How bad is the difficulty spike in Elden Ring?

Both the reason some Souls vets aren't crazy about it (me) and why it has such overwhelming appeal to the masses is that Elden Ring, outside of a few optional side bosses, is exactly as difficult or as easy as you want it to be. Decide to fight the big frick on the horse in the starting area? Buckle up, buttercup, and I hope you're ready to git gud. Ignore him and come back later? Lol gg ez.

It's the same thing with every main story boss and area. Because you can do things in whatever order you want, there's nothing stopping you from leaving, leveling up your stats and weapon, then coming back and curb stomping (basically) everything in your path. Unless you have a legitimate, diagnosed medical condition, literally anyone can beat the main story of Elden Ring if they are willing to frick around with it long enough.

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Melania is a bitch for most builds and even grinded characters.

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But she's an optional boss. I can't think of any main story "must kill to see the end credits" boss that you can't be straight up overkill when you fight them.

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Man, this fight was so hard for me. I bet it took me over a hundred attempts and two weeks.

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I think it's just all about the build. I just finished watching the Babe1Babe2 Elden Ring stream series on Youtube where the guy had his 70 yr old dad play through the game. He was horrible in the mechanics of the game but over time had built up a 120 level strength tank character and he ended up beating Malenia in 30 or so attempts. he did use a level 7 mimic tear but honestly I think he could have done it without eventually.

The guy used the rusted anchor for pretty much the entire run through the game. He deviated at times to try different weapons, including blasphemous blade, but always reverted back to the anchor. Really hilarious series to follow over the past few months.

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Made my way through Stormveil and the academy without too many issues outside of Margit.

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You should have no trouble.

I think youll be fine. I suck at these games but fared pretty decently at elden ring and was able to complete it.

Youve already beaten some bosses that are pretty much as tough as any i think.

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Good to hear. I dont mind wondering around and getting stronger as opposed to making story progress. I have the bloodhound fang as my primary weapon right now and from i can tell its one of the more popular weapons. If i ever finish it i want to do a mage run because some of the spells look pretty fun to mess around with.

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The dragon spell that sprays rot is completely OP.

When yall say elden ring is the easiest souls game do you mean the boss fights?

I feel like Margit and Godrick are tougher than any Demon Souls boss.

And in a separate post, as it’s mostly tangential, but that’s part of why I just don’t love ER. When people talk about playing Dark Souls, it’s clear they are playing the same game as one another, because the game forces you to play the same game. Short of having the meta knowledge (and luck) to snag the Black Knight Halberd, the difficulty of the varying fights will be very similar from player to player. And that’s not me git gud gatekeeping; it’s me enjoying feeling like everyone has a shared experience that’s similar.

On the other hand, you have Elden Ring, where not only do players not have a shared experience, but it felt like I was having trouble having the intended experience. As a case in point, I showed up to fight Margit. These fights are lasting five, ten minutes and I’m barely scratching him while getting like two hit. frick it, right? Game is supposed to be hard. Time to get good. About an hour later, I get frustrated and google what the frick is going on, why someone who can wreck other DS games is struggling so much. Only to find out that I’m like 20 levels underleveled. Which, in ER, unlike DS, apparently fricking matters. So I leave, level up some, come back, and then absolutely curbstomp Margit.

So I not only wasted my time at first, but I ended up not even having the intended experience because I (for my skill level, even though not objectively) over levelled the boss and made the fight boring. It meant every fight after, I’m sitting there trying to figure out whether I’m playing well or over levelled, or playing poorly or under levelled. Who knows…not me!

The world is beautiful, and I get why people love it, but it’s just not the experience I want out of a From game. I want a heavily, lovingly (if sadistically) choreographed gaming experience, not a choose your own adventure that you can inadvertently trivialize without meaning to.

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Oh man you are in for a treat. The remaster is great.

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When they release it and Bloodborne on Steam, believe me, I’ll be jumping on them

I’d say just keep playing the game and don’t worry too much about it.

I never really felt a true difficulty spike, aside from occasionally finding myself in the red zone early on, which is optional at that point. It’s definitely a harder area, but the game doesn’t force you there, so I wouldn’t count that as a spike. That was a choice I made.

If you follow the “intended flow” of the game then when you do eventually return to those areas you’re usually on par with the enemies, if not significantly stronger.

To me, a difficulty spike is something that’s forced, not optional.

Elden Ring drops you into a sandbox after the tutorial and essentially says, the world is yours, go take it however your choose.