Apologies if this sort of post isn’t allowed. So I’ve given BG3 a go two times now. Both times I’ve been excited and expected that it’s likely something I’ll be into. But I get down to it and I just lose steam with it pretty quickly
I was wondering if there’s a point early on where it takes a big jump in engaging you and I just didn’t get to that point? I didn’t really get that far past the starting “spaceship” area (not sure if I should call it that), so I know I haven’t given it that much of a chance. I know there’ll be many places that are a lot more interesting throughout it
But I dunno, it just doesn’t keep my attention. The gameplay doesn’t feel that great for me personally. So if it’s kinda just more of the same in terms of gameplay, just with the (no doubt) great plot unfolding and better surroundings then it might just not be for me. I mostly play soulslikes, which is obviously pretty different gameplay, and I struggle to get into most games not in that style. I just really wanted to like BG3 so don’t want to write it off without asking this. Not saying it’s a bad game or anything, it’s clearly a masterpiece, but might just not be my thing
I think you need to give it a little more time to see if it clicks. See if you are intrigued and invested in the story and characters. Gameplay gets more interesting and fun once you get more levels, but if you don’t really care about whats happening I feel it’s just not going to be fun.
I like it but there are so many options I get to decision paralysis. Im thinking about trying it with the ai addon to quicken combat and just having all the companions level with default selections.
It sounds like it’s not your game, and that’s okay. Funnily enough, I couldn’t get into Elden Ring. It was my first and only Souls game. On release everyone was praising it like it was the next messiah, and I love most RPGs, so after a few months I finally decided to get it. It’s currently sitting in my Steam account with a whopping 2.2 hours of play time. Haven’t tried playing it again in over a year. So we’re like polar opposites. ::High five!::
Opposites indeed! I’m curious though, what was it about ER that made you not able to get into it? If soulslikes just aren’t for you then I totally get that. It’s just ER isn’t the one I’d personally go in with, I feel like if I’d started with it then I’d be pretty overwhelmed and confused a lot of the time. Though that’s just me, of course
Also despite sharing most of the same style, they can still vary in gameplay a fair bit. Sekiro, for instance, is pretty unique amongst them. I actually had to install an easy mod on it (I know, sacrilege) to tone down the difficulty a bit as my brain just can’t hack it on normal. It’s very much a precise rhythm game in terms of combat. Whereas Bloodborne encourages you to charge in and just go berserk on enemies, something that my brain is much better with
As I say, if it’s just not your thing then fair enough. You may already know everything I’ve said here anyways, just wouldn’t want you to miss out on games you’d potentially enjoy, even if ER doesn’t do it for ya
Well, keep in mind it has been over a year since I tried playing Elden Ring, and I definitely wouldn’t claim to know much about it other than what I read, since I only played it a couple of hours before calling it quits.
I remember feeling rather uncompelled and/or confused by the story at the beginning. Then I began to read online that the story was mostly told through item descriptions and that there wasn’t a lot of back and forth dialogue (this is only what I read, so I’m certainly not claiming it as a fact). After reading that I quickly began to lose interest since stories, dialogue, and the consequences of your hero’s decisions are some of the biggest reasons I play RPGs. I wasn’t into the combat aspect enough to make up for some of the other things I wanted.
I also remember finding all the messages that other players left on the ground really distracting and unimmersive. Most of them were just jokes or troll messages trying to convince people to jump off a cliff. I know this probably seems like a weird thing to get hung up on, but it bothered me so much that I went searching for mods just to turn them off, but at the time not being able to find any satisfactory solutions. I didn’t get very far, so this may have improved once you’re further out in the world.
The Elden Ring world was absolutely beautiful! Just like you, I really did want to like/love the game, and just as you said about BG3, I’m sure it’s a masterpiece, but it just didn’t seem like my thing.
Very fair reasons! Much of it are common things people say about it, even those that enjoy it
The story being hard to puzzle out on your own is understandable, I’ve never understood what’s going on well in ER or any Dark Souls game by just playing it. But I have to say, as someone who’s a big fan of a good story and deep lore, I actually really like that they do it that way. Even though it may not seem it on the surface, the lore is very deep in all the games. It’s not just item descriptions that show us it, the sparse conversations things you hear from NPCs are also part of it. There’s also lots of indicators throughout the world in just the environment. The fact that the only reason we know so much lore is because the fandom has pieced it together over the years with all these masses of obscure clues and evidence is really cool, to me. Also just have to say there are many different ways in which your characters actions affect little sub plots and the world at large. ER has a bunch of different endings and ways you bring them about, for example
As for the messages I totally feel you there, the fandom has a lot of memelords who tend to repeat the same things over and over with messages. You can actually turn those off though if you play the game offline, which is what I do. I’m not bothered about PVP and there’s plenty of times I’ve been invaded across the games at real inconvenient times, so there’s nothing that attracts me to playing online
I love the combat and always have but again that’s obviously subjective. I really like the diversity of builds you can do and how it opens it up to so many potential challenge runs. But yeah if it’s just fundamentally the way the combat is that isn’t for you then I guess just trying out different builds wouldn’t change much for you
Yeah this isn’t me trying to pressure you or whatever into giving it another go, even though I love these games I totally understand why a lot of people don’t like them. I haven’t been able to play a single one all the way through without having to look things up online, as have most others. There’s a lot of times in all the games where you just think “how was I ever meant to figure this out on my own?” They all have their flaws. DS1 and DS2 were both released unfinished and DS3 I think is actually pretty overrated, though still a fantastic game
Anyways thanks for explaining what you didn’t like. I didn’t intend to write back something like this, I expected what you would say would be entirely subjective. And a lot of it is but I just thought I’d give my thoughts on the rest. The irony of the longest posts I’ve written on Lemmy about soulslikes being in the BG3 community
No need to force yourself to play a game you aren’t jiving with. Unless you’re a game reviewer for work, you should enjoy your games - they are recreation time.
True that! Yeah wasn’t wanting to force myself or anything. Think I just hyped myself up too much for it and what I was expecting didn’t line up with the reality. It’s one of those examples of media where I’m like “I really feel like I should like this, but I just can’t for some reason”
As a combat/character building driven player, you need to hit character level 2-4 for core abilities/synergies to start coming online before combt gets interesting, imo. If you’re a story driven player and you’re not already into it 2-3 hours in, you won’t get into it at all.
how far did you get? if you’re not into it after reaching the camp, then it’s not for you, the rest of the game is more of the same
It sounds like its probably just not your type of game. Games like BG3 are more about the role playing elements than the combat, which is a big difference from souls-like.
Out of curiosity, do you like any tactical rpgs (Final Fantasy Tatics, Xcom, etc.)? That’s what the actual “gameplay” feels most like to me.
I’ve not played FF really but I’ve been meaning to give em a try at some point. I guess the closest I can think of gameplay wise that I do enjoy is Pokémon (lol) if that helps?
Yeah, I would recommend trying out other tactical rpgs first, cause if you don’t like the style of gameplay then you’ll probably never be able to get into it.
Some good intro tactical rpgs that are more approachable (although play somewhat differently) would be Wargroove, Fire Emblem series, Mario and Rabbids (actually better than it deserves).
Note: Final Fantasy Tatics is a subseries of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy ranges from turn based rpg to action game depending on the game.
Thanks for the advice and suggestions! I’ll look into these and see how I go with them
My experience of the game was similar. I’ve started to make a few characters and lost interest before character generation was complete. The D&D 5e rules just aren’t that interesting from a character creation standpoint. A couple times I did get to the spelljammer, even made it all the way through the prologue once, but then I found that managing progression for several additional mechanically uninteresting characters just made the game even less fun.
