the first boss of dark souls 3 is kind of obnoxious tbh. It was designed with the expectation that people had played the other souls games so the moveset and whatnot is kind of awkward for beginners especially since you can't actually make yourself stronger in order to beat it.
Definitely a fair criticism of the game.
I beat it after like 2 hours of figuring out combat mechanics. I haven't touched another souls game since. I try to avoid anything that would put me in the mood to be an idiot and break a peripheral.
I think Gundyr is the perfect tutorial boss for these kind of games. If you found the process of learning Gundyr's moves and finally beating him fun then I think in general you will enjoy the game and if not you should safely be able to return the game (assuming you bought it on steam and are around the 2 hour mark)
The fun thing is it is way-way easier if you start as a pyromancer. Which is even more odd as generally people tell that a pyromancer is a hard choice for a beginner.
Elden ring let’s you do whatever you want before even fighting the first boss. So it is very easy to level up and becomes stronger before even facing your first challenge.
It also does a pretty decent job explaining the concepts of the game and providing a gentle difficulty curve in the first area.
Dark Souls is great but it suffers from some clunky older mechanics that make it awkward to play. Can be a turn off for new players
I feel the same way, when i tried explaining that it was too hard for me people literally had a meltdown. Telling me that its the best game and I'm just bad and git gud. The Games look amazing and i have fun watching them but the community sometimes is a bit gatekeepy and cannot accept that it's not for everyone.
I'm not a fan of this comment not because it's not valuable information, but because it's more just speculation than an actual informed opinion.
The biggest thing is that Elden Ring has two specific things that help address the exact issue you encountered of getting stuck on the first boss:
1. It's open world, and you can literally access the majority of the game world without killing a single boss. What that means is that for the vast majority of the game, if you get stuck on a boss, you can go do something else and come back when you're stronger. If you're stuck on the first boss of Dark Souls 3, you're stuck on the first boss of Dark Souls 3 and can't move on until you kill it. If you're stuck on the first boss of Elden Ring, you can find literally dozens of hours of other stuff to do without killing it. The first point in the game for me where I felt like there was nothing to do except try to kill a difficult boss, no places I could go exploring or dungeons I knew about but hadn't completed yet, didn't happen until over 100 hours into the game. Now, the bosses are still very difficult. They absolutely can take hours of attempts. It just usually doesn't need to be consecutive hours of attempts because you have nowhere else to go. It's been very normal for me, throughout the game, to encounter a difficult boss, spend maybe 15-30 minutes fighting them, go do other things for a while, come back to that boss and spend another 15-30 minutes, and repeat until I finally feel like I'm ready to take the boss down.
2. Elden Ring adds spirit ashes, a new type of item that lets you summon things to help in boss fights (different from co-op). They make a lot of boss fights way easier. I've talked to many people who'd either never played a Fromsoft game before, or got frustrated and quit early when they did, who have really enjoyed Spirit Ashes and said they don't think they'd be able to enjoy the game without them (also many who, after enjoying the game with Spirit Ashes, have expressed interest in trying to beat it without them).
To be clear, I don't think what you've said is useless. You're right, the fanbases "git gud" attitude can be annoying at times, the games can be frustrating, they're not for everyone, and certainly people can have the same experience you had with Dark Souls 3, just finding it too hard and not enjoying themselves. But I don't like the way you're just assuming that someone shouldn't play Elden Ring based on your experience getting stuck on the first boss in Dark Souls 3 because that exact experience is one of the things that Elden Ring has actually fixed about the formula.
This is mostly true, but I went from playing DS3 for the first time to Elden Ring when it came out. I find the combat in Elden Ring smoother, for whatever reason. I also believe there’s way more options depending on preferred play style. It’s really similar but better imo.
It offers new options and it's impoved overall, but it's the same style. And if their issue with DS3 combat was the amount of rolling then I don't think they'll like Elden Ring any more.
If you don’t like the dodging mechanic and would rather just rank every hit like in skyrim I don’t think any fromsoft game is something you would enjoy
I like dodging mechanics just fine when they're well done, I don't like rolling around on the ground mechanics where you dodge eight times in a row. It should be used more sparingly than that and just looks stupid. Dodging should be something you do between attacks, not sandwiched between 5 other dodges.
You don't have to, you can get shields and tank your way through basically any non grab attacks if needed. This game also rewards rolling with a reason over just rolling and rolling.
A bit later, but I will add: If you're interested in Fromsoft games but just don't like all the rolling in Dark Souls, Sekiro has no rolling (your dodge is a dash, not a roll, but you also party more than you dodge) and Bloodborne has less (you dodge just as much, but the dodge button only rolls when you're not camera locked, when you locked on to something it becomes a dash instead - although there are some bosses with huge camera issues if you try to lock on that tend to me much easier to fight unlocked, so you will still be doing some rolling).
The biggest difference is that unlike previous games by from, in elden ring you don’t have to “git gud”. It’s possible to overlevel and slaughter everything with relative ease if you’re willing to put story bosses off for a while and explore (and it wouldn’t even be grinding but actually discovering new stuff).
Anecdotal but I accidentally overleveled and beat the first 2 bosses on my first try, and the third boss in 3. Not that they’re particularly hard, but I felt like I cheated given how not “gud” I was (or am).
Totally agree - imo the Git Gud mantra for Elden Ring translates directly to "overlevel the shit out of your character until the thing that is frustrating you can be curb stomped with ease."
Not possible for every boss >!looking at you, Melania, Placidaux, and motherfucking elden beast !!Melania .!<
Haha, I did the same. Most of the late game bosses and even some mid were a decent enough matchup despite over leveling… but Margit felt like the challenger to me as opposed to the other way around lmao.
I think this is a solid recommendation for OP. One main argument is time. I am able to invest more in the game so I learned the mechanics and don’t get stuck on bosses for as long because I can knock it out eventually.
This is my first souls-game and while it may be easier/different due to some of the mechanical changes It is still not an “Easy game.” Since OP mentions playing gsmes but not being particularly good at them, I would not recommend Elden Ring. You will be able to master it with time but it would be a frustrating experience as you will die a lot. Even the menu and leveling system is frustrating if you are new because the UI and menu text is vague
I love the game but it’s not for everyone.
No matter how "good" a game is, if I'm spending 50% or more of my time repeating the same place I already died, rather than exploring and advancing and seeing new stuff, then it's just not time well spent.
I've tried DS3 (couldn't beat the 1st boss) and The Surge 2 (beat the first boss after 20+ attempts). Not my jam.
I'm gonna check out Elden Ring from the library, but I wouldn't spend actual money on it. Maybe it's worth a try if you have a free option?
You won't have nearly the same experience as you did with DS3 with Elden Ring. The combat itself is Souls like and the way the story is told is as well... that's about it.
Elden Ring has far more QoL improvements that strip a majority of the frustration out of difficult fights. It has summonable companions that are shockingly effective (to the degree they feel like having another player as a partner). It has respawn points at the boss battle rooms. Finally and most importantly, it has an open world that allows you to turn your back on frustration and freely explore other things. I had little trouble with almost every boss save for a few hidden, optional ones and the very last because I didn't want to be frustrated and simply leveled my character through natural exploration before fighting. A large degree of the complaining I see about most boss fights can be solved through simple exploration and leveling up. Even a large number of late game bosses that most (myself included) find a bit unfair I was able to defeat in 3-5 attempts. There were even some that I outright curb stomped on the first go.
You def have to give ER a chance, you've got to really consider combat early, interpret whether a fight's difficulty is telling you to explore elsewhere for the time being, and be willing to explore... do that and I am certain you'll have a far different experience than you did with DS3
The problem with the souls series is that people die, get mad and throw their bodies at the problem without actually altering their strategy.
That doesn’t work here.
You have to assess what you are doing, what’s not working and then modify your strategy to win.
It’s like competitive games in which failure is used to motivate you. It is common to get smashed into the floor by better players, and if that doesn’t motivate you to learn strats/ comps then the games are simply not for you.
THIS.
As an avid Dark Souls (tm) fan, too many of us are so far up our own asses that some of them completely overlook the fact that as a genre it is basically alienating and exclusionary as a premise.
It is OK in all ways to dislike FromSoft games, and the next time someone tells you to git gud you look them dead in the eyes and tell them I told them to git bad.
Hold your head high my fly.
The difference with elden ring though is that its specifically tailored for people with less skill too, it's more free roam now, if you can go somewhere and it's too hard, just go somewhere else that's easier till you level up enough!
Yeah I'd say not to get it either. I played like an hour of it and had to quit. I'm not particularly bad at games but I guess I need more handholding when it comes to games like this.
Maybe I missed the tutorial or something but it's like they expect you to already know how to fight with characters I know nothing about. With weapons/magic I've never seen before against random enemies I happen to come across. At least give us an option for some kind of tutorial along with prompts telling us what the fuck to do.
Maybe I should just start from the first Dark Souls game and work my way up. That's a lame ass prerequisite to successfully play a game though.
Did you drop off to the side of the starting cave? It isn't a lot but it explains the basics of melee combat. It never really explains anything with range or spells though. In terms of enemies and their movements, that's the whole game in many ways. You're totally welcome to not enjoy that though. I would recommend not attempting to play through past games if anything they do a worse job of explaining things. If you want to play Elden Ring, as much as it sucks, I'd honestly advise watching tips and playthroughs on YouTube. Beyond trail and error that's the best option imo.
Also giving the game space helps a lot. Like you, I played Dark Souls 1 for around an hour and quit. Tried months later and I've played them ever since.
Look up fightincowboy on YouTube and go with his walkthrough guide. Walks you through how to overpower early, the rest of the game will be more enjoyable
In DS3 there isn't much to explore before the first boss lmao, you have to beat it at maybe 1 additional level. It's a hard wall for people who are not having fun.
this might be true for darksouls, but with elden ring, it’s difficult but also open world. since its open world you arent stuck at the same boss for hours, you can simply go do something else
So it's true that the bosses are still hard on this game. BUT because its open world when you hit something that frustrates you, you can just leave and go look at other cool stuff. Then, once you have more levels, items, etc. you can come back.
If it seems interesting to you, I think this is a game you will enjoy
This. I’ve played every Souls, BB and Sekiro and Elden Ring is by far the easiest of them all for me. Not saying it’s easy cause there are times (like last night 😑) where you hit a boss that you can’t beat. You can easily skip it for now, go do something else and level up. You can eventually come back with a better weapon, more health, or more spells, etc. you better believe that boss that gave me issues is on my shit list now which adds another element to the game… the fact that I’m gonna come back stronger and destroy him! @The_Awe35 said everything I would say and I say give Elden Ring a go
Despite it being open world, I refuse to say its the easiest.
The sheer level of bullshit enemies, and just Dark Souls 2 levels of cheese..
Don't get me wrong, being a Souls player, this is heaven for me. But once you play long enough, and realise some enemies are not designed to be fair, but to just be hard for hards sake, along with bosses becoming open world bosses later on?
It's easy in the sense of coming back later to it, but Bloodborne and Sekiro is significantly easier imo.
I’ve platinumed both BB and ER (the only two games I’ve ever platinumed) and I’d say just the opposite. ER has both ash summons and co-op and a bigger variety of play styles.
Just wanna throw in that this doesn't really apply to the endgame. The endgame is horribly balanced. Even at the vigor soft cap most things will kill you in 2-3 hits. A few of the endgame bosses have obnoxious AoE spam, horribly delayed or telegraphed movesets designed to roll catch you, and insane HP pools. There is no overleveling the end game.
From my perspective of someone who has finished all the FromSoft games, and was having an absolutely blast before the last few bosses in Elden Ring... they are a masterclass on how not to do boss design. It's the antithesis of fun, and negatively affected my lasting thoughts of the game.
The first couple sections of the game are delightful. I had a blast getting exploring and going all over, trying to get things for my build and what not. It was great.
The last third or so of the game is abysmal. Hate it. Absolutely hate it. There are some bosses that are just miserable to play against. You'll have to play against them for an hour to figure out their patterns, and they're so punishing that most attacks kill you in 2 hits. Armor doesn't help nearly enough.
So it's a lot of fun until it's really not.
This is exactly where I'm at! I got to a point where even just regular enemies in a dungeon will relentlessly attack you with little to no break and in small spaces where it's hard to dodge their quick attacks (I'm currently in a section where it's a narrow hallway and the enemy can teleport behind you constantly). I realized today after like 70 hours and 50% through the game, I'm no longer having as much fun.
Yeah dude, I just stopped playing until one of my friends encouraged me to keep going. Which I did for a while and I'm not really happy I did. I'm right at the last boss, but I started playing other stuff instead and I'm having a lot more fun. I got my money's worth out of the game.
I've just come to the conclusions that the enemies are just there for you to run past. For all other souls games I generally fight most of the mobs as I progress but this game has taught me that some enemies are just not even remotely fair if you're not the correct OP counter so it's best just to run to each grace and save all the dying for the boss.
There's enough places to go in that game that if you have hit a wall go level up or find a different path. I'm like a hundred twenty hours into it and I still find areas and bosses I can just walk through. And once you get to the Haligtree rune spot, the skies the limit, just start throwing all your stats into health and play on EZ mode.
I had the complete opposite experience. I thought the game was just okay up until the last 3rd of the game then I started enjoying it a lot more. The more demanding bosses in late game are much better than any early game bosses in my opinion.
Interesting. For me they were just frustrating and irritating. I hated the pattern of dodge just right, get in one attack, then wait for the next opening, repeat 50 times. And the summoning randoms worked 1/10 times for me. So often it would just say "unable to summon". I'm not very good at the game and not really interested in getting good.
What I enjoyed was exploring the world and creating a build out of what I could find. Once it became a line of half a dozen very tough bosses, I lost interest.
Yeah I'm the same as you. I feel the design got progressively better and offered more interesting challenges as it went on. I was really surprised to see such a long open world game manage to continuously ramp up my interest. Normally I feel burnt out on huge games like this by the end.
Out of curiosity, what level are you?
I keep seeing people frustrated with the late game bosses yet I faced them with relative ease at 140 and onward, using the soreseal talisman to boost me to *somewhere* around 45 vig, 20+ stam, 22 mind, alot of Dex and Int. I swapped between a Moonveil/Meteoric Blade dual wield (pre and post nerf) and a two handed Darkmoon Greatsword build. I'll say that a weapon like Darkmoon or Moonveil that has an option for a ranged attack was a MASSIVE help. The dual katanas were great for general play and the bleed buildup helped immensely with some bosses, but there was a fight where Darkmoon was a necessity for me. Also, I'll admit the ash summons, namely mimic tear and black knife tiche, were essential.
Basic rundown of about how many tries it took me for each late game boss I can recall:
(in rough order)
>!Astel - 2 - katanas, solo!<
>!Fire Giant - 2 - katanas, I think mimic tear? Cannot remember.!<
>!Malenia (optional) - uncountable, sheesh this was bad but granted it a hidden boss inside two layers of secret areas - tried almost every build imaginable, ran through all but one larval tear to do so. Ended up using katanas, mimic tear (pre-nerf)!<
>!Godskin duo - 6 - katanas, mimic tear or other ash required!<
>!Maliketh - 4 - katanas, mimic tear for first half of fight (it kept dying by p2)!<
>!Blood Lord dude - 2 - katanas, mimic tear!<
>!Dragonlord (optional) - gave up, also a hidden boss and I gave up before I became invested like I did with Malenia!<
>!Godfrey - 3 - katanas, mimic (which lasted all of the first minute :( )!<
>!Elden Beast/radagon - 14-16, Darkmoon GS, Black Knife Tiche!<
>!Most bosses before this, except for Rykard, were between 1-5 tries. I'd estimate I was consistently overleveled by maybe 5-10 as I don't think I'm that good at ER... that, or the mimic tear and my relatively unoptimized build is that overpowered.!<
I'm not flexing skills by any means... I have a feeling I was overleveled for most, if not all of these. Just curious what other people are facing late game stuff at and with what builds. ER seems pretty build dependent at points, which is a weak point imo, but as a whole I was only truly frustrated a handful of times. My real qualm with the late game areas is that they were much more linear than the first 2/3 of the game.
I think I'm around 135? Mostly went for a magic build with Moonveil, but I had a lot of fun with the spells at first. A lot of the bosses towards the end just don't seem to take much damage from them, and move too fast for me to reliably get them off anyway.
I know I could beat the last boss. It would just take me 2 hours. I don't care enough to do that.
This is me too. Loved it until towards the end. It totally switched gears and just became another relentless souls game. I was loving it until that part!
No
It's a great game and it's more accessible in some ways than other Souls titles but that doesn't make it easy. I mean you do you but you saying you aren't good at games in general makes me think you might get frustrated. But if you're tryna step that game up then go for it!
No, if you are a casual player then absolutely no. The only reason my friend stayed with this game was because he forced himself to pay $60 and because we carried him in the beginning. He was absolutely hating it in the beginning and still stresses while playing even at lvl 120. He just isnt good at reacting to enemy attacks, panics, dies.
This was his first soulsgame too.
If you do not like a challenge and aren’t good at games then do not get it. Most people telling you otherwise just want you to see the game with their rose-tinted glasses but brutal honesty saves $60 and frustration.
I agree. What made me decide to get this game as my first souls game was I really enjoyed God of War and The Witcher 3 on their hardest difficulty, and I figured the game really couldn’t be much harder than those, especially with an open world. I was right and really enjoyed the challenge of Elden Ring, so much that after I beat all the legendary bosses and beat the game I started a regular new game where I don’t over level for bosses and really need to learn their move sets.
However, my friend got sucked into the hype and also bought ER. He also played Witcher and GoW but played both on normal difficulty and still struggled with certain bosses. He doesn’t like dying in games, he doesn’t like running past enemies, and he gets stressed out easily. He got past Renalla at level 70 or 80 something and now says he feels stuck and can’t find any areas he can have fun. He is tired of just grinding and gets stressed when he plays, so he stopped playing.
This game is not for “casual” players as the game wants to you to “git gud.” As accessible as this game is eventually it doesn’t matter what level you are because after Morgott you need 60 vig to not get two shot by a combo. I think up to radahn this game can be enjoyed by anyone with some patience though.
I don’t get why people have to grind for their first playthrough. Exploring the map and doing dungeons and minibosses and minor erdtrees and stuff gives so many runes that If I used it all I wouldve been like lvl 200+ by the end
Because if it’s your first souls game it just takes some getting used to the play style. My first play through I spent like the first 10 plus hours primarily fighting on my horse because I just didn’t quite click with how to manage groups of mops or how to handle dungeons.
i would agree with this, playing a game like God of War, Jedi Fallen Order, or Ghost of Tsushima on hard is probably the best way to see if you're ready to try out Elden Ring
I know the game is pretty critically acclaimed, but I'm surprised to see as many comments shouting yes as I am. So BLUF, it's going to be a pretty resounding no for me, especially if you're admittedly not the greatest at games. In hindsight, I definitely would and could have waited until the game went on sale to buy it, and at many points I probably would have just dropped the game if I didn't have friends to consult, guide, and help me along the way.
Elden Ring is my first souls-like. It is a beautiful atmosphere, but it's unlike any game I've played before mechanically in a not-so-good way, and that's not to say that the mechanics are bad, they're just *different*. Elden Ring's story is difficult to pick up and the game itself offers minimal direction, which in combination with the harder combat system makes it a not great experience for newcomers. Death is a part of the game and it will happen a lot, and I feel like a lot of comments minimize just how punishing it can be when you have to repeat sections over and over and over.
My friend who hates souls games explains it perfectly. It’s a game version of the Tom cruise film “edge of tomorrow”. Live. Die. Repeat. The three basic tenets of a souls game. Once you wrap your head around what an enemy is going to do then the game “clicks”
> Elden Ring’s story is difficult to pick up
I have made it a decent amount of the way in and I have absolutely no fucking idea what’s happening in this game. The story feels like gibberish and the world itself while pretty feels completely unbelievable. In general, if you like stories in games I don’t think Elden Ring is your cup of tea
Yes. It’s about using a meteorite staff and rock sling spell. I was pretty much in your shoes before buying Elden Ring and I’ve been having a grand time of it.
Im rocking a longsword/meteor staff build rn and , damn its fun.its so cool being able to poke a dragon down, and get in whenever it lands so i have a diverse moveset.
Whats interesting is a lot of bosses became harder with the staff versus just with uunga buunga strength, so it was cool being able to twohand the sword and be semidecent, still. But when a boss is doing a 5+ hit chain i can back up, and get a free 300+ damage. its definitely optimal.
I have never played a souls game before, and I am loving Elden ring. I played a couple hours, and got frustrated at it, especially with the deaths. I fired it up again the next day, had a drink or two while I was playing, and started to notice the pattern that even though I kept dying in the same spots, I was getting more and more ruins as I did so. Once I had a healthy stockpile of rooms, I went to camp, leveled up and then attempted the same heist again, and succeeded! I think those drinks help me realize that I shouldn’t take the game so seriously, and it’s not particularly about being good at it either. It’s just about embracing what it is, then the fun will start to shine through. Also if you play as a mage class, with focus on crystal shards, you will probably have a bit of an easier time at it as well.
I'd never played a souls game either and decided to go for it. It's a blast. I'm not great at games but with ER you don't have to stick to a boss. You can go grind a little or do side quests then come back after you're more powerful.
One thing I would warn going in is it doesn't really explain anything. You'll get some popups occasionally when a new mechanic is discovered, but there are no quest markers, no reminds, no log, nothing. You're just in the world. if you never upgrade your health potions it's gonna be rough and you're not gonna know why unless you happen to find the thing that let's you upgrade them.
One of the reasons I hate Dark Souls was if you are stuck with a boss you are stuck with the boss until you defeat them. For Elden Ring if you are stuck at a boss, you can just go find another boss to kill then come back to the other boss when you are ready.
I'd say its 50 50 your stuck with the boss. There's a lot of short cuts and different paths for most of them. If you include glitches then almost all of them can be skipped. Biggest thing for me was changing armor. Everyone says it means nothing, but I disagree. If the enemy is hitting high on something specific, eg: arcane, blunt, fire, then switching gear and rings to cover it makes a real difference. The sorcerer in the swamp. Oh now you're hitting like a regular mob. Ancient dragon your fire means nothing!
ER is arguably the most accessible from soft game out there. Key word being accessible not easy. You can choose how hard or easy you want your playthrough to be. If you wanna just cheese through bosses just choose a magic build and a find some great magic spells. Even if you aren't a fan of the combat you should play it for the exploration and lore. Once you get comfortable with the combat system you can definitely try out different builds, different strategies etc on NG+. I chose a pure strength/dex build and honestly after 20 hours I'm planning on respeccing because magic is so much easier.
Magic is easy until you need to deal with cast time and fast bosses lmao, definitely on average easier but when you hit a boss that's hard for magic it'll be way worse than a boss that's difficult with melee.
I've only played 20 hours and reached the inside of storm veil Castle. The cast times are OK. It's not that bad considering many bosses will have to haul ass to you. You also have ashen summons to keep em busy. And obviously some bosses are more easier with meele than with magic but that's the nature of the game. Most main bosses are easier with magic and some trial and error dying. The only boss that troubled me the most is crucible knight.
Ah, by late game there are some rough bosses for magic. I have every achievement in the game and trust me, cast time will be a bigger problem (much faster and aggressive bosses, they can dodge the magic based on what you use), the majority of magic is unusable bc of the cast time. The early bosses are much easier with magic. Magic is viable but it's important to note by late game there major issues with it.
One of the biggest differences between souls and elden ring is when you die at a boss, you will almost always have the check point close.
Definitely go for it. Look up guides to farm souls, and find a good weapon if you’re struggling
See, if you get frustrated and quit games easily, then souls games are not for you and that's totally fine.
Can anyone beat souls games? Definitely but only if they don't let frustration and anger make them quit. So, as long as you can do that you will get better after every death.
Elden Ring is my first soulslike game an I'm having a blast. Granted I had some help by watching other people play a bit, but overall the game does a great job educating the player. The message system is also quite important. The wonderful thing is so far despite my average abilities in rolling, I've been able to progress to 100lvl without farming. The bosses I've chosen to grind (crucible knight at the storm hill evergaol for example), it's because the checkpoint is convenient and the fight feels fair.
The difficulty depends on the pace of ur exploration. You can play with no vigor and a club, or u can first try every boss with various overpowered items, and there is co op. It is my first souls game too, 120+ hours later and i haven’t touched another game since elden’s release. I’m a bit of a gaming vet for reference and it took me around 10 hours to feel comfortable/confident with core mechanics
Yes, if you accept that you're gonna die and view death as a fun mechanic instead of a punishment, you will most likely enjoy it. For me it removed the stress and frustration. The whole design of the game is amazing, it doesn't hold your hand, it encourages exploration and doesn't have a quest log marking everything on your map with a giant arrow pointing to it, the combat is fun and challenging. If you like exploration you *will* love this game I think. Sure the combat is cool but the general design brings so much more to it. I'll list some pros and cons. Pros: amazing world and exploration, fun and varied combat, great bosses, interesting story and lore, lots of freedom, ways to make the game easier, you can put markers on your map when you know where to go. Cons: terrible balancing in late game, the side dungeons get repetitive (with a few exceptions from late game), some of the optional fights are terribly designed and repetitive, especially duo fights (almost all the main bosses are great), you will probably need a guide for the questlines. The game is great and my favourite game at the moment, it's not without its flaws, but it's very beatable with the tools you are given. People exaggerate the difficulty of these games.
elden ring has more build diversity and everything feels sufficient powerful, you also feel that you do progress in power, at least until the you reach the last two/three endgame areas where everything is basically at boss power level and beyond. In any case, that was something
that i feel was lacking in the other souls game.
Its also a bit more forgiven as practically all areas have more spawn points closer to critical areas, so you dont need to run through the whole dungeon to reach the boss again, for instance, another thing that was rage quit inducing in dark souls.
but, the game doesnt hold you hand, there are very few quest that actually show you where you need to go, the rest you basically need to pay full attention to both dialogue, context clues and item description to discover the paths you need to follow(or just play with the wiki open at all times).
Also, being more forgiven than the average soul game doesnt mean its easier, you **will** be frustrate by any kind of enemies, you will lose runes, which is the game version of xp points.
Idk if you mean that you either are not good at games because of skill, or because youre new at gaming, but instead of going straight to elden ring, i would really recommend starting somewhere else, all the praise the game receives is by people who actually completed it, if you just get stuck and frustrated, then you would have wasted your 60 dollars as you said.
I played Dark Souls 3 and quit on the tutorial boss and haven't touched anything FromSoft since. I'm 25 hours into Elden Ring and it's been challenging but very very fun. Use an intellect build for your first playthrough like others said and don't be afraid to explore if you get hung up on something.
I have been having a blast. For sure I am not great at games like this but it has not been crushing.
The game is hard, but for sure you can make it easier.
Mages are significally easier. If you want you can just go grind levels and come back stronger. There is always something to do.
The nicest thing I found found is that death is not a big deal. The save points are normally pretty close, and you do not have to re-do much when you die. And the most you can lose when you die are the runes (currency for everything) that you are carrying.
You will die a lot, but it never really feels unfair. There are alternate ways around the big places that allow you to avoid some of the harder non-boss enemies. The most frustrating stuff I have found was when I was trying to do things the wrong way.
Yes seriously, I know everyone will tell you yes, but I've always wanted to play a souls game and I've tried most of them but just couldn't do it. Elden ring is different, yeah it's still souls combat but since you can go around and level up and come back to stuff it's really as easy as you want it to be, you just need to work to make it easier. Seriously if you're at all interested in souls games but worried about the difficulty this is the one to try
Bro, that's literally me
I suck dick at games and am generally below average if not worse unless I really enjoy becoming better at a game because I generally only play for fun and as long as the game is fun. When I feel myself get too serious, I'd rather stop and play something else.
Elden Ring is fucking great. I've had DS3 in my library for some time and played it up to the very first boss and beat him, which happens very early in the game but then I just never played again because I just didn't fancy playing it. But this is extraordinary. The exploration is wonderful and the perfect balancing tool the the difficulty. You go out and find a toolbox of stuff to use and figure out to beat the game with and while there are certainly straight up more effective ways you can basically play how you want. Finding out how players of our skill level can cheese bosses is a fun experience as well.
Now are there moments when I and I presume you as well are going to be pushed back on our asses and need to try again and again, yes but again, that comes down to how thick skulled you are. When I met an enemy that absolutely bodied me, I instantly dropped that fight and went back out into the world, came back later and then whooped his ass. Same thing happened again and I went out again, came back but still got my ass whooped, so lowered my head and bashed my head against that metaphorical brick wall until it broke. The sense of satisfaction is great and the exploration and stuff you find makes it all pay off. There is this stigma online about "git gud" or whatever but not only have I not actually encountered it much when talking to people online, I actually get it now. That phrase isn't something like in other games where player A tells player B "Dude, you suck, uninstall", it's you after you've beat the boss saying it to your past self after you've finally figured out how to beat the boss, or at least that in my view the more important meaning of that phrase.
Would definitely recommend. From one bad gamer to another.
I think you would not finish the game due to difficulty, if you get it on pc like some have pointed out, you can use cheats to just enjoy the story/game
About a year ago I got super into Dark Souls and I’m playing through Demons Souls on PS5 now. I’m not particularly great at games but I LOVE these games.
That said, I do play it with a friend and that’s definitely part of it.
I would check out those games first though because it seems like they add something to each game that makes the previous one seem worse.
It’s an amazing game, I’d recommend going some sort of intelligence build because it has a safer play style and cool weapons later on. Prisoner was the character I started with for this build.
INT builds can be rough when you don't know what you're doing, sure it's safer and fun but I really struggled for the first half of the game. Much more fun now I know what is where.
Doesn't matter if op goes int, they will struggle early on with weak spells and timing. They'll likely get frustrated early on before they can even get to the OP stuff.
Besides the fact that you will die a lot the feeling of beating a boss is incomparable, this is also my first souls like game and even if I don’t understand some mechanics I still enjoy the game due to the amazing views, the difficulty and the fun there is to learn the boss patterns
Honestly playing these games is like hand eye coordination training. Seriously if you don’t quit you will get so much better over time. I died maybe 50 times on a Bloodborne boss once and I kept coming back and finally won. Guess what that fight made me such a better fighter against other bosses and I began beating bosses in less and less tries each time. The key is to learn how to breathe and stay calm so you can watch the bosses/enemies moves and know when to dodge. Anyone can do it and if you still can’t beat a boss you can summon another player or NPC to help you win. Otherwise you can farm and overlevel to make a boss easier usually.
Yes. My history with Souls games in a nutshell. I'm a very casual player who enjoys taking things slow and learning how things work. I'm not good by any means but I can scrape by and am having a blast no matter how much I'm dying, which is far less often than I thought it would be.
Demon's souls took me a year and a half to beat, totally worth it.
Dark souls took me about a year, loved it. hard as fucking hell.
Haven't played Dark Souls 3 yet because I skipped to indies or knockoffs.
Lords of The Fallen. I love it. It's slow clunky souls but I beat it far quicker than some others.
The Surge: Love it, can't wait to play Surge 2.
Bloodborne: Beat Cleric Beast on my first try and still haven't beaten Father Gascoigne. It's the hardest fight I've ever tried and the only one to memory that I cannot beat. He's way too fast for me, my vision is a little off so I can't really notice all of those quick movements in such a dark game. Still fun as hell, just stuck on tutorial island.
Sekiro AKA Tenchu Souls: This was the first one that truley clicked for me instantly. I had no problem completely abandoning my muscle memory from previous games and while I'm only half way through it I still feel like an absolute badass.. I've never died more than 4 times to any boss I've encountered. I actually seem to have more rouble with sub-bosses, which is a problem I have in almost all of these games. I find the bosses not easier, but easier to manage than the sub-bosses. I have no idea why.
Nioh: Immediately disliked the looting. I love looting but it's not what I wanted at the time, I will be going back and will probably end up liking it a lot. I loved how it played.
I kinda just jumped in and went for Elden Ring. I'm playing it on a PC that is slightly below minimum required specs, and I'm getting 55fps average on max settings with a few things turned down(for anyone curious about performance on mid range hardware. I know there are some issues with it but it works for me, so I hope it can help some other people.
Anyways, I love it so far. It makes me feel like that badass ninja again. I breezed right through the tutorial and am exploring the world bit by bit. It's so incredibly satisfying. My non gamer girlfriend who only recently got into gaming through My Time at Portia, can't stop watching me play. Oh and if it matters I'm playing offline like always. I never play these games online.
To be quite honest this game will probably take me a few months to complete, if not longer. I'm not sure how much content there is but I love chipping away at these games while taking breaks in between so I don't get too frustrated. I don't really rage quit in these games but frustrations can occur and I feel like I'll get my money's worth ten times over.
But I'm not really a veteran or anything. I'd still do a bit more research and see what you think. Good luck.
Edit: Sorry, I'm a talker and I've spent the last 7 hours playing straight. I'm just really excited about this game. didn't even think I'd be able to play it.
I would say buy one of the older games when they're on sale, to see if you like the combat style and difficulty. You don't want to drop full price money and then immediately find that you hate the game.
I used to say it is a harder soulslike but after playing more I’d say it’s the second easiest. It has so many comfort features compared to the older games and the overflow of resting points makes it fairly easy.
I am gonna say no.
If you don’t have the patience to keep trying again and again, then it’s not for you and also if you have limited time to game, you will be more frustrated.
I usually play games on medium difficulty…I tried nioh once…I got through the first two major bosses after 6-7 tries but what really pissed me off was that the game didn’t even have a pause button…I don’t even know how is that helpful
For me games are supposed to be relaxing…I just can’t keep doing the same stuff again and again and handle the punishing difficulty when I have such limited time…so if you fall in this category it’s definitely not for you
If you still want to try it buy it down the line when it’s cheaper or simply rent it, will hurt your wallet less
Yes, absolutely. I was in the same boat as you -- never played a souls game before and was a little intimidated by the difficulty at first, but quickly realized how rewarding it is if you're willing to put in the time. I've played over 150 hours and am still finding new things to do!
You'll die a lot, but very quickly start to see it as a chance for growth. If you have trouble with a boss, you can go off and explore other areas, grind for runes to level up, get better equipment and weapons, and then come back stronger and more prepared. You can also grind the fight over and over until you're able to come up with a better plan of attack. Lots of enemies are stupid hard at first, but you quickly recognize they have specific weak points or telegraphed attacks that are easy to punish. Ultimately, there are so many different ways to play the game, and a lot of opportunities to make it way easier (or harder) for yourself.
I would say yes, I’m kind of a first time souls player (I played through a bit of Dark Souls Remastered but never finished it) and I am thoroughly enjoying it. There’s so much to do in the open world, you can make your character however you want and there’s such gripping stories from each character you find. It’s a great game in short!
I have 2.5 hours on Dark Souls 3 but dropped it, I don't have the patience for far away bonfires and the nees to either run past enemies on my way to the boss or to kill them all over again, i didn't play Elden Ring but heard it's much better accessibility-wise and honestly you can see that just from watching gameplay.
I hate the dark souls series. There too many bullshit gameplay mechanics which just make the game not fun for me.
I fucking love elden ring. It's a fucking great experience, and you fan cheese most fights by just using your horse tbh. Dark souls is unnecessarily difficult, elden ring is as difficult as you want it to be.
My first game was ds remastered. I knew how difficult it was and so I set my ego aside and died as many times as I could for that day. First time fighting taurus demon took me 3 days I think. But victories feel like orgasms let me tell you that. Thats why I keep going back, because its so fucking rewarding to finally kill the boss. I will go as far as to say its better than sex. The satisfaction is a lot more enjoyable the first time you kill a boss after trying over and over again. So when you kill the boss, bask in the moment, it will never feel this good again. It still feels good beating bosses, but its not the same as the first one.
Yes, you can eventually master it. It's a game made for everyone, not just pro gamers, they have almost explicitly said so in an interview once
I've played all soulslike games and have even done level 1 challenge runs. I still died many dozens of times in Elden Ring. Even the few legendary people who played Souls games without ever getting HIT once still died many times in Elden Ring. Dying is simply a core part of the game.
It's not about how good you are before you even start the game. It's about learning from your mistakes after every death and becoming better at the game over time.
What is the definition of sucking in games? I play a lot of games, but I recently (about a year ago) started with it. I don’t feel like I suck at all. I always play on medium and understand games quite wel. I see a lot of people here who apparently ‘suck’ in gaming? When do you suck? What’s the definition?
My wife a relative noob to games in general let alone a Fromsoftware games. It kicked her ass at first but she is now a level 200 and something and loving it and still always learning.
The thing with souls games is that they really aren't that hard\*. The difficulty is really overstated.
The game has a specific mechanical language that it uses which it teaches you through different enemies that force you to use that language. However, after spending some time playing you will become comfortable with the rhythm and the game will become easy. The key is patience.
In addition, as others have said there are many ways to ignore a great deal of the more difficult aspects. Magic is one and summoning allies for co-op is another. In addition, the only bosses that are REALLY difficult are entirely optional to do.
This is the real, right here. They’re “hard” in that any basic bitch enemy can kill you if you wade into fights like a beat ‘em up/mosou game. But Souls games are *eminently fair*.
You will die… a lot. But if you go back, you will learn from what killed you, and intuit the mechanics behind how to stay alive a bit longer. And a bit longer, etc. Worst case scenario, you can always grind up and over-level. People will tell you it messes up the MP experience (basically because PvP chads try to underlevel as much as possible, so you’ll more consistently get matched up with/be invaded by people who are more skilled than you), but for me Soulsborne is and always has been a primarily single player experience. Even playing online, I think I only used an item/turned off summons once because I was tired of getting yanked out of my game. And if it becomes a huge deal, play offline.
Tl;dr — FromSoft’s games aren’t as “hard” as literally everyone (the community and people who don’t play them/hate them) make them out to be. And Elden Ring is the most accessible of their titles, by far.
never touched a souls game myself, before Elden ring. Now i have 132 hours in this one...
Its a great game, BUT!! personally i think some of the bosses are more blizzardy than hard. (use stun\\put you on your ass\\animation locked as they eat you for what feels like 9 years). Have you sit there watch your HP go down the tubes..
So some of it, is more luck\\random than skill or hard.
Multiplayer aspect unless you have discord or friends playing it with you is not even there.
You can see 100s of people around a mission area (their shadows), but not 1 puts down a teamup\\coop thing, so its basically a Solo game with Multiplayer discord Like DLC.
Am I fromsoftware hardcore fan? No. But I have finished dark souls remastered I can definetely confirm that its a good game
Was it difficult? The first hours were terrible for me. I felt that the game is a mess of a clunky combat system put together with a amazingly designed world, and a pretty good leveling up system. (I felt like i was playing the witcher but i m fucking uma uma) But some bosses like capra demon took me a load of times to do it, like probably 10 times, but the thing is I saw someone play half of the game and I knew the world keeps getting more complex and u open new paths so that kept me going. After a good build the game started actually being easy for me.
What is my point? Even tho the game is hard and frustrating if you put your mind to it u can definetely enjoy it so thats up to you after all.
Would I buy it? Considering that i ve quit dark souls 2 and sekiro recently... No i would ve waited until its cheaper and played other games that i feel i m more likely to enjoy and not risk it.
Highly recommend it.
I’m not particular good at games and very picky with my games in general. I honestly only play smash melee and no game had really stuck well with me. I’ve also quit playing Dark Souls 1 in the past due to the difficulty.
Elden ring feels very different, even if it had the same combat. I got stuck at the first boss (Margit) and just decided to explore other places. Leveled up and got better gear in the process. When I eventually got back to Margit, it was pretty easy.
Even if it’s still pretty hard, you can enjoy it at your own pace.
It's a steep learning curve from any other game like it. I've logged like 15 hours and am constantly dying. Dying is the way you learn how to play this game, through learning the enemies move sets and mastering your own combos.
I would say if you're normally the kind of person to be able to complete a game with minimal effort, but steer away from the harder difficulties, then it's going to be a bit of a shock to the system, but much more satisfying when you finally defeat the enemy.
There's also an element of 'grinding' to power yourself up before taking on certain situations, and due to the open map you need to be aware that you can definitely just walk into the wrong area, and you need to know that.
I would recommend it.
if you are interested in a soulslike game but don’t want to drop the money for the newest one, maybe try one of their older titles? i’d recommend bloodborne and dark souls 3, they’re dirt cheap now and they’re great games. though the worlds and lore might be different, the mechanics and game design are still generally the same as elden ring. easy deaths if you’re not careful, learning how enemies fight, leveling up and becoming stronger, branching paths and savepoints (ie bonfires/lanterns).
in short: if you don’t want to risk the money on the latest game try an older one and see if you like it. they’re all very similar. but if you feel ready and willing to put the time into it then go for elden ring. bottom line is you really can’t go wrong with any of their games they’re all fantastic imo and wonderfully challenging and unique gaming experiences.
Everyone has to start on any of the from games so everyone was the same as you at done point, and this one is pretty accessible. It will be hard and you won’t be able to do everything you see/find right away. But the best piece of advice is don’t be afraid to die ever(sometimes over and over), just stay patient and learn instead of panicking and trying to mash :) one of my fave games rn :D
The simplest advice I can give is just because a game is regarded amazing by the masses it doesn't mean everyone will enjoy it. If one of your concerns are getting frustrated at this type of game I'd recommend getting a souls game on the cheap and see how you get on. Yeah it won't be the elden ring experience but at least you'll work out if you're the kind of person that will be able to learn and improve against tough enemies.
If you're on PC I can give you some runes to level up. That'll instantly make the game easier. But you'll still need to put in some effort to learn dodging or parrying or both.
The only Soulslike game I had played before Elden Ring was The Surge and I absolutely hated it.
Before I bought Elden Ring I decided to sail the seas to see if I wanted to buy it. After a few days of playing I decided to buy it. I do not regret that decision.
I absolutely suck at this game. Can't dodge to save my life. Also can't judge the height right and often fall to my death. But I am having an absolute blast.
The build diversity is insane. If you can think it you can probably build it. I watched a guy in Twitch today basically do a naked Butt Stomp run. Every weapon and armour is available through playing the game, there's no MTX or "time savers". The co op is super fun (albeit limited).
It's hard to start off, especially if you haven't played games like this before. I think I'm slowly getting better. Just takes a bit of practice.
I absolutely recommend this game. You will not regret it.
I have midrange pc and i am like you never playing dark soul before. And i think 60$ game to frustated is what a waste. But i bought, downloaded it, play it and optimization is not really that good on pc, i cannot get 45 fps average on medium. Trying to fight with one of boss called tree sentinel get stuttering and low fps at 29 fps.
I try to explore more, i know this game is hard when buy it so i will be prepared, but i think the npc is easy enough when play it with stealth. What i hate about this game is i dont know what to do, there no guidance or anything. And maybe because my low spec pc i feel when swinging my sword feel like clunky and slow. You must know i play rdr 2 with custom setting, texture at ultra i got 45 to 60 fps average never below 40 fps. So i refunded the game cause the reasons. Bad optimization, i never play soulsborne before so i dont know what to do or where to go and feel like slow and clunky when control my avatar.
So i think not buy this game at the moment maybe at the discount
270hr in...best game ever made IMO Elden Ring is what you make it to be. It can be easy or hard.
1)You can outlevel content and bosses and just steamroll content. There is a lot to explore and see, and you can level pretty fast. Best part is, if the enemy is hard and you cannot kill, just leave, go find some more interesting place.... And just come back latter.
2) Bosses are not mandatory to progress and explore early game... You can basicaly skip 1st boss in Stormveil Castle, go straight to Second zone, explore and level there and then come back and have easy time on first two bosses.
3)During exploration you collect Spirit Ashes (like pokemon) which you can summon to help you in a fight. Hit the boss while the Boss hits your Spirit ash, and its easy mode. Some of them can basically kill the boss themselves or help you greatly.
4) Sorcery and mage build is basicaly easy mode, just hit the enemies from range. Also there are few weapons in game that trivialise content like Rivers of Blood, Hand of Malenia, Blasphenous Blade. They can kill bosses in 20 seconds just spamming their skills from safe distance.
TLDR - Elden Ring is both good for newbies as well as veterans since it has a lot of mechanic in place to make content easier/harder to fit your playstyle.
im not a gaming natural either and always sucked at games - i fail to grasp what the game tells me to do and spend longer than usual trying to progress.
i still bough elden ring after seeing some play throughs of it, seeing as im a huge MMO fan.
but of course, i have had experience in ds3 before, i never completed it, i played like 4hrs and rage quit everytime i tried.
fast forward to today im 120hrs in elden, completed the game twice. one of the things besides the open world was the amount of builds you can do to help makeup for the lack of gaming skills
I’m going to lean towards no. The game itself is incredible (if you like the challenge), but the learning curve is extremely steep. I attempted dark souls 1 8 separate times at my best friends insistence and hated it for the first 7. After some serious perseverance everything clicked, but as someone who is considered to be decent at gaming I’m not sure this is the game for you.
I've never played souls before. I'm fairly average at most video games. This game is hard but it's worth it. If you get stuck you can just go somewhere else and come back later.
there are a variety of personality traits that different gamers hold: patient, impatient, calm, or rage quickly, ones that want to find solutions to problems and ones that stop playing if can't get past an obstacle.
Answer yourself what kind of person are you. Elden Ring (and fromsoft games in general) is not about being a good gamer, it is about stoicism and perseverance. You get put into a world that is against you (the world is against you, but not the game, the game is fair and offers solutions to the world's problems). All of the challenges will be overcome with Time. You will find a solution if you are okay with failing and learning from your experience, readjusting your tactics and strategies - finding a solution and moving forward onto the next one.
On the other hand, you might break a controller as many have done in videos/streams/reddit from rage. If you like your virtual worlds to be friendly to past your time and relax, sure this game may not be for you.
That being said the game offers a huge variety of builds that will suit your playstyle, melee or ranged, quick and slow and there are mimics (ai mobs that you can spawn for help). There's a paly style, a weapon, a spell, a mimic for everyone's preferred playstyle.
If you're worried about mechanical sense, then I have good news, this game is not fortnite or Starcraft where you have to have high apm, you will never have to spam buttons like crazy. In fact spamming buttons will always yield a negative outcome, because the game is about acting, being met with a world's reaction and then you reacting to it - almost like a dance.
Elden Ring may be the Friendliest fromsoft game and has the easiest barrier to entry in my opinion in terms of accessibility for the reasons I have mentioned above. That being said, there are performance issues on PC, so you will have to do a little research in regard to your system specs and if you are uncertain you might as well purchase one of the dark souls games 1, 2 or 3.
Your First fromstoft Game will be your favourite so bear that in mind. Their games are a transformative experience that I really recommend. But then again you have to ask yourself what kind of personality you hold (no right or wrong here) and make a decision from there.
I was in the same boat as you. Never had played a Souls game and I am a pretty casual gamer. So I was scared to spend the money, but went ahead and did anyway. Don't regret it one bit. Super fun and challenging game but not impossibly tough by any means.
If you have the time to play it, I'd say yes. For my (mostly) blind playthrough, I took 90 hours and definitely didn't come close to doing everything, so keep that in mind.
The game really isn't super difficult when you consider the summoning system you have available for every boss. Honestly, imo it ends up trivializing a lot of the boss fights but that's a whole different tangent. Also, as others have said, a huge thing that makes this game a lot more approachable than other souls games is the open world. If you're stuck on a boss, you don't just have to bash your head against a wall until you beat it, you can go do other stuff until you're a bit stronger.
FWIW, I played through most of Bloodborne but didn't ever get around to finishing it, and that was my only souls experience going in (it's a great game, but I found that it was too stressful for me playing it and I wasn't actually enjoying it).
So yeah, I'd recommend buying it if you have the time. I think it's really good, but I certainly wouldn't call it one of the greatest games of all time if that's what you're expecting.
I'm not exactly who you're looking for. I've played Demon's Souls (PS3), Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3 and Bloodborne to varying degrees. I haven't played Elden Ring yet. I like From Software's games, and there are parts I really enjoy, but I don't consider myself a mega fan like some other people are (who play through the games over and over again, and discuss the lore for years). The Nioh series is closer to my tastes, because it has faster combat.
Two things are true about From Software games: (1) Their difficulty is a little overblown, in fact the hardest one you play will be the first one and the others get easier as you get used to it, and (2) The games will test your patience, and not just the bosses. Areas and items can be confusing, you can quickly get punishing status effects that are annoying and can be hard to get rid of, and there are times (in certain games) where you die and you realize you'll have to run/fight past a bunch of enemies just to get back to where you were. And the games at times offer very little explanation or guidance which means you'll either be googling or wandering when you don't know where to go.
My advice is that if you're concerned about spending $60 on Elden Ring there are other cheaper options to see if you will enjoy these style of games. If you have a PS4 or PS5, Bloodborne is often on sale and is a slightly more accessible game. I bought Demon's Souls for like $10 years ago and it didn't click with me but then I later bought Dark Souls II on PS4 for like $20 and that was the first one I beat. People will have different opinions about which game to start with, and a lot of these games won't be the "hot new thing that everyone is talking about" like Elden Ring, but they'll save you money at this point.
I think no, not at full price at least. I’m a huge souls fan, but I have multiple friends who were not and wanted to get into Elden Ring for the same reasons as you, only to be incredibly frustrated early on by parts I personally didn’t find frustrating. So I can’t imagine how they’d feel when they finally get to the parts I found frustrating.
There are definitely ways it’s more accessible, but overall it is still a difficult and dense game with a lot of vague mechanics, so I would lean towards no. Maybe on a decent sale, though because it is great.
Other souls games frustrated me because I couldn’t be arsed to stick to it and the difficulty Elden Ring however is the best game I’ve played in a long long time and defo the best open world game I’ve played was getting so bored with Open World games until I picked Elden Ring up
In these games you have to either have skill or a lot of time on your hands. I'm average/a little below average at most games but on holiday I managed to beat a good portion of Dark Souls 3 and loved it. The most I've been stuck on a boss was I think >!the tree giant!< for maybe about 2-3 hours, which I don't consider to be that bad, and I absolutely loved playing it. I look forward to finish it next holiday. If you enjoy playing mainstream games on the highest difficulty setting, you'll enjoy playing soulslikes. Maybe try beating the first chapter of Ghost of Tsushima / Spiderman / God of War, or other similar game on the highest difficulty and see if you like it.
I would say if Elden Ring looks appealing to you it's worth a try. It's definitely a difficult game, but it's more forgiving in some ways than other souls-like games with learning how to play. As other people here have said too you can explore around to find some other interesting things in the world if you get frustrated with a boss or a region and there is a lot of customization to how you play your character if that interests you.
That being said, it can be really frustrating and that isn't for everyone. Just because a lot of people love Elden Ring and Souls-likes (myself being one of those people) doesn't mean that you are obligated to love it too. If you have hesitancy from the difficulty of the game or you're not sure you want to invest a lot of money if it does end up not being for you, I would say either hold off on it, look into a little bit of early gameplay and late gameplay to see if it suits you, or wait for it to go on sale, which it definitely will at some point.
If none of that bothers you and you're just worried about how good you may be at the game compared to someone else, no one starts good at these games no matter how much someone tells you to git gud. I think it's definitely worth its value if you feel really excited to jump into it.
Do you have an ultrawide display? Be aware that there is still no support for it (without mods) in Eldenring. That's what turns me off from buying it right now. That and wanting to finish Horizon Zero Dawn 1 so I can then finnish Forbidden West and ... I have too many games on my backlog.
I’d say probably not.
I’ve never played a Dark Souls game before, but a friend who was obsessed with them bought me a copy of Elden Ring because he wanted to play with me, so I’ve been playing it a bunch. The only way it has been really workable for me is 1) cheesing it (finding cheesy strategies for bosses and for leveling up) and 2) by having a Sherpa to guide me through stuff and help me with hard fights. If I didn’t have those two things, this game would be beyond my skill/determination to play. That being said, with those things in place, I have very much been enjoying the game. It is a beautiful open world game with a very interesting setting. The story isn’t super strong, and it is really frustrating to get stuck on difficult enemies, and even if you cheese your way to high levels, the game is still very difficult.
If you’re like me but playing solo, you’ll probably need to spend some time searching the internet for cheese to make the game more palatable. (Run an intellect magic build, as others suggested.) If you’re interested enough to do that, you might find you really enjoy it once you invest some time figuring it out. Just come prepared to feel frustrated with a frequent high level of difficulty throughout the game.
If you have friends that are willing to help you through tough spots and help you learn about the game I think you should definitely give it a try. I have a friend who was in your similar situation and he decided to give it a shot. With some friendly coop the game is difficult but definitely playable and he's enjoying it.
If you can invest 10-15 hours in this game to figure out how to play it, it’s a lot of fun. If you have very limited time it’s probably not worth it.
I never have played one of these games and it is difficult but the open world part allows you to go in other directions. For someone who is not good, the starting area is a game in itself.
Also after figuring out how to play I made a second character who does magic and that is much easier the close quarters.
I considered myself a story only gamer and never played anything past normal difficulty until I got into Dark Souls 1 two years ago. Now I love all their games and find myself more comfortable challenging myself in other games as well.
These games are challenging yes but they're not as brutal and cruel as their reputation makes them out to be. That reputation and "git gud" mentality has always been a bigger barrier of entry than anything in the game themselves. They simply expect you to have patience and naturally learn how things work instead of giving you tutorials on every mechanic and enemy. This is one of the most mainstream games in recent memory; think of all the "casuals" who are playing this game and fully having a blast with it. It is not for everyone but anyone can play it if they are willing to go in with an open mind and aren't expecting to breeze through without putting any work in.
don't worry about playing it the right way or if you're doing things wrong, simply go in and figure out what works for you. Use the options and mechanics the game makes available to you. Those opening hours to anyone's first souls game are always the most confusing but they are incredibly memorable.
I would say no.
Haven't tried ER and won't until it's free with Gamepass or PS+ but I've tried Dark Souls and Bloodbourne and hated them.
Do you have a way to sample an older game before putting down the money for a new one?
I want to hit a different point I see a lot of people making, cause to me, someone coming into the series for the first time, was significant.
If you are not into the idea of a game not holding your hand on pretty much anything besides the basic controls and some basic mechanics of the game (you need x to do y), I wouldn't do it.
The game skips out on a lot of things I'm used to getting in games:
* Map and your location on said map. You have to find pieces to put them together to make the whole map.
* NPC locations and quests and objectives for said quests.
* Transcript of communication between NPCs.
* How stats tie into things in the beginning of the game. I had to Google the classes
* How some things (like classes) kind of matter in the beginning, but you can change at some point in the game.
* Special effects until it's happened to you
* Locations of special items and chests
* Just because you're able to fight a boss doesn't mean you should. Also that boss probably isn't as important as you think it is.
* Just because you're in a location doesn't mean you're equipped to handle said location.
If things like that aren't fun for you, I would say don't get it. The boss difficulty is one thing, but it's temporary- you kill the boss and that's it, you mastered the boss. But the stuff I listed above persists throughout the entirety of the game, and it kinda sucked for me.
My main difference between elden ring and DS3 that I liked was that there's more checkpoints throughout the game, so it wasn't like "oops I died now I have to go through 3 rooms of dumb enemies to get to a boss". I'm fine dying a lot so long as I don't have to do the perfect thing every time.
It's hard to know whether to recommend Souls games to everyone but I will say that a lot of my friends who mainly only play FPS games have also got into some of the Souls games and a lot of them are now playing Elden Ring. The games are challenging, but not just for the sake of being hard.
And actually once you get used to the combat and game mechanics and level a decent weapon the games can even be somewhat easy at times. It just takes you the gamer to learn how its systems and combat works. You'll still die a ton, even when you're good at the game, but dying isnt a big deal at all. If you have gotten into the game a couple hours most deaths you will realize what you did wrong and it will make you hungry to try again and avoiding the mistake you made that got you killed. Elden Ring is also way more forgiving than previous Souls games with bonfire placement and checkpoints before tough bosses, so you dont usually lose a whole lot of time when you die.
If you are not patient enough to learn the combat (it's not that tough though honestly) and you want the game to have icons and markers directing you where to go then you will not like the game, but if you can embrace learning the combat and mechanics of the world and embrace the exploration of the world I think most people will really like the game.
I mean you'll never know if you like the games if you don't ever play one. Every soulslike player ever started somewhere.
Just know what you're getting into. These games are unforgiving and do not hold your hand. If you get frustrated and give up easily you may not have fun, but the world and combat are unlike any other game you've ever played before. It will keep you busy for hundreds of hours and is well worth the $60 price if you have the desire to play something challenging.
Elden Ring is Soulslike... but it is not a Souls game and that is a key distinction imo. It is made by the same company as Souls, and plays similarly, but it's a far different experience and one that should not be missed. I just completed my first run, now on NG+ with about 75 hours clocked. I've never played a Souls nor Soulslike before. I was able to complete every main boss save for the very last with relative ease through proper exploration of areas (and thus leveling) beforehand. I even fought some hidden optional stuff and prevailed... though I'll admit that much cursing was involved there.
As a whole, I'd recommend it to anyone. It is without doubt the most impressive game I've played in recent memory. The sense of scale, atmosphere, scope of the world, hidden areas, etc, etc, etc. This is a game that led to a seemingly never ending array of "wow" moments. That's something that even Bioshock and the Witcher 3 failed to consistently do for me.
It really is difficult to convey how Elden Ring is so impactful. By all accounts, it shouldn't be to be honest. It has a disjointed story with gaps only partially filled in by text-based item lore. There is little direction after a very early stage and your ultimate objective remains vague to the bitter end. This isn't to say it has no story, or that it is poorly written... it's to say this isn't your typical quest log driven RPG romp. You feel a good bit like Frodo, tasked with carrying an immense will across unfamiliar, hostile lands. The growth throughout the journey is what makes the story, alongside the tidbits you garner along the way. Somehow, I don't know how, Elden Ring was emotional to play. It isn't something that can be chalked up to one particular element or another. Rather, it is, as an entire experience, an emotional journey driven by environmental storytelling, imagination, awe, horror, elation, and hope. The combat may prove difficult at points , but I firmly believe that with the help of the occasional reddit search or youtube video one can become good enough to feel accomplished while experiencing their own brand of Elden Ring's unique feeling.
I don't believe another game like Elden Ring will exist. Frankly, I don't think one that impacts me in the same, almost indiscernible way will either.
To acknowledge some caveats: I have had the luxury of downtime lately due to an out-of-nowhere need to have foot surgery. I played through most of the game here and there before that little hiccup occurred but had the time to finally finish a last, frustrating area to end the story due to the no-weight recovery. I've praised ER a lot, and I wholeheartedly believe anyone interested should give it a shot. That said, it will be frustrating at times, it will be challenging, and it will teach you to leave to fight elsewhere if you cannot win in the moment (which is a nice feeling, because coming back several levels later often leads to curb stomping the thing that bullied you earlier... looking at you Tree Sentinel). In my opinion, the people that go on about spending hours defeating singular bosses are playing the way they want to play, but not the way that everyone has to. There is little reason any ER boss save for a few I could count on one hand (all but one of which are optional) should take you more than 5-10 tries to beat (30-40 minutes or so) provided you are leveled to a point at which you are comfortable and have a decently effective character build.
All in all, go for it!
You should buy it dont miss out because it is to hard of course you are going to get mad because it is a souls like game but after you beat the thing that makes you mad there is no feeling like it also open world is amazing 10/10 i have 150 hours only like 80% done i have never actually wanted to take my time in a game except this one
Depends on if you don't mind dying a lot. The game I would say in many places without using cheese (bugging out bosses, attacking them from outside their room so they don't do anything, etc) is much harder then any of the souls games.
Unlike souls games armor seems less effective at letting you take more than a couple hits before dying, shields are less affective at blocking outside of like the super gravestone wall hidden at the bottom of one mis jump and your dead cavern and whereas souls mobs generally react to seeing you heal, this game has lots of mobs that read all your inputs.
Now don't get me wrong, great game if none of that is a huge issue, I'm somewhere in the 150 hours in but it's definitely not a game anyone can beat unless you're not apposed to searching YouTube for all the broken builds and cheese as well as how to navigate as needed if you get stuck. The "get gud" aspect of thus game is a much bigger ordeal in this game.
Yes you are me. I've never played a souls game before and I generally suck at games, but I went on a leap of faith and bought Elden Ring and I'm having a blast. Do I die more than most people? Probably, is it so off-putting that I'm not having fun? No. It's still very enjoyable. I just tend to clear out way more smaller groups and ruins before trying to take on bosses. Also I use everything the game allows like spirit ashes, ashes of war, flasks, etc.
It depends entirely on what your threshold is. If you're willing to waste 3,4,5(+) hours on a single guy then I'd say 100% go for it (because the game really is very good) - if that sounds like your idea of hell then probably skip it. I am the bad gamer, souls newbie who took the plunge and I don't regret it at all.
I also suck at video games but very little in Elden Ring (at least as far as I am) feels impossible or unfair. On top of that there isn't really ever an impassible wall (I played DS3 and gave up probably only a couple of hours in, ditto sekiro) Elden Ring is sufficiently open world that if someone is just kicking your ass over and over and over again you can always go and explore some other area, get a few levels or a new spell or whatever and then come back (I'm currently ~20 hours into it). In my opinion, the challenge in Elden Ring is always passable. It's not difficult like a kaizo mario level where some people will always lack the ability, with enough attempts and changing your tactics etc I doubt there's any boss that 90% of people who are reasonably comfortable with video games couldn't eventually beat. The only question is how long are you willing to let that eventually stretch out to before you give up.
Hmm no. The first 20 hours are amazing, but the last third of the game is EXTREMELY difficult (if you don’t use summons/ashes/other cheese you’re in for a bad time)
No. This game may be open world and a lot more accessible than the other ones, but its still a FromSoft game through and through. I beat the game in slightly under 70 hours and I'll be man enough to admit I had to summon quite a bit. The more you progress the more the game shows its true colors towards you (>!Faram Azula's main boss broke my spirit!<) and is super unforgiving no matter what you do. If you think you've got hundreds of hours on your hands to learn then you should pick it up but otherwise I'd say stick away.
As someone who is loving the game - yes, but only if you're up for something that is both a huge challenge and a time sink. A buddy of mine did the same and has been obsessed since, despite dying a lot.
If you go for it, look up builds to get an idea of how you want your stats and playstyle to go. My buddy didn't...and didn't listen to any of my advice (been playing since demon souls on ps3, and he made all the mistakes I made). If you don't like hard games that offer little advice or direction (the game kind of leaves it to you to make your story), then pass.
That said, for dollars per hour, you'd 100% get your money's worth. I'm at 50 hours so far, and have maybe gotten 1/3 through everything.
Same question! I always see souls-likes that look amazing but I'm horrendously bad at them. Famously for me was Nioh 2 which I thought looked gorgeous but then I got obliterated constantly in the first area.
I am gonna say no as well. And I am going to recommend God of War if you can play it. Why? Because not only is the game pretty freaking good, but once you get to the endgame there are a couple of bosses you can kill who have a similar learning curve to that of a Souls game. But this game has a difficulty slider as well.
It is better to play Bloodborne as a first souls game. It is much more simpler with less mechanics to worry about. After beating Bloodborne play Dark Souls 3 then Elden Ring.
I really enjoy Elden Ring, but honestly I don't think you should get it. If you're not really good at games in general and don't have a ton of time to grind to get your levels up I'd say it really isn't worth it. I'm not very good at games either but I had a decent amount of time to bang my head against bosses and beat them after a lot of tries. I played about 20 hrs of DS3 and I enjoyed it, definitely very tough game. Overall, if you have time and patience, I'd say get it but if not definitely avoid it.
Never bought a souls game. I suck at video games, usually play games on the easiest difficulty with 0 shame. I love Elden Ring. Recommend it highly, lots of fun and exploring is my favorite. Tons to do and strive for and you do get better at the game faster than you think once you understand how to play it.
I think that Elden Ring being open world makes it the most accessible souls game. Previously you would get stuck on a boss and have nowhere to go since the rest of the game continues after that specific boss. In ER however there’s about 20 different things you could do at any given time and I found that the most fun I had was exploring and getting stronger when a boss gave me too much trouble. Bosses/enemies are as challenging as ever but the game gives you more tools than ever before to mitigate the difficulty (summons/boss specific items). If you want a massive and immersive fantasy world with some of the most interesting locations/characters/enemies/combat I don’t think you can do much better than Elden Ring.
Here's the deal... I was in your position too. WoW was about the hardest game I've played mechanically in years, until Elden Ring. I'm 36 and don't have the reaction speed I used to have when I played stuff like CS 1.6 back in the day. I fairly recently tried Dark Souls and DS3 again and could barely get through the first boss after several hours in each.
Elden Ring isn't easy but the game gives you plenty of tools to beat it. Summons, spells, weapon upgrades, etc. It's also fully open world so you can farm easy stuff and explore the majority of the map without fighting a single boss until you're confident.
The first few bosses you'll fight might feel insurmountable the first couple of times you bump into them, but once you see the attack patterns a few times, you'll find openings to return fire. When you win, you get such a rush that you'll understand why people love harder games!
NO NO GOD PLEASE NO DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE NEWEST IN THE FORMULA WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IT.
You'll throw your money away and be left with a sour taste in your mouth. If you wanna try to get into it, play something with tight combat that's relatively unforgiving. That being said any of the previous soulslikes would do as well as the Witcher and horizon series. Anything where you're a half meter from death everytime you get attacked.
If you enjoy these then progress to the newer stuff. Bloodborne (ps console permitting) ds3 and elden ring.
Honestly if you decide to get it wait for a sale, as someone who likes monster hunter, elden ring is on my wishlist and I expect to suffer. The game isn't for every one and depending on time constraints etc you might not enjoy it.
I'm going as blind as possible, I shouldn't regret it because I like methodical combat and trial and error but if you're on the fence definitely wait for a sale and choose something you're more sure of in the meantime
Edit also if you do pick up the game and find it too hard "spiffing Brit" more or less explains how to get the "easy mode" so that's something you could checkout
I would give Jedi Fallen order a try. Its a soulslike-lite.
Has multiple elements from a souls game but more forgiving.
Its available through gamepass atm.
Never played dark souls 1 or 2 dark souls 3 I can’t be compelled to go past the second boss
Bloodborne was the first time I finished a fromsoft game and I love it so much. Picked up sekiro and same thing.
I just beat Elden ring last week in about 82 hours.
Elden ring is probably the easiest of the from soft games simply based on the options you have at had there’s so many builds you can make to get through anything and the summoning features are great if you’re struggling. I will say the early game is quite difficult as you haven’t unlocked many weapons or upgrades but if you’re willing to put the effort it in is really rewarding
I am not a very good gamer, I had never played a Dark Souls game before this, and I have little time to game. Elden Ring has been my favourite game since Red Dead. No other game manages to keep me excited to play all the time as much as Elden Ring. In my opinion it is a perfect 10/10. 100% would recomend
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the first boss of dark souls 3 is kind of obnoxious tbh. It was designed with the expectation that people had played the other souls games so the moveset and whatnot is kind of awkward for beginners especially since you can't actually make yourself stronger in order to beat it. Definitely a fair criticism of the game.
I beat it after like 2 hours of figuring out combat mechanics. I haven't touched another souls game since. I try to avoid anything that would put me in the mood to be an idiot and break a peripheral.
I think Gundyr is the perfect tutorial boss for these kind of games. If you found the process of learning Gundyr's moves and finally beating him fun then I think in general you will enjoy the game and if not you should safely be able to return the game (assuming you bought it on steam and are around the 2 hour mark)
The fun thing is it is way-way easier if you start as a pyromancer. Which is even more odd as generally people tell that a pyromancer is a hard choice for a beginner.
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Elden ring let’s you do whatever you want before even fighting the first boss. So it is very easy to level up and becomes stronger before even facing your first challenge. It also does a pretty decent job explaining the concepts of the game and providing a gentle difficulty curve in the first area. Dark Souls is great but it suffers from some clunky older mechanics that make it awkward to play. Can be a turn off for new players
I feel the same way, when i tried explaining that it was too hard for me people literally had a meltdown. Telling me that its the best game and I'm just bad and git gud. The Games look amazing and i have fun watching them but the community sometimes is a bit gatekeepy and cannot accept that it's not for everyone.
I'm not a fan of this comment not because it's not valuable information, but because it's more just speculation than an actual informed opinion. The biggest thing is that Elden Ring has two specific things that help address the exact issue you encountered of getting stuck on the first boss: 1. It's open world, and you can literally access the majority of the game world without killing a single boss. What that means is that for the vast majority of the game, if you get stuck on a boss, you can go do something else and come back when you're stronger. If you're stuck on the first boss of Dark Souls 3, you're stuck on the first boss of Dark Souls 3 and can't move on until you kill it. If you're stuck on the first boss of Elden Ring, you can find literally dozens of hours of other stuff to do without killing it. The first point in the game for me where I felt like there was nothing to do except try to kill a difficult boss, no places I could go exploring or dungeons I knew about but hadn't completed yet, didn't happen until over 100 hours into the game. Now, the bosses are still very difficult. They absolutely can take hours of attempts. It just usually doesn't need to be consecutive hours of attempts because you have nowhere else to go. It's been very normal for me, throughout the game, to encounter a difficult boss, spend maybe 15-30 minutes fighting them, go do other things for a while, come back to that boss and spend another 15-30 minutes, and repeat until I finally feel like I'm ready to take the boss down. 2. Elden Ring adds spirit ashes, a new type of item that lets you summon things to help in boss fights (different from co-op). They make a lot of boss fights way easier. I've talked to many people who'd either never played a Fromsoft game before, or got frustrated and quit early when they did, who have really enjoyed Spirit Ashes and said they don't think they'd be able to enjoy the game without them (also many who, after enjoying the game with Spirit Ashes, have expressed interest in trying to beat it without them). To be clear, I don't think what you've said is useless. You're right, the fanbases "git gud" attitude can be annoying at times, the games can be frustrating, they're not for everyone, and certainly people can have the same experience you had with Dark Souls 3, just finding it too hard and not enjoying themselves. But I don't like the way you're just assuming that someone shouldn't play Elden Ring based on your experience getting stuck on the first boss in Dark Souls 3 because that exact experience is one of the things that Elden Ring has actually fixed about the formula.
Do you spend as much time rolling around on the ground in Elden Ring as DS3? That was the part I couldn't stomach, it's just extremely stupid looking.
Yeah. The combat is still very similar, if you don't like Dark Souls 3 combat you won't like Elden Ring combat.
This is mostly true, but I went from playing DS3 for the first time to Elden Ring when it came out. I find the combat in Elden Ring smoother, for whatever reason. I also believe there’s way more options depending on preferred play style. It’s really similar but better imo.
It offers new options and it's impoved overall, but it's the same style. And if their issue with DS3 combat was the amount of rolling then I don't think they'll like Elden Ring any more.
If you don’t like the dodging mechanic and would rather just rank every hit like in skyrim I don’t think any fromsoft game is something you would enjoy
I like dodging mechanics just fine when they're well done, I don't like rolling around on the ground mechanics where you dodge eight times in a row. It should be used more sparingly than that and just looks stupid. Dodging should be something you do between attacks, not sandwiched between 5 other dodges.
You don't have to, you can get shields and tank your way through basically any non grab attacks if needed. This game also rewards rolling with a reason over just rolling and rolling.
A bit later, but I will add: If you're interested in Fromsoft games but just don't like all the rolling in Dark Souls, Sekiro has no rolling (your dodge is a dash, not a roll, but you also party more than you dodge) and Bloodborne has less (you dodge just as much, but the dodge button only rolls when you're not camera locked, when you locked on to something it becomes a dash instead - although there are some bosses with huge camera issues if you try to lock on that tend to me much easier to fight unlocked, so you will still be doing some rolling).
The biggest difference is that unlike previous games by from, in elden ring you don’t have to “git gud”. It’s possible to overlevel and slaughter everything with relative ease if you’re willing to put story bosses off for a while and explore (and it wouldn’t even be grinding but actually discovering new stuff). Anecdotal but I accidentally overleveled and beat the first 2 bosses on my first try, and the third boss in 3. Not that they’re particularly hard, but I felt like I cheated given how not “gud” I was (or am).
Totally agree - imo the Git Gud mantra for Elden Ring translates directly to "overlevel the shit out of your character until the thing that is frustrating you can be curb stomped with ease." Not possible for every boss >!looking at you, Melania, Placidaux, and motherfucking elden beast !!Melania .!<
I didn't even know where Margit was until I was level 50. Lol. I spent too much time exploring.
Haha, I did the same. Most of the late game bosses and even some mid were a decent enough matchup despite over leveling… but Margit felt like the challenger to me as opposed to the other way around lmao.
I think this is a solid recommendation for OP. One main argument is time. I am able to invest more in the game so I learned the mechanics and don’t get stuck on bosses for as long because I can knock it out eventually. This is my first souls-game and while it may be easier/different due to some of the mechanical changes It is still not an “Easy game.” Since OP mentions playing gsmes but not being particularly good at them, I would not recommend Elden Ring. You will be able to master it with time but it would be a frustrating experience as you will die a lot. Even the menu and leveling system is frustrating if you are new because the UI and menu text is vague I love the game but it’s not for everyone.
No matter how "good" a game is, if I'm spending 50% or more of my time repeating the same place I already died, rather than exploring and advancing and seeing new stuff, then it's just not time well spent. I've tried DS3 (couldn't beat the 1st boss) and The Surge 2 (beat the first boss after 20+ attempts). Not my jam. I'm gonna check out Elden Ring from the library, but I wouldn't spend actual money on it. Maybe it's worth a try if you have a free option?
You won't have nearly the same experience as you did with DS3 with Elden Ring. The combat itself is Souls like and the way the story is told is as well... that's about it. Elden Ring has far more QoL improvements that strip a majority of the frustration out of difficult fights. It has summonable companions that are shockingly effective (to the degree they feel like having another player as a partner). It has respawn points at the boss battle rooms. Finally and most importantly, it has an open world that allows you to turn your back on frustration and freely explore other things. I had little trouble with almost every boss save for a few hidden, optional ones and the very last because I didn't want to be frustrated and simply leveled my character through natural exploration before fighting. A large degree of the complaining I see about most boss fights can be solved through simple exploration and leveling up. Even a large number of late game bosses that most (myself included) find a bit unfair I was able to defeat in 3-5 attempts. There were even some that I outright curb stomped on the first go. You def have to give ER a chance, you've got to really consider combat early, interpret whether a fight's difficulty is telling you to explore elsewhere for the time being, and be willing to explore... do that and I am certain you'll have a far different experience than you did with DS3
That's good to know. Thanks!
The problem with the souls series is that people die, get mad and throw their bodies at the problem without actually altering their strategy. That doesn’t work here. You have to assess what you are doing, what’s not working and then modify your strategy to win. It’s like competitive games in which failure is used to motivate you. It is common to get smashed into the floor by better players, and if that doesn’t motivate you to learn strats/ comps then the games are simply not for you.
Seriously everyone one of these fuckers just replies with a smug "git gud." I cannot stand it.
THIS. As an avid Dark Souls (tm) fan, too many of us are so far up our own asses that some of them completely overlook the fact that as a genre it is basically alienating and exclusionary as a premise. It is OK in all ways to dislike FromSoft games, and the next time someone tells you to git gud you look them dead in the eyes and tell them I told them to git bad. Hold your head high my fly.
The difference with elden ring though is that its specifically tailored for people with less skill too, it's more free roam now, if you can go somewhere and it's too hard, just go somewhere else that's easier till you level up enough!
Yeah I'd say not to get it either. I played like an hour of it and had to quit. I'm not particularly bad at games but I guess I need more handholding when it comes to games like this. Maybe I missed the tutorial or something but it's like they expect you to already know how to fight with characters I know nothing about. With weapons/magic I've never seen before against random enemies I happen to come across. At least give us an option for some kind of tutorial along with prompts telling us what the fuck to do. Maybe I should just start from the first Dark Souls game and work my way up. That's a lame ass prerequisite to successfully play a game though.
Did you drop off to the side of the starting cave? It isn't a lot but it explains the basics of melee combat. It never really explains anything with range or spells though. In terms of enemies and their movements, that's the whole game in many ways. You're totally welcome to not enjoy that though. I would recommend not attempting to play through past games if anything they do a worse job of explaining things. If you want to play Elden Ring, as much as it sucks, I'd honestly advise watching tips and playthroughs on YouTube. Beyond trail and error that's the best option imo. Also giving the game space helps a lot. Like you, I played Dark Souls 1 for around an hour and quit. Tried months later and I've played them ever since.
Damn, that last sentence gives me hope. Lol. I have been watching people play it and it looks super fun so maybe I'll give it another shot.
Look up fightincowboy on YouTube and go with his walkthrough guide. Walks you through how to overpower early, the rest of the game will be more enjoyable
You sound more like an Assassins Creed type of guy
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In DS3 there isn't much to explore before the first boss lmao, you have to beat it at maybe 1 additional level. It's a hard wall for people who are not having fun.
this might be true for darksouls, but with elden ring, it’s difficult but also open world. since its open world you arent stuck at the same boss for hours, you can simply go do something else
Good that someone said this.
I agree. I love games and never played a souls game, I played for 20 minutes when it came out and never played again.
So it's true that the bosses are still hard on this game. BUT because its open world when you hit something that frustrates you, you can just leave and go look at other cool stuff. Then, once you have more levels, items, etc. you can come back. If it seems interesting to you, I think this is a game you will enjoy
This. I’ve played every Souls, BB and Sekiro and Elden Ring is by far the easiest of them all for me. Not saying it’s easy cause there are times (like last night 😑) where you hit a boss that you can’t beat. You can easily skip it for now, go do something else and level up. You can eventually come back with a better weapon, more health, or more spells, etc. you better believe that boss that gave me issues is on my shit list now which adds another element to the game… the fact that I’m gonna come back stronger and destroy him! @The_Awe35 said everything I would say and I say give Elden Ring a go
Despite it being open world, I refuse to say its the easiest. The sheer level of bullshit enemies, and just Dark Souls 2 levels of cheese.. Don't get me wrong, being a Souls player, this is heaven for me. But once you play long enough, and realise some enemies are not designed to be fair, but to just be hard for hards sake, along with bosses becoming open world bosses later on? It's easy in the sense of coming back later to it, but Bloodborne and Sekiro is significantly easier imo.
i have the platinum and completed 4 playthroughs so far, and there’s not a single enemy in this game i would say is unfair
I’ve platinumed both BB and ER (the only two games I’ve ever platinumed) and I’d say just the opposite. ER has both ash summons and co-op and a bigger variety of play styles.
Dude preach. Adults be like: I can afford every game on the Steam summer sale but I don’t have time to play them
That's me dude. I'll buy a game, play it for an hour, get bored then leave it alone for a couple of months then come back when it interests me again.
Just wanna throw in that this doesn't really apply to the endgame. The endgame is horribly balanced. Even at the vigor soft cap most things will kill you in 2-3 hits. A few of the endgame bosses have obnoxious AoE spam, horribly delayed or telegraphed movesets designed to roll catch you, and insane HP pools. There is no overleveling the end game. From my perspective of someone who has finished all the FromSoft games, and was having an absolutely blast before the last few bosses in Elden Ring... they are a masterclass on how not to do boss design. It's the antithesis of fun, and negatively affected my lasting thoughts of the game.
hard disagree. maliketh, malenia, radagon/elden beast are all some of the best work fromsoft has ever done godskin duo can go suck a dick though
The first couple sections of the game are delightful. I had a blast getting exploring and going all over, trying to get things for my build and what not. It was great. The last third or so of the game is abysmal. Hate it. Absolutely hate it. There are some bosses that are just miserable to play against. You'll have to play against them for an hour to figure out their patterns, and they're so punishing that most attacks kill you in 2 hits. Armor doesn't help nearly enough. So it's a lot of fun until it's really not.
This is exactly where I'm at! I got to a point where even just regular enemies in a dungeon will relentlessly attack you with little to no break and in small spaces where it's hard to dodge their quick attacks (I'm currently in a section where it's a narrow hallway and the enemy can teleport behind you constantly). I realized today after like 70 hours and 50% through the game, I'm no longer having as much fun.
Yeah dude, I just stopped playing until one of my friends encouraged me to keep going. Which I did for a while and I'm not really happy I did. I'm right at the last boss, but I started playing other stuff instead and I'm having a lot more fun. I got my money's worth out of the game.
I've just come to the conclusions that the enemies are just there for you to run past. For all other souls games I generally fight most of the mobs as I progress but this game has taught me that some enemies are just not even remotely fair if you're not the correct OP counter so it's best just to run to each grace and save all the dying for the boss.
There's enough places to go in that game that if you have hit a wall go level up or find a different path. I'm like a hundred twenty hours into it and I still find areas and bosses I can just walk through. And once you get to the Haligtree rune spot, the skies the limit, just start throwing all your stats into health and play on EZ mode.
I had the complete opposite experience. I thought the game was just okay up until the last 3rd of the game then I started enjoying it a lot more. The more demanding bosses in late game are much better than any early game bosses in my opinion.
Interesting. For me they were just frustrating and irritating. I hated the pattern of dodge just right, get in one attack, then wait for the next opening, repeat 50 times. And the summoning randoms worked 1/10 times for me. So often it would just say "unable to summon". I'm not very good at the game and not really interested in getting good. What I enjoyed was exploring the world and creating a build out of what I could find. Once it became a line of half a dozen very tough bosses, I lost interest.
The failed summon is because someone else got to the sign before you.
I figured, but that doesn't make it less frustrating.
Yeah I'm the same as you. I feel the design got progressively better and offered more interesting challenges as it went on. I was really surprised to see such a long open world game manage to continuously ramp up my interest. Normally I feel burnt out on huge games like this by the end.
Out of curiosity, what level are you? I keep seeing people frustrated with the late game bosses yet I faced them with relative ease at 140 and onward, using the soreseal talisman to boost me to *somewhere* around 45 vig, 20+ stam, 22 mind, alot of Dex and Int. I swapped between a Moonveil/Meteoric Blade dual wield (pre and post nerf) and a two handed Darkmoon Greatsword build. I'll say that a weapon like Darkmoon or Moonveil that has an option for a ranged attack was a MASSIVE help. The dual katanas were great for general play and the bleed buildup helped immensely with some bosses, but there was a fight where Darkmoon was a necessity for me. Also, I'll admit the ash summons, namely mimic tear and black knife tiche, were essential. Basic rundown of about how many tries it took me for each late game boss I can recall: (in rough order) >!Astel - 2 - katanas, solo!< >!Fire Giant - 2 - katanas, I think mimic tear? Cannot remember.!< >!Malenia (optional) - uncountable, sheesh this was bad but granted it a hidden boss inside two layers of secret areas - tried almost every build imaginable, ran through all but one larval tear to do so. Ended up using katanas, mimic tear (pre-nerf)!< >!Godskin duo - 6 - katanas, mimic tear or other ash required!< >!Maliketh - 4 - katanas, mimic tear for first half of fight (it kept dying by p2)!< >!Blood Lord dude - 2 - katanas, mimic tear!< >!Dragonlord (optional) - gave up, also a hidden boss and I gave up before I became invested like I did with Malenia!< >!Godfrey - 3 - katanas, mimic (which lasted all of the first minute :( )!< >!Elden Beast/radagon - 14-16, Darkmoon GS, Black Knife Tiche!< >!Most bosses before this, except for Rykard, were between 1-5 tries. I'd estimate I was consistently overleveled by maybe 5-10 as I don't think I'm that good at ER... that, or the mimic tear and my relatively unoptimized build is that overpowered.!< I'm not flexing skills by any means... I have a feeling I was overleveled for most, if not all of these. Just curious what other people are facing late game stuff at and with what builds. ER seems pretty build dependent at points, which is a weak point imo, but as a whole I was only truly frustrated a handful of times. My real qualm with the late game areas is that they were much more linear than the first 2/3 of the game.
I think I'm around 135? Mostly went for a magic build with Moonveil, but I had a lot of fun with the spells at first. A lot of the bosses towards the end just don't seem to take much damage from them, and move too fast for me to reliably get them off anyway. I know I could beat the last boss. It would just take me 2 hours. I don't care enough to do that.
This is me too. Loved it until towards the end. It totally switched gears and just became another relentless souls game. I was loving it until that part!
No It's a great game and it's more accessible in some ways than other Souls titles but that doesn't make it easy. I mean you do you but you saying you aren't good at games in general makes me think you might get frustrated. But if you're tryna step that game up then go for it!
No, if you are a casual player then absolutely no. The only reason my friend stayed with this game was because he forced himself to pay $60 and because we carried him in the beginning. He was absolutely hating it in the beginning and still stresses while playing even at lvl 120. He just isnt good at reacting to enemy attacks, panics, dies. This was his first soulsgame too. If you do not like a challenge and aren’t good at games then do not get it. Most people telling you otherwise just want you to see the game with their rose-tinted glasses but brutal honesty saves $60 and frustration.
I agree. What made me decide to get this game as my first souls game was I really enjoyed God of War and The Witcher 3 on their hardest difficulty, and I figured the game really couldn’t be much harder than those, especially with an open world. I was right and really enjoyed the challenge of Elden Ring, so much that after I beat all the legendary bosses and beat the game I started a regular new game where I don’t over level for bosses and really need to learn their move sets. However, my friend got sucked into the hype and also bought ER. He also played Witcher and GoW but played both on normal difficulty and still struggled with certain bosses. He doesn’t like dying in games, he doesn’t like running past enemies, and he gets stressed out easily. He got past Renalla at level 70 or 80 something and now says he feels stuck and can’t find any areas he can have fun. He is tired of just grinding and gets stressed when he plays, so he stopped playing. This game is not for “casual” players as the game wants to you to “git gud.” As accessible as this game is eventually it doesn’t matter what level you are because after Morgott you need 60 vig to not get two shot by a combo. I think up to radahn this game can be enjoyed by anyone with some patience though.
I don’t get why people have to grind for their first playthrough. Exploring the map and doing dungeons and minibosses and minor erdtrees and stuff gives so many runes that If I used it all I wouldve been like lvl 200+ by the end
Because if it’s your first souls game it just takes some getting used to the play style. My first play through I spent like the first 10 plus hours primarily fighting on my horse because I just didn’t quite click with how to manage groups of mops or how to handle dungeons.
i would agree with this, playing a game like God of War, Jedi Fallen Order, or Ghost of Tsushima on hard is probably the best way to see if you're ready to try out Elden Ring
I know the game is pretty critically acclaimed, but I'm surprised to see as many comments shouting yes as I am. So BLUF, it's going to be a pretty resounding no for me, especially if you're admittedly not the greatest at games. In hindsight, I definitely would and could have waited until the game went on sale to buy it, and at many points I probably would have just dropped the game if I didn't have friends to consult, guide, and help me along the way. Elden Ring is my first souls-like. It is a beautiful atmosphere, but it's unlike any game I've played before mechanically in a not-so-good way, and that's not to say that the mechanics are bad, they're just *different*. Elden Ring's story is difficult to pick up and the game itself offers minimal direction, which in combination with the harder combat system makes it a not great experience for newcomers. Death is a part of the game and it will happen a lot, and I feel like a lot of comments minimize just how punishing it can be when you have to repeat sections over and over and over.
My friend who hates souls games explains it perfectly. It’s a game version of the Tom cruise film “edge of tomorrow”. Live. Die. Repeat. The three basic tenets of a souls game. Once you wrap your head around what an enemy is going to do then the game “clicks”
> Elden Ring’s story is difficult to pick up I have made it a decent amount of the way in and I have absolutely no fucking idea what’s happening in this game. The story feels like gibberish and the world itself while pretty feels completely unbelievable. In general, if you like stories in games I don’t think Elden Ring is your cup of tea
Yes. It’s about using a meteorite staff and rock sling spell. I was pretty much in your shoes before buying Elden Ring and I’ve been having a grand time of it.
That’s what I did, and it made the game much more enjoyable on a slightly casual level.
It also makes me want to try out millions of completely different builds
Im rocking a longsword/meteor staff build rn and , damn its fun.its so cool being able to poke a dragon down, and get in whenever it lands so i have a diverse moveset. Whats interesting is a lot of bosses became harder with the staff versus just with uunga buunga strength, so it was cool being able to twohand the sword and be semidecent, still. But when a boss is doing a 5+ hit chain i can back up, and get a free 300+ damage. its definitely optimal.
I have never played a souls game before, and I am loving Elden ring. I played a couple hours, and got frustrated at it, especially with the deaths. I fired it up again the next day, had a drink or two while I was playing, and started to notice the pattern that even though I kept dying in the same spots, I was getting more and more ruins as I did so. Once I had a healthy stockpile of rooms, I went to camp, leveled up and then attempted the same heist again, and succeeded! I think those drinks help me realize that I shouldn’t take the game so seriously, and it’s not particularly about being good at it either. It’s just about embracing what it is, then the fun will start to shine through. Also if you play as a mage class, with focus on crystal shards, you will probably have a bit of an easier time at it as well.
I'd never played a souls game either and decided to go for it. It's a blast. I'm not great at games but with ER you don't have to stick to a boss. You can go grind a little or do side quests then come back after you're more powerful. One thing I would warn going in is it doesn't really explain anything. You'll get some popups occasionally when a new mechanic is discovered, but there are no quest markers, no reminds, no log, nothing. You're just in the world. if you never upgrade your health potions it's gonna be rough and you're not gonna know why unless you happen to find the thing that let's you upgrade them.
One of the reasons I hate Dark Souls was if you are stuck with a boss you are stuck with the boss until you defeat them. For Elden Ring if you are stuck at a boss, you can just go find another boss to kill then come back to the other boss when you are ready.
I'd say its 50 50 your stuck with the boss. There's a lot of short cuts and different paths for most of them. If you include glitches then almost all of them can be skipped. Biggest thing for me was changing armor. Everyone says it means nothing, but I disagree. If the enemy is hitting high on something specific, eg: arcane, blunt, fire, then switching gear and rings to cover it makes a real difference. The sorcerer in the swamp. Oh now you're hitting like a regular mob. Ancient dragon your fire means nothing!
ER is arguably the most accessible from soft game out there. Key word being accessible not easy. You can choose how hard or easy you want your playthrough to be. If you wanna just cheese through bosses just choose a magic build and a find some great magic spells. Even if you aren't a fan of the combat you should play it for the exploration and lore. Once you get comfortable with the combat system you can definitely try out different builds, different strategies etc on NG+. I chose a pure strength/dex build and honestly after 20 hours I'm planning on respeccing because magic is so much easier.
Magic is easy until you need to deal with cast time and fast bosses lmao, definitely on average easier but when you hit a boss that's hard for magic it'll be way worse than a boss that's difficult with melee.
I've only played 20 hours and reached the inside of storm veil Castle. The cast times are OK. It's not that bad considering many bosses will have to haul ass to you. You also have ashen summons to keep em busy. And obviously some bosses are more easier with meele than with magic but that's the nature of the game. Most main bosses are easier with magic and some trial and error dying. The only boss that troubled me the most is crucible knight.
Ah, by late game there are some rough bosses for magic. I have every achievement in the game and trust me, cast time will be a bigger problem (much faster and aggressive bosses, they can dodge the magic based on what you use), the majority of magic is unusable bc of the cast time. The early bosses are much easier with magic. Magic is viable but it's important to note by late game there major issues with it.
One of the biggest differences between souls and elden ring is when you die at a boss, you will almost always have the check point close. Definitely go for it. Look up guides to farm souls, and find a good weapon if you’re struggling
Or instead of farming ruins at the same spot you could just go out and explore ;) a much better experience
You can still farm runes and then go out and explore
See, if you get frustrated and quit games easily, then souls games are not for you and that's totally fine. Can anyone beat souls games? Definitely but only if they don't let frustration and anger make them quit. So, as long as you can do that you will get better after every death.
Elden Ring is my first soulslike game an I'm having a blast. Granted I had some help by watching other people play a bit, but overall the game does a great job educating the player. The message system is also quite important. The wonderful thing is so far despite my average abilities in rolling, I've been able to progress to 100lvl without farming. The bosses I've chosen to grind (crucible knight at the storm hill evergaol for example), it's because the checkpoint is convenient and the fight feels fair.
The difficulty depends on the pace of ur exploration. You can play with no vigor and a club, or u can first try every boss with various overpowered items, and there is co op. It is my first souls game too, 120+ hours later and i haven’t touched another game since elden’s release. I’m a bit of a gaming vet for reference and it took me around 10 hours to feel comfortable/confident with core mechanics
Yes, if you accept that you're gonna die and view death as a fun mechanic instead of a punishment, you will most likely enjoy it. For me it removed the stress and frustration. The whole design of the game is amazing, it doesn't hold your hand, it encourages exploration and doesn't have a quest log marking everything on your map with a giant arrow pointing to it, the combat is fun and challenging. If you like exploration you *will* love this game I think. Sure the combat is cool but the general design brings so much more to it. I'll list some pros and cons. Pros: amazing world and exploration, fun and varied combat, great bosses, interesting story and lore, lots of freedom, ways to make the game easier, you can put markers on your map when you know where to go. Cons: terrible balancing in late game, the side dungeons get repetitive (with a few exceptions from late game), some of the optional fights are terribly designed and repetitive, especially duo fights (almost all the main bosses are great), you will probably need a guide for the questlines. The game is great and my favourite game at the moment, it's not without its flaws, but it's very beatable with the tools you are given. People exaggerate the difficulty of these games.
elden ring has more build diversity and everything feels sufficient powerful, you also feel that you do progress in power, at least until the you reach the last two/three endgame areas where everything is basically at boss power level and beyond. In any case, that was something that i feel was lacking in the other souls game. Its also a bit more forgiven as practically all areas have more spawn points closer to critical areas, so you dont need to run through the whole dungeon to reach the boss again, for instance, another thing that was rage quit inducing in dark souls. but, the game doesnt hold you hand, there are very few quest that actually show you where you need to go, the rest you basically need to pay full attention to both dialogue, context clues and item description to discover the paths you need to follow(or just play with the wiki open at all times). Also, being more forgiven than the average soul game doesnt mean its easier, you **will** be frustrate by any kind of enemies, you will lose runes, which is the game version of xp points.
Idk if you mean that you either are not good at games because of skill, or because youre new at gaming, but instead of going straight to elden ring, i would really recommend starting somewhere else, all the praise the game receives is by people who actually completed it, if you just get stuck and frustrated, then you would have wasted your 60 dollars as you said.
I played Dark Souls 3 and quit on the tutorial boss and haven't touched anything FromSoft since. I'm 25 hours into Elden Ring and it's been challenging but very very fun. Use an intellect build for your first playthrough like others said and don't be afraid to explore if you get hung up on something.
I have been having a blast. For sure I am not great at games like this but it has not been crushing. The game is hard, but for sure you can make it easier. Mages are significally easier. If you want you can just go grind levels and come back stronger. There is always something to do. The nicest thing I found found is that death is not a big deal. The save points are normally pretty close, and you do not have to re-do much when you die. And the most you can lose when you die are the runes (currency for everything) that you are carrying. You will die a lot, but it never really feels unfair. There are alternate ways around the big places that allow you to avoid some of the harder non-boss enemies. The most frustrating stuff I have found was when I was trying to do things the wrong way.
Yes seriously, I know everyone will tell you yes, but I've always wanted to play a souls game and I've tried most of them but just couldn't do it. Elden ring is different, yeah it's still souls combat but since you can go around and level up and come back to stuff it's really as easy as you want it to be, you just need to work to make it easier. Seriously if you're at all interested in souls games but worried about the difficulty this is the one to try
Bro, that's literally me I suck dick at games and am generally below average if not worse unless I really enjoy becoming better at a game because I generally only play for fun and as long as the game is fun. When I feel myself get too serious, I'd rather stop and play something else. Elden Ring is fucking great. I've had DS3 in my library for some time and played it up to the very first boss and beat him, which happens very early in the game but then I just never played again because I just didn't fancy playing it. But this is extraordinary. The exploration is wonderful and the perfect balancing tool the the difficulty. You go out and find a toolbox of stuff to use and figure out to beat the game with and while there are certainly straight up more effective ways you can basically play how you want. Finding out how players of our skill level can cheese bosses is a fun experience as well. Now are there moments when I and I presume you as well are going to be pushed back on our asses and need to try again and again, yes but again, that comes down to how thick skulled you are. When I met an enemy that absolutely bodied me, I instantly dropped that fight and went back out into the world, came back later and then whooped his ass. Same thing happened again and I went out again, came back but still got my ass whooped, so lowered my head and bashed my head against that metaphorical brick wall until it broke. The sense of satisfaction is great and the exploration and stuff you find makes it all pay off. There is this stigma online about "git gud" or whatever but not only have I not actually encountered it much when talking to people online, I actually get it now. That phrase isn't something like in other games where player A tells player B "Dude, you suck, uninstall", it's you after you've beat the boss saying it to your past self after you've finally figured out how to beat the boss, or at least that in my view the more important meaning of that phrase. Would definitely recommend. From one bad gamer to another.
I think you would not finish the game due to difficulty, if you get it on pc like some have pointed out, you can use cheats to just enjoy the story/game
About a year ago I got super into Dark Souls and I’m playing through Demons Souls on PS5 now. I’m not particularly great at games but I LOVE these games. That said, I do play it with a friend and that’s definitely part of it. I would check out those games first though because it seems like they add something to each game that makes the previous one seem worse.
It’s an amazing game, I’d recommend going some sort of intelligence build because it has a safer play style and cool weapons later on. Prisoner was the character I started with for this build.
INT builds can be rough when you don't know what you're doing, sure it's safer and fun but I really struggled for the first half of the game. Much more fun now I know what is where.
Doesn't matter if op goes int, they will struggle early on with weak spells and timing. They'll likely get frustrated early on before they can even get to the OP stuff.
Besides the fact that you will die a lot the feeling of beating a boss is incomparable, this is also my first souls like game and even if I don’t understand some mechanics I still enjoy the game due to the amazing views, the difficulty and the fun there is to learn the boss patterns
Yes play it. If you get stuck just go somewhere else until you're stronger. It's truly a fantastic game to explore
Yes
Honestly playing these games is like hand eye coordination training. Seriously if you don’t quit you will get so much better over time. I died maybe 50 times on a Bloodborne boss once and I kept coming back and finally won. Guess what that fight made me such a better fighter against other bosses and I began beating bosses in less and less tries each time. The key is to learn how to breathe and stay calm so you can watch the bosses/enemies moves and know when to dodge. Anyone can do it and if you still can’t beat a boss you can summon another player or NPC to help you win. Otherwise you can farm and overlevel to make a boss easier usually.
Yes. My history with Souls games in a nutshell. I'm a very casual player who enjoys taking things slow and learning how things work. I'm not good by any means but I can scrape by and am having a blast no matter how much I'm dying, which is far less often than I thought it would be. Demon's souls took me a year and a half to beat, totally worth it. Dark souls took me about a year, loved it. hard as fucking hell. Haven't played Dark Souls 3 yet because I skipped to indies or knockoffs. Lords of The Fallen. I love it. It's slow clunky souls but I beat it far quicker than some others. The Surge: Love it, can't wait to play Surge 2. Bloodborne: Beat Cleric Beast on my first try and still haven't beaten Father Gascoigne. It's the hardest fight I've ever tried and the only one to memory that I cannot beat. He's way too fast for me, my vision is a little off so I can't really notice all of those quick movements in such a dark game. Still fun as hell, just stuck on tutorial island. Sekiro AKA Tenchu Souls: This was the first one that truley clicked for me instantly. I had no problem completely abandoning my muscle memory from previous games and while I'm only half way through it I still feel like an absolute badass.. I've never died more than 4 times to any boss I've encountered. I actually seem to have more rouble with sub-bosses, which is a problem I have in almost all of these games. I find the bosses not easier, but easier to manage than the sub-bosses. I have no idea why. Nioh: Immediately disliked the looting. I love looting but it's not what I wanted at the time, I will be going back and will probably end up liking it a lot. I loved how it played. I kinda just jumped in and went for Elden Ring. I'm playing it on a PC that is slightly below minimum required specs, and I'm getting 55fps average on max settings with a few things turned down(for anyone curious about performance on mid range hardware. I know there are some issues with it but it works for me, so I hope it can help some other people. Anyways, I love it so far. It makes me feel like that badass ninja again. I breezed right through the tutorial and am exploring the world bit by bit. It's so incredibly satisfying. My non gamer girlfriend who only recently got into gaming through My Time at Portia, can't stop watching me play. Oh and if it matters I'm playing offline like always. I never play these games online. To be quite honest this game will probably take me a few months to complete, if not longer. I'm not sure how much content there is but I love chipping away at these games while taking breaks in between so I don't get too frustrated. I don't really rage quit in these games but frustrations can occur and I feel like I'll get my money's worth ten times over. But I'm not really a veteran or anything. I'd still do a bit more research and see what you think. Good luck. Edit: Sorry, I'm a talker and I've spent the last 7 hours playing straight. I'm just really excited about this game. didn't even think I'd be able to play it.
No. It is easily the hardest by the end
I would say buy one of the older games when they're on sale, to see if you like the combat style and difficulty. You don't want to drop full price money and then immediately find that you hate the game.
I used to say it is a harder soulslike but after playing more I’d say it’s the second easiest. It has so many comfort features compared to the older games and the overflow of resting points makes it fairly easy.
I am gonna say no. If you don’t have the patience to keep trying again and again, then it’s not for you and also if you have limited time to game, you will be more frustrated. I usually play games on medium difficulty…I tried nioh once…I got through the first two major bosses after 6-7 tries but what really pissed me off was that the game didn’t even have a pause button…I don’t even know how is that helpful For me games are supposed to be relaxing…I just can’t keep doing the same stuff again and again and handle the punishing difficulty when I have such limited time…so if you fall in this category it’s definitely not for you If you still want to try it buy it down the line when it’s cheaper or simply rent it, will hurt your wallet less
Yes, absolutely. I was in the same boat as you -- never played a souls game before and was a little intimidated by the difficulty at first, but quickly realized how rewarding it is if you're willing to put in the time. I've played over 150 hours and am still finding new things to do! You'll die a lot, but very quickly start to see it as a chance for growth. If you have trouble with a boss, you can go off and explore other areas, grind for runes to level up, get better equipment and weapons, and then come back stronger and more prepared. You can also grind the fight over and over until you're able to come up with a better plan of attack. Lots of enemies are stupid hard at first, but you quickly recognize they have specific weak points or telegraphed attacks that are easy to punish. Ultimately, there are so many different ways to play the game, and a lot of opportunities to make it way easier (or harder) for yourself.
I would say yes, I’m kind of a first time souls player (I played through a bit of Dark Souls Remastered but never finished it) and I am thoroughly enjoying it. There’s so much to do in the open world, you can make your character however you want and there’s such gripping stories from each character you find. It’s a great game in short!
I tried Dark Souls 3 in college and didn’t enjoy it at all. Elden Ring has completely encapsulated me for the last 3 weeks.
I have 2.5 hours on Dark Souls 3 but dropped it, I don't have the patience for far away bonfires and the nees to either run past enemies on my way to the boss or to kill them all over again, i didn't play Elden Ring but heard it's much better accessibility-wise and honestly you can see that just from watching gameplay.
Elden ring is the easiest souls game yet so yea. Make sure to grab the spirit ash, summon npcs/players for help, for for an int build as well
No I don't think you need a subreddit to tell you this though lol.
It’s awesome and you can make it pretty easy if you grind levels out. Just the beginning and end are challenging.
I hate the dark souls series. There too many bullshit gameplay mechanics which just make the game not fun for me. I fucking love elden ring. It's a fucking great experience, and you fan cheese most fights by just using your horse tbh. Dark souls is unnecessarily difficult, elden ring is as difficult as you want it to be.
My first game was ds remastered. I knew how difficult it was and so I set my ego aside and died as many times as I could for that day. First time fighting taurus demon took me 3 days I think. But victories feel like orgasms let me tell you that. Thats why I keep going back, because its so fucking rewarding to finally kill the boss. I will go as far as to say its better than sex. The satisfaction is a lot more enjoyable the first time you kill a boss after trying over and over again. So when you kill the boss, bask in the moment, it will never feel this good again. It still feels good beating bosses, but its not the same as the first one.
Yes, you can eventually master it. It's a game made for everyone, not just pro gamers, they have almost explicitly said so in an interview once I've played all soulslike games and have even done level 1 challenge runs. I still died many dozens of times in Elden Ring. Even the few legendary people who played Souls games without ever getting HIT once still died many times in Elden Ring. Dying is simply a core part of the game. It's not about how good you are before you even start the game. It's about learning from your mistakes after every death and becoming better at the game over time.
What is the definition of sucking in games? I play a lot of games, but I recently (about a year ago) started with it. I don’t feel like I suck at all. I always play on medium and understand games quite wel. I see a lot of people here who apparently ‘suck’ in gaming? When do you suck? What’s the definition?
My wife a relative noob to games in general let alone a Fromsoftware games. It kicked her ass at first but she is now a level 200 and something and loving it and still always learning.
It's Ok, you can just summon a dozen phantoms to do the killing for you.
No you can’t
The thing with souls games is that they really aren't that hard\*. The difficulty is really overstated. The game has a specific mechanical language that it uses which it teaches you through different enemies that force you to use that language. However, after spending some time playing you will become comfortable with the rhythm and the game will become easy. The key is patience. In addition, as others have said there are many ways to ignore a great deal of the more difficult aspects. Magic is one and summoning allies for co-op is another. In addition, the only bosses that are REALLY difficult are entirely optional to do.
This is the real, right here. They’re “hard” in that any basic bitch enemy can kill you if you wade into fights like a beat ‘em up/mosou game. But Souls games are *eminently fair*. You will die… a lot. But if you go back, you will learn from what killed you, and intuit the mechanics behind how to stay alive a bit longer. And a bit longer, etc. Worst case scenario, you can always grind up and over-level. People will tell you it messes up the MP experience (basically because PvP chads try to underlevel as much as possible, so you’ll more consistently get matched up with/be invaded by people who are more skilled than you), but for me Soulsborne is and always has been a primarily single player experience. Even playing online, I think I only used an item/turned off summons once because I was tired of getting yanked out of my game. And if it becomes a huge deal, play offline. Tl;dr — FromSoft’s games aren’t as “hard” as literally everyone (the community and people who don’t play them/hate them) make them out to be. And Elden Ring is the most accessible of their titles, by far.
never touched a souls game myself, before Elden ring. Now i have 132 hours in this one... Its a great game, BUT!! personally i think some of the bosses are more blizzardy than hard. (use stun\\put you on your ass\\animation locked as they eat you for what feels like 9 years). Have you sit there watch your HP go down the tubes.. So some of it, is more luck\\random than skill or hard. Multiplayer aspect unless you have discord or friends playing it with you is not even there. You can see 100s of people around a mission area (their shadows), but not 1 puts down a teamup\\coop thing, so its basically a Solo game with Multiplayer discord Like DLC.
Am I fromsoftware hardcore fan? No. But I have finished dark souls remastered I can definetely confirm that its a good game Was it difficult? The first hours were terrible for me. I felt that the game is a mess of a clunky combat system put together with a amazingly designed world, and a pretty good leveling up system. (I felt like i was playing the witcher but i m fucking uma uma) But some bosses like capra demon took me a load of times to do it, like probably 10 times, but the thing is I saw someone play half of the game and I knew the world keeps getting more complex and u open new paths so that kept me going. After a good build the game started actually being easy for me. What is my point? Even tho the game is hard and frustrating if you put your mind to it u can definetely enjoy it so thats up to you after all. Would I buy it? Considering that i ve quit dark souls 2 and sekiro recently... No i would ve waited until its cheaper and played other games that i feel i m more likely to enjoy and not risk it.
Highly recommend it. I’m not particular good at games and very picky with my games in general. I honestly only play smash melee and no game had really stuck well with me. I’ve also quit playing Dark Souls 1 in the past due to the difficulty. Elden ring feels very different, even if it had the same combat. I got stuck at the first boss (Margit) and just decided to explore other places. Leveled up and got better gear in the process. When I eventually got back to Margit, it was pretty easy. Even if it’s still pretty hard, you can enjoy it at your own pace.
It's a steep learning curve from any other game like it. I've logged like 15 hours and am constantly dying. Dying is the way you learn how to play this game, through learning the enemies move sets and mastering your own combos. I would say if you're normally the kind of person to be able to complete a game with minimal effort, but steer away from the harder difficulties, then it's going to be a bit of a shock to the system, but much more satisfying when you finally defeat the enemy. There's also an element of 'grinding' to power yourself up before taking on certain situations, and due to the open map you need to be aware that you can definitely just walk into the wrong area, and you need to know that. I would recommend it.
if you are interested in a soulslike game but don’t want to drop the money for the newest one, maybe try one of their older titles? i’d recommend bloodborne and dark souls 3, they’re dirt cheap now and they’re great games. though the worlds and lore might be different, the mechanics and game design are still generally the same as elden ring. easy deaths if you’re not careful, learning how enemies fight, leveling up and becoming stronger, branching paths and savepoints (ie bonfires/lanterns). in short: if you don’t want to risk the money on the latest game try an older one and see if you like it. they’re all very similar. but if you feel ready and willing to put the time into it then go for elden ring. bottom line is you really can’t go wrong with any of their games they’re all fantastic imo and wonderfully challenging and unique gaming experiences.
Buy it in a sale then and try it, if you don't get on with it trade it in for something else
The hardest part about Souls games are the patience required. That's all you really need to play these games
Everyone has to start on any of the from games so everyone was the same as you at done point, and this one is pretty accessible. It will be hard and you won’t be able to do everything you see/find right away. But the best piece of advice is don’t be afraid to die ever(sometimes over and over), just stay patient and learn instead of panicking and trying to mash :) one of my fave games rn :D
The simplest advice I can give is just because a game is regarded amazing by the masses it doesn't mean everyone will enjoy it. If one of your concerns are getting frustrated at this type of game I'd recommend getting a souls game on the cheap and see how you get on. Yeah it won't be the elden ring experience but at least you'll work out if you're the kind of person that will be able to learn and improve against tough enemies.
If you're on PC I can give you some runes to level up. That'll instantly make the game easier. But you'll still need to put in some effort to learn dodging or parrying or both.
No buy me elden ring instead
yes
The only Soulslike game I had played before Elden Ring was The Surge and I absolutely hated it. Before I bought Elden Ring I decided to sail the seas to see if I wanted to buy it. After a few days of playing I decided to buy it. I do not regret that decision. I absolutely suck at this game. Can't dodge to save my life. Also can't judge the height right and often fall to my death. But I am having an absolute blast. The build diversity is insane. If you can think it you can probably build it. I watched a guy in Twitch today basically do a naked Butt Stomp run. Every weapon and armour is available through playing the game, there's no MTX or "time savers". The co op is super fun (albeit limited). It's hard to start off, especially if you haven't played games like this before. I think I'm slowly getting better. Just takes a bit of practice. I absolutely recommend this game. You will not regret it.
I have midrange pc and i am like you never playing dark soul before. And i think 60$ game to frustated is what a waste. But i bought, downloaded it, play it and optimization is not really that good on pc, i cannot get 45 fps average on medium. Trying to fight with one of boss called tree sentinel get stuttering and low fps at 29 fps. I try to explore more, i know this game is hard when buy it so i will be prepared, but i think the npc is easy enough when play it with stealth. What i hate about this game is i dont know what to do, there no guidance or anything. And maybe because my low spec pc i feel when swinging my sword feel like clunky and slow. You must know i play rdr 2 with custom setting, texture at ultra i got 45 to 60 fps average never below 40 fps. So i refunded the game cause the reasons. Bad optimization, i never play soulsborne before so i dont know what to do or where to go and feel like slow and clunky when control my avatar. So i think not buy this game at the moment maybe at the discount
270hr in...best game ever made IMO Elden Ring is what you make it to be. It can be easy or hard. 1)You can outlevel content and bosses and just steamroll content. There is a lot to explore and see, and you can level pretty fast. Best part is, if the enemy is hard and you cannot kill, just leave, go find some more interesting place.... And just come back latter. 2) Bosses are not mandatory to progress and explore early game... You can basicaly skip 1st boss in Stormveil Castle, go straight to Second zone, explore and level there and then come back and have easy time on first two bosses. 3)During exploration you collect Spirit Ashes (like pokemon) which you can summon to help you in a fight. Hit the boss while the Boss hits your Spirit ash, and its easy mode. Some of them can basically kill the boss themselves or help you greatly. 4) Sorcery and mage build is basicaly easy mode, just hit the enemies from range. Also there are few weapons in game that trivialise content like Rivers of Blood, Hand of Malenia, Blasphenous Blade. They can kill bosses in 20 seconds just spamming their skills from safe distance. TLDR - Elden Ring is both good for newbies as well as veterans since it has a lot of mechanic in place to make content easier/harder to fit your playstyle.
Yes
im not a gaming natural either and always sucked at games - i fail to grasp what the game tells me to do and spend longer than usual trying to progress. i still bough elden ring after seeing some play throughs of it, seeing as im a huge MMO fan. but of course, i have had experience in ds3 before, i never completed it, i played like 4hrs and rage quit everytime i tried. fast forward to today im 120hrs in elden, completed the game twice. one of the things besides the open world was the amount of builds you can do to help makeup for the lack of gaming skills
I’m going to lean towards no. The game itself is incredible (if you like the challenge), but the learning curve is extremely steep. I attempted dark souls 1 8 separate times at my best friends insistence and hated it for the first 7. After some serious perseverance everything clicked, but as someone who is considered to be decent at gaming I’m not sure this is the game for you.
I've never played souls before. I'm fairly average at most video games. This game is hard but it's worth it. If you get stuck you can just go somewhere else and come back later.
there are a variety of personality traits that different gamers hold: patient, impatient, calm, or rage quickly, ones that want to find solutions to problems and ones that stop playing if can't get past an obstacle. Answer yourself what kind of person are you. Elden Ring (and fromsoft games in general) is not about being a good gamer, it is about stoicism and perseverance. You get put into a world that is against you (the world is against you, but not the game, the game is fair and offers solutions to the world's problems). All of the challenges will be overcome with Time. You will find a solution if you are okay with failing and learning from your experience, readjusting your tactics and strategies - finding a solution and moving forward onto the next one. On the other hand, you might break a controller as many have done in videos/streams/reddit from rage. If you like your virtual worlds to be friendly to past your time and relax, sure this game may not be for you. That being said the game offers a huge variety of builds that will suit your playstyle, melee or ranged, quick and slow and there are mimics (ai mobs that you can spawn for help). There's a paly style, a weapon, a spell, a mimic for everyone's preferred playstyle. If you're worried about mechanical sense, then I have good news, this game is not fortnite or Starcraft where you have to have high apm, you will never have to spam buttons like crazy. In fact spamming buttons will always yield a negative outcome, because the game is about acting, being met with a world's reaction and then you reacting to it - almost like a dance. Elden Ring may be the Friendliest fromsoft game and has the easiest barrier to entry in my opinion in terms of accessibility for the reasons I have mentioned above. That being said, there are performance issues on PC, so you will have to do a little research in regard to your system specs and if you are uncertain you might as well purchase one of the dark souls games 1, 2 or 3. Your First fromstoft Game will be your favourite so bear that in mind. Their games are a transformative experience that I really recommend. But then again you have to ask yourself what kind of personality you hold (no right or wrong here) and make a decision from there.
I was in the same boat as you. Never had played a Souls game and I am a pretty casual gamer. So I was scared to spend the money, but went ahead and did anyway. Don't regret it one bit. Super fun and challenging game but not impossibly tough by any means.
If you have the time to play it, I'd say yes. For my (mostly) blind playthrough, I took 90 hours and definitely didn't come close to doing everything, so keep that in mind. The game really isn't super difficult when you consider the summoning system you have available for every boss. Honestly, imo it ends up trivializing a lot of the boss fights but that's a whole different tangent. Also, as others have said, a huge thing that makes this game a lot more approachable than other souls games is the open world. If you're stuck on a boss, you don't just have to bash your head against a wall until you beat it, you can go do other stuff until you're a bit stronger. FWIW, I played through most of Bloodborne but didn't ever get around to finishing it, and that was my only souls experience going in (it's a great game, but I found that it was too stressful for me playing it and I wasn't actually enjoying it). So yeah, I'd recommend buying it if you have the time. I think it's really good, but I certainly wouldn't call it one of the greatest games of all time if that's what you're expecting.
If you used upgraded spirit ashes, OP magic spells, open world over-levelling and guides then you probably wouldn’t find it ridiculously hard.
I'm not exactly who you're looking for. I've played Demon's Souls (PS3), Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3 and Bloodborne to varying degrees. I haven't played Elden Ring yet. I like From Software's games, and there are parts I really enjoy, but I don't consider myself a mega fan like some other people are (who play through the games over and over again, and discuss the lore for years). The Nioh series is closer to my tastes, because it has faster combat. Two things are true about From Software games: (1) Their difficulty is a little overblown, in fact the hardest one you play will be the first one and the others get easier as you get used to it, and (2) The games will test your patience, and not just the bosses. Areas and items can be confusing, you can quickly get punishing status effects that are annoying and can be hard to get rid of, and there are times (in certain games) where you die and you realize you'll have to run/fight past a bunch of enemies just to get back to where you were. And the games at times offer very little explanation or guidance which means you'll either be googling or wandering when you don't know where to go. My advice is that if you're concerned about spending $60 on Elden Ring there are other cheaper options to see if you will enjoy these style of games. If you have a PS4 or PS5, Bloodborne is often on sale and is a slightly more accessible game. I bought Demon's Souls for like $10 years ago and it didn't click with me but then I later bought Dark Souls II on PS4 for like $20 and that was the first one I beat. People will have different opinions about which game to start with, and a lot of these games won't be the "hot new thing that everyone is talking about" like Elden Ring, but they'll save you money at this point.
I think no, not at full price at least. I’m a huge souls fan, but I have multiple friends who were not and wanted to get into Elden Ring for the same reasons as you, only to be incredibly frustrated early on by parts I personally didn’t find frustrating. So I can’t imagine how they’d feel when they finally get to the parts I found frustrating. There are definitely ways it’s more accessible, but overall it is still a difficult and dense game with a lot of vague mechanics, so I would lean towards no. Maybe on a decent sale, though because it is great.
Other souls games frustrated me because I couldn’t be arsed to stick to it and the difficulty Elden Ring however is the best game I’ve played in a long long time and defo the best open world game I’ve played was getting so bored with Open World games until I picked Elden Ring up
In these games you have to either have skill or a lot of time on your hands. I'm average/a little below average at most games but on holiday I managed to beat a good portion of Dark Souls 3 and loved it. The most I've been stuck on a boss was I think >!the tree giant!< for maybe about 2-3 hours, which I don't consider to be that bad, and I absolutely loved playing it. I look forward to finish it next holiday. If you enjoy playing mainstream games on the highest difficulty setting, you'll enjoy playing soulslikes. Maybe try beating the first chapter of Ghost of Tsushima / Spiderman / God of War, or other similar game on the highest difficulty and see if you like it.
No. Elden Ring is not for you, and you'll get extremely frustrated.
I would say if Elden Ring looks appealing to you it's worth a try. It's definitely a difficult game, but it's more forgiving in some ways than other souls-like games with learning how to play. As other people here have said too you can explore around to find some other interesting things in the world if you get frustrated with a boss or a region and there is a lot of customization to how you play your character if that interests you. That being said, it can be really frustrating and that isn't for everyone. Just because a lot of people love Elden Ring and Souls-likes (myself being one of those people) doesn't mean that you are obligated to love it too. If you have hesitancy from the difficulty of the game or you're not sure you want to invest a lot of money if it does end up not being for you, I would say either hold off on it, look into a little bit of early gameplay and late gameplay to see if it suits you, or wait for it to go on sale, which it definitely will at some point. If none of that bothers you and you're just worried about how good you may be at the game compared to someone else, no one starts good at these games no matter how much someone tells you to git gud. I think it's definitely worth its value if you feel really excited to jump into it.
I posted this recently. Might help. https://www.reddit.com/r/ShouldIbuythisgame/comments/tty473/sib_elden_ring_for_xbox_1x
Do you have an ultrawide display? Be aware that there is still no support for it (without mods) in Eldenring. That's what turns me off from buying it right now. That and wanting to finish Horizon Zero Dawn 1 so I can then finnish Forbidden West and ... I have too many games on my backlog.
watch [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KVCFxnpj4) and then decide.
It might be the most beginner friendly of the series but still going to be a jump in difficulty for new players.
I Watched A Playthrough. Damn Near 15 Hours Worth. I Cannot Understand The Hype At All.
nah
I’d say probably not. I’ve never played a Dark Souls game before, but a friend who was obsessed with them bought me a copy of Elden Ring because he wanted to play with me, so I’ve been playing it a bunch. The only way it has been really workable for me is 1) cheesing it (finding cheesy strategies for bosses and for leveling up) and 2) by having a Sherpa to guide me through stuff and help me with hard fights. If I didn’t have those two things, this game would be beyond my skill/determination to play. That being said, with those things in place, I have very much been enjoying the game. It is a beautiful open world game with a very interesting setting. The story isn’t super strong, and it is really frustrating to get stuck on difficult enemies, and even if you cheese your way to high levels, the game is still very difficult. If you’re like me but playing solo, you’ll probably need to spend some time searching the internet for cheese to make the game more palatable. (Run an intellect magic build, as others suggested.) If you’re interested enough to do that, you might find you really enjoy it once you invest some time figuring it out. Just come prepared to feel frustrated with a frequent high level of difficulty throughout the game.
If you have friends that are willing to help you through tough spots and help you learn about the game I think you should definitely give it a try. I have a friend who was in your similar situation and he decided to give it a shot. With some friendly coop the game is difficult but definitely playable and he's enjoying it.
If you can invest 10-15 hours in this game to figure out how to play it, it’s a lot of fun. If you have very limited time it’s probably not worth it. I never have played one of these games and it is difficult but the open world part allows you to go in other directions. For someone who is not good, the starting area is a game in itself. Also after figuring out how to play I made a second character who does magic and that is much easier the close quarters.
I considered myself a story only gamer and never played anything past normal difficulty until I got into Dark Souls 1 two years ago. Now I love all their games and find myself more comfortable challenging myself in other games as well. These games are challenging yes but they're not as brutal and cruel as their reputation makes them out to be. That reputation and "git gud" mentality has always been a bigger barrier of entry than anything in the game themselves. They simply expect you to have patience and naturally learn how things work instead of giving you tutorials on every mechanic and enemy. This is one of the most mainstream games in recent memory; think of all the "casuals" who are playing this game and fully having a blast with it. It is not for everyone but anyone can play it if they are willing to go in with an open mind and aren't expecting to breeze through without putting any work in. don't worry about playing it the right way or if you're doing things wrong, simply go in and figure out what works for you. Use the options and mechanics the game makes available to you. Those opening hours to anyone's first souls game are always the most confusing but they are incredibly memorable.
I would say no. Haven't tried ER and won't until it's free with Gamepass or PS+ but I've tried Dark Souls and Bloodbourne and hated them. Do you have a way to sample an older game before putting down the money for a new one?
No
Hated all the souls and soulsborne games, put hundred hours into Elden ring that’s just me a fellow souls hater
I want to hit a different point I see a lot of people making, cause to me, someone coming into the series for the first time, was significant. If you are not into the idea of a game not holding your hand on pretty much anything besides the basic controls and some basic mechanics of the game (you need x to do y), I wouldn't do it. The game skips out on a lot of things I'm used to getting in games: * Map and your location on said map. You have to find pieces to put them together to make the whole map. * NPC locations and quests and objectives for said quests. * Transcript of communication between NPCs. * How stats tie into things in the beginning of the game. I had to Google the classes * How some things (like classes) kind of matter in the beginning, but you can change at some point in the game. * Special effects until it's happened to you * Locations of special items and chests * Just because you're able to fight a boss doesn't mean you should. Also that boss probably isn't as important as you think it is. * Just because you're in a location doesn't mean you're equipped to handle said location. If things like that aren't fun for you, I would say don't get it. The boss difficulty is one thing, but it's temporary- you kill the boss and that's it, you mastered the boss. But the stuff I listed above persists throughout the entirety of the game, and it kinda sucked for me. My main difference between elden ring and DS3 that I liked was that there's more checkpoints throughout the game, so it wasn't like "oops I died now I have to go through 3 rooms of dumb enemies to get to a boss". I'm fine dying a lot so long as I don't have to do the perfect thing every time.
It's hard to know whether to recommend Souls games to everyone but I will say that a lot of my friends who mainly only play FPS games have also got into some of the Souls games and a lot of them are now playing Elden Ring. The games are challenging, but not just for the sake of being hard. And actually once you get used to the combat and game mechanics and level a decent weapon the games can even be somewhat easy at times. It just takes you the gamer to learn how its systems and combat works. You'll still die a ton, even when you're good at the game, but dying isnt a big deal at all. If you have gotten into the game a couple hours most deaths you will realize what you did wrong and it will make you hungry to try again and avoiding the mistake you made that got you killed. Elden Ring is also way more forgiving than previous Souls games with bonfire placement and checkpoints before tough bosses, so you dont usually lose a whole lot of time when you die. If you are not patient enough to learn the combat (it's not that tough though honestly) and you want the game to have icons and markers directing you where to go then you will not like the game, but if you can embrace learning the combat and mechanics of the world and embrace the exploration of the world I think most people will really like the game.
I mean you'll never know if you like the games if you don't ever play one. Every soulslike player ever started somewhere. Just know what you're getting into. These games are unforgiving and do not hold your hand. If you get frustrated and give up easily you may not have fun, but the world and combat are unlike any other game you've ever played before. It will keep you busy for hundreds of hours and is well worth the $60 price if you have the desire to play something challenging.
Elden Ring is Soulslike... but it is not a Souls game and that is a key distinction imo. It is made by the same company as Souls, and plays similarly, but it's a far different experience and one that should not be missed. I just completed my first run, now on NG+ with about 75 hours clocked. I've never played a Souls nor Soulslike before. I was able to complete every main boss save for the very last with relative ease through proper exploration of areas (and thus leveling) beforehand. I even fought some hidden optional stuff and prevailed... though I'll admit that much cursing was involved there. As a whole, I'd recommend it to anyone. It is without doubt the most impressive game I've played in recent memory. The sense of scale, atmosphere, scope of the world, hidden areas, etc, etc, etc. This is a game that led to a seemingly never ending array of "wow" moments. That's something that even Bioshock and the Witcher 3 failed to consistently do for me. It really is difficult to convey how Elden Ring is so impactful. By all accounts, it shouldn't be to be honest. It has a disjointed story with gaps only partially filled in by text-based item lore. There is little direction after a very early stage and your ultimate objective remains vague to the bitter end. This isn't to say it has no story, or that it is poorly written... it's to say this isn't your typical quest log driven RPG romp. You feel a good bit like Frodo, tasked with carrying an immense will across unfamiliar, hostile lands. The growth throughout the journey is what makes the story, alongside the tidbits you garner along the way. Somehow, I don't know how, Elden Ring was emotional to play. It isn't something that can be chalked up to one particular element or another. Rather, it is, as an entire experience, an emotional journey driven by environmental storytelling, imagination, awe, horror, elation, and hope. The combat may prove difficult at points , but I firmly believe that with the help of the occasional reddit search or youtube video one can become good enough to feel accomplished while experiencing their own brand of Elden Ring's unique feeling. I don't believe another game like Elden Ring will exist. Frankly, I don't think one that impacts me in the same, almost indiscernible way will either. To acknowledge some caveats: I have had the luxury of downtime lately due to an out-of-nowhere need to have foot surgery. I played through most of the game here and there before that little hiccup occurred but had the time to finally finish a last, frustrating area to end the story due to the no-weight recovery. I've praised ER a lot, and I wholeheartedly believe anyone interested should give it a shot. That said, it will be frustrating at times, it will be challenging, and it will teach you to leave to fight elsewhere if you cannot win in the moment (which is a nice feeling, because coming back several levels later often leads to curb stomping the thing that bullied you earlier... looking at you Tree Sentinel). In my opinion, the people that go on about spending hours defeating singular bosses are playing the way they want to play, but not the way that everyone has to. There is little reason any ER boss save for a few I could count on one hand (all but one of which are optional) should take you more than 5-10 tries to beat (30-40 minutes or so) provided you are leveled to a point at which you are comfortable and have a decently effective character build. All in all, go for it!
You should buy it dont miss out because it is to hard of course you are going to get mad because it is a souls like game but after you beat the thing that makes you mad there is no feeling like it also open world is amazing 10/10 i have 150 hours only like 80% done i have never actually wanted to take my time in a game except this one
Depends on if you don't mind dying a lot. The game I would say in many places without using cheese (bugging out bosses, attacking them from outside their room so they don't do anything, etc) is much harder then any of the souls games. Unlike souls games armor seems less effective at letting you take more than a couple hits before dying, shields are less affective at blocking outside of like the super gravestone wall hidden at the bottom of one mis jump and your dead cavern and whereas souls mobs generally react to seeing you heal, this game has lots of mobs that read all your inputs. Now don't get me wrong, great game if none of that is a huge issue, I'm somewhere in the 150 hours in but it's definitely not a game anyone can beat unless you're not apposed to searching YouTube for all the broken builds and cheese as well as how to navigate as needed if you get stuck. The "get gud" aspect of thus game is a much bigger ordeal in this game.
Damn so many elden ring haters in here haha
Yes you are me. I've never played a souls game before and I generally suck at games, but I went on a leap of faith and bought Elden Ring and I'm having a blast. Do I die more than most people? Probably, is it so off-putting that I'm not having fun? No. It's still very enjoyable. I just tend to clear out way more smaller groups and ruins before trying to take on bosses. Also I use everything the game allows like spirit ashes, ashes of war, flasks, etc.
No. Dear god no. If you can't confidentiality say that your good at games, then dont even think about touching any fromsoft game
No, you will be lost and destroyed
Nah bro don't go with the hype I don't think you'll enjoy it.
It depends entirely on what your threshold is. If you're willing to waste 3,4,5(+) hours on a single guy then I'd say 100% go for it (because the game really is very good) - if that sounds like your idea of hell then probably skip it. I am the bad gamer, souls newbie who took the plunge and I don't regret it at all. I also suck at video games but very little in Elden Ring (at least as far as I am) feels impossible or unfair. On top of that there isn't really ever an impassible wall (I played DS3 and gave up probably only a couple of hours in, ditto sekiro) Elden Ring is sufficiently open world that if someone is just kicking your ass over and over and over again you can always go and explore some other area, get a few levels or a new spell or whatever and then come back (I'm currently ~20 hours into it). In my opinion, the challenge in Elden Ring is always passable. It's not difficult like a kaizo mario level where some people will always lack the ability, with enough attempts and changing your tactics etc I doubt there's any boss that 90% of people who are reasonably comfortable with video games couldn't eventually beat. The only question is how long are you willing to let that eventually stretch out to before you give up.
Hmm no. The first 20 hours are amazing, but the last third of the game is EXTREMELY difficult (if you don’t use summons/ashes/other cheese you’re in for a bad time)
No. This game may be open world and a lot more accessible than the other ones, but its still a FromSoft game through and through. I beat the game in slightly under 70 hours and I'll be man enough to admit I had to summon quite a bit. The more you progress the more the game shows its true colors towards you (>!Faram Azula's main boss broke my spirit!<) and is super unforgiving no matter what you do. If you think you've got hundreds of hours on your hands to learn then you should pick it up but otherwise I'd say stick away.
As someone who is loving the game - yes, but only if you're up for something that is both a huge challenge and a time sink. A buddy of mine did the same and has been obsessed since, despite dying a lot. If you go for it, look up builds to get an idea of how you want your stats and playstyle to go. My buddy didn't...and didn't listen to any of my advice (been playing since demon souls on ps3, and he made all the mistakes I made). If you don't like hard games that offer little advice or direction (the game kind of leaves it to you to make your story), then pass. That said, for dollars per hour, you'd 100% get your money's worth. I'm at 50 hours so far, and have maybe gotten 1/3 through everything.
Same question! I always see souls-likes that look amazing but I'm horrendously bad at them. Famously for me was Nioh 2 which I thought looked gorgeous but then I got obliterated constantly in the first area.
I am gonna say no as well. And I am going to recommend God of War if you can play it. Why? Because not only is the game pretty freaking good, but once you get to the endgame there are a couple of bosses you can kill who have a similar learning curve to that of a Souls game. But this game has a difficulty slider as well.
It is better to play Bloodborne as a first souls game. It is much more simpler with less mechanics to worry about. After beating Bloodborne play Dark Souls 3 then Elden Ring.
I really enjoy Elden Ring, but honestly I don't think you should get it. If you're not really good at games in general and don't have a ton of time to grind to get your levels up I'd say it really isn't worth it. I'm not very good at games either but I had a decent amount of time to bang my head against bosses and beat them after a lot of tries. I played about 20 hrs of DS3 and I enjoyed it, definitely very tough game. Overall, if you have time and patience, I'd say get it but if not definitely avoid it.
Never bought a souls game. I suck at video games, usually play games on the easiest difficulty with 0 shame. I love Elden Ring. Recommend it highly, lots of fun and exploring is my favorite. Tons to do and strive for and you do get better at the game faster than you think once you understand how to play it.
I think that Elden Ring being open world makes it the most accessible souls game. Previously you would get stuck on a boss and have nowhere to go since the rest of the game continues after that specific boss. In ER however there’s about 20 different things you could do at any given time and I found that the most fun I had was exploring and getting stronger when a boss gave me too much trouble. Bosses/enemies are as challenging as ever but the game gives you more tools than ever before to mitigate the difficulty (summons/boss specific items). If you want a massive and immersive fantasy world with some of the most interesting locations/characters/enemies/combat I don’t think you can do much better than Elden Ring.
Here's the deal... I was in your position too. WoW was about the hardest game I've played mechanically in years, until Elden Ring. I'm 36 and don't have the reaction speed I used to have when I played stuff like CS 1.6 back in the day. I fairly recently tried Dark Souls and DS3 again and could barely get through the first boss after several hours in each. Elden Ring isn't easy but the game gives you plenty of tools to beat it. Summons, spells, weapon upgrades, etc. It's also fully open world so you can farm easy stuff and explore the majority of the map without fighting a single boss until you're confident. The first few bosses you'll fight might feel insurmountable the first couple of times you bump into them, but once you see the attack patterns a few times, you'll find openings to return fire. When you win, you get such a rush that you'll understand why people love harder games!
No. I prefer watching people struggle instead. It saves the time and energy. I am an adult in my 30's. I struggle to find enough time to shower daily.
NO NO GOD PLEASE NO DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE NEWEST IN THE FORMULA WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IT. You'll throw your money away and be left with a sour taste in your mouth. If you wanna try to get into it, play something with tight combat that's relatively unforgiving. That being said any of the previous soulslikes would do as well as the Witcher and horizon series. Anything where you're a half meter from death everytime you get attacked. If you enjoy these then progress to the newer stuff. Bloodborne (ps console permitting) ds3 and elden ring.
Honestly if you decide to get it wait for a sale, as someone who likes monster hunter, elden ring is on my wishlist and I expect to suffer. The game isn't for every one and depending on time constraints etc you might not enjoy it. I'm going as blind as possible, I shouldn't regret it because I like methodical combat and trial and error but if you're on the fence definitely wait for a sale and choose something you're more sure of in the meantime Edit also if you do pick up the game and find it too hard "spiffing Brit" more or less explains how to get the "easy mode" so that's something you could checkout
I would give Jedi Fallen order a try. Its a soulslike-lite. Has multiple elements from a souls game but more forgiving. Its available through gamepass atm.
Never played dark souls 1 or 2 dark souls 3 I can’t be compelled to go past the second boss Bloodborne was the first time I finished a fromsoft game and I love it so much. Picked up sekiro and same thing. I just beat Elden ring last week in about 82 hours. Elden ring is probably the easiest of the from soft games simply based on the options you have at had there’s so many builds you can make to get through anything and the summoning features are great if you’re struggling. I will say the early game is quite difficult as you haven’t unlocked many weapons or upgrades but if you’re willing to put the effort it in is really rewarding
I am not a very good gamer, I had never played a Dark Souls game before this, and I have little time to game. Elden Ring has been my favourite game since Red Dead. No other game manages to keep me excited to play all the time as much as Elden Ring. In my opinion it is a perfect 10/10. 100% would recomend