{"id":2858,"date":"2022-02-25T20:28:47","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T02:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/ggndev\/?p=2858"},"modified":"2022-05-08T14:45:57","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T19:45:57","slug":"elden-ring-first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ghostgamer.news\/elden-ring-first-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Elden Ring: First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am not a big souls-like player. I never got into Dark Souls. I did enjoy Sekiro.. Somewhat, mostly because of the stealth and setting. I played a number of other Souls-likes, including Nioh, but ultimately.. They were all a pass for me after 2-4 hours of gameplay that caused me serious physical pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when I say Elden Ring may become my biggest time sink game for 2022, that’s a huge deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elden Ring isn’t necessarily a stealth game, but it does have stealth mechanics not entirely unlike Sekiro, but with less hand-holding.. Well, actually, almost no hand-holding. At best all you get is a little marker giving you a suggestion on a direction to go in order to advance the main story.. That’s it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And I you, Melina. And I you..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s also a massive open world that hearkens back to classic Elder Scrolls gameplay in that you’ll figure out your own way to get where you’re going. Hell, you don’t even get a journal to remind you what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep a notepad handy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am hard pressed to nail down any one singular thing in Elden Ring that makes me enjoy it so much and want to keep playing even when I fail. The sheer amount of planning that can go into any sort of gameplay is a huge bonus, though, and one that I thrive in (yes, I will be creating some guides here for people who aren’t good at souls-likes, like me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s a good thing death isn’t as big of a problem in this game as it is in other Souls-likes, because you will die to bugs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s not all wine and roses, however. I encountered numerous bugs, and not just the performance issues (which are ridiculous on my top-of-the-line gaming PC).. One resulted in a death, and another resulted in a guaranteed crash at interaction with objects in an area.. that reloaded right next to a big bear about to maul me. I survived by the skin of my teeth on that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, I persevered, and when I encountered my first boss, I was feeling.. Sassy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, my methods to ensure I could succeed in Elden Ring involved a mechanic that is classic to all Japanese RPGs: XP (or, in this case, rune) farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I played a lot of Final Fantasy 1. Yes, the original. If you wanted to really see the end-game, you pretty much hard to farm these giant centipedes or whatever they were out in a desert. I did that for HOURS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Elden Ring, I’m not really doing hours-worth of farming, but I am doing something I haven’t had to do since I last played Final Fantasy 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I took my Confessor build (Dex\/Faith) out to a location I’ll share in later guides and got some new gear and leveled up to about 26 (along side actually playing the game, FYI – only about half those levels were farmed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rocking that Elden Bling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I then went back to a catacombs I gave up on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s just.. The fact that I typed that sentence amazes me still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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