Elden Ring

Elden Ring’s Game Boy demake is absolutely brilliant

The Lands Between will be 8-bit soon and playable on actual hardware.

There’s no question that Elden Ring is beautiful, but one fan is keen on turning the Lands Between into an 8-bit adventure. Not that old-school visuals are any less pretty, mind you.

Over on Reddit, user Shintendo revealed their Elden Ring demake for the Game Boy (Thanks, VG247). This project is only in the beginning stages, as is evident by footage where only the Chapel of Anticipation starting area is complete. Even the horrific Grafted Scion boss fight is there for you to live out that extremely early-game nightmare.

Watch the snippet of gameplay from the Elden Ring demake for yourself below. It’s certainly channeling the game energy as Zelda: Link’s Awakening or Pokemon Red for Game Boy.

I’m making an Elden Ring demake for the Game Boy! It will work on real hardware! from Eldenring

The rolling animation is just adorable and hilarious. Almost like the poor little tarnished is cartwheeling through the air without a care in the world.

Shintendo said in the Reddit thread that not only will this version of Elden Ring be playable on real hardware, but they’re aiming to release a demo by the end of May.

As for where you might be able to download it, they’re hoping to release it on Itch.io — which is the same PC storefront where Bloodborne’s PS1 demake is along with the (eventual) kart-racing spinoff. FromSoftware titles are perfect for old-school makeovers, it seems.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Sandbox games – the best open world games to play right now

If you’re looking for a sandbox game to mess around in, or an open world game to fully immerse yourself in, you’ve come to the right place.

If you’re looking for a sandbox game to mess around in, or an open world game to fully immerse yourself in, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve climbed the viewpoint tower of video games and unlocked the map icons. We’ve driven across the dustbowls, and we’ve soared through the skies. We even had a little swim.

But before we dive in, let’s go over some quick ground rules. We’ll only choose one game from a series, and we’ll focus on recent games, or games that are easy to play in 2022 – otherwise it wouldn’t be a very good list of the best open-world games to play right now, would it? No, it wouldn’t. Not at all.

With that in mind, let’s pull up the menu, squeeze L2, zoom right out on our map, and choose a location to parachute right in.

GTA 5

The game with more longevity than a frozen Big Mac, it sticks around in the video game charts and on lists such as this because GTA 5 is a masterpiece of open-world design. The amount of detail Rockstar puts into its virtual spaces is unparalleled, making them places you don’t mind spending a decade in. Los Santos is like a comfort blanket – if comfort blankets occasionally mugged you while you were sleeping. Powered by Rockstar’s physics tech, it’s a great sandbox game outside of the missions, too. Whether you’re long jumping into pedestrians or performing impossible stunts on a motorcycle, there’s plenty of scope for making your own fun.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 might not have the sandbox tools of GTA 5, but it makes up for it with its living and breathing ecosystem. It’s not just the pedestrians that are believable here, but the hundreds of animals roaming its dusty plains. Bucks fight to the death, eagles swoop down and capture fish from lakes, bears rub their backs on trees, dogs shake off water from their fur, cats take shelter in the rain, cows sleep at night, and carrion meticulously tear apart corpses. It’s a game where you can be completely at one with nature, and then shoot and skin everything that moves for a fistful of dollars. If you like stuff like this, check out our list of the best cowboy games.

Metal Gear Solid V

It might be unfinished, but Metal Gear Solid V is still the daddy of traditional stealth games. Where the previous games in the series opted for a straight line from start to finish, Metal Gear Solid V gives you wide-open landscapes and an even wider toolset. Take the humble cardboard box, which you can use to hide underneath, slide down sand dunes, fold out as a distraction, and even stow yourself away on a delivery truck. Everything in the game has multiple uses, and the progression you make back at your base gives you enough excuses to spend time outside of missions, kidnapping army men (and sheep).

The Witcher 3

One of the best RPGs ever created, this one is cheating a little bit because there’s not much to do outside of the authored content, but that stuff is everywhere. It’s hard to tell the difference between a main mission and a side quest in The Witcher 3 because the quality bar is so consistently high. Wander off in any direction and you’ll stumble upon multi-tiered quests that take you on an emotional journey. And if you are here just for exploration, there’s plenty to see out in the world if you don’t mind piecing the scenes together for yourself – the remnants of a battlefield, colossal siege towers peppered with arrows, and abandoned towns that hide ghostly secrets await.

Cyberpunk 2077

Is everyone done losing their mind over the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t a simulation where you can live an actual second life yet? Have we agreed that it’s just a video game? Good, I’m glad. Let’s actually talk about how brilliant it is for a change. Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City is a sprawling futuristic metropolis that’s as packed with meaningful things to do as The Witcher 3. Sure, it’s not quite a GTA 5-style sandbox game, but put some tunes on and drive from the badlands into Night City after the sun sets and you’ll see what it’s all about.

Do you like messing around with helpless NPCs in sandbox games? Well, you’ll hate Elden Ring, a game where the NPCs mess about with you. Once you get over the fact that you can be killed by a rat, an incredible open-world experience is waiting for you here. Every single corner of the map is stuffed with new discoveries, which themselves are sometimes entirely new maps. The way it all unfolds is masterful. It also has another sandbox quality in how it allows you to play your own way, with dozens of spell and weapon combinations to toy with. Whether you want to dual-wield whips or kill enemies using only your ass, there’s something for you. No wonder we added it to our roundup of best PC games.

Skyrim

It’s the law to include Skyrim on every list like this, despite the fact that everyone and their nan has played it. That’s because Skyrim is almost impossible to ever truly finish. Yeah, you’ve seen all the main story and completed all the guilds, but have you found that weird thing in that specific cave? Have you been to that guy’s house? You almost certainly haven’t.

Minecraft

The definition of a true sandbox game, Minecraft is whatever you want it to be. Build a roller coaster to ride with your friends, fight interdimensional dragons, fend off hordes of zombies, or recreate the Sistene Chapel. Once you’ve done everything there is to do in vanilla Minecraft (approx 10,000 years from now), there are always mods and player servers. It’s no wonder this game specifically has sustained the careers of so many YouTubers.

Horizon Forbidden West

You can do anything you want in Horizon Forbidden West, so long as what you want is to shoot massive robot dinosaurs – and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want that? Where the first game was rather restrictive about how you traversed its massive map, here you get a hand glider, and the ability to swim underwater and climb almost any surface. Later, you can tame flying machines and soar through the skies. While it’s a very combat-focused game, the nature of those battles changes from fight to fight, thanks to smart AI and the ability to prep a battleground with traps in advance. You also learn about the different machines the more you play, getting to know their weaknesses and strengths. It’s up to you how you take them down.

Ghost of Tsushima

OK, this one is definitely more of a map game – you know, where you go between map icons and complete repetitive tasks – but it’s set in one of the most beautiful worlds you’ve ever seen. It doesn’t feel alive in the same way as Red Dead Redemption 2, but everything is constantly in motion, the wind swaying pampas grass and trees, rippling over grassy plains, and whipping at your character’s clothes. Perfect for a virtual holiday if you don’t mind bloodying your sword.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Explore England, Ireland, Paris, Norway, some of America, and the land of the gods on foot, by horse, and on a longboat. Ubisoft is known for creating truly huge virtual worlds, but Assassin’s Creed Valhalla feels like eating a footlong Subway sandwich for every meal. Despite its size, it’s content dense, too. Instead of side missions being repetitive activities, each is its own thing, and you often have to figure out what you need to do during them without any handholding. Take part in Viking rap battles, adopt a cat, and pull off more invasions than the British Empire.

Forza Horizon 5

Video games let you be anything. Even a car. Forza Horizon 5 doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel (EH? EH? CARS HAVE WHEELS, WAHEY), but this is the most impressive vehicular playground yet. There are volcanoes to speed down, deserts to skid across, and plenty of winding mountain roads. It might be classed as a racing game, but it’s really a driving game – a virtual holiday you can experience at excessive speeds.

Halo Infinite

Master Chief is back and this time he’s got a little grappling hook. It’s a good job since it’ll help him Spider-Man his way around this new open world. The Halo series has always been a sandbox shooter – each combat arena filled with a fireworks factory of various explosive barrels, all primed for a chain reaction – but Infinite takes that to the next level. It makes a lot of sense in a shooter where you can commandeer tanks, keeps, and alien aircraft.

Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.

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Elden Ring: How to create a custom inventory layout for PVP

You can customize your item layout to make hot-swapping weapons much easier. Here’s how.

Elden Ring has dozens upon dozens of items. While most players will play through the game once or twice sticking close by a chosen favorite weapon or two, PVP players do things very differently. Each weapon has its own benefits, especially when custom and unique Weapon Skills are factored in. If you’re doing your best to take down an online foe in a duel, you may find yourself swapping through your weapon selection mid-battle.

Experienced Dark Souls III PVP players already know the struggle all too well, flipping through a menagerie of items before you find what you want. You can store all of the excess in a Chest at any Site of Grace, but if you want to be prepared for any situation, you should have an array of weapons, shields, and perhaps even armor. Sorting those into an order of your choice would make those hot-swap situations much easier.

If you want to customize your weapon and gear layout for PVP, or even just run through the game as normal, then follow this guide to put together your ideal custom item layout.

Setting up a custom item layout – Elden Ring

The actual process of setting up a custom weapon layout in Elden Ring is actually pretty simple, thanks to new item sorting functions included in Elden Ring, but somewhat hidden away. Not highlighted at the bottom of the screen, you can actually tap L3 (click in the left stick) in order to select your Item Sorting Method. Once you’ve found that, it’s simply a case of setting up your equipment as you like it. Thanks to HellboyDkS for highlighting this method.

Unequip your current weapons.
At a Site of Grace, access the Chest menu.
Sort by Ascending Order of Acquisition.
Empty all items that are equipped in your hands into the chest, such as weapons, staffs, shields, seals.

Once done, you can now withdraw only the items you wish to use, and withdraw them in the order you wish for them to appear. Each weapon you remove from the chest will appear in your inventory in the order that you add it to your personal inventory.

You can repeat this process for shields, staffs, armor, and any other section of your inventory that you wish. As long as you keep the Order of Acquisition sorting method turned on, your weapons will always be in the order that you removed them from the chest.

Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.

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Elden Ring’s tutorial isn’t missable anymore

FromSoftware decided some things require an explanation.

Elden Ring explains virtually nothing about itself. Even the tutorial was missable, which left loads of newbies entirely in the dark for a time.

Those days are over, thankfully. On Tuesday, patch 1.04 for Elden Ring came out and made the tutorial unmissable. There’s now a disclaimer insisting that you jump into the giant hole where the tutorial is.

“Jump down the hole ahead, and you will find the Cave of Knowledge,” the message reads.”There, you can learn more about game controls and basic actions, as well as other tips that may be helpful during your adventures in the Lands Between.”

Given that most people wouldn’t just jump down a cavernous pit at first glance, it’s understandable that so many missed the tutorial. Veterans of the Dark Souls series might have realized something was up before Tuesday’s patch, but that’s about it.

#ELDENRING patch 1.04 is available now.
Read the full patch notes here: https://t.co/jUm9ggvgdO

Please apply this patch to continue playing online. pic.twitter.com/d2BTawlzVD

— ELDEN RING (@ELDENRING) April 19, 2022

There were loads more adjustments in this update too, which you can check out in GLHF’s extensive breakdown for patch 1.04. FromSoftware clearly isn’t done tweaking Elden Ring even this long after launch.

If you fancy an expert’s take on this sort of thing, Nate Purkeypile of Skyrim fame spoke about Elden Ring’s approach to open worlds in GLHF’s new Third-Party column!

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Elden Ring: Patches questline walkthrough

Full Patches questline as of update 1.04 for Elden Ring. Yes, they added more NPC quest stuff.

Patches appears in Elden Ring as he does in a majority of FromSoftware games, this time as Patches the Untethered. If you’re in the right places at the right time, Patches will attack you at least twice over the course of the game, and may even kick you off a cliff or two.

But Patches shouldn’t be killed, as he holds some special items, and is key to progressing certain quests in the game. If you want to see everything you can in Elden Ring, then you need to follow Patches’ questline. Just find him in the following locations to clear through the quest of The Lands Between’s most unusual adventurer.

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Fighting Patches in Murkwater Cave – Elden Ring

The first place you can meet Patches is in Murkwater Cave, and you can find him here as soon as you have access to Limgrave after starting a new game. We show you where to find Murkwater Cave in this guide.

Spare Patches here, otherwise you will not have access to the rest of the questline. You will be able to buy a number of items from him after, including Margit’s Shackle, which can make Margit, the Fell Omen much easier to take down.

Patches roams the land – Elden Ring

You can find Patches in several locations past this point, including on Mt. Gelmir where he’ll pull the classic trick of kicking you over the edge of a cliff. Typical. These steps are not necessary to completing his questline, however, so you can see these as bonus encounters.

Letter for Patches, Volcano Manor – Elden Ring

As you go through the Volcano Manor questline via Tanith’s recusant requests, you will eventually receive the Letter for Patches. He’s lurking around in the hallway leading towards where Tanith sits. Make sure to talk to him again once you’ve defeated Rykard, God-Devouring Serpent.

Shaded Castle, Dancer’s Castanets – Elden Ring

After he departs the Volcano Manor and Tanith sits with Rykard’s corpse, slowly devouring it, you can meet Patches at the Shaded Castle, in the passage just before the boss room. Patches is injured and will give you the Dancer’s Castanets, which you can present to Tanith for additional dialogue.

Patches will disappear again after this, but you shouldn’t be surprised about where you’ll find him next…

Fighting Patches in Murkwater Cave again – Elden Ring

Return to Murkwater Cave’s boss chamber exactly as you did before, and you’ll find Patches is back and ready to fight once again as of Elden Ring update 1.04. He rolls off the cliff as before ready to ambush you and may even throw out a few attacks, but he’ll quickly recognize you and decide to surrender. He knows you killed Rykard, after all, so it wouldn’t be in his interest to start a fight he can’t win.

He will surrender without you having to use a single attack. Patches will then open up shop in Murkwater Cave, with a small selection of new items. He also discusses reuniting with others to open shop. Hopefully, we’ll find out more about that in future patches or perhaps DLC…

Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.

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Third-Party: Skyrim and Elden Ring – creating a sense of mystery and exploration in open-world design

This week we have Nate Purkeypile, former lead artist on Skyrim, Fallout 4, and more, talking about the open-world design ethos of Elden Ring.

Third-Party is a series of guest blogs where developers talk about specific games, mechanics, levels, and more. This week we have Nate Purkeypile, former lead artist on Skyrim, Fallout 4, and more, talking about the open-world design ethos of Elden Ring.

My name is Nate Purkeypile and I have been in games for over 18 years now, but in all of that time, nothing I have worked on has had as much lasting impact as Skyrim. To this day, Skyrim is played by a shockingly large number of people, and that number never seems to go down. Some players are new, but other people keep coming back to it year after year. Other things I’ve worked on have also done really well, like Fallout 3 and 4, but nothing has had the staying power of Skyrim.

At the time, we had no idea it would last so long. In fact, while making it, the game was not even that fun for a long time. Things were broken, missing, unbalanced, and unstable. It’s so hard to know how a game will turn out until it’s almost done. It’s not like making a movie where a scene might be shot and you have a pretty good idea of what it’s like. There are so many moving pieces that all need to be complete before it even works at all.

After release, it became clear that it was a big deal and it was going to do better than anything we had ever made. So why is that, and what does that have to do with Elden Ring?

Elden Ring is an amazing game and one that I think will have significant staying power. The open-world design/philosophy of these two games have a lot in common, and this has a lot to do with why they resonate with people. When Skyrim came out, there weren’t that many open-world games. It was a lot harder at the time, but as technology improved and players demonstrated a clear desire to play this kind of game, more and more open-world games launched.

Despite Skyrim‘s success though, I’d argue that very few games actually follow the model of what made that game work. This is not to say those games are bad – in fact, I have enjoyed a lot of that other style of open world. For instance, I think Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and Watch Dogs 2 are amazing games, but there’s a clear philosophical difference in the way those games are designed compared to games like Skyrim and Elden Ring.

Skyrim and Elden Ring both follow the core idea that wherever you go, you’re going to find something interesting. Side content isn’t clearly lower budget and less fleshed-out. In fact, I’d argue a lot of the best content are the random things you discover on the side in Skyrim. It’s also okay if you miss them.

That sounds like a terrible idea at first because games are incredibly expensive. It makes sense to point players at all the amazing and expensive content that was made and say “Look at this! This rules!” While you ensure players see more of your game this way, something essential is lost when this happens. Suddenly, instead of being a world to explore, the game becomes a list of tasks. Again, this can be fine and it’s certainly easier to play and make a game this way, but the emotional experience of playing the game is completely different.

So often when playing Elden Ring, I think, “I had no idea this even existed.” Or, “I don’t even know what I’m looking at, this is wild.” That sense of discovery and surprise is key. This doesn’t happen if you hold the player’s hand and tell them exactly where to go. Some games these days even go so far as to list the number of secrets the player has found. By definition, that stops it from being a secret. You already know it’s there, you’re just trying to find out where exactly it is.

One of the things that I built in Skyrim was a place called Blackreach. It is a massive underground cave filled with glowing mushrooms and ruins. It’s big enough to support a battle with a huge dragon. It’s not like any other cave in the entire game – it’s more like a whole new landscape to explore. The player is also never told to go there and it’s a complete surprise when they find it. To this day, I have people who tell me it is one of their favorite places and experiences in a game. That sense of utter shock and surprise has made that place resonate with people for years and years. Also, Blackreach was not even supposed to be in the game and we snuck it in, but that’s a whole different story.

Elden Ring takes that experience of discovering Blackreach and doubles down on that feeling – particularly when you stumble upon Siofra River for the first time. The term “open-world” is used a lot, but I’d argue that Elden Ring is actually more like a very wide and large level. In a lot of open-world games, you can basically go anywhere. Sure, there might be some mountains or cliffs here and there to keep you hemmed in, but you can go basically anywhere from the start. Elden Ring is very specifically designed. It’s paced out to hit you with reveal after reveal, allowing it to constantly surprise you. FromSoftware even cleverly disguises how big the world is with how the map is unveiled.

These days, I’m working on a solo indie game where you hunt monsters from folklore in an open world. It’s called The Axis Unseen, and you can wishlist it on Steam or the Epic Store. After Elden Ring came out, I had someone ask me, “Does Elden Ring give you any ideas for your game?” While it doesn’t give me any specific ideas, it proves that there’s an appetite for open-world games like this. It’s a philosophy I have wanted to embrace from the start and I’m very happy to see a game like Elden Ring do so well. The team at FromSoftware deserves every bit of praise they get for it. Like a lone player following the ghostly echoes of a recently murdered stranger, I’m incredibly excited to be building another world that follows this design philosophy.

Elden Ring is designed so well and you can tell how much time they spent thinking about exploration and mystery. Everything is in a specific place for a reason. Players come to these games to be transported to another world. By designing these worlds in such a specific way, players can feel like they are really there. For that reason, I think Elden Ring will end up becoming as timeless as Skyrim. I have been a huge fan of FromSoftware’s previous works, especially Bloodborne, but Elden Ring is a large step forward, and one that I hope has a lasting impact on games as a whole.

Written by Nate Purkeypile on behalf of GLHF.

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Elden Ring update 1.04 patch notes breakdown

Elden Ring’s latest patch includes loads of balance changes, bug fixes, and a brand new encounter with Patches.

Elden Ring feels like a game that never ends. Even after you’ve taken down the final boss, it’s very unlikely that you’ve seen the ending to questlines for characters like Varre, Sellen, and Millicent. But completing those questlines is even more impossible when patches come along and add more to the game.

The latest Elden Ring patch brings the game up to version 1.04. The 1.04 update dropped recently, bringing with it a huge swathe of balance changes and bug fixes. But don’t worry, the Moonveil Katana from our Magic Swordsman build guide is still very strong indeed.

Below we break down the full patch notes for Elden Ring update 1.04, which even includes a new encounter with everyone’s fave, Patches the Untethered.

Elden Ring update 1.04 patch notes

All patch notes below come from Bandai Namco’s official site. Scroll down for the details, and the highlights that we think are important.

New features

Added an option to turn camera auto rotate function ON/OFF.
Added some event phases for the NPC “Patches”.

The addition of a new encounter for Patches is very interesting, and will hopefully add a bit of context to Tanith’s story. We’ll have a guide breaking down everything new when we have the details.

Gameplay balance adjustments

Increased Colossal Swords/Colossal weapons attack speed and lowered their recovery time. Jump attack not included.
Increased the two-handed attack damage of Colossal Swords/Colossal Weapons. Jump attack not included.
Increased physical block rate and guard boost of the Colossal Sword, Colossal Weapons, Great Sword, Great Hammer, Great Axe, Great Spear, and Halberd weapon classes.
Increased the damage of Grafted Blade Greatsword.
Increased the damage of Devourer’s Scepter.
Decreased the scaling of status effect build-up from spells and incantations of Albinauric Staff and Dragon Communion Seal.
Decreased the effect of Greatshield Talisman for weapons with high block rate.
Shortened the length of the madness afflicted animation.
Lowered the speed of madness buildup recovery.
Slightly increased FP and Stamina growth rate at lower levels.

Huge buffs are here for the Colossal weapon category, backing them more powerful, and increasing the amount of damage they can block when using them to guard, making Guard Counters even more viable. Highlighting the Grafted Blade Greatsword here because it’s a very popular weapon and this will draw players towards it even more. The increased FP and Stamina growth rate is nice for player starting up new saves, but for this to take effect in a fresh save you will need to level up once.

Sorcery and Incantation changes

Buffs

Crystal Barrage – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Gavel of Haima – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemies’ attack while casting.
Shatter Earth – Increased cast speed and decrease recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemies’ attack while casting.
Rock Blaster – Decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemies’ attack while casting.
Thop’s Barrier – Increased area of effect and slightly increase effect duration.
Rennala’s Full Moon – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Ranni’s Dark Moon – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Carian Greatsword – Increased cast speed at lower dexterity.
Magma Shot – Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed.
Roiling Magma – Increased cast speed and decreased time until magma explodes.
Gelmir’s Fury – Slightly decreased the random nature of projectile’s range and increased the damage of lava pool. Increased the hitbox.
Rykard’s Rancor – Decreased FP cost.
Oracle Bubbles – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Great Oracular Bubble – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Briars of Sin – Decreased recovery time. Increased blood loss buildup on enemy.
Briars of Punishment – Decreased recovery time. Increased blood loss buildup on enemy.
Explosive Ghostflame – Decreased FP cost and recovery time.
Tibia’s Summon – Increased damage and cast speed.
Aspects of the Crucible: Tail – Decreased FP and Stamina cost.
Aspects of the Crucible: Horns – Decreased FP and Stamina cost, Increase cast speed. Increased the distance traveled when not charged and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch when charged.
Elden Stars – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Black Blade – Decreased Stamina consumption and decreased recovery time.
Discus of Light – Decreased FP cost. Increased damage and cast speed.
Triple Rings of Light – Increased damage.
Radagon’s Rings of Light – Decreased FP cost. Increased damage and cast speed. Decreased recovery time.
Lightning Strike – Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Honed Bolt – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Ancient Dragons’ Lightning Spear – Decreased FP and Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy attacks while casting.
Ancient Dragons’ Lightning Strike – Decreased recovery time.
Lansseax’s Glaive – Decreased FP and Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy’ attacks while casting.
Fortissax’s Lightning Spear – Decreased FP and Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to withstand enemy attack while casting more easily.
Frozen Lightning Spear – Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy attack while casting.
Death Lightning – Decreased FP cost, Increased the duration of death-accumulating smoke.
O, Flame! – Increased damage.
Giantsflame Take Thee – Decreased Stamina Cost.
Flame of the Fell God – Decreased FP cost and increased damage.
Whirl, O Flame! – Increased damage, decreased recovery time.
Burn, O Flame! – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Black Flame – Increase damage and the spell can break enemy’s guard more easily.
Scouring Black Flame – Decreased FP cost and recovery time. Increased attack range and area of effect.
Black Flame Ritual – Reduced FP cost and increased damage.
Gurranq’s Beast Claw – Increased damage and decreased recovery time.
Bloodflame Talons – Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed. Decreased recovery time.
Bloodboon – Increased damage. Increased cast speed and decreased effect start-up time, decreased recovery time.
Pest Threads – Decreased Stamina cost.
Scarlet Aeonia – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy attacks while casting.
Unendurable Frenzy – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Decreased the random nature of projectile’s range and increased Madness buildup on enemies.
Inescapable Frenzy – Increased cast speed.
Placidusax’s Ruin – Decreased FP, Stamina cost and recovery time.
Dragonclaw – Decreased FP, Stamina cost and recovery time and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch when charged.
Dragonmaw – Decreased FP, stamina cost, recovery time and increased cast speed and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch when charged.
Greyoll’s Roar – Decreased FP, Stamina cost and recovery time.

This is a huge list of excellent buffs for all sorcery and incantation users. Ranni’s Dark Moon and Rennala’s Full Moon are great buff recipients, since the start up on those attacks really was too slow, while the dragon incantations have all received their own buffs, making them even more effective.

Buffs and nerfs

Adula’s Moonblade – Decreased the power of single cast and improved performance so that the blades and frost hit more consistently and continuously. Increased cast speed at lower dexterity.
Flame, Fall Upon Them – Decreased the damage of single cast and improved the performance so that it hits the enemy multiple times. Decreased FP cost.
Howl of Shabriri – Decreased the madness buildup on the enemy. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.

Nerfs

Swarm of Flies – Decreased blood loss buildup on enemy.
The Flame of Frenzy – Decreased madness buildup on enemy.
Frenzied Burst – Decreased madness buildup on enemy.

Frenzy was a little too strong overall in Elden Ring, and these nerfs make PVP battles feel a little fairer.

Weapon Skill changes

Buffs

Lion’s Claw – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Kick – Increased cast speed.
Hoarah Loux’s Earthshaker – Increased cast speed. Increased cast speed on follow up input, decreased recovery time.
Troll’s Roar – Decreased Stamina Cost. Increased cast speed on follow up input, increased distance traveled.
Giant Hunt – Decreased recovery time.
Storm Assault – Decreased recovery time.
Carian Greatsword – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Increased the damage when charged and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch.
Carian Grandeur – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Increased the damage when charge and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch.
Gravitas – Increased cast speed.
Flaming Strike – Increased the travel distance of a stepping cleave in a strong attack.
Black Flame Tornado – Added hitbox to weapon when spinning, and added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Lightning Slash – Increased cast speed. Added a hitbox to the stomp animation.
Sacred Blade – Increased cast speed.
Sacred Ring of Light – Increased cast speed.
Poisonous Mist – Increased cast speed.
Poison Moth Flight – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Ice Spear – Added a hitbox to the weapon’s spinning animation.
Chilling Mist – Increased cast speed.
Assassin’s Gambit – Increased cast speed.
Shield Bash – Increased cast speed.
Shield Crash – Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed.
Blade of Gold – Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Blade of Death – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Golden Tempering – Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed. Increased effect duration.
Last Rites – Increased cast speed.
Mists of Slumber – Increased cast speed.
Eochaid’s Dancing Blade – Increased travel distance, added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Unblockable Blade – Increased cast speed with the weapon Coded Sword.
Alabaster Lords’ Pull – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Establish Order – Decreased recovery time and increased cast speed on follow up input. Increased damage. Made it easier to cause enemies to flinch.
Moonlight Greatsword – Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Increased the frost buildup effect during the skill duration.
Wave of Gold – Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Wolf’s Assault – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
The Queen’s Black Flame – Increased cast speed. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Dynast’s Finesse – Decreased Stamina cost.
Flowing Form – Decreased Stamina cost.
Death Flare – Increased cast speed.
Onyx Lord’s Repulsion – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Magma Guillotine – Decreased Stamina cost, Increased cast speed. Decreased recovery time on follow up input.
Cursed-Blood Slice – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Ice Lightning Sword – Increased cast speed. Added a hitbox to the stomp animation.
Rosus’ Summons – Decreased recovery time.
I Command Thee, Kneel! – Increased cast speed including follow up input. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Gold Breaker – Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
Familial Rancor – Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Nebula – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time with the weapon Bastard’s Stars.
Regal Beastclaw – Increased cast speed.
Devourer of Worlds – Increased cast speed.
Regal Roar – Decreased recovery time.
Spearcall Ritual – Decreased recovery time.
Ancient Lightning Spear – Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed. Allows player to more easily withstand enemies’ attacks while casting.
Great-Serpent Hunt – Decreased recovery time and increased damage. Allows player to more easily withstand attacks from enemies.
Frenzyflame Thrust – Decreased FP cost, decreased recovery time. Decreased madness buildup on self.
Bloodboon Ritual – Increased cast speed.
Miquella’s Ring of Light – Increased cast speed.
Sea of Magma – Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Flame Dance – Decreased Stamina cost, decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
Storm Kick – Decreased Stamina cost.
Bear Witness! – Increased cast speed.

No sole buff here is worth shouting about, but there’s a number of adjustments that make weapon skills more viable than ever. Which is great, since they inflict big stagger damage on NPC enemies.

Buffs and nerfs

Thundercloud Form – Decreased damage when not charged. Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where the damage of Inescapable Frenzy was affected by right hand weapon.
Fixed a bug where the damage of the weapon arts “Carian retaliation” was increased by weapon and status, and the effect was not displayed correctly during online multiplay.
Fixed a bug where the animation when inflicted with blood loss and frostbite was bigger than originally planned.
Fixed a bug during character appearance change menu in which some parameter changes were sometime not reflected.
Fixed a bug that prevented a dialog from appearing when executing “Leave” on some items.
Fixed a bug that allowed unauthorized items to be passed to other players.
Fixed a bug in multiplayer that prevented grace to be registered on the map if it was found just before the player is summoned.
Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the mechanic of Rennala Queen Of The Full Moon fight from working properly during cooperative multiplayer.
Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the player from entering the boss area after defeating Morgott, the Omen King.
Fixed a bug that prevented “Edgar the Revenger” and “Festering Fingerprint Vyke” from invading after defeating all the bosses in Liurnia of the Lake.
The item Tonic of Forgetfulness can now be obtained at the Volcano Manor if the player wasn’t able to obtain it due to quest progression.
Fixed a bug that caused the reduction of runes due to NPC “Gostoc” when player died in “Stormveil Castle” to occur at an unintended timing.
Added a protective barrier to Millicent after helping her at Miquella’s Haligtree so she cannot be unintentionally killed.
Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the player from obtaining the reward after defeating the Dung Eater.
Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the player from progress Diallos’ questline.
Fixed a bug that sometime prevented player from duplicating remembrance at the Walking Mausoleum.
Fixed a bug that prevented player from inputting consecutive attacks when dual wielding thrusting sword.
Fixed a bug that causes scythe to lose blood loss effect if poison affinity is applied to the weapon.
Fixed a bug where the damage of the Iron Greatsword was lower than expected when an affinity is applied.
Fixed a bug that caused FP consumption to increase when the player cast Night Comet with charge.
Fixed a bug that causes he default key setting on keyboard for weapon skill (Left Ctrl) to not be set (on PC only).
Fixed a bug in the Steam version where the history of players who played multiplayer was not displayed correctly under certain circumstances.
Increased online multiplayer stability.
Fixed a bug that caused incorrect sounds to be played under certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug that caused some places on the map to have incorrect visual and hitbox.
Fixed a bug that causes some enemies to have incorrect visual and behavior.
Fixed a bug that causes some armor to have incorrect stats.
Text fix.
Other performance improvements and bug fixes.

All bug fixes are good bug fixes, but fixes to character questlines and “unauthorized items” are essential to assure we all have a good experience while playing.

Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.

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How FromSoftware rigged the review game

Has FromSoftware created the unreviewable game?

FromSoftware has risen from relative obscurity to superstardom in the past ten years, and it’s essentially done this by creating the same game on repeat. Sure, there are subtle differences between Sekiro, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Elden Ring, but they’re similar in structure, feel, and shape. Hell, they even share many of the same assets between series. This is just an observation, not a criticism – why should developers redo a door-opening animation every time they make a game? Work smart, not hard.

When Dark Souls (2011) launched, this kind of game was an unknown quantity. Those who played Demon’s Souls two years prior knew it would be good, but secret battles waged behind the doors of major game publications. “Are you sure this is a 10/10?” I’m imagining editors asking their reviewers at the time. “Are you sure?”

You don’t get these games until you play them, and sometimes not even then. You have to conquer them. Whether it’s a genuine sense of accomplishment or Stockholm syndrome doesn’t matter – it works. Pushing your way through Dark Souls’ Blighttown as an active participant isn’t the same as watching someone do it. All you see as an inactive observer are the flaws – the technical issues, the apparent unfairness, the clumsy movement.

These games are not for everyone – many reviews even say as much. Despite this, they still score ridiculously well. Even Dark Souls 2 – which is widely considered to be a low point for FromSoftware – sits at a 91 on Metacritic. Elden Ring sits at 96 and is one of the highest-rated games ever made. I agree. To me, Elden Ring is a masterpiece, but I wouldn’t recommend it to Johnny Gamer without some caveats. Not everyone has the patience for this kind of experience.

It’s not without its issues either – weak bosses, broken PvP builds, questlines that don’t work as intended – but in the review phase, only one of these issues was apparent. PvP and cooperative play weren’t functional before launch, which meant critics had to experience the game as a solo player – helpful because you’re not being invaded by other players, but also tougher because you can’t summon others to help you with a difficult fight. This also meant we never got to experience the white-hot rage of another player rolling into us while dressed like Sonic the Hedgehog.

When it comes to the broken questlines, FromSoftware has created a game that’s almost impossible to critique from this angle. Everything in Elden Ring is obtuse. I mean, one of Elden Ring‘s secret endings is triggered by stripping your character naked in front of a specific door and I swear I’m not making this up.

Because of this, the triggers to move a quest onto the next stage aren’t always obvious. Is the quest broken, does it end here, or am I simply missing some piece of the puzzle (getting naked, perhaps)? You’ll only find out when the patch notes drop.

That mystique is, of course, one of the most appealing things about these games. You feel like you’re constantly discovering new information about the story, locations, NPCs, and how the world itself fits together, but you’re never explicitly told any of it. It’s so meticulously designed that it’s easy to assume that you’re the problem if you hit a roadblock. The fan wikis will figure it out. There’s the in-game collaboration with co-op play and player messages, and then there’s the meta collaboration that happens on forums, WhatsApp groups, and social media. As a community, we piece these games together over months. It’s impossible to see it all in a week for review.

On top of that, these games have a bloodthirsty audience. Any opinion that differs from mine – and I truly believe it’s a special game, as I said in my Elden Ring review – will be torn to shreds online. This puts off critics with a different viewpoint from dipping their toes into the Lake of Rot (Twitter discourse).

Then there’s the difficulty aspect. Anyone who reviews a FromSoftware game needs to be confident that they can finish it in a week and without any online aids. It’s a big job. This leads to critics who already know and love this type of game reviewing them, which itself leads to ever-inflating Metascores trending upwards. It’s how Dark Souls 2 ended up scoring better than the original despite being inferior in almost every way that matters.

Most other games lead us through their stories by the hand, which makes it easy to spot when something isn’t working as intended. Meanwhile, FromSoftware is out here cheesing us with poison arrows.

If you’re still working your way through the Lands Between, check out our full Elden Ring guide and walkthrough.

Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.

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10 amazing video game character creators that get seriously weird

Elden Ring’s wonderful player character creation tool got us thinking about the other titles with similar granular customization.

Embarking on any video game mission is an endeavor in the name of vanity, really. Repelled the alien invasion on an arcade cabinet? Tell the world about it in three initials on the high score screen. Just scored a goal in FIFA? Time to bust out the salmon celebration while the other player furiously stabs X trying to skip the cutscene. Beaten Elden Ring, have you? Well, that’s all very well and good, but what did your character look like while you did it?

These are virtual spaces where we get to be the god-king, the center of the universe, or in the case of Saints Row IV, just a swole dude in a purple three-piece suit who can somehow fly. Having some agency over your in-game avatar, then, is crucial to the experience. It lets you invest all the deeper in the fantasy that this is you, achieving these impossible feats, becoming the NBA’s all-time great, chokeslamming random pedestrians… yep, Saints Row IV again.

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Elden Ring’s wonderful player character creation tool got us thinking about the other titles with similar granular customization and awesome player-made works of art. Presented in no particular order, these are they.

NBA 2K22

At one and the same time, a fearsomely powerful and genuinely stunning creation tool capable of capturing your look and then allowing you to build a player archetype with subtlety, specialization and a long tail of upgrade badges to work at over the seasons and pure, pure nightmare fodder, NBA 2K’s creation tool is the stuff of myth at this point. When it likes your uploaded face scan, good times, get ready to see yourself in the NBA dunking on KD and posting Jokic-like numbers every game. When it doesn’t – prepare your eyes for Guillermo Del Toro’s vision of the NBA.

There’s a lot of debate about the MyPlayer build system and how much it restricts you to a particular position or role. Only a few games ago you could basically specialize in everything, the seven-footer with a Curry-like soft touch from the line and crossovers responsible for more ACL injuries than a greased floor. Now you commit to a role, and spend hundreds of hours perfecting it with platinum badges. Grindy, yes, but rewarding.

Elden Ring

Bleeding-edge visuals were never a component of Souls games until Demon’s Souls turned up on PS5, and now the even more gorgeous Elden Ring. With those sumptuous visuals comes the chance to build some really detailed characters… and then, obviously, uncover the hidden sliders, break the game completely and make a bunch of abominations.

We’ve seen some pretty accurate Kratoses, Solid Snakes, Bart Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles walking the Lands Between, and frankly the latter are even more disturbing than the Eldritch horrors FromSoftware’s design team have spent years crafting. It’s the best kind of character creator then – powerful enough to make a really detailed build you can feel invested in, and to mess around in until you’ve made something that makes you a bit scared of yourself.

Dragon’s Dogma

Dragon’s Dogma had many great innovations and tricks up its sleeves, but its approach to character creation might be its best of all. In most RPGs, your appearance and character attributes are separate things, one a bunch of sliders, the other some numerical values on the next menu. Here it’s all the same thing – make a really tall, heavy warrior, and they’ll move slowly but climb larger enemies more easily. Small, spry characters gain increased movement speed, but they’re easily knocked back or brushed aside by massive enemies.

It’s a subtle addition, but one that makes you really think about the kind of hero you want to embody from the start. Thanks to its pawn system, whereby you create and recruit party members throughout the world, you can experiment with some extreme builds and have them tag along with you too.

Saints Row IV

Saints Row is like the guy you work with who thinks ‘loud’ and ‘funny’ are synonymous. Wherever it sees an opportunity to end a sentence, set-piece or even menu with a joke, it takes it, consequences be damned. You’ve… kind of got to respect that, however often that joke revolves around giant purple sex aids.

Saints Row IV’s character creator embodies the spirit of the series. There’s not an ounce of subtlety in any of its sliders, not a neutral in its wardrobe, but there is enough silliness to get swept up in and decide that, yes, for the next 30 hours you will play as Nic Cage in a pirate dress, or Thanos, or a version of yourself except wearing a hazmat suit the whole time. Don’t go changing, Saints Row.

WWE 2K22

From one bastion of subtlety to another. WWE’s character creators are the stuff of legend, bringing to life only the tackiest and most musclebound cheese dreams you’ve ever imagined. In addition to spookily real-life wrestlers past and present who didn’t make the official roster, the community has also made no shortage of celebrities, superheroes, fantasy characters and… well, even metaphysical concepts expressed as yoked dudes.

This is a game that asks you exactly how veiny you want your wrestler’s arms to be. What kind of nipples they have. Not just the color of the tassels on their boots, but the material of those tassels too. You can get lost in the details for – and we’re not exaggerating – hours at a time.

Spore

It’s the logical conclusion of the video game character creator: a manifestation of a gamer’s imagination that doesn’t just walk about and do that gamer’s bidding, but forms an entire ecosystem, using the strengths bestowed on it to master its environment, and doing its best to navigate the weaknesses it was cruelly bestowed. It’s philosophy, natural history, and poetry, all at once.

Or at least it would have been, had 100% of Spore players not elected to make a phallus.

PES 2021

Journey with us, back through the eons of time, to a different and lost era. Coronavirus was in the news, Olivia Rodrigo was on the airwaves, and PES was good. We’ve traveled back to the year 2020.

Become a Legend was a fantastic mode in Konami’s soccer series. The visual aspect of building your player was pretty detailed, although slightly low-fi in comparison to its peers on this list. But then, it also gave your agency over your crossing animations. How you’d celebrate a goal, in five variations. Which outlandish haircut you’d go for when you made that big money move to Real Madrid. Let’s have it back soon please in eFootball, Konami.

Skyrim (Modded)

There’s a unique satisfaction to wandering around a land populated exclusively by ruddy-cheeked potato-men, Jarls with faces like a cautionary tale about UV exposure and ratty-haired serfs, knowing you are by far the most beautiful and stylish being they’ve ever seen. Forget the fact you’re Dragonborn, have you seen those cheekbones? And nobody can figure out how you get your long, glossy hair to stay immaculately quaffered like that while scrabbling around in ditches for nirnroots and smacking wolves to death with a giant hammer, but they want to know more.

While original Skyrim offered little chance to elevate your visage among the ranks of the common oafs of the land, over a decade of mods have turned it into one of the most powerful creation tools around. There are even imported hair meshes from other games, like The Sims and The Witcher 3. The class system and backstory is looking a bit basic and long in the tooth now compared to Larian et al’s efforts in recent years, but on a purely visual front it’s still king.

Cyberpunk 2077

Depending on your choices in Cyberpunk 2077’s character creation menu, V might be a jacked meathead with crazy, bulging eyes and a shaved head, a heavily augmented petite girl with a more elaborate hair dye arrangement than 6ix9ine, someone who bears a passing resemblance to you but cooler and with a bunch of tattoos you’d never get, or someone else entirely.

While it doesn’t have WWE-levels of customization, what’s especially impressive about it is how much it tells you about the world you’re about to enter. The character creator itself is an exposition tool. ‘Huh’, you think to yourself, ‘I guess people are really into dyeing their hair in Night City’. Body mods: also in bigtime. The options themselves speak to a cyberpunk world’s sensibilities, one rocked by technological advancements that ravaged it, and the societal sense of self-image along with it.

XCOM 2

It doesn’t really matter how deep and varied XCOM 2’s character creator is, because you and I both know exactly what we’re going to use it for: really accurate representations of ourselves and our friends. Maybe your friends are just a lot cooler and edgier than mine. Maybe they really do wear aviator shades and Skrillex haircuts dyed luminous colors. Perhaps you know someone with a green beard. But as long as it can just about capture the broad strokes of your immediate social circle, it’s done its job.

No, but seriously, this is a very good creator.

Written by Phil Iwaniuk on behalf of GLHF.

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10 worst bosses in Elden Ring

Elden Ring is an amazing game, but we don’t love everything about it. Here are the ten worst bosses in the game.

Elden Ring is an incredible game, worth every bit of praise it has received from GLHF in our Elden Ring review, but not every part of it is created equal. While some of Elden Ring‘s moments will go down in history as some of the best video games this decade had to offer, others will be entirely forgotten, and for good reason.

Some of the bosses in Elden Ring are tedious, frustrating, annoying, or just pedantic. If you’re just going through the motions and cutting down bosses you miss out on the satisfaction that makes these games great, and if you feel like you’re bashing your head against a brick wall or getting killed unfairly, that takes away the fun in learning their patterns. The best bosses in the game get all of this right, and unfortunately, the worst get it all wrong.

These are the ten worst bosses you can fight in Elden Ring.

Spirit-Caller Snail

This barely counts as a boss. The Spirit-Caller Snail shows up as a standard enemy much later in the game, but can be encountered in the Road’s End Catacombs. The cheeky snail doesn’t fight you at all, and instead summons knights to do the job instead. Avoid the knight’s attacks and go straight for the glowing spot – that’s where the Spirit-Caller Snail hides. Rinse and repeat. A boring gimmick that just doesn’t have legs. Or arms, actually – it is a snail, after all.

Soldier of Godrick

This “boss” can be found at the end of the tutorial cave that you need to jump down into. It’s… a soldier. That serves Godrick. He can be felled in less than ten hits, regardless of what class you started out with. His strikes aren’t too powerful either. He’s just a normal dude.

Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast

This creature is actually also in our list of best bosses. But it doesn’t get away with just praise. The fact is that this beast is incredibly frustrating to fight, not just the first time, but for the dozens of times after that too. There are now cheesy ways to beat him, such as running past the boss and then returning via the exit to sneak up and poison it without ever drawing your weapon. The fact that people are seeking out these methods says everything you need to know about how enjoyable this fight ends up being.

Mimic Tear

The Mimic Tear is, actually, a very good boss. An AI-controlled NPC that uses your gear and moveset in full? A lovely challenge, and sometimes even a good opportunity to find out what potential your build has that you’re not making use of. But you could just enter the boss chamber without a weapon equipped, and then quickly put it back on once the fight begins. Punches don’t scale in Elden Ring, so this will leave the Mimic Tear helplessly flailing at you as you cut it down to size. Pathetic.

Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon

Rennala and her army of weird crawling children aren’t fun to deal with. It’s not particularly difficult, mind, it’s just not fun. Cut down the kids with shields, and Rennala’s own cracks, leaving her wide open. It’s barely worth dodging through all the books they throw at you. The second phase is much cooler, thankfully, but it doesn’t wash that terrible taste out of your mouth.

Tibia Mariner

This loser paddles around in his little boat while summoning far more powerful foes to attack you. Luckily you can always use Torrent in these fights, allowing you to drive-by strike at the Tibia Mariner, avoiding any threatening moves. But that just means it’s a tedious fight. Plus, he often attacks his own summons, making him a bad team player.

Elder Dragon Greyoll

Sorry Elder Dragon Greyoll, you look very cool, but you’re not much of a fight. Elder Dragon Greyoll just lays on the ground outside Greyoll’s Dragon Barrow, and he’s dying. He can’t even get up to attack you, just shooting the odd blast of fire. But you can just go around to the back of his tail and swing away for damage, with absolutely zero downsides. Make sure to use an item to boost the number of runes you receive for this “fight.”

Red Wolf of Radagon

The Red Wolf of Radagon probably wouldn’t have made it onto this list, if you didn’t fight multiple Red Wolf clones over the course of the game. It’s easy to think of two or three additional Red Wolf fights you’ll encounter without looking at a list, and there are several more hidden away in the world. The Red Wolf of Radagon is a cool fight the first time, but each subsequent fight just feels frustrating and better off avoided.

Crystalians

The Crystalians are just annoying. You’ll encounter them a bunch over the course of the game, and their crystal bodies have absurdly high defense, meaning most of your attacks will do little to nothing. However, break through their poise, stagger them, and then unleash a critical strike, and suddenly their defense is barely worth mentioning. Use a bunch of jumping attacks along with Guard Counters and you’ll get these foes done quickly each time you find them.

Dragonkin Soldier

In fairness, the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella is very cool when it jumps into the air to throw lightning at you. Otherwise, the Dragonkin Soldier appears multiple times over the course of the game, and each time just feels like more of a hassle than the last. Plus, this creature’s concave stomach actually means it can be fairly difficult to hit from underneath. Not the toughest enemy – when not fought in a Scarlet Rot swamp, at least – but certainly not one you’ll miss.

Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.

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