Just rolled credits at 77 hours. Def gonna win game of the year and in terms of the FROM games I've played this is second after Sekiro.
Having said that I didn't enjoy a lot of things after the first foray into the capital. A lot of the ice shyt pissed me the fukk off Malenia, ulcered tree spirit before her,etc Alot of straight bullshyt.
Wasn't perfect by any means. My cons:
Too many of the "hard" fights I felt like I won because the AI decided to do dumbshyt as opposed to Sekiro where I felt like I earned almost all my W's.
Scarlet rot is fukking stupid get rid of that and stupid shyt like that it doesn't add shyt to the game.
Stop with the traps and the chariots like who is this for?
This game is very much open world. No check list but the whole map marker/reused content thing in open worlds exist here it's just obfuscated really well. I really don't like open world games anymore. Just way too flooded a genre. I still have to play Horizon too and finish dying light. It's not necessarily this games fault but I hope they go back to the linear type joints.
The combat is cool but it ain't fukking with Sekiro or BB.
I'm never gonna give FROM the pass for their stories that everyone else does. If you need companion youtube videos and some losers who read item descriptions to try and tell a story than your shyt is ass. They have cutscenes in the game too but their just the same vague rambling nonsense that they do in all their stories.
Everything else was straight though
Agree with everything 100%
The best parts of the game for me where the legacy dungeons that played more like traditional, well thought out, interconnected souls dungeons. A lot of the open world did feel like fluff just like all the other open world games out right now. Except elden ring doesn’t have towns or a lot of NPC’s, its mostly just things trying to kill you.
I think if they do another open world game I’d like for them to add some settlements like the round table hold, nothing big and extravagant like novigrad but like small hold outs that are like 10 or so people that may or may not have quest or vendors. Add a bit of levity to the game.
And story…yeah, the lore is cool but i YouTubed the story for this and its by far the least captivating out of all the souls games I’ve played. The whole family tree shyt just feels convoluted and nonsensical.
And i said it before but I didn’t really love the boss fights. I thought BB/Sekiro/DS3 are just far superior when it comes to memorable epic moments