Welcome back to the Tales from the Lands Between: my in-depth experience and review of Elden Ring. I am roughly forty hours deep into this magnificent game, which means this will be full of spoilers. I’m not hiding anything I do because I want encapsulate my first impressions and thoughts. This game is great, but it’s best experienced first hand. If you don’t want any areas or bosses spoiled for you, click away now!
Multiple hours and deaths after my previous Tales edition, I feel like I’m finally finding my footing in the Lands Between. The combat is coming easier, I’m understanding the extensive RPG systems, and embracing this chaotic realm. Every crook and cranny breeds peril, pressure, and pain. Understanding and adapting is imperative.
PROGRESS!
I was a hamster spinning its wheels for a good portion after defeating Margit, the Fell Omen. I’ll talk about my Stormveil Castle struggles later, but said struggle caused me to spend multiple hours exploring again. Fortunately there are an insane amount of things to find and explore. By this point, a good portion of Limgrave, Stormhill, and the Weeping Peninsula were complete. I felt confident enough to pay a few former adversaries a visit.
When you boot up Elden Ring and Limgrave greets you, a giant gold man on a horse says, “hello,” with one swipe of his Halberd. The Tree Sentinel is exclusively there to pummel new players into powder, and I was out for revenge! My adequately leveled up character took all previous frustrations out on him and felt great enough to smash the giant dragon Agheel. He joined the Sentinel in the Afterlife and I was on top of the world! Defeating bosses in From Software games is one of the most satisfying things I’ve experienced in gaming. It’s the nagging weight lifted off your chest.
If killing an old enemy and a Dragon wasn’t enough, I was granted the ability to eat the deceased Dragon’s Heart in “Dragon Communion” in order to breathe fire. That might be one of my favorite things I’ve done so far!
I also stumbled upon an academy of angry sorcerers that wouldn’t let me into their ranks. The Academy of Raya Lucaria looks to be a place that my magic specialist needs to get into! That seems to be where I must go next, but I had some unfinished business in Stormveil Castle.
Flexibility
Before I get there though, I wanted to talk about the incredible combat system. One of the best parts of Elden Ring is the various ways you can play. The various builds to form your character all revolve around this incredibly deep stat system. These eight attributes make and define the ways to play Elden Ring:
- Vigor– Overall Health Points, the red bar on top left of above video.
- Mind– Overall Force Points, the blue middle bar. Spells cast use Force Points, so magic builds want a higher Mind stat.
- Endurance– This stat increases the green stamina bar on the bottom. It’s one of the most important stats because everyone needs it. Attacking, dodging, and horse riding all use stamina, but the other important Endurance attribute comes in the way of the EQUIP LOAD I’ll talk about in a minute.
- Strength– This is the direct damage modifier for melee builds. Most combat weapons need some sort of Strength to use as well.
- Dexterity– This one is similar to Strength, but mostly for fast or ranged weapons.
- Intelligence– This is the primary offensive magic stat for sorcerers. My mostly ranged magic build requires a high Intelligence.
- Faith– This one is also a magic stat, but one for defensive spells, called Incantations. There are also different spells and weapons that require specific Faith levels.
- Arcane– This attribute is an interesting one. It’s a ‘luck’ stat of sorts for improving your loot finding, but it also influences sorceries and resists a curse status effect, called ‘Death.’
That above video shows my penchant for using magic at a distance, which means I focus a lot of Runes (money?) towards Intelligence and Mind. Ranged magic seems to be my default to combat the spastic nature of Elden Ring’s enemies. That, and my complete ineptitude at Parrying close range attacks.
There are so many different character paths in Elden Ring too. Every beginning character class can be fine tuned exactly how you want it, or at some future point you can completely reset your stats. It’s an incredibly deep system. I’m a magic user, but an offensive magic user that focuses on ranged combat, dodging, and close ranged swords. As I progress further into the game, maybe I change it up!
Heavy is the Head
Another very important part of Elden Ring’s system is the EQUIP LOAD statistic directly affected by the Endurance stat. Everything you equip has a weight to it, whether it be weapons, armor, or accessories. These all equate to a number divided by your max equipment allowed by Endurance. This is important depending on the build, whether Its a slow moving soldier needing a lot of armor, a ranged magic user needing to dodge, or anything in between. These RPG elements give the player a lot to think about as they level up and experience how they want to play.
I’ve found that the first 15-30 hours of Elden Ring are figuring out exactly how you want to play. A new player to FromSoft games, like myself, has never had success before, so it has taken me a long time to figure out. I’m excited to find out what comes next, now that I have a basic understanding of this incredibly deep battle system.
Okay, enough analytical RPG talk!
The Man. The Myth. The Legend
The fifteen or so hours encapsulating this section had a lot of bouts of frustration. Going through Stormveil Castle, on my way to greet Godrick, was some of the most aggravating times I’ve had in recent gaming. It was worth it, however, because these struggles required me to adjust my strategy. I figured out an alternate path, snuck through the castle instead, and found my way forward. Work smarter, not harder.
Success!
I grinded and snuck my way through Stormveil Castle to parts unseen. An NPC, named Nepheli Loux, offered her services to help me take on the Castle Lord, Godrick the Grafted. We took him out in our first try. That one felt great!
It is very easy to complain about the difficulty of a From Software game. I know that I’ve spent numerous hours bashing my head against a wall in a cursing frenzy trying to find my way, but the grind is the point. That struggle and grind leveled me to a point where Godrick couldn’t handle me. Yes, I had help from Nepheli Loux, but the game is designed that way. From Software knew a bunch of new people would jump at this open world opportunity and gave us options to defeat the man with the Dragon hand.
Godrick cutting off his own arm to attach a Dragon head isn’t something I’ll soon forget.
…I Think I found Story?
I wanted a little more clarity in Elden Ring’s story, and I think I actually received some forward momentum on that note. Killing Godrick seemed to be a major point because it led to a lot of quests. I deposited his Great Rune (soul?) in a giant tower, which then led me back to the Roundtable Hold. Everyone was surprised that I killed Godrick, and I met Enia, the Finger Reader. This interesting lady talks directly to the ‘Two Fingers,’ who you see in the video. It seems like the Two Fingers predict the future through something called ‘The Greater Will.’
Confused yet?
I sure am. I’m thankful to be getting more story, but I would still love a Journal to document everything. It would help prevent me from this happening again:
I found one Castle Morne and proceeded to defeat the boss, except apparently there was a questline involving this area that I didn’t know about. The castle Lord, and his daughter Irina, needed help defeating the boss. I will never know what was supposed to happen because I talked to Irina and inadvertently started the quest at some point and did things out of order. I later found Irina dead along the pathway. Could I have saved her? Did I do the quest wrong?
A Quest log or Journal could prevent that from happening. It doesn’t have to tell the player where to go, but a simple journal could document everyone you’ve met and what they’ve said.
Random Thoughts
- The one character I’d never forget is Iron Fist Alexander! He’s a talking pot with arms and legs that I’ve met a couple times. He’s full of life in a dreary, desolate world. My favorite character I’ve met so far.
- to understand more of the “Multiplayer” aspect to this game. Why do I have so many different fingers? What is this fingering system, and should I be worried or excited about errant fingerings?
- The amount of traps in this world is obnoxious! I find treasure chests, only to be transported to areas for proper shredding and processing. This world is designed to obliterate you.
Conclusion
Elden Ring continues to be a phenomenal experience. It is great because it gives you everything you need to defeat you adversaries. The time to look for the answer needs to be done or you’ll be unsuccessful. The game makes it worth the time.
From Software games have been a long debate about needing an ‘Easy mode.’ I understand wanting this because these games are very difficult and time consuming. Until I progressed hours upon hours into Elden Ring, I was for the Easy Mode. I’m not anymore. An easy mode would ruin what makes it special. The patience, grind, and hard work in Elden Ring pays off in the end.
It’s not always like that in Life. I’m cherishing the challenging opportunity.