Elden Ring

To sum up: Very anime in a bad way.

Difficulty as an art form

After watching streamers fail at Margit for the thousandth, I noticed something pretty phenomenal. The streamers were engaged. They were honest. They knew when they were playing poorly. And they wanted to get better.

Streamers want to have, you know, a good stream. Getting stuff done, seeing new things; if the game is particularly hard, then the audience wants to see them suffer. But the streamer nor the audience really want to lose. They exchange tips. They admit how hard Margit is. They encourage each other. The "git gud" mantra is strong, but not as strong as the sense of community around the game.

When I did a compare-and-contrast with "Skyrim", another open-world fantasy game garnering multiple accolades, I noticed the Soulsborne games are built for the community. As the Dovaahkin you go through caves, finish questlines, hang out with NPCs, but there's not much watercooler talk about your own adventure. You can say "I did this", but unless your antics are funny there's not much to communicate. In Soulsborne, players are encouraged to leave behind messages, help one another, and even fight one another. Then there's the difficulty. People looove to talk about certain bosses and strategies against them.

In short, people are not talking about some insular experience that they and only they can understand - much like a trip to Machu Picchu which you as the listener inwardly groan at as your coworkers begin - people are talking about the game. They treat the game as an intellectual challenge.

That. Is. Crazy. It's crazy because the game is popular. It's crazy because the game is accessible. The game is not necessarily niche (though I will contest this later).

I've already said what I think of concerning video games as an art form. Anyone can fart out a story. Literally. I mean, everyone has emotions and can understand symbols and connect ideas together. That doesn't mean it's a good story. And your game's beautiful art assets are rivaled on DeviantArt.

Crafting a game that is accessible yet difficult requires an understanding of human nature. It requires an understanding of how human beings approach problems. It requires an understanding of what motivates people. There is some psychology to learn, but it requires empathy, perhaps a little bit of introspection as to how you yourself perceive the world. This is the process towards making art, in the form of film, novel, canvas: some connection to the human experience. Screw all these virtual blood and tears by cardboard characters with health meters. Have the audience empathize with the game by actually playing the game.

Explosions

This would all be the case for "Elden Ring" if it were not for explosions; explosions; explosions.

In hindsight the Waterfowl Dance is not really a major issue. Malenia healing herself after each hit is.

The Soulsborne are fun because the games are examples of asymmetrical warfare. Enemies have health, damage, speed et cetera while you have a brain. The games are a little forgiving because you can heal and do some other things.

Malenia healing herself after hitting you, after taking account of the fact that she hits hard, is like the game rewarding the AI when the odds were already stacked against you.

As is Malenia getting little 'splosions after her attacks in phase 2. When I say the explosions are not telegraphed I don't mean you never know when she does them. I mean, unless you have the timing, range, duration memorized, you'll never really know how to avoid them. The explosions are not an intuitive thing for a player to reason with, especially when they're pressed for time.

The game just gives bosses more explosions towards the end of the game: Malekith, Hoarah Loux, Radagon, Elden Beast. The game becomes a chore rather than, well, a game.

All in all, "Elden Ring" is pretty good in the beginning, easy in the middle, then really annoying and honestly in your way at the end.

After 100%-ing the game as an odd symbol to myself that I can now finally enjoy the game, not having to worry about achievements being my thinking, I tried doing an Intelligence build for a second playthrough, had an existential crisis sometime after Rennala, didn't know why I was playing the game anymore, deleted it, started an Arcane build for a fresh new game - this will be the seventh - for "Bloodborne" and did not look back.

There's just too much in the game. It's fun finding new places. It's fun finding things to interact with. It's fun getting new gear. In the beginning. As time goes on new places become familiar. Some interactions become tired, predictable. Gear is either merely an upgrade to old gear or useless. When that happens, you look at the gameplay itself, and find, in this instance, it's pretty unbalanced, or really unbalanced. Take your pick.

So my hopes for "Elden Ring" to be the "Skyrim" for a new generation was dashed to the ground. In hindsight, what makes "Skyrim" special is roleplaying. The Dovaahkin is simply a medium to see the setting. I find myself reading up on the lore of "Elden Ring" after my - only, unless the DLC is redeeming - playthrough, imagining all the things that happen around the game, wishing they would happen in the game.

I don't want to roleplay as an anime character. I don't want to be Elden Lord, I don't want to be a demigod. Being a god honestly does not sound very fun - with omnipotence there is no getting better, which is why mortality is fun.

Addendum: The quest to getting good

Funnily enough, the quest to getting good has resulted in a lot of dedicated "Elden Ring" players discovering what makes the game so unbalanced. Finding out how the game is designed has been a more fruitful journey than actually playing the game.

In general, Amir's content is really good. A "Dark Souls III" PvP player (who may still be playing to this day), he learned how to dodge-roll Malenia's Waterfowl Dance point-blank (recommending players not to play the game this way), measured the frame rate of one of Godskin Noble's attacks, and studied the importance of casting speed. I like to check up on his channel every once in a while to find new analyses.

A text-heavy video on how Malenia has infinite poise when she attacks, which is an attribute, going by the video, that no other FromSoft character possesses.

This is a very large, general review of "Elden Ring" that may not sway your opinion of the game already. I have saved a timestamp on the video where Joseph Anderson begins discussing how the enemies are designed, which is an enlightening listen since he has thorough familiarity with all of Miyazaki's games, including "Sekiro", which makes his comparison to that game all the more interesting.

Finally, there's the incredible community research done for this website documenting all the flaws with PvP.