Elden Ring is not a flawless game, but it's a game that the more hours you spend on it, the more feels almost unreal for the sheer size, amount of content and average quality.
Sure, it has a bit of recycled stuff here and there (but let's get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ real, there's more UNIQUE content here than in few other games combined, so what if some mini-bosses are re-used more than once across the game) and sure, the progression curve applied to the non-linear design cause the difficulty to feel weirdly uneven at times (i.e. You a struggling a bit to make past an area, then you move to the next and you are steamrolling poor suckers and bi-shotting mini-bosses) but when it's at its highest it's almost unbelievably good.

And my god, what they did with the landscape design is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ outstanding in some cases (especially moving past the first region, arguably the dullest of the bunch) and interacting with it, finding traversable points, exploring landscape markers etc becomes a significant part of the gameplay on its own.

Overall, there are genuinely moments you have to stop for a second and wonder how the hell did they achieve something on this scale and with this level of quality.

But sure, you can nitpick and do the usual Souls connoisseur skit with the great classic "ACTUALLY, I liked Dark Souls X better, because...".
it's fine, anyone can even preferences and they don't even need to be rationalized strongly. But objectively speaking this one IS their Magnum Opus so far, even people who won't particularly love it will have to admit it after spending enough hours on it.

There may be minor things where I rank the previous titles higher (Sekiro is still unmatched for the best boss battles mechanically, for one) but as an overall product it feels like a no-contest. Elden Ring dwarfs From's previous releases in the long run.
What's crazy is that I must have something like 70 hours or so of actual gameplay on record so far and my opinion of it keeps improving as the hours go, despise some of the flaws becoming more apparent as well.

Just days ago, playing a bit just to kill some time but with no real goal to progress toward, I realized beating a certain boss the day before opened the access to a new area in another part of the world. I dived in to see what kind of easter egg I was setting myself for ("Will it be an optional arena with a boss?") and it turned out to be an entire new subterranean region, that forked in more than one way, opening access to yet ANOTHER region far away and connecting to previous subterranean areas I visited before.
I've never seen anything like this in years of gaming.

Do I think it deserves a 10? Not Sure, I don't particularly care for putting it in numbers. But I'm more for the "yes" than for the "no". It's outstanding in far more ways that it is occasionally flawed.
And a "10" for me represents nothing less and nothing more than "excellent".

P.S. I'll say it upfront: people who love to argue that "a 10 means perfection and no game is perfect, so no game should ever deserve a 10" are mouth-drooling morons.

Elden Ring is not a flawless game, but it's a game that the more hours you spend on it, the more feels almost unreal for the sheer size, amount of content and average quality. Sure, it has a bit of recycled stuff here and there (but let's get fucking real, there's more UNIQUE content here than in few other games combined, so what if some mini-bosses are re-used more than once across the game) and sure, the progression curve applied to the non-linear design cause the difficulty to feel weirdly uneven at times (i.e. You a struggling a bit to make past an area, then you move to the next and you are steamrolling poor suckers and bi-shotting mini-bosses) but when it's at its highest it's almost unbelievably good. And my god, what they did with the landscape design is fucking outstanding in some cases (especially moving past the first region, arguably the dullest of the bunch) and interacting with it, finding traversable points, exploring landscape markers etc becomes a significant part of the gameplay on its own. Overall, there are genuinely moments you have to stop for a second and wonder how the hell did they achieve something on this scale and with this level of quality. But sure, you can nitpick and do the usual Souls connoisseur skit with the great classic "ACTUALLY, I liked Dark Souls X better, because...". it's fine, anyone can even preferences and they don't even need to be rationalized strongly. But objectively speaking this one IS their Magnum Opus so far, even people who won't particularly love it will have to admit it after spending enough hours on it. There may be minor things where I rank the previous titles higher (Sekiro is still unmatched for the best boss battles mechanically, for one) but as an overall product it feels like a no-contest. Elden Ring dwarfs From's previous releases in the long run. What's crazy is that I must have something like 70 hours or so of actual gameplay on record so far and my opinion of it keeps improving as the hours go, despise some of the flaws becoming more apparent as well. Just days ago, playing a bit just to kill some time but with no real goal to progress toward, I realized beating a certain boss the day before opened the access to a new area in another part of the world. I dived in to see what kind of easter egg I was setting myself for ("Will it be an optional arena with a boss?") and it turned out to be an entire new subterranean region, that forked in more than one way, opening access to yet ANOTHER region far away and connecting to previous subterranean areas I visited before. I've never seen anything like this in years of gaming. Do I think it deserves a 10? Not Sure, I don't particularly care for putting it in numbers. But I'm more for the "yes" than for the "no". It's outstanding in far more ways that it is occasionally flawed. And a "10" for me represents nothing less and nothing more than "excellent". P.S. I'll say it upfront: people who love to argue that "a 10 means perfection and no game is perfect, so no game should ever deserve a 10" are mouth-drooling morons.