ELDEN FUCKING RING, BITCHES - Well, after my first couple of hours I can confirm it's the Soulsiest Souls game that ever Souls'd. I didn't spend TOO LONG on character creation; you're all hot to see this epic world unfold before you and then realize you're going to essentially be stuck in line at a generic character creator menu for an hour. But, I got through that in half the usual time by not bothering with all the crazy face specifics that just make you look worse for adjusting, picked the knight class (Vagabond) for the balance, long sword (halberd too!) and armor, got what seems to easily be the best starting gift ever (a flask reinforcement from the jump!?) and I was off. I liked that I could make my dude schlubby this time too. =)
The opening cinematic and lore is more esoteric than ever. I have no idea what they're talking about, yet it's all familiar. At some point they're just going straight meta and calling everything by their functions in these game, "Find the level-up maiden!" I thought the artwork in the opening cinematic was beautiful, but an odd choice given the FMV cinematics in the trailer. They're clearly not going the Blizzard route of spending half the money on the most ridiculous CGI cutscenes money can buy.
Gameplay-wise... It's Souls with real jumping and basic stealth, plus a very, uh, true-to-form, horse mechanic (it's going to take some getting used to =). I like that you could basically skip the tutorial area but did it anyway, and the world is... what's really different! I think the best, and a very generous, way to describe it is Souls meets Breath of the Wild, or at least it's trying to do for Souls what BotW did for Zelda, but how effectively remains to be seen.
Anyway, I figured out how to level up and get the horse, rode around, wrecked dudes on land, got wrecked by guy's on horses, got a better long sword, a curved sword and the twinblade, which, from the name, I hoped was going to be the OP dual-wielded variety from DS3, but it's more of a Darth Maul deal.
Maybe it's just experience, but I felt like it was a lot easier to overwhelm trash mobs than in the past by spamming attack, but the bigger baddies could still ruin your day in a second. Also, they've added a few regen mechanics, like by killing certain big enemies or clearing mobs you can get flask refills (which resurrecting your horse also costs you). This is more forgiving than in the past, but a good thing because it rewards you for good play, even when you're behind, instead of essentially making a good run a matter of attrition in the end. The other quality of life changes, like the points of grace (bonfires) giving you a point in the right direction are such meager approximations of a helpful mechanic they may do more harm than good (I hope it's revealed later they actually point you towards danger =).
Oh! Maybe the the biggest news of all: Endurance increases stamina AND carry weight again, making it the most OP it's been since DS1 (though they may have balanced that by lowering how much it gives you per point). So, that's everyone's best build: whatever strength and dex you need for your armaments, then all points into life and endurance! Unless you're some magicasual or something.