Elden Ring received its announcement trailer back in E3 2019, which gave fans tidbits of information, but nothing substantial. Elden Ring then went silent for a long time after it got announced, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating what the game would be like when it releases, possibly even this year.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 launched with Bluepoint Games’ remake of the beloved Demon’s Souls which has enjoyed positive critical and commercial reception. As much as Souls games are praised for what they do right, there is no denying that there are a couple of areas that could use a little bit of improvement. The recently released Demon’s Souls Remake does give context for a lot of things Elden Ring could actually learn from its fellow Souls games.
The Souls games are known for offering a lot of player choices in everything from their starting class and playstyles down to different endings based on the way players go about things. Earlier Souls games, such as Demon’s Souls, are a shining example of FromSoftware’s design philosophies. Demon’s Souls puts a near-perfect display of showing off this player agency by giving its players just the right amount of options when it comes to freedom of exploration as well as expression. Much of the difficulty in exploring the harder areas comes from insufficient game knowledge rather than purely tougher and tankier enemies.
This lends an incredible sense of legitimacy to the overall experience and difficulty as subsequent playthroughs become easier just by experience. With this in mind, Elden Ring is rumored to have an open-world structure where players should be able to explore its towns and dungeons in any way they like, so it’s fitting for the developer to take into account the design philosophies it acquired while creating Demon’s Souls in the first place. More recent Souls games such as Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice have had a lot more linearity to them, which mostly worked in their favor, but may not bode well if translated to their next release.
As well-received as the Demon’s Souls remake was, many players took note of some of the systems that could have been changed. The world tendency system, in particular, sparked a lot of debate alongside the usual easy mode affair that comes standard with every new Souls release. For a variety of reasons, changing certain things may have led to backlash, such as this system, despite the narrative around it now.
This, sadly enough, is true as the Souls community is pretty adamant about most changes in the broad formula of these games, which indirectly forced Bluepoint to dial back a lot of changes. This, however, did result in players exploiting the same glitches and strategies that they used in the original, which gets stale pretty quickly. Arguably, this can be counted as just one of many examples where required changes could not be made simply because the developer was worried about the potential reception.
Elden Ring marks a new chapter for the Souls series, so FromSoftware is likely hard at work polishing up its new mechanics and gameplay systems. The shift to Elden Ring‘s open-field concept will most likely require a lot of newer design elements in the game’s formula. As a result, FromSoftware should be willing to change what it must to deliver what fans know it can, not worrying about placating specific audiences. It’s impossible to make everyone happy, but if Demon’s Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is anything to go by, fans shouldn’t be worried too much about the matter.
Elden Ring is in development for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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