I've been wanting to go back to Elden Ring for awhile now so I went back to Elden Ring and created a new character. Using my previous save data I took screenshots of all the locations on the map since I've unlocked all sites of grace to make the open world less open and aimless. I'm not a fan of this open aimless bullsh-- so using these map images as a guide has made the game much better. I guess it's good that I'm decent at the game, but I've completed most everything everything in the starting area except for storm castle which I haven't yet went to and the weeping peninsula in just under 10 hours.

Even though having this sort of map guide and having an idea of where all areas are, I still have a complaint about Elden Ring. Many bosses in Elden Ring only allow you to deal one or two attacks for quicker weapons before you have to go back defensively. Enemies are programmed to read inputs and do these back jumps which usually deal an attack with this escape tech. Enemies having almost no delay before they attack again feels like you're almost always on defense aside from that one or two attacks that you can sneak in. So they add these spirit summons which allow the aggro to be split towards them and if you use those then it becomes way too easy. So even without the open world it has its flaws, I still prefer Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Demon's Souls, but it's still good.