Elden Ring requires no introduction. In fact, I bet other people have already used this kind of introduction to mention the lack of needing an introduction! But that's for good reason - Elden Ring has sold millions of copies, has been the talk of gaming circles everywhere since its release, and is the newest in a long line of proven bangers by From Software, so it's unsurprising to see all this hype. Perhaps predictably, it lives up to the hype and provides an experience that'll probably make GOTYs for 2022 the easiest they've been in a long time.

Elden Ring sticks very close to the Souls formula - you play as a character who rises from a pitiful weakling to someone capable of reshaping the world in their image and you do that through leveling up, finding your weapon(s) of choice, calling upon others (if you want), and smacking around freaky monsters as you frantically roll around to avoid attacks. At first, Elden Ring wasn't particularly exciting to me because it just seemed like more of the same. Sekiro was a refreshing, exhilarating ride whereas Dark Souls 3, while good, felt like From Software was beginning to run out of ideas. As someone who enjoys Metal Wolf Chaos for more than its memes, who found comfort in Enchanted Arms because it was the first JRPG I had on the Xbox 360, and as someone who started getting into Armored Core a few years ago, I have mixed feelings about From Software's direction. The Souls games are fantastic, but there's something bittersweet about seeing a company that used to be so experimental becoming so mainstream and content to stick to one specific formula. Luckily for me, the shakeups provided through Elden Ring make the formula feel a whole lot more refreshing and ambitious. Once I got my hands on it in the closed beta, my concerns were quickly assuaged.

Elden Ring feels like a proper culmination of From Software's work since Demon's Souls (aside from Deracine, anyway). You can dual wield weapons like in Dark Souls 2, you have unique skills for each weapon and have to balance two types of flasks like in Dark Souls 3, combat is fast and furious like in Bloodborne, and you can jump and use stealth like in Sekiro. On their own, these elements aren't anything unexpected from video games, but putting them all together in one place does wonders for Elden Ring's combat. Having so many options available at any moment gives you more ways to approach any given situation and the game is built to encourage this while disassuading the R1 spam that could carry you through the original Dark Souls with the right build. Jumping attacks are extremely deadly and can turn the tide of a fight in an instant if they stagger the foe. Ashes of War (weapon arts) are far more powerful than they were in Dark Souls 3 and can do things like buff your character, deal devastating AoE attacks, and even provide new evasive maneuvers. There are new options too, like the ability to craft usable items and summon NPC monsters to help you out. Not only is it fun to fight alongside monsters and bosses that once gave you trouble, these characters are tremendously strong and can make a boss fight go from very hard to pretty easy just because of their ability to hog the boss's attention. The myriad bosses you'll encounter are designed around the bevy of options as well and expect you to try different things rather than relying on the same strategy for 100 hours.

While I would say Elden Ring is probably the easiest game in the Souls legacy, its bosses still have plenty of mean tricks like lengthy combos, delayed strikes, surprise reinforcements, and powerful long range magic. Because of the sheer number of bosses, you're bound to encounter something that has the upper hand over your chosen playstyle. I've seen a lot of people complain about getting stonewalled by some of the endgame bosses, claiming that they need to be nerfed or that they're unfair. In reality, the solution has been right in front of them all this time: pop into that inventory full of dozens upon dozens of weapons and spells and try something different! You don't have to stick with the greatsword you got in the first hour of the game and you don't need to pretend that using magic or summons is "cheating". More than ever before, Elden Ring is designed as a game that facilitates flexibility while also demanding it of players. It's not a coincidence that the item required to reset your character's stats is very easy to come by and unlocking the ability to do so is connected to a boss virtually every player will encounter at some point. Demon's Souls was 13 years ago, it's time to let go of some of those old habits and embrace change!

Fighting a boss that's too hard to approach? Don't bother and just shoot them from afar instead! Can't roll through someone's 8-hit combo? Pump up your endurance, grab a greatshield, and block your way through it. Need to kill a boss faster to reduce the odds of it using a certain attack? Focus on strength or dex, dual wield your favorite weapon type, enchant them with bleeding capabilities, and watch that boss melt in seconds. Admittedly, it's not a foolproof system considering upgrade materials are hard to come by for significant portions of the game and upgrades make a huge difference in weapon performance, but the sheer amount of possible weapons and builds available is no less exciting and the game does a fantastic job of making you jealous and curious enough to experiment even with weapons that aren't upgraded yet. This is also the rare game that makes crafting both quick to do and actually feel experimental instead of formulaic. I hate crafting systems, but for most of the game, I found myself gathering materials to stay stocked up on throwing knives and fire pots with nary an objection. Those items are the real deal and they saved me multiple times! Nearly every area you explore will reward you with a new weapon or spell at some point, and seeing so many cool, creative weapons that I could use made me indecisive in a way that I never am. I set foot into Elden Ring expecting to do a dual wielding setup the whole way through, and I mostly did, but the way I went about doing that was far more dynamic than I anticipated.

To give you an idea of my journey, I used two curved swords with a shield for tougher foes for a while, but then I shifted over to rapiers once I got a cool one from a quest. It didn't take long for me to find a badass greatspear enchanted with the power of madness, so I immediately adjusted for that. Madness doesn't seem to work well on enemies, however, so I bounced between things like fists, claws, greatswords, and even whips for a little bit. Eventually, I got some twinblades and fell in love with their moveset and mostly settled on those with a bit of faith magic and a backup crossbow, but I did end up playing through the entirety of the Mountaintops of the Giants and most of the endgame with a purely faith-based build because I really wanted to shoot lasers with my eyes. Every time you find something cool, it's From Software's way of telling you to give in to temptation and dig deeper into their sandbox of a world. The unfortunate reuse of many bosses, including some notable or story-relevant ones (Godefroy? Really now?) is the most disappointing aspect of Elden Ring, but it's at least partially counteracted by the fact that their potential drops are always unique. You might have to fight the Crucible Knight what feels like 20 times, but at least he drops awesome stuff almost every time! By stubbornly sticking to one specific playstyle, you're denying yourself the joy of constant dopamine hits forged with the greatest of care by From Software. The world is designed in such a way that everyone's journey will be different even if they start off the same way, both through the places they choose to go and what they decide to pull from their ever growing toolbox.

Elden Ring is the game that feels like the purest, most complete expression of From Software's ideology. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki has been on the record multiple times as saying that he doesn't think an easy mode suits his games because he wants a shared experience amongst players. Some people may try to refute this by claiming his philosophy is inherently flawed because nobody is the same and thus cannot have a 100% shared experience, but that's not what he's saying; his philosophy is akin to older games you'd see on, say, the NES, in which the game is a strict set of rules taken as is. The game is the same every time with no way to change its variables outside of cheat devices or romhacks. This creates a particular, increasingly rare experience that starts everybody out in the same place and asks them to forge a path in any way they can think of. Some people will tackle the challenge head on, others will give up, some will ask around for advice and eventually overcome the challenge, more sociable individuals will enlist others to do it for them, and a crafty few will create trainers or hacks to bend the game to their will. Though everyone is different and it's not likely everyone will be able to or want to handle the tasks ahead of them, the challenge, the set of rules that they are given is the same and a shared experience is born.

It's not a design philosophy that every game should follow, but as someone who still regularly plays and enjoys older video games, I'm very glad to see this particular type of game design still exists in some capacity through games like Elden Ring, which inherits this old school mentality and executes it with an elegance like little else. The world that From Software has crafted is immensely mysterious, captivatingly beautiful, contains a whole bunch of weirdos with ulterior motives, and is chock full of dangers and treasures alike, but no matter who you are or how you like to play, Elden Ring only has one question it's interested in asking - given this world and its inhabitants, how will you survive and reshape the world?

Reviewed on Mar 26, 2022


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