The Gamers Arms

Phew. Finally got there myself. Definitely one of the easier From games to platinum though the endgame challenge is pretty up there with the sheer number of damage sponge AoE attack bosses.
Elden Beast was a struggle and I had to respec out of my bleed dex build into more faith and incantation damage but he wasn't too tough after that. Not a great final boss though because of how much he runs away and just spams endless spells at you.

Malenia, Maliketh and Placidusax take the crown for the top boss battles for me. Placidusax felt like he should have been the final boss, a seriously epic encounter.

Malenia is a great fight and I felt like I was putting everything I'd learned throughout the game into practice. Maliketh was just total chaos and panic, though - it only took about 3 attempts but I've no idea how I scraped through the second phase. Felt more like luck than anything.

I'm undecided on whether I prefer the open world of Elden Ring or the tightly-designed areas of previous From games. I'm a good way through Dark Souls now and the way the world connects together is incredible and feels much more intricate than Elden Ring, but the freedom of the Lands Between is liberating and the dramatic landscapes you see are totally worth the format change. I think it was the right choice for Elden Ring; I'm not sure if I want the next game to go that direction, though.

I'm hoping they keep the open world aspect limited to Elden Ring and stick with smaller worlds for their other franchises. Elden Ring is incredible in its sheer scope, there were many occasions I stopped for a few minutes just to soak in the views and atmosphere. But overall I think Dark Souls, DkS3, Bloodborne and DeS are better games. That said, they're not exactly easy to top. Elden Ring is still the best open world game I've ever played by a decent margin.

The repetitive asset reuse towards the end just dragged it down a bit too much to beat its predecessors for me. Particularly in areas that seemed to only throw combinations of the most obnoxious units in the game at you all at once, and some of the later mini dungeons had a few too many "gotcha" moments in where it was clearly designed to be extra cruel. There's only so many giant hands, crucible knights, tree spirits and lacerated rot worms that I can fight before it gets super stale. The Haligtree and Crumbling Azula were very nicely designed areas though.

I had a second run through Elden Ring over Christmas playing as a dex/int build, which finally cleared off the Elden Beast and a few other bosses I'd missed on my first run. Enjoyed it even more this time.

I was slightly concerned about halfway through when I discovered they'd nerfed Rivers of Blood, which I'd heavily relied upon on my first run because it did ludicrous damage. Instead I went with dual-wielding Moonveil (which is superb) and the Uchigatana, which is loads of fun. I did briefly toy with a magic build, but it didn't grab me as much - I liked the ranged capability but I missed the visceral terror of getting up close. Moonveil is a great compromise because you get the best of both worlds.

A new character may be in order for me when this DLC drops.

It'll certainly be interesting experiencing for a second time round. Boy does that game have a few jaw dropping moments in.

Shadow of the Erdtree coming out 21st June.

Wrathbone wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:11 pm

Shadow of the Erdtree coming out 21st June.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-shad ... s-malenia/

Damn I hated Malenia, but I was determined not to let her prevent me from 100%.

For some reason I've not had huge trouble with Malenia in my 3 runs so far, whereas Fire Giant and Elden Beast I find an absolute nightmare. Don't get me wrong, Malenia is tough, but I wouldn't count her in my top 5 (maybe even top 10) most difficult bosses across FromSoft games. It's a great battle, though, and her second stage is visually stunning.

I've ended up giving this another try after two years of saying I wouldn't. I'd gotten pretty good at Jedi Survivor so figured maybe I'm just better at this genre now, and I've had so little trouble compared to my first attempt when the game was first released. I'm not sure what it was, but previously I just absolutely could not get my timing right for dodging and blocking, and I spent hours bashing my head against the same sections because of it. My first run ended just before Godrick, having had an utterly miserable time in Stormvale Castle, but with one or two exceptions I practically waltzed through it this time. I killed Margit on my second attempt (and could have had him on the first - I wasn't being careful because I expected to fail first time), and Godrick, who I'd never actually seen before, on my first. Margit alone took hours of trying the first time around. I read back through this thread earlier, and it turns out I was exactly the same level when I killed Margit the first time, so it's not just that I've power-levelled through the stuff I'd had difficulty with.

We'll see how long it lasts. I know just how unbelievably massive this game is now, and I'm sure there'll be stuff that kicks my arse at some point.

I actually ended up buying it again on PC, because on the XBox One it just didn't look like this (albeit needing Flawless Widescreen to actually display in this aspect ratio because they deliberately hamstrung the game on PC):