With the Elden Ring plat in my back pocket, I still have more to say. Here is part one, and here is part two. This is part three, and it’s probably the last post I’ll do on the plat itself. Obviously, I’m going to keep talking about the game, but there is only so much to say about the platinum.
I will say that I feel a sense of letdown that I always feel after meeting a big goal. I think that’s human nature, though. This is different than a life goal for several reasons, not least because the only reason it took this long was a save-scumming snafu. So, in my heart, I already had it when I finished my first playthrough. I started a second just to have fun playing a different character, and then I raced for the finish in NG+.
By the time I reached the end of my second playthrough, I was ready for the plat to be done. I had some things I wanted to do before going into NG+ for the first time, but suddenly, I needed to get through NG+ and get the damn plat already. It’s funny, but it’s indicative of my personality in general. I can put up with a lot of shit, but then, when it nears the end of the situation, I cannot wait for it to be over.
Not that this was a bad situation, obviously, but a similar experience. I knew I had to play through the game two more times in order to get the plat. This after a 225+ hour first playthrough. I patiently explored a second time with a different character (because I’m saving my first character in NG for the inevitable DLC), and got my second ending in just under another hundred hours.
I spent half an hour doing things to prep for NG+, but not even halfway through, I said fuck it and went into NG+. I wanted that plat, and I wanted it now. I cannot emphasize hard enough how over the plat run I was. I don’t know why it kicked into gear when I hadn’t thought about it at all during the second playthrough (except to make sure the ending I chose for that playthrough was set up properly), but I suddenly could not get to the plat soon enough.
By the way. this is probably only humorous for me, but I didn’t get the vanilla ending until the third time through the main story. Normally, I play through the game and get whatever ending would be the typical ending. However, this time, with the plat in mind and the fact that Ranni’s questline took me roughly forty hours, I grabbed her ending first in case the save-scumming failed (which it did) so I wouldn’t have to go through her questline again if I didn’t feel like it. Her questline is easily the lengthiest.
I did do it again in the second playthrough because I had missed a few steps at the beginning, and I was astonished at how much less time it took. Like, maybe five hours total? If even that? But the difficulty in her questline was knowing what to do next and to get through these entire areas. Once I knew where to go, I could beeline for those areas without exploring.
I’m doing it now currently in the third playthrough, and it’s amusing that you can still do it after ending the game. I mean, it makes sense, but it’s funny to me because obviously you can’t get this ending now. This is the so-called good ending, but it’s not my favorite ending. The one that is considered the bad ending is my favorite, which is consistent with all the games. I always like the dark ending and in Dark Souls III, it’s the one I consistently choose.
When I got that Elden Ring achievement, the biggest feeling I had was a sense of relief that it was over–the same with my other plats. Here’s the problem with plat hunting. It because joyless by the end of the hunt (for me). For the DS III plat, I hated the game by the time I was done. I had spent hours farming for the covenant items I needed, which was so much the opposite of fun.
Side Note: There’s someone in the RKG who was insistent that I should learn how to PvP to get the items the ‘right’ way (in his eyes). I told him I had no interest in it and that I had spatial issues/slow reflexes that would make it nearly impossible for me to master PvPing. He would not let it drop and argued that I had learned PvE and I could do the same with PvP. He could not comprehend that they were completely different things and being OK with one did not translate to being OK with the other.
I didn’t play DS III for at least a month after getting the plat because I hated it so much. Fortunately, by the time I felt OK about going back to DS III, I loved it once again. I never hated Elden Ring while going for the plat, but that’s because there were no agonizing/infuriating ‘gather _____ of said item in order to get the top tier of a covenant’ bullshit. It’s mostly killing bosses and the other achievements are ones you can get mostly naturally. Collecting all the legendary weapons for one and legendary talismans as another. Legendary ashen remains (spirit summons) for third and legendary sorceries and incantations for the last of the legendaries.
You have to level up one weapon to the fullest, which is a snap. You also have to set the Erdtree aflame, which is a progression thing. If you finish the game, you’ll get it in the process. Getting to the Roundtable Hold is another, and only 80% of people on Steam have gotten it. Activating a Great Rune is yet another. Then, the three different endings plus the Elden Ring. Other than that, all the other achievements are for bosses–and there are 42 achievements in all.
So, yeah. Playing the game the way I did the first time of exploring every nook and cranny got me most of the achievements I needed. When I reached the point where I was thinking of the plat, I only had one or two of each of the legendaries to get. I did the sorceries and incantations first. Then, I tackled the ashen remains.
That one blew chunks, by the way. There is a group of enemies called the Black Knife Assassins. They are all women, and they are, indeed, assassins. Which means they can go invisible, are incredibly fast, and take a lot of hits. In the Ringleader’s Evergaol, the jailed enemy is Alecto, who I assume is the leader of the Black Knife Assassins. If you beat her, then you get Tiche, a Black Knife Assassin.
This fights is HARD. I tried and failed a few times before looking up cheese. Look. At this point with the plat in mind, I didn’t care about being pure. The cheese was to get Alecto trapped up on some rocks in a corner and keep her pinned there without falling off the cliff. It wasn’t easy and I despaired of getting her. I finally did after many attempts–and yes, I did cheese her. It made it easier, but not easy. During my second playthrough, I got her on the fourth or so try with cheese.
I said in a previous post how I thought I wouldn’t be able to get all the legendary weapons because Berahl was not supposed to invade if you killed the boss of his area before going to the place where he’s supposed to invade. He did. I got his weapon and moved on. I got everything I didn’t have and just needed the three endings and the Elden Ring.
It was a relatively easy platinum in comparison to the rest. And if I had been able to get the plat with the save-scumming, I would have even warmer feelings about it. As it is, I’m pleased to get it done so I can play it purely for funsies from now on–the way it’s meant to be played.