Im really glad that I didn't play elden ring when it came out and the hype was real instead I got it at the right moment in my life and have been enjoying it over the winter like a fine wine.
A funny thing I just did was to try and get to the
spoiler
lift of rold to burn the tree or whatever
through the sewers. Having only ever played DS1 my intuition was "Hmm this is a souls game so I bet I need to suffer through the shitty sewers to get to the next part of the game like blighttown"
Needless to say, I got all the way down to that
spoiler
naturalborn of the void space insect thing and murked it
before I considered maybe theres another way to the lift. It had never occured to me to just follow the main road through lyndell to the big door and just open it. I felt equally stupid and kind of proud that I basically discovered like 3 new underground areas and beat that omen prick fair and square when I was probably underleveled. I don't use magic or spells or grease in souls games just good old fashon sword and shield and health potions until it dies or I die.