Table of contents
Hello friends and gamers,
At the time of writing, I have about five hours played on Elden Ring. My, my, what a glorious five hours this has been in the wonderful world of Lord of the Rings lore. Being able to explore the world without being nagged by the main character to continue in one direction is just so pleasant to the eardrums sometimes. This video game literally let’s us do whatever we want whenever we feel like it. In turn, every piece of knowledge turns into a “Eureka!” moment. Enemies, environments, allies: all so fresh and polished. It’s like reading a new fantasy book off the shelf and discovering there was more than meets the eye here.
Now five hours is A LOT to cover in a blog sitting, so I won’t bore you by describing everything… Like tiny silver fireflies are found next to cold water in the darkest areas of caves and these are used for crafting ho- *record scratch* right. Anyway, I am going to share with you some fun and interesting things I have learned or witnessed within the first hour of the game. Fasten your saddle and let’s get to adventuring!
Customization
Customization is huge for a lot of gamers. Maybe I’m odd, but as I get older, I began to care less about my appearance in video games haha. I used to spend hours sculpting what I thought was how my face looked onto character creators. Now I’m like, “He’s got a head. He’s got long hair. I have long hair. Looks good!” So honestly, I spent 4-5 minutes on this bit and moved on. I like my hero.
Prologue
The opening sequence has beautiful artwork. The narrator was having too much fun saying loathsome Dung-Eater and I support that. My character is revived from death by this narrator/sorcerer and referred to as “Tarnished.” I woke up in a burnt, ruined chapel. As I walked outside and down a flight of stairs, there is immediately an encounter with an overpowered weird-looking boss who has what feels like 6 different slicing arms. By the way, the game gives you no combat tutorials during this moment and you are quite literally, fully expected to die. And so I did. I died. Fast.
I spawned in the true Elden Ring tutorial, where I learned the basic beginner ways of combat and exploration. After some nice popup messages and some hacking and slashing, I was ready. I did the optional dungeon and defeated the boss. Hooray! Once that was completed, I opened the door to the outside world.
The Erdtree
Instantly, I noticed the largest luminescent tree I have ever seen in my life. It was planted right in the center (or what I assume so far is the center) of the world. Although I could visibly see the tree from a distance, I already understood just how massive it was. In retrospect, I also understood just how puny I was in this vast open world. I bet I looked like any other normal ant.
Tree Sentinel
The first enemy in the open world that 95% of players will spot is actually an optional boss named Tree Sentinel! He’s riding a war horse outlined with gold-plated armor. The rider is outfitted in complete metal armor and wielding a large halberd. My first instinct is I definitely shouldn’t mess with this guy. Trust me, new players to Dark Souls and Elden Ring, this guy is huge bait. Don’t fall for it. Of course, I fought the cavalry unit anyway. Yes, I got slaughtered. Obliterated. Denied. HELPFUL TIP #1: Go around him lol.
What’s the first thing I did besides die to the optional horseback king? I saw birds on a rock and wondered if I could hit them before they flew off. And I could! My hardest decision was choosing which direction to walk in. Quite literally, I was able to explore in any direction and find something new. I decided to head straight and then to the left.
Catacombs
I found a catacomb, an optional dungeon. A new enemy was introduced, a statue-like goblin/imp creature. Sneaky devils, these creatures are. I was ambushed by five of these guys at one point because I was goaded by the sight of a corpse and a shiny item. Yes, the greedy sin for treasure did happen to kill me this time. There was also some fire-breathing hallways here that caught me off-guard.
Erdtree Burial Watchdog
Eventually, I moved onto the boss of the catacombs! An Erdtree Burial Watchdog who is much taller and stout than I am. He wields a giant two handed sword that even deals chip damage when blocking with my shield. I died the first time but the first round is always about learning attack patterns anyway. Surprisingly, I beat the boss on my second try. However, I had literally 1 health point left. My health was so non-existent that you could not even see a red sliver on the bar. The health bar was completely black. I think the biggest takeaway here is to never give up!!
More Updates Soon. Feel Free to Comment!
I have many hours of footage I need to sift through, but I can’t wait to talk about some of my experiences. If you have been enjoying Elden Ring or have any questions, feel free to comment! I’d love to talk about it some more with my friends and gamers. See you all soon in the next update!