Recent reviews by Ayano-chan :3

Finished the game lvl 154, full STR/DEX build (with an adequate vigor amount of course), sporting medium armor and a brass shield + unmodified LSS. A classic quality build. No ashes, no summons, no co-op. Felt like it was a good occasion to write down a few thoughts on the game.

Elden Ring looks really good, despite not being the most advanced game you can find on the market. Despite increased requirements, it runs on a broad variety of configurations. A first problem is that despite having a more than adequate setup (3070), the game up to this day sometimes starts to stutter after playing for a long time. This used to be way worse, with stuttering happening throughout at launch no matter what snake oil fixes I tried, but got improved after a few patches. It is bad that these issues still haven't been fully resolved as of yet though (June 2022).
Last but not least, as per usual, the art direction of the game carries it throughout.

Gameplay-wise, there are some issues, bosses in particular. I don't enjoy the heavy reliance on delayed hits, or the fact that I feel like I'm playing against a Sekiro/Bloodborne boss with Dark Souls 3 gameplay, but I do like the addition of guard counters and the fact that you can adapt your weapons to your playstyle more. However, one of my main gripes is that I felt like the game pushed me towards Faith/Arcane/Intelligence builds way too much. For example, if I check the straight swords, 11 out of 19 of them scale with one of those three stats on top of Strength and/or Dexterity, which is more than twice as many as Dark Souls 3 (17 straight swords, 5 INT/FTH scaling ones). One could say it allows every build to play every type of weapon, but there aren't many great upgrade options among those for "pure" builds.
I can't imagine playing through the game with Mimic tanking the boss while you chill and kill it is the same experience as doing it all yourself and taking all the aggression in the face by yourself, but that being said, while I didn't need or use them, their addition is a good thing for people who do need some extra help here and there to clear the game.

When I started playing, and up to a few dozen hours in, I thought "this is what I wanted Breath of the Wild to be like." The world feels more alive, less empty, despite oozing that characteristic desolate Dark Souls atmosphere which the OST complements really well. Extremely coherent world too. It's a shame that after a while you start realizing how much assets are being reused, especially field bosses like the Night Cavalry, Tree Spirit or Death Bird bosses. It's like they created this huge world, then wondered "ok, so how are we gonna fill this up now?" Same for the catacombs or the ruins, which encompass one of my main issues with Breath of the Wild as well: it feels copy-pasted, shoehorned in, way too game-y. Something just doesn't feel "right".
I feel like Elden Ring is just too big for its own good. I wouldn't have felt/minded these repetitions, or felt like the story was something I heard before in the series, or the fact that this feels like a theme park, a "best of FromSoft" game had the game been 30-40 hours shorter. And most of all, I was glad it was over once I finished it, which has never happened to me before.

So with all that said, would I recommend the game? Of course I would. The main bosses are (mostly) fun, punishing and memorable. You get a full souls-like experience, more polished than ever, more accessible than ever, bigger than ever, prettier than ever, gameplay smoother than ever... all that for the price of a single game, without microtransactions or lootboxes. Are there downsides? Yes there are. Is it the GOTY? If I look at the current 2022 releases, yes definitely. If you even have an inkling of desire to play a FromSoft game, just buy it.
To me though, in this very case, it's like I ate 3 cheesecakes back to back, with the third one close to giving me an indigestion. While I'd love to rate it higher, as of now, I still put Bloodborne and Sekiro above it. I'll replay it sometime in the future with different builds... just not right now.