7/3/2023 0 Comments Elden ring review![]() ![]() Really big.” It dwarfs all of the previous FromSoftware games. To reappropriate a quote from sci-fi humorist Douglas Adams, “Elden Ring is big. In fact, the developers intentionally designed a few of the boss fights around your character being in the saddle. While you can only use your mount in the overworld areas, you still have plenty of opportunities to play out all of your knight fantasies. Weapons have unique attacks in this mode too spears can be held forward for a time like you’re jousting, while you may drag that big sword of yours on the ground for a bit, doing damage to anything it contacts. Once you progress the story to the point that you unlock your trusty steed, you can run though groups of soldiers like a madman, swinging your weapon in sort of a medieval drive-by attack. The third important addition is mounted combat. For example, a jumping spear attack may allow you to stab downward at your target. Jumping attacks also frequently have their own animations and attack patterns as well. Second, jumping attacks do more damage to your enemy’s poise (their resistance to being stun-locked by repeated attacks) and their Super Armor, a hidden stat carried over from the Dark Souls games that represents their resistance to getting knocked into a staggered state which leaves them vulnerable to critical hits. In my experience, the time you are invincible while jumping is shorter than the time you are invincible during rolling, but I encourage everyone to perform their own experiments. First, and most importantly, jumping does give your character iframes (also known as invincibility frames) - a small time during the animation when you can’t be hit by enemy attacks. Jumping, aside from adding greatly to exploration, also gives you more options in combat as well. This dragon is one of the larger enemies you can attempt to fight while mounted. As is often the case in Souls games, it’s still about learning which strategies work with which enemies. Nimble enemies are capable of dodging these, since they are usually slower, heavy attacks, and if you miss, your enemy is likely to take a swing at you in return. And before you assault me with cries of “easy mode,” these guard counters are not foolproof or without risk. This gives you a reliable way to dispatch enemies and makes it a little easier on players who prefer a more defensive style, like one of my favorites: the sword and spear combo. If this attack lands, it does high damage and often leaves normal, non-boss enemies in a kneeling position, ready for a critical strike R1 follow-up. Now, an enemy attack bouncing off of your shield or a two-handed weapon in the guard position gives you a window to launch a heavy counterattack by pressing R2 immediately after. You no longer have to time a button press to parry with your shield. ![]() One new feature that I love is the inclusion of guard counters. ![]()
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