My first Fromsoft game and an experience I'll never forget. Bought this game when it came out, beat my head against a wall for like 3 hours trying to kill Margit, did some exploring and found the Siofra river, came back, beat Margit, went through Stormveil and figured the game was going to take me too long to beat at that time in my life. That initial experience with the game was so magical and unlike anything I had ever played before. I knew when I eventually came back and beat the game, it'd be one of my favorites ever. Well, now over 2 years later, I put the time aside, started a new save, and beat the game at just under 72 hours. While I still loved playing this, my full playthrough revealed many flaws that keep this from being one of my all time favorites. For one, I think this game is big for the sake of being big. I like long games that you can really lose yourself in for a month, but this did not have the content to justify its size. In Limgrave, each new boss you encountered felt special because you had never seen it before. Unfortunately almost every boss is reused a plethora of times until they become no more interesting than a random enemy. For instance the first time I found the dragon in the Limgrave swamp was incredible. The scale of it was huge and I was genuinely scared of fighting it for a long time because of how intimidating it looked. Well that same dragon boss is used probably a dozen times in various locations across the world to where I would find another dragon and feel absolutely nothing. It wouldn't get me excited to fight it or even be a memorable moment in my playthrough like that first dragon was. This applies to pretty much every boss in the game. Most of the magic of the first 15-20 hours of Elden Ring is constantly being surprised by the unknown, but by the time you reach Altus Plateu, the unknown is just things you've already done and seen before earlier in the game. This applies just as much to the open world as it does the bosses. Each area feels like it has the same content with a different skybox. The catacombs and caves are incredible the first few times you come across them but I just wish the game was doing more to surprise you when you keep coming across them in your 50th hour. While I definitely have these problems with the game, at the end of the day Elden Ring is still so much fun to play. The core combat is so satisfying that although the game stopped surprising me in quite the same way it did at the beginning, I was still enjoying most of what I was doing. Really my other main issue of the game actually is the balancing. Starting a new save 2 years after originally playing only the first 10-15 hours, I actually found most of this game to be way too easy. I didn't use summons or spirit ashes, but I really felt like I was just blowing through most of this game with ease. Limgrave felt balanced being the beginning of the game, but once I got to Liurnia, it felt like everything was quite easy until Mountop of the Giants. It's a bit unfortunate because I feel like this game is at its best when you're in an area that feels really threatening but still possible, but when you remove that sense of danger, the game loses some of what makes it special. There were still occasional areas that felt properly balanced in the mid game, like lower Ainsel, Upper Caelid, or Mt. Gelmir, but I wish I wasn't just destroying everything I came across as easily as I was. This is especially unfortunate with the bosses and legacy dungeons in this section of the game. For instance The Leyndell Capitol was insane to look at and wander around, but everything there felt unthreatening. I wish there was an actual struggle to get from grace to grace rather than just easily making it to the bosses without dying. Thankfully after Leyndell, the difficulty ramps up for the rest of the game and things start to feel more balanced. The final 20 hours of Elden Ring are mixed but can be really spectacular as you get to some more linear sections of the game. The open world is at its worst with places like the consecrated snowfield, but more linear spots like Crumbling Farum Azula and Miquellas Haligtree are some of the best sections of the game. You also start to see a lot more unique bosses near the end, and almost all of them are tough, fun, and memorable fights. Malenia in particular is exactly what I was looking for, taking me 1.5-2 hours to beat, and actually having me felt like I memorized the entirety of the bosses moveset. While I still loved my time playing this game, it is far from perfect in my opinion, and I can envision a future Fromsoft open world game that takes this and refines it to be a masterpiece.