I love FromSoft games, it is my kind of gaming: fully focused on gameplay, mechanics and being quite challenging. In that regard, Elden Ring is a masterpiece and culmination of Myiazaki's gamedesign carreer. It feels very familiar to the Souls series, yet it takes some important lessons from Sekiro (and Bloodborne too, so I've heard). The world is beautiful and vast and feels great to explore, eventhough you have to be ready to just "wander aimlessly" from time to time to get a full appreciation. There are some "empty" spaces, but only a few of them and majority of areas in the open have their sense and purpose.
The atmosphere is great, though it's doesn't quite reach the height of Dark Souls games atmosphere. It goes with the setting, that has a little less dispair in it, albeit not by much. Still, the variance in environments forces the mood to change every now and then.
Combat is something FromSoft refined ever since the Demon's Souls. They added some new mechanics (invisible stagger meter), but if you played any Souls Game, you'll be right at home. Still the best combat mechanics on the market, in my opinion.
Difficulty. Oooh, the difficulty argument. To be honest, it's all over the place. It goes with the open world design, unfortunately, so the game can be either really easy or really hard. Elden Ring does not force you to go anywhere up until Leyndell (to enter you have to have at least two Great Runes (from main bosses), but these you can get wherever (you have four options)), so the pathing through the game is up to you. If you force yourself through a hard area, you'll out-level the easier ones and the game is gonna be easy. If you go straight to the Stormveil Castle, the first boss fight (Margitt) is really fuc-ing hard. But if you properly explore Weeping Peninsula, Limgrave and Stormhill, you'll out-level Margit by a lot and breeze through the most of Stormveil. You can use summons and Ashes to help you in fights and make them managable (if they feel too hard). To me the best way was slow exploration and boss fights 1v1, no summon no Ash Spirits. Felt reasonably difficult and had my share of challenge. In my experience, first playthrough is "hard", New Game+ felt childishly easy. Could be me.
Story: marketed as a collaboration with G.R.R. Martin, it is a FromSoft game in the core. It's cryptic, doesn't explain a whole lot and is there for those who actually seek it. It might have been a mistake, to market it like that, cause what basically happened is this: Martin created a strange, dark fantasy setting, which Myiazaki took and ran with it. Quests are there, but as in his previous games, you almost stumble upon them by accident. Mostly. Story is also there, yet it is told through item descriptions and a little tidbits here and there and you probably won't get it in one playthrough. It's a puzzle in itself, for communities/friends to piece it together and have those "aha" moments and theories they can discuss and have fun with it. If you expect more linear storytelling, you'll be really disappointed.
Overall: Great game with just a few flaws. It's not PERFECT and won't satisfy everyone, but it's so damn close to being perfect it's masterpiece in my eyes anyway.
