One thing that we heard a LOT with the Souls games is that there should be an "easy mode", but I think that would completely ruin the souls-like genre. Elden Ring was designed by Hidetaka Miyazaki to specifically require gamers to use trial and error to overcome the difficult enemies. In a lot of ways this is simply a throw back to old school gaming where figuring out patterns was how you beat games.   When it comes to games,  action combat is probably one of my weakest areas,  but I did beat Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II in the past. I was getting destroyed my first day in Elden Ring, got a little better on the second day,  and even better on the 3rd day of playing. I'm still a long ways off from beating the game (I'm only 8 hours of gameplay in), but I'm happy with the difficulty. Beating this game will certainly be a great feeling.  I'm currently at level 20 and steadily progressing despite not being that great at the game.  The three main

  I'm not too deep into Elden Ring yet but I'm impressed with what I'm experiencing so far. I'm still in the "early" part of the game and slowly progressing.  While there are some incredibly tough opening area enemies and bosses (probably tougher than what we ran into with Souls games at first), the game is actually far more approachable for people who aren't perfect at combat skills. The addition of being open level, stealth and easier level progression, it really gives you time to get into the game. If you aren't ready for the tough battles, there are plenty of pretty easy fights especially using stealth, and you can locate (activate) a LOT of the Sites of Grace without fighting anyone which makes traveling (Using fast travel) convenient later on. You can also summon NPC allies to fight with you early on. So far, I have no luck connecting to servers, so haven't been able to test out co-op.  I'm still far to early into the game to have any in-