Elden Ring

[Tobal]

In light of the universal enthusiasm for the obvious qualities of this game I feel something of a churl as I've been struggling to continue. I think I just generally prefer the more enclosed labyrinthine experience of your standard Soulsbornes rather than this open world, which doesn't do much for me - especially when you find another duplicate cave system with a duplicate mini-boss at the end.

you can always just ignore the caves/catacombs and ruins, there are alot of medium to large enclosed areas to investigate that are just classic Dark Souls areas like a Blight town or a undead burg, it really is just down to you.

[briareos_kerensky]

Explored

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Volcano manor and the area around it after finding the secret passage.
After some wandering, I arrive at a church, I see a message in the distance and despite thinking it'd be something stupid I go there anyway...it was close to an item. Got the item, I approach the message, boss health bar and name appear, choir music starts, I frantically search where it could be...and nothing.
Did I trigger a boss inside the church without passing a golden fog gate? Well yes I did, the gate was on the left of my previous path.
So I want to test if "gated" bosses have an aggro range, start wandering some more, reach a(n other) lava lake, messages say "dragon ahead", and bam, third Magma Wyrm I find in the game. Health bar is still from the boss before though, so I backtrack and go kill that boss, which wasn't particularly hard anyway.
I must say that Volcano Manor loops very nicely, still have to explore everything but I've got a Seedbed Curse for Dung Eater, and finally a Sombering Stone 7 so I can upgrade my sword. And since I already have version 8 and 9, now I only lack the final smithing stone to upgrade...and I don't know where to find it.

Oh well.

[gordon]

In light of the universal enthusiasm for the obvious qualities of this game I feel something of a churl as I've been struggling to continue. I think I just generally prefer the more enclosed labyrinthine experience of your standard Soulsbornes rather than this open world, which doesn't do much for me - especially when you find another duplicate cave system with a duplicate mini-boss at the end.

I think that’s a valid point, and the one that will stop me playing this as many times as I gave DS3 and Bloodborne. They were oppressive, tight, beautifully designed arcade-style worlds; Elden Ring has those elements but is something new. It’s not Dark Souls 4 though. I’ll play it twice more for the platinum, but after that I’m not sure.

[QualityChimp]

I said something similar to [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION] recently, comparing Resident Evil 2, which has a really narrow, but structed narrative.
Yes, you can replay it faster to get better weapons, but the reason to extend play is to just re-experience it.

With Elden Ring and other open world games, I wondered if that loss of guidance is actually a bad thing.

Personally, I think having something different from Demon's, Dark 1-3 and Borne is a good thing, but it's definitely a shift for seasoned Soulsters.

[Tobal]

Clear Volcano Manor to about 90%,

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3 locked doors with the Lady NPC as i didn't do the NPC kill quest and there's 2 ledges in long dark room before the great rune boss warp, full of cages you hop down on... not figured it out. Took on 4th story boss Rykard, which is fun gimmick fight like Storm King(with the storm ruler) or one with giant i can't remember which souls it was, lost the couple of times as i didn't know normal attacks with the serpent spear produces the light blades and one run where it suddenly became Doom with Rykard channelling Pain Elemental energy and launching countless exploding Lost Souls at me...

after that i remembered i had the key Ranni gave me when i finished her quest

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fingerslayer quest used in the Study Hall, flipped the building upside down for some fighting and platforming on way to Liurnia divine tower.

Still not found my way to the bottom left cliff plato of Liurnia..

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i assume it has to be something do with the underground area of the lake of rot, which goes very near it.

[briareos_kerensky]

Some fake walls take more hits to reveal.

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[Tobal]

Some fake walls take more hits to reveal.

Oh no! which messages do i trust

I can imagine someone is going hit every wall now for 50 hits.

[Tobal]

Took on Astel naturalborn of the void,

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found him after riding a stone coffin at the bottom of the rot lake, pretty damn tough for melee build as his weak points are well guarded by nasty gravity aoe moves. After alot of fights, i nailed it down to hitting the ****er with rot and poison which is quickly applied as long as you can keep up the attacks to apply it which was made alot easier by use a automatic crossbow. Now i need to find some sort of ring to access whatever is behind his arena.

Tried takes on the Dog Solider in the Lakes of Rot, 1 hit kills regardless of my armour...

Also it looks like the Door thing may be a mistake by FS, the door has 999HP which is like other cutscene doors in previous Dark Souls games where they had 99HP and capped Def so it couldn't be broken by a player, seems they forgot to put the defence stat on the door.

[fuse]

Making absolutely no apologies for save scumming, that'll be me with the platinum. 71 hours. I'm sure if you're wanting to do it without taking that approach, with just a little knowledge you can be very selective about what you need to tackle and brush through NG+ cycles pretty quick, but I think at least for now, I'm done with it.

In agreement with popular opinion that the game's hardest boss is an optional one, and honestly if you get yourself to the position that you can deal with them, the rest of the game's challenges are utterly trivial.

To go back to the last page's comments - the shift to open world was my biggest concern going in, and it's definitely responsible for my most prominent negative thoughts about it. The caves and catacombs are some of the least inspired sections of level design that have made it into these games, and there's a lot more of them than I can even pretend to get excited about. Areas between can still be impressive with some big ol' vistas, and when you actually arrive at one of the proper destinations there's still plenty of incredible, clever design, but those bits between them are undeniably less tight and it does feel like you're expected to just ride through at high speed. The fact you can tug at so many different strings of progression in so many different directions does make it a far more approachable game, but it does mean you can end up in some areas when you're far too strong for them to pose any challenge. I am not trying to stoke any nonsense "git gud" fires here, but it does take away from the idea that you have to be on your guard at all times when you're able to steamroll through so much it.

I'm... not sure how I feel about the story yet. Naturally it's obtuse, and I probably owe it a bit more thought and research while it's still fresh in my mind.

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That said: Marika, Melina, Margit, Miriel, Mohg, Maliketh, Malenia, Miquella... really now.

[briareos_kerensky]

Yeah, the names...almost all start either with a G, R, or M. I see what they did but it makes hard to differentiate between characters.

[fuse]

The big man's come out to comment on this himself.

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2022/03/21/this-that-and-tother-things/

Oh, and as long as I am setting stuff straight, there’s a weird story all over the internet about how I “hid” my initials in ELDEN RING because… ah.. some of the characters have names beginning with R, or G, or M. To which I say, “Eh? What? Really?” This was news to me. I have been writing and publishing stories since 1971, and I suspect that I have been giving characters names beginning with R and G and M since the start. Along with the other twenty-three letters of the alphabet as well Coming up with names is hard, especially since A SONG OF ICE & FIRE uses so many of them, and I am fond of giving family members and close kin names that have something in common… but really, why would I have to hide my name inside the game? My name is right there ON the game, as one of the creators. Hey, ELDEN RING is exciting enough, no need to make up stuff.

[Golgo]

So he's clarified what he didn't do on the game. Has he come out yet and clarified what he did do?

[briareos_kerensky]

Arrived

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at the city at the base of the Erdtree...of course it'd have a sewer system as big as the city above culminating in a boss fight...I think I'm halway done exploring the sewers and a third (or less, maybe) the city itself. Already took care of everything within the walls, with the exception of a Hero's Grave.

[nonny]

First time playing this in the last week as I had to take a break but this new patch definitely improved the Xbox version... both on my Series S and X this is running much smoother. Still the odd drop but much better overall.

[Tobal]

Why did i not know about using those wind jumps to fall on to... didn't realise till i read a message on a large cliff above one, opened up few places i hadn't been to in limgrave and found a painter guy.