Elden Ring and Me

Of all the From Software games I’ve played, ‘Elden Ring‘ has made one of the largest impacts on my life. Like ‘Dark Souls‘ and ‘Bloodborne‘ before it, this game was and still is an experience I will never forget. It’s a true masterpiece in ever regard, flaws and all, and I’ve come to hold it near and dear to my heart.

Originally, I had intended for this article to be a straight-forward review of the game. But when I went to write it, I found that it just didn’t feel like enough. Sure, I could go on and on about how good the game is, but what would be the point? Game’s been out for two years, sold twenty-five million copies, become a mainstay on websites like Twitch and YouTube, and is one of the highest rated video games of all time. You know as well as I do how good ‘Elden Ring‘ is.

Instead, I’m going to do something more personal. I’m going to share with you all my personal experience with ‘Elden Ring.’ From my first time playing to how it impacted my real life for the better, I aim to tell you a tale of how this became one of the most important video games I’ve ever played.

What better way to get excited for the DLC than to recall why one loves the game to begin with?

Chapter 1: The Wait

From Software games have become some of the most anticipated releases in gaming. Yet even among them, ‘Elden Ring‘ stood head and shoulders above the rest. Miyazaki’s incredible game design paired with lore from legendary fantasy author George R.R. Martin? Could you imagine a more promising pairing?

I certainly couldn’t! My excitement for this game was through the roof from the very first teaser trailer! Every new announcement, every trailer, every day closer to the release had me on the edge of my seat!

Until reality came along and kicked me in the nards.

December 2021. After living independently for nearly three years, my landlord decided to sell the apartment my friends and I were renting. We had to be packed and moved out by Christmas or pay rent for another month. My roommates and I knew this was coming, so we tried to get out early. Unfortunately, our realtors wouldn’t let us off unless it was on their terms; they wanted to squeeze us for a few extra pennies before kicking us out onto the streets. Safe to say I wasn’t excitedly in a mood to be excited for anything, much less a game several months away.

Things didn’t get much better at home. I have a… complicated relationship with certain members of my family. Members that weren’t exactly empathetic to my problems. After returning home with my tail between my legs, I was met with mockery and emotional abuse. Since then, my relationship with this person (who shall go unnamed) has been damaged beyond repair.

These events in tandem left me angry and depressed for the rest of December and pretty much the entirety of January. I felt bitter, frustrated, powerless, and hopeless. Part of me wanted to march back to that apartment and scream at the new owners out of spite.

Luckily, I had good friends to help me through the transition. Two of which were also very excited for ‘Elden Ring.’ As the release drew nearer, they invited me to join them for a three-night long marathon of the game. With my excitement newly rekindled, I took the days off of work, figured out the arrangements with the boys, and waited for the release date.

Chapter 2: Midnight Release

February 24th, 2022. I was working a closing shift at the restaurant my buds and I worked at. Customers had arrived a few minutes before closing, and instead of taking the hint in our glares and going to McDonald’s, they decided it was perfectly acceptable to order a full-course meal at 10:29 in a restaurant that closes at 10:30. If I weren’t elbow-deep in soapy water, I’d have been right beside their table, locking eyes with them and tapping my wrist repeatedly.

11:34 PM. I finally clocked out, the customers banished and the last of the plates settled back onto the shelves. My two bros were waiting for me in a big white van, urging me to hurry at every step. Driving at unsafe speeds, we flew back to my house to collect my PS5, then sped our way down to their place. We arrived at 11:50. Scrambling like it was the end of the world, we set up TVs beside one another, plugged in the consoles, gathered the snacks and drinks, and settled into our pajamas as the countdown timer ticked down.

Midnight finally struck. ‘Elden Ring‘ was out. Settling in for a long weekend, we all booted up the game, rushed through character creation, and took our first steps into the Lands Between.

The following three days were some of the happiest in my entire life. No laments over apartments lost, no burning hate for landlords or real estate agents or shitty siblings, no existential dread for the future. For three days, it was just me, good friends, cozy couches, good food, and an adventure through an incredible game. We shared our discoveries. Struggled together against Margit the Fell. Tested our burgeoning builds against each other in PvP. Anything we wanted to do, we did, and every single minute of it was an absolute delight.

For a while, the three of us were just kids sharing our awe and wonder. When one bro found the Greatsword, the rest of us followed his guidance to get it. When I stumbled upon the Siofra River for the first time, we all sat back in stared in wonder until my friends demanded to know where I had found it. Playing with them made the magic of discovery in ‘Elden Ring‘ so much more enchanting.

Alas, time stops for no one. Those three days passed, and the real world came calling for us all once again. Gathering our things, we bid one another a fond farewell, then returned to our ordinary lives.

From there, I largely played through the game alone. My boys and I still got a few sessions of online co-op together, but those were limited due to my poor internet at the time. Even so, exploring ‘Elden Ring‘ alone was still every bit as incredible as ever.

Besides, the magic of shared discovery hadn’t ended. It had simply changed locations.

‘Elden Ring‘ quickly became a phenomenon on a scale far larger than any prior From Software game. Everybody I knew was talking about it. When I went into work, the kitchen was abuzz with conversations about items discovered, bosses beaten, and builds created. Whether I was alone or in company, this game utterly consumed my life.

Until I beat the final boss.

Chapter 3: Burnout

When I finally finished ‘Elden Ring,’ I was anything but satisfied. There were still secrets waiting in the Lands Between, and I would not stop until I had seen every single one. Loading my character back up, I scoured the world for every nook and cranny.

Halfway through this process, I started to realize my mistake. I had already beaten the game. I had already completed my character. Now I was going through the same repetitive dungeons, fighting the same repetitive monsters, for weapons and items I would not use. My excitement was diminishing like water sucked down a drain.

The final nail came when I was trying to unlock the ‘Legendary Armaments’ achievement. As it turned out, I was only one item away from getting the trophy. Unfortunately, since I had activated the endgame, said weapon was now unavailable to me. If I wanted it, I would have to restart the game and replay forty hours worth of content just to get it.

With an annoyed sigh, I started New Game+ and began the journey again to do just that. Some small part of me got excited. Perhaps I could recapture some of the game’s earlier magic. If nothing else, wiping out early game enemies and bosses with my endgame character would be satisfying.

Only it didn’t, and it wasn’t. By this point, I was thoroughly exhausted with ‘Elden Ring.’ There had been so much, and all of it had been so good. It had truly been a feast for the ages. But now my stomach was full to bursting, and I wanted to move on to other games. So I stopped playing and moved on.

This is no fault of the game. Even so, I couldn’t help but be disappointed. With every other From Software game I had played, I would replay them multiple times before wanting to put them down. I had played through ‘Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition‘ a total of three times before I put the game down, and even then, I only did so because I had bought a PS4 to play ‘Bloodborne‘! But ‘Elden Ring‘ had been so big, so fulfilling, that I couldn’t bring myself to go back for more.

For two years, I didn’t so much as touch ‘Elden Ring.’ It became something like an old flame. I remembered my time with the game fondly, more so than most other games I had played. Despite those happy memories, I had virtually no desire to rekindle that spark.

Little did I know that the tiny spark would eventually become a raging inferno.

Chapter 4: Reclaiming Lost Grace

On February 21st, 2024, nearly two years after the base game’s release, From Software released the first trailer for ‘Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.’ The internet caught fire pretty much the instant it dropped. The lore channels were compiling theories, build crafters were getting hyped over the new weapons, and Messmer the Impaler became gaming’s new most eligible bachelor. That old pre-release hype train had been brought back to life, and it was speeding out of the station!

Watching this trailer felt like Miyazaki had flipped a light switch in my brain. Finally! The magic of discovery that made that first playthrough of ‘Elden Ring‘ so special was back! And best of all: it comes out on June 21st. The day before my birthday. I’m not much one for higher powers, but I swear that God Himself must have been smiling on me with that one!

Just one problem: I didn’t have a DLC ready character. All I had was my original character, who was on New Game+. If I wanted to go to the Land of Shadow, I had to play through the game again stat.

In the end, it didn’t take nearly as long as I had worried. Turns out, the game goes by a hell of a lot quicker when you know where to go and are equipped with some of the strongest weapons, spells, and armor in the game. Not two days after I started, my Faith/Strength paladin was ready for the journey to the Land of Shadow. It even fulfills an old tradition of mine; every time I played a From Software DLC for the first time, it’s been in NG+.

But this left me with another problem. See, I got my character ready back in April. That left me with two months to wait. Issue was: I had the itch again. I wanted to keep playing, to whip myself back into shape, to get gud again before facing the challenges to come. So I started a brand new character.

And I finally understood what I was missing.

For this new playthrough, I wanted to play an entirely different kind of game than my first. Rather than specing into Faith magic, I decided to try out a Dexterity-Bleed build. I had expected this change of play style to be a simple fun change of pace. What I didn’t expect was it would completely change my understanding of the game.

Playing with magic had been a ton of fun. Stacking buffs, unleashing devastating waves of light or a straight-up Kamehameha, summoning spirits, it was amazing! Fighting with a Dex build, however, is about speed, stacking on rapid blows and filling the Bleed gauge as quickly as possible for maximum damage. It was a much needed change of pace.

More than that, the game took on a whole new light. I knew where everything was, how to get there, and how to kill whatever was in my way. The game suddenly changed from an exploratory journey to a gear-collecting scavenger hunt! It took on a whole new but equally addictive gameplay loop!

Since then, I’ve fallen right back into the rabbit hole. I’ve been catching up on the lore, watching challenge videos silly and impressive, studied speedruns, experimented with dumb meta builds, listened to the OST, rewatched Joel Haver’s legendary ‘Elden Ring from the NPC’s Perspective‘, and generally been hyperfixated to a potentially unhealthy degree. My sole birthday plan: play ‘Shadow of the Erdtree‘ non-stop like I’m turning fifteen instead of twenty-five.

Thank God. Because boy howdy, do I need it.

Chapter 5: A Familiar Shoulder

Guys, I gotta be real for a second. The last few weeks have been rough on me. Events in my personal life have taken a dive straight into Shitsville. I came painfully close to having a full-blown meltdown. I am so, so tired.

It isn’t the first time I’ve been like this. Far from it. That earlier story with my apartment was just one example. Life has kicked me in the nuts more than a few times, and sometimes, it’s hard to get back up.

A long time ago, ‘Dark Souls‘ helped me get back on my feet at such a time. Two years ago, ‘Elden Ring‘ did the same. Now, ‘Shadow of the Erdtree‘ is set to work that From Software magic once again. Like an old friend getting back in touch and lending me a shoulder to lean on.

‘Elden Ring‘ is one of those rare, beautiful games for me. The kind that only come around once every blue moon and change my world for the better. All the more so because, at the heart of it all, the game is just really damn fun to play.

I’ll see y’all in the Land of Shadow.