I can't get into it

[Chicken biscuit]

So, I've played every souls game. Mostly played DS1 & 2 for hundreds of hours.
I've beaten DS3 and Bloodborne only once, didn't enjoy 3 at all. But I love 1 and 2.

I've played elden ring for for about 50 hours on and off and I've never had much success at all. I'm not good at elden ring, I know that. I'm very good at dark souls games in general.
I WANT to like this game so much, my friend who had played through a few times and who really enjoys the game sat next to me and hung out and helped me while I played, and I cannot understand why I'm so good at ds1, 2 , and Bloodborne, and am so bad at elden ring.

I feel awful every time I boot up the game. My friend wants me to love the game like he does, but for the life of me I can't enjoy the game.
Doesn't matter where I went, or what kind of build I was using, I felt like I was playing wrong every time.
I've loved the souls series (except 3) for YEARS. WHY DON'T I LIKE THIS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GAME????

Please, if anyone has gone through this and gotten through it PLEASE talk me through what I can do.

Ask me for more info if it will help, but for the love of god do not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tell me to "get gud"
I heard enough of that before I got good at DS1, and I KNOW I'm doing something wrong, you don't need to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tell me.

I know I sound angry, and I am, but I just want to enjoy this game. I keep hearing over and over that this game is a masterpiece, and in most metrics it is. But I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate this game right now, and I hate that.

[CazadorDeLobo]

Try making a new character and resetting your brain/expectations. That's what I tend to do nowadays.

Same boat, kinda.

Useful tool if you aren't fond of re-exploring: https://mapgenie.io/elden-ring/maps/the-lands-between

[ashen1]

my first playthrough i used moonveil (cheese mode)
after being used to the mechanics, even other builds through pvp around lvl 125-200 i started learning about the game
about the open world, you gotta engage it with curiosity, lorewise its deep, immersive, if it dont appealed to you, you're probably dead inside, sometimes it gets boring so you travel somewhere, continue a sidequest, go after a different weapon... i really hope the game gets to you!

[Chicken biscuit]

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

Try making a new character and resetting your brain/expectations. That's what I tend to do nowadays.

Same boat, kinda.

Useful tool if you aren't fond of re-exploring: https://mapgenie.io/elden-ring/maps/the-lands-between

I've done that, several times. I've made 5 different characters all different classes

[StuffedPlatypusLuvsOrigamiRabbit]

What don't you like about it...?

[Chicken biscuit]

Originally posted by ashen1:

my first playthrough i used moonveil (cheese mode)
after being used to the mechanics, even other builds through pvp around lvl 125-200 i started learning about the game
about the open world, you gotta engage it with curiosity, lorewise its deep, immersive, if it dont appealed to you, you're probably dead inside, sometimes it gets boring so you travel somewhere, continue a sidequest, go after a different weapon... i really hope the game gets to you!

I don't dislike the lore, thought that was obvious, the game is beautiful, the sounds are great, the enemy variety is awesome. I've explored a LOT with my friend, we player the game about 100 hours together and seen a lot, the problem is not the looks of the game, it feels much more difficult than any DS game before. Its not that I don't know where enemies are, its not that I don't know where weapons and upgrades are.

Sometimes it feels like if it hasn't gotten better after 50 hours of personal playtime, it won't get better...

[CazadorDeLobo]

Originally posted by Chicken biscuit:

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

Try making a new character and resetting your brain/expectations. That's what I tend to do nowadays.

Same boat, kinda.

Useful tool if you aren't fond of re-exploring: https://mapgenie.io/elden-ring/maps/the-lands-between

I've done that, several times. I've made 5 different characters all different classes

Damn. Me too.

What turns me off is scarcity of weapon upgrade materials, limiting me to playing with one or two weapons for a large portion of the game. Also that every dungeon is primarily motivated by the reward the boss drops and lack interesting design across the board. You are fair in holding a negative opinion and playing something else from now on. The PvP isn't worth the time it takes to set everything up, and that's the nail in the coffin for me.

[CazadorDeLobo]

Originally posted by Debby:

What don't you like about it...?

That they feel like they're playing wrong. This is written.

[Chicken biscuit]

Originally posted by Debby:

What don't you like about it...?

The combat I guess, it doesn't feel the same as ds1, 2, or bloodborne. the speed is roughly the same as ds3 or bloodborne, but the enemies (mostly the bosses) don't feel fair.
Even nowadays, I still occasionally die to bosses in other souls games, I don't get upset, I laugh and go right back cause I know and am able to tell what I did wrong.

I cannot honsetly say the game feels fair at all. If you don't level vigor...welp, gl getting one/two shot! that was never the idea in the other souls games, even in 3 you had 2 hits of health most of the time.

I never really liked the increase in combat speed in DS3 or bloodborne , but I still enjoyed Bloodbornes combat a lot, you could get your health back, and could at least survive bosses by rolling at the obvious time.

but in elden ring, every boss feels like its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with me, "haha, you shouldn't have rolled at THAT time lol! that would make sense! you needed to roll a second later! or you can't roll through this attack at all!"

[CazadorDeLobo]

What's your take on Sekiro? Elden Ring uses a lot of "lessons learned" from the design and reception of that game - in fact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgxjGCWYTUY
Some mad lad modded Malenia into Sekiro and she plays like a mix of Isshin(Shura ending) and WoT Genichiro(for those who have fought them, she is just too similar to ignore the way her moves are chained in addition to her evade)

Sekiro can perform a number of her moves via skills, just to note

[Chicken biscuit]

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

Originally posted by Chicken biscuit:

I've done that, several times. I've made 5 different characters all different classes

Damn. Me too.

What turns me off is scarcity of weapon upgrade materials, limiting me to playing with one or two weapons for a large portion of the game. Also that every dungeon is primarily motivated by the reward the boss drops and lack interesting design across the board. You are fair in holding a negative opinion and playing something else from now on. The PvP isn't worth the time it takes to set everything up, and that's the nail in the coffin for me.

Yea, I've seen the PVP and it looks awful. Just do everything you can to get as close to a oneshot as you can. which is hard cause everyone is forced to always level vigor if you want to survive bosses and enemies. Feels so bad to not like this game.

But, I just can't waste my time and money on this.

EVERYONE likes this game, I don't want to be left out of this. I already missed when every other souls game came out due to several problems (I was out to sea when elden ring came out, and hadn't played the others during their peak popularity), but when the DLC comes out, if i can't play this game, then I'll have missed every time a souls game came out and was popular.

[Chicken biscuit]

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

What's your take on Sekiro? Elden Ring uses a lot of "lessons learned" from the design and reception of that game - in fact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgxjGCWYTUY
Some mad lad modded Malenia into Sekiro and she plays like a mix of Isshin(Shura ending) and WoT Genichiro(for those who have fought them, she is just too similar to ignore the way her moves are chained in addition to her evade)

Sekiro can perform a number of her moves via skills, just to note

I never played it, I don't really care about it.
It did NOT look fun too for me.

I've seen a lot of videos on it and I have mixed feelings for it.
On one hand some of the combat mechanics look cool, on the other hand, It looks too ♥♥♥♥♥♥ unforgiving. I know it sounds weird to say, but all the other souls games were pretty forgiving if you made a mistake in combat. Elden ring on the other hand...

[CazadorDeLobo]

Originally posted by Chicken biscuit:

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

Damn. Me too.

What turns me off is scarcity of weapon upgrade materials, limiting me to playing with one or two weapons for a large portion of the game. Also that every dungeon is primarily motivated by the reward the boss drops and lack interesting design across the board. You are fair in holding a negative opinion and playing something else from now on. The PvP isn't worth the time it takes to set everything up, and that's the nail in the coffin for me.

Yea, I've seen the PVP and it looks awful. Just do everything you can to get as close to a oneshot as you can

Really, there are just too many noobs. It doesn't matter what they're using, because they don't provide a meaningful challenge to somebody that has any degree of experience with this game's engine and gameplay. The game legitimately encourages gank squads, and loses its sense of competitiveness; it is replaced by a sense of malice.

The types of discussions on this topic on this board painted a certain image of hate, rather than the sophisticated salt-seekers of the past. It's turned from that to just straight-up emotional abuse and predatory behaviors. PvP should be switched off forever in Elden Ring, is my personal take.

[Chicken biscuit]

I'll make a point about my problem, I think I wrote too fast and people don't understand what I was talking about lol.
I'll give an example.

I remade a new character a few days ago, and started...exploring...
I just straight up skip the tree guardian at the start of the open world part, I know he's not supposed to be killed yet. (even though I find his placement stupid) Anyways...
I get to some of the cave bosses, I beat the wolf cave boss, with some difficulty and had an okay time doing it, he's not so bad.

I get to this bear boss guy, run my head up against him, I'm not doing much damage at all (thats okay, I don't have a great weapon), I try a bunch of different things. "I'll stay far back and try to circle?" he closes the gap too quickly to do that easily. "okay! I'll stay in close and roll his attacks!", Actually, he turns really fast too, so its hard to stay out of this attacks range.... "....okay... I'll grab a shield, and try to roll, if I can't I'll block." ......actually....He breaks your guard with two attacks in a four attack combo....and you'll die doing that..... "OKAY, WHAT IS THE STRATEGY THEN....WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO THEN?!" Oh! haha, don't do this early game dungeon LOL! go out and go somewhere else that has another boss or enemy thats just as fast and hits just as hard! DUH!

Thats my problem. It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ excuse I guess.

[CazadorDeLobo]

Originally posted by Chicken biscuit:

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

What's your take on Sekiro? Elden Ring uses a lot of "lessons learned" from the design and reception of that game - in fact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgxjGCWYTUY
Some mad lad modded Malenia into Sekiro and she plays like a mix of Isshin(Shura ending) and WoT Genichiro(for those who have fought them, she is just too similar to ignore the way her moves are chained in addition to her evade)

Sekiro can perform a number of her moves via skills, just to note

I never played it, I don't really care about it.
It did NOT look fun too for me.

I've seen a lot of videos on it and I have mixed feelings for it.

Would you say the videos you've watched and your reaction to them come with a bit of confirmation bias? Are you a contrarian and don't recognize when your distaste is reactionary? I ask these things without edge, sincerely.

[Chicken biscuit]

Originally posted by CazadorDeLobo:

Originally posted by Chicken biscuit:

I never played it, I don't really care about it.
It did NOT look fun too for me.

I've seen a lot of videos on it and I have mixed feelings for it.

Would you say the videos you've watched and your reaction to them come with a bit of confirmation bias? Are you a contrarian and don't recognize when your distaste is reactionary? I ask these things without edge, sincerely.

No, every video I saw only sung its praises, as do I. The game looks amazing, but I'm not looking for that kind of game. I thought I'd find dark souls combat in elden ring, but It feels like bloodborne combat without real parry timings, and no regain to help you survive...Oh, and no breaking poise to break an attack chain, OH and no outranging attacks by waiting patiently.