To preface, I am not a Dark Souls or Bloodborne purist and haven't even put that many hours into any From Software game before Elden Ring. That being said, I now want to go back and play the Dark Souls trilogy from start to finish just to experience the story and see how it plays into the Elden Ring universe since it has been eluded that it could or may.

Elden Ring is the best RPG I've played in years. The game starts with a sharp learning curve that is both unforgiving and not completely clear in the direction you should work through the game in even with the grace items that give you clues, but that is, in part, a portion of the appeal and fascinating evolution of how the game draws you in. Above all else, the underlying story and characters are engaging and make you want to continue pushing on even as your patience and temper are tested throughout. The difficulty of the game can be overcome through trial and error, but can also be supplemented with grinding out more levels and learning the crafting system to strengthen and enhance your weapons.

Having not spent long hours in From Software games before Elden Ring I had to learn the timings and overall strategy that you must apply in every fight as this game does not forgive any type of button mashing and will punish you for each mistake you make when fighting enemies that could be 5, 10 or 50 times the size of your character. You learn what "iframes" are and how some animations will prevent you from taking damage, you learn how the longer you hold the button for your "strong" attacks, the more likely you are to get hit, but the greater the damage potential. You learn that parrying and counters are an essential play mechanic and that you cannot brute strength your way through the game and you must apply a level of finesse that is frustratingly cruel at times, but amazingly rewarding when you finally complete the mission or fell the boss at hand.

Having played many other 1st & 3rd person RPGs, Elden Ring is the game I wish so many before it actually were. Specifically, I've indulged in the entire Elder Scrolls series except for the very first game, Arena, so I have thousands of hours in the series. As great as the evolution of the series is, story-wise, the gameplay actually declined over the course of the series rather than improved, even with the deployment of newer technologies and engines. In fact, the latest installment was, in many ways, a disappointment in terms of the play difficulty, story telling and the lack of time spent on developing the NPCs and driving factors. When you compare this to what Elden Ring is it's clear that From Software is extremely talented in staying focused on what matters and developing the gameplay and story to craft a universe that you not only want to be a part of, but also want to continue learning and digging through.

With all that being said, Elden Ring is not a perfect game and there is definitely room for improvement; the lack of cut scenes and the reusing of them at key points in the game was disappointing. The game could have been greatly enhanced by adding more meaningful cinematics and not leaving so much up to the imagination. There definitely are pros and cons with this approach, but for a game of this caliber I would expect a more complete cinematic element, particularly at key points in the game where you overcome main bosses, make discoveries about characters that can come as a huge surprise and develop the story to your own path that makes the story all your own. The only other part of the game I find is lacking other than the cinematics is the focus on developing the story nearly exclusively through item descriptions. Although this is fairly unique in how you learn the more obscure details, the fact that you basically have to grind out for items with an extremely tiny drop rate to find those complementary tidbits, I wish there were other ways that the story was elaborated upon similar to other RPGs where lore is weaved throughout and doesn't just appear in an item drop.

The only other criticism I have found within the game is that there is no truly enjoyable way to play as a physical ranged character and that the lack of ranged weapons tends to leave the game in a balance between magic & melee, which itself leaves a huge amount of content choices for any character development, but with only really a "2 pronged" weapon/class choice balancing act it does narrow down the way you play the game. Regardless this is minor in my eyes and is something that could be shored up in a DLC/expansion or in a sequel that makes the weapon choices slightly more dynamic between melee, magic and ranged.

Overall I would say that even if you never played a Dark Souls title, Bloodborne, Demonsouls or any other From Software title, but want a challenging, infinitely fun and dynamic RPG that focuses on true gameplay and a story, then I would profoundly recommend Elden Ring. With the historical elements of the lore developed with the help of George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones), the intertwining paths of the characters and their fates was amazingly interesting, creepy, diabolical, sad, enraging, thoughtful and yet still left room for even more emotions depending on what you discover on your first play through. The fact that you can then choose to play the main story again, and again, and again, evolving the difficulty to your own desire is a great complement that allows you to relive the ups and downs to your own expectations without needing to start a brand new character.

TL;DR, it's the best action RPG of a human generation and there won't be another game that comes close to it until From Software teams up with a company like BioWare to integrate a more dynamic end game experience.