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| I tried the game for the first time! |
The Game
My Elden ring experience came from me watching my friend nexus play souls-like games. I always thought Elden ring, or in fact, any fromsoftware games are difficult(which they are) and it’s only for hardcore gamers and for a set of people and not for causal gamers. I thought i was never cut for playing those games. But boy i was wrong. Thanks to nexus, i was able to try out so many great games and The Witcher and Elden ring tops it all. And now, I’d like to share my experience i had with the whole souls like genre.
Nexus’s Episode:
I was working my 9-5 as usual. And one day, i get this message from nexus asking if i wanted to watch him play Elden ring. This is because i told him, i could never play tough games because i rage and mald and tilt a lot. And by a-lot, i mean, really lot! so i decided to not play those games but i was down to watch someone else play. Cuz why not? Also, i like to watch someone else play. I immediately told him im down and thus, he started playing the game.
Everyday, every night, whenever he played the game, he streamed it for me. I used to work and watch the stream simultaneously. The game looked so good from the observer POV(watching). And that kinda gave me an ick to try the game. But back then, my urge to not play cuz of my mentality was strong i didn’t try it. But i used to backseat nexus as if I’ve had 100s of hours under my belt, and giving him moral support when needed(if you read it wrong, you, my friend, need help!). Days went by and nexus eventually completed the game.
One thing about his play style is that he went for the default souls like mindset, strength build. So his attacks are though heavy hitting and deals so much damage, is slow and he had to empty the boss’s health bar only by hitting and not using any skills or spells or magic or incantations. This kinda play style is brutal and punishing for the players, especially if you’re new to the genre. He played dark souls 3 before Elden ring and so i think that experience helped him with this play style. And he did finish the game playing with strength build. Bro went through so many phases and countless in-game deaths to defeat the final boss.
How i was roped into it:
When nexus was playing, i told him I’d like to try Elden ring once to see if it clicks. If i end up liking the game, I’ll play it. If not, it’s all good. He remembered this thing and boy, he came up with a brilliant idea! Starting a steam family!
In case if you don’t know, steam family is kinda like a google family where you can invite accounts to join your family to basically share the game library so that you can play the games the other people own without having to pay for it. We didn’t know if it works or not and we tried it anyway and thats how, we created our steam family. Then, we decided to share and buy the Elden Ring, along with its DLC.
We both immediately downloaded the game and i played the game for the first time. And initially, i was in awe with the way the game was optimised and how the Lands Between(the region where the game takes place) looked. I already saw couple of streams, youtube videos and nexus’s gameplay so i kinda knew everything the game has to offer initially. I even knew what build i should be going for in order to kinda be overpowered since early game. This is because i knew if i rage, i might not play the whole game. So i decided to make the game easy for me.
I started playing the game initially without taking the easy way out and struggled to beat even mini bosses. But in a strange way, i actually enjoyed getting man handled by the bosses. Quite a surprise for me as well. I did rage then and there but nothing as bad as quitting the game. I used to play with nexus on stream, just like the Witcher days. But sometimes, rayneprodigy did show up and watched me getting my ass whooped by Renella for almost 4 hrs lol.
Me falling in love with the game:
Within no time, i started to fall in love with the game. Even when i hated playing the same boss again and again cuz he kills me, i started to play the game everyday. After so fucking long, since my witcher days, this is the game i can confidently say that it made me feel so good and made me excited to play it. Its been 3 yrs since i finished the Witcher and no games in the meantime made me feel this way.
The grind to become the Elden lord begun, and i started to fight every boss over and over, levelled up quite soon, snd tried to be overpowered with better stats. It was at this exact moment, nexus told me about the summons and mimic tear. And this was the cheat code that even he didn't know would help be beat the game with ease.
But even with all that, i didn’t hate the game, or the game never felt boring. The lore, the world, the gameplay, every fucking aspect of that game made me fall for it even more! It felt like i found the one missing piece that fulfils my purpose in life. Ok that is a bit extra, but the game was kinda like my stress buster(expect for the parts where i raged, threw my mouse across the room, hit my keyboard, shouting slurs, etc).
I was always a fan of open world games. That itself grew my love for the game initially. This, followed by the character building, weapons scaling, spells and skills, different npcs and bosses, everything influenced me heavily. I was so into learning more about the combat system(even if i spammed R2 the whole game), the skill scaling, etc.
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| PixelShady beats Malenia |
I still remember, only handful of bosses like Renella, Malenia, Tree spirit, Elden beast, Messmer, Mohg, and Promised consort Radahn gave me really tough time. I easily melted away every single other bosses using my winged scythe initially, followed by my overpowered blasphemous blade.
The above mentioned bosses gave me a tough time because they are so good and i had to actually be better to beat them and I couldn't take the easy way out. I even fought bosses like Mohg and Maliketh without summons to prove myself i got that dawg in me. But the reason why i didn’t do it the whole game is because i didn’t wanna sweat my ass off in a video game, especially after exhausting myself for 10 hrs in work already. I wanted to play the game to chill, not to try hard again. If only i was naturally good, id have played without summons and buffs. But i just used the intended game mechanic to ease my play through. Hopefully one day in the future, id be playing the game, without summons! Gotta go for that 100% achievement you know.
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| PixelShady defeats the Elden Beast |
So it's decided that I'm gonna use a lil bit of game intended mechanics like Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength, Bloodflame blade, physick flasks, Mimic tear and overpowered spells and weapon(even tho Blasphemous blade was nerfed, it's still op for various factors).
My build going into the game was Faith-Dexterity build because I wanted to scale up faith for my spells power and my skill power of Blasphemous blade. And I wanted dex for increasing my lightning skills damage, and also physical damage for the weapons. I mostly played my game using Blasphemous blade for main bosses, winged scythe initially, Bloodhound fang for mini bosses and field bosses.
Everytime I beat a tough main boss, I crashed out haha. The excitement is unreal! the adrenaline was too much to handle. I almost died of asphyxiation after defeating Malenia. you can watch all those peak moments along with some funny stuffs here.
It took me 120 hours exactly to beat the base game, that is, defeating Radagon and Elden Beast. I went for the Age of Order since it's the best ending in the game and I'm not despo for some alien pussy(although I did marry her in my play-through)!
The DLC experience:
Immediately after beating the base game, I started my DLC journey and boy oh boy, the DLC itself looked like a separate game. I don't know what the fuck the guys in Fromsoftware are smoking to give a whole ass game as a DLC.
Seriously, the DLC area looked so fucking awesome, even more better than the base game area and felt like I was playing an sequel to Elden ring, rather than different map in the same game.
The skill check was real when I got man handled by the field boss at the entrance of the DLC. I instantly knew I had to get good to beat the final boss. And I started working towards it.
One thing I loved about my first playthrough is that I explored every nook and corner of the map, including dlc as well. of course I had to Google for few items and places but in the end, my inventory was filled with unique weapons, skills, armors, spells, etc. Because of this exploration, I had so much change to level up(of course I spent quite some time in the Mohg Palace road) and trust me, exploring the whole map is one of the best in game decision I made. Another habit I adapted from The Witcher 3.
Every single boss, both base game and dlc, took me maximum 1-2. hrs to defeat, except for the ones I mentioned above! Which is actually not bad. This is because I saw people(nexus) stuck for hours, even days to defeat the tough bosses. Well technically, he played with strength build with no summons so that's not a valid comparison but still, I said it to just give you a perspective of how OP my build was.
Though I used game intended mechanics to ease my fights, I never cheesed any bosses cuz then what's the point? I've made the fight easy already with summons and buffs and the least I could do is fight the boss!
Messmer did give me quite a tough time in DLC because of his AOE filled second phase. couldn't see shit. But beat his ass too! and the other AOE filled shitty second phase is Promised consort Radahn. Even Placidussax's fight in the base game didn't give me such a hard time compared to what PCR gave me. Bro literally tested my last ounce of patience before letting me defeat him. it was a good run in the end!
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| PixelShady defeats PCR |
The first souls like game i played didn't disappoint me! Miyazaki is the goat! And now for the part where I say if you should play the game or not, in my honest opinion, this is the easiest souls game if you're new to the genre. there's a reason this game sold so much and made huge profit to fromsoftware than other titles. You should play this game if you wanna put yourself through misery, but trust me, it's all worth it in the end. the world, the character building, the lore, the bosses, the combat, everything is the best in its class. I highly doubt we'll ever get such a game in this genre in the nearby future. The game came out in 2022 and still is on the top and that should tell you more than I could say!
In conclusion, it was a good journey! I wish it was longer but all good things has to end. that's life. After spending 190 hours in Elden Ring, I could say it's one of the best game of all time and you should try atleast once. Let me know your thoughts and if you'd be playing on not in the comments below.
See you guys in the next post. Peace!
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