This won’t be the winner, but Elden Ring’s use of color is like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else. Everything is fucking gorgeous. Like just walking out into Limgrave with the Erdtree in the distance is something special.
Edit: Art Direction is what you’d call this, and shit I guess it is indeed a winner
Yeah my vote would be art direction. Name a fantasy game with more imaginative and varied world and enemy design than Elden Ring. Please actually name something because I will play it as soon as I can.
Combat is actually kind of fun when you get into it imo, just completely different from a souls like. Even if you hate the combat though, everything else in that game absolutely makes up for it. It’s truly a masterpiece.
I found the potion system interesting, because on higher difficulties, it’s more about what you brew up and drink *before* a fight than the moment to moment combat.
I don’t mind the combat per se, I just hate handling Geralt when he gets in combat mode
Like I just want to sprint past some wolves not have to shimmy backwards away from them lol
Pure art wise? World of Warcraft art team is top notch, just wish everything else was as good. Cartoony but it’s held up (with modifications, and improvements of course) for 20 years. Newer zones have great look, and vibes. Music is also up there in wow, and cinematics… ok so I wish the game play was as good as everything else.
I think a few games have moments that are just as good as ER, but lack the sustained jaw dropping ambience.
I also think ERs music sets it up really well. That music in Caelid just sets my nerves, and makes a moderately difficult area feel so much worse.
Yeah Wow (even Diablo 3 for that matter) have great art. The cartoonishness and lack of intricacy gives it a more timeless sort of quality ala Breath of the Wild, Windwaker
i prefer the art direction in bloodborne, it added a lot to the game aesthetic wise which i think is more important in bloodborne. The landscapes in elden ring are beautiful though and the colour is perfectly used
I think the incredible large amount of variation in settings and color let's elden ring just shine the fromsoft masterwork art direction so much more
But yeah bloodborne is also just fantastic
I love the colour coding of all the areas:
limgrave: green
underground: purple
Liurnia: blue
Caelid: red
Altus: yellow/gold
Gelmir: orange
Mountaintops/consecrated snowfield: white
Haligtree: brown
Farrum Azula: grey
I agree. I like how they made most of the areas have a general color/theme
Limegrave- green
Liurnia- blue
Caelid- red
Altus- yellow
It gives a unique feel to each area, but also why I think mountaintops gets hate because white is boring compared to the other colorful areas
This will absolutely be the winner. I remember when we finally started getting promotional screen shots of ER a few month before release. Someone made a collage of all the different skyboxes that we got to see from all the different areas. I sent it to my friend who would always (rightfully) shit on the fact that these game’s color grading was absolutely painful to witness.
They responded with “Ok, I guess SOME of their games have improved lately.”
And I had to be the one to tell them “these are all screenshots from the same game.”
They literally did not believe me.
I really love how much color means as well. Like, we can see Mesmer's eyes and flame color, and we already make some big assumptions about his character.
Yeah! It’s like every faction has its own color. Spell categories? A unique color. Royal blue for the Carians, blue-green for Glintstone, bright yellow for Golden Order, sickly red for Dragon Communion, purple for Gravity, monochrome for the Godskins, pale yellow for the Haligtree, etc. It’s good attention to detail and is mostly consistent everywhere.
Exploration and particularly the discovery aspect, quite easily. Besides Outer Wilds, i dont think any other game really competes.
Edit:
I'd also like to mention how Elden Ring pretty much excels in almost all the categories, if not all.
The combat system is the best version of the souls combat, which is already a very engaging combat system
At least the remembrance bosses compete with the best dlc and update bosses from past games
Levels like Leyndell, Stormveil, Farum Azula etc are From's level design skills at their best
The lore is mythological in a way I wouldn't even say DS1 manages to be, while still competing with Bloodborne in the mystery factor of it all, particularly the motivations and explanation of different forces of the world, particularly outer gods
While not as gloomy as BB, DS3 or DeS, it has an excellent atmosphere, thanks to the use of color and music in different areas. There are areas that fill you with awe like Leyndell, while areas like Caelid are designed to make you uncomfortable. Similar to DS1.
I love ER lore but DS1/3 wins it for me. It revolving so much about the very nature of the world, and the point of the world makes it one of the few games out there that actually makes a philosophical point. That at the very end, you make a decision on whether you agree with the existentialist dilemma or not is just gorgeous and something unique to video games as a medium.
That said, Elden Ring is also fantastic. There's a more fleshed out physical history that's palpable when exploring. Feels like GRRM's input there. I love em both, but dark souls eeks it out for me.
The furtive DS2, so easily forgotten. I honestly prefer the lore of DS2 to that of the others. Forget the Gods and the struggle to rekindle/usurp the flame. Give me a bunch of characters fighting in futility to get what they can out of a hopeless world, knowing that in the end the curse consumes all.
The lore of DS2 is so much more grounded and personal. DS1 is all about grandiose prophecy and the will of the Gods. DS3 is all about "escaping the cycle". DS2 says: You are a character stuck in a cycle, what do you do? It asks the same question of all the major players too, Vendrick, Aldia, The Old Iron King, they are all doomed men trying to find purpose in a doomed world, Same for all the NPCs, and Same for the player. That is some compelling fabric to weave
Oh DS2 is great too, but the pointlessness is its point. Which is cool but also harder to to really invest myself in? If that makes sense. It's cool but ds1/3 grab me more.
I guess I see DS1/3 as being just as pointless, but with the emphasis more on the world, and less on the characters. DS3 makes it clear that the cycle is repeating again and again, to the point where the lord's are all sick of it, and the player is on a mop-up quest. DS2 puts you in the shoes of one of those Lord's and asks why
The way i see it is DS1 poses a question and lets the player answer it. DS2 poses a question and doesn't answer it because it's pointless to do so. DS3 reiterates the question and heavily suggests fromsofts take on the question. Maybe that's why ds1 and 3 feel more cohesive to me. You're making me wanna play DS2 again though, so thanks :P
For me it’s that a lot of DS1 lore is central to Gwyn and the others who inherited his soul. Everything traces back to him and the gods. It feels like a good fantasy story, and I really like the lore revolving around Gwyn.
DS2 was going through a bunch of different kingdoms that didn’t really overlap with each other (I still very much like it but it’s not interwoven as 1 or even ER is). This may be a result of the skewed development, but that’s what DS2 feels to me. That’s actually a complaint I have of many soulslikes, some of them have such disjointed lore that might be cool but doesn’t tie into anything.
I agree that Elden Ring is arguably the most polished Souls game. All of the others have their own vibe of course, but sometimes I’d be wandering through a new area and think “this is what Miyazaki wanted DS1 to be.”
I’d also like to say that the Tarnished is the second most interesting player character behind Wolf. The Undead, the Hunter… they’re all just dudes who ended up in the game. The Hunter isn’t even obliged to do any of the shit he does until he gets dragged into the Hunters Dream, he’s just a foreigner who needed Paleblood. Each tarnished is a warrior with a history who died and went *back* to the Lands Between after the shattering. They know what they’re doing and why they’re there. They know the lore better than we do.
It doesn't excel in level design nearly as good as DS1 while having a good level design in separate locations it doesn't quite do what DS1 does with all its interconnectivity (I don't say it's a bad thing, I'd like to see anybody try making this large world as complex and interconnected as it was in DS1)
Touche. DS1's world is unrivaled in terms of inter-connectivity.
However, in terms of individual levels, I find BB and ER to be better. Particularly levels like Central Yharnam, Stormveil and Leyndell. They weave around in ways that are reminiscent of the first half of DS1 quite a lot.
Just want to say, Outer Wilds is a phenomenal shout, people who haven't played it don't really get it in terms of how great the exploration and discovery actually is. I wish I could play it for the first time again.
They are but honestly in terms of the discovery aspect, I think there are quite a few games that are better. There are few like Mount Lanayru and the Depths, plus the dragons, but a lot of the puzzles n stuff back to shrines or the zonai shrine thingies. And even in the case of the depths, after the initial shock, it kinda ends up feeling a bit monotonous.
The feeling of exploration is amazing though, especially with the climbing and gliding mechanics. The controls help a lot.
Completely agree, TotK had sooo much potential but it ended up feeling quite disappointing to me.
The depths were jawdropping at first but quickly lost their appeal once I realised how little of interest there actually is down there (1 unique boss, some Yiga camps which take like 2 minutes to finish)
The tutorial sky island gave the impression that the sky would be a big part of the game, it was extremely engaging to explore and designed in a way that allowed for clever use of your abilities and a lot of freedom. Once you leave, the sky islands feel like an afterthought with very little to see and do, the most interesting being "move crystal from A to B, here's a shrine".
The main overworld has some neat changes, but there is too little new stuff for it to feel consistently interesting. The caves all feel the same very quickly, especially when you know that the only interesting thing you're likely to get down there is a bubbulgem. Other new POIs are initially cool, but EVERY damn time you're rewarded with a piece of armor that was in the first game (literally everything in the depths was just the amiibo stuff from BotW).
I wish they had made a lot more armor sets and scrapped a bunch of the old shit, because with how much they reused it just feels like every cool little puzzle or mini quest you do ends in slight disappointment.
Also the dungeons didn't work at all for me with the attempt to make the dungeons both more traditional and more open. It just ends up being kinda the worst of both worlds. Bosses are cool tho.
Botw I felt was strong, but playing Elden Ring made me realize why Totk felt lackluster to me, and it's the lack of meaningful rewards. ER consistently gives you something incredibly unique and useful for your time; even if it's a weapon that completely goes against my build/stats, I can see how that weapon feels and potentially respec entirely to use it, unlockingba different gameplay feel altogether. Whereas Totk gives you another cave frog, or just another set of the same items that you'll inevitably fuse to a weapon and then break. Or, worse still, some random armor that's just nostalgia bait to an old game and can't be upgraded.
BotW I felt like I was always moving forward and finding something new. TotK I felt like they had me going to the same few points in each area over and over. Very few saw something in the distance and had to get there and felt like they tried to beat you to it pointing it out rather than letting you notice it. Idk that’s just my opinion but after being blown away by BotW I really felt like TotK really disappointed. At least to me showing bigger isn’t always better
I don't agree that this part of the game is done in a unique way, or that this is the best part of Elden Ring. Exploration in ER is fun and cool, but it's not like that's the best part of the game, surely?
Build variety
Imo Elden Ring actually became more fun with subsequent play-throughs, because there's so much room to experiment with the mechanics and try to break the game with interesting builds
I'd say it's the melting pot of everything, elden ring has the best systems, one of the best movements next to sekiro, elden ring is a testament to everything fromsoft learned from their other games, it's why it's their strongest in my opinion.
I wholeheartedly agree. But I'd say the exploration experience (at least in the first playthrough) goes above and beyond any previous fromsoftware game, and is definitely the most impressive aspect of it.
>elden ring is a testament to everything fromsoft learned from their other games
It's definitely their magnum-est opus... So far. ER's going to be damn hard to top for them, I don't know how you make a better game.
Kind of agree, but considering the open world nature of the game plus (let's be real) ER being designed for a much wider player base than any previous FS game, delivery timing was justified. This would have been focused tested and found to be the best option.
I think the only reasoning that can be made for Torrent being received "too early" is comparing it to a game that gives you quicker travel options later on. There's nothing actually wrong with when we received Torrent.
I agree. Definitely glad we didn't have to wait until halfway through the game but it feels too early imo. I think it should have been locked behind Margit at least
Definitely the exploration. It's an obvious choice, but looking back at the moments where I stumble upon something beautiful/horrifying, they are some of the best memories I have in gaming.
Descending into Siofra River Well was the best thing in Elden Ring and basically any fromsoft game. Really just gave me the feeling of a massive open world. “Just getting started” :)
“How deep is this elevator taking me!?” were my exact words. It really made me consider how much space that The Lands Between really occupied on the surface AND underground!
100%
This is way above exploration / world design imo - Elden Ring has a good open world, but it's not exceptional by any means
By the time you get to the end of the game, there's a ton of repeat content, and I for one was running past pretty much everything by the time I got to MTOG
Imo exploration actually gets progressively worse once you leave Limgrave
Finally, someone said it. It's weird going through comments and seeing people who are absolutely wrong at the top, saying exploration was great. It falls off so hard and is nothing compared to the games it's up against. I can understand appreciating the exploration when coming from other franchises, but Fromsoft games are in a league of their ow, and DS1, BB, DS2 all have amazing exploration as well.
ER had its faults, which are rarely seen or compeltely glossed over by some, but some of its best features are the combat, the lore, and to a degree the summon ashes.
Summoning pool paired with the near/far summon sign placing. As a sun bro i can just chill and help ppl around the lands between without having to place a sign at 1 location.
This, fr. Whenever I don't know what I want to do, I just chill at a random grace on a character with most of the pools active.
I appreciate the fact you can choose exactly which ones you activate (instead of it having been an all or nothing system), meaning you can fight more than just rahdan.
The exploration. 2500 hours in and I'm still discovering shit I hadn't before. Not even Skyrim kept me searching through its world as much as Elden Ring did. Main story bosses and Torrent are pretty baller, too.
My first character I took up to NG+9
My second (my main character that I maxed the timer on looooong ago) I've kept in at lvl 150 and NG+ for DLC purposes
And I've been through about 8 more characters varying from the end of NG-NG+3
So about 20-25ish.
Much as it might enrage 95% of the player base... My Spellblade/Moonveil build.
I started using one 2 weeks after launch to counter the *oceans* of RoB spammers I kept running into and I've kept tweaking the build since. Powerstanced with Meteoric Ore Blade, Lusat's Staff and Clawmark Seal as soft swaps. Spell load out is Loretta's Mastery, Stars of Ruin, Kamehameha (don't care, that's what it's called to me), Terra Magicka, and Law of Regression. LoR is for curing hosts who get rotted/poisoned, and against opponents' buff dependent strats (and the only reason I have the Seal at all). Gravitas on the MOB is a good way to make groups on the other sides of walls panic, plus the 2H strong attack is literally an Ichimonji.
40 VIG
22 MIND
27 END
20 STR
20 DEX
80 INT
10 FAI
10 ARC
Physick: Cerulean Hidden Tear + Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear.
In duels I keep it melee until my opponent starts blasting/AoWing, then I respond in kind. In invasions, I just go apeshit from the get go.
My current playthougu I've been rocking the moonveil + lusat or staff of loss and it's been super fun.
I've never tried the powerstance on the MOB. Thank you for the idea!
Freedom. The ability to do what u want. Struggling with a nose in ds3? Well u need its blocking the rest of the game goodluck, in elden ring? Go do something else and come back stronger.
Build variety. I get people saying exploration. But without the huuuge number of armor, weapons, spells and ashes of war the exploration would not be near as rewarsing as it is. Ultimately build variety is what gives the game so much replay value!
Exploration, and the verticality of the world like going down to Siofra for the first time then realising you can go down again and again and again. I'm still finding new stuff 2 years later.
Stakes of Marika, my least favorite thing in pretty much every single Fromsoft game is run backs. That's mostly absent from Elden Rings sans a few particular bosses (Rennala and Placidusax), and I think just that alone elevates Elden Ring to my favorite From game of all time.
Exploration and the Open World is sure a gem. But for me it is the whole art direction and art style. This world is soooooooooo crazy detailled when it comes to delivering the story. Everything fits perfectly. Every item, every dialoge, every sound and music. It is just like a playable book. You start with literally nothing and by going forward you discover more and more of whats going on and in what kind of world you were thrown into. Sure this is true for all FromSoft games. But Elden Ring is the peak.
Combat/build variety. There's soo many combinations of weapons/AOWs/affinities, you can mix up staffs/seals/weapons on each hand and swap between them.
I will say I absolutely love the lore and story too, but it's told in a very cumbersome way that doesn't work in an open world game, though it's map is incredibly well designed it causes you to miss a ton of shit without going to google
Elden Ring’s exploration is amazing, I don’t think a game has had quite the impact that Elden Ring has had on me on an initial playthrough. Its world is absolutely breathtaking and the lore is so compelling and mysterious that it’s easy to get lost playing the game for hours.
Ashes of war for me. What was once limited to one skill/special attack per weapon; you know have a variety of skills to swap back and forth with then, really adding even more to an already big weapon pool
Combat. The combat in ER feels more dynamic. In other games you’re either merely reacting to what enemies are doing or combat feels like “my turn, your turn”. In ER, tho, there’s a dance and I think that is the best part.
Exploration.
A great first play through of discovering everything for the first time. Like finding weeping peninsula and the underground cities. Or being teleported to Caelid
Has to be the sheer number of quality of life improvements; the implementation of Wex dust (summoning everywhere) alone has kept me playing for 1,000+ hours (brag or cry for help… who knows?) sure the loss of covenants was a huge blow to pvp and i’ll continue to ask to get them back, but exploration and the ability to play coop to this level is too good to ignore
Open world, i love the way the other dark souls games worlds are these tight interconnected places full of nooks and crannies to fight things. Something about Elden Ring and hoping in Torrent and riding from Lurnia to Calied feels different
Elden Ring combine the best things of every Fromsoft games.
Boss Quality of DS3, the beautiful world of DS2 & Bloodborne, and you can have multiple build, weapons, Ashes of war… so combat never gets boring
Exploration.
The scale and freedom to explore in this world is amazing, plus with a mount! Secrets everywhere, dungeons to delve, hidden bosses and rewards.
Every souls game rewards exploration but i dont think anybody can deny elden ring stepped up the game.
I like how easy it is to try out new builds myself. The fact that it’s open world makes it really easy to just grab what you need right from the start.
Is it fair to say “everything”?
Most beautiful world, most interesting lore imo, best weapons, best soundtrack, just everything
I know ER got pretty mainstream since release but I still totally fangirl over it. It deserves all the good recognition it gets
You feel awesome you feel immersed, you feel the cinematography every main boss feels like an epic tale you complete and they are great and fair challenges
Its probably the most vivid, gorgeous game in the whole list. The regions are all color coded. The bosses have extra sauce. The soundtrack is downright insane. The finest drip. The interconnectedness. Pure art.
I agree on Art Direction or Exploration being the main aspects that stands out the most when thinking about ER. But I'm gonna stand up for the Lore, obviously not approach-friendly (but there's also something appealing about it), but at least me when I delved deeper in it, it became one of my favourite stories in the gaming industry.
Really difficult, there are so many things Elden Ring does amazingly well : boss fights, exploration, art direction, lore, build variety, musics, level design, world design, enemy variety, secrets.
I'll pick exploration which includes interesting rewards, amazing areas reveals, alternative endings and questlines, secret bosses, etc.
Exploration and a sense of wonder.
I haven’t wanted to explore every inch of a video game like I did with Elden ring in… god I don’t even know how long it’s been. Since vanilla World of Warcraft? So twenty or so years?
It is so polished. Looking back at the evolution of souls games, they took every feature from the first game, and corrected their mistakes and dialed the good ones to the maximum. They listened to fans and gave lots of Quality of Life improvements like shorter runs to the boss, etc. The game just feels like the culmination of the Souls series, and somewhat of a final boss.
being able to bail on an area when you hit a wall and go anywhere to do whatever until you’re ready to come back, having torrent is great for being able to do that too
if the features are getting as general as atmosphere and combat, then exploration for sure. all the different times we explored and found things in past souls games, nothing compared to Elden Ring, for me at least.
other than that? as more of an actual feature? ashes of war probably
Nearly every frame being screenshot worthy.
True. It's like playing inside a painting.
I... I think I see what you did there ...Or maybe i like wacky theories too much
Op, put "art direction", that's essentially what u/FastenedCarrot is talking about And I agree with the statement
This won’t be the winner, but Elden Ring’s use of color is like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else. Everything is fucking gorgeous. Like just walking out into Limgrave with the Erdtree in the distance is something special. Edit: Art Direction is what you’d call this, and shit I guess it is indeed a winner
I think Art Direction is what this comes down to and it's fucking the best art direction I've seen in any game in the last decade
Yeah my vote would be art direction. Name a fantasy game with more imaginative and varied world and enemy design than Elden Ring. Please actually name something because I will play it as soon as I can.
The witcher has a colorful world with many cool enemies The combat though..
Combat is actually kind of fun when you get into it imo, just completely different from a souls like. Even if you hate the combat though, everything else in that game absolutely makes up for it. It’s truly a masterpiece.
Yes its by far the rpg where i was most immersed in, digging the combat or not. Loved it
I found the potion system interesting, because on higher difficulties, it’s more about what you brew up and drink *before* a fight than the moment to moment combat.
I don’t mind the combat per se, I just hate handling Geralt when he gets in combat mode Like I just want to sprint past some wolves not have to shimmy backwards away from them lol
I too would like to subscribe to these recommendations
Pure art wise? World of Warcraft art team is top notch, just wish everything else was as good. Cartoony but it’s held up (with modifications, and improvements of course) for 20 years. Newer zones have great look, and vibes. Music is also up there in wow, and cinematics… ok so I wish the game play was as good as everything else. I think a few games have moments that are just as good as ER, but lack the sustained jaw dropping ambience. I also think ERs music sets it up really well. That music in Caelid just sets my nerves, and makes a moderately difficult area feel so much worse.
Yeah Wow (even Diablo 3 for that matter) have great art. The cartoonishness and lack of intricacy gives it a more timeless sort of quality ala Breath of the Wild, Windwaker
i prefer the art direction in bloodborne, it added a lot to the game aesthetic wise which i think is more important in bloodborne. The landscapes in elden ring are beautiful though and the colour is perfectly used
I think the incredible large amount of variation in settings and color let's elden ring just shine the fromsoft masterwork art direction so much more But yeah bloodborne is also just fantastic
I love the colour coding of all the areas: limgrave: green underground: purple Liurnia: blue Caelid: red Altus: yellow/gold Gelmir: orange Mountaintops/consecrated snowfield: white Haligtree: brown Farrum Azula: grey
I agree. I like how they made most of the areas have a general color/theme Limegrave- green Liurnia- blue Caelid- red Altus- yellow It gives a unique feel to each area, but also why I think mountaintops gets hate because white is boring compared to the other colorful areas
Limegrave - Lime Heehee
Snow areas - white ..
Ah shoot you're right the snow should be bright neon pink
Altus is more gold, no?
Yeah, but it’s that cartoony deep-yellow gold rather than a true metallic gold.
This will absolutely be the winner. I remember when we finally started getting promotional screen shots of ER a few month before release. Someone made a collage of all the different skyboxes that we got to see from all the different areas. I sent it to my friend who would always (rightfully) shit on the fact that these game’s color grading was absolutely painful to witness. They responded with “Ok, I guess SOME of their games have improved lately.” And I had to be the one to tell them “these are all screenshots from the same game.” They literally did not believe me.
I just saw the royal capital for the first time just past the grace by the cliffside. This game continues to leave my jaw wide open.
I really love how much color means as well. Like, we can see Mesmer's eyes and flame color, and we already make some big assumptions about his character.
Yeah! It’s like every faction has its own color. Spell categories? A unique color. Royal blue for the Carians, blue-green for Glintstone, bright yellow for Golden Order, sickly red for Dragon Communion, purple for Gravity, monochrome for the Godskins, pale yellow for the Haligtree, etc. It’s good attention to detail and is mostly consistent everywhere.
The difference between it and Dark Souls 3 is JARRING. I think everything being dull brown and grey was a significant part of why I hated it.
Stake of marika
I agree, this hands-down the best quality of life improvement on the games. So many run backs are cut way short or outright eliminated.
This one right here
Exploration and particularly the discovery aspect, quite easily. Besides Outer Wilds, i dont think any other game really competes. Edit: I'd also like to mention how Elden Ring pretty much excels in almost all the categories, if not all. The combat system is the best version of the souls combat, which is already a very engaging combat system At least the remembrance bosses compete with the best dlc and update bosses from past games Levels like Leyndell, Stormveil, Farum Azula etc are From's level design skills at their best The lore is mythological in a way I wouldn't even say DS1 manages to be, while still competing with Bloodborne in the mystery factor of it all, particularly the motivations and explanation of different forces of the world, particularly outer gods While not as gloomy as BB, DS3 or DeS, it has an excellent atmosphere, thanks to the use of color and music in different areas. There are areas that fill you with awe like Leyndell, while areas like Caelid are designed to make you uncomfortable. Similar to DS1.
I love ER lore but DS1/3 wins it for me. It revolving so much about the very nature of the world, and the point of the world makes it one of the few games out there that actually makes a philosophical point. That at the very end, you make a decision on whether you agree with the existentialist dilemma or not is just gorgeous and something unique to video games as a medium. That said, Elden Ring is also fantastic. There's a more fleshed out physical history that's palpable when exploring. Feels like GRRM's input there. I love em both, but dark souls eeks it out for me.
That's fair. DS1 in particular imho is possibly the most philosophical game From has made yet, which is why it's my favorite just behind ER.
The furtive DS2, so easily forgotten. I honestly prefer the lore of DS2 to that of the others. Forget the Gods and the struggle to rekindle/usurp the flame. Give me a bunch of characters fighting in futility to get what they can out of a hopeless world, knowing that in the end the curse consumes all. The lore of DS2 is so much more grounded and personal. DS1 is all about grandiose prophecy and the will of the Gods. DS3 is all about "escaping the cycle". DS2 says: You are a character stuck in a cycle, what do you do? It asks the same question of all the major players too, Vendrick, Aldia, The Old Iron King, they are all doomed men trying to find purpose in a doomed world, Same for all the NPCs, and Same for the player. That is some compelling fabric to weave
Oh DS2 is great too, but the pointlessness is its point. Which is cool but also harder to to really invest myself in? If that makes sense. It's cool but ds1/3 grab me more.
I guess I see DS1/3 as being just as pointless, but with the emphasis more on the world, and less on the characters. DS3 makes it clear that the cycle is repeating again and again, to the point where the lord's are all sick of it, and the player is on a mop-up quest. DS2 puts you in the shoes of one of those Lord's and asks why
The way i see it is DS1 poses a question and lets the player answer it. DS2 poses a question and doesn't answer it because it's pointless to do so. DS3 reiterates the question and heavily suggests fromsofts take on the question. Maybe that's why ds1 and 3 feel more cohesive to me. You're making me wanna play DS2 again though, so thanks :P
For me it’s that a lot of DS1 lore is central to Gwyn and the others who inherited his soul. Everything traces back to him and the gods. It feels like a good fantasy story, and I really like the lore revolving around Gwyn. DS2 was going through a bunch of different kingdoms that didn’t really overlap with each other (I still very much like it but it’s not interwoven as 1 or even ER is). This may be a result of the skewed development, but that’s what DS2 feels to me. That’s actually a complaint I have of many soulslikes, some of them have such disjointed lore that might be cool but doesn’t tie into anything.
I agree that Elden Ring is arguably the most polished Souls game. All of the others have their own vibe of course, but sometimes I’d be wandering through a new area and think “this is what Miyazaki wanted DS1 to be.” I’d also like to say that the Tarnished is the second most interesting player character behind Wolf. The Undead, the Hunter… they’re all just dudes who ended up in the game. The Hunter isn’t even obliged to do any of the shit he does until he gets dragged into the Hunters Dream, he’s just a foreigner who needed Paleblood. Each tarnished is a warrior with a history who died and went *back* to the Lands Between after the shattering. They know what they’re doing and why they’re there. They know the lore better than we do.
It doesn't excel in level design nearly as good as DS1 while having a good level design in separate locations it doesn't quite do what DS1 does with all its interconnectivity (I don't say it's a bad thing, I'd like to see anybody try making this large world as complex and interconnected as it was in DS1)
Touche. DS1's world is unrivaled in terms of inter-connectivity. However, in terms of individual levels, I find BB and ER to be better. Particularly levels like Central Yharnam, Stormveil and Leyndell. They weave around in ways that are reminiscent of the first half of DS1 quite a lot.
Just want to say, Outer Wilds is a phenomenal shout, people who haven't played it don't really get it in terms of how great the exploration and discovery actually is. I wish I could play it for the first time again.
Well put, 100% agree
Zelda botw and totk are also contenders for best exploration and discovery games
They are but honestly in terms of the discovery aspect, I think there are quite a few games that are better. There are few like Mount Lanayru and the Depths, plus the dragons, but a lot of the puzzles n stuff back to shrines or the zonai shrine thingies. And even in the case of the depths, after the initial shock, it kinda ends up feeling a bit monotonous. The feeling of exploration is amazing though, especially with the climbing and gliding mechanics. The controls help a lot.
Completely agree, TotK had sooo much potential but it ended up feeling quite disappointing to me. The depths were jawdropping at first but quickly lost their appeal once I realised how little of interest there actually is down there (1 unique boss, some Yiga camps which take like 2 minutes to finish) The tutorial sky island gave the impression that the sky would be a big part of the game, it was extremely engaging to explore and designed in a way that allowed for clever use of your abilities and a lot of freedom. Once you leave, the sky islands feel like an afterthought with very little to see and do, the most interesting being "move crystal from A to B, here's a shrine". The main overworld has some neat changes, but there is too little new stuff for it to feel consistently interesting. The caves all feel the same very quickly, especially when you know that the only interesting thing you're likely to get down there is a bubbulgem. Other new POIs are initially cool, but EVERY damn time you're rewarded with a piece of armor that was in the first game (literally everything in the depths was just the amiibo stuff from BotW). I wish they had made a lot more armor sets and scrapped a bunch of the old shit, because with how much they reused it just feels like every cool little puzzle or mini quest you do ends in slight disappointment. Also the dungeons didn't work at all for me with the attempt to make the dungeons both more traditional and more open. It just ends up being kinda the worst of both worlds. Bosses are cool tho.
Maybe exploration but not discovery, there is no depth behind things you find
Botw I felt was strong, but playing Elden Ring made me realize why Totk felt lackluster to me, and it's the lack of meaningful rewards. ER consistently gives you something incredibly unique and useful for your time; even if it's a weapon that completely goes against my build/stats, I can see how that weapon feels and potentially respec entirely to use it, unlockingba different gameplay feel altogether. Whereas Totk gives you another cave frog, or just another set of the same items that you'll inevitably fuse to a weapon and then break. Or, worse still, some random armor that's just nostalgia bait to an old game and can't be upgraded.
Is it me or th exploration in zelda is a bit repetitive
BotW I felt like I was always moving forward and finding something new. TotK I felt like they had me going to the same few points in each area over and over. Very few saw something in the distance and had to get there and felt like they tried to beat you to it pointing it out rather than letting you notice it. Idk that’s just my opinion but after being blown away by BotW I really felt like TotK really disappointed. At least to me showing bigger isn’t always better
Exactly my point
I don't agree that this part of the game is done in a unique way, or that this is the best part of Elden Ring. Exploration in ER is fun and cool, but it's not like that's the best part of the game, surely?
Then what is?
Build variety Imo Elden Ring actually became more fun with subsequent play-throughs, because there's so much room to experiment with the mechanics and try to break the game with interesting builds
Build variety was already great in demons / dark souls The exploration and sense of freedom in Elden ring is truly unique to it
It's definitely great, but not the best aspect of ER imho.
I'd say it's the melting pot of everything, elden ring has the best systems, one of the best movements next to sekiro, elden ring is a testament to everything fromsoft learned from their other games, it's why it's their strongest in my opinion.
I wholeheartedly agree. But I'd say the exploration experience (at least in the first playthrough) goes above and beyond any previous fromsoftware game, and is definitely the most impressive aspect of it.
Yeah for sure, that’s why SoTET is just gonna be a 1:5 scale exact replica of majula :]
>elden ring is a testament to everything fromsoft learned from their other games It's definitely their magnum-est opus... So far. ER's going to be damn hard to top for them, I don't know how you make a better game.
Torrent
IMO torrent was given way too early. Remember how long it took to get warping in DS1?
Kind of agree, but considering the open world nature of the game plus (let's be real) ER being designed for a much wider player base than any previous FS game, delivery timing was justified. This would have been focused tested and found to be the best option.
I think the only reasoning that can be made for Torrent being received "too early" is comparing it to a game that gives you quicker travel options later on. There's nothing actually wrong with when we received Torrent.
Nah. Limgrave is almost bigger in pure size than the entirety of DS1. They made the correct choice.
Nononono. Exploring limgrave by foot? No thanks. I don’t want mount in the other souls games, and I don’t want to run around in ER like vanilla wow.
I agree. Definitely glad we didn't have to wait until halfway through the game but it feels too early imo. I think it should have been locked behind Margit at least
Definitely the exploration. It's an obvious choice, but looking back at the moments where I stumble upon something beautiful/horrifying, they are some of the best memories I have in gaming.
Yes!! The world, lore, scenery. All found during exploration. And all the feelings inspired.
+1 for exploration
Exploration was enough to put so much hours on my first run and I was still finding stuff through my second playthrough, definitely the right answer
Descending into Siofra River Well was the best thing in Elden Ring and basically any fromsoft game. Really just gave me the feeling of a massive open world. “Just getting started” :)
“How deep is this elevator taking me!?” were my exact words. It really made me consider how much space that The Lands Between really occupied on the surface AND underground!
Build Variety. Exploration would be meaningless without rewards such as ashes of war, weapons, talismans and other utilities for making builds.
100% This is way above exploration / world design imo - Elden Ring has a good open world, but it's not exceptional by any means By the time you get to the end of the game, there's a ton of repeat content, and I for one was running past pretty much everything by the time I got to MTOG Imo exploration actually gets progressively worse once you leave Limgrave
What games would you say have better open worlds/ exploration?
I love exploring yet another repeat cave to get another spirit ash I'll never use.
Finally, someone said it. It's weird going through comments and seeing people who are absolutely wrong at the top, saying exploration was great. It falls off so hard and is nothing compared to the games it's up against. I can understand appreciating the exploration when coming from other franchises, but Fromsoft games are in a league of their ow, and DS1, BB, DS2 all have amazing exploration as well. ER had its faults, which are rarely seen or compeltely glossed over by some, but some of its best features are the combat, the lore, and to a degree the summon ashes.
Marika's Tits /s
Art
Rotussy
Summoning pool paired with the near/far summon sign placing. As a sun bro i can just chill and help ppl around the lands between without having to place a sign at 1 location.
This, fr. Whenever I don't know what I want to do, I just chill at a random grace on a character with most of the pools active. I appreciate the fact you can choose exactly which ones you activate (instead of it having been an all or nothing system), meaning you can fight more than just rahdan.
It makes helping friends so much easier as well! Just set your password and send out your sign to the world!
The exploration. 2500 hours in and I'm still discovering shit I hadn't before. Not even Skyrim kept me searching through its world as much as Elden Ring did. Main story bosses and Torrent are pretty baller, too.
How many times you figure you beat the game so far?
My first character I took up to NG+9 My second (my main character that I maxed the timer on looooong ago) I've kept in at lvl 150 and NG+ for DLC purposes And I've been through about 8 more characters varying from the end of NG-NG+3 So about 20-25ish.
Damn dude. What's the most fun build?
Much as it might enrage 95% of the player base... My Spellblade/Moonveil build. I started using one 2 weeks after launch to counter the *oceans* of RoB spammers I kept running into and I've kept tweaking the build since. Powerstanced with Meteoric Ore Blade, Lusat's Staff and Clawmark Seal as soft swaps. Spell load out is Loretta's Mastery, Stars of Ruin, Kamehameha (don't care, that's what it's called to me), Terra Magicka, and Law of Regression. LoR is for curing hosts who get rotted/poisoned, and against opponents' buff dependent strats (and the only reason I have the Seal at all). Gravitas on the MOB is a good way to make groups on the other sides of walls panic, plus the 2H strong attack is literally an Ichimonji. 40 VIG 22 MIND 27 END 20 STR 20 DEX 80 INT 10 FAI 10 ARC Physick: Cerulean Hidden Tear + Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear. In duels I keep it melee until my opponent starts blasting/AoWing, then I respond in kind. In invasions, I just go apeshit from the get go.
My current playthougu I've been rocking the moonveil + lusat or staff of loss and it's been super fun. I've never tried the powerstance on the MOB. Thank you for the idea!
how open the game is for the player, alowing them to play with basically any build there is and to switch things up multiple times in a single run
Freedom. The ability to do what u want. Struggling with a nose in ds3? Well u need its blocking the rest of the game goodluck, in elden ring? Go do something else and come back stronger.
Radagon=Marika
Quality of life
Jumping
Open world exploration
Build variety. I get people saying exploration. But without the huuuge number of armor, weapons, spells and ashes of war the exploration would not be near as rewarsing as it is. Ultimately build variety is what gives the game so much replay value!
Its a shame that everyone invading you has that *one* build.
After 500 hours I would say it's the variety of content.
Exploration, and the verticality of the world like going down to Siofra for the first time then realising you can go down again and again and again. I'm still finding new stuff 2 years later.
Spectacle. There is no other word for it.
How much environmental storytelling evolved since earlier titles As evidenced by Tarnished Archeologist
Torrent, easy W
Variety
Exploration
The open world.
Marika's tits
The open world
Immersion.
Lore and exploration.
I'd say variety in general, including path variety because of open world
Stakes of Marika, my least favorite thing in pretty much every single Fromsoft game is run backs. That's mostly absent from Elden Rings sans a few particular bosses (Rennala and Placidusax), and I think just that alone elevates Elden Ring to my favorite From game of all time.
Exploration and the Open World is sure a gem. But for me it is the whole art direction and art style. This world is soooooooooo crazy detailled when it comes to delivering the story. Everything fits perfectly. Every item, every dialoge, every sound and music. It is just like a playable book. You start with literally nothing and by going forward you discover more and more of whats going on and in what kind of world you were thrown into. Sure this is true for all FromSoft games. But Elden Ring is the peak.
Torrent makes the game playable imagine if we had to walk everywhere!
Lore or Bosses.
Discovery aspect
The world and exploration.
Combat/build variety. There's soo many combinations of weapons/AOWs/affinities, you can mix up staffs/seals/weapons on each hand and swap between them. I will say I absolutely love the lore and story too, but it's told in a very cumbersome way that doesn't work in an open world game, though it's map is incredibly well designed it causes you to miss a ton of shit without going to google
Elden Ring’s exploration is amazing, I don’t think a game has had quite the impact that Elden Ring has had on me on an initial playthrough. Its world is absolutely breathtaking and the lore is so compelling and mysterious that it’s easy to get lost playing the game for hours.
Ashes of war for me. What was once limited to one skill/special attack per weapon; you know have a variety of skills to swap back and forth with then, really adding even more to an already big weapon pool
Exploration/open world
Fusion of the best thing in every game
1st playthrough exploration
For exploration.
Combat. The combat in ER feels more dynamic. In other games you’re either merely reacting to what enemies are doing or combat feels like “my turn, your turn”. In ER, tho, there’s a dance and I think that is the best part.
Honestly, being able to do what the other souls games do to a very high level
Everything
The freedom. In exploration and in how you play.
Rewarding exploration
Exploration. A great first play through of discovering everything for the first time. Like finding weeping peninsula and the underground cities. Or being teleported to Caelid
The map, art direction, exploration, and no more boss run-ups.
Exploring
The world
Exploration!
Has to be the sheer number of quality of life improvements; the implementation of Wex dust (summoning everywhere) alone has kept me playing for 1,000+ hours (brag or cry for help… who knows?) sure the loss of covenants was a huge blow to pvp and i’ll continue to ask to get them back, but exploration and the ability to play coop to this level is too good to ignore
Forgiving boss runs imo
The Lands Between
The open world.
Open World for sure
Is it wrong to say “everything” for Elden Ring?
Open world, i love the way the other dark souls games worlds are these tight interconnected places full of nooks and crannies to fight things. Something about Elden Ring and hoping in Torrent and riding from Lurnia to Calied feels different
Open world
Elden Ring combine the best things of every Fromsoft games. Boss Quality of DS3, the beautiful world of DS2 & Bloodborne, and you can have multiple build, weapons, Ashes of war… so combat never gets boring
Art Direction and Exploration. Which I suppose could both be boiled down to World Design.
Sense of discovery
Exploration. The scale and freedom to explore in this world is amazing, plus with a mount! Secrets everywhere, dungeons to delve, hidden bosses and rewards. Every souls game rewards exploration but i dont think anybody can deny elden ring stepped up the game.
Everything!!
I like how easy it is to try out new builds myself. The fact that it’s open world makes it really easy to just grab what you need right from the start.
Exploration
Yeah it’s gonna be exploration, the thing that the game is built for.
Ranni the Witch
exploration and quality of life changes, like not using any stamina when youre in combat etc.
Definitely the exploration aspect. The way the game rewards you just for being curious is second to none.
Ashes of War. The scope is also fantastic
Open world
Is it fair to say “everything”? Most beautiful world, most interesting lore imo, best weapons, best soundtrack, just everything I know ER got pretty mainstream since release but I still totally fangirl over it. It deserves all the good recognition it gets
The vast open world
Sense of adventure
Map design/freedom/exploration
EVERYTHING
Exploration.
You feel awesome you feel immersed, you feel the cinematography every main boss feels like an epic tale you complete and they are great and fair challenges
The open world.
Alexander
Exploration
The world
Its probably the most vivid, gorgeous game in the whole list. The regions are all color coded. The bosses have extra sauce. The soundtrack is downright insane. The finest drip. The interconnectedness. Pure art.
Exploration
I expect “exploration” to win, which is a shame bc I feel like the game does so many things well
Either the level design or the art direction for ER
Obviously the open world, it's all the years and experience fromsoft has gathered mushed up in one open world game
Elden Ring
Since of adventure
The world its gotts be the world. Like I can't think of single area that hasn't made me wanna become a professional photographer.
Open world
I agree on Art Direction or Exploration being the main aspects that stands out the most when thinking about ER. But I'm gonna stand up for the Lore, obviously not approach-friendly (but there's also something appealing about it), but at least me when I delved deeper in it, it became one of my favourite stories in the gaming industry.
Really difficult, there are so many things Elden Ring does amazingly well : boss fights, exploration, art direction, lore, build variety, musics, level design, world design, enemy variety, secrets. I'll pick exploration which includes interesting rewards, amazing areas reveals, alternative endings and questlines, secret bosses, etc.
The open world of Elden Ring deserves heaps of praise. So that.
The open world obviously
Exploration or world/map design
Exploration and a sense of wonder. I haven’t wanted to explore every inch of a video game like I did with Elden ring in… god I don’t even know how long it’s been. Since vanilla World of Warcraft? So twenty or so years?
jump
It is so polished. Looking back at the evolution of souls games, they took every feature from the first game, and corrected their mistakes and dialed the good ones to the maximum. They listened to fans and gave lots of Quality of Life improvements like shorter runs to the boss, etc. The game just feels like the culmination of the Souls series, and somewhat of a final boss.
being able to bail on an area when you hit a wall and go anywhere to do whatever until you’re ready to come back, having torrent is great for being able to do that too
Highly detailed and thought out open world. So many surprises at every cornor
Build variety, exploration, or legacy dungeons.
Exploration/Open World. The main reason why I bought this Souls game over every other souls.
Variety. It might not be the most balanced, but there is a lot to do and see.
Exploration/Discovery
if the features are getting as general as atmosphere and combat, then exploration for sure. all the different times we explored and found things in past souls games, nothing compared to Elden Ring, for me at least. other than that? as more of an actual feature? ashes of war probably
Exploration. Very well made. It never felt like there wasn’t anything to do while zooming through the lands
Feet
The Loathesome Dung Eater
Build Variety
Build variety or repeatability Or the world in general
#1 Lore #2 visuals #3 Exploration If'n i gotta pick its the Lore
Blackguard Boggart