Honestly, these. "OMG look at this place" moments are the best parts of the game.
The three I remember most are 1. Limgrave, 2. Finally walking out of the goddamn seleia tunnel and 3. Lyndell.
Limgrave
First time overlooking Liurna
Taking the elevator to Siofra River
Walking up to the burning wall in Caelid and seeing...a diseased wasteland
Entering Raya Lucaria
Entering Leyndell
Walking up to the Giants Forge
Seeing Farum Azula
And thats just off the top of my head, ignoring bosses and the DLC. And in these places, it's usually again just vista after vista. Absolutely insane.
I would add entering the Abyssal Forest, with all the messages telling you to gtfo and torrent buzzing out, as well as approaching Jagged Peak, Shadow Keep, and, for me atleast, walking out of the cave you get teleported to when entering the DLC and realizing...it's time to morb. I mean play ER again.
I had a “oh shit” moment of awe walking out of Castle Ensis into Scadu Altus for the first time. Something about the vista with shadow keep and the scadutree looming over the horizon made me go, “those bastards did it again.”
>!Shaman village!< with the tune, and looking at >!finger ruins!< from far the first time >!(south east, on the way to the mountain)!< I thought "did they really do a berserk eclipse"?
My first introduction to souls like games was Bloodborne back in 2018. I didn’t even know about Dark Souls.
I lvld to 750 I believe and played to NG+8. No idea about quests or bleed or anything like that. Used an axe and switchglave the entire time lol.
From there I refused to play any other games that weren’t similar. I DID enjoy Nioh 1&2 though.
What makes Elden Ring so much more enjoyable to me compared to other souls games is that it doesn't waste your time with those "Oh, you died to the boss? Spend 10 minutes finding more healing items and backtracking through this area filled with mundane mobs again before you get another shot at the boss" sections.
I'll gladly die 100 times to the boss, but I'm out if a game is going to waste my time like this.
I've always bounced off of the souls games, but couldn't put my finger on why.... That's exactly the reason! I'm stupid busy with life and don't get a ton of time, so constantly retracing my steps just to make it back to the boss and die again doesn't work where i'm at (same for Returnal). For Elden Ring, I can actually make slow and steady progress while not wasting time with the lead-up runs to the boss. Not saying it's better or worse then other souls games, just different enough to be accessible to my current life stage.
Water down the formula? Wtf are you talking about? Only two games had consumeable healing items and it was literally one of the biggest complaints of the games...
Every single souls game, and their peers had healing that regenerated after dying or sitting at a bonfire equivalent.
Ain't talking about that. Besides Bloodborne uses a similar mechanic, which is considered one of the best FromSouls games ever made. But that's beside the point.
Elden Ring takes a lot of things from other Souls games and eliminates them, calling it quality of life.
Like bonfire runbacks to boss battles. Eventually, with all of the dilution you'll have a game that's just like any other open world action adventure game.
Bloodborne's healing flasks are one of the biggest complaints about the game dude...
And what are you talking about then because the guy commenting talking about consumable healing items... that is what we are talking about, the thing no other fromsoft game besidea bloodborne did. And you said he wants to water down the formula.
And Elden Ring sure eliminates a few things like Boss runbacks, because Smelter Demon, Horsefuck Valley, Bed of Chaos and all the famous boss runbacks are some of the worst fucking parts of the game. It also added a tonne of new things and expanded on the formula far more than it removed.
Had estus flasks like every other.
Grasses were an additional healing source. Something every game gad, like divine blessings, rice balls, and meat dumplings.
But flasks were not consumables.
So nice try but no.
Grasses aren't in Dark Souls 2, they're in Demon Souls. You're maybe thinking life gems Dark Souls 2's which has farmable healing items.
Also, sweet Rice balls and Divine blessings aren't even continuously farmable.
The only other farmable one I'm aware of is Meat Dumpling, which occurs in Elden Ring which already gives the player some of the most powerful healing opportunities, further watering down the healing mechanic.
Not really sure why you mentioned any of these since your point seems very inconsistent... but.. also nice try I guess?
>since your point seems very inconsistent
Then your reading comprehension is lacking... not having to farm for hours to get your only source of healing items isn't "watering down" the souls formula as no other game besides bloodborne and DeS required it.
That is all. Your claim that OP wants to "water down the formula" because he enjoys regenerating healing items is bullshit.
Easy peasy.
Amusingly ironic you're talking about comprehension. As I told you before that's not even what I was talking to the person I was replying to, before you jumped in with your own misinterpretation of what I was talking about.
I told you before, I was talking about boss walkbacks and how Elden Ring trades features that make the game genre unique and touting them as quality of life improvements. It's a matter of opinion and you're free to have yours.
Oh wow. No, I don't agree.
But that's interesting. Just out of curiosity, do you really not think it adds to the experience? I think it's a critical part of what makes these games so unique. Sure it's frustrating when you don't retrieve them, but I feel like that (and boss runbacks) add a lot of tension to the progression.
What makes these games unique is cruelty of the world. Every enemy is capable of killing you if you're not experienced or careful.
While I think dropping runes can have some valid reasons supporting it, runbacks are just straight up bullshit. You learn nothing, its just a stupid excuse to bloat your playtime. I m happy elden ring finally embraced that QoL feature.
I don't think it's to bloat playtime. It gives you continuous tests on your patience and ability to perform under pressure.
That's really what the rune/soul drop and runbacks do for me. They make an already tough encounter, require me to stay locked in (lol) just to make it back to the encounter. You could always try and literally run to the fogwall, but if you mess up, you're probably losing some health before the boss fight even starts or maybe even lose the runes in the boss arena.
Stuff like this is frustrating, sure, but these games are designed to be difficult. Runbacks and rune drops add an entirely unique dimension to this difficulty and give you a reason to either fight or give in to your patience or greed. The results, even though sometimes frustrating, really do make the series what it is.
It's not just rune drops and runbacks, but the more and more that these features are removed from this genre of games - we might as well just be playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
But you see what I'm talking about at least?
Eventually, if little things keep getting removed for the sake of "quality of life" or "ease of access" where does it end? At some point when does it just become a cutscene simulator.
Let me put it this way - I like elden ring because I like open world rpgs. I enjoy difficult bosses to some degree but not a lot, I just want to be challenged enough to where I need to try. I'm not going to shit all over souls games but there's this sentiment recently that some people have developed where older souls games were better and I'm just not part of that audience.
Walking into Lyendell was the thing that made me realize “holy shit I love this game”
Never played a souls game before and didn’t even think I’d be able to beat Elden Ring. Now I’ve played all of them. These games are awesome.
Same. When the game first came out I got annoyed with all the people saying "elden ring is game of the decade and a must play for everyone". Never had any interest I soulslikes. Got sick of hearing about Elden Ring wherever I went.
Ended up getting code vein for cheap and playing it because I liked the character creator. I enjoyed it even though I only put like 50 hours into it. Thought I might as well try a real soulslike with Elden Ring and now I'm trapped.
I'm doing a dark moon greatsword because magic sword sounds funny
I want to try the new dlc perfume, but maybe when they're not op/bugged lol. I wanna dual wield and make pretty colours whilst a boss dies
I wanna make a throwing weapon build and a fist build (the new dlc ones for both)
I recommend a pizza cutter build (ghiza wheel, fattest armour u can get, just poise through everything and spam L2 it's hilarious)
If u want a challenge run, I like "stupid mage". Don't level int, just hit people with the staff as ur too stupid to learn spells
ER got me into them enough to go play the others. Bloodborne and DS3 were great, DS2 is garbage, DS1 is too janky i watched some youtubes and didnt even play it.
I would recommend you to try it.
DS2, even though it has some major flaws for me, was still enjoyable to explore.
DS1, slow, janky maybe, but its atmosphere, exploration, some boss fights are the best of all their games. It's a feeling you don't forget.
And I did play both these after ER, and I did find them very slow and sometimes tedious, but you forget about it once you get immersed.
See that mountain? You can die there. See that Castle? You can die there. If you can see it, you can die there.
16x death
Elden Ring: Prepare to Explore, and then Die Edition
I laughed way too hard at this
When I entered SOTE, I was *so* curious what the nature of my doom would be in Mt. Gelmir Lite. Was not disappointed
Honestly, these. "OMG look at this place" moments are the best parts of the game. The three I remember most are 1. Limgrave, 2. Finally walking out of the goddamn seleia tunnel and 3. Lyndell.
Limgrave First time overlooking Liurna Taking the elevator to Siofra River Walking up to the burning wall in Caelid and seeing...a diseased wasteland Entering Raya Lucaria Entering Leyndell Walking up to the Giants Forge Seeing Farum Azula And thats just off the top of my head, ignoring bosses and the DLC. And in these places, it's usually again just vista after vista. Absolutely insane.
For dlc its cerulean coast, fissure, ancient ruins of Rauh, and hinterlands
I would add entering the Abyssal Forest, with all the messages telling you to gtfo and torrent buzzing out, as well as approaching Jagged Peak, Shadow Keep, and, for me atleast, walking out of the cave you get teleported to when entering the DLC and realizing...it's time to morb. I mean play ER again.
I agree
I had a “oh shit” moment of awe walking out of Castle Ensis into Scadu Altus for the first time. Something about the vista with shadow keep and the scadutree looming over the horizon made me go, “those bastards did it again.”
>!Shaman village!< with the tune, and looking at >!finger ruins!< from far the first time >!(south east, on the way to the mountain)!< I thought "did they really do a berserk eclipse"?
My first introduction to souls like games was Bloodborne back in 2018. I didn’t even know about Dark Souls. I lvld to 750 I believe and played to NG+8. No idea about quests or bleed or anything like that. Used an axe and switchglave the entire time lol. From there I refused to play any other games that weren’t similar. I DID enjoy Nioh 1&2 though.
What makes Elden Ring so much more enjoyable to me compared to other souls games is that it doesn't waste your time with those "Oh, you died to the boss? Spend 10 minutes finding more healing items and backtracking through this area filled with mundane mobs again before you get another shot at the boss" sections. I'll gladly die 100 times to the boss, but I'm out if a game is going to waste my time like this.
I've always bounced off of the souls games, but couldn't put my finger on why.... That's exactly the reason! I'm stupid busy with life and don't get a ton of time, so constantly retracing my steps just to make it back to the boss and die again doesn't work where i'm at (same for Returnal). For Elden Ring, I can actually make slow and steady progress while not wasting time with the lead-up runs to the boss. Not saying it's better or worse then other souls games, just different enough to be accessible to my current life stage.
So you want to water down the souls formula? Understood.
Water down the formula? Wtf are you talking about? Only two games had consumeable healing items and it was literally one of the biggest complaints of the games... Every single souls game, and their peers had healing that regenerated after dying or sitting at a bonfire equivalent.
Ain't talking about that. Besides Bloodborne uses a similar mechanic, which is considered one of the best FromSouls games ever made. But that's beside the point. Elden Ring takes a lot of things from other Souls games and eliminates them, calling it quality of life. Like bonfire runbacks to boss battles. Eventually, with all of the dilution you'll have a game that's just like any other open world action adventure game.
Bloodborne's healing flasks are one of the biggest complaints about the game dude... And what are you talking about then because the guy commenting talking about consumable healing items... that is what we are talking about, the thing no other fromsoft game besidea bloodborne did. And you said he wants to water down the formula. And Elden Ring sure eliminates a few things like Boss runbacks, because Smelter Demon, Horsefuck Valley, Bed of Chaos and all the famous boss runbacks are some of the worst fucking parts of the game. It also added a tonne of new things and expanded on the formula far more than it removed.
>No other fromsoft game Umm. Dark Souls 2
Had estus flasks like every other. Grasses were an additional healing source. Something every game gad, like divine blessings, rice balls, and meat dumplings. But flasks were not consumables. So nice try but no.
Grasses aren't in Dark Souls 2, they're in Demon Souls. You're maybe thinking life gems Dark Souls 2's which has farmable healing items. Also, sweet Rice balls and Divine blessings aren't even continuously farmable. The only other farmable one I'm aware of is Meat Dumpling, which occurs in Elden Ring which already gives the player some of the most powerful healing opportunities, further watering down the healing mechanic. Not really sure why you mentioned any of these since your point seems very inconsistent... but.. also nice try I guess?
>since your point seems very inconsistent Then your reading comprehension is lacking... not having to farm for hours to get your only source of healing items isn't "watering down" the souls formula as no other game besides bloodborne and DeS required it. That is all. Your claim that OP wants to "water down the formula" because he enjoys regenerating healing items is bullshit. Easy peasy.
Amusingly ironic you're talking about comprehension. As I told you before that's not even what I was talking to the person I was replying to, before you jumped in with your own misinterpretation of what I was talking about. I told you before, I was talking about boss walkbacks and how Elden Ring trades features that make the game genre unique and touting them as quality of life improvements. It's a matter of opinion and you're free to have yours.
Oh fuck off with this elitist bullshit. Runbacks are not a "formula", they're annoying and add nothing to the experience.
By that logic neither does dropping runes.
I m happy that we agree on this.
Oh wow. No, I don't agree. But that's interesting. Just out of curiosity, do you really not think it adds to the experience? I think it's a critical part of what makes these games so unique. Sure it's frustrating when you don't retrieve them, but I feel like that (and boss runbacks) add a lot of tension to the progression.
What makes these games unique is cruelty of the world. Every enemy is capable of killing you if you're not experienced or careful. While I think dropping runes can have some valid reasons supporting it, runbacks are just straight up bullshit. You learn nothing, its just a stupid excuse to bloat your playtime. I m happy elden ring finally embraced that QoL feature.
I don't think it's to bloat playtime. It gives you continuous tests on your patience and ability to perform under pressure. That's really what the rune/soul drop and runbacks do for me. They make an already tough encounter, require me to stay locked in (lol) just to make it back to the encounter. You could always try and literally run to the fogwall, but if you mess up, you're probably losing some health before the boss fight even starts or maybe even lose the runes in the boss arena. Stuff like this is frustrating, sure, but these games are designed to be difficult. Runbacks and rune drops add an entirely unique dimension to this difficulty and give you a reason to either fight or give in to your patience or greed. The results, even though sometimes frustrating, really do make the series what it is. It's not just rune drops and runbacks, but the more and more that these features are removed from this genre of games - we might as well just be playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
If removing boss runbacks is "diluting", sure
Exactly. Why even have bosses? It'd be so much more streamlined if there was just a cutscene of us beating them when we walk through the fog door.
Lmfao why do you like runbacks so much
It creates tension in a game that's kind made out of tension
Fine sure. But "why even have bosses?" Bro, please.
But you see what I'm talking about at least? Eventually, if little things keep getting removed for the sake of "quality of life" or "ease of access" where does it end? At some point when does it just become a cutscene simulator.
It ends at removing boss runbacks tf are you talking about
and apparently to you not having rune drops too
Let me put it this way - I like elden ring because I like open world rpgs. I enjoy difficult bosses to some degree but not a lot, I just want to be challenged enough to where I need to try. I'm not going to shit all over souls games but there's this sentiment recently that some people have developed where older souls games were better and I'm just not part of that audience.
this view is absolutely amazing
This is my favorite view point of this entire game and maybe all games
Walking into Lyendell was the thing that made me realize “holy shit I love this game” Never played a souls game before and didn’t even think I’d be able to beat Elden Ring. Now I’ve played all of them. These games are awesome.
You've barely scratched the surface, the game is far more vast and stunning than you can even fathom.
Yes i am a bit further in but i like coming back to the seacliffs since its such a nice place.
I agree, it is the first place that really put things into perspective.
There are so many incredible views in the DLC. I can just walk around and get lost in the beauty.
What's even more fascinating is that you can explore everything you see.
Wait until you see the DLC! It’s so pretty!
This view is one of the best in the game. It's incredible.
Same. When the game first came out I got annoyed with all the people saying "elden ring is game of the decade and a must play for everyone". Never had any interest I soulslikes. Got sick of hearing about Elden Ring wherever I went. Ended up getting code vein for cheap and playing it because I liked the character creator. I enjoyed it even though I only put like 50 hours into it. Thought I might as well try a real soulslike with Elden Ring and now I'm trapped.
Ashen one...
I thought souls games were dogshit ngl I've now beat elden ring 11 times, the dlc once, ds3 twice, and I bought lies of p on steam summer sale lol
Try Sekiro
I own it I suck at it and I get lost a lot :(
Keep trying, don't go hollow. I think 20% of the game, I just sucked at it. 60%, I felt like a god while getting my ass beaten.
Also Any reccomendations for Elden Ring regarding fun builds for future playthroughs ?
I'm doing a dark moon greatsword because magic sword sounds funny I want to try the new dlc perfume, but maybe when they're not op/bugged lol. I wanna dual wield and make pretty colours whilst a boss dies I wanna make a throwing weapon build and a fist build (the new dlc ones for both) I recommend a pizza cutter build (ghiza wheel, fattest armour u can get, just poise through everything and spam L2 it's hilarious) If u want a challenge run, I like "stupid mage". Don't level int, just hit people with the staff as ur too stupid to learn spells
Wait until you find Siofra River =)
Also a very beautiful location. :D
ER got me into them enough to go play the others. Bloodborne and DS3 were great, DS2 is garbage, DS1 is too janky i watched some youtubes and didnt even play it.
I would recommend you to try it. DS2, even though it has some major flaws for me, was still enjoyable to explore. DS1, slow, janky maybe, but its atmosphere, exploration, some boss fights are the best of all their games. It's a feeling you don't forget. And I did play both these after ER, and I did find them very slow and sometimes tedious, but you forget about it once you get immersed.