Wow it seems quite arrogant to act like you're above everybody because nobody else can see "the truth". Game quality is subjective, just because you love a game doesn't make it objectively master class. And people liking or disliking Elden Ring has absolutely 0 to do with having "taste", or being "good enough" to understand why it's good. Your opinion is no more special than anybody else's
Well I for one believe in objective good Game Design, everyone has preferences but what Elden Ring brought to the table is Objectively amazing, it's one of the only Game's that I have had the thought this might be the best game ever made, its not perfect, no game is and Id argue there are more well rounded game's out there but what it does do well is just crazy good.
First off it's the best Exploration in gaming, the level design is phenomenal and varied, grounded enough to feel like it has a realistic logic to it but wild enough to feel magical/fantasy esk. It's like if you had linear level game design quality but its on a ridiculously huge scale. You constantly get lost in interesting things, in every direction, you'll go to do one interesting thing and stumble into 3 more. The game constantly rewards the player intuition with secrets that contain meaningful rewards that are actually useful 90% of the time. If the item isnt for your build you can respec to try it out later or have something exciting to look forward to use on another playthrough and at the very least it always has some sort of interesting lore to give you grander context into the mysterious world your exploring.
There are so many fantastical art design set pieces and vista's to find that will blow your mind, and even when it reuses assets it does such a good job to make them feel like they belong in that world naturally using them to communicate to the player there's a some sort of good reward here and maybe a secret or boss too. Ive seen complain about the Mine/Catacomb/Ruins's all being the same and they are crazy, almost all of them are varied gameplay wise in their layouts except for the type of architecture/structures used there with some wildly varying. They reuse assets incredibly well and make sure that its never boring so there is always a surprise coming your way with a cool reward at the end, (although I will give there are too many Ulcerated Tree Spirits but I believe in full that even this was understood by the developers, as they kind of meme it up with them at times).
Something that is at the Core of keeping the Exploration so damn interesting is it having the most refined Souls combat system to date with new tools like Torrent, Jump Attacks, Guard Attacks, Perfume etc. combined with a 140 unique enemy types to engage in that incredible system with. I could explain why Soulsbourne Combat is some of the best in Video game's but I feel it should be understood by this point (I can if I have to though) it's challenge forcing player engagement with even minor encounters at the risk of dying keeps you always in the adventure never feeling truly safe, this is very important when your playing a 100 plus hour experience and why most open world games get boring quickly. Also the variety of how you choose to play is vast, like there are so many different and interesting build/ways to play the game with many interesting options for each Stat Direction you would want to go in, I've beaten it 3 times and there is still a ton of tools I want to try to engage the game with. Another thing about the Soulsbourne game's is they are known for their challenge or difficulty, in many of those game's you can hit a wall that you are just expected to beat your head over again and again till you break through. Elden ring is also very challenging but with key differences similar to the brilliant design of Demon's Souls except on a larger scale if you hit wall you are never just stuck you can go somewhere else, you can go to several somewhere else's till you feel comfortable to come back and try again. Not to mention the crazy amount of difficulty sliders you can apply to yourself, you can use summons, co op or even npc summons or you can just use melee or magic/faith or some combination of all these to determine what kind of challenge you want in the game.
Then there is one critical thing this game doesnt give up that is so important when transitioning to Open World (something Breath of the Wild lost) was Legacy Dungeon's. If you didnt think the Level Design was fantastic already well it cranks it up a notch even further with arguably some of the best Dungeon's in the Soul Series, even more intricate level design, secrets and characters always ending with an incredible Boss Encounter, most boss's in the Overworld are more Mini Boss material but the Legacy Dungeon's boss are a cut above.
Besides all of that you have an incredible OST filled with both beautiful ambient tracks and bombastic iconic tracks. A world filled with memorable characters and incredibly deep interesting lore that is designed in a way to give you room to interpret it yourself. The game is also filled to brim with charm with just weird quirky enemy/world interactions or weapons like rolling electric goats or a big dumb finger flicking weapon hidden in the bottom of a hidden Chariot area, like what. Then there is just how huge the game truly is, it has a bonker's amount of content and area's to explore, all filled with meaningful content to the brim, I mean just looking how big would get was an adventure in itself. Then there is just the freedom of how you want to approach the game, I think there are only 8 required boss's to beat the game out of 112 unique one's There are just so many ways you can approach this game and they are almost all valid, your story of how your game unfolded wont ever be the same as your friends, it was wild talking about this with coworkers at work since we barely shared any of the same content even though we just started.
With all that said that just the tip of the Iceburg this game has so much I could go into what it does well for along time but Im lazy to type that much lol, yes the game has small issues like too many Ulcerated Tree Spirits or it could have a better system for scaling the overworld enemies with your level etc. but nothing that comes even close to comparing to the incredible work on display here. It's the only time ive ever thought to myself in my 25 plus years of gaming that this might be best game ever made, it's now firmly in my personal top 10. Also yes I dont think the majority of people will ever get why Elden Ring is objectively just that good because most people do not understand nor desire to understand the WHY to why they like anything really.
