2022
𝐄𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏𝟎𝟎% 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
Going in my expectations for the game were already quite low since I just don't see how slapping an open world would fair for a formula of games that built its entire genre around compact level design and meaningful exploration. And as usual, I was right on the money. The open world serves absolutely no purpose other than to get the player from point A to point B with worthless copy-pasted side content sprinkled around which get stale rather fast (more onto the quality of side content later)
But hey it doesn't take a game to be the pinnacle of gaming to please me. A half-decent combat system coupled with fun boss encounters oughta keep me satisfied. Honestly the reason why I extracted so much enjoyment out of DS3 despite all the flaws. Surely, ER delivers on that front, right? Not in the slightest. In fact, I'd say this is quite literally Elden Ring's biggest flaw which as you can tell did not sit right with me, ending up being the most unsatisfactory souls experience thus far
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀
Elden Ring has the most flawed combat system out of Fromsoft's whole lineup. So much to the point where certain playstyles are just not viable if you're trying to have fun with the game. And the issue lies with how the bosses are designed, they're made over the top aggressive to the point they don't compliment certain playstyles like pure melee & the addition of the jump attack and shield counters do very little to rectify this, so they're not even worth bringing up. The combat is essentially the same as DS3 with bosses designed in a way that encourages passive play which just isn't fun. To make matters even worse a good majority of the bosses are straight out cheap and unfun in terms of difficulty if you plan on not abusing the cheap spirit summoning system. Which ironically enough also ruins most of the bosses, even the very few ones that I'd actually consider decent are completely ruined by summoning. Mindlessly putting two mini bosses together and passing it off as a single fight also goes to show how little thought went into designing most of the fights. Even some of the solo fights try to amp up the difficulty by making the bosses shoot annoying projectiles/AOEs while attacking at the very same time, if that doesn't scream artificial difficulty idk what does. That being said this game had ONE boss fight that I consider to be the absolute best among the souls titles (sekiro not included) and I had the time of my life mastering the fight and that boss is Malenia. This is what every optional challenge bosses should strive to be like. She demands perfection while not being cheap or frustrating, loved every second of it. If ER was just the Malenia fight I'd give it a solid 5/5, no joke.
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱
It's the most unrewarding experience trying to explore every nook and cranny of the pointlessly massive open world where most of it is barren. The recycled caves and catacombs don't bring me any joy to discover since they're all the same with some of the worst dungeon designs I've seen in any video games ever and the bosses being mobs slapped with a boss hp or just reused previous mini bosses makes me straight out distort my face in pure disgust. It's a shameless attempt at padding out side content which does more harm than good to the overall game since a massive chunk of it is just discovering and going through these worthless copy-paste dungeons to fight bosses or mobs disguised as a boss you've already fought multiple times in the past.
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲
Actually one of the better aspects of the game. So much effort went into quests that they even kept whole open world regions and dungeons exclusive to specific quests, even bosses, albeit pretty unfun, I can still appreciate the length they're willing to go to make the quests actually worthwhile the player's time. Also like how the lore isn't needlessly obscure to the point it's obnoxious like it was in DS1 to 3
Characters and the lore gets a pass from me. For the first time I was actually invested enough to care about the world and the characters
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀
The initial few areas and the open world for the most part (with the exception of some specific regions) look too samey and straight up ugly as hell but god this game has some of the most eyecandy-esque dungeons and boss areas I've come across in any game ever, period. Which should be a good thing, right? No, I could careless about pretty looking areas when the actual fights are sacrificed in the name of spectacles. This is honestly the main reason why I didn't like the final fight at all, since they ruined a perfectly good first phase with one of the worst spectacle bosses that just screams tedium.
Quantity over quality is the name of the game, you're doing DS2 proud Elden Ring
1/5
Going in my expectations for the game were already quite low since I just don't see how slapping an open world would fair for a formula of games that built its entire genre around compact level design and meaningful exploration. And as usual, I was right on the money. The open world serves absolutely no purpose other than to get the player from point A to point B with worthless copy-pasted side content sprinkled around which get stale rather fast (more onto the quality of side content later)
But hey it doesn't take a game to be the pinnacle of gaming to please me. A half-decent combat system coupled with fun boss encounters oughta keep me satisfied. Honestly the reason why I extracted so much enjoyment out of DS3 despite all the flaws. Surely, ER delivers on that front, right? Not in the slightest. In fact, I'd say this is quite literally Elden Ring's biggest flaw which as you can tell did not sit right with me, ending up being the most unsatisfactory souls experience thus far
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀
Elden Ring has the most flawed combat system out of Fromsoft's whole lineup. So much to the point where certain playstyles are just not viable if you're trying to have fun with the game. And the issue lies with how the bosses are designed, they're made over the top aggressive to the point they don't compliment certain playstyles like pure melee & the addition of the jump attack and shield counters do very little to rectify this, so they're not even worth bringing up. The combat is essentially the same as DS3 with bosses designed in a way that encourages passive play which just isn't fun. To make matters even worse a good majority of the bosses are straight out cheap and unfun in terms of difficulty if you plan on not abusing the cheap spirit summoning system. Which ironically enough also ruins most of the bosses, even the very few ones that I'd actually consider decent are completely ruined by summoning. Mindlessly putting two mini bosses together and passing it off as a single fight also goes to show how little thought went into designing most of the fights. Even some of the solo fights try to amp up the difficulty by making the bosses shoot annoying projectiles/AOEs while attacking at the very same time, if that doesn't scream artificial difficulty idk what does. That being said this game had ONE boss fight that I consider to be the absolute best among the souls titles (sekiro not included) and I had the time of my life mastering the fight and that boss is Malenia. This is what every optional challenge bosses should strive to be like. She demands perfection while not being cheap or frustrating, loved every second of it. If ER was just the Malenia fight I'd give it a solid 5/5, no joke.
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱
It's the most unrewarding experience trying to explore every nook and cranny of the pointlessly massive open world where most of it is barren. The recycled caves and catacombs don't bring me any joy to discover since they're all the same with some of the worst dungeon designs I've seen in any video games ever and the bosses being mobs slapped with a boss hp or just reused previous mini bosses makes me straight out distort my face in pure disgust. It's a shameless attempt at padding out side content which does more harm than good to the overall game since a massive chunk of it is just discovering and going through these worthless copy-paste dungeons to fight bosses or mobs disguised as a boss you've already fought multiple times in the past.
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲
Actually one of the better aspects of the game. So much effort went into quests that they even kept whole open world regions and dungeons exclusive to specific quests, even bosses, albeit pretty unfun, I can still appreciate the length they're willing to go to make the quests actually worthwhile the player's time. Also like how the lore isn't needlessly obscure to the point it's obnoxious like it was in DS1 to 3
Characters and the lore gets a pass from me. For the first time I was actually invested enough to care about the world and the characters
- 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀
The initial few areas and the open world for the most part (with the exception of some specific regions) look too samey and straight up ugly as hell but god this game has some of the most eyecandy-esque dungeons and boss areas I've come across in any game ever, period. Which should be a good thing, right? No, I could careless about pretty looking areas when the actual fights are sacrificed in the name of spectacles. This is honestly the main reason why I didn't like the final fight at all, since they ruined a perfectly good first phase with one of the worst spectacle bosses that just screams tedium.
Quantity over quality is the name of the game, you're doing DS2 proud Elden Ring
1/5
2018
It turned out exactly as I expected. A boring cookie cutter action game with an overemphasis on "Immersion" to the point it made the actual gameplay feel like an afterthought. It's literally just an interactive movie (more on this later) trying to constantly hammer some idiot story down your throat.
There's absolutely no pros so I'll only list down the cons
1. Story
The writing is downright lazy, the characters are all dull (sometimes super obnoxious) and their development is the most forced thing in the universe. Despite being a narrative-driven title the game doesn't even try to tell something even slightly interesting. Which is funny because I thought at least the plot would carry me through the painfully bad combat segments that feel like of tertiary importance.
2. Combat
From the FOV alone I could tell it was gonna be bad and voilà I was right. But it has parrying and parrying should be fun, right? No, it's not. Parrying is rendered pretty much useless because of the restrictive field of view and the fact that you fight nothing but hordes of mobs that comes at you from directions that you can't even see. So, dodging is all you ever rely on to avoid incoming attacks. The stupid cinematic fov exists to ruin a combat system that is already quite dry. Another aspect of the game that really bothered me is how every single enemy is a literal sponge which makes the combat tedious as hell. For example, even the very basic bitch mobs take up to 15-20 slashes to kill.
3. Bosses
You fight the same boss reskinned 8 times and the last boss is also the very first boss you fight with virtually the same moveset but this time he does more damage. Do I gotta say more?
4. RPG leveling system
This only exists to make an already baby game even easier. You can completely ignore this and feel barely any difference even against late game enemies, and this is coming from someone who beat it on hard and normal on and off
5. Side content/Puzzles
Tried doing them for the first 3-4 hours but soon got sick of them and gave up all together since it's just the same crap recycled over and over again. As for the mandatory puzzles they are all braindead. Like are these made for people with down syndrome or what? I personally wouldn't even classify these as puzzles but the game insists they are soooo
6. Overemphasis on presentation
It becomes tiring when the game constantly shoves pretty looking areas and models on your face telling you to look at them. I kind of stopped caring after a while, pretty presentation alone can't save a dry game that has nothing fun to offer.
7. Literally an interactive cinema
Platforming? Press the interact button. Climbing? Press the interact button and watch the character climb. Like pretty much 80% of the action your character takes goes like this. Press the "E" button to do this and do that. Also the sheer amount of QTE segments in this game almost made me consider dropping it all together halfway through.
I spent around roughly 25 hours playing this game and I consider every single one of those hour wasted time
0/5
There's absolutely no pros so I'll only list down the cons
1. Story
The writing is downright lazy, the characters are all dull (sometimes super obnoxious) and their development is the most forced thing in the universe. Despite being a narrative-driven title the game doesn't even try to tell something even slightly interesting. Which is funny because I thought at least the plot would carry me through the painfully bad combat segments that feel like of tertiary importance.
2. Combat
From the FOV alone I could tell it was gonna be bad and voilà I was right. But it has parrying and parrying should be fun, right? No, it's not. Parrying is rendered pretty much useless because of the restrictive field of view and the fact that you fight nothing but hordes of mobs that comes at you from directions that you can't even see. So, dodging is all you ever rely on to avoid incoming attacks. The stupid cinematic fov exists to ruin a combat system that is already quite dry. Another aspect of the game that really bothered me is how every single enemy is a literal sponge which makes the combat tedious as hell. For example, even the very basic bitch mobs take up to 15-20 slashes to kill.
3. Bosses
You fight the same boss reskinned 8 times and the last boss is also the very first boss you fight with virtually the same moveset but this time he does more damage. Do I gotta say more?
4. RPG leveling system
This only exists to make an already baby game even easier. You can completely ignore this and feel barely any difference even against late game enemies, and this is coming from someone who beat it on hard and normal on and off
5. Side content/Puzzles
Tried doing them for the first 3-4 hours but soon got sick of them and gave up all together since it's just the same crap recycled over and over again. As for the mandatory puzzles they are all braindead. Like are these made for people with down syndrome or what? I personally wouldn't even classify these as puzzles but the game insists they are soooo
6. Overemphasis on presentation
It becomes tiring when the game constantly shoves pretty looking areas and models on your face telling you to look at them. I kind of stopped caring after a while, pretty presentation alone can't save a dry game that has nothing fun to offer.
7. Literally an interactive cinema
Platforming? Press the interact button. Climbing? Press the interact button and watch the character climb. Like pretty much 80% of the action your character takes goes like this. Press the "E" button to do this and do that. Also the sheer amount of QTE segments in this game almost made me consider dropping it all together halfway through.
I spent around roughly 25 hours playing this game and I consider every single one of those hour wasted time
0/5
2016
bullet hell segments need some major polish, the stupid cinematic walks in between bosses need to be shortened or outright cut, movements feel extremely clunky and when you combine it with the absolutely horrid controls on mouse+kb shit becomes frustrating to play at times but I still managed to beat it, none of the bosses really stood out to me because of their samey nature except for maybe the edge, the delivery of the dialogues in English dub is absolutely terrible so I had to switch to Japanese 70% into the game which fixed the issue for me
music is good tho plus i kind of liked the close ranged action segments
music is good tho plus i kind of liked the close ranged action segments
beat dark souls 2
easily the worst game ive played to completion in the last 3 years theres so much to complain about this game and not a single redeeming feature
if you genuinely think this is decent in any way whatsoever 1 you're either blinded by nostalgia or 2 you're just fucking stupid there's no other way around it
0/5
easily the worst game ive played to completion in the last 3 years theres so much to complain about this game and not a single redeeming feature
if you genuinely think this is decent in any way whatsoever 1 you're either blinded by nostalgia or 2 you're just fucking stupid there's no other way around it
0/5
Mediocre metroidvania with nothing much to offer other than the stellar soundtracks and the dripping atmosphere.
Level designs are terrible for the most part, boss fights are no fun, late-game areas/bosses felt cheap in terms of difficulty, character animations lack polish, most of the spirits/relics ended up being completely useless, lore is passable.
Level designs are terrible for the most part, boss fights are no fun, late-game areas/bosses felt cheap in terms of difficulty, character animations lack polish, most of the spirits/relics ended up being completely useless, lore is passable.