One of my favorite aspects of FromSoftware games – Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and now Elden Ring – is that moment when you turn a corner and come face-to-face with an enemy that’s more than five times your size. When a massive creature towers over you, your first thought as you rush to strike at its ankles is usually something like, “How will I ever manage to overcome this impossible task?”
By attempting the encounter long enough, you will eventually overcome it. In most cases, you’ll need to do so because, despite the immense challenge, it usually stands in the way of your linear progression. However, the more you play FromSoftware games and face these kinds of challenges, the more the magic starts to fade.
But the vast open world of Elden Ring – the game’s significant point of difference – makes these moments of impossible challenge majestic and perilous once again.
In line with FromSoftware’s ruthless action RPGs, every movement counts. Gaining a deeper understanding of the world and the behaviors of its inhabitants is the key to success. Every death brings a lesson that can be applied to future encounters.
Elden Ring once again challenges you to overcome seemingly insurmountable enemies and to develop your skills along the way, but the task is more extensive than ever.
Upon entering the game world, the Lands Between, you feel incredibly insignificant. It’s an immensely vast and ruined world that seems to stretch into infinity. And those moments when you encounter an inconceivable enemy – for instance, three towering golems the size of small mountains – feel absolutely colossal and awe-inspiring. It’s both humbling and terrifying, and it gives you that wonderfully impossible feeling once again.
The reason these daunting moments have managed to regain their mystique during my many hours spent with the game lies partly in the fact that most of these encounters are optional in the world of Elden Ring. I tried to defeat a dragon several times, but as soon as I concluded that my character was too weak or that I wasn’t well-equipped for the task, I knew I could turn back. There would always be other parts of the open world I could explore instead. But I would leave the area knowing that the path behind me was just as perilous as when I first arrived – a chilling notion in FromSoftware games.
Forge Your Own Path:
Elden Ring is structured in such a way that it compels you to explore six distinct and confined locations within the world to progress. Each of these areas, resembling dungeons, closely mirrors the segments you might encounter in a Dark Souls game: you will navigate a labyrinth, learn and absorb the layout of the places and the behaviors of the enemies they contain, and strive to defeat the formidable boss to obtain a shard of the eponymous Elden Ring.
Although each of these locations is mandatory and could theoretically be approached immediately and in a natural order, they can also be completely bypassed. Elden Ring simultaneously offers an open world filled with a multitude of carefully designed places, as well as small dungeons that pique your morbid curiosity.
The path to the first mandatory location easily contains more than a dozen intriguing spots to divert you from your route, with even more fascinating discoveries further along. Some of these places offer useful rewards, while others are simply there for the thrill and unease that accompany encounters with unknown enemies of mysterious power.
The strong sense of adventure cultivated in Elden Ring, along with the feeling of apprehension that accompanies the exploration of unknown territories, creates extraordinary sensations that amplify the powerful and visceral emotional reactions for which FromSoftware games are renowned.
FromSoftware’s penchant for designing unique and unsettling enemies continues to contribute to this distinct array of discomforts, whether they are small, colossal, or whimsical. Each step of your journey to the edges of the world will allow you to catch a glimpse of something new and horrifying in the distance, encouraging you to cautiously draw closer, despite your better judgment – be it a grotesque giant, larger than life, or a tiny swamp goblin with a deadly yet adorable wheel.
Elden Ring Brings Light to the Darkness:
While the open world provides Elden Ring with more opportunities for dangerous encounters at every turn, it also gives the impression of leaning toward a somewhat more forgiving FromSoftware experience. This isn’t about the sought-after reduction or assistance in combat difficulty, often mentioned in discussions about the developer’s games, but rather about adjustments related to structural design and gameplay that mitigate some of the obstacles along the way.
As mentioned earlier, having to repeatedly bang your head against a wall in front of an insurmountable enemy is no longer the barrier to progression it once was, as there are always plenty of other options to continue your adventure by exploring elsewhere, or opportunities to improve your character before returning to attempt the encounter again.
Other design adjustments also make long journeys away from safe zones more viable. The number of uses for your character’s healing flask feels generous, and a pouch system makes accessing multiple items easier. An increased number of checkpoints, especially around particularly difficult fights, makes the retry cycle for these encounters more efficient. A flexible skill system allows you to mix and match special abilities on weapons. Your horse, which serves as a quick means of transportation, also proves to be a practical asset for swiftly fleeing from combat. A variety of spirits can be summoned to lend you a hand in certain situations, dealing damage or at least distracting your enemies. You can fast travel from almost any point on the map.
And the new Guard Counter, an easy-to-execute technique that allows you to stagger an enemy immediately after blocking their attack, makes many melee encounters more manageable, especially for those who are not ready to refine the quick reflexes required for the game’s parry system.
Elden Ring remains a demanding game, but these additions create the impression that the game wants to give you a fair chance of success, even though its dark and grim world and its inhabitants wish to see you fail.
A Captivating Perspective:
Despite this, Elden Ring is not just darkness and despair. Amid pockets of grotesque creatures and menacing architecture, the world of the Lands Between is filled with landscapes and environments of breathtaking beauty.
During my journey, stopping to admire a view wasn’t so much an exercise in assessing the terrain or igniting the desire to travel to a distant point on the horizon, but rather a moment of quiet peace to absorb the haunting serenity of this world amid its many trials and tribulations. It’s both beautiful and humbling.
I likely won’t be able to muster the courage or endurance to defeat some of Elden Ring’s most formidable enemies anytime soon. But that’s okay, because the formidable knowledge of their existence and their constantly imposing presence is what makes the danger of Elden Ring so unique and fascinating.
The challenges of Elden Ring remain as imposing and satisfying to overcome as ever, but there is also a degree of hope woven into the structure of the game, a hope that encourages you to explore broadly across a beautiful and awe-inspiring landscape. Elden Ring is an exceptional and accomplished work that creates a fantastic world of solemnity, beauty, and menacing uncertainty in which you can’t help but lose yourself.
Gameplay :
