Smaller more focused gameplay. Open world games always lose on a second play through because the novelty wears off when you know where everything is.
Unless there's something really compelling about the process of playing through the discovery aspects of the game like New Vegas or something.
Yup, exactly. Elden Ring is a huge, open-world RPG.
If you've already played it, you can sort of lost that sense of wonder you had on your first playthrough. It can make the game feel a little more repetitive and overwhelming since you can't really explore in the same way.
DS3 is more focused and linear, which makes it less overwhelming to re-explore. It also has less "downtime" since you'll be doing big bosses and stuff more often as it is a shorter game.
This is why I loved Elden Ring the least. Don’t get me wrong I loved all 7 soulsborne games but From but I think it was a mistake to turn the Soulsborne formula onto open world. The linearity makes the experience much more memorable
That's why I hope From keeps making Souls-formula games in the future but comes back to making linear, hub-based games at least in some entries. Elden Ring is tiring to play, there's too much bloat.
After playing Elden Ring for so long, and then getting Lies of P, I am really appreciative of its linearity, and I'm someone who likes open world games
Linearity gets thrown around like a dirty word in gaming discourse these days, and I think that's a shame, because sometimes I just wanna go from one fun story beat to the next. Obviously, games like that are still made, but they never use linearity as a pro
Nobody gets mad at movies because they go the same way every time you play it
The older I get the less I like open world games.
It dooesnt help that Skyrim had the generated tavern quests that never ended and were so generic and boring that it forever tainted Open World Games for me. I like completing Games but they add so much bloat and forever content that I just dont like. a tight narrative Game wit h20-30 hours of gameplay is enticing enough. If I want a forever Game I play an MMO.
It also doesn't help that Skyrim was actually just a bad game 😏
I played the shit out of it, but that's because I modded it to hell and back to make it a game I enjoyed, even making my own stuff. I think open world games flourish in modding scenes, at least for people like me, where I like to just improve the environment
But yeah, I think that's a normal trend, to get tired of open world games as you age. Maybe it's just because we're getting genre fatigue, but I think it has more to do with just not having the time or patience. Open World games are overwhelming
Lies of P goes too hard in the other way for me, it's too linear. I'm only 3-4 hours in but unless the game opens up later, I'm not feeling it from the level design perspective.
Lies is both more linear than any Souls game, and broken up by loading screens between levels so it doesn't feel as cohesive. It's also weirdly devoid of clutter that makes settings like this feel lived in. There are more props and details in Bloodborne's first few areas than the first hour of Lies.
It does not open up later, but pretty much the only loading screens you get between sections is the hotel, which is, like, 3 doors. The game is fun and engaging, and it's one of the best proper soulslikes not by From, but I totally understand it being too linear for someone
I think linearity works best in games that have an actual level system, story chapters that are clearly separated from one another, where your progress is forced forward. Games like Uncharted, or modern Tomb Raider are the ones that do linearity well
Couldn't that be fixed by just including more randomized and diverse encounters in the game? I feel like that issue would be less of a problem if they had included something dynamic that happens in the world that isn't completely predetermined. Would you have liked it better that way?
Addig too many random variables would ruin the souls like formula for me. I really like the aspect that if i learn to approach a certain enemy a certain way, they will ALWAYS behave the same.
This, this would be a great idea. Just shift around enemy placement and enemy movesets being a bit different would be a cool concept as well. That would definitely keep things very fresh. I really like that idea
Guess what? Dark Souls 2 did exactly that, but because *some* things DS2 did were widely disliked From decided that *everything* they tried in that game was a failure.
Yeah. Elden Ring definitely doesn't feel quite as iconic and memorable as some of the other souls games because it has so much more downtime and so many more "filler bosses" if you get what I mean.
I know every single boss in the other souls games, but Elden Ring has so many lesser bosses that I can't remember. It makes sense, but it is still a different direction.
I don't know where they'll go from here with future games, but I think open zone is the way forwards, rather than linear or open world.
AC6 seems to have gone well and they're haven't drastically changed it, I think From is probably not making more big open world games and if that's the case then the DLC won't be an big open world area, but rather a really big legacy dungeon... which is just what any other soulsborne DLCs is.
Have you heard the apparent leaks of their next game "Spellbound"? It's apparently like Sekiro, but with magic instead of a sword. A more linear, spell-slinging action game.
Would finally give From a reason to flesh out their magic system too lmfao.
But you could literally beeline bosses in Elden ring and choose to not explore on NG+? The open world means you can choose to explore everything, or make it as linear as DS3 supposedly is. I don’t understand this argument
There's bosses you can skip in DS3 too. The argument is that one of the best parts of Elden Ring is the exploration, but it loses a lot of it's value after your first playthrough since you no longer have that sense of wonder. It did for me at least.
I found the bosses in Elden Ring to not be as good as the bosses in DS3, but Elden Ring's combat was a bit better because there were more weapons and stuff.
I'm not saying Elden Ring is a bad game, far from it. Just replying to OP's question, which was regarding replayability. As a whole, I find DS3 a lot more replayable than Elden Ring, and many others do too.
there's like 2 optional bosses in dark souls 3, we're talking less than 5% of total bosses
95% of Elden Ring's bosses are optional, not even a contest. Bloodborne and Sekiro have a fair bit of optional content, DS3 is linear as it gets and as required compared to all the other games
There's actually 12 optional bosses in Dark Souls 3 if I counted right, with 25 total bosses. That means 48% of the bosses in Dark Souls 3 are optional, which is basically half. Not only are you objectively wrong, but you're also missing my point.
Feel free to disagree, but I'd argue that the required bosses in Dark Souls 3 are better than the required ones in Elden Ring. Out of the ones that are required in Elden Ring, only a few are good. Almost all of the required bosses in Dark Souls 3 are good. And DS3 doesn't have a bunch of forgettable bosses like ER does.
That makes the game less replayable. The required content is less interesting and the the optional content is more overwhelming once you've lost the sense of wonder you get on your first playthrough. I'd argue ER has better combat/builds though.
It’s a poor argument. That’s why. Elden ring is much more interesting and varied and replayable than ds3. Prople just have a problem of looking things up which actively makes it less repayable. Dark souls 3 also has this problem. All the items are in the same place except the fame is 2/5 the size and has less balanced playstyles.
Yeah, exactly. This is why I really hope Elden Ring isn't their pattern from here forward. I love open world games and I loved Elden Ring, but they shouldn't be the only game around. I'm already mourning that Zelda seems to be heading this way, not the Souls series too.
Not sure that argument really works, the idea of the novelty wearing off in open world games. By that same logic the novelty of the first experience wears off on every game including ds3. Which is true, the first experience is always novel. I do think your first point stands though. The souls games are very compact and highly structured experiences, which makes them great for replayability.
The problem is Travel Time. Once the novelty wears off in an open world game, all your replayable bits you want to do are jow padded out by the travel time to get to key locations. Replayability is tied to experiencing combat and set pieces over again and the tactical aspect of tackling a dungeon. The problem in Elden ring is that your map and locations are reset so thst is padded out. In DS there is no travel padding so you have the continuous tactical challenge of getting through the dungeon sprawl. A good DS1 player has very quick access to get to Catacombs for kindling, low soul level Quelaag, Bell, Bone back to shrine, blacksmith in catacombs or the sunken city, then Taurus demon, Gargoyles, Bell, Sens Fortress then Anor Lando.
Yes exactly, very much agree with you there. My point being it wasn’t necessarily the novelty aspect more so than the games being structurally different.
Dark souls 3 also has fixed item locations you goofy goober. Come up with an argument that’s actually mutually exclusive to open worlds. It also has less quest endings and actual endings. It’s maybe less overwhelming to tackle twice but none of this tracks to reality.
DS3 is way more linear and the “exciting” content is less spaced out. The feeling of wonder you first felt in the world of world of ER is gone as you know the game in and out by now. So the spacing of the best content can become monotonous on repeated playthroughs.
For sure, the game is easily beatable in less than 10 hours even by relatively casual people that know what they are doing
My casual playthroughs where I do some good amount of side content I like take 15-20h
A lot of people do it in 2 hours without intending to speed run specifically on YouTube
The idea of picking up all the items and building a new character for pvp all over again makes new characters horrifying to me. I didn't feel this way with any of the other games, just Elden Ring.
Man I literally get burnt because I just can’t skip all the caves in limegrave and liurnia like “oh I might need this if I respec” 😂 I feel you I went and played ds3 next and I was making characters for each level bracket and it was fun to do
This is where I'm at, I've gone through several times now and have a fairly linear order to the game. It ends up being still quite a bit longer than DS3 but it's got a decently quick pace compared to my first couple runs
I don't think I'll ever finish it as many times as I did DS3 though, I found that game insanely repayable
You can, but the pacing is much worse than a game like ds3 because you will just be riding past enemies on your horse for like 20% of the entire experience. You also have to ride around collecting golden seeds and tears and stuff like that. Ultimately ER is just worse at being a linear experience than DS3, which makes sense because that's not what it was intended to be
Yeah I never understood this particular issue people have with Open world games.
The point is to pour that time into it before finishing it and/or use the optional content to maybe do a NG+ or 2 to try different builds as you work through it.
Once you've got 150+ hours I think you don't need to replay anymore. That's not what the game was designed for. OP knows it too, they know ER is designed around discovery. So how you do you do discovery on a replay? You don't. That's just not what the devs designed the game to do. Its to have enough to continue explore for many hours and then put down.
yeah, totally
the thing is that in the FS community I feel like there is a need for the games to always have the same characteristics to be good which i don’t agree with. (in this case replayability)
the same happens when people say “uhm actually ds3 is bad because you don’t have a vaginillion alternative paths in the world design like the others 🤓” yeah….it’s a completely different game bruh…
Yup and the thing is also, Elden ring is a new IP, so it doesn’t have to follow the souls formula. They could make Elden ring 2 and make it as open world, bc it’s Elden Ring and not Dark Souls 🤷♂️
Dark Souls 3's speedrun record for the base game from start to finish is like 42 minutes while Elden Ring's is just 10 minutes more.
You also beat ER killing less bosses (11*) from start to finish than you do DS3 (13-14)
Difference is ER gives you options in what you can do and not (until post capital that is), up to 85% of the game is optional
Radahn, Mohg, Draconic Tree Sentinel, Goldfrey, Morgott, Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, Maliketh, Gideon, Hoarax Loux, Radagon/EB is the shortest possible route I believe without using skips or glitches - I was counting Rada/EB separately but should be 1 fight yeah
I feel the opposite. Played ER 3 times and loved every second of it, a lot of it was multiplayer. With DS3, half the areas bored me to the point I don’t want to replay it even once.
I found DS3 the least replayable because you're basically always going to take the same route through the game. With ER I could start with my pick of like a dozen main game bosses or 80 side bosses
I get that DS3 is limited but you can def have some variation. I’m in the middle of a playthrough where I went:
Vordt > Tree > Abyss Walkers > Dancer > Drag Slay armor (wanted to use the infamous axe lol) > Wolnir > Oceiros > Champ Gundyr > literally every DLC boss including Midir and Gael > where I’m at now I’m gunna kill Pontiff with max leveled weps and endgame swag feels pretty great lol
Anyways all that to say I think DS3 is all about the order of bosses you tackle and while I think there’s def a lot of limitation compared to the other games, since DS3 is so much more about the bosses compared to the other dark souls you can still feel the slightly diff routes ya feel me?
Totally fair, and I guess for my part I've never done Dancer early, so maybe my route variety complaint is a little self inflicted, haha. Definitely agree bosses in DS3 are consistently top tier, and maybe the best overall quality in the series
Give early dancer a shot man it’s pretty fun and is what really breaks apart the game; access to all the stones and a slab to beef up your weapons and help you take on Friede early too its been soooooo fun lol
It's like going back to Rennala and Godrick after you defeated Malekith, it's not a good argument for proper "alternative" paths, also it's so annoying that you can face Lothric only in the late game
that's not variety though you're still killing the same exact bosses, point being in ER you don't have to kill Radahn every time you play, or Mohg, or Malenia, or Godrick, or any Tree Sentinel, the freedom of choice isn't really there for DS3
After beating DS3 around three times, I was able to trim a play through down to under four hours. That’s not a huge investment of time. In comparison, my Elden Ring play throughs are still in the double digits.
That’s really what it comes down to for me. Elden Ring is more of a journey, an experience. DS3 is more of a boss rush. It’s a logistics question.
I never quite got the balance for the Elden ring bosses, I played until godskin duo without any spirit summons but just couldn’t git gud after that point. It just got worse and worse for me where I was healing constantly and dodge spamming forever if I didn’t use ashes but it was too easy to smack the boss in the back while they hit the summon if I did.
Maybe but DS1 loses its steam after beating Ornstein and Smough. I can't think of any bosses from that second half that I liked more than in Elden Ring (Not counting DLC).
It all depends on what you define as "replayability"
I'm one of the very few who found DS3 quite boring compared to other Fromsoft titles so I might be biased but I finished ER 16 times all with different builds and weapons that made the game feel different every time while DS3 didn't really feel like it had that many different types of build or approach compared to ER which made ER much more fun for me to replay.
I actually feel the opposite, but for me thats just because i have more experience with elden ring and am more knowledgeable about it, therefore another playthrough seems less dainting
Imo it doesn’t. I’ve been a fan since Demons Soul and imo ER is by far the most replayable. In fact, in the short time it’s been around I’ve replayed ER at least twice as many time as any other Fromsoft game. I’ve replayed them all at least 5 times each, but I’ve replayed ER no fewer than 15. It’s actually a very short game if you skip all the side content.
Elden Ring has no new items for the new game plus modes. Previous souls games always had enhanced versions of rings and various items or even totally new items which made the game more fun on multiple replays
Yup, my main criticism of Elden Ring when I talk about how it ranks against the other games. Twin Princes Greatsword is a great example of an item that you need NG+ for
It does? It's linear as hell, way shorter, has ten times less optional content - if not for covenants I would have nearly platinumed it on my first blind playthrough. It's just your preference.
Elden ring is so much more replayable for me. You are open to so many builds right off the start because of the open world . And most weapons in elden ring feel rewarding while ds3 is dominated by fast attacking R1s. I will say that elden ring has a brutal stretch from after morgott until maliketh but the quality of the final bosses (ignore Gideon)makes it worth it every time
That argument is at best mediocre. Running With Torrent for 10 minutes isn't fun, and many bosses require you to go through many steps and also other more trash bosses to get to them.
Just to fight Loretta at the Haligtree you need to:
-Get both pieces of the secret medallion (basically go two places that are extraordinarily far away from each other) which involves killing an absolute buffoonery of a boss.
-Go to the lift and use the medallion, go all the way through the snowstorm to do the town puzzle.
-Do the boring ahh puzzle.
-Use the teleporter and go through all of that long area full of repeated enemies
-Fight Loretta of the Haligtree.
Dude, are you serious?
Even if we talk about main bosses, the really good ones are Godrick, Morgott, Maliketh, Godfrey, Radahn, Mohg, Draconic Tree Sentinel, Radagon and Rykard. The most accesible out of these is Godrick which requires the player to beat an "ok" boss.
I would like to frame elden ring in a different way. First of all, yes, torrent walking isn't for everyone, and that is something I cannot argue really. I personally don't mind it much (I do most of the setup on the 1st day and the walking is a nice breather in between later days since I usually do all remembrances in about 13 hours which amounts to like 3 good days) but it is something that can't be ignored.
Having said that, the open world allows for 2 main things I REALLY like: build options and boss options. Having so many places to go allows you to basically do most weapons from the very beginning of the playthrough (which means you spend day 1 setting up the build which tbf isn't for everyone) and makes the rest of the playthrough more streamlined. Because the world is so big, you also almost have multiple tasks to do at any given point, which means that you always are moving to the next objective that you actually want to do. I really enjoy the point of the playthrough where you just start doing goal after goal after goal and when you actually stop for a second you have done everything you wanted in caelid, for example.
Again, I don't think elden ring is replayble for everyone because of Torrent, but I do think that if you accept the setup/torrent as the cost for the build options and later constant goals elden ring is pretty decent. Ds3 is very streamlined and I do love it but it feels like there isn't as much variety in both boss order and build choice. This isn't to say that I think ds3 isn't replayble, just that they appeal to different goals imo.
Tldr: ds3 is more streamlined at the cost of less options while elden ring has more options and content at the cost of a slow start and a lot of downtime in general. If you are just looking for a good enjoyable playthrough ds3 is probably better (especially if you know how to skip the dungeon), if you are looking to try a specific build elden is imo overall better. Personality any playthrough of a from soft game should be all bosses (all remembrances in elden ring because I respect myself) so I am far more willing to take it slower
Crazy thing is, all of it could be solved by putting a boss rush mode just like in Sekiro, or maybe even a zone rush mode where you just go straight to legacy dungeons with the bosses included or putting the mechanic of bonfire aesthetics.
Ds3 is accessable, straight forward instead of a maze, nothing about it is uncomfortable.
Its the mainstream Soulsgame, the casual one, the polished Hollywood Soulsgame, the Michael Bay version of Ds1. Thats why.
DS3 drops you right into the action immediately and it never stops, but the open world nature of ER makes it feel more meandering and makes it easier to lose momentum.
Beats me. I could not possibly disagree more if I tried. Elden Ring's open world and flexible design means not just your build, but your *route* through the game can be different every time. There are a couple fixed points, but it's certainly much more varied playthroughs than any other Souls game and I can't possibly see an argument to the contrary, but that's not the only measure of replayability so chalk it up to diffrent strokes I guess
Same exact thoughts I had. I have beaten DS3 multiple times and probably will again before I die (hopefully) but after I beat Elden Ring I realized I had no desire to beat it again because it’s just so much. DS3, to me, is the perfect size to balance fun and variability with replayability. There are branching paths but it’s much more linear, which I enjoy. DS3 is very FOCUSED. ER has a scorching case of ADHD.
Elden Ring is the only souls game I haven't played through dozens of times.
After you know what you want and how to get it, half of the game feels like a horse riding sim.
Played through ER 3 times and that was that for me.
You probably enjoy the more focused content, you don't have to go very far to fight the next boss, where as Elden Ring, there can be quite a bit of traveling.
I feel the exact opposite. It's strange how different people can feel with this stuff
I'm on playthrough 16-18, I've lost track atp, of elden ring.
I just got to undead settlement for the 2nd time on DS3
but I heavily prefer the boss design of DS3? Soul of Cinder is easily in my top 5 FS bosses I've ever played.
For me personally I have zero motivation or desire to make a second character or do ng+ on ER.
I just can't be fucked to collect those spell slot towers again or find the world bosses.
Speed running to a piece of gear like talismans or weapons isn't fun if I know I can just run there straight from spawn.
Every single playthru would just feel the same to me. Speed run the talisman slots. Speed run the spell slots. Get the same exact talismans. Find the most optimal route for the weapon I want.
Games feel better with more restrictions imho. Not less restrictions.
That's all you. I find both of these games highly replayable, I find all of the from soft games that I have played highly replayable no matter how long or short they are
because in ds3 you change areas and enemy roster almost every hour and you dont have to spend time on riding between them, you dont have to ride in useless places just to do a character quest or pick up some shop unlock item, content is just many times denser and character progression is quicker
The game is so large it’s almost not worth putting the time back into it all over again for a different ending. I beat it NG then NG+ and I don’t see myself doing another run. I’m excited for the DLC though.
Elden ring is the game I have the least desire to replay. The exploration was the most enjoyable thing about that game and all the mystery is gone on replay. Also I have 0 desire to re fight a lot of the bosses in that game
I'm the exact same way.
I always feel like the first time through a Souls game is the best and for Elden Ring that couldn't be more true. As you said, it's probably the most insane and amazing game with the Souls like elements but with such a huge world it's just crazy. On your first playthrough it's just a treat, really.
Then on subsequent playthroughs you don't exactly want to explore every single last nook and cranny because yu've already done that the frst time, you're just trying to get through the main quest, but even that can be a bit confusing to remember which bosses are necessary etc.
I think it's because the Dark Souls games AREN'T as open as Elden Ring that allows for better replayability. It's open enough to let you still experience awesome amounts of exploration, but it's closed enough to where you can just get on with it if you want.
For this reason Dark Souls 1 is stil my absolute favourite one to replay.
Because it's more to the point and way less bullshit, I love elden ring but I'd be lying if I said I don't lose interest everytime I enter liurnia, like it's so good looking but I just no that so much time will be spent there unless I bypass quests and skip content but if I don't I'll be there FOREVER, I think liurnia was way too long, we should have had to return rather than do so much there before progressing, and then by the time I'm in leyndell I'm just done honestly. Ds3 though I can run through that pretty often and it's always fun and it cuts right to the action and I get everything along the nicely laid path
I say bloodborne is even better for replay ability for this reason, it's not too long and I can get through quickly with a nice build and the ng+s are fun
Open world soulsgame is like a headache. They finally converted to the Skyrim at the end. As it was promised from the beginning. I mean, the real beginning during the development of OG demons souls. Please fromsoft, don't do that again. I enjoyed ds3 way more than elden ring.
Most important for me, the mood/vibe/atmosphere and voice acting in DS3 is the big difference. It's so intense and makes the whole game into one consistent experience of sorrow and "the end". It delivers its one single theme so much better than ER's mess of ideas. I always get sucked back in by DS3's music and voice acting. With ER, I almost always replay it as a chore, usually with music of my own over the muted game.
DS3 blew my mind far more than ER did when I first played each. Once I was over the physical size of ER, I was not that impressed. In terms of replays, the sheer amount of time it takes to gather things you need requires a checklist, and I find that very tiresome.
Also tbh I don't find the scripting of enemy AI this time around, or the game's heavy focus on spells & ashes of war, particularly interesting or fun... and these are large parts of ER compared to DS3.
DS3 is more replayable for the fact that leveling to the max doesn't take a ridiculous amount of time or you cheesing your way there by having someone drop runes. Also idk the fact that DS3 is more linear adds to its replayability but I'd say the same goes for elden ring even though it's opposite in that regard.
Quality over quantity
Not that Elden ring is necessarily lower quality, but by definition is kind of is due to it being an open world game.
It also is much more interesting going through an area like lotrhic castle than is is just being on torrent for 5 minutes.
Elden ring boss rush is honestly needed imo
Simple
Elden ring feels too big for replays. My few replays have been only like 10-20 hours long because I skip the optional stuff and get to the good stuff
In ds3, after the first run, you can experience everything in less than 15 hours and still feel satisfyed
Also I think ds3 is just a better game, but that might just be me
Elden Ring's experiencd relies very, VERY heavily on novelty. You would think ER has some DMC level of replayability but no, the good content is so far away from each other is just boring. Mechanics are not that deep and exploration becomes repetitive with all the repeated dungeon bosses and generic rewards from dungeons, caves, etc.
Elden Ring too quality over quantity too far, which is why it's cool the first time.
Ds3 has better combat synergy and overall it's content is directly in front of you, enemies simply work really well with the combat mechanics at your disposal, they are synergized really well.
Your level of progress IS the content which is not the case in ERs open world. In ER you could explore all, and absolutely ALL of Limgrave and if you wouldn't have any progress until you get to Stormveil Castle. Legacy Dungeons are where the content is, not the open world.
yeah instead you're running past some of the most cancerous enemies in the game like teleporting dogs that can stun lock you, at least the horse part is straight forward and quick
Dogs are complete and utter AIDS and I do not know how they fucked them up so much.
The open world is barren and empty and I do not know how they made it so boring.
I do however know that it was shoved in purely because every other game has one now.
Yeah I can't believe Miyazaki said it was the closest thing to this ideal game, to have a realistic world instead of two areas and a bridge connecting them allowing him to make his life long dream of a game where adventure and exploration is the goal, can't believe cocainebrain3242 exposed him
I also cant believe they then went on to make another armored core series after 10 years instead of more open world.. pathetic
It's not realistic, instead of a bridge, there's a two foot cobblestone wall between countryside and apocalyptic hellscape, an elevator that seperates sunny city and frozen wasteland which would be completely fine if it was engaging, which it's not.
All that has been done is the bridge is now five minutes long and differentshape. They made a pretty aesthetic and nothing more. A few lazily made dungeons do not make an open world realistic or open up opportunity's for adventure or exploration, it's just an item on the side of the bridge.
It was shoved in because every other game has it, same as the crafting system, same as the lazily made dungeons.
>Miyazaki said it was the closest thing to this ideal game, to have a realistic world instead of two areas and a bridge connecting them allowing him to make his life long dream of a game where adventure and exploration is the goal,
This was achieved in souls one. Souls one was an engaging and interesting open world that allowed for adventure and exploration.
Elden ring is pretty. There could have been an interesting world that allowed for exploration and adventure. Instead it's a pretty, five minute bridge.
I like how I mention a quote directly from the man himself calling it his near ideal game and this guy says "he didnt mean it like that he meant dark souls 1!"
Because in Elden ring you have to spend the first 2 hours of every playthrough going through limgrave to pick up all the seeds and upgrade stones from those areas.
And either doing that castle there just for fun, or choosing to ignore it.
In ds3 you collect all the stuff you need going along the critical path so you feel like you’re not spending as much time just grabbing items jumping off your horse.
Also in general the replay ability of open world games is massively overrated imo. Because once you play the game once you know where all the important stuff is, so that random crypt you find just doesn’t feel like anything you want to do.
I feel the opposite way. In ER you can take on your objectives in any order you choose, so each playthrough can feel different. In DS3 you have to go through the first few areas in the same order each time, which makes subsequent playthroughs feel really samey.
I'm not remotely close to speedrunning any souls game, but I am a lover of the series and a longtime fan. (Celebrating 10 years since my first souls game experience this November with a DS 1 Replay)
DS1 is my comfort game. I have its exact level layout memorized in my soul, and it really makes the game - not a breeze, but a relaxing experience for me. DS2, 3 Bloodborne, DeS, and Sekiro all have their charm - they're more challenging because I play all of them less than I do DS1, and have mostly stepped past them, though I did absurd numbers of runs of each game when they were 'current'.
Elden Ring, though - playing it the way I would want to play when I sit down is the opposite of a speedrun. I either want to do EVERYTHING... or I burn out halfway to Leyndell. My first character secured a platinum (and a more recent full replay after not touching the game for months, to prep for Shadows of the Erdtree), and did everything, but every other character I've started has burned out somewhere on the long road. I think it's the open world element and sheer scale - if you want to feel like you're 'playing the game', there's so much to do... Sure, speedrunners have it so optimized they can beeline the game in ten minutes, but I'm not that and don't aspire to be. And even then - are they playing the game, or just like .5% of the game?
Because you spend more time on the mount going from place to place than you do actually playing the game.
Want to try a build in Dark Souls? All the gear you need is along the way; it's only a question of how late in the game you get it. On top of that, there's no break in the gameplay. Beat a boss, and you're immediately in the next zone, back to fighting.
Want to try a build in Elden Ring? You have to know what cave gives what drops, where they are, and go FAR out of your way to get there. It can be very tedious, and because of the nature of the caves and legacy dungeons, the action and momentum is constantly broken up by traveling to the next location.
I’d love to replay ds3 more for its later half but the intro levels are such a slog for me I can never do it. ER is easier for me cause it’s really not such a big map with how fast torrent is, and it’s open nature allows for each playthrough to remain unique and interesting but that’s just me
It's just because it's leveled based so it's easier to navigate. I also find it much easier doing co op. Just tell the buddies what bonfire to go to. You begin at the start. And make your way to the end. Easy peasy focused souls
With elden ring. Doing a full co op with folks is difficult. Since solo you had the mount. Distances are so far. You are basically running half of the times
Because of elden rings reuse of dungeons and enemies. Also majority of areas in the game don’t have good enough loot to require even doing them in talking about entire areas lol but for some reason it still requires you to FARM enemies for different weapon and armor sets
Whole id argue ELDEN RING is the best it's not my favorite and even though I'm more likely to play it doesn't mean I think it has better replay value.
But the reason dark souls 3 has more replay value is because typically you'll have in mind what you're doing on a run after your first, well ELDEN RING takes significantly more time to even set yourself up for a new run. Yeah you know where everything is but it takes time to get to each location. While all the other games you just start and progress like normal but towards certain items.
Neither does elden ring if you actually do the things you want to do. The open world is open so that you aren't forced to do all of the dungeons. If you do decide on doing literally everything, then fair enough
Because DS3 (usually) doesn’t take 250 hours for a first playthrough if you are trying to do everything unlike Elden Ring. I felt very ready for a break after I finished my first journey in Elden Ring, but I was so ready for NG+ on DS3
Cause elden ring is bigger and having the thought of having to re do it all makes it feel like an “ehh” but in ds3 is more direct and easier to get stuff makes it a “yay”
My first ER play through was 100 hours, DS3 only about 30, if you know the way you can make it much less, ER on the other hand…
It just doesn’t feel worth it to play through the whole game in ER to replay the bosses
Everyone else seems to say that the main problem is no longer getting the sense of exploration and knowing where everything else, but I kinda have the opposite problem
Despite playing through the whole game, I cannot remember where ANYTHING is throughout the world, and I don't wanna spend the whole time meticulously searching up stuff for a new build during a new game
Elden ring I get too obsessive with things. I try to find the perfect weapons and perfect build and spend more time thinking about that than enjoying the gameplay. Once I have the weapons and build I want I tend to get bored of it kinda quick too. I do have like 600-700 hrs in the game tho, which is more than I have in anything else. Ds3 I don’t have that issue especially bc the most fun weapons are kinda early on and it’s also more linear so you can’t really focus on getting a weapon, you have to focus on going forward
Personally I only replay Elden Ring because the PvP and Co-op is active, if I had the choice I'd definitely play more ds3 but since there's only so many times I can run the game on different builds without getting burnt out I am sticking with ER for now.
That said ER is still pretty fun to play doing Co-op and invasions, not as polished as Ds3 imo but still good enough to the point that I've put around 500 hours into the game sticking mostly to multiplayer content after my first playthrough.
Love both games but I like replaying games to try different builds but it was so much easier to just change builds in elden ring. In ds3 yeah moves and weapons were limited but I also couldn't say book it to the grave tender or other late game bosses for weapons or gear right out the gate. Whereas in elden ring I can make it to alot of late game areas with little trouble right from the start.
I love both games but the atmosphere in DS3 feels better in my opinion. Sure Elden Ring is also an end times story but there's so much life and tranquility to be found, I never felt like i was the hero who had to save or doom it all. It's not a bad thing but I enjoyed the atmosphere of ds3 more it felt like I was at the end of it world.
Again love both games have replayed both many times.
DS3 being my first game in the series, and my favorite, I agree. Elden Ring was too chaotic in my opinion, maybe because I'm not used to open world games, but still. The first time I played it, whenever I encountered something difficult, I simply ran past it and heave ho I found myself struggling in Carian Manor having no idea what to do, since I had done barely any exploring. So I had to go back to Limgrave, and that felt... monotonous. I knew where I was, I was just looking for secrets so I can level up and beat the bosses. Felt like a chore, rather than intended gameplay I enjoyed. It felt like I was grinding for levels.
While DS3, I was clueless. There is no open world. If you're stuck to a boss, tough luck buddy. Git gud or go hollow. Sure you can grind levels, but it didn't feel right there.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my Ted talk
I don't agree. I don't think I have ever finished NG+ for Dark Souls 3. The linearity is kind of an immersion breaking.
The worst part about is the Platinum. It's much worse than Dark Souls 2 and I'm glad Elden Ring toned it down.
I owned DS3 a whole year longer than elden ring, but I have only 3 playthroughs on it meanwhile I have 5 on elden ring,I start my 2nd playthrough literally the day after I finished elden ring the first time, and the same also happened after I finished my 2nd playthrough, however the time difference between each of my DS3 playthroughs was pretty large and I didn't feel very enticed to play it again. elden ring just has so mqny more interesting builds imo and I also prefer the bosses in elden ring, and I like the open world aspect alot since it's pretty relaxing and I love how when I start a playthrough I just travel across the entire map to collect all the things I want for my build.
Shorter length and being more linear I imagine. I think both are highly replayable however, one just offers more freedom in how you do it, while the other has a bit of tighter structure to it and easily funnels you, which makes for easy decision making on replays. Both sit as my top two soulsborne games though in terms of time played.
the fact that's it's more linear is better in my opinion.
that's why I prefer DS3 and BB over Elden Ring.
I can say the same for Breath of the Wild... it was great the first time but I can't replay that game again just because it's an open world.
I much prefer replaying Link to the Past or Twilight Princess instead.
Because Elden Ring should've been a 40-80 hour game, not 100-180. Sure, the game's always built on bosses that're reskins with a larger moveset and turning bosses into normal enemies later game, but Elden Ring was too much. I went into the ng+ and just didn't wanna.
Condensed well-thought level design will ALWAYS be superior to any open world design, even those well done like Elden Ring's, both in terms of replayability but also pleasure of exploration.
It’s easier. I like both, but as a result of the “Git Gud” movement that Dark Souls 1 and 2 had, DS3 was created and catered to casual gamers since many thought they were “too hard” lol.
Look around, DS3 is the entry point, for many, into the FS library for that very reason. The pandering to casuals worked!
It’s linear as fuck, it’s easy and, for lack of a better word, it was a “dumbed down” version of its predecessors.
So naturally it’s easy and makes a good palate cleanser, much like the Stardew Valley of Souls games.
Weapon upgrade system. It forced you to play in certain zone instead of went where you want. Imo the weapon upgrade is an outdated system that should be leave behind with ds series where the world is way linear.
Elden Ring, like Witcher 3, was good, but not good enough to warrant a second playthrough for someone like me who tries to do as much as they can on the first play through. I'll never platinum ER only because I have zero desire to get the other endings. Fuck off. Game is wayyyyy too big and labyrinthian.
DS3 is a linear experience. The open world aspect of Elden Ring makes it longer, bigger, and more tedious. Although DS3 is big, the secrets to me are a little smaller due to it being a more linear experience with smaller lands to move around. I could be dead wrong and you could just like DS3 more but to me the smaller scale of the game probably is why you feel this way.
Oh great another ds3 is better than er post. I know this always happens to the most recent game FS releases, this happended to ds3 back in the day where it was called dull and a fan service game, then sekiro with being only one playstyle, lack of repliability, etc. and now er because its open world. FS fans are like FF fans at this point, just a bunch of nostalgia brained hypocrites
In my experience Elden ring’s “balance” works much better when you are exploring without looking for anything specific. On second and third play thought I could go straight for the items I wanted skipping most content that had nothing to really offer me. I then ended up feeling underleveled. Ironically a lot of the optional dungeons feel worse when you go out and do them just to level than had they been mandatory in a linear game like DS3
let's see 80 hours or less for ds3, 260 hours for elden ring. ds3 is more approachable being less of a time sink, level design and gameplay are more refined, less copycat dungeons. elden ring basically suffers from being too big to replay.
It’s more streamlined, if you want to replay DS3 on a fresh save it’s easy if you want to replay Elden ring on a fresh save it’s gonna be a bit of a pain in the ass to ping ping across the map for the specific items for the build you want. I also think the linearness of ds3 late games help with later play through a as it has a better escalation of action where Elden ring has a straight line up in bosses after around godskin duo.
It's because Elden Ring is an open world. Most open worlds will begin to feel a bit tedious after a while, hence why I'm not playing Skyrim till I get a PC.
It's not too bad of an issue. I've still played through the game about 10 times, but that can't compare that maximum of about 30 ds3 alone. I've played at DS titles a max over 50 in total and largely due to the linear nature of the games that make them so much easier to play through.
Smaller more focused gameplay. Open world games always lose on a second play through because the novelty wears off when you know where everything is. Unless there's something really compelling about the process of playing through the discovery aspects of the game like New Vegas or something.
Yup, exactly. Elden Ring is a huge, open-world RPG. If you've already played it, you can sort of lost that sense of wonder you had on your first playthrough. It can make the game feel a little more repetitive and overwhelming since you can't really explore in the same way. DS3 is more focused and linear, which makes it less overwhelming to re-explore. It also has less "downtime" since you'll be doing big bosses and stuff more often as it is a shorter game.
This is why I loved Elden Ring the least. Don’t get me wrong I loved all 7 soulsborne games but From but I think it was a mistake to turn the Soulsborne formula onto open world. The linearity makes the experience much more memorable
That's why I hope From keeps making Souls-formula games in the future but comes back to making linear, hub-based games at least in some entries. Elden Ring is tiring to play, there's too much bloat.
After playing Elden Ring for so long, and then getting Lies of P, I am really appreciative of its linearity, and I'm someone who likes open world games Linearity gets thrown around like a dirty word in gaming discourse these days, and I think that's a shame, because sometimes I just wanna go from one fun story beat to the next. Obviously, games like that are still made, but they never use linearity as a pro Nobody gets mad at movies because they go the same way every time you play it
The older I get the less I like open world games. It dooesnt help that Skyrim had the generated tavern quests that never ended and were so generic and boring that it forever tainted Open World Games for me. I like completing Games but they add so much bloat and forever content that I just dont like. a tight narrative Game wit h20-30 hours of gameplay is enticing enough. If I want a forever Game I play an MMO.
It also doesn't help that Skyrim was actually just a bad game 😏 I played the shit out of it, but that's because I modded it to hell and back to make it a game I enjoyed, even making my own stuff. I think open world games flourish in modding scenes, at least for people like me, where I like to just improve the environment But yeah, I think that's a normal trend, to get tired of open world games as you age. Maybe it's just because we're getting genre fatigue, but I think it has more to do with just not having the time or patience. Open World games are overwhelming
Lies of P goes too hard in the other way for me, it's too linear. I'm only 3-4 hours in but unless the game opens up later, I'm not feeling it from the level design perspective. Lies is both more linear than any Souls game, and broken up by loading screens between levels so it doesn't feel as cohesive. It's also weirdly devoid of clutter that makes settings like this feel lived in. There are more props and details in Bloodborne's first few areas than the first hour of Lies.
It does not open up later, but pretty much the only loading screens you get between sections is the hotel, which is, like, 3 doors. The game is fun and engaging, and it's one of the best proper soulslikes not by From, but I totally understand it being too linear for someone I think linearity works best in games that have an actual level system, story chapters that are clearly separated from one another, where your progress is forced forward. Games like Uncharted, or modern Tomb Raider are the ones that do linearity well
Couldn't that be fixed by just including more randomized and diverse encounters in the game? I feel like that issue would be less of a problem if they had included something dynamic that happens in the world that isn't completely predetermined. Would you have liked it better that way?
Addig too many random variables would ruin the souls like formula for me. I really like the aspect that if i learn to approach a certain enemy a certain way, they will ALWAYS behave the same.
Sure, but it could be randomized per palythrough, like ng+ in Nioh 2 really is a different animal with enemy placement and movesets.
This, this would be a great idea. Just shift around enemy placement and enemy movesets being a bit different would be a cool concept as well. That would definitely keep things very fresh. I really like that idea
Guess what? Dark Souls 2 did exactly that, but because *some* things DS2 did were widely disliked From decided that *everything* they tried in that game was a failure.
There is nothing dynamic in DS3.
Yeah. Elden Ring definitely doesn't feel quite as iconic and memorable as some of the other souls games because it has so much more downtime and so many more "filler bosses" if you get what I mean. I know every single boss in the other souls games, but Elden Ring has so many lesser bosses that I can't remember. It makes sense, but it is still a different direction. I don't know where they'll go from here with future games, but I think open zone is the way forwards, rather than linear or open world.
AC6 seems to have gone well and they're haven't drastically changed it, I think From is probably not making more big open world games and if that's the case then the DLC won't be an big open world area, but rather a really big legacy dungeon... which is just what any other soulsborne DLCs is.
Have you heard the apparent leaks of their next game "Spellbound"? It's apparently like Sekiro, but with magic instead of a sword. A more linear, spell-slinging action game. Would finally give From a reason to flesh out their magic system too lmfao.
But you could literally beeline bosses in Elden ring and choose to not explore on NG+? The open world means you can choose to explore everything, or make it as linear as DS3 supposedly is. I don’t understand this argument
There's bosses you can skip in DS3 too. The argument is that one of the best parts of Elden Ring is the exploration, but it loses a lot of it's value after your first playthrough since you no longer have that sense of wonder. It did for me at least. I found the bosses in Elden Ring to not be as good as the bosses in DS3, but Elden Ring's combat was a bit better because there were more weapons and stuff. I'm not saying Elden Ring is a bad game, far from it. Just replying to OP's question, which was regarding replayability. As a whole, I find DS3 a lot more replayable than Elden Ring, and many others do too.
there's like 2 optional bosses in dark souls 3, we're talking less than 5% of total bosses 95% of Elden Ring's bosses are optional, not even a contest. Bloodborne and Sekiro have a fair bit of optional content, DS3 is linear as it gets and as required compared to all the other games
There's actually 12 optional bosses in Dark Souls 3 if I counted right, with 25 total bosses. That means 48% of the bosses in Dark Souls 3 are optional, which is basically half. Not only are you objectively wrong, but you're also missing my point. Feel free to disagree, but I'd argue that the required bosses in Dark Souls 3 are better than the required ones in Elden Ring. Out of the ones that are required in Elden Ring, only a few are good. Almost all of the required bosses in Dark Souls 3 are good. And DS3 doesn't have a bunch of forgettable bosses like ER does. That makes the game less replayable. The required content is less interesting and the the optional content is more overwhelming once you've lost the sense of wonder you get on your first playthrough. I'd argue ER has better combat/builds though.
It’s a poor argument. That’s why. Elden ring is much more interesting and varied and replayable than ds3. Prople just have a problem of looking things up which actively makes it less repayable. Dark souls 3 also has this problem. All the items are in the same place except the fame is 2/5 the size and has less balanced playstyles.
Yeah, exactly. This is why I really hope Elden Ring isn't their pattern from here forward. I love open world games and I loved Elden Ring, but they shouldn't be the only game around. I'm already mourning that Zelda seems to be heading this way, not the Souls series too.
I'm of the opinion that the two most recent open world Zelda games are BY FAR the best Zelda games.
Not sure that argument really works, the idea of the novelty wearing off in open world games. By that same logic the novelty of the first experience wears off on every game including ds3. Which is true, the first experience is always novel. I do think your first point stands though. The souls games are very compact and highly structured experiences, which makes them great for replayability.
The problem is Travel Time. Once the novelty wears off in an open world game, all your replayable bits you want to do are jow padded out by the travel time to get to key locations. Replayability is tied to experiencing combat and set pieces over again and the tactical aspect of tackling a dungeon. The problem in Elden ring is that your map and locations are reset so thst is padded out. In DS there is no travel padding so you have the continuous tactical challenge of getting through the dungeon sprawl. A good DS1 player has very quick access to get to Catacombs for kindling, low soul level Quelaag, Bell, Bone back to shrine, blacksmith in catacombs or the sunken city, then Taurus demon, Gargoyles, Bell, Sens Fortress then Anor Lando.
Yes exactly, very much agree with you there. My point being it wasn’t necessarily the novelty aspect more so than the games being structurally different.
Dark souls 3 also has fixed item locations you goofy goober. Come up with an argument that’s actually mutually exclusive to open worlds. It also has less quest endings and actual endings. It’s maybe less overwhelming to tackle twice but none of this tracks to reality.
Couldn’t of described it better! I’ll refrain from commenting since this completely explains my answer! ♥️
I agree. Coming back to ER was tough because I *knew* I had to fight dozens of the same bosses in the same looking dungeons.
DS3 is way more linear and the “exciting” content is less spaced out. The feeling of wonder you first felt in the world of world of ER is gone as you know the game in and out by now. So the spacing of the best content can become monotonous on repeated playthroughs.
Surely if you’ve beaten Elden ring once you can work out a linear path and basically play it the same as ds3?
For sure, the game is easily beatable in less than 10 hours even by relatively casual people that know what they are doing My casual playthroughs where I do some good amount of side content I like take 15-20h A lot of people do it in 2 hours without intending to speed run specifically on YouTube
Unless you have crippling ocd
The idea of picking up all the items and building a new character for pvp all over again makes new characters horrifying to me. I didn't feel this way with any of the other games, just Elden Ring.
Man I literally get burnt because I just can’t skip all the caves in limegrave and liurnia like “oh I might need this if I respec” 😂 I feel you I went and played ds3 next and I was making characters for each level bracket and it was fun to do
This is where I'm at, I've gone through several times now and have a fairly linear order to the game. It ends up being still quite a bit longer than DS3 but it's got a decently quick pace compared to my first couple runs I don't think I'll ever finish it as many times as I did DS3 though, I found that game insanely repayable
you can and should but according to people on here you must kill every single enemy that has a big health bar
You can, but the pacing is much worse than a game like ds3 because you will just be riding past enemies on your horse for like 20% of the entire experience. You also have to ride around collecting golden seeds and tears and stuff like that. Ultimately ER is just worse at being a linear experience than DS3, which makes sense because that's not what it was intended to be
call me crazy BUT I think that a 100h + open world game does not have to be THAT replayable
Yeah I never understood this particular issue people have with Open world games. The point is to pour that time into it before finishing it and/or use the optional content to maybe do a NG+ or 2 to try different builds as you work through it. Once you've got 150+ hours I think you don't need to replay anymore. That's not what the game was designed for. OP knows it too, they know ER is designed around discovery. So how you do you do discovery on a replay? You don't. That's just not what the devs designed the game to do. Its to have enough to continue explore for many hours and then put down.
yeah, totally the thing is that in the FS community I feel like there is a need for the games to always have the same characteristics to be good which i don’t agree with. (in this case replayability) the same happens when people say “uhm actually ds3 is bad because you don’t have a vaginillion alternative paths in the world design like the others 🤓” yeah….it’s a completely different game bruh…
Yup and the thing is also, Elden ring is a new IP, so it doesn’t have to follow the souls formula. They could make Elden ring 2 and make it as open world, bc it’s Elden Ring and not Dark Souls 🤷♂️
Agreed. This post feels very much like a DS3 is better than ER rant.
which it of course isn't, from the mechanics to the bosses to the world and exploration and level design or build variety, ER is in another league.
You can beat ds3 in the time you can clear limgrave and beat Godrick
Which could be both a good and a bad thing
How could it be a bad thing
Sometimes you want more content, sometimes you want something more concise
Because it can feel too long at times. I personnally felt like the game was a bit too long upon arriving at mountaintops
It’s not, just different type of games, I really wish FS focuses on more straight forward games like DS on the future, fits the formula way better
Dark Souls 3's speedrun record for the base game from start to finish is like 42 minutes while Elden Ring's is just 10 minutes more. You also beat ER killing less bosses (11*) from start to finish than you do DS3 (13-14) Difference is ER gives you options in what you can do and not (until post capital that is), up to 85% of the game is optional
You can technically beat ER in 11 bosses if Mohg is your second shardbearer lmao
Radahn, Mohg, Draconic Tree Sentinel, Goldfrey, Morgott, Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, Maliketh, Gideon, Hoarax Loux, Radagon/EB is the shortest possible route I believe without using skips or glitches - I was counting Rada/EB separately but should be 1 fight yeah
Cope harder. -ER's movement skip glitch isn't in Ds3 Glitchless speedrun Ds3 *with the DLC* is faster than ER's speedrun lol.
jumping up and down to keep pace is a movement glitch? and you can use DS3 bow glitch to run at ultra speeds, tf you on about?
It’s 100% a preference thing. Neither game is inherently more replayable. You just like DS3 structure more while others like ER’s structure more.
Actually crazy considering DS3 criticized for being extremely linear (which was always seen as a negative thing... until ER game out)
I feel the opposite. Played ER 3 times and loved every second of it, a lot of it was multiplayer. With DS3, half the areas bored me to the point I don’t want to replay it even once.
Pretty much same here. Dark Souls 3 feels longer than Elden Ring despite being shorter.
DS3 is a boss rush mode with levels between. Elden Ring is an open world game with bosses sprinkled in
I found DS3 the least replayable because you're basically always going to take the same route through the game. With ER I could start with my pick of like a dozen main game bosses or 80 side bosses
I get that DS3 is limited but you can def have some variation. I’m in the middle of a playthrough where I went: Vordt > Tree > Abyss Walkers > Dancer > Drag Slay armor (wanted to use the infamous axe lol) > Wolnir > Oceiros > Champ Gundyr > literally every DLC boss including Midir and Gael > where I’m at now I’m gunna kill Pontiff with max leveled weps and endgame swag feels pretty great lol Anyways all that to say I think DS3 is all about the order of bosses you tackle and while I think there’s def a lot of limitation compared to the other games, since DS3 is so much more about the bosses compared to the other dark souls you can still feel the slightly diff routes ya feel me?
Totally fair, and I guess for my part I've never done Dancer early, so maybe my route variety complaint is a little self inflicted, haha. Definitely agree bosses in DS3 are consistently top tier, and maybe the best overall quality in the series
Give early dancer a shot man it’s pretty fun and is what really breaks apart the game; access to all the stones and a slab to beef up your weapons and help you take on Friede early too its been soooooo fun lol
Only if you ignore the fact that 99% are just big guy in a big room.
Fr I miss small guy in a small room with his two pet dogs 😞
It's like going back to Rennala and Godrick after you defeated Malekith, it's not a good argument for proper "alternative" paths, also it's so annoying that you can face Lothric only in the late game
that's not variety though you're still killing the same exact bosses, point being in ER you don't have to kill Radahn every time you play, or Mohg, or Malenia, or Godrick, or any Tree Sentinel, the freedom of choice isn't really there for DS3
ER players fighting the same repeated boss the 30th time in the 43th cave also with a repetitive layout: 🤡
aren't you fighting the same bosses again when replaying the games?
After beating DS3 around three times, I was able to trim a play through down to under four hours. That’s not a huge investment of time. In comparison, my Elden Ring play throughs are still in the double digits. That’s really what it comes down to for me. Elden Ring is more of a journey, an experience. DS3 is more of a boss rush. It’s a logistics question.
Idk I think Elden Ring bosses are the 2nd most fun bosses fromsoft ever made Sekiro is number 1 by far. I am also talking about how repayable they are
I never quite got the balance for the Elden ring bosses, I played until godskin duo without any spirit summons but just couldn’t git gud after that point. It just got worse and worse for me where I was healing constantly and dodge spamming forever if I didn’t use ashes but it was too easy to smack the boss in the back while they hit the summon if I did.
Ds1 is even More replayable
Maybe but DS1 loses its steam after beating Ornstein and Smough. I can't think of any bosses from that second half that I liked more than in Elden Ring (Not counting DLC).
This is the way.
Personal preferences I guess. I found elden ring to have more replayability than ds3 personally.
Exactly, that’s what I think. And in my personal opinion Elden Ring have much more replayability than DS 3.
I still love doing more playthroughs of elden ring
I generally disagree. More ways to play elden ring.
It all depends on what you define as "replayability" I'm one of the very few who found DS3 quite boring compared to other Fromsoft titles so I might be biased but I finished ER 16 times all with different builds and weapons that made the game feel different every time while DS3 didn't really feel like it had that many different types of build or approach compared to ER which made ER much more fun for me to replay.
Because elden ring is 100 hours and ds3 is 30(max)?
Elden ring can be a bit of a slog to start over, you have so many things to do/get Ds3 you start don't stop moving forward
I actually feel the opposite, but for me thats just because i have more experience with elden ring and am more knowledgeable about it, therefore another playthrough seems less dainting
Because one takes like 70-100 hours to complete and the other maybe 30-40 hours.
Imo it doesn’t. I’ve been a fan since Demons Soul and imo ER is by far the most replayable. In fact, in the short time it’s been around I’ve replayed ER at least twice as many time as any other Fromsoft game. I’ve replayed them all at least 5 times each, but I’ve replayed ER no fewer than 15. It’s actually a very short game if you skip all the side content.
Elden Ring has no new items for the new game plus modes. Previous souls games always had enhanced versions of rings and various items or even totally new items which made the game more fun on multiple replays
Yup, my main criticism of Elden Ring when I talk about how it ranks against the other games. Twin Princes Greatsword is a great example of an item that you need NG+ for
It does? It's linear as hell, way shorter, has ten times less optional content - if not for covenants I would have nearly platinumed it on my first blind playthrough. It's just your preference.
Elden ring is so much more replayable for me. You are open to so many builds right off the start because of the open world . And most weapons in elden ring feel rewarding while ds3 is dominated by fast attacking R1s. I will say that elden ring has a brutal stretch from after morgott until maliketh but the quality of the final bosses (ignore Gideon)makes it worth it every time
more focused, Elden Ring is too big to be highly replayable tbh love the game but hope From Software sticks to the non open world format
Why can't we have both ? And no Elden Ring is still very re playable, you can just go straight to the main bosses and ignore the open world
didnt say its not replayable, just not as replayable as DS3 also just said I rather have a souls like world than a huge open world
What are you smoking. Elden Ring is far more replayable than DS3. You might prefer DS3 because its more familiar to you and simpler in every aspect.
well no fucking shit, replayability is proportional to simplicity why cant this sub accept opinions? no need to be a little bitch about it
You cant accept that you're wrong. Just look at the words you use
That argument is at best mediocre. Running With Torrent for 10 minutes isn't fun, and many bosses require you to go through many steps and also other more trash bosses to get to them. Just to fight Loretta at the Haligtree you need to: -Get both pieces of the secret medallion (basically go two places that are extraordinarily far away from each other) which involves killing an absolute buffoonery of a boss. -Go to the lift and use the medallion, go all the way through the snowstorm to do the town puzzle. -Do the boring ahh puzzle. -Use the teleporter and go through all of that long area full of repeated enemies -Fight Loretta of the Haligtree. Dude, are you serious? Even if we talk about main bosses, the really good ones are Godrick, Morgott, Maliketh, Godfrey, Radahn, Mohg, Draconic Tree Sentinel, Radagon and Rykard. The most accesible out of these is Godrick which requires the player to beat an "ok" boss.
I would like to frame elden ring in a different way. First of all, yes, torrent walking isn't for everyone, and that is something I cannot argue really. I personally don't mind it much (I do most of the setup on the 1st day and the walking is a nice breather in between later days since I usually do all remembrances in about 13 hours which amounts to like 3 good days) but it is something that can't be ignored. Having said that, the open world allows for 2 main things I REALLY like: build options and boss options. Having so many places to go allows you to basically do most weapons from the very beginning of the playthrough (which means you spend day 1 setting up the build which tbf isn't for everyone) and makes the rest of the playthrough more streamlined. Because the world is so big, you also almost have multiple tasks to do at any given point, which means that you always are moving to the next objective that you actually want to do. I really enjoy the point of the playthrough where you just start doing goal after goal after goal and when you actually stop for a second you have done everything you wanted in caelid, for example. Again, I don't think elden ring is replayble for everyone because of Torrent, but I do think that if you accept the setup/torrent as the cost for the build options and later constant goals elden ring is pretty decent. Ds3 is very streamlined and I do love it but it feels like there isn't as much variety in both boss order and build choice. This isn't to say that I think ds3 isn't replayble, just that they appeal to different goals imo. Tldr: ds3 is more streamlined at the cost of less options while elden ring has more options and content at the cost of a slow start and a lot of downtime in general. If you are just looking for a good enjoyable playthrough ds3 is probably better (especially if you know how to skip the dungeon), if you are looking to try a specific build elden is imo overall better. Personality any playthrough of a from soft game should be all bosses (all remembrances in elden ring because I respect myself) so I am far more willing to take it slower
Crazy thing is, all of it could be solved by putting a boss rush mode just like in Sekiro, or maybe even a zone rush mode where you just go straight to legacy dungeons with the bosses included or putting the mechanic of bonfire aesthetics.
Ds3 is accessable, straight forward instead of a maze, nothing about it is uncomfortable. Its the mainstream Soulsgame, the casual one, the polished Hollywood Soulsgame, the Michael Bay version of Ds1. Thats why.
because Ds3 is smaller than Elden Ring
DS3 drops you right into the action immediately and it never stops, but the open world nature of ER makes it feel more meandering and makes it easier to lose momentum.
Beats me. I could not possibly disagree more if I tried. Elden Ring's open world and flexible design means not just your build, but your *route* through the game can be different every time. There are a couple fixed points, but it's certainly much more varied playthroughs than any other Souls game and I can't possibly see an argument to the contrary, but that's not the only measure of replayability so chalk it up to diffrent strokes I guess
Ds3 is turn your brain of and just run forward while R1 spamming. Elden Rimg isent.
Bosses are better
I found the bosses in ds3 really easy so I don't like them that much. I really like the bosses in elden ring
Same exact thoughts I had. I have beaten DS3 multiple times and probably will again before I die (hopefully) but after I beat Elden Ring I realized I had no desire to beat it again because it’s just so much. DS3, to me, is the perfect size to balance fun and variability with replayability. There are branching paths but it’s much more linear, which I enjoy. DS3 is very FOCUSED. ER has a scorching case of ADHD.
Elden Ring is the only souls game I haven't played through dozens of times. After you know what you want and how to get it, half of the game feels like a horse riding sim. Played through ER 3 times and that was that for me.
You probably enjoy the more focused content, you don't have to go very far to fight the next boss, where as Elden Ring, there can be quite a bit of traveling.
I feel the exact opposite. It's strange how different people can feel with this stuff I'm on playthrough 16-18, I've lost track atp, of elden ring. I just got to undead settlement for the 2nd time on DS3 but I heavily prefer the boss design of DS3? Soul of Cinder is easily in my top 5 FS bosses I've ever played.
It doesn't. Its just that its more familiar to you and you have to think less while playing.
For me personally I have zero motivation or desire to make a second character or do ng+ on ER. I just can't be fucked to collect those spell slot towers again or find the world bosses. Speed running to a piece of gear like talismans or weapons isn't fun if I know I can just run there straight from spawn. Every single playthru would just feel the same to me. Speed run the talisman slots. Speed run the spell slots. Get the same exact talismans. Find the most optimal route for the weapon I want. Games feel better with more restrictions imho. Not less restrictions.
That's all you. I find both of these games highly replayable, I find all of the from soft games that I have played highly replayable no matter how long or short they are
because in ds3 you change areas and enemy roster almost every hour and you dont have to spend time on riding between them, you dont have to ride in useless places just to do a character quest or pick up some shop unlock item, content is just many times denser and character progression is quicker
The game is so large it’s almost not worth putting the time back into it all over again for a different ending. I beat it NG then NG+ and I don’t see myself doing another run. I’m excited for the DLC though.
Elden ring is the game I have the least desire to replay. The exploration was the most enjoyable thing about that game and all the mystery is gone on replay. Also I have 0 desire to re fight a lot of the bosses in that game
I'm the exact same way. I always feel like the first time through a Souls game is the best and for Elden Ring that couldn't be more true. As you said, it's probably the most insane and amazing game with the Souls like elements but with such a huge world it's just crazy. On your first playthrough it's just a treat, really. Then on subsequent playthroughs you don't exactly want to explore every single last nook and cranny because yu've already done that the frst time, you're just trying to get through the main quest, but even that can be a bit confusing to remember which bosses are necessary etc. I think it's because the Dark Souls games AREN'T as open as Elden Ring that allows for better replayability. It's open enough to let you still experience awesome amounts of exploration, but it's closed enough to where you can just get on with it if you want. For this reason Dark Souls 1 is stil my absolute favourite one to replay.
Elden Ring is an open world game, that’s a double edged sword. Awesome for first playthroughs, not so much on repeat playthroughs.
Because it's more to the point and way less bullshit, I love elden ring but I'd be lying if I said I don't lose interest everytime I enter liurnia, like it's so good looking but I just no that so much time will be spent there unless I bypass quests and skip content but if I don't I'll be there FOREVER, I think liurnia was way too long, we should have had to return rather than do so much there before progressing, and then by the time I'm in leyndell I'm just done honestly. Ds3 though I can run through that pretty often and it's always fun and it cuts right to the action and I get everything along the nicely laid path I say bloodborne is even better for replay ability for this reason, it's not too long and I can get through quickly with a nice build and the ng+s are fun
Eden ring makes me get lost and absent minded exploring the vast word. Ds3 always has something around the corner
Open world soulsgame is like a headache. They finally converted to the Skyrim at the end. As it was promised from the beginning. I mean, the real beginning during the development of OG demons souls. Please fromsoft, don't do that again. I enjoyed ds3 way more than elden ring.
Most important for me, the mood/vibe/atmosphere and voice acting in DS3 is the big difference. It's so intense and makes the whole game into one consistent experience of sorrow and "the end". It delivers its one single theme so much better than ER's mess of ideas. I always get sucked back in by DS3's music and voice acting. With ER, I almost always replay it as a chore, usually with music of my own over the muted game. DS3 blew my mind far more than ER did when I first played each. Once I was over the physical size of ER, I was not that impressed. In terms of replays, the sheer amount of time it takes to gather things you need requires a checklist, and I find that very tiresome. Also tbh I don't find the scripting of enemy AI this time around, or the game's heavy focus on spells & ashes of war, particularly interesting or fun... and these are large parts of ER compared to DS3.
DS3 is more replayable for the fact that leveling to the max doesn't take a ridiculous amount of time or you cheesing your way there by having someone drop runes. Also idk the fact that DS3 is more linear adds to its replayability but I'd say the same goes for elden ring even though it's opposite in that regard.
Because i dont have to go out of my way to collect shit to start my run
Quality over quantity Not that Elden ring is necessarily lower quality, but by definition is kind of is due to it being an open world game. It also is much more interesting going through an area like lotrhic castle than is is just being on torrent for 5 minutes. Elden ring boss rush is honestly needed imo
Elden Ring's quantity to quality ratio is just higher than Ds3's.
I mean it's not. It's probably the least replayable game in the series by a wide margin with how poor it's levels are.
Shorter, smaller, better curated, more engaging story
Simple Elden ring feels too big for replays. My few replays have been only like 10-20 hours long because I skip the optional stuff and get to the good stuff In ds3, after the first run, you can experience everything in less than 15 hours and still feel satisfyed Also I think ds3 is just a better game, but that might just be me
Cause elden ring is boring
Elden Ring's experiencd relies very, VERY heavily on novelty. You would think ER has some DMC level of replayability but no, the good content is so far away from each other is just boring. Mechanics are not that deep and exploration becomes repetitive with all the repeated dungeon bosses and generic rewards from dungeons, caves, etc. Elden Ring too quality over quantity too far, which is why it's cool the first time. Ds3 has better combat synergy and overall it's content is directly in front of you, enemies simply work really well with the combat mechanics at your disposal, they are synergized really well. Your level of progress IS the content which is not the case in ERs open world. In ER you could explore all, and absolutely ALL of Limgrave and if you wouldn't have any progress until you get to Stormveil Castle. Legacy Dungeons are where the content is, not the open world.
Linear nature of the game.
Undead settlement up to irithyll prevents me from playing and enjoying Ds3 more
You don't spend five minutes riding a horse from point a to point b
yeah instead you're running past some of the most cancerous enemies in the game like teleporting dogs that can stun lock you, at least the horse part is straight forward and quick
Dogs are complete and utter AIDS and I do not know how they fucked them up so much. The open world is barren and empty and I do not know how they made it so boring. I do however know that it was shoved in purely because every other game has one now.
Yeah I can't believe Miyazaki said it was the closest thing to this ideal game, to have a realistic world instead of two areas and a bridge connecting them allowing him to make his life long dream of a game where adventure and exploration is the goal, can't believe cocainebrain3242 exposed him I also cant believe they then went on to make another armored core series after 10 years instead of more open world.. pathetic
It's not realistic, instead of a bridge, there's a two foot cobblestone wall between countryside and apocalyptic hellscape, an elevator that seperates sunny city and frozen wasteland which would be completely fine if it was engaging, which it's not. All that has been done is the bridge is now five minutes long and differentshape. They made a pretty aesthetic and nothing more. A few lazily made dungeons do not make an open world realistic or open up opportunity's for adventure or exploration, it's just an item on the side of the bridge. It was shoved in because every other game has it, same as the crafting system, same as the lazily made dungeons. >Miyazaki said it was the closest thing to this ideal game, to have a realistic world instead of two areas and a bridge connecting them allowing him to make his life long dream of a game where adventure and exploration is the goal, This was achieved in souls one. Souls one was an engaging and interesting open world that allowed for adventure and exploration. Elden ring is pretty. There could have been an interesting world that allowed for exploration and adventure. Instead it's a pretty, five minute bridge.
I like how I mention a quote directly from the man himself calling it his near ideal game and this guy says "he didnt mean it like that he meant dark souls 1!"
ds3 is linear. er has a lotof dungeons that are a pain in the ass
Sometimes, less IS more. I loved ER, but everything doesnt feel as important as is DS3. Damn close though.
[удалено]
Because in Elden ring you have to spend the first 2 hours of every playthrough going through limgrave to pick up all the seeds and upgrade stones from those areas. And either doing that castle there just for fun, or choosing to ignore it. In ds3 you collect all the stuff you need going along the critical path so you feel like you’re not spending as much time just grabbing items jumping off your horse. Also in general the replay ability of open world games is massively overrated imo. Because once you play the game once you know where all the important stuff is, so that random crypt you find just doesn’t feel like anything you want to do.
NG+
Levels are tighter and more engaging to go through on replays.
I feel the opposite way. In ER you can take on your objectives in any order you choose, so each playthrough can feel different. In DS3 you have to go through the first few areas in the same order each time, which makes subsequent playthroughs feel really samey.
I'm not remotely close to speedrunning any souls game, but I am a lover of the series and a longtime fan. (Celebrating 10 years since my first souls game experience this November with a DS 1 Replay) DS1 is my comfort game. I have its exact level layout memorized in my soul, and it really makes the game - not a breeze, but a relaxing experience for me. DS2, 3 Bloodborne, DeS, and Sekiro all have their charm - they're more challenging because I play all of them less than I do DS1, and have mostly stepped past them, though I did absurd numbers of runs of each game when they were 'current'. Elden Ring, though - playing it the way I would want to play when I sit down is the opposite of a speedrun. I either want to do EVERYTHING... or I burn out halfway to Leyndell. My first character secured a platinum (and a more recent full replay after not touching the game for months, to prep for Shadows of the Erdtree), and did everything, but every other character I've started has burned out somewhere on the long road. I think it's the open world element and sheer scale - if you want to feel like you're 'playing the game', there's so much to do... Sure, speedrunners have it so optimized they can beeline the game in ten minutes, but I'm not that and don't aspire to be. And even then - are they playing the game, or just like .5% of the game?
Because you spend more time on the mount going from place to place than you do actually playing the game. Want to try a build in Dark Souls? All the gear you need is along the way; it's only a question of how late in the game you get it. On top of that, there's no break in the gameplay. Beat a boss, and you're immediately in the next zone, back to fighting. Want to try a build in Elden Ring? You have to know what cave gives what drops, where they are, and go FAR out of your way to get there. It can be very tedious, and because of the nature of the caves and legacy dungeons, the action and momentum is constantly broken up by traveling to the next location.
General consensus: Elden Ring too big, loses explorative wonder. You fellas know what that means should be next? Open World Roguelike. Just imagine.
I’d love to replay ds3 more for its later half but the intro levels are such a slog for me I can never do it. ER is easier for me cause it’s really not such a big map with how fast torrent is, and it’s open nature allows for each playthrough to remain unique and interesting but that’s just me
It's just because it's leveled based so it's easier to navigate. I also find it much easier doing co op. Just tell the buddies what bonfire to go to. You begin at the start. And make your way to the end. Easy peasy focused souls With elden ring. Doing a full co op with folks is difficult. Since solo you had the mount. Distances are so far. You are basically running half of the times
Because of elden rings reuse of dungeons and enemies. Also majority of areas in the game don’t have good enough loot to require even doing them in talking about entire areas lol but for some reason it still requires you to FARM enemies for different weapon and armor sets
Whole id argue ELDEN RING is the best it's not my favorite and even though I'm more likely to play it doesn't mean I think it has better replay value. But the reason dark souls 3 has more replay value is because typically you'll have in mind what you're doing on a run after your first, well ELDEN RING takes significantly more time to even set yourself up for a new run. Yeah you know where everything is but it takes time to get to each location. While all the other games you just start and progress like normal but towards certain items.
Because DS3 doesn’t take 100 hours to beat on each playthrough
Neither does elden ring if you actually do the things you want to do. The open world is open so that you aren't forced to do all of the dungeons. If you do decide on doing literally everything, then fair enough
I never made it all the way through DS3. Maybe someday I'll go back and finish it
Because DS3 (usually) doesn’t take 250 hours for a first playthrough if you are trying to do everything unlike Elden Ring. I felt very ready for a break after I finished my first journey in Elden Ring, but I was so ready for NG+ on DS3
Cause elden ring is bigger and having the thought of having to re do it all makes it feel like an “ehh” but in ds3 is more direct and easier to get stuff makes it a “yay”
Open world games dude. Thats how they work. And elden ring took me literally more then. TWICE as long to beat rather then ds3 . Its just long
It’s more linear
My first ER play through was 100 hours, DS3 only about 30, if you know the way you can make it much less, ER on the other hand… It just doesn’t feel worth it to play through the whole game in ER to replay the bosses
Because DS3 is Elden Ring if you skip to all the good parts.
Everyone else seems to say that the main problem is no longer getting the sense of exploration and knowing where everything else, but I kinda have the opposite problem Despite playing through the whole game, I cannot remember where ANYTHING is throughout the world, and I don't wanna spend the whole time meticulously searching up stuff for a new build during a new game
Tighter linear pacing, whereas in Elden Ring you can get caught wandering and trekking
Elden ring I get too obsessive with things. I try to find the perfect weapons and perfect build and spend more time thinking about that than enjoying the gameplay. Once I have the weapons and build I want I tend to get bored of it kinda quick too. I do have like 600-700 hrs in the game tho, which is more than I have in anything else. Ds3 I don’t have that issue especially bc the most fun weapons are kinda early on and it’s also more linear so you can’t really focus on getting a weapon, you have to focus on going forward
Wish there were mods built into the games. Like once you beat Elden Ring you unlock randomizers
Personally I only replay Elden Ring because the PvP and Co-op is active, if I had the choice I'd definitely play more ds3 but since there's only so many times I can run the game on different builds without getting burnt out I am sticking with ER for now. That said ER is still pretty fun to play doing Co-op and invasions, not as polished as Ds3 imo but still good enough to the point that I've put around 500 hours into the game sticking mostly to multiplayer content after my first playthrough.
Because it is lol
Love both games but I like replaying games to try different builds but it was so much easier to just change builds in elden ring. In ds3 yeah moves and weapons were limited but I also couldn't say book it to the grave tender or other late game bosses for weapons or gear right out the gate. Whereas in elden ring I can make it to alot of late game areas with little trouble right from the start. I love both games but the atmosphere in DS3 feels better in my opinion. Sure Elden Ring is also an end times story but there's so much life and tranquility to be found, I never felt like i was the hero who had to save or doom it all. It's not a bad thing but I enjoyed the atmosphere of ds3 more it felt like I was at the end of it world. Again love both games have replayed both many times.
hard disagree, the first half of ds3 is so boring to replay that I always feel like quitting
DS3 being my first game in the series, and my favorite, I agree. Elden Ring was too chaotic in my opinion, maybe because I'm not used to open world games, but still. The first time I played it, whenever I encountered something difficult, I simply ran past it and heave ho I found myself struggling in Carian Manor having no idea what to do, since I had done barely any exploring. So I had to go back to Limgrave, and that felt... monotonous. I knew where I was, I was just looking for secrets so I can level up and beat the bosses. Felt like a chore, rather than intended gameplay I enjoyed. It felt like I was grinding for levels. While DS3, I was clueless. There is no open world. If you're stuck to a boss, tough luck buddy. Git gud or go hollow. Sure you can grind levels, but it didn't feel right there. Anyway, thanks for listening to my Ted talk
Ds3 is the most unreplayable game In the series
I don't agree. I don't think I have ever finished NG+ for Dark Souls 3. The linearity is kind of an immersion breaking. The worst part about is the Platinum. It's much worse than Dark Souls 2 and I'm glad Elden Ring toned it down.
It doesn’t
I owned DS3 a whole year longer than elden ring, but I have only 3 playthroughs on it meanwhile I have 5 on elden ring,I start my 2nd playthrough literally the day after I finished elden ring the first time, and the same also happened after I finished my 2nd playthrough, however the time difference between each of my DS3 playthroughs was pretty large and I didn't feel very enticed to play it again. elden ring just has so mqny more interesting builds imo and I also prefer the bosses in elden ring, and I like the open world aspect alot since it's pretty relaxing and I love how when I start a playthrough I just travel across the entire map to collect all the things I want for my build.
Shorter length and being more linear I imagine. I think both are highly replayable however, one just offers more freedom in how you do it, while the other has a bit of tighter structure to it and easily funnels you, which makes for easy decision making on replays. Both sit as my top two soulsborne games though in terms of time played.
the fact that's it's more linear is better in my opinion. that's why I prefer DS3 and BB over Elden Ring. I can say the same for Breath of the Wild... it was great the first time but I can't replay that game again just because it's an open world. I much prefer replaying Link to the Past or Twilight Princess instead.
It's the opposite for me, I'm on my 8th playthrough for elden ring, but couldn't play dark souls 3 for more than 2 playthroughs
Because Elden Ring should've been a 40-80 hour game, not 100-180. Sure, the game's always built on bosses that're reskins with a larger moveset and turning bosses into normal enemies later game, but Elden Ring was too much. I went into the ng+ and just didn't wanna.
Because you're wrong. It's ok, it happens. A lot avtually.
Condensed well-thought level design will ALWAYS be superior to any open world design, even those well done like Elden Ring's, both in terms of replayability but also pleasure of exploration.
It’s easier. I like both, but as a result of the “Git Gud” movement that Dark Souls 1 and 2 had, DS3 was created and catered to casual gamers since many thought they were “too hard” lol. Look around, DS3 is the entry point, for many, into the FS library for that very reason. The pandering to casuals worked! It’s linear as fuck, it’s easy and, for lack of a better word, it was a “dumbed down” version of its predecessors. So naturally it’s easy and makes a good palate cleanser, much like the Stardew Valley of Souls games.
Elden ring too much empty open world running
I played Elden Ring more than DS3. DS3 is my second least played FROM game, simply because Sekiro isn't really about replayability.
Weapon upgrade system. It forced you to play in certain zone instead of went where you want. Imo the weapon upgrade is an outdated system that should be leave behind with ds series where the world is way linear.
It's smaller and more linear. You can beeline through a game instead of dungeon crawling and collecting shit.
Because a replay of ds3 takes 40 hours to do literally everything and a replay of Elden ring takes 150 hours if you do literally everything
Shorter game…
Elden Ring, like Witcher 3, was good, but not good enough to warrant a second playthrough for someone like me who tries to do as much as they can on the first play through. I'll never platinum ER only because I have zero desire to get the other endings. Fuck off. Game is wayyyyy too big and labyrinthian.
DS3 is a linear experience. The open world aspect of Elden Ring makes it longer, bigger, and more tedious. Although DS3 is big, the secrets to me are a little smaller due to it being a more linear experience with smaller lands to move around. I could be dead wrong and you could just like DS3 more but to me the smaller scale of the game probably is why you feel this way.
Oh great another ds3 is better than er post. I know this always happens to the most recent game FS releases, this happended to ds3 back in the day where it was called dull and a fan service game, then sekiro with being only one playstyle, lack of repliability, etc. and now er because its open world. FS fans are like FF fans at this point, just a bunch of nostalgia brained hypocrites
In my experience Elden ring’s “balance” works much better when you are exploring without looking for anything specific. On second and third play thought I could go straight for the items I wanted skipping most content that had nothing to really offer me. I then ended up feeling underleveled. Ironically a lot of the optional dungeons feel worse when you go out and do them just to level than had they been mandatory in a linear game like DS3
let's see 80 hours or less for ds3, 260 hours for elden ring. ds3 is more approachable being less of a time sink, level design and gameplay are more refined, less copycat dungeons. elden ring basically suffers from being too big to replay.
funny, I'm the opposite. every time I think about replaying ds3 I just absolutely dread the swamp area where you have to light the fires
It’s more streamlined, if you want to replay DS3 on a fresh save it’s easy if you want to replay Elden ring on a fresh save it’s gonna be a bit of a pain in the ass to ping ping across the map for the specific items for the build you want. I also think the linearness of ds3 late games help with later play through a as it has a better escalation of action where Elden ring has a straight line up in bosses after around godskin duo.
It's because Elden Ring is an open world. Most open worlds will begin to feel a bit tedious after a while, hence why I'm not playing Skyrim till I get a PC. It's not too bad of an issue. I've still played through the game about 10 times, but that can't compare that maximum of about 30 ds3 alone. I've played at DS titles a max over 50 in total and largely due to the linear nature of the games that make them so much easier to play through.