Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s best, most accessible, and difficult game yet

polygon.com:

Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has not taken comparisons of those games to The Legend of Zelda series with much joy. “I feel deeply unworthy of the comparison,” Miyazaki has said, calling the early Zelda games “monumental” works. But it is hard not to see the Zelda series’ influence, particularly the groundbreaking open-world adventure The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, on his company FromSoftware’s new game, Elden Ring.

Nintendo’s 2017 Zelda game appears to have had a powerful, and overwhelmingly positive, impact on FromSoftware’s beloved style of action-RPG. Elden Ring is a deeply impressive adventure of incredible breadth and depth, blending From’s style of rich, challenging combat with exploration, discovery, and new levels of player freedom.

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It starts with the Tree Sentinel. This meaty, golden warrior sitting astride a powerful steed is the first thing you encounter in Elden Ring’s vast fantasy world, the Lands Between. He’s nigh-impossible to defeat in your weak starting state. But just behind him is a church in which to find refuge and supplies, and and a bit further, a castle to explore. Around you are woods with abundant natural resources, with which you can craft curative items. Elden Ring communicates quickly that your means of survival require exploration, learning, growth, and returning to face challenges, like the Tree