Elden Ring was an incredible success in 2022 as it became the best-selling FromSoftware game and achieved the Game of the Year award at the Game Awards. This is the second Game of the Year award the developers have earned and Hidetaka Miyazaki, the president of FromSoftware, promises to create even better games than Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is an epic gaming experience that offers a vast amount of replay value due to the various endings and how many different builds players can create. However, even with a game as incredible as Elden Ring, there are many harsh realities when replaying the game for the first or even second time.
Players Have To Add Their Own Rules To Be Challenged
For Souls veterans, Elden Ring wasn't an incredibly difficult game. However, for newcomers and even some Souls veterans, Elden Ring is an intense struggle on their first playthrough. This isn't the case on replays and the game can be beaten in far less time than the original playthrough.
Because of this, players have to add their own special rules to truly feel a challenge since there is no way to change the difficulty. This may be picking a class with weapons or spells in which the player has no experience or deciding to not use any Ash Summons. Some streamers online have been seen competing in even more jarring manners like using a dance pad.
The Bosses Lose Their Awe
Experiencing each boss for the first time is incredibly daunting. While bosses like Radahn and Malenia, two of the hardest bosses in Elden Ring, can simply leave a player in awe they also provide a challenging and memorable experience. Replaying games can often bring a player wanting to satisfy the feeling they had when they first played the game.
While some bosses are still going to put up a challenge, even if it's less than before, the bosses lack the same sense of domination they once held over players. This is a harsh reality for Elden Ring players that they can't experience the bosses in the same way they did before. The fights won't be as intense and the cutscenes won't be as bone-chilling.
Updates Dramatically Improved Quests
The quests weren't entirely organized upon the initial release of Elden Ring and actions could be performed earlier than when they were supposed to. A prime example is how many players were able to go to Fort Gael and challenge Radahn, a boss with some of the saddest lore in Elden Ring, whenever they wanted.
However, there are a series of actions now required to perform before players can initiate the cutscene that leads to the battle against Radahn. This, alongside placing NPC markers on the map, dramatically improved the quests in the game. Elden Ring didn't have too many issues on its initial release, but upon replaying the game with updates, it can be quite a shock to realize how poorly handled some of the quests initially were.
There Weren't Enough Castles Or Cities
Large cities and castles have been a major part of FromSoftware's Souls games with locations like Yharnam, Lothric Castle, and Anor Londo. For a massive fantasy open-world game like Elden Ring, there should have been a few more large-scale castles like Stormveil and there aren't many cities either.
Stormveil Castle and Leyndell are some of the best locations in the game, and they are breathtaking to travel through and explore. However, when replaying the game and exploring the world it can feel like something is missing as if there should have been a few more spread out throughout the land. Elden Ring did have a nice balance of new locations like an academy and a manor, but even more types of these settings would have been welcome.
Armor Aesthetics Can Mean Little
Prioritizing how a character looks with some of the best-looking armor in Elden Ring over how much defense a specific armor grants isn't an option unless players are excellent at the game. Armor is one of the most important parts of Elden Ring and is essential for most players.
The armor that supplies the best defense or resistance often isn't the most visually appealing and this can be more obvious on an NG+ playthrough when some enemies and bosses are even more terrifying than before. The game makes players realize that there isn't a need for most of the armor in the game, especially when players have a high enough equipment load to carry heavier armor more easily. What the game needs is an option to change the appearance of armor to other ones that the player owns.
The Game Needs A Quest Tracker
While there have been some updates added to the game to make quests easier to follow, the game still lacks an actual quest tracker. The screen isn't overly busy which does help with the immersion of the game, however, the game makes it incredibly difficult to follow some quests and online guides are often the only option to make quests easier.
FromSoftware doubtlessly knows that this is an issue and purposely doesn't add the feature because it adds to the realism of the world and allows the player to explore more. This becomes more of an issue on replaying the game, and it can be difficult to remember how exactly each quest went about on the first playthrough.
Melina Is A Bland Character
Melina was a heavily advertised character for the game and somewhat plays a major support role to the Tarnished in Elden Ring as their maiden. However, Melina does little, and the players rarely see her. It can be easy to forget she even exists until players end up in Leyndell where she randomly appears again.
Melina is far from one of the best characters in Elden Ring, and she dies shortly after Leyndell depending on the choices of the player. Her sacrifice doesn't evoke any sort of emotions due to her sort of just being there. She needed more writing and more scenes throughout the game. Many of the characters of her trope in the other games usually at least have a side quest tied to them, but Melina doesn't even have that.
The Roundtable Hold Should've Been More Important
The Roundtable Hold is the main hub in the game where players can purchase various items, weapons, or spells. Different rooms are unlocked in the hold as the player progresses through the game, but there isn't too much to explore and the NPCs mostly offer quests outside the hold.
Usually, the main hub of FromSoftware's Souls games plays a primary role in the game that ties into the end of it. However, there isn't any major role that it fulfills in the end. This is only abundantly clear on a replay as the initial playthrough makes the Roundtable Hold feel vaster than it is and that there is much to explore.
The Final Boss Is Awful
Radagon of the Golden Order has been met with a great deal of acclaim, however, the second phase of the final boss fight isn't. The Elden Beast is a beautiful boss from its design to the surrounding area. However, the fight simply isn't good and the wide area of the battle makes the boss's fight extremely difficult.
While the game is meant to be challenging, the Elden Beast comes off as frustrating and tedious. With Torrent's significance in the game, it would have been a perfect decision to include him as an option to use in the battle against the Elden Beast which would have fixed most of the issues with the boss.
The Game Could Be Bigger
When playing Elden Ring for the first time the game seems as if it never stops expanding. It takes hours to completely see what the Lands Between has to offer and even then there is more to explore. However, upon a replay when the player has already mastered the world once it can feel small.
There is plenty of action, quests to complete, scenery to view, and diverse locations in the world but going through it all once doesn't quite satisfy a player completely. Elden Ring will hopefully receive DLC that will supply the game with even more lands to explore, but for now, Elden Ring simply feels too small.
Source:gamerant.com