Happy New Year everyone, I've been busy playing Elden Ring for some time now, even if I'm late to catch up, I thought it would be nice to slowly go through the experience while allowing the overarching form of the game world to immerse me deeply into it.
It's no wonder the game won GOTY at the Game Awards, there's so much to unravel just about everywhere I went to. But outside just finding a boss battle to fight, NPCs to talk to, or a cutscene to prompt, I want to talk about the environmental story that goes in various areas I've explored into.
It took FromSoftware over a decade of making Souls games to finally creating a game of such grand ambition and scope, every new area made different immersive experiences for me because of how they were telling their stories there. I played several of their games, so I am familiar with how they do it, but there's so much to do here, it was hard to find any common grounds with their other titles.
Somewhere, downwards of Limgrave West just before passing the island bridge for Weeping Peninsula, I went about fighting any guards or creatures coming from different sides. One of the interesting spots I found, but seemingly unreachable, is the rock cliff opposite of me, divided by a river. And just further away, I could see a minor Erd Tree further ahead.
Exploring areas to find all sorts of items, from the rare weapons, Ashes of Wars to any Golden Seeds or Sacred Tears. And ah, funny enough, I found more Sacred Tears than Golden Seeds, much to my annoyance. The latter, which I need to increase my potion intake.
And so many trees, alongside fallen monuments, just littered with ruin fragments. I didn't get what I exactly needed to push my character's strength, the sightseeing was pretty much worth it. In fact, I had to wait while a bunch of guards and demi-humans finish slaughtering each other before gathering more ruin fragments.
Treading lightly, avoiding any big risky encounters much as possible, just following the path to the bridge, I saw two junction paths, one taking me to Limgrave East, and the other to the island.
Going to the bridge path, I found an Evergaol portal, that teleported me to a boss battle. It was a pretty easy one, but his attacks were relentless.
The bridge to Weeping Peninsula had a literal catapult, and I was kind of surrounded. Going past triumphantly, I saw a princess who was on her last breath, telling me that her fort was invaded and that her subjects were trapped. Also, her father, the king, trapped.
So to surmise, I went past the guards' outpost, continuing south while also taking a detour in between, found larger areas left to explore, kept going south, took the other path for the Evergaol, and then finally crossing a bridge, was tasked by a princess to save her kingdom was going through a civil war, and lastly, when I was approaching the castle, a giant archer was shooting at me, his arrows were as big relative to his size.
FromSoft's game lores are hard to figure out, but the atmosphere tells me a lot of things, kind of the beauty of environmental storytelling is that, when they put so much art and high concept designs into place, it all speaks for itself cohesively.
Like, I could die any point, and my runes would need retrieving unless I die again, which case means I've wasted my time prior just farming. It's insanely stressful, dreary, yet evocative of its core themes. Of course, the co-op requests help to deal with caves, castles, and such, but on my own, it can be pretty gloomy seeing all hope lost everywhere.
Evergaols are scary things, because yeah I won the first battle, but that was in some part due to sheer luck. I found a second one when I went to Liurnia Lake Shore, right after. Did not touch this one, not until I knew I was really ready. I wasn't though, because I went looking for more Golden Seeds, and finding Lanya in Liurnia.
My journey took me to a cave, somewhere snake inhabitants rule the place deep below, falling down a cliff after another, and without realizing it, there was another boss battle just when I came to the last point. I died, but not before slashing him on his last life and killing him off. I returned and moved forward, only to see another maiden, mourning her dead wolf.
I teleported back to Limgrave, took the east side path, the one from the bridge, and found this guy who requested me to free his fortress. He was a pretty boastful guy, but I did what he requested, and turns out due to certain circumstances, he couldn't give me what I wanted, so I scoffed and left. But the journey had me follow a ghost to this ruined church, where a wolf-man was howling. Friendly guy, he also had a quest for me.
And then I found a village, where it seems the inhabitants were brutally slaughtered. Saved for one guy who jumped into the village well for his sake. He was hiding himself from the guards, who needed a medallion. The maiden also had one, so I went back to her mourning her dog, she gave me the other piece.
So, I've collected some medallion, trek around to look for Lanya in Liurnia, no luck. I went back to the roundtable, only to get invaded by this guy. He was very fast, and versatile, but only had a few tricks up his sleeve. And here I thought the roundtable was neutral ground for the tarnished.
The world itself is too engrossing, am already like over 20hrs in, and I feel like I already played most of the game. But I keep going and going, the map gets bigger and bigger. I am flabbergasted by the length I'll have to go to, just to reach one particular area for a quest. I get sidetracked even sometimes.
Elden Ring's world is overencompassingly full of despair, but there are certain kinds of endearing moments that stay around for a long time, characters I find and save from their ailments return the favor by helping me with clothes, powers, and so on. One in particular is the craven maiden I found, she now tunes my spirit summons. George R.R. Martin did a good job as a consultant for the most part.
So ah, my Game Pass sadly ended, and am also left with a few unfinished games. Lousy way to get started with 2023.
