Why the summons are bad design in elden ring

[nbr]

First, i want to say that i don't have any problem for people's way of finishing the game. Anyone can finish the game the way they want, even if it means hacking or cheesing.
the reason why i think summons are bad design is that they make the game easier without any risk. Think about parrying. You are taking a risk by using the parry, but if you success, you are getting rewarded, but when you summon, you are not taking a risk at all. All it takes is a little bit FP, or HP and then you have a MASSIVE advantage over the boss fight. All you need to do is to find the good summon, which is very easy if you look at the community just a bit, you'll realize what is good and will look where it is through the wiki. One more thing is that the way the advantage it gives is not suitable for elden ring. You just summon the thing you want and it literally gives you free attacks till the summon dies. So that's why i think the summons are bad design.
I want to say it again that i don't have any problem with people's way of playing the game. This is just my opinion, nothing more.

[Darkstorm]

Meanwhile people with summons can't beat some bosses so they summon other players.

[An Irate Walrus]

What you've provided here is an excellent argument for why spirit ashes are a bad design choice for you. And, personally, I think you've defended your position pretty well.

But the neat thing about them is that just like putting together a Havel Sorceror build in DS 1 to trivialize most fights, they're optional. Don't like 'em, don't use 'em, and take the challenge by the horns.

[Sirius]

Nobody 'hacks' this game.

You mean cheating. Cheesing and cheating.

Sorry, recently got into some of the more... active online games in my advancing age and I already can't hear the term 'hacking' anymore in this connection.

99.9% of these people couldn't 'hack' when their life depended on it.

[Sonnenbank]

Well fromsoft made this game for a very wide audience of casual gamers.
They needed spirit ashes or 95% of their audiance would hate the game.
This would be a desaster

Now if you dont feel like you belong to the 95% of very casual gamers
dont use summons

thats what i did
Spirit ashes are just a difficulty slider that is ingame instead of in the menue

[Fineous🔥]

"ZUMMON EZ MODE RAAAW RAAW CUOZHUALZ GITZ LUOLZ".

If there is someone new reading this thread please......do not take seriously the creatures that say that using a resource provided by the game is "easy mode" or "cheese". Respect their opinion but at the same time just laugh at them (they are private profiles or "pro pluayerz" in their own minds anyways).

Elden Ring offers nearly 60 different summons for you to collect and upgrade. Some of them are fun as heck to use , while others with your proper character setup or healing them can be considered a powerful weapon/spell by themselves. So even if you dont plan to use them just remember they are game content that you will miss completly if you dont go full pokeballs (whatever) and collect them all!.

You can have a lot of fun with them!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936851344

Or bully bosses with a god like mimic

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2878280251

The only problem? only the mimic can be considered a viable option for max NG, summons dont scale NG after NG (mimic uses your character current stats).
So yes i hope they fix that with the DLC and give everyone reasons to go around with clayman or pests summons chewing ass and kicking bubble gum...urgh other way around.

[Forest]

OP: Summons are bad and you are bad for using them

Also OP: Literally cheating at the game with hacking isn’t bad nor are you bad for doing it

[Lynfinity]

Are auto-combos a bad design in Devil May Cry?
Are auto-chips a bad design in NieR: Automata?
Is "God Mode" a bad design in Hades?
Is automatic consumption of nanopastes when reaching zero HP a bad design in Metal Gear Rising?

[Alby]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936851344

My faaaaaaaavorite vid

[An Irate Walrus]

Originally posted by Alby:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936851344

My faaaaaaaavorite vid

You have no idea how perfect that soundtrack is for my weekend.

[Alby]

Originally posted by An Irate Walrus:

Originally posted by Alby:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936851344

My faaaaaaaavorite vid

You have no idea how perfect that soundtrack is for my weekend.

Hope it’s a good’n! I’m ready for the weekend as well lol

[BIGDOJO]

i do whatever i want in the game bc its fun. remember fun? maybe you dont need the perfect videogame op maybe you just need therapy

[Grim@FU_BARRACUDA]

I won't read your whole text, let me just say if you use ghosts you ruin the gameplay for yourself and that's not an opinion, that's a fact ;-)

[Sabaithal]

By that logic any weapons considered to be "good" are bad gameplay design. Should we take away all weapons but the basic torch due to that?

What you're not considering is that FROM put spirit ashes into the game because they intended for you to use them. Its why you can summon them for almost every boss fight, and many non-boss areas as well. Not using them is about the same as doing a torch only run, or an RL1 run. Yes, they're definitely possible, but its no question that the game wasn't balanced around either one, so you're doing a challenge run.

[Valthejean]

And yet, being able to summon npc assistance has been in these games since Dark Souls 1, Elden Ring only differs in that you can use spirit ashes along with npc summons. It's fine if you don't like them and don't use them, but they're a feature of the game and always have been. Spirit ashes exist because unlike the previous titles this is an open world game and there are open world bosses.

[Cootswig]

If there weren't summons I would have stopped playing this game at Margitt probably.

I think fromsoft is very smart for doing this cause they sell so much cause it's now also beatable for all the noobs like me.

Beating the game gave me confidence so I was able to beat the game again witouth summons. Good job fromsoft