Did you finish Elden Ring (especially new Souls players)? (2024)

Platinum'd.
Finished it three times. Beat every boss, saw almost everything there is to see.

FromSoft games are made to be replayed. I do multiple runs with all Souls games.

Bloodborne almost a dozen complete playthroughs; helping friends etc...

Yes. Tried some of the souls games, never got into it. But the relative freedom in Elden Ring got me to see it through, at least for one of the endings.

But I was very thorough in my one and only playthrough so far, maybe a little too much so. Elden Ring's end game is basically just trying different builds and I couldn't be bothered with that.

It was my first souls game and yes I beat it. However I played on PC and used a mod to add full coop and played the entire game with two friends.

If I was playing solo I probably wouldn't have picked it up. Had a blast playing with friends though!

I did, but it was a real struggle. I played it in two stints essentially, first giving up in Leyndell, returning months later to finish it off.

I enjoyed the first third of the game immensely but beyond that point it felt like the game had given up all of its gameplay secrets and just became a grind. For all of the weird rhetoric about it being an open world done right, it sure suffers from a lot of the same issues as games considered lesser. Masses of repeated content, terrible rewards for completing that content and for exploring, obtuse quest design which seems indicates the game is designed to be played with a guide.

And then there's the boss design. I don't understand how you go from Sekiro to this. The bosses in the latter half of the game are a complete mess. Fire Giant and Godskin Duo are two of the worst boss fights From Software have ever designed and they come one after the other. Even highlights like Radagon are ruined by what comes after.

It's really shaken my faith in From, honestly.

New Souls player here.

I'm in the camp that felt the game dragged on, which I think must be a valid criticism as I see it so often.

Start of the game is amazing. Really couldn't put the game down.

At some point though I realised the way the game systems work meant that almost every reward I got for doing optional dungeons and such was functionally useless unless I changed my build.

I really don't like how the game works in that regard. Ended up just sticking to a weapon and armour set and found the game became a bit repetitive and samey. Certainly feels that way when you encounter recoloured enemies.

Great game, but one that would have been stronger if it was maybe 30% shorter and had no filler.

I played through it an equal number of times to how many endings there are, which is 6, if I recall. My first playthrough was very slow going. To be honest, I didn't really like the game that much thanks to the thing that always frustrates me in Souls games, bosses with multiple enemies. But, after I went back and did Journey 2, I really started to like the game a lot more. I could cut out the bosses I didn't need to fight since I didn't need to level up that much. I could just focus on the sidequests I needed to do to achieve the ending I was going for and doing that made me see a lot more of the game than I probably would have otherwise.

Journey 2 and further are where the game really shine compared to new game. It's very, very good regardless, but you can tell From Software really wanted people to play through multiple times and were seemingly quite confident that they would.

Last time I played, I finished the big, multi-armed boss (I can't remember its name) who had a big staff, and it was a pure f*cker, but I did it! After that, for whatever reason, I've not gone back to it since. I've only ever completed Dark Souls, and I LOVED every single one of the countless hours I spent in that game, so maybe one day I'll go back and complete Elden Ring.

So I guess I'm in the "still working on it" category.