Honestly, if they re-balanced a lot of the late-game bosses (putting aside BS unfair attacks like Malenia's blade flurry spam, at some point, it seems like pumping points into vigor and wearing heavier armor barely matters, and you're kinda pushed into a certain type of unforgiving play-style if you're a melee build), heavily altered the final boss so that it's not a boring slog of a fight, and improved the density of content in certain regions (looking at you, Caelid), my biggest gripes with the game would be gone.
I also wish weapon damage scaling wasn't so heavily reliant on stat distribution, since I feel like that massively discourages experimentation with different weapon types. There have been so many points in the game where I got a cool weapon as a reward for beating a boss, completing a dungeon, etc. and just... chucked it into storage. Actually, I did that with 98% of the weapons I found, because messing my stat rebalancing was too much of a pain to justify experimenting with different playstyles.
Give me Zelda's glass swords any day. At least I was consistently able to use nearly everything I found in that game, even if most of it ended up breaking five minutes later.
And for all the grief people give Horizon about being a generic open world game, this one doesn't do open worlding a whole lot better in terms of the moment-to-moment of it. The various dungeons you find can be great, but the actual space between those is just (atmospheric and well-designed) set-dressing. There's a lot of enemy variety, but you don't need to worry about tackling almost any of these enemies in dramatically different ways. Zelda and Horizon both got around this by emphasizing different things: Zelda integrated climbing, environmental interactions (playing around with in-game physics and chemistry systems, chopping down trees for wood, etc.), puzzles (both environmental and korok-related), and survival mechanics into the world itself to make the act of exploring the open world feel meaningful. Horizon made navigating its environments meaningful by way of its amazing robotic enemies, which often demand stealth and unique approaches to conquer. Also, crafting was waaaaaay more useful in Horizon. ER has the same issue as The Witcher 3 where it throws a ton of stuff at you, but very little of it is actually useful.
Also, and I'll just say it, while the Ubisoft tower-approach of Zelda and Horizon (and Ubisoft open world games like Far Cry, obvs) to expanding the in-game map might be a bit well-worn at this point, at least it still engages the player in a task, often with battling or puzzle elements. In ER, they just... drop map fragments off at random signposts. Like, if you're gonna do that, why even obscure the true extent of the map in the first place?
That's a lot of complaining, but I think it's a testament to what FS got right that I enjoyed the game as much as I did regardless. They really nailed allowing the player to explore in this game without subjecting them to unnecessary aggravations that would disrupt the flow of the experience. And while not all of the dungeons are great, many of them are, and spacing them out the way they did allows them to shine as proper setpieces.
And, balancing issues aside, the boss fights themselves are still frequently awesome.
If we’re talking negatives - if i play the game without thinking about it I’ll outlevel the content fast. I’m purposely skipping stuff in my 2nd playthrough to avoid it but it’s like a challenge
@RubyCarbuncle I’d say that Elden Ring sits the right side of the ‘fun challenge’ line compared to Returnal. But then my experience with that game wasn’t all that smooth, both with the failure to deliver a compelling roguelite structure and with the BS elements. You at least played that game with a suspend function and without the crippling bugs. Imagine spending an hour and a half on a run only for the entire PS5 to crash. Brutal.
@RubyCarbuncle I’m probably on the opposite side to @nessisonett on this one but then my experience with Returnal was a lot smoother. I’m really enjoying ER, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think I’m as enamoured with it was I was expecting to be. Returnal, on the other hand, made an instant impression on me because the gameplay was so slick and the environments and story being so mysterious.
The boss battles in Returnal also felt really iconic and getting through them was particularly eventful due to putting so much into getting there in the first place. There are some good boss battles in ER but so far I’ve not come across any that have had quite the same impact. I’ve still got plenty to go though so perhaps that will change.
As they are such different games though it’s hard to make a direct comparison but for that reason you might get on with one more than the other. Hope you find something you enjoy either way.
I’m surprising in line so far. I did Stormveil Castle at 35 (30-40), Siofra River at 53 iirc (50-60).
I have fallen behind now at Mt. Gelmir I’m 76 after beating Rykard (80-100).
I can only think I’ve got a bit more exploring to do or it’s because of the fully-grown beast.
I honestly don’t think I’ll hit the final recommended lvl 120-150. There can’t be that much of the game left, right? I’m 60+ hours in now.
Lives, Lived, Will Live.
Dies, Died, Will Die.
If we could perceive time for what it really was,
What reason would Grammar Professors have to get out of bed?- Robert & Rosalind Lutece
@velio84 Congrats on the platinum and beating the game!
Not to belabor the point but I was curious about what you said, as someone who hasn’t bought the game yet and is looking forward to it one day (probably many months from now when there schedule clears) and had some questions. Do you think going for the platinum was what ultimately soured much of the experience in the end? Was the narrative conclusion part of the disappointment? Were some of the design choices you didn’t like related to the open world format or more related to dungeon and location construction within the open world? Was the issue with the bosses being disappointing due to lack of artistic design or lack of good gameplay design? Like were they too easy or lacking in strategy?
Edit: And as a good summary, how would you rank it amongst all the FromSoft games? Immediately after Bloodborne and Sekiro or further down the list?
Sorry for the questions 😅; As someone who has only beaten two FromSoft games I’m sure I won’t have as much to compare when I play it, but I was curious since I hadn’t heard much by way of disappointment from other players, but much of the praise is from people earlier in the game who’ve not finished it.
@Fill3rup_ Ended up cheesing the Moongrum Carian Knight down the lift shaft..
Did Rennala then after a number of Solo attempts,with a couple of helpers (absolutly battered by the 3 of us on that 2nd phase.
Just have to clear up the area now for pick ups and then its onto Caelid ( or should i go elswhere,i feel im under-leveled for Carian Manor after sticking a Toe in there briefly.
After beating Stormveil I've been back to defeat a load of mini bosses that I struggled with before. Breezed past the horseback dude right next to where you start. Then I found Braidd and took down the enemy in the prison with him before heading back over to the Weeping Peninsula to clear some catacomb enemies I struggled with, beat the black knight fella and Deathbird near the castle, and then cleared the castle and boss too. Just beat the Avatar at the Erdtree in that area to finish. A pretty productive couple of hours!
I think the questline in the castle with Edgar and Irinia glitched though as I found her dead when I went back (I got the letter before) and Edgar is nowhere to be found.
This is my current build, double scythes! Spent a couple of hours doing some invasions yesterday, quite entertaining. Currently about level 84, I think.
@JohnnyShoulder I tried resting, teleporting and all sorts without success.
@Kairu I’ve been back to the body a few times with nothing there.
@R1spam@Jimmer-jammer I went there after beating Godrick and on the wiki it seems lots of people had the same problem so I don’t know if you did the same?
Looking on the wiki it doesn’t seem I’ll miss much from not getting this quest finished though.
Just started it today, played about 2 hours so far. Took alot of convincing that I should get it and I have very much enjoyed it so far but ofcourse the enemies are fairly lightweight at the moment. Who knows how I'll feel about it in another 2 hours once I get into it a bit more.
Glad I got it though. Went for the Confessor , not sure if that was the best idea but I wanted to ensure I was able to use magic and melee effectively early on.
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