Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

Yes it is absolutely amazing. It just keeps going lol. The biggest quality of life change to me is the map + fast travel, I can visualise the locations and that helps me alot on remembering where to go / where are the locations / immersing to the world - and also saved me so much time. Basically openworld/freedom to do anything + game well made (contentsssss and detailsss) = bomb. Ye I dont know if From can go back to non open world now lol.

Haven't found the Mimic's Tear yet, but having heard of it, I'm saving all my upgrade material for it.

I've mostly been using the Lone Wolves+4 for multiple enemies, and Banished Knight Oleg+3 for larger bosses, as he's an absolute tank with great damage. Was finding with the wolves and other soldiers that AOE attacks from large enemies were taking them down too quickly.

Missed Weeping peninsula as got killed straight away the first time I found the bridge and forgot to return. But have gone back to it as couldn't make much headway in Stormveil

I do notice the points as you said there, but i think overall it is by design that exploration gives you reward(sss) in ER. I totally didnt expect to get 100+ levels so fast and this has to be the fastest leveling compared to any previous souls game. I did the my staple hp+str build with greatsword (first greatsword i got from Caelid, the Berserk dragon sword) + shield (jellyfish shield is not even a top tier shield ha) and I ran through everything (until near the end as I haven't finished) as standard as i could as i did in previous souls game. With tonnes of sidetracking myself to rando places/dungeon after hours and then back to main story line ha.

I mentioned in my early post on ER that for example there is a big gap between Margit and Godrick - as I get to Godrick relatively fast after Margit and I get stomped and I knew I was severely underleveled. So at that moment I do realize oh it must be designed with the open world in mind - those love some hardcore challenge can still try to beat the boss the way like no damage taken and grinding the boss's hp in 10mins, while keep in mind that the players could off track to do any other things (or fighting other bosses) - so Godrick's (high) levels requirement makes sense to me.

The entire game is designed that anyone can do anything / fight any boss in any time point (within reasonable levels/game play hours lol, I saw a tweet that some lad got to Lvl70/80 and then go fight Margit lmao). Can't say I am an expert of design of open world game but I am surely damn impressed by From to design such interesting world ties in with their usual difficulties trademark ha.

But ya I have other complaints when it enters late game where no more new design of enemies (just reskin), but then ER has the most diverse and highest enemies pool also...always room to improve I guess. And then ya when greatsword +20 and near 50 vigor are not enough at that end game area...

Ah ok. Maybe there's just lesser upgrade materials that were respawning (cave moss, crystals etc). In those areas I just try collect everything I can regardless.

after 2.5 hours I was still trying to find my way out of the introduction cave

Yeah I saw a clip from someone else's stream too that the flowers for upgrading ashes can be bought too. I think I did get the item so they sell stones 1-2, must keep an eye out for the others.

i actually never kill npc unless they give me truly good stuff (they are the few people actually says hi and thank you - not jumping to kill me instantly in all souls game lol...). But ya this time around it would be good to have all merchants' items at one place, so thats so tempting.

Oh i love the 100% medium shields, found 2 in Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula, I don't like how rare they are though. Last 3 shields i found weren't 100% so useless to me. Anything less than 100 and i might as well be roll dodging attacks instead.