Jump to content

Would Elden Ring make for a good first Souls game?


IntroPhenom

Recommended Posts

Gotta admit, all of the raving and positive reviews are taking nibbles out of my self restraint. Every little video clip is intriguing. Friends say they love it, with one placing it in his 'top three of all time'. Even James Stephanie Sterling can't stop making complementary videos about it, the old sourpuss. 

 

I have never played a Souls game. The closest thing in my gaming history would be Lords of the Fallen. My quandary is this - could playing Elden Ring before any other Souls game ruin the previous entries? If it's the best one I hesitate to begin with it, for fear of spoiling myself and setting up future disappointment. But I may be overthinking things. But maybe not! One of the reasons I love Zelda BoTW so much (top five faves, for sure)  is because near thirty years of interaction with the franchise before playing left me well acquainted with the myriad sprinklings of references and familiar aspects, and these alongside the new stuff undoubtledly elevated my experience to new heights.

 

Perhaps grouping all of the From Software games together is unfair. They are invididual games after all, and not a string of sequels, despite carryover among the play style, apperance, etc. I could play ER and love it so much (or not!), and play any other entry immediately after, or even years later, and enjoy it no less (or much!) because of any predecessors. Hmm. I have sixty bucks sitting on a trade-in site that also sells new games. Playing a new game along with seemingly everyone else would be darn fun. Hmmmmmmm. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Noooooo. Start out with other SoulsBorne games as they’re cheaper. Get Dark Souls Remastered or Dark Souls 3 and see how you like them. If you enjoy them a lot and the difficulty doesn’t put you off then maybe get Elden Ring just keep in mind it’s a much larger game than previous FromSoft titles and is also a hell of a lot harder than them too

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you want a easy time to start off with I would say go for dark souls 3 or dark souls 2 then go to 1 and then demon souls and then bloodborne and up to you if you like to do skiro shadows die and then do elden ring as when it comes to the games. the hardest is demon souls then it is dark souls 1 and then bloodborne then 3 and then 2 and lastly elden ring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, IntroPhenom said:

My quandary is this - could playing Elden Ring before any other Souls game ruin the previous entries?

I'd say take the plunge, because Elden Ring is by its essence a completely different beast compared to Souls series since now it's open world :D 

The references are minor and only the diehard fans would catch them. Bonus points if you read the Berserk manga and see the similarities. But given how many ways you have to approach the game (plus the ability to respec), I'd say Elden Ring is a solid purchase and you wouldn't regret it.

 

Of course, there are some bullshit areas, but if you managed to handle Lords of the Fallen you won't have many issues with this game either. @Tetho_mig is also right, don't listen to gatekeepers (or the hardcore community in general) and play with whatever makes you feel comfortable :D 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've not played Dark Souls, only played Bloodborne and then Elden Ring. It's likely my 2nd fave game of all time, so far anyway. Maybe.


I think I have something like 140 hours of gameplay and well, I think I only have 10 trophies or so. One of the few games to be worth full price I think, there's just so much to do.

Yeah, I saw Jim Sterling's video earlier, he's not wrong though.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Elden Ring is my first entry into the Souls series too! I really enjoyed the game to start with, but now I’m approaching the end game content I’m not really getting the same enjoyment out of it. I don’t particularly like the difficulty scaling in the game and I feel like a lot of my fights in the past 10 hours of gameplay have been such a chore rather than enjoyable. I dunno if Souls games are ‘supposed’ to be like that though or if it’s just a failing on my end, because there are a lot of things I just don’t do in game (like crafting because no thank you) ? overall though early game was great and the world exploration is super fun, so I’d still recommend giving it a try

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think that playing ER would ruin previous games. If anything, I think ER is a bit jankier than older entries. ER does play more like a JRPG, where grinding is more valuable than any kind of combat skill. 

 

One annoyance is that it can be difficult to find your way in ER. Older Souls games are a bit more linear (particularly DS2). 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get it only if you like alot of freedom in the games. As much as I know Elden Ring is fantastic masterpiece, it stands for everything I hate about games. Like every gripe I ever had with a game put together into one big pile. But I am aware it's me, and I am happy people have loved it so much so far. I played some time yesterday roaming around for an hour I think. My first reaction was awful. The game is convoluted, inventory screen seems like looking at MS Excel spreadsheet with all the numbers, quite alot of the mechanics are not explained, and you have to figure them by yourself. The game starts with short cutscene, gives you pat on the ass and says "Now go, lol". And my first instinct was "But... Where do I go? What do I do? Why am I doing anything? What are my motivations? What is going on?". Without any story, questlines, dialogue etc I have zero motivation to go forward, because I have no idea what my goal is. And I do not need handholding, but there should be middle ground between Ubisoft infestation of markers and quests and having zero of context. I have zero connection to my character because it's basically nonexistent, you could have been just floating weapon. 

 

Again, not trying to start a war with ER fans, that game is fantastic and dream come true for many of you. It's just not my dream. All I am saying that to love ER you have to love gameplay, freedom and lore much more than story, characters and dialogue in games. If you are one of those players that is looking for freedom in their open world games it will be absolutely perfect for you. Just  wanted to butt in with alternative look at the game, don't eat me guys :D 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, so long as you're ok with: no pause button, going elsewhere if a boss is too much to handle, and getting lost.

 

Elden Ring gives you a ton of freedom to do what you want and  has a ton of great QoL changes that previous games don't have like checkpoints near the boss arena and spirits that all build can benefit from. The 10/10s are from how content rich this game is and how unique traveling the overworked feels. Some bosses are repeated, but the vast majority of this game feels special to play. Game is still hard, but can be made easier with mimic spirit and your horse torrent.

 

If you want an idea of what you're getting yourself into, try the other souls game as they go for much cheaper now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone’s answers here are great, but I’m gonna go and say something different.

 

Id highly recommend you start with Bloodborne as your first for-ray into the fromsoftwere catalog.

Like every fromsoftwere title it starts out hard in the beginning(you’ll most likely spend the first 2hrs just getting wrecked)

But at some point “it” will click, and you’ll be dodging in and out of attacks getting some very meaty punish attacks in.

while you explore(imo) one of the most rich, dense and fully realized lovecraft-ish inspired world's ever seen in media.

 

Trophies are nicely straight forward as well, all you gotta do is find all weapons, beat all bosses, unlock the 3 endings(you can save scum to speed it up)

There is 1 difficult trophy for beating the games super secret boss, you’ll have to go tru a few hoops to unlock the dungeons till you unlock the one that has said boss, but it isn’t too bad, well the 5th one were you gotta clear it with half hp can be rough and bumps the game up to a 6/10 but hey at least you can say you earned the plat eh? Lol

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have much experience with souls games, but what is the deal with the lock-on system? I played Elden Ring for a couple of hours and tried to fight this Tree Sentinel guy. And at crucial moments, all of a sudden it lock-on to random animals. Am I not supposed to touch the camera stick at all when I am locked-on? I have a habit of turning and controlling the camera at all times. It's very hard to unlearn. I platinum'd Sekiro, and I also thought that handling multiple enemies in that game was atrocious, just because of the lock-on system. Luckily you only had to fight one boss at a time in that. But in Elden Ring, I assume you will be fighting bosses in an open world and the lock-on system will just make me rage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, boorish_brute said:

I don't have much experience with souls games, but what is the deal with the lock-on system? I played Elden Ring for a couple of hours and tried to fight this Tree Sentinel guy. And at crucial moments, all of a sudden it lock-on to random animals. Am I not supposed to touch the camera stick at all when I am locked-on? I have a habit of turning and controlling the camera at all times. It's very hard to unlearn. I platinum'd Sekiro, and I also thought that handling multiple enemies in that game was atrocious, just because of the lock-on system. Luckily you only had to fight one boss at a time in that. But in Elden Ring, I assume you will be fighting bosses in an open world and the lock-on system will just make me rage.

You can not touch the analog as that moves the lock on to someone else.

 

Conversely, you might have better luck if you don't lock on to big or fast moving enemies. A lot of bosses are made harder if you try to lock on to them and they start whipping around. Change camera settings to something high like an 8 and move the camera when you absolutely need to see the boss. If you see a boss coming your way, you can always run away to get a better advantage.

 

Pro-tip: bosses on the overworld keep their damage taken when you run away and de-aggro them. Best of luck

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...