Elden Ring, or: falling in love with Dark Souls again

So I bought Elden Ring. I'm not a huge Dark Souls fans like I sometimes pretend to be. I played and finished the remastered edition of DS1 and DS2 on PS4, but never got the chance to take a dive into DS3; played Bloodborne for a bit, but then I gave up because I was getting tired of the "throw-the-controller-against-the-wall-and-start-all-over-again" routine.

Normally I don't preorder nor buy games on day one, for I don't believe the hype surrounding the next best triple-A game. Most of the games I buy - whenever I decide to buy one, mind you - are bought either during sales, or after a sufficient amount of time has passed since launch date. I missed Cyberpunk 2077 and I'm glad I did, considered the fiasco that happened at launch. This time, though, it was a tad bit different. I trusted the software house and knew the kind of game mechanics Elden Ring was going to offer. I like immersive and open-world games, where you're not limited to what the dev team forces you to do. I didn't care much George R.R. Martin's involvement in the story - although I believe he worked on certain parts of the lore and the worldbuilding - I'm all for fantasy games rich and abundant in story.

All I wanted was a good Souls-like game that could deliver what promised. And so far, I'm not disappointed.

I could rave for hours pinpointing the many things I've enjoyed so far, so I guess I'll start with a small list of pet peeves. (Plus, if you want to play it, I'll keep it as spoiler-free as possible.)

The time-honored tropes of Souls-like games are there for the taking. The opening scene in which a humongous monster ambushes and slains you in no time at all? Right from the get-go. The tutorial part where you gear up against lesser enemies that lull you into a false sense of security? Gotcha. The beginner's trap? Uh-huh. Continuously farming for loot and power-up points in a world so mysterious and cryptic, you have no clue where you're going or what you're supposed to do? You bet. Fighting ridiculously powerful bosses that require you to learn their attack pattern while dying a trillion times, even if you're overlevelled to the n-th degree? Wouldn't be Dark Souls without 'em.

The game is hard as an anvil and hits heavier than a hammer, but I think there's fairness in its punishing difficulty. The only things I wish they could tweak are mostly minor adjustments. Take this one, for example. There are a few enemies that sound the alarm when they spot you, calling others for backup. It only takes the mere wielding, nay, the mere animation of taking the horn from the back to turn everyone hostile and running to your position. There have been more than a few times in which I was able to strike the guard down, but because a fraction of the animation started before the blow had hit him, the other enemy NPCs started chasing me. Enemy NPCs that, mind you, were far from the action and had their backs turned, which left me wondering if they were speaking in ultrasounds.

But here's the most annoying pet peeve you'll hear about this game. Another thing that could be tweaked for the better is the rest menu. Bonfires are now called grace sites, and they serve the same function through and throughout. When you activate them though, the screen fades to black, then the game comes back as the rest menu pops up. In DS1 and DS2, you'd see a cloud of ashes burst from the ground and engulf the screen, before clearing itself out. All this without pausing the game, nor halting the gaming flow in any way. Something more akin to Elden Ring was Bloodborne, but there was a good reason for the screen to go black: the player was supposed to go to another plane of existence, which was accessible through the lanterns. So... why would the screen go black in Elden Ring? Am I supposed to think the character is closing his eyes for a short while, because they fall asleep by the light of grace? You would see the character sit down and relax, but it's such a fleeting moment.

These are incredibly minor annoyances, like I said, because I honestly haven't got a single, solid criticism to put forward. The world is so gigantic, I feel I could lose myself into it. The music totally delivers the feeling of a world frozen in time on the brink of decay. The attention to detail is astounding: there have been plenty of times in which I had to put down the controller to let the scenery sink into me, stirring every kind of emotion. I've taken plenty of screenshots, all of them capturing either a gibbous moon engulfed in fiery clouds, or the exact moment the sun sinks into the ocean, leaving only a faint trail of light over shimmering waves. I feel like "gorgeous" isn't a word I'd use to describe the general astounding magnificence.

Time and time again I had to ask myself "where the Hell should I go", but the many situations in which discovery had me pitted against unexpected monsters and bosses, with all the risk and reward and the thrill of being safe yet surrounded by danger, definitely outweighted the bad stuff. I think it adds another layer of texture to an already multi-layered flavour. I still remember fondly the amazement I felt when I first came out of Things Betwixted in DS2, the eerie music kicking in as the light blinds my eyes before adjusting to the golden decay of Majula. Every single step I take in the Lands Between of Elden Ring reiterates that very unique feeling in ways I found impossible.

When I played Kingdom Hearts, there were moments I couldn't wait for me to get back home, pick up the controller, and fire up the game, ready to get invested in a story and a gameplay that satisfied me in full. Elden Ring evokes this very feeling every day, and for this reason I'm happy to declare that this game is worth every cent they ask.

-- cronomaestro

2022/03/03

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