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Originally Posted by mikemhg
I hate Souls like games but I've watched a lot of Elden Ring on YT, think it's worth the dive?
I love my RPGs, but I need an engaging story, not the biggest fan of JRPGs for that very reason.
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I hate Souls games too, but put over 200 hours into Elden Ring.
Actually I recently answered this kind of question to a friend who was wondering the same thing, and he's been enjoying it ever since. I'll cut and paste what I told him, since he found it helpful:
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I have very strong opinions of this game.. I call it the best 6/10 game I've ever played and I have over 240 hours in it. There is a lot that is great about it, and a lot that is really bad, but more often than not, the great stuff will hook you in and you'll really enjoy it.
Even if you've hated other Souls games for various reasons, this one is by far more playable than any of those were, with a better (but still bad) interface and a lot (but not enough) of modern mechanics that make it more playable. Hit me up if you want to know more!
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He then said his main worry is running into impassable walls like he did in Souls games. So I said:
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This is actually where the game excels, because it is so entirely open that if you run into any sort of wall, the best thing to do - and something highly encouraged by the game - is to just go somewhere else. Literally pick a direction and go. And there is so much that is accessible right away, that it's practically impossible to not have somewhere to go.
I spent my first day playing the game at the first enemy camp. In retrospect a hilariously tiny camp, but it was a huge wall for me, that for some reason I kept bashing my head into. Eventually I figured maybe I should just go somewhere else and get stronger, and the game sunk its hooks into me like you wouldn't believe. That early sense of exploration is this game at its best, and at these times it feels like a masterpiece.
That eventually goes away and it becomes annoying linear and repetetive, but by then you will probably be so entrenched in the mechanics that you'll want to stick through the suck. If not, you can still get like 100+ hours of exploration, coming across some pretty crazy shit.
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So if you are aware of the potential drawbacks in the game and are OK with them, I still highly recommend it.
It's not an RPG though, and the story barely makes any sense, so keep that in mind if that's important to you. The story is basically flavour.. It's crazy and leads to some really great art design in the world and characters, but I find it to be "a bad story" in itself.