A Brief Analysis of Fromsoft's Greatest Game Part 1: Limgrave

so the shadow of the her tree trailer just dropped and my nipples have been unimaginably hard ever since unrelated I have gamasa I am however incredibly excited for this DLC which as the time of me writing this is four short months away in an effort to keep myself busy so as to pass the time as efficiently as possible I need a project to keep my mind on and what could be better than a project related to the very thing I'm excited about actually now that I say that out loud I might be screwing myself on that one either way I'm hopped up on Elden ring hype right now and and I'm more than willing to write out this wave of excitement all the way to the final release in the only way I know how an extremely in-depth analysis looking at every corner of my favorite game ever made and so if you're just as excited as I am to experience what I assume will be from soft's greatest content yet then hit the bell and join me on this grueling Adventure throughout the next 4 months if you're familiar with my work then you'll know I'm a pretty huge fromsoft meat writer these games have completely reawaken my love for gaming and in many small and some not so small ways my life has changed for the the better since discovering them there's no better way I can imagine to repay from soft and Miaki for all the incredible gaming experiences they've given us than to indulge in the nitty-gritty of their work to know it on a better level and to appreciate the journey they've taken from their humble Origins to being an industry leader with a nearly unmatched reputation in many cases this ends for me with harsh criticism being that my understanding of fr's greatest strength comes down to a single word innovation in my eyes and as I attempt to communicate through my video essays from soft's games have gotten better and better as time goes on and while it is assumed that your personal favorite probably doesn't align with that I believe I can prove it with at least a large degree of objectivity the fact is Elden ring offers more game per square inch than any previous title it map is bigger there are new mechanics there are more weapons more items more spells more bosses and all balance to be playable by a far greater audience than ever before Elden ring is intensely popular and with that comes a certain degree of bitterness from longtime fans there should really be a name for the Hipster or Boomer attitude that develops in people who feel the need to hate on something just because it's more popular now than it was when they first found it my opinions Clash heavily with the classic from soft enjoyers due to my appreciation of the innovation of the souls formula being that older titles will naturally appear to lose quality when compared to a more refined product of the present don't get me wrong I love the difficulty that these games present you with and often spend tens of hours straight practicing bosses without losing my patience with them I do however believe that shaving away the pointlessly tedious aspects of old their games design is a good thing and I'm not sure what the argument against that would really be other than delusion I certainly heard enough delusion in the comments of my DS1 critique some of those comments were exhausting to engage with and while my videos generally have a negative tone based on my want for better Souls games therefore I point out mistakes of the past by approaching the latest entry in from soft's catalog I get the unique benefit of making the much more positive claim that Elden ring is the greatest game fromsoft has ever made a goal within this video series series will be to prove that and I'm sure a lot of you watching are thinking to yourselves yeah it's obviously the best Elden ring was a global phenomenon that broke harder into the mainstream than any other Souls born title why would you feel the need to prove that well to that I would add that there are certainly a large amount of Elden ring haters out there either because they overinflate the value of older games from a perspective of nostalgia or because they're being counterculture weirdos who thinks it makes them special to hate on something popular or of course you might have simply not liked it there's always room for person preference but that doesn't really affect the stance I'm taking here I believe that Elden ring is objectively the best fromsoft game and that's the standard I try to set for all the video essays I make I set aside my personal preferences in most cases in an attempt to understand the style of content with a higher degree of accuracy for example my DS1 video was almost entirely a criticism despite the fact that I love DS1 if you haven't seen that video then an exceptionally reductive summary would be that DS1 doesn't offer much intrinsically of value in terms of enjoyable content however ever the culture and Community surrounding it carried it in terms of offering a relatable Universal sense of enjoyment upon beating its various challenges in short overcoming the difficulties of a frustrating challenge is rewarding internally from a perspective of personal growth but it doesn't change that the challenge itself was frustrating and often poorly designed this is obviously a grotesquely simplified version of an hour and 14-minute video which I would recommend to you if you have the stomach for long form content and a willingness to challenge your previously established ideas to many of my viewers credit there were heaping piles of comments which disagreed with many of the points I had made in that video while still appreciating the content itself and I hope you all know how much I appreciate your kind words and thoughts it obviously shows a great deal of intelligence to enjoy something you disagree with without getting upset about it and to see through the fact that I was never even remotely implying that you should enjoy something less just because someone thinks it's low quality I often attempt to Champion the idea that enjoyment should be separated from ideas of objective quality I would argue that I made a pretty good case case that DS1 is a pretty poorly made game yet that doesn't change the fact that it's Beloved the satisfaction of beating DS1 was a unique thing that many other games at the time failed to capture with their easy cookie cutter design however without attempting to objectively analyze what specific ideas end up creating the sense of satisfaction you'll never trim the fat of the frustrating elements in an effort to create something wholly more satisfying it would be like flicking yourself in the balls 6 days out of the week and on the seventh you enjoy the satisfaction of not flicking yourself and chop it up to ball flicking being an incredible experience with a little critical thinking you can refine the concept to the idea that suffering can be rewarding from a point of view of personal growth and pushing your limits then you can go to the gym instead and find that the end goal doesn't have to be the only point of satisfaction but the journey along the way can be satisfying too or you can be a purist weirdo who worships flicking your balls I find that the more recent fromsoft games focus more and more on honing in on and refining the time- wasting mechanics such as the improved stamina mechanic that that Elden ring introduced which will only drain your bar while in combat as well as the stake of America system which can cut out obnoxious boss runbacks without crowding the map with otherwise unnecessary bonfire placements all of this is to say that this series will be my attempt to express my appreciation for how well-designed Elden ring is especially when compared to older titles and to prove with as much rationality as I can why it accs as from soft's current magnum opus so let's talk about how I'm going to approach such a massive project ordinarily with in a game I'm analyzing I'll pretty much cover every single aspect and area of the game with minor exceptions like PVP which I only dabble in and wouldn't feel comfortable talking about in my lords of the Fallen video I took you through all of the map and talked about every single boss with as much detail as I felt I thought I would need to express my opinions about them and I did the same with my DS1 video minus Ash Lake because I forgot about it and honestly there were bits and pieces here and there that I wanted to go into further detail on but since my videos get pretty long and I don't have all that that much free time to work on them I end up having to cut my losses and finish the project I don't want to have to do that with Elden ring this game means a lot to me and deserves the extra effort and time investment to talk about every single detail this then comes with the problem that Elden ring is many times larger than any previous title which leaves me with the quandry of how I'm going to split many hours of content into concise digestible Parts the solution I came up with was to divide the map up and talk about every major section within a video of its own with some minor surrounding are is thrown in wherever I can best situate them I'll go through the map by talking about each set piece you might come across every World boss ever jail and NPC Quest and then I'll analyze each of the minor dungeons within the area which for entertainment's sake I will Rank and talk about in order from my least favorite to my most favorite as a finale I'll take you through the Legacy dungeons now I'd like to jump in and begin with the world which features a massive area to explore filled with manyi pieces of loot to gather as well as puzzles to solve but I'll also have to address the last piece of the world design the world bosses and so I figure it would be best to get ahead of the haters and hit them where it hurts in the tiny bit of ammunition they have against Elden ring so let me take you back to a couple months ago when I criticized a terrible piece of [ __ ] game called Lords of the Fallen which the developers made with zero creative intent purely in an effort to ride the soulslike wave for some free Cloud one of the major things I criticized within that analysis was the pathetically lazy way the devs had reused assets to make the game feel like it had more than five unique bosses in the whole of the game point that I attempted to frame by placing extra emphasis on how basic and pathetic the tutorial boss was which was paid off when that same boss was made into mandatory fights at at least 10 instances throughout the game I was very thorough within that video clearly showing that about 90% or more of the fights within the game were simple basic World enemies with health bars and to nobody's surprise there were an abundance of comments on that video claiming that Elden ring does the same thing and therefore is just as shitty and while many of these comments were obviously just joke or just doing a little trolling which I did find a lot of value in there were clearly people who think this is actually a good point I even addressed this in the video itself as I had assumed people would take cheap shots after hearing that the game they liked was a poor quality product but I guess many people didn't make it that far so I will address it again Elden ring has expanded on the explorative factors of a Souls game to an unprecedented degree and that exploration is facilitated by three main factors a large optional area to explore challenges to overcome and benefit official rewards while each World boss and dungeon has its own level of quality some of which being real stinkers It Is by no means lazy to copy and paste well-designed assets into these challenges and that is due to the fact that the obviously more important main campaign of Elden ring is very solid in terms of having unique assets to fight through it the only three instances that you'll find a reused boss within mandatory content is if you choose to fight Reichard as one of the two great runes that you'll need to gain access to lay andell and only if you take the Legacy dungeon route in which case case you'll fight a godkin noble which you'll see again in the godkin duo fight the other cases are golden Godfrey and marget which are both excellent examples of introducing part of a boss's move set so you can get comfortable with it before throwing horal Lou or morgot ass at you and now that you know there's only one mandatory instance of a reused asset your argument that Elder ring spams bosses sounds pretty childish doesn't it you chose to play the optional content which would obviously reuse assets and then complained when you saw reused assets I can't even imagine how pissed off you must have been after going to your fifth Skyrim catacomb only to see dger again contrasting Elden ring against Lords of the fallen and you have a game with zero exploration a fuckload of mandatory reused tutorial bosses all of which offering you nothing of Interest no exploration no challenge no reward and therefore no excuse to be that [ __ ] lazy and with all that toxicity dealt with I'm more than ready to praise something for being welld designed so let's start with the first area of the game Loom grave which I will be including the attached minor areas including sofria River the Weeping Peninsula and of course the starting point of the game the chapel of anticipation after using the incredible creative character to make the hero of your story you'll watch the Souls game standard intro cinematic which usually details the main bosses you'll have to defeat to progress in the game however Elden Ring's intro focuses more on your role in the story shows the various notable tarnished who show up as NPCs throughout the L between I'm still bitter to this day that the loathsome dung eater was in a boss fight once the inra orinary is finished moaning you'll enter the first boss of the game the grafted Scion a noob Crusher style boss that's really just an elite enemy placed here to kill you quickly so you can begin your journey grafted move set doesn't function all that well as a boss having very few safe openings many of which the boss can cancel by stumbling out of when returning to its default animation stance most no hitr Runners will gladly accept the mandatory defeat here by jumping off the side of the Arena taking your mandatory death before the boss can hit you but not this guy I'm the kind of stubborn [ __ ] who can't take an easy W so I learned this dog [ __ ] boss's move set and had to beat him on every one of my attempts I utilized the Perry to simplify its move set and started with the Bandit class to gain early access to the buckler Shield as well as that gives you the great knife which has decent intrinsic bleed as well as an increas in critical damage you're also granted a short bow with the ashore barrage which can come in handy in a pinch I absolutely love the Bandit class and the thief class from Dark Souls although the samurai is clearly the king of starting classes the Uchi Katana is incredible and obtaining a free one at the start means you'll be able to Du a wi d a short ways into the game and not to mention that the Samurai's long bow is better than the short bow in range and damage even without the mighty shot Ash of War beating the Scion grants you 3200 runes which will be a nice early boom tier run and also drops the ornamental straight swword and the golden Beast Crest Shield I find this to be a satisfactory reward for learning this Niche part of the game well enough to do it first thing with no upgrade after aiming for the bushes you'll find yourself underground surrounded by bones and coffins you know typical Thursday night you'll proceed to the cavern take the elevator and open the door to limb grave revealing one of the most cinematic moments in the game within seconds of entering world 1 of Elden ring you'll see storm Vil Castle the her tree a Gil Lake and this [ __ ] he calls you a maiden virgin and then sets your goal to storm Vil Castle to take out the lord of the castle godric this introduction to the first explorative area of the game is so incredibly effective presenting you with many visual markers meant to lead you to various set pieces and boss fights throughout limb grave from the castle hanging off the side of a cliff the Divine Tower in the distance the burned ruins within the lake a dilapidated church and the tree centel patrolling the area just before you there are many challenges directly ahead of you to choose from speaking of which what the [ __ ] are you looking at oh oh [ __ ] the tree Sentinel is a pretty oppressive early game fight which will likely push you to explore further in the game before returning to and crushing his ass the base template for a horse riding boss is developed here and extrapolated on in several fights later in the game which means learning this boss's move set well will serve you well in the future after beating Sentinel or giving up on him for now you'll find this church occupied by Kale C the first trador and the only one that sells the crafting kit the Church of L also features an anvil which will serve as your only upgrade station before Melina invites you to the ground table hold I'm not exactly sure what causes her to invite you as I was never allowed in within this playthrough till I rested a bond fire in the Weeping Peninsula however I've never had to worry about it before in my many runs where I scour the map of resources before needing access to the round table my best guess is that it becomes an option when you light a bonfire outside of limb grave but your guess is as good as mine speaking of Melina you'll meet with her at a bonfire outside of the Wayward ruins melan's short visits which can be activated at Key areas throughout your travels if you wish to learn from her offer a unique insight about who she is and what her role within this Grand Story is she's one of my favorite characters and that's not just because of skyx Summers cosplays there's still a lot that is yet to be revealed or confirmed about Melina but her influence in the early game moments of this game playing the part of finger Maiden which presumably is below her station and offering you torrent leaves a warm impression to your early travels throughout the Landes between on a side note I've heard many stories of players who on their first playthroughs missed this bonfire for large amounts of time and sprinted their way around limg grave for far too long before returning here maybe torrent should be offered earlier so as to avoid this kind of outcome but the humor that stories like this results in is valuable in its own way my version of this is not being able to manipulate my ashes of War at bonfires till reaching Millennia because I didn't fully explore the Wayward ruins and never found the Wet Stone knife the next time you return to the Church of L you'll find an eie Mist had blanketed the area and a strange woman has appeared sitting on the ruins here she calls herself Rena for some reason her name is Ronnie still to this day I'm not sure why she lies about it she offers you the spirit calling Bell which will be a game Cher for many players the spirit summons are a very cool mechanic which offers less experienced players a leg up against challenges they might not be ready to face alone being that Elden ring became insanely popular and that for many people it would be their first fromsoft game the summons were a genius idea to both help ease new players or more casual players into the difficult gameplay but also their upgrade resources add to the potential Loot and resource pool that can be given as rewards to encourage the gameplay Loop of exploration if anything Elden ring could use even more rewards and one that I would recommend if fromsoft makes a sequel or similar game in the future would be a resource you could use to upgrade your talismans the Talisman plus ones and twos are great and all but I feel a more engaging system would be to choose which talism you wish to upgrade and spend a resource specific to them for that purpose pass the Wayward ruins you'll meet Bach a talking demium who mentions wishing to return home to retrieve his belongings from the coastal cave this is a nice way to point you in the direction of one of the more important minor dungeons the exit to which will emerge on a secluded island with a draconic shrine Lim grave is excellent at dropping small details which will lead you down more important paths much further in the game many of those instances happen due to dialogue of the various NPCs spread throughout this early area eventually you'll run into one of these guarded wagons being pulled by two trolls they often contain a weapon which may be of some value to you and therefore could be worth the effort to fight or flee from this large group of these moving set pieces add a lot of character and liveliness to the map which would otherwise seem somewhat dull if enemies were to only move when reacting to you in a nearby ruins you'll find a hidden staircase leading to a boss fight with a mad pumpkin a boss fight that can be somewhat frustrating as he can only be effectively melee from behind however this makes parrying a much more streamlined method to deal with him if you can manage to predict his many delayed hits behind this fight you'll meet sorcerer selin an early game Mage vendor who we will return to as part of Ronnie's Quest an area of importance you might come across by accident or being directed towards by Kenneth height and NPC I'll meet soon enough is Fort height this Fortress is in a state of disarray with demihumans assaulting the outside and a demium queen's fresh corpse dead at the center of the internal Courtyard you'll learn from Kenneth that his fort was usurped by a blood worshipping Knight who uniquely gains a damage boost when the bleed status effect is triggered near him he'll drop the bloody SL Ash ofor and upon reaching the top of the fort you'll be able to claim your first half of the decus Medallion while acting as a small challenge to overcome in the long run Fort height is a well-rounded encounter there are several different enemies within a recipe for blood related items to loot with their respective blood rose bushes growing throughout a unique Knight that drops a powerful Ash of war and you'll be helping out the homie Kenneth in the process of tackling this challenge overall a very engaging little piece of this world just down the road is a bit of ruins which might catch your eye or the howling coming from within might catch your ear the nearby slumbering Rune bear surrounded by Trina lies is an excellent use of visual storytelling to Telegraph to the player that troles are the Sleep related crafting resource and that they're capable of rendering even the most ferocious enemies asleep this might make you want to return to Cal to obtain the crafting kit you were too broke to purchase at the beginning of the game which will offer you the opportunity to speak with him about the howling you heard Within the Ruins he'll then tell you about BL the half wolf man skullking about the Mistwood before giving you a snapping gesture that can be used to get the howling man's attention in doing so blle will divulge that he's on the hunt for a man named daril and he asks you to summon him should you find the man first your search will end within an Ever jail that blood hound Knight darell has been locked inside summoning blle for the this fight makes it an absolute Cakewalk and your reward will be the blood hounds Fang my favorite weapon in the game I'm a basic [ __ ] what can I say the blood hounds Fang is uniquely the only somber Smith Stone based weapon that can be buffed with greases and spells as far as I know and that fits my favorite play style quite nicely I love figuring out which element that bosses are weakest to and then giving myself a slight Edge in the form of a consumable or spell making the versatility of the blood hounds extra valuable to me and that's not to mention the insanely powerful combo that that blood hounds is with a blood resin applied on top of its respectable intrinsic bleed and the fact that both are obtainable early game after the battle blly thanks you and hints at the location of a giant blacksmith which once again is a very useful bit of information that acts as a reward for an NPC's Quest as EEG is a very powerful vendor and convenient blacksmith continuing through the Mistwood you'll meet Kenneth height who asks for your help clearing the fort of his rebelling soldiers which would have acted as a nice hint to point players towards the fort if I hadn't done it already a short distance from here you'll pick up the recipe for Sleep pots it has always bothered me that such an important recipe is just chilling here in the middle of nowhere like the difference between you being stuck on the worst fight in the game The godkin Duo and basically pressing the skip fight button is just left on a random corpse in Mistwood and that's also nearby the flask of wanderous physic which is also just randomly placed here I like that foft doesn't really hold your hand with this kind of stuff but godamn so this is important the last thing you'll find in this area after reaching the base of the minor her tree here and obtaining two very powerful Crystal tiers to add to your physic is this small structure with an unassuming elevator within it you'll descend for an insanely long time while gazing at the spectacle of this hidden underground World a lot of players would certainly find this spot early on and the jaw-dropping moment of realizing an entire world was just beneath your feet within a few minutes into the game is such a cool reveal and leaves a huge impression on your first playthrough this first underground area will have you lighting brazers of these shrines which are scattered all about and will drag you through all kinds of set pieces and enemy placements in your search for them you'll come across this Merchant who sells the recipe for oil pots which will come in handy in hu's optional boss fight skip where you can just beat him in an oiled up twerk off instead after lighting the last brazer a message will appear on your screen Reading Power gathers somewhere in horned remains this will lead you to the ancestor Spirit fight the spirit is a pretty well-rounded and cinematic boss fight for this point in the game the music and Ambience for this fight sets pretty unique tone that fits the vibe of sofria river the boss itself has some pretty basic melee moves and a couple couple magic ones that kind of look like he had one too many vodka Baja blasts last night this is a pretty fun boss to find while exploring and like golden Godfrey is a nice way to introduce the deer's move set to prepare you for the more difficult version further in the game safri also has a hidden teleporter that will lead you to the first dragonkin Soldier which I [ __ ] up on and missed the record button so I lost the footage but there will be many more later in the series so stay tuned after returning to the surface you might come across this Samurai looking NPC who will warn you not to venture further into the lake due to a Dragon which roosts there naturally you'll next head further into the lake seeing these burnt ruins before coming across the Gathering of Hollows who get eviscerated in an instant by the crashing Dragon this is ail and he acts as your introduction to horse combat now like it or not using torrent is very much a skill set you'll want to master as you travel through the lands between and that comes in the form of finding a good place on your hot bar or quick use items to conveniently activate torant managing your inventory effectively and learning to sit still when dismounting so as to gain access to the dismount Mount ey frames which are not present on a jumping Dismount ail is your first horse skill check being that some of his moves will blanket the area in fire which will leave you defenseless without the speed of torrent to disengage from the immediate area on top of that his melee mve set can catch you completely off guard if you're not aware of the mechanic or present enough of mind to perform the iframe Dismount this challenge is a valuable early game lesson which should teach you in one way or another that you'll want to get comfortable with torrent which will serve you well in fights like fire giant that can be completely miserable otherwise after beating AAL and obtaining his heart you can return to UA who will tell you of the Dragon communion Temple but he doesn't tell you how to reach it however if you've already spoken to Bach then you're likely to find your way there by searching the area and finding a cave now one thing that I find to be not all that fleshed out in Elden ring but is a neat addition for minor aspects is the day night cycle which gets completely abandoned at later segments in the game and is mostly irrelevant when in underground areas this mechanic is essentially only active within the exploratory sections of the L between which is most notable for spawning a series of bosses who are not present otherwise the first you're likely to notice is the knight's Calvary on this early Bridge down the path from the Wayward ruins I find the night's Calvary to be the worst of the horseback fights which offers limited openings and a frantic awkward experience as the boss kind of sucks at tracking you and will Dash around aimlessly in the meantime he is unique in that he can be knocked off of his mount with a Parry or by killing the horse itself which he can resummon I've never really enjoyed these fights but admittedly I don't fight them all that often so maybe by the end of this series I'll have a newfound appreciation for them it is however pretty annoying that every death resets the day night cycle to morning time so you'll have to rest and pass time at each bonfire between each attempt and it suddenly becomes clear why everyone cheeses the kalid bridge Knights calal for blound step so now that we've cleared most of lower limb grave let's head up the hill from the Wayward ruins this section would ordinarily be played just after obtaining torrent and this set piece with a giant several archers and a handful of Sword wielding Knights is excellent at telegraphing just how useful torrent can be in the Overworld these threats become nothing in the face of your mouth speed and is a huge game-changing moment for a first playthrough in compared to older Souls games where this set piece would be a much greater problem after overcoming the hill you'll meet with rodrika your potential Spirit summon upgrade NPC if you follow through with her quest line she laments that she was too afraid to go through with offering herself to Castle storm Veil to be grafted which is a neat bit of detail regarding the most important and for boing area within Lim grave this should also bring back recent memories of the grafted Scion absolutely crushing your ass and set the tone for the first great Rune fight of the game just a bit further ahead you'll come across the warm Shack containing Knight Bernal a vendor who will sell you some basic ashes of War which you might want to experiment with if you picked up the wetstone knife that is after purchasing enough from his inventory and waiting for nighttime you'll return to Bernal once more only to find that he's been replaced by this nighttime only boss with the Bell bearing Hunter visually set against the darkness of the night setting this boss looks incredible his move set which features the these insane Arcane magic attacks might Peak your interest as to how you might acquire such a weapon however this boss doesn't drop it it drops a bit further into the game but is more than worth it considering it's one of the most powerful weapons in Elden ring and one of the nine legendary armaments the Bell bearing Hunter will however give you a basic look at Elmer of the Brier's move set who will drop the sword for you so it's both a glimpse at an incredible weapon as well as a step towards obtaining it the next boss I ran into was another nighttime boss the death bird who I'll have to learn to fight properly at some point in this series especially when it comes to fighting the upgraded variant the death right Bird one of the death Birds later on will drop the red feathered Branch sword talsman which is invaluable in no hit runs but of course requires beating the death bird a task I complete by absolutely cheesing the hell out of him with a bow the death birds take extra damage to the head and are weak against Pierce damage traits shared by Lich dragon forax and my no hit of him goes about the same way you can mitigate all danger by keeping your distance and Landing arrows on the bird's head unfortunately this means I've never learned this dude's move set this fight is also notable for having several trolls nearby which can be lured into the fight to pit them against each other just down the hill from here you'll have your first opportunity to meet with the best NPC in the game The Warrior jar Alexander Alexander shares a similar role to the onion night and Dark Souls being somewhat of a joke of a night on face value but ending up to have one of the more emotional quests and a heart of [ __ ] gold it's easy to understand why he's a fan favorite character and I'm glad to have the opportunity to do his quest once more considering I usually kill him here so as to gain access to his powerful Talisman his dialogue also points you towards the grand festival taking place in kalid that a warrior such as yourself might wish to take part in if you continue down this path you'll eventually run into D an NPC related to the extermination of those who live in death he tells you to avoid the ruins in the distance as they're home to a tibia Mariner and I'm just now realizing that a lot of NPCs in this game warn you not to do something as a way of the game telling you to do it to a mariner is like if you bought Ghost Rider from wish he uses a horn to summon spirits and then hits some sick boat tricks to Splash ghost water attacks at you which can deal Friendly Fire to the ads he summons this is reminiscent of neato's miasma attack which also [ __ ] up all skeleton homies these fights are pretty dumb and it doesn't help that the boss teleports away every chance he can get after beating him D will congratulate you on your Victory and then recommend you visit gank in the beastial sanctum even going so far as to Mark a convenient teleporter in the Mistwood that'll take you to him I'm almost getting sick of saying this but the NPCs in this game are so carefully crafted to offer you hints about this world and guide you in a natural way towards points of interest it's no wonder that people get so attached to these characters as they're both interesting from a standpoint of being flushed out with goals Ambitions and unique personalities but they're also very useful to you especially in the early game just past this area you'll reach the edge of limb grave and find a smoldering church just before being invaded by the reoccurring Anastasia tarnished eater who will drop a sacred scorpion charm upon her defeat the last boss I had to clean up in the Overworld of lim grave was the jailed Crucible Knight this is an incredible fight with an expansive move set including a phase two with two aspect of The Crucible spells thrown in you will undoubtedly feel the aggression of this boss on your first playthrough as he stalks you in this ever jail throwing dashing thrust to catch you when you're healing and most of his moves will have little to no opening except the shield uppercut which in phase two can be followed up with a quick tail sweep move the highlight of his basic moves is the earth shatter foot slam move which he will always follow up with a basic sword melee learning to jump these moves grants you a leg up over dodging as the lingering wave of stones will act as a wildly effective roll catch if you panic Dodge away and that's valuable even without weaving a jump attack in which you can safely perform with a weapon light enough to recover in time for The Crucible Knight's next attack on top of learning the jump mechanic parrying will be another level of skill set you'll benefit from incorporating into this fight his move set becomes much more manageable if you can jump the roll catches and Parry his incoming next next move stopping his combos dead and allowing safe damage as I mentioned in my lords of the Fallen video The Crucible Knight is an incredibly well-designed recurring enemy with many of the later encounters coming in the form of elite World enemies rather than bosses within the low there are 13 Crucible knights in total and by the end of the game you can hunt down each variation taking out all 13 and each will be somewhat different than the last with changes in weapon or aspect of The Crucible spells by the time you've hunted them all you'll have access to their whole armor set as well as all of their weapons and spells with the sole exception of the winged sword Dash which will be coming with the DLC if the trailer is to be believed it was at this point I decided to tackle the Weeping Peninsula which finally allowed me access to the round table hold this Hub world is pretty interesting especially considering it's somehow stuck outside of time or something however there's a tangible inor version of it inside the capital many of the NPCs you've previously encountered have gathered here as well as new ones the highlight of which is Gideon [ __ ] [ __ ] offir there's also a Mis begotten blacksmith who was enslaved by Queen America a very Mercantile couple of corpses and FIA who lets you sucker titties in exchange for decreasing your health honestly I'm just here for the health decrease Bring It On ow ow ow after situating myself at the round table I made my way to this NPC who introduces you to the political climate of the Weeping Peninsula her name is Arena and she tells you that the misbegotten that had been enslaved in Castle mourn have revolted and have taken over the castle she gives you a meant for her father who had stayed behind in an effort to defend the castle and asks you to deliver it for her and that didn't seem all that important so I continued through the Weeping Peninsula eventually seeing the first rise the game had to offer which tells you to seek three wise beasts the beasts are three Spirit Turtles which hide in various ways these little puzzle sections are a pretty nice low-key way to kill some time in Elden ring the reward they offer is usually a memory Stone which increases your spell slots so it's not the most game-changing rewards which fits the more casual style of challenge that it is one unmarked set piece you might come across is this meteor struck patch of land with some basic enemies and an onyx Lord this is a very subtle way to introduce players to the gravity magic side of Elden ring which gets pretty wacky later on when redon shoots into the stratosphere to turn himself into a living asteroid it's a nice thought though to ease players into that rather than just springing it on them there's also another Knight's Calvary in this area this time with a flail but I forgot to record it as well as another death bird this one is identical to the one in limb grave as far as I'm aware and until I learned to fight them best the only Insight I have to share is how to cheese them the next area of the Weeping Peninsula is this settlement of demihumans which includes a boss fight with a demium queen this fight can easily be an overwhelming gank fight considering the many demium ads throughout the area and so I chose to sneak my way in and assassinate the queen before she had the chance to use a single move this has the unique interaction of the demium ads becoming passive upon seeing their Queen defeated at your hands a pretty cool detail that gives us a sneak peek into how their culture works on top of nearby Plateau you will come across the alien Village your first look at the frenzied flame Afflicted enemies again I find Value in this being a subtle and early game exposure to a more Grand idea further in the game if you make your way to the minor her tree of the Weeping Peninsula you might expect to find another bowl of Crystal tears such as you found in the Mistwood however you'll be surprised to see that your sought-after reward is much less simple to obtain in this instance you'll end up face to face with the first her tree Avatar a rework of the old Asylum Demon fights from DS1 and 3 this upgraded version is very rewarding to learn as there are probably too many placs throughout the game but their rewards are generally decent and the fight is usually pretty fun mastering them is a huge investment in being good at Elder ring as it allows you to choose which Crystal tiers you'll want to use without having to learn a bunch of new move sets I would say the same about ulcerated but that boss sucks ass and only sometimes drop Crystal tiar more often dropping golden seeds after that you might explore around to find a teleporter that will bring you to lay and Del but this is only a small section of it which is seemingly pointless I'm not sure what value this is supposed to add add to the game maybe just allowing you a glimpse into the city to Peak your interest there's also the first walking mausoleum in the Weeping Peninsula and I'm just now realizing how many firsts there are here on my initial playthrough I didn't explore weeping until much further in the game but for those who explored here early they were exposed to a lot of Elden Rings major mechanics in a short amount of time mazums are a cool setpiece to add in areas with a lot of space making an empty field feel much more alive and Scenic however the low-level items and enemies within weeping makes it feel as though you're supposed to explode here before beating any great room bosses which kind of invalidates the maum's utility here either way it's good training wheels for later on when you really want it do wield morg God's cursed Greatsword just down the hill from the mausoleum next to this spooky beach with zombies wandering around you'll find a merchant offering one of the most powerful items in the entire game which will'll see you through just about every single minor dungeon in the game the lantern the last ever jail in the first area of the game contains the ancient hero of Zamora this fight is pretty cool featuring a phase two that Buffs his attacks with ice but I wouldn't exactly consider him boss level I wouldn't go out of my way to fight him unless I knew there was pretty good rewards in it for me and I would probably try to cheese him in one way or another I do however love how this boss looks he so clearly displays the fact that he's far from home and it makes me wonder how and why he ended up jailed here it could be related to the item he drops upon his defeat that being ragon sore seal but this item also makes this fight just hands down not worth doing unless you happen to like it or you're completionist and this is due to the upgraded ragon scar seal being easier to obtain and within the second Fort you'll need to overcome if you're attempting to complete The dector Medallion the last thing I'll point out in Weeping is the two churches of America where you can obtain sacred tears and which serve to show just how far reaching America's influence had been or perhaps how beloved she was overall the Weeping Peninsula has a little bit of everything in a pretty small area personally I have a theory that it was originally supposed to be an area for the DLC but early in development they realized how lackluster that would be and began working on a more appropriately sized expansion I base this purely on how unimportant the peninsula seems to be with zero mandatory content guiding your hand here and mostly early game loot as well as a pretty self-contained quest line that doesn't affect the rest of limb grave now onto the minor Dungeons and as I said I'll be ranking them based on personal vibes from least to most enjoyable or valuable starting in last place we have the stranded graveyard the actual tutorial section of the game and that's not to say this wasn't a valuable section of the game I'm sure plent of players learned quite a bit within this dungeon and some could have even used more instructions just how to use the Sprint feature which a friend of mine didn't figure out until several hours into the game there's a section to introduce you to ranged enemies how to use stealth within Shrubbery and an absolute Chad of a boss the solder of God Rick look at his [ __ ] confidence his Swagger his overwhelming big dick energy now I don't even really want to bring this point up but I've Had The Misfortune of reading so many comments on my lords of the Fallen review claim claiming that I wasn't being fair to criticize the many mandatory fights within Lords of Fallen that use a variation of their tutorial enemy without holding Elden ring to the same standard and allow me to be absolutely clear your worldview is ridiculous I am absolutely holding Elden ring to the same standard the obvious difference between these two is that soldier of godric doesn't appear as mandatory boss fights throughout the game the stranded graveyard boss is clearly a joke fight and is a purposefully weak enemy to place as a boss to introduce the template of a minor dungeon the fact that Lords players would even compare this joke fight to a fight that's spammed an absurd amount of times throughout their knockoff garbage game is pretty [ __ ] funny especially when considering that soldier of godrick has a value because he's a meme whereas their boss can barely fight back against singular Dodges not that it matters but Rick is literally a better fight and only makes up 0.001% of the game whereas Lord's tutorial boss is half the fights in the game and has debilitating brain damage next in in 14th Place we have the tombs word cave this Cavern is flooded with poisonous liquid and mushroom encrusted poison Mages and is absurdly short the boss is also just a [ __ ] flower so that's why I ranked it so low it does however drop the vidian Amber Medallion which will increase your stamina if you have an open Talisman slot at 13th Place we have the Earth bore cave first off the cave begins with a brightly lit chest meant to lure you into the pitfall trap positioned between you and your treasure one of the many reasons why the lantern is the best item in the game this trap meant to punish you for your greed is more patches than even patches is in this game and I'm pretty sure we all fell for it upon our first attempt in this cave further down you'll fight several passages of giant rats before reaching the boss and the reason this cave is ranked so low Rune Bears why did it have to be Rune Bears the bear fights with Incredible speed at times as well as huge delays that either end with a grab attack or an AOE slam with a rather large area of effect the Saving Grace of this fight is that there's a lootable Trina Lily within this Arena reminding you of the bear 's greatest weakness sleepy time herbal tea it'll drop a spell Drake talsman upon its defeat number 12 goes to the Impaler catacombs after watching the DLC trailer and learning the name Mesmer the Impaler as the upcoming antagonist I was excited to see if this dungeon would leave any clues as to what we could come to expect and no it's just called the imperal catacombs because it has the first of these Spike ceiling traps which is pretty disappointing on its own but the boss of this dungeon is also pretty ass cheeks an her tree burial watch dog flanked by four imps and that's after clearing the whole dungeon of the little bastards after clearing the ads you can focus on the boss itself which is pretty mid for a mini boss its tendency to spam flying ground pounds is pretty unengaging trading Dodges and hits over and over its fire breath attack will punish you if you attempt to damage it too early which is somewhat interesting and this variant has three heads which each have separate streams of fire I like parrying this move which is pretty straightforward but overall I wish these fights were more Dynamic and less station AR though I guess that comes with the territory of being a living statue this boss drops the demium spirit ashes which again doesn't seem to be related to the DLC at number 11 I have McWater cave the entrance to which is blocked by The Invader bloody finger narius who will attack you with his dual ruvia after avoiding him for a while yuria will automatically summon and help you defeat the Invader who drops one of his weapons for you you can talk to yuria just a bit down the road who will then tell you about his hunt for bloody fingers before saying his goodbye upon entering the mkw waterer cave you'll find a small group of Highway Men soldiers who will likely be alerted of your presence by the sound trap set about the entrance after clearing the main chamber you'll Traverse through the Mist into the boss room only to find it empty except for a chest upon opening it the legend himself will pass judgment upon you for your attempted thievery patches is pretty much the same as an Invader or PVP encounter and therefore I'm not the biggest fan of fighting him however within a few hits he'll surrender which point you can forgive him and begin his NPC Quest or finish him off this dungeon has only ranked so highly with me because of the various NPC encounters and the Epic moment of patches revealing himself other than that it doesn't have much value 10th Place goes to the tombs word catacombs this dungeon is passable but can get pretty chaotic if you're not careful to kill the enemies as you go especially when you hit the fire trap around the halfway point you can use a stone sword key to enter this side chamber and loot a recipe for Rancor pots but this room will have several more enemies inside of it one cool feature of this catacomb is the puzzle of figuring out that you'll have to reactivate the fire trap to use it as an elevator to progress which is probably the earliest area that this mechanic has used the worst part of this dungeon is its boss which is the cemetery shade who will unleash a barrage of attacks whenever it gets close yet will almost seem to forget you exist at times this guy works fine as an enemy but doesn't meet the mark of mini boss to me it does however drop a legendary Spirit summon that being lutel the Headless and I didn't factor that in when making this list so it would probably rank higher but whatever at Ninth Place we we have the storm foot catacombs and we're reaching the territory of the basic early game dungeons that don't really do all that much with the formula there's a couple of fire traps a fuckload of imps and the boss is a singular her tree burial Watchdog with a single head that will breathe a single line of fire it doesn't take many risks but it's serviceable and the boss drops the noble sorcerer ashes one of the worst Spirit summons in the game number eight is going to be the limb grave tunnels a mining dungeon that's located very close to the beginning of the game and offers a handful of smithing Stone ones to obtain throughout one of the more annoying features is the dead end at the bottom of the mine which will halt your progress until you ride back up and find the alternate path halfway down the final lift shaft the boss is a unique play on the troll enemy which wields a hammer and features a move set that's prone to huge slam AOE attacks I also like that its skin has a Stony texture similar to the minor ads you'll see in this style of cave this boss makes good use of its arena with moves that seem to have been designed with the size of the chamber in mind making it feel a lot more cinematic and engaging as the troll builds towards the final slam of its combo by rounding the perimeter of the room you'll get the roar Medallion upon its defeat at number seven we have the last of the basic early game dungeons the groveside cave this is a very short cave filled with a pack of wolves some stronger than others and ends in a fight with the beastman of farra missula considering phoua is a huge amount of gameplay away and that this is for many the first minor dungeon they might happen to find this boss represents an Incredible use of an asset that will become common place within the endgame but is completely unique till then unless you fight the duo fighting kid but I would say the same applies to them the beastman has an aggressive and engaging move set with moves that flow into one another creating substantial combos he can be a simple early game challenge which will reward you with the flame Drake Talisman he's certainly no Crucible Knight but works well enough as one of the first few bosses you might see especially if you sought refuge in this cave after being traumatized by the nearby tree Sentinel at sixth place I have the mour tunnel this mining cave has a similar theme to mour castle with revolting Miss begotten now lording over the miners here there are multiple sections to clear if you're looking to stock up on smithing Stone ones however the boss can be reached by simply falling to the bottom of the chamber and sprinting to his fog wall the boss is the scaly misbegotten and seems to have studied under marget sensei in the art of delays this paired with several more standard timing ax moves and headbutts leaves you uncertain of his move set and therefore more likely to make distance which I would consider a bad thing if he wasn't so good at closing the gap between you his delays will step towards you and his rolling headbutts will will chase you around the arena quite effectively this makes him a reasonably challenging boss for this point in the game and you'll receive the Rusted anchor weapon for your troubles number five goes to the mkw waterer catacombs a short but sweet dungeon with two pressure plate arot traps that you can use to clear some of the mini imps if you're careful with your positioning the boss is the grave Warden duelist who cinematically throws off his cloak upon seeing you as though he's been anxiously awaiting your arrival he fights with an aggressive and interesting dual Hammer move set that includes ranged chain Hammer swings once again this boss is a well-designed late game Enemy whose move set was made with enough care that it creates a challenge that easily earns the Dual list to the title mini boss the arena is large enough to allow you the space you'll want when fleeing from the warden's chain swings or jump slams and and creates a very appropriate atmosphere for the fight with this Grim Gladiator in writing this I'm beginning to appreciate just how many of these early dungeons are singular bosses whereas later dungeons often use gank once you put the warden into his grave you'll be awarded with the banished Knight inal Spirit summon ashes in fourth place I decided on the highway road cave this cave scores highly when it comes to its scenery which includes waterfalls and pools several native species and some rundown ruins like these columns you'll have to platform across the boss is a guardian Golem which is a pretty massive enemy to place inside a cave I'm not sure how he got here but maybe he was part of the ruins before they were ruins it starts in a lying down state which it will have to stand up from giving you a pretty large opening right off the bat which gave me the opportunity to trigger a stagger and finish him off before seeing a single move and I'm kind of fine with that the Golems feel too big to fight in any really satisfying way the boss drops the blue dancer charm coming in at third place is the coastal cave in which Bach will greet you at the bonfire after getting his ass beat by the demihumans inside little did they know that running a fade on your boy would invoke the wrath of a pissed-off carrot wielding one of the most overpowered early game weapons killing the chieftain renders the demium ads docile which on top of being a cool detail from a worldbuilding perspective is also a nice mechanic to allow you to control the fight a little better focusing your efforts on taking out the main bosses this Arena and encounter also has a unique function of allowing you to use stealth in these bushes to score big hits on the first boss that is if you don't accidentally use a consumable and announce your presence like an [ __ ] the setup for this boss stands out and gives the feeling as though you're taking out a colony of demihumans rather than just killing a single boss and while the gameplay suffers the lore aspects and NPC related storytelling are in Prime form which will culminate in in retrieving box tailoring kit before returning to him box storyline is one of the few that can build to a positive ending if you're willing to put in the extra effort and that's fitting for an outcast taken in by the aspiring Elden Lord within his early interactions he'll Express that he's not used to kindness from others and his loyalty to you later on will build on those character traits past the boss fight of the coastal cave you'll continue through a passage that eventually emerges on a small island visible from the coast this island contains the earliest draconic communion Temple access to which serves to be the real reward for completing the coastal cave I consider this moment to be much more valuable than a simple item drop especially so if you were looking for a place to spend a Gil's heart and even more so if you were to loot a dragon related item from the dungeon that I have in the number two spot The Fringe folk Hero's grave this dungeon is available just after the tutorial and is unlockable with a swordstone key which can be chosen as your burial gift starting item these prerequisites were met for me on my first playthrough and I spent a good hour in here getting my ass kicked before even opening the door to limb grave this dungeon introduces the roaming Chariot trap which will become the bane of your existence until it is destroyed which is no small feet first you'll have to reach the point at which its destruction is possible requiring you to fall into a pit at a specific spot before running a gauntlet of imps a fire trap and two grafted Scions before reaching a lift to the position which is currently occupied by a banished night Spirit after clearing the platform you'll have three opportunities to land an explosive Magic Pot on The Chariot by sniping the ropes they're suspended by with arrows this is no simple task however you'll be rewarded with an her tree great bow for your efforts as well as a clear path through the rest of the dungeon the last point of interest to you would be this side chamber with a banished Knight fight that uses a dragon fire move and will drop the dragon communion seal which could be quite valuable in conjunction with ail's heart and the communion Temple the last chamber contains the boss a [ __ ] ulcerated DET tree spirit this sloppy messy fight will Slither around the arena throwing off its potential openings and making position positioning vital if you wish to land any of your attacks I find that jump attacks work particularly well in closing your distance to the boss before landing the moment of impact and the bonus stagger damage will help control the fight if you manage to get a stagger critical it is also notable that these tree spirits take bonus damage to the Head further increasing the value of skillful positioning as with most of the ulcerated fights this boss drops a golden seed as well as the banished Knight Oleg Spirit ashes I don't know if I love to hate these Pricks or if I hate to love them but they're an Elden ring staple and undeniably sloppy and now taking the number one slot as my favorite minor dungeon in limb grave we have the death touched catacombs on its face this dungeon is nothing special containing some basic skeleton ads and a pretty simple layout leading to the boss door lever the boss itself has an impressive layer of visual storytelling to its design featuring a unique blood soaked texture and a health bar missing a third of its maximum health your introduction to the black knife assassins will stand from a somber sitting animation as you enter its Arena before attacking you with a diverse arsenal of melee attacks personally I find this fight to be pretty unengaging being that its move set attacks faster than you can recover from a Dodge which will result in a more ranged play style that's more focused on backstabbing or staggers parrying is an option but the speed of her potential initial attack leaves you with no option but to either predict the usage of it upon your approach or bait the attack before disengaging and re-engaging when a more telegraphed move becomes apparent overall I think the black knife assassins work best to delete enemies rather than bosses especially when compared to something like Crucible Knight which outclasses them in just about every category the boss drops the Assassin's Crimson dagger Talisman which gives Health on critical attacks now you might be thinking that this dungeon was pretty mid and definitely not deserving of my number one spot when considering the many excellent dungeons on this list to that I have but one word to say to you uchigatana this weapon is placed in a perfect early Game Spot to be accessible from any class with the benefit of dual wielding them on the samurai class there's no better starting weapon if if you're planning on running a regular smithing Stone weapon with intrinsic bleed an ash of war that deals 40 stance damage low stat requirements and low weight quite frankly nothing looted from any dungeon on this list could even remotely compare to this weapon in general terms of utility a goat weapon and therefore a goat dungeon now it should be said that minor dungeons are far from Peak Elden ring gameplay most are relegated to hosting an elite enemy within an earlier section of gameplay than they would normally be encountered which is then given the title of Boss however this is is nothing new the Capper demon and Taurus demon are pretty Infamous cases of the same idea yet in my eyes they are far more deserving of scrutiny by being placed in a much more near mandatory position depending on if you took the master key every dungeon in Elden ring is an optional experience that you'll weigh the value of completing based on your level of investment in the game or knowledge of a particular piece of loot placed within I see this as a huge innovation of the formula which places the spammable reused assets into the less important set pieces of the game this offers more gameplay to the invested players sequestering the rough content to The Eclectic areas of the game thereby granting more refined gameplay and unique assets within the Legacy dungeons no one minor dungeon is all that impressive but by sheer volume the collective of minor dungeons throughout the ls between is an absolute Bounty of gameplay for players to P for through at their Leisure the limb grave and weeping Peninsula series of minor dungeons collectively present the players with many early game challenging moments and an assortment of valuable loot that will enhance a variety of builds if you love Elden ring then I have no doubt that many of these locations bring back valuable and foundational memories that if you're like me you cherish as the simple times before your [ __ ] was ran through by the many late game challenges so let's move on to the Legacy dungeons starting with Castle mour this is easily the least interesting at least difficult Legacy dungeon and it's debatable if it's even considered one the lower aspects of the enslaved Miss begotten revolting against their masters is probably the most valuable aspect of the castle and adds to the value of seeing the first forsaken Miss begotten seeking refuge in the H tree later on the unique atmosphere of finding your way through the top floors of the castle while surrounded by the last remaining knights fighting off overwhelming numbers of Mis begotten makes it clear that this Castle has already fallen and when you finally find Arena's father he laments that the fight is over but he must stay to defend the legendary sword hidden here kind of funny that the weapon has already fallen into misbegotten hands but the dude just wants to chill up here also while delivering this letter arena is tracked down and slaughtered by a cleaver I probably should have delivered it faster anyway that's the end of her Quest and once again points towards the whole of weeping Peninsula being some kind of cut content or afterthought included in the game for the sake of increasing the optional content either way with the knowledge that a legendary weapon is here for the taking we continue through the castle by descending the backside Cliffs there are very few notable enemies or pieces of Loot and you'll shortly reach the final boss of M Castle a Leoni Miss begotten the most elite members of their faction the fight takes place on this very Scenic section of land surrounded by ocean the boss itself is on the sloppier side but leaves plenty of room for viable attack strategies its move set is full of fs and delays which makes parrying tricky but still engaging enough to be worth learning and its openings can be made more safe when using a heavy weapon which will frequently cause the boss to stagger I doubt this is anyone's favorite mini boss but that at least fits the theme of the Mis begotten being animalistic creatures that have likely never seen weapons B combat until now upon his defeat he'll receive the first legendary Armament and one of the worst which makes sense given its early game placement the grafted great sword is however a thoughtful nod to Game of Thrones as a sign of respect to George R Martin who contributed significantly to the lower Elden ring and now for the real final area of limb grave storm Vil Castle upon attempting to enter storm Vil proper you'll be interrupted by the realest most OG hater in the lands between marget is a projection of morgot in the same way that America's version of Brinks home Security is to deploy a ghost of her ex-husband to beat your ass marget is morg God's way of protecting the weakest of the demigods from being slain by an ambitious tarnished not only has he positioned himself in front of the entrance to the her tree to protect Queen Merica directly but morgot has a shadow clone Jitsu of himself in charge of protecting godric's great Rune he knows what could come to pass if a tarnish were to collect enough great runes and through dedication to the golden order he's prepared accordingly by placing this early game skill check between you and storm Vil and that's despite being shunned for being born at Omen going to be honest morgot is a [ __ ] real one and his imitation is no pushover margot's move set is Relentless throwing a seemingly Non-Stop and diverse assortment of melee attacks at you as well as a summoned holy dagger to punish you for hitting his openings while facing him and a tail swipe as a back punish with limited safe openings you might take the path of the Parry to deal with marget effectively in which case you'll have to learn his entire catalog of potential melee attacks so as to be ready for whatever's coming next in especially considering this boss is the introduction to a remarkable Innovation to the Perry formula for a little background information parrying in previous titles has always functioned as a binary either being wildly effective at shutting down an aggressive boss completely such as in the case of a Gwyn or Champion Gund Deere or it was so dangerous and complex that it wouldn't be worth attempting in the first place such as sister Freed's incredibly quick move set due to this overwhelming distinction manyi bosses in previous games had been designed without parri despite having designs that would obviously suggest they should be carriable such as slave night Gale this would however have the unfortunate side effect of turning what is supposed to be a cinematic and oppressive boss fight into much more of a pathetic experience where you embarrass and humble the boss every time they feebly attempt to attack you the balance would be thrown completely off and so the ability to Parry was disregarded for the sake of a more appropriate challenge Elden ring solves this problem by balancing the Parry in more difficult fights through requiring multiple paries to trigger singular critical attacks in many cases this can trigger unique unque interactions from the boss such as ragon using some of his final form move set early after being parried this system offers a much more balanced back and forth in one's mind when deciding if parrying is worth the effort which many people will fail to appreciate if they're unaware as to just how reserved troft has been in designing Parable bosses in previous titles in DS1 and 3 there are only a handful of parable bosses in total whereas in Elden ring Parable bosses are the standard with some exceptions it saddens me that such an important innovation can be written off so easily by such a large amount of rums off fans it is commonly understood that there are tiers of skill sets you'll learn as you invest further and further into Souls games the first of which is blocking with a shield as well as taking advantage of heavy armors with poise to trade hits with the boss this is the easiest and sloppiest play style but can be quite effective especially so in Elden ring with the barricade Shield Ash of war the next tier would be investing in Dodges lowering your weight load and increasing your Dodge eye frames as well as the distance traveled this gives you the added benefit of an easier time dodging and more rewarding gameplay When taking into consideration positioning interactions but the trade-off is the risk of taking more damage if you do get hit the final skill tier is investing in the Parry system which requires you to know your enemy's move set so well that you can read which moves are parryable so as to dodge all others while being ready for the final moment of impact you have to be willing to position yourself directly in the path of damage to face down the enemy's attacks with confidence in your knowledge and abilities to land the Parry timing or suffer the consequences this could be quite the risk however the single Parry repost system of previous titles was absolutely too high of a reward to be sustainable in creating endgame boss fights Elden Ring's double and triple Parry system allows for a much more streamlined way to balance parryable fights as the player reaches further into the endgame and in doing so allows parrying to be a consistent skill set that you can use in almost every encounter rather than on two fights in all of DS3 it absolutely pisses me off to know that people are mostly ignorant to just how impressive of of an advancement this was to the formula meanwhile absolute doofuses will critique this game by claiming it was lazy for reusing bosses all the while completely lacking Nuance or understanding when it comes to how important triple pares as well as jump attacks are to creating a more Dynamic complex and layered combat experience Elden Ring's combat system without a doubt has more potential to have interesting bosses placed within it than any previous title which is why the DLC should be the greatest Souls content we've ever seen if the bosses with thin can live up to that potential and marget could be your first introduction to that potential with his double Parry interactions considering that marget is essentially your first real boss in the game if you were to play it linearly his fight is unreasonably complex if you go down the Parry path you'll eventually learn that he will always follow up being pared for the first time with a second parryable attack yet he has about six variations of parryable attacks to throw at you after understanding this you'll gain the confidence to get an extra hit in between each Parry essentially giving you an opening as big as his quickest potential next move will be another slick interaction you can pull against this boss though I would guess it's a lot less developer intended is to lure marget to the lower end of the Arena which means it's over Anakin because you have The High Ground this will give you the extra height needed to clear his tail sweep attack with a jump and to land an extra hit through a jump attack another layer of learning this boss's behavior is to understand that he'll attempt to perform a fleeing swipe after getting below half Health this isn't an attempt to set up a more cinematic phase to introduction by dashing away and then re-engaging with his hammer slam however his fleeing slash is Parable and quite often predictable and will place him in the post Parry state of forcing him to attack you once more with a parable move performing all that will give you a free bonus critical attack into his phase two but I'm not quite done yet after forcing marget to realize he's going to get punished for theatrics he'll give up dashing away and simply pop his face to right next to you predicting this will let you smack him a couple more times while he enters the animation and positioning on The High Ground will give you another jumpable attack and a plunge attack worth of damage all of these unique interactions are just within his phase one and are mostly thanks to the Innovations of the Perry system Phase 2 gets a bit more tricky being that marget will now have access to a move set full of holy weapons which are unparryable and often lead his combos I find you can pretty easily deal with this by baiting out a holy move then carefully re-entering combat afterwards when you know he can only do a parable move and even in phase two he can only follow a Perry with another parryable move which will make short work of his remaining health bar marget is an incredible introduction to the mainline bosses of this game and honestly kind of overshadows godric in terms of his complexity and difficulty overcoming this hurdle will allow you to access one of the best Legacy dungeons in all of the lands between firstly there can be no understating just how incredible the level design is for storm Vil from the very moment you set foot in this crumbling Castle you're presented with two wildly different options to enter this is godstock and he warns you to take the more more rogish path on the left which will take you all around the outer wall of storm Vil before gaining access to a more centralized point at the rampart Tower sight of Grace alternatively you can have goto open the main gate for you which is defended by an arsenal of ballistas and an army of foot soldiers if you wish to have the option for both have goto open it for you before considering killing him this NPC will troll you throughout storm Veil stealing a portion of your runes at every death and locking you in a room with a wind Knight all of which can be avoided by taking him out early unfortunately I'm trying to do all the PC quests in this run so I guess he gets to live after making it to the rampart Tower you'll have an assortment of vertical paths to take including a side path containing another Crucible Knight who will drop an aspect of The Crucible incantation there's also a point to drop down to and get the mimic Veil item before dropping down further to fight another grafted Scion and then a stone sword key sealed room that contains the merca cord and the Wet Stone blade for standard infusions you can return and then take another path where you'll meet up with roer a battle mage MPC who sells an assortment of glint Stone ashes of War you can once again return to the rampart Tower then drop two layers down so as to enter this swordstone key room which contains the godkin seal and a book of godkin incantations then Upon returning to this Courtyard you can use stealth to sneak past all these soldiers before entering this room and pulling a lever which will activate a lift that will bring you to godric's bonfire which can also be reached by an alternative more heavily guarded path which features a giant some birds and the NPC nef L she asks you to summon her for godric's fight but I didn't so maybe I [ __ ] that Quest up I don't know by returning to godric's bonfire and then backtracking a bit you'll reach an optional well- hidden jumping path that will lead you around the outside of the cliff side of the castle and then back into the castle down a series of jumps before reaching the ground level proceeding a bit further you'll eventually reach a non-boss variant of an ulcerated tree Spirit the fight itself is an ulcerated tree Spirit it sucks however past this fight you'll see the first vestiges of death present present itself in the form of this grotesque fish head which represents the slain God Godwin's influence on the world you'll loot the prince of death's postal Talisman and then return to the rampart Tower bonfire where you can take another path that will lead you to the claw Talisman and then you can sneak your way past the back lines of the army which was waiting for you at the entrance to the castle which includes the barrage of ballistas the army of soldiers and now a blade lion eventually reaching this bonfire which you'll use to get to the Divine Tower after beating R all of these paths connect in various ways that might be useful to you to learn with many highly valuable items spread throughout the castle the placement of which leaves a huge learning curve in exploring this dungeon effectively and designing an efficient run through it storm Vil might be from soft's greatest use of level design in all of their work it offers a variety of challenges from single Elite enemies to armies just waiting for you all of which can be subverted with the enhanced stealth mechanic as well as unique encounters which can be avoided after gaining a greater understanding of the dungeon's unique properties and there are three NPCs within this Castle two of which deserve to live the Legacy dungeons act as a remarkably efficient return to form granting players the familiar and difficult gameplay of a classic Souls level by restricting the more open world elements and storm Vil is an excellent first impression of the system I just wish I could say the same of the boss godric is the weakest of the demigods and his lower visual design and move set all reflect that his grafted body is a horrific Monument to his own insecurity revealing just how weak he would have been without the upgrades but also leaving him a sloppy mess of Limbs this sloppiness is translated to his move set with many follow-up moves from his secondary set of Limbs designed to catch you off guard this generally means his fight is best disengaged from until he gives you a clear opening especially so when you're forced to disengage early from his openings when you know his wind AOE could pop up before you can make distance from him his most interesting move is the jumpable ground pound axe slams which gets upgraded from two slams to three in his second phase I'm always surprised to remember this move exists being that godric is pretty basic otherwise and I don't expect this fight to utilize the more advanced combat mechanics Phase 2 introduces dragon fire attacks which can sometimes bounce off the terrain and hit you in situations it shouldn't be able to I will however say that the combination of godric breathing fire into the wind of his storm attacks is a pretty metal visual Choice generally Phase 2 will end pretty quickly through status effect stance break or an overleveled build and after his defeat you can return to his defined Tower to clim his great Rune ironically the best great Rune in the game an allrounder which gives plus five into each of your stats it makes sense that the weakest of the demigods would overcompensate with the strongest great Rune and one that represents investing in every stat in the same way that he invested in grafting all kinds of Limbs I just wonder how many [ __ ] he grafted onto himself upon reloading godric's Arena you'll find goso kicking his head and talking [ __ ] talking to him will unlock him as a vendor at which point you'll be able to buy the buckler Shield if you didn't already have one past godric's hidden Throne you'll find an exit that emerges onto the lake facing Cliff's sight of Grace with an NPC named haetta who will ask for a shaber grape which you might have looted in the storm Bale exit passage it's clearly an eyeball and Upon A further inspection you'll come to the conclusion that this young woman was Irina from the Weeping Peninsula her body has become host to the influence of the frenzied flame and she can act as your finger Maiden through the frenzied flame storyline if you follow through with her Quest Upon returning to the round table you can meet up with rajer who ventured to deepen storm Vil found the Prince of death's viage and succumb to the death status effect after telling him of your Victory against godri he'll reward you with a plus eight Roger's Rapier with an incredibly powerful Ash of war that you can unsl slaught I like the detail that his weapon feels as though a player had been using it through it being upgraded to an appropriate level to take on storm Vil as well as having a slotted Ash of war and lastly you can visit the two fingers an enormous and strange being that speaks for the will of the earthree translated by Ena the finger reader she'll offer you boss weapons in exchange for godri remembrance and talking to her is important for continuing on white mask V's quest line and so that's it for Lim grave with all the early game areas explored and all the challenges conquered there's nothing left to do but to continue to Leia of the Lakes which I'll have the task of tackling in the next episode the early game of Elden ring has such a special place in my heart it was such a unique take on a Souls game and I don't think any of us really knew what to expect and for me that becomes entirely apparent when reminiscing about the early thought and opinions I had when exploring limb grave for the first time I thought blood hounds was the most overpowered and broken weapon in the game and that margot's boss fight was sloppy for this early area to be such a dramatic departure from from soft's Comfort Zone I believe it was remarkably well-crafted acting as a playground for tarnish to explore and toy with the new mechanics setting the stage for a Souls game where you get to choose where your adventure will take you I hope this video was entertaining educational or at least a walk down memory lane which it certainly was for me despite being exhausting to create I am absolutely looking forward to making the rest of this series and hopefully I'll finish it before the release of the DLC which I've scheduled 10 vacation days off for so as to create as much content as possible if you're just as hype as I am for this summer then I hope you'll follow along with me on this journey either way thank you so much for reaching the end of this video and I will see you in the next one

Channel: Jester of Juice

Views: 7,195

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Id: EWbouUDXuok

Length: 69min 23sec (4163 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2024