It feels incredibly bizarre to finally complete my arc, but yeah, I love this game. I made a promise around 8 months ago that once the endgame was better handled that I'd gladly come back and give this the love it deserves; I'm happy to announce that I can fulfill that promise. I don't know if it's because I spent more time exploring that I was more leveled up and had better gear, or if my time away let me ruminate on my feelings towards this game, or if even my new PC setup made it a smoother experience, but something clicked in my brain, and I'm now officially a whole-hearted fan of this game. It has its flaws, yes, and I do think that the latter parts of the game that are less exploration-heavy are weaker than the rest, but they make up for it by having excellent level design, crushingly hard boss fights, and an overall sense of brevity to a lot of the story details near the end. But, man, when you have this much great stuff in one package, I feel like it's almost nitpicking to say that one part of the game isn't as great as the rest. I don't want to copout a review, but really, there's just so much that I can't even talk about it all. I'm beyond happy to love this game now, and I can absolutely see myself sinking more and more hours into it as time goes on. I would consider this the peak of the Souls formula, even if it's not my personal favorite (nor my vote for the best), and I truly wonder how FromSoft is going to follow this up, if they even will at all. Can't wait for the DLC.
WitchyKing66
1 year ago
Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne also have a major drop off in quality towards the end I think, Bloodborne with bosses such as One Reborn, Micolash, Mergo's Wet Nurse, and areas like the Nightmare Frontier, and some weird balancing in Yahar'Ghul and Mensis, and Dark Souls 1's has been discussed to death at this point, so I feel like Fromsoft not quite nailing their final acts has been an issue for a while.
They did a much better job with Sekiro, the final act of that game is my favourite out of all the Fromsoft games, so it was a bit of whiplash for Elden Ring's final act to drop in quality in areas like the Snowfield and Mountaintops of the Giants; but for every Consecrated Snowfield we get, we also get a Crumbling Farum Azula, or a Haligtree, which is why I don't think it detracts from the near flawless first two thirds too much in my opinion.