Elden Ring Critique: Too Much of a Good Thing

[@unwashedhands2087]

Guess I’ve just resolved myself to watch literally every Elden Ring video essay on KZbin. I don’t even own the game yet

[@malcolmisgee]

Lmfaooooo I would have been right there with you if I wasn’t given the game honestly I had no intention of buying it

[@jefrey776]

Same^^

[@chrislail3824]

I got it about a month ago, watched a bunch before and after. It is that damn good.

[@prazzo1232]

Hahaha why spoil it for yourself??

[@cosmicseaa1119]

800 hours

[@logsupermulti3921]

I actually got to have the experience of getting transported to Calid at the beginning and having to fend for myself in an area I vastly under-leveled for, I spent the first 20 hours not realizing there was instant fast travel. So when I found myself in the mines and walked out into Calid I spent 30 minutes racing for my life on Torrent looking for a way out. Easily one of the best memories I have of the game.

[@andrewstephens5885]

I had a really similar experience. I chose wretch, because obviously I wanted to be the samurai. But I wanted to earn being ‘the guy’ but as I got done looking at the first gorgeous view of limgrave, my naked ass took the one wrong direction and got teleported to the caves/ghost town. I had nothing but my club and it was quiet, too quiet! Then suddenly the invisible militia revealed itself, the entire town was crawling intact. The music kicked in, on my headphones like badumbumbun bumbumbumbum and I started running and jumping across the roofs to escape. I ended up in Caelid and “survived” until I found a grace I could use to get out of there. I also, of course, ran into the demon dawgs and bird creatures. Which was as fun as it sounds. Amazing first 4 fours though and it just got better after I actually got on my feet. 5/10 game.

[@NerdOracle]

Similarly, I had resolved myself to refuse Melina for my first play, and had gotten trapped in Caelid early. Suffice to say, without a horse or a build, my following decision to take the instant teleportation as an exploration opportunity made for one hell of a gauntlet

[@JohnHumanname]

Yeah but defending the game that way is like me saying that bloodeborns old hunters is bad and annoying because on my first playthough of OH I never found the lantern that let you teleport to the dlc areas so I had to run through pretty much the entire dlc area multiple times. So to counter a criticism of something with “well that wasn’t my first experience” seems to be a bad defense.

[@NerdOracle]

​@@JohnHumanname i would argue it does ask a more insightful question, however. that being "why was that my first experience?" an important question to ask if you really want to get to the heart of whether you are at fault, or the developers. in reality it is almost always a combination of the two, but the struggle and uphill battle blinds us as we struggle to overcome our shackles. And calling it 'a defense', good or bad, feels to me like it misses the point of these games, inherently. because everything is causal, and if you do look more deeply you usually discover something that was in fact objectively holding you back. In fact much of the replayability of From's work is, for me, the ability to return after you've conquered the obstacles. to truly breathe the game world and lore into your experience. In a way, the game has to treat you mercilessly at first for people like myself to take it seriously at all. It isn't superficial, it isn't trying to corral me, it's putting honest to god challenges before me and hardly even wishing me luck in the process. Your first experience doesn't have to be curated and iconic, it just needs to feel like a real fight for your life, on some level. It is natural to lose battles you come to unprepared.

[@yourehereforthatarentyou]

lucky, i didn’t even have torrent when i got stuck in caelid

[@markellapapatzima7424]

Regarding the entrance to Nokron, they dont expect you to randomly find it. After beating Radahn, the meteor lands and you can actually see the levitating pieces of rock from quite the distance (even from Radahn's arena). I noticed cause i knew i had to meet Blaidd there but was wondering how the heck am i supposed to know where the impact happened, then i just looked around and voilla.

[@user-ns4zm8qe9p]

Yep same here. I don’t think it’s too much to ask gamers to LOOK with their EYES to try and find solution

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

It's the easiest thing to find with even a minimal attention span. There's a giant cutscene, characters talk specifically about it, and there's a different colored marker than anything else on your map. This guy just wants to be a contrarian complainer

[@minerman60101]

@@jarlwhiterun7478 The map marker was added in an update, which may have been after this guy's playthrough

[@maat5512]

There was actually a red map marker for me

[@Stanzbey69]

@@user-ns4zm8qe9p for real 😂. It’s only a problem in elden ring too, people never complained about this in ds1

[@lukenolin1105]

Really agreed with a lot of the sentiments here. I definitely enjoyed Elden Ring. But there’s some parts of it that got me a little worried about whether or not I’ll enjoy the future fromsoft souls games as much. Depending on how their next soulslike game is, I may either see Elden Ring as a great one-off thing, or the start of the series’ decline.

[@Erumore]

I couldn't agree more; FromSoft's next game really needs to bring something new to the table. I'm hoping the rumours are true that they're returning to Armored Core. Thanks for the comment.

[@thedoomslayer5863]

@@Erumore I just need a sekiro 2 that's it or in the waiting period port bloodborne to PC so PC only players have a entire new game to play while they wait

[@Sohelanthropus]

Same here brother, I hope that in a couple of years I look at ER as the "beta" for something greater to come I'm down to give another open world Souls a shot if they make the experience more streamlined and leaner, less fluff content, less repeated bosses and areas and more emphasis on making each continent stand out

[@AhmadAlmilli]

@@Sohelanthropusthats just laughable brah, each continent stands out more than entire fromsoft games put together like bloodborne XD

[@tomgreene5388]

one of the highest rated games ever, start of series decline. lmfao i just had to comment late to remind you of maybe one of the dumbest things ever said

[@ghoulishgoober3122]

Past Dark Souls games required you to kill a lot of the bosses as part of the main progression in them. Optional bosses were usually just another fog wall you could go into or apart of an optional area that's filled with, for instance Archdragon Peak is a great source of twinkling titanite and scales if you really don't want to farm souls. Elden Ring you have the option to pick which dungeon you can get a prattling pate from. Exaggeration, I know there's more to the dungeons than prattling pates, but the fact they're locked within a handful of optional dungeons as THE item you'd go into them for. Too many dungeons with hardly a reason to go into them.

[@paulevans6076]

The open world really held me back from fully engaging with this game. I enjoyed playing it, but it took me much much longer to click with this game than it did with other Souls games. With their other games I always felt like i was making progression and overcoming challenges and thus getting better and stronger as a player and character. With ER however the freedom to just turn around and go elsewhere if I got stuck was too too plentiful at times. I'd hit a wall and think 'let's come back later' and just go elsewhere. As a result I began my journey seeing a lot of the map and exploring a lot but never really feeling like i was progressing or getting things done in a meaningful way. Then when I'd level up I'd return somewhere I'd been stuck and was so OP that it trivialised that section, meaning I never got the Souls satisfaction of overcoming a challenge. A lot of this is simply down to how I approached the game but you only get 1 first playthrough and this meant I never felt like I got into the bare bones of the game the way i did with say Dark Souls or Bloodborne

[@JuanAntonioGarciaHeredia]

You took the words out of my mind

[@brickingrage799]

Damn, looks like we are in the same boat, I think my biggest mistake with the game was that I started playing Elden Ring thinking that it's gonna be like Dark Souls.

[@rustinpeace4347]

Note: in my first run (blind) I obviously ended up in Caelid via transportations chest; i put my effrot to get out and then I struggled about 5 hours to get back to Limgrave... I didn't know I could teleport and I didn't find Melina yet. I think I had the "truest" from SOftware experience trying to get back with a stupid wood club and a useless shield ^^

[@lucascarracedo7421]

I don't think that the main issue is just having too many options, but the lack of real consequences. This leads to some aspects of the game feeling like it's a world meant and waiting for you, which is exactly the opposite of what the first souls felt like. I think they need to bring back some concepts that actually make the world change somehow. Not suggesting they bring back world tendency. But something that's a bit more organic than the world just being there for you, static.

[@x0re89]

yeah youre right the world felt kinda.. hollow i dont know people shit on skyrim but the dungeons were so much better and had more variety , i enjoyed elden ring the first 50 hours after the final boss i was burned out dont care to touch it again..

[@jrutter73]

Elden Ring is not a breathing living world. Its very gamified. Everything is designed around just being killed. The Fallout series is the only (high profile)ones that really change the world around you that I can remember. Do you choose to blow up a town with a bomb or not? If you do, all those NPCs are gone. Quests and shops, gone. Do you kill a leader and let a town fall or do you work with the leader and use it as a trading partner and ally? Your choice. If and when EldenRing 2 is released, the BIGGEST addition they need to make is a lore friendly Quest Log/journal like the Uncharted or Last of Us series, and the world needs to change according to decisions you make. And change doesn't mean, you miss out on a quest line because you didn't happen to get lucky enough to meet a certain NPC at a certain time and do a number of other obscure things.. All that does is make me look up guides to make sure I don't miss anything or do it wrong, because doing it wrong is rarely my fault. I just didn't do something totally obscure or accidental. And they need to craft a real freakin story. Every one of their games is mostly the same damn thing(haven't played Sekiro). You're a lost nameless, faceless, soul/entity resurrected or plopped into existence to kill some big baddie or a bunch of baddies and change a world that isn't worth saving. Same shit rinse and repeat. NPCs nobody can really give a damn about. Writing that is generally obscure and cryptic, requiring a WIKI page to piece it all together, if you care to, which I never have. Bosses that don't have much of a set-up because once you meet them, they're dead=) I'll give JRPGs some credit for at least creating villains you meet and interact with as the game progresses so when you finally fight them you actually care. And when they get away, and you meet them a second or third time, each fight matters. God of War did this extremely well being more in line with FromSoft games. That's how you make bosses people actually care about fighting. I didn't care about anyone or anything I fought in Elden Ring. They were just obstacles to level up and get better gear to kill the next thing in my way. I think for a brief moment in the crazy village with everyone dancing, I stopped and looked around wondering if I should kill anyone here. They didn't look dangerous. They just looked crazy. But why? Did it matter? Do I need to read a freakin WIKI page to understand it? Of course. The game did a horrible job, per usual, explaining what the heck I was looking at, so I said screw it, and wiped everyone out, not caring if it mattered or not. And of course it didn't matter. But there was a boss there that I wanted to kill for another piece of gear. That's really all that actually mattered. Getting the shiny new gear. And that's what FromSoft needs to expand upon. The gear progression is great. THAT works well. Really well. But their stories, quests and writing are just pure shit. They can do it so much better. If I need to Google to understand something, the game failed. And if players need to theorize on what's going on, because the game doesn't really explain it, they REALLY failed. Its all a cop-out. The core base has to stop defending the bad parts of their games, just because thats the way they're "supposed" to be....huh...they're supposed to be poorly designed? That's rich=) And they need to expand the combat system. Being able to freely swap Ashes more easily spec weapons how you want them was a great step forward. Now they need to get away from R1, R1, R1 spam. Light and heavy attacks need to flow together, and combos need to matter more, like Monster Hunter. You get interrupted so easily that for most of the game, its rarely worth it to gamble on slow attacks or chaining attacks. Poke, poke, poke, is so much safer. And once you get an Ash that's devastating enough, you barely need regular attacks anymore=) Only on NG+1 did I have the freedom to actually experiment. And maybe that's all by design. Luckily I cared enough to play it again in a different way. Just wish I had more options the first time around to experiment more.

[@x0re89]

@@jrutter73 you should try sekiro i really loved it and it just seems so much better crafted that elden ring in terms of difficulty sure the game has also its cons but in my opinion its a far better product then elden ring im with you on the most part, look im not saying there cant be cryptic shit in games to figure out but if all side and main storys are presented in this way, it just dont work anymore for the 4game in the row, its like you said just a giant sandbox with enemies , and dont even get me started on the balance and some other nitpicks i have.. its not a bad game.. but i cant wrap my head around how people call this a 10out of 10 with so much obvious flaws cheers mate =)

[@jrutter73]

@@x0re89 I've been waiting a little to try Sekiro and a sale. Played Nioh2 a few months back before Elden Ring, so need some time before diving into another Japanese Ninja/Samurai genre game. I've heard good things though. Trying to go back to DS3 and finish it, but its kind of hard after Elden Ring. I've made a little progress but its getting tiresome. And its SO APPARENT now, how much copy and pasting FromSoft did. The enemies are so damn similar and even sections of dungeons are strikingly similar. I get such an overwhelming, "been there done that." Its whats happening with Forbidden West right now. Even though its been a couple years since playing the first Horizons, as incredible as the game looks, and as much as I enjoyed the first game, this one isn't clicking like I'd hoped.

[@jobforaspawn8381]

Why does everyone feel the need to preface their words before they even think of possibly criticizing a single aspect of this game, even if the criticisms are legitimate? It's so bit tiring to hear everyone and every video have to say "let me just say firstly, it's a great/amazing/near perfect/masterpiece" and then actually speak about how they really feel. Are people that afraid of the zealous FROM mob who thinks all their games are 15/10 and attack anyone who thinks otherwise?

[@Erumore]

That's a really good point. I suppose subconsciously I probably was affected by that stereotype of the typical From fan. It's still true that I think Elden Ring is a pretty great game, but sadly it's the more negative aspects that stick in my memory when I think back on my time with it. If I was writing this script now after being away from the game for a while, I might have put it differently. Thanks for giving me something to think about with this comment, I appreciate it and I hope you enjoyed the rest of the video.

[@cmoney163]

Yes, they’re all afraid of the FromSoft fanboys

[@draugnaustaunikunhymnphoo6978]

Side missions were my biggest disappointment. I go through these games extremely slowly, trying to cover as much as I can. I do this only to find out I've found all the copy pasted dungeons, catacombs, bosses and crap while missing out on all the side quests that I both look for and want to do without using external sources. I want to enjoy side quests, and no matter how long I search and try to do them, the game progresses without me and I miss out on the thing I want to experience most in the open world.

[@nathaeladalyah9681]

Crazy idea here, really looking forward to second opinions. I think the issue would be better resolved if the next open world game was entirely open world, with most of the main bosses at the same level of difficulty, with enemies of all levels in all zones. Picture this: an open world where you are a samurai who was taken prisoner during war. The game opens up with an ally breaking you out of a prison cell in the very center of the map. Outside of the prison in every direction is a different zone, ruled by a different governor, and it is the job of you and your NPC ally to defeat all of the governors in any order before approaching the ruler in the main city. Instead of the zones having different levels of difficulty, have all of them start easy and end hard. As you go farther and farther from the prison in each direction, the game slowly becomes harder and harder, making it a struggle to focus on one area. And at the end of each zone, have the governors each be the same high level of difficulty, just at the end of a different zone. Instead of fighting one zone at a time, you will have to start off by use guerilla tactics on camps in multiple zones as you gather resources which level up equipment. Remove the traditional avatar leveling system, and rather level equipment instead, then have each level of equipment require upgrade materials from mini bosses in multiple zones. In order to get better materials for your equipment, you have to go deeper into each territory, removing the ability to just out level the opponents, because your equipment will scale with your enemies. As you explore, you'll encounter mini bosses which give you upgrades to choose from. Which upgrades that you choose to use will determine the stats and abilities for you and your ally, and ultimately your build path and play style. Have each governor holed up in an open exploration "dungeon," where there are multiple routes to the boss depending on your play style. Make the dungeon exploration the late game challenge, that way you can't just run through them. Every dungeon will be a challenge. Every boss will be a challenge, its difficulty relative to your stats. Finally, after you have gathered a key from each governor, you can unlock the gates to a massive legacy dungeon city, inside of which is the ruler of the kingdom. Also, after you have beaten a main boss, allow a phantom battle, so that you can go back and fight against old bosses which you enjoyed. The fact that all of the main bosses are late game will mean that they will still be fun to come back to. I feel like this would solve a lot of problems, such as.. 1) The ability to out level a boss on purpose. 2) The ability to out level a boss by accident. 3) The ability to fight a boss that you are not ready for. 4) The ability to ignore content and run past it. 5) The imbalance between open world and linear progression. 6) The lack of character and build balance that tends to plague open world games. 7) The lack of desire to replay the game. You can return to play the same game, only choosing different rewards for different builds. 8) Inconsistencies in regards to why powerful bosses according to the lore become early game pushovers, while less powerful characters become late game monsters. If there is a game like this already, I would be happy to know. If not, I feel like a game like this would be a success.

[@Erumore]

This is a very compelling and ambitious idea! I would love to play it. I like your idea of levelling up your gear instead of your character. Maybe you could have tradeoffs between different armour sets, like one that just increases your health and another that gives you 3 free hits before you start taking damage? The game could also start you off in a prison inside the main city which you then escape, before coming back at the end, now powerful enough to take on the enemies and the final boss. I'm imagining something like Breath of the Wild, but with the bonfire system of Souls games. I think there's a lot of potential in your idea, and I hope we get something like this one day.

[@nathaeladalyah9681]

@@Erumore that's the idea that I was thinking. In regards to the gear being leveled instead of the avatar, you could change your character for each fight according to the scenario, just by changing gear, because the stats are connected to the gear. When you need to be a stealthy assassin, change into light gear with high crit. When you need to power through something, swap into strength gear. When you need to be quick and agile, swap into dexterity/endurance gear. You can increase each gear set as you take down more bosses

[@vikarsan3296]

Seems you guys have never played other games like really there are a bunch of those games.

[@SpottedHares]

The problem is that soft got endless praise for copying Ubisoft world design approach so why try and not just keep doing the copy and past design.

[@jesuscopter9256]

@@Erumore Well, regarding the gear upgrade thing you can play monster hunter

[@Neon_Henchman]

13:49; If anything, if they're so trivial that they can let you pass through and reach a Checkpoint that makes you dodge them, this isn't strictly about Difficulty/Challenge being a problem, but that the Sentinels, just like the Giant Archers you pointed out before, are so weak and bad at their purpose, thus there are no stakes in this world since everything is like this, it strips away a lot of the "hopelessness" the previous games have by making them look incompetent and I don't like it. As you've said, Dark Souls would have you forced into the fight, no matter what.

[@BenetbenetLive]

This is very good. Everybody and their mother are making video essays on this game but this is quality stuff. Good work

[@Erumore]

Thank you, I really appreciate the comment!

[@todo9633]

It's funny, the most deep and insightful critiques of this game come from people who absolutely love it.

[@thedoomslayer5863]

Why would anyone make a hour long review or analysis if they absolutely hated it?

[@Anadune0903]

this was the most accurate description about elden rings open world- problems i´ve heard and i totally agree with everything..

[@ryanvandoren1519]

I think the stamina management should stay, but I agree, combat needs a change up/overhaul. Jumping and crouching did change things up a bit, but not enough imo.

[@daksh1673]

Man you are expressed exactly how I felt playing Elden Ring. If Fromsoft continues to make more open world games I'm done.

[@Lucas_Blakely]

As soon as I got out of the tutorial I made a b line to the lake and actually ended up trapped in the mine BEFORE I unlocked anything else. I actually did end up getting stuck in Caelid and making my escape without Torrent or even the ability to level was incredibly memorable.

[@FangsofYima]

Its the only Fromsoft game I didn't jump into multiple replays right away with. I started a second run but the world crumbled a second time since I knew that 90% of the content didn't apply to me either because it didn't have something for my build, wasn't required, or wasn't interesting due to the copy paste element. I can only hope open world fatigue speeds up in the general population but it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. I really enjoyed this review and your Tears of the Kingdom one, and it validates well my feeling that these games would be much better as smaller more focused games.

[@MiserTheMooseFH]

I agree with you 100% with caelid. On my first play through I got bamboozled by the trick chest and was sent to the crystal tunnel, I tried to fast travel out of there but to no avail(since I was in the cave and didn't beat the boss) I got my ass kicked by the centipede guys over and over again but despite this I kept going through until arriving at the falling star beast which also proceeded to kick my ass over and over again. This was when it sunk it that it would be nigh impossible for me to beat this dungeon at my current RL so I left into the caelid wilds. But here's the kicker, I assumed I was still unable to fast travel so instead of immediately leaving caelid via that option, I instead "had" to trek through it. The amount of unease and anxiety that the visual world and soundtrack put me through combined with the grotesque enemies and the rotten wastes created an experience of fear and uncertainty that tailored my run through caelid as an experience that until then I had, had in elden ring. It was awesome. I wish I could do it again and with that being said, obviously I felt dumb after finding out I could have fast traveled out of caelid the second I got out of the cave but tbh I'm glad I didn't. I wish the game would of forced every player to go through what I went through and I wish the game had more opportunities to push me into an experience similar to it.

[@alexvenancio1336]

The shockwave damage most of the bosses deal after a big plunging attack is total bullshit, sometimes they completely miss you and you're still taking full damage just for being 2 meters near the impact zone

[@giogiolachance4313]

Just jump to avoid any ground aoe damage. ya welcome.

[@alexvenancio1336]

@@giogiolachance4313 I did not complain about the impossibility to dodge the attacks

[@TheStanDudley]

I think a great way to view consensus with your points is to look at mods. Overhauls specifically. In nearly every DS1 mod, they change BoC. In nearly every DS3 mod, they change the Grave-tender Champion. In Elden ring, mods are already adjusting the crafting system, Convergence also, changed nearly every dungeon and catacomb, to give you much better rewards. Just an idea to help a collaborative conclusion.

[@dangerpin352]

Great video, very thought-provoking. I appreciated how easy it was to do what I wanted to rather than being forced to bang my head against the overworld bosses to reach the next area.

[@Erumore]

I agree that not having to bang your head against an encounter you're not enjoying is a good thing, but I do think it's a shame that bypassing those encounters is as boring as just riding past them. Thanks for the comment, I appreciate the kind words.

[@dangerpin352]

@@Erumore unfortunately you can't control player behavior 100% and there will always be people who ride past every optional encounter. They will "boss run" the whole game. That makes the open world essentially pointless and almost necessitates a more linear design. I think From partially realized this by making the end-game content much more focused and removing some player freedom, as you point out. They let people have their way up until MTOG and make the real hard stuff...optional. It baffles the mind but they did something really clever overall.

[@Enigmata23]

The side quests in this game are horribly designed. Ridiculous.

[@liquidreality472]

If looking at it from the position of a player who is only going to play through the game once, then I would agree. These are the only games some of us still play. This has been the way quests have worked in every one of their games. We're used to it. We see what the intention is; to create a gratifying feeling when you figure out what you are supposed to do or where you need to go to progress a questline. Sure, you can look up the information, but i believe it is a more rewarding experience to come to the knowledge organically through multiple playthroughs, and I'm sure that this is at least in part the intention.

[@Flintdarkside]

Nah. The quests were always one of the weakest points of the Souls games the only difference is that Elden Ring exacerbates the problem. In the previous games NPCs would always have cryptic lines of dialogue and most of the times there would be absolutely no way to tell what to do next in their quest or where to go. In Dark Souls this kind of works because for the majority of the game you have to travel on foot to go everywhere so you can eventually stumble on an npc that moved to a new region. From Dark Souls 2 since you are able to teleport to every bonfire immediately, the quest started to break. In Elden Ring they kept the same old cryptic questlines, but now is next to impossible to guess where an NPC would go next unless they explicitly tell you or you luckily stumbled on them which is way harder because of how big the map is. Case in point for how this doesn't work? Ranni's quest is almost impossible to do without a guide. From Software had to patch a mark on the map after you beat Redhann because people couldn't find the place where the meteor fell! Shadow of the Erdtree is even worse since you can easily fail multiple quest without any sign that you are doing it at all. From Software needs to update the way their quest works, because it doesn't fit in open worlds.

[@SpottedHares]

Elden ring highly simplified Ubisfot approach to world design work in its favor as your never going to have to actually explore and run the risk that exploring entails. Since the Ubisfot activities are some of the most simplistic and basic ever seen in a ubisoft like as long as you can do the highly simplistic loop once then their no risk of you ever encountering any actually challenge that will be an actually problem for you. The only threat their is the generic industry standard of raising health and damage of mobs to compensate for your own growth in health and damage, the only challenge being a first grade level math problem. Since the average consumer can't do complex fractions it very easy for them to pretend that they encounter some work of challenge that just dons;t exist else where. If previous open world games were assessment parks then elden ring open world is a daycare center.

[@khanager2814]

I agree with all your criticisms and maybe the Open World is just incompatible with the Souls format. I think despite all the suggestions you and others have made, it is an impossible task to perfectly balance a Souls game with an Open World (unless you implement level-scaling, but that obviously comes with its own disincentivisation of exploration). Honestly, I think you did a good job of prefacing that Elden Ring was still an awesome game. I think in hindsight despite the fact that my second playthrough was not nearly as fun as my first, the first run was so incredible in terms of slowly peeling back the scale and amazing design of the world itself that I am happy to still call it a masterpiece. Its flaws notwithstanding, I can't think of a game in recent memory which stunned me as much as Elden Ring. Radahn's meteor into his second phase. Discovering the meteor pit and exploring Nokstella, possibly my favourite area in any FromSoft game to date. Entering the capital and seeing the dragon skeleton over the city. Encountering the Fallingstar Beast on the top of Mt Gelmir. Finding my way through the secret passage to enter the Volcano Legacy Dungeon and find Rykard. Walking into the lake right next to First Steps to be attacked by a f***ing dragon. Finishing Ranni's questline. Even just walking out into Liurnia after beating Stormveil after 20 hours and realising I was still in the early game. There were just so many "holy shit" moments from my first run that I am willing to forgive all of Elden Ring's flaws. I really think a lot of people did themselves a disservice by looking at guides throughout their first run. There is so much in the game, of course you aren't meant to see it all on your first run! (and an important byproduct of that is not being overlevelled enough to trivialise mid-game bosses). That being said, the key debate at the heart of this video, which is whether you could have all those same incredible moments in a linear experience instead of an open world, is a very interesting question.

[@Erumore]

I also can't really see any way of reconciling the Souls format with AAA open world design, but I have a lot of respect for Elden Ring for attempting it. There's a lot to like about the game, and a lot of 'holy shit' moments just as you mentioned; one of my favourites (besides the obvious descent into the Siofra River Basin) was coming across the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella in his gigantic arena for the first time. I was lucky I didn't encounter any of his copies before that, because the moment would have been far less impactful if I had. I agree completely that using a guide to play Elden Ring is ruining the experience for yourself; I have no idea why someone would want to spoil the wonder and mystery like that, especially considering that it's pretty much the main benefit of the open world in the first place. Thanks for adding to the discussion with your thoughtful comment, I really appreciate it and I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

[@Sohelanthropus]

Agree, the open world doesn't fit the Souls formula Maybe the world was too big and too open in this game, if they decided to try it again and make a leaner game, I'd expect the open world to be smaller in scale and more linear; it can work, it just needs many improvements Alongside that, I don't pardon ER for its many flaws just because the first playthrough was cool, and it was, but we have to look at it objectively here. I keep bouncing back and forth between DS2, 3 and ER to see if I find those past games (which I consider great games) better than ER and in many ways they are, but I just keep coming back to ER for some unknown reason. Maybe because that's where everyone is and I love invading and playing past games makes you feel "left our" and alone, we'll see in 3 years when the population drops drastically

[@Sohelanthropus]

@Okay Egg exactly

[@attrage7545]

Great video, i applaud your constructive criticism and no nonsense approach. You're optimistic in hoping From Software will do anything different next game though.

[@Charles-jj2su]

Thanks for putting it all into words. I much prefer the more compact, yet still “go to whatever area and explore” approach of DS1 and 2 (3 is a bit *too* linear for me) to ER. I still love ER, but I can’t see myself going back to it in the way I do other souls games.

[@Sohelanthropus]

Exactly

[@blackrat1228]

ER is my first real attempt at playing a souls game so it's interesting to me to hear different views on it. Knowing the difficulty inherent in the game it kinda blew my mind the first time I watched someone just ride past the crowd of soldiers and the bridge troll on the way up to stormveil. For me it was either kill every one of those guys or find an alternate route, but on subsequent playthroughs since I've already conquered the challenge once I just dash through it. The game does give you an incentive to kill the enemies at least once as that's when they drop their unique items (like the hands on the mountaintop of giants) but it does really take you out of the game to just bypass everyone. Interesting to hear your takes on the game either being too hand holdy or not enough. Not knowing what to expect it took me quite awhile to get into raya lacaria as I only figured it out after taking on the dragon blocking the key on my own as a challenge versus knowing the key was hidden there. If I was too scared to take on the dragon I'd still be circling around. Conversely the floating debris in Limgrave post Radahn is obvious from anywhere in the area so it's hard to miss, but you would have to have a reason to go back in the first place. You actually have to pay attention to the cutscene and notice in the direction of the comet and follow that up by checking your map, something a lot of modern day players won't do. Having Blaidd throw one line in there about the meteor looking like it hit "Limgrave would have closed that loop entirely. As a non souls player I was not used to the routine of checking the info of every single item I picked up for clues, (the other half of the altus lift medallion being in dragonbarrow for instance) but once I finally picked up on that the game made much more sense.

[@eduardobetancourt6677]

It’s not a perfect solution but what I’ve been doing is dumping points into Arcane on a non-arcane, non-bleed build. It’s doesn’t feel entirely wasted cuz it boosts discovery :D

[@Korilian13]

I just got past the Golden city and I was kind of bummed when I realized how long the final stretch was going to be. I'm starting to get exhausted. I do think magic users have a bigger weakness though. Many of the bosses often have a wide reach and you have to get close to lock on. But putting all your points in int. means you can't wear proper armor. This can be mitigated by searching out certain amulets, but that requires hitting the wiki, which defeats the point I feel.

[@stanislavkimov2779]

As a mage you 100% need to hit the wiki. Your tools are too specific.

[@aschelocke5287]

Really good video man. I thought the obvious way to fix jump attacks would be raising the stamina cost by a lot (and then maybe also scale by weight). If one jump leaves you sitting wothout stamina, you'll never spam it. And jumping puzzles would still work

[@Erumore]

That's a great idea, I should have thought of that. Thanks for the comment!

[@andreimaxwell4455]

Jumping in general shouldn't be that stiff bunny hop animation ripped straight from ds3

[@zaid_alhelu]

Also increasing the recovery time proportionally to the weight

[@giogiolachance4313]

Jump attack already have the biggest stamina cost. test it out. also roll are already affected by equipment load.

[@povilasb9898]

To be completely honest, a lot of said optional content is not optional at all. Imagine somehow getting past Morgott without exploring any of the game's optional caves and dungeons. Now you're up against godskin duo, with no prior experience of fighting them one on one, underleveled and outnumbered. Following that comes a series of most challenging boss fights in history of souls series (some of them expect you to straigth up trade damage or play incredibly cautiously). You can't really progress in the game without tackling side content to some extent, unless you've already completed the game and can dunk on the bosses while lvl1 and naked

[@Erumore]

It's true that the player will likely be completing the majority of the 'side' content on their first playthrough. When I describe those caves and dungeons as optional, what I mean is that for any given dungeon there's no obligation to complete it. Similarly, you can reach the Erdtree after beating any two of the main bosses, so in a sense they are optional as well (on a first playthrough I'd guess most players will beat all four for the sake of completion, but the option is there to skip whichever two you like). Thanks for the comment!

[@giogiolachance4313]

@@Erumore like he said. unless you rune farme you need the experience and the items (talismans) present in the lands

[@BludPanda]

I've watched the intro and I can already tell this will be a worth while video. Unfortunately I haven't beaten the game yet :( so I don't want to be spoiled. I really admire how you criticize the game, criticism is very important and we should always be skeptical of the corruption of art through business motives. I wouldn't say I agree with everything but I do understand. When I beat the game I will get to this video, and the other elden ring videos in my watch later lol.

[@hooliganvitto]

This is one of, if not the best video on elden ring. Very well though out, concise and the perfect amount of dry humor. I love it dude, can't wait to see what you do next. Subbed!!

[@Erumore]

Thank you, I'm truly flattered that you think so and it makes my day to receive comments like this. Hopefully a few of the other videos already on my channel spark your interest, and there will be plenty more to come!

[@twodumbgamers9285]

I'm sorry but it is riddled with inconsistencies, over exaggerations and assumptions based on anecdotal experience. This is by no means the best video on elden ring. Truth hurts sometimes but you need to hear it.

[@Dainjuh]

​@@twodumbgamers9285 interesting opinion. Care to elaborate/give examples or was that supposed to be your mic drop moment that would convince anyone who read it?

[@twodumbgamers9285]

@@Dainjuh it's no mic drop lol 😂 it is a fact though. This is not the best video on elden ring by far! It's decent at best unfortunately. It shouldn't even be called a critique. It's a rant. The guy rants about what he likes and dislikes. Very very rarely giving any new ideas on how to improve the things he dislikes. At the beginning he stated that elden ring didn't do anything new from the other souls games. Even though they did quite a bit of new things. A mount, crafting, power stancing, spirit summons, and I could go on. Another thing that annoys him is he says it's stupid you can just run around some of the open world bosses to not fight them and that the previous souls games never did this. Yes they did. The big example I can think of is the dog on the bridge after the Wolnir fight. You can run right past the dog, yes he's not a boss but can run right past him. Dark souls 2 has so many big enemies that you can just run right past. The pursuer you can run past at least once. I'm honestly not gunna waste anymore time giving examples of his inconsistencies, exaggerations and assumptions. He makes many of them and doesn't want a "better" game. He wants the game he wants. That's gatekeeping. The game isn't perfect but no game is! Trying to compare it to a perfect game is starting from failure though, which this "critique" does. Maybe actually listen and pay attention to what he says, because if you did, you could see the inconsistencies in this video. I mean the dude thought that the ghost by the altus lift was spoiling a secret passage to him, when in reality if you explore like he says the souls games are always about you find a young snake girl who gives you this secret way before you even get to the lift. He got upset that a ghost spoiled something but didn't even know it gets spoiled even earlier and for a quest line. Again it's a decent video but nowhere near the best 😂that's just laughable honestly. And to the guy who said it's the best, you clearly haven't watched many other videos on elden ring if this is your highest bar 😂

[@King_Rowlet]

Btw your critique on the entrance to the underground with the falling star is something I kinda want more games to do and I’ve only seen it in Terraria lmao, however in that game, the world changes as you play and the world (regardless of the size you pick) is small enough where revisiting areas to find something new is a lot more incentivized. Otherwise, I almost entirely agree with your sentiment. Good video

[@MrFr2eman]

Probably late to the party but a bit about level design, an unpopular opinion but to me it felt like it was a step sideways with a different approach and a bit backwards, rather than the old Fromsoft style evolving forward. The first issue I noticed is that there is too many checkpoints, which allowed developers make levels a lot more linear and less vertically stacked. By linearity I mean that practically every main level in ER has a single main path that goes from beginning to the end boss without any loops or breaks, or shortcut unlocks, the only branching paths are usually optional side-pockets with dead ends. In soulsbornes best levels tend to have one or two checkpoints you're gonna be coming back to through vertical shortcuts and loops, while in Elden Ring all levels have 5-10 checkpoints almost evenly spaced out, which results in a pattern, where you get through a couple of simple encounters>get checkpoint>repeat, and you rarely have to look back after you reach most of the checkpoints. There is also dozens of cases where level design doesn't have any physical ways to backtrack, forcing you to teleport, which happened very rarely in previous games. The abundance of checkpoints also creates a side issue of removing any tension of running out of resources and having to take risks going forward, especially in late game, where you get 10+ flasks and potentially other health regen items. There is, however, usually one checkpoint in each level that branches out in a couple of different directions like Red Wolf checkpoint in Lucaria or the one near the lift in Stormveil, but that is usually paired with another issue, which is a lack of flow in level design. Those branching paths are usually for side-exploration and they tend to encourage a playstyle that looks like explore one branch>teleport back>explore another>teleport back>repeat till done, which I think is a big step back compared to previous games, where due to loops and shortcuts you're constantly moving forward even when you explore a side branch. And the rare cases of interconnectivity are either pratically useless like the Lucaria rooftops branch leads to the beginning of the level with no practical use, or easily replaced by the availability of fast travel with generous checkpoints like in Lyndell, where I'd rather teleport back than run all the way back on foot or use occasional shortcut. The only level that felt like proper Fromsoft level design is the sewers part of Lyndell, where basically the whole thing is designed around using 1 checkpoint. And last but not least, I felt like all main levels in ER are exactly the same mechanically, the only ones that stood out to me were the Lake of Rot with it's high-damage rot effect and platforms you could activate for safe zones and Carian Divine Tower, where the level flips upside down, but those are side levels that last 20-30 minutes. All main levels can boil down to combat gauntlets with a bit of navigational challenge, even Farum Azula despite looking very unique, mechanically isn't very different from all the other levels. ER doesn't have anything like Sen's Fortress, a level full of traps and narrow pathways which create unique challenges, or New Londo, Elyum Loyce and Research Hall, where half of the level changes once you activate a certain mechanism, or Ringed City with it's angels to hide from as you explore the area. I feel like if you strip down ER levels of it's visual flavour, the only one that will stand out is Lyndell and only because of it's size. My ramblings aside, really enjoyed the video and watched a few others after this one, hope your channel will grow, you deserve it.

[@Sohelanthropus]

I think you make good points that very few people have talked about man, and I'll have to slightly agree To me a good level design doesn't necessarily have to be always interconnected with itself, but rather it just has to be fun to traverse with places to go to and unique mechanics thrown in the mix DS2 does this a lot on almost all its levels and people still trash it • Forest of fallen giants has you go back after you kill the Last Giant to open a couple of previously closed doors • Heides Tower has you pull these levers to increase the size of the boss arena • No Mans wharf has you activate this big lamp to light up the entire crib, alongside the water level rising as you fight the boss • The Lost Bastille can be accessed like in 3 ways and you need to find a key to open a couple of doors as well as being careful around the stone vases to not activate the exploding hollows • Harvest Valley's poison lowers after you burn the windmill, making its exploration better, same with Earthen Peak • Iron Keep has you lower the bridge before Smelter Demon and turn off some furnaces or exploding chimneys, or lowering the rafters I could go on and on, but to summarize, good level design doesn't necessarily have to be "complex" or interconnected if you just fill the level with interesting stuff to do with the environment, like what DS2 does a lot Whereas Miyazaki all he does is elevators and doors

[@Celatra]

And even then, leyndell is actually really small

[@jh9794]

The only boss I haven't beaten solo is malenia. Although I've been avoiding the use of the OP setups, hence why I usually can't kill her fast enough to eliminate WFD as a run ender.

[@minecraftgravityguy]

I’m sorry but you can’t eliminate Waterfowl Dance as it activates automatically around 65-75% of her health in phase 1, unless you have the most broken build or are using bleed/frost build up you can’t interrupt that and have to pray she somehow doesn’t use it because the Ai decides not to that run, and find other ways you could deal with it but it would require changes/additions to your build, its a shame really.

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

​@minecraftgravityguy you could you know dodge it. You can even block the first volley.

[@goncaloferreira6429]

10:38 good points around 45:00 jump atacks: your idea of using equipment weigh to limit jump attacks makes sense. Rogue characters should use them as alterantive ways to get critical hits( besides backstabs and parries); for heavy characters i would sugest they should use jump attacks but be out of stamina themselves thus not being able to abuse the mechanic. 56:33 seems the perfect opportunity to bring back one of the best ideas DS2 gave us, bonfire aestetics( spelling): they would mean aditional challenges for those who want them, the ability to refight/learn bosses without having to play the game again ( or respecting) and it also means the same amount of "content" without the artificial duplication of unique bosses somewhere else on the map.

[@jamesbevan4479]

I'm 4 minutes into the video and I feel your overall sentiment is the same as mine. I enjoyed what I've played so far (around 60 hours) but I'm only half way into it and I'm already burnt out on it, too much filler. Its too big for it's own good, I would have finished DS3 or bloodborne by that time and not felt the strain. I'm playing metroid dread instead atm to have a much needed break from Elden Ring, hopefully in a few weeks I'll be in the mood again.

[@Erumore]

I really started to lose steam in the middle of the game as well. If you've reached the capital and you have the motivation left to finish that section, I'd encourage you to stick through it because you might get a second wind after that bit. The game becomes a lot more linear after that, which makes it easier to feel like you're progressing in a direction rather than just aimlessly wandering around doing boring dungeons. Thanks for the comment, it's much appreciated.

[@kblade08]

Hey man, while I have nothing truly worthwhile to add to the conversation, I just wanted you to know I enjoyed this a lot. While I don't agree with everything you criticized, you presented your opinions in a way that was easy to appreciate while still valuing my opinions. Appreciate the content, hope to see more like it in the future.

[@Erumore]

Thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the video and there will be plenty more to come.

[@philip47478]

Really good video. Hope it gets more views. :D My biggest problem with the combat is how safe they played. Enemies and bosses have such wide and complex move sets while im limited to what feels like such un outdated combat, especially compared with Sekiro or even BB. When it comes to scaling enemies, i think the Skyrim/ Fallout 4 like approach would kinda work where enemies are scaled but randomly a bit and not to the same degree. Or maybe what Ubisoft did with Valhalla, where the player can choose how much scaling they want.

[@Erumore]

Thanks for the comment, I really appreciate the support. That's an interesting example of Valhalla, I didn't know about that. It definitely makes for further evidence that developers of open-world games are crying out for a good solution to this levelling problem; turning that decision over to the player doesn't quite sit right with me though. Breath of the Wild was onto a good idea by introducing stronger enemies alongside the weaker ones as you progress, but they went way too far with the last enemy rank and made them into boring damage sponges. Here's hoping Nintendo strikes a better balance with the sequel.

[@elitereptilian200]

Someone should make a mod that gives enemy scaling like Oblivion has, when you are a high enough level, even the first basic mobs have end game armor and boss weapons 😄 also make their aggro range massive and once you have enemy aggro, you can never lose that aggro forcing you to fight everything..

[@BlueRidgeBubble]

You're meant to use the summons and different tools you find in this game more than Dark Souls This is not Dark Souls, but people are playing it like it is and expecting it to be

[@flamingmanure]

ERs combat is far deeper than bbs R1 spam with the occasional L1.

[@GothicXlightning]

i really love and appreciate the sense of true Freedom Tension is important and part of an experience but having Fun wile having a relaxed journey is also very important for me

[@rebelwithacause5307]

Easily the best critique of Elden ring on the internet, and I’ve watched hours and hours of different ones. Liked and subbed.

[@Erumore]

It makes my day to read this kind of comment on one of my videos. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this one and I hope you find more on my channel to interest you.

[@karunsv1785]

1 year later, this game is either considered a flawless Masterpiece or the worst thing ever. A balanced review is what I want, and that is exactly what I got. Bravo, it feels like we're the only sane people in the world. Great video. But I don't think it's as generic as you said it is in the intro. Aside from these flaws, it feels a lot like classic FROMSOFT to me.

[@ГеннадийАндреев-й6с]

Worst thing ever!

[@SinfulCadence]

I'm in the middle. It feels cheap in a lot of ways. Especially bosses not having to play by the same rules. But the game is beautiful, and just playing and existing in it is fun when you can play how you want and feel punished for a lack of knowledge, and not equipment with specific conditions. ​@@ГеннадийАндреев-й6с

[@karunsv1785]

​@@ГеннадийАндреев-й6сthanks, you proved my point

[@kianhrenak]

Lol​@@ГеннадийАндреев-й6с

[@cmoney163]

Best thing ever!

[@reynoldskynaston9529]

I think open worlds have an unsolvable problem. Either fill your world with repetitive content or leave it empty. (Third option is to spend an obscene amount of time filling out the world with unique, worthwhile content) Ultimately, I was very impressed by Elden Ring. It nearly perfected the dark souls style of game for me (only problem being the repetitive parts becoming noticeable towards the end of the game). However I agree that future fromsoft games will need a shift (like sekiro) to avoid becoming stale.

[@Janfey]

I like repeated bosses, some fights are just fun and i don’t need to start a new game to have a go again.

[@stephenmclemore7614]

I dint like the crouch but only because during boss fights I always end up crouching and it slows me way down.

[@7milesdavis]

After tears of the kingdom I’m not sure I have the patience to slog through another giant open world game. It’s a trend that needs to be improved and innovated on, or left behind. Open world games have become so similar and predictable I’m surprised the trend has lasted as long as it has. I’m hoping Metroid Prime 4 isn’t going to be some boring open world version of Metroid.

[@OrangeNash]

Having completed it after 150 hours, the fascinating aspect of these reviews (BTW this is a good one), is how much of it I just didn't see! Not sure whether it's a good or bad thing that you could start the game again and find so much you missed before. I don't think it was ever intended to be "completed" in one go.

[@mismismism]

I think the issue is a double edged sword, it both gives too much freedom and not enough. You can skip massive sections and the story is barely existent unless you search yourself but there are also unnecessary restrictions like needing to beat Rennala and use an item to respec when some bosses are balanced so poorly, they are basically impossible on some builds, upgrade materials are massively restricted to the point they patched the ledge trick but some weapons, like colossal weapons, are literally too slow to get a hit on some bosses without trading so if you picked the wrong weapon or build, you can become stuck which completely defeats the purpose of all this "choice" since boss design in this game is built around summoning and luck with RNG not skill, some bosses have attack strings or the ability to break the rules of the game making it so you literally have no way to counter what they are doing, you just have to distract and hopefully burst them down before they do something broken a lot of the time. Same with side quests, they're overly confusing with no clear logical direction and tie together with other random quests from all over with no indication to the point it doesn't feel like it rewards paying attention or even exploration, it's more luck based, if you run across them in the right order or happen to go to certain locations in a certain order and multiple times even if most have nothing to go back for if you don't know they're somehow tied to a quest. It's like the game design goes against the me hanics constantly. Even basic things like enemy layout on the map when there is no indication of the level range of enemies in different areas. The first area for example, the tree Sentinel pushes you either toward the swamp or the bandit camp, but the swamp has the teleportation trap, a dragon and that invasion by the bridge, all this will push new players to go to the bandit camp, then you get Torrent and leveling at the upper grace, all of this will lead players to think they are supposed to go Northwest towards Stormveil and Liurnia first when actually, you should go Southeast doing bosses like the Pumpkin head and go into the Weeping Peninsula if you don't want to be underleveled for bosses like Margit or stuff in Liurnia and beyond and don't want to become extremely overleveled for that Southeastern section. Not to mention that enemies leading up to certain bosses do not match the difficulty of the boss, like they thought that one giant dropping down would tell players they shouldn't do Stormveil first when they just seconds before gave us Torrent that can easily run past before the giant even appears, so then they end up blindsided by how insanely difficult Margit is when he can very easily, be the first boss you even attempt after the tutorial with no idea about a shackle existing, potentially not even having the summon bell or any summons if you didn't realize you need to speak to Roderika 3 times or really any way to defend yourself against his kit vs the path toward W.P. that has a Night Cavalry and 2 giants appear that a new player will not know they won't be attacked by and a massive number of enemies making you think the right side is a high level area, especially if you got teleported to Caelid first. There is so much like this where the design goes against what is actually being presented and it creates so much unnecessary frustration for players on both sides of the debate.

[@oldmanlexington276]

Damn that’s a really long comment to be so Wrong about things. You may not realize this but the things you are arguing display your ignorance. No build in this game is unviable; everything works, your options are virtually limitless. You as well as the author of this video are unfortunately misrepresenting the experience of Elden Ring.

[@mismismism]

@@oldmanlexington276 Lol that is not true, you're the one being disingenuous. There are entire videos with slow motion breaking down bosses showing them just cancel out of attacks or things like stagger, input reading is so common it can actually be abused, which is why rock sling is so busted, because some enemies dodge the second you input an attack or spell so they actually dodge before the rock sling comes out and can't dodge that one spell, there are countless videos of bosses where you literally cannot see attacks because they are too big, or B.S. attacks that are undodgeable without bloodhound step like that magic barrage from Elden Beast, there are bosses you can see suddenly go into combos with no telegraphs or wind up making builds with colossal weapons for example, sometimes just get caught in a combo they had no way of seeing coming or avoiding. You can like the game but acting like this stuff doesn't exist is just factually wrong and there is loads of proof for it. And no one said it was impossible to beat the game with every build, but they can be at such a ridiculous disadvantage it's both not fun and not actually about skill, it's about luck. If you have a slow build, a lot of the bosses are just gonna be you dodging and running away 90% of the fight and hoping the boss doesn't suddenly cancel out of their punishable state to kill you without warning or time to react, which is not true of other games like Bloodborne, at least no where near to the extent it is here. And to add to that, there is a reason PVP is dying so fast as well and it's a lot of those same bad balancing issues that were not nearly this bad in past games. Like what you like but acting like the game is perfect is beyond copium.

[@oldmanlexington276]

You’re extremely long winded to not get very much of a point across. I’ll just say this; it sounds like you felt the difficulty was unfairly balanced and it frustrated you. This is not any of the previous fromsoftware titles, it’s “like” them but it’s different too, it’s to be played and approached differently.

[@mismismism]

@@oldmanlexington276 I can be long winded if I want to, I'm actually explaining myself and you replied to me. You can't just say something isn't true with nothing to back it up. Anyway, I'm done arguing with you, be ignorant if you want, and I'll critique things I have issues with if I want.

[@EZEarle]

@@oldmanlexington276Lol. Skipped the comment because it was too long. Went back to read it because your comment was funny and made me want to see how wrong they were. Still couldn’t make it through. I’m taking your word for it.

[@Modie]

To the horse question: I agree and disagree. Because if we start the thought of why mounting and dismounting are necessary, why stop there? Why is there a limit to the speed of the horse out of combat? Why not make it way faster? After all, does it make it more immersive that I need 2 minutes instead of 1 for my travel through a certain area? The point is, what is and isn't immersive is quite dependent on the player AND the game. I agree that Elden Ring doesn't need that because it's not THAT kind of immersion like Witcher 3. The immersion comes from the exploration of ruins in a world you don't understand. While Witcher 3 immersion is about you being Geralt of Rivia traveling through the world with a straight forward goal. To this day, I don't understand why people keep comparing apples to oranges. It's the same with characters. Just because they share 1 or 2 similarities does not mean they have the same purpose or even idea behind them. And the same here. Just because both are open world and give you a horse to travel through it, doesn't mean they are comparable in what they want to achieve with their designs.

[@Erumore]

I agree with most of what you say here; immersion can mean something completely different depending on the game, and crucially I think that immersion is not the same thing as realism. For a game to remain immersive, the world just needs to remain consistent with its own internal logic. In Elden Ring, Torrent is a magical beast that can be summoned and dismissed at the will of its rider, and it feels natural to do so at the press of a button. In The Witcher 3, we're supposed to take our role as Geralt (and his relationship with his horse) more seriously, which is why the ritual of calling Roach and then mounting up manually is more drawn out. Every player knows, however, that Roach is just teleporting in somewhere offscreen when they whistle for him, which is very convenient but obviously breaks the illusion of realism. If you're attempting to create immersion by simulating reality, somewhere down the line it's going to fall apart and the artificiality will be exposed, especially in an open world. I guess the art of immersive game design is in finding that sweet spot between consistency and convenience. If you haven't played it yet, I would highly recommend checking out Outer Wilds, as that's the most immersive game I've experienced. Thanks for the interesting comment, and I hope you enjoyed the video.

[@dredgendorchadas6770]

Hot take I miss the "find item to fast travel" that had existed. Hide it behind 3 legacy dungeons that have to be done to combine them into item X or something.

[@mentalwig420]

It's funny how you say you wish that they wouldn't have held your hand to show you where the key is for the academy. But then wish they would've been more clear on where the asteroid hit after Radahn.

[@Stanzbey69]

Elden ring critics are not very smart

[@formerjoy7555]

​@Stanzbey69 neither are elden ring meatriders. this might be my favorite game i've ever played but it has many issues and pointing them out will only help fromsoft. how do you think they got to the point of making your favorite games in the first place?

[@VonBoche]

I agree with almost everything here. That said, I still find myself preferring Elden Ring over Sekiro by a wide margin simply because the draw was the sense of adventure in those games and by removing much of the choices that defined Souls-games, Sekiro felt the least adventurous of them all. Obviously tight challenge doesn't have to come at the cost of open-world exploration, the balance is not properly struck but still I'll take the open-ended freedom to find and choose what to use to overcome a looser yet still rather tight challenge than having next to no choice but an extremely tight challenge tailored around what was given to you. Victory is earned either way but in Elden Ring, I earned it, me, Clancy Mah Boy, random tarnished with a fancy moustache and the big sword I had to fight giant mangy dogs to grab, and not Sekiro, a very bland character I feel nothing in particular towards with a katana that he just has. I also see Elden Ring not just in comparison to previous Souls games wherein content re-use felt less egregious there but in also in comparison to other open-world games wherein content re-use is far, far worse than it is in Elden Ring. Although Elden Ring didn't knock it out of the park since it is bigger than the content could sustain before repetition set in, it is still a great deal better than, say, Breath of the Wild, a game I also love and still has its own strengths but specifically suffered from abandonning its typical formula to go fully open-world, the lack of proper dungeons and enemy variety was a huge blow. Meanwhile, I've just beaten Elphael on my second playthrough and I can't believe a level so good is tucked away in an open-world since these kind of games usually sacrifice quality for quantity to a point where nothing stands out. So personally, I certainly wish for plenty of changes with whatever From Soft does next but I ultimately very much fall on the side of more freedom rather than less. One of the things I liked most in previous souls-games was the sense of scale, the small pleasure of simply looking around and seeing where you were and where you might be able to go eventually by following the path. Elden Ring is basicaly a game centered around that, however flawed it is, I can't help but feel it was worth it.

[@pyatig]

100% agree with you on wishing the game was half the size with more unique bosses but Blaidd does tell you about the hole in the ground after the Radahn fight

[@flamingmanure]

nah man, what i would like is half the small caves and dungeons and thats it, the open world itself is spectacular and i want more of it in the sequel.

[@alexrogers9051]

The first playthrough is awesome but it falls off hard on your second. It just feels like a chore going through the dungeons and areas trying to get items. And the jumping and summons really take away from the dark souls style of fighting.

[@BlueRidgeBubble]

This isn't Dark Souls though This is Elden Ring lol

[@Lanoman123]

58:43 there’s actually a unique Crystal Tear where it’s entire purpose is to negate that specific attack. It’s not meant to be face tanked

[@skyfish77]

I'm a simple person. I liked elden ring. Wasn't too crazy about it, but it was a good game. I then played dark souls 3, really liked it, and then went back for another playthrough of er a year later-right now. I'm liking it. I'm not too crazy about it, but it's interesting to use spells/incantations for the first time.

[@ObiJuanKenob]

It's a commercial success, it's the RE4, Bioshock, skyrim, Fallout 3 and other "goat" games. And like these titles It has all the recognition, but it didn't get there by having the the depth of most of the titles that came before it, just the pedigree of it's prestigious family. There's not a world in my mind where this game doesn't mean a change in direction for the rest of the franchise and definitely no world where it wasn't going to be a commercial success. Hope it's just a one off since appart from dark souls they really do try to have something "different" if you compare them to bloodborne or sekiro. The issue is that even tho ER is different from the past titles it's just ends up with the same conventions of basically every other modern title out there, the same conventions that are heavily formulated and correlated with high sell figures. It trimmed all the fat and what was left was just the buzz words that sell not only every other modern VG, but these types of games. I really did enjoy that fist part of the map, the south and everything leading up to the first legacy dungeon; but having investes almost 100 hours before reaching it showed me that the game didn't have anything to offer no level design and no game designed around the levels. No real player choice or freedom like this genre of VGs wants you to believe apart from going where you want first. Cause at the end it's either play a very vague rougelike when it comes to a lot of the enemies and bosses where you invest an absurd amount of time to learn the weaknesses or just go online and copy any YT vid to get through the half baked encounters. And it's all Bloodbornes fault, it showed that with way less you could do a lot more.

[@Erumore]

Well said. Elden Ring has made me very nervous about the future of FromSoft. I'm crossing every finger I have that it was just a one-off experiment and that they will return to making more original games going forward. Unfortunately I still haven't played Bloodborne because it's STILL not on PC, but I think Sekiro proves your point just as well, that you can do a lot with very little when you focus on making one mechanic feel really good.

[@ObiJuanKenob]

@@Erumore oh no doubt, I've been meaning to actually go through Sekiro; but I have way to many backlogs. But it also has a very quality over quantity focus; just asks for a lot of your time and attention which I don't have right know. Bloodborne just hits different since it's the closest to that of Demon Souls. Sekiro explores the vertical level design that's missing and adds a lot of flavor to the encounters. I wouldn't say this under certain circumstances, but a PS4 is definitely worth it just as a bloodborne machine. Like I've seen them going for 100-200 USD on ebay; the time to buy is right know tbh. Or try your hand at playstation plus which let's you stream it via PC as well, not the ideal way; but hey the game is barely 30fps and lives on purgatory in the ps4...

[@imawizardbaby]

Nah bro the stamina based combat is the whole reason I'm even playing these games.

[@cinimini4854]

Great video. I must say especially when it comes to the duality of exploring and getting overpowered or intenionally skipping most of the game to keep it balanced, you've explained it really well. That was basically my problem, even without summoning Elden Ring got too easy for me. Well except for the late game, since there they ramped up the difficulty to the max, where even if you explored everything you still feel underleveled, breaking the balance now in a completely different way. But I can't wait for the moment I master the waterfall dance of Melania, because except for that move, she might be one of the best bosses in the entire series, definetely in the top 10 at least.

[@traviscue2099]

I much prefered the semi-open worlds of Bloodborne/Sekiro/Dark Souls.. I want to go off the beaten path a little.. But not so much that when I come back to the main path where everything becomes trivial for hours until you can't level up anymore. I loved exploring Elden Ring the first time, but will I ever play it again like I replay the other souls games? I highly doubt it.

[@neerodz2650]

the quest design are absolute shit idc if this is how they always done it in other games it still shit getting overpowered if you visit an area a bit late is a problem that could have been easily fixed, just add and/or transform some normal enemies into stronger enemies in early zones in the mid to late game some repeated bosses that are boring anyway and it is cheap but not that big of a deal the map is too big for its own good 90% of dual boss fight are shit some bosses have cheesy artificial difficulty such as too many outrageous delayed attacks the combat lacks in a way that the player can only attack when the game say so and most of the time can attack only once making every moveset that are already simple not even usable anyway other than that the game is still one of the greatest games ever made and no game is perfect

[@WAR3600]

I would like to show an example of something in the open world design of Elden Ring that unfortunately let me down: the many ruins throughout the game. It infuriates me because the worlds made by Fromsoft is so handcrafted and unique that everything feels like matters, every building and structure feels that it's there for a reason. The Lands Between has many locations that fits that sentiment, however seeing dozens of procedure generator ruins all looking the same and acting the same way (hidden entrance with a boss or chest) instead of unique villages or locations hurts so much that unique feeling those games has for me. Some of them even has intriguing names that makes you wonder for a second, like Moonfolk Ruins, and then you realize is the same boring ruin design I've been seen for hours and hours. They are clearly there just for the sake of more content added to fill the space for the large world. That exemplifies that unfortunately in this game in particular Fromsoftware kinda distanced itself from Fumeto Ueda philosophy of minus is more and instead felt that the world needed to be very large and full of content, even if most of the content is repetitive, meaningless and a detriment to the experience. I still love the game though, but worries me about the direction Fromsoft is heading, I hope they will still makes more linear and tighter designed games in the future

[@Erumore]

Well said, I couldn't agree more. The first few hours of the game are great and every encounter feels unique, but sooner or later you'll see your first piece of repeated content and the illusion will be broken forever. That's an interesting comparison to Ueda; it's definitely true that FromSoft left that minimalist philosophy behind when they started making Elden Ring. I'm also hoping that they return to a more focused design for their next game. Thanks for the comment!

[@lucascarracedo7421]

I strongly feel that this is obviously is a production limitation and not lack of attention to detail, since they are the first to not gain a benefit from how a lot of assets were reused. Given the game's popularity and success (either critical and/or financal) I am sure this will not be the case again in potential future open world titles. I'm not defending them by any means, and it's clear that while I love the game there's a lot of things that could have been better. However, they haven't done anything even close to this scale before, and sometimes it feels like it's all being overanalyzed. When the game launched, all reviews and comments were extremely positive. Nobody even dared say it wasn't a 10/10. Now the opposite has become the norm. Since claims of it being a masterpiece became too mainstream, it's all about finding ways to criticise the game without being to extreme, but still worrying about the future of From. When in reality I feel things are somewhere in between both versions. Let's not forget that while some seem to propose that this may be a departure from the previous From style and the beginning of a decline, it's not like all their games were considered perfect or extremely well received to begin with, with only DS1 and Bloodborne being the best received overall.

[@sashanutella7091]

Great review , i enjoyed listening to your opinions, which happened to mainly cross path with mine. As a side note charriot in optional dungeon are not one-shot, juste huge damage but you can survive it with a bit of vigor investment

[@kreyes1126]

Love the way u say cata-coomer. I was laughing from start to finish. Thank you for brightening my day at work.

[@Erumore]

Glad my video could bring you some joy!

[@lloydfrazier3682]

Also. Once you start reading lore and all that... you realize those copy and pastes, actually arent COMPLETELY copy and pastes... they usual have different backstories AND different moves

[@gazagne251190]

Thx Finally someone get really critical about it !! A LOT have been lost in elden ring compared to previous soul. And not for the best a lot of time

[@vangoghsseveredear]

I never knew they reused Godrick. Mostly because after a while, I was beyond bored of the same caves and same bosses for poor rewards, like everyone else. Seeing what is probably my favourite boss in the game, reused, really kills the feeling of how special it was. Man, I'm bummed about that a lot. It's like Astel. I understand expecting hundreds of unique bosses is delusional, but how do you not realize that reusing unique bosses kills what makes them feel special? Gah dayumn man.

[@SmoughTown]

Enjoyed this mate. Thank you, while I personally love the game and choose to overlook the flaws, flaws they remain and you presented a coherent argument. Good job

[@dionotdio]

No lie I thought you were gonna be another "gaming is dead" or "souls sucks now" type reviewer, just a weirdo contrarian really. But you're so fair 😭 I enjoyed listening to this whole thing while drawing, great stuff.

[@thisismycommentingchannel5896]

I do agree with a lot of points you made but one thing I thought was funny was that I never knew the ghosts told you stuff and also that the statues pointed at the catacombs (I’ve platinumed the game on ps5 and 100% it on steam btw )

[@TheFloodFourm]

Strong “I followed a guide” energy lol

[@neighbourhoodmusician]

After playing it for a long time now. I would say that it's not necessarily a great game. The scale of the world is an enormous achievement but the pacing and atmosphere that made DS and its other derivatives so amazing is totally gone.

[@Big_Dai]

I have always wanted content creators (that critique games) to make accompanying video on how to further the craft. SOMEONE out there has to have the imagination and innovation to think about what should come next.. maybe then, games will be better, instead of stagnating for decades.

[@Erumore]

We can spend all day talking about it on KZbin, but the best way to advance the medium is by actually making a game that pushes things forwards with new concepts. I definitely have a few ideas of what I'd like to put in a game of my own (and I imagine the same is true of most other game critics), so maybe some day I'll get around to it. Thanks for the comment!

[@malcolmisgee]

I have a counter to your initial point, let me preface with I agree with a lot of the things people do not like about the open world of Elden ring … the big thing that holds it all together in terms of the huge map and the accessibility of it being so open is the mystery factor during my first playthru I never felt safe and free at any given moment I knew I could be attacked by any number of things from wildlife to dragons to skeletons or horsemen or over world bosses or trolls or an archer on a ridge or a group of pyromancer maybe a group of necromancers maybe a gang of beast men maybe beast kin LMAO I can go on man that first play through where the element of surprise is still in play and I don’t know the entire scope of what I’m coming up against holds back alot of the negative aspects in my opinion

[@Erumore]

The sense of wonder and the hope that there would be something unique around the corner definitely carried me through my first playthrough, although for me it was the world design rather than the enemies that intrigued me enough to keep me going. Thanks for adding to the discussion with your comment!

[@AaIsForAaliyas]

Have you ever played a souls game dude? Glad u enjoyed Elden Ring, but did you play Demons Souls, Ds1, 2,3, bloodborne? If not take a visit to library lane and play the there other titles

[@malcolmisgee]

@@AaIsForAaliyas lmfao I’ve played and beaten every one except bloodbourne bcoz I own Xbox. Assumptions hold little weight with no context dude lol.

[@AaIsForAaliyas]

@@malcolmisgee it's why I asked a question instead of straight up assuming. You noticed the question marks indicating that I'm asking a question?????????

[@AaIsForAaliyas]

@@malcolmisgee matter of fact, you'll need to play Demons Souls too. Sinc you're an Xbox owner.... May wanna just switch over to the trueeeee gamers... Grab you a ps5 mayne

[@iamdoom9810]

I have a potential idea for how to implement world level in Elden Ring. Whenever a player defeats a shardbearer and grants their great rune its benediction at a divine tower, the player can then have the option at the activated divine tower to increase the difficulty of all the areas at and below the level of the legacy dungeon or location the shardbearer is found at. This will increase health, damage, and rune drops of enemies to be comparable to that of the area(s) after it. Additionally, the effects add up, with the sum leading to even the earliest of areas being fully caught up to the newest status quo. This demonstration of mastery over an area of the game makes it so players can't accidentally increase the difficulty beyond what they can manage (assuming they're leveling alongside their progression in the game) and also places them at intuitive, key moments in the game's progression. Additionally, this mechanic is entirely optional and modular for those who want to play at the developer tuned scaling (or for more causal players who just want to simply adventure and experience everything in the Lands Between) and advances the freeing nature of Elden Ring that you've observed to a whole new level of possibilities in terms of one's viable path through the game. Perhaps with the optional great runes (namely Mogh's and Malenia's great runes), players can increase the difficulty beyond the standard level to challenge players at the end of the game without needing to ascend to NG+, thus being able to use their already existing world to finish all of the content at a satisfactory difficulty. Maybe Rykard's rune would only increase the difficulty up to the Subterranian Shunning Grounds as to not adverantly spoil the intended difficulty of the content after it. Sure, this might not fix the tedium of the game long term, (and perhaps even further exasperate it for those through explorer types), but all and all it would allow much more content to be satisfying and meaningful to clear for many who would otherwise miss out by no fault of their own but intuitively overleveling.

[@Erumore]

I could see something like the demon bell in Sekiro working here, but I think it would be necessary to give the player an incentive to turn up the difficulty. Maybe the great runes could act as modifiers that change the difficulty of encounters, while also providing rewards like extra runes or higher drop rates if you win with them enabled?

[@iamdoom9810]

@@Erumore Well, just looked up the demon bell since I didn't play Sekiro (and admittedly didn't do enough research before making this comment), and yeah, that was basically what I was going for. Seems as I just reinvented the wheel, didn't I. That aside, honestly I wouldn't want to tamper with the great rune system in that way though since they're meant to make the game easier by giving an optional extra benefit to the player if they need the boost. I'd rather probably still go with what I previously stated by having higher difficulty toggling be a seperate option when at a divine tower. Rather, perhaps a great runes' effects when using a rune arc are even stronger than normal as compensation for setting the higher difficulty where that great rune is granted its benediction. For instance, stat increasing great runes could give more of their respective stats (like if a great rune gives 10 level in a few stats then the bonus is increased to 15) or the lifesteal effect provided by Malenia's great rune lasts longer and heals more per hit. As for new content, I'd just stuck to whatever in new game plus adds just like Sekiro as to not have players who don't want to engage with this mechanic feel as they're missing out more than they already do, if not make it even more accessible than it is now. All and all, more runes, higher drop chances, more powerful great rune effects, allowing the player to do new game plus conent, not having the pressure of outleveling content, and doing content at a satisfactory difficulty all in one world without the need of new game plus seem to be enough of an incentive considering that all this sufficiently remedies the complaint these sorts of Elden Ring critique videos have to say regarding the unfortunate ease of overleveling content, and thus missing out on doing content at a satisfactory difficulty. With all that said, thank you for your comment. I appreciate what you had to say.

[@s_0ma_047]

28:50 you mean like...clearer than LITERALLY marking the spot where the star fell on your map? Lol

[@Budd631]

The padding in Elden Ring was truly terrible. The game should’ve been cut in half and it wouldn’t been perfect. I went back through the game once and was just running past 90% of the content. I haven’t played in 2 months and don’t see myself going back. Meanwhile, I’ve beaten (platinum) every other Soulsborne and love going back bc the games aren’t 80+ hours on their 1st play through.

[@Erumore]

The size of the world is impressive on your first playthrough but it wears thin on your second, especially with all the repeated content. I think I'm done with Elden Ring, at least until the inevitable DLC comes out.

[@Budd631]

@@Erumore my thoughts exactly!

[@John-996]

Yes I lost interest After 65 hours

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

You're the opposite of everyone else. Congrats on being so edgy!

[@Synpathetix]

I thought this was the best Fromsoft game ever when I first played. After finishing the game and attempting an NG+ I've realised how fucking tedious and boring this game is. After the first initial wow factor of the world, you quickly start finding the areas boring and all the same. I literally just cannot be bothered with its open world. I've never felt so burnt out with a Souls/Borne game like Elden Ring. Not to mention the bosses are garbage, and anything after the Capital is literally terrible game design all slapped together. The more I think, play and watch Elden Ring content the more I realise that I actually really dislike this game. The high scores it received are utter bullshit. This game is 6.5-7/10 at BEST

[@zachtaylor5312]

This games bosses are bs sometimes. More so than any other game.

[@arpakyna]

I dont agree with what was said about stealth. I found it very useful approaching and widdlikg down big enemy settlements on the open world

[@CNORYN]

While I see where your coming from completely on so many of your criticisms, I have to say I can appreciate how much freedom and power you have. Yeah you can cheese your way through lots of parts but you can make the choice not to as well. You are able to play this game however you like, you have so many options. I love this game so much

[@connorcourtney3124]

I have to say I was on board with the points about NPC’s and not knowing where they might be next, but the point about not knowing about the hole in limgrave after the Radhan fight seems OTT to me, I mean they literally show you a cinematic of something clearly crashing into the landmass of the lands between, but then it is also clearly marked on the map…

It's funny because he complains about the game holding his hand too much, showing where the maps are, giving him clues to where to go next, and then he misses that, lol.

[@shrouls]

Great critique that is terribly underrated. Only wished you would have talked about other features or parts more like the story, online component, ashes of war, ost or go in more detail with the main bosses. Also I pray that this is the last "dark souls" game fromsoft ever does. Either change the combat in a meaningful and significant way, like in bloodborne or scarp it and make a brand new one entirely, like in sekiro. Not that it's bad, it isn't. Elden ring has easily the best combat in the series excluding blooborne and sekiro but like you said, it got a bit old. And maybe change the setting of the game too. Based on my feelings I had with it it's a 10/10. I offered an experience I won't soon forget. If I look more critically I can find myself lowering the score to an 8/10 or so. Critical videos of this game can range from incredible in-depth explanations like Joseph Anderson or The Gemsbok to pretentious senile ramblings that don't make a lick of sense. Most of them fall on the latter but there are still a few gems and this video is one of them.

[@Erumore]

Thank you Shrek. I truly appreciate the kind words. I enjoy the story in FromSoft games but unfortunately I'm not observant enough to pick up on the finer details myself, though you could argue you're not really supposed to figure it out on your own in a single playthrough. I love the fact that a whole industry has popped up around decoding and explaining the lore of FromSoft games (and even just the technical trivia of how the games are put together). I enjoyed the online interactions I had during my time with Elden Ring. This was the first FromSoft game to my memory where the item that's supposed to summon you for help whenever another player gets invaded actually worked, which easily gives it an edge over past games. I also played a bit with a friend who summoned me in for certain areas and bosses and it was great, but I do think the experience loses a little something when you can play with friends instead of having to rely on random people. Ashes of War is another one of those features like Physick Tears and Summons that technically increases the player's freedom and gives them a lot of options, but it just didn't really feel worth engaging in or experimenting with, at least on a first playthrough. I will say that they can lead to some crazy combinations for the purposes of speedrunning or PvP though, so they're not completely pointless, but I never bothered myself. The OST was mostly pretty good. I tried to play some of my favourite tracks in the background of the video. The track that stayed most in my head was the combat theme that plays when you're underground; it's unsettling in just the right way and I never quite got used to it. The early main bosses are mostly based around gimmicks or twists. Rennala has the clones, Radahn has the summons, Rykard has the greatspear. Only Godrick is a straight up fight from the main bosses before the Erdtree. Unfortunately it was sort of ruined for me by the game's terrible balancing issues. I agree that this really needs to be the last Souls game. FromSoft has shown us how original they can be with Sekiro, and I really want to see what else they can do. Apart from a few areas I wasn't that excited by the setting either, which was a disappointment. I'm incredibly flattered to be mentioned in the same post as Joseph Anderson. He's definitely one of the channels that inspired me to start doing this. Anyway, thanks again for the comment and I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@shrouls]

@@Erumore yea. Obviously I would be more than excited for a dlc for this game but I want something new and like you said, they showed that they can be very original with what they do. I think the point of a critic isn't to just rant for an hour about a game but to make understandable points about what they liked about a game and what they didn't and explain why exactly. I disagree with joseph anderson when it comes to bosses but I can see where he's coming from and understand his point of view. Same for this video. Also to be fair the balancing issue kinda disappears in ng+ and beyond when you know where everything is. This doesn't solve the issue but I thought it was worth mentioning. Like I beaten morgott on my 3rd or so try and found him a bit underwhelming but in ng+ I I found him pretty challenging and way more enjoyable. Also I actually started using ashes of war then and found them really useful and great. One more thing, out of curiosity how would you rank all the souls games(sekiro included)?

[@Erumore]

Demon's Souls was my first one back in the day, which I think definitely counts for something and affects how I remember it. I'm sure if I went back and replayed them all back to back this list would change, but off the top of my head: Sekiro > Elden Ring > Demon's = 1 = 3 > 2 Sadly I haven't played Bloodborne because it STILL isn't on PC. If what I've heard about it is true, then it would probably end up somewhere on the left of my scale.

[@shrouls]

@@Erumore as a person how played bb first I can assure it it's a a good as people say (at least from my experience) Mine would be something like this Bb>Ds3>seriko>elden ring>ds1>demon's>ds2

[@Anne_Grapple]

Quite sad Elden Ring's open world experiment was not a pure success. If FS made it a bit smaller and tried to actually work with combat, we could have something not so repetitive.

[@ricardassteckas6620]

Extremely good review. I have never completed the game (I was borrowing ps5 for this game lol) yet these are exact points to talk 👍

[@h.g.bbasketball4383]

Every time I travel somewhere im not suppose to be and have everything even the sky trying to kill me, I just repeat "Why are you like this?".

[@kerbe3]

I will say that as far as the walking mausoleums are concerned, there aren’t enough to clone all of the remembrances and some of the early game mausoleums can’t clone late game remembrances.

[@AllThought-about]

This is a criminally under watched, well thought out critique of one of my favourite games ever. I subscribed. Well done Erumore. An excellent video.

[@Onchyst]

Very underrated critique and channel. You have a great voice and I really like the negative tone of your arguments in the face of a game designed to waste your time

[@Erumore]

Thank you! It means a lot to get comments like this - I hope you can find a few other videos on my channel to interest you.

[@Onchyst]

@@Erumore I have. I watched most of your stuff already. Especially liked the RDR2 video. You have a knack for this type of content I'm looking forward to your next stuff!

[@senecauk8363]

Great vid. One big criticism of ER that I don't see as many people make is the slight lack of polish with some enemies- something Dark Souls 3 massively avoided. Think of the ranged spell spam from the Lucaria mages, or the spam of boomerangs from the ranged beastmen. They just feel...constant, in a way that's silly. Another pass of playtesting to slightly reduce the speed would be good. There are plenty of other examples, most of them ranged, but your mentioning of the Crystal Spearman is a good melee one. He just spams the same KA-JONK KA-JONK KA-JONK at you. It is infuriating, and you'd never get this in BB or DS3...

[@sasaki999pro]

I will say this, Elden Ring has too much freedom to make the challenges satisfying, and simultaneously not ENOUGH freedom to encourage finding creative solutions to the problems it presents. You mentioned that you can get both boss "soul" rewards as a bad thing, but I actually think the idea of doing an extra challenge like the walking mausoleum to get one is better in concept. The problem is there is only 8 in the game, and there are 15 rememberences in the game. Why? If you're going to give the player an optional side quest to have blth why restrict it so arbitrarily. The same with certain crafting materials NOT respawning in the world, like Aeonia Butterflies, Trina Lillies and Arteria Leaves, why make them so artificially scarce if you want to incentivize engaging with the crafting system? Same with respecing, sure you have the freedom to respec more chances than any previous FromSoft game, but its STILL unneccesarily finite, why not offer respec items as multiplayer rewards like DS3? God knows the multiplayer DESPERATELY needs better incentives than it currently has. On the subject of respecing, _Rennala_ I ask you. Why is there not a statue of marika outside of EVERY boss arena, if the "lore" is getting in the way of quality of life improvements to the formula, thats your intuitive signal as a GAME developer that you need to change the lore to suit the gameplay, not the other way around. Lastly magic, its strong in this game, no doubt, but why dear GOD does it use a finite resource meter? Think about it this way, imagine if melee users had to allocate "Emerald Tear" flasks to recover their stamina. Theres no reason for it! You can already stock up on THOUSANDS of arrows to cheese literally anything from range in the game AND YOU CAN CRAFT *MORE* ON THE FLY. If you want to balance it then double- TRIPLE the FP cost of every spell in the game to make room for a regenerating FP bar. Its stupid that an entire class of combat can just be invalidated by running out of fuel for its primary source of damage, you are only encouraging those players to sprint through all the enemy encounters in the game to save their magic for the boss fights. Even for healing spells you can change those to balance around regenerating FP. (Not that it matters because theres already stupid ways of infinitely recovering HP in the game without magic) Also Smithing stones and other upgrade materials, FromSoft's upgrade system has been a problem since demons souls But let me put it like this If I found enough smithing stone [1's] to get my weapon to +3... why not just unlock the ability to buy those smithing stones right then and there? Instead of locking that option behind a key item in a highly specific copy-pasted mini dungeon filled with recycled enemies and a recycled boss. Instead of "bell bearings" just have the shop automatically update when you reach the end of the threshold for that upgrade item. Or hell! Atleast Give us the option to refund our smithing stones into a different weapon. Why not?? We already have level respecing why not let the player experiment with the weapons freely too??? This is what I'm getting at, its Simultaneously too free to be challenging, but too restricted to just enjoy it the game on a casual level.

[@mwjgcreeves4984]

The smithing upgrade system is literally *Wiki bait* and that's just baffling to me. Same with the sidequest "system" if you can call it that. No, "down the way" doesn't mean shit when the quest giver doesn't point anywhere and the whole area is so thick with fog you can't make heads or tails of the location (for Rya's quest of couse, which has MULTIPLE instances of this problem, consecutively lmao).

[@user-pn4px5lr8w]

I never found myself with a shortage of fp and I only had 30 mind on my sorcerer by the end of a playthrough, with like 4 blue flasks at most. What are you doing with your spells? What are your choices?

[@sasaki999pro]

@@user-pn4px5lr8w My problem wasn't a shortage of FP, it was a shortage of HP for allocating half my healing flasks which means that casters are afforded less mistakes in general, and I think thats an absurd trade off when Melee users get unlimited attacking/defending stamina, the ability to swap weapons on the fly (yet casters can't swap spells) and nigh unlimited crafting materials for projectiles that scale properly with their stats, like arrows, pots, and darts ontop of being able to carry throwing daggers, kukri's, and fans while the consumables that Int/Faith builds get STILL REQUIRE FP to use. All the while you're still outputting the same general DPS(if not less) as a melee build at base level before absurd buff stacking, which every build has access to, so I hardly call it a unique perk. And yes I know there is potential to overlap the benefits of a melee build into a caster build and make a hybrid, that doesn't change the fact that pure Str/Dex users get more advantages then pure Int/Faith/Arc especially when end game spells have VASTLY higher stat requirements than endgame melee weapons. For reference the Giant crusher is the highest demanding strength weapon in the game, and only requires 40 STR to use. Renalla's full moon is the highest demanding sorcery in the game at *70 Intelligence* Thats more levels spell casters have to waste on one stat that could be better spent on things like more HP and better armor. This is why ALL end-game casterbuilds *_bottleneck into Glass-Cannon archetypes._* And yeah I know there talismans/flask tiers/ and great runes and armor pieces that can technically lower those requirements but STRENGTH AND DEX ALSO HAVE THOSE. Pure Melee users also get to apply and change their own elemental infusions and greases freely while caster based-melee weapons are stuck with their weapons default split damage type. So let me make myself clear, I am OK with resource management, I love it infact! I am NOT okay with the double standards between playstyles when one scale is clearly tipped more in favor of one then the other. That is not how "balance" works.

[@sasaki999pro]

But constructive criticism is nothing without suggesting a better alternative for future entries. My proposal: Have FP regenerate passively when and ONLY when your stamina bar is full. It is called "focus" after all, and if you're dodging, blocking, or swinging your weapon, then you are not focusing. This would also encourage casters to have less stamina/equip load for faster FP charge time while not outright denying them more defensive options. Remove cerulean flasks entirely and REPLACE the Infinite FP physic tear with one that boosts the rate in which your FP recovers passively for a short time similar to the Greenspill Tear, give FP restoring talismans similar effect but weaker. Increase the charge time and FP cost for stronger healing incantations, to disincentize using them in active combat. Give spells dodge-canceleable start up frames, before the projectile spawns at the significant cost of FP (ideally costing a flat 33% of max total FP bar, 50% if you think it sounds to OP) Grant a two handing stat bonus to all spell catalysts (and dex weapons for that matter). And lastly give players the ability swap whatever spells out of their memory slots from their inventory on the fly. With this I believe we could greatly increase the diversity and skill ceiling of caster builds while remaining balanced.

[@choleraphd7702]

On one of my playthroughs, right after I came out of the spawn area I made a beeline to Volcano Manor, defeated Rykard and redeemed the Blasphemous Blade. I then returned back to Limgrave to continue the game proper and I went almost 2 entire real-life day play sessions, amounting to about 24 hours, before dying once.

[@lemon__snicker5973]

Generally well said, well put! I think they did as well as they could have with what they had, and I agree that the design philosophy is a bit at odds with its source material, but overall, it seemed as good a compromise as was possible. Limiting fast travel to sites of grace alone may have been an inroads into area balancing. Looking forward to the downloadable content either way!

[@borg111]

Freedom is why I played and finished Elden Ring and the lack there of is why I skipped DS2 and DS3. The open world and the options of choice is more realistic than only having one way to get things done. It also allows more conversation around how players found solutions to beating bosses and traversing zones.

[@Celatra]

You're talking about realism in a game that has nothing realistic about it...

[@borg111]

@Celatra I posted my opinion two years ago, but I still feel that the open world of Elden ring is far superior to DS2 and DS3.

[@vehnashur2771]

Honestly, I maxed my levels out like I would in any rpg game. I like trying all kinds of combos, weapons, builds, and play styles. I dont have to drop a larval tear or whatever to change builds. I have had a lot of fun playing and still do. It was an interesting video to listen to while I rune farmed to level gear.

[@Sigdowner]

Fast travel could be unlocked when finding the area map or with some other collectible, that way it's not so frustrating but you do need to look around. I'd love some more collectible classes instead of the 2000th crafting manual, like bestiary entries that give you enemies' weaknesses without going to the wiki or even reveal special interactions like the sleeping pots on Godskins or freezing pots for Malenia. Hell, even getting them could give you a damage bonus against the enemy or boss, that way it'd look like you are discovering the world and getting info about your enemy before going to fight them.

[@SpecialEdDHD]

The biggest issue is if you're going to make an open world you need an epic story. This had none. George R.R. Martin they said lol.

[@ETBrooD]

Accidentally believing I'm stuck in certain areas (even though I could've teleported) created some of the best experiences I've ever had with a video game. There are some moments like that in Elden Ring, but they're the excecption. Usually you're free to avoid enemies and run away from your problems. It's hard for developers to find the right balance between being stuck and being free, especially in an open world game.