Elden Ring First Impressions

 I finally got to play the game!

I built an Astrologer character - the equivalent of the Sorcerer. You start off with two spells, Glintstone Pebble, which is your standard missile-attack, and Glintstone Arc, which costs more but sends a horizontal crescent of magic outward, making it great against groups.

Like I often do, I've basically done everything except go where I'm supposed to. The characters I've met have directed me toward Stormveil Castle, which seems to be just past a little camp where you can try out stealth and the like. Instead of heading in, I've been exploring the lands south of there. I found a teacher of Sorceries (though they're both expensive and a little beyond my current 20 Intelligence - I've been leveling Vigor more or less alternating with it).

So far, difficulty-wise, it feels easier than, say, Dark Souls 3. In particular, the early areas of the game don't have that classic From Soft difficulty spike (though I'll tell you again when I get into the castle.) I've done several of the game's mini-dungeons, all of which felt very reasonable, diffculty-wise. Indeed, I think after two and a half hours of play, I've only died once or twice (not counting the "welcome boss" that is technically beatable but designed to kill you.)

The game actually has an honest-to-god tutorial section for people who aren't as familiar with the game's mechanics (though as an Astrologer my "technique" was just to hurl Glintstone Pebbles at my foes). The tutorial is also, mercifully, skippable, its only big reward (other than Runes, the equivalent of Souls/Blood Echoes) is a gesture.

There are some muscle-memory issues that make the game a little tricky (also, for some reason my controller's buttons were sticking a lot, but that's hardly the game's fault). Your interaction button is now Triangle, rather than X (on a PlayStation - I assume it's likewise flipped on other consoles). X lets you jump, which is a lot more relevant in this open world. There's a convenient "pouch" where you can put certain equipment (such as the ring to summon Torrent, your steed) and get it by holding down Triangle and then pushing the right direction on the D-pad.

Part of me thinks I should have started off with a melee build, but I'm sure I'd be having grass-is-greener feelings then too.

One other thing that took some experimentation is fast-travel. Rather than going to a Site of Grace (the equivalent of a Bonfire) and picking the one you want to travel to, you can instead pull up the map and just pick where you want to go (I think from anywhere). Given how expansive the world is, I'm glad we don't have to "earn" fast-travel (especially because the NPC who teaches sorceries is in the basement of a ruin you find after you beat a mini-boss.)

Things are very wide open - I'd sort of expected the region I was in to be somewhat closed off and funneling me to a bottleneck, but unless I just haven't explored the "kiddie pool" yet, I think it's a lot more open than that. This can be a little overwhelming. I don't really have a great sense of how huge the world is and how difficult it will be to get what I need, but I'm still very much in the "let's see how this goes" stage.

I haven't yet found an ash of war that gives a melee weapon Intelligence scaling, which has been a bit limiting, but again, I'm very early in the game.