Tag: rating systems | A Banana Peeled

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Why Elden Ring is great, but not perfect, part three

Posted on September 29, 2024 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I’ve been watching videos from Kinda Funny Games. They have recently changed their review score to 10 (from 5). Then, they did two videos in which they listed games for each number (from each guy). I’ve included the one for 10 below. They briefly say that 10 is not perfect, but a masterpiece. Then they go into detail about what they consider a masterpiece to be. This is the closest to what I think a 10 is, and I appreciate that they really get down to the nitty-gritty. And also that they mention that no game is perfect.

That’s what gets me stuck on giving a 10. Nothing is perfect. If 10 is perfect, then no game can be a 10. Saying it’s the best of the best, though, is something different. I still hesitate in giving a 10, but it’s more conceivable when I don’t think of it as perfection.

Here’s part two of why the game is not a 10 (perfect). I think part of my hesitation is that the flaws are persistent and continue from game to game. Wonky hitboxes; poison swamps; the last pixel of health; enemies hidden around the corner/up on the ceiling/behind a crate; surprise swarm of enemies; messy UI. The last was cleaned up somewhat in this game and I appreciate the ‘new’ tab they instituted in the DLC.

The UI is not great, though. I won’t say it’s terrible, but it’s barely serviceable. There are not ways to easily sort items (at least not that I know of), and it’s a pain to have to scroll through a million items to find the one you want. Now, granted, you can put items in the storage box at a site of grace or sell the extras, but I’m not going to do either of those. One reason for the latter is because I have the irrational fear that I’m going to want to do something different with each of the fifteen straight swords that I have. Or the thirty-two Radahn’s gauntlets. I actually have less of a problem selling the armor because you can’t do anything with them, but the weapons Iget stuck on.

With my NG+ characters, I have so much shit on them. It gives me lowkey anxiety any time I scroll through all the shit I have on me. Again, that is more me than the game, though.

I’m currently doing an intelligence build run and NG+ on my strength run. I really wish there was more to do on NG+ to distinguish it from NG. I still enjoy NG+, mind, but it would be a little boost to have something new to perk me up on NG+ and beyond.

The meaninglessness of perfection

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

Ian and I were talking about Elden Ring (as you do). He’s about 50 hours in and it’s really cool to hear about his experiences after I’ve had them myself. Every experience is different, and he is much more observant than I. He saw things that I only got from wikis or from going back again. I asked what he would give the game now that he was a good chunk of the way in (after I had listed a few of my problems with it). He said within the system of where he works, he’d give it a 10. I was surprised because while it’s a fantastic game, definitely GOTY and possibly GOAT, I don’t think it’s perfect. Turns out, he doesn’t either, but their rating is mostly whole numbers, one through ten. He said if he could give decimals (because I give it a 9.5 right now), he’d give it a 9.5, too.

Then, we talked about ratings in general and what did they actually mean. I believe that it doesn’t matter what system you use, be it 1-5, 10, stars, numbers, whatever. Like if you have a 10 scale and give it a nine, it’s the same as 4.5 stars. Then, we hopped over to talking about a game being perfect. It’s funny. I’m the From fan, but he’s been much more unilaterally positive about Elden Ring than have I. In part it’s because I AM such a huge fan that I feel I can nitpick away.

So many reviewers gave it a perfect score. I understand why, but there are too many things that annoy the fuck out of me for me to give it a perfect score. The thing is, I don’t think I would give a perfect to any game. My favorite game of all time is currently Dark Souls III, which I would give a 9.6 or so. In other words, a tenth of a point ahead of Elden Ring.

It’s funny because I was talking about the ranking of the From games in the RKG group on Facebook. Sekiro was in last place, and I would rank that a 9. In other words, they are all really fucking good games. The upper echelon of Dark Souls III and Elden Ring are as close to perfection as I would give a game, and yet, there are issues with both games (the same issues, mostly) that keep me from giving them a 10.

The biggest ones with Elden Ring are copy-and-paste bosses, platforming, horseback combat, and too much open world. FromSoft has always liked to put bosses as world enemies later in the game. They went wild with it in the last areas of Elden Ring, especially one optional area. Which is a shame because it’s a beautiful area and did not need the beefing up.

Side Note: As usual, since this is talk about the end game, there will be spoilers from here until the end of the post. Consider this your spoiler warning.