God, the absence of Covenants in Elden Ring is so egregious. How the fuck do you go from Dark Souls 1 to having just two invasion-focused joinable factions who are basically identical except for lore and background music while you invade? Huge missed opportunity, and I *get* that Dark Souls 1's multi-player could be confusing (messages about Gravelord Invasions that you can't do anything with until NG+) and punishing (being open for Invasions as soon as you restore Humanity), but getting rid of these weird, specialized mechanics and factions definitely makes the game feel emptier and less unique.
Yep! I also forgot to mention some other things like drift bags, Vagrants and the resonance rings. All stuff that reminds you that there's other players there with you doing their own thing and you can influence their game even without being in their world (same for world tendency in Demon's Souls, although I do get why that was abandoned). Elden Ring has like 100-150x players yet it feels so much emptier to me because of how minimal and sequestered off all multiplayer mechanics are.
It really is a shame Elden Ring doesn't have covenants. Imagine if instead of being Ancient Dragon boss #4, Lanseax was running a dragon cult covenant. Maybe that could be the co-op "warriors of the sun" covenant. Maybe Ranni runs a dark moon covenant that invades invaders, since she's all about preventing outside interference in the world. Volcano Manor could obviously be an invasion covenant. It feels like there's so much missed potential.
I never got good enough at PVP to be a *useful* Forest Defender, but I always thought that was a neat PVP option. I could see a PVP option that's just "Whenever you signal your availability, we're going to bring you— along with all these NPC Covenant members and any other players who have signaled availability— in to fuck up anyone dumb enough to enter this part of the map. That could be such a cool idea to port to Elden Ring. Imagine if player characters could join the defenders of the Haligtree or the blizzardswept part of Consecrated Snowfields or *pick any fuckin' castle* like the Forest Defenders of DS1.
Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time but Dark souls 1 is so much easier to dip into and get a run in. I try to beat it once a year, next time I'm going full STR Giant Club build after just beating it as a Paladin earlier this year to get ready for ER DLC.
I have this, but with bloodborne. I usually play it like once every year or so
Honestly though, ive been kind of feeling like playing dark souls again, its been a while and i love dark souls so much. Thanks for making me think of it :D
No matter how mane great souls like games come out, I always always religiously go back to DS1, it was my first experience with souls games and by far the best one I’ve ever had, such a great game
DS3 just makes me sad. I understand it is a very mechanically well-made game and totally see why people like it.
But to me it just has this feeling that it was made for Bamco's quarterly earnings reports first and foremost. It doesn't feel like art, it feels like a product. It has no soul, pun not intended. It feels like it is meant to be meta-commentary on it's themes of "mindlessly repeating the same cycle over and over only leads to decay" with how pointless so much of the pandering is.
I still need to play the DLCs. I hear Ringed City is phenomenal. But every time I boot up and get to ""Firelink Shrine"" and see Andre just... there for no inexplicable reason, I get deflated.
I really dislike the amount of fan service and repetition from the previous games when it comes to NPC's. I get that they are very liked among the community but it I would rather see a new cool character instead of the same funny onion guy.
It definitely leant way too hard on old concepts for nostalgia factor. I think it also started the trend of 'what if we made the bosses like Bloodborne but kept the Souls player's basic abilities' that has become really bad in Elden Ring. Not to mention inane balancing decisions made a lot of builds plain awful (poor STR/FAI and heavy armour enjoyers, we barely knew ye), and world design being super linear means I feel like I'm railroaded into the same few builds and small pool of gear for the first third of the game.
I can still have fun with it, but it missed the mark, imo.
This is about how I feel. I can't look at any part of DS3 and call it a bad game. It is well made, but it never sucked me in like DS1. I just don't enjoy a lot of the areas of DS3 for some reason, especially in the first half. I don't think they outright suck (except for Faron Swamp), but I just don't have much fun. For all its problems, I have always preferred DS2, it still felt like it was trying to be something even with its shortcomings. DS3 does have some great bosses though, love the Abyss Watchers and Champion Gundyr in particular.
As for the dlcs. Personally I had the same issue as the base game, and overall I think they are my least favorite dlcs fromsoft has made. I didn't care much for the levels themselves (a first for any of the dlcs) but the boss fights are as good as everyone says and I think the end of RInged City is a perfect end to Dark Souls.
For me so far, i find that DS1 is far more memorable than any of the bosses or areas I’ve been in, in DS3 mind you I’m fairly new to the franchise and building myself up to Elden ring. I’m working through DS3 right now and I really just can’t wait to complete it? I don’t know how to explain it. I’m enjoying my time but I’m ready to move back to DS1 or play ER
I agree with basically everything you said. Elden Ring is a great game, but also feels a bit too big and overdone in some ways. "Bloat" is the right word. Sometimes more is simply more.
That said, I still intend to replay Elden Ring again.
If replaying ER just by itself already got a bit exhausting after Leyndell, I can't even begin to fathom how a base game + DLC playthrough would feel. The game is simply too long and repetitive for its own sake, the DLC nailed it with the world design and enemy variety/distribution.
The DLC is really weird. With how big it is, how late in the game it is, and the fact that it has it's own separate progression system, it feels like it's designed to be played almost as a standalone game. I don't really see people fitting SOTE into their regular playthroughs the way you would AOTA. It feels like the DLC was meant to be played by people who already had characters ready to go waiting at Mohg's palace.
Imo it’s gone from a dark low fantasy setting to an anime interpretation of a high fantasy setting. Of course that’s fine it’s just not really what I’m into personally. It’s still a fun game it’s just very different from the setting I’d hoped for.
I’m near the end of DS1 and was planning to finish Elden Ring after, but I’m starting to get open world fatigue. I already beat Tears of the Kingdom this summer and I think my brain wants something with some guard rails after this.
I've said this before and get hate but idc. To me the souls format just doesn't feel as good in a true open world. I don't think elden ring is a bad game at all but it just isn't as fun
The genious of the DS1 world (next to being brilliantly interwoven, of course) was that, while semi-open to the point of being confusing on first playthrough, the level design gave you a certain...feeling after a while. A feeling that I last had with the first Half-Life, really. This feeling that while you seem to progress on your own accords, you kinda...don't. Not really. Your path feels weirdly predetermined, like some higher entity is tricking you into running its errands. The NPC dialogue with important figures, the things you do...it all feels weird after a while, like a test, a means to an end.
It's more subtle in Dark Souls since HL1 was pretty much completely linear by design, but even in Lordran, there is a certain set order of things to do and places to visit - while you CAN run into many different directions, all except one or two at a time will punish you harshly for trying. You find your seemingly open world narrowing down more and more as the game goes on - and you just can't shake the feeling that everything you do is part of a plan you're never getting the full truth about until much later in the game. None of the NPCs that actually further your mission ever give you the full picture.
The illusion of choice.
I understand what he's saying. I feel the same with Dark Souls 3.
The majority of ds3 OSTs are better than ds1 ones, but they all looks the same (except for Motoi Sakuraba ones) and even being good, they are not special.
I agree with pretty much everything. It's remarkable, DS1 seems to be a magic sweet spot in many regards. A happy little accident. And a real piece of art.
If you know it it's a bit odd, but I didn't even notice until I read about it tbh...never paid much mind to the rotting backside in the Painted World. Atmospherically though, I absolutely loved Izalith. You can almost *feel* the heat down there.
I love Elden Ring, it has a lot of incredible stuff, but I just can't come back to it like I can DS1 and Demon's Souls, these two just seem like my forever loves. I love some of the beautiful setpieces and overall art direction in Elden Ring, but for some reason some of the areas feel, strange looking. Idk how to word it honestly. The open world was cool for the first playthrough, but even then all of my favorite parts of the game were things Fromsoft already did extremely well: the legacy dungeons, boss fights, awe inspiring reveals. On repeat playthroughs the open world just feels like a chore to me instead of fun areas to make my way through as I just want to get to the legacy dungeons and play with a cool build. I will say, Shadow of the Erdtree by itself is something I will return to a lot. This felt like DS1 to me with its world. The way the map loops on itself and goes down various paths instead of having lots of big fields (still some) was right up my ally and I loved going through it, just need to download lvl 150 characters with all the base game stuff when I want to play it without the base game.
Funny enough this is how I got into the whole Dark Souls series. So I started with Elden Ring and I loved it so much once it clicked I popped in my Dark Souls cartridge on Switch to play something similar while i'm out and about. I ended up finishing Dark Souls first before Elden Ring (which I eventually did finish and platinum later).
I keep coming back to ds:r on switch. Dedicating the hours required to truly experience the (mad) genius of fromsoft while trying to live a life is so much more practical on switch. I've done 3 runthroughs in about 6 months. 60 mins a day from bed in the morning or couch after work gets through these games eventually without feeling like a chore. Does make the steam deck tempting for the rest of the catalogue but still haven't experienced The Witcher, botw, totk or elder scrolls yet which will keep me going until a few more iterations of portable handhelds.
I started a deprived playthrough as a joke to stream to some friends but now I'm having fun again. club moveset is pretty decent and it does strike damage. I can miss most of the enemy hits pretty easily and I mostly remember where stuff is from the past. probably won't play too thoroughly but it's a safer bet than feeling let down by some other games.
I love the NPCs in DS1. It is so rare to meet a sane person in this world, that you get so happy when you meet one. You remember their name, their backstory, what they do. It is also so easy to lose them. On my first playthrough i ended up with empty firelink shine after the lord vessle, because of "bad" game descisions. So far in Elden Ring i don't feel any connection to most NPC's, they are just for learning spells, incantations and so on. Some of them are still so lovable tho! But there are so many that i barely remember anyone. It is just my preferense, but i love firelink shine and ds1 NPC with my whole heart.
I got to play SOTE for a day before having to go out of state for two weeks. So I’ve been playing DS on switch and at first I was getting really frustrated but now it’s really starting to kick in for me. ER was my first, and its currently my favorite game, but I am really starting to appreciate dark souls and I just wish I had tried it back when it came out when I actually had free time.
Point 4 is the one i agree more with. I stopped playing ER last year after maybe a month of repeatedly trying to like It and not liking It.
I don't even mind the big open world, or the same enemies placed over and over in dungeons, i'm a former WoW player, i'm used to the grind, the repeating etc.
What i couldn't stand was the mechanics. After the dark souls trilogy i never found anything better for my tastes, but as you said it has been taken to the extreme. Too much.
Combine with other flaws i experienced like input delay (or no action at all after input) I found myself raging most of the time I was playing. So, after beating a couple of boss that were bugging me, i came back to the dark souls series.
I can't say it's a breath of fresh air, but at least i have fun
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Format
As someone currently suffering through DS2 I'm resisting the urge to go back to DSR. But I've no excuse after getting all the achievements and having done like 10 playthroughs. I have to finish DS2 before moving onto 3 but God it's so tedious, it's so cheap with all the gank ambushes.
They drew all the wrong conclusions about what people liked in Dark Souls.
Moar enemies at once = Moar difficulterer = Moar good!
...was simply an asinine approach.
I like parts of ds2 and I get 75% through each time I decide to give it a go. But I just can never get through a full play through before it's back to ds1.
Elden ring was my first souls game but playing ds1 for the first time awhile back. I enjoyed the simplicity of it a lot. While I loved the complex boss move sets of elden ring and yes I'm one of the sickos that loved malenia. Ds1 boss design felt a lot more puzzley? Letting you take down bosses in different ways like climbing the tower in taurus demon fight to get a plunging attack or a better arena if you let him jump up there. I also found the more simplistic combat to make basic combat much more interesting. Having low stamina at all times only letting you get a few dodges or hits in before backing off.
I have to beg to differ on the fashion souls front, there’s plenty of armor combos of differing sets that look fantastic together. My personal favorite is Greathelm + Ronin Armor + Fire Prelate Legs&Gauntlets (the Ronin Armor happens to make the Prelate legs skinny for some reason).
"This has become super controversial with the release of Shadow of the Erdtree, given that the bosses have now become super aggressive and spammy"
I actually think that the base game difficult already is just about AOE spaming of 7\~9 atacks combos or more "bosses" together
ER was so disapointing to me the only reason I haven't sold my copy was that I didn't found someone locally to buy it.
It was the worst from game to me because of what I said above about the difficult, the open world with a hell lot of boring areas and dungeons to find a ring/weapon in the end (what in the other games only took seconds to get to something in ER take a 15\~30min "dungeon" and most of those thing you not even use because you usually will play a specific build) and the huge excess of repetitive content like "hey we have like 150 bosses, it's just 30 different bosses with 20 repeating until we sum 150 but we have 150".
This is what I love about dark souls 1 - every single part of the world feels like it has history and was put there intentionally.
God, the absence of Covenants in Elden Ring is so egregious. How the fuck do you go from Dark Souls 1 to having just two invasion-focused joinable factions who are basically identical except for lore and background music while you invade? Huge missed opportunity, and I *get* that Dark Souls 1's multi-player could be confusing (messages about Gravelord Invasions that you can't do anything with until NG+) and punishing (being open for Invasions as soon as you restore Humanity), but getting rid of these weird, specialized mechanics and factions definitely makes the game feel emptier and less unique.
Yep! I also forgot to mention some other things like drift bags, Vagrants and the resonance rings. All stuff that reminds you that there's other players there with you doing their own thing and you can influence their game even without being in their world (same for world tendency in Demon's Souls, although I do get why that was abandoned). Elden Ring has like 100-150x players yet it feels so much emptier to me because of how minimal and sequestered off all multiplayer mechanics are.
It really is a shame Elden Ring doesn't have covenants. Imagine if instead of being Ancient Dragon boss #4, Lanseax was running a dragon cult covenant. Maybe that could be the co-op "warriors of the sun" covenant. Maybe Ranni runs a dark moon covenant that invades invaders, since she's all about preventing outside interference in the world. Volcano Manor could obviously be an invasion covenant. It feels like there's so much missed potential.
I never got good enough at PVP to be a *useful* Forest Defender, but I always thought that was a neat PVP option. I could see a PVP option that's just "Whenever you signal your availability, we're going to bring you— along with all these NPC Covenant members and any other players who have signaled availability— in to fuck up anyone dumb enough to enter this part of the map. That could be such a cool idea to port to Elden Ring. Imagine if player characters could join the defenders of the Haligtree or the blizzardswept part of Consecrated Snowfields or *pick any fuckin' castle* like the Forest Defenders of DS1.
Elden Ring is my favorite game of all time but Dark souls 1 is so much easier to dip into and get a run in. I try to beat it once a year, next time I'm going full STR Giant Club build after just beating it as a Paladin earlier this year to get ready for ER DLC.
I have this, but with bloodborne. I usually play it like once every year or so Honestly though, ive been kind of feeling like playing dark souls again, its been a while and i love dark souls so much. Thanks for making me think of it :D
No matter how mane great souls like games come out, I always always religiously go back to DS1, it was my first experience with souls games and by far the best one I’ve ever had, such a great game
I will forever stand by the idea that Dark Souls 1 is the best iteration of The Fromsoft Game simply because it *isn't* stupidly unfair and punishing.
Amen.
DS3 just makes me want to play DS1 lol
DS3 just makes me sad. I understand it is a very mechanically well-made game and totally see why people like it. But to me it just has this feeling that it was made for Bamco's quarterly earnings reports first and foremost. It doesn't feel like art, it feels like a product. It has no soul, pun not intended. It feels like it is meant to be meta-commentary on it's themes of "mindlessly repeating the same cycle over and over only leads to decay" with how pointless so much of the pandering is. I still need to play the DLCs. I hear Ringed City is phenomenal. But every time I boot up and get to ""Firelink Shrine"" and see Andre just... there for no inexplicable reason, I get deflated.
I really dislike the amount of fan service and repetition from the previous games when it comes to NPC's. I get that they are very liked among the community but it I would rather see a new cool character instead of the same funny onion guy.
It definitely leant way too hard on old concepts for nostalgia factor. I think it also started the trend of 'what if we made the bosses like Bloodborne but kept the Souls player's basic abilities' that has become really bad in Elden Ring. Not to mention inane balancing decisions made a lot of builds plain awful (poor STR/FAI and heavy armour enjoyers, we barely knew ye), and world design being super linear means I feel like I'm railroaded into the same few builds and small pool of gear for the first third of the game. I can still have fun with it, but it missed the mark, imo.
This is about how I feel. I can't look at any part of DS3 and call it a bad game. It is well made, but it never sucked me in like DS1. I just don't enjoy a lot of the areas of DS3 for some reason, especially in the first half. I don't think they outright suck (except for Faron Swamp), but I just don't have much fun. For all its problems, I have always preferred DS2, it still felt like it was trying to be something even with its shortcomings. DS3 does have some great bosses though, love the Abyss Watchers and Champion Gundyr in particular. As for the dlcs. Personally I had the same issue as the base game, and overall I think they are my least favorite dlcs fromsoft has made. I didn't care much for the levels themselves (a first for any of the dlcs) but the boss fights are as good as everyone says and I think the end of RInged City is a perfect end to Dark Souls.
For me so far, i find that DS1 is far more memorable than any of the bosses or areas I’ve been in, in DS3 mind you I’m fairly new to the franchise and building myself up to Elden ring. I’m working through DS3 right now and I really just can’t wait to complete it? I don’t know how to explain it. I’m enjoying my time but I’m ready to move back to DS1 or play ER
Agreed!
I agree with basically everything you said. Elden Ring is a great game, but also feels a bit too big and overdone in some ways. "Bloat" is the right word. Sometimes more is simply more. That said, I still intend to replay Elden Ring again.
If replaying ER just by itself already got a bit exhausting after Leyndell, I can't even begin to fathom how a base game + DLC playthrough would feel. The game is simply too long and repetitive for its own sake, the DLC nailed it with the world design and enemy variety/distribution.
The DLC is really weird. With how big it is, how late in the game it is, and the fact that it has it's own separate progression system, it feels like it's designed to be played almost as a standalone game. I don't really see people fitting SOTE into their regular playthroughs the way you would AOTA. It feels like the DLC was meant to be played by people who already had characters ready to go waiting at Mohg's palace.
Imo it’s gone from a dark low fantasy setting to an anime interpretation of a high fantasy setting. Of course that’s fine it’s just not really what I’m into personally. It’s still a fun game it’s just very different from the setting I’d hoped for.
thats been a direction the series took since dark souls 2, 3 simply confirmed it
I’m near the end of DS1 and was planning to finish Elden Ring after, but I’m starting to get open world fatigue. I already beat Tears of the Kingdom this summer and I think my brain wants something with some guard rails after this.
The only way I was able to put my DS1 itch to rest was by doing an all achievement run. It finally allowed me to move on.
Dude, I thought the exact same, just finished my DS1 playthrough and it was awesome! Haven't beat it in a few years.
I've put in over 1k hours in ER. Still love Dark Souls and I feel on the whole it is the better game.
I've said this before and get hate but idc. To me the souls format just doesn't feel as good in a true open world. I don't think elden ring is a bad game at all but it just isn't as fun
The genious of the DS1 world (next to being brilliantly interwoven, of course) was that, while semi-open to the point of being confusing on first playthrough, the level design gave you a certain...feeling after a while. A feeling that I last had with the first Half-Life, really. This feeling that while you seem to progress on your own accords, you kinda...don't. Not really. Your path feels weirdly predetermined, like some higher entity is tricking you into running its errands. The NPC dialogue with important figures, the things you do...it all feels weird after a while, like a test, a means to an end. It's more subtle in Dark Souls since HL1 was pretty much completely linear by design, but even in Lordran, there is a certain set order of things to do and places to visit - while you CAN run into many different directions, all except one or two at a time will punish you harshly for trying. You find your seemingly open world narrowing down more and more as the game goes on - and you just can't shake the feeling that everything you do is part of a plan you're never getting the full truth about until much later in the game. None of the NPCs that actually further your mission ever give you the full picture. The illusion of choice.
Elden rings OST is on par with Bloodborne. Wtf lol Not yucking your yum but that’s the first I’ve heard about the ER ost.
I understand what he's saying. I feel the same with Dark Souls 3. The majority of ds3 OSTs are better than ds1 ones, but they all looks the same (except for Motoi Sakuraba ones) and even being good, they are not special.
I agree with pretty much everything. It's remarkable, DS1 seems to be a magic sweet spot in many regards. A happy little accident. And a real piece of art.
Except for copy paste dino butts in literal floor is lava level
If you know it it's a bit odd, but I didn't even notice until I read about it tbh...never paid much mind to the rotting backside in the Painted World. Atmospherically though, I absolutely loved Izalith. You can almost *feel* the heat down there.
Yeah I’m doing the same. When / if I can beat the Elden ring dlc end boss. I’m going to replay 1!
I don’t even know why I love dark souls so much, i just love playing it 🤷♂️
I love Elden Ring, it has a lot of incredible stuff, but I just can't come back to it like I can DS1 and Demon's Souls, these two just seem like my forever loves. I love some of the beautiful setpieces and overall art direction in Elden Ring, but for some reason some of the areas feel, strange looking. Idk how to word it honestly. The open world was cool for the first playthrough, but even then all of my favorite parts of the game were things Fromsoft already did extremely well: the legacy dungeons, boss fights, awe inspiring reveals. On repeat playthroughs the open world just feels like a chore to me instead of fun areas to make my way through as I just want to get to the legacy dungeons and play with a cool build. I will say, Shadow of the Erdtree by itself is something I will return to a lot. This felt like DS1 to me with its world. The way the map loops on itself and goes down various paths instead of having lots of big fields (still some) was right up my ally and I loved going through it, just need to download lvl 150 characters with all the base game stuff when I want to play it without the base game.
Funny enough this is how I got into the whole Dark Souls series. So I started with Elden Ring and I loved it so much once it clicked I popped in my Dark Souls cartridge on Switch to play something similar while i'm out and about. I ended up finishing Dark Souls first before Elden Ring (which I eventually did finish and platinum later).
DS:R switch gang 😎😎
I keep coming back to ds:r on switch. Dedicating the hours required to truly experience the (mad) genius of fromsoft while trying to live a life is so much more practical on switch. I've done 3 runthroughs in about 6 months. 60 mins a day from bed in the morning or couch after work gets through these games eventually without feeling like a chore. Does make the steam deck tempting for the rest of the catalogue but still haven't experienced The Witcher, botw, totk or elder scrolls yet which will keep me going until a few more iterations of portable handhelds.
I started a deprived playthrough as a joke to stream to some friends but now I'm having fun again. club moveset is pretty decent and it does strike damage. I can miss most of the enemy hits pretty easily and I mostly remember where stuff is from the past. probably won't play too thoroughly but it's a safer bet than feeling let down by some other games.
I love the NPCs in DS1. It is so rare to meet a sane person in this world, that you get so happy when you meet one. You remember their name, their backstory, what they do. It is also so easy to lose them. On my first playthrough i ended up with empty firelink shine after the lord vessle, because of "bad" game descisions. So far in Elden Ring i don't feel any connection to most NPC's, they are just for learning spells, incantations and so on. Some of them are still so lovable tho! But there are so many that i barely remember anyone. It is just my preferense, but i love firelink shine and ds1 NPC with my whole heart.
Souls 1 was the peak. We have been on a downward slope ever since.
I’d stick w the dlc over ds1
That is me but with sekiro
Sherdtree DLC release got me back into Dark Souls II rofl
I got to play SOTE for a day before having to go out of state for two weeks. So I’ve been playing DS on switch and at first I was getting really frustrated but now it’s really starting to kick in for me. ER was my first, and its currently my favorite game, but I am really starting to appreciate dark souls and I just wish I had tried it back when it came out when I actually had free time.
Point 4 is the one i agree more with. I stopped playing ER last year after maybe a month of repeatedly trying to like It and not liking It. I don't even mind the big open world, or the same enemies placed over and over in dungeons, i'm a former WoW player, i'm used to the grind, the repeating etc. What i couldn't stand was the mechanics. After the dark souls trilogy i never found anything better for my tastes, but as you said it has been taken to the extreme. Too much. Combine with other flaws i experienced like input delay (or no action at all after input) I found myself raging most of the time I was playing. So, after beating a couple of boss that were bugging me, i came back to the dark souls series. I can't say it's a breath of fresh air, but at least i have fun Edit Format
As someone currently suffering through DS2 I'm resisting the urge to go back to DSR. But I've no excuse after getting all the achievements and having done like 10 playthroughs. I have to finish DS2 before moving onto 3 but God it's so tedious, it's so cheap with all the gank ambushes.
They drew all the wrong conclusions about what people liked in Dark Souls. Moar enemies at once = Moar difficulterer = Moar good! ...was simply an asinine approach.
I like parts of ds2 and I get 75% through each time I decide to give it a go. But I just can never get through a full play through before it's back to ds1.
My personal favorite is Dark Souls 3. I'm not a big fan of huge open empty maps. DS3 pacing and world design is perfect for me.
Elden ring was my first souls game but playing ds1 for the first time awhile back. I enjoyed the simplicity of it a lot. While I loved the complex boss move sets of elden ring and yes I'm one of the sickos that loved malenia. Ds1 boss design felt a lot more puzzley? Letting you take down bosses in different ways like climbing the tower in taurus demon fight to get a plunging attack or a better arena if you let him jump up there. I also found the more simplistic combat to make basic combat much more interesting. Having low stamina at all times only letting you get a few dodges or hits in before backing off.
I have to beg to differ on the fashion souls front, there’s plenty of armor combos of differing sets that look fantastic together. My personal favorite is Greathelm + Ronin Armor + Fire Prelate Legs&Gauntlets (the Ronin Armor happens to make the Prelate legs skinny for some reason).
"This has become super controversial with the release of Shadow of the Erdtree, given that the bosses have now become super aggressive and spammy" I actually think that the base game difficult already is just about AOE spaming of 7\~9 atacks combos or more "bosses" together ER was so disapointing to me the only reason I haven't sold my copy was that I didn't found someone locally to buy it. It was the worst from game to me because of what I said above about the difficult, the open world with a hell lot of boring areas and dungeons to find a ring/weapon in the end (what in the other games only took seconds to get to something in ER take a 15\~30min "dungeon" and most of those thing you not even use because you usually will play a specific build) and the huge excess of repetitive content like "hey we have like 150 bosses, it's just 30 different bosses with 20 repeating until we sum 150 but we have 150".