Critiquing Elden Ring (Before the DLC)

More like Smell-den Ring am I right? Good Old Fromsoft stories. Mistake lore and backstory for actual story. Bloodborne you have a missable note that says "Seek Paleblood" then Gehrman tells you to use the doll. BRAVO MIYAZAKI. I beat Elden Ring. I assume the only reason my character wanted to be Elden Lord was so everyone would stop trying to kill me on sight.

I loooove open world games where you get bored very quickly and just end up fast traveling to skip to traveling. In all seriousness, a lot of games can learn from Red Dead Redemption 2 to where the world is open, but you don't feel a need to fast travel. Yes it does take more time to get from point A to B, but there is so many activities, random events, and immersion aspects to the travel that it makes it not seem as long. Also I am convinced George R. R. Martin had like one idea total in the lore since it's yet another fallen kingdom with a lot of past history game from FromSoft. I don't want to call them a one trick pony, but they do it themselves for me. Edit: 10:25 Nice.

As a little addendum about Fromsoft's writing skills, pretty much every single entry in the Armored Core franchise has been written well if not good or great. There are questions and loose ends here and there but by and large the games have a clear chain of events involving the player or main character that tell a story. It does makes you wonder though...

So while I haven’t played Elden Ring. I am unsure how leveling in that game works as I know in sekiro you level through bosses and finding items. DS1 you level up at the bonfire. DS2 you level at Majula. Usually when I am doing boss runs on these fights I am not trying to level my char. I will kill the necessary enemies that are too hard to avoid. I also save up my pocket souls for when I need a bit more to get to the next level so I can use all of my souls efficiently. Does Elden Ring not have Pocket Souls?

Robert's game really IS a shame, huh?

a lot of this is what I BEEN SCREAMING about souls games

I Hated darksouls before it was cool

I don't disagree on any points. I played it at launch, only day 1 patch. Now, I've got it installed on my PC, and I just think about all of the crap that's in the game and I lose the desire to start it up again. I'll end up playing the DLC, I know I will, but I'm doubtful that I'll have much fun. Peolle will say thay Artorias is peak boss design in DS1, but I consider him the protoform for the terrible bosses that came after. I've not even beaten all of the DS2 DLC, though I do enjoy the game. People will say how great it is, but honestly, with what i played, they're just annoying. And story... I'm not saying that I guarantee that I could do better, and I know that writing for different mediums have different expectations and standards. But I think Fromsoft has lost the script, they don't care because any and all story problems are defended by lorehounds who yell to just read the item descriptions and that X symbolizes Y. Bear no mind that someone else says X actually means Z, and anyone saying otherwise is wrong.

Elden Ring is the most formulaic and soulless Fromsoft game to date