Elden Ring

I'm garbage at souls games. I remember not being able to deal with the spiral staircase in Latria 3-2 in the OG Demon's Souls leading to the maneaters because of those damn mindflayers and reaching a level of rage past yelling or breaking controllers (those cost money, don't waste money) and just calmly, quietly taking the disc out and putting it on eBay with the same kind of emotionless automation of a sim and never touching it again. Fast forward to every person on Earth playing this thing and the hype is too much, man, it's gorgeous, the reviews are through the roof, streams look dope, I gotta play this. But on easy mode, of course. Heard that magic was easy mode so I did the whole use the rune boosting chicken foot and taking out the giant dragon's tail with that bleedy morning star and then skipping a boss and horse it past some secret areas to get an overpowered sword that I was in NO way prepared to get normally and now I'm one-shotting hard enemies (when not getting surprised by a dragonfly or crab because oh my god this game is so punishing) and loving it! The game tells you NOTHING and I should hate that but it brought me back to MS-DOS games that were made with the expectation of you fumbling around for at least tens of hours before realizing that you could've done twice as much in just 4 minutes if you knew where you were supposed to go. A few headaches later and the exhilarating feeling of getting gud washed over me. First two attempts were rough. I didn't know where the Church of Elleh was, how to get the horse, level up, whatever, you name it, I just got out of the first area and then ended up stuck in some cave with a golem boss I couldn't hurt. Started over and ended up stuck in that Caelid crystal mine dealing with the centipede dudes because I had no idea the exit was so close. Random dogs are killing me and I'm level 42 and I'm pissed about that and it's all kind of terrific for some reason, you know?

This game fuckin rocks. Best gameplay of any Soulsborne game FromSoft has released yet, and you can see the influence of every single one of their past games in the gameplay elements. The OST is often understated, but influences like Skyrim can clearly be heard in the soft, sustained strings and woodwinds in the overworld. The world of Elden Ring is massive and accessible while still somehow maintaining FromSoft's impressive level design through castles, dungeons, caves, etc. 

My singular gripe with this game - and I struggle to call it a flaw, it may just be my preference - is just how overwhelmingly open it is. Souls games have always had mysterious and hands-off stories, true; but Elden Ring's openness conflicts a bit with this structure for me. I think I want more direction. Yes, the light of the sites of Grace does point the player in the direction they should go, but there are many sites pointing in many directions, and this can be overwhelming the more you explore. Personally, I would have liked a more straightforward, guided main story that  encouraged exploration without potentially losing the player. 

Side note: I'm not sure how I feel about overworld bosses. I ran from mid-Limgrave all the way to the northern point of the northernmost castle and ran past like four bosses - including an ancient dragon - and I had no clue where I was or what the lore significance of it was. I think this adds to my point that a bit more careful guidance of the player at the cost of free exploration would have made everything a bit more digestible/approachable without making a joke of it.

4/10/22 - After really taking my time and finishing this game, I think my gripe of there being too little direction only really applies to the early/mid game. Once you reach the capital, it becomes incredibly obvious where you need to go. This game is incredibly large, and the amount of content is insane. One of the best games of all time. That being said, the amount of boss reskins, repeats, duos, etc. does dull the shine a bit. It's to be expected with how fucking huge this game is, but it still sucks to see the 11th Ulcerated Tree Spirit come out of the ground after fighting the third Godskin Apostle and the eighth dragon reskin. When the bosses slap, they fucking slap. When they don't, they really don't. 

Game's a 10/10