Was Elden Ring Worth The Wait? (PC Playthrough, Completed in 60 Hours)

you should play Nioh, it's much better than anything fromsoftware has ever made

I can relate that Elden isn't my fav type of game, mostly because of the huge open world cause it gets exhausting, but also agree that it's a fantastic game and a great evolution into the formula.
I don't think it's flawless as it has balance issues regarding weapons and magic (thankfully they just patched it yesterday to remove some exploits so that means they can keep on rebalancing and fixing), some bosses don't feel 100% fair (they backpedal so much and leave very little openings) and the PC version has performance issues (which again hopefully can be patched).
I was also kind of disappointed by the OST, I only really found 2 tracks to be very memorable and the rest just kinda blended in. And as personal issues, I thought the final boss was disappointing too. It wasn't even close to Soul of Cinder or Sword Saint Isshin. And lastly, I'm not a fan of the huge map. I prefer the more condensed Souls experience, where the world feels massive but the areas themselves aren't too big. You mentioned you don't explore for exploring, but for the reward, and I can relate to that 100%.
All in all I'd say it's a 9.5/10, great game but I honestly don't see myself replaying it over and over, like say DkS3. Making new characters seems like kind of a chore considering how far apart and off the beaten path upgrades and gear are. Also those issues I mentioned above are significant, but don't really have too much impact on the huge amount of content and enjoyment this game can provide so I still recommend it to most people.
EDIT: Oh and that boss you respec'd for, I cheesed her using hoarfrost stomp and don't even feel bad about it. I didn't use mimic tear but still cheesed her so whatever. It's just overtuned like you say imo, too much health while having healing, really fast movement and doing insane damage. And yeah she's supposed to be the strongest in the entire game, since the stronger fighters are already past their prime at the time we join the world, but it still doesn't feel right

Great Review for a great game 😉💪🏽!

"THAT Boss…"
Proceeds to cosplay as said boss 😀

You can sort your inventory, but for some reason it doesn't list it on screen with everything else, it lists it under the help menu->view controls, L3, and if I'm not mistaken there are 15 main bosses with only 7 of them being at least somewhat required, yes some of the mini-bosses feel like they should be counted but they technically don't, and over 100 field and dungeon bosses. Though some of them reappear a lot, they usually aren't 100% the same as they sometimes have a new attack from the item/weapon they drop.

I was like you regarding that particular sword. Soon as I saw it i knew i wanted it. But by the time my stats were high enough to use it, I had found so many other things. Making different builds and changing up weapons is a big part of the game. Along with the variety of ashes of war and the sheer amount of unique weapons i think you maybe missed out on a big part of the game. Be like playing Trails and skipping the story. Thats probably an over exaggeration but I just wanted to point out how much variety there is in this game is more than ever been in FromSoft games.

I think there is a sort button with L3 (click on second analog stick)

It took my 90h to complete my very first run on Elden Ring and damn i still missed a lot of stuff as it seems and i even fked up the chaos ending D:
I also went with 1hand + shield approach ever since DS1 but i had to switch later to dual wield bc i needed the dmg and poise dmg. And then the boss u describeded came and damn i rly had to switch to a bleed weapon and later find the mimic. I totaly agree with her beeing the most naked, beatifual and hardest boss imo and yeah took me a few hours to beat her.
But damn was it worth <3
I also played on pc and as u sad urself except for a few small lags open entering new areas and 2 crashes i never had a real problem with the game. Since i only played DS1-3 i find Elden Ring the best of the souls series and i look forward to my next run. Might try NG as mage and keep my current chara for ng+ later <3

Foreskin duo can absolutely eat shit. I had to completely respec and use a specific int weapon art that's basically rennalas opening spell to melt them from across the room.

If it wasn't mandatory it wouldn't bother me but I know that every time I replay this game I'm gonna have to do the same shit. I'm up to the last boss now and heading to the equivalent of archdragon peak at the top but that boss was absolute trash.

It is great! I really enjoy it I’m playing it and Gran Turismo 7 at the moment since i was on a jrpg binge for last 10 games or so i wanted to switch it up.

I'm very glad you didn't have any performance issues on PC. It gives me hope that the issues I'm having will be ironed out. But man. This game has been incredibly unstable for me.

I think this game sucks. What really gets me is not being able to see how weapons compare at shop. Not to mention dying over and over and reload takes a long time.

I’m at the endgame myself now (on that health stealing boss) and I have to say I think it might be my second least favorite From Soft game with the one beneath it (Dark Souls II) being very close for me. It has easily the worst boss lineup the series for me which is a shame because that’s the thing I look for the most in these games. There were maybe three bosses that I enjoyed. The rest were either repetitive or straight up unfun. The open world was great in Limgrave but a lot of the things to do became very repetitive even by the second area. The areas themselves are absolutely stunning (Altus especially) but the mini dungeons suffer from acute Aelyid Ruin syndrome. The lore is interesting and I was actually more intrigued by the npcs in this game than any other FS game. The best part of the game imo are the legacy dungeons. I only found one to be not great, the rest were a lot of fun to explore.

So yeah, the game was good but disappointing to me personally, but I’m glad it’s doing so well and that other people are enjoying their time in the Lands Between. The game just flubbed in what I loo for in Souls games (the bosses). My only hope for the future is that they do not do an open world again. FS really excel at their semi-open level design and the legacy dungeons prove that they still have it in that regard. Also dlc would be nice as long as it’s a bit more focused. They usually bring their best boss work in the dlc.

Fantastic video, this gave me a much better look into everything I was wondering about. I think I'll end up buying it now!!

A little change of flavor for a more refreshing gameplay 🙂