This game is a masterpiece, it's hard to explain to some people asking if they should try how immersive the game is. The feeling of dread and joy, mystery lurking from everywhere, that gasp of joy when you find a secret path or something unexpected. Bloodstains showing people fighting some crazy stuff in a safe area, making you question your safety. The game has so many memorable experiencies that is hard to explain it all, it's not about the graphics but the supreme immersion and game play. The multiplayer approach is also something that fits right into my alley, you get help whenever you need (want), not more not less.
Elden Ring is one of many open world ARPG's. Souls games were unique and untouchable. now ER is in human form outside its safety bounds, and being invaded.
The game's supposed to compete with Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Dragons Dogma, etc. And how can it? You don't have a party, you don't have quests, you don't have a narrated story, nor giant enemies who react to weaknesses and have special ways to be fought.
What's the difference between your first handcrafted Draugr cave filled with traps in Skyrim, and your first handcrafted goblin cave filled with traps in Elden Ring? I think, it's that one came out 11 years ago.
I think that you've missed the beauty of Elden Ring (and the Souls series in general).
> you don't have quests
You do have quests! They just aren't forced upon you. Listen to the dialog of characters and you'll hear where they're heading and what they want you to do.
> you don't have a narrated story
Exactly! Instead of being told a grand narrative of what happened, you piece it together on your own, if you care. If you don't, then just ignore it.
> nor giant enemies who react to weaknesses and have special ways to be fought.
The whole point of combat in the Souls series is that every enemy (giant or small, boss or minion) is dangerous, and you have to learn how to fight them to win. Every enemy has weaknesses (whether that be to damage types or after certain attacks).
The core difference between Elden Ring and the other games you listed is the atmosphere and tension. If you don't feel it, maybe it's not the game for you and that's okay.
It's a bit naive to compare it on those terms while completely ignoring the sheer superiority of ER's world building. It is of course personal opinion, but no open world RPG has amazed me as consistently when discovering new regions to explore. Fromsoft has provided what is probably the most beautiful and diverse world ever crafted at a macro level, while staying true to the Souls formula at a micro level. Even the worst of the small dungeons retain a very Souls-like quality to them which allows them to keep you always on your guard, hence making exploration much more dynamic.
It's also pretty disingenuous to state the differences between ER and other open world RPGs and then pretend it has to compete with other titles exactly on those points. It is true that ER has moved into a more popular genre, but it still remains a very niche type of game. It's not this incredibly popular because it moved to a full-on mainstream genre: it took some more widely appreciated concepts and adapted the souls formula to them, but what everyone is praising is how well they managed to keep those core souls values intact while moving to this new genre.
> The game's supposed to compete with Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Dragons Dogma, etc. And how can it?
It let me start a game and just explore the world without being forced through a long intro/tutorial, doesn't have vast amounts of clicking through dialogue and I find the world way more interesting than what I saw playing ~2 hours into one of the recent MH games, or ~10 of Skyrim.
It's those games that now have to live up to Elden ring standard... Elden Ring is eating all open world alive.
And it doesn't compete with MH at all, mh is not open world and it's made of a series of small, intense boss fights. Elden ring usually is digested in long exploratory sections and days-long boss fights (due to wipes).
No quests? THANK YOU. Elden ring has only a handful of "kinda quests" and due to that, there is no chance for wolf-poop-gathering quests.
The entire focus is on the WORLD, on the environment and its secrets. This is how I expected open world to be a thing, and it never was.
I never liked open world, but elden ring is good.
Thank you fromsoftware, please keep doing this work, maybe AAA studios will wake up now.
This is the first game that jump scared me with a literal shadow of a tree. There's a windy area with a lot of swaying trees and it was a time of the day with a lot of sunrays, the branches casted a weird moving shadow on the ground and I got scared after getting ambushed so many times.
