While open world severely harms the souls formula, it would be wrong to not respect what was achieved here.
The views are phenomenal, but it was not worth bloating the game by dotting the same enemies and bosses around just to fill out the space. 90% of the extra dungeons and caves feel the same, have a repeated boss and lead nowhere. Your space is less limited in traversing around set pieces of enemies. It's not as harsh as you would expect a souls-like world to be, and therefore your interaction with it is reduced. You aren't gripped to engage with most of the challenges out there. It's clearly not an accident - the visuals are the focus in the open world areas and there are plenty of memorable and challenging exceptions - but it comes off sloppy and heavily diluted in quality.
Especially when you put bosses out in these open areas. They don't act like they know what they're doing in the space. They move over the landscape so awkwardly, and often they have attacks that reduce your engagement by stalling your advance. I couldn't be more bored of dragons. At least they don't tend to have the AOE-sphere-centred-on-themselves move that most other bosses seem to.
You should not play this game expecting Dark Souls (I'm talking about all 3). It is not worth exploring everything - I did it - it becomes stale. These areas look amazing, but mechanically there are few differences and therefore lack identity, and the space is reduced to filler between point of interest A and point of interest B. There are thousands of corners. Don't waste your time. They give you a magical horse, even, to reduce the time in filler. It even double jumps! Sounds great, how could this be problematic? But this horse highlights the greatest flaw with the game. With this one tool, all obstacles are trivialised. What does this add to the game? Platforming? Why? It doesn't fit. They wanted a world with huge scale, but the price was the immersive game loop that Dark Souls nailed. And then they can't apply the same scale to the cities as in Dark Souls. These are my main issues when comparing to FromSoft's previous work. I expected too much. Dark Souls is more purposeful, more intimate, more confident.
BUT
Just because it isn't Dark Souls doesn't mean it hasn't shifted focus in completely unwarranted ways. The main themes, the desire and corruption of the immortals and the resources that fuel them - there is so much incredible cohesive storytelling through every part of the world. The character design is insane, maybe even unmatched. You get the sense that despite the horror and the lengths these post-human beings have gone through to attain their stake, or their power or following, that you can climb to the same heights. They are falling apart. You feel born anew, ready to take the world by storm. Clear the stagnation. These aren't exactly different themes to Dark Souls, but for better or worse Elden Ring grants greater clarity and vision in your journey without being overbearing. And there's a lot more going on, so that's impressive.
The design philosophy of being able to reach any place you can see has to be respected. When you think you've seen it all, there is more. And as I mentioned above, there are memorable exceptions in the open world I love:
The forest of runebears, the haunting deathbird of prey, the accurate lobster missiles, and of course the chaos octopus. Iconic, unforgettable, simple.
Maybe it's the inconsequential dungeons and caves that are a result of the open world that I dislike more than the open world itself. I suppose part of the beauty of open world is you can find another way around. Still, I think they missed opportunities to add a lot of dynamics with this new approach.
I should probably talk a little bit about the boss fighting, though it actually doesn't feel necessary. I've explained my problems with repeated occurrences and a trend of AOE attacks. I did tell myself they had put Sekiro bosses in a Souls game on multiple occasions, eager to attempt parrying some 7, 8, 9, 10-attack combos. But while I would have loved that opportunity, it would probably have meant sacrificing the build customisation which has much more merit. It's a strength in Dark Souls, and Elden Ring takes it and flies. Anyway, the fights are of course great. They'll challenge you one way, allow you to change things up and then bring about a whole new problem to overcome. A beautiful back and forth struggle where the advantage is fluid. Just as it ever was, this is the bread-and-butter of these games. However, I do think the cinematic feeling was injected slightly too heavily over pure engaging gameplay. A boss will do a long chain of attacks, but to compensate they stagger much too easily. Again, it is no accident - it's supposed to feel like defying the odds, especially when these characters are built up so much. I wouldn't change what they did. But there is a beauty in simplicity: Godskin Apostle was a favourite. Also don't worry, there are still normal enemies that will kill you on their own just fine.
Now I have seen it all, I feel more ready to have fun in the Lands Between. The intention doesn't feel like it was to collect everything - use everything - in one playthrough (yeah, this was one long run). Choose a direction and go. Use what you find, don't be afraid to miss tiny things. Head to the most eye-catching places. Another strength of the open world is that every individual can have a different journey. No two paths will be the same. There's more joy to be had in the variation, and missing things is a part of that journey. Maybe this is a life lesson.
The views are phenomenal, but it was not worth bloating the game by dotting the same enemies and bosses around just to fill out the space. 90% of the extra dungeons and caves feel the same, have a repeated boss and lead nowhere. Your space is less limited in traversing around set pieces of enemies. It's not as harsh as you would expect a souls-like world to be, and therefore your interaction with it is reduced. You aren't gripped to engage with most of the challenges out there. It's clearly not an accident - the visuals are the focus in the open world areas and there are plenty of memorable and challenging exceptions - but it comes off sloppy and heavily diluted in quality.
Especially when you put bosses out in these open areas. They don't act like they know what they're doing in the space. They move over the landscape so awkwardly, and often they have attacks that reduce your engagement by stalling your advance. I couldn't be more bored of dragons. At least they don't tend to have the AOE-sphere-centred-on-themselves move that most other bosses seem to.
You should not play this game expecting Dark Souls (I'm talking about all 3). It is not worth exploring everything - I did it - it becomes stale. These areas look amazing, but mechanically there are few differences and therefore lack identity, and the space is reduced to filler between point of interest A and point of interest B. There are thousands of corners. Don't waste your time. They give you a magical horse, even, to reduce the time in filler. It even double jumps! Sounds great, how could this be problematic? But this horse highlights the greatest flaw with the game. With this one tool, all obstacles are trivialised. What does this add to the game? Platforming? Why? It doesn't fit. They wanted a world with huge scale, but the price was the immersive game loop that Dark Souls nailed. And then they can't apply the same scale to the cities as in Dark Souls. These are my main issues when comparing to FromSoft's previous work. I expected too much. Dark Souls is more purposeful, more intimate, more confident.
BUT
Just because it isn't Dark Souls doesn't mean it hasn't shifted focus in completely unwarranted ways. The main themes, the desire and corruption of the immortals and the resources that fuel them - there is so much incredible cohesive storytelling through every part of the world. The character design is insane, maybe even unmatched. You get the sense that despite the horror and the lengths these post-human beings have gone through to attain their stake, or their power or following, that you can climb to the same heights. They are falling apart. You feel born anew, ready to take the world by storm. Clear the stagnation. These aren't exactly different themes to Dark Souls, but for better or worse Elden Ring grants greater clarity and vision in your journey without being overbearing. And there's a lot more going on, so that's impressive.
The design philosophy of being able to reach any place you can see has to be respected. When you think you've seen it all, there is more. And as I mentioned above, there are memorable exceptions in the open world I love:
The forest of runebears, the haunting deathbird of prey, the accurate lobster missiles, and of course the chaos octopus. Iconic, unforgettable, simple.
Maybe it's the inconsequential dungeons and caves that are a result of the open world that I dislike more than the open world itself. I suppose part of the beauty of open world is you can find another way around. Still, I think they missed opportunities to add a lot of dynamics with this new approach.
I should probably talk a little bit about the boss fighting, though it actually doesn't feel necessary. I've explained my problems with repeated occurrences and a trend of AOE attacks. I did tell myself they had put Sekiro bosses in a Souls game on multiple occasions, eager to attempt parrying some 7, 8, 9, 10-attack combos. But while I would have loved that opportunity, it would probably have meant sacrificing the build customisation which has much more merit. It's a strength in Dark Souls, and Elden Ring takes it and flies. Anyway, the fights are of course great. They'll challenge you one way, allow you to change things up and then bring about a whole new problem to overcome. A beautiful back and forth struggle where the advantage is fluid. Just as it ever was, this is the bread-and-butter of these games. However, I do think the cinematic feeling was injected slightly too heavily over pure engaging gameplay. A boss will do a long chain of attacks, but to compensate they stagger much too easily. Again, it is no accident - it's supposed to feel like defying the odds, especially when these characters are built up so much. I wouldn't change what they did. But there is a beauty in simplicity: Godskin Apostle was a favourite. Also don't worry, there are still normal enemies that will kill you on their own just fine.
Now I have seen it all, I feel more ready to have fun in the Lands Between. The intention doesn't feel like it was to collect everything - use everything - in one playthrough (yeah, this was one long run). Choose a direction and go. Use what you find, don't be afraid to miss tiny things. Head to the most eye-catching places. Another strength of the open world is that every individual can have a different journey. No two paths will be the same. There's more joy to be had in the variation, and missing things is a part of that journey. Maybe this is a life lesson.