The ādo I press on or shall I go back and saveguard my soulsā is such a good mechanic.
Killing npcs feels about as real as itās gonna get in a video game. Thereās something about removing the few non-hostile characters from a world mostly populated with beings who will kill you on sight.
@xidnpnlss it means that the damage output of a weapon is partially tied (scales) to one or more of your stats. You can see what a weapon scales with in the item descriptions. A scale rate of āAā is higher than āDā.
I went to the south, killed the Lion, Margit was easy after that, ok i summoned an ally, i confess, even bought Margits shackels from Patches, but didnt have to use them. Godfrey seems possible aswell, did kill him as a Summon. Playing Astrology is easy mode. Knights are just pew pew dead. I only regret leveling up the Falchion, which i converted with a magic ash - still i think i should have taken something with greater reach. Also i dont have to learn blocking, as most enemy have to be outrolled and shot from range, i feel a missing part in the game. In all previous games i had choosen warrior with bow.
And itās easy to get greedy, when youāre doing quite well. Itās like, āI got plenty of flasks and good health and Iām in the zone now. What could possibly go wro -ā YOU DIED
So I donāt know how they pulled that one off, but the tension of making that choice, to push on or go back, thatās an exquisite and genius example of the fundamentals of risk vs reward. Especially since there often is no risk - going back is usually zero hassle, and since youāve beat these guys once, you know you can beat them again.
And yet, the temptation to keep moving, gets stronger and stronger.
Meteorite staff found andā¦ canāt use it yetš
Working through Stormveil and cheesed it with that spider arm thing by firing off spells and arrows from up high. No guilt felt at all.
Itās crazy how the game can have such depth at a micro level (Stormveil for example) and also so much depth at the macro side of things when off aimless exporting.
I fancy returning to try the runebear again. But noticed a mention of a lion above and that tickles my fancy.
Just need to get my build optimised. Starting to rely on the shield too much for my liking and Iām slow due to the armour and stuff. Wonder if I can get by with a staff in one hand, sword in the other and just some ragsā¦
Thatās how I managed somehow until recently (except for the rags) ^^ A scimitar in the left hand, an astrologer wand spamming sorceries in the right one.
I just arrived yesterday in the second legacy dungeon. I donāt manage anymore. Iām getting spammed with sorceries. The irony.
I am loving Elden Ring. Had to give Stormveil a break, I kept getting lost and finding different paths to the same grace sight. Got some sweet loot in the process though! Anyone find that red Holy Knight? I just cleared out the southern part of the map and the smaller castle Mourne. Pretty tough boss there as well, had to summon some help for it.
Canāt tell if itās a spoiler or not, but actually Iāve been walking around like this ever since I got this cute +8 rapier from the āBig Hat Guyā who also sells you magic. He gave it to me after I met him a second time in this āRound Tableā sanctuary.
I canāt say what you have to do to get it, but it seems that you have to beat a boss.
The game is a piece of cake now, bosses melt by the power of my spellsā¦ oh look there a little dragonflyā¦ you diedā¦ love this game
Oh man, have you got some serious internal conflict in your near future.
Youāre spot on with the tactics observation, by the way - certainly in my experience, once Iād clicked with DS, combat in most other games felt lacking. At least tactically - I can still enjoy a simple all-out button-mashing frenzy, but anything that tries to be tactical has to stand up to the DS standard now, and few do. Assassinās Creed has obviously gone in that direction, but I think it lacks the courage to go all-in and risk alienating the audience, so itās a watered-down experience.
Elden Rings ramps this up beautifully with the way that many potential enemies will stand there staring at you, instead of just charging straight in, as if theyāre also trying to calculate their chances of success. In a lot of those instances Iāve had to choose to commit to a fight, and it always IS a fight, not a simple mop-up operation. Other times Iāve backed off to protect my bank balance, which exhibits a fairly equal mix of cowardice and prudence.
Was just thinking, now that have logged a couple of solid hours, that starting with Elden Ring as an entrypoint into the series, would be pretty fucking overwhelming.
My first impressions:
Have to say, that so far, itās pretty fucking awesome and itās just getting better and better. Game also runs really well, turned everything to max and Iām getting 60 fps with the occasional drop into the 40s @ 1920x1080 on a rx580, which is pretty in my book.
The game is absolutely massive. It sort of plays a trick on you in the beginning, letting you think the map is only a certain size. Then as you explore more it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Itās actually finally starting to get a bit overwhelming for me haha. Guess Iāll just explore the Liurnia area.
I thought I had the map pretty much covered till I went down the wells.
I donāt think Iāve actually progressed much in the story. Just exploring Is so much fun. Some of the map feels pretty empty but I donāt think this is a bad thing. It just adds to the broken world atmosphere.
it is the way 
You gotta be kidding me with the size of this game.
in my book.
right fucking on 
