My experience with the game has been that I've been over-levelled for almost all bosses (and the ones I wasn't were all optional), just by exploring the world. The game is designed so that if you get stuck somewhere, you can go do something else and come back later. If you stubbornly hammer your head against the one challenge or focus purely on the critical path, then I feel the difficulty is self-inflicted.

For example, some of the early bosses I've heard people complain about, Margit and Crucible Knight, I beat first try without much difficulty at all because I explored the starting areas thoroughly before reaching them and was naturally overpowered. I plan to actually play again when I'm done and purposely not level just so I can experience the challenge.

Speaking of self-inflicted, I've also seen a ton of people (eg on Reddit and Youtube) complaining that they're being one-shotted by bosses with their high level characters, but when they share their stats, they pumped everything into a damage dealing stat and few (or often NONE!) into their health. Of course they're being one-shotted if they don't increase their health. Again, this difficulty seems completely self-inflicted.

There are some truly hard bosses, for sure, but with a game as huge as Elden Ring and with as much value for money as Elden Ring is, I think people just have to make peace with the fact that unless you're dedicated to overcoming the challenges it presents, you may not see every bit of content the game has to offer. FROM Software certainly are ok with that.

>> Of course they're being one-shotted if they don't increase their health. Again, this difficulty seems completely self-inflicted.

Unfortunately it happens to the same people who will shout the loudest that "BUT THE GAME DOESN'T TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO DO THAT", as if somehow that should validate their (wrong) choices in the game. It's a role playing game. That's what the RP stands for in RPG. If you are role playing someone with inhumane strength but no health whatsoever, then you have to accept consequences of your choices. Like the other comment said - games require a certain level of literacy, not just in terms of actual reading but also in terms of understanding what the stats actually mean.

This can still fail, though. Consider DS1.

Resistance is a stat you can put points into. It does virtually nothing. Little in the game will make it obvious that putting points into Resistance will be a waste. "Well, you made bad choices" is not a perfect defense against this.

Games have literacy in a way books have literacy.

I would not recommend a casual reader pick up "A Brief History of 7 Killings" but it is still a great book.

Fromsoft games have an author, Miyazaki, and that author has the right to decide how their work is presented and engaged with.

Honestly I agree that there should be an "accessibility mode" but I understand why it is not in there. Musicians don't include a "kids bop" copy of their albums

Yet we also translate books, even when recognizing that translations will always interfere with an original vision.

Miyazaki has the right to set whatever difficulty he wants. My complaint is less with FromSoft. I've resigned myself to the fact that they'll never release a game with difficulty that is accessible to everybody. My complaint is more with the community, who sees any discussion of "hey the monster design and lore and scenery look cool but I can't get past the Asylum Demon" as some sort of threat and responds with vitriol. The discussion here has been largely positive but even here I've got somebody who decided to just respond "git gud." You can imagine how it goes on reddit or twitter.

As someone who has declined in gaming skills as I lose free time I’ve adopted just using mods on PC versions. It removes the online aspect of the game but allows you the chance to explore the world. I’ll be in the retirement home paying someone $20 to update the mod engine for Elden Ring 3.

you really really dont need a mod for ER, nor do you need online mod. the game is super accessible and if you thorougly explore the world, also quite easy

give it a shot

you can thank me later :-)

It's funny you picked the Asylum Demon as an example. At the first encounter with it you don't even have your class-specific weapon. Anyone who would try to fight it for more than a few attempts with the starting weapon (broken sword that does almost no damage) is just not treating it like an RPG.

Lowering the difficulty is not going to fix that. If the devs cater the game to players who can't be bothered to explore or read their own characters stats, it will ruin a lot of aspects that most fans enjoy. After seeing so many franchises release boring, easy, focus-grouped games (where the difficulty is just HP and damage multipliers) time and time again, can you really blame fans for saying "No, don't change it, we like the game how it is"? Almost all of the From Souls games are highly regarded classics, and sticking to their guns on design philosophy is a big part of that.

PS run through the grate door, pick up your weapons and plunge attack Asylum Demon, or pick Black Firebombs as your starting gift (only takes 4-5 to kill him)

There is toxicity around literally every topic on every corner of the internet. Why does it bother you only specifically with FromSoft games.

Because you disagree. Which is fine I respect your opinion. However, I would argue "community toxicity" is a bad cloud to yell at and can be used to justify any statement.

I think the fear is that one day the FromSoft suits will demand they start making their games easier so they can sell more. A fear that's pretty reasonable: they've already made one or two Elden Ring bosses easier with patches.

A fear that has no basis whatsoever.

Elden Ring sold 3 times as many copies as expected so far. The smartest thing Bandai Namco can do is let Miyazaki do his thing.

I'm not aware of anybody who wants the game to be made easier with no option to maintain its difficulty. People are generally asking for optional difficulty settings.

Having the settings exposed in the options menu changes the game, and the experience of the game, and the discussion around the game. I don't want the temptation of changing to a lower difficulty.

Using words like gaslight and threat when people are simply critiquing a game mechanic is unbelievably juvenile.

Grow up.

You didin't address any of the things I said, just made some vague remark about the words being used as "juvenile". I know you don't care about the game, so it is easy for you to dismiss counter criticism as unnecessary, and to scoff at "charged" language like "gaslight" and "threat". In my view this is a legitimate assessment of the original posters criticism. And It's clear that once all of your legitimate criticism of game mechanics fall flat in the face of reality, you both fall back on critiquing the words and "community" that previously defended the proper game design. I must ask, why are you in this thread if you neither care about the game (As evidenced by calling discussion about it juvenile), nor have played it (As evidenced by you and the original posters insistence that the game is somehow broken in a way that prevents them from playing as they enjoy)?

I bought elden ring and I’m not used to open world games and have found I'm not a fan. I’ve been grinding and have made no progress and am about to give up.

The problem isn't that it's open world, it's that there is zero guidance. There are no quests markers, no quest log, anything. The most you get is the ability to put markers on the map.

so what precisely is the problem? if you listen to what noc s are saying, its quite hard actually to not know where to go. furthermore, there is not much dialogue. and its also not that you have 30 quests at the same time open. heck, snes game havent gotten quest logs either. just use a notepad?

There is always trainer and offline mode