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Has any 2023 release topped Elden Ring?

Has any major 2023 release topped Elden Ring?


  • Total voters
    407
If ToTK came out on the same year Elden Ring came out, Elden Ring would be a footnote.

Granted, a lot of people voting don't have a Switch and/or are not necessarily interested in Zelda. Then again, people voting for this thread might not be interested in Elden Ring as well (let alone having finished it), Elden Ring is actually niche, it just gained a lot of momentum with From Software gaining a cult following and trying their hand at open world which is currently sought upon (not because it's good, but being sought out by consumers makes it so that devs put their best people working on it, a bit like 3D platformer collectaton where good for a while, not because it's the best formula ever but because the best people were working on that format, same for FPS, RPG's, etc) Being open world and released in a quiet year where most games got delayed anyway and having a J.R.R. lore/story also helped gluing it to the shambles of Game of Thrones.

Not to say it's not a good game, but... I honestly never thought it should be on any pedestal. I'm interested in what they do afterwards with what they learned, but I feel Elden Ring was the best game possible with the tech, time and "parts" they had but essentially a repurpose of tech to make a open world proof of concept. They have metric tons of way to improve on it. By comparison I didn't think they had this much to improve upon BoTW, dungeons and story aside, they nailed it to the point of a study lesson for everyone else. Elden Ring by comparison is just From Softwares take on a open world concept.
I don't get more fun with Elden Ring than any other souls game, it's just a another souls game with useless big map. I wish it were smaller map with more balanced boss mechanics.
Exactly.

I think it's great they got away with it and broke into mainstream. But they definitely got away with a slap in the wrist on some of the formula implementation.
 
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Caio

Member
Elden Ring is untouchable, as for me, for art design, level design, gameplay, longevity, off-line/on-line, dozens and dozens of different builds, gameplay approach, immense and rewarding exploration, story, side quests, and the satisfaction of beating some enemies much more easily, or mini bosses, or bosses, because you choose different builds for each type of enemy and improve your combat skills. I'm at NG+4, and I keep finding new things, new secrets, new items, new areas, new secret bosses, the Game is huge, this is my Game of the decade. I can't stop playing this Game. 10/10. I would buy a RTX 6090 to play Elden Ring 2, hoping for a better optimizations, if it will come out.
 

Regginator

Member
Yes, TOTK.

I would consider Elden Ring somewhat of a flawed masterpiece. Despite refining some of the Souls formula and adding some stuff of its own, like a gorgeous open-world, it lost some key elements in the progress. Boss fights for example were pretty atrociously balanced most of the time. Either you were overleveled and breezed through most bosses, or you were underleveled and struggled more than you should. I don't recall ever thinking "yeah, this area is exactly what I think From intended for me to be at right now with my current level". I suppose that's kind of a trade-off for open world games, but honestly I'd rather From go back to more linear level designs for like Souls or Bloodborne.

As for TOTK, it not only improved significantly upon a game already widely considered to be one of the best games of all times, but somehow it even made its predecessor (feel) obsolete. I can't say the same for Elden Ring and its predecessors.
 

AJUMP23

Member
Those games are so different it is hard to say, I really enjoyed Elden Ring and TotK, for different reasons.

Diablo is a no
FF16 a no
No remake should ever be considered
Hogwarts I haven't played
 
If ToTK came out on the same year Elden Ring came out, Elden Ring would be a footnote.

Granted, a lot of people voting don't have a Switch and/or are not necessarily interested in Zelda. Then again, people voting for this thread might not be interested in Elden Ring as well (let alone having finished it), Elden Ring is actually niche, it just gained a lot of momentum with From Software gaining a cult following and trying their hand at open world which is currently sought upon (not because it's good, but being sought out by consumers makes it so that devs put their best people working on it, a bit like 3D platformer collectaton where good for a while, not because it's the best formula ever but because the best people were working on that format, same for FPS, RPG's, etc) Being open world and released in a quiet year where most games got delayed anyway and having a J.R.R. lore/story also helped gluing it to the shambles of Game of Thrones.

Not to say it's not a good game, but... I honestly never thought it should be on any pedestal. I'm interested in what they do afterwards with what they learned, but I feel Elden Ring was the best game possible with the tech, time and "parts" they had but essentially a repurpose of tech to make a open world proof of concept. They have metric tons of way to improve on it. By comparison I didn't think they had this much to improve upon BoTW, dungeons and story aside, they nailed it to the point of a study lesson for everyone else. Elden Ring by comparison is just From Softwares take on a open world concept.

Exactly.

I think it's great they got away with it and broke into mainstream. But they definitely got away with a slap in the wrist on some of the formula implementation.
I have opposite view of you. I haven’t played TOTK, but I did play BOTW for about 15 hours and did not enjoy it even a little bit. The breakable weapons, boring shrines, empty feeling world, easy combat… I’ve never understood what people see in that game. It felt like a proof of concept with a fun physics system where the team ran out of time to build the actual game part of the game so it’s just a creative sandbox. Having looked into what they changed in TOTK I know that I won’t enjoy it either.

Elden Ring by comparison is tied for my game of the generation along with Returnal.

Different strokes I suppose.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
None so far for me. TOTK doesn't hold my attention like Elden Ring did. Like the world literally stopped until i 100% Elden Ring when it released. HOOKED
 

ssringo

Gold Member
Of that list only RE4R and D4 were enjoyable enough for me to actually finish. Both Hogwarts and Zelda fizzled out before the end and I've no desire to return to either. Nothing even comes close to one of my runs through Elden Ring let alone overall.

*have not finished FF16 because I haven't had time but it's on hold regardless.
 

Gandih42

Member
Elden Ring is my personal favorite, but trying to rank games of this caliber against each other does not make much sense to me.

I'm currently playing both ToTK and FFXVI from that list and they are amazing games in their own right. Sick ass year of gaming so far.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
TotK far and above, but since this is a forum of PlayStation people the survey will not show that.
For what it's worth, there was recent internal data from Sony suggesting that a suprisingly high percentage of PS4/5 players also own a Switch. I'm one of them.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
It's also a completely different game, both are open world but gameplay is not focused on the same things. Game journalists always had soft spot for Zelda so scores doesn't surprise me.

Elfen Ring is still the best, I doubt any game released this year will surpass it in the eyes of many people.
NRLK3XC.jpg


Now* I have to call it Elfen Ring forever.....
 
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tmlDan

Member
I liked FF16 more than ER, combat is significantly better and the story is way more epic and concise, sometimes the spectacle is better than the monotonous journey of ER that can't flesh out the lore thoroughly unless you google it
 
I love Dark Souls/Bloodborne and Sekiro but I really don't get the praise for Elden Ring. It's overrated as hell.

For me Zelda, Hogwarts, and Diablo are by far the better games.

Hopefully Armored Core VI doesn't suck.
 
Pretty much the same. Souls games in general never clicked with me.

Best game to me over the last two years was Hogwarts followed by Diablo 4.

Yeah, It's why I'm so excited for Dragon's Dogma 2.

To me, DD does everything souls games do, only better (e.g. stamina-based combat with climbable enemies and deeper mechanical complexity), while also having infinitely better storytelling, worldbuilding, and overall game design.
 
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ssringo

Gold Member
Yeah, It's why I'm so excited for Dragon's Dogma 2.

To me, DD does everything souls games do, only better (e.g. stamina-based combat with climbable enemies and deeper mechanical complexity), while also having infinitely better storytelling, worldbuilding, and overall game design.
I wouldn't go that far. I believe I heard it described on a Castle Super Beast podcast that DD is the greatest 7/10 game ever. A bit harsh with the rating but the feeling is accurate. What it does well is incredible but it desperately needed more dev time to actually complete the game and it shows. Especially if you don't count the absolutely phenomenal Bitterblack Isle.

DD2 could very well reach that pinnacle. It seems Capcom is giving it the time and budget they didn't afford the first one. I doubt it'll reach the same levels of hype that Elden Ring did but a properly finished Dragon's Dogma would indeed be better than a Souls game imo.
 
I have opposite view of you. I haven’t played TOTK, but I did play BOTW for about 15 hours and did not enjoy it even a little bit. The breakable weapons, boring shrines, empty feeling world, easy combat… I’ve never understood what people see in that game. It felt like a proof of concept with a fun physics system where the team ran out of time to build the actual game part of the game so it’s just a creative sandbox. Having looked into what they changed in TOTK I know that I won’t enjoy it either.

Elden Ring by comparison is tied for my game of the generation along with Returnal.

Different strokes I suppose.
I respect also your opinion. 15 hours on a game you dislike is no small matter, you tried.
 

Lasha

Member
It's also a completely different game, both are open world but gameplay is not focused on the same things. Game journalists always had soft spot for Zelda so scores doesn't surprise me.

Elfen Ring is still the best, I doubt any game released this year will surpass it in the eyes of many people.
It's also a completely different game, both are open world but gameplay is not focused on the same things. Game journalists always had soft spot for Souls so scores doesn't surprise me.
 
I wouldn't go that far. I believe I heard it described on a Castle Super Beast podcast that DD is the greatest 7/10 game ever. A bit harsh with the rating but the feeling is accurate. What it does well is incredible but it desperately needed more dev time to actually complete the game and it shows. Especially if you don't count the absolutely phenomenal Bitterblack Isle.

DD2 could very well reach that pinnacle. It seems Capcom is giving it the time and budget they didn't afford the first one. I doubt it'll reach the same levels of hype that Elden Ring did but a properly finished Dragon's Dogma would indeed be better than a Souls game imo.

I dunno, for me, DD1 was a solid 8.5/10. DD2 is definitely gonna exceed that. I trust modern Capcom. They know what they're doing.
 
Nope. Nothing has come close.

And imagine, there's going to be a sizeable expansion coming for Elden Ring soon. A potentially huge expansion on top of the base game. And i will be obsessed with it yet again once the expansion hits.
 

Raven117

Gold Member
Don't know.

For me personally, no. But I've had some great experieces this year. Hogwarts (better than it had any right to be), TotK, FFXVI....all just great.

I had more "Wow" or "Holy Eff" moments in Elden Ring maybe more than any other game ever.
 
I enjoyed FFXVI and Age of Wonders IV more than Elden Ring. Baldurs Gate III will probably beat both of them when the full game drops. The Elden ring dlc will definitely draw me back in.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Game of the generation so far. Shadow will likely elevate it above and beyond.

2023 is shaping up to be a great year for gaming though. Strong titles in the OP's poll and we also have BG3, Starfield, Armored Core 6 dropping soon.
 
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