Current Events > Is elden ring as hard as people make it out to be?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Code spoilers plz.

Everything I've read basically says any game from this company will be hard.

If you follow the elitist style of play then yeah. But if you do utilize the ash summons then it's probably one of the easier Fromsoft games.

Its hard until you learn attack timings and get used to how slow everything is. In other games and enemy goes to attack you and you expect to be blocking/dodging that second. In elden ring an enemy goes to attack you and they raise their sword above their head and they start charging up their attack and now its 4 seconds later and its time to start dodging

The difficulty of Fromsoft games depends heavily on how many of them you've played before. Your first is pretty much always going to be the hardest because you'll have to get accustomed to the overall style of the games.

I mean, yeah its pretty tough but its not impossible or anything.

If I can beat Fromsoft games anyone can. I have done all of the Soulsborne titles. Its really a matter of do you want to exert the effort or not. Thats what it comes down to.

Worth mentioning too is that while challenging it is very rewarding when you overcome a tough area or boss. It gives me a rush lmao

with this new formula they can do interesting things like pit players up against a boss actually harder than Asylum Demon (Godrick) right at the beginning. Because if you can't do it, then you can turn around and try the whole world which is open to you from the start. Just the boss right there can be tough. I think he's tougher than Sekiro's first 2 big fights, which are Gyoubu and Chained Ogre.

They are as easy or as hard as you like them to be. You can make it easy by farming exp and buffing your guys stats, wear powerful armor, use summons, coop multiplayer etc. You can make it as hard by not doing any of that stuff. It's what gives elden ring the flexibility. A boss is giving you a hard time? Come back to it later and explore somewhere else.

It's probably the easiest Souls game given all the content ane assistance it provides players

If you play blind it sorta is. But certain weapons and builds like Dex/whatever trivialize the game on top of ash summons you can utilize for most dungeon and some world bosses.

Hell the mimic summon alone makes most of the game a cakewalk.

My friend whos never played a fromsoft game beat it pretty easily

Elden Ring is pathetically easy. Even Malenia is a complete joke

Summons, barricade shield, scarlet rot. It can't possibly be considered difficult in any capacity when the game gives you so many overpowered things that you can use all at once

IMO, unless you are challenging yourself or failed the basics (like I knew I was rushing at the end of my playthru1 and neglecting my vigor and upgrades, but wanted to experience the game naturally, aka getting one shotted lol which I did for a few hours before going to level-up haha) I found only the Haligtree bosses, later NPC gank bosses, and the final 4 or 5 fights which happen in a gauntlet at the end of the game to be really tough. Everything else, besides Margit/Godrick at the beginning, I thought was well balanced. As someone said, as hard as you make it. The game prioritizes fun more than anything. Unlike Sekiro, the goal is to make it easier for yourself. Sekiro really only rewards you by challenging yourself.

But the further you go into the NG+ cycles, the more the game starts to overshadow your ability to outdamage it, and asks the player to rely on more technique than brute force, tighten up on their tactics, etc. That's a given tho. Generally, the beginning of NG+ should be easier than starting a new file because the player has unlocked all these powerful abilities and healing charges and is warmed up by the final bosses to just decimate the early areas but if the player rushes, then they just end up back at the end no stronger than they were in the last cycle and the bosses are like twice as though.... So that's a big part of Souls, and it's fascinating. With Elden Ring, I feel the big challenge is to keep the flow going for at least 1 more game cycle into NG+ and be able to decimate the final bosses. And quickly, without getting lost in side content or not knowing where things are. So, in that way it is very much like Sekiro in spirit. At the same time, how much of the game did you see your first time?

But hey

The horse
Spirit Ashes
Sleep status
Rock Sling & Azur Comet
Much easier access to infinite arrows
Insane bleed damage

..... and then you run into a boss who gives you a tough time lol

But compared to Sekiro and Bloodborne? This isn't that bad, eh? It's an open world game so that comes with the player being a little more powerful? So it doesn't end up taking 300 hours to beat. Haha

This is a game where a smart person can succeed just as well as a skilled person.

Dex vs Int!

20% of players that bought the game on Steam didn't even make it to The Roundtable Hold. Can you imagine getting wrecked so hard?

Kombucha posted...

20% of players that bought the game on Steam didn't even make it to The Roundtable Hold. Can you imagine getting wrecked so hard?

I think that's true of a lot of games tbh. People will buy a game and just...won't play it.

Only like 3 bosses are hard

It's the hardest Soulsborne title so far

The game can be hard, if you want to make it hard, but generally speaking, it has some of the most insanely OP build potential of just about any game in the franchise.

In that sense, the game is probably the easiest iteration purely based on the variety of builds that will get the job done compared to other games.

It is the easiest FromSoft game, by far.
It is insanely easy to overlevel yourself and there are so so so many way to break the difficulty entirely with spells/weapons/buff items/spirits/etc.

Don't know for sure but I started the other day and I fucking suck at it.

There is a pretty sharp difficulty spike near the end but the game supplies a plethora of tools to overcome whatever is giving you trouble

jdb78 posted...

Don't know for sure but I started the other day and I fucking suck at it.

Same. I have been grinding a lot and I'm about to try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj8MGuWyabk

Update: Starting to feel like I have a fighting chance.

DocDelicious posted...

It is the easiest FromSoft game, by far.

Idk, I recently replayed Dark Souls 1 and it's absolutely insane how many fights you can just trivialize by putting on heavy armor. Even stuff like Artorias, you just throw on Havel's armor and a heavy weapon and go to town. Stop and enjoy your poise to sip estus when needed. No need to dodge or block or anything

My friend played Dark Souls 2 the exact same way. Power stance smelter swords, put on some big ass armor and just tank his way through the game with base ADP

Soulsborne is not hard

Only if you're a casual gamer which is majority of people nowadays.

literally impossible for me

I beat the first boss! Then got wrecked shortly thereafter. Turns out ranged weapons are good for casuals.