for steam awards, will update later

Yes? No? You can't really experience second-hand the panic of it's ticking clock by it's trailers and Youtube videos, one of this game's most notable features I think make it fall flat.
I'd give this review a "mixed" recommendation before a yes/no.

I don't care what other people are saying: what this game is was marketed so vaguely I can only think that is by design. "Roguelike/roguelite" is not mentioned once on their official website, and it's such a piss poor job describing it as a "reimagining the game’s core design" on it's steam store-page. It's such a weird rip to use the naming franchise for Elden Ring. Where Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring, all share a gameplay loop in familiarity, It's like they deliberately used the Elden Ring title to provide the inverse from the franchise.

It's a roguelite, sure. An island jumbled together through random generation, (I explicitly liked a random Elden-esque mine through a cliff-face that helped me reach an objective faster, which felt seamless, but explicitly groaned when I found a floating rockface on my second expedition, not a big issue.) During gameplay, you'll find no rest to consider your decisions on whether to take a specific weapon/relic, or plotting a path on where to go next. HUD/GUI is streamlined for the ADHD panic mode of "which item is better", but with that being the case they don't set you up with much to learn the more nuanced HUD mechanics, button presses, changing much of previously learned knowledge from playing normal Elden Ring. The movement is *ever so slightly* jank, I don't know what's wrong with it but it's noticable. Camera speed slows terribly while sprinting I can't read all my surroundings.

The game is primarily co-op, which I love with a passion for my sunbro, but there's something so scheme-y about making it standalone from normal Elden. You chop the player base into two with such a steep price, which, I'm not implying I want to hog people over on normal Elden, but this game's not standalone. It doesn't *feel* standalone. It feels like something you hop to when you want the quick action-packed one-off and dead boss satisfaction, something I do on normal Elden, but a mood that would benefit from a Bloodborne-like chalice dungeon. It's a hankerin' that would fit better in a minigame, part of the larger set, than the entire premise.

I DID find the game fun, but cut my playtime short because I wasn't sure it was going to last. Maybe if I manifest friends, or it goes on sale for nil, maybe. But I don't find the $40 price tag worth it to be an in-game furry. I'll stick with Blaidd's severed head mask thing.
Also fashion souls was non-existant - big sad.

I've played this game for less than ten minutes and I already love how weird it is.

This is a beautiful game.

Your entire play-through is a mystery that is unraveled by exploring the world(s). From solving immediate obstacles to figuring out just what is happening, the story is in the details. Scattered around a modest, but labyrinthine solar system are the answers to any question you find yourself having with this world. Something innocuous you may have learned on your first outing WILL come back around as important later.

Completing this game makes me sad, with the mystery parallel to it's replayability... but even knowing all it's puzzles and heart wrenches, I'd still play it again.

review up for steam awards (will update later)

idk why i like it. Humor. Randomly getting attacked by a vampire bat in what i later learned to be a canon event. It's fun, has good progression of weapons.

a

Don't hug the lady. She gives you a blessing, which lowers your health. I don't even know how I survived this long...

I've only recently learned about the controversy regarding this game, and I've got to say... Wow. I paid money for this game, and they're still pocketing it after pulling it prematurely out of early-access to let the community do their work. That's so slimy, wrong. The game doesn't deserve the love all the volunteers are putting into it. The publishers don't deserve your business, full-stop.