Look, some things are inevitable in life.
Dying in a souls game is one of them.
Veteran or beginner, death is inevitable –and a rather frequent occurrence — in From’s world.
When I played my first soulsborne game, Bloodborne, I don’t know how many times I died before I got to even the first boss. And I died seconds after laying my eyes on him.
I can’t remember how many times I’ve almost beaten a boss only to die a sudden death and witness the enemy come back with a full health bar as if nothing happened.
I still loved Bloodborne. It’s my favorite game that I’ll never get to finish. I loved every bit of it: The world, the atmosphere, the sound, the dialogue, and most importantly, the gameplay. Combat was brutally difficult; but extremely satisfying if you have the patience for it.
I’ve been waiting for Elden Ring for a long time. Reading about the Game of Thrones (well, A Song of Ice and Fire) author George R.R. Martin’s involvement in the game made me want to play it more.
And now that all the glowing reviews are out and it seems we have another God of War moment among us, I had to drop whatever I was playing and flock to Steam to pre-purchase a copy of Elden Ring. Data transfer speeds aren’t top-notch in this part of the world, so I wanted to preload the game to be able to play it as soon as it’s available sometime today.
Unfortunately, though, my first attempt to pay for the game was unsuccessful.
I was buying within the Steam client on Windows. The payment button froze on “Working..” and I had no idea whether the card was being declined or if the payment was still in progress. After waiting for a few minutes, I decided to restart Steam. And then I received this.
“Well, that didn’t go as planned,” I thought. And I immediately related this screen to the “You Died” screen that I had seen on Bloodborne and Dark Souls III hundreds and hundreds of times.
Thankfully, the second attempt was successful and I was able to immediately start downloading (preloading) Elden Ring on my computer.
It took two attempts to even buy the game. I’m pretty sure it will take many, many more to even beat the first boss.
Reviewers have stated that this game is a lot more forgiving than previous souls games. But, the ‘forgiving’ word has a slightly different meaning in From Software’s dictionary.
So I’m not putting myself at ease. I know the journey ahead will be hard and dangerous. If anything, this failure to even buy the game is a sign that more failures are waiting for me.
But I’m eager to experience the new world, meet new creatures, and immerse myself into all that makes the Land Between.
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