Proof: link to this video is linked on my Twitter on Mar 26th. Fake video came out on Mar 27th. archive.ph/CrWGM th-cam.com/video/Z1UdUbZzNr8/w-d-xo.html I was wrong about summons making bosses harder being new, however spirit ashes are new and means that idea is now a bit crusty. Also no co-op faction :( It was actually not an April Fools bit, I would have done this in September had that been when the game came out. Just an unfortunate coincidence
For me the unfortunate coincidence was getting excited about the 1st upload only to listen to monotone shit takes for 15 minutes. Makes this actual review seem like an afterthought, planned or no.
Yeah there is a few bosses that are actually a lot harder with more people the added HP is actually a detriment to some the Ornstein and Smough boss is much easier by yourself
That is correct, but what to expect from someone trying to jump on the hypetrain that is soulsborne just to up their youtube viewership, you can easily tell who are pretenders and who are real soulsborne veterans, my tip - dont give the posers any views and likes. Stick to the channels who have been making videos on souls since DkS1.
Can confirm. Every boss gets more HP if you summon. I think bosses after DS2 also started getting some tweaks in their movesets, incorporating attacks from their NG+ incarnations during their heat-up phase.
@@AspiringDevil I recall it being a thing in demons souls? But I haven't played that in like 10 years or so? So my memory is foggy. As a result, I also thought it was a thing in ds1.
I think there's a middle ground between a boss being too hard and a killing a boss in three hits. You can go from killing a boss in 50 hits to killing the boss in 40, let's say. Plus, when you hold off on fighting Margit by exploring more of Limgrave, let's say, you're not just getting runes and weapon upgrades, you're also accumulating experience and confidence. When you fight Margit after 10 hours of play rather than 2 hours of play, your character is more powerful, but you'll also just be better at the game.
10:16 Just a note: The price for normal Smithing Stone were reduced recently. Now for both Common and Somber path, an upgrade to +24/+9 costs around 100k, while before, it was around 500k for a +24 Weapon.
I find the point that you found Loenine Misbegotten harder than some interesting because so did I. But I realised that I had gotten a whip about one room before the castle's end, just before his boss fight. Someone advised i try it and it does incredibly high stagger to him. I think there might be a narrative aspect to it as well (since that dungeon is about slaves overthrowing their masters). I find it interesting because it was one of the few times where a hard boss got much easier using equipment found in his zone just as you advocated before.
Oh it's not only him. The Whip actually cause insane poise damage on almost anything, but can't cause critical damage on the other hand. I use the Hoslow Whip sometimes, kinda op, since it's really high on Poise damage and cause bleed.
yeah there is a lot of the "find magic damage reduction for the magic area boss" in the game but I guess he just missed the specific spots. You get a fire resist talisman near the first dragon for example as well
I found it interesting too, as this is my first souls game and I 2-shot the Leonine boss with my basic Samurai before going to Stormveil castle around level 20ish. No particular level grinding done, just happened to go there “last” while clearing Limgrave.
I annihilated him on my first 3 characters then he used the Uno™ reverse incantation on my current character and completely obliterated me 3-4 times in a row
I don't have a problem with important stuff being out of the way. There are literal entire areas and endings hidden in obscure ways. That's what makes exploration so exciting and rewarding.
4 of the 6 endings are basically the same just with a few different words and slightly different coloring. Only Rannis and the Flame of Frenzies ending really had effort put into it.
Yeah fromsoft endings have been like that throughout the souls series. And I’ll be honest, alternate game endings feel to me like a pretty arbitrary gimmick. I think the idea is to give the player some agency over the conclusion, and if that’s all it accomplishes, I guess that’s okay. It gives you an excuse to do multiple runs, I guess?
You know people get that satisfaction of winning that argument. But now that that is in the game, good. But you can't use that argument as a flaw anymore because it's now in the game. Same argument with Ds2 bosses and "oh it's just dlc bosses." Doesn't matter because it's apart of the game now.
Bosses are programmed to respond to use of items (flasks). They've been set to do such as far back as dark souls (I believe). This is why after taking damage you can often get locked into a panic healing > taking damage loop for multiple flask uses
The input reading IS definitely turned up in this game tho. In past games you usually had safe moments to heal if you learned the moveset. In Elden Ring, enemies like the godskins will range attack you no matter when you heal (hence input reading). Input reading can also be used to your advantage in some cases, to be fair. As a mage, there are certain spells that delay their release. Many enemies are programmed to dodge to the side on input of a spell. This means that when using a spell with delayed release (I think one is magic glintblade), they will dodge the cast but the spell will actually fire after their dodge and hot them at least 90% of the time. This also works with rock sling and other spells that have a wind-up. That being said, input reading on heals is still bullshit as it diminishes the value of timing your heals since there is never a good time to heal against an enemy who has an input read attack against the flask. You can still spam dodge if you are far enough as it will go off just before the projectile hits but it's much less satisfying compared to using your opportunity to heal (or attack) that you've learned from memorising the moveset.
@@dyllwill input reading for healing is simply forcing you to heal during specific attacks rather than heal when the boss has stopped attacking. It’s a counter to being able to heal and move at the same time. It’s also to force the player into a situation where they have to force the boss to do an attack to give them a window to heal which takes far more skill than just healing the moment someone stops attacking. Crucible knight for example can easily be baited into a shield bash allowing you to heal if you dodge it correctly. I don’t see it as bull shit at all.
For newcomers I get it but for the like 4k subs that left I really don't understand how they took it seriously. I kinda wish he didn't make this video and just left that one on it's own and never addressed it.
I’m sure some of it was, the best satire has truth in it. I think many of his criticisms were/could easily have been legitimate, but others were… unspeakable lol
I don't know if it's been said but the game does tell you what areas have similar level coop and invasion summoning. Once you activate the summoning pool you can press (I think) RB or R1 on the map to see hotspots for your level/highest weapon level.
Completely agree re: Smithing Stones. I saw a good few reviewers and critics claiming that Elden Ring wants you to experiment with your weapons and play style. Couldn’t be further from the truth. You don’t get enough resources to ensure you can have multiple weapons scale appropriately and Smithed weapons go +25. The game incentivises picking a build and sticking with it because you can’t reasonably branch out after early game without significant investment. Opportunity cost of experimentation is too high. Edit: Quibble re: Radahn and Torrent where you say “the game is trying to make you use Torrent strategically”. I’d avoid ascribing intent. It’s a massive problem with From fans where once they’ve found a solution they believe that it must therefore be intentional, and it’s there to teach you something. There’s a difference between learning/developing a solution and being taught how to solve a problem, let alone that the solution you found was intentional. If no one’s taught me how to dress and I wear my T-shirt backwards, it makes me just as warm and covers the same surface area, but it does not mean the tailor taught me to do it, and just because it works it doesn’t mean it’s what they intended.
"I’d avoid ascribing intent" u just did that by talking about how the game pushes you towards a certain build, which is substantially untrue considering u can respec incredibely early and the sheer amount of viable builds are insanely better than old games. "Opportunity cost of experimentation is too hig" not if you were exploring enough. look up what bell berrings are. by the end, i had over 10 +24 weapons and 5 +9 somber weapons. u dont need +25 as it really only adds fifty damage and doesnt affect scaling on most weapons. theres also over 18 larval tears to respec with. by the end, i cooped for a few days and bought myself hundreds of every upgrade material. im hoping they start selling the +25 and 10s with the vendor for a high price, then this game would easily be the most diverse one build wise.
@@flamingmanure I didn’t say the game pushes you toward a certain build, I said it incentivises sticking with a single build. That build can be anything you want, but if you’re going in that direction what you gain by continuing isn’t matched by taking a different path until you get your rerolls. This is a consequence of how the mechanics operate objectively, I don’t need to ascribe intent. Define “enough”, I know what bell bearings are, and “by the end” is irrelevant when we’re talking about the other 90% of the game. Respeccing at Raya Lucaria is one thing, saying “The game does let you experiment because at the endgame you can do anything” isn’t helpful. You’re saying “There’s over 18 tears” but that information is not known to any player without hindsight or a wiki. You never know which respec is going to be your last one. I’m fine with all of it, by the way. I don’t mind resource scarcity making your choices have consequences. I just don’t like that reviewers went in screaming you had an experimental playground where you could swap weapons, magic, etc. freely when you really can’t, because what they did was reroll a dozen characters and replay the network test when what players actually do is make a character, maybe reroll once if they fuck up the start, and play ‘casually’ until they get bored or win.
That's not completely true. You get smitting stones in caves (even when coop) and by the endgame you can basically buy anything. And if you plan things out, you can even get them before you finish your playthrough. You can also get at least 10 or 15 weapons to max lvl. That's a lot to say the least. Honestly, I hope Fromsoft still make patches like 1.04 which completely rework the balancing of weapons and spells.
@@enman009 Waiting until the end of the game to finally be able to branch out and try new weapons is exactly what Daniel means by the game incentivising you to stick with maybe 2 weapons. I spent 150 hours on a single character exploring as much as I possibly could and didn't find anywhere near enough smithing stones to get a weapon to +25, let alone multiple. I had to Google where to get more and start farming them instead.
@@hammerstix5791 I understand, but I don't agree with Daniel. As I said, you can plan things out to get the material before finishing your playthrough. You just have to be good enough to beat Magma Wyvern. With my Greathammer pure strength build, I got to the caves that gave me +24 smiting stones before doing Volcano Manor, Farum Azula, Hailtree, Mogwyn Palace, Nokron, the 2nd half of Raya Lucaria, Deeproots and other unexplored areas (which is a lot to just be the end). Heck, by the time you get to the capital, you're more than capable of tackling it at +15 with any decent weapon. If what you're saying is that it takes a lot of planning, yeah I agree. But is not true that the game is stopping you for getting there.
Enemies do know whenever you use a consumable. They have a chance of reacting to your use of the flask or other consumables or ignoring it. Things like the Godskins almost always do the fireball the moment you use the flask. That's assuming that they aren't in the middle of anything though. A lot of enemies also read your inputs on throwing knives or shooting arrows. However, some enemies cannot detect and auto-dodge if you fire arrows while jumping. This kind of thing has been part of their boss scripting since at least Dark Souls 1. Smough pretty reliably will do his hammer charge if you use the flask at a certain distance.
yeah i agree with this , also alot of Bosses and Enemies throughout the series will do a straight poking attack with spears , halberds or swords , when you take out the flask in their line of sight and range.
The biggest issue if you only consider the playthrough of the game is definitely normal weapons, upgraded by normal smithing stones. It is way too expensive and takes way too many stones for someone on their first playthrough, you are so much better off finding a somber upgrade weapon
I looked at it and thought: Huh why does this go up by two every time? Wouldn't it make more sense to just have it go 1 2 3 and have half as many in the game? Then about 10 hours later I was like I wish they just went 1 2 3 and I still got the amount I'm getting because I don't have enough to try the weapons I want to try
personally i think it's fine and generally didn't have issues, but i agree the drop rate should be better. But for me i didn't max out a somber weapon until like 120 hours in, the normal weapon i mainly used was like +16 for a while.
I don't think that you're wrong to say that it can be hard to find things for a specific build, but I think that calling it a problem with the open world might be the wrong way of looking at it. Rather, I would like to propose that it's actually a problem with how the classes are presented. Specifically, they're laid out like in a typical FromSoft game, with all the various decently powerful options up front, and then the special challenge class (in this case the Wretch) placed at the end. The thing is, I don't think that the Wretch is really playing the same role in Elden Ring as it does in other FromSoft titles. It's _not_ a challenge class any more. It simply can't be, with the way the game is set up. The hunting and stealth mechanics, combined with the respawning "rune skulls" throughout the map, make it so that gaining your early levels is easy. There's a wealth of different weapons to loot, some quite easy to get, and with the exception of "special" weapons, they can be customized to whatever scaling works best for the player, only getting more options as you go. Combine that with the increased options for both mixed-stat and hyper-specialized builds, and about the only way to make a bad stat allocation is to completely tank Vigor (and even then, a skilled player can overcome the deficit). What all of this means is that Elden Ring takes the traditional role of the "weak" class and turns it on its head. It's no longer simply a case of taking the weak class if you want a challenge, and one of the others to get a head start in the early game. Rather, I would say that you take one of the pre-built classes if you have something specific in mind, know what you're going for, and want to get right into doing your build with as little set-up as possible, and you take the Wretch to experience the game as intended. Find whatever you come across without worrying if it's "for your build" or not, and invest stat points as needed. You'll be getting new levels and new equipment often enough not to worry about it. There's also one more thing that makes me feel this way. When you get what is for most people their second Great Rune, you unlock the ability to respec your character, and completely redo your build. If you're going with one of the premade classes, this doesn't amount to much other than maybe speccing into or out of the requirements for a particular weapon, or realizing that you made some point investments that you didn't really need (say you invested several more levels into Endurance than for stamina before realizing that you were never going to get out of mid-roll if you wanted to do any damage). However, the option really shines for the Wretch, who can _completely_ change their build, and for whom it comes at a point were you've basically got all your options open now, and had enough opportunity to start finding the equipment, ashes, and general play style that you want to lean into. In other words, it comes at what you could call the end of the tutorial, and the start of playing the game for real. All of this leads me to the opinion that the Wretch should have been placed front and centre, at the head of the list. It should have been presented as the default experience for the game. Because just choosing Wretch as your starting class immediately solves the issue of not knowing where anything is, and not finding the right items for your build. The game is accessible enough that the perceived downside of starting at a lower level and with worse equipment is almost completely negated, and for certain far outweighed by all the potential benefits, _unless_ someone already knows the game, and is trying to do something specific with their existing knowledge.
Since my first point went into a small essay, I'll put the second one here. I actually think that sombre weapons being easier to upgrade is the point. Non-somber weapons can be customized to fit any play style, sometimes even with the same weapon arts that their somber counterparts get. Which means that, if the normal weapons were not just more customizable, but also easier to upgrade, then in a lot of cases they'd just end up being outright _better_ than somber weapons are. You'd run into this weird situation where the longsword that you got off of some random mook just does more for you than the unique and amazing weapon that you took down an optional boss to beat. So making the somber weapons easier to upgrade serves as a solution. It ensures that, at least for most of the game, your super special boss weapons will continue to hit harder than the common drops you can find just anywhere. Sure, you _can_ still get a falchion dropped off of a demi-human up to the point where, with a carefully selected Ash of War, it's as good or better, and there are some "normal" weapons that nonetheless have unique looks and/or special effects, but it will take dedication and work. In that way, the game keeps special rewards special. Being easy to upgrade is the pay-off that somber weapons get for being non-customizable and in limited supply. Really, it would be strange if you _weren't_ using a unique golden halberd or energy-katana over a plain, ordinary longsword, wouldn't it? Having rare weapons that are supposed to be rewards for your accomplishments outshined by weapons that are more easy to acquire would mean that those "rewards" failed to feel rewarding.
@@Patrician It's only prolific because gatekeepers hate it when you don't go in solo with a pure physical weapon, though it feels overtuned in this game
@@Patrician A lot of bosses in DS3 are argueably harder when you summon. Their moveset stops being predictable while HP goes up tremendously. Also there are VERY few bosses in DS3 that you can stagger-lock into oblivion where summoning is actually a huge boon (Abyss Watchers, don't remember if Pontiff is the same) The big issue in Elden Ring is that Spirit Ashes are flat out better than summoning. They can actually tank bosses, deal respectable damage and contribute to stagger-locking, which many bosses are susceptible to in Elden Ring.
14:20 The bosses have always been harder with summons. I don't know if the increase in difficulty differs in Elden Ring, I haven't really done Co-Op myself, howerver even way back in DS1, bosses would get buffed HP depending on how many summons you had, player _or_ NPC.
I'd say it's significantly more noticeable in Elden Ring. I've been doing a bunch of level 50 co-op on a specific early-ish duo boss that a lot of people summon for, and my damage gets cut in 1/2 when I'm the only phantom compared to my solo damage, with it dropping down to about 1/3 when there's two summons. I know it was a pretty low percentage comparatively in the earlier games, but it almost feels like you need to min/max a DPS/Support/Tank setup if you're actually going to do three man fights for every boss in Elden Ring.
Yes but not really, while it's true that bosses would get buffed, their AI would be very bad dealing with multiple targets, so at the end of the day no matter how much they increased their stats, they were certainly easier in CO-OP
They get buffed, but that _usually_ doesn’t outweigh the fact that one or more people will be unengaged by the boss, freely doing damage… if you’ve summoned a real person. Keeping those NPC summons alive for their stories can be a real bitch.
The boss's damage and the damage output of summons (of the same level) don't get changed at all with increased numbers. The only thing that changes is the bosses health pool. It gets increased by about 50% with one summon and a staggering 150% with two summons at the time of commenting. I sincerely hope they fix this as it makes 3 player coop nearly unbearable for boss fighting. Unless you enjoy the fight.
Seriously you put a remarkable amount of work into crafting the “narrative” of the last vid while still dropping clues in the script to exactly what was going on for those paying attention.
Yeah, that’s all it took to instantly know - people paying attention. Anyone that watches his vids and actually heard what he was saying (matched with what he’d then show) would’ve known from the get go. It made for some hilarious comments that missed it completely and got extremely upset, though.
@@TwoBs Yeah the comment section of that vid was its own form of entertainment. Having now watched this vid I am glad Pat brought up the pain points of this title instead of doing what everyone else is doing and just claiming its flawless. Looking forward to the potential loooooong form vid in the future.
@@apocalypselemon2209 The gripe that you couldn't heal your horse is what clued me in hard. Rowa raisins are one of the earliest craftable items in the game, and Rowa fruit is obnoxiously plentiful in the open world. It's hard to imagine anyone not looking casually at the crafting menu for the first time and rolling their eyes at the abundance of an item that is so specific in its utility (and not particularly useful overall)
as someone who is terrible at games and mostly resorts to button mashing, I have actually found elden ring so accessible, there's so many videos showing how to get yourself overleveled and abuse enemies with magic which has allowed me to explore this gorgeous game world and sneak around cool locations with ease, I know I'm not playing it the "correct" way but I'm having so much fun with it and have actually accidentally learned a few things in order to get my op sorcerer build to work, I also love hearing about other game mechanics from people who are actually skilled at the game, I have a deep love for video games despite my ineptitude
I don't think the multiplied difficulty is a big issue a while after release, as most people put their sign down because they are good at fighting the boss. The really big issue with multiplayer is the absolutely horrid connections, connection errors, etc. This has to be the worst of all FromSoft titles as far as multiplayer connections go
Indeed and its amazing how few people are talking about it, previous FromSoft titles were never this bad, almost half of PvP/Co-op sessions end in connection failures and I honestly think FromSoft has no idea how to handle it or the much larger player base.
There was also the massive oversaturation of the summon pool. On launch, it'd take upwards of 5 to 10 minutes to find a summon simply because there were many more people summoning than there were being summoned, which hasn't really been an issue before in Fromsoft releases in my memory serves.
@@mewmeister8650 I think partly a lot of newer players don't think to ever put down their own summon sign, blew my friends mind when I told him it was an easy way to practice a boss fight.
I think the connection stuff will sort itself out in a month or two when the glut of concurrent players drops off and they release some stability patches.
That guy that said he started with confessor and proceeded to find no faith incantations or faith ashes of war definitely isn’t lying. I had the same experience as him it was absolute pain. There is barely any open world faith Incantations that you can find early on if you go to stormville castle then to the academy (Obviously I explored all around those areas I didn’t just walk to the next bosses). The fact that lightning spear one of the most iconic and basic faith incarnations is on a random knight in a field that you might never find is a problem to me and even if you find that knight it’s incredibly overleveled for that area and you’ll mostly likely run past him and go to the massive and interesting structures you can see in the distance, which I did.
This is not a problem exclusive to Elden Ring, it's a FromSoft trademark at this point. If you're going to go for a specialized magic/faith based character in one of these games, you're just going to have to open up a wiki and look for spells if you're not willing to chuck fireballs at things for 80 hours. If you don't start as 2 specific classes in this game, you can't even get a staff to cast magic even if you happen to find the magic vendor until you farm the old aristocrats in Limgrave or leave Limgrave to buy or find one. And while lightning spear is iconic, it is hardly an easy spell to find in any of their games. I'm pretty sure the only game it was straightforward to find was Dark Souls 2 and you had to be well past the midpoint of the game to even buy it. I'm not defending any of this or saying it's good game design, but it's what they do and you just have to play around that if you're determined to go in blind.
First area's are brutal for faith players, catch flame ends up hilariously being the best bang for your buck though outside of buffs for a long time. You get a ton of INT scaling weapons and sorceries in the first 2 areas, and obviously one of the most broken weapons in the game, Moonveil, fairly early.
Similar experience here. I chose Prophet but immediately got warped to Caelid via dragonburnt ruins. Found tons of Int gear before anything faith came along
This game has more melee weapons with faith and int scaling than before, I think as an attempt to make magic users more viable early game for new players. I also played faith (so I could ignore crafting) and didn't have problems.
Some of your points are things I agree with, not all of them. I will say that there's some room for improvement on map exploration like you mentioned BUT IMO it's very easy to find things on the map because if you just look at the structures drawn on it (that aren't pieces of the sky-castle and those are easy to distinguish) they accurately depict real structures in the world worth checking out, AND then mark that structure once you visited it so I really had no problem finding things like the Waypoint Ruins and such. The big thing I DO agree with you on is that I don't see any good reason to limit co op after you beat an area boss when there are so many optional areas and bosses, that's one thing I really wish they would change. The point of being open world is that there isn't any particular point in which you've 'completed' an area, therefore not allowing co op summons after this or that boss is really arbitrary.
I don't see why Sellen couldn't be in Roundtable Hold with the first incanter guy, pretty much all the people that gather at the hold seem to be outcasts anyway, except for maybe...Rogier? He's the most "normal" character to end up there for longer than a wave in passing. And maybe the lore man in the library, I dunno what is up with that guy really other than being I think Nepheli's father?
@@brianforsyth2225 the roundtable is for tarnished, people who have been spurned by grace and later revived and guided by it. and sellen is not a tarnished
Big Bonk Stick that can stagger, guard counter, heavy jump attacks. There are enough ways to trivialise it. You will always come upon enemies where your specific playstyle/weapon is a bad fit... would hardly warrant weapon variety if this wasn't the case. And being underlvld/overlvld is an unavoidable experience in open world games unless you add scaling which has its own issues. There are lots of things to critique that he doesn't even mention, like massive lack of enemy variety or the ridiculousness of fromsoft quest design in an open world.
Dodging underneath especially, as his head takes double damage and you can be perfectly set up for hitting it if you roll forward into his attacks at close range.
I just parried him. There's a parrying shield on the Weaping Peninsula, and most of his attacks can be parried. Easy boss, frankly. Well my powerstanced longswords would have killed him pretty fast even without parrying, but I wanted to challenge myself so I'd be better equipped to kill the Crucible Knight in Stormhill. Now THAT GUY is fucking hard.
@@jerrywheyland7324 massive lack of enemy variety? it has more unique enemy types and varients than any previous fromsoft game and every other open world game so far. also the fromsoft quest design is fine in elden ring, considering its nowhere near as strict as old games. i finished many quests while missing many steps in between. where the old games, missing a single meeting or diologue option got u locked out. i frankly love that "ridiculousness" of their classic quest designs.
I think you missed the point with first blind playthrough. You are supposed to be lost and missing a lot of cool stuff. After playing once you know where all the cool stuff you previously found is. They did add a lot of cool stuff with hybrid stat requirement and a lot of stat boosting items, clearly to entice players to try everything they find. But most players decide what they want to play before playing it, so it is a problem. The real problem is the fact that missing something once, will increase chances of you missing it again, without 3rd party sources. The solution to clvl problem could be very easy. If you are underleveled for area, area adds some strong npc with very visible spooky aura effect, to gently persuade players to leave. And when you overleveled in area, you can have doubled bosses or something, to make it harder. Or like in ds1, where you have to buy and item to unlock the area. You still can have secret passage beside expensive one, but it will hint players they should not go there, if they cant afford entrance fee. >final boss is aot reference Your perspective. For me it was clearly another Princes Mononoke reference. But either way, I disliked it too, how the last boss is not original character, but a reference.
The first playthrough is sopposed to be shit? I don´t know man. If I decide to play a warrior and then I find out that it sucks I don´t know. Might not be my fault because I decided to do so.
@@patrickn.4113 Missing a few cool items doesn't make your experience shit, it makes you go next time I'm gonna try this. There are pros and cons for every build
My first playthrough, I wanted to have to hunt for everything I found myself and have a sort of rags-to-riches story. I then went to Dragon-burnt ruins and got teleported into Caelid at RL1 without Torrent or the ability to level up. Escaping the web-shooting insects and walking out into the rot-swamp of Caelid with nothing to my name might be the best introduction I've had to a FROMSoft game. It doesn't help I forgot how Fast-travel functioned compared to Dark Souls at first, so I went through a portion of the swamp on foot (and even found my first armor set).
I think the difference herr is in how different people play open world games. Go and follow the main path at all times, or "oh this is area 1 let's see what I can find!" I, for one, found something for most builds in Limgrave because I ran around it to check out camps, ruins etc. before even going to the castle; and doing that I found the path to bypass the castle and reach the second area (though I turned around and did the castle first anyway). Yes, you can always narrowly miss things... but, at least there IS things there to miss. Unlike, say, Skyrim which has vast streches of empty land. EDIT: Also, Bosses got more hp in DS3 as well when you summoned others. EDIT2: Bell Gargoyles can absolutely be bruteforced. They die in 4 hits from the Drake sword that you can get if you shoot the dragon on the bridge you farmed in the tail enough times. It makes a lot of early DS1 a joke, numbers wise.
You neglect the actual biggest problem with the Elden Beast. It's immune to everything. Bleed, rot, poison, madness, etc. Therefore any build built around those elements that was anywhere from viable to OP for the rest of the game is completely negated by it.
I mean, any build built around those should (and does) have plenty of damage from raw scaling. My first playthrough was bleed/frost focused and I had no trouble killing it because the weapons do more than enough raw damage either way. You'll have a worse time, sure, but that's super normal for games like this. Plenty of bosses have like 30-40% resistance to certain physical types but there are far fewer complaints you see about that, despite the fact that it's probably a similar amount of lost damage to not being able to status certain bosses
As someone who completely abused rot and freeze with a dragon build I was still having a grand old time. Because even if you make a build dedicated to a single thing, its easy to prepare a different weapon or different spell to use.
I used the Golden Halberd from start to finish on my first playthrough. I tried other stuff along the way, but I lacked the smithing resources to upgrade a bunch of weapons. Did you know that holy damage heals Elden Beast? I did when I saw my +10 weapon doing around 100 damage on each swing. I got so sick of Elden Beast that I specifically built up the Godslaying Greatsword just for his fight.
@@halcionjoy7 calling it healing is pretty disingenuous but yeah, it has like 80% resistance to holy. It's highly resistant to all magic, but especially holy
Elden Ring gave me similar feelings to playing Morrowind the first time. Going into such a hostile environment as Caelid early on reminded me of being level 5 and opening up the ghost gate to an ascended sleeper. By the time I killed Radahn, I stopped and went to replay Morrowind for the first time in 3 years. I haven't stopped, glued to the TES3 again.
It is interesting that people might have certain frustrations about aspects of Elden Ring that other players do not. This is most likely attributed to the open world design and the varying experiences people will have because of it.
Exactly. My first character was a Hero. Gave up on this one after 15 hours and tried a new one as a Sorcerer. And much preferred the Sorcerer! Game felt different, well Sorcerer feels like "easy mode" compared to a low level hero who can do a ton of damage, but hits so s-l-o-w-l-y- they get staggered by rats and drain stamina after 2 swings. It's not a "completionist" game. You don't need to see everything, or even half of it, on one play through. It has more genuine replayability than several other so-called open world games ... eg those where you are the same character going through the same cut scenes every time. They are open world only because the "open world" is mostly useless filler. The story is linear. Elden Ring deviates from this and while tastes differ, of course, I think it an impressive attempt at making an open world that works as a game.
9:45 I’m very glad they rebalanced this system so that regular smithing stones and somber smithing stones should be more closely aligned in availability.
Ill say this. A lot of bosses seem to be tuned to be fought with their weaknesses. So an easy playthrough would require swapping to correct builds frequently, like using guard counters on leonine misbegotten, or using magic to stagger the godskins. This is the rpg part of action rpg, whereas in ds3 most problems were solved by dodge and hit. Personally, i enjoy sekiro more for this reason: the difficulty isnt as modulable.its straightforward and consistent. Yes you dont get build variety. But you do get a consistent curve.
Sekiro is probably the fromsoftware game I'd label a masterpiece. The posture system and the way its implemented is very well done. Isshin the sword saint and inner genichiro are probably my favorite bosses in the series.
Fair point. I skipped Sekiro for the same reason some prefer it. I play DarkSouls because it's an RPG where stats and character building matters, but a consequence of that design is the phenomenon you described.
I had the opposite experience: Started as a faith build and kept finding sorceries, in fact I felt the game was biased towards magic. I do agree that there should have been a sorcery teacher in the roundtable or at least somewhere not super out of the way like Sellen is.
That's a great line about the discourse in the souls community "just because a solution exists, doesn't make the original critisisms invalid". But so many people will say the opposite
You got me, though I suspected something was off with the whole "the game is too hard, it doesn't respect my limited time and needs an easy mode" argument
7:48 to me personally these are all great aspects. For example in Forbidden West, it tells you if you missed anything at a spot via menus and Aloy will talk your ear off also if you have missed anything. If anything it makes me more want to explore in a boring vacuum way. Elden Ring I don’t know what I didn’t miss, in a sense ignorance is a bliss that I’ve really enjoyed, compare to “Check all boxes on the quest screen” type open world games.
Also there’s shit ton past the “gesture” at 12:26 that’s not the end all “reward” for the rooftop climb, not even close… I don’t think there’s a single gesture as an end dungeon or end level reward…
Also 14:16 the bosses ALWAYS gained more health when you summoned in old games too. All the old games. ER is not the first to implement giving the boss more health when you summon a friend.
I mean in a game where it's possible to miss entire areas is it really a stretch to say that you aren't supposed to find all the cool items in your first playthrough. It's ok to miss stuff. That's why fs games have a strong focus on community. Maybe your friend found a cool sword and told you where to find it. You don't have to find everything yourself
It's also funny that he complains about ER taking the ubisoft formula while he is the one stuck in a ubisoft mentality, trying to 100% everything. The recommendation to adopt MGS' completion rate for areas is absolutely horrible.
I agree that FromSoft didn't make quite enough changes to how they handle things for an open world game, but I disagree on including percentage map completion stuff. Morrowind-style map revealing (with the current map items gives you an uncolored outline) would be the best way to handle things imo.
personally i think the map and how it is now is absolutely fantastic , its not a Ubisoft style map tho , its more like Breath of the Wild , while sure you get the basic map from some place , but there are no markers except for some NPCs that you have already met , and you can place up to 100 markers yourself ... when you think you havent finished looking around in that region just put a marker down , memorize which marker you used for what thing. For example i used the skull for Boss encounter or unfinished dungeon , and the flag for finished ... the treasure chest for the walking mausoleums that i havent used and the knife / sword symbol for unfinished exploring / puzzle.
Those comments about the Sorcerer hit true for me. I think I spent 40-45 hours in The Lands Between before I discovered the Sorcerer trainer in Limgrave. 75 hours in, and I'm still using the starter staff because I hadn't found any replacements before I'd already improved it at the Smith 10 or so times. The only piece of loot for those 40 hours made for my magic playstyle came from an obscure dungeon on my third delve into Limgrave's deep corners. For all it's ambition, I think the open world approach has been the absolute bane of my playthrough. If they're going open world, I think they ought to add a *touch* of direction. Even 80 hours in, now, I feel uncertain and lost at almost all times, with difficulty spiking in all directions as I haphazardly discover new content. Ultimately, I feel the exploration was more satisfying in FS's previous games. When I returned to an area and discovered a new limb of the map to explore in Bloodborne, it felt satisfying to see how far my power had come. When it happens in Elden Ring, I feel like I went in the wrong direction and robbed myself of a fair challenge while grinding away at bosses I just haven't enjoyed whether for the ease or extreme challenge.
That is part of the problem of open world design, cohesion and the ability to craft a through-line of difficulty are some of the things you sacrifice, and exploration isn't necessarily a good supplement, because every player will explore differently. So, as covered, some people will want to be a sorcerer, and feel forced to re-roll/switch to faith, and vice versa.
It happened with quite a few bosses where after a few attempts I felt like I'm doing enough damage and taking few enough hits that all I need to do is keep trying and I will get lucky. The biggest culprit for this is Malekith the Black Blade, for some reason he didn't do his anime-bullshit attack and let me punish his easy to dodge attacks. I don't think I even saw all his moves. I got to the fight late in the night and gave up after a few attempts. The next day I was ready to spend all day trying to defeat him but in the end it only took about three quarters of an hour and I beat him in a fight where he pulled his punches. It was not satisfying at all. I think this is the arena where From has the most room for improvement. Not boss difficulty, but boss consistency. The other thing that has always felt off to me in From games is blocking bosses. You have to figure out by trial and error which moves can be blocked and which can't. It messes with you intuitive sense of weight. Blocking someone three feet taller than you swinging a sword that probably weights 200kg will in the best case result in a broken arm and at worst death. Most of their attacks look like you should never be able to block them yet sometimes you can. Its clearly a fantasy game, but this entirely messes with my instincts.
Unblockable/stance breaking attacks that can be parried is also nuts to me. If it’s hitting you hard enough to take you off your feet, increasing the speed at which the swing hits your arm does not magically make it ineffective. Should do the opposite.
This is a good criticism. I haven't used a build with a shield since Bloodborne, and I retroactively play all the older games without a shield, so I've almost completely forgotten about that mechanic. I think this complaint is part of a double-edged sword; From has bosses with too many moves in their repertoire. The heat-up mechanic was the original way of mixing things up in encounters, but now the animations are so much better that the chaining of basic attacks starts to become more confusing and seamlessly mixed. I think the Blade Dancer in DS3 was the masterclass on these more fluid animations, and really the first Souls boss (BB did it first in the DLC) that more easily telegraphed moves went away. The juice in judging the strength of bosses was parrying, which DS3 actually did really well. Most people were confused if non-humanoid characters could be parried, but now that confusion has given way to the visceral mechanic of this game (which I still haven't mastered). If attacks for parrying (which- no shield for me) and viscerals are consistently telegraphed, I'm not sure.
If you’re talking RNG problems the biggest culprit is Melania by far. People are straight up lying to themselves about her. She is one of the worst designed bosses From has every created.
11:50 pretty sure bosses are input reading, been some weeks but im sure i saw something on reddit that showed bosses will always try to do their distance closer if you roll away and drink estus. Seemed bullshit to me at first, but then I realised the AI manipulation goes both ways and you can basically bait out attacks to do whatever you want. Turns Crucible Knight into a joke if you bring a parry dagger with you and know how to bait him out.
only a few really read inputs, namely crucible knight. For example many people claim that godskin apostle/noble shoot a fireball if you drink an estus, but they actually just do it always when you are in range, so it's just a coincidence
@@ehrtdaz7186 I've seen the godskin apostle consistently use his fireball move the moment I pressed the x button for a flask, assuming he's not busy with another attack. It happens for me enough that I don't believe it's coincidence. Of course he only does it if you're at range, he uses his weapon when you use a flask right in his face.
Crafting system was partly there to fill the vast space of the world with rewards. I would love them to have weapons at every corner but that is less reasonable thing to implement.
It also made experimenting with elements more enticing. In ds1 vendors sold limited amount of items. If a boss is, say, weak to lightning and vendor is selling 3 lightning grease, you had to make those lightning grease count. If you fudge up no more grease for u.
For me the Elden Beast was a suitable climax because the whole 'veil' of the importance or radagon or the golden order is gone. The Erdtree is a parasite that has fooled us all, and we see its ugly/otherwordly head in order to trigger REAL change. As a fight it wasnt amazing, but its story implications really resonated with me. Radagon as a final boss isnt breaking any sort of cycle, its like killing/being killed by gerhman. To really trigger a change in this world, we can't just kill a vassal of the erdtree, we need to kill the erdtree itself.
I loved the Elden Beast as a boss. One of the few large monster fights that are done well. Everything works in that fight: Visual presentation, audio, ost, moveset, lore... The only better large monster fight is Placidusax imo. a true spectacle where the notoriously bad camera doesn't matter.
Which is exactly why 4 of the 6 endings just end up being similar and don't really change the setting. The Flame of Frenzy and Ranni's ending actually change the setting.
Personally, as far as finding stuff on the map goes, I think Elden Ring's map does better than most. It took me some time to figure out how to read the map, but when I realized that the landmarks actually correlate to actual locations I had less difficulty finding places to explore. I think this difficulty in reading the map as an actual map comes from most open world games just flooding their maps with objective markers once you unlock them making it very easy to just ignore the map itself and just follow the markers. However, this could be less about Elden Ring having good map design and more that it's contemporaries having abysmal map design. Side note: I had the reverse problem with the teacher in the Waypoint Ruins; I followed the merchant note and found her there, but was shocked to learn that she didn't sell a casting catalyst along with her sorceries. I started as Vagabond and had not starting catalyst. And, unlike for faith, I couldn't purchase a catalyst at the hub, which feels like a huge oversight. Eventually I found a catalyst in the Weeping Peninsula but that was after like 30+ hours. I agree that this game isn't perfect and you've presented some criticisms I hadn't considered. I still wouldn't hesitate to call this my game of the year though. Glad you got this out, appreciate your takes, and I'm super excited for the Skyrim video.
I agree, good map reading i how i found most stuff. "Oh there seems to be a path here", "oh whats this structure", stuff like that. You don't really need to comb the map, just see where things might be. I do agree though that something to indicate where you've been would be useful, like at least indicate where a boss has been defeated. Personally i do like that there's lore reasons for things, which is why there's basically no sorcery stuff early game including staffs. But at least they throw a bone with the beast in weeping penensula. Perhaps they could have thrown more hints that going to liurnia would be beneficial.
The first video was so obviously satirical that it did more to reveal how many fans of the game are insecure pissbabies than any discussion could. Anyway, time to enjoy this one.
Ok, now that I've watched it, I'm glad we agree on a lot of the issues with the game. Personally, I believe Elden Ring's bosses are some of the weakest in the series. Even ignoring how DREADFUL the 5 boss gauntlet at the end of the game is, it feels like most boss fights are the worst aspects of each Souls game instead of the best. Godskin Duo is the embodiment of all the evils of DS2, bosses that shoot around like ping-pong balls in a washing machine for BB. And every boss that has generally overzealous attack patterns where you're supposed to dodge for 20 seconds, hit once, and repeat forever for DS3. I think the only boss that really "stood out" to me was Rykard, and that's not even because of the fight, but because of the gimmick with the spear that made the fight interesting. And I find the online experience to be utterly dreadful. It's all of the worst aspects of DS3's system, but awkwardly stuffed into an open world. 9/10 invasions will go to a pair of cunts sitting at a grace looking to gang up on you. And because the game is designed for horseback exploration, being summoned anywhere other than before a boss door turns the game into a walking simulator. There's a reason you rarely find summons anymore, only a month after release. And, yeah, questlines following the same esoteric bullshit the other games do, but in an open world rather than a mostly linear adventure, is some of the most teeth gnashing frustration in the universe. It's still a great game, but it doesn't feel like it has improved on their prior works in any meaningful way. It's VERY literally just dark souls, but in an open world, with all of the awkward mechanics mismatches born of that crossover. I had/am still having a lot of fun, because of course, but I know they can do so much better.
"reveal how many fans of the game are insecure pissbabies" I think it's more of a general populace problem than it is a Fromm fan problem. If I was magical-super-dictator of the world for 5 minutes, i'd create an edict that would block all social media platforms for 3 days a year. I think a tiny detox period would be good for modern humans.
He repeatedly said he was serious and that it wasn't a joke. It's pretty dumb to be surprised that people think you're serious after you keep saying you're serious.
@@PaperFlare I heavily disagree on the bosses and find them to be among the best. Now I'm not talking about the shitty dungeon bosses, but every unique boss from the dungeons or from side paths are really good. Godfrey is among the best in the series, because he rewards you for learning how to jump, has clear and concise combos, and has 3 phases that shake things up. Radagon is a skill check, with Elden Beast being a fun spectacle. Malenia is probably the best boss in the game, because she finally has moves that reward you for dodging in a certain direction. Dodge diagonally right to punish her flurry, dodge directly backwards to punish her thrust, dodge behind her waterfowl after running away from the first flurry. It's the definition of having to LEARN a fight. Dragonlord is probably the most underwhelming given how hyped up he was, but he has an annoying runback and lots of generic sweeping melee attacks with AOEs. Still one of the best dragon fights, under Midir but above Sinh IMO. Rennala is the best they could have done with a pure magic boss, apart from the first phase which basically just adds atmosphere but not much else. Morgott and Mogh fight so differently, but both use bloodblade attacks and have fucking ridiculous movesets and lore implications, with sick cutscenes and lines. Godrick's alright, but loses a bunch of magic when you realise you can just run away from 90 percent of his combos and never get hit. Taurus Demon and Capra Demon are clunky checks to know which buttons you're pushing, and have little actual skill or fun factor to them. Iron Golem is basically just one of the Giant mobs from Elden Ring, in the sense that you wail on his ankles until he dies. Gargoyles are good. Quelaag is good. Sif is great but only because of the atmosphere and lore. Seath is terrible and has curse attacks on a 5 minute runback through invisible crystals. OnS is good. Nito is underwhelming and mediocre, just a bunch of ads with one attack that has easy dodge timing. The rest are repeats of terrible early game bosses. DS3 has Deacons of the Deep, which is underwhelming and not very fun. Abyss Watchers is great, one of the best in the early game. After that is Wolnir, which is boring and janky. One of the bad fights. Pontiff is great, Aldrich is pretty good. Yhorm is just worse Rykard, but has cool lore with Onion man. Twin Princes is great. Nameless King himself is great but has an annoying and time consuming phase 1 that acts as a runback. Soul of Cinder is fucking good as shit, with a huge moveset and nostalgia bait. Sorry for the essay, but I think it's pretty clear that Elden Ring has a significantly more well rounded boss lineup than DS3 or DS1. Not counting DS2 because it's self explanatory that it has hilariously inconsistent boss quality, with bosses like covetous demon. Even the gimmick fights in Elden Ring are good. Rykard is challenge while also being a mixup and being a stormruler fight. Rennala is like Deacons until it turns good. And I even forgot to talk about Radahn, what a fucking amazing fight, at least he was pre -nerf. Also I thought Godskin Duo was a fun fight. I summoned Bernahl, which will guaranteed always show up there as long as you went to Volcano Manor, and they went down in 3 tries. People trying to fight them one on one were doing a challenge run, it was pretty damn obvious that they were encouraging you to summon or use ashes there.
The issue with faith and sorcery is their teachers you find are where they are for plot reasons. As a result sorceries has two teachers, just in case you miss it until later. In fact raya lucardia straight up has a teleporter to the second teacher JUST to make sure. And while sure it does mean it can take a long time to get the goods, it's not like what you start with is remotely bad. Even with the stuff i got finding sellen early i still stuck with the starting spell for like half my play time. 11:40 Yes, bosses do know when you're doing some cast, or using some items. The best example of this is Godskin Nobles, they will cast black flame every time you're using an item, flask, or cast. 15:30 Invasions are only forced on when you use multiplyer which imo makes sense. Cost benefit. 19:00 Personally i think the purpose of that is to discourage backtracking away from the enemy. This is an issue noted in Ghostwire Tokyo, where backing up is a more viable strategy than staying close. In elden ring, it's more often a better strategy is staying close, and dodging into attacks not away. 29:44 Illusionary walls are always associated with sorcery. Thats why they're so rare in this game, it's generally very specific. The areas with the most illusionary walls basically always have sorcerers. I think some endgame dungeons and places break that rule but thats super late and i'm not that far yet.
Well, I'm glad I'm not going insane. And I'm glad someone has finally put out a well articulated criticism of the legitimate problems this game has. I had a near-identical experience to you overall, and came away with just about identical conclusions on every front. The aggressive resistance to criticism within the community has been hard to fathom. I watched your initial 'joke' video and obviously recognised it as satire, but nonetheless saw some serious, legitimate criticisms of the game slip through it. I subscribed at the time in the hope that a proper full-length video would emerge seriously discussing the topic, and I'm definitely not disappointed.
Most people that have no problems with this game haven’t even beaten it yet. I’m yet to see anyone who’s actually completed the game not have some significant issues with the late game design choices. Also, just because I have significant problems with this game doesn’t mean I don’t really like it, which many people fail to understand.
Im doing an RL1 Run and i can say for sure whenever I pop a resource during my many attemps the whole rotation of the bosses moves are different than before or the boss is more aggressive.
Jump attacks do the most poise damage in this game, add in the jump talisman and some insanely broken weapons like the Lance or spears of this game and you can stun lock it if your poise is around 60 +.
While I somewhat agree with the rewards for exploration feeling lackluster in the early game, I strongly disagree for lategame. It really just feels like the first three areas are very sparse in interesting items, but as you go further into the game you begin to find more interesting items and weapons. Those same late game areas are extremely rewarding in materials, too
I felt the opposite. Late game exploration is less rewarding because you already have so many weapons and items. A new weapon is no big deal and usually trash. Only thing is late game armor, but most of that comes from Volcano Manor contracts.
@@GeraltofRivia22 then u havent explored much and arent planning expirementing with builds. I respeced 3 times the last 20 hours just so i can fuk.around with new weapons and spells.
Leonine Misbegotten doesnt have to be a dodge bos. Elden Ring literally follows your example here that you set with Renalla and Magic Resistance. Just on the way to castle morne you can find the turtle shield with the classic stamina regen also it has barricade shield on it which absolutly counters the leonine misbegotten. I found it first time through and had a breeze honestly
51 hours as a confessor and I have found 3 weapons for faith and only one is worth using, I found many incantations but only one worth using. 7 hours as a sorcerer and I have 3 int weapons and 4 staves with 9 spells and I have uses for 7 of them although I only have 4 memory slots so far. First play through I found the round table hold incantation teacher. I found 2 sorcery teachers and neither one was Sellen. Church of vows was the only other incantation teacher I found but he also teaches sorcery.
I have to strongly disagree with you on the starting as a sorcerer, I had to start as a Spellblade because in early game good sorceries were far more commonly avaliable than good incantations (which really there aren't as many of as there is spells) it was only until late game I actually felt comfortable switching to a faith build because of this reason and really it isn't as strong but i just enjoy it more. I feel also that incantations at high level are also harder to come by than spells with the strongest sorc spell in the game coming from some mob right next to a sit of grace for example lol flame of the fell good isnt even worth obtaining which is the easiest one to get from the legendary incantations but atleast then you fight a boss for it
I honestly don’t get people who didn’t explore Limgrave before going to Stormveil, I mean yeah the grace is telling you, but even before release we knew Margit and Godrick were waiting for us there. First time I got outside, I ran past the tree sentinel without thinking cause I knew it was too much but apparently a lot of people think you HAVE to kill it?
You touch on "Mechanical cowardice" in a footnote and man, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on that because that's something I feel BIGTIME about DS3 (and some Elden Ring) boss design. They are all Bloodborne bosses, but forgetting that the reason Bloodborne HAD to do that was because it was designed around a quickstep and no shield. Every DS3 boss feels the same: Roll until your designated opening, get your hit in, and then go back to dodging until your designated opening. Blocking might work for some attacks but is generally discouraged. This makes bosses feel stale ESPECIALLY compared to the massively unique bosses of Demon's Souls that *actually* feel extremely unique.
Bbs quickstep is just as fast as ds3s roll. Theres no need to "design" bosses diffrenrly for both. Bb is pretty much a DS clone without shields. Also all the DS games are better without shields from rhe beggining. By ur logic bb has the most mechanical cowardice, considering its exactly like bb but with more bad bosses like hemwick. Also dodginf and waiting for openings has been the norm since demons souls and demons souls wasnt any different. Having a few boring gimmick fights that make replaying the game a boring chore doesnt make its bosses more "unique". Man the amount of from fans that pretend to be game devs is getting annyoing. Thank god they keep ignoring their fanbase and keep making bettee and better games. If it was up to the fanbase we wouldve gotten boring demons, ds1 and bb clones so far.
@@flamingmanure From Software is listening to their fanbase and did make the game more accessible , thats why we got spirit ashes in the first place why Guidance exists and why we have a map now. For example : The craftable guidance light that points you towards the next site of grace , or the statues that point you towards the next catacomb , or the Jellyfishes that spawn all over the place where something cool could be found. Tbh there is soo much guidance that its hard to miss or intentionally ignore. And Elden Ring reused a crap ton of Bosses from all older games , just slapped some new attacks or mechanics on to them to make them feel new ... all the Erdree Avatars are just Asylum Demon clones + one new gimick and the Wolf of Radagon is only a Sif + homing sword spells. My biggest issue tho is with the Tree Beasts that is new and has a cool moveset and a cool new grab kill move ... but ... they f* ruined that cool Boss for me because they slapped 20 of them all over into this game. And yeah sure Bosses are designed with Dodgeing in mind , but you can also Guard Counter in Elden Ring which is pretty dope ... or you can use Ashes of War : Bloodhound Step or Raptor of the Mists to avoid damage entirely. Or you can take a sip of that Bubble tear mix for a Bubble that absorbs like 90% dmg ... or use the perfume buff for damage and defense which also creates that bubble or use ashes of war : Endure ... or go full on Iron Skin on the Bosses with the perfume ironjar. This game has soo many options for almost every situation ... but yeah i guess all of these options wouldnt work for Elitists .. except maybe the Guard Counters.
@@mistressminerva3382 agree with you on the options, disagree on reused bosses, the wolf of radagon is literally not sif, the moves arent even similar, the erdtree avatars EACH have their own gimmick and are effectively an upgrade unlock. Also complaining about elitists and then being reductive isnt exactly the best take
@@keighne7650 "Also complaining about elitists and then being reductive isnt exactly the best take" Im not sure if i understand this correctly , english isnt my native language , could you elaborate on that ? Also ... Red Worlf of Radagon is Sif , mainly the Sword mouth moveset , but it also has parts of the Greatwolf animations / moveset from Dark Souls 3 Ashes of Ariandel DLC and it has the homing spells from Aava from Dark Souls 2.
@@keighne7650 By erdtree avatars each having their own gimmick, do you mean that there are two kinds for all 1000 of them? Or just that they are placed in different places of the map, so arenas are slightly different? One even has a crowd that you kill *before* fighting the boss, pretty unique that one. The only one you'd be right about is the one at Halig Tree gates. Because that one is some ridiculous bullshit that most players likely ran past. They all have the same moveset, have the same AI. And the only difference between the regular and rotten ones is the poop that comes flying out of and that zones you out, making the fight longer than it has to be, since the AI can get stuck spamming its projectile move after you get some distance. They're also insanely exploitable, dodging into them makes it so that they never follow up with a combo.
It just feels like portions of the game aren't complete, a running theme with FromSoft. Just delay your fucking games until their actually done for goodness sakes. You shouldn't have to patch in new content.
Yes, I took the right and found the sorcery vendor and also got teleported from that lake ruins into the crystal tunnel and found even more magic stuff outside of it. I avoided the stormveil castle for the longest time.
As someone who loved Skyrim for it's open world and Dark Souls in general, Elden Ring was a godsend for me personally, and as someone who likes to explore every nook and cranny, your opening criticisms never even occurred to me. So it was good to get a different perspective on the game
I explored pretty much every area until about 50 hours in and realized it really wasn't worth it other then some crafting items and golden runes so I ended up just wiki'ing everything going forward.
11:38 I mean the bosses, almost all of them, have coding for attacking in special ways whenever you use flasks. Its extremely egregious with certain bosses too, to the point they may even break out of a stun or a stagger instantly just to attack you.
Friend of mine messaged me with his outright disgust over the godskins for this specific reason. He just couldn’t heal regardless of window because he’d always get fireballed in response without fail.
@@deifiedtitan You can drink safely when they are locked in certain animations or if you're far enough away to leave the drinking animation in time for a roll. They just punish panic. (the duo is evil ofc) Same thing applies to the crucible knights that input punish drinking and Malenia. You can even lock Malenia in her idle walk in order to drink... just gotta know how. All that aside, I think input punishing drinking is stupid. But once you know how it happens you can easily play around it.
It's interesting looking back on this knowing they absolutely cannot break out of stuns or staggers. Though some have hyper armor during some animations that prevent staggers from occurring. People weren't used to a system where the boss had specific reactions in their decision tree for when the player began a casting or item animation. It was frustrating occasionally but also logically it makes sense your opponent would take advantage of you coming to a slow walk and cracking out a beverage mid-fight or doing some goofy spell with a windup. The miscalculation was the computer can tell when an animation has actually started better than us humans can, so it feels unfair that their reaction triggers to you winding up an animation happen on the literal first frame of animation before the human eye can receive it and comprehend it. I think in retrospect it's a great idea just implemented a bit haphazardly which is the From style I guess when it's time to throw a curveball to the mechanics of their games.
because the game is open world, they had more freedom to think of *where* stuff can be placed rather than *when* In limgrave and the southern penisula you get plenty of generalist stuff from magic and faith and all sorts of assortment of weapons. But then you push up north to the magic college, you start finding tons of sorcery, or if you push east into caelid you start finding more faith spells and magic equipment (since it used to be a magic town, now corrupted by the Priests of Rot)
Think my only gripe with this video was that you said you "couldn't keep track of where you've been." But there are map markers in the game that let you mark locations of interest with specific icons. As a veteran souls player, they improved a lot of what made the other games frustrating, and while Elden Ring isn't free from criticism, it also deserves the praise it gets because it's a legitimate Triple A game that's release fucking finished rather than half assed with content drip-fed through an IV of our wallets over the course of 6 months before the game dies out and they release the second game. Or third game. Tenth game. Whatever it may be. Regardless, you got me pretty good with the first video. It felt really off a lot of the shit you said, so I was skeptical (especially since I enjoyed your very in-depth looks at Elder Scrolls games) but I appreciate your criticisms for the game here. Yeah, the idea of "just cheese the boss" is stupid, but there's some stuff you, as a player, can do to help yourself. Learn what attacks can be parried (if any), learn its weakness and exploit it (Radahn is weak to Rot, so getting Rot arrows or the Rot Dragonbreath really helps you out), overcome the challenge while being severely crippled or using sheer skill. I personally don't think the intent with this game was meant to have players be sub lv200 by the end (they still are cause muh pvp meta) and it's quite clear when the scaling amps up in the 60s and 80s. Also, while watching your footage of the Begotten, you started using your fireball to stagger him, despite being on 0 flasks and nearly dead. Was that not more satisfying to overcome than smacking him to death with a giant club at full health and overtuned stats? I think it would be, but I guess we're both different players with different standards. I thought that kill was pretty nice to watch with the clutch fireballs. If you ever do do an in-depth look at this game 3 years later, I think looking into how the boss AI plays out might be something for an interesting topic. They look for what you do and punish it and try to teach you that this "isn't Dark Souls" anymore. I think looking at the lens of Dark Souls will make it difficult to know that bosses aren't to be fought the same way anymore. Rolling into enemies is more common with attacks, rather than rolling away. Baiting a ranged attack before healing is way more common. Bosses being able to chain 7-9 swings and randomly cancel them makes them more unpredictable and on your toes. Obviously, not every boss is like this. But quite a few of the main bosses, specifically Margitt, try to instill this sense of "this is a different game" into you. Use the tools you have to win. Don't try to handicap yourself for no reason. If you want a challenge, that's self-imposed. Great video. Glad I'm still subbed.
The only thing exploration wise I would have added to the game is a hero's path type addition to the map like breath of the wild that shows your path you've taken throughout the game and maybe even where you died. So it stays away from the Ubisoft map markers and percentages and checklists, but still shows where you've been so you know where you haven't been without making it systemic
I'd be interested to hear your response to this, the way I describe the issue with the bosses in Elden Ring is that "They feel like Sekiro bosses in a game without Sekiro's combat system", as a lot of them incorporate long combo strings and often escaping by backstepping or in the case of animalistic bosses charging past you out of reach, giving you little openings to land attacks [especially with larger/slower weapons], these bosses worked in Sekiro due to the fact it only plays one way really and that its combat system means just pressing the right button to 'pass' the attacks [deflecting in Sekiro's case, a mix of dodging or blocking in souls] actually progresses the fight towards clearing a healthbar. I feel the way you feel about leonine about a lot of bosses, basically. Even the easier ones or ones I like feel like they have one or two moves designed to just be gotchya moments or fuck-yous, and the game more than any previous Fromsoft game relies on learning timings and weird delays in these long combos or huge attacks to get by. Thanks for the vid, keep up the good work.
I noticed that a lot of enemies have a direct response to healing. If you don't get really far away from them, they will hit you. It really messed me up because I was basing my safe distance to heal off of my experience in Dark Souls 1, when sometimes healing right in their face is safer. The only upside to such predictable behavior is that it makes some enemies very easy to parry.
I've found several bosses having counter intuitive openings, which you kind of have to just find out for yourself. Maliketh for example have an overhead slam, where if you dodge into the attack you'll end up under his stomach unharmed and can score 2-3 hits with a greatsword. Otherwise he is hard to find openings for as spastic as he is. Of the gotcha moments I think Melania's anime attack is the only one which is completely bullshit, the others you can learn pretty easily to avoid. But she is trivialized with a greatshield with high stability.
This is what ive been saying about the combat and is pretty much my biggest gripe with the game. It feels like fighting sekiro bosses but without any of Sekiro's defensive abilities, so theres no interesting counterplay.
In regard to the experience for a sorcery build: FromSoft sorcery playthroughs have always been notoriously difficult in the early game. You start out with a weak staff, very basic and limited spells, and the real damage that sorcery can achieve does not begin to manifest until you've leveled Intelligence at least up to 40. The cap for Intelligence and sorcery's true damage potential is 80. Magic is supposed to be tough as hell in the early game. My first playthrough is a sorcery build because that's my favorite Souls play style. And I had to basically skip over Stormveil Castle and the first two main story bosses to go and find the better staffs and the better spells. This isn't very much different from how sorcery plays for each of the Souls games.
I think the problem i have and presumably also you is that we arent the "general target group" I like to have magic-options i usually always play something with magic but most people seem to only play Melee Characters and those dont complain because they dont have our problems. I also said that before but i dont get people that play in mythical world with magic and then they run around with a iron sticks. The odd part is that for Astrologers the best spell is the starting one the Glintstone pebble. it has the best FP cost to dmg ration. When i got more spells i didnt use them after trying each one out which is a shame. because of that i think even FromSoftware doesnt really design well in regards to magic players (even though still Erdtree-difference compared to DS1)
Currently doing my 3rd playthrough as a Sorcerer. I will pre-face that this run is played as a "mostly casual" one, so despite playing thru the game twice, I try not to look up or bum-rush all the good weapons/spells. I'm about halfways thru the run and I agree, Glintstone Pebble is still my go-to spell 90% of the time. Sometimes I use Loretta's Greatbow & Cannon of Haima for the fun of it, tho they just feel like an aweful waste of mana to cast. Magic have multiple problems in this game and usually just get dwarfed by ashes of way 99% of the time. More so there is a lot of small issues with magic, that just make it seems like an underwhelming experience, but my solution would be: - Give some more range for most projectile spells, the range is laughable. - Increase damage on some of the bigger spells, especially those who ground you for a while while casting. - Slightly reduce the stamina cost for casting spells, the drain is a little too crazy at times.
There are a lot of great spells that you find in Liurnia/Raya lucaria. Great glintstone shard is a straight up upgrade to pebble. The game wasn't mainly targeted at sorcery builds but it's still miles better than ds1 where you start with 20 "shots" of pebble which is nowhere near enough to clear a level and thus forced to rely on melee weapons
@@gobomania the greatbow is incredibly useful for hitting dangerous foes from long range. Like you can kill the big insect thing in Ainsel river with the greatbow for basically free
On the leonine, there is an indicator with his eyes glowing that tell you about his aggression level Several beasties enemies have this but there's no like indication about what this means and it can be hard to notice in combat This is my issue, there's like things you don't know, but not because of you, it's because the world is not like informative enough in some cases
I think they should have placed the smithing stone bell bearings in locations that you are more likely to find on your progression. Like putting the first bell bearing somewhere early on inside Stormveil Castle
By putting the most important and most useful stuff on the main paths, you secure that people are not gonna explore. The idea is that important stuff is in obscure places to incentivize exploring
I think all the ball bearings not on the main path are in caves that are extremely clear on the painted map(big obvious cave hole accentuated with orange), once you realize thats the system they arnt exactly hard to find
I don’t know if you may have worded it weirdly but summoning in the souls series, at least from dark souls 1, has always increased a boss’s hp by I think 1.5x per summon Great video though!
This is my first fromsoftware game and I thought it was hella difficult from the jump. I stuck with it though and spent about 20 hours leveling up and getting better at my combat in Limgrave. Now I'm about 115 hour in, I don't know how close to the end I am but I am loving it
The open world has its strength's and weaknesses. Certainly there are points where fromsofts lack of experience on designing open-worlds show, but i respect them for not just dipping their toes and actually committing to the design. For the final boss i loved the design and atmosphere of the elden beast, but the fight itself was kind of a nuicanse.
My issue with the final boss is fighting two full bosses back to back with no saving in between. If they wanted to do this they'd have to reduce both bosses HP to compensate, but as it is it's a frustrating fight of attrition that made both fights worse than the sum of their parts imo. Doesn't help that late game scaling is busted, you need to level vigor to the actual softcap to make many boss attacks 3 shots instead of 2 or 1 shots. It feels like after Leyndell you switch to NG+ suddenly. Still love this game to death, I feel like I have to say that every time I criticize it so people don't get the wrong idea.
I’m really surprised you didn’t find many sorcery items. I kept finding people selling spells, I found the meteor staff after getting teleported to caelad, and tons of sourcery scaling weapons
Best twinking item in the game, incredibly powerful and you literally cannot upgrade it so as long as you don't upgrade any weapons and stay at low levels, you can basically bully low level players in PvP with it.
As someone who only follows your content on TH-cam, I am VERY glad I fell for the joke like a dingus. This assessment I can definitely get behind and casually use as ASMR. Thank you again Low Poly Imperial Man. I have been gotten.
After 6 or so hours I just went with a normal Heavy Axe. Going full on Strength build. I'm 140 hrs in now and just got to the final area. Took me forever to upgrade to a +23 finally. It has been a blast but the upgraded system is a bit wonky.
@@thebailey67 this is my first "souls" game so i cant compare it to their past works. If anything it feels like a metroidvania, or really just any openended game from the 90s, little to no hand holding & all. I wanna try & go back to their previous games, but besides having no time i like the open nature of this too much
I'd say 70%+ of craftables can't be bought, but 60%+ are pretty much useless. Pots can't be bought, neither can sleep arrows or bolts, or rotbone arrows. At this point the usablity kinda ends.
My experience with bosses has been much different. I’ve felt most of my boss victories have been fair, and I’ve been significantly challenged by most, and have the experience of trying again and again getting better and skillfully overcoming each boss. Maybe it’s due to instinct from previous games. A few times I’ve approached a boss under level, and came back seemingly perfectly on level, or on level enough. Also the misbegotten bosses are gay as hell, hate em.
I mean, I know I'm in a minority, but Elden Beast fight was fine. Very cinematic, and only his star shower thingy was kinda stupid and annoying. And no wonder Patrician had issues with beating him he had goddamn scarseal on him. After Leyndell it's a liabilty to have that talisman on, it makes you take like 14% increased damage, and with hits that can reach 1000-1500 damage that's a really stupid idea to have that damage increase. Especially since, you know, you can have something that reduces that damage by like 10%, effectively making a 25% difference.
@@SzczurzaJucha I loved Elden Beast honestly. His criticism, saying that he's reusing attacks from Astel, is mind boggling. He has a completely different moveset w/ a sword and incantations, and doesn't teleport, which is what makes him a much better boss than Astel. Having the final boss be a cross between a beast/dragon type boss on the second phase and a "swordfighter" on the first phase is a good encapsulation of all of Elden Ring's bosses, and makes it feel more climatic. Also, I'm pretty damn sure the Scarseals aren't that detrimental to your damage resistance.
@@gu3z185 What he's saying is that the movesets are effectively the same. The Elden Beast doesn't 'teleport', it just goes untargetable/untrackable and comes up somewhere else. May aswell be a teleport. My issue with it is that it just isn't a fun boss. You spend the game going through and killing the characters, and then you come up against this unimaginative blob that casts a fuckload of spells at the same time, and you just run up and smack it's belly. It's not fun, it's not interesting and it really just feels futile given you've done everything narratively that the game has asked you to do, and this just seems like an unnecessary hurdle placed in the way.
@@mandatory055 was an ok boss for me, casts are fun to dodge (like the ring you have to hop over, or projectiles with very consistant timings. sword swings are telegraphed flawlessly, and an idea of a beast-like mass that merges with and rises from the goo that an arena is made of is kinda lovely. Mechanically and thematically Radagon is better, sure. But the beast in my opinion is not bad. Especially if you waste your flasks fighting Radagon.
I found like 3 sorcery teachers in my first 5 hours and ended up re-rolling to sorcery. (Which eventually made Renalla pretty painful) I also didn't go into stormveil until after exploring a lot. Which I think is why the experience diverged in that way so much. Which after doing some minor exploring I kind of realized that starting stuff was pretty balanced tbh. I get the exploration criticism but I don't even normally explore that much and found decent stuff pretty easily for basically every play style in the first 2 early areas.
One of the things I like about the souls formula is how there is usually one or two bosses per playstyle where the game just says no, and you either have an arbitrarily high skill floor to climb onto to compete with the boss, or you have to find another way around the issue, changing your build for that fight, summoning helpers of other builds that might fare better... More games need to have the balls to say no. I'm not saying the ones that are straight up immune to specific things, but that, while being technically damageable by your build, is so heavily resistant that beating it with that build is not as simple as it sounds, or anywhere near as simple as beating it with another build.
I have played most from soft games (all except bloodborne, and I am yet to finish ds2) and although I love elden ring, none have left me as frustrated as this game does at time. Things like having to walk through scarlet rot swamps with no access to antidotes, giant bosses in tiny arenas with moves which turn their entire body into a hit box (especially you magma worm, also turning the arena into a hit box) or enemies who sprint and spas out, so you can neither block or dodge them (royal revenant). Need I mention the godskin duo? Elden Ring is a great game like ds1 but like that game it has some obvious flaws due to the giant scope from soft aimed for making this game.
I think the Bell Gargoyles ARE a numerical issue. Obviously you CAN beat them skillfully with little investment, and after coming from much faster FromSoft games, it's not too difficult. But the boss is right down the way from the first blacksmith (a +3 weapon, easy to craft at this point, cuts through em like butter). And there's an NPC summon outside the door. As I see it, gargoyles are meant to be difficult if you fight them WITHOUT using your resources appropriately, but are much easier when you use Titanite and Humanity. I don't think Elden Ring's RPG progression is as deft as it could be, but it IS an an action -RPG-. And part of the skill there is HOW you approach problems, not just skill execution. My experience with DS games is that if you're only making little yellow slivers on enemy health bars, you're probably under-equipped or using a bad damage type. You're never subjected to doing 5+ minutes of chip damage against bosses unless you're stubborn.
Glad to see i get to watch an even longer Elden Ring review from my favorite reviewer. I agree with a lot of the criticisms made in this one, i found the analogy of the dragons from skyrim in reference to the multiple solutions not always being the answer to the problem very pertinent, and something im probably gonna use in the future! I also struggled starting as a sorcerer, having not missed sellen but missed the carian scroll (I was doing a 'spellsword'). Banger content as always
Never been to your channel before, but I do have to say that this video was really well done. I disagree with a lot of what you posit, admittedly, but your opinions are very well researched and presented thoughtfully. I think its important that a keen critical eye be placed on everything, especially a game with such overwhelming hype around it. No work is perfect, and things can only get better by analyzing flaws to find ways to improve. Developers just doing whatever they want with no input or feedback or context is exactly how most AAA developers have gotten to the state they're in. Excellent job. Lots of things to think about. I personally do still think that Elden Ring is competing only with Bloodborne and DS1 for best game ever made though. ;p
Great video Pat. I completely agree with all of your criticisms of the game. It’s a shame how hard Fromsoft gets circlejerked because it leads to people overhyping their already generally great games and tons of imitations from developers who think that they can give their game a dodge roll and expect their combat to turn out as engaging as From’s.
The bit on Leonine was interesting because I didn't fall into either camp, really? I beat him in one try, but I was low health and out of flasks by the end of it. I thought he was a fun fight, and I must have hit him at the perfect point level to challenge-wise, but I didn't really fight him ENOUGH to see any potential issues with his moveset I guess. I did start of Prisoner, and yeah it took a while to find some more spells. Rock Sling and Crystal Burst I found, and Rock Sling carried until I found Waypoint Ruins. I'm also not using any legendary/somber weapons; just a flail. I've upgraded it to about +4, and used an ash of war on it to add poison on top of the bleed. Any problems I've run into largely rest on me and impatience I think, but I also only just got by Stormveil Castle. I think these are all valid criticisms! Boss balance must be rough if you're not scaling them with the player but you have an open world with so much that you can run into stuff either super under or over levelled. So far, I haven't had too many issues, but I did start late compared to a lot of people and have been taking my time. I think I love the way the open world is designed, it feels natural and fun to explore just to see things. But that's not everyone's bag for sure, and it's hard to argue that a more linear design like previous Souls games results in a smoother experience.
Good review. It's eerily similar how close my thoughts on the game were to some of yours, and makes me feel less crazy among the sea of dislikes and From Soft fans telling me I played the game wrong.
You're not crazy, while I don't agree with everything stated in here (mostly because we just have differing play styles that alleviate and aggravate different problems with the game.) My take away is definitely that the game is fun but has some major issues.
Your review could be summarized as "I didn't like Dark Souls 2. Elden Ring is like Dark Souls 2 in these ways. I didn't like Elden Ring" Of course, instead of just saying "I personally don't like these aspects", you said it with vitriol and mistook things you don't like as things that are bad design. But those aren't the same thing.
Don't be upset by people being NPC's. It's the modern way, and it's unfortunately not limited to gaming. I'm sure an esoteric scholar could give you a very insightful explanation of the hivemind phenomenon and it's historical breakdown, I'm not that guy. I do find it incredibly interesting, especially when it applies to politicians (who don't give a shit about you,) corporations (who don't give a shit about you,) or other asinine things that you wouldn't expect to garner a dedicated fanbase. I generally get a kick out of watching the "Thing Good" and "Thing Bad" factions wage internet war. I wonder if it's some kind of evolutionary tribal impulse?
I'm not even convinced those people are from software fans. The dislike mobs I've seen appear to just be NPCs who only recently even new the series existed. Combine that with the majority of gaming outlets complaining about EldenRing, disliking aspects of it seems pretty openly accepted.
I gotta agree the beginning can be oddly restrictive when you keep finding stuff you cant use. I somehow managed to not find any usable melee weapons on my first playthrough as a bandit for a good 10 hours. It took until roundtable hold to find basic swords and scimitars and i only got there after the first boss, a bunch of mini-dungeons and aimless wandering. At least i learned how to make the most of my buckler and learned very early on how powerful bleed is. Makes me wonder why noble sword and noble estoc droprates are so insanely low, they seem like the perfect items to hand out to the player early.
Unlike other games basic weapons in fs games are no joke. No weapon is strictly better than another, it's playstyle dependant. I started as a samurai spending half of it with basic katana and the only upgrade i found was another uchigatana
@@pramitpratimdas8198 I agree that all the weapons are good in these games or at the very least usable. Souls games tend to start out with basic swords, axes and the like as early loot though while elden ring gives you 0.5% droprate for noble sword/estoc and a bunch of weapons that require leveling up to use, i think thats a bit backwards. Not to mention most basic weapons in elden ring aren't farmable for some inexplicable reason. Such a bizarre decision for a game that brought back powerstancing. For reference ds2 let you grab multiple estocs, foot soldier swords, bastard swords, infantry axes, bandit knives and halberds in forest of fallen giants which is basically the first area of that game.
@@Lilybun not sure why you'd waste time farming noble slender sword it's not a great weapon. You are better off with your starting weapon. As for estoc you can buy it from a merchant and patches sells it as usual. If you just want a thrusting sword, you can get the rapier from round table merchant.
Levels seem to be irrelevant, since you get downscaled when summoned. So you can be level 150 (which I was by just playing normally) and still do content in Limgrave. The Starfallen beast in Sellia tunnels is a bullshit boss because of the Arena. Or these Erdtree Spirit because of its grab attack and erratic moveset. And there are way too many bosses getting recycled. Erdtree Wardens which are literally Asylum Demon but with different elements, Erdtree Spirits that you encounter like 1000 times, the Dog/Cat statues in catacombs where you fight 1 then 1 with three heads and 2 with 1 head and 2 with three heads and maybe even additional ads. A friend said how he had trouble fighting Rennala, while I beat her at my first attempt. While I seriously struggled against Godrick and Margit. The difference being, I was a STR build with a Zweihänder, while my friend was a mage. Rennalla is resistant to Magic but weak against physical damage. And most humanoid or living bosses are weak against Frost, Bleed, Poison or Rot which makes them easy in that regard easy, especially when you have a bleed weapon or rot breath that will just nuke them away. And playing a Magic user is the most OP shit in all Dark Souls game so far and while I was a STR build, finding weapons I could use was a pain, most weapons were either DEX or INT scaling weapons or had a INT or DEX requirement.
hahahah oh man well put. once I got to the boss in the sellia tunnel and I saw that chunk of living rock in just a small area I was like "yea, okay they REALLY ran out of ideas cause this is SOME BUL- process to get chargeg in a small inclosed area. And I cant even think of a lore reason why that was there, all other falingstar beast are found around open areas with meteor impacts. heck because of the kindred of rot I was expecting a general or elite mook but no, no instead enjoy the space bull. The less said about the ulducerated rot erdtree avatar in the the war dead cataccombs the less.
I had similar issue with Dex scaling. There are bosses who don't take damage from slash attacks and most strike weapons scale with strength. Your shield options are pretty limited, you cannot use great shields. Basically spent the entirety of the game with a brass shield
I've heard the same thing when it comes to the scarcity of sorceries from one of my own friends playing though, mean while I had a faith build and I was finding equal measure of each.
Honestly there is a lot here to unpack that I'm sure that at least ten people have said the same things I would say. Like using map markers and only removing them once you have completed the area. If I remember it even allows you to place a whole hundred of them with different icons. Its true though, the game has a lot of problems. And some of them, maybe most of them, are just inseparable from the Open World formula.
I am absolutely shocked you entered the menu to use Torrent rather than just hold Y/Triangle, even after going through the trouble of adding the ring to your pouch. Anyway, I am of the underserved early Faith builds vs sorceries. Frankly because of the severe lack of offensive incantations early game. You could have about 20 different sorceries that kill everything before finding the lightning spear scroll on a random knight hanging out by the Artist's Shack.(I think) Meanwhile, Waypoint Ruins are just not that far off the beaten track. I'm pretty sure you can even see them to the East as you first walk out into Limgrave. I didn't return to a Faith central build until I started using the Blasphemous Blade in Haligtree.
Proof: link to this video is linked on my Twitter on Mar 26th. Fake video came out on Mar 27th. archive.ph/CrWGM th-cam.com/video/Z1UdUbZzNr8/w-d-xo.html
I was wrong about summons making bosses harder being new, however spirit ashes are new and means that idea is now a bit crusty. Also no co-op faction :(
It was actually not an April Fools bit, I would have done this in September had that been when the game came out. Just an unfortunate coincidence
Why then? too much free time?
Based as always
Pat lore untouchable
For me the unfortunate coincidence was getting excited about the 1st upload only to listen to monotone shit takes for 15 minutes. Makes this actual review seem like an afterthought, planned or no.
THANK GOD, it is really was fake.
Im so glad
Bosses always got more HP depending kn how many people you summoned. I think literally every souls game has that.
Yeah there is a few bosses that are actually a lot harder with more people the added HP is actually a detriment to some the Ornstein and Smough boss is much easier by yourself
That is correct, but what to expect from someone trying to jump on the hypetrain that is soulsborne just to up their youtube viewership, you can easily tell who are pretenders and who are real soulsborne veterans, my tip - dont give the posers any views and likes. Stick to the channels who have been making videos on souls since DkS1.
Can confirm. Every boss gets more HP if you summon. I think bosses after DS2 also started getting some tweaks in their movesets, incorporating attacks from their NG+ incarnations during their heat-up phase.
It's been a thing since 2, but because done with % based debuf and buff it sometimes makes some bosses too hard.
@@AspiringDevil I recall it being a thing in demons souls? But I haven't played that in like 10 years or so? So my memory is foggy. As a result, I also thought it was a thing in ds1.
The madman did it again! Two videos and I genuinely believed Elden Ring was a real game both times!
Dammit he got me too! Was convinced until I saw this comment.
Ha, suckers. This is obviously too good to be true.
I think there's a middle ground between a boss being too hard and a killing a boss in three hits. You can go from killing a boss in 50 hits to killing the boss in 40, let's say.
Plus, when you hold off on fighting Margit by exploring more of Limgrave, let's say, you're not just getting runes and weapon upgrades, you're also accumulating experience and confidence. When you fight Margit after 10 hours of play rather than 2 hours of play, your character is more powerful, but you'll also just be better at the game.
10:16 Just a note: The price for normal Smithing Stone were reduced recently. Now for both Common and Somber path, an upgrade to +24/+9 costs around 100k, while before, it was around 500k for a +24 Weapon.
They also boosted drop rate of the basic smithing stone.
484K :^)
I farmed up all of my seals to test them before the cost reduction
@@meticulousCheese
That's not alot lol just get to the farming spot.
I find the point that you found Loenine Misbegotten harder than some interesting because so did I. But I realised that I had gotten a whip about one room before the castle's end, just before his boss fight.
Someone advised i try it and it does incredibly high stagger to him. I think there might be a narrative aspect to it as well (since that dungeon is about slaves overthrowing their masters). I find it interesting because it was one of the few times where a hard boss got much easier using equipment found in his zone just as you advocated before.
Oh it's not only him. The Whip actually cause insane poise damage on almost anything, but can't cause critical damage on the other hand. I use the Hoslow Whip sometimes, kinda op, since it's really high on Poise damage and cause bleed.
yeah there is a lot of the "find magic damage reduction for the magic area boss" in the game but I guess he just missed the specific spots. You get a fire resist talisman near the first dragon for example as well
People sleeping on whips hard. They are stagger machines in a game where stagger is OP.
I found it interesting too, as this is my first souls game and I 2-shot the Leonine boss with my basic Samurai before going to Stormveil castle around level 20ish. No particular level grinding done, just happened to go there “last” while clearing Limgrave.
I annihilated him on my first 3 characters then he used the Uno™ reverse incantation on my current character and completely obliterated me 3-4 times in a row
I don't have a problem with important stuff being out of the way. There are literal entire areas and endings hidden in obscure ways. That's what makes exploration so exciting and rewarding.
4 of the 6 endings are basically the same just with a few different words and slightly different coloring. Only Rannis and the Flame of Frenzies ending really had effort put into it.
Yeah fromsoft endings have been like that throughout the souls series. And I’ll be honest, alternate game endings feel to me like a pretty arbitrary gimmick. I think the idea is to give the player some agency over the conclusion, and if that’s all it accomplishes, I guess that’s okay.
It gives you an excuse to do multiple runs, I guess?
Your smithing stone criticism is super valid because they adjusted the drop rate and price of smithing stones
Even afterwards I think I still agree but that's honestly the only thing I agree with him on so far
@@TiddyTwyster what a stupid comment lmfao
Just because they can easily "fix" a simple numerical value doesn't validate someone's criticism.
You know people get that satisfaction of winning that argument. But now that that is in the game, good. But you can't use that argument as a flaw anymore because it's now in the game. Same argument with Ds2 bosses and "oh it's just dlc bosses." Doesn't matter because it's apart of the game now.
Bosses are programmed to respond to use of items (flasks). They've been set to do such as far back as dark souls (I believe). This is why after taking damage you can often get locked into a panic healing > taking damage loop for multiple flask uses
The input reading IS definitely turned up in this game tho. In past games you usually had safe moments to heal if you learned the moveset. In Elden Ring, enemies like the godskins will range attack you no matter when you heal (hence input reading).
Input reading can also be used to your advantage in some cases, to be fair. As a mage, there are certain spells that delay their release. Many enemies are programmed to dodge to the side on input of a spell. This means that when using a spell with delayed release (I think one is magic glintblade), they will dodge the cast but the spell will actually fire after their dodge and hot them at least 90% of the time. This also works with rock sling and other spells that have a wind-up.
That being said, input reading on heals is still bullshit as it diminishes the value of timing your heals since there is never a good time to heal against an enemy who has an input read attack against the flask. You can still spam dodge if you are far enough as it will go off just before the projectile hits but it's much less satisfying compared to using your opportunity to heal (or attack) that you've learned from memorising the moveset.
@@dyllwill input reading for healing is simply forcing you to heal during specific attacks rather than heal when the boss has stopped attacking. It’s a counter to being able to heal and move at the same time. It’s also to force the player into a situation where they have to force the boss to do an attack to give them a window to heal which takes far more skill than just healing the moment someone stops attacking. Crucible knight for example can easily be baited into a shield bash allowing you to heal if you dodge it correctly. I don’t see it as bull shit at all.
Blows my mind that some people thought that first Elden Ring video was real
For newcomers I get it but for the like 4k subs that left I really don't understand how they took it seriously. I kinda wish he didn't make this video and just left that one on it's own and never addressed it.
SO many people thought it was real
You have to be dense to think that video is real.
I’m sure some of it was, the best satire has truth in it. I think many of his criticisms were/could easily have been legitimate, but others were… unspeakable lol
@@rubycosmo6279 "the developers clearly have a warped infatuation with Japanese culture" how tf do you hear that and not realize it's a joke 😂
I don't know if it's been said but the game does tell you what areas have similar level coop and invasion summoning. Once you activate the summoning pool you can press (I think) RB or R1 on the map to see hotspots for your level/highest weapon level.
Yep ds3 has a similar system.
Completely agree re: Smithing Stones. I saw a good few reviewers and critics claiming that Elden Ring wants you to experiment with your weapons and play style. Couldn’t be further from the truth. You don’t get enough resources to ensure you can have multiple weapons scale appropriately and Smithed weapons go +25. The game incentivises picking a build and sticking with it because you can’t reasonably branch out after early game without significant investment. Opportunity cost of experimentation is too high.
Edit: Quibble re: Radahn and Torrent where you say “the game is trying to make you use Torrent strategically”. I’d avoid ascribing intent. It’s a massive problem with From fans where once they’ve found a solution they believe that it must therefore be intentional, and it’s there to teach you something. There’s a difference between learning/developing a solution and being taught how to solve a problem, let alone that the solution you found was intentional. If no one’s taught me how to dress and I wear my T-shirt backwards, it makes me just as warm and covers the same surface area, but it does not mean the tailor taught me to do it, and just because it works it doesn’t mean it’s what they intended.
"I’d avoid ascribing intent" u just did that by talking about how the game pushes you towards a certain build, which is substantially untrue considering u can respec incredibely early and the sheer amount of viable builds are insanely better than old games.
"Opportunity cost of experimentation is too hig" not if you were exploring enough. look up what bell berrings are. by the end, i had over 10 +24 weapons and 5 +9 somber weapons. u dont need +25 as it really only adds fifty damage and doesnt affect scaling on most weapons. theres also over 18 larval tears to respec with. by the end, i cooped for a few days and bought myself hundreds of every upgrade material. im hoping they start selling the +25 and 10s with the vendor for a high price, then this game would easily be the most diverse one build wise.
@@flamingmanure I didn’t say the game pushes you toward a certain build, I said it incentivises sticking with a single build. That build can be anything you want, but if you’re going in that direction what you gain by continuing isn’t matched by taking a different path until you get your rerolls. This is a consequence of how the mechanics operate objectively, I don’t need to ascribe intent.
Define “enough”, I know what bell bearings are, and “by the end” is irrelevant when we’re talking about the other 90% of the game. Respeccing at Raya Lucaria is one thing, saying “The game does let you experiment because at the endgame you can do anything” isn’t helpful. You’re saying “There’s over 18 tears” but that information is not known to any player without hindsight or a wiki. You never know which respec is going to be your last one.
I’m fine with all of it, by the way. I don’t mind resource scarcity making your choices have consequences. I just don’t like that reviewers went in screaming you had an experimental playground where you could swap weapons, magic, etc. freely when you really can’t, because what they did was reroll a dozen characters and replay the network test when what players actually do is make a character, maybe reroll once if they fuck up the start, and play ‘casually’ until they get bored or win.
That's not completely true. You get smitting stones in caves (even when coop) and by the endgame you can basically buy anything. And if you plan things out, you can even get them before you finish your playthrough. You can also get at least 10 or 15 weapons to max lvl. That's a lot to say the least.
Honestly, I hope Fromsoft still make patches like 1.04 which completely rework the balancing of weapons and spells.
@@enman009 Waiting until the end of the game to finally be able to branch out and try new weapons is exactly what Daniel means by the game incentivising you to stick with maybe 2 weapons. I spent 150 hours on a single character exploring as much as I possibly could and didn't find anywhere near enough smithing stones to get a weapon to +25, let alone multiple. I had to Google where to get more and start farming them instead.
@@hammerstix5791 I understand, but I don't agree with Daniel. As I said, you can plan things out to get the material before finishing your playthrough. You just have to be good enough to beat Magma Wyvern.
With my Greathammer pure strength build, I got to the caves that gave me +24 smiting stones before doing Volcano Manor, Farum Azula, Hailtree, Mogwyn Palace, Nokron, the 2nd half of Raya Lucaria, Deeproots and other unexplored areas (which is a lot to just be the end).
Heck, by the time you get to the capital, you're more than capable of tackling it at +15 with any decent weapon.
If what you're saying is that it takes a lot of planning, yeah I agree. But is not true that the game is stopping you for getting there.
Enemies do know whenever you use a consumable. They have a chance of reacting to your use of the flask or other consumables or ignoring it. Things like the Godskins almost always do the fireball the moment you use the flask. That's assuming that they aren't in the middle of anything though. A lot of enemies also read your inputs on throwing knives or shooting arrows. However, some enemies cannot detect and auto-dodge if you fire arrows while jumping. This kind of thing has been part of their boss scripting since at least Dark Souls 1. Smough pretty reliably will do his hammer charge if you use the flask at a certain distance.
yeah i agree with this , also alot of Bosses and Enemies throughout the series will do a straight poking attack with spears , halberds or swords , when you take out the flask in their line of sight and range.
The biggest issue if you only consider the playthrough of the game is definitely normal weapons, upgraded by normal smithing stones. It is way too expensive and takes way too many stones for someone on their first playthrough, you are so much better off finding a somber upgrade weapon
Yes, and that issue is validated by them patching the drop rate to be more frequent.
I looked at it and thought: Huh why does this go up by two every time? Wouldn't it make more sense to just have it go 1 2 3 and have half as many in the game? Then about 10 hours later I was like I wish they just went 1 2 3 and I still got the amount I'm getting because I don't have enough to try the weapons I want to try
@@Patrician And them patching the price from the twin maiden husks to be way way way cheaper.
personally i think it's fine and generally didn't have issues, but i agree the drop rate should be better. But for me i didn't max out a somber weapon until like 120 hours in, the normal weapon i mainly used was like +16 for a while.
@@gu3z185 pre patch I had 1 +2 flail.
Post patch I have 6 +20 weapons I rotate between.
I don't think that you're wrong to say that it can be hard to find things for a specific build, but I think that calling it a problem with the open world might be the wrong way of looking at it. Rather, I would like to propose that it's actually a problem with how the classes are presented. Specifically, they're laid out like in a typical FromSoft game, with all the various decently powerful options up front, and then the special challenge class (in this case the Wretch) placed at the end. The thing is, I don't think that the Wretch is really playing the same role in Elden Ring as it does in other FromSoft titles. It's _not_ a challenge class any more. It simply can't be, with the way the game is set up.
The hunting and stealth mechanics, combined with the respawning "rune skulls" throughout the map, make it so that gaining your early levels is easy. There's a wealth of different weapons to loot, some quite easy to get, and with the exception of "special" weapons, they can be customized to whatever scaling works best for the player, only getting more options as you go. Combine that with the increased options for both mixed-stat and hyper-specialized builds, and about the only way to make a bad stat allocation is to completely tank Vigor (and even then, a skilled player can overcome the deficit). What all of this means is that Elden Ring takes the traditional role of the "weak" class and turns it on its head. It's no longer simply a case of taking the weak class if you want a challenge, and one of the others to get a head start in the early game. Rather, I would say that you take one of the pre-built classes if you have something specific in mind, know what you're going for, and want to get right into doing your build with as little set-up as possible, and you take the Wretch to experience the game as intended. Find whatever you come across without worrying if it's "for your build" or not, and invest stat points as needed. You'll be getting new levels and new equipment often enough not to worry about it.
There's also one more thing that makes me feel this way. When you get what is for most people their second Great Rune, you unlock the ability to respec your character, and completely redo your build. If you're going with one of the premade classes, this doesn't amount to much other than maybe speccing into or out of the requirements for a particular weapon, or realizing that you made some point investments that you didn't really need (say you invested several more levels into Endurance than for stamina before realizing that you were never going to get out of mid-roll if you wanted to do any damage). However, the option really shines for the Wretch, who can _completely_ change their build, and for whom it comes at a point were you've basically got all your options open now, and had enough opportunity to start finding the equipment, ashes, and general play style that you want to lean into. In other words, it comes at what you could call the end of the tutorial, and the start of playing the game for real.
All of this leads me to the opinion that the Wretch should have been placed front and centre, at the head of the list. It should have been presented as the default experience for the game. Because just choosing Wretch as your starting class immediately solves the issue of not knowing where anything is, and not finding the right items for your build. The game is accessible enough that the perceived downside of starting at a lower level and with worse equipment is almost completely negated, and for certain far outweighed by all the potential benefits, _unless_ someone already knows the game, and is trying to do something specific with their existing knowledge.
Since my first point went into a small essay, I'll put the second one here.
I actually think that sombre weapons being easier to upgrade is the point. Non-somber weapons can be customized to fit any play style, sometimes even with the same weapon arts that their somber counterparts get. Which means that, if the normal weapons were not just more customizable, but also easier to upgrade, then in a lot of cases they'd just end up being outright _better_ than somber weapons are. You'd run into this weird situation where the longsword that you got off of some random mook just does more for you than the unique and amazing weapon that you took down an optional boss to beat. So making the somber weapons easier to upgrade serves as a solution. It ensures that, at least for most of the game, your super special boss weapons will continue to hit harder than the common drops you can find just anywhere. Sure, you _can_ still get a falchion dropped off of a demi-human up to the point where, with a carefully selected Ash of War, it's as good or better, and there are some "normal" weapons that nonetheless have unique looks and/or special effects, but it will take dedication and work. In that way, the game keeps special rewards special. Being easy to upgrade is the pay-off that somber weapons get for being non-customizable and in limited supply. Really, it would be strange if you _weren't_ using a unique golden halberd or energy-katana over a plain, ordinary longsword, wouldn't it? Having rare weapons that are supposed to be rewards for your accomplishments outshined by weapons that are more easy to acquire would mean that those "rewards" failed to feel rewarding.
Playing as the wretch has been so fun. Limgrave is the perfect difficulty for level 1.
"Bosses are now made more difficult when you summon."
Hasn't that always been a thing?
I recall it not being a thing in DS3 hence why summoning was such a prolific issue but I appear to have been wrong.
@@Patrician If you mean the increased health/defense, I believe that was a thing in DS2 and 3
@@Patrician It's only prolific because gatekeepers hate it when you don't go in solo with a pure physical weapon, though it feels overtuned in this game
@@Patrician A lot of bosses in DS3 are argueably harder when you summon. Their moveset stops being predictable while HP goes up tremendously. Also there are VERY few bosses in DS3 that you can stagger-lock into oblivion where summoning is actually a huge boon (Abyss Watchers, don't remember if Pontiff is the same)
The big issue in Elden Ring is that Spirit Ashes are flat out better than summoning. They can actually tank bosses, deal respectable damage and contribute to stagger-locking, which many bosses are susceptible to in Elden Ring.
@@Patrician it was better balanced in ds3 but it was still present. Same for DS2. It's one of those you don't when it's done right.
14:20 The bosses have always been harder with summons. I don't know if the increase in difficulty differs in Elden Ring, I haven't really done Co-Op myself, howerver even way back in DS1, bosses would get buffed HP depending on how many summons you had, player _or_ NPC.
I'd say it's significantly more noticeable in Elden Ring. I've been doing a bunch of level 50 co-op on a specific early-ish duo boss that a lot of people summon for, and my damage gets cut in 1/2 when I'm the only phantom compared to my solo damage, with it dropping down to about 1/3 when there's two summons. I know it was a pretty low percentage comparatively in the earlier games, but it almost feels like you need to min/max a DPS/Support/Tank setup if you're actually going to do three man fights for every boss in Elden Ring.
Yes but not really, while it's true that bosses would get buffed, their AI would be very bad dealing with multiple targets, so at the end of the day no matter how much they increased their stats, they were certainly easier in CO-OP
They get buffed, but that _usually_ doesn’t outweigh the fact that one or more people will be unengaged by the boss, freely doing damage…
if you’ve summoned a real person.
Keeping those NPC summons alive for their stories can be a real bitch.
The boss's damage and the damage output of summons (of the same level) don't get changed at all with increased numbers. The only thing that changes is the bosses health pool. It gets increased by about 50% with one summon and a staggering 150% with two summons at the time of commenting. I sincerely hope they fix this as it makes 3 player coop nearly unbearable for boss fighting. Unless you enjoy the fight.
@@FenrisulfrV Because the game will also debuff you based on the summoners level.
People really watched 3 minutes of dying to Beastman in the first video and thought it was real
Donning-Kruger effect. Idiots think that everyone around has to be even dumber than themselves.
Seriously you put a remarkable amount of work into crafting the “narrative” of the last vid while still dropping clues in the script to exactly what was going on for those paying attention.
Yeah, that’s all it took to instantly know - people paying attention. Anyone that watches his vids and actually heard what he was saying (matched with what he’d then show) would’ve known from the get go. It made for some hilarious comments that missed it completely and got extremely upset, though.
@@TwoBs Yeah the comment section of that vid was its own form of entertainment. Having now watched this vid I am glad Pat brought up the pain points of this title instead of doing what everyone else is doing and just claiming its flawless. Looking forward to the potential loooooong form vid in the future.
The iron dagger was what got me the most. That’s dedication to detail and a very obscure callback.
Exactly, it took me 5 minutes straight of confused anger before i realized he was joking
@@apocalypselemon2209 The gripe that you couldn't heal your horse is what clued me in hard. Rowa raisins are one of the earliest craftable items in the game, and Rowa fruit is obnoxiously plentiful in the open world. It's hard to imagine anyone not looking casually at the crafting menu for the first time and rolling their eyes at the abundance of an item that is so specific in its utility (and not particularly useful overall)
as someone who is terrible at games and mostly resorts to button mashing, I have actually found elden ring so accessible, there's so many videos showing how to get yourself overleveled and abuse enemies with magic which has allowed me to explore this gorgeous game world and sneak around cool locations with ease, I know I'm not playing it the "correct" way but I'm having so much fun with it and have actually accidentally learned a few things in order to get my op sorcerer build to work, I also love hearing about other game mechanics from people who are actually skilled at the game, I have a deep love for video games despite my ineptitude
Ignore the "correct way" gatekeeping. If you had fun that's all that matters. You did it the "correct" way. 👍
@@spacecityryder So fucking true. The only correct way to play any game, even more so single player games, is whatever way you enjoy.
I don't think the multiplied difficulty is a big issue a while after release, as most people put their sign down because they are good at fighting the boss. The really big issue with multiplayer is the absolutely horrid connections, connection errors, etc. This has to be the worst of all FromSoft titles as far as multiplayer connections go
Indeed and its amazing how few people are talking about it, previous FromSoft titles were never this bad, almost half of PvP/Co-op sessions end in connection failures and I honestly think FromSoft has no idea how to handle it or the much larger player base.
There was also the massive oversaturation of the summon pool. On launch, it'd take upwards of 5 to 10 minutes to find a summon simply because there were many more people summoning than there were being summoned, which hasn't really been an issue before in Fromsoft releases in my memory serves.
@@mewmeister8650 I think partly a lot of newer players don't think to ever put down their own summon sign, blew my friends mind when I told him it was an easy way to practice a boss fight.
I think the connection stuff will sort itself out in a month or two when the glut of concurrent players drops off and they release some stability patches.
That guy that said he started with confessor and proceeded to find no faith incantations or faith ashes of war definitely isn’t lying. I had the same experience as him it was absolute pain. There is barely any open world faith Incantations that you can find early on if you go to stormville castle then to the academy (Obviously I explored all around those areas I didn’t just walk to the next bosses). The fact that lightning spear one of the most iconic and basic faith incarnations is on a random knight in a field that you might never find is a problem to me and even if you find that knight it’s incredibly overleveled for that area and you’ll mostly likely run past him and go to the massive and interesting structures you can see in the distance, which I did.
Guess you'll just have to check the guide like the rest of us
This is not a problem exclusive to Elden Ring, it's a FromSoft trademark at this point. If you're going to go for a specialized magic/faith based character in one of these games, you're just going to have to open up a wiki and look for spells if you're not willing to chuck fireballs at things for 80 hours. If you don't start as 2 specific classes in this game, you can't even get a staff to cast magic even if you happen to find the magic vendor until you farm the old aristocrats in Limgrave or leave Limgrave to buy or find one. And while lightning spear is iconic, it is hardly an easy spell to find in any of their games. I'm pretty sure the only game it was straightforward to find was Dark Souls 2 and you had to be well past the midpoint of the game to even buy it. I'm not defending any of this or saying it's good game design, but it's what they do and you just have to play around that if you're determined to go in blind.
First area's are brutal for faith players, catch flame ends up hilariously being the best bang for your buck though outside of buffs for a long time. You get a ton of INT scaling weapons and sorceries in the first 2 areas, and obviously one of the most broken weapons in the game, Moonveil, fairly early.
Similar experience here. I chose Prophet but immediately got warped to Caelid via dragonburnt ruins. Found tons of Int gear before anything faith came along
This game has more melee weapons with faith and int scaling than before, I think as an attempt to make magic users more viable early game for new players. I also played faith (so I could ignore crafting) and didn't have problems.
Some of your points are things I agree with, not all of them. I will say that there's some room for improvement on map exploration like you mentioned BUT IMO it's very easy to find things on the map because if you just look at the structures drawn on it (that aren't pieces of the sky-castle and those are easy to distinguish) they accurately depict real structures in the world worth checking out, AND then mark that structure once you visited it so I really had no problem finding things like the Waypoint Ruins and such. The big thing I DO agree with you on is that I don't see any good reason to limit co op after you beat an area boss when there are so many optional areas and bosses, that's one thing I really wish they would change. The point of being open world is that there isn't any particular point in which you've 'completed' an area, therefore not allowing co op summons after this or that boss is really arbitrary.
I don't see why Sellen couldn't be in Roundtable Hold with the first incanter guy, pretty much all the people that gather at the hold seem to be outcasts anyway, except for maybe...Rogier? He's the most "normal" character to end up there for longer than a wave in passing. And maybe the lore man in the library, I dunno what is up with that guy really other than being I think Nepheli's father?
@@brianforsyth2225 the roundtable is for tarnished, people who have been spurned by grace and later revived and guided by it. and sellen is not a tarnished
The Leonine Misbegotten is practically hard countered by guard counters, I wouldn't call dodging the intended way of fighting it
Big Bonk Stick that can stagger, guard counter, heavy jump attacks. There are enough ways to trivialise it. You will always come upon enemies where your specific playstyle/weapon is a bad fit... would hardly warrant weapon variety if this wasn't the case. And being underlvld/overlvld is an unavoidable experience in open world games unless you add scaling which has its own issues.
There are lots of things to critique that he doesn't even mention, like massive lack of enemy variety or the ridiculousness of fromsoft quest design in an open world.
Dodging underneath especially, as his head takes double damage and you can be perfectly set up for hitting it if you roll forward into his attacks at close range.
I just parried him. There's a parrying shield on the Weaping Peninsula, and most of his attacks can be parried. Easy boss, frankly. Well my powerstanced longswords would have killed him pretty fast even without parrying, but I wanted to challenge myself so I'd be better equipped to kill the Crucible Knight in Stormhill. Now THAT GUY is fucking hard.
@@jerrywheyland7324 massive lack of enemy variety? it has more unique enemy types and varients than any previous fromsoft game and every other open world game so far.
also the fromsoft quest design is fine in elden ring, considering its nowhere near as strict as old games. i finished many quests while missing many steps in between. where the old games, missing a single meeting or diologue option got u locked out. i frankly love that "ridiculousness" of their classic quest designs.
So many people sleep on guard counters. It's what let me beat the Crucible Knight Gaol boss at a relatively low level.
I think you missed the point with first blind playthrough. You are supposed to be lost and missing a lot of cool stuff. After playing once you know where all the cool stuff you previously found is. They did add a lot of cool stuff with hybrid stat requirement and a lot of stat boosting items, clearly to entice players to try everything they find. But most players decide what they want to play before playing it, so it is a problem.
The real problem is the fact that missing something once, will increase chances of you missing it again, without 3rd party sources.
The solution to clvl problem could be very easy. If you are underleveled for area, area adds some strong npc with very visible spooky aura effect, to gently persuade players to leave. And when you overleveled in area, you can have doubled bosses or something, to make it harder. Or like in ds1, where you have to buy and item to unlock the area. You still can have secret passage beside expensive one, but it will hint players they should not go there, if they cant afford entrance fee.
>final boss is aot reference
Your perspective. For me it was clearly another Princes Mononoke reference. But either way, I disliked it too, how the last boss is not original character, but a reference.
The first playthrough is sopposed to be shit? I don´t know man. If I decide to play a warrior and then I find out that it sucks I don´t know. Might not be my fault because I decided to do so.
@@patrickn.4113 Missing a few cool items doesn't make your experience shit, it makes you go next time I'm gonna try this. There are pros and cons for every build
My first playthrough, I wanted to have to hunt for everything I found myself and have a sort of rags-to-riches story.
I then went to Dragon-burnt ruins and got teleported into Caelid at RL1 without Torrent or the ability to level up.
Escaping the web-shooting insects and walking out into the rot-swamp of Caelid with nothing to my name might be the best introduction I've had to a FROMSoft game.
It doesn't help I forgot how Fast-travel functioned compared to Dark Souls at first, so I went through a portion of the swamp on foot (and even found my first armor set).
And you had a great time doing it, like I did and like saint riot did. And I’m future runs you use the chest to teleport there early don’t you?
I think the difference herr is in how different people play open world games. Go and follow the main path at all times, or "oh this is area 1 let's see what I can find!" I, for one, found something for most builds in Limgrave because I ran around it to check out camps, ruins etc. before even going to the castle; and doing that I found the path to bypass the castle and reach the second area (though I turned around and did the castle first anyway).
Yes, you can always narrowly miss things... but, at least there IS things there to miss. Unlike, say, Skyrim which has vast streches of empty land.
EDIT: Also, Bosses got more hp in DS3 as well when you summoned others.
EDIT2: Bell Gargoyles can absolutely be bruteforced. They die in 4 hits from the Drake sword that you can get if you shoot the dragon on the bridge you farmed in the tail enough times. It makes a lot of early DS1 a joke, numbers wise.
You neglect the actual biggest problem with the Elden Beast.
It's immune to everything. Bleed, rot, poison, madness, etc. Therefore any build built around those elements that was anywhere from viable to OP for the rest of the game is completely negated by it.
No wonder, I hear lots of people have a huge issue with it but my 80 dex keen grave scythe build handled it better than duo fights
I mean, any build built around those should (and does) have plenty of damage from raw scaling. My first playthrough was bleed/frost focused and I had no trouble killing it because the weapons do more than enough raw damage either way. You'll have a worse time, sure, but that's super normal for games like this. Plenty of bosses have like 30-40% resistance to certain physical types but there are far fewer complaints you see about that, despite the fact that it's probably a similar amount of lost damage to not being able to status certain bosses
As someone who completely abused rot and freeze with a dragon build I was still having a grand old time. Because even if you make a build dedicated to a single thing, its easy to prepare a different weapon or different spell to use.
I used the Golden Halberd from start to finish on my first playthrough. I tried other stuff along the way, but I lacked the smithing resources to upgrade a bunch of weapons. Did you know that holy damage heals Elden Beast? I did when I saw my +10 weapon doing around 100 damage on each swing. I got so sick of Elden Beast that I specifically built up the Godslaying Greatsword just for his fight.
@@halcionjoy7 calling it healing is pretty disingenuous but yeah, it has like 80% resistance to holy. It's highly resistant to all magic, but especially holy
Elden Ring gave me similar feelings to playing Morrowind the first time. Going into such a hostile environment as Caelid early on reminded me of being level 5 and opening up the ghost gate to an ascended sleeper. By the time I killed Radahn, I stopped and went to replay Morrowind for the first time in 3 years. I haven't stopped, glued to the TES3 again.
It is interesting that people might have certain frustrations about aspects of Elden Ring that other players do not. This is most likely attributed to the open world design and the varying experiences people will have because of it.
Exactly. My first character was a Hero. Gave up on this one after 15 hours and tried a new one as a Sorcerer. And much preferred the Sorcerer! Game felt different, well Sorcerer feels like "easy mode" compared to a low level hero who can do a ton of damage, but hits so s-l-o-w-l-y- they get staggered by rats and drain stamina after 2 swings. It's not a "completionist" game. You don't need to see everything, or even half of it, on one play through. It has more genuine replayability than several other so-called open world games ... eg those where you are the same character going through the same cut scenes every time. They are open world only because the "open world" is mostly useless filler. The story is linear. Elden Ring deviates from this and while tastes differ, of course, I think it an impressive attempt at making an open world that works as a game.
9:45 I’m very glad they rebalanced this system so that regular smithing stones and somber smithing stones should be more closely aligned in availability.
Ill say this. A lot of bosses seem to be tuned to be fought with their weaknesses. So an easy playthrough would require swapping to correct builds frequently, like using guard counters on leonine misbegotten, or using magic to stagger the godskins. This is the rpg part of action rpg, whereas in ds3 most problems were solved by dodge and hit. Personally, i enjoy sekiro more for this reason: the difficulty isnt as modulable.its straightforward and consistent. Yes you dont get build variety. But you do get a consistent curve.
Sekiro is probably the fromsoftware game I'd label a masterpiece. The posture system and the way its implemented is very well done. Isshin the sword saint and inner genichiro are probably my favorite bosses in the series.
Fair point. I skipped Sekiro for the same reason some prefer it.
I play DarkSouls because it's an RPG where stats and character building matters, but a consequence of that design is the phenomenon you described.
I think you can solve most problems in elden ring with dodge rolling as well. Invulnerability frames are op af
I had the opposite experience: Started as a faith build and kept finding sorceries, in fact I felt the game was biased towards magic. I do agree that there should have been a sorcery teacher in the roundtable or at least somewhere not super out of the way like Sellen is.
There is a mage lady right in limegrave not even that far away.
Once you go to raya lucardia there is straight up a teleport to one just incase you missed it.
Exactly. Way, way more magic options that are insanely powerful.
I found a lot of faith build stuff in Limgrave but nothing for sorcery. Had to wait til I got to the second zone to get anything for my build.
I agree. I literally couldn't stop finding sorceries and INT based weapons to the point it was actually tilting me.
That's a great line about the discourse in the souls community "just because a solution exists, doesn't make the original critisisms invalid". But so many people will say the opposite
You got me, though I suspected something was off with the whole "the game is too hard, it doesn't respect my limited time and needs an easy mode" argument
7:48 to me personally these are all great aspects. For example in Forbidden West, it tells you if you missed anything at a spot via menus and Aloy will talk your ear off also if you have missed anything. If anything it makes me more want to explore in a boring vacuum way. Elden Ring I don’t know what I didn’t miss, in a sense ignorance is a bliss that I’ve really enjoyed, compare to “Check all boxes on the quest screen” type open world games.
Also there’s shit ton past the “gesture” at 12:26 that’s not the end all “reward” for the rooftop climb, not even close… I don’t think there’s a single gesture as an end dungeon or end level reward…
Also 14:16 the bosses ALWAYS gained more health when you summoned in old games too. All the old games. ER is not the first to implement giving the boss more health when you summon a friend.
Curious what level was your Confessor for that Lion Misbegotten fight? 19:20
I mean in a game where it's possible to miss entire areas is it really a stretch to say that you aren't supposed to find all the cool items in your first playthrough. It's ok to miss stuff. That's why fs games have a strong focus on community. Maybe your friend found a cool sword and told you where to find it. You don't have to find everything yourself
It's also funny that he complains about ER taking the ubisoft formula while he is the one stuck in a ubisoft mentality, trying to 100% everything. The recommendation to adopt MGS' completion rate for areas is absolutely horrible.
I agree that FromSoft didn't make quite enough changes to how they handle things for an open world game, but I disagree on including percentage map completion stuff. Morrowind-style map revealing (with the current map items gives you an uncolored outline) would be the best way to handle things imo.
personally i think the map and how it is now is absolutely fantastic , its not a Ubisoft style map tho , its more like Breath of the Wild , while sure you get the basic map from some place , but there are no markers except for some NPCs that you have already met , and you can place up to 100 markers yourself ... when you think you havent finished looking around in that region just put a marker down , memorize which marker you used for what thing.
For example i used the skull for Boss encounter or unfinished dungeon , and the flag for finished ... the treasure chest for the walking mausoleums that i havent used and the knife / sword symbol for unfinished exploring / puzzle.
Those comments about the Sorcerer hit true for me. I think I spent 40-45 hours in The Lands Between before I discovered the Sorcerer trainer in Limgrave. 75 hours in, and I'm still using the starter staff because I hadn't found any replacements before I'd already improved it at the Smith 10 or so times. The only piece of loot for those 40 hours made for my magic playstyle came from an obscure dungeon on my third delve into Limgrave's deep corners.
For all it's ambition, I think the open world approach has been the absolute bane of my playthrough. If they're going open world, I think they ought to add a *touch* of direction. Even 80 hours in, now, I feel uncertain and lost at almost all times, with difficulty spiking in all directions as I haphazardly discover new content. Ultimately, I feel the exploration was more satisfying in FS's previous games. When I returned to an area and discovered a new limb of the map to explore in Bloodborne, it felt satisfying to see how far my power had come. When it happens in Elden Ring, I feel like I went in the wrong direction and robbed myself of a fair challenge while grinding away at bosses I just haven't enjoyed whether for the ease or extreme challenge.
That is part of the problem of open world design, cohesion and the ability to craft a through-line of difficulty are some of the things you sacrifice, and exploration isn't necessarily a good supplement, because every player will explore differently. So, as covered, some people will want to be a sorcerer, and feel forced to re-roll/switch to faith, and vice versa.
It happened with quite a few bosses where after a few attempts I felt like I'm doing enough damage and taking few enough hits that all I need to do is keep trying and I will get lucky. The biggest culprit for this is Malekith the Black Blade, for some reason he didn't do his anime-bullshit attack and let me punish his easy to dodge attacks. I don't think I even saw all his moves. I got to the fight late in the night and gave up after a few attempts. The next day I was ready to spend all day trying to defeat him but in the end it only took about three quarters of an hour and I beat him in a fight where he pulled his punches. It was not satisfying at all.
I think this is the arena where From has the most room for improvement. Not boss difficulty, but boss consistency.
The other thing that has always felt off to me in From games is blocking bosses. You have to figure out by trial and error which moves can be blocked and which can't. It messes with you intuitive sense of weight. Blocking someone three feet taller than you swinging a sword that probably weights 200kg will in the best case result in a broken arm and at worst death. Most of their attacks look like you should never be able to block them yet sometimes you can. Its clearly a fantasy game, but this entirely messes with my instincts.
Unblockable/stance breaking attacks that can be parried is also nuts to me. If it’s hitting you hard enough to take you off your feet, increasing the speed at which the swing hits your arm does not magically make it ineffective. Should do the opposite.
This is a good criticism. I haven't used a build with a shield since Bloodborne, and I retroactively play all the older games without a shield, so I've almost completely forgotten about that mechanic.
I think this complaint is part of a double-edged sword; From has bosses with too many moves in their repertoire. The heat-up mechanic was the original way of mixing things up in encounters, but now the animations are so much better that the chaining of basic attacks starts to become more confusing and seamlessly mixed. I think the Blade Dancer in DS3 was the masterclass on these more fluid animations, and really the first Souls boss (BB did it first in the DLC) that more easily telegraphed moves went away.
The juice in judging the strength of bosses was parrying, which DS3 actually did really well. Most people were confused if non-humanoid characters could be parried, but now that confusion has given way to the visceral mechanic of this game (which I still haven't mastered). If attacks for parrying (which- no shield for me) and viscerals are consistently telegraphed, I'm not sure.
AI in general is pretty "old", and should be improved already! By any developer.
If you’re talking RNG problems the biggest culprit is Melania by far.
People are straight up lying to themselves about her. She is one of the worst designed bosses From has every created.
11:50 pretty sure bosses are input reading, been some weeks but im sure i saw something on reddit that showed bosses will always try to do their distance closer if you roll away and drink estus. Seemed bullshit to me at first, but then I realised the AI manipulation goes both ways and you can basically bait out attacks to do whatever you want. Turns Crucible Knight into a joke if you bring a parry dagger with you and know how to bait him out.
only a few really read inputs, namely crucible knight. For example many people claim that godskin apostle/noble shoot a fireball if you drink an estus, but they actually just do it always when you are in range, so it's just a coincidence
Bosses attacking you when you use items seems like a better design than free buffs and heals mid fight
@@ehrtdaz7186 I've seen the godskin apostle consistently use his fireball move the moment I pressed the x button for a flask, assuming he's not busy with another attack. It happens for me enough that I don't believe it's coincidence. Of course he only does it if you're at range, he uses his weapon when you use a flask right in his face.
Crafting system was partly there to fill the vast space of the world with rewards. I would love them to have weapons at every corner but that is less reasonable thing to implement.
It also made experimenting with elements more enticing. In ds1 vendors sold limited amount of items. If a boss is, say, weak to lightning and vendor is selling 3 lightning grease, you had to make those lightning grease count. If you fudge up no more grease for u.
For me the Elden Beast was a suitable climax because the whole 'veil' of the importance or radagon or the golden order is gone. The Erdtree is a parasite that has fooled us all, and we see its ugly/otherwordly head in order to trigger REAL change.
As a fight it wasnt amazing, but its story implications really resonated with me. Radagon as a final boss isnt breaking any sort of cycle, its like killing/being killed by gerhman. To really trigger a change in this world, we can't just kill a vassal of the erdtree, we need to kill the erdtree itself.
I loved the Elden Beast as a boss. One of the few large monster fights that are done well. Everything works in that fight: Visual presentation, audio, ost, moveset, lore...
The only better large monster fight is Placidusax imo. a true spectacle where the notoriously bad camera doesn't matter.
Souls end bosses have always prioritized lore and story pay off rather than difficulty or novelty.
Which is exactly why 4 of the 6 endings just end up being similar and don't really change the setting. The Flame of Frenzy and Ranni's ending actually change the setting.
Id highly recommend using and intended order list and an interactive map for your first run, it wont spoil anything.
Personally, as far as finding stuff on the map goes, I think Elden Ring's map does better than most. It took me some time to figure out how to read the map, but when I realized that the landmarks actually correlate to actual locations I had less difficulty finding places to explore. I think this difficulty in reading the map as an actual map comes from most open world games just flooding their maps with objective markers once you unlock them making it very easy to just ignore the map itself and just follow the markers. However, this could be less about Elden Ring having good map design and more that it's contemporaries having abysmal map design.
Side note: I had the reverse problem with the teacher in the Waypoint Ruins; I followed the merchant note and found her there, but was shocked to learn that she didn't sell a casting catalyst along with her sorceries. I started as Vagabond and had not starting catalyst. And, unlike for faith, I couldn't purchase a catalyst at the hub, which feels like a huge oversight. Eventually I found a catalyst in the Weeping Peninsula but that was after like 30+ hours.
I agree that this game isn't perfect and you've presented some criticisms I hadn't considered. I still wouldn't hesitate to call this my game of the year though. Glad you got this out, appreciate your takes, and I'm super excited for the Skyrim video.
I agree, good map reading i how i found most stuff. "Oh there seems to be a path here", "oh whats this structure", stuff like that. You don't really need to comb the map, just see where things might be. I do agree though that something to indicate where you've been would be useful, like at least indicate where a boss has been defeated.
Personally i do like that there's lore reasons for things, which is why there's basically no sorcery stuff early game including staffs. But at least they throw a bone with the beast in weeping penensula. Perhaps they could have thrown more hints that going to liurnia would be beneficial.
I’m glad it’s in the open, it’s been torture not to talk about how brilliant and subtle the trolling in the first video was.
>subtle
>cultural appropriation joke repeated like 10 times
but then again average IQ of internet user is about 10 on a good day.
@@gelatinouscatgirl8369 >subtle
>doing the bad morrowind review thing of using an iron dagger on a level one to demonstrate a flawed combat system.
It wasn't SuBtLe
It was just a bad joke
@@ghostoflazlo The great thing about jokes is that your opinion on them doesn't matter. The best thing about bait is it brings out people like you.
@@ghostoflazlo It's just a game breh, no need to take jokes about it so personally :^)
The first video was so obviously satirical that it did more to reveal how many fans of the game are insecure pissbabies than any discussion could.
Anyway, time to enjoy this one.
Ok, now that I've watched it, I'm glad we agree on a lot of the issues with the game.
Personally, I believe Elden Ring's bosses are some of the weakest in the series. Even ignoring how DREADFUL the 5 boss gauntlet at the end of the game is, it feels like most boss fights are the worst aspects of each Souls game instead of the best. Godskin Duo is the embodiment of all the evils of DS2, bosses that shoot around like ping-pong balls in a washing machine for BB. And every boss that has generally overzealous attack patterns where you're supposed to dodge for 20 seconds, hit once, and repeat forever for DS3. I think the only boss that really "stood out" to me was Rykard, and that's not even because of the fight, but because of the gimmick with the spear that made the fight interesting.
And I find the online experience to be utterly dreadful. It's all of the worst aspects of DS3's system, but awkwardly stuffed into an open world. 9/10 invasions will go to a pair of cunts sitting at a grace looking to gang up on you. And because the game is designed for horseback exploration, being summoned anywhere other than before a boss door turns the game into a walking simulator. There's a reason you rarely find summons anymore, only a month after release.
And, yeah, questlines following the same esoteric bullshit the other games do, but in an open world rather than a mostly linear adventure, is some of the most teeth gnashing frustration in the universe.
It's still a great game, but it doesn't feel like it has improved on their prior works in any meaningful way. It's VERY literally just dark souls, but in an open world, with all of the awkward mechanics mismatches born of that crossover.
I had/am still having a lot of fun, because of course, but I know they can do so much better.
@@PaperFlare maybe you should work for them
"reveal how many fans of the game are insecure pissbabies"
I think it's more of a general populace problem than it is a Fromm fan problem.
If I was magical-super-dictator of the world for 5 minutes, i'd create an edict that would block all social media platforms for 3 days a year. I think a tiny detox period would be good for modern humans.
He repeatedly said he was serious and that it wasn't a joke. It's pretty dumb to be surprised that people think you're serious after you keep saying you're serious.
@@PaperFlare I heavily disagree on the bosses and find them to be among the best. Now I'm not talking about the shitty dungeon bosses, but every unique boss from the dungeons or from side paths are really good. Godfrey is among the best in the series, because he rewards you for learning how to jump, has clear and concise combos, and has 3 phases that shake things up. Radagon is a skill check, with Elden Beast being a fun spectacle. Malenia is probably the best boss in the game, because she finally has moves that reward you for dodging in a certain direction. Dodge diagonally right to punish her flurry, dodge directly backwards to punish her thrust, dodge behind her waterfowl after running away from the first flurry. It's the definition of having to LEARN a fight. Dragonlord is probably the most underwhelming given how hyped up he was, but he has an annoying runback and lots of generic sweeping melee attacks with AOEs. Still one of the best dragon fights, under Midir but above Sinh IMO. Rennala is the best they could have done with a pure magic boss, apart from the first phase which basically just adds atmosphere but not much else. Morgott and Mogh fight so differently, but both use bloodblade attacks and have fucking ridiculous movesets and lore implications, with sick cutscenes and lines. Godrick's alright, but loses a bunch of magic when you realise you can just run away from 90 percent of his combos and never get hit.
Taurus Demon and Capra Demon are clunky checks to know which buttons you're pushing, and have little actual skill or fun factor to them. Iron Golem is basically just one of the Giant mobs from Elden Ring, in the sense that you wail on his ankles until he dies. Gargoyles are good. Quelaag is good. Sif is great but only because of the atmosphere and lore. Seath is terrible and has curse attacks on a 5 minute runback through invisible crystals. OnS is good. Nito is underwhelming and mediocre, just a bunch of ads with one attack that has easy dodge timing. The rest are repeats of terrible early game bosses.
DS3 has Deacons of the Deep, which is underwhelming and not very fun. Abyss Watchers is great, one of the best in the early game. After that is Wolnir, which is boring and janky. One of the bad fights. Pontiff is great, Aldrich is pretty good. Yhorm is just worse Rykard, but has cool lore with Onion man. Twin Princes is great. Nameless King himself is great but has an annoying and time consuming phase 1 that acts as a runback. Soul of Cinder is fucking good as shit, with a huge moveset and nostalgia bait.
Sorry for the essay, but I think it's pretty clear that Elden Ring has a significantly more well rounded boss lineup than DS3 or DS1. Not counting DS2 because it's self explanatory that it has hilariously inconsistent boss quality, with bosses like covetous demon. Even the gimmick fights in Elden Ring are good. Rykard is challenge while also being a mixup and being a stormruler fight. Rennala is like Deacons until it turns good. And I even forgot to talk about Radahn, what a fucking amazing fight, at least he was pre -nerf.
Also I thought Godskin Duo was a fun fight. I summoned Bernahl, which will guaranteed always show up there as long as you went to Volcano Manor, and they went down in 3 tries. People trying to fight them one on one were doing a challenge run, it was pretty damn obvious that they were encouraging you to summon or use ashes there.
The issue with faith and sorcery is their teachers you find are where they are for plot reasons.
As a result sorceries has two teachers, just in case you miss it until later. In fact raya lucardia straight up has a teleporter to the second teacher JUST to make sure. And while sure it does mean it can take a long time to get the goods, it's not like what you start with is remotely bad. Even with the stuff i got finding sellen early i still stuck with the starting spell for like half my play time.
11:40 Yes, bosses do know when you're doing some cast, or using some items. The best example of this is Godskin Nobles, they will cast black flame every time you're using an item, flask, or cast.
15:30 Invasions are only forced on when you use multiplyer which imo makes sense. Cost benefit.
19:00 Personally i think the purpose of that is to discourage backtracking away from the enemy. This is an issue noted in Ghostwire Tokyo, where backing up is a more viable strategy than staying close. In elden ring, it's more often a better strategy is staying close, and dodging into attacks not away.
29:44 Illusionary walls are always associated with sorcery. Thats why they're so rare in this game, it's generally very specific. The areas with the most illusionary walls basically always have sorcerers. I think some endgame dungeons and places break that rule but thats super late and i'm not that far yet.
Well, I'm glad I'm not going insane. And I'm glad someone has finally put out a well articulated criticism of the legitimate problems this game has. I had a near-identical experience to you overall, and came away with just about identical conclusions on every front. The aggressive resistance to criticism within the community has been hard to fathom.
I watched your initial 'joke' video and obviously recognised it as satire, but nonetheless saw some serious, legitimate criticisms of the game slip through it. I subscribed at the time in the hope that a proper full-length video would emerge seriously discussing the topic, and I'm definitely not disappointed.
Most people that have no problems with this game haven’t even beaten it yet. I’m yet to see anyone who’s actually completed the game not have some significant issues with the late game design choices. Also, just because I have significant problems with this game doesn’t mean I don’t really like it, which many people fail to understand.
Im doing an RL1 Run and i can say for sure whenever I pop a resource during my many attemps the whole rotation of the bosses moves are different than before or the boss is more aggressive.
Any build can stagger leonine misbegotten with jump attacks and aggressive play.
Jump attacks do the most poise damage in this game, add in the jump talisman and some insanely broken weapons like the Lance or spears of this game and you can stun lock it if your poise is around 60 +.
While I somewhat agree with the rewards for exploration feeling lackluster in the early game, I strongly disagree for lategame.
It really just feels like the first three areas are very sparse in interesting items, but as you go further into the game you begin to find more interesting items and weapons.
Those same late game areas are extremely rewarding in materials, too
I felt the opposite. Late game exploration is less rewarding because you already have so many weapons and items. A new weapon is no big deal and usually trash. Only thing is late game armor, but most of that comes from Volcano Manor contracts.
@@GeraltofRivia22 then u havent explored much and arent planning expirementing with builds. I respeced 3 times the last 20 hours just so i can fuk.around with new weapons and spells.
@@flamingmanure I explored everywhere and did killed all bosses.
Leonine Misbegotten doesnt have to be a dodge bos. Elden Ring literally follows your example here that you set with Renalla and Magic Resistance. Just on the way to castle morne you can find the turtle shield with the classic stamina regen also it has barricade shield on it which absolutly counters the leonine misbegotten. I found it first time through and had a breeze honestly
There's a whip right before Leonine's boss room which you can infinitely stagger him with, and it's so in your face it simply has to be intended.
R2 attacks just stagger him even with a light weapon.
Miss Begotten? lol
51 hours as a confessor and I have found 3 weapons for faith and only one is worth using, I found many incantations but only one worth using.
7 hours as a sorcerer and I have 3 int weapons and 4 staves with 9 spells and I have uses for 7 of them although I only have 4 memory slots so far.
First play through I found the round table hold incantation teacher. I found 2 sorcery teachers and neither one was Sellen. Church of vows was the only other incantation teacher I found but he also teaches sorcery.
I have to strongly disagree with you on the starting as a sorcerer, I had to start as a Spellblade because in early game good sorceries were far more commonly avaliable than good incantations (which really there aren't as many of as there is spells) it was only until late game I actually felt comfortable switching to a faith build because of this reason and really it isn't as strong but i just enjoy it more. I feel also that incantations at high level are also harder to come by than spells with the strongest sorc spell in the game coming from some mob right next to a sit of grace for example lol flame of the fell good isnt even worth obtaining which is the easiest one to get from the legendary incantations but atleast then you fight a boss for it
I honestly don’t get people who didn’t explore Limgrave before going to Stormveil, I mean yeah the grace is telling you, but even before release we knew Margit and Godrick were waiting for us there. First time I got outside, I ran past the tree sentinel without thinking cause I knew it was too much but apparently a lot of people think you HAVE to kill it?
yep bosses are coded to go berserk on you when you use an item especially a healing item
You touch on "Mechanical cowardice" in a footnote and man, I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on that because that's something I feel BIGTIME about DS3 (and some Elden Ring) boss design.
They are all Bloodborne bosses, but forgetting that the reason Bloodborne HAD to do that was because it was designed around a quickstep and no shield.
Every DS3 boss feels the same: Roll until your designated opening, get your hit in, and then go back to dodging until your designated opening. Blocking might work for some attacks but is generally discouraged. This makes bosses feel stale ESPECIALLY compared to the massively unique bosses of Demon's Souls that *actually* feel extremely unique.
Bbs quickstep is just as fast as ds3s roll. Theres no need to "design" bosses diffrenrly for both. Bb is pretty much a DS clone without shields. Also all the DS games are better without shields from rhe beggining.
By ur logic bb has the most mechanical cowardice, considering its exactly like bb but with more bad bosses like hemwick. Also dodginf and waiting for openings has been the norm since demons souls and demons souls wasnt any different. Having a few boring gimmick fights that make replaying the game a boring chore doesnt make its bosses more "unique".
Man the amount of from fans that pretend to be game devs is getting annyoing. Thank god they keep ignoring their fanbase and keep making bettee and better games. If it was up to the fanbase we wouldve gotten boring demons, ds1 and bb clones so far.
@@flamingmanure From Software is listening to their fanbase and did make the game more accessible , thats why we got spirit ashes in the first place why Guidance exists and why we have a map now.
For example : The craftable guidance light that points you towards the next site of grace , or the statues that point you towards the next catacomb , or the Jellyfishes that spawn all over the place where something cool could be found.
Tbh there is soo much guidance that its hard to miss or intentionally ignore.
And Elden Ring reused a crap ton of Bosses from all older games , just slapped some new attacks or mechanics on to them to make them feel new ... all the Erdree Avatars are just Asylum Demon clones + one new gimick and the Wolf of Radagon is only a Sif + homing sword spells.
My biggest issue tho is with the Tree Beasts that is new and has a cool moveset and a cool new grab kill move ... but ... they f* ruined that cool Boss for me because they slapped 20 of them all over into this game.
And yeah sure Bosses are designed with Dodgeing in mind , but you can also Guard Counter in Elden Ring which is pretty dope ... or you can use Ashes of War : Bloodhound Step or Raptor of the Mists to avoid damage entirely.
Or you can take a sip of that Bubble tear mix for a Bubble that absorbs like 90% dmg ... or use the perfume buff for damage and defense which also creates that bubble or use ashes of war : Endure ... or go full on Iron Skin on the Bosses with the perfume ironjar.
This game has soo many options for almost every situation ... but yeah i guess all of these options wouldnt work for Elitists .. except maybe the Guard Counters.
@@mistressminerva3382 agree with you on the options, disagree on reused bosses, the wolf of radagon is literally not sif, the moves arent even similar, the erdtree avatars EACH have their own gimmick and are effectively an upgrade unlock.
Also complaining about elitists and then being reductive isnt exactly the best take
@@keighne7650 "Also complaining about elitists and then being reductive isnt exactly the best take"
Im not sure if i understand this correctly , english isnt my native language , could you elaborate on that ?
Also ... Red Worlf of Radagon is Sif , mainly the Sword mouth moveset , but it also has parts of the Greatwolf animations / moveset from Dark Souls 3 Ashes of Ariandel DLC and it has the homing spells from Aava from Dark Souls 2.
@@keighne7650 By erdtree avatars each having their own gimmick, do you mean that there are two kinds for all 1000 of them? Or just that they are placed in different places of the map, so arenas are slightly different? One even has a crowd that you kill *before* fighting the boss, pretty unique that one. The only one you'd be right about is the one at Halig Tree gates. Because that one is some ridiculous bullshit that most players likely ran past.
They all have the same moveset, have the same AI. And the only difference between the regular and rotten ones is the poop that comes flying out of and that zones you out, making the fight longer than it has to be, since the AI can get stuck spamming its projectile move after you get some distance.
They're also insanely exploitable, dodging into them makes it so that they never follow up with a combo.
Remember how DS2 had a weird re-release that mixed some things up and fixed some things? I bet they do that here.
It just feels like portions of the game aren't complete, a running theme with FromSoft. Just delay your fucking games until their actually done for goodness sakes. You shouldn't have to patch in new content.
Yes, I took the right and found the sorcery vendor and also got teleported from that lake ruins into the crystal tunnel and found even more magic stuff outside of it. I avoided the stormveil castle for the longest time.
As someone who loved Skyrim for it's open world and Dark Souls in general, Elden Ring was a godsend for me personally, and as someone who likes to explore every nook and cranny, your opening criticisms never even occurred to me. So it was good to get a different perspective on the game
I explored pretty much every area until about 50 hours in and realized it really wasn't worth it other then some crafting items and golden runes so I ended up just wiki'ing everything going forward.
Same. Witcher 3 ate my life. I think i've got 300 hrs in it.
The Leonine Misbegotten fight was probably a bit harder because you used pyromancies in the rain, they get a damage reduction in that weather.
That's a cool detail, but what I show in the video is only part of what I had tried out.
11:38
I mean the bosses, almost all of them, have coding for attacking in special ways whenever you use flasks. Its extremely egregious with certain bosses too, to the point they may even break out of a stun or a stagger instantly just to attack you.
Friend of mine messaged me with his outright disgust over the godskins for this specific reason. He just couldn’t heal regardless of window because he’d always get fireballed in response without fail.
@@deifiedtitan You can drink safely when they are locked in certain animations or if you're far enough away to leave the drinking animation in time for a roll. They just punish panic. (the duo is evil ofc)
Same thing applies to the crucible knights that input punish drinking and Malenia. You can even lock Malenia in her idle walk in order to drink... just gotta know how.
All that aside, I think input punishing drinking is stupid. But once you know how it happens you can easily play around it.
It's interesting looking back on this knowing they absolutely cannot break out of stuns or staggers. Though some have hyper armor during some animations that prevent staggers from occurring. People weren't used to a system where the boss had specific reactions in their decision tree for when the player began a casting or item animation. It was frustrating occasionally but also logically it makes sense your opponent would take advantage of you coming to a slow walk and cracking out a beverage mid-fight or doing some goofy spell with a windup. The miscalculation was the computer can tell when an animation has actually started better than us humans can, so it feels unfair that their reaction triggers to you winding up an animation happen on the literal first frame of animation before the human eye can receive it and comprehend it. I think in retrospect it's a great idea just implemented a bit haphazardly which is the From style I guess when it's time to throw a curveball to the mechanics of their games.
because the game is open world, they had more freedom to think of *where* stuff can be placed rather than *when*
In limgrave and the southern penisula you get plenty of generalist stuff from magic and faith and all sorts of assortment of weapons.
But then you push up north to the magic college, you start finding tons of sorcery, or if you push east into caelid you start finding more faith spells and magic equipment (since it used to be a magic town, now corrupted by the Priests of Rot)
Think my only gripe with this video was that you said you "couldn't keep track of where you've been." But there are map markers in the game that let you mark locations of interest with specific icons. As a veteran souls player, they improved a lot of what made the other games frustrating, and while Elden Ring isn't free from criticism, it also deserves the praise it gets because it's a legitimate Triple A game that's release fucking finished rather than half assed with content drip-fed through an IV of our wallets over the course of 6 months before the game dies out and they release the second game. Or third game. Tenth game. Whatever it may be.
Regardless, you got me pretty good with the first video. It felt really off a lot of the shit you said, so I was skeptical (especially since I enjoyed your very in-depth looks at Elder Scrolls games) but I appreciate your criticisms for the game here. Yeah, the idea of "just cheese the boss" is stupid, but there's some stuff you, as a player, can do to help yourself. Learn what attacks can be parried (if any), learn its weakness and exploit it (Radahn is weak to Rot, so getting Rot arrows or the Rot Dragonbreath really helps you out), overcome the challenge while being severely crippled or using sheer skill. I personally don't think the intent with this game was meant to have players be sub lv200 by the end (they still are cause muh pvp meta) and it's quite clear when the scaling amps up in the 60s and 80s.
Also, while watching your footage of the Begotten, you started using your fireball to stagger him, despite being on 0 flasks and nearly dead. Was that not more satisfying to overcome than smacking him to death with a giant club at full health and overtuned stats? I think it would be, but I guess we're both different players with different standards. I thought that kill was pretty nice to watch with the clutch fireballs.
If you ever do do an in-depth look at this game 3 years later, I think looking into how the boss AI plays out might be something for an interesting topic. They look for what you do and punish it and try to teach you that this "isn't Dark Souls" anymore. I think looking at the lens of Dark Souls will make it difficult to know that bosses aren't to be fought the same way anymore. Rolling into enemies is more common with attacks, rather than rolling away. Baiting a ranged attack before healing is way more common. Bosses being able to chain 7-9 swings and randomly cancel them makes them more unpredictable and on your toes. Obviously, not every boss is like this. But quite a few of the main bosses, specifically Margitt, try to instill this sense of "this is a different game" into you. Use the tools you have to win. Don't try to handicap yourself for no reason. If you want a challenge, that's self-imposed.
Great video. Glad I'm still subbed.
The only thing exploration wise I would have added to the game is a hero's path type addition to the map like breath of the wild that shows your path you've taken throughout the game and maybe even where you died. So it stays away from the Ubisoft map markers and percentages and checklists, but still shows where you've been so you know where you haven't been without making it systemic
I'd be interested to hear your response to this, the way I describe the issue with the bosses in Elden Ring is that "They feel like Sekiro bosses in a game without Sekiro's combat system", as a lot of them incorporate long combo strings and often escaping by backstepping or in the case of animalistic bosses charging past you out of reach, giving you little openings to land attacks [especially with larger/slower weapons], these bosses worked in Sekiro due to the fact it only plays one way really and that its combat system means just pressing the right button to 'pass' the attacks [deflecting in Sekiro's case, a mix of dodging or blocking in souls] actually progresses the fight towards clearing a healthbar.
I feel the way you feel about leonine about a lot of bosses, basically. Even the easier ones or ones I like feel like they have one or two moves designed to just be gotchya moments or fuck-yous, and the game more than any previous Fromsoft game relies on learning timings and weird delays in these long combos or huge attacks to get by.
Thanks for the vid, keep up the good work.
I noticed that a lot of enemies have a direct response to healing. If you don't get really far away from them, they will hit you. It really messed me up because I was basing my safe distance to heal off of my experience in Dark Souls 1, when sometimes healing right in their face is safer. The only upside to such predictable behavior is that it makes some enemies very easy to parry.
I've found several bosses having counter intuitive openings, which you kind of have to just find out for yourself. Maliketh for example have an overhead slam, where if you dodge into the attack you'll end up under his stomach unharmed and can score 2-3 hits with a greatsword. Otherwise he is hard to find openings for as spastic as he is.
Of the gotcha moments I think Melania's anime attack is the only one which is completely bullshit, the others you can learn pretty easily to avoid. But she is trivialized with a greatshield with high stability.
This is what ive been saying about the combat and is pretty much my biggest gripe with the game. It feels like fighting sekiro bosses but without any of Sekiro's defensive abilities, so theres no interesting counterplay.
@@halcionjoy7 heal punishes have been a thing since bloodborne, probably even earlier but i honestly can't remember.
@@yellowsaurus4895 I think it's more prevalent in Elden. As is the aggression that occurs as a direct result of healing.
In regard to the experience for a sorcery build:
FromSoft sorcery playthroughs have always been notoriously difficult in the early game.
You start out with a weak staff, very basic and limited spells, and the real damage that sorcery can achieve does not begin to manifest until you've leveled Intelligence at least up to 40.
The cap for Intelligence and sorcery's true damage potential is 80.
Magic is supposed to be tough as hell in the early game.
My first playthrough is a sorcery build because that's my favorite Souls play style.
And I had to basically skip over Stormveil Castle and the first two main story bosses to go and find the better staffs and the better spells.
This isn't very much different from how sorcery plays for each of the Souls games.
I think the problem i have and presumably also you is that we arent the "general target group" I like to have magic-options i usually always play something with magic but most people seem to only play Melee Characters and those dont complain because they dont have our problems. I also said that before but i dont get people that play in mythical world with magic and then they run around with a iron sticks.
The odd part is that for Astrologers the best spell is the starting one the Glintstone pebble. it has the best FP cost to dmg ration. When i got more spells i didnt use them after trying each one out which is a shame. because of that i think even FromSoftware doesnt really design well in regards to magic players (even though still Erdtree-difference compared to DS1)
Carian slicer is the only viable alternative to the pebble and it's a sword so at that point you might as well be a melee character
Currently doing my 3rd playthrough as a Sorcerer. I will pre-face that this run is played as a "mostly casual" one, so despite playing thru the game twice, I try not to look up or bum-rush all the good weapons/spells. I'm about halfways thru the run and I agree, Glintstone Pebble is still my go-to spell 90% of the time. Sometimes I use Loretta's Greatbow & Cannon of Haima for the fun of it, tho they just feel like an aweful waste of mana to cast. Magic have multiple problems in this game and usually just get dwarfed by ashes of way 99% of the time. More so there is a lot of small issues with magic, that just make it seems like an underwhelming experience, but my solution would be:
- Give some more range for most projectile spells, the range is laughable.
- Increase damage on some of the bigger spells, especially those who ground you for a while while casting.
- Slightly reduce the stamina cost for casting spells, the drain is a little too crazy at times.
There are a lot of great spells that you find in Liurnia/Raya lucaria. Great glintstone shard is a straight up upgrade to pebble. The game wasn't mainly targeted at sorcery builds but it's still miles better than ds1 where you start with 20 "shots" of pebble which is nowhere near enough to clear a level and thus forced to rely on melee weapons
@@gobomania the greatbow is incredibly useful for hitting dangerous foes from long range. Like you can kill the big insect thing in Ainsel river with the greatbow for basically free
On the leonine, there is an indicator with his eyes glowing that tell you about his aggression level
Several beasties enemies have this but there's no like indication about what this means and it can be hard to notice in combat
This is my issue, there's like things you don't know, but not because of you, it's because the world is not like informative enough in some cases
I think they should have placed the smithing stone bell bearings in locations that you are more likely to find on your progression. Like putting the first bell bearing somewhere early on inside Stormveil Castle
By putting the most important and most useful stuff on the main paths, you secure that people are not gonna explore. The idea is that important stuff is in obscure places to incentivize exploring
I think all the ball bearings not on the main path are in caves that are extremely clear on the painted map(big obvious cave hole accentuated with orange), once you realize thats the system they arnt exactly hard to find
The Elden Beast kind of reminds me of the forest spirit from Princess Mononoke.
I don’t know if you may have worded it weirdly but summoning in the souls series, at least from dark souls 1, has always increased a boss’s hp by I think 1.5x per summon
Great video though!
This is my first fromsoftware game and I thought it was hella difficult from the jump. I stuck with it though and spent about 20 hours leveling up and getting better at my combat in Limgrave. Now I'm about 115 hour in, I don't know how close to the end I am but I am loving it
The open world has its strength's and weaknesses. Certainly there are points where fromsofts lack of experience on designing open-worlds show, but i respect them for not just dipping their toes and actually committing to the design.
For the final boss i loved the design and atmosphere of the elden beast, but the fight itself was kind of a nuicanse.
My issue with the final boss is fighting two full bosses back to back with no saving in between. If they wanted to do this they'd have to reduce both bosses HP to compensate, but as it is it's a frustrating fight of attrition that made both fights worse than the sum of their parts imo.
Doesn't help that late game scaling is busted, you need to level vigor to the actual softcap to make many boss attacks 3 shots instead of 2 or 1 shots. It feels like after Leyndell you switch to NG+ suddenly.
Still love this game to death, I feel like I have to say that every time I criticize it so people don't get the wrong idea.
@@steel5897 Dark souls 3 did the same thing but it was 3 bosses not 2.
@@sup1602 or sister friede in the dlc which is 3 boss fights back to back to back lol
I’m really surprised you didn’t find many sorcery items. I kept finding people selling spells, I found the meteor staff after getting teleported to caelad, and tons of sourcery scaling weapons
Best twinking item in the game, incredibly powerful and you literally cannot upgrade it so as long as you don't upgrade any weapons and stay at low levels, you can basically bully low level players in PvP with it.
Lmao, the fact that he rerolled after his first session is very telling
@@666slateran666 you're not smart and will never be a woman
As someone who only follows your content on TH-cam, I am VERY glad I fell for the joke like a dingus. This assessment I can definitely get behind and casually use as ASMR. Thank you again Low Poly Imperial Man. I have been gotten.
After 6 or so hours I just went with a normal Heavy Axe. Going full on Strength build. I'm 140 hrs in now and just got to the final area. Took me forever to upgrade to a +23 finally. It has been a blast but the upgraded system is a bit wonky.
I was confused by the upgrade system for abit, so my dumbass was selling both smith stones for the early game lol
@@mfspectacular haha. Ya. It’s not Dark Souls. So there is a learning curve.
@@thebailey67 this is my first "souls" game so i cant compare it to their past works. If anything it feels like a metroidvania, or really just any openended game from the 90s, little to no hand holding & all. I wanna try & go back to their previous games, but besides having no time i like the open nature of this too much
Do we really need a crafting system if before we could just simply buy infinite consumables from different vendors?
I'd say 70%+ of craftables can't be bought, but 60%+ are pretty much useless. Pots can't be bought, neither can sleep arrows or bolts, or rotbone arrows. At this point the usablity kinda ends.
A mechanical critique of Elden Beast is definitely warranted, but the alleged aot references are an absurd reach.
Wouldn't be the first time. Berserk
My experience with bosses has been much different. I’ve felt most of my boss victories have been fair, and I’ve been significantly challenged by most, and have the experience of trying again and again getting better and skillfully overcoming each boss. Maybe it’s due to instinct from previous games. A few times I’ve approached a boss under level, and came back seemingly perfectly on level, or on level enough. Also the misbegotten bosses are gay as hell, hate em.
I mean, I know I'm in a minority, but Elden Beast fight was fine. Very cinematic, and only his star shower thingy was kinda stupid and annoying. And no wonder Patrician had issues with beating him he had goddamn scarseal on him. After Leyndell it's a liabilty to have that talisman on, it makes you take like 14% increased damage, and with hits that can reach 1000-1500 damage that's a really stupid idea to have that damage increase. Especially since, you know, you can have something that reduces that damage by like 10%, effectively making a 25% difference.
@@SzczurzaJucha I loved Elden Beast honestly. His criticism, saying that he's reusing attacks from Astel, is mind boggling. He has a completely different moveset w/ a sword and incantations, and doesn't teleport, which is what makes him a much better boss than Astel. Having the final boss be a cross between a beast/dragon type boss on the second phase and a "swordfighter" on the first phase is a good encapsulation of all of Elden Ring's bosses, and makes it feel more climatic.
Also, I'm pretty damn sure the Scarseals aren't that detrimental to your damage resistance.
@@gu3z185 What he's saying is that the movesets are effectively the same. The Elden Beast doesn't 'teleport', it just goes untargetable/untrackable and comes up somewhere else. May aswell be a teleport.
My issue with it is that it just isn't a fun boss. You spend the game going through and killing the characters, and then you come up against this unimaginative blob that casts a fuckload of spells at the same time, and you just run up and smack it's belly. It's not fun, it's not interesting and it really just feels futile given you've done everything narratively that the game has asked you to do, and this just seems like an unnecessary hurdle placed in the way.
@@mandatory055 was an ok boss for me, casts are fun to dodge (like the ring you have to hop over, or projectiles with very consistant timings. sword swings are telegraphed flawlessly, and an idea of a beast-like mass that merges with and rises from the goo that an arena is made of is kinda lovely. Mechanically and thematically Radagon is better, sure. But the beast in my opinion is not bad. Especially if you waste your flasks fighting Radagon.
I found like 3 sorcery teachers in my first 5 hours and ended up re-rolling to sorcery. (Which eventually made Renalla pretty painful) I also didn't go into stormveil until after exploring a lot. Which I think is why the experience diverged in that way so much. Which after doing some minor exploring I kind of realized that starting stuff was pretty balanced tbh. I get the exploration criticism but I don't even normally explore that much and found decent stuff pretty easily for basically every play style in the first 2 early areas.
One of the things I like about the souls formula is how there is usually one or two bosses per playstyle where the game just says no, and you either have an arbitrarily high skill floor to climb onto to compete with the boss, or you have to find another way around the issue, changing your build for that fight, summoning helpers of other builds that might fare better... More games need to have the balls to say no. I'm not saying the ones that are straight up immune to specific things, but that, while being technically damageable by your build, is so heavily resistant that beating it with that build is not as simple as it sounds, or anywhere near as simple as beating it with another build.
I have played most from soft games (all except bloodborne, and I am yet to finish ds2) and although I love elden ring, none have left me as frustrated as this game does at time. Things like having to walk through scarlet rot swamps with no access to antidotes, giant bosses in tiny arenas with moves which turn their entire body into a hit box (especially you magma worm, also turning the arena into a hit box) or enemies who sprint and spas out, so you can neither block or dodge them (royal revenant). Need I mention the godskin duo? Elden Ring is a great game like ds1 but like that game it has some obvious flaws due to the giant scope from soft aimed for making this game.
Way too many bosses in a too small area. The tree spirits where clearly designed as field bosses so why did shove them into so many tiny rooms.
Quick question, what didn't you like about Astel? I thought it was a phenomenal boss
Hell yeah, Elden ring review by the Cat girl with a monotone voice!
I think the Bell Gargoyles ARE a numerical issue. Obviously you CAN beat them skillfully with little investment, and after coming from much faster FromSoft games, it's not too difficult. But the boss is right down the way from the first blacksmith (a +3 weapon, easy to craft at this point, cuts through em like butter). And there's an NPC summon outside the door. As I see it, gargoyles are meant to be difficult if you fight them WITHOUT using your resources appropriately, but are much easier when you use Titanite and Humanity.
I don't think Elden Ring's RPG progression is as deft as it could be, but it IS an an action -RPG-. And part of the skill there is HOW you approach problems, not just skill execution. My experience with DS games is that if you're only making little yellow slivers on enemy health bars, you're probably under-equipped or using a bad damage type. You're never subjected to doing 5+ minutes of chip damage against bosses unless you're stubborn.
Glad to see i get to watch an even longer Elden Ring review from my favorite reviewer. I agree with a lot of the criticisms made in this one, i found the analogy of the dragons from skyrim in reference to the multiple solutions not always being the answer to the problem very pertinent, and something im probably gonna use in the future! I also struggled starting as a sorcerer, having not missed sellen but missed the carian scroll (I was doing a 'spellsword'). Banger content as always
I missed the sorcery teacher too! I even found the ruins, but I hadn't clued into that most ruins have a chamber
Never been to your channel before, but I do have to say that this video was really well done. I disagree with a lot of what you posit, admittedly, but your opinions are very well researched and presented thoughtfully. I think its important that a keen critical eye be placed on everything, especially a game with such overwhelming hype around it. No work is perfect, and things can only get better by analyzing flaws to find ways to improve. Developers just doing whatever they want with no input or feedback or context is exactly how most AAA developers have gotten to the state they're in.
Excellent job. Lots of things to think about.
I personally do still think that Elden Ring is competing only with Bloodborne and DS1 for best game ever made though. ;p
Elden Beast is a much more obvious reference to the forest spirit deity in Princess Mononoke than that thing in Attack on Titan
Great video Pat. I completely agree with all of your criticisms of the game. It’s a shame how hard Fromsoft gets circlejerked because it leads to people overhyping their already generally great games and tons of imitations from developers who think that they can give their game a dodge roll and expect their combat to turn out as engaging as From’s.
also the bosses definitely do read your inputs, you werent just imagining them being more aggressive when using a consumable
also check out the seamless co-op mod
also you can now use torrent at elden beast, not saying that fixes the boss fight but its an improvement
Oh my, the-star-ending-video on april's 1st and a fake become-the-lord-video prior to april's fool's day. What a deep lore
The bit on Leonine was interesting because I didn't fall into either camp, really? I beat him in one try, but I was low health and out of flasks by the end of it. I thought he was a fun fight, and I must have hit him at the perfect point level to challenge-wise, but I didn't really fight him ENOUGH to see any potential issues with his moveset I guess. I did start of Prisoner, and yeah it took a while to find some more spells. Rock Sling and Crystal Burst I found, and Rock Sling carried until I found Waypoint Ruins. I'm also not using any legendary/somber weapons; just a flail. I've upgraded it to about +4, and used an ash of war on it to add poison on top of the bleed. Any problems I've run into largely rest on me and impatience I think, but I also only just got by Stormveil Castle.
I think these are all valid criticisms! Boss balance must be rough if you're not scaling them with the player but you have an open world with so much that you can run into stuff either super under or over levelled. So far, I haven't had too many issues, but I did start late compared to a lot of people and have been taking my time. I think I love the way the open world is designed, it feels natural and fun to explore just to see things. But that's not everyone's bag for sure, and it's hard to argue that a more linear design like previous Souls games results in a smoother experience.
Good review. It's eerily similar how close my thoughts on the game were to some of yours, and makes me feel less crazy among the sea of dislikes and From Soft fans telling me I played the game wrong.
You're not crazy, while I don't agree with everything stated in here (mostly because we just have differing play styles that alleviate and aggravate different problems with the game.) My take away is definitely that the game is fun but has some major issues.
Your review could be summarized as "I didn't like Dark Souls 2. Elden Ring is like Dark Souls 2 in these ways. I didn't like Elden Ring"
Of course, instead of just saying "I personally don't like these aspects", you said it with vitriol and mistook things you don't like as things that are bad design. But those aren't the same thing.
Don't be upset by people being NPC's. It's the modern way, and it's unfortunately not limited to gaming.
I'm sure an esoteric scholar could give you a very insightful explanation of the hivemind phenomenon and it's historical breakdown, I'm not that guy.
I do find it incredibly interesting, especially when it applies to politicians (who don't give a shit about you,) corporations (who don't give a shit about you,) or other asinine things that you wouldn't expect to garner a dedicated fanbase. I generally get a kick out of watching the "Thing Good" and "Thing Bad" factions wage internet war.
I wonder if it's some kind of evolutionary tribal impulse?
I'm not even convinced those people are from software fans. The dislike mobs I've seen appear to just be NPCs who only recently even new the series existed.
Combine that with the majority of gaming outlets complaining about EldenRing, disliking aspects of it seems pretty openly accepted.
I gotta agree the beginning can be oddly restrictive when you keep finding stuff you cant use. I somehow managed to not find any usable melee weapons on my first playthrough as a bandit for a good 10 hours. It took until roundtable hold to find basic swords and scimitars and i only got there after the first boss, a bunch of mini-dungeons and aimless wandering.
At least i learned how to make the most of my buckler and learned very early on how powerful bleed is. Makes me wonder why noble sword and noble estoc droprates are so insanely low, they seem like the perfect items to hand out to the player early.
Unlike other games basic weapons in fs games are no joke. No weapon is strictly better than another, it's playstyle dependant. I started as a samurai spending half of it with basic katana and the only upgrade i found was another uchigatana
@@pramitpratimdas8198 I agree that all the weapons are good in these games or at the very least usable. Souls games tend to start out with basic swords, axes and the like as early loot though while elden ring gives you 0.5% droprate for noble sword/estoc and a bunch of weapons that require leveling up to use, i think thats a bit backwards.
Not to mention most basic weapons in elden ring aren't farmable for some inexplicable reason. Such a bizarre decision for a game that brought back powerstancing. For reference ds2 let you grab multiple estocs, foot soldier swords, bastard swords, infantry axes, bandit knives and halberds in forest of fallen giants which is basically the first area of that game.
@@Lilybun not sure why you'd waste time farming noble slender sword it's not a great weapon. You are better off with your starting weapon. As for estoc you can buy it from a merchant and patches sells it as usual. If you just want a thrusting sword, you can get the rapier from round table merchant.
@@pramitpratimdas8198 Did you even read my post lol? Either way you missed my point by a country mile, have a good day.
@@Lilybun ya i mentioned that I don't understand the need for grinding bad weapons lol
Levels seem to be irrelevant, since you get downscaled when summoned. So you can be level 150 (which I was by just playing normally) and still do content in Limgrave.
The Starfallen beast in Sellia tunnels is a bullshit boss because of the Arena.
Or these Erdtree Spirit because of its grab attack and erratic moveset.
And there are way too many bosses getting recycled. Erdtree Wardens which are literally Asylum Demon but with different elements, Erdtree Spirits that you encounter like 1000 times, the Dog/Cat statues in catacombs where you fight 1 then 1 with three heads and 2 with 1 head and 2 with three heads and maybe even additional ads.
A friend said how he had trouble fighting Rennala, while I beat her at my first attempt. While I seriously struggled against Godrick and Margit.
The difference being, I was a STR build with a Zweihänder, while my friend was a mage. Rennalla is resistant to Magic but weak against physical damage.
And most humanoid or living bosses are weak against Frost, Bleed, Poison or Rot which makes them easy in that regard easy, especially when you have a bleed weapon or rot breath that will just nuke them away.
And playing a Magic user is the most OP shit in all Dark Souls game so far and while I was a STR build, finding weapons I could use was a pain, most weapons were either DEX or INT scaling weapons or had a INT or DEX requirement.
hahahah oh man well put. once I got to the boss in the sellia tunnel and I saw that chunk of living rock in just a small area I was like "yea, okay they REALLY ran out of ideas cause this is SOME BUL- process to get chargeg in a small inclosed area. And I cant even think of a lore reason why that was there, all other falingstar beast are found around open areas with meteor impacts. heck because of the kindred of rot I was expecting a general or elite mook but no, no instead enjoy the space bull. The less said about the ulducerated rot erdtree avatar in the the war dead cataccombs the less.
I found a cool great axe!... but it has E scaling with str and C scaling with Dex. 😥
I had similar issue with Dex scaling. There are bosses who don't take damage from slash attacks and most strike weapons scale with strength. Your shield options are pretty limited, you cannot use great shields. Basically spent the entirety of the game with a brass shield
I've heard the same thing when it comes to the scarcity of sorceries from one of my own friends playing though, mean while I had a faith build and I was finding equal measure of each.
Honestly there is a lot here to unpack that I'm sure that at least ten people have said the same things I would say. Like using map markers and only removing them once you have completed the area. If I remember it even allows you to place a whole hundred of them with different icons. Its true though, the game has a lot of problems. And some of them, maybe most of them, are just inseparable from the Open World formula.
I am absolutely shocked you entered the menu to use Torrent rather than just hold Y/Triangle, even after going through the trouble of adding the ring to your pouch.
Anyway, I am of the underserved early Faith builds vs sorceries. Frankly because of the severe lack of offensive incantations early game. You could have about 20 different sorceries that kill everything before finding the lightning spear scroll on a random knight hanging out by the Artist's Shack.(I think) Meanwhile, Waypoint Ruins are just not that far off the beaten track. I'm pretty sure you can even see them to the East as you first walk out into Limgrave. I didn't return to a Faith central build until I started using the Blasphemous Blade in Haligtree.
I feel this is a masterpiece with flaws. The good far out ways the bad that I am able to not put as much weight on the flaws.
Its 60:40 good/bad. The bad is just too much to be ignored.