FromSoftware’s upcoming open-world title Elden Ring has a considerable amount of potential when transferring the intricate and layered level design into a less linear format. With the developer finally breaking its silence on Elden Ring‘s development recently, excited fans and longtime veterans of the company’s most notorious titles have been quickly speculating what the game might finally look like.
One of the most impressive aspects of FromSoftware’s previous titles is the way that level design is perfectly integrated into combat, with carefully placed ledges and traps keeping players on their toes. However, the more free movement of Elden Ring‘s open-field design will mean that combat may have to be altered to fit the new style, which could mean some of the most satisfying fights in the developer’s catalogue.
Building off of previous FromSoftware games, there are plenty of opportunities to expand on and better hone in on some of the mechanics that makes these games excel. Considering how well received the game’s mechanics have been, like Sekiro‘s combat that was recently modded into Skyrim, it would seem that the new open-field design could work with the developer’s signature sign of combat. Everything from how players engage with enemies to the number of enemies they can take on at once can be addressed with the new design.
The previous Dark Souls series, and other Souls-like games, have always excelled when fighting against enemies one at a time, with an emphasis on pulling each combatant individually. Of course, some of the most difficult encounters in the series have put players into situations where they don’t have any choice but to go up against a number of difficult enemies at once. Some of the most notable examples range from the double Shark Giant fight in Bloodborne to Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls, which still stands as one of the most impressive boss fights in the series.
This is something that deserves some exploration in Elden Ring, with the open-world design making the odds of encountering multiple enemies at the same time much more likely. As a result, FromSoftware’s next move should be to make sure that the balance of combat is better weighted towards fighting hoards of enemies all at once. Drawing from previous Souls titles, this next title should lean on what’s made some of these encounters so impressive, such as designing enemies to play off each other within the open environment.
Aside from being periodically outnumbered, the second most common cause of death for most players running blindly through Dark Souls is the random ambushes the wait around every corner. It’s one of the more hotly debated aspects of the series, considering that the enemy placement goes against the common argument that FromSoftware’s games are tough but fair. Worse is the way that waiting for the player to round a corner doesn’t quite fit the lore behind Dark Souls‘ hollows, who wouldn’t have the mindset necessary to prepare a trap like this.
This is something that could have an easy fix in an open-world title, with the completely open field to move through making for a much more natural way of hiding enemies. As anyone who played games like Fallout or Skyrim can relate with, sometimes it’s less about whether or not there are places to hide, but instead how impossible it is to point out every enemy when there are 360 degrees to account for. The surprise enemies in Elden Ring can surpass Dark Souls by simply hiding among the wide expanse as opposed to trying to design corners and ledges to hide them behind.
One part of the Dark Souls experience that isn’t quite taught to players by the game is that if an encounter is too difficult to face head on, there is always the option to simply run from bonfire to bonfire. That doesn’t mean that running away is easy, but it can help players get through the areas with a bit more ease than if they painstakingly fought each enemy one on on. Meaning that being able to fully engage and disengage is as key a quality to Dark Souls combat as blocking, dodging, and parrying is throughout the series.
An open world, while more susceptible to glitches and exploits, is also able to give players much more freedom of movement to engage in combat and retreat to safety whenever a situation becomes too dire. This could mean that Elden Ring‘s open world has the opportunity to allow players new ways to escape, while also setting up the ambushes mentioned earlier to pressure players into specific directions. The result could be that this upcoming title could still include subtle nudges in the right direction, while also giving more options for exploration than any other entry in the Dark Souls series has before.
Taking a look away from other FromSoftware titles and towards more recent open-world titles, there is one more aspect of combat that excels in these types of games. Ranged combat, from the gunplay in Fallout to the bows and arrows in Ghost of Tsushima, has often been one of the best forms of combat in these titles, thanks in part to how far players often are from enemies as they approach new areas. This is unfortunately something that Souls-like boss and enemy encounters have had a lot of trouble with in the past, or at least it has not been the developer’s intention to make ranged combat a viable way to approach most situations.
In the case of Elden Ring, it isn’t clear if there is a desire to make ranged combat any more impressive than in past FromSoftware titles, but the open world does give the developer a chance to fix this criticism. Previously, this is the type of thing that fans have modded into Dark Souls, attempting to make the ranged options a more prominent part of combat, instead of being relegated to another way to pull enemies. With the new level design and increase in distance that comes with open-world titles, Elden Ring has the best opportunity of any of the developer’s recent titles to expand on ranged mechanics and increase the strength of long-distance weapons.
Elden Ring is currently in development, with PC, PS4, and Xbox One as confirmed platforms.
MORE: Elden Ring May Do the Impossible and Dethrone Dark Souls, Bloodborne
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