>>529120448
Look man I'm not gonna get into it that much with you, but it's just not as thematically sumptuous as their other games, or cohesive, or interesting character-wise.
>Game has a preoccupation with double identities (Melina/Gloam Eyed Queen, siamese gargoyles, Margit/Morgott, Radagon/Marika, Miquella/Trina, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux, Gurranq/Maliketh, Rya/Zorayas
Doesn't do anything interesting with it. Margit is just an assumed identity of Morgott to hide his nature, even though nobody in the game cares. We know in HISTORY Omen are shunned, but nobody in the present time cares about Morgott having been an Omen, or having been Margit the whole time. If Miquella and Trina were separate entities, nothing about the story changes. If Radagon and Marika were separate entities, nothing about the story changes - Radagon's need to perfect himself is not contingent on having been an aspect of Marika or vice versa, a man himself can seek perfection. Godfrey was Godfrey so he would be civilized enough for Marika, but the only thing it really does is give us a neat two phase boss fight.
Characters don't react to anything in the dlc, when previous games in the series do have characters react to the dlc.
The Scadutree is a powerful image that is almost always visible in the Land of Shadow, but only one person mentions it, Hornsent, and Enir Ilim ends up being more important. Enir Ilim being more important is fine, but the Scadutree shouldn't have been a thing if it wasn't going to be involved in any way. It's overflowing with sap, right? Erdtree sap is used to create miracles, talismans, to bestow power. Why isn't anyone fighting over the Scadutree sap? Is it poisonous? We don't know. Nobody talks about it.
It goes on man. Elden Ring just isn't what I wanted it to be. All their other games are very satisfying storywise, thematically, and characterwise. I'm not needlessly shitting on it, I like Elden Ring. But when I think of replaying it, I remember how vacuous it all is