Masterpiece has been thrown about a lot when talking about Elden Ring but more than anything I'd say it's a Dark Souls Greatest Hits compilation. Personally, I'd rank Sekiro's skill-intensive boss fights and Bloodborne's cosmo-gothic horror worldbuilding higher. But Elden Ring is a close runner-up.
You've got your punishing gameplay, poison swamps, convoluted lore, barebones storytelling, laughably difficult bosses, "finger butt holes", intricate dungeons that loop in on themselves, and a plethora of hidden game mechanics – both large and small – that you're kinda supposed to find out on your own (if, at all).
Which is all well and good. They're all unique selling points of From Software's brand of self-flagellation. As any humblebragger will tell you, they're not bugs but features. The Soulsborne games are simply made to be this way. Sorry.
Elden Ring does make a strong case for kind of a FromSoft-easy mode though, while still giving the GIT GUD-mafia its fill of meme-bosses. It's by far the most accessible game in the loosely connected series.
The world is littered with save points, making a trek into the dangerous fungal wilds of Caelid or The Consecrated Snowfield's frozen landscape less daunting. The free-roaming open-world design also prevents any real bottlenecking, always giving would-be Elden Lords plenty of murky dungeons and decrepit castles to explore should a particular boss become a roadblock. Helpful spirit summons give an edge against some of the game's most difficult foes. Hell, the game pretty much corals new arrivals wanting to learn the ropes into a tutorial dungeon.
And all of this is of course totally optional. Anyone who wants the bragging rights of having bested Malenia with a naked avatar, armed only with a [bouquet of flowers](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Varre's+Bouquet) has the freedom to do so.
You've got your punishing gameplay, poison swamps, convoluted lore, barebones storytelling, laughably difficult bosses, "finger butt holes", intricate dungeons that loop in on themselves, and a plethora of hidden game mechanics – both large and small – that you're kinda supposed to find out on your own (if, at all).
Which is all well and good. They're all unique selling points of From Software's brand of self-flagellation. As any humblebragger will tell you, they're not bugs but features. The Soulsborne games are simply made to be this way. Sorry.
Elden Ring does make a strong case for kind of a FromSoft-easy mode though, while still giving the GIT GUD-mafia its fill of meme-bosses. It's by far the most accessible game in the loosely connected series.
The world is littered with save points, making a trek into the dangerous fungal wilds of Caelid or The Consecrated Snowfield's frozen landscape less daunting. The free-roaming open-world design also prevents any real bottlenecking, always giving would-be Elden Lords plenty of murky dungeons and decrepit castles to explore should a particular boss become a roadblock. Helpful spirit summons give an edge against some of the game's most difficult foes. Hell, the game pretty much corals new arrivals wanting to learn the ropes into a tutorial dungeon.
And all of this is of course totally optional. Anyone who wants the bragging rights of having bested Malenia with a naked avatar, armed only with a [bouquet of flowers](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Varre's+Bouquet) has the freedom to do so.