I've put a couple hours in and I just can't get into it. If I had to describe the game in one word it would be, "unfocused." Tons of confusing, overlapping, seemingly redundant systems, a bajillion items whose uses are vaguely described at best and just pile up in my inventory, imprecise combat mechanics that seem to encourage cheesing, and not even much of an explanation about why my character is doing what they're doing or why I should care. Like I get FromSoft games purposefully don't use straightforward narratives but I just don't see any narrative hook to grab my engagement other than that I should want to be "Elden Lord," for some reason.
So what's the attraction? It looks gorgeous, I'll give it that. But so did Sekiro, which felt a lot more focused mechanically and narratively.
Not trying to be contrarian, I genuinely want to know what people see in this game that I'm missing.
It's like dark souls, which has an addictive gameplay cycle, except I get to run away from things that I think are too difficult. That loop is why I keep coming back. To be fair, I don't know what a lot of the items or spells do because I haven't bothered looking into them
The dark souls games kind of always encouraged cheesing, and I consider it a part of the gameplay experience because I acknowledge that I'm bad lol
When I was getting into the fromsoft games, I had to give up on bloodborne and sekiro because of brick walls, but I was good enough to beat DS1 and DS3 afterward. I was having fun the entire time, but then I REALLY started having fun