ELDEN RING Brings FromSoft To The (Open) World (Patreon)

Elden Ring is a stunning achievement. It’s rich, textured, dense, and challenging. It is jaw-droppingly massive and yet somehow every single little corner of the game is filled with thoughtful design. It is, quite simply, one of the best open world games I’ve ever played. And yet, at the exact same time…

It is somehow my least favorite of the modern FromSoft games?

I honestly don’t mean that as a slight. It’s like saying “my least favorite awesomest thing.” But this is also a somewhat common opinion of many other people who also love recent FromSoft games. Because those games are absolutely defined by the difficult rhythm of their design, bosses, and grind. Yeah, you can usually farm a little, but you’re still basically forced into these linear chokepoints with hard-as-hell bosses than you simply need to beat in order to progress. Because “the way out is through.” Granted, this is what often makes people revile FromSoft games. But I love it precisely because it essentially forces you to learn the fight itself. There’s no over-leveling them. You have to learn all their moves. Then you have to practice what you’ve learned so you can turn the response into muscle memory. But this is exactly what makes you better at the game. You learn all these skills that you never knew you had, and that’s how you learn the rhythm of the game itself. Sekiro in particular is maybe my favorite game ever exactly because it requires the player to parry (a difficult timing skill) or die. It’s just learning, learning, learning. And the endless deaths are but a series of expected outcomes in that process. They are remarkable games at teaching you the value of failure.

Elden Ring is… not that. I mean, it has some sprinkling of that, but in the end, it’s a big old open world game where you can always go somewhere else and get stronger. Aside from a few bosses, there really aren’t any choke points. And if you are smart about seeking out weapons and high value smithing stones, can easily over-power yourself for a lot of parts of the game. All in all, there were probably a handful of times where it was challenging in that traditional FromSoft way I’ve come to love. But after the first chunk of the game, I made peace with the idea that Elden Ring wasn’t going to have that “the way out is through” structure that I adore. And instead, i had to embrace the idea that it was going to bring the other remarkable things that FromSoft does to open world games.

And boy howdy did it deliver on that count.

GENERAL THINGS I LOVED

Torrent - When it comes to video games core mechanics are everything. Because you are engaging the player by asking what is the main action they will spend 90% of your time doing? Is that mechanic fun? And here, it’s riding around exploring on your horse and EVERYTHING about your ghost horse Torrent is great. The double jump is not just a fun little “whee!” mechanic that you can do all the time, the coup is that it’s so forgiving and graceful (this is a huge, huge, huge mistake with RDR2’s “grounded” realism which hampers so much exploration precisely because you slide all over the fucking rocks and kill your horses so easily). This the main mechanic of exploring so much fun. They just nailed it.

The Weapon Art System - The other thing you do is fighting and so much of this is similar to the Dark Souls system and hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But the additions of weapon arts is absolutely my favorite tweak to the combat systems here. You get to do all these special moves that have so many tactical advantages! Holy powers! Frost build-up! Bleeding! Ahhhh! But my favorite thing is how much it encourages variation in weapon use in order to take advantage of the arts and clean out certain areas.

Combat - I’ll admit, I was really skeptical how FromSoft’s combat, with it’s exacting hit-boxes and deeply crafted mechanics, would play in an open world environment, where so many of the battles are about the specific details of the space you fight in. But not only were they so smart in terms of boss layout and designing certain arenas, but even when dealing with so many open, expansive environments I’m shocked it works as well as it does. I can’t even imagine the amount of play-testing that went into this (and granted, I came to play with later versions). But a bigger part of this conversation is of course…

The Map - What a damn achievement. What was the meme saying, “whenever you think you’re done, there’s more?” And again, the level of detail in the design is staggering. Where places like Skyrim feel there are these endless, semi-generated fields or mountains, this game took Breath of the Wild lessons which helped make every little nook and cranny feel intentional and specific (this is something FromSoft was always good at, but they’re often working with smaller dungeon-like environments). This feels like Breath of the Wild that taken to 11, albeit with less interactive capabilities. But still, there are so many cool little caves or castles or enemies or invisible bridges that boggle the mind. But what’s particularly well done is the attention paid to grace locations. Because I was shocked how good it all felt. One was never too far. Nor did one ever feel like an unnecessary abundance. And now that I’ve talked about the map, we can get into…

RATING THE AREAS

Limgrave - What a perfect way to start! It’s so good at crafting your expectations and teaching you how to approach the game, whether it’s getting a really tough boss in your face earlier (and teaching you that you can come back to them), along with throwing undead enemies at you in crypts, and even the mechanics of fighting a big old dragon.

Liurnia - It’s a nice little uptick in the challenge with so many little swampy pockets of annoyance. It’s also where you learn Lobster Gang Up = death. This is, like, the opposite of what I grew up with New England.

Caelid - Hell. Literal hell. One of those areas that is just designed to make your skin crawl and filled with instant death and the rot enemies and many that are OP’d and then the high areas are SO much more leveled-up. I was worried there wouldn’t be a big ass terrible area like this, ya know, where it looks like god puked his guts out on a place? But thankfully there was and it comes early… It’s perfect, five stars, no notes.

Volcano Manor / Atlas Plateau - This is some really good stuff, too. Volcano Manor has a lot of really neat quests I got into and the Atlas Plateau autumnal color scheme is such a refreshing change of pace.

Capital City - I was curious how the capital would play out and it’s a fantastically designed zone. There’s so many weird little nooks and crannies and you’re constantly asking yourself if you’ve been somewhere before, but not in a super confusing way (I’m decent with orientation), but in that way where you feel like the design is purposefully messing with your head. It’s so fucking good and it gets even better once it’s cratered near the ending.

Underground Areas - The Siofra river is one of the most gorgeous, otherworldly areas of the game with those cave-lit stars and sense of wonder, but the lake of rot can eat my butt. Also, I never want to see another giant ant again.

Mountaintops of the Giants - Another gorgeous area with such a great build-up in terms of getting to them, as the bridges and snow-flurries are such a great touch. Once you’re roaming the white-capped mountains as all the giants meander about it just all feels so perfect.

Dragon Temple - The whirlwindy, shattered ruins area is probably the place I got lost and died the most? There’s a lot of “uhhhhh can I make that jump? Ope. No. No, I can’t.”

The Haligtree - Now, this is some dark ass Rivendell shit right here. But it was also probably my favorite area in the game, especially as you got closer to the city part. And the environmental build up to Malenia just felt so exciting. But I guess there was honestly something I loved about EVERY area and I can’t remember the last time I thought that about a game?

MY STRATEGY / PEDANTIC NERDY SHIT!

Platinum’d!!!! - So I platinum’s this fucker with 173 hours of play. I knew I wanted to from onset without replaying (in retrospect, it would have probably taken as much time, but a big part of the thanks to Fighting Cowboy’s build recs, strats, and tips on story approach so that I didn’t make any quest misstepsI also probably came close to 100%ing the game but that feels impossible to even know? THE GAME IS SO BIG.

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Ta da!

My Build - So for my actual character design I did a mustached In The Cut style Ruffalo Hulk that I explore in this thread. But for the actual stats, I did a quality build with favors a balance of strength and dex so you can play a lot of different weapons and melee styles. I got to level 175 the soft caps of vigor at level 60 and endurance in 40s and strength and dex in the 50’s. Here’s my final stats (with rune arc active).

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Weapon Set - So the Bloodhound Fang was my main. It’s not just the bleed damage, it’s that crescent weapon art of being able to get a huge hit and dodge backwards was just INVALUABLE. It was literally a huge part of my boss strategies, even at end of the game. The other weapons I took to max 10 or max 25? The Dragon King’s Cragblade is great late game thrusting weapon, which helped so much with the Haligtree area where big swings on the branches are super dangerous. And being able to poke from behind the great shield is such a defensive advantage. The Great Stars mace was my blunt armor / crystal basher, along with a holy weapon I used often against undead boys. The Nightrider Glaive has great reach, but honestly I mostly used it as the thing that let me try out different weapon arts? It was mostly situational. As far as shields go, I loved the Spiralhorn Shield for parrying, magic or otherwise (plus it matched my cool tree helmy). Honestly, I just had it on my back a lot and would do a lot of two handed swings, dodging instead of blocking, and often using my summon as a distraction and picking my spots. It wasn’t until I got the big beefy Fingerprint Stone Shield, with all it’s great negation, that I changed my strategy to being more more defensive. That immediate slash when you hit R2 after a big clang on your shield? Feels a bit OP’d, but I boy did I use it.

Armor - I used a lot of Radahn’s armor with the Crucible Tree helm (which was more of a fashion choice, but I hate how many other big helmets would literally block your view). But I was constantly fiddling between sets depending on my endurance and what shield I was using. Which means I used a lot of Blaidd’s, Fingerprint, and Maleketh’s armor sets. For medallions, I basically went with anything that gave me equip load and general stat boosts and stamina regeneration.

Summons - Probably the most invaluable advice early on was getting the regenerating skeletons so you have a regenerating object of distraction. But by the time you get the mimic? Holy crud was that just my go to summon for most of the game. The ability to just duplicate yourself has so many applications., particularly when you’re trying to do double the speed at which your build-up damage hits (frost, holy, etc). With the Bloodhound Fang’s bleed build up? You can just take GIANT chunks off the health so quickly. It was honestly my strategy even with even a lot of end game bosses. Again, maybe a little OP’d. But hey, I everything else I tried just wasn’t as helpful as that.

HOW IT ALL WENT / BATTLE SPECIFICS

FromSoft battles are weird in that some can just click immediately and some take time to click. Like, I will never understand how I was able to beat the double apes in Sekiro on my first try. It was a Seeing The Matrix Moment. But it then took DAYS to beat the final boss, among others. Anyway, this is how my Elden Ring battles went…

First Crucible Knight - Early on when I was having a tough time with rhythm of the game, this was the first boss who was giving me trouble and out of soulsy-desperation, I just MADE myself sit there and learn him. Turns out this was immensely helpful in teaching me a whole bunch of strats, particularly when to parry and when to dodge.

Nightriders - Never had too much trouble with these guys? I had this good strategy where I’d just get off the horse and always be able to strafe left and get behind them.

Deathbirds - Hate them. They just hop around and have so much AOE you can rarely get comfortable with a singular approach, but Torrent was often helpful at the start. The last one in the snowy area was my very last “come back to later” enemy I had to finish before the final bosses.

Erdtree Guardians - Annoying fuckers, particularly when they have rot abilities. Definitely one of those fights that depends on how long your summon can distract them, but I fully admit I had to cheese the last one in the Haligtree by luring him back inside (smartly they don’t allow you to use the summon indoors) because trying to fight him with two beefy knights around, too? No thank you. It was also a good end of game farming area.

Dragons - Didn’t have a TON of trouble, depending on my level because it was one of those things where I had such an easier time just doing big swooping arcs with torrent and hitting those legs / wings in the back? Anyway, onto big specific bosses…

Godrick - He only took about 5 tries I think? This is pre-mimic and I summoned what’s her face and felt like I could make pretty short work, even in the second phase.

Rennala - Not especially hard, but a REALLY COOL moonlit battle and her summons made for this really neat wrinkle. A total battle of spacing.

Radahn - I hear I missed the fun part? He apparently he got nerfed by the time I came around to the game which stinks cause it feels like the perfect point in the game for a challenge. Only took me 3 tries, but the mechanics of it where you run forward and get all those other summons is SUPER fun.

Rykard - It’s a gimmick fight with the serpent blade, but there’s a really cool design and pretty sure I got it on the second try?

Mohg… And Others? - So I literally don’t remember what happened in my Mohg fight I must have just beaten him in the endless whrrr of other memories. I mean, there’s a LOT of bosses in this game and I fought every single one. But for a lot of them I just hit this stride where it’s hard to remember the details (the litany of crypt mini-bosses compound this). This is not a complaint, but given how many first try wins there were, I really don’t remember another boss of note until I got to…

Dragonlord Placidusax - Just a really good fight. I think it took me about 10 tries to really do it? Maybe 12? But a lot of it depends on the luck of how much damage your summon takes. Also, it helps a lot when you get the timing down on dodging his big swoopy flight attack. But it felt like a really good, quality Soulsy battle. Speaking of which, next was “her…”

Malenia - So I think I was probably over-prepared for this one? I had seen enough of the meme videos “let me solo her” etc (the alts are hilarious, particularly “do it yourself”). But I think I knew well enough to try and get the 4 part dodge time right for her massive flurries. And with her constant healing, I knew to be aggressive in the DPS race. For which, using my mimic so I could try to get those bleed build ups was CRITICAL. So it felt like I had a real strategic leg up coming into the experience. I got SO CLOSE to beating her on the 5th try and managed to pull it off on the 8th *insert cool guy shades* But you know how I said FromSoft battles are funny? Well there’s one enemy that took me infinitely longer than any other and it wasn’t even a big boss. It was…

Ball Bearing Hunter, Repeat Version in Caelid - I’m pretty sure I took at the initial version of this guy on first or second try, but this repeat dude gave me FITS. I must have fought him over 30 times. I got so much further into the game and it still didn’t matter. I had that annoying little marker there as a constant reminder that I couldn’t beat him (and having to reset it to night EVERY loss felt like a cruel taunt). I could never get the parry timing exactly. Even when I had my big beefy shield he would just wreck me when I was too close, or wreck me with that flying sword when I was far away. It finally clicked when I realized I had to keep mid distance and pick my spots, but honestly it’s kind of what i miss about Sekiro, in that I would have been forced to learn that skill earlier rather than wasting time getting powered up and coming back and STILL losing because of bad strategy. Anyway!

Elden Beast - I will say this, it was probably the most gorgeous final fight in a FromSoft game. I think I got it on the fourth try? But honestly I almost wanted to take more time as I watched that big old starry celestial lochness monster move about with the grace of a literal god. Ultimately, the final boss was so much of what the game itself represents… big, beautiful, detailed, tough, but not too tough, all the kind of thing that makes you want to disappear into the moment itself. And for that, maybe to play it again and again.

Which brings us to…

WHAT I LIKED MOST

Sometimes people just need a way in.

And my favorite thing about Elden Ring is that it’s grabbed so many people who bounced off other FromSoft games. They’ve really come to love this game. And now, that deeper curiosity is there because they’ve gotten used to the weird combat and systems. It’s like, hey, you loved this? Now you can try dark souls 3! Which I think is more accessible than DS1! Which is pretty cruel (I mean, I can’t in good conscience tell someone to play something with Sen’s Fortress in it). And also, you can direct them to a FromSoft game according to their play-style. Did they like magic? Definitely play a Souls! Like rapid dodging and big weapon swings? Bloodborne it is! Like Parrying and hair trigger timing and great hit-boxes? Behold Sekiro! So even though Elden Ring is a towering achievement in it’s own right, one that needs no such qualifier of comparison, my favorite is that it might get more people to join the FromSoft party…

Granted, it’s a weird party.

<3HULK