Was Elden Ring Overrated? Why are Game Scores Dumb?

this is a weird video to make since i only stand to lose by revealing my own personal rating of elden ring either i give it a high score disappointing my viewers who agreed with my take on the bosses being overtuned to the point of not being fun or i give elden ring a mediocre score pissing off 99 of the entire gaming community it's a lose-lose situation either way so i thought it'd be an amazing idea for a video [Music] what is perfection can perfection be achieved well in an objective medium such as sports there are genetic limitations that cap one's potential so you can only run so fast jump so high and lift so much weight in theory perfection would be a person with the best genetics for an activity who also puts in the hours to fully realize their potential however few will ever do this a perfect runner could be perfect in a sense as with a lot of hard work he can fulfill his genetic potential for greatness and if he has the genetic build to be the greatest runner then he will also be as close as someone can come to being a perfect runner but what if the medium you worked in was measured in emotions rather than numbers we can say that the fastest human runner has perfected running because he runs faster than all the others but what about art how do we measure this the answer is obvious we make up some anthony fantano adjectives to describe our feelings and then slap a strong six to a light seven on the thing and call it a day this works pretty well for music since there are little objective measurements that can truly determine the quality of a song you can say that pinkerton isn't well produced and i can tell you that pinkerton is the greatest lo-fi emo album of all time so music is pretty subjective hell some people still think that drake makes good music and he isn't a shill however video games are a completely different beast if a game is poorly programmed it's like if a song was completely out of tune the only difference being that most music is just pitch corrected anyways while video games still come out buggy is all hell elden ring music has existed and been perfected for so long that some artists like yuko ono just say it and start screaming like a banshee just to appear different [Music] unlike music which has been perfected to the point of musicians literally making it worse just to give it some sort of emotion video games are still in the rudimentary form of development there is no video game that has ever been released in a perfect state this is because in order for a game to seem perfect it must both have flawless programming 3d modeling writing music and execution of game mechanics while also pushing the envelope of what game design is it isn't enough for a video game or a song to just be well produced and in tune for that won't sway the heart of man to do that we need real passionate emotion not only must a game have every medium in the project executed at the professional level from programming to character dialogue and cinematography a game must also innovate upon game design ideas introduced in past games with new original ideas that transform our idea of what a game can be unfortunately art is hard and rarely do we ever see any games that even approach a level of quality close to perfection in fact i can't think of a single perfect game not because of that old saying nothing can be perfect in art argument but because there literally isn't a single perfectly executed game that i also love on an emotional level in no other artistic medium do we hear the phrase you're too subjective in response to providing an opinion than in video games this is because unlike music there are a host of objective measurements like how broken its programming and game design systems are to determine if the game is bad before taking into account the emotions of the player of course none of this matters because the emotions felt while interacting with art will be the crux of our enjoyment not the objective measurements when a game is rewarded the legendary 10 out of 10 status it implies that a game is both objectively and subjectively perfect to the reviewer but we all know this is a false implication as no game ever truly reaches these heights at least i've never found a game that could be described as perfection while i have found songs or albums that i think are perfect so when a reviewer awards a game the titular 10 out of 10 score there less saying this game is objectively the best and more that this game made me feel more than any other game in recent memory and to me that's fine i think emotions are the most important part when communicating the enjoyability of art but sometimes my favorite games end up being both the most creative and the least perfect one of my favorite imperfect games is none other than elden ring my first playthrough of this game will go down as one of my favorite gaming experiences of all time now this might come as a surprise for some people who have seen some of my other videos on this channel since i focus a lot on the negative aspects of elden ring this is because when the game first came out there was this cult of elden ring fans that would raise their pitchforks at the slightest implication that it was anything but pure perfection from the heavens above and my channel was here to tell people that the game wasn't actually completely flawless elden ring has some huge issues from overtuned bosses to terrible pvp to an overabundance of useless rewards that make exploration boring on any playthrough past the first and despite all of this i still really like the game in fact i would go as far to say that i love elden ring of course i still think the game has its flaws and i've explained in depth in other videos on this channel what those flaws are but nothing could change that magical feeling of exploring the vast world that i had in my first playthrough it's also easier for me to forgive the game's shortcomings when there are so many other innovative aspects of elder ring that made the game's design different from any other open world that i've ever played i love originality and art above all else and the process of getting teleported to the hellscape of caled or uncovering the secrets of volcano manor was unlike any experience i've ever had in a video game elden ring is by no means a perfect game but in an industry as dull as triple a video games we need to reward studios for pulling off good creative risks which fromsoft is really great at maybe the 19th call of duty game is mechanically the best run and gun reaction time shooter game ever but i don't really care i want something new in art it doesn't matter if the game is perfect if it's just another uncreative rehash then it's a 5 out of 10 to me elden ring is flawed but it's not a 5. if i was anthony fantano i would probably give it a strong 8 to a light 9 a step back from dark souls 3 when it comes to boss enjoyment and replayability but so many steps forward for exploration that it has to be around an 8 or a 9 out of 10. so final rating 8.69 out of 10 not enough water i still wouldn't give elden ring a 10 because the bosses are really quite unfun especially on repeat playthroughs or on weaker builds which is my preferred playstyle but either way that isn't the point of a game's score a 10 to ign doesn't mean this game is perfection but instead it means that we want more innovative games like this in the industry and honestly i think that's fine i've heard this argument presented by many game critics when they give the new call of duty a 9 out of 10 which is that it is only fair to review art isolated from the genre or medium it comes from to look at the game for its own merits i'm here to say that this is complete horseshit the most important thing art can do is innovate on the genre am i supposed to forget that i've already played call of duty zombies 20 million times and review it in isolation this is just stupid the point of art is to innovate and when someone innovates well we reward them with a 9 or a 10 even if it isn't perfect if we review every game in isolation from others that's essentially us saying that we don't care if the game we're playing is another rehash well guess what i care successful creativity and innovation is key if creativity isn't there it's worthless that's why reviewers gave breath of the wild and elden ring a 10 not because they're perfect but because they pushed video games further they dared to be different and we love them every day more for it if there were no indie games there is no nintendo or fromsoft if it was just ubisoft and activision guess what there might not be a games industry right now breath of the wild was the first open world game in a decade where the open world actually improved the game rather than being a mundane checklist it's amazing it also sucks crap i'm gonna lose all my subscribers what i meant to say is when it comes to traditional zelda dungeons or any type of difficulty curve the game is deeply flawed but the good parts are so good in such a dull industry like video games that i don't care breath of the wild as flawed as it is is also around an 8.69 just like elder ring some of my favorite games of all time from majora's mask to dark souls 1 in eldon ring and fallout new vegas they all suck oh [ __ ] i'm gonna lose all my subscribers what i meant to say is that fallout new vegas has pretty uninteresting buggy combat even for the time and majora's mask has some pretty unintuitive puzzle solutions that literally made zero sense if you beat it without a walkthrough like i did where you just talked to every npc in clock town for 20 hours until i random chance until the right milk bar side quest that was actually a main quest but either way they both left a giant emotional impact on me as a human being and that's the important part i really love the witcher 3. and the combat was i may have pointed out a lot of the negative aspects of elden ring on this channel but would i have preferred dark souls 4 over elden ring well i'd probably still love that game to pieces but no i prefer it when artists like miyazaki and his team at fromsoft take risks flaws are the price of ambition although i've never played a perfect game i still believe that a perfect game could exist but unfortunately my fantasy game that has the writing of fallout new vegas the world and puzzles of majora's mask the exploration thrill discovery of elden ring and the bosses of dark souls 3 doesn't exist i disagree when people say that a perfect game couldn't exist because the definition of perfect is different for every individual and theoretically a perfect video game could be created for each person watching this video but for now i will settle with playing games that are great in some ways and terrible in others since i don't think any video game is perfect i also wouldn't give an actual 10 out of 10 score to any game that i love since they all have their own flaws and usually if a game doesn't have too many flaws like dark souls 3 then it takes less creative risks and still makes it feel ingenuine to give this type of game a 10 out of 10 either or a game to be a 10 out of 10 it must add on to the artistic medium of video games in a never before seen way while simultaneously having near perfect execution but since video games are so damn hard to make this just isn't a realistic expectation to have and so it is that the 10 out of 10 score does not mean perfection but instead means that it's the reviewer's highest recommendation because of this i do not disagree with all the 9 or 10 out of 10 scores for elden ring since the game adds so many new ideas to video games that completely overshadow the majority of the game's issues at least until the end game or repeat playthroughs a 10 out of 10 is less saying that the game is perfect and more saying that we want more of this in the video game industry and love the innovations that this game has provided the reason why my huge issues with elden ring boss design and replayability do not negatively impact my score on the game too much is because well every great game is incredibly flawed as i stated before fallout new vegas is well written but i hate the enemy ai and shooting feel and lack of depth in combat majora's mask has some pretty bad puzzle solutions that just kind of require you to get lucky in my opinion and all of these games are all great all great video games are greatly flawed because they're a great pain in the ass to develop so we lower our standards it's better than buying the new generic yearly assassins crater call of duty game that doesn't do much to push the genre forward as i'll always reward creativity with my score over just execution if i rated games on execution every new matted game is a 10 because it's another copy and paste but well refined football game i guess this is a joke of course i don't even play sports games but i hope you see the point there is no perfect 10 out of 10 games so we make compromises and reward games with higher scores that take successful risks rather than a game that takes no risks but executes every mechanic flawlessly art is about innovation without it the medium is fated to die in obscurity and so i'm glad that elden ring exists as the flawed masterpiece that it is just as i'm glad that dark souls 1 exists despite its issues both games are probably an 8 or a 9 out of 10 because of what they represent for the game industry in creative innovation not because they're perfect and if i was an ign reviewer who only had 60 hours to play elder ring before the review deadline i would also have given it a 10 out of 10 score since its issues show up more at the end game and repeat playthroughs was it manipulative of fromsoft to not give reviewers enough time to actually finish the game before reviewing it yeah i was actually kind of shitty of them since none of the reviewers had even touched end game while reviewing for professional outlets but honestly the majority of the reviewers probably would have given the game a 9 or 10 even with the few final fights being of questionable quality so it wasn't that bad it's just a little dishonest but if the game gives the reviewer 60 hours of 10 out of 10 enjoyment then their final score would probably have still been a 10 so i don't really mind too much it is a little weird though either way the point of this video is that if anyone mansplains to you that elden ring or your favorite game is overrated hot trash you can casually reply all games are trash but this one is mine because all great ambitious and innovative art is going to be flawed especially in a medium as complex as video games but those flaws do not invalidate your feelings [Music] you

Channel: Feeble King

Views: 19,795

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Id: VXVbBCwivT4

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 18 2022