With a rich and vibrant world with something to do everywhere you go, Elden Ring's open world is the best gaming has to offer. The scale of the overworld itself is mindblowing and finding out about the underworld that's seemingly just as large blew my mind even more. The world-building through storytelling makes the game's world feel extremely real and alive. There are 0 bad areas in this game. This game features what I would consider a strong lineup of high quality and fun bosses. The Godskin Duo and the Elden Beast were the only fights I disliked but everything else was peak. I also did not mind the few reoccurring bosses at all. The combat system is peak action RPG combat. Even after beating the game I still feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of this game's combat.

I really appreciate how hands-off this game was with the storytelling. I love how it just drops you into the world with no tutorial and nearly no directions. I already feel kinda nostalgic for the beginning of the game when I was just trying to get out of limgrave. There weren't many cutscenes to mess with the immersion. Every cutscene came at a completely appropriate and relevant time.

This game is without a doubt a masterpiece. I will never forget my first playthrough experience. I look forward to continuing to explore the world of Elden Ring. This is a game I would recommend it to anyone.

I've heard about Dark Souls my whole life from the internet and my older bro but haven't touched because I was scared of the difficulty, but i've finally got up to playing and beating this and just Wow.

Just an absolute great game all around. Great bosses, world, gameplay, music, and just SO much depth too.

I finally get where the hype comes from and how revolutionary this game is. Only gripes are long run-ups between bosses and bonfires and some level designs, other then that though..

Yeah this game kicks ass 🥶

I've been playing Pokemon games all my life. Yet this is the first time since X/Y where it felt like an ACTUAL step forward in some meaningful ways. And yet, Arceus still drags its feet in others.



Story - Hell naw

The main series of games have barely had any semblance of a story. Black/White/Platinum tried their best, but even then, oof. Arceus is no different, except it forces this God-awful story down your throat at any chance it gets. To many times, will the game be halted just for some NPC you barely remember the name of starts giving you a test of how fast you can spam the A button to get back to the game. It feels like there's two stories that got ripped apart and slapped together to try and find some meaning. No one is surprised that it does NOT do what they think it does.



Gameplay - Finally, some fucking food

The introduction of the Agile/Strong styles is a simple yet very welcome change to Pokemons iconic simple combat system. It's different enough to add that extra layer of surprise. To many times was this put into use where the tide of battle didn't go the way my 20+ years of series experience taught me it would. It really kept me on my toes.

The speed of the live battles has to be my favorite part of the game. You simply see a Pokemon, get in a battle, and you're out. Super fast. The rest of the games have SO much time dedicated to "watching." Until now, the rest of the games have it so there was a cutscene for going in the random encounter, throwing out your Pokemon, attacking, watching it faint, gaining the XP, and going back to the overworld world. That shit took long to type, imagine playing it EVERY single battle? I can't ever go back to the old way at this point. Arceus perfected the flow to battle. All the experience gained happens after the battle while you're already on the move again. A little downside to this change is that moves no longer felt great to learn. To many times did it happen where I missed that some of my members learned a new move.

That being said, the battles are super fun, and even better once you get into a trainer battle or a Noble fight where it turns into an action game with dodging.

But here comes that trademarked GameFreak step back..where have you hidden the trainers Game Freak??? They really gave us the best combat system of the series and 10 trainers to battle to test it out with.



The Open World - Some Good, some Bad, lots of Ugly

The words "Open World" and "Pokemon" to be made for each other when you think of them. The journey of Pokemon needs those open plains, seas to cross, and mountains to climb to feel like an adventure. Arceus didn't give me the open world I wanted. But it gave me the one I expected.

The world is shockingly beautiful...in motion. Stopping to smell the grass only invites the opportunity to notice how low the resolution is of said grass. Every corner of this game just isn't up to snuff for where I want the series to be at. It's not terrible by any means, but I just wanted more.

But, visuals aren't the end of the world. Traveling across this land is amazing. A simple tap of a button, and I'm bolting across the grass or flying through the air, or maybe scaling the side of a mountain. There's pokemon every 2 seconds. They were not shy of littering this world with creatures to fight and collect. Even the scarier Alphas are spread out pretty nicely. They are a great challenge that keeps me CONSTANTLY switching out my team. I couldn't stick with the same 6 like normal this time around. I always had to dedicate half the team to countering the area I'm in. The want to explore is always very inviting, and they made it incredibly easy to do so.

...here comes another "but"



BUT!...



Once AGAIN...THERES NOTHING THERE!



You'd think this being a prequel with the GOD of Pokemon on the box, there would be lots to explore. But NOPE. A whole lot of rainbows, with a whole lot of nothing at the end of them. What could of been an interesting discovery of something like, Unknowns, gets turned into a scavenger hunt. And not a fun one at that. What could of been an amazing mystery of mythical Pokemon, is just an encounter. This was the game that could of really dug into the adventure and journey aspect that we always wanted, and they just dropped the ball so hard here.



The Pokemon - The animals have arrived

It feels like a joke, but Pokemon Snap had been the time I've had with a 3D Pokemon game. The sole reason for that is very simple. The life that Bandai gave the Pokemon, is all I ever wanted. They acted exactly like I wanted them to. Like animals.

Arecus picks up on this pretty well. Some Pokemon will act logically. They will be spooked when you run towards them, or run when you try to capture them. Some ever straight up attack you instead. These interactions are all great and give the game so much life. I do wish there was a bit more Pokemom involved. The number of Pokemon was great from a collcting point of view. But theres only so many times I can run up a hill and expect to see something new only to be greeted with more Carnavine.

I'd like them to expand on this in future titles. Having some Pokemom travel in herds would be amazing to see. Even turning a corner and watching a Heracross and a Pinsir fighting would be phenomenal. The more they act like animals, the deeper you fall in love with this world.



Closing thoughts - an ACTUAL step in the right direction

I might have seemed a bit critical, but I really did love the game. I've beaten in twice now, and it's safe to say that it overtook Sword/Shield for my favorite 3D Pokemon game in the main series. To many times have we as fans said, "Yeah, this game might not be everything we hoped for...but wait until the NEXT game!".

But Legends really did set up the series to shine as bright as you'd expect if they continue on this path.