to put into words. I love the spells and weapons, however, I felt like I couldn't experiment as much, since there are so many stats and resources required to test one out effectively. I love how open the map is, but it feels either too easy or too hard unless you travel a very unintuitive path. I like the little dungeons that dot the land, but fighting ten Erdtree Spirits never feels fun. Its got the neatest character designs, but they all retread the same stories we've been playing for about a decade. Everything I love about it has an asterisk.
If it was 50% shorter it would be 100% better. There was entirely too many pointless dungeons. It keeps me from playing the game again because I just dont want to explore and I dont want to look up which three dungeons i need of the over 100 useless onea
@BrandonDenny-we1rw thank God none of you run from software.. I played the entire game 10 times with different builds every time and it gives you incredible freedom to do what you want, when you want and how you want and you can never have the same run through twice! It's literally the goat!
@@natea4828 Entitled ego much? The game was full of pointless dungeons and rewards. Brainless simp all you want I actually want the games to get better over time not worse
@@BrandonDenny-we1rw Sadly I'm having the same opinion. Elden Ring is the first From Software game that I felt unmotivated to play a second time. It's because two reasons: 1) Pointless dungeons and areas; 2) Unbalanced bosses. Everytime I thought about starting a second playthrough, I remember a bunch of dungeons that only gives summons at end, so I'll have to watch videos to avoid and all of that just to fight unbalanced bosses.
@@BasicLand-Swamp Its why Im waiting for the dlc then making a new character and looking up all the exact places and items i need for my build doing the dlc then sadly yeah. Not playing it again because of your 2 points exactly.
What I find incredily annoying is the fromsoft fan base seems to have split into 3 camps when it comes to the difficulty. Camp 1 just insists you get good and refuses to elaborate further. Camp two insists you have no right to complained about difficulty, because you can just explore and spirts are so op. And camp 3 thinks the game is too hard to the point it makes the game unenjoyable. The way camps 1 and 2 treat members of camp 3 is horrible, insisting there opinions don’t matter and they are just winers who suck at the game (which some are) I loved elden ring, but this dlc just feels too difficult. I enjoyed my experiences with Sekiro and ds3 much better
It's not fun either way imo. I did the whole game with dlc solo and was frustrated the whole time (unlike other fromsoft games), and summons simply make the fight too easy to the point that it's not even a challenge.
@karlmihkelkask4021 im not telling people not to have fun im just stating my opinion about this game. I did it to prove to myself that i can beat it tbh 😂😂 but i really enjoyed games like bloodborne , dark souls 3, and sekiro way more.
Camp 3 is always insanely disengenuous though. It’s easily the worst of the 3. Camp 3 is a bunch of entitled brats who make 2 hour critiques full of misinformation. Like feeble king or joseph anderson. Pure engagement bait
There is and was a huge price to pay when they converted the souls formular to an open world. That´s the main problem with the game for me. I just vibe more with the smaller but way more intense design of Bloodborne, Dark Souls and even Sekiro.
Elden Ring didn't NEED to be open world. It could have been a semi-linear Metroidvania style that the previous games were, with the repeated catacombs, caves and mines serving as optional chalice dungeons accessed from the hub world. Problem is, it'd be exactly like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and reveal to the world that Fromsoft have no more new ideas, just the same shit over and over again.
@@MachineMan-mj4gj i learned a long time ago that trying to please everybody is a pointless endeavor but people usually have multiple problems with games. With elden ring, it's either just one or two problems that can either boil down to nitpicks or preferences. If elden ring went with areas divided with a hub, I'm sure most people will be content with it, as long as it's done well.
@@hazyworld8626 I don't see how, "the world is empty an monotonous," or "These bosses suck and aren't fun," are nitpicks. Seems more like a dealbreaker to me.
@@MachineMan-mj4gj Isn't the world supposed to be monotonous and near lifeless? Whether you love, like, don't like, hate the bosses is really up to you but the nitpicks and preferences point was meant for small things like the same riposte animations from DS3 or the UI. Like you said, the open world is lifeless (probably meant intentionally or just a trope like most open world games unless you're in a city) and there is repetition. I'm not saying the game is immune to criticism or hate, no game is. But this game is honestly one of the few that has not much criticism and you actually have to search for it.
ELden Ring game has actual important issues to fix, but most fans dont have the imagination to want it, or the intelligence to see that it is needed. If people demanded those fixes i am sure they would be implemented by the developers. Let's start with the major issue. 3 issues 1) *Hand of Malenia* weapon needs a rework, if we consider how hard it is to get compared to rivers of blood or any other Katana. Hand of Maleniasword is basically useless in the hand of the player. *FIRST* of all it has a B scaling with dexterity ( if i remember correctly ) . Thats absurd, it should have A or S scaling . *TWO;* Any boss or even a big enemy can simply hit you out of your attack animation. The damage is mediocre at best ( I don't consider silly videos with 10 buffs a good example ) the weapon has bad damage that's a fact. *THREE:* Its weapon skill is useless, it doesn't gap close like it does when the boss is using it and again you can be HIT OUT of the attack animation ( unlike the boss ) i was so excited when i got that weapon only to find out that *Rivers of blood* and *moonveil* katana are way better. Why make the bost badass wepon in the game with the most coolest attack skill so usless??? It needs to be ficed. If they don't want to fix the damage, then at least do something about the fact that an enemy can hit you and your weapon skill animation just stops. Make it so that you can NOT be hit out of the weapon skill animation once you have activated it. You can take damage but you keep attacking. And fix the gab closing. As it is now, you basically just dance on the same spot with some feet apart. It should travel a bigger distance if needed to get to the enemy that is focused or targeted. ________________________________________________ 2) *Melee combat over all needs more variety.* Katana weapons should have more hack and slash COMBO Ashes of Wars.... the big heavy swords should have impactful Ashes of Wars and also some unique SQUARE and TRIANGLE combos . _________________________________________________ 3) *Armor stats and LOOKs should matter more, especially heavy armor, if we consider the stamina investment you need to make to even wear it.* The protection armor gives to you should matter more. And ARMOR LOOKS ...sorry but the games best heavy armor doesn't look that cool. Same problem with the shield... the games best Shield is a STONE ...like wtf????? Who came up with this lame design and idea??? The games best shield should look BIG and EPIC... not lame and boring.
After beating Elden Ring, i returned to Sekiro for my 4th playthrough. What a breath of fresh air that was: the combat and the overall game balance is light years ahead of Elden Ring.
@@variantgamer9885 In ER there are two builds, one where you press the dodge button 17 times, then the attack button 1-3 times, repeat ad infinitum, and the one where you're just button mashing and hit trading because your build is so op. I've watched like two dozen ER challenge runs and all but the most exotic ones (like the thorns armor dodge only run or the one-shot all bosses run) all look different, but play identically. Sekiro's single build where you regularly attack, deflect, jump, dodge, grappling hook, mikiri, firecracker, mortal draw, and stealth as well as irregularly use some of the other abilities like umbrella, shuriken, spear, ichimonji, consumables, and some ninjutsu has more non-superficial variety than all of the builds in all other fromsoft games combined.
Everything about sekiro just feels so tight, it makes me wonder what they could do by giving other "builds" the same treatment; isolating them and fleshing out their strongest qualities. In other words, imagine if they made a game like sekiro but your character was a knight, or a mage! I really think thats the way forward for these games.
Let's imagine for a moment that Elden Ring _is_ supposed to be played with a summon. If that's the case, Elden Ring is a terribly designed game with Mindjack levels of broken AI. Is this seriously what the fans of this game want to claim: that From has AI programming abilities on par with the average Steam Greenlight submission? (Edit: I’m not saying it’s wrong or invalid to summon but From clearly didn’t intend summoning to be a _requirement_ or if they did they screwed it up.)
THANK YOU this is a serious problem with the game. You either have to rely on exploiting obscure AI bugs to open attack windows or add another target through summoning or mimic tear, which boss AI still can't handle 12 years after Demon's Souls released. It's either rote memorization of specific strategies or eliminating any semblance of challenge altogether. I just don't see what I'm supposed to get out of this combat system if it's going to be a boss rush most of the time.
This was a superb essay. A lot of thought and consideration went into is construction, never mind all the editing and narration, thank you for all your hard work. I’d been on the fence for the last year as to whether or not to buy ER, and nagging, intuitive voices inside my head kept telling me I’d find aspects to it all that’d make me sorry I committed. I knew I’d find it beautiful and diverse, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d come away frustrated and mildly disappointed….your essay confirmed those feelings. I’ve moved into an age now where I do not enjoy games that are capable of extreme frustration. One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed The Division 2, Enshrouded and Helldivers 2 is because I’m constantly having pure fun, frustration is not inherent in the design method. FWIW, I’m glad games like ER and the Souls exist, there’s plenty of gamers out there that need and want this type of challenge, I just don’t happen to be one of them. I really enjoyed the depth and consideration of your analysis, already Subbed, but gave you a big fat Like and I’m very much looking forward to so much more from your channel.
Elden Ring can be pretty smooth and non-frustrating as long as you play the game in certain ways, but extremely punishing if you dare to play in other unoptimised ways. The issue is that the game is an unbalanced mess that is an absolute nightmare to fine tune, but very easy to min-max to your liking. It can be pretty much a walk in the park if you're unbothered playing in a somewhat meta OP way and I think it would be a huge shame to miss this amazing experience if you're actually willing to go that route. However if you're looking for the curated challenge Souls game typically offer or hate the idea of playing the game the way it very much wants you to play and follow the meta or a guide for builds and sidequests, this is indeed probably not a game for you.
I thought I would hate this video but you actually make great points. Recently whenever I play multiplayer games with my friends they kept telling me the locations of stuff and what items were the best. And like I love looking at build metas mostly so I can learn how to experiment but there's a line where you've gone from learning about a game and rushed full throttle into spoiler territory. I now understand why these spoilers made me sad.
I don't have this problem so much as I have a few mental illnesses, which seems irrelevant but one of the things it causes me to do is completely lose interest after something being spoiled - shout out to my friend who don't spoil things for me unless I'm not interested. Side note, if I'm hungry for a certain food and I see a commercial for a different kind of food I stop being hungry sometimes even my stomach feels gross. Irrelevant but maybe funny. I'm not even a picky eater either
I am the sort of player who always tried to play games (or read books, or watch videos) blind, going into the experience with as little detail beforehand as possible. ER absolutely punishes this style of immersive experience and damn near forces players to go meta to progress the game.
I didn't realise the suggested method for dealing with water fowl was blocking and the two dodges. I was finding good success with running and rolling into her on the first flurry and the continuing the roll though with a second roll in the same direction (because of camera re-orientation, now need to dogde backwards) to avoid the second flurry. She would often lose her lock and miss me. Though taken a bit of damage now and then.
You can just block the first flurry, roll under the second and just strafe backwards for the remaining (although rolling backwards instead of strafing back might be safer)
Same here. I never used a shield. I feel like it's just false when he says she requires certain builds to progress. Unless you're fat rolling you can just roll to avoid the attack, which is also very well telegraphed. Learn not to spam attacks and the staggering thing he conplained about isn't an issue either. Personally i either didn't notice that at all, or was able to dodge most of the attack anyways when that happened. Never heard of that issue at all until this video
@@eazyelof4283 Water fowl was infamous for being broken during launch. You claiming you have never heard of this issue before this video just proves your lack of info and doesnt disprove authors argument.
Hi man! I know that you probably wont read this comment after a year but I want to tell you that I just finished Elden Ring with an 123 hours run, and at the end I just felt dissapointment, same as you. Its a good game but it could be so more. The open world showed us how hollow this world is.
@@shitshow575 then just go play Dark Souls 3 lmao there's a lot of things you could criticize ER for but for the fact that it's open world is definitely a non-criticism, essentially you wanted something completely different then what they were actively selling to you and getting mad it's not that thing
@@l3k561 the open world is elden rings worst feature. Nice to look at and explore the first time around but gets tedious extremely quickly. The best part of elden ring is the legacy dungeons and the remembrance bosses, not the countless catacombs which are so repetitive they could be mistaken for procedurally generated content with a basic mob given a boss health bar at the end. Give me a handcrafted densely populated interconnected world with 40 hours of gameplay over a 100+ hour bloat fest that is elden ring anyday
I definitely used summons my first playthrough, at least until I was good enough to take down the bosses on my own. I’ve always struggled with fromsoft games, but I love the atmosphere and art style so much that I always find ways to play through them, even if that means using summons
I have played through every DS game with a 2h weapon, parry shield, melee only and no summons. After Leyndell in Elden Ring however the game starts to cheese you, so this time around I had no qualms about cheesing it back.
I've always disliked the attitude that summons are a crutch or something to eventually stop using once you're good enough. They're a part of the game. Fromsoft doesn't exactly hold your hand or give you freebies, so it's ok to take what you can get. If you want to play with summons, great. If you don't want to play with summons, also great.
Just finished watching... Damn! I tried to write a review of Elden Ring myself and failed. I also felt disappointed. I couldn't quite emphasise the points that kept me from enjoying the game as much as I had hoped to. They were obvious and I still missed them, but you pointed them out. I'm in total agreement with you and I think it's time for me to just accept the fact that Elden Ring is NOT for me and that my relationship is quite toxic. I keep going back to it every now and then, only to be disappointed and hurt all over again.
You're not alone dude I replayed all souls ( even the bad dark souls 2 ) and i still can't enjoy elden ring But thanks to that i can enjoy ds1 even more, the game is fantastic
I find it impossible not to enjoy Elden ring the different builds, weapons, spells, items excetera is a ton of fun I used to never make more than one character in a game but I'm on my third now with a totally different. Build Using weapons I never used before
Video still holds up, dlc has many of the same flaws. Especially in lackluster enemy deisgn. Swing swing swing swing stomp aoe swing swing. When am i allowed to heal???
Not to mention, elden ring adds nothing new and innovates absolutely nothing. It's just a mishmash of open world with dark souls, I played the game for over 400 hours and I haven't found a single mechanic that made it distinct. Dark souls started it all and changed alot in gaming itself Dark souls 2 added smoothness and fully realized animations plus the dual wield mechanic Bloodborne added the beautifully made fast paced gameplay with weapons that transform (still haven't seen a game utilize a mechanic like this for all its weapons) Dark souls 3 added bloodbornes speed to Dark souls and was truly the peak of Dark souls, and it's bosses and world os so compact and memorable to no ends and it added the weapon skills Sekiro popularized parry mechanics and insane skill ceilings. Elden ring? Nothing, open world games have always been a thing, all its mechanics are just taken from Dark souls 3 and put against sekiro bosses with input reading for added artificial difficulty. It's world doesn't even feel as connected as the previous games, I didn't have a single moment of my mind being blown by an area being connected to a past area.
@@Gravbaeyou could say this, but Elden ring does offer a completely different experience than other souls games for me. While in many ways it is negative, I can’t deny the fact it does feel different with the world design and encounters. Sometimes I have gotten lost running around and exploring, and it has been fun. Also felt the caves were much improved in the dlc
@@TheePotatoGamer to that I wholeheartedly agree, I am of the opinion that elden ring is a very good game but not a masterpiece or an innovation. It's world is speaking the most fleshed out and most breathtaking, the experience truly is a unique one compared to other soulslike.
@@Gravbaewell to me every fromsoft game is masterpiece, elden ring included. steatlh, dedicated jump button, or powerstance, rally (malenia great rune) it's all previous game mechanic okay, but.. mixed physick, great rune, mount, ash of war, spirit ashes, time cycle including night only enemies, explorations... is that all a joke? i mean.. since ds 1 until sekiro isn't that all about roll/dodge and striking?
@@Ashn- I understand what you're meaning but with all due respect most of the stuff you've brought up are either mechanics that add nothing to the gameplay or already added past stuff. Stealth has barely any use (except the dlc) Jump is only good for some platforming or a jump attack which is a must in any open world game and itself doesn't add much Ash of war is literally the weapon skills from ds3 renamed Spirit ashes are literal summons since the days of demons souls but instead don't require a summon sign Mount is something NEEDED especially in an open world game or moving through spaces would be unbearable (that's why every single open world in existence has one) Time cycle is cool to have but again it's nothing unique and the enemies in it are just 1 boss repeated a million times throughout the game Mixed physic is a very nice idea to that I agree but really it's just something to add more buffs to your characters that isn't a spell Also for your comment about ds1 to sekiro I've explained what each souls game added to the series since ds1, so far I haven't seen elden ring innovate, only mix and mash 2 genres without adding its own thing to it (ofc lore doesn't count cause that shit is beautiful) A good game that came out recently that innovated to the souls genre was lies of p with its entire weapon fusion system
I finished the game last night and was constantly struggling to figure out why I didn't enjoy it. You've just encompassed all the points I struggled with (but obviously couldn't as eloquently verbalise) - unfair bosses, a disappointing story, needlessly repeated and devalued content, and a reliance on consulting sources exterior to the game to properly enjoy it. Thank you for helping me understand that I'm not alone in feeling like this, and that I'm not just being a grumpy old man about it. I mean, that latter point is probably true, but at least I don't think it's unjustified now. Excellent, as always.
Elden Ring has nearly three times the enemy variety of previous games in the series and probably has 10 times the enemy variety of other types of open world games. Even with the repetition, it still has a massive variety of content. It's just a 60 dollar game. You can't realistically expect a 60 dollar game to have 500 unique enemy types and bosses.
@@ivanasukjadic1423 FROM Software wanted to make a big ass boring world, its their fault not the players who werent following the hype like drones. With every new entry, FROM forgot about the good aspects of previous games and implemented bad mechanics. Many will deny it but Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 made the Souls Genre more boring, unfair and repetive and now with Elden Ring we see what happens if you're too comfortable criticizing the devs. Many games have massive variety and I will tell you a little secret, that doesnt make a game automaticaly good, in fact, it makes it more boring because most of the time it doesnt stand out, its copy pasted dungeons and enemies ripped from Dark Souls 3. If the developer is too dense making a smaller world with interesting dungeons and buildings, its again their fault not mine or others who see through the marketing speech of Publishers.
My biggest problem with giant scale games is mob density. In Souls games the world is always completely dead and the only inhabitants are all out to kill you on sight. Meanwhile in WoW, you can't walk 2 feet in any direction without aggro-ing mobs, making exploration stressful. Games that feel lived-in, have NPCs going about normal activities but won't constantly attack you are few and far between.
If you played past souls games that’s just how it is in general. Everything is out to kill you and npcs are few and far between. Elden ring is definitely a game made for souls players that were ready for an upgrade. Edit: I misread I see that you have played souls games before this.
All the souls games to me exist in either a dream or purgatory, nothing else makes sense (outside of them being video games) Elden Ring has so few areas where an actual population would have inhabited and it is a small area to support multiple ruling monarchs. The world makes little sense at all beyond its a video game whereas past From titles never had such a wide gap of disbelief.
@@mikeclarke3990 Yeah I always thought it was really kind of weird/amusing that in the lore there was a massive war between the capital and Caelid that apparently stretched on for a considerable amount of time when you can between them in like 15 minutes. But nothing takes the crown (gettit) of pure "wtf are you serious" disbelief away from the hacked together world of Dark Souls 2. Still a fun game but man that one was really duct taped together and pushed out the door.
@@mikeclarke3990 yeah, let's say Elden Ring has all the location needed to do the "quests" without having the locations more commonly associated with being an "open world". No cities, no viallages, no peaceful inhabitants and no random encounters and extremely rare scripted events. Heck, even the "main hub" of this game, the Round Table, is totally disjointed from the rest of the world, it's totally breaking the "open world experience".
I made it through a full playthrough of this game about a year ago, started playing again in anticipation of the upcoming DLC, and within a few hours I started a new Bloodborne playthough instead, and this video encapsulates why that is.
Omg same. I played about 15 hours after a year off snd got bored sfter finishing limgrave. Played the dlc with a downloaded save and uninstalled after 3 hours. It is such a tedious game.
"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game”; therefore, “One of the responsibilities of designers is to protect the player from themselves" Sid Meier and Soren Johnson
"Adapt. Evolve. Change. Overcome." - this famous quote does not have even a mention/sliver of FUN in it.
The CIV games are exactly like that though, aren't they? If you've played them enough, you can easily cheese them.
@@sbes14i agree, as a big civ fan i kinda like the optimization
lol dang, that one hit yeah. I'm so happy I like troll builds
This game does NOT suck, ppl do! The ones disappointed with this game are only disappointing themselves lol 😎
This obsession with “meta” is one of the worst things that happened with games and especially gamers. With competitive multiplayer games, it makes sense. Otherwise, just no.
to this day i dislike every competitive aspect of all games. Even when im playing fucking lol i just do random shit until one team beats the other (Yei to my 35-40% winrate but im actually having fun)
tbh, this is an issue in all game genres, RTS, FPS, etc. People gravitate toward the meta and then nothing else. Make fun of "noobs" and anyone just trying to have a good time. Eventually its just two guys left, checking each move with the meta counter. I guess a certain type of personality finds that fun
Meta only matters to pvp in this game. Everyone else is just trolling. You don’t understand the real player-base if you think people are actually “obsessed” with meta in Fromsoft games. Streamers aren’t real player-base, they’re entertainers with egos. And they want to look like they’re amazing at every game, so they use the best weapons. I don’t know any real people who care about meta
Meta isn't a thing in souls games. Nobody can just tank, and tank and tank and tank. It's all about damage. Period.
@@SnailHatan your very mistaken. You can make 90% of the builds possible in elden ring, and you definitely would NOT casually enjoy the game.... it is definitely partly meta, but meta is a stupid word. It's literally just damage. These games are so ACTUALLY boring and old school, it's amazing this game is called GOTY imo.. the last few years of mediocrity have made THIS possibly GOTY...
people weren’t making fun of musk’s build because it wasn’t meta, they were making fun of it because it’s idiotic. two nearly identical shields, next to no health, defense reducing talismans, and heavy rolling is a funny combo for such an “intelligent” person to come up with. simple as that. i do really agree with your comments on meta though.
Musk is nowhere near as intelligent as the dumb masses think he is if you look into his actual history. He's mostly a character that the dumb masses will listen to so they use him to push all sorts of agendas. No different to gates or jobs.
His build is the closest you can get to “playing the game wrong” tbh as it was pretty obvious he had a fundamental misunderstanding of the mechanics by having two shields equipped and fat rolling lol.
Or it is so brilliant you can’t even comprehend its genius
I mean if anyone else had posted that build they would have just got advice like "don't have 2 shields", it's just the extension of hating musk, so it's a really bad example which shouldn't have been included as an argument imo
Further, people are kinda just looking for anything to dunk on Musk over. Not that they're wrong, much of the time, and on more important matters than this.
My biggest gripe is the atrocious quest design. I have to read guides just to complete them which often spoils the little bit of narrative there is. I think there’s a way to make a vague quest/journal in a game like this. Hell, even Melina could play that role.
How Pathologic 2 handled quest tracking would be perfect for a game like this.
i mean this has been something in all fromsoft games, it’s just the way they design their games
@larzprissel5983
It's not perfect in the earlier games either, but at least most questlines are structured in a way where it's easy to run into reoccurring characters on your journey in those other games.
Meanwhile, it feels like Elden Ring expects you to run laps around the world map like we're in Skyrim. I have no idea how you're expected to do most of these quests blind.
that is very true. i never played a soulsgame before and it took me like 50 hours and the Wiki to figure out that the vague oneliners some npcs drop are part of quests you can do
@@palpyguybut its exacerbated in elden ring since the map is so fucking huge
"Meta is the enemy of fun" Truthful words. It goes for multiplayer shooters too. Try to play outside how the meta is formed and your teammates get pissed. God forbid you add a little "roleplaying" flavor, or just trying to have some fun.
100% agree, random internet stranger
Long gone are the days where games were intended to be fun and not sweaty.
If you are intentionally playing suboptimally in a team-based competitive game, your teammates are right to be angry at you.
You are definitely a Destiny 2 player
You guys aren't understanding what he's saying. Having negative experiences with metagaming in multiplayer games is completely different to the complaint in this video. He's saying the fact that the difficulty in the game is such that is compels people to look up the strongest builds is a problem. You guys are just airing your irrelevant grievances about the time someone flamed you for playing an off meta build in a multiplayer game lol
the biggest problem with Elden Ring is the enemies are playing Sekiro while the tarnished are playing Demon Souls
Melania is the most egregious example of this. People often say that the waterfowl dance feels like it was meant to be parried
@@Littleandr0idman yeah lol. if theres like an asset leak or something and its revealed shes a reused Sekrio boss i would not be surprised.
Nah, the movement feels like ds3 which is good, but yeah, malenia’s waterfowl is crazy and malikeths movement feels like straight out of sekiro
@@Kidcrowley Elden Ring character is slower than Dark Souls 3 by far
Bro just throw a freeze pot at that hoe when she’s in the air. It cancels the water fowl crap
I also did my first playthrough blind, aside from getting absolutely lost in Lyndell and looking up where to go next to progress the story. I did not get stuck on Malenia because I simply was not able to find the keys to the consecrated snowfield.
You're playing the wrong game lol
Lost in leyndell? Looool u suck
@@asundelgun3487 what does that even supposed to mean?
@@zenks5883 It's probably sarcasm regarding either looking up a guide because of getting lost or someone being snarky over "blind" playing. It could also be that they never found their way to the "secret" area being that it's a secret.
@Joseph Perera What main road?
“Gitgud” to me is to learn from my mistakes and improve. But this game doesn’t make you feel like your mistakes are your own. I basically had to pump up vigor and lion claw my way through the game because I was flat out not understanding where I was going wrong. Even rewatching my streams after the fact to study my gameplay and learning nothing
I tried to be less passive and it went well tbh even trading hits if i could
I checked your vods, and I picked up a few things. There’s stuff like not getting enough flask or weapon upgrades, but the main problem I noticed was that you failed to discern what the game was asking of you, or that you genuinely were meeting its demands. You called Godrick’s axe slam BS because the second hit doubles the radius, but after you picked up on that, you never got hit by it again. When the cemetery shade sliced through you with his million hit combo, you asked how you could be expected to dodge that, just like the rest of us did. One life later, though, you were dodging it perfectly. You demonstrated good game knowledge and were learning most of the boss’s attacks at a reasonable pace, but you seem to have interpreted your own progress as using exploits or gaming the system. Part of that is because you used summons on Margit and Godrick and felt cheated out of those wins, but part of it seems like a flaw in mindset, as if any diversion in your path was an inconvenience you had to laboriously circumvent rather than a new curve to take in stride, which is a poisonous mindset for a game that’s expecting you to experiment and explore. Hell, in this comment you said that leveling vigor felt like cheesing the game, when that’s the first piece of advice any veteran player would give you. For me, _the_ Souls experience is walking into a boss room, getting my ass kicked a few times, then learning the tells and lampin’ ‘em one but good. If a boss you’ve never seen before uses an attack you weren’t expecting and hits you, that’s not bullshit, that’s step 1 of a lengthy process that ends with you kicking that guy’s ass.
In the moment-to-moment gameplay, your biggest blind spot was positioning. If a boss had a 5 hit combo, you felt the need to dodge or block 5 times, even if 2 dodge rolls could get you behind the boss and out of range of the last 3 hits. Not all bosses allow for this, but learning which attacks can be avoided entirely will really help with your stamina usage. Get that down, and you’re already well on your way to being a good player.
shut up. @@grfrjiglstan
Skill issue
@@Slaughter_Hillseriously, I didn’t know to play soulsborne games 2 years ago, then I got gud and beat Elden ring, ds1, and ds3
"Because F the lands between, I know nothing about this place, and F these people. They mean nothing to me. But a hug, a hug is something I can understand." Epic. My thoughts exactly.
You gotta check this video! Sick combos Incantations only helpful ua-cam.com/video/qooy8WpYRUk/v-deo.html
same here but i didnt touch fia i just decided i wanted to destroy that world ever since i realised theres magic in this shit
@@ilayohana3150 Muggle Chad
@@ilayohana3150 Sounds like a trash that you've always been trashed
@@Plsrateeight no!!! You killed my video game npcs!!! 🤓
i think one of elden ring's problems is that part of the enemy's design is based on sekiro. In sekiro you don't have a stamina bar and with skill and timing you can parry most attacks. In the elden ring you have a stamina, and when an enemy starts a barrage of attacks, you are sure to dodge being hit. Similar how some of bloodborne migrated to dark souls 3, some parts of sekiro came to elden ring, the problem is that in the first case the games had similar mechanics and systems, therefore they were compatible, in the second there are significant differences that make this combination incompatible.
@J B and it was still better than Elden Fail
@J B pretty much the same as all other Fromsoft game, spam rolling.
@@shrakholog1013 lol no. spam rolling will kill you every time. It’s the last thing you wanna end up doing in Fromsoft games
@@unknwnn7673 spam rolling won't kill you if you time it right. With Elden Ring's bosses that attacks in consecutive succession, the player is forced to roll over and over, until the bosses' stamina depletes. I'm just pointing out to J B that if Sekiro is just spam deflect then all other Fromsoft game is spam roll, meaning it's pointless to compare Sekiro and Souls games from a hater's perspective.
holy shit you are right , this means they combined both of their games in the worst way possible.
The size of elden ring does not work with the traditional fromsoftware questing format. At least give us a journal to keep track of things in case we don't play the game continuously. This does not ruin immersion
Most of the game was me looking up guides because I had no idea where I was supposed to go, and where certain quest lines were located. It’s not only a world where it’s fun to get lost in, you’ll actually get lost, it became annoying for me.
That’s my problem, I recently bought Elden Ring and I don’t want to lose momentum and forget what I have going on
@@kush6846 bro if you unironically got lost in this game than maybe open world RPG's aren't your forte
there's fast traveling, clearly defined paths, etc. you can't get lost in this game in terms of literally being lost
or make the character write stuff by hand on his map...I think games that implement their map system this way, making it obvious it's an item the character is carrying, have the perfect idea here.
@@titanscar2183 in terms of finding where to go to progress the main story, it wasn’t a problem, but it’s the side quests, certain characters and locations to trigger them that I couldn’t find.
This video gave me solace in knowing that I'm not crazy to have a take contrary to the mainstream. I agree with a lot of these points, which were a lot more fleshed out than my own opinions. If anything, this video further expands upon my dislike for this game. Not to say that it's bad, it's just bloated.
Thats crazy because he lies throughout the video. Never trust a Bethesda fan
@@MisterFreeSpeech?
What’s your favourite boss fight?
You’re agreeing with a bethesda cuck
Other streamers resorted to using meta weapons or meta builds.
Jerma resorted to roleplaying a 1950's comedian in the middle of the fight and flashed his ding dong at the end.
what a psycho. i remember the time he got frenzy flamed by the three fingers and he has never been the same since...
Best joke of last year for me
Jermas playthrough was so funny 🤣
bro wat
The souls community doesnt care for meta, we just play how we want.
Meta first come up qhen all the casual trash joined to play the games
For the meta comment: all the streamers I've watched beat Malenia went the same way -
- try for hours to beat her solo, learning the moveset to instinct level.
- getting so good at it that they get to almost finishing even Phase 2.
- getting caught off-guard at the last moment, being infuriated.
- summoning Mimic just to beat her on the "first try"
- feeling so fcking unfulfilled.
That was me in a way too. I remember the first time I fought her, I played the whole game solo and had maybe 30 tries just to beat her first phase. I was playing blind, so when I realised that was only half the fight and I was only just surviving, I decided maybe I’ll use mimic tear so I can get to the second phase quicker and practise it so I’ll learn quicker for the solo kill.
Horrible idea, because once Malenia was on half health on the second phase, I realised my mimic tear didn’t need me AT ALL to kill her (pre nerf, didn’t know how op it was). He ended up killing her before she killed me, and it was incredibly unfulfilling. I remember beating myself up for not just closing the app that night before sleeping.
@@fahimtajwaar2521 You are just bad at the game. Everyone by this point defeated her. Not a hard boss at all.
@@mercylavigne brother if you go on my channel I have stored videos beating her on ng+7 and rl1 solo. I have platinumed every fromsoft game in the souls-like genre from demons souls 2008 to now, some twice because they’ve been re-released.
I’m allowed to have criticisms of the game, especially considering I have been a long time fan of the franchise. And unfortunately I am not a fan of the balancing around summons, neither of some unfun gameplay mechanics in Malenia’s fight.
@@fahimtajwaar2521 I never used summons so i don't know anything about them. Malenia is bad designed, yeah, but it's not that hard without Waterfowl Dance. Her moves are pretty predictable, but phase two is pretty annoying for Faith/Strength builds.
Elden Ring has no unbalanced fights, really. Some bosses are REALLY FUCKING HARD, but you get used to it. Closest boss to be nigh unfair is Commander Niall.
@@mercylavigne for me it’s less about being unfair and more about being challenging to the point of being unfun. Yes I can beat a boss with 15-hit combos that two shot me with 3 second delays on every hit and 5 aoes that have after effects and combos that they can extend from animation reading and then getting ganked, but quite frankly, I don’t have fun doing it.
Previous games never had 15-hit combos with 2 second attack windows, or optional extensions, or delays on every hit, and they sure as hell didn’t two shot you with endgame vigor. But Elden Ring takes every measure it can to trick the player and at a point I just get tired of it. Bosses like slave knight Gael might be a pushover compared to Elden ring bosses because they have standard damage and predictable/sight-readable combos, but I find they’re simply more fun because they don’t pull a “sike - you thought” on every move.
In regards to a map not having a player marker, a really fun mechanic I encountered was in the indie game "Salt." In that game the map is a huge seed-generated world of small islands in a vast ocean. When you start the game, your map is blank except for your starting island and you have to basically make your own map as you go. You have a compass which you use to determine the direction you're going and you have to add islands to your map manually, estimating the distance and direction you've travelled onto the map. It's difficult to gauge how far and what direction you're going so you map is rarely 100% accurate. Its super immersive and tons of fun since you can add different kinds of flags and notes to your map. It really is one of the best exploration games I've played, in terms of travel and navigation.
Valheim
@@Xnvasxve DigDug
I use a mod and play with no map marker in kongdom come deliverance. It really enhances the immersion. It's nice to still have the map to look up directions to get between towns but you have to navigate there yourself and really do get to know the landscape
Out of somewhat newer open world games, Outward is built on some of the old-school design principles and it also does not have a player marker, so you have to orient yourself by learning its geography. It's really satisfying, especially when played in local coop. Though it does give you a map from the get go, so that is chance missed.
Hollowknight has somewhat of that approach as you have to give up a vital charm slot to be able to use it…so you get your marker but with an added deficit
Not only is the story bad, there literally isn't one. There is not a single character in the entire game that isn't a one-dimensional copy-paste of some common archetype from mythology: a warrior succumbed to madness, a proud noble making a faustian deal with a creature of darkness, a self-loathing religious zealot etc...
But there is no narrative, because literally no one understands what's at stake. After reading endless lore, I still have no idea what the erdtree, greater will, elden ring, or any of this stuff is. I have no idea what godhood means in this universe. And the game doesn't give me any info on why I should care. I don't even understand what these royals are supposed to be ruling over? Are there 'normal' people in this world engaged in agriculture, because it just seems like a monster theme park?
So we have some godly royals querraling with each other, but none of them have any personality, and are fighting over things that are never explained. There are no character arcs, internal conflict, moral dilemmas or any of the stuff that a narrative requires to feel meaningful.
I may be old fashioned, but I require a story to feel engaged. The game at this point is just a medieval fight simulator to me, because I simply do not care about the world, at. all.
Thank you! This is something I clocked in the base game that was only made worse in the DLC.
Fromsoft's presentation and art direction is immaculate, as always, but their storytelling skills are subpar and wholly derivatives of their previous work.
It's alright to be vague and esoteric with Worldbuilding but NOT the story as a whole. The reader/player needs to know what's happening to fully understand what the narrative it. But fromsoft fails to deliver it. We need to know the character motivations, we need to know what cautionary tale From is trying to explore but we don't get that. We're not given enough info to be invested in the plot.
Every sublot and character is flat and boring because they're just archetypes with no personality and garner no emotional connection with the player. Partly due to fromsoft not knowing how to write interesting characters and resorting to "and then they died" or "and then we killed them" resolutions to their questlines.
Fromsoft only cares about spectacle and presentation over an actual well crafted story.
@@sugarhoneyprincess6025 Your point about vagueness and mystery being acceptable for world building, but not for the narrative itself as a whole is such an important distinction. I study literature, and unanswered questions and multiplicity of interpretations is very much part of the whole game, but it needs to be grounded in something that functions as a starting point, from which a MEANINGFUL narrative can be constructed. Mystery is fine. Nonsense is not. And I feel like Elden Rings world-building went so out there with the esoterocism that it made it kind of impossible to build a narrative.
I can't even name a solid theme that Elden Ring is exploring. I've seen a lot of people say 'repeating cycles', but this drives me up the wall! This is the most unoriginal, universally applicable thematic trope that can quite literally be applied to anything, if you're lazy enough by just going "circles dude"! The classic, 'and then he woke up and everything started from the beginning' is not deep lmao. And in the context of Elden Ring, cycles of WHAT? Nobody knowing what's going on? Religious fanaticism? Power struggle?
Cycles of religious inquisition leading to tragedy is a fine theme, but it needs to be EXPLORED. Elden Ring just tells you 'x has occurred, but we won't even explain to you the most basic meaning of x'. I've spent way over a hundred hours in the game, and watched hours of lore videos. But I can't for the life of me actually explain the ideology of the Golden Order, as in what all of it actually means.
In comparison, in His Dark Materials, literally a children's book, the religious institution known as the Magisterium is obviously modelled after the catholic church, and they believe that a mysterious substance called the 'dust' is the basis of original sin, and therefore try to remove it from the world. There. One sentence, and it explains to the reader what's going on, while retaining a sense of mystery, and unanswered questions (which the narrative can then explore). If you can't summarize some basic world-building without a 3h lore video, which leaves you with more questions than answers, it's bad writing, and goes from the realm of 'world-building retaining mystery', to 'even the writers didn't know what they're trying to do with the narrative nor the world-building'. Because that much 'mystery' just makes it impossible to have a meaningful narrative. Mystery exists to be filled with narrative, not just left there (unless it's some background lore for a faraway land, that is never visited). If the narrative never even reaches the mysterious parts of the world-building, it begs the question why is the mystery there to begin with?
Yes, the art style is impressive, but story-wise this game is literally style over substance.
@@jonirischx8925 Exactly. Every theme in Elden ring is half-formed or barely there.
Godhood is bad. Why is it bad Fromsoft? You've only showed us one(1) god lineage that's screwed up. I understand that Marika might have divested herself of humanity to get there but it's never explained WHY that's a necessary part of apotheosis in Elden Ring. And even still with the DLC we learn so much of Marika's action was due to trauma and suffering her people endured AND how her children suffered due to OUTER God meddling. Shouldn't they be the real enemy? Beings with no morality or humanity who only want to remake the world in their image? Not traumatized mortal gods who do care about something more than themselves but aren't petfect beings. The issue with Gods in elden ring is their lack of wisdom and foresight for how influential their existance is.
Genocide of a people is bad. Fair and understandable. But don't say the victim of one turning around to wipe out the culture that murdered their people is the REAL villain, From?! From took the time to show us how Marika's people were brutalized only to turn around and say she shouldn't have inquisitioned the Hornsent for it but never say the Hornsent also shouldn't have killed her people for looking down on them.
Something her society does to tarnished but she herself seems to still value their contrubutions. And the omen but that's whole other can of worms that from is incapable of writing a narrative for because the only way we, the player, interact their world is by killing things or stopping things from killing us. It once again made the victims the villains, muddying how a reader/player might interpreted the situation.
Cycles, the world in decay, fallen god empire, etc. Fromsoft has already TOLD these stories and better. The kicker is, there is a whole world OUTSIDE of the lands between that is disconnected from all of it. The lands between and the Shadow lands are hidden microcosms of a larger world. A god's playground. We aren't told what fixing the elden ring actually means for the greater world. Or given a choice NOT to.
To make matters worse, From did have some compelling character plotlines that they cut. Merchant Kalé and the frenzied flame and Asime, the mimic tear lord of night.
Kalé would have succumbed to despair at learning how the Golden order wiped his people and culture out, something we the player are shown and might have an emotional response to, and begs us to wipe away the world because of how cruel it is to the innocent. Very emotional compelling, (to me at least)
And Asime, a mimic tear who acknowledges to Nox's goal of creating a Lord of Night and wants to use us as template. The possible narrative might have been that the Nox could never create a lord of night, only imitate one. Their advancements as a society would always be second to the golden order. Gold being better than silver etc.
Within the game's narrative none of these themes are addressed to a full extent or brushed over entirely. The plot feels like lip service to the visuals and not the other way around.
They leaned way to far into making every character go crazy or evil.
The interesting characters were clearly based off of previous characters, and were kind of pale compared to their inspirations.
Yeah like i have no idea why MY TARNISHED wants to become Elden Lord. While some others just… dont
The way Jerma beat Melania was so perfect. He used the goofiest looking spell in the game, face contorted in a mix of terror and adrenaline, making inhuman noises of anxiety, until FINALLY he beat her second phase and all the tension came out in one exhale, before he suddenly became concerned his fly was open when he jumped up in excitement, and deflated his own moment of victory.
My favorite moment in any jerma stream, only matched by the time he did his dollhouse streams and everyone wanted Ludwig to die
Certified Mohg Moment
you should try other software souls games if you like troll builds
He deflated his victory because he thought he showed his dick live on twitch when he jumped
jerma fans are even weirder than he is, there's like 2000 of you but you're fucking everywhere
The "Accessible" Difficulty section mimics my experience of playing alongside a friends. He looked up locations for bosses, and I didn't, and every time I asked him how he did on a boss, his attempts and time were so much lower than mine simply because he was completing bosses in the correct order based on level.
I didn't know this, and genuinely thought I was just terrible at the game. lol Still had a blast with it, and wouldn't have wanted to do it differently otherwise. Though part of the reason was because I had eventually found a weapon I really liked the look of and how it fit my character, only to realize it's Art of War it had could stunlock large amount of enemies and bosses at a long range, while doing quite a lot of damage. This was a happenstance find, but I could imagine the later parts of the game being far more difficult without it. Funny enough I didn't see many people with the weapon.
Mind sharing which weapon that was? :D
@@angerayne Ruins Greatsword
It was most likely more common than I thought, but none of my friends said they got the weapon when I joined them and used it.
But as someone that always uses the chunkiest of big weapons, while theming my character around smashing earth and shooting lightning, this weapon was so perfect I would have been sad to find out about it after the fact if I had missed it on my first run. Would have been happy enough with the Starscourge Greatswords, but Ruins is more rough and lightning oriented in its look and ability, so definitely prefer it.
@@HalikBun ruins great sword is good. One of my equipped load weapons I use is the bastard weapon and the Astel wings. I love using them because they are powerful fun and really pretty to look at.
It is absolutely intended that margit pushes your shit in early on to encourage you to leave and explore south, then go back to stormveil.
@@HalikBun
_and genuinely thought I was just terrible at the game._
I _am_ genuinely terrible at games like this. So,... are there difficulty settings which I could set to be very easy? Or should I just forget about this one?
The input reading was a major problem at launch, it's better now but still a problem. So many enemies and bosses start an attack on the exact same frame that you begin healing. The godskin duo and their single versions would always throw a fireball at you the instant you heal. Ironically giving a little bit of a delay to this input reading actually makes the enemies feel smarter because it feels like a fellow consciousness reacting to your actions in a realistic way, as opposed to a machine making a perfect calculation every single time based off your button presses.
it's still fucking awful and extremely obvious, the boss walks around doing nothing for five seconds while you are standing in place and the millisecond you press the attack input they attack you back, a lot faster of course and deal a lot of damage to you which is essentially unavoidable unless you stand around doing nothing for even longer, waiting for the boss to do fucking anything that isn't reading your inputs (technically it's reading your animations but it makes no difference)
Bosses never actually read your inputs, they read your animations
@@dunkawunka2278 which makes no real difference to the argument
@sunbleachedangel i wasnt trying to invalidate you, im just trying to clear a common misconception
@@dunkawunka2278 fair
The input delay is alive and well in the DLC, as is the concept of getting knocked onto your back and still being susceptible to attacks, which is pretty great. Loved taking damage while waiting for the "getting up" animation to finish playing. Good times.
Feels like the “tripping” mechanic from Brawl
and mashing dodge during said animation only to roll into their attack with perfect timing. chefs kiss
This is my main problem with fromsoft games. It’s unacceptable that the character dodges after you release the dodge button, not when you press it, because there is a delay between you wanting to dodge and your character starting the dodge animation. This is because dodge and running are set to the same button so the game needs to process whether you are holding to run or releasing to dodge. It’s appalling game design because it makes combat feel so unresponsive.
You can roll out of the "getting up" animation, dummy.
I greatly enjoy how this became a critique on modern gaming's cancerous wiki spoiler culture.
I think it'll be hard to go back, and maybe Elden Ring tried too hard to appeal to everybody. Loads of options, but still really hard, but also the traditional souls levelling, stamina, and healing systems. I think the solution is to make different games of about the same difficulty, with significantly different systems.
Elden Ring is literally the first From Software game I didn't finish, this critique is on point about everything. Elden Ring might be a good game, but an horrible Souls Like. Almost no fights are balanced, way too many copy pasta, and a story that makes no sense. The good things about the game are the scenery and the combat, but since there is so much recycled content, the scenery isn't really that magical, and since almost no fights are balanced, the combat feels secondary to your stats. What the hell From Software. The saddest part of it all, is since Elden Ring made so much money, they'll probably just continue to do more open worlds, and we will never see another traditional souls like from them.
@@sauceinmyface9302 You don't have to go back, there is a way forward. It's called giving the player less information and making specific information less documentable. It's possible, but no one's doing it. Everything is controllable, it's all a bunch of control systems with inputs and outputs. Which control systems are the most fun? Imo, the ones that give less information while still being deep/complex enough to be discoverable.
@@poisonated7467 I suppose? Games like Outer Wilds and Tunic are good examples of this, but even then, it's so easy for people to get stuck, look something up, and accidentally see too much.
@@sauceinmyface9302 True, the basic systems will be the same. That's part of the culture problem in gaming and I don't know how to fix that. Regardless, we should take every step we can to war against it with intelligent design.
Personally, I feel like Sekiro & Bloodborne are the natural successor of Fromsoft's Dark Souls series. Improvements over storytelling, npc quest and dialogues as well as the meat of souls game, the combat from both those games can be seen compared to their Dark Souls era of game design. Whereas Elden Ring felt like a massive step back from their progression. Instead they fall back into their comfort zone of making 'Dark Souls 4' with open world & horse riding. The combat and storytelling part especially felt dumb down compared to their other games.
I think that, from a purely gameplay standpoint, Sekiro is the best fromsoft game, but Bloodborne is the best overall experience. Even with the limited healing items (which, honestly, is only a problem briefly in the mid game, since, by the time you get to the endgame, the amount of blood echoes you gain by just playing normally is more than enough to buy enough healing items and still level up if you so choose), even with the chalice dungeons, even with the Mikolash gimmick fight.
I love Elden Ring, but I genuinely believe it would have been even better if it had a lesser amount of unique weapons, but each of them has a bigger and more varied moveset, like in Bloodborne, and if it had a visible posture metre, like in Sekiro. And a deflection mechanic.
What I love the most about Sekiro is that you are not trying to inflict death by a thousand cuts to your enemies, nor are you creating massive combos of obscure items and mechanics to one-shot them; instead, what you're doing in Sekiro is trying to find an opening to land a decisive hit. That can be done by landing a lesser hit (which in and of itself is not something you can just walk to the boss and do, they can block and deflect you as well), by deflecting their attacks, and by pressuring them.
I was into historical fencing for a while, and even practiced it. Because of the mechanics I just mentioned, Sekiro is the only game I tried to this day that creates a rhythm and feel that is similar to an actual sword fight. As much as I love Elden Ring, I wish it had gone that route instead of being open world Dark Souls. Open world Dark Souls is still awesome, though
This is what i've been telling people about, fromsoft CAN but on elden ring they DON'T. As usual though fromshit fanboy defend this crap like their life's on the line. The combat now is just roll and hit like a caveman and people can't see this shit, literally massive downgrade compared to sekiro, and because of how massively "success" elden ring is it start to creeping on other games trying so hard to copy paste soulshit gameplay instead of trying something new and literally creating a new slop of genre
I enjoy Elden Ring just because it scratched the itch I've been looking for in a game for a while. I can see how its not some peoples cup of tea, but I enjoyed it personally.
@@istheworldrealsouls games have always been a roll fest what r u talking about
@@istheworldrealyeah not too much agreeable when you use terms like soulshit, seems like you're not on the same page of fans that want improvements if you talk like this
22:55 That's a fair criticism. There should be lore reasons why these dungeons exist and why the bosses are there. None of the bosses in the Legacy Dungeons should ever be repeated either.
I feel the opposite. I agree with the criticism about the repeat bosses but saying the amount of dungeons in the world makes it feel like a video game... well yeah we're playing a video game. I have never played a Souls borne game and my friends basically walked me through the early part of the game as I learned how to play the game. I had so much fun going through the different caves & catacombs with my friends. Sure they were repetitive and on a new game plus, I'll probably avoid half of them, but for the average player, they're going to find a quarter or half of these dungeons.
There *are* lore reasons. Elden Ring's "fanbase" is plagued by casual gamers who come from western gaming and don't understand that From Software thinks about everything they put in their games. They just don't spell it out for free as if the casual audience can't be intelligent enough to research and learn their lore.
@@adamiadamiadamiOk. Explain who put the dragon there.
@@lorenzocassaro3054Magma Wyrms are humans who participated in dragon communion and eventually after overdoing it, ended up turning themselves into that. Everything has a reason dum dum.
@@adamiadamiadami if you have to google and read a wiki instead of just playing the game and getting the lore through gameplay then its a failure of the game.
Sad to see they just doubled down on all these issues in the DLC. Makes me worried about the direction the franchise is headed in especially when they seem to be getting praised for it.
and everyone blindly praising it and ignoring legitimate criticisms
Exactly, it seems to me they’re going down the same formulaic and unfun path as other major studios in the past. Shadow of the erdtree proved that no studio is exempt from poor decision making
@@lukethelegend9705I agree and this is coming from a guy who considers Dark Souls series a masterpiece.
I do really enjoy this game for the most part, but I am actually worried for the trajectory of future From Soft games. Particularly in the boss design department. And if they decide to do another open world, the balance department.
They're moving back to mech games like Armoured Core if recent news is anything to go by.
@@starhammer5247 god I hope so
@@starhammer5247 well after the success of this game it would be idiotic not to make another game similar. Also the money they made from this can help them increase their resources and be able to work on multiple games at once
Open world is not the issue. It’s the scope. A smaller world would allow for more uniqueness and better balance. There is no need to have dozens of similar boss battles and similar catacombs. More playtime hours does not necessarily equal more quality hours.
I know one of their next projects is a new armored core game, then I heard they have another game in the works but I don't think anyone knows what it is. They did say though that they might do an Elden Ring 2 but aren't sure yet.
In many ways a lot of these criticisms mirror what people lament about MMORPGs. How in the "good old days" you were encouraged to explore and experiment, while the modern experience punishes you. I wonder how much of that is really down to the simple evolution of the gaming community.
The game is pure open ended exploration no check lists or hand holding or side dungeon markers, across a massive landscape, and can be rerouted at players whim. The legacy dungeons are peak complexity and scale in the series, the free form overworld exploration and traditional legacy dungeon crawling are meant to contrast and compliment each other, and they do. Yet some ppl can mistake the forrest for the trees and make 2hr vids where they missed the point lol
@@JavaSchoolBlues >is aggressive for no reason
>refuses to elaborate
>leaves
@@JavaSchoolBlues
No, it's pretty much the best counter to the real "dumb take" which is that exploration and experimentation is punished in Elden Ring.
@@hiscores9282 but the overworld exploration is really bad compared to the legacy dungeons, if i just want a game with no check lists or handholding i could play ultima 6, the GOAT
@@hiscores9282 Oh yeah, the incredible open world that has open fields with nothing but a random group of enemies just standing there. How cool
I think one issue is that alot of bosses feel like they belong in sekiro with how fast they are. If they were slightly slower and had more varied timing then it would feel better
Every Elden Ring critic parrots this point, but what bosses are you talking about? There’s malenia, yes, but what else?
@@cardmossdn8058 I also would like to know, because I have seen this EXACT same comment multiple times and every single time not one person even bothered giving examples.
@@Paulo-ro3ws The only other one that comes to mind is Morgott, but even then that’s a stretch.
@@mori7644 And hell Morgott's my favorite boss.
I feel like most of these complaints come from people who use the slowest weapons.
@@randomlyrapid8996 I mean if you’re using heavy weapons, you should know that you’re not an anime character swinging that weapon like a straight sword and they still complain.
Welp the DLC has come and this video is more relevant than ever. Seriously the main bosses and even some regular enemies are complete infinite stamina, 10 hit combo, arena sprinting beasts that you are a child against
First souls game? Every dark souls, demon souls, even bloodborn boss has “infinite stamina”. Elden Ring just takes it to the next level with combos.
Learn the combo you learn learn the boss.
@@nakiangoderich3014 how to reveal you have never played any other souls game:
but sure go and argue how nito and artorias are just as aggressive and relentless as maliketh or pcr, lol
only boss in ds1 that comes close to elden ring levels is manus, only ones in ds3 that comes close are pontiff and maybe gael. meanwhile ds2 doesn't have such a boss at all. even sir alonne and fume knight gives you plenty of breathing room compared to most elden ring bosses
@@advakart4208 Then you just simply don't know timings. You don't know enough to care, or care enough to know the bosses move sets. I mean they aren't hard at all, you're just so caught up on the ds3 mindset that you don't even bother to learn how to play elden ring. Maliketh/PCR give you plenty of time to heal, they(just like other bosses in the previous games) will punish you trying to heal while they are still in their "aggressive phase". You say "go and argue how nito and artorias are just as aggressive and relentless as maliketh or pcr" but you are completely divorced from the fact that yes, artorias is just as aggressive as Maliketh or pcr. If you fight artorias and heal from neutral, you will get punished, like every boss in every souls games. It's not rocket science.
literally just dodge and counter attack, they aren't that hard
@@illustriousclips4236 exactly, i literally fought maliketh and his first phase w/ an unupgraded colossal weapon and it was not even that hard, felt perfectly fair. almost everyone complaining about boss design in this game just sucks at it
I played blind as a sorcerer, it was my first Fromsoft game. I've had a lot of trouble discussing my time with it with my friends because they mainly did meta bleed or strength builds and the bosses that were hard for me were completely different from them. I actually found Malenia to be one of the easiest bosses in the game, I was well leveled by then and I accidentally bullied her to death with staggering spells, I never even knew she healed on hit until someone told me.
Meanwhile Malekith, Placidusax, and even damn Tree Sentinels destroyed me repeatedly. Overall my experience was incomparable to my friends, and I wasn't even able to communicate why because I was doing it blind so I just got accused of lying whenever I tried. Afterall how could I struggle against Tree Sentinels a dozen times but kill Malenia on my second try? I was just poorly fit for both fights in different ways.
Unrelated but who is that cute anime girl in your pfp? I may watch the show just for her.
@@jackallen6601 Riko Sakurauchi from Love Live
What spells did you use? Need some help pls ;-;
@@yellowbelliedslider6719 First time I used Rock Sling, but I wasted all my flasks because I didn't realize she had a second phase. Second time I mixed rykard's rancor and adula's moonblade, with the former doing most of the work, though the latter has been nerfed since then IIRC. I had effectively about 80 Int and all the quick casting options (except for the staff since it increases cost and I like to open with Ranni's Dark Moon for fun).
Make sure you keep your distance, like as far as possible, there's no reason not to with all of those spells except for moonblade which I only used briefly whenever she ended up close enough. Just start rolling away whenever she goes up in the air, she almost always misses if you do (at a good distance).
At the time I was also experimenting with adding faith since I'd maxed Int so I had black flame's protection and golden vow on, and flame cleanse me IIRC ready. I can't remember if I actually needed them though so they're probably optional. Also relevant to note I'd invested a lot into endurance for dodges and armor since I had like no vigor, so I had the altered Banished Knight armor on at the time (I needed the best equip talisman for it still though).
Edit2: (Should note I only switched spells the second time because I was really tired of throwing rocks at that point in my playthrough, Rock Sling is honestly probably the best bet, as it is in almost every fight sadly, unless it's been nerfed and no one told me. I did hear Rykard's Rancor was buffed though and it's more fun so I still rec that too).
@@yellowbelliedslider6719 Try the Night Sorceries like Night Comet and Shard. I avoided them my first playthrough because they cost more FP and have less range than their glintstone counterparts, but the benefit of them is that the NPC don't dodge them which really helps against Mel.
They punish you in another way when you do go and search out the world. You constantly risk breaking side quests by talking to the wrong people, killing a boss in the wrong order, or even just opening some other quest before you were "supposed" to.
thats why you just replay the game. theres like 7 different endings
@@dmjr437 yeah just replay the entire game smh
This. Other issues, especially level gating, I can live with. But this is a big no-no for me. New Vegas has level gating, but you generally don't break quests by doing things in your order. Witcher 3 has level gating, sort of, and you generally don't break quests by doing things in your order. And these are less forgiving examples. Things like BotW, Elder Scrolls/Fallouts, or Ubisoft games are absolutely scared to keep people out of content.
Not asking anything to that level, but having quest not broken by doing open-world things in an open-world game, when there are so few quests.
@@askmeier359 "ohhh noo the game punish me because if i dont play using a 100% all secrets guide i dont get 100%" lmao retard
dawg replay the game that’s why it’s good it’s fun to replay bc u can get a different story every time making it entertaining
1:36:01 Finally someone who understands it. That's exactly how I felt about it. If you follow the questline, Fia does use you and betray you, but in the end she's one of the few people who offered you any kindness and comfort. Everyone else tells you to go there, do this, do that, but they won't elaborate as to why, and they don't seem to particularly care about what happens to you.
Well, there are a lot of other characters that don't just try to use you and are quite nice. Boc is an example. Same with Millicent, Nepheli, Thops, etc. There are a rather large number of nice people in the lands between so long as you ignore the thousands of enemies that don't have characters.
@@Choco____1 Even when Sellen says: if you cannot become Elden Lord, you will always have a place in the Academy. This is...... Edit: the sad thing is that Nepheli is the only one with a semi good ending provided the player does not burn the lands between.
I liked her, but when she killed my man D she was just a skank to me.
@@Choco____1 Boc is a good example, yes, but he's not really connected to any of the runes, and he's not a "waifu'. I found Nepheli annoying, but I really loved Sellen, for example. She's also one of the few caring characters.
@@treasurewuji8740 or turn her into a doll.
The problem for me is that; I don't explore because it's fun. I explore because the developers put whatever they put in the game for me to see, and so I fear that if I dont explore, I will lose out on equipment or important items. I explore out of fear that Im playing the game wrong.
trying too hard to be different. I've never heard of someone that says ER exploration is "boring".
@@xEcuador1 Well now you have.
I can relate to this! I explore because I am afraid that I miss a estus flask upgrade.
In the past from software game, you can almost get all the estus flask upgrade without looking a guide.
@@xEcuador1 it's absolutely boring lol. Fighting the same enemies is fun maybe twice, but afterwards I'm tired of copypasted dungeons or just riding past them on a horse, trying to get to the next area. There's hardly a feeling of uniqueness or depth to it, and the rewards are just another item. Elden Ring is an aRPG trying to act like an RPG, without including any of the important elements of one
@@Terkiaz wrong on so many levels. Welp I can’t expect much from an overwatch and loli incel.
An addition I think is worth mentioning in brief is the enemy AI aggression and input reading has been turned to 11 from the previous title DS3.
It is so highly strung and overtuned, on the night of the launch, I found myself playing Input chicken with the enemies. Malenia is the best example of this system at play.
I went back through all the Soulsborne games to see which entry was the worst offender and aside from DS3 having a few enemies which make it abundantly clear there's elevated input reading involved (The games particularly put an emphasis on punishing healing), Elden Ring takes this system and makes it egregious.
An overly aggressive system like this will cause players to play a certain timid way. It should not be a thing anyone should even notice. Yet here the machine cogs underneath the bright colours and layers of lore are on full display for all to feel.
u right, but he mentioned this
the game doesnt have input reading, youre using wrong terms to describe wrong things
@@theholypotato7763Enemies react on the first frame of an animation when you do something, so it's practically the same thing.
@@theholypotato7763 The game 100% has input reading. It's also closely related to the fact that beside the animation of light attack of you avatar, all main bosses have attacks that are faster than anything your avatar might do ( like drinking a flask, casting a spell, heavy attack, ash of wars ). They also have long range attacks that are also faster than your animations. So basically your input is read by the enemy AI and then you get punished. It's really obvious against Malenia or Margit.
@@georgecombii5680 no, like someone else has pointed out what the bosses do is animation reading
Okay I'm with you for most of this, but it is not a twist at all that the Greater Will is behind the Golden Order. It's painfully and obviously spelled out with the Two Fingers in Roundtable hold. Also the Golden Order isn't corrupt because of the Greater Will, they're corrupt for valuing appearance and strength over the actual guidance of their higher power and teachings
I was going to say that. You're ahead of the UA-cam curve
Yeah, it's definitely not a twist. They mention the Greater Will so many times, it's even mentioned in the opening.
I think what he was trying to say was you still aren’t sure what a greater will or golden order even is after finishing the game or even care much about it. The story feels like george rr Martin wrote something and from soft smashed it apart and took pieces of it to make it into a obscure from soft title. In dark souls the story had a cohesive story that made sense is what he was saying with illustrations that are clear, and even more so in sekiro in elden ring it’s so vague to the point you just don’t care about the story and can tell neither did they. It’s a game focused on the game play , all immersion is broken when each dungeon is the same shit over and over and bosses are re-used so many times, and in an open world that contains almost no human life or settlements.
@@TheVioletBunny That’s not entirely true. Sekiro has one of if not the most concise stories in any Fromsoftware game and it still had a lot of loose ends. It’s their style of story telling. For example, much like the greater will, the divine dragon is never explained fully even though it’s a primary plot point. The only thing we know about his origin is that he “came from the west”. Making the greater powers in your story have very little known about them helps build a sense of scale, it shows that the world portrayed in the game is incredibly vast, but to the overarching narrative it’s just a small part of something much bigger.
The game really explores pride. Every story boss struggles with pride and it is the fundamental reason why they all need to go down so that the world can be made anew
“It was the 14th of June, at 7:14 pm when I first met Malenia, blade of Miquella…..and it was the 14th of June at 9:31pm when I first killed Malenia blade of Miquella…….. and it was at 9:32pm that night that I realized something was wrong-“ captures the unique horror every blind player experienced. Amazing video in citing things I hadn’t considered and very well done and was marvelously entertaining living through your eyes you first experience with the game.
Cap
@@ryan.1990 Most well written elden ring apologism
It's almost as if FS saw this video and said, "yes, correct," and they doubled down.
I mean idk, I like that there's obscenely difficult enemies hiding in games. Why was he so desperate to kill Malenia? Why did he feel entitled to beat her with ease with his yolo character?
@@hansolo631 because he got gud at ds3 and now feels entitled to an easy victory
@Stanzbey69 I award you fromsoft cult member of the week. This prestigious award is only given to the most chronically online cultists who attack anyone that dares criticize the game 🏆
@@christianbaker3564 my man. If anyone’s a cultist it’s the haters. You genuinely speak like lunatics, you have 0 value.
@@christianbaker3564nitpicking the game to death and watching long video essays about a game you don't even like is much more indicative of an individual that is chronically online. you people put a lot of effort into being utterly fucking miserable, and for that i pity you.
The only thing I think is comparable to what you're feeling with Elden ring is what old Fallout fans must have felt like when Fallout 3 came out and it was basically undeniably more successful than the rest of the series but didn't have the same magic that made the original series and trying to fight the wave of millions of people who only played the new game and only like the series for the new game
@Krinab I played Dark Souls 1 for the first time Dark Souls 3 for the first time, and Elden Ring for the first time all within a year of each other, I can safely say I did not like elden ring and loved the others. What a weird way to brush of valid criticism lol
@@scandalouspanda7489 You project your expirience on everyone so dont talk about being needless and rude
@Krinab You'd think that, but no. I'm also one of those people that played Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 many years after Fallout 3. Same thing with Dark Souls 1, my first playthrough was last year. Today I think Fallout 1 and 2 are a lot better than Fallout 3. Dark Souls 1 also has something that's missing from Elden Ring.
@@Dimebag-wx2rs Probably because it plays more like Bloodbourne than a traditional Dark Souls. Bloodbourne and Elden Ring are both my favorite SoulsBourne games because of the pacing of combat.
They're very similar but very different games. Elden Ring also is a lot less linear so its easy to get lost while trying to track certain things. I feel like guides help the experience but not if you read it point for point and follow it to a T. I found a great in depth guide that was also able to just be glanced at. After reading the first few things to do in an area, you usually get the jist of everything.
I've also been playing since DS2 and things just seem to get better.
I didn't grow up with Fromsoft games I've played all of them and while Elden Do g is phenomenal something is missing but I can't pin it. I've enjoyed it more on my Guts build second play through but by the end game it still doesn't feel right.
Personally I'd rather outlevel a region than have to deal with something like Level scaling. I really hate level scaling. Morrowind had it right and skyrim has it so wrong.
Just because one game does a system poorly does not mean another game can't come and improve it, open your minds people.
@@sasaki999pro level scaling was always terrible. It destroys sense of progression and player immersion. There is nothing to be open-minded about.
There's no reason to hate a game mechanic at a fundamental level. You could easily implement a soft level scaling mechanic. Something that would buff weak enemies a little when you're way ahead, and bring down harsh enemies just a bit when you're behind.
Level scaling doesn't have to mean "the enemies are always an even match", and you can still maintain hard difficulty while doing it.
@@pantonearqm2791
"it ruins player progression and immersion"
Except it literally doesn't have to if it's handled subtlely. You just think that "player scaling" instantly means equalized challenges for every player level, when that's not at all what it means.
Nobody would notice or care if it took one less sword swings for a low level character to kill some of the mobs in Caelid
Skyrim's level scaling holds the entire game together, the fuck are you on? Without it there will be a completely, absolutely different game, a game similar to elden ring's fuckups in fact. Level scaling is the only way to make openworld progression work besides making the open world closed.
I love Elden Ring and I love that you care enough about Elden Ring and FromSoftware that you made a near two-hour critique of it. Thank you for doing what you do!
If you ever get to the point where you’re passionate enough about something, you can’t help but say something. Because yes, some people actually care about things like quality and substance. Funny how that works huh?
@@GothJedi some people do, yes, just not neverknowsbest haha. what he really only cares about is how "mainstream-popular" a game is, and if it is, he cynically does everything he can to dig for anything he deems as a flaw to justify his negativity he is so infamous for, in this case, ironically taking the form of unoriginal disappointment he carries on about so often. hilarious for someone so hellbent on being critical of uniqueness.
You sound like a degenerate
@@lyrithvalthier2236 critical of uniqueness? What drug are you taking? Elden Ring is the combination of two tropes which have been around for decades, souls combat and shitty Skyrim esc. Open worlds. You’re brain dead.
this is the correct thought process. You are indeed allowed to love something and understand why others dont
On the open world point, a big issue is that because most items are only useful for specific builds, it means a lot of the rewards you get for finishing dungeons ends up being useless. I remember playing a DEX/INT Sorcerer build on my first game, and the amount of times I'd get incantations or STR based weapons as a reward for going through a whole dungeon got annoying. If you're not playing a magic build at all, then the sheer number of spells as rewards is also a pain. What ends up happening is on future playthroughs you just look up where the loot you want is, and then go do that dungeon.
The open world is also a huge issue wrt normal upgrade materials. Did a club only run recently and literally had to Google where to find enough smithing stones of each level just to get this ONE WEAPON up to +25. Hell, didn't even reach +25 until after beating Godskin duo and getting their miner's bell bc finding enough Smithing stone (8) was becoming a chore. And that was for a single normal weapon. Madness
This 100000000x. I know you can change your build but that still requires a hard to find specific item 😂😂.
I'm having the exact problem with smith stone [8]'s rn
I actually prefer the upgrade system here than in the previous games where you needed specific gems to infuse weapons and in ds 1 you had to figure out for yourself what boss weapon creates what.
@@QuiksilverX7 Oh DS1's weapon upgrade system especially was awful lol. Especially having to go and find specific blacksmiths in the world and not even being able to upgrade beyond +5 weapons until you found a key item.
Yeah I agree that the infusion system specifically is way better in Elden Ring than previous games, but actually upgrading your weapon is definitely worse imo. Especially if it's not a boss weapon, you're not getting those upgrades unless you actively go searching for mines to clear out. For me that sucks ass.
Honestly fast travel and Stake of Marika were needed in a huge game like this, things that need to be improved in the game is Camera movement for Giant enemies and enemies attacking through walls!
I agree with Stakes of Marika I actually think it was a great idea and I personally love them. But I personally think and think this is what NeverKnowsBest was trying to say is being able to fast travel at any point is will not punish the player for playing bad. Granted this probably won't happen a lot but pretty at anytime except for dungeons and I think bosses never tried on bosses you can just fast travel to a grace I personally think that's a little dumb and I think fast travel should be based upon closeness to graces so then you can actually be punished and can't just fast travel to a grace. Also I agree with your point on camera and also enemies attacking through walls.
@@japanesepasta7191 The problem is NeverKnowsBest is comparing these things with older titles. Whatever argument you bring up it will not REALLY work with Dark souls 1 2 or 3. Those games are simply not that big in comparison. They are closed off areas compiled of small and big rooms with little to no side roads. Elden ring is one giant side road. One giant optional encounter. Can you imagine not having a map or any kind of tracking?? Can you imagine figuring out your location with coordinates or landmarks every single time you enter a new area? Sure it probably will be fun..the first few times. But there is an outstanding number of unique locations in a game like Elden Ring. It'll become tedious and annoying to not be capable of fast travelling. Imagine a quest like Sellens' or Rannis' without fast travel. Pretty much a giant nuisance.
@@alix6270 what i took away from nevernknowsbest's point is that having fast travel means you never have the feeling of going on an expedition far away from known territory. like when he gave the example of him traveling down Blightown in DS1 and feeling like he was going deeper and deeper into hostile territory without knowing if he could get back. If he could fast travel he could teleport out at any time. having fast travel makes a game lose the feeling getting lost in a world. I think the solution to keeping this feeling while still accounting for a giant open world would be to allow fast travel from only SOME bonfires and most bonfires could not be teleported to and from. These could be like little home bases and would keep the feeling of getting lost while preventing the inconvenience of having to walk across the whole open world to get somewhere.
The runback is real.
@@japanesepasta7191maybe fast travels can be a finite resource that is refilled by killing bosses, maybe until a certain point in the mid-late game, making players have to put more thought into it, and punishing not committing to an area till it’s completed
Finally a "too many bosses" criticism i agree with. The fact that it doesn't make canonical sense for these bosses to exist at the end of dungeons is an issue. Maybe in future games they could all have a joint story, like all being knights of a certain king, or all being Skeleton type enemies
Biggest problem with bosses is that you are fighting legit 90% of them atleast twice most of them 3 or 4 times. Even the legacy dungeon bosses gets reused like margit, mohg and godrick its so disappointing
@@stuckstepsis6976 that's the criticism I don't agree with. Smaller bosses being repeated, although not amazing, is better than nothing, and the bigger ones that are normally have lore reasons for it.
Also, that's only if you fight every boss. You can't really get mad for an optional repeat boss, because you chose to fight it. Sure, 100% unique bosses would be cool, but isn't reasonable. So instead of complaining about there being multiple of a boss, just enjoy that you get to fight good bosses an extra time
@@nalidhardstyle8551
I would generally agree except for Astel 2.0. That grab attack is bs, and Astel seems like the kind of enemy that should be unique given that he’s a fallen star who destroyed one of the underground cities. That’s too epic for copy paste with a bs grab move that insta-kills. Really cheapens the og Astel. Godefroy also feels totally out of place. Godrick should be unique as the inheritor of a great rune. Other than those two, I can see an argument that the repeats are not bad as a rule. It could be done better, though.
@@kolbywilliams7234 I agree that astel shouldn't be copied, that's definatly one that should be unique. And although yes the repeats could be done better, I'd rather have this than have a game that's half as big
Yeah I came to actually love ruins to a degree because its like a 50/50 chance that theres a boss at the bottom of the stairs, or just a treasure chest lol- and when it was just a treasure chest, and not a shitty general enemy with a health bar I was pleased XD
When it comes to seeing the big tree instead of having a player marker on the map, that (or lack of map entirely) was actually planned but was scrapped in development. Probably for similar reasons the NPC markers got added post-launch.
With all due respect to the developer, I had no chance of finding Blaidd without knowing he had to be there because of the map pointer. Can I really be rationally expected to churn every rock in a giant open world game to get to the NPCs relevant to the story? Too little hand holding can make the game unplayable. I mean, why have visuals at all, let's make a game where you have to orient on sounds alone - even less hand-holding! Would be a really nice experience actually, but making it open world would go downhill fast.
@@ArgumentumAdHominem yeah but the organic feeling of discovery just isn't there with waypoints or other distractions, so you've gotta find a healthy medium.
@@killval849 Indeed. I would appreciate a bit more of a nudge towards where to expect things at the beginning of the game, so I don't miss everything. Later one develops a habit, and nudges are unnecessary. I certainly agree that waypoints are too much
@@ArgumentumAdHominem maybe they shouldnt have pumped the open world full of ubisoft tier slop side content to give the impression the game has more to offer than it really does
@@killval849
But an organic feeling would also mean you actually TALK to these people instead of just standing there waiting for their monologue to end. You know, simple questions like "Who are you?" "Where do you come from as you seem to be a pot guy?" or "Where are you planning to go?".
As a Fromsoft fan, I knew I disliked Elden Ring compared to the other games and I couldn't quite say why. This helped to express what I felt.
Elden ring>>> Bloodborne and dark souls 3 and if you say I'm a elden ring player my first one is dark souls 1 lil bro so cope harder elden ring is better from gameplay and graphics seals ost bosses only sekiro is equal and dark souls 1
@@hatem-st4tyNo.
@@hatem-st4ty Autism speaks.
@@hatem-st4tyBro why are you so mad.
@@hatem-st4tybro calm down
The “Are you sure?” when trying to resummon the horse in a fight got me killed so many times. The biggest raging moment I had in the game was trying to resummon the whose right as I was about to kill a hard boss underleveled. Absolute cheap as hell. They shouldn’t ever interrupt your gameplay while fighting. For combat that’s known for being super tight timingwise, the fact that they casually kill you trying to resummon your horse was a horrible idea and I’m surprised they haven’t patched an option to turn the warning off.
You waste a crimson flask to resummon torrent.
lol just get good son
Get better at the game honestly
When the enemy is about to attack, don't use a potion, don't use your weapon, don't summon your horse. Wait until you have an opening.
@@ericstaples7220 Ah yes the classic “if you just don’t do the problem the problem doesn’t exist”, I swear ds fans are incapable of taking criticism about balancing or combat lmfao
The question of motivation seemed to be a rather simple one to me. If you look at this game it's tonally more of an adventure than a desperate struggle to end an existential crisis to humanity. If you look at the class descriptions and armor sets, there's two things they all have in common. They all have something to prove and nothing to lose. So they come to the warring kingdom of the hands between in search of glory and a name for themselves. Your goal in this game is not to prepare to die or to ensure a future for humanity. It is to RISE. And to do so, you take out any of the factions that are a threat to the land, such as Godrick and his profane grafting and human experiments or Millenia and her kingdom of rot, and are given the choice to side with any of the factions that will reestablish order with you at it's head. You are even given the option to deny the current order and attempt to forge a new path for mankind or to decide this place isn't worth the trouble, just say fuck it and burn it all. Yeah, it's an intrinsically selfish motivation, but it's also been a major motivation for characters in fantasy roll playing games since at least the creation of dungeons and dragons. I can understand it they doesn't appeal to some people, but to say your character has no reason for what they're doing seems to miss the point.
Moreover, the opening cinematic explains your motivation quite straightforwardly. to stand before the Elden Ring. And become the Elden Lord. That's it. That's your character's motivation. Why is up to the player. How is up to the choices they make in the game. But the motivation is spelled out in no uncertain terms.
Extremely well put!!
just because the motivation is obvious doesn't mean it's a good motivation. like okay... i guess my character just wants to go on an adventure... why though? people don't do things for no reason.
@@cerealexperimentsgrain Power, glory and wealth are powerful motivators. They're essentially the only reason that people have jobs. This adventure will lead to literally being a ruler of a country. You might not want that, but it seems easy to understand why SOMEONE would want that. And given a lot of the class descriptions it's very likley your protagonist... Isn't necessarily a good person.
@@levishawback1218 that's a fair take actually. just hard to relate to. i guess i relate a lot more to DS1's character motivation of being pushed around by greater forces with little that can be done about it.
My big hope for Elden Ring was definitely that it would play in a more "alive" world, especially because of the Open World aspect and after Sekiro which seemed to go more in that direction, so I would have hoped for some small villages that are actually inhabited by people with daily routines or something like that. I like Dark Souls but with this new IP I hoped for something more different, not once again a world fallen "from Grace" that is 99% inhabited by some form of undead/hollow people and creatures.
Lmao the majority of the enemies aren’t even what you described, they’re more humans wearing armor or something similar.
Most of the enemies you fight in this game are just normal people like the knights and scholars they only look undead because they can’t die from natural causes so they are really old.
@@jinx5673 Have you ever even played a souls game before elden ring or are you just choking too hard on the games cock? Literally every point he just made is true.
@@NPixel7558 It’s ok to like men, we don’t judge you. I am objectively correct, most enemies in Elden ring are human.
@Jinx And if your braindead ass knew how to read you'd know he called most of the enemies "undead/hollow human"
Your analysis rings truer than ever to me, going through again after the DLC. Very interested to hear what you have to say about it
Funny how it seems like they have learned something regarding the storytelling and the sidequests, but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING regarding the gameplay and difficulty by actually just DOUBLING DOWN on the bullshit unbalanced mess. Litteraly spend 3h trying to beat Rellana on my own before giving up and beating her FIRST TRY with a Spirit summon and I haven't even reached the final boss yet... Honestly I think this DLC might be the single most frustratingly unfulfilling gaming experience I've ever had. The expansion's insane quality seems to only be matched by the depth of its atrocious execution.
I literally wouldn’t have completed a single side quest if I didn’t look up a guide. I tried to play blind I really did and honestly I think I was having more fun blind, but I had this overwhelming feeling that I was missing out on a lot of stuff especially cause I’m using a mage type build. Bruh I literally missed comet in the library because I didn’t check the right book shelf!!! Even while I was playing blind I didn’t consider elden ring as hard as everybody was saying but after I looked up a guide the difficulty shot down even further! It’s a great game and I understand the praise. But this shit just feel like Dark Souls 3+ season of discovery type vibe.
Thats all on you guys fomo killed the experience for a lot of people. No one understands this game be here in 10 years too. It's about bragging you played it at launch to make yourself seem relevant to strangers.
That’s the eternal struggle of a souls game. You want to look something up because you are afraid of missing content, but you also don’t want to ruin the fun. It was a little quicker and easier in the linear style of dark souls or bloodborne or sekiro but with Elden ring the world was so massive it takes hours of looking at things online while playing the game if you don’t want to miss quests, and honestly it was exhausting.
@makoto3212stfu. You are bound to miss multiple quests in this game if you don’t look shit up
@makoto3212it’s not about finishing it fast. It’s about finding literally anything to do. Do you seriously enjoy finding a cool secret spot and then one a treasure chest at the end, only for its contents to be a single mushroom? That’s not “fun and rewarding” that’s an insult. That’s spitting in my face and saying “we don’t respect your time.”
the most frustrating part of this video is that everything it said summed up is true and applied to me. well done, and i wholeheartedly agree.
but you are literally Sadge . obviously you would be dissapointed.
Interestingly enough, the Ranni side quest was the only one I managed to complete without a guide. I agree with you on that I prefer the more controlled game design found in the earlier FromSoft titles, but that doesn't mean I didn't love my time with Elden Ring. For me the best part of these games was always exploring the world, hence why Dark Souls 1 is my favourite, and why the open world of Elden Ring was something I enjoyed, even though it brought many issues with it.
What the dark souls games lacked heavily was Elder Scrolls levels of storytelling and "more realistic level designs" where the enemy placement wouldn't have broken the immersion so oftenly.
I also don't mean that the cryptic nature of Dark Souls lore should be removed and changed into an hyper explained/encyclopedic lore that you get to understand right away when i compared it to Elder Scrolls, but it would've been great to at least have more than 2 dialogue options with the NPC's in order to create more interesting questlines with different outcomes that way.
I don’t believe you
Yeah but when the world is lifeless with repasted enemies and non unique bosses, reused assets, reused dungeons and ruins. It suddenly it becomes boring. Which is why I had the most fun exploring Raya Lucaria academy. NPCs give you a vague exposition as to what you have to do and you end up missing a quest and you have to replay. Thats intentional bad game design to get you to replay. The same way runbacks are intentional bad game design to make a 15 hour game into a 40 hour game. What makes open world games work is the need and desire to interact with said world. This is nowhere to be found in Elden Ring it has NOTHING to support it being open world. Enemies dont even scale their difficulty is mostly based on where the devs thought the average player would be. This has caused me to play 2 hours, get bored, drop the game for months, watch content on it, get the desire to play again. Rinse and repeat. And I still haven't finished it.
@@slendydie1267 Elden ring and the other souls games need Skyrim type npc interaction BADLY. It would be a bit more interesting to be able to say more than just "Yes" and "No" during dialogues. The npcs are incredibly minimalistic
I only looked up two things and got Ranni's ending my first playthrough, where Blaidd was in Siofra because I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like spending ten minutes to just miss him and look it up anyway, and what the doll did, which was critical to me getting the ending admittedly. It didn't occur to me to use it at that site of grace the teleporter took me, because it had been like 80 hours since I last spoke with Melina at a site of grace. That's a big complaint I have about the game, is it kind of throws obvious waifu characters at you and gives you no reason to form a connection with them. I assumed Melina got lost to do her own business, I didn't realize she was still "travelling with me." And Ranni's ending was not worth it, Bloodborne and Sekiro's different boss fights made different endings worth it. But this is like Dark Souls 3, a game I do love, but the endings are just a bit of flavor with no true meaning.
They just enabled the horse...2 and a half years later
Why did I have to suffer ?
In the elden beast fight?
@@coredeadman5980 yep
@@EmondJeremie lol, i just beat that boss a few days ago^^
the boss is not hard bro all his attacks are easy to dodge except the ball of light that literally tracks you luckily it doesn’t do much damage
The horse doesn’t help at all though? It’s better to be on foot at all times
My biggest fear is what Elden Ring's massive success could/will mean for the future of FromSoft Souls games. Hundreds upon hundreds of hours in DS 1, 2 and 3 with many hundred more to come, yet I only barely managed to force myself to finish Elden Ring once...
I don’t mind honestly, I’ve spent well over 1000 hours in ds3 and I can keep playing it for the rest of my life lol. Just wish ds1 gets a remake like demon souls and I’d be fine if fromsoft never makes a game again
@@JaJaBi you know that dark souls 1 did get a remake
Its called dark souls remastered...
@@TC70 that’s not a remake, that’s a remaster, and I also clarified “like demons souls”.
@@JaJaBi that is also a remaster. Its just better graphics and newer modern features.
@@TC70 no it’s not. A remaster is when you take the old game and make it better, a remake is when you remake an old game from the ground up.
I have a friend who compulsively reads every wiki and meta resource for every game and implements "best practices." I prefer to play games for the surprises and experimentation. Co-op with him became insufferable, so we haven't bothered in years. The mindset is so radically different that it's not even the same hobby.
Holy shit, i have the same kind of person on my MP-Team. "Why are you doing this????" "Its fun!" "BUT IT IS NOT EFFICENT!"
I hate that, and it's sad it happens
@@Phex1 Just last week, I was playing PSO2NGS then a person in our guild told the guild chat that he's making a tank build, then here came the "meta players" that are saying playing tank is useless. To make the other member not feel bad, I told him that I, too, use a tank build that is so thicc that I can take 4-6 hits from an Ancient (the strongest enemy in the game) where most players die in 1 or 2 hits. Those meta players then told me that it's stupid because players hit enemies more often than getting hit by enemies. IDK about them but because of my build, I am able to solo Ancients but when they learned that I use a tank build, they immediately think that my DPS is low (it's not the case tho. I still hit harder than others) so they stopped inviting me to join party quests. I'm planning to leave the group once I find a better one to join. I'm playing the game to roleplay and to have fun but "meta players" are just ruining my time. I muted the guild chat so I can play in peace. Fk those guys.
someone needs to work in this world, glad there's better candidate than me
sounds like the kind of person who will make their boss happy, so maybe should try finding a job instead of playing videogames
Yeah your friend doesn't deserve to play games, imagine being that way, I know I can't. Letting guides and wikis play a game for you before you've played it for yourself is a insult to the devs.
While I agree about your overall point about people relying on wikis and things like that as guides I don't really agree with using Ranni's ending as an example of it. Her quest is by far the easiest to find and complete because the odds that someone just finishes Caria Manor, (a pretty big landmark in the area that most people will see and go to) turn around and leave instead of going forward and meeting Ranni is really low. Since for most of her quest she's just sitting in her tower you don't have the problem most other quests have of the npc just going to some random point on the map without any indication. The only part I can reasonably see people having trouble with if they're paying attention is the part where you need to kill the shadow in the area connecting Noskella and the Lake of Rot, because Ranni only tells you what to do once and if you talk to her again after she basically says "I said something I shouldn't have, pretend you heard nothing". I got Rannis ending in my first playthrough without looking anything up and I think implying that just because more people got that ending than the default most of those people looked it up is a bit unfair. I want to reiterate though I do agree with the overall point of people relying on wikis and guides too much.
Yeah, I agree. The video was really good overall, but on my blind playthrough literally the only questline I managed to complete was Ranni's, and honestly, that was reason enough for me to choose her ending: She was literally the only thing that connected me to the story of the game. For the most part they told you how to continue her quest and the progression was logical.
Ditto with Ranni's ending being the most apparent. I have no idea how or why he attacked Blaidd.
Yeah, agreed. Ranni's quest is the part of this game that I truly enjoyed. It is well telegraphed - npcs give you clear objectives and either stay in the same place or tell you where they are going next. Apart from that this was probably the only part of Elden Ring that was coherent narratively. Most of the game story is a disjointed mess. Every area has a theme which does not connect with others and is never used elsewhere. Limgrave - grafting, Liurnia - moon, Caelid - rot, Volcano Manor - blasphemy, Leyndell - glowing tree, Mountaintops of the giants - nothing, Haligtree - Malenia, Mohg's Palace - blood, for some reason, Farum Azula - random "here be dragons". Ranni's quest was the only thing that managed to span multiple locations and make a goddamn sense. You're helping a sorceress, escape the clutches of fate forced on her by Two Fingers. It manages to incorporate cosmology of Lands Between, Radahn, Golden Order, Black Knifes and living death into one coherent story. And then it branches out into Fia's quest.
Honestly that's the only part of Elden Ring that is genuinely good, apart from level desing of some legacy dungeons.
The fact you have to talk to the doll *3 times* in a very specific grace kinda negates your point. I fucking adore this game, but ridiculously cryptic questline steps and scattered lore as primary mean to storytelling in an open world where there's no specific order to do things makes things pretty messy.
60 hours in I have absolutely no idea what's going on, what npcs talk about even if I listen to every conversation and read every item description ingame. I didn't have this problem with demon souls or bloodborne, for example.
@@Quester91 Not really because pretty much every single Fromsoft NPC has exactly 3 lines. You only miss Rannis questline if you miss the talk option.
My personal gripe with the community at large is their inability to take criticism of the games. If you make nay observation, complaint, or criticism they're just toxic and call you casual and to git gud. Which I feel is exactly why ER is the way it is. A lot of strange and poor game design choices were made because the loudest part of the community never addresses what is wrong with these games
My biggest issue with the game are the side quests. I don't mind not having a quest log to follow but it's literally impossible not to miss quests or mess others up by progressing too far without a guide and even with a guide it's still convoluted.
That was my biggest complaint as well. There's questlines you have to speak to an npc that was never involved or mentioned in order to continue the questline that's located across the world. You could never know how to advance a lot of them without help from online. For an open world game, it's pretty frustrating. Other than that though the games amazing.
That's because it was meant to be played multiple times.
The game was a let down, the side quests were terrible along with gameplay. Its why forbidden west and god of war ragnarok is better
@@yaldabaothofgalar2618 How many times do you have to play the game before you figure out every side quest without using any guides? A lot of times I'm guessing.
@@yaldabaothofgalar2618 playing elden ring more than once is insufferable, repeat playthroughs suck
I started as a strength build too, as I've always done with older all souls games. And by mid game I've been made to realize that jump attacks are just too strong not to utilize... but they're just too boring in terms of playstyle. There's just so little opportunity that you can smack a boss and not die, and this is especially harder to come by with how slow strength-based weapons tend to be. Even if you stack HP and armor so you can take a hit or two as you attack, bosses or even regular mobs in the late game just hit too hard and will melt you.
That’s why you actually strategize in the game.
same same.
i love UGS and solo'ing in all of souls games ( Not for bragging rights or purists reasons, i just enjoy the anticipation of slow heavy swings and like the impactful animation, but poking at boss with toothpicks utlntill it suddenly falls and d^es seems boring to me)
jump attacks are too effective, but the animation looks so lanky and boring. so i totally ignored it and i totally forgot about jump attacks until malenia cuz it is almost required if u are trying to posture break her, but jump atks just feel like lameplay
@@btchiaintkidding7837 "poking at boss with toothpicks untill it suddenly falls and dies" lol😂 this gave me really funny images in my head
my mans it's 50x better than the light spam in other dark souls games, plus nearly every boss in the game has openings for the more effective charge heavy
Attacks in older souls games had very little variety in comparison. Spam light because the damage build up on strong attacks isn't worth the risk and slowness. Elden ring has a ton of ways to attack; use jump attacks to avoid sweeps, crouch and poke to avoid horizontal attacks, guard counter/strong attack and thrown items for posture breaking, powerstancing for speed and extra damage...
The game wants you to use all the tools it gives you to CREATE opportunities to deal damage. People don't seem to see it as a problem in games like GoW - why is it a problem here?
"Disappointed that the lessons Fromsoft is likely to learn from this are the wrong ones" is the exact reason I begrudge the metacritic score and the blind loyalty of Fromsoft git guds. Have fun fighting Melania clones 30 times in the next game.
Oh no....people like a game....the horror...
@@frogglen6350 nothing wrong with liking the game. Elden ring is a great game with a handful of fatal flaws that will become prevalent in future from soft games if no one is willing to point them out. I don't want to deal with waterfowl dance again nor do I want to deal with combos that require my melee only character to have to roll more than five times in varying tempos to finally get a chance to counter attack. My hope is from soft balances things out a little better on their next outing. To quote the video "at what point does hard become too hard"?
@@jwilliam6743 And this is precisely why Team Ninja is my new friend now.
After the 60th hour of Elden ring, i was just... done, while at the same time im clocking almost 180 hours in Nioh 2(with 4 new game+'s and now working my way through the end game content).
The reason why is quite simple:
The game just gives me more tools to deal with bosses, and many of these tools are usually perfectly viable.
It doesn't matter what weapon you use, as long as you practice the core mechanics of the game(which are all crucial compared to the 'Guard counter' that i only ever used once)
you will be able to make basically any weapon, or magic style or w/e work.
And yes some might feel slower, however if you enjoy it, just play it and you'll be completely fine.
@@itIsSpite bro people can say all they want about how they'll think Nioh 2 is easy (even though it's literally not going to be in any shape form or way)but when the actual game starts they'll be limping back to Elden ring. Heck people crying about Malenia have no Idea about the creature mission that Team Ninja actually incorporated into the game and named it "The Dragon Clan" fuck Ren and his Old school methods.
Ya, I can already tell, no one will be enthralled with the sequel. It all will be more of the same and even git guds will git lost. Or if not, their minority will remain the only ones forming a jerk circle around it lol
how do People have the patience to try defeat bosses for HOURS? id be annoyed and do something else after trying for 30 mins at the most
O&S from DS1 took me what felt like a month, I was eleven, I remember it.
@@facundovera3227 ah yes. i remember how i got DS1 and played it at a Friends place thinking it was going to be a adventure game ala elder scrolls Oblivion. we got Stuck at some boss and we looked at eachother and at the same time said "this game is bs. lets play something else" and we never touched it again.
"Just quit your job, be homeless!"
- Cilvanis
@@professorkatze1123that’s your fault, not the game’s
The reason people stick to these fights is that after those 30 minutes have passed, they can feel that they are tangibly closer to beating the boss. They’ll understand how to avoid certain attacks, when to get in counterattacks, and how to exploit weaknesses. Beating these bosses feels like an accomplishment because the time invested directly translates to competence at the game.
Also, they’re not all hour-long ordeals, it’s mostly just the major bosses. There’s always a few Pinwheels or Soldiers of Godrick thrown in.
Malenia was the first boss in the whole series to make me stop, analyze my life choices, and realize that beating a hard boss in a video game clearly wasn't worth hours upon hours of torment.
I think she took me... 22-23 tries pre patch. And that was using everything at my disposal, Mimic tear, spells, buffs, frostbite. It's only been 1-3 tries on every subsequent playthrough, but they really messed up with that Waterfowl dance. She'd have easily been the hardest boss in the game without that still. I honestly wish they'd used the previous animation without the wild tracking.
I think I can count on one hand how many times I've successful dodged all of that attack.
She really was the first boss I'd say it wasn't a fair fight. Even for how hard Gael, O&S, and Sister Friede were, I'd still say they were absolutely fair fights. Only boss to push that envelope was Orphan of Kos, who you could just outpower if you grinded bloodgems.
@@Frostman411 I felt that way with Mohg, the first boss that had a truly unavoidable attack felt like a betrayal after the no hit community was keeping the older games alive
If it took you hours upon hours, that's a you problem big guy
@@BasedHyperborean using magic is forbidden in this house hold
skill issue
Not a single curse word uttered and yet I feel your pain with Malenia so hard dude. I haven't even played Elden Ring but your account gave me some very unwelcome flashbacks to some of the toughest bosses I've encountered in games.
Grow some Balls Nancy.
First boss that ever made me feel I’d built my character wrong…
I typically don’t comment but god damn margit beat my ass so hard I had to restart and go from vagabond to samurai.
@@AnimeOtaku56. lmao I just dual wielded Uchintaga started samurai and picked up the second one and upgraded the bleed dmg really strong
@@AnimeOtaku56. Sounds like a skill issue. Margit is definitely the hardest first boss in any souls game but you don't need bleed to beat him.
@@OriginalDizzleKing Bro 💀. That’s what I said. There was simply a lack of skill and I switched classes because of it.
@@AnimeOtaku56. My bad thought you were implying that the game is unplayable without bleed or something. Seen that take before
This comment section is honestly just reinforcing my notion that Elden Ring players are the most insecure people ever, so desperate for any form of accomplishment that they build their entire personality around a video game
this and Joseph Andersen’s video
Yeah that’s like 80% of Fromsoft players. These are the people that shit and piss themselves over summons and magic being “too easy” and then have a strength jump stagger build but they’re playing the game “how it’s supposed to be played” so it’s totally cool and they’re better than you 🤑
Criticising bad criticism = insecure.
Alright man, there’s no reasoning with people like you.
@Stanzbey69 and where is this bad criticism? Cause all I'm hearing are valid complaints that were STILL not addressed in the dlc
@@GageOnFire The guy complained that Margit was difficult because he refused to explore that already shows me he is coming with the wrong mindset
I replayed Majora's Mask recently and was delighted by the amount of content and creativity crammed in such a small game. It has to do with the limitations of the time but to me it's better to have a small world that feels like it's bursting with cool ideas than a ginormous one littered with repetition.
I personally believe that a open world game doesn´t need to be less enjoyable than a linear one, always that is done right of course.
I personally had a blast with BoTW and his sequel but because even in their somewhat repetition I could do whatever I want , in the moment I want, at the pace I want. You could beat the game in 20 or 100 hours.
And almost every area felt equally relevant as all have something to offer me independently of how much I advance.
A lot of people says that "Hmm, ER should had been like Dark Souls", but shouldn´t be more like BotW in that aspect? Isn´t ER an open world game, after all?
@@JoseViktor4099 We all have different view about what dark souls his
For me it's the constant fear of dying because everything can kill you when you explore, in elden ring it's not the case at all since you spend most of your time running on your mount like an idiot instead of really exploring, you just travel in a big map without noticeable thing ( i've explored 100 % of the map and it felt like i was losing my time doing this)
For me it's fair bosses, elden ring didn't have that too most of them have unreadable move ,or hitbox who stay so long you can't even roll you have to flee
The summons were bad idea too bosses are not made to fight multiple ennemies
You're too overpowered because a lot of weapon had ashes of war who can destroy almost everything
Magic again is too powerfull against most bosses like the old games ( except DS3)
The reuse of bosses was really too much for me , if i want to farm bosses i can play monster hunter, i'm not here for that in dark souls, each boss should feel unique ( i can accept the 2nd gundyr in DS3 because it's a really different fight, and probably one of the best in the game)
Elden ring is a good game, but it's probably my least favorite souls with DS2, and it's the only souls i've never replayed even tho i've done most of them at least 10 times( DS2 2 times, DS3 probably 70 times because i've speedrun it )
We can't agree with open world, i find them boring most of the time
The game want you to explore boring shit
An open world can't be as well made as a linear game because it's too big, it's simple logic
Quantity over quality, that's what open world are ( even botw suffer from that, sanctuary are boring, koroks are boring as fuck and most of the time you discover nothing relevant in the game )
@@Elyakel They way of how you say it, seems that you simply don´t like the open world concept, as (correct me if im wrong) you find it boring and without an stablished progression. Thus, would be no wonder that you didn´t enjoyed nearly as much as me.
Bosses are a completely diferent thing and im not want to argue about that (but if you ask me, I enjoy the design and that they do more stuff, no offense)
Coming back to the open world, I have my own set of issues, that at the end of the game ER doesn´t give much freedom or rather is a big and mostly empty area with a poor point of interest placement (really you can find 3 bosses in the spam of 1 minute what??)
My biggest gripe being how abuse of stadistics in the endgame, is based on a formula but all spikes when the game dont acknoledge that theres a soft cap for vigor.
Apart of that? I enjoyed ER a lot, I played all of previous games and I liked this point of view, if you didn´t, well sorry.
Btw did you know that magic is not *that* good in ER? You need like 300 buffs in order to do that oneshotting some videos implies.
@JoseViktor4099 for magic i know i've tried some but you can still do a lot of damage before the boss came to you it's not " broken" if you dont play Meta but it's still strong enough to midlife some bosses before they're near you
Yeah i'm not an open world fan , i find them really boring most of the time , most of them are just here to make you losing time ,elden ring was alright in this aspect , he just lack " new " thing to do , most of them were similar
I hate doing the same thing but open world like to reuse thing A LOT
I don't have a problem for bosses doing a lot of thing , i just want to stay close and use my knowledge to evade them , but most of the time you can't, because the game want you to flee on lot of move ( margit is one of my favorite boss in the game , but i can't say he is a well made boss.Margit for example can punish you because you tried to punish him at the end of some combo, you can't evade the full combo sword >double dagger > staff if you're too closed for example you have to flee or having a good position even before he start the combo, you don't have enough I frame )
Yeah the last part of the game was awfull once you reach the snowy mountain , it felt rush or the world was too big I don't know, the game needed at least one more year of development , it had too much problem day one , balance was awfull ,some quests didn't work
Like i said before the game is " quantity over quality " it's a fact ,not a criticism
I just hope the next game will have less flaw because elden should have been a masterpiece, but it's just a good game
@@Elyakel No problem, theres no issue if you don't enjoy how open world works.
It is true, after all, that im not nearly upset as others about repeating bosses and dungeons , I expected It and im glad that at least they put a great variety of them (like 80 diferent) but I get that fighting the Erdtree Avatar for 10th time is a bit tiring.
Apart of that, as I said , I enjoy It because I need to have an strategy of how they work, and how to manouver as well .ER abuses of slow attacks, but a lot of them you can use them at your favor, some of them are even freaking hidden windows somehow. Same with input reading and such. I felt like I was fighting against a real someone and not a piece of code waiting for doing his Next move, more like another player, you know?
My biggest gripe about them (and you could imagine) is the enemies stadistics in the endgame. No sense that a Lizard oneshots me by moving just because I am in the funny snowy mountain.
And for the Next FromSoft game? There are rumors , yes. About a game revolving Magic this time and ranged attacks (Armored Core like?) suposedly setted in a main interconnected area with the quality of ER legacy dungeons but with DS style and surrounded by an open world not as Big as ER one (like Caelid, Limgrave and Liurnia together size)
Again, this is just a rumor, but is a rumor that got a lot of attention lately, maybe its true.
One problem that I always find myself encountering when starting a new game is that the difficulty at the beginning causes me to resort to using the most OP weapons and gear, which then makes the game too easy. Even if I intentionally go out of my way to NOT use OP spells at the beginning of the game, such as Dragonfire, I will still upgrade weapons to as high as possible as soon as possible which makes the early game a bit of a breeze, at which point I feel like I'm just repeating content with no added challenge.
The beginning difficulty is the only part that is well tuned. The second half of the game is where op items become necessary for most
@@PointlesslyNecessaryConvos I just have a habit of starting with Uchigatana and hitting the mines right off the bat for the smithing stones and a few other places, always shreds bosses until like lvl 40 or so. Maybe it's my fault for doing that and ruining the difficulty though.
@@GlassesAndCoffeeMugs Well heres your problem. I just started again and using Uchigatana but sticking to the "recommended levels"-guide (for instance, +4 weapon and up to lvl40 @ Godrick) and I've been having an absolute blast. I also switch weapons around a lot due to that capping mechanic and getting way too many smithing stones.
But this is nothing new in souls series. All previous games also have been total ezmodes if you went for the easy options. Limit yourself and the challenge stays.
@@Gretstarret Yeah… I dunno…
I’m still on my first play through (I didn’t by the game when it first came out or anything so it’s like it’s taken me 5 months to get where I’m at) because I don’t have a crazy amount of time to play but I never went out of my way to level and honestly haven’t even used my runes unless I’m a couple thousand away from a new level and I don’t trust myself to remember to remember that I didn’t put the elevator back up and I’ll run off the ledge and lose my shit. Not using spells or incantations. Not using bleed really (I sometimes double poleblade and my other one is Elora’s but that’s as far as I go), though I do dip into cold from time to time. Not optimizing weapons and stats and just playing what I want to use (so right now I have dual Magma Blades which honestly didn’t take more than 30 mins to get 2 of them and a Magma Wyrm’s Scalesword). Not using summons or ashes.
I’m just not finding this game very difficult. I can’t imagine people pumping their power up and trying to use the most broken weapons and mechanics. It would seem like a snoozefest I could imagine.
they basically designed the game to force people to respec and try different builds, when in the other souls games you can keep the same playstyle the whole way through. all of the nerfs and buffs they have done supports this as well, they basically just nerfed whatever the speed runners were using for like 5 patches in a row now.
"So clearly players get great enjoyment from meta gaming, and I think that's fine. What I don't think is fine is creating a difficulty so high that players who don't want to play this way feel forced to", couldn't have explained it better myself. I love Elden Ring, it's my 2nd most played game on Steam. But I agree with that the difficulty is way too high. In some cases, especially the end game, it felt like they were trying to outdo what they've done before and as a result, Elden Ring is hard for all the wrong reasons. Bloodborne and Sekiro's enemy and boss aggression makes sense to me, because there's design tools around it. In Elden Ring, it feels like there's nothing of the sort. And if there is, it's not communicated to the player very well, if at all.
coming back after the expansion and this holds up so well, the meta segment aged beautifully
I'm helping others with Messmer and Radahn and most of the hosts I see now use a big ass shield and they don't even bother to roll anymore or they spam the same spell( especially the scadutree thorn incantation) constantly without engaging with the boss up close at all.
@@angel17891 Jesus what a sad time to be a souls fan, at least souls-likes are half decent now with Lies of P and Lords of the Fallen
1:36:30 this is so funny to me because Ranni's quest was just Blaidd's quest to me on my first playthrough. I was just doing things for her cause it meant I got to hang out with Blaidd more. It didn't even click to me that the whole ring bit was us proposing to/marrying her cause i was like "oh this must be like a magic ring or whatever that she needs for some reason." Litteraly only sided with her cause it meant more time with Blaidd lmao
I really liked Blaidd too and I was disappointed his questline turned into Ranni's questline.
@@nugsboodlepoo his ‘questline’ is literally all about Ranni. She is a demigod and Blaidd was basically created by her two fingers as her vassal to be loyal to her and protect her etc. She killed her two fingers and strayed from the path of becoming Marika’s replacement so he was essentially ‘programmed’ by her two fingers to go mad if she went against the greater will. That’s why Iji jails him, that’s why we kill his shadow, and ultimately kill him because he went mad and attacked us.
Same and then the game takes the reason it all started away from you.
I mean I like Blaidd but I love Ranni. Blaidd loses his mind because of a bad drug addiction or something so definitely not a good influence on our tarnished, I also heard he kicks it with some really shady characters down under the bridge that leads to gurranq, Marika knows what they do down there, I've heard some awful stories. The worst of which was blaidd was broke down and out he had already sold everything he could sell so he resorted to sexual favors for dung eater for hits of Goldy locks ( that's a drug made by fermenting gold tinged excrement).. You don't even want to know what this stuff does to a man. I heard omens in the shunning grounds make the good stuff and last week I had gone down there to look for my mom's ring that fell down the kitchen sink and wouldn't you know it, there's blaidd sucking omen D#&K for the stuff.🤮. It's a real shame he was a good kid. But now you'll want to cross the road if you see blaidd coming.last week I was walking with a friend of mine and blaidd was like " come on man I only need 5 runes bro I'll Suck your D," get out of here junkie, I told him. Then me and my friend laughed. I felt guilty cause you could really see the shame in his eyes.
@@Kasunex then you didn’t pay attention to the storyline. It was never about Blaidd to begin with.
It's honestly funny to me hearing all the people say "I played the game blind too" as if playing a game without looking at a guide is weird. to me if a game needs a guide then it's bad game design
Which is why I like Witcher 3, AC Odyssey, Kingdoms of Amalur and Harizon. I don't need a guide. I can just play the game.
This is one of the most popular and difficult from soft games of course people are gonna make guides and of course the fans are gonna look for them. You do not need a guide at all to beat elden ring but of course they’re going to exist just like any other game
@@dundundundundundun6589completing elden ring w/o a guide as a normal person w a career would just be a chore, taking the fun out of gaming with hours of guesswork
There’s isn’t a single game in the world that requires an external guide to play. But it’s a curious thing that pretty much every single has one. Also I’m not sure if youve been to a book store but game companies sell paper back and hard pack 100% in depth guides for the people that are interested in it. This idea that “a game that needs a guide is a bad game” seems to me very close minded to the broader reality at hand.
Or you are just a lazy gamer...
The lack of a player marker already exists in numerous games though, granted they are indie games or AA. The most recent one I’ve played that I can think of was Outward which, while not perfect, was only made by 10 people and is damn fine.
Outward is great fun, and you can play it Co-op!
The dlc just proves this video right
Not really
yes really
Yep, I legit love the lore of this game, much more than I ever did the dark souls trilogy.. but bosses deal far too much damage in one hit, they ALL have some hard-hitting AOE, and it’s virtually impossible (save for rng/luck) to heal even once during a fight
@@icedcoffee5755literal skill issue plenty of openings never had this issue
git gud
I liked the story critique a fair bit because I felt this was the least I ever cared about a "Souls" narrative and lore. I got the Frenzied Flame ending because stumbled across it and the maiden traveling with us (I have now forgotten her name) never gave me a reason to care about her intentions. In fact, I didn't know them. I wanted to finish Ranni's questline but it's basically impossible without a guide. And I found Fia, but didn't know how to conclude hers either. Elden Ring really feels like it did a lot of things just because older games did, without understanding why they worked in context. And the game's lore might be vast, but there's nothing compelling me to engage with it. Also, nothing told me the three fingers were just going to hug me when I found them, and I would be locked into that ending. But in the end, the world gave me very little reason to even care about it, so I didn't, and when my character suddenly burned it all down, I didn't even feel remorse. Which is a shame, because I feel like I was supposed to.
The story is good af it’s just the storytelling isn’t good
@@mymousebroke8258 That's a crucial part of a story...
Skill issue.
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon
yeah but what i meant is below surface level if you try to get more info on the story it’s very good, it’s just that FS didn’t do very great with the storytelling
They worked the exact same way in the older games though.. At least for me, almost every fromsoft quest has required a guide. It seems like you either are okay with that or aren't, idk what about an open world changes it.
"I have seen the meta destroy entire genres" yup RTS and fighting games, nowadays even their campaign/story modes are programmed to be played in a competitive multiplayer way.
So much this
You’re wack. Blood borne is way better than this shit. From software is going against their core values. Quality. The bosses are horribly designed and even the lore is worse in every way. I don’t understand you’re thoughts on this
Idk why you mentioned fighting games in this sentence.
How does meta destroy fighting games
Wow, you are really voicing almost all of my complaints about the game.
I’ve just started playing so I don’t wanna be too harsh.. but I’ve played BB and DS3 - those are my only introductions to souls games.. I knew going into them - but I sank into the games so easily - from the lore to the gameplay. This just has… no charm? The lore is super cool from what I’ve seen. But I’m spotting enemies from 100 metres away and it just feels off. It hasn’t grabbed me like the others did.
@@firstlast9846 same with me, I'm a longtime FromSoft fan but Elden Ring could've been so much more and unique because they marketed it as such, and the trailers made it look like not just my dream game but many others' as well. Elden Ring is proof that FromSoft are running out of ideas and the unique vision they once had. It's my most disappointing game of all time and definitely the most disappointing in recent years, when what they did was makng just another Dark Souls game with a couple of new mechanics, like all sequels do, but Elden Ring was never supposed to be a sequel to Dark Souls 3, it was supposed to be Elden Ring, but it only did sequel things with the Dark Souls series, the changes that Elden Ring made could've been made in a potential Dark Souls 4 as well. And no, just because it had new lore, is not enough and doesn't justify it being a new IP when Bloodborne and Sekiro were new IPs that also had different lore than Dark Souls, and yet they felt like actual new IPs, unlike Elden RIng. Gameplay is really what separates these games, but Elden Ring didn't bring anything new to the table that a Dark Souls 4 couldn't have done just as well, unlike Bloodborne and Sekiro.
@questionablezoomer764 - admittedly it has grown on me since writing the previous comment… but it still just doesn’t have whatever it was that pulled me into BB and DS and I can’t put my finger on it. I loved walking around Stormveil Castle cos it felt like FS game - but again - idk it’s beyond aesthetics I just don’t know why this feels off for me.
@@davidborned your idea of them running out of ideas is the fact they didn't make the same game they make every time?
@@firstlast9846What's the problem with spotting enemies 100 meters away anyway? That's supposed to be a good thing because of the anticipation.
This video is bang on and the fact that it has gotten 10k dislikes shows that people will defend their favourite toy and never find faults in it. I have a few friends who are like this and they are insufferable.
Edit: lol 14 likes on a comment on a 2 ywar old vid. People are defo cheesed off at the dlc like me 🤣🤣🤣
Just here to say that the dislike extension is an estimate based off of the people who have it, which is often innacurate
This analysis has made me realize why I get low key annoyed when I see bleed and magic builds that obliterate bosses. It's because the lack of balance between builds rewards metachasers and doesn't allow a fair discussion on boss experiences. Mohg took me over 200 attempts, and when I posted the clear to Reddit, people were saying my struggle was my fault for using the Grafted Greatblade since it can't be made to be broken. On the other hand, I am thankful I didn't min/max my build. It would have diminished my extremely satisfying progression with learning his fight. Plus, I love the look of the Greatblade, and it was important to me that I beat him with that weapon.
Thanks for helping me understand exactly why this bothered me.
Tbh the only issue with heavy weapons in er is there are a lot less windows to punish bosses, especially later, leading to spamming jump attacks being the only effective choice for UGS's, a very effective method at that. Good, but bland
Totally agree, It seems although the devs don’t want the game like this either, but are just really incompetent at making it balanced due to recent patches, but I just hate how the reddit community ACTUALLY wants this, like literally any other gaming community would say that the way balance is in Elden ring is dog shit. I actually can’t believe that the redditors of elden ring think that there should be massive weapon and ability imbalance for the sake of players making their own difficulty rather than just adding a difficulty slider. And when this dog shit way of thinking gets called out, they literally only can say “It’s always been like that” like wtf, just because something has always been around doesn’t make it good, do I have to name the many historical examples of this. Like what if you actually want to be a duel wielding samurai blood build but not have the game be easy mode, or what if you want to use daggers but not have the game be a nightmare. This is stupid ESPECIALLY for an rpg where the whole point is the freedom you have to build your character how you want, which shouldn’t make you significantly stronger or weaker by playing a traditional role that you like to play. It’s ridiculous for an rpg to force you to play only a certain playstyle or role to actually have fun or be practical, it just shows how redditors and other social media users definitely not the average casual player base for games.
200? I think you’re just bad brother
@@llab3903 wash your face
@@llab3903 Oh jeez, maybe one day I can be as good at games as you and maybe my dick won’t be so little. 😥
Good job defeating Malenia cheater of Miquella, its known now that she cheats by not only ignoring animations to block attacks but even will pull out of a stagger strait into her water fowl to prevent being stagger locked.
Filtered
get gud tbh
@@brojakmate9872 souls fanboys have gotten so bad that they just ignore bad game design out of the sake of dicksucking competition for fromsoft.
imagine if people like you existed for DS1 and where defending bed of chaos. absolutely pathetic manchild shit
also her healing breaks every rule fromsoft ever had for any of their games
Hey! I didn't do Ranni's ending first because I'm a simp. I just ended up going all the way through Nokron and the Ainsel river during my first playthrough and didn't want to do it all again because it was a lot of work and ants. Burning everything to the ground was much more satisfying and more my style.
It's unfortunate that I had to use a walk-through for almost every sidequest though. It really ruined one of my favorite parts of open world games. I don't need a ridiculous amount of handholding, but I would appreciate some form of in game hints or some way to take notes about where an npc is headed (when they actually disclose such information). I didn't enjoy the game enough to play it 40 times in hopes I'll eventually find and do every side quest correctly. That's why quest design is at the top of my personal complaints for the game. Story and the way side quests are presented could use a good amount of work to make them more of a fun discovery and less of a confusing, missable mess.
You could argue they’re supposed to be missable. It’s almost impossible to find every single thing in the game blindly, kinda similar to games like Hollow Knight. It makes finding those easily missable things really exciting, at least for me, after putting 80 or 100 hours into a game and thinking I’d already discovered everything. But on the other hand, for a completionist like me, it can also get pretty stressful trying to find everything at times. I guess it being worthwhile just depends on how much an individual loves that particular game. I love Hollow Knight and Elden Ring, so for me it’s worth it to sink 150 hours into them and search for every little secret and sidequest.
yea trying to keep track of the quests was fucking awful, they didn't need to give me map markers or anything but I would have at least liked some kind of journal where what quests I had taken on would be listed and some details about it that I have gathered so far and get updated as the quest progresses. Having just that would make the quests much easier to deal with
@@Saltbreather I think what makes elden ring's quest design less enjoyable for me is that quests aren't just missable, but can be completely gone if you progress too far in other seemingly unrelated parts of the game. I wouldn't mind not finding everything right away or spending time to find them later, but that's not always an option. So without any guidance it can become tedious to screw up a side quest and not be able to try again unless you start the game over possibly more than a handful of times. I'm not a big fan of new game plus and feel like I'm abandoning everything I built up to and would like to 100% everything in one playthrough even if said playthrough is 500+ hours (like my first skyrim save). It's just kind of immersion breaking for me to spend 160+ hours on a character and build just to be told at the 5th from the last boss that most quests are cut off now and you'll have to start over and pretend like none of your progress ever happened if you want to see it all. Heck, I didn't even find Jarburg until after I killed a certain someone. That really backed up the quest dialogue with Jar-Bairn and made the whole thing seem pointless. It was definitely a ruined quest in terms of pacing and maybe could have been avoided if Alexander was less vague about where Jarburg was or something (I'm aware it's supposed to be a hidden village, but I should have some special treatment as the protagonist haha).
@@darkmajick Quests failing if you progress too much makes sense, though. It's a living breathing world.
@@ecksluss theoretically though i imagine that if they’re building this game to be enjoyed by the players you’d think they’d want you to actually be able to experience the storylines they put in rather than just miss them because it’s “realistic”. might as well not even play the game and just go outside at that point
"Elden Ring uses vagueness not to serve its story but as a mask to hide behind." Killer line that sums up how I've felt about the story. It's story says nothing, and it means nothing.
We didn’t play the same game then lmfao
Isnt meaning more so derived by the audience from the work itself? To me Elden Ring basically means it is to create a way of your own morals and values, your ambitions, and the principles you would follow. To know this, one would have to venture along the Lands Between, fighting monstrosity after monstrosity, facing the Demigods themselves. Learning of Marika's Folly, the Fingers that deceived her, and the Greater Will that imprisoned her. To know every suffering, every sin, every curse. And from that, build upon the age you would offer to the world. Its essentially a journey to enlightenment, stretched, morphed, and colored into the style of a souls game. Sure its just a game, and it shouldn't really have any real affect on how one may choose to approach life. But maybe it serves as an example, a story that tackles many ideas and leaves it upon the audience to ponder further. Atleast that's what I got from the game.
I liked reading alot of the item descriptions and npc dialogues, was cool piecing them together
@@thekaelixchamber totally OK if you derived meaning from the story as I'm not here to hate on others experiences or interpretations. But my personal experience with the story is similar to Never's. There is no core emotional center of the story. Not on Marika's side, not on the players side. You don't actually get clarification on why you want to be Elden Lord or even what Marika wants from you (you get like 3-4 different theories from the game said by different NPCs). So if you can't definitely say why you're even doing what you're doing I'd argue the story failed at the most basic level.. I held out hope the DLC would shine a bit more light on the story and bring the individual lore bits together to make it more cohesive but they actually went in the opposite direction by introducing new bits that they never bothered to foreshadow in the base game. It leaves the overall story feeling less planned out and more "throwing stuff at a wall to see if it sticks"
To me, Elden Rings story is comprised of really cool background lore that mostly does not serve the main story. For example, The game doesn't even acknowledge the player getting all Demi-God runes if you go out of your way to collect them all. Getting 1 Rune is the same as getting all of them.
@@shadowSquall1 Ahh I see your point... I'm guessing its my type of people that Fromsoft is attempting to cater to? lol
Those who derive their own meaning from their own journey without really thinking too much of it.
I would assume one's reasons for becoming Elden Lord is because of the world presented to them, its fractured. Everyone is warring against each other, there's so much bad blood and so much history. Marika is essentially asking us to fix it. But why should we? Well for one, you bought this game and you sure as hell gonna get your 40 dollars worth. Second, there not really a reason other than inherent morals I guess, wouldn't you wann be that hero who unites the world? And third, lets say this game was free. There's nothing really stopping you from just not doing it, just like Dark Souls I assume one would just become a hollow if you quit... but there's no such thing is there? Hmm...
Your criticism of the story is spot on and is likely the reason why, in successive playthroughs, I decided my characters aren’t interested in becoming Elden Lord. They’re more interested in exploring or treasure hunting or invading. They might have been sent to the Lands Between but what they do once they’re there is up to them. I still haven’t done the Elden Lord ending because, as you say, what’s the point?
That's kinda the point of the story. Not all tarnished wanna be elden lord. They have their own motivations.
@@MrFRNTIK For other Tarnished NPC’s perhaps, but not for you as the protagonist. Most people’s first boss encounter Margit speaks of your “ambition” like it’s pre-ordained and almost everyone you interact with seems to know that’s what your specific end goal is without question.
It’s not like you can say to any of these bosses “oh, I couldn’t give a shit about the throne, I’m just here to loot so, if you don’t mind…”
Edit: this is also why Ranni’s ending is my favoured one. It’s interesting because you achieve something for the benefit of someone else rather than yourself.
@@alansquared maybe you meet Margit and realize that the throne isn't meant for you. Maybe you let go of your ambition. Like he tells you to.
@@MrFRNTIK maybe, until you meet him as Morgott and he’s still going on about it. Or when Gideon talks to you relentlessly about it. I mean, I’m not saying it’s bad to have a clear goal in mind but that the video’s criticism of the motivation given to players to achieve it is valid.
@@alansquared it's no different than skyrim constantly calling you the dragon born, destined to kill Alduin, when you can clearly go any direction you want and never touch the story. Fighting morgott at the throne means you're on the main story path so you shouldn't be surprised that you get some main story lines.
I LOVE the ending of this video lmao. HUGS MATTER.
I played blind and had a good time but my biggest problem was that every boss fight feels like an exercise in brute forcing over actually learning and improving.
I ended up using dual pickaxes which ended up being pretty op despite being so off meta. Also I used the Pumpkin head ash once and a while who I loved
Get gud
Elden Ring's a tough one for me to put into words. I love the spells and weapons, however, I felt like I couldn't experiment as much, since there are so many stats and resources required to test one out effectively. I love how open the map is, but it feels either too easy or too hard unless you travel a very unintuitive path. I like the little dungeons that dot the land, but fighting ten Erdtree Spirits never feels fun. Its got the neatest character designs, but they all retread the same stories we've been playing for about a decade. Everything I love about it has an asterisk.
If it was 50% shorter it would be 100% better.
There was entirely too many pointless dungeons. It keeps me from playing the game again because I just dont want to explore and I dont want to look up which three dungeons i need of the over 100 useless onea
@BrandonDenny-we1rw thank God none of you run from software.. I played the entire game 10 times with different builds every time and it gives you incredible freedom to do what you want, when you want and how you want and you can never have the same run through twice! It's literally the goat!
@@natea4828 Entitled ego much?
The game was full of pointless dungeons and rewards. Brainless simp all you want I actually want the games to get better over time not worse
@@BrandonDenny-we1rw Sadly I'm having the same opinion. Elden Ring is the first From Software game that I felt unmotivated to play a second time. It's because two reasons:
1) Pointless dungeons and areas;
2) Unbalanced bosses.
Everytime I thought about starting a second playthrough, I remember a bunch of dungeons that only gives summons at end, so I'll have to watch videos to avoid and all of that just to fight unbalanced bosses.
@@BasicLand-Swamp Its why Im waiting for the dlc then making a new character and looking up all the exact places and items i need for my build doing the dlc then sadly yeah. Not playing it again because of your 2 points exactly.
What I find incredily annoying is the fromsoft fan base seems to have split into 3 camps when it comes to the difficulty.
Camp 1 just insists you get good and refuses to elaborate further.
Camp two insists you have no right to complained about difficulty, because you can just explore and spirts are so op.
And camp 3 thinks the game is too hard to the point it makes the game unenjoyable. The way camps 1 and 2 treat members of camp 3 is horrible, insisting there opinions don’t matter and they are just winers who suck at the game (which some are) I loved elden ring, but this dlc just feels too difficult. I enjoyed my experiences with Sekiro and ds3 much better
I'm so sowry, I'd offer flowers if I could find them.
It's not fun either way imo. I did the whole game with dlc solo and was frustrated the whole time (unlike other fromsoft games), and summons simply make the fight too easy to the point that it's not even a challenge.
@@basselahmed2089 why did u do it if u didnt enjoy it? Let other people have fun.
@karlmihkelkask4021 im not telling people not to have fun im just stating my opinion about this game. I did it to prove to myself that i can beat it tbh 😂😂 but i really enjoyed games like bloodborne , dark souls 3, and sekiro way more.
Camp 3 is always insanely disengenuous though. It’s easily the worst of the 3. Camp 3 is a bunch of entitled brats who make 2 hour critiques full of misinformation. Like feeble king or joseph anderson. Pure engagement bait
There is and was a huge price to pay when they converted the souls formular to an open world. That´s the main problem with the game for me. I just vibe more with the smaller but way more intense design of Bloodborne, Dark Souls and even Sekiro.
Elden Ring didn't NEED to be open world. It could have been a semi-linear Metroidvania style that the previous games were, with the repeated catacombs, caves and mines serving as optional chalice dungeons accessed from the hub world. Problem is, it'd be exactly like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and reveal to the world that Fromsoft have no more new ideas, just the same shit over and over again.
@@MachineMan-mj4gj i learned a long time ago that trying to please everybody is a pointless endeavor but people usually have multiple problems with games. With elden ring, it's either just one or two problems that can either boil down to nitpicks or preferences. If elden ring went with areas divided with a hub, I'm sure most people will be content with it, as long as it's done well.
@@hazyworld8626 I don't see how, "the world is empty an monotonous," or "These bosses suck and aren't fun," are nitpicks. Seems more like a dealbreaker to me.
@@MachineMan-mj4gj Isn't the world supposed to be monotonous and near lifeless? Whether you love, like, don't like, hate the bosses is really up to you but the nitpicks and preferences point was meant for small things like the same riposte animations from DS3 or the UI. Like you said, the open world is lifeless (probably meant intentionally or just a trope like most open world games unless you're in a city) and there is repetition. I'm not saying the game is immune to criticism or hate, no game is. But this game is honestly one of the few that has not much criticism and you actually have to search for it.
ELden Ring game has actual important issues to fix, but most fans dont have the imagination to want it, or the intelligence to see that it is needed.
If people demanded those fixes i am sure they would be implemented by the developers.
Let's start with the major issue.
3 issues
1) *Hand of Malenia* weapon needs a rework, if we consider how hard it is to get compared to rivers of blood or any other Katana. Hand of Maleniasword is basically useless in the hand of the player.
*FIRST* of all it has a B scaling with dexterity ( if i remember correctly ) . Thats absurd, it should have A or S scaling .
*TWO;* Any boss or even a big enemy can simply hit you out of your attack animation. The damage is mediocre at best ( I don't consider silly videos with 10 buffs a good example ) the weapon has bad damage that's a fact.
*THREE:* Its weapon skill is useless, it doesn't gap close like it does when the boss is using it and again you can be HIT OUT of the attack animation ( unlike the boss )
i was so excited when i got that weapon only to find out that *Rivers of blood* and *moonveil* katana are way better.
Why make the bost badass wepon in the game with the most coolest attack skill so usless??? It needs to be ficed.
If they don't want to fix the damage, then at least do something about the fact that an enemy can hit you and your weapon skill animation just stops. Make it so that you can NOT be hit out of the weapon skill animation once you have activated it. You can take damage but you keep attacking.
And fix the gab closing. As it is now, you basically just dance on the same spot with some feet apart. It should travel a bigger distance if needed to get to the enemy that is focused or targeted.
________________________________________________
2) *Melee combat over all needs more variety.*
Katana weapons should have more hack and slash COMBO Ashes of Wars....
the big heavy swords should have impactful Ashes of Wars and also some unique SQUARE and TRIANGLE combos .
_________________________________________________
3) *Armor stats and LOOKs should matter more, especially heavy armor, if we consider the stamina investment you need to make to even wear it.* The protection armor gives to you should matter more.
And ARMOR LOOKS ...sorry but the games best heavy armor doesn't look that cool.
Same problem with the shield... the games best Shield is a STONE ...like wtf????? Who came up with this lame design and idea???
The games best shield should look BIG and EPIC... not lame and boring.
After beating Elden Ring, i returned to Sekiro for my 4th playthrough. What a breath of fresh air that was: the combat and the overall game balance is light years ahead of Elden Ring.
But there’s less build variety
Elden Ring is mixing Sekiro boss design with Dark Souls player's moveset.
Sekiro is From doing effectively the opposite of the other games which came before it to see if it works.
@@variantgamer9885 In ER there are two builds, one where you press the dodge button 17 times, then the attack button 1-3 times, repeat ad infinitum, and the one where you're just button mashing and hit trading because your build is so op. I've watched like two dozen ER challenge runs and all but the most exotic ones (like the thorns armor dodge only run or the one-shot all bosses run) all look different, but play identically. Sekiro's single build where you regularly attack, deflect, jump, dodge, grappling hook, mikiri, firecracker, mortal draw, and stealth as well as irregularly use some of the other abilities like umbrella, shuriken, spear, ichimonji, consumables, and some ninjutsu has more non-superficial variety than all of the builds in all other fromsoft games combined.
Everything about sekiro just feels so tight, it makes me wonder what they could do by giving other "builds" the same treatment; isolating them and fleshing out their strongest qualities. In other words, imagine if they made a game like sekiro but your character was a knight, or a mage! I really think thats the way forward for these games.
Let's imagine for a moment that Elden Ring _is_ supposed to be played with a summon. If that's the case, Elden Ring is a terribly designed game with Mindjack levels of broken AI. Is this seriously what the fans of this game want to claim: that From has AI programming abilities on par with the average Steam Greenlight submission?
(Edit: I’m not saying it’s wrong or invalid to summon but From clearly didn’t intend summoning to be a _requirement_ or if they did they screwed it up.)
THANK YOU this is a serious problem with the game. You either have to rely on exploiting obscure AI bugs to open attack windows or add another target through summoning or mimic tear, which boss AI still can't handle 12 years after Demon's Souls released. It's either rote memorization of specific strategies or eliminating any semblance of challenge altogether.
I just don't see what I'm supposed to get out of this combat system if it's going to be a boss rush most of the time.
This was a superb essay.
A lot of thought and consideration went into is construction, never mind all the editing and narration, thank you for all your hard work.
I’d been on the fence for the last year as to whether or not to buy ER, and nagging, intuitive voices inside my head kept telling me I’d find aspects to it all that’d make me sorry I committed.
I knew I’d find it beautiful and diverse, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d come away frustrated and mildly disappointed….your essay confirmed those feelings.
I’ve moved into an age now where I do not enjoy games that are capable of extreme frustration. One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed The Division 2, Enshrouded and Helldivers 2 is because I’m constantly having pure fun, frustration is not inherent in the design method.
FWIW, I’m glad games like ER and the Souls exist, there’s plenty of gamers out there that need and want this type of challenge, I just don’t happen to be one of them.
I really enjoyed the depth and consideration of your analysis, already Subbed, but gave you a big fat Like and I’m very much looking forward to so much more from your channel.
Elden Ring can be pretty smooth and non-frustrating as long as you play the game in certain ways, but extremely punishing if you dare to play in other unoptimised ways. The issue is that the game is an unbalanced mess that is an absolute nightmare to fine tune, but very easy to min-max to your liking. It can be pretty much a walk in the park if you're unbothered playing in a somewhat meta OP way and I think it would be a huge shame to miss this amazing experience if you're actually willing to go that route. However if you're looking for the curated challenge Souls game typically offer or hate the idea of playing the game the way it very much wants you to play and follow the meta or a guide for builds and sidequests, this is indeed probably not a game for you.
I thought I would hate this video but you actually make great points. Recently whenever I play multiplayer games with my friends they kept telling me the locations of stuff and what items were the best. And like I love looking at build metas mostly so I can learn how to experiment but there's a line where you've gone from learning about a game and rushed full throttle into spoiler territory. I now understand why these spoilers made me sad.
I don't have this problem so much as I have a few mental illnesses, which seems irrelevant but one of the things it causes me to do is completely lose interest after something being spoiled - shout out to my friend who don't spoil things for me unless I'm not interested.
Side note, if I'm hungry for a certain food and I see a commercial for a different kind of food I stop being hungry sometimes even my stomach feels gross. Irrelevant but maybe funny. I'm not even a picky eater either
I am the sort of player who always tried to play games (or read books, or watch videos) blind, going into the experience with as little detail beforehand as possible. ER absolutely punishes this style of immersive experience and damn near forces players to go meta to progress the game.
@@fixthat3269I don’t think that has anything to do with your mental illness, I think everyone thinks that lol
I tried playing fifa with two of my friends and whenever I went out of position they started calling me stupid
What a nice respectful critique. I like your points. I still personally loved the game as is, but I like your opinion and how you made this video.
respect 👊
Yep. On a side note: 17:10 Pinwheel was such an _amazing_ Boss. This is the peak efficient Souls design Elden could only hope to replicate.
He just trashed on the game with his feelings
@@monkeking_2144 You clearly didn't watch the video then. He didn't "trash" on it, just explained what he found lacking.
@@monkeking_2144He didn't he pointed out objective issues with the game on a mechanical lvl.
I didn't realise the suggested method for dealing with water fowl was blocking and the two dodges. I was finding good success with running and rolling into her on the first flurry and the continuing the roll though with a second roll in the same direction (because of camera re-orientation, now need to dogde backwards) to avoid the second flurry. She would often lose her lock and miss me. Though taken a bit of damage now and then.
You can just block the first flurry, roll under the second and just strafe backwards for the remaining (although rolling backwards instead of strafing back might be safer)
same, I got really lucky to discover you can jump through her waterfall
Same here. I never used a shield. I feel like it's just false when he says she requires certain builds to progress. Unless you're fat rolling you can just roll to avoid the attack, which is also very well telegraphed. Learn not to spam attacks and the staggering thing he conplained about isn't an issue either. Personally i either didn't notice that at all, or was able to dodge most of the attack anyways when that happened. Never heard of that issue at all until this video
@@eazyelof4283 Water fowl was infamous for being broken during launch. You claiming you have never heard of this issue before this video just proves your lack of info and doesnt disprove authors argument.
Hi man! I know that you probably wont read this comment after a year but I want to tell you that I just finished Elden Ring with an 123 hours run, and at the end I just felt dissapointment, same as you. Its a good game but it could be so more. The open world showed us how hollow this world is.
Speak for urself
He is
fromsofts next game should basically be leyndell but expanded to a 40 hour experience
I too want more Souls but under a different name
Leave the open world behind, it was nice for one game
@@zeromythosver.100% agree the open world aspect will never be able to match legacy dungeon style exploration.
@@shitshow575 then just go play Dark Souls 3 lmao there's a lot of things you could criticize ER for but for the fact that it's open world is definitely a non-criticism, essentially you wanted something completely different then what they were actively selling to you and getting mad it's not that thing
@@l3k561 the open world is elden rings worst feature. Nice to look at and explore the first time around but gets tedious extremely quickly. The best part of elden ring is the legacy dungeons and the remembrance bosses, not the countless catacombs which are so repetitive they could be mistaken for procedurally generated content with a basic mob given a boss health bar at the end.
Give me a handcrafted densely populated interconnected world with 40 hours of gameplay over a 100+ hour bloat fest that is elden ring anyday
@l3k561 no it's an extremely valid and relevant criticism. The game design of fromsoft is very unique and it works best in focused level design
I definitely used summons my first playthrough, at least until I was good enough to take down the bosses on my own. I’ve always struggled with fromsoft games, but I love the atmosphere and art style so much that I always find ways to play through them, even if that means using summons
Dont feel shamed for using summons. Theyre a part of the game design
I’ve played since launch. Still a mystery as to dodge rolling. A giant shield and summons are fun to me. And I still get destroyed.
Nothing wrong with summons. Use them your first play thru and then try to not use them the next time!
I have played through every DS game with a 2h weapon, parry shield, melee only and no summons. After Leyndell in Elden Ring however the game starts to cheese you, so this time around I had no qualms about cheesing it back.
I've always disliked the attitude that summons are a crutch or something to eventually stop using once you're good enough. They're a part of the game. Fromsoft doesn't exactly hold your hand or give you freebies, so it's ok to take what you can get. If you want to play with summons, great. If you don't want to play with summons, also great.
Just finished watching... Damn! I tried to write a review of Elden Ring myself and failed. I also felt disappointed. I couldn't quite emphasise the points that kept me from enjoying the game as much as I had hoped to. They were obvious and I still missed them, but you pointed them out. I'm in total agreement with you and I think it's time for me to just accept the fact that Elden Ring is NOT for me and that my relationship is quite toxic. I keep going back to it every now and then, only to be disappointed and hurt all over again.
You're not alone dude
I replayed all souls ( even the bad dark souls 2 ) and i still can't enjoy elden ring
But thanks to that i can enjoy ds1 even more, the game is fantastic
Happened to me the first weeks I got it. Now I’m obsessed. Been playing it everyday for weeks now
@@Elyakel Dark Souls 2 is pretty good
I find it impossible not to enjoy Elden ring the different builds, weapons, spells, items excetera is a ton of fun I used to never make more than one character in a game but I'm on my third now with a totally different. Build Using weapons I never used before
@@Elyakel Dark Souls 2 is a great game. One of my favs of all time. Super chill too in places.
Video still holds up, dlc has many of the same flaws. Especially in lackluster enemy deisgn. Swing swing swing swing stomp aoe swing swing. When am i allowed to heal???
Not to mention, elden ring adds nothing new and innovates absolutely nothing. It's just a mishmash of open world with dark souls, I played the game for over 400 hours and I haven't found a single mechanic that made it distinct.
Dark souls started it all and changed alot in gaming itself
Dark souls 2 added smoothness and fully realized animations plus the dual wield mechanic
Bloodborne added the beautifully made fast paced gameplay with weapons that transform (still haven't seen a game utilize a mechanic like this for all its weapons)
Dark souls 3 added bloodbornes speed to Dark souls and was truly the peak of Dark souls, and it's bosses and world os so compact and memorable to no ends and it added the weapon skills
Sekiro popularized parry mechanics and insane skill ceilings.
Elden ring? Nothing, open world games have always been a thing, all its mechanics are just taken from Dark souls 3 and put against sekiro bosses with input reading for added artificial difficulty. It's world doesn't even feel as connected as the previous games, I didn't have a single moment of my mind being blown by an area being connected to a past area.
@@Gravbaeyou could say this, but Elden ring does offer a completely different experience than other souls games for me. While in many ways it is negative, I can’t deny the fact it does feel different with the world design and encounters. Sometimes I have gotten lost running around and exploring, and it has been fun. Also felt the caves were much improved in the dlc
@@TheePotatoGamer to that I wholeheartedly agree, I am of the opinion that elden ring is a very good game but not a masterpiece or an innovation. It's world is speaking the most fleshed out and most breathtaking, the experience truly is a unique one compared to other soulslike.
@@Gravbaewell to me every fromsoft game is masterpiece, elden ring included.
steatlh, dedicated jump button, or powerstance, rally (malenia great rune) it's all previous game mechanic okay, but..
mixed physick, great rune, mount, ash of war, spirit ashes, time cycle including night only enemies, explorations... is that all a joke?
i mean.. since ds 1 until sekiro isn't that all about roll/dodge and striking?
@@Ashn- I understand what you're meaning but with all due respect most of the stuff you've brought up are either mechanics that add nothing to the gameplay or already added past stuff.
Stealth has barely any use (except the dlc)
Jump is only good for some platforming or a jump attack which is a must in any open world game and itself doesn't add much
Ash of war is literally the weapon skills from ds3 renamed
Spirit ashes are literal summons since the days of demons souls but instead don't require a summon sign
Mount is something NEEDED especially in an open world game or moving through spaces would be unbearable (that's why every single open world in existence has one)
Time cycle is cool to have but again it's nothing unique and the enemies in it are just 1 boss repeated a million times throughout the game
Mixed physic is a very nice idea to that I agree but really it's just something to add more buffs to your characters that isn't a spell
Also for your comment about ds1 to sekiro I've explained what each souls game added to the series since ds1, so far I haven't seen elden ring innovate, only mix and mash 2 genres without adding its own thing to it (ofc lore doesn't count cause that shit is beautiful)
A good game that came out recently that innovated to the souls genre was lies of p with its entire weapon fusion system
The extreme minmaxing, meta chasing and unhealthy completionism are the curses of the modern, degenerating gamer IMO.
I feel part of it are also streamers, they want to complete before the curve making everyone rushed
I finished the game last night and was constantly struggling to figure out why I didn't enjoy it. You've just encompassed all the points I struggled with (but obviously couldn't as eloquently verbalise) - unfair bosses, a disappointing story, needlessly repeated and devalued content, and a reliance on consulting sources exterior to the game to properly enjoy it.
Thank you for helping me understand that I'm not alone in feeling like this, and that I'm not just being a grumpy old man about it. I mean, that latter point is probably true, but at least I don't think it's unjustified now.
Excellent, as always.
Elden Ring has nearly three times the enemy variety of previous games in the series and probably has 10 times the enemy variety of other types of open world games. Even with the repetition, it still has a massive variety of content. It's just a 60 dollar game. You can't realistically expect a 60 dollar game to have 500 unique enemy types and bosses.
@@ivanasukjadic1423 FROM Software wanted to make a big ass boring world, its their fault not the players who werent following the hype like drones. With every new entry, FROM forgot about the good aspects of previous games and implemented bad mechanics. Many will deny it but Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 made the Souls Genre more boring, unfair and repetive and now with Elden Ring we see what happens if you're too comfortable criticizing the devs. Many games have massive variety and I will tell you a little secret, that doesnt make a game automaticaly good, in fact, it makes it more boring because most of the time it doesnt stand out, its copy pasted dungeons and enemies ripped from Dark Souls 3.
If the developer is too dense making a smaller world with interesting dungeons and buildings, its again their fault not mine or others who see through the marketing speech of Publishers.
@@ivanasukjadic1423 I just want a game with less content, don’t put the same fucking boss 10 times. It’s makes the boss less unique.
My biggest problem with giant scale games is mob density. In Souls games the world is always completely dead and the only inhabitants are all out to kill you on sight.
Meanwhile in WoW, you can't walk 2 feet in any direction without aggro-ing mobs, making exploration stressful.
Games that feel lived-in, have NPCs going about normal activities but won't constantly attack you are few and far between.
If you played past souls games that’s just how it is in general. Everything is out to kill you and npcs are few and far between. Elden ring is definitely a game made for souls players that were ready for an upgrade.
Edit: I misread I see that you have played souls games before this.
All the souls games to me exist in either a dream or purgatory, nothing else makes sense (outside of them being video games) Elden Ring has so few areas where an actual population would have inhabited and it is a small area to support multiple ruling monarchs. The world makes little sense at all beyond its a video game whereas past From titles never had such a wide gap of disbelief.
Totally agree with you on this!!!
@@mikeclarke3990 Yeah I always thought it was really kind of weird/amusing that in the lore there was a massive war between the capital and Caelid that apparently stretched on for a considerable amount of time when you can between them in like 15 minutes.
But nothing takes the crown (gettit) of pure "wtf are you serious" disbelief away from the hacked together world of Dark Souls 2. Still a fun game but man that one was really duct taped together and pushed out the door.
@@mikeclarke3990 yeah, let's say Elden Ring has all the location needed to do the "quests" without having the locations more commonly associated with being an "open world". No cities, no viallages, no peaceful inhabitants and no random encounters and extremely rare scripted events. Heck, even the "main hub" of this game, the Round Table, is totally disjointed from the rest of the world, it's totally breaking the "open world experience".
I made it through a full playthrough of this game about a year ago, started playing again in anticipation of the upcoming DLC, and within a few hours I started a new Bloodborne playthough instead, and this video encapsulates why that is.
Oh, good hunter...
Omg same. I played about 15 hours after a year off snd got bored sfter finishing limgrave. Played the dlc with a downloaded save and uninstalled after 3 hours. It is such a tedious game.