Earnest Elden Ring Woes
Don’t worry rabid fanboys: I still like the game, save your angry tweets
So, I’m 28 hours and 21 bosses (including Godrick, eat shit nerd) in to Elden Ring, and I gotta say: I really enjoy it. Having the freedom to explore a vast and beautiful world created by the minds of Miyazaki and GRRM has been a treat. From the lore (as always), to the gameplay, there is just so much to embrace.
There is also a lot to talk about regarding reviews: I feel like gaming journalists at large have just utterly failed to cover so many of the things that make Elden Ring tick. In a sea of 10/10s, ‘perfect game’, ‘the best to date’ is the always ongoing obsession with ensuring that Elden Ring is ‘the hardest one yet (which I staunchly disagree with)’ and that From Soft didn’t water the game down. Focus has been driven solely and whole-heartedly by inadvertently ensuring that Elden Ring “isn’t a game for babies”: from shitty claims like ‘it won’t be as accessible as disabled people want’ to ‘I can’t do anything in this game without a notebook-btw a quest tracker would be a terrible idea’, I gotta say there are some TRASH takes.
As I’ve been playing I’ve started hitting my own personal pile of gripes: again, I really like Elden Ring. A lot. It’s just so good. But there are some decisions that were made that left me very….how can I put this…it left me very this.
So, if you’ve watched my YT reviews, I’ve started breaking things into a Good, Bad, UGLY segment. I find it helps me outline things constructively without all the extra hype, fluff, and bullshit. If I’m being frank, I’ve just grown tired of reading gaming takes from cishet able bodied men-and Elden Ring really reinforced that. So let’s get into it: Elden Ring, on general gaming, aesthetics, execution, accessibility, and representation, yea?
THE GOOD
So there is a whole hecking lot of good. There’s some great even. I’m willing to give From Software a single gold star for adding as many quality of life improvements as they did. They don’t get talked about, and I’m of the mind reviewers didn’t mention these a lot because it starts pulling away at the illusion of difficulty. I’ll never stop praising how your flask of crimson tears (this game’s blood vial, estus, what have you) can refill upon beating a group of enemies at an encampment, or hell even just on three bros strolling the road.
There are scarabs to refill your health charges, your cerulean tears (the magic potion equivalent), and give you access to these new moves called ‘Ashes of War’: these function similar to materia socketing in FF7, rune socketing in games like Path of Exile, in that you can equip them to weapons and shield to change the special moves they execute. Storm Stomping enemies out of moves is great. Ground Stomping is dangerous because it propels you forward (something I didn’t know, so I may or may not have stomped my ass right into a bottomless pit….but it was comedic at least) and stomps in an even biggr radius. Glinstone Daggers as an Ash of War allows you as a non-magic user to have easy, low-effort access to a magic spell so that you’re not stuck in a position of being heavily physical against a physical-resistant boss.
Your classes you start with aren’t wholly locked in to being that class out the gate: there are some obvious weighted differences, but it doesn’t feel unreasonable as a bandit (who starts with higher Dexterity and high Arcane at level 5) to say ‘I’m gonna focus dex, health and stam, but I’m also going to toss a few points in Faith so that I can use the badass dragon spell (seriously, it’s dope) and a couple of fire incantations’. I played a Vanguard in the closed beta and having immediate access to good physical AND good magic was wild. The shield they start with had a parry window to boot. If you’ve ever tried a parrying in a FromSoft game that isn’t Bloodborne, you know it isn’t great! So having a window? Great!
Something I’ve spoke on before regarding Soulsborne games is that my initial turn off was a lack of map and tracking-well, in Elden Ring you HAVE a map (FINALLY), and even without your fragments (we’ll get into that later) it still IDs the main roads for you, and any graces you find (this game’s version of a bonfire) will always be present on the map with the name of the location. There’s a menu on the map you can access that gives you a list of each location and will automatically move the location you have highlighted. You can place up to 300 map markers, with 10 different ‘designs’ to help you designated where points of interest are for you.
Bosses very much go on a sliding scale of perceived difficulty. Many of the side bosses are beefed up versions of in-game enemies, and others are deliberate, don’t-need-them-but-I’mma-kill-you-anyway style bosses that they may have a special name, they may be a hat tip to previous From Soft titles, or they may be Yet Another Berserk reference. In all cases, side bosses do not waste your time, as they all have items or gear that help you in your conquest and aid the player in finding the build that works best for them. They often drop more Ashes of War, they’ll always drop an abundance of souls, and the areas they reside in often times are offshoots of the map at large. There ARE bosses roaming in the main world, but if you don’t want to fight them? You don’t have to. You can just run as soon as they spawn. Catacombs areas operate as sort of ‘mini-dungeons’ in that they have their own graces, their own specified boss, and Elden Ring has also implemented Statues of Marika: statues that exist expressly to get you to bosses faster and removing the dredge of The Run of Shame.
Other fast highlights:|
-rebindable controls
-pop up tutorials on how to play the game
-co-op being clearly outlined to be ‘up to and completion of area bosses’
-no need for consumables to teleport
-FromSoft found a color wheel
- craftable items includes fire resin, magic resin, resistance tools: no longer on a limited amount
-enemy spreads far more forgiving than previous games
-no stamina use to just free roam, only combat
-equippable summons with no stat requirement for single player favored gamers
You have a fucking horse that can double jump. YOU can jump.
THE BAD
So this is where people are going to start hating me, and that’s fine. But we gotta talk about it.
As much as I love a lot of the open world design, it’s starting to grate on me a great deal that the answer to a lot of people’s ‘I missed this’ query starts out with ‘well, if you’re familiar with FromSoft games — ‘ and I cannot express to you enough how this is a confirmation of (as taught to me by SJHDoesGames) poor signage. It’s 2022. There’s no reason why a AAA level game at this stage can’t ensure that the tutorials they insist you read, are clearly signposted as a thing you have access to. Everyone has access to ALL tutorials you engage in your inventory, and I am not going to be surprised at the number of people who made it this far, go ‘wait, you can?’, go to their inventory, go ALL THE WAY to the last tabs where your notes from vendors are, and look at all the images to realize: yea, those are tutorials. Assume no one has EVER played your game before!
That’s….not great. Great that tutorials are in, don’t get me wrong, but not so great that their location is not dedicated or better known. NPCs still have a propensity of relocating with no clue at all where the fuck they went or what prompted them to move. On the way to Godrick, there’s a sorcerer you can meet who can sell you some spells. After you kill Godrick, this motherfucker moves. I exhausted all his dialogue. I know we shared objectives. But at no stage was it rationalized why he moves. Luckily its in your favor WHERE he moves, but for even semi-seasoned players it’s jarring.
The co-op gets explained that a person can help you up to an area boss, but it ISN’T explained that the catacombs and side areas that have bosses in them? Think of them like instances. In the open world, you can summon anyone anywhere, and they don’t leave until you kill an area boss. With the instanced areas, however, these count as completely separate…literally. If you’re running around with yer friendos beating people up and stumble across a cave, you have to kick your co-op partner out, walk ten steps into the cave, trigger the summoning pool, then summon them BACK in. I think a better solution to this, earnestly, is to just let us co-op and once we kill a boss, ANY boss, kick us out. It at least would serve better to incentivize players to hit up a grace, restock/replenish, then call someone back in to explore, spelunk, and do many other things without feeling like we’re in a constant state of just throwing finger sand around hopeful we can find out partner who is furiously touching grass (I call it touching grass because you literally are using a finger to write your sign on the ground). Oh, and for all other consumables to be removed? Summoning your co-op partner is a finite resource. Yea, OK, you can farm more, but why isn’t this item just….a reusable item? The co-op design is still just…archaic and clunky. Again, arguing ‘it always has been though’ doesn’t address the problem.
I hate that (on controller at least) when I hit the back button, I open my map, and when I hit it again, I get a suboption. I don’t close my map. I have to hit B/cancel to close my map. The only thing the back button does, out the box, is open the map. Seems illogical (and yes petty). On the same topic of controls-is anyone earnestly using the hotkey items?
The way that they’re set up try to emulate the ways that you would commonly use a radial menu in games-that much is obvious. But the implementation just sucks-because it requires you to hold (in my case) Y, then hit the d-pad….but it has 6 slots? Who decided it has six slots when only 4 are accessible??? I also have to hold Y and hit bumpers to 2H a weapon which is fine, but I feel like adding the sub-menu under the same setup is just a little cluttered. I’m most likely not going to use it often, if at all.
I LOVE that they explored a full color palette fucking finally. FINALLY. But I don’t love that even with that palette, when it comes to NPCs they very, very seldom stand out. I can spot enemies from a mile away; their contrast is consistently vibrant unless its an enemy that is meant to be in hiding (think the small gargoyles in catacombs areas). Some NPCs? I legit didn’t notice them until I was running over them-and I’ve got a pretty light near-sighted prescription. It’s not for a lack of looking-it’s the fact that Rodrika is just sitting there and does….nothing.
Hold on to Rodricka, by the way. She’s gonna come up in the next section.
Other ‘girl what?’ moments:|
-no mentions that shop notes give LITERAL HINTS AND TIPS for the game
-grinding always gets a ping, depending on the person (I personally like the crafting, but I know many are turned off by it)
-some enemies still have wonky hit boxes
-drastic spike from trash enemies to larger ones
-soul acquisitions feels low (not including any revealed cheese strats)
-armor variety seems meh, focus was very clearly on weaponry
-bosses seem tanky just to be tanky, making some fights honestly boring after a bit
THE UGLY
Let’s argue.
There are some things at this stage that even as an avid Soulsborne player-I’m sorry, it’s just un-fucking-acceptable.
Like the fact that if I play in offline mode, I still cannot fucking pause. I don’t care about the part where ‘that’s always been the case’: I care about the part where 95% of my playtime is going to be ‘offline’ (I tend to roll solo then help with bosses) . I will not be doing the invader shit. I know this is possible because Borderlands does it, and has all along. Hell, even Monster Hunter Rise included a pause feature for single player hunts. It wasn’t in World, but the next installment they said ‘we got you’-and I really like not having to hold my pee on account of ‘this Magnamalo is almost dead! I think!’ This is worsened solely by the fact that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had a pause. So y’all know how to do it, you just….didn’t. And making that EVEN WORSE is the fact that the game has functionality showing ‘if you're in combat, you can’t consult your map’-the MAP could be a pause. As is the case in SO MANY GAMES. I just played the Souldiers demo. That’s an indie title. When I open my map, my game pauses. Elden Ring is a AAA title and failing to include functionality that an indie studio has access to. That should be embarrassing.
***SPOILERS AHEAD!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!***
Did you hold on to Rodricka? Good.
In no way, shape, or form is it made clear that Rodricka is a key person for leveling your builds. You meet her in the Stormveil Shack, and she’s just babbling about how wimpy she is. There is NOTHING that tips you off that she’s an important NPC. There is also no way to know what she needs to advance her storyline. “Storyline” I guess, since she’s required to level summons specifically. The item she needs? You can bypass it without trying in Stormveil Castle, on the way to Godrick. And once she gets the item? There’s a weird back and forth you have to facilitate between her and the blacksmith to get her set up to upgrade your summons. No, neither of them move closer to the other in the exchange at all.
I need people to understand my seething rage at this.
The summons were explicitly added to improve QoL and also open the door to more players gaining access to the game. I will never not point that out, and it is an excellent addition.
But that is immediately squandered when you then decide to hide their leveling mechanics behind obtuse ‘side questing’ that never will make themselves known otherwise. The only reason I figured her out is because I was looking up some build tips and happened to see in a vod that someone was sitting across from the blacksmith. I originally thought ‘oh that’ll open with time then’ until I saw the name of the character and went ‘wait — ‘
And then I started noticing it across the board. How the game still doesn’t tell you that each NPC in the Hold requires items to access more incantations and spells. How you can legit collect items to level summons and the game will NEVER TELL YOU HOW TO LEVEL SUMMONS. And a lot of people’s response to that is ‘well in other FromSoft games — ‘ and I’mma pre-emptively tell you to shut the fuck up, because if you ask me ‘Vanessa what is a good ENTRY POINT for Soulsborne games’, I’mma say Elden Ring (because it is), but there HAS to be awareness and thought that if this is someone’s first game, it needs to be handled as such. What’s the point of asking to turn on tutorials if they’re not plainly available? How about plainly saying ‘all of your previous tutorials can be accessed here?’ How many people KNEW about the Info tab before reading this?
Can we at least mark important NPCs? The idea that a part of your build has the potential to be completely hamstrung by not reading between the lines that this woman needs you to bring back proof that her entire cavalry died on her behalf while she sat around looking wistfully in the wind isn’t….great. I’m not gonna be as weird as some people and say ‘you need a journal to keep up’, but having something in game to track would be ideal. Especially since again: we have a map. We made such a huge win getting a map and allowing people to teleport anywhere so long as they aren’t in a side dungeon, but to then see people argue ‘a quest log wouldn’t work’ really just speaks volumes to how lacking in creativity they are. We couldn’t make a quest log the same way we have a listing of each grace site? We can’t just mark ‘relevant NPCs/quests’ on the map? The characters couldn’t have dialogue that plainly says ‘meet with Lady Rodricka, in Stormveil. She may have some insights for you.’? The options here are MIGHTY and seeing From not even entertain any of these then have journalists back it with ‘too intrusive’ is wild. While we’re here: who actually notices where the statues of Marika and summoning pools are? Oh, did you know the digital copies come with adventure guides that are separate and thus must be launched separately from the game that provide useful info and graphics of how to play the game —
I am exhausted of hidden mechanics. Tired to death of them. Nothing ever explains that different NPCs, mobs, and even bosses can spawn based on your time of day (which by the way, you just…get access to). I’ve heard how to unlock leveling from four different perspectives because the shit isn’t clear. I’m trying to think of a good reason of gating the level up maiden. It’s not about the fact you can touch the technically third or fourth grace: its the fact that touching the grace even with the vendor just doesn’t unlock it. Again: ‘it’s always been like that’ doesn’t make it a good design decision. And for how many graces are in the game, there’s no reason that prompt doesn’t signal by number of times you’ve touched any grace as opposed to a specific grace. Same with the Round Table hold. That chick that hugs you? Yea, she gives a health debuff. Do you have a clear warning of it? Not really. She mentions vigor and I guess that’s the flag that shes gonna take your health to offer you a consumable buff. So my game has had me wondering for the better part of 10 hours why my health was screwed up. It’s because I gave that chick in the Hold a hug. Nothing ever tells you that the little ‘beacons’ on the vanilla map are map fragment indicators and there’s no legend. The ‘refill flask on kills’ mechanic is explained briefly, but NOT explained that in boss areas those heals will be more sparse. I can go on and on about hidden shit. PS: once you get into MAJOR boss areas? That mechanic dwindles down significantly-even though you can still be invaded.
Again: if Miyazaki’s goal was to get ‘more people to clear the game’ then they HAVE to implement a design philosophy that isn’t outright hostile to new players. What was the point of adding all those new, awesome, fantastic features if their explanations were going to be watery at best, and additional caveats are had that aren’t explained until you scour the internet? It’s like they added all these good-great even-new mechanics and ideas and then still sat down and said ‘but how can we make this more challenging-ah, I know, make it more obtuse and hide some info still!’ and for newer players that’s just frustrating. Hell, I’m a vet at this stage and it’s still frustrating.
It’s 2022 and we still don’t know how to model Black hairstyles. Lost Ark has them. Monster Hunter Rise has them. ANIMAL CROSSING HAS THEM. We can’t actually, really, earnestly, honestly say at this point ‘they just don’t understand’ because they’ve been in this franchise specifically since 2009. I don’t want to hear about how they may or may not have references because Afro-Japanese people exist. Afro-ASIAN people exist. Y’all gotta stop making excuses-especially when y’all have no issue seeing white people play Japanese instruments and you see no problem hiring white consultants for Chinese martial arts. Miss me with the shit. The lack of ANY Black hairstyles is ridiculous. And its not just that the only hairstyle we have access to is ‘Nappy Home Cut Fro #12578’-it’s the fact that there wasn’t even an attempt at a braid beyond a long hair one or a celtic style bun. Like, is the team allergic to Black hair?
Don’t answer that.
And as far as accessibility goes? I’m realizing the game is more accessible-arguably the most accessible-but by and large able bodied people benefited the most: I love that you can remap your buttons and many have reported they’ve had little to no issues utilizing third-party hardware and software to play the game. But From Soft has proven that things like pausing, more contrast options, speed settings, more available tutorials are all things that are still very much after thoughts. It makes you almost wonder how so many things got bypassed (like auto-detecting what kind of controller you’re using) but then they remembered to have a toggle for…..blood?
We have a toggle for blood but not things like parry timing, high contrast modes, mobility setti-k. mmmk.
EDIT: oh and for people who need someone to give them some baseline directions (as one does in open world games)-the person who can give you directions to where every major boss is in the game is gated behind dialogue.
You have to beat the first major Elden Lord of the game before someone at the Roundtable Hold goes ‘oh, right, you’re cool. I’ll tell you where everyone else is’. Even then, the game does not tell you who that is-it’s just another highlight that ‘if you’re a new player, fuck you.’
THE VERDICT
Again, I really, really like Elden Ring. It’s 100% gonna be a game that I got back to time and again because this is my flavor of open world and exploration. I DO think people should give it a shake. The open world ALONE makes it worth it.
I also think we need to have an earnest and honest conversation about how (and thank you Ben Bayliss for first pointing this out)some faulty or well-meaning decisions made for a lot of unintentional barriers. I think Miyazaki doesn’t intend to harm players and gatekeep them out (although his shitty cult following absolutely does), but has an idea of ‘challenges’ that kind of sadly and continuously equates to ‘obscure as many things as possible and call it ‘determined exploration.’ It’s interesting reading him claiming that he wants to add more accessibility and he ultimately wants more people to complete the game —
But adding in many new and useful features than many people need and benefit from, then throwing question marks around it goes against that. Again: it genuinely feels and reads as unintentional, and sure, not knowing what to do can in fact invoke more challenge-but it’s artificial and apathetic at best.
So, can you play the game? SHOULD you play the game? It depends. If you don’t have motor skills problems or processing disorders? It’s still a strong maybe. There are a lot of new things that put the game far more in reach.
What I’d like to see however, is the studio getting over this specific hump. The game has some of the best bosses, lore, art, music, and design to date and it sucks reading people still not being able to play because the studio is too afraid that by adding more helpful features, it will cheapen their intentions. We need to say that plainly too: the stubbornness doesn’t root from ‘git gud’ mentalities like much of what the toxic fanbase spouts and misses, but an innate fear that ‘if we add these things, it may ‘break’ the experience.’
Take it from Cuphead, Celeste, Dead Cells, Hades, Disc Room (which by the way does have options for movement speed and doesn’t penalize the player for using them) and many others that it won’t impact it at all. There are plenty of players who got clear and concise instructions and still sucked. I gave up on 3BC in Dead Cells but my god do I love that piece of shit game. Many of us aren’t afraid of sucking, afraid of dying, or afraid of getting stuck ….
We’re afraid of buying a game and feeling, no matter what, that the designers are just hostile towards us for no reason other than ‘we don’t know how to include all these things, so we just won’t’ —
We want to be dead, stuck, or sucking shit on our own terms, knowing that the devs set us up for success. Even if we have to work a little for it.
Seriously: if they just stopped…..hiding stuff, probably about 65% of the convo would go away. Who knows? Maybe that will compel Miyazaki to finally hire PoC for character creation and staff for accessibilty. Y’all are with Bandai Namco-they don’t have someone they can send over?
