Quick Thoughts – 40 Hours of Elden Ring

I am here with this week’s iteration of Quick Thoughts with a game that I am a year off of playing but have played a significant amount of in the past month. This week is Elden Ring and here are some of my quick thoughts and hot takes about the game.

Let us start with the stuff that makes me absolutely hate this video game:

The lock-on camera is complete and utter dog trash. The amount of times that the lock-on camera has killed me in 40 hours is insurmountable.
The actual, non-lock-on camera is complete shit, even in regular encounters. When the camera hits a wall say goodbye because you will die.
I still, after 40 hours, have the same amount of game sense that I did when I started. I know that the appeal of the game is having no knowledge of anything and learning as you go, but I just guessed how to use The Church of Dragon Communion and it fucking sucks. The amount of time it takes to delve into a skill and get a reward from it just isn’t worth it.
I have a love-hate relationship with the random enemy levels in certain areas. Is it my fault that I walked into an area with 45,000 runes that is 20 levels above mine and I get stomped? I will never admit it.

Now that I have said my peace:

The open world is the best thing that has happened to Souls games.
The lore? Best I’ve seen. I watched so many lore videos. The depth and the indirect storytelling is so good.
The combat can be fun. It is more rewarding than fun, honestly.
- I have a bandit with Dexerity and Arcane before but now has turned into Faith.
  - I may just change it back to Arcane.
The dungeon system is my favorite. I like delving into the Erdtree dungeons and coming out with some sweet loot.
The game looks so good even when in performance mode on the PS5. All of the areas are so fucking varied and are absolutely beautiful.
Music is also dope. The title song and every boss song are the best songs.
Giving the player the horse frame one is the best decision in a video game ever.