The first mini-boss I encountered was the Burial Tree Watchdog, an ancient Celtic-like living statue, and, honestly, my favourite design so far in Elden Ring.
Despite only getting to play around 6 hours due to the server issues on the Friday I had set aside for the game, my time with Elden Ring ultimately ended in me finding three unique bosses, two of which could be considered as mini encounters, a terrifying jousting knight on horseback and Margit the Fell Omen, the biggest threat out of the lot. Firstly, the game not only features a large and expansive playing field, but one populated with numerous side ventures and areas of interest that all feel unique. Unlike Breath of the Wild, which I thoroughly enjoyed but ultimately found hollow, or at the very least repetitive in its approach to open-world content, Elden Ring seemingly fixes. “The open world, the biggest point of concern I had going in, pleasantly surprised me with how dense it was with meaningful content, even considering the limited play area of the network test.” The open world, which was the biggest point of concern I had going in, pleasantly surprised me with how dense it was with meaningful content, even considering the limited play area of the network test.
Like an idiot, instead of completing the tutorial cave by falling down a small grotto, I instead immediately made it outside into the first open-world area present during the network test.Īllusions to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have been made before, which aptly describes the feeling I too experienced, stepping out into the Lands Between for the first time, mixed in with a healthy dose of the same kind of excitement I had when reaching Old Yharnam for the first time in Bloodborne. For my short stint with the game, I chose to play as the Bloody Wolf class, which brought a good mix of high endurance and vigour (not to mention cool looking armour, reminiscent of the promotional material).