Elden Ring is the latest game released by From Software, a Japanese game studio best known for their acclaimed Action RPGs. Today, a guest contributor joins us to review this title. Was Elden Ring Worth It?
Table of Contents
Guest Profile
This review was provided by a friend of the site: Minimum Payne. You can also follow him on Twitter!
Background
Elden Ring is an open world action RPG which serves primarily as a spiritual successor to From Software’s Dark Souls trilogy. Many series elements are transposed into a world not unlike the Hyrule wilderness as depicted in Breath of the Wild. The game also borrows mechanics and narrative tropes from FromSoft’s other major titles, namely Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It takes place in a new dark fantasy setting developed in collaboration with writer George R. R. Martin, best known as the author of the Song of Ice and Fire series.
Elden Ring is the latest in a long line of fantasy action RPGs created with the involvement of director Hidetaka Miyazaki. While one can point to titles like King’s Field and Shadow Tower as prototypes of the “Soulslike” style of game, the subgenre as we know it today began with the sleeper success of 2009’s Demon’s Souls on the PlayStation 3. Positive word of mouth would lead to excitement over the release of the first Dark Souls in 2011. This was a watershed moment in gaming history. Later entries would include two successful sequels, spins on the formula in Bloodborne and Sekiro. The impact of the franchise cannot be understated, as it influenced the entire gaming sphere over the next decade.
Common Factors
All of these games (with varying levels of involvement with Miyazaki) share multiple elements. Franchise mainstays include:
- High levels of difficulty
- A satisfying gameplay loop of weighty combat
- Compelling worlds to explore
- Bombastic boss fights
They also famously feature an adaptation of an older RPG mechanic: the corpse run. Unspent experience and currency are left at the location of your last death. These resources can be permanently lost if not retrieved before you die again (and you will). The series has also pioneered unorthodox online multiplayer elements. These include messages and replays from others traversing the world independently of you.
Prior Knowledge required?
An explicit overarching narrative has never been a priority in these games and as a new universe, Elden Ring has no overt connection to the worlds of FromSoft’s other games. Fans will appreciate some nods to those games but new players don’t have to worry about playing through the older games to appreciate the world of ER.
While this game is now a huge jump-in point for new players intrigued by the cult following of FromSoft’s ARPG library and the glowing critical praise for this title from the mainstream gaming press, many may end up confused by this title as it deviates greatly from most other open world RPGs. If Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed or Fallout are your primary reference points, Elden Ring will induce a certain culture shock for you. This is not helped by the obtuse mechanics and quest lines that are part and parcel with the experience.
On the other hand, familiarity with at least one other FromSoft game will go a long way towards progressing comfortably here, with Dark Souls III providing most of the framework for the gameplay here. For reference, I’ve played all of the Dark Souls games save for some of the DLC campaigns and have also played Bloodborne up to the final DLC boss. (Also I am a Dark Souls II defender, fight me.) Veterans will find this game to be a natural refinement of the Soulslike experience scaled up further than ever considered possible within the genre.
What should new players know?
The biggest piece of advice I can offer to anyone trying this game out would be to be open to help. No one was born knowing how to play these games and every new entry has content creators and wiki editors scrambling to help newcomers make sense of it all. The strong sales numbers for this game means you probably know someone else playing this game and trading knowledge and socializing is part of the experience. You’re never truly playing alone.
Weapons and Whereabouts
If you want more concrete advice, great weapons like Icerind Hatchet, Moonveil, Meteorite Staff and more can be found in areas accessible early into the game and are a boon for early progress. Upgrading these weapons also sees greater returns on investment than simply pumping your offensive stats, freeing levels up for points into Vigor and Endurance.
Early on it’s also easy to miss the NPC who unlocks summoning; you can find her at the Church of Elleh during the nighttime. Finally, if you find yourself dying a lot or not doing the amount of damage you need to, take it as a sign that you should explore somewhere else. There is a lot to find on the map and the Runes and equipment you gain as a result will help.
Another point to make here is that any tool and trick at your disposal is fair game; the developers intend for you to use items like summons and cooperators to level the playing field. A win is a win and anyone seriously trying to shame you for not playing the way they did is not worth listening to. While it may take a while to find gear outside of what you started with, you’ll eventually be flush with tools to experiment with so you’re never locked into a singular playstyle for the whole adventure.
What does Elden Ring do well?
I could rant and rave all day about how much I adore Dark Souls and Bloodborne. That particular style of ARPG does a lot for me in terms of game feel, art style and worldbuilding. I’m happy to say that Elden Ring lives up to that legacy and has proven to be an excellent game overall.
The combat loop is that heavy and methodical melee dance the games have become famous for. While it’s always been fairly simple with understanding enemy patterns and dodging/blocking/parrying/slashing/tickling at the right time, the level design and enemy placement always keeps things fresh as ever. Animations and sounds have been improved to the point that getting those sweet critical attacks on stunned or back-turned enemies turns your weapon into a freight train for those few seconds. Smart use of tricks like ranged spells and arrows, throwables, consumables, and the odd bit of stealth rewards players who really understand the layouts of the levels they’re working with.
Variety
Playing into the combat itself is the wide variety of weapons at your disposal; the Lands Between are littered with a buffet of swords, spears, staves and spells to crush your enemies with, offering a variety of movesets and stat scalings for all manner of players to get their grubby hands on. Degradation is a thing of the past, so you only need to worry now about having the prerequisite stats to wield that shiny new weapon of yours. Layered on top of this is the “Ashes of War” system; an expansion of Dark Souls III’s Focus Art system, Ashes or Weapon Arts are special moves that can be freely transferred between weapons and are performed using the Focus Meter (effectively your mana bar except not limited to just spell casts).
While Focus Arts were ultimately considered an afterthought in DaS3, Ashes here are much more useful this time around. The fact that you can move them around encourages even more experimentation. That’s not even getting into crafting, weapon upgrades, elemental buffs, talismans with unique passive bonuses, summonable minions, power stancing, debuffs, and so on. This might be the most feature rich and open ended experience offered by FromSoft; it’s such that friends of mine are already thinking up alternate builds before even finishing up their first run.
Exploration
The world itself has seen a massive shift in design compared to previous entries; whereas before the map was a collection of interlocking zones almost comparable to a Metroid or classic Zelda world, the Lands Between is a continent closer in scale to an Elder Scrolls title. Enemies passively roam the map with some groups offering refills on your potions when killed. Notably, this ensures that you can continue on your trek without necessitating a return to a checkpoint.
The open world also gives you a way out for particularly difficult segments; if you can’t handle the heat in one particular kitchen, Elden Ring will have at least another one open to warm yourself up before coming back or even a window to open if you just look around. Conversely, if you decide after beating the game that you want to start a new character your knowledge of the map allows you to determine just how much of the game you actually need to explore for your build.
Sightseeing in the Lands Between
There are no towns populated with passive NPCs. Ruins and shacks offer small treasures or a single NPC offering something of value. Sometimes it’s a vendor or a quest giver. Major zones are also sprinkled with short dungeons that culminate in boss fights, reminiscent of Skyrim’s copy-pasted draugr tombs. Contrastingly, these dungeons’ loot feels more meaningful thanks to the aforementioned variety of items and a lack of level scaling. Getting a unique summon for killing a boss hits way differently from finding just another ax with a different stat spread if a Bethesda employee was feeling particularly frisky that day.
Those mini dungeons are especially important for empowering you to take on the “Legacy Dungeons”. These are Elden Ring’s answer to the more meticulously designed dungeons of yore. Even these are scaled up from previous entries. Killing the area’s major boss can still leave you feeling like there’s more still to scurry through. Having that mindset for most of the game is almost always rewarded as well. Much like a Metroidvania, points of interest may not be accessible at a given moment. However, you know in the back of your head you’ll have to come back once you’ve figured out what you need. A patch also introduced markers for NPCs you’ve reached in order to make this process just a little smoother.
Beautiful Biomes
The ability to keep important zones in your head is aided significantly by the world’s immaculate art design. Every part of the map has a unique visual identity. Limgrave’s familiar woodlands and plains give way to the hellish (or Floridian if you ask me) wasteland of Caelid, the misty mountains and lakes of Liurnia, and other zones worth uncovering firsthand.
Traversal is made smoother with your trusty steed named Torrent. Aside from the natural speed boost, your mount also offers a double jump and horseback combat on the field. Almost no space is wasted as points of interest are never out of reach for too long. The pacing is also careful to keep you from getting overwhelmed with options early on. Critically, the world map starts off in a very small chunk. Progress slowly reveals the true scale that awaits. This surprises me so consistently that looking at the whole world map online still feels like a major spoiler.
I’ve become jaded by open world games over the last decade or so. The format has become rather bland checklists of meaningless activities with marginal interactions with the general gameplay loop presented in the main game stretched across barren landscapes or generic urban sprawls. Even Breath of the Wild, one of the most acclaimed games of the last few years and a bulwark against many of those open world clichés, couldn’t hold my attention through to the end despite being pretty good, all things considered. Many games have taken notes from that Zelda game. Finally, with Elden Ring that I can appreciate the kind of scale and openness that was promised.
What could Elden Ring do better?
As FromSoft’s first attempt at an open world, it is a very commendable effort. Sticking the Dark Souls design philosophy onto a Breath of the Wild style map works well for the most part. Eventually, you will hit weird speedbumps like heights that are more lethal than they appear. Combat on horseback also felt clunky to me as swings seem to have more startup than I find comfortable personally. Perhaps I’ll chalk that up to me not choosing a good weapon for it or my lack of expertise with Warriors games as Fioyl put it. The tracking on magic doesn’t seem to like the movement on horseback either. You have to stay still to cast reliably. This is a problem in a game where movement can decide between victory and defeat.
Boss Repetition
The boss design has also seen a noticeable tweak across the board. Many fights change up the dynamic from the tried and true block-roll-n-slap fights of previous games to more varied movesets that are meant to be shut down with posture breaking attacks which create opportunities for critical strikes.
Changing up the meta of boss fights is never a bad thing for keeping things fresh. I’d have to check out Sekiro for reference to make an accurate judgment call here but I’m a little mixed about this. It might have to do with my personal approach in this game but I don’t feel like there’s as much variety in these fights compared to previous games. That’s also on top of the recycling used here. It might be more noticeable here thanks to the size of the game. I understand it’s more efficient from a developer’s point of view but there’s a limit. The late-game Godskin Duo fight just being two earlier bosses now fought simultaneously isn’t really compelling for that point in the game. It’s hardly new to the series but it is worth pointing out here.
Equipment
I can’t comment much on the PvP balance. Bleed weapons are strong in multiplayer and solo play so you may want to consider those options. Those strong weapons I mentioned earlier might earn you the ire of internet tough guys if they see you pull them out during invasions or fields. Armor is also not particularly meaningful beyond avoiding the penalty for going nude and any bonus stats helms offer; the order of the day is fashion and avoiding fat rolling.
Quest Tracking
I also don’t want to dismiss common complaints about the lack of a quest log. I appreciate its absence for letting me play at my own pace and making exploration feel natural. However, a game of this size features side quests that can be quite involved. I have to admit to looking up this stuff on the internet in order to progress. The addition of NPC markers is a neat little band-aid fix for this.
I’m not here to review a game’s community either. You will see messages in game that have been left by other players. Frustratingly, nearly everyone has decided to be a genius comedian with bits like “try finger, but hole” or lying about a “hidden path ahead”. It adds needless noise and drowns out the genuinely helpful or humorous messages you can find playing the game. I have a few quibbles with the interface but that’s getting at the level of nitpick. Having touched Dark Souls 1, I can say we’ve definitely come a long way.
Player Effort Investment
I find it a bit on the easier side, especially when you start to level up at a steady pace (at least until you reach the last handful of bosses which really amps up the challenge). I make this assertion having played those previous games and using them as a reference. “Easy for a Soulslike” is still more challenging than the average AAA video game. It’s also quite long. My final runtime clocked in at 88 hours without touching all of the major optional bosses.
For what I would consider an average consumer, review scores in the 9s and 10s from major games media companies would compel anyone to try such a game, even when it has the potential to put them off real hard unless they’re willing to make an effort for it. I mean I know that from my initial experience with Demon’s Souls back in the day. Even with the new mechanics added to take the edge off it’s quite a lot to ask of a consumer. I believe the challenge is an essential part of the experience. Personally, I’m in the camp against the demand for an easy mode because of that.
Performance
On another note, FromSoft should be put to task for the game’s performance; I get regular frame drops playing on the PS5 version using its performance mode. It’s nothing that bothers me too much but I do find it amusing that Digital Foundry has determined that I could’ve bought a PS4 copy to ensure a stable 60fps at 1080p.
While I had no faith in my aging computer hardware for running this game, my comrade John LaRocke decided to try it on his stronger PC. A subsequent upgrade from a RTX 1080 to a 3080 brought his performance from “frequent unreasonable frame drops” to “regular but bearable frame drops”. I don’t think we can expect better FromSoft PC ports in the future.
Was Elden Ring fun?
If the length of writing here is not indication enough, I had an absolute blast with this game. “The Dark Souls of Breath of the Wild” sounds absolutely trite, and a game with that as its design philosophy would fall flat on its ass if anyone but From Software made it. I didn’t even think they had it in them to make a giant open world that didn’t suck absolute ass. The mad lads actually did it! I couldn’t tell you what exactly GRRM did to cash that fat check but if it gave us a setting this compelling then he could continue to not write A Dream of Spring for all I care.
If you’ve played a FromSoft game and decided they’re not for you, this game is not going to change your mind. Open-minded newcomers in with an open mind, will have a wonderful time. If you’re a veteran of the series and not an absolute turbo-nerd who nitpicks harder than a chimpanzee’s mother you’re getting the biggest and best Souls experience to date. I don’t even know why you spent all this time reading this review, go play the damn game.
Is Elden Ring good value?
I spent $45 on this game after using my own Amazon Prime card’s reward points to reduce it from MSRP. Even at full price it’s an easy recommend.
Was Elden Ring worth it?
I’ve dumped dozens of hours into this game just on the first run. Currently, I’m working on another character who’s attempting to punch everyone to death because I thought it’d be funny. Elden Ring is such a meaty adventure that the $60 USD asking price is money well spent, and I technically didn’t even spend that much.
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