Finally starting Elden Ring: The beginning of the end of a journey

I've talked about it a few times on here, but when Elden Ring came out, I found myself... aggravated? by the people asserting that it was the best game ever made. My kneejerk was that it almost certainly wasn't, that it was just over exuberance from "git gud" enthusiasts who made up a minority, albeit a very loud minority, of the internet.

But, the whole discussion was a thorn in my side, because in spite of all my years gaming, I'd never played a single Souls-like. Not one. The "hard for the sake of hard" vibe that I always got from conversations surrounding them always kept me away. My gaming backlog was far too big to play something I was fairly certain I wouldn't like. I was sure the glow would fade over time.

Then a year later, some people were still saying that Elden Ring was the best game ever created. Now, there was also a rising chorus against it, and as much as the nays felt persuasive, that thorn still wouldn't go away, because in the back of my mind, I knew that reeked of confirmation bias. There was a legitimate argument regarding the best god damned game of all time, and I was wholly, utterly ignorant on the subject matter being discussed.

So I decided to not only play Elden Ring, but to give it a truly fair shake by playing every Dark Souls game that came before it. All of them, even though I knew I would hate them. So I started with Dark Souls (Remastered). I found it to be odd, dense, and arcane. And difficult. Painfully fricking difficult. But I also found it interesting. I won't go into detail here, as I already did so in the Weekend Gaming thread, but I beat it, all bosses no cheese. I wouldn't say that I loved it, but I enjoyed the experience. Then I beat Dark Souls 2. Then Dark Souls 3. Now I had this weird itch. I kept wanting to go back to Dark Souls. So I rolled another build. Then another. And then another. Then I started doing (minor) challenge runs. Then speed runs. Then SL1 runs. Dark Souls became my meditation game, my relaxation game. frick knows it's not perfect, but it scratches an itch I simply haven't been able to scratch with any other game. Beyond that, Dark Souls had fundamentally altered how my brain processes challenges, obstacles, and failures. Not just in gaming: in every facet of my life.

Now, here we are, two years after release. The base game of Elden Ring is as polished as it's ever going to be. So when I got the email saying it was discounted in the current Steam sale, I pulled the trigger. Started my playthrough last night. Unlike with the mainline Souls games, I'm going in blind(ish): I'll look up things that I don't understand, tips on mechanics that don't feel right to my muscle memory (hi, parry windows that are vastly earlier than those from any of the Dark Souls games...), but I'm not reading, much less following, any walkthroughs or set paths. Though as I get further along, I'll likely start shifting away from that so I can catch things I missed. But for now, just walking the path.

I won't really be looking for tips or advice on here, as not only are there long threads already, there are two years of reddit threads long enough to choke an AI large language model if I need. But if anyone wants to keep me company as I play through, by all means. And I would certainly invite any discussion as I just kind of jot down my thoughts on comparisons to previous Souls games, my thoughts on it being the greatest game ever, or anything else that crosses my mind.

It's been a hell of a ride, and it feels a bit surreal to be firing up this final chapter. But now, with all of that said, back to the Lands Between.