What Happened to Difficulty in Games?
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- čas přidán 6. 06. 2024
- Are challenge and difficulty in video games what makes them so awesome? And… without it, are games fun anymore, or are they casual and boring?
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Timestamps:
0:00 Difficulty vs Challenge
1:51 Are games not fun anymore?
7:29 Artificial Difficulty
9:55 The Flow State
12:02 Removing Difficulty Completely
17:42 Lack of Information
21:58 Teaching through Gameplay
24:25 Iterating on the Past
Various clips and inspiration from:
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#gaming #challenge #EldenRing
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does challenge or difficulty matter to you?
Yes definitely. I have enough stress and difficult things in my life that when I have time to even play a game, I just wanna have fun, enjoy the story and mess around.
Dark Souls Elden Ring are the most CZcamsr friendly games out there. Their fans are proud that the games leave players in the dark about the stories, quests and mission completion. Go discover the story, they said. And yet all one have to do is put a phone or tablet to the side and open a wiki or a youtube channel to see where to go next while playing.
Speaking of difficulty, yes they do matter to me. I'm currently playing Ghost Recon Wildlands with very minimal HUD elements which made the combat more intense, i.e fun, than the default marker-filled screen. Also, why do critics keep forgetting that they can turn off the HUD elements that they hated so much in Ubisoft games?
yes, excessive complexity and obligatory insane difficulty or games that require hours upon hours to even enjoy the game is just not my thing, but Elden Ring was incredibly fun, I've passed sekiro, DS3 and Bloodborne, so i wouldn't consider those games the kinda thing that is "obligatory difficult".
Incredibly easy games are also very boring.
I actually like both, I love fromsoft games, played all of them since DS1. But I also love easy difficulty in games, fallout 4 for example, I played on easy and had a blast. It depends on the game, some games I seek challenge but some games I play to chill & relax, and easy difficulty provides that.
Depends on the game and what genre it is? Should games have difficulty settings? Yes, from easy to holy fuck kill me difficulty but games like Elden Ring should not have difficulty settings because you can proudly say "I have beaten this boss"
I think Elden Ring reminded a lot of people why they love video games.
Yeah
100%
I think you be right but that is weird when Sekiro and Devil May Cry 5 came out the same year in 2019. Both have better difficulty and boss battles IMO. I think Elden Ring being very accessible helped more than being difficult.
@@BlackPantherN7 Yeah I think accessibility definitely helped a lot. I think a big reason for the amount of love is also because a lot of newer games have just felt so poor in quality compared to Elden Ring.
I mean i knew most modern games were trash. Ive been playing older games and thinking, if only these devs had todays tech.
Elden ring just washed the taste out of my mouth and showed me what games can look like when masters and artists actually use the tech with a high degree of mastery and skill.
Fromsoft is king
We've been saying this about "Souls" games for years. People have been just too scared to play. ER is not a perfect game but it scratches a lot of gaming itches. Glad it's been so well received.
Well said, the game has its flaws being still the same strand as fromsoft titles were when it comes to quest design or its RPG elements being an ARPG but it does best when it comes to its foundation of being a soulslike action adventure
if you think Souls or souls-like games aren't difficult enough, try some roguelikes or roguelites. Those are the most difficult game genres ever made imo.
Elden Ring gave me the exact same feeling as when I first played Fire Red 10 years ago
That helplessness (I was really young and was not experienced with the internet okay) and the fun of finding something that you did not expect is just not there in games anymore
I am about 10 hours in and I am definitely going to complete atleast 80% of the content in my first run
I’m not a fan of games that won’t allow you to customize controls. Even worse when the controls aren’t intuitive.
Nope, too hard, will not play.
I think a big point is games actually being designed around difficulty, challenge, and player learning. Doom Eternal is a good example as while it has easier modes, Nightmare is where the gameplay fully expresses itself. It asks you to fully embody the Doom Slayer and use the entirety of your kit. The hardest part of Eternal isn’t even mechanical skill, it’s remembering when and how to use the multitude of options at your disposal. This demand for mastery magnifies the fantasy of the game as you really begin to feel like the Slayer.
Where on easier difficulties you can get away without exploiting most of the mechanics, and you can basically ignore half your arsenal the majority of the time. The encounters, enemy design, and the players’ capabilities were explicitly designed with Nightmare in mind.
On the other hand you have something like God of War, where the hardest difficulty just turns the weakest fodder enemies into massive sponges for your axe swings. Where you can tell the game wasn’t actually designed with that difficulty in mind as rather than enhancing the fantasy of the game it basically breaks it. I usually play on hard modes, but just the first tutorial encounter basically turned me off of it with how annoying it was to absolutely wail on these basic enemies for ages.
Lol. This is by far the stupidest comparison i hv heard about both doom and Gow. Clearly biased for one game.
Doom eternal is just as tedious on nightmare as gow is on give me god of war.
There r literally ppl on youtube that hv finished doom eternal with just ond weapon on hardest difficulty so that whole "forces you to use your arsenal on nightmare" is completely untrue.
Both are most enjoyable on one difficulty above normal.
It helps to be unbiased but then morons on internet rarely are.
God of War GIVE ME GOD OF WAR difficulty is really based on mastering attack patterns and getting good gear. In the beginning, yes, it can take a while, but if you farm the right gear, you should be burning through most mobs if you're moderately decent enough at the game.
If you don't believe me, just look up people doing it on youtube. God of War and Doom shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence in terms of mechanics and difficulty.
Both are completely different games as well. Doom is also not without it's own faults, too.
Yeah and GMGOW difficulty was clearly designed with the mechanics of the game in mind if u learn all his moves and combos and know how to use ur recourses then you can destroy ur way through that difficulty. They both have great combat systems that were clearly made with the difficulties in mind if u wanna talk about something just making enemies bullet sponges talk about something like the division, which he brought up in the video. GMGOW difficulty does not just add health to enemies, it also gives them new moves and the new system of them being able to heal and level up if u leave them alone for too long forcing the player to be smart in combat and rly think about and know what they're doing. Just like with dooms combat. But u are correct rly early on in GMGOW can be quite challenging and the enemies can feel like boring bullet sponges. But it rly doesn't take long for that to change, rly once u get the first runic ability, hel's touch, the basic enemies get much less tanky.
Hey, the no man’s sky developers totally made up for the overhype. They accepted that they overhyped things that weren’t even available, but made up for it by releasing years of free content/dlcs to create a in my opinion a better game then what they presented in the beginning. I suggest that you try the game now.
I’m too lazy to list the reasons why to play it, and I don’t wanna rant so if you take my word for it, sure go ahead but you have reason not to and I don’t blame you if you don’t decide to play it. Oh yeah one more thing, once you buy the game, there are no micro transactions, and all updates for the foreseeable future are free
No man’s sky is the reason I love video games. No other form of entertainment where you can literally go and explore planets.
Game still sucks ass.
@@jigartalaviya2340 Bro give the devs a break and try it in its currant state.
I understand that the game was kinda (ok pretty) trash on release but they’ve been consistently updating it for like what? 6 years now? It’s literally to the point where people will take to twitter and go on about how „the devs are slacking off“ if we don’t have a tease for the next update within like a week of a massive seasonal event that came with a 19gb update update ending……it’s insane man.
I feel like elden ring is a pivotal moment in the gaming market
And history
I love the game, but theres alot of moments where it's hard for the sake of being hard, like some of the duo fights, and that most bosses have AoE attacks and deal massive damage, some bosses are too fast, unpredictable, long combos, input reading etc. I don't have a huge problem with this personally but alot of people do.
@@ramen3643 no one gives a fk about those people
Cyberpunk was made by inexperienced amateurs. CDPR will go bankrupt soon because almost everyone refunded Cyberjunk
@@exysa2798 If they don’t go bankrupt something is fishy. Maybe they don’t spend as much on games as they want us to think 🧐
I was so lost of gaming during the past years, switching a lot of game, trying a lot of new things, but always end up lost interest pretty fast. Until recently I'm telling myself, fine, I'll give elden ring a shot, plus I never played any soul games before, after playing a week, it just open a whole new perspective of gaming for me and also bring back a lot of feeling why I love gaming.
same here i mainly play 2k n use play cod but it not even fun to me no more💯i start playin elden ring n it so refreshing compared to what i use to
I felt the same when I played Bloodborne
@@waff6ix Its cuz those games offer no real progression. You’re like a hamster on a hamster wheel just chasing that win/ high kill game.
Back then you could've tried indie games
@@thundageon5962 yeah indie games and afew bigger titles are all I play. Most games are awful nowadays and people just keep throwing money at trash. It's nice to see Elden Ring get so many mainstream players to play something that's legitimately good.
Sometime games that force you to play a certain way can be very fun. The main example is Doom: Eternal where the game is designed to make you use all the tools you are given since they all fill a role instead of one being simply better then another
Agreed. Open choice isnt always a good thing. Kinda like the original assain creed games, or even something like mario games. The mechanics are "open" but you can only do so much
Or Sekiro.
This is a very good statement. It however reminds me that I'm an idiot that forgets you have grenades in DOOM.
@@Vanerrad Oh yeah, those. I barely use them lmao
Elden Ring is so fucking amazing, it truly gave me that feeling I've been chasing in the gaming sphere the past years --> TO PLAY A COMPLETE GAME, WHERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY FEEL THE LOVE FROM THE DEVELOPER.
10/10 game of the decade, perhaps my fav game ever. The map/world design, the sound design, its all SOOOO GOOOOD
You souls fans are creeping everywhere.
@@nelzelpher7158 Yeah, thats sort of our thing. I'm sorry
You played Bloodborne?
@@nelzelpher7158 Im not Souls fan,Elden Ring is my first Sous game.Yeah10/10,the best game I ever played
@@BladeRunner031 Than go play Bloodborne
Elden Ring is unequivocally a masterpiece. It's not perfect, but man, I think it really exemplifies the saying "greater than the sum of its parts".
Yo, that dungeon under the capital was seriously fucking with my head for like 30 minutes. I could not figure out what the hell they had done until I got through it, and once I figured out what was going on, I thought, "This is the most evil thing From Software has put in any of their games."
I used Prism Stones to mark each room down there and I STILL got lost lmao
Luckily I had just learned from a previous dungeon that there were dungeons with illusions like this one so I dropped rainbow stones around in every dungeon and boy to my surprise when this dungeon came and that trick worked, I was like "wait a minute, this is the exact same place but where is the damn stone ? Did it despawn ?" until I saw the fire and realized how FS played a mindbender that stacked 3 levels deep lol, it was both a moment of joy on seeing the preparations pay off and astonishment as I didn't think it'd work.
This is the exact same feeling I had when I discovered the first dungeon with hidden walls. Didn't know if there was any hidden walls when I started the game so I hit every wall in every dungeon until it finally worked in one and I realiized that indeed there were hidden walls.
The first dungeon in the mountaintop of the giants confused me so much and it didnt even have any illusions. I think?
@@cryonim I was 70 hours in before I found a hidden wall. At that point I was starting to think From has just dropped the idea, then came across one of those hilariously obvious ones. Realizing I hadn't been smacking walls totally in vain was great.
@@zeroattentiongaming820 I heard that rolling worked too and knew it would be faster, but didn't know if that was accurate so I began rolling AND attacking every suspicious wall until I proved rolling worked. Made finding those walls much faster ever since!
There is one thing you should know about difficulty: if a game is too difficult you’ll stop playing normally and you’re going to abuse the game mechanics, abuse the stupidity of the AI, only use the meta weapons. You have a artificial “challenge” but you sacrifice immersion and fun. Playing games on the hardest difficulty is good for your ego but you shouldn’t care about virtual medals and scoreboard, it’s pointless in a solo game or pathetic in a multiplayer game.
So I often play on Hard (not normal but not the highest) on most games but some games can be hard, fair and fun, it’s just soooooo rare…. That’s depressing.
I feel like an old man when I say I still miss the experience I had as a kid playing Quake 2, Tribes, Starcraft online. Even with a 500ms ping I still had more fun predicting my opponents movements. FPS these days don't have strategy, you are just reacting.
I think we are getting past the target market for games, sadly 😥
@@diehardGG
Indie got that covered tho
In my opinion, I would say it depends on what game you're playing. I also grew up on Quake. Unreal Tournament as well. Arena shooters are a completely different genre that gets sweaty easily, and is not at all for casual gamers that just want to have fun. I would also call it a reach to say Quake games required any strategy, skill absolutely, and map knowledge was required. As for shooters these days, Titanfall 2 is a bit more modern, fantastic, and highly skill based. Valorant requires an equal amount of skill and strategy. I'm not sure how alive the Planetside 2 servers are, but that game required a lot of coordination and some skill if you ever intended to capture contested zones.
Now, if you're talking games like CoD, OW, and Halo (even though the gameplay is solid), I would agree. Those games you can just turn your brain off and shoot stuff.
@@ValbrandrLeonhardt Nah. Halo is still strategic unless you're getting carried by teammates. You can play ranked or FFA for that strategy to consistently show
I still play titanfall 2 because it’s the only game that really offers that experience im looking for. High mechanical skill gap, strategy, creative opportunities
On the subject of the weirder catacombs in Ring, honestly those dungeons while extremely obtuse I actually really appreciated because they're so confusing they created memorable "run around" moments, it feels like a direct homage to old school dungeon crawler and game design where the level maker was like yeah time to mindfuck the player
Elden Ring Dungeons
Early game: pretty standard Skyrim dungeons
Mid to late game: *The Backrooms*
That's also why the rainbow stones exist, to make navigating those catacombs easier. I never ended up using them, though, because I always remember they exist when I'm checking the loot from the boss and see them right there in my inventory.
@@pskeifk they exist to test fall damage
@@Guardian_Arias I used them in that dungeon he described, as well as one with teleporting chests.
Sometimes you respect even the shittiest ideas because at least they tried something unique and trusted your intelligence to figure it out.
Elden Ring has the same game design as early 2000s games so that's why it isn't afraid to be difficult. It's an outdated design but as we see, the older games design where games were genuinely difficult gives characters a much greater sense of accomplishment
there are 2 types of old school dificulty:
1) the BS dificulty, made by companies who couldnt be bothered to make the game longer so they artificially made things borderline impossible to either force you to pay more coins, or wast your time learning how to deal around that bs design.
2) the balanced experience, made for games that did have the time, and developers who understood how things should flow. so they balanced the game around that experience they wanted to create.
the souls games go for the second, while most games with dificulty modes go for the first, which is why, even when they do it well, they always give that "something's off" experience as if you arent really playing the game at its best because you played at normal.
also, as a side note, the souls games do dificulty levels as well, its called ng+.
It isn't outdated if it works.
@@Max-ep5ir true its just old
And old doesn't always equal to bad
elden ring does have a difficulty setting, its called using summons/ spirit ashes or not. hard as nuts if you dont use them, easy if u do
@@Max-ep5ir you knew age is irrelevant to game design right? When it's stated that it work in retrospect or not.
Here's my thoughts about the "lack of information" part:
- The missable/obscure side quests: This is kind of a problem in ER, and From kind of acknowledged it by putting NPC marks on the map with the first patch. The thing is that ER was developed following the same structure of other Souls games, and those games were always conceived with multiple walkthroughs in mind. It doesn't matter if you didn't find every quest in your first run, because you're going to play through it again with a different build or go to NG+ again. Since the old Souls games were a much more linear and short experience, this philosophy worked well. With ER being a monster of a game, yeah, not so much. I get the feeling ER is going to be a crucial step for From, because they're going to have, for the first time, to learn to evolve their UX
- "There is no explanation of what the effects actually do". It's a design choice. That "12% increase" of the scorpion charm was calculated by players who took the time to experiment with it. In a way, it's an extension of the "challenge" philosophy: they're not going to just give us a nice number we can compare, we get to experience it via gameplay. Which, to be fair, you could argue is a good thing: unless you're talking about a spreadsheet lover, no one cares about the exact amount of flat increase of damage (an amount that will be decreased by enemy resistances anyway). Personally, I read the scarseal's description, which said "increases stats but increases damage taken", equipped both of them, noticed a very dangerous amount of extra damage on my healthbar, and decided "yeah, not going to do it" and took off one. Would my experience have been better if the description stated a "20% increase in damage taken"? I really doubt that.
Then again, I played every single Souls game, so I came in prepared, and in the right mindset. I can see why so many new players feel frustrated since they're used to have games spoon feed them every little bit of info they might need.
Yup and there is a clear disconnect between experienced players and the new crowd. Sure there is a middle ground but thats rather narrow. On one side you have an elitist who doesn't care to explain and is just saying git gud. On the other side you have entitled babies who whant everything to change until it conforms to their preconceived ideas of what something should.
This is a Froms Software game and it delivers a very From Software experience although IMO I wish we had real mimic chests and more linear areas in the "main" story for those memorable events. Like Dragon on bridge with burnt bodies. Cave of i can't see anything and I panicked roll off the cliff. Big puppy dog with sword in mouth limping. Dragon on bridge. Other dragon on bridge that collapses away. And one must try to forget Blighttown. Lake of Rot and caelid doesn't hold a candle to Blighttown....yeah once i got over my PTSD when i went into Caelid, Caelid is a walk in the park.
You can see how much an effect effects your damage negation by looking at the character menu before and after equipping that effect.
@@Guardian_Arias Man idk wtf your experience was in Lake of Rot, but mine was infinitely worse than Blighttown
Providing basic info is not called spoonfeeding, otherwise providing your healthbar info is spoonfeeding too. Just figure it out from the number of hits to die lol.
Open world has a certain format, you can't simply put all the important info for the player to discover, that's essentially the same as that stranded larry 2D game in the video where if you happened to do x thing earlier, the future mission would complete otherwise you can't really do it. Like how you needed to meet Ranni before going to Radahn's Castle and entering the boss area otherwise triggering the festival and removing the wolf npc from ever being talked to. Now this is purely for the sake of adding variety to the repeatability of the game and I get that but there are loads of things in the game that rely on you to figure out from internet guides with NO clear linking between the events, it really feels more like if you don't have a guide, hope to god you push the right buttons otherwise forget the result, you may not even be able to progress.
The main issue I'm highlighting is the game's dependence on the community, which isn't a bad thing but more of a thing only some companies can get away with. Community as in, the blood pools, the text messages ingame, the guides etc., without these ER is a very very unsatisfying experience I presume. For a single player game to rely so much on its community shows how confident its devs are, and thats amazing.
@@cryonim You misunderstand my remark, and it seems you misunderstand the Souls formula as well.
Do you know that many, many newcomers couldn’t even find the tutorial area at the beginning of the game? They loaded in the area, saw a door in the distance, ignored the glowy ghostly figure next to them, rushed out and complained that nothing was explained properly. THAT’s what I mean with people used to being spoon fed. They didn’t take the time to explore the area they were in and rushed out because other games just put a giant marker on anything that requires their attention.
ER, like other Souls games, doesn’t do that. ER, like other Souls games, is about the combat. There are no minigames, no side activities, no dialogue options. The protagonist never even utters a word: the only way to interact with the world in Souls games is through the combat. Even “puzzles” are usually solved by hitting stuff. So, in a Souls game, the only “basic information”, as you call it, is the tutorial explaining you how to fight, and that is present, and a lot more in depth than previous titles. Everything else, be it the world, the lore, the exploration, the NPC side quests, those are all OPTIONAL crutches to hold your hand throughout a combat-centric experience.
The other thing about the Souls formula (and I’m talking about From’s games, not the Souls-like genre) is that it’s not afraid of having you miss part of the content. Optional areas are purposely locked away, NPC quests are missable, because that’s how they want it to be: if you manage to find them, good; otherwise better luck next time. And even if there’s no next time, it’s okay, you missed it, no hard feelings. It’s not just about “purely for the sake of adding variety to the repeatability of the game”, as you put it, it’s a design philosophy. So what if you triggered Radahn’s festival without talking to Ranni, therefore removing Blaidd from your game? Is that going to make your experience horrible? Why would you feel the need to consult internet guides when all you need in order to progress is literally “follow the yellow line on the map and beat up whoever is standing on your path”?
“Open world has a certain format”, you said, you’re right. And the format is a checklist of “follow the marker, talk to the marked NPC, follow the new marker, kill bad guys, return to NPC, get reward”. Even good open world like The Witcher 3 cover the map with markers to make sure you find every bit of content that there is. ER tries to do the opposite, leaving it all to you to explore, notice things, make connections IF YOU WANT TO. Otherwise, you can just follow the yellow line and beat up what stands in your path.
So, in conclusion (sorry, I ended up rambling a bit), ER is not a perfect game, by a long shot, but it doesn’t hold your hand and by doing so it leaves you with a sense of wonder and achievement when you actually get something right, and I like it for that.
This went from a difficulty argument to a elden ring review
It did, I sorry
dark souls 1 is the best artistic experience ive ever had, the world is so depressing yet i wanted to live in that world because no matter how many times you fail you will never fall unless you stop trying. The world of DS1 is the best world ive seen in a game but in later games they introduced fast travel from the start and it ruined the map design. I want to experience DS1 for the first time again.
I'm trying it now for the first time without looking anything up. It's hard I took a break
Best game I've played for the past 10 years. What a game.
You must have not played more then one game in the last ten years lol.
@@trashaimgamer7822 🤔
@@trashaimgamer7822 I've played plenty of games, but this is the best one by far for me. How about you?
@@ImDenny_ Nier Automata,Resident Evil 2,DMC5,Persona 5,,and yakuza game,etc I could listed games as good as this or Bette for days.
@@KnucklesWTD All top-notch games you listed there, and I could add even more games to that list but this is the best one I've played if I had to choose one. How about you?
For me the lack of information in Elden Ring is a good thing because it encourages experimentation for players
And it encourages to pay attention to dialogue or tutorial texts
As a player of games revolving around incomplete info; not it is not. I complete information games work because both sides of the game do not have access and thus have to act with what they know or perceive. Video games should always be complete information; you know everything that's there. Because the only opponent is the game - which is completely informed. This unfairly balances the game to make the player weaker.
Um no. it doesn't matter if I test 20 builds because I had no way of knowing 13 were bad. That's just a waste of time
For anyone interested in what the music that starts around 5:14 is:
Gitaroo Man OST - 08 The Legendary Theme (Acoustic)
Your videos always give me goosebumps. Very well edited video diehard, keep up the grind G,
iv never thought of things this way, now that you mention it, difficulty no is based on a game's matchmaking system or some other difficulty selection. things that bring me back to games, are trivial monitization things........... Theres no actual challenge to comeback for.......
One of my favourite games difficulty wise is Sifu.
Expertly crafted roguelike experience. death is not the end. but you do come closer to the end.
With every death, You grow older by 1 year. then that number doubles for every subsequent death.
For Example: Die once, your age increases by 1. die a 2nd time and it increases by 2, die a 3rd time and it increases by 3, a 4th time it becomes 5 and so on
Every 10 years you have less health but you do more damage. Once you hit 70 years old or above. your next death ends your run.
The game is all based on pak mei Kung Fu, and has you punch your way through 5 different levels with different types of Henchman and a Single boss at the end of each level.
Its not easy. the game does not forgive. But thats the beauty of it. It demands perfection. The honing of one's skills till they were Razor sharp. and then some.
I have only ever finished the game once. and it was by the skin of my teeth. The combat is addicting and highly rewarding. I cannot reccomend Sifu enough.
I don't mind if a game is hard as long as it is rewarding and not unfair to a point you start to think that the game is cheating.
Great vid! Also, don't think the acoustic "Legendary" theme didn't go unnoticed!
I have been checking this channel for a loooong time!! & Finally the legend is back🥳
Elden ring flipped the gaming format on its head and in a long time games don’t feel empty elden ring feels hard it feels like a challenge it feels like I don’t have to fight the UI that tells me where to go every 20 seconds when I am not doing the main storyline it feels like I can actually explore and enjoy the game
That's because there is no main storyline lol
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 There sort of is
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 There is though.
@@rubbun If you consider fighting like 4 end game bosses to be a main storyline, sure. You know you don't have to kill the other major bosses to beat the game, right?
@@xx_amongus_xx6987 Sounds to me like you didn't play the game.
To finish ER, you have to kill:
- 2 shard bearers (ie: Rykard and Radahn)
- Morgott
- Fire Giant
- Maliketh
- arguably Gideon
- Godfrey
- Radagon and Elden Beast
That's 8 major bosses total. 9 if you count Radagon and Elden Beast separately (since they're different entities).
This is all considering you don't follow grace, which you should be doing. That's basically the main storyline of the game, and what most people will do since they're strictly told to do.
I get in the flow state when working. I wish that everyone was as happy with their jobs as I am
Elden Ring made me realize what I lost in modern games; the sense of progression. The only other games that made me feel like this were fighting games, which makes sense, but other games made me a brainless masher half the time. Elden Ring put me in my place and taught me that I need to learn patience and since it's my first FromSoft game, I felt so proud beating every boss and actually learning the game for myself.
That's what made Elden Ring so immersive to me, even more than Souls. With some plot and endgame related exceptions, the only thing keeping me from exploring an area is the enemies and hazards. Even if I'm not leveling or changing my gear, I'm always learning, always improving. When I casually stride through a rot swamp, cutting down everything around me and getting rid of the status effect with a pittance of FP, it's because both my skill and the build I've made are able to completely overcome the challenge. When you walk through an area that gave you trouble the first time, without a care because you know how to handle it, that's infinitely more satisfying than simply powering through on stats. I earned my ability to stroll through that swamp like it's no big deal. Both quantifiable progression and player skill working in tandem to make you embody the badass you become. The character isn't a badass because the game says so, in fact quite the opposite given the game's description of us as Tarnished of no reknown, they are a badass because you made them into one.
Ever play devil may cry
@@rohanking12able Put about 10k hours into 5, so yes
“ I think I can beat Elden Ring because I beat Mile High Club on veteran. “ what a comparison
Hahaha MHC took me 4 hours the first time, was a lot of trial and error. In a way, kinda like learning movesets
Fia's quest line is supposed to follow Rogier's quest line which you seemed to miss.
Secondly, most perks from talismans or armour can be seen from the status menu and not the inventory menu.
Why
Subbed… That’s great content, thanks man
It's incredible how much you've grown after leaving Rogue Company, I wish you the best of luck with your content. I still enjoy your videos and think you have a lot of potential!
Still on my first playthrough, its my first souls title and its been an amazing experience so far. Only time I ever questioned the game mechanics was with the fire giant, I had to respec my build to even get the giant into second stage
Love your content. And I feel you all single player experiences I’ve played in recent years have had 2 difficulties 1 to easy and then ridiculous where enemies are sponges. But also why I’ve gone to like escape from tarkov or doom both have challenge.
Percentage buffs and nets can be seen in your equipment menu by pressing triangle or Y to change your rightmost menu
I don’t want to be challenged! I want to play a game and turn my brain off! My real life is hard enough already.
Same, I only play souls like game on weekend even though I enjoyed difficulty as a kid. Now I enjoy video game just because there are games like guardians of the galaxy and Spider-Man that tells better story than movies and we are literally the superhero. I need that after long day of work
@@josephmclord hey man I agree, not every game is made for every player, play what you have fun with
With the fear of exaggerating a bit, my problem with Elden Ring is that it set the bar so high in terms of design, difficulty, fun and (lack of) microtransactions, that it has almost ruined videogames for me at this point, now I probably won't buy stuff that is not just as close to that level of quality.
Edit: of course, I'll only hold AAA gaming companies to this standard, not indies.
That game Gives Me Lord of The Rings Vibes
Yup. Dark Souls 1 did that for me. I have paid full price for only like 2 non-FromSoft games since then. So much saturating the market that's just not appealing to me, and most of what does appeal can wait til a sale.
There's alot of great games with little to no microtransactions that's not all that unique its just unique in games that get alot of hype sadly
Yeah indie games have a different problem: inability nor funds to attempt the cooler genres
We've really been gifted with Elden Ring and Vampire Survivors.
About the quest thing: I'm kind of glad there isn't a quest log, but it could use more hints. For example, I don't want to re-explore an entire zone to find the character that told me to meet them there.
I’m subbing. Congratulations!
My favorite moments in video games are those moments when I overcame a challenge and made victory possible. Every time I managed to stay on payload long enough for the rest of my team to hold it in overwatch competitive mode, or defeating a boss that’s been deleting me time and again in soulsborne games made victory that much sweeter. I absolutely love the Witcher 3 or RDR2 but they never made me feel this same level of satisfaction as I’ve felt after defeating sword saint isshin. Removing difficulty of these titles would absolutely ruin that feeling of overcoming impossible odds and succeeding
I am surprised you tackled some things I said about Elden Ring. You differentiated between hard vs challenge and explained things I thought were hot takes, like quests being completely missable, no specific info like stat percentages, fear of using limited resources (you can farm tune arcs, but I am not wasting larval tears), or admitting to having guides out a lot. I would have quit without the guides. Right now, I might quit at Radagon at level 213.
200 hrs into Elden Ring and it's alright. Don't see the hype behind it, but it is a very good game. Personally just feels like Dark Souls 3 with a few extra bells and whistles.
That's either a lie and you don't have much play time on Elden ring OR you just have a shitty opinion
Same. Only 20ish hours in now but it feels mid. Improving items or leveling up no longer feels useful because it barely does anything. It took me improving my weapon from 5 to 6, and to increase my dex to 26 for back stabs to defeat a enemy in one hit. And with how much xp it takes to level up, I'd probably have dropped the game quickly if I hadn't installed a mod to disable the rune drops that, IMO, doesn't fit open world. The world doesn't even interest me, it just feels like do grinding to go defeat another boss
@@paradichlorobenzene4132 What a sad thing
@@yourdad5799 what's sad? The fact the game feels boring and making exploration not very fun?
@@paradichlorobenzene4132 You're sad and your opinion is trash too. Just sad man
Dude...
Good content. 👍
I normally don't do this, But you just earned a like and a subscriber with your honesty and your kindness. Now i am actually looking foward of playing the game :)
I hope you enjoy it 👍
Whoah! When did you hit 100k? Congrats! I’ll be here for 200k!
A few days ago! and thanks... I'm like a Z list celeb now
I watched that "until..." drop on repeat at least 10x and got goosebumps everytime. 5/5. Thank you
Great video!
Thanks!
hitting near flow while fighting malenia or radagon is just... its peak gaming man. any game where you can hit proper flow state is well made and has very solid mechanical feel.
I've experienced this with Elden Ring, Sekiro, Dark Souls 3, Mass Effect 1, Ori & the Blind Forest, and funnily enough, Skyrim.
That flow state where you suddenly start getting the hang of everything and do everything perfectly is just so unreal, so perfect.
Difficult is needed for people to adapt. If people don't adapt they stagnate. When people stagenate they don't improve and stop doing better/being useful. Which leads to a game no longer being fun in the long run.
A game that gets people to remain interested manages to keep the player adapting to change.
That's the beauty of Fromsoft titles.
Risk of rain 2 is really good it has one of the most hardest and the difficulty has a timer.
20:20 I wonder about that. What if your build is already complete? What you're describing is not a weapon that fits your build perfectly, but something similar to new game plus. The other side of the coin to what you're describing, is discovery. On first glance, it might seem that if someone has some unique or weird experience in a game then it wouldn't be a shared experience but what if everyone discovers secrets and shares them? Would that not count as a shared experience?
Do you remember looking for pokemon, missing some, and then exchanging information with friends? I'm not sure if that's what they're going for, but your critique also lands equally on that type of experience so I wonder about that.
In all fairness with things like the Magic Scorpion charm, it actually does tell you by how much. There is a button listed in the menu to swap the menu to display different stats like your damage absorption. That's where it tells you
I have no idea what 12.4 means
Monster Hunter and Souls always perfect the balance of difficulty, challenge and diversity of combat. So satisfying to play them.
Thats life tho, one day you are playing halo 2 with friends at a LAN party then the next you are on chemo playing elden right going in prepared to die and not having a clue.
Stunning video as always! Have you played any Escape from Tarkov? Sounds like it'll be right up your alley!
I haven't tried EFT because I feel like there's a huge learning curve and I'm late to the party 😅
@@diehardGG honestly not much different than the learning curve with Elden Ring. All the info is on the wiki and there's TONS of videos online.
Gives a totally different perspective with shooters and has an unmatched array of weapons and gear that gives you a new understanding of how they really work.
But the game undergoes many changes throughout the years that even if you are a vet you have to adapt, and new players absolutely have catching up to do, but if you're looking for something to challenge you this is definitely it.
The good new is even if you are new you can easily succeed in the game if you have the desire to learn from your losses and basically push yourself like you showcase in your video. Give it a shot if you've lost interest in other games. The game has a LONG way to go still, but it's better to jump in now while there's a lul in the shooter genre.
Think about it...watch some videos and you can always just get the standard version of the game to try it out for a couple hundred hours and see if you want to push through it.
If you do just remember the first wipe is always the hardest, be patient, and enjoy the process. Also use PayPal to get the game it'll save you time dealing with support, they have sales when a wipe happens, and if you want to keep playing buy EOD on sale it'll really help with progression, and you get all future dlcs/Arena for free.
I like the Gitaroo Man music you snuck in there.
I'm 140 hours into Elden Ring, on NG+ on one character, and a dozen hours in or so on another. If you want artificial difficulty, Elden Ring has it in its endgame. It absolutely does. Ask anybody who's tried to burn down Malenia, or Maliketh. Ask them about the ability for those bosses and even some trash mobs in the last few areas to kill you in 2 or 3 hits, even if you have vigor at the soft cap. Ask them about endless combo strings that you're expected to dodge every single hit of before trying to get in one hit and then having the boss input read your healing and throw a fireball into your face in 0.1 seconds, faster than any human can. Artificial difficulty? Elden Ring has it, and it's all over the last third of the game.
Haha I laughed at the fireball. Draconic sentinel before maliketh was the bane of my existence for a bit
I got to the mountain tops of the giants with 40 vigor and medium armor and didn't have much problem. Yeah, the big knights hit like a truck, but it was the same in previous games. Only the big Miquellahn knights could kill me in 2 hits. None of the trash mobs can kill me easily unless I stand there and realize I'm not senator Armstrong. I agree that Malenia is pretty damn hard and her waterfowl dance is kind of bullshit, but she's still a good boss and all of the others in the endgame are great, especially Maliketh. Once you learn where you have to roll, their attack chains will miss and you will get a nice opening to land one or two hits or even some charged attacks.
For me, Artificial difficulty is the mysterious figure in kingdom hearts bbs or the lingering will in KH2. The raid bosses from Borderlands 2 are also a good example of bullshit difficulty.
@@warcoder I want to be Senator Armstrong. Maybe I'll try making him in game.
@@Nightweaver1 with all the tools this game has, I'm pretty sure it will be a fun build!
@@warcoder In the end it has to be this way.
the only real thing the radahn nerf did was make projectiles slower, shoch imo ks a good change cause they used to be nearly impossible to dodge especially when on your horse.
Idk what he was talking about
This is the first game to have my full attention and I couldn't wait to get off work or had the time to play it. I found myself entering that flow every time I logged into Elden Ring, I would kill countless hours on a boss or dungeon and not care because it was so rewarding to see that "ENEMY FELLED" come across my monitor. 200 hours later and I can't wait to make my next build in NG+ and explore the world yet again but with a different experience with a new build. This is something that has been missing from games for what feels like forever and I'm so glad I took the dive and bought the game.
I can understand the appeal to create those off the wall convoluted treasured items. As a developer I could see the hype in (trolling) learning that 10 years later players finally discovered this one item hidden deep in the game or that in general they're still making discoveries in the game I made. Many players who wanted to create that particular build but HAD to look up how to get a vital piece would be sad to know they may not have been able to get it on their own but on the other end there is one or a collect few players who would be massively glad to have made that discovery public or even just for themselves which also has value.
This is one good reason to try and clear that game backlog you probably have
Man, I’ve missed your content. You brought up such great points in this video. I miss the days when video game makers used to focus on making high quality and innovative games. Now, like you mentioned, game companies are focused on monetization and making you come back everyday with cheap “Daily Challenges” bait.
FINALLY HES BACK
Yoo finally a new Video after a long timee
it has been waaaay too long, but I'm back and have more coming
@@diehardGG Now that is gonna be awesomeeeeeeeee
The dungeon you described was my favorite one.
Played MW2019's campaign on max difficulty, beat it in 4 hours. Played Halo Infinite on max difficulty, beat it in like 20 hours (with free roam exploring), also played GOW and Spiderman, beat them in a few as well. Elden Ring however took me roughly 70 hours my first playthrough to complete with free roam and 4 of the bosses actually took me more than 5 tries. Very impressive game honestly.
Yeah but in infinite for example
The reason is the game's movement options and speed are high
Difficulty can also be quite sneaky. Nothing like having some long cut scene where you grab your drink (or whatever) suddenly to find you are in a QTE. FU dev's for that one.
Difficulty disappeared when games as a service prioritized wasting your time over gameplay
The Hero Graves in Elden Ring give me the same feeling I got when I played the first Portal game.
I Impressed myself figuring out how to get through them (even though the game designers ultimately want you to figure it out)
"Red-eyes black dragon" 🤣 yugioh shout out! That was awesome lol
When I first played dark souls I wondered why I enjoyed it so much. Then I remembered the first time I played a game at 4-5 years old. It was super Mario 64. I didn't know what I was doing and didn't understand how to progress eventually I learned how to make progress. I continued to get stars as the games lvl got more difficult I got annoyed but I persevered until I eventually got all 120 stars. This is just like my experience with fromsoftware games. You are a foreigner you don't know the way to go you don't even know how to use your weapon effectively or have the skills to progress. But by dying and persevering you begin to learn, to make progress, to desire that challenge. Since I played dark souls I play games on the hardest difficulties because I no longer enjoy going through casually. I even set challenges to myself like no shield, using a heavy strength weapon, no summons, etc. I feel these days I'm looking for the next challenge to the point I only buy like 3 games a year. (But I did get into mobile gacha games probably because I don't need to spend a long time on them and don't get bored as easily). Elden ring was a breath of fresh air for an open world. I played through assessins creed until 3 because it just felt the same that I lost interest in the games. (The yearly release didn't help). The lack of markers, side quests and limited open world features just made me more immersed in the game and the games open world looks so unique that I could probably tell you where you are in the map from a screen shot. I played far cry 3 and the world was just grass land, forest, Bases and towns. Elden ring made a world that is both beautiful and trying to kill you in every way
i like the halo infinite screenshot when you mention skill based matchmaking. and the CS clara clip hahaha. great video.
you dont talk about it much, but for multiplayer difficulty.. I don't have a problem with SBMM, but it needs to stay out of social playlists. Every time i play a game with my friends they all get shit on bc of SBMM. keep that shit in ranked.
Dude the Legendary Theme in the background hit different!
In Elden Ring - my first FromSoftware game - I was at the 11th or 12th hour of a Saturday grind, deep in the "Flow State" when I hit a boss... Malenia, Blade of Miquella. I went in blind, with Unga Bunga strength build at Level 150~? or 175~?? ish??? (because of completionist style gameplay for the entire gameplay before this point). I BONKED the shit out of her first phase with a +25 Great Stars with Prelate's Charge Ash of War. Then in Phase 2 summoned a fully levelled banished knight summon and gave the naked girl a spanking. I had heard she was really tough, but I had much more trouble with most bosses before getting to Altus Plateau, because My levelling/grind caught up to and eventually surpassed the games difficulty curve. I am currently on a New game plus playthrough and want to find everything I missed the first time round, but it WAYYY easier at start now that i know how the game works and have some decent gear.
This is a great video
I'm gonna need that thumbnail. Well done mate
10:41 How I got to Top 49 in EU on Overwatch years ago with 86% acc and 68% hs rate. That was the most fun I've had in a game. U just play, get satisfied with hs dings and help your team to win as much as possible. Most of the time - its you, just you and saving your teammates feels satisfying, while breaking your enemies in a few seconds felt amazing...alas, all things come to an end and mine was having my pc catch on fire due to a power outage...
agree get it right the first time. Take the time. I can see this game bringing back the great games with great stories. I cannot wait for the future of gaming with this format brought in.
Where did you get your info showing mouse and keyboard is better?
Great video
Thanks!
i love how players become part of the game design by having the ability to put messages its soo cool
if you pay attention when characters talk you can figure out all the quests they tell you where to and what to do .
Halo 2 on Legendary definitely had it’s frustrating moments. I did complete it, but frustrating for sure. I just couldn’t imagine completing any of the Halo games on the Laso playlist. Which I think is what it is called, I just know it’s Laso and Halo together which makes each of the games even more frustrating. Maybe one day I’ll get through those.
I personally haven't played Elden Ring due to having a low end pc but I would like to thank the creators and developers of Elden Ring for reminding the gaming industry what games were originally supposed to be
*Stands up and applauds at end of video*
Bro that was my favorite puzzle dungeon in Elden Ring no lie I spent an hour and a half I think lol
Hey dude, just wanna say thank you for making this. So many things you said, rang true. 👍
I subbed by the way
No problem! Good to hear 👌
My favourite MMO, Vindictus, was a "Dark Souls" multiplayer game. Now it's dead because they made the game more "accessible"...
A.k.a, appart from the RNG progression late game and the latest couple of raids, everything else is now very very easy.
0 dificulty, 0 effort. Players get handed equipments, bosses die in 2 hits (even the raids), Hp is boosted, EXP gain? boosted, potion limit? removed. armor repair time? reduced....
Now I hate the game.
21:37 try figuring out Concealing Veil. LOL
Omg, i play yu gi oh and never Saw that similiarity on Fortissax, can't unsee anymore lol
this is prity much how i felt in DSR when my dragonman (cov of the dragon with the dragon body and head stone) soloed Black Dragon Kalameet just Dragon vs Dragon pyromancer, when i came out on top was the best boss fight i had 10/10 would go back for a rematch
Quality content. I think i should start with Dark Souls series. I barely understand how to play Elden Ring,and it's emberessing.
I keep hearing the gitaroo man acoustic intro from level 6 now I wanna play again
Really love the game. The summons turned the game in a direction I don’t fully get behind but I had a blast playing it!
That elden ring dungeon was really crazy.
This video does not have enough views for how well it is done
I had to laugh at the footage of missing the Bolt of Gransax.
That thing is the only item that I needed for platinum and had to do an entirely new playthrough to get it.
ah see I missed devourer's scepter but was able to get that real quick on a second playthrough
you should lowkey play borderlands 2 at first like playing it as a newbie well if you haven’t played it before it gets boring but if you do know what your doing like you can kill a boss from a quest you did and then you can turn it that quest go back to the location where the boss was and you can keep farming the boss for good loot (depending on the boss) also with a legendary most of the times
Man this video hit deep