I was sick of my boyfriend playing this game over and over again, so I decided to take action. After weeks of a gruelling battle with him, he finally conceded defeat. He said that it was the most fun he’d had in years.
You’re not going to beat Elden Ring in 49 hours (pic: Bandai Namco)
The great difficulty of Godrick the Grafted and Elden Ring nearly created a rupture in an otherwise pleasant relationship, according to a reader.
Elden Ring’s main tale can be completed in 49 hours, according to HowLongToBeat. I’m not sure how they arrived at this number, but I’d be shocked if any average player – not one of these speedrunning types – could accomplish it in less than 100 hours, since I’ve never encountered one. It isn’t my boyfriend, for sure.
For obvious reasons, I’m not going to mention names, but he’s an avid player. Or, to put it another way, he’s a dedicated player and I’m the one who’s interested. I like playing them, especially survival horror and games like Uncharted and God of War. Because neither comes along very often, and I don’t have a lot of free time, I don’t generally bother with open world games or Soulsborne titles because I know I won’t be able to finish them or see them in their entirety.
However, my partner, Dan, is a huge fan of FromSoftware, and I can see why. I like the way their games look, and I respect the fact that they don’t make compromises in the way they create them, with the high difficulty and lack of hand-handling. It doesn’t really match with how much free time I have, but I don’t want them to change – and I doubt they will now that Elden Ring has become so popular.
Despite the fact that Dan enjoys video games, I wouldn’t say he is very adept at them. He’s great in fighting games, but otherwise, I’d say he’s a rather mediocre player. He’s a little better at most things than I am, and he’s a lot better in Street Fighter 5. Unfortunately, maining Cammy doesn’t really help with Elden Ring, and I’ve been seeing him die again and over, which is upsetting since I know I couldn’t do any better, and yet it’s really dull to watch – despite how thrilling it is to play.
He struggled for a long time to defeat Margit, The Fell Omen, and he hit a brick wall with Godrick the Grafted and couldn’t get beyond him. It wasn’t just him, but he was enlisting co-op assistance, which generally turned out to be worse than he was. He wouldn’t give up, however, and would try again and again, moving away to level up, then returning to attempt again.
I told him he wasn’t learning the patterns properly and was simply trying to get by, but he wouldn’t listen and became more enraged. For a few days, he gave up, so I took over, studying the game in the open world (I’d previously played Dark Souls 3 a little, so I understood the fundamentals) and then taking on Godrick. I didn’t get far with it, which seemed to thrill Dan since it proved it wasn’t just him.
Then, on the second night of attempting, I narrowly won, and he was not pleased. He didn’t get furious or yell, but he did start making up reasons and generally pouting right away. Since then, he hasn’t turned the game back on.
I’m sure he’ll change his mind; he’s not normally this awful, or sexist, or whatever the reasons could be. He’s simply annoyed that he wasted so much time playing it and didn’t finish it himself. Worst of all, he now realizes I was correct about understanding the patterns and is blaming himself for not doing so sooner.
Is there a lesson to be learned from this story? I’m not certain. I like to believe that always listening to your partner is a solid rule of thumb for life in general, but at the very least, it demonstrates that Elden Ring requires more than just endurance. If you don’t have a strategy, depending only on your level and a chance encounter with a strong cooperator, things aren’t going to go well for you.
Persephone, a reader
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