Maliketh is as perfect a microcosm for Elden Ring as any game has ever had. It's flashy, boisterous, even overwhelming, but once you give in to the time investment, and commit to the extended song and dance of the combat, you'll feel like you're having as much fun as the form allows. Unfortunately you have to contend with a far longer and slower section before you even get to all of the mind-blowing stuff—every single time.
Honestly, I quite liked the Beast Clergyman, but that's not the point. Elden Ring is one of the most fun games I've ever played. Its first 10 hours or so are a nonstop smorgasbord of delightful challenges and exploration, and after the Fire Giant Fight (including Mohg MY LORD) you'll be overwhelmed by a ludicrously fun string of intense but just barely still reasonable fights. Their combos are blatantly too long, they stare over your shoulder waiting for the frame you try to heal, and their damage is universally overtuned. It still works. FromSoft is cheating at this point, I miss the obvious forest of design errors surrounding this game's combat because the trees are just too fun! This is as far as I've seen them push the punishment-reward ratio of their combat system, and they mostly retain that indelible sense of achievement with the fights. Mostly.
You see, these lands contain not just peaks but also pitch-black, stomach-churningly cavernous depths. The large middle section (around 30ish hours for me) is a far less rewarding experience. Aimless exploration can lead to mostly bland mini-dungeons that result in some of the worst bosses this team has ever conceived, and then suddenly an unbelievably exciting area and boss fight will sprinkle in the gap. This game's 2nd act wasn't awful, but it was underwhelming, and I found myself complaining so much at the repetitiveness of the experience that I occasionally felt like I was totally wasting my time.
But I inevitably persevered, continuing to make the game harder for myself by committing to my halberd and not using anything else. This isn't a flex, but a question. Is a game wherein I find myself having more fun the less mechanics I engage with actually well designed? Is it a mark against this game that I don't think the spells or summons or shields make it more fun? I don't think so, because I don't think that's how I, or most people, measure our enjoyment of games. Sure, we all consider consistency of experience important, but what matters most is the ceiling of fun. How much fun can we make for ourselves within the game's confines? This is why Minecraft and GTA V are the highest-selling games ever, it's why the kids love Roblox, it's why my buddy Carson played 1000000 hours of Skyrim in high school, it's why Super Smash Bros Melee has an endlessly devout cult of fans, and it's why this game is such a joy for so many. I can and will enjoy dicking around two-handing whatever I feel like, some will use every tool available to them and revel in watching bosses melt and a guy on youtube will blow everyone's mind by killing every boss with a grass seed at level 1.
You can play this game in so many orders, and in so many ways, it's inevitable that, as long as you click with the systems of a soulslike, you will have a ton of fun. Complain about the terrible bosses (there are probably more in this game than every other this company has ever made combined), the repetitive dungeons, the far too-high difficulty, whatever. But this game leaves so much variety of playstyle, and so many options for exploration, that anyone of basically any mechanical skill can engage with it, probably eventually beat it, and genuinely love doing so.
But I have so many problems with this game. The fact that FromSoft would fill an Open World this gorgeous and idiosyncratic with this amount of copy-paste content breaks my heart a little. It's tough to watch as they visibly struggle to balance an impossible task of radically altered level design philosophy, a need for increased accessibility (this is blatantly a commercial turn after all) and a desire to match their already overstated reputation for 'crushing difficult.' In the end, I don't think they hit any of those notes, especially the last, where increased difficulty just means ridiculously elongated combos and the occasional insta-kill grab.
But I just don't care. The sheer joy of being in this world, the satisfaction of the combat system, the diversity in style supplied by the truly absurd item variety and even those overcooked bosses. I loved my time with this game so much, probably even more than this score is admitting. But it leaves me wary. FromSoft is teetering on a knife edge with this game's design in many areas, and it's clear that this is already over the line for many players. Even for me, Melania is a clear step too far and I worry that her popularity could inform this kind of design moving forward. So I'll just enjoy what I have, hope they land the mark with that DLC, and pray that they don't learn the wrong lessons from this game's massive success. Elden Ring is an incredible game, and streamlined, it may have been one of my favourites ever. But it's sometimes a terrible game, and I can see the version of this that would have been miserable. Here's hoping that isn't in our future.
Honestly, I quite liked the Beast Clergyman, but that's not the point. Elden Ring is one of the most fun games I've ever played. Its first 10 hours or so are a nonstop smorgasbord of delightful challenges and exploration, and after the Fire Giant Fight (including Mohg MY LORD) you'll be overwhelmed by a ludicrously fun string of intense but just barely still reasonable fights. Their combos are blatantly too long, they stare over your shoulder waiting for the frame you try to heal, and their damage is universally overtuned. It still works. FromSoft is cheating at this point, I miss the obvious forest of design errors surrounding this game's combat because the trees are just too fun! This is as far as I've seen them push the punishment-reward ratio of their combat system, and they mostly retain that indelible sense of achievement with the fights. Mostly.
You see, these lands contain not just peaks but also pitch-black, stomach-churningly cavernous depths. The large middle section (around 30ish hours for me) is a far less rewarding experience. Aimless exploration can lead to mostly bland mini-dungeons that result in some of the worst bosses this team has ever conceived, and then suddenly an unbelievably exciting area and boss fight will sprinkle in the gap. This game's 2nd act wasn't awful, but it was underwhelming, and I found myself complaining so much at the repetitiveness of the experience that I occasionally felt like I was totally wasting my time.
But I inevitably persevered, continuing to make the game harder for myself by committing to my halberd and not using anything else. This isn't a flex, but a question. Is a game wherein I find myself having more fun the less mechanics I engage with actually well designed? Is it a mark against this game that I don't think the spells or summons or shields make it more fun? I don't think so, because I don't think that's how I, or most people, measure our enjoyment of games. Sure, we all consider consistency of experience important, but what matters most is the ceiling of fun. How much fun can we make for ourselves within the game's confines? This is why Minecraft and GTA V are the highest-selling games ever, it's why the kids love Roblox, it's why my buddy Carson played 1000000 hours of Skyrim in high school, it's why Super Smash Bros Melee has an endlessly devout cult of fans, and it's why this game is such a joy for so many. I can and will enjoy dicking around two-handing whatever I feel like, some will use every tool available to them and revel in watching bosses melt and a guy on youtube will blow everyone's mind by killing every boss with a grass seed at level 1.
You can play this game in so many orders, and in so many ways, it's inevitable that, as long as you click with the systems of a soulslike, you will have a ton of fun. Complain about the terrible bosses (there are probably more in this game than every other this company has ever made combined), the repetitive dungeons, the far too-high difficulty, whatever. But this game leaves so much variety of playstyle, and so many options for exploration, that anyone of basically any mechanical skill can engage with it, probably eventually beat it, and genuinely love doing so.
But I have so many problems with this game. The fact that FromSoft would fill an Open World this gorgeous and idiosyncratic with this amount of copy-paste content breaks my heart a little. It's tough to watch as they visibly struggle to balance an impossible task of radically altered level design philosophy, a need for increased accessibility (this is blatantly a commercial turn after all) and a desire to match their already overstated reputation for 'crushing difficult.' In the end, I don't think they hit any of those notes, especially the last, where increased difficulty just means ridiculously elongated combos and the occasional insta-kill grab.
But I just don't care. The sheer joy of being in this world, the satisfaction of the combat system, the diversity in style supplied by the truly absurd item variety and even those overcooked bosses. I loved my time with this game so much, probably even more than this score is admitting. But it leaves me wary. FromSoft is teetering on a knife edge with this game's design in many areas, and it's clear that this is already over the line for many players. Even for me, Melania is a clear step too far and I worry that her popularity could inform this kind of design moving forward. So I'll just enjoy what I have, hope they land the mark with that DLC, and pray that they don't learn the wrong lessons from this game's massive success. Elden Ring is an incredible game, and streamlined, it may have been one of my favourites ever. But it's sometimes a terrible game, and I can see the version of this that would have been miserable. Here's hoping that isn't in our future.