>But I'm also not entirely convinced that the open world is
>this game at its best. It's almost every ten hours I hit a day
>where I can't seem to get anything done, whether that's just
>finding new areas to explore, beating old bosses or even
>remembering where the bosses I have and have not beaten ARE.
>People love to point to this game's design as a salve compared
>to, just because it's recent, Horizon: FW but I just don't see
>it. At least in that game when I was looking for something to
>do I always knew where to go to do it. And maybe I knew this
>was a main quest mission starter here or a hideout there, but
>I still didn't know what was going to HAPPEN in those missions
>or what datalogs I might find along the way. For me the action
>is the juice and it really doesn't bother me to know where the
>action is.

some of the sidequest locations are pretty vague but the graces literally point you in the direction you are supposed to go. also there are 2 separate navigational mechanics in the form of the "laggardly, old codger" and the other statue that points you to a "necessary item" location in a cave. and the map even shows you where evergaols, ruins, and likely cave locations are. i think this more implicit design is better than filling the hud and map with points of interest from the get go

>It's also not charming when core game mechanics are piled on
>top of you but can take hours to discover. I'd have NEVER
>gained the ability to summon if I hadn't been listening to a
>podcast discuss how obtuse that item's location is at the
>exact moment I was in that area; I JUST paused after receiving
>the Physick flask and I've got damn near ten items I can mix
>in it already. Yes, I had the note, but I could never make
>sense of it. I'm not sure if that flask is as game changing
>(or in my case, saving) as the summons are but I wouldn't be
>surprised and I've found that sort of stuff charming in
>Bloodborne previously, but in that game you always feel like
>you're on a track. With Elden Ring, you can just get really
>confused and turned around trying to do some really basic
>stuff.

this can be discouraging. i didn't get the wondrous physick flask until about 12 hours in. to be fair the clue was pretty specific about where it was located, even if it didn't provide the precise location. also it's a total game changer as you can set it to be a damage boost and damage negation potion that will last for most of a boss fight

>I'm really having a good time and I could easily see myself
>making this the second From game I've seen all the way
>through, I just don't think it's the revolutionary new road
>for open world games some would have you believe. I'm still
>setting and following waypoints on the map to go to points of
>interest, all that's changed is not knowing what the activity
>is until you get there (or, perhaps more detrimentally,
>whether you've already done the activity once you've arrived).
>At that point, you're usually just playing more Elden Ring,
>which is not nearly as fun on a purely mechanical level as a
>lot of other open worlds with more transparent map design.
>Just my two cents on that.

i think some people are getting hung on the somewhat 180 that it does with the map and hud compared to most open world games (although breath of the wild also did this iirc.) it is a welcome and refreshing to me but i can see how polarizing it could be for others

>It's been a bummer seeing just how disinterested Elden Ring's
>been in my core Bloodborne build of all the HP, STR and DEX I
>can afford and ignore all the arcane stuff. Turns out, damn
>near everything interesting in this game needs a shitload of
>INT or faith and I'm still in single digits on those stats.
>And unlike Bloodborne, it doesn't feel like there are any fun
>spots to do a quick level grind, either things are just
>challenging enough that it takes more time than its worth, so
>challenging that everything can one shot you or so ludicrously
>easy that the rune drops are pitiful. That's discouraging,
>especially when I hit those points where I just can't figure
>out what to do next.

weapon arts don't require int or faith and are as busted/cool as some of the spells. also respecing is available and easy in this game after a certain point. if you don't know where to go then explore a place you haven't been to yet but mostly just follow the grace pointers to progress the critical path, which will unlock more mechanics. if you get super stuck go to fextralife. i would say try not to get too discouraged because of fromsoft's obtuse quest design as this is what they do. the quests are usually explicitly or implicitly spelled out by NPCs. there is at least one example of a major questline starter being too vague for my preference (i had to look it up) but once you get going it's easy to follow along

>So far I've mostly avoided guides outside of some small
>catacombs and ruins, but I feel like I'll be digging into one
>soon enough here. I've only taken Margit and Godrick down on
>the critical path so far (I also know where a boss whose
>become pretty infamous is located though I haven't triggered
>him yet) while plenty of people are talking endgame and NG+
>already so clearly I'm missing something...I've been looking
>for this glintstone key for damn near 30 hours alone! And I'm
>having a lot of fun with this game, promise!

it took me a long time to find the glintstone key even with the clue. the clue is a little misleading but the key isn't far from the place where you would use it