Hello and Welcome back to my blog!
I wanted to play the original Dark Souls and to be honest I even tried it a few years ago but just after the first tutorial boss, I knew it was not for me. I would get frustrated and not play it. So, I never continued that... but since Elden Ring came out a few years ago, I wanted to play it and this time with more patience.
This led me to install Elden Ring and this time, I liked the tutorial section much more than the last one. The graphics are amazing, but the UI and controls took me a long time to adjust.
I chose the Samurai for my build, didn't know what to go for... and the character looked cool so I went with it.
But wait a moment... how good the narrator was during that opening cutscene. That gave me goosebumps and pumped me up for the coming adventure.
As soon as we got out of the cave into Limgrave, we were presented with the vast open world. What a beautiful sight it was. One of my reasons to start my Souls-like game journey with this game is because of these polished and modern graphics.
We met our first proper boss in the game, I think. A huge guy on an armoured horse with a big ass spear and shield. I knew I couldn't take it down just yet. But I still challenged him to see how quickly it finished us off. It was pretty quickly. This was the time I was second-guessing my decision to play the game. xD
It was a vast open area so we could choose to go anywhere we wanted. I just went to the swamps and cleared a basement room with a bunch of rats. (They killed me once in the process too). And when I opened the big chest in that dungeon, I was teleported to the edge of the entire map. Wtf! I was expecting a huge bundle of runes or a good weapon but not teleporting to another place.
I was in a mine where some guys were just mining crystals. They were much stronger than the guys at the swamps so they gave me a good beating. But I managed to sneak out of that place. Fighting against them was just futile. I will not be taking unnecessary fights, especially this early in the game. Everything in this game wants to see you dead. Bugs, giants, weird plants, rodents and what not.
But I would die again and again for views like this, look at the beautiful sky!
This giant, stomach-less, ugly monster was an optional enemy. I didn't have to kill it but I took the challenge to kill it. I had to learn and get better at combat and have to take on bigger fights...right?
It took me about 5 tries to kill this one. I thought it would drop a nice item but nope. It just gave me a lot of runes.
The world looks very mysterious with a lot to learn. So many items to collect and gather as well. I took a walk on the beach and found many weird enemies.
The entire place is in ruins and I will be going towards the big castle I see in front of me. But before going straight in, it is better to explore more and see how I can upgrade my stuff.
Finding someone who doesn't want to kill you at first sight is quite rare here. The merchant sold me some recipes and much-needed arrows!
Later I found a cave where I had to fight a weird rat-looking enemy. I forgot to take a screenshot as it was an intense boss fight. Took me multiple attempts to kill it.
My favourite part of the game so far is sneaking up to an enemy and backstabbing them. It deals a massive amount of damage with a cool animation. LOVE IT!
The soldiers in front of the castle entrance gave me a tough time, especially that one guy with a massive shield and spear. All the others were not bad. And it was good to see that you can still sneak around to kill them one by one. I love the stealth approach and backstabbing them is fun and very productive.
As I was starting to wonder, how will my character would level up. That was solved quickly as I met this girl. I don't remember her name now but she gave us her horse-like thing to us and now we can level up our character.
I want to have more strength and health along with stamina. Stamina seems to be very valuable in this game.
My first impressions are positive of this game. And I don't think it is as hard as I was expecting. You can just run away from the fights for now, if they are too difficult and come back when you are ready. Maybe it is all about expectations after all?
I can see myself playing this for hundreds of hours and finishing the game. I am not gonna leave another game unfinished. I hope it won't be too harsh on me. But I am afraid I have a long way to go and it is going to be brutal at times.
- All the content is mine unless otherwise stated.
- Screenshots are from the game, Elden Ring.