Why I Quit Playing Elden Ring

Today, I wanted to give you an explanation of the 3 main reasons why I quit playing Elden Ring. This is still one of my favorite video games ever and I think it's game of the year 2022 for sure, but it doesn't have the same replayability as Sekiro, Bloodborne, Demon's Souls, or any of the Dark Souls games. I explain why in this short video essay / analysis / critique and I hope you enjoy!

Credit also goes to Slanderous for the idea! Of course I’ll still be playing Elden Ring here and there, I just wanted to share my thoughts on the subject.

Timestamps
0:00 - Explanation
0:29 - Reason #1
1:56 - Reason #2
3:08 - Reason #3
5:28 - PVP Discussion

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#eldenring #eldenringgameplay #darksouls #sekiro #bloodborne #fromsoftware #soulslike

[EmberPlays]

Just to clarify, I still love Elden Ring a ton and it's one of my favorite games ever. I made this video simply to discuss why I think it has less replay value than the other souls games and why I personally lost interest after my first playthrough. I definitely will still revisit it and play it here and there, I just thought it was interesting how the game with the most content gave me the least amount of replay value. Regardless, it was still worth $60 without a doubt and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it yet. Also... subscribe for more souls vids :)

[austinkreckel]

I personally thought mountaintops of the giants was one of the most boring areas Fromsoft ever created. I love all of the souls games, but some of the level design in Elden Ring just felt like you were meant to run past everything.

[StallionFernando]

The repetetive bosses make it feel like you've already replayed the game after your first playthrough.

[Vartazian]

I think the fact you can find up to a +9 somber stone just laying out in the open world means secondary playthroughs become collectathons, avoiding enemies, and B lining straight to the upgrade materials

[Russell_]

I think quest lines should be a little easier to follow without looking them up and should give substantial exp for completing. Also non-boss enemies should give decent exp, otherwise like many people said, there's no incentive to not just sprint through and grab the thing you're looking for.

[dragonfire_]

It might be because I’m newer to the FromSoft experience, but Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time and even after getting all achievements, I still put hours into the game. I’m currently over 400 I think

[cyanicgames]

I feel like the problem was they made the world so big that at some point they started to run out of fresh ideas for it. Thats why so many bosses/enemies got reused this much. Not enough time to make more unique designs that would fill such a big world.

[Melonhome_yt]

Completely agree. Picked up Elden Ring on Steam Summer Sale and was having a lot of fun exploring Limgrave, Wheeping Penninsula, and some of Caelid. Once I beat Stormveil and got to Liurnia I slowly started to realize... uh oh... A lot of mobs, ruins, mini dungeons, etc are copy pasted. New locations were no longer exciting as I slowly started realizing 90% of the loot I was finding was not useful to me at all and even the locations themselves were copy pasted like chapels and ruins. I quickly lost motivation and gave up at about 35 hours and level 52. It was really exciting, fun, and new until it just wasn't anymore.

[ryanwillingham]

a big problem i have is that i can never tell why i'm struggling with something. a boss will drastically change difficulty depending on my build to the point it feels arbitrary (in addition to the other problems with the bosses you mentioned). if i'm getting bodied, i don't feel encouraged to try again because i often don't have a new idea or realization that i want to test out. it's really tempting to just explore somewhere else in the world until i'm overleveled to the point of boredom. it's a rarity to find a fun middle ground of difficulty and i think that's a consequence of the open world design.
i get why people love it, it's clearly crafted with lots of care and attention, but not every problem it has is a "skill issue" and i think some people need to acknowledge that

[broomybroomybroomy]

I think Elden Ring should get a Scholar-type update with a lot of the repeat bosses replaced with unique or semi-unique ones now that they’re under less of a deadline to release the game

[Izumi-Sakura]

3:33 "the game wants you to be aggressively"

It feels genuinely like the opposite to me. It just feels impossible to beat almost any boss while playing aggressive, but instead, i just felt forced to literally do nothing but wait for them to attack and then punish, and the game became easier the more strictly i followed that, with the exception of bosses that can be staggered easily, like Rennala or Malenia.

[BlackHawk]

As someone who started playing these games with DkS1 I agree with every single thing you said. This is exactly how I felt. Now that the DLC has been announced I started a new character and try to explore everything and it's fun again. But I don't think I'd touch my original character again by now. Too much stuff I didn't explore in the open world on him and I can't remember what I've seen and what not so it feels discouraging to even go explore.

[davidb]

For me it’s the open world, the magic of dark souls(especially ds1) is how you come to learn that everything is somehow interconnected. There’s a huge difference between standing on the High Wall of Lothric, seeing the massive Lothic Castle in the distance, only to see the reverse hours later and recalling your long journey there, vs just running off in a straight line to cool places. It’s just one of those things that drives the immersion in soo deep imo.

[Calmhatred]

I’ve replayed Elden Ring 3 times. And while I agree with most of the points in this video, the real reason I replay it is to go through the game with a different build than my last run. I think out of all From Software games this the one where you can have an entirely different experience depending on what class, weapons, and fighting style you decide to use.

[billyz]

I wish they would implement the boss gauntlets they had in sekiro. I hate having to run through the entire world to fight them again especially since some of my favorite bosses are the end game ones

[SWatchik]

Watching this after the DLC released and damn did they just double down on what ER bad compared to previous games like Bloodborne and Sekiro. Most the bosses are straight ass to fight and they STILL REUSE BOSSES IN PAID DLC

[adrianrenard]

Is funny how when games take a leap into the open world genre they sacrifice so much of their identity and strenghts

Botw & TotK completely sidelined timeline, story, characters and the most important dungeons, they give a pretty world but mostly empty with the same challenges plastered all over the place.
While old zelda had us all talking in school about our favorite dungeons, theories about placement, favorite items and which was the best companion (midna) BotW has us now debating if dungeons are needed for it to classify as zelda, how big and elaborate dungeons have to be and if TotK was just 70$ dlc/BotW+ or a genuine new game.

Elden/Soulsborne sacrificed legendary and well designed bosses, incredible linar level design, the improvements that Bloodborne and Sekiro did for combat, a banger OST, and im general a well crafted and paced experience, elden traded quality for quantity and it is something you can feel as soon as you exit limgrave

I really hope we can get a bloodborne 2 or Darksouls 4 because elden is just not on par with the previous games, at first i thought i was growing tired of the genre but then playing 1 to 3 and bloodborne made me realize that elden was one ive grown apathetic at, I don't think the DLC will improve it, it will be more of the same and this probably be the same for a potential sequel.

[topdomen]

This is a game you should really only play once every 2-5 years. I’m going to take a realllly long break, and come back to elden ring. I think once I forget all the details my brain will reset and fall back in love with the world and the grind. 10/10 game, it’s just very overstimulating.

[prime]

Another problem with the boss fight is how some of them have long and aggressive combo without any means to counter them without dmg except to move far away n let them finish their 5+ hits combo. Bosses like these are more suitable in Sekiro fight mechanics as defend against them doesn't consume stamina and is also another way of offense against them as well.

[agidotexe]

this hit the nail on the head for me, i loved playing through the game but all the issues you listed are issues i had aswell, i dont see myself ever playing through the game again, or maybe i will in like 3 - 5 years