More on Elden Ring. When we last left off, I was having a little rant about exclusives. I was listening to the Playstation Access podcast about Game of the Year (before the show), and they were gushing about Ragnorok. And I couldn’t help thinking, “Of course you’re going to go on about it. You’re Playstation-affiliated!” Which isn’t fair. I know that they actually loved the game and were truly moved by it. But. It’s also an exclusive of their boss company. You can’t tell me that doesn’t have SOME effect. I have never heard them gush about an Xbox exclusive, for example. Or a PC exclusive. Are there PC exclusives? Yes, there are. Just not that many. I have never heard them talk about those. And, yes, I understand why. They are a Playstation channel. It makes sense they only talk about Playstation games. But it also makes sense that I would think they were biased. Because it’s built into their job.
In addition, even though I think Elden Ring is the most accessible of the From games, it’s still not an easy game. Aoife from Eurogamer wrote a beginner’s tips video and then got so many even more basic questions, she followed up with a tips for dummies video. Things that people who have played all the From games take for granted–like using flasks. Or press B to roll. Or even jumping in for the tutorial. You would not believe how many people refused to do that before From put an explicit sign saying, “Jump in for tutorial” (paraphrased). It’s because they knew From games are hard, so they were expecting to be trolled. Which, fair enough, but I liked the jump for tutorial beginning. I did not mind the added note to tell people that’s where the tutorial was.
I keep going back to the first week when a friend on Twitter would tweet me and ask for help. She was completely lost, and she felt like there was something wrong with her because she wasn’t getting it. There wasn’t a thing wrong with her. Through her eyes I saw how if you’d never played one of the games before, it would be overwhelming.
“What , you didn’t know you needed to jump down the hole for the tutorial, then go up the lift, open the door, sit at the Site of Grace, talk to the man in the white mask, avoid the big lad on the horse, and go into the church to buy a bow and arrows from Santa Claus?”
Oh, and you have to wait until night at the same church to talk to the witch lady to get the bell for the spirit summons. And you might want to go down the critical path (if you can figure it out) so you can get your steady steed, Torrent, before you gallop away on side quest adventures. How do you level up? You have to, ah, well, erm….Maybe it’s the third Site of Grace you sit at? Or a very specific Site of Grace? I still couldn’t tell you with any certainty how to make Melina appear for the first time. Oh, wait. I think she and Torrent are the third Site of Grace. It’s the ‘how the hell do I get to the Roundtable Hold?” that is the real question I can’t answer. The first time, it took me nearly ten hours to get there. Ten hours. Which means that I did not have an offensive spell until then. Which meant very sad times for me.
In my first playthrough, it took me roughhly ten hours to make it to Margit. After I died to him for the first time, Melina showed up and whisked me away to the Roundtable Hold. I sohuld have been able to get there much sooner (as I have done in my subsequent playthroughs). I don’t know why it took so long that time except I went far off the beaten path in my first playthrough.
From my reading, if you defeat Margit, you should be sent there. Or if you visit any of three certain Sites of Graces. Or all three (dotted across the different areas). I am pretty sure I visited at least two of those three Sites of Grace before I got whisked away, so I can’t really tell you what it is. It honestly might be seeing Margit for the first time because it happened right after I died to him.
It was just amusing to me that so many sites wrote about it and they were all different. I don’t blame them because they were all doing their best with what they had, but they all said it with such confidence. So many of them said you had to beat Margit to get there, which was patently wrong.
I love that about the games, though. There is so much crammed into them, it’s hard to figure everything out. There are still probably secrets that no one has found, but not on a large scale. Like, i’m pretty sure there are no new areas or catacombs/caves. I’m pretty sure I’ve fought every field boss in the game. I would be highly surprised if there was anything big or medium that I have missed. I will say that there are things such as a certain area that is only accessible by platforming after beating a difficult boss. So many people in the Discord have mentioned it took them nearly an hour to do this platforming bit. Weirdly, I did not have much trouble with it. Not sure why. Anyway, at the end of this platforming, you can make a choice that gives you one particular ending. If you make this choice, then you no longer have to platform in this area–you can just jump straight down. Which is so cool!
I love these little touches; I really do. There is always so much to discover and explore. It’s funny because people were talking about Ragnorok (Santa Monica Studio) and how much content there is. They gushed about how you could do all these side quests and that there was so much content after you beat the game. Then, they would say that there was maybe 50 hours of content when it was all said and done.
50 hours? That’s not even one playthrough in Elden Ring. My first playthrough was 225+ hours. Granted, I am very terrible at these games, but still. That’s seeing almost everything there is to see. I know that number of hours isn’t everything, but it’s just amusing to me that 50 hours is considered a lot.
Elden Ring was the perfect game at that point of my life. The end of February of this year, which was nearly 6 months after my medical crisis. I was physcially recovered from what happened to me, and I was ready to sink my teeth into a new FromSoft game.
I went in with no expectations except to have an amazing adventure in a stunning new world. One thing that struck me about the game was how color was used to define different areas. There’s a joke that in most From games, the palette ranges from gray to brown to black. When reds, oranges, and greens were added to Sekiro, we joked that FromSoft was spoiling us. With Elden Ring, they use a whole kaleidoscope of colors, and as I’ve mentioned more than once, I love how each area is associated with a color.
Green for Limgrave, blue for Liurnia of the Lakes, red for Caelid, and purple for….a certain place. It’s so special, I really don’t want to spoil it. I know that it’s been ten months, but the amazement of this area….it still gives me chills.
I need to go back to this game. I have not played it seriously in a month or so, but I have the itch. That’s the thing about this game. After I thoroughly wrung out every inch of content, I didn’t feel the need to play it for a while. More to the point, after getting the hundo chievo. That was roughly 450+ hours. I did start another character, but I haven’t been playing much with her. I was I was trynig to do a dex build, but it has turned out more into a strengthcaster. Which is where I always end up.
For now, Dark Souls III is still my favorite From game by a hair. I’ll have to revisit that in a few more months, but Elden Ring is definitily my GOTY and my second-favorite game of all time. I cannot wait to jump back in again.