Let me start by saying that I love Elden Ring to death and I would do anything to forget I ever played this game to play it again from the very beginning. It’s THAT good.
But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have my fair share of things I hate about this game.
And let’s be real, no games are perfect, that much is correct.

Elden ring is the very first game where From Software try input their souls-like formula into an open-world game. Now, one could argue that previous From Software titles are already open-world as they are, but no, Elden Ring is the only true open-world title which differs greatly from those titles.

Let’s start with the positives first.
Horseback riding is amazing and compliments Elden Ring a lot. It is the very first time From Software ever implemented another form of travelling method which I greatly welcome. You also can now fast travel from almost anywhere, provided you are not in the middle of a fight or in the middle of an uncleared dungeon, which is a nice thing to have.

The map is massive, but not empty. There is a lot of things to find, a lot of dungeons to beat, a lot of secrets to unearth, a lot of lore to understand from environmental storytelling, and most importantly the open world doesn’t look bland or unmemorable. I love every single part of the maps and they fit Elden Ring’s atmosphere.

Weapons are awesome in Elden Ring. While not all of them are great like Bloodborne’s weapons, they still are great and offers a lot of experimentation and build variety. This is also true for incantations, sorceries, and so on and so forth. In short, builds in Elden Ring are nearly endless and they offer great replayability.

Legacy dungeons. These are massive dungeons that always end with a great boss in the end, and ties in with some major quest. While the quest itself is awesome, the legacy dungeons are where the fun at. Volcano Manor, Miquella’s Haligtree, Siofra River and Nokron the Eternal City are among my favorites and they are always a blast to play through.

I talked about major quests just now, but the side quests are not bad either. They still are as depressing as ever and while they are really confusing at times which I never really mind, I love all of them.

All of the major bosses are of top notch qualities, I might even say that they are so good that no other game could match Elden Ring major bosses. Not even the previous titles (excluding Sekiro’s Isshin). Some may rant about Elden Ring abuses a lot of delayed attacks on their bosses in order to make the bosses even more difficult just to annoy the player but I assure you this is not the case. Delayed attacks are what I think really separates those who understand the bosses and actually learn while fighting the game to those who simply spam dodge button and play without a single time thinking what the boss might do. In short, delayed attack really does add that feeling of finesse you would never get from any other game, or at least not as much.

And those are about the most positive things about Elden Ring. Sadly, now I have to talk about things that Elden Ring simply didn’t do right or at least things they are still experimenting on and still couldn’t nail it down.

The biggest negative this game have is balancing in a lot of aspects.
In term of difficulty, while I do understand that this is just the result of this game being open world, it is still a negative nonetheless. Bosses in Elden Ring are the best when you are fighting them at the correct intended level. So that the bosses offer right amount of threat for you while you are still strong enough to fight them.

Sometimes, however, this is not the case because this game is an open world. A boss that another player might find very difficult might be a walk in the park for another player that discover the game way later in game and in turn being a lot more powerful than the other player. Thus, this player is simply way too strong to enjoy the boss and ended up three or four shotting the boss. This happens to me a lot of times that I ended up making another save after completing the game to fight those bosses that I found easy and ended up changing my opinion of them from “Really? That’s it? That’s the boss?” into “Oh okay this guy is actually scary”.

But sometimes, the difficulty is not tied with the level at all and some bosses are straight up difficult or easy at any level.

One boss is way too easy, and another is straight up unfair. You would understand what I mean if you ever fought the Godskin Duo or the duo Erdtree Burial Watchdogs.

You might notice that the unfair bosses I mentioned are duos, and that is another big issue with Elden Ring, is that the bosses are not only often times designed so poorly, they also are repetitive and reused to the moment you don’t even feel excited fighting them or winning against them.

Some of those bosses even turn into normal mobs you find much later into the game and I cannot stress how I hate this so much not just in this game but in other titles, because, one, it feels very cheap, and second, they are supposed to be bosses for God sakes, they are supposed to be special mobs and not unlimitedly respawning mobs. Thankfully however, the major bosses don’t suffer from this issue.

Back to the topic of poor balancing, endgame is a little unbalanced as well, but honestly, I never really minded the endgame myself. Some would say that enemies deal way too much damage but that is never the case for me who always put generous amounts of points into vigor and endurance in order to build myself some health and protection.

And that is about what I really have to hate about the game. The rests I have in mind are simple inconveniences that I simply don’t see as inconveniences but not negatives. For example, you can only invade a player that is playing coop and not those who are playing solo unless they use a specific item. You don’t know how much this sucks, but I don’t mind since there is fun in fighting a gank squad in and out of itself.

In the end, this game is amazing despite its flaws which I hope will get cleared up in the future title if there is ever an Elden Ring 2 (prayge). It is a masterpiece and it deserve its 2022 GOTY. This game reinvents the open world formula and didn’t follow the western way of making open world that completely holds your hand throughout the entire experience. This game is such a fresh breath of air that I really couldn’t find myself ever rating this game lower than a 10/10.

I hope that From Software continues to make game of this quality and I hope future games, not just from From Software (lol), will follow in Elden Ring footsteps. Here’s for hoping a better future into the open-world genre that has been undoubtedly stale in the past few years.

[h1][i]Elden Ring is an experimental masterpiece.[/i][/h1] Let me start by saying that I love Elden Ring to death and I would do anything to forget I ever played this game to play it again from the very beginning. It’s [b]THAT[/b] good. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have my fair share of things I hate about this game. And let’s be real, no games are perfect, that much is correct. Elden ring is the very first game where From Software try input their souls-like formula into an open-world game. Now, one could argue that previous From Software titles are already open-world as they are, but no, Elden Ring is the only true open-world title which differs greatly from those titles. Let’s start with the positives first. Horseback riding is amazing and compliments Elden Ring a lot. It is the very first time From Software ever implemented another form of travelling method which I greatly welcome. You also can now fast travel from almost anywhere, provided you are not in the middle of a fight or in the middle of an uncleared dungeon, which is a nice thing to have. The map is massive, but not empty. There is a lot of things to find, a lot of dungeons to beat, a lot of secrets to unearth, a lot of lore to understand from environmental storytelling, and most importantly the open world doesn’t look bland or unmemorable. I love every single part of the maps and they fit Elden Ring’s atmosphere. Weapons are awesome in Elden Ring. While not all of them are great like Bloodborne’s weapons, they still are great and offers a lot of experimentation and build variety. This is also true for incantations, sorceries, and so on and so forth. In short, builds in Elden Ring are nearly endless and they offer great replayability. Legacy dungeons. These are massive dungeons that always end with a great boss in the end, and ties in with some major quest. While the quest itself is awesome, the legacy dungeons are where the fun at. Volcano Manor, Miquella’s Haligtree, Siofra River and Nokron the Eternal City are among my favorites and they are always a blast to play through. I talked about major quests just now, but the side quests are not bad either. They still are as depressing as ever and while they are really confusing at times which I never really mind, I love all of them. All of the major bosses are of top notch qualities, I might even say that they are so good that no other game could match Elden Ring major bosses. Not even the previous titles (excluding Sekiro’s Isshin). Some may rant about Elden Ring abuses a lot of delayed attacks on their bosses in order to make the bosses even more difficult just to annoy the player but I assure you this is not the case. Delayed attacks are what I think really separates those who understand the bosses and actually learn while fighting the game to those who simply spam dodge button and play without a single time thinking what the boss might do. In short, delayed attack really does add that feeling of finesse you would never get from any other game, or at least not as much. And those are about the most positive things about Elden Ring. Sadly, now I have to talk about things that Elden Ring simply didn’t do right or at least things they are still experimenting on and still couldn’t nail it down. The biggest negative this game have is balancing in a lot of aspects. In term of difficulty, while I do understand that this is just the result of this game being open world, it is still a negative nonetheless. Bosses in Elden Ring are the best when you are fighting them at the correct intended level. So that the bosses offer right amount of threat for you while you are still strong enough to fight them. Sometimes, however, this is not the case because this game is an open world. A boss that another player might find very difficult might be a walk in the park for another player that discover the game way later in game and in turn being a lot more powerful than the other player. Thus, this player is simply way too strong to enjoy the boss and ended up three or four shotting the boss. This happens to me a lot of times that I ended up making another save after completing the game to fight those bosses that I found easy and ended up changing my opinion of them from “Really? That’s it? That’s the boss?” into “Oh okay this guy is actually scary”. But sometimes, the difficulty is not tied with the level at all and some bosses are straight up difficult or easy at any level. One boss is way too easy, and another is straight up unfair. You would understand what I mean if you ever fought the Godskin Duo or the duo Erdtree Burial Watchdogs. You might notice that the unfair bosses I mentioned are duos, and that is another big issue with Elden Ring, is that the bosses are not only often times designed so poorly, they also are repetitive and reused to the moment you don’t even feel excited fighting them or winning against them. Some of those bosses even turn into normal mobs you find much later into the game and I cannot stress how I hate this so much not just in this game but in other titles, because, one, it feels very cheap, and second, they are supposed to be bosses for God sakes, they are supposed to be special mobs and not unlimitedly respawning mobs. Thankfully however, the major bosses don’t suffer from this issue. Back to the topic of poor balancing, endgame is a little unbalanced as well, but honestly, I never really minded the endgame myself. Some would say that enemies deal way too much damage but that is never the case for me who always put generous amounts of points into vigor and endurance in order to build myself some health and protection. And that is about what I really have to hate about the game. The rests I have in mind are simple inconveniences that I simply don’t see as inconveniences but not negatives. For example, you can only invade a player that is playing coop and not those who are playing solo unless they use a specific item. You don’t know how much this sucks, but I don’t mind since there is fun in fighting a gank squad in and out of itself. In the end, this game is amazing despite its flaws which I hope will get cleared up in the future title if there is ever an Elden Ring 2 (prayge). It is a masterpiece and it deserve its 2022 GOTY. This game reinvents the open world formula and didn’t follow the western way of making open world that completely holds your hand throughout the entire experience. This game is such a fresh breath of air that I really couldn’t find myself ever rating this game lower than a 10/10. I hope that From Software continues to make game of this quality and I hope future games, not just from From Software (lol), will follow in Elden Ring footsteps. Here’s for hoping a better future into the open-world genre that has been undoubtedly stale in the past few years.