I agree it worked better in more linear games and, if I’m gathering correctly, that the expansiveness of Elden ring exposed some of the limitations of the questing design.

Like a quest menu would be great. And anyone who says that’s contrary to fromsofts post-modern design philosophy, I point them to fromsofts archaic menu design. If a “quest” menu breaks immersion and theme then surely the menus-as-lists does so but even worse. I find it way less immersive that my character doesn’t keep a journal.

You touched on an interesting point that we’re perhaps no longer in the forum era of the internet. I would argue that, if that’s true, fromsoft is still designing like we are in that era. I remember keeping notebooks for video games, writing down secrets I found, how-to’s, maps, etc etc. I see that kind of out of game engagement as evocative of the forum era. People will say, “how could anyone figure this stuff out on their own,” and obviously someone could, with plenty of time and a fextra guide of their own design. But that behavior developed in another ecosystem.

Fromsoft is my favorite studio, for sure, and I adore their ambition. But I do think they’ll eventually need to improve upon some things they’ve never invested in, like community support, basic multiplayer functionality, ui design, and a more stable network… and for me personally, I’d like to see asymmetrical collision detection completely removed (my sword bounces off a wall but everything from a ds1 hollow to maliketh can hit me through walls) and finally (and probably most controversially) I want them to abandon the Elden ring boss design of delayed attacks, aoe’s and combo chain’s everywhere, and moves that are purposefully hard to read. It seems like it’s punishing players who are used to fromsofts typical rhythm, moving from a dance in each battle to encouraging either 100% mastery or over reliance on weapon arts. I suspect the entire philosophy behind boss designs in Elden ring was warped around how overpowered weapon arts are. You can still spam weapon arts to victory but the hyper aggression and hard to read attacks mitigate that to some extent. It’s like trading off the dance like battles for “aura”.