Elden Ring was very good. You still get the interconnected bits in some areas, and some parts of the world connect in unexpected ways.
The main thing I didn’t like about elden ring is how most of the stuff is kind of pointless. Like there’s a catacomb but the only thing you get from it is some useless ashes and low level upgrade material. It made replays feel weird, because I’d skip most of it.
I’m not sure how to fix that. Maybe have the little side dungeons affect world state somehow (eg: drain poison from the swamp, get rid of invaders, whatever). Or switch over to sekiro style leveling where you only power up by doing certain things. But both of those might make the side stuff too much of a chore.
I felt this in a lot of my play throughs. After one or two runs it just all bleeds together
I feel they get a lot of worth from the lore implications. How far death root spread, what enemies are having which items and in which part of the map is the catacomb. Stuff like that.
Otherwise I would say the scope was just too much. They should go back to dark souls size game world and focus on making everything more dense and unique.
Dark Souls by far. Elden Ring was great but so much of the game was a slog to go through.
So much content just added to pad the world so they could call it an open world. Mindless copy-paste of the same enemies, same dungeons, same assets and same bosses. Would have greatly preferred a smaller but more unique world, more shortcuts and more interconnections.
I did enjoy the map of the Elden Ring DLC though. I don’t think I have ever seen such a vertical map in a game before. Just looking down every time and thinking “can I go there?” felt great.
Just looking down every time and thinking “can I go there?” felt great.
Start going down a random well in Leyndell, follow down into Subterranean Shunning Grounds, past the hidden wall in the Cathedral of the Forsaken, past the hidden wall in the Frenzied Flame Proscription, down into Deeproot Depths and the Nameless Eternal City, ride the stone coffin to Ansel River Main and finally get a glimpse the Lake of Rot which restarts the cycle 👌
Dark souls.
Elden ring is a great game, but the open world aspect takes away a very crucial element for me. Its not as difficult. If you get stopped somewhere, you can just go grind out some levels, maybe some gear, and come back when you’re in a much better spot. Or just ignore that area completely until you have to do it.
Granted you can do that with dark souls as well, it’s more difficult because it’s not open world.
Dark souls also feels more cohesive. You have many areas to explore, but they come after and before an area. Its a bit more immersive, and well… interconnected.
Hard, hard prefer the interconnectedness of Dark Souls. Elden Ring is vast, but ultimately empty. The open world is mostly just a loading screen between legacy dungeons, outside of the first two hours of “build collecting” that seems to characterize each ER run. Meanwhile, there’s very little that’s “wasted” in Dark Souls. It’s a very tightly designed game that’s willing to show you everything it’s got, every time. If anything, it’s a bit anemic at the end, because FromSoft eventually just needed it out the door. I’ll take being a little unfinished over incredibly bloated any day though.
ER by a mile
How come if you’d like to elaborate?
not OP, but as somebody who’s done all of the soulsborne games by FROM it just feels more polished, complete - like everything was building towards Elden Ring. does it play a bit differently and perhaps a little easier in aspects? Sure, and I love that. You are given so much freedom. There’s so much to see and do. I feel like the world does a solid job of guiding you where you need to go. Coming from the segregated realms of the first Demons Souls game, I love the huge, open world. It’s gorgeous, the level design is incredible, thoughtful, deceiving. Like GTA V or RDR2 they just did a hell of a job of creating a sprawling contiguous sandbox for fun, lots of potential.
Totally valid. I feel like for an open-world game, it’s the best there is out there: fast-paced soulslike combat, environmental storytelling, fleshed out and dense atmosphere. I jus feel like compared to From’s previous games, the game lacks a little density. The legacy dungeons are amazing and astonishingly detailed - the open world just lacks a littl oomph for me.
Tastes are very different, though, so that’s not an issue. My girlfriend, who hadn’t touched any soulslikes prior, enjoyed/enjoys Elden Ring immensely, but she’s also quite fond of other open world games, like Horizon or Immortals Fenyx Rising. It’s the best way for her to have been introduced to soulslike by meshing the usual formula with something she’s already familiar. She enjoys the exploration and leaves the more difficult, linear sections as well as the boss fights to me. Everyone’s getting something out of this.
I like DS more, since once you know where the important stuff is in ER, it becomes relatively empty. I prefer the more interconnected metroidvania like design of DS
Elden Ring is a downgrade in every way.
Pacing, level design, unique items to empty space ratio and enemy placement.
Everything in Elden Ring is padded to justify its open world.
Elden Ring. I enjoy open worlds, even if they do get repetitive. Just my personal preference.
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