So my intro to Fromsoft games has been via Dark Souls Remastered... on switch.
I loved being able to play it as one would play a metroidvania.

You don't need to git gud if you're overpowered and know where to go to become overpowered.

Dark Souls 3 on the other hand is more linear and a lot rougher on the progression. Is it fun? Yes. Was it for me? No.

I eventually got into a funny mod called Dark Souls Remastest where you got guns from Halo and among other things, the ability to dropkick people.

Now there's Elden Ring.
I know a route to get my favorite weapon a really solid set of ashes of war and well over level 60 before walking up to Margit with no grinding what so ever.

This is everything I loved about Dark Souls combined with the enjoyable parts of DS3 in a nice package of murderous difficulty.

Now I have to both git gud AND know my way around to reduce the amount of gud I need to git.

As a bonus this runs great on the Steam Deck letting me do great progress while travelling or on a commute.

At the time of writing I'm around 800 hours in and I feel like I'm gonna hit 1000 and still keep going.

On the note of negative reviews for the DLC and difficulty walls:
This has been a thing since day 1 with Margit.
The DLC just doubles down on this.

The souls series rewards people for repeatedly bashing their heads against a wall 'till one or the other breaks. Elden Ring expects you to notice a fight is hopeless, turn around, look somewhere else and come back stronger hence the Scadutree blessings.

This is where the metroidvania aspects creep back in because one can eventually commit to memory all the locations of the fragments as well as the locations of bosses and important weapons.

This is everything I wanted out the souls series and more.
While there's no goofy Halo guns we did get the ability to dropkick people so I cannot ask for anything better.

So my intro to Fromsoft games has been via Dark Souls Remastered... on switch. I loved being able to play it as one would play a metroidvania. You don't need to git gud if you're overpowered and know where to go to become overpowered. Dark Souls 3 on the other hand is more linear and a lot rougher on the progression. Is it fun? Yes. Was it for me? No. I eventually got into a funny mod called Dark Souls Remastest where you got guns from Halo and among other things, the ability to dropkick people. Now there's Elden Ring. I know a route to get my favorite weapon a really solid set of ashes of war and well over level 60 before walking up to Margit with no grinding what so ever. This is everything I loved about Dark Souls combined with the enjoyable parts of DS3 in a nice package of murderous difficulty. Now I have to both git gud AND know my way around to reduce the amount of gud I need to git. As a bonus this runs great on the Steam Deck letting me do great progress while travelling or on a commute. At the time of writing I'm around 800 hours in and I feel like I'm gonna hit 1000 and still keep going. On the note of negative reviews for the DLC and difficulty walls: This has been a thing since day 1 with Margit. The DLC just doubles down on this. The souls series rewards people for repeatedly bashing their heads against a wall 'till one or the other breaks. Elden Ring expects you to notice a fight is hopeless, turn around, look somewhere else and come back stronger hence the Scadutree blessings. This is where the metroidvania aspects creep back in because one can eventually commit to memory all the locations of the fragments as well as the locations of bosses and important weapons. This is everything I wanted out the souls series and more. While there's no goofy Halo guns we did get the ability to dropkick people so I cannot ask for anything better.