Ian is back into Elden Ring now and is streaming it. It’s really hard for me not to dump all the information I know upon his head as I watch him play. He was in an area in which there was a hidden cave. He was riding along and saying, “Oh, there’s nothing else around here.” I simply said, “Keep looking.” Then, he stumbled upon a Spirit Spring and there was a dragon’s tail visible. He said, “Was that what you were warning me about??” Me: “Ha, no.”
Later, he was looking at his map and said that it looked like there was a cave. He went to the area and said, “No, no cave.” I bit my tongue HARD. Fortunately, there were notes on the ground as there always are, and he struck at the obstacle that blocked the cave and it disappeared. Which was probably how the first person to find the cave found it in the first place.
Watching someone else go through it is resparking my own interest. In the last post, I mentioned some of the QOL improvements that really lifted up the gameplay. Now, I want to touch on something else that needs to be mentioned. The setpieces are flat-out awesome. This is partly the legacy dungeons that are already the hallmark of a FromSoft game, but it’s also…
Let’s do this. I need to talk about the Radahn fight, both because it was so frustrating the first time I fought him and because it’s mindblowing. And it’s completely optional. You do not HAVE to do it, though you do if you want to do Ranni’s questline. If not, though, you can completely skip it. I did in my 12-hour third run (for the hundo chievo), but maybe I went back to do it afterwards? Yeah, I’m pretty sure because I just finished Ranni’s questline for that character on NG+.
Here’s the thing. Getting to Radahn is crazy. And, depending on when you do it, you may have to face a duo boss fight first (I didn’t have to in my first playthrough because I went there late). Then, there are a bunch of NPCs you can talk to including Blaidd, Alexander the pot boi, and others. Then, you go through this waypoint and if you’re me, get immediately killed because your Vigor is tiny.
It’s a showpiece, for sure. You can race around the arena, summoning all the NPCs. Blaidd, Alexander, and more. And you can summon them over and over again. You can also use Torrent, which is a godsend in this fight just to get away from Radahn. And it’s taking place in this big space, so it FEELS epic. Hilariously, Radahn is riding on a tiny horse, which is ridiculous, but there’s a touching backstory with the horse.
Here’s the thing, though. Because I had only 18 Vigor on my first playthrough (do NOT do this), I simply could not sustain any hits from Radahn. I kept getting one-shot, and then it was this infuriating trek back to him in the first minute. Oh, I didn’t mention. In the first minute, you have to race towards him as he shoots arrows at you. Those arrows could one-shot me. And my reflexes sucked. And they are nearly impossible to dodge on Torrent. So, the deal was to dodge the arrow, hop on Torrent, and race towards him. Repeat. And maybe if you make it to him, you’ll be able to get one hit in before being creamed.
Let’s not even talk about the second half of the fight. Which you can skip entirely if you time it just right. but I’m not going to talk about that, either. What I do want to say is that because I could be one-shot by him, I had to find a way to cheese him. I simply was not going to be able to avoid his moves. As I have mentioned a time or ten, my reflexes suck.
I could not beat him. I just could not. I was getting frustrtaed because he kept one-shotting me. I really don’t think that should be possible in a boss fight. They really should scale it so you have at leasta sliver of health and the chance to flask up. Yes, I know it’s my own fault that I was skimping on my Vigor. I know that it’s important to keep your health up, but I had other stats I needed to pump. This is how it always is in these games. I ALWAYS neglect health. Which is funny because I’m very much a ‘keep your health topped up’ kind of person. I don’t like to glass cannon it, but that’s what I tend to do in these games. It’s because as a caster, I have to spend so many stats on Faith , Mind, and in this case, Intelligence. And Arcane. And Dex if I want quickness for casting. At least in this game, I don’t have to level up Attunement (slots).
That’s another QOL that was made for this game, by the way. One that is never mentioned, but much appreciated as a caster. In the past games, you had to up the Attunement to have more slots. I only had four or five slots because it cost a lot to level up. In this game, you have Memory Stones. You get them in chests and from beating some bosses. And you can buy a few. You get one spell slot per Memory Stone. I ended up with 10 spell slots at the end of the game. There’s a talisman that gives you two more. So you can have 12 total. TWELVE. I had five at the end of Dark Souls III with the addition of one slot from a ring (so I had four spots naturally).
I was walking around with 10 spell slots! Even if I used Comet Azur, which takes three slots, that still left me with seven! I cannot tell you how much that opens the game for me. In Dark Souls III, I only used Chaos Bed Vestiges (2), Hidden Body (1), and Tears of Denial (2). I switched it up for bosses, but that was my loadout for the levels.
In this game, I can carry around so many spells/incantations with me at all times. I have the Lightning Spear as my standby (on my first character) as well as Swarm of Flies (which is my big boss killer), but then I can just switch it up and play around with whatever I want. I mean, I do have Unseen Form (Hidden Body) most of the time. But that still leaves me with seven slots.
It really is a luxury, and I love being able to play around. Oh, Pest Threads. That’s another boss killer. That’s for my not as much faith build. But both are rather late game finds so it’s more for NG+. I don’t have either on my third character at the moment.
It’s funny. I’m a Pyro through and through, but I don’t use that many pyros in this game. I have used them all, yes, but for whatever reason, I have been drawn to other sorceries and incantations. I really should try a full pyro run. I can do that with my current character. Or maybe on my second character as I go through NG++ because I have all the pyros. Or at least I can get them all. And they are crazy good. And fun. But! So are the other incantations and the sorceries.
I think that’s the thing to realize about Elden Ring–the magicks are fucking incredible. I mean, I enjoyed magic in all the games because I’m a caster through and through, but From really turned the dial up in this game. I was laughing at non-magicks users who were raving about the magicks in this game, but only because the examples they picked were in the prior games as well. Like Homing Soul Mass. Yeah, it wasn’t in the shape of swords, but it existed. And the giant magic sword. Also in the previous games. But they are not wrong in that there is a much wider variety of spells and incantations in this game than in the prior. I mean, you can do different magic builds if you want. You can go pure pyro or pure lighting, for example. Or glintstone. Or meteor. Or you can just mix it all the hell up! Which is what I usually do.
But, yeah. I want to do a pyro run. Given that some of the pyros are late-game, I almost have to do it in NG+. Or in this case, NG++. Which I might do. I have several pyro weapons, too. So I can go full pyro if I want. Which, I think I do.
Full pyro, baby!