Elden Ring - An Overly Long Critique

[@LukeStephensTV]

Thank you Salad for sponsoring this critique! Check them out today to make the most out of your computer while you're AFK: www.Salad.com/ CODE: ELDEN

[@BDSMaestro]

Luke, a video 3 hours long with a thumbnail saying "it grew too big" is so poetic ima give you 3 hours of my time.

[@tanelviil9149]

i am 16 minutes in and this guy has still not started with the topic... instead he keeps rumbling and babbling about trivial nonsense... my god is this guy loving his own voice.

[@opethmike]

@@tanelviil9149 Agreed; there is absolutely reason for this to go on for so goddamned long

[@SobeCrunkMonster]

dude how come this late after release you drop the ball on not knowing Radahn is the story boss of Caelid lol. Just because its not the minimalist default story doesnt mean its not the main story!

[@SobeCrunkMonster]

and the mountains and snowy field should have been color coded red for endgame on your difficulty visualizer map. theres no way those are the same difficulty as caelid, altus, and royal capital

[@jacoblesperance2115]

My first playthrough was 259hrs. I went into the game completely blind and looked nothing up. One of the greatest gaming experiences I have ever had.

[@Lightsaglowllc]

Same

[@MrFr2eman]

I also went in knowing nothing, played for 254 hours but, unfortunately for me, aside from the first 30 hours and occasional moments it was one of the most dissapointing games for me, even thought of dropping it multiple times through, which never happened with From games before.

[@Asyr]

@@MrFr2eman how can you play a game for literally more than ten days of your life when you dont like it? =O

[@MrFr2eman]

@@Asyr I don't like dropping the games and everyone I know was playing it, so I wanted to be a part of the discussion. Also, sometimes games grow on you, for example I started liking Sekiro only towards the end, which made me do 2 more runs right away and still wanting more, wasn't the case with ER though.

[@mattmurphy5190]

@@MrFr2eman I don’t think you play something for 254 hours if you don’t like it

[@tairyu2574]

Others have said it already, but I’ll say it again. This game is on sale even at $60.

[@jaydeeq273]

🤓

[@mgms2000]

@@jaydeeq273 how many times did u die ? 💀

[@TommasoFirmini]

I platinumed it on ps4, and then got the free upgrade for ps5 and the chance to get plat again. Game was worth every cent

[@saiinttedd]

ok joseph anderson

[@enemystand2981]

Don’t give them ideas. Indie studio Fromsoft really don’t need you telling them you’ll pay even more for every title

[@acethefiredragon8525]

I don’t mind being OP for a boss when I backtrack a bit to an area I’ve already passed. I mean, after getting smacked by bosses, overcoming challenges and getting better, it’s only fair that I get to feel that level of overpoweredness. It feels earned.

[@cookdislander4372]

Yeah I like this too

[@michaelclinkenbeard8040]

Big facts

[@XxTaiMTxX]

The best feeling, bar none. It was the greatest feeling I experienced as a mage when I finally got the kamehameha and could then melt bosses…. Well, any of them that weren’t built to rush me. 250 hours in. Feels sooooo good to earn that kind of power.

[@Based1889]

​@XxTaiMTxX while that is fun, I honestly would recommend you to play the game on ng+ doing a full meele cuz I feel like the game is much more fun and difficult that way, I'm not forcing you tho it's just a recommendation

[@XxTaiMTxX]

@@Based1889 I am already mostly melee, since magic requires you expend a finite resource. But, I’m a int/dex build with that katana you get early that scales with int. I had to hybrid because some bosses are easy for mages, others are easy for melee. So, I swap to the thing that works and melt. Dodge roll with s is king.

[@eanderson9599]

Caelid has Radahn, a pretty major boss fight. While it’s not required to kill him to beat the game, you do need to fight him for the good ending

[@luukbruijnen8709]

I’ll have what you are smoking. The only good ending is the age of order.

[@SobeCrunkMonster]

@Luuk Bruijnen the age of order ending is literally the age of ultra autism, if thats a good ending for you then… to each his own for sure lol

[@mothsnail816]

The only good ending is the one where you save Melania

[@TheRunnyBabit]

@@mothsnail816 but you’re taking what she wants away and deciding her fate for her. How is that good?

[@wetlikewash8055]

@@TheRunnyBabit one of you got the name wrong somewhere.

[@kennykenevil57]

Caelid does have a major boss, Radahn. You don't need to defeat him necessarily to beat the game, but it is a major boss fight for Ranni's questline.

[@Bpeck447]

You technically don't need to fight Godrick, Renalla, or the bosses leading to them either. You just need two great runes before you can enter the capital.

[@jeefneef9307]

The hidden Godskin Apostle fight as well

[@dynamicflashy]

How could someone forget one of the best bosses in the game?

[@christianhowell3140]

Keyword is "necessary". Heck technically none of the great rune bearers are necessary; Godrick and Renalla are just the ones that line up with the direction all the OTHER bosses lead you down, whereas Radahn is on the opposite side of the entire world LOL

[@jeefneef9307]

@@christianhowell3140 your fault if you miss them considering a main quest brings you there plus the game is already extremely long without fighting them and you can always go back in another playthrough

[@umbeon]

I never played any of From's games. I must admit this was one of the best games I've ever played. I feel this is definitely a masterpiece in open world technology. The 60fps is not an issue with me or most people. The graphics are awesome, it's like playing on a canvas painted by a medieval artist. So far, my choice for game of the year.

[@jeremiahealy3657]

As someone who's played them since the first day of dark souls (not demon souls) they have evolved yet kept their style and absolutely just counter every bad thing in this modern industry glad you get to experience this amazing game

[@teodorcaraba979]

Wtf has open world to do with anything lol, its just the gameplay that is always good in fs games

[@JobberJerry]

I have tried playing from softwares games and usually suck at them and I want to get this game badly I just think I won't be that good at it. I've watched tons of videos about it tho that make me want to try it just because of how different everyone says it is and how great it is

[@karls4937]

Its not that impressive to be honest..... Bloodborne and Demon Souls Remake are much more original and very unique.

[@nicholasramirez8417]

I absolutely have to agree here. As you can tell by my profile pic, I've mostly been playing Elder Scrolls, Fallout and the like for the past decade and a half. This game forced me out of my comfort zone and I'm loving every minute of it. Only problem is I have a wife, son and career so I don't get much time for it but when I do play it I get lost in the world.

[@kingrueben1211]

Just got the game about a month or so ago. Cannot explain how bummed out i am, bummed that i waited so longnto play this absolute MASTERPIECE of a game. Just made it to Atlus plateau and have searched every nook and cranny this far up to here. Im in love

[@TheElly750]

Caelid has lots of stuff. One half of the medaillon for the elevator that leads to altus is there. I have a feeling the devs expect players that go to the eastside road in liurnia to then go back to Caelid because following that path leads you to said elevator. The people that followed the western route down to the lakes and the academy would end up going trough the passage that leads close to Mt. Gelmir (Gilmir?). At least thats what happened for me. I cleared Caelid before Altus Plateau. We're also ignoring the fact Caelid is easily accessible from very early in the game. One teleporter near the third church of marika (where you get your physik flask) and a teleporter trap in of the dungeons close to the first step. Its also generally easy to approach since its not gated by any boss. Realistically there's probably some people that went in caelid before Liurna.

[@sartavin]

I was one of those people, I was there within 3 hours of starting the game. The atmosphere alone is pretty incredible coming from the washed-out beginning area.

[@MaartenKok]

I ended up in Caelid pretty early too, but from the difficulty of the enemies there, I concluded I must have gone the wrong way, so I went to Liurnia, and then ended up on Altus through the passage. I find it hard to believe that many people actually get there using the elevator first.

[@tazmanceltic]

@@MaartenKok I used the elevator first lol dam I fucked around a lot in the early game spent hours running around aimlessly leveling up and discovered the two halfs of the medallion organically which felt great not gonna lie.

[@christianhowell3140]

Yeah caelid is easy to ACCESS, but let's be real: in terms of difficulty, trying to tackle Caelid before Liurnia is PROLLY not what the devs meant you to do 😅 Also in terms of the "path" that all the actually required bosses create, Liurnia is clearly the intended follow up to beating Godrick

[@Speeplonk]

I did go there before Liurnia. Got 100k runes, contracted scarlet rot, and got PTSD! Would recommend!

[@eanderson9599]

I don’t think the game was overhyped at all. It was my first FS game, played it 3 times, and loved every playthrough

[@orlando5789]

You said it yourself. It was your first Souls, and therefore had no expectations beforehand. Had you played the other games, I'm sure you would have at least noticed a lot of the issues that make this game a flawed masterpiece.

[@eanderson9599]

@@orlando5789 I’ve played Bloodborne and Sekiro since then and I still think ER is the best of the franchise. There’s trade-offs, sure, but ER has way more good in it imo

[@MrLegend2542]

170 hours played and I went through every emotion I had. It was worth neglecting my job for 2 weeks straight while I beat my first play through

[@ToadyEN]

I agree, not overhyped at all. Maybe felt overhyped to some because of the lack of anything astonishing being released around the same time.

[@kableguy8975]

I enjoyed the hell out of this game went through twice. Taking a break for third. A friend bought it for me and I was not expecting to have such a great time with it.

[@Puppetmaster2005]

45:45 Dynamic difficulty and level scaling, at least to me, is one of the great cardinal sins of gaming. Stop putting it in my games. I don't care if im underleveled or overleveled for certain areas of the game. I ENJOY coming back and taking revenge by being overpowered. It was one of the reasons why the latest Assassins Creed games could not gel with me.... I just couldnt stand my difficulty being "standardized". LET ME MAKE MY OWN DIFFICULTY. Elden ring respects the player in that sense.

[@chase6579]

What's the point of leveling if everything scales?

[@Puppetmaster2005]

@@chase6579 Exactly XD

[@npcsenpai1185]

F'kin hate level scaling in RPGs. The only reason why I can't get into Guild Wars 2 even though it seems to be a great MMORPG. I keep levelling up but keeps on dealing almost the same percentage of damage in the starting zone.

[@sofiee8531]

Yes! And for me, it also makes the game a bit more replayable: if I don´t find everything in an area (and I don´t look up guides, so I really hope I don´t find everything!) there will be something new for me there the next playthrough. Even if I realise that I can go back because I´ve missed something, I would probably ignore it if it´s gone too much time, just to not be disappointed in the lack of challenge...

[@samy29987]

But you see, there is level scaling in Elden Ring. To suggest not being in there at all is quite ridiculous. Imagine going to a boss fight like Godfrey and killing him in one or two swipes of a great sword. Tell me how that is satisfying or memorable? You grow stronger, so does the world around you. It's scaling with you.

[@okamichamploo]

I really don't get this expectation that every boss should be balanced to you're level,even if they are in a starter zone and you came back to fight them after progressing through the rest of the game. I mean imagine playing a game based in the Lord of the Rings universe, traveling to mount doom, killing hordes of orcs and nazgul on top of dragons only to come back to the shire and struggle against the large rat underneath Mrs. Skuttlefoot's bakery.

[@MerrandeR]

Isn’t it just a marvelous analogy?)

[@siriusblack469]

@Jimothy I agree with you, a big part of Elden Ring´s progressionsystem is about experiencing a powerfantasy.

[@dannydavideos8106]

lol I know effectively ran for the hills knight at the beginning to just get their souls crushed lol

[@orlando5789]

@Jimothy You do realise most of what you're saying is subjective, right? I found Godrick way more challenging than Radahn, so by your logic, Godrick is stronger than Radahn

[@exquisitedoomlapointe185]

@@orlando5789 objectively you just suck.

[@Epiousios18]

One of my only real regrets with this game is having my first play-through be a completionist run without taking breaks to play anything else. By the time I got to the mountaintops I started to get pretty burnt out. Now I’m taking my time with NG+ and most of the problems I had with the game aren’t nearly as prevalent.

[@deschain1910]

Agreed. I think the best way to play the game is to only go and do things that interest you rather than doing everything. The crypt and hero dungeons in particular can really burn you out if you do them all, I think...

[@Epiousios18]

@@deschain1910 That would be my advice as well.

[@GoldenLeafsMovies]

Yeah, once I finished the game, I *finished* the game. I ain't touching it for a long time.

[@mcman8694]

Although it’s probably my favorite ever game, I have to say this was a massive issue for me. Playing as a completionist burnt me out, and made subsequent playthroughs far less fun because I pretty much did everything. I expected Elden Ring to be From’s most replayable game, but it turns out it was (in my experience) the least replayable.

[@John-996]

@@deschain1910 If thats case I would have skipped most of the content in the game. Apart from Side Quests.

[@Flash_-gy9vp]

When it comes to summoning friends you can make a specific code when you go to network in the settings menu, if your friend puts in the same code you put in then you'll be specifically matched with them when you put a summon sign down.

[@calvinwilson3617]

I didnt pay attention to it at all until after release, and it doesnt matter how hyped it was, it absolutely deserved it

[@sureucan9366]

Notice how he didnt like your comment because u spoke truth and showed him up by simply stating truth.

[@TheStraightestWhitest]

@@sureucan9366 Yeah this is a rabbit hole I've noticed a lot of longtime KZbin critics fall down. MauLer is the most tragic example since he was my favourite and by far the best. They start to think that everything they see as problematic is an *objective* problem, and not a subjective one that they personally happened to take issue with where plenty of others will not. 90% Of what Luke criticised, I didn't see as issues at all. The 10% that was accurate are very minor things that do not by any means keep the game from being a masterpiece. Masterpiece doesn't mean perfect. It doesn't mean flawless. It means masterfully designed, which the game is. You could make a mobile game just out of the open world catacombs of this game alone and make bank off it. Such games exist. And the catacombs are by far the worst part of Elden Ring. If that doesn't speak measures about the quality of this game, I don't know what will. I'm very happy to see that even Luke's own fans are politely voicing their disagreement here. I expected a video with this title to gather all the worst ER haters, mostly Bloodborne and/or Sony Exclusive fans, but to my surprise, that's not the case at all. This game truly built a strong and loyal following. I'm sure it makes From Software happy seeing their hard work into making such a landmark game that dunks all over incredibly predatory immoral games like what Activision, Ubisoft, Blizzard and so many others are shitting out rewarded with such rightful praise. They've kept to the golden standard of the industry: Make money by making good quality products. Elden Ring isn't just hyped because it is great. It's hyped because it is great, as great or greater than even great titles from the past, in an era where everything is mediocre or downright harmful, sinister or dogshit.

[@evials9123]

@@TheStraightestWhitest lol I never realized there could be so much bullshit in a single comment

[@AstralBelt]

Same with me. I literally did not care about Elden Ring at all until a few weeks after it had already come out, and I became deeply interested in it for no other reason than general atmosphere and world of the Lands Between. I have never even played a FromSoft game before, and while I found it to be a difficult game, I enjoyed it and beat it in about 130 hours. The hype has absolutely no effect on me, because I came upon it with no prior expectations of what it would be like or care about FromSoft's previous titles.

[@TheStraightestWhitest]

@@BBQcheese MauLer's DS2 Hbomb response series is GOATED. He was wrong about like 2 things in 11 hours of critique. A staple of what *objective* criticism is. Much of his other work is also good. In fact, one of his more recent videos on Black Widow was a lot like the old MauLer. But his Unbridled Praise for Infinity War and his Unbridled Rampage for ZSJL were both terrible. He literally praised IW for shit he bashed the hell out of ZSJL for, all because his buddy Raggs cried like a man child watching Endgame so he cannot criticise it.

[@SoshulCom]

Level scaling actually irritates me. Having an overpowered character is absolutely fine and maybe even necessary. It gives you a moral boost and can also fool you into thinking your safe. I think a player needs to constantly be challenged but also get rewarded for exploring and finding difficult items.

[@giovannifederici673]

First it was cool to like it, then it became cooler to say it was overhyped.

[@DDobs12]

Yupp

[@isr2879]

What bullshit, try telling any of the fan boys about the game being overhyped and watch how they insult you. People are still ignorant to the faults this game has.

[@DDobs12]

@@isr2879 that's any fandom...you sound a little aggressive and very obtuse. Every game has what you described, but you can feel important for a sec and think it's just this one.

[@co2_os]

@@isr2879 I'm a big fan of the series and I enjoyed it immensely, and still thing it's game of the year. But obviously we all know that it's very flawed, go to the sub reddit people are more real there than Twitter.

[@jockturner1547]

@@isr2879 Nah the faults were widely spoken about when the game released. I haven’t watched this video yet but I will find the time to get around to it, but judging by it’s title, it definitely is aiming to get attention by labelling itself with a controversial title. Elden Ring has all sorts of issues in balancing, difficulty not being fair where some damage is near impossible to avoid, looking at you Malenia and Horah Loux, reuse of content and bosses, some bosses misuse multiple enemies and ganks, and some poorly balanced weapons and art of wars leading to a limited number of weapons only really being viable. However, Elden ring does soo much right that it is a masterpiece and the pros far out weight the cons. I genuinely believe it is an object statement that Elden Ring is a triumph in game development and design and definitely didn’t not “Grow too big” A game can be a masterpiece and still have flaws. Hell every game has flaws, including the ones considered to be perfection

[@zedetach]

I've been gaming for 27 years and this is the first single player game that took me 200 hours to complete. Now I'm the type that gets burnt out at the 100 hours mark and for me to go for another 100 and complete the game is nothing short of a miracle.

[@johnnyflannigan136]

Exactly.. I even put like another 40 hours into the new game plus until I finally decided to take a break and play something else.. I wasn't even really bored with it. I just had other games I wanted to play. I'm looking foward to another run but this time I'm not doing new game plus.. I'm starting a brand new game with a new build where I have to unlock the map again

[@Jay-og4yb]

Y'all are weird. Go outside

[@zedetach]

@@Jay-og4yb the world's changing mate. Kids nowadays don't even know what the outside is and 20 years from now the 'outside' is gonna be in some virtual world. In other words, get used to it.

[@Jay-og4yb]

@@zedetach there will always be losers no doubt. I guess I'll be forced to "get used to it" once y'all destroy my country

[@mfallen6894]

@@zedetach You can live in the pod and eat the bugs if you want, but not I. I've got 27 acres of woods/pastures, with a river at the edge and my property bumps right up against a state park. So while you're in the pod living off of cricket slurry plugged into the metaverse, I'll still be handloading ammunition, target shooting various pistols/revolvers/rifles, hunting, fishing, gardening, chopping firewood, hiking, backpacking, etc. You know, living life. I love video games, but they're an end of the day relaxer, not my entire existence.

[@okfnjesse]

As far as the role of GRRM. It’s funny that you questioned it at that moment because it answers the point you brought up right before which was paraphrased as “how did they have such great cohesion in tone between all of these bosses?” Apparently GRRM wrote the backstory for the entire family tree which is all of the demigods and gave them all their initial story and how they interacted together, and then From Soft just went wild from there and Dark Souls’d it up.

[@gator3962]

I think the player lvl / boss difficulty thing was a given the second it was known it'll be an open world game bc DS1 had the exact same thing going on. Sure, DS1 isn't that humongous but you have a huge amount of freedom regarding boss order and what places to go to. The only real bottleneck it has is placing the lord vessel that leads into endgame and ringing the 2 bells at some point.

[@InfinityNation100]

He usually does reviews on games I haven’t played recently or never so I don’t have a frame a reference for how well he knows the game he is critiquing. Elden Ring I know very well. Recommending Scaling enemies was an indicator he doesn’t understand the power trip the game is suppose to put you through. After he mentioned Caelid but, not Radahn I’ve realized that just because his videos are long doesn’t mean he understands the game.

[@le1660]

Yeah I don't think he understood elden ring too well. Usually I agree with him, not this time for sure.

[@r17v1]

All of his reviews are like this. He presents bullshit after bullshit and gives bad takes in a manner that will make you think he is stating pure hard facts. He comes up with points for the sake of coming up with points.

[@christianhowell3140]

@@r17v1 jeez calm down what did he do, kill your dog?

[@christianhowell3140]

"the power trip the game is supposed to put you through" That's very weird, cuz I keep seeing people claim it's an ANTI-power trip. In fact, hasn't that been From Software's entire ethos since demons souls?

[@Reezy_Tha_Boon00]

@@christianhowell3140 Power trip Lol you never feel strong in this game and im on new game +5

[@thevikingbear2343]

Caelid has the Rhadahn festival, which is one of the most memorable bosses in the game, and it is necessary to beat if you want to achieve the Age Of Stars Questline and subsequent alternative ending of the game.

[@courier6640]

As well as reach brand new locations.

[@zacharyhankel2517]

Yeah I generally think Luke Stephens is very articulate and thoughtful during his critiques. I was ready to hear the harsh truth, but find it pretty hard to take seriously when he doesn't think there's a main story boss in Caelid.

[@creamking3569]

@@zacharyhankel2517there is actually two but you fight one of them in farum azula after befriending him in caelid

[@slimymcbrazy7691]

@@zacharyhankel2517 how would you know if you have a main story boss in caelid if you never knew about the Ranni quest because you are playing blind? None of you actually completed the ranni quest without an IGN guide, so don't even start. game has massive issues, you have to use a wiki to complete 90% of its quests, because there are so much random bullshit that you need to do in order complete them

[@connork9745]

@@slimymcbrazy7691 ironically it's entirely possible for someone to complete Rannis quest on complete accident. Talking to Blaid is not necessary only the activation of the festival which can be done in 3 different ways Blaidd ->Selivus-> Mage lady->Festival Altus Plateau-> Festival Redmane castle-> Jarren -> Iji-> Festival Secondly it's pretty easy to find the crater if one was paying attention even more so with the floating rocks visible across all Limgrave and even if someone was not paying attention journey to get the fingerslayer blade for Ranni and upon getting the fingerslayer blade it's highly likely that they'll realize this is for Ranni or just go back to talk to her. Than you need to go check out a tower that was previously blocked and pick up a shiny Ranni doll and talk to it which is the hardest part of the quest which can be easily missed but keen eyed people will not miss it Upon defeating the red phantom of Blaidd you get a key and if I remember right you also get told where to go by the key to get the ring you need if you read it's description. Finally you need to beat Astel and ascend to the moonlight alter where 99 percent of people will follow the path fight Adula and marry Ranni in game.

[@iiRolltide]

I played all of 3 hours of dark souls 3 and was over it and never thought I’d play another from software game but I kept hearing about the open world for this game so I gave it a shot and fell in love with it. I think being able to go other places when you can’t beat a boss is what allowed me to like it. I’m just not about slamming my head against the same wall over and over again. In elden ring I slammed my head against a wall and just went and did other things then came back and pushed through that wall. Sometimes all you need to beat a boss is a change of scenery

[@somedots]

Great insight, might buy the game cause of this comment

[@thebailey67]

Ya that the joy of the game. Oops enemies too hard. Then go somewhere else. Level up. Then go back. It’s made the experience alot more fun. And all the bonfire/grace Points!

[@buggy5079]

After Elden Ring you should give Dark souls 3 another chance, I think you will have a better time now.

[@TheStraightestWhitest]

DS3 is still a GOAT of gaming though. Don't give up on it. One of Elden Ring's most celebrated players, Let Me Solo Her, who literally got a special thanks and a whole Thank You package from Bandai Namco, nearly ragequit on DS3. And I myself did too, yet now have a Plat on every Soulsborne game bar Demon Souls which I never played. The ones who struggled the most at the start tend to turn into the greatest Soulsborne gods at the end.

[@retarddog6505]

@@somedots go for it

[@threeagainstfour]

Game certainly has flaws, but I honestly can't remember playing a game that exceeded my expectations as hard as Elden Ring did.

[@joaquinmarichal]

Just one for me The Witcher 3 was so awesome

[@TheMusicolophile]

I’ve yet to find an actual flaw in over 400 hours. I can’t say the same thing for nearly every other game I’ve played for the last two years. What flaws did you find?

[@benitoswagolini3827]

@@TheMusicolophile Some of the bosses moves

[@OracleLibby]

Hollow Knight was the first game that blew my expectations out of the water. Elden Ring is the second

[@threeagainstfour]

@@TheMusicolophile I think any of the bosses where they simply combined two bosses that don't actually work together (Godskin duo being the big obvious one) were really bad. I also think the games drops a massive damage spike on you once you make it to mountaintop of the giants. Everything from that point on hits stupid hard and if you haven't made a build with a lot of vitality you will be frustrated. Love the game to be clear, it's my game of the year for 2022 for sure.

[@PotatoJonson]

If you’re not into the difficulty I HIGHLY suggest playing co-op. One of the best co-op experiences I’ve had.

[@user-mi9bz2nv4i]

it should be like the pc mod seamless co-op but they didn’t make it like that, if they did it that way the game would be a 10/10 but it’s only a 7 because the co-op is so bad

[@mohannadbadr8613]

Good for you. For me it's the worst co-op experience I ever had in a game, I can only invade or be invaded.

[@Morden97]

I think an issue derived from how massive this game is, is that weirdly enough, lots of people burnt themselves out with the game simply by playing too much. Streamers that ended up fed up with it after playing full days of this game non stop for weeks etc. I took my sweet time.. my first playthrough took over 2 months.. and boy did I enjoy this masterpiece... just incredible. It's clearly not perfect ofc... no game is, but this game was an incredible experience for me... I enjoyed it a lot more than other FS games, and the bosses weren't even my favorite part... the trip itself was my favorite part.

[@TSpoon823]

On another KZbinr's post I equated ER to an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. When the turkey is cooked well, the stuffing is on point, and the pies are good, it can be one of the best meals of the year. Sure, the cranberry sauce may not be amazing, and corn on the side is a filler. But I love Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I stuff myself with it and eat leftovers for a week straight. So no matter how good the first meal was, by next Tuesday I'm ready for some Italian or something. Is that the meal's fault? No. I just ate way too much of it. But you know I'm excited for next Thanksgiving to do it again. That's what we all did with Elden Ring. We gorged ourselves on it's world and it's lore and PvP because it's that great. It has flaws. It needs to be rebalanced and filled out in places. But compared to others, it's an amazing game. So good that we didn't want to play anything else until we got tired of it. Finish it once or twice. Put it down. Play something else. Come back to it in a few months and see how you feel. Again, yes it has flaws, but almost every game does, including the other all time greats.

[@seaica3447]

Yeah I 100%ed it over a month, best month ever.

[@enman009]

There's a very popular Reddit post that states the same: if you're feeling burnt out, is not always the game's fault, is your insistence in still playing. No matter how good a game is, the more you play the more you feel saturated. I felt that every time I made a new character in DS1 or 2, and DS3 took me months to even make a new character to let it halfway through.

[@pievancl5457]

Yep hard agree.. about a month after release my opinion was starting to sour and I saw the same sentiment popping up by KZbin critics & essayists and twitter. I took a break.. picked it up again recently halfway through my NG+ save and I’m just in awe of how great this game is. I needed fresh eyes after getting burnt out. It’s truly an amazing feat. Are their problems? Of course, many. But like other FromSoft games, the charms and quirkiness, best art in the business, and fun combat system are just a perfect combination.

[@MrMcastellano]

Exactly .. the people who complain obviously have played 100’s of hours to be able to nitpick so many things . Never seen a game that didn’t have a single issue

[@JOZSEP]

42:55 "the are no major bosses in Caelid" uuh... Radahn? You know "the strongest demi-god?" The one in the trailer? The one who had the biggest chance to become the next elden lord? The one who upon being defeated opens the way yo Nokron? In order to progress the story you need 2 great runes, it could be Godrick's, Rennala's, Radahn's, Mohg's or Raykard's so technically none of them are "obligatory" bosses since you can choose who to kill, not to mention that Alexander, Ranni and Blaidd push you to fight Radahn

[@mattsen4297]

as someone that never played the game: what in the goddamn fuck did i just read?

[@TheStraightestWhitest]

@@mattsen4297 A combination of G.R.R.M writing, which is known for being extremely intricate, and a combination of Hidetaka Miyazaki writing, which is known for being extremely intricate and obscure on top of it.

[@Username-wh2ij]

And I thought the Horizon games have confusing lore.

[@TSpoon823]

I love when I basically say the same thing as someone else hours later because I hadn't read all the comments yet 😂. Edit: it's weird too because he comes back to Radahn closer to the end of the video and talks a good bit about him. Not sure what that whole segment was about. Oh well.

[@John-996]

Not surprising in his Kingdom come Video he mentioned there was nothing But fetch quests. So He missed all the great quests in the game. He needs to make sure he covers everything in these critiques.

[@RKGrizz]

I am not sure what more you can want from a open world rpg before it is considered a masterpiece. As you say yourself "they did something that no one else has done anywhere near as well." You say it's better than Skyrim and Witcher 3 adding "and it feels tremendous, it feels remarkable, unique and different." Continuing on saying that they executed their vision fantastically, so much so that you wish you could experience Elden Ring anew all over again. That is an absolutely overwhelming endorsement for any game but still not enough to be a masterpiece. I would love to see your list of perfect games.

[@qfjd]

People tend to criticise the things that they like more than the things that they dislike, as they want the game they like to improve, whereas they don't care as much for the improvement of a game they don't like. This why people hesitate to call any game they like "a masterpiece".

[@dr17719]

The main criticism is probably the lack of story motivation and memorable characters. A common issue with From’s design philosophy.

[@RKGrizz]

@@dr17719 Ranni, Radahn, Melenia, and Morgot weren't memorable?

[@enman009]

@@qfjd There's also bias in what you prefer. What I found curious, despite enjoying parts of the video, is that he decided to overlook many of TW3 problems, or not elaborate too much on them, yet with ER he spends too much time on small issues or just nitpicks. I say this because, unless he's changed his mind, TW3 is his favorite game. So there's bias there.

[@Silverguise]

A game can be amazing and genre defining and still have flaws. Games that are truly a masterpiece are few and far between.

[@moonraven6145]

I've always looked at the "DPS check" term as more an MMO mechanic, like say the boss is charging a move that will wipe the party if sufficient damage is not inflicted on it, although I suppose the Four Kings boss fight from DS1 could also be counted as one, as that fight got harder due to the spawning Kings overtime if you never dealt with the previous one's.

[@stephenmclemore7614]

Eldin ring was one of those rare games when I wasn't playing it I was thinking about playing it...

[@landfillao4193]

Is it just me or is Elden Ring held to a different standard? Complaining about every single item not having "more thought" put into where it's located is absurd when the vast majority of it's contemporaries have the same straight swords and axes everywhere except this one has higher numbers because you're 30 levels higher. Complaining about enemy variety in a game with over 150 enemies. Complaining about Caelid's enemies being reused in the mountain tops when you're fighting the same Griffins, Wraiths and Nekkers from White Orchard to Skellige in TW3. Complaining about reusing enemies in a 120hr game when a 25hr God Of War has you fight 7 trolls, 9 valkyries and Baulder 3 times. Sure, they're valid complaints. But the degree to which they are blown out of proportion is a bit ridiculous.

[@matman000000]

Well of course, because at its core it's still a Soulslike. FROM has a track record of making tightly designed worlds where every location has its own atmosphere and enemies. Elden Ring breaks that, and yes it is a problem. The uniqueness of each place is hurt when their enemies are copy-pasted all over the world, many boss fights and environments no longer tell a story and just seem like a video-gamey challenge. I'd rather have a shorter game where each location feels unique over a bloated open world where I want to rush through a dozen locations because they have nothing new to offer. Fighting the same types of monsters in The Witcher makes sense because that's literally your job in the story and they appear in locations where you expect them (leshens in a forest, waterhags near water), plus the combat isn't the only gameplay element and you can often play for an hour just talking to NPCs.

[@AsteroSloth]

Yeah, always thought it was weird when people are like “oh but it reuses bosses” and I’m like dawg… it has like 130 bosses… TELL ME A GAME WITH LIKE 100 DIFFERENT BOSSES

[@landfillao4193]

@@matman000000 But that's my point. It's being held to the highest standards of intricate Souls like level design while also to the standard of a massive open world game. Sure, coming from Souls I get it. But this isn't Souls. While Elden Ring is much closer in gameplay than say, Sekiro, it's also as big or even bigger a deviation. The world is still much more intricately designed than most open worlds. That is fair about TW3, though. It can easily be argued that combat is not what that game is valued for. Plus it has Gwent! Great game. But it's world still doesn't hold a candle to Elden Ring's imo. I do agree about certain main bosses being reused. This was especially disappointing with Astel who blew my mind the first time I fought him. I wish they'd not used any rememberance bosses aside from Margit/Morgott who makes perfect sense since you're fighting projections of him.

[@landfillao4193]

@@AsteroSloth Exactly. I can't think of an open world RPG that even comes close to matching the enemy variety of Elden Ring, much less surpassing it.

[@matman000000]

@@landfillao4193 It's judged by two standards because the game seems to want both things. Both constant bosses so you can find one every hour, and iconic battles which you'll remember for the rest of the game. And that won't work if you fight the same impressive boss 2-3 times or when he becomes a random enemy. The first time I saw the Tree Spirit, I was both terrified and in awe. The fourth time I ran into one, I could only think "Ah shit, here we go again". I'd rather have only unique bosses in a shorter game, because the cutscenes and boss arenas are a big part of their enjoyment. Putting them in some copy-pasted dungeon lessens the impact.

[@joey8458]

I don’t get your logic with a lot of your points. Devs can’t predict everything in a game so big… so yeah, they are going to let the players figure out the exploits and then go in and patch… not really a flaw. Also, the capability of the game offering so many different play styles is not a flaw either . I think you’re wrong or just clouded in many of your criticisms The FPS is a legit critique but my personal play through on Xbox x was essentially flawless in with the exception of a couple instance of frame drops but nothing game-breaking

[@haychgaming8326]

But those points are valid, they lead to gameplay implications that he saw as negative ? Just because you understand it doesn't mean that it can't negatively affect someone's experience. A game offering so many styles can absolutely be a flaw because then balancing almost goes out of the window. It water's down what enemies are capable of doing since they need to be able to cater to every play style. Where in Sekiro the devs gave a small tool kit and you were forced to learn those tools and the enemies were all balanced knowing exactly the tools you had. It's a more focused and polished experience. You might not see them as flaws but they absolutely can be.

[@joelledbetter2926]

Having to play at 60 frames oh man these 1st world problems are so heartbreaking...here's to hoping you some how pull through

[@DevMP]

Dumbest comment in this section, congrats! We have different prices of different GPUs so people can pick an expensive card and expect a game to have unlocked fps so they can fully utilize their PC. Locked FPS on PC is a disgrace and only shows From Software's laziness when it comes to optimization and their ugly approach to porting their game to PCs. I guess we should be happy PC players AT LEAST RECEIVED BUTTON HINTS FROM PC, AND NOT LIKE IN DS3 FROM CONSOLE.

[@JaceJenkins]

Just watching this critique and you had a question on why the south part of the opening area has very little boss or story. I think it’s there so you have content available that if you did all of it, you would come into Margot a bit over powered. I think this is the reason so there was never a need to grind runes if you are struggling with this first major boss. A lot of friends who were playing their first from soft game I would often encourage them to clear out the entire first zone before Margot and I believe it’s why they made the area this way.

[@destinsather9757]

The Weeping Peninsula is home to Castle Morne and the Misbegotten Beast… I guess the story is that the Misbegottens are causing havoc 🤷‍♂️

[@Bpeck447]

As others have pointed out Radahn is is Caelid, could be argued he is optional but technically so are most of the shardbearers and bosses leading to them.

[@ss-oy3bs]

▪️Thanks for commenting, make a note to Enos Gardner regarding BTC/ETH investment ideas and let him know I referred you

[@ss-oy3bs]

☎ᴛᵉˣţ𝄍✉𝑾𝒉𝔮ᴛᵗ𝑠𝑨𝑝𝑝 ᴍʀ ᴇɴᴏs ɢᴀʀᴅɴᴇʀ ✚𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟏𝟑𝟕𝟔𝟒𝟔𝟖𝟔✔ ʀᴇɢᴀʀᴅɪɴɢ ʙᴛᴄ/ᴇᴛʜ ɪɴᴠᴇsᴛᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪᴅᴇᴀs.👌❤

[@SantitariumHaze]

I like you Luke, both as a creator and a person, but sometimes I feel like you fall into contrarianism just for the sake of it. You're the guy who went on about how good AC:Valhalla was, and how impressed you were about being able to shoot down a leaf from a tree. Only for that game to release and be the most painfully generic RPG we've seen in recent memory. I'm not bashing that opinion, because contextually I understood your argument, and I believe you were being honest when you made that video -- but when I contrast your positive opinions on AC:V to your opinions on Elden Ring I can't help but feel there is a certain inconsistency. You have been FAR harsher on Elden Ring, and have taken up this 'now hold on everybody, let's be reasonable here' thing about how, 'yes its great, but is it really THAT great?' It's just been... odd. And even your critiques are... strange. The Sentinel Knight you mention how you're 'used to this type of thing from FromSoft' games and how you know the game intends for you to smash you head against the wall before giving up and leveling somewhere else only to return and breeze through it. That hasn't ever been a thing before though. The freedom to walk away is an Elden Ring addition. You don't get to skip Iudex Gundyr, or the Vanguard Demon, or Father Gascoigne, or Lady Butterfly, or Gyoubu Oniwa. I'm not saying you're wrong necessarily, as opinions are like assholes and all that, I just don't want you to fall into that trap of KZbinr critics who feel they need to come out with the hottest smart take on why the thing 'everyone likes' isn't actually as good as you think it is. Full disclosure, I do think Elden Ring is genre defining in many respects. I don't think it's a perfect game, but I don't think those terms need to be mutually exclusive. It has flaws, yet the things it does well it does so staggeringly well. I also think it is the culmination of the FromSoft formula, pushing boundaries where it can, while also expanding the audience beyond what any previous title could. It is not the purest FromSoft game in terms of difficulty, like Sekiro was, and it doesn't have the best combat system that rewards aggression and agency, like Bloodborne, but it takes cues from their entire history of work and creates something that almost everyone can experience while also staying true to its roots. That to me is impressive and makes it a crown jewel in the FromSoft lineup.

[@DisturbedBroski]

I agree 100%. The whole time I'm watching this I'm thinking "this is the same guy that praised AC Valhalla and Odyssey" he totally overlooks stuff in those games while doubling down on them here.

[@Sentinel_ICBM]

Pretty well said. This is definitely one of the worse critiques he's done. I mean it's long and a lot of effort was put into it, but the criticisms are fairly weak.

[@Francisco-Danconia]

Very articulate and clear. I enjoyed reading this comment.

[@jeffbezos3200]

Counter proposal…Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla was called the worst game ever and when you play it expecting the worst game ever, you come away with the opinion that it was actually…pretty competent. Elden Ring has been called the best game ever…and it is far from it, it’s not even my favorite game this year. You can call it “burnout” but if your game doesn’t have interesting enough mechanics and incentives to play it every day and have fun, then it failed. Someone can play Call of Duty every day for hours and hours and have a blast, yet the gameplay loop never changes. Elden Ring makes a much bigger splash right out the gate. You get to hop around what’s probably the best starting area in any game ever made and it expands in ways that only add to it. But at the end, it loses its way. And it doesn’t lose its way too massively. But it loses its way after you kill Morgott. The game stops feeling good to play after that point, the difficulty spike is unreasonable. “Oh, git gud, you’re trash,” I hear you say…but here’s the thing…the late game feels unfair. The fire giant is not a hard boss, he probably killed me less than 5 times…but he’s easily one that sticks out to me as bullshit for how long the fight takes. The optimal strategy for the second phase is the hit his last ankle twice and dodge away so that he spams rolls, which are easy to dodge…but if you do that, the fight takes at least 10 minutes of brainless tedium. It’s just not fun. Then every boss fight starts having second phases where they can kill you in one combo…that’s just not fun. You fuck up one attack in a 10 string attack and you get sent back to square one. The Godskin duo is just godawful. I can’t praise it. Hoarah Loux is somewhat interesting, and I like the Gideon fight for its lore…but the final boss. The final boss is the worst final boss in any game I’ve ever played. It would’ve been fine with a checkpoint or if you could use Torrent against the second phase…but it’s just tedious and punishing. You want to say that burnout was a problem for Elden Ring? It was a problem for Valhalla. Valhalla was fun with an episodic story that you could bite off with an overarching narrative rearing its head every once in awhile. Yeah, if you played it all at once, you’d burn out…but that’s any game. The core problem is that the popular opinion all communicate with each other and assure eachother that the flaws are not a big deal, but when the flaws do matter and someone says they ruin the experience, they get labeled a contrarian so that people that like a product can discount the criticisms and live in a bubble where their opinion is objective. Cyberpunk was a good game, AC Valhalla was fun and pretty decent, Elden Ring was good but fell on its face in the back half leaving the most recent memories of the game when the credits roll being that of an unfair, poorly designed slog when it could’ve quit and drop all the stupid elevator areas on the map besides the capital and Nokstella and it would’ve been perfect

[@Shertowin]

I fully agree with this comment

[@nazgulsenpai]

I'm sorry, did this gentleman just say there's no big memorable story boss in Caelid?!?

[@haychgaming8326]

He said the main game doesn't make you go there since Radan is actually optional.

[@marushall263]

@@haychgaming8326 but you tend to end up there pretty much every time

[@thedankswordsmantm]

Balance is also a hard thing to achieve in a game where pve and pvp occupy the same space. And this game had such a plethora of possible combinations to boot.

[@garrick3727]

There is too much emphasis placed on balance because less skilled players assume that is why they are not succeeding, whereas the good players win regardless. If you watch good Souls PvPers, for example, they often just use any combination of character and equipment, and still win almost all the time. It is not the balance that is carrying them, it is the way they play. This also explains why long running PvP games still have complaints about balance despite having been balance adjusted many times - people always search for a reason why they lost that isn't their own ability.

[@ribbonexylophone835]

@@garrick3727 yeah but that's the thing about elden ring, the balancing is very off. There is definitely a lot of successful builds but in the end the pvp meta is gonna stay the same, people are always gonna use good ole rivers of blood or the cross naginata with seppuku. The main story boss weapons, things wielded by literal demigods are often subpar and just slightly better than the average weapon. The balancing in the game is off and yes people are definitely using that as an excuse but when invaders use the same five weapons from a game that has five hundred there's definitely something up, it's why pvp in elden ring is dying meanwhile I'm pretty sure pvp for dark souls 3 is still somewhat active

[@Dracomancili]

@@ribbonexylophone835 i've seen plenty of people be able to counter people who are too reliant on rivers, it just takes thr knowhow and some practice to be able to do it effectively every time

[@thedankswordsmantm]

@@garrick3727 I can't completely agree with that. There's builds that overcome a certain amount of skill gap. Not giant skill gaps, but a large enough one to highlight that some things were indeed unbalanced. Not sure if it is still like that, but it definitely was.

[@DourFlower]

I wholly disagree about swapping loadouts, I think it's important to the core gameplay and game design that if you want to reroll you have to commit the time and resources to it and build your character with purpose to avoid having to do it constantly

[@Speeplonk]

Or just be like me and get to lvl 350 and simultaneously rock a dex arcane build for dual bleed katanas whilst also having an int strength build for DMGS and moon magic

[@FelisImpurrator]

@@Speeplonk Smh, dual bleed... Going 350 and not using it to double down on faith/int caster? Kidding, but I ran moon sorcerer for the first half, dragon knight for the second.

[@Flash_-gy9vp]

Once your in new game plus it doesn't become a time and resource management thing anymore.. By new game plus 3 I had like 30+ larval tears, and respecing at that point just becomes tedious.. I get you don't like the thought of a loadout system in a fromsoft game but Luke makes a very good point why it would be useful in Elden Ring and it's a shame you couldn't understand that.. Respecing isn't hard therefore it just becomes a chore to do so.

[@DourFlower]

@@Flash_-gy9vp I understand it I just disagree with it

[@geordiejones5618]

Exactly I think I found 15 larval tears on my first playthrough and used maybe 5? Because you get SO many weapons and spells its so easy to wanna respec. I eventually landed on high INT with enough base stats in everything else that in combination with either a great rune and/or armor/talisman upgrades I could use every weapon at least two handed. The ONE "broken" thing I've found is as of I think two patches ago, the swords of Radahn can be used two handed to full effect even below the two handed threshold. At launch and the first two patches you HAD to have the exact strength because its two giant swords compared to one big weapon and it made sense to me I thought it was a cool detail because they gave it a favorable weight but kept the logic of the stats. Now you can use it understrength despite the warning message that you can't even use it two handed but it absolutely works and still shows the "x" and going to full strength doesnt change the damage to either the regular attacks or the weapon art unless you use it one handed understrength.

[@victor_734]

As others have mentioned Caelid has arguably the best (especially in an aesthetic sense) boss in the game with Radahn. And the biggest sidequest of the game (Ranni) actually makes you go there. Quite the oversight

[@elden_beast8489]

Radahn is not a good boss lol. Rarely have I seen a boss where I can gallop on my horse and spam scarlet rot breath and win. That’s not a good boss that’s an easy boss.

[@antoineberkani9747]

@@elden_beast8489 Almost any from boss can be cheesed, just because they can be doesn't mean it's a bad boss lmao. It's up to you if you want to actually interact with the mechanics or take the easy way out. Not to mention, even if it was a bad boss (which it isn't imo), it's still a spectacle boss, similar to divine dragon, rykard, or yhorm were in the past. This has it's own value as well.

[@pievancl5457]

@@elden_beast8489 you can cheese every single boss in every single FromSoft game- seriously, just search for dark souls boss cheese or Bloodborne boss cheese. Just because you chose to play it that way doesn’t mean that a fight is good or bad. Give it a try without cheese before forming an opinion on the quality

[@acrossthepond3844]

@@elden_beast8489 yes he is

[@LEGOC-3PO]

It’s not an oversight at all, because it’s still optional, not necessary.

[@archanag.5757]

Ok. I watched the entire video. I used to be a “Joe Blo” gamer before Elden Ring. I had never been into adventure RPG games, or any of the From Software games, pretty much only played FPS games, and fighter games. I can confidently say that Elden Ring changed my entire mindset on gaming, and awoke a craving in me that I didn’t know existed. A craving for the countless things that Elden Ring provided that I had never experienced before. I found the game to be a solid 10/10, despite it being quite difficult as I had never played anything like it before.

[@joshuatealeaves]

You jump into Sekiro yet? It’s a tad bit above Elden imo

[@thirdwordbird3011]

It's the dark souls feeling. These devs just know their shit

[@matosz23]

Please please please try all of them. Demons Souls Dark Souls Dark Souls 3 Sekiro And my personal FromSoft game: Bloodborne.

[@glennmatthews758]

Chad comment, but seriously, if you gotta do any From game, do Dark Souls 3. It’s newer, much cleaner mechanics, feels better, and holy fuck, it looks just as good as Elden Ring

[@aaronjones5742]

The reason that more people who use summons rate the game as harder is because it’s very likely that the majority of people who voted for that option are newer to the game and souls series. I’m honestly shocked that this didn’t cross your mind as an explanation. It would’ve also been an important topic to mention and ask about during the survey…

[@FindusCheval]

true

[@stolensentience]

Yeah I was like bruh. Only ppl who find it hard would use summons. Cogito ergo sum level of obvious

[@kgspvgsp7569]

This dude doesnt have a science backgroung

[@boomshanka4667]

Yeah it was to easy, they done it to " include the masses" kinda lost what makes dark souls games amazing

[@raltor20]

@@boomshanka4667 The only time souls didn’t “include the masses” was Demon’s Souls. The rest have been more popular and more accessible than Demon’s was.

[@dezmundtv962]

it's understandable why so many consider Elden ring a masterpiece, including myself. when there are hundreds of mediocre , generic and formulaic games being developed every year, countless shortcuts in development and over monetization.. a game like Elden Ring stands out even more amongst the endless titles that have come and gone. That alone will make gamers hold it up on a pedestal, due to the lack of any truly great games to compare it to.

[@John-996]

That is Evident When you look at last year. Which was a shit year, Also When You have the Like of HFW with everything marked on the map. The Thing is I played, Fallout3, San Andreas, New vegas, Kingdom Come Last year and they put allot of Morden open worlds to save, RDR2 Blew me way with how Alive and detailed the world was and the NPC interaction, Witcher 3 Blew me way with its lengthy side quests and both games had a great sense of discovery and well written stories. Breath of wild Blew me away with it environmental interaction. Elden ring was above adverage but did not blow me away with its world.

[@Darek_B52]

Elden Ring is a masterpiece to me because it felt like what modern gaming should feel like

[@iNostraD]

This is my biggest reason for considering Elden Ring an era defining game. Is it perfect? No game is. Is it better than 99% of other games released nowadays? Absolutely. If this game isn’t a “masterpiece,” then what game is?

[@darkhaven9119]

This game is really good but bloodborne and dark souls 3 are better. I don’t want another open world for the next souls game

[@Pedrintavs]

Yeah, it has its flaws and they are not small, but its absolutely a masterpiece. Things are so bad nowadays that we are not used to get a full game experience for "just" the full price, we usually have to either buy expansions or the game is just not in good conditions, not complete, not playable etc. The feeling I had with Elden Ring is that it was worth every penny I paid for, and honestly, that more than I could say about 90% of the games I bought.

[@jamontiqueq8763]

Radahn & the festival of Radahn is the main story boss & narrative point in Caelid-- there is not "No story elements/major Bosses in Caelid". Radahn is actually one of the coolest bosses in the game. Your character has Radahn's armor on through much of the gameplay so you didnt miss it, so I wonder why you said there were not story points / big bosses??

[@graymarion]

He’s totally optional, only needed for rannis ending. Same way the dung eater and his entire quest and ending is optional and you don’t even have to see him to beat the game

[@simolaine1099]

@@graymarion All great rune bosses are "totally optional". Except for Morgot

[@FindusCheval]

@@graymarion Only 2 bosses are not optionnal in order to fight the final boss you know

[@raymondlaspina7870]

​@@graymarion you know you can get the Dictus medallions, activate the lift, Fight Radahn, go to Mt Gelmir, Fight Rykard and head to Leyndell. you don't have to kill Godrick and Rennala.

[@paulcoffield2102]

I got through it in around 200 hours, haven't played it for around 3 months and once all the hype around it has died down, I still think it's one of the best games ever made.

[@stormxz733]

i spent about 150 hours and i’m kinda the opposite. i loved the game while i was playing it but going back and just thinking about it more i actually really dislike it and it’s sad considering i’m a HUGE souls fan i beat and platinum’d almost every souls game.

[@briankeys5941]

Agreed. A little off-topic, but imo, over 100 hours of OK to AMAZING gameplay is worth a one time monetary purchase. Not speaking on you or anyone on this channel i have seen, but im soooooo tired of ppl wanting these "forever games," and now complaining about Elden Ring via twitter, streaming, YT post reviews, etc. bc its getting boring... BRA, u have played 300 hours, Im sure it is boring, lol.

[@hammeredo]

@@briankeys5941 just like those people that complain about the lack of content in a game where they have thousands of hour…bruh…you fucking tored apart that fucking game of course you have no content and of course you will get bored from it.

[@adamtapparo2168]

@@stormxz733’m the same. Loved it while I was playing the first time, but going back and playing again, you realize how 75 percent of the game is kind of filler. That 25 percent is amazing, but the rest being there makes the world feel so empty. I have replayed ds and bb dozens of times and they never get old. I struggle to make it much further than liurnia in trying to replay ER. I just get bored after that. I don’t feel like there’s enough incentive to do any of the stuff. All the rewards are randomized, so you never know if fighting a mini boss is going to get you 5000 runes or 20k runes. It just makes me feel like, why bother. Just kill the shardbearers, beat morgott, do the mountaintops of the giants and then endgame.

[@CoC_Lord]

@@adamtapparo2168hat’s how open world games are tbf. As somebody who loves souls games and open world games, many of my friends who loved souls but don’t like open world games were the people who didn’t like elden ring. While you say that there isn’t much to do incentive wise around the world, I would personally disagree because this game is head and shoulders above 90% of even good open world games when it comes to that. The issue lies in the lack replay value in elden ring opposed to other souls games. Which is why you may have loved your first play through, but won’t be playing it many times through again

[@lahunica2726]

The influence of GRRM is clear to me in the game : multiple families feuds, plots, more developped relations between members of the same families, lots of houses and noble families. Also although Miyazaki used the same base structure for family names on Dark souls, George amped it up with the names derived from Radagon, Marika, Rennala and Godfrey.

[@snfo25]

Yes I totally agree with you. I’m honestly kind of shocked about his section about the story in this video. I thought it was well known that GRRM wrote the foundation for all the lore of this world. Luke’s comments about the story came across as extremely shallow to me. Especially since I’ve been obsessed with learning about the lore of this game and its characters for the past few weeks since I beat it. It seems like the more you dig the more mysteries and connections you come across. Personally I thought it was amazing with nuanced and layered lore for pretty much all the main bosses.

[@TheStraightestWhitest]

G odfrey R adagon R ennala M arika Interesting how together, those four are responsible for making all the big players that allow the story to take place.

[@thesexyshark1646]

Don’t forget incest. Well technically it’s incest since Radagon and Marika are married and had children even tho they’re the same person

[@flamingmanure]

@@snfo25 "Luke’s comments about the story came across as extremely shallow to me." pretty much half this video actually, especially about the combat and balance point of view, he basically ruined most of his playthrough cuz he thinks its just like any other souls game. elden ring and sekiro are different though, ds1 and especially bb clowns love to pretend their lore is superior to the newer games when in reality bb and ds1 lore copy pasted so much from far better writers like lovecraft, berserk, greek myths and king arthur. ds1 is ur generic mish mash of dark fantasy lore with mostly just shakespeerian style warrior tragedies, bb is your generic mish mash of lovecraft inspired cosmic horror lore, ppl dig shit up, find something ancient they shouldnt have fucked with, they get warned not to fuck with said thing, and ofcourse they fuck with it, and everyone goes mad because of it. its basically a generic lovecraft shortstory lol. also gwyn is basically discount Zeus, and im talking about personality too, not just the copy pasted lighting esthetic. vendrick, aldia, lorian and lothric are all much better, more original characters than anything from ds1 or bb. gwyn is a paranoid tyrannical fuckwit with trust issues, pretty much zues in greek myths, the only difference in writing between the 2 is zues was a horny bastard. demons, ds2-3, sekiro and elden ring are far better and more original for the most part from a lore point of view, lorian and lothric, ishin, vendrick, aldia, most main bosses from elden ring lol etc etc all feel much more original have more actual personality than gwyn or even gehrman, which falls in the boring souls trope of being just a super sad and tragic character that fromsoft think is deep or complex for some reason, they went all out in that story design in bb and that why i think its the weakest story between them all and frankly i sometimes cringe listening to the npcs talk in that game. thank god theyve been taking a step back from that story design since sekiro. elden ring especially is far higher caliber and complex from a writing quality point of view. ds1 and bb feel like minor fanfiction stories inspired by far better writers to me, elden ring reads like a complex series of GRRM novels and considering i do read his books, its not surprising i love eldens far more complex and intricate lore than those 2.

[@flamingmanure]

@Tig Black i think having a microphone and a large sub count got to his head, based on how he likes to smell his own farts and convinces himself hes being more objective than any random reviewer or commenter, i think he fancies himself as a game dev or artist, when really he forgets that theres no real difference between his opinion or a barely thought out one, the only difference is he has a mic and some good scripting/editing skills.

[@helioa8191]

"Fromsoft throwing players into a world and giving them freedom to explore as they see fit". Where have I seen that before? Ah yes, I remember... on a small relatively unknown indie game called Dark Souls, on which from immediately arriving at Firelink Shrine, the 1st area after the tutorial, the player could go to Undead Burg, Catacombs, New Londo Ruins, Valley of Drakes, Blighttown, Darkroot Basin or back to repopulated Undead Asylum. But Dark Souls is such an obscure and unknown game that no one could blame this guy from not knowing it.

[@yaldabaothofgalar2618]

*mic drop*

[@amimm7776]

Elden ring has a lot in common with dark souls 1, but none of the parts I dislike about it.

[@helioa8191]

@@22OscarG Listening to the commentary, I'm positive like he has either not played any Fromsoft game other than Bloodborne prior to ER at all, or played only in the first few areas, because he really doesn't seem very familiar with them. In the timestamp you mentioned he talks about spirit ashes and summons. On a game with more that 160 bosses, it's not like someone struggling with one boss in particular is guaranteed to find a coop summon sign near that boss (unless is Malenia or Elden Beast). Froms solution was adding a way to summon whenever you needed. If you can find someone to coop, great, but if not, use a spirit ash, beat the boss and move on. The older games had NPC summons available left and right to help on bosses. DS1 has Solaire to help you in many bosses, like the 1st major spike in boss difficulty, Ornstein & Smough, or in the final boss. The Four Kings has Beatrice. Queelag has a summon too, damn, even Pinhead, which is a joke of a boss has Paladin Leeroy as a summon to kill him in 2 hits. DS3, not much different, Abyss Watchers, Pontiff, Darkeater Midir, Sister Friede, Soul of Cinder, all have summons for single player. Same principle, just different approach that fits ER better. Exactly like you said, it was available on all previous games.

[@Speeplonk]

from his comments on this game here and other games I don't think he's legitimately played another souls game. I forgot which video it was but he said something like one of his gripes was that it was buggy compared to other souls games, and how the others weren't. Like WHAT? Literally anyone who's played a souls game knows that about all of them have things like op soul farms, map breaks, WRONG WARPING and cheese

[@j0nnyism]

Never heard of it

[@ayanmishra2186]

They have got literally the best boss in Caelid Radahn and he is pretty important to the story

[@chosen_ashenone9677]

He was pointing out how Caelid is entirely optional, and you can beat the entire main game without ever encountering either Caelid or Radahn.

[@ayanmishra2186]

@@chosen_ashenone9677 Its like a either or situation In my first playthrough I did not beat Renalla only briefly entered the raya lucaria academy but Renalla is mentioned as a big name boss and Radahn isnt?

[@chosen_ashenone9677]

@@ayanmishra2186 yeah, both are technically optional. Majority of bosses are optional, however, you cannot beat the game without going through Liurnia of the Lakes. Unless you were to use the “jumps” that speed runners use. I think Luke was just mentioning how the game quite literally never funnels you through Caelid, ever. Whereas the game does funnel you through Liurnia. I do agree with you though.

[@threemeters1425]

@@chosen_ashenone9677 The majority of players chose the Age of Stars ending, so most of them had reasons to go to Caelid One of the plate thingies to activate the Dectus Elevator thingie is also in Caelid, so there’s plenty of reasons to go there

[@chosen_ashenone9677]

@@threemeters1425 That is 100% optional. He didn’t mention what most players did. He stated explicitly what was mandatory to complete the base game, not to unlock one of the alternative endings. You’re not wrong, but it’s also not directly related to what Luke was pointing out in that portion of the video. I also 100% the game, so I understand what you’re saying, it just isn’t mandatory for you to complete the base game, and complete the “main story” of the game.

[@Void-Knull]

Hey Luke, quick point that I want to bring up. I agree with everything you said about the process of respecing being tedious and bloated, but I'm pretty sure that the devs made it that way intentionally to discourage doing this every time you come across a boss that gives you a headache. They want you to persevere on the build you currently have instead of just optimizing your character and getting it first try. Thoughts?

[@7jc1rr9]

So they give you freedom to approach things however you like but if your build has a terrible matchup you are supposed to keep using it instead of trying a different way. This only creates frustration in the player once they recognize that their strategy up until that point doesn't work on the boss yet changing it will take enough time that they might as well try to persevere through it. Should they manage to succeed they either come out hating it or satisfied from overcoming an unnecessarily difficult challenge and if they fail and indeed they are fighting with a handicap and have to change it now they feel like they have to waste their time getting the materials. If it is intentional as you suggest it goes against the freedom of choice they give you from the start and creates unnecessary friction.

[@Captain_Hapton]

Yes, I used summons. Yes, I used Rivers of Blood. Yes, I ground the HELL out of that damn bird. Yes, I killed every single boss I could with Mohgwyn's Spear ability. Yes, I chose the Frenzied Flame ending. And no, I don't regret a damn thing.

[@dred_dreamr]

Damn the game must have been easy lmao

[@LOUDERthanU]

Dang straight. My 1st souls game and i needed some help. KZbin has been invaluable in getting ahead. I really need to work on my patience in combat but when i finally beat a boss it does feel like quite an achievement. I think its great that there are a number of ways to play through this

[@darkoale3299]

Frenzied Flame ending? Bold.

[@darkodev6961]

@@LOUDERthanU awesome bro, i did a ng+ cheese edition with those strats hahah

[@darkodev6961]

Hell yea brother! Play however you like as long as you have fun! I did the same thing on ng+ and it was awesome

[@TheIndulgers]

All I can say is thank god he is not a game developer.

[@SKRWdFaLife90]

I know right.

[@kollatt]

"elden ring is not a generationally defining game." later: "it's one of the most remarkable games i've ever played and i will be referencing it in comparison to future titles for years and years to come." ...k.

[@ak-ub1ym]

Well As a example Bill gates is known to be a good Samaritan and generous donor to most social causes and was influential in shaping a generation of software development and hardware for yrs to come But he/us had a medical lab in Wuhan where covid originated from so would u still call him influential after this without mentioning this? So referencing someone doesn't mean they are always generational defining but are fairly judged on good and bad they did.

[@bitbat9]

@@ak-ub1ym peddle your conspiracy theories on a Ben Shapiro video or something instead of here Thanks

[@angelfire1987]

@@bitbat9 oh dear god people still think covid came from a bat?? 🤣🤣

[@yaldabaothofgalar2618]

@@bitbat9 Oh god. A brainwashed leftist has entered the chat.

[@ak-ub1ym]

@@bitbat9 genius🙄(it's sarcasm in case u don't get the ref again) it was a analogy to show how u can still reference a person as generation defining but can also judge or gauge them on their flaws unbiased. Sorry to insult u like this but u smooth-bird-brained fool learn to get the context of comment when u read it and not just run ur mouth off like a d***he.

[@tehhotline4225]

"It's not just the frame rate that...." Proceeds to almost cry about frame rate on PC for 10 minutes

[@Darkasasin80]

I had an astronomically difficult time playing this game. I've played many other Soulsborne games but this one ran all over me. I just couldn't get my timings down to a satisfactory level, not even close. So I used a busted build. Even then I found it challenging, so if I hadn't I would not have gotten through the game let alone enjoy it. Because I used a busted build I was able to enjoy the game and even struggle long enough to get the Platinum. I had fun and regret nothing. If you are also struggling and close to quitting do what I did first. It might turn it around for you.

[@Darkasasin80]

Aaaaayyyyyeeee~ y'all really love me huh? I can't go anywhere on this stupid site without getting you creeps buggin me~ let a guy rest you beasts!

[@cowboy4187]

I don't think that this game is a masterpiece without flaws, in fact I prefer Sekiro as a fromsoft game just for that super honed pve experience. However, I do think that it is a really wonderful game and the best game to come out this year. Also, as lots of other people said, not sure how you missed Radahn and Caelid, that was one of the coolest boss fights that I've seen in a long time.

[@FelisImpurrator]

I don't think there's such a thing as a flawless game, so I think this can easily qualify as a masterpiece. Personally though, I can't stand parry focused games because I basically can't play them due to a fine motor disorder, so I have a bias and might never play Sekiro.

[@godsproject0]

100% this. I think its a great game.but man on man the vibes from BB 1st PT and Sekiro were on another level.

[@joebrown6778]

Tbf, and I know I'm crazy for this one, but I vastly, vastly preferred Sifu in almost every department. This being my first Soul's like experience (outside Sekiro) I was looking forward to it, mostly from the world that I did see (which, no argument there, is very very special) but also from word of mouth and critical consensus. Man idk if I was playing it wrong or not but the 10/10's, the sheer amount of them, baffle the shit out of me. The combat is just not fun. And bc of how hard the game is, if you want to see more of the world (the best part) you've got to deal with the dogshit combat. At least with Sifu you'd want to get better, you'd want to start pulling off fly shit, you'd want to start fucking up those bosses with style. Most of the stylish moves in ER comes with a years worth of startup. Sifu is the better game imho.

[@Pokémon-b8c]

@@joebrown6778 Elden Ring just isn’t that great, play Dark Souls 1 to get a feel of what Fromsoft can really do.

[@joebrown6778]

@@Pokémon-b8c I'm on PS5, is that the demon soul remaster or is it literally dark souls. The titles are a bit confusing to me

[@snack_happy656]

Not a fan of the Dark Souls genre typically, but about a month ago I started playing this and I like it way better. I think it helps because I can tailor my difficulty a bit. I can over level a bit if a fight is too hard. the biggest flaw to me on this is the story is somewhat lacking. A quest log would also be somewhat useful even if it just mentioned the last thing an individual said that is part of the quest. So I can remember I need to follow up on it.

[@lilili765]

If you try to figure out the story it's actually great. One of my favorite story's in gaming actually.

[@Luxuriouswhite]

I am a normal gamer who goes into games completely blind and I base my opinions about a game on how it makes me feel and how much fun it is while playing. Elden ring was my favorite first playthrough of any game I've ever played and it wasn't even close. An absolute EPIC 150 hour adventure for me

[@m74d3]

Totally agree, that's exactly what my experience was

[@CyberRyder]

Mine too.

[@GD-nu4iz]

Never played a FromSoft game before, took me 200+ hrs to finish this one, and got through most content. I'm currently on DS2 working my way through thier back catalog. 35 years of gaming and I can't think of a better game I've ever played both from an immersion perspective or just the overall breadth of options available to the player. Yeah, it has issues. Yeah the late game is way less polished than the early game, some bosses are better than others.. etc etc etc. But I guess my question for the reviewer is, if this isn't a masterpiece, what game is? I don't believe the criteria for a masterpiece is flawlessness, nor do I think a game exists that is beyond criticism. So what are we defining as a masterpiece?

[@John-996]

No Game is Unless They hit their peak. Elden Ring is nowhere near theres allot work they need to do in order to make a better open world in the future.

[@shockshow9823]

@@John-996 elden rings open world is considered one of the best

[@joebrown6778]

Sifu. Edit: I'm kind of kidding, but also kind of not. ER is the better experience I suppose bc the world does a ton of heavy lifting for it, but in order to see the world you've got to wrangle with sluggish, purposefully burdensome combat. Sifu, while lacking the resources and therefore the breadth and scope, has a far superior gameplay loop while what is there visually is a delight to behold. The club, the museum, every level (outside of maybe the 1st) showed me something I've never seen before in a game. ER is great but you HAVE to meet it on its terms, there's no compromise in it, and the incentive for getting 'gud' in it isn't great in terms of game feel.

[@GD-nu4iz]

@@joebrown6778 I'll check it out! Thanks!

[@travispeayarlal1485]

i also played Elden ring for 200 hours and now on DS 2 as well!

[@eanderson9599]

Good critique overall, but I disagree with a lot of what you said

[@angelogaming7805]

I feel the same way. Ironically, I think this review bit off more than it could chew. Many points regarding player choice and freedom in relation to game design, player experience, balancing, etc. were contradictory to other points made in the review. In one instance the level of player choice is applauded for how players were able to tailor the experience and difficulty to fit their play style, yet in another instance the game is broken because players could choose to farm certain locations for experience or be able to go back to easier locations only to find that bosses there weren't as difficult as the locations they just came from.

[@tankbeast8480]

Like? Because if you say you disagree give us what it is so you can take criticism it’s not the best souls game story wise or gameplay wise just a bunch of FS noobs lol

[@enman009]

@@angelogaming7805 you could point that out in the general comment section, because I was also confused with some of his points.

[@michaelmcqueeferton6911]

This dude: “we will discuss this game as of mid 2022” Also this dude: talks about the problems at launch for 20 min

[@smort123]

in a 3h review

[@Davidgopaint]

2:58:00 its designed to make you hit a brick wall, to incentivise exploration on a players "own terms" rather than forcing a linear path.

[@Liamgh501]

I feel like the major problems pointed out in this review are actually some of the best things about the game, imo. No level scaling, the ability to leave a boss and come back stronger after exploring more of the world, no hot loadout swapping, balancing patches happening post-release; none of these things feel bad to me, like at all. I also think comparing the launch state of Elden Ring to the historically unfinished states of Bethesda titles is pretty unfair, Elden Ring’s balancing patches of a few weapons, spells, and bosses felt ultimately minute in comparison to mammoths falling out of the sky, t-posing dragons teleporting everywhere haphazardly, and multiple quest lines/progression points that were just broken. The difference is that Bethesda (and most AAA game devs) release buggy, broken, and not fully realized games, knowing that their community will be okay ironing out most of those things and breathing life into the game via mods, while FromSoftware releases games that are fully realized with only minor performance issues, balancing issues, or online/matchmaking issues. I have played every Fromsoft Souls game day 1, besides Demon’s Souls, and every one has had a few issues but is still totally playable and enjoyable from the second it releases. Overall, this review was detailed and well done, but it feels like what ultimately keeps Elden Ring from Masterpiece status in Luke’s eyes is it not having some specific gameplay elements that he personally prefers.

[@lukew6725]

So the fact that a game needs to be fixed with patches is a good thing? You fanboys are deluded!

[@Liamgh501]

@@lukew6725 there are like 400+ weapons/spells in Elden Ring and 90 something bosses, it isn’t that surprising to me that they would release a few patches to balance some of those. My point is that the game has been playable and enjoyable since day 1, so it wasn’t released “unfinished” like it was Cyberpunk2077 or Fallout 76. Characterizing it that way is just disingenuous.

[@tmbfreak_16]

My guy put the Haligtree in mid game

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

🤦

[@eanderson9599]

You bring up a lot of good points regarding balance. I don’t blame the developers for releasing an unbalanced game, but I DO blame them for being slow with patches

[@orlando5789]

From usually doesn't patch their games. They just release the game, fix a few bugs and then move on to the next project. I say we should be grateful for the fact that they are still patching things 4 months after release.

[@enman009]

They are still patching the game, with big updates. Patch 1.04 was celebrated by the community for how many fixes/buffs it brought.

[@jakestocker4854]

I mean the game is absolutely massive and patch 1.04 was still fixing things that weren't even working period and finishing quest lines that weren't complete. I don't think it's been unreasonable at all there hasn't been a big balance patch yet.

[@jakestocker4854]

​@@orlando5789 that's not true at all.

[@orlando5789]

@@jakestocker4854 It is true. Most From games don't get many patches.

[@6FootVampire]

He tells you the way "you should play it" "its self evident" Dont listen, play the way YOU want to play. There is no wrong way. He is gatekeeping.

[@robertpayne6781]

There is no way in hell this guy had the required stats to use the Sword of Night and Flame in the opening area.

[@Hary_Half-Mast]

Wait. He made this entire video without having gone to Caelid? My man never learned that Radahn is there and is essential for the most popular ending and is one of the optional requirements to access Leyndel!? I pity Luke. He missed out on the glorious experience of wandering into that hellscape and meandering around every corner terrified and thrilled at each and ever new sight (It was the forest of mold trees with pest enemies around them just south of the smouldering wall, that did it for me...)

[@sammymaas9992]

Elden ring enemy and boss variety is actually large and had double that of other souls games and more variety then valhalla, forbidden west, breath of the wild and ghost of tsushima combined so people complaining about that are over critical it has alot of variety but people always nitpick it

[@infanos3720]

And most of them are bad. There is little of Worth to a lot of diferent but bad enemies and bosses, after all, everybody can make a bilion diferent enemies that are just the same but reskined or have no thought out into it. Make it smaller but better.

[@orlando5789]

Elden Ring's boss variety is reduced to "random enemy+ random enemy + healthbar". That isn't actual variety, it's just needless padding. The game has indeed lots of enemy types and bosses, but it is too long. If it had the same amount of encounter variety spread over a much smaller map, no one would complain. But, given that the endgame area introduces only ONE new enemy type, it's obvious to see why variety is such a big issue for this game. That's why Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1 have better enemy variety than Elden Ring. Sure, the number of actual enemy models is significantly smaller, but they're better spread out, such that, every new area introduces at least three or four new enemies.

[@raiden3013]

not really. theres only like 9 unique bosses which is some of the lwoest variety. most are just the same boss but with a different weapon or just a regular mob given a boss health bar like beast man from farmu azula or misbegotten. lol

[@WilliamUmstattd]

I played and hated Dark Souls 3 only getting past the second or third boss. Then I played and loved Elden Ring beating almost every boss including Melina and Elden Beast. Being able to over level by exploring was what saved the game for me. I also play mouse and keyboard and beat the whole game with a spear plus great shield build with summons.

[@marketlg24]

Calied as an awesome boss. Everyone should fight it

[@ss-oy3bs]

☎ᴛᵉˣţ𝄍✉𝑾𝒉𝔮ᴛᵗ𝑠𝑨𝑝𝑝 ᴍʀ ᴇɴᴏs ɢᴀʀᴅɴᴇʀ ✚𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟏𝟑𝟕𝟔𝟒𝟔𝟖𝟔✔ ʀᴇɢᴀʀᴅɪɴɢ ʙᴛᴄ/ᴇᴛʜ ɪɴᴠᴇsᴛᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪᴅᴇᴀs..👌❤

[@di9465]

So The Witcher 3 had a lot of problems like Elden Ring did and terrible launch yet he ignored it in his Witcher 3 critique but with Elden Ring he decide to not ignore it anymore? Okay

[@chuckgreene15]

Because he didn’t play the Witcher at launch I don’t think. Also Witcher 3 recovered very quickly.

[@enman009]

@@chuckgreene15 even in 2022, The Witcher 3 has glitches and some janky animations, specially with Roach and most boat sessions. Elden Ring, while still needs to nerf some weapons and buff others, feels much more better with patch 1.04. That's the patch that buffed every collosal weapon and magic, while considerably improving AI and gank fights. That came two months ago, while The Witcher 3 is till janky.

[@chuckgreene15]

@@enman009 most of those are simply down to the fact that it is 7 years old. The boat and roach are fine.

[@AstralBelt]

@@chuckgreene15 Elden Ring recovered really quickly too, though. The poor optimization for PC is not something that is still ongoing. I even got the game a few weeks after it first came out ON Steam, and it played perfectly fine.

[@cantcatchzoom19]

What was so bad about elden ring

[@TheGrimHHH]

43:00 - The game does ask you to go to Caelid for one of the endings. You have to go there and defeat an optional boss for Ranni's quest, which is one of the steps to unlock her ending.

[@RiteshSingh-po7tm]

also to unlock new underground region

[@jacoblaney5157]

Fromsoft isn't criticised as hard as Bethesda because from soft doesn't actively fuck their player base.

[@NotPork]

If you think a game as massive and as consistently high quality as ER is overhyped, I don't know what you think devs are supposed to do to "deserve" or "live up to" hype as much as you seem to want them to. Remind me if I'm forgetting some, but elden ring is pretty much the only instance I can remember where a game ever actually HAS lived up to massive hype, other than maybe Portal 2, which was a pretty small-scope game.

[@redox4088]

This review unfortunately ignores the size of the game. I was astonished to the fact how polished it was considering the size. I think we have all played Cyberpunk and I personally believe Cyberpunk wasn't bashed because of the performance issues, it was bashed because it was a bad game. The Witcher 3 itself had many performance issues yet wasn't bashed on because it was a great game. If Cyberpunk fixed every single bug and animation, it will still be a bad game. I played over 120 hours of elden ring on a 2060 and I cannot remember a moment I was frustrated to the point I was like the performance sucks.

[@crc4716]

@@redox4088 a huge step back from Bloodborne and Sekiro. With these two games, they tried to do something new with the mechanics. Elden ring has the same gameplay as Dark Souls. They just gave the fans an open world with a horse and let them jump and fans are already calling it a masterpiece. It's a good game, but not a masterpiece.

[@enman009]

I agree. It's more that people think that this is just Dark Souls 4, even though the boss design, the combat options, the crafting, legacy dungeons and narrative delivery are so different that some think calling the game a Masterpiece is being a fanboy. And also people are biased and partial. The Witcher 3 came with bigger issues and less polish at launch and yet was considered a Masterpiece. Even with two expansions is very flawed to be considered "a perfect Masterpiece".

[@redox4088]

@@crc4716 " Gave the fans just an open world and a horse". Sums up how wrong you are. This is probably the most well done open world in gaming period. Yeah I prefer the gameplay in Bloodborne and this at times felt like a step back not to mention the summons, the crafting system no one uses, the broken builds. But it is simply a masterpiece for the fact it kept me playing for 150 hours on the first run without even realising for just 60 dollars. You don't get that type of entertainment value often.

[@crc4716]

@@enman009 I havent played Witcher 3 and not planning on playing it. Elden ring is a good game, but not a masterpiece for me. I enjoyed sekiro so much that I actively searched for additional bosses and beat them one by one after completing the story then came back to do the trials. And still come back to it sometimes. It was that good for me.

[@MrVvulf]

Salad is nothing more than a crypto miner. You're quickly losing my respect Luke. You're selling out your own audience to a shady enterprise. Using euphemisms like "complex mathematical equations" to hide what's really going on reinforces that it's little better than a full on scam. Sure, it's legit. They legitimately use YOUR hardware and internet connection to make money for themselves, and throw some pennies your way.

[@DjDolHaus86]

That's kind of how the world works, if you work for a company then they use YOUR labour to make money and throw a few pennies your way.

[@TimelessTransience]

If that's true it's especially bad considering a ways back he had put out something about how he only wanted to take sponsors for things he trusts and uses himself. Think it was said around the start of the Ridge wallet, idk - not sure if it was its own video or part of the spiel about the ad, either.

[@desfefe]

@@TimelessTransience Yeah and there needs to be a CBA on that cause you might be paying more over electricity than you earn, implying losses to allow for shady cunts to get loads of money (yes one pc isn't enough, but let's say 1000 pcs doing the work might net them a decent amount of money).

[@handlingitokay]

It's piss easy to start crypto mining for yourself, seriously. These companies just take advantage of the idea that crypto mining is difficult stuff. Do some Google searches and just cut out the middle man.

[@ADreamingTraveler]

When I read the description of what that thing was in the video I thought something didn't seem right. Had no idea it was basically that

[@siddharthshishulkar8992]

Luke: I'll will everything so back and play the game. Also Luke: * Miss the underground entirely*

[@HassanCampbeII]

▪️Thanks for commenting, make a note to Steven Gray regarding BTC/ETH investment ideas and Let him know I referred you.

[@HassanCampbeII]

☎ᴛᵉˣţ𝄍✉𝑾𝒉𝔮ᴛᵗ𝑠𝑨𝑝𝑝 ᴍʀ ᴍʀ sᴛᴇᴠᴇɴ ɢᴀʀʏ ✚𝟏𝟕𝟎𝟔𝟓𝟐𝟏𝟒𝟕𝟖𝟎✔ ʀᴇɢᴀʀᴅɪɴɢ ʙᴛᴄ/ᴇᴛʜ ɪɴᴠᴇsᴛᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪᴅᴇᴀs👌

[@bigposts6673]

I was going to give up on this video because it was taking forever to get on with it but it was the crypto mining ad that let me knew that video wasn't worth it.

[@_numb]

On a positive note, I love u

[@rondopacker]

Ive only played demons souls PS5 and elden ring, and I loved both of them, I don’t think it was over hyped

[@dynamicflashy]

Elden Ring is a masterpiece. A masterpiece is not without its faults.

[@MrRadialdrift]

Yet it has innovated nothing, so how is it a masterpiece?

[@dynamicflashy]

@@MrRadialdrift Firstly, I disagree that it innovated nothing. Similarly, what did Red Dead Redemption 2 innovate? How about The Witcher 3? Both are improvements on existing formulas (they're sequals, after all) and both are commonly considered masterpieces - for good reason. Not only is innovation not synonymous with masterpiece, it's also subjective. No Man's Sky and Knack are innovative.

[@MrRadialdrift]

@@dynamicflashy I like Elden Ring, I had fun, I would recommend others to play it, but its not a Masterpiece. 3 games that are Masterpieces of game design would be Half Life, The Secret of Monkey Island and System Shock 2. All 3 are genre defining games, innovative and pushed gaming forward. Red Dead 2 was shit - it gave the player no choice and added needless mechanics that added nothing to the experience. Witcher 3 was one of the dumbest games I have ever played - for a game that resolved its solutions around combat, its combat system was pure puss, and it has some of the worst physics I have seen in a game. W3 actually was one of the most dumbed down gaming experiences I have played. But, it looks pretty, has a decent story, so therefore must be a masterpiece of game design. The stupidity of W3 lays in the fact that the parts of the game, that are the best, was when it didn't hold your hand, and these moments were very, very rare., yet showed just how good W3 should have been. Every fucking game these days is a fucking masterpiece. This is usually based on peoples complete biased subjective nonsensically gibberish. Claims such as "This is the best game ever made' yet no one has played every game ever made. At last count since the 1980's, well over 1.5 million games have be made, yet no one has played every game. So, is Elden Ring a masterpiece - Is it a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, and workmanship? No, its not. It's an open world version of a Souls style game, that lacks technical workmanship, recycles numerous ideas and doesn't push those ideas forward, it doesn't innovate, it copies from itself and from others.

[@abrielrobertsson4160]

Have you played any of the Soulsborne games? Be honest.

[@flamingmanure]

i find it hilarious that he speaks of the lower quality of the game when the most pathetic trash bosses belong to bb and ds1 XD micolash and bed of chaos, come to think of it those 2 games have the most mediocre bosses generally speaking if were going by boss count. had more fun fighting ER mini bosses than many main bosses of those games.

[@netwatch7261]

This is the first analysis I have so many qualms with.

[@seinfan9]

I don't have the patience to endure the pain of ever getting good at a game like this. It's a game I would love to experience, but I don't want to waste my life away on trying to beat different bosses multiple dozens of times.

[@Cman04092]

Homestly, even though it gets pretty linear after the forge of giants, it doesn't really feel like it. The crumbling farum azula is a big area, with a bunch of different paths. I mean, it's definitely different from big areas like limegrave, liurnia, altus, etc. But it's very good sized when compared to other dungeon type areas, like stormvile, raya lucara, carian manor, ect.

[@nathanhendrickson790]

And boy the things those alternate paths lead to you can either go up the bridge and face maliketh and progress the story or down the elevator back through the room and down to turn back time and face the dragon lord

[@DCapps1994]

This game was a 10/10 experience for me. Never had a boring moment, but had a lot of amazing ones. Easily one of my favorite games ever.

[@IlMerluz]

Social pressure 101, your opinions aren't even yours :(

[@flamingmanure]

pathetic counter culture pressure 101, your opinions arent even yours :(. im sorry elden ring being one of the best games of all time to far more than their boring old games ever will be. after playing ER first and then the rest, the others are just a complete downgrade in everyway but music. on a design level, its just way above their league. do you need a napkin to stop your salty tears cuz ER made old soulsborne irrelevant?

[@lilili765]

​@@IlMerluzbrotha. Why the fuck do you insult him for actually enjoying a game. Your commentary is completely useless so don't type it in the first place

[@CyberRyder]

Agree agree :)

[@lucasbrockini7204]

I haven't see a problem with the pace. That't by far the best aspect of the game, for me at least. You sure can miss some bosses while exploring the world. Personaly i didn't mind finding some bosses or areas that were below my current level, and that's because i had a lot of trouble in more advanced regions, so all was balanced out. The world design and the natural progression were perfect in this game.

[@juhoniemela]

To add my view in the summon discussion I do think they are good for the game and player base. I personally do not use them simply because I feel like I am not getting as much out of the boss fights. And yes I am a hardcore fan of the series. But I love summons in a sense that many of my friends who were not fans of these games actually finished elden ring with summons, fell in love with the game and have now finished older games too. And now they are understanding why I am not using summons and have finished or tried at least to finish elden ring without summons. There have always been easier ways to play these games and I think we should not be hating people for using them if it makes them appreciate from software games

[@DAVIDPEREZ-ui1up]

I played through on different builds for different experience. I did a no summon play through with just kitana (no rivers of blood) completing all achievements. I did a mage plus one, no summon with dark moon great sword. I started over with sword and shield and summons. I started over with all faith and summons when needed. I did a plus 1 just God mode... 230+ level anything goes. The game is a master piece. I've been waiting 40 years for a game like this, and I hope to see something better in my lifetime. Enjoy it how ever you can and want. And even if it takes 100 trys to beat a boss, or 1 try to beat the same boss... its up to you how you do it and how you want to enjoy it. Side note: Didn't agree with many things in this video. Like I said... it is a master piece.

[@oh-not-the-bees7872]

You guys are sheep

[@enman009]

The fact that Miyazaki doesn't care how you beat the game yet allows anything to be viable only speaks to the brilliant design of this game. Soulsborne are on another level, but this reached new heights.

[@stevensands33]

Your critiques are almost nonsensical. You used a broken weapon and are shocked it’s broken in either direction? Most of these games can be broken.

[@TigerTzu]

It's amazing how little you managed to say in this 3 hour video. It could've been, like, 20 minutes.

[@samuki1992]

yeah, this guy likes to do long videos just for the sake of being long.

[@matsimurf_5900]

@The Grud It's amazing that you say one thing when really you're just butthurt that someone criticised your life of elden ring gaming. Also, if he had vomited praise for 3 hours like you silently demand, you would be all over his dique.

[@TTVBunnyDougie]

Seeing him justify the use of Sword of Night and Flame the entire playthru; Priceless.

[@MichaelOcherz]

I mean, when he's saying it's one of several playthroughs he did... sure, it's kind of whatever?

[@chawkfan94]

I feel like he spent wayyyy too much time on that. Luke has a lot more interesting and smart points to make rather than spending that much time on one weapon that now plays quite a bit different. Havel flipping moms were more annoying IMO

[@intigim5861]

I had a important realization after recently playing the OG Dark Souls. The games are remarkably similar on how much they seem like the very definition of a "flawed masterpiece". Both have ridiculously awful lows, feel rushed and yet are saved by having industry defining highs. I find that to be extremely interesting.

[@dekdenfor9770]

I honestly think I prefer games that swing that hard for their highs and have misses over games that shave all the edges off but never achieve those highs to begin with.

[@cardmossdn8058]

What are the “ ridiculously awful lows” of Elden Ring?

[@ranaashhad8040]

@@cardmossdn8058 repeated bosses.

[@intigim5861]

@@dekdenfor9770 Me too. I find it really easy to love those highs and tolerate the lows.

[@intigim5861]

@@cardmossdn8058 Repeated bosses, poor balancing with both the player's tools and the enemies, a mishandled difficulty curve (ie. difficulty is good, difficulty spike is bad), poor exploration rewards as the game continues, inconsistent boss design where incredible bosses get mixed with dull and badly designed bosses, multiple overarching issues with boss design that get worse the further the game goes etc. I admit that perhaps "ridiculously awful lows" is a bit of a hyperbole when said about ER specifically, but not a big one. The lows are very noticable and continue to worsen the more you play the game, as is the case with DS1. They also have a habit of layering on top of each other making the sum of those lesser parts worse. EDIT: Added the mention of overarching boss design issues.

[@tob564]

At 2:51:40 ummmm, what?! Behind Niall is also the other part of the secret medallion that let's you into Consecrated Snowfields and through there to the Haligtree. Those are too whole areas that require an item behind Niall... Does this mean you missed Malenia? Edit: oh, it seems you didn't miss the Snowfields afterall.

[@Kaladin07]

Game is a masterpiece. At some point uncovering every single tiny flaw became the popular thing to do. Nothing to see here.

[@Zeegoku1007]

Shit graphics , frame rates , miserable and mundane UI , animations and mechanics ported straight out of Dark souls 3 and slapped it onto a bland open world. Yeah just some minor nitpicks. But still a 10/10 😇

[@Kaladin07]

@@Zeegoku1007 not sure why I'm even responded to this dumb comment. Go back to playing Valhalla

[@Zeegoku1007]

@@Kaladin07 that's not how you make a counter reply you miserable dumbass. Just state one thing about my comment that is wrong. And elaborate it in a few sentences. "Go play Valhalla". Well I can just say , "Keep sucking Miyazaki dick , you worthless neck bearded idiot". But that's not how it works.

[@Badlovch]

@@Zeegoku1007 bruh

[@orlando5789]

How tiny the flaws are is up to each and every player's interpretation.For me, the repeated areas from the other Souls games, lack of balance, sub-par level design and less than stellar boss fights make this game everything but a masterpiece. But I can just as easily find someone who is going to disagree with me. So, no, your opinion is not objective( neither is mine, for the record) and what you deem "tiny flaws" might not be that tiny for someone else.

[@j0nnyism]

I wish there was a way of recovering smithing stones spent on one weapon with some item so u could respend them when using larvel tears to rebuild a character

[@RKGrizz]

2:33:49 That is not what happened in the story at all. The Elden Ring is not a ring; Marika did not destroy it to resurrect Godwyn, in fact you could argue she destroyed it to kill him.

[@ribbonexylophone835]

??? He was already dead wdym

[@_greenrunner_]

godwyn was already dead at that moment thanks to Ranni. Marika decided to ruin it out of grief and to regain control.

[@btetirick]

@@_greenrunner_ I'm not even certain that she broke it out of grief. Personally I think she was waiting for Godwin to die before shattering the Elden Ring because he needed to be dead for her greater plans to work.

[@RKGrizz]

One could argue that removing the Rune of Death from the "law" that the Elden Ring created for the Lands Between in accordance to the Greater Will's desires was the first step in the Shattering. There are multiple inferences in the game that Marika wanted to be free of the influence of the Greater Will and that she orchestrated the entire events of the game in order to achieve this goal. Everything from Ranni killing Godwyn to Hewg being enslaved to create a weapon capable of killing a God was all apart of Marika's plan.

[@AstralBelt]

@@btetirick The official story is she did it out of some sort of grief-stricken madness. Anything else is fan speculation and cannot be proven without a shadow of a doubt. I do believe that Marika did it intentionally and she had her own agenda of splitting the Greater Will's influence from the world, but that cannot be proven for sure with the provided information. We could also come to the conclusion that Marika might have been involved in Godwyn's assassination to begin with, as she is connected to the Black Knives, as both her and they are Numen and various items imply a deeper relationship between them. Ranni could've even received the opportunity to contact them from Marika, but ultimately we cannot know for sure.

[@xxxs8309]

Elden Ring has incredible variety in terms of weapons and incredible World design.

[@namelesshunter4714]

almost all weapon type had similiar move set.

[@xxxs8309]

@@namelesshunter4714 still you.can play as a Sorcerer or Strength built or both

[@craigstevenson5033]

Honestly it speaks to how great this game is hearing you nitpick so hard.

[@Tangeffect]

Yeah there's not many games that you can make a 3 hour video about, most games probably can't even fill out 30 minutes lol

[@IlMerluz]

I love how op marketing is, and social pressure, most of you just got your opinion from the "social standard" and never for a moment thought about Elden Ring in a critical matter in any way, whether positive or not :) And obviously you don't realize it! For the record I think the game is a 7/8 out of 10, very good game in many ways, but full of catastrophic flaws

[@craigstevenson5033]

@@IlMerluz I work 70 hours a week with people who don't even know I own a PC. I played ER because I'm a fan of the Dark Souls games. I'm not sure how much of an influence 'social pressure' was on my enjoyment of the game to be honest. I loved every minute of it and I'm sorry if that upsets you.

[@IlMerluz]

@@craigstevenson5033 It doesn't upset me and I'm happy you got enjoyment out of it! That said when people ( it's not quite your case but almost I'd say ) stop talking about how much they enjoyed it, which is a reasonable and personal way to feel about anything, and add "critique" into it, give a score or make a review, still based on all those personal feelings and leaving out all the objective flaws of the game, it becomes frustrating from an outside view, I think you can agree with that :) Game has a lot of great shit, a lot of bad shit, not a 10/10, simple as that

[@somnia3423]

@@IlMerluz what did you dislike about the game?

[@morsecode5078]

This is just a dumb take. Nobody wants level scaling in a souls game. Working to level up and get op is part of the fun. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a big boss’s health bar losing huge chunks. Also, ng+ is also a thing.

[@aersla1731]

Idk about the whole telling people how they should play their game.... I think enjoyment of things is subjective...

[@deskmanatee]

It's one of the best games I've ever played. Not perfect, to be sure, but one of the best.

[@Omega77232]

The moment you mentioned enemy scaling in elden ring this video goes downhill so fast.Scaling will ruin the sense of progression that people experienced while playing this game,its not always the best solution. He forgot to mention on why some weapons got nerfed is because of pvp balance and not just pve only and if what he saying is true they already nerf bleed entirely The summary of this video is he wants an open world game with linear game progression sorry buddy thats a bad way to make a great open world game

[@utisti4976]

Yeah, screw enemy scaling. The lack of that is one of the reasons why I loved Elden Ring.

[@giovannifederici673]

Have an upvote

[@Lightsaglowllc]

Level scaling would ruin this game.

[@enman009]

And hopefully, with more patches, the game will have right amount of challenge with its progression. The sense of becoming stronger until the end is really palpable.

[@michaelwerkov3438]

Yeah... people are so fucking weird about open worlds. Its ok to want a linear game with lots of exploration. Its like theyve bought so hard into the marketing gimmick of open worlds they lost track of their own opinion