I've always got a lot to say about open world games, mostly about how they're not all that fun when you get down to the copy-paste content, and while Elden Ring was still guilty of some of that—several reused bosses and dungeons—they achieved something special in how they went about it. There was no visible checklist of the usual bloat, in fact, there were no arrows pointing the direction to go, no hand-holding other than a quick and optional tutorial. The emphasis was on exploration, encouraging the player to discover whatever they could find.

It ate up my time, that’s for sure. It was also my first Fromsoft title and I think it was the best possible introduction. I racked up over a hundred hours with a mage build. Sure, there were some frustrations with difficult bosses, but that was a part of the package.