This isn’t a full Elden Ring review (though I’ll probably do one in the future). Today, my accessibility-loving ass wants to gauge whether or not Elden Ring would be a good introductory title for non-Souls fans.
Despite being a massive harlot for Sekiro, Nioh, Hollow Knight and Ninja Gaiden Black… I’ve never played a Souls game. I get the superficial and obvious similarities, though, so I’m definitely no beginner. I also fancy myself an empath at the best of times though, so let’s see how easy you could get into the game… But first:
Highlights from the Ballad Of Samurai Steff: Been playing about 2 or 3 hours, haven’t found my magical horsey-boy and still haven’t beat the long lost Nordic twin brother of Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa (the tree sentinel, it’s the tree sentinel). I did manage to defeat two washed up tentacle hentai beasts before going ballistic on a giant though, so I’m not a complete noob saibot.
How’s it start? Well, after getting turned into a human pancake in a scripted opening fight, you wake up in a cave. Then you fall in a hole, slam your weapon of choice into a couple zombie lads spaced out in ways to show you the basics and then you eventually come up to a knight bloke with a massive throbbing engorged… Sword.
He does a lot of damage and has decent hyper-armor (meaning sometimes if you attack him too much, his next move won’t get interrupted by your comboner). Otherwise, he’s not too hard to dodge and with 3 healing potions on-hand, you should be A-Okay. While waiting patiently and reading an enemy’s attacks can be helpful, wailing on a fool while you have a full stamina bar is still often rewarded, provided you don’t drain all your juices in one go. And those fire arrows that come with the Samurai class got me hot and bothered like-
Funtime shenanigans aside, I’ll have to err on the side of no on the beginner-friendly question. Elden Ring does require some prior knowledge of similar gameplay tropes like the lock-on button, hotkeys for swapping weapons or using items and so on. That doesn’t make it a bad game, far from it. I’m not even saying Elden Ring should have had a more simplified tutorial, just that I think it would’ve been all the better if it was. Something in the vein of Nioh or Sifu’s tutorial segments could’ve worked as a good reference point, having little button explanations in the side of the screen and then performing certain actions 3 times in a row. And as a self-proclaimed Sekiro crackhead, parrying seems borderline impossible to pull off well, though I imagine I may change my mind on that once I’m more familiar with the game… The Game.
New voucher code:
Sign up for our newsletter from the website.
Instagram: Go2GamesShop
Twitter: Go2Games
Youtube: Go2Games.com
Facebook: Go2Games.com
Store: Go2Games.com
