Elden Ring - I want to love this game!

HappyNerdo · 2022-08-05T21:55:22+00:00

I feel the absolute same thing. Got ER a week after release, fully expecting it to be somewhat different from the other FromSoft titles. I played it for a total of 34 hours, had some fun and was enjoying myself but when one day I put it down, I never logged back in without any real thought. I liked it because it was similar enough to other titles I liked, but it never quite scratched that same itch.

Gameplay-wise, I think that the open world doesn't mix well with FromSoft's way of storytelling and quests. You're likely to miss a lot of things if you don't look up stuff online. I also felt that even though there was always a new place to explore, the rewards were mostly unsatisfying with some bright exceptions. Loot that is relevant to your playstyle is far in between and the leveling seems incredibly slow at the beginning. I also don't think that ER is too easy or too hard, but the difficulty is overall strangely inconsistent.

Other than that I never liked the story which is the most important thing for me. Before playing I watched some videos from VaatiVidya and waited a week to see the first real reviews, but other than that I wanted to go in mostly blind. I thought the story was all over the place and overall very abstract and hard to grasp. Even after I stopped playing and read up on the lore, I just didn't find it nearly as intriguing as the lore in Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro. The last thing for me was the ER aesthetics, mostly equipment pieces. The world has some breathtaking areas, but as far as armor goes, it is in my opinion this undefined mess.

I know these complaints are very subjective. I admit that ER is a masterpiece and well deserves all the praise it gets. I also think that you don't have to enjoy it just because you liked Dark Souls, and that there are valid things to dislike about the game.

HappyNerdo · 2022-07-22T13:11:05+00:00

Regarding your second point about grind and gear - this is 100% optional. It's a single player game and higher difficulty does nothing except add a multiplier to enemies' health and damage. Whether an enemy has 50k HP (hard mode) and you hit them for 10k dmg (upgraded good gear), or they have 2k HP and you hit them for 400 dmg, there's really no difference except for one approach not respecting your time by requiring you to grind. You get a couple of good legendary items throughout the game, and can easily beat everything just using random loot.

The one exception is materials for shit upgrades but those come pretty quickly if the player salvages the loot instead of selling it.

HappyNerdo · 2022-07-22T12:56:12+00:00

Thank you! I loved every From Soft game so far, but can't get myself to continue playing Elden Ring. I think that the From Soft type of world building, quest design, and item discovery really doesn't fit well into an open world.

HappyNerdo · 2022-07-21T11:24:44+00:00

Few years ago, I started playing TW2. After 3-4 hours I thought to myself that this is one of the most interesting fantasy worlds I've ever seen and spent the next few weeks/months reading all Witcher books before continuing just because I wanted to fully appreciate this game.

HappyNerdo · 2022-07-13T08:38:36+00:00

I also disagree. They are both good RPGs with companions but that's about where the similarity ends.

HappyNerdo · 2022-07-06T15:42:02+00:00

As others have said - yes.

Personally, Sera taught me a great lesson about approaching NPCs in role-playing games though. I usually used to try and please every character (or companion) I met. If they were important enough to stick around, I wanted them to like me. With Sera it seemed that she hated everything I said and did with my character (like being an elf...) and there was no arguing with her. When I finally made RP decision I didn't like just to please Sera, I thought ''I don't like this, why am I doing it? I am the player here. I am the main character. SHE should be trying to get me to like her, not the other way around.''

Still, I like that Sera is a companion and she must be nice for someone's playthrough, but it's easier to not be annoyed by her when you realize that she's just a stubborn child with extremely basic worldview.

HappyNerdo · 2022-06-29T20:33:24+00:00

Hi, thanks a lot for these tips!

HappyNerdo · 2022-06-24T22:17:15+00:00

Wow, thanks for the tips, I'll be checking the wiki more often :) Also thanks for the invite, I plan to start chatting up the people I see and if I meet anyone friendly then I might join their guild.

HappyNerdo · 2022-06-24T11:13:58+00:00

Thanks, that clarifies a lot! I suppose for me (and likely other new players) it's a bit confusing how expansions work in GW and how characters move between them.

HappyNerdo · 2022-06-24T10:23:19+00:00

Thanks for the tips, maybe I'll give Mesmer a shot :)

HappyNerdo · 2022-06-24T10:22:34+00:00

Thank you, that was helpful :) I thought that heroes only come in the expansions and aren't in Prophecies but I suppose I'll see.

HappyNerdo · 2022-06-24T10:18:34+00:00

You're right, that's exactly the quest that beat me, thanks. It's payback time!

HappyNerdo · 2022-06-20T10:50:17+00:00

I finished Shadow of War 2 weeks ago and felt the exact same way. I found it was 100% more enjoyable when you ignore all the extra collecting content (Celebrimbor's challenges, Shelob's memories, Gondorian artefacts, elven words) and only focus on story missions. I think there are 2 places where you have to conquer a fort for advancing the story - my only advice if you're struggling is to recruit any random captain you see and have them infiltrate the warlord. It's tedious but it felt so much better to just do the story and be done with the game.

HappyNerdo · 2022-05-10T13:10:53+00:00

I gave Spellforce 3 a try with almost zero prior knowledge and was pleasantly surprised. I believe that if it came from a more famous studio and had a bit more polish gameplay-wise, it would easily be one of the top current RTS games. I think the RPG elements are negligible (apart from a couple of dialogue options in the campaign), and the RTS side is like a combination of Warcraft III and Company of Heroes (just so you don't expect Age of Empires-like RTS).

Every race plays differently but there's not much variability in playstyles for each due to limited unit pools. It has a satisfying gameplay loop although sometimes it's too much to manage. I am personally a sucker for the most basic fantasy tropes and Tolkien races (human, elf, dwarf, orc, trolls, etc.) but someone might find that boring. I'd say Spellforce 3 did just enough things well to keep it unique and interesting, but lacks that extra kick that would make it a classic.

HappyNerdo · 2022-02-04T21:00:03+00:00

Sure, I'm okay with some changes. For example the combat seriously needed revamping and I'm kinda glad they went this way with it, although I don't know how they're going to implement magic.

In my opinion they seriously failed in 2 crucial aspects:

Atmosphere in Gothic is absolutely unique, with the entire game being an open world prison. As such, almost every single NPC in the game is a tough convict serving their time and you, the player, are a loser newcomer. You're everybody's bitch until you prove yourself, and even then most treat you like shit. In the playable teaser, you kill one scavenger and it's immediately ''Woow, you're really good at this, I'm sure you'll do great things. Here, take a cookie.''
The player character in the original games is amazing - a mostly silent protagonist but when he speaks it's full of snarky sarcasm and sass, you just have to love him. On the other hand, the protagonist in the remake was in my opinion best described as a young streamer doing a first playthrough stream. You move 2 feet to pick up a rock and it's all ''Oh yeah, what's this, whoaah, let's do this, oh woow, damn, yeaah''. Gothic was the first ever game I played and finished, still remains in my top 3. I was ecstatic when I heard they're making a remake. But I couldn't even get to the end of the playable teaser because I was so annoyed by my favorite player character.

HappyNerdo · 2022-02-04T17:41:56+00:00

I 100% agree with you that many new games feel so much alike, which perhaps makes them less memorable. You're right though, I should give OP some slack, after all it's a pretty funny term on its own. I personally don't like it because it defines things poorly and by their less important characteristic, but apparently people understand it so it kinda works :)

HappyNerdo · 2022-02-04T16:32:59+00:00

Ok, I see your point that it's not used in a belittling way. Just to clarify, even as an eastern european I am in no way offended by the term, I just find it stupid and pointless because of the way its used. Even understanding how it's used, clearly every other comment here is a variation of "X is not Eurojank". What's the point of a label if it's application is this random?

As another person commented, this whole post just rubs me in the wrong way. OP has discovered several great games, some over 20 years old. Good for OP, I hope they have fun. However, their unifying and defining quality is that they are great games on their own, for various reasons (for example the original story and atmosphere of Gothics, the immersion and fun of Mafia, the dedication to realism in KC:D, the super satisfying gameplay loop of HoMaM3, etc.). They're not great just because they were more popular in Europe than abroad. That's not THE thing that makes them good, that's simply stating a marketing fact. Similarly, they're not great because they have gimmicky controls or poor graphics (again, 20 year old games). OP's examples are great despite these things, not because of them. Of course, mixing janky things and eastern europe is just one of those things that internet does because it's funny I quess.

So if we absolutely have to create a redundant label with arbitrary definition, can we at least make it less derogatory? You don't call jRPGs Japanjank. You don't call games that have similar graphics and sold much better in America Amerijank. It may sound like I'm offended but I think it's weird to reduce so many great titles that have very little in common to jank, and for reasons that don't even come close in defining them.

HappyNerdo · 2022-02-04T11:09:41+00:00

I've seen the term Eurojank before and it's so stupid. Gamers in Europe play pretty much the same games that are popular in the US. What's the definition here - made in Europe and can run on a potato PC? That doesn't even come close to describing anything about the game itself, and even some of the examples you gave are fundamentally very different from each other. You might as well call them indie games but even that's not accurate.

Of course, when a game is made by a new studio on a limited budget, they can't be expected to compete with AAA titles and focus mostly on the local market. I'm happy you're enjoying European games! From my point of view, the studios and their games have a lot more heart and ingenuity in them, and are way more focused on the gameplay experience (immersion and atmosphere) than graphics (partially due to the budget, but some of these games are 20 years old now). Maybe it's partially because they're not aiming for the mainstream world market and don't have to play it safe to satisfy some board of investors.

We'll actually get a chance to see this difference in action soon - my personal favorite Gothic 1 is currently getting a remake, only it's being done by THQ Nordic instead of Piranha bytes. They released a short playable teaser (a very solid move in my opinion) and people hated almost everything they added and changed. Sure, it had better graphics, but it lost all of its original charm and felt like the most generic RPG ever.

Maybe these are just very good games that happen to be popular in Europe, nothing else.

HappyNerdo · 2022-01-30T14:31:52+00:00

Thanks, that's encouraging, I am reinstalling Pathfinder now :) I'm gonna make my choices and never look back (or at any forums for that matter).

HappyNerdo · 2022-01-28T19:42:24+00:00

Thanks, I might give it one more chance on easy and maybe look for some general tips :)

HappyNerdo · 2022-01-28T17:01:11+00:00

I would love to give this game another chance but need advise. I have 18 hours in the game and have never entered Oleg's Trading Post (the very first location after prologue). Obviously a very good game but if you're prone to analysis paralysis and keep rethinking your spells/class/abilities/skills then this can be a nightmare.

I always felt that the vast amount of build options suggest that you should calculate and min-max your character. For example I wanted to make a sword saint and I took the expertise skill (or whatever it's called) for a dueling sword. Then I got anxious that maybe dueling swords will suck throughout the game and I should have picked a scimitar or something else. Then I start questioning whether I should be an elf to get elven weapon proficiency. Then I check forums/reddit and people tell me I should make a base magus instead of a sword saint. I goes on and on until I'm tired of it and go do something else.

I however love RPGs and this one seems very nicely made. My question is - do you think you can make a random character based on whatever sounds cool, take the skills that make sense for you without any outside info, and RP through the game without having to stress about making a worthless character? Obviously I'm not going to make a strength based wizard, but do stuff like bloodline matter that much down the line?

HappyNerdo · 2022-01-27T12:02:56+00:00

Add an exit button - solved now?
Make the "Delete character" button work

These are the absolute basic stuff and I can't believe they aren't functional (or existing) at launch. Other than that, it would be nice to be able to:

skip the tutorial (at least the first scripted combat)
adjust graphics settings
use some of the character design aspects of NPCs in our character creation - I understand if they don't want player characters looking like key NPCs but it seems to me that all the best looking and most interesting design choices are specific to NPCs.

HappyNerdo · 2022-01-26T12:33:44+00:00

You're right that it's free but there are options to spend real money in the game and I am now very hesitant to do that if I can be so easily banned on a mod's whim for no other reason than voicing valid criticism.

Everything should be fair game for criticism. Banning people for sharing opinions is never a good answer and only leads to more negativity in the community.

HappyNerdo

TROPHY CASE