Really interesting and original game that does things I haven't seen done in a game before. The story, although a bit cliché with its ARG and meta- elements, is very intriguing and cute and honestly it would have been really good even without the ARG aspect of it.

The core gameplay of the card game is probably one of the best card games I've played because of how simple it is, but I wish the gameplay changed a bit more between acts, just as the visual style does.

Sound design was amazing, acting was really fun and the blending of visual styles was really impressive.

Overall this is an incredibly unique experience and probably one of the best games of 2021. Close to a 4.5 for me

After 135 hours and 721 deaths (i was streaming so yes i was counting), I have finally finished this masterpiece of a game.

Never before have i so many times just stood in awe, looking at how pretty a game looks only to have random knight 53 walk up behind me and oneshot me. Everything in this game feels so polished and there's SO much stuff in this game that it actually doesn't make sense in my head how this kind of game is possible to make. It has easily the most detailed and intricate world in an open world game I have ever seen, it makes BOTWs world look like a barren wasteland.

Something that BOTW does a lot better on the other hand is the "freedom" of the game. It simply feels more sluggish moving around in Elden Ring because of how limited your movement is, and while I understand that you can't just be climbing everywhere like in BOTW, it still just feels like it could have been done better.

Other minor problems I have include the story (not really a problem, just overall feels like it wants to be more interesting than it is), the fact that there's never really a place or time to relax (again, more of a personal problem as it fits with the story and feel of this world), and a few of the bosses.

None of the dragons really felt great to fight, and overall most HUGE bosses were annoying since a lot of the time you can't even tell what they were doing. That in and of itself is not a big problem as you don't have to fight any of the dragons to complete the game, but there were a few of the main story bosses I had issues with as well, namely Rennala and Radahn.

Rennala could honestly have been fixed just by having a stake closer to her fight, as the most annoying thing about it was walking 3 kilometers back to her boss room every time you died and other than that the fight was pretty good (cutscenes especially).

I can't really explain all of my issues with Radahn, mostly it just felt annoying (maybe because I'm bad), but the summon gimmick was for sure just bad. Running around spamming triangle to summon the guys didn't feel very interactive and they should probably just be summoned at the start of the battle.

Now that my rant about the bad stuff in the game is over, I guess I can list some of my favorite things about this game:

-Best boss: Malenia, by far (second is probably Fire Giant for me, even though I know loads of other people really don't like it, just felt like an epic fight for me)
Malenia, even though it's easily the hardest boss of all of them (died around 120 times on her), still feels fair. I never got hit by a move that felt impossible to dodge, the build-up to the fight is awesome, the cutscene before her second phase is crazy, soundtrack is probably my favorite in the whole game, overall just an insanely well designed fight. Also no annoying terrain in the boss arena which is a plus.

Best area: Leyndell
Idk, there's a lot of areas to choose from, Siofra river absolutely blew me away, finding a random well and going down an elevator for 2 minutes to get that crazy reveal is something I will remember for a long, long time, but something about the design of Leyndell, with the gold and the grey contrasting against each other looks so good.
Still, there's no area in this game that doesn't look stunning, and it's probably one of the best looking games I have ever played.

At the end of the day I was going back and forth so much about whether to give this a 4.5 or a 5, but I just feel like it has too many flaws in my eyes to give it a 5. Playing it 10 hours a day every day for like two weeks straight might have skewed my view on the game, but I never really felt burnt out. Maybe my thoughts about the game will change on a second playthrough, or just as time goes on, but for now I think it's JUST the best 4.5 game I've ever played.



ok rant over thanks

really atmospheric and chill game, just wish they leaned into the lovecraftian horror aspect of it a lot more
the coolest parts of the whole game where the ending cutscenes (epsecially the bad ending)
the game was also not very challenging, all the threats just were way too avoidable and not really scary after a while
gameplay loop was really enjoyable, fishing, dredging, upgrading stuff all really fun
story was serviceable but nothing special
characters were pretty good
all in all game is very gud 👍

I loved pretty much everything about this, the art style and the way they use music especially, so I'll just write about the stuff I didn't like as much.
Inventory management was unnecessarily annoying, could have easily been fixed by just giving you designated slots for a weapon and one piece of equipment and then just having the healing items, ammo and key items in the normal six slots. Not a big issue, just unnecessary.
My one other small problem could probably be an issue with me and not the game, but I found it a bit too difficult to figure out where I needed to go to progress at some points, and especially at one point where I eventually just looked it up (there was a door in a dark corner of a room and I guess my brightness might have been too low to see it but idk). It was just a bit too much of double- and triple-checking door and rooms to see if you missed something.
Those two things are honestly the only two real issues i have with the game though, and everything else was executed masterfully. Perfect atmosphere, perfect use of music (again, this is probably my favorite part of this game) and an amazing art style that assists in creeping you out and making you unnerved. Easy 9/10

The first time I figured out the thing with rewinding was the most insane moment in a game I've experienced in a long, LONG time. It was probably more insane for me personally because I spent an embarrassingly long time playing the game before I figured it out so it was super unexpected when it happened.
The story overall was super engaging and interesting as well, and the mystery revealed itself gradually over time and it was satisfying to finally see what really happened to Marissa Marcel.
The story was also really well paced, unexpectedly so when it's this interactive and you (the player) is so in control of the pacing (at least seemingly). I honestly don't really know how they did that.
The only minor gripes I have with the game is that the controls felt a bit clunky and at some points it was a bit confusing as to how to progress further in the game. Really didn't matter all that much in the end though, if I were to give a percent score to the game it would be closer to 100 than 90.
Great performances from the whole cast but honestly Charlotta Mohlin was in my opinion the standout performance from this, she was truly amazing.