Elden Ring's open world design is great. There was a sweet span that I leveled up enough so I didn't die to everything immediately, yet there were still many spots to discover. There seemed to be endless points of interest to explore, and I could always find something down the road, be it a boss, a treasure, or a beautiful landscape. By map, indicators and common rules among The Lands Between, From Software crafted a world which invites organic discoveries and wow moments.
That being said, my time in The Lands Between was not all fun and laugh. My most consistent, strongest emotion during the whole playthrough was loneliness. Being thrown into a hostile world, with highly uninviting aesthetic places or habitants here and there, and the best companions I could hope for were ones who speak in riddle (albeit some were cute girls), all took a toll on me. I was fully aware that souls-likes are not cozy games, but that understanding didn't help me being more excited about this game.
The other huge part of Elden Ring gameplay is the boss encounters, my favorite part of a souls-like game: the process of finding the delicate spacing and timing, the understanding and prediction of move patterns, the planning and execution, all by sweat and blood, and the eventual sense of achievement. Margit, Draconic Tree Sentinel, and Malenia all gave me hours of death and struggle, yet the process was fun.
I could not say the same for the multiple-foes boss encounters. The Valiant Gargoyles didn't make me nostalgic but very annoyed, and the Godskin Duo completely killed my remaining patience for this game. I found zero fun in the gank bosses. I still think there are skills in them, and all these won't be a problem if I git gud enough. But it was NOT FUN. After finally beat the Godskin Duo with my +10 mimic tear (which I never leveled until this boss), I had absolutely no sense of achievement but a bad taste in my mouth, and the thought of wanting to get this game over with.
Later I found that many people share the same feeling with me, which I don't know if I should be happy about it. I believe many of them enjoyed the game until they didn't. It was truly a shame, because I appreciate all the efforts put into this game and I want to love it, but after my first playthrough, all left for this masterpiece was a bitter memory.
