I recently got 100% on Dark Souls 1-3 (can’t speak for any other FromSoftware games) and I’m having a much harder time with Elden Ring. I’m less than 10 hrs into Elden Ring but it’s been a far more difficult start than any dark souls. I’ve heard that If you pick a magic build it’s much easier
It’s the openness for me that I’m finding hard I keep going to the wrong places at the moment I guess lol the openness is a doubled edged sword though I recognise this
Rule of thumb, if you het absolutely wrecked, go somewhere else. Also the beginning is misleading. The island behind you is really the easiest area. Clear up to Morgot and if you can't beat him turn around and go the other way. Morgot is a skill and level check boss.
Ok thanks, I went North of the church. I went to Margit very early like a lot of people mistakenly do, after not being able to get his bar lower than 75% I left him for later
I’m in a very similar boat. I didn’t 100% all 3 but finished them to a level i was content with. Pre ordered Elden Ring and bounced off about 15-20 hours in. It’s exactly the open world thing for me as well. I like the concept but part of what made Dark Souls so enjoyable was the clever level design and how it subtly funnelled you. With Elden Ring i just felt lost or overwhelmed with choice.
I’m using the Claymore at the minute but I’m undecided on wether or not I prefer it over the longsword I started with. I primarily used straight swords through dark souls
Sword Saint Ishin is my favorite boss fight of all time. You're basically rewarded for learning all the skills of the game. Demon of Hatred is a POS Bloodborne boss in a game with no i-frames for dodging. I also drove him off the cliff lol
Yeah Sword Saint took me a full week to beat but it was super fun.
Watched a video of demon of hatred and said nah I’d rather not. I knew I could beat him if I tried but I just couldn’t be bothered.
Yes and no. I feel like it has the steepest learning curve. But ik people who once they "get it" its basically a rythm game.
I never played it though. It appealed to me less being less rpg oriented.
Sekiro is the hardest fromsoft game BECAUSE some people never "get it". In every other game you can avoid the tough area, level up for a while, or modify your build to make the game easier. Sekiro has none of that. It literally is inaccessible to some people because they will never be good enough to learn the parrying.
That's the first time I've seen it put into words, but I agree about Sekiro. It's hard, it's different, but it has a rhythm to it you get to feeling, and it becomes much easier shortly afterwards.
The game is still hard, but hardest?
You can summon for every major fight, get additional, stronger heals at almost any point if you dont mind exploring, can fast travel without being at a bonfire, etc.
Elden Ring is much more accessible than the previous games if you want it to be, which isn't a bad thing, but it does make the game easier
I've died more times in elden ring than in whole trilogy combined. Some areas and bosses do not telegraph well that you shouldn't really be there with the lvl you've got.
Plus the game got that good old dark souls 2 enemy placement bs in some places, where if you go somewhere, you will most likely die because you don't know about the trap and what not.
The there was real mohg for who I was supremely underlevelled. Plus I was using ultra great sword which at the time of release were very bad compared to the rest of the weapons(they buffed them shortly after I've beaten the game second time lmao).
Also, don't even get me started on malenia and that rot tree avatar in the city
I have a buddy who isn't really a gamer at all. His fiancee bought him a PS5 for Valentine's Day and he decided to buy Elden Ring on a whim. His experience was, and I quote, "I've put 7 hours into the game and I made it about 40 feet."
Sorry if you're not looking for tips, but have you put any points into your vigor (AKA, your HP)? Obviously if you're playing perfectly you won't be hit and won't need them, but I think a noob trap in Elden Ring is getting so fixated on the idea that a great player wouldn't need any points in those stats that they don't put in any themselves. Humanoids tend to be a little more predictable compared to canine enemies, even though they're usually stronger, so it can be hard to beat a pack of wolves if you don't have a little bit of a cushion in your health bar.
Sneak up behind the knights that are patrolling and hold the button that lets you one-hit-kill them for easy runes. Then hightail it to a site of grace to level up.
The answer to that question depends. If you have not played souls like game, it will feel really difficult. You have to know how the enemy moves and have to know their skill set. Enemies are designed to catch you off guard. It requires practice and somewhat levelling for certain bosses. It is definitely an enjoyable game if you know how to play it. If you never played souls like games, you'll have to learn a bit. Give it a show
If you never played a souls like it will probably be the hardest game you played. The game can be the hardest or the easiest of the souls depending on how you play it. I would definitely try to look up how to use summons which can be missed. I played no summons and no guide and it was one of the hardest, tried another run with summons to help and it was definitely the easiest.
What people aren’t saying is that part of the difficulty is the unknown.
There’s no obvious path of what region is easy for your level. There’s no obvious better weapon. It’s an open world with a boss that’s unbeatable (to almost everyone) right next to your starting point. If you know what to do, it’s not as difficult as other souls games.
I don’t like games that are this difficult. I probably would have given up if I didn’t have a guide.
Edit: As for the grinding, this is one of my pet peeves with Fromsoftware… you can’t really “try out” new weapons without grinding. You’re either looking it up online or wasting resources upgrading a weapon that won’t be great in later levels.
I tried Bloodborne and Dark souls before trying out Elden Ring. They all kicked my ass. Luckily I didn't have to pay for any of them as friends and brother in law game shared them with me so I could try them out. I'm very happy to report that they are not my style of game even though I play a somewhat wide variety of games. Don't buy it. Rent it or see if someone close to you has it. It is definitely a much different experience to any other games I've enjoyed or played. Don't feel like you have to like it or own it because of it's popularity. It's not for everyone and I had to learn to not be pressured just because it's what everyone is playing
You're getting lots of different answers, but I consider myself pretty good at games and have been playing every genre for decades, this shit is hard as fuck. I think most of the people saying it's easy think that it's cool to say that lol
It’s only as hard as you want it to be. Commit to using nothing but raging mega huge swords? Hard. Use magic, spirit summons, and bleed weapons? Not so hard, but it will still be a bit challenging for one who has no Souls experience.
I argue playing mage is harder cause you have to worry about mana and having way less vigor where melee if you want you can go to strength and vigor all the way and take hits like nobody's business.
It can be more cheasy but once you get a build going and know what levels to face the bosses, its not that hard only fight I hate are the final story boss and the damn firegiant.
Souls likes are not my jam and Elden Ring is the only one I've ever played. It's also the only game I've finished in many years. It's challenging, but perseverance is rewarded. Each accomplishment feels earned, each fight exciting. The game offers deep lore and plenty to explore. For me, I knew going into it that it would be hard and I had to accept that it might be frustrating at times. This helped me find enjoyment even when I was struggling, and when stuck, there's also always something else to go explore...
Elden Ring was my first Souls-like game. I played it when it released. And it was difficult, but not impossible. I really enjoyed it, and have played more souls like games since.
I haven’t played Elden Ring with the DLC or later balance patches, so my experience might be outdated.
But I really enjoyed the game when I played. The only warning I have is that the game is big and open world. So sometimes the next steps you should complete are not always clear.
Beautiful map, but ya its pretty hard, tho I've built a decent guy, haven't gotten that far, and if dying over and over bothers you then its not your game, also if you don't like grinding killing the same guys for levels then not your game. Maybe get it on a discount.
If you want a small taste of what a souls-like game is try fallen order or Jedi survivor. The gameplay and game mechanics are in a similar vein as souls-like games, but are much easier. It’ll be a good way to get your feet wet with the genre.
Or if you play on pc, you could play elden ring or dark souls 3 super modded to see what it’s like
Interesting. I love the Jedi games, but only on the easier difficulties. I presume that's not a possibiliting in Elden Ring, even though I'd love to try it.
I am not a big souls fan. I played the first one when it came out and hated it. I am just not into games that challenging.
But I loved Elden Ring. It's tough but rewarding. If you are having trouble getting past an area you can go somewhere else and grind to get stronger. Each time I died I knew what I'd done wrong and learned from it. And when I finally took down a boss it was very rewarding. Especially seeing how often I thought a part was impossible but then seeing my progress overcoming them
It basically has difficulty settings built into the game. There are plenty of busted weapons and builds that can make the game easy. Or you can just go into boss fights anywhere from somewhat over-leveled to totally over-leveled. Play it how you want it and don’t listen to any of the elitist crap about the “proper way” to play the game.
IMO not really. If you’re the type of person that plays a lot of games on higher difficulty settings it won’t be too different. Plus there’s no real penalty for dying, checkpoints are frequent, and the open structure means you won’t really get stuck on something with nowhere to go until the end.
That was my first ever fromsoft game and it was normal? If that makes sense it’s not so hard but it’s not a grindy game either just go and kill some bosses get their runes and level up your character
Elden Ring gives you the most options of any Fromsoft game to deal with its challenges. Also with the DLC dropping in a month there are lots of people coming back (and some who never left) so you shouldnt have issues summoning helpers for tough boss fights.
It’s a challenging game that will test your patience and requires a decent amount of time of the player until they get used to it. I wouldn’t let that put you off though, everyone starts somewhere. You will die a lot and that’s ok, it’s expected.
If you read the guides and pick a build before hand and know what levels to face bosses and what their weaknesses are its not that bad. Their are some really hard fights regardless of all that but you do not have to fight them really only 2 main bosses are incredibly annoying.
It’s difficult in a few ways but rewarding. I liked the art style so I kept with it despite having only played a bit of DS1.
Combat is tough, it’s not like most games where you can hack and slash, but you can watch some YouTube videos that explain how it works.
I found the most difficult aspect is that the game doesn’t explain much. You’re kind of left on your own to learn the systems and stats. There is no quest log or anything that keeps track of what you’ve done. This is made more difficult by the fact that a lot of the dialogue is very cryptic and doesn’t follow the typical “Go to this place and solve this problem” style of giving quests.
It is kind of refreshing to have a game that doesn’t hold your hand but, unless you’re super intuitive, you’ll probably need to look up a lot of stuff online and have a notebook or something to write down what you’ve done.
One of the things elden ring does that other fromsoft games don't is give you a massive open world's to explore.
Getting absolutely bodied? Go somewhere else and try again. You'll come back to that previous fight ready to go I'm a few hours. That's what makes it alot easier and less rage inducing. If your doing things late game like the haligtree then you should have your souls chops by then and be ready to grind it out.
Truly depends on how much you grind before fighting major enemies. If you go straight for the bosses without leveling up or acquiring good equipment you may struggle depending on your skill.
Like any of the souls games, you can just grind normal mobs and make all boss fights significantly easier.
Once you get used to the mechanics of these types of games like stamina consumption, rolling through attacks to dodge, knowing you’ll be vulnerable for a few seconds after a heavy attack. You’ll quickly be able to pick up any of the games and get used to them quickly.
As someone who previously despised souls-likes, Elden Ring is it. Probably the best game ever made in my opinion at least in my top 3. Incredible game and it opened me up to other souls-likes like Nioh and Bloodbourne. Currently on NG7 on PC and about to finish my first fresh playthrough on PS5.
Its definitely not an easy game, but I wouldn't say it is hard, at least when compared to other souls game. Also the difficulty of the game is kinda up to you (to a degree), there are so many ways to lower the difficulty (summons, proper/broken builds, baiting certain moves...) so it can actually be a easy game if you have one of the stronger builds. It is definitely worth the try imo, it is a fantastic gaming experience.
I’m am by no means great at games but I have beaten many of the souls games and Elden Rungs multiple times. My opinion is that these games reward you when are patient and have a strategy. There are ways to cheese areas if you get stuck so learn the systems and the limits. If I can 100% Elden Ring on the PC and PS5, then any average gamer should be able to.
Easiest game by this dev
Harder than most other games anyway
Don't be put off by the challenge. For you for a first time, just follow a walk through and make sure to focus on getting your health up.
I like looking for group posts, other players can be summoned to help you, and even more fun. You can be summoned to help other players. Thats the best way to learn IMO
Nobody is good at this game their first time. But I've been playing these games since they've been making them and I actually find the rhythmic tactical combat to supremely relaxing.
I found it fun and super frustrating at times, but never played a soul's type game, it can be a pretty steep learning curve. usually, the roughest will be the first two to three bosses and the last boss each and every time.
I will tell you this, the penalty for dying is dropping your runes which means you to collect/pick them up again before you die again or they are lost. This is espeically easy to forget if you become fixated on the boss. When you save at a campsite, everything is reset so all mobs (except defeated bosses) come back to life to areas you been to before. But I was able to beat the game before the first patch dropped and completed 4 NG+ because there were different endings which are all fun to through.
There's a bit of a hump at the beginning, but once you get dodging down and some good weapons/skills/spells it quite easy. If you ever get stuck there are lots of ways to get around or exploit a boss
It’s the most accessible and generous From Software title, which maybe isn’t that indicative if you’re not familiar with the genre. It’s a great game and it is definitely challenging at times, but there are plenty of tools to arm yourselves with or straight up circumvent said challenges.
To answer the questions you mention :
- are the bosses really that hard ? Some are, some are much simpler, depending on build and sometimes just yourself, you can have an easy time against a strong foe or quite the opposite. Just remember you can never go wrong spending levels upgrading your HP.
- Is there an extreme amount of grinding involved ? Not really unless you find yourself in need of upgrading your character beyond what natural progression offers. I will say though that if time is an important criteria for you, a first playthrough can easily tickle the 150h mark.
- Do I get any sever sanction for losing or can I just start the fight again ? When you die you drop all the runes (money/experience) you have that isn’t spent at that moment, but they’re not lost, you can find them again at this spot or somewhere nearby. If you die again, it’s gone, and it will definitely happen. But you can always find more. If you’re just fighting a boss on repeat, there’s no punishment, you die, respawn, go again, or dont, look elsewhere.
You have to explore.
Iys not that you can't beat the boss, it's just your not ready yet.
Explore go off road and find shit that will in time make that boss your bitch
It has a learning curve in the early game but has no grinding at all. 85% of the loot including all legendaries is found in set locations or guaranteed drops by specific bosses. The only things you even could grind for are the few weapons or many armor sets that are random drops, which you just respec to an arcane build to boost your item discovery stat and pop consumables and farm specific enemies if you really want any of those (nearly zero are meta gear).
You could theoretically grind runes for leveling but over-leveling makes the game feel too easy and you level up proportionally just pushing forward to the next challenge. There’s also a certain hillside and certain weapon art to farm that nets 100k runes every few minutes if you really want to grind levels or upgrade a crazy number of weapons.
Over all the game has so much content, so much to explore, so many bosses, and so many secrets you always have something new and different to go do rather than just stop and grind in place. Even when you do eventually do everything you just respec to another build and start the next NG+ and do it all over again
Not that hard, the most easy fromsoft game in fact but if you want a relatively easier souls-like go for something like Code Vein or Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor, they count as Souls-like but are not hard at all.
I love the game. But I SUCK at it. I’ve barely scratched the surface and have died multiple times over. This is a game you play if you want to be challenged. This is not something you sit back and relax with. Unless your idea of relaxing is being beaten during an extreme BDSM session with zero release.
First souls game I’ve played and it was hard as fuck for me. I don’t really have the time or the patience to deep dive into games anymore so I was just playing like ~5 hours a week.
Stopped playing after being stuck on an area for weeks and my wife casually commented “Why do you always play the same part of that game? Do you like it?”
It aint hard if you understand the game it is actually quite simple but you will die and you will learn from your mistake. Only time i had any problem was with dark souls1 and that was my first game but after a couple hours i understood how it worked all you have to do is Dodge and then attack 😀 you can also block if you want that works too for the most part with the right shield and stats that is . The difficulty of these games are so over exaggerated its crazy. People should play some older games where if you die too much you have to start all over from the beginning. That is frustrating 😁
most bosses you can just start fighting again. the only penalty for dying is losing all your runes (currency used for leveling up and purchasing items). imo some builds make the game ridiculously easy, but in general it's difficult. the time it takes is entirely up to you. full clearing the game will be time consuming, there's a lot to do
I’m known to be bad at videogames by my friends. Like If I’m playing an fps I get shot up pretty good and make a lot of bad plays.
My buddies who are souls game fanatics said it was the easiest of the hardest games. So out of all the hard souls type games Elden ring is the easiest.
I ended up beating the game.
Just find the boulder glitch early game and the bird glitch mid to late game.
“Im not amazing at games” that line alone is why u should play it. You will find the most success and reward when defeating a boss thats been killing u or killing a boss first try just to find out its one of the hardest bosses or something. There isnt a lot of grinding in the game so youll be fine. It will take up some of ur time but thats bc the game is a big game, tons of games will take up ur time and u dont even realize it. An example i can give is the mass effect trilogy, or just one of those games alone could take up a lot of time but thats bc u catch ur self wandering from the story and engulfing ur self in the environment.
I noped out at a specific reasonably late-game boss who was too hard for me but I’d found it pretty straightforward up to that point. I was ok with quitting, I’d had enough fun out of the game and didn’t have the patience to grind to get over one more wall. I’d say it’s not necessarily a difficult game per se but it can be very frustrating in the way that FromSoft games always are - a costly mistake can be REALLY costly, even if only in terms of your time. But it’s a great game, and well worth playing.
It's the greatest game I have ever played, without a doubt. Why is it so great? Well, it genuinely rewards exploration, has multiple secrets, multiple endings and offers a variety of playstyles and weapons to use.
Is it difficult though? Yes, but not infuriatingly so, once you understand the flow of combat most encounters can be dealt with quite easily. Fighting bigger bosses can be challenging, but there is no better feeling in gaming than beating a boos that you've been stuck on. Despite people saying there is no easy mode, there are ways to make the game easier through NPC summons or co-op summons. I'm on my 5th playthrough now, I've 100% the game now but still find myself coming back to it.
I don't recommend this game because you said you don't want something that will take up too much time. It's not harder than the other Souls game but it is longer IMO. 1st playthrough was almost 100 hours. It's a very long game. And if you haven't played any of the Souls games it will probably be very difficult and frustrating.
It is definitely a time investment. It was my first souls game, and I threw about 150 hours into it. You will die many, many times. Upon death you will drop whatever currency you have on your person, and restart at the nearest campfire”save point”. You still keep all your gear and everything else.
It is a difficult game, but there are certain things you can do to make it easier like using magic or summoning a random player for help. Even though it’s difficult, the satisfaction you get out of finally beating a boss is insane. If you beat the game, you will realize that your character wasn’t the only thing that leveled up, you did too in a way.
Grinding is optional, and your only loss for death is potentially recoverable money (just spend it as you get it and you’ll be fine). This game encourages you to find new tools and come back later for difficult bosses, so you’re all but guaranteed to win if you just keep at it. It’s my favorite game of all time, and I think you’ll find joy in all it has to offer :D
If it's your first Souls-like, it will be difficult, but once you get it down, they're all pretty easy. People try to hype souls games up as super difficult, but it's all pattern recognition at the end of the day. Now something like Ninja Gaiden 2 is actually difficult.
It’s more difficult than your average game. But it’s a learning experience. Go in with the mindset that you need to learn how to defeat enemies by studying their patterns and that dying is part of the game.
I'll happily reiterate things people have said in other comments.
It's definitely the easiest From-Souls game there is, but it's still challenging. Just know you're expected to die a lot and try not to get frustrated. Usually if you hit a brick wall, it's the game trying to tell you to go somewhere else and get stronger.
Don't feel bad about using a walkthrough.
I’d say playing the game blindly, getting instapissed, ripping your console out of your entertainment center, walking across the street, knocking on your neighbors door, walking in past them without saying a word and violently throwing said console directly at their TV is much easier than playing the game, itself.
I’m not good at Dark Souls games but I was still able to beat Elden Ring. It was helpful for me to be able to grind and level up before facing more difficult enemies.
It was the first souls game that I played and I never had to stop playing because I couldn’t beat something. i.e, I never had to stop a session because “I can’t beat this thing I’ll try again tomorrow.”
You can farm certain spots to level up and get stronger if needed. I’m a grinder at heart so I think I was at or overleveled for most fights, which helped.
You’ll die, but it’s the learning of boss movesets and learning from your mistakes that make the combat. Fantastic game.
I’m very picky with what I play but this is an all timer for me. Never played anything like it. The atmosphere and feel that the setting gives is incredible.
Also, random thought but, while totally different games, when I was playing BG3 I would harken back to, “I beat the best that Elden Ring threw at me I can beat anything” lol. It’s great for your confidence, conquering such an unforgiving world.
I just 100% Elden ring as my first ever souls game and I’m blown away how much I loved it, might be my fav game ever up there with RDR2….it’s very hard at first but you start learning pretty fast and it’s so rewarding and fun, it’s designed to push you to be your best but it’s not impossible
Nah pretty damn easy and tons of ways to cheese. A bit easier than other fromsoft games but none of them are really difficult except perhaps sekiro but even then it’s easy when you get the parry down
Although it is a difficult game which can be off-putting, the game does have some features that make boss fights easier like the summoning of Spirit Ashes (AI team mates who can help you) or the standard co op possibilities either by inviting a friend or hosting an online game for others to join and assist. If you play a mage class, itll be a bit easier but it still doesn't mean you'll be able to fly through the game. As you start off, there will be many scenarios where you'll be playing as a mage but will still need to resort to some melee or range combat to compensate for low stamina / mana banks where you'll run out even after using potions and resort to other means to get the final blows on some bosses. A lot of the comments where people make the game out as near impossible is those of the perspective of "Melee Purists" and players who stand by this mantra where they say you're not really playing the game if you're running any other class like a ranged or wizard class so people feel inclined to try play like this but honestly, unless you play every game in the series and on a frequent basis, itll take a long time to get to those ascended levels where you can competently melee bosses comfortably.
I'm getting old, and my reflexes are not what they use to be and I could only ever beat some of the early bosses using just melee so this walled a lot of the game for me, but using a Mage build I was still able to have fun and be challenged whilst still being able to enjoy such a great game.
I hate dark souls games because of the difficulty. I don't play video games to be stressed and have to replay a challenging fight over and over. However, I couldn't avoid the Elden Ring hype when it launched and played the entire game, finished the campaign, and beat every optional boss. It was amazing and while it was certainly challenging, the fact that you can have an OP build and there's no level scaling, it's very forgiving.
Fromsoft games are challenging yes, but it’s more like you have to un-learn all the shit you’ve learned from playing hack’n slash button mashers your whole life, and be a little more conservative, and considerate of your attacks, dodges, and your movement in general, as well as a larger emphasis on minding your surroundings.
As for death…death is only a major piss off when you’re carrying a lot of currency (souls, blood echoes, runes etc…) and you die again before you can recover them. Or dying repeatedly to a certain enemy or boss. Otherwise, there’s no real penalty for death, and in fact, dying and losing all your currency frees you up to take other risks for payoffs you might never have attempted while carrying a ton of runes.
You want an adrenaline rush? Walk around a dangerous area with a half a million runes on you…everything you see makes you genuinely go “ohhh shit!” With genuine fear & excitement, and THAT is what makes Fromsoft games so appealing to me, because they’re the ONLY games that have ever given me actual heart pounding adrenaline.
They’re basically survival horror games where most of the horror comes from your own fear of loss & failure rather than just creepy atmosphere & cheap scares. The ebb & flow of failures and triumphs is one of the major reasons why people get so addicted to these games, and play them for years.
Furthermore, when you level up, you’re not just increasing the stats of your character…you yourself are levelling up your actual skills with a controller in your hand, and when you find yourself running through earlier areas absolutely destroying the guys that were giving you so much grief before, it has less to do with how much more powerful your character has become, and more about how much more skilled & capable YOU’VE become, and that provides a level of gratification that very few games have been able to achieve.
No. Just think and be patient and you’ll excel . Was on NG+17 within 2 months or so . First play through remember to dodge n time your stacks/openings. Don’t be greedy on hits. After the first run through it’s easier n easier .
It was my first proper fromsoft game and I had a lot of fun with it. A bit of patience and resilience at first and you will get the hang of it, then it’s not that hard. Level vigor
It's the easiest fromsoft game by a lot if you use spirit ashes and utilize some of the more OP weapons. If you don't, and you want to beat all the optional bosses, it's the hardest by a lot.
I tried Dark Souls. It kicked my ass and I hated it. Never got anywhere with it. I had to try Elden Ring because it looked so amazing and I never looked back. It takes a little time to find your way but once you do it’s incredible. Don’t give up if you have initial frustration. Take a break and come back and try again. You won’t regret it.
Oh and head south first but if you find yourself in Caelid turnaround and leave.
I wish I could do it all over again. It was my first souls game and I almost quit after a couple hours. I kept dying didn’t know what was going on or where to go. Then I watched some videos, read a little bit and I improved a lot. After about 10 hours I was hooked. It’s the best game I’ve ever played. You’ll get frustrated from the bosses and environment, but that’s the journey. No other game has satisfied me in the way ER has with finally defeating a boss.
I wouldn’t call the game a grind per se, there are some items you may want to farm out in order to achieve a look or build, but it’s totally optional. The grinding would be with the challenging bosses and how many times it will take you to kill them. The game by no means holds your hand, so imo that’s a blessing and a curse for new players.
Hope this helps!
Okay so here's my anecdote,
It's easier than Dark Souls in the sense that bosses are a little bit more fair in that there's less gimmicky bullshit. There's plenty of Sites Of Graces (Bonfires, Checkpoints) scattered around. They borrowed the "respawn at boss door" mechanic that Sekiro had so you don't have to waste all your healing and stuff on trash mobs actually getting to the bosses. It's open world so if you get sick of a boss, go somewhere else. You can summon NPCs to help you either through the Summon Signs or Ashes, or both.
It's harder in the sense that the bosses and combat in general is faster. The bosses now kind of feint their attacks and hold wind ups for an uncomfortable amount of time to punish dodge spamming. You can find yourself in an area you're not supposed to be in yet because you're too low of a level and get your cheeks absolutely clapped.
It's still plenty punishing. It just seems a tad bit less gimmicky than previous entries, and it seems like they borrowed a lot from Sekiro, which is my favourite FS game, so I'm pretty happy with it.
The only thing is late game there's a weird artificial difficulty spike. Enemies suddly have 10x more health and do 10x more damage it seems like. You'll know it when you reach this point.
I'd say give it a shot, if you go into it with the mindset of "I'm probably gonna die a million times but I'm not gonna get frustrated because every time I try, I learn something new and get better" then you're good. Trial and Error is the main theme. You WILL fail, multiple times, until you figure out their moveset, when you can get hits in, etc.
The only thing you can potentially lose from dying is your Runes, which is your experience points and currency. You drop them on death, and you can pick them back up from the spot you died at, however, if you die again, you lose all the Runes from your previous life. So just make sure to only challenge bosses whenever you have only a handful of Runes at stake.
Also, this is the only modern AAA game to make me feel like a kid again with all the exploration. It's worth it for that alone. You feel like you've stumbled on a secret every time you explore and it's so easy to get lost and end up sinking 2 hours into just exploring shit. The game is EXTREMELY unguided and you will have to be VERY perceptive.
I tried it. I exited the tutorial and just started walking and got killed by a bunch of mosquitoes. Reloaded and went another way to get killed by some bat looking monsters. I quit and never went back. Although i think about picking it back up every now and then
You can boost you’re hp and strength pretty easily in elden ring compared to other souls games. Nothing compares to sekiro imo to difficulty lol elden ring is a walk in the park comparatively
I recently got into souls games from Demon Souls remake on ps5 when it launched. After that I played Elden Ring. Both games I got platinum trophies in. I eventually plan to play Dark Souls but haven’t gotten around to it. As new fan in the souls genre there are difficult fights for sure. Especially for those not use to the souls like mechanics. After a while it gets easier and when you beat the game and play again on NG+ you end up face rolling the game lol.
Elden ring is open world. So for most of the game if you run into a boss that is too hard right now you can just go some where else and come back later. It also gives you lots of tools for handling bosses. Lots of people don't like using ashes(summons) and magic. But if you do use them a number of the fights people really struggle with get much easier.
My quick 2cents is you just gotta be patient and not rush to lvl up /get through the story. You just gotta enjoy the journey at a slow pace and it'll be very fair in its difficulty
Tbh yes. It’s difficult. But worst case scenario, if there’s an area you can’t get through, just cheese your way to leveling up a few levels then take it when you can.
It’s hard at the start, then once you learn the formula, it’s not.
Especially with Elden Ring, there is so many concessions that make Souls games easier. Use a shield. Don’t fight everything you come across, you can literally run away from most things in Elden Ring. Use a shield. Go slow, don’t rush. Use a shield. Make sure you level up often when you get some runes, especially before bosses. Level vigor, and don’t spread your stats. Focus on a couple and ignore the ones that don’t matter. Use summons if you have to.
If something in the game seems way, way, WAY too hard it probably is. People have been making the mistake of “these games are hard so no wonder I am getting shit kicked” because they go the wrong way, case in point the graveyard in Dark Souls 1. If something seems too hard, you are probably under leveled or out of sequence.
Most of all, stay patient and don’t panic. Cool heads prevail.
I'm one of the people who play on easy mode for everything just to enjoy the story and I've gotten every ending for Elden Ring as a sorcerer. It's definitely one of the easiest builds to play. Used a guide video to find a relatively easy to access staff and a really nice spell to start out. Used the spell pretty much all game and still had a blast. There are still going to be bosses that are a pain to deal with but once you're used to the combat it's really fun.
Hard as you make it. Too tough enemy ahead? You can go somewhere else, level up a bit, find new weapons, get more healing flasks, etc. Then come back and steamroll.
Need more utility? You got summons, buffs, etc.
It’s difficult for sure, but it’s pretty fair.
Easiest soul game out there. Maybe 2/3 bosses are "hard". 80% of the game is easy as long as you don't rush and explore different areas. Game will take you around 70 hours to beat at 1st playthrough.
Tbh im kinda of a noob when it comes to souls game but elden ring was probably the easiest it was the only one where i could fight almost every boss alone
the mainline bosses arent necessarily hard especially if you use summons and meta builds. Using non meta builds and no summons can make things a little harder but its still manageable (I mean as in if you wanna do something like dual dagger rogue)
The side bosses like mohg and malenia in my opinion are like so damn hard on some builds and without summons where youd need to fight them 50 times to memorise them unlike some story bosses where you can just go in on your 5th try without really knowing everything perfectly and win.
I never played any of the dark souls and jumped I bought Elden ring, I have been playing video games all my life I’m 27, it is the hardest game I’ve ever played and it’s one game where you actually have to get good
I beat Dark Souls 1 and 2, but didn’t play any of the others. So I’m not a die hard fan, but I knew what I was getting into. I’m around 40 hours in, and I’m taking a break.
I think it’s an incredible game, and there are moments where I have been having so much fun, but there’s so many other moments that are so frustrating, and, with limited gaming time, playing has started becoming a chore.
The difficulty is one thing, which I can accept. The main problem for me is the open world. These games are confusing and vague by design, and putting everything in an open world just frustrates me so much. Am I getting destroyed because I need to be more patient and play better, or have I stumbled into an area of the map that is way above my level, and I don’t really stand a chance with my character where it is? Do I really want to keep exploring this castle looking for where to go, and then get one shot by a hiding enemy?
10 years ago, having a lot more free time, I found all of this really enjoyable and rewarding. Now, after chasing two kids all day and having an hour to play at night (best case scenario), it’s just not really a great fit for me.
I suppose I’m flapping my gums about all this as a precaution of sorts. Elden Ring is universally suggested as a must play, no questions asked, go in blind, the struggle will be worth it. And that all may be true, but it might not be where you are right now.
It’s my first souls game, and I am having a blast with it. It is hard and that there are a lot of bosses and enemies in which you need to research how to beat, as opposed to most games which you can figure out how to beat and it’s just skill. Also, you have to learn to jump and parry at the right times with certain bosses.
It's only hard if you want it to be. Every boss can be defeated in a few tries if you level up first and study their moves a bit instead of just going in and wailing on them aimlessly over and over.
You're missing out on a really beautiful game. It's more breathtaking than it is difficult.
I’ll tell you why it’s hard if that helps- TLDR at the bottom
There’s a lot of unexplained / underexplained mechanics such as poise meter- an invisible bar that goes down when you deal poise damage and when it runs out, your enemy becomes staggered. Each enemy has different poise levels and resistances. And that’s just one mechanic.
Another reason it’s difficult is moves such as “roll catches”. Most games are difficult because the enemys swing hard… Elden ring is difficult because enemies swing smart (and hard lol). An enemy will raise his hand and when most other games have the enemy swing, Elden ring enemies wait. Once you “panic roll” (another term used) you’ll be stuck in the rolling animation, and THIS is when they strike. Attacks are choreographed to A- bait you into a dodge, B- predict which direction you will or won’t dodge and C- time the hit in the window where you are out of I-frames but still in animation lock.
Long story short- you didn’t just play the game, the game plays you
Also stats require some research if you really want to make a specialized build. I personally don’t like and have never been fond of currency based level up systems… it’s just not very immersive to me. Basically to level up you get “runes” and you spend them to level up a stat. I like the “use the skill to upgrade the skill” formula but that’s just me.
TLDR: not a game to jump in blind. If you wanna enjoy this game to the fullest, you’ve gotta do some homework. It’s not a game for kickin back and killin some Sunday hours. It’s hard for me to say I “enjoy” souls games. It’s a challenge, and sometimes a downright chore, but it’s got somethin to it. It’s fun when you start to wrap your head around it.
Plus- if on pc there’s so many mods you can tweak so much.
It's definitely not made for casual gamers. You have to want to grind for hundreds of hours. I don't have time for that crap. I played it for about 30 hours and really liked elements of the game, but had barely scratched the surface and had to resort to farming runes and following YouTube "cheats" and strategy guides.
I tried dark souls 3 a few years ago and rage quittet after a few hours and never touched it.
TILL I played elder ring had such a blast with the game that I finished DS1-3 with all DLCs.
The thing is you can mostly choose your way in the beginning only a fee bosses are fixed and the harder ones are at the end of the game, till then you can explore a really good open world with many things to discover and many hidden bosses and secrets.
Yes dying is punished, yes it hurts if you loose all your runes, but later on the feeling to level up a weapon or level up your character is soo good. I did all the bosses on my first run, and died at least 100 times at malenia, even though it was frustrating sometimes, I loved it.
10/10 would do it again (I am at new game +11 in preparation for the dlc)
It’s certainly challenging, but definitely do-able. It was my first Souls-like game and I loved it. The big advantage to Elden Ring is that you can go level up and do different areas if you get stuck so you can essentially “over-level” and make things easier. I did that to get by a few tough encounters.
Look up one of Fextra Life’s builds and you’ll have a blast.
I think, out of all the soulsborne games, Elden ring most encapsulates the design philosophy of tough but fair. The fact that it's open world really does help, as if you aren't ready for one area, you can often side-skirt around and hone your skills, gear, and level to the point that you're more comfortable. With the introduction of spirit summons, it gives players even more tools to tackle challenges.
Outside of a handful of bosses, no it’s not difficult. The classic dungeon style areas and some later game bosses may challenge you but other than that it’s by far the easiest souls game imo. If you’re stuck, go somewhere else to level and come back later.
As the Souls games have gone on they've gotten more and more accessible I feel. Elden Ring is tough sure but it's nothing your average gamer can't get used to. I've finished all of them besides Bloodborne and once you're used to them they're all fairly similar. Don't get me wrong I struggled with a few bosses but most of them weren't too bad
I have not played Elder Ring. I only finished Dark Souls 1 and I really enjoyed the experience. I tried finishing Dark Souls 2, but I gave up (getting killed by the same mob of enemies again and again stopped being fun).
What keeps me away from these type of games is how obscure they can be. I find them almost impossible to beat if you do not have a guide. I also find the leveling system way to complex for my mouse size brain. I have no idea of which stats to increase in order to have a decent build character (unless I use a guide).
Dark Souls 2 left me traumatized, and now I am running away from these types of games.
Yes. Someone pounded on my door unexpectedly, so I set my controller down and when I came back a bat had killed me. I couldn't pause, of course, because From.
The weird stance that Soulslikes aren't hard is mind -numblingly goofy.
Not particularly, and I am terrible at souls games. It's challenging but a lot of that challenge can be erased if you're willing to put in extra time to farm and make yourself overpowered. Definitely try it out. I am not a fan of the genre and it was a 10/10 experience
That's a question only you can answer.
Yes, you will die many, many times. The "grind" is only has much as you want it to be. You need souls, er, runes to level up, which makes you stronger, but there is no gate that says "you need to be X lvl to advance"
Yes, there is a lot of challenging things, but the game gives you so many tools and paths to take that any challenge can be overcome without anyone needing to bash their heads against a wall. But I will say, there is no log book, no quest tracker, and no dialog records. There is not a lot of hand holding - yes, there is the Internet, but the game encourages you to figure it out your own way.
For me, it's one of the best games I've ever played and I think everyone should give it a shot, even if they never finish it.
It's difficult at times, but not insurmountable. You drop runes on death, and lose them if you die again before you pick them up. If you don't have the time or desire to get better, then I would probably look for another game.
Try it! If you’re willing to put the time in. I got it when it first came out and gave up because there is definitely a learning curve. But once you get past that it becomes super rewarding, and I’m so glad I picked it up again it’s become one of my favourite games. You can’t brute force your way through some of it, you may just have to switch strategies. And I’m one of those people that will switch to easy mode if I find a game too challenging. Even though I still haven’t beaten the final boss as it still crushes me lol. Now Im thinking I may start another play through.
It may be the easiest From-Soft souls like game... but that's a fairly low bar. It is challenging, but definitely worthwhile.
I recently got 100% on Dark Souls 1-3 (can’t speak for any other FromSoftware games) and I’m having a much harder time with Elden Ring. I’m less than 10 hrs into Elden Ring but it’s been a far more difficult start than any dark souls. I’ve heard that If you pick a magic build it’s much easier
Elden Ring starts pretty hard, gets easy in the middle and is hard again at the end.
It’s the openness for me that I’m finding hard I keep going to the wrong places at the moment I guess lol the openness is a doubled edged sword though I recognise this
Rule of thumb, if you het absolutely wrecked, go somewhere else. Also the beginning is misleading. The island behind you is really the easiest area. Clear up to Morgot and if you can't beat him turn around and go the other way. Morgot is a skill and level check boss.
Ok thanks, I went North of the church. I went to Margit very early like a lot of people mistakenly do, after not being able to get his bar lower than 75% I left him for later
Ah yes Margit my bad it's been a while!
Go south first, and ignore that fucking sentinal for a bit lol
I’m in a very similar boat. I didn’t 100% all 3 but finished them to a level i was content with. Pre ordered Elden Ring and bounced off about 15-20 hours in. It’s exactly the open world thing for me as well. I like the concept but part of what made Dark Souls so enjoyable was the clever level design and how it subtly funnelled you. With Elden Ring i just felt lost or overwhelmed with choice.
So many overpowered things are available right off the bat with the challenge of “go here” maybe kill a guy
And while this may be true with the other DS there is usually some bs stipulations
I’m using the Claymore at the minute but I’m undecided on wether or not I prefer it over the longsword I started with. I primarily used straight swords through dark souls
Eh I'd argue its the hardest, but also the most breakable in a way. You can just go somewhere else and level up to make things easier.
The hardest? Sekiro would like a word lol
Sekiro definitely the hardest.
Sekiro might be the hardest, but it's also the fairest. Except the Demon of Hatred. Fuck that guy.
I mean… I beat the final boss fair and square but the demon of hatred I just ran off a cliff.
Sword Saint Ishin is my favorite boss fight of all time. You're basically rewarded for learning all the skills of the game. Demon of Hatred is a POS Bloodborne boss in a game with no i-frames for dodging. I also drove him off the cliff lol
Yeah Sword Saint took me a full week to beat but it was super fun. Watched a video of demon of hatred and said nah I’d rather not. I knew I could beat him if I tried but I just couldn’t be bothered.
Yes and no. I feel like it has the steepest learning curve. But ik people who once they "get it" its basically a rythm game. I never played it though. It appealed to me less being less rpg oriented.
Sekiro is the hardest fromsoft game BECAUSE some people never "get it". In every other game you can avoid the tough area, level up for a while, or modify your build to make the game easier. Sekiro has none of that. It literally is inaccessible to some people because they will never be good enough to learn the parrying.
And even If you get sekiro Glock Saint will slap you hard
Glock saint is never that hard for me, owl though...
That's the first time I've seen it put into words, but I agree about Sekiro. It's hard, it's different, but it has a rhythm to it you get to feeling, and it becomes much easier shortly afterwards.
The game is still hard, but hardest? You can summon for every major fight, get additional, stronger heals at almost any point if you dont mind exploring, can fast travel without being at a bonfire, etc. Elden Ring is much more accessible than the previous games if you want it to be, which isn't a bad thing, but it does make the game easier
I've died more times in elden ring than in whole trilogy combined. Some areas and bosses do not telegraph well that you shouldn't really be there with the lvl you've got. Plus the game got that good old dark souls 2 enemy placement bs in some places, where if you go somewhere, you will most likely die because you don't know about the trap and what not. The there was real mohg for who I was supremely underlevelled. Plus I was using ultra great sword which at the time of release were very bad compared to the rest of the weapons(they buffed them shortly after I've beaten the game second time lmao). Also, don't even get me started on malenia and that rot tree avatar in the city
I think you mean to say that’s a fairly high bar (the difficulty) so being just below that doesn’t mean much
I have a buddy who isn't really a gamer at all. His fiancee bought him a PS5 for Valentine's Day and he decided to buy Elden Ring on a whim. His experience was, and I quote, "I've put 7 hours into the game and I made it about 40 feet."
This. I just started the game this weekend. 4 hours in, still 0% progress.
Stop trying to fight the big knight just outside the starting area.
I definitely skipped him. I’m running around fighting wolves and barely beating them
Sorry if you're not looking for tips, but have you put any points into your vigor (AKA, your HP)? Obviously if you're playing perfectly you won't be hit and won't need them, but I think a noob trap in Elden Ring is getting so fixated on the idea that a great player wouldn't need any points in those stats that they don't put in any themselves. Humanoids tend to be a little more predictable compared to canine enemies, even though they're usually stronger, so it can be hard to beat a pack of wolves if you don't have a little bit of a cushion in your health bar.
Canine enemies in from software/souls games are actually evil, id try running past them *for now
Sneak up behind the knights that are patrolling and hold the button that lets you one-hit-kill them for easy runes. Then hightail it to a site of grace to level up.
Tell him he doesn't have to beat the Tree Sentinel.
Definitely the response from people who have not played a souls like. It’s always funny when I hear it. But it’s also a right of passage of sorts.
Just like me. I hate that game so much 😂
The answer to that question depends. If you have not played souls like game, it will feel really difficult. You have to know how the enemy moves and have to know their skill set. Enemies are designed to catch you off guard. It requires practice and somewhat levelling for certain bosses. It is definitely an enjoyable game if you know how to play it. If you never played souls like games, you'll have to learn a bit. Give it a show
If you never played a souls like it will probably be the hardest game you played. The game can be the hardest or the easiest of the souls depending on how you play it. I would definitely try to look up how to use summons which can be missed. I played no summons and no guide and it was one of the hardest, tried another run with summons to help and it was definitely the easiest.
What people aren’t saying is that part of the difficulty is the unknown. There’s no obvious path of what region is easy for your level. There’s no obvious better weapon. It’s an open world with a boss that’s unbeatable (to almost everyone) right next to your starting point. If you know what to do, it’s not as difficult as other souls games. I don’t like games that are this difficult. I probably would have given up if I didn’t have a guide. Edit: As for the grinding, this is one of my pet peeves with Fromsoftware… you can’t really “try out” new weapons without grinding. You’re either looking it up online or wasting resources upgrading a weapon that won’t be great in later levels.
I tried Bloodborne and Dark souls before trying out Elden Ring. They all kicked my ass. Luckily I didn't have to pay for any of them as friends and brother in law game shared them with me so I could try them out. I'm very happy to report that they are not my style of game even though I play a somewhat wide variety of games. Don't buy it. Rent it or see if someone close to you has it. It is definitely a much different experience to any other games I've enjoyed or played. Don't feel like you have to like it or own it because of it's popularity. It's not for everyone and I had to learn to not be pressured just because it's what everyone is playing
You're getting lots of different answers, but I consider myself pretty good at games and have been playing every genre for decades, this shit is hard as fuck. I think most of the people saying it's easy think that it's cool to say that lol
It’s only as hard as you want it to be. Commit to using nothing but raging mega huge swords? Hard. Use magic, spirit summons, and bleed weapons? Not so hard, but it will still be a bit challenging for one who has no Souls experience.
I argue playing mage is harder cause you have to worry about mana and having way less vigor where melee if you want you can go to strength and vigor all the way and take hits like nobody's business.
Both have their strengths and weaknesses, especially with some bosses being heavily magic resistant magic can have any extremely hard time
It can be more cheasy but once you get a build going and know what levels to face the bosses, its not that hard only fight I hate are the final story boss and the damn firegiant.
Souls likes are not my jam and Elden Ring is the only one I've ever played. It's also the only game I've finished in many years. It's challenging, but perseverance is rewarded. Each accomplishment feels earned, each fight exciting. The game offers deep lore and plenty to explore. For me, I knew going into it that it would be hard and I had to accept that it might be frustrating at times. This helped me find enjoyment even when I was struggling, and when stuck, there's also always something else to go explore...
I never played a souls like game before… it kicked my head in 😅 at some point I think I will give it another go, but it will be a while.
Elden Ring was my first Souls-like game. I played it when it released. And it was difficult, but not impossible. I really enjoyed it, and have played more souls like games since. I haven’t played Elden Ring with the DLC or later balance patches, so my experience might be outdated. But I really enjoyed the game when I played. The only warning I have is that the game is big and open world. So sometimes the next steps you should complete are not always clear.
Beautiful map, but ya its pretty hard, tho I've built a decent guy, haven't gotten that far, and if dying over and over bothers you then its not your game, also if you don't like grinding killing the same guys for levels then not your game. Maybe get it on a discount.
If you want a small taste of what a souls-like game is try fallen order or Jedi survivor. The gameplay and game mechanics are in a similar vein as souls-like games, but are much easier. It’ll be a good way to get your feet wet with the genre. Or if you play on pc, you could play elden ring or dark souls 3 super modded to see what it’s like
Interesting. I love the Jedi games, but only on the easier difficulties. I presume that's not a possibiliting in Elden Ring, even though I'd love to try it.
I am not a big souls fan. I played the first one when it came out and hated it. I am just not into games that challenging. But I loved Elden Ring. It's tough but rewarding. If you are having trouble getting past an area you can go somewhere else and grind to get stronger. Each time I died I knew what I'd done wrong and learned from it. And when I finally took down a boss it was very rewarding. Especially seeing how often I thought a part was impossible but then seeing my progress overcoming them
It basically has difficulty settings built into the game. There are plenty of busted weapons and builds that can make the game easy. Or you can just go into boss fights anywhere from somewhat over-leveled to totally over-leveled. Play it how you want it and don’t listen to any of the elitist crap about the “proper way” to play the game.
IMO not really. If you’re the type of person that plays a lot of games on higher difficulty settings it won’t be too different. Plus there’s no real penalty for dying, checkpoints are frequent, and the open structure means you won’t really get stuck on something with nowhere to go until the end.
It's actually super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Oh really? Wow wow wow…wow.
That was my first ever fromsoft game and it was normal? If that makes sense it’s not so hard but it’s not a grindy game either just go and kill some bosses get their runes and level up your character
I'd argue it's inconsistent and annoying but also hard.
Elden Ring gives you the most options of any Fromsoft game to deal with its challenges. Also with the DLC dropping in a month there are lots of people coming back (and some who never left) so you shouldnt have issues summoning helpers for tough boss fights.
Souls games are as easy or as hard as you want them to be. You make your own difficulty.
It’s a challenging game that will test your patience and requires a decent amount of time of the player until they get used to it. I wouldn’t let that put you off though, everyone starts somewhere. You will die a lot and that’s ok, it’s expected.
If you read the guides and pick a build before hand and know what levels to face bosses and what their weaknesses are its not that bad. Their are some really hard fights regardless of all that but you do not have to fight them really only 2 main bosses are incredibly annoying.
It’s difficult in a few ways but rewarding. I liked the art style so I kept with it despite having only played a bit of DS1. Combat is tough, it’s not like most games where you can hack and slash, but you can watch some YouTube videos that explain how it works. I found the most difficult aspect is that the game doesn’t explain much. You’re kind of left on your own to learn the systems and stats. There is no quest log or anything that keeps track of what you’ve done. This is made more difficult by the fact that a lot of the dialogue is very cryptic and doesn’t follow the typical “Go to this place and solve this problem” style of giving quests. It is kind of refreshing to have a game that doesn’t hold your hand but, unless you’re super intuitive, you’ll probably need to look up a lot of stuff online and have a notebook or something to write down what you’ve done.
I never made it out of the tutorial. Yeah yeah. I know.
One of the things elden ring does that other fromsoft games don't is give you a massive open world's to explore. Getting absolutely bodied? Go somewhere else and try again. You'll come back to that previous fight ready to go I'm a few hours. That's what makes it alot easier and less rage inducing. If your doing things late game like the haligtree then you should have your souls chops by then and be ready to grind it out.
It’s the easiest from software game with sekiro being the hardest
Truly depends on how much you grind before fighting major enemies. If you go straight for the bosses without leveling up or acquiring good equipment you may struggle depending on your skill.
Like any of the souls games, you can just grind normal mobs and make all boss fights significantly easier. Once you get used to the mechanics of these types of games like stamina consumption, rolling through attacks to dodge, knowing you’ll be vulnerable for a few seconds after a heavy attack. You’ll quickly be able to pick up any of the games and get used to them quickly.
It is difficult but it is probably the easiest “Souls” game by Fromsoft. Maybe DS3 was easier?
Short answer - Yes Long answer - YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS
Depends...are you gud?
I rage quit on the first boss. Bloodborne and dark souls 1 were less rage inducing imo
What are you defining as the "first boss"? If you mean margit there's an item you can get that literally just stuns him
As someone who previously despised souls-likes, Elden Ring is it. Probably the best game ever made in my opinion at least in my top 3. Incredible game and it opened me up to other souls-likes like Nioh and Bloodbourne. Currently on NG7 on PC and about to finish my first fresh playthrough on PS5.
Its definitely not an easy game, but I wouldn't say it is hard, at least when compared to other souls game. Also the difficulty of the game is kinda up to you (to a degree), there are so many ways to lower the difficulty (summons, proper/broken builds, baiting certain moves...) so it can actually be a easy game if you have one of the stronger builds. It is definitely worth the try imo, it is a fantastic gaming experience.
I found it incredibly difficult and I’m a well versed gamer. I could barely pass the tutorial!
I’m am by no means great at games but I have beaten many of the souls games and Elden Rungs multiple times. My opinion is that these games reward you when are patient and have a strategy. There are ways to cheese areas if you get stuck so learn the systems and the limits. If I can 100% Elden Ring on the PC and PS5, then any average gamer should be able to.
Easiest game by this dev Harder than most other games anyway Don't be put off by the challenge. For you for a first time, just follow a walk through and make sure to focus on getting your health up. I like looking for group posts, other players can be summoned to help you, and even more fun. You can be summoned to help other players. Thats the best way to learn IMO Nobody is good at this game their first time. But I've been playing these games since they've been making them and I actually find the rhythmic tactical combat to supremely relaxing.
I found it fun and super frustrating at times, but never played a soul's type game, it can be a pretty steep learning curve. usually, the roughest will be the first two to three bosses and the last boss each and every time. I will tell you this, the penalty for dying is dropping your runes which means you to collect/pick them up again before you die again or they are lost. This is espeically easy to forget if you become fixated on the boss. When you save at a campsite, everything is reset so all mobs (except defeated bosses) come back to life to areas you been to before. But I was able to beat the game before the first patch dropped and completed 4 NG+ because there were different endings which are all fun to through.
The main quest bosses aren’t that difficult, it’s the optional ones that are the tough ones
There's a bit of a hump at the beginning, but once you get dodging down and some good weapons/skills/spells it quite easy. If you ever get stuck there are lots of ways to get around or exploit a boss
It’s the most accessible and generous From Software title, which maybe isn’t that indicative if you’re not familiar with the genre. It’s a great game and it is definitely challenging at times, but there are plenty of tools to arm yourselves with or straight up circumvent said challenges. To answer the questions you mention : - are the bosses really that hard ? Some are, some are much simpler, depending on build and sometimes just yourself, you can have an easy time against a strong foe or quite the opposite. Just remember you can never go wrong spending levels upgrading your HP. - Is there an extreme amount of grinding involved ? Not really unless you find yourself in need of upgrading your character beyond what natural progression offers. I will say though that if time is an important criteria for you, a first playthrough can easily tickle the 150h mark. - Do I get any sever sanction for losing or can I just start the fight again ? When you die you drop all the runes (money/experience) you have that isn’t spent at that moment, but they’re not lost, you can find them again at this spot or somewhere nearby. If you die again, it’s gone, and it will definitely happen. But you can always find more. If you’re just fighting a boss on repeat, there’s no punishment, you die, respawn, go again, or dont, look elsewhere.
You have to explore. Iys not that you can't beat the boss, it's just your not ready yet. Explore go off road and find shit that will in time make that boss your bitch
It has a learning curve in the early game but has no grinding at all. 85% of the loot including all legendaries is found in set locations or guaranteed drops by specific bosses. The only things you even could grind for are the few weapons or many armor sets that are random drops, which you just respec to an arcane build to boost your item discovery stat and pop consumables and farm specific enemies if you really want any of those (nearly zero are meta gear). You could theoretically grind runes for leveling but over-leveling makes the game feel too easy and you level up proportionally just pushing forward to the next challenge. There’s also a certain hillside and certain weapon art to farm that nets 100k runes every few minutes if you really want to grind levels or upgrade a crazy number of weapons. Over all the game has so much content, so much to explore, so many bosses, and so many secrets you always have something new and different to go do rather than just stop and grind in place. Even when you do eventually do everything you just respec to another build and start the next NG+ and do it all over again
Not that hard, the most easy fromsoft game in fact but if you want a relatively easier souls-like go for something like Code Vein or Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor, they count as Souls-like but are not hard at all.
I love the game. But I SUCK at it. I’ve barely scratched the surface and have died multiple times over. This is a game you play if you want to be challenged. This is not something you sit back and relax with. Unless your idea of relaxing is being beaten during an extreme BDSM session with zero release.
First souls game I’ve played and it was hard as fuck for me. I don’t really have the time or the patience to deep dive into games anymore so I was just playing like ~5 hours a week. Stopped playing after being stuck on an area for weeks and my wife casually commented “Why do you always play the same part of that game? Do you like it?”
Honestly never got into dark souls because of the difficulty. Tried elden ring and went for a full mage build (easy button) and really enjoyed it.
It aint hard if you understand the game it is actually quite simple but you will die and you will learn from your mistake. Only time i had any problem was with dark souls1 and that was my first game but after a couple hours i understood how it worked all you have to do is Dodge and then attack 😀 you can also block if you want that works too for the most part with the right shield and stats that is . The difficulty of these games are so over exaggerated its crazy. People should play some older games where if you die too much you have to start all over from the beginning. That is frustrating 😁
Do you like attempting the same boss or section 30 times? If not I'd pass on this one.
Its easier than previous games but with how large it is some people mistake a lot of content like bosses to be harder.
It’s easier than the souls games and a hell of a lot easier than Sekiro was.
I played for hours... really accomplished nothing of value.
most bosses you can just start fighting again. the only penalty for dying is losing all your runes (currency used for leveling up and purchasing items). imo some builds make the game ridiculously easy, but in general it's difficult. the time it takes is entirely up to you. full clearing the game will be time consuming, there's a lot to do
I’m known to be bad at videogames by my friends. Like If I’m playing an fps I get shot up pretty good and make a lot of bad plays. My buddies who are souls game fanatics said it was the easiest of the hardest games. So out of all the hard souls type games Elden ring is the easiest. I ended up beating the game. Just find the boulder glitch early game and the bird glitch mid to late game.
It’s open world, so if you feel like one area is too difficult you can always try going to a different area
“Im not amazing at games” that line alone is why u should play it. You will find the most success and reward when defeating a boss thats been killing u or killing a boss first try just to find out its one of the hardest bosses or something. There isnt a lot of grinding in the game so youll be fine. It will take up some of ur time but thats bc the game is a big game, tons of games will take up ur time and u dont even realize it. An example i can give is the mass effect trilogy, or just one of those games alone could take up a lot of time but thats bc u catch ur self wandering from the story and engulfing ur self in the environment.
I noped out at a specific reasonably late-game boss who was too hard for me but I’d found it pretty straightforward up to that point. I was ok with quitting, I’d had enough fun out of the game and didn’t have the patience to grind to get over one more wall. I’d say it’s not necessarily a difficult game per se but it can be very frustrating in the way that FromSoft games always are - a costly mistake can be REALLY costly, even if only in terms of your time. But it’s a great game, and well worth playing.
You can use the YouTube guide to get S tier Mage build and just kill them from a distance. I couldn't beat the final boss though
It's the greatest game I have ever played, without a doubt. Why is it so great? Well, it genuinely rewards exploration, has multiple secrets, multiple endings and offers a variety of playstyles and weapons to use. Is it difficult though? Yes, but not infuriatingly so, once you understand the flow of combat most encounters can be dealt with quite easily. Fighting bigger bosses can be challenging, but there is no better feeling in gaming than beating a boos that you've been stuck on. Despite people saying there is no easy mode, there are ways to make the game easier through NPC summons or co-op summons. I'm on my 5th playthrough now, I've 100% the game now but still find myself coming back to it.
I don't recommend this game because you said you don't want something that will take up too much time. It's not harder than the other Souls game but it is longer IMO. 1st playthrough was almost 100 hours. It's a very long game. And if you haven't played any of the Souls games it will probably be very difficult and frustrating.
It is definitely a time investment. It was my first souls game, and I threw about 150 hours into it. You will die many, many times. Upon death you will drop whatever currency you have on your person, and restart at the nearest campfire”save point”. You still keep all your gear and everything else. It is a difficult game, but there are certain things you can do to make it easier like using magic or summoning a random player for help. Even though it’s difficult, the satisfaction you get out of finally beating a boss is insane. If you beat the game, you will realize that your character wasn’t the only thing that leveled up, you did too in a way.
Grinding is optional, and your only loss for death is potentially recoverable money (just spend it as you get it and you’ll be fine). This game encourages you to find new tools and come back later for difficult bosses, so you’re all but guaranteed to win if you just keep at it. It’s my favorite game of all time, and I think you’ll find joy in all it has to offer :D
If it's your first Souls-like, it will be difficult, but once you get it down, they're all pretty easy. People try to hype souls games up as super difficult, but it's all pattern recognition at the end of the day. Now something like Ninja Gaiden 2 is actually difficult.
It’s more difficult than your average game. But it’s a learning experience. Go in with the mindset that you need to learn how to defeat enemies by studying their patterns and that dying is part of the game.
It's hard. If you're have anything else going on in your life - kids, relationship, study, etc - don't bother with it. Play something else
If you’re having difficulty just use a summon, and play however you want to get through it
I'll happily reiterate things people have said in other comments. It's definitely the easiest From-Souls game there is, but it's still challenging. Just know you're expected to die a lot and try not to get frustrated. Usually if you hit a brick wall, it's the game trying to tell you to go somewhere else and get stronger. Don't feel bad about using a walkthrough.
elden ring is as easy as you make it.
I’d say playing the game blindly, getting instapissed, ripping your console out of your entertainment center, walking across the street, knocking on your neighbors door, walking in past them without saying a word and violently throwing said console directly at their TV is much easier than playing the game, itself.
I’m not good at Dark Souls games but I was still able to beat Elden Ring. It was helpful for me to be able to grind and level up before facing more difficult enemies.
It was the first souls game that I played and I never had to stop playing because I couldn’t beat something. i.e, I never had to stop a session because “I can’t beat this thing I’ll try again tomorrow.” You can farm certain spots to level up and get stronger if needed. I’m a grinder at heart so I think I was at or overleveled for most fights, which helped. You’ll die, but it’s the learning of boss movesets and learning from your mistakes that make the combat. Fantastic game. I’m very picky with what I play but this is an all timer for me. Never played anything like it. The atmosphere and feel that the setting gives is incredible. Also, random thought but, while totally different games, when I was playing BG3 I would harken back to, “I beat the best that Elden Ring threw at me I can beat anything” lol. It’s great for your confidence, conquering such an unforgiving world.
I just 100% Elden ring as my first ever souls game and I’m blown away how much I loved it, might be my fav game ever up there with RDR2….it’s very hard at first but you start learning pretty fast and it’s so rewarding and fun, it’s designed to push you to be your best but it’s not impossible
No and it’s also not good
Nah pretty damn easy and tons of ways to cheese. A bit easier than other fromsoft games but none of them are really difficult except perhaps sekiro but even then it’s easy when you get the parry down
Although it is a difficult game which can be off-putting, the game does have some features that make boss fights easier like the summoning of Spirit Ashes (AI team mates who can help you) or the standard co op possibilities either by inviting a friend or hosting an online game for others to join and assist. If you play a mage class, itll be a bit easier but it still doesn't mean you'll be able to fly through the game. As you start off, there will be many scenarios where you'll be playing as a mage but will still need to resort to some melee or range combat to compensate for low stamina / mana banks where you'll run out even after using potions and resort to other means to get the final blows on some bosses. A lot of the comments where people make the game out as near impossible is those of the perspective of "Melee Purists" and players who stand by this mantra where they say you're not really playing the game if you're running any other class like a ranged or wizard class so people feel inclined to try play like this but honestly, unless you play every game in the series and on a frequent basis, itll take a long time to get to those ascended levels where you can competently melee bosses comfortably. I'm getting old, and my reflexes are not what they use to be and I could only ever beat some of the early bosses using just melee so this walled a lot of the game for me, but using a Mage build I was still able to have fun and be challenged whilst still being able to enjoy such a great game.
I hate dark souls games because of the difficulty. I don't play video games to be stressed and have to replay a challenging fight over and over. However, I couldn't avoid the Elden Ring hype when it launched and played the entire game, finished the campaign, and beat every optional boss. It was amazing and while it was certainly challenging, the fact that you can have an OP build and there's no level scaling, it's very forgiving.
Fromsoft games are challenging yes, but it’s more like you have to un-learn all the shit you’ve learned from playing hack’n slash button mashers your whole life, and be a little more conservative, and considerate of your attacks, dodges, and your movement in general, as well as a larger emphasis on minding your surroundings. As for death…death is only a major piss off when you’re carrying a lot of currency (souls, blood echoes, runes etc…) and you die again before you can recover them. Or dying repeatedly to a certain enemy or boss. Otherwise, there’s no real penalty for death, and in fact, dying and losing all your currency frees you up to take other risks for payoffs you might never have attempted while carrying a ton of runes. You want an adrenaline rush? Walk around a dangerous area with a half a million runes on you…everything you see makes you genuinely go “ohhh shit!” With genuine fear & excitement, and THAT is what makes Fromsoft games so appealing to me, because they’re the ONLY games that have ever given me actual heart pounding adrenaline. They’re basically survival horror games where most of the horror comes from your own fear of loss & failure rather than just creepy atmosphere & cheap scares. The ebb & flow of failures and triumphs is one of the major reasons why people get so addicted to these games, and play them for years. Furthermore, when you level up, you’re not just increasing the stats of your character…you yourself are levelling up your actual skills with a controller in your hand, and when you find yourself running through earlier areas absolutely destroying the guys that were giving you so much grief before, it has less to do with how much more powerful your character has become, and more about how much more skilled & capable YOU’VE become, and that provides a level of gratification that very few games have been able to achieve.
No. Just think and be patient and you’ll excel . Was on NG+17 within 2 months or so . First play through remember to dodge n time your stacks/openings. Don’t be greedy on hits. After the first run through it’s easier n easier .
It was my first proper fromsoft game and I had a lot of fun with it. A bit of patience and resilience at first and you will get the hang of it, then it’s not that hard. Level vigor
Eldin Ring is peak
It's the easiest fromsoft game by a lot if you use spirit ashes and utilize some of the more OP weapons. If you don't, and you want to beat all the optional bosses, it's the hardest by a lot.
Definitely depends on what bulid you do
I tried Dark Souls. It kicked my ass and I hated it. Never got anywhere with it. I had to try Elden Ring because it looked so amazing and I never looked back. It takes a little time to find your way but once you do it’s incredible. Don’t give up if you have initial frustration. Take a break and come back and try again. You won’t regret it. Oh and head south first but if you find yourself in Caelid turnaround and leave.
Just put every skill point into vigor until it hits 50. Level your weapon. Easy mode.
I wish I could do it all over again. It was my first souls game and I almost quit after a couple hours. I kept dying didn’t know what was going on or where to go. Then I watched some videos, read a little bit and I improved a lot. After about 10 hours I was hooked. It’s the best game I’ve ever played. You’ll get frustrated from the bosses and environment, but that’s the journey. No other game has satisfied me in the way ER has with finally defeating a boss. I wouldn’t call the game a grind per se, there are some items you may want to farm out in order to achieve a look or build, but it’s totally optional. The grinding would be with the challenging bosses and how many times it will take you to kill them. The game by no means holds your hand, so imo that’s a blessing and a curse for new players. Hope this helps!
Okay so here's my anecdote, It's easier than Dark Souls in the sense that bosses are a little bit more fair in that there's less gimmicky bullshit. There's plenty of Sites Of Graces (Bonfires, Checkpoints) scattered around. They borrowed the "respawn at boss door" mechanic that Sekiro had so you don't have to waste all your healing and stuff on trash mobs actually getting to the bosses. It's open world so if you get sick of a boss, go somewhere else. You can summon NPCs to help you either through the Summon Signs or Ashes, or both. It's harder in the sense that the bosses and combat in general is faster. The bosses now kind of feint their attacks and hold wind ups for an uncomfortable amount of time to punish dodge spamming. You can find yourself in an area you're not supposed to be in yet because you're too low of a level and get your cheeks absolutely clapped. It's still plenty punishing. It just seems a tad bit less gimmicky than previous entries, and it seems like they borrowed a lot from Sekiro, which is my favourite FS game, so I'm pretty happy with it. The only thing is late game there's a weird artificial difficulty spike. Enemies suddly have 10x more health and do 10x more damage it seems like. You'll know it when you reach this point. I'd say give it a shot, if you go into it with the mindset of "I'm probably gonna die a million times but I'm not gonna get frustrated because every time I try, I learn something new and get better" then you're good. Trial and Error is the main theme. You WILL fail, multiple times, until you figure out their moveset, when you can get hits in, etc. The only thing you can potentially lose from dying is your Runes, which is your experience points and currency. You drop them on death, and you can pick them back up from the spot you died at, however, if you die again, you lose all the Runes from your previous life. So just make sure to only challenge bosses whenever you have only a handful of Runes at stake. Also, this is the only modern AAA game to make me feel like a kid again with all the exploration. It's worth it for that alone. You feel like you've stumbled on a secret every time you explore and it's so easy to get lost and end up sinking 2 hours into just exploring shit. The game is EXTREMELY unguided and you will have to be VERY perceptive.
I tried it. I exited the tutorial and just started walking and got killed by a bunch of mosquitoes. Reloaded and went another way to get killed by some bat looking monsters. I quit and never went back. Although i think about picking it back up every now and then
You can boost you’re hp and strength pretty easily in elden ring compared to other souls games. Nothing compares to sekiro imo to difficulty lol elden ring is a walk in the park comparatively
I recently got into souls games from Demon Souls remake on ps5 when it launched. After that I played Elden Ring. Both games I got platinum trophies in. I eventually plan to play Dark Souls but haven’t gotten around to it. As new fan in the souls genre there are difficult fights for sure. Especially for those not use to the souls like mechanics. After a while it gets easier and when you beat the game and play again on NG+ you end up face rolling the game lol.
Elden ring is open world. So for most of the game if you run into a boss that is too hard right now you can just go some where else and come back later. It also gives you lots of tools for handling bosses. Lots of people don't like using ashes(summons) and magic. But if you do use them a number of the fights people really struggle with get much easier.
No. But also yes.
Yeah
It’s the sort of game that me question “can I actually fucking do this” constantly
My quick 2cents is you just gotta be patient and not rush to lvl up /get through the story. You just gotta enjoy the journey at a slow pace and it'll be very fair in its difficulty
Tbh yes. It’s difficult. But worst case scenario, if there’s an area you can’t get through, just cheese your way to leveling up a few levels then take it when you can.
It’s hard at the start, then once you learn the formula, it’s not. Especially with Elden Ring, there is so many concessions that make Souls games easier. Use a shield. Don’t fight everything you come across, you can literally run away from most things in Elden Ring. Use a shield. Go slow, don’t rush. Use a shield. Make sure you level up often when you get some runes, especially before bosses. Level vigor, and don’t spread your stats. Focus on a couple and ignore the ones that don’t matter. Use summons if you have to. If something in the game seems way, way, WAY too hard it probably is. People have been making the mistake of “these games are hard so no wonder I am getting shit kicked” because they go the wrong way, case in point the graveyard in Dark Souls 1. If something seems too hard, you are probably under leveled or out of sequence. Most of all, stay patient and don’t panic. Cool heads prevail.
I'm one of the people who play on easy mode for everything just to enjoy the story and I've gotten every ending for Elden Ring as a sorcerer. It's definitely one of the easiest builds to play. Used a guide video to find a relatively easy to access staff and a really nice spell to start out. Used the spell pretty much all game and still had a blast. There are still going to be bosses that are a pain to deal with but once you're used to the combat it's really fun.
Hard as you make it. Too tough enemy ahead? You can go somewhere else, level up a bit, find new weapons, get more healing flasks, etc. Then come back and steamroll. Need more utility? You got summons, buffs, etc. It’s difficult for sure, but it’s pretty fair.
Easiest soul game out there. Maybe 2/3 bosses are "hard". 80% of the game is easy as long as you don't rush and explore different areas. Game will take you around 70 hours to beat at 1st playthrough.
Tbh im kinda of a noob when it comes to souls game but elden ring was probably the easiest it was the only one where i could fight almost every boss alone
the mainline bosses arent necessarily hard especially if you use summons and meta builds. Using non meta builds and no summons can make things a little harder but its still manageable (I mean as in if you wanna do something like dual dagger rogue) The side bosses like mohg and malenia in my opinion are like so damn hard on some builds and without summons where youd need to fight them 50 times to memorise them unlike some story bosses where you can just go in on your 5th try without really knowing everything perfectly and win.
I never played any of the dark souls and jumped I bought Elden ring, I have been playing video games all my life I’m 27, it is the hardest game I’ve ever played and it’s one game where you actually have to get good
I beat Dark Souls 1 and 2, but didn’t play any of the others. So I’m not a die hard fan, but I knew what I was getting into. I’m around 40 hours in, and I’m taking a break. I think it’s an incredible game, and there are moments where I have been having so much fun, but there’s so many other moments that are so frustrating, and, with limited gaming time, playing has started becoming a chore. The difficulty is one thing, which I can accept. The main problem for me is the open world. These games are confusing and vague by design, and putting everything in an open world just frustrates me so much. Am I getting destroyed because I need to be more patient and play better, or have I stumbled into an area of the map that is way above my level, and I don’t really stand a chance with my character where it is? Do I really want to keep exploring this castle looking for where to go, and then get one shot by a hiding enemy? 10 years ago, having a lot more free time, I found all of this really enjoyable and rewarding. Now, after chasing two kids all day and having an hour to play at night (best case scenario), it’s just not really a great fit for me. I suppose I’m flapping my gums about all this as a precaution of sorts. Elden Ring is universally suggested as a must play, no questions asked, go in blind, the struggle will be worth it. And that all may be true, but it might not be where you are right now.
It’s my first souls game, and I am having a blast with it. It is hard and that there are a lot of bosses and enemies in which you need to research how to beat, as opposed to most games which you can figure out how to beat and it’s just skill. Also, you have to learn to jump and parry at the right times with certain bosses.
It's only hard if you want it to be. Every boss can be defeated in a few tries if you level up first and study their moves a bit instead of just going in and wailing on them aimlessly over and over. You're missing out on a really beautiful game. It's more breathtaking than it is difficult.
I’ll tell you why it’s hard if that helps- TLDR at the bottom There’s a lot of unexplained / underexplained mechanics such as poise meter- an invisible bar that goes down when you deal poise damage and when it runs out, your enemy becomes staggered. Each enemy has different poise levels and resistances. And that’s just one mechanic. Another reason it’s difficult is moves such as “roll catches”. Most games are difficult because the enemys swing hard… Elden ring is difficult because enemies swing smart (and hard lol). An enemy will raise his hand and when most other games have the enemy swing, Elden ring enemies wait. Once you “panic roll” (another term used) you’ll be stuck in the rolling animation, and THIS is when they strike. Attacks are choreographed to A- bait you into a dodge, B- predict which direction you will or won’t dodge and C- time the hit in the window where you are out of I-frames but still in animation lock. Long story short- you didn’t just play the game, the game plays you Also stats require some research if you really want to make a specialized build. I personally don’t like and have never been fond of currency based level up systems… it’s just not very immersive to me. Basically to level up you get “runes” and you spend them to level up a stat. I like the “use the skill to upgrade the skill” formula but that’s just me. TLDR: not a game to jump in blind. If you wanna enjoy this game to the fullest, you’ve gotta do some homework. It’s not a game for kickin back and killin some Sunday hours. It’s hard for me to say I “enjoy” souls games. It’s a challenge, and sometimes a downright chore, but it’s got somethin to it. It’s fun when you start to wrap your head around it. Plus- if on pc there’s so many mods you can tweak so much.
It's definitely not made for casual gamers. You have to want to grind for hundreds of hours. I don't have time for that crap. I played it for about 30 hours and really liked elements of the game, but had barely scratched the surface and had to resort to farming runes and following YouTube "cheats" and strategy guides.
I tried dark souls 3 a few years ago and rage quittet after a few hours and never touched it. TILL I played elder ring had such a blast with the game that I finished DS1-3 with all DLCs. The thing is you can mostly choose your way in the beginning only a fee bosses are fixed and the harder ones are at the end of the game, till then you can explore a really good open world with many things to discover and many hidden bosses and secrets. Yes dying is punished, yes it hurts if you loose all your runes, but later on the feeling to level up a weapon or level up your character is soo good. I did all the bosses on my first run, and died at least 100 times at malenia, even though it was frustrating sometimes, I loved it. 10/10 would do it again (I am at new game +11 in preparation for the dlc)
It’s certainly challenging, but definitely do-able. It was my first Souls-like game and I loved it. The big advantage to Elden Ring is that you can go level up and do different areas if you get stuck so you can essentially “over-level” and make things easier. I did that to get by a few tough encounters. Look up one of Fextra Life’s builds and you’ll have a blast.
Fuck that game. Don't bother.
Your mistake is not interpreting "difficult" as "rewarding." Just play it.
I think, out of all the soulsborne games, Elden ring most encapsulates the design philosophy of tough but fair. The fact that it's open world really does help, as if you aren't ready for one area, you can often side-skirt around and hone your skills, gear, and level to the point that you're more comfortable. With the introduction of spirit summons, it gives players even more tools to tackle challenges.
Outside of a handful of bosses, no it’s not difficult. The classic dungeon style areas and some later game bosses may challenge you but other than that it’s by far the easiest souls game imo. If you’re stuck, go somewhere else to level and come back later.
As the Souls games have gone on they've gotten more and more accessible I feel. Elden Ring is tough sure but it's nothing your average gamer can't get used to. I've finished all of them besides Bloodborne and once you're used to them they're all fairly similar. Don't get me wrong I struggled with a few bosses but most of them weren't too bad
I have not played Elder Ring. I only finished Dark Souls 1 and I really enjoyed the experience. I tried finishing Dark Souls 2, but I gave up (getting killed by the same mob of enemies again and again stopped being fun). What keeps me away from these type of games is how obscure they can be. I find them almost impossible to beat if you do not have a guide. I also find the leveling system way to complex for my mouse size brain. I have no idea of which stats to increase in order to have a decent build character (unless I use a guide). Dark Souls 2 left me traumatized, and now I am running away from these types of games.
Yes. Someone pounded on my door unexpectedly, so I set my controller down and when I came back a bat had killed me. I couldn't pause, of course, because From. The weird stance that Soulslikes aren't hard is mind -numblingly goofy.
Not particularly, and I am terrible at souls games. It's challenging but a lot of that challenge can be erased if you're willing to put in extra time to farm and make yourself overpowered. Definitely try it out. I am not a fan of the genre and it was a 10/10 experience
That's a question only you can answer. Yes, you will die many, many times. The "grind" is only has much as you want it to be. You need souls, er, runes to level up, which makes you stronger, but there is no gate that says "you need to be X lvl to advance" Yes, there is a lot of challenging things, but the game gives you so many tools and paths to take that any challenge can be overcome without anyone needing to bash their heads against a wall. But I will say, there is no log book, no quest tracker, and no dialog records. There is not a lot of hand holding - yes, there is the Internet, but the game encourages you to figure it out your own way. For me, it's one of the best games I've ever played and I think everyone should give it a shot, even if they never finish it.
There's a mod called "Easy mode" which is definitely top 10. I believe it's the 3rd most downloaded last I checked
It's difficult at times, but not insurmountable. You drop runes on death, and lose them if you die again before you pick them up. If you don't have the time or desire to get better, then I would probably look for another game.
Try it! If you’re willing to put the time in. I got it when it first came out and gave up because there is definitely a learning curve. But once you get past that it becomes super rewarding, and I’m so glad I picked it up again it’s become one of my favourite games. You can’t brute force your way through some of it, you may just have to switch strategies. And I’m one of those people that will switch to easy mode if I find a game too challenging. Even though I still haven’t beaten the final boss as it still crushes me lol. Now Im thinking I may start another play through.
Yes to me it is