The addition of a spirit horse makes for an amazing mode of transportation, though the delay in attacks from horseback is disappointing. The addition of blood magic is cool and Flask of Wonderous Physique being customizable to prevent rune loss, increase stamina regen, or temporarily remove FP restrictions is amusing. I am happy about additional checkpoints provided by statues in the world.
Aesthetically it is a step down from
Dark Souls series. The bosses are more fair than in
Dark Souls 3. In multi-boss scenarios they are even kind enough to only attack the player directly one at a time based on proximity. Gameplaywise it is an evolution of
Dark Souls 3 both in fluidity of weapon move sets and the idea of interchangeable weapon arts/affinities. Them nerfing R1 poise break sucks, but addition of guard counters makes up for it. The jumping mechanics in combat are awful and throw out the homing and efficient forward heavy jump attack in
Dark Souls. Even the drop down strike is poor compared to its counterpart in
Dark Souls. For normal weapons it takes an absurd (9*12+1) 109 stones to fully upgrade and the simple somber upgraded weapons cannot have their affinities changed. Also the general move set for every weapon in a class is extremely similar.
Oddly I am likely one of the only people that hates the convoluted design of
Elden Ring's legacy dungeons, but enjoys the simplicity of mini dungeons and the open world, which sadly does not have any living residential areas like most open world games. The crafting system is done pretty well as the player can finally forgo trips to a merchant for ammo, cure, and buff/debuff items, but fails to do something as basic as heal or replenish FP still necessitating trips to sites of grace.
Disappointingly, it does not incorporate the best aspects of
Dark Souls II with restoration items, unique weapons, bonfire ascetics, early respec access, standardized upgrade/affinity system, and unique power stance weapon combos. Even Twinblades do not feel as fun to use. Some weapons like the Claymore feel like a step down from the original
Dark Souls, but others like the katanas are a step above.
It also does not live up to the movement and aggressive gameplay mechanics of
Bloodborne with its amazing charged attacks. If I had to rank the lot:
Scholar of the First Sin >
Bloodborne >>
Dark Souls Remastered (Backstep/Roll/Teleport/Early DLC Mods) >
Elden Ring >>
Demon Souls >>
Dark Souls III: Deluxe Edition
Worth playing Elden ring in the Ps4 versión?
Yes, it is relatively stable and looks/plays well.