Recommended: Yes

Positives: This game has the best Gow of War story, Kratos has the most character development (more than all the other games combined), the side missions are good and different that one another, it has great characters, even Atreus and the Dwarfs who were uninteresting in the 2018 game now have grown on me, i would even say that the entire plot and story is interesting BECAUSE of Atreus. I like that we get to play with Atreus as well and his fighting style is different in a way that fits him well. There are way better bosses in this one than 2018, there is more variaty as well, the end game content is better imo than 2018 and in fact i don't think that there is 1 thing that 2018 one does better than ragnarok. I wasn't that high on 2018 as most people even though i liked the game. So i went in this one a bit sceptical but i can't deny that its either the best or the second best in the entire series (along with gow 3). The ending of the story is touching.

negatives: Platinum was a bit of a grind, there were way too many puzzles, i would prefer it if there were a bit fewer and less compact. You fight then you solve a puzzle throughout the whole game. Sometimes i wanted the fighting to continue for a bit longer before i had to encounter another puzzle and its not that i don't like them, some of the were very good. Its just that the game gives you the answer for many of them so they are kinda pointless. A secondary character often will give you the answer before you have the time to even process the area. Its obvious that the game wants you to continue fast so it will show you what it does best (the story and the fights). I just wish they didn't give me the answer of the puzzle on their own. Or that fast.

Overall, its negatives are minor especially if you don't go for the platinum. (Although i do recommend doing the side missions because they are good and one even unlocks you a very big and completly optional area that you will not see if you don't do that side mission. It gives you some more information about the story and has some nice fights. I also recommend the end game content with the valkyrie and the berserkers. I think its better than 2018's).

Lastly, when you beat the final boss there are a few other missions that are worth experiencing. Its about a character you will grow close to.

Recommended: Yes

Positives:
Elden Ring is the most fun first playthrough i had in a souls game (besides bloodborne that is). Its not fromsoftware's best game, but its very good. The world is great to explore the first time around. The platinum is easy and fun (no grind), the lore of the game is interesting. There is no need to farm (even though there are good spots for farming) because you can just become stronger by exploring the immense world. You have the ability to either make the game the second hardest (below sekiro) or one of the easiest depending on what kind of build you choose to make and whether or not you use the summon spirits. Most days (especially when i first started playing the game) i was averaging on 7 or 8 hours straight playing elden ring. This is how much i liked playing it despite its problems just because it was fun to explore. Lastly, i really liked some of the bigger dungeons.

Negatives: My biggest issue with the game are the many reusable bosses although thats kinda expected on a game this massive. Thankfully most of them could be view as optional farming content. But a couple of the unique bosses like astel and some of the main bosses are reused which is kinda unacceptable for me. Not a deal breaker and not really an issue for the first playthrough but it definetly impacts the replayability of the game. Even though i really like the open world aspect i feel like the game is less replayable due to its size and i prefer the semi-open world design of the previous games. I also don't like the fact that bosses seem to be designed to be fought with summons and i prefer to play these games solo. Nothing wrong with having and using summons, but the bosses should be designed for a solo fight. The bosses are decent and a few are S tier but overall they don't compare with the bosses of bloodborne ds3 and sekiro. The mountaintops of the giants seems a bit rushed and uninteresting. Lastly, i did everything in the game, killed every enemy, finished all caves and dungeons, killed all bosses. The caves/dungeons are all the same and very boring towards the end if you go for all of them. If you don't want to do everything in the game like me, i recommend looking up at the wiki where the useful items for you are located and go for them only.

I can't really judge the game completly because these games can only be judged along with their dlc's and it seems to me like Shadow of the Erdtree will take a few months (until hopefully February 2023). The dlc's always raise these games in my eyes and the fact that this is going to be their biggest one yet has a lot of potential to upgrade elden ring and make me ignore some of its minor negatives even more.

Hopefully i will remember to edit this after i play Shadow of the Erdtree.