Elden Ring's developers know most players use guides, but still try to cater to those who go in blind: 'If they can't do it, then there's some room for improvement on our behalf'

Nemeski@lemm.ee to Games@sh.itjust.works – 279 points –
Elden Ring's developers know most players use guides, but still try to cater to those who go in blind: 'If they can't do it, then there's some room for improvement on our behalf'
pcgamer.com
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It is very fun if you want to be sure that you aren't missing anything the game has to offer. You never know when a game may put something very obscure in a very limited timeframe.

In the case of elden ring or from software games in general NPC's are usually so cryptic that solving the puzzles/quests would take you a lot of trial and error which isnt very fun for me.

It is very fun if you want to be sure that you aren't missing anything the game has to offer.

You've hit upon the crux of the issue, in my opinion. FromSoftware games in general are built on exploration and discovery, finding crazy cool stuff in some dark corner of the game is a big part of the experience. However, for discovery to be properly rewarding you have to allow for the possibility that the player will just miss the stuff you've hidden. Indeed, in a blind playthrough of Dark Souls you're likely to stumble upon a bunch of different secrets and still miss 50% or more of them.

That's gonna be excruciating if you insist on "100% completing" the game. It kind of goes back to older days of gaming when there was no internet and no guides, and you just played the game and were happy when you saw the credits, and had no idea you even missed anything. I feel like modern games with their map markers for everything and completion percentages visible have kind of changed the way many people approach games.

Not to say there's anything wrong with using a guide, play the game how you like. And there is definitely an argument that if you bought the whole game, you'd like to experience the whole game.

I'd love a Morrowind type journal to log some of that, totally get I can write things down outside the game, I'd just like to have that option in game especially as I can tend to jump around games and put them down for some time. They're almost there with the player map markers and NPC markers, even just having the ability to make notes in game would be big for me.

Its still kind of outside the game but steam has an in-built notes tool in the game overlay. I'd argue its still closer to being an ingame tool as it stores the notes per game. I don't really use the tool much but I wouldn't be surprised if it also works with non-steam games that you may have acquired through alternative means.

Didn't know that! Steam has some really nice features, steam input alone is amazing so I'll definitely give that a try.

I’d rather just play something else than use a guide. That’s one step away from just watching a play through on YouTube.

The game is like 90% content that I enjoy with a small annoyance I can skirt around by reading a few wiki pages. I come to these games for satisfying combat, not obtuse quest lines you can miss without precognition.

I usually try myself and if I can't progress a quest, I carefully read the wiki to the point on where I'm currently stuck. I never do that for bosses unless it's a gimmick fight. Like anybody remember that giant, you could ONLY beat by picking up a sword, on a corpse, behind a pile of stuff, in the very same boss battle arena and then quickly equip it mid fight? Something like this sounds neat on paper, but plays horrible if you have people not knowing this fine detail.