The Elden Ring Critique - Hard is the New Normal

it was the best of times it was the worst of times i have no idea what i'm quoting here because i don't actually read books but this quote somewhat describes my feelings towards elden ring elden ring has truly given me the best of times i said repeatedly to my friends that this is my personal favorite game of all time exploring the lost world rediscovering ancient treasure and finding cool completely hidden areas on my own left me awestruck every time but something kept nagging at me this feeling that wouldn't go away that i was wrong this game is infected not with a rot mind you but with eldon ringitis this disease gives bosses way fewer openings to hit them than any other souls game combined with so many delayed attacks where the actual attack window is faster than human reaction time forcing me to memorize each and every delayed attack timing we were lied to new players heard from souls vets that using summons was the cheesy easy win strat but no it was the new normal mode and the old dark souls normal mode of no summons melee only was upgraded to the new hard mode however it is worth noting that these mechanically [ __ ] or unfun end game bosses made you feel more than any other souls game that you were fighting real gods but there is a price to be paid for this and that was the price of having any actual fun with the end game boss mechanics we essentially traded fun boss mechanics in for a feeling of accomplishment there will be spoilers in this critique for elven ring as well as the dark souls 3 ring city dlc because i need to compare the boss design of the hardest dark souls 3 bosses to the hardest elden ring bosses to see the differences between them and if you haven't played elden ring i do implore you to play the game before watching this because despite the issues that i personally have with alvin ring it is a true master class in explorative design that is unparalleled in quality to any other game in the video game industry and oh my god is this game truly a work of genius when i first started up eldenry you couldn't pay me any amount of money to go straight to stormville castle for there's a whole world out there and it was beautiful just asking to be explored i could go anywhere do anything assuming all i want to do is go on a mass undead killing spree but the extremely open-ended nature of this game obviously harkens back to breath of the wild and its super open design which really influenced the game industry in order to not let the player become bored you'd find these puzzle shrines and quaraxi'd puzzles throughout the world by traditional zelda standards these puzzles were mostly mediocre think of it this way if you're forced to do every single breath of the wild puzzle shrine in a linear order akin to past more linear zelda titles you'd be bored out of your damn mind the average korok cedar shrine puzzle isn't fun because it's a mind-blowing puzzle solving experience though some are but the majority are fun because they are your own personal discovery in the world to put it another way a scattering of hidden mid-tier puzzle dungeons is more engaging to many players than a linear path of top-tier puzzle dungeons because you found that hidden mid-tier dungeon on your own it's your discovery and it's your personal adventure sure these hundred or so shrines that come at the cost of more goods zelda dungeons but you can't have everything in game development cuts must be made unless you are fromsoft elder ring has these mid-tier hidden combat dungeons that don't have mind-blowing design but unlike breath of the wild this didn't come at the cost of some of the greatest most breathtaking levels in the series elden ring has it all get stronger in whatever random cave you find in a fun little bite-sized dark souls dungeon level do enough bite-sized dark souls levels each with their own usually unique boss to prepare for that castle or prepare for the capital or the heilig tree or combat with the very gods themselves breath of the wild that never felt like enough zelda as joseph anderson put it but elden ring is all of the dark souls you could ever want i love finding the smaller dungeons engaging in bite-sized levels and smaller bosses because it's simple fun after engaging in some fun small dark souls levels you'll progress to the giant sprawling levels that almost feel more open than the open world itself lendl is a masterpiece it doesn't feel like i'm walking around a linear level but the very city streets of the capital itself the smaller bite-sized dungeons are so fun because the revamped combat system is the best in the series i will never have fun clearing at dark souls level again if i can't jumping attack spam like an elden ring the combat is finally dynamic from the player side of things too no more r1 spamming every single enemy elden ring allows the player to unironically use every move in their disposal to find a way to win find an opening with that slow weapon art to hit multiple enemies at once jumping heavy to get a quick stagger find a charge heavy window for a poise break throw in a couple quick light attack jabs brilliant finally a dark souls game from the player side of things rather than just dodge r1 dodge r1 clearing levels has never been more fun in a from soft game as it is an elden ring the more character-oriented combat system is so amazing and fun that it's hard to go back to the old dark souls levels and have nearly the same level of enjoyment because every encounter with normal enemies in elden ring is just so damn good every dungeon big or small is a treat for me to try out different combos with my new weapons and just have genuine fun i don't even mind the power creep that makes dungeons you miss too easy that adds to my masculine power trip fantasy and hey i deserve to feel like a god for two seconds in a low-level dungeon so that melania can smack my ass into submission later and remind me that god is actually a woman i really do love the combat revamp but we aren't done gushing about the exploration and level design we've barely even scratched the surface you leave your man cave to get some fresh air and bam limb grave and all of its beauty you can see a castle in the distance towers a giant bridge and some giant minor herb trees many people compare this moment to leaving the cave and breath of the wild but that comparison is a bit misleading for breath of the wild is a much more honest game to explain what i mean further in breath of the wild you can see things on the outer edges of the map almost anywhere you see that volcano that's about as far as the map goes in that direction and that's cool it's the way breath of the wild was designed it's honest from the get-go with how big it is it's not like there's a whole other parallel hell universe behind the volcano and breath of the wild enter elden ring oh yeah there is a chest that teleports you into a giant hell verse full of t-rex dogs and giant crow monsters and that hellscape is right around the corner if you venture far east into limgrave and lim grave plus the hellish caled only make up about a quarter of the map wow this game lied to me we leave the cave thinking damn limb grave is a big open world like breath of the wild that's probably only a wee bit larger than initially appears only get smacked in the face with content so much content i'm writing a spoiler-filled critique and i probably won't even be able to spoil everything if i tried this game is massive you kill godric he's a good fight bam lioness slaps you in the face a whole new world full of magic and a misty swamp an entire college of sociopathic mages that do not want you to attend hogwarts you've been struck by content and damn does it feel good i was convinced at one point that eldon ring was a never-ending cesspool of content a world without end i really love this game the world lies to me about size and i love it more every time i think i'm close to the end to realize the journey has barely begun another way that elden ring enhances his exploration is by taking some notes from dark souls one world design in fact i believe that eldering is actually the truest sequel the dark souls won despite not being called dark souls 2. just like dark souls 1 eldering has some of the best moments in the souls series for an interconnected map you get to the bottom of the sewer and lendl only to find an illusionary wall a chest and another illusionary wall thank god for messages this moment is a throwback to a similar moment in dark souls 1 which both led to a tree area in elden ring the tree area connects to another area that i found during ronnie's questline i beat moog lord of blood only to recognize that the palace i always wished i could visit but could never reach was our battleground as i looked out from the palace i saw the view of the level that i cleared almost 70 hours ago these interconnected world moments don't happen as often as dark souls 1 but since each area is so ginormous and the map is so ginormous it makes me feel really good when the areas do connect elden ring is a step in the right direction for interconnected world design and even though dark souls one world design is the best in the series i think that this is a step in the right direction and is probably the second best in the from soft series another way that elden ring is the true successor of dark souls 1 is through the black knight approach the black knight was an enemy that appeared in dark souls 1 undead burg when you first meet this foe is way too strong because you're bad and under level but then you learn the mechanics you learn to backstab you learn to parry and eventually through a combination of stats and skill you fell the hardest mini boss you've ever faced but then by halfway through the game this black knight becomes just another enemy of anor londo shooting you with the giant arrow but it's not a big deal when you're fighting them in anor londo because you're that good because you're that strong the black knight is now just another normal enemy to you alden ring replicates this ideology perfectly but instead of one black knight there's a hundred you see that tree sentinel that's a black knight you see margaret that's a black knight misbegotten is too hard for you he's another black knight you're teleported to kayla and you find the magma warm he's too hard for your current level i guess he's a black knight get good or get stronger this is the essence of dark souls and this is done better in eldering than any other souls game to date because it's so open-ended i love that you see miss begotten in the helix tree this is what dark souls is about of course i will admit that some black knights are reused too much whether it be an asylum demon or the putrid tree spirit these encounters are reused so much because they needed to fit a boss in basically every single corner of the map and dungeon but overall the black knight approach difficulty and enemy design is amazing and i personally love it here in elden ring more than any other souls game that i've ever played fromsoft famously crafts the best levels in the business because every level tells its own story they ensure each level is just a bit different from any other that they've made to always say something interesting to the player and eldering is no exception stormvale castle tells a story through its level design of a mad king that mutilates his subjects as well as a caped crusader of justice that jumps the castle rooftop to rooftop and outsmarts his foes killing righteous knights invigorating combat only to die to a [ __ ] bird immediately at stormville i realized that the level design felt more open to me than the open world itself or at least more overwhelming in the open world i'm okay with missing a cave or two not even the best explorer could find everything here on their own but in a dark souls level i want to explore every path of the sprawling metroidvania level but in this game i was really overwhelmed with choice so many forks in the road go through the main castle gate or go around the side in the castle gate go straight left of the guy shooting me or right to the bridge out of these three choices going straight opens up two or three more choices that's overwhelming to me and that's okay i had to learn to let go and once i did this the new approach to level design began to work it's magic i can't find everything in stormvale castle because it's not a dark souls level it's a real [ __ ] castle it's huge it's enormous and i love that fort redmayne tells a story of a man crazy enough to charge past ballista fire a hundred enemies and a giant only to find safe refuge jumping off the cliff to the ballista thing to find a hidden path around to get into the castle once inside there's no touch grass until right before the fog wall or at least i didn't find one so i had to survive on low estes hiding from the wolves to attempt to infiltrate their defenses only to be left with more questions at the end what is the festival when will the stars align divine tower of irnia tells a story of volcano manor tells a story of a lone hero who infiltrates the volcano manor cult pretending to work for them only to find an illusionary wall that reveals the truth the mad lord of this manner went insane and turned on his own people turning them into devious destructive killing machines of death and he was working with the godskin who are famous in item descriptions for working against the urgery at the heart of this smoldering city lie the center of a volcano within it a serpent who never dies lendl tells a story of a hero lost in the dark sewers and downtrodden city streets trying to find the answer to that one burning question in their heart what lieth at the base of the urgery after being confused our tarnished hero climbed the dragon still wing just to find out that their first foe margaret was not to be killed so easily for he was only an illusion the real foe lie further out the land of the giants tells the story of the herd trees genocide only for you to fell the final remembrance of their great race i could go on because every area in this game tells a story and i love that a story of a hero and an explorer that returned to reclaim his home from beyond the mist a story told not through cut scenes and acting but through exploration and game design it's beautifully done i can't gush enough about how amazing this game is to me and how much it means to me an actual 10 out of 10 experience deserving of all of its praise and so it was that fromsoft crafted the greatest open world game of all time for the greatest game of all time the best of times probably my favorite game ever but there was this feeling nagging me and my love for this game a feeling that only grew stronger feeling that elden ring was sick sick with elvin ringitis as i mentioned earlier for eldon ring was also the worst of times and in the game's sickened state fromsoft forgot something they once held there they forgot to make the hard bosses fun but before talking about hard bosses in elden ring i must address another issue difficulty would you rather switch the game too easy on a difficulty slider when you can't beat a boss or would you rather become a pokemon master who forces monsters to fight for while he spams a healing ore on them the choice is obvious to me i love that elden ring doesn't have an easy mode anyone who reads these articles condemning the game for not being accessible has no idea what they're talking about like everything else with eldon ring easy mode is in there but only as a hidden treasure rather than a menu option and i really love that what i don't love about eldon ring is that there is no good normal mode dark souls 1 3 normal mode was a normal leveled not 2 0p melee weapon no magic no summons for the most part was what we all consider normal mode probably at least half or more of the people who beat dark souls 3 did it this way elden ring is not like dark souls 3. if you are used to a normal dark souls combat experience you will feel out of place here either use cheese summons or the best weapon arts to make the game way too easy or play with the normal weapon only to realize that all of the end game boss mechanics are [ __ ] there is no normal mode only easy and hard but what is fun what makes a boss good this is where we will look at a game that i love dearly dark souls 3. the dlc for this game is immaculate and emasculated many a grown man who complained about those bs multi-phase bosses we were so innocent back then if only we had known the horrors that awaited us in elden ring let's look at medea for example madeer bites i hit but dear angry slaps back i slap right back at him simple okay it's actually not that simple but the point remains that if you memorize the dodge roll patterns that you can surpass any challenge in the game by attacking after the majority of their combos now let's look at market margaret does a full hit combo i hit oh no look at that i died dark souls 3 bosses let you hit them after almost all of their combos elder ring bosses attack endlessly unless they do one of maybe three punishable attacks and sometimes these punishable attacks never come you lose patience and then you die baiting out these bosses for two or three attacks isn't mechanically fun dark souls 3 was hard and made the bosses play by the same rules of stamina management as the player in elden ring the godlike bosses attack endlessly it isn't a good thing that you start with a [ __ ] ton of stamina in elton ring it's miyazaki saying oops we made the bosses have unlimited stamina but the players can't complain as long as they have a good amount of stamina too right wrong miyazaki wrong i shall complain a lot margaret crucible knight beast clergymen melania the godskin duo and horolu all of unlimited stamina when they feel like it fire giant one shots you dragon lord and elden beast teleport spam and run away from you i can never see redone he actually hits me niles guards weapon art hit me with an unfair aoe hitbox niall's peg leg has an unfair aoe hitbox did i mention that there are unfair aoe hitboxes lich dragon spams a constant lightning attack forcing me and never be able to actually land a hit only for him to hit me with the delayed unfair aoe hitbox did i mention that there are delayed attacks gone are the days of dodge rolling intuitively every attack comes out faster than sonic speed so you have to memorize how many seconds of each attack build up there is and don't mess up once or else you'll die when you're trying to just heal and did i mention that it's hard to heal you have to place a football field between you and the opponent to heal without taking a hit this isn't fun dark souls 3 getting a heal in mid-range to barely dodge or get hit by the boss was fun it was you didn't really know it was going to happen eldon ring healing is not fun and you have to heal so much because the damage is so [ __ ] high did i mention the damage is super high damage is super [ __ ] high why is damage so high why am i getting one or two or three shot with 65 vigor i put every point in the figure why does dragon lord have undodgeable attacks why does melania have undodgeable attacks does every player have to spam bloodhound step for this game to be fair and don't get me starting bloodhound step i don't want to attack people who use this weapon are but i really wish it was gone from the game there are undodgeable attacks and end game bosses that practically require bloodhound step like melania or dragonlord or eldenbee star but if you use bloodhound step to make melania a fair fight then the delicate balance of learning the dodge roll patterns and learning to roll forward into a triple sword slash and then backwards from everything else is kind of ruined the mechanical depth of learning dodgeral patterns for most bosses is ruined if you use bloodhound steps so i don't want to use it but i need it bloodhound step is all but required for you to have any enjoyment with melania or elden beast in a game full of cool weapon arts and options it's great that one op weapon art is all but required it seems the game was designed around it for almost every single person because the boss has one or two extremely unfair attacks either that i play the game at a difficulty that is a bit too easy for me with bloodhound step or i have the most unfunded steering contest with melania hoping to bait out her undodgeable waterfall attack there is no normal mode for me this game is sick with elton ringitis now i know what some of you are thinking stop complaining it's dark souls it's supposed to be hard one argument someone else might be thinking is that people who are good at this game will be able to beat it level one with many restrictions and no hit the bosses at the same time which means the game must be fair my counter argument to that is just because elden ring bosses are fair and a level 1 run is possible doesn't mean that the boss mechanics are well designed i did a level 1 run without bloodhound step for the most part and beat every main remembrance boss having to play baiting games to punish bosses with so few openings or to keep up with melania's 13 attack combos without ever failing or even getting a decent opening in is technically possible you'll get the opening eventually but it's not fun an analogy would be that it's technically possible for me to go back to college and become a calculus professor and make something out of myself but i wouldn't think it's fun similarly my level one elden ring run was possible but i did not enjoy it and that's worth noting because i did enjoy the dark souls one two and three level one runs even when they were insanely hard with bosses like manus and sister freidy i still enjoyed it because the boss mechanics were a lot more fair another argument someone could make is that i'm playing the game wrong by playing at level 1 or even a normal level melee only if i don't enjoy how i need to mechanically beat a boss whether i'm normal level or under leveled with a melee build there are options if you think that it's too hard you should use bloodhound step or summons or bleed frost double proc or a great weapon art or some magic but if i do any of this then the game is too easy for me personally to enjoy it as a dark souls vet i would get a little satisfaction for being the game this way because i crave a challenge we all do but the challenge is to put up with some horrendous design choices in otherwise good bosses i would like to make a mod that makes melania's waterfall dance more predictable so you have to bait it out easier with her only having to use it after specific attacks and for melania to not spam a 13 attack combo and she feels like it melania is so close to being a great s-tier boss fight that it hurts me one solution another redditor mentioned to me is that elven ring could implement a similar system to monster hunter where you can stagger other players if you hit them and this would add more complex positioning as a way to have summoning as a fun challenging normal mode but as of right now summoning to swap aggro with no consequences makes the game too easy for most souls vets to enjoy in a mechanical level like you could with something like monster hunter just ask any dark souls vet and they will tell you dark souls no cheese is not as hard as elden ring no cheese i was famous among my friends for always saying that the base game of dark souls 1 and 3 were not hard games you just needed a good sword well upgraded and some patience just look at gameplay of my dark souls 3 level 1 runs gale hits i'm able to hit after almost every combo with your hits i'm able to hit pontiff may be hard to find openings and punish like an elder ring boss but he has low health and is variable making him fair if he was an elder drink you'd have to parry him three times to get one sister friday has amazing combos but she is also staggerable in almost every hit if i remember correctly and their 1v2 phase is coded so that they split up unlike godskin duo the demon prince1v2 is also coded so that one plays passive for most of the fight these are all very good very hard well balanced fair fights that i enjoy very dearly to me i used to say dark souls wasn't that hard if you played patiently i can no longer say that elden ring is hard elden ring is too hard but elden ring is also too easy there is no good normal mode just easy or actually interact with the boss mechanics and just don't have a good time i am scared for the future of soulsborne for miyazaki now treads on the dark path of the imperium will he continue to add more tools to trivialize boss mechanics while making the boss mechanics less fun with each and every release if fromsoft treads too far down this road it could make an amazing experience so amazingly frustrating that beating bosses stops being fun in its entirety even if it is rewarding so it was that elden ring would easily be the greatest dark souls game ever on your first playthrough or it does not have the replayability of dark souls 3. i can replay dark souls 3 knowing every crack and crevice of the level design and still get simple joy out of the fun boss mechanics especially in the dlc i cannot say the same for elden ring however once i have fully explored and re-explored the map now beating the game four times with almost 300 hours played i will not enjoy exploration anymore i already know where everything is several times over the only joy left to be had is in fighting the bosses with more restrictions to learn their mechanics more and there is little joy to be found here just solemn pain the sad thing is that the game i look forward to more than any other is elden ring after three or four years when i forget enough of its secrets to play the game again and attempt to recapture those original feelings as best as i can it was the best of times and it was the worst of times in my favorite video game of all time you

Channel: Feeble King

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Id: X8rBksGzKY4

Length: 27min 4sec (1624 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 07 2022