Elden Ring (2022)

Finished up the Ruins of Rauh, a big dungeon in the northwest. It's really great!

The twist here is that the whole level is navigated on horseback, which plays into Elden Ring's strengths and feels really fresh in a game that so often returns to the same few ideas. It's mercifully light on combat, there's a thorny and secret-laden maze to explore, the whole thing is incredibly pretty, and it caps off with probably my favorite boss in the DLC so far. Having a grand time.

(All that said, the area's optional sideboss has one of the worst gimmicks I've ever seen in these games, spawning half a dozen instant-death basilisks mid-fight is simply not alright. You have access to Torrent so it's not even difficult or interesting to manage, it's just pure annoyance)

Look, I finally started this game, and I was super afraid of it. Specially of being really bad at it and thinking my money was gone to shit cuz im bad. I have never played a souls game, and I am not very familiar with these type of games of dark fantasy and high difficulty, so it is a challenge for me. Basically im a noob on these. Honestly I played 2 hours, and they were super fun, yes I died, yes I did stupid shit, but I also succeeded on killing some soldiers and some huge bats (I still didn't pass the tree sentinel, I died 3 times and decided to just go around for now), so yea, I'm kinda proud of my little small progress.

Anyway, wish me luck I guess.

For the DLC I've started placing markers on the map to denote the boundaries of where I've been, and it's weirdly making the exploration way more fun. Like 90% of the loot I pick up is worthless for my build, but wherever I go and whatever I find, I can always be sure to push out the corners of my imaginary map polygon! Placing a little walking guy icon is its own reward.

(spoilers for the southernmost part of the map)

Only just starting the DLC, and I'm deliberately saving the big dungeons for later, but it all seems neat so far!

Double jumping across cliffs and buildings on Torrent is my favorite part of the open world in the main game, so it's nice to see From immediately reintroduce awkward horse platforming. Nixing mandatory bosses at the end of every mini-dungeon is a needed change. And these newfangled Backhand Blades being able to attack mid-sprint without ever slowing down feels rad, even it's likely of limited use when every boss has giant AOEs. Excited to keep exploring.

(screenshot is from the very first area, but I figured I'd spoiler it just in case)

Even more than in my first playthrough, it bums me out how it feels like I'm being punished whenever I try to explore this game's combat and venture out beyond big honkin jump hammers. Parries, guard counters, charged attacks, ashes of war, spells, item crafting, etc.: there's a million ways to fight in Elden Ring, and all of them are vastly less effective than sprinting directly into each enemy and spamming jump attack.

I'm not a big fan of Leyndell, but holy smokes are the sewers beneath the capital incredible! Fetid and labyrinthine, dripping atmosphere and high tension, and just compact enough to keep mapped out in your head.

Like a great Metroid level, they present a seemingly wide-open array of forking paths to explore and then subtly guide you through it, holding your hand without ever being heavy-handed. And the slow-dawning reveal near the end that the wretched pipes you're wandering inside are the very same pipes you were clambering on top of at the beginning is majestic, mind-bending stuff.

It's really got it all: there's great loot, some tricky tightrope fights, a menacing boss, a secret path leading to an entirely separate ending for the game, an all-time bizarre NPC quest. There's a whole little side dungeon inside the main dungeon, with a monstrously cute gimmick to boot! Probably my favorite level in the game, along with Stormveil.

I really got hooked again on this second playthrough. Already did everything I wanted to do pre-DLC, which was basically all the required bosses except the final one, and a whole bunch of stuff I didn't do on my first playthrough (minus Malenia who I fought a few times but probably will come back to after the DLC with a few more levels...). Updated my review slightly in light of this experience and the patches the game has received.

Long story short, I do think I would have had a better experience on the first run if there were proper guides and stuff available at launch. A lot of my complaints came down to unknowingly reaching things in a bad order, or otherwise making things harder on myself than they should have been, or spending time exploring but frustratingly finding things I didn't need, which I think are problems the game can present but very solvable ones with online resources. It's shocking how quickly you can get strong and reach certain places if you actually know what to do. The world is just really fun to go back to even without the novelty factor.

At launch this was one of my least favorite From Software Soulslike games, but after revisiting most of them in the last year or so and then getting back to this one, it has definitely significantly moved up my list and along with Sekiro is what I'd most want to replay again.