After I died for the 327th time within the first few hours of playing, I ditched it. Haven’t been back since. The gameplay is really cumbersome, blocking and dodging are hit or miss, and I’ve been jumping and rolling around all day like some unmedicated ADHD kid on speed trying to get one hit in that causes minimal damage, while every enemy counterattack goes near critical.
I’m not against a step learning curve or anything, but Elden Ring was a major frustration.
I mean this in a constructive way: you’re literally playing it wrong. Elden Ring is a Souls game, which (in terms of gameplay) is the complete opposite of a hack & slash button masher. There’s almost no animation cancelling, so once you press a button, you’re committed to the outcome and have to wait for it to finish. So if you miss a heavy swing with a giant 25 kg greataxe, you’ll be wide open for the enemies to smash you. The game requires self-control to make every input matter.
Once you acclimate though, I think the combat feels very good. It’s responsive (once you accept the fact that you can’t cancel actions), flexible, and the hitboxes are way more accurate than most games.
But don’t think you have to master it all at once. The enemies are tough, but you don’t have to fight fair. Sneak and backstab if you can, soften them up with arrows or ranged spells, debuff them with throwables, summon some spirit ash helpers, use the environment to land attacks from the high ground, stack up poison and bleed effects, use a shield to block-counter, use your weapon abilities to help break enemy poise, etc etc. You can create entire builds around any of these but of course there’s power in combinations.
