After about fifty hours I think I’ve seen enough to conclude that everything I like here is stuff that I can get more fully formed in previous souls games and everything that’s new and unique here is actively subtractive from the experience.

I could write a lot here but this game feels like it’s been discussed to death already and honestly I just want to stop thinking about it.

I’m like 30% of the way through a Dark Souls 1 character on my switch. Might get back to that.

One of my favorite games of all time.
A lot of what I said about BG1 applies to 2. When it comes to combat, I like the simplistic micro management required in BG1 and 2 takes it up a notch by having a lot more spells to cast and abilities to use, so it becomes more "micro intensive".

Story picks up from where BG1 left off but this time it explores higher level AD&D, with tons of amazing creatures to fight and dungeons to explore.

The expanded questing and choice/consequence this game had back in 2000 was astounding. To the point where I believe either RPGs haven't evolved that much as a genre since Baldur's Gate 2 (and Fallout 2) OR that Bioware and Black Isle struck gold literally in their first strike, reaching the peak of an entire genre 20 years before their time. Almost everything you see in modern western RPGs can be found in Baldur's Gate 2, with the exception of graphics of course. Things you might believe are innovative in Witcher 3, Baldur's Gate 3 or Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous were probably already implemented in BG2. It's that good.

As I found myself circling a zombified grunt at the tutorial area of Elden Ring in order to perform the classic Souls backstab, I subconsciously knew right then and there what game I would be playing for the next 100+ hours, and not even that first sight of the ethereal Erdtree and its expansive surrounding landscape managed to swat away that sinking feeling.

"Dark Souls but open world" is a fairly justifiable tag line that Elden Ring earns with distinction for many, but it's one I interpret in a less charitable way. Considering how cruficied Bloodborne was over its optional chalice dungeon content, it's a bit surprising now to see a map filled with it deal with such little critical scrutiny by its fanbase, having an overreliance in copy pasted settings, bosses and mysteries that ends up homogenizing the experience of discovery and reward.

These issues are par for the course when dealing with the open world genre, and they would be acceptable had the space inbetween them provided any semblance of evolution on the Souls formula to acommodate the shift in scope. Double jumping horse aside, the unaltered Dark Souls moveset doesn't really offer compelling exploration outside of the small pockets of dungeon content, and when most of the interesting and unique content is relegated to the main story dungeons of the game, it's hard not to question if Elden Ring really needed to be open world in the first place.

The obssession with Dark Souls 3 boss design places you into a strict familiar pattern where stat and weapon experimentation are heavily punished, as most bosses have at least one "fuck you" move that one hit kills you for no reason, and weapon crafting insists on being a time consuming and expensive endeavor that forces you to hold onto the same high damage boring greatsword. It's telling that in a roster of 100+ bosses, Renalla, Radahn and Rykard are the only bosses I fondly remember, as they provide a challenge that goes beyond constant I-frame dodge rolling and memorizing fake out attacks.

And make no mistake, Elden Ring is Dark Souls 4, not just in the way it plays but also in the way it tells its story. Despite taking place in a different universe with new gods and lore to learn of and decipher, it has become evidently clear by now that Miyazaki and his team really have only one story to tell. Sure, it is still a fascinating story, but when I'm once again learning about secret crystal magic, beasts and dragons preceeding humanity, golden orders that are built upon lies, or chaotic forbidden flames that threathen the status quo, through the same obtuse and obfuscated dialogue and storytelling that defines these games, I struggle to find reason to engage with it with the same enthusiasm I once had for it.

Concepts like the Scarlet Rot or Destined Death are interesting enough to have had been the sole creative well to take from, but are forced to share the spotlight with the ever increasing and convoluted list of ideas Elden Ring has to offer that unnecessarily overcomplicate its world with a vast number of uninteresting factions, outer gods and characters that dont have the space to develop and enrich the universe of the game, robbing Elden Ring of the opportunity to create a laser focused experience like Bloodborne. Is Rykard's house of horrors that much different from every other castle you end up in Elden Ring? Or can we agree that the Dark Souls 3 formula has sanitized the world design of theses games to a point that they no longer have the capability to put you inside a world in the same manner Demon's Souls once could?

It's an odd thing to be this critical of Elden Ring, considering it still manages to be one of the most compelling triple A titles of recent years, with amazing creative art direction, original storytelling and engaging challenges to overcome, maintaining the strengths of the series that makes it stand out from everything else in the market, then and now. Conveying how threathening Caelid is by the mere act of the player walking into it represents some of the best environmental storytelling you will see, and the confidence to make so much of Elden Ring's content optional and secret turns the nonchalant reveal of a whole hidden area to explore beneath the overworld map one of the highlights of the series. It contains some of the best tragedy filled NPC questlines that characterizes the franchise, with Ranni's being a standout in the way it presents the most tradicional story arc in a Souls game and Diallos' being a noted highlight that feels like it could have come straight out of a GRRM book.

But at this point in time, 10+ year of Souls games, Elden Ring ironically and unintendely further reinforces metatextually the themes of stagnation and extending the life of something that has long gone past its prime. In his pursuit to perfect the Souls formula into his idealized game, Miyazaki has instead dilluted the small quirks, nuances and idiosyncrasies that made the series so groundbreaking and revolutionary all those years ago, and has fallen into a cycle of redundancy and iteration that has quickly trapped the series into a niche of comfort food. Sadly, Elden Ring is not the game we have all been waiting for that dispels the notion that open world is an inevitable flawed genre with diminishing returns, and it is also not the promise of the evolution the franchise has been desperately in need of. Maybe it is time to extinguish this flame and usher in a new age once and for all.

When Elden Ring came out, it seemed like one of those games that was made specifically for me. I'm a big fantasy buff, I'm a fan of George R.R. Martin's work, and I generally find games that are difficult really fun and rewarding, because I love throwing myself at problems until I get it right. Not to mention I enjoy immersing myself in games, and the open world aspect seemed like I could spend hundreds of hours in this game doing just that. I'm essentially the ideal customer for a game like this, but unfortunately, I ended up feeling very mixed on Elden Ring.

I'll go ahead and get this out of the way though: this game is perfectly competent. It is not a waste of your money, and you will probably have a good time with it. I played this game for about 60 hours, and I don't regret the time I spent in this game nor the money I spent on this game. If you think you'd like something like this, check it out, I recommend it. It's a game people are probably going to be talking about for a while because no other game really fills the niche it does. I just don’t think it’s the GOAT, nowhere close – but I do think it will pave the way for bigger and better open-world fantasy games. I’ll also state that I generally like the game, and I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. If you really really like this game, I can totally see why. If you’re willing to put aside some low points and just focus on the good this game does (which, fair enough, that’s just how me and you differ as critics) then yeah, I can see how you might give this game a 9 or a 10 out of 10.

So, what did I like? The game starts off really strong. This game is really fucking pretty. It’s gorgeous, as soon as you step into Limgrave it’s stunning, and frankly this is consistent through the entire game. The environments in general are really creative aesthetically and in terms of worldbuilding. The lore is to be commended in general, it draws a lot from Welsh lore (which is bonus points from me, given that’s my heritage) and doesn’t shy away from some of the darker aspects of that lore. The OST is extremely good, and always does a good job of setting the mood.

Some of the bosses are some of the most fun I’ve had in games. Here’s my top 5.
5. Astel
4. Morgott
3. Maliketh
2. Placidusax
1. Godfrey

Okay, most of you who like the game agree. So, what’s the big deal? What’s my issue with this game? It is thus: Elden Ring is a game that does not respect the time that you put into it. It wants you to spend 100 hours in this game, doing all of the side content and clearing out all the dungeons – the world is massive and littered with tons of content to do. Whenever I would normally grind in a game like this, I went and looked for some side content. And in Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula, and hell, even Liurnia, this content is done pretty well. But by the time you’ve done three catacombs, or searched a few ruins, you’ve done them all.

For the life of me, I cannot tell you the difference between most of these catacombs or ruins besides where they’re located geographically. They don’t look any different, they don’t have terribly different layouts, and most of the enemies inside are the same. So, in an open world game with all of these different environments, that wants me to explore, to find really nothing new or interesting while exploring, I have an issue with that. I didn’t end up doing most of the side content, because I got 20 hours in, and I was fighting my fourth Erdtree Burial Watchdog, and I realized: this isn’t fun to me.

I normally don’t lower games based on their side content – I mean, it’s optional, right? But the conceit of Elden Ring, is that you have this whole huge world to explore and that you’ll find something to do wherever you look. That much is true. The game wants you to explore to get more runes to level up. But between the samey dungeons and the reused enemies and bosses, I don’t think that a majority of the side content is worth your time at all. So it leads me to the question: why the hell would I do it? I couldn’t come up with an answer, so I didn’t do it.

Also, some of the bosses also really fucking suck. These are the ones, unfortunately, that get reused the most. Here’s my bottom five.
5. Crucible Knight
4. Putrid Avatar
3. Erdtree Burial Watchdog (Single)
2. Erdtree Burial Watchdog (Duo)
1. Godskin Duo

I don’t mind dying in bosses, but all of the ones above were ones that frankly did not feel rewarding to fight nor did they feel fair to fight. I’m all about difficulty, but it has to be fun. Some of these bosses just feel like they just fuck you over and over until you get lucky enough to get in the rhythm. Especially Godskin Duo, which doesn’t make any fucking sense as a fight no matter how you slice it. Some would say I should just “git gud” well why the hell would I want to if this shit just sucks? If these were just one and done, I could put it aside but these enemies, or variants of them, appear everywhere.

Some bosses were, honestly, a little underwhelming. Rennala, one of the demigods, was a first or second try boss for me. I’m playing on patch 1.05, and Radahn also was pretty underwhelming – all you have to do is let your boys attack the fuck out of it and hop in when you feel comfortable, it’s not particularly difficult which is a shame. I hear this boss was way too hard when it came out though, so, I suppose I’d prefer this. And of course, the second phase of the final boss has to be the most underwhelming finale I could imagine.

To conclude, I spent about 60 hours in Elden Ring and I thoroughly enjoyed about 20-25 hours of that, most of it in the early part of the game, which seems to have had more thought put into it than some of the later areas. There’s plenty of good moments in this game, but I still feel like I wasted about half of my time playing this game. I still like it, it has a nice world, the graphics are pretty, and the combat is solid most of the time. I wanted to like it a lot more, I spent a decent amount of my spare cash and put a lot of my free time over the last month and a half into it, and frankly I feel like they could have delivered on this better. I hope they give open-world fantasy another shot, I feel like there’s a lot to have been learned from what this game does right, and a lot to be learned from what this game does wrong. I’ll probably like that game a lot more.

EDIT: Removed my dumb elevator complaint.

My opinion of this game continually deteriorates the more Ys games I play. It's far from a bad game, but I'd honestly only recommend it for people who want to get more Ys lore. You'd be much better off playing other Ys games first.

Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys is way better than this remake, even if Memories of Celceta is more relevant to series lore since it retcons the original Ys IV out of canon. I say this as someone who played Memories of Celceta before Dawn. Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys blew it out of the park.