What are your thoughts on Elden Ring and open-world design? What does it get right? What does it get wrong? 🐦 Twitter: twitter.com/1UP_Video 💾 Patreon: www.patreon.com/1UP_Rory
this is the game that truly deserves the GOTY just the impact it had it brought so many people together for a magical experience truly a special game i cant wait for the DLC
@jetbtw5972 I think the community formed around FromSoft games is key. Exploring Elden Ring by yourself is great, but exploring it with others, whether in-person or shared experiences online, really heightens the whole thing.
Not at all... This is one of the games that definitely does not deserve game of the year... They haven't even unlocked the fps yet LOL.... You're joking right? It looks horrible, plays even worse, and is lacking im every RPG department you can think of.... Hack and slash mindlessness... Dodge, attack, dodge, attack... Repetitive garbage, everything is an enemy... Not immersive at all either, just a mediocre game
Elden Ring made me feel the same way ocarina of time did when I was 7 and playing it for the first time. For a long time I thought that I’d never get that same feeling again, not unless games went back to much smaller, more intentional worlds. Fromsoft had the best shot at this, and it’s absolutely wild to me that the game that finally managed it is the largest one they’ve ever made. Elden Ring has brought a lot to the table, but the most valuable contribution it’s made in my eyes is changing how we look at common design “tropes.” It brings everything into question, and while I know that there will be games that try to copy it, I hope that it’s example makes designers question their own assumptions about what makes a good game.
@WhereHuhWhat I have no doubt that Elden Ring will serve as a source of inspiration for games to come, in much the same way that Breath of the Wild did. I would love more games that offer greater freedom as they make discovery and exploration that much more meaningful. Though it is undoubtedly a lot of work crafting a game this way, without it being overwhelming or lacking direction.
@@1-UP-Rory Not at all, most game developers want to do the opposite of making a super boring linear hack and slash game like elden ring.... The game is a joke... Your opinion is trash 👎
@@ThatTempesTGuy I was comparing Elden Ring’s emotional impact to the emotional impact of Ocarina of Time. They both affected me in similar ways. But, looking at your other comments, I can’t tell if you’re a troll or just resentful of others enjoying something you don’t understand. People are having near-spiritual experiences with this game, yet you aren’t. So you think that everyone must be stupid or dishonest about their feelings. Elden Ring offers up something wholly unique at a time when most large developers seem to be competing at creating nearly the same game. God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, Halo Infinite, Assassin’s Creed. Despite varying levels of quality and different styles of gameplay, they feel so similar. Each spoon feeds the story to the player. Gameplay wise, they’re all entirely predictable. I know when I boot these games up exactly what the game will be like 50 hours down the line. I know that the only thing holding back my progression in these games is time investment, or investment of real money. With Elden Ring, every decision has consequences, and nothing is given for free. There’s no predatory monetization scheme lurking in the background, and no features cut from the game so that the developer can profit off selling them to players at a later date. It’s certainly got issues, but it doesn’t have the same issues of every other triple A game, despite being the most similar of Fromsoft’s games to those other games. This game shows that it’s still possible to release a game that isn’t just a vehicle for pumping money out of people, one that respects the time, effort, and intelligence of the people that buy it. The features you say Elden Ring is missing, are a conscious design decision. I would love to have a game with Elden Ring’s combat and the role playing potential of Morrowind or perhaps Baldur’s gate. I do not want a game with Elden Ring’s combat and the army of filler npcs and entirely generic locations of most modern open worlds, full of decisions that mean nothing and stories that only pretend at being deep and meaningful.
I am happy From Soft is getting the recognition it deserves. This is a TRUE next step in gaming. Not some technology like ray tracing. It’s about the experience imo and respecting the players. I will never forget when I first discovered, for example, that Bloodborne is actually a cosmic horror game. It left me dumbfounded. They did it again with ER. Absolutely excited for what’s to come. Very lovely video btw, thank you for making this
@blicleak1101 FromSoftware absolutely nail it every time. They have a clear goal in mind and build an experience around it. Discovery and exploration is key, not only for an individual's playthrough (like, no way! This area is so cool!) but also for the social aspect. It's human nature to share that experience with others and it makes it even better. I've loved hearing about other people's time with Elden Ring.
I 100% agree with the Placidusax discovery. It is such a fantastic boss hidden way off the beaten path and stands out in a game already shock full of unique main bosses.
@enman009 Fun fact: I had no clue this boss even existed until Darkfry told me! That's how well hidden that area is! I thought I'd found everything there but clearly not. That realisation really hammered home the point of the entire video aha.
@@1-UP-Rory Really?! That's insane. What blew my mind, in my third playthrough, was finding Alexander in Farum Azula and finishing his questline. Didn't expect him to get this far and yet his conclusion was beautiful. Same with how I learned to save Boc after showing him his mother's voice. This game knows when to have tender emotions, and that's far more than I could say about the DS sequels.
Elden Ring's map truly is something special. It reminded me of when I play The Witcher 3 without the mini-map and use the world map to navigate. It really makes traversal so much more personal when you are learning the land as you go. I had a similar experience in Death Stranding, as well.
@akaErma There’s nothing else like truly learning a game's world! Death Stranding is great for building a relationship between the player and it's world.
When Alexander told me about the Radahn Festival and the Cealid Wilds I thought this was some area not in the game like Carim or Mirrah in the Souls Series. Oh boy was I surprised when you could actually go there.
@Bartnuschler I love that they tell you about that area close to the start and you can go there right away, yet when you get there it is literally like Hell on earth. I imagine most people (including me) noped out of there almost immediately!
@@1-UP-Rory To say nothing of those of us who got teleported into the middle of it by a trapped treasure chest and had to fight our way out. **shudder**
I appreciate how old school ER's approach to exploration is. Gives you more or less just enough guidance to tell you what places to go to, but is otherwise all up to the player's choice to roam the world as you see fit, not giving a care that you would never find a certain item or weapon ever, no matter how many times you play. I see a case for things like a quest log given how vast the world is, but I have to admit not including such actually encouraged me to venture out more into the open world and take notes myself should I choose to. This is just one of several things I liked about ER. Souls games may not have been my type of game to play, but I'm glad I still bought it. It definitely deserved to win GOTY.
@AegisKHAOS Well said! I think a quest log would be nice, just a basic one to keep track of what quests are active and perhaps a brief location of the NPC. I like that it makes you find them yourself, though lots of the time you'll randomly walk into them somewhere you didn't expect. A quest log would help with that. I do like that some people made their own quest log on paper though, that was cool!
@@1-UP-Rory A minor log even for just NPC dialogue could help, since ER's world is massive, along with the freedom to not follow the 'intended' path. Add that NPCs move to locations without warning and the distance you have to go in order to find them sometimes means it can be tedious if you're trying to legit a questline, particularly one like Ranni's. At least now there are NPC markers added when you do find an NPC, so that is a small concession. At the same time, I actually don't mind a whole lot with lack of logs considering how much I was used to it in the past. And as mentioned, there is something to be said about taking your own personal notes as it actually adds to the exploration feel. For me, it just felt more motivating on my first playthrough to just wander the map and not have any particular goal save for getting to the end. So honestly, I think neither approach is wrong. I just liked exploring in my first playthrough and getting stupidly OP in the process. Playthroughs afterwards, however, can be a chore especially if starting an entirely new character.
@voxstelarum It truly is amazing on the first playthrough! My hope is that Elden Ring serves as inspiration for games to come, much like how Breath of the Wild was in terms of freedom, movement, and exploration. Thanks for checking out the video by the way! I hope you enjoyed it.
@staomruel Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I always like listening to people talk about the games they love. If you're a fan of BotW then I've got something similar in store for you in the future...
I've been playing souls games for 11 years now, and I see why everyone calls elden ring open world. But I don't think it's actually much more open than DS1 - the map is just so damn massive that it appears to be very open. But in reality, the entire map is an intricate maze just like the other souls games. You know how long I tried to get on top of the plateau above the village of Albinaurics? Eventually I gave up, and it wasn't until the end of Ranni's quest that I finally realized it was never actually possible to get there at the beginning of the game. But sure, elden ring allows you to go a lot of places from the start. You'll just get destroyed if you try to go to an area that is too high level. The same is true of dark souls. From firelink shrine you can go to undead burg and do the gargoyles, or you can immediately go to the catacombs and fight pinwheel, or to Blighttown to fight quelaag, or even back to the asylum. You are just going to get destroyed if you try to do anything other than undead burg first. Elden Ring's map LOOKS extremely open, but you still need to pass through area A to get to area B, and area B to get to area C, etc. Elden Ring is a lot less "open" than everyone makes it out to be, and dark souls is a lot less "linear" than everyone makes IT out to be. The difference is in presentation and the overall scale of the map. The environments in Elden ring still fold upon themselves and form mazes and convoluted / obscure paths the exact same way dark souls does. It still encourages exploration with all the same tricks - putting items in particular locations that you can see, but not easily access, so you know there IS a way to get there - putting suspiciously useless items in key locations to make you look around like ?? "what am I missing?" to force you to notice some environmental detail that you wouldn't have otherwise seen if you weren't standing at that particular angle - putting enemies that are too strong for you at certain stages so you are disincentivized from going that way until later - etc. This is not an elden ring hate comment, I thought the exploration was fantastic, but it's fundamentally the same as dark souls exploration. The pathways you travel are just a lot wider.
@whirlwind872 You're definitely right to point out that previous FromSoftware games are certainly open and intricate play spaces. I do think it's worth making a distinction with Elden Ring though as it really did take it to the next level, building a huge area for people to explore. One of my favourite aspects was that some areas could be bypassed entirely, such as skipping through the first castle by taking a cliff path on the north side. It really took advantage of Elden Ring’s scale to elevate that feeling of exploration. I felt like I had really discovered something cool when I popped out in Luirnia without going through the castle and first boss. That's all to say that FromSoftware are masters of their craft!
Elden Ring isn't fully open, but it's pretty close to it. Essentially it's broken into gigantic areas which *are* fully open once you get to each, starting with Limgrave (and technically Caelid though it's higher levelled). The plateau above the Village of the Albinaurics is very much an exception.
Print out Elden Ring's map and circle every dungeon that could be your first after popping out in limgrave. You'll run out of ink. The exploration is not qualitatively the same as DS1 and it sure as heck isn't even near quantitavely.
I really like listening to this ! It's 9 month since this game came out and it was on release when i bought Elden Ring but i actually just started playing it a few days ago. So glad that there is actually still a community of new players and not just the hype of the first few month, so far i have a blast of a time and i get why people love this piece so much.
@bluspirit5456 Elden Ring has a really solid community. FromSoftware games in general have dedicated fans that will talk about the games forever! Elden Ring really is one of the experiences that's worth sharing!
@jenniferthomas4900 Thank you! I really appreciate that! I hope to do more long-form content in the future. It's definitely a lot of work but it's a very satisfying experience digging into a topic. If Breath of the Wild is your thing then I'm working on two videos that should be about 20 minutes each!
The first playthrough of this game was.. just magical it was such an incredible feeling exploring everything I could find in the lands between, I haven't felt that way since Witcher 3 when I first played that. Both incredible games that I have now spent an ungodly amount of hours in 😄
@glb1993 The Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild really scratch that itch in much the same way. All great games that fully lean on exploration and discovery as a core feature.
@@1-UP-Rory absolutely ^_^ such incredible games. I have sunk insane hours into Breath of the wild as well at, least a few hundred lol. And elden ring I've got over 500 hours between all characters. Such amazing titles :). Ps I subscribed to your channel, your video has great quality and kept my attention the whole way, keep it up man!
@@glb1993 Funnily enough, I'm working on two Breath of the Wild videos! They'll be similar to this one. And thank you! I really appreciate the kind words and support 😊
@mgkpraesi It sure is! It's one of those games where you wish you could play it again for the first time. Sadly, that's not possible! So sharing our experiences is the next best option.
27:27 Fun story: I had an invasion at this very spot, right at the top of the ladder. So I waited for the host and their friend to finish climbing up. Right as he stepped off the ladder, I knocked him off the ledge with a fully charged R2. Then the Fallingstar Beast charged, hit both my and the phantom, and sent us right back down to the bottom with him. I even got a screenshot of the three of us dissolving into ash simultaneously.
@txh.studios Sometimes people would completely give up if it weren't for guides. Maybe experiencing it that way is better than not at all? Obviously learning about aspects artificially can break that link in the player driven discovery, but they're also helpful for reaching the parts you personally like the most!
@owensingh That's great! It's hard to like the sound of your own voice, especially when recording a video, so that's certainly a confidence boost. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
brother there is no way you only have about 200 subscribers. This was absolutely incredible. I’m glad to say I’ve subbed before 1,000, and I can’t wait for more!
@bio6588 Thank you for the very kind words! Honestly, all the support has certainly been a boost. There's more on the way! Got stuff in the works for Breath of the Wild and Sable.
@smoovesinatra2107 It was an obvious choice! I listened to the Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Demon's Souls tracks so much while making this video and they never got old.
i have for a long time said Red Dead Redemption 2 was my undisputed favorite non pvp game of all time, i can no longer say that, Elden Ring is right there with it. i just defeated Maliketh and knowing im passed the halfway point makes me sad. I haven't felt this immersed in a videogame for some time and i don't want it to end. i should have expected nothing less considering George RR Martins involvement in the game. a song of ice and fire and now elden ring has got to cement him as one of the best writers of all time.
@cshepard09 GRRM's involvement it actually a really interesting story, highly recommend reading about it if you haven't already. He created the world and detailed everything in the past. Then FromSoftware used that as the basis for world we see in the game. They took the world forward in time and destroyed it. Nevertheless, you can certainly feel the influence of GRRM in Elden Ring's world, even though he only created the template of the world in the past, before it was destroyed.
The gargoyles *can* be "cheesed". Not sure if it counts as cheese. But crystal darts short circuit golem / erdtree watchdogs / gargoyles. In the sense that, they suddenly see everything as enemies. If you smack on of them a few times, you can see a blue current short-circuit them. And they start attacking each other. I think, this is how from wanted us to tackle these bosses. But the clues are obscure. They're in the description for the crystal darts.
@@1-UP-Rory Yea, its interesting that from keeps giving players the hints on how to fight and people still keep going after just 'git gud' approach. BTW loving your vids, subbed and awaiting newer content man.
@@abhitejvelore Yeah the 'git gud' part is only half of the equation. There's a lot of nuance and little details, like the Crystaldarts you mentioned, that are really easy to miss. And thank you! I'm glad you liked the video.
@kuroazrael2069 You beat it 3 times in 100 hours?! You must be better than me aha. The fact that's it's possible to still find new areas and new details is one of the many reasons ER is a great experience.
I played and finished every souls game, so I'm pretty good at them, and it still took me 90 hours to finish the game on a first play through. So you saying you finished the game 3 times in 100 hours is a blatant lie.
@@ShadowGamer-hy8fv You know you can run a lot for all the map, unlock a farming spot really early in the game and skip every unnecessary boss, fight using summons, right? I skipped almost everything in the game to get 3 endings, so I didn't find anything that was not strictly necessary to finish the game, only after I tried to get the Elden Ring Achievement I really explore the game, and I found deeproot depths
@Shadow Gamer my first playthru was over 250 hrs as i made sure to clear every dungeon and cave before moving to a new area. But then my NG+ run was about 25 hrs. So I totally believe you could "beat" the game by doing the bare minimum 3 times in 100 hours, but you'd be missing a huge part of the experience if you played that way.
@@joshmay2944 I miss a lot the 1st, my mentality is, let's finish the game, and then if I like it enough I will do a playthrough searching for everything and doing challenge runs, I do that with every souls game, this is the hardest lvl 1 so far for me at least
@TheVindictusFive Yep! He has the audacity to yeet you into a ravine and tell you it's for your own good. Patches is so funny though, I couldn't stay mad for long.
@mazu1875 That's great! That means the video has done it's job then, and it really speaks to how deep exploration in Elden Ring can get. I love that everyone will have a different experience.
That coming out of a cave into a wide open world is something BOTW totally cribbed from Bethesda! We need to start giving Bethesda their due, so many of what is praised about contemporary open world design is stuff their were doing since Morrowind or at least Oblivion. The whole different stories and locations scattered all over the map for one to discover is something I first experienced in Fallout 3 (a game that also doesn't show a place on your map until you've found it or been told about it).
@user-fb5gx9sw9v That's true! It's certainly not something unique to Breath of the Wild, just the most recent great example that I could remember. Bethesda do that technique very often too!
You know, hearing your story about how you, (and most of everyone else) that discovers the underground cities, just made me realize how Miyazaki-like it is. First you deal with a Forrest of Rune Bears (Fuck those guys), which leads you to a well that takes you to the underground area, filled with those SEAL team 6, Ancestral Archers (fuck those guys too).
@Tommy9834 SEAL Team 6 is the most accurate description of the Ancestral Archers that I have ever heard. They must have an 8x scope and Quickdraw because they're lightning quick and they never miss a shot.
@mysteryneophyte I'd say it's deserving of praise, especially in regards to how it handles exploration. It's certainly not perfect: the last few areas are a drop in quality and the boss encounters are often very annoying due to flashy animations, but the game is amazing all the same.
@dmomintz Ahh Kingdom Come: Deliverance! It wasn't for me, personally, but I totally understand why others gelled with it as much as they did. It's a very unique experience!
My experience of exploration in elden ring is riding through empty space. The open world is just as empty as any other open world game. The only difference is that there are no markers on the map from the start. After half of the game i looked up a map on the internet because i got tired of not finding stuff and wasting my time with empty space. When i got to the snow area i stopped exploring all together and only finished the main story. The open world in elden ring is way overrated.
Great review. Information is presented easily and understandably. I wish there were more bloggers like you. By the way, are you familiar with cloud gaming services? Maybe you can make a video about that? I think that you can do a great review, which would be helpful for your subscribers (for me at least 😅)
@chito2701 I think it stands a very good chance of getting GotY and the Game Awards! It'll likely be a battle between Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok.
*Game of the year of course ! That "thing" is not a game, it's an entire parallel universe in itself ! Nothing else similar does exist at this time, ER is a unique piece of "art"...if an alternate reality can be called as something as simple as "art". IMO it goes far more deeper than art ! Art sounds like something too simple in front of such master piece of human mastery !*
@zimo9714 That's quite the complement, thank you! This was a pretty big project for me so it's been great seeing such a positive response. Maybe we'll get there one day!
@DrkTide7 That's very high praise, thank you! And don't you worry, there will be more - I have three videos in the works, two being about different aspects of Breath of the Wild.
@@1-UP-Rory I had a bit of comedy trying to jump with PAtches to get to Domnhall's location at Firelink and he kept falling about 10 times until I got back to the bridge. Thanks fall damage.
@zarodgaming1844 Tree Sentinel goes bonk. Yeah they hit you with a tough boss right away to teach you a key lesson early - it's alright to run away and come back when you're stronger.
@josephjucker5620 Even though I'd listened to the Bloodborne (and other FromSoft soundtracks) so much while making this video, I still somehow never got fed up of it. Bloodborne and Dark Souls soundtracks were a lot of fun to work with!
@jinushaun You're right! There isn't anything wrong with a quest log, though most give you too much information. BotW left a lot up to the player, maintaining a sense of mystery and self-discovery.
@user-nx5ke8sc2y Yeah you'll get that feeling a lot! It's a huge game, and every time you think you're close to having found it all, it gets better again aha
I'm not gonna comment on overall video quality too much, but all in all; is fine. Just please, please, lower the mic volume and speak louder. I can tell you from personal experience that making the mic sensitivity a bit lower to allow yourself to speak more loudly can do *wonders* for your audio. Sorry for the unsolicited advice, you can ignore this if you want.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm still learning and changing how I do things so I'll definitely take the advice onboard in the future. Thanks anyhow, I hope you still enjoyed the video!
This game has nothing to do with exploration... It's literally just a fighting game... It's a joke... Graphics are not 2022 graphics (Skyrim and Witcher 3 look better and are old), there are no villages or npcs to form relationships with, no character development, no sense of choice, there is absolutely no story.... You rarely get a cut scene and it is bizarre at best... Will never understand the appeal to this game, all you do is fight random enemies and bosses all saying some cringy lines and doing this repetitively until you beat the game..... Boringgggg 👎 This game is not even in the same league as games such as Witcher 3, Skyrim, BOTW, etc.... What a joke 🤡 I unironically laughed just seeing the title of this video, because I thought it was satire and you were being sarcastic.... Nah, you are 100% serious 😬.... So cringy... Some people are just lost souls on this planet and I feel sorry for you
@eceplaya039 This is the funniest thing I've read all week, thank you. I sure hope it's supposed to be satire. 1: Graphics do not equal art style. While Elden Ring's graphics are by no means revolutionary, it's artistic sense and environmental design is nothing short of phenomenal. Playing the game or watching the video for even five minutes should demonstrate that. 2: A story does not need to be told through conventional cutscenes to be good. FromSoftware are masters of environmental storytelling and lore, rather than traditional storytelling methods. Neither is better, they are simply two different approaches with this one working very well for Elden Ring and FromSoftware's games more generally. 3. FromSoftware take great care in creating diverse and interesting enemies, both normal enemies and bosses. While the gameplay may not be for you, they absolutely nail their target. Have you actually played Elden Ring or even watched the video? Or did you simply react on the surface level? While I can respect that the Souls genre certainly isn't for everyone, there's a reason FromSoftware is one of the most respected studios in all of gaming.
What are your thoughts on Elden Ring and open-world design? What does it get right? What does it get wrong?
🐦 Twitter: twitter.com/1UP_Video
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See my below comment...
I suppose to review for my board exam. I still passed though 🤣 Taking a break is a must.
@@humorm4152 Exactly! A well deserved break aha
this is the game that truly deserves the GOTY just the impact it had it brought so many people together for a magical experience truly a special game i cant wait for the DLC
@jetbtw5972 I think the community formed around FromSoft games is key. Exploring Elden Ring by yourself is great, but exploring it with others, whether in-person or shared experiences online, really heightens the whole thing.
Not at all... This is one of the games that definitely does not deserve game of the year... They haven't even unlocked the fps yet LOL.... You're joking right? It looks horrible, plays even worse, and is lacking im every RPG department you can think of.... Hack and slash mindlessness... Dodge, attack, dodge, attack... Repetitive garbage, everything is an enemy... Not immersive at all either, just a mediocre game
@@ThatTempesTGuy Elden ring > than any GOW game cope 😭
@@ThatTempesTGuy foolish ambitions laid to rest tarnished?
@@ThatTempesTGuy Ya'll I think this guy is salty that Ragnarok lost. Tragic.
Elden Ring made me feel the same way ocarina of time did when I was 7 and playing it for the first time. For a long time I thought that I’d never get that same feeling again, not unless games went back to much smaller, more intentional worlds. Fromsoft had the best shot at this, and it’s absolutely wild to me that the game that finally managed it is the largest one they’ve ever made. Elden Ring has brought a lot to the table, but the most valuable contribution it’s made in my eyes is changing how we look at common design “tropes.” It brings everything into question, and while I know that there will be games that try to copy it, I hope that it’s example makes designers question their own assumptions about what makes a good game.
@WhereHuhWhat I have no doubt that Elden Ring will serve as a source of inspiration for games to come, in much the same way that Breath of the Wild did. I would love more games that offer greater freedom as they make discovery and exploration that much more meaningful. Though it is undoubtedly a lot of work crafting a game this way, without it being overwhelming or lacking direction.
😬 comparing this game to zelda is blasphemy....
@@1-UP-Rory Not at all, most game developers want to do the opposite of making a super boring linear hack and slash game like elden ring.... The game is a joke... Your opinion is trash 👎
@@ThatTempesTGuy I was comparing Elden Ring’s emotional impact to the emotional impact of Ocarina of Time. They both affected me in similar ways. But, looking at your other comments, I can’t tell if you’re a troll or just resentful of others enjoying something you don’t understand. People are having near-spiritual experiences with this game, yet you aren’t. So you think that everyone must be stupid or dishonest about their feelings. Elden Ring offers up something wholly unique at a time when most large developers seem to be competing at creating nearly the same game. God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, Halo Infinite, Assassin’s Creed. Despite varying levels of quality and different styles of gameplay, they feel so similar. Each spoon feeds the story to the player. Gameplay wise, they’re all entirely predictable. I know when I boot these games up exactly what the game will be like 50 hours down the line. I know that the only thing holding back my progression in these games is time investment, or investment of real money. With Elden Ring, every decision has consequences, and nothing is given for free. There’s no predatory monetization scheme lurking in the background, and no features cut from the game so that the developer can profit off selling them to players at a later date. It’s certainly got issues, but it doesn’t have the same issues of every other triple A game, despite being the most similar of Fromsoft’s games to those other games. This game shows that it’s still possible to release a game that isn’t just a vehicle for pumping money out of people, one that respects the time, effort, and intelligence of the people that buy it. The features you say Elden Ring is missing, are a conscious design decision. I would love to have a game with Elden Ring’s combat and the role playing potential of Morrowind or perhaps Baldur’s gate. I do not want a game with Elden Ring’s combat and the army of filler npcs and entirely generic locations of most modern open worlds, full of decisions that mean nothing and stories that only pretend at being deep and meaningful.
I am happy From Soft is getting the recognition it deserves. This is a TRUE next step in gaming. Not some technology like ray tracing. It’s about the experience imo and respecting the players. I will never forget when I first discovered, for example, that Bloodborne is actually a cosmic horror game. It left me dumbfounded. They did it again with ER. Absolutely excited for what’s to come.
Very lovely video btw, thank you for making this
@blicleak1101 FromSoftware absolutely nail it every time. They have a clear goal in mind and build an experience around it. Discovery and exploration is key, not only for an individual's playthrough (like, no way! This area is so cool!) but also for the social aspect. It's human nature to share that experience with others and it makes it even better. I've loved hearing about other people's time with Elden Ring.
I 100% agree with the Placidusax discovery. It is such a fantastic boss hidden way off the beaten path and stands out in a game already shock full of unique main bosses.
@enman009 Fun fact: I had no clue this boss even existed until Darkfry told me! That's how well hidden that area is! I thought I'd found everything there but clearly not. That realisation really hammered home the point of the entire video aha.
@@1-UP-Rory Really?! That's insane. What blew my mind, in my third playthrough, was finding Alexander in Farum Azula and finishing his questline. Didn't expect him to get this far and yet his conclusion was beautiful. Same with how I learned to save Boc after showing him his mother's voice. This game knows when to have tender emotions, and that's far more than I could say about the DS sequels.
@@enman009 Yeah the conclusion to Alexander's quest caught me by surprise as well. It was a sad moment, I loved Alexander. He made it far!
Elden Ring's map truly is something special. It reminded me of when I play The Witcher 3 without the mini-map and use the world map to navigate. It really makes traversal so much more personal when you are learning the land as you go. I had a similar experience in Death Stranding, as well.
@akaErma There’s nothing else like truly learning a game's world! Death Stranding is great for building a relationship between the player and it's world.
When Alexander told me about the Radahn Festival and the Cealid Wilds I thought this was some area not in the game like Carim or Mirrah in the Souls Series. Oh boy was I surprised when you could actually go there.
@Bartnuschler I love that they tell you about that area close to the start and you can go there right away, yet when you get there it is literally like Hell on earth. I imagine most people (including me) noped out of there almost immediately!
@@1-UP-Rory To say nothing of those of us who got teleported into the middle of it by a trapped treasure chest and had to fight our way out. **shudder**
@@LPTheGas I'm right there with you! Getting teleported into Caelid was such an amazing moment, absolutely terrifying as well though lol
"in many ways Elden Ring is the Dark Souls of open world games"
I appreciate how old school ER's approach to exploration is. Gives you more or less just enough guidance to tell you what places to go to, but is otherwise all up to the player's choice to roam the world as you see fit, not giving a care that you would never find a certain item or weapon ever, no matter how many times you play. I see a case for things like a quest log given how vast the world is, but I have to admit not including such actually encouraged me to venture out more into the open world and take notes myself should I choose to.
This is just one of several things I liked about ER. Souls games may not have been my type of game to play, but I'm glad I still bought it. It definitely deserved to win GOTY.
@AegisKHAOS Well said! I think a quest log would be nice, just a basic one to keep track of what quests are active and perhaps a brief location of the NPC. I like that it makes you find them yourself, though lots of the time you'll randomly walk into them somewhere you didn't expect. A quest log would help with that. I do like that some people made their own quest log on paper though, that was cool!
@@1-UP-Rory A minor log even for just NPC dialogue could help, since ER's world is massive, along with the freedom to not follow the 'intended' path. Add that NPCs move to locations without warning and the distance you have to go in order to find them sometimes means it can be tedious if you're trying to legit a questline, particularly one like Ranni's. At least now there are NPC markers added when you do find an NPC, so that is a small concession.
At the same time, I actually don't mind a whole lot with lack of logs considering how much I was used to it in the past. And as mentioned, there is something to be said about taking your own personal notes as it actually adds to the exploration feel. For me, it just felt more motivating on my first playthrough to just wander the map and not have any particular goal save for getting to the end.
So honestly, I think neither approach is wrong. I just liked exploring in my first playthrough and getting stupidly OP in the process. Playthroughs afterwards, however, can be a chore especially if starting an entirely new character.
Elden Ring's first playthrough sense of exploration and discovery will be hard to top, if ever
@voxstelarum It truly is amazing on the first playthrough! My hope is that Elden Ring serves as inspiration for games to come, much like how Breath of the Wild was in terms of freedom, movement, and exploration.
Thanks for checking out the video by the way! I hope you enjoyed it.
@@1-UP-Rory good stuff my dude, well put points, keep it up ✊
I will never get enough from these games, nor will I ever get enough of hour long YT essays gushing over these games.
@staomruel Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I always like listening to people talk about the games they love. If you're a fan of BotW then I've got something similar in store for you in the future...
I've been playing souls games for 11 years now, and I see why everyone calls elden ring open world. But I don't think it's actually much more open than DS1 - the map is just so damn massive that it appears to be very open. But in reality, the entire map is an intricate maze just like the other souls games. You know how long I tried to get on top of the plateau above the village of Albinaurics? Eventually I gave up, and it wasn't until the end of Ranni's quest that I finally realized it was never actually possible to get there at the beginning of the game. But sure, elden ring allows you to go a lot of places from the start. You'll just get destroyed if you try to go to an area that is too high level. The same is true of dark souls. From firelink shrine you can go to undead burg and do the gargoyles, or you can immediately go to the catacombs and fight pinwheel, or to Blighttown to fight quelaag, or even back to the asylum. You are just going to get destroyed if you try to do anything other than undead burg first. Elden Ring's map LOOKS extremely open, but you still need to pass through area A to get to area B, and area B to get to area C, etc. Elden Ring is a lot less "open" than everyone makes it out to be, and dark souls is a lot less "linear" than everyone makes IT out to be. The difference is in presentation and the overall scale of the map. The environments in Elden ring still fold upon themselves and form mazes and convoluted / obscure paths the exact same way dark souls does. It still encourages exploration with all the same tricks - putting items in particular locations that you can see, but not easily access, so you know there IS a way to get there - putting suspiciously useless items in key locations to make you look around like ?? "what am I missing?" to force you to notice some environmental detail that you wouldn't have otherwise seen if you weren't standing at that particular angle - putting enemies that are too strong for you at certain stages so you are disincentivized from going that way until later - etc.
This is not an elden ring hate comment, I thought the exploration was fantastic, but it's fundamentally the same as dark souls exploration. The pathways you travel are just a lot wider.
@whirlwind872 You're definitely right to point out that previous FromSoftware games are certainly open and intricate play spaces. I do think it's worth making a distinction with Elden Ring though as it really did take it to the next level, building a huge area for people to explore. One of my favourite aspects was that some areas could be bypassed entirely, such as skipping through the first castle by taking a cliff path on the north side. It really took advantage of Elden Ring’s scale to elevate that feeling of exploration. I felt like I had really discovered something cool when I popped out in Luirnia without going through the castle and first boss.
That's all to say that FromSoftware are masters of their craft!
@@1-UP-Rory Yo lol how did you know my ID was whirlwind872, i haven't used that name in YEARS, it should say Houston now, no??
@@whirlwind872 By default it should show ID! It does for me at least. If I click on your icon it tells me your ID and your 'name', Houston.
Elden Ring isn't fully open, but it's pretty close to it. Essentially it's broken into gigantic areas which *are* fully open once you get to each, starting with Limgrave (and technically Caelid though it's higher levelled). The plateau above the Village of the Albinaurics is very much an exception.
Print out Elden Ring's map and circle every dungeon that could be your first after popping out in limgrave. You'll run out of ink. The exploration is not qualitatively the same as DS1 and it sure as heck isn't even near quantitavely.
I really like listening to this !
It's 9 month since this game came out and it was on release when i bought Elden Ring but i actually just started playing it a few days ago.
So glad that there is actually still a community of new players and not just the hype of the first few month, so far i have a blast of a time and i get why people love this piece so much.
@bluspirit5456 Elden Ring has a really solid community. FromSoftware games in general have dedicated fans that will talk about the games forever! Elden Ring really is one of the experiences that's worth sharing!
This is top notch content and a joy to listen to as I begin my own journey into Elden Ring! Keep up the great work my good sir 👍
@robertcollie351 Thank you! I hope you enjoy your journey in the Lands Between!
"these gargoyles are the worst"
yes.... YESSSS
@m.thorton9305 They are an absolute pain!
I've done almost everything in Elden Ring..except of course I didn't kill the good dog turtle pope
@AsHx47 That would be truly evil! I could never!
@@1-UP-Rory It will be a good content for you channel..i dare you
@@AsHx47 Don't tempt me! He's too good!
28:20 - and to find a fitting strike weapon that you can waste a few stones on for that pesky crystalian gank 😣😍
@taddyp3456 Ahh the Crystalians! They're annoying enemies although I actually quite enjoyed fighting them all the same 🤔
Really good video, I've subscribed hoping you do more longform in the future, lots of work but you're an insightful narrator
@jenniferthomas4900 Thank you! I really appreciate that! I hope to do more long-form content in the future. It's definitely a lot of work but it's a very satisfying experience digging into a topic. If Breath of the Wild is your thing then I'm working on two videos that should be about 20 minutes each!
The first playthrough of this game was.. just magical it was such an incredible feeling exploring everything I could find in the lands between, I haven't felt that way since Witcher 3 when I first played that. Both incredible games that I have now spent an ungodly amount of hours in 😄
@glb1993 The Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild really scratch that itch in much the same way. All great games that fully lean on exploration and discovery as a core feature.
@@1-UP-Rory absolutely ^_^ such incredible games. I have sunk insane hours into Breath of the wild as well at, least a few hundred lol. And elden ring I've got over 500 hours between all characters. Such amazing titles :). Ps I subscribed to your channel, your video has great quality and kept my attention the whole way, keep it up man!
@@glb1993 Funnily enough, I'm working on two Breath of the Wild videos! They'll be similar to this one. And thank you! I really appreciate the kind words and support 😊
Never to know whats around the next hill...finding countless locations secrets and wonders. ER is an explorers dream.
@mgkpraesi It sure is! It's one of those games where you wish you could play it again for the first time. Sadly, that's not possible! So sharing our experiences is the next best option.
27:27 Fun story: I had an invasion at this very spot, right at the top of the ladder. So I waited for the host and their friend to finish climbing up. Right as he stepped off the ladder, I knocked him off the ledge with a fully charged R2. Then the Fallingstar Beast charged, hit both my and the phantom, and sent us right back down to the bottom with him. I even got a screenshot of the three of us dissolving into ash simultaneously.
@WolfHreda That's such bad timing! Makes for a great story though aha, I bet it was quite the thrill.
sadly most people will never experience this due to most of them not choosing to play blindly and instead went to guides
@txh.studios Sometimes people would completely give up if it weren't for guides. Maybe experiencing it that way is better than not at all? Obviously learning about aspects artificially can break that link in the player driven discovery, but they're also helpful for reaching the parts you personally like the most!
Bro your voice helps me sleep at night, Awesome video!
@owensingh That's great! It's hard to like the sound of your own voice, especially when recording a video, so that's certainly a confidence boost. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
brother there is no way you only have about 200 subscribers. This was absolutely incredible. I’m glad to say I’ve subbed before 1,000, and I can’t wait for more!
@bio6588 Thank you for the very kind words! Honestly, all the support has certainly been a boost. There's more on the way! Got stuff in the works for Breath of the Wild and Sable.
@@1-UP-Rory I literally had to go back and look at the sub count. Wth? This is such great content. Subbed. And looking forward.
@@abhitejvelore Thank you for your support too! Best end to a year I could ask for.
@@1-UP-Rory You too man. And wish you a great year ahead.
@@abhitejvelore Thanks! You too!
The Bloodborne music, such beauty & nostalgia!! Could make a grown man cry 🎶
@smoovesinatra2107 It was an obvious choice! I listened to the Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Demon's Souls tracks so much while making this video and they never got old.
I've seen a million of these ER video essays, this one is very well done. Got a Vaati vibe.
@johnnyglenn2692 A Vaati vibe? Now that's a win! Thanks for watching and for the kind words.
i have for a long time said Red Dead Redemption 2 was my undisputed favorite non pvp game of all time, i can no longer say that, Elden Ring is right there with it. i just defeated Maliketh and knowing im passed the halfway point makes me sad. I haven't felt this immersed in a videogame for some time and i don't want it to end. i should have expected nothing less considering George RR Martins involvement in the game. a song of ice and fire and now elden ring has got to cement him as one of the best writers of all time.
@cshepard09 GRRM's involvement it actually a really interesting story, highly recommend reading about it if you haven't already.
He created the world and detailed everything in the past. Then FromSoftware used that as the basis for world we see in the game. They took the world forward in time and destroyed it.
Nevertheless, you can certainly feel the influence of GRRM in Elden Ring's world, even though he only created the template of the world in the past, before it was destroyed.
The gargoyles *can* be "cheesed". Not sure if it counts as cheese. But crystal darts short circuit golem / erdtree watchdogs / gargoyles. In the sense that, they suddenly see everything as enemies. If you smack on of them a few times, you can see a blue current short-circuit them. And they start attacking each other. I think, this is how from wanted us to tackle these bosses. But the clues are obscure. They're in the description for the crystal darts.
@abhitejvelore I had no clue Crystal Darts did that! Well, I just keep learning new things about Elden Ring aha. That's a cool detail, nice catch!
@@1-UP-Rory Yea, its interesting that from keeps giving players the hints on how to fight and people still keep going after just 'git gud' approach.
BTW loving your vids, subbed and awaiting newer content man.
@@abhitejvelore Yeah the 'git gud' part is only half of the equation. There's a lot of nuance and little details, like the Crystaldarts you mentioned, that are really easy to miss. And thank you! I'm glad you liked the video.
Always good to have an adventure buddy around! Really enjoyed watching your video 😊
After 100 hours and completed the game 3 times I found an area that I never been before, the feeling was... Sublime
@kuroazrael2069 You beat it 3 times in 100 hours?! You must be better than me aha. The fact that's it's possible to still find new areas and new details is one of the many reasons ER is a great experience.
I played and finished every souls game, so I'm pretty good at them, and it still took me 90 hours to finish the game on a first play through. So you saying you finished the game 3 times in 100 hours is a blatant lie.
@@ShadowGamer-hy8fv You know you can run a lot for all the map, unlock a farming spot really early in the game and skip every unnecessary boss, fight using summons, right? I skipped almost everything in the game to get 3 endings, so I didn't find anything that was not strictly necessary to finish the game, only after I tried to get the Elden Ring Achievement I really explore the game, and I found deeproot depths
@Shadow Gamer my first playthru was over 250 hrs as i made sure to clear every dungeon and cave before moving to a new area. But then my NG+ run was about 25 hrs. So I totally believe you could "beat" the game by doing the bare minimum 3 times in 100 hours, but you'd be missing a huge part of the experience if you played that way.
@@joshmay2944 I miss a lot the 1st, my mentality is, let's finish the game, and then if I like it enough I will do a playthrough searching for everything and doing challenge runs, I do that with every souls game, this is the hardest lvl 1 so far for me at least
16:01
I've played 800 hours total of this game. I've.....I didn't know patches can kick you. Goddamn it Fromsoft; legends.
@TheVindictusFive Yep! He has the audacity to yeet you into a ravine and tell you it's for your own good. Patches is so funny though, I couldn't stay mad for long.
The demon's souls music in the background 🥰
@knight9884 It was a no-brainer! Demon's Souls music is phenomenal. So good in fact that I used one of the songs twice.
i didn’t know that the deep root depths existed until now
@mazu1875 That's great! That means the video has done it's job then, and it really speaks to how deep exploration in Elden Ring can get. I love that everyone will have a different experience.
That coming out of a cave into a wide open world is something BOTW totally cribbed from Bethesda!
We need to start giving Bethesda their due, so many of what is praised about contemporary open world design is stuff their were doing since Morrowind or at least Oblivion.
The whole different stories and locations scattered all over the map for one to discover is something I first experienced in Fallout 3 (a game that also doesn't show a place on your map until you've found it or been told about it).
@user-fb5gx9sw9v That's true! It's certainly not something unique to Breath of the Wild, just the most recent great example that I could remember. Bethesda do that technique very often too!
If this game doesn’t get GOTY, I am going to be so damn pissed
It's ok brother whether Elden Ring wind GOTY or not it will be game of my life forever
@revo2643 It's got some tough competition but certainly has a very high chance of taking home the award.
You know, hearing your story about how you, (and most of everyone else) that discovers the underground cities, just made me realize how Miyazaki-like it is.
First you deal with a Forrest of Rune Bears (Fuck those guys), which leads you to a well that takes you to the underground area, filled with those SEAL team 6, Ancestral Archers (fuck those guys too).
@Tommy9834 SEAL Team 6 is the most accurate description of the Ancestral Archers that I have ever heard. They must have an 8x scope and Quickdraw because they're lightning quick and they never miss a shot.
How elden ring captures the essence of fanaticall praise
@mysteryneophyte I'd say it's deserving of praise, especially in regards to how it handles exploration. It's certainly not perfect: the last few areas are a drop in quality and the boss encounters are often very annoying due to flashy animations, but the game is amazing all the same.
Elden Ring and Kingdom Come: Deliverance have the best maps.
@dmomintz Ahh Kingdom Come: Deliverance! It wasn't for me, personally, but I totally understand why others gelled with it as much as they did. It's a very unique experience!
Really nice work! If you stick with it, I think you could really have something here.
@davidmorris5561 Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video, this was a really big project.
That was really a lovely done Video! Thx
@murderycatdoll1380 Thank you! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Obisoft developers need to watch this video and take notes.
My experience of exploration in elden ring is riding through empty space. The open world is just as empty as any other open world game. The only difference is that there are no markers on the map from the start. After half of the game i looked up a map on the internet because i got tired of not finding stuff and wasting my time with empty space. When i got to the snow area i stopped exploring all together and only finished the main story. The open world in elden ring is way overrated.
amazing video bro. keep up the good work!
@bol1415 Thank you! Got some great videos in the works. If you liked this then you'll like them too.
Great review. Information is presented easily and understandably. I wish there were more bloggers like you. By the way, are you familiar with cloud gaming services? Maybe you can make a video about that? I think that you can do a great review, which would be helpful for your subscribers (for me at least 😅)
Love this man, beautiful and inspiring. Keep it up!
@corvifred Thank you! I really appreciate it. If you like Breath of the Wild, I've got a similar video in the works for that.
well articulated. great video fun to watch while playing, i love that sht thanks man gg!
@ant13ducks Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you liked it :D
this needs to be game of the year
@chito2701 I think it stands a very good chance of getting GotY and the Game Awards! It'll likely be a battle between Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok.
@@1-UP-Rory unfortunately knowing how bias game journalist are, GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK is going to win.
Very good sir
@trentenglish9063 Thank you, thank you :D
*Game of the year of course ! That "thing" is not a game, it's an entire parallel universe in itself ! Nothing else similar does exist at this time, ER is a unique piece of "art"...if an alternate reality can be called as something as simple as "art". IMO it goes far more deeper than art ! Art sounds like something too simple in front of such master piece of human mastery !*
how the hell do you only have 170 subs, this looks like something made from a youtuber with 3 mil
@zimo9714 That's quite the complement, thank you! This was a pretty big project for me so it's been great seeing such a positive response. Maybe we'll get there one day!
The best elden ring videos always come from the channels with 74 subscribers
@Roxy869 Aw thank you! I'm happy to hear it's deserving of such high praise.
Placidusaaax
@dorian6655 Placidusaaaaaaax
Great video! More!
@DrkTide7 That's very high praise, thank you! And don't you worry, there will be more - I have three videos in the works, two being about different aspects of Breath of the Wild.
fantastic vid
@flamingmanure Thank you! I really appreciate the support and I'm glad you liked it.
great Video💜
@chrismaxie2864 Thanks a bunch! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the video, that makes all the effort put in worth it 😄
You can jump in dark souls but it's by sprinting with le parkour.
@minespatch You can indeed, although Elden Ring is the first to have a dedicated jump button without any extra conditions. Jump Souls!
@@1-UP-Rory I had a bit of comedy trying to jump with PAtches to get to Domnhall's location at Firelink and he kept falling about 10 times until I got back to the bridge.
Thanks fall damage.
@@minespatch Fall damage will always be the bane of our existence! I remember how annoying it was in The Witcher 3 aha.
"welcomed" to lingrave ... right ...
@zarodgaming1844 Tree Sentinel goes bonk. Yeah they hit you with a tough boss right away to teach you a key lesson early - it's alright to run away and come back when you're stronger.
Great video I don't comment much but good one
@gobosschool Thank you, that means a lot! I really appreciate the support and I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
great video.
@oskarforsberggg Thanks! Working on a thing or two about Breath of the Wild and Sable next.
Bloodborne soundtrack is best soundtrack
@josephjucker5620 Even though I'd listened to the Bloodborne (and other FromSoft soundtracks) so much while making this video, I still somehow never got fed up of it. Bloodborne and Dark Souls soundtracks were a lot of fun to work with!
Nothing wrong with a quest log. BOTW has that and it didn't ruin the experience.
@jinushaun You're right! There isn't anything wrong with a quest log, though most give you too much information. BotW left a lot up to the player, maintaining a sense of mystery and self-discovery.
19hours is, 0%progress on ps5 dashboard.. 😗 how large is this game?
@user-nx5ke8sc2y Yeah you'll get that feeling a lot! It's a huge game, and every time you think you're close to having found it all, it gets better again aha
It was exciting at first but after awhile I got bored of it tbh.
@johnoblues3984 The later areas are definitely not as dense and content rich as the earlier areas. It's very much front loaded.
AS old souls fan game is cool not goty for me but is ok,more wish for bloodborne 2
@pawemarciniak1473 Bloodborne is well deserving of both a remaster and a sequel.
@@1-UP-Rory last year Miyazaki was saying that will be bb2 but when well
Trans queen trans quen 👸 👑 😀
@johnrichardson373 You should definitely check out Evelynn's videos! (iamerror) They're amazing!
@@1-UP-Rory I will!
I'm not gonna comment on overall video quality too much, but all in all; is fine.
Just please, please, lower the mic volume and speak louder. I can tell you from personal experience that making the mic sensitivity a bit lower to allow yourself to speak more loudly can do *wonders* for your audio. Sorry for the unsolicited advice, you can ignore this if you want.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm still learning and changing how I do things so I'll definitely take the advice onboard in the future. Thanks anyhow, I hope you still enjoyed the video!
This game has nothing to do with exploration... It's literally just a fighting game... It's a joke... Graphics are not 2022 graphics (Skyrim and Witcher 3 look better and are old), there are no villages or npcs to form relationships with, no character development, no sense of choice, there is absolutely no story.... You rarely get a cut scene and it is bizarre at best... Will never understand the appeal to this game, all you do is fight random enemies and bosses all saying some cringy lines and doing this repetitively until you beat the game..... Boringgggg 👎 This game is not even in the same league as games such as Witcher 3, Skyrim, BOTW, etc.... What a joke 🤡 I unironically laughed just seeing the title of this video, because I thought it was satire and you were being sarcastic.... Nah, you are 100% serious 😬.... So cringy... Some people are just lost souls on this planet and I feel sorry for you
Tfw you like your own comment to feel better about your trash opinion. Please get over yourself ;)
@eceplaya039 This is the funniest thing I've read all week, thank you. I sure hope it's supposed to be satire.
1: Graphics do not equal art style. While Elden Ring's graphics are by no means revolutionary, it's artistic sense and environmental design is nothing short of phenomenal. Playing the game or watching the video for even five minutes should demonstrate that.
2: A story does not need to be told through conventional cutscenes to be good. FromSoftware are masters of environmental storytelling and lore, rather than traditional storytelling methods. Neither is better, they are simply two different approaches with this one working very well for Elden Ring and FromSoftware's games more generally.
3. FromSoftware take great care in creating diverse and interesting enemies, both normal enemies and bosses. While the gameplay may not be for you, they absolutely nail their target.
Have you actually played Elden Ring or even watched the video? Or did you simply react on the surface level? While I can respect that the Souls genre certainly isn't for everyone, there's a reason FromSoftware is one of the most respected studios in all of gaming.
I can't hear you could you speak up please.
I like elden ring
@hineighbor Then you're in the right place! If this video wasn't evidence enough, I like Elden Ring too!