"If you had to ask me if the open world was worth it, I'd probably say yes, with a caveat that I hope this is a one time thing. I hope this doesn't become the template for future From Soft projects." Took the words right out of my mouth.
@xezmakorewarriah
2 жыл бұрын
it would be fucking cool if mountaintops had no enemies and music, imagine you are walking into a foggy abandoned snowy area full of ruins and corpses of giants with occasional cultist camp or somth like that
@Sinhsseax
2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, I do agree. However, much of the mountaintops is like that, it's just that there is this section like just before the Fire Giant, where they wen't full Lost Izalith. (Only after the chain, the fort is still fine.) I got a certain feeling coming out of the fog in the consecrated snowfield, having basically only come across one albinauric archer and nothing else, seeing these wolves chase the scarab, or going into Ordina to find it full of ghosts. And then there are these little ruins with the jellyfish quest, where you can find the graves of the two children.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
@@Sinhsseax Agreed. There are moments scattered here and there which provide unique experiences, they just don’t come together in the cohesive way that Limgrave does, for example. I think this has to do with something I’m tentatively calling “semantic density”- a pretentious term, but what I mean is that too much of the map doesn’t have any meaningful content. If you wander Limgrave, every hundred steps you’ll find some new special thing, like a band of Godrick soldiers fighting demi-humans or a Kaiden sellsword resting at a fire across from a corpse. Most of Limgrave is filled with little vignettes that make each sub-area special, but that becomes much less frequent as the game goes on.
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
Yes it would be better, it should just be a deserted area marked by war, seeing the giant at the end would be 10 times more epic. Maybe keep the fire guy.
@Neo2266.
Жыл бұрын
I quite enjoyed the little stretch between leyndell and mountaintops for that reason
@Eizengoldt
2 ай бұрын
Then the losers would be moaning about it being too empty and lazy
@soarel325
2 жыл бұрын
Very solid critique. There’s very little to disagree with here other than the fact I don’t miss DS1/2’s armor upgrading mechanic at all - armor upgrading never felt like you were improving your character or getting stronger, it felt like an annoying chore you had to get around to. The fact DeS didn’t have it goes to show it’s not really all that vital to this series. I also never really had the issues you did with Torrent as a game tool, but I can totally understand your frustration. You’re spot on with the music. I think the biggest issue is the over-layering of instruments - there's too many instrumental layers going on at once so it sounds kinda muddled and overblown. A lot of boss tracks in ER (and DS2, and DS3) have very distinctive melodies, but they suffer from this problem. The ones with REALLY strong choral vocals in these games tend to stand out because they give all the chaos an "anchor", but they still don't reach the heights of DS1 or DeS. A great example of this issue is Fortissax's theme - if it were toned down even just a bit it'd be fantastic, the core melody is top notch. Weirdly enough I think BB managed to avoid this problem for the most part, a majority of BB boss themes sound distinctive to me and not over-layered like DS2, DS3, and ER's worst offenders. The bonfire problem is an ever-present issue in every game in this series following DS1, with the exception of BB. I think the reason it’s not being complained about in ER is because fast travel is the norm in open world games - had this still been structured like the other Souls games it would most likely have gotten the same critique. A lot of the issues with ER strike me as a product of how these games are being designed with veterans of past games in mind - the twitch-challenge bosses in particular. They want people who can beat the previous games with their eyes closed (on a Guitar Hero controller, backwards) to still be physically challenged by new games in the series. This misses the point of what made those games so engaging and replayable even for people who can in fact beat them with their eyes closed on a Guitar Hero controller backwards.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Completely agree about designing the games with veterans in mind. Personally I would rather have a game that stands on its own legs, even if it meant I had a “worse” experience being familiar with the mechanics from previous games. Good observation with the music. Memorable melodies are oddly unclear or straight up avoided in many modern games and movies. As for Bloodborne, Sony funding allowed for a much higher production in the soundtrack than usual. The issue with layering is also partly Kitamura’s style, which is unfortunately replicated by some of the other composers.
@soarel325
2 жыл бұрын
@@CrunchyVideos I have nothing but disdain for what Extra Credits has become, but the game music video they did over a decade ago still sticks out to me as nailing the problem. Limitations result in more memorable stuff being made.
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
@@soarel325 Music doesn’t need to be memorable everytime. Sometimes you just need a background theme that you can play permanently and that will add to the feeling of an area. The stormveil castle/Limgrave theme is a good exemple, it really had an unique vibe to the area. But there is still memorable theme, like the one in leyndell.
@Jasx_501
2 жыл бұрын
I agree with a lot of your points here. Music, boss re-use, padding, could have definitely been tightened up. An option to disable ambient music would have been great and an empty Mountain Tops (with a few encampments) would have been awesome.
@aroudingo
2 жыл бұрын
The biggest thing that draws me into these games is that feeling of walking into a new area/boss room and seeing all the cool new designs of enemies and Animations hooked onto them. I absolutely love the surprises these games can have. But I started to have a lot of moments where I’d walking into a boss room and just roll my eyes because…”oh…it’s one of these again” Or the “I wonder what this catacomb will have? Skeletons? Or imp around corners?” It started to get very repetitive and tiresome. But I will say there were a couple of fun shake ups in the catacomb dept… Like that constantly looping one that made me feel like I was crazy for a moment… Or the one with all the trap transported chests. Those were a fun shake up. Even though the overall aesthetics and designs of the catacombs all look identical. But yea…I just wish there was more variety
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
Elden Ring has more unique bosses and enemy than all other souls game. It’s just that the game is 2/3 times longer than the average souls game so it can feel repetitive. Personally I don’t treat the catacombs boss like real bosses, I just care about the loot.
@macrou
2 жыл бұрын
This is probably one of the best critiques for me I've seen so far. I would agree with every point, and they highlight the biggest 'gripes' I have with the game. I like it, and I can understand why they made a lot of the decisions I don't like about it, but I would have a really hard time to say I say love it. Also, you are the first one I hear talking about Torrent, and I couldn't agree more! All of the points I worried about even before the game came out, and hearing you speak them out loud is the first time I don't feel crazy about myself in regards to Torrent. :D
@AegisKHAOS
Жыл бұрын
Late to this, but as a first time player, even I noticed the amount of bonfires or graces there are. Granted, having more generous amount of graces is nice when you consider how big the world is, but is it even necessary to have, say, one near the entrance of Margit's arena, one in the arena after you beat Margit, and then one next to the gate of Stormveil? That sounded like DS2 levels of bonfire placement. Meanwhile, once you learn the path, the so-called walk of shame between Radagon's Wolf area and Renalla's area at the Academy is actually quite easy to get around. Very easy to learn the path of the giant ball, and better yet, you can even kill the mage that calls the ball down. Didn't mind the lack of stake of Marika in that instance.
@kloakovalimonada
2 жыл бұрын
Mostly exactly how I feel about ER. It has a very weird difficulty curve - world is super easy, with almost no threat at all, and bosses one-shot you.
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
The difficulty curve is different for everyone. That’s what happen when you let the player do area in a different order.
@RafaelKB
Жыл бұрын
Level up health
@BLK_MN
Жыл бұрын
Level Vigor lmao
@aroudingo
2 жыл бұрын
The over abundance of grace points made me miss the good old days where I would be stressed and on the edge of my seat trying to last as long as I can on just a couple of flasks I had left to make it to the next point. Carefully picking my battles and playing very defensively so I could MAYBE see my way through to the next point. But no, a 30 second jog and there is a place to fully regen the flask
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
Elden Ring was my first soul game and I had the same feeling you described when exploring legacy dungeon. But when I played DS1/DS3 it was mostly gone ( or not as strong) cause I became good at the game. The grace are very close but when you don’t know the area they can feel very far away.
@Sohelanthropus
Жыл бұрын
Yup, checkpoint balancing has been a problem ever since DS3
@kingnro1
8 ай бұрын
17:00 The weird part about having such a ridiculous number of sites of grace is the fact that they already had a good solution in the stakes of Marika
@jonah2106
2 жыл бұрын
Great video! I didn't really disagree with any of the major points. One thing I will say that wasn't brought up with in the video is that my personal favorite moment of the game was entering a cave without light for the first time. When it became too dark to see anything and exploring the cave became impossible it was this 'Oh, of course!' moment. Where I remembered the torch Kale had and went back. And then later on finding a lantern and getting my offhand back. I think it goes against the open world nature Fromsoftware was going for, but getting those metroidvania upgrades to make exploring more feasible was definitely my favorite part of the game. It felt good having remembered that Kale had a torch in his inventory when I went into the dark cave for the first time, and it felt great seeing a lantern in another merchants shop inventory and knowing what that meant for my exploration. It sounds so silly that my favorite part of this absurdly huge video game was walking back into a cave with a torch and being able to properly explore it, doubly so considering it was within the first hour of gameplay. It could just be me though, as all the reviews I've watched no one else has mentioned it. One of the minor disagreements I have is in respeccing. I don't personally mind limiting respecs more, and I don't disagree at all with the points discussed (like why the choice is even there if certain stats are so vital). But one of the things that got my friend to look at the game was being able to tell them they don't have to worry about messing their character up, and that they're free to change their mind about their character whenever they want. They haven't bought the game to experience any of the design problems you mentioned, but being told they're free to experiment made an Elden Ring player where there wasn't one before, and alleviates pressure from friends like me to backseat to stop them from falling off the game. Elden Ring feels like it's trying to be accessible to everyone, and near infinite respecs help curb the ominous reputation the series has. Even if respeccing has been an option for a few games now, having it front and center in the early game of every players path gets the word out that you don't have to worry about messing anything up. (As opposed to DS3 respecs being so hidden). Although your discussion was more about what it does for the game while my argument had more to do with the marketing for it, so I'm not sure if it even counts as disagreeing.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Excellent comment. Agreed about respeccing, it’s definitely a QOL sort of thing that can help persuade people who otherwise might be intimidated. I think maybe limiting it to about three would be better- and don’t give players the option to change their name, even if appearance is customizable. Lovely anecdote about the cave- I was very pleased to see they were actually dark, like DS1. DS3 had a very bright shiny visual style (something weird about the shaders I think) where even the darkest setting never got pitch black anywhere. Happy to see them go back to that, and the metroidvania stuff as well- I wouldn’t have minded a lot more of that.
@justkallmekai
2 жыл бұрын
Could not agree more about the sites of grace. On my first playthrough I actively avoided sitting down at them. I found the flask mechanic a lot of fun once you stop sitting down at every single site of grace. Hilariously on my coop run (with the mod) I also actively stopped using torrent while my friends ran ahead. I found it a lot more fun to walk around everywhere, the terrain is quite fun to traverse if you don't use torrent.
@aroudingo
2 жыл бұрын
22:38 whoa, I’ve never seen Mohg do that trident twist move before.
@xxEffortlessxx
2 жыл бұрын
Honestly a fair review and I respect the perspective. I think this game is masterful in a different sort of way that the other souls games shake out. To me, Elden Ring is about the world, the open world, and how your understanding and experience through it, changes the surroundings. What was important to you through your playthrough? Did you trust the two fingers? Did you really like Ranni? Or can you really vibe with the Dung Eater? The game definitely falls a little short in some of the departments that the other souls games excel at, but that's for good reason as you mentioned at the end. To me Elden ring is about the culmination of all that time you spent exploring, and how you as a player decided to manage the challenges in the game. You are correct, if you wanted to, you can cheese essentially every enemy in the game, that's part of the downside of the open world is it opens up strategies that a computer cannot possibly account for. As a player it's up to you. Do you want a challenge? Do you want to explore more? Do you want the world to burn at the ending? It's about the player agency, and the choices they get to make and how they effect the playthrough and the world. These sorts of things stick out to me when compared to the other souls games. Another part that really sticks out is just the color in this game. It is beautiful and twisted in a way only FS can manage. All this to say I think the "open world" was the focus this time around. And for a first attempt at an open world game, this one blows pretty much any other open world game I've played out of the water (I'm admittedly a souls simp)
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Agreed. I didn’t mention the narrative at all because this is a critique, but I think it’s possibly their best storytelling yet.
@wheediesmanchild5229
2 жыл бұрын
I’m personally jaded against the game and my experience and how the game forced me to spoil myself by looking up the wiki for the sake of progress and role play is a major reason. My first game I was playing a prophet loyal to the two fingers who saw it as their fordained mission to become elden lord, as bequeathed to them by the gods. Now jump to needing to burn the Erd tree and commit the gravest sin, my character had absolutely no reason to and it went against all of his beliefs. Surely there was another way, surely there where options. Also the Erd tree is a Yggdrasil stand in so it seemed that burning the tree will cause the root structure to collapse destroying the world, and I want to rule it as king and I can’t do that if it’s destroyed. So I looked up how to not break role play to advance the game, but of course you have to do it and the game never made it clear that you absolutely have to or that your apparently just burning the exterior of the tree. To me it completely failed at providing a clear narrative and failed at giving player agency. In fact it completely goes against player agency because you don’t even get to make the world you want as elden lord, your forced to choose from what other characters want; and that at least is not masterfully done.
@xxEffortlessxx
2 жыл бұрын
@Wheedies Manchild yea good point. I won't bend over backwards to tell you why or how the game was developed from a story point of view, but I do think this plays at the theme of inevitability in the game. But spoilers ahead: The new age was coming, and I imagine you are in the position of goldmask or corhyn, once you learned of Marika and radagon, and that there was something wrong with the current order, they had been abandoned by the greater will for a reason. Then you learn that to be Elden Lord you need to commit the cardinal sin, and burn the Erdtree. You partially learn this from the two fingers themselves. (Enia, really) At that point you start to connect the dots with the other souls games, and you realize the ending of this cycle is inevitable. The only way to really save the world is to become Elden Lord and create the world as you see fit. This is where you come in, have you committed to the two fingers/the greater will? Or have you decided that chaos may take the world? (And so on...) I think this fits into your roleplay a bit, but I won't tell you how to play the game! You are rightful to your own perspective on the game, and I understand where you're coming from for sure, all I can say is you can't account for EVERY possible ending in a game, but we can definitely hope haha
@crowstakingoff
Жыл бұрын
@@wheediesmanchild5229 I'm not speaking about the roleplaying part, but even Dark Souls 1 had the problem of needing to use a guide for the story. It was the first From game I played, and this was probably the flaw that stuck out to me the most. If you don't use a guide you find the NPC you were trying to help dead. We think of the game as requiring less explanation because the game has been more fully embedded in our memory than Elden Ring. Think of the quest that is integral to the binary choice you make at the end of the game-Kaathe's-and thus the roleplaying aspects of the game. How many people are going to choose not to place the lordvessel (the only way to get Kaathe to appear) when it seems to be the only way forward, or at least the most logical? I would say these flaws in Elden Ring are offensive but mainly because the developers haven't fixed these issues in their games when they've had a decade to do so. While playing Elden Ring, I sometimes thought of From as arrogant, in a way, by refusing to address these repeated problems. But I'd say I know better, and that it has more to do with their insane output and incredible overall quality of work; it's like they're too busy cranking out great work to inspect it more carefully and create a masterpiece.
@dezmas9332
Жыл бұрын
What I found disappointing in the late game is the ruins, the early game has tons of bosses in their ruins, but when you get to the late game you'll only be finding chests, and not even teleporting ones that could make a fun experience, especially so late in the game
@CrunchyVideos
Жыл бұрын
That’s a really good point. The tele chests only function early game as a surprise. There’s not as many surprises as the game goes on.
@thomasallister3446
Жыл бұрын
@Crunchy Yeah it’s surprising there’s only two of those chests, one leading to a surprise sneak peek at Lleyndell and the Erdtree up close, and the other in an cave in Caelid. They’re both pretty memorable moments which does make it surprising it was only done twice and both in the very early game.
@UkazutoX
2 жыл бұрын
Really well put together video great work! Funny though, I'd agree with you on the music except for the Leyendell track, I feel it's flexible enough to work for both states of the place. For me there was this preserved era long past vibe, and after the switch is recontextualized with the melancholy of a city now lost. 100% agree with the progression though, weird walking past the tree only to get warped back, I was really hoping for one last legacy dungeon within the tree, perhaps move farum azula to the top of this hypothetical dungeon. It would have helped break up the endgame boss rush. The only thing I'd really disagree with is I do hope they try out an open world game like this again. There's room for improvement and I'd like to see them pull off something even more incredible, plus I really enjoyed the open world's exploration more than Ds1's interconnected world, though that may be a personal preference, I'd say they should have taken the actual go anywhere approach of BotW instead of having these checkpoints scattered through the game (mostly in the second half) and if they could mix the verticality of soul's games I'd be ecstatic. Now I don't want every game they make to be that way, but I certainly wouldn't want them to never try it again.
@scragglie
Жыл бұрын
wow, excellent video man, im shocked it has less than 10k views, it deserves so much more, this is a great critique no matter if someone agrees or disagrees with you. for the record i fully agree with you on everything but the ambient music, i really enjoy the alot of the ambient tracks (except liurnia fuck liurnia in general tbh) but your criticism is still totally valid and i totally understand you preferring the ambient "noise" or in world sound effects of the "older" fromsoft games.
@ratoftoska7497
2 жыл бұрын
Sometimes less is more in videogames. To me that is especially true for the music of the series. All these orchestral tracks just start to blend in while themes like Majula or Firelink Shrine are memorable.
@shadquirk607
2 жыл бұрын
I have a major issue with how this game has traditionally been judged exclusively against other soulsborne games, and not against what I consider to actually be it's contemporaries; open world rpgs. I don't think I've seen a single 'professional' critique mention any Bethesda games, aka Elder Scrolls and/or Fallout series, no mentions of arpgs or turn based rpgs like Divinity 2 etc. Essentially Elden Ring is a 'sword and shield' open world rpg, but to my knowledge it has never been compared to Witcher 3 or Dragon Age Inquisition, why is this? I feel the achievements of the souls series has seriously muddied the water when it comes to critiquing this game. It's an open world rpg and should be compared to others of its kind, NOT exclusively other souls games. I honestly feel that if held up against Witcher 3, Skyrim, DA, and other similar games it fails to improve on them significantly, and I believe that's why it's never directly compared to them. Nice vid, the music is rarely, if ever, mentioned and is a salient point.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Very good point. I think it’s not very easy to identify what Elden Ring’s goal was, which is part of the unfocused feeling that I got.
@wheediesmanchild5229
2 жыл бұрын
When playing the game I can’t help but compare ER dungeons to Skyrims. When I okayed Skyrim I played the game only for the side dungeons, I never knew what I’d find going in. But in ER it really just felt like a chore when playing, and I spent have the game just ruminating on the difference.
@coasteraddict10
3 ай бұрын
It's open world souls, lmfao it 100% should and NEEDS to be compared to other souls games.
@shadquirk607
3 ай бұрын
@@coasteraddict10 as you can clearly see I said EXCLUSIVELY, multiple times in fact, so you're either blind, stupid, or trolling.
@IMRavnos
2 ай бұрын
@@wheediesmanchild5229 we must have played different versions of Skyrim. I found the Skyrim dungeons to be copy pasted pieces and copy pasted enemies. In ER this is also a thing however, the fact that most of the imp catacombs are largely “same” feeling actually makes a lot of sense. They were obviously constructed in the near same way by the same civilization. Skyrim to be fair also has this with the Draugr dungeons, but a lot of the non Draugr dungeons also feel very generic. However, maybe I am just forgetting some of the bland cave system? I also think a lot of the negative views of ER come from souls kids mad that they dared to make a game that wasn’t a cramped twisting ambush simulator that folks who are not devout souls kids. Also, these souls kids tend to also be completionists who will see a lot of things repeated that most players will not. All in all, if the next FromSoft game is more ER than DS I am in. If it is going back to a Rubik’s cube with ambush choke points designed to kill you after carting to a boss behind a fog gate 20 minutes away from a bonfire. Pass. I just hope Miyazaki grows a pair of balls and finally makes that coop RPG he says he has always wanted to make but i stead just keeps making his hyper fetishized homage to Berserk. BB is his best world design but his worst level design. Also fuck 30 FPS. THANK GOD FOR EMULATORS
@basedgodly1623
Жыл бұрын
The BEARS AND FINGER CREEPERS MANNNN!! I get having aggressive enemies like that but God damn you don't get a second to breath
@AndrewThePoet
2 жыл бұрын
Greetings Crunchy! I may hope youre doing the best in your days! Such a good critique video and I respect it; however, I beg to differ. I shall divide this comment into 3 points: 1. The enemy design 2. The music and (at the very last section of the video) the open world 3. Torrent ---Closing Words--- If each point interest you, I may bestowed a grin in all of your faces and a rejoice to read, especially Crunchy for his amazing video. 1. The Enemy Design: While I agree with few points you made, I still cannot fathom or reckon some of these problems. Godskin Noble, (One move or two ruins the fight) Ulcerated Erdtree and etc (except for the royal revinints and Rune Bear) are all but better fights in the overworld than the Soulsborne series as well as the mini bosses. Indeed, they have these minor problems in their moveset, but the fight is far better than a lot of the overworld bosses in the series if compared. Not to mention that these bosses (specifically the Royal Revinint) are all to accomndate the world's dangerous place. Yes, I would agree that the Sites of Graces in many area are quite too many, conversaly, it still doesnt break the immersion in my experience or from others but the fights themselves arent bad nor break the immersion. I still think you have a good point with the sites of graces criticism as it may inhace the experience even further. But I digrese. 2. The Music and the Open World Then we have the music. I dont think it rather is generic nor is bad; it is my favorite soundtrack in the whole series in my opinion, specifically the ambient music. These accomondate the world, it enhances them, especially the bosses themes since they ARE at their prime and they all come from a single source and serving none other than the Golden Order. I wouldnt actually like if they sounded different really, and to put my point across and aid you with which OST is similar, here are these that are similar in percusion: Similar: -Radahn -Radagon -Morgott/Margit -Malenia's second phase -Mohg -Rykard (kind of) Different: -Elden Beast -Pingus Ca- I mean Ancestral Spirit -Naturalborne of the Void, Astel -Fallenstar Beast -Malenia's first phase -Rennala -Placidusax Even then if it sounded similar, and that is because they all served the Golden Order or at least ruled by it. It is no wonder they still sound different. I would argue that if Elden Ring sounded more somber or more trajic, it would sound moreso like Dark Souls and not having its own identity. Elden Ring's bombastic feel IS what makes Elden Ring, as the trajic OST wouldnt make sense in the world of Elden Ring. Imagine Rykard, whom conquered the forces of Leyndell, became the Serpent and is on the verge to overthrow the Golden Order that all of a sudden has a tragic OST. It would make no sense in all honesty, same for the rest with exception of few like Malenia's first phase which elaborate's more on her grief losing Miquella and her whishing death while welcoming you in a dance of agony where she know that she could win, without Miquella. Or Rennala which broken hearted and so on. The music is here to elaborate more on the lore of the characters and how they are still in their prime for most. Again, it wouldnt make sense for a somber tragic soundtrack with the bosses for the majority. As for ambience music, I quite frankly disagree. Limgrave's soundtrack never gets old nor any of the ambient music. It fits the mood and it isnt repititive really as it reminds you what happened to the world. It is called ambience music for a reason so it doesnt get repititive, much like Breath of the Wild but adding more instruments to aid the environment direction. Speaking of Environment; the level design in Elden Ring by far is the best in any openworld game or of fromsoft past games. From legacy dungeons to the overworld, it is a joy to go through The Lands Between as I didnt feel filled between. The details, the terrific world design and the level design as you said is present in Elden Ring, though Im unsure why you said it is kind of flat in between or some form of word like it. Which I would agree upon in the endgame section (except for Farum Azula), but before it? Heck no! I would argue even that Elden Ring have the most mastered game with Enviromental story telling in all of fromsoftware, and i shall link videos upon this subject at the last of this comment. Back in track however, the game repitited dungeon design and how you find them is intentional by design as how much repeated they are as the game expects you that you already mastered it in Limgrave and the Academy. It wouldnt make sense to make something that is entirely different after what the game teached you in Limgrave. (I will link a video about this subject to further emphasize my point from Zuillie The Witch) What I agree is the suggestion youve put for the Mountain tops of the giant UNLESS if the timeline were closer to the current events which I highly dount from Castle Sole and perhaps the migration of these mutated birds and dogs. I think a better solution is to have some form of new skeleton enemies to further implicate the war in the region which we could see graves there. 3.Torrent I still am confused why Torrent is the biggest problem. I dont think the Openworld is the issue and moreso how methodical it could get which clearly shows the intentional design behind Elden Ring not being methodical and im fine with Torrent makes me run from other enemies, what I think would be better is to firstly enhance the horse combat (which I hope they do in a DLC or in another game), make sites of graces not being rested unless you engage in the combat and kill the enemy and not getting raid of Torrent. Torrent is not the problem I would argue, but it is the abundance and the accumalating amount of Graces in the Lands Between. Torrent do not necessarly need a character. YOU, the tarnished percive Torrent, and it makes sense from the game's narrative point of view, for you try and characterize Torrent, which the game shouldve ended in you fighting the Elden Beast alongside Torrent. Howbeit, that is not an issue I would argue. The issue is removing Torrent entirely design wise would make the game next to a sluggish turtle searching in the Lands between, especially the first time through. This would damage the game significantly even if you have many sites of graces as you still need to find them on foot. I would argue the game wouldnt be intutive or fun without him. As for the moves, I partially agree, howbeit, I never had any problem controlling torrent at all, the only problem I have is the double jump as it kills velocity of your horse and thus feel slower. Other than that, Torrent is great but interms of combat mechanic, he is weak. ---Closing Words--- While I still have some things to disagree on like the bosses and how actually the jump attack is better than rolling in some cases and how I love these bosses and such; I will leave it here. The things I agree upon however is the endgame couldve been better and the balance of the game as i think Elden Ring needs some balance changing. Not to mention the spirits ashes being disjointed of emotion except for some. It couldve been better however. I must thank you in sincertiy for all these amazing videos. I respect you ao grealty; Im pleading you to not take it as an offence and i hope you have a fabulous day as we at the end of the day are humans and we tend to disagree. Here are the videos: -----Upon repeated dungeons and enemies -Zullie kzitem.info/news/bejne/z5qLtZxtj4epa2k -----The music of Elden Ring -Godrick kzitem.info/news/bejne/xKaD06GifGtia5w -Rykard kzitem.info/news/bejne/xGqVmYKQqmWZZoI ------The enviromental story telling -Examples of Tarnished Archeologist kzitem.info/news/bejne/1Iyq0nerf4iXjWk -Storytelling masterpiece. kzitem.info/news/bejne/1WuDupmEgqeAoZg -Elden Ring balance between light and darkness kzitem.info/news/bejne/moKh24ybppuLYH4 -Mastering the lore kzitem.info/news/bejne/q4WOm4enbYx5lpg -------I also must recommend this video the most for you to have an insight of Miyazaki's vision of Elden Ring kzitem.info/news/bejne/xo-ptWmjhJV_apg
@paulroche7588
Жыл бұрын
Totally agree about the enemies and music, you articulated the issues with them probably the best I’ve heard in any ER review, not sure if I totally agree with the stuff about torrent, he’s not required to be used so that seems like he’s just an optional tool, I also feel like the amount of larval tears has more to do with the large variety of weapons and build options and giving the player the ability to test out as many weapons and builds as they want without having to start a new game cycle, im not a video game critic tho I just love playing er so I’m probably bias lol
@valebonfi4482
Жыл бұрын
Love this video. I hate that tons of journalists were saying "Elden ring open world is revolutionary", I guess it's revolutionary for souls games but compared to other open world games it feels like it's filler content when in skyrim and genshin the open world is the game. Like the important, juicy content with the detailed souls exploration is done inside the legacy dungeons (and not all legacy dungeons are created equal) while like you said, exploring too much in the open world is not that rewarding and becomes repetitive extremely fast. Still love elden ring, for sure one of the best game released in the last 8 years.
@avibi
4 ай бұрын
This is now my favourite critique of Elden Ring. Someone finally mentioned the upgrading armour mechanic. You got yourself a new sub!
@joseph6889
2 жыл бұрын
good review really enjoyed it, a few critiques: - Bosses: Adjusting to your characters movements/actions mid attack I feel makes the enemies more like actual opponents. - Exploration: I have always enjoyed finding even the smallest clue into the lore of these games, the fact that there is more area to explore even if I only find something 1 out 20 times feels like your are on a hunt to find some ancient truth - Torrent - agree he is a tool to move through the world. Disagree that he handles badly, but again this is all just personal perspective. I enjoyed the mounted combat and the additional movement that Torrent afforded. I think the ability to speed past enemies and areas is just another option, players like options :)
@James_Rustled
2 жыл бұрын
Extremely fair critique. Also helps that you made each point really well. The game is far from perfect, it’s amazing and fun but it has flaws. Great video as usual
@highlightermarca-texto3281
2 жыл бұрын
I agree with a lot of what you talked about here, especially the music. Seems like you're the only review I've seen mentioning it. Although my biggest problem is with how often tracks get reused, especially on the minor bosses. And most of those tracks aren't even good. I think the music of the major bosses is generally awesome though, and they fit the pace of the fight very well. Morgott and Mogh being two very good examples. I just can't fight them with the music turned off, it's so important for setting the pace of the fight. Especially delicious when Mogh's swings sync up with the choir roll. And on the topic of bosses, you didn't clarify (not that I could tell) whether you meant the more methodical simpler bosses of DS1 and DeS were just different, or that you thought they were better. BB has a very different combat style from DS, it's clear that ER was also supposed to lean more on the action side of action-RPG. Frankly I think you're just flat out uninformed when you say that there's no strategy to the ER bosses. Sure, can you circumvent every outscaling or respecing? Yes. But you also don't have to. We've had optional 'easy' modes since DS1 with Sorcery, I don't see how it's that much different. ER is a more complex game with more build options, giving us more ways to experiment with those options on the fly isn't inherently a negative. My first playthrough took 200h and I think I used 5 or 6 different weapon classes (all with the same stat build). You seem to have just completely ignored Spirit Ashes (I know you talked about them, I just didn't see you use them when fighting the Godskin Duo or Crystallian Trio), even for the Duo fights which are obviously balanced by bringing one in. Now, yes, I completely agree with you that I don't like to use Spirit Ashes. But I don't know if I could say that makes the game worse. If you have the ability to summon an Ash, why wouldn't the game throw more 2v1s at you that you're expected to turn into 1v1s? Now, I won't disagree with you that ER has bad bosses. Valiant Gargoyles are horrendous, the poison should not be the same color as the water. Wormface and Deathrite Bird... exist. But it's not like the past games didn't have some stinky poopoo bosses either. And the good bosses here are easily better or on par with the rest of the series. Moveset wise I'd say Morgott is my favorite boss in any of the souls games that I've played. Morgott is also a pretty good example to talk about another thing I heavily disagree with you on, that being that there isn't a psychological aspect to any of these bosses. I mean, what were the major complaints when the game came out? That the bosses never stop attacking and have no openings. That to me is the psychological aspect. Breaking down this opponent who seems impossible at first. You learn that you can get a jump here, a strafe there, roll left rather than right to bait out this specific attack, get in 2 R1s then dodge this delayed attack, etc etc. There's soooo much to learn with Morgott. I've spent over 10h fighting him alone and I'm still discovering new shit. It's this insane game of chess where you always have to be 3 steps ahead of the boss to know what ways he can extend his combos based on where you are, how to bait out the attacks you want to get the most openings (for your weapons, playing with a Colossal Sword and a Curved Sword are totally different experiences, you'll have to bait out completely different attacks) and what attacks to use in those openings (because now every melee weapon has 3 attacks and a guard counter). I completely understand that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, the skill celling for ER is MUCH higher than DS1s for instance. But is it inherently worse? No. No comments on your take on exploration, since I completely agree with you there. Torrent especially. From what Zullie's dug up seem like the mounting system was supposed to have a lot more depth, but that ended up being scrapped, which is very unfortunate. Torrent and Melina despite being with you the whole journey really have very little character. Even if you find Melina's secret dialogue spots at the churches all she does is recite shit Marika said, which doesn't do anything for her character. It'd be nice if she at least showed up at the Graces after you killed a Shardbearer to congratulate you or something like that.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
As for music, my next video is going to be an in-depth exploration of the music from DS1. I won't be mentioning the other games too much, but it will have some general observations. I agree that having boss music is generally a good idea, for various reasons-- the execution is a different thing. The point I made at the end of the video was that the methodical style of gameplay works better with the level of detail and care Fromsoft puts into its world, because it gives you more time (and a sense of detachment from the action) to reflect. There are advantages to a more action-focused style of combat, so it's not a binary one-is-better-than-another kind of thing; it depends on context. Bloodborne was essentially an action game with light RPG mechanics (which were probably unnecessary). Elden Ring is an RPG game with a heavy emphasis on action, and that seems a little less cohesive in my view. I didn't say that there was no strategy to Elden Ring bosses; I said memorization and twitch gameplay don't require much deep thought or planning, and Elden Ring relies on those aspects too heavily. You're right that "cheesy" methods have been around since the beginning, and I'm not saying that the criticisms I'm making here are entirely exclusive to Elden Ring. It's more of a generalization about the trend in design. I also didn't say Spirit Ashes make the game worse-- just that they're underdeveloped. The psychological side of unpredictable/aggressive combat is a fair point. However, I would say that anxiety dependent on external factors is less satisfying to overcome than anxiety dependent on internal factors. It's not a clear-cut difference between the two, but for example a boss like Nito is more about overcoming internal barriers rather than the pacing dictated by the boss. I'd have to think about whether I can make an argument that that's inherently better, but personally I find it much more satisfying.
@Wepospalient
2 жыл бұрын
Music is an interesting spot of critique I havnt heard much about with this game. I'm a huge fan of overworld ambient tracks, stuff like the Elder Scrolls series, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14, all stuff that has really stellar ambient music to fill in the soundscape of the world. I was surprised then when Elden Ring had a 2-3 minute track on loop forever for most areas, and a lot of reuse, like the underground areas. The actual quality of the tracks themselves are good in my opinion, I really love the haunted desolate vibe from Mountaintops of the Giants, the somber faded glory of the Altus Plateau, the creepy and unnerving atmosphere of the underground areas really reaches its pinnacle with the Deeproot Depths. It all loses it's luster after the first few loops of the song though, quickly becoming repetitive. I think the game could have benefited from either a few more tracks per area, or even more kind of generic world music. Skyrim for example has a track that's around 45 minutes long of just ambient music that can play anywhere in the overworld, and it helps break up the monotony of shorter area-specific tracks. I think some more down time between the music loops would go a long way too. Breath of the Wild has long pauses between its bouts of music, letting the ambience of the world fill in the gaps between. I think it is very telling that after a while, I'd just start turning Elden Ring's music off and playing music from other games in it's place. Exploring the world to some of Jeremy Soule's Elder Scrolls music was a lot more pleasant than hearing Limgrave's track for the 500th time. As for boss themes with the orchestra and choir and all that, I do feel that a lot of them just kind of fell into the category of "generic souls music." None of it is bad, and I do think there are some really stand out tracks in there, but a lot of it does blend together and really lack an identity of it's own other than generic souls music.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
The Skyrim soundtrack stands with other kings of the industry like Final Fantasy or Halo. BOTW music sounds very bad imo, but I agree that the implementation is much more thoughtful.
@Wepospalient
2 жыл бұрын
@@CrunchyVideos truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of BOTW's music either, I think a lot of it falls into generic piano melodies, nowhere near the quality of other Legend of Zelda music, but it's implementation is generally pretty good in my eyes. Knowing when to pause the music for a lull is just as important as knowing when to play it.
@BrassPetals3Voices
2 жыл бұрын
Agreed on the impact of music and how it sets the tone. Eventually I turned the music off as to better hear sound cues for various actions. The downside is the deafening silence in many areas.
@mcpw2004
2 жыл бұрын
When it comes to music I think there is one plus from it being nearly completely energetic, heroic and overall powerful, especially when we compare the main menu themes of Elden Ring and Other Souls games (excluding Bloodborne). The powerful design of Elden ring’s music really well shows the change of tone from this kind of hard and depressing struggle of Dark Souls to much more heroic and powerful story of Elden Ring, although It works the best when comparing to DS1 because as you said the next DS games slowly abandoned the DS sound design
@mcpw2004
2 жыл бұрын
Also I’d like to add that your take on Torrent is really great
@CommieApe
Жыл бұрын
This was a really thoughtful well composed video thanks for the catharsis. Its not only a fair evaluation of Elden Ring but of From's design philosophy in general. Ideas like your rework of mountaintop would have made this game much better.
@Totem.T.Tisana
Жыл бұрын
That's unfortunately very accurate. Don't get me wrong, i love the game. And many enemy displacement are even really brilliant, because many of them are in specific parts of the world to make you think of what them being there implies... (a dumb example are iron maidens all around in liurnia, example of the possible envolvement of volcano manor forces in the carian/raya lucaria war) But many others are there just to fill up grass fields, and that's a HUGE problem, mostly because others have a meaning and a reason for being there, and so i don't know when i have to ask myselfe questions about the lore of the area and when is just a gameplay thing with no plot implications. Sorry for my english, hope i've been clear even if i'm not used to the language
@driptopher7222
2 жыл бұрын
I think there's a lot to agree with overall, I'm very glad that the community is putting out lots of constructive criticism because it seems a sequel of some sort to elden ring is inevitable at this point. Sifting through all the cut content in this game has made me realize how much of their full ambition for this world had to be left on the cutting room floor, especially all the abandoned quests. Torrent feels like so much more could have been done with him and honestly I think you can include a mechanic like him in a game with a world striking enough to make you stop to enjoy it. I think that's why this game "gets away with" so many creature comforts that would have trivialized other souls games and do trivialize lots of other open world games...because the world, it's awe inspiring beauty never allows you (or at least me) to race through it without stopping to smell the roses and enjoy the combat. There are def wayyyy too many graces though. The biggest issue with this game in my opinion is the boss battles. As you said, they've pushed them nearly past the breaking point and they feel almost incompatible with how I want to play the game based on my previous experiences with fromsoft games.
@driptopher7222
2 жыл бұрын
I'll also say I disagree with a lot of your takes on the music, my only agreement is that contrast is key and there isn't enough of it in elden ring musically.
@goosewithagibus
Жыл бұрын
I feel like the only one who actually enjoyed the repetition? I actually looked forward to redoing bosses and mini bosses. There's a few I wish they didn't repeat (Astel). But I liked it. I also liked the gank fights. My most memorable ones were the Mistbegotten Warrior and Crucible Knights, and the double Crucible Knights fights. So much fun.
@jacobstaffordmiller1635
2 жыл бұрын
First off, I love your channel! These critiques are fair, I just feel like ER was made specifically for me(and people like me), I just love it. Its the first From game that I didn't bounce off of, and right there is a lot of the tension in the fandom. The older community wants ER to be more like Dark Souls, the newer additions to the community see an excellent game that fixed many of DS's perceived problems. For example, the bosses changing moves/being less predictable is a plus for me, as I lose immersion when I realize that there is less reactive intelligence. I don't feel like I have to be less strategic, it feels more realistic as I cant rely on stupid AI or animation length to win. On the music (in general)being a wash of sound, I do agree for the most part though I do not think it is a problem unique to From Soft or the "dark souls" sound. There is a general trend in music for media in moving away from melody, hooks, or really anything that draws attention to itself. To be clear, I think this is to the the detriment of media. Similar critiques arose around Metroid Dread's music which has a similarly high bar to reach for but they chose to mostly refrain from complexity and melody. The most popular ER tracks seem to be Godskin, Fortisaxx, and The Final Battle, and its no surprise that those stand out with melodies that you can actually sing to. I hope studios realize this and reverse course on the "music should never draw attention to itself" narrative.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
This is a really good observation. The move away from melody is especially noticeable in pulp blockbuster movies like Marvel, where it should have been more important. My next video will be exploring the music of Dark Souls 1, but if there’s enough interest around it I may do other videos on video game music.
@jacobstaffordmiller1635
2 жыл бұрын
@@CrunchyVideos I’ll definitely tune in to game music related videos, that’s my jam! And yeah the trend away from melody is no accident, it’s literally what I was taught in school.
@invisibleguru8217
2 жыл бұрын
Best Elden Ring critique I've seen on youtube so far!
@grogueQ
2 жыл бұрын
I personally don't think there were enough respecs, and here's why. I saved all mine for post game PVP. Playing on console, I didn't have the option to create backup saves. And the lasting fun of PVP comes from trying out different builds. I agree with you for someone who is only going to be playing PVE that's too many, but it's not enough if you want to mess around after the campaign. My solution is limit the amount of respecs throughout the game, but once it's completed they should be infinite.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Agreed, opening customization up once you’ve completed the game would be a good way to have the best of both worlds.
@eonwe5885
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the discussion. I'm a bit more bullish on the prospect of further From open worlds. I want them to keep making more linerar games, and I want there next open world attempt to be significantly smaller, but I'm happy for them to keep trying to iterate upon and refine the Elden Ring formula, as they have been consistently doing with the Demons' Souls formula. A lot of your points him home for me though. Less frequent graces, with a return to the old system of travel only between bonfires, but with options for returning you to your last, would have been a major improvement. The truly empy mountaintops concept is really interesting, too. I disagree about much of what you say about bosses, though. You definitely can, and Elden Ring does, craft deeper more complex gameplay by using the same basic player actions creatively. Consider a stereotyped ur-Dark Souls boss, where you dodge once in any direction with rough timing and press R1, then repeat at an even pace until done. A sequence from Morgott which asks you to roll right with precise timing to avoid two hit boxes, press R2, roll forwards, roll left, contine to circle left around the boss, and then hold R2 is clearly deeper and more engaging. Meanwhile, the series have never wavered in its commitment to punishing panic, and indeed this is perceptible behind some of the other complaints you make. Delayed attacks are absolutely not punishing anyone for noticing things or for playing the previous games. It's just another way to punish panic. The more you hold your nerve and pay attention, the better you will fare when facing them. Likewise, the impression of excessive aggression is often a test of whether you will stand your ground and find the openings or back down and get caught. Finally, I find your contrast between strategy, which is good, and memorization/reaction, which are bad, to be flawed. You can only memorize the patterns that you notice, and so memorization does in fact rely on intelligence and observation after all. This another reason for the high aggression and complexity of bosses: they are designed to ensure that throwing yourself at them over and over again won't get you far without a strategy. For instance, you can't just fight Margit a few times until you internalise his cane patterns, you've got work out how best to deal with each attack or it will remain an opaque mess of backhops and dagger swipes. Meanwhile, once you've started to understand the bosses, the burden on reaction time is greatly diminished, since figuring out an optimal strategy involves learning how to anticipate or avoid the most troublesome attacks.
@CrunchyVideos
Жыл бұрын
Having to do more actions in a given period of time with more precise timing does not inherently add to the depth of gameplay; it might be more mechanically complex, but strategically more shallow. Compare Phalanx from Demon’s Souls and Vordt from Dark Souls 3. Phalanx is mechanically simple, and not overwhelmingly challenging- but he requires some strategic thinking, positioning, planning in order to deal with him. Vordt, on the other hand, is much more complicated mechanically; a wide range of moves, fast pacing, high damage. But, Vordt doesn’t require much strategy- any weapon, any approach to fighting him is roughly equal, as long as you roll at the right time- and you have to roll at the right time. If you don’t like the word strategy replace it with something else but that’s the point I tried to make. Delayed attacks may make you anxious- personally they make me disappointed, which disengages me from the game rather than engaging further- but that doesn’t stop them from being terrible design. Attack animations have three phases: anticipation, action, and wind-down. The anticipation phase is the most important because it (theoretically) telegraphs the power and speed of the second and third phases. A quick anticipation means quick action and brief wind-down; a slow anticipation means a slow action and long wind-down. You can, as game devs have done, graph the ideal pacing arc of an animation that perfectly telegraphs information to the player. Mess with that formula at your own peril; if you screw that anticipation up, the game is objectively less fair, because there’s no way to reasonably ensure you can avoid damage. The only way to do that is to get punched first, and memorize the arbitrary timing of the attack. This is extremely poor game design. Furthermore, it stretches credulity in terms of immersion; no one would ever fight in that way, so it becomes even clearer that the delayed attack is just some devs arbitrarily changing a time value expressly to punish players for behavior they can’t avoid. It’s a terrible practice which Fromsoft has only increasingly engaged in because veterans have become too proficient at each successive game.
@eonwe5885
Жыл бұрын
@@CrunchyVideos Sure, you can take a boss with both simple attacks and shallow overall gameplay, and make it deeper by adding a strategic dimension independent of its attacks. But you can also make it deeper by making its attacks more complex, and demanding more variety and nuance in the way the player responds to them. These are both ways to make a boss deeper, is all I'm saying. My quibble with your use of 'strategy' is that you seem to be ruling out of court the idea that dealing with a complex moveset might involve strategy, but I don't see any good reason for this. Iiirc, you can blindspot a lot of Vordt's attacks, at least in phase one, by staying tight to him. This is a better approach to the fight, because you can spend more of your time and stamina attacking rather than rolling. Executing it successfully requires strategic thinking, positioning, planning. It's all still strategy. This bleeds into the dispute over delayed attacks. Firstly, learning through dying is central to the gameplay loop. Given that, I fail to see why it's unfair or poor design to expect a player to take a few punches before they figure things out. Indeed, a large boss moveset that was designed to enable the player to avoid all damage by reacting intuitively to each succesive attack on sight would be limited in just the sort of way that you have been suggesting. All you would need to do is perform the one obvious action the game is asking of you at any time, and not get sloppy about it. In those circumstances, the extra depth you gain from complexity dwindles rapidly. If, however, you have combos that are extremely difficult to avoid fully on sight, this is actually good design that incentivises the player to go away and think about how different actions could have led to better results. What ways of dealing with the first attack would have left me better prepared for the second? Delays allow this sort of strategic quandry to be compressed into a single attack. What subtle cues for the timing might I have missed? Can I get in an attack during the delay? Can I manoeuvre into a better position? If I can either attack or manoeuvre, which is the better option? So it's not just a matter of punishing players for being good, it's about using complex moves to set up puzzles for the player to solve strategically.
@dudenintendo605
2 жыл бұрын
You're presenting a really good constructive critique! With a few points you want to form the experience like you know it from DSI-III and in a way I understand you. But it's like a wishlist for the producer, and if every good idea would find a way onto that list, it would never end... The comparison to Shadow of the Colossus in the beginning is a bit hard to understand, because that's exactly the game I think always about with playing EldenRing, but not because of the differences, but because of the similarities! No other game gave me the same sense of exploration of a huge new world, where you can find something special everywhere (clearly Zelda, but that's Nintendo)! The colossus is the world and its story!
@FFatrickAteman
2 жыл бұрын
I agree and disagree with some points here, great video btw! I think that the bonfire point is different for elden ring. In dark souls it’s unacceptable since the bonfires are a “resting” spot, you feel relieved when u find one and u might sit in them like a hollow knight bench. While in elden ring grace is described as something you follow, a pathway to help players through the open world not so much a resting spot. Elden rings problems stem from how big the open world is but I come to accept that a biggwr world will have a little less polish. Lets just hope fromsofts next game is linear so we can get back the feel of the older games we love
@aboose-
Жыл бұрын
This is a very good critique, appreciate your perspective and find myself agreeing! You're the first person who called out the ambient music, especially Liurnia -- I kept thinking fire alarms were going off in real life. I am unique in that upon Elden Ring coming out to critical acclaim, I decided to play the whole series in order from start to finish as a complete noob, so Demon's Souls to Sekiro in release order, before Elden Ring. Seeing the progression was very interesting and I found something to enjoy in each game, but going from Sekiro (which I consider borderline a perfect game) polish and tightness in narrative, boss design, map design, etc to Elden Ring was jarring. I am the type of person who cannot progress until I've felt like I've done "everything" and so my first runthrough of Elden Ring was 170 hours (although a good amount of that was spent cooping), and in that 170 hours I killed every single boss and went to every dungeon/location in each locale. What you said about retroactively sullying content was absolutely true -- Night's Cavalry is one of the cooler boss designs in the game, but doing it literally 5-8 times is boring. It was exciting when there was two of them with the convoy. If they had done 1-2 Night's Cavalry fights, then the duo convoy, it would have been very interesting. The dungeons were cool at first but became tiresome with the gimmicks -- the tough skin miners, the hidden walls, the "jump down to what seems like the start but is really a duplicate area" -- went from ingenuity to tedium fast, and that's the same for when the bosses repeat as well. The nonlinearity was more of a negative than a positive in my opinion as it resulted in me running into things that were massive difficulty spikes early, such as Dragonbarrow and Haligtree, which trivialized later stuff -- not because of rune level which I capped at 139 for coop, but because for example Bell Bearing Hunter/Black Blade Kindred (which I did before going to Altus) and Malenia (which I did before going to fire giant) were 10x as hard as anything else I encountered after them. As I mentioned I played through the -entire- series in order before this game so I was familiar with the general mechanics, but Malenia killed me more than any other boss in souls due to her intensely punishing design -- I think I first tried every single boss after that, including Placidusax, Maliketh, Hoarah Loux, and Radagon, which narratively felt like a major letdown. The balance was off. When I mention this, people give me a hard time saying I did stuff in the "Wrong order" and that Malenia is somehow supposed to be the "final boss" but I don't see how that's a valid argument when the game is open world and allows you to do these things. And my biggest pet peeve is when people say "you're supposed to see how hard it is and run away to somewhere else" when the entire series has been built upon persevering through seemingly insurmountable challenges.
@evilfungas
Жыл бұрын
I don't think you've appreciated how much of the boss mechanics are built around stance breaking. I don't think this is very well communicated to the player but the structure of the bosses finally clicked for me once I realised this. Unfortunately or fortunately, the game very easily lets you "build" your character out of having to learn the mechanics, but once I did I found myself using pretty much all of the various attack types in a way which I never have in previous games. While the pace of fighting is faster, they are actually extremely methodical (excepting the large bosses), and perhaps moreso than in previous games, as openings are often taken rather than given. I also think you are mistaken about jumping and jump attacks, which are extremely useful mechanics for stance breaking, especially when power stancing. I also never found that I had to respec my character for any of the bosses, but this could just be because of how I built my character. As to graces I found them appropriate to the open world. They aren't bonfires, they are guides, and still, at least in the legacy dungeons, do function more or less as they have in the past. And those dungeons are some of the best they have ever made. I do agree with you about the music though, which I turned off except in boss battles, and about the late game, to a certain extent. I didn't like Mountaintops of the Giants or the Consecrated Snowfields, and the Ashen Capital is a pretty undeveloped endgame area (although none of the endgame is ever as bad as everything after Anor Londo in the first Dark Souls). That said, I thought Farum Azula and The Halig Tree, though small, were some of the most memorable areas in the game. My biggest problem with the game was actually the "lore," which I largely attribute to George R.R. Martin's influence. It seemed to exist far too much for its own sake. I think many people have forgotten that what made Dark Soul's "lore" special was not the facts themselves, or even necessarily the way they were communicated, but the way it all served to develop an overriding theme which was also realised in the gameplay. Despite the fact that the details were often obscure, the "meaning" of the game was communicated quite clearly just through experiencing it. Some details being communicated through item descriptions was secondary to this. In Elden Ring there are a lot of obscure stories and interwoven themes or motifs but it's hard to say what they amount to. I have my own idea of what the "theme" of Elden Ring was supposed to be, but whatever it actually is it's not communicated with anywhere near the same simplicity as it is in Dark Souls, which makes Elden Ring seem cluttered by comparison. Dark Souls was mysterious, but ultimately simple, in what it was saying, and in the experience it provided, whereas Elden Ring is confusing and obscure almost to seeming pointless, even for people who have spent countless hours uncovering its "lore." I actually think you have a better idea of what Elden Ring is saying if you ignore most of the "lore" entirely, and go off your initial impressions. I hope some of this is realised better in the DLC. Even with that said, Elden Ring is still one of the greatest games I have ever played. I would not say it is the best, nor would I call it perfect, but most of my favourite games are less perfect than others which have left a less lasting impression.
@mpnls12
Жыл бұрын
Leindell is Anor Londo, after you reach it, the stuff after falls off
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
How is halligtree and farum azula a fall off ? And malenia, Godfrey, radagon, Maliketh, plassidusax, Mogh… ? Literally the best bosses rush in the whole world.
@minespatch
2 жыл бұрын
DS2 made me avoid using Soul vessels. Despite the game offering, I found training my stats a better and rewarding experience. Finding that the additional bonuses I got for added stats were very helpful and I didn't want to lose the bonuses.
@johncra8982
2 жыл бұрын
so excited to watch this it feels like when the game was about to come out 😵💫😵💫
@___.51
Жыл бұрын
7:30 - 8:05 I would argue that ER still allows for planning in the midst of fast-twitch gameplay. Some of the most controversially "hard" bosses, such as the Godskin Duo and Malenia, have special weaknesses that can be learned through experimentation or discussion with other players. For the Godskins, there is the sleep pot. For Malenia, there are numerous ways to avoid or even cancel the infamous waterfowl dance. Sometimes the game will outright tell you about hidden weaknesses through merchant notes. I think this confounds a lot of souls vets because the late game bosses are much more resistant to "banging your head against the wall" than past titles. The open world is full of tools to get one up on the most challenging encounters, but it requires careful exploration and a willingness to experiment with your build flexibly. With that said, I think it's fair criticism that if the game wants you to carefully explore every bit of the world to prepare for specific encounters, then that world should be diverse and interesting enough to hold the player's attention. I think Elden Ring ultimately fails at this for several reasons, most of which you covered in your review. Thanks for your thought-provoking critique.
@aroudingo
2 жыл бұрын
Damn… You’re a fantastic word smith. I love the way you speak and write.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you!
@SoulbreakerNB
Жыл бұрын
I think they made those graces so many in the map is because they want the experience to be as "beginner friendly" as much as possible. Torrent is kinda the same, to travel easier hence "beginner friendly".
@CrunchyVideos
Жыл бұрын
I think that’s probably true, but I also think it’s misguided
@Duv1995
Жыл бұрын
Very well done critique, expresses pretty much all the disappointment I had for the game. I hope fromsoft will keep the Elden Ring series as its only open world game, and all other projects that will come out will be classic fromsoft level design. Heck, I'd even want to see them go full metroid-vania at some point, but thats just me lol.
@Sohelanthropus
Жыл бұрын
Completely agree with you my G, go back to past games and it just feels so damn good and satisfying to actually make progress rather than just B lining it to a legacy dungeon, then traveling 3 minutes to the next one and to the next one...
@kingnro1
Жыл бұрын
Since this game was Fromsoft's first forray into open world design, I'd be interested in seeing if they can improve on it by doing other games with a similar design ethos of open exploration. I don't see why they should constrain themselves to doing just linear titles, since the ultimate fate of always following a formula is just stagnation. There's a lot to improve from ER in terms of all the issues commendably highlighted in this video. Great job, Crunchy!
@AbelMusa
2 жыл бұрын
I don't agree with everything here but I 100% agree with the reduction of the ambient music. Sometimes I turn it off and it enhances the atmosphere so much. the sound of the wind, the animals, water, all of it is allowed room to breathe.
@Biobillybonez
2 жыл бұрын
While I agree with your takes on the world design, I find the music to be quite amazing and as long as you're not doing a boss rush they don't seem to overindulgent to me. Plus with bloodborne and this game there are 4+ composers each and I never felt like any bosses were interchangeable other than the 2 dragon boss songs (fortesax and placidosax). But respect the opinion and dig your content dude
@AnubisofScorpio
2 жыл бұрын
Really valid criticisms, I agree with most but I just wanted to throw in the idea of iterative game design and building upon this open world version could lead to a better game. DeS led us into DaS, lot to be said about comparing them but one is the benchmark we use all the time for those comparisons and the other is DeS, point being it was a (spiritual)sequel. So perhaps an ER sequel could be amazing. With the help of valid criticism of course.
@octy63
2 жыл бұрын
This critique is exactly why after hyping myself up for Elden ring, I don't want to replay it. It has so much content, but most is either reused or not worth. With a few exceptions most the dungeons are exactly the same as Skyrim tombs, only getting a spirit ash or talisman at the end, the similar way you get a dragon shout at the end of a tomb. As a topic onto itself, Elden ring has the worst balance I have ever seen in a souls game. The difference between meta weapons and builds and non-meta is so apparent and noticeable even early early game that despite the abundance of different ashes of war and weapons, the late game of ER forces the player to choose the more powerful option in order to progress. After 200 hours which was my total first playthrough with exploring most of the map, I currently have no desire to replay the game again. Compare that to my 700 hours of dark souls 3 where each time I'm installing it I'm making a new character and replaying it again, as mostly every weapon is equally powerful if you master it, and is rewarding to do so. This is not the case with elden ring, as mages or if you truly want to be maidenless dual scavengers sword with seppuku melt everything, while the rest of the weapons just catch up.
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
You’re not force to use the stronger option to progress, souls games were always about getting better. If you don’t want to get better don’t complain. And if I go by what you said, you played more hours of elden ring in one years than DS3 in two years. Most weapons are powerful in Elden Ring, but you need to get good so idk why you’re not doing that instead of using op weapons.
@datiger39
2 жыл бұрын
I agree with alot of the stuff in this video I also love ER but it does have some issues. Also mountaintop of giants was disappointing but I loved the haligtree and Mohg s palace lol
@cameronpewitt1519
2 жыл бұрын
I couldn’t agree more with the bit about open world ambient music. I think each song has a place. Liurnia of the lakes song was genuinely freaky enough to me that I avoided any area that played that music at first. Maybe they needed to only play once or just play like 85% less. It really takes away from the immersion of games for me. Overall I would say this game feels disjointed and, like you said, too big. Dark souls 3 is not my favorite by far but I think it had one of the better stat spreads for leveling. Builds just made more sense in DS3 and offered interesting options if you weren’t just min maxing. Eldenring often feels like it wants you to run unique builds but stats make running them rather awkward or just weak. Overall though I do enjoy the game.
@jackreacher7495
2 жыл бұрын
I think part of the difficulty spike can be attributed to hidden mechanics like headshot damage. Basically, headshots do more. Especially if you're unhelmeted. But what counts as a oneshot? Literally every physical attack from an enemy taller than you, that's either coming at your head horizontally or from above. Guess what kind of bosses and enemies populate the endgame? Elden Ring has hidden bs like any other from game, to where knowing ahead of time mitigates this. Same principle with leveling vigor. When you go through the game knowing these mechanics, it becomes a lot easier imo
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Yes, I think things like this have always been the case but the difference between knowing and not knowing is much more dramatic in Elden Ring.
@depalodor
6 ай бұрын
ok fromsoft why the fuck is this a mechanic. This explains so much.
@yomrwhite607
Жыл бұрын
i've only played ER as a souls like game but im going to get sekiro then the dark souls trilogy but ER is one of the best games i have ever played i don't agree with the music point but i've never played dark souls but i honestly feel like ER has some of the best lore and story in any video game and im excited for sote
@bardofsnow
5 ай бұрын
I've been replaying ER in anticipation for the DLC (and enjoying your lore content while I playthrough it again) and your critique really has nailed every problem that I've had with the game since it's release. To add my own voice to the chorus of comments, the dungeons for the most part were some of the most bland and generally uninteresting content that I think I've seen FromSoft pump out, and I'm someone that actually enjoys the Chalice Dungeons from BB. The few that were interesting and provided a nice head flip were good to spice things up, but even in my first playthrough it felt like I was doing filler content to get some new item that may or may not be cool. Bosses were more often than not repeats of previous bosses, or as you said in the video now paired with a friend. I don't think there was a single boss in the dungeons in ER (I might be wrong on this if I were to go through them all again though) that made me feel like it was worth it like how fighting Queen Yharnam made me feel when I finally completed the Chalice Dungeons. As for mechanics, on my more recent replay, I've been increasingly irritated with how bad the spirit ashes mechanic is. While there are certainly good spirit ashes, the best of the bunch overshadow anything else. There is no reason to not use the Mimic Tear, as it's cost of HP is negligible in comparison to any other spirit summon that may cost FP. Similarly, the "Legendary Ashen Remains" are all better than the "normal" ashes, and while I understand that scalability of providing various ashes and that these legendary characters should be good, summoning wolves for end game bosses and watching them explode (even fully leveled) doesn't give a great feeling for someone who wanted to really get their role play on. In regards to armor leveling being removed in games past DS1, I have mixed feelings on this. For Bloodborne, I find no issue in this as the game is forcing you down a path of playing a fast character, someone who can dodge quickly and respond in kind. The game is fully balanced around the fact that all players can play the game this way, so they adjusted how armor works in kind (removing poise wholesale, removing encumbrance wholesale, etc). While this does make HP a much more costly stat to invest in, Bloodborne does have a good balancing of values overall for it's damage. As for DS3 & DS2, I think that the removal of armor leveling allowed players to invest their stats back into their HP pool, effectively providing a similar buff but with less grinding. It also technically eliminates some of the dreaded "twinking" of DS1. To make a long comment short, I hope they never do this again, the game is pretty good for one off thing. And keep up the great videos and livestreams, I've been really enjoying them as a lurker!
@Nobody32990
Жыл бұрын
Well thought out and to the point. I think the issue of torrent getting a pass from people is due to the fact that adding horse instead of just supper speed button has much more flavour. As to the abundance of graces, lack of critique on this front might be explained by simply nature of the game. It's an open world with no mission pointers, as such it is easy to miss (I certainly did on more then one occasion). Furthermore, I did not experienced lack of anxiety in the open world due to being able to replenish flasks (and I am no newcomer to the Fromsoft games) because you don't know what really counts as "group of enemies" (aside of small packs of wolves). And imagine of there was no system like this at all, going back or warping constantly back to the last site of grace just replenish flasks would completely ruin the pace of exploration . I'm not saying those elements don't need polish but understanding why they are there makes, me at least, more lenient and forgiving when looking at ER. I would love to see more games in the style open world made by FS and see how they would refine this branch of their formula, but definitely not at the cost of what made them great in the first place.
@kasp7674
2 жыл бұрын
You hit my personal main issues with the game(bloat of boring and repeated content, and combat design focusing on rout memorization rather than tactics and skill) on the head while adding insightful additional ones. Best critique of the game I've seen yet.
@Crispy2Dispy
3 ай бұрын
I honestly agree with all your points, keep in mind I havent really played previous souls games. I think that torrent existing not only subtracts from the game feel but also opens up the doors to miss a bunch of stuff in the game. The ambient music also feels very repetitive after being in the area for more than 20~ minutes. And the animations made to roll catch and trick players was pretty annoying to me while playing, especially with the recent dlc bosses that greatly exaggerate this problem. I also believe that the abundance of graces reduced the need to strategically plan out much of anything in the open world. While i understand there are ruins, catacombs, and caves, They easily could have placed stakes of marika at the beginning to still make it not much of a problem dying far into the dungeon. Doing so would also solve some of the fast travelling problems that comes with 200 graces. (Obviously they can also cut down on the ones that they just throw in unnecessary places.) Not to mention that their odd questing system would indeed be greatly assisted, although just a general change with quests in general would be nice. I really like the spirit experience idea, I dont really like using summons because its just: "Pick a legendary ash and upgrade it to +10 then just let it take aggro while you deal damage" I think they could have also cut down on the spirit summon count, like who is using the wandering noble summon, seriously. There is also a mod called Elden Ring Reforged that change spirit summons to not be able to take aggro and making it deal a bit less damage (and take a bit less as well) so it was more of a part of a build rather than just a damage sponge. (In the mod you could also spend more fp to enrage the summon, which made it able to take aggro and deal more damage for a short time.) I'm not quite sure what you can do about repetition without just removing content from the game, in the Convergence mod for the game, while they did add and change a few bosses, they changed caves, ruins, and catacombs to be more themed and unique, which greatly assisted in making you want to explore everywhere without making it feel like the same place over and over.
@mrwhatcanido4942
2 жыл бұрын
crunchy time baby!
@Purple.mind...Honored.one.
2 жыл бұрын
I think the developers of eldin ring should see this before they make their 2nd dlc, Cause I'm pretty sure the 1st dlc is mostly preplanned
@greghenrikson952
2 жыл бұрын
A think you make a lot of excellent points. One other that strikes me is that the suspense is just not as good as it should be. The dungeons are all cut-and-pastes, and the enemies annoy far more than they terrify. By reducing the spammed mobs and including sections where nothing is attacking, it would have been better. But above all the PLATFORMING started bothering me to the point of rage. It adds nothing to the game, and gravity ended up killing me more than all the bosses combined by the late game. Getting suddenly killed by a mis-timed jump completely removes any sense of suspense or dramatic tension.
@sidewaysfcs0718
Жыл бұрын
if i had the knowledge to mod this game (which sadly i don't) i'd overall just remove a bunch of the "quality of life" features and return to Demon's Souls/Dark Souls 1 logic. 1. Remove 50-70% of the Sites of Grace, also place the ones that remain in more logical areas, like bonfires that merchants use, maybe even fuse the sites of grace with the bonfires. Some of these sites of grace are just in the most open spaces that don't maky any sense at all, like the ones near the Gatefront Ruins.... 2. Only allow for equipment hard-swaps at Sites of Grace or on Torrent. This game pretty much lets you change your entire setup neckdeep in a dungeon to adapt to any possible scenario with no need to plan ahead. You should have to plan carefully before venturing in a dungeon or something, have a choice of blunt/slash/piercing damage weapons for certain scenarios etc. 3. Make the night DARKER, honestly night time is kinda of a joke sometimes. Also maybe change up more of the enemy behaviour at night to actually make it more dangerous, maybe spawn entire new enemies, more undead maybe, etc. Besides the "bonus runes" enemies and Death Birds, not much goes on at night. 4. I would add more randomization to common loot and maybe even some common lesser dungeon bosses, not full randomization but enough to make replays worth a while and impredictable to a degree when exploring the open world. 5. I'd honestly add some cost to summoning Torrent by default, jumping on Torrent is just way too strong and efectively trivializes most of the open world content, and when you get poise-broken and fall off you can hop right back on..... Either make Torrent die every single time you get poise-broken off him or make him cost 2 flasks when you fall off. Maybe even make him cost 1 Flask to summon to behin with, that way using Torrent is a resource onto itself. 6. Ashes of War need to cost more FP, these things are still OP as hell in PvE and trivialize many fights. Some ashes of war also kinda lose their beauty as they become just another common mechanic in your build, an increased cost but also higher risk/reward twearing would make them feel special, and just yet another attack type. 7. Hybrid builds need to be somehow nerfed a bit, running around with a competent melee setup AND offensive sorcery or incantations just makes pure melee builds seem gimped. I'd make offensive spells and incantations just cost more, and require higher stats to use, maybe keep just the utility ones as they are now, but some of them like Flame Grant Me Strength seem like a must-have and that's not good design. 8. The game pretty much starts THROWING gear and weapons at you after a point, to where it becomes very overwhelming. Either make this gear rarer to find or the entire game map itself has to be physically bigger so that encounters are rarer, for this exact reason. 9. I'd indeed reduce some of the encounters in some areas, there's barely any time to take in the sights with a fight every 10 seconds or so, either increase the game map size considerably, or just cut down some of the fat in the encounters. I'd love to have some areas where you can run around on horse for whole minutes before any enemy is in sight, while at the same time not making it feel empty.
@SaintJames14
Ай бұрын
Your comparison of Torrent to Aggro was spot on. I felt love and fear for Aggro, but Torrent is like a step child to me, or like my in-laws pet. I don't hate him, but he isn't mine. And the fact that he doesn't turn correctly, he doesn't jump straight up, he won't let me look behind me when he's going full speed, and that he'll throw himself off a cliff without care makes me not like him so much. I agree with you that having Torrent is bad but I really think it could've been badass, like Aggro. I hope From either goes back to smaller, more complete games (in fact, why tf did they move on when they've arguably NEVER EVEN FULLY FINISHED THEIR PREFERRED GAME?) or they change their mechanics/themes to better complement the world design/mechanics Very good video, happy new subscriber here. Your logo does your content an injustice though imo. Your reviews are high quality and sincere, the logo is cartoony imo Cheers
@spencerharmon681
2 жыл бұрын
Well done. Definitely give me some things to think about
@Carl-vx9ws
2 жыл бұрын
Ok so I am going to start by saying that I have about 400 hours into my first and only play through of my first From Software game. I didn’t experience any of the issues presented in my experience thus far, and I’m still not finished. It’s easy to say, repeated bosses are boring, repeated music is boring, but for I have to comment that most of the people whom I’ve watched apparently blast through the content as quickly as possible, and seem perfectly fine in adding additional challenges to themselves by including self imposed limits; no hit, bow only, no summons, etc. What’s that translate to the player (such as myself) who is forced to slow down, and take deliberate attention to each area, especially when there’s very little information about quest lines. So let me say that when you don’t know where the next grace site is, how are there too many? It’s only when you’re done that you can look back and make that judgment, but it certainly wasn’t while playing, when for me sometimes it was an anxious feeling not knowing that information. With so many items, incarnations, sorceries, why not give you 18 options to explore them at your leisure, rather making sound like a “cheat” to defeat the next boss because you found it hard they way you are currently playing your character. It’s subjective to say that any given mechanic like Torrent is unnecessary when the same could be said of crafting within the game, but honestly which one would be more missed? Perhaps I’m playing the game incorrectly or I’ve not played it enough but this felt like you didn’t like the game very much at all, and that’s okay too. I like the game but it’s also not without my suggestions of improvements but tone is everything and it’s all in the details. I would prefer more cooperative playing and that seems more fun to me, but I realize that most players don’t care enough about that and might prefer more PVP. In the end I appreciate your content because it’s caused me to reflect on my experience. ✌🏼
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
This was a critique rather than a balanced review, so I was focusing on the negatives. I enjoyed the game a lot.
@keskes1338
2 жыл бұрын
There is a massive PvE co-op community surrounding these games, but we're far more quiet than our PvP loving comrades.
@Carl-vx9ws
2 жыл бұрын
@@keskes1338 that’s cool 😎 but I’m on PC and while I’ve been invaded while playing cooperative with my wife, I never see player summon signs. Idk 🤷🏻♂️ I suspect it’s my level and no cross platform cooperation is working against me.
@DaringPerspective
2 жыл бұрын
I completely agree with your critiques on Torrent. His movement mechanics and the "platforming" aspects of the game are a complete disaster
@idknemore525
2 жыл бұрын
I was able to get to Ornstein and Smough on my very first playthrough of DS1 by just having a good spear and shield and "turtle poking" with my shield up for every encounter except the occasional boss. In Elden Ring I had to tweak, update, and expand my play style for most bosses, even many of the repeat ones. Sometimes I had to switch my equipment layout, sometimes I had to respec my character, sometimes I had to change my entire strategy of approach. But yeah, Elden Ring is the one that takes no planning or learning, sure sure. It would be nice to have more unique bosses but it really seems like the fact that some bosses are repeats of enemy designs is leading you to believe the game takes little active effort to overcome.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
I didn’t say that Elden Ring takes no planning or learning. I said that memorization and twitch gameplay don’t require much deep thought or planning.
@HillBelichick
Жыл бұрын
@@CrunchyVideos i think you overstate how different this planning and learning aspect is different from the other souls games.
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
@@CrunchyVideos it require more deep thoughts than many bosses in Sekiro/DS. With these bosses you can instinctively dodge most of the attacks the first time you see them, and the bosses always do the same combo and consequently always has the same opening. In Elden Ring, the attacks and combos are different depending on the position of the player. This mean that you can’t just memorize every move to dodge all attacks, you need to learn when and why the boss will start/finish his combo, you need to learn the right position to dodge depending on the attack string, you need to plan a counter for every possible situation… So yes, in Elden Ring you need to create the opening, not just wait for them.
@afterbyrner
8 ай бұрын
I watched this again after a year or so. I find your critique has many valid points. However with experience I have found the combat more enjoyable. I play solo without the support mechanics and still love the game play. Has your view changed over time on the game?
@CrunchyVideos
8 ай бұрын
I still enjoy the game for its strength in providing a roleplaying adventure with lots of interesting options. Things like Torrent and certain enemy animations still bother me, but I’ve become desensitized to them from repetition. However, I don’t find myself finishing any playthrough, because the post-Leyndell leg of the game feels unsatisfying.
@josharchibald4637
2 жыл бұрын
With some of the repeating enemies I agree. However, I believe it's more important that the world have continuity rather than novelty. A great Example is the Night's Cavalry. They have to be multi-instance for their lore. Much like the Crucible nights do. They are sort of the Black knights of Elden ring. They're meant to be sprinkled about the world in a way that hints at their purpose and informs the story and world building. Godefroy should've had some unique aspects, visually to set him apart from Godrick and the Leonine misbegotten as bosses was meh. But dragons in particular I think is a shallow critique. For one, most of them have unique traits and for two, they're dragons. Having only one in a huge open world would just be disappointing. Also, it shows the dragons as a type rather than a specific instance. it means they are part of the world as opposed to just being a character in the world. They inform it by their placement. having multiple dragons adds to the world, but it doesn't take away from the game. I believe that many bosses should've just been enemies, but that's a rather minor nitpick really. I believe that if you want every boss to be unique than you're perspective is askew. It's not the uniqueness of the bosses that makes souls games great. It's what they show you about the world you're inhabiting. If you're valuing novelty over world consistency than I think you're just gonna disappoint yourself, friend. However, it's hard to deny that some of the enemies should've been different from each other. The Leonine bosses make a certain sense because of the stories surrounding them, but I feel their models should've been differentiated a little just to show they are not the same. Edit: Ok, I like this channel, want that known right off the bat. Smart guy. Good content. But, Siofra River (good on you for pronouncing that correctly, by the way) is underdeveloped? Are you crazy? Because you sound crazy. It's my favorite area in the game. It's not underdeveloped. That's just silly. There's a lot going on there. You just have to look for it. Edit 2: Ambient music being debatable "at best" is not a valid statement. It is debatable. period. For the record, I think you have a point. But the implication that it was almost certainly the wrong choice is just your perspective, which is, you know, debatable. Edit 3: Sites of grace. Totally agree. Far and away too many sites of grace. That kind of density is fine in the legacy dungeons where moving 20 ft is a herculean task, but out in the open when I can run away from anything? Nah. too many. Make it a challenge Elden ring. Final Edit: Basically everything you said about atmosphere (save for torrent letting you run away from it all) I believe is totally wrong and way off base. I believe, sir, that you may have gotten a bit hung up on the fears and expectations and psyched yourself out a little. I particularly get that feeling when you talk about the mini dungeons. They do not need to be unique. Frankly that's a rather absurd notion. Many of these are tombs. and tombs tell a story about the civilization they belong to. The sameness is the story. So, final thoughts? well-reason if overly harsh at times. Disagree with a significant portion of your analysis, but the basic points are valid. Over all I feel that you are too hung up on "novelty" which is actually the notion that led to a lot of problems in the game industry. Most of your criticisms, I feel are too meta. They ignore most of the world building aspects of the game features. Though I absolutely agree with some of those points. I think it would behoove you to look at these features from a different lens. Don't look at the gameplay implications. Look instead of the world implications next time you play. I know you do that. You make lore videos after all and you are by no means a fool or anything. but I think you're getting tripped up by the meta. These are just my observations. Dismiss them or heed them at your leisure. Toodles.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
I don’t universally value novelty- I value cohesion, in which novelty plays a part. I’m sympathetic to your argument that “bad gameplay” or something along those lines can be rescued by the narrative. For example, I’d like to say that as a rule, unavoidable damage is bad game design- but! In the context of approaching Nito, it’s a way to make the player anxious and fearful, which complements the music, visual design, narrative, and boss mechanics to create a cohesive, focused experience. Anything that’s bad in one game can be good in another- it’s all about context. But context doesn’t cover everything. Imagine if a Fromsoft game made you fight a boss who had 10 trillion health because they were an ancient god of time. It might make perfect sense with the narrative, and in fact it could be the most interesting story ever created, but a 4-week bossfight would still be terrible design. Mechanics matter, and the narrative reason for having repeated catacombs or twenty Ulcerated Tree Spirits is too mundane and uninteresting to justify the sacrifice in quality of gameplay. Re: Siofra River: Seems like an area thrown together very quickly. Scattershot enemy placement without any kind of pacing or plan. Ancestor Spirit Archers have immersion-breaking tracking. Unfocused level design- go up some wooden scaffolding, jump down and meet a merchant and fight a flower, than get deposited in an area by some octopuses. What was the point of that path? What was the intended emotional experience? Same for teleporting up to the higher level, where side paths lead nowhere and most of the area isn’t utilized. Teleporters in general seem like a bandaid for late-dev crunch time.
@keskes1338
2 жыл бұрын
@@CrunchyVideos "Ancestor Spirit Archers have immersion-breaking tracking" You could argue this contradicts your complaint about riding Torrent past every enemy with ease. I found it a refreshing change of pace that I needed to time my sprints carefully to get past them safely. iirc, they are one of, if not the only, sniper type enemies in the game, though I suppose you could count the albinauric archers. "What was the point of that path? What was the intended emotional experience?" Obviously I can't speak for every gamer, but between the pinpoint accurate archers and the electric enemies chunking my HP bar by half, wandering up that path and finding a cozy-looking fire and hearing the familiar violin-type instrument of a merchant was a HUGE relief. "where side paths lead nowhere and most of the area isn’t utilized" A massive chunk of that land is dedicated to the dragon soldier boss fight. The other parts give you access to a smithing stone, and grovewort ( and cookbook? ) you otherwise may not have access to at the point in the game when the area is relevant. The upper decks of the mausoleum building are accessed later via a secret route from above and contains a talisman iirc.
@lexiferenczy9695
2 жыл бұрын
12:12 That's exactly what I was thinking too: It often gets complained about open world games being too empty for their size and while that is sometimes valid criticism, it also overshadows the harm of repetition which is WAY more hideous. The extreme repetition of enemies in Elden Ring crippled the atmosphere in ways I would've never thought possible. At a certain point in your first playthrough you suddenly realize that there won't be much more to see because everything will just be repetition of what you've already seen before. It's such a shame because the first 20-40 hours in Limgrave and Liurnia were magical. I really wonder why so few people have a problem with this, since it's not just a minor flaw which can be easily overlooked but instead constantly stands out like a sore thumb.
@FunkyDeleriousPriest
2 жыл бұрын
So you think there is too much repetition in Elden Ring? *laughs in elder scrolls*
@SalmanRavoof
2 жыл бұрын
If you focus on following just the main story, it's not repetitive, right? AFAIK, the repetitive aspects are optional.
@lexiferenczy9695
2 жыл бұрын
@@SalmanRavoof But you have to go through the mountaintops for the main story, which is the worst area in regard to repetition. But even apart from that you'd still encounter repetitive enemies very often (like the dragons or the giants).
@一馬之介
2 жыл бұрын
IMO it's the complete opposite, people complain way too much about enemy reuse in ER when it's actually a pretty normal occurrence in all other Fromsoft games as well (and most games in general). For instance, think about how many new enemies are introduced in Bloodborne's later levels such as Upper Cathedral Ward, Yahargul, Nightmare of Mensis, Hunter's Nightmare etc. Even as early as Forbidden Woods you're mostly fighting enemies you're already familiar with.
@lexiferenczy9695
2 жыл бұрын
@@一馬之介 I have not played Bloodborne, but at least for the Souls series I can say that I never had a personal issue with enemy reuse. But those games are more tightly crafted in general due to being smaller and more linear. Also they always left enemies to be revealed in later levels so there was never a point like in Elden Ring where there weren't any new enemy types anymore to show for the first time in later levels. You just get to see to many of the enemies too early in the game, there should've been more restraint in that regard.
@NanashiSaru
Жыл бұрын
My major problem was the Music, I only remember the main Theme and The Elder Beats, the rest is so samey
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
Ok, i literally don’t remember any DS1 track outside of the fire link theme and the ashe lake theme. Does that mean DS1 music is bad ?
@arbernardo7554
Жыл бұрын
@@ni9274 Maybe it's a sign of Alzheimer's.
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
@@arbernardo7554 You don’t remember the music of elden ring when it only release d one years ago.
@serjofcinder8925
2 жыл бұрын
Definitely some very good points in here, but overall I disagree with the majority of this review. Too much to go in detail but the main point i disagree with is the challenge of the open world. Yes, you can always run away easily thanks to torrent, yes , there are a lot of checkpoints. But maybe that's the point? The open world is built for exploring (with some challenge peppered here and there) and the dungeons are for the actual challenge. As Miyazaki said numerous times, it's not about the difficulty.
@HillBelichick
Жыл бұрын
The large number of checkpoints is a function of the massive open world. It's a good idea to have many different sites of grace to increase the odds of a player finding one. No shot anyone ever finds all of them either way.
@ZombiezKey
2 жыл бұрын
I explored almost every inch of this game’s map. Platinumed both the ps4 and ps5 version of this game. But the mountain tops… I still have yet to explore that place. It’s so uninteresting. Even mohg’s area, haven’t bothered to really explore those places. Even in my first playthrough.. I ran straight through them both. It wasn’t a burnout either, because the haligtree is always the last place I go, and I thoroughly explored that area. In conclusion, the mountain tops suck. (Fire giant does too btw) That entire portion of the map has nothing good going for it
@joej78
4 ай бұрын
People already clown on lake of rot for being empty, imagine how bad the community response would be if mountaintops had no enemies.
@Joshua_Shadow_Manriguez
Жыл бұрын
I actually like Elden n Ring's combat. Like, in DS1, for the amount of time I played it, I felt like I got punished by the game for starting as a Knight instead of the Pyromancer. And while in DS3, I'm willing to go back to it at some point, and I'm pretty early in the game. When I first played it, I wasn't having a good time. Even after gaining the ability to level up after the first boss killed me way too many mother fucking times, I still didnt feel like I was having much fun. And while I didn't really enjoy any boss fights before Morgott on my first playthrough, and Crucible Knights are still a pain to fight, I'm still willing to go through Elden Ring and see once I get to max level, if I actually learned to fight enemies or if I was just always overleveled. I honestly wouldn't have looked at Torrent any differently if he was a pair of boots instead of a horse, but I liked that he allowed me to engage with enemies in the overworld on my terms, as I found sites of grace. I don't personally know what the correct number of grace sites there should be, and it might be a strike against them that I can't say 100% for certain if I've found them all over my last 3 playthroughs. But I don't mind the number personally. Also, The Mountain Tops of the Giants having nothing except the Fire Giant boss and maybe Okina would have been nice. It'd really convey the genocide Marika committed, and it'd make the Okina fight more, I think the term I'm looking for is "personal feeling"? Like Okina exists to fight if I'm remembering his character correctly. It would be a pretty neat stage to fight him and cause him to meet his end in what's basically a graveyard. I know my comment is unfocused. I just wanted to bring up those things, since while there are things I find odd and could have used improvements, like we totally should be able to jump off Torrent on his second jump and launch a jumping attack. Or that Bloodhound Step should replace our Didge ehen equipped, and be accessible with things in our offhand. Using L2 when I'm used to a different Dodge button is as intuitive as yelling at someone to "Dodge" an incoming attack without warning. But despite that, Elden Ring is the first Souls game that I actually like as much as I do.
@Arda-dq4rt
10 ай бұрын
Did you just say Dark souls 1 has combat that 'makes you think' while Elden ring which relies on 'memorization' do not and is a disappointment. Literally the latter combat is THE BEST fromsoft has ever done. It is so boring to play previous souls games anymore. It is not just about memorization. It is reflexes, finding attack opportunities, aggression, taking risks, going for those posture breaks etc. ER combat is significantly better than anything that came before imo
@ALocalClown
7 ай бұрын
Found Miyazaki's alt
@KamilYouTube
2 жыл бұрын
I write somewhere that Elden Ring is lacking in depth - I almost got beaten by fan boys ;/ People cant accept that everyone have a right to opinion even when majority thinks differently.
@keskes1338
2 жыл бұрын
You have a right to an opinion, and people have a right to tell you they think your opinion is dumb. What's the problem here?
@KamilYouTube
2 жыл бұрын
@@keskes1338 I wrote above read with understanding pls
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
@@KamilKZitem People have right to beat you up if you don’t add arguments to your criticism.
@KamilYouTube
Жыл бұрын
@@ni9274 hehe
@FormlessPBnJ
2 жыл бұрын
You’ve made me realize I really enjoyed playing a really stupid game. But Pending Ragnarok… GOTY 2022
@NoThing-wc3cs
Жыл бұрын
I agree 100% let’s hope the open world is a one time thing.
@CrowsofAcheron
2 жыл бұрын
I had very different experiences with the game and my review would be much more positive than yours. But I'll just go over two points of contention I have with your review. First, about enemy/boss reuse and Torrent. Both of these are features of the game simply because it is huge. If we took the entirety of enemies and bosses in the game and compared it to other action games or Souls-likes, or rpg's with similar levels of animation for characters, we would say there is an enormous variety of enemies in Elden Ring by comparison. However, when you consider it's a massive open world game which takes at minimum 100 hours to playthrough, it creates a perception of repeated enemies simply because it is so long. If the game was shorter, the enemies wouldn't seem so repeated. Similar to Torrent, he is in the game because the world is huge. If you had to trudge all the way across Liurnia, encountering every single enemy because you think having the ability to run away is a 'flaw,' then the game would have been a much worse experience. Sounds like you wanted a smaller/shorter game. But what I really don't understand is why you would take issue with people being able to change the appearance of their characters and respec. This doesn't affect the experience of people who do want to invest and roleplay a character at all, so it seems like a weird complaint. Respecing is the best option for people who did not invest in vigor, but then you go on to say the game is imbalanced for over-valuing vigor. Here's the thing, 'balance' is a subjective judgement. No game, let alone an rpg, can ever hope to be 'balanced' to the degree that everyone wants. If it wasn't vigor, it would have been some other stat that was over-valued and people would just be complaining about that.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
I wanted a tighter game. If they could have pulled off the size of ER while also keeping it focused and thoughtful all the way through, I’d be happy- but it seems to me like they bit off more than they could chew. Re: respecs, if you choose not to engage with a bad mechanic that says nothing about whether the game is good or not. DS1 magic is completely imbalanced, but I can’t wave that away by saying “don’t use magic”. It’s still bad design. Sure, balance is subjective- but don’t you think we’d agree broadly on what makes things more or less balanced? I’d imagine neither of us would want them to make bleed 10x more powerful. Maybe there’s no perfectly balanced state, but we can always try to get closer.
@l1teralcanc3r78
2 жыл бұрын
While I disagree on several points, overall this is a solid critical look at the game. Well done.
@PhysicsNerd25
2 жыл бұрын
This is gonna sound stupid, but I thought Torrent's poor handling was deliberate in order to make the game harder. Also I'm not sure that incentives to open yourself up to invasions are a good idea at all. I think some gamers just want a single player experience. It's the thing I hated most about Diablo 3, the entire game was built and balanced around 4 player squads and if that's what game is supposed to be why offer a single player mode at all? Nobody expects to play DotA2 on their own, because it's clearly not a single player game. By incentivising invasions you're explicitly telling players that playing solo is not beneficial to them, because they'll end up behind (lacking rewards) if they don't want to play with other people. The reward for multiplayer should be just that: getting to play multiplayer. If multiplayer is not attactive to people, the problem isn't that it's not rewarding enough, the problem is something more fundamental (e.g. poor match making, toxic community, broken mechanics) which make the multiplayer experience unfun. Incentives are just a band-aid for a problem that probably needs stitches.
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
Agreed. I didn’t specify, but what I was thinking of was invasions as the cost of using humanity/embers/rune arcs- the latter isn’t even necessary to play coop.
@smellslikeus
2 жыл бұрын
Are rune bears badly designed or just scary for being bears?
@CrunchyVideos
2 жыл бұрын
kzitem.info/news/bejne/o5Bjy2emfGeQhoo
@bbtdltd8081
Жыл бұрын
Some of your points particularly with atmosphere and music depend heavily on a player spending their time in game in these areas in large unbroken sessions which I don't think is the only way this game gets played. My biggest complaints are with UI such as the control blocking text that come up.
@georgerolandallen
2 жыл бұрын
pausing to comment how much I agree with your music thoughts. I HATE ambient music in these games and was really bummed by how much the music ruined a lot of replay value by way of me just being so sick of the tracks. after my first play through I've just had the music off entirely. stormveil loses so much luster with the ambient music. it's so eerie and a tense without the droning. wish they put more thought into the boss music as I do like having that on in the fights. the godrick theme is a highlight mainly due to the odd time signature sections as is the ancestral spirit. unfortunate that the areas before them are so repetitive that I literally can't keep the music on. good shit munchy crunchy
@ni9274
Жыл бұрын
Stormveil is 100% better with a theme.
@crowstakingoff
Жыл бұрын
I disagreed with a lot of your criticisms but my guess is that we'd rate the game similarly. The point I agreed with most strongly was making the required basic vigor enhancements universal as the player progresses, instead of hinging on player choice. As I'm typing this I've come to the opinion that leveling up your character should be about fun and and preferred play style, not whether you're able to beat it. You explained this already but another reason leveling up should work like this is that if the player finds they are underleveled in some stat for a boss fight, despite that boss being next up in the game's progression, then the player will probably have to level up by 5 or so in order to make a substantial difference and beat the boss, and having to level by that much just to progress in the game sucks. If you're confused why some people love Torrent, consider how making the horse move and react realistically would affect the gameplay. The frequent neighing, stopping, and other interjections of horsey personality in games like Zelda were worth the experiment, but ultimately annoying (though I'm sure other games are much worse in this respect and have even more of these personality excesses). Torrent is refreshing because he is an unambiguous boon to the player's success. I hadn't noticed some of the problems like the camera not keeping up of him turning around when it's unwanted, but overall his movement is far more precise than I'm used to seeing in games. I really liked that he could turn around 180 degrees while barely affecting the area he took up; this was really helpful and I don't think I ever died because of it, even when trapeze-walking on narrow roots and cliffs. I didn't have a problem with the fact that I wasn't emotionally attached to Torrent. Funnily enough, if he been given personality at the expense of gameplay, then I would end up hating him for this, no matter how much autonomy he was given or how loveable he was supposed to be. You could even argue that the player's puppetlike control over Torrent ties into the game's puppetry thing, which is associated with the sprit summons, of which Torrent is an example. There are other potential lore connections too: maybe Torrent wants to fall off cliffs so he can return to the Earth and be absorbed by the Erdtree roots; again, he is a spirit so it would make sense for him to want this. Also, it's been observed that Torrent is not a regular horse; he has horns like the ancestral spirits and may actually be one, or related to them. And we know from the regal ancestral spirit remembrance description and the rituals of the followers that death begets growth and life-so Torrent may actually want to die so he can grow out his horns.
@fastenedcarrot9570
4 ай бұрын
A lot of the enemies that you said were not good that were repeated I strongly disagree with. Bell Bearing Hunters in particular I think are great enemies. Also when you talked about how you just have to dodge at the right time and that the movesets don't make players think you showed a clip of the Bell Bearing Hunter's "corkscrew attack" which is much more interesting to avoid, if you think about the logic/physics behind rotation around a point you can figure out that the safest place to be is right next to him. This gives an opportunity to punish him quite heavily, even with the biggest, slowest weapon you can get a charged R2 in quite easily. Malenia and Mohg very famously have attacks that aren't just "press dodge at the right time to avoid", shockwave attacks actually behave like a shockwave so dodging into it is better as it moves past you as you roll towards it. There are only a few examples, there are many attacks that can be rolled but jumping them is a better option as you can transition it into a jump attack. The bosses are much more engaging than in previous games imo and ask more of the player (unless they use summons) because they often force you to create your own openings that will be different for different builds.
@brendanmuller7301
Жыл бұрын
How would you rate the fromsoft games
@killervic7379
2 жыл бұрын
I’ve had this on my radar
@ethandarner
5 ай бұрын
Its hard for me to critique this game because while it may have issues, it compares favorably against just about every other open world action adventure rpg in my opinion. There are things to improve but for a first attempt at an open world soulslike from fromsoft this is a glorious achievement. I do agree that the repetition of bosses goes a bit too far, I agree that the late game suffers in design compared to the first half ect... but on that second point I don't think it gets as bad as parts of the second half of ds1 for instance. Especially compared to the demon ruins and lost izaleth. On comparing elements of this game to other open worlds, I think the enemy and boss variety still compare very favorably to botw or totk for instance. I still think the handling of torrent still compares favorably to the handling of steeds in those games too. (Botw/totk are the only other major open world games I've spent significant amounts of time with so that's why I'm making these comparisons). I also don't personally mind the more twitchy action oriented gameplay the series has been emphasising more as its done incredibly well for the most part. Though, it would be a nice mix up to see more bosses/enemies that shake that up in the future, I don't want to abandon this new style entirely as it makes for incredibly spectacular bosses. My biggest issue with making a big open world soulslike is that I feel like it retracts from the replay value since each run will consume a larger amount of your time than in a more contained, linear experience that previous games feature. I'm still very much enjoying the game however, as I am on a second run to prepare a character for the coming dlc. If previous dlcs are any indication there's going to be a lot to look forward to. I just hope that I'm not gonna get stuck on a dlc boss again, ha.
@MadLuigi
2 жыл бұрын
very good
@ghostflossy2403
2 жыл бұрын
Worse thing about the game stumpling upon a secret looking area, Only to to find a trash item lmao
@willscanlin1287
2 ай бұрын
It's crazy how hard I disagree with so many points made here. Some points I get but still don't see as much of an issue, like repeat bosses. I think it's fun to master a minor boss to the point where it's exciting to run into another one. As they show up further into the game and you conquer them all over again you get confirmation it's not just leveling that makes them easier now, you're just better. Hard disagree on Torrent as well. A spectral steed is not alive, thus why would it care if it falls off a cliff? And I think it is one of the best horse type gameplay in any game I've played. The more realistic a horse is in a game, I've noticed, the less fun it is. Red Dead 2's horse gameplay was one of the most irritating experiences I've ever had in a game. I don't need him to be a story focus or bonded with me either, it is a gameplay tool, and that's fine. Respecs are in no way an issue when the game is over 100 hours and even longer with multiple NG+s. If I'm 80 hours into the game as a Faith Dex build and I keep finding all these awesome strength weapons, would you really prefer I start an entirely new game and play another 80 freaking hours just to find the weapon again and it turns out I hate it? Larval Tears allow versatility and options in a huge game that is thoroughly appreciated. It's not just for spamming bosses, it's to try other stuff out. And if you really prefer to stick to a character build like you seem to prefer, just do that. I've used Larval Tears maybe twice, but I know people who have given this game hundreds on hundreds of hours who love them. Big Whoop. And it's a weird complaint about both too many Sites of Grace and too many flasks--they're not only both completely optional, they also do very little to diminish any actual difficulty. Having to go all the way through a level on Demon's Souls is a fun challenge, but it's artificial difficulty. You can have 20 bottles of Sunny D in the original Dark Souls, so maxing out at 14 is a step down from that. Even then you have to allocate between HP and FP so you could end up with even less. I will concede that the late game starts to flounder, but unless you're Bloodborne (by abruptly ending and needing a DLC to fix it) or Sekiro this is almost always the case with FromSoftware. And it's really just Mountaintops and Consecrated that suffer. The Haligtree and Farum Azula are freaking fantastic. And yeah, it could be cool to customize Spirit Ashes but that's not a mechanic they put in the game and it doesn't need it. That's less of a critique and more of an "if I made the game I'd do this." The fun of Spirit Ashes is turning the creatures that slaughter you into tools to do your bidding, not personalizing them. I just don't get it, some of these points aren't critiques. If you want the experience that you wish it was: Don't use Torrent, Don't get all the flasks, Don't activate every Site of Grace you see, Don't use Larval Tears, Don't explore everything, and there you go.
@ALIALTYBAN
2 жыл бұрын
I'm glad the hype around this game died real quick Fromsoft got lazy with the success of ER sales and don't care enough to iron and fix the balancing issues that plagued the game 1/artificial end games difficulty 2/normal enemies that's harder the the main bosses E.G. shrimp,runebear and revenant 3/input reading 4/enemies/bosses that teleports without giving the player reliable ways and tools to counter them E.G.elden beast and cleanrot knights 5/cheap and hard to avoid attacks with zero wind up or very long delay 6/unavoidable gank situations especially in caves an catacombs 7/rot status effect insane duration and damage to the player with little to no effect to enemies. every patch fromsoft releases consist of weapons and spells nerf with no intent to address the main issues ! so the games is dead until the DLC release
@flibblemunch
8 ай бұрын
My only disagreement here is with Torrent. Most of the complaints that were laid out were things that i struggled with initially but quickly figured out how to work around them. I think the bigger issue is that From Soft is very bad at implementing platforming into their games. Even with the addition of a jump button, ill never forgive them for what they made me go through to get to the 3 fingers. Please FromSoft, stop trying to put platforming into these games without implementing any platforming mechanics outside of throwing yourself off of a ledge and hopeing.
@jhitcho2026
Жыл бұрын
For me, it's more dark souls with flushed out mechanics. A mixing of all games they've released. It's not my favorite though. I prefer to return to the games that inspired it
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