4 ms·

I wish elden ring was smaller. I thought the open world concept was very poorly executed. I didn’t know where to go at first so I explored pretty much the entir

I wish elden ring was smaller. I thought the open world concept was very poorly executed. I didn’t know where to go at first so I explored pretty much the entire open world unable to do much other than run past everything. The remainder of the game was just teleporting around so the open world was irrelevant. The bosses were good. The legacy dungeons were good. But the open world was largely a one time early game tax to find flak upgrades. I felt frustrated that I was not clearly shown where level appropriate content was. I don’t mind the option of seeking inappropriate content, but it should have been more transparent. I spent the game picking up herbs. Never used any. I picked up loads of weapons, but couldn’t use any them effectively without respeccing or farming weapon upgrades. I found very few of the mini dungeons organically and had to look up where to find them but they tended to be pretty dull and reuse the same bosses. The quests were equally inscrutable without a guide. Finding bosses that are just way too strong for you sucks. Leyndell and onward aren’t really open world. They’re mostly just linear areas, which I liked more but I also suspected was mostly due to budget and scope cuts. I would have gladly traded the vast open world and mini dungeons for a few more well designed legacy dungeons and bosses. I played with no summons and beat malenia with two whips and no skills for reference if it matters

arkaic 4y ago
Sounds like you would love the Dark Souls games. They're Elden Ring without open world, and all legacy dungeons.
- oneoff786 4y ago
  I liked the first one. Sekiro was their best imo. But elden ring’s design philosophy seemed to start with “what if we did dark souls but all doors and passages were open from the start?” The answer is unsurprisingly that many players track awkward paths of hitting things too soon and too late. If you’re going to have such significant character progression, linear games just make more sense. Breath of the wild gets away from it because link barely gets any stronger over the course of the game. Just a bit tankier. Fighting bosses in elden ring and finding they’re drastically undertuned really ruins the point of playing a soulslike…
  - rajup 4y ago
    Having played some of the soulsborne games before I much prefer being able to go away and explore something else if I hit a hard boss or area. It keeps the game much more enjoyable and not feel as "grindy". You do have a point about hitting some things earlier or later than you should, but usually under-leveled players are not going to make much progress in the tougher areas anyway...
    - oneoff786 4y ago
      A larger problem is that the whole level system to all of these games is just kind of bad. It would be more fun if you just were appropriately leveled for each encounter and that was that. And each weapon were useable without needing to dedicate resources to it. I prefer feeling confident that I’m at a good state to fight something and if I’m losing it’s just a skill issue to practice. Farming in all souls games doesn’t actually net you that much, but it still feels like the easiest path forward at times. Elden ring is particularly weird with its scaling. Vigor gives much larger buffs to hp than people expect. Damage stats do much less.
      - sandworm101 4y ago
        >> It would be more fun if you just were appropriately leveled for each encounter Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. That leveling system meant you never ran into anything beyond your level. But it also mean that in the late game you were constantly hounded by insanely powerful creatures randomly out on the road.
        vkou 4y ago
        Worse yet, if your character build scaled poorly, end-game became a horrible slog. If it scaled well, end-game became a walk in the park. Unfortunately, mods that de-leveled the open world were not very good. You had no idea if you were walking into an area you outleveled, or were outleveled by, and many early quests took you to incredibly high-level areas.
      - jerf 4y ago
the_doctah 4y ago
I completely agree about the open world. The complete lack of breadcrumbs or anything to help you understand where to go made it a much worse experience for me, especially as my first souls game. The game even tells you to follow the Guidance of Grace, which leads you directly to Stormveil Castle, which you will be underleveled for. I tried playing blind and ended up in Caelid (~lvl 60 area) instead of Weeping Peninsula. That's when I noped out and spent the rest of the game with my head buried in the wiki. I couldn't imagine trying to play these games without a wiki. Everything else I enjoyed for the most part. The controls and hitboxes are a little janky, the platforming sections are total garbage (shoehorned into an old engine that never had it), but the open world execution was by far the worst aspect for me. At some point FromSoftware has to start catering to players new to the genre instead of forcing people to struggle and calling it part of the experience. With 12 mil in early sales I guarantee a bunch of players struggled with these aspects of the early game and dropped it altogether.
- godelski 4y ago
  The first guy you meet outside the cave tells you to follow the guidance of grace. The graces around the main storyline literally point to the next grace or way to go. If you follow the road you'll get there. I did get lost in the beginning because this is my first souls game and the only other game I've really played in the last 10 years is botw. But I've always have a good sense of where to go. The times I don't I explore and find something that leads me down a side quest. There's definitely lots of breadcrumbs imo. I mean if you're lost just look at the map and go towards a castle. I think what could be better is to be able to revisit people and talk to them about quest lines. Or have a log. Other than that I'm having the complete opposite experience of you and I'm sure I've died 500+ times in my 50 hrs.
  - oneoff786 4y ago
    I found a lot of sidequest breadcrumbs. Then that was it and I never found the next breadcrumb again because they teleported to an unmarked location I had been to before and had no reason to go to; standing still and saying nothing.
  - 4y ago
cma 4y ago
> I felt frustrated that I was not clearly shown where level appropriate content was. The map indicates the main path with glowy little directional markers all along it. Usually areas around the appropriate section of the main path are level appropriate, but there is much more to explore.
- oneoff786 4y ago
  Yeah I’m gonna hard disagree there. The lines, and even the first NPC you meet, immediately lead you to storm veil castle which is a total trap. Margit is a very strong first boss, with unblockable chip damage and some fairly long and difficult to dodge combos. Heck he’s probably one of the hardest fights mechanically. The slow swings of the final boss are so much easier to avoid. If you follow the lines you will not get any flask upgrades either. And if you don’t go that way initially you could easily find yourself discovering another “main path” instead first. Imo it was really just the one time tax of getting your flasks and weapon upgrades. The initial scaling of things was just… really bad. Weapon upgrades are too good for something that’s so uncontrolled game progression wise. Flasks get way too powerful very quickly, filling up more than your entire health bar with just one of many many charges. Health starts too low but then scales up stupidly fast.

arkaic 4y ago

Sounds like you would love the Dark Souls games. They're Elden Ring without open world, and all legacy dungeons.

oneoff786 4y ago
I liked the first one. Sekiro was their best imo. But elden ring’s design philosophy seemed to start with “what if we did dark souls but all doors and passages were open from the start?” The answer is unsurprisingly that many players track awkward paths of hitting things too soon and too late. If you’re going to have such significant character progression, linear games just make more sense. Breath of the wild gets away from it because link barely gets any stronger over the course of the game. Just a bit tankier. Fighting bosses in elden ring and finding they’re drastically undertuned really ruins the point of playing a soulslike…
- rajup 4y ago
  Having played some of the soulsborne games before I much prefer being able to go away and explore something else if I hit a hard boss or area. It keeps the game much more enjoyable and not feel as "grindy". You do have a point about hitting some things earlier or later than you should, but usually under-leveled players are not going to make much progress in the tougher areas anyway...
  - oneoff786 4y ago
    A larger problem is that the whole level system to all of these games is just kind of bad. It would be more fun if you just were appropriately leveled for each encounter and that was that. And each weapon were useable without needing to dedicate resources to it. I prefer feeling confident that I’m at a good state to fight something and if I’m losing it’s just a skill issue to practice. Farming in all souls games doesn’t actually net you that much, but it still feels like the easiest path forward at times. Elden ring is particularly weird with its scaling. Vigor gives much larger buffs to hp than people expect. Damage stats do much less.
    - sandworm101 4y ago
      >> It would be more fun if you just were appropriately leveled for each encounter Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. That leveling system meant you never ran into anything beyond your level. But it also mean that in the late game you were constantly hounded by insanely powerful creatures randomly out on the road.
      - vkou 4y ago
        Worse yet, if your character build scaled poorly, end-game became a horrible slog. If it scaled well, end-game became a walk in the park. Unfortunately, mods that de-leveled the open world were not very good. You had no idea if you were walking into an area you outleveled, or were outleveled by, and many early quests took you to incredibly high-level areas.
    - jerf 4y ago

the_doctah 4y ago

I completely agree about the open world. The complete lack of breadcrumbs or anything to help you understand where to go made it a much worse experience for me, especially as my first souls game. The game even tells you to follow the Guidance of Grace, which leads you directly to Stormveil Castle, which you will be underleveled for. I tried playing blind and ended up in Caelid (~lvl 60 area) instead of Weeping Peninsula. That's when I noped out and spent the rest of the game with my head buried in the wiki. I couldn't imagine trying to play these games without a wiki. Everything else I enjoyed for the most part. The controls and hitboxes are a little janky, the platforming sections are total garbage (shoehorned into an old engine that never had it), but the open world execution was by far the worst aspect for me. At some point FromSoftware has to start catering to players new to the genre instead of forcing people to struggle and calling it part of the experience. With 12 mil in early sales I guarantee a bunch of players struggled with these aspects of the early game and dropped it altogether.

godelski 4y ago
The first guy you meet outside the cave tells you to follow the guidance of grace. The graces around the main storyline literally point to the next grace or way to go. If you follow the road you'll get there. I did get lost in the beginning because this is my first souls game and the only other game I've really played in the last 10 years is botw. But I've always have a good sense of where to go. The times I don't I explore and find something that leads me down a side quest. There's definitely lots of breadcrumbs imo. I mean if you're lost just look at the map and go towards a castle. I think what could be better is to be able to revisit people and talk to them about quest lines. Or have a log. Other than that I'm having the complete opposite experience of you and I'm sure I've died 500+ times in my 50 hrs.
- oneoff786 4y ago
  I found a lot of sidequest breadcrumbs. Then that was it and I never found the next breadcrumb again because they teleported to an unmarked location I had been to before and had no reason to go to; standing still and saying nothing.
- 4y ago

cma 4y ago

> I felt frustrated that I was not clearly shown where level appropriate content was. The map indicates the main path with glowy little directional markers all along it. Usually areas around the appropriate section of the main path are level appropriate, but there is much more to explore.

oneoff786 4y ago
Yeah I’m gonna hard disagree there. The lines, and even the first NPC you meet, immediately lead you to storm veil castle which is a total trap. Margit is a very strong first boss, with unblockable chip damage and some fairly long and difficult to dodge combos. Heck he’s probably one of the hardest fights mechanically. The slow swings of the final boss are so much easier to avoid. If you follow the lines you will not get any flask upgrades either. And if you don’t go that way initially you could easily find yourself discovering another “main path” instead first. Imo it was really just the one time tax of getting your flasks and weapon upgrades. The initial scaling of things was just… really bad. Weapon upgrades are too good for something that’s so uncontrolled game progression wise. Flasks get way too powerful very quickly, filling up more than your entire health bar with just one of many many charges. Health starts too low but then scales up stupidly fast.