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ELDEN RING |OT| One Ring To Rule Them All
- Thread starter Black Chamber
- Start date
- |OT|
Crownttano
Member
Terra Magica 
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
It’s not a fight that the game intends for you to do solo. Drunk or not.
22:22:22
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Thanks, that makes me feel better, for real.
Also, I like having folks fight beside me =) adds alot to.the (epic) experience
Tomeru
Member
Resummon them!Got rahdan down 45% on my first try but all the summons died lol. Very very cool battle at first impression
Also lol at that bro giving you the backstory, bla bla ate his own but whatever let carry on
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
Did you activate the NPC summon for that fight? My strategy was to run around his fire and whenever he goes in for a move, it’s usually a 3 more hit combo and his stomps produce an AOE wave. It was kind of a cycle. When you pick faith you typically focus on the faith stat and any supportive stat of your weapon. Whatever scales. My katana scales with Dex and Arcane. I get the requirements to wield it and then I dump whatever points into whatever scales my weapon. I usually put points, one after another into it to boost my weapon damage.
LaughingStock
Member
The summon gets destroyed pretty fast. She never tries to avoid AoE attacks.
I can doge some of his moves. But sometimes I can't get away fast enough. And since he just spams attacks non-stop it's easy to make a mistake and there goes 90% of my HP. I'll explore other areas and come back when I'm stronger.
It's unbelievable how I picked so many spells and gear that I can't use but missed all the stuff that could have helped me.
nightmare-slain
Banned
as said by someone else, you're not meant to solo him. if you have been listening to npcs you'd have picked up it's a festival to fight radahn. that's why there's other people there to fight him with you. you can solo him if you want but that wouldn't make sense according to the story.
even if you do summon for a fight it's not cheating if the game is giving you that option. the only difference it makes is bragging rights on the internet that you killed them on your own. i summoned help a lot and doesn't bother me. i always try do it myself but if i need help i'll take it.
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V4skunk
Banned
This^^
Super over rated boss. The summons make the fight easy. Can also use a wondrous physick flask with the shield to be immune to his asteroid impact on second phase.
Rivet
Member
You don't even need that. Just run away in a straight line until he lands for the second phase, you'll never get any damage from the asteroid impact.
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TheDuskwalker
Member
FeelsHugManSo eh, Fia's quest huh... That was crazy.
And no happy ending, AGAIN.
I just want her to hold me...
SlimeGooGoo
Banned
.
Last edited:
Mr Moose
Member
GHG
Member
I'd like to know this as well.
Maybe it's a cyberpunk 2077 Easter egg.
SkylineRKR
Member
Its the only fight I know of, in all of Soulsborne, that has summons in the battle arena itself. And they can be re-summoned.
GHG
Member
Amazing, thank you. Think I'll give it a try provided I haven't progressed things too far already.
TheDuskwalker
Member
Mr Moose
Member
Break the giants ankle, then fuck him up with bleed/rot/poison.
DelireMan7
Member
After something like 15/20h I have finally beat Malenia !
I had quite some down moments during my tries. To a point I wanted to gave up the game...
Mainly due to the fact I am stubborn and wanted to beat her solo without summon with no alteration on my build (I always like to "stick to my build no matter what" in Soulsborne. This is actually the first time in the entire "franchise" I had to let go this "rule").
I had to reconsider the last statement and add Bloodhound's step (and it was a really hard concession to make for me, kind of a failure for me)to my build to deal with her Waterflow. I've never succeeded to avoid it with Med roll.
It's a for sure the hardest boss of the entire Soulsborne for me. Does this make her the best boss ? No ! Mainly because the challenge comes from her Waterflow attack which is extremely complex to avoid, especially if she decide to launch when you're in close proximity of her.
The nasty part is that in phase 2, she gains others attack with extremely similar start up than her Waterflow, making it a real gamble for me. (That's why I used several time my Bloodhound's step for nothing in phase 2).
Glad I am done with her. I can now continue with the game.
170+hours and in the 150/160 Rune level range.
I had quite some down moments during my tries. To a point I wanted to gave up the game...
Mainly due to the fact I am stubborn and wanted to beat her solo without summon with no alteration on my build (I always like to "stick to my build no matter what" in Soulsborne. This is actually the first time in the entire "franchise" I had to let go this "rule").
I had to reconsider the last statement and add Bloodhound's step (and it was a really hard concession to make for me, kind of a failure for me)to my build to deal with her Waterflow. I've never succeeded to avoid it with Med roll.
It's a for sure the hardest boss of the entire Soulsborne for me. Does this make her the best boss ? No ! Mainly because the challenge comes from her Waterflow attack which is extremely complex to avoid, especially if she decide to launch when you're in close proximity of her.
The nasty part is that in phase 2, she gains others attack with extremely similar start up than her Waterflow, making it a real gamble for me. (That's why I used several time my Bloodhound's step for nothing in phase 2).
Glad I am done with her. I can now continue with the game.
170+hours and in the 150/160 Rune level range.
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MadPanda
Banned
I can't even properly come to his body's. I've got vitality at 52 but he hits like a truck and completely destroys me. I'll give it a try when I get up.
V4skunk
Banned
I didn't even run away. Just gulped the flask, took like 5 dmg then killed him first try around lvl 85 with a +17 Great sword. Game takes a notch up in boss difficulty around Caelid/Atlus Plateau though.
Use a great shield and tank his hits.
FunkMiller
Member
Stay off Torrent in first phase. Keep underneath and behind the big cunt as much as you can. It’s frustrating, but run over to him, get a few blows in, get behind. You have to learn the timing to dodge those bullshit one shots as much as possible. Second phase you can use torrent more, rushing in for a few whacks after his AoE.
You can always summon Magic Tear +10, have a bleed build on both of you, and make things easier that way.
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Ovech-King
Member
This video. I gave it a try with a basic spear and put it at max and gotta say it's actually not bad at all against bosses specially if you spam it you are in an loop of "can't touch me"
Toytown Assassin
Member
They did it in the original dark souls in the DLC manus fight as well. You could summon sif but it was easy to miss in a fight as frantic as that. Also earlier in this game in an evergaol there is one if you meet the preconditions.
MScarpa
Member
Alright GAF, because everyone praises this game so much, i went ahead and just purchased it. Going to try it out here in a few minutes. I'm new to these games. I've only ever played Bloodbourne and that wasn't more than an hour. Wasn't my cup of tea. With that said, any tips would be much appreciated. I'm hoping I enjoy this game.
V4skunk
Banned
The only advice I can give is don't get fixated on trying to kill a hard enemy, you can run away.
Learn the combat system and how stamina works.
Follow the gold light at the grace sights at the beginning of the game.
Farm enemies for their armour and weapons. You will die a lot so learn from your errors.
Learn how the stat system works so you don't make a mong build when lvling up.
Don't just attack everything as you can anger and kill npc characters.
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clem84
Gold Member
15/20 hrs??
You have more courage/patience than I do. About the first 3/4 of this game, I stuck to my strength build and didn't try to cheese out of any battles. But at some point it became clear that I'm just not that good at these games and it would have taken me forever to beat every boss the way you did, so I decided to make battles easier by any means necessary. This includes summons at every fight, and going with the "100% guardboost" trick which pretty much makes you invincible.Exploring the rest of the game and fighting those bosses was still fun so I don't regret doing that. The games lets you scale the difficulty the way you want.
LaughingStock
Member
When I started playing Elden Ring I was feeling Souls fatigue after having played every single From's games since Demon Souls on the PS3.
But now I'm addicted and this is the GOTY no doubt. The game is massive. The amount of different enemies and biomes is mind-blowing.
My faith build is kind of working right now. And I killed Godrick.
After 30 hours of playtime, I found out about the guard counter mechanic. Combat is more enjoyable now.
But now I'm addicted and this is the GOTY no doubt. The game is massive. The amount of different enemies and biomes is mind-blowing.
My faith build is kind of working right now. And I killed Godrick.
After 30 hours of playtime, I found out about the guard counter mechanic. Combat is more enjoyable now.
DelireMan7
Member
15/20 hrs??
Exploring the rest of the game and fighting those bosses was still fun so I don't regret doing that. The games lets you scale the difficulty the way you want.
I am really stubborn when it comes to Soulsborne. XD
But it was detrimental this time, I did several long sessions and at the end of some I was just frustrated leading me to do some bullshit, making the process of beating her much longer.
It wouldn't been the same for me if I used another mean to beat her.
What's the 100% guardboost ?
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clem84
Gold Member
SkylineRKR
Member
MadPanda
Banned
I'm arc/dex so can't do that.
I'm going to give it a try. mimic tear is sometimes really dumb as it takes too long to engage.
MadPanda
Banned
I'll out this in another post because it's not related.
I decided to give leyendell catacombs another on today and lo and behold, proceeded to the boss.
Then a strange bug happened. I entered, summoned mimic, boss rushed to me I stacked him. and nearly got him, but his dogs decided to stop me and they killed me. My mimic got mad and killed the boss. So as I was dying I got talisman but I didn't get runes. When I got back the boss was gone and I could get the runes I came with to the boss but not those 30k you get for killing him.
I decided to give leyendell catacombs another on today and lo and behold, proceeded to the boss.
Then a strange bug happened. I entered, summoned mimic, boss rushed to me I stacked him. and nearly got him, but his dogs decided to stop me and they killed me. My mimic got mad and killed the boss. So as I was dying I got talisman but I didn't get runes. When I got back the boss was gone and I could get the runes I came with to the boss but not those 30k you get for killing him.
nightmare-slain
Banned
i'm sure this happened to me for one boss which i can't remember. there were a few bosses i died to and then my spirits killed them during the death animation. i remember the rykard fight it happened and i thought i was going to lose my reward runes but they were in my lost runes when i went back in to the arena to pick them up.
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
So... it's been a week since I beat the game, so I'll share some thoughts.
As usual for many games and From games in general, I restarted ER from scratch a few times before settling on what would take me to the end. My first run lasted about 10 hours, up to Godrick. The second, almost 40 hours, was aborted at the Capital. Then with the third run I decided to try Samurai and found out it was easy mode for the first part of the game, so I stuck with my Uchigatana and a few support spells all the way to the final boss, but all the optional stuff was absolutely impassable for me; Castle Sol was just ridiculous, and two tries against the Elden Beast almost had me drop the game completely. I actually deleted all my saves there and then.
Still, I have a bona fide Stockholm sindrome thing going on with FS games. I really wanted to see it all, but I'm just not good enough. The intricacies of effective character building have always escaped me, and melee is just unnecessarily punishing in ER unless you're properly equipped at least, if not outright OP. So I watched a couple of excellent videos on building a OP mage and... yep, this time I made it. Mind you, Malenia and the final battle still took me quite a few tries - you really have to pay attention there, just spamming attacks and keeping your distance isn't the be-all-end-all solution, unlike some other bosses that are pretty hard on melee, but just get annihilated by magic and summons.
I gotta say, the first 3-4 hours with the game were almost magic. Strong Breath of the Wild vibes. But soon it started to show: this is still Souls after all, with its decade-old issues and shenanigans that I never completely made peace with.
What I felt most of all apart from difficulty issues, is the lack of direction, and the discrepancy between the ideal progression and the overall balance of the game. The game immediately tells you you should go to the castle, and it's at the walls' gate that you first meet Melina and get Torrent; the plot is clearly pulling you in a certain direction. Yet, when you get to Margit, you're in for a rude awakening. Margit is meant to be challenged at a much higher level than the first boss of any previous Souls game, in spite of the fact that the road to him is pretty open. So, to me, Margit was for all intents and purposes an early-game Nameless King. I tried him dozens of times, to no avail. And when, after powering up a bit and getting some range attacks, I finally beat him, I was already a bit soured on the game. This was supposed to be the most accessible Souls game ever? Yeah, right. Beating Margit gave me no satisfaction. Only a lot of worries about the road up ahead.
This was the story of my playthrough with most main bosses in the game. Beating a fucking dragon? Just a matter of timing, patience, and attention. But Morgott was just a replay of Margit, in more than plot. Radahn? No way I'd get anywhere with melee there. Only Rennala felt fair to me, and I still needed help from spirit summons for her second phase. Even that goddamn red wolf was worse than any dragon to me. Anything melee is just relentless. And no, there's just no way you can excuse FS for the disastrous camera this time. They should have learned something in all this time, yet this is one thing where they're constantly getting worse. Sekiro had some godawful camera moments, but ER takes those to another level.
Even when I came to cope with the fact that the main story required some serious beef and reaching a boss with relative ease wouldn't mean I'd be ready for the boss itself, I was still soured by the way FS keeps doing NPC quests. In a game this massive, I think it's unacceptable that you're supposed to stumble upon NPCs by pure chance after your first encounter with them. There's absolutely zero way you could guess where anyone went when they're not where you last met them. Liurnia is especially bad for this: you have to explore every inch of the lake to find Patches and get a very important clue for something you'd never guess in a million years otherwise, and Hyetta's whereabouts every time she moves aren't anything but the wildest guess. Zero clue there. Zero. And this is why I think, yes, some sort of very barebone "Bomber's Handbook" from Majora's Mask would make things so much better there. But no, From (and most of their hardcore fans) are completely tone-deaf about that. They really seem to think this is how things should be. I mean, I can see the reasoning: the world is huge and you're supposed to have no guidance. Yet... I can find maps pointing me to interest points. The presence of a mine or a village is never a mystery once I get a map. Why not get a little step further and at least give me some help keeping track of quests? They did put NPC pointers on the map with a patch, after all.
The horse is a mixed bag. His jerkiness makes some basic actions, especially platforming, a nightmare. His lack of i-frames makes no sense considering that dodging is the main ingredient of Souls combat at this point. He completely trivializes some stretches that would be a total nightmare on foot, to the point you have to wonder if FS really gave any serious thought about the balancing of the game.
Yeah, balancing really is my main issue with the game. Having bosses or demi-bosses turn mobs at one point in the game isn't anything new for Souls, but here this is really all over the place. Having you 2- or 3-shot common mobs just to turn the corner and having a 6-to-10-thousand-HP motherfucker maul the shit out of you gets old very, very quickly, as does having common mobs that can take away huge chunks of your health bar at any given level - looking at you, catacomb gargoyles. Places like Castle Sol or Elphael are just beyond ridiculous in this regard. But there's plenty of "common" enemies that just want you dead no matter what and boy, will they work to achieve that. The giant dogs and ravens in Caelid will chase you to the end of the earth. The mama bears seem to see the very spawn of Satan in you for some reason. And don't get me started on those blade-clawed birds that can also fucking spit fire, or those giant hand that can fuck right off. These, together with the Revenant that may be THE most obnoxious thing ever seen in a Souls game by a very long shot, are just ridiculous enemies in every respect. Insane HP? Check. Infinite stamina? Check. Ridiculous mobility? Check. Extremely powerful attacks? Check. So yeah, I do have a problem with these things being just casually thrown into the fray in places like Elphael that are already teeming with mobs down every hall and round every corner. Not content with all of this, FS seems to think that's also incredibly hilarious to not only put scarlet rot pools and lakes here and there just because, but to put demi-bosses in the middle of them, because fuck you, that's why.
Now, if you think all of this is even remotely funny, challenging or (God forbid) good game design... I don't know what to say.
Yes, the game gives you a lot of tools to ease your burden. On the other hand, this also creates the biggest gap ever between those who can beat everything without these tools, and those who can't be bothered to put up with the game's endless BS. That the game isn't properly balanced should be corroborated by the fact that, to my knowledge, some builds have such an outrageous advantage that even PVP is mostly bleeding builds. "Balancing" bosses around the idea that you're supposed to "cheat" using summons, while "not cheating" is reserved to the select few with amazing skill, is... not good balance, in my opinion. Dark Souls up to DS2 felt like anyone could best bosses with some learning and a bit of skill. Here the story is much more clear-cut: you either have your shit completely up to snuff and can beat most bosses first try or in a few tries at the worst, or it's summon/spam time for you again. It's not a matter of learning patterns and getting a few rolls right - it's a matter of facing things with huge HP, multi-phase attacks with very restricted dodge timing, insta-kill attacks thrown casually into the frame. In two words, absolute perfection is required for a lot of fights. Nothing less will net you a victory. Two mistakes equal death so many times. With some builds, getting one-shotted is basically the norm. Was this necessary? Does this prove a point? I don't think so.
What does this boil down to, you're wondering? It's quire simple. With ER, I stopped feeling like I was living an adventure very early. 95% of the game felt like a chore. Bringing down a boss rarely felt elating; it almost always felt exhausting. While a game like BOTW felt like exploring a huge world, ER quickly became a checklist. Oh, another mine. Oh, another ruined village with an underground chest. Oh, another catacomb. Oh, another Tibial Mariner. Oh, another Tree Spirit. *groan* Yeah, the legacy dungeons have amazing design... and questionable balance. Joy never lasted much when every single inch of the game only wanted to kill me.
As for the story. It's interesting, really. But From really don't know how to tell a story. People who complain about the usual JRPG verbosity seem to love lapping up FS's gibberish dialogue and spending hours reading item descriptions, for some reason. "Environmental storytelling" only does so much: after a while, the only thing you can assume for certain is that lots of people died for some reason. Even most NPC quests feel hollow when the end result is the guy dying on you so many times, for reasons you probably didn't even understand.
I'm also intrigued at how I still haven't seen anyone take on the plot from the point of view of a war of religion. To me, the Golden Order has so many resemblances to Christianity and its war against what it considers heresy. Marika is a saviour, and a vessel for a Greater Will. She seals away Death, like Christ, and you find her crucified to the remnants of the Elden Ring with her chest pierced by a blade. She has two identities within her, just like the Christian god is supposed to actually be one and three entities at once. The Crucible is basically a pagan cult that existed before Christianity (aka the Golden Order) and has been shunned by it. Rykard commits blasphemy by fusing himself up with a serpent, ie the symbol of Satan. The symbology is clear as day.
I feel like I ranted long enough. To sum things up: despite the open world, ER felt mostly like another Souls game to me, and a pretty repetitive and unbalanced one as that. I enjoyed it, but I was also extremely frustrated by it, and its cons weigh heavily upon the pros in my view. FS has made great efforts, but they've also got complacent in so many aspects of their games. I don't think I will ever return to ER to "have fun" - as with most Souls games, a time comes when the balance between satisfaction and frustration tips towards the latter, and I think that time will always come somewhere between Raya Lucaria and Altus for me. I don't see myself ever finding the will to go past the Capital again, or even into the Capital itself. Elphael and the snowy area before it was were one-time affair with me, and I'm never going there again unless DLC requires to. Then again, I skipped DLC with both DS2 and 3, so I'll be on the fence about ER DLC for a long time.
A "generation-defining" game this is not, for me. YMMV.
As usual for many games and From games in general, I restarted ER from scratch a few times before settling on what would take me to the end. My first run lasted about 10 hours, up to Godrick. The second, almost 40 hours, was aborted at the Capital. Then with the third run I decided to try Samurai and found out it was easy mode for the first part of the game, so I stuck with my Uchigatana and a few support spells all the way to the final boss, but all the optional stuff was absolutely impassable for me; Castle Sol was just ridiculous, and two tries against the Elden Beast almost had me drop the game completely. I actually deleted all my saves there and then.
Still, I have a bona fide Stockholm sindrome thing going on with FS games. I really wanted to see it all, but I'm just not good enough. The intricacies of effective character building have always escaped me, and melee is just unnecessarily punishing in ER unless you're properly equipped at least, if not outright OP. So I watched a couple of excellent videos on building a OP mage and... yep, this time I made it. Mind you, Malenia and the final battle still took me quite a few tries - you really have to pay attention there, just spamming attacks and keeping your distance isn't the be-all-end-all solution, unlike some other bosses that are pretty hard on melee, but just get annihilated by magic and summons.
I gotta say, the first 3-4 hours with the game were almost magic. Strong Breath of the Wild vibes. But soon it started to show: this is still Souls after all, with its decade-old issues and shenanigans that I never completely made peace with.
What I felt most of all apart from difficulty issues, is the lack of direction, and the discrepancy between the ideal progression and the overall balance of the game. The game immediately tells you you should go to the castle, and it's at the walls' gate that you first meet Melina and get Torrent; the plot is clearly pulling you in a certain direction. Yet, when you get to Margit, you're in for a rude awakening. Margit is meant to be challenged at a much higher level than the first boss of any previous Souls game, in spite of the fact that the road to him is pretty open. So, to me, Margit was for all intents and purposes an early-game Nameless King. I tried him dozens of times, to no avail. And when, after powering up a bit and getting some range attacks, I finally beat him, I was already a bit soured on the game. This was supposed to be the most accessible Souls game ever? Yeah, right. Beating Margit gave me no satisfaction. Only a lot of worries about the road up ahead.
This was the story of my playthrough with most main bosses in the game. Beating a fucking dragon? Just a matter of timing, patience, and attention. But Morgott was just a replay of Margit, in more than plot. Radahn? No way I'd get anywhere with melee there. Only Rennala felt fair to me, and I still needed help from spirit summons for her second phase. Even that goddamn red wolf was worse than any dragon to me. Anything melee is just relentless. And no, there's just no way you can excuse FS for the disastrous camera this time. They should have learned something in all this time, yet this is one thing where they're constantly getting worse. Sekiro had some godawful camera moments, but ER takes those to another level.
Even when I came to cope with the fact that the main story required some serious beef and reaching a boss with relative ease wouldn't mean I'd be ready for the boss itself, I was still soured by the way FS keeps doing NPC quests. In a game this massive, I think it's unacceptable that you're supposed to stumble upon NPCs by pure chance after your first encounter with them. There's absolutely zero way you could guess where anyone went when they're not where you last met them. Liurnia is especially bad for this: you have to explore every inch of the lake to find Patches and get a very important clue for something you'd never guess in a million years otherwise, and Hyetta's whereabouts every time she moves aren't anything but the wildest guess. Zero clue there. Zero. And this is why I think, yes, some sort of very barebone "Bomber's Handbook" from Majora's Mask would make things so much better there. But no, From (and most of their hardcore fans) are completely tone-deaf about that. They really seem to think this is how things should be. I mean, I can see the reasoning: the world is huge and you're supposed to have no guidance. Yet... I can find maps pointing me to interest points. The presence of a mine or a village is never a mystery once I get a map. Why not get a little step further and at least give me some help keeping track of quests? They did put NPC pointers on the map with a patch, after all.
The horse is a mixed bag. His jerkiness makes some basic actions, especially platforming, a nightmare. His lack of i-frames makes no sense considering that dodging is the main ingredient of Souls combat at this point. He completely trivializes some stretches that would be a total nightmare on foot, to the point you have to wonder if FS really gave any serious thought about the balancing of the game.
Yeah, balancing really is my main issue with the game. Having bosses or demi-bosses turn mobs at one point in the game isn't anything new for Souls, but here this is really all over the place. Having you 2- or 3-shot common mobs just to turn the corner and having a 6-to-10-thousand-HP motherfucker maul the shit out of you gets old very, very quickly, as does having common mobs that can take away huge chunks of your health bar at any given level - looking at you, catacomb gargoyles. Places like Castle Sol or Elphael are just beyond ridiculous in this regard. But there's plenty of "common" enemies that just want you dead no matter what and boy, will they work to achieve that. The giant dogs and ravens in Caelid will chase you to the end of the earth. The mama bears seem to see the very spawn of Satan in you for some reason. And don't get me started on those blade-clawed birds that can also fucking spit fire, or those giant hand that can fuck right off. These, together with the Revenant that may be THE most obnoxious thing ever seen in a Souls game by a very long shot, are just ridiculous enemies in every respect. Insane HP? Check. Infinite stamina? Check. Ridiculous mobility? Check. Extremely powerful attacks? Check. So yeah, I do have a problem with these things being just casually thrown into the fray in places like Elphael that are already teeming with mobs down every hall and round every corner. Not content with all of this, FS seems to think that's also incredibly hilarious to not only put scarlet rot pools and lakes here and there just because, but to put demi-bosses in the middle of them, because fuck you, that's why.
Now, if you think all of this is even remotely funny, challenging or (God forbid) good game design... I don't know what to say.
Yes, the game gives you a lot of tools to ease your burden. On the other hand, this also creates the biggest gap ever between those who can beat everything without these tools, and those who can't be bothered to put up with the game's endless BS. That the game isn't properly balanced should be corroborated by the fact that, to my knowledge, some builds have such an outrageous advantage that even PVP is mostly bleeding builds. "Balancing" bosses around the idea that you're supposed to "cheat" using summons, while "not cheating" is reserved to the select few with amazing skill, is... not good balance, in my opinion. Dark Souls up to DS2 felt like anyone could best bosses with some learning and a bit of skill. Here the story is much more clear-cut: you either have your shit completely up to snuff and can beat most bosses first try or in a few tries at the worst, or it's summon/spam time for you again. It's not a matter of learning patterns and getting a few rolls right - it's a matter of facing things with huge HP, multi-phase attacks with very restricted dodge timing, insta-kill attacks thrown casually into the frame. In two words, absolute perfection is required for a lot of fights. Nothing less will net you a victory. Two mistakes equal death so many times. With some builds, getting one-shotted is basically the norm. Was this necessary? Does this prove a point? I don't think so.
What does this boil down to, you're wondering? It's quire simple. With ER, I stopped feeling like I was living an adventure very early. 95% of the game felt like a chore. Bringing down a boss rarely felt elating; it almost always felt exhausting. While a game like BOTW felt like exploring a huge world, ER quickly became a checklist. Oh, another mine. Oh, another ruined village with an underground chest. Oh, another catacomb. Oh, another Tibial Mariner. Oh, another Tree Spirit. *groan* Yeah, the legacy dungeons have amazing design... and questionable balance. Joy never lasted much when every single inch of the game only wanted to kill me.
As for the story. It's interesting, really. But From really don't know how to tell a story. People who complain about the usual JRPG verbosity seem to love lapping up FS's gibberish dialogue and spending hours reading item descriptions, for some reason. "Environmental storytelling" only does so much: after a while, the only thing you can assume for certain is that lots of people died for some reason. Even most NPC quests feel hollow when the end result is the guy dying on you so many times, for reasons you probably didn't even understand.
I'm also intrigued at how I still haven't seen anyone take on the plot from the point of view of a war of religion. To me, the Golden Order has so many resemblances to Christianity and its war against what it considers heresy. Marika is a saviour, and a vessel for a Greater Will. She seals away Death, like Christ, and you find her crucified to the remnants of the Elden Ring with her chest pierced by a blade. She has two identities within her, just like the Christian god is supposed to actually be one and three entities at once. The Crucible is basically a pagan cult that existed before Christianity (aka the Golden Order) and has been shunned by it. Rykard commits blasphemy by fusing himself up with a serpent, ie the symbol of Satan. The symbology is clear as day.
I feel like I ranted long enough. To sum things up: despite the open world, ER felt mostly like another Souls game to me, and a pretty repetitive and unbalanced one as that. I enjoyed it, but I was also extremely frustrated by it, and its cons weigh heavily upon the pros in my view. FS has made great efforts, but they've also got complacent in so many aspects of their games. I don't think I will ever return to ER to "have fun" - as with most Souls games, a time comes when the balance between satisfaction and frustration tips towards the latter, and I think that time will always come somewhere between Raya Lucaria and Altus for me. I don't see myself ever finding the will to go past the Capital again, or even into the Capital itself. Elphael and the snowy area before it was were one-time affair with me, and I'm never going there again unless DLC requires to. Then again, I skipped DLC with both DS2 and 3, so I'll be on the fence about ER DLC for a long time.
A "generation-defining" game this is not, for me. YMMV.
MadPanda
Banned
Man, I listened to your advice and I just got him on my first try with your advice. Thanks a lot! I was lucky enough to avoid all of his rolls.
Does proceeding after the fire giant lock me out of some content? is there anything I should do before going on?
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22:22:22
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
I knew about the festival =) Was pretty cool seeing all those guys there anticipating the fight! And I don't mind using summons, especially in this context. I'm just used to playing Souls serie solo I think =)
Oh btw Blaid must be somewhere in Siofra now I reckon? Took a quick look but didn't see him.
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luffie
Member
I duuno man, you seem to conflate your very anecdotal experience as facts across the board. Souls games always have flaws, nobody is denying that, and thus some are demanding a fundamental change of it in the name of "for everyone", which no game is ever. Then just because some loud voices speak against it, you immediately assume all Souls fans are against change.
There are plenty 1st time Souls players in a discord group I'm in, we have difficult road blocks, but never as you described. By the fact that you mentioned most pvp players use "bleed" is just hilariously wrong. They use everything, from madness, rot, faith magic. I have invaded, been invaded, summoned for invasion, summoned for coop, never once i saw, "yeah, this is such a common build".
Margit is meant to be there as a wall, "hey, finally a road block, let's leave and do something else.... or you can really just beat it." Really nothing strange about it compared to previous Souls games where Iudex Gundyr, Gascoigne and Gyobu will always be a permanent wall that you must pass FIRST"
There are legitimate concerns with From's npcs and quests etc. But assuming people must use wiki or impossible to progress is just wrong. Wiki is written by players, not From. I myself have solved many of the puzzles without guides because I specifically want to try. Do i find some of them ridiculously obtuse? Yeah.
Maybe this just isn't your type of game and that's ok. But stop making such flawed assumptions, it will be good for yourself and your enjoyment of games.
22:22:22
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
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