Elden Ring

[Tobal]

I have another stupid question to ask - how do you kick in this game? Or has that been removed now?

Been removed, though you can get it a ash of war ability on crossbows.

[112]

Been removed, though you can get it a ash of war ability on crossbows.

That’s a real shame… Nothing like a swift kick to unsettle shield huggers… Thanks for the info Tobal!

112

[Golgo]

Only played about 3 hours but I'm very impressed with this.

The technical/QoL improvements over previous Soulsbornes are small but numerous and very well done, and they make the game just that little bit more fun to play: the easily-accessible special weapon abilities including HUD display of 'what's on offer'; the fact you get a bit of a flask refill for clearing groups of enemies (this is truly great and the best incentive From have ever come up with for getting players stuck in); the dedicated jump button; the straightforward explanation and neat implementation of core mechanics like coop; the heads-up to where you dropped your runes when you died; the easy switch in and out of two-handed wielding; etc. Crafting system is neat (I'm playing a bow character for the first time and it will definitely come in handy there), the HUD is clean and informative (I set this to 'always on'), and the pouch (accessible via triangle) adds another welcome layer of flexibility/options.

Only been exploring the first area and have already been surprised by the creatures, events, mysteries. There are some suspicious-looking things I'm going nowhere near for a while. It definitely has that BotW feel of a properly intriguing open world rather than an occasion for littering a drab terrain with question marks.

Playing on an old vanilla PS4 and it looks and runs well with no major protestations from the fan. Current gen players might feel a bit cheated but I think it looks beautiful for a PS4 game.

[thinkitty]

After a dozen hours play, this is already becoming one of my favourite games. Exploring the world is so satisfying and rewarding, so full of surprises, at times terrifying; and the boss fights are simply incredible. I take back what I said about the graphics too because for the vast majority of the time the game looks really nice and looks rough only very occasionally depending on the lighting.The weight of combat and art direction remind me of Demon's Souls more than Dark Souls - which is no bad thing, and the world design has just the right amount of otherworldliness.

The one mechanic I haven't yet taken to entirely is the steed which I find difficult to use fluently, especially in combat and when using the whirlwind steed jumping points but maybe that will come with practice. Bested four bosses so far, two minor and two major and they were all so much fun. Great game.

[Adam]

That’s a real shame… Nothing like a swift kick to unsettle shield huggers… Thanks for the info Tobal!

112

It's a skill that comes with some crossbows (or bows?) now I think.

[briareos_kerensky]

After bashing my head on two bosses I couldn't seem to defeat no matter how much I've tried, I said

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"eff it, I'm gonna explore that area where invisible midgets killed me", so I went there, racked up a few souls runes for killing some of those midgets, and reached a bridge.
With a wyvern on it. Yes, the game calls it a dragon but it has two wings and two legs, hence wyvern.

Somehow I manage to dodge its attacks and make a strategic retreat, and end up in a new area with a grace in it...right in front of a small structure with a sealed, bright blue door I cannot open.

I spend my runes and back on the road...I follow a small road away from the structure and a metal ball teleports behind me and flattens my tarnished behind. Well, that's what all those bloodstains are about (for some reason I can see the bloodstains but they always fail to load their owner's death).
I retry, the ball reappears but I know what to do and I sprint past it...only that the ball apparently homes in on you no matter the incline and flattens me again.

Nice.

OK, let's try another route. Hey, there's a knight on that bridge, let's see what I can...oh, it's a boss? I start making my strategic retreat but it doesn't let up, and the road I take is littered with invisible poison traps. Nevertheless I continue and the boss health bar finally disappears.
The "Enemy Felled" appears on screen, along an Ash of War, and 40k souls runes.

I frantically trace my steps to nearest grace, and I level up several times, and I'm finally able to wield a curved greatsword a boss from one evergaol dropped.
A quick trip to the roundtable to upgrade it, and I try one of the bosses I failed so many times to kill...and the curved greatsword absolutely eats through it, also thanks to the boss suffering blood loss from hits of the greatsword.

And now I'm exploring Stormveil castle, the first proper Soulslike dungeon I visited.

Nice!

That’s a real shame… Nothing like a swift kick to unsettle shield huggers… Thanks for the info Tobal!
112

The shortword also has it, a probably more weapons too.

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Patches uses a pretty devastating kick the first you encounter him.

[Tobal]

20 hours in... only just learned about the guard counter just hitting Heavy attack after a standard block which eats up alot of stamina(which it tells you about in the tutorial ), but it has made my life verses regular enemies much easy as nearly every regular sized foe get staggered or big dudes interrupted enough to roll away.

Found myself the whip, so a new play through doing a castlevania run is possible (as long as i run past everything in the area to get to it)

Still not found out if making fire/thunder/magic/holy/poison weapon is possible.. i assume it's a case of finding the right whetstone.

[Finsbury Girl]

First game I have bought on release date since Dark Souls 3. Unlocked at Midnight Fri morning had to force myself to go to bed at 1am

Work interrupted my weekend but I've managed about 20 ish hours so far and it is magnificent (Praise the Sun).

I have zero clue what is happening apart from I need to get the Elden Ring. Spent most of my time exploring especially lands far away where I am extremely under levelled. Playing a female wretch STR build took me forever to find more weapons but now rocking a warhammer.

Reckon I will invest a bit in magic as it seems OP and

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Margrit

is kicking my arse. The summons is weird I still cannot work out when I can summon my buddies or cannot. Some peeps talk about summoning them for bosses but I couldn't for

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Magrit

. I must be doing something wrong.

So far I have

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took back some Lord's castle for him, he promised me a knighthood but didn't deliver

and I think

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joined some covenant with a big beast dude on the other side of the map

ran away from loads of big scary monsters and killed a lot of dungeon mini bosses. Oh and the

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jelly fish spirit with the poison has helped me cheese some bosses in the open world

This is so so good. Yeah yeah reused monster and stuff from DS but I don't care. The new mechanics and loads of respawn points next to bosses make it so much more enjoyable as I honestly couldn't give a monkeys about dying now.

One tip

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try and find all of the churches I've found heaps so far and have managed to level up my flask heaps

I love this game

[thinkitty]

I love all the subtle nuances and random events. I've noticed common enemies will sometimes have golden eyes and are well worth going out of your way to put down as they provide 5 times an many runes as their regular counterparts. Also noticed that occasionally the Elden Tree will produce pollen which rains down (looks a bit like golden snow) which seems to buff your character as buff icons appear under the HP/FP/Stamina bars but am unsure what the effect is. Seems some bosses/enemies appear only at night too.

[Tobal]

Tonights adventure was trying to find the Divine Tower the 2 fingered witch lady at the roundtable talked about is used for great runes, looked in the north Limgrave to start with and what i thought was the tower turned out to be

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a school for mages or more accurately just a huge entrance building for the school made up of multiple layers and with an extremely tough none-invader(blue type), had to chicken out and run past to loot the building as far as i could go.. seemed to be some crazy contraption in the ceiling i couldn't lower yet to get to into the school proper

after that on my way back found the underground well connection northern Limgrave area... turned in to EDF,

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tunnels and tunnels of ants, found the dark souls sewer frogs , some kind of giant hanging upside down moth thing in huge cavern shooting magic rocks at extreme distances and hordes tough skinned folk. Also chickened out adventuring into another huge cavern of a oddly clothed massive skeleton the one that shows up in the loading screens, definitely looked like a mega boss cutscene trap... didn't want to lose my 9000 runes.

and finally decided the only place left was

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the bridge/tower connected to Stormveil castle, sure enough there was a horrible route i'd avoided earlier full of ninja full plated knights, blade lions and rows of ballista...

anyway i finally got to the tower and powered up the great rune gotten from godrick... after equipping it at a grace sight and burning a rune arc on it i now have +6 to all my stats, which is crazy good and helps me actually use some of those 20-30 stated weapons, useful as all the holy weapons i've found so far have STR/DEX/FTH combo's in the 20's.

[Finsbury Girl]

I love all the subtle nuances and random events. I've noticed common enemies will sometimes have golden eyes and are well worth going out of your way to put down as they provide 5 times an many runes as their regular counterparts. Also noticed that occasionally the Elden Tree will produce pollen which rains down (looks a bit like golden snow) which seems to buff your character as buff icons appear under the HP/FP/Stamina bars but am unsure what the effect is. Seems some bosses/enemies appear only at night too.

Amazing!

[112]

I had another mini run at this game last night and I’ve finally realised how to access my horse… it only took me till 5 hours in to realise I had to equip an item to do it. Dearly me…

Generally the game moves a lot faster than previous ones, and I am very impressed with how swift and how much control you have when on horse back. In some other games where a horse is involved, the play mechanic generally has the horse drag your character along, especially when making quick turns. In Elden Ring, the horse is responsive and genuinely feels like an extension of the character, rather than a separate entity. So I was bouncing away on my journey yesterday evening… It was most gratifying to be horsing around

My journey has lead me to Storm Castle and back to Limgrave. It was only when I got to Limgrave again that I realised I could warp using the bonfires (I forget the new terms used in this game). I’m a slow gamer with impatient tendencies and when overwhelmed by lots of text, I tend to skim read and miss out on vital information. It’s to my undoing, as I end up missing stuff and wander aimlessly for hours before figuring out what to do next.

There are a lot of WTF moments at most corners as you journey through a hostile land - so rarely does it get boring.

Out of interest, does anyone know if you can permanently kill NPCs, like in previous Souls games, where you’ve literally ruin your playthrough of the game? I’ve not dared to strike any NPCs yet, but I can see accidents happening, especially when inadvertently pressing a trigger button.

The game really looks epic in scale and lore, such an evolution of the series. Fun stuff so far…

112

[Golgo]

The plot so far seems to be the Souls plot, right?

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There was a time of peace and prosperity and great lords, now that's gone tits up and there are only manky lords left, but you - a lowly undead of no renown - will rise to sort it all out.

I'm not seeing much evidence of the influence of George R. R. Martin so far, unless there are some awkward sex scenes coming up.

ps #1: One mechanical annoyance carried over from previous games (unless I've simply not been able to work out how to do it): you can't compare the stats of gear in the shop with gear you own/have equipped. They should've sorted that.

ps #2: I got the horse. This is really cute, actually, and I think they're playing this one for laughs. It's basically a horse/cow/yak hybrid with stumpy little legs. Fun to trundle into battle on him/her against the mighty towering fortified steeds of the enemy.

[thinkitty]

I forgot George R R Martin had a hand in the writing. I have met a few NPCs whose quests/dialogue/northern accents seem lifted straight out of Game of Thrones but I don't know if they are George R R Martin's design.

[fuse]

Fairly sure I've found my way to the first big boss, who, big surprise, did not lay down and die compliantly the first time we met. That's alright pal, I'll be back for you.

Do feel a bit like I'm doing things a little wrong though - am using a weapon that I got within about 30 mins of starting, not really using any weapon skills, and haven't wrapped my head around lots of the new systems (crafting, the potion-mixing thing etc). Most of my time's still been spent just horsing about, touching grace and so on.