The Lands Between, and an Overly-Cautious Tarnished

I´ve been recently hooked up with Elden Ring. I have to admit, I got the game a couple of months ago, however I was also playing at the same time, Horizon: Forbidden West, and also Cyberpunk 2077, which was pretty cheap on this year's Play Station Spring Sale. Got to admit that after patch 1.5, exploring Night City this game really holds its grounds. Definitely give it a try.

But let's get back to The Lands Between for a second. I started playing the game for quite a while and was enjoying the open world aspect of it. It's a new approach for the so called Souls-Borne formula. Games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne have pseudo open worlds, or areas in this case, some of them brilliantly connected like in Dark Souls 1 and 3. Bloodborne also does this incredibly well. Sometimes an inconspicuous locked gate is the connection to a whole area you'll visit in the future. Elden Ring's approach is completely different, you'll literally face the whole continent and it's up to you to decide where to go. The game does sort of give you an idea on where to go, but is as faint as it can be; just a beam of light on each rest point, somewhat indicating where to proceed.

Night City and all it has to offer

This can be the most frustrating or exciting aspect of the game. Sometimes the idea of exploring on your own, with the creeping fear that you'll run up to a gang of enemies stronger than you, or that you'll trigger a mini-boss fight is part of the dreadful experience. You'll also feel despair when you incur in the platforming (yes, platforming) mechanics of the game. There will be moments when you'll need precision to either climb or descend to an area where there's an item for a quest or so. The messages left by other players have made me laugh more times than frustrate me. I've found myself at the edge of a cliff where there's evidently nothing below and you'll find grace in the comedic genius of many fellow Tarnished by putting a "Jump required", or "item ahead" message there.

Having been through the hell of all three Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro (I have completed all of them), has prepared me to the kind of tomfoolery you'll find written in the messages all across the Lands Between.

play it when you feel it: it's about enjoying the journey

My approach to Elden Ring has been to enjoy the game while I feel inspired to play it. I have to admit that at one point during the game, after climbing the Lift of Dectus and going into the Leyndell Sewers I felt so under-leveled that I took time off the game. The main reason was the one mentioned above, I found myself playing Horizon: Forbidden West at the time and was progressing to smoothly in that game, that I decided to complete the main story, and about 80% of the side quests / collectibles. I wanted to go for the Platinum trophy, as I did with Zero Dawn, but then I stumbled upon Cyberpunk 2077 and had a go at it. With Cyberpunk, I had a blast, the 1.5 patch really got rid of most of the bugs and stability issues of the game. The game was $25 on the spring sale, a no-brainer really. I got so hooked up on Night City that I completed the main story faster than I want to admit. Just FYI, the cyberpunk genre is my favorite of all time in games, movies, anime, series, novels, comics, and so on.

Chilling with a friendly good boy.

After cleansing my palette for a few weeks, I went back to Elden Ring, with a fresh mindset and the motivation I needed to march forth. Frankly, with all the souls-borne games I've played, this seems to be a recurring thing. I pick up the game, play it and progress smoothly, then drop it for a few weeks to play something else, then pick it back up (only to find myself with no idea what I was doing or where I was going), and then resuming the epic quest until completion. I think this is the reason why I have missed some of the NPC quests in every souls-borne, I completely forget that I was helping some poor hollow or fellow hunter. Press F for the many NPCs that are still expecting you to deliver a letter, a sword or that special item in exchange for some loot. Give loot to get loot.

Refreshing your mindset has been quite helpful to me because it allows me to take a step back and rethink my strategy. I won't try to impress you or anything. I use guides to find where or how to get a specific item to craft or level up a weapon, or where a particular sword or armor set is hiding. The Fextrailfe Wiki is the Bible of the Souls-Borne fellows. I use it regularly whenever I need to. Whenever you need to find those chunks/stones to level up your weapon, wikis and guides will help you all the way. Want to know where that awesome Tier S sword is? You know where to go.

I don't dive deep into the level scaling aspect of the games, but on Elden ring I found myself starting with a Dexterity build, only to realize that I needed a poise-breaking great-sword to plow through the enemies and deal incredible damage to the bosses. Also I learned to lean on the companions you summon during boss fights. I know that on Elden Ring, the magic and spells aspect is quite strong, so I am experimenting with a high Intelligence build on my playthrough.

slowly but surely

Losing souls/runes is part of the experience in these games. In Elden Ring this has happened a few times. I developed a very cautious approach when exploring. I usually go back to farm the remaining runes to level up and explore at ease, rather than accumulate a big pile and level up a couple of times at the end of the journey. The most painful ones have been in the Leyndell Sewers, Caelid, and most recently the Mountaintop of the Giants. I could have been a few levels stronger at this point. "Visions of regret." In some sort of way, the game punishes you for chewing more than you can bite; just like in real life! So I pace myself and realize my limits, I usually level up one by one rather than pretending to be a reckless / badass Tarnished and gather insane amounts of runes, only to lose it to a group of dogs that bite you to death, or miscalculate that jump and die to an overly aggressive enemy that killed you for rushing to get back to the runes and not guarding properly.

Some of the views are quite mesmerizing.

My goal at the time of writing this post is to get ahold of the Dark Moon Greatsword. I will need to get a few level points into Intelligence to be able to use it. Probably I'll drop Rennala a visit to redistribute my attributes. At this point I deal a decent amount of damage to enemies and bosses, but the Mountaintop of the Giants has been so difficult, specially because enemies can kill you with just a couple of hits. My fight with Commander Niall at the Sol Castle was insanely frustrating. I learned to cheese the bastard. So here's an inefficient tip for any fellow Tarnished, constantly step back to your left (keep the left stick pressed at 7 o'clock) and keep the git moving towards you and make him cheese one specific attack, the one where he dives forward from a cloud of some, hit him, and immediately guard the downwards attack he does with his spear, then roll back like a maniac only to try it again. Watch out for the upwards jump he does with the electric prothesis he has, that can kill you almost instantly if you have a bit of damage already, he usually pairs that attack with a forward spear attack, roll to your left like a ninja, oh Tarnished. The other attacks he has are just regular side or downward attacks which I was too scared to try and decipher. After beating the pathetic sort (I'm being salty), I felt that rush of blood to the head and my heart beating fast. I often find myself using the celebratory gestures even though it has absolutely no impact on the game, it's just for my own amusement. So that has been one of my most recent successes in Elden Ring.

The feeling was incredible, but the game is far from over. I went to a cave in the Mountaintop only to find myself dealing with some idiotic snake-snail chimeras that summon wolves and samurais. I learned the hard way to kill them first rather than fight the summons. "Oh my runes, oh my runes." After many frustrating attempts to swift through the cave, I stumbled upon a ridiculous boss fight with a snake man which was hard to beat, but I had my summon which helped tank some of the hits and distract the enemy. After much frustration and beating him, I was doing my unnecessary celebratory gestures only to find that a fat giant spawned at got me a couple of times, throwing me to the ground and almost killing me. I rolled like a drunk ninja to gain space and use my remaining flasks to level up. I was trembling so much but got the composure of a well respected Tarnished and had my companion to help me tank the hits and distract the giant stomach. I barely manage to beat him with no flasks left and a ton of damage on my health. Finally this was over! But alas, no "Enemy Felled" message or anything. A feeling of dread bestowed upon me and saw the snake-snail chimera spawn nearby! I rushed like a maniac towards it and hit it with everything I had. Thankfully it did not had much health and my great-sword is max leveled. To this day I still don't know if the chimera spawned giant dogs or samurais, and if I really dodged a bullet there, and if this humble and overly-cautious Tarnished could've had a much worse fate.

much more awaits

So far these are a couple of experiences and adventures that I've had on Elden Ring. Naturally I've been through a few more, and still quite a few await. Certainly the souls-borne formula gets the player into a peculiar pace with a sense of progress and adventure that puts you in the mood for many hours of gameplay during the day, only to be gobsmacked in an area you're not supposed to be, or a boss fight that will extend for more than it should. Many ways lead to Rome; many ways to approach the game. Either you go classic with Strength or Dexterity builds, or experiment with a magic-heavy Tarnished, the countless hours and adventures in this epic journey in The Lands Between will make this game have a special place in your heart. Certainly one of the most memorable games ever made, not just by From Software, but in recent decades. An instant classic.