Jump to content
NEurope
Sign in to follow this  
Julius

Elden Ring (25th February 2022)

Recommended Posts

I can totally get why @Hero-of-Time is conflicted with this game.  It has all the core mechanics of the From Software Souls games intact, but the switch to Open World means that it is inevitably going to have to give up the tight, interconnected level design and pacing that defined the previous games.

The level design of the Souls games is just as important, if not even moreso, than the core combat gameplay to the overall experience.  It's not a small change being made here.  So even if it succeeds to capture the Souls experience in many ways, it's inevitably going to lose a lot of the appeal that the earlier games had.

I personally cannot stand Open World games at all, so I'd be pretty livid if I was a big fan of the Souls games myself (for the record, I'm not much of a fan of the Souls games; but as a long-time Zelda, Mario and Pokemon fan? I understand the pain).

Edited by Dcubed
  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Game is selling well, let's pretend to be surprised :p

The really surprising thing for me was seeing a friend from high school in my friends list playing the game, as he's the type to only really jump on FIFA/GTA/CoD/big single player or multiplayer experiences. Nothing wrong with that of course, but very surprising, just shows how great a job has been done with the marketing of this game. 

46 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm now 7 hours into the game and have my character at level 44, with Utchig....Uchitag....that samurai sword that I can't spell or pronounce at level +6. I've killed many a mini boss and wrecked the first two proper bosses. I have to say, so far this is definitely the easiest SoulsBorne game I've played. Even if I done lots of early grinding in the past games, some of the early areas still provided a bit of challenge but so far that hasn't been the case here. It's been pretty much smooth sailing.

Firstly: good lord, I respect the grind :D I did a bit of grinding myself yesterday in a nice spot and got my secondary attributes for my hybrid build (DEX/INT) up to where I wanted them (18/15) and then got my primary attributes all up to snuff (STR/VIG/END to 25). I didn't do any grinding in Dark Souls but did a lot of it to farm Grass at the entry to 1-3 in Demon's Souls, so now I've just been going back whenever I beat a boss and find myself a bit short on Runes. 

I've only played through Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, so can't talk to the same extent about its difficulty compared to the other games as yourself and some of the others here, but I agree, it hasn't been that difficult *touches wood* so far. I think it just comes down to the sheer variety of tools at your disposal: every build seems viable, every weapon and moveset seems viable, there are Ash Summons, Flasks of Physick, Jump Attacks, and Shield Counters definitely makes most scenarios manageable, so long as you're smart about it. You can grab a pair of greatswords and demolish a lot of things in this game with jump attacks. 

There's only been one mini-boss (well, two, they were a pair) I've come across so far where my Ash Summons were practically useless, and for the bosses I was facing, the arena just wasn't great, because you ended up with your back to the wall in a massive room, which just doesn't suit my build. I'll be going back I'm sure, but it's the only one where I was like "eh, that's not a good boss fight", though to be fair I think the pairs of identical bosses with different weapons/conditions are just going to be like that when I'm wielding a melee build. 

The biggest thing for me that I was worried about to be honest when it came to the difficulty was the speed of the game, as I've mentioned before. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are slow and in terms of their actual gameplay code, a decade old by the time I got around to them, but I've found I've adapted relatively quickly in some bizarre scenarios that I never came across in those two games when it comes to speed and variety, especially when it comes to some of the bosses. The first one gave me a bit of a hilariously rough time, though looking back I was under-levelled, on one occasion got too greedy, and on another he forced me off a cliff on what was easily my best attempt. 

Something else that definitely feeds into that I feel is the Stakes of Marika at most bosses and mini-bosses. I love the boss fights in what I've played of From games a whole lot (though there are some bad ones) and so it's nice to be able to just go back and get stuck in, but it also makes it a lot easier to learn the boss inside and out when you don't have to remember half a mile of other things you need to sprint through/dodge roll from/not set off. There are also waaaaaaaay more NPC summons than I've been used to, the only one I used prior to this was a missable one in Demon's Souls, which felt earned. 

All a move to make it more approachable I guess. The challenge is still there fundamentally I think if you decide to play solo/not use Ash Summons/NPC summons, but the sheer amount of tools at your disposal can definitely take away a good chunk of it. 

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

He's put about 30 hours into it and yet I'm pretty much at the same point as him but at a higher level. He's definitely one for sightseeing and absorbing the lore of the game. Me? Not so much.

Yeah, I'm definitely the sightseeing type too, and I was actually thinking yesterday about something I feel this game could have stolen from Xenoblade: some sort of reward for accessing hidden areas or Sites of Lost Grace (probably Runes), or areas you "aren't supposed to be in".

I know some will definitely argue that the reward in Elden Ring is coming across something you haven't before and it giving you that satisfaction of exploration, which I totally agree is there, but despite the world being open...it definitely feels level-gated to quite an extent. If you run ahead you will straight up get destroyed in some places, and so while I enjoy the exploration, in those times where I want to explore ahead rather than deal with a dungeon or what have you, there has definitely been one region for me where the only option really is sprinting through. It's nice to have that difficulty in the open world, rather than saved just for smaller encounters in smaller areas, but beyond giving myself Sites of Lost Grace to go back to when I want to tackle that part of the map, it was a whole lot of "oh hey that thing over there looks coo– FREAKING RUN RUN RUN". 

29 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Maybe I should give Sekiro another go...I remember people saying it's very hard.

Honestly, after Elden Ring and once I've gone back to complete Artorias of the Abyss, I might just move onto Bloodborne or Sekiro myself.

One reason is for the variety in place (I've only experienced dark fantasy From so far, which is cool, but coupled with the new mechanics in Elden Ring, DS II and III just don't look that appealing now), but secondly is because those just seem like very different experiences to what I've experienced from From so far. 

Sekiro, for instance, as far as I'm aware, can owe a whole lot of its challenge to players not having anywhere near as many options when it comes to how to take the game on. Maybe I've heard wrong, but builds just don't really seem like a thing, and so that challenge sounds super appealing (and also just having a main character and narrative to invest in, too). 

Will be super curious to see where I take my From journey after this...but back to Elden Ring :p

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@Julius I'd definitely recommend Seikro. It's the pinnacle of From Software's output. Also, you're right on what you heard about it. You can't grind to victory, you can't call for help and you need to really learn the game to make any headway. These things are why it's my favourite game by FS. There's nowhere to hide. It's the very definition of Git Gud. :D 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
34 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Just entered Caria Manor.

WHAT THE FUCK, FROMSOFT? 

I entered. Saw an enemy. Turned around. Walked out. 

Nope. I'll wait until I'm obscenely OP before going in there :laughing: I don't get the talk of players of From Software games being masochists but there's no denying that Miyazaki and some of his team are a bit of sadist :p

I'm actually at a point where I think I might need to do some grinding, so maybe I'll just stick on a podcast after some food and look up if there's a better grinding spot than the one I've currently got. I've gone as far as I think I can for now with lighting up Sites of Lost Grace (which is, uh, pretty far) but I definitely felt under-levelled on the way over. Got a little burned out on catacombs and caves earlier too all of a sudden, which probably doesn't help the level situation ::shrug: the three main locations that I think could be the way forward just have me dealing out too little damage and receiving a bit too much for my liking, so grinding it is!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
13 minutes ago, Julius said:

Nope. I'll wait until I'm obscenely OP before going in there :laughing:

Probably not necessary. Been working my way through there for a bit.
You get swarmed with those...fucking...things, which makes it quite difficult, but if you manage the pressure, it's not that bad.

Think I'm getting closer to the Manor's inevitable boss. Can't wait to see what it's like :D 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Probably not necessary. Been working my way through there for a bit.
You get swarmed with those...fucking...things, which makes it quite difficult, but if you manage the pressure, it's not that bad.

Think I'm getting closer to the Manor's inevitable boss. Can't wait to see what it's like :D 

Yeah, you're probably right, I just want to one-shot those things :p got jumped by some in a woods somewhere when I grabbed an item...just, From...no. 

Sounds like I'll need to double back there after I've finished grinding :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, drahkon said:

Just entered Caria Manor.

WHAT THE FUCK, FROMSOFT? 

Just reached that area this evening. Too late in the day to be starting it now and so it will be getting tackled tomorrow night.

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Yeah, you're probably right, I just want to one-shot those things :p got jumped by some in a woods somewhere when I grabbed an item...just, From...no. 

Same. I legit jumped when it happened. :D Reminds me a similar incident on in Xenoblade that involved a giant spider after grabbing an item.

As for my adventures this evening, I took down two more bosses...

Spoiler

I took on the red version of Sif. The fast movement of the creature, as well as the tight space, made for a good battle . I was having to constantly keep on the move to get anywhere with the fight.

Next up was the fight with some Queen of the Moon or something like that. Pretty cool fight. I initially thought the battle was stupidly easy and burned through my positions willy nilly. Yeah....that was a mistake. Along comes a second phase and she really packed a punch. It's not bad if you can keep up with her and land a hit to stop her attack animations but with her floating away quite quickly, I had to be patient and chip away at her. Her summons were also very annoying.

Speaking on annoying, the sorcerers in the ripoff of Hogwarts can go to hell. Easy enemies but terribly aggravating. That one corridor where there are a few of them and they are all constantly firing spells at you...ugh. It felt like one of them was just sat on some kind of magic powered mini gun.

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I can totally get why [mention=342]Hero-of-Time[/mention] is conflicted with this game.  It has all the core mechanics of the From Software Souls games intact, but the switch to Open World means that it is inevitably going to have to give up the tight, interconnected level design and pacing that defined the previous games.
The level design of the Souls games is just as important, if not even moreso, than the core combat gameplay to the overall experience.  It's not a small change being made here.  So even if it succeeds to capture the Souls experience in many ways, it's inevitably going to lose a lot of the appeal that the earlier games had.
I personally cannot stand Open World games at all, so I'd be pretty livid if I was a big fan of the Souls games myself (for the record, I'm not much of a fan of the Souls games; but as a long-time Zelda, Mario and Pokemon fan? I understand the pain).
As someone who has played a large chunk of this game now I can say this take is absolutely not the case, in my experience. There has been no compromise on the tight level design - the exact same feel to the areas and dungeons is still there. Rather than anything being taken away, what we have here is an addition. You still have what you had before in terms of the way many areas are designed, but now you have something else too. The game is now not just a linear experience like what we saw with Demon's Souls. What we have now is a real sense of exploration - there's tons of caves, dungeons and totally optional areas that aren't obvious how to find. There's discoveries you can make by being at the right place at the right time of day. And while there is a guidance system to help track the main bosses there's so much that is up to you to discover. There's a reason this game is going to smash every game of the year award going; the same reason Zelda BOTW did. It's taking an existing, slightly overdone game series and making it feel fresh again.

What I have noticed is that big changes to series don't always go down well, like with this game, BOTW and Pokémon. There are people that want to see more or less the same type of game every sequel. I'm just glad that game developers don't listen to those people or we would never have had Elden Ring or BOTW.
  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Can't go further north (unless I use some Sites of Grace I uncovered thanks to some treasure chests).
Guess I have to go to Caelid now. I wanted to avoid that place for as long as possible. :D 

Well, time to get over it and bring the noise like Anthrax and Public Enemy back in 1991.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Can't go further north (unless I use some Sites of Grace I uncovered thanks to some treasure chests).

Did you go any further than the Manor? I'm assuming that you completed it :p

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Guess I have to go to Caelid now. I wanted to avoid that place for as long as possible. :D 

I've also been avoiding Caelid like the plague, but after I take on the Manor tomorrow, I think it'll be time. I did pop in yesterday with some 30+ levels more than when I was first there and took out a couple of areas but the enemies in the open world kind of scream at you nonstop that you shouldn't be there, extremely aggressively. Not that that's at all a bad thing :p

Did some grinding tonight for a couple of hours, didn't want to put the game down but didn't have the energy for catacombs/caves (just burnt out on that aspect a bit right now I think, hopefully be back up for it tomorrow), shot up ~20 levels and think I might now be a higher level than I've personally ever been in a From game before?

I'm now at Lv 83, so yeah. Imma destroy those little freakos in the Manor tomorrow. :D

Edited by Julius

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's a hefty level increase, @Julius Whereabouts were you doing your exp farming? I'm looking for my next grinding spot as the one I initially used isn't really viable any more due to the amount of exp needed to level up.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 hours ago, Julius said:

Did you go any further than the Manor? I'm assuming that you completed it :p

I did, but the ahead path is locked by something I only have half of, if I understand correctly.

Went to Caelid, spent an hour in a catacomb and went to bed last night :D 
Tonight I'll explore the area more .

And yeah, to echo H-o-T, where did you grind? :p 

Edited by drahkon

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
8 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

That's a hefty level increase, @Julius Whereabouts were you doing your exp farming? I'm looking for my next grinding spot as the one I initially used isn't really viable any more due to the amount of exp needed to level up.

 

5 hours ago, drahkon said:

And yeah, to echo H-o-T, where did you grind? :p 

It's over in Caelid, next to my previous grinding spot, which I think is pretty well known (where you get ~1000 Runes per kill on these fidgety short guys). You don't actually need to attack anything, just need to be careful, and get ~2000 Runes per run, can do two runs in a minute, and so you're probably looking at somewhere between 200,000 and 240,000 Runes per hour. 

Spoiler

So basically, you need to take yourself over to Lenne's Rise in the northeast of Caelid, which is a stone's throw away from my previous grinding spot just outside of the Bestial Sanctum grounds.

FNBAO0hWQAA1Yo-?format=jpg&name=large

From the Bestial Sanctum you want to head down and take the left just before reaching the Site of Lost Grace by the bridge where a dragon is chilling, and continue following the path. There's a group of the three short guys just before the path starts to descend and then you'll be running along a path with poison traps - you probably won't die, but just speed through. Once you cross over that bridge to the other side, you'll start your ascent to Lenne's Rise - try to be careful because there are two magic boulder traps here, as you'll have seen already a few times over in Liurnia. Hugging the wall (there are a few hiding spots from the boulders) is probably your best bet. Get up to Lenne's Rise and then fire up and rest at the Site of Lost Grace. 

These boulders are actually what you're going to be farming, as them successfully falling off the cliff and "dying" gives you 1952 Runes. You basically need to bait them into appearing and rolling at you so that they roll off the cliff, dodge them, and I'd suggest waiting for the enemy death sound effect (that slicing noise) and seeing the +1952 Runes come up before then opening up your map and warping back to Lenne's Rise, which resets the process, and repeat to your heart's content. Like so...

Words of advice:

• aim to have the boulder shoot off where I am in the video, as it gives you a ledge to jump onto to dodge it, and also makes the process faster than having it follow you further down. 

• speaking of which: don't let the boulder chase you down the path from behind (as it can disappear), and also don't bait it into rolling down the path expecting it to fall off at the end. There's something about these boulders where they disappear if they aren't close enough to you or in frame. 

• and speaking of being in frame, once the boulder rolls off the cliff, I suggest trying to "keep it in frame" by moving the camera down to follow it's fall - even if you can't see it. I've noticed that a few times I hadn't done this that I didn't receive any Runes. 

• I'd strongly recommend levelling up every time you get enough runes, just due to the nature of the grind. You definitely don't want to risk losing hundreds of thousands of Runes after a few hours of farming them! 

• lastly, and this only happened twice during my few hours spent farming Runes, but there seems to be some RNG chance of getting the boulder to glow and drop ~10,000 Runes (believe it was 9760?). Only happened to me at night, so I guess it might be best to farm at night. 

Also @Hero-of-Time not sure if you've even gone in the direction of Caelid yet, to the east of Limgrave, but if you haven't or haven't got to the Bestial Sanctum yet, figured I'd cover all bases: here's a shortcut from Limgrave which will take you straight there. 

Spoiler

From behind the Third Church of Marika. 

 

Hope that helps :peace: 

Don't think I'll be playing this much today, if at all, as I woke up with a migraine which has only been getting worse, so think I might take a break from screens after typing this :nono:

  • Thanks 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks, @Julius

Sadly, I already knew about both methods. The little guys are what I farmed to level up quickly very early on. I tried the boulder method soon after but found it too boring and not worth the rune output. 

I'll try advance the story some more and hopefully that will give access to areas that are more lucrative for my current level.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks, @Julius
Might give it a go, as soon as I reached that place in 20 hours :p 

Currently at level 60 something, if I remember correctly. I think for now I'll just explore Caelid, help the occasional player to farm some runes and Rune Arcs. Think that'll help me level up for now.

Edit: Some character spoilers coming up:

Spoiler

Quite some time ago I met Patches
Just now I remembered something he said to me...that I should be eaten by an Iron Maiden thingy in the academy.

Decided to do that, even though I know it could just be Patches being Patches. It was either going to be: 

  • I simply die
  • I die but something happens

More spoilers just in case:

Spoiler

Turns out...you die and actually get teleported. :D 

Now I'm at a boss fight which is: Two of those Iron Maiden thingies. Not that easy.

 

Edited by drahkon
  • Like 1
  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

During the standard Elden Ring banter at work today it turns out I didn't have a clue about the benefits of the Great Runes or the secondary skills/L2 uses in the game. I was wondering why Unsheathe was on the left of my screen. I need to pay more attention of what's being said and pop up tutorials. :D 

  • Haha 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

During the standard Elden Ring banter at work today it turns out I didn't have a clue about the benefits of the Great Runes or the secondary skills/L2 uses in the game. I was wondering why Unsheathe was on the left of my screen. I need to pay more attention of what's being said and pop up tutorials. :D 

giphy.gif

 

  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, drahkon said:

Edit: Some character spoilers coming up:

  Character spoilers (Hide contents)

Quite some time ago I met Patches
Just now I remembered something he said to me...that I should be eaten by an Iron Maiden thingy in the academy.

Decided to do that, even though I know it could just be Patches being Patches. It was either going to be: 

  • I simply die
  • I die but something happens

More spoilers just in case:

  yupyup (Hide contents)

Turns out...you die and actually get teleported. :D 

Now I'm at a boss fight which is: Two of those Iron Maiden thingies. Not that easy

Yeah, I did the same, love it :D didn't have much luck with the boss fight though, so I still need to go back, but didn't suit my melee build at all and they destroy Ash Summons. Those were the ones I was referencing yesterday: 

On 03/03/2022 at 4:02 PM, Julius said:

There's only been one mini-boss (well, two, they were a pair) I've come across so far where my Ash Summons were practically useless, and for the bosses I was facing, the arena just wasn't great, because you ended up with your back to the wall in a massive room, which just doesn't suit my build. I'll be going back I'm sure, but it's the only one where I was like "eh, that's not a good boss fight", though to be fair I think the pairs of identical bosses with different weapons/conditions are just going to be like that when I'm wielding a melee build. 

Definitely one of the weaker boss fights I think I've encountered so far in the game, it's not terrible by any means, it just kind of gives me O&S vibes in how it functions...but kind of worse? At least for my melee build the fight comes entirely down to i-frames when rolling through one of their attacks, and a lot of the new mechanics just don't really seem that useable here. The arena is massive but it's not really used as you're often cramped between them anyways.

Again, I'll be back, but they didn't leave a fantastic first impression :p

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Can anyone hint me in the direction of some arcane dependent gear? I just haven't found much yet and would like to build some fun stuff into my kit. Playing a bit too traditional at the moment.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Can anyone hint me in the direction of some arcane dependent gear? I just haven't found much yet and would like to build some fun stuff into my kit. Playing a bit too traditional at the moment.
Do what I did - throw away everything you know and become a mage. Assuming you're not normally a mage, ofc.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
25 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

Do what I did - throw away everything you know and become a mage. Assuming you're not normally a mage, ofc. emoji14.png

I've got loads of good Int stuff, but I'm saving it for my next run where I'll spec properly. I just want some fun tools to mix into my build 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Do what I did - throw away everything you know and become a mage. Assuming you're not normally a mage, ofc. emoji14.png

I'm assuming he's wanting a little bit of a challenge. :D  Is the Mage class as OP as people say? 

I've reached what looks like the next big fight and have decided to leave it until tomorrow. Meanwhile,  I have spent the evening trying to raise my Uchigatana up to level 12. I'm currently trying to farm for level 5 smithing stones so I can upgrade it further but it ain't going very well. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I'm assuming he's wanting a little bit of a challenge.   Is the Mage class as OP as people say? 
I've reached what looks like the next big fight and have decided to leave it until tomorrow. Meanwhile,  I have spent the evening trying to raise my Uchigatana up to level 12. I'm currently trying to farm for level 5 smithing stones so I can upgrade it further but it ain't going very well. 
OP? I'd say it's very glass cannon. In order to do a lot of damage you really need to pump INT while sacrificing vigour and endurance, which makes survivability a fair bit harder. Worth it though if you like feeling powerful and casting flashy spells!
  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Stupid Caelid and its stupid humongous ravens can suck my nads. 
Stumbled upon a boss which gave me a quest item as a reward. Actually managed to start and complete that quest not long after :D Very fun.
I enjoyed that sorcery town, too. A short and sweet "puzzle" to solve. 

Are Sites of Grace in Caelid rarer compared to Limgrave and Lunaria? I feel like I missed a few, but I generally explore quite thoroughly.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sign in to follow this  

×