August Assassination #3

This is it. Elden Ring was a game I won from Vasharal on Taleplay, and I immediately got scared. I mean, how can you not? I never played any FromSoftware game, and the only souls-like games I've played were 2D, probably Hollow Knight and Moonscars. Elden Ring is so widely acclaimed that you can't help but feel anxious by the thought of finally getting to play it, right? It's similar to how I felt when I won Red Dead Redemption 2 from xxxka. And while I played RDR2 to death, racking in 144 hours on it, by the time I was over with Elden Ring I had played it for even longer - 153 hours, roughly. While I only got 40/42 achievements possible, this is because I messed up with one of the endings and getting it will require another playthrought -- which I want to do in the future. But for all practical purposes, I consider ER completed for me.

Now, where to start? I don't know. There's nothing about Elden Ring that hasn't been said already by more competent people, so I'll focus on my experience playing the game. The first thing that comes to mind is disorientation - the game is deep with its systems, but vague with its lore and narrative. It's simple in it's objective, yet deep in how you achieve it, be it through combat options, exploration options, or anything else. It's so much thrown at you at all times, regardless of whether you understand it or not. Which is really jarring at times, but also contribute to the feeling of 'wow' every time you turn a corner and witness something magical - a new location, a new monster, a new weapon.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what these moments are, but when Elden Ring goes big, it goes big. Seeing Liurnia for the first time. Taking the elevator to Siofra River. Fighting Radahn. Those are moments that get etched in your memory, and they refuse to go. When it is at its best, Elden Ring is close to perfect.

But of course, as with any open world game, it has some bloat. While the overworld is beautiful, fighting bosses repeated times get old very quickly. The first time you fight a Tree Spirit, it's wild and chaotic and nerve-wrecking and has such high stakes. By the time you're fighting it for the 8th time, but this time it hits like a truck and spews Scarlet Rot and there's an edge around the arena, it's just boring. Similarly with the Catacombs and Caves - the first time you're shot in the face by a trap, or find that the way forward is under a lift, is pure bliss. When you enter your 50th catacomb, you just want it to be done.

Elden Ring gets a rep for being both the easiest and the hardest FromSoft game out there. The easiest because you have so many tools to aid you in your journey - most instances where I was stuck in a boss fight was solved by summoning my favorite Spirit Ashes. The hardest because if you decide not to use those ashes, some bosses are pretty unforgiving. Everyone knows Malenia, but I also suffered a lot in the hands of Maliketh, Bell-Calling Hunters, Death Rite Birds, and the Black Knife Assassins, to name a few. But that feeling of finally 'getting' it, and triumphing over strong foes is such a blast. Some of the enemies that gave me that feeling include the Draconic Tree Knight outside Maliketh's arena (no summons, no cheese - just learning patterns until I defeated him no-hit), the first Crucible Knight in the evergaol, the evergaol Bloodhound Knight - almost all fights that force you to fight without summons were a personal triumph, unless I had to cheese them (Bell-Calling Hunters and Putrid Tree Spirits, I have no patience for you). In the end, you can mostly modulate your difficulty by skipping optional bosses and leveraging summons for the mandatory ones.

As I neared the end of the game, I started to feel really sad, because it's such an immense and entertaining world to be a part of. I'm still kind of sad that I mostly got to try one type of build, which is a Curved Greatsword powerstance build (with BHF and Morgott's Cursed Sword), although I played a bit with powerstancing Greatswords (blood-Gargoyle and cold-Flamberge). In NG+, I definitely want to try at least a dagger build (Reduvia), a katana one (Rivers of Blood, maybe Moonveil, who knows Meteoric Ore Blade or Malenia), and a Sword of Night and Flame build (SONAF ftw!). It's such a rich game. Cosplaying with your favorite armor also rocks.

I think at this point I already lost focus and I'm rambling, so let me stop here. TL;DR, incredible game, incredible experience, one of those things that make you think "Yeah, it's worth being a gamer". I can't thank Taleplay and Vasharal enough for the opportunity. If someone wants to gift me Dark Souls 1, I promise I'll play it next LOL

Oh, and of course: the meme review!