This review contains spoilers
Elden ring feels like a game with 30 hours of content with 20 of that being repeated over and over again for 70 hours straight. With 88 hours as my final time, I'm looking back on the game, and I realize that around 80% of the game was just not worth my time.
I'll start off with the things I did like about the game:
The environments are super pretty! Apart from Limgraive and the Weeping Peninsula (which are mostly just typical open world green grass + grey mountains), I was never tired of finding new areas to explore because they would almost always be a treat to look at. The underground areas in particular are a highlight IMO. Speaking of areas, most of the legacy dungeons are some of the best levels fromsoft has designed. Stormveil felt massive and going through it the first time, I was consistently amazed by just how much there was to explore. I wasn't as big a fan of the Academy or Volcano Manor, but they were still pretty solid. Leyendell was the next great place for me to explore, and while it didn't quite match up to Stormveil for me, it came close. One thing I really liked is that the combat in ER is probably the best it's ever been in the souls series (because this really just is open world DS). It feels like a refined version of DS3's (which in turn was a refined version of DS1's), and it's pretty fun! I think the extra additions like jump attacks and guard counters are pretty cool and add some more options for people to try in combat. The spirit ashes are a good way for people to be able to tweak the difficulty to their liking, and being able to swap out your weapon art is a nice option that adds more freedom to player builds. I also really like how you can respec your character (which I did myself a few times) and upgrade as many weapons as you want to +9/+24. I do think it's a pretty bad design choice that they limit you on how much you can respec/get a weapon to +10; there really should've been a way to farm or infinitely buy those mats. Finally, I think the last few areas and their bosses are some of the most challenging fromsoft has made. I did a gauntlet of Malenia, Mohg, and Maliketh in one day, and while I think all of those fights have some issues (especially the first one and her flurry move that I think is impossible to dodge in some scenarios), they were some of the only fights that took actual effort, and it felt great when I finally managed to beat them. Unfortunately that's all I can priase Elden Ring for.
Going into the problems the games has, the one that stuck with me from my 15th hour all the way until the end is the insane amount of recycled/reused content. I don't think there's a single enemy that I fought in limgraive that didn't appear somewhere else in the game, and that was incredibly disappointing. On top of reusing content that is introduced in ER, the game even copies and pastes enemies from dark souls. It feels unreal that this is a new IP and yet the game just rips the dogs, Silver Knights, and other enemies from DS, changes their appearance a bit, and then calls it a day. And that's not the only thing that feels like it was pulled right from DS either. The ploti s basically "what if someone did a madlibs version of the stories from dark souls". Just replace Hollow with Tarnished, Flame with Elden Ring, etc. I do think George R. R. Martin's involvement helps make the setting and world more cohesive, and it's nice that we have a loremaster in the game in the form of Gideon, but at the end of the day, it just feels like the same plot fromsoft has been using for over a decade now. One thing that ties back to the problem of reused content is the dungeons. I'm pretty sure I did every single one, and my god they were awful. There were maybe a handful that were worth doing but the rest were awful caves/mines with no semblance of level design that would always end with me fighting a boss that I'd already gone up against like 5 times that would grant me a useless reward. Now, I know I can't expect every item I get from exploring to be useful to my build, but man, even after switching up my weapons and stats close to 10 times, there were so many items just left sitting in my inventory that I never used. Speaking of bosses, Elden Ring manages to give DS2 a run for it's money in terms of worst bosses in modern fromsoft games. For 80% of the game you're going up against bosses that only have a few moves that are super easy to dodge and once you get to that last 20%, you can finally go up against the ones that really felt like they required full atention. It certainly doesn't help that this game makes DS2 look tame in it's recyling of bosses, but also every single dungeon boss was just a cakewalk. I don't think i died more than 10 times total across all the dungeons, and a good part of the reason for that is because after doing a couple I already ened up learning the moveset for the ones I would be doing for the rest of the game. One thing to note about the comat, is that even after all these years, fromsoft has still kept in the god awful input buffering and the camera is just as bad as ever. Last thing I want to talk about is the music. I know fromsoft doesn't like to use music very often and it's a clear stylistic choice, but it's one I've always hated and it's no different here. There is at least some very faint bgm in the openworld, but I think the game would be better if it had some actualy music to add to the atmosphere.
I'm glad so many people enjoyed this game, but to me it's a game that has made me lose faith in fromsoft being original. DS3 has some similar problems in being too referential and reusing content in regards to DS 1/2, but at least there it was used in a way that made sense thematically, as the game was a conclusion to the series. Here? It feels downright lazy and derivative, and ultimately Elden Ring is just a boring game, something that I didn't think I would call a fromsoft game.
I'll start off with the things I did like about the game:
The environments are super pretty! Apart from Limgraive and the Weeping Peninsula (which are mostly just typical open world green grass + grey mountains), I was never tired of finding new areas to explore because they would almost always be a treat to look at. The underground areas in particular are a highlight IMO. Speaking of areas, most of the legacy dungeons are some of the best levels fromsoft has designed. Stormveil felt massive and going through it the first time, I was consistently amazed by just how much there was to explore. I wasn't as big a fan of the Academy or Volcano Manor, but they were still pretty solid. Leyendell was the next great place for me to explore, and while it didn't quite match up to Stormveil for me, it came close. One thing I really liked is that the combat in ER is probably the best it's ever been in the souls series (because this really just is open world DS). It feels like a refined version of DS3's (which in turn was a refined version of DS1's), and it's pretty fun! I think the extra additions like jump attacks and guard counters are pretty cool and add some more options for people to try in combat. The spirit ashes are a good way for people to be able to tweak the difficulty to their liking, and being able to swap out your weapon art is a nice option that adds more freedom to player builds. I also really like how you can respec your character (which I did myself a few times) and upgrade as many weapons as you want to +9/+24. I do think it's a pretty bad design choice that they limit you on how much you can respec/get a weapon to +10; there really should've been a way to farm or infinitely buy those mats. Finally, I think the last few areas and their bosses are some of the most challenging fromsoft has made. I did a gauntlet of Malenia, Mohg, and Maliketh in one day, and while I think all of those fights have some issues (especially the first one and her flurry move that I think is impossible to dodge in some scenarios), they were some of the only fights that took actual effort, and it felt great when I finally managed to beat them. Unfortunately that's all I can priase Elden Ring for.
Going into the problems the games has, the one that stuck with me from my 15th hour all the way until the end is the insane amount of recycled/reused content. I don't think there's a single enemy that I fought in limgraive that didn't appear somewhere else in the game, and that was incredibly disappointing. On top of reusing content that is introduced in ER, the game even copies and pastes enemies from dark souls. It feels unreal that this is a new IP and yet the game just rips the dogs, Silver Knights, and other enemies from DS, changes their appearance a bit, and then calls it a day. And that's not the only thing that feels like it was pulled right from DS either. The ploti s basically "what if someone did a madlibs version of the stories from dark souls". Just replace Hollow with Tarnished, Flame with Elden Ring, etc. I do think George R. R. Martin's involvement helps make the setting and world more cohesive, and it's nice that we have a loremaster in the game in the form of Gideon, but at the end of the day, it just feels like the same plot fromsoft has been using for over a decade now. One thing that ties back to the problem of reused content is the dungeons. I'm pretty sure I did every single one, and my god they were awful. There were maybe a handful that were worth doing but the rest were awful caves/mines with no semblance of level design that would always end with me fighting a boss that I'd already gone up against like 5 times that would grant me a useless reward. Now, I know I can't expect every item I get from exploring to be useful to my build, but man, even after switching up my weapons and stats close to 10 times, there were so many items just left sitting in my inventory that I never used. Speaking of bosses, Elden Ring manages to give DS2 a run for it's money in terms of worst bosses in modern fromsoft games. For 80% of the game you're going up against bosses that only have a few moves that are super easy to dodge and once you get to that last 20%, you can finally go up against the ones that really felt like they required full atention. It certainly doesn't help that this game makes DS2 look tame in it's recyling of bosses, but also every single dungeon boss was just a cakewalk. I don't think i died more than 10 times total across all the dungeons, and a good part of the reason for that is because after doing a couple I already ened up learning the moveset for the ones I would be doing for the rest of the game. One thing to note about the comat, is that even after all these years, fromsoft has still kept in the god awful input buffering and the camera is just as bad as ever. Last thing I want to talk about is the music. I know fromsoft doesn't like to use music very often and it's a clear stylistic choice, but it's one I've always hated and it's no different here. There is at least some very faint bgm in the openworld, but I think the game would be better if it had some actualy music to add to the atmosphere.
I'm glad so many people enjoyed this game, but to me it's a game that has made me lose faith in fromsoft being original. DS3 has some similar problems in being too referential and reusing content in regards to DS 1/2, but at least there it was used in a way that made sense thematically, as the game was a conclusion to the series. Here? It feels downright lazy and derivative, and ultimately Elden Ring is just a boring game, something that I didn't think I would call a fromsoft game.