The King of the Ring

Hey everyone!

Hope you’re having a great day. It’s still the start of the week so let’s get out there and crush it. Last Friday came with a few great experiences, first was going to see the Jujitsu Kaisen 0 film with a bunch of my friends. Second, was finally beating Elden Ring and finally, releasing the latest part of “The Exile Son.” The latest piece took on a sort of evolution that I didn’t expect, I’ll be expanding what was originally not a huge part of the story into something bigger. I won’t say much more on that as to avoid spoilers and let you read it for yourselves. Today I’ll be going over my experience playing and beating Elden Ring. I’ll warn you, there will be spoilers, so if that’s something that you care about then beware! Spoilers ahead. Let’s get into it.

My early forays into the game and the Lands Between was filled with wonder and curiosity. Everything looked amazing and I found it easy to immerse myself in the setting. As is customary in all the Soulsborne games I went through the initial starting area and got slaughtered by a boss enemy that is often too tough for most players to initially handle. Upon seeing the Grafted Scion for the first time I began screaming. It was this horrific visage of multiple bodies put together appearing like a spider human with arms and legs sticking out of various parts of its body. As if that wasn’t bad enough the creature had weapons and a shield. I don’t think I lasted ten seconds. Of course, it is beatable, but as with previous games you still die to something. From what I’ve been told, you fall off a cliff. It’s silly in an anticlimactic way but hey, I guess the player character needs to die somehow. After running through the optional tutorial, I left the crypt/cave that I had found myself in and found a masked man waiting to speak with me. Usually, NPCs have something important to tell you in these games but whatever he had to say was overshadowed by him saying that the player character is “Maidenless.” Maidens are important to the “Tarnished” which is what the player is, and they allow Tarnished to grow in strength. Anyhow, it seems many gamers think alike as the running joke is this NPC is calling the player character a virgin loser. After talking to him I got my butt kicked by some golden jerk on a horse several times. After exploring the area, I found my way into a wolf den and duked it out with some werewolf type creature. It was a rough fight, but I managed to pull out a win. After that I wandered around for a bit only knowing that I had to get to the castle, but I still couldn’t level up. Little did I know I just needed to rest at a site of grace on the other side of some ruins I passed by. After struggling to run past a blockade and one very angry giant I made it to where I needed to be and was then torn apart by a pack of wolves. This scenario of going to the wrong place at the wrong time and getting torn apart by whatever monsters I happened upon would continue throughout my playthrough. But why struggle against such pains? To become Elden Lord of course!

I have a very limited understanding of the story for the game. But that’s just how these games are. You have to go looking for the story in item descriptions. Aside from the introduction there are NPCs that you can speak to and to me it feels like there’s more of that in Elden Ring than in the other Soulsborne games. Still, all I knew is that there were six major bosses that I needed to kill, that I was walking into the giant golden tree, and nothing was going to stop me. I was shocked when my stand in maiden lit herself on fire and the giant tree with her. I just didn’t expect it. Then to later find the city underneath that I had explored previously was now buried in ash was haunting. Even the hub area where a few NPCs all hang out was set ablaze. As to the ending. I believe there are three major endings with each having one or two variations. I went with what I think has been the most completed. As a longtime player of these games, I wanted to get a certain great sword that has made an appearance in just about all of them. I didn’t use it as it didn’t align with my stats, but I did it for the clout. It also just so happens that the questline that gives you this sword also gives you one of the endings.

So, I’ve sung praises of Elden Ring both in this post and in a previous post, but what about some of its shortcomings? Well, some bosses are just busted. It’s a mix of a lot of luck, grit, and having the right build and weapon to overcome them, otherwise you’re just going to die. Probably one of the most vexing bosses I found was the Fire Giant. It’s like fighting a giant baby with a massive dinner plate. You can’t see what attack it’s doing because it’s so large and you just have to get lucky it doesn’t AOE you to death. Before him I was dealing with Redahn who was a pain, but if you read the lore about him, he has a glaring weakness so while I initially hated him, he’s at least bearable. There’s an optional boss named Malenia who is frankly just unfair for the sake of being a brutal boss fight. There are strategies for dealing with her, but luck is still a major factor. Her attacks heal her and she’s fast both on moving and attacking. The final boss, however, is just the worst. It’s tedious, annoying, and frankly just ruined the ending experience for me. It’s a gauntlet which starts out with a fun boss named Radagon who was brutal but fair. Then it turns into fighting some twinkling amalgamation who runs away from the player all the while hurling spells and unavoidable attacks. It’s a shame too because the second to final boss, Godfrey, is perfect. I mean they really knocked it out of the park with the Godfrey fight. What can you do though? I still enjoyed the game, and I started a second playthrough already so for all the grief I give the game I still enjoy it.

I’ll wrap things up now. Overall, as I said, I like the game and I’m still exploring the massive world that FromSoft has built. What do you think about the game? What has your experience been? Feel free to talk about it in a comment. The next part of the “Cinders” stories will be out Friday, so keep an eye out for that. Thanks for reading and have a great one!

Best regards,

Aaron Kirby