Current Events > Elden Ring's exploration is by far the worst out of all Soulsborne

(+) Yeah! (+)

The majority of the open world is just copy&pasted ruins/caves/mines/camps/catacombs. LITERALLY copied and pasted. The slight rearrangements between them aren't enough to distinguish any of them.

Lolwut. They have completely different layouts outside of, typically, the starting room.

Lolwut. They have completely different layouts outside of, typically, the starting room.

DS2 and especially 3 had you follow a mostly streamlined path, with only DS1 really having a ton of freedom to go anywhere.

2 had the most freedom

2 had the most freedom

The dungeons are awesome. They're literally just Chalice Dungeons from Bloodborne but without the random generation, and I've been wanting chalice dungeons to return for years

Ah, this is a MarthGoomba topic. Somehow everything makes sense now.

I agree the open world is the worst part of the game, but I don't line open worlds to begin with and it was probably the best open world I have ever played. That said the dungeons were easily the best part. I definitely want more dungeons and less open world, which I guess is what all the other games were.

The other games were basically all the dungeons linked together. You'll find some door, or just walk up some river to go to the next dungeon. It's very condensed.

There aren't enough smithing stones to meaningfully upgrade more than one or two weapons, making newly picked up weapons weaker than the one you've been upgrading since early game.

There are tons of them, and you can buy more for cheap as well as farm them in mines.

A new Fromsoft game has given Marth a whole new wealth of opportunities to make bad takes.

There are tons of them, and you can buy more for cheap as well as farm them in mines.

Yep that was my first thought. You can literally buy the stones so there are no "limited" numbers. Go to Liurnia Crystal Caves and you get the first ball bearing which allows you to buy stones 1 and 2.

Ahh I love people.

I was looking up where to find stones 4 and 5 just to keep my one weapon upgraded. The bell bearing to buy stones 1 and 2 don't help in any meaningful way because I don't need stones 1 and 2. That also ties back into my complaint about the need to look shit up, because how is the player supposed to know this? There are dozens of dungeons and caves. Gating weapon upgrades behind finding a functional needle in a haystack is bad design.

You not liking it doesn't make it bad game design

I was looking up where to find stones 4 and 5 just to keep my one weapon upgraded. The bell bearing to buy stones 1 and 2 don't help in any meaningful way because I don't need stones 1 and 2. That also ties back into my complaint about the need to look shit up, because how is the player supposed to know this? There are dozens of dungeons and caves. Gating weapon upgrades behind finding a functional needle in a haystack is bad design.

"Needle in a haystack" game design is objectively bad.

Gating something as important as weapon upgrades behind a random cave reward that, statistically speaking, many players are going to miss based on the sheer number of caves in the game

I didn't look up any and when i went to upgrade weapons i had like 20 of each stone lol.

It's not a needle in a haystack design you're clearly needing someone to hold your hand.

I'd agree more with this if these items were placed in the middle of a field with no marking as opposed to within dungeons having beams of light coming off them.

And?

Again, my initial complaint isn't about 1st and 2nd tier stones. It's about not having or finding enough 4th and 5th+ tier stones to keep more than a single weapon upgraded. It's about the fact that the limited mid-game stones mean the player is stuck using the early-game weapon they've been upgrading and having to pass on new weapons that aren't as good specifically because you don't have the mats to bring it up to par.

The "needle in a haystack" complaint is about the bell bearings, not the random scattered stones.

Again: The "needle in a haystack" complaint is about the bell bearings being in one of dozens of caves, not the random scattered stones. Not to be rude, but it really seems like you guys are deliberately misunderstanding the issues I'm bringing up.

It's particularly weird since this is about the least subjective of the complaints in my first post, and the fact that I said I had fun overall and got my money's worth. But god forbid someone express a valid complaint about a badly-designed upgrade system.

Again, my initial complaint isn't about 1st and 2nd tier stones. It's about not having or finding enough 4th and 5th+ tier stones to keep more than a single weapon upgraded. It's about the fact that the limited mid-game stones mean the player is stuck using the early-game weapon they've been upgrading and having to pass on new weapons that aren't as good specifically because you don't have the mats to bring it up to par.

And?

Again, my initial complaint isn't about 1st and 2nd tier stones. It's about not having or finding enough 4th and 5th+ tier stones to keep more than a single weapon upgraded. It's about the fact that the limited mid-game stones mean the player is stuck using the early-game weapon they've been upgrading and having to pass on new weapons that aren't as good specifically because you don't have the mats to bring it up to par.

The "needle in a haystack" complaint is about the bell bearings, not the random scattered stones.

Again: The "needle in a haystack" complaint is about the bell bearings being in one of dozens of caves, not the random scattered stones. Not to be rude, but it really seems like you guys are deliberately misunderstanding the issues I'm bringing up.

It's particularly weird since this is about the least subjective of the complaints in my first post, and the fact that I said I had fun overall and got my money's worth. But god forbid someone express a valid complaint about a badly-designed upgrade system.