was locked in on elden ring mods for the past few weeks, this is one of the bigger ones and the first one i tried. its good i think. big sell in comparison to other mods rn is the progression changes--you start out with class specific starting locations and a in-game note to where your class-optimal spells & gear is. the class specifics are tied to relevant locations, so if you roll the blood spellsword guy for instance you'll find alot of ur spells around Mohg's area, his two boss locations, and some other blood subbosses and camps scattered through the game. the mod enables waypoint travelling between all erdtrees and unlocks all medallion/key item gates between zones, so its not uncommon and in fact encouraged to take really weird routing like radahan -> lord of blood mohg -> placidusax -> rykard as your first bosses just to hit all your gear then progress through the game normally. because of how quickly you can sequence break you can breeze through and complete the game in about 15-20 hours instead of the 40+ hours a vanilla run would require of you--this does wonders to make the game more replayable and let you hit the highlights of each area in a respectable amount of time for the working boys & girls of the world. idt this is a comparable experience at all to vanilla elden ring and wouldn't recommend it as a substitute, but as a secondary game mode that can serve as a "last-night's highlight reel" of the game its great.
and elden ring does have really strong highlights!! even if the challenge is lowered because of all the new tools available i think that has made the spectacle of the major bosses & setpieces really apparent--i was worried after coming back to elden ring after 2 years away stuff like Astel wouldn't hit as hard, but like nah its still rlly cool. the newly added spells and gear also honestly look quite good for a mod this early in development, you can create some imaginary schoolyard wizard looking battles its awesome. for the person who really likes vanilla elden ring mechanically but doesn't care to bother with rerolling/larval tears this might be the ideal mod
(sidebar: its not explicit at all but i also do like how the different starting locations & vocations you pick up tie in with the base game's narrative--similar to how ER poises the player tarnished as an almost self-sparking catalyst to sever the military v. bloodline succession war that grounds the game, your PC in this mod could just be as self-directed: a disillusioned knight looking to pick off legendary warriors & beasts while the lands are in chaos on some Hunt Showdown shit, an overambitious mage whose primary purpose is to fell Radahan and explore the sunken cities, a dragon priest looking to call rank on the wandering dragons in the game, etc...if you got an overactive imagination and RP a little it can add a lot to the experience here imo,,,)
for me tho i kinda fell off like 1.5 playthroughs in lol. its rlly because in the process of playing this one I got geeked on the reforged mod, and having experience what this mod could be doing with the base game's combat i was left wanting more rlly quickly. let me preface this by saying i think sekiro is kinda like the Terra from Teen Titans for the souls community, it was a nice time but we really should let that bitch die and move on with our lives--but also, playing a modded ER game without having a sekiro-stlye deflect feels so awkward. im sorry im sorry i know, but it really is true that adding in more action-y elements via changing the equip load mechanics, dodging, a poise bar, deflecting, parrying, regening FP, etc. do alooooot more for this game on a replay than just a content expansion and a secondary game mode. the start of a run in this mod is rlly great where you're remixing and reworking elden ring like a DJ to build your class out, but once your build is complete it rlly feels like just playing the base game with an overleveled character. and its like ok.......i have a cheat engine for that. reforged has its numerous problems but i lasted longer doing that than i did with this if im gonna keep it a band. ideal modded ER experience would prob be smthn akin to this with like total warhammer ii mortal empires victory conditions + reforged's combat + vanilla's narrative expanded or smthn.
and elden ring does have really strong highlights!! even if the challenge is lowered because of all the new tools available i think that has made the spectacle of the major bosses & setpieces really apparent--i was worried after coming back to elden ring after 2 years away stuff like Astel wouldn't hit as hard, but like nah its still rlly cool. the newly added spells and gear also honestly look quite good for a mod this early in development, you can create some imaginary schoolyard wizard looking battles its awesome. for the person who really likes vanilla elden ring mechanically but doesn't care to bother with rerolling/larval tears this might be the ideal mod
(sidebar: its not explicit at all but i also do like how the different starting locations & vocations you pick up tie in with the base game's narrative--similar to how ER poises the player tarnished as an almost self-sparking catalyst to sever the military v. bloodline succession war that grounds the game, your PC in this mod could just be as self-directed: a disillusioned knight looking to pick off legendary warriors & beasts while the lands are in chaos on some Hunt Showdown shit, an overambitious mage whose primary purpose is to fell Radahan and explore the sunken cities, a dragon priest looking to call rank on the wandering dragons in the game, etc...if you got an overactive imagination and RP a little it can add a lot to the experience here imo,,,)
for me tho i kinda fell off like 1.5 playthroughs in lol. its rlly because in the process of playing this one I got geeked on the reforged mod, and having experience what this mod could be doing with the base game's combat i was left wanting more rlly quickly. let me preface this by saying i think sekiro is kinda like the Terra from Teen Titans for the souls community, it was a nice time but we really should let that bitch die and move on with our lives--but also, playing a modded ER game without having a sekiro-stlye deflect feels so awkward. im sorry im sorry i know, but it really is true that adding in more action-y elements via changing the equip load mechanics, dodging, a poise bar, deflecting, parrying, regening FP, etc. do alooooot more for this game on a replay than just a content expansion and a secondary game mode. the start of a run in this mod is rlly great where you're remixing and reworking elden ring like a DJ to build your class out, but once your build is complete it rlly feels like just playing the base game with an overleveled character. and its like ok.......i have a cheat engine for that. reforged has its numerous problems but i lasted longer doing that than i did with this if im gonna keep it a band. ideal modded ER experience would prob be smthn akin to this with like total warhammer ii mortal empires victory conditions + reforged's combat + vanilla's narrative expanded or smthn.