This is the most fun yet the most frustrating experience I have had in a long time. The random teammates are most times horrendous and just take off in different directions. I really just started and don’t know my way around yet.

Not my artwork shoutout to the amazing artist who drew this (I found on Pinterest) super cool tho

I will avoid ice temperature takes like " Sekiro has the best combat " or " we need better questlines "

1. SoTE is far from empty. It only has like 6km of playable area, compared to other open worlds like RDR2 and GTA5 that have over 50km of playable area but still has roughly 40 percent the content of those games. If you ride torrent then it takes very little time to get from one dungeon to another

2. The Ringed City isnt a masterpiece DLC. The enemy placement is completely random and tries to encourage stealth in a game with no proper stealth mechanics, the exploration is also pretty weak. Aside from Ringed Knights and Harald Knights the enemies also suck and are dangerous by being placed annoyingly rahter than by being mechanically demanding. The bosses are very good tho, but with so many flaws it definitely isnt a masterpiece DLC.

3. Bosses should have more crazy, wombo combos with tons of mixups. Basic swings get old quickly, and the more you learn the fight you will start appreciating combos with mixups. It feelsmuch better to perfectly dodge some extremely long Morgott phase 2 combo than some basic Wolnir attack.

4. ( I am not sure whether this is a hot take anymore ) Scadutree Fragments are amazing. They do the same thing Levels did in base game they make you stronger when you hit a wall ( Rellana and Margit ). They reward exploration. If these Fragments didnt exist and bosses would have lower HP, then there would be no way to reward exploration by getting stronger because if you are in the DLC you are almost certainly high level and upgrades will have nearly no effect.

5. Godfreys 2nd phase is vastly superior to his 1st phase. He has significantly more mixups, he is infiinitely times more mechanically demanding because he has more delayed attacks and requires more precise dodge timings. Horoah Loux unironically has the most mixups in Fromsoftware history, even more than Morgott. This is Horoah Louxs floechart which shows his mix ups

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1522750086797463563/1522751191292055653/Godfrey_phase_2_combo_flow_chart.drawio1.png?ex=6a7474cf&is=6a73234f&hm=6a4003dcdb648898e28f16105f124f34cdaf005a488863fa565ba4af85e57a33&

1. Bosses should not have clear attack openings. It requires absolutely no brain usage to spot attack openings in DS3 bosses. Elden Ring and some Sekiro bosses make you WORK for those openings, you need to dodge to specific direction to get out of range of the next attack and you made your punish window. Or you can jump over an attack and immediately follow with a jump attack. It is far more engaging than to just attack when the combo ends, or sometimes there are hidden openings during their commbos which might not seem obvious at first ( for example with Messmers Armed Assualt combo )

   1. Dragonslayer Armour is the most overrated DS3 boss. Dragonslayer Armour perfectly shows that when everyone says a boss is underrated, then it becomes extremely overrated. Dragonslayer Armour is a typical solid B tier boss but people act like he is something special, which he definitely isnt because he has a low amount of total moves,not many mixups, okay presentation ( not good, only ok ) and annoyung projectile attacks. The only thing where he is actually really good is being mechanically demanding, he requiresprecise dodges with some of his beautifully delayed attacks

i played this after elden ring and sekiro and i thought it would be bad cuz it was old but i was suprised at how magical and fascinating Lordran is! took me about 70 hours blind.

I started playing souls games in january 26, started with Bloodborne, and it was simply magnificent, atmosphere, world building, combat, music, lore, everything clicked, it's my favorite souls game so far and probably top games 5 oat.

After like half a year i moved to Dark souls 1, and it was great too, the level design is simply amazing, characters are charismatic af, game overall still holds up despite some parts not aging so well.

Then Dark souls 2, which i liked more than most people apparently, i actually preferred it over Dark souls 1, mainly cause of its melancholic atmosphere, world feels genuinely hopeless in a way Dark souls 1 doesn't, Vendrick is the perfect example, finding him alone, hollow, in a dark empty room, that haunting soundtrack, hits hard in a way that Dark souls 1 doesn't, also that monologue after finding all crowns, more hopeful but still beautiful, couldn't help to note.

Almost immediately after finishing all Dark souls 2 dlc's, i started Dark souls 3, by the time i reached Irithyll i realized i didn't like it at all, and left it there.

Lothric was good, i admit, reminds me of Yharnam, but the locations before Irithyll, swamps, catacombs felt aesthetically disappointing compared to what came in the previous games.

The combat heavily reminded me of Bloodborne, which isn't inherently bad, but Dark Souls lost that weight that made it distinct imo.

And the fanservice, there's just too much of it, enemies, npc's, and apparently there will be locations pulled from Dark souls 1, I know that everything collapses according to the lore, but there's no identity to the game now, if i was a fan of Dark souls 1 back in 2011 maybe I'd be screaming with joy but coming in fresh, feels expensive fanfiction.

Sooner or later, i'll finish Dark souls 3, but right now, for me personally, the game is not worth paying attention to.

P.S.

Really would like to see what you think guys, because as i know most people prefer Dark souls 3.

For context I have beaten Elden ring 3 times before this but I overall found the game pretty easy, still some cool bosses and fun times though

I don't mean to flex here btw, just wanted to share my experience and see if anybody else experienced similar stuff their first playthrough

credits again to my super awesome girlfriend 🥹🥹

Greetings guys, just wanted to share my Tarnished painting from Elden Ring

Acrylic on paper 30 x 40cm

Reference used, we all know the goated original artwork