Elden Ring Debate! Is Elden Ring A Masterpiece or Overrated Spam Fest? (Review, Discussion) 

Elden Ring suffers from the same problem as all open world rpgs. On a blind playthrough, you spend your time doing as much content as possible because you don’t know which quests or dungeons will provide you with rewards that are beneficial for your build. As a result, you waste a ton of time completing content that does not offer substantial rewards. With a strength melee build, I grew frustrated every time I was rewarded with a magic spell for completing a dungeon. If I know in advance which rewards a dungeon offers, I can make a decision if that dungeon is worth my time. That introduces another problem. If you already know which dungeons to hit on a playthrough, you’re essentially turning the game into a linear experience. You make a beeline for the content that is beneficial for your build, and you ignore the rest, which defeats the purpose of the open world. When that’s the case, how is Elden Ring any different from the prior Souls games? The exploration is meaningless because there are no dynamic elements in the world to throw a wrench in the player’s plan. Every event is scripted. Every dungeon and reward is static. When everything is predictable, the experience becomes homogenous, and everyone experiences the game in the same way. The exploration has no meaning if my dex-int run is remarkably similar to everyone else’s. Basically, no open world game has ever been done right, and current trends point to a frothing demand for open world games, which are taking longer to develop than linear experiences. The fact that people point to the major dungeons in Elden Ring as the highlights demonstrates two things: that only around 30% of the game has the best content, and that the best content is the stuff that made the prior games good, and is not something unique to Elden Ring. To me, I couldn’t possible consider that worthy of praising Elden Ring as the best in the series, let alone one of the best open world games of all time.

Guys, I think we totally agree on something: Skyrim just sucks.

I'll listen to the whole podcast these days (have a train ride coming) and honestly this is one of the only channels I want to hear about Open World games from. The hype around that genre is incomprehensible to me.

ER parry takes huge chunk of stamina, all the more or less bosses have unparriable attacks, all major bosses require 2+ parries for crit, crit damage is absolutely not as massive as previous games, but missing your parry is extremely painful - did boghog even try to perform it?

I feel like gamers nowadays paradoxically have a lot of patience but at the same time too little. I have been noticing this by watching streamers and achievement stats. Most people have the patience for tedious grinding or doing tedious tasks for more than 100 hours to reduce difficulty but at the same have too little patience for practicing a section or boss for 30 minutes, they would rather try to brute force it for 5 hours or more. I just don't get it, i think it's the same reason why people call some RPG games "grindy" and leave a negative review saying "this game is too grindy, grinding is required to beat it, Bad design" even if that's not true at all, often times grinding is not required you just have to play well, but because they cannot bother to learn the mechanics their only resource is to level up as they are convinced it's impossible to progress without it, this happens a lot more with action games with RPG elements, most people have a tendency to treat these games like an RPG and solve everything by leveling up, that alone might be the reason why there are opinions that are so polarizing because of the complete opposite playstyles. To me letting a player grind to extreme levels can lead to trivializing the entire game to the point it loses the intention, game experience, immersion and impact the developers originally intended, just like the rewind feature in megaman collection.

The open world transport does not seem well thought out in the game. The reason I think open world works so well in GTA is that you have the whole car driving mini-game, where you can get faster at getting to places by weaving in between cars or going into on coming traffic with faster and faster cars, and in later games upgrade your car and customize its appearance if you really like it, all while listening to the radio stations. Also motorbikes are very fast but have the risk of being very easy to be knocked off of and trucks the opposite. Or you can take a helicopter, plane, or train to cover large distances depending on which GTA you're playing. Elden ring could have at least different horses from a racing horse to a Clydesdale, and made it so had to actively evade attacks more often when on it. I disliked how they start having bosses reappear with additional enemies although you could easily miss there first encounter. Dark Souls 2 did this better where on new game+ they would add enemies to boss encounters. The more challenging encounters of a boss should be naturally found after the boss has already been encountered. Agree that other souls game have a much smoother bossing experience. The thing I don't like about parrying in souls games is that is not always easy to tell which attacks are and aren't able to be parried or if you are just not timing it correctly. Elden ring also carries over the terrible gear defence system from ds3, it seems like they didn't like the heavy defence builds from ds1 and just given up and turned it into fashion souls where there is no strategy with what your character is wearing.

I completed ER and spent around 140 hours. Personally, would prefer it at least 3 times shorter. Yes, the game was good but at the same time had some obvious flaws. Too many reused assets, not enough variety in enemies and locations, etc. I'm sure that I've seen around 65% of the content in the previous Fromsoftware titles. And the open world of course. I think the game would have been better without it.

half of the reason I returned to 'simple games' like shmups, pinball, platformers, 8/16 bit esque games of my childhood is because I truly hate what gaming has become. Companies do not make games anymore, they make virtual lives. I do not want pixels to take the place of my entire life. I do not want coded quests to become the use of all my time left on Earth. I don't want to be innundated with 1000s of games every month targeted at me and feel 'FOMO' (fear of missing out) if I dont buy it and spend time on it. Games of my childhood were games - not second lives. They demanded usually no more than a few minutes, any more than that was because of your own desire to keep trying. I refuse to even attempt to start to get into something like Elden Rings. I don't want a % of my life to be Elden Rings. Games like Elden Rings are the exact thing I hate

I just wanna say for the sake of the Dark Souls 1 experience for Mark. Dude, not sure how much you are into multiplayer but Gravelording changes everything about this game. Especially if you want to make builds at different levels in order to cover the most areas of heavy traffic in the game. Most people play dark souls like any other RPG and grind and level up over and over and in turn the game dumbs down. The beauty of Dark Souls IMHO is the challenge you want to impose to yourself, the action is there, so is the challenge, if you throw in the multiplayer aspect of it and the specific build types, the game turns into a puzzle in itself, what bosses not to kill, skip, milk for weapons and let them live, stuff like that. The combat is amazing, specially in multiplayer. However I have to agree with the nuisances that you're presented with like upgrading armor and weapons, that only becomes a tedious problem if you want to work on everything and have a varied build, but if you are working on a focus build it's actually very minimal 'cause there's very little farming to do. I know this is a huge wall of text and I'm sorry, I wish I could word things just right to explain it better. I have a 3 tier weapon level master save of all classes at base level, this way I can up levels according to whatever are I want to play in and what setup I want to use, it changes the game tremendously. Thyen revert to my master save, rinse and repeat, this way you can cover more ground in all different aspects of the game. The action is unreal, and this comes from a Ninja Gaiden Black avid player, its my favorite 3D game, Dark Souls 1 sits right next to it now, it's that good. Dark Souls 2 combat is probably the best in the series, so are the boss fights and movesets. It's just not as good as Dark Souls 1 as a whole, but that doesn't make the game bad per say, just not as incredible but incredible nonetheless. There's more action in DS2, you can pool more enemies like in Ninja Gaiden 2, it can get pretty insane. Ok I rambled enough, I hope you try DS1 someday, I think if you put the work in, it will be worth it, just watch PVP videos and see how amazing it can be.

I don't think being able to run past enemies is an issue. I think it's one of the best parts: some challenges are naturally optional. If you wanna play slow and steady, you can. If you wanna play fast and reckless, you can and you won't get bogged down by "killing trash mobs".

Congrats, I loved the video and the format. Hope you do it again!

Spam-fest? In what way? You have to be very purposeful or you'll get smashed

Great discussion. Big props for the Castlevania DS soundtracks, a true patrician ;) For the record, I loved Elden Ring, but get some of the criticisms. I agree that it's probably the best """""open world"""" game, even though the actual exploration on the map leaves something to be desired. My favorite thing was exploring OP strats, which I think is a counter to Bog's complaint about bosses being unfair. It deemphasizes skill in the traditional sense, but there's fun in a sandbox sense in getting even with shithead, broken bosses.

2:13:20 Nailed it this time though. A lot of people don't get this. Technically doable doesn't mean it'll be fun.

I really need to play ninja gaiden on 360, love the nes games Edit: also WOW you spoke right to my heart about sekiros level design. It really irked me as well

its nice hearing another Stalker fan perspective in the wild. I think more people need to play it, its a unique experience thats important for discussion on open world/ semi open world games.

Unrelated to this video but thanks for doing what you do!!!! I recently bought Ikaruga on steam since selling my GameCube copy a few years back (massive regret) and it led me to your channel in a roundabout way. I bought Zer0ranger shortly after and the shmup has now taken control of my life. Your information and suggestions on the channel have been absolutely incredible for me as a newly indoctrinated shmup addict. Buying a hori rap4 next payday, can’t wait to start working on my first 1cc!

Sekiro has a boss rush mode, though you have to complete the game at least twice to unlock all the challenges. I'm sure you could find a save somewhere with everything unlocked

Good discussion, I’ve only played Sekiro (only could get about halfway through) but overall thought it was a pretty sick. Curious if you have any thoughts on Dead Cells. A game that similarly advertised it’s difficulty, I’ve been pretty hooked lately

I feel this discussion is too broad. I agree with Mark on most things, but how do we judge open world- yeah I agree if games focus on gameplay more and cut meaningless RPG crap out, but why TOTK and BOTW have the best open worlds is the overall package- the choices- like I go somewhere but I don’t have an armor-I can use some mushrooms to give me that resistance. Or I need to scale something and it’s raining and I can’t climb- I can cut trees or catapult myself over. The gamble with stamina while climbing makes it also risk-reward And one more thing to scaling obstacles in Zelda- you had to look at the surface, your stamina, and also the angles on the wall since the stamina would drain differently based on how you go up and which path you choose-it’s way more deep than people realize. Souls games are all about combat and the world is empty and bland compared to Zelda, but what’s the focus? DS is about atmosphere, combat and clever level design to me. Zelda is the first game that just utilised everything in one package well. Combat, Lore, sense of discovery, crafting, cooking, movement, traps, platforming, creating tech, beautiful environments, and some tough fights( even though the main bosses could be harder) also the legends and lore mixed with dungeons- and how each dungeon transitioned like starting on a volcano then jumping in and having no a dungeon in the depths. Or going from below a lake caves onto sky islands. Zelda also pushes skill and experimentation so anything has various solutions-which pushes creativity, not like Elden ring when there’s one solution and that’s it. Open world is not about how designed the enviroment is, it’s about how interconnected everything is. Like a simple apple- I can eat it, I can cook it, I can feed it to horses to make them friendlier to catch. One item can change progression and interaction with multiple things in the game and everything has multiple purposes. So we need to judge how to rank Open World-and what are my choices and if the openness has a benefit. I like Zeldas approach because I can play it on the go without any grinding at all and go anywhere literally because it’s that free- that’s awesome. Souls games have far more roadblocks- so Zelda has better open world. Elden ring only wins because of challenging combat-but don’t harvest hearts in Zelda and try to finish a dungeon, beat minibosses and explore depths,… I feel that Zelda is rhe least grindy, meaningful gameplay experiences out there, and the challenge can still be there, even if not on the same level as DS- but what is difficulty- having the patience of perfectly dodging the same thing 100times-being nervous I don’t make a mistake?! Or finding a solution that can end the fight fast-thus rewarding creativity not punishing me for it because that’s what Elden ring is-a spam fest-well that can be fun if we consider Super Mario Bros2(jpn)? I think the best of both worlds is ideal. Even in DS-I don’t play it for the bosses because some are just lame, but they fit the environment and the atmosphere is great. So U feel making a game that uses its own mechanics and blends them well together is crucial, not just tossing a game into another genre because it’s trendy-and that’s what they did-most people would probably criticise if they made another ds1 after ds3 no matter how great it would be! I would honestly prefer Elden ring to be more like DS1. They used Open World just for marketing and it’s not supposed to be there! We all play games for certain reasons and I can understand why Zelda might not be for you Mark- even though TOTK became the top game of all time for me recently, because we come from a similar era and I usually love more intense linear experiences like MGS1/3,4, DS1, RE, GOW, NG1/2, DK, Bayonetta, Doom 2016-my fav fps, Wonderful 101, Castlevania, Metroid,..because it’s intense 12-15h that are amazing and I wanna replay it again on higher diff, not like finishing one bland but ok game in 40-80h and never playing it again because it’s too much. Back again to open world- I can finish Zelda in 10-15h too if I want to and if I am clever and good enough-I can make the game anything I want-and that’s what made it the top for me- it’s a game that respects my time, and it can be crazy ass long, but it can be intense and short if I need it to be. I understand where you are coming from, but feel like some comparisons are like comparing a swimmer to a sprinter.

Aktane's analogy to Castlevania hits the nail on the head. The classicvania recipe was master gameplay to beat the game. Basically "Git gud, skrub". You weren't going to beat Castlevania 3 or Rondo if you didn't master the gameplay. The Igavania's like SotN introduced the RPG elements which made the games a lot easier and more approachable for the casuals. You could essentially grind levels and gear to compensate for shitty gaming skills and still beat the game. As a Castlevania fan, I love both types but your preference depends on your style of gaming. The hardcores are going to go classicvania, while the casuals gravitate towards Igavanias.

I’ve been waiting for this video since the poll 👍 I switch between a story-driven game and shmups. I’ve played only Elden Ring and shmups since ER came out. I’m at 200+ hours. I might just play only ER as my story-driven game from here on out j/k

This was even more entertaining than I expected. I would normally write an opinion but I don't want to write an essay today 😅.

Hahaha funny title. Considering I’m playing through it right now and near end game at about level 120 it’ll be interesting to hear your thoughts. I only have like an hour or two any given evening for casual play like this, so it takes me a while to get through it. But I’ll say the types of games I enjoy is very broad and I’m having a good time with it. Is it hard as claimed? No not really. But I’m a Bloodborne veteran so it was kind of easy to jump into.

Amazing comments guys. I really wanna join your discussion! Some of the most valuable comments about games that are so well/fairly subjectively - objective… amazing video!!!!! Let me in on you guys with some vids. I just love how you focus on gameplay.

The thing about Monster Hunter is: you didn't kill the monster in the area you have met? Your bad he's gonna run away and recover Edit: Rise made the chase a fun part of the Gameplay

1:54:18 there aren't that many movesets though. there are hundreds of weapons and almost no unique movesets outside of powerstancing and the slightly different moveset for wing of astel

If you want a hard mode in SOFTN beat the game and then enter your name as Richter. Richter mode is pretty tough as there is no leveling or weapons, just you against the bosses with a whip.

Not a perfect game, but definitely the best game of 2022.

Hi Mark, I wonder if you would like Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate or MH Rise- later fights are actually great and it’s more about skill than Elden Ring and it’s tricky approach to difficulty.

From software games are good but require too much time to start enjoying them. Breath of the Wild hooks you from the first minute. From software games require that classic 2-3 initial hours to get into. And that's where they lost me. Also there is no sleep function to pause for a week or something. In BOTW you could return after a week and continue as usual.

no man's sky has the survival / exploration mix that you were talking about. you have to maintain oxygen temperature and radiation levels on every planet, some are extreme and will kill you in seconds if you aren't prepared. that game has very little to no action however and i think you would hate it

When i saw the trailers a few months back, i felt really uninterested, i was like "a new SoulsBorne game, technically it looks it's still stuck 10 years in the past, i've been playing the series since Demon's Souls and i'm fed up with this formula, so i'll try this 1 and it will be the last time i buy a FromSoftware game (i didn't buy/play Sekiro because...Activision, and BloodBorne is my favorite); I was very very skeptical, then i received the game and spent 1 entire month playing it all day every days; i spent more than 300 Hours with just 1 character i made (i made 3), and frankly, i didn't expect to be amazed to such an extent. Plus they delivered on quality AND quantity, that's such a power move. I thought FromSoftware was declining (because DS3 wasn't that great, very "meh"", even tho much better than 2) but i was wrong, and i'm happy about it. They rekindled the flame and can't wait for DLCs now (the only time i felt that was with Bloodborne).

Love the longform!

ER has the worst combat of all FS games... lol. Maybe not the oldest ones, I didn't play those (DeSo and before).

Bosses suck. lol Their idea of difficulty is "hit you in a giant AoE at all times everywhere without any punish windows, fuuuu". Or "you standing there breaks my AI so I'll do this one easily punishable attack over and over like a dumbass". No inbetween. Either case is bad.

Great video, it seems the only problem with this game is that it’s open world and some other smaller stuff lol. As everyone says but also forgets when they’re brainwashed by marketing and “secret” marketing by RU-vidrs “no game is perfect”. Random question, any monitor suggestions? I’ve seen a couple but then they have one fatal flaw of not being able to rotate Tate. Thanks

1:11:43 "Has any open world game solved this problem of why fight in the first place?" Yes, kinda. Survival/crafting games have solved the issue of "why engage?" For example, "Don't Starve" is an open world game, and if you avoid engaging with the world you will die. You need materials to make fire, or you will die from the night monster. You need materials for combat, or you will die from hounds that spawn on a specific day and chase you across the entire map. You need materials for warm clothing, or you will die when winter comes. Existential threats are scheduled in a cyclical way that mandates engaging with the world in specific ways. Some people mod open world games like Skyrim to add survival mechanics to add a sense of urgency to engaging with the world.

I have elden ring ... I do like these games but stuck on margit now ... I always need build guides and progress route guides ...

Is placing Dark Souls 1(with DLC) above DS3 or Elden ring wrong? Nostalgia might be part of it, but the atmosphere and level design are just superb! ( don’t wanna repeat LORE) which actually is quite enchanting!

I was super hyped for this game, but was dissapointed and put it down after a day. The lack of direction, empty world, being able to ignore all the content. I did a secret dungeon at the start, only to find out the boss is not designed for level 1s, went to fight the knight only to fight out that I'm not suppose to do that either, this same problem on repeat. Am I underleveled or was I meant to do this now? Should I come back to this part later? Had a summon guide me through an entire castle, that I felt like I was cheating. Just nothing fun, except the graphics and horse combat was decent. And now because this game was a success, are we ever going to have a denser more linear Fromsoftware game again? I wanted to be a fan but now I feel like the only AAA game company I like has died.

The biggest flaw of ER to me - other than it being incredibly padded and tedious for arbitrary reasons - is that it severely limits certain play styles during certain scenarios. It isn't a deal of "play however you want and it'll be fun in its own way", it's more like "vs this guy, if you play like this, it'll be piss easy, and if you don't, it'll be incredibly mundane or frustrating".

Ok, so, this is my perspective. I haven't played Elden Ring. I'll get to that in a bit. I've played all the other Souls games, played King's Field series and the Shadow Towers, fuck I've played most of the Armored Core games now. I am fromsoftware'd out. That is the reason why I haven't played Elden Ring, and if I do I won't like it as much as, say, a newcomer to the series. I just am burned-out on their style of game design.

I have to massively disagree with Boghog. Judging Elden Ring by 120 hours of boss run melee combat it's just wrong. I did that in my fist run, and it felt like hard BDSM. It's just not meant to be played like that.

I'd have NEVER guessed you enjoy both the horse and the stealth lol

Took me a bit to realize you didn't get a Kim Jong HC and were wearing glasses on your head. Absolutely LOVED DS3 but couldn't get into any others, including Bloodborne Identity. Good discussion.

No boss in these games should be taking anyone 20 minutes, god forbid 40, summons or not. That's not a game design problem, it's a you problem.

1:59:35 Nah, Godrick is also trash. He has unreactable attacks which is unfair which is a no-no, and those combos you mentioned are usually best avoided by just staying back and eating popcorn which is what I'd consider bottom tier gameplay. The theming is nice but the mechanics are shoddy.

For me. What drew me into the souls games were the boss fights and the design of the world. That's it. The difficulty was good but, the game play and enemies made me lose interest after a while. I want to like it more but, it doesn't hold my attention.

I've played all the From games since Demons' Souls (DS1 is far an away my favorite)

What are some of your favorite open world games?

I think it's a good evolution of dark souls but it won't matter if they revert on style ...

Good vid

Hmmmmm - I really was diggin' - I think it's Elder Scrolls 3? MORROWIND? And now it is ported to ALL the PC systems even Linux is coming along pretty well. Is that the one you start in a ship, get brought to the tiny Port Town? And there is the cave with the bandits? .... But yeah I did NOT Like having to collect all the mushroom types, and, then, inventory gets too full etc. That ALWAYS sucks yes especially when it very much effects the realtime combat.

Aktane lowering the tone with his f bombs ... 💣 hahahha

Dark Souls is to me like adult Legend of Zelda that I wish will come out one day! TOTK was far better than Elden Ring to me just for its creativity-and there was decent difficulty-which you can increase if you don’t farm hearts. I just wish they added Mater Mode so enemies recover health when you are not aggressive enough. Anyway, overall I think I had a more epic experience with the first DS than Bloodborne, but it was mainly because Bloodborne level design felt too similar-nothing really stood out like the levels in DS1. I love both games but the level design in DS is better I feel and I think I would rather replay DS than Bloodborne, but I love BB too so don’t wanna say it’s a worse game. I just feel BB has slightly better combat, but DS has still more options. It’s a tough choice. But for anyone who hates meaningless running around, I would recommend MH Sunbreak-I think the focus on big fights is cool and more fair than Elden ring.

The skipping enemies problem could be solved by making it way harder to flee from enemies once they are chasing you, maybe make them faster or have more ranged attacks etc. Progressing itself shouldn't be that easy just because it's an open world. The other thing I'd like to see implemented would be that you can't open chests so fast, so that it's more likely that enemies cancel you out of the opening animation, the same goes for opening doors. Otherwise it's laughably easy to cheese your way through the game by just running past every enemy.

Elden ring is great and all, but I hope you guys talk about Gunvein

A game that read your inputs and have appropriate patterns to the situation to kill you if you don't play dirty, is outdate as hell. No skill needed, just time to waste.

Critically acclaimed games will always get criticised through a microscope because there will always be people that go against the status quo for the sake of it.

The symphony of the night part of the discussion really resonated with me. I think rondo and classic vania overall is so much better overall to the point that symphony is pretty overrated.

You were kinda joking about level design, and I don’t usually care for graphics or look around at the environment and say wow what textures, BUT when I played Tears of the Kingdom, and stood on some of the sky islands, the weather was changing, then jumped down, fought on the ground and then discovered a big hole in the ground and jumped in and got into the Depths- it gave me a similar feeling of amazement like when I first played Dark Souls1. For level design only, I have to recommend TOTK which is probably the only open world game that deserves attention- because I honestly hate open world games in most cases. But Elden Ring’s world suck- I got bored of it. It is too big and even if it’s not an open world that doesn’t matter, because you just waste so much time running around and it’s not so much fun. The gameplay density is better in other DS games.

I come back and listen to this every few months for validation.

I always thought the souls games had chunky movement and fighting. Sure theyre hard i guess but thats because your character is slow as hell. I need dashes and fast movements

No Souls boss takes 40 min wtf 😂 that is NOT the norm

I guess the elden ring world is meant to be a desolate place ...

I would say yes, definitely overrated. It's just Dark Souls without tight level design. I love open world or sandbox games, but they didnt exwcute well on that aspect. The combat is still good, but that just made me loathe the time spent travelling between fights and poking around for the gear I actually wanted

2:07:25 I get what you're saying but the problem is that the game turns into an unfair cheap-move fest when taking the "hardcore" approach. I know, I beat it using pure melee and colossals dual wielded, with no summons or other gadgets. In my experience, the game wasn't built around being tackled in the hardcore way in every scenario.

Dark Sou... I mean, ELDEN RING is definitely overrated to a criminal degree.

Never played , and Will probably never play elden rings since my computer is a toaster. If there is Two kinds of games that i don t like is strategy and RPG. I played until dark souls 2, because i liked the boss fights , and ambience (only things that i liked). The games are almost Impossible without walkthroughs, Also hate to equip the character, not having checkpoints and getting Lost.

I finished Elden Ring last year and got the regular ending. I think people who love it are valid in their love for it but I didn't feel the same. The first two thirds of the game were pretty good. I can say I enjoyed the challenge up to a certain point. But once I got to the Snow area with Fire Giant, the game started to piss me off. But I made it to the end out of spite. My major problem was that I had a skill issue of knowing when to hit the enemies and when to dodge because attack windows felt small to me. So I'd be doing decent damage but it was like their health trickled down while I get obliterated in one hit. This happened more in that final third of the game. I got exhausted by that and it colored my experience pretty badly. In conclusion, I would say the game is overrated to ME, but I understand why people love it so much. I just don't share the same affection, but I beat it in spite of that.

I'll not be surprised if Mark give Tunic 6/10 for similar reasons ha.

to me this is the best game of 2022 and I don't see any games surpassing it so far.... Horizon 2 is certainly much more overrated.

Have to say it's the most unbalanced and unwieldy From Soft game but honestly the most rewarding and exciting one. I found the simple act of traversing the world both relaxing and engaging. The open world left like it was designed like 1 huge Dark Souls level rather than a generic open. Enemies and challenges to find around every corner. I never really knew if I thought the item descriptions used as storytelling was good or an unimmersive way to reveal the world to the player. But Elden Ring it felt like there was so much story to unpack. Whereas some previous Dsrk Souls kept thing relatively vague ER felt like it had a much deeper history to uncover. And it made me realise the genius of the idea. That even if you find items that don't fit your build they still provide you with a reward in the form of a new Puzzle Piece for the story. Even when I never used Spirit Summons I was excited finding new ones as they'd give me more information on the creatures I've been fighting etc. And honestly I can't remember any game that's managed to keep surprising me over 100 hours in. GTA is great but you've pretty much experienced most of ehat the game has to offer 10 hours. Elden Ring has such a huge variety of enemies, bosses and locales it just kept reinvigorating me whenever I started to get tired by the length. Think going to Cuba in Red Dead 2, or discovering St Denis for the first time. But this happening over and over again. One thing ER has is the freedom of approach. It's crazy to me that this game can be serene and relaxing. Play Dark Souls 3 and you have a challenging Gauntlet from beginning to end. Elden Ring felt like a game designed for you to get lost and soul ot all in.

Still at the beginning here, but for me Dark Souls combat in general is boring and far too slow. Bloodborne is the only game in the series that I enjoyed at least a little bit, but the reliance of stats ruins it for me. I wish there was no stamina meter, that's the big issue.

I am unqualified to answer the question as I haven't played the game. However I have played Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne. And my partner has played through all, including Elden Ring. What's clear is it is a solid entry in that formula, with the addition of open world elements. To me, open world just fails on a pure gameplay level. I understand people also like to just escape into worlds endlessly. But to me that is more like watching a longform show with some interactive aspect. Personally, I would have liked to have seen the open world addition ditched, and instead maybe added a complex combo system. Something more akin to fighting games with a wake-up game, special meter, and more risk-reward. Souls has always had a weird risk/reward balance. The biggest reward is typically very low risk, which is backwards. Like, just wait, and backstab. Parries are satisfying, but really are pretty risky and generally much lower reward. So I would have liked better balance and a more mature combat system.

i thought you disliked sekiro's combat because of the parry

if that guy messes with me ima set his beard on fire

Shinobi on PS2 would start to drain your health you don’t keep killing enemies. The best open world game I’ve played was nier automata, it wasn’t very big which I think helped it.

2:30:45 Protip, if you light the plants on fire, the poison clouds disappear immediately. I used pots but you can prolly use magic or enchants, too. Don't get me wrong, they're still effin' annoying. :P

2:50 Mediator.

Aktane gained a fan haha. Loved Elden Ring and SotN. Two of my favorite games of all time

respect for order of ecclesia soundtrack Also with regards to Sekiro, every souls game has the problem of it being really trivial to run past enemies to be fair, you just gotta play them with a sort of honor system where you willfully engage with the combat rather than skipping it. It's dumb as fuck, always bothered me too, but a problem with a lot of 3D games that don't make a point of boxing you in. On the other hand I actually find most of the overworld encounters in Elden Ring to be so laughably trivial that they're a waste of time and I really think a lot of them are just there to fill space and provide grinding opportunities.

Arkham asylum had a pretty good open world with combat that imo is better than elden rings. Traversal was massively better than elden ring and the game forced you to fight enemies in closed areas.

Dude didn't remember if he was cursed? Gonna call faker here. You don't forget that shit. Game cuts your max hp in half forever and can't get it back until you find a special npc or item that cures it.

It's Dark Sauce with open world.

"Everytime I play Dark souls after about five hours I just boot up Ninja Gaiden" Well that's the thing, anything about Souls as an action game or 'hard' game can be mitigated by the fact it's an RPG as well. While Ninja Gaiden is the purest, actually difficult action game out there. Getting past the "skip enemies" thing is pretty easy: Design fun combat, and have enemies have resources that you need. So you have to go kill them if you want shit, and it's also fun to fight them.

1:00:23 sorry but this is a trash opinion, dragon's dogma IS really good and doesn't deserve to be shit on completely like this because it's flawed

Any use of the word “masterpiece” as praise just shows how diluted any criticism a person can give is worth. ER is a great game, but it is no masterpiece. Far from it.

I really enjoyed it and rate it highly, but found it less of a challenge than I was expecting. I walked most of it only being given a beating by Elden Beast, but even that was just a couple of hrs. I put 225 hrs into it total, 100 of those were just wandering around doing suicide runs at the start and maybe 25 put into grinding that spot with the giant bird and those blood clot guys. I didn't bother with NG+ I figured I spent enough time on it, so I'm fine w/out extra modes. I much preferred Sekiro. I watched you play that and gather you didn't like it, but it's easily the hardest game I have ever played. Getting the platinum in that was much more satisfying than clearing Elden Ring. To be honest I think I'm done with From unless they try something drastically different and get a different art dept. I'm tired of the same art-style, the same thinly veiled themes and regurgitated mechanics.

We gonna see Elden Ring Kumite?

Aktane: if the enemy is fucking cool looking, I don't care if it's repetitive Mark: LIKE BEARS! lol the guy was literally thinking on a bad ass looking knight.

"Not a Souls game." Lol it's DS4.

Open world was good but PvP is just a spam fest now bosses are sponge's it's the worst souls game

frothing demand!!

Final fantasy is way better than Bethesda skyrim trash ... 🗑

Bog's a lil' high on that copium. Wanting to nerf parries even more, the only skill intensive mechanic left in FS games, and the only thing some people still play these games for.

Skyrim really didn't do anything new as far as procedural generation and story telling goes. It was just a streamlined elder scrolls experience. It was a huge hit because Oblivion was very successful and the marketing behind Skyrim was there.

It's so hard, it'll make your eyes bleed! You'll die if you even try to play it 😮😅

MarkCRT...