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Elden Ring Thread!

A topic by Minoh Workshop created Feb 23, 2022 Views: 1,145 Replies: 10
Viewing posts 1 to 5
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Oh, Elden Ring...

As we mentioned in our latest DevLogs, we are absolutely hyped for Elden Ring. So much that we specifically scheduled 0.6.0 so we would be free to play it during release.

Now, originally I planned on disappearing from the Internet for a week after the release date, but after some thinking we realized that comparing notes, discussing theories, exchanging tactics with everyone here could be an extremely unique and unforgettable experience. We genuinely enjoy the level of discussion that goes here, after all, and I struggle to think of other places where the discussion might be as good.

So... We're having an ELDEN RING THREAD. You are all welcome to participate, and I hope we will have fine discussions and finer shitposting. Let's just be mindful of spoiling things, alright?

Developer

I played for about an hour and so far I'm not feeling it.

I beat the first boss I encountered and found the fight satisfying but I'm beginning to get the feeling that trading tight level design for an open world was not a good idea.

I hope I'm unlucky and just haven't found any well-designed levels that can be accessed from the overworld or something like that and the good stuff's just around the corner, but so far, not a good first impression.

Developer

I'm about 90 minutes in, exploring things at a leisure pace, getting used to it. So far my curiosity about the setting and what's going on is piqued, and that's a pretty important for me in FromSoft's games.

Mechanically, the game plays well. It feels a lot like Dark Souls 3 with a bit of Sekiro (jumping, being able to run away easily with the horse). I'm a bit iffy with how little stamina attacks and rolls consume, and how big the starting bar is. This might push people to roll spam, but this might be a balancing for the open world format. We will see.

I'm liking Elden Ring's stealth, though, at least more than Sekiro's. Sekiro's encounters felt... formulaic? They were too much like precious little puzzle boxes that could be unraveled. And the grappling hook trivialized the escape moments. Meanwhile Elden Ring feels more like Metal Gear Solid V with more of a strategic spin to it, with letting the player pick the angle of approach.

The fashion is absolutely amazing. Loving it, the warrior set might be one of the best-looking starter costumes in all of Soulsborne games.

I'm optimistic. But I do agree that the open world sacrificed something. All open world games do. We'll see how it goes.

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Yeah, souls games have a slow ramp up for me until I get more interesting weapons, and I definitely find myself agreeing with you Nanoff. I've done two bosses beyond the tutorial and while they did have mini dungeons from the bonfire as a real level rather than open terrain, it was short and no real variety in the enemies in it. I think that's just a fact of them being early level stuff before you have options over the starting gear and a club, but it's still a downside.

Also, even on low settings my computer occasionally struggles to react, which is a huge problem when it does that consistently on the same boss attack, making it much harder to dodge. 😮‍💨 Really hoping that's not a theme here, tho maybe I just need a driver update.

I've been enjoying watching my friends diving into it, hoping to give it a fair shake after my next paycheck. For now, I've been keeping an eye out for game-breakers; a friend of a friend noted they fell out of the world during a boss fight, and the game wouldn't load for them afterwards. Eventually they fixed it by lowering their graphics settings before loading the game.

Overall, I feel like the maps are more expansive than what I've seen in prior Souls games. That more open world aspect of progression gives a completely different early game experience; one friend was dungeon crawling right away and that took up most of his early game, another was on the surface dealing with tree guardians and withered treants and the like. They wound up playing about the same time, but advanced through the story at wildly different paces as a result. Certain things the overworld runner got to that made the game a lot more interesting for them early on, if you know what I mean.

But overall it's a gorgeous game to look at. It really seems like From Software amped up the polish this time around, and this game has such a vibrant color palette. I'm looking forward to the worldbuilding tricks and secrets to be scavenged and discussed as the weeks roll by :)

Developer

Some initial thoughts about Elden Ring's setting so far:

1. The witch who gave me the bell that lets me summon Jojo stands wondered how long it'd take for me to disobey/go against what the Two Fingers want. So far my vague grasp of the story is that the "Two Fingers" are connected with the whole sending Tarnished to collect fragments of the Elden Ring and becoming the Elden Lord thing, probably as the main faction in favour of it. Though I'm skeptical about it, that things are as simple as "invade and pillage the land, Tarnished, and become the new lord by sheer force." Meanwhile, Melina is not even trying to hide that she has an agenda, she will help us as long as we take her to the Erdtree.

It's too early to tell but I'm wondering if this, like the Dark Souls games, will be the main dichotomy at play — be a good boy and do what the Two Fingers want vs. understand what's going on and, possibly, carving out a different way forward.... I sure hope this isn't a rehash of Dark Souls 3 h-haha.

2. Miyazaki in particular has a consistent pattern of inserting the concept of kegare/ritual impurity in his games, specifically as a root cause of evil and as a corrupting agent (which is pretty standard for Japanese culture). This is stuff like Aldrich cannibalising people and becoming what he became, people going crazy over using defiled (old) blood in Bloodborne, etc.

With G R R Martin's participation I was half-expecting this theme to pop up less or be dropped entirely, but while exploring the first areas I already found a ditch full of dead bodies with kegare-slugs (literally reused from Dark Souls 3 and other games) which are weak to fire. (As a rule of thumb, everything that's corrupted in post-Demon Souls FromSoft games is weak to fire, it burns the impurities away.) And these dead bodies are in contact with water, stagnant water, and that's another recurring motif in previous FromSoft games.

I'm wondering just how violent the past of the Lands Between was, even before the shattering of the Elden Ring. The scenery is beautiful for sure, but what was really going on under the surface here?

3. I like Melina's aesthetic. Missing the left eye? Now that's what I call anime!

4. The NPC invasions are pleasing. I don't think everyone will agree with me but my character automatically dismouting Torrent whenever an NPC invasion is about to happen is just so good. In a second I get ready and hyped for it, it's like a little treat as reward for exploring the place more thoroughly. Have you guys found any NPC invasions yet?

5. I recall that back when Elden Ring was announced there were some so-called "leaks" saying that Elden Ring would be all about switching your own character's body parts, that it'd be a major gameplay mechanic... lol lmao.

I'm curious to see whether people were talking out of their asses or if this is some tragic level of cut content.

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I'm not sure I'm a fan of the open world's aspect, i've played a few Hours banging my head against a boss on a bridge that the grace lead me to only to find out that I've missed a boss and am unprepared gear and level wise, the open world's design mislead me with the mechanic that's meant to lead me which is kinda odd, also that bridge boss is really inconsistent on terms of parrying, I've only been able to get the punish after a parry once, all the other times I just end up normally hitting it in the face, is anyone else having this issue?

Developer

I had that issue, yes.

His attacks have a weird timing to them, there's a very big delay. I'd go as far as saying they seem to have designed him to punish the sort of rolling that would be very effective in Dark Souls 3.

After getting my head smashed in a few times I went out and explored. I agree, the mechanics are a bit misleading, the game pushes you along as if that was going to be the first, easy, "introductory" fight. I also get the impression that the starter weapons feel underpowered, the game improved when I found another, better one that had a fun weapon art to it.

I really suggest that you go around Limgrave, just exploring, leveling up... At least for a while.

What starter class did you pick, what sort of weapon you prefer?

I picked prisoner, but I much prefer great scythe in the previous games if thats even in the game

Developer

I haven't found any scythe yet, but knowing it's a Dex weapong... I do recall one bleed knife I found in the early game, if you want I can tell you where to find it.

I appreciate the offer, but I'm sure I'll find it eventually. I've rerolled my class and gone astrologist, the spells looks interesting