I understand why so many people enjoy Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, but DS3 represents the point where I no longer enjoyed FromSoftware's Souls games. They fill me with a profound feeling of melancholy, a sadness over how tremendous the missed potential was for this series. The aspects I enjoyed in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 continue to be diluted as they release new Souls games, in favor of prioritizing elements that were never that important to my enjoyment. The challenging and cinematic boss fights are not what made me enjoy Dark Souls, it was the story, the interconnected world and the way the retro-inspired game design.
At this point I hoped FromSoftware would stop making games like this because they just kept doubling down on design choices that I disliked, and I figured Sekiro would usher in a new era of FromSoftware, that they would move on from this style, but Elden Ring was more of the same. It course-corrected some things, but continued to double down in other areas, to the point where I don't think I will play the next game they do in this style, and I am considering not even playing the Elden Ring DLC.
At this point I hoped FromSoftware would stop making games like this because they just kept doubling down on design choices that I disliked, and I figured Sekiro would usher in a new era of FromSoftware, that they would move on from this style, but Elden Ring was more of the same. It course-corrected some things, but continued to double down in other areas, to the point where I don't think I will play the next game they do in this style, and I am considering not even playing the Elden Ring DLC.