Seph wrote: February 8th, 2023, 8:49 am
I finished and platinumed that
Elden Ring after 120 hours and basically doing nothing else with my free time. While it's a great game, I'm left a little disappointed due to the FromSoft excesses rearing their ugly head again; especially how they can't help themselves when it comes to ridiculous difficulty and thinking that just adding multiple versions of a particular enemy should go in place of good boss design. I find this approach lazy and if they couldn't be arsed thinking of extra bosses or enemies they shouldn't have added so many areas.
The final stretch is one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had with a game, in that it felt like you were fighting Sekiro bosses with a Dark Souls toolset. The fact that one slight mistime or mistake that end you is unfair. The final boss, in particular, is trash. Maybe the worst designed thing they've ever done, which is a shame as the boss just before it would have been a fitting end. But, again, they can't help themselves but just adding more for no reason.
It's a shame because I really enjoyed exploring the world and the sense of discovery is amazing. This was the first time I played a FromSoft game where I wanted to follow all the questlines as I liked the characters and their situations. And I know I'm not alone is saying this but the discovery of an underground world was mindblowing and unexpected (as was finding a second, a third and then a FOURTH), especially as I found it without any guidance. I want more of this, less of the "fight another Crucible Knight or Watchdog or Asylum Demon reskin but this time there's two of them".
For me it's an 8/10 game that should be a 10. I'm not sure if I want to play another game by this company until they sort their shit out. By the end it felt like a chore and I was completing it out of spite so I never had to touch it again. Also, it's fine to disagree and I hope this community is above the git gud bullshit and dick waving that weirdly seems to follow this series around.
Whoa, you got platinum trophy in only 120 hours of playing? I hadn't even completed my first run after 120 hours lol. From my perspective, you breezed through. I'm guessing you used a save to get all of the endings rather than playing it through again for each?
I've seen a lot of people who echo your sentiments about the ending run and the re-use of enemies. The games does throw a lot at you in succession, so I can see how that really grinds people down and causes some resentment. I didn't have that experience myself, though. The Godskin Duo, for example, I'd seen a lot of people complaining about them prior, but I ended up beating them quite easily and even hung around to join games and do it again for runes. That made me realise I'd probably "over-levelled"; my Transient Moonlight was devastating. Ditto for the final boss, it only took me a few tries.
I had my hardest encounter about midway through with the Twin Gargoyles. They whooped me repeatedly across multiple evenings. Many swear words were used. But the rush when I finally beat them was something else. I literally jumped up from my bed and walked up on the TV shouting smack talk at it. It was very silly. Especially as I had work the next morning and had stayed up way past my usual bedtime.
I don't hold the super difficult parts against the game the way others, even Fromsoftware regulars, do. I think it's partly because it did always "feel fair" to me, the rush of finally winning was always a worthwhile reward, and a lot of the time I could just go somewhere else for a bit if something was winding me up too much. But the bigger help was in sharing commiseration and jokes about the losses with my friends and the wider community. Me and my flatmate both got it day 1 and basically played through at the same pace. We didn't beat that many of the main bosses together, we were usually off in different directions, but we shared tips and memes and joked at our own expense. That really helped to take the sting out of the more frustrating death loops. And I loved coming across messages from other players along those lines. I even had my life saved a good few times by people liking one of the dumb jokes or helpful messages (usually the former) I put down occasionally.
I didn't have the same annoyance with the re-use of enemies or doubles matches. I started off hating the crucible knights, but through repeatedly fighting them I really got into the rhythm of their attacks, and they were one of my favourite enemies to encounter by the end (again, taking more damage helped too). The double fights could feel insurmountable, it's chaotic trying to dodge two at once, but they were so much fun if I brought my pal in, and I could just about handle them with the mimic ash if he wasn't around.
On what you say at the end. Yeah, the "git gud' types are obnoxious. But I find there are more who get it and want to help than want to kick someone while they are down. Maybe I'm just steering clear of the worst places!
