Summary
Elden Ringis a massive game to tackle, no matter how much a given Tarnished tries to stick to its main path. Many caves and miniature dungeons dot the landscape, on top of unique enemy encounters and all sorts of treasure around every corner. With said treasure often coming with tangible gameplay effects,Elden Ringcan keep surprising players for hours on end. By the time they reach the end of a playthrough, every player should have gone through a full game’s worth of adventure.
However, that’s not enough for everyone, and dedicated fans finished their firstElden Ringruns not long into its life. Thus, a portion of the game’s PC players have turned to overhaul mods to extend their play time.Elden Ring’s randomizers can have similar effects, butElden Ring’s most impressive modsmake their playthroughs feel like starting the base game again for the very first time.Elden Ring: The Convergence is one of the better known examples, but alongside it isElden RingReforged, offering its own unique experience to any player looking for more than just a fresh save file.
How Elden Ring Reforged Stacks Up Against The Convergence
Elden RingReforged has changed a lot from the base game, but its features and goals are better summarized in relation to The Convergence. Both mods have plenty of similarities, such as how they add new spells and equipment, significantly improve magic and crafting, and are both descended fromDark Souls 3mods. Open progression was The Convergence’s main draw, while Reforged plays out like aversion ofElden Ringfrom another universewith more system-level options. The Convergence sounds like the more ambitiousElden Ringmod, but that’s before consideringElden RingReforged’s stated approach to design.
“ELDEN RING Reforged is an overhaul of ELDEN RING’s balance and mechanics with the intent to create a more balanced experience with fair, but still challenging, combat. It is not about “easier” or “harder,” but more interesting and balanced combat.”
By maintaining balance even with its new mechanics and altered enemies, Reforged resemblesDark Souls 2:Scholar of the First Sinas an updated re-release to the originalElden Ring. Meanwhile,Elden Ring: The Convergence reshapesElden Ringinto a new game, one that is more concerned with different magic builds and original content. The Convergence may prompt multiple new playthroughs with its many possible progression paths, but Reforged is occupied with makingElden Ringinto the best version of itself.
Elden Ring Reforged Puts Players In Charge Of Their Experience
What that means will be different for everyone, so Reforged made serving each player their best version ofElden Ringone of its goals. A massive number of difficulty options and alternate game modes are available on the title screen and at every Site of Grace, with difficulties alone givingElden Ringboth easy modesand hard modes with altered enemy behaviors. More granular settings can do anything from makingElden Ringnearly effortless, to cutting players’ invincibility frames in half and forcing them to rely on aSekiro-like deflection system.
Side Content Is Elden Ring Reforged’s Forte
That is only the start of the player-driven experience Reforged offers, though other features are more involved than changing the general difficulty. Alternate modes include a version ofElden Ringwith fast travel replaced by more portal shortcuts, and a time loop where players must complete side quests for power similar toMajora’s Mask. Timed archery challengesbringElden Ring’s bows to the forefrontwith armor dyes as the reward, and marking enemies will fill out a new bestiary called the Codex of the All-Knowing. There are even separate collectible hunts to earn Fortunes that act like class modifiers, or forge Binding Runes for lasting passive buffs. Just because Reforged featuresElden Ring’s original progression doesn’t mean every playthrough can’t feel different.
Elden Ring Reforged Handles Difficulty Very Carefully
Reforged can skew its difficulty at the player’s behest, but this mod has its own vision of a balancedElden Ring, and players will need to adhere to it. The aforementioned treasure hunts can get a lot more treacherous when dealing with powered-up Leaders in encampments guarding locked chests, clearing out foes before unsealing ruins, and enabling Latent Spiritsprings by defeating Spiritspring Stormhawks. Said inactive Spiritsprings also speak to wider design choices inremoving many ofElden Ring’s shortcuts, with some new ones added, and averaging Rune drops between bosses and enemies to encourage fighting overworld mobs.
Reforged Gives Elden Ring Players Tools It Expects Them To Use
The addition of a duck-dodge, deflection, loosened right/left arm equipment rules, faster casting, easy FP regeneration, and spell catalyst weapons all make Reforged players obscenely strong on paper. Many enemy and boss attacks now have hitboxes that match their animations, a severe nerf even if they got cut moves back in the process. However,every known cheese strategy inElden Ringwas also nerfed, and enemies' improved scaling and AI mean Tarnished can’t afford to get cocky. If nothing else, it would be embarrassing to fall prey to an Erdtree Avatar using theRuptured Crystal Tearexplosion. New Game+ in particular has been given extra teeth now that its enemy scaling has been standardized across the game at Haligtree levels.
All of this is without even getting into other impressive features, like Redmane Castle becoming a Legacy Dungeon, boss re-fights, reworked Spirit Ashes, Torrent customization, and a new superboss harboring a game-changing Whetblade. Even the compatibleElden RingSeamless Co-op has its own difficulties, allowing some ofElden Ring’s bosses to become Starscourge Radahn-like raids. The Reforged mod allows for many new experiences inElden Ringwithout changing what made the original game great, and will only produce more as its development continues.
