So i think his general assessment of the pain points of elden ring wasn't totally wrong, but there are a few areas where I think he either treats the problem as too egregious or comes up with an incorrect solution that doesn't properly identify the actual root of the problem.
Like for example when it comes to exploration rewards / reward structure, he correctly states that a lot of the things you find in the mini dungeons or out in the field while exploring will be useless for a lot of players. Especially because people who play these games generally go into them with an idea of how they want to build their character.
I'd say he's right, but it's not as grave of a problem as he makes it out to be because this has been completely true for EVERY SOULS GAME lmao. You likely don't even get stuff your build can use from boss souls / remembrances and that shit's not optional.
He also says this makes tons of mini dungeons and side content irrelevant on following play throughs but again, this has been true SINCE DEMON'S SOULS. In subsequent play throughs of Demon's Souls you don't bother with the black skeleton in 4-1 if you're not trying to get the Crescent Falchion. Just like in Elden Ring you don't bother with getting past Lansseax if you don't want the Greatshield Talisman.
Like wise when he says that there aren't enough reward types because everything's a spell or a equipment piece but honestly I think from soft found some ridiculously clever ways to create rewards without handing things out piece meal like getting heart containers (which you still have anyway in the form of golden seeds). They created things like the ashes of war system. Now you can find weapon abilities that you can put on a lot of weapons. So even melee characters get to enjoy having abilities!
Anderson's solution to the problems he described was having the rewards for exploration be build agnostic stuff like persistent stat increases, random collectables for torrent and a bunch of really shitty collectible ideas that basically make exploration go from "oh cool i got a new thing i wonder if i can use it" to "fuck i wonder if the thing i need to complete the set of torrent sprint boosts is in there"
BUT LIKE
I don't think the gripes he was describing are a reward structure problem it's a play flexibility problem. If you're playing a great sword wielding high STR character and you find an interesting spell, you can't easily decide "oh I want to try that out!"
Especially because the deeper you get into the game the harder it becomes to experiment with your tool kit. When you have 20 str and 20 dex it's much easier to just decide you want to try out a full on STR weapon than it is when you have 20 str and 50 dex. In one instance you're not really wasting many stats in the other you're straight up losing a third of the levels most players will realistically get. Also side note by Elden Ring has THE CRAZIEST stat requirements for any souls game I have ever seen, like several weapons / spells with 40-60 req in a single stat. That's a lot of stat investment.
Therefore, I think the root of the problem is actually that elden ring presents you with seemingly limitless variety but doesn't exactly give you the avenues to explore it. Sure there is respeccing and yeah there are like 18 larval tears per play through, but I think either making respeccing become permanently available from the site of grace whenever you want or from a more attainable item like rune arcs would've been MUCH better.
Those random rewards you get in the wild that just sit in your inventory unused suddenly become things you can go back, respec and play around with!
That's it, that's what I think the solution to this is, free respecs all the time (or after rennala to keep it thematic)
You're already limited by upgrade materials in whether or not you want to invest into a weapon type, why should you be limited in whether or not you want to try it out by the way you chose to distribute your stats too?
Like for example when it comes to exploration rewards / reward structure, he correctly states that a lot of the things you find in the mini dungeons or out in the field while exploring will be useless for a lot of players. Especially because people who play these games generally go into them with an idea of how they want to build their character.
I'd say he's right, but it's not as grave of a problem as he makes it out to be because this has been completely true for EVERY SOULS GAME lmao. You likely don't even get stuff your build can use from boss souls / remembrances and that shit's not optional.
He also says this makes tons of mini dungeons and side content irrelevant on following play throughs but again, this has been true SINCE DEMON'S SOULS. In subsequent play throughs of Demon's Souls you don't bother with the black skeleton in 4-1 if you're not trying to get the Crescent Falchion. Just like in Elden Ring you don't bother with getting past Lansseax if you don't want the Greatshield Talisman.
Like wise when he says that there aren't enough reward types because everything's a spell or a equipment piece but honestly I think from soft found some ridiculously clever ways to create rewards without handing things out piece meal like getting heart containers (which you still have anyway in the form of golden seeds). They created things like the ashes of war system. Now you can find weapon abilities that you can put on a lot of weapons. So even melee characters get to enjoy having abilities!
Anderson's solution to the problems he described was having the rewards for exploration be build agnostic stuff like persistent stat increases, random collectables for torrent and a bunch of really shitty collectible ideas that basically make exploration go from "oh cool i got a new thing i wonder if i can use it" to "fuck i wonder if the thing i need to complete the set of torrent sprint boosts is in there"
BUT LIKE
I don't think the gripes he was describing are a reward structure problem it's a play flexibility problem. If you're playing a great sword wielding high STR character and you find an interesting spell, you can't easily decide "oh I want to try that out!"
Especially because the deeper you get into the game the harder it becomes to experiment with your tool kit. When you have 20 str and 20 dex it's much easier to just decide you want to try out a full on STR weapon than it is when you have 20 str and 50 dex. In one instance you're not really wasting many stats in the other you're straight up losing a third of the levels most players will realistically get. Also side note by Elden Ring has THE CRAZIEST stat requirements for any souls game I have ever seen, like several weapons / spells with 40-60 req in a single stat. That's a lot of stat investment.
Therefore, I think the root of the problem is actually that elden ring presents you with seemingly limitless variety but doesn't exactly give you the avenues to explore it. Sure there is respeccing and yeah there are like 18 larval tears per play through, but I think either making respeccing become permanently available from the site of grace whenever you want or from a more attainable item like rune arcs would've been MUCH better.
Those random rewards you get in the wild that just sit in your inventory unused suddenly become things you can go back, respec and play around with!
That's it, that's what I think the solution to this is, free respecs all the time (or after rennala to keep it thematic)
You're already limited by upgrade materials in whether or not you want to invest into a weapon type, why should you be limited in whether or not you want to try it out by the way you chose to distribute your stats too?
