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Quick disclaimer, since I've fully completed the game (200 hours, all achievements, most quests, and close to every collectible item acquired: ashes of war, weaponry, armor sets, incantations, sorceries, etc.). I will now be reviewing it from the perspective of someone who has reached 100%. Now, the fallen leaves tell a story...

Elden Ring, Fromsoftware's rendition of an open-world roleplaying title, is a game that plunges you into the end results of the Shattering, a setting plagued by ruin and nostalgic specters of the past. The vast landscape (known in-game as the Lands Between, across the fog) encompasses all manner of things. There are beautiful vistas rife with golds, muted greys, browns, and greens, along with color schemes strangely reminiscent of previous franchises; such as Bloodborne's innate similarity to the secretive underground areas in the game, like Nokron, Sofria River Basin, or the home of Mohg's blood dynasty in Mohgwyn Palace. There are quaint little villages belonging to pot jars with limbs, cities (legacy dungeons) with sprawling architecture, and liturgical towns surrounding an academy that I can only compare to Hogwarts. 

Every area you visit contains plenty of secrets, and although playing can be frustrating at times, it teaches you patience, rationale, empathy, and is even humorous on occasion. I got my ass handed to me several times by overgrown lobsters, gravity, massively shapeshifting Rune bears, and sometimes when actual ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ overtakes you, there's not much you can do besides having a laugh and trying again. I do believe that Elden Ring is one of the most accessible games in the series, mainly due to how easy I found it, which, by all means— won't be an opinion shared by everyone. Fortunately speaking, though, the difficulty of each Soulsborne title tends to be incredibly subjective. Where one person may experience 30 "You Died" screens, the other may go through the challenge with a deficit in their effort. 

The level of diversity at play is another fascinating aspect of this world. The environment incorporates a healthy range of races, an extensive amount of varying walks of life, and intriguingly humanizing characteristics are applied to all of them. Regardless of whether you're clearing out the Misbegotten enemies invading Castle Morne on the Southernmost tip of the map, trudging through scarlet rot-infested swamps in Caelid, or attending the unsettling "festival" in the windmill village of Dominula (which is situated amidst the royalty-themed motifs of the Altus Plateau), you begin to get lost in the breathtaking allure of the land and the stories it has to tell. Both literally and figuratively (due to the verticality of the map), the game is the opposite of superficial. Simply revealing the topography of the land is a process in itself. 

Another thing that is hailed as a success whilst simultaneously being a matter of trials and tribulation, is the innumerable number of boss encounters (around 160 to be exact, and this includes both unique bosses and repeated ones). Don't let recurrent adversaries fool you either, because all of it aligns towards a purpose somewhere in the lore: destined death does not exist in this world, and many are trapped within a cycle of reincarnation. The demigods and legends all have their own motives and backstories; whether it is Rennala's deteriorating legacy, Morgott's ceaseless will to protect the Erdtree, or Radahn continuously holding the stars in a state of suspension, everyone and everything has more to uncover beyond your first impression of them. 

With Elden Ring, the creators figured out an ideal way to stay true to their roots while diving into new (and thankful) risks. The game perfectly meanders avoiding the mistakes its peers have made with issues like crowded UI (even after patch 1.03, the points of interest are never overwhelming) and a lack of player agency. Even more tantalizing is the way the game seems to completely fracture every prejudged tradition in the AAA market in a fashion that almost seems blasphemous. Even though it encourages skill; you can play in whatever way you see fit, convenience is sometimes a foreign concept, death is inevitable, and these features are all precisely why this is such a celebrated niche. 

While Elden Ring is not a flawless project, the creators certainly deserve the hype and reviews they have received across the board. Whether you agree or disagree, the care and support the developers are putting into the game implies that it can only get better from here on out. I truly do think that Elden Ring will end up igniting the passion and enjoyment for gaming that countless people seem to have lost, once again.