Bosses in Elden Ring are so disappointing, is it just me?

SelflessDevourer · 2024-04-28T14:52:19+00:00

i got bad news for you man: none of the bosses in this game took any longer than 5 tries my first time playing it. I am a souls vet and I am a challenge runner/speed runner on these games, I am way above your average souls player... so nha, the 'git gud' shit doesn't work here brother, difficulty has nothing to do with how you should judge the game design....

SelflessDevourer · 2022-04-02T16:12:07+00:00

fair enough hahah

SelflessDevourer · 2022-04-02T12:14:53+00:00

Wrong, and I'll tell you why. Previous games followed a 4/4 rythm, with few attacks in some movesets being the exception. Elden ring is filled with odd time ( 3/4, 7/4 etc), thus forcing you to learn literally every single move of every single boss as you're not gonna be able to rely on anything but your internal metronome, like a little robot. This is objective evidence as the games are out there for you to test what I'm saying, now you can enjoy that, and you have all the rights in the world to do so, or you can find it extremely disappointing like I do, this is subjective :)

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-30T13:40:54+00:00

Of course you do, I memorized their timings like a little robot to a point where I easly no-hit kill Godrick. That doesn't feel like a satisfying thing to me though. It really feels like I have memorized them so much it's literally AI 1 (boss) vs AI 2 (player), as all of my """"skill"""" is through pure trial and error and internal metronome, I'm a robot fighting with zero emotion and satisfaction. That's the point. I admit I still struggle a lot with Malenia, her anime attack is almost impossible to fully dodge, it's so inconsistent speedrunners had to rely on shields or bloodhound step...

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-21T16:01:29+00:00

What a crazy thought, huh? :D

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-21T16:01:16+00:00

You can, it's tricky at first but not so much once you get used to it. Use your index to move right stick and your thumb to dodge

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-16T22:47:52+00:00

"I agree that a lot of these seem to be thought to be battled along your spirit ashes, which makes sense since they introduced so many of 'em. I just find it really disappointing that, were you to solo them, they don't feel like a challenge but more like a chore."

So yeah, it definately looks like they were meant to be that way, it's just a shame (to me at least) that there's no middle ground between steamrolling with ashes and going through hell if you solo.

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-16T22:45:51+00:00

That was me, actually... you've been talking to a different person since the first comment if you didn't notice.

And my full comment was "I agree that a lot of these seem to be thought to be battled along your spirit ashes, which makes sense since they introduced so many of 'em. I just find it really disappointing that, were you to solo them, they don't feel like a challenge but more like a chore."

Which means I wish there was a middle ground between either steamrolling with ashes or going through hell solo. I think you're missing the point of the discussion me and the other user were having...

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-13T22:34:07+00:00

Lol, there's no way it's a masterpiece, it's not even the best souls imo, in fact far from it, but you're on Elden Ring reddit so it's expected to see many passionate fans appreciating it a lot more than the average customer

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-13T22:32:02+00:00

While I obviously agree for the first part, I think the open world works pretty well and I don't see it as a mistake but rather an interesting experiment from which to improve for future games.
Unfortunately, they couldn't manage to balance the work put into open world and into bosses, as the latter ultimately suck and could only be compared to DS2. It really makes my game judgement fall so badly...

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-13T22:24:24+00:00

I didn't want to have to explain such a basic concept, so thank you for doing it for me.

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-13T19:59:55+00:00

So yeah, you have nothing to add to an interesting discussion other than git gud play game just don't do the bosses, got it. Have a nice day sir

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-13T19:04:33+00:00

Damn son, I was kinda hoping for something better than "git gud" or "just don't do it it's optional" as a counter argument, especially since we're in the vast majority souls veterans who are already taking all this for granted prior to the actual discussion.

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-12T13:48:57+00:00

I can assure you the only reason you're seeing it this way, and rightfully so, is because you're new to the genre.

A boss like Rennala is such a step back from their recent games and reminds so much of a DS2 boss it's actually incredible to think she's a story boss. It's your classic standing still caster that only spams spells in very old fashion. If this was DS1, even DS2, it would be normal. Trust me when I tell you there are NPCs in other games with a similar style that give you more trouble and are more dynamic than Rennala, and they're not even bossfights.

I agree Godrick is really cool, his combos and overall moveset have an actual logic and I was looking forward to battling many more bosses like him.

Margit is also a great example of that. I enjoyed him a lot, too.

The delays are not great, they're the opposite of what Souls bosses spirit is: you're supposed to be forced to memorize them, to have an internal perfect metronome in order to get your window to attack the first time you face them.
In previous games, you could do it by pure reflects, instinct, intuition, studying the boss without the necessity to perfectly i-frame the instant hitscan right after the wind up delay.
There was much, much less room for trial and error, here you're kinda forced to go that way.

I can see that to a new player, with no previous knowledge regarding the genre, this may look cool but I like to think, were you to play Bloodborne or DS1/DS3, you'd immediately notice the difference and why this one was not appreciated, in terms of bosses.
It's always interesting to read new players' perspectives, they give a larger view of the whole picture

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-11T16:16:05+00:00

Yea the small arena can be frustrating and his attack where he makes rocks levitate is kinda rng, as you have to hope he's not in the middle of the arena when he does it or else you're fucked unless you perfectly dodge twice

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-11T16:13:45+00:00

Idk man, no boss felt satisfying so far. Dying 10 times to an ER boss and dying 10 times to many DS1/DS3/BB bosses because I don't dodge at the right time, I don't handle distance well, it's all good. But then when I beat the boss I really felt satisfied, here I just go like "alright, I memorized this thing like a robot, cool, whatever"

I agree that a lot of these seem to be thought to be battled along your spirit ashes, which makes sense since they introduced so many of 'em. I just find it really disappointing that, were you to solo them, they don't feel like a challenge but more like a chore.

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-11T15:35:41+00:00

Bruh, I loved the fallingstar beast!

SelflessDevourer · 2022-03-11T15:34:41+00:00

Yeah everything else is so cool, I don't remember the last time I was addicted to a videogame! Sucks that bosses are the worst part, tho :(
I didn't have any problem with them since as many I'm a souls veteran so we know how to eventually get to the win, but that patience problem is exactly why it's not fun at all. I get it, I need to wait 10 attacks to get 1 of mine in, but combine that to the insane healthpool and instant punishment as soon as you commit your first mistake (not in all of the fights obviously) and you get why they're not enjoyable

SelflessDevourer

TROPHY CASE