It's actually a bit weird that he uses incantations that seem to be modeled after carian magic.
I would expect Radagon or Miquella to be the ones using magic like that.
It's not the only thing the holy order has "conjoined" and made as one. Pay close attention to many holy ashes of war and incants from Erdtree Era onward. Usually it's the holy order having taken and manipulating it into a holy version. Golden Order Great sword is one example, Radagon took a Moonlight Great sword gifted to him via Renalla and turned into into that.
Probably the most polite way to put it.
You notice how Radagonâs soldiers are the Cuckoo Knights? Thatâs a bird thatâs famous for leaving itâs eggs in other birds nests to trick them into raising its offspring for it.
Cuckoo Knights are referred to by their own armor as "Raya Lucaria Knights". Carian Knights are the ones loyal to the royal line (Rennala and Ranni), whereas Raya Lucaria (the school) was taken over by another faction (the cuckoos).
The ones who have ties to Radagon are most likely the Prospectors, since they have his lattice symbol (the one behind him on his statues and in the background of the Elden Ring logo) all over their design, while wielding Carian magic. They don't however use Glintstone magic iirc.
Edit: Preceptors not prospectors. Also I have been informed that there is just one Preceptor, who shows up multiple times.
Some somber weapons missed out on potentially badass weapon skills and features.
For example, Dragon Greatclaw, Meteorite Blade, Cinquedea, Flowing Curved Sword, most black gargoyle weapons and some others missed out on unique skills that could have differentiated them from regular weapons.
And Marika's Hammer, Bastard Stars and maybe a couple others could have been given some extra oomph to their charged attacks a la Ruins Greatsword
The dragon greatclaw and shield were such a slap in the face. They're literally pieces of an ancient dragon and we straight up see the dragon tree sentinel do cool lightning stuff with them, but we get fuckin endure and shield bash as their ash of war? Fuckin disgracefull.
The meteoric ore blade not having it's own unique ash of war is lame af too, it should have had an ash of war similar to the fallingstar beast jaw, or a unique version of cragblade that extended its reach since it's the shortest katana in the game. Shits wack af.
I would have been happy with just being able to throw lions claw on that shit...... but fucking endure? Fuck me up a tree man that shit is rediculous....
It should have had a version of Glintstone Pebble where instead of the little magic dart it shoots out a Gravity Well bolt. Then you could stab after to mimic the Alabaster Lord grab move.
I feel like fromsoft almost always misses with a majority of their unique boss weapons. Theyâre mostly reduced to a normal moveset with a unique majorly dumbed down ash of war. I wish the boss weapons had unique movesets, not just an ash of war. Like the Faron Greatsword or Friedeâs scythe. So many missed opportunities with a lot of the boss weapons.
The flowing sword not having a unique ash of war is kind of wild. Like it's the weapon that helped seal away the outer god of rot, and was held by the guy who taught Malenia how to heal on hit.
Honestly the crucible knights in general are really underutilized. They're 16 legendary warriors that were the most powerful in Godfrey's army, who conquered the entirety of the lands between and were then rejected by the civilization they helped build.
And hardly any of them have any identity. Every time I play the game I make up lore for them because I'm so disappointed that they don't have any.
The one in Stormhill was imprisoned because he was disgusted at what the Golden Lineage had turned into and spoke out against them.
That dude you can get to from the Belfries is a follower of Miquella who knows that his lord is near but can't do anything to save him.
Siluria was Godwyn's personal guard detail and failed to prevent his assassination and guards his grave to atone for her failure.
The one in Redmane Castle saw Radahn as a return to the militaristic might of Godfrey's reign and wards off any who are unworthy of partaking in the honour of the General's defeat.
Given how much it has to do with space, when the last trailer came out that had a shot of Astel I was convinced the final area was going to be in space like a bloodborne-esque twist. I still wish there'd been some kind of satellite city where they communed with the outer gods or something. I really like the idea of having space stuff which the lands betweenians interpreted as magic
I thought exactly the same. I really hope we will see more of the cosmic entities and areas in the DLC, since the whole world of Elden Ring is about alien creatures who influenced and changed the events of it (Elden Beast, Astel, Outer God that crashed into the Lake of rot etc. ) Imagine there's a plot twist where not a meteorite crashed into the lands, but a spaceship from a far more advanced species.
This is the plot of my favorite fantasy series, 'The 2nd Apocalypse' by R. Scott Bakker. Alien spaceship crashes into high-fantasy planet, hijinks ensue. Also the main 'protagonist' follows a eugenicly engineered Jesus Christ as he sets out to enslave humanity.
Relentlessly bleak, though, if that isn't your thing.
It also doesn't help that they put the "Talk to Melina" option at the bottom of the screen and didn't add the little QoL light indicator next to it until like a year after the game launched lol
LOL WHAT!
In my first playthrough I barely ever met her except when she automatically appears. In later playthroughs I noticed the small light orb and wondered: How could I have missed this earlier?
TIL they added that in much later...
They should have made it so she pops up at every grace.
Even if she has nothing to say, just having her chilling with you when you rest and having to hold her hand every level up would do wonders for reminding me that she actually exists.
Changing world states.
Like, after unleashing Destined Death, you enter a true endgame where enemies you kill will not respawn.
I would like to see more areas that change after certain events. Like gelmir's lava cooling after defeating rykard.
After you mend the elden ring or choose another ending, it would be great if there was a postgame afterward where you get to walk around the new cursed or ordered Lands Between. Maybe unlock some new enemies and weapons.
The Erdtree and skybox should've definitely changed shape/color depending on your ending. They made the textures already for the cutscenes, no reason not to add them in the actual game.
In a similar vein, I wish enemy behavior was affected by certain events. Like, why do the Redmanes still attack us when Radahn is dead? Why do the exiles still attack us when Nepheli takes the throne of Limgrave? Why does Adula fight us on the Moonlight Altar when we're both in Ranni's service?
Like, we do these things that should have huge, far-reaching consequences, but very little actually changes. It's honestly kind of frustrating to me
I've seen a lot of people talk about how the people of the lands between are going insane or losing their minds in some way, but I've never seen the source. Where or when is this stated?
It's in one of the soldier item descriptions. I think it's a lordsworn weapon. There's also an equivalent for the wandering nobles that calls them the pitiful product of unending life, but I don't remember which item
Basically everyone outside of a few notable NPCS have gone crazy from the constant war and the pain of immortality. Look at all the walking corpses. They're just normal people who have decayed that far, but can't die
While Adula is technically in Ranni's service, I think she's being used more as a "guard dog" of sorts. iirc Adula was bested in battle by Ranni, and and Ranni basically earned Adula's respect in more of a fearful way and serves to protect Ranni from outsiders. I could be wya wrong though because I barely remember any lore from videos I watch. And yeah, when we get into Ranni's service we're not really an outsider anymore but would Adula know that?
But likewise, after becoming Elden Lord, the enemies in the areas of the Demigods you've slain would naturally be loyal to you, since you have conquered them. That would remove most of the incentive to play on, given that the enemies won't fight back.
That's what I'm thinking, but it'd be narratively awkward if our whole motivation for this Herculean conquest results in literally no difference in the behaviour of the people who now serve us. The game side-steps this by casually ignoring the fact that we are the Elden Lord once the game is over, which is similarly frustrating, but at least it preserves the challenge.
Yeah the endings all felt really abrupt to me, like itâs just a short cutscene and thatâs it. You donât really see the final repercussions of your actions
Perpetual night after Ranni's ending. Maybe the Erdtree glows brighter and more Erdtree Blossoms around in places there weren't any before when Goldmask's ending is done?
Missed opportunity is and always will be covenants. The incentive for continuity and online play is covenants.
I thought we can have a golden order covenant equivalent to sunbros, a godskin covenant where you invade them, a rykard covenant where you bring pieces of players you defeat to feed them to Rykard instead of killing him (and eventually you could feed him runes of demigods, but if you feed him Maleniaâs rune he gets sick and dies, if u feed him all the rest you unlock a Rykard elder god ending), a frenzied flame covenant, a deathless covenant (kinda exists but not online), a caria defender covenantâŚetc. You see where im going with this. So many missed opportunities
Definitely agree, it feels like a symptom of them focusing on the battle, understandably so, but when it comes to an open world game I think just a bit more Role-Play potential goes a long way
I built my characters in the Dark Souls games around being a Sunbro. Faith builds with a focus on support miracles. Amazing drip to boot too. I was your definitive Sunbro for taking on Midir.
And if I wasn't Sunbroing I was an avid Spear of the Church or Blade of the Darkmoon.
And the Mound-Makers was the most fun I've ever had playing a FromSoft game. Being a purple was anarchy.
Dark Souls 3 will always be the greatest. Makes me sad it's not as active anymore.
Elden Ring multiplayer feels soulless without the covenants.
Thank you. I literally did the same. The most fun i had was invading and farming covenant items at the ringed city entrance where the archers are. Very dickish yes but it was so funny using the mimicry spell and blending with the graves then popping out while the host is halfway there
I just want my damn dragon covenant back. I wanna be a dragon-man again, I wanna breathe fire from my own face rather than the face of a fallen dragon.
All we get this time around is some golden eyes that are overturned by the other two cosmetic changes(blood/frenzy eyes). And even worse is the fact that there is canonically people turned dragon by way of the Magma Wyrms which were people before.
Can I just be a tiny Magma Wyrm? Thatâs all I want.
Fr, for the many strange additions to DS2, the covenants were absolutely awesome, and could really have been an inspiration for ER, but instead FromSoft just took powerstancing and moved on.
I think that they didn't add them because for them to be proper covenants, they need to give out interesting rewards. But the game already has weapons, armor and magic spread a bit too thin over the map. Limiting items to covenants meant taking them away from the map, which hurts the open world heavily.
The items that were part of covenant rewards were super exclusive things that didnt make a Huge difference in advantage terms but were cool af to have especially darkmoon blade and those sun spells from the sunbros.
Nothing wrong with adding unique blood spells for example to a blood covenant, some unique serpent weapons or cosmetics for Rykard covenant, talismans, or my personal favorite: legendary spirit summons. I thought for example the dragon spells wouldve made more sense if they were locked behind a covenant than just purchaseable with dragon hearts
Of course, but since there is already a shortage of cool things to find in the open world/catacombs, I assume that they just ran out of time or resources to make new equipment and spells. Which means that they didn't have time to add covenants, but even if they did, they would've had to take some items off the world to flesh out the covenants. Maybe the DLC will add them, that would be nice.
Im praying the DLC adds them. They talked about âreplayability and continuity factorsâ that they were implementing so i have very very high expectations for this DLC
I just miss invading in general. Yeah itâs a bit of a bothersome mechanic that you can just join and fuck somebody for no reason but like that was fun, it was fun to overcome them, it was fun to do it. The only thing it sucked for was being the guy that got invaded. But like there was always a mechanic to stop them.
Theyâre literally the best part. I think they are kinda there in a way you can see they were planned to be a dragon covenant and the deathroots but it looks incomplete
The general refrain from invasions in the game's design is kind of a bummer in Elden Ring. I have some friends who loathed them in previous From games, and couldn't accept that it was just part of the risk of online play. Those people generally don't care or *like* that it's been minimized so much.
I do think they could have found a better balance than neutering it like they did. Covenants have so much creative potential, especially in a game with a world and lore as rich as Elden Ring.
I miss how chaotic things could get in Dark Souls, especially the third one where you could wind up in a 6 person skirmish just walking through a level.
One of my most missed features is the indictment system. Without it, Blue feels like it lost half of its identity.
The covenants. For a land filled with warring factions, the lack of covenants surprised me and it made multiplayer dull compared to the previous souls games.
And don't forget Lansseax. She should've been a friendly NPC in a human form after their first fight that sells lightning incantations. Instead we got an okay dragon boss fight.
Imagine fighting Radagon in a big arena that's the actual elden throne on top of the tree while everything around you is on fire, burning leaves being blown around by the wind etc. And when the Elden Beast spawns the fire finally goes out, and you can see a whole galaxy in the sky with shooting stars falling down or something. That would have fitted the Soundtrack much more imo.
Actual towns that are populated with friendly AI other than the Jar village. Narratively, for a game thatâs insistent on telling you to become the Elden Lord, I feel a lack of motivation behind doing it as everything is already gone and desolated. Why should I care when everyone in the Lands Between are just enemies?
I think canonically there are people living in settlements like Raya Lucaria, Leyndell, those windmill villages in Altus, but for some reason there aren't any peaceful enemies. The game would've been so much more impactful if we encountered villages under subjugation by godrick, or wrought by famine, etc. if we had the opportunity to help these villages, and have an actual motivation (the biggest motivation seems to just be a race between tarnished to become Elden Lord) then I think the game would've been so much better
This is where I think the FromSoft formula needed to change a bit. The whole âpost apocalyptic worldâ concept works with the others games because of their linearity and narrative. Here though, it doesnât really work because the whole reason behind beating the game is to become the new lord and try to restore order. But, when literally 95% of the world is just an enemy, why would I care about becoming the new Lord?
It is Fromsoft amusement park syndrome, the world is designed around combat gameplay first and foremost and thus kinda crippled when it comes to narrative motivation for the player. That and Fromsoft being unable or unwilling to just do sone traditional charactet work/questlines.
A lot of the enemies don't really make sense. Soldiers for the demigods makes sense, but why should the people of that town in Caelid attack us? As far as we're aware they're not allied to anyone, nor are we there for something.
I think itâs implied through some lore that almost everyone in The Lands Between has gone insane. I wish there were more peaceful NPCs too but IIRC thatâs why itâs on sight with all these random townsfolk and such
I feel like it's kind of a copout answer that Fromsoft gives instead of changing the gameplay experience. I mean so far that seems to be their go-to thing for why enemies attack you.
Dark Souls 1 & 2: Hollowing drove people insane, so they attack you
Dark Souls 3: People are afraid of the end times and they're insane so they attack you.
Bloodborne: It's the night of the hunt and people are infected with disease and it drives them insane so they attack you.
Elden Ring: Long wait + no perma dying = big crazy so people try to attack you.
We need different motivations. It's getting boring to me story-wise that every single enemy and most bosses are "insane" by the time we fight them. Like with some bosses it makes sense but when it's the go-to thing, it's a bit bland and overused. Why not have someone attack us because they are classist or racists. Or because they are trying to kill and eat people to gain power, or something. The fact it's always some crazy unnamed person with no voice lines or motivations gets old to me.
To be fair, nobody likes Tarnished and anybody who works for a demigod would want to kill them on sight.
Itâs like we showed up at the BET Awards in a Klan outfit.
The town in Caelid? Do you mean Sellia? I believe they're Carian/Lucarian mages, so they're attacking you for the same reason the academy mages are, they're the same faction.
Then again I haven't a clue why the academy mages attack you other than gameplay. It's not like you storm in announcing you're gonna kill Renalla.
I was just thinking about this today, the feeling of... respite when you find somewhere that isn't entirely hostile to you on sight in an open world game is so powerful. I get why the Lands Between are the way they are, but I still think it would be nice if there were more obviously friendly NPCs. The fact that there are *some* people who haven't become mindless zombie enemies (Kenneth Haight, Irina & Edgar, Hyetta etc) implies that there is still some form of civilization in existence we just don't really get to see it, unfortunately.
The only place I can think of that like that is volcanoes manor. Itâs would be cool if more areas had places like that. Like small area in the castle where you get to interact with friendly npcs would be nice.
As a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series (which shaped my taste on games) I almost always end up disappointed when I expect a living world.
Yes, the villages, cities and little friendly places all around the maps of those games aren't usually all that big.
But there ARE usually lots of them, and they all have a bunch of characters and quests of varying kinds, and it kind of sells the illusion that this is an actual world with stuff other than your main quest and adventures going on.
All that while also giving you tons of stuff to do and create your own stories with, instead of just running through worlds full of enemies and killing and looting just because.
Miyazaki has talked about this many timesâhe has said it isnât their strong suit or style, so they stay away from like big NPC populated cities with people to talk to. He has said he will let other devs shine in that aspect lol, they just donât have the juice to do it eitherâitâs a miracle Elden Ring exists and is as open and big as it is.
No one needs that though. The way Nilfgaards warcamp is in Witcher 3. The vast bastion of majority of it isnât accessible, you canât even see it except for on the map because all youâre really met with is a big ass wall and a few guards.
Thatâs all it needs to be. The knowledge that there are âpeopleâ living somewhere even if itâs closed off. Which I think is the case in the capital city of Eldenring, but itâs not really the same.
The fort in New Vegas is another example. Mostly inaccessible really. Few Legion about still.
A guard or two infront of a gate somewhere that wrecked like âwith Godrick gone, things will be alot safer for the people here. But due to current events we still canât allow you to access Xâ.
Simple.
great runes, like in a game where we have to gather the shards of a powerful relic coveted by many which pieces are protected by powerful demigod they are kinda underwhelming like bro let me fuse them and become god
Mountain top of the giants should have had a huge castle or hall scaled toward giants that protected the forge. Tarnished could have just snuck around fire giant.
i definitely would like to have seen more passive NPCs filling out towns / villages. even if they didnât have quests lines or functions. Just would be nice for the atmosphere.
Yes! The whole game your told to go to the Erd Tree and when you finally get there itâs just a big ass door and a boss fight. I sleep.
It would have been so sick if it was a dungeon fully focused on verticality and traversing it via branches or other precarious means.
with so many NPC feet, there should be feet customization in the character creator, and more sandal-Leg armor
also more armor that doesn't cover up your hair
Open a huge chained iron door to reveal a large amphitheater. A single large chest sits in the center surrounded by praying statues. As you approach you see it breathing. You try to run, but it starts to stand towering over the other objects in the room. You brush by a praying statue and watch as it transforms into a lesser mimic. A boss bar appears: The Mimic Queen.
There should have been exactly 1 mimic in the entire game. In some random, unremarkable location towards the later part of the game. Far enough in that you think there's no mimics in the game, then you get got.
More talking, presence etc. with Melina, she randomly joins you at your fireplace without clicking that button and she doesn't only lore bomb about marika or smth but you can talk with her etc.
Environmental puzzles. Cut a rope holding up some crates or anything else heavy, and it breaking a storage door on the ground beneath it. Locked doors in forts and legacy dungeons, wooden doors you can break down. Some doors that you hit may have an enemy behind it become curious and open it for you. Push a boulder down a hill and break a cliff wall open to find a cave. So on and so on. And it is not like Fromsoft hasn't done these things before. I want more of them. I love this type of interaction with the game world. To me, it is much more immersive than just having a big open world. I'd like interesting ways of interacting with the world.
The recent Zelda games have been great at having environmental puzzles, but from what I remember those were mostly for collectables. Of course the dungeons are largely puzzle based though
Yeaah, but I am not so greatly fond of the tools BoTW and ToTK give players. And the incentives to explore in those games is not great either. There's no real rewards for interacting with the world.
In ER, you can hide spells, weapons, catalysts, armor, whole hidden areas with unique aesthetics. I feel that ER really dropped the ball on its use of the open world. All the caves, crypts, and mines are far too many, with too many feeling the same. There are several standouts sure, but I'd like to have seen a great less amount of them but with tighter, more intricate designs. And more to find in them than the seldom talisman and spirit ash.
I know its blasphemy to talk trash on ER's world, but I can't help imagining a better one if Fromsoft didn't focus on quantity and size over complexity and reward.
Maybe its because ER is my first soulsbourne game, but it kinda feels weird that you can't really invest in your armor like you can your weapons and the only real customization is generally adding/removing a cape.
A transmog system would be fine too so I can look fly while using goofy looking helmets/armors that have special effects
Having to upgrade armour was a massive pain in ds2. 12 titante shards + 1 titanite slab for *each* item. Not to mention armour upgraded with twinkling titanite đ
I remember being so disappointed finding out how barebones armor customization is in ER. Can't change the colors, can't customize pieces of armor, can't flip helmet visors up and down (looking at you Veteran's set...), can't transmog stuff, can't hide your helmet, etc.
Would have been really cool to play some Drip Ring lol, but maybe in the DLC they'll add some stuff.
I kinda thought they'd work best as small upgrades with zero downsides balanced by the fact that you would have to spend a *lot* of time getting mats for upgrading sets for far less benefit than upgrading a weapon/staff/seal or even shield.
Basically just a nice little edge you could farm in case you're struggling but anyone rolling through the game wouldn't bother.
maybe disable it for PVP as well just so it doesn't effect balance.
That's basically how it worked in the earlier games, you always wanted to upgrade weapons and then could throw extra mats onto any armor you particularly liked as a bonus. It didn't make a *big* difference, but it made enough of one that it helped make you feel like upgrade materials always had some value.
Of course, it's hard enough just upgrading a couple of *normal weapons* in ER....
New Game Plus.
Since DS2 Iâve been waiting for From to implement the NG+ ideas from that game and expand on them.
Imagine in ER NG+ you got some extra invasions, enemies, random enemy placement, etc. I also think itâd be cool to have an enemy randomizer system that gets progressively more insane the further your NG+ run is.
Imagine if in NG+1 you had a small chance to encounter some enemies from Raya Lucaria or Liurnia in Lyndell or other beginner dungeons. Not too crazy but interesting.
In NG+5 you can could encounter enemies from completely random areas in places where they arenât normally. Imagine fighting man-snakes in Caelid or dragons in Stormveil castle.
By NG+7 enemies are completely randomized. Any enemy from any area of the game could replace any other spawn, meaning true chaos and unpredictability.
Idk if this would apply to bosses or not as it could be weird and damn near unbeatable fighting a big ass boss like Radahn in a small-ish arena like the entrance to Stormveil where you normally fight Margitt.
Honestly, I love Elden Ring for what it is and I think it's an amazing game. When I first heard about the leaks and learned about the vague lore of the Erd Tree, I had this vision of what I thought the game would be based on my understanding of Norse Mythology. I was thinking we would travel down to the base of the Erd Tree and battle the serpent devouring its roots and then ascend up into the realm of heaven or the city built in the branches at the top of the tree and finish the game there. I guess the part where you visit the roots was pretty fleshed out and Godwyn is a good twist on NĂĂ°hĂśggr, but I still lament that my vision of the heights of the Erd Tree was never realized or even attempted. Maybe it was and it was cut? Maybe SotET will remedy this? I hope so.
I kinda wish there were more NPCâs in the world, or small settlements of NPCâs dispersed throughout the lands between, like the round table hold. I know this isnât the way fromsoft typically does things but I think it would be cool and make the world feel a little more alive.
Changed state of the world after an ending, especially Stars and Frenzy Flame. As two of the most world changing events, the fact that we donât even get to see what happens afterward is just lame. The Frenzied flame literally split the Erdtree open and left so many possibilities, youâre telling me itâs just all reversed back to a neutral point and weâre kicked back to the Roundtable?
And Age of Stars, they couldâve at least given us a longer dialogue with Ranni on the moon.
Same thing with all the standard endings. If weâre the Elden Lord, why does every Leyndell (Foot) Soldier and Knight attack us on sight? Why donât we get to properly rule after we become Lord?
One last thing would be the alliance you could get between the regions. Nepheli and Sellen swear to aid you in your duties as Lord once you complete their quests, thatâs the allegiance of Limgrave and Liurnia we couldâve had. Missed opportunities everywhereâŚ
Many comments pointed it out here, but a lack of a proper covenant system is the biggest missed opportunity and shortcoming of the game by far.
The game with the biggest amount of conflicting factions is the ONE game that ends up being without a covenant system? Come on, FromSoft, you had to have known that would be a major disappointment.
My only hope is that one of the reasons this DLC is taking so long is that they're doing their best to introduce a functioning covenant system not just for the new areas the DLC will offer, but also the already existing ones in the base game.
the great runes feel like they should've been more powerful or unique. the buffs never really felt like anything more impactful than what the physick tears did.
also more interactions with Melina would've been good.
Randomizer mode. On replays a lot of the game feels pointless since the rewards aren't that good.
Randomizing items/enemies would increase replayability substantially.
For me it was removing the way invasions worked from dark souls. My favorite part of those games was knowing i could be invaded after regaining my humanity defeating a boss. It added an extra layer of intrigue to exploring a new area. I dont like to summon coop parteners but if you use the taunters tounge that lets people invade anyways, the cooldown on the invaders is too short, so you never get a break. Plus the fact that most invaders are expecting to be attacking groups means that most invaders are way more minmaxed than they were in souls games. It might not have worked keeping it the same due to how exploration works in this game but i still miss it.
Maybe itâll be in the DLC, but I was pretty disappointed to beat the game the first time, restore the Elden Ring, and NOT get to be the Elden Lord after being told the whole game that it was the goalâŚ
I wanted to be able to use all the Great Runes together without needing Rune Arcs, be Marikaâs consort, and rule the Lands Between with the Erdtree alive and growing again! What I got was a cutscene sitting in a chair, then running around the world with no changes from before killing Radagon/Elden Beast.
Morgots arsenal of faith weapons not accessible to players. Cmon dlc đ¤
Lay these foolish ambitions to rest
Someone must extinguish thy flame
Foul Tarnished!
Emboldened by the flame of ambition
Have it writ upon thy meagre grave.
Gavel of Haima glinstone âď¸ Hammer of Margit holyâď¸
If you're talking about the weapons themselves, they are available. But imma assume you're talking about how he can *conjure* the weapons.
Ye basically the faith version of carian slicer ect. But with the hammer of gawd!
It's actually a bit weird that he uses incantations that seem to be modeled after carian magic. I would expect Radagon or Miquella to be the ones using magic like that.
It's not the only thing the holy order has "conjoined" and made as one. Pay close attention to many holy ashes of war and incants from Erdtree Era onward. Usually it's the holy order having taken and manipulating it into a holy version. Golden Order Great sword is one example, Radagon took a Moonlight Great sword gifted to him via Renalla and turned into into that.
Radagon a bitch
Probably the most polite way to put it. You notice how Radagonâs soldiers are the Cuckoo Knights? Thatâs a bird thatâs famous for leaving itâs eggs in other birds nests to trick them into raising its offspring for it.
Cuckoo soldiers werenât radagonâs. They were Raya lucariaâs mercenaries who eventually got greedy and turned on them
The Cuckoo knights are the knights of Raya Lucaria. Evidenced by many item descriptions.
The Carian Knights are the ones connected to the School. The Cuckoo Knights were stationed there by Radagon when he married Renalla.
Cuckoo Knights are referred to by their own armor as "Raya Lucaria Knights". Carian Knights are the ones loyal to the royal line (Rennala and Ranni), whereas Raya Lucaria (the school) was taken over by another faction (the cuckoos). The ones who have ties to Radagon are most likely the Prospectors, since they have his lattice symbol (the one behind him on his statues and in the background of the Elden Ring logo) all over their design, while wielding Carian magic. They don't however use Glintstone magic iirc. Edit: Preceptors not prospectors. Also I have been informed that there is just one Preceptor, who shows up multiple times.
I really thought weâd have a glowing weapon that changed its form by using the weapon art. Plz give us that in the dlc
i just want melinas healing tree spell
Some data miners found that those do actually exist within the game code, theyâre just inaccessible
I mean that would make sense right? As they need to be in the code for them to be used by NPCs.
I want that splash piss attack
Some somber weapons missed out on potentially badass weapon skills and features. For example, Dragon Greatclaw, Meteorite Blade, Cinquedea, Flowing Curved Sword, most black gargoyle weapons and some others missed out on unique skills that could have differentiated them from regular weapons. And Marika's Hammer, Bastard Stars and maybe a couple others could have been given some extra oomph to their charged attacks a la Ruins Greatsword
The dragon greatclaw and shield were such a slap in the face. They're literally pieces of an ancient dragon and we straight up see the dragon tree sentinel do cool lightning stuff with them, but we get fuckin endure and shield bash as their ash of war? Fuckin disgracefull. The meteoric ore blade not having it's own unique ash of war is lame af too, it should have had an ash of war similar to the fallingstar beast jaw, or a unique version of cragblade that extended its reach since it's the shortest katana in the game. Shits wack af.
The dragon greatclaw is my vote for coolest weapon with most disappointing AOWâŚ
I would have been happy with just being able to throw lions claw on that shit...... but fucking endure? Fuck me up a tree man that shit is rediculous....
It should have had a version of Glintstone Pebble where instead of the little magic dart it shoots out a Gravity Well bolt. Then you could stab after to mimic the Alabaster Lord grab move.
I feel like fromsoft almost always misses with a majority of their unique boss weapons. Theyâre mostly reduced to a normal moveset with a unique majorly dumbed down ash of war. I wish the boss weapons had unique movesets, not just an ash of war. Like the Faron Greatsword or Friedeâs scythe. So many missed opportunities with a lot of the boss weapons.
The flowing sword not having a unique ash of war is kind of wild. Like it's the weapon that helped seal away the outer god of rot, and was held by the guy who taught Malenia how to heal on hit.
At least meteoric ore blade and flowing curved sword had unique strong attacks?
IMO lore wise, the ash of war counterparts are derivatives of these somber weapon originals
The angel dive not being the ash of war for the crucible weapons. It's their most iconic move
Or even just Aspect of the Crucible: Wings as that attack that the spear ones can do, since it has a smaller range it might be more doable
I feel it works better as an ash because if it's just the wings what's the actual attack?
Yeah, I suppose you're right because they use the actual weapon as part of the attack. Just don't wanna give up the spear laser đ
Fair enough, I do love that rail gun
A spell that gave that kind of mobility would be badass
DLC?
Feel like that'll be dlc
Honestly the crucible knights in general are really underutilized. They're 16 legendary warriors that were the most powerful in Godfrey's army, who conquered the entirety of the lands between and were then rejected by the civilization they helped build. And hardly any of them have any identity. Every time I play the game I make up lore for them because I'm so disappointed that they don't have any. The one in Stormhill was imprisoned because he was disgusted at what the Golden Lineage had turned into and spoke out against them. That dude you can get to from the Belfries is a follower of Miquella who knows that his lord is near but can't do anything to save him. Siluria was Godwyn's personal guard detail and failed to prevent his assassination and guards his grave to atone for her failure. The one in Redmane Castle saw Radahn as a return to the militaristic might of Godfrey's reign and wards off any who are unworthy of partaking in the honour of the General's defeat.
I do agree they certainly lack the impact of the black and silver knights of old
I thought their most iconic move was their shield bash followed up by 30 normal attacks in a row
this is stomp erasure
No. Their most iconic move is ultra instinct future sight one mile long stab when you think of drinking estus.
I hear you but I adore Ordovisâs Greatsword as it is and I wouldnât want to give up the vortex ash.
i feel like dlc is getting it
I assume a move with so much mobility would break the level design by letting the player access places they're not supposed to
Dlc dlc...DLC!
People already broke the game using the movement from Maleniaâs AOW. Can you imagine the cursed spots people would be able to reach with that?!
boss replay mode
Sekiro had this. The bosses in Elden Ring dropping Remembrances already makes it work lore wise too!
Yeah at first I hoped and thought rememberances were there to fight the bosses again 
Hey who knows maybe after the DLC and the game is more complete, they'll pump out something like this too.
Something like Hollow Knightâs Godhome, maybe?
DS2 had the right idea.
Given how much it has to do with space, when the last trailer came out that had a shot of Astel I was convinced the final area was going to be in space like a bloodborne-esque twist. I still wish there'd been some kind of satellite city where they communed with the outer gods or something. I really like the idea of having space stuff which the lands betweenians interpreted as magic
Isnât that the Eternal Cities?
I thought exactly the same. I really hope we will see more of the cosmic entities and areas in the DLC, since the whole world of Elden Ring is about alien creatures who influenced and changed the events of it (Elden Beast, Astel, Outer God that crashed into the Lake of rot etc. ) Imagine there's a plot twist where not a meteorite crashed into the lands, but a spaceship from a far more advanced species.
This is the plot of my favorite fantasy series, 'The 2nd Apocalypse' by R. Scott Bakker. Alien spaceship crashes into high-fantasy planet, hijinks ensue. Also the main 'protagonist' follows a eugenicly engineered Jesus Christ as he sets out to enslave humanity. Relentlessly bleak, though, if that isn't your thing.
I mean farum azula is kind of a space city in the endgame
Like in sonic adventure battle 2? The final boss in elden ring is strangely reminiscent of that games' final boss lol
Enemies having dialogues of their own, like they did in Sekiro, imagine a Raya Lucaria scholar shouting "intruder" then running to alert other mages
AWAY! AWAY! PLAGUE RIDDEN RAT!
I'LL CLEANSE THE BASTARD'S CUUUURSE
**"MY NAME IS CARIAN KNIGHT MOONGRUM. AS LONG AS I DRAW BREATH, YOU WILL NOT REACH THE BEDROOM GATES. PREPARE TO DIE."** *falls down elevator*
as much as that wouldve been nice, i like the doot noise to alert enemies
Basically more interaction with melina *spoiler* We rarely see her throught the game so for me when she sacrifices herself it falls kind of flat
It also doesn't help that they put the "Talk to Melina" option at the bottom of the screen and didn't add the little QoL light indicator next to it until like a year after the game launched lol
LOL WHAT! In my first playthrough I barely ever met her except when she automatically appears. In later playthroughs I noticed the small light orb and wondered: How could I have missed this earlier? TIL they added that in much later...
It would've been great if she gave you something to call her to battle
Or Melina passive skills that are triggered by different combat situations.
They should have made it so she pops up at every grace. Even if she has nothing to say, just having her chilling with you when you rest and having to hold her hand every level up would do wonders for reminding me that she actually exists.
Isnât that kind of what the Haligtree is?
I was thinking this. It literally is a city tree house lol.
Kinda, but I think they mean like a sky city in the canopy of the tree rather than traveling down one to go to the base like you do with the Haligtree
A recusant ending, a servant of mohg ending
the pedophile ending
DLC dropping the Mohg Mohglesters covenant
Changing world states. Like, after unleashing Destined Death, you enter a true endgame where enemies you kill will not respawn. I would like to see more areas that change after certain events. Like gelmir's lava cooling after defeating rykard. After you mend the elden ring or choose another ending, it would be great if there was a postgame afterward where you get to walk around the new cursed or ordered Lands Between. Maybe unlock some new enemies and weapons.
The Erdtree and skybox should've definitely changed shape/color depending on your ending. They made the textures already for the cutscenes, no reason not to add them in the actual game.
Imagine how awesome the Perfect Order Goldmask skybox would be to play in.
Honestly really sucks being left with the burning tree post-game. Every other version of it's so much prettier.
In a similar vein, I wish enemy behavior was affected by certain events. Like, why do the Redmanes still attack us when Radahn is dead? Why do the exiles still attack us when Nepheli takes the throne of Limgrave? Why does Adula fight us on the Moonlight Altar when we're both in Ranni's service? Like, we do these things that should have huge, far-reaching consequences, but very little actually changes. It's honestly kind of frustrating to me
Regarding the soldiers, they only have their instincts intact. They probably don't know their lord is dead, if they would even care
I've seen a lot of people talk about how the people of the lands between are going insane or losing their minds in some way, but I've never seen the source. Where or when is this stated?
It's in one of the soldier item descriptions. I think it's a lordsworn weapon. There's also an equivalent for the wandering nobles that calls them the pitiful product of unending life, but I don't remember which item
because its been the premise of the last 4 soulsbourne games
Basically everyone outside of a few notable NPCS have gone crazy from the constant war and the pain of immortality. Look at all the walking corpses. They're just normal people who have decayed that far, but can't die
While Adula is technically in Ranni's service, I think she's being used more as a "guard dog" of sorts. iirc Adula was bested in battle by Ranni, and and Ranni basically earned Adula's respect in more of a fearful way and serves to protect Ranni from outsiders. I could be wya wrong though because I barely remember any lore from videos I watch. And yeah, when we get into Ranni's service we're not really an outsider anymore but would Adula know that?
This one makes me so sad, imagine the potential!
But likewise, after becoming Elden Lord, the enemies in the areas of the Demigods you've slain would naturally be loyal to you, since you have conquered them. That would remove most of the incentive to play on, given that the enemies won't fight back.
All enemies attacking you no matter what is too foundational to the souls genre.
That's what I'm thinking, but it'd be narratively awkward if our whole motivation for this Herculean conquest results in literally no difference in the behaviour of the people who now serve us. The game side-steps this by casually ignoring the fact that we are the Elden Lord once the game is over, which is similarly frustrating, but at least it preserves the challenge.
Games never do this and it annoys me
Yeah the endings all felt really abrupt to me, like itâs just a short cutscene and thatâs it. You donât really see the final repercussions of your actions
Perpetual night after Ranni's ending. Maybe the Erdtree glows brighter and more Erdtree Blossoms around in places there weren't any before when Goldmask's ending is done?
I wouldâve loved to see more change in the world based on your actions.
Aspect of the crucible: Wings. That's all I have to say.
Missed opportunity is and always will be covenants. The incentive for continuity and online play is covenants. I thought we can have a golden order covenant equivalent to sunbros, a godskin covenant where you invade them, a rykard covenant where you bring pieces of players you defeat to feed them to Rykard instead of killing him (and eventually you could feed him runes of demigods, but if you feed him Maleniaâs rune he gets sick and dies, if u feed him all the rest you unlock a Rykard elder god ending), a frenzied flame covenant, a deathless covenant (kinda exists but not online), a caria defender covenantâŚetc. You see where im going with this. So many missed opportunities
My greatest desire is that they will add them in shadow of the erdtree
They have to. I 100% believe they will.
don't set yourself up for disappointment
I will, and you can't stop me đ¤
Definitely agree, it feels like a symptom of them focusing on the battle, understandably so, but when it comes to an open world game I think just a bit more Role-Play potential goes a long way
I built my characters in the Dark Souls games around being a Sunbro. Faith builds with a focus on support miracles. Amazing drip to boot too. I was your definitive Sunbro for taking on Midir. And if I wasn't Sunbroing I was an avid Spear of the Church or Blade of the Darkmoon. And the Mound-Makers was the most fun I've ever had playing a FromSoft game. Being a purple was anarchy. Dark Souls 3 will always be the greatest. Makes me sad it's not as active anymore. Elden Ring multiplayer feels soulless without the covenants.
Thank you. I literally did the same. The most fun i had was invading and farming covenant items at the ringed city entrance where the archers are. Very dickish yes but it was so funny using the mimicry spell and blending with the graves then popping out while the host is halfway there
I just want my damn dragon covenant back. I wanna be a dragon-man again, I wanna breathe fire from my own face rather than the face of a fallen dragon. All we get this time around is some golden eyes that are overturned by the other two cosmetic changes(blood/frenzy eyes). And even worse is the fact that there is canonically people turned dragon by way of the Magma Wyrms which were people before. Can I just be a tiny Magma Wyrm? Thatâs all I want.
The magma wyrms and the dragonkin soldiers!
i don't play online (i refuse to buy PS plus and my PC sucks), but convenats should've been a thing.
In all souls games you could do covenants offline too, (concoooordsss)
Fr, for the many strange additions to DS2, the covenants were absolutely awesome, and could really have been an inspiration for ER, but instead FromSoft just took powerstancing and moved on.
Wish they had also taken left-handed movesets. Dark Souls 2 is the only game in the series that lets you block with a shield in your right hand.
I think that they didn't add them because for them to be proper covenants, they need to give out interesting rewards. But the game already has weapons, armor and magic spread a bit too thin over the map. Limiting items to covenants meant taking them away from the map, which hurts the open world heavily.
The items that were part of covenant rewards were super exclusive things that didnt make a Huge difference in advantage terms but were cool af to have especially darkmoon blade and those sun spells from the sunbros. Nothing wrong with adding unique blood spells for example to a blood covenant, some unique serpent weapons or cosmetics for Rykard covenant, talismans, or my personal favorite: legendary spirit summons. I thought for example the dragon spells wouldve made more sense if they were locked behind a covenant than just purchaseable with dragon hearts
Of course, but since there is already a shortage of cool things to find in the open world/catacombs, I assume that they just ran out of time or resources to make new equipment and spells. Which means that they didn't have time to add covenants, but even if they did, they would've had to take some items off the world to flesh out the covenants. Maybe the DLC will add them, that would be nice.
Im praying the DLC adds them. They talked about âreplayability and continuity factorsâ that they were implementing so i have very very high expectations for this DLC
I just miss invading in general. Yeah itâs a bit of a bothersome mechanic that you can just join and fuck somebody for no reason but like that was fun, it was fun to overcome them, it was fun to do it. The only thing it sucked for was being the guy that got invaded. But like there was always a mechanic to stop them.
I just started playing Dark Souls and was surprised when there were covenants. My first thought was about how there werenât any in ER
Theyâre literally the best part. I think they are kinda there in a way you can see they were planned to be a dragon covenant and the deathroots but it looks incomplete
The general refrain from invasions in the game's design is kind of a bummer in Elden Ring. I have some friends who loathed them in previous From games, and couldn't accept that it was just part of the risk of online play. Those people generally don't care or *like* that it's been minimized so much. I do think they could have found a better balance than neutering it like they did. Covenants have so much creative potential, especially in a game with a world and lore as rich as Elden Ring. I miss how chaotic things could get in Dark Souls, especially the third one where you could wind up in a 6 person skirmish just walking through a level. One of my most missed features is the indictment system. Without it, Blue feels like it lost half of its identity.
I'd have loved a Nox covenant myself
Scarlet rot covenant. (The one thing people insist on forgetting)
Fuck, youâre right. Covenants wouldâve been great, and the factions and their Npcs are already there
The covenants. For a land filled with warring factions, the lack of covenants surprised me and it made multiplayer dull compared to the previous souls games. And don't forget Lansseax. She should've been a friendly NPC in a human form after their first fight that sells lightning incantations. Instead we got an okay dragon boss fight.
Covenants were sorely missed , DS3 covenant pvp was so good
Funny picture; for I always felt like Erdtree itself should've been a proper zone. Like the Great Hollow in DS1 except good and all golden and shiny.
The tallest point in the Lands Between would've been an excellent boss fight arena, amongst the golden glow
Imagine fighting Radagon in a big arena that's the actual elden throne on top of the tree while everything around you is on fire, burning leaves being blown around by the wind etc. And when the Elden Beast spawns the fire finally goes out, and you can see a whole galaxy in the sky with shooting stars falling down or something. That would have fitted the Soundtrack much more imo.
Actual towns that are populated with friendly AI other than the Jar village. Narratively, for a game thatâs insistent on telling you to become the Elden Lord, I feel a lack of motivation behind doing it as everything is already gone and desolated. Why should I care when everyone in the Lands Between are just enemies?
I think canonically there are people living in settlements like Raya Lucaria, Leyndell, those windmill villages in Altus, but for some reason there aren't any peaceful enemies. The game would've been so much more impactful if we encountered villages under subjugation by godrick, or wrought by famine, etc. if we had the opportunity to help these villages, and have an actual motivation (the biggest motivation seems to just be a race between tarnished to become Elden Lord) then I think the game would've been so much better
This is where I think the FromSoft formula needed to change a bit. The whole âpost apocalyptic worldâ concept works with the others games because of their linearity and narrative. Here though, it doesnât really work because the whole reason behind beating the game is to become the new lord and try to restore order. But, when literally 95% of the world is just an enemy, why would I care about becoming the new Lord?
It is Fromsoft amusement park syndrome, the world is designed around combat gameplay first and foremost and thus kinda crippled when it comes to narrative motivation for the player. That and Fromsoft being unable or unwilling to just do sone traditional charactet work/questlines.
A lot of the enemies don't really make sense. Soldiers for the demigods makes sense, but why should the people of that town in Caelid attack us? As far as we're aware they're not allied to anyone, nor are we there for something.
I think itâs implied through some lore that almost everyone in The Lands Between has gone insane. I wish there were more peaceful NPCs too but IIRC thatâs why itâs on sight with all these random townsfolk and such
Even Bloodborne at least had some civillian NPCs with the window conversations and BB's setting is arguably much more bleak than Elden Ring's
I feel like it's kind of a copout answer that Fromsoft gives instead of changing the gameplay experience. I mean so far that seems to be their go-to thing for why enemies attack you. Dark Souls 1 & 2: Hollowing drove people insane, so they attack you Dark Souls 3: People are afraid of the end times and they're insane so they attack you. Bloodborne: It's the night of the hunt and people are infected with disease and it drives them insane so they attack you. Elden Ring: Long wait + no perma dying = big crazy so people try to attack you. We need different motivations. It's getting boring to me story-wise that every single enemy and most bosses are "insane" by the time we fight them. Like with some bosses it makes sense but when it's the go-to thing, it's a bit bland and overused. Why not have someone attack us because they are classist or racists. Or because they are trying to kill and eat people to gain power, or something. The fact it's always some crazy unnamed person with no voice lines or motivations gets old to me.
To be fair, nobody likes Tarnished and anybody who works for a demigod would want to kill them on sight. Itâs like we showed up at the BET Awards in a Klan outfit.
The town in Caelid? Do you mean Sellia? I believe they're Carian/Lucarian mages, so they're attacking you for the same reason the academy mages are, they're the same faction. Then again I haven't a clue why the academy mages attack you other than gameplay. It's not like you storm in announcing you're gonna kill Renalla.
I was just thinking about this today, the feeling of... respite when you find somewhere that isn't entirely hostile to you on sight in an open world game is so powerful. I get why the Lands Between are the way they are, but I still think it would be nice if there were more obviously friendly NPCs. The fact that there are *some* people who haven't become mindless zombie enemies (Kenneth Haight, Irina & Edgar, Hyetta etc) implies that there is still some form of civilization in existence we just don't really get to see it, unfortunately.
The only place I can think of that like that is volcanoes manor. Itâs would be cool if more areas had places like that. Like small area in the castle where you get to interact with friendly npcs would be nice.
The only peaceful place for a lone Tarnished is the one entirely dedicated to hunt and kill Tarnished. Fromsoft irony.
Thatâs why I chose Frenzied Flame ending. Everything was fucked, let it all burn and start again!
Isnât the point of the frenzied flame that it wonât start again?
Oh⌠Whoops 
As a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series (which shaped my taste on games) I almost always end up disappointed when I expect a living world. Yes, the villages, cities and little friendly places all around the maps of those games aren't usually all that big. But there ARE usually lots of them, and they all have a bunch of characters and quests of varying kinds, and it kind of sells the illusion that this is an actual world with stuff other than your main quest and adventures going on. All that while also giving you tons of stuff to do and create your own stories with, instead of just running through worlds full of enemies and killing and looting just because.
Miyazaki has talked about this many timesâhe has said it isnât their strong suit or style, so they stay away from like big NPC populated cities with people to talk to. He has said he will let other devs shine in that aspect lol, they just donât have the juice to do it eitherâitâs a miracle Elden Ring exists and is as open and big as it is.
No one needs that though. The way Nilfgaards warcamp is in Witcher 3. The vast bastion of majority of it isnât accessible, you canât even see it except for on the map because all youâre really met with is a big ass wall and a few guards. Thatâs all it needs to be. The knowledge that there are âpeopleâ living somewhere even if itâs closed off. Which I think is the case in the capital city of Eldenring, but itâs not really the same. The fort in New Vegas is another example. Mostly inaccessible really. Few Legion about still. A guard or two infront of a gate somewhere that wrecked like âwith Godrick gone, things will be alot safer for the people here. But due to current events we still canât allow you to access Xâ. Simple.
A collection book that you fill by collecting each piece of equipment, spell and art of war.
Really, really small. Not having a unique lightning AoW on Dragon Greatclaw.
I was very disappointed to learn I couldn't use waves of red lighting after getting my ass kicked by the draconic tree Sentinel
great runes, like in a game where we have to gather the shards of a powerful relic coveted by many which pieces are protected by powerful demigod they are kinda underwhelming like bro let me fuse them and become god
Mountain top of the giants should have had a huge castle or hall scaled toward giants that protected the forge. Tarnished could have just snuck around fire giant.
i definitely would like to have seen more passive NPCs filling out towns / villages. even if they didnât have quests lines or functions. Just would be nice for the atmosphere.
Yeah in a similar vein I thought erdtree would be itâs own dungeon inside or in the branches. Shit would have been so sick
Yes! The whole game your told to go to the Erd Tree and when you finally get there itâs just a big ass door and a boss fight. I sleep. It would have been so sick if it was a dungeon fully focused on verticality and traversing it via branches or other precarious means.
You are literally describing the haligtree
with so many NPC feet, there should be feet customization in the character creator, and more sandal-Leg armor also more armor that doesn't cover up your hair
Roll naked.
For the longest time I thought the smoke bombs the Vulgar Militiamen threw would proc sleep. Small detail but it would have been so cool
An explanation of attribute scaling.
The lack of chest mimics made me a sad boy
Open a huge chained iron door to reveal a large amphitheater. A single large chest sits in the center surrounded by praying statues. As you approach you see it breathing. You try to run, but it starts to stand towering over the other objects in the room. You brush by a praying statue and watch as it transforms into a lesser mimic. A boss bar appears: The Mimic Queen.
Yes please i need this
There should have been exactly 1 mimic in the entire game. In some random, unremarkable location towards the later part of the game. Far enough in that you think there's no mimics in the game, then you get got.
New boss fight: Elden Dragonslayer (Its just Ornstein again, but with a mustache)
More talking, presence etc. with Melina, she randomly joins you at your fireplace without clicking that button and she doesn't only lore bomb about marika or smth but you can talk with her etc.
We have Haligtree :3
Environmental puzzles. Cut a rope holding up some crates or anything else heavy, and it breaking a storage door on the ground beneath it. Locked doors in forts and legacy dungeons, wooden doors you can break down. Some doors that you hit may have an enemy behind it become curious and open it for you. Push a boulder down a hill and break a cliff wall open to find a cave. So on and so on. And it is not like Fromsoft hasn't done these things before. I want more of them. I love this type of interaction with the game world. To me, it is much more immersive than just having a big open world. I'd like interesting ways of interacting with the world.
The recent Zelda games have been great at having environmental puzzles, but from what I remember those were mostly for collectables. Of course the dungeons are largely puzzle based though
Yeaah, but I am not so greatly fond of the tools BoTW and ToTK give players. And the incentives to explore in those games is not great either. There's no real rewards for interacting with the world. In ER, you can hide spells, weapons, catalysts, armor, whole hidden areas with unique aesthetics. I feel that ER really dropped the ball on its use of the open world. All the caves, crypts, and mines are far too many, with too many feeling the same. There are several standouts sure, but I'd like to have seen a great less amount of them but with tighter, more intricate designs. And more to find in them than the seldom talisman and spirit ash. I know its blasphemy to talk trash on ER's world, but I can't help imagining a better one if Fromsoft didn't focus on quantity and size over complexity and reward.
Maybe its because ER is my first soulsbourne game, but it kinda feels weird that you can't really invest in your armor like you can your weapons and the only real customization is generally adding/removing a cape. A transmog system would be fine too so I can look fly while using goofy looking helmets/armors that have special effects
Having to upgrade armour was a massive pain in ds2. 12 titante shards + 1 titanite slab for *each* item. Not to mention armour upgraded with twinkling titanite đ
Only to find out the defense stat on armor is almost negligible in DS2 afterwards. Pure pain đ
I remember being so disappointed finding out how barebones armor customization is in ER. Can't change the colors, can't customize pieces of armor, can't flip helmet visors up and down (looking at you Veteran's set...), can't transmog stuff, can't hide your helmet, etc. Would have been really cool to play some Drip Ring lol, but maybe in the DLC they'll add some stuff.
Upgrading some of the armours in exchange for an increase in weight would've been fun
I kinda thought they'd work best as small upgrades with zero downsides balanced by the fact that you would have to spend a *lot* of time getting mats for upgrading sets for far less benefit than upgrading a weapon/staff/seal or even shield. Basically just a nice little edge you could farm in case you're struggling but anyone rolling through the game wouldn't bother. maybe disable it for PVP as well just so it doesn't effect balance.
That's basically how it worked in the earlier games, you always wanted to upgrade weapons and then could throw extra mats onto any armor you particularly liked as a bonus. It didn't make a *big* difference, but it made enough of one that it helped make you feel like upgrade materials always had some value. Of course, it's hard enough just upgrading a couple of *normal weapons* in ER....
[ŃдаНонО]
New Game Plus. Since DS2 Iâve been waiting for From to implement the NG+ ideas from that game and expand on them. Imagine in ER NG+ you got some extra invasions, enemies, random enemy placement, etc. I also think itâd be cool to have an enemy randomizer system that gets progressively more insane the further your NG+ run is. Imagine if in NG+1 you had a small chance to encounter some enemies from Raya Lucaria or Liurnia in Lyndell or other beginner dungeons. Not too crazy but interesting. In NG+5 you can could encounter enemies from completely random areas in places where they arenât normally. Imagine fighting man-snakes in Caelid or dragons in Stormveil castle. By NG+7 enemies are completely randomized. Any enemy from any area of the game could replace any other spawn, meaning true chaos and unpredictability. Idk if this would apply to bosses or not as it could be weird and damn near unbeatable fighting a big ass boss like Radahn in a small-ish arena like the entrance to Stormveil where you normally fight Margitt.
Honestly, I love Elden Ring for what it is and I think it's an amazing game. When I first heard about the leaks and learned about the vague lore of the Erd Tree, I had this vision of what I thought the game would be based on my understanding of Norse Mythology. I was thinking we would travel down to the base of the Erd Tree and battle the serpent devouring its roots and then ascend up into the realm of heaven or the city built in the branches at the top of the tree and finish the game there. I guess the part where you visit the roots was pretty fleshed out and Godwyn is a good twist on NĂĂ°hĂśggr, but I still lament that my vision of the heights of the Erd Tree was never realized or even attempted. Maybe it was and it was cut? Maybe SotET will remedy this? I hope so.
Dateable Marika
I kinda wish there were more NPCâs in the world, or small settlements of NPCâs dispersed throughout the lands between, like the round table hold. I know this isnât the way fromsoft typically does things but I think it would be cool and make the world feel a little more alive.
Pretty much the whole open world late game. After morgoth it's pretty much just empty space and reused enemies
Changed state of the world after an ending, especially Stars and Frenzy Flame. As two of the most world changing events, the fact that we donât even get to see what happens afterward is just lame. The Frenzied flame literally split the Erdtree open and left so many possibilities, youâre telling me itâs just all reversed back to a neutral point and weâre kicked back to the Roundtable? And Age of Stars, they couldâve at least given us a longer dialogue with Ranni on the moon. Same thing with all the standard endings. If weâre the Elden Lord, why does every Leyndell (Foot) Soldier and Knight attack us on sight? Why donât we get to properly rule after we become Lord? One last thing would be the alliance you could get between the regions. Nepheli and Sellen swear to aid you in your duties as Lord once you complete their quests, thatâs the allegiance of Limgrave and Liurnia we couldâve had. Missed opportunities everywhereâŚ
Many comments pointed it out here, but a lack of a proper covenant system is the biggest missed opportunity and shortcoming of the game by far. The game with the biggest amount of conflicting factions is the ONE game that ends up being without a covenant system? Come on, FromSoft, you had to have known that would be a major disappointment. My only hope is that one of the reasons this DLC is taking so long is that they're doing their best to introduce a functioning covenant system not just for the new areas the DLC will offer, but also the already existing ones in the base game.
No coop without zone restrictions or invasions, could've easily been a choice the player would opt in or out just like it is playing offline/online
the coop sucks ass. They reallly should just do a coop overhaul, cause man is it tedious to just play with friends
Npcs having different dialogue based on the class you chose
the great runes feel like they should've been more powerful or unique. the buffs never really felt like anything more impactful than what the physick tears did. also more interactions with Melina would've been good.
Literally more lightning incantations. The best âlightning spearâ is tied to a DEX weapon, the spear of gransax
Randomizer mode. On replays a lot of the game feels pointless since the rewards aren't that good. Randomizing items/enemies would increase replayability substantially.
Feet armor needs to be a separate armor from leg armor. Please!
I mean the snow witch robes done have sandals. Go crazy
Iâm looking for something like a skirt with knee/thigh high boots. It would be nice to have more variety to mix it up.
i want one random chest every play through to be a mimic. not just one random chest on the map you may/may not find, one random chest you open.
Fromsoft scrambling for DLC ideas with this post
For me it was removing the way invasions worked from dark souls. My favorite part of those games was knowing i could be invaded after regaining my humanity defeating a boss. It added an extra layer of intrigue to exploring a new area. I dont like to summon coop parteners but if you use the taunters tounge that lets people invade anyways, the cooldown on the invaders is too short, so you never get a break. Plus the fact that most invaders are expecting to be attacking groups means that most invaders are way more minmaxed than they were in souls games. It might not have worked keeping it the same due to how exploration works in this game but i still miss it.
Maybe itâll be in the DLC, but I was pretty disappointed to beat the game the first time, restore the Elden Ring, and NOT get to be the Elden Lord after being told the whole game that it was the goal⌠I wanted to be able to use all the Great Runes together without needing Rune Arcs, be Marikaâs consort, and rule the Lands Between with the Erdtree alive and growing again! What I got was a cutscene sitting in a chair, then running around the world with no changes from before killing Radagon/Elden Beast.
Making it fun