Playing Elden Ring without spirits makes you realize how bad the boss agression and balancing is.

Godfrey/Hoarah Loux is the worst offender here. First phase is good, but the 1.5 phase is a bit worse, where if you take 5 steps away from him he does a bullshit shockwave attack that spans the entire arena. And Hoarah Loux is just bad. Tons of grab attacks, ridiculously badly balanced damage, and way, way too agressive.

Maliketh is goated though.

Elden Ring has a lot of bullshit flaws and is obviously not a perfect game. But when you look at it objectively, and the magic that you feel in the first moments of this game, and how that feeling grows more and more while you find out the map gets larger and larger. Despite many repeated rewards and BS like that, the fact that this game makes me want to explore every single nook and cranny despite messages telling me "no item ahead" goes to show how good of a game fromsoft has made.

Elden Ring is not a perfect game. But when you look at games today, there really is no perfect game. But in terms of what Elden Ring sets out to do as a game and a medium, I feel like despite all it's flaws, the scope of the game and how good most of it is more than makes up for it. Elden Ring more than achieves it's goals and has truly set the standard of what heights video games should strive for.

"first off, pickle, and then try sage" -a message on the ground, providing a delicious soup recipe

as some guy who likes exploring in video games and isn't satisfied until every square inch of the map has been scoured, this game is incredible and peak. everybody knows its strengths at this point, probably, but i am crawling over the finish line two years after the game came out so you'll have to give me some grace here. do you get it. grace like the. grace in game. haha

really though, it is actually absurd how many unique items, tidbits of storytelling, beautiful locations, and just adventures there are hidden away in mostly every nook and cranny of this world. there were multiple times i'd doubt my completionist's urge, thinking i had to be insane for attempting to check the most random spot for a path or dropped item, only to find that curiosity rewarded. and then they hide entire area entrances and bosses through illusory walls and off the sides of inconspicuous cliffs. of course. that's definitely where i'm most thankful for player messages (it's a strand-type game) since they can both tip you off towards those esoteric secrets and warn you when a long, annoying pathway in fact does not have anything hiding at its end.

the diversity of enemies and bosses is something i have to shout out to the void as well. i've seen some grumbling over bosses, enemies, assets etc being reused over time, but i feel like the variety here is honestly incredible with far more diversity than any open world game i've played before. if you told me there were like 100 enemy types in this game i'd believe you. every encounter brings a new arena, new mixes of combatants, and oftentimes some cool lore or environmental storytelling to go along with it. even in those cases where bosses graduate from "big encounter" to "just another enemy" it still feels interesting - like this beastman dude is pretty interesting, wonder what "farum azula" is. then you get to farum azula and there's a ton of him and it makes sense that he's not special there, he's just some dude, some beastman of farum azula. there's absolutely nothing like the capra demon spam of the dark souls endgame, or the undead dragon spam on that wondrous note.

i feel like you could get a phD in the weapons, weapon skills, sorceries/incantations, all the craftables, the weird niche interactions between enemies, it's all so much that it makes me want to do multiple new game cycles just to understand and appreciate it all. not to mention fashion souls, which of course returns. all of this freeform collecting and character building leaves the difficulty curve feeling totally adjustable. i for one marked most of the runebears on my map for later, because screw those guys until i'm overleveled. my only real complaints off the top of my head: what the hell is the fall damage, and we need new rats

perfect timing for shadow of the erdtree, just need to get my ten hours of youtube lore video studying in. now we can devour the gods togethaaa

Review from December 2022
I have a tendency to only make real time for one (1) AAA title each year. One year it was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, another it was Control, but no matter what the last 5 years or so I only feel like I can dedicate time to one big, flashy, over-the-top experience for the sake of budget and frankly variety. But if there's one thing that Elden Ring does not lack it is variety. There is so much to do in the Lands Between.

First of all, Elden Ring is HUGE. And I mean that in every possible way. People have made comparisons to Breath of the Wild in terms of scope and interactivity of the world, but the way Elden Ring wipes the floor with Breath of the Wild and other open world predecessors is, well, unprecedented. The world is huge, the map of said world: huge. The systems are huge, the variety of weapons and their movesets are huge. The boss count is huge. This is a game that, once I grasped some basic concepts and started to understand something, that something would start growing new appendages and complexities (not unlike our grafted friends at Godrick's Big House) and I'd be in awe of the depth this game throws you into time and again.

The only game series I can compare this experience to is the Monster Hunter series, which got its hooks in me with Monster Hunter: World. I think Elden Ring and MH: World can actually be compared in this way to some extent. Both games offered more user-friendly options than the series ever had and therefore appealed to the masses as a result. I love that I got to experience that feeling of everything finally clicking about why people love a particular series. Obviously there are blatant differences between Elden Ring and the rest of the Soulsborne games, but I am now bought in to the style of gameplay those games introduced. I plan to get to Bloodborne and maybe some of the other Souls games now and that has me really jazzed.

Funnily enough, I realized it's the same friend that encouraged me to get into both the Monster Hunter series and Elden Ring. I also played Elden Ring with this friend and a couple others, which was as frustrating at times as it was insanely fun. Anyone who's messed with the multiplayer knows it can be a hit or miss experience in terms of summoning, getting invaded, dying prematurely, etc. But I guess that's just sorta on brand for Elden Ring. Reminding you constantly that this world is cruel and trying to thwart your progress despite your best efforts (even the user interface!). However, it really is an incredible co-op experience to help a friend take down a boss or dungeon they're struggling with or receive that same help in return. I cherish my time playing with pals in this game.

It's also worth noting how endlessly replayable this game is. You can do any number of new game plus (NG+) runs ad nauseam, start fresh files to challenge yourself to try new builds, and just play the online multiplayer in coliseums or with friends. I haven't gone back after beating the full game (and 150+ hours), but I intend to start a NG+ run as a totally different build to my original dual scythe, black flame paladin build.

Elden Ring is an all-timer right out the gate for me. Right up there with the best of them. It impressed me beyond belief and I'm certain I'll be thinking about and playing this game for years to come.