Elden Ring

I had to play this game for one of the most grueling video shoots whatoplay has even put me through. 

Context: I do not play hard games. It is against my principles and my views on what games should be (easy, light, comfortably challenging). 

Less than five minutes in, there will be a boss who will show you who’s, er, boss. There will be many large, unconquerable monsters where large, unconquerable monsters shouldn’t be. Failing is inevitable and more frequent than comfortable. 

The first boss will be extremely hard. (It took *me* twenty tries in three hours). The game does give you some kind of help though, with summons and friendly, fighting NPCs. (I love you, Rogier!!)

I left that shoot swearing I’d never play it again.  But to be honest? Beating the bosses is kinda exhilarating. After a few days of recovery, I kinda wanted to give it another run. 

So, what the hell. If you’re a masochist who likes to scour weird worlds for lore, take this digital dominatrix out for a spin. 

(Review in progress)

Updated Post: 8.8 rating

I went ahead and leveled up another 10 levels and continued. It definitely made a difference. Exploration is absolutely the best experience of any game, including BOTW, that I've ever had. There are secrets and tension around every corner and behind ever rock. Enemy variety is mind blowing. So much flexibility in your build. I started as a Confessor and expanded into some basic sorceries to give me some reliable range attacks. I'm regularly changing my spells and encantations at sites of grace depending on how I died last. And at level 85 after 80 hours, I have a lot of choices of swords and ashes of war to swap up. Combat is truly difficult and challenging. I'm enjoying that more than I thought I might.

I have a major love/hate relationship with losing runes apon death though. It currently costs me over 40,000 runes to level up. I seem to regularly lose 15k-30k runes and then fail to get them back. I wish you had more than one death to get them back. You can equip a twig but it would often mean I unequip a talisman that I really need. This will probably be my most played game of all time when I'm done. BUT it won't be my favorite game of all time. There are just too many frustrating moments with dying over and over.

Original Post: 8.4 rating

First off, this is my first Fromsoft Souls game. I have 50 hours in the game and am level 55.

Ive basically done everything I can in the first 3 big regions (Limgrave, Weeping Penisula, Larnia) and I have hit some significant roadblocks where I just can’t quite get past some key bosses. If I am to continue, I’m going to have to go grind to level up another 10-15 levels. Not sure I want to. I haven’t minded the roadblocks when I can just go to another area I haven’t explored.

I have loved the exploration. Finding and buying new gear/spells. The enemy design is amazing. The world is beautiful but on the PS5 has very regular pop-in of graphics. I have loved beating bosses and haven’t minded taking 4-5 tries and sometimes 10 tries or coming back later. There is a big brain chemistry payoff there. Those are great things that I wished other games imitated. The lack of clear story, the difficulty spikes, and the continual loss of runes are really souring the experience though. Those are all fromsoft key markers.

Good game. Not for everyone. Maybe not for me. Fromsoft’s masterpiece. But not for everyone. The frustrations and lack of coherent story really weaken it for me though.

Great game