I wanted to love this game...

[RedDevil757]

I love the soulsborne series of games. Not just the fromsoft games but others like the Surge too. I was so excited for elden ring. Pre-ordered and got it day one.

 

My problem is that I find myself burning out with it super fast. I find one of the main castles and I'll be having a great time exploring and then you defeat the boss and you're back in the open world. It's then that I get really bored and fedup with it. At the rate I'm going, it'll take me like a decade to finish it. I'm so done with open world games. I want more structured games but that seems to be a bad thing to say these days ?

[Mellenthin]

You're not alone with your thinking. I too prefer a more structured layout and with little to no padding - DS was more or less perfect in that regard. While Elden Ring sure was entertaining, just as FS games mostly are in general, they clearly went overboard with the numerous caves and recycled bosses.

 

Although I followed a 100% guide - which, to be fair, added a substantial amount of hours - having each boss only appear once as they normally do in FS games and keeping the copying & pasting of caves to a bare minimum, would certainly have helped in making the game not feel so stretched out.

 

For people who have much less time on their hands than me, I actually feel quite bad. Even with the suggestions I made, Elden Ring would still be a very lengthy game, so I don't really understand the necessity to bloat it to such an extent.

 

If you'd like, we can always trade in-game and I'll give you anything you might need in order to speed up your playthrough and thus save precious time. Just send me a message if interested.?

 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Mellenthin

[TheGreatOneKobe]

Elden Shit is way too long. I'm a 120hrs in, finally in the last part of the game with only a few trophies left and the length has taken its tole on me.

 

Getting 2/3 shoted by normal enemies after a 100hrs is lame, fighting bosses as normal enemies is lame, repetitive little dungeons (especially the chariot ones) are lame, input reading bosses are lame, delayed attacks galore and unlimited boss stamina are lame, needing to have multiple tabs on my computer open to figure out what/where/how to do something is lame.

 

If you can't tell I'm not a fan. Barely above DS2 as 2nd worse Fromsoft game for me. The best thing about Elden Ring are the legacy dungeons. Those castles and manors are the only reason I would think about playing this game again. I would just have to ignore all the other crap that ruin this game.

[Wanderer_Luka]

It is best to treat the "open world" like you would any linear Souls-like game. There are hundreds of secrets hidden in the map, uqniue encounters, lore opportunities - the world is so richly fleshed out with new things to constantly find and challenges around every corner. 

 

Elden Ring is one of the best games in the franchise and one of the best games ever made for a good reason. 

[RedDevil757]

1 hour ago, ScholarFaust said:

It is best to treat the "open world" like you would any linear Souls-like game. There are hundreds of secrets hidden in the map, uqniue encounters, lore opportunities - the world is so richly fleshed out with new things to constantly find and challenges around every corner. 

 

Elden Ring is one of the best games in the franchise and one of the best games ever made for a good reason. 

Disagree. I'd sooner have a more structured game. I love the dungeons and castles but burn out fast when I'm in the open world looking for the next one to do. It's the reason a year on that I still haven't finished it.

[GravityQueeen]

I prefer linear games as well and didn't like Elden Ring at first, because of the open world, like you mentioned. But everything you love in Dark Souls and Bloodborne is still there, find a way to overcome the open world barrier if you can not care about exploring it by yourself, maybe watching a walkthrough, or maybe just going after things required for the platinum might help. Maybe caring about your character and build? In my experience,  I was rewarded for my perseverance and ended up loving the game. Best of luck with it!

[OTPYG]

I personally loved the game, really wish they’d pump out some DLC for it. You’re right though - far too many open world games these days that have a whole lot of nothing/padding throughout. I didn’t find that to be the case with Elden Ring though. I enjoyed the trial, error and punishment for attempting areas that you stumbled across and were clearly far too under-levelled to attempt. To each their own!

Edited April 27, 2023 by OTPYG

[Burritoprime]

OK.

[Profeelgood]

Yeah I'd agree with this. Not saying it's a bad game by any means. But I played for about two weeks. Got around 70 hours. I reached the Volcano Manor. And just felt overwhelmed and burnt out. I felt like I was missing a lot of stuff as well as missable occurances and just said, eh, hopefully they will make a dark souls 4. 

Maybe I'll come back, but for now, it's just way too much. 

[You]

You see this is why trophies in games in bad. The complaints here are

 

"The game is too long"

"I need to use the guide to find everything"

 

All because you want the game to be over quicker. I'd argue that the game is just huge, there's no real padding. it's a very well done game.

Sure there's some recycled enemies but this has been going on since the days of Double Dragon.

 

I dare nobody here would be complaining at all, if all you had to do was kill the bare minimum of bosses and get one ending.

 

The game is literally labelled open world though, so not sure why anyone is shocked that the world is so vast and they have to go out into it.

[Squarevii87]

1 hour ago, Profeelgood said:

I reached the Volcano Manor. And just felt overwhelmed and burnt out. 

Yeah ok ,what else you think will happen,I mean you are in volcano of course you will burnt out

[DrBloodmoney]

Elden Ring is like The Jackal of videogames:

 

“Six foot tall, but not an ounce of fat.”

 

I don’t think I’ve ever played an open world game with so little repetition of locations and details, or so many specific, unique elements.

 

I understand open world fatigue generally…

… but to me Elden Ring never came close.

 

It is the only open world game that doesn’t really feel like an open world game in practice… …it just feels like 4 different bespoke linear Souls games, all amazing, and all poured into one massive thing where you create your own path with every new session.

[Sezzuyasha]

This was actually about my only issue with the game. One of the great things about dark souls for example was how well made the map was. Everything seemed linear but somehow still connected. It was just a really good job at map building. Everything went into each other without unnecessary big spaces in between the locations.

In the case of Elden Ring: it's just simply easier to connect everything if you make the map so big that you need to use a horse to stay sane going from location to location. it was just a completely different approach at map building than we are used to from the other games, and I too enjoyed the old approach more.

[Iker_01]

I loved almost everything about Elden Ring, except for the bosses. The attacks are relentless, the swings unpredictable... After my third playthrough I was sick of Radagon/Elden Beast.

 

18 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Elden Ring is like The Jackal of videogames:

 

“Six foot tall, but not an ounce of fat.”

 

I don’t think I’ve ever played an open world game with so little repetition of locations and details, or so many specific, unique elements.

 

I understand open world fatigue generally…

… but to me Elden Ring never came close.

 

It is the only open world game that doesn’t really feel like an open world game in practice… …it just feels like 4 different bespoke linear Souls games, all amazing, and all poured into one massive thing where you create your own path with every new session.

 

While I loved the exploration in this game, I do believe there's quite a lot of fat. Imo, the game just isn't as good once you leave Leyndell.

[You]

52 minutes ago, Squarevii87 said:

Yeah ok ,what else you think will happen,I mean you are in volcano of course you will burnt out

 

And, your Sephiroth avatar is literally burnt out! lol

Ba dum tisch!

 

33 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Elden Ring is like The Jackal of videogames:

 

“Six foot tall, but not an ounce of fat.”

 

I don’t think I’ve ever played an open world game with so little repetition of locations and details, or so many specific, unique elements.

 

I understand open world fatigue generally…

… but to me Elden Ring never came close.

 

It is the only open world game that doesn’t really feel like an open world game in practice… …it just feels like 4 different bespoke linear Souls games, all amazing, and all poured into one massive thing where you create your own path with every new session.

 

Yes completely agree, I'd argue that Elden Ring is the only game that gets it completely right!

 

The thing is, there's a scale. If you're an EZPZ platinum hunter, a game that lasts more than an hour and requires effort is too long. The average trophy hunter who likes to get platinums and move on, there's an issue here, the game is huge, I think it's a great length, but if trophy hunters and people using their site, there's a level, we all have one. I have it too (like with games like Killing Force 2 adding a new bronze trophy every few months)

There comes a time where you've played a game, for a long time, you want to just move on from the game, but start a new game means you have even more trophies on the go. 100% or getting the platinum for many people is the end! To ever playing that game again, but leaving it not at 100% is unbearable.

 

I have this feeling too, especially on a game I am not enjoying anymore, or when a game has more collectibles than is normally sensible, I just want the experience to be over.

 

There's very little plan A to B in an open world game, not to mention the game is hard, so you might get one hit killed. Dying a lot in Soulsborn games is like this, you're supposed to spend a ton of time in each area, learning the enemies, learning the bosses, learning where the treasures are. The fact Elden Ring is like 8 times larger than the average Souls game.

 

I get it, I can see why people are a bit fatigued. The thing is, this is what backs up my original statement, I doubt anyone would be complaining the game was too long, if it was released on Switch, or on PS2. Has anyone ever said the original Final Fantasy VII was too long back in the day.

 

So I can kind of agree with that sentiment, whilst I won't be playing easy platinum games, a long game makes me consciously aware that other games are coming out and I haven't played those yet. And starting a game can feel like a commitment, especially when it's a 100 game with a commitment and not just some online 100 hour grindfest.

 

Trophies suck sometimes honestly, to the extent where you want less game, where you want XP boosters to skip the grind etc.

In reality people should be saying "Wow I got this game and it's soooo long, I don't have to buy at least 2 or 3 other games in the meantime, Elden Ring is such great value!"

 

Imagine if the game required THREE completely playthroughs though like erm I think Dark Souls 3 is? lol (Save trick can be done just like Bloodborne)

Edited April 27, 2023 by enaysoft

[DrBloodmoney]

24 minutes ago, enaysoft said:

So I can kind of agree with that sentiment, whilst I won't be playing easy platinum games, a long game makes me consciously aware that other games are coming out and I haven't played those yet. And starting a game can feel like a commitment, especially when it's a 100 game with a commitment and not just some online 100 hour grindfest.

 

Trophies suck sometimes honestly, to the extent where you want less game, where you want XP boosters to skip the grind etc.

 

I don't know...

 

...I do understand the sentiment, but I think that's really on the player to figure out for themselves. The games can't be blamed for our collective foibles. 

Personally, I don't rush through games, I don't "optimum path" them, I try to preserve the "blind playthrough feel" (you only get one shot at that, after all!)... and I think I do fine for trophies.

I'm happy enough with my profile as it is, and I don't get annoyed that a game that I'm enjoying takes a long time.

 

Could I quadruple my "platinum count' in a year, by playing only 1 hour games?

Sure, I suppose. I could compete with the big boys, and climb that neverending treadmill we call a Leaderboard...

 

...but do I want to?

No thank you, good sir!

 

 

TBH, I tend to find I feel, if anything, the opposite with games like Souls games.

 

Remember when in Dark Souls III, you could see the list of bonfires slowly filling out as you found them?

I remember really hating seeing that.... because with each new one, I knew the game was coming closer to ending, and with each one I filled in on that list, there was one less new area for me to enjoy.

 

I do know what you mean about feeling like "oh, there's so much good stuff coming out, and I'll never be able to play it all"...

...but that's true of everything really. 

 

You have to accept that you can't play every game - but if that starts making you want to rush through the games that come along that are truly fantastic, just to check them off a list and get to the next roll of the dice...

...well... tha would be a crying shame!

 

 

(Granted, I'm speaking for the point of view of someone who's two most played games this year have been two that either don't have trophies (Hitman Freelancer) or that I already have the trophies (Tetris)... so maybe I'm just inoculated this point ? ?)

Edited April 27, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[You]

16 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Could I quadruple my "platinum count' in a year, by playing only 1 hour games?

Sure, I suppose. I could compete with the big boys, and climb that neverending treadmill we call a Leaderboard...

 

That's true. And I agree with that sentiment, however there are really people like this, and I know it because it affects me. EVEN though I couldn't care less about the leaderboards, I do have this certain sense of not really pride, but just, there's still stuff to do on this game and I hate leaving things unfinished. It still gets at me today seeing various games I have that aren't over 90% completion rate.

I remember 2018 God Of War, I struggled with that, it made me motion sickness, and I played it on Easy, even then I found it challenging, to the extent where I was satisfied, even Easy seemed Hard. But imagine if I had to play it multiple times and on Hard? (Like GOW3 does for example)

 

I unfortunately avoid so many good games these days, if it's got online, it's an instant miss. Ghost Of Tsushima springs to mind. I also tend to skip games that have more than 1 playthrough.

Again it's nothing to do with the leaderboards or even completion. It's just, I'm middle aged and time if finite. Elden Ring on the other hand, sure it was long, I clocked in over 500 hours, I knew I would enjoy it though, plus I had a ton of mates playing it, drop in and drop out coop.

 

I still haven't started Alien Isolation because it has multiple playthoughs, it looks awesome. But then I see another game, that doesn't require multiple playthroughs. I have Yakuza 1 and 2 Kiwami, I have Yakuza Isshin (the older Japan only version one, not the new one) I have so many games I want to play but I put it off for shorter games, older games I played before, retror games.

 

All because of the strange psychologically magic that trophies has upon us. RedDevil could just use a guide on gamefaqs (in the 2000s) and beeline for all the bosses and just skip half the game. He can't, because of trophies.

 

The people complaining in this topic are no different to the people who refuse to play medium to long 100% trophy lists. The time invested isn't worth the amount of trophies, and then people find themselves justified to auto pop a separate stack.

 

Elden Ring was a great 3 months of my life. But hey it could be worse, you could be playing Horizon Zero West and it keep forcing you to play the game with random DLC every 2-3 months.

Well anyway, I've never heard a game criticised because it has too much content (unless it's bad filler grinding content that a lot of games do) It all comes down to achieving that platinum in as realistic speedy-ish time, unfortunately.

Edited April 27, 2023 by enaysoft

[Akrioz]

I simply had no fun with combat. For me the soulsborne series is 1/3 parts exploration and 2/3 parts combat. And while I had a lot of fun exploring legacy dungeons and underground areas the enemy design and boss repetition really made my experience mostly bitter. It is ridiculous that the game has like 8 unique bosses out of 168. 

Also, after playing Sekiro, Surge 2 and Nioh 1-2 the whole classic souls combat gameplay got really stale for me. It would probably won't drag me down too much in 30 hours game but I didn't last 100 hours. Probably won't play DLC too, I had enough. 

[XcaliBird]

 

Before Elden Ring, I platinumed Demon's Souls as a prelude to Elden Ring. I started playing and after about 15 hours I took a break because it didn't work any further. After about a month I went back to the game and told myself I wanted to finish it and platinum it. And only then did I realize how good the game is. I'm looking forward to the DLC and will play it for sure.

[RedDevil757]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I don’t think I’ve ever played an open world game with so little repetition of locations and details, or so many specific, unique elements.

Really? You must have played a different Elden Ring to me then.

 

There's a huge amount of copy and paste. From enemies to environments, to the catacombs that all look exactly the same. It's why I'm fed up with open world games. Give me a smaller world or smaller levels with unique graphics and enemies. Not copy and paste the life out of a game.

 

If Elden ring had the structure of Demons souls. I'd probably be on my 10th playthrough by now. Not struggling to find the motivation to finish it the first time. This isn't even about trophies. I'd probably be having even less fun if I was going for those too

[Carttagos]

On 24/03/2023 at 3:38 AM, RedDevil757 said:

I love the soulsborne series of games. Not just the fromsoft games but others like the Surge too. I was so excited for elden ring. Pre-ordered and got it day one.

 

My problem is that I find myself burning out with it super fast. I find one of the main castles and I'll be having a great time exploring and then you defeat the boss and you're back in the open world. It's then that I get really bored and fedup with it. At the rate I'm going, it'll take me like a decade to finish it. I'm so done with open world games. I want more structured games but that seems to be a bad thing to say these days

 

Just follow the story and don't search for anything else. If you play open world games, it doesn't mean you have too see everything.

 

You will hate this kind of games if you play them often and that happens with any genre.

[RedDevil757]

43 minutes ago, enaysoft said:

I still haven't started Alien Isolation because it has multiple playthoughs, it looks awesome.

 

All because of the strange psychologically magic that trophies has upon us. RedDevil could just use a guide on gamefaqs (in the 2000s) and beeline for all the bosses and just skip half the game. He can't, because of trophies.

I'm not going for the trophies on Elden Ring.

 

I don't know where you've read that about Alien Isolation but it's not true. I have the platinum for that game and definitely only did one playthrough.

3 minutes ago, Carttagos said:

You will hate this kind of games if you play them often and that happens with any genre.

I've played that many open world games over the years that I just feel like I've been there and done that so many times before. Most just feel like a new skin or mod of the same game all over again to me

[You]

9 minutes ago, RedDevil757 said:

I don't know where you've read that about Alien Isolation but it's not true. I have the platinum for that game and definitely only did one playthrough.

 

Yeah but you need to do stuff like not be discovered at all, while playing on the hardest setting to do all that in just one sitting, or do two separate playthrouhgs, and I just keep thinking, one day I'll start it.

Just one of those things, despite buying it in 2016. I plan on sticking with PS4 for a while and not buying a PS5, so maybe one day when I've run out of other games to play, I will get back to it.

Edited April 27, 2023 by enaysoft

[RedDevil757]

1 minute ago, enaysoft said:

 

Yeah but you need to do stuff like not be discovered at all, while playing on the hardest setting to do all that in just one sitting, or do two separate playthrouhgs, and I just keep thinking, one day I'll start it.

Just one of those things, despite buying it in 2016. I plan on sticking with PS4 for a while and not buying a PS5, so maybe one day when I've run out of other games to play, I will get back to it.

I don't remember anything being overly hard. With it. It's a great game. I highly recommend it.

[ObsiEez]

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Elden Ring is like The Jackal of videogames:

 

“Six foot tall, but not an ounce of fat.”

 

I don’t think I’ve ever played an open world game with so little repetition of locations and details, or so many specific, unique elements.

 

I understand open world fatigue generally…

… but to me Elden Ring never came close.

 

It is the only open world game that doesn’t really feel like an open world game in practice… …it just feels like 4 different bespoke linear Souls games, all amazing, and all poured into one massive thing where you create your own path with every new session.

 

I also absolutely love the game & think it's peak FromSoftware (this is coming from someone whose not really a fan of the open world concept, but FromSoftware made it feel fun all the way through). But I'd argue that a lot of the side dungeons/bosses are repetitive. Tons of recycled boss fights for them & a lot of the side dungeons looked exactly the same, especially the crypt dungeons. The Pumpkin Head, The Cat Statues, The Erdtree Avatars, The Tree Spirit, The Crystalized dudes, That knight boss with the light tail (I can't remember what he was called). All bosses you fight a multitude of times without much difference in the actual fights other than the element they use, how much HP/damage they have/inflict, & even how many there are at once.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the game, but there was plenty of fat in it like every open world out there. Elden Rings gameplay loop is just an enjoyable one (to some people) to the point where you don't really notice it or even care that it's there