Game 71 - Elden Ring - Week 130 - Jun 22

lden Ring

Where do I even start? It's been a long time since I've played a game that pushes the envelope of what a game can be. A true example of games as art. An example of what you can achieve when a studio is left alone with their craft to enact their vision. For the first time since I started this challenge, a game has immersed me so much that I entirely forgot about the challenge. The Last of Us, Metro, BioShock all masterpieces in their own right - all games I critiqued and took notes as I played. After playing this 200 hour behemoth of a game I feel like I can retire. It's set a new bar to measure all open world and long form games. Currently I'm playing through Fallout 4 and it just feels hollow by comparison. I need a break to let the shining diamond that is Elden Ring fade from memory. I feel drained, like I’m processing a break up with Elden Ring. Not only that but I now want to play through and finish every From Software game, a prior roadblock.

So what does Elden Ring do different to other From and similar open world games? Well, everything. That’s a grand sweeping statement, sure, but it makes it no less true. It gets the basics so right that you question your previous understanding of them. The map and UI are barebones with a focus on immersion and exploration first and foremost. No waypoint, no quest markers. Just a beautiful highly detailed map where you’ll actually be using the terrain and landmarks to navigate and move about the world, making you feel like a cartographer. As their foray into open-world games this was the perfect move. From Soft games are known for being difficult, and the open-world design doesn't spoon feed you anymore than the combat does.

Many consider Margit, The Fell Omen to be the first make or break boss. But for me it was this wandering knight. After him I could figure out any enemy with enough patience. 

The world and mythos is present in the lands. Decrepit Houses from fallen empires. Remnants of forgotten wars, races and gods. Some of my favourites in The Lands Between being the HP Lovecraft inspired Old Ones (a common theme in From Soft games) and the ‘Primordial Erdtree’ which is rooted in nature, chaos, barbarianism and death. This encompasses much of the story. The Lands Between were a place of chaos and nature, then the golden meteor arrived containing an outer god. A war was fought, between order and chaos, life and death, light and darkness. The Golden Order and the Erdtree Crucible, in addition to the dragons, original inhabitants which may have been one in the same. The Elden Ring was created by Marika, an avatar of the Golden Order. Godfrey was taken as her husband and to wage wars, a barbarian and savage warrior, the first Elden Lord. Eventually the dragons were defeated and with them death. Men could not die, as their spirits turned to ash in the roots of Erdtrees. Many dungeons and crypts are full of roots, to emphasise this. The story starts after the Elden Ring has been destroyed, and the world set asunder. You, a lowly tarnished must climb your way to the top and take your position as Elden Lord, defeating many foes along the way.

The art style is second to none. 

At first I wondered what influence George RR Martin had on this story. It was a beautiful world but little lore or story felt present. But as I got deeper into the world, the items and locations started to blend with the bosses and their purpose in the grand tapestry of Elden Ring became clearer. The lore is far too much to go into here. From the sibling rivalry, incestual mythos of gods and demigods to the individual items and players (Marika, Maria, Godwynn, etc) in the downfall of the Golden Order. But it’s brilliant. I loved the Crucible Knights, wandering warriors of great strength who hail from the primordial time before the Golden Order, exiled, hated, and shunned by the more civilised humans who inhabit the lands. Crucible Knights also befriend the dragons they once fought in the great war on behalf of Godfrey; ending a war through friendship and learning many powers from them (hence their flying, tail whipping and claw summoning abilities). And that’s only the tip of the ice berg. One enemy that would be a throwaway NPC in any other action game here is tied to the world in such a magnificent way. When you defeat them you feel the gravity and impact you have on the world. And most foes feel the same, not least of all the bosses. From making death real again by defeating Maliketh the Black Blade, guardian of death (also !@#$ that guy - only time I ever spamed RoB + Mimic). Burning the Erdtree by defeating the fire giant, last of his kind deep in the mountains. The story is present everywhere in the lands you travel. For example in the opening cutscene you see Malenia fight Starscourge Radahn. She was borne cursed and users her flowing rot to curse the entire lands of Radahn. As you travel the blighted lands you consider the gravity of power this God has that you will eventually battle. And when you do, oh boy is it glorious.

The amazing characters are too many to mention. Some of my favourites involved my chosen quest line with Blaidd, my boy, so sad I had to put you down. You shouldn't have bit the hand that fed! The noble Jar man and Queen Marika Melina who accompany on your journey in the Lands Between. And of course my queen, Ranni, who I indebted myself to put her on the thrown as her true champion and consort. 

For the first 50-60 hours, in every area I was encountering new enemies. For this size of the game it astounded me how no dungeon had the same winding route, traps or enemies. Each castle felt different, hand-crafted to its original owners liking for a unique purpose. It wasn’t until maybe 100 hours in the enemies started to repeat themselves, and even then they had major variations to change up the formula. This dedication to keeping the player on their toes the whole way through is what I believe makes Elden Ring the best of its kind. Not only that you can build entire characters around a single weapon, where each has its own move set. I opted for a gish-style magic enhancing samurai. A blade in one hand and a spell to enhance it in the other. Funny enough I chose one of the best builds in the game. It wasn’t until I got to Rivers of Blood that I realised how OP it could be. At this point I went into dual-wielding and changed to faith focus over int; with a blood-flame blade in one hand and bleeding sword in the other; I felt like the ultimate badass. Switching from 2h to 1h depending on the situation never got old. And I had a bow and number of ranged spells for when the situation called for it. One build and weapon slightly modified along the way carried me 200 hours through to the end game with endless enjoyment - it never got stale. Up until the very end I was still trying to quick draw my sword to one-hit enemies like a Sword slinging Maverick of the East. While enemies are one side of the From Soft coin, weapons are the other. In most action games you swing, hit, spam, here every weapon has weight, range and distance as an essential factor. The move set makes weapons feel like truly unique weapons and your positioning and timing changes everything, you can jump slash, duck slash, charge slash, back slash, stationary slash, left/right slash and so much more. That’s just one weapon, now that moveset is different for every melee weapon and then you factor in poise to stagger enemies and not get staggered yourself (or just get gud and dodge). It’s a lot. And no wonder people spend so much time in these games. You combine the hack and slash gameplay formula of any action RPG with the technical moveset, weight and positioning of a fighting game to get one of the greatest game design formulas in existence.

Enhancing my uchigatana with my intellect proved to be very potent.

It's cold in the northen mountains, thanks for the coat Blaidd.

Somewhat surprinsgly, stealth is a viable way to play.

I haven’t even gotten into Torrent yet, and how fun it is to use the double-jumping goat horse. How is it that their first foray into open-world design and mounted combat is better than 99% of veterans on the market? The debut of a studio or new IP is often the best; but with From Software this quality is somehow consistent across every game they make. 

Mounted combat on Torrent, slaying a dragon, perfection.

My only major issue was playing the Samurai, which is more of a self-inflicted non-issue. I loved it, but I was never forced to evolve. If I started with nothing I felt like I might have had a more satisfying character arc and end-game. But the Samurai starts so good so early. You have an A-Tier sword in the Uchigatana (which I upgrade and used to the very end). But also the armour is so badass you won’t change it. In a way I liked this though, it made me feel like an established character with his own mastered sword who has travelled from a land afar; rather than a shotgun-hobo swapping a weapon every 5 minutes. Does Dante ditch his dual pistols when I finds a sawn-off shotgun? Does Zelda toss his trusty blade? Does Kratos drop his Chaos Blades? No and neither did Arthuria. By the end I had completely different armour as if it had degraded over time and needed to be swapped out; but was still using the Uchigatana with a River of Blood katana.

By the end I was a dual sword wielding Ronin.

Typically I struggle when it comes to bosses in From games. I love the Lovecraftian inspired fantasy worlds; but at some point I always hit a boss that I can't bypass. That's where Elden Ring is set about. It has such an open format that you can approach it however you like. Many bosses are optional and if you're struggling with the ones that aren't you can just go quest and explore elsewhere to level up! I love this and it made me enjoy the bosses even more to the point that I want to go back and finish Dark Souls and Bloodbourne. The final boss against Marika and the Elden Beast were such a satisfying crescendo to the series - challenging beyond the below and when you finally beat them the uphoria is like no other you will experience in a game. That is the vision of the creator and why the difficulty is an integral part of the design and could never be replaced. Any argument that suggests otherwise, shows not only a lack of understanding when it comes to From Soft games (clearly they haven't gone back to underleveled areas and stomped, it's boring AF!) but game design in general. 

I could go on and on about the enemies, weapons, spells, dungeons, different landmarks and how never-ending the map is, bosses, lore and world – but then this journal will never end. The game is a masterpiece, likely Game of the Year (even over Ragnarok) and will be setting the benchmark for open-world action games for years to game. 200 hours and I’m already considering my next playthrough – likely a strength 2h faith build. The awe inspiring immersion that sucked me in completely and made me want to explore every inch of its world, and then keep going was a feeling of being lost in a game’s world that I haven’t had since The Witcher 3. There were countless moments in the game were I could just stop, look into the distance and before was a vista so beautiful, you could crop it and display it in a gallery of water colour paintings. As cliché as it is to say, words do not begin to describe the joy that I had with this game so I won't - I'll let the game speak for itself.