I've heard stories of Eldin Ring being Glitchy like alot and it released more broken and it metacritic 98 at launch

[Runa216]

Chrkeller said:

DonFerrari said:

As said by Sven... for From Software games it seems like the shortcomings that would be trashed in other games are almost welcome and praised on their games and they won't damage the score or sales.

I found Souls 3 and Blood rather refined.  Elden scores shock me personally.  Lots of lazy/poor design choices I am shocked didn't hurt their review scores.  I kind of think reviewers didn't play more than 10 hours of the game.  I am still shocked at how many repeat bosses there were.  Burial Watchdog..  has to be in the game 12 times.

I really don't understand this mentality at all. Like, people complain a lot about repetition and poor design without acknowledging that it still has more unique and well-designed content than any other Fromsoft game. It just so happens to be that the space between the larger dungeons is kinda filler. you CAN ignore like 90% of it if you so desire, but FromSoft has always been great about environmental storytelling and I found the details of the game's overworld map to be engaging as hekk. 

Like, okay, they use the Night's Cavalry a half dozen times and they reuse dragon bosses....this is true. But at the same time, each variant is subtly different. Each location offers slightly different experiences and obstacles. I like that in game design. would it have been nice to have 170+ totally unique bosses? Hell yeah it would. But in previous Souls games I found myself wondering 'man, what would this boss be like in an open arena/closed arena' or "I'd love to fight just ornstein without smough", you know a slight variation on something I loved. I realize I am probably in the minority here but I just found it so refreshing to have a different take on the genre. 

Other Souls games are tightly designed, with each area and boss pretty unique (and with some enemies and bosses reused or recycled). That's great and I am fine with it. I didn't hate the three different Asylum demons in Dark souls 1. I'd rather fight 12 asylum demons than Bed of Chaos again. 

And as I said, the game still has I think 78 unique bosses. the previous number in a souls game was 41 in Dark Souls II, and most of those bosses sucked. Or maybe Sekiro. I dunno. Bloodborne also had I think 40 something unique bosses once you factored in all the chalice bosses. 

Point is, this mentality has never made much sense to me. I'd get it if the game was nothing but bland, repetitive bosses. I'd totally sympathize if the game didn't also have some amazingly fantastic boss and level design. But even if you cut out all the chaff and repetition it's still got more content than any other FromSouls game. and once I took a moment to actually filter things out I found that I loved something like 40 of the bosses, with the remaining 38 all mostly at least liked or neutral. I didn't hate many of them or I didn't feel they were filler. 

If previous titles were the best damn steak and veg without any potatoes, this is more of that same delicious steak, even more of those delicious vegetables, and a tonne of potatoes. IT's still the same delicious meal, just a whole lot MORE of it. and if you don't wanna eat it all at once, you got leftovers. 

In a world where people are constantly bitching about game devs nickel-and-diming us and not giving us any content, it's nice to see that FromSoft applied their signature style and quality to 78 unique bosses and over 170 variations on those bosses to mix things up a bit. 

I totally get that not everyone is going to want to fight the same 20 bosses on repeat, but the fact that the game balances their pristine world and boss design with some repetition and filler just means more Souls for me. 

I mean, it's not like this is the first time they did this, either. Like the Stray Demon, that was reused multiple times. the Capra and Taurus demon were all reused. The Pursuer had something like a half-dozen encounters. Almost every miniboss in Sekiro was reused at least once and the same can be said for the main bosses. Same with Bloodborne, many of the bosses there were reused int he Chalices and the Chalice bosses were reused multiple times. 

When 90% of it is optional content with loot and goodies, I see it as being generous, not lazy or cheap. I'd take that over Activision nonsense any day. 

Oh, and my opinion of the level design is the same as the boss design. Like, sure there's a lot of horseback riding and vast open spaces, but even if you only factor in the smaller and larger dungeons, it's still way more unique and original content than any other game. Try to tell me Volcano Manor and its surrounding city isn't just as engaging and well-designed as any other FromSouls level. Try to tell me Leyndell the Royal Capital isn't as complex and detailed as The Ringed City. I'd love to hear someone's genuine argument that Stormveil Castle isn't as gorgeous and well-designed as Anor Londo. Malenia and Malekith and Radagon and Margit the Fell Omen etc are just as well designed as Artorias and Gael and Midir and Ornstein and Smough. I know to some people it may not seem that way because a lot of these bosses are recycled throughout so they feel less special, but I've spent hundreds of hours on the game and I'm quite confident that the design of these bosses (and the lore backing them) Are every bit as engaging as prior games...there's just a lot more of it now. 

I just don't understand how people can complain when we're getting so much more of the shit we love. I absolutely adore this damn game and the fact that it has an open world makes it better for me because now I have so much more of the gameplay I love. Is a lot of it repetitive? Absolutely. but I also feel that each encounter is just unique enough to make it feel worth my time. Will that be the case for everyone? Absolutely not, clearly. but for me, it's just so much more of something I love. I'm never going to complain about that. 

There's a reason the game got outstanding reviews.