I played six hours of Elden Ring yesterday.
That’s all I have to say; goodbye!
I kid, I kid. I mean, I don’t kid about how many hours I’ve played, but I kid about that being all I have to say. I have so much to say, this may not be as quick as I indicated in the title of this post.
All these thoughts are swirling in my brain and I don’t quite know how to order them. So I’m pretty much going to spew out my thoughts without putting them in anything resembling order.
First of all, it’s fucking gorgeous. Many times, I’ve just stopped what I was doing and soak in the atmosphere. I’ve watched an enemy for several seconds just to see the details of their design. There is a day/night cycle and things are different depending upon the time of day. Certain enemies only show up at night, for example. This leads to the feeling that the world is a living, breathing one rather than something static.
Before I go any further, there is one thing I have to say. The PC port is not great. I upgraded to a top-notch desktop a week before the game dropped partly in anticipation of playing the game. I have a 3070 graphics card, which should be more than enough to power this game. I’ve had micro-stuttering in the open world and once, the game froze on a loading screen. In the latter case, there was nothing I could do but restart my computer. Fortunately, I did not lose any progress because the game saves frequently and/or because I had recently sat down and saved at a Site of Grace. I know From doesn’t care as much about their PC gamers, but they really should have paid more attention to this issue before shipping. Yes, they included a day one patch, but still. Again, I have a beefy PC and it’s still not running great.
All that said, it did not hamper my enjoyment of the game. And I trust that they will do more to fix it. Also, if it doesn’t happen while I’m in a boss fight, it’s all good. I have not noticed the pop in issue, but that’s just a me thing.
I have deliberately ignored the main ‘dungeon’ of the first area–Stormveil Castle because I want to see everything in the area first. I’ve seen a bunch of it in the Closed Network Test streams, but it hasn’t done the game any justice. You really have to see it to believe it, swinging the camera around and scanning the lush environments.
I love the Souls games. Dark Souls III is my favorite game ever. There are areas that have color, but in general, it’s drab browns, grays, and other duller colors. In this game, FromSoft is using every color in the palette. There is something to savor as far as the eye can see, and it’s easy to miss stuff if you go by too quickly. I love Torrent, my trusty steed, but he makes it easy to miss things.
Also, I gotta say, I do not LOVE horse combat. I don’t hate it, either, but I find it unwieldy. You can’t use your shield while on horseback, which is annoying as I love me my shield. You have to use the RB/RT or LB/LT depending on which side you’re on–and it’s never quite as fluid as I expect it to be. I think it’ll just take time to adjust to it. I also don’t think it’s something that I need to do all the time. With the human-shaped enemies, it’s easier to get off the horse and attack them. With bigger enemies, it’s more manageable.
Still. Torrent is a cutie and a lifesaver for traversing the lands. I know some diehard fans weren’t pleased about it because fast travel is already a hot-button topic in the games. In Dark Souls, you didn’t gain the ability to fast travel until after you beat Ornstein and Smough–which is roughly halfway in the game. Even then, you could only warp to a select few bonfires and not every one. The sequel had fast travel from the start and you could do it to and from any bonfire.
In Elden Ring, you can fast travel from anywhere to any Site of Grace (bonfire)–well, within certain restrictions. You can’t from inside caves, for example. Not a big deal. Including Torrent is genius, I think. The world is huge–I’ll get more into that later-and it would be too difficult to traverse without fast travel. So an enthusiastic thumbs up for me.
I gotta say, I chose the Confessor because I thought it was going to be an easy path to strengthcasting. I was wrong. In the first ten hours, I did not find a single spell/incantation. I also didn’t find a bow so I had no ranged option. Correction. I found a merchant who sold bows around the seven-hour mark. Bows are actually good in this game, unlike the earlier games! But I was getting real salty that I hadn’t found a Pyro yet. REAL salty. When I finally entered the first legacy dungeon (Stormveil Castle), I figured out why.
*SPOILER*
I tried the first boss, Margit the Fell Omen, and got him down to a quarter health with the help of my jellyfish ghost summon. Yes, there’s a jellyfish summon that spits out poison and staggers the boss. That’s not the spoiler, by the way. He was in the Closed Network Test.
I was only going to fight him once, but we all know how that goes. Or we would except Melina, the Finger Maiden (the one who gave me Torrent and the ability to level up), appears out of nowhere and starts talking to me. We had chatted intermittently during the game, but it’s always been an option to talk to her in the Site of Grace menu (lots of options there). This time, she just showed up and asked if I wanted to go to the Roundtable Hold with her. I knew what that was from reviews, but it was a surprise to gain access to it in this manner. This is the hub area with a whole bunch of NPCs. I found, uh….what was his name? Don’t remember. But the prophet dude who sold me my first two Pyros. Basically, Combustion and a Fireball, That’s not what they’re called in this game, but that’s how they act in essence.
It was so nice to get my first two Pyros–and to have offensive incantations–finally! In some of the reviews, they stated how plentiful the spells and incantations were, which made me incredulous because in eight or so hours, I had found nary a one. NONE. I had chosen the Confessor because it was supposed to be a strengthcasting option. Having no offensive incantation was really bumming me out.
I spent at least twenty minutes in the Roundtable Hold, wandering around and talking to everyone around the area. In addition to my man, the incantation dude, there was a nobleman who was looking for his handmaiden–whom he had lost somehow. I had a gut feeling that he had a thing for her–or wanted to kill her. One of the two. Sure, I’ll help you find her, my dude! Spoiler: I won’t. Or rather, if I find her, I’ll not rat on her.
There is a merchant who sells many basic weapons. I just upgraded (and leveled up so I could use) a greatsword I found in the wild, so I regretfully said no to the battle axe. I’m an axe person at heart and played and completed Dark Souls the first time with a battle axe. There’s a dude who is scornful of the Tarnished (what you start as in this game). but he likes me for some unfathomable reason. There are gated areas, which is interesting. I have a few ideas about what that’s about, but we’ll see if they turn out to be true or not.
One NPC really intrigued me. She asked if she could touch me (which is similar to an NPC in Dark Souls III) and prattled on about how she drew warmth and comfort from warriors (which is NOT like that DS III NPC. At ALL!). Her words had a salacious tinge to them, which is not what I expect in my FromSoft games. Yes, you could touch a woman in Dark Souls III (for innocent reasons) and get married (for literally Dark reasons), but not do the quick and dirty. I’m not saying that’s the reason for this woman wanting to hug my neck, but she did say something about being a Deathmate and trying to bring a dying nobleman back to life by lying with him. We hugged several times, which is how I got more dialogue. ALWAYS exhaust the dialogue, yo.
She intrigues me. And not just in the ‘can I sleep with her way’ because let’s face it. That isn’t going to turn out well for anyone. This is a FromSoft game. No one is allowed to be happy.
*UNSPOILERED*
I’ve played 12 hours total in two days and just now entered the first legacy dungeon. Well, to be fair, I entered it around hour 10, but it took me an hour-and-half to two hours to beat the first boss. Which isn’t that bad, honestly. There was a summonable NPC there, but I did not summon. I figured my ghost summon would be enough. I tried the wolves and the fighters, but in the end, I liked the poison status and the stagger of the jellyfish.
I cursed so hard as I was fighting him. I am still very squishy because I put points into everything but Vigor and Endurance. I mean, I put a few points in, but I didn’t have many to begin with. I had to grind a bit to level up my Strength so I could use the greatsword. Four levels, I think I needed. Fortunately, at this point, it was relatively cheap to get the levels so I didn’t have to grind too hard.
Once I fought Margit and beat him, I did what has now become my MO after beating a boss–I shut down the game so I could savor my win. What a sweet way to end a grueling session.