Elden Ring experience so far

I bought my PS4 in 2014 and bought a copy of Bloodborne to go with it; I haven't played any From Software game before, and I essentially got memed into playing it. Boy was I atrocious. I don't think I took full advantage of the rally system. My stats were not min-maxed; near endgame, when I was around level 100 I pumped HP just because I had a lot of blood echoes, but otherwise I never paid that much attention to stats other than stamina, and whichever was needed to wear or use a particular weapon or armor piece.

I died a lot to bosses, with the sole exception of the One Reborn, and I died once to the Celestial Emissary because I got cornered by the ayyys. My style was learn how they attack, then bait the attacks I could punish.

The trend continued with Demon's Souls, my first proper Souls game. I remember leveling DEX because of that pit leading towards the Flamelurker; otherwise, I used a greatshield and rotated between the basic straight sword or a Winged Spear. 'Course my turtling and bait-attack strategy didn't do shit against the Maneater so I cheesed them through the fog door. No regrets. For the other fights, I couldn't parry to save my life. I used practically the same strategies for DaS1 and DaS2, only leveling up the associated stats so I could use fire protection pyromancy or fancy armor or a new weapon I wanted to try. I started summoning NPCs when I realized they were needed for sidequests. Otherwise my playstyle was basic and you could imagine I died a lot to most bosses. The Pursuer made me practice parrying though, since I couldn't beat him. With Sekiro I finally understood the parry mechanic in the 2nd Genichiro fight, but again I played safe and baited attacks.

Enter Elden Ring. I decided to two-hand a hammer and smash my way through the Lands Between. Since this was the first game that my siblings also wanted to play, I decided to act like a Soulsborne vet and picked Wretch as starting class. My thinking was level up STR and END (thank God equip load was tied to END), and maybe turtle if the boss was too difficult.

Then I ran into Margit. I'm not sure if the delayed attack meme was in the other Soulsborne games but he was delaying attacks and smashing me with his hammer if I rolled too early. the Lordsworn's greatsword I was 2H'ing at the time felt too slow to swing, but I managed to beat him with Rogier and the jellyfish at Level 16. So off I went feeling good with myself, then at level 40 I ran into Magma Wyrm Makar, which forced me to change my playstyle.

In hindsight he wasn't so difficult, but in the Gael tunnel he gave me a hard time. I have no idea why; battle hammer 2-handed, jellyfish as support, I couldn't connect my attacks, which seemed too slow. Mind you I never once took advantage of the jump attacks, which was probably why I got killed an embarrassing amount of times. Eventually I said "screw this!" and then looked up how to respec. Went off to murder Rennala, respec'd to an INT build.

Yeah, you can imagine how someone who's never once used a Moonlight Greatsword felt. It was great! Though not really for Demigods, as I discovered. Radahn kicked my ass when I attempted melee, and only Magic Glintblade saved me. Moonveil became my main weapon. I leveled INT up to 43 to use Stars of Ruin, and other stats only so that I could use a particular piece (again). And then I stopped leveling INT, because I felt like I was overleveled (I beat poor Morgott pretty quickly). VIG was now the stat I pumped.

Enter Malenia. She kept wrecking my ass. I learned how to dodge into the second phase of the Waterfowl Dance, so there's that; otherwise my unoptimized stats did jack shit. She dodged Magic Glintblade, Rock Sling; I couldn't reliably proc bleed with Moonveil. I tried turtling but she kept healing even through 100% physical damage negation shields. I tried dual-wielding RoB and Moonveil, but I hated the powerstanced moveset. But the few times I did manage to proc Bleed I saw it was effective against her, so I decided to try powerstancing another type of weapon, so I pulled out my basic bitch Lordsworn straight sword (lol), put Seppuku on it, and then leveled up another weapon I could put bleed in, which happened to be Cane Sword. No dice, but I liked the powerstanced moveset. Decided to see if I could dual-wield greatswords instead; I could not since I had only 26 STR or so, and besides, I was out of upgrade materials.

Oh man, I hated using my Larval Tear. But I did, ARC to 30 and STR to 50 or so, with 60 VIG. Slapped Seppuku on the Lordsworn, Bloody Slash on the Cane Sword. Beat Malenia in three tries (with mimic of course, I'm not that skilled). And then my dumb ass respec'd to my old stats.

Feeling good about myself, I decided to challenge Mogh in his palace without summoning a spirit ash. Oh, so he was vulnerable to bleed, eh? So much for being Lord of Blood. My unoptimized stats kicked me in the ass again, as I couldn't really reliably deal lots of damage in his Phase 2, and whichever magic spell I tried I couldn't hit him most of the time and he had annoying delayed attacks too. I used Terra Magica and the strategy worked, but Phase 2 always obliterated me. Gave up and summoned my Mimic and he cast Terra Magica for me, thanks friend. Killed him quick.

Now at Maliketh I'm thinking of respec'ing again just so I could go back to my old style of turtling and learning his attacks and baiting whichever one I could punish. Should I go all out with Strength and use jumping attacks? Go with DEX since I just bought Morgott's sword and it looks cool or something, or just level INT and spam Comet Azur? I don't know.

But let's see if I can still use these two straight swords. Might be time to finally experiment (lol) with the Ashes of War I never touched.

Other things of note

I liked the lore. In previous games I never paid much attention, but I believe my sister's enthusiasm for the game infected me and I started paying attention to the lore. Helps that GRRM was involved; it seemed like a 'proper' fantasy, if that made sense? Not that the previous games' atmosphere wasn't proper fantasy, but you know GRRM's experience in writing fantasy definitely helped solidify the world IMO (pls no bully). I liked the worldbuilding more than in the other games.

Also made me read item descriptions and that's how I got to obsessing over Morgott lol. Poor guy just needed some love and understanding. My Tarnished is willing to give it! Just let me make him consort, Miyazaki pls.

If not then I will incinerate all that divides. Aaaaahhhhhhh, may chaos take the world. MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD!

After reading Tragoth's armors' description and best girl Rya's quest, I cleared all Volcano Manor requests and murderized Tanith and her knight afterwards.

Poor Bernahl too.

Looked up how to keep my dude Blackguard alive so that I can still hang out with him after the disgusting poo consumer invades. Punched my dude and that saved his ass.

Of course I was sad about Rogier and D(arian). Actually read up on how people attempted to save Rogier but none of them could. Not even ignoring him in Stormveil could save him. Loved that D(evin) had his revenge for his brother though.