I think the broadest possible answer to this would round down to “no”. The signaling that you’re under-statted for an area is basically “Go there, pick a fight, see if you can do much damage when you connect, or get killed in a single hit.” If you’re very good at avoiding hits, that gets a bit trickier to parse - and…

It may still be deadly.  In DS3 there’s a bridge that’s perfectly safe until someone takes a swing at the ropes on the posts at the end and then it collapses. You can fall to your death, but if you don’t, it turns into a ladder into an optional area of the game thats easy to miss.

Just wait until Souls fans call Elden Ring a casual baby game that ruins the “series” forever because the bridge doesn’t kill you.

Get those clicks to pay your $45000 salary, gal!

Thank you Ian!

I had the exact same thought; I remember that hallway all too well m8

Jeez, spoiler alert! FFS, now I know the game has bridges in it! Just another example of how this site isn’t as good as it used to be before this comment.

Reminds me of the 2001 RE remake back in the day when you first enter the dog hallway. You expect some zombie dogs to bust through the window like they did in the original 1996 game and you even hear something hit the window and see the glass crack a bit but then nothing happens.

So, does magic suck this time, or not?

yes

OP wants to stay spoiler-free

In a lot of ways, it’s both easier and harder - the increased freedom means you can get yourself into bad situations by pushing at the edges, but it also means you generally have ways to get stronger to alleviate the harder fights. If I found a particular boss especially brutal, is that because it’s actually hard, or…

I am one of those people. I do not feel like these games would be any lesser for having a difficulty slider. One player’s easy is another player’s hard.

Honestly from what I have been reading they have been doing everything they can to increase accessibility while preserving difficulty. Which I think is a good approach at this juncture. Things like keeping the world so open you can freely grind and explore and removing boss run ups.

Like, I am sure I am going to get…

From what I played myself it’s a lot more forgiving. It gives you a lot of tools to mitigate the danger and give yourself space to breathe, plus you can avoid a lot of combat and create a wide variety of builds.

Can you pause this like Sekiro, or is it like the other Soulsborne games where you can only save and quit? I know early builds you couldn’t pause. Guessing no, cause co-op is a possibility, but it seems like they could activate it if you’re in offline mode!

So, as with pretty much any other Elden Ring article - if you enjoy Soulsbourne games and the masochism therein, this is for you. If not...

the person writing these reviews is patently unqualified. (which is not surprising, considering the downhill trajectory of writing at the AVC over the last few years) so much of the subtext of this show is lost in her facile play-by-play recaps, it’s truly upsetting. i don’t have time to pick apart her entire recap…

I disagree with the position this review takes. Outside of the Zendaya-focus showcase a few weeks back, l thought this episode was the strongest of the season.