Highlights

  • Elden Ring breaks from its predecessors by allowing NPCs to join the player, providing a refreshing sense of companionship.
  • Players are encouraged to explore and engage with the open world, as Elden Ring offers alternative activities and rewards outside of the main quest.
  • Dying in Elden Ring is less punishing, thanks to the ability to respawn near bosses and keep important items, reducing the need for tiresome run-backs.

Elden Ring is the successor to FromSoftware's Souls titles in many ways. The game inherited mechanical and narrative elements from Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, and even Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, uniting them all as distinctly FromSoftware products. The excitement and success Elden Ring enjoyed partially came from the other Souls games’ fans accompanying those traits, and it met most of their expectations by being more of what they loved.

With that in mind, Elden Ring still has its own identity. It has plenty of unique experiences on offer and sometimes needs to deviate from FromSoftware's norms due to its vastly expanded open-world format. Doing so was an important part of giving Elden Ring its own identity, and the knowledge gained by deviating from the Souls formula can only benefit FromSoftware's future games. There's no mistaking Elden Ring for anything besides a Soulslike, but it had to break many Souls traditions to get where it is.

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Elden Ring Isn’t As Solitary As It Seems

Souls titles are typically very lonely affairs. Players are the main character of their journeys, and no one other than summoned accomplices are found at their side. Elden Ring switches things up by allowing some NPCs to join the player’s entourage, and they can even be interacted with at certain points. Torrent is the player's constant companion and steed, Melina appears throughout Elden Ring to converse with the player throughout their mutual adventures, and Ranni the Witch will briefly join the group as a doll later in her quest. It isn't at the level of a traditional RPG party, but for a FromSoftware title, just feeling accompanied is refreshing.

If A Challenge In Elden Ring Is Too Tough, Go Somewhere Else

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Other companions like Spirit Ashes can also make braving Elden Ring’s challenges easier, but even if they aren't enough, players are encouraged to simply try again later. There's plenty to do in the Lands Between besides Elden Ring's main quest, and just milling about can unearth dungeons filled with upgrade materials and useful equipment. Most Souls games have far more limited area design that funnels players toward specific challenges, even if the exact order can vary. Being able to put off or ignore rough patches in Elden Ring is one of the game's unique strengths.

Run-Backs To Elden Ring’s Fights are De-Emphasized

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In many Souls games, dying results in the player's currency being left on the ground, necessitating returning safely to get it back. This can encourage mastering an environment and outplaying the enemies within, but can also be annoying when one's Souls are behind a boss door with lots of traps and enemies in the way. While there are moments like this in Elden Ring, many of them are thankfully averted by Stakes of Marika, allowing players to spawn next to certain bosses and large combat sites. Thanks to the great Twiggy Cracked Tear allowing players to keep their Runes on death, the time spent retreading challenges to make progress has been mercifully cut from Elden Ring’s already-long runtime.

Player Invaders Can’t Freely Invade Each Other In Elden Ring

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The bones of many Souls games’ multiplayer are still present under Elden Ring’s surface, but they don’t work like they used to. Unless a specific item is used, a player will never be invaded by another player without having summoned an allied player first. It's understandable given the logistics of multiple players being in Elden Ring’s open world at once, but it still removes a beloved form of Souls community interaction.

Elden Ring Doesn’t Have Past Games’ Covenants

What is now governed by items used to be opted into more passively, as the Dark Souls games and even Bloodborne had many Covenants that affected player rewards and interactions online. As entire Covenants and associated areas were once devoted to enabling PvP, some players hope that Elden Ring’s DLC will bring some form of Covenants back.