If ever there was a game that was so hyped up that it felt like it could never possibly live up to those expectations, it'd be Elden Ring, right? Announced a decade after the release of the game that set From Software down the path to its current status as one of the most renowned studios out there (Demon's Souls), and ultimately released eleven years after Dark Souls, it had a lot to live up to. Dark Souls went on to be one of the most influential games of the last decade, and though its sequels didn't reinvent the wheel, they were still great games. Bloodborne is an all time favorite of mine, and even if the story stuff in Sekiro wasn't great, the thrilling duels certainly were.

So, they have this lineage, and combined with a “world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin,” the expectations weren't just through the roof, they weren't even stratospheric. They'd gone past the Moon and about halfway to Mars! How could a game possibly live up to all this?

For me, my expectations were maybe a bit different that other people's. Probably because I'd never read anything of Martin's, or ever watched the Game of Thrones series, so I really had no idea what to expect from a collaboration between him and From. Game play wise, I was maybe a bit trepidatious, thinking the open world could be great, or it could just as easily feel like empty space, meant to be filler between what would be the equivalents of classic Souls style “levels.” Even so, it was hard to not get sucked into all the hype, all the potential of From setting a new standard, a new game to take up the mantle so things were no longer the “Dark Souls of,” but now the “Elden Ring of” in years to come. I couldn't help but feel that electric hype in the air when I first sat down to play it.

Which made my early hours in the game...interesting. When faced with the character creation menu, it took a bit of thinking before choosing a starting class. In the lead up to the game I'd already thought a lot about, broadly speaking, how I wanted to play Elden Ring. I'd done the Dark Souls trilogy as a “sword and board” character, dodging attacks when I could, but still relying on a shield for safety. And with a smidge of magic and bows and arrows for slightly longer range. Demon's Souls I cheesed through as a Royal and min-maxed for magic, so I ended up not really enjoying the game because I made it way too easy on myself.

But Bloodborne and Sekiro, I adored the combat in both, so it made me think that I should try to approach Elden Ring in the same way. Play as fast and agile a character as I could, one that couldn't fall back on a shield for safety, and one that needed to stay aggressive to succeed. So, the two starting classes that caught my eye were the dual-wielding Warrior, and the katana equipped Samurai. I'd never really dual-wielded in a From game before, so I went with Warrior, thinking it was the most different from how I'd play the Dark Souls games (without going the magic route), and hoping it'd give me what I was looking for.

In retrospect, this was kind of a funny choice. I used those starting dual scimitars for the bulk of the first twenty hours of the game, as I explored the opening Limgrave area, delved into a underground area, and finally stormed Stormveil Castle. But as I did, I kept feeling like I was running into trouble. Aside from when I cheesed Demon's Souls, all these games have been fairly challenging, but none of them felt like I was struggling the way I did in this first chunk of Elden Ring. Basic enemies weren't too bad, but any time I had to face something tougher, it just felt like I was getting worked over. Whether they were knights on horseback in the open world, ghost Vikings underground, or especially the wind magic using knights in Stormveil, it just felt like I had completely forgotten how to play this style of game.

To some extent, I may have, given the last one I played was Sekiro. For all its similarities in terms of level design, and enemy layouts, Sekiro really was a much different feeling game. Even simple things like jumping, which Elden Ring has too, just felt different there. The Sekiro man could jump higher, and felt so much more agile generally that going back to the more grounded feeling of Elden Ring, it was off putting for quite a while. It drove home that in terms of game play, Elden Ring is much more Dark Souls IV than it is any sort of follow up to Sekiro or Bloodborne.

Never mind that, as I remembered after writing the first draft of this, Sekiro was as much a game about parrying and blocking as it was pure agility, and you can't block at all whilst dual-wielding in Elden Ring.

But, I persevered, because for every moment of frustration, there were plenty more of awe and excitement at the world I was exploring, and learned more about the lore and story. I still can't say how much of it was from Martin, and how much from Miyazaki and the rest of From, but there is just an enormous amount going on in Elden Ring. The Goddess(?) Queen Marika, her Demigod descendents, the Golden Order, ancient dragons, Those Who Live in Death (just a great combination of words), so many different factions, different forces at play with each other, so many different ins and outs that at some point it stopped feeling like a video game world, and felt more like a full on mythology. There's even a turtle pope.

Yes, a turtle pope!!

I love the worlds of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, but Elden Ring may genuinely be the most interesting and fully fleshed out world in any game I've ever played? Even if “fully fleshed out” feels weird to say in a game that still teases out information bit by bit. From an NPC here, an item description there, and things inferred from the environments themselves.

That said, despite the teasing nature of the storytelling, and the grand scale of this being an open world game that took me just about 150 hours to finish, it still felt like I was learning more and more about the world, not only through to the end, but in a lot of ways still in greater amounts than the much shorter and more focused previous games from From. I do love the ambiguity of From's storytelling style, and I don't think I would want every question about the universe of Bloodborne answered, for instance, but Elden Ring does feel like it has the most to say about its world of the bunch. And, crucially, that everything it has to say feels important, and interesting to know.

But I can't really say too much about that, and the things that really compelled me about Elden Ring's lore without getting into spoilers, which I think I may save for a followup blog in the near future, rather than cramming it in at the end here. In short I'll just say that they absolutely nailed what they were going for, and no matter how much came from From and how much from Martin, in the end they came together like peanut butter and chocolate, and I loved it.

So the world-building works, but what about the open world itself? I'm very happy and relieved that of all the open world games that have released in the wake of Breath of the Wild five years ago, Elden Ring feels like the first one to really continue down the path BotW trod. The Lands Between (another great name) is worth exploring just for the sake of exploring. Just to see the sights, whether they be wondrous or horrifying. There's the unfathomably enormous Erdtree towering over the entire game, glowing so bright it bathes the Altus Plateau beside it in a golden hue. And marshy Liurnia, scattered with waterlogged ruins now inhabited the strange frog-ish Albinaurics. Caelid, so ravaged by war and the Scarlet Rot that it's one of the most hellish locations I can recall in any game. Even the somewhat idyllic pastures of Limgrave, where goats are free to roam and roll about as they please; they're all sights to behold. There's areas where for one reason or another, my jaw dropped because of what I saw, either from surprise, just how gorgeous it looked, or both. Especially that underground area, but I wouldn't want to say anything more than that, for fear of spoilers.

But it's not just the aesthetics of the world, lots of games like Ghost of Tsushima are beautiful to behold, but ultimately feel shallow. They're just cookie cutter copy and paste in terms of what is actually in the world, and what you do. I don't mean art assets, obviously any game of this scale would have to repeat a lot of that, it just wouldn't be feasible in any way to make everything bespoke. I mean that even if there are plenty of repeated things, like mini dungeons, or even little encampments of enemies, Elden Ring doesn't feel like most other open world games. It doesn't necessarily feel “naturalistic” because so much of it is so fantastical, but despite that, the only word that really feels right is that it feels real. In the same way that Breath of the Wild's world feels real in ways that clearly more “realistically” rendered games like Horizon or Tsushima (both games I like too (haven't played Forbidden West yet; will eventually)) feel like they're just video game worlds.

Elden Ring feels like there's a deep history to every little bit of its world, even after that world has been shattered and devastated by a war of unimaginable scale. So it's safe to say that despite the vastly increased scale of Elden Ring, the people at From still managed to instill it with that special From feel. That's not to say there aren't times when it feels like the game might be a little too big for its own good, but at least you can fast travel any time you aren't in combat or in the depths of a mini dungeon. That, and finally we have a From game with consistently fast load times, with them only about six or seven seconds each on PS5. Of course it came with one where you don't need to warp back to a place and talk to a lady to level up, but I'll never complain about fast loads.

Another thing I really love about Elden Ring's open world is that it is so big, and so open that in a weird way, it makes Elden Ring feel more approachable than their previous games. Like I said earlier, I was kind of struggling with some stuff early in Elden Ring, but there's so much freedom in where I could go that if something started to frustrate, I could just go somewhere else. And rather than bang my head against one thing, I could explore elsewhere, and naturally level up along the way, while finding new gear and upgrades, so that when I finally went back to whatever was giving me trouble, now I was better equipped to deal with it. Because of that, this was by far the least I ever spent grinding to level up.

Sadly I can't say I never did it, because I did do just a smidge of it late game, after spending hours banging my head against Malenia. Who, in my defense, does seem to be regarded as the hardest boss in the game. I know I could have summoned another player or two for help, or used one of the AI summon Spirit Ashes for help, but for a boss that was a one on one duel, I wanted to defeat her on my own. Eventually I did, and it felt incredible. Even if I spent some time being summoned into other people's worlds to get rune arcs to activate my Great Runes (for stat buffs), and regular Runes for leveling. At least it was fun and rewarding to help other players, so it didn't feel like time wasted.

Like much of my time with Elden Ring, I got a bit distracted from what I was saying, and went off on a wild side adventure. I had been writing about my first twenty or so hours with the game, and how I felt like I was struggling with the combat. Part of that may have been exploring into areas I was under-leveled for, like that underground one I found about five hours into the game. Ultimately though, I think it came down to those starting scimitars just weren't the weapons for me. They didn't really have the range, and at that stage of the game, dual-wielding just wasn't working out. Between L1 being the attack with both weapons button (only when using two of the same weapon type at once), and needing to spend double the Smithing Stones to upgrade both swords, it was causing more trouble than helping. Especially when I was trying to use Quick Step as my weapon art, and with that being L2, switching between that to dodge and L1 to attack felt awkward.

At some point in my early travels, I found an Uchigatana, which is the default katana. Between its longer reach, and the fact that it has blood loss buildup (which causes large bursts of damage), I ended up really liking it. It also ended up being the thing that pushed me over the edge to finally fell Godrick the Grafted, who is presented as the first major boss of Elden Ring. That fight was the moment when everything in the combat finally clicked into place for me. Using Quick Step in conjunction with the regular dodge to avoid attacks, and finding the right moments to swoop in and slash Godrick, it was thrilling. I finally found a way to play Elden Ring that felt right for me, and that was the moment when the up and down early hours of Elden Ring turned into a steady, upward climb.

It's safe to say that I truly, utterly love Elden Ring. While in my heart Bloodborne is still my favorite game from From, Elden Ring is maybe one of the best games I've ever played, and probably From's “best” game. I only use quotes because what does “best” even mean as opposed to “favorite?” I don't know, but Elden Ring is just excellent. Especially when, despite all the similarities, Bloodborne and Elden Ring are also so different that it doesn't even feel fair to be comparing them like that. I have room in my heart to love them both. And Elden Ring's certainly far from perfect, given that apparently the only easy way to play the game at a consistent 60 FPS is to play the PS4 version on a PS5 (I played the PS5 version on PS5), and it has other technical hiccups like very obvious pop-in for things like grass, or other shadow related visual oddities.

Even design wise, as fun as the mini dungeons usually are, they are extremely lacking in visual variety, I'd almost say even more so than the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne. It just didn't sink in until later in Elden Ring because each mini dungeon is only about the size of one floor of a Chalice Dungeon, and those were typically four or five floors each. On the flip side, some of the later ones have some truly mind bending layouts, even if they are using the same level pieces as the ones from early in the game.

Of course even if the aesthetic feels repetitious, at least it makes consistent sense in the lore, and I can't complain about that. I remember people making that same complaint about Bloodborne at the time, how all of Yharnam “looked the same,” but I think history has landed much more on the “Bloodborne is a modern classic” side of things, so a little samey-ness is far from the end of the world. And again, that's really only in those mini dungeons, the different areas in the over world all feel distinct, and I've written enough about that for now. All the main dungeons (weirdly officially called “Legacy Dungeons,” though I don't think that term actually appears in game) feel unique, and like the “legacy” of From's games over the last decade.

I do think it's worth noting, that for as awkward as I felt the dual-wielding was early in, by the end of the game...I was dual-wielding again. This time with the Nagakiba as my main (a katana that is no joke about as long as Sephiroth's from FF VII), and the old Uchigatana as my secondary. I still wish there was a way to remap the dual-wield attack button to R1 without also changing the regular right hand light attack button. Ultimately, I just got used to switching between L1 and L2 for attacking and dodging (later with the much more useful and cooler Bloodhound step). That, and giving each the “Cold” affinity so in addition to the blood loss, they also gave enemies frostbite, really helped. It gave me the edge to beat some of Elden Ring's toughest late game fights. And it felt fitting at the end for my Warrior to go back to their dual-wielding roots, as opposed to be bulk of the game where I thought I should have just started as a Samurai.

That does bring up the weapon arts again, which I have kind of mixed feelings on. Like Dark Souls III, weapons come with a weapon art, which is a special skill set to L2 that uses up a bit of the blue FP (Focus Points) meter, as a way to give non-spellcasters something to use that meter for. But unlike Dark Souls III, different arts can be equipped to most weapons, which allows for way more freedom in how to build out the weapons, and your fighting style. Problem being that I settled on dedicating it to a better dodge early in the game, so ultimately I missed out on almost all of the weapon arts. Now, is this more of a me problem than an Elden Ring problem? Yes. But also if the default dodge felt closer to Bloodborne or Sekiro, maybe I wouldn't have felt the need to do that in the first place!

Thankfully both weapon arts and affinities can be freely swapped in and out at any Site of Grace (the bonfire equivalent), at least after a certain point in the game. I think I had to find a specific item to enable that, but it's quick and easy. Same with reallocating flasks between HP and FP, which I didn't remember until re-reading my old blog on Dark Souls III that you had to go to Firelink and talk to Andre to change back then. Certainly have it easier now.

Then there's the magic, which I didn't really dabble in beyond a few spells to do things like cure status ailments or imbue my weapons with elemental damage, but just looking at the sheer breadth of spells, it really feels expanded upon from the earlier games. And different types of magic too, which all have their lore reasons for why they are the way they are. Even if I never used them, I did greatly enjoy acquiring the spells and reading the snippets of lore that came with each.

Aside from the music (which is very good), I think I've written about everything I can without just going deep on spoilers. I could write broadly about the NPCs and their quests, which overall I really liked the ones I found, and completed. Even if in true From fashion, most of them have rather sad endings. Even so, after thinking about it, I'd say Elden Ring has not only the most NPCs of any From game in the last decade, but also the best collection of them.

I'm going to be thinking about the likes of Blaidd, Iji, Roderika, Iron Fist Alexander, Jar Bairn, Millicent, Nepheli Loux, and Ranni for some time to come, just to name a handful. Or more than that. Even the boss characters are more interesting than previous games, to the point where several of them I wished there was some way to not kill them, so they could be real characters too. I'd just be remiss if I didn't include Malenia, Starscourge Radahn (again, I just love the word “starscourge”) and his beloved but scrawny horse Leonard in the characters I'll be thinking about for some time to come.

And also that guy that sells shrimp and crab because my friend Jay is obsessed with him and his line, “Marika's tits, you must be hongry!” By association now I can't get that out of my head, so thank you Jay, even though I know you probably won't read this, haha.

I think rather than write a whole novella, I'll keep this blog spoiler free (or light since I mentioned the names of NPCs and locations), and save the deep discussion of all the cool deep lore stuff that I can't get out of my brain, and the late game bosses that I think are super cool for reasons I don't want to spoil for people...until next time. For now, I'll say that Elden Ring is something special, and while I can't know how I'll feel about it in the years to come, but I have a distinct feeling it may end up another “all time favorite” for me.

I'm curious what the future holds for Elden Ring. With it selling twelve million copies so fast, this clearly won't be the end. I'm hoping there's DLC in the works, I've certainly heard some theories from friends about cut content being brought back for DLC, and that'd be cool.

Until then, thanks as always for reading! And if you've also played the game, I guess look forward to a followup blog of me rambling about the lore and stuff??

A joy to read as always, Moosey. :) More than anything, I adore just how much your excitement for the game comes through in every word you write. I put it on hold early for nonsense like Ghostwire and Jack Garland Origins, but this makes me wanna get right back into it!! It's the first soulsy game that clicked with my boyfriend, and hearing him gush over it makes me think that yes - this is something special. ❤

@bed: Thank you!!! <3 I try to let my feelings on what I write flow through to the writing, so I'm always glad when it does!

And also thank you for reminding me about Final Jack Fantasy. I have a bunch of other games in my backlog because of subscription services (don't ask), but I do really want to play that eventually. And if I do and write about it, I'll try to make sure every screenshot I post has the word chaos in it.

Its interesting you bring up Ghost of Tsushima and open worlds that feel too big(Though I also still have some OW fatigue). I'm still only 60 hours in and I am already comparing it to my thoughts on GoT in some ways. Like the basic open world setting, aside from certain awesome things you can find like an underground area, is filled with cookie cutter spots that you have to fill in rather than follow a wisp of wind. In my first 40 hours I fought the same boss 3 times. Since then I've realized that most of what you find is a tunnel, catacombs, cave, tower, church, and ruins. And some of them are extremely samey. I've done the same tower puzzles now at least 3 times. I've even seen secret late game areas filled mostly with enemies I've already fought. That was a real bummer.

Its clear to me that you love lore and story much more than I so that's probably why I'm harder on everything else. I've always come to these games for the neat worlds with different settings and the gruesome enemies you find lurking in them. Elden Ring is just starting to feel too familiar as I go on. Save for the odd boss or new area. Bigger enemies feel less special when you see them 8 times. And the world being so big makes it feel stretched thin to me. I guess I personally liked the smaller more focused design of older titles. Story just doesn't matter to me. And what sucks is I already feel like I won't want to replay it at all by the time I finish it.

I want to love this game as much as others do, and as much as I loved previous games, but its just not clicking nearly as much. Sekiro is the high point for me followed closely by Bloodborne. But who knows, perhaps I'll feel different in another 60 hours. I hope I do for what its worth.

I feel like this is as good a place as any on these forums to say at this point, level 86 and 71 hours in...I've started over as a Confessor to lean a little more into a magic build early on. I know I could just re-spec my Samurai and play around with all the fun stuff I've already found over on that save, but it just doesn't feel right for the character. At the same time, I'm just not having any fun with the game whenever I try to pick it up on that save as everywhere I try to go and everything I try to do is basically a one-two shot proposition. I've doubled back to things I left behind thirty levels ago and haven't found them to be any softer, and I'm bored with all the enemies I've already seen that are just arbitrarily stronger because of where on the world map they're standing.

Also, it feels nice to come back to Limgrave with a detailed understanding of how its enemies work and some vague memories of where I want to go and when. That camp outside of the Stormgate that I dodged for hours and hours on my first playthrough? Farming runes from it just for fun! How nice. It's also wild that In just an hour and a half I stumbled onto a character I'd completely missed in my first playthrough, Kenneth Haight, despite definitely having been to his fort in my previous game. Makes me curious to see what else I can see and do because I thought I was being pretty thorough before.

I do love the ambiguity of From's storytelling style, and I don't think I would want every question about the universe of Bloodborne answered, for instance - @mooseymcman

Though if you were ever to change your mind, there's a lovely 30-episode, 40-ish hour series from Aegon of Astora on Youtube that will do just that. It's a very good podcast, and a super novel way of doing these things as it combines a Let's Play with live stream chat integration and moderate video editing that's just really pleasant and interesting. I'm an idiot so I've watched the whole thing twice.

Since then I've realized that most of what you find is a tunnel, catacombs, cave, tower, church, and ruins. - @spacemanspiff00

Won't write too much about this since I've been all over these threads but - agreed. Having spent more time in the areas I really don't like, I'm finding the reasons I don't like them are that it just feels like the game self-replicating in a desperate pursuit of more. While there aren't "icons" on the map, there are definitely tons of markers and clear indicators of what's where also. You can tell what a ruin is, what a church is, what an Erdtree is, and you know what's going to go down at each of those locations even if you don't know the why or how necessarily.

Don't get me wrong, The Lands Between is an incredible video game space, but I never felt like I was having a fundamentally different experience than I did in Tsushima or the Forbidden West other than every dozen hours or so I'd have absolutely no idea what I was trying to do...and kind of wished the game would push me in the right direction.

And all that being said, here I am also saying that I've started a new save and already have 3+ hours in it despite being deep in the Heavy Grind™ season of MLB The Show's Diamond Dynasty, Gran Turismo 7's car economy, dabbling in and out of GTA V for the fourth time like an absolutely lunatic, trying not to forget that I'm very interested in where Yakuza 5 goes mid-way through Act 2, really want to get back to Returnal and check out the Tower of Sisyphus and, with fingers heavily crossed that Ragnarök is still coming this year, have installed God of War and am finally messing around with its New Game+ (the short on that? holy shit is that a great NG+ grafted onto a still quite stunning game to look at and play) so...Elden Ring must be pretty damn good to still occupy so much of headspace when I'm in such a jumbled, messy state of gaming right now.

I started an all new file to perfect the art of parrying all things so Elden Ring still has incredible hooks in me.

@nodima: I'd say were in synch on most of our opinions. So I won't belabor those points.

I've replayed GTA V story 3 times on different platforms so I'm also that lunatic lmao. I did have quite a good time playing GTAO with my brother for a good while. Recently rewatched the story of GTA 4 on Youtube(Its a long game to actually play--played it twice already) and boy I don't think we're ever getting that quality writing again. Super bummer.

Yeah, the map is odd. Like, it's stylised in a way that you can spot the landmarks but it still feels marginally better than the more explicit approach. It feels more like map reading to me.

@mooseymcman: Nice to see you are so positive. Most takes on popular good games reviewed highly get hard as balls nitpicks for the slightest things. Like those movie plot holes youtube videos...yeah you dont think anything is perfect...i just wanted to watch something for fun...this is a wendies sir.

@spacemanspiff00: I'd say just mainline the story. I've seen this response several times that the game, in general, is open-world with nothing meaningful and I could see this coming from people who really spend too much time going into every nook. Some have the experience of fighting the same mini-bosses. I've had none for such a long time that we're the same that I didn't know they repeat. I also assumed I was scratching every surface but a big spoiler makes the land ahem later. The main game has tons of different dungeons. I really am shocked when people come out of the game thinking BB and sekiro is just miles ahead. Though I didn't beat sekiro. I think all souls games function at a great value given were like 6+ and still getting good games. Other series like assassins creed are past that and people still enjoy them without the caveat that they need to be revolutionizing their state of gaming each release like the expectation of FROM. Overall, I think most will grow fatigued due to trying too much on their first playthrough. The crew especially either won't finish it or will say they dropped off like Witcher 3, and since the game came out too early in the year, by GOTY it will get like 10 mention due to everyone's fatigue and recency bias for later new titles, but I honestly think this is one of the greatest games to be made in a while overall it's just a master class in what it set out to do given the restrictions in that we can't really make a game with all unique bespoke levels that are hand made that easily. I don't think id enjoy it as much if like what I see online from people, it made the game about 20 hours long shrunk everything into a linear experience like the other games, and had all the good stuff faster. I feel like this is less of a rollercoaster and a more nuanced experience like a low attendance slow indie movie vs a blockbuster mass appeal action one, that lets me digest and enjoy it more.

@topcyclist: Not sure you mean me specifically but I definitely didn't say the open world has nothing meaningful. Its just that in between all that I found a lot of predictable content, which is what throws me off a bit. I liked turning corners in older games never knowing what's there. I've decided to just take the slow approach at this point. I haven't been in much of a gaming mood lately this year tbh so if this takes me all year to complete I'm fine with that. I'm just a smidge too OCD to mainline the story lol. I've been having more fun now that I am following more NPC quests as well. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely think this is a masterclass game and yes one of the best in the last decade+. I gave up on Assassins Creed after Odyssey. And played Witcher 3 twice to completion and have a death march game slowly going. I think you're right about the fatigue. That's probably what it is more than anything. But I think the comparisons I've made are still justified. Yet they still do it better than most devs, I'll give them that. I have no desire these days to fit into the zeitgeist long-term or even at all most of the time. I probably won't get a PS5 for another year or two at this point. So its likely I will end up finishing this game long after most and I'm cool with that.

My gripes with the open world aren't even that it should be a refined linear experience, even if that's what I prefer most of the time, but more in line with my thoughts about BOTW(I mentioned this in another thread) where I think if they just shrunk it down a bit more they wouldn't have to rely on replicating content(as Nodima pointed out above) too fill it out in the pursuit of more. I've been a less is more kinda guy in recent years. So ya I'll probably just slow burn this as you said and as I said I hope my opinion changes, for what its worth.

*Sidenote: To the tune of less is more, if you're in your 30's-40's like I am and much of this community I imagine, do yourself a favor and start going through all your crap at home and start purging. God what a relief it is to just nail down what you really need and care about and toss the rest. Its kind of amazing how much junk we hold onto and let rot away in boxes and wherever else.

To be honest, my time's been wasted because I spent the last few hours not knowing where the next thing is. All the while ignoring the note I picked up that said, "GO HERE, STUPID." Maybe it's choice paralysis but having so much access to that world does give me ample opportunity to get lost.

Well, I finally decided to pick this up, after having written it off since I didn't have a great experience with Bloodbourne. Hearing all the comparisons to BOTW made me want to try it in spite of myself. And... I think I'm enjoying it, kind-of? It's very frustrating. Dying over and over in seemingly with very little sense of progress. I enjoy difficult games, and I have patience for tough bosses - Metroid Dread's final boss took at least two hours of repeated trying to beat, and somehow I enjoyed that. But in Dread I always felt that I could make progress - that I was getting that much closer to the end-goal. In Elden Ring I feel like I'm dying in random, stupid ways, like

- getting caught on geometry when backing away from enemies

- accidentally locking on to the wrong thing, or not locking on when I thought I was

- falling off cliffs because of jittery horse controls

- character not responding as expected due to stamina running out

- my horse disappearing from under me for no reason that I can tell

Yeah I know, git gud... these are things I can address by getting more experienced at the game. But it doesn't make it fun to experience.

I also really don't care about the story. Without reading a lot of fan wikis, it's all pretty meaningless to me. Something about a moon goddess? Huh? I could find out more, but I haven't been particularly tempted to since there are no compelling characters. In general I have very little interest in going out of my way to find the "lore" in games unless the story as presented is compelling in and of itself. I figure it's a game's job to hook me with its story, not my job to seek it out. Nothing against that as a design choice for those who enjoy that style, but it's not for me.

But somehow I keep coming back to it. The world is pretty fun to explore and full of surprises. I like Turtle Pope. It's kind of weird that all these strange creatures speak perfect English, without even having proper vocal cords, but I guess I'm here for it.

@spacemanspiff00: Agree on the less is more (physical thing) lol. I remember jeff joked on a podcast about getting rid of all your socks and just buying one type so it always matches...real bachelor-type stuff. It sounds soo appealing these days. Finally removed my Xbox from the plugs knowing I just turn it on to download a free game off the monthly games with gold and just use the pc. You come to realize how little of different games you get to play cause you always say...one day when I'm finished with this and that ill get back to this.

Anyway, i see your point now. The problem with the net is you don't wanna over-explain but it helps. I agree. The game is so great that it's also making the issues for each individual person (trying to stop saying flaws since they are game mechanics on purpose) and the game has edges that can be chopped and manipulated to make the game the one above all. It somehow is hard without forgoing its morals and making vets mad while easy enough for new players. I figure it's a less hand holdy and unique Skyrim for our time. Like Skyrim...things get repetitive but the world is so fun to relax in you like it. Elden ring is a bit stressful though.

Also, the game is kinda in a series, so we know a lot of their tricks, locking doors behind you, guy pops out from the corner, etc. People playing it for the first time are the ones giving it 100 and i think people forget that. For every assassin's creed odyssey, like you, I liked that game but it was a grind and when i beat it I tried origins and was like ugh, theres' a person who played odyssey first in the series and is blown away. Souls is fairly young by comparison in-game amount. Overall I think taking it slow is smart, people who got burnt out like critics, (the crew i assume), and others, they rushed to see the good stuff. The game unlike before was meant to take about a few months. People beating it in a week or two see the gears turning and yes it's still just a game.

PS: not sure where or how far you are, cause I had similar feelings and started wanting to mainline. I also overleveled cause I felt bosses went down too easy, sadly I think the game does need a recommended level due to how different it is, or at least something over the boss that says according to your level this will be impossible - easy. Entering region of harsh etc. I got further and in the later section people complain about (I'm over-leveled remember) i see why, if I'm over-leveled and having trouble can't imagine how they are doing. I think From bit off more than they could take and by the end got tired and just said F it get it out. release.

So I finished this a while back and have had plenty of time to mull this over. I think the open world might've actually been detrimental to the game, on the whole.

Sure, the vistas and journey of discovery is cool but I really miss that level of spectacle being applied to bosses. Radahn's the only one that feels like an event (because it is) and I really don't anticipate fights like I have in previous Souls games.

I have a second character on the go and, whilst I have an idea of where to go and what to do, it feels so much more like prep work. A souls game, when you have the knowledge, moves. Elden Ring jogs when I'd much rather sprint.

Elden Ring is a good game once and it's odd for me to bounce off one of these so quickly. Hell, it's odd for them to effectively make a Skyrim with souls combat. With an emphasis on the Skyrim.

@shindig: I'm not sure the spectacle is all that different to be honest. In previous games that only ever exists with main bosses anyway and I feel like that's just as true in Elden Ring.

I agree the open world does hinder the usual new gaming experience quite a lot though, because yeah every new character I make now I'm going to have a tour guide of places to hit before I get started with a given run. Which again is not something strictly new to Elden Ring but is now very pronounced.

But I've never been the New Game+5 kind of Souls player anyway so I'm fine throwing that under the bus for at least one game.

Okay, so what major spectacles are you getting from bosses? Margit/Margott/Godfrey/Godrick all merge into one, for me. That's 4/13 required bosses. They might change their second phases up but there's such a crossover with movesets.

Add to that three more bosses that you've probably already encountered on your wanders and an NPC fight. It's not a good line-up.

@shindig: I think Renala, Radahn, and Rykard all have a lot of fun things going on in those fights. Malenia phase 2 is great once you stop getting blown up immediately and can see the movesets. The Elden Beast is a real motherfucker because of it but it's a hell of a show.

It just seems largely comparable to previous games, really.

@shindig:I and another friend both agree with you that we think the open world actually hurt what we liked most about these games. Dungeons started to become less exciting to explore when you find they're just sort of samey and you get 1 of 10 copy pasted bosses at the end.

When it comes to the big fights - everything just sort of felt the same. Every story boss had

• A long string multi-hit combo
• A wind up attack that punished for you if you attack to early
• AoE centred around them (You wanted to play melee? Fuck you)
• A jump attack that usually resulted in AoE around them (different than the previously mentioned AoE)
• A point in which the previous multi-hit combo, now has additional hits
• Absolutely fucking awful input reading. It's hilarious to watch Malenia side step a swarm of flies from across the room just because the AI is programmed to have her side step magic attacks

So my problem didn't end up being that bosses felt samey (the four you mentioned though yeah they might as well be all the same dude) - it's that even when there was sceptical (black blade..) - it felt rubbish because I wasn't enjoying the fights at all (also half his fight is a repeat of another optional guy).

ER's boss fights at times felt like Sekiro boss fights except with the player tools for fighting in Sekiro removed.

After about 60 hours the shine wore off for me a good bit and I went from plans of NG+ to plans of "well lets just finish this out" which has never happened to me with a From game before.

This was a great read! Thanks for sharing.