Pokemon is my childhood game. My first one was Pokemon Black and since then, I’ve played almost every one. That is, up to the Nintendo 3DS, because mini-me never mustered enough confidence to ask my parents for one. So, despite being such a fan of the franchise, all I could do when Pokemon X & Y came out was watch a MunchingOrange playthrough, lamenting not being able to play it myself. That was over 10 years ago. Playing Pokemon X today is a weird form of nostalgia that’s hard to put into words. Rather than reliving a past memory, it’s me fulfilling a childhood desire, one that I wanted so badly and sort of experienced through someone else, but never had the chance to actually have.

What immediately stands out is the 3D. This was the first, full 3D, mainline pokemon game, so back when it came out, it really felt revolutionary to see. Even something as simple as moving diagonally was new. Other games had 3D environments, but to see 3D pokemon and NPCs was a big change. It gave the game a more ‘modernised’ feel, whether or not you think that’s a good thing. Today, it doesn’t have the same amount of impact, since plenty of 3D pokemon games have come out by now, but it’s still very different to the previous games.

Something that confuses me is that I’m a big fan of pixel-art and games that use it, however, I might prefer Pokemon in 3D, and I’m not sure I understand why. Perhaps the battles feel livelier or the environment comes to life more. What I do understand though is that running through the 3D world and interacting with all the 3D NPCs is incredibly immersive. The game uses the 3D for some interesting angle changes that swivel the camera in interesting directions. At times, it can be disorienting, but it’s mostly a creative way to maximise the unique presentation.

The next thing that stands out is what comes with a brand new region. Having not played any region beyond 5, I’m pretty unfamiliarised with the Pokemon themselves. Gen 6 introduces 72 new pokemon, which is actually the least amount of any region. I went in wanting to create a fully Kalos team, but there were surprisingly few options. Even the NPCs seemed to have mostly non-Kalos pokemon. Usually when making a team, I’m spoiled for choice, though here it was easy because there were only a handful I liked.

Another thing this game introduces is the new type: Fairy. On paper it’s an interesting change, especially to counter the incredibly powerful dragon-type, but it rarely came up. There was a fairy type gym and they did add fairy type to some of the pre-existing pokemon, but it wasn't nearly as significant as I thought it’d be. Some of the quintessential fairy types like Florges, Aromatisse and Slurpuff didn’t show up until end-game, including their pre-evolutions. It just felt like the game had so much fresh Pokemon and a whole new type but held back on actually showing it to you.

To make up for this, though, the game introduces mega-evolution, which is perhaps the coolest thing Pokemon has ever done, even to this day. Adding a basic 4th evolution would, although spice things up, end up being too drawn out and exhausting. I mean, imagine if your Pokemon wouldn’t evolve until level 60 or something, or if it evolved every few levels. Mega-evolution is a brilliant way to spice up the gameplay without diluting the satisfaction of having a Pokemon evolve. And beyond that, it’s just awesome. The idea of a pokemon reaching its ultimate form for a brief moment when the bond between Pokemon and trainer is at its zenith is cool as hell. Some of the best designs have come from this mechanic and it’s just great to see and experience. Although I do think it was a little underused and didn’t need to be reserved for only a handful of opponents.

In terms of the map and areas, it’s decent, but leaves a little to be desired. There are a few cities and villages that stand out, though most of them are rather forgettable. Quite a lot of them can be summed up as generic villages with no notable features other than perhaps having a vague theme like it being cold. I don’t dislike them, it’s just that they don’t stick out in my memory at all. And then there’s Luminose city. An absolute goliath of a location that clearly has the most effort put into. Its scale is humungous with plenty of cafes, battle cafes, dressers, stylists, a hotel, a train station, a gym, monuments, back alleys, an entire transport service and even an eiffel tower. Your entire POV is even changed to up-close instead of top-down. To explore the place can take up hours, almost like it’s an entire game itself. Needless to say, it’s my favourite location in the game. However, I feel that all the effort went into that single location, leaving the others lackluster.

The gyms have the same problem. Rather than including interesting puzzles or level design, it’s mostly just themed locations that you walk through and fight trainers in until you reach the gym leader. And then the gym leaders themselves don’t stand out too much either. Pokemon has never been known for its puzzles, but the gyms at least are where they normally get creative with it. Instead of inspired, it felt like they were just ticking boxes with these gyms.

However, the Pokemon league was one of the most entertaining I’ve played in the franchise. Throughout the game, difficulty was always an issue, and I’d have to constantly maintain a low level to make it challenging. The Pokemon league, on the other hand, was genuinely really hard. I did end up picking cool pokemon rather than strong ones, but my team wasn’t bad by any means. Despite that, I got my ass whooped by the elite 4 members. The water elite 4, for example, could literally one shot every single one of my pokemon with either his Gyrados or Clawitzer. This was definitely the point in the game where I had the most fun because it didn’t pull any of its punches. As opposed to the gym leaders, the elite 4 members and champion were quirky, had standout environments and had that ‘iconic’ quality to them.

This game went for a larger cast of characters than usual, setting you off with 4 ‘companions’ as opposed to just a rival and perhaps one other character. As much as this sounds interesting, it’s really to its detriment. Trying to balance so many side-characters resulted with them being shallow and forgettable. I mean, one of them can be completely and holistically summarised as ‘a guy who likes to dance’, and there’s not anything else to him. It seemed like they might have been developing a romantic subplot with one of them, but it was only hinted at half-way through the game and never really brought up again. For our rival, she is pretty much a bog standard girl who wants to be a strong trainer. That’s about the extent of her character. It’s hard to criticise the character writing knowing that its target demographic is rather young. After all, when I was in that demographic, I had no qualms with it at all. But being older now, it’s hard to enjoy such shallow characters. And the thing that bothers me the most is how easily it could be improved. Our rival’s reason for wanting to be strong is a broad desire to be different. Literally 2 lines of dialogue that give a deeper reason for that or origin for that desire could add so much more depth to her character, but instead of doing something so easily achieved, she remains a surface level character that just wants to be strong. The same goes for the other characters. Their desires and motives aren’t inherently bad, they’re just unexplored and unjustified.

A similar thing can be said for the antagonist, who fuels the main storyline. Surprisingly for a Pokemon game, the antagonist wants to essentially annihilate humanity and all pokemon. I didn’t think Pokemon would go for such a serious storyline, but I’m glad it did. However, I’m not happy with how it was handled. Lysandre’s philosophy is an interesting perspective, but was presented so incoherently. It almost seemed like he was saying ‘I can’t save everyone so, hey, I guess I’ll just kill them all.’ This fits in with his desire for the world to be beautiful, so any amount of suffering or conflict would ruin that, but there’s no deeper reason/justification for him to want the world to be beautiful, and it seems like a huge leap in logic to conclude that everyone should just die then. He lets only Team Flare survive, but by talking to the other NPCs, you can see that pretty much any random person can join Team Flare if they feel like it, so it wouldn’t achieve his goal of preventing conflict or anything—there would just be less of the same people. It’s all just pretty nonsensical. For such a serious storyline, you’d hope it made more sense.

Despite my complaints about Lysandre, he is still pretty interesting. There’s something about conflicted villains that fascinates me. That scene when he’s asked what would happen to the Pokemon and he starts crying was surprisingly powerful. To have such conviction that you’re willing to go through with what you’re doing, despite how much it pains you to do so, gives a lot of flair to his character (pun intended).

Now, you might be wondering how I can give it 4 stars when most of what I’ve done so far is complain. The answer to that is very simple—it’s Pokemon. Indeed, nostalgia is a huge factor. Even if I never played this particular game before, I watched a playthrough 10 years ago and I’ve been playing Pokemon since childhood. But even past that, Pokemon is brilliant. Pokemon has the greatest world-building I’ve ever experienced in a piece of media. With so many facets and elements, seeing how it completely shapes society, the interesting ways it’s integrated into industry and the culture around Pokemon battling, it’s no wonder I wanted to live in the world of Pokemon as a kid (and kind of still do). The gameplay loop is so satisfying with such an intricate and layered turn-based system, with constant variation and personalisation that it never gets old. Also, Pokemon has a great sense of progression. Progress is always signposted with the amount of gym badges you have, the level of your Pokemon, when your Pokemon evolve, and then the culmination of it all at the Pokemon League. It’s such a huge world, but its linear structure plays massively to its advantage, at least for me.

Coming after Pokemon Black and White 2, Pokemon X is definitely a drop in quality. And other than the 3D, it struggles to cement itself in my mind as a stand-out within the franchise. I think that Pokemon has such an incredible amount of potential with the most amazing world I’ve experienced in fiction, and could go in so many interesting directions. Pokemon X didn’t do that, but it’s still Pokemon, so I loved it. I hadn’t played a Pokemon game in a long time and I had been caught up in so many other things, so going back to my roots with this really made me happy.

So, yes, compared to other Pokemon games, Pokemon X isn’t among my favourites, and I have a lot of qualms with it. However, because of a few of its qualities and from it simply being a Pokemon game, I had an amazing time playing it. It truly was a pleasure to go back and play a game I wanted to play so badly 10 years ago. And it also serves as an important reminder to the fact that, damn, I love Pokemon. 8/10.

    As 2023 comes to a close, I realised that I hadn't played many games that released this year. Actually, I realised that I hadn't played a single game nominated in the game awards. So before the year ended, I thought I'd pick something to try out. A Space for the Unbound caught my eye and after I already decided to play it, I noticed purely by coincidence that it was made by the same developers behind Coffee Talk, the game I played before this one. With what Coffee Talk was like, I expected a light-hearted, chill and relaxing puzzle game. Instead, I was given a vibrant tale packed with more emotion than my tissue box could handle. And here's why.

    What immediately stood out to me was the setting. I hadn't realised with Coffee Talk but the company behind the game is Indonesian. However, unlike Coffee Talk,  Indonesian culture is heavily celebrated and embraced with this game. It shines through the colourful clothing, the sweltering heat in the atmosphere, the food and so many other aspects. You can really tell how much the creators wanted to convey the beauty of their country. Details like street vendors and Indonesian food stalls make you feel like you're breathing the Asian air and immerses you in their world. Every aspect of the map is riddled with small things that make the game so friendly and lively. I mean, for Christ's sake, they have cats in every corner of the map. How could it get any better?

    Another aspect that stands out is the art direction. Pixel art is one of my favourite types of art and this game may have some of the best of it I've ever seen, in and out of games. The feeling of a lively and youthful summer is captured perfectly. Its overflowing with many details like bottle caps on the floor, cats everywhere and school kids running around. Although my childhood wasn't exactly the same, it evokes nostalgia nonetheless. But what really stands out to me is the background art. Some of the most beautiful and breathtaking shots of the sky I've ever seen are in this game. And not only when the game draws attention to it. There were plenty of times when I was running through the game and stopped to stare at the background that I'm sure goes unnoticed by many. They're not just still images either, but they move with the character and have small details in them too. Its layered with clouds, the sun and other features that all move at different speeds. It's beautiful throughout but only gets better the further into the game, until by the end I'm left in complete awe at the sight. The amazing art also extends to cut-scenes where the design of the characters are more detailed. Even despite it being pixel art, the emotions of the characters are so vividly expressed on their faces in these moments. The art is able to powerfully capture the wonder of an Indonesian town and subsequently convey an apocalyptic and destructive beauty - it could not be better.

    The next greatest contributor to the game being so beautiful is the music and sound design. Sound design normally flies over my head but I did pick up on some small things I liked. For example, the typing sound that plays over text appearing on the screen is really nice on the ears and the running sound effect for some reason stood out to me too. Ambient effects like cats meowing, bird chirping and people talking add to the experience also.
    The score is packed with emotional piano, upbeat, and relaxing tracks to fit every mood. Running through the town under the summer sun with chill music in the back gives me such a warm and great feeling. But when the story takes an emotional turn, the music becomes some of the most poignant and powerful music I've heard in gaming. Honestly, I get emotional listening to the music even without the gameplay behind it. On top of this, there are a few tracks that have vocals in them so when they pull out those vocals at the climax and ending, it is very moving. The lyrics are very relevant as well, especially in the final song. **I'm not musician so there's no way for me to not undersell how impactful the music is, but there are countless tracks that I'll be scouring the internet for after writing this, to listen to again. 

    On the other hand, the gameplay was pretty underwhelming. I like how well it integrated into the story and themes but on its own, it was lacking for me. A significant amount of the game is running around the map, looking for items or talking to random people who tell you to go and look for items. This isn't unenjoyable because of the great music and art, but the game design doesn't do it any favours. A lot of it is repetitive and is normally along the lines of: talk to the person you're told to, space-dive, go search for all the items needed for it, space-dive again, do the puzzle and then continue. Outside of the space-dive, there is a fun little combat feature where you have to enter a specified string of inputs under a time limit. But it's very basic, doesn't mix it up a lot and isn't challenging enough to love.
    The main gameplay feature is the puzzles. It has some good ideas and I like how it uses things outside of the puzzles alone, like getting you to explore the map and keep your eye out for things or clues that may be useful. However, the puzzles themselves are effortless, with the clues and hints being spoon-fed to you. Throughout the game, I only got stuck about 2 times and quickly figured out what to do because it's normally obvious. Some puzzles have sneaky solutions but that's about as hard as it gets. Most of the puzzles will ask for you to collect something external but the main character will say something like "Oh, if only I had X item right now..." so not a lot of thinking is involved. Or you'll walk past an NPC saying something in the same vein. It's clear that the game has the story at it's focal point and making the puzzles too hard would retract from that for some players, but I think the puzzles are just too easy and that's coming from someone who isn't even that good at puzzles in general. Albeit, even if they aren't that mentally stimulating, I think adding puzzles and small gameplay features like this is better than having a visual novel format or a walking simulator, for this game in particular, and there are some fun puzzles here and there. Overall, the gameplay is definitely the area aspect I enjoyed the least, but I didn't hate it by any means.

    The plot is actually rather loose, but not necessarily in a bad way. The premise can't really be described well in a few sentences as it starts out unassuming but then expands greatly to surprising heights. Foreshadowing begins very early on and creates an ongoing mystery that is revealed to have many sides to it. The somewhat loose plot here is an advantage because there is so much unpredictability and flexibility to every event. As the story is not grounded in reality, the setting is constantly changing and norms are bent. It takes you to so many imaginative places and scenarios and really uses the eccentricity of fiction to it's best. There is a constant use of visual metaphors and the flexible setting lends itself to having a large range of themes for the puzzles as well. However, it's loose nature does have its weaknesses. For example, some plot points seem very random and contrived when there is no real purpose for them and they kind of come out of nowhere. There are plenty of long sections in the game where you need to solve one random problem of a person in the town before continuing the story, even if it's completely unrelated. Stuff like this would be great if it were optional, shorter or more relevant to the story but being so long and pointless takes away from the tension of the main storyline. 
    A big portion of the story is using the 'space dive' feature and this contributes to making the story very psychological, which is fascinating. The world and characters feel more alive and humanized when we delve into the psyche of the people across all ages and occupations. Expressing their mental struggles using metaphors in the form of puzzles and imagery is also very creative. This is at its best when being used on the important characters because we can see how it links into the story and the central themes. It's a brilliant way to give exposition and exploration on each character's current position and growth as you go through the game. Rather than simple and plain dialogue or a long and sappy backstory, it is shown through artistic and creative ways of representing the inner workings of their minds. 
    However, I do think there is room for improvement. With one of the largest features of the gameplay being diving into the brains of the characters, I think there could have been further exploration as a lot of it was rather surface level - especially for the minor characters. Some definitely do stand out though and I think it was very fulfilling to see people change their perspective about their memories and situation and take a new path. But with such a powerful concept like diving into the brains of people and their mental struggles, it could have tackled more powerful situations and themes for a lot of the minor characters. However, I did like how small problems were given attention, as the little things do matter as well.

    What I love about the game most though is the characters and theming. (big spoilers ahead). The game undeniably revolves around one central and exceedingly multi-faceted character: Raya/Nirmala. Heck, even her name seems pretty complicated. There are other characters that have depth to them but mostly all of them are used as devices for Raya. Truthfully, even the main character is predominantly a device for Raya, and it wouldn't be far off to say that Raya is actually the main character herself. The entire story takes place within her imagination, which is revealed to be during her coma, and is why every plot point is so entwined with her whim and character development. That's one of the reasons why the themes stand out so much and are so powerful; they are ingrained deeply into the story itself and push forward the plot.
    Now as for the main theme, there are a few I could put into that box but none that I can definitively say is the message and the number one thing the game is trying to say. The game says a lot in many different ways, so I'll go through some of the ones I found interesting.
    One of the most prevalent themes is escapism and stagnation. The entire premise revolves around Raya's imagination. And whenever she appears, she avoids facing her problems and manufactures solutions by using her magical abilities. She runs away from all of her problems and indulges in her fantasy of a world just for her and Atma, where no-one bothers them and they just do whatever they want. But the truth is that she has problems that she can't just run away from. She has a temporary escape in her self-delusion but eventually she crumbles under her loneliness and the weight of her past. Now this is actually something I can relate to a lot. In fact, it's partially why I played the game. Just like many others, games and other forms of media serve as a form of escapism. It's a space where I can be unbound (hehe) by the worries of reality and live in a temporary fantasy, like Raya. If I find any issues, that's fine, I can just pick up another game or put on a different show. But just like Raya, this can't go on forever. You can try to flood your mind with endless distractions but there will be nights when you're in the dark trying to fall asleep at 3AM and you're reminded of the problems you still have and how little you've done about them. It creeps up on you. Without confronting your issues and past, and without learning to appreciate the things you have instead of flooding your brain with imaginary value, you can't move forward. 
    Closer to the end we learn that Raya 'split into two' and discarded her child self, 'Nirmala'. 'Nirmala' embodied her passion, curiosity and love for the world around her. But because of her father's abuse and classmates' harassment and bullying, she chose to discard that part of herself because she couldn't take it all. She tried to become someone she was not, and was stripped of her authentic self, essentially splitting into two. Being forced into a box, it made her depressed and after bottling it all up, she ran away into her imagination. Raya is told all her life that she's a failure, weird and no-one has ever appreciated who she was. So she grew up thinking that being herself was wrong. Raya is terrified of sadness so she avoids it by escaping to her imagination. The role of Atma is to convince her that it's okay to be herself. Despite all the bad things about her and the horrible things she does, Atma has to remain determined to reassure her that she is loved. Raya is stubborn and continues to run away, even becoming hostile and trying to kill Atma. Eventually, she gives in and discloses her problems, allowing Atma to console her. With intimate and personal dialogue, they work through her problems. With this, during an introspective conversation on the rooftop with Atma she says 'all the fear, failure and loneliness are part of me'. Instead of rejecting and avoiding the negative emotions, she learns to accept them and accept herself in the process. With Atma convincing herself to get up and finally take a step forward, to face her past and her issues, we go on a very emotional section of the story - a journey back to Nirmala, her true self. And in order to become her true self again, she had to address her harsh memories, take responsibility for her mistakes and learn to love herself. 
    One of the first obstacles in doing this was Erik. Now he isn't such a nice guy. He bullies her and even (accidentally) killed her cat. She has plenty of reason to hate him. However, she knew that Erik is actually in love with her, he just struggles to convey it. But Raya refuses to help him out and understand him, but instead ignores his feelings. Despite recognising that Erik was similar to her in how difficult he finds it to accept and express himself, she ignored him. Raya learns to move past her hatred for him and not let it hold her back.
    The next obstacle was Lulu. As a defense to being bullied and ridiculed, Raya tried to become just like someone everyone looked up to, Lulu. But she then find out that it was impossible. She couldn't transform into someone she was not. She ended up being put down by Lulu and felt horrible about herself. Here, Raya accepts rejection and becomes strong enough to no let others define her value and force her into being someone she isn't.
    Next was Marin. Through their friendship, Raya was constantly reminded of how unfortunate her family circumstances were and compared them to Marin's generous parents. Truthfully, Raya was really jealous of Marin so when Marin did not step in to help when she was getting bullied, she used that as an excuse to deny their friendship. She knew that Marin was just too scared to help her and despite that she withheld her forgiveness to avoid the pain of jealousy. Here, Raya learns to accept those negative emotions and not let it take away from their beautiful friendship of drawing and writing together.
    And the final obstacle, her dad. Needless to say, her dad is irredeemably awful. But she didn't have the strength to confront him, scared of the consequences and negative emotions. With her newfound confidence in herself she cements him as awful in her mind, giving her the resolve to leave him behind and move on.
    Having addressed these problems, Raya had bridged what was stopping her from being herself and goes to greet Nirmala, the authentic part of her, the part she and nobody can live without. Once again, Raya rediscovers her love for the little things she enjoyed as a kid: 'the people who care about her, the things that bring her job, the feeling of sitting down to write'. I thought it sounded corny growing up but gratitude and appreciating the things you have really does change your perspective on the value of your life and life around you.

    Onto the ending. The climax of Raya reuniting with Nirmala, accepting herself and then the visual representation of her leaving her imagination is no less than beautiful. The symbolism with the yellow flowing budding, the breathtaking imagery, it all creates an unbelievable spectacle. Now, the climax and catharsis of this game may be my favourite out of any game I've ever played. Raya wakes, revealing that she was in a coma. She, quite literally in this sense, couldn't live without facing her past and struggles. After a time, we learn that she and her mother are moving away from her father. Raya gets up, and leaves the house. As she walks around town, we see how every other character ended up and how they have changed. Even the minor characters, like seeing the hiking club members in a relationship or a member of the biker gang join the karate dojo. Seeing all the characters and Raya's new self and attitude show through what she says to the other characters and how she speaks had me so giddy and smiley. The game really illustrates how despite it now being 'reality', it's just as if not more beautiful that her imagination. A life where you are comfortable in your own skin is wonderful. In combination with one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard (seriously, it's called An Ode to Life, check it out), she walks to a bridge where she reflects on herself and where to go next. Once again, this might be my favourite ending in gaming. Every single tiny loose end was tied, as if they had everything planned out perfectly from the very beginning. And with the emotional impact built up by the stellar art direction and soundtrack, it is simply superb. I actually stayed up until 3AM to finish it and the feeling I got afterwards was really special for me. I was in this rare state of feeling really appreciative of the life I have and the beauty all around me that's really hard to describe.

    Despite it's shortcomings, the game stuck the landing with a backflip and landed on 10 feet. I have to admit that I'm a sucker for amazing endings and recency bias so I'm finding it very easy to look past the things I didn't like. But nonetheless, the game is beautifully hopeful and a brilliantly crafted story with a complex and deeply explored character. It juggles unbelievably powerful emotions and tricky topics like trauma and self-acceptance that resonate with me deeply. Honestly, a game hasn't captured me like this in a very long time. For it to have me so invested in the story and characters and empathize so deeply with Raya, it really is special. It is lathered with love and passion and is truly an unforgettable experience. 9/10.

Fromsoftware, the studio that developed Elden ring, have a very distinct style that is characterised by harsh, gritty and hard-hitting gameplay. If you had not played any of their games before, I'm sure playing Elden Ring for the first time would be akin to running headfirst into a brick wall. However, I had been fortunate enough to have played Bloodborne before, so I was already somewhat accustomed to the game's general mechanics. On the other hand, Bloodborne is extremely different regarding the game design, aesthetic, size and even the mechanics. Whilst playing Elden Ring, drawing parallels with Bloodborne was inevitable and has given me many thoughts to help me understand my opinion on the game. But enough of that, let me discuss what I think of Fromsoftware's largest game yet: Elden Ring.

The first thing that stood out to me was the colossal scale of the map and setting. From the get-go, you are quickly thrust into a massive open area of ruins, caves, churches and so on which is riddled with a huge myriad of creatures dying to bite your d**k off. The game expands by introducing plenty more areas of many different themes and with an even greater range of enemies. Frankly, Elden Ring must have one of the biggest maps I've ever played through. Naturally, the most common issue you would have with this would be filling the humongous world with interesting things to do and discover, which the game has no problem doing. The map has no shortage of dungeons, forts, caves, ruins and many other structures, all of which deliver worthwhile rewards in the form of weapons, runes, sorceries, or even lore. The infrastructure is incredibly detailed and the world has been meticulously designed to never have an area unoccupied by something to explore. The game also does a brilliant job of incentivising the players to explore as you inadvertently end up looking through every nook and cranny of the map during sidequests, main missions or whilst backtracking to find an important item or weapon you missed. Overall, the world feels very dense with content and does not make you explore purely out of curiosity but instead sucks you into it without realising it whilst doing other tasks in the game.

Despite playing on the PS4, which in terms of graphics is inferior to the PS5, the game looks fantastic. The designs of the bosses and enemies are intricate and detailed, the scenery and environment look beautiful and the general performance of the game is excellent. There are many locations in the game that urge you to stop and admire your surroundings for a moment. Also, the cutscenes are lively and effectively immerse you into the game's story. In contrast to Bloodborne's gothic and Lovecraftian horror aesthetic, Elden Ring opts for a medieval fantasy compounded with gods and demons which scratches a very different itch to the former. It's hard to say which one I prefer, however, I certainly am I fan of this aesthetic and ended up sticking with a classic knight-esque armour by the end of the game among all of the options that were available. The voice-acting performances definitely add to this aesthetic. The bosses have very suitable noble and authoritative voices, befitting of lords and demigods and the general dialogue and accents really create a grand and epic ambience, which fits the setting. The game experiments with a vast range of environments, colours and effects and as a whole is a joy to look at.

The story has A LOT to unpack. Elden Ring has very deep lore that would require many hours of further reading to fully comprehend. However, even without getting the whole picture, it has a rather linear story that can be mostly understood. This is actually something I thought Bloodborne did not do well and that Elden Ring does much better at. Bloodborne was impossible to follow with so many aspects unexplained whereas Elden Ring has a strong fundamental basis for the story (become the Elden Lord) and is much kinder by giving more information to the players in terms of what is going on and how it has come to pass. The abundant talk of gods, ancient spirits and so on really makes you feel like you are experiencing a story that is greater than yourself and that you are becoming part of history in a way. The story does a great job of connecting all elements of the game together, making everything feel purposeful and cyclical whilst also adding secret pockets of hidden information for those wanting to go the extra mile, so I think the story has been written really well for all audiences. After beating the game, I researched and watched videos to understand the lore in-depth and it is astonishingly detailed and well thought-out. So many items, weapons, talismans and spells have cryptic descriptions about their significance in the lore and there are so many overlooked little features of many elements of the game. There is an entire historic saga to learn about with countless battles, plot beats and twists that adds so much more depth to the setting and the players' purpose as the protagonist in the game. Every significant boss is deeply rooted and connected to the events that occurred in the game's history and adds so much more weight to the fights and interactions you experience. Although this doesn't improve the enjoyment whilst playing the game initially as it is very difficult to uncover alone, subsequent playthroughs or even just watching videos regarding the game offer a lot more to the player even after they have beaten it.

The combat is maybe the number one aspect that makes Fromsoftware games stand out. To begin with, Elden Ring provides the user with a huge arsenal of options. You can use sorceries, incantations, weapon "arts", summons, and an almost overwhelming range of weapons. Elden Ring has one of the most dynamic and customisable combat systems in any game that I've played and surprisingly almost all builds are viable. To put this into perspective, I used the Uchigatana, which is the very first weapon I received, and nothing else for roughly 80% of the game. Customising and optimising are completely optional and accommodate players who want to experiment as well as those who just want to keep it simple and straightforward. This maintains the combat as constantly interesting and never repetitive, generating a very satisfying and addicting gameplay loop. It also has a distinct focus on dodging and with the feature of invincibility frames, there is a massive emphasis on timing. This is sort of a double-edged sword as dodging a flurry of attacks can be extremely rewarding but failing is equally frustrating. What makes it frustrating is that there is not much you can do to improve. There often is not a new strategy to use or something you can train but you simply need to "get good" and dodge better. I'm not sure much can be done to improve timing so it ends up in repeating fights over and over again until you get it right. This unforgiving aspect may put off many players and is certainly not for everyone but provides a very exciting challenge for those willing. I think that the dodging mechanic is the bread and butter of the gameplay and is what makes combat so thrilling and exciting as you have to stay on edge and focus the entire time, which is exhausting but fun.

Now I wouldn't think that it's surprising that the highlight of the game is the boss fights. Personally, boss fights are my favourite aspects of most games that have them so a game that has such an emphasis on them is like a match made in heaven. Entering an arena, triggering a cutscene whilst trembling with anticipation of what horror is about to fuck your world up never gets old. I love the process of initially being shocked by the boss, then slowly adjusting yourself to their moveset and analysing at what points to punish them. And then, once you have them all figured out you set your plan in motion and... fail. Over and over again. It's really strange on paper but failing constantly is the best part. During the fights, I get so mad and start hurling slurs at the screen and calling it the worst game in the world but once you finally beat that boss that took you over 4 hours, it is pure bliss. Truly the best feeling you can have in gaming and you forget about all the pain and anguish you felt. Elden Ring has some of the toughest bosses in any game I've played and it makes the feeling of winning all the better. I realised recently that the more I struggle with a boss, the more I like them. I'm not sure if it's some kind of Stockholm syndrome or if there's something wrong with me but Elden Ring absolutely nails this dynamic. Malenia, who took me a gruelling 8 hours to beat, is my favourite boss in the game and had I beaten her in under 2 hours I would have been disappointed. In fact, there were times when I lost to bosses on purpose because I felt it was too easy or I got lucky so I wanted to do it again. I came into the game wanting super hard bosses and that's exactly what I got. Not only that but they are incredibly designed. So many of them have challenging phase two's, sometimes with completely refreshed health bars, and they all look perfectly fitting for their roles and suitable for the aesthetic. The bosses are so often fascinating with diverse movesets, and complicated attack strings and always have a backdrop of powerfully tone-setting scores. I think I have a preference for smaller, human-sized bosses as opposed to colossal whale-esque ones but Elden Ring didn't cause a problem in that regard. In conclusion, the bosses are absolutely the best part of the game for me and certainly make the game stand out to me due to how much I love bosses in games. 

Now this is where you would think the review ends but my review thus far has been rather misleading. Here's the thing. The game has so many incredible points that I think it excels at and some of them are even better than anything I've seen before. However, there are also a tonne of problems I have with the game, which makes my opinion of the game quite complicated.

My most significant gripe about Elden Ring is definitely the sidequests. At points, whilst pursuing the main storyline, the next boss or area would be too high level for me to enter. And so, to avoid grinding, I would complete side quests instead. I ended up completing every sidequest because of this and this was certainly the least enjoyable part of the game by far. Firstly, even initiating the sidequests is annoying. For example, within one area of grass and a few trees, I heard a voice calling out to me. I ran around for about 30 minutes trying to find the person calling me until I gave up and searched online. I found out that the guy calling me was not even visible. I had to hit a bush for him to appear to me. Note that there was no difference between this bush and the other bushes, and also that there was no indication at all that I had to hit the bush. Secondly, locating the next part of the sidequests is nigh impossible without aid. There was not a single sidequest that I was able to complete without searching up what to do or where to go next and even with the aid of the internet, I still struggled a lot. After meeting the NPC and exhausting their dialogue, they will usually disappear with no indication or clue as to where they go at all. They will quite literally spawn at completely unknown locations that seem almost random. Honestly, I cannot fathom how it would be possible for anyone to complete the sidequests blind without searching for where to go next. Thirdly, the sidequests always have very odd requirements with no hints or indication. Here's an example, at some point a priest is wondering why his mentor is hung up about Marika and Radagon. Somehow from this, you are supposed to make a crazy leap in logic to go to the statue of Radagon and use a VERY specific incantation which you not only have to purchase and must have suitable attributes to use but also cannot even buy until you give the priest a very specific book. Here's another example, during another sidequest you must pick up a very small and almost unnoticeable doll in the area and the only way to continue the sidequest is if you rest at specifically the checkpoint in that area and notice that there is an extra option, that is not highlighted and does not stand out in any way, among the other 10 or so options in the site of grace menu and select it. As a note, you can only see the option at the checkpoint if you rest at it to regain HP or adjust your abilities so if you have no need to rest you will actually have no opportunity to notice the new option at all, which is what happened to me. You then need to magically figure out that you should rest at every single checkpoint consecutive to that one, in the correct order, to continue the dialogue with the doll. Hopefully, you can see the point I'm trying to make; the sidequests are completely nonsensical when it comes to helping the player understand what to do. Fourthly, they are overly tedious. Many of the sidequests require you to go to very specific locations to find very specific items that are not always easy to obtain. For example, in the dung eater questline, you must traverse the most annoyingly difficult to navigate and unreasonably punishing location of the game, the sewers, only to meet the guy. And when you think that's it, he then tells you to search the entire map for 5 very specific items with 0 indication of where they are at all. Some of them are hidden in dungeons and others in just random places. This can take up to 2 hours of just running around the place and this is whilst knowing exactly where to go using a guide. Another tedious sidequest is the Hyetta sidequest. This woman makes you run around, finding grapes for her but she doesn't stay in one spot. Every time you find a grape she is in a new location that you are magically supposed to figure out where. This happens about 5 times, involving a boss, parkour and mind-numbingly teleporting and running around the place. Fifthly - yes I have many problems with the sidequests, I know - the rewards for the sidequests are not appropriate. The Hyetta sidequest and Dung eater sidequest give you optional endings, that most players will not even choose, and give you pretty much 0 rewards. They together take many hours and, in terms of gameplay, have no benefit at all. In fact, most of the sidequests involve just talking to people who eventually leave and give you nothing. Sixthly, I don't think that they are very well written. Kind of a spoiler here but...well... Almost everyone dies. And if they don't die, they simply leave or have a worse fate than death. Killing off important characters is not a bad thing but killing of every single important character certainly is. There should be some of them killed of, definitely, as this would introduce the weight of the player's actions and make them more invested in the story so as to try and save the other characters. But with the vast majority of the side quests, there is no way to save any of them. As a matter of fact, as funny as it sounds, the only way to save them is to leave them alone and not do their side quest. In other words, the best result is to not play the side quests. I think it's really pointless and makes every side quest very underwhelming to know that there is no material reward or emotional reward no matter what you do so every effort exerted is completely futile and meaningless. Eventually, you grow numb and stop caring about any of the characters because you know they are going to die anyway and I think that this is extremely detrimental to the quality of the writing. Seventhly, this isn't completely connected to the side quests but HUGE chunks of content can be missed very easily. As I mentioned earlier, side quests are very inconspicuous. This makes missing them very easy. However, these sidequests often contain MASSIVE areas with many bosses, enemies and items. Not only dungeons but even entire locations and major bosses. Moreover, they are very often hidden in almost impossible-to-spot areas or behind an illusionary wall (yes, this is actually a thing, a completely normal-looking wall that you have to hit to get past with no way of knowing or indication that it is there). If you don't do very specific things or initiate very specific side quests, you can completely miss a very significant percentage of the game. If you couldn't tell, I don't like the side quests and it actually makes me angry to even think about them so I think I'll move on now.

Another issue I have is the difficulty scaling, but not necessarily the difficulty per se. At the beginning, I really liked the difficulty as the bosses would be complicated with interesting moves you had to learn and there was room for mistakes to be made and to learn upon. Later on, at some point, they just decide to make everything one or two-shot you. Everything. Even the tiny cannon fodder mobs you walk past while running to a boss. Everything kills you in two hits to the point of it not being fair. And I don't mean that they one or two-hit you with their most powerful, telegraphed and charged-up move but literally just the most basic attacks possible kill you almost instantly. Bear in mind that there is nothing you can do about this. Armour doesn't help, raising HP doesn't help and items do not help. This is part of the game design. Bosses that are very simple with extremely slow and easy to predict and dodge attacks become ridiculous because there is no room for error and they kill you in the most absurd ways. There are dragons that decide to breathe air that covers the entire battleground and kills you in a single hit. There are enemies that teleport behind you and use a grab that kills you immediately. The moves they use are absurdly unfair at this point and not fun. Although you could make the very articulate argument of: "get good", I would consider this aspect of the game superficial difficulty. Bosses like Margit were excellent as they use interesting mix-ups in timing and branching attack strings that are complicated and have a learning curve that takes time to adjust to. In the later parts of the game, the bosses are very straightforward, often with no processing or strategy required but the difference is that they kill you immediately. Not only this but their health bars skyrocket. It can take some bosses up to 30 minutes of constant chopping at their legs to get them to 1 HP and then they one shot you for all your efforts to amount to null. No learning curve, no strategy, no adjustments. Just boring and superficial difficulty.

To add to this, the longer you play the game, you more you realise how many times they repeat bosses. One of the main selling points of elden ring is that there is a substantial sea of bosses to fight but so many of them are repeated or very similar. For example, there are 5 magma wyrms which are completely identical with nothing changed apart from their names. Also, there are 10 Night's calvary bosses. Although these do differ slightly in colour (but mostly similar in attack patterns), there are 13 dragons in elden ring. One of the most well known bosses is the Godskin duo comprised of a fat guy and a skinny guy; there is a boss where you fight the fat guy on his own, another where you fight the skinny guy on this own and also another where you fight the skinny guy and then the fat guy as a phase two all on top of already having the Godskin duo boss where you fight them both at the same time. Also, there are 5 erdtree avatars (which are identical) and 7 Ulcerated tree spirits (actually there might be 10 but I'm not even sure because there are so many). Bear in mind that these are not mini bosses or random mobs but proper bosses with visible health bars, music, names and everything. Furthermore, they even repeat some of the major bosses. You can fight Margit twice, there is a clone of Godrick you can fight that is just as hard, Mohg has a weaker version in the sewers (which I fought before the important one), Godfrey's spirit fights you before he does (which is basically his clone), Loretta's clone fights you and the list goes on. A boss is supposed to be this massive challenge that you invest everything into to overcome and the feeling of absolute bliss after winning partly comes from knowing you never have to fight that thing again. What elden ring does is take away from that feeling by later on giving you a harder version of that boss or the exact same boss with the same difficulty that you have to beat again. What's even worse is when they give you an easier version of the boss as it's the most underwhelming experience imaginable. The exciting process of observing, learning, strategising and failing is omitted because you've already fought them before. It's a lazy way of beefing up the game to inflate how much content there is. I'd much rather it have less bosses that are of very high quality than having repeating bosses. Bloodborne does the former very well with only 17 bosses but very detailed and satisfying whilst also being completely unique to each other.

On top of this, I have an issue with the reward system as a whole. As I mentioned, you can get through the game with pretty much any weapon, and this means that obtaining weapons other than the one you actually are using or want to use is useless. Unlike a system like Breath of the Wild, where your weapon breaks so you collect them to replace your current one, or other RPGs where you find better weapons in terms of stats, elden ring's weapons are mostly equal so it is often not worthwhile to switch weapons especially if you have already upgraded one a lot. Also, the weapon rewards are not suitable for the effort put in very often. For example, the Moonveil which is arguably the best weapon in the game can be obtained very early on by beating one of the many magma wyrms in a random cave, whilst a pretty mediocre weapon like Malenia's blade would require you to beat the hardest boss in the entire game. Secondly, armour is rather obsolete. As you eventually get two-shotted by everything in the game (as I mentioned before), the armour you wear actually makes barely any difference. It is almost purely cosmetic. This makes armour another pretty useless reward. So if armour and weapons are not good rewards, then what is? Well, not much at all. If you have a weapon you are comfortable with and armour that looks nice, are happy with your build and don't need to change anything then there really aren't any rewards that are worthwhile at all other than quest items to progress the story. Even runes are not very worthwhile as there are more efficient ways of grinding for runes anyway. This makes fighting any of the mobs you come across pretty much a waste of time, unless you enjoy it.

For all the gripes I have with the game, there are surprisingly pretty simple solutions. For the side quests, they could have clearer pointers as to where to initiate them and hints or actual directions as to where to go next or what item to bring. Also, they could very simply not kill off every character and give the player an opportunity to save them and also not involve so much needless running around the map to tediously collect items. For the difficulty, the game already requires you to optimise your build nearer the end of the game so the difficulty should instead scale with the complexity of the bosses or make them require more accurate or precise dodge timing. Raising their damage is obviously important but not so much as to one-shot you so there is still room for error. There were countless times where I would die to a boss despite having all of my heals because I die so quickly, so damage should be lessened to give the player a chance to use their heals at least. I think quality over quantity is best for bosses and the game is already large enough to not need to inflate it with repeated bosses. For the reward system, armour should increase in quality as you progress through the game so it is a worthwhile reward but I don't know how to improve the weapons or killing mobs as a reward.

When considering the entire game, I'm sure of my opinion of it. To me, Elden Ring has some of the highest highs and lowest lows I've ever experienced in gaming. I supposed that would mean I have sort of a love-hate relationship with it. Almost like a friend you love a lot but there are many things about them that just piss you off. Giving it a 10/10 would be too high and would be ignoring all of the issues I have with it whilst giving it an 8/10 would feel like denying all of the great moments I've experienced with it. This is definitely a game I want to replay in the future so this rating may be temporary but I think I'll leave it at a 9/10 at the moment. So yeah, Elden Ring: 9/10.