started a new elden ring file in anticipation of the expansion and wow, it's such a different experience on the second playthrough
elden ring was my first souls game and i went for the 'real experience' of playing wretch with no trinket. i also typically don't play action games. i also didn't work out how to level up until i'd beaten several bosses and didn't realize i should be levelling health until roughly the capital. this made the experience very scrappy, the little military camp in the starting area took like an hour to work through, every boss was 30+ attempts. i'd just constantly recite to myself "i can do this, all it requires is perfect play" and sorta assumed that's how everyone was playing these games
when basically everything can one shot you, you really get to appreciate the absurdity of the setting and the humor of the encounters. i'd laugh every time i walked through a door and forget to check before some little bastard jumped out and obliterated me. it was a very slow way to progress but i had a grand time
this time i'm playing a samurai and this game is easy actually??? im sure it's partly because i have a lot of practice at this point but also having a sword that doesn't suck and a parrying shield makes everything so much easier. bosses that took me 30 tries a year ago are taking like 3 tries now, it's wild. it just feels like a normal video game where you maybe die a little more often than average
anyway game is still a good time, recommend playing it any way you feel like