FROM Software has been making games for decades at this point, and while most today may not be familiar with some of the studio’s earlier works, the spotlight had certainly started moving in the studio’s general direction in 2009 with the release of Demon’s Souls. 2011, however, would prove to be instrumental, not just for the studio, but also for gaming as a medium, with the release of Dark Souls.
Now, you might be wondering why I’m bothering with this history lesson. To understand Elden Ring at its most base levels, you have to understand where it comes from, because Elden Ring represents the ultimate peak of the game design philosophy of FROM Software.
Just about everything in Elden Ring, from the way the weapons swing, to its arcane method of storytelling that relies on players putting together a million-piece jigsaw puzzle, to even how magic and special weapon abilities work, can be traced back to the seminal Dark Souls franchise in one way or another. As a game, Elden Ring represents the developer ambitions that we only got a peek of in the original Dark Souls.
The Transition to Open World
Elden Ring’s Lands Between might just be one of the most interesting, visually distinctive open worlds in a video game. Anchored by a giant golden glowing tree, the world of the Lands Between is divided into several biomes, all with their own miniature story-arcs, culminating in a gigantic story that ties into the very fate of the game’s setting.
What sets Lands Between apart from other open world games is its general fearlessness when it comes to how the game treats its players. Quite early on, players are told that they can look to the Guidance of Grace—small light trails at checkpoints—if they’re ever confused about where to go next. The first few instances of this Guidance will undoubtedly guide many players into rushing through to the gates of Stormveil Castle, and into a fight with one of the most interesting starting bosses in Souls game history: Margit the Fell Omen.
What that Margit teaches the player is that the Lands Between is an incredibly large, open world that should be explored. Most players facing off against Margit likely have no chance at beating him unless they happen to be incredibly skilled at the game. Explore more of the Lands Between—especially to the south and east of Limgrave—however, and you’ll likely have found enough experience, Runes, side quests, upgrade materials, and equipment upgrades, that Margit becomes much easier to handle. The Lands Between want you to explore its various zones, and it’s more than willing to kill you to dissuade you from going in a particular direction.
There isn’t much in the way of real guidance given to players aside from the Guidance of Grace, and the map is free of things often expected in an open world game, like quest markers. Even the map itself for any given area has to be found by the player before it can actually be used. Every new zone has an obelisk where a map can be picked up, filling the jigsaw puzzle that is the overall map for Lands Between in the process.
Elden Ring thankfully doesn’t falter after its opening hours; even past the first legacy dungeon players are likely to find—I’ll get into the concept of legacy dungeons in a bit—Elden Ring has a way of surprising players not only with the sheer scale of its world, but also with the thought put to actually designing the whole world where exploration is not only possible, but outright encouraged. Even mid-game zones like Caelid to the east, and Altus Plateau a little bit to the north are incredibly well-designed zones and fleshed out.
But what about the classic Souls focus on level design, you might be asking?
Legacy Dungeons
While Elden Ring may overall be a vast, open landscape, the classic FROM Software touch of level design still exist in what are generally referred to as Legacy Dungeons. The first one players are likely to find and explore, Stormveil Castle, is the perfect example. Essentially, these legacy dungeons feel like a level from classic Souls games, with winding pathways that like to loop around, small story arcs with their own boss fights, and even unlockable shortcuts and verticality that the studio has historically loved to play around with.
The two early game legacy dungeons, Stormveil Castle, and Raya Lucaria Academy, have multiple levels of exploration, and even I personally found myself returning to these zones long after I had considered them finished, just because I heard rumours of some more rewards to be found there through thorough exploration. The rooftops of Raya Lucaria is the perfect example, offering not only a tonne of fun exploration, but also a few fun rewards.
But Aren’t These Games Super Hard?
Elden Ring is a game I consider to be one of the hardest FROM Software has made yet, but at the same time also the most accessible game from the studio. The first big enemy you can fight in the open world is the Tree Sentinel, which is essentially a world boss. The Tree Sentinel will teach you quite quickly that discretion tends to be the better part of valour. Without enough experience with the game itself, Tree Sentinel will kill players. A lot. Tree Sentinel is also completely avoidable. Since the game doesn’t lock players in an arena with Tree Sentinel, players are free to simply run away, maybe coming back to kill it off for good later on down the line.
More subtle changes in gameplay, including some of the new features, also go a long way in making Elden Ring considerably more accessible to players who might have originally found themselves put off by the difficulty in games like Dark Souls or Bloodborne. Stakes of Marika act as minor checkpoints in case the player dies to a nearby encounter, and upgrade materials are easy to come by, helping to make sure that the player’s damage potential isn’t outpaced by tougher enemies having more health or armour.
The best new addition, however, are the Spirit Ashes. Essentially, there are a lot of Spirit Ashes hidden throughout Elden Ring, which can be used to summon spirits to fight alongside you. These range from a pack of wolves, to a giant Jellyfish, and even named characters. These summons not only help in taking enemy aggression off the player, giving them some room to breathe, but they also help in dealing additional damage, some even helping you out with their own special effects. The Jellyfish, for example, can poison enemies.
Speaking of Summoning…
The classic Dark Souls approach to multiplayer has seen some refinement in Elden Ring. While the traditional method of multiplayer—writing down signs that can be used by other players to summon you—still exists, owing to the fact that the Lands Between is a pretty large place, Elden Ring now has Summoning Pools. Players have the option of writing their name on to whatever Summoning Pools they have activated, and their summoning signs can then be accessed by players near these pools. Much like its predecessors, however, co-op is limited to two summons, for a total party size of three players.
Elden Ring also has a group system where players can use passwords for private as well as public groups. The private group password means that only players using the same password can see and use your summoning signs, whereas the public group passwords allows for sharing of messages, co-op summons, PvP summons, and even special buffs for when other players in the group achieve a milestone in the game like beating a story-related boss.
On the PvP side of things, the classic invasions are still here. This time, however, players can only be invaded by other players if they have a co-op summon active. This means that most invaders will often find themselves outnumbered at least 2-to-1. For more honourable PvP fans, red summon signs can be made and activated for a more fair 1-on-1 fight. As is tradition with these games, Elden Ring will no doubt have fight club communities promoting PvP spring up.
Storytelling
While not quite as explicit with its story as Sekiro, Elden Ring is still a lot more open to telling its story than Dark Souls. Along with an opening cutscene giving you a vague idea of its story, Elden Ring also includes cutscenes where bosses directly talk to the player character (the Tarnished). Story beats are much easier to follow in Elden Ring, which like likely mean more players than ever before are likely going make their way to the final boss.
The lore and general backstory, however, is still quite obfuscated behind item descriptions and cryptic conversations. The backstory of, for example, Raya Lucaria Academy, will only become more clear by reading the descriptions for spells related to the academy, and armours and weapons wielded by the local military.
Side quests, on the other hand, are much more open about what you’re supposed to be doing to advance the plot. It’s worth noting that the biggest sidequest in the game, accessible around the start of the mid-game, spans through the entirety of Elden Ring’s main story, and intersects with several other sidequests as well as the main quest itself. When it comes to sidequests, Elden Ring is not only the most ambitious of FROM Software’s outings, but is arguably also one of the best RPGs to have them.
Wrapping Up
Elden Ring is not only the ambitious FROM Software title, it is one of the most ambitious games out there. Representing the absolute peak of the studio’s game design philosophies, Elden Ring manages to perfectly expand the concept of a Souls game on to an open world. The challenge is still there for those brave enough to find it, but newcomers can breathe easy in knowing that while still challenging, Elden Ring offers several tools to players to help manage just about any situation.
The Lands Between is one of the most visually striking games out there, thanks in no small part to the strong art direction as well as the graphical fidelity current hardware is capable of. The striking visual of the Erd Tree in the distance will be an image worth talking about for years to come, and Elden Ring has definitely laid new foundations for what players can and should expect from open world games going forward.
Elden Ring is one of those rare games that gets over-hyped to hell and back, but also manages to live up to the hype. It is the ultimate Souls game, and in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever made.