That's what I think. lol :P

I completely, but respectfully, disagree. Based on facts. Elden is hard, in fact, harder than previous souls games, and deliberately so.

In some videos I've posted the content creators point out why Hidetaka Miyazaki made Elden Ring harder than previous souls games - which led, unfortunately, to an unbalanced experience for Solo and NoSummon players except if you follow "what works better agaisnt X enemy or Y boss". I'm not saying you can't play using your own builds, you can, but allegedly you will have a hard time.

With the purpose to make the game more challenging because of how the new summon works, Miyazaki made bosses and enemies have higher HP pools all across the world. To add to that, they focused on varied pool of enemy movements and all kinds of almost unpredictable and hard to dodge enemy attacks in the likes of Dark Souls 3.

(More on the topic on how developers lost their track on Souls combat and made it a 'dodge feast': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5PdpsfINA)

Like people said on such videos I posted (because I like truth and these videos shows the truth through data) if you are to follow the 'meta' and 'guides' on how to play, yes okay, you will know "what you're doing".

(Plenty of data for analysis :P)
(SPOILER warning, as always)

But for people that like to play their games blind, they *might* have a terrible unbalanced and confused experience because of how the enemies are placed around the world and how their leveling works.

Which is completely different from past Souls games, in which you could explore the world and discover things through world understanding and map memorization - perfect for blind playthroughs and the sense of discovery and build experimentation. Im not saying you can't have this on Elden Ring - yes you can, and theres plenty of room for build experimentation since the game has many new items, magicks, and so on, but because of how everything in it works - it is harder, much harder, simply because of the absurd ammount of content the game has, except if you follow a guide to know "what works".

By that I mean that 'solo / no summon / no guide' players will have a hard time understanding what to do.
They will have fun nonetheless.

Every time I see footage of Elden Ring, it certainly looks boringly drab and lifeless.

The question of balance only matters in multiplayer games in order to provide a more or less equal option for players. In a single player game, and no matter what they say, Souls games are largely that, balance does not matter at all, never has, never will. I managed to beat the entire souls trilogy on my own, without reading about character builds, but the fact that you can beat the games without leveling even once and even with the most basic gear proves that, ultimately, all problems are related to the person playing the game and not the games' systems. The people you mention probably wanted an automatic "you win!" button, which is largely the main problem in game design these days (and it's been since the mid 00s at the very least). Souls games are a rarity in the sense that every failure means that the player didn't try something they could or should do, even without considering the most optimal build. The games don't really have problems, outside maybe the room for the Capra boss in DS1, and even then, it's just a matter of rolling to the side. You can be as hardcore as you want in these games, or you can cheese as much as you want. There's options, there's challenge, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Also, dodging has always been more efficient than blocking or parrying in Souls, it's nothing new and it has always been there.

Builds are only a concern if you want to play PVP.

If this is not suitable for you, then you shouldn't waste your time playing games you don't like. It's not mandatory, and not everything is for you (again, this formless blob of non-identifiable stuff is another sin of current game design).

Souls games are a rarity that has to be cherished, and the fact that no-one else has managed to crack the code of a very simple statement says it all.

I won't watch your vids, I need your opinion, not someone else's. Don't let other people tell you what to think.

It seems to me you're joking with this quote. Ultimately you can beat any game with any kind of handcap - as the Speedrun/Any%/NoHit/NoX community always does.

In any way, all you said is subjective to the person playing the game and while there are people that definitely can and will beat all souls games without problems, that doesn't change the fact that those games might be unbalanced. Same way, dealing 100 HP damage to a 189570 HP boss in a 40 minutes fight might be fun to some, for example, to others its not fun and in truth mean it is a poorly optmized and tested fight.

Like many good Elden Ring players are pointing out right now, even challenge runners capable of beating the game without taking a single hit. Even agaisnt the hardest fight on Elden Ring because of one unbalanced and probably untested move. (Like *ahem* Malenia.)

I think I know where you're coming from though. But don't be worried, Im not one of those people that says 'Souls games need an Easy mode!'

You said in the end of your quote that you have not even watched the videos I've shared, based on what you say this?
They're videos full of player experiences and therefore important analysis data in the case of objective unbalanced gameplay. Which means, they're facts experienced by many players and should not be ignored as important info for this debate.
x1

You said in the end of your quote that you have not even watched the videos I've shared, based on what you say this?
They're videos full of player experiences and therefore important analysis data in the case of objective unbalanced gameplay. Which means, they're facts experienced by many players and should not be ignored as important info for this debate.
x2

In any way, I agree with you on the dodge mechanic. It was always established since the first Soul game (Demon Souls) that dodge was one of the means of defense, the problem that you seem to ignore, sir, is that it was not the only viable and consistent way of avoiding damage. Like Mathemattosis explained in one of the videos I've posted.

This is simply not true. All games are mostly played for entertainment purposes in which people seek, among other things, depending on what kind of game they're playing, good challenges, experimentation and player choice.
Plus, Elden Ring calls itself an Action RPG. RPG games are based purely on Player choice and freedom of character builds. and thus, players are given the tools and choices to create builds and experiment with what tools they have ingame. This is and always were Souls games mentality, albeit done differently in each game.

The problem with 'builds' in this kind of game is that in long term play, the weakest items, magicks, armors will start to show up, and the strongest too, even if you never seek any guides or tutorials. Elden Ring has a balancing problem when they give you 100 options for magicks, but only 2 are really useful on most important bosses or fights, when they give you 290 weapons to choose from, but only 5 are consistent enough to fight the hardest bosses or fights.
(These numbers are examples.)

This is not something based on player skill, because objectively, players that choose to not use the selected few magicks/weapons/armors will necessarily lose time on fights and therefore, lose fun and entertainment, which is the objective to people that play games. (As shown in the videos I've posted as player data for the ones seeking the truth about it.)

If this is not based on player skill, your subjective argument that 'that depends on the player' falls short, because objectively, the game was coded with this unbalanced mechanic, making other play styles unviable.

Therefore it restricts player freedom and player choice. Gatekeeping some from having what they seek in the game they're playing: Fun with their own way of playing the game. Gatekeeping them from using the item they like, the magick they've choosen, the weapon or set they've spent rare resources to be upgraded to +10.

Some people may say that this is not bad and use your next argument as something valid ("If you don't like it, don't play it!" and the like.). But, as my argument stated, why would you give player many choices if they can only objectively choose a few? This sounds like trickery to me. Something like game designers started doing as means of lazy game design when all conversations between player and NPC had 3 or more options, but the end result was basically the same.

Now Im sure you thought I was one of those "Make an Easy mode for Souls games!" people. :P Im just kidding.
And I believe you're right when you say people should not play games they don't want to and I think that we all must respect our limits. But I agree only when this is based on a true statement, and not being forced on players because they should use this build because it is the best simply because you can't play consistently without doing jump attacks with it.

That doesn't mean they're perfect and should not be criticized for their failures and in what they copy from the same industry you criticize rightfuly.

Just like Sarafan rightfuly stated:
He is right. Elden Ring is full of open areas with nothing in it. Repeated dungeons and enemies. Specially the last area which I will avoid saying what it is as it contains many spoilers. Which clearly shows that they had no time left to tweak and test properly because the game is so absurdly huge that this kind of work would require years to finish properly.

People should learn that you can understand flaws and still say it is good. Not perfect, but good.
Like, well, human beings. We're not perfect. We can recognize each others flaws, but still love each other nonetheless.

They're not mine.
It's a shame anyway, I recommended them because they have really good information about gaming design, sociology and philosophy of gaming and human mind overall In my humble opinion, albeit they're very long and time consuming. Fun watch nonetheless.

I gave you my opinion on my first quote to you.

But anyway, we are always influenced by other's thoughts and opinions and while we develop our own thoughts and opinions on anything based on reality or not, we will never be able to be 100% unbiased. Those who think they're are unbiased are just lying to themselves.

Based on the facts of player experience, other players experience and video data, you learn what is true, or at least, learn more of or most of the truth.
This is the reason I posted those videos here.

In this specific case, honest people that love gaming and From Software are making constructive criticism for them to make it better, or for others to stop saying Elden Ring is a "perfect masterpiece" - it is not.
It's better than most games nowdays for sure but far from perfect.

But I think we're going to offtopic territory here, so I will end it here.
Thank you for the interesting debate! Take care.

--many edits:
Clarifying arguments, correcting orthography, adding more information, etc.

Well, with that said I would suggest...

... try any Souls-like except Sekiro.

While interesting, Sekiro's combat is quite different than most Souls-like games, rhythm-oriented, and many would claim much harder.

(I stopped playing not due to combat but because so many areas wouldn't allow traversal as I wanted... and as it looked like should be available! Was almost as bad as if the game had invisible walls)

If you find Elden Ring's world lifeless...

... IMO that's most Souls-like games as well. They exist for combat, simple trade, and nothing else.

TBH I've fallen out of love with the Souls-like genre. Even with what I would consider the superior Nioh series, I was always wishing that I was playing an actual samurai RPG.

I wasn't a huge fan of this game, but you might want to check out Kingdoms of Amalur.

I'd also add Ghost of Tsushima on the table. It is probably the best open world game from the last years and will probably be for some more years.

Sekiro is NOT a Souls-like.

It's like a discussion whether Diablo is an RPG. ;) One will say yes, the other no.

My take: there are no stats or builds, there's no lose-recover exp mechanics (you just get your expereince to the next level halved when you die with no chance to take it beck), the gameplay is just radically different in all ways.
Sekiro is an action game through and through, exception made for some collectibles (mostly rewarded for defeating main bossess) increasing your power, you finish the game as you started it, it is 100% skill based and you cannot vary your approach.

Curiosity: Sekiro actually started as a Tenchu sequel but changed mid-way.

I did, right after its release. It was the first game that managed to really give the whole wire trap classic a face. I did enjoy that game. Especially with the pure bowster i build. Twirling around, dropping 7 mines every cycle. Especially in the end siege phase. Always found it a shame that i did not record that part of the playthrough, crazy shit going on with enemies flying anywhere and everywhere. Similar fun to ME2 in a certain level, and of course on the hunt for the shadow broker ( with biotics ;) )

Right on! Got the feeling if you liked Darksiders, you may enjoy Amalur

and you know.... Dark Souls...... Only madmen would win a fight against such an overmatch and even those need something evilly usually. I mean, even those hero's presented in marvel need sheer luck and team work to overcome the greatest threats. it just, not natural ya know ;)