this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
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The game is not "difficult" per se, it's just that the underlying systems of how to make it easier aren't made explicit. You're meant to engage with it and learn how to create the advantages you need. It's supposed to be a process of learning and growth that feels rewarding and earned. Or read a guide.
It's honestly one of the easiest From games, once you engage with the particulars. Let me be clear: This isn't an elaborate "git gud". That began as an ironically bad opinion that inevitably became a genuine opinion held by fools.
Engage with the systems and dynamics presented to you, and you begin to see that the difficulty setting in ER (and other Souls games) exists on a conceptual level.
The exception that proves the rule here is Sekiro, which was an amazingly interesting experiment in putting you into a character's shoes through game mechanics - the only way to beat the game is to adopt the bold and precise combat style of the main character. The difficulty of that game comes from hesitation, fear, and carelessness - and it is painfully unforgiving.
Paragraphs are your friends
The megagraph is not "difficult" to read per se...
Nodding acquaintance at best really
To follow on to this, the "best" build may not be the best for you and how you play. Try out various things to see what feels right to you. Sword and board, magic, gish, dual wield, big two hander, bigger two hander, etc. All of them are viable to beat the game, so find the one you like the most/is easiest for you.
I see this being said from time to time and I thought it was just me not "Gitting Gud", so after being filtered by Captain Niall even with my mimic summon, I went through and cleared Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 and 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro all for the first time, and they were a fucking breeze compared to Elden Ring. I used a strength scaled zweihander in the Demon/Souls games to have the closest comparison possible (and also because I think it looks good). I guess it depends on which weapons you enjoy using, but the fact that there's such a big skill discrepancy between entire weapon categories is in itself a pretty big stain on Elden Ring's claim to be an RPG.
edit: I shouldn't say they were all a breeze. Bloodborne and Sekiro were difficult for sure. Not even close to comparable to my experience with Elden Ring though.
They're fundamentally different play styles. Difficult to you doesn't mean that that's what's most difficult for someone else. You engage from different spacing, move differently, and pace your attacks differently. When most of the difficulty from combat is about learning what gaps you can exploit and how to protect yourself against different enemies with different attack patterns, that difficulty is going to vary heavily based on what your previous experiences are and how you intuitively understand the concepts. It's what "git gud" actually means. FromSoft games force you to learn the mechanics of the combat, and calling strength based sword "harder" than a magic build is mostly about what style clicks better with you personally.
Gameplay wise, FromSoft games are as pure ARPG as it gets. Stats matter a lot and the combination of stats and gear fundamentally changes the optimal approach to encounters. Most RPGs have higher and lower barrier to entry classes, and most RPGs have variation in skill floor and skill ceiling of different types. The biggest difference is that most RPGs with comparable depth don't have anywhere near the level of fidelity mechanically.
Yes, I understand. I am claiming that colossal weapon users simply have less gaps to exploit and aren't provided with enough advantages to compensate for the lack of attack opportunities for most bosses. And after playing the other souls games, this lack of opportunity is made even more readily apparent in comparison.
My time with bloodborne (saw cleaver) and sekiro (there is only one playstyle) gave me a taste of From Software's design when they decide to treat your playstyle as a first class citizen, and I had a wonderful time. I just didn't get that same feeling at any point in Elden Ring is all.
That's pretty interesting. I fully agree that builds differ a lot in terms of how much they depend on player skill in these games, and I can see how that's not necessarily a good thing - but it is rather to my point that it's part of the "difficulty settings" that I'm arguing are intrinsic to the game mechanics. You're meant to choose your own difficulty setting in this way, and I think it was a deliberate choice to make it so, and not a failure to balance everything to equality.
I still haven't beaten BB or Sekiro, but DS 1+3 were pretty doable. I admit I haven't gotten through all of ER yet, though from my experiences so far I feel that's mainly due to work and parenting being such a drag on my mental energy.
I used to power through these games in a very slow, mistake-prone fashion. I've never been what you'd call "gud" at these games, which is pretty much my point - but it's only a matter of troubleshooting the difficulty on my own terms (if I ever have free time and no burnout at the same time again, wish me luck on that).
Yeah, after thinking it through, I can see where my confusion came from. Elden Ring might be significantly easier or significantly harder than the other Souls games depending on how you played the other Souls games.
I guess I wish that they had provided more scaling variety within the various build types instead of across them.