4131

I agree that Astrologer is way, way easier than melee. I can kill most bosses in one attempt.

I’m also someone who bounced off of the DS games – I managed to get 20 hours into DS3 – but I’m generally enjoying ER. Though I admit the GRIM DARK setting is starting to wear on me.

I recently met Ranni and accepted her quest to, uh, reset the world or something? Sounded a bit like Sylvanas from WoW. I get the impression it’s probably “bad”, but as a player my opinion is, “Shit yeah, flush this shitty GRIM DARK world away and start over.”

4132

Gah! Even Balasarius is ahead of me!

4133

I’m only 25 hours in if it makes you feel better. At the Raya Academy or whatever it is called. Using a double greatsword build and jumping attacks. Everything is melee but I am enjoying it so far.

4134

I just finished Raya Academy this weekend! Yay! We’re at the same spot! (I’m 56 hours in though, I guess I take too long exploring the open world spaces).

4135

As I have limited gaming time, I basically explore an area then watch Fighting Cowboy’s walkthroughs on youtube for the same area to go and complete anything that I have missed. I miss about a third to 50% depending upon the area.

4136

I started as Prisoner but am going sorcery first. Int to 54 for Comet spell, is it? Can’t believe you did it by level 66. You’re not feeling too squishy?

4137

There’s an ugly-ass helm in Raya Academy that adds +6 INT.

4138

Game-clock says 65 hours, and my level 72 Samurai has (I’m wearing both Marika’s Scarseal and Radagon’s Soresesl, and raw/base stat in parenthesis):

  • Vigor 30 (25), Mind 25 (22), Endurance 22 (17), Strength 18 (13), Dexterity 31 (26), Intelligence 34 (31), Faith 12 (9), Arcane 11 (8)
  • Equipment-wise, I’m mostly using Moonveil+6, Horn Bow+7, Meteorite Staff and wearing the Royal Remains set.
  • The third talisman I swap out for things like Erdtree’s Favor, Immunizing Horn Charm, Carian Filigreed Crest and Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger.
  • My flasks are +8 with a 6-5 Health/Manage split. My Wondrous Physick tends to use Opaline (negates damage from first hit) and Greenburst Crystal (increases stamine recovery)

Just defeated Radahn (cheesed by taking 3/4 of his health via running around on horseback and having summons do the work and then finally waded in for the last 1/4 LOL) and am futzing around Caelid and the like before going down to Nokron.

Most of the time I can use Transient Moonlight and either Oleg, Lhutel or Latenna for bosses, but it’s nice to have Glintstone Pebble and Rock Sling as a backup if my Horn Bow doesn’t do enough ranged damage for a boss – I cheese Commander O’Neil by running around him and spamming Glintstone Pebble after he and his adds took out Lhutel.

4139

Man, this game is so big that more than once I’ve remembered there’s a whole area I uncovered and then left to do something else and then just…forgot about.

4140

I intended to take her quest further but somehow got off track. maybe I’ll make another attempt.

4141

There have been a couple boss fights where I felt too fragile, but most other things die fast enough I don’t have time to die :-) I also divide my flasks up so I have 6 or 7 mana to 2 healing so I can cast magic without worrying about running out.

4142

I forgot to account for that. I unequipped my talismans, but I had that equipped when I said 54. I really have 48 intelligence and 57 with everything equipped.

4143

Nokron: Discovering that place was such a treat. Did not realise what happened before that made it available and was like “huh, how did I not see these rocks before?” - based on the things I’ve missed and returned to find later it wasn’t too far fetched. Also the mimic fight was funny! After fighting that deer (again) and some other roaming boss I feel like there’s more somewhere but can’t seem to understand where. I’m pretty sure some npc asked me to go get something or kill somebody down here but it’s a bit blurry.

4144

You guys don’t need to be afraid of the spoiler thread. Most of us still blur out the late game stuff. Come on over and chat!

Just remember that if anyone starts talking about your maiden’s uncle’s captain of the guard’s step-sister who is also a giant mosquito, close the thread immediately!

4145

Holy crap. After 100 hours I’ve just discovered you can sell extra armor and weapons. Dang, I’ve been destroying that stuff! Lol. I never thought to click the tabs at the top of the screen on the sell tab. DOH!

4146

I just disliked the whole opening. No explanation of anything, discovery through death of new features, are those notes on the ground left by other users or the developers or what and why do they lie? Why do I care to rate the notes? Why do I want to touch the blood stains? Why did it tell me to jump only so I can die? Really, a boss I can’t beat is how you teach me how death works? How do I aim at that guy shooting arrows at me on the bridge so that two out of three shots don’t go to the side? Why is your UX so freaking obscure?

I had a great time designing my character, though. The character editor is great.

I’m sure if I’d given it a full hour I’d have figured out the mechanics and embraced the awesomeness of the world they created. Maybe if I decide to give it a second chance I’ll watch a YouTube “getting started in Elden Ring” video first. (But I shouldn’t have to.) But I decided to check it out before bedtime and even if this game isn’t as sadistic as the Souls games once you get into it, the initial experience certainly was reminiscent enough of those games to make the annoyance overpower any excitement over the world they’d built.

Decided I’d rather replay Witcher III or just play the latest Far Cry rehash. At least those devs don’t seem to want to put me through the gaming equivalent of a Japanese torture gameshow before I can enjoy the game.

I realize all of the people enjoying this are shaking their heads at my post and are annoyed I gave up so quickly. But the initial impressions a game makes are important, and my initial impression was that the designers’ idea of how to introduce game mechanics didn’t fit what I’m looking for in my limited entertainment time.

See? Crappy UX. :)

4147

I agree with a lot of what you wrote. There’s not enough story elements, and they’re so far and few between I’ve often forgotten names or what was going on. Death to start, and putting a mega boss at the beginning is harsh. I know it’s “their thing”, but unless you’ve been told you have to die to realize you can’t take on enemies, it kinda sucks.

But you do learn to adapt. Now I stay on my horse, take a whack and if it’s doesn’t do much damage I run away, or if a whack from them levels me to almost nothing. I started taking notes (something I haven’t had to do for a long time) to remind me of what’s going on, and what/where quests have left off.

It is quite the learning curve and is not a typical RPG in any stretch of the imagination. It it is rewarding when you do learn it and can come back and take out the impossible creatures. But getting there is hard and takes a lot of time.

4148

To be fair to the game, and perhaps poke fun at @jpinard a little, every vendor has a “Purchase” and “Sell” option. So while I agree that a lot of their mechanics are obscure, perhaps on purpose in a lot of cases, selling your unwanted stuff isn’t one of those things.

4149

As someone who never played From’s earlier games, I agree about a lot of the UX features not being explained well enough (or at all). But this game is so beautiful and atmospheric that I feel it’s totally worth stumbling through the initial couple of hours.

There are spoiler-free beginner’s videos on Youtube, and also I’m sure mostly everyone here would be happy to answer even the most basic UX questions.

One of the most helpful UX tips that I saw in a video that didn’t seem to be explained in the game is that holding down a directional button will switch to the first inventory item for that slot. Before that, I was madly trying to fumble through physik and mana pots when trying to heal myself while getting mashed.

As for the rest of the game, I love that nothing is really explained. No quest markers littered all over the map. You just meander about and explore, and if you unknowingly run into some new area that’s beyond your current abilities, it can be a terrifying experience.

4150

Yea , I’m just stupid lol. I couldn’t sell armor in Demon’s Souls, so I just expected it was the same in this game, or wait…. WAS I able to sell armor and weapons in Demon’s Souls?!