I still remember the moment the tweet popped up on my feed. It was early March 2022, and the gaming world was still reeling from two absolute juggernauts: Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West. Both had launched within a week of each other, and the air was thick with comparisons. But then came a curveball—a senior quest designer from Guerrilla Games, the studio behind Horizon Forbidden West, decided to air some very public grievances about the competition.

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Now, let's fast-forward to 2026. We’ve had Shadow of the Erdtree, a mind-bending expansion that somehow made the Lands Between even more terrifying, and Horizon has marched confidently into its third main chapter. But that little moment from four years ago… it still lingers in the back of my mind like an unskippable cutscene. Why would a highly talented developer, fresh off his own critically acclaimed game, take a swipe at the quest design of a masterpiece that was pulling in a staggering 97 Metascore? Let's rewind and explore how this odd feud unfolded, and what it says about the souls-like rivalry that never truly sleeps.

The Tweet Heard Around the Realm

The timeline was messy. Ahmed Salama, a UX director at Ubisoft Stockholm (who had worked on Battlefield 2042), kicked things off on March 3, 2022. He lambasted Elden Ring’s “poor UX design” despite its astronomical review scores. Fair enough, UX is subjective—some adore the game’s refusal to hold your hand, others see it as a relic. But three days later, on March 6, a tweet from @bigrebo landed with a heavier thud. This account belonged to a senior quest designer at Guerrilla, and he stated bluntly that Elden Ring’s quest design was… well, let’s just say he wasn’t impressed.

Here’s the thing. I’ve sunk over 300 hours into Elden Ring at this point, and my relationship with its quests is complicated. They’re deliberately obtuse, hidden behind invisible triggers and NPCs who wander off like they just remembered they left the oven on. To a traditional open-world developer like those at Guerrilla, who craft beautifully choreographed, dialogue-heavy narrative threads, FromSoftware’s approach probably looks like absolute chaos. And maybe it is. But it’s our chaos. It’s the kind of chaos that gives birth to community legends. Why else would we still be talking about Ranni the Witch’s spectral side stories in 2026?

The Metascore Elephant in the Arena 🏆

Let’s not dance around the bonfire. The criticism felt less about pixels and more about points. Horizon Forbidden West earned a mighty 88 Metascore. For any other game, that’s a victory parade. But when you launch right before a mythological beast that claws its way to a 97, that 88 can sting like a jellyfish in the Consecrated Snowfield. It’s human nature. I mean, come on, if I spent five years polishing every side quest about restoring power to a Tallneck, only to watch a tarnished fellow wander naked through Caelid and get crowned game of the decade, I’d feel a twinge of “What the actual…?” too.

The competitive tension was electric. Elden Ring launched on every platform under the Greater Will, while Forbidden West was a PlayStation exclusive gem. Both deserved praise, but the Metacritic warzone often ignores nuance. @bigrebo’s tweet, whether he meant it or not, became a lightning rod for that frustration. It’s the classic “our game is incredible, why isn’t yours receiving more scrutiny?” scenario. And honestly, looking back now, I think both sides had a point.

The Data Speaks, but Players Scream Louder 🗣️

In the months and years that followed, the proof poured in. User reviews, streamer reactions, and the modding community’s obsession told a clear story: Elden Ring’s quest design, while messy, was the engine of mystery. In 2024, Shadow of the Erdtree doubled down on this philosophy—Miquella’s storyline shattered hearts precisely because we had to piece it together from scraps like broken pottery. There’s mastery in the madness. Meanwhile, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores refined the Hollywood-style storytelling that Guerrilla perfected, and the upcoming Horizon 3 promises even grander narrative payoffs.

But here’s a twist—by 2025, some developers had started embracing a hybrid approach. Games like Fable (reborn) and Avowed openly admitted they were borrowing FromSoftware’s cryptic environmental storytelling while adding clearer quest logs. The industry learned from that 2022 spat. The lesson wasn’t “one is better”; it was “different players crave different types of engagement.” And thank the Erdtree for that.

A Developer’s Right to Speak… and the Risk of Backfire 🔥

What still fascinates me in 2026 is the sheer rarity of that moment. Developers rarely, if ever, publicly critique another studio’s game so directly. When @bigrebo typed that tweet, I bet he didn’t expect the wave of backlash—and some support—that would follow. Fans of both camps piled on, drawing battle lines that made the Shattering look like a family picnic.

But maybe he was just being honest, human. The games industry is full of polite silence, and that outburst felt like a pressure valve releasing. I’ve interviewed designers since then who quietly confide that competition can be exhausting. They see a rival game soar, and their internal monologue becomes a screaming goat. I get it. We’ve all been there. The difference is, most of us don’t have a Twitter following ready to dissect our every syllable.

The 2026 View: What the Feud Left Behind 🌄

Looking back, the skirmish between these two titans feels almost quaint compared to the platform wars and AI-generated content debates we’re wrestling with today. But it left a mark. It reminded us that Metascores are a drug—potent, addictive, and dangerously distorting. An 88 and a 97 both represent excellence, but the gap can turn colleagues into competitors. It also proved that passionate developers are, above all, passionate players first. They bleed the same pixelated blood we do.

So, where do I stand now? I love both games differently. One I return to for the adrenaline of a boss that feels impossible, the other for Aloy’s latest quips and that glorious machine-animal combat. If a Guerrilla developer still thinks Elden Ring’s quests are terrible, he’s welcome to that opinion. But the Lands Between keep whispering secrets, and I’ll keep chasing them—even if I need a wiki open on my second screen to do it. In the end, isn’t that messy, imperfect, human quest for meaning exactly what both games, in their own ways, are all about?