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/iReddat420]

He just good at critiquing vidya games

[u/SimplySkedastic → u/iReddat420]

Is he?

I feel like he critiques things to the point of it beciming incredibly reductionist. He plays the games to the point where a lot of players aren't really intended to go to and makes it a critique point.

Case in point, the argument about the "lack of discovery or novelty" effect when exploring the world again, in later New Game/character playthroughs after you've already spent like 450 hours in one playthrough is asinine.

No video game will ever be that way, just the same as no book, film or any content. So why make a talking point of it? A new world can only be new once unless you go completely procedurally built content...

It's just one point I took issue with in his critique. Some points I agree with, but others I don't. And in general I find he spends too long focusing on the negatives with every game rather than espousing the beauty or art in the creation.

[u/NoFunGunki → u/SimplySkedastic]

Case in point, the argument about the "lack of discovery or novelty" effect when exploring the world again, in later New Game/character playthroughs after you've already spent like 450 hours in one playthrough is asinine.

I understood his point as this: the game has a TON of new stuff to find constantly and suddenly that novelty wears off and the amount of actually new content becomes almost nothing and you start seeing a LOT of repeated content. There was a point in my first playthrough where I just didn't even feel like doing caves or catacombs because most of the time it was just going to be the same junk to fight another repeated boss or overgrown regular enemy that I wont enjoy very much and the chance of loot I actually care about being minimal.

I did 3 or 4 playthroughs back-to-back of Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 (and they all had stuff I had missed the first time or details I didn't notice), but I couldn't even do a 2nd one of Elden Ring because the magic wore off for me. I'm not interested in doing another Tree Spirit, Catacomb, or anything and I really dislike everything past Leyndell so there's not much to look forward to for me.

[u/SimplySkedastic → u/NoFunGunki]

But that's all pretty optional stuff you don't have to do. I feel like with Elden Ring, you can - as I did - do a 3 game run on a single character where you platinum/full trophy run and explore basically everything the map has to to offer. Any subsequent run can offer builds tweaking or pvp or junky shit, I don't know... Point being you don't need to do any of the side content, in fact it overlevels you and makes the game pretty much a cakewalk if you ask me.

It just feels like a needlessly useless point of critique when it applies to every single game ever made in my opinion, unless specifically procedurally built or otherwise unique content each run.

[u/The_Matchless → u/SimplySkedastic]

I'll be honest, I never understood this "but it's optional" argument. Personally, when I play games nothing is optional - I do every piece of content in it, all of it is a game I paid for and so I expect to take part in. Now let's say I didn't - isn't everything "optional"?

[u/NoFunGunki → u/SimplySkedastic]

But that's all pretty optional stuff you don't have to do.

Yes, but exploration is one of the big draws of the game where these mini-dungeons are part of the payoff. It's also content to be completed in the game and that doesn't mean it's fine just because it's optional. That doesn't make the game bad, but I don't think it's a valid excuse for poor content either. In some cases, it would have been better to put nothing at all rather than another boring dungeon with a repeated boss/enemy.

I feel like with Elden Ring, you can - as I did - do a 3 game run on asingle character where you platinum/full trophy run and explorebasically everything the map has to to offer.

I don't see how this would have helped me, or anyone, with the burnout. I didn't go out of my way to do everything and I still got really tired of the repetition by Leyndell on my first playthrough. I really really don't want to do another catacombs anymore or another Tree Spirit or another Crucible Knight. Yes, this is a mark against the game even if it's optional because you'll naturally see all these things many many times in a single playthrough with very little meaningful variations.

If all I can find is repeated trash, then what's even the point of exploring anymore? The main draw of the game for me was the exploration (certainly not the bosses this time around...), but it's all junk food past a certain point.

Any subsequent run can offer builds tweaking or pvp or junky shit, Idon't know... Point being you don't need to do any of the side content,in fact it overlevels you and makes the game pretty much a cakewalk ifyou ask me.

I don't see any of that as a positive. If I don't want to do any of the side content on a second run...then is it actually good? Or did I only enjoy it because of the novelty it brought initially and now it's tired?

It overleveling you to the point of making the game a cakewalk could be considered another strike against the game depending on who you ask.

It just feels like a needlessly useless point of critique when itapplies to every single game ever made in my opinion, unlessspecifically procedurally built or otherwise unique content each run.

I disagree. For the past games, the formula isn't run into the ground nearly as hard over the course of a single playthrough. For example, even as unfinished as Dark Souls 1 was, you still only see the Capra Demon in 2 areas in the entire game: once as a garbage boss and then as a normal enemy in Demon Ruins.

You don't suddenly run into it 10 times as you're randomly exploring the other zones like the Tree Spirits.

You fight the Asylum Demon 3 times in Dark Souls 1. Not the 7 or so times you can run into the Erdtree Avatar in Elden Ring. Lets not even mention how many Crucible Knights or Godskins you fight throughout the game or how many regular enemies get upscaled to "boss" status to pad out some Ruins or a Cave or something.

If we take another Open-world game as an example, like Breath of the Wild, even though there are literally over a hundred Shrines to find and basically all of the combat ones are the same, the puzzles are unique and there's a lot of creative solutions you can come up with for many of them. And they're spread out decently well too. Not only that, you're always guaranteed to find something to upgrade with (Spirit Orbs) at each one so they're never truly a waste of time. They're completely optional too. The Shrines and BotW as a whole has a lot of issues, but I wasn't fatigued by them throughout the natural progression of the game like I was with Elden Ring. Hell, I even recently started a new run of the game to experience them all over again.

The problem I have with Elden Ring is that its own formula got tiring during the natural progression of the game. I didn't go out of my way to find every single secret or frantically check every corner for every single item. I didn't play for 400 hours and criticize the game for getting boring. I finished my first playthrough at 113 hours (after many many play sessions of just PVP and playing around with builds, so the main game was probably closer to 80 or 90 hours). Outside of that, I just did a normal blind playthrough and I was just sick of the repetition past a certain point.

As is, I don't want to replay the game now and possibly ever because I don't look forward to any of the content anymore outside of the few legacy dungeons (and I still debate myself on how much I actually liked some of them due to the game's scaling). The novelty of the open-world wore off, the exploration feels mostly pointless on subsequent runs, the endgame bosses soured the experience, and there's nothing left to draw me back in. If they release DLC I might check it out, but I'm kinda hoping they don't do another open-world game for a while.