Elden Ring was my most anticipated game since its announcement at E3 2019. I can happily say that I’ve enjoyed my time with the game, though it is far from flawless.

As someone who took the time to fully devour the open world and clear out any cave, mine, ruin, or dungeon I came across in my travels across the Lands Between, I can’t help but feel like I missed something reading so many people talk about how Elden Ring has fully transformed the genre of open-world games, or how Elden Ring’s open-world feels so different from others. I fail to see what truly differentiates Elden Ring from others in its genre beyond the unmistakably unique vibe that the Dark Souls games inherently have. As we’ll get into later in the review, the non-open-world areas of Elden Ring are the peak of its gameplay and level design, so I’m a bit lost as to how the game meaningfully benefits from an open-world.

The game’s opening regions, Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula, give an absolute breathtaking first impression, and I believe serve as the peak of Elden Ring’s open-world experience. There is an incredible variety in the opening zone, showcasing mines, ruins, abandoned churches, a traveling caravan, a giant walking mausoleum, at least 3 incredibly detailed and fun to explore castles, and by my last count, a whopping 38 bosses. Once you expand into the wider world beyond Limgrave, into Liurnia of the Lakes, Caelid, and beyond, it is a sad realization to find out that you have pretty much experienced 80-90% of what the open-world has to offer already. Every single region is a mish-mash of similar looking caves full of rats and wolves, mines full of rock-human miners and upgrade materials, tombs full of zombies and skeletons, 4-5 abandoned churches with identical layouts featuring a Site of Grace and a Sacred Tear, and the same dozen or so field bosses that feel unique the first time you fight them, then like busywork when you’re tasked with killing the Tibia Mariner for the fourth time or the Burial Tree Watchdog for the seventh.

Even Elden Ring cannot avoid falling into the same traps of every open-world game before it. This, I think, is its biggest and most fatal flaw. The exploration feels like it should be very rewarding, but once you delve into the 40th cave and fight the Crucible Knight once again (but this time there’s 2! How interesting!) just to receive another Ash Summon you won’t ever use (or worse, crafting materials, the biggest slap in the face), it just starts feeling like a waste of time. You start feeling like just skipping the boring dungeons and riding as quickly as you can to the next main story area. It feels like massive filler, and the countless people praising the Lands Between as “the evolution of open-worlds” just has me scratching my head.

Boss design in general is another point of contention for me. While there are a few standouts I’ll discuss in a moment, I feel overall, Elden Ring’s bosses are incredibly underwhelming. They feel creatively stretched thin over the 100+ encounters throughout the game’s immense length. Many encounters feel reminiscent of Dark Souls II, the game in the series most infamously known for “quantity over quality”. Simple basic enemies scaled up and presented as “bosses”, unimaginative monsters that flail around in tiny rooms and send the camera into a whirlwind, and possibly the largest amount of duo- or gank-fights in the series. Bosses are also reused constantly, leaving each additional encounter feeling staler than the last. I wouldn’t have too much of an issue with the field bosses, such as the Night’s Calvary being reused, but Astel, a major boss from an important side quest, whose initial encounter feels very special, is inexplicably reused in a random mine towards the endgame. Why? What purpose does this serve? It cheapens the original fight for no reason when they could have added another Stonedigger Troll and avoided this altogether. Bafflingly, main story boss Godrick is also reused in an Evergaol challenge, same voice actor and all.

When the bosses aren’t being egregiously reused or being otherwise completely forgettable, I think there are some excellent boss fights in Elden Ring. Margit, likely the first major boss players are going to fight, is an intense, shockingly deep battle for such an early encounter. Margit’s true form, Morgott, fought towards the back half of the game, improves this fight even more, adding a deeper movepool for the boss and some amazing visuals. The battle with the Fire Giant in the snowy Mountaintop of the Giants is one of From’s greatest spectacle bosses in the franchise. Weaving in and out of the absolutely monumental giant’s attacks as he rains fire down upon you is breathtaking and feels like a boss out of God of War. The battle against Rykard in the Volcano Manor is the ultimate evolution of the Storm King, Yhorm, and Divine Dragon boss fights and makes you feel truly powerful. The game’s penultimate major boss, Godfrey (and his alter-ego, Hoarah Loux), is a fast and frantic duel that shows you the true power of the Elden Lord.

I would also like to heap some praise on what the game calls Legacy Dungeons, aka traditional zones from previous Souls games. Stormveil Castle is a masterclass of level design and would stand among the best areas from the Dark Souls trilogy. The new jumping mechanic allows Fromsoft to go absolutely nuts with level verticality. It feels like you have half a dozen potential paths ahead of you from almost every point. The levels are also immense, with Stormveil alone feeling about the size of half of the Boletarian Palace from Demon’s Souls. While unfortunately I feel like Stormveil is the peak of these Legacy Dungeons, all of them feel like they have a lot to offer and are fun to explore and run through.

Build variety is at perhaps its best here, with every type of character feeling not only viable, but powerful. An arsenal of gigantic weapons await strength builds, dozens of daggers, spears, and flails are here for dex builds, and the greatest variety of spells are here for definitively the most interesting and fun caster builds in the entire franchise. After the disaster that was Dark Souls 3’s magic system, it’s great to see it being viable and strong.

The newest additions to the Souls combat system are Ash Summons and Ashes of War. Ash Summons cost MP (most of them at least) and summon in ghostly versions of enemies you’ve encountered throughout your journey to fight alongside you. These can range from a pack of wolves, a band of skeletal warriors, some minibosses you’ve fought, like the Black Knife Assassin, or even a clone of yourself that fights with your currently equipped gear in an absolutely brilliant twist on the Mimic from previous Souls games. I love this addition and feel it’s a great boon to the player against Elden Ring’s general increase in difficulty. It helps you balance the game’s harder fights closer to your favor in a way that doesn’t feel as cheap as summoning a co-op partner.

Ashes of War are the evolution of Dark Souls 3’s weapon arts. Whereas each weapon in DS3 had its own unique ability, Elden Ring allows you to mix and match them, purchase new abilities, and find hidden ones in the field. You can then apply them to any non-unique weapon you wish, allowing for even further build variety. The level of customization you have on your character in Elden Ring is truly staggering.

I’m super happy to say that while the multiplayer system is still needlessly archaic and convoluted, it’s an absolute massive step-up from the previous Souls games. Instead of requiring single-use, annoying-to-farm items like Humanity or Embers to engage in co-op, all you need is to craft one using a couple of extremely common flowers. At any point I could just open my crafting menu and whip out 20-30 of them. Additionally, playing online spares you from invaders in single-player, only opening you up to attacks when you have a partner with you. I think these are great changes and make the MP experience a lot smoother and accessible than in previous titles.

Though I complained about the game’s open-world and boss design, I want to stress how wonderful of an experience Elden Ring has been. The game completely devoured me for over two weeks, and while I can’t say I enjoyed every last second, Elden Ring was a brilliant package that will stick with me just as long as From’s other projects. Having this much to say (I could write another page on this game) is testament to how important and interesting FromSoft and Miyazaki’s contributions to the industry are. I hope they never stop releasing games, and I can’t wait for Elden Ring 2.