I'll be completely honest with you, I've never had the best relationship with FromSoftware; Yeah, their games were aesthetically pleasing but honestly the gameplay wasn't really my thing. Was it because they were hard? No. They're punishing, sure, but once you understood how the game worked everything was quite easy. It was ultimately the fandom at the time that consisted of snobs that threw around "git gud" without actually offering any advice on what was mostly a single-player experience that turned me away from these sort of games.

Then a friend gifted me a copy of this game. (Thanks again, btw. You know who you are.)

My expectations were low and that's what blew my mind with this game in the first place. Eld of the Rings honestly felt like a huge improvement from the other Soulsborne titles. Is Eldward Ringscorhands hard? Oh yeah, no doubt about it. But no longer was I stuck in the same area spending hours grinding the same few enemies if I couldn't overcome a boss just so I could level up; I can now just hop on my horse, explore a part of the map I never found before, have a little adventure and come back when I feel like I'm ready to take on whatever to progress the story. Mechanics that have been present since Demon's Souls didn't feel like using a pool noodle in comparison to whatever weapon you were using. Dark Souls: Breath of the Wild feels more flexible in comparison to it's predecessors when it comes to how you want to play and what you want to do.

And it's probably time to address something I've been asking myself for a while; Where are all the sweatlord Dark Souls veterans gatekeeping this game and saying how "newbies don't deserve to play this game because it's easier?" I'm still asking that question because honestly that's what I was expecting to happen when this game was announced. I have yet to see anything like that. Instead I found a welcoming and helpful community both in and out of Eldo Ringins, all with a wealth of knowledge and a willingness to help those who are new to the game learn and grow. Honestly I was and still am surprised.

Bottom line, if you want to actually give Soulsbornes a try, I couldn't recommend The Eldern Rings V: Skyrune more. It's well worth the AAA price tag and I can see Runescape being one of the few titles that can and will stand the test of time.