This was my first souls game, and I hated it at first. I refunded it the first time I played it, but gave it another go because one of my good friends loves this game. I felt kind of awful for my first 10-20 hours, but after killing the crucible night in the evergaol on stormhill, it clicked, and I really found the magic in this game. I spent like 4 collective hours on that evergaol getting my ass beat by that crucible knight and it felt impossible. Despite that, I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ did it, and I felt like I did something I wasn't supposed to do, and that's really where my amazement with this game came in.

Most games have an intended solution for you to follow. While this game was definitely extensively playtested, each enemy doesn't give you attack windows because you need a way to win, they do it because their attack left the vulnerable. Between poise and stamina and each attack that you and the enemy make yourselves vulnerable in, its like a steady dance to the death and I think it's beautiful. This is one of my favorite games of all time.

I heard from my friends that the lore/story was kind of just Game of Thrones but with a little more sex, but I actually disagree and felt somewhat captivated by it. Learning about the relationships between demigods through vague phrases and the environment felt really compelling, like in miquella's haligtree, where you see statues of him being raised by queen marika. I like that the story wasn't handed to you on a platter and that, much like the gameplay, you had to earn it, you had to pay attention and think, "what the hell is that guy saying?" One of my favorite cases of this was trying to understand what force was guiding us throughout the game. You see it early on as the yellow wisps flowing from a site of grace, that shows up on your map generally pointing you in a direction to progress. At the end of the game, Godfrey is that same sort of directional grace, pointed at YOU which I thought was such a cool detail, especially since I had been looking for indications of what it meant. So much in this game isn't just gameplay and has greater implications. Last thing about setting and story, I'm such a sucker for outer gods and I love their influences on the lands between.

Seeing messages from other players was fantastic and it always felt good to get appraisals from other players going through the same thing as you. I also really like the messaging format in old-english and the limited options, it made for really creative messages. One of my favorites early game was basically someone saying they got home from work and was smoking weed while playing Elden Ring, I forget exactly how they phrased it was so funny.

Briefly I want to mention, anything else not criticized in this review, consider it perfect. The music, the landscape, the weapons, the enemies, I loved it all. One more minor good thing, merchants having notes "imparting knowledge in brief." These notes were great and really helpful, I wish there were more of these and that I knew they existed sooner.

Now for the criticisms. Large bosses, I just wish the camera zoomed out a little so I could more easily see the bosses attack. 60 frames lock was really annoying, I understand its tied to the engine but as a consumer, I don't want to be locked at 60. The introductions for new players, while I understand it was probably the best for any souls game, was pretty poor. I had to watch youtube videos to understand crucial elements like poise and fall damage. I wish these were better taught in Limgrave. Last thing I wanna complain about, the UI. Its robust and functional but it could be much better with a lot less redundancy in button presses.

I'm really looking forward to SotE, and I intend to play new game plus before that even comes out.
If any from soft devs read this, you got a new fanboy and please remake bloodborne for PC, even if its locked at 30 frames...please <3

This was my first souls game, and I hated it at first. I refunded it the first time I played it, but gave it another go because one of my good friends loves this game. I felt kind of awful for my first 10-20 hours, but after killing the crucible night in the evergaol on stormhill, it clicked, and I really found the magic in this game. I spent like 4 collective hours on that evergaol getting my ass beat by that crucible knight and it felt impossible. Despite that, I fucking did it, and I felt like I did something I wasn't supposed to do, and that's really where my amazement with this game came in. Most games have an intended solution for you to follow. While this game was definitely extensively playtested, each enemy doesn't give you attack windows because you need a way to win, they do it because their attack left the vulnerable. Between poise and stamina and each attack that you and the enemy make yourselves vulnerable in, its like a steady dance to the death and I think it's beautiful. This is one of my favorite games of all time. I heard from my friends that the lore/story was kind of just Game of Thrones but with a little more sex, but I actually disagree and felt somewhat captivated by it. Learning about the relationships between demigods through vague phrases and the environment felt really compelling, like in [spoiler]miquella's haligtree, where you see statues of him being raised by queen marika.[/spoiler] I like that the story wasn't handed to you on a platter and that, much like the gameplay, you had to earn it, you had to pay attention and think, "what the hell is that guy saying?" One of my favorite cases of this was trying to understand what force was guiding us throughout the game. You see it early on as the yellow wisps flowing from a site of grace, that shows up on your map generally pointing you in a direction to progress. At the end of the game, [spoiler]Godfrey is that same sort of directional grace, pointed at YOU[/spoiler] which I thought was such a cool detail, especially since I had been looking for indications of what it meant. So much in this game isn't just gameplay and has greater implications. Last thing about setting and story, I'm such a sucker for [spoiler]outer gods[/spoiler] and I love their influences on the lands between. Seeing messages from other players was fantastic and it always felt good to get appraisals from other players going through the same thing as you. I also really like the messaging format in old-english and the limited options, it made for really creative messages. One of my favorites early game was basically someone saying they got home from work and was smoking weed while playing Elden Ring, I forget exactly how they phrased it was so funny. Briefly I want to mention, anything else not criticized in this review, consider it perfect. The music, the landscape, the weapons, the enemies, I loved it all. One more minor good thing, merchants having notes "imparting knowledge in brief." These notes were great and really helpful, I wish there were more of these and that I knew they existed sooner. Now for the criticisms. Large bosses, I just wish the camera zoomed out a little so I could more easily see the bosses attack. 60 frames lock was really annoying, I understand its tied to the engine but as a consumer, I don't want to be locked at 60. The introductions for new players, while I understand it was probably the best for any souls game, was pretty poor. I had to watch youtube videos to understand crucial elements like poise and fall damage. I wish these were better taught in Limgrave. Last thing I wanna complain about, the UI. Its robust and functional but it could be much better with a lot less redundancy in button presses. I'm really looking forward to SotE, and I intend to play new game plus before that even comes out. If any from soft devs read this, you got a new fanboy and please remake bloodborne for PC, even if its locked at 30 frames...please <3