Elden Ring (New From Soft Game)

[Dark Knight]

Just cleared the Shaded Castle too. I thought it would be more like one of those mini dungeon “fort” type areas but as usual the game keeps surprising me.

Lol, I want to know your reaction if you find the War Dead Ruins. That place is seriously fucked.

What bosses did you guys find the hardest or easiest? I found Radahn to be overall the hardest for me. A lot of the late bosses that were deemed the hardest, I actually blew through relatively easy. Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, Maliketh, Malenia, Mohg, and Dragonlord Placidusax I took out pretty easily, especially Malekith and Mohg who I took out on my first go at them. Radagon/Elden Beast and Godfrey kicked my ass a bunch though, especially Godfrey in his second phase.

 

[Griffith]

What bosses did you guys find the hardest or easiest?

Personally I think the early major bosses were hardest, but maybe I just didn't have my sea legs yet, or an OP build and a full tray of cheese at my disposal.

I found Radahn to be overall the hardest for me.

He's definitely the most unique and over the top; definitely a different kind of Souls fight. I ended up finishing him off with arrows, pre-nerf though. =)

A lot of the late bosses that were deemed the hardest, I actually blew through relatively easy. Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, Maliketh, Malenia, Mohg

I guess Fire Giant is the one I had the most trouble with, as chronicled here. Of the rest of those I found Maliketh most intimidating because of his movement and range, and Malenia made me do the most prep; maxing and optimizing out my gear, Mimic, etc, coming up with a solid gameplan, and allowing me to use all the cheese on my platter: Mimic with Goldskin wrap and raw meat dumplings, spam Rivers of Blood weapon art until phase 2 starts, run under and dodge her intial attack and blast her ass with Comet Azur, then finish her with Rivers of Blood. My wife stumbled out of the bedroom during the decisive battle and without looking away I just shook my head and said, "No no no no!" I guess it worked because she re-routed to the bathroom and I won. Souls!

Dragonlord Placidusax

Just when I think I'm done with all the other majors bosses and can finish the last I learn another one of these creeps is hiding under the woodwork.

I took out pretty easily, especially Malekith and Mohg who I took out on my first go at them.

Mohg I understand, I would have had him first try if not for his bleed/blood suck attack with about third life left, but Malekith is impressive considering he doesn't really let you hang back and just figure him out.

Godfrey kicked my ass a bunch though, especially Godfrey in his second phase.

I'm hoping to fight the former soon, and yeah, the latter's second phase kicked the shit out of me too, and I never really figured it out because, once again, Mimic + Comet Azur, + Rivers of Blood = I Won (just don't ask me to show my work). I mean, he marches slowly at you to start the fight and doesn't dodge when you hit him, so he's just begging to get Kamahame Ha'd in the face for 10,000 hp.

 

[Walter]

I started a new game of Dark Souls (remastered on PC) just to see how it felt after being immersed in Elden Ring for 60 hours.

The first thing I noticed is that it runs like an absolute dream compared to Elden Ring. Of course, this is a 360-era game being played on modern hardware. So yeah, I can run it at a buttery smooth 144hz, and, within the limitations of the game, it overall feels much snappier to control. I can't wait until Elden Ring feels this smooth (Dark Souls on PC definitely didn't at launch back in 2012, either...). I was able to blaze all the way through the first bell, only dying once (stupidly, of course!). That's the other lesson: Aside from me knowing Dark Souls 1 like the back of my hand at this point, this game is just easier than Elden Ring. I found myself dancing around the slow-ass enemies. I also just still really like the simple world of Souls 1. That Firelink Shrine music... it'll catch you off guard.

Well anyway, back to Elden Ring!

 

[Griffith]

I started a new game of Dark Souls (remastered on PC) just to see how it felt after being immersed in Elden Ring for 60 hours.

I did something similar with Dark Souls 3 when I was still first getting into Elden Ring. Played through to the Undead Village for comparison but then headed back to Elden Ring where I promptly switched from fidelity to performance mode. =)

I also just still really like the simple world of Souls 1. That Firelink Shrine music... it'll catch you off guard.

That's the tradeoff from Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro to Elden Ring; those world's could be extremely granular, almost story-driven, whereas this one is more like... an ecosystem; it's strength is in quantity, of area, population, etc.

Well anyway, back to Elden Ring!

Indeed... though I'm about done with this playthrough (final boss/ending spoilers below):

I beat Radagon and the Elden Beast on the first "try" (I played Ragdollman before but quit when I realized he was likely an end boss). Considering all the cool bosses in this game, I don't think these two were the best for the big finish, though I appreciated Elden Beast's faux-aquatic aspects and what they were going for with him, he still looked kind of goofy (didn't help that my previous fight was against an awesome two-headed Dragonlord =).

Anyway, got and immediately upgraded the Elden Beast's Sword for some sweet rune farming, and now... which ending should I go with, straight Elden Lord or Ranni? I probably should do Ranni because then I don't have to do her quest again (unless I want dual Moon Greatswords =), and it's probably got an achievement tied to it, etc... but I want to be Elden Lord!

Maybe you get to be Elden Lord anyway, she seemed to support that before she went to outer space or whatever, but I recall in the beginning she was talking about ending everything that came before, which I only agreed to so she'd like me. =)

Oh yeah, any recommendations of must-do stuff, besides get all the Golden Seeds, Sacred Tears etc, before I head to NG+ would be much appreciated.

 

[Dar_Klink]

I did something similar with Dark Souls 3 when I was still first getting into Elden Ring. Played through to the Undead Village for comparison but then headed back to Elden Ring where I promptly switched from fidelity to performance mode. =)



That's the tradeoff from Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro to Elden Ring; those world's could be extremely granular, almost story-driven, whereas this one is more like... an ecosystem; it's strength is in quantity, of area, population, etc.



Indeed... though I'm about done with this playthrough (final boss/ending spoilers below):

I beat Radagon and the Elden Beast on the first "try" (I played Ragdollman before but quit when I realized he was likely an end boss). Considering all the cool bosses in this game, I don't think these two were the best for the big finish, though I appreciated Elden Beast's faux-aquatic aspects and what they were going for with him, he still looked kind of goofy (didn't help that my previous fight was against an awesome two-headed Dragonlord =).

Anyway, got and immediately upgraded the Elden Beast's Sword for some sweet rune farming, and now... which ending should I go with, straight Elden Lord or Ranni? I probably should do Ranni because then I don't have to do her quest again (unless I want dual Moon Greatswords =), and it's probably got an achievement tied to it, etc... but I want to be Elden Lord!

Maybe you get to be Elden Lord anyway, she seemed to support that before she went to outer space or whatever, but I recall in the beginning she was talking about ending everything that came before, which I only agreed to so she'd like me. =)

Oh yeah, any recommendations of must-do stuff, besides get all the Golden Seeds, Sacred Tears etc, before I head to NG+ would be much appreciated.

You can do whatever ending you want and then still play before going to NG+ For Ranni

Spoiler: Ranni ending spoilers

There's even some post-ending dialogue (that apparently is translated weirdly so I'd say look into that online after you beat it

 

[Griffith]

You can do whatever ending you want and then still play before going to NG+ For Ranni

Spoiler: Ranni ending spoilers

There's even some post-ending dialogue (that apparently is translated weirdly so I'd say look into that online after you beat it

Well, I guess I know which ending you chose!

So you can keep playing after you get an ending? But I'm assuming not get another ending unless you replay the game (though I'm curious how people are platinuming it on NG+3 when there's purportedly like half a dozen endings, unless you don't get achievements for each)?

Anyway, I also completed the quest of the grim sleeper or whatever her name is and shredded another big dumb dragon and got some other kind of rune, so that's another option I guess, but I haven't even bothered with the frenzied flame guy.

Now that I grinded with the Elden sword a bit (if you upgrade it you can basically insta-kill everything in front of you with one huge, rolling AoE weapon art) I really need to go to NG+ because NG is ruined for me now and I haven't even boosted Arcane yet for more bleed (that's for ruining NG+ =).

 

[Dar_Klink]

Well, I guess I know which ending you chose!

So you can keep playing after you get an ending? But I'm assuming not get another ending unless you replay the game (though I'm curious how people are platinuming it on NG+3 when there's purportedly like half a dozen endings, unless you don't get achievements for each)?

Well... I might have copy/pasted my save to see other endings... maybe :Y. Although I didn't copy it until after I messed up a few questlines so I couldn't get all the endings.

You get achievements for 3 of the endings, one of the "normal" ones, frenzied frame, and Ranni

Basically you can do it on NG+2.

Also, yeah, you can do everything other than the endings that was open before going to the final boss, it asks you if you want to go to NG+ now or do it at the Roundtable Hold later.

I kinda burned myself out a bit I think, might wait til DLC(whenever that is) to do NG+ but I'm probably lying to myself and will do it in the next few days lol.

 

[Walter]

These dancing old ladies seem to be having a pretty good time in this windmill village.

 

[Griffith]

"Windmill Village?" Sounds quant!

 

[Aazealh]

Finally finished the game today after taking my sweet time with it. I explored everything I could, and I feel like I saw all there was to see and found all there was to find. Or close to it at least. It seems I somehow still missed a legendary weapon though (not that I care except for the "achievement"), and there's some subquests I never quite figured, but I'm still fully satisfied given the size of the game. Kinda frustrating that I had to choose a single ending (I went with Ranni but it wasn't all that good) given that I had the choice for 5 or 6 total. Definitely would have liked to see the Gold Mask one as well as the Frenzied Flame. Oh well.

I never do NG+ nor the DLC in these games, but I might be tempted this time around. Might be fun to deploy my full arsenal from the early game on. But then again, I have other games to get to. In any case, most impactful game they've made since Dark Souls to me.

 

[Dark Knight]

Just gonna say. FromSoft really improved their dragon bosses in this game. The only good dragon boss in any of the dark souls games was Darkeater Midir which came from a DLC. Good to see the much needed improvement.

 

[Cronus]

These dancing old ladies seem to be having a pretty good time in this windmill village.

MAJOR Midsommar vibes from that area!

I’ve realized that I completely skipped a difficulty level by doing Leyndell Castle and not killing Radahn. Tearing through all of that now and I can actually complete some more upgrades!

Lol, I want to know your reaction if you find the War Dead Ruins. That place is seriously fucked.

If you mean the ruins north of Radahn’s battlefield then yeah. I was so overlevelled that it was a one shot deal. I can definitely see how painful it would have been earlier though.

It’s only now I find out about this Mimic Tear everyone’s been going on about.

 

[Walter]

Leyndell is incredible.

 

[Cronus]

Leyndell is incredible.

That’s it that’s the tweet

 

[Ishtli]

Finally finished the game today after taking my sweet time with it. I explored everything I could, and I feel like I saw all there was to see and found all there was to find. Or close to it at least. It seems I somehow still missed a legendary weapon though (not that I care except for the "achievement"), and there's some subquests I never quite figured, but I'm still fully satisfied given the size of the game. Kinda frustrating that I had to choose a single ending (I went with Ranni but it wasn't all that good) given that I had the choice for 5 or 6 total. Definitely would have liked to see the Gold Mask one as well as the Frenzied Flame. Oh well.

I never do NG+ nor the DLC in these games, but I might be tempted this time around. Might be fun to deploy my full arsenal from the early game on. But then again, I have other games to get to. In any case, most impactful game they've made since Dark Souls to me.

Did you find a way to access the disappearing tower? I don't have the game but I watched a good portion of it on twitch, and its the one secret I can't find out more about anywhere

 

[Aazealh]

Did you find a way to access the disappearing tower? I don't have the game but I watched a good portion of it on twitch, and its the one secret I can't find out more about anywhere

You mean the mage's tower that's invisible? If so, yeah it's not very hard.

 

[Ishtli]

You mean the mage's tower that's invisible? If so, yeah it's not very hard.

No clue how it's called, but I meant this one (a clip form Barbarous King's stream, you can notice the tip of the building shortly before its gone).

 

[Aazealh]

No clue how it's called, but I meant this one (a clip form Barbarous King's stream, you can notice the tip of the building shortly before its gone).

Yeah, that's the one. You need to find three glyphs that endlessly spawn phantom gargoyles in order for it to appear (they're scattered in the forest). Personally I stumbled upon the first glyph before even knowing there was a mage's rise nearby, and it was night when I did, so I never even saw it before I solved the puzzle. It stands in the midst of glowing blue flowers though, looks very neat. All such towers or almost are tied to a puzzle. This one really isn't the worst by far.

 

[Ishtli]

Yeah, that's the one. You need to find three glyphs that endlessly spawn phantom gargoyles in order for it to appear (they're scattered in the forest). Personally I stumbled upon the first glyph before even knowing there was a mage's rise nearby, and it was night when I did, so I never even saw it before I solved the puzzle. It stands in the midst of glowing blue flowers though, looks very neat. All such towers or almost are tied to a puzzle. This one really isn't the worst by far.

Sweet! I love such secrets, but feel like I missed a ton because I couldn't always tune in for the stream or find the time to watch all the VoDs. Wonder if there's an ER secrets compilation somewhere up on YT...

 

[Proj2501]

Took me longer than I care to admit to find that one tree dwelling dog to unlock another tower.

 

[Aazealh]

Took me longer than I care to admit to find that one tree dwelling dog to unlock another tower.

There's one that's even worse, or at least it was for me because one tortoise was bugged (stuck underground, which is what I'd guessed), and I only managed to get it by chance (i.e. throwing around large area of effect attacks). I was actually shocked that my bullshit worked to tell you the truth, but hey, results! And it actually got me an achievement too.

Sweet! I love such secrets, but feel like I missed a ton because I couldn't always tune in for the stream or find the time to watch all the VoDs. Wonder if there's an ER secrets compilation somewhere up on YT...

Honestly I don't feel like this stuff qualifies as secrets in any way that really matters. Now, understanding what led to the Shattering and the order in which things went down afterwards, that's something worth dwelling on...

 

[Proj2501]

I am trying to experience this as blind as I possibly can. That being said, I did cave to Fextralife on figuring out how to complete some NPC questlines. Like, how does anyone organically figure out these quests?! Also, thanks Aaz, you were the one to get me into FromSoft back in the Demon days... Thousands of hours of my life gone thanks to you, pal.

 

[Aazealh]

I am trying to experience this as blind as I possibly can. That being said, I did cave to Fextralife on figuring out how to complete some NPC questlines. Like, how does anyone organically figure out these quests?!

I figured a bunch all by myself, which I'm kinda proud of. But there's also a bunch of stuff I missed or didn't quite get. Details (full spoilers) below...

I did all of Ranni's quest no problem, although Blaidd's was a little bugged at first because I'd already killed the guy he wanted me to kill, and he didn't acknowledge it. Oh well, didn't block progress. That said, I also never found him by the giant meteor hole, and never saw him afterwards either... Except as the baleful shadow, I guess? Ah and it took me ages to realize you had to talk to her doll at a grace point. I searched for that "ring of oath" for hours and hours before finding that option by chance. A little infuriating, but it's kinda my fault for rarely resting at the grace points given that your flasks replenish themselves as you kill enemies. I realized in insight after talking with a friend that I probably missed some dialogue with Melina because of that too. Never really occurred to me to check. Something to look forward to in the NG+ I guess (which I have sorta started).

Also had no problem with Fia, the Noble Gold Mask and the Dung Eater. By which I mean that I got their runes and all, and can't remember anything being a pain. Finding out the truth about Ragadon's statue was a highlight of the game for me (after Miriel teased it), but I had to go to Rennala to be reborn just so I could cast that stupid spell, which annoyed me (I went straight back and re-respecced myself as I was right after).

I also did Millicent's quest without problem, though ironically I found her on two occasions (windmill village and Altus plateau) while looking for Tanith. Whom I looked for everywhere before I checked Rykard's boss area. Probably over an hour wasted. Also, when I finally found her and gave her the castanets Patches had entrusted me with, she said she didn't give a shit. That actually amused me because it felt so real given the situation, like why would she care. But yeah I never quite figured out what to do after that. I also found Patches completely by chance in the Shaded Castle to begin with. And I never killed the other Tarnished for Tanith, fuck that. Just used her little club as an easy way to explore the manor.

Ah, one thing about Millicent though: I had forgotten an area in the Haligtree, basically the place where her quest ends. I'd gone straight to the grace point thanks to some random message and ended things there for the night, figuring I'd go back to check the rest the next day. Of course by the next day I'd completely forgotten and pressed onward. Took me a good long while to find out that's where her quest ended because I checked literally the entire zone twice from top to bottom before going back there. I had figured she'd move to Malenia's room after I beat her (which I had trouble doing because I was stuck on using the wrong strategy for some reason) and was at a loss when she didn't.

Anyway, as for shit I never found:

Lord Haight. No idea what he wanted me to do.
The weird troll guy that's disguised as a shrub in Limgrave. Never found him again, no idea what cave he meant.
Diallos' friend? I even struggle to remember Diallos. I think I saw him in the manor after I killed Rykard but that didn't really make sense so I'm not sure it was even him.
Last I heard of Nepheli she was still being reminded of her first hawk. No idea what I was supposed to do.
No idea what to do with Alexander's innards.
Tanith as mentioned above.
Plus some shit I probably have no idea even exists.

The one thing I had to check online was how to get Shabriri grapes because it was driving me crazy, only to learn my quest was bugged and I couldn't get the last one that I needed. Sad.
I missed at least one legendary weapon because I didn't get the achievement. No idea where it was.
I have the Haligtree talisman +2 but not the two previous ones. I most certainly missed some other talismans too.
The Stormhill evergaol I found super late while looking for paintings. Had completely missed it for some reason.
Found 2 incantations (and one cave) on the Weeping Peninsula very late as well, I'd put a map marker to go check it later, and then forgotten to get back there.

And beyond all that, there's still things I'm not quite clear about regarding the lore...

Anyway, the real answer to your question is my playtime was, like, 185 hours when I finished the game.

Also, thanks Aaz, you were the one to get me into FromSoft back in the Demon days... Thousands of hours of my life gone thanks to you, pal.

My pleasure.

 

[Ishtli]

And beyond all that, there's still things I'm not quite clear about regarding the lore...

Did you watch this?

 

[Aazealh]

Did you watch this?

Sorry, I didn't click the link as I'm not interested in watching YouTube videos. The pleasure of a video game, to me, is in experiencing it yourself. That's also why I don't look at reviews anymore and limit my exposure to trailers and the like. If I want other people's opinions I can ask my friends. I know, I know... I'm old fashioned. On the way to being a bitter old man yelling at the clouds.