Elden Ring Then vs Now (Two Years Later) 

Thanks for coming with me on this channels journey ❤️

The elevator was also that one moment that really amazed me. Just that moment when you slowly realise it's not stopping and then you suddenly see the one thing you expect least to see in a cave hundreds of meters below the earth: Another sky. Absolutely beautiful feeling.

Elden Ring didn't live up to our expectations, it went beyond.

People talk about the well being THAT moment in the game. But for me it's when you exit stormveil castle and enter liurnia of the lakes. It's just beautiful. You see the erdtree, Raya lucaria, the moon. The game just opens up at that moment and that was the moment that I knew this was something special

This is the kind of games you wish to forget so you can experience discover them again.

I'm 44 years old, gaming since I was 16-17, when the PS1 released. There's 3 games I will forever remember; Metal Gear Solid, Silent hill and Elden Ring. When I played Elden Ring the first time I felt as if I was 18 watching LOTR for the first time.

Discovering the eternal cities, Farum Azula, Caelid are moments I will never forget. What a legendary game. And our minds are yet to be blown by the DLC, because From Software is extremely unpredictable.

Its so sad to see the ubisoft devs criticize Elden Ring and realize they genuinely believe they are doing good games...

Launch weekend was insane. Every streamer pulled crazy hours and binged it until they beat it. If you played video games, you dropped whatever you were playing and picked up ER and talked with your friends and compared notes about whatever unbelievable shit you ran into over the weekend.

I don’t think i’ll ever get to experience a game like elden ring again in my life time. Not just playing it, experiencing it in the community and seeing the whole world playing it

Till today I’m actually still playing, just when you have no games, you pick up your controller and Elden ring is the go getter. I still help people online and also exploring different builds and to be honest I always discover something new each time I play a new build. Amazing game.

The standout moments for me are getting teleported to Caelid at like level 12, the Siofra River elevator, and, most of all, descending to the Lake of Rot then the Grand Cloister and finally facing Astel. That really made me feel like I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be more than any previous From game, which is really saying something since every area in Bloodborne makes you feel that way.

I never thought, that after 40 years of playing video games I could be drawn in as much as Elden Ring did. I still play it every single day, I have over 40 full playthroughs with all rememberance bosses, getting all great runes, and it still doesn’t dull me to repeat all the story parts, that I now know so very well. As a FromSoft noob I struggled mightily in the beginning, but got through the early hard part and after over 2.000 total hours in the game, I now even can parry Malenia and discover new builds for me to play (ever tried fist weapons?) and enjoy the variety of possible play styles. I never could imagine, once i got the Blasphemous blade, Moghs spear, Rivers of blood, that I would use other weopons, cause hey, why make the game harder on yourself, but these weapons are now well storedin the inventory and I have so many more to really make full of use of. I‘m so excited that FromSoft didn’t exploit the players wallet and even gifted use the PvP arenas for free and with the DLC probably not too far away, I‘m hyped for what comes next, how they are gonna tie the story together and the sufferings the new bosses will bring to us. Summed up: For me the best game ever, no mind change possible.

This is my first souls game, i really wish i can turn back the time and start over this game from stratch again. What an incredible journey🎉

Incantation = Spirit Ashes*

Stoked to have been a part of this! Glad to see the final video!

This game made me want to complete everything in it because it rewarded exploration and overcoming difficult challenges. It made me want to look for those little pieces of lore and try to figure out the story. It lets you have your own journey through an amazing open world and doesn’t hold your hand. For me personally it’s one of those games that changed how I looked at how a game should be in the best way possible.

Masterpiece video!

My biggest memory with the game is collecting the map pieces. Everytime I was just "that must be it, right?", and it never was. Limgrave into Caelid and Liurnia. Then Leindell (Oh, here's the tree, so that must be it), mountain tops, Farum Azula (Where even am I?). Find the albinauric woman, here is the consecrated snow fields, now another great tree. Oh, where this elevator go, a dungeon that I missed? (Welcome to the map under the map). It was surreal.

Best moment for me was once you’d completed the castle and entered Liurnia of the lakes. Man, that view of the academy, the erdtree etc was just absolutely breathtaking.

This could be the best game EVER made

I am playing through it for the first time now and I absolutely love it already. I've just started Ranni's quest and made it to the underground area. That lift ride was one of the best gaming moments I've had in a long long time. I'm counting the minutes until I can get off work and go continue my playthrough!

23:09 , wow this guy really sounds like me. Awesome video

UI is great imo. I wouldn't want a flashy modern looking/feeling UI. Something about it is charming. Adds to the difficult dungeon crawl "feel" to me.

Elden ring is one of those games I wish I could play for the first time again. I played it after the game of the year hype, so I had heard alot about it. It was such a fun experience to explore the map and it's secrets.

played it for 4 months straight since the day it launch, was able to get platinum and got to lvl 713 i miss elden ring 😔😔

I fell in love with the game when I was teleported to a random cave with miners and the Kindred, only to emrge onto the red skies and ominous theme of Caelid. I pulled up the map to check where I was and my jaw dropped. I have since put in over 1000 hours into the game.

There are a lot of parallels between ER and Hollow Knight. The exploration, sense of wonder and discovery giving me very similar feelings.

my favorite game because it dropped on my birthday - will forever be connected to this classic

after so many years of half-baked, uninspired games, we get elden ring and BG3 in back-to-back years. Here's to hoping starfield lives up to the hype. we all deserve it after the "live-service, ubification" era of gaming.

I get goosebumps just re-experiencing the reaction to the ER trailers ❤️🔥

Thanks for having me brother!

That first time Caelid experience from the chest is so aepic

i’m currently on another playthrough after i took a long break to play other games which included older Souls games and it’s still breathtaking. The first steps out inot the overworld, the first time you approach Stormveil and Margit drops down in front of you to stop your venture, the first time you start walking right into Caelid and you see the drastic difference in landscape and aesthetic. It all just comes together beautifully

Knowing Fromsoft the dlc is going to be amazing

Elden RIng destroyed all other games for me. It is so phenomally fantastic. Also the elevator down to the underground was just.. W O W

This is my favorite game of all time! I loved everything about it the background, the characters and soundtrack everything is perfect

Playing through as a wizard vs playing through as a swordsman is pretty damn fresh. I think it has plenty of replay value.

Exploring the Lands between for the first time is a one of a kind experience. NG+ is great too feeling all powerful but nothing would top that first playthrough where the sense of exploration and mystery is all over every corner. Such a great world they made. Elden Ring is my top choice if I can forget a game to replay it again fresh from the start.

Personally one of the coolest moments in gaming ever to me, was cruising around Liurnia and hearing some crazy awesome singing coming from a random rock, and walking in there and realizing it’s a grotesque bat/human hybrid and getting owned by it, went from beautiful and mysterious, to a horrible discovery almost immediately and that’s so epic to me. I’ll never forget that moment.

Elden Ring is, in my opinion, definitely the most replayable game.

When Malenia stood up and gave that absolute BANGER of a speach, favorite moment in gaming, hand downs, and it's not even close 😂

As the game ages it's only gotten better. Knowing what to do, forgetting about things just to rediscover them again, awaiting the DLC which might just change the entire game as we know it with the amount of content and items it could bring. This game just like past Dark Souls games is going to live on for a very long time for fans of the series and for everyone else it was an amazing one and done experience.

i remember doing a perfect playthrough right before my first trip in like 4 years. It was a bad year for me ... November 2022 so much fun this playthrough was. I managed to kill every boss in the world (probably not every but almost all of them yk) and it went the exact way i wanted it to. Then the day i left that night i did the final boss and oh my gosh i still remember this moment. It wasn't my first playthrough but it was the first playthrough where I didn't need help for any bosses and man that moment where radagon pull his hammer up and the ost kicks in is probably one of the most peak moments of my entire life combined with going on that trip right after. Thank you for the memories elden ring.

This video is getting recommended aggressively to me for some reason, I see it on every refresh. I don’t even search for elden ring anymore

Elden Ring has left an unmatchable impression in my memory. I feel like I lived an actual other life in that game, and I can’t explain what that truly feels like.

My memorable moments are: open the door and first time seeing Limgrave, the overview of Liurnia after defeating Godrick, the elevator to the eternal city in Limgrave, the trap chest that takes you to Caelid and the Godskin fight in windmill village (my first encounter). There are probablly a few more but thats all i can think of rn.

Elden Ring is an amazing game ill never forget that there's a sewer maze under the city or a hole other section on a hidden wall.

i would give my kidney to go back to when elden ring dropped all over again during the hype.

This game has put me on to the souls series/genre and I’d never have it any other way. Elden Ring will be in my top 5 games of all time. Thank you Miyazaki!

Great video thanks so much!

600 hours into Elden Ring in less than a year. Yeah, it's that good.

Getting to the underground in Elden Ring for the first time and doing ranni's questline as it kept taking you deeper and deeper into the ground, seeing the eternal cities and facing Astel. This was one of the most amazing gaming moments ive ever experienced. Experiencing ER for the firsr time will be one of my fondest memories

ER took me a while to get into, as I never played Souls games before and the first section up to Margit was pretty tough... but man, once I boosted my character level a bit at the hallway Grace before Margit, after that the game was one of the best I ever played! Totally amazing! Platinumed it loving every moment!

Here's one more to help, subbed. This was my first dark souls play though not done yet but absolutely love this game. After I finish my first play as Ranni ending I'm going for thr rest as well.

High quality video brother. Damn fine editing.

The underground parts of Elden ring are SO much better than TotK depths....

The real maiden was the pots we smashed along the way

It’s disappointing that there is NO dlc or dlc armor packs even after a year

I never used the mimic tear my first playthrough simply because i never found it lol. I used Lhutel the headless which felt cool cause to unlock her you have to beat her. With my mage it felt like a great build since she can disappear which helped her stay alive longer in boss fights.

The two masterminds Miyazaki and Martin met, gave it a handshake and really said „let’s do it“ as if they haven’t created masterpieces before

I still think ER is the best game ever made, in every aspect. The only open world game that I didn’t get bored of, In fact I memorized every last corner in the whole map because it’s just beautiful, I played the game and finished it dozens of times, I play with different character, different builds, different ideas to create my own fun because ER gave me the options to create it. I never played a single mod because they’re fake and feels like too much. it’s like using drugs, you start with a weak one then you get stronger and stronger until the first one you tried feels nothing, so I don’t want to ruin Elden ring for myself, I believe I will still play this game in five years from now and I don’t want to keep remembering that one weapon or that one spell from that one mod that isn’t part of the game. Lastly, I wish they will bring Malenia and Radahn as difficult as they were before. same with weapons, like moonveil and rivers of blood back to their broken glory (i’m not talking about more damage. I want the speed, range, accuracy and all of that).

The meme with them large rolling balls got me 🤣 great vid.

I started playing Elden Ring about 10 ago. Still on my first game and currently lv.98. I am just amased and overwhelmed how beautifull and great this game is. The things you discover, the look of the massive world, different types of enemies you discover from little ones to gigantic terrifying ones, quests you can do and npc's you come across, different builds you can make, magic what is the best aspect for me personaly and huge arsenal of different weapon types that are made for different builds and NG+ which you can start as a realy powerfull character so that you can use some different build. I just love this game and easily the best game I ever played. I thought no rpg could ever top Witcher 3 until I started playing this masterpiece of a game.

Still love this game

I forgot how that felt when watching the first real game plays of elden ring. Thank you.

There are so many painting-like moments in this game I love it so much

Playing this game one year ago was crazy, the community felt so alive the game was so fun. So many zones to explore, bosses to fight and objects to get.

Incantations are the Miracles of this game, not the Spirit Ashes.

This game has become my favorite of all time

still got goosebumps seeing the trailers again

Would love a vid like this about lies of p, great content brother 🤘🏻

Top five game of all time

I think it should also be mentioned that one of the aspects that really made Elden Ring stand out above every other open world game (except BOTW for similar reasons) was that it didn't hold your hand and give you 50+ tutorials you had to finish before you could enjoy the game. It let you discover everything on your own, from the story to the gameplay. It is also a nearly truly open world that is fully available to explore, there are only 2 areas that require you to beat a boss to access.

Totally agree with your point on anti-ubisofrification. I really felt although there was a linear path with the guidance of grace to show you the "proper" route, I could genuinely take whatever route I wanted.

Reinstalled this game to replay on my new oled tv and damnnn. Huge difference especially for farum azula and nokron

Delayed attacks are the only way these enemies can stand a chance against a typical Souls player. After a while, you get too good at dodging or parrying.

Love the game and platinum it ❤

The dreamlike battle against Rennala, that's when it hit me

the moment where Elden Ring truly hit for me was as soon as you kill Maliketh. The next 3 minutes are the most powerful minutes im the game.

I stopped playing every game I had for elden ring and didn’t touch any other game till I finished it

The boss fights of this game are actually my favorite in the series despite the criticisms you mentioned. I understand that balance in the 3rd act of the game is bad, I have a problem with that too, but one thing I don't like more is the duo fights. I'm fine with bosses repeating when it's convenient (ex. Erdtree avatar guarding every tree), but the ones that serve basically no purpose should've been replaced with an entirely new boss. I also feel like the game suffered from some of it's balancing patches. I think Radahn should've never been nerfed, and even more so I think he should've set a bar for the scaling by making Caelid a late game area. But you're able to get there so easily and can already fight Radahn as early as... well, as soon as meet Blaidd or Ranni. If you made it so, Radahn could be your first great rune boss. If they had a way to lock Caelid behind something like the lift for Altus Plateau, less people would've got their ass kicked that early. So yea, this all being said, they shouldn't have nerfed Radahn, but he should've been a transition from the second to the third act. That way third act bosses would've felt more balanced, and going through Caelid for the first time will get you ready for bosses like Maliketh and Malenia. But it is what it is in the end. The Radahn Festival is still a really fun thing to do, and he can still definitely one shot you if you haven't leveled vigor. He's still a pretty fun boss because of that, its just a shame remembering how good it felt overcoming his challenge. I kinda just turned this into a Radahn rant, but to speak on more bosses, Godrick was my favorite early game boss specifically because of his delayed attacks and his design. You learn from Margit how telegraphing will go, and even though it makes Godrick easier by comparison, he still has some really good patterns that I find fun to learn. My favorite midgame boss is Morgott. I could say it's because I defeated him my first try on my first playthrough in a really badass way (we hit each other at the same time and both fell, but obviously, only one of us came back), but it's more than that. Once again, his moveset is very fun to learn and he's quite a well designed boss. His second phase adds so much to the fight, and everything about it is familiar, because it's like a beefed up Margit (who is a beautiful first boss, may I add). And for the late game, my favorite boss is Malenia. I hated her on my first playthrough and thought anybody who would like a boss like that is cynical. Absolutely crazy. Then, I got good. Got better, I should say. Even now, I'm able to defeat her without summoning. And I could fight these bosses, and more, a million times. I don't see the problem where other people do (besides the balancing of the third act; it really is like a jumpscare). My genuine main problems stem from connectivity and PVP (as well as duo fights, but I covered that). Connectivity, as in how the game connects each area, which has to do earlier with what I said about Caelid. It also has to do with the hub. I'm talking about the Roundtable Hold. It's just like Dark Souls 3's Firelink Shrine. It should've been an actual area you could travel back and forth to instead of an area you can teleport to. It makes you feel too safe, especially with that that (almost) no one can hurt you there. It also feels anti-exploration in the sense that you can get a majority of things there that you would normally work your ass off collecting. On top of it not being connected to the rest of the game world, so you cant really look at an area and think about going there unless you're already in the thick of it all. Idk. I just think it's kinda boring to make the Hold this place far and out of the way. As for the PVP, this is probably the worst we've had from FromSoft in years. First things first, they really should've learned from complaints and made the co-op experience better and more like how the co-op mod does it. Back to PVP, the balancing is atrocious. I know they nerfed RoB, but there are still a lot of builds in this game. Sometimes those builds one shot you in the most shitty way possible, or ultimately stun lock you until you die. But that's all I really have to say about it. Honestly, all in all, I really feel like people now are making Elden Ring worse than they remember in their minds without even such as giving it a replay and seeing if something is as bad as they remember. That's why I recently started replaying the game. And guess what? I still love it. On a new character, and I'm enjoying exploring the world again. Plus, its been long enough that I don't remember where everything is, and I will go back and suck at some of the bosses because it's been so long. So basically, in conclusion, Elden Ring is still basically the perfect FromSoft game in my eyes, and I can hardly go back to previous games because I'm spoiled by just how much they've added and improved on pretty much everything. Despite my very few problems with the game, there's so much more I like about it, and the fact that we can all sit here and name things we don't like without even saying the things we do like is kind of a shame. Put the whole picture together. Realize that this game is still amazing. Remember what it felt like beating it the first time, then go back and try it again.

I played my first games on a Commodore64, back then every game was something magical. Elden Ring is one of the very few games giving me this feeling of wonder again. It's truly a work of art.

The only thing i wished ER had was more to offer in NG+, Other than that it's perfect in my eyes, and it will be even better when DLC arrives. I also love ER bosses the most in terms of their approaches, because of how much they offer in combat, their also the most complex in their moveset, the variety is crazy, and even the mini-bosses are phenomenal, bosses like Crucible knight, or Zamor's heroes are amazing and feel so fun to fight, better than like 50% of past soulsborne bosses, and the main bosses are so distinct, from both theme, music, spectacle and it just feels refreshing to fight each one of them, and based on how much build options you have, It just gives you more.

Thanks for making this look back. It took me awhile to finally get this game, after I got my PS5 it was my first purchase. It was everything I imagined it to be and so much more. I've barely scratched the surface, but I wanted to revisit the hype that everyone else was experiencing at the time.

Made a small mistake at 13:48, they're not incantantions, but spirit ashes :) Great video about the history of Elden Ring!

still the best experience I had to this day. Very thrilling

I will never be able to agree with the game's end game being unbalanced or too hard. I did notice a damage increase of enemies towards the end game, but never felt it was too much or unfair, it felt fitting. In general I found Elden Ring's boss and enemy balancing to be pretty good for an open world game. And it's one of my absolute favorite fromsoft games when it comes to boss battles.

I can't stop playing. I depatched to 1.00 to see how different it was on release day. I'm absolutely loving it. Shadow of the Erdtree is gonna slap too. I can't wait.

I only started playing the dark souls trilogy in 2020, thats when I fell in love with dark souls 1. I remember installing reddit just to talk to people about those games, and speculate on elden ring. I even made some drawings and posted my ideas as to what might be in the game. It was a lot of fun being excited for a game we knew nothing about. And now we get to do it all again with fromsoftware’s next game :)

I’m like 10 hrs in and still don’t know how this game works but have explored a lot of the beginning map

I LOVE traditional RPG and was never a fan of action RPG…. Until this game. I was stunned how huge this game is and its versatility. The fact I’m happy to replay this game over and over shows how much this game has to offer!

It's still funny to me how these western devs had the gall to call Elden Ring a bad game when they're the ones puking out half assed games that are broken at launch. They can only hope to sell half of what Elden Ring sold. What a bunch of clowns. 🤣

Nogi San Elden Ring merch would be absolutely sick! I need it. Can you believe I still play this from time to time? I don't even play PVP.

My favourite part about the elevator is that it could be seen as From referencing the Dark Souls 2 elevator to Iron king but doing it right this time

its a shame i wasnt in the bandwagon of all this. elden ring was my first souls game and i didnt even hear the buildup to it 😭

Your video gave me goose bumps all throughout, this game was a life changing experience for me - It made me want to experience EVERYTHING from From Software, played DS1 for the first time, DS2, Sekiro, Demon's Souls, etc. I even started the Bersek manga and I really don't usually like anime/manga. When I tell my friends why this game is important; I almost feel like a Cult Guru trying to get them in my Cult but it is for a reason, this game is underrated even when we mention it as a masterpiece especially for its message to the game industry - I'm glad I became a fan of From Software, my last dying light was CD Projekt RED and after Cyberpunk 2077, it left me.. Hollow ;). Glad From Software reignited the flame of my love for video games again. Alright I'm done with Dark Souls metaphor, Thank you for the video, really enjoyed it!

I just recently got ER and I love it, about 80 hrs into a strength build

After saying Bloodborne and DS3 are my top 2 favorite games of all time, i had no idea how Elden Ring would top it. Especially after i played 50 hours of Elden Ring and kept dying easily to early bosses and took forever to get around and look for decent weapons and builds early on. Once i managed to get better. I was non stop playing Elden Ring that i would spend a lot of time in certain territories like Radhan areas to farm souls and find upgradeable stones 😅 And was excited to get to bosses like Melania, Godfrey 🦁 and Malekith Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time and i cannot wait to see the DLC finally release 🙌

pretty cringe that actual good games are now being described as "anomalies"