Elden Ring

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Over a hundred hours in, and I just got done with the Raya Lucaria Academy; got some serious Dark Souls 3 vibes from the final boss fight there. I'm going into the Ainsel River area next. I lub dis gaame soo muhc. : DDDD
 
Over a hundred hours in, and I just got done with the Raya Lucaria Academy; got some serious Dark Souls 3 vibes from the final boss fight there. I'm going into the Ainsel River area next. I lub dis gaame soo muhc. : DDDD
I’m not even 30 hours in. Are you no lifing this game to get to 100 hours?
 
Search the north part of the lake in Limgrave. Mines are a big source of stones in every area.

Also everyone please enjoy some western developer salt.

View attachment 3048304
Top: user experience designer who worked on Battlefield (the new bad one) and with Ubisoft
Center: Former Telltale games designer
Bottom: Quest Designer for those Horizon games

Irony is a lost art.
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You want some real laughs, read some of the replies. Massive salt.
 
This game has reminded I'm too old to play video games. I'm not skilled enough for this shit.
This screams of someone who's under 50 and who can't git gud.

Like LMAO you're not even old enough to have advanced arthritis or osteoporosis. Literal Skyrim Grandmas are making their way through this game.
 
Search the north part of the lake in Limgrave. Mines are a big source of stones in every area.

Also everyone please enjoy some western developer salt.

View attachment 3048304
Top: user experience designer who worked on Battlefield (the new bad one) and with Ubisoft
Center: Former Telltale games designer
Bottom: Quest Designer for those Horizon games

Irony is a lost art.
They're right about the quest design, that's something that has always plagued the series is poorly designed quests. Take for example DES, the way to open the Old King's Tomb was to just get the key, but the way that's intended for you to get is to help the NPC through the level, the way everyone and their mother does it is to kill the NPC and loot the key because it's a tedious and unwieldly pain in the ass to help the dude and the rewards suck too.

Dark Souls suffers from this too because Solaire's quest can easily easily fuck up when he's in the tunnel and he'll die from MOB bullshit. 3 Had Onion Knight's Quest suffer similar shortfalls of not explaining shit and having him die too easily before he reaches the Giant King's boss fight. The series still does not have well designed quests.

Skyrim has better question design than Elden Ring because it's objectives are clear and it's structured so the player is well informed of any possible outcomes. Forbidden West does have better quests than ER because they send you off to places you would not normally tread, give you interesting objectives to complete and the long chains will award you with BIS gear.

The UI, eeeeh that's more of an opinion. If you're used to it and similar games like MH it does what's needed, there's a bit of a curve if you're unfamiliar. But it's not really bad, you could probably assign more items to different buttons so you wouldn't need to shift through inventory and could just instantly use an item, but that's maybe the only real mechanical improvement.
 
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Just defeated Radahn, I did not like his fight. A single hit from any of his attacks causes you to fall from your horse and it takes 10 full seconds for you to be able to even dodge. That's if he doesn't instantly kill you.
That entire fight was just infuriating. If you're having trouble with it, here's my advice:
Use the summons, they work even when you're on the horse. They're endless and you can resummon dead characters.
Use the horse, there is a way to almost never get hit by using it. First, wait for Radahn's combo to end and attack him once, doesn't matter if it's a strong or quick attack, then stay close to him so you can dodge his first swing, don't switch directions or run backwards or you're going to get hit and die, then literally jump away from his range. I think all of his sideways swings can be dodged by jumping with the horse. Also, if he throws those purple orbs at you, just smash the roll button as fast as you can.
Use the environment to your advantage. The only way you can reliably dodge his bullshit magic rock throwing attack is by hiding behind the dunes of sand. Remember they take about 3 combos to be launched and he runs away before that.
I beat Radahn today. Honestly it got much easier once I stopped treating it like a real boss and started treating it like a dumb gimmick fight.

I then went down and the gargoyle fight which was quite challenging. I decided to help some other people with it which did not go well. Nearly a dozen attempts and once the other gargoyle showed up the person I was helping would be completely unable to handle their gargoyle. Half the time there would be zero damage on the gargoyle I wasn't focusing on before the summoner died horribly.
 
I find it interesting just how much weapons, skills, magic, ect exist that you can complete break the game multiple times with the right combination and build.
 
Yeah I hardly even think of them as quests. Something like the volcano maid asking you to find her necklace, that's fine and I don't mind not having any sort of quest tracking or anything for a change when you get all the information you need from her and can hunt down the thief from her location (except if you'd played these games before you might not assume that).
Everything else? I just gave in on Millicent's bullshit and used a wiki for the five obscure locations you're supposed to meet her, and most of them are like that. The blind lady is even worse since she doesn't hang out right next to bonfires, and while it's kind of funny that you feel blind while trying to find her, locating random NPCs hanging out in this huge overworld is a pain in the ass even if some of them glow a bit.

It's a shame with the worldbuilding being so prominent this time around that they didn't change quests around too. I don't need a checklist or waypoints or to hear about everyone's dead gay husband but when you compare it to something like Witcher where every quest is a fascinating substory in its own right, it's kind of a shame. And probably the most archaic-feeling part of the game.
I kind of like being able to just straight murder people since it's a grim empty world and you can make it grimmer and emptier by being ruthless, but I never do that on my first playthrough and it hardly feels more rewarding not to, I'm just afraid of being locked out of shit.

This game has reminded I'm too old to play video games. I'm not skilled enough for this shit.
I believe that is the intended experience.
 
I beat Radahn today. Honestly it got much easier once I stopped treating it like a real boss and started treating it like a dumb gimmick fight.

I then went down and the gargoyle fight which was quite challenging. I decided to help some other people with it which did not go well. Nearly a dozen attempts and once the other gargoyle showed up the person I was helping would be completely unable to handle their gargoyle. Half the time there would be zero damage on the gargoyle I wasn't focusing on before the summoner died horribly.
Radahn's more of a gimmick fight than Rennala, lol. Btw, by gargoyle you mean the double watchdog fight, yeah? That was hard, their attacks have no tell which you can get over when fighting against one, but when there are two it's nearly impossible to dodge them. Luckily, defeating one makes the fight much easier.
 
Radahn's more of a gimmick fight than Rennala, lol. Btw, by gargoyle you mean the double watchdog fight, yeah? That was hard, their attacks have no tell which you can get over when fighting against one, but when there are two it's nearly impossible to dodge them. Luckily, defeating one makes the fight much easier.
No, I mean the Valiant Gargoyles. Two fuckers that hit like a train and love to vomit poison all over the place. People are horrible at fighting them.
 
I've never seen a boss create so much salt. Who else got their shit pushed in by Malenia?
I just tried her a couple more times and I'm fucked if she decides to use the blossom dive more than once. She doesn't seem that bad but practicing that part is the problem. Bosses with a pointless first phase are an annoyance in this game
 
No, I mean the Valiant Gargoyles. Two fuckers that hit like a train and love to vomit poison all over the place. People are horrible at fighting them.
That does sound much worse. Hopefully, they drop their heads so you can wear them like the other gargoyles, lol
 
They're not too bad since the second one takes a while to come out so you can get the first one pretty low in the meantime and then prioritise him. Some bosses are a lot easier if you don't summon for that reason.
Magma Wyrm Makar is another one, I tried the NPC summons thinking it might be story related and he squished us repeatedly, but doing it solo he went down real fast.
I dunno if their HP scaling is variable per boss or the summons just suck but I'd guess most multi-bosses are similar.
 
They're not too bad since the second one takes a while to come out so you can get the first one pretty low in the meantime and then prioritise him. Some bosses are a lot easier if you don't summon for that reason.
Magma Wyrm Makar is another one, I tried the NPC summons thinking it might be story related and he squished us repeatedly, but doing it solo he went down real fast.
I dunno if their HP scaling is variable per boss or the summons just suck but I'd guess most multi-bosses are similar.
I blundered into Makar and let the good Godrick boys tank some aggro while I spammed R1 and Dragonclaw. The Crystalians in the Academy Crystal Cave gave me a lot of shit until I swallowed my pride and +5'd a warpick to cheese them.
I was hoping that Earthen Peak Ruin-Strewn Precipice would have a bell bearing for somber stones but instead I get a decent boss fight and the lift to Altus Plateau. Also fuck those dogs at the Writheblood Ruins and their insta-bleed soyjak attack.

There is, however, a cool bleed sword in those ruins, for those patient enough to deal with/ sneak around the doggos.
 
They're right about the quest design, that's something that has always plagued the series is poorly designed quests. Take for example DES, the way to open the Old King's Tomb was to just get the key, but the way that's intended for you to get is to help the NPC through the level, the way everyone and their mother does it is to kill the NPC and loot the key because it's a tedious and unwieldly pain in the ass to help the dude and the rewards suck too.

Dark Souls suffers from this too because Solaire's quest can easily easily fuck up when he's in the tunnel and he'll die from MOB bullshit. 3 Had Onion Knight's Quest suffer similar shortfalls of not explaining shit and having him die too easily before he reaches the Giant King's boss fight. The series still does not have well designed quests.

Skyrim has better question design than Elden Ring because it's objectives are clear and it's structured so the player is well informed of any possible outcomes. Forbidden West does have better quests than ER because they send you off to places you would not normally tread, give you interesting objectives to complete and the long chains will award you with BIS gear.

The UI, eeeeh that's more of an opinion. If you're used to it and similar games like MH it does what's needed, there's a bit of a curve if you're unfamiliar. But it's not really bad, you could probably assign more items to different buttons so you wouldn't need to shift through inventory and could just instantly use an item, but that's maybe the only real mechanical improvement.
Will Morrowind style quest journal works in Elden Ring?
 
Will Morrowind style quest journal works in Elden Ring?
Something like that would be the most I'd want. Actually even less, just a log of dialogue per character would be plenty.
It's fine as it is, but I've forgotten things dudes have said a few times and if I were coming back after a break I'd remember nothing. Also usually after finishing these games I spend ages digging into lore so I end up looking up dialogue text anyway, and it'd be handy to have a tab along with item descriptions.

They like to hide really important lore clues in what seem like throwaway shit random side characters say early game but it'd still be cryptic as fuck in a log.
 
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