Those two are easily the best games of the past decade and nothing else is particularly close

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45556521)

The fact is its a single player game without shitty DLC or skins upsells that sold 18 million copies and will win game of the year while inspiring a host of clones for the next decade

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45557020)

If I *did* make that argument, it would use the original Demons Souls as the starting point of the decline. You have no idea who you are even talking to. I am a true OG Souls player who finished a Korean import copy of Demons Souls multiple times before you had even *heard* of the series.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45560075)

Still a good game though and probably better than DS2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45558141)

-not much care in enemy placement. Elden ring is certainly orders of magnitude worse on that

-uneven quality of level/area design, with some areas feeling too empty and lifeless. Somewhat true as to DS2, but Elden Ring is much worse. Elden Ring is the only Souls game that has a substantial portion devoted to pure filler content with cut and paste dungeons (unless one counts chalice dungeons in bloodborne). The open world is mostly shit. First area is rich and nicely designed, but it's downhill from there. Later areas are empty like a bad user-made Elder Scrolls mod. Just masses of land for the sake of "size." If one ignores the open world and all of the filler, the main dungeons totaled up would clearly be the worst Souls game. It only has two good dungeons: Stormveil Castle and Volcano Manor.

-Hit boxes. I didn't have a complaint on this as to DS2, but I've seen it raised by others. There can be no debate though that Elden Ring has by far the worst hit boxes. They are sloppy as fuck and I noticed it repeatedly.

-Unbalanced weapons/bosses. DS2 has a few things that were a little OP. Elden Ring has swords that fire laser beams that can instantly melt major bosses, and summons that can solo major bosses while you do nothing. I thought the challenge level of Elden Ring was very badly done. You can get completely carried through the game by these crutches. Or, you can artificially limit yourself for a challenge (but many bosses don't really seem balanced for regular melee with non-broken weapons). In the other Souls games, crutch weapons like the Drake Sword, Axe of Deep Woods, Crescent Falchion, etc wouldn't beat the game for you automatically. They made it easier, but you still had to show up. Elden Ring is either trivial in difficulty, or too hard, depending on whether you choose to actively nerf your equipment. Every other Souls game, you just play and use your best stuff without having to worry about being "too strong."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45560298)

1 I can forgive due to the experimental nature of the open world. I'm sure future FS open world releases will have tighter overworlds with less random dead zones. Enemy placement in the core dungeon areas seems as good as any of them

3 I haven't had any serious issues with but I do remember the hitbox compilation videos from release and it wasn't pretty. Seemed fine after a few Patches though

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45560351)

Sure, it was big and awe-inspiring. But there was no challenge. Like most openworlders it started out decent but then you get so strong it's like playing a movie.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45557731)

But I can see that many of the new games are garbage. I bought Fenyx Rising when it came out and had to stop after a few hours in.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45557826)

I also got bored with Bayonetta if that helps.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45557865)

http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5132090&mc=31&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5243639&forum_id=2#45560100)