Im not having much fun with elden ring anymore

Poll of the Day

Poll of the Day » Im not having much fun with elden ring anymore
I started around time dlc came out. I feel it started strong but the gameplay is starting to wear on me. Currently in snowy area at the warrior dude who spawns with two ghost warrior dudes. It feels like every single encounter so far has been an absolute struggle and I'm just getting tired. Game feels like it gives you no breaks. Also probably just standard from software stuff. On a side note the world is beautiful and the voice acting is great.
Switch Code: SW-5421-8761-9807 IGN: Chris
Pokemon Home Friend Code: XSNF-XRED-EWDK 3DS:5112-3770-6561
It is an exhausting game. I can't say it's bad, it's mostly fantastic, but I definitely think it's way too long.

(I'm probably much worse than most at 520+ hours without having even beat it once yet.)
This day is gone. We can't relive it. It's gone forever.
https://www.stopkillinggames.com
I just don't like the gameplay loop of dying for an hour on every single boss with no learned skills that carry on to the next boss. It's like an endless loop of memorizing arbitrary boss patterns. Every single struggle is an exclusive one to defeat that specific enemy and their patterns.

If it's going to be a time sink I'd like to at least get good at the game. I think the whole thing is fundamentally not what I want out of a video game.

I also don't like how much emphasis goes into rolling, for a game with such a realistic fighting style, rolling is useless in real life, but you roll around 70% of the time.

I want dark souls that removes the grind and let's you keep basic combat skills from one boss to another. Then throw the curve balls.

I also don't care for the story, it feels like angstier lotr with less thought. But lotr had fun moments with characters you loved that made you kind of happy too. There's no stakes when I'm fighting "Akiro the great lost" as "some random zombie looking guy".

/Dark souls rant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C_Wrt6pNSw
The later part of the game is just kind of not fun. Everything does a lot of damage and is insanely acrobatic. It's just not in the cards for me to replay more, and I go through dark souls 1-3 usually at least once a year.
"I, Garland, will knock you all down!"
Oddly enough I've had more success with jumping than rolling a lot of the time.

But yeah, it's tiring, especially since I don't get a lot of time to game these days
Switch Code: SW-5421-8761-9807 IGN: Chris
Pokemon Home Friend Code: XSNF-XRED-EWDK 3DS:5112-3770-6561
Casters typically have the easiest time fighting I also just run by a lot of open world shit. Barring a few rare cases it's very easy to just get on torrent and just run by enemies.
Getting too damn old for this crap!
Yellow posted...
I just don't like the gameplay loop of dying for an hour on every single boss with no learned skills that carry on to the next boss. It's like an endless loop of memorizing arbitrary boss patterns. Every single struggle is an exclusive one to defeat that specific enemy and their patterns.
in a regular DS game, there is only so much content, and once you've gone through it, you get to go through it again with different characters using what you now know to make short work of what was pretty tough when you didn't know. I've played through DS1 something like 8+ times for example. DS2 around 5 and DS3 around 3, I think.

but in ER... there is just more, and more, and more, and more content... in some sense it's amazing that a game of this complexity can also have this scale. normally a game would sacrifice complexity for scale. but while it's great in theory, we're not immortal automatons with infinite time and energy. we have to stop sometime...

for DS1, with around 8 complete playthroughs and numerous other partial playthroughs, I have only ~360 hours played... and I have not played 400 in any of DS1-3 or Sekiro. (Sekiro I played through 3 or so times and am only at 150 hours).

in contrast I have not yet completed ER and have 520 hours and counting, though that's also with some restarts, but then so is DS1. and that's before DLC for ER, but with DLC for DS1-3.
This day is gone. We can't relive it. It's gone forever.
https://www.stopkillinggames.com
Sahuagin posted...
in a regular DS game, there is only so much content, and once you've gone through it, you get to go through it again with different characters using what you now know to make short work of what was pretty tough when you didn't know. I've played through DS1 something like 8+ times for example. DS2 around 5 and DS3 around 3, I think.

but in ER... there is just more, and more, and more, and more content... in some sense it's amazing that a game of this complexity can also have this scale. normally a game would sacrifice complexity for scale. but while it's great in theory, we're not immortal automatons with infinite time and energy. we have to stop sometime...

Yeah, "giant open world" and "high replayability" are concepts that are kind of at odds with each other. Using what you learned from your first playthrough to help you through NG+ and/or playing through the game with a different build works a lot better in a 20-hour game than a 200-hour game, even assuming all of the content is of the same quality and the 200-hour game hasn't just been padded to inflate the playtime.
This is my signature. It exists to keep people from skipping the last line of my posts.
Sahuagin posted...
It is an exhausting game. I can't say it's bad, it's mostly fantastic, but I definitely think it's way too long.

(I'm probably much worse than most at 520+ hours without having even beat it once yet.)

Wth have you done for THAT long and not been at least NG+++? Lol
Bit by bit I chip away at the beginning to a masterpiece.
PSN: Vitruvian_Horror
there's not even 500 hours worth of content in this game
see my gundams here
https://imgur.com/a/F7xKM5r
updated 08/01/24; hg mighty strike freedom
ConfusedTorchic posted...
there's not even 500 hours worth of content in this game

I have a total of about 590 hours but that's across 3 characters with different builds and different objectives. For one I intentionally skip content. I reserve certain content for certain characters. It helps with replayability and there's plenty enough content to be able to do that.
500 hours on one character and not beating it seems nuts and I can see why anyone would become bored or burned out.
Bit by bit I chip away at the beginning to a masterpiece.
PSN: Vitruvian_Horror
Elden Ring balances itself by giving you a billion tools (both potential ones and ones that you should have in your pocket if you're playing thoroughly). Just use ashes or any of the million cheap-ass Ashes of War you can put on your weapons. Or you could re-spec if you really need to. Or summon some guys to help you. Or go somewhere else to progress. There's always a lot you can do unless you're stuck against an end-game storyline boss.
SomeUsername529 posted...
Elden Ring balances itself by giving you a billion tools (both potential ones and ones that you should have in your pocket if you're playing thoroughly). Just use ashes or any of the million cheap-ass Ashes of War you can put on your weapons. Or you could re-spec if you really need to. Or summon some guys to help you. Or go somewhere else to progress. There's always a lot you can do unless you're stuck against an end-game storyline boss.

It really is one of the greatest games ever made. Once you "get it" you see it for what it is and you appreciate the rarity of its elements and its whole. My favorite game of all time was Earthbound since 1995 until 2022 when Elden Ring released. For me, it's THAT good.
Bit by bit I chip away at the beginning to a masterpiece.
PSN: Vitruvian_Horror
What drives me nuts is that I understand why a lot of people can see it as good, I'm just not really getting those same feelings as those people are.

Switch Code: SW-5421-8761-9807 IGN: Chris
Pokemon Home Friend Code: XSNF-XRED-EWDK 3DS:5112-3770-6561
CarefreeDude posted...
What drives me nuts is that I understand why a lot of people can see it as good, I'm just not really getting those same feelings as those people are.
Same honestly

I rationalize why I don't like it but at the end of the day I'm still happy it exists because it's a good work of art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C_Wrt6pNSw
CarefreeDude posted...
What drives me nuts is that I understand why a lot of people can see it as good, I'm just not really getting those same feelings as those people are.
What has prevented you from beating it?
Bit by bit I chip away at the beginning to a masterpiece.
PSN: Vitruvian_Horror
Malleum posted...
Wth have you done for THAT long and not been at least NG+++? Lol
5 characters total, 3 that made it relatively far incl. 1 that made it to the end but didn't beat it (2 years ago) and 1 that I'm on right now that is around half way, but I intend to complete the game with, if I don't die of exhaustion first.

Malleum posted...
500 hours on one character and not beating it seems nuts and I can see why anyone would become bored or burned out.
not 1 character. my first character that did almost but not quite everything is at 255 hours. but that was 2 years ago.

Malleum posted...
It really is one of the greatest games ever made. Once you "get it" you see it for what it is and you appreciate the rarity of its elements and its whole. My favorite game of all time was Earthbound since 1995 until 2022 when Elden Ring released. For me, it's THAT good.
I agree that it's fantastic, I just don't quite have the stamina for it. (but I'm trying...)
This day is gone. We can't relive it. It's gone forever.
https://www.stopkillinggames.com
I agree with you that the Fromsoft games made a mistake when they decided that the way to go with boss designs was to make enemies with longer and flashier combos. That's just ANNOYING, and it can make a lot of fights feel very samey. Those should be reserved for only really special fights, and I mean REALLY special fights. It should be very, very rare if it happens at all.
Hi
Malleum posted...
What has prevented you from beating it?

nothing has stopped me from beating it (honestly still slowly slogging through it) but I'm not getting the good feels a lot of other players are getting.
Switch Code: SW-5421-8761-9807 IGN: Chris
Pokemon Home Friend Code: XSNF-XRED-EWDK 3DS:5112-3770-6561
Try pushing vigor up to 60 if you haven't already. That's the final soft cap the end game areas are balanced around. The difference between dying in 1-2 hits or getting an opportunity to back up and heal completely changes the experience.
And with that... pow! I'm gone!
My one handicap that I'm not sure why I do is that I just don't want to go over 30 vigor. I'm fine with getting 2 shot by everything significant since I can do lots of damage.
SomeUsername529 posted...
My one handicap that I'm not sure why I do is that I just don't want to go over 30 vigor. I'm fine with getting 2 shot by everything significant since I can do lots of damage.

Vigor is pretty important especially for melee builds unless you are damn good at dodging/parrying. Typically as the game progresses damage ramps up heavily especially in the final areas and even with 60 vigor you can get two shotted against some enemies.
Getting too damn old for this crap!
I started playing two days ago actually and I'm having a blast. I've never played a souls game before.

People like to compare this series to monster hunter but they aren't at all similar especially in combat...
Ram Ranch... it ROCKS!
Monopoman posted...
Vigor is pretty important especially for melee builds unless you are damn good at dodging/parrying. Typically as the game progresses damage ramps up heavily especially in the final areas and even with 60 vigor you can get two shotted against some enemies.
The two shots started to turn into one shots around the Consecrated Snow Field and shit like the invisible black blades in Ordina just feels so tiresome at this point. I hit 60 in both Dex and Arc and decided I might as well just add Vig before I lose interest in finishing the game. I did move on to the DLC though before finishing the main story and its been fun. Despite the base strength of enemies being quite high it feels less like gimmick bullshit than the end of the base game does.
you can make them visible

and just fucking level vigor, you should not be getting one shot at snowfield.
see my gundams here
https://imgur.com/a/F7xKM5r
updated 08/01/24; hg mighty strike freedom
Poll of the Day » Im not having much fun with elden ring anymore