[dede175]

It's a bit naive to compare it on those terms while completely ignoring the sheer superiority of ER's world building. It is of course personal opinion, but no open world RPG has amazed me as consistently when discovering new regions to explore. Fromsoft has provided what is probably the most beautiful and diverse world ever crafted at a macro level, while staying true to the Souls formula at a micro level. Even the worst of the small dungeons retain a very Souls-like quality to them which allows them to keep you always on your guard, hence making exploration much more dynamic.

It's also pretty disingenuous to state the differences between ER and other open world RPGs and then pretend it has to compete with other titles exactly on those points. It is true that ER has moved into a more popular genre, but it still remains a very niche type of game. It's not this incredibly popular because it moved to a full-on mainstream genre: it took some more widely appreciated concepts and adapted the souls formula to them, but what everyone is praising is how well they managed to keep those core souls values intact while moving to this new genre.