There is not much more that can be said that hasn't already been said so I suppose I will write this coming from someone whose first @FromSoftware game was Elden Ring. It is indeed a challenging game. One that, in the beginning, may make you want to rage quit. I know I did. I took a long break from it and then returned. The game is not perfect. I am not a big fan of some of the NPC quests. The reason is they are so esoteric. You start a quest but then have no idea where to go to continue the quest. It is almost simply pure luck that you find the NPC to continue its quest. I do not like leaving my chances up to serendipity. Additionally, just following the regular questline using the sites of grace as your guide, you will arrive at mini-bosses and bosses that are too overpowered for your character. You then have to backtrack grinding for runes. I am not a big fan of that either although it did allow me to hone my combat skills more.

With that out of the way, let's return to the challenge. I played this game the only way I know how: with a keyboard and mouse. This game, I feel, was more meant for a controller, so to cut down on the challenge, you need to rebind the keys to something more natural for you. This will help your encounters immensely, at least it did for me. Next, this is not a FPS. If you cut your teeth on mostly FPS games, this RPG will murder you. Luckily, I had played The Witcher before so I had an idea of how to approach battles. You cannot spam the "hit" button. You have to find out what the weakness is of your foe and play to that weakness. You also must learn to dodge well. I didn't deflect or block much because I rarely used a shield, but even then, you need to learn to dodge well. Even understanding this, when I met my first real boss in the game, a shardbearer, I really hated the devs. I thought they all must be sadistic types who love screwing the players of the game. (Yeah, I know, irrational thought.) This boss seems unbeatable, but after probably 10-15 deaths, I finally hit on its weakness. After that the boss was actually quite easy. I am simplifying things, but more or less, this is how to approach every boss. Individual characters will have their stock moves that you will quickly learn and recognize. Learn their moves well, and you will have less problems.

Notice I said, less problems. I had to realize that dying is part of the game. So if you die, except for losing runes, it is not that bad of an experience. It resets the area and you try again. You usually return to the last site of grace where you were. The only time dying is really a hassle is when, for me, the game places sites of grace too far apart. In cases like these, you do grind through the area and then die close to the end of the area and since there was no site of grace, you return to the beginning of said area. In those times, dying is quite bothersome and takes the wind out of your sails so to speak.

Pay attention to armor and your build. When fighting certain mini-bosses and bosses, they attack using a certain type of damage, fire, sorcery, holy, lightning and so on. Depending on your armor and your stamina, you may be able to put on armor that negates to some percentage the damage given. In regards to your build, don't do what I did. I was spreading my runes across all of the attributes at first, but really you need to decide on what sort of character you want: an all strength build or perhaps an all magic build. There are other builds as well. I ended up concentrating my build on strength, intelligence and holy attributes. I personally found that incantations are more powerful and useful than most of the sorcery spells so I sunk a lot of runes into holy which really makes the incantations more powerful. I also put many runes into vigor and mind, your HP and FP (for spells and skills.)

Now I am on my second playthrough. It's not as exciting as before, but every once in a while I find something that I didn't notice on the first playthrough. The game is absolutely massive. I am so looking forward to the DLC. If you are looking for a satisfying challenge, give Elden Ring a shot. It will be well worth it. If you get stuck, check out the many tutorials and walkthroughs on YouTube too.