Elden Ring players continue to share exciting and comical anecdotes about their individual journeys. The first of many learning curves comes in Elden Ring’s opening moments, where some players were reportedly unable to locate the opening tutorial only feet away from where they spawn in and enter the Cave of Knowledge.
But while Elden Ring is a new game that all players will have to tackle equally, the experience may be particularly daunting for players if Elden Ring is their first FromSoftware game. FromSoftware’s trademark of unapologetic defeat and hit-and-run combat may intimidate new players, though all players can empathize with some of Elden Ring’s early obstacles. For example, a funny video edit has been shared that represents Elden Ring’s learning curves.
Dolan Dark’s video follows Bryan Cranston’s Walter White as a new player-character in Elden Ring using transparent clips of the Breaking Bad character to hilarious effect. The particular Breaking Bad clips used emulate any casual player’s initial experiences with some of Elden Ring’s most challenging early-game endeavors, such as receiving unsolicited insults from the first NPC players encounter in the open-world. Moreover, White's defeated expressions capture all players' reactions to the now-infamous "try fingers but hole" text message written through the online network.
White’s reactions are then used in battles against the Tree Sentinel and Margit, the Fell Omen. The Tree Sentinel is particularly intimidating, especially because he is the first boss players can see in the open-world and roams in the immediate area around the first couple of sites of grace. This may suggest that he is a foe players can tackle immediately; however, players will find that the Tree Sentinel is greatly imposing and might want to return later once they have better stats and armaments. White's reaction says it all with a vengeful middle-finger toward the boss.
White's character is then seen killed by a two-hit combo from the Tree Sentinel, which shows the player's initial level disparity clearly. Dolan Dark's video cuts to Fia, the deathbed companion, who White winks at. Lastly, White curses at Margit before he turns to kick at the golden fog wall that players first pass through to encounter a boss. Passage backward through a fog wall is obstructed once inside the boss stage, so this represents the difficulty most players have discovered with one of Elden Ring's mandatory bosses.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.