Now here’s a blog I thought I’d never write — it’s about the game Elden Ring. Yes, some of you that have watched my YouTube channel will know of my fondness towards JRPG, side scrollers and fighting genres but the Souls genre (yes, I acknowledge it as such)? It’s the kind of RPG game that is absolutely out of my element.
As for how I got into it? It wasn’t exactly because of other action RPGs or even because of Dark Souls itself. It was because of the combination of imagery of different media that I appreciate — the Fantasia Arc elements of Berserk, the frightening colossal slaying awaiting ala Attack On Titan, the Lord of the Rings elements and how all three blend together.
Ultimately…the challenge. I haven’t understood the meaning of agony and an element of “get good” in a very long time since…Resident Evil 3, 4 and 5. You’re forced to rethink your approach, even if there’s a particular style that you are inclined to aim for. Most people I know that play the game are usually all about using magic spells and incantations, long ranged weaponry or even absolute cheesy, underhanded tactics.
For me? I started off in Hero class w/a mere Axe and Shield but over time, switched to dual wielding bleeding petal whips ala Castlevania’s Belmont clan and swing the Heavy Greatsword ala Guts from Berserk with the occasional use of summons and rare use of long ranged throwing darts or using a bow.
Have I cheesed any boss or done co-op? Absolutely! At least half of the bosses I’ve beat were thanks to my best friend doing co-op with me as he also showed me the ropes of this will-breaking genre.
Eventually I learned to strengthen myself to be able to slay several bosses solo w/the skills I’ve attained in the process but oh the need to use situational awareness! I also, like many players, eventually got to learn of the rune farming. It’s akin to finding an exploit in life on how to build to where when taking on the real world, you’ve secretly amassed so much strength that the world, as cruel as it can be, won’t break you as badly if you hadn’t learned things or found places that help you enrich yourself (yes I just made association of real life with crow sniping or cliff jump swinging) to survive. Elden Ring has also done something that forever blew my mind. Sure, Shin Megami Tensei V is the turn based RPG equivalent of Souls genre BUT this game did some thing that I can’t quite compare to anything outside of it — the absurdly expansive lore within it. Never mind the game having 6 endings based on certain quest lines being fulfilled. The amount of story within the Lands Between is ridiculous. If I were to keep focusing on trying to get all the lore, I’d get nothing in my life done! There I said it — this isn’t a game that should be beaten once and for all of you want to comprehend the story in its entirety.
There’s a particular part of the game’s story that caught my attention — Frenzied Flame. Should you pursue the Three Fingers to attain the Frenzied Flame, you’d lock out the other 5 endings and go in the road of unleashing the Frenzied Flame, the result is the destruction of all creation or, in better terms, absolute chaos. Even with learning the backstory of the Frenzied Flame and all that support and side with it and how the Golden Order see them as heresy…the concept of embracing absolute chaos is equivalent to The Joker wanting to watch the world burn but in its stead…nothing? You just get to the point of understanding and almost sympathizing with the devil but makes me wanna go about face because his alternative to the “corrupt” Order is…absolute destruction? It’s like a king of nothing — and for me, knowing that slaying every merchant, whom side with the Frenzied Fire, now seems like pleasure because it’s like, “you expect me to feel bad for a mass of folks that are fine with resolving pain with nothing but chaos?! Nah I’m good, I’ll just put you out of your misery.”
This is also, to my knowledge, the first game I’ve played where the penultimate boss, whom the core story revolves around, is practically gender-fluid and possibly non-binary. Like deadass, Marika and Radagon are the same person, each had kids with significant others (Marika w/Godfrey, Radagon w/Rannala) and with each other…putting a whole new meaning to “go f yourself” and that’s something not even the Bible or Jerry Springer could make up.
The element of having all the runes to make the Elden Ring is similar to gathering all the Infinity Stones in Marvel for the Infinity Gauntlet or having “one Ring to rule them all” like in Lord of the Rings and I dig that. The sweetness of victory when you’ve gone through endless defeat with some very challenging bosses is like when you’ve gone tooth and nail for something in life you wanted but always plucked from reach and then finally you actually attain what you’ve had dangled far from you. There’s a sense of satisfaction in that and then, when engaging the real world, kinda gives you a different mindset than when you didn’t play it.
Lastly, for what it’s worth, Elden Ring feels like the absolute opposite of the ridiculous existence that was Fallout 76. Oh yeah, that game was open world, broken, glitchfest of the worst kind and despite Bethesda saying, “CrEaTe YoUr OwN fUn”, that was not possible. Elden Ring is like the cure to that horrendous experience and instead gave us a game where there is absolutely more than one way to play, fight and conquer. Wanna cheese your way, struggle your way, magic your way or arch your way? It can be done. You can either get Tiche to aid in tearing down the Draconian Sentinel or go brute force with a colossal or Greatsword or…just sneak behind him unnoticed and poison breath his horse’s ass and watch him die without you having to hit him and actually fighting. That is how you create your own fun!
