Having a Bad Time with a Great Game – My Experience with Elden Ring
Get in Tarnished, we’re going to the Lands Between
I should preface the story I’m about to tell you by saying that Elden Ring is an achievement in game design. It is worth a look at the very least! If you’re not put off by extreme difficulty, an uncompromisingly nebulous open world and obtuse controls., of course. Everything that follows is from my experience and where I landed on the game over the course of some 80 hours split across two playthroughs. There will also be some spoilers for content or images, so if you’re on the fence about playing the game without knowing anything, I would recommend you stop reading!
My journey with Elden Ring began long before I even turned on the game. I remember watching the E3 livestream in 2019 and feeling my blood pressure rise. I’d been hyped up since the vague teaser years prior and the idea that George R. R. Martin was part of the project. By fall of 2021, that hype was hitting a fever pitch. I couldn’t escape videos and demos spanning other gaming sites like Kotaku and Polygon, or even my TikTok feed. I remember one TikToker, Pleythru, back in November showed the game map with a bewildered look on his face, a strange mix of wonder and fear saying that his February was over and “That’s like forty Norways”. I was so ready. I realized I needed to get my hands on a PS5, since console/TV is my preferred format for the series. I spent the better part of three months of sleepless nights perusing restock lists. I was on Discord servers. I was on call lists. Eventually, I did find one console by cold calling every single game store in Montreal for four consecutive days, and probably annoying some retail employees with my persistence. I trekked out and got my console and carried it back to my apartment with my heart beating in my ears. I was finally ready to welcome Elden Ring into my home, as I had every FROM game since Dark Souls II.
February 25th finally arrived. I planned time off from other commitments and made sure everything was in order. Responsibly of course! I meal prepped and made sure I got enough sleep beforehand. Nothing was going to stand in the way of an unadulterated Elden Ring weekend. Imagine my surprise when, about 5 hours into the game, I absolutely wasn’t enjoying it.
“I feel like I’m about to have a bad time” - Me, two minutes into the game
Yeah, but Also No
I continued the game for another fifteen or so hours in that initial blitz. And, I did have some amazing experiences even in that early stage! Stormveil Castle was spectacular and everything I wanted out of the game. However, the road leading up to Stormveil and the period following right after was a bizarre experience for me. By all accounts, the open world was gorgeous, and the gameplay had never felt smoother. Of course, there was that quintessential feeling that the camera in every FROM game is fighting me, or that monsters are often placed in the pettiest spot. These games have always been mean to players, so that wasn’t the part that was bothering me (although the discussion concerning difficulty and enjoyment is worthwhile in itself). Something else was off, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I just didn’t feel compelled to keep playing. This lack of drive was probably increased partly because I was playing Lost Ark daily as well, and collecting data from other games for work. The moment it really hit me was speaking to a colleague who was having the exact opposite experience. They had loved the original Dark Souls, but not really vibed with anything that followed. Sekiro particularly turned them off at release, whereas I had played it fervently (culminating with a five-hour run at the final boss at work, where another colleague was viciously roasting me). That sharp divide in experience threw me. Though, I was determined to diagnose my lack of Elden Ring enjoyment.
My first thought was to find what wasn’t working about my character. I’d always gravitated towards melee fighters with big weapons in these games. Slow and steady, but really focused on the core fighting mechanics of the games. I was all-in on a strength build. I’ve since come to read many, many threads about strength and great ultra-weapons generally being ““bad””. I’m using that term very loosely because what’s bad to me, can be great to someone else, but there was a general sense in the forums, subreddit, wikis and YouTube that big weapons weren’t quite working. Some eighty hours later, I’d say it’s possible to make anything work with enough effort, but there are clearly some ways of playing the game that are generally less taxing. Melee playstyles do run into a lot of hurdles, but I’ve heard from my colleague (playing a hybrid mage build) these challenges are mirrored for ranged characters. I will say, the feeling of slowness in those big weapon playstyles felt incredibly bad when faced with the general speed of Elden Ring bosses. Reader, they are fast. Even early in the game, Margit handed me my ass for close to five hours on the back of speedy combos. The game generally tends to get faster, and the enemies either get more vicious, complex or they arrive in pairs to ruin your day.
At this point, around thirty hours, I put the controller down and didn’t touch the game for close to a week. I didn’t disconnect from the discourse though. Videos were popping up with cool-looking builds. There were item tier-lists galore. There were also a ton of memes running around. Among these, what resonated with me, were accounts of folks who also weren’t enjoying their time. I do think there’s a distinction between the folks not enjoying the game, and the folks who thought the game’s design was lacking in some ways. It was like we had all showed up to an acclaimed exhibit at the MoMA, where none of the pieces were landing. Naively, I thought the issue had to be the playstyle.
Take a breath and rethink the approach
Round 2: We Could Be Archers
So, I made a new character. I stubbornly chose my favorite playstyle in most games: archer. I broadly looked up if there was a trap with the playstyle, and it was pretty clear that A) bows weren’t the best weapons and B) that you needed to spend time getting materials to make arrows. Nevertheless, I thought the faster weapon that the character started with and some ranged options would make for a better experience. This playthrough started out even more strangely than my first one. On the one hand, I was blazing through the early zones in the game. I knew boss mechanics fairly well, and the big pain points of those areas were disarmed or I could use the bow to stay safe. On the other hand, I spent close to 4 hours hunting goats to be able to make enough arrows to even be able to play. Every small cavern or side dungeon required me to spend another chunk of time preparing. I knew if I kept going like this, I’d put the game down and never return.
At this point, I have to thank the Fextralife folks and their amazing guides. I was eating breakfast the next day, and in my feed was their Blood Blade guide. I thought, what the hell, if I’m close to quitting, it’s time to try something different. It was close enough to my build that I could swap over without needing to remake a new character, which was especially useful since I was still far from the items that allow you to change your build. The guide was extremely clear, it told me what pieces I needed to find and how to get going. I spent an hour or so hunting down all the parts, put it together and started playing. And, wow, did I ever play!
The next thirty hours went by in a flash. I started upgrading my weapons. I found new spells that made me feel a sense of progression. Mostly though, since I’d already opened a build guide, and committed my perceived cardinal sin, breaking my blind playthrough of the game, I was free to play differently. I used a game map to find dungeons to go play through and to structure my general path. I’m still doing that and it is the best decision I’ve made with the game. Breaking this silly taboo also led me to understand why I didn’t click with the game originally, and why I think it’ll probably settle in third place for the series (for me).
Find what appeals to you
Playing the “Wrong” Way
Using progress routes, following quest lines and targeting items that looked cool changed the entire game. I didn’t want to spoil boss encounters, which I still think are the best part of these games. I also didn’t want to spoil big story beats or the legacy dungeons. Though, my lack of reluctance with spoiling most of the overworld for myself is indicative of something about me, and players who had a similar experience. I never played FROM games for exploration, and Elden Ring is largely an experiment in exactly that. I suppose, if we were thinking about Richard Bartle’s player type taxonomy (1996), which has its limits of course, I’d fall somewhere in the achiever category. At least, for these games. I don’t play them to invade and kill other players. I much less want to interact with other people socially. And, evidently, the exploration does little for me. I wanted to fight cool bosses, use interesting weapons and “complete” a build. Realizing this, completely restructured my understanding of what was going wrong.
As I settled on playing with a lot more external tools, the game started resembling more of a daisy chain of items, dungeons and bosses that were all amazing set pieces. Speaking about it with my friend, I also clocked the fact that my formative years were spent playing many action RPGs like Diablo, Megaman, Sonic, Castlevania, Baldur’s Gate and later Path of Exile, which all have very clear quest markers or goals. I like structure. I like beating the game, maybe as much or even more than I actually like playing it. That’s not Elden Ring’s fault. Really, it’s no one’s fault, but it leads to some intense dissonance between the parts of this game that ask different things of you and my own enjoyment. Evaluating expectations and previous playstyles is where I think we can find the gaps that have made folks love this game or have adverse reactions.
Generally speaking, other FROM games like Bloodborne or Sekiro are more linear. There are many funnels where players have to beat certain bosses. This can lead to feeling like you’re banging your head against a wall, but it’s also what produces that adrenaline high and dopamine hit when you finally thread the needle of bosses like Orphan of Kos (in Bloodborne) or Lady Butterfly (in Sekiro). Where I enjoy Elden Ring the most is in those moments. The way they’re structured though is vastly different. I got to Margit around level 20 on my first playthrough and he was exceedingly difficult. I think that particular fight is still in my top 3 in terms of difficulty so far (and I’m level 115 around Leyndell now, so I know there’s the boogeyman waiting in the wings). My second run at Margit on my bleed-based character was a joke. Following my game route, I got to him at level 35 with upgraded weapons and ignored every mechanic. It took me more time to reach him than to actually complete the fight.
In that sense, Elden Ring’s difficulty structure is extremely modular, and frankly, somewhat obtuse. Some bosses are much harder than the zone they cap off, while others are an afterthought. The game allows players to leave most arenas (with some exceptions). If a boss is too difficult, don’t fight it. Sometimes, you can even run past them and ignore them entirely. You don’t need to fight these bosses, that’s what the game’s procedural rhetoric is telling me (Bogost, 2007). Go, farm up some levels, and return later. That message is deeply unpleasant to me because I stubbornly enjoy the old hurdle model from Sekiro or Bloodborne. So, I find the game does have a difficulty slider, which is located in the question of when and how you choose to fight certain bosses. This has led to two results for me. I either find a boss to be utterly punishing, or a joke. There are some exceptions though, like the Legend bosses. These fifteen or so set piece fights are as good as the series has ever been, with many of these taking spots in my personal top 10. They’re all flavorful, mechanically unique, and appropriately challenging. Although some might be under or overturned by a margin, they’re all great. By comparison, the host of Great Enemy and Enemy bosses that are brought back as duo fights or that ambush you are tedious, uninteresting and feel petty. I’m thinking in particular of the stone winged monstrosities or a particular underground dungeon with a pair of knights that will kill you faster than you can blink.
Everything’s coming up Tarnished
Playing the “Right” Way
Ultimately, there is no right way to play. There’s only the way you enjoy the most. I think this game asks vastly different things from its audience than past installments. It wants players to explore and be filled with wonder. It wants players to have contained micro-experiences of other FROM games in the broader field that it’s experimenting with. An experiment that has long been a dialogue with Zelda design, and which we should be considering. Breath of the Wild moved that series towards FROM design, and this does something similar towards the Zelda axis. Elden Ring both is like other FROM games, while also being vastly different to an extent that it should be considered distinct. As much as some of us might want it to be, it is not Dark Souls 4.
For the folks that want that, I’m glad Elden Ring exists. My friend who disliked Sekiro’s structure finally gets to enjoy a punishing experience in what he finds to be a lavish open world. Folks that wanted the option to scale difficulty a bit get to fight bosses or approach the game in more freeform ways. Also, importantly, magic is the best it’s ever been in the series.That’s fantastic.
For the folks who want none of it, it’s disappointing. It’s ok to say that this isn’t the game for them. The summoning and invading aspects have been critiqued widely. The control schemes, by default, have also been called out for uncomfortable user experiences. Most importantly, issues with accessibility continue to be a core issue with the series, and for the folks it affects, it is a fundamental problem. Saying to these folks “better luck next time” is no comfort when the entire take cycle and online attention economy is focused on Elden Ring to the extent I’m not even fully sure what else has been happening in games since February.
On my end, as someone pulling up 10 tabs of game info and correlating that with my gameplay, I land somewhere in the middle. Elden Ring is amazing, but maybe it’s not what I was hoping for. Some parts appeal to me, while others drive me away. I often find I am mostly waiting to get to the bigger set pieces, and I wonder if I would have enjoyed an extremely streamlined version of the game that takes me from Stormveil to Leyndell with no overworld. Probably. I realize now that I play these games the way I drive my car. I want to get to point B in an efficient way. That doesn’t mean I don’t want nice scenery, but it’s also not why I’m making the drive. I do remember the period before I had GPS and Google Maps to guide me, but I certainly don’t long for it.
REFERENCES
Bartle, Richard. Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. June 1996.
Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games : The Expressive Power of Videogames. MIT Press, 2007.
Fextralife. Elden Ring Warrior Class Guide - How to Build a Bloodblade (Beginner Guide). 2022. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7BpQXdgx7M.
Fextralife. “Elden Ring Wiki.” Elden Ring Wiki, https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Elden+Ring+Wiki. Accessed 14 Apr. 2022.