Elden Ring Review (Pippzuuuuuu)
This being my first FromSoftware game, I was a bit nervous about the difficulty as I'm not usually a fan of hard content (or very good at it), but to my pleasant surprise, it wasn't as daunting as I'd thought it'd be, and it actually ended up becoming one of my favorite games.
The World
I can't remember the last time I had this much fun just exploring and running around in a game's open world, and realizing the sheer scale of it all was both exciting and overwhelming. I spent something like 50 hours exploring Limgrave alone and getting familiar with the gameplay and controls.
If I had trouble with a boss or an area, I'd just go somewhere else on the map until I felt ready to take it on, and there's plenty of things to do before even beating the first story boss.
Creature summons were also a huge help, and I was very happy with the options available. Trying out new weapons was fun, and even finding new ones for the lore bits was very compelling and made me want to collect them all.
The Gameplay
My first playthrough ended up being something like 300 hours long, though plenty of those hours were spent doing random things like climbing hard-to-reach places to enjoy the view or leaving fellow players a message!
I also spent plenty of time stubbornly dying to enemies I wasn't quite yet ready to take on, and there were two specific bosses that I had a really hard time with, but finally beating them felt SO satisfying, and it was worth all the rage I'd felt when dying repeatedly to them.
The Multiplayer
I asked for help from some friends at times, and there are a lot of funny moments to be had when playing with others. It's also not that difficult to find a random player to summon if you need help with a boss or dungeon.
When you're in a boss arena, you can't be invaded, so if you're worried about that, you just have to limit summoning other players to when you're fighting bosses.
Though honestly, the invading wasn't as scary as I'd expected, especially when you have the option of asking a hunter for help. I have some great memories from when me and my friend were invaded, times where we got absolutely decimated but also close calls that made us whoop or sigh in relief!
Ending Thoughts
I loved the npc's, although some of the quests felt like they ended too suddenly :( Also, I don't care what anyone says, Fia's hugs are nice and warm.
Seeing my character in cutscenes, however few, felt very satisfying. Especially as I can't help but dress up for that purpose alone lol.
The only bad experience I really had with the game was towards the end. I absolutely hated a certain zone (Farum Azula, cough), and it was the only zone I ended up trying to rush through. Moving around the environment was annoying especially because of the enemies. It's also the only location where my game crashed multiple times.
I have to say the location boss was awesome though, as was every main boss honestly.
The optional boss in the area was also one of my favorite designs and one of my most memorable experiences in the game.
Other than that, I had a few stutters here and there, but nothing too disrupting to my experience.
Even if the game seems difficult, I think giving it a chance is really worth it. The game gives you a lot of options if you're struggling, and there are plenty of playstyles you can give a go.
Suffice to say, I'm super excited to see what the future dlc will bring and I highly recommend the game!
Also, sometimes you really just do need to git guud (I never did git guud myself tho.. :/)