TL:DR- Good game but give a year or so and people will view it like DSII. Not as good as the other From games. Seems designed to be difficult over everything else, using the fact that it's difficult to justify poor design. Can be an absolute slog to play through at times. PC port is shit. I'd put it above DSII and that's it. I'll still play and enjoy it though.
Gameplay: It's Souls with a few more mechanics. I love the guard counter as a more defensive/reactive player. Ashes of war are neat but alot of them are so powerful you start to rely on them from a majority of your damage. Alot more incantations and sorceries make playing casters decently fun. Casters were really fucking boring in every souls game imo but in ER I roll a knight/mage hybrid. Mounted combat is rudimentary but works.
Open World: It's not the worst open world I've played. Open world bosses and the occasional dungeon spice it up but the overworld itself has a vast expanse of nothing except useless crafting materials and the occasional camp with a weapon you want in a chest. Ultimately I just view it as a sandbox to level up and get gear, nothing more. Enemy placements don't seem thought out, pulling a DS2 and just plopping a fuck ton of them in an area.
Bosses: One of the weakest parts imo. Many of them do insane damage with massive health pools. So many bosses are encountered multiple times and recycled. Estimate like 20+ bosses are just recycled from previous ones. Quantity over quality. Many of the bosses just have terribly designed fights with instant and/or stunlock attacks that are nigh impossible to defend or evade. So many bosses are so big fighting the camera becomes just as important as fighting the boss.
Balance: Shits fucked. Late/end game is all over the fucking place, with some normal mob enemies still 2 shoting you at 50+ vigor. PVP is a mess with the entire meta revolving around 4 or so weapons/builds. I honestly think magic is OP in PVE atm.
for someone who hadn't played BB at the time, DS3 was way more impressive and immersive to me, say what you want about it. The jump from DS2 to DS3 was way more impressive than this. DS3 has way more engaging environments, deeper dungeons and more spectacular bosses. It's fun, but it doesn't feel like anything I can't find in another Soulsbourne game.
Nathan Nguyen
4 Playthroughs? Fucking god, I can't imagine going through that shit again. Agree with all of your points though.
It relies on patience It doesn't matter if oyu memorize an attack pattern when the boss can start another one before you finish your recovery animation, you have to wait for very big openings
Zachary Perry
Discord trannies still trying to compare it to DS2. Stop. It plays nothing and looks nothing like that abomination. You forcing this meme won't catch on, you're too obvious.
William Hernandez
>open world Can Elden ring even be considered as an open world? There is fuck all to do in the world and there is just copy pasted ruins/caves/catacombs/mines that look EXACTLY the same If Elden ring can be considered an open world game then old jrpgs like final fantasy might as well be considered open world
Christian Gutierrez
I mostly enjoyed the game, but the thought of doing it all over again makes me wince.
Chase Young
>t. tanimura
Juan Baker
>Horrible enemy placements >Reskinned bosses >The world is a chore to traverse through, with the occasional unique dungeons that are the only fun part >Starter weapon that is OP, making exploration or finding new ones completely worthless >Poorly launched game >Secret/Optional areas are the best part, but they only make up 20% of the game
Now, I may be describing DSII or ER, you be the judge
Elijah Cook
Oh yeah the chaining of combos was retarded
Jacob Watson
I'm also going for a 100%, but I'm on my 1st playthrough, still haven't explored the fourth underground, still haven't finished half of the snow map, and I'm already burnt out. I might try to power through it just so I can say I finished it
Justin Kelly
It's boring as hell (horse riding sim, fight a few bosses) but you can run through it quickly. I did 3 myself.
Evan Barnes
>Seems designed to be difficult over everything else, using the fact that it's difficult to justify poor design. I felt the exact opposite The multi boss fights for once actually feel balanced around the fact you have immense variet of tools to tackle these kinda issues. So far the only boss that just plain sucked was Rykard
Justin Walker
I agree with most of these points. I think ER is one of From's weaker efforts. It's still a good game, but it succeeds in spite of the open world, not because of it.
Leo Williams
The gank bosses are a bit better than in ds2 because usually only one is attacking you while the rest stays behind, but they're still gank bosses
Lucas Roberts
It's basically a modernized Final Fantasy I. Yep. Zero replayability. I ran an NG+ as soon as I beat Sekiro the first time.
Jack Nguyen
The ridiculous number of Sites of Grace really diminishes the feeling of 'vastness' that you would normally expect from an open world which is disappointing after the initial honeymoon phase ends
Sebastian Brooks
Yes it is open world in the same way MGSV is open world.
Zachary Cruz
The ridiculous number of Sites of Grace really diminishes the feeling of 'vastness' that you would normally expect from an open world which is disappointing after the initial honeymoon phase ends
No I mean genuinly they feel fine and balanced in this game even going as melee character. I tried out the double crucible knight fight without any ashes of war, just plain sword and board cus by the time I found it, I had fought enough of crucible knights to be pretty comfortable with their behavior. It was just tedious and took ages. Actually using ashes of war it was pretty fun fight
