Elden Ring
#5
PC - Steam
Beaten March 11th, 2022
Elden Ring is the latest from Miyazaki and his team at From Software, and this game inherits the DNA started with their PS3 title Demon's Souls (I really should've properly reviewed the remake when I finished it last year...) - hard difficulty, esoteric storytelling, epic vistas, character building RPG action! In one way, Elden Ring is very much just Those Games Again But Open World This Time - stats, weapons, leveling, checkpoints - these things are basically identical to what has come before. Bonfires/Lanterns/Archstones are now Sites of Grace, Souls/Echos are now Runes, yadda yadda. However, while Elden Ring is in many ways a mere step ahead of its predecessors, in others it embraces its open-world and freer nature to make something truly new and special. And honestly since Breath of the Wild stepped out into open world, that is sort of what I have expected and even demanded of that genre of game - make it worthwhile and special! And where Zelda is one of the few to get it truly right, Elden Ring now joins that illustrious company.
A key part of Elden Ring is exploration - of the world around you at large, and all the nooks and crannies you will come across as you explore. Each little section of the game has SOMETHING for you to find, a new weapon, spell, armor piece, item.. not all are useful but that first time through can feel quite exciting. You'll be wandering around on your horse (Torrent, a fine steed at your side almost always in the open world. He's magic so you don't need to worry about where he is or any nonsense like that, whistle and you're on him and off you go) and see an enemy camp or odd landscape formation - I should go check that out you say! And yeah if you go over, you will almost certainly find something of interest. Perhaps a dungeon if you're lucky, though probably just an item or a new weird, fucked up enemy to test yourself against. This element is key to the magic of this game, no matter how tough things get, you can always just turn yourself around and head in a completely new direction: there's always more to do and more to discover, and the more you do and discover the more likely it is you'll have another tool in your arsenal to bring down that nasty SOB that's giving you trouble.
Speaking of enemies, there are a LOT of them here, along with the trademarked FromSoftware Bosses and their designs. Telegraphed boss rooms (with customary fog, GOLD this time!) lead to some cinematic encounters with enemies I had to bash my head into many many times to bring down, though there was (with 1 exception...) progress to be had each time. I do think this might be the weaker lineup outside of the main bosses in this game - there were a few standouts I can recall but in comparison to the many optional bosses of the Soulsborne games I do think a lot of these feel bit meh. Not that there weren't 'meh' bosses in those games as well, they just feel like they're at a higher concentration here due to all the mini-dungeons that contain pretty much all 7/10 bosses which dilutes things a bit. And then the ending has QUITE the gauntlet of very tough boss encounters that can get pretty exhausting - I was genuinely relieved when the Big Boss went down. Phew, time to move on finally! While the open world does lead to lots of positives ("what's that over there? Let's go check it out!") I do think it loses something from From's earlier, more tightly packed experiences.
I do think there are some weaknesses here as well - PC technical issues notwithstanding. The way you interact with the world is almost entirely through combat, puzzles are infrequent and usually just involve slashing something. As much as Breath of the Wild lacked in satisfying combat and often meager tangible rewards for exploration, it at least had a solid systems-driven world to interact with that often lead to some very creative and satisfying puzzles - and I do think Elden Ring missed the chance for some more diverse play options to keep me engaged beyond "oh shit I'm going to die in 3 hits to this enemy". Also the rewards you do find in the game unfortunately due to build variety means a lot shit will pop up that you have no real use for - for instance I was using a faith build which meant I could not use weapon arts for 80% of the game until I got a special item that let me transfer proper scaling to my stats, I had to use the one I had been using since nearly the beginning of the game. So then every time a weapon art reward popped up I was like "well, I'm sure that's nice for someone out there!" same of course with weapons that had high reqs for equipping or int magic.
Negatives aside, Elden Ring is a colossal game and an equally colossal achievement. The art direction is truly stunning, with multiple areas and zones in the game that caused me to legit stop and gasp out loud at what I was witnessing. The characters and stories you DO manage to find are compelling, and the exploration of this well-crafted world is almost always entertaining enough for its own sake rather than the oft useless (for your character, at least) rewards you find at the end. It's an experience that stands beautifully on its own, even if perhaps I will miss the perfect pace of previous efforts (Bloodborne you're perfect ilu)
Final Grade: A
#5
PC - Steam
Beaten March 11th, 2022
Elden Ring is the latest from Miyazaki and his team at From Software, and this game inherits the DNA started with their PS3 title Demon's Souls (I really should've properly reviewed the remake when I finished it last year...) - hard difficulty, esoteric storytelling, epic vistas, character building RPG action! In one way, Elden Ring is very much just Those Games Again But Open World This Time - stats, weapons, leveling, checkpoints - these things are basically identical to what has come before. Bonfires/Lanterns/Archstones are now Sites of Grace, Souls/Echos are now Runes, yadda yadda. However, while Elden Ring is in many ways a mere step ahead of its predecessors, in others it embraces its open-world and freer nature to make something truly new and special. And honestly since Breath of the Wild stepped out into open world, that is sort of what I have expected and even demanded of that genre of game - make it worthwhile and special! And where Zelda is one of the few to get it truly right, Elden Ring now joins that illustrious company.
A key part of Elden Ring is exploration - of the world around you at large, and all the nooks and crannies you will come across as you explore. Each little section of the game has SOMETHING for you to find, a new weapon, spell, armor piece, item.. not all are useful but that first time through can feel quite exciting. You'll be wandering around on your horse (Torrent, a fine steed at your side almost always in the open world. He's magic so you don't need to worry about where he is or any nonsense like that, whistle and you're on him and off you go) and see an enemy camp or odd landscape formation - I should go check that out you say! And yeah if you go over, you will almost certainly find something of interest. Perhaps a dungeon if you're lucky, though probably just an item or a new weird, fucked up enemy to test yourself against. This element is key to the magic of this game, no matter how tough things get, you can always just turn yourself around and head in a completely new direction: there's always more to do and more to discover, and the more you do and discover the more likely it is you'll have another tool in your arsenal to bring down that nasty SOB that's giving you trouble.
Speaking of enemies, there are a LOT of them here, along with the trademarked FromSoftware Bosses and their designs. Telegraphed boss rooms (with customary fog, GOLD this time!) lead to some cinematic encounters with enemies I had to bash my head into many many times to bring down, though there was (with 1 exception...) progress to be had each time. I do think this might be the weaker lineup outside of the main bosses in this game - there were a few standouts I can recall but in comparison to the many optional bosses of the Soulsborne games I do think a lot of these feel bit meh. Not that there weren't 'meh' bosses in those games as well, they just feel like they're at a higher concentration here due to all the mini-dungeons that contain pretty much all 7/10 bosses which dilutes things a bit. And then the ending has QUITE the gauntlet of very tough boss encounters that can get pretty exhausting - I was genuinely relieved when the Big Boss went down. Phew, time to move on finally! While the open world does lead to lots of positives ("what's that over there? Let's go check it out!") I do think it loses something from From's earlier, more tightly packed experiences.
I do think there are some weaknesses here as well - PC technical issues notwithstanding. The way you interact with the world is almost entirely through combat, puzzles are infrequent and usually just involve slashing something. As much as Breath of the Wild lacked in satisfying combat and often meager tangible rewards for exploration, it at least had a solid systems-driven world to interact with that often lead to some very creative and satisfying puzzles - and I do think Elden Ring missed the chance for some more diverse play options to keep me engaged beyond "oh shit I'm going to die in 3 hits to this enemy". Also the rewards you do find in the game unfortunately due to build variety means a lot shit will pop up that you have no real use for - for instance I was using a faith build which meant I could not use weapon arts for 80% of the game until I got a special item that let me transfer proper scaling to my stats, I had to use the one I had been using since nearly the beginning of the game. So then every time a weapon art reward popped up I was like "well, I'm sure that's nice for someone out there!" same of course with weapons that had high reqs for equipping or int magic.
Negatives aside, Elden Ring is a colossal game and an equally colossal achievement. The art direction is truly stunning, with multiple areas and zones in the game that caused me to legit stop and gasp out loud at what I was witnessing. The characters and stories you DO manage to find are compelling, and the exploration of this well-crafted world is almost always entertaining enough for its own sake rather than the oft useless (for your character, at least) rewards you find at the end. It's an experience that stands beautifully on its own, even if perhaps I will miss the perfect pace of previous efforts (Bloodborne you're perfect ilu)
Final Grade: A