First of all, I want to congratulate From Software on the amazing job they did on this title. Even my wildest fantasies over this game would shy over what the product actually turned out to be. Is it perfect? Nothing is, but it's my new standard for what perfect should aim for.
This is From Software’s first attempt at a truly open-world game and you would never be able to tell from the game itself.

From Elden Ring, you can expect a solid open-world experience with refined souls-like combat and a great world to explore on top of your spirit steed Torrent, a mount. Not everything can be done as soon as you find it, and sometimes leaving and coming back stronger and/or with better tools is a better strategy. The game somewhat suggests to you where the direction for the main story is with light rays that stem from most “grace”, the checkpoints, but it’s merely a suggestion. Know, though, that these games are by design not heavily guided, as to offer you an experience that is about discovering and conquering this world at your own pace and timing, filling in the blanks, so be prepared for it. It’s not your run-of-the-mill open-world game where you follow one objective marker after the other, and there is no “hold my hand” mode either. Failure is part of the experience.


I believe From Software often talks to the player through its narrative. In Dark Souls 3 there is a dialogue that strongly rings this bell for me:
“With this, I will paint a world. […] Twill be a cold, dark, and very gentle place. And one day, it will make someone a goodly home.”
I think this can be seen as a metaphor for us players entering this new world that while evocatively familiar, won’t be the same. In this specific example leaving behind all the “rot”, or baggage that comes with making sequels to an already complex lore. Stagnancy, a topic Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro touch on a lot.
Elden Ring is a new world written together by Miyazaki with George R. R. Martin, writer of Game of Thrones. Mandatory: “Where is Winds of Winter?”. From Software in the years showed their community how they don’t need to stale over the same IP for 12 mainline entries to sell copies or maintain a fanbase. The way they develop their stories and worlds benefits from not having sequels and leaving some loose ends. It is not incomplete, 95% of it can be understood just by paying attention, and the 5% remaining is up for speculation by design. As custom, the narrative won’t be front and center, instead, inviting you to read descriptions, listen to dialogues of NPCs, connect the dots, and find your way around. You might not be able to do everything in a single run, but there are not many Elden Rings out there and a game like this should be savored and when possible replayed.


Elden Ring while open-world, did not ditch its detailed world-building and beautiful level design. Alongside the open map, there are “legacy dungeons”, which are more like a classic area in any souls game, but on a scale never seen. The best example is if the bottom of Anor Londo has ever made you wish you could explore it, in Elden Ring you can. The longer I played Elden Ring the more I noticed how From Software repurposed some old ideas, but with a better implementation. Dark Souls 2 had some interesting features like how rolling in water would lower your lightning and raise your fire defense, or rolling in poison would stick to your clothes and slowly build up poison status.
These were good ideas but inside a game that barely used them. In a gigantic open world, though, there will be more opportunities to make use of these mechanics, and so it was nice to see them return stronger than ever.
During the development of Bloodborne, Miyazaki said how limiting was for him to make the “Chalice Dungeons”, which had to be procedural. This requires rooms, or tiles, not only to be interesting but also to be able to combine them in multiple ways. Elden Ring takes what they learned from that and instead has static dungeons that have unique loot inside and unique minor bosses.


This game is HUGE, and it felt magical to realize how big it is. The map is obscured from the start and can be discovered with fragments that will show its features, but not unlock its contents. There are many points of interest on the map that can be spotted from looking at the map itself even if there aren't icons immediately shown, like ruins and dungeons/caves that you’ll be able to explore as you drift away from your main objective to be immersed in this world. Something open-world games often suffer from is loot fatigue, but it was never a problem for me as there is unique loot as a reward everywhere, rewarding your curiosity. From new Weapons and Armor to Spells, Incantations, Ashes of War, and Spirit Ashes; there’s always a reason to explore!
New are the “Ashes of War”, which are weapon skills or unique moves that can be equipped for all, but special weapons. You can find them in many ways and once applied to a weapon can also make you choose with which stats you’d like the weapon to have affinity with. Any Katana could now scale on Strenght with a Heavy ash, and that allows the player to truly play however they want.
Lastly, Spirit Ashes can be found as loot, which when used summon a specific creature as an ally to fight for you during fights or anywhere where a purple tombstone icon appears.

The game also has a co-op system that allows you to play with friends, but sadly, it's just the same as in previous titles, and chooses to block the use of the mount and some activities on the map, something I wish was different.
In an update, a PVP Arena was added as free content, adding a one-place stop for PVP players in different modes!


I’ll get a bit more technical here. One of the biggest complaints of the Souls series, especially Dark Souls 3, was that while the movesets of weapons were well done, during a boss fight there was no reason to use anything but your R1, aka the base attack. The player also feels discouraged to use a shield the better they got at the game or use jump attacks and charged heavy attacks as it would lock you in long recovery animation. This is not the case in Elden Ring. First and foremost, weapons have now a combo system. Spamming the base R1 attack won’t swing a theoretical sword left and right doing a 1-2, 1-2, but it’s a 1-2-3-4-5 where all numbers are different moves and 5 is a “combo finisher” that has a higher recovery time. So, per sé, spamming while possible won't chain infinitely until there is stamina. Additionally, two weapons of the same family can be used together for dual-wielding movesets, and shields could be ditched for staffs to make a mage-warrior. Moreover, a jump button has been added like in other games, so jump attacks are easier to perform and deal more posture damage. Bosses can have their posture broken with heavier attacks, but rarely with just R1. Even blocking with a shield now is a useful tactic as you can counter-attack after shielding a hit from an enemy with very generous timing, which will also deal more posture damage. You can also summon your mount during fights in the open world and attack from it.
I won’t go too much into detail over the boss fights to avoid spoilers, but I will shortly say they were all really good and I found some that have possibly become my favorite in all From Software games. There were one or two bosses that did not tickle me right, but in a game with this much content, not everything can.


This game, just like Dark Souls the first time I played it, set new standards for me.
I strongly suggest it to people who want a fair challenge in a beautiful action RPG open-world fantasy experience.
It feels like any number wouldn't be enough, but if I really have to it would be a 10/10.

First of all, I want to congratulate From Software on the amazing job they did on this title. Even my wildest fantasies over this game would shy over what the product actually turned out to be. Is it perfect? Nothing is, but it's my new standard for what perfect should aim for. This is From Software’s first attempt at a truly open-world game and you would never be able to tell from the game itself. From Elden Ring, you can expect a solid open-world experience with refined souls-like combat and a great world to explore on top of your spirit steed Torrent, a mount. Not everything can be done as soon as you find it, and sometimes leaving and coming back stronger and/or with better tools is a better strategy. The game somewhat suggests to you where the direction for the main story is with light rays that stem from most “grace”, the checkpoints, but it’s merely a suggestion. Know, though, that these games are by design not heavily guided, as to offer you an experience that is about discovering and conquering this world at your own pace and timing, filling in the blanks, so be prepared for it. It’s not your run-of-the-mill open-world game where you follow one objective marker after the other, and there is no “hold my hand” mode either. Failure is part of the experience. [h1]A new world, painted.[/h1] I believe From Software often talks to the player through its narrative. In Dark Souls 3 there is a dialogue that strongly rings this bell for me: “[i]With this, I will paint a world. […] Twill be a cold, dark, and very gentle place. And one day, it will make someone a goodly home.[/i]” I think this can be seen as a metaphor for us players entering this new world that while evocatively familiar, won’t be the same. In this specific example leaving behind all the “rot”, or baggage that comes with making sequels to an already complex lore. Stagnancy, a topic Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro touch on a lot. Elden Ring is a new world written together by Miyazaki with George R. R. Martin, writer of Game of Thrones. Mandatory: “[b]Where is Winds of Winter?[/b]”. From Software in the years showed their community how they don’t need to stale over the same IP for 12 mainline entries to sell copies or maintain a fanbase. The way they develop their stories and worlds benefits from not having sequels and leaving some loose ends. It is not incomplete, 95% of it can be understood just by paying attention, and the 5% remaining is up for speculation by design. As custom, the narrative won’t be front and center, instead, inviting you to [b]read descriptions[/b], listen to dialogues of NPCs, connect the dots, and find your way around. You might not be able to do everything in a single run, but there are not many Elden Rings out there and a game like this should be savored and when possible replayed. [h1]Nowhere to go, but forward.[/h1] Elden Ring while open-world, did not ditch its detailed world-building and beautiful level design. Alongside the open map, there are “legacy dungeons”, which are more like a classic area in any souls game, but on a scale never seen. The best example is if the bottom of Anor Londo has ever made you wish you could explore it, in Elden Ring you can. The longer I played Elden Ring the more I noticed how From Software repurposed some old ideas, but with a better implementation. Dark Souls 2 had some interesting features like how rolling in water would lower your lightning and raise your fire defense, or rolling in poison would stick to your clothes and slowly build up poison status. These were good ideas but inside a game that barely used them. In a gigantic open world, though, there will be more opportunities to make use of these mechanics, and so it was nice to see them return stronger than ever. During the development of Bloodborne, Miyazaki said how limiting was for him to make the “Chalice Dungeons”, which had to be procedural. This requires rooms, or tiles, not only to be interesting but also to be able to combine them in multiple ways. Elden Ring takes what they learned from that and instead has static dungeons that have unique loot inside and unique minor bosses. [h1]Bigger AND better.[/h1] This game is HUGE, and it felt magical to realize how big it is. The map is obscured from the start and can be discovered with fragments that will show its features, but not unlock its contents. There are many points of interest on the map that can be spotted from looking at the map itself even if there aren't icons immediately shown, like ruins and dungeons/caves that you’ll be able to explore as you drift away from your main objective to be immersed in this world. Something open-world games often suffer from is loot fatigue, but it was never a problem for me as there is unique loot as a reward everywhere, rewarding your curiosity. From new Weapons and Armor to Spells, Incantations, Ashes of War, and Spirit Ashes; there’s always a reason to explore! New are the “Ashes of War”, which are weapon skills or unique moves that can be equipped for all, but special weapons. You can find them in many ways and once applied to a weapon can also make you choose with which stats you’d like the weapon to have affinity with. Any Katana could now scale on Strenght with a Heavy ash, and that allows the player to truly play however they want. Lastly, Spirit Ashes can be found as loot, which when used summon a specific creature as an ally to fight for you during fights or anywhere where a purple tombstone icon appears. The game also has a co-op system that allows you to play with friends, but sadly, it's just the same as in previous titles, and chooses to block the use of the mount and some activities on the map, something I wish was different. In an update, a PVP Arena was added as free content, adding a one-place stop for PVP players in different modes! [h1] ̶R̶1̶,̶ ̶R̶1̶,̶ ̶R̶1̶ Swordplay.[/h1] I’ll get a bit more technical here. One of the biggest complaints of the Souls series, especially Dark Souls 3, was that while the movesets of weapons were well done, during a boss fight there was no reason to use anything but your R1, aka the base attack. The player also feels discouraged to use a shield the better they got at the game or use jump attacks and charged heavy attacks as it would lock you in long recovery animation. This is not the case in Elden Ring. First and foremost, weapons have now a combo system. Spamming the base R1 attack won’t swing a theoretical sword left and right doing a 1-2, 1-2, but it’s a 1-2-3-4-5 where all numbers are different moves and 5 is a “combo finisher” that has a higher recovery time. So, per sé, spamming while possible won't chain infinitely until there is stamina. Additionally, two weapons of the same family can be used together for dual-wielding movesets, and shields could be ditched for staffs to make a mage-warrior. Moreover, a jump button has been added like in other games, so jump attacks are easier to perform and deal more posture damage. Bosses can have their posture broken with heavier attacks, but rarely with just R1. Even blocking with a shield now is a useful tactic as you can counter-attack after shielding a hit from an enemy with very generous timing, which will also deal more posture damage. You can also summon your mount during fights in the open world and attack from it. I won’t go too much into detail over the boss fights to avoid spoilers, but I will shortly say they were all really good and I found some that have possibly become my favorite in all From Software games. There were one or two bosses that did not tickle me right, but in a game with this much content, not everything can. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] This game, just like Dark Souls the first time I played it, set new standards for me. I strongly suggest it to people who want a fair challenge in a beautiful action RPG open-world fantasy experience. It feels like any number wouldn't be enough, but if I really have to it would be a [b]10/10[/b].