is this game really possible to beat?

[Tengen Toppa]

EDIT 2:
I bought the game eventually, and for now it's easy as heck. Didn't even upgrade my weapon and still using the Samurai's Uchigatana on +0.
The enemies and bosses of Limgrave are a joke, except maybe Tree Sentinel, still waiting on that guy (he's infamous for being a newb pounder).
I wonder what kind of skills they wish to teach the player if they make many of the early bosses a cakewalk, whilst the real bosses are nothing to scoff at. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

EDIT:
Disclaimer:
I do not own the game and haven't played it. I've seen confusion with the replies not realising that, so I'm sorry for not being clear enough about the issue.

This might sound like a strange question but lemme try to explain myself.

I'm not much of a "souls vet", but I am a souls fan with many games under my belt.
the trilogy of dark souls, Nioh 1 and 2, Surge 1 and 2, and even lords of the fallen (the old one, not the new one).

I've beaten them all, optional content and all, despite it being hard and perilous.

But.... in Elden Ring it seems more than just "hard". It seems borderline impossible.
The only enemy I ever had trouble with in any of the souls genre games was Pontiff. That dude was like 25x faster than what should be "allowed" in the game. He attacks 72 times per second, with less than 8 ms of recovery, before going on another rampage of attacks.

Yeah, I beat him eventually, but ever since then, I said "F it" and summoned 2 NPC's to help me any time I had to face him again. Fighting him alone will take ages again.

In Elden Ring, however, it seems that even the first boss, Margit, is Pontiff on steroids, boasting double, if not tripple the HP, and combo strings that are PROGRAMMED to punish you, whatever you choose to do (or not do).
And he's one of the weak ones (as expected from first boss).

Another boss that seems geniuenly impossible is Maliketh. That "good boi" jumps around like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ monkey, shooting fire that not only hurts alot, it also lowers your max HP.
It seems like there's no possible way to harm him, unless you jump into danger and hope to not die.

And don't get me started on Ornstein and Smough 2.0 - the Godskin Duo. Yep, ain't no way I see that fight as fair, or winnable.
And Fire Giant, with what seems to be like 8 digits HP, and widespread attacks meant to one shot even with max vigor...
And Malenia.... 'nuff said.

In short, from watching other people play on youtube, it seems like many of the challanges are impossible to beat. never mind that those youtubers do beat them, usually with some self imposed challange like not moving or not attacking.
I think that those people have superpowers or something. Or they cheat, I dunno.

So I ask again: for a normal mortal - is it possible to beat the game? Are the bosses truly beatable, despite seeming impossible?

[Gr4vityFalls]

dnr but just use op build and be overleveled

[Sc0rpiTr0n]

Originally posted by Tengen Toppa:

for a normal mortal - is it possible to beat the game? Are the bosses truly beatable, despite seeming impossible?

Yes.

It may seem impossible at first while you learn and adapt
but anyone can beat this game.

[Scottbert]

Not sure if you're being serious, or if this is a joke ...


I am a complete novice at dark soul games, and I never initially enjoy the games. Took me 4 years and 3 seperate attempts to get into Dark Souls 1. Once the games click, they're amazing.

Elden ring was the same. I enjoyed the first couple hours and hated the following 10-15 hours until I finally get into the game.

I love Elden ring because there is no requirement to "grind" runes. They give you enough just playing the game.

I currently just beat Malenia and I didn't find it impossible

[Fineous🔥]

Come on dude dont be melodramatic. I strongly recomend to not watch Youtuber play, keep trying with the resources you already adquired (summons, weapons, spells) and use the weakness of the bosses (whatever you can afford with your build.

Everyone can beat any Souls with practice and a clue about what you are doing, specially Elden Ring

Originally posted by Tengen Toppa:

I'm not much of a "souls vet", but I am a souls fan with many games under my belt.

Now.....there are no souls "vets" do you know how wrong sounds every time someone types "I AM A ZOULZ VETERAN"....except in my case...of course... you can consider me the GODFATHER OF SOULSELDENBORNE....

[marek.jop1]

Man, every Elden boss has a weakness or two, just find it out from the net and capitalize on it.

[Tengen Toppa]

Originally posted by Scottbert:

Not sure if you're being serious, or if this is a joke ...

I'm 95% serious.
5% is because obviously it's beatable, otherwise there was outrage and the game would get low reviews for being unfair.

but 95% is because I geniuenly can't see myself beating any boss this game has to offer. And like I said, I beat a ton of souls-genre games, with no real issues or problems (except that one boss as mentioned in the post).

The only way for me to know for sure is to try myself, but I don't really wanna buy the game if I can't see myself getting through the first boss even.

[mldb88]

I wouldn't use Margit as a benchmark for how beatable the game is. He's specifically there to get the player to explore and come back later, so if you made a straight run following the graces right to him he's likely going to wreck your ♥♥♥♥. Explore, do side content, find better loot, and level to at least 30 before trying to take him on. He's an intentional spike in difficulty to make sure the player is prepared for what's to come.

My first runthrough was using a colossal weapons big bonk build with a shield for when guard countering was more ideal. There were a few ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bosses here and there (Mohg's gimmick and Malaketh's AI patterns making the fight near impossible on some attempts with melee without knowing how to cheese it) but overall the bosses aren't THAT bad... well the mainline ones at least. Side dungeons your mileage may vary since a lot of the 'harder' ones are just two bosses haphazardly slapped together in the same arena with no real thought as to how their attack patterns overlap.

[Scottbert]

Originally posted by Tengen Toppa:

The only way for me to know for sure is to try myself, but I don't really wanna buy the game if I can't see myself getting through the first boss even.

The first boss was hard, true. But it's something that I appreciate after I beat him. Because it forced me to go back into the world and explore other areas and level up more.

After a while, I came back to the first boss and beat him right away without major issues. With the extra practice, skills, weapons, and levels, it was super easy.

I think I rushed to the first boss too fast and didn't explore, which is why it was so hard

Again, I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck at Soul games, and I have been able to play Elden Ring and have a lot of fun.

[Tetsuya_Kurogane]

Well, I finisished the game 8 times, the first time without any guide or help or following an online build. I love my hardcore game, but that was first FromSoft that I played truly.

With NG+ cycle, the game gets incredibly unfair even with super high stats. Still, beating the likes of Maliketh, Mogh, Godfrey and Malenia is incredibely fun when they hit harder and takes even a lot more hits

[FashionSuckMan]

margit is pretty easy. Instead of blaming the game for punishing you no matter what you do, learn from your mistakes and play to get better, not to win. Logically, that makes no sense. If margit countered everything you did it would either be impossible or take ridiculous amounts of time just to kill him, yet i and most average players can kill him at the start of the game within just a few minutes (timer starts at bossfight ofc)

[Urkeksi]

Margit is only hard until you realise that some of his openings are fake and he will clap your ass for trying to punish him. He has a few true opening tho and knowing those trivializes the fight.

Malekith has very telegraphed attacks but depending on your weapon (speed) only very few true openings. Dodging his attacks shouldn´t be much of a problem tho especially those aerial projectiles because you can see them coming a mile away. (Funny enough I personally think cleric beastman has a more difficult moveset)

Godskin duo is imo not even close to O&S because they are extremely cheesable via sleep and if you prefer a "normal" strategy you can just focus 1 of them and the other will very slowly walk around and yeet a few very telegraphed fireballs every now and then (if you damage both equally they will begin to run after a certain health threshhold and then it gets pretty difficult)

Fire Giant is imo the worst boss design in ER but he is pretty easy to fight if you just poke him and then distance yourself with your horse (especially reccomended in phase 2). Purely on foot I consider him one of the more difficult bosses.

Malenia is by far the most difficult boss because her AI is semi-capable and Waterfowl dance is easily the hardest to dodge move i´ve ever seen in the Souls Series. I can only really reccomend to just fight her very very often and learn her patterns (as a rule of thumb you shouldn´t try to stunlock but only poke her because a few of her moves will make her unstaggerable except for stuff like frostbite)

TLDR: Yes a "mortal" can beat the game but for someone without much or no gaming experience it´s going to be a pretty rough trip. But since you´ve had your fair share of souls-like experience I´m honestly surprised you struggle this much with ER (no offense though everyone is built different)
Also I absolutely agree with you regarding Pontiff since I can more reliably dodge everything Malenia throws at me than his ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[Doctor Teo]

You probably know by now, the Souls games are always as hard or as easy as you make them out to be. No accident that Elden Ring is included in that description.

There's always a summon, a build, a cheese, or a tool that can get you through. In the case of Elden Ring, have you considered not fighting what you're stuck against? One of the big changes of Elden Ring is your progress is no longer blocked by a boss like the Abyss Watchers or the Bellfry Gargoyles, if you get stuck, you are more free than ever to just pack up and go elsewhere, gathering items and power until you're ready to come back.

And if it's any consolation, this game like all the others, people have done level 1 playthroughs. I did mine about two months ago.

[Tengen Toppa]

Originally posted by Urkeksi:

But since you´ve had your fair share of souls-like experience I´m honestly surprised you struggle this much with ER (no offense though everyone is built different)

I can't really struggle with a game I don't own and have never played :)

I just imagine I'll struggle, from seeing the fights on youtube, and seeing that even "baby-mode" boss (Margit) is 20x times harder than my "run-ending" boss (Pontiff), and the rest down the line put Margit to shame.

[Segnefel]

Does Elden Ring has difficulty setting somewhere?

I killed my first 2 bosses without too much trouble and I am level 22.
I just got the +8 rapier reward when my main weapon is +2.

Am I missing something? Is sorcery this much OP in this game? lol

PS: I am not going to waste hours memorizing the sequence so I simply summoned NPC meatbags to take the beating while I beat down both Margit and Godrick by spamming the first spell that is given to Prisoner class. You get a couple of "mana" flasks and 4 are enough to bring them down to 30% HP or so.

Not sure about the other bosses, but if they work the same way then investing in INT only seems like the way to beat the game while watching youtube videos on the side.

[Tengen Toppa]

Originally posted by Segnefel:

Does Elden Ring has difficulty setting somewhere?

I killed my first 2 bosses without too much trouble and I am level 22.
I just got the +8 rapier reward when my main weapon is +2.

Am I missing something? Is sorcery this much OP in this game? lol

It does, actually. It's called "Magic".

At least, that's what everyone say. From what I've seen, magic is useless on some of the bosses, either due to high resistance, hard to hit due to their speed, or just plain impossible to hit due to the boss always rolling away from projectiles.