Does Elden Ring Deserve Game of the Year?

Elden Ring has no difficulty options, which may make it seem absurdly difficult to play, but it also makes the game feel more rewarding when you progress by defeating a boss. the first major boss fight that the player may experience is Margit the Fell Omen. This is a difficult boss for early game, but it makes succeeding significantly more enjoyable when you defeat him. Experiences like that make the game feel addicting. There are boss fights later in the game that are unfair directly, but they are either optional or have a big weakness that the player can exploit and make the fight significantly easier. Along with that, the player can use summons to make the fight easier with either AI or friends which can completely erase the difficulty. Overall the game not having a difficulty option makes it better as it also has many ways to make the game significantly easier and feel rewarding when you progress.

When you first start the game and begin making your character, there are multiple starting classes to choose from, which all have their own unique equipment and stats to start off with. after that, all the customization from there is strictly cosmetic. When you start playing the game, you will meet the character Melina and she will give you the ability to level up, which further increases your customization and helps you decide on how you would like to play the game. With the level-up system, there are eight different stats you could put your levels that make your character stronger in different ways. The eight different stats are, vigor, mind, endurance, strength, dexterity, intelligence, faith, and arcane. The first three: vigor, mind and endurance affect your three main bars: health, focus, and stamina, respectively. The other five are based around your combat stats; they allow you to use weapons or spells which can further develop on how the player would like to play the game.This much customization grants a different and enjoyable experience for every player.

The scenery in Elden Ring has always amazed players and always surprises people with what’s around the corner. FromSoftware always puts detail into different set pieces and always makes things interactable and makes the game more immersive along with it. An example of this is one of the first mini-bosses, the tree sentinel, is capable of damaging the nearby church, making it much more entertaining and immersive. There are moments like this across the whole game and it makes the whole environment seem interesting and makes people want to explore the open world game more. Another thing is the game always seems to get bigger as you progress and it always seems like you’ve done everything but then a whole new area appears with a whole new environment and appearance.

Like every game, Elden Ring has many flaws like bugs or glitches. There are also balancing issues in player-versus-player modes, with some weapons and spells being significantly greater than others. FromSoftware has made attempts to reduce the amount of unbalanced equipment by reducing damage or viability. Another issue Elden Ring has is how unwelcoming the game can feel to new players to the series. Even with those issues and flaws, the developers are always trying to improve the game and make it a fair and amazing experience for everyone who tries it.

Elden Ring has many great features and innovations compared to the previous games in the series. They improved upon many flaws the previous games like Dark Souls 3 had and expanded upon it with the open world experience, of course, there are many flaws still in the game and it will always seem unwelcoming to those who’ve never played a game in the series, but FromSoftware has come a long way considering their first project in the series Demon Souls. Along with some of the amazing scenery, character design, and feeling of achievement, it makes the game worthy of the title, game of the year, and everyone that enjoys playing video games should give it a try.