“Elden Ring” is one of the newest action role-playing games (RPG) from FromSoftware Inc. and is the 7th “Dark Souls-esque” game. “Elden Ring” follows the mechanics and gameplay of “Dark Souls” in that it follows a dark fantasy theme combined with RPG mechanics.

If “Elden Ring” could be described in a sentence it would be: Alice in Wonderland, but everything wants you dead.

“Elden Ring” starts simple enough, with character customization and picking a class.

There are 10 classes to pick from, but you aren’t nailed down to them. You can change your stats as you level up, which is good, considering that as the game becomes more difficult, you may want to change tactics.

Dying and restarting is perhaps the most common thing in the game. The difficulty of the game for new players can be too much as they may constantly have to restart.

According to some game statistics from gamebyte.com, 30 percent of players can’t beat the first major boss of “Elden Ring,” Margit The Fell. Half can’t beat the second boss, Godrick the Grafted. In fact, less than 20 percent of players have even beaten the game.

For me, it took two days to beat Margit and perhaps over a hundred tries, but that’s where the fun is, oddly enough.

It’s a game of trial and error and realizing when you should or shouldn’t be fighting a boss.

I originally attempted Margit at level 20 with no summons or upgraded weapons, but after learning I need more than what I had.

I left that fight to get to level 40 and then try again. That time, I was successful and was able to even get to Godrick the Grafted and beat them on the first try.

Most games try to make games difficult but fun, however, FromSoftware makes the difficulty the fun.

It feels very rewarding to beat a boss you struggled with for so long. It’s a light bulb moment when you recognize the attack patterns of the boss and now you can beat them.

That being said, it’s also the game’s weakness.

In “Elden Ring,” you can travel to anywhere on the map with few restrictions. Players may go to places they aren’t prepared for and tire themselves out of the game immediately or fight enemies they shouldn’t fight but have no warning of that.

There is no hand-holding or help from the game. In fact, the tutorial to learn how to play is a hidden secret. You can’t find it unless by accident or if you looked it up.

The first and second enemies you fight are mini-bosses that can one-shot kill you, but the game doesn’t tell you that and expects you to figure it out.

This can be rewarding when you do figure it out, but if you aren’t into “Dark Souls-esque” games, these experiences can drive you out completely.

Despite this, it was a fun experience for me even though it was my first game in this realm.

It’s given me a new interest and appreciation for such a sub-genre of video games and even fiction given how well “Elden Ring” approaches the concept of Dark Fantasy.