I finished Elden ring on 3/19/22. It took me over 80 hours. Of that 80 hours I spent a good amount just exploring. Another five or so devoted to hearing the phrase ” I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella…” or even more frustrating to hear “Let your flesh be consumed. By the scarlet rot.”

When I started Elden Ring I did what I typically do in the souls/borne games and that is I make a caster. Casters are NOT always strong in these games but if you have played even a minute of of Elden Ring you know damn well that sorceries are in a league of their own. The dex/int build that everyone sees everywhere is the real deal. I almost always then play a strength build in a fresh game after.

I went into Elden Ring not knowing much about the world. To my surprise it is a surreal experience and the most fun I have had exploring a virtual world since the first time I booted up World of Warcraft in 2004 and years later with Breath of the Wild. I completed the tutorial section and right away was overwhelmed. When you come out of the tomb or whatever you want to call it, and see the world, It is hard to not just gasp. These games are infamous for no direction and now they just plopped you into a vast open space.

I went to a church first. Got a horse. I didn’t find out about the summons till after beating Stormveil. I wish I had sooner because Godfrey the Grafted was annoying. Clearing Stormveil first seemed like what I was intended to do and overall I didn’t struggle too bad with it but afterwards I wasn’t sure where to go at all.

That is the magical thing about Elden Ring. I would see a structure and head towards it to only find a portal that takes me halfway across the map with a giant who one shots me. I return back to the path I was taking and suddenly I am helping a guy invade worlds but in helping him do that I find myself again in a cave. And it just keeps going and going like that.

I never was certain I was doing the right thing. But I learned that there is “no right” thing to do. Sure there are story dungeons that need to be cleared but none of the side quest zones felt like I was wasting my time. I would always be rewarded with a cool item. Even if it was an item that didn’t fit into my play style, it still seemed useful to certain builds.

Another wonderful thing was I would find myself climbing a cliff or some weird giant tree roots and almost every time at the top would be an item. These items were not always useful but they felt like little nods for wasting my time. “Congrats here is a mushroom for climbing up this massive structure that you really didn’t need to climb”

The sheer amount of weapons and spells you can get in this game is wild. Even after beating the game I would find new weapons that seemed cool. Elden Ring really will lend itself to all types of play. I used the Moonveil for a while and after I got it, Hand of Malenia I shifted from using spells to melee at that point. Don’t get me wrong I used spells but I stopped using them on every single thing I ran into.

The variety of bosses in this game is also astounding. There are 120 bosses in this game. Some you can stomp pretty quickly, other’s like mentioned above took hours of patience and screaming to get through.

I have no idea how many I ended up killing. I would say over 50 but probably no more than 70. Some are versions of the same boss with some new tricks but you would run into those fights so infrequently that it didn’t matter that the tree sentinel is now draconic. It’s been 20 hours since you fought the first version and you barely escaped that one.

Top 5 bosses I struggled with 1. Malenia 2. Fire Giant 3. Elden Beast 4. Starscourge Radahn 5. Godfrey the Grafted

I could go on and on about this game but let me finish with this. I would highly recommend this game to people. Even people that are not used to these styles of games. Even if that requires waiting for it to drop down to a smaller price tag. To me this game feels like it is one of those games that changes the landscape of games. Like your Ocarina of Time or Resident Evil 4.

I would give Elden Ring an 11/10 and I have 100 percent completed the games trophies. I plan on playing Elden Ring for the next month.