How Elden Ring broke me to become the Elden Lord
When we play video games we typically get confronted with the question how hard the challenge should be. Easy, Medium/Normal, Hard, Very Hard and that’s not even where some games stop. But at the very next step sometimes decisions are taken away from us. There are markers, logs, tutorials and so on to make us comfortable with the game we are about to enjoy.
There is nothing really wrong about that. Some people want some mindless fun after work others like to regulate the settings to suit their comfort. There is no right or wrong here.
Elden Ring does barely any of that. It lacks any “hand holding” if you want to call it like that and puts you into a world to follow your gut as well as your curiosity. No matter where you go: Within 1 to 2 minutes you will find something interesting. I was a bit afraid at first to get into this experience since I basically put Dark Souls 3 into the corner after roughly an hour — yes, it’s a skill issue, Memo — while Elden Ring somehow presented me this Open World where I slowly acknowledged that I was able to have way more variety in becoming more powerful that it ultimately motivated me get the tools I need to get things done. At some point if you realize what the possibilities are it’s hard to get off the “thought-train” which just keeps rolling remembering you what could do next and next and next… you get the idea.
I also love how it made me a slightly better person who is not really patient. The Consequences of every hit — no matter if it’s against you or your enemy — allowed me to fade out my frustration over many things and instead focus on what I learned with everything that was at my disposal.
Bringing back the Mystery
The map of The Lands Between is limited at first once you enter this world for the first time. Stepping out into the wild in Limgrave for the first time and looking at it gives you the mystery of everything that is there to be discovered. You have to obtain maps in order to have the full picture unveiled. You have to earn it.
This slight change which most Gamers I believe are not necessarily used to puts you into some uncertainty that simply tells you to have your own experience and not be afraid of anything but rather respect it. If it kills you quicker than a blink of an eye you automatically replay that in your head and either pick another strategy, go somewhere else or call for help. The Game tends to give you clues how some things work but won’t put it in front of you with flashing lights or something like that.
Once you figure out the mystery Elden Ring will respect and reward you.
The Notebook
Role-Playing Games have Quests which allow you to progress, get rewards and unravel a Story piece by piece. It’s not much different here except that I sometimes had to talk to certain people more than once to get and item or more information what to do next. I couldn’t help myself to sometimes look at Guides if I missed something. When I asked a friend from the United States he literally told me that he was sitting with a Notebook on the table to basically have his own Quest Log so that he had all the characters on his radar, get rewarded and become stronger.
I was quite lucky to have a die-hard FromSoftware fan as a very close friend who thankfully guided me in certain things (and even gave me god knows how many Golden Runes). As hilarious as that sounds but it might have been that he actually replaced that Notebook which I desperately would have needed otherwise and it opened me up twists and turns in the games lore that I really didn’t expect. It fascinated me quite a lot.
I Shall Fight Until Only One Stands
Being the elephant in the room for me the fights in this game are a incredibly satisfying experience where you agility goes hand in hand with actually dealing damage as well as being aware of what the enemy is doing at all times. You can dodge, parry and block with your weapon or your shield. Most people seem to rather dodge because of one important thing which are the so called “i-Frames” (please don’t sue me, Apple). These frames make you invincible for 13 Frames which is mostly countered with something called “roll catching” where the enemy may for example wind up an attack longer than you might realize it.
The little Economy of managing stamina with all these techniques open up an array of different “get-out-of-danger” needs. But since the patterns don’t really change and may have a slight variety in them Muscle Memory is a tough weapon once properly trained and makes epic fights turn into one tremendous dance accompanied by a majestic soundtrack.
But your arsenal of tools don’t stop there. There are various ways you can use in parallel to overcome hard challenges such as summoning spirits, calling in other players, spells and a dozen consumables that you can equip to quick-switch through to end up using quickly.
“This Feels MUCH Better!”
When encountering an enemy and trying to get into the offense I had the occasions where I was barely dealing damage despite the fact that the territory I was in was mostly quite manageable. It was only about into my 7th try that I realized that I was supposed to simply move past this beast for now until I had something stronger. This gave me the emphasis to dig for more power in terms of weapons, level ups, you name it.
The Sensational Feeling once you feel ready to tackle it again because you gut much stronger is incredible where I literally sat at that previous boss and said: “This Feels MUCH Better!”. While it still was a quite tough fight the whole show was over around 15 minutes later with the only thing left being the feeling of satisfaction and rewards. These feelings make great memories.
Lay Down Your Arms
Patience, Consistence and Knowledge has been my key to overcoming most obstacles in Elden Ring. I never thought that I would get motivated to be beaten over and over again just to crack the combat puzzle at last and hit that “Save Clip” key on my Stream Deck.
I played a lot of games 2022 but this one has made more great memories than some of the others combined.
And the best thing? Having your best friend next to you.
Who fights with you, rages with you and explores with you.
The best association I could have with this game.
