I really, really, really want to like this game. and some of the bosses are absolutely fantastic (all the story/sidequest ones for the most part), but my main prying issue is that there are sub bosses for quests/areas built with no thought in mind to just punish and screw you over for the reason of "lets make it frustrating without any way to fight unless you have op mage skills" as for my aforementioned quotes above, there are multiple encounters in this game meant to keep you on your toes, but some of them are built so vicariously bad that it makes it an extremely frustrating and soul crushing experience, again not because losing to a boss. I even beat Melenia in my 3rd try, but encounters with reused bosses,

a fantastic example of just terrible game design is the "rot" mechanic being as i had to fight an ulcerated tree spirit that not only spits rot, but is in a big pool of it. even after attempting to lure it out (im a melee build) was only met with being tossed off the ledge or being thrown into massive rot ticking damage, even attempting as far as using curables, but still left me with the conundrum of actually hitting the boss. which led to spammy attacks filled with rot. I love the difficulty of the souls games, but a lot of elden ring's "difficulty" derives in just making really crappy and unthoughtful designed encounters in a lot of instances of "lets throw 2-3 of already annoying spammy poorly designed boss type monsters at the player" because thats a fantastic idea for difficulty.

In reality its not difficulty there, difficulty was learning, dodging, and fighting bosses like melenia, godrick, or even the final bosses of the game, or a perfectly done duo boss encounter, Ornstein and Smough from dark souls, and i personally did enjoy the godskin duo, but not super spam and poorly designed reuses of already crap bosses. Honestly in every other aspect, I have loved this game, but there are more times i find myself frustrated over a really poorly done encounter just made to induce rage in a player.

EDITED: PVP on the other hand can be fun when people dont play like asshats, which is never mind you. i actually enjoy being invaded, but every invader comes in pops everything in an attempt to one shot, when im using the tongue to try and get some decent duels in, OR my favorite part is when im kicking the ♥♥♥♥ out of them and as soon as they run out of flasks, they just full close their game so they dont lose. Its extremely frustrating and childish that a lot of people are being such sore losers about invading. (This same scenario as of editing this review has happened 6 times now). I do understand that a lot of invasions are party invasions, but that the same time. if you see one person just bowing for a duel, why be a ♥♥♥♥? PVP in Elden ring is a joke, some much needed love and tuning needs to be done to make it an enjoyable experience for both sides.

I personally recommend this game if you want to follow the story, and unique boss design for said story bosses are amazing{some side ones too), but i cant recommend the rest of the game as most of it is cheap, bad game design, filled with spammy gimmicks that give no thought to certain build types.

(This is my personal opinion, if you don't like it, tough ♥♥♥♥)-the game is good. Don't miss out on it even if you aren't new to the souls games, genuinely try it, but ignore a majority of the loud people on media about this game. there are a lot of gate keeping crybabies who will rip in cause you use something they deem "not proper"

I really, really, really want to like this game. and some of the bosses are absolutely fantastic (all the story/sidequest ones for the most part), but my main prying issue is that there are sub bosses for quests/areas built with no thought in mind to just punish and screw you over for the reason of "lets make it frustrating without any way to fight unless you have op mage skills" as for my aforementioned quotes above, there are multiple encounters in this game meant to keep you on your toes, but some of them are built so vicariously bad that it makes it an extremely frustrating and soul crushing experience, again not because losing to a boss. I even beat Melenia in my 3rd try, but encounters with reused bosses, a fantastic example of just terrible game design is the "rot" mechanic being as i had to fight an ulcerated tree spirit that not only spits rot, but is in a big pool of it. even after attempting to lure it out (im a melee build) was only met with being tossed off the ledge or being thrown into massive rot ticking damage, even attempting as far as using curables, but still left me with the conundrum of actually hitting the boss. which led to spammy attacks filled with rot. I love the difficulty of the souls games, but a lot of elden ring's "difficulty" derives in just making really crappy and unthoughtful designed encounters in a lot of instances of "lets throw 2-3 of already annoying spammy poorly designed boss type monsters at the player" because thats a fantastic idea for difficulty. In reality its not difficulty there, difficulty was learning, dodging, and fighting bosses like melenia, godrick, or even the final bosses of the game, or a perfectly done duo boss encounter, Ornstein and Smough from dark souls, and i personally did enjoy the godskin duo, but not super spam and poorly designed reuses of already crap bosses. Honestly in every other aspect, I have loved this game, but there are more times i find myself frustrated over a really poorly done encounter just made to induce rage in a player. EDITED: PVP on the other hand can be fun when people dont play like asshats, which is never mind you. i actually enjoy being invaded, but every invader comes in pops everything in an attempt to one shot, when im using the tongue to try and get some decent duels in, OR my favorite part is when im kicking the shit out of them and as soon as they run out of flasks, they just full close their game so they dont lose. Its extremely frustrating and childish that a lot of people are being such sore losers about invading. (This same scenario as of editing this review has happened 6 times now). I do understand that a lot of invasions are party invasions, but that the same time. if you see one person just bowing for a duel, why be a dick? PVP in Elden ring is a joke, some much needed love and tuning needs to be done to make it an enjoyable experience for both sides. I personally recommend this game if you want to follow the story, and unique boss design for said story bosses are amazing{some side ones too), but i cant recommend the rest of the game as most of it is cheap, bad game design, filled with spammy gimmicks that give no thought to certain build types. (This is my personal opinion, if you don't like it, tough shit)-the game is good. Don't miss out on it even if you aren't new to the souls games, genuinely try it, but ignore a majority of the loud people on media about this game. there are a lot of gate keeping crybabies who will rip in cause you use something they deem "not proper"