Last November, we wrote a preview based on the Eldon Ring of Law beta content. Yesterday morning, at the invitation of Sony and Bandai Namco, we conducted another 5-hour trial of Eldon's Ring of Law in the SIE Shanghai office, and this time it was finally the full version.
There are still half a month before the game is released, the current cooperation, invasion, message and other functions have been opened, but because there is no provision of any savings, the game is from scratch, 5 hours of time for such a game is still too short and too short, so the feeling written in this article is relatively limited, a lot of content has not been able to explore deeply, please forgive me. In addition, screenshots or videos are prohibited in this trial, and the pictures are mostly provided by the official material, and some of the test version screenshots are also available.
Different from beta testing
We have participated in the beta test of the game and written related content, but there are still many differences between the official version of the game and the beta version, including but not limited to the initial origin choice, prop position, monster skills, etc.
As in previous Soul games, characters are created with some "origins" to choose from. Some preset classes have been removed during beta testing, such as the popular White Wolf Warrior and Magic Knight, but their equipment can still be found in the game.
The official version of the origin includes: wandering knights, swordsmen, braves, thieves, stargazers, soothsayers, samurai, prisoners, secret agents and poor as these 10 (all simplified translations), each origin level, attributes and self-contained props are not the same, in addition to the "relics" can choose a birth props, there are life necklaces, Rune fragments, flame pots, etc., these are old traditions, will not be repeated.
Considering the initial ranged attacks, I chose the "Stargazer" origin, equipped with a combination of cloth armor and straight sword/staff + medium shield, and two relics are "golden seeds" that can increase the number of potions used once. Only in the game I found that the golden seed is actually quite common, and in the medium term to increase the use of the upper limit need more than one seed, you can give priority to the life necklace or key or something.
The opening animation feels a lot like the original Dark Souls, first introducing the world overview, then giving several demigods a few seconds of shots, and finally falling on the protagonist. There were some changes in the initial process, this time with a very short initial area, and not far away is still the familiar "open door kill" boss. I tried to slash a few knives, although it was a little scraped, but I should be able to beat it with more practice.
After dying, it is the familiar cave process, a simple tutorial and then an elevator to the Nyingfu area, which is the same as before.
Some of the more obvious changes are that many of the combat skills, summon items, wild boss positions, and important items have changed.
The particularly useful floating cannon combat technique "Radiant Sword Array" was originally dropped by the dungeon boss "Guishu Watchdog" and now I don't know where it went, one of the important items "Elixir" is no longer obtained in the dungeon but picked up in the Eastern Church of Nymgford, and the treasure chest of the Southern Horse Convoy of Nymgfu is now an axe instead of a complete set of Furnace Knight suits...
▲ Miss the floating cannon
There are also some functions that used to be directly available now require auxiliary props, such as summoning wolves and other assistants need to use "Soul Bells", and "Stone Knives" are needed to enchant war ashes for weapons, but most of these important media are automatically obtained in the plot, and have little impact.
Perhaps the most fatal change for me as a hand-wrecked player is the loss of the Soul Brushing pose: the giant that was once killed remotely on a card slot in beta tests can now walk through the gate unimpeded, the difficulty of killing has increased sharply, the efficiency has decreased significantly, and it no longer drops the whetstone used to upgrade weapons. Coupled with the change in the way the divine skill "Radiance Sword Array" is obtained, it is really painful. The media friends who participated in the trial joked that it felt like memorizing a lot of real questions before taking the exam, but when they went in, they found that they had changed the B paper.
In addition to these changes, the biggest difference in the official version is, of course, that the whole world can be explored at will, and there is no longer an air wall to block it. Unfortunately, time was limited, and we only had time to explore parts of the castle after the "bad omen", as well as a field east of Nyingef.
The first process of goalkeeping, boss "Nightmare Malkett", is not much different from the previous battle, but the timing of the bounce seems to have adjusted, and the fixed action combination after the "bounce" has now become a random move, and the overall fault tolerance rate has become lower. Fortunately, the old thief has pity, and sets up a golden summon trace for the player at the door, which can directly summon NPCs to assist in battle, plus the player himself can also shake out the wolves, nobles (this is waste is not recommended to bring) and other summons, in fact, practicing more is not a big obstacle.
To mention a little, there is a multi-hand monster in the small dark room in the demo version of Stonewell City who finally "finds the key" and does not know if everyone is still impressed. The good news is that in the official version it was moved into the later process, and the bad news is that it was replaced by an equally difficult Knight Big Brother - and Big Brother will lock the door. The tactic of killing the opponent by long-range attack at the door before certainly did not work, after all, you are all holding back the small black room, rely on strength. Of course, the player can also choose parkour to take the key and send it to death, but some experience will be lost.
Brand new areas beyond Beta
After climbing the staircase of "Next game content stay tuned product version", it is still a similar castle process, but the terrain is more complex, with many multi-layered structures up and down, and it is easy to get lost. There will be a lot of scenes similar to slaughterhouses, and npCs in the process have mentioned the words "severed limbs" and "contributed limbs" many times.
Perhaps thanks to George W. Bush. R· The basic setting of R. Martin, the plot-related hints in this game are clearer than the previous "Soul" series, although it is still a piece of pieces, but it allows players to feel a trace of the main line of guidance, such as the scene characteristics of each area, NPC dialogue lines, etc., and also designed a set of opening statements for each process boss battle. In a subsequent interview, producer Taidai Kitao mentioned that many of the lines in "Eldon's Ring of Law" were written by Hidetaka Miyazaki himself, and it seems that this aspect will remain reassuring.
Maybe everyone can't feel any "soul taste" in the wilderness open world, but when you enter Stonewell Castle, you feel that you will immediately come up, and what kind of sneak attacks behind the wall, up and down, wild dog siege and other things are all offered. The treasure chest monster has not yet been seen, but there is a new "jar essence". In addition, players who are worried that the map exploration is less fun can also rest assured that the traditional "shortcut" is still there, and the surprise of getting on the elevator to find "it was here" will not be absent.
When I came to the depths of the castle, I felt that I might have gone the wrong way - the density of enemies and the strength of the monster's blood bars here were significantly higher than before the "bad omen". After parkour dodges a battlefront army and arrives at the new "Blessing", the next thing to face is one of the demigods who show up multiple times in the trailer, "King of Gold, Successor Greco".
▲ King of Gold, successor Greg
Some of Grecker's actions are as wide open and closed as the "bad omen", but they are more threatening, more painful, more extensive, the combat skills are windy and firey, the attack method is rolling and crawling, and our damage is basically gua sha. The extremely easy to use "summon wolves" in the beta version is basically dead after a whirlwind set by Greco, which can be described as fruitless. I tried to fight online with another media friend on the spot, but still couldn't take down the King of Gold.
The online mode of "Eldon's Law Ring" is similar to that of the previous "Soul" series, it is still a way of summoning and shaking people, and summoning players to "help fists" requires the use of a consumable item, not an infinite difficulty to find a big brother. Because the play time is not long, we only have one consumable for online use, we did not try too much, but we tangled with "Grecker" in the single-player mode for a long time, wasted some time, and later reflected that it was really not right.
After dying a few times, I was teleported by the plot to a brand new area, the Round Table Hall. This is a separate zone that can only be reached by teleportation. The hall is not capable of fighting, but there are npCs who can talk and sell spells, and there is a Red Soul Invasion that looks like a "Fire Sacrifice Field" scenario. There's not much that can be done here at the moment.
After many fruitless challenges, I turned to the east of Nyingover to continue exploring. Similar to the western part of Nyingover, the map here is obtained under a stele. I encounter some brand new enemies in the woods, such as a few incredibly large bears , more ferocious than the big crabs in the pond , and pick up the player and instantly cover most of the blood.
▲ "Who can stand this?"
There is a small shrine-like building in the middle of the map, and after a half-minute elevator, you can take a new area "Under the River Sifla". When you open the map, you will find that this is already another plane, you can press L3 to switch between "Surface" and "Underground", where the surface is the original Nyingef area. The underground monsters are relatively hard, the physical attack is not painful, and the magic effect is good, but after all, the blue stripe is limited, and the enemies are very dense.
The "Third Church of Malika" on the east side of the surface can get the "Elixir Bottle" and the dew drop that were originally obtained in the dungeon, and then you can use the "Elixir Blending" function at the Blessing Place. This is a new item independent of the Blood Vial, mixing different dew drops for different effects, reusable, and has also appeared in beta.
▲ The Third Church of Malika
There is also a blue light tree not far from here, and there will be figures walking around the light tree. Follow the figures and footprints to the entrance to a dungeon. Perhaps worried about too little guidance in the open world, Eldon's Ring of Law gives some hints in this way.
The glowing tree area that can be seen everywhere in Nyingover is on the opposite side of the cliff, and it seems that it can only be reached through the bridge of Stonewell Castle, which should be temporarily unreachable until Greco is killed. But to the east of the map (on the right), there is a small golden tree that can be passed, there is a wild boss who is similar to the big tree guard, and there is a dungeon at the foot of the tree to explore.
In the lower right corner of the map, you can go to another area, "Galid", the final area here is called "Red Lion Castle", according to the interview information, this is also the mid-term area, and the trophy information reveals that there seems to be a double boss combination similar to the original "King City Double Base".
Unfortunately, the time is very limited, and the time limit for playing has arrived. Most of the areas mentioned later were just hastily riding a pony to "see the flowers", failing to conduct a carpet search, and not going deep into the dungeon to challenge the small bosses.
Trial summary
Originally in the beta test, I lamented that the map of "Eldon's Ring of Law" is really big, and this time I played the full version and found that there was an additional "underground area", and I was worried that the official version of the evaluation time was not enough.
▲ The "elevator" in this building provides access to the underground area
In the official version, Fromsoftware has made some adjustments to the version at the time of testing, including the strength of some spells and combat skills, and some mob configurations. A new golden mainline guide has been added to the large map, which also points the direction for the player's next challenge goal.
The UI that was previously complained about by many players in the open test has now been updated to the official version, which is obviously more beautiful and practical.
As for the difficulty of the game, this is an open world game after all, one of the cards is closed and then explored elsewhere, I believe you will be able to find a suitable game rhythm. The map design full of blessings, treasures, and dungeons doesn't let our exploration process be boring.
In the interview, Kitao Taidai said that the game did not refer too much to other open-world games during the production process, and would not add meaningless errand collection tasks, "Eldon's Ring of Law is a challenging combat-oriented work based on Dark Souls, and added to explore the open world gameplay. Our job is to arrange the rhythm of exploration and battle, not to draw mission points on the map."
The actual experience of the game does confirm Mr. Kitao's statement. If you want to ask what regrets you will have about this experience, it must be that there is too little time to explore this vast narrow space.
Finally, we will publish the full interview with Kitao Taidai in another article, and invite all the "faded people" to pay more attention to the campfire camp.