Elden Ring

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I really want to give this game a chance so I followed this little tutorial:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-FHy37OJ6WM
I got the Poker to +5 and killed Margit in about 3-4 hits. I'm just left pondering "Okay, easy mode unlocked. You still need to know boss patterns to safely use the weapon art but where's the challenge?" Now bosses are a pushover and the weapon isn't even at +9. This is not a solution to bosses being overtuned it just kind of breaks the core of the Souls experience.

I'm just like "Okay, I have an OP weapon. I officially don't care anymore."
The video is literally called "how to be overpowered early Elden Ring" and is there to showcase a fun yet broken weapon. You shouldn't feel challenged if you are using something overpowered. The point is to break the core of the experience and one shot everything. It's about spectacle. I don't think anybody is saying that it is the solution to bosses feeling hyper or anything.
 
I'm curious as to what you guys think of this video. Normally I'm decent at detecting bait but I can't tell here at all. It seems like bait but every once in a while he make a good point and the guy in general makes pretty decent videos even if they are way too fucking long.
 
I found shaded castle forever ago and found the prosthetic arm by chance, went immediately to hand it to millicent and forgot about that place until today. Went back, kept advancing, found patches then killed the boss and noticed I got an achiement for it. I was confused by it since side bosses normally don't give achievements, specially not ones that don't even give remembrances.
So I read a few item descriptions, talked to that NPC ghost again and while looking for helmets in the wiki I found out about an invader west of the castle, in an otherwise empty area. Said invader drops items related to the family of executioners who lived in the shaded castle. I get souls games are vague but it got me thinking that shaded castle, the marais and the bell beating hunter were supposed to have a larger role in the game but that got cut abd relegated to side content.

Thinking about it, Castle Morne, Sol and Redmane all have achievents for their bosses, all of them are associated with NPC questlines, the only "odd one" being redmane since it leads to Radahn's boss fight and you can otherwise bypass the misbegotten + crucible knight by triggering the festival first.

Lastly I am still thinking about how I thought Leyndel was THE endgame and that the game would end there somehow or that at least I would run into another filter like Margit, so I went everywhere else but there... Suffered through most of the underground sections and Caelid first.
Speaking of, I am after the fire giant, does Leyndel get bombed before or after you go to farum?
Can you even access the underground sections (shuning grounds, flame of frenzy chamber) or do they disappear?
 
I found shaded castle forever ago and found the prosthetic arm by chance, went immediately to hand it to millicent and forgot about that place until today. Went back, kept advancing, found patches then killed the boss and noticed I got an achiement for it. I was confused by it since side bosses normally don't give achievements, specially not ones that don't even give remembrances.
So I read a few item descriptions, talked to that NPC ghost again and while looking for helmets in the wiki I found out about an invader west of the castle, in an otherwise empty area. Said invader drops items related to the family of executioners who lived in the shaded castle. I get souls games are vague but it got me thinking that shaded castle, the marais and the bell beating hunter were supposed to have a larger role in the game but that got cut abd relegated to side content.

Thinking about it, Castle Morne, Sol and Redmane all have achievents for their bosses, all of them are associated with NPC questlines, the only "odd one" being redmane since it leads to Radahn's boss fight and you can otherwise bypass the misbegotten + crucible knight by triggering the festival first.

Lastly I am still thinking about how I thought Leyndel was THE endgame and that the game would end there somehow or that at least I would run into another filter like Margit, so I went everywhere else but there... Suffered through most of the underground sections and Caelid first.
Speaking of, I am after the fire giant, does Leyndel get bombed before or after you go to farum?
Can you even access the underground sections (shuning grounds, flame of frenzy chamber) or do they disappear?
I think the underground sections remain since there is a way to go down its the overworld sections that disappear and you may miss out on a Spear and Ashe.
 
I really want to give this game a chance so I followed this little tutorial:
>apprehension about the game
>immediately try cheese
That's kind of your own fault there, I don't know what's so different about this when it happens in ER.
Speaking of, I am after the fire giant, does Leyndel get bombed before or after you go to farum?
I've done the wrong warp exploit to get to Farum and it hasn't gotten bombed for me yet. I haven't done the cutscene at the Fire Forge either, with or without Melina.
 
OP should make a poll with overall score options or some shit.
I keep hearing differing opinions about this shit being a masterpiece or a clusterfuck.
 
That's kind of your own fault there, I don't know what's so different about this when it happens in ER.
Basically that there's no inbetween for most players from frustration and cheesing, because an absurd number of people can't tell you how to fight these bosses. Because they look up the cheese, summon the spirits, and proceed to ignore the mechanics to breeze through, then remark "wow elden ring is so easy." So if you're someone who wants to learn to fight the bosses properly without feeling overwhelmed - and most bosses have a rhythm or a gimmick - it's harder than the other games to get that advice.

I would wager an absurd number of people have trouble on Margit early, and rather than being told 'go explore dude' they get told 'go follow this exact path to skip stormveil, do varre's quest here in liurnia and get your ass beat in 3 invasions, go to the four belfries and take the anticipation one to access the dead maiden in the starting area, then use the item to teleport to an endgame area, sprint to the farm bonfire, and use a longbow on the crow for fast, infinite souls and infinite levels.' And for a huge number of players, this is how they'll just assume the game is supposed to be played and never experiment otherwise.

There were like 50 guides for how to cheese Madame Butterfly's AI in Sekiro for every 1 that explained all of her tells and the appropriate counters. Elden Ring is that on crack.
 
Given how Kenneth Haight's quest progresses, I almost would have preferred it if Melina kept her dumb ass nearby to let me level up and just let me pretend the Roundtable doesn't exist at all. Turn Fort Haight into the new "hub" a la Majula and just repopulate it as time goes on, with the eventual knighting ceremony being some cool little reward for turning what was once a bloodsoaked battlefield into a staunch symbol of resistance against Marika and her shitty children's shenanigans, given how Kenneth speaks of reuniting southern limgrave after the demihumans rebelled.

But I guess that's too hopeful for a game like this. Still, I'm massively enjoying myself. Some missteps here and there, but I really enjoy everything else. The Royal Revenant getting two-shotted by consecutive Heal spells felt really damn good.

Also, Altering garments is fucking useless. It's usually just removing the stupid cape or robe on something. why would I want less drip, Miyazaki?
 
Given how Kenneth Haight's quest progresses, I almost would have preferred it if Melina kept her dumb ass nearby to let me level up and just let me pretend the Roundtable doesn't exist at all. Turn Fort Haight into the new "hub" a la Majula and just repopulate it as time goes on, with the eventual knighting ceremony being some cool little reward for turning what was once a bloodsoaked battlefield into a staunch symbol of resistance against Marika and her shitty children's shenanigans, given how Kenneth speaks of reuniting southern limgrave after the demihumans rebelled.

But I guess that's too hopeful for a game like this. Still, I'm massively enjoying myself. Some missteps here and there, but I really enjoy everything else. The Royal Revenant getting two-shotted by consecutive Heal spells felt really damn good.

Also, Altering garments is fucking useless. It's usually just removing the stupid cape or robe on something. why would I want less drip, Miyazaki?
Greatswords and ultra greatswords heavily clip through capes and look shitty. I assume that's the rationale for being able to alter armor sets to remove capes.
 
Also, Altering garments is fucking useless. It's usually just removing the stupid cape or robe on something. why would I want less drip, Miyazaki?
It alters the weight, which can sometimes tip you from medium to low equip loads. Defensive stats are similarly reduced.
Seluvis' outfit altered offers some of the best defensive stats for extremely low weight class, for example.
 
It alters the weight, which can sometimes tip you from medium to low equip loads. Defensive stats are similarly reduced.
Seluvis' outfit altered offers some of the best defensive stats for extremely low weight class, for example.
I know what I said; the stat difference is negligeable at best. Anywhere below 3 points of weight and reduced defense. Especially if you're precariously managing weight like that, you might as well wear something lighter or just pump endurance if it means that much to you. It feels tacked on compared to the other systems for customizing.
 
I know what I said; the stat difference is negligeable at best. Anywhere below 3 points of weight and reduced defense. Especially if you're precariously managing weight like that, you might as well wear something lighter or just pump endurance if it means that much to you. It feels tacked on compared to the other systems for customizing.
Sure, some it just drops by 1. But on the others that drop it by upwards of 3, again to get that light load, it's a godsend. Not needing to use a talisman to boost equip load frees you up to slap another offensive one on, especially since endurance has somewhat diminishing usefulness past ~25-30 relative to other stats. I could slap on two chain attack talismans, the fire scorpion, and shard of alexander with the magma blades to completely shit out damage with a fast roll.

That said, if you're fine with the medium roll, it's completely pointless. It's more customization than any of the other games had, but it still falls limp to bloodborne's ambivalence about your armor when it came to fashion.
 
Since we're airing grievances, I don't like how there's only one int/fai weapon. There's spells that take int and faith yet no weapon that capitalizes on it. There's no 'Marika's Dagger' or something that's Fundamentalist holy damage, no necromancy weapons that scale with faith as well as int despite the spells requiring int/fai and being boosted by the Death Prince Staff, an int/fai staff, no Gelmir weapon uses int despite the Gelmir spells being sorceries... Only Night and Flame, which is fire/magic because FromSoftware loves split damage weapons.

Also sleep and madness are... Kind of underused? I know there's the incantations, the spear that PVP players aren't fond of and the fingerprint shield, but... THERE'S NO FRENZYFLAME TORCH. Of all of the obvious shit that's missing, that's something I'm actually kind of mad about not being there. Sleep OTOH got a torch... As one of two weapons that can inflict it, the other being a pretty mediocre straight sword. Other than that it's only consumables that, if I remember correctly, are limited or are a pain in the ass to grind because of St. Trina's Lily. No ashes of war or sorceries even use sleep, so why even bother putting magic damage/int requirement on it? At least give us a mist like the frostbite one or the deathblight one- no one even uses that one and it can't even affect bosses, but it's in over a short duration/range sleep mist... Because?

Finally, why is the Beast Claw Seal [edit: and demihuman staff, the only convenient ones to obtain] the only spell tool(s) to scale with physical stats? Why not go with Carian weapons scaling str/dex/int quality, or Godslayer scaling with dex/fai due to how Godskin bosses use dex weapons? Or go absolutely crazy and have a blood magic catalyst that scales with fucking Vigor, or a traveler's catalyst that scales with Endurance? Why have so many staves/seals that have bonuses which get outclassed by raw int scaling staves without at least giving them an out to be somewhat comparable? I know the answer to that is 'dex raises cast speed' but wouldn't giving spells more stagger with more strength be a decent middle ground? I know casting is already easy mode, but can we at least make easy mode somewhat interesting?

I've got more- game's not perfect- but I still enjoy it because in my opinion it's vanilla Skyrim with combat I like and less filler quests to keep the illusion of you actually doing something. I hope FromSoftware's next game, open world or not, tries to top what's been done well in this one.
 
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And for a huge number of players, this is how they'll just assume the game is supposed to be played
I don't even know what to say in response to all this, it's one or maybe two steps away from just watching someone else play it with blind belief mixed in. 'Go explore' when something is too hard is maybe the only thing in that paragraph that gets very slightly less viable in the later game where the areas feel marginally less open than Limgrave and the enemy lineup gets ridiculous - though in my experience I'll just switch to another landmass if I'm totally burnt out of a shitty area because I usually have a quest to do and those are scattered throughout the Lands Between.

Still got very mixed opinions on ER. All those 10/10 ratings aren't because it's 10/10 in every aspect but because it's been released upon years of organic hype to the widest audience it's ever had, what I do like about it (QoL and weapon/build flexibility) and its sheer size make it the choice to pick over other games I could've bought so that's why I'd say my feelings are still positive... if someone asked me would I keep playing ER or go back to MHW I'd want to play both. But it's still a weird feeling. If this makes sense to anyone, it's like a cassette tape with every other Souls game (but not BB or Sekiro) on one side but then you flip the tape and listen to the B side but I don't mean "B side" in the conventional sense.
 
Since we're airing grievances, I don't like how there's only one int/fai weapon. There's spells that take int and faith yet no weapon that capitalizes on it. There's no 'Marika's Dagger' or something that's Fundamentalist holy damage, no necromancy weapons that scale with faith as well as int despite the spells requiring int/fai and being boosted by the Death Prince Staff, an int/fai staff, no Gelmir weapon uses int despite the Gelmir spells being sorceries... Only Night and Flame, which is fire/magic because FromSoftware loves split damage weapons.

Also sleep and madness are... Kind of underused? I know there's the incantations, the spear that PVP players aren't fond of and the fingerprint shield, but... THERE'S NO FRENZYFLAME TORCH. Of all of the obvious shit that's missing, that's something I'm actually kind of mad about not being there. Sleep OTOH got a torch... As one of two weapons that can inflict it, the other being a pretty mediocre straight sword. Other than that it's only consumables that, if I remember correctly, are limited or are a pain in the ass to grind because of St. Trina's Lily. No ashes of war or sorceries even use sleep, so why even bother putting magic damage/int requirement on it? At least give us a mist like the frostbite one or the deathblight one- no one even uses that one and it can't even affect bosses, but it's in over a short duration/range sleep mist... Because?

Finally, why is the Beast Claw Seal the only spell tool to scale with physical stats? Why not go with Carian weapons scaling str/dex/int quality, or Godslayer scaling with dex/fai due to how Godskin bosses use dex weapons? Or go absolutely crazy and have a blood magic catalyst that scales with fucking Vigor, or a traveler's catalyst that scales with Endurance? Why have so many staves/seals that have bonuses which get outclassed by raw int scaling staves without at least giving them an out to be somewhat comparable? I know the answer to that is 'dex raises cast speed' but wouldn't giving spells more stagger with more strength be a decent middle ground? I know casting is already easy mode, but can we at least make easy mode somewhat interesting?

I've got more- game's not perfect- but I still enjoy it because in my opinion it's vanilla Skyrim with combat I like and less filler quests to keep the illusion of you actually doing something. I hope FromSoftware's next game, open world or not, tries to top what's been done well in this one.
There’s amage staff that scales with strength in the lower part of limgrave. A beastman queen uses it.

I think the frenzied flame talisman scales with all stats as well.
 
I'm curious as to what you guys think of this video. Normally I'm decent at detecting bait but I can't tell here at all. It seems like bait but every once in a while he make a good point and the guy in general makes pretty decent videos even if they are way too fucking long.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z1UdUbZzNr8
Its bait, but its exceptionally crafted bait that'll catch anyone under 100 IQ hook, line and sinker.
 
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