Support NeoGAF

[Mossybrew]

Someone said that area isn't available until later in the game. Is that true?

You can get there once you're in the Liurnia area by doing a couple quick quest steps for Varre, after which he'll give you an item that will transport you to this zone. You then just have to backtrack a bit in that area and run past some freaks to get to the farming spot.

 

[TheDuskwalker]

Someone said that area isn't available until later in the game. Is that true?

If you do Varre's questline, though it does require 3 online invasions (don't have to win) as part of it, you can get to it fairly early in the game. Otherwise it's a late/end game area.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Someone said that area isn't available until later in the game. Is that true?

You can reach it reasonably early. Many videos on how to do it.

 

[Sgt.Asher]

Fun fact, ranni's dark moon can interrupt melania's multi attack

 

[Huevos de Oro]

Have been doing a few NG+ sidequests I missed during my first run. So far I've done

Spoiler

Gostoc, Patches, Nepheli, Diallos

and that dude from Fort Haight. Also did the Millicent quest again but this time

Spoiler

I killed her ;____;

.

 

[Badlucktroll]

Got every trophy except legendary armaments. Now, i am doing a new game plus run for the bolt of gransax.

 

[MagnesD3]

Godwyn = destroyed soul / body untouched
Ranni = soul untoucned / body destroyed

It was what had to be done to complete the ritual she started with the death rune she stole. If you have seen most of the game and quests you know where Godwyn is and where Ranni's soul is.

Imo Malina is the result of the ritual that happened on the night of the black knives, burned refers to rannis crispy corpse and Bodyless refers to godwyns soul being permanently removed from his body or "destroyed".

She and rannis eyes that are locked/mirror and rannis spirit face looks the same as Malinas, at the end of the frenzied flame you also see Malina with a white eye, the only time a character with a white eye was given importance was at the very beginning when godwyn the golden dies. (I'm also confident that the frenzied flame is the Canon ending)

Melina doesn't remember her purpose until she gets closer to the erd tree where her "mother" resides and to be a spirit as she is means she probably died, we know that the demigods that are dead of marikas lot are ranni and godwyn, the game implies no one else's death. Malinas hair is pink, we have never seen ranni not crispy but her father was radagon who's passes on his red hair to radaun, and godwyns hair is white, so pink would be the combo.

Ranni has a bell that belonged to torrents last owner whose name she conveniently doesn't mention but the way its spoken about it seems like this is something that is very strange like torrent hasn't been seen for quite some time, I believe torrent belonged to godwyn along time ago and this event was strange enough that ranni had to investigate but she is careful using a cover name due to her notoriety she most likely doesn't come out from her safety in the manor, this was probably very risky and important for her but it seemed she had a promise to keep.

Don't get me wrong malina is vague enough it could be something else but these small things really add up for me in this direction especially with how important ranni, godwyn and Malina are to the main story. I even wonder about the deathbird God magic potentially being involved in the ritual of that night with the death rune, due to the crow eye marks on ranni/malinas eyes and the fact they were in charge of death before the erdtree took over. Maybe in the eyes of the erdtree godwyns soul is dead since it may never return back to it to be recycled and reborn but outside of that it does still exist because the great tree existed far before the erd tree/elden rings mess.
I've even heard from someone else on about this theory that malina is a rememberance of thier body and soul which I could see work too.

Bonus, her name starting with M also follows the name trend for demigod kids birthed by Radagon and Marika (Melania/Miquella) because Godwyns mother is Marika and Rannis Father is Radagon allowing it to work.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Elden Ring (PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S/One) is an amazing game that is actually pretty silly and strange when you think about it.

 

[hlm666]

For anyone else using ms/kb the last patch added an option to the camera options to disable automatic camera adjustment which stop the game turning the camera slowly as you strafe left/right. I used mods in the older dark souls games and sekiro to fix this but had avoided it with elden ring incase it could trigger a ban. Between this and actual key prompts options the controls are in a reasonable state now.

 

[Northeastmonk]

What an odd video. He goes over fall damage, summons, and etc. like Jerry Seinfeld. “What’s the deal with fall damage?”.

 

[V4skunk]

What's the weapons you like for that

Great sword, and gargoyle black blade so far.
My char is like 55 str and I'm starting to pump up faith to around 40.

 

[V4skunk]

Any tips for defeating Placidusax Dragon Lord? i am stuck.

Shoot it with poison arrows as soon as you enter the boss room. This is the dragon sleeping in the air right? Easy to cheese.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

Truly dont understand this game sometimes.....any other time i can see summon signs everywhere by a boss door to help me, yet tonight not one in sight either at the boss door for the dirty cock sucker Godfrey or even at the summon pool all the way back at the site of grace.

So ill try again tomorrow i guess and see if the game wants to play fair again.

 

[DelireMan7]

Beat Maliketh and Dragonlord Placidusax (just realize it sounds funny in french xD) !

I had this item that suppose to help for Maliketh. I try many times but I just got killed each time. I check online and it's suppose to allow a special parry on some attacks but I never succeed so I beat him without.
Cool design but its behavior is a bit too chaotic behavior, especially when he can go through the pillars of the room with his huge spinning attack...

I love Placidusax ! I would say one of the best, maybe the best, Dragon boss in the souls. The second phase is so incredible. You really feel that this dragon is THE Dragonlord.

Also I finally replace my Magma Wyrm's Scalesword, which is my faithful companion since 100 hours minimum, with Maliketh's Black blade. Really cool looking weapon art and awesome STR/FAI scaling that finally outmatch my Scalesword. I also love the running attack animation where you the blade sliding on the ground before hitting.

By the look of the next area, it sounds I am almost at the end of my journey !

 

[MadPanda]

I made great progress last knight. Beat Mohg which is so far my favorite boss in the game and finally beat Niall using branches, which is among my least favorite bosses in the game.

 

[draliko]

Finally beat the game yesterday... i had to farm quite a bit since I'm not so good at souls, but in the end was a memorable journey. Elden beast seemed easier after patch, maybe i had a lucky run dunno, I'm glad I'm finally done with it... now I'll wait a bit before a ng+... souls fatigue is kicking in...

 

[Badlucktroll]

Shoot it with poison arrows as soon as you enter the boss room. This is the dragon sleeping in the air right? Easy to cheese.

For sure. I used both poison and rot arrows to make it go faster.

 

[GermanZepp]

I defeated Morgot last night. First try. i was OP, sadly. With this game is one or the other -the boss crush you or you smoke them.

 

[nightmare-slain]

I defeated Morgot last night. First try. i was OP, sadly. With this game is one or the other -the boss crush you or you smoke them.

for me it was smoke them. the only bosses to give me any bother were the twin gargoyles + commander neill (?). well, to be fair, towards the end i summoned help lol. malenia i definitely wouldn't have managed on my own. the final bosses i could've probably beat if i had more patience but i was too frustrated and wanted the game to end. 99% of the bosses in catacombs/caves were far too easy.

i think while the open world adds a lot it can make the game too easy if you try to do everything. you need to find a balance. if i replay it then i'll be focusing on progressing the story more instead of going to explore.

 

[Crownttano]

GOOD MORNING you big joystick packing Tarnished individuals

Some Spark Aromatic today?!

 

[Sgt.Asher]

I've been enjoying helping out at the halig tree. Lots of runes to be gained (better than farming) and hitting those jar cannon invaders is so fun (seems most don't expect it).

 

[MagnesD3]

GOOD MORNING you big joystick packing Tarnished individuals

Some Spark Aromatic today?!

I love the perfume bottles, I hope they are expanded upon, they are super cool.

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

Me when I go to congratulate my Spirit Summon after a tough Boss Fight

 

[LaughingStock]

I love enemies that just move too fast, spam attacks non stop and have very large AoE attacks. They are so much fun.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I love enemies that just move too fast, spam attacks non stop and have very large AoE attacks. They are so much fun.

But the game is so easy! /s

 

[thefool]

You guys probably answered this several times, but does this run well on a ps4?

 

[GermanZepp]

But the game is so easy! /s

I was talking to a friend last week. I was saying the "features" of some enemies.

*Lot fasters that the player.
*Non stop spam of some attacks/magic.
*delayed attacks
*Very long range.
*Imput reading.
*Lock on and tracking in mid air.
*Long combos that drain all stamina.
*Teleports.
*Healing.
*Some attacks on the same enemie can be cancelled others not.
*Unblockable attacks.
*Buffs.

I´m ok with these, it adds variety BUT sometimes several of these features combines in a single enemie type and becomes a chore to fight in a mano a mano style, (for me the most fun way) i like exchanging some hits, and now and then use some ash of war and magic for range.

 

[TheDuskwalker]

You guys probably answered this several times, but does this run well on a ps4?

If you've played the other FromSoft games on PS4 you know what to expect. It's pretty good, better than Bloodborne performance wise, not quite as good as DS3.

Only issue on PS4 is if there is too many enemies on screen at once in the open world, to keep framerate from totally dying, they lower frames of enemies, so they go Jason and the Argonauts on you. It's kind of funny. Minor thing though, usually only happens in the spots where a lot of fodder soliders are guarding something. Only 2 severe instances I recall.

 

[Hoho for breakfast]

I dont like how they nerf and buff stuff so I never know what I should spec for later. And that's my justification for doing the cliff jump rune farm lol. Going to make sure I have enough of each stat to use whatever weapon I want for the most part without a respec. Anyone else a filthy casual cheater like me? I'm 75% through the game and now I just want to be able to wreck everything and use whatever I want. That bitch will never see it coming!

Currently at 55 Vigor, 48 strength, 49 Dex, 33 Endurance and everything else is too low right now. Going to take my Faith up to 24 next for Sword of Night and Flame and Blasphemous Blade. I guess I'll still have to respec if I want any given weapon to actually be strong though. Annoying!

 

[ssringo]

My boss at work is a gamer and decided to see what all the hubbub was about (never tried Souls before). It's been interesting listening to his hot takes on the game (that he's barely played). But I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him describe deciding to attack Varre out the gate and getting his shit absolutely wrecked. Then spawning at the grace and getting wrecked while he's still spawning in. "The game's still loading asshole, chill out!"

Also, he died to the first "boss" of the game. No no. Not Margit. The soldier.

 

[iQuasarLV]

Imo Malina is the result of the ritual that happened on the night of the black knives, burned refers to rannis crispy corpse and Bodyless refers to godwyns soul being permanently removed from his body or "destroyed".

She and rannis eyes that are locked/mirror and rannis spirit face looks the same as Malinas, at the end of the frenzied flame you also see Malina with a white eye, the only time a character with a white eye was given importance was at the very beginning when godwyn the golden dies. (I'm also confident that the frenzied flame is the Canon ending)

Melina doesn't remember her purpose until she gets closer to the erd tree where her "mother" resides and to be a spirit as she is means she probably died, we know that the demigods that are dead of marikas lot are ranni and godwyn, the game implies no one else's death. Malinas hair is pink, we have never seen ranni not crispy but her father was radagon who's passes on his red hair to radaun, and godwyns hair is white, so pink would be the combo.

Ranni has a bell that belonged to torrents last owner whose name she conveniently doesn't mention but the way its spoken about it seems like this is something that is very strange like torrent hasn't been seen for quite some time, I believe torrent belonged to godwyn along time ago and this event was strange enough that ranni had to investigate but she is careful using a cover name due to her notoriety she most likely doesn't come out from her safety in the manor, this was probably very risky and important for her but it seemed she had a promise to keep.

Don't get me wrong malina is vague enough it could be something else but these small things really add up for me in this direction especially with how important ranni, godwyn and Malina are to the main story. I even wonder about the deathbird God magic potentially being involved in the ritual of that night with the death rune, due to the crow eye marks on ranni/malinas eyes and the fact they were in charge of death before the erdtree took over. Maybe in the eyes of the erdtree godwyns soul is dead since it may never return back to it to be recycled and reborn but outside of that it does still exist because the great tree existed far before the erd tree/elden rings mess.
I've even heard from someone else on about this theory that malina is a rememberance of thier body and soul which I could see work too.

Bonus, her name starting with M also follows the name trend for demigod kids birthed by Radagon and Marika (Melania/Miquella) because Godwyns mother is Marika and Rannis Father is Radagon allowing it to work.

It is an interesting theory.

However, it has a lot of holes against presented lore and a bit of stretching the logic to be a cohesive theory.
For this to work:
1. Fia's quest story would have to be invalidated. The whole "Those who live in death" cult would have to be invalidated.
2. Godwyn would have to plot armor destined death presented by the death rune. Meaning Ranni lost her body completely, but Godwyn's soul is somehow immune to the cost of completing the ritual. Also, wouldn't he just return to his body that still exists instead of possessing Melina?
3. Melina says she was born under the Erd tree to her mother, but does not clearly state she is returning to her, so Merika would have to be still controlling events from her imprisonment by the Greater Will and Radagon.
4. For her hair to be pink and work in this theory, she was birthed by Radagon and Godwyn which one is a demigod and not an actual god and both beings are male. It also goes against her being Merika's daughter with Godwyn's soul inside.
5. If Torrent ONLY comes out when you as a Tarnished shows up it means Torrent already knew you were most likely going to be Elden Lord, which begs to present that is was more like Godfry's mount instead of Godwyn's as Godwyn was never a Lord but Torrent only had two riders. You and someone else.

At this point I could see Malina being born from the power vacuum that Merika left when the Elden Ring was shattered and the formless mother or the deathbird god could have birthed her using the existing power of the Erd Tree. I am holding out until DLC fleshes more of the lore out to go one way or the other about Melina. All cards are on the table for me.

Like I opened with, it IS an interesting theory that could work if certain conditions are met.

 

[MagnesD3]

It is an interesting theory.

However, it has a lot of holes against presented lore and a bit of stretching the logic to be a cohesive theory.
For this to work:
1. Fia's quest story would have to be invalidated. The whole "Those who live in death" cult would have to be invalidated.
2. Godwyn would have to plot armor destined death presented by the death rune. Meaning Ranni lost her body completely, but Godwyn's soul is somehow immune to the cost of completing the ritual. Also, wouldn't he just return to his body that still exists instead of possessing Melina?
3. Melina says she was born under the Erd tree to her mother, but does not clearly state she is returning to her, so Merika would have to be still controlling events from her imprisonment by the Greater Will and Radagon.
4. For her hair to be pink and work in this theory, she was birthed by Radagon and Godwyn which one is a demigod and not an actual god and both beings are male. It also goes against her being Merika's daughter with Godwyn's soul inside.
5. If Torrent ONLY comes out when you as a Tarnished shows up it means Torrent already knew you were most likely going to be Elden Lord, which begs to present that is was more like Godfry's mount instead of Godwyn's as Godwyn was never a Lord but Torrent only had two riders. You and someone else.

At this point I could see Malina being born from the power vacuum that Merika left when the Elden Ring was shattered and the formless mother or the deathbird god could have birthed her using the existing power of the Erd Tree. I am holding out until DLC fleshes more of the lore out to go one way or the other about Melina. All cards are on the table for me.

Like I opened with, it IS an interesting theory that could work if certain conditions are met.

I'll address your points.

1. Why would it be invalidated, the "prince of death" still "lives" Godwyns Immortal empty vessel is still there, fia doesn't care about godwyn soul (or godwyn really) from what I recall, only the bloated carcus left behind and what it can do for those living in death.

2. Godwyns body lost its soul forever like rannis soul lost its body forever, so the costs are fully in tact. The soul doesn't return to its body due to the ritual, it will never go to the erdtree through its natural process of rebirthing souls again.

3. Yes I believe Marika is very aware of all that took place on the night if the black knives potentially orchestrating the entire thing, the black knives women were close to her after all. Heck godwyn may have even been told what was going to happen to him by Marika before the ritual would commence as the firstborn he may have accepted the burden to spare his siblings or he was the most trusted in marikas eyes, I'm not sure this could have gone several ways. I imagine he was told though since malina is trying to remember the purpose her mother gave her, a rebirth of the soul would likely make her forget.

4. To me this is kind of one of those silly technicality issues, it could be that godwyns soul is what makes rannis hair become a lighter (via his white/golden hair) shade of red and the soul is of marikas offspring making her marikas child for the name scheme. I'm not saying it works like the real world, obviously it's some spiritual made up bull that would only make sense in a fiction narrative with things like a person who is two people that have kids together(aka Marika and radigon) so this isn't farfetched at all to me.

5. Hmm yeah that definitely could be a possibility, all I know is that whoever torrents previous owner is a huge key in solving this.

Oh yeah there's still so much room for anything really, it's been left extremely vague and open by design. Hopefully the dlc will help give us more clues.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I have Renallas rune and godricks, and redhans and it isn’t letting me get into leyndell. I am on a second run going for the bolt of gransax. Did leyndell access bug the fuck out on me? Are there any workarounds? I also didn't visit roundtable hold in my second playthrough yet. Just went straight for Leyndell. Could that be it?

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I have Renallas rune and godricks, and redhans and it isn’t letting me get into leyndell. I am on a second run going for the bolt of gransax. Did leyndell access bug the fuck out on me? Are there any workarounds? I also didn't visit roundtable hold in my second playthrough yet. Just went straight for Leyndell. Could that be it?

How is it preventing you from getting into Leyndall? Is the seal still there blocking entrance after you fight the sentinel? You can also get there from underground.

 

[names are for friends]

Anyone replayed any of the souls after this?
I defeated Malenia ad everything. 90 hours. Mixed feelings. For sure GOTY so far but I have so many issues with the game, annoying boss design and bloat/boss repeat.
I like the game but I feel it's inferior to the trilogy tight pacing and balance.

Yeah, I replayed every modern From game (ie. from Demon's on) after two runs of Elden Ring— I'm glad I did because prior to that I was worried that I was becoming a tired old man incapable of appreciating things. Not that I didn't enjoy Elden Ring, but it's not on par IMO with previous games. Too much running around doing mediocre content, plus after Stormveil the legacy dungeon level design is VERY spotty, and the bosses were definitely designed with spirit summons in mind.

I really wish they'd done more with the open world design. As it is there's no danger to travel so long as you stay on the horse. And I think they could have used more Lift of Dectus style blockades with multiple routes around, so that we would have more of a unique route through the world.

 

[Badlucktroll]

How is it preventing you from getting into Leyndall? Is the seal still there blocking entrance after you fight the sentinel? You can also get there from underground.

The seal is still there after i fought the sentinel. I have 3 runes, one of them activated. Someone told me i have to go to roundtable hold to talk to the finger reader so the barrier drops. I will try that. I just blasted through without visiting roundtable hold at all.

 

[Huevos de Oro]

Didn't know my mans Alexander was packin' thunda.

 

[DelireMan7]

And it's done !

Finish it yesterday after 190 hours at RL 169. My final setup :

(End game boss' name) Godfrey, the first Elden Lord is, without contest, the best boss of the game for me. And most probably in the Top 3 of the Soulsborne franchise. It's a "traditional Souls boss" (à la Artorias, Gael...) : agressive with clear pattern to identify. And his design is fucking badass ! And that phase 2.... Amazing. Such a pleasure to fight this kind of boss (which are quite rare in Elden Ring I must say).

Then (End game boss's name) Radagon was a bit annoying at first because the animations were not so clear (intentionally to increase the difficulty, I felt). Then I got used to it and it was a cool combat.

The last boss is pure pain and annoyance. Cool looking design but... Most annoying boss of the game, might crack Top 3 of most annoying boss of the whole franchise.
It just kept running away on the other side to the HUUUUUUGE arena and rain down spells on me. When he's fed up : let's fly and unleashed a HUUUUUGE AoE.
I got it finally because on one fight he decided to move very little and stay melee.


In the end a truly amazing game. It blasted all the expectations I had for it.
Amazing and diverse enemy design, truly amazing level design on main "dungeons" (Stormveil, Raya Lucaria, Leyndell, the sewers, Farum Azula...) with a lot of verticality using the jump mechanics and loooots of stuff to explore and find, extensive questline that intertwined with one and other...

It's not without flaws of course : lots of minor side content that can be repetitive, the size of the game can make the quest difficult to follow (several dozens hours of not seeing a NPC to suddenly find it again, I was like "What was the beginning of your quest again ?"), some design repetition on the bosses and some bosses are really chaotic and ultra agressive with little opening (not really a problem for me but when it's too chaotic, I really don't like it, Maliketh is a good example of that)

Still a masterpiece but I prefer the Dark Souls or Bloodborne formula. Smaller area with a strong design philosophy on gameplay.
Elden Ring is all about adaptability and flexibility, and lot of bosses are design around that. I prefere the Dark Souls 1 approach were you choose a direction for your build and have to stick with it.
Here you can easily change your build for each boss, with the Ashes of war, spirit summoning and different items you can craft.

I might start another character and focus on lore and few questlines. Now that I know the world and events of quests, I can go pretty quickly to the end of the game.

 

[balls of snow]

Someone said that area isn't available until later in the game. Is that true?

Do Varre questline and invade 3 people. Able to get to the area once you reach Liurnia.



Reading about the Merchant race and what happens below Lyndell was a trip. This and Selene questline legit creep me out.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I was talking to a friend last week. I was saying the "features" of some enemies.

*Lot fasters that the player.
*Non stop spam of some attacks/magic.
*delayed attacks
*Very long range.
*Imput reading.
*Lock on and tracking in mid air.
*Long combos that drain all stamina.
*Teleports.
*Healing.
*Some attacks on the same enemie can be cancelled others not.
*Unblockable attacks.
*Buffs.

I´m ok with these, it adds variety BUT sometimes several of these features combines in a single enemie type and becomes a chore to fight in a mano a mano style, (for me the most fun way) i like exchanging some hits, and now and then use some ash of war and magic for range.

FS might as well make a Dragon Ball game at this point, ’cuz they already went full DBZ with the bosses in Elden Ring. Margit/Morgot, Mohg, Radahn, Radagon and especially Godfrey are pure DBZ bosses, down to the “let me get rid of this stuff weighing me down” cutscenes and “this isn’t even my final form” shit. Most spells are heavily inspired by DBZ stuff too, like Stars of Ruin, Ranni’s Moon or Inescapable Frenzy. Mix up a couple enemies or three (they don’t even have to be main story bosses) and you literally get Frieza. No wonder the dragons are mostly easy in comparison, lol.

 

[SJRB]

I was talking to a friend last week. I was saying the "features" of some enemies.

*Lot fasters that the player.
*Non stop spam of some attacks/magic.
*delayed attacks
*Very long range.
*Imput reading.
*Lock on and tracking in mid air.
*Long combos that drain all stamina.
*Teleports.
*Healing.
*Some attacks on the same enemie can be cancelled others not.
*Unblockable attacks.
*Buffs.

I´m ok with these, it adds variety BUT sometimes several of these features combines in a single enemie type and becomes a chore to fight in a mano a mano style, (for me the most fun way) i like exchanging some hits, and now and then use some ash of war and magic for range.

Thing that annoys me the most is enemies with infinite mana pools. Magic spamming assholes in the Academy or the Library suck.

 

[FunkMiller]

FS might as well make a Dragon Ball game at this point, ’cuz they already went full DBZ with the bosses in Elden Ring. Margit/Morgot, Mohg, Radahn, Radagon and especially Godfrey are pure DBZ bosses, down to the “let me get rid of this stuff weighing me down” cutscenes and “this isn’t even my final form” shit. Most spells are heavily inspired by DBZ stuff too, like Stars of Ruin, Ranni’s Moon or Inescapable Frenzy. Mix up a couple enemies or three (they don’t even have to be main story bosses) and you literally get Frieza. No wonder the dragons are mostly easy in comparison, lol.

Has to be said, I’m finding the two stage, cut scene boss fights to be getting pretty tedious at this stage. Okay, have them unleash more attacks once half health, but my eyes were rolling out of my head every time the fight grinds to a halt for a cut scene, before continuing. The final boss of the game obviously being the worst example of this kind of thing.

 

[draliko]

After beating the game and being the honeymoon phase over i must say I hope it doesn't get a sequel and from moves back to more linear style. The pacing isn't the best and i preferred ds3 way more. More time passes and more i love nioh formula, wish they move in a similar direction, a non japan setting nioh would be fantastic

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

Had a great session last night! Took out Godfrey and Morgott!!! As much as it pisses me off sometimes, i love this game!

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Have been making some nice progress. REALLY loved Ainsel River part. Now back to that Deep Root place =)

 

[Crownttano]

Tried a bit of O, Flame last night. Been so long since I used it I can't tell how much it's been buffed


And just for the hell of it

 

[skneogaf]

Anyone know how I could buy one of the life size Malenia blade of Miquella statues I've seen in pictures?

There seems to be quite a few in the world.

 

[tommib]

Tried a bit of O, Flame last night. Been so long since I used it I can't tell how much it's been buffed


And just for the hell of it

Can you explain to me what’s happening on that first gif? I tried to kill that bastard for hours and gave up. And you one shot it? Bloody hell.

 

[kevm3]

After beating the game and being the honeymoon phase over i must say I hope it doesn't get a sequel and from moves back to more linear style. The pacing isn't the best and i preferred ds3 way more. More time passes and more i love nioh formula, wish they move in a similar direction, a non japan setting nioh would be fantastic

Yea I don't feel the open world adds much to the game. I prefer the more linear style due to the 'constant tension'. I do feel Volcano Manor in this game is one of best areas in any souls game and feels like 'classic souls'. I want more Volcano Manor and less of the other filler.

If they are going to continue with open world, then they'll have to do some things to make it more interesting because you realize the game is broken into regions, but each region, aside from looks, doesn't feel that much different from the other. Finding the secret entrance to Caelid and seeing this amazing, alien looking world was mindblowing at first until I rode around for a while and realize I never did anything that unique there.

I think the problem with open world is that it gives the game an MMO type of feel where most enemies on the open world are not really that dangerous unless you choose to interact with them. You can simply get on your horse and ride away from danger.

The best part of the open world is the exploration and 'finding a new area', until you realize that most of the regions are extremely formulaic. They each might have a couple of unique areas like a Volcano manor, but a lot of the rest is just filler content that all the other areas have as well.

You have those above ground ruins typically with a staircase down that holds some treasure chest, you have catacombs that either have those chariot things or you have those that have a locked boss door by the entrance where you have to explore a small dungeon to hit the switch, you have an evergaol, etc.

I also think they need to go back to making boss fights 'balanced'. The bosses are ultra fast, have a massive moveset, input track, have infinite stamina, rotate to always face your characters, etc. It's like these bosses were designed for Sekiro or Bloodborne, while you are stuck with the clunky Dark Souls moveset. I don't really find the boss fights 'fun' but more of a chore. The commander niahl fight pretty much involved me waiting for him to do that jumping electric attack and waiting for the brief moment to attack and getting a slice in and doing this for 30 minutes.

I've been replaying Dark Souls 2 and that game feels much more balanced in terms of boss fights. Not every boss is ultrafast with 8 hit flurries. You can actually rotate around the bosses, so positioning matters. Shields are actually USEFUL because enemies don't blow through your stamina with hit 3 of 8 in their combo. Bows are actually useful because they deal decent damage, especially if you have high dexterity. Boss fights in Elden Ring end up feeling very similar because they usually revolve around you rolling, rolling, rolling and occasionally blocking the bosses nonstop combos and huge AOE spams and getting a hit in and repeating the cycle over and over until they are done.

Some of the bosses get difficult to the extent that build variation becomes almost nonexistent. Most players end up with something like Moonveil or Rivers of Blood and you're doing a bleed build or some overpowered magic build. I had a friend that started off with a strength build and guess where he ended up? Rivers of blood and high bleed damage build.

I also think it's time for From Software to stop shying away from actual towns and storylines that you engage in directly.

 

[Spaceman292]

but my eyes were rolling out of my head every time the fight grinds to a halt for a cut scene, before continuing.

But these are the coolest parts of the games. Ludwig, O and S, Nameless King, Godfrey...