Finally finished over a month after it released! I had joked before it had come out that Elden Ring could be my perfect game of marrying Dark Souls level and boss design with the open world of Zelda: BOTW (yes, I know it's an overplayed comparison). I really didn't expect how right I would be. That freedom to go anywhere and discover interesting things and improve skills organically through interaction with the game world is what, I think, puts this over the previous FromSoftware games where getting stuck on a level or boss meant more limited options of how to overcome an issue. And, the overall level and boss design are still held up to that high standard set by the older games. I felt kind of sad when it ended, because I can never experience it for the first time again.