Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118851553#Comment_118851553

Yeah I've been the same - I'm sure I've been knocked down, but it's never stood out as being particularly unfair or unearned.

That said, many years of playing Tony Hawks Pro Skater have programmed me to mash buttons if I fall on the ground in any video game  🛹

_CreeD_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118851111#Comment_118851111

The Baldachan's blessing from Fia in the Roundtable hold improves poise though there is a health cost to just having this in your inventory. But if you're having trouble with poise it might be a decent option until you find something better.

Similar to Mr. Monke I've said many times I'm not a Soulsborne fan. While I love the atmosphere, world design and no I don't think they're too hard I just find them boring over time as the difficulty curve to me is more about a Rock/Paper/Scissors arms-race and I dislike repetition (I also dislike most rogue likes for the same). Anyway I'm not here to rant about that again more that I'm REALLY liking Elden Ring. I think the option to move somewhere else and do different activities like dungeon/catacomb farming and the abundance of parallel tasks to keep me busy completely negates running into repetition walls. A good example was Stormveil Castle. I got to it probably around level 20, Samurai with no dedicated build in play and was working through it fine, a couple of deaths here and there but overall progressing and I just got that SoulsBored feeling again. So I headed off and did everything else in Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula with the odd trip back to explore and open some more grace areas etc. before finally finishing it out. Not because the area was hard but simply for variety and it really worked for me vs. a linear slog. While Stormveil was the most DS like zone so far (hence the Legacy part of that zone type I guess) I think it was also much better designed than their previous games. It was complex and winding but with lots of little shortcuts and ways to open to optimise working through it later to finish out collecting it's loot.

Since it was mentioned a few times on recent posts I actually like the Trap chests whisking you off to harder areas (btw the rock guys you meet early on through one of these, use Strike damage and they are much easier to take down - you'll see them in most mines and these are a great source for smithing stones). None of them have been hard to at least run out of (you can't fast travel from them until you have rested at a Grace there so worst case scenario find the nearest one and then you can teleport out but I advise trying to exit the dungeon and at least take look around the zone and open a few more Grace's). They provide a really good way of enabling fast travel to distant zones imho, that can be handy for non-combat resource runs until you are levelled and can reach/explore them proper.

I'm only now starting Liurnia and working on anything approaching a build pattern (around level 45) but am leaning towards dual blood-slash Katana's at the moment with Banished Knight Engvall face-tanking Bosses while I ex-sanguinate. I haven't tried summoning or being summoned yet, none of the bosses have taken more than 3 attempts so far with just my Ash back up but I think I'll give co-op a go tonight for a laugh (and some Arcs...).

Sooo, yeah, a pleasantly surprised non-soulsbornite I be.

Zero-Cool

Stuck of Astel boss so headed back to castle Sol. Castle was handy but commander Niall with his brilliant name is wrecking my head as well. Feel like my focused STR build isn't actually doing enough damage to be worth it. My great shield feels like tissue paper against him.

Retr0gamer

Is that the same fucker from the swamp that did my head in last night?

johnny_ultimate

There’s Commander Niall (Sol) and Commander O’Neil (swamp). The Celtic mythology really shining through in those character names. And they’re quite different fights as well despite the similar names.

I tell ya I must have helped 10-12 people throttle Niall after I'd beaten him just so I could murder the bollox again and again. If I recall it was one of the longer run ups to a boss in the game? Or I might have missed a closer grace. The fight isn't bad once you get rid of the others so mimic etc helps greatly

I was only watching a video earlier this evening there is a delicious slice of cheese you can use on him without setting foot in the arena, how people spot this stuff amazes me.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118853483#Comment_118853483

There's a lift you can activate outside his arena which brings you back down near the site of grace if I remember right.

Zero-Cool

I have the grace at the entrance of the castle and one in the church. Both seem like the same distance run, one past the current dig, one last ghost enemies, easy run but annoying when Niall wrecks you so quick.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah there’s a shortcut but there’s still a bit of a run and a few enemies to take on to get to the fog gate. That does seem the exception rather than the norm in this game.

The Academy run to the Red Wolf fight I think is the longest boss run I’ve come across? Easy enough to leg it past the enemies but I remember the despair in realising I’d wasted all my resources the first time after I cleared the path totally 😅

How Soon Is Now

So I got this and the new Horizon game for me birthday last week. Played Horizon the first day then taught ah ill have to give Eldin Ring a shot well haven't played Horizon since haha!

Really enjoying it so far love the freedom of the open world and challenging yet not **** annoying enemy's.

Have to say though auld Margit was starting to wreck my head ha finally beat it tonight so delighted with that!

J. Marston

Rune Bears are harder than 90% of bosses.

_CreeD_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118854102#Comment_118854102

They're 2 different games lumped into the same genre. I played HzFBW first and loved it, but it is absolutely an MCU style event in a series. 100% cinematic and story driven with great combat and progression dynamics. Elden Ring is the DS version of it. They don't have to occlude each other, in fact I think they compliment each other greatly in that you can (and should) enjoy both for different flavours of the same tastes.

How Soon Is Now

Yeah, I'll float back and forth there's a good experience within both games.

Is there anything in particular I should be crafting? Seem to be constantly collecting resources I've never actually used!

Taltos

Just craft what I need when I need it. Did a run for the golden thingy and stocked up on the pink fruit. Tried to do a summons there as my first attempt was miserable but no luck, pulled up a rune and took the tongue for resistance and just scraped through.

If only that would work on the crystal bosses - hate em.

Saying that find during the week as I’ve less time to play not enjoying it as much, just too many areas to jump to and am struggling to remember what I was doing without checking google on how to continue Ranni’s quest if you know what I mean. Got tricked by a NPC, that was a good call back to an earlier game, did enjoy that.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118854435#Comment_118854435

Yeah I completely agree. Even just comparing their open worlds, they're created for different purposes. Horizon's open world (and same goes for the Assassin's Creed games, Ghost of Tsushima etc) is designed for activity and progression. There's X types of activities, X amount of each, and you must be whatever level to be able to do some of them. But the rewards, XP etc you get will match the level of the game you're at, tie in with story, and will work towards your overall progression.

Elden Ring's open world is designed with risk v reward in mind, because everything in Elden Ring is risk v reward. You don't know what you'll find by exploring, you don't know if you'll be capable of it, and you don't know what reward lies at the end of it (unless you've googled etc). You don't know if it's worth the risk, you don't know if you should be doing it, but you still can.

I think there are definitely things Horizon et al can learn from Elden Ring with regards to open world design, but so much of Elden Ring's design also wouldn't suit Horizon because the games just have different design philosophies at their core.

The open world and the exploration are key to what's great about Elden Ring. The open world of Horizon is more in the background because their focus is more on story and different activities/challenges.

Retr0gamer

I wouldn't be so nice to Horizon. Horizon is safe and boring and it's brought into starker contrast with the likes of BotW and now Elden Ring on the market. With all the budget Horizon had Elden Ring totally outclasses it as a game. And even in visuals artistically Elden Ring is way better imo.

Back to Elden Ring the fights are getting tougher in Caelid. Had to summon for the first time. The three putrid crystallines boss in the Sellia Hideaway were just impossible with my build. I really can't see how anyone can beat that without a strength based smashy weapon. And even with 2 others it was tough. Basically I let them take on the two melee enemies while I kept the mage out of action with back attacks. Even still we lost on coop partner before the end and even with all my back attacks the super armour of the mage didn't go until the other player helped me out and my bleed build started ripping through them. And the reward.... a poxy sorcery when I'm a faith build.

Left the game late last night after getting my arse handed to me by the Godskin apostle in the Caelid Tower. It's a good fight but might be a little under levelled for it.

johnny_ultimate

Crystalians are definitely a pain in some builds. They got easier for me when I realised you can 'crack' their armour using something like Rock Sling and then they actually take standard amounts of damage after that.

Still tricky when you're trying to deal with three of them.

johnny_ultimate

One thing that sets Elden Ring apart from virtually all open-world games is how tailored the experience feels. Now there's obviously repetition - repeated bosses, copy and pasted dungeons (like the crystal tunnels) etc... There's also a fair bit of wide-open space with not a whole lot going on (although you're never far from something). But the vast majority of the time I'm playing I feel like I'm getting a very tailored experience - a certain pace of gameplay with high levels of attention and engagement needed. Enemy placements - even for the most part in the big open world sections - feel very purposefully designed to surprise or challenge the player. While the nature of a game built around builds means not every award will suit every player, nonetheless the rewards for exploring are usually much more interesting than just an upgraded version of a basic weapon. Most resources are very valuable - even in the late game, getting a high-level smithing stone feels significant.

And the sheer depth of design that has gone into the legacy dungeons - the more focused, 'linear' parts of the game - puts your standard open-world trailing mission or whatever to absolute shame.

Retr0gamer

I'm not sure if faith builds have anything that can match rock sling though :/

Penn

I usually focused on backstabs for the Crystalians, using their slow movement, and my I-frames and mimic for distraction. Never had to switch away from my Katana as 2-3 backstabs crack them enough that you can do real damage.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118854851#Comment_118854851

Yeah I do too. But when there are three of them that also inflict massive amounts of scarlet rot and seem to have a much high super armour threshold than normal ones. I got upwards of 10 or more backstabs on the mage and the super armour wasn't cracking. It's a god damn nightmare. At least it's very much an optional fight.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah I tried the backstab thing with my katana and it didn't work at all on the Crystalian trio - did it well over a half dozen times on the mage while the mimic distracted the others and they still weren't taking any significant damage.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118854905#Comment_118854905

Oh yeah, forgot about the scarlet rot ones. I think the mimic still held two of them off enough for me to focus on one, but at the same time I think I was a high enough level when in Caelid or doing that tunnel so maybe it was just more manageable for that reason. Maybe it was 4-5 backstabs that started to crack the first one. By the time I got to the others the Mimic had already done most of the cracking that one or two hits cracked them and opened them up.

FlubberJones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118854392#Comment_118854392

I fought one of these lads the other day and using the summoned Wolves managed to get him in two attempts... What was a pain though was the crazy aggression he had... OMG the thing does not give you an inch to play with.

FlubberJones

had my very first attempt at Margit last night, just prior to going to bed, got him to half health and he managed to knock me down and the slow recovery gave him plenty of time to smash me again. But as a first attempt I found it ok to be honest, hopefully it wasn't beginners luck and I'll fall back to getting belted. I resisted going for a few more attempts as I didn't want the predictable elevated heart rate and frustration when trying to sleep... and playing back through the fight trying to work out how to do it better

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118855005#Comment_118855005

I think I might just have to do more of Ranni's sidequest and get this Mimic tear superweapon you guys are all talking about.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118855030#Comment_118855030

Even though it's been nerfed, it's still the best all-round summon in the game.

What summons are you currently using?

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118855047#Comment_118855047

My lovable wolf Doggos who are beginning to reach the end of their usefulness.

I'm actually finding it really tough to get good summon upgrade materials.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118855082#Comment_118855082

The Ranni quest areas will get you some good summon upgrade material, as well as the best summon :)

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118855082#Comment_118855082

Yeah I used the wolves a lot for the first half. They're great for pulling aggro, but they don't have a lot of health and AOE attacks from larger bosses just wreck them. Had to send them off to a farm where they can run around and have loads of friends.