The unique ideas that Crab Souls brings to the formula are an entertaining mixup to be sure, but they don't hide the issues I had with the game.
Enemy stats seem overtuned. Even with a lot of stats put into attack, it never felt like it made a difference. Their damage output is also kind of absurd. Being prone to two-shotting the player at any given time.
Bosses felt the most balanced. Predictable but tricky attack timings and movesets that felt more in line with Dark Souls 1 than the later titles in that franchise. They were the highlight of the experience for me because of this.
The writing was winceworthy to me and I really didn't like the characterization of the main character. The overuse of the word "kiddo" also bugged me as I went on. Seeing as a prominent character will call the protagonist this about 50 times every conversation with her.

The game is on gamepass and I'd probably reccommend playing it there if you really like souls clones. It has some neat ideas, but unfortunate jank and lacking enemy variety prevent it from being something really special.

When I pick this game up, it absorbs me every time. Crafting your deck each run, choosing your path to manage encounters, health, shops, feels like just the right amount of risk taking to tickle my brain.

The problem for me lies when I put the game down. It takes months for me to bother picking it back up again, but I think that is just my feelings towards rogue-likes. They are fun every now and then, but I will have to content myself with never really finishing these types of games.

Should've bought it on my phone, I think it would be excellent there.

An evil game made by an evil man with terrible balancing and incredibly fun boss fights. The exploration aspect of this was cool but so many areas were felt copy paste requiring menial effort to clear and rewards being not worth the time. (I respecced into a dexterity build and so many of the rewards were just spellcasting or related stuff that I just couldn't use.) Also being over leveled for bosses sucked. For these reasons I felt discouraged to explore areas since they were ultimately not worth it.
So many open world encounters were also less threatening because of the horse and if you don't use it then moving around is boring. They have some bosses that you can use the horse with, but it also feels like they forgot to make combat on it as engaging as on ground.
The camera movement and controls are some of the worst I've seen in a game. The lock-on was so janky and it doing things that I don't want it to got me killed numerous times. It feels terrible fighting a giant boss when you can't even see them attack in close range.
The bosses were all really cool though. (except Malenia and Elden beast) But still I don't think they should've had repeats of so many bosses because it takes away from the experience of fighting that one for the first time, since unique bosses were my favorite parts of the game. I wouldn't've rated it this high if not for Starscourge Radahn.

Elden Ring could’ve been better, 80% of the time I was having a blast exploring but began becoming to repetitive. The bosses are phenomenal in this game except a few, more specific the Elden Beast. The Elden Beast fight was so lackluster with the soundtrack accompanying it making an annoying borefest. I would rather fight Malenia than the Elden Beast, it would at least provide a better experience and the feeling of great accomplishment taking down Malenia. Going more in-depth with the soundtrack, I know they were trying to go more into the soul of cinder’s theme and tone in the Elden Beast fight but its execution was horrible. In Soul of Cinder theme presented itself with more impact using mixes from previous dark soul final boss tracks and crafted an impactful piece which impacted the Soul of Cinder greatly making it one of the most memorable moments in dark souls 3. In Elden Ring, this was not as they shift the tone after clearing the Radagon first phase which was more enjoyable than the stupid Multiverse version of Makar Fire wyrm redux portion. It’s disappointing being immersed in the world and appreciate every detail the game had to offer but then was sucker punched of how ass the ending is. When the game ended I sat there asking myself “That’s was the final boss?”
I enjoyed the set pieces the game display and most I was in awe of what I was looking at. They manage to create a beautiful miserable world.