🔥 INTRODUCTION
You know the deal by now. Souls games don’t hold your hand. I usually lean toward story-driven or cinematic games: the kind with clear direction, strong characters, and a sense of purpose. Shooters, fighters, action adventures, stuff that pushes forward. But every time, I still get pulled back into FromSoft’s worlds. There’s something about the lore, the atmosphere, and that haunting world-building that always grabs me, even when the experience itself drives me crazy.
So here’s my full take on Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree.
🌄 VISUALS & WORLD DESIGN
Let’s get one thing straight: the art direction is phenomenal. The architecture, the armor, the bosses, all of it looks like it belongs to a civilization that truly existed. Every ruin feels like something incredible once happened there. There’s no denying it, visually this game is breathtaking.
But when you look past the presentation, the world doesn’t really react to anything. It’s beautiful, but static. You travel through deserts, castles, and divine towers, but nothing about the player’s journey ever reshapes the world in a meaningful way. Cool things happen off-screen, and that kills immersion for me. The world looks alive, but it never feels alive. It’s just a stage that resets endlessly.
I do understand that for lore reasons it all makes sense. You are stuck in a world of death and rebirth, and even victory only resets the cycle. I’m not knocking that idea, it fits the theme perfectly. I just don’t personally enjoy loop-based worlds that never move forward. It’s not a flaw, it’s simply not the kind of storytelling that resonates with me.
If the world had reacted to your choices, or if the environment had told more of the story through action instead of text, it could have been unforgettable. Instead, it ends up as gorgeous noise stretched across too much land.
🔊 SOUND DESIGN
No complaints here. FromSoft’s audio team delivered another masterpiece. The soundtrack, environmental soundscapes, and weapon impact all hit perfectly. The mix feels balanced right out of the box, and the voice acting is excellent. This is one area where Elden Ring completely nails atmosphere.
🎮 GAMEPLAY
Elden Ring doesn’t care how you play, and that’s one of its best qualities. You can fight naked with a stick or min-max until you one-shot every boss. It’s your choice, and that freedom deserves respect.
For most players, the difficulty can be overcome through understanding the systems, doing research, and learning from others. That’s how the game is designed: a shared struggle where players leave messages, share discoveries, and help each other figure it out. I actually respect that. It asks for commitment, but if you embrace it, the game can be really fun. You get what you put in.
The DLC shows that side of FromSoft at its best. Messmer became one of my favorite bosses in any of their games. The fights leading up to the finale were creative, intense, and rewarding. But the final encounter with Promised Consort Radahn left me a bit disappointed. I was happy to beat it, but I didn’t enjoy the fight itself as much as I expected. That’s personal preference: he’s meant to be the hardest challenge, and I’m fine with that, but I also want a boss that elevates the experience of overcoming it.
Still, the DLC is stunning overall. It feels like a melting pot of Bloodborne and Elden Ring, full of incredible ideas, beautiful art, and memorable fights. Even with the uneven boss design, it’s some of FromSoft’s best work.
📖 STORY & CHARACTERS
Here’s where I check out completely. I understand what FromSoft is going for with its cryptic storytelling, player interpretation, and environmental clues, but it just doesn’t land for me.
On paper, I like the idea. The concept of the Ring shattering, gathering fragments, and becoming whole again is thematically strong. It’s about finding will in chaos, about building yourself back together through struggle. I actually love that message. The problem is how it’s delivered.
The world relies too much on telling instead of showing. Most of the story lives in item descriptions, vague NPC dialogue, and YouTube breakdowns. That’s not mystery to me, that’s just friction. It feels foggy, not profound, and it’s been the same loop of death and rebirth since Demon’s Souls. At this point, I’m over it.
It’s a style of storytelling that works for some people, but it’s not for me. I prefer something closer to Sekiro’s approach where the story unfolds naturally through clear action and dialogue. By the time I reached Shadow of the Erdtree, I couldn’t care less about the NPCs. They feel like empty vessels built to dump exposition instead of characters with emotional weight.
So yeah, I chose the Frenzied Flame ending, because it fits how I feel about this world: burn it all, break the cycle, and move on.
💭 PERSONAL TAKE
The combat is fun once you find your rhythm. Switching weapons, respeccing, and experimenting keeps it fresh, and I did enjoy beating a lot of the bosses in both the base game and the DLC. The experience can be thrilling when it all clicks, but sometimes the game straight up trolls you. I love it and hate it at the same time. It’s a game that demands patience and teaches you to get comfortable with dying, to not stress, to just keep going.
My real critique isn’t just about Elden Ring, it’s about the whole formula: Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls 1 through 3, even Bloodborne and Sekiro to a point. It all feels like one giant connected world that never really moves forward. I still love what FromSoft does when they switch things up, like with Sekiro, which had a tighter story and better pacing. But Elden Ring feels bloated. It lets you skip a lot if you want, which is good, but if you try to see everything, it starts to drag. Some areas shine, others feel empty, and halfway through it becomes a mix of highs and lows.
I’m not really an endgame-type player. I don’t need a game to go on forever. I just want an experience that stays engaging. Elden Ring delivers that in bursts, but it wears me down over time. When I finally beat it, I felt relief more than accomplishment. It’s a game I respect deeply, but I don’t love playing it the way others do.
🧠 CLOSING THOUGHTS
Elden Ring feels like the culmination of everything FromSoft has built since Demon’s Souls. It combines the best aspects of that style: intricate world design, haunting atmosphere, and rich lore into one massive experience. Even if I think the scale and repetition diminish some of its impact, the world itself is still elegant and fun to explore.
To me, a slightly more focused game, expanding on Dark Souls 3 rather than spreading wider, could have delivered the same effect with more consistency. Still, this is FromSoft at the peak of their craft. The ambition is undeniable.
I don’t really care what other people think of it at this point. Elden Ring’s design is perfect for players who love piecing everything together, where almost nothing gets in the way of gameplay and challenge, and the world itself tells the story. I’m not criticizing that approach: it’s just the part that engages me the least.
The combat, character building, and exploration are where I have the most fun. I enjoy the simple side of the lore and the visual storytelling. What loses me is being left with too many unanswered questions. I don’t want to chase every theory or spend hours researching the meaning behind it all. For me, that starts to feel like homework. But the lore itself is strong and beautifully written, so if that’s your thing, more power to you.
Elden Ring is grand, ambitious, and visually unmatched, but also overextended, uneven, and emotionally distant. For Souls fans, it’s legendary. For me, I’m somewhere in the middle.
