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they still seem to be insistent on this nonsense being good game design.
Ha, so many articles atm about Elden Rings apparent design 'misteps' such as having to drop into a dodgy looking pit for the tutorial at the start. "Why not make it clear that this will be really helpful for new players.?"
I respect their lack of compromise though as any Souls veteran will agree this game is full of accommodations for noobs, which is good.
Remember that the huge reputation garnered by the Souls series was built on the games that wasted way more than 5 minutes of games previous time to get back to where you'd reached pre dying (Sen's fortress lols)
These games evolve a stoic approach to life.
There is also much written about how DS games have offered help for people with mental health issues.
skydancer-
just because they did it a lot before still doesn't make it a good decision. you can find the same criticism of boss run backs all the way through the series. it's never been a good feature. it's there to artificially increase the amount of play time with rote repetition of an incredibly boring part of the game play. the games are a success because of the tough combat a boss run-back does nothing for that.
with elden ring they've shown that boss fights can be soul-crushingly tough without the need for these cheap tricks. it's current success is testament to that.
If your enjoyment of the game is dependent on an innate feeling of overcoming pointless hardships outside of the actual gameplay to prove something bigger to yourself then you can just spawn further away and give yourself a nice pat on the back.
HatBeard
the rennala boss fight is everything I hate about souls games. they've literally abandoned all of the QoL changes for this one fight. long run to the boss, elevator, boring unnecessary first phase and then boss that just spams ranged attacks non-stop across the arena when their health is below half so it's instakill if you make one misstep and another 5 minutes of your life wasted to get to the point you can try it again.
if this was the overall elden ring experience i would have been playing dying light for the past week instead.
actually winds me up that they still seem to be insistent on this nonsense being good game design. it would be less shit if they just locked the boss door for 5 minutes instead and let you spawn there. least then I can go have a piss and grab a snack from the kitchen while you waste my time unnecessarily