One thing that has been kind of fun about playing Elden Ring has been a sense feeling around in the dark. Normally, I play Soulsborne games long after they were first released, and my impulse is to try to do everything "right" the first time.
Here, though, I'm bowling through the content with little sense of how it will conclude. I don't know that I have all the best spells or equipment (though grabbing the Meteorite Staff early on and then going back for Rock Sling was probably a good call).
I have done a bit more exploration, though, and at this point I've gotten a couple map fragments that first opened up the whole Liurnia region (I had been missing the western region above the lake) and then I've entered the Altus Plateau and, I think, the capital city of Leyndell (and have very quickly come to realize that I should level up a lot more before I try to do much there).
I think at this point that I've got a pretty solid chunk of the map exposed, though one thing I've noticed is that my route - kind of a clockwise progression from Limgrave to Liurnia and now Altus and Leyndell (man, lot of L names) - but I haven't felt much of a "questline" to go east from Limgrave to Caelid.
Leyndell has a very final-region feel to it, being the capital of the Lands Between and seeing how it's awash in golden light from the nearby Erdtree - I've found that a lot of games make the final area more heavenly in appearance than hellish. But there is more to the map for us to come across.
In terms of bosses, I found a sort of outdoor dungeon (similar to the one at the bottom of the Weeping Peninsula south of Limgrave) north of Raya Lucaria, which I believe is the Carian Manor, and beat a boss there. Shortly thereafter, when I returned to Roundtable Hold, the silent bodyguard for Gideon Ofnir, named Ensha, attacked me. I killed him and then Roundtable Hold reset to its normal state, except that I got Ensha's creepy armor.
Just based on the notion that you need 70 intelligence to cast Rennala's Full Moon sorcery suggests that the eventual level you're expected to hit by the end of the game is probably higher than Dark Souls III, but I still don't really know how far into the game I am. I've got two Great Runes, of which I think there are five to collect, but I don't know how far things go after that.
So far I haven't done much alt-playing. I have my Confessor who has basically just met Melina and actually beat one of the first mini-dungeons before even talking to her (realizing I was sitting on a few thousand Runes before I could level up was a little scary, to be honest, especially when they were all stuck in the boss room where you fight the werewolf miniboss, but I managed to collect them again on each attempt and eventually win).
Even though my Astrologer character doesn't have a 100% block shield, I've found that with 85% you still reduce the incoming damage to so little that it's worth it to block and get a block counter attack - this, honestly, is one of the most satisfying new gameplay features for them to introduce, and makes me excited to play a more melee-focused character.
I am curious to see if they make Elden Ring a series rather than a one-off like Bloodborne or Sekiro (still crossing fingers that we do get a Bloodborne II, but the fact that it's Sony-exclusive could potentially make that less likely).
Anyway, I thin that at least so far the strength of the Souls-like combat system has made me more tolerant of the open-world elements that I sometimes find a little overwhelming. I haven't really gotten into the crafting system, which is something I have gotten less and less enthusiastic about in games over the years, but I also don't think I'm crippled by not always crafting things.
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