Unpopular Opinion Here But Elden Ring Can Be Pretty Damn Boring Sometimes

[Geth Android]

Warning long rant lol

So let me just start by saying it IS a very fun game at times, and I respect the fact the game runs flawlessly (Only had 1 or 2 crashes maybe in 100 hours). I love the satisfying crunch of hitting an enemies flesh, and coming across new enemies is a weird mix of holy cow what is this thing going to do to me and I can't wait to figure out how to fight it. There's a lot of enemy variety compared to most games which I appreciate, and the size of the world boggles the mind. That in itself I do appreciate because I don't have the patience to get killed 30 times stuck in a tough area until I progress like in previous FS games and ER allows me to explore other areas and level up more first.

But...

1. Torrent feels like a necessity to navigate the huge open plains that you'll be aimlessly exploring at times rather than a cool new feature to the FS staple of games. Without Torrent this game would be a massive chore just to get around. Torrent also seems to be too much of a crutch against tough and large enemies due to the speed advantage to just outrun an enemy if you take a big hit and need to backtrack to restore health or to jump out of the way of their attacks.

2. There's little sense of progression in so many ways. In 100 hours I've literally used 3 weapons. It has been so boring just using the same weapon for 30-40 hours at a time. Part of the problem for me at least is that for a Strength build there are so few pure strength weapons that don't do the same basic damage as early game weapons so it feels wasteful committing smithing stones to upgrade new ones for little gain over your previous weapon. Especially when the higher level smithing stones are rare to find. I don't want to invest them into a weapon I'm not sure is much better than my previous one. Maybe my next intelligence build will be better with more variety cause it seems I have 20x those types of weapons compared to strength.

The other thing with progression is there is sweet F-all interactions with other characters, especially pertaining to the main story. Only recently close to 100 hours in did I get some tiny sniff of the story becoming part of the game again and it was basically "You have acquired the 2 items needed to qualify to start the final journey. Go to 'X' place to fulfil your destiny." Uuum ok cool that was it, really??? That's all I get in 100 hours? Would just be nice to have a bit more of a sense of purpose in the game. Exploring the occasional tomb and the odd boss fight here and there isn't enough to sustain this game. Maybe have a few larger structures where there's a band of survivors and they have more meaningful quests. Maybe you have to help rebuild their fort or take down a rival group. Lead a couple of characters into battle to show them how to fight a certain enemy? I dunno, anything to break up the monotony of how open and stale some areas are in this game.

3. This is a minor gripe and maybe hard to overcome in such a massive game where its hard for the devs to know which way people will explore, and easy to miss certain areas and come back to them later; but the boss difficulty seems wildly inconsistent. It seems you are either really overleveled and kill a boss without needing a single healing flask, or they smash you to death in a couple of hits. I'm mostly overleveled for boss fights now and have been for a while. It's just really disappointing when I'm looking forward to a challenging fight and it's over in 20 seconds or so first attempt. Maybe they could have applied an algorithm for a boss randomly being within a certain percentage plus or minus your level, damage output/health etc. And the strategy for tough enemies rarely deviates from roll to the side into their attack which will miss you if timed correctly so that you are within striking distance after the roll and can get a few hits in as they recover from their strike. I did some some twitch streams of later bosses that had a few more attacks but for the most part it feels like I have most bosses figured out before I enter the arena.

Despite the above, I do love the game; easily one of the best games I've played in the last 10 years. But just a shame there's so much downtime and tedium where nothing much is happening story wise or in terms of activities in the world.

[Geth Android]

Originally posted by Lavian:

Honestly, I think the open world of Elden Ring hurt the game more than it helped.

Is it fun to go around exploring? Yes. It is.

That said, the game is structured in such a way that it kind of punishes the player for not taking the incredibly roundabout, but linearly-scaled, path that's been designed. Like, you can go straight to Caelid from Limgrave if you want to, it's right next to it after all, but the enemies there are tuned for much later, so it's pretty punishing to do so.

There's also not a lot telling you that that's the path you're supposed to take. Like, yes, if you do Stormveil you'll pretty much be plopped down right in Liurnia, cluing you in that that's where you should be after clearing Stormveil, but there's a reasonable chance a player will just be out exploring and end up in Caelid before then, and it's also pretty easy to pass up the Weeping Peninsula, because it's not on the early path towards Stromveil and its kind of out of the way, despite being a relatively easy area.

Then, if you DID do to Caelid and pushed through it all, because you wanted to or didn't know better, then next place you'll head to is either Liurnia or the Weeping Peninsula, which you'll then stomp because Caelid effectively power leveled you. Well, or Dragonbarrow (if you count that separate from Caelid), but then the same issue still applies later.

Aside from the balance issues of the open world, there's the fact that games from From Software aren't character-heavy. There's not a whole lot of people to interact with and really role-play with out in the world, so the open world feels more like the stage for a scavenger hunt rather than a living world you're interacting with. If there were dynamic events or NPCs out on the field, and a large variety of quests and people to interact with, then the space would feel like it has purpose and the world would feel more alive (though I get that it's supposed to feel kind of dead, lore-wise). As it is now, it pretty much just feels like empty space to make sure everything isn't all crammed together. That said, Elden Ring is still a fun scavenger hunt.

I actually think I prefer the level-based style of the Nioh games, in this regard. Well, in principle anyway. The thing is that From Software crafts MUCH better and more interesting levels than Team Ninja did with the Nioh games, but the fact that Nioh games give you a focused experience that you can replay without having to completely restart the game is something I greatly appreciate in this genre.

... I mean, or you could just respawn bosses and what not. Dragons Dogma does that and I'm sure as hell not complaining there. I love that game. Dragon's Dogma similarly suffers from some content-scaling issues with the open world, where a newbie can be instantly smashed by a surprisingly strong enemy if they take a wrong turn, but it's also not really disappointing when you manage to smash to a boss in that game, since that game is more of a power fantasy rather than a masocore death game, so it's actually far less of an issue.


As far as not feeling the need to change equipment: I actually think that's completely fine. I see these games more as action games first and RPGs second, similar to something like Monster Hunter (which I'm not sure I actually consider an RPG, but still similar). While yes, you are constantly changing your armor and weapons in Monster Hunter to keep up the pace with enemy scaling, your actual move sets don't change at all (though different bowguns and what not can influence your ammo choice and strategy), so it's mostly just bigger numbers and cosmetics, aside from if you decide to completely change your build by switching weapon type or something. Elden Ring, by contrast, actually gives you some incentive to change things up and try things out by having fun weapon arts to play around with (and in the case of Bloodborne, mentioned earlier in this thread, most of the weapons play entirely differently).

This is what happened to me. I went to Caelid first then released I was in a high level area and didn't really know where I was meant to go so explored a bit of some random areas and was over levelled for Lurnia.

The thing with the weapons is, other games that might have a singular weapon have consistent rpg upgrading mechanics so you learn new move sets and abilities to compliment them so it gives gameplay variety. Not so much in ER.

[Geth Android]

Originally posted by Outlaw Mugen:

Elden Ring is too big if I'm being honest. Would have preferred much compact world with meaningful encounters rather than vast open fields of... nothing. It's funny to me that some games can get away with this like ER and other RPG's can't.

There is balancing issues where only few weapons are worth going for, Mountain top of a giants are easily skippable ( i usually just rush to the bonfire ) and no matter how much you put into Vitality some enemies can still 1-2 shot you.

Lastly I really don't understand how the STORY is great in Souls games... Not only it has the same basic blue print like Dark Souls ( chosen undead ) here we have chosen Tarnished ( that will become the Elden Lord with DIFFERENT COLOUR ENDINGS?! Remember Mass Effect 3 endings? 3 colours ? ) but the PACING is just non existent. NPC's are just "guide posts" that stands there on REPEAT sounding depressed without any believable routines etc.

It's a good game but I would never call it a masterpiece.

Yeah couldn't have said it better. The barrenness of the lands sometimes even make me wish there were some mindless map markers to do something, some objective on occassion.

[FafnirChaos]

Originally posted by Outlaw Mugen:

Elden Ring is too big if I'm being honest. Would have preferred much compact world with meaningful encounters rather than vast open fields of... nothing. (

This is basically DS in a nutshell, and this is why fans of it find it boring - When your used to a game being small and confined, you don't know what to do with yourselves in a massive world.

It's the same thing when having over 200-300 games on steam but having nothing to play.

[Tyler the inflator]

Originally posted by vinhtran:

I have done both Str and Int builds and I think Str build offers a far wider variety of weapon selection, though there are some very fun unique things that you could only do optimally with Int build (namely Waves of Darkness, Ice Spear, Haima spells, Bastard Stars and Starscourge GS).

My "main" build now is a Str/Fth build and I cycle between 60 different weapons in my loadout (there are multiple Claymores and Zweihanders because I put different ashes on them) - probably the most fun I've had so far in terms of gameplay versatility in all of Fromsoft games. Bloodborne and Sekiro still take the cake when it comes to how the combat flow feels tho.

I have many thoughts about many design decisions in ER but that would be way too long to write out ;D. I did experience fatigue playing through the game and didn't really like the catacombs much but now I think I'm very content with how it turned out to be - as I don't play it continuously anymore - just boot it up and have a good time whenever I'm in the mood and be at peace that it is a long and oftentimes tedious journey.

I will always prefer the weapons in Bloodborne. There are not many, but besides one every single weapon is unique and has 2 movesets that you can combine. (Also quickstep but that is something different.)

Fromsoft games seem to pretty much always have an issue with unique weapons. Ds2 ist probably still the best when it comes to weapons from Ds1-Ds3 + ER.

Would have preferred more unique weapons in Elden Ring and less quanity. But sadly the game as a whole felt more quantity focused sadly.

[Tyler the inflator]

Originally posted by Outlaw Mugen:

Elden Ring is too big if I'm being honest. Would have preferred much compact world with meaningful encounters rather than vast open fields of... nothing. It's funny to me that some games can get away with this like ER and other RPG's can't.

There is balancing issues where only few weapons are worth going for, Mountain top of a giants are easily skippable ( i usually just rush to the bonfire ) and no matter how much you put into Vitality some enemies can still 1-2 shot you.

Lastly I really don't understand how the STORY is great in Souls games... Not only it has the same basic blue print like Dark Souls ( chosen undead ) here we have chosen Tarnished ( that will become the Elden Lord with DIFFERENT COLOUR ENDINGS?! Remember Mass Effect 3 endings? 3 colours ? ) but the PACING is just non existent. NPC's are just "guide posts" that stands there on REPEAT sounding depressed without any believable routines etc.

It's a good game but I would never call it a masterpiece.

Elden Ring feels too empty in terms of content for such a massive world imo. Games like Skyrim give you a lot of sidequests and NPCs to interact. Elden Ring has a few sidequests and that is pretty much it.

[Amygdala]

Yeah the open world isn't that fun IMO, my ideal open world is something very interactive and mutable like Ultima VI, VII, Morrowind (bearing in mind those are 20/30 year old games of course but they still hold up), kind of like a stretched out immersive sim. I think it's fair to say the bulk of Elden Ring's open world content comes in the form of mini dungeons, which aren't really good with their lack of enemy variety, not really interesting level design, no real puzzles or unique challenges (with a few exceptions like Hero Graves, the dungeon where you pull the shadow enemies into the light, and the looping dungeon). If they wanted to focus on the dungeon crawling I'd cut the dungeon count by like 50% and spend the money and time on making individual ones better, maybe even giving them multiple entrances and exits that snake across the map like other games

Originally posted by Outlaw Mugen:

Remember Mass Effect 3 endings? 3 colours ? )

This was an eternity ago back when DS1 was new but I rewatched Vaati's old videos lately and I can't believe someone can ♥♥♥♥ on the ME3 endings (for valid reasons) and praise the Souls endings, the Elden Lord endings in particular are just pick-your-hue-in-Photoshop lol, you don't even get any new information or lore about your path, unlike Frenzied Flame, which is probably the best

[Lavian]

Originally posted by Geth Android:

Originally posted by Lavian:

<snip open world section>

As far as not feeling the need to change equipment: I actually think that's completely fine. I see these games more as action games first and RPGs second, similar to something like Monster Hunter (which I'm not sure I actually consider an RPG, but still similar). While yes, you are constantly changing your armor and weapons in Monster Hunter to keep up the pace with enemy scaling, your actual move sets don't change at all (though different bowguns and what not can influence your ammo choice and strategy), so it's mostly just bigger numbers and cosmetics, aside from if you decide to completely change your build by switching weapon type or something. Elden Ring, by contrast, actually gives you some incentive to change things up and try things out by having fun weapon arts to play around with (and in the case of Bloodborne, mentioned earlier in this thread, most of the weapons play entirely differently).

This is what happened to me. I went to Caelid first then released I was in a high level area and didn't really know where I was meant to go so explored a bit of some random areas and was over levelled for Lurnia.

The thing with the weapons is, other games that might have a singular weapon have consistent rpg upgrading mechanics so you learn new move sets and abilities to compliment them so it gives gameplay variety. Not so much in ER.

Part of the reason I used Monster Hunter as an example is because you don't have upgrading mechanics for new move sets. You get the move set of the weapon and that's it. Monster Hunter Rise adds the switch skills, but that's literally just one slot for a swappable skill on any given weapon set.

So, I use the Charge Blade type. I learn the move set and adapt to the situation based on the moves I have. Some time into the game I get switch skills unlocked, I get the ability to turn the axe mode into a buzz saw axe mode, I do that, and pretty much play the same but enter a different button combination for more damage with the axe mode on occasion.

Monster Hunter games are games you play for dozens or even hundreds of hours using the same skill set as you started the game with, and it's totally fine. This is how I also feel about games in this genre, for the most part (Nioh being the outlier, as it has a large tree of unlockable skills).

[FashionSuckMan]

Half the weapons in the game get A or S scaling in strenght if you heavy infuse them. I have mutliple axes, a colossal axe from godrick, a club, a zweihander, a greatsword, and a lance i use on my strength build. All have different ashes of war and the smithing ball bearing stones let me upgrade them to the level of my basic weapon. If you're using 3 weapons you aren't paying attention to the games mechanics

[Pvt. Partz]

Whether a game is fun is subjective. I get a lot of people love it - great for them. For me, if the game doesn't have a good story, it's just a snooze fest, which I found this game to be. Played about 20 hours and was bored to tears. YMMV

[The RabbitSquid]

Yeah no bro this game was a waste of time, I just beat it, and seemsike the only thing the new game plus offers is different endings and a chance to become potentate if you don't know how to become potentate or messed up becoming potentate of jarburg

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by The RabbitSquid:

Yeah no bro this game was a waste of time, I just beat it, and seemsike the only thing the new game plus offers is different endings and a chance to become potentate if you don't know how to become potentate or messed up becoming potentate of jarburg

Greetings, random necromancer.

Im here to thank you for sharing your totally unique and special glacial-take in this TWO years old corpse of a thread......You clearly are the brightest wick in the candlestore, sharing your BRILLANCE with all the good people in the Elden Ring forums.

Now excuse me! Jarburg needs its potentate back.