Yep, some strong Demon’s Souls vibes in that area. sogood.gif
About Morne’s Castle, when I got there I thought “wow! this area is so well designed” and then I went to Strormveil Castle and From was like “hold my beer”. There is some god-tier level design mastery going on in this game.
Elden Ring is so much more visually impressive to me than something like Forza Horizon or Horizon Forbidden west, yes those games look better visually but Elden Rings art direction is superb.
Finished Lyndell and damn that was crazy. I actually lost count of the amount of bosses, mini bosses and npc invasions there are between the city and the underground. For the completionists, you have to make your way right to the bottom but stop before the red door after the crazy platforming section as that gives you one of the three trophy ending later on.
No feeling greater than cheesing a fromsoft boss who uses dirty annoying cheese tactics himself.
#RIPBozo😂 Commander O’Neil, you won’t be missed. Just used Torrent the entire way through cuz he loves calling in minions like a goddamn loser. So just kept circling the arena and doing hit and run tactics the entire way through to kill all his summons one by one and then him. Fuck him, couldn’t care less about beating him the “right way”, I have no care for bosses that just can’t stand their own and have to pull minion bullshit, cuz he’s rather easily parryable otherwise, only thing is the annoying minions staggering your attempts at that parrying, so get rid of those minions and he just becomes much easier. Imo I wouldn’t even consider this cheese at this point, cuz the arena has Scarlet rot, he has Scarlet rot attacks, the minions keep shooting bolts from everywhere, just an absolute annoyance of a fight. Hoping no other boss has bullshit like this moving forward. Good riddance.
I think this has a lot to do with a fantasy world looking more unique than the real world. Weird to compare art direction of those games. To another fantasy game would make more sense.
So, after about 45 hours, I’ve finished the story. I went into this not a big souls fan, and have left, while still not one, much more appreciative of From’s style. I still have some exploring to do, but think of this as a main + extras POV. Here are my thoughts, organized into the good and the bad. There may be some spoilers, so I have collapsed this thread just in case.
Summary
The Good:
Elden Ring belongs to a very special class of games you don’t see come around too often. The best competitors, arguably, would be the original STALKER, Morrowind, Breath of the Wild and to a lesser extent, more recent BGS and Obsidian titles. You are thrust into the world, with a sword on your back and a loose set of instructors, and made to explore, get your ass kicked and consult with the community on mechanics, notable npcs, farm and grind spots/cheese strategies (if that’s your jam), what the story actually fucking means, soft stat caps, the whole shebang. This is an RPG through and through, yet also in many ways the antithesis of the modern day open world game. It’s brutal, it’s smart and it’s classical.
Combat, while still not my jam, does take significant steps up from prior Souls titles by picking and choosing elements from other titles, most notably Sekiro.
The addition of a mount is a joy. Torrent is a delight.
While the story is hard to follow, what I do know for sure is that the moments of writing and performance we do get are great.
The art-direction here is astounding, nailing in particular the sense of scale. Every biome feels distinct and well-realized and the sense of awe you get looking up at an Erdtree is spectacular.
The bosses up to Leyndell are some of the most frustrating but fair fights I’ve had.
The game does an excellent job toning back some of the harsher elements of Souls by bringing the formula into the open world.
The music is heroic and exciting.
The game is great at creating a desire to be played. Just one more hour, just one more session, just one more try. I was up until 5am twice playing it.
The Bad:
The lategame was incredibly disappointing here. Enemy scaling was off the charts with paltry rune rewards for several tough enemies, you can be twoshot by bosses at soft cap vigor, AOE attacks taking up 90% of the arenas, tight multi-boss fights in small stages. If you are improperly built (which many players will be), it can be a fucking nightmare.
Moreover, the issues with the lategame stretch past the difficulty. The latter stages have less areas to explore, more pain in the ass enemies, and an overall super bland visual style. Grey, white, muted. It felt like a mid-gen 360 game.
Speaking of midgen 360 games, the graphics here, while not that bad per say, are still rather lacking. This is a game that smartly finds beauty through strong art direction, but pop-in and muddy textures can break this immersion sometimes.
The UX complaints are interesting. While I largely disagree with the bulk of them, there is something to be said for how the menus are set-up. They can be overly convoluted, dated and lacking. Why the fuck is equipment a separate page from inventory? Why the fuck is pouch separate from both? Why the fuck can’t I pause the goddamn game to navigate this mess? It is probably the most cumbersome menu setup I’ve seen in an RPG in some time, made far worse by the inability to pause.
The lock on camera goes haywire in some boss fights.
Personal nitpick, but I’m not huge on the lack of mount in some battles. I think they’d be way more fun with.
*All in all, I think there is a genuine debate to be had about artistic merit vs end result here as well. Elden Ring is in many cases purposefully obtuse, mechanically regressionary or too complex for its own good. I am largely of the opinion that this is how it should be, that art shouldn’t be mended to meet a wide audience, but that does not absolve the game from criticism in these regards either. Much like it’s Miyazaki and the team’s desire to make a game the way they want, consumers of their art have the right to voice their opposition too, and no amount of Git Gud posturing from audiences will change this. Many peers have wanted to buy this game because it “Looks like Skyrim from the Game of Thrones guy” and they will or have been in for a rude awakening. This is not the fault of the game itself, but positioning the title better is key too.
Elden Ring is a great game that up until a point is a genuine certifiable masterpiece, but an unexpected fall off a small cliff (not unlike what you may do in the game), puts the title at still very, very healthy. I still have much to see of the game, and that may sway my opinion even more positive than it is, but on the whole, From have done a great job in creating an exciting action RPG that is unafraid to hold cards close to its chest and encourage the community to solve the puzzle: together!
