Anyone who’s been on Twitter for the past week will have likely experienced the phenomenon known as “Elden Ring FOMO”. When the review embargo dropped for Elden Ring, the internet was awash with glorious reviews, showering praise on another FromSoftware masterpiece. The developer’s games have always had their audience, but Elden Ring felt like another level for the legendary developers, like they’ve achieved their final form at long last.
Suddenly, Elden Ring went from one of the most hyped games of 2022 to a cultural touchstone and a “can’t miss” event in gaming. Fans of the series were already waiting for their pre-order copies to arrive or go live digitally, but suddenly, a brand new wave of players were about to experience a world and genre that they either never experienced before, or had historically bounced off like a rubber ball thrown at a wall.
I fit into the latter category pretty snugly. I’ve played Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 and I’ve played Sekiro, yet if you were to ask me what my favourite game from FromSoftware is, I’d reply with Metal Wolf Chaos. It’s not like I’ve completely skipped the Soulslike genre though, as I’ve reviewed both Code Vein and Darksiders 3 (before it got updated to make it less Souls-y). I was also pretty fond of Absolver, the Souls-inspired RPG that served as a precursor to Sifu.
Despite this historic aversion to FromSoftware’s more iconic games, even I wasn’t immune to “Elden Ring-FOMO”. Apparently all it takes is a bunch of 10/10 reviews and a Metacritic rating approaching the top ten games of all time and I’ll drop £50 on your game. Either I bounce off another Souls game, and everything is as it was, or this is the one that clicks. Given the headline, you can probably guess: it clicked harder than most games have in a long time.
The main reason that I can think of is that it doesn’t feel quite as punishing. There’s an approachability with Elden Ring that doesn’t feel like it was present within other games that FromSoftware have created. Through various design decisions, Elden Ring feels like a game that invites you to meet its challenge face-to-face, allowing the player to become invested early on so that they’re not turned off by the difficult nature of the game later.
The opening section of the game in particular is a masterstroke. After awaking in a new area, you’ll happen across a Grafted Scion, an absolute hard lad of an enemy who will more than likely trash you into the middle of next week. Skilled players can take this guy down, and there’s powerful loot for doing so, but functionally, you’re meant to lose. Once you re-awaken, you’re now at a new area, right next to a small, easy dungeon designed to give players an early win, which is a great confidence boost after the Scion.
Of course, all that confidence and bluster could amount to nothing when players finally reach the open world, travel twenty steps north and come face to face with the Tree Sentinel, a horse-riding knight that’ll stomp your face in immediately. These moments could easily turn players off from playing Elden Ring further, but in reality, the Scion and Tree Sentinel are there to teach the player two simple lessons early on: it’s okay to fail and it’s okay to run.
Previous Soulslike games have dabbled with tutorial dungeons; easy by comparison starting areas that prepare players for the horrors lying ahead with the rest of the game. They’re no slouches, but they’re doable. The problem though is that you have to do them. You need to win in order to experience the rest of the game, but Elden Ring doesn’t suffer from that issue. Taking an L is part of the whole experience, and that’s a liberating feeling.
Losing to the Scion immediately, only to be teleported elsewhere, then seeing a full world to explore while avoiding a horse-bound knight that will murder you, is FromSoftware implicitly telling you that you should go elsewhere if you keep losing or if the enemies are too strong. You don’t have to keep bashing your head against the same walls in order to proceed, as the game gives you so many opportunities to retreat, regroup and rebuild. This is a game you’re meant to explore and get lost in, with the starting area of Limgrave offering easier dungeons earlier on like Groveside Cave.
Some comparisons have been made to Breath of the Wild, a game I also bounced off of, as both games feature expansive open worlds that require exploration in order to succeed, but something about Elden Ring’s design is much more appealing. Breath of the Wild’s map feels massive for massive’s sake, with vast swathes of nothing important in between key locations. Elden Ring feels a lot more densely populated, as you’re never too far from something to do or find, which makes exploration much more rewarding.
Also, Elden Ring doesn’t have weapon degradation, so it’s vastly superior. This is the hill I’m dying on.
If new players are going to have any issue with Elden Ring as a Soulslike game, it’ll be in moments like Stormveil Castle. Getting in is hard enough anyway, as Margit is one of the toughest bosses you’ll fight, but that again serves the lessons instilled earlier on in the game. You’re encouraged to explore new areas before committing to the main story bosses, as new goodies and rewards are all waiting to be found. The starting area alone has heaps of flask and weapon upgrades, allowing you to fully outfit yourself.
It’s not the bosses that are the issue though. FromSoftware has made it so much easier for players to keep trying bosses, with various features that allow players to reach a boss quicker without running through a massive gauntlet of foes. The fast travel feature has even been vastly improved, making grinding and exploring the map before taking on a boss a more worthwhile experience.
Still, roaming around the castle itself feels more like the traditional Souls games, with tides of enemies between each Lost Grace safe point that will kick your ass. That Grafted Scion is back, for instance. It’s here that highlights perhaps what turned me off other Souls games in the past, and it’s that they feel more like endurance challenges. Hard games in and of themselves aren’t an issue for me, as I’ll gladly consume Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, but tell me there’s 20 minutes between checkpoints and I’ll put my controller through the TV.
Having a hard boss as a challenge to grind towards makes a lot of sense, but struggling to make your way through waves of common mobs and the occasional sub-boss feels a bit more demoralising. Knowing when a boss is too much for you is one thing, almost expected even, but being stomped on by regular enemies is harder to quantify. Are these enemies hard, or is just the space between safe points making that harder?
Truth be told, if Stormveil was my first experience with Elden Ring, I’d likely have turned the game off, but those initial 10 hours spent exploring the world and levelling up beforehand made the hours spent inside Stormveil much more manageable. Sure, I wasn’t getting as many wins like I was in Limgrave proper, but I was safe in the knowledge that a) I’ve beaten hard enemies already, and b) fast travelling and grinding was always an option.
To say Elden Ring is a Soulslike for everyone is underselling the difficulty and design that undercuts the entire experience, but the initial experience of freedom and choice makes that challenge more enticing. There’s always something to do, or something to find that’ll make your life easier in the long run, making Elden Ring a much more enticing prospect. Even if you’ve bounced off the Soulslike genre, it’s worth giving it a try. Even if it’s not for you, you’ve at least tried, and that’s all that matters.
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