Elden Ring is From Software’s biggest game ever. After releasing Feb. 5, 2022, the game’s community has sold 20 million copies.

I am a From Software addict and this is the first of their games I will play to the end. I’ve been playing it for a year and two months and I still can’t stop playing. Although I haven’t beaten the game, I still enjoy it because it provides a challenge that most games don’t. The trick that From Software has had such success with is making the game hard but incredibly fair and this is why games like Dark Souls have been raised to a legendary status.

Elden Ring has shown that a Souls-like game can be accessible and maybe even easy if players know what they are doing. This is because the combat allows for someone to get overpowered quickly. I love the game because it provides a challenge to those who ask for it, and where they can have the challenge is their choice. For instance, my character is a dex (dexterity) bleed build so on some bosses like Red Wolf of Ratigon, where the boss fight is fast paced, the fight is easy. However, with bosses like Renala I struggle due to constant magic spam. I love the fact that the player is encouraged to explore if they are struggling with a boss. In most of the From Software games, players are on a linear path and have to tough it out. 

I enjoy the art style of the game. It looks like it came out of an old tapestry. The way the cutscenes are designed is beautiful. There are details on Margit like single hairs that players distinctly see. Each area is given character and  story. There are views of oceans where players can see for miles in every direction. The Eternal Cities have fake stars that look like an actual magical sky. It’s incredible.

Now my favorite things about the game are also kind of my least favorite. Let’s look back at Renala. This boss is really easy or really hard depending on the build. Almost no one struggles with it, or it’s someone like me who struggles with it because my build is specifically for fast paced combat. A lot of the combat in this game is fast paced so I probably need to define the term a little more than fast paced or slow paced. There are heavy builds which are meant to take hits. There are magic classes that don’t move as fast; all classes are able to dodge but dexterity classes are built for dodging fast. A dexterity class runs off of I frames which is how long you are invincible during an attack. So for some people different bosses are easier. This doesn’t mean that Elden Ring needs an easy mode. A faster move set for Rennala would have been better, that’s all I am trying to say.

The other massive problem with the bosses in Elden Ring that everyone can agree with: the duo bosses and bosses that return as enemies later (but mostly the duo bosses). The duo bosses aren’t what made duo bosses great in older games that From Software have made in the past. Mostly one boss is the slow tank and there’s a fast boss that is more aggressive than the tank. In the case of the God Skin Duo they’re both fast and aggressive but one takes a break and then joins in allowing the other to take a break. That doesn’t mean that the passive boss won’t still attack the player but that it’s less likely to attack. The bosses that appear as enemies just lose the joy of fighting the boss for the first time.

I do wish to end this on a positive note so let’s talk about music. It’s by far the best part of the game. It’s creepy when it needs to be and adds excitement to boss fights. It is incredible. There is no good way to describe it. Additionally,  the story has themes that still ring true today. It’s definitely something to look into but the game doesn’t just tell you everything you have to look at the item descriptions that tell a poetic story. I won’t spoil it for you.