People who tried Elden Ring, is the game really that difficult?

Elden Ring was my first From Soft game, let’s start with that caveat. I found it hard, but not punishingly so. Once I got used to the realization that you can’t just run in and swing your sword with abandon, I was able to complete the game 100% fighting every boss and getting every ending. Definitely an enjoyable game and I would recommend giving it a play through.

If it’s your first FromSoft game, yes. It’s hard. FromSoft games are meant to be challenging and punishing… emphasis on the punishing. If you suck, you get punished for sucking.

If this IS NOT your first FromSoft game, it’s not too bad. Tough and tricky like all FromSoft games, but far from the most difficult.

It's not as difficult as people say it is, but it's harder than the average game that wants you to win.

Games like Skyrim generally aren't very hard. They might show you scary things like a big troll or dragon, but they're mostly paper tigers. You can always pause the game and eat 90 cheese wheels to heal, or save scum, or whatever. On top of that, the default numbers are such that you can probably take a beating before you go down.

Elden Ring, and other fromsoft games, don't generally do that. The big knight with the big axe will probably kill you if he hits you a couple times, and then you go back to the checkpoint to try again.

But there are so many ways to deal with that problem. Just run past the knight. Dodge. Get a big shield and block. Use ranged attacks. Use a spirit ash. Summon a whole other player. Cheese it with poison. Fuck off and come back with more levels/upgrades/trinkets

Players that just repeatedly try one approach over and over and over are going to have a bad time. There's a field boss right after the tutorial. Some people will see it and spend hours fighting it. That shit is pretty hard when you're basically naked, have the minimum amount of healing, and no other tools. Just walk away. It's a really hard game if you insist on playing it in ways that maximize hardness

If it is your first Souls-like game, then yes. Otherwise no.

If you've played the rest of the franchise, no it's actually the easiest. If you've never played a FromSoftware game before in your life, there's going to be an adjustment period where you find the game very difficult, because it's quite obtuse. It revels in putting a giant wall in your path to push you to explore and find ways to even out your fight. If you're willing to engage ER on it's own terms and really learn the systems, I don't really think there's any bosses along the critical path that I'd characterize as too difficult.

Now, some of the optional content and the DLC? Yeah that shit is hard af, but you are meant to only start tackling it after you've beaten the main plot.

I've not played it but I've watched loads of streamers playing it and they've really struggled with it. Their literal job is being good at this, so that shows it really is hard. I remember one final boss a streamer was stuck for several streams.

Yes it’s more difficult than most RPG games if you just go in blind. It won’t hold your hand. But it is so much more rewarding than other games too. You will die so much and that’s intended :)

It depends on how you play it. Buff up through grinding is less punishing. Minmaxing requires more skill.

Yes. It absolutely is. People fall for the trap of thinking that just because a boss has inherent patterns and weaknesses that it means it isn't difficult because you can learn that pattern and weakness. That's flawed thinking. It's like saying that every single game, aside from really well designed pseudorandom based games, isn't difficult. The difficulty in everything from the old megaman games, the nintendo-hard games, bullet hells, fighting games, every shooter that isn't multiplayer, etc. etc. etc. etc. somehow isn't difficult because you can learn patterns and thus beat bosses. Somehow no one noticed how (/hysterical_sarcastic_screeching) absolutely no game they liked was ever difficult because it could be beaten?

I'd say that a game's difficulty has mostly been about how long it takes or how easily a player could learn said patterns. Do you have to simply repeat the boss a thousand times? Or do you need to take a moment after each loss, analyze the battle and can do it in 5 tries? The 'dark souls' type of game is really good at stepping around that issue by baiting players into straying from a pattern, making the 'time-to-learn' longer and more obfuscated. They also give you several ways to slot yourself into the pattern, which makes it even more difficult (ha) to compare yourself to the videos that many today watch to gauge others and yourself on the same measure.

I'd put elden ring as mildly difficult. It's certainly easier (and maybe more streamlined/optimized) in the level design, which makes it much easier for a person new to these types of games to wrap their head around (and I'd argue that when a player learns any games map is when they start to have an easier time of things; the same reason that turning down the radio when you're lost makes it easier to determine where you are), and its bosses are very much 'smooth' in their fighting and telegraphing, which allows for the player to not put in as much effort to learn the patterns. None of that changes that it will likely take dozens of deaths per boss for most people to beat them.

No.

The game offers the option to just grind a few levels if bosses or passages are a tad too difficult for you.

It's difficult, bit you can adapt the difficulty to your liking (to an extent).

Short answer, yes.

Longer answer, it's a game of patience and learning patterns. You will die... a lot. If you don't like struggling for an hour, sometimes a few hours, on the same boss, then you probably won't like the game.

It is more forgiving than Dark Souls though.

I love the game. Learning those patterns and finally defeating whatever it is you're fighting is the reward.

Yes, but actually no.

The game requires you to react and respond to a variety of attacks with fairly strict timing. It is extremely punishing. You often still take at least some damage or some form of disadvantage if you choose a close but not perfect response.

None of these patterns overlap into perfect checkmate situations though some situations exist that are extremely difficult - they are usually avoidable and require multiple large scale mistakes to get into. The game was designed to be beaten - the devs purposely made every encounter have glaring weaknesses and openings, but they do often require a nuanced understanding of not only the game mechanics but also the physical execution of the strategy.