Elden Ring - From Software + George RR Martin

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Droigan

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I'd say that Elden Ring has quite a few of the zones that would be considered "shitty" in terms of traversal and encounters in them, except they are 95% mitigated by Torrent. Traversal in Caelid or Liurnia for example would not be very fun if Torrent wasn't in the game. Poison and scarlet lakes everywhere mixed in with lobsters and giant dogs and birds everywhere that close to oneshot you with their wombos.

The only zone I can remember where the entirely of it was a hassle was the scarlet lake one where you couldn't summon Torrent and you had to run around raising the platforms and pillars. But that didn't have an annoying encounters, just the "boss" warden/dragon thing which wasn't very difficult.

But due to Torrent, in the open world, everything felt completely fine. I "disliked" one place in the entire game, a tomb where you had to run around doing the puzzles for the light to be able to kill the mobs and such. There might have been more, but one was really long, several floors and it was just a hassle. Overstayed its welcome. Other than that, all the other tombs were ok since they were fairly short (though, one of the only negatives of Elden Ring, they got somewhat repetative by design and encounters)
 
OU Ariakas

OU Ariakas

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The fucking dungeon that is the 3 level maze where you can only tell that you are in a new part is because the enemy layout changes/there are no bodies from previously killed enemies. That one sucked but felt really good to figure out and complete.
 
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Hateyou

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The ER chariot dungeons are the only ones I really remember getting annoyed with.
 
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Grizzlebeard

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OU Ariakas said:
The fucking dungeon that is the 3 level maze where you can only tell that you are in a new part is because the enemy layout changes/there are no bodies from previously killed enemies. That one sucked but felt really good to figure out and complete.
Click to expand...

That dungeon with the teleporting chests and imps always throws me as well.
 
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Kirun

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Tuco said:
Going back to Dark Souls after ER seems like it'd be tough.
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Can confirm.

I kind of missed out on the "Souls" craze of 1, 2, 3, Bloodborne, Sekiro, etc. I remember watching a buddy of mine being a massive fan and watching him play through most of 1 and 2, but still had just a passing interest.

Then obviously there was all the mega hype surrounding Elden Ring. I followed the game and figured, "wtf? I guess I might as well get into the genre with this one" and was absolutely floored. Probably a top 3 all-time game for me. I loved it so much so that I tried to go back and play the others (something I almost never do with franchises I start late). I made it about 3-5 hours into each one before I quit and just wanted to go play more Elden Ring.

The horse and the open world just completely transformed the experience for me. I'm sure had I played the Souls games on their "original" release I would've enjoyed them and had fun. But replay? Or even consider them a top 10ish game? Doubtful.
 
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Bald Brah

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The teleport one with the chests and the one with those stupid cat statues that one shot you was pretty annoying. But it's optional and later in the game. You're bound to have some filler here and there.

The chariot ones didn't bother me since they were usually straight forward. The ones where you get lost and have to back track a bunch of times are way worse.
 
kroenen

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Rajaah said:
Well, when I do get to DS3 (probably within 2024) you all will be the first to hear all about it on here.
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Elden Ring - From Software George RR Martin.png



Danny Devito Smh GIF

​

 
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Rajaah

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Droigan said:
I'd say that Elden Ring has quite a few of the zones that would be considered "shitty" in terms of traversal and encounters in them, except they are 95% mitigated by Torrent. Traversal in Caelid or Liurnia for example would not be very fun if Torrent wasn't in the game. Poison and scarlet lakes everywhere mixed in with lobsters and giant dogs and birds everywhere that close to oneshot you with their wombos.

The only zone I can remember where the entirely of it was a hassle was the scarlet lake one where you couldn't summon Torrent and you had to run around raising the platforms and pillars. But that didn't have an annoying encounters, just the "boss" warden/dragon thing which wasn't very difficult.

But due to Torrent, in the open world, everything felt completely fine. I "disliked" one place in the entire game, a tomb where you had to run around doing the puzzles for the light to be able to kill the mobs and such. There might have been more, but one was really long, several floors and it was just a hassle. Overstayed its welcome. Other than that, all the other tombs were ok since they were fairly short (though, one of the only negatives of Elden Ring, they got somewhat repetative by design and encounters)
Click to expand...

Agreed that Torrent mitigates a lot of ER's potentially tedious travel, especially Caelid.

I think of ER's overworld (everything on the map, plus the underworld) and legacy dungeons (the main big zone in each overworld area, plus unique areas like Caria Manor and Castle Sol) as being the areas that got the same effort put into them as the zones in other Souls games. All of the caves and catacombs and mines etc felt like they were just added bonuses and I don't particularly hold them up to scrutiny the same way. Most of the game's weak points are in those.

If comparing ER's overworld and legacy dungeon zones to the roster of zones in the other games, ER blows away most of the series in quality level. Dark Souls 2's five best areas are on the level of ER's lesser areas, for example. Dark Souls 1... as good as the level design is I'd probably only put Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo on the "could have a spot in ER" level.

It's all kinda subjective though. And the multitude of small optional dungeons in ER drag the average way down, for people who do count them.
 
Seananigans

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Haha I love this emergent meme.

I still have (some) faith. I managed to badger him into finally playing Sekiro and now it's one of his top FromSoft games. Or perhaps I like to believe I possess that level of influence.
 
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Hatorade

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I love DS3 but after some thought. DS1 firelink shrine is a masterpiece, compared to the garbage that is DS3 and Demons Souls. Main hubs should never be designed with such verticality while using stairs the way they do.
 
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Tuco

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If you've played DS1, DS2 and ER, Dark Souls 3 can be safely skipped.
 
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Chris

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If I've played Elden Ring, can I skip DS, DS1, DS2, DS3, Sekiro and Bloodborne?
 
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Hateyou

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Chris said:
If I've played Elden Ring, can I skip DS, DS1, DS2, DS3, Sekiro and Bloodborne?
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If you want to miss out on some of the best games from the past fifteen years, sure go ahead.
 
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Tuco

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Chris said:
If I've played Elden Ring, can I skip DS, DS1, DS2, DS3, Sekiro and Bloodborne?
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If you really loved the combat and lore of ER, it's definitely worth looking into those. I have no opinion on which would be first.
 
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Utnayan

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Demon souls remake, DS1, DS3, DS2 - Bloodborne and last, Sekiro.

Have an ample supply of spare controllers :p
 
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Vinjin

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My first and only Fromsoft experience is Elden Ring. It hooked me big time and is now one of my favorite games in a very long time. When I finished it, I was more than pumped to try some of the older FS games.

I ended up buying DS1 but I didn’t get very far into it. The game design is so archaic compared to ER, it basically ruined any enjoyment I got from the gameplay.

I’ve considered that perhaps my mistake was going too far back to DS1 and should try DS3 but I want to say the last time I checked, it wasn’t available through Steam?
 
Seananigans

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Vinjin said:
I ended up buying DS1 but I didn’t get very far into it. The game design is so archaic compared to ER, it basically ruined any enjoyment I got from the gameplay.
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Super curious why you say this. Is it just the fact it's not an open world?

From my perspective, ignoring the style and system choices that are intentionally made (like open world or not), the differences between all of the FromSoft iterations are pretty small and obvious results of gradual evolution. But I'd hardly consider the older games "archaic."
 
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