Hello and welcome back to my blog!
The last post I wrote about Elden Ring was five months ago. That was the time I played it a lot, but slowly. After not being able to clear the Fire Giant boss fight for a couple of days, I lost interest and moved on to other games. In the meantime, I replayed Hollow Knight, fully completed it (all 112%) and then played the successor Silksong last couple of months. Once I defeated the final boss in Silksong, I was left with a desire to pick up another challenging game and what better to continue the Elden Ring series I had?
Returning to The Lands Between
But I didn't want to continue from where I left off, I forgot half the side quests and NPC interactions, which areas I cleared thoroughly and which were still left and now that I had more experience with the game, it made more sense to start with a fresh character. Elden Ring was my first attempt at any "souls" game, so I made a lot of mistakes, like putting all my levels on useless attributes that I can't even utilise properly.
I thought the first few hours would feel boring, trying to level up the character and explore all the things that I already explored and beat those bosses which I had already done, but I was wrong. Somehow, this run felt much better than the first one. I was less frustrated with enemies, dying way less, enjoying the game more and defeating the seemingly harder bosses easily. That made me realise that it was never about the levels but the skills you learn while playing these types of games. The way you learn to notice patterns in boss battles, when to dodge or heal, when to strike light or heavy and when to let go of your ego and come back to the fight once you have better equipment.
Learning From Past Mistakes
This time, I didn't accidentally hit the Blacksmith who sells smithing stones to upgrade your weapons. Last time, I was swinging my blade wildly and hit him, making him disappear, which made me lose on some easy smithing stones, which could have been so much better.
The best part was that I knew by experimentation in the last run which weapon felt the most fun for me while dealing a good amount of damage. It was the Bloodhound's Fang, a curved sword that deals a lot of damage in the early to mid-game, and I knew exactly where to get this from very early in the game, without spending all the precious runes on junk weapons.
Bosses I Used to Fear Are Now a Breeze
I was killing one boss after the other and progressing at a much faster rate this time around. One thing you've got to say is that knowledge is power in such a game, not just skill. I am an average guy when it comes to combat, but you can overcome that with more exploration and levelling up your character. I used to think a game like Elden Ring would be very hard, but I don't think that anymore. Not sure how other Souls games are structured, but in this one, the open world helps a lot. There are shortcuts to bosses, in case you are really struggling with some. Summons to help you in battles, and other utilities and buffs which can greatly impact the results of a duel.
There are so many new things I learned in this new playthrough. One of the things was so simple. It was just to increase my max health. This makes the game so less frustrating. When you don't die from one hit from bosses, it helps you learn much more from your mistakes during the fight. In the last run, I put so many levels on my strength and dexterity, largely ignoring vigour, which made me a glass cannon, and so many times I lost thousands of runes because of that low health.
I also noticed that I skipped a lot of optional bosses and content before going to the Altus Plateau, making me underlevelled for that region. I used to constantly run away from big enemies there. I remember how it took me 2 hours to just defeat the Godskin Apostle, which I defeated this time on my second try in less than 5 minutes. It was not just the weapon upgrades but a combination of both improved skills and better weapon upgrades, and some efficient shortcuts for items that I use in the game.
I can easily say that Elden Ring is one of the best games I have played so far. If you had asked me 5 months earlier, my answer would have been different, but now, once I got used to the UI (which I think is total trash btw) and the gameplay style, I can see why it won game of the year title. It has so much content to offer, with a lot of possible playstyles, a huge and beautiful open world to explore, with some amazing boss battles which are satisfying to overcome.
It impressed me so much that I am seriously thinking of trying more games from "From Software". But I am afraid they will feel outdated at this point. What are your thoughts about it? If you were to play another Souls game after Elden Ring, which one would that be and why?
- All the content is mine unless otherwise stated.
- Screenshots are from the game, Elden Ring.