Elden Ring is an amazing game. I am currently on my second attempt at actually beating it and the more I play it, the more I admire the sheer attention to detail that went into it. Here’s one example:

Early on in the game, you meet a woman named Melina, who offers to become your “maiden” and guide you through the game. She gives you a spectral horse you can summon as a mount, but more importantly, she becomes your mechanism to actually level up in the game. With her help, you can turn the runes you collect from dead enemies into stats increases at the sites of Grace that you rest at (which are basically save points).

Now, this turns out to be completely optional. In the dialogue with Melina, you can actually turn down her offer and continue your journey without her. Which means you then won’t be able to level up at all throughout the game. What is amazing is that you can still complete most of the game that way, including beating all of the seven major bosses. At level 1. Why do we know this? Because FromSoftware players are crazy and one of them actually tried this crazy approach. Took him 30 hours and in the end, he didn’t regret a second of it. He’s just mad that FromSoftware didn’t allow him to actually finish the game in this insane way. The crazy bastard.