So let's run it back a bit.
I'm hyped for this new game. I'm extremely hyped. Looks like so much fun and the lore is gonna be genuinely insane since it's a canon crossover.
But. There's a lot of criticism and, even as a huge Elden Ring fanboy who'll defend FromSoft in 99% of circumstances, I gotta say, I can see where it's coming from.
Choosing to branch out and try a completely different style of game was an extremely risky move on FromSoft's part. Feels like they're jumping into the deep end with a new idea. Now, I don't hate the premise, not one bit. It sounds really interesting and fun. But where I get a little worried is...like, it just looks like a big Elden Ring DLC with a new game mode.
Based on the trailer and the interview, it seems like there are literally 0 new enemies besides the major bosses and a few new overworld minions. The base enemies we see in the trailer are from Elden Ring, Margit and the Draconic Tree Sentinel are random encounters, and they're even reusing Dark Souls enemies, which is exciting but I can understand the people who say that it's a cash-grab tactic as well. To some extent it feels like some of the money-bugs at FromSoft saw Elden Ring's success, said "I like money!", and jumped on a new idea that uses Elden Ring as a base while reintroducing Dark Souls characters for nostalgia-hype. I still love seeing the Nameless King and whatnot PERSONALLY, but the criticism is still valid. Even the hub area is literally just the Roundtable Hold but a bit different. Sure, some of the coding is obviously changed and there's a good amount of new content, but...frankly, based on what I'm SEEING, I don't understand how they can get away calling this a standalone title.
No, a standalone title would have fresh assets from head to toe. It can reuse some iconic characters if it likes, but make them different in a way that reflects the new game. We literally see standard soldiers of Godrick in the trailer. Not even tweaked or reskinned (in terms of design). They're literally just copied and pasted over.
SOTE is officially marketed and sold as a DLC, yet every single bit of new content in that DLC is completely fresh out the gate. No reused assets or anything. And people actually did call that a game masquerading as a DLC. This feels like the opposite, a really big DLC masquerading as a fresh new title. Most people watching the trailer, despite hearing that it was a standalone title beforehand, thought it was a DLC by default because it literally just looks like more Elden Ring content.
Now maybe I'm wrong and it's a lot more different than I'm realizing. But I just can't overlook reusing DOZENS of assets at bare minimum in a game that is being marketed as a standalone. Call it a DLC. If they are charging it for 40 bucks that does make up for the issue partly, but nevertheless. In fact, here's a pitch;
Buy the DLC.
Load in.
Go to Roundtable Hold.
New NPC (Firekeeper).
Enter the DLC which functions as a separate game mode.
It's literally that simple. WHY MARKET IT AS ANOTHER GAME IF YOU'RE REUSING ASSETS???
At a surface level, for first impressions, it doesn't look worthy of being called another game entirely based on what I'm seeing, not by FromSoft standards as I've come to know them. This still looks FUN, but it feels rushed and, it really pains me to say this...a little lazy.
