Hauntingly Beautiful

Episode 18: The Academy of Raya Lucaria. This Area is, surprise, stunning. But also quite eerie. Capped of with a gorgeous albeit simple boss fight in Rennala. I also shuffled my stats around with her rebirth mechanic in order to wield some new weapons. (This will surely happen again). Elden Ring is hands down my favorite game of all time. I genuinely believe I could play it forever. My favorite way to engage with the game, and from what I have seen, a seemingly unique playstyle, is to ignore the mount and fast travel systems within the game. In a massive open world game like Elden Ring, it is tempting to use the mount to rush past a lot of the hand crafted encounters. By doing so, I find you are robbing yourself of the beautiful art design, visual storytelling, and jaw dropping set pieces the game has to offer. The resource replenishment mechanics are, in my opinion, one of the most underappreciated aspects of the game. And that's not really surprising when using the fast travel system and choosing to rest at the plethora of checkpoints to replenish said resources is made so easy. I know I did this on my first, and many subsequent playthroughs. It was not until recently that I discovered the joy of playing like this. Obviously there is no "correct" way to enjoy this piece of art. But experiences such as: narrowly overcoming a difficult encounter and being rewarded with an extra flask, being out of flasks and tracking down a scarab, traversing the overworld on foot, and going as long as possible between checkpoints, are among the most fun and immersive experiences I have had with the game. So I decided to capture and share that experience. No expectations, no rushing, no guides. Elden Ring as seamless as possible. Enjoy ❤️