Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Majora]

35 minutes ago, kensei said:

I am tiring of this a bit as well. It's not that it's got worse - I've just entered the Capital and it's visually amazing, it's just I'm pushing 79 hours and that is a lot of Souls and I'm nowhere near the end. Last week I was non stop playing this. This week I'm like yeah, I'll take a break for a bit.

 

I'm exactly the same. 80 hours in, just reached the Capital and I think I need to take a break. 

 

I feel like it's a combination of repetition and burn out. 80 hours is a lot to spend playing any game in just three weeks and it's likely I've burned out on a bit. As you say, that's a lot of Souls in a short space of time.

 

But also, I think playing it so much in such a short space of time is exposing the repetitiveness a bit. The incredible sense of surprise has dissipated quite a lot. Another mine. Another catacomb with gargoyle enemies and that stone cat boss at the end. Those same ruins they've copied around the map about a billion times. Another enemy camp. 

 

The enemies have also started getting overly familiar as well. The game chucks so much exciting and cool new stuff at you in Limgrave and the Lakes that you almost feel like the surprises are never going to stop but they've slowly been drying up for me.

 

And this is inevitable really. Most open world games show their whole hand within like ten hours. BOTW wasn't immune to repetition and even Rockstar and their infinite budgets end up repeating the same 'random' NPC stuff eventually. You make a world this big and inevitably things start to repeat a lot.

 

I also think this is kind of an exhausting game to play over a long period of time. On one hand it's brilliant that it has things to find tucked away in every nook and cranny but when the world is so big, exploring the areas between dungeons can feel never-ending at times.

 

I think I just need to take a bit of a break, play through one or two short and breezy indie games and then come back to this hopefully feeling reignited. Though I don't want to leave it too long or I'll just forget everything.

[Benny]

I've finally decided it's time to visit Leyndell. Holy shit how is this game even real. I mean visually it's just one of the most stunning and evocative fantasy worlds I've ever seen. Not just in games.

[Jamie John]

Spoiler

Draconian

Tree Sentinel down, f-f-f-first time! Capital, here I come.

 

(Although first, sleep.)

[robdood]

Some scrappy boss clips!

 

Mainly from the just-outside-the-city bit.. 

 

Spoiler

Windmill guy

Spoiler

 

 

 

Margit v2

Spoiler

 

 

Jar catacomb boss

Spoiler

 

 

Deathbird lol

Spoiler

 

 

Horsey gatekeeper

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Benny]

Repeater crossbow CUNTS.

[NecroMorrius]

I don’t really know what to do with this now, at level 60 and stuck with a really boring samurai build and half of the bosses down. I can go to places where I get oneshot by shit offscreen cheese or reused asset bosses, or I can go and oneshot enemies I’ve already killed a million times. Either way it’s boring and my interest has plunged off a Cliff. The open-ended nature falls into the trap of everything being too easy or too hard by failing to direct the player to level-appropriate content. I’ve found multiple new areas I absolutely pissed through with zero problems on account of previously going to areas which were  way too high and running them anyway because it’s Dark Souls. I just want to know where I can go to fight some appropriate enemies and make some progress. It’s a litany of dead ends now. 

[Vulgar Monkey]

After some volcano manoring, I have also been doing Auriza Heros grave. Spoilers on completion follow, obv:

Spoiler

Via some exploring, found the means to disable the chariots. Have since been making runs on the boss, got them down to a hit away twice before dying, once because I somehow put away my sword! Not the first time Ive done that lately, fuck knows how.

 

Most Orny/Smough feeling fight yet, though, both because of their movesets, the arena, and the way I handle them by kiting and using one enemy to block the other. Fun fight.

 

[Uzi]

10 minutes ago, Moz said:

I don’t really know what to do with this now, at level 60 and stuck with a really boring samurai build and half of the bosses down. I can go to places where I get oneshot by shit offscreen cheese or reused asset bosses, or I can go and oneshot enemies I’ve already killed a million times. Either way it’s boring and my interest has plunged off a Cliff. The open-ended nature falls into the trap of everything being too easy or too hard by failing to direct the player to level-appropriate content. I’ve found multiple new areas I absolutely pissed through with zero problems on account of going to areas which were probably too hard and running them anyway because it’s Dark Souls. I just want to know where I can go to fight some appropriate enemies and make some progress. It’s a litany of dead ends now. 

This is by far far far the easiest From game I've ever played. I'm in end game areas now and still getting through without much resistance as my weapon art or spells obliterate most things if ii set myself up right. There are about 10+ things that makes the game pitifully easy in comparison to previous From games but only if you're fairly smart about what builds you choose and willing take advantage of the tools the games offers you instead of stubbornly trying to play one specific type of style and make it work against all odds if you don't have the skills or stats to pull it off. Maybe respec or use those dex points to make it more ranged. 

 

I'm constantly swimming in runes too so its easy to pay for level ups and upgrades if you're willing to brave said areas. I'll play where I am just progressing and every 20-30 mins getting 100k plus just playing naturally. Almost at level 140 now! 

[NecroMorrius]

I’m out of respecs, I’m sure I can go to fextralife and find out exactly what I need and then go and find it in a chest guarded by one skeleton but where’s the fun in that? They nerfed my previous build into oblivion so I had to use my last respec to claw something useful back. So now I go and farm smithing stones forever or play something else I guess. 

[Uzi]

Sounds like more fun than you're having!

[Number 28]

I've picked up 11 larval tears in total. How many times did you respec?

[NecroMorrius]

Twice. 
 

I’m not complaining the game is too hard incidentally, it’s been laughably easy for 60 hours but increasingly boring. You’re essentially forced into making meme builds because the classic sword and board can’t sustain a game of this length, and it’s a bit shit finding 900 upgrades you can’t use while using the starting weapon and moveset at hour 60. At least Sekiro gave me more moves as it progressed. 

[jonamok]

Every time I read the words “Farum Azula” my brain follows it with “Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.” Showing my age.

[Number 28]

I'd look at a guide for those larval tears, there's quite a few dotted around it seems.

 

Can you drop golden seeds for other players? I don't suppose you can but I have 8 that I can't do anything with.

[NecroMorrius]

I haven’t used 99% of the items I’ve found or crafted. I’ve tried a few against bosses and the like but it’s all pretty useless. The bosses are either laughably easy or impossible due to your current build and you have to summon two no-life level 300s to kill it in 3 hits for you. Although summoning seems to be broken lately as I couldn’t summon in front of Radahn for over 40mins, summon failed every time. I’m probably due lots of flask and seed upgrades at the bonfire, I should check, but I hardly need it. I either oneshot everything or get oneshot, I don’t really need to heal.
 

I have an Uchigatana+18 and a Moonveil+8 I think, and at least 100 other weapons which are completely ineffectual either because I can’t wield them or I’d need to waste time farming smithing stones to level them up to find out if they’re any good. It really doesn’t encourage experimentation. I change arts occasionally for specific bosses but unsheathe is still vastly better than the 30-40 others I’ve found, except hoarfrost which was so broken I tried not to use it. I did have a decent dual Uchigatana cold build going on for a while. 
 

I’m not sure I like this loosey-goosey “fuck it, anything goes” Fromsoft. When you can watch people farming a million souls a minute and downing bosses in 2 seconds from the other side of the arena it makes me wonder what the point is. 

Also, look at a guide, look at a guide, look at a guide. I don’t want to follow a guide and slavishly make a fextralife build after teleporting all over the map cheesing bosses to get the exact items I need. I wanted an organic experience, but I’ve barely found an item worth using in the entire playthrough. 

[Alan Stock]

Doh, I just realised I've had the rllmuk password in the wrong place. I had it as the multiplayer password but it should have been for a group password. No wonder I wasn't seeing any messages! Within 10 mins of setting it I'd already come across a rllmuk one!

[Uzi]

I've respecced about five times and still have seven larval tears spare ( i wasn't looking for them). I would say explore more!

[NecroMorrius]

I just looked, half of them are in a place I can’t go yet. Because I can’t kill a boss which oneshots me and I can’t summon anything because summons appear to be broken tonight. 
 

I don’t mind my current build, it’s basically the same as the boring samurai build but I’m using moonveil so now I can throw spells too. It’s weird that you can equip piles of spells or incantations, but melee users get nothing bar a single ash which might not proc the right affinity (in my case they’re all worse than the default one). At least have a few generic melee moves you can slot into memory slots (like ashes of war) to make pure melee more interesting. 

[Minion]

2 hours ago, Moz said:

I just looked, half of them are in a place I can’t go yet. Because I can’t kill a boss which oneshots me and I can’t summon anything because summons appear to be broken tonight. 
 

I don’t mind my current build, it’s basically the same as the boring samurai build but I’m using moonveil so now I can throw spells too. It’s weird that you can equip piles of spells or incantations, but melee users get nothing bar a single ash which might not proc the right affinity (in my case they’re all worse than the default one). At least have a few generic melee moves you can slot into memory slots (like ashes of war) to make pure melee more interesting. 

 

You should be able to choose the affinity on any ash once you get the whetblades, at 60 hours in you should have the whetblades. I've been running samurai no magic for a hundred hours and haven't encountered your issues. Sorry. Maybe it's not for you, just stop if so, nothing is forcing you to play. 

[TAURUSDEMON]

OPENWORLD GOOD

ADEQUATE AXE SELECTION

LIMITED WELLS

10/10 WOULD CRUSH AGAIN

[FalconGR]

I am also in the camp who are starting to tire of the game after the capital. I really enjoyed the capital and VM legacy dungeons, but already in those areas the repetition of the open world was starting to become very clear. I don’t really understand what the point of fighting the same minbosses for the 5th time is, and am now in a white area with the same forts, ruins, castles I saw 50 hours ago in a green area. It’s a shame, as it means I am basically now just running past everything in search of the next dungeon as everything else feels just like more of the same. 

Overall I agree with those who think after the dust settles this will be somewhere in the middle of the pack of From games - I prefer it to DS2 and Sekiro, but I am not sure I’d put it above any of the others overall. There’s been nothing in the game quite as well designed as even the bosses in DS3 or Ithryll Dungeon, let alone DS1. This opinion may be affected by having played Bloodborne immediately in the run up to this - but doing so makes it clear to me that is a far better game, or at least, I much prefer that more focused style.

[kensei]

3 hours ago, Moz said:

I just looked, half of them are in a place I can’t go yet. Because I can’t kill a boss which oneshots me and I can’t summon anything because summons appear to be broken tonight. 
 

I don’t mind my current build, it’s basically the same as the boring samurai build but I’m using moonveil so now I can throw spells too. It’s weird that you can equip piles of spells or incantations, but melee users get nothing bar a single ash which might not proc the right affinity (in my case they’re all worse than the default one). At least have a few generic melee moves you can slot into memory slots (like ashes of war) to make pure melee more interesting. 

 

Stones are comically cheaper now. That should allow you to get a variety of weapons to a usable state and proc a few weapon arts. Look for some caves and catacombs to trial a few different options. High Dex will apply bleed fast, and it's notably powerful I'm this one.

 

If you are getting one shotted you need vigor. I'd recommend at least 30 for mid game areas and I'm rocking a talisman that's giving me another 5 too. Sword and board is as viable as it ever was, strong against some things weak against others. Mages spamming Hadoken can do one, of though.

[Davros sock drawer]

7 hours ago, robdood said:

What.  You've played liek 60 hours more than me.  What level are you? I cleared it at level 60ish.  

 

Maybe I'm just TOO GOOD. 

Hehe. I’m not interested in finishing the game in a hurry. I spend a lot of time dying, but a lot more time strolling about and looking at the scenery. 

[therearerules]

Yeah, maybe the game does nosedive, but I'm lesuirely milking every area and loving it. Last night I went back to the sword stone dungeon by the entrance, the unsightly catacombs in the Altus Plateau, the rise to the east of the big lift, and did some volcano manoring. All great fun and massively different. I'm also close to level 80 with over 40 rune arcs and no grinding, and the route I've taken seems balanced difficulty wise. Still yet to do Caelid. A lot of places I shied away from when holding loads of runes turned out to be actually not too bad at all.

[QuackQuack]

It seems like a lot of you are playing this game so much it’s like a second job. Of course you will start to tire of it!

[Captain Kelsten]

I’m level 150, 90 something hours in and starting to tire of it purely because Malenia is a bullshit boss

[Davros sock drawer]

28 minutes ago, QuackQuack said:

It seems like a lot of you are playing this game so much it’s like a second job. Of course you will start to tire of it!

I’m tiring of my actual job, not this one! 

[Captain Kelsten]

For anyone who has found the sewers in the Royal Capital

 

Spoiler

And found the catacomb underneath at the bottom of a long lift

 

Spoiler

And beaten the fake Mohg boss there

 

Spoiler

Try rolling into or attacking the altar behind him…

 

 

 

[Jamie John]

I think I'm getting fatigued with it, then I end up playing it for four hours in one sitting on a Friday night and can't wait to do the same thing the following night .

 

[robdood]

1 hour ago, Davros sock drawer said:

Hehe. I’m not interested in finishing the game in a hurry. I spend a lot of time dying, but a lot more time strolling about and looking at the scenery. 

Oh me neither!! I just thought if you'd played that much longer you'd be a lot higher level than me, didn't find that particular mini dungeon too hard. 

 

Well, aside from those DICKHEAD perfumer enemies.  Absolute bastards. 

 

Had a good nose round the Capital this morning, what a fucking beautiful place!  It feels like a dungeon though at the moment I guess I'm only on the very outermost layer of it.  Hype!! Love it. 

 

Got some errands this morning, then will be settling down for an all dayer in an empty house.  Gonna stream a new build, we gonna make a big strong man what dual wields colossal weapons