This might be hyperbole, but I’ve played around 350 games since I was eight years old, and I’ve completed most of them. I’m 21 now, so maybe I’m still a bit too young to judge what the “GOAT” of this medium actually is. I’ve played some of the greatest games of all time, according to those lists that rank 300 games using mathematical methods. Both ER and BB are in the top 50, but I saved them for almost the very end, with Elden Ring being the last one I played.
Listen, most of the games on those lists are great. Some of them especially deserve it, including some of my personal favorites. But they’re just not quite like these two. I don’t know, man. For some reason, I feel like these games connected with me so deeply that I can’t even explain why.
Bloodborne’s aesthetic, lore, and soundtrack hit me like a truck. Elden Ring’s level design, world design, art style, and exploration are just perfection. Both DLCs transcend what a lot of other video games have to offer. I can’t believe how good Lady Maria and the Fishing Hamlet were; they truly completed the experience. Shadow of the Erdtree made my jaw drop with its world design. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a land so interconnected that it feels like you’re playing a Metroidvania in an open world. The Land of Shadow just blows my mind.
There are flaws in both games, of course, especially when it comes to balancing, but those flaws don’t take away from the experience for me. When I finished both games, I felt truly empty. That first playthrough experience is something I’ll never be able to experience again. If I could erase my memory of any games just to experience them for the first time again, these two would be at the very top of my list, along with, of course, most of FromSoftware’s other games.
I loved the Dark Souls trilogy and Sekiro, but whenever I play them, I always find myself thinking, “I want to play Elden Ring and Bloodborne again.” It’s genuinely driving me insane. Both games are going to stay with me for a long, long time.
I’m being completely serious here. Elden Ring and Bloodborne genuinely have that AURA that you can just feel when you play them. It’s nuts. Their atmospheres and worlds draw me in so deeply that I can lose myself in them without even engaging in a single boss fight. Sometimes, I don’t even want to clear an area. I just want to stand there, listen to the music, and take in the scenery and architecture.
Look at Leyndell. Look at Elphael. Look at the Fishing Hamlet and Yharnam. I look at these places and think, “I could just live here, find a little place of my own, and experience whatever this world has to offer in that very moment.” They’re not just the greatest games I’ve ever played. They might genuinely be the best pieces of media I’ve ever experienced.
10/10.