I've played elder ring and dark souls games and Elden ring is not as hard as the actual dark soul games. I have not played the DL🔯C of the new elden ring. I still find that the open world gives me an advantage. I however have played shadows die twice and found myself struggling through bosses till I got to a point I was stuck and couldn't advance any further. I think it's just a matter of what can you do and are you able to play that type of game regardless of it being as hard or harder. At this point they're just going to keep making things like that. I'm curious to try out this game. Hopefully it won't end up the same.