What Returning to Dark Souls Taught Me About Elden Ring

Going back to dark souls then coming back to elden ring. Just don’t enjoy that fast boss combat that will kill you in one combo and constant roll catches.

Poor progression? Valid point. Mediocre bosses? That’s where I have to disagree: the flow you get on Elden Ring’s bosses when you master them is incredible.

I can beat Margit (ik he’s the first boss but he was the example in the video) consistently with a club at level 1 and no armour (likewise for other ER bosses too). Granted, this took me a very long time, however, I do think this is because ER’s bosses are just genuinely harder than in other games. I’ve beaten Bloodborne and the Souls Games melee only, it took me about two playthroughs to become great at each of those games’ bosses. None of ER’s bosses are unfair per say, they just require stupid amounts of memorisation, which I don’t mind: Maliketh, Melania and Mohg are amazing examples.

With all that being said, Bloodborne is better.

enemy placement and area design felt a lot better in darksouls i love it even if i kinda dislike the second half that funny enough feels kinda like elden ring with not much direction and balance and some bosses are tedious(bed of chaos) while others are easy(nito or seath) but elden ring is simply too open and too poorly balanced, its hsrd to know the "intended" route bc of the open world nature of it u can steamroll an area or get stuck in a place where everything one shots you, i just hope the dlc has a more linear Nature to it

oh no I completely agree with your vid, elden ring may be good and well done but the balanced is shitty- you NEED to play the way it wants you to play, which is a stupid way of playing. malenia is stupid too, you're literally forced to dodge and learn unfair paterns and all. what if I want to play shield? for a challenge or whatever? "well go f yourself lololol".

Every boss used to kick my ass on Dark Souls 1 then i played Elden Ring now i steam roll every boss in DS 1 while getting steamrolled by every boss in ER

Bonfires are one of those things that I’m glad are better in Elden Ring, I really hate running between lots of enemies just to try the boss fight again.

you think dark souls is as bad as elden ring for reusing bosses? made me spit my toothpaste out

Despite everything, late game of Elden Ring is nowhere near as bad as late game of Dark Souls 1. (Sorry I just don’t really like ds 1)

DARK SOULS is an intricately, thoughtful, cerebral experience with grounded worldbuilding, nietzchean themes and amazingly logical and interconnected lore and environmental storytelling. The sense of place it creates is among the best. ELDEN RING in terms is generic and feels more like an anime action ARPG video game with a LOT of loud noises and explosions, but very little subtlety.

If you're gonna make this statement that FromSoft stays on games like dark souls, Maybe you should do your research next time. ❤ They have games like armoured corps, One of their most popular franchises easily or there wouldn't be six of them

For me, the thing that holds back Elden Ring is its open world. Like, yeah, the world is beautiful and all that but if we are honest, it kind of falls into the same problems other open world games have. I like the linear nature of the Souls games. Elden Ring just didn't catch me like all the others did.

Elden Ring did get GOTY i think its ok to say its one of the GOATs

Honestly not sure why ANYONE would dislike or have a problem with this video. You basically say going back and playing Dark Souls made you love both games even more... Can someone explain what the problem is? Is it just a punch of pissy purist Elden Ring haters?

Why am i going to think of the game like im a first time player when im not, just because you think its cooler if you play that game first at this point, its unrealistic to expect that, the majority of players dont start with dark souls 1 anymore, elden ring had the MOST players of any fromsoft game and i imagine that is the first game many players will experience, if they ever go back its going to be a cake walk. the reason elden ring has many mechanics that make it " easier " is to make it so more players can enjoy the game and open it to wider audience's. elden rings DLC also hasnt come out yet so you dont know if you thoughts will change.

tbh dark souls just wasnt hard for me coming from elden ring. i never played dark souls 1 before that so ig im not the best to say this but it was SO DAMN easy to beat ds1, i first tried most bosses and didnt take more then 5 attempts for any of them. it was SO SO easy and i loved it all the same still a great game besides the ending areas were kinda boring and dragged out the lava area SUCKED. overall i loved exploring in DS1 but it was SO SO DAMN easy and it didnt feel rewarding to me vs killing bosses in any other souls game. ive played 2 now and 3 and 1 has some of my fav boss designs but boss movesets were vry vry basic so easy for someone like me who has beat elden ring and dark souls 3 at least 3 times over. so yea maybe the less complex game is more fun for you im glad you enjoy it but elden ring is just better to me in every way and DS1 still great but was too easy for me.

Did I make a mistake playing dark souls 1 first? cause Dark Souls 3 is so much harder when it comes to dodging

Interesting to hear a souls player express some of the frustrations with ER that I thought were just because it's my first souls game and I just suck. There is a lot I absolutely love about ER and I have been absolutely addicted to it for over 200 hours at this point... but some of the boss fights have been the most frustrating experiences in gaming I have ever had and even once I beat them after many hours I am not left with a good feeling. I want to 100% the game but knowing that involves facing some of these bosses again is not something I look forward to

Elden ring is dark souls combat lite. It's not gonna help you figure out what to do heavy.

On point. I love Souls games. Starting Elden Ring, I was in awe but the more it went, the more I realized how much Dark Souls and Bloodborne were evocative and a test of will and skill.

Insanely hard bosses makes Elden as amazing as it is

This is sincerely one of the best and most balanced review/game comparisons I've ever seen. I love how you talk about the best and worst aspects of each respective game in your opinion, while still trying to put things into perspective and looking at the games more objectively. Truly refreshing, great vid!

I’ll say this while DS 3 is still my favorite souls game maybe other than blood borne. Elden ring while it has some problems I’d say still for the most part deserves the praise it’s gotten. It’s not overrated like a game like the last of us that’s for sure

The sewers in elden ring woof

Hot take but Elden Ring is lower on the list of my most enjoyed FromSoft games

I honestly feel like elden ring missed out on the level of integrations covenants had in game. They felt way more integrated into Ds3. Hopefully elden Ring can add unique covenant rewards again.

Has me wondering what a game would be like if it had more, but unique, "lords" in areas but with Elden Ring exploration, maybe taking out a lord or following quests for it would change a region. It's hard to balance a game with so many options but it's also interesting how many different takes I've heard about Elden Ring, many who like it but see serious flaws, but those flaws lie in different areas for different people. There were definitely bosses I struggled with in Elden Ring, but I liked the option to maintain the game as an activity instead of having to keep smacking into the same wall in order to experience more of it, and I liked how easy movement was, so one could burgle a bit more readily if one weren't up for a brawl. Very good point about the guards prior to Ornstein and Smough preparing you for the bosses. I guess that degree of intricate intentionality does leave its mark. I feel like the mood and the exploration in these games are things I find hugely compelling, so that if there's ever another company that makes a soulslike with peerless combat I'll still be testing it in other ways

People who came to Elden Ring expecting Dark Souls were bound to be disappointed. Every soulsborne game has gotten progressively harder, but not every player has gotten better. Learning bosses in Elden Ring often requires a lot more patience, detailed observation and experimenting than any of the prior entries. Personally, I really enjoy the new spin on Dark Souls combat that is more centred on posture break and how well you can memorise openings, but it isn’t for everyone.

I like all fromsoft games
All have strong and weak points

Elden Ring is not darksouls, You are not supposed "wait your turn" or rely entirely on rolling to avoid damage, this game requires you to rely a lot more on positioning than DS3, you also have tons of tools to reduce damage like the ritual shield talisman.

I know I'm late to the game, but here it is. I have played all the souls games (minus Bloodbourne) but I've beat each of them like... once. So, in all of them, I'm pretty average. And while there is definitely some truth to what you're saying about Elden Ring's bosses with their massive health bars and their incredibly powerful strikes, I could say the same about the older games. I've been playing through them all again lately, and I'm currently on DS2 and it is ridiculous how often I am getting one-shotted. Finally managed to beat Freja, but I was stuck on her for a long time, because no matter how good I was doing, eventually I'd get mobbed by the little spiders, or I'd just get caught by a big attack and I was done for. People who have been through that game a hundred times would probably ask, "Why didn't you use the torch? Why didn't you just bait her magic attack?" I did... eventually. But I had to figure that out. So, while I think you are right to some degree in your comparison of the two brands of boss battles, I think your own experience going back to DS1 still isn't completely objective. Like you said, you catch Smough on the pillar instinctively whereas I... didn't know about that, and so I died about a thousand times in that fight before finally getting it. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that if the really experienced souls players out there honestly think back to their first few playthroughs of their first souls games, then they might actually remember that their experience actually had a lot of similarities to some of their frustrations with Elden Ring. Artorias is so blazingly fast that you wonder how you're ever going to keep up with him. Manus hits so freakin' hard that you have to play perfectly to even have a chance. Just when you start to feel powerful in Demon Souls, you decide to go to the Shadowmen archstone and you find out that the golden skeletons are the hardest enemy in the game... why does that stupid grim reaper constantly one shot you and he's not even a boss?
I enjoyed the video, and I have always wondered what the experience would be like for some of you veterans to go back and play the oldies again. Interesting stuff. Thanks, man!

There's also an important difference to note but from Dark Souls III ...the soundtrack in Dark Souls III told u always the rhythm of the fight, that was always the best hint to lead your roll ...That's doesn't happen in Elden Ring ...I often had to look for another soundtrack, either from Souls games or another ones, to click the rhythm of the fighting style of the boss... and I'm not saying the songs are bad but they can't seem to keep the pace with the fight ..mostly Malenia's theme, doesn't make sense to fight her

I love most of the er bosses

"why did victory here feel so hollow?" - I see what you did there

Ever tried a shield / guard type of character in Elden Ring? As pretty much a newcomer to the genre, this is what i naturally came to pick as my main defence, i only played a shield and super heavy armour character with just a bit of magic to cast my shield guard boost spell! I mean.... it works for me! I hardly roll, i just block a lot!

Elden Ring is a big open world with nothing to do in it, whereas Dark Souls is a well-crafted world with interesting secrets to find. A good open world is something like RDR2, which feels dangerous and interactable - the animals actually give you valuable goods, unlike the useless crafting items in Elden Ring. Nobody even wants to learn a crafting system, because reliance on expendable items in a Souls game is unwise (and crafting is almost never entertaining in games). Also, having to use items from the one quick slot is inconvenient because you already have to keep track of your whistle and flask.

Elden Ring shows that From Software doesn't like what made them big: the fantasy of going on a world-changing adventure. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne are great examples of proper adventures, whereas Elden Ring feels like a big job that I didn't care to do, fighting characterless and repeated bosses.

Elden Ring is probably the hardest game to switch build in because everything has such high requirements and levelling is so slow. I'm amazed that anybody can start a magic build without a guide in Elden Ring, because you'd have to know exactly where to find the right items. In Demon's Souls, I picked up magic right near the end and it was a valuable addition to my arsenal, but in Elden Ring, fireballs never did any damage because I was never able to afford to level magic. Also, what's up with the several different magic stats? That just suppresses builds even further.

Elden Ring is one of the most disappointing games I've ever played, I'll be honest.

I will say this. As a person who hadnt beaten Dark Souls until I had beaten ER 4 times. I feel like this is largely rose tinted glasses. My first playthrough of Dark Souls was miserable. The game does not tell you half of the information you actually need. It took me about 10 hours to learn what humanity was even for. Blight town wasnt as bad as people made it out to be. But going down the hollow tree in blight town to then be cursed. That was pure misery. The boss examples you showcased on learning pattern recognition as a part of learning the game is fair. But it also ignores the dumpster fires of bosses like the bed of chaos or the centipede demon. Or bosses that are poorly balanced like pinwheel being considerably easier than most of the enemies on the way to him. I overall enjoyed DS. But there are a fair amount of criticisms against it aswell.

First time watching this video and it helped me realize why I don't have the same urge to repay it for my thousandth ng7 like every other From soft tittle has, and it's the boss. They just aren't as much fun as the other souls games

I like dark souls. More than elden ring the game is really not that special. Sure, its a big world filled with trash mobs and boring bosses.Sometimes less is more.

Elden Ring player characters feel like mythical heroes. The Chosen Undead feels like an above average warrior on a very dangerous quest.

I think Elden ring expects you to use buffs. buffing up with ashes of war, or even low stat requirement spells, end up giving you enough tankiness to get a second chance like you talk about.

Not the best interconnected but yet a very good game.
DS1 interconnection is unbeatable

Been an Elden ring player for a year now and I finally have been playing ds1 remastered and I will say fights feel a lot more fairer and fun that they did in Elden
(Not saying ds1 is better than Elden ring)

The size of elden ring definitly makes it a one play through game for me. especially with how toxic the bosses are. Apparently the bosses have a posture bar like in sekiro but the devs decided to hide it from us🤦🏾‍♂️ would’ve been nice to know during the first play through

i hate your armor look

You nailed it about tactical play vs fast-paced arpg full of iframes. Personally I was wobdering why I like so many weapons and spells in ER but i cant name any battle other than Radahn that i truly enjoyed for the fight itself. I think i prefer the slower tactical approach of DS1 or even DS2 (adaptability aside), than ER where every boss feels the same for me

I fully agree about getting 1 shoted or 2 . Er is very unfair in end game. Farum azula is brutal to fight through. I speed run everything. It's lost its fun. After 122 new games on 1 characters out of 6. It's old news😢.. dlc time baby 😂😂😂

Honestly as someone who's started with elden ring and gone from relying on Mimic Tear to beat the game to completing an rl1 run elden ring bosses don't seem that unfair compared to other souls bosses. I really can't say for ds1 or ds2 as I haven't played those but at least when comparing ds3 and elden ring I generally like the bosses from both.

It's refreshing to hear someone actually break down the fundamental differences in combat styles between Dark Souls & Elden Ring. Rather than simply equate it to the age of each game. Having recently revisited the original Dark Souls. I've realized I enjoy the more methodical style of combat Dark Souls. It really makes you focus. And determine the best method to defeat a particular enemy. I do disagree with 1 point you made. A😅bout it being a "cheese" for players to take advantage of the broken pillars hindering Smough. I mean isn't it more realistic for a barrier to behave as just that in a video game..? Rather than Smough phasing through it. Isn't that more reflective of what takes place in an actual combat scenario..? Anyhow, I think you make some great points.👍 And may sway the opinions of some in the Soul's community. Top notch content!👊

i just beat dark souls 1. the hardest part for me was the fact that the light roll felt like the only viable option. so i would barely have any armor (which decreased my swag) and take much more damage. it wasn’t the end of the world for me tbh but the game felt like it fell off after orstein and smough. nito was a lame gank fight, seath was a joke, don’t even get me started on bed of chaos, and the four kings were good but man did the arena hurt my eyes. tomb of the giants was annoying, new londo ruins was annoying, and the boss runs were rough. i wouldn’t say i hated the game but it is definitely a product of its time

I finally completed my first DS1 run today 🙂 after years of playing now and then (last break was 1,5 years after beating Smough & Ornstein after about 150 tries...)
Now I'm hyped for Elden Ring, hopefully i can adapt myself to the new playstyle