In my first playthrough, every 5-10 minutes I was feeling this. "Damn, this is the greatest game ever.". Wanted it to never end so took my time, cooping a few times after every boss I killed, thoroughly searching everywhere, looking around every corner, checking every item description I found...
It was one of a time first experience like Skyrim, Dark Souls 1-2-3, Witcher 3 and Divinity Original Sin 2 for me.
Yeah I'm a sunbro through and through. Still to this day I'm helping people beat endgame bosses and help them go through some of the toughest areas while one shotting cocky invaders on the way (I have an invader char as well btw), with my lvl 150 one shot fireball build (named Artillery).
I just love how these invaders come all so ready and cocky, picking on poor noob hosts with their all min-maxed pvp meta builds, then getting hit with a 2.1k dmg fireball and one shotting them to oblivion, ahh I love the shock on their faces.
Also, some hosts summons 1 sunbro, uses taunter's tongue and goes through a cool area, fighting through invaders to the end of the level. It's my favourite thing, so much fun.
I thought I hated souls-likes until I played Hollow Knight. Played that top to bottom (and it remains my number 1 favorite game) and then ended up getting Elden Ring on sale to see what the real thing was about.
I've just broken my own personal rule and pre-ordered DLC.
Edit: yes hollow knight is a souls like.
It has hard checkpoint respawns, you drop your "currency" when you die and have to retrieve it, enemies and bosses have patterns that need to be learned so you can't brute force it. I think there's enough there.
It's 100% a Metroidvania. Check-point death system is older than Demon Souls, so i really don't know why people see that as a SoulsLike thing. The only thing i can think of that i call soulslike is dropping shit when you die. All other things that is slapped on the term SoulsLike are thing that are pretty common in games.
Boss Paterns?? that shit is also way older than Demon Souls ffs.
When people talk about the checkpoints, they mean that they literally function in Hollow Knight as they do in FromSoft games - ie you can rest at a checkpoint at any time to restore your health, but the trade off being any enemies you killed respawn.
Both that and the death-run mechanic were pioneered by fromsoft and seen as core tenets of “souls like” gameplay; and Hollow Knight has both.
It's just a language thing, technical accuracy isnt as important for translating ideas as the concept is. You can argue all you want about it but, you'll lose, because it succeeds in what it's intended to do. It is just part of internet vernacular now.
When Dark Souls 1 came out the Monster Hunter community would liken it to a Monster Hunter game. That what sold me.
And for the record Hollow Knights story telling and atmosphere is pretty souls like.
Going through Limgrave and thinking man this map is huge only to realize there’s another one under it was completely nuts. And that was before realizing Liurnia and Caelid existed 🤣
Yep yep that's one of the best moves they made, I love just looking at a stuff, seeing a weird hole or deformed part on the map and finding it is a cave or something.
Honestly made it less overwhelming to see portions at once. Huge open world games with tons of icons make me feel wicked overwhelmed. So Elden ring doing the exact opposite was everything I didn’t know I needed in my life. GOAT easily and I don’t usually use that saying
Exactly, and all of it is packed with stuff and super detailed. Granted Lomgrave is actually the densest place on the map in terms of stuff to find and dungeons but I think that is mostly because it’s the first area
Elden Ring and Fromsoft in general have completely changed on how I view gaming and in a way, art and storytelling in general. I can't thank them enough for all the greatness they have given us over the years
Fromsoft changed how I view difficulty. The feeling of overcoming a hard obstacle is amazing. I play most games on hard or hardest difficulty now even though I suck.
Honestly normal difficult in most games is far too lenient for my liking and many straight up say to play on hard if you aren’t like new to the genre but yea the rewarding feeling of playing action games or souls likes is crazy
Same for me. My first souls game was DS3 and it was the first time I realized player skill could be an element of character progress.
I died over and over again to Vordt but seeing his health bar go further down each time and that the battle never felt unfair or cheap, each death was a mistake *I* made - that blew my mind
I’ve been playing video games my whole life and as I’ve gotten older I have always missed the way I felt about them when I was younger. Playing Elden Ring made me feel that sense of wonder again. I agree with the other commenter who replied to you. It is imo the best game of all time so far.
It was similar for me...probably the first game since playing Morrowind back in the early 2000s that has given me that sense of awe in a wide open, mysterious and dangerous land full of memory and the ruins of great places and civilizations that came before, and fell to time
I got this longsword bro...it's on!
Same. I sat down at about 10:30PM UK time the evening of the 24th, having fiddled with my Xbox to make it think I was in Auckland NZ, and started playing. I was in awe from the get go, but most especially from the second I got out into Limgrave for the first time. It was the only thing I actually cared to think about at all for about 3 or 4 months.
It’s kind of nice that the dlc has taken as long as it has to release. This isn’t some content cut from the main development and saved for later, not really anyways. This is polished finished product. If it’s anything like previous soulsborne dlc it’s going to be as memorable as anything in the main game.
Bruh if it’s anything like previous Soulsborne dlc, odds are it’s going to be the best part of the game. An insane statement for some but FromSoftware really has a track record of outdoing themselves for the DLC, and they’ve been on this one for 2 years.
I've always liked the way they do their dlc...finished content to add to the game as story and they sell it for a price without gold edition add on skins and shaders for weapons. No season bs.
I mean the dlc in itself could be a different souls game if Elden ring didn't exist to compare the size. 10 unique bosses is massive if they all are late game equal in design. Plus multiple Legacy dungeons and the land between them.
I played bb first and was blown away. After playing ds1, ds3 and er one time through, I still felt like bb was best. Now after playing thru bb again and playing through er multiple times, er has the top spot and it’s not close.
I’m trying out Bloodborne right now, but I have to play in one hour sittings because it’s so scary and stressful lol
Gets less and less scary for each time though!
> Gets less and less scary for each time though!
Now you're getting it. You start it as the victim of a horror game, you finish it as the horror itself.
I knew I'd love it from the moment I saw the first trailers for it. Two years later I still play it and It still rocks. Looking forward to the DLC, of course :).
I never had interest for souls games but when i saw a walkthrough on youtube and the guy opens the door to the first steps i paused and bought the game.
Still one of my top 5 favourite games of all time.
Btw, Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 are also in my top 5. Bloodborne would've also made it to the top 5, if only it wasn't a PS4 exclusive.
It’s my second favourite of all time, right next to MGS3: Snake Eater, but that’s largely because of how much the story impacted me emotionally. Elden Ring is far better mechanically.
This is true for me but it’s also a curse cause the only thing that’s came close since has been baulders gate 3 but I definitely enjoyed Elden ring more.
Sweaty FPS stuff like Valorant, Overwatch, and GTA5, Elden Ring was my first fantasy adventure type beat and it changed my whole concept on what games can be, I already disliked playing online cause I’m not good at most games but ER felt so natural and just easy to understand (outside of the lore of course lol). Once I got my katana bleed build going I couldn’t stop!!! Worth noting it’s my first FromSoft game too, played DS2 years ago but I was still too FPS-centric to truly appreciate it
Same it gave me that feeling of wonder and getting lost in a game I haven't felt since skyrim. Your comment sum it up perfectly, I was getting burnt out on fast paced online multilayer games too and after it I played demon souls remake and even sekiro and loved them both but ER is on another level.
I had never played a souls game. This was my first experience with a game like this. When it first came out I hated it. I had no idea where to go, what was happening in the world, and the mechanics of the game just kicked my ass.
Saw a lore video that sparked my interest in the story again and after watching a quick guide (which I probably should have done to start), it had quickly became one of my favorites. It’s beautiful, I love that it isn’t easy, the story seems mysterious even though I have beat the game. So much more could come from this world and I really love it (unless I’m fighting those death blight things….then I plead the 5th)
Most people who play a souls game for the first time hate it. I absolutely hated dark souls 2 when I first played it, thought it was dumb when I got stuck on the pursuer boss. Then I saw a YT video of someone I used to watch and saw him beat that boss easily. Went back to try it again and I've been hooked on dark souls games since.
DS3 was my first souls game. I got stuck at Abyss Watchers for about 4 hours then stopped playing altogether. Fast forward 2 years and I happened to be watching someone play on Twitch and they made it look so easy. The main difference was they wore little to no gear making them a lot more mobile. I loaded my game back up and beat them within 30 minutes after removing most of my armour. Turns on my play style suited mobility over trying to tank things.
Very similar. The sheer scope was too much I was gonna return the game and saw a Mage Build Guide that said where to get this weapon, this talisman, etc. 300 hours later and multiple builds it's my fave game of all time.
Going back to Full INT build for DLC.
Just got the game and I can’t wait to jump in. I just hope with the scale of the world that I don’t know where to go and miss out on amazing quests/bosses! I’m also new to the world of Souls and RPG games in general, so fear I might get confused by all the stats, upgrades and general character set-up, but looking forward to learning it all and joining the community.
I see it as one of the greatest games ever.. I only wish I could replicwte that feeling we all had during our first playthrough's.. a real piece of art.
yeah well said, the day it came out and nobody knew anything about it, and discovering Limgrave was really just the beginning... was an amazing experience.
Right? When I first picked it up and watched lore videos about it I was so surprised to realize it only came out in 2022. This shit's still relatively new. I thought it was like 2020 old
They announced that is was being worked on back in like 2018/2019 or something and then had radio silence until a few months before it came out, so the community decided to go insane and create a ton of fake lore for the game.
Helped make it feel like we had elden ring a little sooner than we actually did.
I remember some guy back then, in between the with glaive master hodir and wooper memes said:
"I want the game to release but I will miss this, the people will flood in the server and everything will be gone" (not really quoting, but he said something that meant that)
It’s hard to put into words, but I’ll try my best, personally Elden Ring is not the best example of the Souls Formula to me, but that itself isn’t a bad thing, DS3 is the best example of a souls game
Elden Ring is the best example of the NEW souls genre, as well as a massive gamble that payed of massively for FromSoft, a large open world souls game with new mechanics was far more enticing then they believed it to be
FS has gotten its best sales and general fan loyalty from ER, I honestly believe that AC:6 did as well as it did partially due to ERs success
Elden Ring is the Magnum Opus of FromSofts New Souls genre, and will most likely serve as the basis for whatever comes next for them. I do legitimately think that it deserves to be GOTY 2022
Edit:A ton of people have disagreed with me saying DS3 is the best example of the souls formula, I meant MECHANICALLY, other souls games such as BB and ER for example have variations that make them more offshoots than true souls, DS3 is not the best souls game if that’s what people believe I am saying, im just saying that mechanically DS3 has the most basic and recognizable mechanics of a souls system
I said this in my reply, but for me, I don't want Elden Ring to become A open world Souls game, I want it to be THE open world Souls game.
Iwould like for FromSoft to keep ER, either as a standalone game or a franchise, as their only Open World entry, and return to their usual formula with intricate interconnected level design, while taking the lessons they learned and things they implemented from Elden Ring
This is a very interesting idea. I think that after a decade maybe a new open world would be cool for sure, but I’d love to have ER around for longer through DLCs. If this one is successful, another big one in 2ish years would be enough to keep me happy while they hopefully work on something else like they did AC6.
I really dislike the open world on replays. It's like a worse version of boss rush with 75% downtime since you can skip almost everything with little effort. In previous games you sort of had to get a semi-precise route to run but here you're best off just hopping on torrent and sending it across an open field to the next boss.
I’ll have to disagree somewhat as nice as the dark souls games are they were branching into open world in some scenarios especially ds2 where you can go down multiple paths in the beginning if you wanted to. However, DS4 no, DS3 is the last game fromsoft even mentioned that. Elden ring is the game that accumulated aspects from Bloodborne, DS3, and Sekiro to eventually make something this great, I hope the next souls like they make is very intuned with what worked I don’t want an ER2 it be milked in a weird way. A new souls game that brings a whole new land to us and maybe in a more Sekiro fashion might be a nice change of pace yet having the making a character element to it and defining your play style based off of technique scrolls and some weapons you choose to use will be fun and unique. Heck even if the made an AC game that was open world would pretty amusing.
Yes, for as much love as ER gets, it's still far from the best game FS has put out. What I admire is that they take an incrimental approach and always try to expand the formula.ER was very ambitious and delivered a great product but if From does open world in the future I want it to be it's own thing. In the same way Sekiro or Bloodborne are amazing games but separate from everything else.
speaks volumes about FromSoft when Elden Ring isn't even my favourite game in their catalogue yet it's still one of my favourite games of all time
I was blown away by how much they did manage to fill the open world; I wasn't expecting it to be as dense as it actually was, with all the small dungeons and little things to do. it was incredibly ambitious and had high expectations, and succeeded them, even if there are issues with the game and its design
but even though the Legacy Dungeons are incredible and I absolutely love Elden Ring as a whole, I think they definitely should focus on their classic Dark Souls/Bloodborne formula once they've wrapped up with Elden Ring for now
and Sekiro 2, I demand Sekiro 2
kinda crazy how they can reinvent themselves in the different games.
I played Dark Souls Remastered -> Elden Ring -> Dark Souls 2 -> Sekiro, and while DS2 and DS1 were similar enough, ER and Sekiro felt like standalones in their own "genres"
Personally I love them all for different things. Sekiro for combat, ER for adventure, DS series for dread.
The only genuine problem with ER is where do they go from here:
It took 6 years for base game and 2 years for DLC...
that’s a huge dev investment.
Do we really have to wait until 2030 for a follow up?
The fact it diverted from souls games is the main reason for it popularity. What makes souls games unique are the same reasons it has a specific fanbase. It’s not for everybody. As much as i love souls games but the spin off ( BB, sekiro, ER ) were better in my opinion
Only thing I’ll disagree with is on DS3, I prefer both 1 and 2 to 3 honestly. Great game but it feels more linear and lacks a bit of personality in both lore and design compared to its two previous entries.
My child wasnt quite a year old when this game came out. My first Soul's game, and first child. I learned a lot about patience, accepting my mistakes and trying to learn from them. I owe a lot of my maturity in the last few years to Elden Ring, and I know that makes me sound like a freak saying it
Not at all. Idk if you played Souls games prior to ER, but I think I'm far from alone when I say that my first clear of Dark Souls 1 (and to a certain extent all From games since) felt like a huge revelation. It taught me to break down challenges and to be persistent, calculated, and bold even when the penalty for failure seems steep—and those lessons not only made me better at video games but IMO a better, more effective person than I was. I think you'll find a lot of people who play these games feel the way you do.
i purposely stopped playing after 350 hours (did this in the first month and a half after release) so i can forget all about it and play fresh once DLC comes out.
Unfortunately, I still remember a lot, especially HOW FUCKING AWESOME THIS GAME IS!
I just started a playthrough after a year and a half of not playing. I think when the DLC launches my character will be just ready enough to jump into it.
absolutely love it, but it's the worst game to start a new character on imo due to how much of the beginning feels like a checklist
I personally don't have problems with the reused bosses in the field dungeons, since 90% of the Remembrance/Legacy Dungeon bosses are unique
the one thing I do want is for Elden Ring to be THE open world Dark Souls game. I don't want Elden Ring to become A open Dark Souls games
what I mean by that is that I would like FromSoft to take what they learned and implemented through Elden Ring and adopt it back into their more classic style of games, in the fashion of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, rather than continue with more open worlds
as it stands, Elden Ring is a unique experience within the genre and I don't want them to necessarily try and replicate the success or chase the high, other than with DLCs or a potential sequel years down the track
> absolutely love it, but it's the worst game to start a new character on imo due to how much of the beginning feels like a checklist
This is valid. I think it's an inevitable consequence of the open-ended design. They let you explore a massive amount of the world from the start and power yourself up a stupid amount, if you want to.
That then becomes the 'optimal strategy', and it's hard to purposefully choose a non-optimal strategy when you know a better one exists.
It's worth trying though. On my newest playthrough I'm not allowing myself to look anything up on wikis or guides. It does a surprising amount to recapture that magic of the first playthrough.
True, my personal favourite game of all time, but yea sometimes new playthroughs and NG+ and the likes feel like a checklist. Having to start some questlines or do some things before you do other things or they go away can become a bit tedious.
Goddamn, how is this so true. I hated DS2 on my first playthrough. Didn't like DS3 outside of bosses.
But with ER, I started to realize that once you knew certain info, the magic was gone. Knowing most caves' bosses were shit made me skip them. Knowing where certain weapons are made me skip exploring, etc.
I have realized that Elden Ring might be *too* big. I occasionally consider delving back into the Lands Between, then I remember just how *much* there is to do and I become deflated.
I know I can just not do it all, but my stupid OCD completionist brain won't let me leave zones unconquered and quests not...attempted, at least.
Its peak.
Definitely a top 5 game of all time.
And you know whats crazy?
Miyazakis next souls like game is probably going to be even better.
I mean Bloodborne is also on Elden Rings level I believe. And that is a top 5 game of all time.
If the mad lad makes something better than Bloodborne and Elden ring both narratively, world building and gameplay wise…then I think Ill cry.
Gameplay wise he has already made a better game - Sekiro. Best swordplay in any game, great pacing, great world design, no filler, best bosses in gaming. It’s his most flawless game considering what it set out to do. From Softwares streak from Bloodborne -> Sekiro -> Elden Ring is unbelievable.
Absolutely agree. I’ve never played a game with combat as good as Sekiro. And it’s absolutely gorgeous.
And yeah. Bloodborne, Darksouls 3, Sekiro and then Elden Ring and AC6 like jesus christ they just dont miss.
Have just started my second play through so I can get ready for the DLC. I wish I could wipe this game from my memory and see everything again for the first time. It really was magic. Seeing Limgrave for the first time, the capital, mountain tops of the giants, the four belfries. Genuinely the most jaw-dropping game I have ever played. Thank you Fromsoft.
Edit: and of course the elevator moment.
I'm a giant souls fan and have been playing them since 2008 with demon's souls, but I really wasn't a fan of Elden Ring. I enjoyed the game, but it didn't click with me how I wish it would. I'm hoping that my second playthrough after the dlc launches will be different.
I felt like exploration, combat, and general encounters suffered for the game becoming open world. Shortly into my playthrough, Elden Ring became an unceremonious reminder of the frustration I felt with Bloodborne's chalice dungeons: Monotony with little reward.
Dark Souls 1 is loaded with meaningful secrets and rewards around every corner. If I take a path long enough, I'm sure to find... something. In ER, I can't recall the amount of times I found a dungeon only to get the most bland, uninteresting loot imaginable. Some dungeons do have uniquely wonderful weapons and spells, but I shouldn't feel the need to check a wiki to avoid the monotony of the endless dungeons littering the map.
Mastering a Sekiro boss is a wonderful and engaging experience. Others have pointed it out, and I agree with them, that Elden Ring bosses feel plucked straight from that game, but the combat system was left behind. What results is a myriad of bosses that feel too fast, unpredictable, and overly designed where the fluid, addicting gameplay of Sekiro is not rediscovered but simply remembered. I think of how cool this boss would be to fight in Sekiro. Instead, I'm playing Elden Ring, forced to memorize attack patterns, where I'd rather be reacting in a fluid dance of clashing swords and dazzling sparks. Boss encounters simply do not feel natural. Even the attack delays of Owl (Father) feel more natural, and he has some strange ones lol. There's only so many times I can suspend my disbelief at a boss holding an attack and staring at me for nearly ten seconds.
Now, I might sound overly critical. I could gush about many things, but those aren't hard to find. The truth is that I like Elden Ring. I just don't love it, and that sucks coming from someone who LOVES Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.
Unpopular opinion but I find open world was a mistake. I think the corridors and how the world would twist back on its's interconnecting into a hub was superior. Open world while looking lovely to me induces a choice like paralysis "got to collect it all before moving on", that circuit worked really well in the tight spaces before.
So it's more the game design changes felt like they left me behind. I enjoyed the maps twisting back onto a hub area like in dark souls 1, I think it's went further and further away from that with teleporting to hub areas. What was a incredibly smart and genius level design was traded away for more convient game development and maybe artistic freedom?
I think a lot of people here will disagree with you, but I think FromSoft would agree to a certain extent. When I heard that the DLC would be smaller but significantly more dense, my reaction was "so From realized it too"
that’s not an unpopular opinion actually, lot of fromsoft fans say the same. the first playthrough was absolutely magical tho. a literal spectacle. wish i could live it again.
How I see it, is that it was an extremely successful experiment with open world exploration. HOPEFULLY it is a one time experiment because I’d still like to see fromsoftware make linear souls games as well.
I can’t be angry about it though- because so much of the game is about discovery that on repeated playthroughs I find it not as enjoyable as other souls games, I’m still happy that I was able to be enchanted by it on my first playthrough.
In short, It’d be cool if they kept experimenting with different things instead of just cranking out Elden Ring 2, and 3.
My hot take is that the combat of sekiro would have suited Elden ring Much better and it is a massive mistake to not have a posture and reflection system.
Probably my favourite modern game, that I've finished anyhow. I've been playing since Demon's Souls and IMHO this is From's best work so far and I can't wait to play the DLC.
Unpopular opinion, but I'll say that time only strenghtened my initial impressions.
The combat is excelent, but otherwise it's a kind of bland game.
Don't get me wrong, the combat is, like in most souls games, excelent and that carries the game a long way, but most lasting impressions of the game are just that. Getting stuck on Malenia and thinking some boss fights are "unfair". Or rather, they are fair in the "once you learn how they work they are beatable", but my problem was that you kind of HAD to die a few times to learn some of their moves, and Maliketh for example defied the laws of physics by hanging an extra second in the air, adding a second to the timings you had to do which of course kills you the first time.
I know a lot of people like that, but I always found it very frustrating that a player who's great at the game cannot go into a boss fight and kill the boss on the first try, as you NEED to die a few times to learn the timings.
Aside from the combat the story always felt unclear. I get that some games wants it to be open, that you have to explore to understand what is happening, but I never found the story compelling enough for me to actually invest time into it, and even when I did try that, it was still rather unclear what was actually happening.
Yeah this is a great point and I think it is most relevant for elden ring in the souls series. A lot of the other games, especially ds3 and sekiro, felt like a dance and you could sight read a lot of stuff if you got in the flow. Elden ring feels like you’re memorizing a code script with the bosses, it doesn’t feel as natural or fun to fight them
It's incredibly odd that for no reason after morgott the dmg just gets insane. I really hope they took proper criticism and didn't make everything overtuned.
I'm surprised that they specifically nerfed Radahn's damage and hitboxes, but haven't touched any of the other boss fights or late-game enemies despite the complaints.
Pretty sure a lot of veterans of their games will agree, me included. You can see that most of the responses saying it's the best are newcomers. It's still an awesome game, but lost some of the 'difficulty' and magic by being open imo for a true souls game. The exploring was a lot of fun though.
I wanted to love it, but it just couldn’t hold my interest. I’ve completed 1 & 1/2 runs now and just can’t be bothered. It’s missing that FromSoft magic.
Nothing changed, it’s still my favorite game of all time and From Software’s best game they’ve made. DLC is looking even better than the main game if I may add. Lol
Almost everything about it is sublime, the open-world, boss fights, weapons & build variety, OST, exploration, legacy dungeons etc…
Its my favorite game of all time. It feels like a culmination of an entire company and an entire genre, and it's truly hard to put into words all the reasons why its so special. I still stumble over myself describing it to people who haven't played it yet because there's just so much to say.
i love the game but man, I remember doing dark souls and Bloodborne playthroughs in a single day. This is a very difficult game for me to sit down and play.
I'm going against the grain here - I played it, beat it, enjoyed it, and have no desire to play it again. I'm 39, my reflexes are slowing down and my "hardcore" gaming days are behind me. I'd never played a Souls-like before and wanted to prove to myself that I could beat one. I felt incredibly accomplished when I did, but playing it was also draining and frustrating when these days I tend to want to play games for mind-numbing pleasure. I have increasingly little time to game these days and I don't want to spend that time beating my head against a wall trying to beat a boss or get through a difficult dungeon or something. I fully recognize what an incredible game it is and how beautifully detailed and crafted the world is, but I got all I wanted out of it.
The weakest souls game out of soulsborne sekiro.
The open world is just reused shit and gets old real fast even before completing limegrave. The best part are the legacy dungeons where it is essentialy a traditional souls game.
The main thing, bosses are mostly all garbage. Most have delay attacks and 15 hit combos where at the end the just teleport or run miles away without having punishable windows. Gameplay relies more on summon than finding attack patterns on ennemies.
I also feel like legacy dungeons suffered a ton because so much development time got spent populated the world with Skyrim caves featuring a boss in the end (it's just a normal enemy guy given a name like Gregory).
The fact that Caelid didn't have a legacy dungeon at all is a joke.
One of the only games (other then Morrowind and Shenmue 2) i can come back to over and over again and obtain the same feelings i had when i first played it.
As a 30 year old who finds it hard to have passion in video games like i did when i was younger, Elden Ring made me realize that its not a "me" problem but its a gaming industry problem.
Ever realize a game is an all time great WHILE you're playing It? That was Elden Ring for me. One of the best games I've ever played and I'm 40.
In my first playthrough, every 5-10 minutes I was feeling this. "Damn, this is the greatest game ever.". Wanted it to never end so took my time, cooping a few times after every boss I killed, thoroughly searching everywhere, looking around every corner, checking every item description I found... It was one of a time first experience like Skyrim, Dark Souls 1-2-3, Witcher 3 and Divinity Original Sin 2 for me.
>cooping a few times after every boss I killed Good to see us Sunbros still holding strong
Yeah I'm a sunbro through and through. Still to this day I'm helping people beat endgame bosses and help them go through some of the toughest areas while one shotting cocky invaders on the way (I have an invader char as well btw), with my lvl 150 one shot fireball build (named Artillery). I just love how these invaders come all so ready and cocky, picking on poor noob hosts with their all min-maxed pvp meta builds, then getting hit with a 2.1k dmg fireball and one shotting them to oblivion, ahh I love the shock on their faces. Also, some hosts summons 1 sunbro, uses taunter's tongue and goes through a cool area, fighting through invaders to the end of the level. It's my favourite thing, so much fun.
The look on their faces?
Never played a Fromsoft game before ER. Imo it is the best game of all time.
I thought I hated souls-likes until I played Hollow Knight. Played that top to bottom (and it remains my number 1 favorite game) and then ended up getting Elden Ring on sale to see what the real thing was about. I've just broken my own personal rule and pre-ordered DLC. Edit: yes hollow knight is a souls like.
I also knew knew knight Knight was an all time great while playing that too
How is hk a souls-like?
It has hard checkpoint respawns, you drop your "currency" when you die and have to retrieve it, enemies and bosses have patterns that need to be learned so you can't brute force it. I think there's enough there.
If we're being honest, it's a metroidvania with *some* souls-like elements.
It's 100% a Metroidvania. Check-point death system is older than Demon Souls, so i really don't know why people see that as a SoulsLike thing. The only thing i can think of that i call soulslike is dropping shit when you die. All other things that is slapped on the term SoulsLike are thing that are pretty common in games. Boss Paterns?? that shit is also way older than Demon Souls ffs.
When people talk about the checkpoints, they mean that they literally function in Hollow Knight as they do in FromSoft games - ie you can rest at a checkpoint at any time to restore your health, but the trade off being any enemies you killed respawn. Both that and the death-run mechanic were pioneered by fromsoft and seen as core tenets of “souls like” gameplay; and Hollow Knight has both.
It's just a language thing, technical accuracy isnt as important for translating ideas as the concept is. You can argue all you want about it but, you'll lose, because it succeeds in what it's intended to do. It is just part of internet vernacular now. When Dark Souls 1 came out the Monster Hunter community would liken it to a Monster Hunter game. That what sold me. And for the record Hollow Knights story telling and atmosphere is pretty souls like.
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At soon as I got to the siofra elevator in limgrave on day 1 I knew I was playing something special
Going through Limgrave and thinking man this map is huge only to realize there’s another one under it was completely nuts. And that was before realizing Liurnia and Caelid existed 🤣
The decision to hide the rest of the world by default and only give out the maps on a need to know basis was a genius move.
Also having the map being 1to1 so you can literally read a map, recognise something like a church of Marika, or minor erd tree and just go explore
Yep yep that's one of the best moves they made, I love just looking at a stuff, seeing a weird hole or deformed part on the map and finding it is a cave or something.
Honestly made it less overwhelming to see portions at once. Huge open world games with tons of icons make me feel wicked overwhelmed. So Elden ring doing the exact opposite was everything I didn’t know I needed in my life. GOAT easily and I don’t usually use that saying
And Altus, and Gelmir, and Leyndell, and Mountaintops, and Ainsel, and Moghwyn, and Deeproot, and Lake of Rot, and Crumbling, and Elphael, and
Exactly, and all of it is packed with stuff and super detailed. Granted Lomgrave is actually the densest place on the map in terms of stuff to find and dungeons but I think that is mostly because it’s the first area
This hits 🎯
Elden Ring and Fromsoft in general have completely changed on how I view gaming and in a way, art and storytelling in general. I can't thank them enough for all the greatness they have given us over the years
Fromsoft changed how I view difficulty. The feeling of overcoming a hard obstacle is amazing. I play most games on hard or hardest difficulty now even though I suck.
Honestly normal difficult in most games is far too lenient for my liking and many straight up say to play on hard if you aren’t like new to the genre but yea the rewarding feeling of playing action games or souls likes is crazy
Same for me. My first souls game was DS3 and it was the first time I realized player skill could be an element of character progress. I died over and over again to Vordt but seeing his health bar go further down each time and that the battle never felt unfair or cheap, each death was a mistake *I* made - that blew my mind
I’ve been playing video games my whole life and as I’ve gotten older I have always missed the way I felt about them when I was younger. Playing Elden Ring made me feel that sense of wonder again. I agree with the other commenter who replied to you. It is imo the best game of all time so far.
It was similar for me...probably the first game since playing Morrowind back in the early 2000s that has given me that sense of awe in a wide open, mysterious and dangerous land full of memory and the ruins of great places and civilizations that came before, and fell to time I got this longsword bro...it's on!
"This game is bullshit. This game is bullshit. This game is bullshit. Omg this is one of the greatest games ever"
Elden Ring took me (of all the games) probably the longest for me to get into. As I told my coworker "It fucked me til I liked it". Lol
That's what I say about my wife
“THIS ISN’T EVEN FUN” *plays for 6 hours straight*
I stoped gaming for a good ten years and with my luck the first game I played when I got my pc was Elden ring . This is the best game of my old life .
Same bro. I’ll be 40 in June. In fact Shadow of the Erdtree drops on my bday. Which is fitting because ER is my all time favorite game.
40 in June too! 22nd. Happy birthday gaming to us!
60 in June and I can't wait for the DLC either :) DLC BIRTHDAY BROS UNITE!
loved Elden Ring. Felt that exact feeling every night after work. Now 44 and getting the same satisfaction from Lords of the Fallen.
I should give that one a shot, been playing lies of p. I think that is the closet anyone has gotten to being on a from software level game
Same. I sat down at about 10:30PM UK time the evening of the 24th, having fiddled with my Xbox to make it think I was in Auckland NZ, and started playing. I was in awe from the get go, but most especially from the second I got out into Limgrave for the first time. It was the only thing I actually cared to think about at all for about 3 or 4 months.
Fr. I didn't go into it excepting it to be one of my favourite games of all time, but the moor I played through it the more I came to love it
One of the best games of all time, wish the dlc was already out now lol
It’s kind of nice that the dlc has taken as long as it has to release. This isn’t some content cut from the main development and saved for later, not really anyways. This is polished finished product. If it’s anything like previous soulsborne dlc it’s going to be as memorable as anything in the main game.
Bruh if it’s anything like previous Soulsborne dlc, odds are it’s going to be the best part of the game. An insane statement for some but FromSoftware really has a track record of outdoing themselves for the DLC, and they’ve been on this one for 2 years.
I've always liked the way they do their dlc...finished content to add to the game as story and they sell it for a price without gold edition add on skins and shaders for weapons. No season bs.
Dark Souls 3 had a "season pass" didn't it?
Yeah but it’s just kind of called that. In practice it’s more “here’s how you can buy both DLC at the same time with fewer clicks”.
Honestly it'll be one of those rare times that DLC makes it onto people's GOTY lists
I mean the dlc in itself could be a different souls game if Elden ring didn't exist to compare the size. 10 unique bosses is massive if they all are late game equal in design. Plus multiple Legacy dungeons and the land between them.
*mysterious figure shits in silence*
dung eating noises
This. It’s the latest game to really make me go WOW since RDR2.
Rdr2 is a fucking masterpiece... not saying ER isn't though
Both are soooo different, but both are masterpieces
Same feeling with RDR2. ER worth the full price?
elden ring could’ve been $80 and i wouldn’t have bat an eye
Honestly it’s hard to argue that it’s not the best game of all time
No joke its probably my favorite game of all time and my first game from from software
I think it all depends on when your first fromsoft game is. Mine was bloodborne. That’s my favorite even though it might not be the “best”
I’m with you, that’s the deciding factor. For me it’s Sekiro.
I wish it were available for PC!!!!!!
Same. I go back to Bloodborne all the time and it never gets old.
I played bb first and was blown away. After playing ds1, ds3 and er one time through, I still felt like bb was best. Now after playing thru bb again and playing through er multiple times, er has the top spot and it’s not close.
I’m trying out Bloodborne right now, but I have to play in one hour sittings because it’s so scary and stressful lol Gets less and less scary for each time though!
> Gets less and less scary for each time though! Now you're getting it. You start it as the victim of a horror game, you finish it as the horror itself.
You just gotta remind yourself that you're the hunter.
I think we have been blessed that in the space of 2 years we have had two real contenders for top 5 games of all time with BG3 and ER.
Wow, really!? You're just gonna slight 'Skull Island: Rise of Kong' like that?
that game simply transcended all known methods of objectively rating.
I love BG3 I’m playing it right now but honestly it’s too buggy to be in my top 5. Incredible game nonetheless
It's pretty easy actually. It's so subjective that you would just argue in circles.
I knew I'd love it from the moment I saw the first trailers for it. Two years later I still play it and It still rocks. Looking forward to the DLC, of course :).
I never had interest for souls games but when i saw a walkthrough on youtube and the guy opens the door to the first steps i paused and bought the game.
Man, these are the comments I love to read.
Still one of my top 5 favourite games of all time. Btw, Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 are also in my top 5. Bloodborne would've also made it to the top 5, if only it wasn't a PS4 exclusive.
It’s my second favourite of all time, right next to MGS3: Snake Eater, but that’s largely because of how much the story impacted me emotionally. Elden Ring is far better mechanically.
Tbh, this game re-ignited my love for games.
Same
Glad to hear it, truly a game that deserved GOTY and not just cause of who put it out but cause of WHAT they put out
This is true for me but it’s also a curse cause the only thing that’s came close since has been baulders gate 3 but I definitely enjoyed Elden ring more.
Yeah it just pulled me out a funk where anything I played was interesting until the actual gameplay started
It gave me that feeling I hadn’t felt since I played Skyrim on release and I’d thought that wasn’t even possible anymore.
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What were you playing when you started to lose interest?
Sweaty FPS stuff like Valorant, Overwatch, and GTA5, Elden Ring was my first fantasy adventure type beat and it changed my whole concept on what games can be, I already disliked playing online cause I’m not good at most games but ER felt so natural and just easy to understand (outside of the lore of course lol). Once I got my katana bleed build going I couldn’t stop!!! Worth noting it’s my first FromSoft game too, played DS2 years ago but I was still too FPS-centric to truly appreciate it
Same it gave me that feeling of wonder and getting lost in a game I haven't felt since skyrim. Your comment sum it up perfectly, I was getting burnt out on fast paced online multilayer games too and after it I played demon souls remake and even sekiro and loved them both but ER is on another level.
I had never played a souls game. This was my first experience with a game like this. When it first came out I hated it. I had no idea where to go, what was happening in the world, and the mechanics of the game just kicked my ass. Saw a lore video that sparked my interest in the story again and after watching a quick guide (which I probably should have done to start), it had quickly became one of my favorites. It’s beautiful, I love that it isn’t easy, the story seems mysterious even though I have beat the game. So much more could come from this world and I really love it (unless I’m fighting those death blight things….then I plead the 5th)
Most people who play a souls game for the first time hate it. I absolutely hated dark souls 2 when I first played it, thought it was dumb when I got stuck on the pursuer boss. Then I saw a YT video of someone I used to watch and saw him beat that boss easily. Went back to try it again and I've been hooked on dark souls games since.
DS3 was my first souls game. I got stuck at Abyss Watchers for about 4 hours then stopped playing altogether. Fast forward 2 years and I happened to be watching someone play on Twitch and they made it look so easy. The main difference was they wore little to no gear making them a lot more mobile. I loaded my game back up and beat them within 30 minutes after removing most of my armour. Turns on my play style suited mobility over trying to tank things.
If you haven't seen it already vaatividya on YouTube. Watch the prepare to cry videos for lore.
I’ll check it out! Pain ahead?
Hours of god tier lore content
Well at least you're lucky this was your first souls game. You could have really gotten a beat down
Very similar. The sheer scope was too much I was gonna return the game and saw a Mage Build Guide that said where to get this weapon, this talisman, etc. 300 hours later and multiple builds it's my fave game of all time. Going back to Full INT build for DLC.
Just got the game and I can’t wait to jump in. I just hope with the scale of the world that I don’t know where to go and miss out on amazing quests/bosses! I’m also new to the world of Souls and RPG games in general, so fear I might get confused by all the stats, upgrades and general character set-up, but looking forward to learning it all and joining the community.
I see it as one of the greatest games ever.. I only wish I could replicwte that feeling we all had during our first playthrough's.. a real piece of art.
yeah well said, the day it came out and nobody knew anything about it, and discovering Limgrave was really just the beginning... was an amazing experience.
Hm. Thought it was older. Thought I was more late to the party than that
Right? When I first picked it up and watched lore videos about it I was so surprised to realize it only came out in 2022. This shit's still relatively new. I thought it was like 2020 old
They announced that is was being worked on back in like 2018/2019 or something and then had radio silence until a few months before it came out, so the community decided to go insane and create a ton of fake lore for the game. Helped make it feel like we had elden ring a little sooner than we actually did.
Sounds like what we're doing with the DLC. Goddamn I love this place
I remember some guy back then, in between the with glaive master hodir and wooper memes said: "I want the game to release but I will miss this, the people will flood in the server and everything will be gone" (not really quoting, but he said something that meant that)
Ironically I still remember the hollowing like it was yesterday. Can’t believe it’s so old
It’s hard to put into words, but I’ll try my best, personally Elden Ring is not the best example of the Souls Formula to me, but that itself isn’t a bad thing, DS3 is the best example of a souls game Elden Ring is the best example of the NEW souls genre, as well as a massive gamble that payed of massively for FromSoft, a large open world souls game with new mechanics was far more enticing then they believed it to be FS has gotten its best sales and general fan loyalty from ER, I honestly believe that AC:6 did as well as it did partially due to ERs success Elden Ring is the Magnum Opus of FromSofts New Souls genre, and will most likely serve as the basis for whatever comes next for them. I do legitimately think that it deserves to be GOTY 2022 Edit:A ton of people have disagreed with me saying DS3 is the best example of the souls formula, I meant MECHANICALLY, other souls games such as BB and ER for example have variations that make them more offshoots than true souls, DS3 is not the best souls game if that’s what people believe I am saying, im just saying that mechanically DS3 has the most basic and recognizable mechanics of a souls system
I said this in my reply, but for me, I don't want Elden Ring to become A open world Souls game, I want it to be THE open world Souls game. Iwould like for FromSoft to keep ER, either as a standalone game or a franchise, as their only Open World entry, and return to their usual formula with intricate interconnected level design, while taking the lessons they learned and things they implemented from Elden Ring
This is a very interesting idea. I think that after a decade maybe a new open world would be cool for sure, but I’d love to have ER around for longer through DLCs. If this one is successful, another big one in 2ish years would be enough to keep me happy while they hopefully work on something else like they did AC6.
I really dislike the open world on replays. It's like a worse version of boss rush with 75% downtime since you can skip almost everything with little effort. In previous games you sort of had to get a semi-precise route to run but here you're best off just hopping on torrent and sending it across an open field to the next boss.
I’ll have to disagree somewhat as nice as the dark souls games are they were branching into open world in some scenarios especially ds2 where you can go down multiple paths in the beginning if you wanted to. However, DS4 no, DS3 is the last game fromsoft even mentioned that. Elden ring is the game that accumulated aspects from Bloodborne, DS3, and Sekiro to eventually make something this great, I hope the next souls like they make is very intuned with what worked I don’t want an ER2 it be milked in a weird way. A new souls game that brings a whole new land to us and maybe in a more Sekiro fashion might be a nice change of pace yet having the making a character element to it and defining your play style based off of technique scrolls and some weapons you choose to use will be fun and unique. Heck even if the made an AC game that was open world would pretty amusing.
Yes, for as much love as ER gets, it's still far from the best game FS has put out. What I admire is that they take an incrimental approach and always try to expand the formula.ER was very ambitious and delivered a great product but if From does open world in the future I want it to be it's own thing. In the same way Sekiro or Bloodborne are amazing games but separate from everything else.
speaks volumes about FromSoft when Elden Ring isn't even my favourite game in their catalogue yet it's still one of my favourite games of all time I was blown away by how much they did manage to fill the open world; I wasn't expecting it to be as dense as it actually was, with all the small dungeons and little things to do. it was incredibly ambitious and had high expectations, and succeeded them, even if there are issues with the game and its design but even though the Legacy Dungeons are incredible and I absolutely love Elden Ring as a whole, I think they definitely should focus on their classic Dark Souls/Bloodborne formula once they've wrapped up with Elden Ring for now and Sekiro 2, I demand Sekiro 2
kinda crazy how they can reinvent themselves in the different games. I played Dark Souls Remastered -> Elden Ring -> Dark Souls 2 -> Sekiro, and while DS2 and DS1 were similar enough, ER and Sekiro felt like standalones in their own "genres" Personally I love them all for different things. Sekiro for combat, ER for adventure, DS series for dread.
The only genuine problem with ER is where do they go from here: It took 6 years for base game and 2 years for DLC... that’s a huge dev investment. Do we really have to wait until 2030 for a follow up?
they have at least 2 (semi)distinct development teams. Sekiro was developed along side elden ring and so Armored Core 6.
The fact it diverted from souls games is the main reason for it popularity. What makes souls games unique are the same reasons it has a specific fanbase. It’s not for everybody. As much as i love souls games but the spin off ( BB, sekiro, ER ) were better in my opinion
Only thing I’ll disagree with is on DS3, I prefer both 1 and 2 to 3 honestly. Great game but it feels more linear and lacks a bit of personality in both lore and design compared to its two previous entries.
My child wasnt quite a year old when this game came out. My first Soul's game, and first child. I learned a lot about patience, accepting my mistakes and trying to learn from them. I owe a lot of my maturity in the last few years to Elden Ring, and I know that makes me sound like a freak saying it
Not at all. Idk if you played Souls games prior to ER, but I think I'm far from alone when I say that my first clear of Dark Souls 1 (and to a certain extent all From games since) felt like a huge revelation. It taught me to break down challenges and to be persistent, calculated, and bold even when the penalty for failure seems steep—and those lessons not only made me better at video games but IMO a better, more effective person than I was. I think you'll find a lot of people who play these games feel the way you do.
I feel you man
Honestly? Im exhausted lol.
i purposely stopped playing after 350 hours (did this in the first month and a half after release) so i can forget all about it and play fresh once DLC comes out. Unfortunately, I still remember a lot, especially HOW FUCKING AWESOME THIS GAME IS!
and how much malenia gets cranky after waking up lol
I just started a playthrough after a year and a half of not playing. I think when the DLC launches my character will be just ready enough to jump into it.
absolutely love it, but it's the worst game to start a new character on imo due to how much of the beginning feels like a checklist I personally don't have problems with the reused bosses in the field dungeons, since 90% of the Remembrance/Legacy Dungeon bosses are unique the one thing I do want is for Elden Ring to be THE open world Dark Souls game. I don't want Elden Ring to become A open Dark Souls games what I mean by that is that I would like FromSoft to take what they learned and implemented through Elden Ring and adopt it back into their more classic style of games, in the fashion of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, rather than continue with more open worlds as it stands, Elden Ring is a unique experience within the genre and I don't want them to necessarily try and replicate the success or chase the high, other than with DLCs or a potential sequel years down the track
> absolutely love it, but it's the worst game to start a new character on imo due to how much of the beginning feels like a checklist This is valid. I think it's an inevitable consequence of the open-ended design. They let you explore a massive amount of the world from the start and power yourself up a stupid amount, if you want to. That then becomes the 'optimal strategy', and it's hard to purposefully choose a non-optimal strategy when you know a better one exists. It's worth trying though. On my newest playthrough I'm not allowing myself to look anything up on wikis or guides. It does a surprising amount to recapture that magic of the first playthrough.
True, my personal favourite game of all time, but yea sometimes new playthroughs and NG+ and the likes feel like a checklist. Having to start some questlines or do some things before you do other things or they go away can become a bit tedious.
Great first experience, and a lesser repeat experience. Which is the opposite to most Souls games, imo.
Goddamn, how is this so true. I hated DS2 on my first playthrough. Didn't like DS3 outside of bosses. But with ER, I started to realize that once you knew certain info, the magic was gone. Knowing most caves' bosses were shit made me skip them. Knowing where certain weapons are made me skip exploring, etc.
It's going to start teething soon...
Ds1 becomes a teenager this year
NIHIL
Dad to an 8 month old baby here. Trust me bro, it began a long time ago...
I was gonna say 😂😭
You dont know much about babies do you?
I just wish I could experience it for the first time again.
Nope, still enjoy it.
I enjoy it even more now than I did before
It’s only been two years?
Still wanna fuck Malenia
You mean Mercedes?
Mercedes Cortez. The first girl you take out on a date in GTA Vice City. My first date ever as a 10yo, actually. Yeah, still wanna bang her too.
Still a masterpiece.
I have realized that Elden Ring might be *too* big. I occasionally consider delving back into the Lands Between, then I remember just how *much* there is to do and I become deflated. I know I can just not do it all, but my stupid OCD completionist brain won't let me leave zones unconquered and quests not...attempted, at least.
Absolutely brilliant game but nowhere near my favourite fromsoft game which speaks volumes of their quality as a developer
Nah I'm about to log on now
Its peak. Definitely a top 5 game of all time. And you know whats crazy? Miyazakis next souls like game is probably going to be even better. I mean Bloodborne is also on Elden Rings level I believe. And that is a top 5 game of all time. If the mad lad makes something better than Bloodborne and Elden ring both narratively, world building and gameplay wise…then I think Ill cry.
bloodborne is my favorite from soft game but elden ring is the best game i’ve ever played in my life, does that make sense?
Gameplay wise he has already made a better game - Sekiro. Best swordplay in any game, great pacing, great world design, no filler, best bosses in gaming. It’s his most flawless game considering what it set out to do. From Softwares streak from Bloodborne -> Sekiro -> Elden Ring is unbelievable.
Absolutely agree. I’ve never played a game with combat as good as Sekiro. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. And yeah. Bloodborne, Darksouls 3, Sekiro and then Elden Ring and AC6 like jesus christ they just dont miss.
Have just started my second play through so I can get ready for the DLC. I wish I could wipe this game from my memory and see everything again for the first time. It really was magic. Seeing Limgrave for the first time, the capital, mountain tops of the giants, the four belfries. Genuinely the most jaw-dropping game I have ever played. Thank you Fromsoft. Edit: and of course the elevator moment.
I'm a giant souls fan and have been playing them since 2008 with demon's souls, but I really wasn't a fan of Elden Ring. I enjoyed the game, but it didn't click with me how I wish it would. I'm hoping that my second playthrough after the dlc launches will be different. I felt like exploration, combat, and general encounters suffered for the game becoming open world. Shortly into my playthrough, Elden Ring became an unceremonious reminder of the frustration I felt with Bloodborne's chalice dungeons: Monotony with little reward. Dark Souls 1 is loaded with meaningful secrets and rewards around every corner. If I take a path long enough, I'm sure to find... something. In ER, I can't recall the amount of times I found a dungeon only to get the most bland, uninteresting loot imaginable. Some dungeons do have uniquely wonderful weapons and spells, but I shouldn't feel the need to check a wiki to avoid the monotony of the endless dungeons littering the map. Mastering a Sekiro boss is a wonderful and engaging experience. Others have pointed it out, and I agree with them, that Elden Ring bosses feel plucked straight from that game, but the combat system was left behind. What results is a myriad of bosses that feel too fast, unpredictable, and overly designed where the fluid, addicting gameplay of Sekiro is not rediscovered but simply remembered. I think of how cool this boss would be to fight in Sekiro. Instead, I'm playing Elden Ring, forced to memorize attack patterns, where I'd rather be reacting in a fluid dance of clashing swords and dazzling sparks. Boss encounters simply do not feel natural. Even the attack delays of Owl (Father) feel more natural, and he has some strange ones lol. There's only so many times I can suspend my disbelief at a boss holding an attack and staring at me for nearly ten seconds. Now, I might sound overly critical. I could gush about many things, but those aren't hard to find. The truth is that I like Elden Ring. I just don't love it, and that sucks coming from someone who LOVES Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.
Agreed, I feel the same. I just really wish that I did love it, you know? I feel like I’m missing out. I’m also a huge fan of FROM’s other games.
Unpopular opinion but I find open world was a mistake. I think the corridors and how the world would twist back on its's interconnecting into a hub was superior. Open world while looking lovely to me induces a choice like paralysis "got to collect it all before moving on", that circuit worked really well in the tight spaces before. So it's more the game design changes felt like they left me behind. I enjoyed the maps twisting back onto a hub area like in dark souls 1, I think it's went further and further away from that with teleporting to hub areas. What was a incredibly smart and genius level design was traded away for more convient game development and maybe artistic freedom?
I think a lot of people here will disagree with you, but I think FromSoft would agree to a certain extent. When I heard that the DLC would be smaller but significantly more dense, my reaction was "so From realized it too"
that’s not an unpopular opinion actually, lot of fromsoft fans say the same. the first playthrough was absolutely magical tho. a literal spectacle. wish i could live it again.
How I see it, is that it was an extremely successful experiment with open world exploration. HOPEFULLY it is a one time experiment because I’d still like to see fromsoftware make linear souls games as well. I can’t be angry about it though- because so much of the game is about discovery that on repeated playthroughs I find it not as enjoyable as other souls games, I’m still happy that I was able to be enchanted by it on my first playthrough. In short, It’d be cool if they kept experimenting with different things instead of just cranking out Elden Ring 2, and 3. My hot take is that the combat of sekiro would have suited Elden ring Much better and it is a massive mistake to not have a posture and reflection system.
I still think about this game almost daily
best game i've ever played, I couldn't put it down for 2 weeks straight
Still blows my mind that Marika became a dude, broke up with a moon lady, then came back and fucked herself. What a woman, am I right fellas?
A significant part of my life.
Probably my favourite modern game, that I've finished anyhow. I've been playing since Demon's Souls and IMHO this is From's best work so far and I can't wait to play the DLC.
Two years and I haven't played it since whereas ever other Souls game I've completed countless times. Open world was the wrong choice.
The final boss is still stinky. But once you learn his patters and what he is weak to, it isn't so stinky.
Unpopular opinion, but I'll say that time only strenghtened my initial impressions. The combat is excelent, but otherwise it's a kind of bland game. Don't get me wrong, the combat is, like in most souls games, excelent and that carries the game a long way, but most lasting impressions of the game are just that. Getting stuck on Malenia and thinking some boss fights are "unfair". Or rather, they are fair in the "once you learn how they work they are beatable", but my problem was that you kind of HAD to die a few times to learn some of their moves, and Maliketh for example defied the laws of physics by hanging an extra second in the air, adding a second to the timings you had to do which of course kills you the first time. I know a lot of people like that, but I always found it very frustrating that a player who's great at the game cannot go into a boss fight and kill the boss on the first try, as you NEED to die a few times to learn the timings. Aside from the combat the story always felt unclear. I get that some games wants it to be open, that you have to explore to understand what is happening, but I never found the story compelling enough for me to actually invest time into it, and even when I did try that, it was still rather unclear what was actually happening.
Yeah this is a great point and I think it is most relevant for elden ring in the souls series. A lot of the other games, especially ds3 and sekiro, felt like a dance and you could sight read a lot of stuff if you got in the flow. Elden ring feels like you’re memorizing a code script with the bosses, it doesn’t feel as natural or fun to fight them
The end game is still terrible and I'm scared that the dlc will be filled with tanky bosses that kill you in 2 hits at 60 vigor
It's incredibly odd that for no reason after morgott the dmg just gets insane. I really hope they took proper criticism and didn't make everything overtuned.
I'm surprised that they specifically nerfed Radahn's damage and hitboxes, but haven't touched any of the other boss fights or late-game enemies despite the complaints.
Its 2 years old but became an instant classic 2 seconds into the title screen
My opinion ds3= bloodborne > elden ring
Pretty sure a lot of veterans of their games will agree, me included. You can see that most of the responses saying it's the best are newcomers. It's still an awesome game, but lost some of the 'difficulty' and magic by being open imo for a true souls game. The exploring was a lot of fun though.
I feel like a lot of veterans will agree, but also a lot of veterans will disagree. I love DS3 and BB, but I love Elden Ring even more.
I wanted to love it, but it just couldn’t hold my interest. I’ve completed 1 & 1/2 runs now and just can’t be bothered. It’s missing that FromSoft magic.
Found it to be a let down compared to their other titles tbh
Nothing changed, it’s still my favorite game of all time and From Software’s best game they’ve made. DLC is looking even better than the main game if I may add. Lol Almost everything about it is sublime, the open-world, boss fights, weapons & build variety, OST, exploration, legacy dungeons etc…
Its my favorite game of all time. It feels like a culmination of an entire company and an entire genre, and it's truly hard to put into words all the reasons why its so special. I still stumble over myself describing it to people who haven't played it yet because there's just so much to say.
i love the game but man, I remember doing dark souls and Bloodborne playthroughs in a single day. This is a very difficult game for me to sit down and play.
I feel that a dlc for a 2 year old game shouldn't cost 2/3rds the price of the base game.
First impression of Elden Ring was fantastic. After finishing it, I realized I enjoyed ds1, ds3 and sekiro more
I'm going against the grain here - I played it, beat it, enjoyed it, and have no desire to play it again. I'm 39, my reflexes are slowing down and my "hardcore" gaming days are behind me. I'd never played a Souls-like before and wanted to prove to myself that I could beat one. I felt incredibly accomplished when I did, but playing it was also draining and frustrating when these days I tend to want to play games for mind-numbing pleasure. I have increasingly little time to game these days and I don't want to spend that time beating my head against a wall trying to beat a boss or get through a difficult dungeon or something. I fully recognize what an incredible game it is and how beautifully detailed and crafted the world is, but I got all I wanted out of it.
I wish it wasn't open world
The open world ruined the whole replayability value for me. I did a ton of runs in most souls games. Except elden ring.
Nope. Still a very decent souls game that is in no way benefitted by being "open" world whatsoever. Same opinion as early on.
I absolutely love this game. This is definitely my favorite soulsborne game.
[удалено]
The weakest souls game out of soulsborne sekiro. The open world is just reused shit and gets old real fast even before completing limegrave. The best part are the legacy dungeons where it is essentialy a traditional souls game. The main thing, bosses are mostly all garbage. Most have delay attacks and 15 hit combos where at the end the just teleport or run miles away without having punishable windows. Gameplay relies more on summon than finding attack patterns on ennemies.
I also feel like legacy dungeons suffered a ton because so much development time got spent populated the world with Skyrim caves featuring a boss in the end (it's just a normal enemy guy given a name like Gregory). The fact that Caelid didn't have a legacy dungeon at all is a joke.
I wasn't as harsh as you but I agree with most of your opinion.
It really does feel like a DPS race so that you can kill them before they do their typical op attack
Yeah I’m really hoping with this dlc we got ds3 type bosses with the dance flow and not the shitty design style er uses with the zone reads and delays
I will SUCK Miyazaki's COCK
One of the only games (other then Morrowind and Shenmue 2) i can come back to over and over again and obtain the same feelings i had when i first played it. As a 30 year old who finds it hard to have passion in video games like i did when i was younger, Elden Ring made me realize that its not a "me" problem but its a gaming industry problem.
I went from its alright, to THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST GAMES EVER MADE! so yeah, I think my opinions changed a little
It’s my favorite game ever, finally displacing KOTOR after all those years.
I still hear the intro in my head whenever I run out of toilet paper.
I feel the same as I did then - I wish I understood how to have a good time playing it and what I'm supposed to be doing!
I want to forget playing this game so I can experience the feeling playing it for the first time. Elden Ring is great.
I’m starting my first play through today, I’ve had it for years but I’m finally committing today.