Elden Ring: An Outsider's Perspective | I finally get it.
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I got into this business not because I loved hardware above all else, but because I was a gamer. Hardware is just a means to an end. So my first long-form video essay is on Elden Ring, and I think it's a good topic for many reasons.
First, as a newcomer to From Software games, I think my perspective is a little different. Hopefully I can help bridge a gap between the hardcore and the newbies. I had a few great experiences with members of the community... but many toxic experiences. I'll cover that in the video.
Next up, Elden Ring is one of the highest-rated games of all time. I think it's a great game, but giving it a perfect score is extremely dishonest.
I'm curious to know what you think of the video.
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The lack of difficulty setting made me step outside my comfort zone and dive headfirst into an experience I don't think I would have had if there had been an easy mode. It kind of reprogrammed how I approach gaming and I'm grateful for that experience.
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@@auggieaxiom5726 absolutely
Have you thought about trying other games you haven't touched before? Any other Souls game? Nioh? Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden on their hardest?
I see many saying they would be too tempted if easy mode were available... but this inability to resist easy means that thousands and thousands of other people (who have been asking for an easier mode) should not have it... how about this: There is normal mode... and it's the main mode... and when you start a new game it says, "normal mode is the official mode, once you start your game you can not change difficulty settings." I think that might be good
Imagine having this intricate puzzle box, kind of challenging but engaging to solve. Then some people who are not into puzzle solving came up to you and told you that the puzzle box isn’t accessible and it should be replaced by a regular box that can just be opened so everyone can get whats inside.
Totally missing the fact that there isn’t anything inside the puzzle box, and the whole point of it is solving the puzzle.
This. Souls games are pretty and have cool stories, but they shine in the gameplay and challenge. I likely wouldn't have completed ER if it was easy. What's the point?
1000% This.
W
Such a simple and true metaphor. And sure they could give you 2 boxes, one puzzle one that you can just open, the reason so many don't want that is they only realised they loved the puzzle box because they spent the time to learn how to solve it.
Honestly, this is a perfect metaphor for the situation.
The creator of the games responded to the whole "Add difficulty options" thing. He said he wanted everyone to start at the same point and face the same challenges. And share how they overcame them. Because there are a myriad of ways to get through most of the challenges the games presents. And by everyone sharing and comparing they could relate to each other and build a strong game community. Which I have to say, the Souls community is thick as thieves.
Not only that but by adding difficulty settings it presents huge chunk of extra work. Optimization for each difficulty. Because just increasing and decreasing stats for difficulty is low quality. It takes effort and time. By optimizing 1 difficulty and making it to where a single problem can have many solutions, it gives a more elaborate, enjoyable, and replayable experience. Because while everyone likes to boast that the Souls/Blood/Ring games are hard, they're not. If you know what to do. Knowing is literally half the battle. The other is learning how to implement. So for "most" of the people who complain that it's too hard, it's because they either find it difficult to learn things or they are blatantly ignoring what's being presented. And for the small minority who don't have the reaction time to do it, it's unfortunate but, you can't make a game for everyone. To try and please everyone, you'll find yourself quickly burnt out.
Agree completely, the game has a way of easing things for the player especially this one with the many items available. It's the people who get a fire resistant armor set but refuse to wear it for a fire damage boss. That's my biggest thing. I feel alot of people have a gaming habit that doesn't work with souls games. I don't tend to use alot of items but my life would be easier if I did. Just having enough faith to heal has really helped stretch out my flasks
I loved using the catacombs traps to deal with annoying enemies I wasn't in the mood of fighting head on, it is so great to have the option to do that. It also made really difficult catacombs just a little bit easier.
Perfect said mah dude
@@FloNess1 yessir and that’s just one of many ways fromsoft rewards the player for using your own intellect to solve problems on the fly. Glad to see you figuring out your own ways to solve fromsofts “surprises”
@@FloNess1 you’d actually be surprised how many different ways you can tackle every encounter in a fromsoft game. Elden ring especially.
I like that the difficulty is unchanging between players. It allows for a shared experience where people talk about how they overcame an obstacle.
You can still talk about the "shared experience" and play it on different difficulty settings.
@@TheEnigmaProductions Yeah but you'll always get the people that say "oh but were you playing on hard?" or "you were playing on easy so that's not really the same thing." This just avoids that altogether. Plus, difficulty options are rarely interesting or given enough attention in balancing.
@@TheEnigmaProductions just play fortnite bro
Enigma Productions Not really.
Q: How did you overcome Malenia?
A: I turned on story mode.
I don't see an interesting dialog there.
The challenge is woven into the narrative. Ludo-narrative resonance if you will. Removing one hollows the other.
@@Zyckro To be fair, you still get people that say "oh, but you were playing a mage" or "using summons is easy mode". Though that's also why I don't think these games need an easy mode, it's already right there in the games' mechanics.
A lot of people miss the lantern you can buy, put it in the pouch slots.
Once lightened it sits on your belt/waist and you can still use both hands.
Super usefull.
It's not immediately available (I got mine in Caelid before finding out you can get it in the Weeping Peninsula). I also wonder how many people miss the pouch entirely. I know I did at first.
...pouch?
@@joeclarke7982 yes, pouch.
@@otakonjunkie You can get the one in weeping peninsula in the first couple of hours of playing. Just because YOU missed it doesn’t mean it should be handed to everyone on a silver platter. You don’t start with a torch either, and not having a light source in dark areas is one of the obstacles you’re compelled t overcome in the early game.
Yeah man. Been playing since launch and only stumbled across a week or so ago.
I love the fact that you came back to the game to really figure out what it was all about.
I'm a game noob - 52 yo grandma, never used a controller before - (believe me, I have blisters! - fighting camera until I cried at times!!), never played a souls game before, and I'm on my way to be Elden Lord for the second time.
I love the fact that I know I've managed to play the exact same game along side with the gamer gods out there :)
That’s awesome! Keep it going!
My grandfather is 70 years old and is still on his way to be Elden Lord. He's a little slow but don't worry, he's reignited the flames of dark souls too many times to count and was a demon souls master before dark souls 1 even came out. He likes to take his time and will even remake characters just to make less mistakes even though he knows he could just change his stats with a larval tear "yea but i died to many times on this character i wanted to make a new one.".
40yo guy struggling with the game here. I don't find fun having to kill a thousand small guys just to be able to level up enough to kill the boss. I don't understand the appeal of the series.
@@JesusProtects several small steps and personally beneficial modifications to a specific end may lead to great accomplishments, I think is the point. The means of driving that point home by making it ‘difficult’ to do so was only recently revived by fromsoftwares’ recent releases.
@@JesusProtects you don't have to stay in 1 area. I'd look up a guide to help get you through it faster.
Fromsoft games don't need difficulty settings, they already have them. There's a ton of tools and ways to choose your own difficulty, you can level up, you can use summons, you can use poison, magic, bleed etc. This game could be absurdly easy (or hard) if you want it to be. I think it's impressive that they've made the difficulty settings a part of the game design.
Yes exactly, I mean the only thing they could do is add something to the tutorial explaining this to those people who don't get it, problem solved
@@anaskaadan5845 While I agree with you I think Elden Ring in particular did a decent job of it. The Tree Sentinel says go level up, bleed daggers invader says bleed is op, anvil in the church says upgrade your weapons, Ranni says use summons.
You probably like NFTs too.
@@rampagegamingg8434 you gonna cry?
@ivel2934 in french we say " a force de plaire à tout le monde on plaît à personne " it mean " if you force yourself to please everyone , you please no one "
Henry Ford: "if I asked people what they wanted, they would ask for faster horses"
I understand your perspective about letting people do as they like. However, there really is something to be said about designing a work of art like this to be experienced the way the designer envisions. Miyazaki values the experience of a player resolving themselves to play the game as it is intended to be played more than catering to players who refuse to play given the difficulty. Many of the players who beat this game as it is would have elected to lower the difficulty and subsequently deprive themselves of the experience they ended up having. I believe his decision to value that over catering to those who would only play with a difficulty setting is perfectly valid and makes the universal experience of the game better.
Funny comparison to make, when the world would be less polluted if we still used horses instead of cars.
That's not to say cars were any less of an innovation that fundamentally changed the scope and scale of our world, but that innovation has not been without cost. Cars can be great, when use appropriately, but overreliance on them is quite literally toxic, and the world would be a better place if we built our cities to be more accommodating to alternative transportation methods like cycling or even just plain old walking.
To extend the comparison to games, forcing singular modes of play is gatekeeping, and likewise just as toxic to an artform that should exist for everyone's benefit, not only for people with specific skills/reflexes. You say adding difficulty settings would risk denying people the "experience" of overcoming the game's challenge if they could just opt into an easy mode, but how many more people are "denied" the experience of playing the game because they become too frustrated with the initial learning curve, or because they were too offput by the game's reputation as difficult to even try playing it in the first place?
For games with difficulty options, beating them on the hardest setting doesn't become any less of an achievement for the mere existence of an easy mode, but the existence of an easy mode means more people will be able to learn how to play the game in the first place, and in learning how to play the game might be tempted into replaying it again on a harder setting.
@@EmeralBookwise word salad nonsense
@@SolitaryLark Your inability to understand them doesn't make it nonsense. I don't agree with them (about the games needing an easy mode) but they made coherent points.
@@ennayanne it being nonsense makes it nonsense
@@SolitaryLark did you just learn that word today? also you have an anime avatar literally nothing you say is valid
Did you play in offline mode? I think if you play in online mode it becomes clear why there is no difficulty slider. Everyone is fighting together. When you read a player sign saying, "Strong foe ahead" that means something. When you read a player sign that says, "I did it!" in a boss arena, that means something. The shared experience creates a powerful comradery within the in-game community that makes you feel like you're never really alone. Other people are right there with you. That wouldn't be nearly as effective if everyone was on a different difficulty. Is it elitist? Yes, and it is by design. If everyone can just drop the difficulty to easy mode and beat the game then your struggle to get to the end means so much less, especially in a game that has just a strong in-game community element. From wants you to be proud that you made it to the end. They have fostered this idea within the community deliberately. Think about it, it's super rare for someone to brag that they beat a boss outside of a From game. The elitism is a core element of the meta experience. It both gratifies veteran players and elevates new players that overcome the challenge. That said, I don't condone toxic fandom or gatekeeping. The first From experience is the toughest, so helping people figure that out so that they can enjoy the games should be the community focus.
W
Was gonna leave me own comment on this video but you summed it up perfectly. The sense of achievement once you finally beat something in these games, that feeling has never been matched by any other games i have ever played.
I have a feeling he didn't play online, otherwise I feel like there would have been 5 more mins added to this video tacked on criticizing the pvp mechanics, which is usually a big shock to new players of the franchise. That and there probably would have been more complaining about difficulty... which after hearing the mods I completely stopped listening and disregarded his complai s about no difficulty settings. Not a terrible review but it felt like an exercise in having your cake and trying to eat it.
This here is exactly it. There is an unmistakable beauty to Fromsoft games that I am forever thankful for. Back when I was much younger and played DS1 for the first time, the peak that seemed impossible to reach only really felt climable when I saw that there were many others who were both suffering with me as well as cheering me on to just try a little bit harder.
Every message that told me "Good luck!" before a difficult fight and "Good job!" afterwards filled me with an unexplainable feeling of joy despite the fact I was still pretty much just playing by myself.
If the game had options to make it easier, the words would really only ring hollow to me as I'm sure I'd rob myself of the experience by tuning down the difficulty for myself.
I fear that if From ever caves in to the demands people make of them, it's going to be the end of the voiceless community I've grown so fond of.
@@tonunknown1 he can't play online since he uses a mod to not lose runes everytime he dies lol
Calling difficulty in a video game "inaccessible" is like calling learning an instrument inaccessible because you're not going to be good at it at first. Both the Dark Souls games and playing an instrument are frustrating at first but you'll start having fun once you get the hang of it and overcome the frustration. Calling them inaccessible puts down the ability that people have to learn and adapt and overcome challenge.
SOME can. Not all of us have the memory or reflexes to learn and deal with some of these bosses attacks. So yeah. Try being someone who is 70 deaths in Malenia and has only seen her second form once, whilst severly overlevelled.
@@wolftales5203 if you've made it far enough to Melania you've proved my point. You can beat it.
@@wolftales5203 Melania is a Broken ass boss who needs a lot of adjusting, the fact you made it to her shows you can beat the entire thing.
@@LunaS043 exactly! She's probably the hardest boss they have ever made. but not for the right reasons. They are definitely going to balance her as they did radahn
@@wolftales5203 you have made it to melina so you don't need an easy mode you will beat her
43:00 - There is an item called sacrificial twig that you can equip as a talisman, once you do, you can die without losing any runes (the twig breaks upon use). It is meant for those situations where you have tons of runes and are afraid to lose them. If you want to use a mod to circumvent that game mechanic, that's fine, but know that the game is already giving you tools for that.
Also a flask tear that does the same thing for 3 minutes
He's talking about frustration, but frustration is not external, it's a reaction to a situation where you are denied what you want. So you can get frustrated or persevere. The latter is what I did, and it was worth it, but I understand for some others may be difficult or they may just want a smoother experience.
The fact sacrificial twigs exist is no excuse, especially because they break and are only availble in limited non-renewable supply. This leads to the common RPG problem of being too good to waste, see also elixers/megalixers in most Final Fantasy games.
It's never made sense an equivalent item has existed in pretty much every FromSoft game, but they still insist on making them such a limited resource, especially when just equipping them would already be an opportunity cost. Being infinite use wouldn't break the game, because players would still be incentivized to "git gud" so they can have an extra talisman slot.
@@EmeralBookwise They are infinite both in ER and DS. In Elden Ring you can purchase any number of them from Patches. And in Dark Souls you can get them from Snuggly the Crow by trading in Humanity, which is infinite. Anyway, I don't think there's any need for this even. If you play correctly, you shouldn't be often in a situation where you risk losing a huge amount of souls/runes if you die. In Elden Ring there are sites of grace everywhere, there is no justification to go around with a lot of runes. In my whole playthough in Elden Ring I used like 3 or 4 twigs and got plenty more to spare, never had the need to buy them even.
@@dificulttocure: They are most certainly not infinite from Patches, I already bought out his entire stock. Likewise, Snuggle Crow would only do each trade ONCE per NG cycle... which is only technically infinite insofar as player's ability to beat the game over and over again.
This is just a tip, not me trying to tell you how to play. When it comes to losing runes while exploring, I found that spending the runes that I could on items I either need or may want later helped me manage them better and I was not worried about losing the leftovers that weren't enough to spend. Also, I think it comes down to the mindset of losing runes. I inevitably die my first time into dungeons and stuff, and when I die the second time and lose runes, instead of "dammit there goes my runes" I look at it as" well now I have complete freedom to go haywire and do whatever I want" because at that point if I die in a dungeon or die to a trap or jump-out enemy, it serves to teach me of the path and i don't lose anything for it. Be ause I'm already at 0 runes
This was also my experience with bosses. Usually it only happened in side-areas and dungeons, but I usually didn't enter a boss fight with runes unless I had to. But I always knew the next boss or next area could make up for whatever I lost. I also used golden runes as a rune-bank for if I NEEDED runes but didn't have any because I died. I learned about the time I got to altus plateau to not immediately crush my golden runes when I picked them up.
I'm with some of the other commenters. I never said that about difficulty setting in my life.... Until I played Elden Ring. Suddenly I realized how many games I had made boring, by my own choice, because I didn't think I could play on a harder difficulty. I've quit so many games that probably would have held my attention had I just turned up the difficulty. I've run into a wall, and turned the difficulty down, only to quite the game less than 10 hours later without questioning why I had gotten bored. So Yes. I will retroactively say that many games with difficulty settings ruined my experience with those games. I had zero clue I was ruining my own experience. Had Elden ring had difficulty settings I would have played it at a lower difficulty... And I would have lost interested. I wouldn't have known WHY I lost interest, but I would have.
So so accurate playing game on easy mode is lame asf the whole point of the sentiment of satisfaction is when u feel like u struggled for something
I had the reverse experience with Dragon's Dogma. I tried Dragon's Dogma hard setting because it gives you more experience points for leveling. I said to myself, when I level some I'll return to normal difficulty setting. I did not return to the normal setting because the sense of accomplishment on the hard setting pulled me in.
It's so fascinating and interesting about your post (thanks for sharing btw) is that most of us go through this SAME realization... all be it at different times of our 'gaming lives'. Generations playing a part of it too.
I grew up on the NES and Sega with a dash of Atari. And for me, those games kinda forced you to "git gud" or you had nothing to play at all. And this, that mentality was cultivated into that generation of gamer. Even games would go so far as gatekeep the rest of the game or even the TRUE ending via the difficulty.
So playing on the lowest difficulty, could basically just amount to playing a demo lol.
So those older gen games, and even into the following gens, the difficulty becomes the appeal.
Depends on how good the game part of the game is. I had basically the opposite experience with the Witcher 3. On higher difficulties, the game basically arrested its own momentum whenever you had to actually hunt a monster. Combat was already really weird due to Geralt controlling like he was made of feathers. That combined with Geralt's tendency to spin like a ballerina when you press attack made combat unbearable. Pile on top of that monsters that legit either won't fucking die or take no damage without the proper oils and potions.
It's one thing for it to be an uphill battle to fight without these items, but impossible? That's kinda... eh.
@@Bladezeromus I'm with you there. Definitely not every game should be like this. Fromsoft has developed a masterful combat system where the difficulty isn't actually in the # of hit points, or damage dealt or taken, it's actually in the mechanics (which is why an easy mode wouldn't even work, because difficulty doesn't rely on the things you can just change with a few lines of code). I've had my ass handed to me at high level by low hp/damage enemies just because I got cocky and wasn't tuned in. Hell, I've died to Rat's I could kill with one swipe because there were a lot of them and I wasn't paying attention to their attack timing. Giving me more hp's or higher damage, or even changing the attack timing wouldn't have undone that (slower attacks almost always kill me more than fast ones, because it's harder for me too get the knack for the timing).
I will still play many games on normal difficulty. Ones where combat doesn't become more engaging the higher the difficulty setting. And hell, psychology says if I hit a wall in games with these options I'll still "optimize the fun" out of a game by making it too easy for myself. I'll just understand why I've lost interest now.
I've heard one merit in singular difficulty from an artistic point of view that I feel is solid. Shared experience. When you come fight one boss and you complain about it to a friend, they understand because its the same boss. It gives a unified experience among the player base instead dividing them down lines of difficulty.
my only other "souls like" experience was fallen order. i know its nearly entirely different, but it had a difficulty slider and after playing this game i wish it didnt have one. its still a great game, but i feel like having those bosses as an unavoidable hurdle is so much more fulfilling. being dropped in a realized world and being basically told "go nuts" is honestly sadly refreshing lol
While I know and feel that this is true, at the same time I feel that it was more true in Dark Souls then Eldenring. Overleveling and different Playstyles are making the experience widely different, because the game is so huge in comparision. Margit was very easy for me as an Example, while I couldnt defeat Magma Wyrm... For a Friend it was exactly the other way around🤷♂️
I actually have an experience that relates to that. It was Metal gear solid 3. I decided I would just play it for the story. Did that, gunned my way through everything and the result was that I decided that I really liked the story.
Years later I hear everyone raving about how good the game was. Not just the story, but the gameplay. I had no idea what everyone was talking about. The gameplay was boring. It was like everyone else played a different game. But it clicked when I heard super bunny hop talk about european extreme. Yes they did in fact play an enitrely different game because I played on easy and they did not.
As a result I played the boring game while everyone else played the fun game. People act like devs protecting players from themselves is stupid because players know what is best for them. No they don't most people take the easy road when the going gets tough. Even in elden ring I bitched out on Melania and used my summon after she one shot me in her second phase. 2 hours later I regretted that. People would absolutely play the easy mode and make things boring for themselves
@@dennisstark9764 I would say it is still a shared experience within the same world. Just that you guys took different paths. If you are having issues due to playstyle, that is why you can respec quite a significant amount of times. I would argue that overleveling has a lessor impact than weapon upgrades, but it does factor into your build by unlocking gear you can use.
@@shadowcloud1994 but that is kind of a problem of getting tons of games now beeing shove unto us and having the resources to get them. me and 2 of my nephew have the same stuff in msg3 beat it first in easy or normal and replayed on harder difficulty until getting to European extreme. We would have never touch the game if only European extreme was the only difficulty. Why did we do this because they got 2 games per year from their parents unless i gave them one. Difficulty options just mean more game for your dollars.
Before Elden Ring, BOTW had the hardest combat system of any game I had played and I was really struggling in Limgrave. At some point, I decided that death and runes don’t matter. That completely shifted the game from being a punishing experience to being an enjoyable challenge. I have since beaten the game 3 times on 3 new accounts. I think that the secret to beating Elden ring as a Souls novice is to accept your imminent death and keep your heart rate down. Just take your time and keep a cool head and anyone can beat Elden Ring.
Botw is easy
Botw???? Bros only played lego games
Botw was the hardest game I played before I tried ds1.
Breath of the wild is only hard very early but once you learn the mechanics…and the way the game works…it’s very easy….I still loved exploring the world and loved the graphics/art style. But I didn’t care really for the story or…combat…eventide isle was wicked fun tho.
I like that he's talking about the lack to difficulty settings while sniping mages with a bow
While using a mod to keep all his runes after death...
@@Leotheleprachaun it makes no sense. He's against using farms But uses mods that basically do the same thing
@@CQchaos7474 these new players they think they get the game and I m glad that they liked the game played it, but man those difficulty option talk just ruins everything and pissed me and fans off. They says "combat is good but why not have difficulty option to make more accessible " why cant they understand it is pointless to have a good combat when enemy cant even hit single hit in 20 tries ( easy mode baby ) omg- what is the point of dodge roll in easy mode if enmy cant land a hit lol. At this point i m just worried that if miyazaki somehow change the thought on diffuclty option, I m worried we will not be able to play fromsoft game again like we used to play.
Easy mode is never going to happen so he can keep cheating and having and emotional responses to fans loving the difficulty until he is blue in the face.
@@Leotheleprachaun By doing that he's literally breaking the game. Any of his criticism is now invalid, it's not about elitism or gatekeeping, this guy genuinely broke the game because he doesn't like a core game mechanic. Whatever, he's wasted over 95k people's time. Lol
When I was a kid… we’d take games like Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, Metroid and Contra… and we’d say “we conquered it.” Because that’s exactly what we did!! We pushed through, we adapted it, and we overcame the giant obstacle of the game. Around the time I was in college in the early 2000’s, that term changed to “I beat the game.” As in you progressed to the finish, and managed to beat the final boss who seemed insurmountable.
Around the period of COD…. That word then morphed into “I finished the game.” Games had become these sort of interactive movies, or almost like books. It was a narrative experience, but one where gameplay could take a back seat of one simply wanted to enjoy the story.
So why is Elden Ring a 10/10 with me? I literally feel like I conquered it.. the same way I did when I conquered Contra without the 30-man code… it was a sense of completion and overcoming you just don’t get in games today… just as all of Miyazaki’s games are… call that pretentious, I stand by it.
Man, even the older Pokémon games. I remember beating Pokémon sapphire when I was a kid without access to internet for help, and the time I finally beat the elite four after months of trying was like one of the best feelings ever. I think those early experiences shaped the instant love I found playing from soft games
Elden Ring to me is a modern 16bit game, like a sega/snes where you can go everywhere and find monsters and levels everywhere
This. It’s not gatekeeping at all! The only people that think it is are those that don’t try and understand the games, and then discover how helpful the community actually is to ANYBODY giving these games a red hot go. The difficulty is so integral to making the experience that of a ‘game’ rather than a story again, and for mine an ‘easy’ mode would lower the stakes for all players whether they used it or not.
Regarding difficulty settings part 2: the lack of difficulty settings is not a gate. It’s a defining boundary.
For example, if I give you a maze to complete, it’s not gatekeeping to say “stay within the lines of the maze.” Learning to navigate the maze by staying within the lines is the whole point. In the same way, FS games don’t have difficulty settings because half the point is learning how to navigate the world with available mechanics. I know ER might not seem like the stereotypical puzzle game, but the puzzle-like nature of it very much intended. I really think that the combination of puzzle elements and combat mechanics is why FS games stand out so much. They’re puzzle games for people who wouldn’t normally be interested in puzzle games.
It's probably more accurate to call Fromsoft Games a Labyrinth.
Best way to conceptualize it
best
The atmospheric storytelling comes as a result of the game director’s experiences with reading english fantasy books as a child who spoke primarily japanese. All he understood were snippets and short passages, giving him a strong sense for atmosphere, having to piece the story together through context. Much the same way, the story IS there, and it IS rich, but it comes primarily through combining information read in item descriptions, brief rare dialogue, and details of the game’s map.
This way of story telling simply sucks.
@@nodlimax for you, maybe. I like it.
It’s the same way how I think the story of LotR is stupid, but my girlfriend likes it.
@@reveriec I can't take anyone serious who thinks Elden Ring has better story telling than Lord of the Rings.
@@nodlimax good thing we don’t care what you think 😉
@@SolitaryLark You apparently cared enough to tell me that you don't care. Therefore you already failed in your not caring.
I had never played a souls game before. Once I started playing this it consumed me. I stayed home from work for a week just grinding g to level up and beat bosses it was amazing. I’m still playing a finding things on NG+4
From Software’s justification for their lack of difficulty settings is that they want to tailor the player’s experience. And adding option here would essentially force them to make 2-4 different games.
Have you ever played a game on “hard” or “very hard”? For most games, it’s a totally broken experience. Stuff like enemies being tedious hit-sponges or the encounters are frustrating in ways that can’t be “solved” due to unreactable RNG. The beautiful thing about FromSoft difficulty is that once you “solve” the puzzle, it’s actually pretty trivial.
YES!
Trivial is the wrong word, but I would say it is a difficult game that suddenly makes sense and becomes addictive to beat it without ever getting boring because it's too easy or the boss just had a ton of health and you chip away at it for 10 minutes. This is why difficulty options may not work as it would likely make the game boring if they increased the enemy's health bars or attack power. The only easier mode would be removing some common enemies on the map, but that would also reduce the XP you'd be getting and could again make the game boring.
@@lanceareadbhar I agree with what you're saying here, except crucible knights and the Briar knight are trivial when you know their patterns. I think that's more the point he was making
Speaking of solving puzzles, I felt pretty cool when I realised to unlock a mage tower I had to make my stone imps fight and kill the mage tower stone imps.
@@hashimrahman51 I agree that using summons is a good way to lower the difficulty of a lot of fights, but I don't think there are any mobs tougher than the end game bosses, the end bosses are preeetty challenging with or without spirit ash. summons.
In the community's defense, the old Souls games are about learning enemy patterns, builds, and patience. Though you could grind and avoid the boss, there was no progress to be made unless you got through those bosses, and your weapon upgrades were tailored to that boss encounter. In this open world game, a first for Fromsoft, the community was still learning what your options were. Any community that grows too big, becomes toxic. Sorry for your experience with these particular egotistical players.
The argument that the devs created exploits for the sake of casual players is kind of ridiculous. That isn't the whole community that's some people spouting nonsense and don't stand for the community as a whole.
There is organic difficulty in this game, difficulty tailored by the player by their overall options. The develops don't want to create difficulty sliders because they have already created ways to tailor the difficulty for yourself. This is something the developers themselves have stated. Sadly, it's something many newer fans of the Souls series don't understand, you can make the game easier or harder for yourself, self imposed challenges.
Do you want to upgrade your flask, do you want to use summons, do you want to avoid this boss and return when you're stronger, do you want to use messages to find hidden walls, hidden enemies, and solve puzzles. These options are the "difficulty slider" and I think critics should stop trying to enforce an addition of a difficulty slider, when upgrading your weapon from +1 to +3 is the same as reducing the bosses health. If at +1 it requires 100 hits to kill a boss, upgrading to +3 would require 30 hits. If you stack some Vigor instead of being given an allowance of getting hit 2 times before you die, you can die after 4 hits instead. And if you upgrade your Crimson Flask, then you can heal your health bar farther and more times, allowing you to take those 4 hits several more times. I'm surprised any critic, especially game developers, still see any value in adding a slider that cranks health bars, damage reduction, and damage dealt; when you can add more organic difficulty sliders in the form of the mechanics the player interacts with.
And though I can see the logic behind difficulty sliders allowing more people to enjoy the "art" that is Elden Ring. Miyazaki has been open about how important struggling in his games are, as overcoming adversity is the sensation he wants to create. Adding a difficulty slider would defeat the purpose of his vision as a developer. This isn't fact, but in my opinion, Fromsoft hides the difficulty organically so unaware players never realize the game is getting easier by the mechanics they're interacting with. So when you overcome the struggle, you don't think to yourself "well this sensation is now pointless because I slid the difficulty from normal to very easy."
Also, you don't need to grind. I just explored and over-leveled most areas from simply doing that. If you consider exploration a grind then I suppose that's accurate. The only time I grinded was at the end of the game, and it was to upgrade a few weapons just to try them out.
Breath of the Wild did feel large and more scaled, but it also felt emptier. Again, not a fact just my opinion. I was driven to find the mysteries of every area and enjoyed the color choices for each biome in Elden Ring. In breath of the wild, it felt like there was more nothingness a lot of climbable mountains that took up huge sections of land with nothing to do on them but climb.
The game should definitely have added some better ways to understand some of its systems. The tutorial was helpful, and having the tutorial in the inventory was a huge help for me as someone who seeks out re-reading these things. I don't know who to blame in this situation, as players are as culpable as developers when it comes to not re-reading tutorials.
Mouse and keyboard should have been reworked, was horrible and they need a better team working on button translation. Their performance should also have been better, they should have a better team by now working on the performance of their games on PC.
The story exists but needs to be sought out. This isn't good for all players, as many would rather just know what's going on, simple terminology and names etc. This is not how this developer creates his stories. I wouldn't say Fromsoft creates great stories, I'd say they create great lore, and the story is yours. Your experience becomes the story. All my opinion though. Personally, I love playing the archaeologist, picking apart the lore and discovering the story, speculating on every character and their connections. But this isn't for everyone. I would not defend or attack this part of Fromsoft, I wouldn't know how to.
This game is not perfect, but it is damn good. On par for me, with the Witcher 3, not for the same reasons of course as the games are quite different even if they're both open world games.
I would recommend you get out of your feelings about the toxic community, it might change one or two people but it won't change the community as a whole. If you're venting though, I'll pat you on the back and support that. Enjoy your mods and I hope they helped you get through the game.
Most of what people describe as the difficulty isn't the numbers. It's the animations. And if you are cranking the numbers up high enough to not make the animations matter then you have broken the game.
Spirit summons are probably the best difficulty modifier From has ever had. They release that animation difficulty and give you a set time where boss attention is split. If anything expand that.
I tuned out at gatekeeping RE difficulty. This is my first from game, I'm by no means "good" but with a little bit of thought literally anyone can cheese and complete this game like me. The difficulty is defined by the player - they can make it as hard or as easy as they want. There are so many different options and ways to build your character, different weapons and status effects, different summons, you just need to put some thought into it your build and how you want to cheese it. I went mage and summons on every boss my first run through - yeah I got ribbed by some friends but I had a blast and honestly, I've seen some bleed builds that make it way easier. To put it into context I killed some mid game main story bosses in under 30 seconds (later bosses became a challenge until I understood their move set and adapted). Now if I played as a STR/DEX build I'd have a harder time, or maybe not - there are so many choices and ways of making it easier for each build. NG run through I'm still mage but not using summons and it is a breeeeeze now I understand the mechanics and bosses.
Great video otherwise up to that point, I just disagree with you dying on this hill and only willing to discuss it from an artistic choice pov, the devs included easy modes, you just need to choose how to turn it on.
Same here.
If you EVER argue about difficulty modes then your opinion is automatically discarded.
Agree. I died 30 times to the valiant gargoyles because I chose to confront them with 20 vigor and twin scimitars. I upgarded a summon and beat them one attempt later because I now could focus on one. A friend took them down after merely two tries with his sorcery build. You can adjust the difficulty, it's just not a slider. I think asking people to make an effort when playing a game is not asking too much.
@@hitler69 Because it's not valid, or because people don't *care* that it's valid? There is a difference.
If people don't enjoy a game, they don't enjoy it. If a game has a lot of merits that people would enjoy, but the game is not enjoyable for them in a way that is *predictably* unenjoyable and easily mitigated, that is a valid complaint. Even if you personally enjoy it that way. Even if you're not in the mood to listen to valid complaints.
@@matthiasbreuer8710 Just like everything else in souls games, if you want it you goto make it happen yourself, even the easy mode. Anyone asking for easy mode hasn't even tried they're actually just asking for a brainless mode which is a whole other thing and becomes more like saying "No I don't want to earn/learn my easy mode just spoon feed it to me".
@@DuelerIsKing Exactly. Just beat Malenia on my second character, and I cannot even begin to compare how much difference the build made compared to my previous character. The game offers a ton of ways to make it easier (or more suited to somebody's play style)
Hey Tek Syndicate, just finished watching your review and it was really well laid out and talked about. However, I think there is one thing you may not have thought about, and even as a Souls vet I didnt realize this until about a year or two into playing these kind of games. What is it that makes this game so compelling, why do I keep coming back to it? From Software is brilliant at giving the player a specific feeling, and what is that? I believe it is the feeling of "Accomplishment and Satisfaction". Through struggle and strife, and the risk of losing your souls vs becoming more efficient at killing your enemies is how you create that tension which is awaiting the release of eventual success. Beating that POS that has beaten you 10-20 times to figure out his move set and abilites, to then finally beat him and that feeling of "Yes! Yesssss! I did it!" THAT is what the Souls series will deliver to you and you come out a better player then you were previously. Now this leads back into the difficulty and artistic style, the Devs want to deliver on the feeling of success and do not want it to be cheapened in any way, that is why there is no difficulty setting in Elden ring or anything previously. Now to the negative side of this artistic design. Gamers, by nature, we are competitive, and if your ultimate goal is striving for the Players "Sense of Accomplishment" then naturally one of the most stark examples would be "Congrats you beat this game, just like everyone else." VS "Hey good job dude, your in the 10% of gamers who have just been able to beat the game." Naturally, the latter gives you a greater feeling of satisfaction. On the topic of accomplishment and Risk/Reward, I will push back on your use of that auto-collect mod. While I understand WHY your using it, I believe that it lowers the ceiling on your potential feeling of accomplishment, and I think that is how others feel, but dont know how to put it into words. Now, in regards to PC controls, I agree they suck. Ive tried using them in the past and congrats to you for making it this far but man is it WAY harder on yourself just from an ergonomic standpoint. Overall, pretty good review man, and good luck to you in your future adventures!
Let me try to capture it with this ramble of thoughts: My first Souls game was DS1 Prepare to Die Edition. Half the struggle was to even figure out how to play - compared to that ER really explains much much more. And the weapon scalings and such - research was mandatory. But it had that fascination that caused me to come back. And finally reaching Firelink Shrine even - a big mystical world opened up. And then, in Undead Burg, I got my butt beaten badly. How to reach another bonfire? I'm impatient - I don't want to kill all the zombies again. But when impatient, I play much worse and get punished even more. And so many souls lost - it's so unfair *whining noises*. And then after some time, it finally clicked. This game was very oldschool - it had stages. From your current bonfire you could just try to beat the current "stage" again and again, as often as you want. Lost souls can be collected again - nothing is really lost forever. Just try the current stage for fun - deal with each enemy, take each one seriously. If you've had enough for the day, just quit - tomorrow you will want to come back and go again. Eventually you beat the place you're at and progress and it feels like a real accomplishment. The lesson I learned was - it's ok to die and to lose your souls, it happens. Just go again and try to do better. And if souls/runes are on the line, there is extra tension. Now, you can install a mod to get rid of that point specifically, but you are missing out on a central mechanic that makes the gameplay better. Even if you hate it - it just means you haven't reached that point where it clicked that - it's okay. It's a risk - do I reset and play it safe? Do I go further? Did I go too far? Can I get back there again? I cleared that whole area without dying - I feel so proud of myself. Etc. Perhaps, after playing the first game of this type, Tek Syndicate will - when eventually a new game comes out - go in with the prior experience and knowledge - and then notice that the mechanic can stay, you know.
You can get to 9 of the 12 areas without downing a single main boss, the difficulty setting is there. The open world is easy mode, its there for you to practice, farm, learn and still be explore and discover the world without any real roadblocks, punishment, or sacrifice
I don’t think most people realize this and that they are playing on easy mode their first play around.
Thats not easy mode, thats just playing the game. Base on your comment you must of not explored at all and rushed straight tot he boss, because open world is easy mode.
@@4XDepressionx yup 400÷ hours. Rushed . Limgrave,Weeping peninsula, Caeliid, all has content for anyone low level. You can get to level 80 before hitting the first boss just from this area. It is easy mode, because it allows you to advance without any sort of difficult gameplay.
@@RichterVonDoom so you played in easy mode.
@@4XDepressionx having a tough go at Elden ring there huh buddy? Not every game is for you. It's ok to not be a gamer. Relax.
No, Elden ring DOES have difficulty settings. You said yourself, things get easier as you explore other areas and come back to previous bosses, you can CHOOSE how difficult you want them to be. You can summon a friend, use an overpowered thing, google your build, etc… the game is as difficult as you let it be, and by having that fluid difficulty it allows the average player to have a much better experience than a rigid difficulty setting ever could. Where this gets confusing is, along with many of the problems of this game, the community. People play the game their way, with their own “difficulty setting”, with their own unique experience, and those people are the ones who don’t understand that different “difficulties” are valid, and want to restrict people to the way that THEY found most satisfying. If the community as a whole was more accepting and patient, you probably would not feel the need as much for a difficulty setting.
This game has flaws, but like all souls games, the overall experience has the potential to be breathtaking and engaging, if one lets it be.
Some people don't have as much time to grind... also... what if someone just wants to run around and kill stuff to de-stress... so they want an easy toggle (or even godmode). I think someone just wanting to play a certain way is valid enough... for me, there's no justification needed beyond, "I want to do it this way."
I don't see how that damages the experience for anyone else.
@@teksyndicate "i want to do it this way" is a completely valid argument, and thats why i think we should respect the vision of the devs who decided the game was better without difficulty options. It doesnt matter how many people wants an easy mode, if the devs dont want that setting in their game then they wont do it and thats fine, and if they decide that they do want difficulty options thats fine too, as long as its a good game it doesnt matter. And no, games shouldn't be for everyone in fact there is no game in existance that is for everyone, sports game are for sports fanatics, puzzle games are for people who like to think and solve riddles, and difficult games are for people who want a chalenging experience. Each game is made with a specific public in mind and those that try to be for everyone are usually pretty lame. Good video by the way i really enjoyed it.
@@teksyndicate first off this game is not about grinding, the option is there but if you keep exploring you never run out of xp, even then some times I need to disconnect from everything but there are games for that, games to play with your friends, games to be competitive, and games to relax after a long day at work, how much elden ring is this kind of game is subjective, doesn't mean you can't turn elden ring in that kind of game with mods, but what does mean is that you are playing and objectively worse version of the game because it was not designed for that, is not like you ruin it, you may have a good time and a great experience for sure, but its not one optimized for that purpose, you can't relate with people who have to overcome that same challenge if you didn't have it, the struggle behind is what makes it so enduring and memorable, having a different experience affects how much people can relate with your opinion, the experience you get from a game like this is like a warranty, is not guaranteed if you don't use the device for its intended purpose.
Richard already explained how the game does have difficulty settings but god mode won't be added by the devs because it hurts the game more than it helps, its a middle finger to the amazing game design, is not a worse product because it lacks an option to skip the challenge, its a better product because overcoming the challenge is the game itself, the story is not even that good take away the game and all what is left is just a vague movie, people who actually cares about the lore and story are people who already love the game and are invested in it.
@@alejandrorivera185 couldn't have said it better
@@teksyndicate The those people should look for the other hundreds, no, thousands of games made with a "relaxation" mindset. You're basically asking an artist to tailor-make their art for you. Maybe in 2011, when Demon's Souls was a niche game and people bought Dark Souls without knowing what was in store for them this would've been a more valid argument, but nowadays everyone knows Fromsoft, everyone knows what types of games they make.
Dear Tek Syndicate,
First of all: Thank you for your great video and your perspective on the 'Souls likes' especially Elden Ring. A huge compliment to you, that you kept trying and reinstalling. Thank you, for not giving up so quickly! As many others, I will adress your approach to the difficulty setting and the gatekeeping attitude. Maybe I can provide a new perspective on the idea of difficulty that is unique to the souls likes. Be warned: tons of text incoming ;)
Consider an objective challenge, like reaching the peak of K2. K2 is one of the highest and deadliest mountains to climb. To reach the peak, and return safely (!) is a huge feat. So on one hand you have the mountain, on the other hand, there are we: the population of this funny planet. Most of us do not care about the K2 at all, some have never ever heard about it. Then you have those, that are interested in mountains or even mountaineering... and a part of them... they want to take the challenge of K2... and even fewer try it... and the smallest fraction does it!
And this is where the discussion of difficulty settings comes into play. The K2 stands 8,611m above sea level. That is an objective fact. You can convert the height into 28,251ft but it does not change it. Now you have those few that actually want to climb it. They have a variety of choices how to approach it, that have a direct influence on the subjective difficulty and chance of success.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- personal experience in mountaineering
- fitness, health state, height resistance etc.
- amount and choice of equipment and gear
- size and configuration of your mountaineering group
- choice of route up the mountain (Abruzzi being considered the easiest one)
- time scheduling and ascend planning
- etc.
All these factors define the perceived difficulty on a very subtle level.
But no matter HOW you did it... if you have been up there and safely back again: YOU HAVE MADE IT! And that achievement is a non-debatable, personal success. You have had an episode of personal challenge, trial and victory. You have grown, even if it is only for yourself. If you then tell 100 people 'Yo, I have beaten K2!' some will congratulate you, others will think of a former brand for inline-skates. As stated prior: only a very small fraction of the population are into that extreme mountaineering in the first place. But your personal success is undeniable and valid.
Now consider the mountain:
The mountain exists. It is not there for you to climb it, never asked for it... does not give a crap about you or all the deep-frozen corpses around its peak. Its existence is completely independent from your personal ideas and ambitions. And THAT makes it an objective challenge.
But what if we had a difficulty slider? Let's say, we can lower it a bit... maybe down to 6,500m, makes the whole oxygen logistics and need sooo much less of a hassle. If we lower it enough, and maybe even find a way to get rid of the unpredictable weather we can just heli our way up there for a few selfies...
FromSoft throws you into a world that does not care about or straight forward hates you! You are NOT the hero! The world is completely hostile and fine without you disturbing it. You are NOT Link in BotW, just some Tarnished/Unkindled... oh, you see the grace? So what? Get stomped!
The world in a FromSoft game is as objective as K2. It will remain as it is. You as player are not in charge of changing the ruleset. If you can bend those rules, good for you. If not, well find another way to overcome the obstacles. Your character build is not even the main focus. Just part of your gear. Getting stomped, losing a metric ton of souls/runes is part of your personal experience. And in all this... finding your personal take on things, your inner balance, the grit, determination, focus... to NOT give up... that makes YOU level up, not the character.
There are a million ways to beat Malenia... even more to get beaten by her. But in the end, IF you beat her: Congratulations! And it is not about your level, your build etc. those are minor details to nerdtalk about. Now take away half her HP, reduce the 2nd phase... it will not be Malenia, Blade of Miquella, just a convenient set-piece.
If you take a closer look at Dark Souls and being hollow, it becomes even more clear: Hollow means, you have given up, you broke. A fate worse than merely dying...
...so don't you dare go hollow!
Love & Peace
Shen
well fucking said.
Well said, my friend. We all feel helpless at some point, it's on you to push through.
Your comparison breaks down completely when you mention the fact that the mountain simply exists without regard or concern for whether or not anyone ever climbs it. The mountain is just an object in nature, but a video game is something we humans CREATE, they do in fact exist for no other reason than to be played. Games can be challenging, yes, but the entire purpose of their existence is still to overcome that challenge, and it is entirely up to us how difficult that challenge should be.
Moreover, the comparison further breaks down because likewise, we could make the mountain easier to climb by building trails and such, but each mountain is a unique physical location and altering them permanently changes the experience for everyone. Video games, however, are just code, code that can be copied and adjusted while still simultaneously existing in its original form. The inclusion of an easy mode in a game doesn't prevent the existence of hard modes, nor make beating a game on its hardest setting any less of an achievement.
@@EmeralBookwise you don't actually disprove any of his points. If you don't like it, don't buy the game/climb the mountain
@@StewNWT: Games are NOT mountains. Games exist to be played. True, no one has to buy a game, but if they do, they shouldn't be further gatekept from being able to enjoy the experience they payed money for.
The thing you’re missing is the community. You spend so much time bashing the community for gatekeeping you miss the point of these games. The bigger point is the experience is shared between all players. Same bosses. Same areas. Same struggle. SAME DIFFICULTY. That’s the reason there is no difficulty slider. Not because they are gatekeeping but bcuz they want everyone to be included in the same experience together. The messages and blood stain system should be your first clue of this.
Great way to put it.
the messages and bloodstains he never saw cause mods forces you to play offline if you dont wanna get banned.
Amen brother
Srslly the amount of times I saw a message telling me about an item out of the camera angle, or a bloodstain showing me an ambush that I would’ve died to really made it feel like I was apart of something, despite only summoning people twice.
I'm relieved reading the other comments, I thought I was going to be the only one completely disagreeing with this guys take on the difficulty.
Dude modded the game into easy mode, never lost any runes, and still complained that it should've included some lame difficulty settings.
The only thing my mod does is remove the need for body runs. I'd rather do that than use rune farms. I don't want to play on easy mode. I want the thousands who have been asking for it to be allowed to. Not everyone has this on PC so not everyone can mod it. How does it harm you if other people play differently. You're forcing your opinions on others by policing it.
@Tek Syndicate you're doing the same thing going into a community and saying hey I and this other group the size of 1% of your group don't like this thing about your community's thing change it and no I won't budge on my stance just like the community won't either.
When put in really broad strokes even if you upped the amount of people asking you to change the thing about your community it would still sound really stupid
Tek, you are wrong and by modding your game you are ruining the game's intentional design.
@@teksyndicate wait hold on, you've been saying you don't want to use exploits or cheats, but then you proceed to use cheats/exploits anyways by modding the game.
Tek Syndicate bruh you removed a key mechanic of the game and are still crying about difficulty, gtfo
"I have friends that don't want to grind so the difficulty is gatekeeping them from experiencing the game"
If you're not willing to put the effort into experiencing the game the difficulty is not the problem. Your refusal to put the effort in is what's gate keeping you from experiencing it.
"I don't like cheese strategies so the difficulty is stopping me from experiencing the game"
No, your refusal to use the games mechanics to proceed is gate keeping you experiencing it.
Claiming difficulty is gate keeping when there are multiple ways to get around the difficulty is absurd.
For a FromSoft game, if you don't experience difficulty and the feeling of finally overcoming that difficulty through persistence, you're not getting a core part of the experience. It's why FromSoft games don't "click" with everyone, because some people enter with this expectation that if they can't beat the boss in a couple tries, that they must just need better gear and more stats as opposed to trying to improve their own play.
I just want to add, if you do all the content as you progress, you'll easily be level 110-140 by the time you get to the Fire Giant, without needing to farm/Grind.
So that argument isn't valid imo.
If you wanna power level, then there is plenty of grinding spots for that. I’ve used them my self as someone that’s been playing these games for years because grinding isn’t what I like about these games, it’s the experience. I would only grind a few levels in order to be able to use what I needed or wear the armour that I wanted. Not to get extremely over levelled and ruin the experience. People abuse these spots by grinding them for hours on end, expecting that it’s gonna pay off with fun, but it doesn’t, they just end up over levelled and ruin the game for themselves.
@@xLionsxxSmithyx for that you’d have to do literally everything in perfect order. If you’re like me, you’re gonna end up in some area over your level, and get your ass wooped. I only started doing everything in every region when I realised that everything is marked on the map before even finding it.
@@BiggDickman Not really, you just need to not be stubborn and know when you're having a hard time with an area, either go back and see if there's more stuff for you to do in the previous area or go to another area entirely, I was being quite generous with my 110-140 estimate but you can actually get to 120 before you even get to the Capital just by doing everything on your way there, you don't need to do it in order you just need to stop being stubborn about pushing through until you win, people make this game hard on themselves by just being stubborn...
This is the easiest Fromsoft game imo.
Hey Tek, awesome to have new people coming into SoulsBorne!
Quick tip, you can leave behind the runes that you lost on difficult spots, it's like what you said about coming later on difficult enemies, higher "trash" enemies further into the game will drop way more runes than what you usually got anyway 🤷♂️
On the point of the story, I would argue that a lot of the charm is in the overall story. But not how it's just presented to you. A lot of the fun for these types of games is piecing together the story it's like a mystery or riddle. It makes me really immersed in the world because I feel like it's real. Nobody really knows the whole story and I only know what my character knows. The other thing that I absolutely love is that these kinds of stories make people super dedicated to learning the story and telling others so it's created CZcamsrs like vaati Vidya that have just amazing videos explaining the lore. And when you learn the truth about the story, it's so complex and so masterfully done. I recommend going to his channel and at least looking at some of his Dark Souls explained videos because the story of Dark Souls is just so unique. It all centers around fire and the cycle of a flame being ignited and going out and how these beings will try their hardest to keep the flame going, defying nature
18:30 It’s not just the players saying that difficulty settings break the challenge, it’s Miyazaki himself. The creator intended for these games to be experienced at one baseline level, with the variation in difficulty coming from player choices in how they approach the obstacles presented to them. It’s 100% their intention for this game to be brutal, but achievable if you’re willing to learn what it’s trying to teach you. Giving the game an easy mode will invariably give part of the player base an intrinsically different experience than another part, and FromSoft as a company prefers having some people not finish their game over allowing for someone to lower the difficulty via menu options rather than build construction.
Exactly. And saying that the game is inaccessible because you want to play the game how easy you want it to be is incredibly immature. Every sports and games has a level of difficulty created for those who are willing to learn and practice. Also, the difficulty is an emphasis of the strength of some bosses, which most are literal gods. Example: *SPOILERS* Malenia is an undeafeted character based on her lore so she is intended to be strong but Radahn almost beat her in their fight, which makes Radahn also strong.
@@singularity42069 Radahn is actually stronger than Melenia in the Lore, he fought her to a standstill while holding back the Stars...
And when he fights the player's tarnished he is incredibly weakened from the Rot that got on him through Melania's blood getting on him, it's rotting his body inside and out aswell as his mind and even still he is holding back the stars with all the strength he has left...
@@xLionsxxSmithyx Can you even imagine all these big guys in their prime? Radahn before the rot, radagon whitout being a broken mess, the fire giant not being crippled, placidusax with the 4 heads intact. No wonder the tarnished were exiled while everything went down the drain.
Everyone asking for an easy mode doesn't realize that Elden Ring wouldn't even exist had Fromsoft caved in with an easy mode from the start of the souls series
the difficulty is hidden in the game. you can use all the summons and co op or just rune farm until youre OP. if you keep dying over and over you dont level so hardo's are covered too
Exactly!
For how many times you brought up games as art, I'm surprised you didn't mention what the difficulty means in terms of the art! That is a big theme of FromSoft's work, is the idea of cycles of victory and defeat, determination to keep trying, and motivation in the face of hopelessness. Art isn't always accessible, and doesn't always have to make us feel good. I know a lot of people talk about these games' difficulty as a form of gatekeeping, as if they're better than people who gave up, but I prefer to see it as a part of the experience that they are trying to create.
Exactly!!! I’m tired of this argument, anybody making it doesn’t understand that the mere presence of an ‘easy’ mode totally guts the experience of the game by lowering the stakes and tension, whether the player opts to use it or not! Fortunately for us Miyazaki seems to understand and insist the company stay true to the spirit of these games.
I personally think that difficulty in from soft games is really just that, an artistic choice. they're just trying to make games to what they were envisioning. they're not cattering to people or worrying about accesibility. Even miyazaki himself was surprised by how many new people start playing elden ring.
The first, non gatekeeping take about the diffuculty in elden ring. We found him.
The problem with a game like this, it turns you into an adrenaline junkie. You so always hyper aware, regular rpg’s bore you to death.
I don’t see this as a problem..
You spend several minutes at the start of this review talking about how amazing it was when you realized the lesson the game was trying to teach you with the Tree Sentinel at the start of the game, that sometimes things would be too much for you and its ok to run away and come back later. Imagine if your takeaway from that had instead been "this is too much for me, I should start over on easy mode", and how much worse your experience would have been as a result.
I never once said I wanted to play on easy mode. I said it should exist. I play every game on the default or medium setting and would do so with this as well. I'm not arguing for myself, but for the others who have requested this.
@@teksyndicate your basically telling picaso to make normal art because hes gatekeeping by painting the abstract art he wants to paint. Not every person enjoys every painting and not every gamer enjoys every game.
@@teksyndicate and yet you did play on easy mode
@@MsAdsga literally mods the game to have 0 risk whatsoever "I never said I wanted to play on easy mode"
@@teksyndicate A main component of the experience is the difficult and the feeling of overcoming it. The lack of the difficulty slider enforces that. Gamers need to ditch their expectations that they should be beating a boss in one or two tries otherwise it's "too hard." The option of handicapping the opponent and making them weaker instead of growing as a player is contrary to the experience.
The game is designed to be a challenge. When you lose, it's because you didn't dodge at the right times or because you got too greedy. Stop blaming your opponent for being so difficult and start blaming yourself for not rising to the level of the competition. And once you've felt that feeling of defeating something you thought initially was insurmountable, then and only then have you truly experienced the Souls genre.
I agree with the sentiment in the lack of tutorials.
The last few years, I've seen a number of games that won't let you opt out of the tutorial. 20 minutes later, the game is teaching you move basics....
Then you create another character, your are back in the boring tedious patronizing tutorial.
These games are more than just your build, it’s a large part, but the core of this series is really about modular difficulty. It’s about learning exactly what you struggle with, and if you can identify those aspects, there is usually a solution to counter or modulate that difficulty if you use the resources available. Miyazaki has spoken about this multiple times, they won’t make an easy mode selection in the menu because the difficulty is modulated. They meticulously craft these games to provide these solutions to modulate the difficulty. It’s not about grinding or git gud mentality, it’s a very nuanced and careful decision to leave the difficulty up to the player. I personally feel like the difficulty system built in to souls and ER is way more effective than a global setting. You do have to put effort into this modulation, however it allows each person who plays the game to adjust specific aspects that they personally find too challenging, without dumbing down content they can handle perfectly fine
great way to describe it
That would be great if they didn't make those mechanics so obtuse and unexplained that newcomers need to do online research to understand them and modulate them in the way you're describing. The fact that two deaths permanently takes away runes forces players to spend them long before they have any idea what something like 'faith' even means, completely removes any agency a new player might have in the early to mid game, and punishes them for experimenting with anything but the intended (but not communicated) builds.
“The soul of the game will stay the same”
- talking about adding a difficulty slider
That’s a pompous statement, the soul of the game is at the discretion of the person who creates it… no difficulty slider is absolutely a part of the soul of the game
It borderline kills the game if you add a difficulty slider. He literally praised the game forcing you to run away and come back to fights later then adovacted for a difficulty slider that would kill that feature of the game.
@@UsesofBatman while admitting he's using a mod that takes away a core mechanic in FromSoft games(losing souls/runes/echos on death)
@@Leotheleprachaun lol what i mustve missed that part. using that mod basically made his opinion invalid to most fans of the game. hell, the creator himself already explained why he wont add difficulty options in his games. ppl that "debate" it and think they have an argument should move on. its more like whining at this point. the creator and most of his classic fanbase dont want difficulty options. they are baked into the game. end of story. ppl should stop whining and move on with their lives to other games with things that they want are in it.
@@flamingmanure playing a game with cheats should make his opinion as invalid as the guy who said he didnt even play the game before his review
Demanding an easy mode is like telling Nolan to create a “dumbed down” version of his movies, or telling Tarantino to release family friendly version of his movies alongside the “real” version just so more people can enjoy them. You’re gutting the essence of the experience crafted by the artist and selling an inferior product in the name of mass appeal.
Mass appeal =\= good
This is why you originally got a percentage of people telling you that maybe this just isn’t the game for you. Not everything is for everyone, and that’s fine. I still want to enjoy my complex high-concept sci-fi movies even if they’re never mainstream.
Na
Not the same at all. You can consume the movie and maybe not get what the artist was trying to achieve. Thats not the same as not being able to watch the movie because you're not smart enough
@@astashasta1 the comparison is sound, you can play the game and persevere through the difficulty, just like a lot of other players. the only thing gatekeeping you is your patience and willpower.
here's a better metaphor, if you're unwilling to sit trough a "insert movie" you don't get to dictate to the director to change it so it can suit you.
the problem with mass appeal is that you lose your artistic vision doing the. best example is when Hollywood pumped out a ww2 movie constantly, or right now with the superhero craze(this is coming from someone who loves superheroes) other types of movies are all homogenizing on trends.
you don't wanna watch a black and white movie, fine but don't go around demanding the entire community of said genre to cater to you go watch something else, Even if you like the story, and world.
the difficulty is baked into the mechanics it's not as simple as more damage and health. the time fromsoftware spends on an easy mode, will take away content from the core game.
@@nineten9011 Again no its not. You can sit through the movie and not get the artistic vision. Im not saying the game needs an easy mode. If Miyazaki wants to be an art snob and say "you cant experience the art in my game unless you git gud" its whatever. Having a baby mode for babies where enemies do significantly less damage and less aggressive AI is not going to take too much development time. Is the absolute dogshit co-op, pvp system part of the 'art' too?
@@astashasta1 I think your missing his point. He’s saying that the difficulty is part of the experience. It’s a part of the game. If you remove that, your taking away a piece of the experience and the game. Also there are ways for people to get easier play throughs and experiences, like the video said, by exploring.
This game is meant to be played a certain way. You see it often. Eventually you drop the shield, eventually you learn to dodge, eventually you learn how to stop fat rolling. Learn from what’s being presented to you instead of wishing to change it. The community is what it is because of our shared trauma/victories. Share with us instead of hoping for a day someone post on the Reddit “I beat Margit on Easy.” How is that victory over an the insurmountable? It’s not evening the playing field, it’s lowering it so people don’t feel left out. Meet us where we are, because we’ve all been there, every single one of us, have been where you are. Rise to the occasion, scale the mountain, climb to the peak, don’t ask for a lift. Bask in triumph with your bloodied claws, scraped knees and lost souls like that rest of us had to do, spit on your enemies and greet us as your comrades when you’ve come to the summit.
With regards to tree sentinel point, the cool either with these games is that you CAN beat that boss straight out the gates. It's possible if you are skilled / patient enough. But you can also come back later with a stronger character and obliterate him.
You choose the difficulty, not through a difficult setting but through how you choose to approach the game.
In Lyndell you find an item called the Twiggy Cracked Tear. Does exactly what the mod you used does but for only 3 minutes. Just adding this cause I think it shows the Devs did put more accessibility into the game then people generally know about. Which is kinda ironic because finding these "accessibility items" is random, you more often than not just stumble upon items that end up wildly or entirely changing the way you play.
Ohhhhh, that's what meant it did lol. Ironic
"This game would be the same without the story".
*Invaded by dark spirit Vaatividya.
Regarding your opinion about lack of difficulty setting being a gatekeeping thing, think about it like this. Art is not just visual. Art is anything that elicits emotions/feelings. Experiences are a part of it. So a shared experience for all ensures that the vision for the game is intact. And no, you don't "have to" grind to be overpowered to progress. People beat dark souls on sl1 runs playing it with a toy guitar. It is not a difficult game as soon as you are patient with it. I don't see that as gatekeeping at all. It's just something which demands attention from you. Think of fighting malenia on "very easy" difficulty. You'll be missing out on the experience of learning that entire fight. The joys and frustrations that come along with that.
And you are terribly wrong about the story not being there/being lackluster btw. This is easily the most accessible storyline of any from software game other than sekiro. The finger maiden is basically an exposition dump in this game.
I will agree about the performance on pc and the menu inputs being dated though.
ok, but. the story is literally the intro cinematic. You're confusing Lore for Story. The actual story of the game is the ring being broken by marika, the demigods fighting over the remains of the ring, and you wanting to claim the ring for yourself, because becoming an elden lord is what tarnished are supposed to strive for. The experiences in your playthrough then make up for the rest of the story.
Everything else you can find out, is not part of the main story. that's part of the worldbuilding, of the lore, of the character backstories.
This was my first FromSoft game and I adored that this game was only as difficult as I wanted it to be, never more, never less. The ability to control exactly what level of challenge I wanted to face at any given moment was refreshing.
Sure there isn't a difficulty slider, but I felt like I had more control over the difficulty of Elden Ring than any other game I've played in recent memory.
>argues for difficulty sliders in a game intended for a universal experience with endless player choice
>"I finally get it"
No you do not
Exactly. And even with games that have difficulty settings they’re often less balanced and therefore less enjoyable. Take GOW Ragnarok for example, the difficulty only affects enemy damage and health. It doesn’t affect what would actually make the game more fun - health. Unlike Elden Ring, after almost every encounter your health does not regenerate, and health pick ups often barely give you more health. This is terrible as it means even on the lowest difficulty, if you want to explore you will eventually die, just because the game won’t give you enough resources.
I'm of the mind it's far more entitled to ask an artist to change his art for ones convenience.
There's plenty of ways to make these games easier. I say this as I spend a lot of time on Reddit and CZcams comments finding people struggling and hopping in their world dropping items, giving tips, helping with bosses etc etc. I've made plenty of friends in helping with fromsoft games. The difficulty argument would be stronger if we didn't have thousands of games to play. It's always been an odd argument in my opinion.
It's been an argument since Demon Souls weirdly enough and it's a very redundant point imo, the people making the argument for difficulty sliders are very odd.
I am a COD, Assassins creed, and fallout lover. This game was EXTREMELY outside my comfort zone. Between the fast deaths, minimal damage, and giant enemies you have to dodge roll for, this was a hit or miss for me. And although I’ve died A LOT, I’ve had a ton of fun. I love the different weapons and customizations, different outfits, and the open world, this is totally my cup of tea. And only 40-50 gbs that’s nuts
Welcome to soulsborne I hope you enjoyed this game enough to try out the other games in the series they are very good
@@-Nihilus- haha i tried Sekiro, loved the idea, couldn’t get passed the first boss. Tried Mortal Shell, got past the first boss, couldn’t get passes the small enemies in the open world 😓 tried Blood bourne, kept dying from that first wolf, and the enemies after that. Tried dark souls 3, defeated the first couple of enemies/bosses, and i think i might’ve gave up? But this elden ring is awesome, checks all the boxes for my open word RPG wishes 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
@@NoonMight I'm glad that out of all the Souls-Like games, you could find one you enjoy :) have fun Tarnished!
I just discovered this channel. I'm amazed how you just admit how your mind changed on this or that, or tell about reevaluating your attitude towards walking sims, and so on - you know, like a normal, functional human being would! It's... Refreshing! Subscribble.
Great video. I eny you in many ways. One of the joys of watching this video was reminiscing with a wry smile at your gameplay. Seeing the impact of the context of the traps and backstabs making you play slow and cautiously, using a shield, stressing about time and runes. - still do sometimes hehe. I think that was the initial phase for so many souls players of Dark and Demon Souls. It truly was cathartic to hear your story of overcoming these challenges in your own unique way.
I think that's the one thing you are also missing from the community. So much of the love and enthusiasm comes from the shared experience of learning and growing. Such as "do you remember the Capra Demon?" "or beating Orstein and Smough?" It builds an immediate comradery that is strangely akin to a boot camp or institutional like experience.
I also appreciated the perspective toward these systems I think it does add a lot to art to critique it. My only core disagreement with your stance was on gatekeeping and elitism. I didn't realize it until later in life, but I remember arguing along the lines of not allowing difficulty setting in these kinds of games and was called an elitist. I suppose if that makes me one I'll accept the label.
Not as it relates to this video in particular or even Dark Souls. But the idea is more of a philosophical question and perhaps even of our individual temperaments and values. Open or closed. Conservative or liberal. Welcoming or distrustful. It was cool to see you bring these points up via the medium of gameplay discussion and breaking down their manifestation through gaming. The games are in a sense litmus or personality tests in small reflections of personal and cultural values. Perhaps that's too esoteric. Liked the video!
I think one of the thing people tend to not understand (sometimes it feels like they refuse to understand) about From's games is that the "difficulty", the repeated deaths, the fear of losing runes/souls, the frustration even, are both part of the environmental narration and of the core feeling of the games.
It usually ties directly to aspects of the story, and a recurring theme is overcoming challenges, beating impossible odds.
Now, having said that, I'd like to compare this to a horror game. The kind where you are alone, in really dark places, with only a small light, hearing noises around you, seeing shifting shadows, and where you usually dies in one or two hits, that kind of things.
The way that kind of game "feel"....IS the game. If you start giving the player a bigger and bigger light, or if you remove half the monsters hiding all around the place, or even if you give more survivability to the character, you certainly make the game easier. But in doing so, you change the game, at some point it is no longer a horror game but something else.
This is exactly From's games problem with difficulty modes. You could give more damage to the player, remove the loss of runes, give less damage to traps and so on. But doing so would make the game something else entirely, while removing a core theme of their games.
The difficulty in itself means nothing, but it's integration in the game gives it an other dimension, a different feel we fail to find anywhere else.
If people asking for an easy mode can understand we can't tone down the horror in a horror game without making it a NON-horror game, they should be able to accept we can't tone down the difficulty in a Souls without making it not-a-Souls game.
There are already tons of not-a-Souls games out there, and so few actually good Souls game, why can't we preserve what makes them unique ?
"a recurring theme is overcoming challenges, beating impossible odds." While i understand this line of thinking, the problem is, to a less skilled player who simply cant overcome the challenges, the whole message is tuned on its head. To those people its not a series about overcoming impossible odds, its a game about the fact that no matter how hard you try, there will always be another challenge, no matter how much you struggle, you will never be enough. I first played DS3 when i wasn't in a great place and it really upset me, i felt like the one thing i used to escape reality (gaming) did not want me to engage with it at all, and that i was failing my hobbies. I picked up the game again recently and enjoyed it more, but i still cant beat it, and the whole "overcoming the odds" plot falls apart when the odds are insurmountable.
@@thefatone4378 well, this kind of tie in with what I said about horror games.
In the exact same way horror games might not be for people who just can't deal with the pressure, the scare jumps or the all around anxiety, maybe these games are not the right games for these people.
Is it a reason to tone down the horror elements in those game ?
If you do not deal well with a core theme of a game, it is no fault of the game, and no fault of yours, but it could mean you're simply no the right audience for said game.
Same goes for me and competitive FPS or MOBA, despite loving them, I just can't deal with the tryhard/competitive attitude, so I rarely play them.
Also, I'd like to point out something the community keep on saying which is entirely true : there is always a way to deal with the challenge. Be it coop/summons, a different build, or in Elden Ring's case, going somewhere else.
In this case, the issue is not the challenge, but the way the player chose to deal with it.
It might often be shortened to the classic "git gud", but it's a troll-y meme more than reallity.
What it actually means is : "think differently, explore, experiment, try some more, and if all else fail, ask for help".
@@cirederfsamot2730 Im not saying i dont deal well with the theme of the game per say, on a personal level i dont particularity like to be challenged. However, as you say its supposed to be themed around overcoming the challenge. Im saying the theme is undermined by the game-play if someone cant finish it, turning the message completely on its head. The reason im so adamant about the soulsborne series needing difficult modifies, is because i love the stories, ive spent a long time listening to lore videos and i love the worlds FS created, i just wish i could experience them for myself. Now i know summons are a way to make the game easier but as im sure you're aware the dark souls servers are down right now so i cant use them. The reason im spending so much time talking to strangers in elden ring comment sections these days, is because the game looks awesome, the story and the characters, the world design and the art-style, it looks like such a good game, but i don't have £60 to just throw away if i end up locked out of half of it by a bs boss. if there were clear difficulty options then i know i could buy it and enjoy it, but as it stand idk if its worth the risk.
@@thefatone4378 thing is, I kind of take issue with what you're saying here :
"Im saying the theme is undermined by the game-play if someone cant finish it"
It isn't, because the whole point is anybody can finish it. There is absolutely nothing preventing it.
Except time.
You will die a lot, take a lot of time learning, practicing, but in the end you WILL make it, if you really want to.
But as any other game, or even any other book or movie, or anything really, if you can't dedicate enough time for one in particular, you don't really get to ask for a different version tailored just for you.
I mean, as a weird, random exemple, the movie The Revenant is about 2h35min I believe.It's a damn long movie.
But you can't just go and say "I don't like movies that are too long, I don't like movies lasting more than 2h. I don't have more than 2h straigh available for a movie. So there should be a version of the Revenant that's less than 2h".
Either you like the movie enough to give it 2h35min of your life, or you don't, and then you don't watch it.
That was exactly my point about competitive MOBAs. I LOVE the gameplay, I loved all the ones I tried.
But I can't deal with the ultra competitiveness, can't get into the aggressive state of mind that seems to be the norm in most people playing them a tad seriously.
So, instead of demanding they change, I avoid playing them, only dabbling in them once in a while.
I'm sorry for the way I will formulate this, it might sound a bit rude and it's really not what I'm trying to achieve here, but I'm just trying to get my point across :
Nobody owes you anything.
The game does not owe you a special right to play it without accepting its rules. That's just how the world works.
Which is fine, just like it's fine MOBAs do not owe me anything.
You want to play Dark Souls, but don't like being challenged ?
Tough luck, it's a package deal.
Maybe you'll find another game similar in style to Dark Souls but easier to tackle.
That is how entertainment works, everything is not and simply can not be tailored in every way for everyone, and we all should come to terms with that.
We are not just consumers here, demanding products be made for us.
We are people enjoying artistical work, and when an artist designed some of his work with a clear vision, an intended effect in mind, we are in no way legitimate asking them to change it to suit us.
So, for the same reason I'm not out there, asking for Kirby games, that I deeply love, to add ultra challenging difficulty that could be insanely more fun to play than just cruising in the game, I am not ok with people asking Dark Souls (or any other game, really) to change the way its difficulty was envisioned.
@@cirederfsamot2730 Dont worry about sounding rude, ive always enjoyed debating with people actually. Although, I think we're always gonna disagree on this. i personally believe in 'death of the author' art belongs to the consumer not the creator, and if i make something i would want as as many people to engage with it as possible on their own terms, because i think art is meant to be shared and adapted. A difficulty slider that adjusted damage scaling would not be hard to implement and would allow everyone to enjoy the same game in their own way. I fail to understand how that would affect people who want to play on the default difficulty in any way. As for your film comparison, I wouldn't equate saying the souls series is too hard to saying this movie is too long, it would be more like saying "wow this film would be great if they didn't show the same scene 400 times in a row" because the amount of time you have to spend trying and retrying is not new content and gets old quickly, like damage sponge enemies in fps games or forced grinding in jrpgs.
Lost me when he said the game has no story. I swear every thing that shows-up in your journey has a reason to be, it’s not just “rule of cool” galore.
But it’s understandable coming from a newcomer to the FromSoftware sphere, he still has a lot of epiphanies yet to experience.
I also think using a mod to bypass an intended mechanic is cheating.
uh oh. I'm not even that far in the video. but ER has probably the best story from has put out.
I'm not even close to finish my first run, but all the different factions, ranni's questline for example, whatever is happening with radagon and marika (no spoilers please, just got to the goldmask part where there's a reveal)...that's all super interesting to me.
it's the first time I'm reeeaaaally into a from story. I liked the other ones as well, but ER got me hooked in this aspect.
but who am I telling this, you know that yourself hahaha.
Agreed. "The game would be the same without a story" . Dude what? The fact that he thinks there's no story nor cares to figure it out really killed me.
@@AtlasG4 "saying elden ring has a good story is like finding a bunch of post-it notes with random facts and saying oh that is a good book"
@@marlonyo yeah some people actually like to put the pieces of the story together rather than being spoonfed from the start. I feel like the people that don't "get" these games never played nes or snes as a kid. a large portion of games today (even in the same genre as elden) spend way too much time with cinematic, dilute the experience with tasks shown all over the map, and offer no real "hey let me figure this out" experience.
The only problem I had with the optional parts of the story, which actually flesh out the experience even more fully, are that they are often difficult to find. It’s also easy to get locked out of some of those really long and winding yet interesting side quests if you progress too far in the game.
Now some of that makes for a really cool experience when you stumble on to a character you met several hours before never expecting to see them again but some kind of road map to the side quests would help a ton.
Also the most important pieces of Elden Ring lore are written on the descriptions of weapons and items you will pick up in your journey. Unless you know to read all those things you are missing all the nuance of the story.
Great vid! I think there is an aspect you haven't got out of the souls series in general. Dying in general shows you were the challenge is and then the game gives you a lot of different aproaches to solve that: Grinding is one. Treating the game as a math problem and creating an op build is another. Yet another is to git gud and practice till you can kill everything hitless. Often the games give you visual clues or hints in item descriptions hinting at weaknesses of certain enemies, so you can add obeservation and deduction to the list. Many tough encounters can be solved by treating them as environmental puzzles and skipping the actual combat. These are all typicals ways to solve your problem in all souls games and every player employs all of them in different proportions.
Elden Ring, more than any other From Soft game, offers one more problem solving mechanism the list: Turn around and explore. You will practice the game, strengthen your character, find better items and spells and maybe learn more about your enemy (or even find an item that is custum built to deal with a specific enemy).
The exploration feeds into most problem soving mechanisms the series presented you before - and that is why the open world works so well. I never invested much effort into my build. I never had to grind to beat the game. I never stopped my progress to obesssivley to practice a boss and git gud. And I still found my way through the game naturally.
In short: I don't think we should tell newbies to grind or to use buidls or to git gud or to pay more attention to details ... we should inform them that those are the tools they can employ, but that it is entirely up to them which ones to chose. And that is a degree of freedom few games offer.
The story is awesome! I’ve watched hours and hours of lore videos/ theories because I just want more. It reminds me of the first time reading Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The amount of endings is still unknown
Elden Ring is my second “Souls” game behind Demons Souls Remake, so I’m still fairly new to the franchise. I do however disagree with the sentiment that no difficulty options is some form of elitism. Difficulty settings in this game would absolutely change it, but to better understand how it would, I recommend watching a CZcams video by The Act Man explaining why Souls game should not have a difficulty setting. It explains it far better than I could.
Bloodborne is my absolute favorite! It's a masterpiece. If you want to experience the best From has ever had to offer play Bloodborne.
He just had to cry and his only argument was mainly repeating the words " its obtuse "
Ditto, The Act Man’s video is excellent.
As a From Software fan boy I was really agreeing with a lot of the points you were making. I agree that certain QoL changes like menu navigation get annoying, sometimes certain areas just look like they changed the color scheme and that we can discuss how the artistic choice to gatekeep is up to debate. where you truly lost me was in you final words that you added mods for QoL improvements to make the game fun for you; specifically the one that get the runes back for you automatically. You said you were afraid to explore or climb on cliffs so that you didn't lose your runes, but I believe you've taken away a core mechanic in the game. There's a balance in Souls games that carrying a lot of souls, or runes in this case, make you more cautious a wary to explore deeper since if you die you now have to get passed everything you did previously and collect your runes. This mod completely nullifies the fear of dying or searching further. If not losing your runes is a threat then the world becomes quite trivial.
trivial to YOU. I love playing with the mod and that should be a valid enough reason. I do hear your points and appreciate tips on how to have more fun... I played until level 70 without the mod and my life is 100x better since installing it. It's cool that we are different and play differently. I like things this way. If you don't, then play your way and more power to you. play and let play.
@@teksyndicate I'll not try to convince you to keep playing or uninstall the mods and I'm not telling that you can't or shouldn't have fun with them, just let me tell you something:
if you find the game more enjoyable with that mod then you don't get it, maybe these games are not for you, nothing wrong with it, but the experience you are looking for is a very different one, it doesn't matter if you got to level 70 on your own, if you felt relief after taking away a core mechanic you just don't like it as it is, I know sounds weird to say that we like the failure, the fear, the stressing feeling of losing everything you worked for, but that makes it authentic, that's the point, is fun because is exciting, is exciting because is dangerous, and is dangerous because the implications.
Removing mechanics is not the same as playing differently, is playing a totally different experience, again, nothing wrong with it, if it is fun for you then have fun, the problem is that you cannot brag about the experience and how it would be better if you don't get it.
@@teksyndicate just rest at a grace and spent your runes on lvls before going further. Now fear of losing a few 100 runes wont stop you
@@teksyndicate YOU ARE CHEATING PERIOD! THAT"S LIKE PLAYING POKER WITH FAKE MONEY!
@@teksyndicate The risk is part of the experience, it's an integral aspect of soulsbourne games. A lot of the things you mentioned that we should highlight to new players are things that weren't applicable before Elden Ring. Builds existed in previous games but they were more for PvP purposes and there weren't as many ways to "cheese" your way through things, so saying it's "about builds" isn't necessarily the case. You can watch speedrunners beat dark souls games without ever leveling once, so the game is much more about gitting gud than building well UNTIL now. Same thing for going elsewhere if a boss is too hard - soulsbourne games have traditionally been more linear, where the next boss is basically the only option to progress forward. There are parts of this game that are making vet soulsbourne players have to relearn some things themselves, several of them tied to the aspects you mentioned. But the majority of the things you desire out of the game are counterintuitive to the punishment that defines soulsbourne as a style.
Just stumbled on your video! I have to say you have a very respectable attitude, and I thank you for that. Glad you're enjoying the lands between!
I’m also a newcomer to FromSoftware’s work but in a different way as I was always intrigued by the Soulsborne games and wanted to try them out, i knew i’d enjoy them. So much of the discussion around elden ring has been so exhausting from my perspective as everyone seems so unwilling to listen to each other but hearing how you changed your mind about the game is super refreshing to hear! Glad i’m finally a part of this community but i just wish it was a little more welcoming lol
Why is everyone talking about joining the community lmao its literally just a game there's no community its all in your head
i think why people are annoyed by demanding the game have a difficulty setting, is that its not criticized for how it handled the diff on its own merit (leveling), but demanding it do sth it didn't set out to do. You want a pretty walk in the park ? You have a plethora of assassins creed games. The tension you described relies on the difficulty. It's oppressive atmosphere relies on it. Yeah you can have builds and level up to a point the game becomes a joke, but the power fantasy of being a weakling that rose up is lost, when the rise isn't earned, without honing your skill or putting in time, or some mixture of both. The difficulty slider is there, in form of grinding, but like most of the games mechanics, it's obscured. In my opinion, the way difficulty works is perhaps even the central pillar of why from soft games deliver a different experience than the mainstream games.
From sets out to do sth different and thrives because of it. What's annoying is that it fills a niche, and people disinterested in the game are saying it shouldm't do that. Imo in this day and age, its an important artistic and philosophical stance to take. You don't criticize a horror game for being scary, why would you criticize a game inventing a new genre based on a unique set up of difficulty for what it's trying and succeeding to do?
saying a difficulty chosen by artist is gatekeeping while the difficulty is one of the main crutches, is like saying you gatekeep horror from comedy fans imo. Doesn't make sense.
The lack of difficulty settings made my experience a lot more meaningful. It felt like every obstacle I defeated made the victory all that more rewarding. It made me a better player and for that I am grateful!
This is the entire experience of souls games. If your not here for that, then you're not here for the game.
Welcome to the club, tarnished!
I mean, if there where difficulty settings what would stop you from playing it on the hardest difficulty and experience the exact same?
@@slart1bartfast587 doesn’t need a hardest difficulty. That’s why Miyazaki never had a difficulty slider in souls game. That’s his philosophy and part of the experience. Be sure to make it as difficult for yourself as possible! Enjoy.
@@CryptoCryoto No, I know his stance and motivations. But that was not my question, it was: Why is a lack of difficulty settings meaningful to you? Nobody forces you to use it.
(and on a sidenote we all know that you can make it harder for yourself ingame - no armor, no leveling vigor, no hit run, etc., but also a lot easier - overleveling, summons, mimic tear, magic abuse, etc. - especially in Elden ring with the open world - so there is a difficulty slider it's just not in the menu - in fact a lot of the mechanics make ER an absolutely trivial childs game compared to for instance Sekiro were you are deprived of any of these tools)
Before playing this game I was one of those guys to play a game on normal or easy depending on difficulty but this game was different. I did plenty of research on this game before purchasing it and two of the biggest things I got from my research was run if the enemy seems too strong for you and expect to die a lot. Those two pieces of advice prepped me for the game and allowed me to get into it to the point where this has been the only game I have played for the past month and has changed my perspective of games, my expectations of games and become my favorite game.
People always say theres no difficulty settings but the difficulty settings are just more complicated. You dont pick easy mode medium or hard mode. you Just pick how difficult you want the game to be via Summons, Build, Farming, Theres alot of people who refuse to use Spirit summons and refuse to grind souls and Refuse to use specific powerful builds because it takes away too much of the difficulty. I personally feel like you beat the game with whatever you can and you make the difficulty yourself by adding or substracting limitations. THE GAME HAS A DIFFICULTY SETTING. YOU JUST HAVE TO MOVE THE SLIDER YOURSELF.
Considering how term "Ubisoft Formula" suddenly became a term, there is legitimate reasons to be concerned if a game "follows the trends" In the end all the games becomes "the same"
I am a cellist. By your logic, Stravinsky is definitely gate keeping cello music. Because the concerto is so freaking hard, only people who studied for decade be able to play.
The story is huge, there’s a lot of lore and every area of the map has a story. Each item has a description that tell more about its history. Man you just don’t pay attention
Im on journey 4 and still loving it. I love how the enemies and bosses I used to have trouble with are a cakewalk now
Difficulty setting would indeed ruin the game. Completely. This isn't just a videogame it's both a piece of art, and a testing mechanism for your personal resolve and problem solving. If you let people click the easy mode slider whenever they're annoyed or struggling with an enemy or location. You bypass the intended experience. That's why 6 games into fromsofts library, there still isn't an easy mode or hardmode. I don't care how this weakens you emotionally or whatever. You can feel inferior or like you're being policed by elite players, but the fact stands that you are incorrect. No disrespect intended.
Why should it affect you if you can play the game however you want? Play with your fists if you want. Tie one hand behind your back. No game should be “members only”, this is still a difficult game even with summons. Old folks like me can’t play the level of difficulty I used to. But I still enjoy the challenge- and I LOVE seeing how much creativity and art and work went into making it. The reason you feel the need to police how other people have fun is your ego. It has become a part of your identity and you think it gives you status to police how other people enjoy art. That is more a commentary on you than anything. Grow up. Get a life. Enjoy how you enjoy and let others do the same.
@@TheMrstates An extremely important part of the success of Fromsoft games is the strong community feeling they have built, word-of-mouth is basically the only reason we keep getting these games. The overcoming of the challenge and difficulty of these games (together with the lore hunting) is an extremely important component of what binds the Souls Community together, and without it there's almost no chance Elden Ring would even exist. This has even been a part of Dark Souls lore from the very beggining (hollows struggle together), it's not just some disconnected component of the games you are asking to get rid of.
If you really want to experience the creativity and art of Fromsoft games, you can easily watch a playthough of the game, and if you're going to say that watching a playthough just isn't the same, well playing on a lower difficulty also just isn't the same. It seems to me that it's you who is ego driven in his demands, you seem to think that you deserve to have the same feeling and reward as anyone else just because you want it.
And to answer your first point of "Why should it affect you if you can play the game however you want?": From a personal point of view, I have no doubts I would've caved in to loweing the difficulty at certain points in Fromsoft games, and you can call me mentally weak for that but I'm very glad I didn't have the choice as it lead to a better and more satisfying experience, so the very choice of difficulty DOES affect most (or at least some) other players.
@@TheMrstates It’s not about how it effects me, it’s about the intended experience in a piece of art. FromSoft has artistic integrity, they have an intended experience that they want you to have as the player, and an easy mode would undermine that experience. I don’t know what’s so hard to understand about this.
It *would* break the Fromsoft model of play. There are built in difficulty modifiers. They’re called summons. Or Rivers of Blood. Difficulty sliders would absolutely destroy almost every system in place, such as multiplayer summons and invasions. The Souls community, for the most part, is very inviting and helpful to people who are new. Where we are not inviting is when that new person comes in and demands things that would fundamentally change everything that we love about these games. Two of my friends are brand new to Souls games and I’ve been walking them through it. Not once did they complain about not having a difficulty slider in a menu.
This is my first From Soft game,and I completely agree. My friends in discord have helped A TON. The best advice they gave me was “ play it how you want, grind if you want, struggle if you want, this is your first From game, you’ll learn eventually and you’ll want to try a new character. Are you having fun? Then you’re playing correctly.” Ever since they said that I’ve improved but I’m still enjoying the grind. It’s still hard but I’m having a blast!
Some months ago I invited a friend to play his first souls game: Bloodborne. I helped him, explaining some things, doing some co-op and (rarely) backseating a little bit, when needed. He loved Bloodborne and, yes, did not complain about the absence of a difficulty slider. He understood Fromsoft's approach and now he is ready to play Sekiro, before facing Elden Ring.
Blacksmiths and leveling are your main difficulty modifiers in the series, you forgot those
Lol i love it when people call us gatekeepers yet come first time to a souls game and immediately cry out all the things they should change to the game just for it to be accessible to them XD.
That description of the Runebear is so accurate and was delivered perfectly.
In terms of difficulty, players aside. I appreciate the devs standing firm on it because that’s part of the game experience they want to offer, realizing it’s not for everyone.
If you're playing this game with a keyboard/mouse that's probably a big factor in any perceived difficulty. Sure, people beat this game with bananas and some electrodes but it is 100% engineered for a controller. While I definitely prefer kb/m for most games, dogmatically refusing to switch to a more appropriate input device isn't going to make it a more enjoyable experience for you.
this.
I tried playing it with k&m, I think it's not necessarily harder (if you're completely unfamiliar with controllers it could be technically easier) but it's way less fun.
at least because you can't have omnidirectional rolling on k&m.
Omnidirectional rolling is so crucial that it's hard to fathom playing these games without it.
How do you expect to be a furled finger if you don't play on controller
@@labakrapscalio451 omg never thought of that till now
@@bogdang8759 I been playing claw since ds1, but when I realized my finger was in the same position as all those furled fingers, I became convinced it was an intended design choice lol. I think they noticed DS converts people into playing claw and they incorporated it into the game. I'm no longer going to call it claw, it's furled finger for me. Been furled finger since ds1, just didn't know it yet lol
“I don’t like to use cheats or exploits”
“I installed a mod and all it does is take away a core gameplay mechanic that has existed in this series for nearly 15 years”
Honestly what
Dude... Keeping your runes changes almost everything:
1. No exploration tension, aka removing the Dark Souls secret sauce
2. Hyper level up express, aka removing any Dark Souls challenge
He could have changed so many other things and I'd be 'no worries'. It's like removing the ability to die in Super Mario and saying '7.5 at best'.
He doesn’t like hard work. It’s a hard game, you have to practice. Also you’re a cheater. If they catch you online they’ll ban you.
It’s the only part of the video where I thought, “oh he doesn’t get it at all”. Glad he’s having fun though.
I was intrigued by his analysis until he said that and then he lost me. That is cheating to eliminate a core mechanic. Besides, the open world generally makes it easy to upgrade without going into unknown territory with tons of runes. He cheapened the experience and made excuses for it.
This baffled me too. You might as well play a whole different game at that point because you didn't earn anything
On Gatekeeping:
Sure video games are art but more importantly they are games. Games have rules. These set rules insure everyone is playing the same game. Once you change the rules you are not playing the same game.
An easy mode is like playing Checkers with a younger relative. They want to play but will get absolutely wrecked when they play with you. So you say they can play and you will start with only half the pieces. So sure they can go brag to friends that they beat you but those friends know you are great at Checkers so they know something is up. Your relative says he beat you but you only played with half the pieces. His friends will now say well you weren't playing checkers, that's not the rules. Now not only did your younger relative lose out on the opportunity to improve by seeing you at your best, he is now deprived of the sense of accomplishment at beating you at your best.
So yes an easy mode breaks it and should not be added. Everyone should either get good enough to play or come back when they are ready to get better at the game. If you change the game to have different difficulty we are no longer playing the same game and can't share in the joy of beating certain bosses or areas because we know you didn't actually beat the boss at its best, you beat a boss with its hands tied.
Elden Ring has its problems but I would say with out a doubt it's the best open world game ever made. And if I am being honest the bosses in Elden Ring are too easy, Dark Souls 3 had the perfect difficulty for bosses and still has the best boss fights of all time.
On losing runes:
The jist is that if you made it there once, you should be able to get back there after you died. If you are constantly losing them then stop trying to do what you are doing. You are either at an area too early, trying to rush through the area and not fighting enemies, or just need to slow down and learn the enemies moves. It's a teaching tool.
In short we aren't telling you how to have fun. But we are telling you this game offers a certain way to have fun and if you want to change the rules just because more people would enjoy then you just don't like these games. We aren't saying everyone will enjoy this and aren't forcing you to play them. I've come across the idea online recently and it applies here: "If you want to enjoy something but need to change it to do so, you never enjoyed that thing, just your idea of that thing." You just like the idea of From games and not what From games actually are. Not everyone can or should enjoy everything. You can not cater to the whole world. I can't ask pro athletes to go easy on me so I can play their sport in their league. That's not how life works and that's what an easy mode would be doing. And no and easy mode is not like playing against people at your skill level in a sport. That would be an argument for SBMM not for a PvE game where there is a boss. That Boss is basically the pro player in a sport and if you want to beat them well you better get to training.
I think, with this type of game it doesn’t need a difficulty setting, because you essentially set your difficulty with your build, weapons, weapon levels and your levels. Someone running a bleed build at a significantly higher level than their surroundings is going to find they have an easier time, than someone at an appropriate level, both weapon and level wise, and running a full strength build.
This debate has been going on for over a decade. Difficulty is an intrinsic part of From Soft's games. Everyone has to overcome the same challenge and there is no catering to anyone. Everything in earned. I have said this for years now, in souls games, when somebody tells you to "Just Git Gud" it is legitimate advice because there is no short cut. Every player of souls games started at the same place. Nobody was a master of their first souls game on their first attempt. It takes struggle and perseverance to get to the point of being able to say that your good at souls games. It takes practice and its something that every single player has had to go through. Every player has the same challenge presented to them and every player has the same end goal to feel accomplished about. Difficulty sliders would absolutely cheapen the experience. What do you think difficulty sliders would change in regards to gameplay? Maybe damage taken, or enemy HP, maybe quantity of enemies? Damage taken can be adjusted by armor and levels, damage dealt can be adjusted by weapons and levels. Enemies don't spawn, every single one was hand placed with intent to manufacture a specific experience. The thing is, Elden Ring is already the most accessible From Soft game bar none. It has tons of difficulty options and none of them are in slider form. Pretty early in the main quest line you even gain the ability to respec your character which, to my knowledge, has never been an option. This game is only as hard or as easy as you're willing to make it but again nothing is free, nothing is given. Every single player presented with the same challenge. When you achieve the accolade and gain the ability to honestly and proudly state "I beat Elden Ring!" There is no modifier. Every player gets the same title. The frustration from death and the time put in is the barrier to entry. That is equality in game play.
Just an additional note: You may notice that many souls veterans use largely the same vocabulary when talking about why they died and rarely ever is it the games fault. You'll hear it all the time. "I got greedy" for example. The word greedy is used naturally and not typically something learned from forums or other means. It's another quirk of every player having the same challenge presented to them, and I always enjoy pointing out that little quirk.
To add to your point, most souls players are mediocre. I am mediocre at souls, I have beaten 1 and 3. Most players are at about my level of skill. We still tell people to "git gud" but I think what they should be hearing is "git gudder". Most people who play the games will probably never be "good" at them but they can struggle and fight and beat them all the same, and that's the entire point of the story. To claw your way to a victory that had nothing to do with talent, or being a "chosen one" - just an everyday unknown dude or dudette refusing to back down from literal hordes of demons, dragons, demigods and gods, dying ad nauseum until that glorious moment of triumph.
@@robertcunningham1695 exactly. You don't need to be good to beat these games. The game provides everything the average person needs to complete it. It's up to the player to find the various avenues to victory, and there are many.
Coming from a souls fan, this is one of the most coherent reviews from a non souls player. May I try to elaborate on the difficulty and why it is where it needs to be?
Imagine this, Elden Ring development began in 2016. As you point out, and rightfully so, 6 years of development time still wasn't enough as there still bugs and reused enemies. Now imagine trying to balance not only "Classic Mode", but "New Mode". How that is even possible when, as you say stats matter, without completely breaking what they created?
Just one thing to note, there has always been an easy mode in every Soulsborne game. You can COOP for every boss. Is it not egotistical to say to the developer," I want to beat this boss by myself, add an easy mode."? It's as if the "purity" roles between, souls vets and non souls players, switches in this instance. Which I find quite odd.
And when people say play with a controller, it isn't gatekeeping or telling you how to play. It's just by far the best way to play, as these games are built for consoles first and foremost. Never once have I had this map error on controller. The PC version is a port, all souls games have been.
Do you do know when you look at your channel, on mobile, the first video that shows up is "This is how you should play morrowind". Which you may very well be correct, but the irony is overflowing.
I'd be cool with a psychonauts-style invincibility mode. I didn't play it that way, but I don't care if others do. Easy mode could just be double runes and half damage. Balance is whatever when there are 100 ways to break things... And there's so many videos online on how to cheese everything. It's silly.
As for my Morrowind video.. it's a video about playing it on modern PCs, not me telling people what difficulty to use or what mods to use. I make suggestions, but always tell people they can play however they like. So you probably should have looked at that before being defensive.
I never played DS but can easily understand the nuance of going out into an open world and farming to level up to the point u feel comfortable. If u want a medium difficulty it's their u just need to work for it. The other part of instruction is also on the screen every time I die. I'm 45 hrs in and I'm not sure I've read the same tip or explanation of something. I do think you're wrong about the gate keeping. Gaming reviewers who do not play games and have spent the past 15 years shitty on the community for it being "toxic" don't have the patience to play this game and therefore will not come across some of the art that these people probably would take issue with. I honestly don't think the devs care if someone gets frustrated with the game and stop playing because that wasn't the audience they wanted here in the first place. Gaming has become full of loot boxes and other ways to make u spend money which these guys could have done but it's not their and I for one appreciate it. Why is gate keeping important all I need to point to is comics. Peace
@@teksyndicate Since you are playing on PC, you can give yourself as many Runes, levels, or items as you want. Through the use of a trainer.
@@StraitShot yes, take the short cut
@@DePhoegonIsle if you're not going to take advantage of the options the developer gives you: COOP, ashes of war, spirit summons, over leveling, NPC summons or magic.
Than yes you will have to step in and fix your problems. If you think a boss doesn't give you enough Runes or has too much health than use a trainer.
This isn't just specific to PC either, people can drop Runes for console players as well.
My first souls game was DS3. I played it for hours not being able to beat the tutorial boss. I put the game down. I thought it was too hard for me. I didn't want the game to beat me down that way. I picked it up again a few months later and stuck through it. I beat the game. I convinced my roommate to play it. He also thought it was too hard. "Trust me bro" I told him. "Just stick with it". He did. He got to a point we could co-op and I started my second playthrough. I even bought a new copy because he was playing mine. We beat it together. It's one of my favorite gaming memories. I didn't need an easy mode. An easy mode would have actually changed all of that. I'm glad fromsoft sticks to their gut on this. Not all games are for everyone. It's not gatekeeping. Not everyone can solve a rubrics cube. Not everyone can play guitar. I didn't think I was good enough for this game. But I am. Everyone is. You just gotta be patient.
I am so glad Elden Ring doesn’t have an easy mode. This is the first game I’ve played in roughly twenty years. The last time I gamed I played SOCOM 2 if that ages me for you. 😂
If an easy mode was an option I most certainly would have used it and not learned the game the way I have the past 100 hours of game time.
Plus, there are plenty of ways to make the game “easy”. For example, Radahn was destroying me for hours. I finally eventually decided to summon some help. Another player came in, buried Radahn down to almost dead, stood in front of him and took punishment until I could get the last shot in. Tell me another community that this happens in. I’ll never know this person and they didn’t owe me a thing. Pure class.
I got and understood a lot of your points but the corpse run mechanic is honestly huge part of these games. I understand it cuts out a lot of the frustration of having to return to the last point of your death but it essentially is part of the whole "overcoming adversity" aspect of the game. But my perspective comes from not modding that aspect out but rather playing the game as is. If it leads to more enjoyment then I guess it's for the best.
It leads to more enjoyment FOR YOU. Seriously, why can't anyone handle that other people have fun differently. It's ok if we play differently.
@@teksyndicate I never said it leads to more enjoyment for me. Only that's it's part of the experience that was crafted by the designers. An example of a From Soft game that didn't include the mechanic is Sekiro. There was no use for it in the game as it did not fit with the Theme of the game.
And again if modding it out leads to you enjoying the game then that's fine too.
And finally about your rune mode. You are suppose to lose em. And that completely changed the experience of the game. Losing the runes is not a big issue. You regain em really fast. You need to change your mindset and not be afraid of losing them is not a big deal.
Is a game mechanic you should take into consideration, and learn how to play around it. For example, after killing the boss you level up and you can explore all you want, or if you have saved some runes, go and use them in the shop. If you lose Runes for a level or two, that is NOTHING, You will regain them in no time, just by reaching the next area where, the mobs will drop double on what you lost just a few moments ago.
Overall, that was probably your biggest mistake, if you tried to understand the game, and you refused.
oh you play your way and mind your own business about how I have fun. It isn't harming your gameplay if I enjoy it more my way. I played without the mod until level 70... then installed it and my life is 10000x better. It just suits my play style, plus I don't have as much time to grind or worry about being careful when exploring.
@@teksyndicate You are being overprotective. I listened to that part of the video. This in no way is some sort of attempt to have my opinion trump your choice. Maybe in the next souls game you try to not focus so much on them :) yes they are really not as important, hence why you did not find much of difference in the other parts you experienced. This is your experience of the game and I was happy to listen to it :)
Completely changed the game experience and it's not a big deal at the same time. Okay then. Lots of games have various mechanics that might be fun for some players but other players don't want to spend time on. I never understood the huge crafting minigames lots of games have, but most of the time I don't have to spend time on them and they aren't integral to the game experience. Single player game just make up your own rules.
@@tankyouverymuch1726 well. Not losing runes is a game mechanic in the game. In the other games it was Rings of Sacrifice, in this is Sacrificial Twig. They intended for you to have this option as in-game mechanic already. Probably one of my most favorite thing is in fromsoftware games, that they already have settings sliders and mods build already with in-game mechanics.
@@tankyouverymuch1726 Who said it wasn't a big deal?
I think you've inserted your own assumptions here.
"The grinds comes naturally" That was one of the best ways to explain it. I personally hated that some people still think that you need to grind to finish this game. Hell nah, just explore the fcking world, you'll finish the game and won't even come close to exploring all of it by then, and the best part you don't need to grind for runes after all that exploring that I assure you will also come naturally. This is not a fcking mmorpg, the devs actually did right by you in this game. you just need to understand the game.
I had a lot of trouble getting into this game but a friend of mine had me download a mod that lets us do co-op together. I'm still not very far in the game, but having someone who's played the game before kind of guide me around the world and be patient with me as I learn the combat and controls has been really helpful in getting me into it. It's also just more fun to ride around with another player and double-team bosses. Yeah, we can't summon the spectral allies, but we got each other.
So by your logic From software dev's are gatekeeping....yeah okay. Sounds to me like your trying to gatekeep how video games are made. "It's my way or the highway From Software." Listen to you, king of game development.
Amazing logic. I argue that options that allow MORE people to play is gatekeeping because I don't agree with the devs choice. Arguing against a decision that allows fewer to play is arguing against gatekeeping. You can't gatekeep people from being able to gatekeep.
@@teksyndicate so in the end the developer can't make the game the way they wish to. They have to make it the way you want. Amazing view point. We should all feel very blessed to have your approval. Nice hubris
@@teksyndicate you’re gatekeeping the devs. You do realize that right?
Man, this is my first fromsoft game. And I never,not for a second thought that they are gatekeeping or excluding anyone, tha game is just there people can play it anytime,anywhere,anyhow. That height analogy is also flawed the game is more like an open museum with a great painting hanging 6ft on the wall everybody can see it, 3ft,4ft,5ft etc. And the game provides already provides new players with summons, ability to level then comback to the boss.. as for me personally I understand the logic having no difficulty select so as to give everyone of the same thing. Its like a spicy fried chicken served to anyone who wants it. Many people will like it, many won't. But we don't go around saying people are gatekeeping because we can't have a slightly not too spicy chicken. I develop games to cater to an audience, and it is simply the game is either for you or not for you.
"I'm not all the way through the game yet"
My brother in christ, I don't believe you're even half way through.
Your channel is such a wide range of content, but I love the way you explain things, you seriously need more dubs dude!
This cycle of crisis and catharsis is part of the art. I think it's a valid choice for the artist to say they want everyone to experience their art in a specific way or not at all. The anxiety, the tension and the rage all heighten the joy of victory. Reduce that and you lose the epiphany. The game is full of epiphanies big and small. Stepping from a tight dark space out onto a sweeping vista beautifully lit by rays of gold or the fake night sky of the underground. Or those moments after beating your head against a wall until you stop to look at your inventory and think up a new strategy that suddenly makes the boss manageable and you beat it the next try. Or piecing together that cryptic lore and dialogue until suddenly you understand something fundamental about the world of the game and suddenly your feelings about everything shifts. I think the art is improved by saying we want you to experience it this one way or not at all. Yes that's gatekeeping but I think generally gate keeping gets a worse rap than it deserves, specifically when it is meritocratic. They are saying earn the experience but specifically because earning it is what makes the experience special and mean something. The experience without the struggle is devoid of the purpose of the art. It's not about being exclusionary, it's about the integrity of the art. The difficulty is also over hyped, it's not hard for the sake of being hard, it's specifically designed to be overcome, to encourage creative thinking and build the skills of the player.
I think you should gatekeep the things you love if you want them to last. People forget that gates let people in too, as long as they're beneficial to the community. The people who complain the loudest about gatekeeping are usually the ones wanting to make the most changes to the subject in question. They perpetuate this parasitic cycle of not understanding why they can't enjoy things, seeing someone else enjoy something, trying to get into it and not having fun for the same reason they're miserable in every other aspect of their lives and then begin their cries to change it and make it more "accessible". If you observe these people in their real lives this mentality bleeds over, they don't pursue challenge of any kind and they wonder why their lives are devoid of meaning, and because they never pursue real challenges even the mundane aspects of daily life present themselves as "too hard". They believe that everything is too hard and should be made easier as a result, instead of realizing they need to git gud at something and figure out that's where the joy in life comes from. Humans crave deferred stimulus more than anything else, that's why people who exercise are generally happier than people who opt for more fleeting highs.
@@robertcunningham1695 gates let people in too but gatekeeping is the equivalent of having 3 armed guards outside the gate and the people inside the gate are saying it’s safe. I would choose to not try and enter said gate lol
As a member of the dark souls community, I appreciate you realizing the beauty of this game. Even tho you fail to fully understand, the attempt of entering our world and trying to understand it and understand why we protect it, is good enough.
Fascists are merely protecting their ideas of purity... But the problem is that they force them on others. I can't believe how everyone keeps missing the obvious parallels.
@@teksyndicate
1.fascism is when one dictator persuades you by means of coercion. Thus, your first statement is inapplicable to this matter.
2. This is a specific game, in which a corresponding group of individuals have arisen and held universal agreements of sentiments towards this type of game. Thus, no one is forcing anything on you, you remain free in your opinion of the game, it is just not the consensus amongst the general dark soul player, it is as if you have entered another persons house as a “guest”.
3. Last statement, in every community, there will always be trolls :)
@@teksyndicate Souls fans are "fascists" now? What do you mean by this?
@@teksyndicate ELDEN RING FANS FASCIST
@@XablazedX 😂 homie really had to install a cheat just to play the game, how could he ever understand a souls fan, much less the game itself..
Not sure if you are aware but there is an item called Twiggy Cracked Tear that allows you to get your runes back on death. Without the need for a mod
That is the beauty and the central theme of dark souls. If you persevere, you will experience something wonderful, something that you would have missed out on if you simply gave up because it was too hard. An easy mode would tarnish this, not to mention the effect on balance. These are tightly balanced games and having to balance to multiple difficulties would take away from the experience.
Regarding your point of difficulty. Probably you gonna get the most kickback from the opinion you have.
The truth is there is a difficulty slider, it is just in-game and not in the options menu. It is if you use ash summons, npc summons, specific weapons, your level etc etc. There is reason why ppl do SL1 runs. The game is difficult until it is not. The whole point of the game is for you to get good - either by getting good in the sense of play or understanding the game mechanics. Sliders will totally ruin any form of experience that the game otherwise provides.
They are gatekeeping them self out of it. What will happen, if souls player go to another game and starts demanding to remove the Difficulty levels? Lets say Assassins Creed. Will AC remove it? Will AC players not like it? It is the same - it is not a game for if you want to change it. So that is a bad take for me, bad take from those friends, and not agreeing with your take.
This is probably one of the best points I've seen- the souls community doesn't go to other communities and start demanding their difficulty levels be removed. That's their community, they like what they like the way they like it. No different here- we don't like people walking into the party we invited them to, only to have the criticize and demand changes to the music and interior decorating.
Thousands are asking to BE INCLUDED and want lower difficulty. I didn't say sliders... so if that's not the best way, then whatever... but if it is, then who cares, you don't have to use them.
This is a false equivalence... because people are asking for more inclusive options... an easy mode for people who don't have as much time... or who are too nervous and stressed to deal with the combat ("but this game isn't for everyone!!!" - please shut up, if they want to play at lower difficulty, they still want to play). People are DIFFERENT and that's OK (or it should be OK)... if the souls community were asking other games to remove difficulty options, it would be asking then to be more exclusive... it would be them asking for gatekeeping. This is, perhaps, the most flawed argument I've yet seen.
@@teksyndicate the problem is those thousands asking to be included were never excluded in the first place, they just refuse to try a different approach, just like when this whole discussion came on sekiro's launch, people are stubborn about the way they want to play, and no, I'm not saying people can't play however they want, but these games are about adapting yourself to the challenge, if the boss is fast you have to be faster, if the window between his attacks is very small you have to be patient, every way to play is valid, but for example, if you decide to go for a magic damage output build then enemies with magic resistance will be harder, however the commitment to your build is never absolute, people make the game harder themselves by restricting their own flexibility.
At the end of the day these games are still not for everyone, it doesn't mean they are excluding people, is the other way around, the spicy food restaurant have their doors open all the time, if someone don't like that kind of food, should the food be diluted for everyone else to enjoy it?, what about people who liked as it was before? you can't complain about people forcing you to eat something as it is and at the same time trying to force another flavor for everyone in the first place, you may just not like that flavor and that's fine, nobody is being excluded, I respect the devs to stick with their formula and their fans, they could just make everything easier and make more money, but that makes their games less special.
Elden ring is not perfect, I despise the tedium and outdated mechanics the game has and I hope they iron them for the next game, but these have nothing to do with the lenght of the game or the skill required, If you don't have the time or the patience to play these games I recommend you to pass, because that's part of the core, you cannot take that without making it worse for people who like it before, and I get it, I don't have much time either, I have been playing since launch and I haven't finished it yet, but I will eventually, I'm far from tired, not every game has to be finished in 10 hours, as long as its good the whole time I don't care if it last 2000 or 2 hours.
@@teksyndicate Thousands are asking for a lower difficulty. According to MILLIONS of sales more people don't... Stop complaining about a niche that people love because SOME think iT's ToO hArD. They know From's reputation by now, they can just choose not to play it if they lack the ability to adapt. (this is coming from someone who's never made it past any second boss of any previous title. Call me a gatekeeper but I'm sticking with my words)
@@teksyndicate again this is a souls game, there hasn’t ever been a difficulty slider because that’s how these games are and I don’t think they plan on that, this isn’t supposed to be easy, there are plenty of other games to be played that are open world that do have a difficulty slider
I have lowered the difficulty in many games when I'm stuck on a boss, it just makes the game non memorable and makes me feel like I cheated myself..
but here when i beat the boss I'm stuck on it just give me a joy that "i did it"... the difficulty settings will just take that away cus nobody (latest normal people) will die 20 times and not lower the difficulty to just move on.
And that’s the fun of souls games then you tend to do one of like three things try to get to NG+7 duels or invasions or trying out challenges like a good self imposed challenge is to try to under level everything
@@deflectnya that what im doing right now..
the first playthrough I used everything thegame provided me like summous and magic..
now I'm doing a second playthrough, only mele and no summons and magic.
beat godrick, ranalla, radhan, morgot..
lets see what happens with Melania..
Hell there's so much Elden Ring content on youtube that you can get a PHD in the Lore in 3 hours.
whenever people ask for a difficulty setting, I would recommend them watch a video by the act man, Why An Easy Mode Would RUIN Dark Souls & Elden Ring. He made some good points about it.
I appreciate this review. It was brave to make this. This was my first fromsoft game as well. Honestly I don't know if I would have finished it without playing along with that new they're doing. I'm so happy that that I experience this game (and excited to experience more of it) I haven't had a game that its pulled me in to its world like this in years, honestly it kind of rekindled my love for video games. I do agree that nothing is perfect and that everything has flaws and should be critiqued. That being said this game gets pretty damn close (at least on console).
And pretty close is reason enough for "100 score" by the gaming industry standards, so the guy on the video missed this point as well...
Cheers for you dude, Miyasaki's work are a thing on its own, you should try his other titles if you liked Elden Ring
As far as using that mod you mentioned, its not needed. Every souls game has an item or spell you can use where you wont lose your souls/runes when u die. In tbis game its called the sacrificial twig tbat u can buy from certain merchants in the world. Theres also a crystal tear that u mix in your physik flask that does the same thing. By using a mod you sort of robbed yourself of the experience and fun of discovering these things on your own through gameplay.
I discovered those things. I installed the mod at level 70. I will play how I want to play. How I play shouldn't concern you because I'm having fun. If I'm having fun then I'm doing it right. It's that simple.
@@teksyndicate i mean you're NOT playing Elden Ring then. you're playing MODDED Elden Ring. so stop trying to change the game when you already have an outside solution.
Cool review, glad you pushed through the game. One thing I’d say about your perception of “the community” and how they should be treating new players: I think it’s important to remember that we’re all figuring this game out too. This was something new. It doesn’t *have* to be about grinding, it’s integral to the experience that you learn to leave bosses alone, yourself, if you can’t beat them. We’re discovering all this in real time, because From hasn’t made a game exactly like this yet
I swear, every enemy holds out their attack just a few frames longer than what seems natural to catch your early roll. And that's what makes this game so hard haha