Why You Should Play Elden Ring - By Brandon Sanderson

[@jkubed95]

2.7 million runes? Are you saving up to directly purchase the Elden Ring from Radagon himself?

[@psterud]

Haha. Spend them and use your magick on something else!

[@Pepsolman]

More like to take Malenia out on a date.

[@joeruder]

LOL....good one.

[@melonmazing515]

In DS3 you can spend the equivalent of your next five level ups in order to reverse a certain status. I did it at over level 200. It cost something like 5 and a half MILLION souls(runes).

[@spacedoohicky]

I regular get that many runes. I spend them on items like bombs, and throwing knives. Maybe a bunch of smithing stones if I'm looking to try a new weapon.

[@JohnJRM]

Brandon rolling into the Theodrix boss fight with near base vigor and carrying 2.7 million runes, the mad lad. For those on the fence about this game's difficulty and seeing Brandon get two-shot by this dragon, he would have had a MUCH easier time if he'd used those runes (the game's equivalent of experience points) to level up and get more health, defense, etc. It's clear that he calibrated his experience to his own difficulty preferences, though, and had a great time with it. All power to you, Brandon!

[@deadcaptainjames6045]

So true I had a completely different build with dual hammers and I could take 5 or 6 hits from this boss without dying

[@coredumperror]

I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Thanks for the explainer.

[@blugobln85]

He's using a mod that removes the rune lost on death part of the game. He respawns with all the runes still present.

[@grafitiend]

@@blugobln85 He used a special tear for it

[@darkonesadvocate]

He's using the Twiggy Cracked Tear, which prevents rune loss on death.

[@pogicus89]

This is the closest we’ve ever gotten to hearing Sanderson’s opinion on Guts from Berserk.

[@lordfifthissth8258]

Where?

[@SciTutor]

@@lordfifthissth8258 He's using the "Guts" Greatsword in his build

[@lucasloaiza2468]

i’d love so badly to hear his takes on berserk but tonally they are so far apart i’ve made my peace with the fact it’s just not brrrrisket ssandwiches cup of tea

[@agustiniturrideluca6051]

there some parts in oathbringer that reminds u of guts, when Dalinar goes berserk in the battlefield

[@kensin3152]

@@agustiniturrideluca6051 made me laugh for some reason. Goes berserk, therefore guts reference sounds like an awful joke I would make.

[@sirgoo9962]

One aspect I adore about these games is the sudden quiet after the boss is defeated. Often the music is incredibly intense and epic, and the adrenaline rush toward the end when victory is within grasp adds up, so when you pull it off, the boss dies and your left standing in the now empty arena... Victory.

[@chrisowenssff4876]

Yep...there is an indescribable high when a tough boss is defeated.

[@sammywatokohom172]

Me, too. Then I fell off, and lost all the runes.

[@JoshBurcham104]

That hit the hardest after the defeat of Melina for me. You work so hard to get it done, and then that's it. dead end. Move on.

[@LtSMASH324]

@@JoshBurcham104 Malenia

[@DigitalHaze65536]

The one thing I noticed, that I preferred in DS3, was that when you beat a boss in that game there was a little more lag until the victory was made official. The sound was also a little more dramatic. I was in the habit of always throwing that extra hit because of the dreaded 10hp left possibility lol....those 2 factors just made it even more dramatic compared to ER.

[@pinkowl9752]

Dual wielding ultra greatswords like everyone expected him to, what a legend.

[@aether388]

And intentionally underlevelling himself, to boot lol. I'm impressed

[@Dank_Engine]

I fangirled. And I’m a boy

[@skookum112]

Must be burning pewter

[@KingAzion1232]

All I could think while playing this was how amazing a FromSoft mistborn or Stormlight game would be

[@wmacosx]

Maaan that would be awesome... from Leyndell to Luthadel

[@Pandemia616]

I feel like From would struggle with those because they would rely on freedom of movement as mistborn and radiants can fly and every from software game relies on game mechanics and items to keep you from going too far off course or into end game areas and you can't do that if your characters can literally fly. Besides Miyazaki would never make a game where you're immune to gravity 🤣

[@mikkelbirkholm6095]

@@Pandemia616 i think the way they made sekiro could function pretty well for a mistborn game, and showcased that they can make games with more movement, but mistborns world doesnt have any really huge monsters or such that would constitute the kind of bossfights from usually does. if there was a game series i could see making a good base for a stormlight game it would be the infamous series, but with more focus on melee combat as rosharan magic isnt really spellcasting, and roshar does have huge monsters that could be the kind of monster boss battle.

[@Pandemia616]

@@mikkelbirkholm6095 Totally agree about infamous, my thought was actually arkham city or Dishonoured. A game where you're just playing in Luthadel as a mistborn trying to promote the interests of your noble house would be pretty awesome. For stormlight I feel like something akin to Elden ring with a splash of Witcher 3 would work best, the flying is still a bit iffy but I suppose if its class based maybe only a few of them can do it or its a really late game ability etc. There's very little actual world building in mistborn so Luthadel would be the only logical setting but roshar is huge with multiple races and many different nations so it kinda has to be open world imo.

[@ProjektBurn]

@@Pandemia616 they did Armored Core which has limited flying so.... I'm more than sure they could pull off either and it would be epic af!

[@Ziostorm]

So glad you loved this game. Been watching your lectures from a while back. I can imagine someone who crafts worlds like you do can find much more to appreciate beyond the surface

[@pratikmandal1350]

Yo Zio, love your videos. Have you read Brando's books?

[@mythun6735]

I was going to ask if you're aware that your metroid prime logo is backwards, but then I realized it's meant to be a Z because of your name. I am dumb.

[@aether388]

Wasn't expecting to see you here Ziostorm - also wasn't expecting to see a video from Brandon Sanderson about Elden Ring in my video feed. Small world. I'm kinda surprised he didn't talk more about this game's lore and world though, given how much of a selling point it is and given how that's Brandon's whole thing lol

[@coolestloser16]

My favorite fantasy author talking about how much he loves my favorite fantasy game was a pleasant surprise to receive while waiting for my car’s breaks to be fixed. I love you Brandon and your insanely low vigor bar.

[@jackkendall6420]

gigachad brando doing a zero vigour challenge run, respect

[@nickv1212]

Say what you will, man still got to the endgame with no vigor.

[@Tutorial7a]

There is something wonderfully bizarre about seeing Brandon Sanderson play a game where a cosmic world-defining entity has been shattered, resulting in singular named shards of reality being taken ahold of by shardbearers, in a world dominated by eternal storms, carapace-covered semi-aquatic crustacean life, featuring interplanetary conflict, an internarrative trickster character (in the form of Patches), magic horses, spirits that embody forces of nature, alternate planes of reality, gravity-based magic, illusions, a corruptive red essence that can unmake entire regions, a thrill of battle that brings a red haze to the eyes, characters with (admittedly cartoonishly portrayed in Elden Ring) mental instability, summonable magic swords, a cosmic power called Ruin, inanimate objects that have been imbued with power to carry out specific tasks, gemstones that house cosmic magic, and a comparatively hard magic system involving things being imbued and invested with Color (that can be drained).... ...written by George Martin. I've been laughing my head off about this for months.

[@garnix5427]

What can be imbued and invested with Color in Elden Ring? I get the reference to Warbreaker, but don't remember that in the game

[@Tutorial7a]

@@garnix5427 Gold is kind of The Motif in the game, alongside red, silver, blue, and so on-and Somber Smithing Stones, for example, talk about how they’ve been drained of color. It’s mostly in the crafting and upgrade materials I think.

[@firstNamelastName-ho6lv]

This game sounds perfect for me. Brandon managed to voice all the abstractions in my head of the things I love in games.

[@robbybevard8034]

"...written by George Martin." Martin collaborated, he didn't really write it. He provided the backstory lore for the gods, then the game jumps forward a few hundred years and everything currrent is written by the usual Fromsoft team. Still funny.

[@Tutorial7a]

@@robbybevard8034 Yeah, but it doesn’t play into the joke as well lol. Miyazaki’s incredible-honestly the game’s got so much of his style it’s easy to forget Martin was involved at all. I just like to imagine this whole thing was an elaborate ploy by George to, right under Miyazaki’s nose, cleverly sneak his revenge against Brandon for writing so fast. With Miyazaki being completely aware of it the entire time. There’s a really good-bad reality TV show in here somewhere.

[@Seb_Falkor]

Maan as a huge fan of souls since the first one way back when, it really makes me proud to see the reach elden ring has. It isn’t my favorite soulsborne as I’m not really a fan of huge open world games, but it is still a fantastic experience.

[@MrSekeeroMan]

Sekiro is my personal favorite fromsoftware game due to the amazing combat and imo best bosses in the series like isshin the sword saint, father owl.

[@flamingmanure]

@@MrSekeeroMan my fav is elden ring, but sekiro comes in as a VERY close second. tbh i now find the fromsoft games that are older than ds3 to be pretty boring. i even tried replaying bb right after elden ring and just stopped playing when i reached burgenworth and went right back to elden ring. ill replay sekiro in another 3 or 4 years. god that game is a masterpiece. all the games are freakin amazing though. dark souls 2 gets a bad rep but it still has the best build variety/viability and pvp by far.

[@MrSekeeroMan]

@@flamingmanure I would say elden ring has the best build variety now and i still love bloodborne..got platinum in sekiro, bloodborne and elden ring as these 3 are my favorite fromsoftware games.

[@enman009]

@@flamingmanure I still recommend you muscle through Bloodborne. The Old Hunters is more than enough to warrant a playthrough. But yeah, Elden Ring is a Masterpiece (like most Fromsotf games), but Sekiro and Bloodborne are something else.

[@jjkthebest]

Ds1 is still my favourite. I which they'd make a game with a world as amazing as ds1's, but I believe the developers have said in interviews that that was pretty much by accident.

[@PetrikLeo]

I've been a fan of the "franchise" since Demon Souls, and it's been super surreal and amazing seeing FromSoftware games getting more and more popular. Brandon, hopefully we'll get to see you collaborate with FromSoftware in the future. Also, you need to show us your fight against Malenia, the Blade of Miquella! :)

[@joshuarogers5563]

Brandon and FromSoft is a match made in heaven. Write this down and send it to Sanderson and From! Brandon could have the entire franchise written and submitted by the time George even lifted a finger!!

[@MrGhostTheBigRoast]

@@joshuarogers5563 what are you even saying man. brandon the exposition man sanderson is not the right guy for we dont care if you understand the story fromsoft. i like brandon very much but no, this is not a perfect match. i would much rather brandon teaming up with studios like arkane, the people who gave us arx fatalis and dishonored and prey. that would be a good match up.

[@psterud]

Oh, she's the Blade of Miquella? How do you know this?

[@PetrikLeo]

@@psterud everyone who fought her can't forget that she's the Blade of Miquella. 😂

[@psterud]

@@PetrikLeo 😁

[@Severian1]

Oh man, I'd love to see Brandon do these for the whole series. Sekiro is still my favorite. The greatest rhythm game ever made.

[@CallMeRito]

Sekiro definitely has the best combat, but lacks the variety of other games.

[@4LegCrotch]

@@CallMeRito What’s there is so insanely good that I could do it for eternity, so lack of variety isn’t a problem, at least not for me

[@CallMeRito]

@@4LegCrotch It probably It's my fault, I played it back to back to get all 4 endings. But I do feel like a lot of the content is recycled and a little repetitive at times.

[@DarkSol16]

@@CallMeRito I think it's replayable in the same way a rhythm game is. There's just a simple satisfaction of parrying, countering and striking perfectly and each boss is like a different song.

[@vembdev]

Brandon vs Guardian Ape would be awesome to see haha.

[@uglyluffy7815]

Brandon Is truly based. I love this man

[@shavedraven]

Brandon if youre reading this based means youre smart

[@mr_peach7704]

If you're not luring Theodorix out to be aggro'd by the ginormous land octopus nearby you are absolutely missing out on one of the great Elden Ring 'moments'. It's King Kong vs. Godzilla goodness.

[@JacquesduPlessis11]

I did that by mistake and just ended up being a surprise bystander to a glorious battle.

[@scottn322]

Nothing better than seeing one of your favorite writers playing one of your favorite games. This was awesome.

[@danielbergman434]

I just love how passionate he is talking about the game. Actually a gamer. Truly can't wait to see Mistborn or Stormlight video games. Or perhaps an entirely new Saga in the Cosmere to sink our grubby little paws into.

[@johnleonard9102]

I have never seen a game recommended by such a diverse roster of gaming KZbinrs. Arlo, The Act Man, and now Brandon Sanderson. I didn't think we would get game of the generation this early on.

[@smert_ditto]

Arlo's goated

[@coredumperror]

Considering how long console generations are, I think it's a little premature to just assume that nothing else as good or better than Elden Ring will be coming in the next 6+ years.

[@BronzeApparathus]

@@coredumperror you are right, from soft will release more games after all.

[@rawadosa90210]

@@BronzeApparathus lel

[@MrGhostTheBigRoast]

@@BronzeApparathus the next one is most likely going to be armored core. i think they have talked about having one in the pipeline.

[@seth.goldin]

Literally just beat Elden Ring last night. Easily top 3 games of all time for me (up there with Hollow Knight and the Witcher 3)! So glad to see my favorite author also enjoyed it

[@kephalai]

more Brandon Sanderson video essays would be amazing

[@pretty5793]

I love to read fantasy novels. I never thought I would find an author who is so relatable, positive and encouraging. Thank you Brandon!

[@alicesmith2384]

The thing I love about the Soulsbourne series is how satisfying it is to go from taking 200 tries on each boss on your first playthrough to beating every boss first try on your tenth playthrough

[@SonofOrion42]

How do you feel about the game's lore? It'd be really interesting to hear your take as a fantasy writer, and there is a *lot* to unpack in this game.

[@aether388]

Yeah I was expecting him to talk more about that side of it tbh, given that fantasy world building is what he does lol. Maybe in the next one, it sounded like he wants to make more elden ring videos

[@gatsuyatsu]

If Brandon says so, all must follow through. Thankfully I finished it a while ago, want to play it again with a new build.

[@theoreticalphysics3644]

I only recently started playing dark souls for the first time. Holy crap it's hard, but so damn satisfying when you achieve those small victories. You also really gotta love those "thank you dark souls" moments. I probably won't get around to elden ring for a few months tbh I wanna finish the dark souls games and sekiro first, but I'm really excited to eventually play it. It genuinely seems like one of the greatest games ever made next to breath of the wild imo.

[@aidengray3998]

When I saw Kalameet for the first time, it actually scared me a bit. I avoided fighting him for a LONG time. When I finally started fighting him, I bit it hard, and more than any other boss could manage. The first time I killed the dragon... I had to stop, lay down, and stop my hands from shaking. It was the best moment any game has ever given me by a country mile.

[@melonmazing515]

Just keep trying(as long as it's fun), that's really the most important thing to know. I was straight up horrible when I first started but I've gotten a lot better.

[@TheHunterOfYharnam]

Play bloodborne (and from software's dlcs are the best parts of each game, especially bloodborne and ds3)

[@calebwillingham6481]

I think you would love the game Tunic. It's like old-school Zelda meets Dark Souls meets fascinating storytelling, and it has a similar difficulty style to what you're describing (a lot of the difficulty has to do what you just don't know yet, and much of the game is discovering more and more that you can do)

[@laurentbercot3465]

I would *love* to see Brandon play Tunic, applying his Dark Souls skills to beating the bosses, of course, but above all, having the end-game epiphanies. When you figure out what you have to do to get the true ending... it's a one-of-a-kind feeling.

[@EpicBlakMan33]

I hope all these Elden Ring videos means Brandon and Bandai are seriously looking at working together after the extension made toward him. We want Sanderson in our games

[@sphong0610]

As someone interested in writing fantasy lit, Lost Ark seems to have such a good story once you get to the endgame. It starts off as a typical fantasy story, but the later questions it asks about free will, motivation, how difficult decisions are made, and how they form a story are insightful and thought provoking.

[@im2randomghgh]

Even as someone who doesn't enjoy these games at all and who prefers to calibrate his difficult levels by different means, it's great to hear your passion for this! I'm sure you glad for the chance to talk about something other than the Cosmere, as well!

[@kb-pierce]

I don't play video games, I don't like video games, but man I will listen to Brandon Sanderson talk about absolutely anything

[@StellarSTLR1]

It brings me joy seeing my favorite author enjoy Elden Ring this much.

[@Abraham-books]

Guess this is the last piece of advice I needed to finally go try the game

[@jokergreeting]

It took me a good 40 hours to understand and enjoy the game. I didn’t watch any tutorials…maybe that could have helped. Haha

[@aether388]

GLHF! I wish I could experience this game for the first time again. Don't be afraid to look things up, there's a LOT that this game doesn't tell you

[@dealebd]

do not be afraid to look into the community for advice... to some extent, it is part of the experience.

[@am3703]

100% look up questline guides, it's wonderfully alarmingly easy to miss huge sections of the game like Rannis quest, haligtree, volcano manor, numerous underground areas etc. . .

[@MaurizioBonelli]

I’d love to have your take on the lore of Elden Ring - so beautiful, yet so difficult to grasp being explained in small bits every now and then!

[@guhankns]

I saw this video more than a year ago. I was convinced and bought the game. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am very grateful for this video

[@FelisImpurrator]

Here's the thing. That feeling of being rewarded for your struggle is exactly why and how the game is designed, and exactly how the Kaizo genre (the "brutally unfair platformers where you just die randomly" games mentioned in this video) isn't. I'd like to sum it up thusly: Kaizo games are hard because they want you to lose. True Soulslikes are hard because they want you to win. What does that mean? Well, it means a good Soulslike is designed such that failure is intended to push you to improve, to motivate you to succeed - but beneath the cruel exterior, these games are rooting for you deep down. They're not going quite as hard or quite as unfairly as they could. You have little things like the ability to recover your runes, or souls, on death. You have the freedom to level up (or not) as needed. You have a variety of options to build a character how you like, and play how you like, essentially making your own difficulty setting even when the game will never explicitly put that in a menu. You see attacks coming and can react. Enemies have certain clearly defined rules they'll almost never violate. And so on. That's something the developers of bad Soulslikes don't get, and many of the genre's players don't get either. A lot of people have this idea that the genre is about Being Hard, and thus tie the identity of the games and their players to that. But they don't get it - even by Miyazaki's own admission, that was never the point and it never will be. A proper Soulslike, and by extension a proper Soulslike community, is one that balances challenge with encouragement, and an unwelcoming exterior with a truly accessible core. Because at the end of the day, these games are about enjoying the triumph of a hard-earned victory, no matter what it takes for a player to keep ensuring that feeling remains present for themselves.

[@_phantom282]

I've never played Elden Ring, but the description you gave of how it feels to learn the bosses' moves is similar to how I felt playing Hollow Knight. Fighting and dying to the same boss again and again, learning how to maneuver around each attack.

[@joelbusk1727]

Hollies Knight defenetly have taken inspiration from Dark Souls. Both are among My favorit games

[@crabjuice47]

Brandon Sanderson who I have read almost every work of playing a game I have. I am gonna cry honestly. Also great video.

[@Melia_67]

You won’t believe how much I love this content Brandon! So yeah please do more of these. I’d love to hear your thoughts about Sekiro as well, it is my personal favorite Fromsoftware game.

[@mattomwit]

Now a mind breaker. You can grab that octopus and his friends to fight that boss for you. You have to ride around and gather the octopus enemies from around and lead them to the boss. they cannot beat him but they can do 80% of the job. The replayability of this game is amazing and I agree with you this is a fun game. I really thought you are going to talk more about the world building and the lore and your experience as an author here.

[@TheBillNye]

Hi Brandon! Not sure if you still read the comments on here but I really enjoyed listening to this video. For all of the reasons you listed as to why you love this game, I think you would equally love a game called hollow knight. I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now but if you haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should!

[@TurbineResearch]

The difficulty for me makes the victories in this game very rewarding

[@lokilucario]

That health bar is giving me anxiety

[@ArcadeHigh]

Same. 😂 could not stop staring at it and sweating.

[@GustavoHenrique0220]

Unfortunately the game does not run on my PC, I hope to have a chance to play it in the future

[@WickedIsPopular]

I love Souls games and this one I loved sooo much! My first playthrough was 350hr long and being able to play it with my friend was great, I felt bad for people who invaded us with out mage/tank combo ha. I loved the open world, and the way the game made you want to explore every dark corner, and even after 350 hours of playing the game I still want more.

[@rower41]

I'm a bit older than most gamers... I've been playing video games about as long as it has been possible to do so. I remember when Pong apoeared in local stores and even some games before that. I completely agree with Brandon here. There are so many ways to play this game... character builds, weapons, technique...you need to THINK when you run into a roadblock--it is so fun to succeed when you figure out something...and u set your own difficulty in so many ways--go away and level, use a summons, roll more, position better, use a shield, use more magic, use some more consumables...and more. Research if you really get stuck or just try and work it out. If you want your hand held and very little challenge ... It may not be for you but I recommend giving it a try. It has renovated my love of video games like nothing in the past 10 years or so. Thanks for taking the time to put this up!

[@aliabdaal]

Loved this

[@Mage-or-Dad]

I heard Dark Souls described as “either the fastest strategy game or slowest action game ever made”. With this I agree.

[@duncanchristensen4979]

YES!!! We've got commentary now! Love these videos!

[@jaceyates6315]

ive been obsessed with two things for the longest time, Soulsborne games, and Brandon Sanderson book. so glad they have some overlap

[@simonorourke4465]

Well I'm happy, one of my favourite ever authors playing one of my favourite games, today has been a good day.

[@Akinohotarubi]

The fun part about the bosses is that everyone has a different experience with them. For this one I triggered infighting between the Wyrm and the Octopi, it still took me a couple of tries but it felt rewarding.

[@obsoleteindustry]

My absolute favourite author I adore (and I am getting a tattoo of pewter to commemorate this) talking over my absolute favourite game I immersed myself in for 300 hours during my most stressful year. Looks like Christmas came early for me..

[@mathkor89]

Hey dude , I’m close to finishing the game dumped more than 150 hours; but I’m super excited to watch your video tomorrow Can’t wait to hear your perspective 🙏🏾 Edit: if you pull the boss a bit back he will fight the tentacles. Making it a bit easier ☺️

[@You_Are_Romantic]

Love this 🎮 love seeing what inspires you and gets you excited. Anyone who wants to keep evolving as an artist needs things like this to spark new ideas and excitement 💡

[@seansullivan5965]

Once in a generation game. Took what was great from Dark Souls series and went to the next level. Recently I was playing Dark Souls 3 and comparing it to Elden Ring - the combat in Elden Ring is just so smooth and man do I love jumping attacks

[@ryanvance1020]

my favorite video game streamer

[@123FireSnake]

If you end up getting the game 2 warnings (which will make sense once you're at the points i refer to: the tree sentinel is completely optional and you can skip him, sould skip him in the early game, although his weapon is nice. Margitt is a difficult boss and is designed to make you go explore instead of juat rushing after the graces. So do that, go explore a bit get a few levels maybe some more powerful weapons and most importandly, as we say in the community, git gud (get good) meaning improve as a player, and then return to Margit as your new and improved self :D

[@kingcurmudgeon8685]

Cool to see an opinion from a guy who is my age group and started on a Atari 2600. When you mentioned how a game that just throws a millions enemies at you Is not your kind of difficulty or challenge I totally respect that. I want to learn from failing not from having to just peek, hide and run and look forward a small area where the enemy can’t get me. I really enjoyed monster hunter world when I played it a few years back. I wonder if I could feed off of that to get into Elden Ring. I have always quit on the soulsborne games because I just felt like they weren’t respecting my time

[@traugottbauling8100]

Mr Sanderson clearly is a masochist and is having the time of his life. 2 million runes and has base vigor (health), this man is playing Elden Ring on hard mode

[@HeyLookItsThatGuy13]

I just want to say you are by far my favorite author of all time! I have loved so many of your books and your writing style is fantastic! It's pretty awesome to see my favorite author playing my favorite game. Keep up the great work!

[@Renwa82]

Two things I love: Brandon Sanderson books and Soulsborne games.

[@flamingmanure]

easily the best fromsoft game by far! keep the elden ring content coming mr. B!

[@krazy_w4fflez611]

How did it take me this long to figure out my favorite author has a KZbin channel??? I'm literally in shock right now

[@milktheshark1226]

Brandon is so massively under leveled for this I love it.

[@hallaloth3112]

First off, YES, do more of this. It's awesome seeing an author step outside of their medium and just express something that interests them and they enjoy. Secondly. . .gosh I wish I could enjoy playing this game. I initially bought it planning on co-oping with my fiance as my first step into Fromsoft games. Learned very quickly how finicky and lackluster co-op is officially. Okay, no big deal, guess I learn on my own. Unfortunately for me, I am wretched at pattern recognition. And my reflexes are pretty poor. I am fully aware if I put time and dedication into the game that I could probably work my way through it. However, as someone who already struggles with the gameplay. . .I don't really want to put that much time into a game that am fairly sure I could never beat solo. I watched my Fiance play through a fair chunk of the game and I know the difficulty only ramps up. I do take satisfaction in beating Margit, admittedly because spirit ashes carried me. Can't get through the castle and most normal mobs just slaughter me. Solution, currently is modded co-op play that lets people run around the map freely together.

[@lissomne]

I've watched Noah Caldwell-Gervais' review of the Souls series and he makes a great point about how the best starting point for someone like you - that being, someone inexperienced with the series that lacks the finesse that comes with years of experience on it is, to NO surprise at all: the first Dark Souls. I know it sounds stupid to say it, because... duh, but you should really try it if the series interests you, maybe it'll hook you and you'll end up enjoying Elden Ring more as a result. The thing with DS1 is that it requires SUBSTANTIALLY less reflexes and pattern recognition than the other games in the series, as it follows a much more methodical and... strategic, in a way? approach to combat. You can play very defensively, focusing on remaining alive rather than trying to actively dodge every attack the boss throws at you and it is actually a viable strategy - much more than in Elden Ring at least.

[@hallaloth3112]

@@lissomne Nah, I've watched a LOT of Dark Souls 1 content. I am not in favor at getting stuck at the first boss for literally hours. The longer an encounter takes, the more frustrated I become and the less enjoyment overall. DS1 also is notoriously janky in terms of coding for movement and clipping. Couple that, with the inability to progress from something that would frustrate me beyond belief, its just not going to happen. At least with Elden Ring I can go somewhere else and learn on basic mobs if I stumble into a boss arena, or go try another boss.

[@Rackstack234]

Level up! And using mimic tears and summons is basically necessary for us newbs. Gets easier I swear

[@lissomne]

@@hallaloth3112 That's fair, yeah. Then, as the other guy here said - level up, use summon ashes and play the cheese game. A friend played it like that and lovvved it.

[@hallaloth3112]

@@Rackstack234 That's the problem, I can't stay alive long enough to keep enough runes to level up. Basic mobs, I'm talking the first area of mobs kill be consistantly. Using the mimic requires being able to actually get to the mimic summon. I consistently die before I am able to pick runes I lost from the death on the regular. And I don't personally find 4-5 hours sessions where I can't even claim a level up to progress as enjoyable.

[@dezeld1]

My favourite author doing one of my favourite youtube genre's (video essay) I am genuinely shook (EDIT: Also Polygon recently did a video on the history of the Game Shark that sorta covers the same idea. A lot of cheats (i.e. unlimited lives) have become common game practice purely because they make the game better.)

[@Philistine47]

This video stands as a sharp reminder that sometimes one person will like a thing for the exact qualities that another person dislikes about it.

[@shishmisha]

Please more ER videos, I’m rewatching these 3 on repeat haha

[@trevorcoen6273]

Brandon Sanderson is my favorite gaming KZbinr

[@MrSilvUr]

The real difficulty curve was the lessons we learned along the way.

[@yafes_han]

It feels great when your favorite author plays your favorite games.

[@Interionisim]

My first one was Demon’s Souls too! I messed with it a bit, put it down for months, and eventually came back to it. Once I beat the first boss I was hooked, and once I began to uncover the lore and story it just blew me away and sucked me in. Such cool atmosphere

[@austinkoble]

One of the best feelings in a souls game is dying to the same boss for hours and then when you finally beat them you do it without getting hit even once.

[@Totemfou]

Thanks for all, salutations de France

[@TheMrNukeman]

My favorite author is talking about my favorite video game ❤️

[@malachiteheart1676]

You have a wonderful voice, very soothing and fatherly

[@fy4b230]

Definitely in my top 2 games of all time. Not sure if FF7 or this game is my favorite. Here’s how I got one of my buddies to buy this game and now he’s obsessed and playing all the older from games and this comment section wiil probably understand…he was the person who got me to read Malazan… I told him if he could get past Margit, he was in for one of the best experiences video games could offer. Just like he told me if I could get past “Gardens of the Moon”, I was in for one of the best reading experiences ever. Early game is beautiful, confusing, rage inducing, kinda seems aimless just like Gardens was for me reading lol. Then you step up and see the epic vista of Liurnia and you’re at deadhouse gates. It worked.

[@hallaloth3112]

I got past Margit. . .I cannot get through the castle behind him. Admittedly, spirit ashes carried my Margit fight. . .

[@TheNeodarkwing]

I like my video games like I like my books, with a good story.

[@kelsonhampton439]

Honestly I’m never going to be a fraction of the author that Brando is and it’s a hard thing to come to terms with, but seeing how much better I am than him at a useless skill like playing elden ring makes me feel surprisingly good. Thank you for posting this, I can go back to writing my shitty first novel and feel a little better about it.

[@indiegamechris4759]

This is one of the reasons I love Hollow Knight so much. I'm definitely going to get around to playing Dark Souls and Elden Ring on my channel someday.

[@cyberswordsmen8198]

If the difficulty in this is scaring you. Sanderson is very intentionally not spending his XP to level up is fighting a mid-game boss. I bet he didn't upgrade his weapon either. The massive amount of runes (the number in the bottom left) means he has the ability to level up enough to make it a fair fight but doesn't want to. Since you can lose runes when you die without returning to your corpse he is very good at this game to get that much at once. That snow area his is in later? That is a hidden end-game region that has bosses harder than the final boss. This is a challenge run.

[@Rafael-dp6yq]

Could you imagine Sanderson collaborating with Miyazaki next!? My God

[@bengoldberg9875]

Favorite author playing my favorite game it’s like a dream!

[@jakeinator21]

Please do more videos like this so I can send them to my friend Adam, who is a big fan of your work but has always been resistant to my persistent recommendations of the souls games lol

[@mauree1618]

I love that you made this video. I hope you talk about storytelling in videogames.

[@nothingiseverperfect]

18:50 love this part cause you come back after barely defeating the boss, only to get one shot 😂😂 It’s so funny because I played Elden Ring before reading Sanderson. And it’s because of its fantasy elements I started getting into more fantasy. Love seeing worlds collide. Hell yeah

[@CFWhitman]

I have some comments about the original Castlevania. The reason it was so excruciatingly difficult in the US version was because the save system that worked on the original Japanese Famicom version on disk had no equivalent in the cartridge released for the US. It was designed to be savable, but the cartridge version took that away. If you ever wanted to revisit the game, emulation allows save states, which make the game much less frustrating because when you do a level well, you just save your state there, then continue from that point every time you get a game over until you've done the next part well. This actually gives you a chance to beat the game (though of course later bosses are still difficult).

[@oneclipleft]

Check out Wildermyth when you get a chance, especially if you can play it with friends. It is the coolest storytelling tactical RPG maybe ever made. It generates unique stories/scenes on the fly, writing the dialog based on your character's personality traits and relationships with the other characters. It's insane.

[@Giantcaterpillar]

Thank you, it was very entertaining and good intro to Souls to anyone new. BTW How come Brandon do not loose his runes after death?

[@OverratedGames]

this game challenges me in ways i appreciate and hate at the same time. ultimately, i love it

[@mokdis00]

500 plus hours in, Love and Re-loved it. Excellent game. Can't wait for some DLC.

[@kriztu]

Omg, you love this game too! 😳 What a confirmation! I read your books amd I have also been playing this game for months now! 😄

[@rodm209]

@12:04 "i don't always practice the best practices" haha best part of this vid, you're the best Sanderson love your work

[@Elfhelm]

While I will probably not play ER (got enough in the backlog as is), this video was really fun to watch - keep them coming!

[@Henbot]

Elden Ring was the first FromSoft I tried, and knew about them and all the build and hype about their difficulty, so I was a bit nervous, but then I just played it like a regular RPG from pre-2010 and built up my character and then just demolished a lot. It is a stunning game and I love it and the lore.

[@tiarnesquire]

There’s a physick that prevents your runes from being lost upon death?! I never even considered that that could be a thing lol was wondering why he wasn’t losing all his runes every time he died ahah

[@nachosterli7995]

Finished the game last week. As a soulsborne player, I gotta say, this is the best lore of any fromsoft game. Would really appreciate if you could give us your opinion as a fantasy writer!

[@jeremyhardin3060]

This was a really good video Brandon - thanks for posting it and giving us your feedback. Keeps on reinforcing my desire to purchase this game and take my first stab at a Souls game. Keep the videos coming!

[@DraganAlves]

Thanks for your awesome books, man. Listening to Mistborn on audiobook now. Wonderful escape into other worlds. And it’s cool to hear your take on this game.

[@bttrl8thnspncr]

Whoa whoa whoa you're the same guy who wrote Steelheart? Absolutely top notch stuff with that series, never forgot about it since I read it