Elden Ring (2022)

Wow, what a trip. It's snowing outside and there wasn't a lot of things to do, so I literally played Elden Ring 24/7 and finished it within just two weeks. The last times I was so obsessed with a game were Dark Souls and Outer Wilds.

When I did not play, I was doing research on where to go, what spells to get etc. This hasn't happened to me with games anymore since I am an adult. It speaks volumes about the hauntingly absorbing immersion this game creates.

It might not be the best game of all time, but it is the most beautiful one I would dare to say. The visual beauty and variety of the architecture and landscapes is one of a kind and just as such already a tremendous piece of art.

FromSoft's imagery is a japanese fever dream of the european middle ages, for them a foreign far land and strange and haunting with its gigantic churches and castles. The soulsgames and Elden Ring exaggerate this grandeur by simply increasing the scale and size of it thus perfecting its beauty up unto a surreal point. After Bloodborne lending from a different epoque, Elden Ring is again in the line of art direction like the first Dark Souls games. It manages to impress with going even a step further.

I love the very unusual predominently yellow and grey colour palette that they are using this time for a change. It really gives ER its own aesthetic drill as compared to the older FS games.

Gameplay wise everything has stayed the same. Fighting is great and versatile, multiplayer implementation is amazing and innovative, progress feels meaningful with equipment milestones, exploration is rewarding but optional etcpp.

Elden Ring does not abandon any key feature of the formula but it did adapt a little with plenty quality of life changes like being able to respec, teleporting, change appearance etcpp. The whole experience feels a little more triple A-y, but in a good kind of way. Everything is smooth and groovy, but admittedly sort of lost the gritty charme of DS1.

I love that there are so many different builds and weapons and everything is viable to be used. I was trained by old RPGs that you cannot just play what you want because so much stuff is terrible and some is just OP. Finally the balancing works so well that everything can be tried out.

Unlike other soulslikes like Hollow Knight, ER has a very fair and respectful Sight of Grace placement. Elden Ring manages to never make me feel like I am wasting my time because the creators don't respect it. Terrible long boss runbacks are disrespectful and Elden Ring once and for all abandoned the idea. The death stakes are there but you are never needlessly punished.

I played as a mage with sumons because I heard that is easy mode and I like to make my life easy in such games. Finding out what spells and what ashes work best against which boss was its own strategic mini game on its own. I absolutely loved it.

It seems unthankful but one has to point out the negative points though, because Elden Ring is usually solely praised and despite its young age absolutely goated, so I think it's about time to point out the flaws now as well.

The vertical map design that made DS1 so genius does not exactly do the same thing for the open world in ER. Only Haligtree made use of it and reminded me of DS1 in that sense. The world is a little too vast as well. In some places they started 3D asset recyling for dungeons and enemies and that really was not necessary. Have they not heard that the bigger the better times in Open Worlds are definitely over by now?

I am going to say something controversial now and I hope I am not alone with this because I start to feel like the emperor is naked in public and everybody is applauding. Can we please have a discussion about the storytelling and narratives of FromSoftware? I think it is fairly overrated. The lore in general feels a little like a 12 year old writing an anime script with ChatGPT. A lot of empty buzz words, a lot of style over substance, often communicated as pure gibberish and sometimes at the edge of absolute cringe.

The questlines in general were hard to follow, the instructions were almost Morrowind-level vague and without a guide it's pure coincidence if you follow them. Although I like that there are few NPCs, it does not evoke the same epic feeling of loneliness like in Dark Souls in my opinion. I like that they don't have long exhausting dialogues, but what they say is often too vague and directionless. The artificial old language is okay I guess, but it's not top notch writing as well. The NPCs all seem like sort of lifeless puppets. They feel like decoration of the landscape, not like actual living companions.

Also, the stories that are told are very scarce. You have to make up your own, and this is what I did so I'd like to finish this review with my greatest experience in Elden Ring:

A friend told me about Latenna and her stationary character because of her walking disability. I was curious and immediately rescued her to get her spirit ash. I heard about a cheese tactic against the Fire Giant with her as a turret killing him on her own. Turned out I really struggled with that guy. I'm not lying when I say that one day I spent eight hours either trying to defeat the Fire Giant or searching for things that would help me, and I still didn't manage it. But I didn't want to abandon the strategy and the idea that Latenna would fulfill her destiny and I would defeat him with her as a turret. I spent another EIGHT hours doing the entire Consecrated Snowfield and Miquella's Halig Tree, just to get the Ghost Glovewort Bell Bearing down in Ephael so I could level her up, and to honor her even more, she also got one of the limited Great Ghost Gloveworts. Then I defeated the Giant on my first try. And on the way, I also brought her home to her sisters. Love her <3 and fuck ableism!

This title is a monumental action-RPG that combines FromSoftware’s signature punishing combat with an expansive open world full of mystery, danger, and discovery. The Lands Between is vast and beautifully crafted, rewarding exploration with hidden dungeons, powerful gear, and unforgettable encounters. Its dark fantasy atmosphere, supported by striking art direction and subtle storytelling, makes the world feel alive and dangerous at every step. The combat system refines the Souls formula, offering a huge variety of weapons, spells, and builds that allow people to approach challenges in different ways. Boss fights are tough but memorable, making every victory feel hard-earned and satisfying. The sheer amount of optional content, from side areas to multiple endings, gives the game incredible replay value and freedom of choice.

By far this is the biggest standout for me, and this made me play the game, from start to finish, two entire times, and also to mess around with alternative playstyles and classes along the way. And as much as the other titles of the same company also have this feature, by far ER is the one with the most advanced replay value up to this day, not only when it comes to FS titles, but Souls-likes in general. On the downside, the PC version suffered from performance issues at launch, with stuttering and inconsistent frame rates, though patches have improved stability over time. Some mechanics, such as mounted combat and certain movement systems, can feel clunky, and the game’s lack of guidance can make it overwhelming for newcomers. Still, these drawbacks do little to diminish the overall experience, while at the same time, the lack of sign-posting can be a good thing, since this resembles how gaming worked back in the day, for example, in the SNES era.

This kind of approach promotes freedom and curiosity, in order to advance forward, the only possible strategy is to always keep moving. Ultimately, this game is a masterpiece of open-world design and a must-play for fans of challenging, atmospheric RPGs. It demands patience and persistence but rewards players with one of the most immersive and memorable adventures in modern gaming. This is definitely one of the best games of all time, and a landmark in the action-RPG genre, which was starting to become saturated with less and less inspiring games. I absolutely consider this a must-play, for everybody, not just for fans of Souls-likes, even if you don't manage to beat it, or if you can't get past the first few areas of the game, you'll still have an amazing experience while doing so.

Particularly speaking, I started off playing with the Samurai class, from start to finish, and I don't really like to change much of the stock character. And I did the same with the Warrior class afterwards, on a second playthrough from scratch, this shows that even the stock simple classes are viable from start to finish, you don't even need to get creative if you don't feel like it. And lastly, yet to this day, I still have not played the DLC, but I plan on doing so, and I highly recommend doing 100% of this game. It is one of those rare cases which, even though the game is very complex, long and hard to finish, it is still worth it to endure every little content it displays for you to the fullest, there is little to no downsides in doing so.

I finally finished it. After three months, 102 hours and three breakdowns, I finally beat the hottest, fanciest, most awarded game of the last decade. The only thing missing is getting the Platinum (either by replaying it or by using the online save slot trick, I guess, haven't decided yet) and the DLC, but all that does not really matter because the reality is.... what an extenuating experience, man.

Yes, Elden Ring is a great game. Yes, the story IS engaging. Yes, the amount of mechanical freedom and experimentation is unlike anything From Software has come before. But after all that the question I kept asking myself when I finished the game was: Was it FUN?

And after two weeks of mulling over it, my answer is: No, mostly it was not.

I am not going to bring some galaxy-brain takes to these to justify my very personal opinion, mainly because there are actually really fun parts in the game: the first look at Limgrave felt so amazing, so full of potential. Every new area filled with monsters, every new menacing looking enemy wandering around, oh man that freaking Dragon attacking you all of the sudden in the middle of a lake? Awesome, those first twenty hours were absolutely marvelous, and even when I felt frustrated at times about how hard Morgott or Stormveil Castle were I was having a ton of fun. I really was looking forward for what may come next.

Then we get to Liurnia, an another humongous area full of exploration opened up and... Ok, let's do it. It was maybe not as inspiring and fun as Limgrave, with all the swamps and fog around, but hey, it is still nice. At the very least the lake is not poisoned or anything right? (He, poor idiot). Cool, so let's spend another 15 hours in this place and kill the annoying witch in the Academy and let's move on through the game. What's this? oh there is another section of the map we can go? sure, let's see what's what.

Oh cool. We arrived in hell. That's nice.

I actually went to Caelid early because of the trap chest in Limgrave but I honestly thought it was going to be like a end-game area seeing how hard it was. My thought process at the time was "By the time the story takes me to Caelid, I am going to be so leveld up that I will be cruising through all this monstrosities that want to kill me" but no. Turns out that Caelid FUCKING SUCKS and, even if you are level 150 Caelid is still a pain in the ass. How nice.

By the time I came to Caelid exhaustion was already starting to set in: cool, a THIRD MASSIVE AREA TO EXPLORE, this one actually full of annoying enemies and poisoned swamps (not only poison, but super-duper-poison, because regular-ass poison is not annoying enough). Sure, let's power through this. It was a frustrating experience but at least the pay-off at the end was a really nice boss battle against the iconic Radahn I heard about so much. We got this.

We are on the sixty hour mark and we arrive at the Altus Plateau and OH YEAH, ANOTHER MASSIVE EXPLORATION AREA, WITH THREE GIGANTIC SUB-AREAS TO EXPLORE, I AM NOT GETTING TIRED OF THIS SHIT, NO.

Hey, Leyndell is fun, and even some parts of Volcano Manor were really interesting (Rykard was the second hardest boss for me to beat, after the Rotten Fucker), but it was evident that the game was telling me I was halfway through it (the map still had this huge gaps in it) and I was wondering "Am I going to take 200 hours just to beat this thing for the first time? what the fuck?". I actually had to take my first break after arriving at Leyndell because honestly, I was so done of doing caves to get mushrooms, but I was already so invested and so far ahead in the game I didn't want to quit.

Morgott's boss battle is really fun, and afterwards you can get to Mountaintops of the Giants which, while being ANOTHER FUCKING HUGE AREA FULL OF NOTHING, at least is kind of a nice switch of pace with all the cliffs and snow and stuff. I am gathering my bearings again, ready to fight whatever monstrosity is waiting for me at the end of the chain when my cousin tells me via Whatsapp "hey, the boss of the Mountaintops is not that hard, specially if you already killed all the bullshit underground, your level should be enough"

"Ehmmmm, what bullshit undergound?" My voice trembling with anticipation.

YES, THERE ARE SEVERAL MORE HUMONGOUS AREAS UNDERGROUND, FILLED WITH MORE MUSHROOMS AND BULLSHIT.

I finished Siofra and had to take my second pause from Elden Ringing because really, at that point I was doubting my endurance to finish the game. Like hey, I really want to know what happens in the story but I will lose interest if this freaking game keeps on sidetracking me like that, fuck this.

After two weeks of pause I resumed my voyage by doing all the undergroung stuff and getting the Blue Lady her stuff back and back to the Mountaintops I go. Yes, the Fire Giant was fairly easy afterwards and I knew about the Consecrated Snowfield (Frigid Outskirts ptsd) so let's venture further north. Let's see what is waiting for me at the end of this trip. I knew that I was nearing the end because the Erdtree was burning and of course I was aware of that superboss that I had yet to fight, so I decided to go head on and face that area to see if I could rekindle my enjoyment with that boss battle...

And here come the third break I had to take, after two hours and more than fifty attempts at the most bullshit, unbalanced, unfun fight in all of From Software. Malenia, the rotten bitch.

(Why oh why are you people hung up on her, for god's sake? I only have resentment and hate for that character, holy shit)

I know it was my fault, because from start I decided to play Elden Ring the hard way, so I never used summons or Ashes (I think I summoned once for a questline that my cousin told me would grant me my last somber stone, but apart from that, summon-free). Yet Malenia is such a bullshit, unfun boss for me. There was never a time when I felt I could beat her. Every time I was able (by some miracle) to get her to second phase BOOM, her shadow strike or her relentless attacks carved assholes through my eyes and was unable to even get some practice runs to get her timing right. Beating her took me almost FOUR FUCKING HOURS and I still think I beat her because of sheer luck: on my second to last attempt before winning I was unable to get second phase because of some bullshit experimentation that went haywire. I died unceremoniously and then decided to give it another try to my trusty again with my original strategy: Bloodhound fang, blood grease and I dream...

And for some stupid reason, that was the winning attempt. I was never able to fully evade her Waterfowl bullshit or her rapid knife attack in either phase, but for some stupid shot of luck I absolutely destroyed her on my 78 attempt and I was finally free, goddammit. Malenia is without a doubt the hardest boss in all From Software games and probably one of the hardest I have ever faced, but hardest does not mean coolest or better, it was not an enjoyable battle for me at all and the fact that I feel I beat her out of sheer luck only makes it worst. Fuck her lore and fuck that fight, I never want to do it again.

The rest of the game was fine. Maliketh was a cool fight and the ending was cool, I guess. Honestly in the last stretch I was so out of it that every time Radagon killed me I was just extra vexed like "let me finish this and finish you, stubborn useless piece of shit". The last fight against Berserk's Dragonite was also kind of fun, but really I was just focused on finishing the game once and for all.

Immediately after finishing the game and during the credits roll I thought: why I feel so conflicted about this game? What is that je ne sais quoi that DS3 and Bloodborne have that Elden Ring lacks? Is it me? Maybe I don't enjoy open exploration games anymore? What is the deal?

Probably a little bit of everything, yes, but at the end my honest opinion is that Elden Ring tries to be everything and sadly the fun gets way to scattered and thin across ALL THERE IS TO DO. I absolutely respect and appreciate (and enjoy) From Software's approach to narrative in games and hands-off ludology but honestly I feel they overdid it a bit. Let's be honest about it: would have been so bad of a change to compress the game a little bit? Imagine if all the bosses and sub-bosses of Liurnia and Caelid were taken out of those areas and sprinkled about in the rest of the map. Let's even assume that the story is unchanged and the shardbearers are still the same amount but the main areas of exploration are only Limgrave, Altus Plateau and Mountaintops. I feel that the story would look exactly the same, but the gaming experience would have so much more streamlined and exciting, this would have even solved the problem of reusing boss fights so often because there would be fewer spots to fill with battles. I don't know, man, maybe I am old. Maybe games of 200+ hours are not for me anymore and the gaming zeitgeist is leaving me behind. Who knows. I think it will take me at least a year to even attempt to play Shadow of the Erdtree.

I haven't even talked about the story and my favourite boss battles because it gets so diluted. I remember Godrick and Rennala being quite a fun spectacle and Godfrey was also really awesome (I was so horrified about the Lion, holy shit). Some fights I have seen people complain were really easy and enjoyable for me, like Radahn or the Ballsack Duo. Hell, I was kind of happy after defeating Margit because it was an honest concern for me that Elden Ring was going to be too much, taking into account how much faster and harder bosses are in this game compared to Bloodborne or Dark Souls. Man, if can picture any Dark Souls boss that has the same difficulty level as Radagon or Rykard, it is just way too different of a power scale.

Anywho... that was Elden Ring. I am really curious about the DLC because I have not spoiled myself too much but apparently is all about Miquella, who I honestly expect not to be such a big pain in the ass as his sister, but we'll see. I have zero intentions of starting the DLC soon, I am not ready for another one hundred hours of why is it always mushroom.

I don't have the right. O I don't have the right

So, TL; DR: Elden Ring is fun but is way too large and empty. Liurnia and Caelid were redundant and unfun. Good boss fights get drowned among the sheer amount of mediocre, repetitive ones. Malenia fucking sucks.

Woof. That Maliketh dude was a right pain in the ass with those AoE attacks that could almost one-shot me, the small hitbox and him constantly moving around. First stage was relatively straightforward but then in that second stage the SOB was so aggressive and mobile that I could barely get one hit before he was attacking again.

Anyway, he's done, as are the capital, that asshole Gideon and that dude Godfrey. I feel that the game acted as finding him was some sort of big revelation, but for me it was just yet another G-name.

I feel that I'm slowly approaching what would I think it's the endgame portion (after 80 hours, which is wild) so I'm now starting to look at all the various "quests" and NPCs that I obviously missed.

Some of them are cool, but I'm not sold on this quest design of having to talk to random NPCs in random places at random moments without seemingly any direction. Sure, not being pestered with questlogs and map icons is nice (it's different, it's unusual), but questlines are so obscure that I need to be constantly reading a wiki, so the questlogs and map markers are back, just in my phone instead of my game.

Raya Lucaria academy is amazing. The way through the academy twist and turn with many forking paths and surprising shortcuts. It felt like what little I played of Bloodborne.

Anyway, I killed Renala last night. First try and she didn't take more than 5 hits. Kind of a disappointment again. It didn't help that I didn't know how to enter Raya Lucaria Academy so I ended up even more overleveled by exploring more of the map. Also that apparently she is particularly weak to melee builds. And I also accidentally used a rune arc.

At first the online components bugged me so I turned them off. The messages that littered the landscape land mostly between useless and misleading, as were the bloodstains showing other players' deaths. And the ghosts running around every now and then were distracting.

But eventually I warmed into them. Most messages are not useful ("item ahead" literally in front of an item) but some are mildly amusing and are a good way of interacting with the community in a non-toxic way. You get to learn all the language (like turtle = dog) and stuff. I started to even write my own; some useful, like pointing out fake walls, some funny, like "ahead ahead" before a coffer with a head-based shield.

Today I *Gasp!* even went into multiplayer and helped a couple of players beat Radahn (it's by far the most co-oping areas, according to the map).

So far, I have to say that I'm really liking the exploring around the world because it's such a complex, pretty and interesting place. I love that most of the time platforming is done on things that don't look like platforms, like broken down structures and weird root systems. I also like that there are lots of little animals and some enemies seem to be doing stuff instead of just standing waiting to be killed. It doesn't feel like a level in a game, it feels like a real world.

The more I play, the more clear it is that the world is not in decay; the world is thriving. There are animals and plants doing perfectly fine on their own. A lot of them don't even attack you but even the ones that do seem mostly just defending themselves. I am the asshole going around killing stuff that hasn't done anything wrong to me. It gives me a somewhat Shadow of the Colossus vibe. Particularly those walking mausoleums.

The only openly hostile enemies seem to be remnants of the old world that desperately try to go back to it. I guess my "mission" is to fix the Ring to being back the world from.vefore the shattering but from what I've seen, the world after the shattering is doing just fine. I don't have the right to go around stomping all over it.

One issue with the open world structure, though, is that the game doesn't have a balanced and satisfying difficulty curve. If you find a boss or area that is too hard for you, you can just go explore somewhere else, get better gear, allies and level up and come back later, stronger. This works well in theory but, in practice, there is so much content that if you like exploring you can very easily find yourself overleveled and then you won't find any boss or area that is too hard for you.

And because the game has no way of gating of you get to a boss as a lowly first level with a broken sword or as a beefy steamroller dual wielding the gilded axes of death, the same boss or area can be either extremely hard or piss easy. So the game can't effectively use difficulty to tell the story. "Was this boss supposed to be pathetically weak as a plot point or I'm too strong for it?" "Is this enemy supposed to secretly the toughest motherfucker in the whole Lands Between or have I sequence broken myself into this fight too early?"

As an aside, I also feel that I'm beating bosses not because I'm getting better, but because my character is getting better.

This might change in the late game, since there must be a limit to gear and levels, but the mid game is very uneven.

Ranni Pixel Art by alpceliko

I've played all the soulsborne games with the exception of Bloodborne. I have 130 hours in Elden Ring. And it's not terrible, (hence the reason it got more than 1 star) but it's painfully mediocre and not peak FROM in the very least. I will admit right now that all the raving about GOTY and "best game ever made" did make me more sour than the game itself; but I'm not being a contrarian. I'm genuinely dissatisfied, and I wish I wasn't, because I see the potential.

The problem that stands out the most to me is the open world. Why go open world? What's the point? So I can see vistas while i mindnumbingly run towards the next piece of exciting content? So I can get oneshot ganked in Wheelbarrow because fuck you? Not to mention Torrent completely trivializes overworld combat because you can just like... run away lol

This is the open world that was so revolutionary it was going to change the gaming industry and the status quo?? It's literaly a Ubisoft open world without the map markers!

The NPC side quests are so obtuse and a headache to obtain without a guide. FROM has always been like this, but the design was restricted to smaller, more confined maps. Ranni's quest is legitimately one of the worst. How am I to know that Bladd was going to be in THAT SPECIFIC SPOT in Siefra River? That place is enormous! How was I to know Hyetta was down there??? How the FUCK??

The story is a rehash of cycles and Dark Souls bullshittery, except add Demigods fighting. Meh. It's told through the same way, too: items. Originally MIyazaki did this due to budget constrains (he didn't want to hire writers) and it worked, for Dark Souls and AT THE TIME. You hire R.R Martin and the writing is... still in the fucking items? Really now?

And on-to the combat. I should preface, my favorite Dark Souls is 2. Scholar of the First Sin. That's right, my opinion is worthless; but by extension, so is that of whoever likes Elden Ring! Because Elden Ring trips in the same places as Dark Souls 2 did. Enemy ganks? Check. Repetition ad nauseum? Check. Lazy enemy placement? Check. Insane damage valules late game? Check.

And speaking of late game... I don't even know where to start with this game. It's genuinely ridiculous. Malenia will one-shot you at 60 vigor. The game is essentially insufferable and a cornerstone of bad design. I'm sure I have WAY more complaints stored in my head, but this rant has taken all the energy out of me so whatever, I didn't like it.

I hope this isn't the way to go for FROM in the future, as I'd be concerned.

Single playthrough, platinum trophy, ~97 hours.

Ramble thoughts:

Pros:

• The open world is wonderful as it really lets you go where you want and explore how you want.
• The story, although mediocre, is presented in a more accessible way from the previous from games. (Although, I wish they did more direct story telling).
• The game length is good given the price. The value-to-money is certainly there.
• The various options to play how you want exceeds that of other games in its genre. I used a summon for almost every big fight, an option that makes the game more accessible in my opinion. I didn't use a lot of consumables or crafting, but the options were there.
• More checkpoints than previous games helped lessen the frustration of having to retrace dungeons when dying.

Cons (AKA why not five stars):

• Platforming is still awful, wish they would leave that element out of games like this.
• The games length is a pro and a con. Good value for money, but the end of the game felt artificially inflated with huge dungeons to pad out run time a little bit. Especially if you like to explore all the routes.
• Some dungeons are just designed to be frustrating. Not just difficult or to inspire a since of dread, they were downright frustrating. Example: The Haligtree, the lake of rot.
• Scarlet rot as a whole is broken.
• Summons being disallowed from certain areas that contained bosses who were not bosses.
• Three trophies are tied to endings in an attempt to force multiple playthroughs. Although there is a workaround, this is something I can't stand. There was a better way to do it without tying them to endings.
• There are a few enemies who are just terrible (i.e. revenants), they can **** all the way off.

Most of the cons are nit-picky but do diminish my overall experience to take away a star. I feel like my one playthrough was plenty, and I will not be picking this one back-up.

I'm a diehard FromSoft fan. And I mean that. Demon's Souls is my favorite game of all time. I earned the platinum trophy five times for the PS3 version, twice for the PS5 remake, and my right arm is covered in tattoos referencing the game. I earned the platinum trophies for all the other Souls games on each release. I earned the platinum trophy for Bloodborne twice. And I have a Sekiro tattoo on both my left wrist and my right calf. I have a huge collection I've amassed over the years of the different regional variants and special editions of the different Souls games, artbooks, and game guides. I love these games. I replay Bloodborne, Demon's Souls, and Dark Souls III constantly.

Elden Ring's release was a big deal for me. I went in as blind as I could and took a week off of work to play it. And I played the hell out of it. I did nothing for a month and some change. I did everything you can do in the game and saw everything there is to see.

And I loved my time with Elden Ring. I earned the platinum trophy on the PS5 version, then went and got it on the PS4 too. But I will probably never play it again.

And truth be told, I can't really figure out why. I know that I just don't want to. I've tried booting it up and starting a new character but I quickly put it down.

Maybe it's the open world. It's such a huge part of the game that it feels unavoidable, or unskippable, and yet, I explored it so thoroughly my first time through that I'm not really interested in retreading that ground. The idea of simply burning through the main dungeons and castles is tantalizing but I can't ever really bring myself to get far enough in to go that route.

I think there's also fatigue. I'm glad Elden Ring and FromtSoft are experiencing such acclaim, I'm not a hipster or anything. Please, bring my gaming love to the rest of the world so others can share in the personal journey of the sheer challenge and triumph these games are centered around. But this really is just Dark Souls IV. There are plenty of valid arguments against that idea, but the DNA is there. That's neither a good nor bad thing. It just means that as a diehard Souls fan, the game is overly familiar and isn't really anything new for a player like me.

There weren't many things in Elden Ring that surprised me, other than the sheer size of the world and how absurdly expansive the map continually became. That was AWESOME the first time around. There is so much to love in the game! But...

...I just can't bring myself to care about it. That ravenous enthusiasm I've had for each FromSoft game after completing it is completely absent. I felt nothing when the DLC was announced and I am fairly confident that I will skip it. Maybe I'll play it again in 20 years when I've forgotten 90% of what it contains. But I don't know, I'm just not here for this game.

I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts about it, especially those who are diehards such as myself - I love hearing the enthusiasm of newcomers and reexperiencing Souls-like games for the first time vicariously through reading their thoughts, but I'm wondering how alone I am in feeling a general ambivalence towards Elden Ring.

Spoilers Ahead!

Behold, the Elden Ring! In short praise the Elden Ring!

I think at this point, the popularity and concept around Elden Ring is talked to death. You can find far superior reviews, analysis', descriptions and overall content online, but might I add another from your average ass gamer to the pile that exist.

The game is big Dark Souls. It's different but at its core, its another Fromsoftware game that follows the same formula, but this time in a massive (and I mean massive) open world. And its a real good time. I have found a love for Fromsoft games after beating both DS1 and DS2 in 2022 for the first time, and followed it up by jumping into Elden Ring after. I can't pretend like I know the nuance of these games like many others. There is just so many mechanics, features, builds, abilities and combos that tie it all together, I am not the right resource for that. However, when it comes to rip and tear through the game until its done, hell yeah lets go.

DS1 is praised for its inter-connected world, how everything links back to a central hub and is compact, yet a big land full to explore. Elden Ring plays on that a lot. While there is no central hub that ties back to every area in the traditional sense of DS1, each part of the world is inter-connected in its own way. There are lots of mini-representations of this throughout the legacy dungeons as well, where they loop back on each other, and you jump around to nooks and crannies to find secrets and equipment. Might I also add the underground? You can see Mogh's palace, but don't get to it until much later through other connected bits. Its kind of like Zelda, but darker and way harder.

The fighting is tight as always, and its fast. Coupled with this, is more ways then every to take on that big bad boss fight. Guard counters allow for a quick reaction hit when using a shield, you can jump to avoid attacks outside of just rolling and poise break your opponents for a critical hit. Again, I can't comment on the complexities of build variety (although there is a shitload), I am a simple man. Strength/Dex quality build, melee and no magic. That's my style and how I do it. The combat is awesome.

While the game is an incredible feat and unbelievably great to play, nothing is without fault. There is a lot of copy/paste enemies in Elden Ring, and some dungeons. I didn't finish every catacombs, because they all feel somewhat the same. Find a lever and open a closed door, fight the boss. Fighting ANOTHER Erdtree Avatar/Putrid Avatar gets old, and exploring mining tunnels also gets boring, although you do get lots of upgrade materials. This dragged on for me a bit, and on a subsequent playthrough, I wouldn't be so focused on exploring every area again, but likely you wouldn't need to on NG+ anyway. Additionally, depending on your playstyle the game can get frustratingly hard by the end. I choose to play as a melee build with no summons, which can make the end game experience grueling. After beating my head against the wall against Malenia for hours and hours and hours, I finally gave in to summoning the Mimic Tear which made the fight absolutely trivial and stupidly easy.

I am not going to hate on anyone for using powerful magic or summons to get through Elden Ring. The beauty of it is that it does make the game more accessible to lots of people who otherwise may not be able to beat it head on with a sword and their own skill. However, when the game gets to a point when it is incredibly hard and frustrating to play in my desired method, and then seemingly laughably easy by using a summon it makes me think.. what's the point? I don't want everything to be made easy for me, but when the options are game breakingly easy, or stupidly pull your hair out difficult, it makes Elden Ring lose a bit of is shine. I want to be able to play the game reasonably in my own way and be able to beat it. The end game took me literal hours because of the type of build I choose to use. Not totally okay with me.

At the end of the day, Elden Ring is for everyone that likes an open world RPG or an action RPG. You aren't going to find hand holding story here. The game tells a story in a deep, rich way full of lore, exploration and theory crafting. And yeah the game is probably going to piss you off a whole bunch when you start (if you are new). But the truth is, for being a "hard" game, the developers made this one pretty dang easy if you employ a lot of the mechanics that are in the game, and to me that's cool. There is no easy setting in the menu, but its as easy or hard as you make it. Do yourself a favor and don't spoil Elden Ring by looking up a walkthrough, but spoil YOURSELF by getting lost in an incredible world, with amazing lore, and a great overall experience.

I’ve spent about 40 hours in the game. I know that’s nowhere near done, but I can’t say I’ve really enjoyed those hours and it seems that everything after is just going to be more of the same experience. I have a hard time playing any game like this for a long time if there’s not compelling story with it. I do like the exploration aspect in as much as it’s similar to BOTW, but it drives me crazy that traversal feels so limiting compared to most modern open worlds, and also that the rewards of exploration are so often disappointing. I’ve heard it said that it’s about the journey not the destination, and I agree… that’s the only reason I made it 40 hours instead of 5. I also do not like the music. The battle music is alright and the opening theme is ok, but that’s about it. The creativity in enemy and world design is excellent. That one super red region with the big crows and dogs does an amazing job at making the area feel unsettling. It even once I got to high levels, enemies in starter areas could still kill me in just a few hits. They hadn’t changed stats at all since I started playing 40 hours before, and somehow my 40 hours had bought me nearly nothing (I could kill them much faster, but still).

Also, combat was just not fun. At least as a pure caster. I’d just be trying to keep away and using the same stupid pebble spell over and over and over until I won. I do not understand why they haven’t made a wheel format for selecting spells like the weapon wheel in most modern games. I was playing this game at the same time as Horizon Forbidden West and that game had combat that felt continuously challenging just like Elden Ring but actually fun to play because it was constantly dynamic with switching ammo types (basically spells) and weapon types, all while dodging etc.

Also in any open world RPG I want to feel a steady sense of progression. I did not get that with this game. 40 hours in I was still using my starter Astrologer staff. That really annoyed me so I followed a guide through an incredibly convoluted path (there is no way in hell I would’ve been able to find it on my own) to get the best staff for my level, only to learn that my upgraded starter staff was actually better. That was the last straw for me, and I’ve given the game up. I’m glad other people like it so much, but I can’t say I understand it.

Elden Ring is an astonishing milestone in gaming. Just like Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro before it. That's pretty much it and nothing else needs to be said, honestly.

The game isn't perfect, clearly, but it's very hard not to give it the full score, since it managed to fully swallow my life for around 200 hours. It basically made me stop looking at any other game and even threw me back to finish past From Software titles once again.

The graphics and art design is beyond beautiful. The lands between urges you to explore its caves, castles, mountains, underground cities and every other nook and cranny that you can (and sometimes can't) gaze your eyes upon.

Combat system is Dark Souls perfected. Everything works and flows perfectly. It's basically hitbox porn, with great movement freedom and room for improvisation. Every build is viable and the game wants you to try whatever you feel like. And it's not just the jumping that makes a difference. It's your horse and its precise movements, it's your weapon skills, your sorceries and encantations, it's the enemies, your equipment... everything!

Exploration is basically the name of the game here and there are TONS of things for you to venture yourself in at the open world of the Lands Between. It's incredible. I grew tired of open world games, but Elden Ring brought something different to the table. And it's not even anything new, it's just... tasty to relish in. The map is seriously huge and, on top of the "base quest", you can uncover hidden cities, tombs and many other places that WILL MAKE you keep seeking more. It's addictive and quite marvelous to experience.

The lore, in my opinion, is probably the highest peak of the whole package. It's insanely well written (and well voiced) and each puzzle piece fits as you progress through the main story and sidequests. NPCs are memorable, discoveries are rewarding, optional bosses and areas are perfect and the whole story is just highly compeling. George Martin and Miyazaki did a wonderful job of creating this sprawling dark world, filled with mysteries and conundrums to feast upon during your gameplay.

It all feels too good to be true, right? And sort of is, but Elden Rings' cracks start to become more visible as you lenghten your visit in this forsaken land.

The biggest problem I've come accross has to be the repetition of assets. I did have a lot of fun prowling through catacombs and open areas, but by the time I reached the Mountaintop Of the Giants, it started to get to me. And the bosses. One of Sekiro's biggest flaws, for me, was the amount of repeat bosses, even if it made sense in the story. With Elden Ring, this problem is enhanced due to its open world nature. I grew weary of fighting the same bosses over and over, even right towards the end of my journey. I know that these types of things are normal, but it hurts the experience a bit. Not to mention how unbalanced some of them are.

Other problems include how the game kinda requires you to summon spirits, some places look the same, the lack of that classic intertwined level design that From's known for, uncalled for difficulty spikes in weird places, side quests that basically yearn for a guide, among other things.

Again, these flaws were clear, but truly harmless, when you take everything you go through in into consideration. Elden Ring is a true masterpiece and there's no other way around it. Hard not to recommend it, especially if you are a fan of Soulsborne or open world games.

But it makes me wonder: where will the team go after achieving such a high level? Only time will tell, but I can't wait to see what's next.

what i liked:

• depth of combat is insane, as expected. it's tough, it's brutal and it's quite punishing - yet so fulfilling if you manage to beat your nemesis. there are so many options to oppress your enemies and counter their strenghts and weaknesses with an optimal playstyle. from already established mechanics like parry, poise break or backstab to some new additions like the ability to jump freely and simply jumping over enemy ground attacks. from software definitely added a new layer of complexity to the souls combat formula.

• variety in terms of builds. there are tons of weapons and spells, requiring different combinations of stats and builds to shine. elden ring provides a lot of replay value, if you're into stuff like that.

• graphics and artstyle. even tho the graphics are looking kinda outdated at first glance, from software still knows how to impress with their limited resources and is still able to design such a well crafted, eye-catching and spectacular world. it's a pleasure to look at! can't really tell anything more in detail about these phenomenal looking points of interest in detail, since almost all of 'em would be a spoiler.

• decent open world overall. it feels unique a first, but there are some repeating pattern, which might bore some people out. good thing for such players is, most of it is optional and non necessary content, so it isn't mandatory to grind out every single inch of the map, if you don't enjoy it. anyways if you do care, exploring is at least always enjoyable and rewarding. there is quite a number of interesting locations to be found, dozens of treasures to be obtained and a decent amount of tarnished all over the lands between, genuinely in dire need of your help.

• comfortable placement of the "site of grace" (bonfire / save point) and the invention of the "stake of marika". definitely a huge comfort improvement to former from games. you'll have a save point basically everywhere, so most of the run backs won't be that of a chore and the stakes of marika improving it even further.

• impressive boss fights. the series was always well known for their passionate and tough boss fights. in elden ring there are bosses all over the place - some are better, some are worse. the quality of those fights is kinda lackluster and sometimes feels straight unfair, if you don't use everything the game is giving to you (glancing at spirit ashes for gank fights). read con section for some more detailed informations. at the end of the day killing a tough boss always comforts this little "itch" and will please you regardless of how unfair they might be. "boss" wise this one isn't the best from game, but of course not completely bad in any regards and there were some impressive and great fights as well.

• atmospheric and epic soundtrack. from calm melodies to majestic orchestras over to the blood pumping and bone shaking sound design. they pretty much nailed the ost and everything sound related to perfection.

• many side quests and optional things to achieve. i'm totally in love with the quest design, i have to admit. it is quite unique and keep in mind, there isn't a quest log or anything in the game, so keeping track of your active quests will be quite a challenge. you basically have to write it down for yourself, or prepare to get lost - or even worse fail your side quests. oldschool vibe! on top of that some (or most) of the quests are kinda confusing as well, so if you're up to a 100% run, you probably have to use a wiki or something, because progressing through the quest lines isn't always "natural". certain quests or story progress can easily lock you out of other quests, npcs are able to die and overall it's pretty easy to miss out on some of the required quest steps. most people certainly have to do a couple of runs to see everything the game has to offer.

• odd, but interesting and memorable characters. i really liked the diversity of the non hostile non player characters and i've enjoyed the conversations throughout the quests as well. the npcs and their side quests really did shine in this game and made it an unforgettable experience, at least for me. won't name anyone, in case of spoilers, but there is an impressive amount of charismatic, odd and interesting tarnished and demigods around

• the lore was great! often pretty vague and hidden all over the game, yet so intriguing if you're willing to dive into. as well as there are some major similarities to older from games, which isn't a bad thing i'd say. i've really enjoyed the world building and everything felt well thought out. definitely worth diving into the deeps of elden ring.

what felt debatable to me:

~ just mentioning this for people unfamiliar with from software games. it's painfully hard at times, even for a from game and even more so due to the open world (hard content isn't as gated and there are tons of sequence breaks). the devs placed some nearly non killable bosses (at least for unexperienced players) in early spots. best advice for elden ring is, if you feel like slamming your face to a wall, it's probably a good idea to level up and come back later. which brings us to our next questionable point.

~ the open world balancing is kinda off. many regular non boss enemies are too "spongy" and almost all of 'em doesn't provide an equal (rune) reward compared to their difficulty. the same issue happens for some of the boss enemies all over the game. they still have a lot of numbers balancing to do.

~ all areas are easily accessible due to the open world design, teleportation and "capture systems". so it's pretty tough to avoid getting lost in the early to mid game or ending up in area you're not prepared for at this point.

~ the game feels so fresh and diverse at first, but in the mid to late game you've probably had killed most of the bosses several times. they re-used so many boss designs over and over, it's a pity. the early and mid game was blast, i have to admit! the late-mid to late game started getting tedious and felt a tad bit unfinished.

~ weapon, spell and incantation balance requires more polish. glancing at you rivers of blood and bleed in general.

what i disliked:

• i've had a couple of game crashes, usually tied to weather induced frame drops.

• i won't even mention the sheer amount of "gank" fights.

• so many awkward platforming parts and other odd hazards, like those rolling one shot traps in the hero's graves, which you have to outrun - it's annoying, frustrating and a bad game design, since from software isn't providing decent controls to achieve a wholesome platforming experience. i've did almost everything in the game and not a single fight was as frustrating as those poorly executed platforming sections, which is quite concerning.

9/10

There have been an abundance of near perfect to perfect scores given to Elden Ring, and I tried to objectively reach the conclusion that this was not a flawless game. I really tried. and sometimes I wanted to think so. I must admit that it richly earned the scores it's getting. That doesn't mean there is nothing I don't like about it, but the issues I have are personal and for what it is trying to do, it's doing it the way it should be done.

I have a long history with From games. An extensive and abusive relationship. It is one of two series that mostly consume my game enthusiasm. I first entered with Dark Souls and I hated it at first. I had not since the 80's known an unforgiving challenge like this. I play games to relax. I am very lazy. I make games as easy as I can for myself. I don't want to try. What brought me back? The lore. I kept running into information about it and how it is conveyed through environmental story telling and implication. The story I encountered in my first try was nonexistent. But the story I heard about and encountered on my subsequent experiences, the story the game play told, a story of despair, madness and decay. I was experiencing that madness and hopelessness through game play. This is the way a game should tell a story. It was stressfully difficult and I would have turned that difficulty down if given a way. Because I didn't have a way, I had to persevere and (GROAN) git good. It's not the journey I would have chosen for myself, but I felt good about it at the end. I felt accomplished. In coming years a generation of "souls-like" games came. This was the right direction. Elden Ring is a natural next step in this legacy.

So where does it fit in the souls like timeline? This was definitely a step back into the classic dark souls era of mechanics. Dodge rolling, stat fiddling, equipment varieties. This is a double edged sword. I personally LOVED the direction Sekiro took. The combat was tight and responsive and your skill was all you had to rely on. There was only so much you could do for your stats and after you found some hidden items, there was no grind, there was no alternate options. you learned to fight the way the game wanted. and it was glorious. every boss battle was a blast to overcome. Bosses in classic souls, and in Elden Ring, though still fun feel like a puzzle more than a battle. it's a game of how do I trick my way to victory. what combination of tools and grinding will get me over this speed bump. It's still fun and Elden Ring has more tools than ever, more options than ever, for the first time you can turn about face and go somewhere else in the world to seek greater power and more tools for success. Still, this feels like a step back for me. Added to the multiplayer elements coming back in, something I never wanted or enjoyed about Souls, and there have been a set of personal issues I am taking with this game. It's hard to look at the games the formula birthed in other places like Hollow Knight, souls games with better lore like blodoborne, better mechanics like sekiro and feel as good about this game. That's personal though.

As is usually the case with these games, I was 80 hours in slamming my head into a brick wall and wondering why I do this to myself when I turned around and found a place to seek the means to grow stronger and I felt hope coming back in. That's the story of playing this game in essence. Business as usual for souls games. This is a souls game in all it's majesty and misery. It's a natural extension into new mechanics and a new expression. it's the dark souls one of today. Whatever that means for you, that is how you will feel about this game.