Felis Meanis
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2020
I completely agree with you.I feel as if FROM have been losing steam since DS3, with Nightreign being the only kind of work they've got left. Diminishing returns have really hit the franchise hard - and I know Elden Ring isn't a DS game, just go with the main point I'm making- and they're struggling to maintain why people got so hooked on the games.
Tightly crafted environments and the feel of exploration were always the big draws, over giant anime fights. They seem to have bought into the idea that triple somersaulting, dodge rolling, quad wielders are what kept the player base going.
In the same vein of thought, I regard both Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3 (especially Dark Souls 2, of which I believe the disappointment is adequately explained by this critique, for example) as being somewhat disappointing. That's just how good Dark Souls 1 is. Dark Souls 3 is certainly an incredible videogame, yet I still don't believe it's better than the first instalment of the series.
To this day, I believe the riveting experience of Dark Souls 1 is unmatched. It's funny, since the game definitely has numerous flaws, but it's still so fucking good. It really scratches that "Dark Souls" itch, as it should, of course, since it kickstarted the popularity of the genre of "Souls-like".
I did buy Demon's Souls for the Playstation 3 some time after I had played Dark Souls 1 quite a lot, but couldn't muster the interest in playing such a game on a videogame console. I did emulate it on my PC last year though, and while it's certainly a good game, you can tell that Dark Souls 1 takes its ideas and expands upon them to greater effect.
Elden Ring has always felt rather bloated to me, as you so adequately describe with your comaprison of "tightly crafted environments and the feel of exploration vs anime fights". The older I become, the more I shun "open worlds" in videogaming, The last open world videogame I enjoyed was that of Metal Gear Solid V, and even then I reckon it'd have been a better experience by having it be designed with "tightly crafted environments and the feel of exploration" in mind. The concept of an open world may be appealing to teenagers and young adults, but as you get older, you realize that open world is more synonymous with quantity than everything else, and that "tightly crafted environments and the feel of exploration" is indeed synonymous with quality (when done right, at least). The thrilling novelty of the open world of Grand Theft Auto 3 is long gone.
Still, Elden Ring is a marvel of videogaming. It may be too large and too much of an open world, but the gameplay, the story, the music etc. is absolutely incredible, despite the flaws. One really shouldn't disparage it too much, on account of the numerous things the game does right. It could very much be condensed and put into tighter frames for its own benefit, as we've said, though.
These two boss fights in Elden Ring still stands out to me:
The boss fight of Rennala is fantastic on account of the atmosphere and feels it provides, and the boss fight of Godfrey is fantastic on account of how absolutely badass Godfrey is. Serosh isn't attached to Godfrey for his safety, but for yours. When he kills Serosh off, it's for recognizing you as a legitimate contender of the title of Elden Lord, who've earned the right to challenge him at his strongest. Godfrey isn't even some divine existence. He's "just" a mortal, who's also that much of a badass. The fight in its entirety is just awesome.
At any rate, for anyone interested in the lore of the Souls-series, I can recommend this website: Lokey Lore.

