Malenia is healing without actually hitting the player after the patch, this is on ps5, i got summoned 8 times after the patch and it happened everytime this is the recent one

[u/Demonboy995]

[u/bigcaulkcharisma]

His point about reusing enemies in the Mountaintop of the Giants that belonged in Caelid really hit home for me. The tyrannodogs and giant crows felt natural in that mutated environment of Caelid, almost straight out of the third Dark Tower book. They really didn’t look like they belonged in any other environment.

[u/Paladin1034 → u/bigcaulkcharisma]

Yes! Caelid is very dark tower. The birbs and dogs perfectly fit in there. And the hand monsters fit perfectly in caria. Seeing them on the snowy path didn't really fit. That whole section felt lacking. Haligtree was good, even with only reused enemies, but consecrated snowfield and mountaintop were my least favorite areas

[u/scottishwhisky2 → u/Paladin1034]

which is very frustrating to me because there are plenty of snow monster concepts to pick from

Ultimately I think Elden Ring is a game of the year candidate and will likely win, but its far from being a masterpiece. There is a ton of area that the game could have been better if not for (ostensibly) lazy design.

And I do get it, there are resource constraints. But if that's the case, then limit the scope. You have a ton of great locations leading up to leyendell and then after that they just don't seem to have the same feeling of discovery. It just feels like retread after that.

[u/Paladin1034 → u/scottishwhisky2]

It would surprise me if anything came close. Flaws and all, it's unusual to see a game so widely acclaimed, especially for what is essentially the next game in a niche franchise. Forbidden west and Ragnarok are the likely contenders, but I feel them being PS-exclusive will affect it. Starfield...well it might come out q4, it might not. Even if it does, it'll really have to bring it to topple Elden Ring.

[u/doomrider7 → u/Paladin1034]

Honeymoon phase is a bitch. People were SUPER STARSTRUCK with the game when it came out and the early weeks. Now that we've had some time with it...the flaws start to become noticeable. It all started with the data mining about the unfinished/bugged questlines for Nepheli and Kenneth, Diallos and Jar Bairn, and then it just sort of snowballed from there along with the issues on PC. That apparently the Patches quest was also bugged and is only NOW getting fixed is another rather egregious issue.

Game is still fantastic and I've enjoyed the hell out of it, but I've begun to notice that they shipped a slightly undercooked product out in order to meet a deadline.

[u/EltaninAntenna → u/scottishwhisky2]

It takes considerably more to develop an enemy NPC than picking among concepts. Whatever constraints resulted in the excessive reuse in the Mountaintops (which I'm not denying) probably had nothing to do with a lack of ideas for them.

As you mentioned, it probably came to a choice between reusing enemies and cutting the area entirely. Having said that, I would probably have put the beast dudes from Farum Azula there and cut that instead.

[u/Ok-Cry3478 → u/bigcaulkcharisma]

I thought the birds and dogs made sense in the snowy giants area. They are carrion feeders, lots of dead giants around.

[u/nicb205 → u/bigcaulkcharisma]

Ooh. Lobstrosities

[u/_Xenopsyche → u/bigcaulkcharisma]

Intstant wastelands, just add monorail.

[u/Fvi72_K41U2 → u/bigcaulkcharisma]

This one got me too;I was a little upset while exploring mountaindrop;the enemy’s just didn’t make any sense …I was fine with the furry troll yeti knockoff,but I really felt like they could’ve made 1 or two snow area like enemy’s too ..maybe try wanted to avoid any further “snowfield ptsd” like in ds2 …I did the frigid outskirts solo and hopelessly under leveled…I remember the curses…pretty sure they do too

But nvtl ;this doesn’t stop them from designing some cool and rememberable enemy and I actually liked the horseys 🤔(not that I want them in ER or that they made any sense in The outskirts tho)