This whole discussion actually isnt even about not using spirit summons, think you misunderstood what they were tryna say. No one is saying not to use spirit summons. Its about balancing around spirit summons and how some bosses were designed with them in mind and some not

Im talking in general & the other user literally said he doesnt nor wants to use spirits lol its a common thing that people complain game too hard mention. Most those users say themeselves they ignore spirits and crafting.

All the game is designed for spirits, its just that the 2nd half ramps up more than the 1st as is the in case in all FS games. So if you got through the first half without touching most the games mechanics thats a personal thing, but the 2nd half is built to go against all tools. I literally went through the same thing with Sekiro n why i suck at it because im trash as hell at parrying & in the 2nd half of the game parrying is the only real way to wittle down postire unless you want to just nip at the boss for 20+ mins, n them using more advance mechanics in the 2nd half that require the tech such as Mikuri. The first half you can deal with posture by just blindly attacking or axe hits, & you can get away without using the more advance techniques. 2nd half not so much.

Spirits is a core design of Elden in general. If you dont want to use spirits then cool thats on you, but dont go around acting as if the game is so brutal while youre purposely nerfing yourself. Again talking in generals here, not specifically towards you.

I actually thought most of the game was really easy (realitively Souls speaking) until Malekith. I did not have that "souls accomplished" feeling until Melekith & Godfrey, which are my two fav bosses of the game HM to Dragonlord. But thats my personal experience.

Dungeon bosses i dont think should count in this convo. Theyre optional, & meant to be a challenge, and most people arent going to do every single one of them so the some repeats are there so hopefully most people will see tham at least once. Along with filling up space too of course, but both are true. Just like Bloodbornes dungeons, how they have some exclusive bosses but most are repeats of the main game or reg enemies becoming boss enemies. And yeah, some of them get pretty wild too.

But yeah.

My overall thot is that most people that claim game too hard (outside of literally brand new players which its understanable if its difficult their first time round, im talking in generals of "vets" who are saying this) compared to other FS titles either dont use spirits when the game is literally built around them.

And/Or -

Theyre not used too or havent realized yet that the soft cap n hard cap has been way extended & so has leveling, so your 20s/30s vigor etc. In the 2nd half of the game aint gonna cut it.

Not everyone, but thats the common factors for a lot of people that are having a hard time.

Me before playing Elden Ring:

"This game looks too bloody and hard and menacing for my Nintendo ass"

Me after playing Elden Ring for two weeks:

I know ur a big Zelda fan do u feel the game world design is similar?

My general quick take when someone asks what Elden Ring is like i tell them "its like BOTW x Skyrim but in Souls & its difficulty thrown on top".

Its dope seeing u go thru Monster Hunter for the first time last year n now a Souls game this year, 2 series' considered really "obtuse n difficult". Just like me with BOTW when originally i wasnt a big fan of Zelda prior but here i am waiting anxiously for BOTW2

Theyre finding Miquelle related things in the leftover files @Kenig

U know how FS eventually uses their scapped or leftover content, that Miquelle DLC looking realer by the day 🤔👀👀

Only from soft fans complaining about boss design cause some of you guys have nostalgia glasses and think you know exactly what a boss has to look like

I do actually get some BotW vibes from this game. I think that might be at least one of the reasons it clicks for me. Traversing freely around the world on horse, collecting, exploring, finding monsters that are overwhelming at first, exploring intricate little caves and finding gear and so on. There's definitely familiar things here for me.

Yeah dawg, I had a lot of fun playing Monster Hunter Rise last year with some KTT fam, and I do remember you were not a big Zelda fan but you tried BotW and ended up appreciating it a lot. We're all learning and growing

Capra Demon, Ornstein Smough, Demon Princes & the bloodborne dungeon bosses etc. would be TARNISHED in Elden Ring discourse

Pun intended

Thats dope & i felt the same! And the way the world is "alive" not by superficial things but by literal gameplay n player exploration. Hopefully more open worlds take some clues from ER n BOTW

And thats FAXX, always gotta dip ur toes to see how the water is. Cant judge it from the lawnchair

Nice. All true brother Glad we've been able to enjoy some games that are generally outside of our taste buds.

i hope the next zelda the horse mechanics aremore like elden ring than botw tbh

botw was good but elden ring kinda perfected horse riding for me

double jump on horse is genius

I never used a horse in BOTW

I do love how Elden Ring is turning a lot of old FS haters n new FS players into FS believers

Seeing it a lot on youtube, reddit n twitter n even a person i know irl who was "scared" of these games prior

A few of the areas look like a nod towards BOTW’s field of dead guardians, and even if it isn’t I’m gonna continue to believe it is bc it makes me happy

I shouldn’t be forced to use a spirit bros

WOAH man your feet must be tired cus you been running around Hyrule by foot Lol reminds me of when I started Elden Ring and for a few days I had missed the main objectives and you told me to get myself the darn horse

Ayo...with BotW2 having some focus on the skies of Hyrule...what if we can get a flying horse?!

LMAO the diff is in ER u neeeed a horse to at least not be a poo poo baby level 1 scrub u genuinely cant level up without it

In BOTW i loved just walking around seeing s*** n i felt when im on a horse i zero in instead of exploring and i miss stuff so i ditched it about an hour or two in lmao, same in ER actually. I only use my horse for certain jumps, a far away destination im already set on going to or an ocasional horse boss fight. Otherwise im walking everywhere & thats probably part of the reason my first playthru had so many hours n i found so much stuff even before wikis listed them

Dope things about BOTW or ER is tho theres so much to see n do that i dont NEED a horse to go quicker since there IS actual stuff that is interesting and populating the world every step of the way, unlike most open worlds where the open world is just a road from A to B that tries to push you to the "real content" sadly.

Use spirit or git genuinely gud or play DS3

The thing is that using a summon turns a boss from hard to literally piss easy. It doesn't feel rewarding in the slightest when I beat a boss by hitting him everytime his back turns to hit my summon.

Only time I summoned was for the twin gargoyles since gank bosses are kinda stupid unless you're overlevelled.

Like imo these bosses werent even that much outside of the regular fromsoft difficulty other than one or 2 moves they had, so why would I use a summon, which would make it stupid easy?

Imo summons was Miyazaki's way of adding an easy mode for everyone who was complaining about it

That is a very good point, and one I had forgotten about. When travelling by horse, it was easy to miss things because you're speeding past a bunch of areas and secrets. Travelling by foot lets you explore every nook and cranny (until you spot an aggressive enemy and pray to goddess Hylia and Queen Marika that you had a horse to escape the incoming disaster)