I have just finished Elden Ring - started in early May - six months and 750 hours play according to the game log.

At first I disliked it and was totally lost. It was so difficult that I resigned myself to having to play it at a superficial level and was thinking that I’d just forget about trying to kill bosses. When I looked for help online, the experienced players smugly say you just have to ‘get good’ (‘git gud’ in their terminology). 

Anyway I chipped away at it and gradually got better and better. After a couple of months I really got a feel for it and went on to buy the DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, and completed that before going back to finish the main game. Ended up clearing both of the maps of all enemies and collectables in my normal OCD playing-style. However I have to admit that some of the bosses were still excruciatingly difficult so I got a PS Plus subscription and that enabled me to summon other players online to help me with a few of those bosses. Some of the other notoriously difficult bosses I actually found quite easy.

Ended up at Level 240 (which isn’t bad even if I say it myself) and at that level you need about 500,000 xp points (runes) to gain each extra level. I did indulge in a bit of rune-farming to get there. Got 28 of the 32 trophies - even though I wasn’t specifically trying for them.

The ER lore left me a bit cold and the so-called story line was of little interest to me. Nonetheless an incredible game - a masterpiece IMO - massive, deep and complex. Ended up totally loving it and it’s probably spoilt me for future games in some ways. Now I’m scratching round trying to decide what to play next.