Elden Ring: a thread specifically for spoilers

Elden Ring is almost upon us. I think spoilers should go here, keep the other thread a safe place.

Great idea - there are some gameplay mechanics I’d like to discuss but some folks consider even something like how the ashes if war can be used to modify any weapons damage type and scaling properies.

This game has spandex?! I’m out.

I would have gone with “Souls” myself, to keep it more on brand and still alliterative. :)

But then you would have lost the powerful plosive that propounds portents of plunder.

For real, though, I want no spoilers so I really am out.

I hear there are lots of spiders.

There is one crazy giant hand full of fingers that was shown in the official gameplay trailer, it was something I had no idea I was terrified of until I saw it. I mean filled with fingers, like 12 of them, adorned with various rings and jewelry, crawling around and being as big as a fucking elephant. WTF.

I know we’re in the spoiler thread, but there is no real expectation of someone popping here and getting an actual spoiler a full day before the game is out, so I’ll spoil anything I post in here (I’m not sticking around long myself).

The OpenCritic and Metacritic don’t have them pulled in just yet - probably by the time I finish typing this up - but I see individual reviews getting linked from the Review thread on ERA and it’s all 5 out of 5s, 10 out of 10s, and 9.something out of 10s from the half a dozen so far. My confidence level is high.

Yeah, I was a little off with my 92.

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I generally don’t give a crap about reviews, but these are surprisingly high ratings.

I said I was waiting for reviews.

So yeah, I bought the game. Not sure when I’ll play it, but I bought it out of sheer FOMO. ;)

So do you know if there are any “nightmare apostle” type spiders from bloodborne in the game? I have pretty bad arachnophobia, I think I’ll be able to deal with the hand thing, was ok with Quelagg DS1, and I surprisingly got over the sewer centipedes in Dark souls 3 after forcing myself through a few of them haha. But those nightmare apostles, man, that straight up drew the line for me. Couldn’t even get through watching gameplay of them. Every other enemy type I’m cool with, just damn spiders!

I don’t know of any, but I imagine given the size and scope of the game, the idea they didn’t use any spiders or spider-type creatures is incredibly slim. I’m going to go ahead and say “Yeah, there are some real nightmare spider shaped things in this game” - but something to consider as well is given the size and scope of the game, you could avoid such an encounter once you discover it (or hear about it) under most circumstances. Just turn around and nope out and go in another direction to explore.

Of course, I do say “most” circumstances because it’s possible that such an encounter is along the critical path, and I have no way of knowing if that will happen. It sounds like, when pressed, you are able to power through so my advice is to not worry about it, have fun and enjoy the experience, and just be ready to pivot if something comes up.

You just know they had to have an open world reveal after the initial dungeon.

first spoiler. I found some kind of guardian statue, I activated it and now it is sending blue light in a direction. My first quest in this adventure …
Also, the telescope has multiple zoom levels and actually zooms in.

I bet you can craft hundreds of food items, that’s George R.R. Martins contribution. And if there are ships in the game, all ship names will be done by Martin.

Also, why is there no opening cinematic, only painted/static images. They are nicely done, and the voice is male for a change. But I miss somehow the superb little movie shorts intros…

Did anyone else take the key for your starting item and then use it on the translucent fog wall near where you exit into the open world?

I gave up on trying to get to the bottom of it, for reasons that immediately become obvious.

I took the key, but I will safe it for later…

I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t really get to try the first fight. The enemy was on me and killed me before I really had a handle on the controls (since I had a wand in my left hand, and a sword in my right hand). So I was annoyed that you’re supposed to lose that fight and get transported.

I guess if I create a second character, I’ll get to try that fight for real.

They do that in some of the games.

So I guess the story of the game is you need to find a woman to hitch yourself to, since all the characters are going on about not having a maiden. Jeez, cut me some slack guys.

Maybe once you find her, you’ll marry her with the elden ring!

It is a little weird that they let you loose on the open world without giving you a way of leveling up and without your horse.

And yet people here are talking as if they have done both those things already. Levelled and got their horse. It makes me wonder if I’m exploring the “wrong” area in the open world first.

Another thing they do in some of the games. Just follow the yellow light to near the gates and explore the open area there. Think about where you’d want a horse.