When FromSoft released Demon’s Souls over a decade ago, it was just a weird little game from a weird never-heard-of developer. Apparently, GameSpot gave it their Game of the Year award in 2009, which is very much ahead of the curve. I have included the video of the GameSpot staff talking about why they gave the game the Game of the Year award.
It was wildly divisive in that people either loved it or really, really hated it. I would say that it has remained so for the rest of the games. It appears that there are more people who love Elden Ring than have ever embraced a From game before. That makes me happy because they deserve more love.
One thing interesting about going through a new From game is to note all their trademarks, for better and for worse. one example is how each biome is exquisitely crafted and elegantly designed. In Elden Ring, many of the biomes are associated with colors. Limgrave is green, Liurnia of the Lakes is blue, Caelid is red, and a later subterranean area is purple. I think of Altus Plateau as gold, but I’m not sure that one is as obvious or even true.
Let’s talk about the various smaller dungeons dotted across the lands. The caves, catacombs, and mines are not my favorite. At all. They remind me of the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne, which I did not like at all. I did the first dungeon and then decided not to do the rest. They are so samesy, and I got lost more times than I can count. I feel the same with the small dungeons in Elden Ring. They are the damn same. I don’t care what the theme is to them or the puzzle you have to figure out to move forward because they are essentially the same thing. Run around in a dungeon with some kind of impediment such as poison or scarlet rot (a stronger poison). There are imps/little gargoyles jumping at you from unseen places. There’s some puzzle you have to figure out such as jumping on top of huge cleavers that chop into the ground so you can ride up and jump off elsewhere (great). That plus one gimmick of the dungeon. In one case, it was holy light that burned off the black mist on the enemy, rendering them able to be killed. Another was a crystal cave that looked a lot like the one in the original Dark Souls (though, thankfully, not with invisible paths).