Best and Worst things about Elden Ring!

[@youwy]

One thing to keep in mind is that I wanted to speak on things that were mainly exclusive to Elden Ring. I know there are lots of other amazing aspects of the game or even poor stuff about the game too but those things likely appear in the other Souls games. Also which game should I do next?

[@alex2696p]

Great video! We share the same opinion on all the mentioned aspects, especially the last one about the bosses being less rewarding than in other games! Please do bloodborne next! It was my first souls and my favourite

[@jajasking9652]

DS1 or sekiro would be cool Also, for a Big elden ring ranking, there's one list i would like you do at some point, this being the ranking of the unique AoW, though that Will take long Good video as always

[@Nabeel-m5j]

Bro consort radahn is the most inconsistent fight in the series like if you use deflecting it becomes the best boss fight on the game other wise it's just shit

[@VALxTarnishedGamer]

i just did my first Dark Souls 3 playthrough... i guess i was a little late to the souls genre, i started with Elden Ring last summer... BUT, now, the souls genre gtot me hooked... i'd love to hear your take on DS3, Nameless King, Midir, Gael, and all other cool bosses in that game.. i will not even attempt Dark Souls 1&2 because these games are too old, and i like new games the most... going from Elden Ring to Dark Souls 3 was a huge step backwards, at least for me it was... i definitely recommend playing DS3 first, BEFORE playing Elden Ring...

[@fafapapa1271]

Which Souls game? Nightreign I guess :) Other than that, if you like Sekiro & metroidvanias, I can recommend Nine Sols.

[@din0ysus]

best part about elden ring is piercing attacks

[@mertgurcan2112]

And to top it all off it does PIERCING DAMAGE, the BEST damage type in the game!

[@sarin_01]

dont forget projectile attacks, they cheese the entire game

[@Loutr0n]

Imagine if on top of that it also deals lightning damage, which the best type of elemental damage, due to a lot of ennemies just being weaker to it

[@yudi-weiss3827]

this comment section is fucking gold 😹

[@zed6740]

Not to mention, you deal more damage when you attack during their attack animation so pair this with the thrust talisman, you're gonna be doing stupid damage.

[@arei2422]

For most part I agree with your points. But nah, hard disagree on Elden Ring needing more "cannon fodder bosses". There are already more than enough imo, like all Wyrms as an example. I think regular mobs are and should be the cannon fodder of souls-like games, not the bosses.

[@mrdarklight]

In a lot of dungeons, the problem isn't the boss, it's getting to him. Like Wyndham Catacombs, with two really difficult mini-boss knights and a tedious slog to get through them before you can even get to the boss.

[@zed6740]

​@mrdarklight Isn't there usually a Statue of Marika so that when you die, you spawn close to the fog gate?

[@mrdarklight]

@@zed6740 Yes, but the problem there is that the second knight is guarding the switch to access the boss.

[@subject8776]

Same, it already has enough cannon fodder bosses in my opinion.

[@reecejones2994]

I was thinking the same thing

[@JoaoGuilherme-uk3xe]

the quest system is one of my major issues, almost always you have to google for how to finish a quest, i dont understand why they didnt use the red marker more like some quests do (Volcano Manor for example)

[@viceroni]

Completely agree. They eventually added a patch so that after beating Radhan (in base game) there was the red marker to show you where his meteor landed, but first time I played the game, I searched for that thing for over an hour before looking it up lol

[@erikaleksandermoe1634]

I just wish instead of upgrading each weapon you would upgrade the smith or the anvil, the same with ashen summons (just level up Roderika). And then can upgrade any weapon to that level for a price of runes. Then experimenting with weapons would be so much more fun.

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

Agreed. I've never liked the weapon upgrade system in Souls, but it's particularly punishing in ER. It's pointlessly restrictive and a pointlessly big pain in the ass.

[@canary177]

@@GOAT-rl2uqi don’t like the system either, but isn’t it technically more punishing in Dark Souls since the upgrades you bring to Andre don’t carry over to NG+, whereas the bell bearings for smithing stones do carry over? i will say, however, that dark souls enemies seem to have a much higher chance to drop titanite shards/chunks, trying to get a radahn soldier to drop a smithing 3 in ER is very annoying.

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

@@canary177 That's true, DS1 is super stingy with the high end mats, and the embers don't carry over. I'd actually say BB might be the worst offender. Still, the sheer volume of stones you need for non-somber weapons is a pretty big pain.

[@malikhittam1440]

With regards to the replayability thing, I saw a streamer (Zanny) suggest the perfect solution for it: a boss rush mode that rewards you with larval tears and ancient dragon stones. It would also solve the boss problem to a certain degree, as people can more easily practice complex bosses using a rematch system. It will basically complete Elden ring

[@DannyDevitoOfficial]

ZANMAN MENTIONED 🔥

[@Wolfgaming142YT]

yeah, it basically would complete elden ring if it was added. after defeating a boss and being able to fight it again whenever you want to practice and get rewards for whatever build you plan on using would be great.

[@DispariScuro]

It's bonkers there's no way to refight bosses without going into NG+. I would do it even if there were no rewards at all.

[@ManOfEthnicity]

It’s weird because they kind of fixed the replay issue with bloodborne inserting the chalice dungeons adding a whole addition end game for players.

[@malikhittam1440]

@@ManOfEthnicity also the boss rush in sekiro

[@gabwyn-art]

The npc questline system is so awful and breaks the game experience, I still can't believe they haven't made any real change on that crap since Demons souls, one could theorize it can't be that hard to add a log/notebook system to players who are more interested towards Lore

[@viceroni]

100%, ER was my fist Souls game, and it was absolutely one of my most hated aspects of the experience.

[@TigoODonnell]

I don't think it's awful in terms of the major questlines like Ranni, but some of them are egregious, like having the wait to give Ansbach the secret scroll before talking to Frejya even though you find it first.

[@viceroni]

@@TigoODonnell I disagree even on the Ranni quest. The fact that if you don't pay attention to a certain line of dialog that explains what you need to do some npc's wont repeat that dialog so you have no way of figuring it out later. Especially with the design philosophy of ER is to go do something somewhere and then if you are too weak to leave and go fight somewhere else. You are constantly jumping from one quest or area to another. Simply having a quest log would go so far for the game.

[@mateomorales2129]

@@TigoODonnellyou don’t have to wait. Literally just give it to him

[@tytar1037]

Yeah like the Jarburg quest with Dallios is so easy to miss or mess up

[@TheJmoreno126]

17:20 So true. I hated Consort Radahn when I flawlessly evaded his long ass combo, immediately healed. And I got hit by his next combo before the healing animation ended.

[@GRAHFXENO]

I wish Elden would have an update where you can go the the colloseums offline and have rematches with the bosses you've defeated

[@michalnowacki1489]

Just on the 20 hit combos talk 16:30 it really doesn't feel satisfying waiting for your turn to get one hit on a boss, which is why they should take a page out of sekiro and have successful rolls actually help you with the boss in some way. Like imagine if Morgott charges at you with his spear and, because you dodge out the way, he kinda staggers (think DS1 halberd whiff stagger when you miss an enemy) and that gives a slightly longer punish window or prevents stance from regenerating. Just some thoughts

[@debater452]

Or meaby you could stop waiting around for openings and instead play agressively

[@timq16]

@@debater452What are you implying? You get hit, staggered and eventually die What is your point?

[@nickhard7615]

You have more openings than you think you do with all of these fights. It took me a minute to understand that

[@debater452]

@@timq16 If you use possitioning then you can actually get a lot of openings while the boss in the middle of a combo

[@fishfriend1170]

​@@timq16 He meant that you will not see any openings if you are far away

[@MrTheBigNoze]

They should have made it so once you collect a boss' remembrance, you could choose to refight them from Ennia or something. That along with infinite respecs and better rune farming would make the game infinitely more replayable. I'm running into the same thing on NG+ where I'm running halfway across the map for certain checkpoints and items and just rushing through to face bosses again and getting bored.

[@viceroni]

Yeah, Convergence added a lot of those features. It feels like fromsoft has a higher priority on what they think is important vs what constitutes a more fun and enjoyable experience.

[@PeterEhik]

Yeah some of these changes seem quite simple so it’s definitely a choice to not add them, I think fighting bosses whenever we want is something they chose not to add because they don’t want us mastering the bosses, or at least they wanna make it as hard as possible. I get why too btw, it’s hard to make a game difficult if the player base is all ongbal lol. Truth is if they wanna make a difficult game again, they have to surprise us and this isn’t 2009, fromsoft is now considered one of the best devs out there and so anything they create has hella hype around it. For them to recreate the feeling of dark souls, they have to take a risk with something completely new and it might not work out.

[@StankyTurtleMK]

The worst part of every souls game is how complex it is to do certain key story elements. I have played, elden ring, bloodborne, ds3, and sekiro. At some point in my first playthrough all of those games, i got lost. Some of the things they expect you to figure out to progress the story are just overcomplicated. I always end up looking up where to go when i get to certain points, and saying to myself "wow, i never would have guessed that would be the way to progress." Am i alone on this?

[@aarongideon9934]

No

[@CGR1410]

Ur not alone. 80% of the souls community wouldn’t understand anything without KZbin channels. There is a certain uniqueness to its story telling but at the same time it’s definitely outdated. I feel like they can easily bridge the gap between telling u everything and telling u nothing with more cutscenes.

[@gabwyn-art]

That one Bloodborne window you have to break to reach Ebrietas, even though in the whole game there has never been a breakable window or any indication that you have the break that specific window, wonderful game design fromsoft

[@jasonjj1898]

Not alone. I just finished a playthrough of almost all the souls games (Elden Ring was my first) and couldn’t complete any of the base games without looking something up. Bloodborne was the worst at that IMO but they’ve all had points where I would have gotten hard stuck without a wiki

[@jasonjj1898]

That said I actually think the community aspect of these games is really cool, if frustrating that it is basically required to beat the games

[@gegaabzianidze5583]

Boss weapons, seeing C scaling on Godfrey’s axe irritated me

[@Mr.Starlight_gaming]

Ngl after Elden Ring the bosses of other games feel so simple, it often becomes boring. I hope they go further in ER's direction of dynamic fights.

[@reiddutchess9955]

@@Mr.Starlight_gaming it really is wild after beating Elden Ring and Sekiro going back to the Dark Souls 1-3. Bosses I thought were machines now seem like nothing.

[@Keeks33]

This is honestly not talked about enough in the Souls community. I do love all the games. But when I go back and fight the bosses from older games, save for DS3 and Bloodborne DLC bosses, I do get slightly bored with how easy they are. I remember getting ramped up for the Nameless King because I heard so much of the hype and, other than the camera, it wasn't that complex or difficult. I do love him, but it was pretty easy to figure out. Makes me upset that I am such a noob and started with ER because I feel like I missed out on what it must have felt like fighting Manus for the first time or even Pontiff.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

Then there's me trying other souls games and going: "wow, these bosses are actually immediately fun to fight? I can actually just start flowing with the fight right away and not only after I've been memorizing unintuitive timings and super long combos for several hours." Now Elden Ring's bosses might be more interesting on the 8th playthrough but I always value early experiences a lot too. And if they're very tedious they take a lot away from the enjoyment of bossfights.

[@haob4]

er has so many reused fights though. margit, godrick, godfrey, misbegottens, red wolf, the godskins, the commanders (this is a stretch but you might be able to see where im coming from) loretta, every dragon minus like 3, mohg, and even like tree sentinels. what the other games had that elden ring doesnt is no reused bosses, for the most part. atm i cant think of a single reused boss in ds3, bloodborne or sekiro. not saying the designs are bad or anything, it just got super repetitive seeing the 49th misbegotten in a legacy dungeon

[@iUseDemFrapz]

@@haob4 literally every single mini boss in sekiro other than O’rin and the knight guy is used multiple times. Pretty sure there are like 6 headless fights. Also sekiro often reuses the same boss moveset/model but then will slightly change it with some new moves or a new phase (genichiro 3 times, isshin corrupted monk, guardian ape, and owl twice). I think it’s fine to reuse those bosses but seeing how much it gets complained about in Elden ring I don’t know why it gets so ignored in Sekiro which is a much smaller game.

[@titantv4567]

Youwy forgot to glaze pierce damage

[@Slow1337ex]

I think that at this point the concept of "ultimate" spells/weapons (as in the most broken looking ones like Placidusax's Ruin), at least from the developers's point of view (a twisted one, as I will get on into this further on) just doesn't fundamentally fit with the style of the game, even with the fact that they try to make them a thing. These spells/skills are features that the developers seemingly worry a lot about how broken they would be, because fundamentally an ability like that should be extremely strong, but something like that would probably conflict with their idea of ideal balancing, where if something like that would be that strong and easy enough to use ocasionally would be too broken for the game, so their idea to balance it is either make it do bad damage (and still be something like a spell that takes a fuck ton of time to cast) or have no poise, only being able to use it once or twice a fight. Even if you try to make it work with that in mind, it just isn't nearly as fun trying to fight using these things in the one window a boss gives rather than fight it normally. But then they go and make not apparently "ultimate" skills be as broken as one would be with barely any downsides, so their approach just doesn't make sense. But at the end of the day, these extremely flashy attacks with ridiculously long animations probably are something that will never fit really well with these games, because the idea of long animations themselves doesn't fit with the flow of the fights, specially considering they have just been getting faster and faster, so I wouldn't really hope for much in that regard, because even if they balance such a skill just right it would still not be as fun to use as something that balances flashiness with practicalness

[@nick6231995]

Expanding on getting punished for healing, I think one of the worst parts of this game is the literal input reading where bosses are programmed to hit you with a very specific move if you heal so you have to run across the boss arena just to even have a chance of getting a safe heal off

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

Yeah the input reading is super obnoxious.

[@SM-cq1mm]

Problem I have with that, isn't that they do it, but rather they react instantly and immediately the moment you do it. I would rather a small pause so that at least it would look like they realised that you are healing and don't want to allow for it. And then allow us to have a small window after our heal is finished to dodge, maybe not on the hardest bosses sure, but on at least the easier bosses would be nice.

[@morepower6800]

Don't heal in front of the boss and choose your times because the whole input reading is a myth

[@nick6231995]

@ Zullie the Witch proved there are animation/input reads

[@morepower6800]

@nick6231995 inconsistent testing and the only consistent time they do it is when you panic heall after getting damage or being flat out stupid

[@slippy9251]

The 4 things I hate the most 1: The delay on rolls and jumps are the worst in the series, I dont mind the speed and complexity of the bosses but when the game is not reacting quickly enough for me to the roll or get attacks in between comboes it feels horrible after a while 2: The enemy variety kinda ruins the replayability, why would I explore a dungeon or cave again when I know its just going to be boring ass Skeletons, Imps, Rats, Bats etc. I wish therr was more enemies like Omens in the game, they are more tanky and are more fun to fight then most of the enemies you'll find in the open world. 3: Asking new players to level their Vitality to 40-60 just to survive 1-2 more hits in the mid and end game is the same as telling then to "Just level ADP bro" 4: This is the souls game where telling someone to "Get Gud" makes the least sense. Yes the bosses are extremely hard and complex but the open world nature of the game can ruin the challenge a bit, why would I struggle and adapt to a hard boss when I can come back with a much higher level weapon and stats and just steamroll them, the Souls series is all about getting better and overcoming a challenge but this feels more like "just explore or farm a bit for levels and smithing stones till you 3 shot the boss"

[@IndieGinge]

Your last point is what people have been saying since ER came out. FROM's formula relied on the semi-linear experience, it enabled them to control what a player could do while giving options to explore and experience wonder and secrets. ER is a crowning achievement in many ways, but this was an experiment that forced them to sacrifice some stuff, and it really shows.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

Great points all around. Point 1 is really big for the general feel of the game. Been playing a few other souls-likes recently and thought "why do they feel better to play than the legendary Elden Ring?" And now it clicked it's because they don't have that input delay on the dodge making it feel unresponsive. Adds a lot of unnecessary difficulty due to janky controls.

[@bboydobriy]

You a real one for that point 3

[@morepower6800]

What the hell are you on about?

[@kyleharrison713]

(Rant Time) The only thing I dislike about Elden Ring is that as of today 1-9-2025 half the weapons and spells are dog ass trash and they refuse to fix them. Some don't even make a lick of sense, like their scaling or damage type. Just look at your tier lists, you literally put in your videos "I know most of you just to the end here" and its really because the lists don't begin until the end at A to S tier. Rant over. Good vid as usual.

[@LeggoMyGekko]

I think part of the issue might be that they look at player statistics, see a lot of players using weapons that look cool or are fun to use, and conclude that those weapons don’t need fixing because players like and use them already. When in reality, those weapons only selling point might be that it looks cool. Plus players love using boss weapons, regardless of how good they are. This is why I think boss weapons tend to get neglected

[@malikhittam1440]

The take on bosses is probably the most sensible one I've ever seen. I'm someone who loves mastering complex bossfights, so I really enjoy them, and I've seen a ton of casual players enjoy ER because they just don't give a shit and use summons and OP stuff. The players in the middle of these two are mostly the ones who are dissatisfied with ER's bosses. Although, I feel like there are a good amount of simple but fun bosses in the game. Godfrey and Midra are the main ones that come to mind, but most mini bosses like crucible knights, tree sentinels, and bell bearing hunters kinda fill the same role imo

[@mrawesome3296]

The game cant appeal to everyone

[@BLK_MN]

Lmao, Godfrey stomps players over and over again while they scratch their head wondering why this boss is so “unfair”. People can’t even figure out RYKARD, when the game literally dangles the answer in front of you. I bet they put the Serpent Hunter somewhere in Volcano Manor originally or even somewhere else on Mt. Gelmir, but the developers ran into issues where test players would ignore everything around them and just threw themselves at Rykard and couldn’t beat him. I can safely assume this, because Fromsoft released an infographic where MARGIT (not Morgott) had the second highest kill count on players. Why? Because they ignored everything around them and ran straight to Margit after the tutorial (that was probably also ignored) and died a hundred times in a row, scratching their heads, wondering why the game was so “unfair”

[@Sinhsseax]

Yeah, same for me. Ideally, I would just raise people up to the same mentality, for the community to grow. But I know this won't be possible. I honestly am not even good, so it isn't skill but what people are ready to do. Many die 13 times, beat the boss and are like, "this is too hard" and I'm sitting there with my 60 deaths and think "Oh that is another medium difficulty one." I do agree that there's a lot of bosses already that don't have insane combo charts. That is why some who do like more complex bosses were disappointed with the DLC, wanting every boss to be like Rellana. But that sounds insane even to me. While it‘s definitely true, that the middle is where the criticism comes from, we'll only see how many in the middle actually think like that in how people look back on this game in the future.

[@aramkaizer7903]

You hit the nail on the head with this one honestly. Elden Ring has heaps of really highly tuned bosses that don't stagger from heavy attacks. Meaning that a slow weapon has to find a long opening instead of being able to *make* its own opening by causing the enemy to reel from the attack. The game effectively asks you to either invalidate the boss with an overpowered build, or be the type of top-tier player who doesn't need a good build at all to beat the boss The in-between player who is interested in making a good build, but wants a good challenge as well, is basically left behind. Bosses are so tough that the game isn't encouraging you to learn them, but instead to give in to the impulse of overpowering them. It's really lame and should not be the future for Fromsoftware Dark Souls 3 had the perfect balance honestly, the bosses were super fun and reliably learnable

[@malikhittam1440]

@aramkaizer7903 I still think the super complex approach to boss design is the way to go if there are a few simpler bosses along the way as well. The perfect solution to the "overly complicated bosses" problem is a boss rematch system. A way to reliably and easily practice fights with different weapons and builds

[@BulletProooph]

16:40 this so much. Coming from Sekiro to Elden Ring felt a bit like a step backwards regarding the combat mechanics. Combat in ER feels sometimes a bit passive where the boss dictates the entire fight and you have to wait for an opening. In Sekiro the combat is much more „active“ and fluent , even bosses stops their own attacks to deflect your attacks like Owl. That gives the player much more possibilities to handle a boss fight. That for me is the reason the deflecting tear in ER put the combat a level higher and needs to be a standard mechanic. But still I love Elden Ring

[@thomaspraisewater6101]

And going from ER to Sekiro is an even bigger step backwards in build creation, enemy variety, exploration, world building, lore, freedom etc etc etc completely different games with completely different goals. It's like saying "coming from Super Mario Odyssey to Dark Souls is a huge step backward regarding platforming".

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

@@thomaspraisewater6101 True, but doesn't really make the criticism less valid. The boss design in elden ring really does push a very reactive playstyle, instead of proactive.

[@bubududugaming8336]

That is mostly because per design bosses in Sekiro are mostly susceptible to hitstun because its more of an action game, whereas bosses in ER are not. Its like comparing Apples to Oranges.

[@barbedmitten4475]

@@bubududugaming8336Sekiro is a rhythm game

[@louisferreira1012]

I hope we see a game from them that combines and expands on the best aspects of bloodborne and sekiro

[@Vordb666]

Your take on the finite Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones reminds me that I want to jump back into my NG+6 character that I haven’t played in months but I’m scared I’m gonna miss some Stones before I enter NG+7 lol

[@LeggoMyGekko]

Exploring the Mountaintops of the Giants and Farum Azula thoroughly should give you a good haul, of both.

[@Vordb666]

@ you’re right, I just think about that jarring feeling of loading up an old Bethesda game save or whatever and being like “where am I and what was I doing” a lot

[@insa6990]

Imo, it's obscene that going into ng+, you don't keep dectus/haligtree medallions. Now maybe it's that I have just too much time on the game: but I hate that successive ng cycles are literally a run fest. When I go into ng+, I want to go and fight bosses, I want to go and do npc quests that I missed, I want to get talismans that I missed, etc. But I'm spending (what feels like) an eternity to even get to those bosses and places in the first place. Give some players some kind of auto unlocked grace in the world (maybe churches?) so that successive ng cycles don't feel like a slog to get through.

[@pockystyx4087]

While build variety is my top pick for what ER gets right, it sadly bumps into the big sore spot that is how awful the balancing and scaling systems are for a ton of different things. You can absolutely tell many weapons and spells were crafted by various devs with varying degrees of communication. Otherwise we wouldn't have things like DEX ghostflame weapons but INT/FTH being their casting scaling, or things like Trinia's stuff bouncing between INT or FTH or ARC with no rhyme or reason. Then there are the overall limitations the rigid casting systems have; which we got into during the sorceries tier list. At some point, if we get another souls game, they need to rethink how spells are equipped and cast. Playing other games with much better casting systems has really made me just wish that whole thing would move past the way its been since Demon's Souls lol

[@InvisibleHand20]

I do like the freedom to grab almost any weapon/spell at the beginning of the game in ER. This is also why I love DS2, lots of options from the starting area. I like DS3, but you have to play through 60-70% of the game before you can get most of the cool weapons (like moonlight GS), unless you play ng+

[@MrVicvi]

inb4 the piercing damage glaze

[@Bacon-i9g]

18:02 tf is that delay? Never seen that attack

[@Jonzki]

Its an AI oversight and most people will never see that unless they are actively trying to break the AI

[@barry4293]

Ya it's a bugged attack that people dishonestly use to represent elden ring delays. He can't land the hit until you are in front, so if you keep circling him he will keep turning to get you, and he turns too slow to do so, leading to this attack looking hilarious

[@lharsay]

@@barry4293 no, he actually delays it for that long

[@barbedmitten4475]

@@barry4293that’s still a shitty attack then

[@Bigred4405]

Man, that’s been my biggest complain too. All these cool spells and skills and majority of bosses don’t give you any time to use them I only end up using it on field mobs.

[@kryptonian5539]

Too many builds come down to just spamming an OP ash of war. It gets really repetitive.

[@zakanyimen]

As mentioned in the video it is not true. You can do jump attacks, charge attacks. You can do also spells, shield pokes, parries,

[@jackpura926]

Use a AoW like cragblade or endure and you can play however you want while not losing out on the ash system entirely

[@kryptonian5539]

@@zakanyimen that's my point. You can do all of that. But ultimately most builds end up being just spam stormcaller or whatever.

[@kryptonian5539]

@@jackpura926 hell yeah

[@zakanyimen]

@@kryptonian5539 I am that is the players choice

[@kryptonian5539]

I just want to be able to make the decision to get myself killed by an enemy while I look at the map. Its so dumb I cant open the map with enemy aggro.

[@fafapapa1271]

The issue with that is that you can open your map not realizing you're aggroed and get killed without understanding why. Which can be even more frustrating imo.

[@morepower6800]

@kryptonian5539 such a weird thing to complain about

[@magganboi1350]

Best part in Elden Ring Is Iron Fist Alexander obv ofc

[@echidnaburger02]

My idea for rare item drops is having a set number of times an enemy is killed in a row before the drop is either guaranteed or increased in drop rate. This way, rare items are still rare for people not farming for them, but not a nightmare to obtain for farmers. The number of times an enemy needs to be killed in a row would depend on how tough the enemy is, how common the enemy is, and how good the item supposedly is.

[@The_Novu]

The improvements the Convergence Mod added like buyable Larval Tears, removing the need to farm for equipment, etc should be put into the next game they make. I have no idea why they're convinced people would abuse infinite respec. It won't help you beat a hard boss and so what if it does? Also they won't stop making souls like games lmao that's their bread and butter. It'd be like SquareEnix dropping JRPGs to make FPS games. Anyways, I pretty much only play Convergence because outside of a few things I think need polish it's just more fun and lets me do things base game doesn't. I love FROM but a lot of choices they made design wise with ER where just baffling. Still one of my favorite games of all time though. Got me through the worst year of my life and I want them to make something better. I highly HIGHLY doubt this is the last time we see open world from them now that they have plenty of experience making such a gigantic game. Like all the goofy problems ER has like all the bad spells they refuse to buff and useless copypaste weapons will hopefully be streamlined in the next one without sacrificing variety.

[@LeggoMyGekko]

I personally like farming for gear. It’s a fun way to pass time and the satisfaction when you finally get the drop you want is supreme, feels way better than just picking up a full armor set automatically.

[@anonymousnate678]

The boss discussion is very funny as the first 2 bosses you called out for not liking (Godrick, and Placidusax) are some of my favorites lmao.

[@RiffRaffish]

Elden Ring is a 'fine' game. My first soulslike game. I did my first playthrough in seamless coop as every time I tried one of these games they seemed unfun, but it gives off a more fun adventure vibe with a couple friends. It gave me that same feeling of exploring and wondering what is around the corner like in Breath of the Wild. I don't care if a game is hard. This game is just stuck in archaic game mechanics. Sane people will tell you this is true and they just got used to it, but the camera is terrible in every respect ie being magnetic to walls, lack of free lock on, vomit inducing enemies flying around or only having one lock on zone. The fov is claustrophobic and cannot be adjusted. You cannot meaningfully change your key binds. The dodge and run are on the same button, with a painful input delay that really stuffs your timing. The input buffer is so long causing you to second guess your timings because it gets you used to doing things really early rather than just being precise, which is counter to the input delay. I had to watch a bunch of youtube videos to even understand the weapon damage mechanics and what stats are actually good for. None of these things are even related to the core gameplay. These things are so easy to detect, work around or outright fix before release. How a game made in 2022 can be so dated I do not understand. Game balance wise, everything you said is 100% on point. All these gripes are a real shame to me because the game is really beautiful at times with a lot of cool locales, bosses armours and weapons. At the end of the day I will always prefer Monster Hunter style combat and gameplay appreach, and that is okay.

[@Ytinasniiable]

I agree there needed to be more things to get in ng+ or endgame stuff Also great runes shouldve carried into ng+, it's annoying to spend all of the time to Craft a malenia rune build only to be able to only use it for like 1/3rd of the game and the DLC, even in ng+ gotta rush to her to maximize use time and you cant use it against her And int/fth couldve been cleverly used to focus on ghostflame spells, with one stat boosting damage and the other boosting frost buildup on ghostflame spells

[@deanrosen6093]

Your suggestions for better replay value are so on point!

[@Goony1246]

Honestly my main gripe with the DLC is that if screwed over the lore HARD

[@Ozz1eOdea]

In what way?

[@Goony1246]

@@Ozz1eOdea The whole Miquella and Radahn situation for starters (should've been Godwyn), since they got no relationship to speak of in base game. Godwyns knights protecting his corpses -- he should've died after Messmer were sent on his crusade. Lack of GoQ content and Godskins. Those are a couple of them, but Miquella and Radahn are definently the biggest. There's also a whole mess of inconsistencies, but they're not necessarily lore related.

[@Ozz1eOdea]

@@Goony1246 I agree the whole radahn thing is bull, and I would love to see gloam eyed queen but godskins don’t know about that. Not having Godwyn as the final boss was so saddening, when they had TWO death knight Mini bosses just for them to be irrelevant, what makes it worse is the ending of the dlc, a memory like really?!

[@Goony1246]

@@Ozz1eOdea Yeah I agree with you completely. Also, why wasn't Melina present in the DLC? How come none of the base game NPCs comment on it? You'd think Gideon of all people would be interested. Hell, even Roderika given the DLC is brimming with spirits.

[@Nsscll]

@@Goony1246in what fromsoftware dlc did you ever see NPC from the base game?

[@darkphoenix2]

I said it back in 2022 after finishing the game. This formula has reached its limits when it comes to providing a fair and fun challenge. We're still working on a foundation from 2009. No matter how many weeks they've made since the first Demon's Souls, It's still built on the limits of that combat system. There is so much more room to grow. Just imagine if we could actually aim spells like a shooter, instead of having to rely on the lock-on. That's one aspect of combat that could be hugely changed.

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

Yeah I feel like this is something Souls fanboys refuse to address: the reason FS can put out these massive games with (relatively) high frequency is because it's all built on the same exact template from 16 years ago, with little additions here and there.

[@willybiggs-rj6qt]

for replayabiltiy - there are some items you can only get once..after that swap it out for a rune arc or max upgrade stone inside the chest

[@EmadIbrahim007]

The best part about Elden Ring is piercing attacks. To top it all off, they deal piercing damage, which is the best damage type in the game. Do not forget projectile attacks, as they can cheese the entire game. Imagine if, on top of that, they also deal lightning damage, which is the best type of elemental damage due to many enemies being weaker to it. Furthermore, you deal more damage when you attack during their attack animation, so pairing this with the thrust talisman will result in substantial damage.

[@TheBeautyOfSpacee]

For your final point I had a good time fighting consort Radahn using the ancient meteoric greatsword and was able to find a couple moves to even get the skill off so I think even slower weapons and skills can be viable

[@videojokeremmie7535]

In all honesty I only like this game as much as I do and replay it as much as I do because I forced myself to do a level one run very soon after my first playthrough. Seeing as Elden ring was my first souls game I died literally hundreds of times to individual bosses on that run. Doing that forced me to learn move sets and strategies that made the bosses more fun and easier to fight against normally. Without that much time dedicated to perfecting the mechanics I don’t think I would enjoy the game as much now

[@chef5588]

Godrick is S tier 💪

[@zainabameen6155]

Agreed 👍

[@Quiet-u5r]

👍

[@LeggoMyGekko]

I think he would’ve been much more popular if he didn’t come right after Margit

[@rainer516]

RE: replayability focus: I don’t think FromSoft anticipated how much we would replay this game.

[@WholesomeDungareeWearer]

I think more tryhard players miss the point with harder bosses like Malenia and Radahn. It isn't about whether I can overcome a hard boss with an optimised build, and hours of practice, and watching a guide on how to dodge just one attack. It's about whether it's fun to do in the slightest. And people with disabilities, or people just coming home from a day of work, really don't need the "oh but it's really rewarding to overcome a tough challenge." Accessibility options would be fine, thanks

[@throwaway2246]

I haven't even beat Malenia or Radahn solo so I'm not shitting on you here, but aren't spirit summons the accessibility option?

[@Romb772]

Malenia is literally the "tough challenge to overcome" boss ,if you aren't up for the challenge due to disabilities or time problems or somesuch you can completely ignore the fight and you experience will not be harmed

[@WholesomeDungareeWearer]

@@throwaway2246 I don't really consider spirit summons to count as an accessibility option. Compare them to the options other games like Ultrakill, Celeste, and Dead Cells have and spirit summons begin to feel really limited. Also, their integration as a mechanic that has to be strengthened with upgrades, they're not hard to farm for and upgrade relative to anything else in the game, but them not just being a series of options in a menu is too out the way in my opinion to be considered accessibility options. Finally, spirit ashes don't make waterfowl easier to dodge with a melee character with how enemy aggro works, and they don't stop it from being a potential one shot with frame 1 infinite hyper armor.

[@WholesomeDungareeWearer]

@@Romb772 that's true, but I'd argue that, the fact that one of the main selling points of Elden Ring is being able to fight cool, cinematic bosses, that no one boss should be able to entirely escape the reach of certain players because it's "the final challenge." The devs have no reason not to make it possible for everyone to experience everything, and lore about Malenia is locked behind fighting her. By the same logic, the entire story of the game from start to finish is optional because anyone can just, not buy the game. I just feel like some enemy scaling options wouldn't have been hard to add in such a high budget production, they wouldn't have hurt the experience of any secure individual, and they would have made a game that is a pretty significant cultural bombshell open to more people, and people who want Malenia to be the final challenge can still have that by not touching the accessibility options

[@Dr.Happy11]

I think I fully agree on your initial point, but kinda of disagree on your conclusion. And that's because, in my humble and probably insignificant opinion, a boss like Malenia isn't meant to be enjoyed by the "non-tryhard". It's a boss that rewards strong fundamentals, matchup knowledge and execution, it's a boss that punishes mistakes very hard, has the mixups to potentially cause mistakes, and comes equipped with a couple "run resetting" interractions. The unholy trinity that makes a boss obnoxious, especially after a long day. Thankfully it's a non-essential for the game's completion, though still a major boss. And ER has a handful of encounters like this one, that demands "skill, patience or cheese", though thankfully, only a few of those are "main game bosses" (fire giant, godskins and rellana, though I wouldn't disagree if people put PCR in that list). Malenia, and similarly hard encounters, is a boss that *can* be overcome by anyone, whether with a broken build, cheese strat, or git-gudness, but it certainly isn't a boss that can be enjoyed by everyone, and that's by design. And I feel like that's perfectly reasonable, because, an "accessibility option", even if it could work for ER at large, and even if it kept some bosses enjoyable, it just wouldn't work for Malenia. Not in a way that would make her fun, to at least address your point. So, it would end up being the same as "equip Ordovis and press L2 or Night Comet and press R1/L1", just with more work from the devs.

[@Scowleasy]

How come only like 2 spells work with jumping?

[@zainabameen6155]

There are three spells actually

[@Scowleasy]

@ congrats

[@BigDBrian]

As someone who does spend insane amounts of hours on learning the bosses, I completely agree with your take on the bosses. They can be amazing experiences if you really delve deep and learn it, but the barrier of entry is high, and the game does NOTHING to support it. It often seems like they did everything in their power to stop you. You can only fight a major boss once per playthrough, there's no re-fights or gauntlet, and there's a plethora of bugs and inconsistencies like uneven terrain, terrible hitboxes or inconsistent AI to be found.

[@Scowleasy]

Base game is about 15-25% too big. You just get tired and burnt out in the latter half. It’s why I barely ever finish characters

[@TheJmoreno126]

17:00 Wrong. We can still go further. You know what Fromsoft can add to boss move sets? Feints. Feints to roll catch you for dodging and falling for the faint. Cruel jokes aside, I feel no need for innovation, just to remove the stupid rolling mechanics and I-frames. Bloodborne's quickstep to evade made more sense. "Rolling into a laser beam to evade it" is more stupid than quicksteping to the side to evade it.

[@Mr.Starlight_gaming]

They can go further, but i would definately like the character to get a bit faster in tandum, which from does seem interested in with nightreign.

[@Mr.Starlight_gaming]

Btw Olw does have feints

[@Sargatas]

For me exploration is also a bad thing. The more you play the emptier game becomes. And after first two locations you open a chest or loot something from the ground...every time you do this you pray to Miyazaki for it not being another stupid crafting material or a cookbook. After Leyndell locations become completely empty. There's literally nothing there. Two snow locations with 6 another copy-pasted caves filled with bosses that you faced 10 times already and close to 0 loot on them. It's even worse in DLC. Kilometers of clean space, 70% of the map is pure nothingness. Crazy forest is the whole own level of bullshit by itself. And, as you said youself, this huge world hinders the replayability very hard.

[@GOAT-rl2uq]

1000% this. Of all the praise ER got, the open world is the thing I understand the least. Like yeah, it's huge and looks pretty, but does that really matter when the exploration is so unsatisfying a solid majority of the time? After the first playthrough, it just becomes a commute.

[@fafapapa1271]

Crafting can be very fun, and some cookbooks are a big help. If you ignore that then yes it's a lot of useless loot.

[@Sargatas]

@fafapapa1271 haven't seen a single person that would use anything but sleep pots on godskins and freezing ones on Malenia. Arrows sound like a thing, but then you remember that bows are very underpowered.

[@fafapapa1271]

@@Sargatas I play using different type of pots, perfume things, crab boosts… It's free bonus, and makes the game more diverse.

[@Sargatas]

@@fafapapa1271 well, if you consider it a bonus and use it because you can...I understand.

[@CGR1410]

For BAD #3 it feels like fromsoft wants the game to be as hard as possible artificially when the player can already do that by selecting and limiting their own builds. But on top of that since a VERY LOUD minority says that Elden ring was “too easy” they jacked up and inflated the bullshit artificial difficulty in SOTE, which leads to fights like miquella and radhan and the divine beast where it’s just a boss wailing on u with no back and forth. Can u one hit these bosses? Yes, but only after devoting a large amount of time which by that point the fun and satisfactory of beating it is gone. I can’t say for everyone but beating Radhan in the DLC felt so… meh. Cuz I know they just made him for the fans who love him and wanted “something harder”. When he can be cheesed like any other boss all the same, it’s just he’s less precise and has poor telegraphs to “make it harder” and his phase 2… I don’t even need to talk abt it.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

The "difficulty first" mindset they had with the game really hurt it in many areas.

[@CGR1410]

@ it’s juvenile as hell. Just made the game a rolling-bad-camera fuck-fest. It’s just not good game design. The replayability of SOTE is bad imo because of this and other things

[@chadbernaid9478]

I was just replaying er and fighting Margit level 1 with a +0 weapon I realized just how crazy and versatile his moveset is and that one attack where his weapon comes from the ground up that super fast is such a insane move. The weapon fazes through the ground to hit you

[@theULTIMATElife50]

Malenia is my favorite boss, she can be aggressive and has a lot of combos but she also has low poise so some of her combos can be interrupted by two handing smaller weapons. Most of all the other major bosses will shrug off even the most powerful stagger attacks like Giants Hunt and Lions Claw until you break their stance after multiple hits.As a boss I think she is one of the best tuned for difficulty.

[@WholesomeDungareeWearer]

I think it would be great if Elden Ring had an optional Scadutree Blessing mechanic for NG+ to make up for the fact you already have a +25 weapon. Maybe the blessing item could drop from side bosses that you didn't kill in base NG, encouraging exploration once more. (also having ng+ black pnahtoms like ds2 and ds1 gravelord would've been nice, we already have the template of the destined death shadow Blaidd)

[@leoriederer8028]

the clip for farming the magma blades just unlocked my PTSD, i spent over 6 hours getting 2 of them

[@frankbrowniii3057]

Thank You. This is the best Elden Ring video by the best Elden Ring content creator. Thank You

[@HiMyNameIzJake]

I would love to see a video like this without any of the negative stuff so that I can send it to some friends at work to try convince them to play. I genuinely think that if most people that play video games gave it a try they would enjoy it so you should make a video that's meant to pull people in that haven't played Elden Ring yet!

[@shut]

To me the lack of covenants and 6 player limit is the biggest flaw this game has

[@Rainbow_Shogun]

From Software should take notes from Lords of the Fallen regarding their New Game Plus/Negative system and all the modifier options. Also, add transmog in the future please.

[@D4rthfurious]

Also from lords of the fallen Co-op System

[@kimashitawa8113]

Replayed it recently Lords of the Fallen has: Clothing dyes. New game (and ng+) modifiers. Bloodborne dodge, Sekiro deflect and posture system combined and doesn't feel broken because of it. way better handling of spell catalysts and ranged weapons. Seamless transition from one-handed to two-handed moveset (can do a running attack two-handed and flawlessly continue your combo one-handed). Gems you can slot into weapons for extra bonusses. Actual things you can unlock from the different endings (new starter classes). Fromsoftware could learn some things from it. I still say that Elden Ring is the better game overall though.

[@jayfadeaway8931]

I agree. The way you can transition from spell to spell in lords of the fallen was masterfully done. I also appreciate how you can buff elemental weapons with elemental weapon buffs. I love lords of the fallen.

[@kimashitawa8113]

@@jayfadeaway8931 It's insane how they give Pieta's Sword and the Holy magic buff so early in the game

[@jayfadeaway8931]

Pieta’s sword is badass, I used that my entire first play through.

[@user-zp8kj2cl9g]

One thing is certain: I simply can't imagine the quality the next Miyazaki/From game is going to have. And I can't wait

[@jefforious2000]

Elden Ring made me an angry, worse person.... before overcoming and becoming a better person.

[@Sinhsseax]

Good video. I agree with pretty much everything and you always have footage backing your points really well. The good section reflects how I feel a lot of the time. Elden Ring is a gorgeous game, with such good combat and bosses and so much freedom when it comes to exploration and build making. This is a combination that's hard to match and why I have so many hours in it. And your criticisms really show your 4000 hours. The complaints of bad balance and how many things desperately need buffs, as well as the lack of an end game mode, farming etc. these are all most important to someone who has imo played way too much of this game. Someone who has played less wouldn't be able to bring it up, much less in such detail. Looking forward to your other videos of this style.

[@NamelessGR]

I would like to see a linear elden ring ds1 hybrid combining open ended areas with the interconectivity of early lordran,I feel like this would solve the running around issue while still insentivising exploration and would recapture that sense of wonder the original ER playthrough had,while still giving you a structured and concise experience,exploration should still be rewarded but not mindlessly running around for hours filling a check list

[@happyman498]

I actually really enjoyed the infusion system in Dark Souls 2. I still think ER is better due to the Ashes of War, but being able to infuse some boss weapons was fun as hell.

[@spairus4492]

Thanks this was great! I want to also add a minor and a moderate complaint: the infusion system, while great, I feel like introduced a ton of complexity in terms of knowing what's good and what isn't, which kind of overloaded me. For the first 2 years of this game coming out I couldn't tell which 2-3 weapons of each type were best for which stat investments. I had to spend multiple times more effort in calculators and tests and videos to get a feel for how to even tell what's "best", compared to Dark Souls titles. Of course, I know this is not a prerequisite for enjoying the game normally, just my way of enjoying it My bigger complaint was articulated best by another youtuber when the game first came out, which is how the fact that they repeated bosses so much, does a lot to lessen the experience. Not just through the repetitive nature that progression gets, but also how it cheapens the effect some boss designs have on you on the first couple playthroughs. For example, the falling star beast I feel like I would cherish and feel impressed by a lot more, were it simply JUST in mt gelmir. Fighting the fledgling two times before that just makes it directly worse of an experience I feel like.

[@UnfunnyMan5908]

Im confused about your first paragraph so i may be slow. Im wondering how the infusions where complex, doesnt the attribute scaling tell you what builds should be using it?

[@spairus4492]

@UnfunnyMan5908 Yes, but comparing possible weapon options becomes a lot lengthier of a process. In Dark Souls traditionally you knew that some weapons are never an option to even consider when you level, say, dex and the same for str. In Elden Ring, since you can, for example, fire or lightning infuse weapons even from the early game, your options are sooo many, and optimising gets more involved. Of course, the variety this all brings more than makes up for it, but the point still stands. And I didn't even mention the whole can of worms that is Ash of War and Skill damage scaling, which is even more of a mess: how some scale with a stat, others with weapon level etc. I still like the process of learning these things, hence why my complaint is minor. But I did find myself appreciating the relative simplicity of the equivalent systems in DS3, for example

[@UnfunnyMan5908]

@@spairus4492 i guess im not able to relate simce i dont do optmising l. For me, whenever i do a playthrough with a specific build such as a strenght one, i dont really care about the numbers but more about the playstyle that is typically associated with the stat in this instance strenght. Since strenght has a slow heavy hitter playstyle im only going to use weapons that corelate with that play style. That means that i have less weapon options to compare is limited and so more simple, sure a heavy infused thrusting sword produces more dps but i dont care since thats not the reason im playing a strenght build. I think this is why i was confused by your comment. But anyways im glad you managed to figured it out and yes, the repetitive bosses are lame, hope they fix that in the next main game.

[@alessandromasini7697]

14:40 "Even a boss like Margit" Ok but to be fair Margit and especially Morgott is by far the most complex boss in Elden Ring. Morgot is geniunely broken from a moveset standpoint, delayed attacks, insane mixups, huge variety, lighting fast... he has it all. He is entirely balanced around being super squishy and low damage

[@mmmmine5439]

I really feel the Larval Tear, Dragon Stone and farming stuff lol. With over 300 weapons, it'd be awesome to be incentivized to try a bunch of them out but the grind to upgrade or obtain them can be pretty discouraging.

[@gregoryaguon1925]

I like how the game doesn't hold your hand. I mean yes some things are kinda crazy ti figure out like making certain gestures to unlock hidden paths but aside from that, its good. Forces you to explore

[@thomaspraisewater6101]

I think you do a good job making your points and I always appreciate your opinions on ER. Disagree about some points, though: I have literally never had a problem acquiring Ancient Smithing Stones or Larval Tears to try whatever build I want. I know they are finite, but they really seem to be plentiful enough to live out your chosen builds with limited restriction imo. I also think this is the best batch of bosses we've ever had; i really kinda love them all. Feels like FromSoft just watches what players do and then goes out of their way to fuck with them, which imo is cool and good. Attacks are deliberately designed to keep players from getting comfortable. I think if you want easy bosses or whatever you can play some rip off like that monkey game or whatever, or use spirit ashes. Somewhat related, but I also love the way they do NPC quests because it's always funny to realize you've like, taken an elevator, so now an entire questline that spans multiple regions is eliminated, and then you go to the wiki page and there's like 10 people going off in the comments; I also love when they have a rare item in the distance and you get there and it's an arteria leaf. I consider this all FromSoft flavor and laugh every time.

[@EmadIbrahim007]

I think FS should step back and draw inspiration from other soulsborne games that have successfully revamped the system, offering substantial quality of life upgrades to this stagnating formula. For example, Lies of P has improved the weapon handle/blade swapping, weapon leveling system, unlocking certain upgrades, while Nioh's Ki pulse mechanic offers valuable insights, Enotria: The Last Song features a free system that lets you select which skills to unlock and allows for quick adjustments to your build with almost zero hassle or cost. Additionally, the steal weapon for dual damage feature for bosses health bar in games like Thymesia has enhanced my experience, making it significantly better, just like in many other recent souls-like titles I've played. I hope the next FS can take note of these ideas, combining and evolving such promising concepts for a more innovative and refreshing take on this genre.

[@itsallenwow]

Your point about status effects I hadn’t realized. I never play PvP and have like 400 hours in the game. I just never will use madness basically

[@Enishi900]

Replayability and balancing could indeed be better. I would have loved an option to refight bosses without having to traverse areas like the Mountaintops of Boredom and Fake Difficulty Snowfields. In terms of NG+ I gave in and got a ps plus so I could reupload cloud saves so I could avoid farming and the crappy balancing in later NG+ cycles, mainly the stance damage. I guess the reduced stance damage on bosses in Ng2 and up was meant to be counter balance you have more Mind, Endurance and being able to keep up pressure longer, but it doesn't work that well in practice, as it limits the number of builds and skills you can use, like with Consort Radahn.

[@yaibaone]

A bosss rush mode would actually be the best thing for now, I like how remnant 2 did it where you get. buff for each boss you beat, obviously you have a cap at a certain point, We can also have different kinds of Boss rushes maybe based on the different ending like in Sekiro, and then we can have some for minor bosses like the catacomb types of field types. Because for me when i get an idea for a challenge run or a new build and think about starting a whole new game and collecting everything once more its a whole task and i don't want to do it anymore and then even if its in NG+ its still the task of riding around in areas that now feel empty because i have seen and done mostly everything

[@bboydobriy]

Sekiro gauntlet is goated

[@taylic6869]

You’d might as well do sekiro next since you wants its combat innovated on. And the maybe just finish the reverse release order

[@ManOfEthnicity]

Definitely agree with it being too big at times. Nothing like going through the same 2 hour material loop on every new character just to not have to grind out encounters. On the upside they made the world gorgeous to travel through and frequent rest sites are a glorious quality of life addition. Biggest point for me though is if the majority of players have to abandon their build that has worked on 99.9% of the content just to stand a chance against a boss, your boss is poorly designed. I’ve got the time to min max, and boost every buff to cruise through but most people don’t have that luxury.

[@meredith18352]

I get way more joy out of starting a new playthrough than NG+. Still my favourite game of all time despite the quirks. Love that it allows mediocre gamers like myself still have fun and gives us the tools to defeat the toughest bosses in whichever way we can or want to

[@spod5849]

I don't get why you say that the bosses don't have openings and then you play well enough and show how you can hit the bosses in between their combos, like for Radahn i get it colossals suck for the fight, but Rellana and Morgott don't loose that many openings when trasnitioning to slower weapons, and neither do most of the bosses in the game.

[@Battleguild]

I personally hate how they haven't improved general Caster gameplay. Seals/Staves (Catalysts) effectively only have 1 functional button, meaning that they're essentially a glorified tool item that happens to fill the hand slot. They don't have access to: Affinities Ash of War variety Which is a solid chunk of player customization that's available in the game. In addition, for some reason, Catalysts have a useless R2 Bonk, L1 Block, and L2 AoWs. Having access to a real FP-free spell attack for Catalysts alone would improve Caster gameplay. Replacing the L1 Block with either an Aim feature or a quick-select Spell Wheel would be a nice quality of life change. As for Ash of Wars, just having access to the Spell-like Ash of Wars would've been enough. Having Gravitas for the Meteorite Staff or Carian Grandeur for the Carian Glintblade Staff would've been super flavorful and fun. I would gladly change out the excessive damage equipment buff bloat for these improvements.

[@hankhill4321]

One thing i don't like about the bosses is the complete lack of original duo bossfights. I'm fine with having "some" reskinned bosses, for some instances like watchdogs and gargoyles it even makes sense, but having not ONE SINGLE duo boss thats not just recycled versions of what i already fought is kinda disappointing

[@SubmissiveOwlet]

On the, uh, bad point 3. I recently started a Dark Souls 2 playthrough, alongside my partner, who started a new Elden Ring playthrough specifically abusing all the bosses weaknesses. And i gotta be honest, i literally just walked in a circle around the first few bosses in my ds2 playthrough. The main one that made me remember i find ds2 really boring was no hitting old dragon slayer by just walking to his right for about 5 minutes and eventually whittling him down. Watching my partner playing Elden Ring just prompted me to take a break from ds2 because the problem i have with the old games is that bosses aren't fighting you. They're just a glorified hit count till the boss defeated text. I think actual boss complexity is definitely preferred for myself, and my recent dip into the older games again reminded me of why i really can't go back any further than Bloodborne.

[@marc.vonwyl]

I was also feeling so frustrated fighting Radahn (consort), as we have all these cool attacks, but the only viable option was roll, roll, roll, timed-roll, roll, roll again, does-he-continue-the-combo-roll, roll, R1... roll, roll, roll... Many ashes of war will be too slow to not be punished during even the longest openings... I had similar issues with Rellana and her stupidly high poise with insanely long combo.

[@viggen88]

I really can't agree that bosses are too complex, but as you say, it's completely subjective. I'm personally not good at fully memorizing movesets, but I immensly enjoy learning them "well enough". With this I mean that I never go for hitless, but I like practicing bosses until I can do them with half my heals or less. My favourite boss is actually Midra, but that's despite him being so simple, not because of it. I would like him even more if he was harder. My second favourite boss is Rellana as well, and she's one of the most complex bosses in the game. I also keep seing this sentiment of "dodge a 20 second long combo only to run out of stamina and can't punish". As far as I'm aware, that does not exist outside of extreme edgecases with dragons, and if you genuinely can't get a punish for 20 seconds straight, then you're most probably wasing your windows panic rolling. Lastly, I do like that it's difficult to heal vs some bosses. It can make for some really interesting fights imo, having to wait for the right opening to heal, and discourages bringng 14 heals plus crimson seed tali and just outdamaging the boss

[@Fier07112]

Thing about broken builds is that they came later. When the game was new, you had no idea. Still it’s a choice to do so which is like an in game difficulty changer. But my only issue is the input reading, especially on heal. It would be okay if the game was coded to react. But bosses like in Auriza’s Hero dungeon or Godskin at the bottom of Rahdan Tower. Getting smacked right in the face soon as I press square lol. Everything else is cool imo. If you play open world RPGs, a large majority don’t walk you through. Especially early games like Final Fantasy 7, Zelda, etc. Just explore, struggle, figure it out! That’s why I like Elden Ring fr!

[@madelyn4566]

the absolute best thing in elden ring is messmer.

[@Lukart59]

we know, madelyn, we know.

[@scrubsodium]

Murz ban her

[@DG-ez6of]

I only started with Elden Ring but my biggest struggle was quest tracking. Not telling me where to go but just noting who i talked to and what was last said. Ill go weeks between talking to NPCs and have no clue what I should do or should have done.

[@bboydobriy]

The fact that certain bosses render half of the skills and spells the game gives you useless or not viable is one of my biggest criticisms for Elden Ring. It's like "let's design a million of cool looking spells but you will only use them vs trash mobs!" Bruh

[@Vex-iy8zm]

Wouldn't be surprised if a DLC around Melina shows up down the line.

[@sirith9157]

One thing which is incredibly frustrating is how From decided to design certain aspect of this game. Enemies have flat defenses which made a lot of multi hit spells like crystal torrent into a 16 cilinder war powered engine past the mid game. Half of the things from the DLC just don't work with Godfrey Icon/Roar Medallion. Shield are in a really awkward spot where you either tank enerything, parry everything or chip damage is killing you without a sweat. Status effects shouldn't bypass it. It just doesn't make sense. Spraying toxic cloud - no defending against it, but blocking a poisoned weapon? What is this crap? And then there are things like Ash of War on Bolt of Gransaax. You can't jump dodge things with it because it doesn't disable lower half of your hitbox like jumping does. And jumping. There are attacks which are jumpable but damage of the bosses is so unforgiving in many places where it's just isn't worth it to try 90% of the time because you can die from it. Disabling half the hitbox isn't a solution. Make player jump higher and make it clear. And there are a lot of absolutely wierd design choices where we can go hours on. Like Youwy said with spells. It feels like From have different people which work on it and just don't speak with each other... And don't take it as a hate towards the game, but I'm really struggling to like it after the DLC. From got lost in what they wanted to do. Half the things either doesn't work or is so convoluted/poorly explained it just drain my enjoyment of actually playing. Questlines being one of those convoluted things. Holy sh*t Miyazaki From. CHANGE IT.

[@JoeFernald-q7i]

Youwy is hands down the best Elden Ring content creator

[@rowanpipe1841]

A cookbook ranking would be the best thing

[@lukoscreyden]

The dodge roll needs to die. Forever. I love evading boss attacks, but it looks fucking stupid when my character is flippy floppy tumbly-wumblying through a boss' twenty second combo. My poor character's spine must be turning into dust. Being back Bloodborne evasion.

[@projyeet]

This boss complaint is such an eyeroll for me, man. I think that people focus too much on the difficulty that they neglect important refinements to the combat like jump attacks, low-profiling, cleaner hitboxes allowing for strafe dodging, and bosses no longer only having “one solution” which allows all builds to thrive under a fun and fast rhythm unlike DS3 which constantly made things harder for strength builds.

[@DuwirstLachen]

The worst thing about Elden Ring is 100% the falling Damage.... It feels SOOOO RANDOM that all i can say about it is: It's dogshit. Change my mind.😤

[@fafapapa1271]

It's annoying but by using the rainbow stones you are safe, and it feels kinda immersive to have to do that.

[@fishfriend1170]

15:58 What do you mean? That's like 70% of bosses in the base game. Even in dlc(which is meant to be hard) we have sunflower, midra, romina and dancing lion. Not to mention death knights, npc bosses and dragons

[@barbedmitten4475]

He’s talking about main and non repeat bosses.

[@fishfriend1170]

@barbedmitten4475 Sunflower, midra, romina and dancing lion are main bosses. In addition to Godric, Rellana, Astel, Deer, Fire giant and Radabeast. Other ones aren't that hard too. But I want some challenge in fromsoftware games, sorry)

[@barbedmitten4475]

@ midra isn’t. Neither is flower. If you want challenge then use worse equipment

[@fishfriend1170]

@@barbedmitten4475They all have remembrances. If I wan't challenge, I want complex bosses(like in Elden Ring), not cookie clicker ones To make things easier use armor, and better weapons

[@YeOldeMachina]

I feel like the biggest shortcoming of all From games is the lack of combat depth and the archaic design of the ranged/casting system. I feel like everything else they do is s-tier. I still enjoy playing them, but compared to more modern combat systems, it leaves something to be desired imo. I'd like to see the ability to seamlessly integrate casting/ranged, and more complex combos, ect. Also, nobody has even come close to doing the timed deflect system better than Sekiro, and they've done very little with it since.

[@tarenflores]

My biggest complaint abt Elden (besides how needlessly confusing the damage scaling system is) is that Limgrave is the only area that feels really “alive” and everywhere else feels like a devastated wasteland. It was kinda disappointing.

[@luhh9536]

Really good video, i agree with a lot of your takes and desagree with some, but its cool to see other's people opinion and see some things with another look to it

[@user-zp8kj2cl9g]

You and lobosjr are the only ones with a valuable opinion about souls games gameplay.