I've replayed Demon's Souls, all three Dark Souls, and Bloodborne several times each, and more than most games, these provide an entirely different experience after the virgin playthrough, after the unknown is known. I have not replayed Elden Ring, and as a result I'm not sure how my feelings or judgments will change.
Going into Elden Ring, what I hoped for was something more like Demon's Souls and less like Bloodborne. More deliberate combat and less demanding execution, more fear of what's around the corner and less focus on the best moment to dodge or parry, more build and loadout options. More strange creatures and fewer honor duels against ever-escalating post-Artorias swordsmen, fewer multi-phase headaches. More Adjudicator and Moonlight Butterfly and Demon of Song, less Sword Saint. Fewer weird delays on enemy attacks, please. PLEASE.
Some of what I wanted, Elden Ring gave me. The build variety and freedom of approach is back, at least. And early on, designs like those weirdly articulated cat statue bosses or the ghost boat boss made me think that the Souls I missed was back. And where an enemy felt a little too strict or cruel in its design, like the weirdly placed Crucible Knight in an early evergaol, I could just level up and come back later, akin to the Red-eyed Knight in 1-1. At first. But later areas of the game really change the overall feel, and the softcaps keep players with tastes like mine from effectively escaping the unpleasantness by overleveling. Past a point of diminishing returns, extra levels are for build diversity, not raw power, which means the player has diminishing opportunities to tune the difficulty of the more obnoxious fights, like against the assassin types or That One Boss. These fights are still surmountable via summoning, or gimmick builds, or just a lot of patience, but none of those options necessarily make these fights fun.
There is plenty of weirdness and beauty in this game, to be sure. And I had hour after hour of infatuation with it, up through the capital. But the back half became something that somewhat soured me on the whole experience, and I'm honestly somewhat hesitant to replay, because I know myself. I know that I will get past Leyndell carrying a vendetta against the bad experiences I had in the Consecrated Snowfields and Haligtree, wanting to revenge myself against them and hating the experience all over again. It's a gross overstatement to say that the tail end of the game ruined it for me -- I sincerely liked most of the experience, even if it doesn't stack up against my favorite Souls games -- but it did affect my feelings about what came before.
I came away from Elden Ring impressed, exhausted, and yet somehow unsatisfied, and immediately jumped into a Dark Souls 2 replay (using the Seeker of Fire mod) to scratch the itch. It's not just a matter of rose tints -- I still prefer Dark Souls 2. Elden Ring, like Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, and Sekiro, is certainly a very good game, and I might ultimately prefer Elden Ring to those three. But it just doesn't speak directly to me like Demon's and the first two Dark games do. The craftsmanship and artistry are still impressive, but since Bloodborne they've been applied in service of something that isn't quite to my taste. I had hoped Elden Ring would change that, and it didn't.
Still, it seems a consensus GOTY choice and I can't say I object.
Going into Elden Ring, what I hoped for was something more like Demon's Souls and less like Bloodborne. More deliberate combat and less demanding execution, more fear of what's around the corner and less focus on the best moment to dodge or parry, more build and loadout options. More strange creatures and fewer honor duels against ever-escalating post-Artorias swordsmen, fewer multi-phase headaches. More Adjudicator and Moonlight Butterfly and Demon of Song, less Sword Saint. Fewer weird delays on enemy attacks, please. PLEASE.
Some of what I wanted, Elden Ring gave me. The build variety and freedom of approach is back, at least. And early on, designs like those weirdly articulated cat statue bosses or the ghost boat boss made me think that the Souls I missed was back. And where an enemy felt a little too strict or cruel in its design, like the weirdly placed Crucible Knight in an early evergaol, I could just level up and come back later, akin to the Red-eyed Knight in 1-1. At first. But later areas of the game really change the overall feel, and the softcaps keep players with tastes like mine from effectively escaping the unpleasantness by overleveling. Past a point of diminishing returns, extra levels are for build diversity, not raw power, which means the player has diminishing opportunities to tune the difficulty of the more obnoxious fights, like against the assassin types or That One Boss. These fights are still surmountable via summoning, or gimmick builds, or just a lot of patience, but none of those options necessarily make these fights fun.
There is plenty of weirdness and beauty in this game, to be sure. And I had hour after hour of infatuation with it, up through the capital. But the back half became something that somewhat soured me on the whole experience, and I'm honestly somewhat hesitant to replay, because I know myself. I know that I will get past Leyndell carrying a vendetta against the bad experiences I had in the Consecrated Snowfields and Haligtree, wanting to revenge myself against them and hating the experience all over again. It's a gross overstatement to say that the tail end of the game ruined it for me -- I sincerely liked most of the experience, even if it doesn't stack up against my favorite Souls games -- but it did affect my feelings about what came before.
I came away from Elden Ring impressed, exhausted, and yet somehow unsatisfied, and immediately jumped into a Dark Souls 2 replay (using the Seeker of Fire mod) to scratch the itch. It's not just a matter of rose tints -- I still prefer Dark Souls 2. Elden Ring, like Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, and Sekiro, is certainly a very good game, and I might ultimately prefer Elden Ring to those three. But it just doesn't speak directly to me like Demon's and the first two Dark games do. The craftsmanship and artistry are still impressive, but since Bloodborne they've been applied in service of something that isn't quite to my taste. I had hoped Elden Ring would change that, and it didn't.
Still, it seems a consensus GOTY choice and I can't say I object.