Life is an exercise in arduousness. This is especially true to those who work in retail and to those who fail their fiftieth attempt at a boss, who is ten percent recognizable human shape and ninety percent blurry motion of flailing sword-brandishing limbs. The latter was my experience with Elden Ring, a video game by From Software. Although the arduousness analogy takes a bit of a hit on try number fifty-one, after one finally memorizes the boss’ attack patterns and wipes the floor with visceral mess that used to be their face.

I recently completed my playthrough of the aforementioned game. I had been looking forward to playing it for quite some time. I had stayed mostly spoiler-free and knowing it was developed by From Software who also have created Dark Souls, one of my favorite video games of all time, only made my expectations soar higher. I can’t remember the last time I had actually looked forward to a game, but I’m pretty sure it was back in 2011 when Batman: Arkham City came out. So as you can see, Elden Ring was a nice change of pace.

The only problem that had prevented me from playing it soon after the game came out was the teeny-tiny iota of a global semiconductor deficit which meant that one would be more likely to see a unicorn on the electronics store shelf than a PlayStation 5. But after an unholy sacrifice and a deal with the local leprechaun I was finally able to obtain one. Not that I am one of those excruciating Sony fanboys; I still believe that video game consoles peaked during the PlayStation 2 era. This was rather the case of Sony withholding a candy bar out of my reach until I bought and consumed their expensive salad first.

But the homogenous mass of middle managers that constitute the current-day big tech companies couldn’t give two figs about what I, or more to the point, most people think about them as long as they keep turning a profit. As a society we have come to accept that and the Earth keeps revolving around the sun.

One does need a drop of escapism in the bland cocktail of life, however, and I achieved to maintain that for sixty hours or so. I’m bit of a completionist when it comes to games so I had to rummage through every nook and cranny for every special item and boss fight the game had to offer, so the trip between two ruined churches took twice the amount of time it would’ve taken the average gamer. I would see a castle or a volcano in the distance, get sidetracked on my way there, find a shelf-dwelling unicorn with claymores instead of legs and get stomped into mulch on my first try at slicing myself a piece of mythical rump.

That flower lady with the fake hand, whom the internet has declared to be the most difficult boss fight in any From Software game, sure gave me a run for my money. To this day I am yet to beat the final boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but within a dozen tries I managed to give the lady her final impromptu spinal surgery with my Tree Sentinel Halberd. She did have that very unfair attack where she replaces every air molecule in the arena with a whirling blade, which you could neither dodge nor run away from, but other than that she put up a fair fight.

After years of witnessing my enthusiasm for playing video games decrease by the day, it is refreshing to feel that excitement again. The video game industry has gone downhill since my childhood with overpriced DLC, scammy lootbox systems and design-by-charts development models, but games like Elden Ring truly are the rays of sunshine that shine through the cracks on the lid of my coffin. I have the privilege to tell you that mere days before the time of writing, the remake of Resident Evil 4 was announced. I am not sure if it is my nostalgia towards the PlayStation 2 era of gaming and the original Resident Evil 4 being the bee’s knees, or because Elden Ring reawakened my enjoyment of video games, but I am really looking forward to playing it. At least instead of running away and drinking my healing juice like a coward, I can suplex all the monsters that want to bite my face off.