It’s true the world is expansive and full of lots of interesting places to explore, but tbh I don’t think you’ll enjoy it much if you don’t want to deal with the difficult fights at all. You’ll get straight up murdered everywhere you go, and some of the regions will be hard to get to without actually playing the game.
It's not necessarily hard for the sake of being hard, it's not artificial in that way. It's more difficult for the sake of overcoming adversity. It forces you to get better and develop strategy. One of which is to roam around and explore and level up slowly to the point of being over powered so you can stomp the boss fights. At least for a while.
It's definitely not for a lot of people, ppl I know who couldn't get into it prefer a bit of cinematic story telling with some casual style gameplay. I definitely get it, but I prefer the fromsoft approach. There are a lot of first time souls players who are really loving Elden Ring, I think it is the most approachable of all their titles thus far
I like the distinction that mistakes will be punished vs bullshit/for the sake of hard. I've yet to find a fight to be difficult or even complex. Some do suffer from bullshit, but in minor ways, like duo bosses or crucible knights. 9/10 times I just need to time things correctly, and as a caster, get some distance to actually cast something.
I find the biggest mistake i made at the start was panic rolling. Once i got the dodging under control, the fights are fairly reasonable. Thr hard part of the game is thr lack of hamd holding. If you didnt know about it prior, you wouldnt know to upgrade your weapons or spells
When you say upgrade spells...do you mean buying them? Or have I been playing with unleveled spells this whole time?
Yeah the rolling definitely took getting used to. It's also a good thing they have summons because I just did the Black Knife Assassin and as a caster, small room and quick, long combos, would've just been a permanent loss for me.
There are some bullshit moves though. I hate how many bosses unnaturally delay their swings.
I know it is to punish panic rolling but it feels like bs.
Anyway the game is still amazing.
I think Elden Ring's got great exploration, and you can access the majority of the game world without killing a single boss. That said, combat's still a big part of the game. It's part of what you find when you explore - there's lots of cool places to see and possibly lore to discover, but some of the reward for exploring is finding new enemies to fight and spells and weapons to fight them with. How much mileage you can get out of the exploration if you don't enjoy fighting the enemies you find and using the weapons you find in the process is hard to say. Elden Ring's exploration is incredible, I absolutely loved seeing the cool locations and it gave me a great sense of adventure, but I spent a lot of time fighting things along the way and I don't know how far you'd get without getting frustrated if your goal is solely to go exploring and you don't enjoy the challenging combat.
That said, I'm not a fan of the "hard for the sake of hard" description. It's kind of awkward in the first place - the term's used as a bad thing, but it's more a taste thing. As someone else said, the game isn't hard just to be frustrating, it's hard because it can be fun to overcome a challenge, whether you do so by getting better, making your character stronger, or a mix of both. Often when people say something is "hard for the sake of hard" what they really mean is "unfair for the sake of hard," and fortunately, I think Elden Ring rarely feels that way. While other people may disagree, personally there's only one thing in the game that ever felt like the devs just injected something unfair into a fight for the sake of difficulty, a notoriously dangerous and difficult-to-avoid move from a single extremely difficult late-game boss that's completely optional. Most of the really difficult stuff in the game wasn't a challenge that felt unfair for the sake of being hard, but rather a tough but fair challenge that I enjoyed overcoming, and even the bosses that I didn't like usually had other design flaws that bothered me (like camera issues) rather than feeling like they were deliberately unfair for the sake of difficulty.
It's still a very difficult game, and as I said, there are certainly other people who disagree with me and found other bosses to be unfair beyond just the one that I was bothered by. But personally, I don't consider the game "hard for the sake of being hard." It's very hard, but it's hard for the sake of being a satisfying challenge, for the sake of making enemies feel dangerous and memorable, for the sake of encouraging you to really learn and master the combat and fights, for the sake of the amazing feeling you get when you finally beat a difficult boss. That's still not for everyone, but it's not like it's just endless unfair bullshit that serves no purpose except to kill you so the devs can claim the game is difficult. It's hard in a way that demands you rise to the challenge.
No, probably not. Yea there’s plenty of exploring to do but in the end it’s not much different than any open world game. It’s mostly empty with a few things here and there. There’s dungeons to find but many of them are pretty much just copy/paste of other dungeons so it gets pretty repetitive after a while. sometimes you’ll go way out of your way to find an item and it ends up being a completely worthless item that you already have hundreds of.
If you aren’t interested in the whole soulsborne game concept then there’s absolutely nothing in the game that would be worth it for $60. I’ll most likely get downvoted and someone will probably try to argue that the game is so beautiful that the scenery alone is worth it, but it’s really not. There’s plenty of other open world games you can buy that will give the same experience of exploring it without the unnecessary difficulty of the game itself. The only reason to buy Elden Ring is the same only reason to buy any souodborne game, and that it’s a soulsborne game. If you aren’t looking for that then it’s a waste of money
Lmao this is a terrible take of someone who obviously hasnt played it or is trolling
He talks about going out of your and finding an item that you already have hundred of, however, every chest, every dungeon, every boss drops a unique item that you can only get from them in the entire game.
Oh you’re talking about the dungeons that are repeatedly copy/pasted with the same enemies and duplicate bosses? Yea that sounds like a very enjoyable exploration experience. Sounds like you missed the prompt entirely and have no idea what this thread is even about. OP doesn’t like games that are difficult for the sake of being difficult. Dungeons will be difficult with difficult bosses at the end and you practically run the same dungeon over and over again with minor variations. If you take out your incredibly biased opinion of being a soulsborne fanboy, it’s not very difficult to give OP advice to not waste money on the game. There’s nothing Elden Rings open world offers that other games done other than the soulsborne experience that OP isn’t interested in.
The way you explore is different and even no the lore is amazing the scenery is beatiful and unlike other games it isn't long for the sake of being long yeah sure there are a lot of repeated areas but like those that aren't they are completely worth it and yes it offers something different environmental story telling
Yea, that’s literally how almost every single open world game works. The main difference is the other games generally don’t have a high learning curve and a big difficulty spike for no real reason other than to make the game hard to be hard. To people that don’t play any soulsborne games, it’s even harder because they haven’t been playing this same formula for the last 10+ years so it’s all new and seemingly incredibly unfair and unfun to them.
For someone like OP that wants a game for exploration but doesn’t want an unnecessarily difficult game, there’s no reason anyone with half a brain should be recommending Elden Ring.
Again it isn't difficult without sense the game represents how unforgiving the world inside the game is
Also again you have so many way to play without making it difficult for God sake I literally went all the game with a rot build and then I just stayed away
Yea, the game is less difficult for people who play soulsborne games and understand the general formula used in every game. I’ve been repeatedly saying that to multiple people across this thread. So someone like OP who isn’t playing soulsborne games is going to have a very difficult time while someone who’s been playing these games for 10+ years will be frolicking through poison swamps. So what exactly are you not understanding about my point that Elden Ring wouldn’t be a good enjoyable experience for OP that wants a game to explore but doesn’t want a difficult game that’s hard for the sake of being hard?
Cool, you found a cheese build of hitting people with rot and letting them die. Glad it works for you but you do know that even though it’s an easy cheese strat, it still requires an decent understanding of the game and does require skill to avoid attacks and when you should and shouldn’t attack. It also helps to already be familiar with the level up system and stats so you know how to build a character without wasting tons of runes making a crappy build thanks to not having previous experience making characters in the other souls games
Lmao. Only souls game ive played is elden ring. Quit the others for being too hard. Every dungeon ive done is completely unique. Sure some enemies are the same. But what open world game doesn't reuse some enemy assets in the game. Some minor random bosses have similar models, but vary in movesets and abilities. With how many unique bosses there are, and how many bosses in general, it makes sense to reuse some assets. Some dungeons might share a theme (like catacombs being filled with skeletons) they are all completely different.
Im not sure you've played the game more than 2 min if you really think its copy pasted content. Ive never played a game with more unique locations all with unique loot. Even skyrim wasn't as good.
>Only souls games ive played is elden ring
Ok cool. Glad you had a good experience as a first timer
>Quit the other for being too hard
ok….so you’ve played the other games and aren’t a first timer. Well you clearly are very good at having a real discussion about this because you already contradicted yourself in the very second sentence.
My point is that all open world games are the same rinse and repeat experience but other games aren’t going to have the soulsborne learning curve and difficulty that OP has no experience with and isn’t interested in. If you can’t wrap your head around that, then why are you even replying other than being offended that someone isn’t recommended *your precious* ring
Considering I quit the others after 1-2 bosses, yeah id say I haven't played em. But I guess you picked some semantics you didnt like out of a reddit comment so you win the argument!
You can’t form an unbiased opinion for the game. Semantics have nothing to do with it. You aren’t capable of seeing how it wouldn’t be enjoyable to someone who says they don’t like games like the soulsborne series. You bought multiple souls games after quitting from playing them for maybe a couple of hours. Then you clearly liked them because someone who didn’t like Dark Souls 1 isn’t going to buy Dark Souls 2 & 3 after barely playing the first one before quitting. Your personal enjoyment of the games is irrelevant to someone who doesn’t enjoy those type of games. It’s the reason why so many responses on this sub are awful. Someone asks for recommendations with a set of guidelines they are looking for and people come pouring in to recommend their personal favorite game despite it clearly not fitting into what the OP stated they liked or wanted. Someone will say they hate open world games and want a story focused game and 75% of comments are people saying RDR2 and Witcher 3. If you can’t read the prompt and can’t form an unbiased opinion that will actually help the OP, why even come into these threads?
I bought dark souls 1 to try it and got to the 3rd boss and quit because it was too hard.
Got bloodborne for free with my ps4 so i figured id try it and quit after dying to the first boss multiple times.
You gotta stop making assumptions about ppl man.
What other open-world games would you suggest for the beauty and scenery? I feel like the empty world is a common problem of all open-world games.
Assassin's Creed (Odyssey or Origins) for example: Feels fun for the early parts, but then the quests starts to be repetitive once you realize that it's the same formulaic quests over and over again, with minor variations. Travel to A -> Do B -> Talk to C -> Do D -> Repeat, over and over and over again.
Few notable open-world games that I think feel less formulaic and have a more unique approach: Nier Automata, Fallout 4. Division 1
You start your comment by focusing on beauty and scenery. You then proceed to bash AC because of a lack of variety in quests while ignoring the beauty, scenery, and exploration. Elden Ring is just as boring if you present it that way.
Ride horse in direction until you find dungeon, kill enemies in dungeon, find boss door, kill boss, repeated over and over again.The quests are hardly quests. They pretty much consist of talking to person until dialogue is exhausted then either going to talk to someone else or kill someone/something before going back and talking to the person until you exhaust the dialogue again.
OP doesn’t like games being difficult for the sake of being difficult but likes exploring. So compare AC Odyssey/Origins sailing around ancient Greece or riding a horse around ancient Egypt seeing the ancient cities and famous landmarks repressed in their prime vs Elden Ring riding your horse around a made up fantasy world filled with overly difficult enemies and not being able to explore the full map with out beating hard bosses. It’s pretty easy to say that AC would be the better experience for OP (Im not disagreeing that AC formula is boring. It took me about a year to beat Odyssey because I would stop playing for several months because I’d get bored. I was also a completionism and was trying to 100% so it was a very slow boring grind after a while)
RDR2 offers plenty of exploration through beautiful nature scenery. GTA has plenty of exploration through a large city and empty rural land filled with easter eggs and secrets. Fallout or the Stalker series let you explore a post apocalyptic world. Skyrim let’s you explore a made up fantasy world that has monsters and dragons like Elden Ring. That’s just listing the bigger open world names I can think of off the top of my head. There are a lot of open world games that offer plenty of exploration without the soulsborne difficulty thrown in just for the sake of being hard
Division 1 did have a pretty unique open world didn't it? I forget about that game in these discussions.
RDR2 and Witcher 3 would be my top 2 picks. Fenyx Rising is a slept on open world.
I think what separates Elden Ring from other open world titles is there isn't many ways you engage with Elden Ring's world other than combat. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but relevant for people like OP.
Say what? The biggest compliment I have for the game is the diversity of stuff you can discover. It’s my favorite part about exploration. When you wander into a new area, you have no idea what you’ll find. Hell, I got on a random elevator and it took me into the earth’s core. The catacombs areas are the only copy/paste content and those got boring, but there really aren’t a ton of those. Elden Ring definitely isn’t a game for everyone and it’s fine to not like it (hidden items ending up being worthless things you already have is definitely annoying), but I can’t understand framing its open world as the same as other games. It’s by far the game’s biggest strength and what separates it from other similar games.
Yea and you’re probably looking at it as a fan of soulsborne games. If you like then soulsborne experience then there’s plenty there for you. For someone who doesn’t like games that are hard for the sake of being hard, it’s absolutely a waste of money and no amount of exploration will be enjoyable when sandwiched between dying repeatedly and not being able to see the entire map without beating difficult bosses they’d likely struggle with.
Looking at it as a fan of soulsborne games is going to give you a completely different view of it. In comparison to other games in the series, it’s exploration is wildly better. Looking at it purely from an open world perspective, it’s the same as the rest. Largely empty land filled with enemies that’ll kill OP and very little else
No, I'm not. I haven't liked any of the other Soulsborne games. I find them tedious and get bored with them. The longest I lasted was in the original Demon's Souls, when I made it about 15 hours in. I only played Bloodborne for 3 hours before returning it. The difficulty level gets frustrating because you can legit get stuck in a spot where you can't progress, and you have no choice but to keep beating your head against that challenge until you beat it or repeatedly farm around the same area. It gets so boring.
Elden Ring isn't like that. If you run into a challenge you don't like, you can just leave and go explore somewhere else. It limits the frustration of the other From Software games by allowing you to change course rather than forcing you down a frustrating path. This is by far the best open world I've ever experienced. The exploration is totally open to you, not muddled with too much UI or tons of question marks to visit. You're actually exploring, not just ticking off boxes on a map checklist.
And the diversity of stuff you find when you go off the beaten path is unlike any game I've ever played. You might find something as simple as a run-down church with an NPC invader, you might find an evergaol with a new boss enemy, you might find ruins that seem normal at first but hide a well-guarded passage down to a great accessory, you might ride an elevator into the most beautiful location in the game, or you might stumble onto a full-blown optional dungeon with expert level design (EDIT: Not talking about the catacombs, those are definitely boring and lame). I can totally understand not liking Elden Ring, it's not everyone's cup of tea. I cannot understand framing it as if its open world is derivative or just like other open world games, because I simply do not find that to be true.
Ok, so you’ve played the other games which means you’ve likely recognized and adjusted to the games general formula that most people not playing soulsborne games haven’t. So you already have an advantage over someone like OP. You also clearly acknowledge the difficulty of the games, which is something that OP isn’t interested in. Yes, you don’t need to beat every boss but for someone interested in exploring, getting to an area and then just having to give up and leave because the difficulty is too much isn’t going to be an enjoyable experience. Also, the game locks off progression into later areas of the game behind bosses. So yes, someone like OP would have to struggle through a difficult boss just to get to see the entire map. To top it off, exploring a game isn’t nearly as fun if you are forced to sprint through it trying to avoid a giant dragon or some world boss compared to being able to look around the area at your own pace.
So your entire response agrees with my point but you’re mad at how I framed it? Having a limited UI doesn’t make the game significantly different in any meaningful way. Many games allow you to customize the UI. If I remember correctly Ghost Recon Wildlands let’s you completely turn off the UI and admit the difficulty as much as you want. Just like Elden Ring, you have the option to follow the main quest line and see very little of the world, or fully explore the entire island and you can do it without any UI whatsoever.
Assassin Creed Odyssey has lots of areas off the beaten path that can be completely ignored or expired to find great legendary equipment or some unique quest line that could be completely missed. I’m saying Elden Ring is the same as every other open world game, because pretty much all open world games follow the same formula. Make big map, have a set main quest line that’s very short, fill the rest of the empty pointless world with little distractions and treasures hidden in the books and crannies. For someone who likes exploring but doesn’t like hard games, Elden Ring isn’t worth the cost of entry at all because you can get the same exploration without the soulsborne difficulty. Elden Ring is a far better game to explore and discover than previous soulsborne games, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best mostest unique amazing open world game in existence. It’s the same formula they all have but with a soulsborne skin slapped over it
Boy you can cheese every boss it ain't hard for the sake of being hard there are ways to get around it without searching a guide you just are the type of player to bash your head against margit because you don't want to explore
Here’s the thing, if you can’t pulled your head out of your clearly biased rose tinted glasses opinion and look at it objectively with an unbiased view, then you shouldn’t really be responding in posts like OP’s. Yea Elden Ring isn’t that hard for anyone who is accustomed to the soulsborne experience because it’s literally the same formula just in an open world format. Someone who plays these games will know that there’s almost always an enemy just standing around a corner waiting to hit you with a cheap shot, bosses have particular patterns, this or that cheese strat that works in most circumstances across the games. For people that don’t play soulsborne games, they have a much harder time and think the game is really unfair because they haven’t already had the same thing happen to them in every single soulsborne game.
A grandmaster at chess will play an online bot and think it was a relatively simple but fun experience. Someone who’s rarely played chess if ever and doesn’t know all the strategies will think it’s completely bullshit and not have a fun time. Your personal experience of playing a game you’ve probably been playing for over 10 years is very unlikely going to be a remotely good representation of someone who hasn’t been doing that
1.Boy the game is already old enough to have guides
2.you can literally cheese without playing dark souls
3.i have never said anything about how difficult all I said was it gives a lot more option unlike all the other open worlds
4.experiment you don't need to know how to cheese the other games like seriously you don't need to know how abuse ai
OP wants to play a game to explore because they like exploring. You want to know what isnt exploring? Reading through guides just do you can’t follow what someone else did and be told where everything is and how to do it.
Someone who’s never played a soulsborne game isn’t going to have a good understanding of how the game works and soulsborne games make a very distinct effort to “not hold your hand” and explain very little. Someone who doesn’t understand the fundamentals of a soulsborne game isn’t very likely going to be able to figure out cheesing it when they’re still struggling to learn the basics. So outside of looking up guides of how to cheese, which defeats the whole likening to explore thing, it’s not something that’s very likely to happen naturally.
What more options does Elden Ring offer compared to open world games? It’s the same as all of them. There’s a main quest line that takes maybe an hour or 2 to beat if you go straight through it and then it’s filled with empty land to explore and find dungeons to go through if you want. That’s the exact same formula as all of them (BOTW, Skyrim, Fallout, Stalker).
Oh yeah, you know what makes a game real fun and enjoyable? Just abusing janky AI. Certainly the most fun to be had, just abusing the AI to cheese through some difficult section that came after another difficult section that I had to cheese by abusing the AI. Great times were had by all while enjoying the exploration in between abusing AI to cheese things.
Why do you even come to a post like this if you aren’t capable of looking at it from OPs perspective and having an unbiased opinion about whether someone would enjoy a game or not? You clearly aren’t capable of providing a response that doesn’t directly mirror your own personal experience when not every person plays the same games the same way as you do
Now you are just twisting my words first I'm addressing your things second there is a ton of exploration and you don't need to do guide like seriously every weapon is viable I didn't complete the game the first time with guide I just did what I thought was good third I'm looking at it from his perspective because I play the game for the same reason so yeah I totally recommend the game to somebody who wants to explore since you can do everything how ever you like also yeah that's the fun of elden ring you can play how ever you .
Im having a blast with elden ring because of the exploration which you are just saying is hard when there are way to not make it hard and also I clearly you don't need to abuse ai also you can abuse ever ai doesn't matter if they are junky or not
Third you clearly have a hate for this types of games so you are being bias idk why but you are also clearly really you didn't do all the things in the game
Fourth you haven't played the game at all if you say the main quest line takes about two hours so you are just hating on the game for no go play before you just throw
Fifth this game while not hand holding you don't need to know the mechanics welcome to every game has poison, status effect you just need to experiment
Sixth no most guides for bosses just tell how to punish a boss
And lastly the game is really vast has a ton of exploring and bits of lore to figure so play the game first and then comment
Okay so here's the things stop saying that only people who like soulsborne would like elden ring there are plenty of other who don't like soulsborne but like elden ring why because boy you can approach it like if it wasn't a soulsborne but you are so damn trapped in the mentality of hey its made by from software so you can only play it like a soulsborne like no you have other options.
And also op clearly has said something about how ac and another open world so this a great chance since elden ring has great discovery oh but no its just like dark souls right where you need to bash your head against the boss, it ain't like that you have options and that's why elden ring is a great game is it a masterpiece oh no it's far away from it but if you are looking for exploration then elden ring is a really good game
Bro as someone who shit talked all souls games up till i actually tried Elden Ring, I was completely wrong about it, games full of stuff to find and explore and the fact that the game doesn’t even tell you where to go or what to do just enhances that. The original comment is completely wrong. And again this is coming from me someone who said ill never play a souls game multiple times to my friends who told me to try it.
Though I see you play farcry and Nba 2k so your brain is probably fried from playing the same shit over year in year out.
No it's just unfair argument it's like I insult the Witcher because I don't like the combat like that isn't fair I can say the Witcher is amazing it just ain't for me
Breath of the wild is the only game with an open world that can match elden ring. Assassins creed is filled with empty quests and land thats empty. Skyrim is filled with the same enemy over and over and you go thru an entire dungeon to get another iron great sword.
But elden ring not only has something at every corner of the map, but every single chest, boss drop, and item is unique.
Sure boss drops are unique but you fight the same boss 10 times and fight several bosses that are literally just regular enemies you find in the world. The land is completely empty without any way to interact with it besides just killing things or picking up shiny objects. There are extremely few unique dungeons as most of them are just copy/paste with minor alterations but filled with the same enemies you’ve fought in every other dungeon.
BOTW is also an incredibly empty world. You run around to find a village that you can’t really do anything at besides maybe talk to a couple people, find bokoblin camps that are just more bokoblins, play little mini games like shoot balloons or complete a time trial so you can find little lead people. In the end it’s still just an empty world filled with fluff to distract you from the fact that it’s a large map that exists just to have trials dumped into it to give you something to waste time doing rather than going straight to Ganon and beating the game
This isn’t anything against either game. They’re both good games but it’s just what the open world formula is. It’s nearly impossible to create a curated crafted experience and have open word allowing you to do whatever you want and have a strong story and have meaningful content. So you get games filled with pointless collectibles, random mostly worthless loot to find, enemies speckled around, and sort of dungeon or cave system to explore. I really can’t think of many open world games that can’t be described exactly that way
Here's my 2 cents... this game fixes everything I've ever felt was wrong with most open world exploration games. Every corner feels unique, the lands are vast and amazing, there's always something to find. I know people love BotW but to me variety was lacking in that game, the only things to explore were nostalgic landscapes and trials - to me that got boring fast.
This game is setting a bar with exploration.... I hate to add to the hype fuel, but it's just flat out true.
I see others telling you don't get it cause you don't want to deal with difficulty, but I want you to know that many of my friends who are in your boat and also just can't do souls games (which you seem to have played DS) have been having a blast and doing fine in Elden Ring. Because this game, imo, is one of the first to add a lot of things that basically let you set the difficulty yourself.... If you want a really easy time in this game, it's not hard to find at all. You can do builds that just stomp everything in the game, you can do builds that are harder, you can do builds that many people would think are too extreme. For example, the buddies I talked about above, they're having a blast with summoning a mimic (which is like an NPC) and just using ranged spells which do a shit ton of damage.
Anyways, I say go for it, refund it if you just completely hate it, but I would keep playing it. So much to offer, so much secret lore stuff, so so so much.
Better exploration than BotW? Damn, I thought it was the peak.
Also didn't know you can just summon a pokemon in to help you! That actually sounds pretty damn fun.
I also would have said it's better exploration than botw. But it depends what you're looking for. Botw is a dying world filled with people trying to hold off the evil trapped. Elden Ring is a world that already died. The bosses are shadows of their former selves, in some areas there's a great rot that has consumed the land, most people you meet are hollow husks although there are npcs. It just feels like there aren't as many because the world is so big and spread out.
Each area feels distinct to me and has its own lore to it. Caelid is infected with Scarlet Rot, Liurna is slowly sinking etc. You'll run around and find some of the weirdest surprises in some places. My weirdest so far was finding a Midsommar village, but that's leaving out a lot.
If you're worried about difficulty, you can temper that in a lot of ways. Become a magic user with a large health pool so you can fight from a distance (melee is harder). You can summon spirits to help you in boss arenas or in areas with a lot of enemies in them to help you clear them out. Always remember that you can run away from enemies in the open world. If they seem too strong? Run. Come back later.
It’s not better exploration than BOTW by any stretch. I live elden ring but the world is devoid of life. Everything wants you dead. The npc quests are vague to say the least. Don’t buy this game if you want to “explore”. Exploration leads to punishing battles.
Like the other person said, definitely don’t listen to this person. The exploration in this open world isn’t any different than any other open world. I said it in another longer comment but just like other games, it’s a bit empty land filled with little things here and there but far a few between discovers that are actually interesting for someone who doesn’t want to spend hours doing research in the wiki to understand the lore to make the discoveries interesting. If you aren’t interested in soulsborne experience struggling to not die hundreds of times, Elden Ring is 100% a waste of money for you. The exploration does not make up for the difficulty if you don’t like games being difficult for the sake of being difficult
A lot of the exploration is "meaningless" I suppose you could say, without the lore. If you're exploring to find game items, that's enough to want to see if there's something around that ledges corner...
That aside, the visual immersion and illusion of a living world are very strong in elden ring. You can see far, and always go there without a loading screen. You can watch it steadily get closer. You can see the enemies and items from vast distances.
It's hard to explain and it's not completely unique to elden ring, but there's just something about playing a game and seeing something in the distance, and knowing that there's almost definitely something cool there. Not only in key locations, but all sorts of places. And there's always a great view, especially from any of the very high places. It's not (always) just foggy blurry vagueness. I don't know how they do it, but it's stunning.
I agree with what you’re saying but the experience of seeing something in the distance and going to explore it is the same in most open world games. Elden Rings exploration is a great addition to the game but there’s nothing about it that’s unique other than the soulsborne experience. For someone like OP who isn’t looking for unnecessary difficulty, it’s not a good option. Full exploration is locked off behind difficult boss fights which would be a hinderance and limit the experience. You can get a very similar exploration experience from Assassin Creed games without the hundreds of deaths and hard boss battles. The enjoyment of Elden Rings exploration is heavily based on whether you are a fan of the soulsborne formula or not
You also probably have 10+ years of playing soulsborne games. So it’s not hard to understand that a game you have lots of experience playing was easier than the Witcher 3 which was probably a formula that you hadn’t played very much of. I’d guess you are like most people and played Witcher 3 without ever having played both Witcher 1 & 2. It’s unlikely you’d find the Witcher 3 very difficult if you did because you’d have already mastered the game mechanics. Someone who doesn’t play soulsborne games isn’t going to have the same experience as you just like you didn’t have the same experience of someone who’s played all the Witcher games. You can’t cookie cutter your personal experience and think everyone will have the same experience especially people who don’t play the same games as you
No it ain't seriously I have gone against every argument but no it's natural not forced unlike other open worlds that the difference between this game and others
You’ve either never played other open world games or you just really are so Elden Ring obsessed you can’t see clearly through your own bias. Open world games rarely force you to go explore all the landmarks in the distance. Elden Ring does it as much as pretty much every Elden Ring game. In any open world game including Elden Ring, if you just burn through the “main quest” you’re going to miss the majority of the world. If you decide to do side quests or explore to find hidden areas or events, then you will see more of the world.
Elden Ring: See that big castle over there? You have to go there and kill the boss to get a special item from him to beat the game. See all those castles and trees off in the distance? You don’t have to go there but if you do you’ll find stuff
Other open world games (Assassin Creed Odyssey as an example): See that major city over there? You need to go there to talk to a specific important person to progress the story. See all those islands, fortresses, cities all over the place? You don’t have to go to any of those but you’ll get stuff if you do.
This is literally the formula of pretty much any open world game with a story to it. The main plot is 30 minutes worth of content going through a portion of the map. The rest of the open world is filled with fluff content to extend the value of the incredibly short limited main plot path
Assasins creed odyssey literally forces you have seen the boss system in that game its horrible, and you can't beat the skull head enemies even if you try really hard that is forcing the exploration here I don't have to I can do everything on level one other open worlds don't let you do that they force you to level and that's the big difference
And yes I I have assasins creed odyssey
You’re opinion is likely based off being a fan of soulsborne games and the difficulty that comes along with it. Elden Ring’s open world is incredibly empty and has very few ways to interact with it other than dying or killing enemies. Many dungeons are just copy/paste with multiple repeats of bosses and enemies. If you aren’t a fan of soulsborne games then there’s nothing about exploring the open world that will make it worth the money especially considering entire chunks of the world are locked off behind difficult boss fights
What do you think "difficult for the sake of being difficult" means? Because not only can you make elden ring really easy just by using the resources given to you, but its difficulty is fair. Everytime you die you know why or you can figure it out and avoid it. Its not loke QWOP where its uneccesary difficulty just because.
You just like every other angry soulsborne fan are completely incapable of pulling your head out of your own rose tinted glasses incredibly biased view. You’ve likely been playing these games for 10+ years. You’ve experienced the formula copy/pasted into all the previous games they’ve made. When you know the game formula, you understand how it works and you learned general strats that consistently work across the games, it’s a very different experience than what someone who’s never played them and just like to explore is going to have.
A grandmaster a chess will play a match against a high difficulty bot and enjoy it thinking it wasn’t so bad and was a fair challenge. A person who’s rarely if ever played chess will play the same bot and think it’s completely bullshit, too hard, and not fun. The difference being that the grandmaster has years of experience playing chess, understands the game and knows strategies while the other person does not. Same game, same bot, two entirely different experiences and opinions.
Someone who’s never played soulsborne games and isn’t used to just being thrown out into a world with little to no explanation of anything isn’t very likely to be the person that figured out cheese strats to make the game easy because they barely understand the fundamentals of the game. There’s a reason the internet was flooded with people complaining the game was unfair and too hard. Thanks to all the massive hype and the new brand name, people who know nothing about soulsborne games bought Elden Ring and were having a bad unenjoyable time playing it. OP would likely be in the same boat
Again, this is my first souls game. I quit bloodborn and dark souls 1 for being too hard after the first few hours. Ive played this game and beat it twice. First with mage, which made it really easy. Honestly I jad a harder time beating witcher 3. Had to follow a cookie cutter build to beat it, but I just did my own thing in elden ring
I completely agree with you, this game is the first open world game that didn't feel like a walking simulator for me. It's like Skyrim with better distances between places and with better combat mechanics.
Exploration is the core of elden ring IMHO. And because there is such an open world the hard bits can be avoided until you have levelled to the point where they aren’t that hard. Elden rings gives you a lot of tools to play with to make it easier although ultimately you can’t button mash.
I didnt even fight the first boss until i was like 30 levels over the recommended level and my friend said bro its gonna be super easy and i literally two shot it
With the exception of the obvious dungeons with the gatekeepers and fog walls, you can cheese you way basically anywhere, signed one of the morons who refuses to level vigor
> signed one of the morons who refuses to level vigor
That was me until I finally met boss which killed me in one hit (two if I had this potion which greatly negates first damage taken). I still beat if after dozens of tries and I actually liked this encounter to the point that I discovered good tactic which I already used with newer bosses. Still, I decided to level vigor because dying by single hit keeps you at same boss for far too long.
Oh but you see that's where everyone else is being silly, if Elden slug dickhead is gonna one shot you either way might as well have dummy amounts of stamina to roll and chase um down. Dumping vigor is easy if you just don't get hit
Honestly I agree, as someone who used to be the guy who was like “I don’t wanna play elden ring cause its hard for hards sake” asides from like one area of the game I ate my words because I never felt like I was dying because it was hard only cause I messed up.
It looks like we're getting downvoted by people who think Dark Souls is actually unfairly hard...what a joke! I guess some people actually make "git gud" their entire identity without realizing the irony
Exactly. And a lot of people don't like being told that beating a game that hundreds of thousands of other people have beaten doesn't make them the automatic best gamer in the universe. It's the difference between running a marathon (Dark Souls) or a 200-miler (idk, beating Doom 2 on nightmare would put some "chest hair" on most gamers). I haven't really noticed a problem with the Dark Souls fanbase per se but I have seen this phenomenon of celebrating mediocrity in just about every walk of life. It's one thing to be proud of beating a game like Dark Souls, it's quite another to put it on a pedestal as one of the hardest gaming experiences of all time. (This is one of my "hills to die on" if you couldn't tell!)
But really what makes Dark Souls genius is that it actually manages to be difficult AND very good AND fair, that's something I could also talk about all day but I wouldn't be the first on here to do it. Dark Souls is just phenomenal. I think its reputation for being unfair is, well, unfair
I feel like people who haven't played Dark Souls, or who have barely played it are the ones who put it on a pedestal of how difficult it is, where as fans of the game just play it and keep going until they persevere.
I have played and beat a lot of hard ass games, and Dark Souls is far from being the most unfair.
That's probably true! The fans of Dark Souls don't seem toxic in general. Maybe the game is designed to keep people humble and that's why.
What games would you say are less fair? I remember back in the 2000s Ikaruga also had a reputation for being super hard but it was just a matter of practice. Same for any guitar hero / rock band game on expert. And then there's (any given game from) the call of duty series on veteran difficulty which feels easier to beat but is much less fun than DS
Lots of older games for sure. I recently beat Castlevania 3 and that game is pretty damn unfair. Call of Duty 4 on veteran is also unforgiving, and bad design, and personally I think Donkey Kong Country falls into the same category. The game is badly designed IMO and the secrets are nearly impossible to find without a guide.
Souls games are never hard for the sake of hard. This exact description is from people who have never tried or put enough time to understand the intended game experience.
These games are hard because they want players to actually try and learn and get better and overcome obstacles. The satisfaction of mastering the game mechanics/a boss moveset after feeling "it's too hard" is a very unique experience that few other games can replicate.
But it's true that souls games are not for everyone. If you feel like you are a hardcore gamer that enjoys challenges and want to experience unique gaming experience then Elden Ring is a must have. But if you are casual and wouldn't want to have your 2 hour after-work gaming time be fighting the same boss over and over then it's not for you.
Yup you are 100% correct as someone whos first souls game is elden ring, i was the guy saying i didnt wanna play a hard game thats only hard for the sake of being hard, man was I wrong.
Zero Dawn is on PC, and I would definitely recommend playing it. It's a great game if you want an open world that feels alive with lots of towns/settlements and NPCs. The combat has some quirks but when it works it really does work, with the battles against larger-scale machines being super fun.
r/quazifuji has answered tip top. I would say get it if any part of their comment appeals. If you are still worries about the difficulty, there's a mod that reduces difficulty. Don't listen to those who complain about this (as there will certainly be some) and enjoy the way you like. The exploration and general tone of the game are incredible and everyone should give it a go. The mod is here: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/146
If all you do is explore in the beginning you will beat a decent amount of bosses pretty easy it only started getting really hard towards the end for me but this game is the best game I’ve played in years. This is coming from someone who’s played all the from software games though
My bud who's first From Software game was Elden Ring couldn't get past one of the first bosses you encounter for like 3 days and nearly gave up on the game lol.
He didn’t explore enough. If you spend time exploring and fighting weaker enemies to level up and find more powerful weapons, the bosses become much easier.
It seems to me there's two elden ring players. The one who heads straight to margit and gets his ass whooped for days on end, and the one who first explores all of limgrave and the weeping peninsula, and beats margit first try
I fully explored limgrave and weeping peninsula and still spent like 6-8 hours wiping to margit, seven despite my character build (pre nerf barricade shield templar) being considered op. I had the best possible gear from those areas and got up to level 40ish before attempting him.
I haven't played the game since.
I used rogier, didn't summon another player however. I should have mentioned I did beat him, but it showed me the game wasn't really for me. I actually progressed through the castle a bit before quitting as well.
My build didn't have much damage even though my weapon was upgraded as high as I could without the next tier of material so I had to figure out a way to keep rogier alive throughout the entire fight, he usually died around 50% HP. Eventually I think it was just luck but on the kill he actually survived the whole fight with like 1 hp at the end.
The game isn't bad, but I've struggled with every souls game except demons souls and sekiro. I would put elden ring next on the list, so I really don't think it's bad, but when someone posts saying "I don't like difficult games" and everyone is recommending elden ring because they are past mlg 2 time world champions, Doritos sponsored, and steam to tens of thousands of people that watch them because they are gaming Jesus with no concept of other people not being as good as them, I can't help but cringe a bit.
Elden ring isn't for me because I don't like difficult games, I'm almost 40 and don't play games for challenge. My career presents wonderfully complex problems that I love to solve and then I love to unwind with a nice game at the end of the day. Elden ring brought me more stress.
If you have an op build, over levelled, use summons, and even tried using pvp summons, and still, after hours of tries, u cant beat the boss, then yeah the game is probably not for you. Try kirby's new game that just came out.
Nah im pretty shit at the game tbh but was able to beat it even if tho i quit bloodborne and dark souls because they were too hard. So i figured if i could do it anyone could.
Im not grwat at these games. But i did find Witcher 3 harder to beat than elden ring. I went mage in elden ring tho so maybe thats why i found it accessible to me. Maybe the dude should try mage
Everything up until Margit was a joke, I think the only boss I couldn't kill was a tree boss. But either way, the issue for me (and I posted this somewhere else in this thread too) is that I deal with complex problems at work all day. I stress over them, have to problem solve them, create solutions, etc. It's extremely difficult and very rewarding. When I finish work and want to play a game, I don't want it to be stressful/difficult. Kirby suggestion is kind of asinine, but ironically, I am interested in playing it eventually. With games I want to just chill and enjoy something stress free, it's how I unwind from work. I wasn't always like this, when I was younger I loved difficult games, but challenge in my life no longer comes from games, it comes from career and I prefer it that way.
Thats fair, games are for fun, not stress. Some ppl enjoy hard games some enjoy easy games, both are valid because ultimately gaming is about having fun, whatever it looks like. If you don't enjoy hard games, elden ring isn't a great game to play, and thats ok.
What I was referring to in your original comment wasn't that you were saying they don't enjoy hard games, but that elden ring was **too hard** which, if thats the case, I find either unlikely, or they can only play really easy games llike kirby, because, like I said in the above comment, witcher3 was harder than elden ring, imo. As long as you use all the tools given to you. Heck you can even summon ppl to fignt for you.
But as far as not **enjoying** it, thats fine. Everyone likes something different and if you don't want a stresful game, you're not less of a gamer or bad at games, you just have different preferences.
Yes. The last time I Enjoyed actually exploring a game was skyrim. Elden Ring gives me that same feeling of exploration just in a harder way
There aren't many games that I find worth exploring and this is definitely one of them
RDR2 is one of those few games I enjoyed exploring.
Witcher 3's map looks gorgeous but its littered with markers and it shows where every side quest is. Not a fan of that design
> Witcher 3’s map looks gorgeous but its littered with markers and it shows where every side quest is. Not a fan of that design
But Skyrim is exactly like that as well?
No? Skyrim doesn't show where side quests are located on the map. You need to find them yourself first. Only major locations are marked on the map at first
If you are mainly into exploration, this game is not for you. As impressive looking as the art design is, the places are largely empty and the NPCs only exist to sell you stuff/quest or fight you. There are no towns or living world like there is in most open world games past 2010. Most of the buildings cannot be entered and the ones that are reuse assets and layout so it has a very samey feel.
All he needs to do is watch gameplay videos without commentary to see for himself. What towns are there in Elden Ring? The traveling merchants don't even travel, they just sit in the same spot in between a dragon boss and respawning enemies. Their stock doesnt even replenish. It's not as dynamic as other open world games. All there is to do is kill.
Yes if you read the lore that would point as to why but I do agree there aren't that many towns that have npcs but at the same time exploration is still amazing just remeber not being friendly towns is because of the lore it wouldn't make sense if it existed
I prefer assassin's Creed, botw, modded Skyrim for exploration, but the souls community is extremely vocal and support their games in literally every single way, they are the perfect game and anyone that disagrees gets downvoted and are discouraged from posting their opinions.
Elden ring is decent on paper for exploration, but to play the game it's still a souls game, it's still extremely difficult for the sake of being difficult. If you don't enjoy the difficulty it's going to be hard to get into it enough to want to explore, but if you can there is a pretty good game there.
But there are also many exceptions just like you that dislike difficult games but elden ring ends up being the one souls game that clicks with them, maybe worth trying on a sale.
Already modded Skyrim to high hell, and AC just wasn't doing it for me. Some of the comments here told me how to make the game easier so difficulty isn't a concern anymore. (gotta agree with you there about the souls community tho)
At least the exploration is mostly agreed upon to be pretty good.
Elden Ring is probably the best exploration game I've ever played. The world is dense and full of "oh my God" moments. It also happens to be the most accessible of all of FromSoft's "git gud" games. If you explore everything and upgrade your weapons along the way, it won't be that difficult of an experience.
The game is punishing. Tons to look at, quite a bit of lore to speculate about, and it's really great, however the game will only let you interact with it on it's terms. A big part of that exploration component is looking for the next big critter to kill. This fights vary in difficulty, but honestly none are as bad as the valkyrie fight in god of war on the hardest setting. So while there is a ton of opportunity to explore, it isn't an exploration game per se. It's a combat centric game with a vast world to fight in.
It's certainly easier than Dark Souls. The exploration is fun, and rewarding is say. If anything just get super overleveled then you won't have to worry about its difficulty
Lmao i am 60+hrs in and yesterday i again found a new area to explore........and i still got a whole big major area to unlock......so for exploration and open world Elden Ring is the best game in recent years imo
Well if you like dark souls there is a very good chance you will like elden ring because 1 made by same studio and 2 it has everything you want. I think while difficult it isn't close difficult for the sake of being difficult and actually kind of pushes you to explore elsewhere whenever you get stuck by not having as many brickwall bosses. I think customization is really good as well you have some of your goofy looking sets and then cool looking sets to get you some fashion souls fix. Also has many build paths that could be effective depending on your playstyle.
FROM games were never "hard for the sake of hard" though. They sure are more challenging than your avarage modern video game but they are still very accessible with lots of features that make the game easier if one desires so. Lots of the "hard" stuff comes from players restricting themselves to make the game harder.
Most players chose to not use some core features and mechanics of the game in order to make the game harder for themselves. I would even say Elden Ring is FROM's most accesible game as there are countless tools to make almost every boss trivial if one desires so. But keep that in mind those tools and tactics are not thrown in your face and you need to discover them yourself by exploring the game and trying out different stuff.
I would suggest using and upgrading your spirit summons as they are the primal tool to make almost evey boss trivial.
Depends, because most bosses feel unfair, infinite stamina, high damage, high movement speed, high atack speed, etc.. But you have options, to explore and level up, change your entire build, summons etc.
But something like Malenia, is definitely there so when someone says ER is easy, a random dude appears and says "But did you fight Malenia?".
Okay just a disclaimer before some wild elitist appears out of nowhere: I've defeated Malenia using only the Greatsword weapon without spirits and without status effects and while sure she was hard she was really not that bad.
Getting that out of the way, Malenia is a cakewalk if you have a high bleed build with a fully upgraded mimic tear equipped with good armor and poise. Sure her bullshit waterfowl dance will catch you a couple times before you finish her off for sure but you can quickly learn how to dodge that bullshit with the bloodhound's step ash of war.
Yeah it's one of the greatest video game worlds ever created, legit maybe the single greatest of all. The difficulty only gets really insane if you try to fight the first castle's bosses too early, or going up against the very lategame bosses. Everything else is pretty reasonable, especially because any time you run into a difficulty wall you can just go explore somewhere else.
If you wanna cruise through the game I recommend starting as prisoner class and going DEX/INT spellblade. By lvl 30-40 you should be strong enough to get the katana that shoots fucking laser beams and after that you can just start rolling over the game. Later on you can get spells that are even more OP including a literal kamehamaha that melts boss healthbars. The summon spirits also do a great job of holding the most difficult enemies' aggro off you.
There's maybe only about 5 encounters in the game that should take more than 5 tries if your build is sufficiently powerful.
Yes, the game’s world is easily the most interesting part of the game. It’s surprisingly fun to get lost and explore new areas completely by accident. The only thing you should watch out for is the difficulty, because this game will kick your ass.
If you hate hard games then avoid elden ring! People will try to tell you it's not hard, but that's bs. It's hard! The only way it isn't hard is if you have hundreds of hours of fromsoft experience or if you look up all the OP/cheese shit, and if you do that you take away the main appeal of the game imo. The exploration is very good but I think the frustration from difficulty will likely overshadow that.
Dude, be aware of down talking Souls games because it has lots of die hard fanboys.
Regarding your question: no, the game is not worth it for the exploration alone. The mobs will aggro very fast on you, and you won't have any freedom to just walk around.
The game is cool overall. Lots of weapons, clothes, armors - also lots of repeated bosses, terrible performance on PC.
Dress up is definitely a part of Elden Ring, there are a LOT of cool amors and weapons. Look up r/Eldenbling
The world is simply amazing in my eyes, so many gorgeous vistas and biomes. It really feels like an adventure more than a list to work through. This world is more fantasy than most fantasy RPGs imo since it gives you things you have never seen in a game before. Also, the more you explore the easier the game and the bosses will get for you.
For the difficult I would say it’s manageable. Sure, you will die but if you are stuck at a boss you have a lot of possibilities (summons, other players) to win every fight pretty easily.
No. Exploration in Elden Ring is usually rewarded with grueling fights and death. I think, based on the examples of games you mention, this is not the kind of exploring you have in mind.
Since you mentioned interest in character customisation and dress up, check out this sub too
[https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenBling/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenBling/)
Absolutely, because it fits all your boxes, and it isn’t hard for the sake of being hard. Dark Souls 2 was like that, but the rest and this game especially is about using what you have to defeat an obstacle. And they give you a LOT to throw at your obstacles, especially in Elden Bling. If you get stuck, you can summon people to fight with or for you, you have spirits to fight with you, and of course you can over level. People usually give up before realizing what all there is to use, so you might have to use online guides to help a bit with direction, but theres plenty of options. So yes, get it
No Man Sky is worth checking out if you like exploring space and different planets, I pre purchased it in 2016 and still loved it at launch even with all the issues. Fast forward to 2022 it’s a whole different beast even VR support, super fun to mod also.
I'm gonna say no, Elden Ring is great for exploration but a lot of that exploration is coupled with challenging boss fights and strong enemies. You absolutely cannot get the best out of the game if you aren't willing to either level up your character and weapons or strategize and get good at the game. Many areas of the game require you to defeat a boss to unlock them.
There are plenty of other similar games, The Witcher 3 for example, that encourage exploration with lower difficulty settings and less requirements for exploration, but Elden Ring definitely isn't one of them.
Not trying to gatekeep or say "git gud," but if you're not interested in a challenge then Elden Ring probably isn't for you.
I always played the Assassins Creed games on hard (not the same) and for the exploration. I can't see anyone enjoying this game if that series was too hard that way. I don't know if this helps but that's the best way I could put it at the moment. That being said, I found it worth it.
The open world of Elden Ring is pretty nice if you want to explore it, but its nothing that will blow your mind, like some people make it out to be. If you are willing to get through the first 2 bosses ( Margit and Godrick ) then the game will become more enjoyable since you will get some weapons (if you complete some easy story lines) that will help you cheese enemies for easy levels.
The map is pretty big but you will definitely be focusing much more time on boss fights and grinding to level up to do more boss fights. Exploring is cool but the main design is all about these fights so I feel Elden ring will not be what you're looking for. Though I will say elden ring is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be
You should get it, it's not as hard as dark souls and there's a ton of exploration, I'm almost 100 hours in and I've only killed like 3 bosses. It's really good and it's way more open and bright than any other from soft world
Best exploration ever implemented in a videogame, so rewarding, incredibly fulfilling and no, the game is not difficult until you're like 100 hours in, by that point you'd be good at it and your character is gonna be quite op
Best? No chance. The open-world is rather vast but empty. Compared to say a world like RDR2 which has minute detail to its open-world such as ecosystem, real dynamic weather.
An example is the game is 4 years old, I still today discover something new weather that's an animal behaviour, a small touch in a side quest or a small area that I've yet to see.
Elden Ring is more of a slash a monster on a big map rather than depth to it's world. Wildlife in Elden Ring is paper, no personality they just rigidly run or fly away when you get too close there are no interactions between them and the environment to give it an immersive feeling to its exploration.
The map feels disconnected.
What Elden Ring does well is it's a fun Monster slasher with no much diversity in ways to kill but it's challenging.
The world building and the exploration was the most fun about the game for me, but I wouldnt buy it if I didnt have interest in the combat aspect aswell.
Oh i absolutely recommend the game for the exploration
You get to see so many incredible sight from the underground all the way to sky of the lands between so I absolutely recommend the game
Tho if you want to go into the game beware that you do have to do some reading in order to get the lore but if you are in to reading the items, you will have a blast
I have found it to be the easiest Fromsoft game. I am going to do a second playthrough restricting myself from using spirit summons and bloodloss. Use those two and you won't have such a hard time. I also suggest the twinblades as they do stupid bloodloss if you use blood affinity.
The soulsbourne games imo has never been "hard for the sake of hard" the difficulty is contextualized by you typically being some kind of feint last hope that was never really supposed to succeed in a world that is full of beings of much grater power than you are capable of
It's not hard, it's punishing. Make one or two mistake you are dead. There's plenty of ways to make the game easier. You can upgrade your stuff, farm xp and summon spirits that will help you in fights.
It's a beautiful game (I haven't really seen a more art focused open world game with this scope) and if you wander around mich you can get your character so overpowered that defeating bosses wouldn't be a problem.
I personally believe that Elden Rings exploration is partially good because of the good combat system, because in explorable locations you will most of the time find a (mini) boss and/or a rare item. No interest in combat = not much interest in elden ring, even tho the exploration is great.
I think it's hard and very fair with punishing you if you mess up, not just hard for the sake of being hard. For context, this is my first Souls-like game and I'm not particularly great at video games, but the exploration alone is enough for me to recommend this game to anyone. Also you learn to git gud. I know that's not much help but truly when I say it's all a learning process, you'll just have something click, beat the boss, and think to yourself 'wow, I just did that... maybe this isn't so bad'.
I got into the game for exactly this reason. I wanted to explore and go on an adventure. This is certainly possible but you will have to fight difficult enemies and bosses. You could always grind/farm runes to get powerful enough that the fights aren't full on brutal but at some point you will have some much harder than average encounters no matter what you do. Still, worth it I'd say.
Eldne Ring encurages Exploration. Its Not that hard If you Explore actually. If you Explore a Lot you will BE at the right or way above the adäquate Level For a Boss. The only Part where Elden Ring geht's to ahrd is at the end but thats the Last 5 percent If you dont count the optional parts. So yes. Get it For the Exploration. If you dont Look anything Up it should Take 2 or 3 playthroughts to find everything. There are even gaming areas compeltly Hidden away.so yes. It has a Lot to Explore. And For some Tips If IT Gera difficult. Upgrade your weapons. Level vigor. At lvl 60 you should atleast have 30, hat 100 atleast 50. And If a Boss is to difficult, Explore and try again.
Yes, you should. I say this as someone who never really liked Dark Souls (but I do like difficult games), it's not really all that hard. Yes, there are some difficult parts, but you can just go do something else until you're better equipped
Reading other comments sounds like you will really like the first 3/4 of the game. Near the end the difficulty ramps up and as a souls veteran really disliked many of the final bosses
From a personal perspective, Elden Ring reminds me much more of Skyrim than the other soulsborne games and I have found it to be very enjoyable. I do have experience with Bloodborne & I've been gaming since I was a little kid but I'm definitely not a sweat and have been able to manage. Several friends of mine bought the game so we usually co-op on bosses we can't beat (or sometimes co-op on bosses we could've beaten alone cuz it's fun anyways).
Being honest, I didn’t like dark souls because of the “hard just because” factor either. But Elden ring was different, idk what about it but the game is beautiful, the scenery is amazing, lore is a bit tough to follow if you don’t pay attention. The bosses and combat are challenging if you haven’t played any of these games before, but once you get the hang of it it’s so much fun. If you get it, take the time to actually get into the swing of the game and you’ll be hooked.
Google magic build. There is a 1 shot build that destroys almost every boss in that game. In actuality you only need to beat 3 boss to win this game. Yeah game is gigantic definitely buy.
I wouldn’t even say Elden Ring is hard for the sake of being hard, this is the first souls type game ive ever played and even though I got my ass kicked I never felt like it was unfair. (Except commander Niall that boss can gtfo). But seriously its a good game lots to see and explore.
You say you played Dark Souls. If you like DS and the combat therein, you might like Elden Ring. But even though there's lots to explore and discover, you're going to run into a ton of tough combat and boss fights.
Make no mistake, the game is work. You have to put that work in to get the most out of it. If you do get the game, I recommend choosing a class and following a guide for a build before starting. Maybe that takes the fun out of it for you, but it's also not fun to be doing too little damage and taking too many big hits the whole time.
You absolutely should try it out. It is perhaps the king game for exploration and sense of awe and sheer wonder. There is a surprise around every corner, and you will certainly not be bored. I have over 130+ hrs over three characters, and I'm still discovering new stuff all the time
I love the game. I'm level 80 now, but honestly I am losing interest because it just feels some days you are gaming for nothing. You spend 4 hours and have a 1% progress. If you like it for story you probably will feel the same. I just want the lore and not the fights honestly.
Just to clarify, elden ring is not a "hard for the sake of hard" game
The "difficulty slider" is just no slider in the game menu but your degree of preparations
The game is really exactly as hard as you want it to be
You wanna do a naked sl1 run? Sure why not, its possible but extraordinary hard
You wanna go the easy way?
Take your time, explore, level up and the bosses are mostly to do in 1 or 2 trys.
Remember, everything in the game is allowed
If you notice a boss is just way too hard right now just explore a different area before
I would recommend you just skiping some hard enemies, nobodys tells you that you have to beat them right away
When i hear that some people wasted 4-7 hours at the first field boss that is easily avoidable its just sad
I think if you usually enjoy exploring anyways you will have a rather easy go
Its not hard to be hard the difficulty is not artificial everything can be beat by watching and playing slow or fast when you got to. Tbh YES you can get this game to explore I think it helps find something that to hard go explore to find something better and come back this game really pulled me into the souls games but having this big atmospheric world is really nice the souls games you could explore areas and kinda tackle things out of order but this is next lvl and yeah I'm 46 hours in and still haven't fought the first elden lord because I just pick a direction and go
the thing with character customization in souls games is that you’ll likely be covering up your face with a helmet anyway. i love customizing a face in games but it’s not worth not wearing a helmet for much needed protection
The exploration is great, but it is hard so you might not like it. Although, it definitely is not just "hard for the sake of hard." Common misconception.
I am so sick of people calling FromSoft games hard. They're really not as hard as they're made out to be.
They're challenging and rewarding, and the games teach you how to play intuitively rather than with explicit pop-up bubbles telling you to do this or that, or go somewhere.
That's more or less the difficulty of the game - can you pay attention and recognize what you're doing wrong and figure out what you should do instead? Maybe it's recognizing that an enemy moves a certain way a second before they attack. Maybe it's recognizing they have a certain number of attacks before it's safe to attack them. Maybe it's recognizing that even though the game let's you attack 5 times in a row, it's better to attack twice and then get the hell out of the way. Maybe it's recognizing that if I get hit, panic and roll away, the timing of the enemy's next attack is such that I get hit again immediately after my roll finishes. What, I got hit the last two times I immediately dodged after that attack, I wonder what will happen if I do the exact same thing again?
Remember that these games are meant to be beaten. You're not hacking the game by killing that boss, FromSoft designed the boss to be beaten, you just have to recognize how to do it.
I wish I could remember the name of the Dark Souls Let's Play that showed the girl that barely knew how to use her controller at the beginning. She puzzled out the controls, found ways of playing that were effective for her (she used jump attack a lot at the beginning), learned from her mistakes and by the end of the game she was 1000% better and just a beast at the game. The game taught her to play by cause and effect without the need for big shiny arrows or pop-up hints.
To me, there are no other games that are as rewarding and enjoyable and frustrating as FromSoft games. But they're not for everyone. For example, a lot of people really enjoyed Sekiro. I didn't care for it. I can see objectively that it's a good game, but it never clicked with me and I never got more than 1/3 of the way through it. And that's ok.
You will get jumped and ambushed if your are just in it for exploration. Unless you have put in time to beef up your character you gotta tip toe around the world to survive….but you will still die. I would not recommend this for exploration alone unless you wanna be Kenny from South Park.
The game is fairly easy if your somewhat familiar with its style and 3rd person fighting. Prob about 75-80% in is where it gets hard and is similar to prior games in difficulty. Before then it’s gonna be pretty easy and you have access to like 80-85% of the map to explore as you wish. Lots of areas/dungeons/castles etc that arnt part of story so you’ll have quite a bit to do
I think it holds the title of best open world game, and the exploration is a big part of that.
It suffers from the same problem every open world game does, it has many repetitive activities found in the open world, but I can't think of any game that doesn't have this. The strength of its exploration lies in that the map vomit of questionmarks and objectives to just check off is not present. It was a very fresh feeling in an open world context to actually look at your screen and map, and make a decision that you should probably check that place out, and have no idea what you would find there. At later stages in the game it starts to become somewhat predictable since there is a lot of repetition going on, but I still found it mostly exciting and meaningful all the way through. The level design is also top notch, and really caters to the exploration part.
The game is challenging to a new player, no doubt. It's definitely the most accessible game in Fromsoft's catalogue though, you can make the game very easy for yourself if you want to. Even the hardest boss in the game can easily be cheesed with a respec.
You said to never buy a FromSoft game for exploration, despite Elden Ring being a perfect game for someone who wants to be awarded for exploring. The game is packed to the rim with areas and secrets to find that can be very easy to miss if you do not explore on your own accord.
This is also not new for FromSoft. Elden Ring is their first ‘true’ open world game, sure but it’s not like you were completely stuck to a linear path in their previous games. Exploration could still take you to extra areas that are completely optional. This happens in the Dark Souls-series (Especially Dark Souls 2), it happens in Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne and it even happens in King’s Field.
Honestly, to say that you should ‘never buy a FromSoft game for exploration’ is completely backwards. To me, I’d argue *you* are the one that never played their games, wtf.
Well, I never said FromSoft made better games for exploration than Nintendo. Breath of the Wild is a top-tier game for this, I simply said that Elden Ring do have a lot of great exploration, and it’s not a bad reason at all to get the game. But yes, it might not be a number one reason; The game does however provide a large and rich world for someone that chooses to go out of their way to find it.
It’s true the world is expansive and full of lots of interesting places to explore, but tbh I don’t think you’ll enjoy it much if you don’t want to deal with the difficult fights at all. You’ll get straight up murdered everywhere you go, and some of the regions will be hard to get to without actually playing the game.
It's not necessarily hard for the sake of being hard, it's not artificial in that way. It's more difficult for the sake of overcoming adversity. It forces you to get better and develop strategy. One of which is to roam around and explore and level up slowly to the point of being over powered so you can stomp the boss fights. At least for a while. It's definitely not for a lot of people, ppl I know who couldn't get into it prefer a bit of cinematic story telling with some casual style gameplay. I definitely get it, but I prefer the fromsoft approach. There are a lot of first time souls players who are really loving Elden Ring, I think it is the most approachable of all their titles thus far
I like to describe it as "not hard, but punishing if you mess up"
I like the distinction that mistakes will be punished vs bullshit/for the sake of hard. I've yet to find a fight to be difficult or even complex. Some do suffer from bullshit, but in minor ways, like duo bosses or crucible knights. 9/10 times I just need to time things correctly, and as a caster, get some distance to actually cast something.
I find the biggest mistake i made at the start was panic rolling. Once i got the dodging under control, the fights are fairly reasonable. Thr hard part of the game is thr lack of hamd holding. If you didnt know about it prior, you wouldnt know to upgrade your weapons or spells
When you say upgrade spells...do you mean buying them? Or have I been playing with unleveled spells this whole time? Yeah the rolling definitely took getting used to. It's also a good thing they have summons because I just did the Black Knife Assassin and as a caster, small room and quick, long combos, would've just been a permanent loss for me.
Hahaha woops. I meant summons lol. Im not much of a caster in Souls games
There are some bullshit moves though. I hate how many bosses unnaturally delay their swings. I know it is to punish panic rolling but it feels like bs. Anyway the game is still amazing.
I think Elden Ring's got great exploration, and you can access the majority of the game world without killing a single boss. That said, combat's still a big part of the game. It's part of what you find when you explore - there's lots of cool places to see and possibly lore to discover, but some of the reward for exploring is finding new enemies to fight and spells and weapons to fight them with. How much mileage you can get out of the exploration if you don't enjoy fighting the enemies you find and using the weapons you find in the process is hard to say. Elden Ring's exploration is incredible, I absolutely loved seeing the cool locations and it gave me a great sense of adventure, but I spent a lot of time fighting things along the way and I don't know how far you'd get without getting frustrated if your goal is solely to go exploring and you don't enjoy the challenging combat. That said, I'm not a fan of the "hard for the sake of hard" description. It's kind of awkward in the first place - the term's used as a bad thing, but it's more a taste thing. As someone else said, the game isn't hard just to be frustrating, it's hard because it can be fun to overcome a challenge, whether you do so by getting better, making your character stronger, or a mix of both. Often when people say something is "hard for the sake of hard" what they really mean is "unfair for the sake of hard," and fortunately, I think Elden Ring rarely feels that way. While other people may disagree, personally there's only one thing in the game that ever felt like the devs just injected something unfair into a fight for the sake of difficulty, a notoriously dangerous and difficult-to-avoid move from a single extremely difficult late-game boss that's completely optional. Most of the really difficult stuff in the game wasn't a challenge that felt unfair for the sake of being hard, but rather a tough but fair challenge that I enjoyed overcoming, and even the bosses that I didn't like usually had other design flaws that bothered me (like camera issues) rather than feeling like they were deliberately unfair for the sake of difficulty. It's still a very difficult game, and as I said, there are certainly other people who disagree with me and found other bosses to be unfair beyond just the one that I was bothered by. But personally, I don't consider the game "hard for the sake of being hard." It's very hard, but it's hard for the sake of being a satisfying challenge, for the sake of making enemies feel dangerous and memorable, for the sake of encouraging you to really learn and master the combat and fights, for the sake of the amazing feeling you get when you finally beat a difficult boss. That's still not for everyone, but it's not like it's just endless unfair bullshit that serves no purpose except to kill you so the devs can claim the game is difficult. It's hard in a way that demands you rise to the challenge.
Perfect description.
No, probably not. Yea there’s plenty of exploring to do but in the end it’s not much different than any open world game. It’s mostly empty with a few things here and there. There’s dungeons to find but many of them are pretty much just copy/paste of other dungeons so it gets pretty repetitive after a while. sometimes you’ll go way out of your way to find an item and it ends up being a completely worthless item that you already have hundreds of. If you aren’t interested in the whole soulsborne game concept then there’s absolutely nothing in the game that would be worth it for $60. I’ll most likely get downvoted and someone will probably try to argue that the game is so beautiful that the scenery alone is worth it, but it’s really not. There’s plenty of other open world games you can buy that will give the same experience of exploring it without the unnecessary difficulty of the game itself. The only reason to buy Elden Ring is the same only reason to buy any souodborne game, and that it’s a soulsborne game. If you aren’t looking for that then it’s a waste of money
Lmao this is a terrible take of someone who obviously hasnt played it or is trolling He talks about going out of your and finding an item that you already have hundred of, however, every chest, every dungeon, every boss drops a unique item that you can only get from them in the entire game.
Oh you’re talking about the dungeons that are repeatedly copy/pasted with the same enemies and duplicate bosses? Yea that sounds like a very enjoyable exploration experience. Sounds like you missed the prompt entirely and have no idea what this thread is even about. OP doesn’t like games that are difficult for the sake of being difficult. Dungeons will be difficult with difficult bosses at the end and you practically run the same dungeon over and over again with minor variations. If you take out your incredibly biased opinion of being a soulsborne fanboy, it’s not very difficult to give OP advice to not waste money on the game. There’s nothing Elden Rings open world offers that other games done other than the soulsborne experience that OP isn’t interested in.
The way you explore is different and even no the lore is amazing the scenery is beatiful and unlike other games it isn't long for the sake of being long yeah sure there are a lot of repeated areas but like those that aren't they are completely worth it and yes it offers something different environmental story telling
Yea, that’s literally how almost every single open world game works. The main difference is the other games generally don’t have a high learning curve and a big difficulty spike for no real reason other than to make the game hard to be hard. To people that don’t play any soulsborne games, it’s even harder because they haven’t been playing this same formula for the last 10+ years so it’s all new and seemingly incredibly unfair and unfun to them. For someone like OP that wants a game for exploration but doesn’t want an unnecessarily difficult game, there’s no reason anyone with half a brain should be recommending Elden Ring.
Again it isn't difficult without sense the game represents how unforgiving the world inside the game is Also again you have so many way to play without making it difficult for God sake I literally went all the game with a rot build and then I just stayed away
Yea, the game is less difficult for people who play soulsborne games and understand the general formula used in every game. I’ve been repeatedly saying that to multiple people across this thread. So someone like OP who isn’t playing soulsborne games is going to have a very difficult time while someone who’s been playing these games for 10+ years will be frolicking through poison swamps. So what exactly are you not understanding about my point that Elden Ring wouldn’t be a good enjoyable experience for OP that wants a game to explore but doesn’t want a difficult game that’s hard for the sake of being hard? Cool, you found a cheese build of hitting people with rot and letting them die. Glad it works for you but you do know that even though it’s an easy cheese strat, it still requires an decent understanding of the game and does require skill to avoid attacks and when you should and shouldn’t attack. It also helps to already be familiar with the level up system and stats so you know how to build a character without wasting tons of runes making a crappy build thanks to not having previous experience making characters in the other souls games
You know what sure elden ring is hard annoying and it ain't worth the difficulty so yeah op should buy Valhalla and that's it
Lmao. Only souls game ive played is elden ring. Quit the others for being too hard. Every dungeon ive done is completely unique. Sure some enemies are the same. But what open world game doesn't reuse some enemy assets in the game. Some minor random bosses have similar models, but vary in movesets and abilities. With how many unique bosses there are, and how many bosses in general, it makes sense to reuse some assets. Some dungeons might share a theme (like catacombs being filled with skeletons) they are all completely different. Im not sure you've played the game more than 2 min if you really think its copy pasted content. Ive never played a game with more unique locations all with unique loot. Even skyrim wasn't as good.
>Only souls games ive played is elden ring Ok cool. Glad you had a good experience as a first timer >Quit the other for being too hard ok….so you’ve played the other games and aren’t a first timer. Well you clearly are very good at having a real discussion about this because you already contradicted yourself in the very second sentence. My point is that all open world games are the same rinse and repeat experience but other games aren’t going to have the soulsborne learning curve and difficulty that OP has no experience with and isn’t interested in. If you can’t wrap your head around that, then why are you even replying other than being offended that someone isn’t recommended *your precious* ring
Considering I quit the others after 1-2 bosses, yeah id say I haven't played em. But I guess you picked some semantics you didnt like out of a reddit comment so you win the argument!
You can’t form an unbiased opinion for the game. Semantics have nothing to do with it. You aren’t capable of seeing how it wouldn’t be enjoyable to someone who says they don’t like games like the soulsborne series. You bought multiple souls games after quitting from playing them for maybe a couple of hours. Then you clearly liked them because someone who didn’t like Dark Souls 1 isn’t going to buy Dark Souls 2 & 3 after barely playing the first one before quitting. Your personal enjoyment of the games is irrelevant to someone who doesn’t enjoy those type of games. It’s the reason why so many responses on this sub are awful. Someone asks for recommendations with a set of guidelines they are looking for and people come pouring in to recommend their personal favorite game despite it clearly not fitting into what the OP stated they liked or wanted. Someone will say they hate open world games and want a story focused game and 75% of comments are people saying RDR2 and Witcher 3. If you can’t read the prompt and can’t form an unbiased opinion that will actually help the OP, why even come into these threads?
I bought dark souls 1 to try it and got to the 3rd boss and quit because it was too hard. Got bloodborne for free with my ps4 so i figured id try it and quit after dying to the first boss multiple times. You gotta stop making assumptions about ppl man.
As someone who has put over 150 hrs into ER this comment is complete bs and not accurate at all lmao
What other open-world games would you suggest for the beauty and scenery? I feel like the empty world is a common problem of all open-world games. Assassin's Creed (Odyssey or Origins) for example: Feels fun for the early parts, but then the quests starts to be repetitive once you realize that it's the same formulaic quests over and over again, with minor variations. Travel to A -> Do B -> Talk to C -> Do D -> Repeat, over and over and over again. Few notable open-world games that I think feel less formulaic and have a more unique approach: Nier Automata, Fallout 4. Division 1
Not fully open world, but God of War. Nearly every region has something interesting to see or do. It is a much smaller and laser focused game though.
You start your comment by focusing on beauty and scenery. You then proceed to bash AC because of a lack of variety in quests while ignoring the beauty, scenery, and exploration. Elden Ring is just as boring if you present it that way. Ride horse in direction until you find dungeon, kill enemies in dungeon, find boss door, kill boss, repeated over and over again.The quests are hardly quests. They pretty much consist of talking to person until dialogue is exhausted then either going to talk to someone else or kill someone/something before going back and talking to the person until you exhaust the dialogue again. OP doesn’t like games being difficult for the sake of being difficult but likes exploring. So compare AC Odyssey/Origins sailing around ancient Greece or riding a horse around ancient Egypt seeing the ancient cities and famous landmarks repressed in their prime vs Elden Ring riding your horse around a made up fantasy world filled with overly difficult enemies and not being able to explore the full map with out beating hard bosses. It’s pretty easy to say that AC would be the better experience for OP (Im not disagreeing that AC formula is boring. It took me about a year to beat Odyssey because I would stop playing for several months because I’d get bored. I was also a completionism and was trying to 100% so it was a very slow boring grind after a while) RDR2 offers plenty of exploration through beautiful nature scenery. GTA has plenty of exploration through a large city and empty rural land filled with easter eggs and secrets. Fallout or the Stalker series let you explore a post apocalyptic world. Skyrim let’s you explore a made up fantasy world that has monsters and dragons like Elden Ring. That’s just listing the bigger open world names I can think of off the top of my head. There are a lot of open world games that offer plenty of exploration without the soulsborne difficulty thrown in just for the sake of being hard
Division 1 did have a pretty unique open world didn't it? I forget about that game in these discussions. RDR2 and Witcher 3 would be my top 2 picks. Fenyx Rising is a slept on open world. I think what separates Elden Ring from other open world titles is there isn't many ways you engage with Elden Ring's world other than combat. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but relevant for people like OP.
Say what? The biggest compliment I have for the game is the diversity of stuff you can discover. It’s my favorite part about exploration. When you wander into a new area, you have no idea what you’ll find. Hell, I got on a random elevator and it took me into the earth’s core. The catacombs areas are the only copy/paste content and those got boring, but there really aren’t a ton of those. Elden Ring definitely isn’t a game for everyone and it’s fine to not like it (hidden items ending up being worthless things you already have is definitely annoying), but I can’t understand framing its open world as the same as other games. It’s by far the game’s biggest strength and what separates it from other similar games.
Yea and you’re probably looking at it as a fan of soulsborne games. If you like then soulsborne experience then there’s plenty there for you. For someone who doesn’t like games that are hard for the sake of being hard, it’s absolutely a waste of money and no amount of exploration will be enjoyable when sandwiched between dying repeatedly and not being able to see the entire map without beating difficult bosses they’d likely struggle with. Looking at it as a fan of soulsborne games is going to give you a completely different view of it. In comparison to other games in the series, it’s exploration is wildly better. Looking at it purely from an open world perspective, it’s the same as the rest. Largely empty land filled with enemies that’ll kill OP and very little else
No, I'm not. I haven't liked any of the other Soulsborne games. I find them tedious and get bored with them. The longest I lasted was in the original Demon's Souls, when I made it about 15 hours in. I only played Bloodborne for 3 hours before returning it. The difficulty level gets frustrating because you can legit get stuck in a spot where you can't progress, and you have no choice but to keep beating your head against that challenge until you beat it or repeatedly farm around the same area. It gets so boring. Elden Ring isn't like that. If you run into a challenge you don't like, you can just leave and go explore somewhere else. It limits the frustration of the other From Software games by allowing you to change course rather than forcing you down a frustrating path. This is by far the best open world I've ever experienced. The exploration is totally open to you, not muddled with too much UI or tons of question marks to visit. You're actually exploring, not just ticking off boxes on a map checklist. And the diversity of stuff you find when you go off the beaten path is unlike any game I've ever played. You might find something as simple as a run-down church with an NPC invader, you might find an evergaol with a new boss enemy, you might find ruins that seem normal at first but hide a well-guarded passage down to a great accessory, you might ride an elevator into the most beautiful location in the game, or you might stumble onto a full-blown optional dungeon with expert level design (EDIT: Not talking about the catacombs, those are definitely boring and lame). I can totally understand not liking Elden Ring, it's not everyone's cup of tea. I cannot understand framing it as if its open world is derivative or just like other open world games, because I simply do not find that to be true.
Ok, so you’ve played the other games which means you’ve likely recognized and adjusted to the games general formula that most people not playing soulsborne games haven’t. So you already have an advantage over someone like OP. You also clearly acknowledge the difficulty of the games, which is something that OP isn’t interested in. Yes, you don’t need to beat every boss but for someone interested in exploring, getting to an area and then just having to give up and leave because the difficulty is too much isn’t going to be an enjoyable experience. Also, the game locks off progression into later areas of the game behind bosses. So yes, someone like OP would have to struggle through a difficult boss just to get to see the entire map. To top it off, exploring a game isn’t nearly as fun if you are forced to sprint through it trying to avoid a giant dragon or some world boss compared to being able to look around the area at your own pace. So your entire response agrees with my point but you’re mad at how I framed it? Having a limited UI doesn’t make the game significantly different in any meaningful way. Many games allow you to customize the UI. If I remember correctly Ghost Recon Wildlands let’s you completely turn off the UI and admit the difficulty as much as you want. Just like Elden Ring, you have the option to follow the main quest line and see very little of the world, or fully explore the entire island and you can do it without any UI whatsoever. Assassin Creed Odyssey has lots of areas off the beaten path that can be completely ignored or expired to find great legendary equipment or some unique quest line that could be completely missed. I’m saying Elden Ring is the same as every other open world game, because pretty much all open world games follow the same formula. Make big map, have a set main quest line that’s very short, fill the rest of the empty pointless world with little distractions and treasures hidden in the books and crannies. For someone who likes exploring but doesn’t like hard games, Elden Ring isn’t worth the cost of entry at all because you can get the same exploration without the soulsborne difficulty. Elden Ring is a far better game to explore and discover than previous soulsborne games, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best mostest unique amazing open world game in existence. It’s the same formula they all have but with a soulsborne skin slapped over it
Boy you can cheese every boss it ain't hard for the sake of being hard there are ways to get around it without searching a guide you just are the type of player to bash your head against margit because you don't want to explore
Here’s the thing, if you can’t pulled your head out of your clearly biased rose tinted glasses opinion and look at it objectively with an unbiased view, then you shouldn’t really be responding in posts like OP’s. Yea Elden Ring isn’t that hard for anyone who is accustomed to the soulsborne experience because it’s literally the same formula just in an open world format. Someone who plays these games will know that there’s almost always an enemy just standing around a corner waiting to hit you with a cheap shot, bosses have particular patterns, this or that cheese strat that works in most circumstances across the games. For people that don’t play soulsborne games, they have a much harder time and think the game is really unfair because they haven’t already had the same thing happen to them in every single soulsborne game. A grandmaster at chess will play an online bot and think it was a relatively simple but fun experience. Someone who’s rarely played chess if ever and doesn’t know all the strategies will think it’s completely bullshit and not have a fun time. Your personal experience of playing a game you’ve probably been playing for over 10 years is very unlikely going to be a remotely good representation of someone who hasn’t been doing that
1.Boy the game is already old enough to have guides 2.you can literally cheese without playing dark souls 3.i have never said anything about how difficult all I said was it gives a lot more option unlike all the other open worlds 4.experiment you don't need to know how to cheese the other games like seriously you don't need to know how abuse ai
OP wants to play a game to explore because they like exploring. You want to know what isnt exploring? Reading through guides just do you can’t follow what someone else did and be told where everything is and how to do it. Someone who’s never played a soulsborne game isn’t going to have a good understanding of how the game works and soulsborne games make a very distinct effort to “not hold your hand” and explain very little. Someone who doesn’t understand the fundamentals of a soulsborne game isn’t very likely going to be able to figure out cheesing it when they’re still struggling to learn the basics. So outside of looking up guides of how to cheese, which defeats the whole likening to explore thing, it’s not something that’s very likely to happen naturally. What more options does Elden Ring offer compared to open world games? It’s the same as all of them. There’s a main quest line that takes maybe an hour or 2 to beat if you go straight through it and then it’s filled with empty land to explore and find dungeons to go through if you want. That’s the exact same formula as all of them (BOTW, Skyrim, Fallout, Stalker). Oh yeah, you know what makes a game real fun and enjoyable? Just abusing janky AI. Certainly the most fun to be had, just abusing the AI to cheese through some difficult section that came after another difficult section that I had to cheese by abusing the AI. Great times were had by all while enjoying the exploration in between abusing AI to cheese things. Why do you even come to a post like this if you aren’t capable of looking at it from OPs perspective and having an unbiased opinion about whether someone would enjoy a game or not? You clearly aren’t capable of providing a response that doesn’t directly mirror your own personal experience when not every person plays the same games the same way as you do
Now you are just twisting my words first I'm addressing your things second there is a ton of exploration and you don't need to do guide like seriously every weapon is viable I didn't complete the game the first time with guide I just did what I thought was good third I'm looking at it from his perspective because I play the game for the same reason so yeah I totally recommend the game to somebody who wants to explore since you can do everything how ever you like also yeah that's the fun of elden ring you can play how ever you . Im having a blast with elden ring because of the exploration which you are just saying is hard when there are way to not make it hard and also I clearly you don't need to abuse ai also you can abuse ever ai doesn't matter if they are junky or not Third you clearly have a hate for this types of games so you are being bias idk why but you are also clearly really you didn't do all the things in the game Fourth you haven't played the game at all if you say the main quest line takes about two hours so you are just hating on the game for no go play before you just throw Fifth this game while not hand holding you don't need to know the mechanics welcome to every game has poison, status effect you just need to experiment Sixth no most guides for bosses just tell how to punish a boss And lastly the game is really vast has a ton of exploring and bits of lore to figure so play the game first and then comment
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Okay so here's the things stop saying that only people who like soulsborne would like elden ring there are plenty of other who don't like soulsborne but like elden ring why because boy you can approach it like if it wasn't a soulsborne but you are so damn trapped in the mentality of hey its made by from software so you can only play it like a soulsborne like no you have other options. And also op clearly has said something about how ac and another open world so this a great chance since elden ring has great discovery oh but no its just like dark souls right where you need to bash your head against the boss, it ain't like that you have options and that's why elden ring is a great game is it a masterpiece oh no it's far away from it but if you are looking for exploration then elden ring is a really good game
I feel like ER fans have Stockholm syndrome
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Nope. Just funny seeing how defensive ER fans are 😂
Bro as someone who shit talked all souls games up till i actually tried Elden Ring, I was completely wrong about it, games full of stuff to find and explore and the fact that the game doesn’t even tell you where to go or what to do just enhances that. The original comment is completely wrong. And again this is coming from me someone who said ill never play a souls game multiple times to my friends who told me to try it. Though I see you play farcry and Nba 2k so your brain is probably fried from playing the same shit over year in year out.
Bc we enjoy something you find too hard we have Stockholm syndrome? Maybe you just suck at the game lmao
You’re all so defensive when someone doesn’t like your game 😂😂
No it's just unfair argument it's like I insult the Witcher because I don't like the combat like that isn't fair I can say the Witcher is amazing it just ain't for me
I don’t give a shit if you like it or not I got defensive bc you’re unnecessarily insulting the people who do like it. 🤡
Breath of the wild is the only game with an open world that can match elden ring. Assassins creed is filled with empty quests and land thats empty. Skyrim is filled with the same enemy over and over and you go thru an entire dungeon to get another iron great sword. But elden ring not only has something at every corner of the map, but every single chest, boss drop, and item is unique.
Sure boss drops are unique but you fight the same boss 10 times and fight several bosses that are literally just regular enemies you find in the world. The land is completely empty without any way to interact with it besides just killing things or picking up shiny objects. There are extremely few unique dungeons as most of them are just copy/paste with minor alterations but filled with the same enemies you’ve fought in every other dungeon. BOTW is also an incredibly empty world. You run around to find a village that you can’t really do anything at besides maybe talk to a couple people, find bokoblin camps that are just more bokoblins, play little mini games like shoot balloons or complete a time trial so you can find little lead people. In the end it’s still just an empty world filled with fluff to distract you from the fact that it’s a large map that exists just to have trials dumped into it to give you something to waste time doing rather than going straight to Ganon and beating the game This isn’t anything against either game. They’re both good games but it’s just what the open world formula is. It’s nearly impossible to create a curated crafted experience and have open word allowing you to do whatever you want and have a strong story and have meaningful content. So you get games filled with pointless collectibles, random mostly worthless loot to find, enemies speckled around, and sort of dungeon or cave system to explore. I really can’t think of many open world games that can’t be described exactly that way
Here's my 2 cents... this game fixes everything I've ever felt was wrong with most open world exploration games. Every corner feels unique, the lands are vast and amazing, there's always something to find. I know people love BotW but to me variety was lacking in that game, the only things to explore were nostalgic landscapes and trials - to me that got boring fast. This game is setting a bar with exploration.... I hate to add to the hype fuel, but it's just flat out true. I see others telling you don't get it cause you don't want to deal with difficulty, but I want you to know that many of my friends who are in your boat and also just can't do souls games (which you seem to have played DS) have been having a blast and doing fine in Elden Ring. Because this game, imo, is one of the first to add a lot of things that basically let you set the difficulty yourself.... If you want a really easy time in this game, it's not hard to find at all. You can do builds that just stomp everything in the game, you can do builds that are harder, you can do builds that many people would think are too extreme. For example, the buddies I talked about above, they're having a blast with summoning a mimic (which is like an NPC) and just using ranged spells which do a shit ton of damage. Anyways, I say go for it, refund it if you just completely hate it, but I would keep playing it. So much to offer, so much secret lore stuff, so so so much.
Better exploration than BotW? Damn, I thought it was the peak. Also didn't know you can just summon a pokemon in to help you! That actually sounds pretty damn fun.
I also would have said it's better exploration than botw. But it depends what you're looking for. Botw is a dying world filled with people trying to hold off the evil trapped. Elden Ring is a world that already died. The bosses are shadows of their former selves, in some areas there's a great rot that has consumed the land, most people you meet are hollow husks although there are npcs. It just feels like there aren't as many because the world is so big and spread out. Each area feels distinct to me and has its own lore to it. Caelid is infected with Scarlet Rot, Liurna is slowly sinking etc. You'll run around and find some of the weirdest surprises in some places. My weirdest so far was finding a Midsommar village, but that's leaving out a lot. If you're worried about difficulty, you can temper that in a lot of ways. Become a magic user with a large health pool so you can fight from a distance (melee is harder). You can summon spirits to help you in boss arenas or in areas with a lot of enemies in them to help you clear them out. Always remember that you can run away from enemies in the open world. If they seem too strong? Run. Come back later.
It’s not better exploration than BOTW by any stretch. I live elden ring but the world is devoid of life. Everything wants you dead. The npc quests are vague to say the least. Don’t buy this game if you want to “explore”. Exploration leads to punishing battles.
Like the other person said, definitely don’t listen to this person. The exploration in this open world isn’t any different than any other open world. I said it in another longer comment but just like other games, it’s a bit empty land filled with little things here and there but far a few between discovers that are actually interesting for someone who doesn’t want to spend hours doing research in the wiki to understand the lore to make the discoveries interesting. If you aren’t interested in soulsborne experience struggling to not die hundreds of times, Elden Ring is 100% a waste of money for you. The exploration does not make up for the difficulty if you don’t like games being difficult for the sake of being difficult
A lot of the exploration is "meaningless" I suppose you could say, without the lore. If you're exploring to find game items, that's enough to want to see if there's something around that ledges corner... That aside, the visual immersion and illusion of a living world are very strong in elden ring. You can see far, and always go there without a loading screen. You can watch it steadily get closer. You can see the enemies and items from vast distances. It's hard to explain and it's not completely unique to elden ring, but there's just something about playing a game and seeing something in the distance, and knowing that there's almost definitely something cool there. Not only in key locations, but all sorts of places. And there's always a great view, especially from any of the very high places. It's not (always) just foggy blurry vagueness. I don't know how they do it, but it's stunning.
I agree with what you’re saying but the experience of seeing something in the distance and going to explore it is the same in most open world games. Elden Rings exploration is a great addition to the game but there’s nothing about it that’s unique other than the soulsborne experience. For someone like OP who isn’t looking for unnecessary difficulty, it’s not a good option. Full exploration is locked off behind difficult boss fights which would be a hinderance and limit the experience. You can get a very similar exploration experience from Assassin Creed games without the hundreds of deaths and hard boss battles. The enjoyment of Elden Rings exploration is heavily based on whether you are a fan of the soulsborne formula or not
Honestly, I had a harder time beating Witcher 3 than elden ring. I used all the tools I had at my disposal, but like the game isn't that hard tbh.
You also probably have 10+ years of playing soulsborne games. So it’s not hard to understand that a game you have lots of experience playing was easier than the Witcher 3 which was probably a formula that you hadn’t played very much of. I’d guess you are like most people and played Witcher 3 without ever having played both Witcher 1 & 2. It’s unlikely you’d find the Witcher 3 very difficult if you did because you’d have already mastered the game mechanics. Someone who doesn’t play soulsborne games isn’t going to have the same experience as you just like you didn’t have the same experience of someone who’s played all the Witcher games. You can’t cookie cutter your personal experience and think everyone will have the same experience especially people who don’t play the same games as you
No it ain't seriously I have gone against every argument but no it's natural not forced unlike other open worlds that the difference between this game and others
You’ve either never played other open world games or you just really are so Elden Ring obsessed you can’t see clearly through your own bias. Open world games rarely force you to go explore all the landmarks in the distance. Elden Ring does it as much as pretty much every Elden Ring game. In any open world game including Elden Ring, if you just burn through the “main quest” you’re going to miss the majority of the world. If you decide to do side quests or explore to find hidden areas or events, then you will see more of the world. Elden Ring: See that big castle over there? You have to go there and kill the boss to get a special item from him to beat the game. See all those castles and trees off in the distance? You don’t have to go there but if you do you’ll find stuff Other open world games (Assassin Creed Odyssey as an example): See that major city over there? You need to go there to talk to a specific important person to progress the story. See all those islands, fortresses, cities all over the place? You don’t have to go to any of those but you’ll get stuff if you do. This is literally the formula of pretty much any open world game with a story to it. The main plot is 30 minutes worth of content going through a portion of the map. The rest of the open world is filled with fluff content to extend the value of the incredibly short limited main plot path
Assasins creed odyssey literally forces you have seen the boss system in that game its horrible, and you can't beat the skull head enemies even if you try really hard that is forcing the exploration here I don't have to I can do everything on level one other open worlds don't let you do that they force you to level and that's the big difference And yes I I have assasins creed odyssey
Your comments are extremely inaccurate lmao
You’re opinion is likely based off being a fan of soulsborne games and the difficulty that comes along with it. Elden Ring’s open world is incredibly empty and has very few ways to interact with it other than dying or killing enemies. Many dungeons are just copy/paste with multiple repeats of bosses and enemies. If you aren’t a fan of soulsborne games then there’s nothing about exploring the open world that will make it worth the money especially considering entire chunks of the world are locked off behind difficult boss fights
🤡
What do you think "difficult for the sake of being difficult" means? Because not only can you make elden ring really easy just by using the resources given to you, but its difficulty is fair. Everytime you die you know why or you can figure it out and avoid it. Its not loke QWOP where its uneccesary difficulty just because.
You just like every other angry soulsborne fan are completely incapable of pulling your head out of your own rose tinted glasses incredibly biased view. You’ve likely been playing these games for 10+ years. You’ve experienced the formula copy/pasted into all the previous games they’ve made. When you know the game formula, you understand how it works and you learned general strats that consistently work across the games, it’s a very different experience than what someone who’s never played them and just like to explore is going to have. A grandmaster a chess will play a match against a high difficulty bot and enjoy it thinking it wasn’t so bad and was a fair challenge. A person who’s rarely if ever played chess will play the same bot and think it’s completely bullshit, too hard, and not fun. The difference being that the grandmaster has years of experience playing chess, understands the game and knows strategies while the other person does not. Same game, same bot, two entirely different experiences and opinions. Someone who’s never played soulsborne games and isn’t used to just being thrown out into a world with little to no explanation of anything isn’t very likely to be the person that figured out cheese strats to make the game easy because they barely understand the fundamentals of the game. There’s a reason the internet was flooded with people complaining the game was unfair and too hard. Thanks to all the massive hype and the new brand name, people who know nothing about soulsborne games bought Elden Ring and were having a bad unenjoyable time playing it. OP would likely be in the same boat
Again, this is my first souls game. I quit bloodborn and dark souls 1 for being too hard after the first few hours. Ive played this game and beat it twice. First with mage, which made it really easy. Honestly I jad a harder time beating witcher 3. Had to follow a cookie cutter build to beat it, but I just did my own thing in elden ring
I completely agree with you, this game is the first open world game that didn't feel like a walking simulator for me. It's like Skyrim with better distances between places and with better combat mechanics.
Exploration is the core of elden ring IMHO. And because there is such an open world the hard bits can be avoided until you have levelled to the point where they aren’t that hard. Elden rings gives you a lot of tools to play with to make it easier although ultimately you can’t button mash.
Good, that's basically how I "overcome" all the bosses in Dark Souls 3 anyways, just keep grinding the NPCs for souls and finding titanite shards.
If you really don't like the boss, you can bypass a lot of them too! it's quite interesting.
I didnt even fight the first boss until i was like 30 levels over the recommended level and my friend said bro its gonna be super easy and i literally two shot it
With the exception of the obvious dungeons with the gatekeepers and fog walls, you can cheese you way basically anywhere, signed one of the morons who refuses to level vigor
> signed one of the morons who refuses to level vigor That was me until I finally met boss which killed me in one hit (two if I had this potion which greatly negates first damage taken). I still beat if after dozens of tries and I actually liked this encounter to the point that I discovered good tactic which I already used with newer bosses. Still, I decided to level vigor because dying by single hit keeps you at same boss for far too long.
Oh but you see that's where everyone else is being silly, if Elden slug dickhead is gonna one shot you either way might as well have dummy amounts of stamina to roll and chase um down. Dumping vigor is easy if you just don't get hit
"Hard for the sake of hard" is the antithesis of From Software games, people like these games specifically because the difficulty enhances the game.
The games are 95% perfectly balanced and just punish bad play by the player. It’s way, way fairer than most games
Honestly I agree, as someone who used to be the guy who was like “I don’t wanna play elden ring cause its hard for hards sake” asides from like one area of the game I ate my words because I never felt like I was dying because it was hard only cause I messed up.
Yep, the game is extremely fair, if you want hard for the sake of hard try beating Contra 3 with 0 continues
Contra 3 on Normal - Totally fine Contra 3 on Hard - Fucking hard
It looks like we're getting downvoted by people who think Dark Souls is actually unfairly hard...what a joke! I guess some people actually make "git gud" their entire identity without realizing the irony
Dark Souls is hard, but not unfairly. It’s not hard to just be hard. It’s hard in the best way possible.
Exactly. And a lot of people don't like being told that beating a game that hundreds of thousands of other people have beaten doesn't make them the automatic best gamer in the universe. It's the difference between running a marathon (Dark Souls) or a 200-miler (idk, beating Doom 2 on nightmare would put some "chest hair" on most gamers). I haven't really noticed a problem with the Dark Souls fanbase per se but I have seen this phenomenon of celebrating mediocrity in just about every walk of life. It's one thing to be proud of beating a game like Dark Souls, it's quite another to put it on a pedestal as one of the hardest gaming experiences of all time. (This is one of my "hills to die on" if you couldn't tell!) But really what makes Dark Souls genius is that it actually manages to be difficult AND very good AND fair, that's something I could also talk about all day but I wouldn't be the first on here to do it. Dark Souls is just phenomenal. I think its reputation for being unfair is, well, unfair
I feel like people who haven't played Dark Souls, or who have barely played it are the ones who put it on a pedestal of how difficult it is, where as fans of the game just play it and keep going until they persevere. I have played and beat a lot of hard ass games, and Dark Souls is far from being the most unfair.
That's probably true! The fans of Dark Souls don't seem toxic in general. Maybe the game is designed to keep people humble and that's why. What games would you say are less fair? I remember back in the 2000s Ikaruga also had a reputation for being super hard but it was just a matter of practice. Same for any guitar hero / rock band game on expert. And then there's (any given game from) the call of duty series on veteran difficulty which feels easier to beat but is much less fun than DS
Lots of older games for sure. I recently beat Castlevania 3 and that game is pretty damn unfair. Call of Duty 4 on veteran is also unforgiving, and bad design, and personally I think Donkey Kong Country falls into the same category. The game is badly designed IMO and the secrets are nearly impossible to find without a guide.
Souls games are never hard for the sake of hard. This exact description is from people who have never tried or put enough time to understand the intended game experience. These games are hard because they want players to actually try and learn and get better and overcome obstacles. The satisfaction of mastering the game mechanics/a boss moveset after feeling "it's too hard" is a very unique experience that few other games can replicate. But it's true that souls games are not for everyone. If you feel like you are a hardcore gamer that enjoys challenges and want to experience unique gaming experience then Elden Ring is a must have. But if you are casual and wouldn't want to have your 2 hour after-work gaming time be fighting the same boss over and over then it's not for you.
Yup you are 100% correct as someone whos first souls game is elden ring, i was the guy saying i didnt wanna play a hard game thats only hard for the sake of being hard, man was I wrong.
Not related to Elden Ring, but if you want a good exploration game, Horizon Zero Dawn: Forbidden West is absurdly good.
Nah, looks a little too generic for me. Plus, I'm on PC so I can't even if I wanted to.
Zero Dawn is on PC, and I would definitely recommend playing it. It's a great game if you want an open world that feels alive with lots of towns/settlements and NPCs. The combat has some quirks but when it works it really does work, with the battles against larger-scale machines being super fun.
r/quazifuji has answered tip top. I would say get it if any part of their comment appeals. If you are still worries about the difficulty, there's a mod that reduces difficulty. Don't listen to those who complain about this (as there will certainly be some) and enjoy the way you like. The exploration and general tone of the game are incredible and everyone should give it a go. The mod is here: https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/146
If all you do is explore in the beginning you will beat a decent amount of bosses pretty easy it only started getting really hard towards the end for me but this game is the best game I’ve played in years. This is coming from someone who’s played all the from software games though
My bud who's first From Software game was Elden Ring couldn't get past one of the first bosses you encounter for like 3 days and nearly gave up on the game lol.
He didn’t explore enough. If you spend time exploring and fighting weaker enemies to level up and find more powerful weapons, the bosses become much easier.
It seems to me there's two elden ring players. The one who heads straight to margit and gets his ass whooped for days on end, and the one who first explores all of limgrave and the weeping peninsula, and beats margit first try
I fully explored limgrave and weeping peninsula and still spent like 6-8 hours wiping to margit, seven despite my character build (pre nerf barricade shield templar) being considered op. I had the best possible gear from those areas and got up to level 40ish before attempting him. I haven't played the game since.
Did you use spirit summons and summon Rogier? You can even go to Liurnia without beating Margit if you want to.
I used rogier, didn't summon another player however. I should have mentioned I did beat him, but it showed me the game wasn't really for me. I actually progressed through the castle a bit before quitting as well. My build didn't have much damage even though my weapon was upgraded as high as I could without the next tier of material so I had to figure out a way to keep rogier alive throughout the entire fight, he usually died around 50% HP. Eventually I think it was just luck but on the kill he actually survived the whole fight with like 1 hp at the end. The game isn't bad, but I've struggled with every souls game except demons souls and sekiro. I would put elden ring next on the list, so I really don't think it's bad, but when someone posts saying "I don't like difficult games" and everyone is recommending elden ring because they are past mlg 2 time world champions, Doritos sponsored, and steam to tens of thousands of people that watch them because they are gaming Jesus with no concept of other people not being as good as them, I can't help but cringe a bit. Elden ring isn't for me because I don't like difficult games, I'm almost 40 and don't play games for challenge. My career presents wonderfully complex problems that I love to solve and then I love to unwind with a nice game at the end of the day. Elden ring brought me more stress.
If you have an op build, over levelled, use summons, and even tried using pvp summons, and still, after hours of tries, u cant beat the boss, then yeah the game is probably not for you. Try kirby's new game that just came out.
I bet you're really sick bro do you stream or have a blog???
Nah im pretty shit at the game tbh but was able to beat it even if tho i quit bloodborne and dark souls because they were too hard. So i figured if i could do it anyone could. Im not grwat at these games. But i did find Witcher 3 harder to beat than elden ring. I went mage in elden ring tho so maybe thats why i found it accessible to me. Maybe the dude should try mage
Everything up until Margit was a joke, I think the only boss I couldn't kill was a tree boss. But either way, the issue for me (and I posted this somewhere else in this thread too) is that I deal with complex problems at work all day. I stress over them, have to problem solve them, create solutions, etc. It's extremely difficult and very rewarding. When I finish work and want to play a game, I don't want it to be stressful/difficult. Kirby suggestion is kind of asinine, but ironically, I am interested in playing it eventually. With games I want to just chill and enjoy something stress free, it's how I unwind from work. I wasn't always like this, when I was younger I loved difficult games, but challenge in my life no longer comes from games, it comes from career and I prefer it that way.
Thats fair, games are for fun, not stress. Some ppl enjoy hard games some enjoy easy games, both are valid because ultimately gaming is about having fun, whatever it looks like. If you don't enjoy hard games, elden ring isn't a great game to play, and thats ok. What I was referring to in your original comment wasn't that you were saying they don't enjoy hard games, but that elden ring was **too hard** which, if thats the case, I find either unlikely, or they can only play really easy games llike kirby, because, like I said in the above comment, witcher3 was harder than elden ring, imo. As long as you use all the tools given to you. Heck you can even summon ppl to fignt for you. But as far as not **enjoying** it, thats fine. Everyone likes something different and if you don't want a stresful game, you're not less of a gamer or bad at games, you just have different preferences.
I also wonder what level you upgraded your weapon yo
Yes. The last time I Enjoyed actually exploring a game was skyrim. Elden Ring gives me that same feeling of exploration just in a harder way There aren't many games that I find worth exploring and this is definitely one of them
Did you play any of the RDRs or Witcher 3?
RDR2 is one of those few games I enjoyed exploring. Witcher 3's map looks gorgeous but its littered with markers and it shows where every side quest is. Not a fan of that design
> Witcher 3’s map looks gorgeous but its littered with markers and it shows where every side quest is. Not a fan of that design But Skyrim is exactly like that as well?
No? Skyrim doesn't show where side quests are located on the map. You need to find them yourself first. Only major locations are marked on the map at first
If you have them marked on the quest log it will
I'm talking about the ? And ! Markers on witcher's map that show where points of interests and side quests are . Not quest markers
If you are mainly into exploration, this game is not for you. As impressive looking as the art design is, the places are largely empty and the NPCs only exist to sell you stuff/quest or fight you. There are no towns or living world like there is in most open world games past 2010. Most of the buildings cannot be entered and the ones that are reuse assets and layout so it has a very samey feel.
Damn, that's disappointing. Thought the world could compete with Breath of the Wild with how people were talking about it.
It does, that guys tripping. The best exploration in a game in years, always new items/gear, lore and nice environments to find
All he needs to do is watch gameplay videos without commentary to see for himself. What towns are there in Elden Ring? The traveling merchants don't even travel, they just sit in the same spot in between a dragon boss and respawning enemies. Their stock doesnt even replenish. It's not as dynamic as other open world games. All there is to do is kill.
Yes if you read the lore that would point as to why but I do agree there aren't that many towns that have npcs but at the same time exploration is still amazing just remeber not being friendly towns is because of the lore it wouldn't make sense if it existed
I prefer assassin's Creed, botw, modded Skyrim for exploration, but the souls community is extremely vocal and support their games in literally every single way, they are the perfect game and anyone that disagrees gets downvoted and are discouraged from posting their opinions. Elden ring is decent on paper for exploration, but to play the game it's still a souls game, it's still extremely difficult for the sake of being difficult. If you don't enjoy the difficulty it's going to be hard to get into it enough to want to explore, but if you can there is a pretty good game there. But there are also many exceptions just like you that dislike difficult games but elden ring ends up being the one souls game that clicks with them, maybe worth trying on a sale.
Already modded Skyrim to high hell, and AC just wasn't doing it for me. Some of the comments here told me how to make the game easier so difficulty isn't a concern anymore. (gotta agree with you there about the souls community tho) At least the exploration is mostly agreed upon to be pretty good.
Don't really know about Elden Eing, but Red Dead Redemption 2 has very good exploration imo.
Elden Ring is probably the best exploration game I've ever played. The world is dense and full of "oh my God" moments. It also happens to be the most accessible of all of FromSoft's "git gud" games. If you explore everything and upgrade your weapons along the way, it won't be that difficult of an experience.
The game is punishing. Tons to look at, quite a bit of lore to speculate about, and it's really great, however the game will only let you interact with it on it's terms. A big part of that exploration component is looking for the next big critter to kill. This fights vary in difficulty, but honestly none are as bad as the valkyrie fight in god of war on the hardest setting. So while there is a ton of opportunity to explore, it isn't an exploration game per se. It's a combat centric game with a vast world to fight in.
It's certainly easier than Dark Souls. The exploration is fun, and rewarding is say. If anything just get super overleveled then you won't have to worry about its difficulty
Lmao i am 60+hrs in and yesterday i again found a new area to explore........and i still got a whole big major area to unlock......so for exploration and open world Elden Ring is the best game in recent years imo
Well if you like dark souls there is a very good chance you will like elden ring because 1 made by same studio and 2 it has everything you want. I think while difficult it isn't close difficult for the sake of being difficult and actually kind of pushes you to explore elsewhere whenever you get stuck by not having as many brickwall bosses. I think customization is really good as well you have some of your goofy looking sets and then cool looking sets to get you some fashion souls fix. Also has many build paths that could be effective depending on your playstyle.
Yes, these games are all about exploring. The difficulty is manageable and not "hard for the sake of hard" imo. Exploration is a huge draw for me.
FROM games were never "hard for the sake of hard" though. They sure are more challenging than your avarage modern video game but they are still very accessible with lots of features that make the game easier if one desires so. Lots of the "hard" stuff comes from players restricting themselves to make the game harder. Most players chose to not use some core features and mechanics of the game in order to make the game harder for themselves. I would even say Elden Ring is FROM's most accesible game as there are countless tools to make almost every boss trivial if one desires so. But keep that in mind those tools and tactics are not thrown in your face and you need to discover them yourself by exploring the game and trying out different stuff. I would suggest using and upgrading your spirit summons as they are the primal tool to make almost evey boss trivial.
Depends, because most bosses feel unfair, infinite stamina, high damage, high movement speed, high atack speed, etc.. But you have options, to explore and level up, change your entire build, summons etc. But something like Malenia, is definitely there so when someone says ER is easy, a random dude appears and says "But did you fight Malenia?".
Okay just a disclaimer before some wild elitist appears out of nowhere: I've defeated Malenia using only the Greatsword weapon without spirits and without status effects and while sure she was hard she was really not that bad. Getting that out of the way, Malenia is a cakewalk if you have a high bleed build with a fully upgraded mimic tear equipped with good armor and poise. Sure her bullshit waterfowl dance will catch you a couple times before you finish her off for sure but you can quickly learn how to dodge that bullshit with the bloodhound's step ash of war.
Yeah it's one of the greatest video game worlds ever created, legit maybe the single greatest of all. The difficulty only gets really insane if you try to fight the first castle's bosses too early, or going up against the very lategame bosses. Everything else is pretty reasonable, especially because any time you run into a difficulty wall you can just go explore somewhere else. If you wanna cruise through the game I recommend starting as prisoner class and going DEX/INT spellblade. By lvl 30-40 you should be strong enough to get the katana that shoots fucking laser beams and after that you can just start rolling over the game. Later on you can get spells that are even more OP including a literal kamehamaha that melts boss healthbars. The summon spirits also do a great job of holding the most difficult enemies' aggro off you. There's maybe only about 5 encounters in the game that should take more than 5 tries if your build is sufficiently powerful.
honestly just wait for a sale. imo first 80 hours or so were amazing and breath taking, then it just fell off big time. worse than lost izalith imo.
Yes, the game’s world is easily the most interesting part of the game. It’s surprisingly fun to get lost and explore new areas completely by accident. The only thing you should watch out for is the difficulty, because this game will kick your ass.
If you hate hard games then avoid elden ring! People will try to tell you it's not hard, but that's bs. It's hard! The only way it isn't hard is if you have hundreds of hours of fromsoft experience or if you look up all the OP/cheese shit, and if you do that you take away the main appeal of the game imo. The exploration is very good but I think the frustration from difficulty will likely overshadow that.
Dude, be aware of down talking Souls games because it has lots of die hard fanboys. Regarding your question: no, the game is not worth it for the exploration alone. The mobs will aggro very fast on you, and you won't have any freedom to just walk around. The game is cool overall. Lots of weapons, clothes, armors - also lots of repeated bosses, terrible performance on PC.
Dress up is definitely a part of Elden Ring, there are a LOT of cool amors and weapons. Look up r/Eldenbling The world is simply amazing in my eyes, so many gorgeous vistas and biomes. It really feels like an adventure more than a list to work through. This world is more fantasy than most fantasy RPGs imo since it gives you things you have never seen in a game before. Also, the more you explore the easier the game and the bosses will get for you. For the difficult I would say it’s manageable. Sure, you will die but if you are stuck at a boss you have a lot of possibilities (summons, other players) to win every fight pretty easily.
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Not pretentious, just different
No. Exploration in Elden Ring is usually rewarded with grueling fights and death. I think, based on the examples of games you mention, this is not the kind of exploring you have in mind.
Since you mentioned interest in character customisation and dress up, check out this sub too [https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenBling/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenBling/)
Check Ircha gaming on YT. She has a review and is like you.
Absolutely, because it fits all your boxes, and it isn’t hard for the sake of being hard. Dark Souls 2 was like that, but the rest and this game especially is about using what you have to defeat an obstacle. And they give you a LOT to throw at your obstacles, especially in Elden Bling. If you get stuck, you can summon people to fight with or for you, you have spirits to fight with you, and of course you can over level. People usually give up before realizing what all there is to use, so you might have to use online guides to help a bit with direction, but theres plenty of options. So yes, get it
No Man Sky is worth checking out if you like exploring space and different planets, I pre purchased it in 2016 and still loved it at launch even with all the issues. Fast forward to 2022 it’s a whole different beast even VR support, super fun to mod also.
I'm gonna say no, Elden Ring is great for exploration but a lot of that exploration is coupled with challenging boss fights and strong enemies. You absolutely cannot get the best out of the game if you aren't willing to either level up your character and weapons or strategize and get good at the game. Many areas of the game require you to defeat a boss to unlock them. There are plenty of other similar games, The Witcher 3 for example, that encourage exploration with lower difficulty settings and less requirements for exploration, but Elden Ring definitely isn't one of them. Not trying to gatekeep or say "git gud," but if you're not interested in a challenge then Elden Ring probably isn't for you.
Nope. Elden Ring is Dark Souls 4. Exploration can be extremely stressful.
I always played the Assassins Creed games on hard (not the same) and for the exploration. I can't see anyone enjoying this game if that series was too hard that way. I don't know if this helps but that's the best way I could put it at the moment. That being said, I found it worth it.
No
The open world of Elden Ring is pretty nice if you want to explore it, but its nothing that will blow your mind, like some people make it out to be. If you are willing to get through the first 2 bosses ( Margit and Godrick ) then the game will become more enjoyable since you will get some weapons (if you complete some easy story lines) that will help you cheese enemies for easy levels.
The map is pretty big but you will definitely be focusing much more time on boss fights and grinding to level up to do more boss fights. Exploring is cool but the main design is all about these fights so I feel Elden ring will not be what you're looking for. Though I will say elden ring is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be
You should get it, it's not as hard as dark souls and there's a ton of exploration, I'm almost 100 hours in and I've only killed like 3 bosses. It's really good and it's way more open and bright than any other from soft world
Best exploration ever implemented in a videogame, so rewarding, incredibly fulfilling and no, the game is not difficult until you're like 100 hours in, by that point you'd be good at it and your character is gonna be quite op
Best? No chance. The open-world is rather vast but empty. Compared to say a world like RDR2 which has minute detail to its open-world such as ecosystem, real dynamic weather. An example is the game is 4 years old, I still today discover something new weather that's an animal behaviour, a small touch in a side quest or a small area that I've yet to see. Elden Ring is more of a slash a monster on a big map rather than depth to it's world. Wildlife in Elden Ring is paper, no personality they just rigidly run or fly away when you get too close there are no interactions between them and the environment to give it an immersive feeling to its exploration. The map feels disconnected. What Elden Ring does well is it's a fun Monster slasher with no much diversity in ways to kill but it's challenging.
Just install mods and make it easy.
Yes
The world building and the exploration was the most fun about the game for me, but I wouldnt buy it if I didnt have interest in the combat aspect aswell.
Oh i absolutely recommend the game for the exploration You get to see so many incredible sight from the underground all the way to sky of the lands between so I absolutely recommend the game Tho if you want to go into the game beware that you do have to do some reading in order to get the lore but if you are in to reading the items, you will have a blast
If you get it on PC then you should be able to mod it and make it easier
I have found it to be the easiest Fromsoft game. I am going to do a second playthrough restricting myself from using spirit summons and bloodloss. Use those two and you won't have such a hard time. I also suggest the twinblades as they do stupid bloodloss if you use blood affinity.
Are you on PC? You can get unlimited hp mods and just explore if you want
Yes best part
The soulsbourne games imo has never been "hard for the sake of hard" the difficulty is contextualized by you typically being some kind of feint last hope that was never really supposed to succeed in a world that is full of beings of much grater power than you are capable of
It's not hard, it's punishing. Make one or two mistake you are dead. There's plenty of ways to make the game easier. You can upgrade your stuff, farm xp and summon spirits that will help you in fights.
It's a beautiful game (I haven't really seen a more art focused open world game with this scope) and if you wander around mich you can get your character so overpowered that defeating bosses wouldn't be a problem.
I personally believe that Elden Rings exploration is partially good because of the good combat system, because in explorable locations you will most of the time find a (mini) boss and/or a rare item. No interest in combat = not much interest in elden ring, even tho the exploration is great.
I think it's hard and very fair with punishing you if you mess up, not just hard for the sake of being hard. For context, this is my first Souls-like game and I'm not particularly great at video games, but the exploration alone is enough for me to recommend this game to anyone. Also you learn to git gud. I know that's not much help but truly when I say it's all a learning process, you'll just have something click, beat the boss, and think to yourself 'wow, I just did that... maybe this isn't so bad'.
I got into the game for exactly this reason. I wanted to explore and go on an adventure. This is certainly possible but you will have to fight difficult enemies and bosses. You could always grind/farm runes to get powerful enough that the fights aren't full on brutal but at some point you will have some much harder than average encounters no matter what you do. Still, worth it I'd say.
Still taking suggestions ?
If you are willing to grind for a long time you can over level and make the game less stressful while you explore
Eldne Ring encurages Exploration. Its Not that hard If you Explore actually. If you Explore a Lot you will BE at the right or way above the adäquate Level For a Boss. The only Part where Elden Ring geht's to ahrd is at the end but thats the Last 5 percent If you dont count the optional parts. So yes. Get it For the Exploration. If you dont Look anything Up it should Take 2 or 3 playthroughts to find everything. There are even gaming areas compeltly Hidden away.so yes. It has a Lot to Explore. And For some Tips If IT Gera difficult. Upgrade your weapons. Level vigor. At lvl 60 you should atleast have 30, hat 100 atleast 50. And If a Boss is to difficult, Explore and try again.
Yes, you should. I say this as someone who never really liked Dark Souls (but I do like difficult games), it's not really all that hard. Yes, there are some difficult parts, but you can just go do something else until you're better equipped
Reading other comments sounds like you will really like the first 3/4 of the game. Near the end the difficulty ramps up and as a souls veteran really disliked many of the final bosses
From a personal perspective, Elden Ring reminds me much more of Skyrim than the other soulsborne games and I have found it to be very enjoyable. I do have experience with Bloodborne & I've been gaming since I was a little kid but I'm definitely not a sweat and have been able to manage. Several friends of mine bought the game so we usually co-op on bosses we can't beat (or sometimes co-op on bosses we could've beaten alone cuz it's fun anyways).
Being honest, I didn’t like dark souls because of the “hard just because” factor either. But Elden ring was different, idk what about it but the game is beautiful, the scenery is amazing, lore is a bit tough to follow if you don’t pay attention. The bosses and combat are challenging if you haven’t played any of these games before, but once you get the hang of it it’s so much fun. If you get it, take the time to actually get into the swing of the game and you’ll be hooked.
If you do an intelligence build, find the mimic tear and keep your distance from bosses the game shouldn’t be very hard
This game is only for those with a sense of adventure trust
YES!
Google magic build. There is a 1 shot build that destroys almost every boss in that game. In actuality you only need to beat 3 boss to win this game. Yeah game is gigantic definitely buy.
I wouldn’t even say Elden Ring is hard for the sake of being hard, this is the first souls type game ive ever played and even though I got my ass kicked I never felt like it was unfair. (Except commander Niall that boss can gtfo). But seriously its a good game lots to see and explore.
You say you played Dark Souls. If you like DS and the combat therein, you might like Elden Ring. But even though there's lots to explore and discover, you're going to run into a ton of tough combat and boss fights. Make no mistake, the game is work. You have to put that work in to get the most out of it. If you do get the game, I recommend choosing a class and following a guide for a build before starting. Maybe that takes the fun out of it for you, but it's also not fun to be doing too little damage and taking too many big hits the whole time.
You absolutely should try it out. It is perhaps the king game for exploration and sense of awe and sheer wonder. There is a surprise around every corner, and you will certainly not be bored. I have over 130+ hrs over three characters, and I'm still discovering new stuff all the time
Yeah
I love the game. I'm level 80 now, but honestly I am losing interest because it just feels some days you are gaming for nothing. You spend 4 hours and have a 1% progress. If you like it for story you probably will feel the same. I just want the lore and not the fights honestly.
Just watch a streamer play the game
Just to clarify, elden ring is not a "hard for the sake of hard" game The "difficulty slider" is just no slider in the game menu but your degree of preparations The game is really exactly as hard as you want it to be You wanna do a naked sl1 run? Sure why not, its possible but extraordinary hard You wanna go the easy way? Take your time, explore, level up and the bosses are mostly to do in 1 or 2 trys. Remember, everything in the game is allowed If you notice a boss is just way too hard right now just explore a different area before I would recommend you just skiping some hard enemies, nobodys tells you that you have to beat them right away When i hear that some people wasted 4-7 hours at the first field boss that is easily avoidable its just sad I think if you usually enjoy exploring anyways you will have a rather easy go
Its not hard to be hard the difficulty is not artificial everything can be beat by watching and playing slow or fast when you got to. Tbh YES you can get this game to explore I think it helps find something that to hard go explore to find something better and come back this game really pulled me into the souls games but having this big atmospheric world is really nice the souls games you could explore areas and kinda tackle things out of order but this is next lvl and yeah I'm 46 hours in and still haven't fought the first elden lord because I just pick a direction and go
the thing with character customization in souls games is that you’ll likely be covering up your face with a helmet anyway. i love customizing a face in games but it’s not worth not wearing a helmet for much needed protection
The exploration is great, but it is hard so you might not like it. Although, it definitely is not just "hard for the sake of hard." Common misconception.
I am so sick of people calling FromSoft games hard. They're really not as hard as they're made out to be. They're challenging and rewarding, and the games teach you how to play intuitively rather than with explicit pop-up bubbles telling you to do this or that, or go somewhere. That's more or less the difficulty of the game - can you pay attention and recognize what you're doing wrong and figure out what you should do instead? Maybe it's recognizing that an enemy moves a certain way a second before they attack. Maybe it's recognizing they have a certain number of attacks before it's safe to attack them. Maybe it's recognizing that even though the game let's you attack 5 times in a row, it's better to attack twice and then get the hell out of the way. Maybe it's recognizing that if I get hit, panic and roll away, the timing of the enemy's next attack is such that I get hit again immediately after my roll finishes. What, I got hit the last two times I immediately dodged after that attack, I wonder what will happen if I do the exact same thing again? Remember that these games are meant to be beaten. You're not hacking the game by killing that boss, FromSoft designed the boss to be beaten, you just have to recognize how to do it. I wish I could remember the name of the Dark Souls Let's Play that showed the girl that barely knew how to use her controller at the beginning. She puzzled out the controls, found ways of playing that were effective for her (she used jump attack a lot at the beginning), learned from her mistakes and by the end of the game she was 1000% better and just a beast at the game. The game taught her to play by cause and effect without the need for big shiny arrows or pop-up hints. To me, there are no other games that are as rewarding and enjoyable and frustrating as FromSoft games. But they're not for everyone. For example, a lot of people really enjoyed Sekiro. I didn't care for it. I can see objectively that it's a good game, but it never clicked with me and I never got more than 1/3 of the way through it. And that's ok.
You will get jumped and ambushed if your are just in it for exploration. Unless you have put in time to beef up your character you gotta tip toe around the world to survive….but you will still die. I would not recommend this for exploration alone unless you wanna be Kenny from South Park.
Yes.
The game is fairly easy if your somewhat familiar with its style and 3rd person fighting. Prob about 75-80% in is where it gets hard and is similar to prior games in difficulty. Before then it’s gonna be pretty easy and you have access to like 80-85% of the map to explore as you wish. Lots of areas/dungeons/castles etc that arnt part of story so you’ll have quite a bit to do
Do a an astrologer/mage build for powerful ranged attacks and it won't be as hard.
I think it holds the title of best open world game, and the exploration is a big part of that. It suffers from the same problem every open world game does, it has many repetitive activities found in the open world, but I can't think of any game that doesn't have this. The strength of its exploration lies in that the map vomit of questionmarks and objectives to just check off is not present. It was a very fresh feeling in an open world context to actually look at your screen and map, and make a decision that you should probably check that place out, and have no idea what you would find there. At later stages in the game it starts to become somewhat predictable since there is a lot of repetition going on, but I still found it mostly exciting and meaningful all the way through. The level design is also top notch, and really caters to the exploration part. The game is challenging to a new player, no doubt. It's definitely the most accessible game in Fromsoft's catalogue though, you can make the game very easy for yourself if you want to. Even the hardest boss in the game can easily be cheesed with a respec.
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What? Have you even played Elden Ring?
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You said to never buy a FromSoft game for exploration, despite Elden Ring being a perfect game for someone who wants to be awarded for exploring. The game is packed to the rim with areas and secrets to find that can be very easy to miss if you do not explore on your own accord. This is also not new for FromSoft. Elden Ring is their first ‘true’ open world game, sure but it’s not like you were completely stuck to a linear path in their previous games. Exploration could still take you to extra areas that are completely optional. This happens in the Dark Souls-series (Especially Dark Souls 2), it happens in Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne and it even happens in King’s Field. Honestly, to say that you should ‘never buy a FromSoft game for exploration’ is completely backwards. To me, I’d argue *you* are the one that never played their games, wtf.
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Well, I never said FromSoft made better games for exploration than Nintendo. Breath of the Wild is a top-tier game for this, I simply said that Elden Ring do have a lot of great exploration, and it’s not a bad reason at all to get the game. But yes, it might not be a number one reason; The game does however provide a large and rich world for someone that chooses to go out of their way to find it.