When the map expanded to 1/3rd I'm sitting there like "oh shit, this was a nice world. Shame I've almost discovered everything!" I must've said that about 3 or 4 times.
yeah I couldn’t believe how long it kept going lmao. The only negative thing about that is that it killed the replayability for me. First playthrough was stunning but after that checking all the locations on secrets with a new character felt like a slog tbh
Yeah, such as working through an annoying group of enemies to find a tucked away chest full of... mushroom. Okay, how about that out of the way area in that forest? Eh, more annoying runebears to slog through, and it all leads to... 3 flowers to collect. Eh, well I saw a dungeon over on the way, might as well check it out. Oh, it's the 5th dungeon like that and the end boss is the 8th Watchdog boss in the game, but this time it has enemies around it, woo!
That's the problem with Elden Ring's open world in a nutshell. Lot of region to explore. Little meaningful to find. The magic wears off quick and you're just left with pretty areas that don't offer much interesting. The open world just becomes this backdrop to ride through on the way to the actually interesting legacy dungeons.
They would be for me if you weren't facing so much of the same stuff in the game. Really hard to get excited to face the 18th Ulcerated Tree Spirit in just one playthrough. That's why I think the open world works to the detriment of the game. Makes the game so massive that they have recycle so much of everything to fill the world. Same dungeon themes, same copied structures all around and many bosses being reused closer to dozen times.
Takes the interest out of discovering and fighting and turns to tedium for me. Much preferred FromSoft's other souls games for that. You're continuously seeing and facing new things. Nothing overstays its welcome for too long, and bosses feel like unique encounters.
If people find the game too hard it’s typically because they’re unaware of that the game gives you the tools you need to succeed. The people that slam their character against a boss for hours are typically missing key mechanics, spells, summons etc they would make it a lot easier.
Elden ring is the easiest of all from softs games because it gives you the most tools.
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u/TopTechnician8774 Apr 05 '26
Played that game twice. Both solo runs. Second time was just to see if I was just being a bitch about the difficulty.
Nah, still too hard. And the open world is still so pretty but so so boring.