Dear God above, it's finally here.

Disclaimer: I have spent a little over two thousand hours between various Steam accounts on the DARK SOULS series. You will see comparisons in this review to FROMSOFTWARE's previous games. Invasions are not mentioned beyond this disclaimer, given the majority of players will not participate in them due to the nature of Elden Ring making solo players un-invadeable without opt-in. The lack of transparency around invasion matchmaking once again will make invaders rather unhappy, once Bandai Namco begins multiplayer balancing. (edited as of Patch 1.07; near/far invasion explanation in the patch notes is the best transparency we've ever gotten, thanks Bandai).

I must admit the prospect of a FROMSOFTWARE RPG set in an open world daunted me a bit. After the rather disastrous dev cycles of the Souls games resulting in iconic but incomplete worlds, I feared this would be much of the same. Cue the pandemic and resulting delays, and I expected the worst. Luckily, these fears were ultimately cast aside by what is most likely the best iteration that FROM can produce on their RPGs going forward.

ER's world, while not seamless (lifts in particular as well as the Roundtable Hold), *is* complete - and there is direction to it. Yet, open-world dungeons, mines, catacombs, and more concrete story progression are all freely accessible while working between other bits of content. This allows for an approach to Elden Ring that even newer players can agree is far more consistent with the value that Dark Souls attempted to teach - if you struggle, just head somewhere else and come back stronger.

The world expands in every direction, and every time you find a new area the game has expanded in a new direction each time. North, south, east, west, in the sky, beneath the earth - it's all in there. The freedom to explore along with upgrade materials and bosses providing constant incentive to explore in new directions is simply wondrous, compared to the linearity pointed out in Dark Souls 3 in particular.

The Ash of War system allows for incredible build flexibility simply unparalleled by the predecessor infusion and upgrade systems in previous titles. They may also be transferred with a weapon they are slotted into in order to trade them to another player, unlocking the Ash of War for them to later duplicate and place on *even more* weapons. Unfortunately, this is gated by a limited number of Lost Ashes of War (the item required to duplicate an Ash of War at Smith Hewg), but nothing NG+ doesn't fix.

Boss encounters are plentiful and, per FROMSOFT charm, difficult but not unreasonably so - and with 12 years between Demon's Souls' original release and Elden Ring, quite a bit of time to iterate upon making them fresh and interesting. There are no Capra Demon-esque arenas in this game, much to our relief.. but there are many, many bosses that have AoE attacks also inflicting contact damage in addition to status buildup, something the previous games did not do. I'm curious as to why this change was made - perhaps they felt status encounters were too weak?..

Arguably, there are only three things the single player experience could really improve upon (bar a change to upgrade materials themselves):

1. A legend key for the Map, *or* teaching about the Map Marker system instead of hiding it in a menu at the bottom of the screen.

Identifying certain points of interest that you cannot hover over, such as mines, can be difficult. In addition, discovering a mine will *remove* its already-unclear indicator from the map if you pass too near to it, making it difficult to return to it without external assistance (such as map screenshots from other players) if you hadn't rested at its Site of Grace. This makes it significantly more tedious to find the mines which, gated behind their bosses, have Bell-Bearings that hold unlocks for infinite upgrade materials purchasable for runes. If you want to experiment with weapon choices, or pivot to a new build mid-game, this becomes... difficult without the appropriate Bell-Bearings.

2. More greatly emphasizing nighttime re-exploration and adding a Midnight time-of-day.

Time is divided into several sections in this game - Early Day, Noon, Late Day, and Night (with weather variations). However, Night has no divisions within its duration - causing deaths during Night to advance to the next time of day, Early Day, and making it a proper pain in the ass to continue nighttime exploration. There are several nighttime-exclusive bosses and having to essentially go through two loading screens between attempts (one post-death, one to pass time to Nightfall again) is *extraordinarily frustrating*.

3. Quitting the obsession with boss duos composed of previous encounters in a *certain region* of the game. (Thanks, Caelid.)

These do not necessarily mean two of the *same* enemy (most of the time it is double of similarly appearing enemies with different movesets, or two completely different enemies), but there are several boss duo fights which lack the grandeur, charm, and frankly the fun factor of previous gank bosses.

To take examples from previous FROMSOFTWARE games:

In Dark Souls, Ornstein and Smough are universally loved for the character they provide even if the boss fight itself (waiting for bosses to lock themselves in an animation isolating them in a corner while you whack the other) is lacking. Dark Souls 2 was called out for usage of what amounted to monster closets of previous encounters, including bosses, being thrown at you. Sister Friede and Father Ariandel in Dark Souls 3 were rightfully criticized for reinforcing that a gank boss could "only" be another Ornstein and Smough.

But, in the Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3, FROM produced a near-perfection of the double boss formula - the Demon Prince fight from Dark Souls 3. A large arena where you can kite the melee boss around while the other boss acts as an area hazard you can occasionally run in on and punish, *while still kiting the main boss*, was wonderful - along with distinct changes between which of the two bosses is acting in that role.

Elden Ring, however, seems to have forgotten this lesson. Double bosses are almost universally a poor experience given the pairings of wide sweep arcs with constant gap closers from the other bosses - or, worse, persistent ranged projectiles from behind said wide sweep arcs in small arenas. This is disappointing and aggravating, but *certainly* not unplayable (as the bosses themselves are well designed on their own).

*Overall, Elden Ring is a strong 8, perhaps deserved 9/10.*

I wouldn't have binged the game as hard as I did out the gates if it wasn't deserving - but there are issues with FROM's formula that are recurrent from their previous titles which *must* be addressed at some point. They do not greatly detract from the game, but you will find yourself thinking about them.

Dear God above, it's finally here. Disclaimer: I have spent a little over two thousand hours between various Steam accounts on the DARK SOULS series. You will see comparisons in this review to FROMSOFTWARE's previous games. Invasions are not mentioned beyond this disclaimer, given the majority of players will not participate in them due to the nature of Elden Ring making solo players un-invadeable without opt-in. The lack of transparency around invasion matchmaking once again will make invaders rather unhappy, once Bandai Namco begins multiplayer balancing. (edited as of Patch 1.07; near/far invasion explanation in the patch notes is the best transparency we've ever gotten, thanks Bandai). I must admit the prospect of a FROMSOFTWARE RPG set in an open world daunted me a bit. After the rather disastrous dev cycles of the Souls games resulting in iconic but incomplete worlds, I feared this would be much of the same. Cue the pandemic and resulting delays, and I expected the worst. Luckily, these fears were ultimately cast aside by what is most likely the best iteration that FROM can produce on their RPGs going forward. ER's world, while not seamless (lifts in particular as well as the Roundtable Hold), *is* complete - and there is direction to it. Yet, open-world dungeons, mines, catacombs, and more concrete story progression are all freely accessible while working between other bits of content. This allows for an approach to Elden Ring that even newer players can agree is far more consistent with the value that Dark Souls attempted to teach - if you struggle, just head somewhere else and come back stronger. The world expands in every direction, and every time you find a new area the game has expanded in a new direction each time. North, south, east, west, in the sky, beneath the earth - it's all in there. The freedom to explore along with upgrade materials and bosses providing constant incentive to explore in new directions is simply wondrous, compared to the linearity pointed out in Dark Souls 3 in particular. The Ash of War system allows for incredible build flexibility simply unparalleled by the predecessor infusion and upgrade systems in previous titles. They may also be transferred with a weapon they are slotted into in order to trade them to another player, unlocking the Ash of War for them to later duplicate and place on *even more* weapons. Unfortunately, this is gated by a limited number of Lost Ashes of War (the item required to duplicate an Ash of War at Smith Hewg), but nothing NG+ doesn't fix. Boss encounters are plentiful and, per FROMSOFT charm, difficult but not unreasonably so - and with 12 years between Demon's Souls' original release and Elden Ring, quite a bit of time to iterate upon making them fresh and interesting. There are no Capra Demon-esque arenas in this game, much to our relief.. but there are many, many bosses that have AoE attacks also inflicting contact damage in addition to status buildup, something the previous games did not do. I'm curious as to why this change was made - perhaps they felt status encounters were too weak?.. Arguably, there are only three things the single player experience could really improve upon (bar a change to upgrade materials themselves): 1. A legend key for the Map, *or* teaching about the Map Marker system instead of hiding it in a menu at the bottom of the screen. Identifying certain points of interest that you cannot hover over, such as mines, can be difficult. In addition, discovering a mine will *remove* its already-unclear indicator from the map if you pass too near to it, making it difficult to return to it without external assistance (such as map screenshots from other players) if you hadn't rested at its Site of Grace. This makes it significantly more tedious to find the mines which, gated behind their bosses, have Bell-Bearings that hold unlocks for infinite upgrade materials purchasable for runes. If you want to experiment with weapon choices, or pivot to a new build mid-game, this becomes... difficult without the appropriate Bell-Bearings. 2. More greatly emphasizing nighttime re-exploration and adding a Midnight time-of-day. Time is divided into several sections in this game - Early Day, Noon, Late Day, and Night (with weather variations). However, Night has no divisions within its duration - causing deaths during Night to advance to the next time of day, Early Day, and making it a proper pain in the ass to continue nighttime exploration. There are several nighttime-exclusive bosses and having to essentially go through two loading screens between attempts (one post-death, one to pass time to Nightfall again) is *extraordinarily frustrating*. 3. Quitting the obsession with boss duos composed of previous encounters in a *certain region* of the game. (Thanks, Caelid.) These do not necessarily mean two of the *same* enemy (most of the time it is double of similarly appearing enemies with different movesets, or two completely different enemies), but there are several boss duo fights which lack the grandeur, charm, and frankly the fun factor of previous gank bosses. To take examples from previous FROMSOFTWARE games: In Dark Souls, Ornstein and Smough are universally loved for the character they provide even if the boss fight itself (waiting for bosses to lock themselves in an animation isolating them in a corner while you whack the other) is lacking. Dark Souls 2 was called out for usage of what amounted to monster closets of previous encounters, including bosses, being thrown at you. Sister Friede and Father Ariandel in Dark Souls 3 were rightfully criticized for reinforcing that a gank boss could "only" be another Ornstein and Smough. But, in the Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3, FROM produced a near-perfection of the double boss formula - the Demon Prince fight from Dark Souls 3. A large arena where you can kite the melee boss around while the other boss acts as an area hazard you can occasionally run in on and punish, *while still kiting the main boss*, was wonderful - along with distinct changes between which of the two bosses is acting in that role. Elden Ring, however, seems to have forgotten this lesson. Double bosses are almost universally a poor experience given the pairings of wide sweep arcs with constant gap closers from the other bosses - or, worse, persistent ranged projectiles from behind said wide sweep arcs in small arenas. This is disappointing and aggravating, but *certainly* not unplayable (as the bosses themselves are well designed on their own). *Overall, Elden Ring is a strong 8, perhaps deserved 9/10.* I wouldn't have binged the game as hard as I did out the gates if it wasn't deserving - but there are issues with FROM's formula that are recurrent from their previous titles which *must* be addressed at some point. They do not greatly detract from the game, but you will find yourself thinking about them.