Elden Ring's tarnished UX/UI 

Yup, a dialogue log/journal would be nice.

Thank you, friend. Re: blow up… LOL - fingers crossed. I've been waiting. In the interim, I do it for fun.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Yes, I found that auto target setting. I can confirm it is there and I believe it is ON by default. It was on for all of my captures and personal gameplay. So, either it doesn't work, or it doesn't work the way I'd expect it to. I 100% agree with you about the stat-soup accompanying all weapon and armor pages. I didn't call it out because I felt that it was subjective. Some people may actually dig deep-diving into the minutia or a .4 increase in holy damage. But not me. I also didn't call out how most recipes are barely worth the effort. Non-melee/non-magic weapons do so little damage it just makes me ask why bother including them at all? “…made by a volunteer intern” - LOL GMTK is one of my favs and an inspiration. I used a clip of one of Brown's vids in my “When an RPG is not an RPG” video.

Don't like controllers. Don't use one. Lots of Elden Ring fans also use keyboard & mouse. Guerrilla Games didn't have any problem adapting PS games to PC. If the game plays like crap for a mouse, that's on FromSoftware, not me.

@@MediaKitGaming I also prefer keyboard and mouse but elden ring wasn't made with that in mind, that's why using controller helps, makes the controls less of a chore

@@IAm-zo1bo Fair. Thanks for the tip. But I'm past it. I finished the game. I've moved on. FromSoftware games are not for me. It's not the difficulty of combat. It's the difficulty of everything else. The grind to level up, and the “maybe you'll find it, maybe you won't” approach to quest design. I like a challenge. But not when it extends to figuring out how the game works.

Thank you for your kind words. Filtering by recently acquired... I forgot that was there. Good point. I was on a forum, Reddit or something, where I saw a player lamenting there wasn't a place for favorite/frequently used weapons and I thought it was a smart observation. You're right. Resorting by when acquired would help for new items.

I don't believe I've ever got lost while playing Elden Ring after I've explored an area fully (not including dungeons, some of those designs are really not intuitive fun the first time around, but not so fun the 5th time around). But my Aloy still can't navigate the desert or the marshes without a glowing yellow marker on the horizon. After putting down the game for a year, and i can still remember pretty much every NPC interactions in Elden Ring, but I can't tell you who were the first 3 people Aloy interacted with in Chainscrape (had to look up that location name). I enjoyed both game thoroughly, I played Horizon series like an interactive novel or movie, just tagging along Aloy's adventure. and I play Elden Ring like it's an escape room, everything I found could be important later, and I discuss my finding with others to see if those are actually important. I've enjoyed the gaming experience in both games, because I expected them to be such going into the game. This is just my 2 cents, and yes! SCREW THAT RANGE ATTACK NONSENSE! AND DON'T TELL ME ELDEN RING IS A CLOSE RANGE COMBAT GAME! THERE IS A FREAKING KAMEHAME HA IN THERE. AND WHY IS MAGIC CLOSER RANGE THAN PROJECTILE WEAPONS! YOU CAN USE GRAVITY MAGIC TO THROW A GIANT ROCK AND IT DOESN'T EVEN TRAVEL AS FAR AS MY FLIMSY ARM?! WTH!

To be fair, I don't think the critical devs were very specific about what they had a problem with. It's easy to react to them (love/hate)… but harder to support/contradict positions that are compact & more emotional than factual.

I don't know what you're talking about. My version is still installed and updated by Steam. And I was playing throughout the creation of this video. There ARE the occasional markers, as my video points out, but with no quest tracker, how would the game know who to highlight among 36 sidequests? NPC markers are absent more often than present.

I appreciate that people can find enjoyment in the game and I'm glad they do. Good gameplay can elevate poor UX… but boor UX also drags down good gameplay. It kinda seems that the harder FromSoft makes the game, the more their fans love it. And by harder, I don't mean enemy difficulty. But more than fans jumped on this one. The game blew up and it takes more than fans to do that. A lot of people were left feeling like the game was working against them. It'll be interesting to see if lightning strikes twice.

​@@MediaKitGamingLighting stuck 4 times over with Elden Ring, Sekiro, Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3.

​@@ghoulgunner177 In terms of popularity and copies sold Elden Ring has outperformed all the games in your list… by a lot. Elden Ring beat DS3 (all-time sales) in under a month. Elden Ring's success surprised both Bandai Namco and FromSoftware. No single FromSoft title reached even half the sales of Elden Ring. Armored Core VI, the only FromSoft game to release after Elden Ring, doesn't even come close. When Elden Ring 2 releases and does Elden Ring numbers, then lightning will have struck twice. And good for them if it does.

By the way I´m amaze by your graphs on the video, fantastic work merging them perfectly with the video, that´s some real fine editing skill sir.

Soulslike don't do well the closest thing to a good souls like is lies of p. If you mean soulsborne titles nah as long as the gameplay is good the artstyle is good the lore is good the music is good and the enemy variety is on point it'll stay good and they do change the formula from time to time at from software like armor core and to a lesser extent sekiro. Soulslike though yeah nobody likes those people just play them to scratch an itch only lies of p was decent. strangely the best "soulslike" inspired games are metroidvanias like hollow knight and blasphemous. I guess soulsborne games are just 3d rpg versions of metroidvania.

Not sure I understand the meaning of your first sentence. But the second sentence feels dead on.

@@MediaKitGaming I think they're saying that Elden Ring is the most likely game to miss a quest compared to other games from FromSoft, which were more linear.

Thank you for your input and perspective. 1 ) Yes, the inventory can be organized by acquisition order. I’d forgotten about that feature when I wrote that. But it was less about finding the new weapon, which, because of the game’s leveling system, players are not likely to experiment with anyway. But rather, finding anything at all. I had various weapons I played with depending on situations and I would upgrade them. And to reequip or upgrade them (when they weren’t already equipped) was a chore to find them in the soup of weapons. Yes, I could just sell everything I’m not using. But a 1st-time player keeps their options open. Plus that’s just a workaround for poor inventory management tools. With all the weapon pickups, a *favoriting system* would have been appreciated. 2 ) I never said the game should get rid of its lock-on system. Many players use lock-ons to great effect. What I wanted, was an auto-target system (for melee) when lock-on was *disengaged.* As indicated in the video, I’ve played many many melee games *with lock-on* that I never needed to engage because when disengaged, the game understood I was swinging at the closest enemy. For ranged, I found lock-on practically useless… really more of a hindrance, as the lock-on doesn’t compensate for projectile arcs or arrow drop or moving targets. And being the proponent of player-options that I am, I’m all for a player being able to toggle off auto-targeting if they wish. 3 ) I appreciate your point about making certain weapons more suitable for various environments. This really leads me to the oft-refrained “difficult but fair” meme Souls fans love to repeat. The game is not fair. I think I remember enemy weapons bouncing off walls… am I wrong? (It’s been a while now) But I definitely remember seeing them clip through walls too… like a lot, oftentimes hitting me when I thought I was protected. I also noticed that my attacks hardly, if ever, interrupted enemy attack animations, but they always interrupted my attacks. They're playing by different rules… it’s not fair. “Difficult but beatable” would be more appropriate. IRL, if I were actually facing a resurrecting skeleton in a dungeon with a wall behind him. I wouldn’t miss. I would know the wall was there and swing to compensate. It just adds frustration to a game that’s already frustrating… albeit by design. These are my counterpoints, but I respect that you have a different assessment and that’s OK. you've deepened my perspective on the game but we don’t have to convert each other.

@MediaKitGaming fair enough, thanks for the reply. You don't seem to be looking for a debate, so I won't try to offer a rebuttal, but since youtube rewards audience engagement, I just wanna add that I'm glad to have found your channel today. You make some really good content!

@@HomingAsatoMass Coming from someone who disagrees with me on Elden Ring, your compliment means a lot. Thank you. You’re welcome to rebut, as long as you understand we’re both coming from different experiences with the game, and neither of us is likely to move much. I try to tackle subjects that aren’t already covered to death by other RU-vidrs. And when everyone and their cousin is gushing over Elden Ring and slamming counter opinions (that Ubisoft dev), well, I take that as a challenge. If no one’s going to look at ER’s UX criticality, I’m not going to just sweep that under the rug. It was a dangerous undertaking, as FromSoft fans (any fans really) are not known for openness to criticism, nor do they often rebut as politely as you did. Even so, there are points I wish I had made that I either forgot to include or didn’t consider until later.

@MediaKitGaming sorry for the late reply. I really appreciate approaches like yours. It makes me consider things that I might not have thought about otherwise, and that is probably one of the best things these types of videos can offer. As for my responses to your points: 1. To start off positively: I agree with both of your points here. I'm not sure if you'd want to ditch the weapon upgrade system entirely, or prefer a more streamlined version that still offers that same sense of gear progression, for example by vastly reduced number of upgrade levels and removing the different smithing stone tiers, but either way it's a problem worth solving. A favorite-items system would be nice, too. 2. I think you might have misunderstood me on this one. My point was directed at auto-targeting without lock-on, regardless of whether lock-on exists or not. Personally, I've always found it to feel rather overbearing when games don't allow me to aim my attacks myself. When it comes to giving players the *option* however, we can probably agree on that, though I'd be more skeptical if we were talking about a game like Dark Souls 1. Funnily enough, Elden Ring actually has a setting called "Manual Attack Aiming" which can be toggled on or off ... it just doesn't do anything lol. 3. While I agree that these games aren't really "fair" unless we stretch the definition of that word a bit, I feel like this doesn't quite address what I was talking about. It's just another challenge the player can overcome, either by adjusting their setup or by spacing their attacks carefully, even if the latter can admittedly be a bit annoying. I also don't think the argument that you wouldn't have hit the wall in real-life works very well. I'm not going to say that "it's not supposed to be like in real-life" because that doesn't seem to be what you were getting at, but I think it is fair to point out that the game does give you a lot of leeway in other regards. For example, you don't have to worry about edge alignment, about connecting your swing with the correct momentum, about your weapon getting stuck in the enemy, etc. I'm not saying you should have to deal with these things, it just goes to show how there's always a give and take when you loosely translate real-life actions into simplified mechanics. Some things will be easier, others harder, and I don't think it's justified to only complain about this when it makes things harder for the player. Now, with all that being said, I'll also have to concede that these games have a big issue with vertical aiming. Your vertical camera rotation doesn't properly translate into your attack direction, and that definitely results in many cases where your character is just hitting over or under the target's hitbox for no good reason. I think if that issue was fixed, your example with the skeleton as well as many other encounters would probably be less frustrating. You'd still bounce off the wall, but at least your swing has a higher chance of hitting the enemy first. Since you mentioned it, though, I'm also curious what complaints you had that didn't make it into the video. If you have written them down somewhere and it wouldn't be too much work, maybe you could share them? I care a lot about game design, and UX is definitely something I still have to learn more about ^^

@@HomingAsatoMass 1 ) There is a popular Elden Ring mod (didn’t look up the name) that (among many other changes) lets players transfer weapon upgrades to other weapons, in the same way Elden Ring characters can respec. I don’t know if this is a 100% transfer or diminished returns (60% or other). The mod is pretty flexible so it may be user-adjustable. I've uninstalled Elden Ring, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 2 ) “‘Manual Attack Aiming’ which can be toggled on or off... it just doesn't do anything lol.” Yes! So glad someone else recognizes this! I was definitely aware of the setting but failed to find any difference in gameplay. 3 ) I like your idea of incorporating high/low aiming into the melee combat mechanics. Re: other issues… Torrent-A ) I mentioned how Torrent’s health bar is NEVER shown unless it’s going up or down. There is absolutely no way to check Torrent's health without feeding him. I don’t recall if his health bar is visible during resurrection but many players (myself included) are surprised to learn that Torrent resurrects with a partial health bar. That needs to be communicated. Torrent-B ) Further, various commenters reminded me of the worst dialog box in gaming EVER. Where Elden Ring will ask if you want to expend a health flask to resurrect Torrent. This is atrocious UX design. This dialog is most likely to occur in a combat situation and the game won’t pause for it. We’ve all learned to anticipate it and hit the YES button quickly to mitigate gameplay interruption. But very likely, the player is in panic mode, probably trying to create distance from an enemy, if not flee entirely, when this dialog is likely to appear. The workarounds are mind-numbingly simple. Make it a setting in options to: 1) always use a flask 2) never use a flask 3) ask. Alternatively, FromSoft could just make the flask expenditure automatic and “it's just how the game is designed” and I think most players would just accept, “Yup, if you need to resurrect Torrent, it costs a health flask. We just accept that” Torrent-C ) Lastly, Still talking about Torrent’s health… If you fast travel from/to a sight of grace (not rest), the world resets (i.e. trash mobs respawn), your character heals, I don’t recall if flasks replenish, but Torrent does NOT heal. A player would assume that if a fast travel resets the world, and heals your character, that Torrent’s health would also be reset to full. Not only does Torrent NOT heal during fast travel, but (as already mentioned) there is no indication that he hasn’t! He could be running on fumes and unless the player just decides to check, by feeding him raisins, they'll never know. Lock-on part 2 ) This applies to skeletons but also other enemies. When an enemy is knocked down. The lock-on dot will disappear. The game actively disengages your lock-on when you knock an enemy down. This requires the player to both realize this and re-engage lock-on before doing a follow-up strike, or risk missing the target. In the case of resurrecting skeletons (maybe others types) there is a 5-ish second period when you can’t even lock-on. Switch Action ) Finally, and I’m probably going to take heat for this, there are rare times when the “interact” button/key can do more than one thing. If 2 items lay on the ground in the same spot the prompt doesn’t just say press ___ button to pick up both. It offers to pick up one item or D-pad icon & “switch action” (on PC: ◄ switch action ►) (if I'm remembering right). Visual aids would be much more helpful here. It occurs so seldom in the game I didn’t know what it meant. This stumped me when, at the Grand Lift of Rold, the option was “hoist medallion” or “switch action”. I didn’t realize I had 2 medallions I could hoist. So I hoisted the medallion and I went to the wrong place because what I needed to do was “hoist secret medallion” which wasn't a *visible* option. If the UI had said, “hoist medallion” ◄ ► “hoist secret medallion” at the same time, this confusion would have been avoided. But the UI essentially says, “hoist medallion” or “do something else”. I'm sure I’m the only person who was stumped by this. Nevertheless, the UI could have been a lot clearer.

Yup. That coulda been a setting and the default should be “spend the health flask without asking!” 😅

I have to push another button to perform an action!? abhorrent. Literally unplayable.

@@josephmcauley3305 The burden of needing to confirm a flask use before reviving Torrent has been brought up by many players in many forums, including by fans. I'd be very surprised if it didn't result in your death once or twice when you needed a quick escape, and instead were met with a confirmation dialogue box and a “you died” message. And yeah, even I learned to anticipate the message and confirm it quickly. But that doesn't make it a welcome interruption in gameplay. If most players would rather not deal with it, it's poor UX design.

@@MediaKitGaming It did catch me off guard the first time, but I never died from it. How often were you letting torrent die? Y'know about rowa raisins right? It happened to me maybe twice in my first playthrough. It's not bad UX to incentivize taking care of your horse. The majority of getting knocked off your horse should be from getting staggered, not it dying.

​@@josephmcauley3305 _“How often were you letting torrent die?”_ - Let's not make this a skill pissing-match. Not all players are equally skilled. Not all players play the same way. Games are supposed to be fun, not an opening to belittle people not gittin gud. Many players have expressed annoyance with the confirmation dialog. Note: I didn't start this comment thread nor did I mention the revive-dialog in my video. The game never informs about Torrent's health unless it's changing (something I highlighted in my video) and when he takes damage his health bar is probably the last thing a player is focused on because they're probably fighting. Additionally, many players are surprised to learn (if they learn at all) that while your character heals after death and when fast traveling, Torrent does not (only when you rest at grace or feed him). If the game wanted to incentivize caring for Torrent his health bar would be up when under 100% or at least there'd be a way to check it. There is no way to check Torrent's health. So a player can just blind-feed Torrent once in a while and we'll call it a skill issue. Or maybe the game does a poor job of telling the player if Torrent is at low health... UX issue. _“It's not bad UX to incentivize taking care of your horse.”_ - I never said it was. It's bad design to pop up a dialog box when most players will be reviving Torrent during a combat situation… often a stressful one. Players would much prefer to spend the health flask without being asked. We already know the game is aware of combat situations because it disables the map during combat. It could disable the _revive-Torrent-flask_ dialogue prompt for combat situations too. But you're not arguing with me, you're arguing with all these🔽gamers. *YES! Spend the damn Flask to revive Torrent!* www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/t9w1l5/yes_spend_the_damn_flask_to_revive_torrent_why/ *Is this the worst, most useless prompt in the history of gaming?* www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/x37jy4/is_this_the_worst_most_useless_prompt_in_the/ *YES I AM PRETTY FUCKIN SURE I WANT TO USE A FLASK TO REVIVE TORRENT* www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/t8u89y/yes_i_am_pretty_fuckin_sure_i_want_to_use_a_flask/

"Sticks to its genre-defining features” is another way to say doesn't evolve. Also, "no issue platinuming the game" with no outside help. Gonna have to play my skeptical card here.

@@MediaKitGaming Ive been in the game since Demons in '09 so I've learned to scrub every corner of the map and exhaust all dialogues and I read all item descriptions. Sure, it takes time, and when I platted my game time was 157 hours. But I enjoyed every single moment. Earned my Plat on 4/11/22. And the game has evolved in its own way. Whats the point in all games evolving so much to the point where they all become the same? They would lose their unique nature.

​@@ContentCreature Seems the game was tailor-made for you. That, or you've been well-trained by your FromSoftware experiences. Did you also take physical notes? You also didn't bite back at my subtle taunt. Good on ya. Not every gamer came into the game with your experience. Note, that when I mentioned the game's difficult-to-follow quests, I referenced other gamer's experiences in addition to my own. I would genuinely love to hear how a gamer Sherlocked Elden Ring, on their own, all the way to Platinum. What did you read that made you decide to go where… etc. Although, I'm not suggesting that as a comment for here. There were many things I didn't like about Elden Ring that I did not mention because they were not UI/XU related. A lot of it comes down to player preference. I don't like the formula. That doesn't make the game bad. I should also point out there were many things l liked about Elden Ring but they weren't relevant to my thesis. Elden Ring has no shortage of fans; it doesn't need another. “Elden Ring is the best game ever” videos are a dime-a-dozen. I'm just providing another perspective. Play what you love!

@@MediaKitGaming I can totally understand where others come from, as not all games can be made for everyone as an audience. People play and react and pick up on things differently. Various key items or items you receive from NPCs are very valuable to read, and when I encountered an NPC I would use the in game map marker system to mark where they were. I went and explored all optional areas before facing a main boss and then check back on that map marker to see if the NPC moved, if they had, I would remove the marker and continue forward in the game. Rinse and repeat. I did keep some notes on my phone that I wrote, but most of my info came from talking to NPCs and reading items many many times. Granted it can be tedious or confusing, but at the same time, i feel it can make the interactions and story more immersive, making me feel like i am searching on a personal level.

Not one game is perfect, there will always be something to do better. That Elden Ring has bad UI doesnt take away from its incredible gameplay and world, it just means that there are things we can learn from it. Both in the good and in the bad.

@@ignacioszpak1832 its not perfect yes but it CLEARLY INTENTIONALLY DESIGNED that way. Y all like crying to an artist why they have that certain art style. It has been that way since tittles before Elden Ring.

@@yudhaxn1195 it being intentional doesnt mean is good. Most of the things that the man talks in the video are things that dont add anything to the experience. The many effects that the game never tells you what they do or mean, not being able to see how upgrading a weapon will affect its stats, not being able to compare weapons in shop. Its all bad desing

- “Confused and bored, not knowing what to do next” I read you loud and clear! Also thanks for the Sekiro warning. If I ever do an Elden Ring follow-up video, I’ll reference the above. You make great points. Re: my point about turning HUDs being turned off… I actually had to clarify this to another commenter. Firstly, Elden Ring has 2 HUD options: on or off. I don’t know how anybody plays with it off. I don’t know if anyone does. Most Ubisoft HUDs are over not given the credit they deserve for minimalism. Nevertheless, if a player finds them cluttered, I wasn’t saying to kill the HUD entirely. I meant you can go in and disable, quest prompts, enemy indicators, resource flags, the mini-map, the overhead compass, etc. Try that with Elden Ring. I was addressing what, to my view, was a bad-faith comparison between Elden Ring’s HUD and Horizon Zero Dawn’s or some Ubisoft title. Yet another reason why I made the video. I agree diegetic info is great when it’s integrated well but I’m no HUD hater. Tell me what I need to know. Give me options to customize it. You know I’ve played Horizon Forbidden West. I noticed flags for plants and machine parts were turned off, appearing only in “focus” mode. In options, I turned them on permanently. Regardless, I think Forbidden West’s HUD is a bit more cluttered than Zero Dawn’s. For one thing, there’s an obstructive gray box that appears in the middle of the screen telling me I’ve leveled up, which is really intrusive during combat. Seriously? No one leveled mid-combat during play-testing?! This is easily my most divisive video. If you survived it and still don’t hate me. You’ve passed the gauntlet.

@@MediaKitGaming Haha, i assumed thats where you were trying to get at, i just think you didnt phrase it right. Its probably where people disliked then clicked off tbh. Only time in one of your videos i was like "huh...what?? nuh-uh!" Ill have to take your word for Forbidden West, i dont own it because i dont own a Playstation. Ive 100% New Dawn though. Also yeah, Sekiro ive heard was the worst of the games to do aimless-ness. But i played it cause parry mechanics cool and i vibed with its art direction more than the rest of From Soft's games. I see the appeal to DS's art design but honestly not my thing. Art direction is a make or break for me honestly. Also in another comment you said you liked stealth, try Mark of the Ninja, its 2D but its got some of the best stealth in any gaaame!

​@@ScoutOW2 There's “Mark of the Ninja” footage at the beginning of my “You Ruined Running” video. I reinstalled my copy of the game just for that footage. Good game. Re: Horizon… I don't own a PlayStation either. Both Horizon games are available on PC now. Also, did you mean you 100% New Dawn? As in Far Cry New Dawn? Or Horizon Zero Dawn?

@@MediaKitGaming Did you?!? I must of completely blanked out when it came up or just forgot. Damn! Didnt know Forbidden West finally came to steam! I meant Horizon, but ive 100% that and Far Cry New Dawn too!

First, thanks for your polite and measured reply. The toxicity that so frequently emerges from the FromSoftware fanbase is enough to turn me off of their entire library. I disagree about the importance of stats. Elden Ring and other Souls games have walls of stats built right into the game. More than any other game I’ve ever encountered. Every single weapon is its own homework assignment. You may overlook it, but it’s hard to ignore. And it’s off-putting for many players (read non-Souls fans) who would like to just play a game. The grinding needed depends greatly on how often you want to switch weapons. If you’re on your third playthrough, you know where the best weapons are for your playstyle and the path of least resistance to get through the game. You probably also already gaught-gud, you know the bosses and their moves, so it’s less about min-maxing and more about “the dance.” You need minimal resources. I jumped into Elden Ring fresh. Encountered the first weapon buff option at The Church of Elleh and hesitated. I’m a hoarder in games. I always end games with a surplus of resources. But I pushed against my urge to hoard and leveled my weapons. Mistake. I would soon learn that every time I wanted to try a new weapon, especially in the mid to late game, it would need to be leveled too. So either a ton of grinding is involved, or just ignore the 100s of weapon drops. It essentially punishes experimentation. Not fun for me. Sure, if you stick to 1 or 2 weapons, you only need to grind to level your character. Invading and co-oping bosses is still grinding unless you just do it just for fun. I was also playing offline to avoid invasions. So I also missed all the player messages, for better or worse. And I wasn’t going to get any runes from the social features. “So it’s not impossible to keep track of what is happening.” - No. Nothing is impossible. Players are defeating Malenia using Guitar Hero controllers while others are doing level-1 Wretch-runs. You can keep track of all the dialog by taking notes and screenshots. And maybe that’s the fun part for some people… but not everyone. Not being a Souls veteran, I went into Elden Ring knowing the combat was difficult... very difficult. But I was unprepared for how little the game helps you know anything. I think a dialog log is mandatory. It’s humanly impossible to mentally retain all the NPC dialog + I understand there are clues in the item descriptions. What’s the upside to making players take notes & screenshots? I have a friend who is a big Dark Souls fan, especially 1 & 3. But he wasn’t much of a fan of Elden Ring either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ He tried to warn me off of it. I’ve wanted to replay Elden Ring but the grind and lack of direction are my biggest obstacles… not the difficulty, surprisingly. I just don’t like not knowing what I’m supposed to do. And scouring descriptions or forgotten dialogs for the answer isn’t the fun part. I get that Souls-fans are into it. You’re probably going to love Shadow of the Erdtree.

I agree, not knowing what to expect IS the fun part. I also found the world design beautiful and disturbing (as intended). But for a first-timer, the game throws a lot of info at you, a lot of it through dialog. And it makes no sense on first reading. Later when the player has some context, none of that info or dialog can be recalled or reviewed. Sure it's OK to miss stuff, but without online help, I missed everything including things I was TRYING to find. The critical path however, is laced with markers and was a cinch to follow. That seems a bit inconsistent.

And whats the exact issue? maybe you're just shit because you have not mentioned this particular problem that caused you to die to a boss somehow

You def don´t understand the meaning of the word. A strawman would be "so you are saying this game has a bad map? so what you want is videogames should not have a map", that´s a strawman. He even points out to a strawman falacy on the video. Meanwhile on the video, he makes his own critics, he´s not citing anyone and misreading their words to misrepresent them in his favor, so what strawman could there possibly be? No hate, but you should limit your vocabulary to the words you have an understanding of.

Genuine LOL! Thanks @@ungreatfulduck750 .

@@ungreatfulduck750 I do understand the term, as you said, he explains it in the video as well. I think he's straw manning in the way he is discussing design decisions about the game that he doesn't like and claiming that those who disagree with him is saying "awhh does baby want their hand holding?". He's in essence saying "this is my opinion and if you disagree it's because you're a FromSoft elitist that is unreasonably anti-handholding", creating a straw man of his opposition. I simply have a different opinion on certain design choices in the game and am being misrepresented to an unreasonable standard in order for his point to have more ground

yeah some of the complaints are just people wanting certain features in all games. not all video games need to be the same.

@@LazarusKrogan agree, some valid criticisms for sure but if I go the rest of my life without seeing a weapon I'll die happy lmao

1. For us single players that don't touch the multiplayer component, grinding was a big issue for me although your point is valid to an extent. I didn't even know that you got runes by helping others with bosses. I helped with Milenia once or twice just to "pay it forward" and didn't notice I got runes out of it. 3. A weapon can have great scaling and I wont like it due to the move set. That also needs to be considered. 6. While I dont have an issue with the lock-on system, it does sometimes bounce to something I never intended to lock on to. 8. Just because a system has a work around, doesnt mean the system is inherently good. Take weapon durability for example which they've been slowly moving away from every game. I've never liked the wall hitting because it made me switch my weapons which for me personally, wasn't very enjoyable.

1 - When I said players have grinded to kill anything for the runes. I meant exactly anything. High level, low level. I was not making a grind-guide and recommending wolf farming. You read into it. June 2023, Bandai Namco shared “ELDEN RING Battle Scars Infographic 2.” On it? Top 5 most killed enemies with club-wielding Albinaurics at #1. Lightweights that you’d put on the same shelf with wolves. www.bandainamcoent.com/news/elden-ring-battle-scars-infographic-2 GamesRadar+ ran an article on the graphic observing, “their massacre is somewhat justified since you can quickly farm millions of runes via their slaughter.” Apparently, a lot of gamers are farming in Elden Ring. www.gamesradar.com/as-fromsoft-confirms-elden-rings-most-killed-enemies-players-try-to-deduce-the-least-killed-ones-instead/ That you found such an efficient way to farm should be congratulated… since the game is grindy AF! 2 - And yet, shields can be upgraded. Again, you’re reading into it. I was just trying to be comprehensive and include examples of all upgradable arms. 3 - I love this one. You're not rebutting my point, you’re reinforcing it. Firstly, I circled the attribute-scaling next to the base stat in my video. [10:29] But did you not notice in all your playtime that attribute-scaling changes as a weapon is leveled? It’s the exact same problem all over again. You can’t compare weapons that aren’t at the same level! And I really shouldn't have to point out the obvious... A weapon’s damage is a combination of base stats + attribute-scaling. It’s possible to use a weapon with superior attribute-scaling that’s inferior to a different weapon that has better base stats. Sidenote: it would really be nice if the game would provide the sum of the 2 stats for easy comparison. Computers have been able to do basic addition for a long time now. Why is my sword doing 242+105 damage instead of 347? Yup, I really feel like a fool for not pointing out that comparing weapons is even more cryptic than I made it look. 4 - This isn’t even a counterpoint. I made no observation about where smithing stones are found or at what levels. At one point in my game, I wanted to level a weapon, but didn't have the Stone Miner's Bell Bearing I needed and while I’d found enough of the higher tiered smithing stones, I was short on the lower tiered stones. It’s a real thing. It’s probably why there’s a mod to combine stones to make higher ones and break down high stones to make lower ones (if one plays offline). Terrible rebuttal. You didn’t even address the thing you called me out for stating. However your counterpoint DOES reinforce the need to do more grinding so we’re on the same page there. 5 - No, my critique is that I’ve played entire games with no lock-on and the programmers were able to figure out a way to determine what my character was trying to hit. Further, I’ve played entire games WITH a lock-on mechanic that I never used because… see previous sentence. The thesis statement preceding the excerpt that you called out was, “I’ve never played a game that was so *dependent* on lock-on.” 6 - Of all your points, I think this is my favorite. Are you the kind of person who when he sees vehicular crash-test footage points and shouts, “Fake! That’s not a real crash!” I mean good job! Nailed it! Cracked the case! Mic drop! You pulled the curtain back where there was no curtain hanging. What clued you in that it wasn't a real encounter in Limgrave? Was it my character’s late game armor? Was it that never attacked the soldier but instead kept walking backwards? The point wasn't to show how hard it was to fight the soldier. My point was to show how easily it was to lose the lock-on to background fauna. That shouldn’t be a thing! Deliberate or not, it shouldn’t be possible. I lost my lock-on a lot due to layered targets. Sometimes it was because there was an enemy far behind an enemy. And if you tell me you never experienced an unwanted lock-on shift, you’re lying. 7 - Your rebuttal is a classic example of what’s called an ad hominem attack in debate. Instead of attacking my point about reticles and throwing items, you attack me. Whether the game would be better with an arc-guide is an opinion. And you’re free to disagree with it. And while your counterpoint manages to be offensive in nature, it correctly points out that I demonstrated how pots work without lock-on, so I wasn’t being misleading. I’d hate to be accused of “shifting the lock-on manually” again. 8 - No, you're not being facetious, you’re being a dick. So, in debate, this is called an ad hominem attack. It's when you… oh wait, we’ve been through this already. Insults aside. Hitting walls during combat is a broader issue than just resurrecting skeletons. Further, while throwing daggers is a good strat, there is an approx. 5 second period when a resurrecting skeleton cannot be locked onto, rendering daggers useless for that span, but they CAN be finished off with a sword during that time. Dammit, you got me talking about lock-on and throwing items again! The fact that you attacked me instead of making any counterpoint about walls & combat means there really isn’t anything more I can respond to here. 9 - Yeah, there’s a pouch. My pouch held my steed whistle, telescope, and belt lantern & neutralizing boluses. Later in my game I replaced a neutralizing bolus with the health flask because that makes sense. Although I didn’t mention it by name you can see me using it here [16:35]. It’s noteworthy that it can hold 6 items but only 4 can be insta-accessed with the shortcuts (which you illustrated in your comment) making the last 2 slots far less useful. But more importantly, that’s only 4 items! Now that I think of it, I didn't say anything about the pouch because it's one of the better UX/UI mechanics in the game and I wasn't making a comprehensive UI analysis. Players already fall over themselves to bootlick Elden Ring. It won GotY. In contrast, I'm shining a light on overlooked shortcomings. Nevertheless, getting back to your point, I didn’t omit the pouch. I simply wasn’t talking about it. I was talking about the scrolling the game requires to access anything in the spells or quick-items. If you want to accuse me of omitting things, I confess I also omitted mention of Ranni’s cool hat, how cute springhares are, and how to bring down wandering mausoleums - while I was illustrating how cumbersome scrolling through spells and quick-items is! The pouch’s usefulness does nothing to improve scrolling through quick-items which aren’t very quick. 10 - Yup. I think the OPTION to dedicate a button to HP & FP would be an improvement. That’s another one of those opinion things that you are welcome to disagree with. Do you think the primary attack should be a pouch slot? Of course not. It should have its own button because it’s so basic. Healing via the pouch works. But flasks are as fundamental as swinging a sword. It would be a nice OPTION so I could put other things in the pouch. Or… I don’t know… fix the quick items so they’re actually quick. Whew. There we go. 10 for 10. You are welcome to disagree with me and engage in debate. You may also throw insults, cry “skill issue”, and accuse me of malice. But I won't stoop to that level.

Fair. However, at no point was I trying to convince anyone the game is therefore bad.

@@MediaKitGaming Oh for sure that’s why I watched the whole video it’s always nice to see someone critique something without bashing it

@@filtchedarason8506 Respect.

First of all, polite and considered counterpoints are always welcome. Thanks. I acknowledged in my video that Elden Ring's quest design was a deliberate design choice. But it’s also an inconsistent one because there ARE times when Elden Ring just throws you a locator on the map. I already address the community gaming factor in my video, i.e. If it takes a community to unpack the game then it’s just not a good single-player game. As for “paying attention to dialogue and context clues”… I hear this one a lot. No one can retain in their memory all the clues and dialog just by paying attention. A new player needs to know that this is the MO of Souls games and they need to take serious notes outside the game. Heck, I struggle to follow the story of games even when they DO keep a log. Regardless, if we’re going to place value on “paying attention to dialogue” there is no reason a player shouldn’t be able to revisit it. Therefore… a dialog log. I understand that the mystery and hidden quests are part of what some fans love about the games. You need to understand that the evidence of online walkthroughs and all the forums where players ask, “How do I find ___?” or “What am I supposed to do here?” is evidence of a large group of players who are not experiencing the joy of what you called, “not a bad thing.” The lock-on demonstration in my video was exactly that… a demonstration. My point is not that players will experience THAT level of jumping around in real gameplay. My point is that it shouldn’t even be possible for me to do it at all. I DID experience lock-on jump on many occasions but the examples in my video were all recreations. It happened a lot when enemies crossed each other even when one was farther back. I don’t know how you can say cycling items is any better than cycling spells. I know many players who put only 2-3 items in the quick items for the very reason that the system becomes cumbersome with too many. True fans will call this a feature, not a bug because everything is a feature to them. A weapon wheel is still faster than scrolling through all your items regardless of the game’s pause state. Nevertheless, it’s not my job to fix their game. I don’t work at FromSoft. They should devise a better system. Also, you know what invades the screen? That confirmation dialog to resummon Torrent by consuming a flask. Believe me, I’m kicking myself for forgetting to include that in my video. You’re right that moving flasks to the pouch is better than the quick items. While I didn’t talk about it, I did move my HP flask to the pouch later in my game 16:34. I still think the flasks are as vital as weapons and warrant easier access. The presence of the pouch alone is evidence that they knew there was something wrong with the quick items. Also what value are the 5 & 6 slots of the pouch? If the pouch has 6 slots but only 4 can be accessed quickly, then why not give the pouch 10 slots? Baffling. - “I challenge you to find a dedicated way to bind those buttons that isn’t just the pouch.” You got me there. All I know is most games I play are also released on consoles and the PC UIs don’t hate me like Elden Ring’s does. You’ve probably played Elden Ring many times. You know where the stuff you want to use is. You can streamline your playthrough with minimal runes. Not so for a first-time player. I was rocking dual scimitars, then found better ones, then found better ones, and ended up going dual katanas and finally katana & shield. But I still had to keep a blunt weapon around for creatures resistant to blades. I also found better bows. - “sticking to the 3 to 5 weapons you like is how you're supposed to play” is the kind of thing said by someone who already knows the map and weapons. I was waiting for someone to call me out on Lordsworn's Greatsword vs the Claymore. This is completely missing the point. And I know you already know that. I chose 2 weapons that looked similar from my massive stash of weapons to make my point. I had no idea where each came from (at the time). But in your mind, switch out those 2 swords for any pair of weapons you think are a more appropriate comparison, and tell me if my point changes at all. You can’t compare weapons that aren’t at the same level. And that’s a huge problem! Elden Ring is so up to its neck in stats and numbers. I reject any argument that they’re just not important. Look at context clues instead? No. No game I’ve ever played has the walls of stats-soup that Elden Ring has for every weapon and armor piece. I seriously wanted to make that a point in the video but decided against it. Is this a video game or an accounting app? For a game to have sooo many weapons littered ALLLLL over the map, that you’re only supposed to play with 5 of them is absurd. I’m not saying you're wrong. The grind required supports your claim. I’m saying the game shouldn’t be like that. Elden Ring punishes experimentation with grinding. Seriously, put that on the poster… “Play Elden Ring! 100s of weapons. Just play with 5.” I agree with your points about differently skilled players and what levels they need to be to finish the game. But… I avoided the subject of enemy difficulty on purpose. I considered myself pretty daring to even attempt this video with so many rabid fans ready to crucify anyone who doesn’t kneel before FromSoft. I sure as hell wasn’t going to touch on game difficulty. Again, I acknowledged that Elden Ring is a design choice early in my video. I also don’t think I used the word “mistake” even once. “If you don’t like it, it's not made for you,” is a legitimate argument for any game. But that doesn’t help gamers who could have spent their money on something else only to realize Elden Ring isn’t for them too late. But you’re now arguing against a point I didn’t make. I never said… the game isn’t good… the game isn’t fun… people shouldn’t play the game… this game isn’t for anyone. I never made those points. Up front, a developer from another studio called the game out on UX and without consideration the collective fanbase decided to do the internet thing and dismiss his position out of hand, misinterpreted UX to mean HUD, and blast his Twitter account so he had to delete it. When I played the game, I was aware of this and the cracks started to show. So I made a video about it. The thesis was: is the Elden Ring UI/UX flawless or are there legitimate criticisms that can be made? BTW, I’m a KBM player. If you think I’m bad on KBM, I’m way worse on gamepad. There are plenty of players who love Elden Ring and kick ass using KBM. Lastly, I’ve heard the claim before that Elden Ring is the easiest FromSoft game. I have a friend who loves Dark Souls 1 & 3 and he disagrees... but that’s just another opinion. As I said at the conclusion of my video, you’re welcome to love the game exactly as it is. But the issues I’ve raised resonate with a lot of gamers who are not you. And you said yourself, that you agree with some of my observations. Even without evidence, I know, for a fact, that you’ve called out games for things you didn’t like about them. I know for a fact not everyone agrees with your complaints. You’re welcome to disagree with mine. You’ve made decent arguments... which I’ve mostly rebuffed because… well… we have different opinions. I appreciate your passion for the game and the time you spent to articulate your disagreements.

@@MediaKitGaming You can revisit dialogue. The most important dialogue can be repeated by the NPC until its no longer useful. The quests are a puzzle to solve. The 'cycling items' debate is another design choice. A weapon wheel won't work, even your mock-up wouldn't fit the game because you basically need the whole screen available during a boss fight. And don't say 'just freeze time' because then you're just porting other game mechanics. Not every game should be formatted the same way. But this problem is also address with the pouch being around. Dont fill all 10 slots for your items, they are optional. You don't need blight boulences when fighting melania for example. Imagine not having a quick pouch. That's DS2 and the rest. I was also irritated buy the item management screens, but they were far from the worst parts. I hated the jump input for those games, it killed me many a time. But despite all that I can appreciate what they tried. Now the whole, 'resummon torrent prompt' debacle is stupid in my opinion. Only 2 actual bosses can be fought using torrent, the rest are open world and don't count for a 'horse fight'. These fights are a thousand times better without torrent, except for traversal, and trying to stay on torrent during these fights is a bad tactic. So my point is 'why ride the horse against fire giant?' Last little bit. This game is designed to be just as easy on console as on PC. Again, try finding 2 places on a standard Xbox controller for the flask to go thats better than the pouch. You'd need at least 3 buttons to press in 2 different combos, so its exactly the same as the pouch. You're right about there being space on a keyboard for a dedicated button, but that would be an advantage for PC players. Basically, don't call their 'design choices' bad. Your opinion is that they frustrate you and newer souls player. Its like switching from Call of duty to Borderlands. You go from a previously hyper realistic shooter sim to a run n gun adventure across the galaxy. Their both FPS games. Some shits just different cuz thats how Japanese, say it again, not American, Japanese game developers make their games. They have different priorities. Comparing gear is a bit annoying yeah, but the scaling attributes show you whats good for what type of build. Oh, and leveling your damage stats beyond the requirement for weapons is pointless. So is picking the most powerful weapon in the game. Every weapon is viable, just use whatever looks cool. Maybe change the Ash of War and scaling with whetstones but other than that you don't need to worry about damage, just build compatability. You can dislike a game or its mechanics all you want, thats perfectly reasonable. But stop pushing your agenda of 'Fromsoft games bad, Miyazaki doesn't know what he's doing'. Some parts of the game are genuinely designed as MASSIVE Fuck you to the player. But almost every problem you've talked about was mitigated in ER. Item cycling and the pouch is the best example. I don't get DS2 when I first played it years ago. It took ER to show me the greatness of these games. And I recently played and finished Sekiro too. One last bit, ER is objectively the easiest because of how many ways you can break its mechanics and say FUCK YOU back to Miyazaki. That is also my opinion, but there's a counter to almost every boss. Margitt and Mohg got that shackles. Alright, one last, last, last bit. People buying games only to realise they aren't for you isn't a problem with the game. People should look into games before they buy them. Thats on them, not ER

​@@ghoulgunner177 Pushing my agenda? What am I, a lobbyist now? I'm a gamer with opinions. You’re free to love every single quirk about Elden Ring that I hate, and I’m free to hate them and say why. You’re free to disagree. I can call their design choices bad if I want. That’s how opinions work. Arrows firing from the hip? That’s bad design. I know you disagree. “Do you want to use a flask to revive Torrent?” That’s terrible design. I know you disagree. Scrolling through quick items & spells. That’s bad design. I know you disagree. Plus, I know you’ve dunked on games before. Are your criticisms invalid because “design choice?” I could come up with 100 ways to improve Elden Ring and you would dismiss them all. But if Elden Ring 2 comes out and FromSoft fixes any “quirk” from the 1st game, you’ll embrace it. “I’m glad they fixed that.” If they added a pause the next game (they probably won’t), you’d use it. I suggest removing the “use flask to revive torrent” dialog = I’m not playing the game right. FromSoft removes that dialog from the next game = genius! Because you’re a fan. Fans defend what they love. I get it. I’m a fan too, just of other things. I never, ever said “Fromsoft games bad, Miyazaki doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Your channeling your frustration from some other source onto me. I carefully focused my video on UX/UI elements. And I’ll be the first to admit that I left all the positive stuff out. It’s not an Elden Ring review video. If you want videos gushing about Elden Ring, they permeate RU-vid. My self-appointed challenge was to provide a different voice/perspective… ON THE UX/UI… not the rest of the game! Many of your defenses for Elden Ring basically boil down to, “people aren’t playing it right.” Don’t fight on horseback, only use 3-5 weapons, don’t use inventory slots, make right choices the first time so you don’t need to grind. One commenter scolded me for using melee on resurrecting skeletons, “just use daggers, noob!” When I say Elden Ring is a hard game to play, I’m not even talking about enemy difficulty or balancing. I just mean figuring it out. If I take all of your “play this way” fixes to heart, then this open world game with all these options becomes more and more restrictive. The final puzzle isn’t a hidden quest, it’s how to play optimally so that all the UX quirks no longer get in the way. And don’t make it about the Japanese. Lots of games come out of Japan. They’re as diverse as western games. A criticism of Elden Ring is a criticism of its developers' choices. Nothing more. I’ve criticized the Horizon and Assassin’s Creed games too, and I love those games. (well, I don’t love all the AC games, but... moving on!) Finishing up. Scaling Attributes also change as weapons level up, making that metric just as useless as all the other attributes when comparing differently leveled weapons. Characters repeating their last line of dialogue does not constitute “most important dialogue can be repeated.” I think this assertion is provably untrue. You’re right, people should know what they’re getting into before buying a game. But we’ve all made the mistake haven’t we? Despite our best efforts we bought something that just didn’t click. I get it. Win some. Lose some. But there’s a lot Elden Ring could do with its UX/UI so players could focus more on the world, the story, the combat and fighting bosses instead of fighting the UI. I know you disagree.

@@MediaKitGaming The firing from the hip thing is correct. That's an unquestionable flaw. And I agree you are free to have an opinion on the design choices. But I meant 'Don't call them bad simply because their are easier options in other games.' Edit 1: the weapon scaling does increase, but I don't mean what the letters are, but what stats they are in. That tells you if your build will accommodate the weapon. Other than that, it doesn't matter because every weapon is viable with sufficient investment. If you want to keep switching weapons, you've gotta accommodate your build to the weapon rather than the weapon to your build. That's the mistake you are making. Edit 2: Torrent is primarily meant for traversal, not combat. Most spells can't be cast on torrent which should be sufficient evidence to dismount once you've reached your opponent. Edit 3: just stop resummoning torrent. Unless you plan on escaping, that flask isn't worth it. Even again fire giant and radahn. It might seem like I'm being a toxic elitist saying, 'don't use this mechanic or your bad' I'm saying that you are using these mechanics in unintended ways. The fact you can do it is player freedom, but its not optimal. Edit 4: Usually, not always, the last lines of dialogue are all you need. Other times, you do need prior knowledge, luck or plane 100% the run. You do have a point saying its not a perfect single player game, but its like another comment said. These games have secrets for the entire community to discover together. And you don't need to 100% every run, nor is it that hard to do it organically. Edit 5: The magic of Fromsoft is that they create games that respect the player but doesn't pull its punches. Sure, the earlier games have way more janky mechanics which is what makes them difficult, but playing future titles does make those games way easier. I'm saying Elden Ring is the easiest for newcomers to understand. I didn't get it with DS2, but i did get it with elden Ring, which lead me to spend £50 on sekiro and beat the game in 50 hours. 10 hours alone were spend on the final ishin fight. I only recently finished sekiro, but I've played elden ring for at least 200, maybe 300 hours. My first playthrough got to 70 hours before I threw in the towel and tried again. I failed. I kept making new mistakes, then I learned and improved. Now I reckon I could finish the whole game in 10 to 15 hours with my knowledge compared to the 70 hours that failed. That's not a bad thing, but I can see how the level of dedication required to do this isn't appealing for some. The challenge is tough but fair. There's no hit indicators, and the attacks are delayed to hell. But the satisfaction of kicking Malanias ass was the same as ishin.

@@ghoulgunner177I'm glad you and many others love it.

That would be an "ad hominem" attack… Attacking your opponent's character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument.

I do not subscribe to the PC master race BS. I believe people should play how they like. Further, I do not support any assertion that controller users are somehow better than keyboard users. I recognize that controllers and keyboards both have their advantages and disadvantages. But if your game supports keyboard, it should be good support. I'm better than you because I use a PlayStation vs Xbox or Switch. I'm better than you because I use a controller vs a keyboard. I'm better than you because I use a PC vs a mac. I'm better than you because I built my PC vs buying one off the shelf …why are we still doing this?

None is better than the other but at least to me it's clearly obvious that souls games all seem to be designed with controllers in mind. From the large number of separate twitchy reflex heavy inputs to the way items are consumed, everything seems to be built in a way that would make the most sense on a controller. Therefore playing these games with a mouse and keyboard seems like more of a deliberate inconvenience one would inflict on themselves. Additionally I think that up to Sekiro PC versions of Fromsoft games were more or less an afterthought and by the time Elden Ring came out they were just something that people expected but there's only so much that you can do in terms of PC optimisation while sticking so closely to the Dark Souls formula.

@@Dimitar_Tsanev “souls games all seem to be designed with controllers in mind” - you may be right. I however don't own one. When I hold one, it's foreign and cumbersome. So to use a controller is to deliberately inflict inconvenience on myself. Also, they're expensive and they wear out. But bad keyboard support isn't a grudge that should be held against players. Perhaps I should have dedicated a section of my essay to bad keyboard support. I'm pretty sure that counts as UX. Thank you for your insight. edit: maybe I should get one and then do a video on how it changed my life. 😛

@MediaKitGaming I do subscribe to the pc master race bs. And I know this game is borderline unplayable on keyboard.

@BaseStation mainly the videos gripes with spell and item selection are way more intuitive on controller. If you are playing any game that is a console port aside from shooters a $20 controller solves most problems. With steams controller customization option almost anything with a joystick is compatible.

Absolutely beautiful! I could not have written a better summary of FromSoft fanboyism. Thank you. Love you. Thank you also for recognizing that I'm not trying to make anyone hate a game, rather, I'm trying to introduce a different perspective... something new to consider. As for toxicity, just read some of the comments to this video.😜 But I don't have any illusions that my videos will change the industry.

there so many things here i just have to say something. Its not ubisoft. Its not meant to hold your hand. Its not meant to compare everything on a statical analysis. Its meant to feel like when you have many swords, many smithing stones, and find a new weapon you have to make "time" to find out if its a better weapon or not. ... Its nto about stats.. Every new weapon is new "friend" with its unique way of usability and animation. That's what a "special weapon" means. Or use to mean. The stats doesn't matter as the weapon is suppose to be a extension of your arm. And that only happens when you use it enough. Its all done by purpose. Even the lack of quest log. To force players to enjoy the game WITHOUT finding all unique treasures or "secret" items. As if you burry 50 treasures and show on the map . here is 50 treasures. thats it. BUt if you burry 50 treasures and say , there's treasures in the world ... Every new treasure will feel like an acomplishment. Thats how you hold "interest" of a game. That's why people in old age was interested in treasure maps and chests of gold. Cause we didn't knew where they was. So the "myth" is spread about island and gold. In summary, Its not about having the most "useful" UX. Its about having a UX / UI that let you dig into the world around you and make you question what is used for what, and explore ... Why you think items before in fromSoft only came with "description" and not stats. There hundreds of examples of this in their older games , and thats why we love dark souls. Not because its accessible. Because it is mythological and doesn't hold your hand. ALSO... just also.. Both can be right. We are so many different people playing different games. We all care for different UX options. Thats how it always been,

I'm sorry the game's giving you such trouble. I agree, not much thought was given to streamlining the interface for keyboard & mouse users. You might be referring to the “pouch”… the screen that appears when you first hit ESC. The pouch items are on the right side of that screen. If so, the keys to change the pouch items appear when you hover over the items. The prompts should appear on the bottom right of your screen, below the pouch items. F = “switch”, which might be what you're looking for.

idk can't even look now steam refunded it because i only had 3 hours in i honestly don't get how the rating of this game is so high that UI is so bad i just had no interest at all in continuing to play @@MediaKitGaming

I hope you find a game you’ll enjoy. What are some of your favs?

sky rim was good i thought starfield was good and i do understand all the hate for the main story line it was mostly bad with a few good plot twists but there was so much else to do that was good that i see that as really its only draw back. balurs gate was really good i been thinking of a second playthrough as evil but i always just end up being good again, anno 1800 was great just agter all the new maps are oppened up you almost have to play co.op to keep track of everything @@MediaKitGaming

​@@Asmodai. Yeah, I struggle to play evil and just kill or take advantage of everyone. Like everyone, you probably have your own backlog so you don't need my input. Nevertheless, I'm playing through The Witcher 3 right now… first time. Never too late, right? I think the writing and voice talent is excellent but I'm finding the gameplay a bit uninteresting. Better than Skyrim's (thanks to an evade move) but I find I yearn for more interesting combat. On that front, Kena: Bridge of Spirits (I did a video on it) is one of my favorite games and I appreciate it more every time I play a game with simple combat. Horizon Zero Dawn is a masterpiece with incredible combat accommodating various playstyles. I also really enjoyed Days Gone and Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a good time, but it'll get old if you explore all of it.

Love what you love!

Would be the best, if it also applied to the enemies

@@krystian9186 Wait I might be hallucinating but I distinctly remember enemies hitting walls, not bosses no but then you could just stand next to a wall to cheese many of them.

@@444-w8k Some do that, most humanoid enemies and all NPCs, but a lot of them don't. I'm guessing it's because they don't have an animation if their attack hits the wall, and if would look really awkward if they would just snap back to their standard pose.

It literally says it on the descriptions of three different items. Sounds like a you-problem lmao

This guy clearly doesn't read

@@ghoulgunner177 So you're offended because I don't like the the game? UX is fucking horrible

@@timausgt2238 I'm offended that you insult me and this game for your lack of knowledge and reading conprehension.

@@ghoulgunner177 I didn't insult you. You insulted me because I don't like the game.