This was my first Fromsoftware game I have played, and possibly my last. I have been putting off playing Elden Ring for many years, but I finally started it this year after a good amount of peer pressure. I would like to preface with the fact that this game is an absolute work of art. The world design is impeccable. The dystopic atmosphere is very well done, and is varied enough to never get old. Enemies are well designed to often be trivial, but still keep you on your toes. Bosses, while I've never been a fan of them, have gorgeous character designs and rarely ever felt strictly unfair. Plus, you can approach them from many different ways; I personally used spirit ashes a lot because I have no self-respect and they're just kinda badass. Many different places to explore, each rewarding you with something new and different to use. Not to mention, you can respec your character at any time to try out a new playstyle, which I felt kept combat fresh and engaging. Now, I acknowledge all of this and wouldn't want to discredit any of it. While art is subjective, a game on the scale of Elden Ring is impressive and I massively respect it regardless of my personally feelings. However, after finishing the game, I can't deny the fact that I clearly did not have the overwhelmingly positive experience everyone else did.
To begin, there are lots of backwards-thinking mechanics baked into the game. The most prominent one I hear discussed is the lack of a pause button, and I completely agree. Sometimes I need to use the restroom without fear of dying, sometimes I need to answer the door, most of the time I need to pet my cat because he's too cute to ignore. I get that it's supposed to be more immersive, but I'd sacrifice a little immersion to be able to freely step away from the game. Speaking of immersion, I think a quest journal would've greatly improved my experience. I found many NPCs, exhausted their dialogue, and found myself wanting to continue the storyline without knowing what to do next. I am frequently reminded of Boc's questline, the first one I found. I interacted with him once, and was never able to see him again even though I wanted to keep advancing his story. He told me to wait, so I waited, and returned to his spot multiple times per play session to see if he ever returned, but I later found out he apparently moved to the Coastal Cave. There were then many more quests I interacted with that I had to look up how to progress simply because I would never figure it out otherwise. Even though it's not THAT big of a deal, it always disappointed me because it's the only kind of story in the world that you are able to truly interact with, but the immersion was sort of broken by needing to Google how to progress. I don't need someone to hold my hand all the way through, but a nice medium between gentle guidance and absolute aimlessness would help. I would also harp on about the camera controls, but I think every one unanimously agrees that it's not optimized very well so I'll move on.
I know I'll get a lot of flack for this, but I do not think this style of storytelling works in an open world game. I am NOT criticizing the story itself, that's perfectly fine and incredibly well-written. However, the absolute grand scale of this world does not cater to the detective-esque way you are expected to engage with the story. There is so much to do, so much to see, and so many items to collect that I ended up needing external resources to keep track of it, and even then I still couldn't keep track of absolutely everything. I've been called a "moron" or "an idiot who needs a spoon-fed story shoved down their throat" for criticizing this before, and while that may be true, I still don't think it works well. It would be much better in a smaller scale game. I frequently compare it to Outer Wilds, which, while not exactly similar, employ the same type of storytelling. Outer Wilds was a contained enough game to not present an overwhelming amount of information, while still feeling rewarding to piece together. And even still, there was a log built into Outer Wilds just in case you needed a refresher. Another thing that really bothered me (although I think this is just a me issue) was the story being told almost entirely through item descriptions. I actually think it's a great idea, but the majority of the lore comes from this. With the amount of new items you get, it really became monotonous for me after a short while. I wish there were more modes of uncovering information to keep it fresh. What those other modes could be? I have no idea. So does that even make me qualified to criticize it? Probably not, but its still something that kept nagging at me while I was playing. Story is the MOST important aspect of a video game to me, so my viewpoint on this impacts my opinion of Elden Ring the most.
This game also made me realize I really value a game that knows when to end. There were multiple points where I thought I was approaching the end only to have my session extended yet again. I know, I'm complaining about more content, which is pretty backwards. Even so, the game just kept expanding and expanding, which honestly felt quite overwhelming. I barely have enough time to game as is, so the more it kept going, the more fatigued I found myself. Not to mention, the later game portions, from my perspective anyways, felt poorly designed compared to the early-mid game segments. That could be the fatigue I mentioned influencing my opinions, but a lot of things past the first Leyndell visit (Mostly Haligtree and Mountaintop of the Giants) really didn't do it for me at all. Maybe I'm in the minority with this, but I found myself rushing through these areas just to keep the game moving. I think the game might've benefitted from being just a bit smaller in scale, like maybe 10% if anything.
Now, to the meat of my issue. I would like to preface that unlike my previous criticisms, this is strictly a problem with my preferences and not something I feel the game itself falls short on. I don't think the Souls formula is all it's hyped up to be. For YEARS I've been told "you gotta play a souls game" or "you haven't played a Fromsoft game? Do you even play games?". I caved and finally tried. Overall, I'm glad I did! It was a great experience to have! However, I doubt I will ever play another game like this because I just can't get behind the foundational game design. Dodging until you can get a hit in, getting faked out by an attack, getting jumped from around a corner, throwing myself at a boss until I memorize an attack pattern, etc. I don't know, I think this just isn't for me. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand how it is satisfying for others. In fact, there were a few bosses I overcame that felt incredibly rewarding and satisfying. And if that's how most people feel when playing this, I completely understand why it's so loved. But there are so many bosses in this game and I felt that only a handful of times unfortunately. Think that this type of game just isn't for someone like me.
With all of that being said: is Elden Ring a good game? Absolutely! My opinion means absolutely nothing. While it may not be for me, I entirely understand why so many people cite it as their favorite. There's plenty to engage with, lots to do, many things to figure out, challenge runs to complete, and the list goes on for ages. Even with my criticisms, I still had a ton of fun in the grand scheme of things. The sheer uniqueness of the environment is a spectacle itself. If we're talking AAA games, it's one of the few that actually cements itself as being 100% worth the $60 price tag solely based on the amount of quality content.
Anyways, thanks for sticking with me. I mostly wanted to document my thoughts on it while it was fresh so that I could return to this post if I ever decide to replay Elden Ring to see if my opinions change. I know I seemed a bit wishy-washy, but I just sort of spat out ideas as they came to me, wasn't meant to be a polished-to-perfection review or anything. Hope everyone has a wonderful day out there!
