Where to start the story about Elden Ring? Of course with Assassin’s Creed. I remember very well with what anticipation I was waiting for the first part, seeing the trailers, specially took the PlayStation 3 for it for the money postponed from breakfasts, and the purchase of PS3 in 2008 was still that adventure (there is nowhere to buy the prefix, there are no games, performance so -so), but all this was paid many times, it immediately became clear what I now see on my pose of the telly telly.HDMI will turn the game in the industry (it was now a pun or not).
As spectacular as simple in the development of the fighting and parkour, fresh setting, freedom of movement (albeit not complete) were very impressive! After passing, the shower required a sequel as never before. And he went out two years later, surpassing all the expectations, the developers polished everything that was already good to the ideal, Assassin’s Creed II still remains the reference for most gamers. But already by the third license plate, the explicit stagnation of the series in the gameplay, with a noticeable improvement in the production and graphics, Black Flag, was a little refreshing the situation, sewing a little corsers to the assassins, and in the Unity and Syndicate, which offered vast expanse for virtual tourism, but offered practically nothing new as the game, stagnant in development in developmentbecame obvious to everyone, and so much that the series had to restart. The result, as we all know, also turned out to be ambiguous, and the franchise was fixed in our minds as one of the exemplary representatives of the “conveyor” approach to creating games
Well, what about Dark Souls? After all, about the continuation (at least ideological) this particular series will be discussed. The general tone, manner of narrative, even animations with models remain almost unchanged for almost 15 years (if you count from the release of the ancestor of the Demon’s Souls series)
But at the same time, the FROM Software projects continue to praise for a non-standard approach (some, of course, scolding for difficulty) and putting on various sites the assessments close to the maximum, while even somehow paradoxical in such cases, the opinions of the press and ordinary players almost completely coincide. Moreover, the story with Elden Ring personally is very similar to the above, I was really waiting for the release from the moment of watching the first trailers, it was she who became the main reason for the purchase of a new generation console in yourself, and having launched Dark Souls for the first time in 2012, I again felt the game industry seeking a new coup.
Today I’ll try to figure it out, on the example of the last representative of the SOLS family, whether Miyazaki and his team are selling to me and hundreds of thousands of the same game for almost 15 years, or they managed to find the formula for the competent construction of the game series, but first ..
A little about yourself
182 hours, right now this figure is certainly completely not relevant, and differs in Belomestic direction, but it proves, first of all to me myself that I more or less understand what I am talking about and that the game has something to do all this time. About so much will leave the ordinary player to defeat all the plot bosses and all, or almost all, optional.
Judging the cost of the game, starting exclusively from the number of content pledged in it and compare with the standard Call of Duty, Elden Ring should cost not 60, but at least $ 600.
And since there will be many comparisons with other From Software projects, at the same time I will provide a list of time spent in them, just don’t think that I boast, this is definitely not a reason for pride.
It is very clearly visible here how Elden differs in scale, but more on that later, I would like to pay special attention to one game from this list
Demon’s Souls Remake
When I went through the remake of the very first shower, I did not leave the feeling of the moral obsolescence of the game, despite its magnificent visual and sound. All these 40 hours I wondered: well, how such the same games can be so differently felt?
The answer is so textbook and has already flashed so many times when discussing other areas of art and technology that even to voice it somehow ashamed. Just from Software making minor changes in the visual and narrative component, it greatly changes the large spectrum of gameplay elements. In other words, we are given a new product from time to time in the old wrap, and in the case of Sekiro and Bloodborne, even this wrap is a little repainted. In the case of the same Assassins or Call of Duty C, excuse me, Fifoy, everything is exactly the opposite, the players are trying to convince the players with a new beautiful wrap in a radical change in the product itself.
What exactly, and with varying degrees of visibility, famous Japanese sadists change, to play it is interesting, I will tell you now, and I will also tell you if it is good in my opinion, having focused on Elden Ring by itself.
Game world and how to interact with it
Yes, this is the largest and most obvious change in the series, which happened with the release of the new part, but it is better to immediately arrange all points in such a global issue. In general, the series has always given relative freedom of movement, ideally, as for me, it was implemented in the first Dark Souls, where almost all locations are cunningly intertwined and combined by opening the shorts between them, in their further projects, the developers did not bother so much, in the Dark Souls III, for example, they give fasteners to throw Hero.In different parts of the world from the very beginning. In the new creation of Fromoma, firstly, to my joy, they again returned to the concept of maximum as much as possible seamlessness, and secondly, took the most serious step in the development of the series, adding an open world to it, in the classical sense of this concept. And the first thing I want to say about him: he is simply unrealistically huge!
Perhaps when compared with the new parts of the same Assassins Creed, it will not seem so big, but do not forget that we are in the game of the series of our famous hardcore and the character will deliver much more problems as enemies and the very environment, and accordingly the path from point A to the point of anywhere Apriori will take more skill and ingenuity. Fortunately, players from the very beginning make it possible to freely move between checkpoints, called here as grace (grace), and they are scattered around the world with very generous packs.
Fortunately, it turned out that the vast majority of the mechanic and the overall pace of DS III (which was made noticeably more dynamic after the stunning success of BloodBorne), feel great in this “clean field”, for even greater simplicity and speed of moving the character at the very beginning, they give a top goat named Torrent, so that when you see the word horse can be read as a goat, it also helps it also helpsrun through large crowds of enemies, if there is no need to fight with them and it is much more useful to do not understand why the stlax regime introduced into the game, which, as for me, simply occupies an extra button on the gamepad. At the same time, units did not forget to give out units, and the battles with some opponents were also specially “imprisoned” under the horse, but more on that later.
Traveling through the Interight (this is the name of the territory on which the action takes place), the hero will most likely meet checkpoints and caravans on the prototed paths, successfully overcoming which can be acquired by valuable loot and in general it will be more or less move within the framework of the plot, the marks on the map will even be courteous to tell the desired direction (map, marks, to prompted and courteously-these are generally words for the seriesabout which we are talking about), but as soon as, for some reason, the player decides to turn aside he has a chance to stumble upon a dungeon, which is a separate Dark Souls inside Dark Sules, where all the corridors will be taken from you and at the end to kill the boss, it will be dark, terribly, linearly and incomprehensible and incomprehensible and incomprehensible and incomprehensible.
The most interesting thing is that in most dungeons a nolan is a nolan sleep inside a dream inside sleep, and passing the dungeon you can accidentally find a hidden passage, behind which there will be a separate dungeon with your riddles, mini boss and loot for its murder, at such moments you finally understand that you now start playing you, and not vice versa and it remains only to pray, so that the end of the corridor is a dead end, not a fake wall, otherwiseIt seems that you can never get out of these labyrinths.
Such “turns in the wrong way” will greatly Slots Amigo review diversify the research process and take off exactly two problems, the first – opponents will mainly be the minimum modified models of mobs and bosses that the hero has already encountered, the banal reskin can be forgiven, understanding the scale of what is happening, but when after vast expanses you are locked in a claustoprophic nightmare, it begins to feel like a player forciblydragged into the first parts of DS and it becomes clear the gap between these games. And the worst thing is that in the later stages very linear locations must be passed according to the plot and a dual feeling of delight from the excellent design of chamber levels, mixed with longing in the wind in the hair, which was your satellite of the game.
In order for the player to see all the above “interesting things around the corner” the game built a simple, but very effective motivation for research. There will be no invisible walls, or visible walls to those locations into which it is too early to enter, threatening the cranios over the models of opponents, in the style of a witcher and the same assassins. An enemy for whom the character is not pumped enough to kill him. He will kill very quickly and without straining at all, immediately making it clear that it is too early to compete and you need to look for something in previous locations where you can stuff the runes (a local analogue of shower from Dark Souls is a universal currency for both pumping and for purchases) to increase the characteristics and get new weapons or a spell, as well as materials for their strengthening for their strengthening. Such a system perfectly works for immersion in the world and naturally forces the player to increase the level of interaction with it, while eliminating one of the most serious problems of large RPG (including the Souls) is the need to farm the same mobs in the same places for pumping. Branches from the main line will definitely be able to provide a “reserve for experience” for a comfortable (well as a comfortable …) passage of the game. In part, this is the merit of gamemeraduers who obviously registered in the office during the development for creating so many content, partly the following features of which will be discussed.
The combat system
This is the most controversial element of the legendary franchise in terms of changes, globally it remains constant from part to part. Very “skill -focused” (any Fromoma game is always, or almost always can be passed without pumping, well, or almost without it, if everything is in order with a reaction and tactical thinking) and it includes a standard set of tricks for the battle: a blow, block, roll, a powerful blow (with the exception of Sekiro), but if you get into the topic, you can find a huge number of inconspicuous changes in the usual.For from Software, and they very skillfully rearrange the features of the battles, making up completely new structures from them, which changes the rules of building every time.
If in COD we just annihilate enemies from different guns for many years in one method, in the assassins we occasionally change gadgets, but in fact, we continue to work with the same weapons in the same conditions, then in each new release of the Seols and the likes there are a lot of factors affecting the fight, it is simply pointless to focus on certain aspects for their number, this is the rules of simultaneous use of twoweapons, and new clothes with spells that affect the battle, and the ability to change the character class or edit it a little “right on the go”, as well as special abilities of the weapon, it is precisely about them to talk in more detail in the case of Elden. If only some unique weapons possessed special techniques and capabilities to it, now these techniques and opportunities are allocated into a separate element, which was called the “ashes of war”, and now they can be sold, buy and applied almost anything that you can pick up.
It’s also beautiful
If you competently combine the ashes of the war with spells, you can make very non -trivial and even imbalanced builds, thereby throwing the studios yet when compiling patches.
But we set up the mantle! I said that the game is skill -oriented? And now we have two new actions to show this skill – this is a squat (stealth mode) and a jump. Okay, I lied about the first, stealth, as it was said earlier, it was not clear why the necessary, you can calmly go through the whole game without once using it, a maximum of all the passage can facilitate the skip of an unpleasant area.
But the jump, firstly, makes it possible to more effectively dodge the attacks, especially from those who hit the area, and also clearly indicates that the game has become much more vertical and helps this vertical to use both in battle and in the study of the world.
Among other things, verticality makes it possible to act "at a new angle"
But in any case, despite the grand abundance of destruction methods, in my opinion, the main factor affecting emotions from the game is not the way you are fighting, but who you are fighting (otherwise the online games would not be so popular) and therefore it is time to talk about one of the most controversial elements
Opponents
This, it seems to me that it is the aspect in which the from Software is more inclined to Ubisoft methods, working hard on visual changes, while leaving the essence of practically untouched. As in other projects (excluding Sekiro again), enemies are divided into exactly three categories: ordinary opponents, NPCs, who are desperately mowing under real players and bosses (including mini-bosses). With the first two, everything is quite simple, they are very detailed, each time they correspond to not only the mood and entourage of the game, but also each individual location, showing it both by appearance and behavior.
There are exactly two problems, with experience the player quickly begins to unravel their behavior and at some point already, it seems that you will no longer find a worthy opponent among ordinary people and RESKINA is too obvious in optional locations.
With bosses the situation is more interesting. Most of them in Dark Souls IV, continuing glorious traditions, are interesting as puzzles, they can be defeated both with the help of a lightning -fast reaction and virtuoso ownership of the gamepad, and simply choosing the necessary tactics for several attempts, well, or several hundred attempts, all weaknesses and pain points. Personally, the second approach is closest to me, after the victory, he gives precisely this famous Souls-Moment, the realization that you were able to defeat the enemy, who is in a more advantageous position in advance. And now the fight with some kind of strongholds also simplifies the competent use of the Mount.
One of the options for "pain points" has almost every healthy man
The first problem, this is all the same resin, the leaders will be constantly repeated after the middle of the way with a slightly changed color and abilities, as intermediate bosses on the plot path, and at the end of some optional locations. I admit honestly, on such repetitions at the end, feeling some burnout, I called without a twinge of conscience as players-helpers and used a new feature introduced only in this part called “dust”-a special magic/technique allowing to call a mob, or even my own copy, which would fight on your side, the second was used more often.
The second problem that was not so frequent in past games and suddenly became the main one – this is vanshot. The fact is that the auto-overwhelming is not provided for in the game design of the series, and accordingly, due to the abundance of additional activities, there is not an illusory opportunity that the hero will come to the plot boss heavily pumped, and in order to maintain the intensity of the battles to the large guys, a large arsenal of attacks was given, which gives the opportunity to demolish an indecently large amount of HP from the player, it is especially unpleasant if you invest the experience of experiences in whatever the game.In addition to health, and in such a situation it becomes much more difficult to remember the windows between the attacks of the boss, and the process of identifying weaknesses requires much more attempts and time, respectively.
The above problem is the most striking and, perhaps, the only example of how the developers could not fully connect the open world with the main mechanics, of course, this misunderstanding can close their eyes, given the level of other aspects, but I personally have a feeling of incomprehensibility of some bosses, with their gorgeous visual design
I want to give a little specifics on the example of one boss, and it is better to present it with her own quote
Michella blade
For those who managed to get to know her personally, the title was definitely with the sound. It is obvious that this character was conceived as the third participant in the pantheon, in addition to my beloved boss – sister Frida from DS III and honorary wifa all Bloodborne – Lady Mary, but they, besides that they look amazing, have a tragic history, are also one of the best bosses in the history of the video game as a whole.
The design of painting is also a real work of art, it is an important part of Laura, and the enemy is generally interesting, in a good way complex and solved, with its strong and weaknesses. It has two phases, let’s call it human form and ultra-version, the only boss I met in the game that restores my health due to damage inflicted on you
But the same Frida has three phases in stock. The first is generally more like a riddle than the battle, the second is a simultaneous battle with two opponents, the third is the player’s desperate attempts to do something with the Cona Chaos. This battle is a separate epic adventure inside the game, without exaggeration. Making phases, in addition to appearance, differ only, in fact, the amount of damage applied and the area of attacks. The ability to get boss from the blows inflicted at first in a good way is amazing, but in the end it begins to seem that it is just a tightening of the battle. It can be kept by a magician at a distance – the main thing is to clearly learn the attack pattern, on which she can sharply reduce the distance and most likely to kill the hero, the first two participants in the parade of such luxury would definitely not be allowed.
And of course, I’ll go about the developers and turn on the mowing in my personal lists of the best bosses (well, at least in the salons), the excellent visual and the dynamics of the battle still overlap the above disadvantages, but the similar feeling was created close to the ideal, but not without roughness visited me in the fourth dark SOULS periodically, but not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and not always, and notAmazing.
Perhaps, I have listed the main, in my opinion, changes that the developers make both regularly and have done specifically now, so that it was as interesting for us to play as 10 years ago, there are still some very minor transformations and castling, which I do not even know how to talk about. So now it’s worth running a little on those sides of the From Software games that have not changed for years and try to understand whether to do something with them at all, I will begin with the most obvious.
Complexity
The funny thing is that this legendary aspect continues to work not least because of these barely noticeable changes, which I have been bursting about all this time. Not much time has passed since the release of Sekiro. When thousands of journalists and ordinary players rushed to storm the game, driven by the illusion of their “harassment” in the genre, but pushing for a slight change in mechanics, they filled the entire Internet with a stench that it was simply unrealistic, under the perplexed views of those who tried something similar for the first time and also coped well, as well as those who simply approached the process with the mind. Regarding the Elden Ring, I can say that this is one of the most suitable games for acquaintance with the series along the DS III, thanks to the above changes in interaction with the game world, but at the same time gives the same level of the challenge as other representatives that complicate the factor can indirectly be, only that is possible to burn out into the completion of history, such as happened, such asme.
Plot, ENT and quests
This is an aspect to which, as a rule, the most complaints from players are not franchise adherents. I have already heard many reviews from gamers, both personally and on the network that praise a new part for a more friendly attitude (well, again, as much as possible), but at the same time noting the acute need for a more traditional presentation of the plot, and not through the description of objects, hints and general phrases, which are still plus to move from the Japanese, begin to gain an infinite number of meaning.
I immediately admit that I am a fan of such a presentation, and I will try to explain why it is good and why, despite the fact that I personally noticed a shift to a more simplified presentation of information in Sekiro and Elden Ring, from Software is unlikely to ever change this moment
Everything is very trivial again, just if you look at a vacuum, without branded chips, the plot and quests in the souls are terribly stuffy (now it is definitely a pun). The main line is always built according to one principle, and even, so to speak, spinflowed by Sekiro and Bloodborne fall under the next scheme
There is a certain “state” => in it there is a golden era thanks to a certain object/creature/phenomenon => some trouble happens with it and everything around is plunged into chaos and devastation => The hero needs to take possession of this object/creature/phenomenon, enlisting the support of those who are and those who are against => depending on the end, destroy it, and not to change all the likes, or not to change the rower, or not to change it.Nothing, it is important to note that the consequences from any choice almost always remain to the fantasy of the culprit of the triumph. We can find such a paradigm in the works of the times of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Absolutely all quests are typical go-make, find and unwell, which everyone scolds in more pop.
Now, here, seriously, it is worth paying tribute to the scriptwriters from Activision and Ubisoft studios, they clearly try more, inventing plot twists and cliffers in their multi -blue series than George Martin while working on Elden’s ring.
But Miyazaki with friends, while during the Demonial Souls, managed to come up with a brilliant concept, realizing that to create a good non -banal plot for an interactive adventure, this is an almost impossible task, they turned his presentation into part of the gameplay, forcing the players not only to find it scattered throughout all the elements of the game in the formImportant moments and/or leaving ambiguous hints, thus making experience from passing at times more personal, which means valuable. The soulless models turned into personalities that you are imbued with tragic stories and unique characters, simply because they become so automatically when you carried their quest with you in your head through the half of the game, and did not run it in 15 minutes at the shooter.
For the longest quest, along which this blue girl is hard to fall in love with a character
Visual and production
Finally, the time has come to interrupt my combo respects, touching the moment, which very clearly in the series was turned back and precisely requires changes. If the overall visual design is still on top, beautiful views will constantly interrupt the hero’s path, forcing him to combine a photocher,
Then the animations of absolutely all the movements of the character and the general production practically did not change since the DS3 time, where in turn there were minimal differences in this regard with the first part, which was doubly offended, firstly, against the background of the previous game of the studio-Sekiro. Where combat scenes were depicted at some phenomenal level, turning what is happening into the triumph of a shinobi aesthetics, and secondly, in comparison with the more popular projects, which was mentioned earlier, where the rate is made just on this nuance. This is the only point I found, where not only “running in place” is observed, but also steps back.
What about?
Well, firstly, the question I asked at the very beginning was completely pointless, because the answer to it is already in the heading, and it is obvious that Miyazaki really found a recipe for high-quality long-playing franchises, for so many years releasing beautiful video games, so different in its same. Starting a series as an experiment, a certain adventure, the developers retain the spirit of this experiment, making changes and castling from part to part to the entire gameplay, albeit not always successful, but from time to time gaining the necessary mass of positive moments, in the compartment while maintaining successful decisions, while other projects, daring into the industry many years ago due to innovations, finally lose the lattergrains of former novelty and originality, afraid to lose the gained name, but whether they will lose something in a very near future?
If you read this text to the end – sincerely thank you, for me it is really very important. Elden Ring became for me a very personal game not only for reasons described at the beginning, during the passage and writing of this text, I changed three places of residence, dragging PS5 in my backpack and experienced everything that put an Eldena ring for me with such gigantic works of the industry as Morrower’s Gate, who went out when they went out whenSo many things took place in life and took place in games.