Current Events > Playing through elden ring and its cool but I have one complaint

(+) Yeah! (+)

A lot of the bosses are just straight up bad. Not even that it's difficult, it's just tedious and feels unfair. I'm on commander niall and he's like the 10th boss I've felt just isn't fun. It feels like they ran out of ideas for good boss design so they just started throwing a bunch of dumb stuff at you instead.

Im enjoying the exploration and visuals and all that, but man I'm rarely like "this boss was cool".

Massively overrated game.

TonyKojima posted...

Massively overrated game.

Yeah I'm starting to believe that. I thought people were being contradictory on purpose but it's honestly pretty flawed.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

Yeah I'm starting to believe that. I thought people were being contradictory on purpose but it's honestly pretty flawed.

Overly difficult judt for the sake of it, no real plot or story to speak of, open world (a red flag nowadays). I feel the hype around this is forced.

I found the game stellar right up to the snow region. After that, it's like every bad From Software habit came roaring back. Huge difficulty spike, unfair boss design, bull shit traps, etc.

I hit a boss I thought was so poorly designed that I stopped for a year. Recently picked it up and pushed through and beat it at 98 hours, but that last bit almost broke me

Elden Ring kind of misses the mark when it comes to what made Dark Souls bosses so fun. They had patterns that rewarded observation and patient play, with consistent openings you could learn. Elden Ring on the other hand has a few bosses that read inputs and will punish a heal on the first frame, as well as attack chains that can randomly continue for an additional attack when you thought you had an opening.

Boss design like that is cool and all, but the player character isn't really well equipped to handle it. ER still has the kind of commit to your attack and get punished if you whiff type gameplay, but with hyper aggressive bosses. Compare this to Bloodborne, where the bosses tend to bare down on you hard, but you have a very good dodge and the ability to gain back your health to compensate, as well as most weapons having very quick movesets with little downtime

I still love ER. They did a lot of things very right that the series needed but yeah the boss design feels way overtuned compared to your character

Gwynevere posted...

Elden Ring kind of misses the mark when it comes to what made Dark Souls bosses so fun. They had patterns that rewarded observation and patient play, with consistent openings you could learn. Elden Ring on the other hand has a few bosses that read inputs and will punish a heal on the first frame, as well as attack chains that can randomly continue for an additional attack when you thought you had an opening.

Boss design like that is cool and all, but the player character isn't really well equipped to handle it. ER still has the kind of commit to your attack and get punished if you whiff type gameplay, but with hyper aggressive bosses. Compare this to Bloodborne, where the bosses tend to bare down on you hard, but you have a very good dodge and the ability to gain back your health to compensate, as well as most weapons having very quick movesets with little downtime

I still love ER. They did a lot of things very right that the series needed but yeah the boss design feels way overtuned compared to your character

Bloodborne is still far and away the best one they've made yet imo.

It was pure powerfantasy for me. Just upgrade weapon max. Then apply buffs and wear those talisman things. Take down most bosses quickly. I pretty much just jumped attack the entire game with colossal hammers. It was soo fun man

Only malenia, hobo wolf, and final boss I felt I couldn't brute force and I had to rely on LUCK (hope that they are less aggressive the next fight) .still very fun tho . And I didn't use any spirit ashes really. with MAXEd ashes it would have been total annihilation against all bosses.

I consider it a good rpg cuz it did the weak to strong trope well imo

underrated game

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Bloodborne is still far and away the best one they've made yet imo.

It's so fuckin good. They struck actual gold somehow being able to go from Dark Souls 2 to Bloodborne, which I consider basically flawless. It's a masterpiece

Unfair bosses are just a skill issue

I waiting for half price.

It is a terrific game but there are a lot of bosses and that means some of them aren't great.

Gwynevere posted...

It's so fuckin good. They struck actual gold somehow being able to go from Dark Souls 2 to Bloodborne, which I consider basically flawless. It's a masterpiece

It's cause the good guys were making Bloodborne while the inexperienced guys were making DS2

I love ER, but I still have a major problem to this day. The bosses and many enemies will telegraph an attack, but there's too much of a delay and I always roll/jump too soon and get hit. I still can't get the timing down because I'm too used to every other game that does it. And yeah, it does get too hard and cheap at times and you pretty much have to cheese if you're not some top tier player.

One day I want to try out the previous games, but to be honest I'm a bit intimidated because ER, which is said to be the easiest of the games, can be pretty damn hard.

It gets better the further you get in, but yeah, the beginning is really unfair and a huge turnoff

Having beat every single boss of the game, I didn't find a single one unfair. It's all about patterns and patience.

Gwynevere posted...

Elden Ring kind of misses the mark when it comes to what made Dark Souls bosses so fun. They had patterns that rewarded observation and patient play, with consistent openings you could learn. Elden Ring on the other hand has a few bosses that read inputs and will punish a heal on the first frame, as well as attack chains that can randomly continue for an additional attack when you thought you had an opening.

Boss design like that is cool and all, but the player character isn't really well equipped to handle it. ER still has the kind of commit to your attack and get punished if you whiff type gameplay, but with hyper aggressive bosses. Compare this to Bloodborne, where the bosses tend to bare down on you hard, but you have a very good dodge and the ability to gain back your health to compensate, as well as most weapons having very quick movesets with little downtime

I still love ER. They did a lot of things very right that the series needed but yeah the boss design feels way overtuned compared to your character

They've had bosses that could read your inputs since at least Bloodborne. If the boss is able to lunge at you, you didn't have the time to heal in the first place and should have reconsidered your action.

TC must be new to the Souls game

I've invested a lot of my self-worth and personality in this game being flawless, so I need y'all to stop bullying this game and by extension me with what is obviously your worthless opinions.

Southernfatman posted...

I love ER, but I still have a major problem to this day. The bosses and many enemies will telegraph an attack, but there's too much of a delay and I always roll/jump too soon and get hit. I still can't get the timing down because I'm too used to every other game that does it. And yeah, it does get too hard and cheap at times and you pretty much have to cheese if you're not some top tier player.

One day I want to try out the previous games, but to be honest I'm a bit intimidated because ER, which is said to be the easiest of the games, can be pretty damn hard.

Strangely, ER is probably one of the hardest FromSoft games. However, it also has the most options for alleviating that difficulty. If you can beat ER, you can defo beat the others.

Kaldrenthebold posted...

I found the game stellar right up to the snow region. After that, it's like every bad From Software habit came roaring back. Huge difficulty spike, unfair boss design, bull shit traps, etc.

I hit a boss I thought was so poorly designed that I stopped for a year. Recently picked it up and pushed through and beat it at 98 hours, but that last bit almost broke me

I agree, the fire giant is so annoying.

That's usually how I plays souls games honestly. Get like 15-20% in, stop for like a year, then come back lol.

TonyKojima posted...

Overly difficult judt for the sake of it, no real plot or story to speak of, open world (a red flag nowadays). I feel the hype around this is forced.

The plot is the same type as dark souls which could be a little more straightforward.

Gwynevere posted...

Elden Ring kind of misses the mark when it comes to what made Dark Souls bosses so fun. They had patterns that rewarded observation and patient play, with consistent openings you could learn. Elden Ring on the other hand has a few bosses that read inputs and will punish a heal on the first frame, as well as attack chains that can randomly continue for an additional attack when you thought you had an opening.

Boss design like that is cool and all, but the player character isn't really well equipped to handle it. ER still has the kind of commit to your attack and get punished if you whiff type gameplay, but with hyper aggressive bosses. Compare this to Bloodborne, where the bosses tend to bare down on you hard, but you have a very good dodge and the ability to gain back your health to compensate, as well as most weapons having very quick movesets with little downtime

I still love ER. They did a lot of things very right that the series needed but yeah the boss design feels way overtuned compared to your character

I never thought of it as your character not being able enough, but that does make sense. The frame perfect fire balls when healing are really frustrating, and seemingly holdable attack animations that wait for you to make a move seriously suck.

Ratchetrockon posted...

It was pure powerfantasy for me. Just upgrade weapon max. Then apply buffs and wear those talisman things. Take down most bosses quickly. I pretty much just jumped attack the entire game with colossal hammers. It was soo fun man

Only malenia, hobo wolf, and final boss I felt I couldn't brute force and I had to rely on LUCK (hope that they are less aggressive the next fight) .still very fun tho . And I didn't use any spirit ashes really. with MAXEd ashes it would have been total annihilation against all bosses.

I consider it a good rpg cuz it did the weak to strong trope well imo

I'm honestly underleveled for a lot of what I'm doing but I did a similar thing in my first play through of ds3. I was like lvl 160 by the end of it lol.

TostitosTheHero posted...

Unfair bosses are just a skill issue

Oh yea?

desert_santa posted...

I waiting for half price.

Fair

VeggetaX posted...

TC must be new to the Souls game

Honestly Elden Ring was the first Souls game I beat after bouncing off Demon's and Dark 1 several years prior.

Going back to Bloodborne afterwards (which was also fantastic) shows how much freedom you actually have in Elden Ring to succeed.

lilORANG posted...

It is a terrific game but there are a lot of bosses and that means some of them aren't great.

Yeah having like 90 or whatever seemed like a bad idea.

Southernfatman posted...

I love ER, but I still have a major problem to this day. The bosses and many enemies will telegraph an attack, but there's too much of a delay and I always roll/jump too soon and get hit. I still can't get the timing down because I'm too used to every other game that does it. And yeah, it does get too hard and cheap at times and you pretty much have to cheese if you're not some top tier player.

One day I want to try out the previous games, but to be honest I'm a bit intimidated because ER, which is said to be the easiest of the games, can be pretty damn hard.

I get you. It definitely takes a lot of trial and error to get through some of them.

Hey worst case scenario you can just grind until you feel comfortable. That's always an option.

_____Cait posted...

It gets better the further you get in, but yeah, the beginning is really unfair and a huge turnoff

I'm having the opposite experience lol

CyricZ posted...

Having beat every single boss of the game, I didn't find a single one unfair. It's all about patterns and patience.

You play fucking mahjong I don't have that kind of patience.

Also there are some bosses that are straight up poorly designed. Not even trying to rant about them, like I haven't gotten stuck on a boss yet, but I feel like a few of them weren't thought out well at all.

VeggetaX posted...

TC must be new to the Souls game

Nah I've played through 3 multiple times, 2 almost all of the way, and beat bloodborne. I didn't really have these problems with those.

pegusus123456 posted...

I've invested a lot of my self-worth and personality in this game being flawless, so I need y'all to stop bullying this game and by extension me with what is obviously your worthless opinions.

I'm so sorry my friend I forgot you are elden ring man

reincarnator07 posted...

Strangely, ER is probably one of the hardest FromSoft games. However, it also has the most options for alleviating that difficulty. If you can beat ER, you can defo beat the others.

Oh, that makes sense I guess. I just have always heard from FS fans that it's the easiest and most casual friendly one so I assumed the others were even harder in general. Is any boss from older games as hard/cheap as Malenia? That's who I had the worst time with and it almost made me hate the game because of how cheap she was.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

I get you. It definitely takes a lot of trial and error to get through some of them.

Hey worst case scenario you can just grind until you feel comfortable. That's always an option.

Yeah, through trial and error, luck, spirit ashes, and cheesing is how I finally beat the game. I still have timing issues and want to get legitimately good at the game.

ER is a lovely game but one I struggled to come back to. The open world really isn't all that for me. It was awesome the first time, but now I either know or look up where everything I want is. Coupled with the fact that the bosses I enjoy are spread really fuckin far apart, and that you need around 50 levels of vigor to keep up with the late game just means I get more quality bosses closer together with DS3 + BB.

git gud m8, no h8.

Southernfatman posted...

Oh, that makes sense I guess. I just have always heard from FS fans that it's the easiest and most casual friendly one so I assumed the others were even harder in general. Is any boss from older games as hard/cheap as Malenia? That's who I had the worst time with and it almost made me hate the game because of how cheap she was.

As someone who's also only played ER, I've seen a lot of people say that Malenia is the hardest boss outside of maybe Sekiro.

I've also heard it said that a common phrase is, "Your first Souls game is your hardest." Just because you aren't used to the whole design philosophy.

DocileOrangeCup posted...

You play fucking mahjong I don't have that kind of patience.

Sure but that's not the game's fault.

Also there are some bosses that are straight up poorly designed. Not even trying to rant about them, like I haven't gotten stuck on a boss yet, but I feel like a few of them weren't thought out well at all.

Which ones?

CyricZ posted...

Which ones?

Not TC but Tree Spirits are ass

It's generally one of the best games I've ever played. The difficulty is what you make of it. If you're open minded and able to adapt there are countless weapons, abilitys, tools and strats for wrecking every boss in the game.

And if normal enemies are giving you a problem you can just run past a majority of them.....

And I'd you're not any of the above then abuse the mimic summon and steamroll the game.

Southernfatman posted...

Oh, that makes sense I guess. I just have always heard from FS fans that it's the easiest and most casual friendly one so I assumed the others were even harder in general. Is any boss from older games as hard/cheap as Malenia? That's who I had the worst time with and it almost made me hate the game because of how cheap she was.

It's defo the most casual friendly. Spirit ashes alone break the difficulty with stuff like the mimic tear straight up being able to solo bosses for you. My friend went from just about getting through Malenia's first phase on his own to utterly demolishing her in record time with the Mimic. In addition, the level design is far less hazardous than most of the other games, especially DS1/2. This isn't inherently a bad thing either, more people playing these games is great.

I don't think she's all that cheap tbh, she just punishes the player pretty hard for mistakes. I think she's a significant step up from pretty much all the other ER bosses in difficulty though, which is why she seems so untouchable. In contrast, bosses like Friede and Midir from the DS3 DLC are pretty darn hard bosses in a game filled with hard bosses.

Personally, I had a harder time with the hardest bosses in DS3 and Bloodborne than I did with Malenia, although I had also "got gud" by the time Elden Ring came out so I'd be interested to see how I'd do on them now. I think DS3 and Bloodborne have a much higher level of quality among their bosses and DS1 and Bloodborne have way better level and world design than ER. If those aspects are things you enjoy about ER, you'll almost certainly have a great time in the older games.

reincarnator07 posted...

They've had bosses that could read your inputs since at least Bloodborne. If the boss is able to lunge at you, you didn't have the time to heal in the first place and should have reconsidered your action.

It actually goes back to at least DS2, maybe even 1. Fume Knight would attempt to punish heals as well.

Problem with the way some bosses in ER do it is that it can be done in a way that's impossible to react to. Margit can recover from a whiffed attack with enough time to hit you with a golden dagger, even if you start your heal before the attack misses. Bosses seem to be able to cancel recovery animations according to what action you're taking.

Again, in Bloodborne this wasn't a big deal. Your dodge was super good, your heal was quick, and the rally health mechanic encouraged you to punish openings aggressively. Elden Ring feels like an identity crisis, wanting to reward both aggressive/reactive and patient play but ending up short on both fronts

CyricZ posted...

Sure but that's not the game's fault.

I'm patient enough to play the previous games mentioned and underleveled at that, so I'm obviously not just throwing myself at these bosses.

CyricZ posted...

Which ones?

Fire Giant
Commander Niall
Godskin Guys
That ice Dragon dude
The fucked up bird guy in the snowy mountain

I've honestly probably not gotten even half of the "bosses" yet so this isn't definitive and I probably forgot some.

pegusus123456 posted...

Not TC but Tree Spirits are ass

That kinda sounds familiar

Elden Ring is just the first open world game since maybe Dragons Dogma to make exploring exciting. You *can* beat the bosses by being very patient and learning, but finding loot and leveling up helps a lot.

So there's just massive intrinsic motivation to explore and find treasure because you really want to get more powerful and take down enemies that have been embarrassing you.

Going back to Bloodborne afterwards (which was also fantastic) shows how much freedom you actually have in Elden Ring to succeed.

you're talking about the absolutely nutty amounts of player power, aren't you? like, everyone is on a pretty quick trajectory to finding *something* broken. bloodhound fang is in limgrave, ffs.

i think this actually becomes the most apparent in pvp -- invasions, specifically. it's really, really easy to die as an invader when everyone is swinging moonveils. this is great, though; the twinking problem that the earlier games of the series had is met about halfway. it's not just the huge jerks that have access now.

The mistake OP is making is playing a FromSoftware game with the mindset of video games are supposed to be fun.

My biggest gripe with the bosses is that they spam attacks so much.

As a solo experience, I'd never play it. With the Seamless coop mod, it's one of my most favorite games to play with the wife.

This is really a "git gud" situation, and not as flaming. All the bosses are beatable, you're expected to lose until you learn.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Maybe on my third run will I try to solo Malenia.
DocileOrangeCup posted...

I'm patient enough to play the previous games mentioned and underleveled at that, so I'm obviously not just throwing myself at these bosses.

Fire Giant
Commander Niall
Godskin Guys

Those are some infamous bosses

The fucked up bird guy in the snowy mountain

Sounds like you're talking about the Death Rite Bird. That fucker is harsh

royic posted...

So there's just massive intrinsic motivation to explore and find treasure because you really want to get more powerful and take down enemies that have been embarrassing you.

That isn't intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is doing something for its own sake. So if you wanted to explore sheerly for the sake of exploring, not because it will give you anything.

If you're not fighting field bosses on horseback what are you even doing. :D

SaikyoStyle posted...

The mistake OP is making is playing a FromSoftware game with the mindset of video games are supposed to be fun.

Fromsoft games are fun though

ellis123 posted...

That isn't intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is doing something for its own sake. So if you wanted to explore sheerly for the sake of exploring, not because it will give you anything.

I want to find bosses and beat them for intrinsic motivation so anything that feeds into that is also intrinsic.

royic posted...

I want to find bosses and beat them for intrinsic motivation so anything that feeds into that is also intrinsic.

That is still extrinsic motivation. It doesn't matter if you want it, the definition of the words doesn't change.

Loved it so much. Final boss had a crappy 'Four Kings' hit box but one of my top 5 games of all time.

I thought Melania was bullshit and some few things other bosses did also was, but other than that I felt pretty good about the Elden Ring bosses. I think Margit is too highly tuned, but I guess that's kind of the point so I'm not sure how to feel about him.

BurmesePenguin posted...

I thought Melania was bullshit and some few things other bosses did also was, but other than that I felt pretty good about the Elden Ring bosses. I think Margit is too highly tuned, but I guess that's kind of the point so I'm not sure how to feel about him.

I actually really like Malenia because it's a well executed skill match and just a fun fight to experience in general, as opposed to, say, the Godskin Duo who were never even that fun to fight solo.