There are many players like Ben.
A lot of loyal Souls series veterans jumped into the world of Elden Ring right away, thinking it would be easy to make a name for themselves with their skills.
But reality quickly gave them a harsh lesson, making them feel like they were back to the first time they ever played a Souls game.
The Tree Sentinel at the start left countless players utterly defeated.
And that was just the beginning.
Unlike Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Dark Souls, which were basically linear experiences, Elden Ring feels more like a prequel to Dark Souls.
As an open-world game, Elden Ring lets players go pretty much anywhere they can reach.
Of course, this comes with very painful consequences.
The game is filled with unimaginable malice.
For example, a trap chest that made Ben want to cry but couldn't – who would have thought a chest could teleport you to a late-game area?
Even worse, in that area, attacking with your unupgraded starting weapon is basically like tickling the enemies.
And once you're teleported, you can't even teleport back.
It's safe to say that 99% of players who find this chest in the Dragon-Barrow Ruins will fall for it.
The only comfort for players, compared to Bloodborne and Dark Souls, is that Elden Ring has a special mechanic: calling for help! Besides some specific NPC helpers you can call on to assist you against bosses, there's a special system called Ashes of War.
In the game, players can obtain various Ashes of War that can be attuned and used with the Spirit Calling Bell to summon different spirit helpers.
With these Ashes of War, players can even create situations where they outnumber their enemies.
This is a godsend for clumsy beginners!
While it's not a complete stomp, and the boss AI and the strength of the Ashes of War don't drastically unbalance things in Lucas's design, the key is the comparison.
"See! As a Tarnished player, this is totally the righteous path!" Ben exclaimed, looking at the Grafted Scion being attacked by a jellyfish and the sorcerer Rogier, whom he had summoned at the entrance to Stormveil Castle.
He was deeply moved.
What he remembered most from those wuxia TV dramas was how the righteous heroes would shout: "Why talk about chivalry with these evil scoundrels? Let's all jump them together!" Now, he could finally experience that feeling.
He had accidentally stumbled into the Stormveil Prison Depths from the Dragon-Barrow Ruins and had to give it his all to escape.
God knows what he went through on the way.
In the prison depths, he was beaten by miners and ore blobs, and then by overseers that looked like giant shrimp.
After leaving the mine, he wanted to see the outside world.
But in a ruined magic academy, he encountered all sorts of spell-wielding enemies – some attacked from range, some up close, and some did both! It really taught him what it felt like to be overwhelmed.
And the land called Caelid was filled with countless horrors.
On this land corrupted by Scarlet Rot, besides ghoulish living husks and all sorts of strange insects, there were mutated creatures infected by Scarlet Rot, and giant rats and crows with red glowing eyes.
As for the Cleanrot Knights in the Scarlet Rot pools, they were simply terrifying.
On this land, Ben fully understood what it meant to be weak.
Forget bosses, even a regular monster could wipe the floor with him.
So, after teleporting back to Limgrave, Ben dutifully made his way to Stormveil Castle.
And here, he encountered his second true boss in the game: the Grafted Scion.
A big club, attacks that were hard to react to, and a sweeping tail attack.
He thought the Tree Sentinel was already tough, but this Grafted Scion showed him what it meant when they say "there's always someone stronger." The only comfort was that the game let you outnumber your opponents.
With NPC allies and summonable Ashes of War.
He had a jellyfish, given to him by a story NPC who looked like Little Red Riding Hood, and Sorcerer Rogier.
This resulted in a righteous three-on-one fight.
However, even with a three-on-one advantage, Ben still found it difficult.
The main reason was that his summoned spirit ashes and allies seemed incredibly stupid, while the Grafted Scion boss was very agile and intelligent.
"Seriously! You're a sorcerer! Do you even know what a sorcerer is? Why are you going in for a close-quarters fight with the boss?! What are you and my little jellyfish going to do if you die?"
After dying and reviving again, he summoned Sorcerer Rogier.
As soon as he entered, he saw Rogier, acting like a maniac, charging at the Grafted Scion, getting smacked away by its club, then getting up and charging back relentlessly.
At this moment, Ben couldn't help but vent.
A righteous three-on-one sounds good, but the problem is that Rogier, despite being a sorcerer, insisted on fighting the Grafted Scion up close.
As a sorcerer, Ben saw him cast a cool sword array above his head, but the rest of the time he was just brawling with the Grafted Scion.
Even with help, the rhythm of the fight was completely thrown off.
What Ben didn't know about this area is that Lucas had made many changes to the combat system from the Elden Ring of his past life.
In that past life, the most criticized aspects of the Elden Ring combat system were the frequent "input reading" and the overly strong aggro of the spirit ashes.
The input reading made bosses feel like "trash mobs." If you didn't attack, they would attack; if you didn't dodge, they wouldn't move.
This meant that if you reacted, you were likely to get hit, essentially turning the game into a mindless exchange of blows between monsters and players.
At the same time, the spirit ashes' aggro and their hearty health pools allowed monsters to constantly focus on the ashes, ignoring the player.
So, in the Elden Ring of his past life, the difficulty curve with or without a companion wasn't dropping from, say, 100 to 90, but directly from 100 to 50.
Now, Lucas had put a lot of effort into the Elden Ring combat system.
When summoning NPC allies and spirit ashes, the bosses' AI becomes significantly improved, and their movesets become more chaotic.
In solo mode, bosses don't just read inputs mindlessly; they are more about players reacting to each move, responding to the boss's wind-up animations, much like boss fights in Monster Hunter: World.
If you are familiar with the boss's attack patterns, it's actually more efficient and simpler to fight them without NPC or spirit ash help.
However, for the initial encounters, having allies and NPCs does provide a slightly higher margin for error.
Although he felt it was a bit stronger than the Tree Sentinel, after over an hour of fierce fighting, with the help of his allies and the jellyfish, Ben finally managed to stab the Grafted Scion to death with his halberd.
"I truly am a Tarnished filled with a sense of justice!" Looking at the Grafted Scion, who still managed to spew threats even in death, and thinking of his valiant sacrifices, the sorcerer and the jellyfish allies, Ben couldn't help but sigh.
"The virtuous are abundant with helpers, while the unvirtuous are few."
Why did he have teammates, while the Grafted Scion was like a lonely old man with nobody? Because he was a righteous Tarnished!
(End of this chapter)