Simultaneously the culmination of every game in FromSoftware's modern "Soulsborne" series and a complete resetting of the format into an open world space, Elden Ring is utterly triumphant in its marriage of the standard dungeon procedural with rewarding, motivating, and multi-faceted open world gameplay. Sure, there is inevitably filler content, but it seldom feels boring and there are enough riffs on the format of the game's most copypasted assets (the catacomb and cave mini-dungeons) for them to feel refreshing enough as a break from the frankly overwhelming exploration.

All of this is coupled with practically all of the familiar mechanics from From's beloved trilogy (the level design within the major dungeons is uniformly brilliant, with Leyndell being the most impressive level they have ever crafted in the games I have played, at least). I was particularly struck with the masterful build versatility on display here - the game goes to great pains to make all build options viable, each of its classes uniquely valuable, and all such builds loaded with an incredible diversity of weapons and a complex but somehow still intuitive upgrade system, as well as a dazzling array of unlockable summons to provide assistance for those who struggle with the game's difficulty curve(s).

And on the note of difficulty: as anyone racing into the game's "first" (though entirely skippable) legacy dungeon will quickly realize, the story bosses in this game are no joke, and will absolutely flatten unseasoned or underleveled players, serving as a clever bit of extrinsic motivation to engage with the open world and explore all corners. The game is also littered with personable and idiosyncratic NPCs (another FromSoft staple), and while following many questlines to their conclusion may inadvertantly lock you out of others, they are more forgiving than I anticipated and the rewards are bountiful (the only piece of backseating I will proffer here is to see Ranni's quest through to its conclusion - or don't, as you wish, but hers I found to be the most rewarding for reasons I won't dare spoil).

For all the talk of its incredible length, vast quantities of Elden Ring's content is either entirely missable or freely skippable (or both), so the game is really as long as you are interested in it - or as it takes for you to be sufficiently levelled for its late game bosses, the difficulty of which has become infamous (though I think I was overlevelled as I didn't find them exceptionally unfair).

For the investment required, and for the cost, Elden Ring is more than a bargain, and absolutely worth your time. I played it in five weeks and it felt like it completely consumed my life. As lush and rich as its early areas are, the more dungeon-focused back half was where the game truly blew my mind, as its structure smartly narrows to an intense and visceral climax. As someone who has fallen head over heels for FromSoft in recent months, I think the biggest endorsement of Elden Ring I can give is that it somehow outpaced and exceeded all expectations.

Que mitada do Miyazaki. A dinâmica já tão famosa dos jogos da from software de mundo desolados e batalhas intensas funciona bem demais no mundo aberto. É fantástico passear pelo real MUNDO onda muita história já aconteceu.

Gameplay é maravilhosa e adorei as possibilidades todas de build que esse jogo tem (mesmo só usando força goes boink, testei algumas outras e me diverti muito). Bosses fantástico (com exceção dos que repetem) e algumas das melhores batalhas da saga souls (Malenia é ápice).

MUITO hypado pra DLC, principalmente tendo em vista que a from software inventa o videogame 2 em toda DLC.

It is rare for a game to meet it's high expectations. It is another thing entirely to be better than anyone imagined possible. Elden Ring proves FromSoftware's mastery over creating the feeling of overcoming challenge. It allows one to express their own creativity in playing the game in so many ways, yet the system mechanics are so strong and refined that everyone in every scenario can succeed. It builds a dark fantasy world of gods and misery, knowing it has provided you, the player, with all the tools to overcome and succeed in this miserable world, whiles simultaneous allowing that success to be dictated and tailored to the way you prefer to express it.

An open-world experience that took me over a hundred hours to beat. There is so much to find in the giant world and it was very exciting, but not typically rewarding. A number of dungeons have variations of the same mini-bosses, and many of the items at the end of a dungeon are only useful to once build. I did my typical melee build with the vagabond class, and there was only a few pieces of armor that were better than the default ones. You will acquire enough resources to upgrade a weapon, but if you try a different one later you will be at a servere disadvantage, as it cannot be upgraded fully without lnowing a way to buy the resources. Playing blind, these were minimal problems. The environment is gorgeous. It was hard to navigate to some required places without research, but the map is so massive that there are plenty of things to do in the meantime until you either find where to go, or don't. The bosses are incredible for the most part, and the story makes as little sense as ever. The co-op mechanics have not improved from DS3 but there are mods to make co-op available over the whole world.

Fuuuuuck this game is so good. After putting it down for such a long time after being stone walled at a boss, I restarted and made an actual build rather than just using whatever looked kinda cool, and I can promise that it's so much better when you go toward an actual build. Soulsborne games have a reputation of being brutally difficult but I think elden ring might actually be the most accessible one. There are builds that feel like they make the game easier, but at the base line you will still need to learn how to play the game itself.

The story? Yeah you need to really pay attention and talk to a bunch of NPCs and read item lore but holy shit is it good. Say what you will about George RR Martin but this world is so interesting and I really can't wait to see what the DLC holds to confirm/deny theories I have.

PLAY THIS GAME

I really wish I'd written my thoughts down about this game closer to when I actually played it, but I suppose 2 and a bit years later on the verge of the DLC will have to be good enough.

Elden Ring is a marvel of a game, and probably one of the better Open World games I've played. But... I still think that's it's one major flaw. I don't think the Souls formula had to be an open world game. In fact I'd prefer if it went back to not being an open world game. The spaghetti-like structure of from software soulsborne games is ultimately my preferred world/level design and so Elden Ring ends up feeling like a step back as a result. There is a lot to like about it when it's used effectively though. For example I think having the Academy of Raya Lucaria surrounded on all sides by the lake and approaching it in that way was super cool! But ultimately I still prefer and like that Raya Lucaria itself is the more traditional level design. I think maybe I'd like the open world more if it wasn't just filled with a bunch of repetitive dungeons and caves. It's like making the chalice dungeons required if you want to get fully geared. I just don't really care for that kind of thing. It's made replaying the game feel more like a chore than something I want to do.

With that out of the way, I still LOVE a lot about this game. I think it's story and lore is really engaging and I had a lot of fun dissecting it with my friends when the game came out. I also think the legacy dungeons and major bosses were a lot of fun! The repertoire of spells and weapons feels better than ever. There are so many different ways to play this game with varying degrees of how easy you want the experience to be. I won't lie, I was a magic, moonveil, mimic tear user. I don't feel shame in that, I had a good time with the game. Going into NG+ I've mixed it up and even though I didn't play much because I was already so burnt out on the game by the end, I will carry my new experimental build into the DLC.

More than anything I think I just wish that I loved this game a bit more than I do. Thinking back on it just makes me feel... Tired? 2 years later I'm still not sure I'm actually ready to revisit it. It's a game that also feels so perfectly encapsulated in the moment it came out. It was kind of surprising to look back at and see that I functionally 100%'d the game in 2 weeks! That doesn't include the other endings of course, just all the dungeons, caves, spells, relic weapons, etc. I think this was probably a mistake, but those 2 weeks were certainly enrapturing.

I think more than anything I'd love to revisit Elden Ring as if it were fresh, but as life continues to happen I'm finding it harder and harder to justify the time. How I managed to put almost 90 hours into a game in 2 weeks is honestly some kind of miracle, I couldn't imagine getting 40 in 2 weeks now.

Well, here's to hoping the DLC improves on the issues I have. Usually I find that From Soft DLC has them firing on all cylinders, so I'm optimistic.

I've put this game down and attempted to pick it back up again on four separate occasions now, across two different consoles, three different classes and with and without multiplayer. Nothing hooked me.
It's an absolutely beautiful game, and it's clearly very inspired. Unfortunately I just don't like how the game handles and I can't help but feel a lack of purpose in anything I do. It's not a matter of the game being too difficult, or a need to be contrarian. It's just not working for me. So, I'm officially shelving it. My PS5 will thank me for the extra space.

reviewing it again because why not

>elden ring implements better jumping
>"OHHHHH its like jett" - valorant player
>fuck you