I didn't think a game, no matter how compelling and mechanically sound it is, could not trigger a feeling of antsiness and desire to finish it around maybe the 50 hr mark. Most games I play I get a little ready to be done at the 75% point or so, and longer games I feel that even harder. But Elden Ring just kept me on the conveyer belt, trodding onward to sometimes samey features, but under a backdrop of some really compelling setpieces and plot hooks. I was at 120 hrs before I felt any slight twinge of fatigue. I believe this was before I had properly explored the consecrated snowfield.
I wish I had the brain to absorb the lore off of the item descriptions and piece things together, but thankfully there's Vaati for that. But the glimpses into the tapestry revealed in the game were still interesting. I was the most conscious of the lore of this vs. other fromsoft games I've played so far, and it did lend itself to an overall richer experience, even if I need a video to fill in the gaps and make sense of it.
There's a weird veneer in the action games they make that is sort of ugly. I would imagine that's intentional, but it sort of fooled me prior to me getting it(finally on sale) when I heard people comment on it being beautiful. Like people wanting to just wander through the environments to soak it in. I didn't see what they meant from viewing screenshots or clips of the game really. Still looked like it had that inherent ugly layer that, while things can still dazzle with their aesthetics and art direction choices, it just stopped my brain from associating beauty with it.
But in some of the smaller caves, the luminescent rivers running through, shimmering like edible glitter in a drink, illuminating the lush green ferns and lichens on the cave floor. The starlit underground cities, the lava floes, the erdtree itself. I had a hard time fighting the final final boss for a few goes because of just being mesmerized by the look of it and its attacks.
I've now finished Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, and this(with a decent chunk of 3, which I will someday return to) and by far Elden Beast was the one that gave me the most trouble as far as a final boss. Overleveled as I was.
Which returns me to one of the biggest takeaways I have for it, that it was fun and compelling through every moment. Beating your head against an enemy, stomping through each little map marker that you turn yourself towards. "So there's a little red hole on the map here, gonna head that way and work around this ridge". So on and so forth.
It is wonderful that you can largely suspend anywhere, so you can step right back into it upon resuming. Perfect for the Steam Deck as well, which is how I was able to play so much of this on lunches at work and at friends' places.
Some of the more confusing areas were a little hard to navigate, as the game does have its few flaws. I was a little dismayed to see that the framerate catch-up thing that I heard about in a podcast from its release still happened, and it's probably something that doesn't affect everyone broadly, but it was still occasionally a little frustrating. Not terribly so, but. Sometimes its multiplayer could be a little annoying to navigate too, especially with level sync and however it chooses to gate this. Playing with a friend could stand to be a bit more seamless. Nothing damning.
First bug I saw was around the 130 hr mark I believe. An enemy glitched into the environment after I had been called in via blue ring. Pretty entertaining, and impressive for this kind of game.
I loved the little details that while pathed and so on, felt very additive to the world as a whole. The procession of the items in coffins pulled by two giants djd a lot to make the world feel active, and bridging things together in ways that feel lived in but service the gameplay. There maybe could have been more of that, to really seal the seams between the islands of interesting things in the map, but I felt there was enough of it or visually explained things that it does ease the few areas that felt a little sparse. But for a majority of it, it's extremely dense.
I so wish there were completion stats at the end of the game, to show things like runes lost, times died, and especially an overall % complete. I went deep in most areas, and I feel like I still maybe didn't break 90%.
Loved the Ranni questline. My furry ass had to cosplay Blaidd the rest of the game. The Volcano Manor one was also super interesting, and a fun side thing at that stage of the game. I even had a little roleplay story in my head for my character that I developed coinciding with my builds and re-birthing at Raya Lucaria, which is unfortunately unsual for a lot of roleplaying games.
Speaking of Raya Lucaria, some of the gear in this has been my favorite of the series. The weird stone wizard masks, and masks in general in this are all pretty fun. And the armor and so on is largely more aesthetically pleasing than the prior games. Still only had a few of what I personally love, which is the goofier looking stuff, but it was enough that I enjoyed it.
Wild enough that Elden Beast was the hardest final boss, I think I've either just tapped well enough into the series or this one is significantly easier overall. Some things I expected to give me trouble I would clear first time. I'm not particularly great at games or anything, so sometimes I would be genuinely surprised at how well I was doing.
Alright, ramble over. Loved the game. Excited for the DLC.
I wish I had the brain to absorb the lore off of the item descriptions and piece things together, but thankfully there's Vaati for that. But the glimpses into the tapestry revealed in the game were still interesting. I was the most conscious of the lore of this vs. other fromsoft games I've played so far, and it did lend itself to an overall richer experience, even if I need a video to fill in the gaps and make sense of it.
There's a weird veneer in the action games they make that is sort of ugly. I would imagine that's intentional, but it sort of fooled me prior to me getting it(finally on sale) when I heard people comment on it being beautiful. Like people wanting to just wander through the environments to soak it in. I didn't see what they meant from viewing screenshots or clips of the game really. Still looked like it had that inherent ugly layer that, while things can still dazzle with their aesthetics and art direction choices, it just stopped my brain from associating beauty with it.
But in some of the smaller caves, the luminescent rivers running through, shimmering like edible glitter in a drink, illuminating the lush green ferns and lichens on the cave floor. The starlit underground cities, the lava floes, the erdtree itself. I had a hard time fighting the final final boss for a few goes because of just being mesmerized by the look of it and its attacks.
I've now finished Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, and this(with a decent chunk of 3, which I will someday return to) and by far Elden Beast was the one that gave me the most trouble as far as a final boss. Overleveled as I was.
Which returns me to one of the biggest takeaways I have for it, that it was fun and compelling through every moment. Beating your head against an enemy, stomping through each little map marker that you turn yourself towards. "So there's a little red hole on the map here, gonna head that way and work around this ridge". So on and so forth.
It is wonderful that you can largely suspend anywhere, so you can step right back into it upon resuming. Perfect for the Steam Deck as well, which is how I was able to play so much of this on lunches at work and at friends' places.
Some of the more confusing areas were a little hard to navigate, as the game does have its few flaws. I was a little dismayed to see that the framerate catch-up thing that I heard about in a podcast from its release still happened, and it's probably something that doesn't affect everyone broadly, but it was still occasionally a little frustrating. Not terribly so, but. Sometimes its multiplayer could be a little annoying to navigate too, especially with level sync and however it chooses to gate this. Playing with a friend could stand to be a bit more seamless. Nothing damning.
First bug I saw was around the 130 hr mark I believe. An enemy glitched into the environment after I had been called in via blue ring. Pretty entertaining, and impressive for this kind of game.
I loved the little details that while pathed and so on, felt very additive to the world as a whole. The procession of the items in coffins pulled by two giants djd a lot to make the world feel active, and bridging things together in ways that feel lived in but service the gameplay. There maybe could have been more of that, to really seal the seams between the islands of interesting things in the map, but I felt there was enough of it or visually explained things that it does ease the few areas that felt a little sparse. But for a majority of it, it's extremely dense.
I so wish there were completion stats at the end of the game, to show things like runes lost, times died, and especially an overall % complete. I went deep in most areas, and I feel like I still maybe didn't break 90%.
Loved the Ranni questline. My furry ass had to cosplay Blaidd the rest of the game. The Volcano Manor one was also super interesting, and a fun side thing at that stage of the game. I even had a little roleplay story in my head for my character that I developed coinciding with my builds and re-birthing at Raya Lucaria, which is unfortunately unsual for a lot of roleplaying games.
Speaking of Raya Lucaria, some of the gear in this has been my favorite of the series. The weird stone wizard masks, and masks in general in this are all pretty fun. And the armor and so on is largely more aesthetically pleasing than the prior games. Still only had a few of what I personally love, which is the goofier looking stuff, but it was enough that I enjoyed it.
Wild enough that Elden Beast was the hardest final boss, I think I've either just tapped well enough into the series or this one is significantly easier overall. Some things I expected to give me trouble I would clear first time. I'm not particularly great at games or anything, so sometimes I would be genuinely surprised at how well I was doing.
Alright, ramble over. Loved the game. Excited for the DLC.