Elden Ring is a sprawling fantasy epic so good I don’t want it to end

theverge.com:

When I was a kid, I would look at paperback fantasy novels and dream. I was too young to read these tales of sex and violence, but those hand-painted covers, full of dragons and swords and ancient ruins, held a promise of adventure that captivated me. It’s a feeling I continued to chase when I went on my own fantasy quests in games dating back to the original Legend of Zelda. Few have been able to match my paperback-inspired imagination; they’re often too restrictive or linear to create that sense of freedom I craved. None have gotten as close to that feeling as Elden Ring.

The latest release from Bloodborne and Sekiro developer FromSoftware, Elden Ring is, at its most basic, an attempt to merge the studio’s distinctive action-RPG formula with an expansive open world. Think of it like Dark Souls meets Breath of the Wild, and you’re close. It’s an ambitious premise, but it’s also one Elden Ring more than lives up to. It has everything you’d expect from the developer — deep and challenging combat, complex systems, lore that’s equal parts beautiful and sad — and fuses it with an absolutely gigantic world that you can explore however you like.

Elden Ring’s premise is, admittedly, a little generic at first. It takes place in a dark fantasy realm known as the Lands Between, a place held together by a powerful ring and a goth queen. Unfortunately, with the ring shattered and the queen missing, the land has descended into chaos, beset by monsters, ghouls, and bad vibes. You take on the role of a Tarnished, a kind of undead being intent on setting things straight. (The initial world concept was crafted by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, but if it wasn’t part of the game’s marketing, I’m not sure I would’ve noticed his