Elden Ring is the latest game in FromSoftware’s portfolio, and it is no easier than its predecessors. If you are unfamiliar, FromSoftware is a company known for making very, very difficult adventure-type video games. You may have heard of some of their previous works, such as the Dark Souls series or the game Bloodbourne. They all follow a similar premise: you control the main character, running around and defeating smaller enemies in order to get to the bosses of whatever area you are in, which tend to be large demonic horrors and other eldritch beings. Cheery, right? A lot of these bosses also tend to be ridiculously hard, to the point where it takes a lot of people, even sometimes experienced veterans of these games, several hours to even defeat one boss. My experience with this new game hasn’t been too far from this so far.
As a newcomer to FromSoftware’s collection, I said to myself a few classic famous last words: “How hard could it be?” As I plunged myself into Limgrave, one of the starting areas in Elden Ring, I immediately found myself head to head with a mini-boss, which is a boss that isn’t required to beat to advance the story. I landed one hit on him with my katana, and then immediately died, over and over, before I figured out that you could just run right past him to advance the story. Not a great start, but surely some other weaker enemies would prove to be easier.
As I progressed, I found a large castle gate leading into another area called “Stormhill.” The guards outside were easy to defeat, almost trivially so, which gave me a false sense of hope and confidence. Immediately after I entered, a large giant with a massive sword strapped to his back jumped down from a nearby cliff. I immediately got ready to fight, thinking this must be a boss or mini-boss. It took probably close to an hour and a half attempting to defeat him, while gaining a greater understanding of the controls and how to use certain mechanics along the way. Once I finally beat him, I learned that he wasn’t even a mini-boss. It was just a regular enemy, which really gives a scale of how hard this game truly is. However, once I knew roughly how the controls worked, defeating the rest of the enemies, and eventually the bosses, started coming a little easier to me.
The first boss I fought was a Great Enemy by the name of Margit. He used multiple glowing weapons, like throwing knives, hammers, and large greatswords, to try and stop me on my quest to the Elden Ring. It was here that I learned that the reason why so many bosses take so long is that you have to essentially memorize their attack patterns to know when to dodge and avoid their attack. A lot of bosses like to wind up their attacks for what seems like forever, throwing you off their timing and allowing them to instantly kill you in one shot with a powerful attack. With persistence, I managed to eventually defeat him, as well as three of the other main quest bosses along the way.
I still have a ways to go in this game, but I really enjoy it. It provides a great challenge, and it feels really good once you beat a boss; like you’ve really accomplished something. Elden Ring is available on PC, Xbox, and Playstation if you want to try it out for yourself.
