Elden Ring is the first From Software game I have completed, I've played Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Dark Souls and fell off of them for different reasons. Bloodborne and Dark Souls I got annoyed by boss runbacks, a mechanic in the game that is not difficult at all and serves to add nothing but a tedious time waste. Sekiro I just didn't vibe with the gameplay. Yet I still decided I wanted to try Elden Ring, part of it was FOMO but I had also been assured that boss runbacks were mostly eliminated through Stakes of Marika. There were a couple of runbacks but nothing too severe and I'm happy that they mostly eliminated such a useless aspect of the previous games.
That is not the only improvement of this game over previous From games, however, I think the switch to open world actually works VERY well for Soulsbornekiroring games (you can't stop me from saying Soulsbornekiroring) and I wasn't sure if that would be the case going in. It does lead to a lot of repetitive bosses and dungeons in the many catacombs, but the good outweighs the bad with the freedom to go anywhere and explore so no person's story is the same. The open world nature also allows for you to go somewhere else if you feel stuck. This didn't really happen for me aside from Margit at the beginning when I still sucked and Maliketh when I had to REALLY git gud, but both times I was able to take a breather and explore elsewhere for a bit before heading back into it, rather than bash my head into the wall repeatedly.
The world itself is beautiful as well, with many secrets to find. I did a blind playthrough so I'm sure I missed a ton, too, but what I did see was often breathtaking. Leyndell in particular is absolutely gorgeous. I do feel like I played the game in the complete "wrong" order but that's part of the beauty of the game. I went to Liurnia before ever clearing Stormveil, but did backtrack when I realized. I didn't even see Caelid (beyond a scary teleport near the beginning of the game that took me to the Selia crystal tunnel) until after I had done the Altus Plateau and reached Leyndell. When I did visit Caelid it was VERY easy (except for Dragonbarrow) which showed me I probably should've been there earlier, but in exchange I did probably make Altus and Leyndell tougher on myself for going to them before I had ever gotten the levels I should get from Caelid.
I will say that the game was honestly easier than I expected, and I say that in the least humblebrag way possible. I just had an expectation of what I heard about From games and thought it would be tougher than it really was. I just had to be on my toes to be fine most of the time. The only fights that gave me a truly tough time were Margit, Maliketh, and the final duo fight. Maliketh especially was a dickhead, but I was determined to play the game without any summons so powered through. I played a Str build for most of the game but respec'd for a Dex build later in the game, I'd like to try magic because I got tired of looting spells that were useless to me, but I wanted to go simpler for my first playthrough. I also wish I found out about equip load changing your dodge speed earlier, as I played through half the game on heavy load before realizing that was a thing. Then I played through everything else until Maliketh on medium load, from Maliketh onward I realized light load was truly the king and you just have to trust in your dodge rolls.
Great game, loved it, couldn't tell you very in depth what happened in the story but I'm the Elden Lord now. My only real problems with the game were the repetitive bosses/catacombs which ARE optional and also the game didn't intuitively respond sometimes. I'd press the dodge roll and it wouldn't register or I'd press the attack button and it wouldn't start attacking until 2 seconds later (and I had stamina so it wasn't that). I guess the story is very hidden as well but it's kind of the point with how FromSoft does things, love it or hate it. Now I just wanna give Bloodborne another shot...
That is not the only improvement of this game over previous From games, however, I think the switch to open world actually works VERY well for Soulsbornekiroring games (you can't stop me from saying Soulsbornekiroring) and I wasn't sure if that would be the case going in. It does lead to a lot of repetitive bosses and dungeons in the many catacombs, but the good outweighs the bad with the freedom to go anywhere and explore so no person's story is the same. The open world nature also allows for you to go somewhere else if you feel stuck. This didn't really happen for me aside from Margit at the beginning when I still sucked and Maliketh when I had to REALLY git gud, but both times I was able to take a breather and explore elsewhere for a bit before heading back into it, rather than bash my head into the wall repeatedly.
The world itself is beautiful as well, with many secrets to find. I did a blind playthrough so I'm sure I missed a ton, too, but what I did see was often breathtaking. Leyndell in particular is absolutely gorgeous. I do feel like I played the game in the complete "wrong" order but that's part of the beauty of the game. I went to Liurnia before ever clearing Stormveil, but did backtrack when I realized. I didn't even see Caelid (beyond a scary teleport near the beginning of the game that took me to the Selia crystal tunnel) until after I had done the Altus Plateau and reached Leyndell. When I did visit Caelid it was VERY easy (except for Dragonbarrow) which showed me I probably should've been there earlier, but in exchange I did probably make Altus and Leyndell tougher on myself for going to them before I had ever gotten the levels I should get from Caelid.
I will say that the game was honestly easier than I expected, and I say that in the least humblebrag way possible. I just had an expectation of what I heard about From games and thought it would be tougher than it really was. I just had to be on my toes to be fine most of the time. The only fights that gave me a truly tough time were Margit, Maliketh, and the final duo fight. Maliketh especially was a dickhead, but I was determined to play the game without any summons so powered through. I played a Str build for most of the game but respec'd for a Dex build later in the game, I'd like to try magic because I got tired of looting spells that were useless to me, but I wanted to go simpler for my first playthrough. I also wish I found out about equip load changing your dodge speed earlier, as I played through half the game on heavy load before realizing that was a thing. Then I played through everything else until Maliketh on medium load, from Maliketh onward I realized light load was truly the king and you just have to trust in your dodge rolls.
Great game, loved it, couldn't tell you very in depth what happened in the story but I'm the Elden Lord now. My only real problems with the game were the repetitive bosses/catacombs which ARE optional and also the game didn't intuitively respond sometimes. I'd press the dodge roll and it wouldn't register or I'd press the attack button and it wouldn't start attacking until 2 seconds later (and I had stamina so it wasn't that). I guess the story is very hidden as well but it's kind of the point with how FromSoft does things, love it or hate it. Now I just wanna give Bloodborne another shot...