Elden Ring: Exchanging Bonfires for Grace

Elden Ring:

Elden Ring: Exchanging Bonfires for Grace

Elden Ring: Exploring The Open World and Legacy Dungeons

Elden Ring: The Infamous Difficulty of Dark Souls Is Ashes

Elden Ring: PvP Lacks Grace, While Combat is Divine

Elden Ring: Goldmask's Revelation Can't Mend the Ending

Time To Beat: 170 hours

In 2018 Dark Souls III edged out Pillars of Eternity for the best game on Awkward Mixture. In 2022 FromSoftware repeated, taking first place over Outer Wilds and Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire, with Sekiro. In 2023, FromSoftware attempts the hat-trick with Elden Ring. It will face, again, the creator of Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian Entertainment, in The Outer Worlds, and Mobius Digital, the developer of expansion to Outer Wilds, Echoes of the Eye.

I want to be very clear. While FromSoftware named its release Elden Ring, they could have just as easily called it Dark Souls IV. Mechanically, Elden Ring is Dark Souls III, with retrofitting and revising. They've altered the edges, but the product remains the same. The most significant alteration is the size and scope; the open world project. It would be foolish to claim that Dark Souls III wasn't already expansive, with a massive world, and branching paths the player could choose to explore. Both share similar themes and story elements. Multiple monsters, items, and even an NPC or two reappear. Because of their similarities, and that I wrote about Dark Souls III already, there are elements I might not touch on. This article attempts to praise Elden Ring's achievements and condemn its failures, while using Dark Souls III as reference.

The most daunting part of Elden Ring, despite having beaten Dark Souls I and III, is picking a starting class. Later I'll learn this isn't eternally binding, but it is the most consequential decision the player will make until the defeat of the Queen of the Full Moon and the introduction of Larval Tears. That's about a quarter to a third of the way through the game. This problem is a frivolous indecision. I always choose the same class on my initial playthrough: a character with high Dexterity. All characters have eight Attributes, with a value of 1 to 99. Each stat determines one key stat (like health), and multiple lesser elements like specific resistances. Vigor sets Health, Mind measures Focus Power (mana), and Endurance produces Stamina. Strength and Dexterity alter the damage of specific weapons. Intelligence allows for powerful Sorceries, while Faith helps those with Incantations. Arcane does so many little things I can't point to any one key feature. At each level the player increases one Attribute by one point. Increasing Attributes provide diminishing returns, called soft caps. For additional information check the Elden Ring wiki on Fextralife.

The next step is watching the opening cinematic. FromSoftware crafts openings that are visually impressive, awe inspiring, and exposition dumps. Elden Ring's is no different. The opening describes how the Elden Ring was shattered. How Queen Marika, ruler of the Lands Between, disappeared. How her son Godwyn the Gold was murdered by the Black Knife Assassins. How the Queen's children fought over the shards of the Elden Ring. How each claimed, but failed to be, the new Elden Lord. And about how Grace blesses others to take up the challenge. Famous and infamous NPCs you'll encounter on your journey: Goldmask, Hoarah Loux, Dung Eater, and you, a Tarnished of no renown. What astonishes me, rewatching the opening after completing the game, are the hidden bits of lore contained within. It reveals details the entire game never fully explains, but hints at. Watch who destroys the Elden Ring. How many different people are there? What is Queen Marika's position in the cinematic? What do the other characters look like? Who is unnamed? And what is everyone doing? At least pay attention to save your skin. These faces are bosses or NPCs you'll fight sooner or later.

Elden Ring drops the player in a shrine or church on a floating island. From there you can barely see a land across the fog. A quick exploration leads the player eventually across a rope bridge. At the other side, the player encounters a common FromSoftware conceit; a challenging boss right at the beginning. Defeating him earns the player some nice equipment, but losing is the more likely outcome. That leads to another cinematic. Defeated and cast down, the unconscious protagonist is visited by a caped woman and her strange horse/ox. She mutters a few more words of exposition, before walking away. When the protagonist wakes, they have two options. Enter the game proper, or explore the Cave of Knowledge. The latter is an optional tutorial. Despite my experience, I entered. I recommend it, especially for new players or anyone who hasn't played Dark Souls in the past year. As I explored this training section, I was astonished by the number of Bloodstains. These appear on the ground when another player dies. Clicking on them shows you a vision of the last few seconds of their life. It doesn't show you how they died, since the vision doesn't show any enemies. I assume there were a significant number, despite the ease of the area, because of the influx of players who had never played a Dark Souls game before.Eventually you'll pass out of the cave and into the light of the Erdtree. This gigantic glowing tree towers over the Lands Between, lighting it like the sun, with golden order. Standing in the light is a white masked man, who welcomes you to the region of Limgrave. He tells you of two crucial features. You lack a Finger Maiden. Without one you have no hope of becoming the Elden Lord. Lacking one, you should follow the Guidance of Grace. These tendrils of golden light float in the air. They connect sites of Grace, so following one will always bring you closer toward your goal. Sites of Grace are exactly like, and replace entirely, the Bonfires of Dark Souls.

Immediately, there are more options than any previous Dark Souls game. You perceive a vast land spread before you. This is an open world game. There's fields, meadows, forests, and beaches. A golden knight rides not too far away. I'm not writing a walkthrough, but don't fight that guy, unless you are a seasoned veteran. Don't waste your time. Dodge him and start exploring. If anything is too hard, go somewhere else. That's the freedom, and best advice, of Elden Ring. Let's explore exploring. Maps. Traveling. That sort of thing. Elden Ring is the first Dark Souls game to include maps! Initially the map seemed very helpful. It is. Initially I thought it had the right amount of information. It doesn't. By the end of the game the map has too much information; stores, terrain, sites of grace and a host of lesser locations. It's cluttered with icons. The terrain, which initially seemed restrained, becomes decorative. The map includes a smaller underground section, similarly over marked. The map is preferable to no map. However, a small reduction in icons and clarity of terrain would improve the experience. Also, and this seems like the biggest point, the map doesn't display whether the player visited an area. It could have a fog over the unvisited areas. What it does instead is use map fragments.

Initially, instead of seeing the whole map, parts are grayed out. The player starts Elden Ring with one map fragment. It shows the terrain of a part of the Lands Between. The rest of the map is gray. On the grayed out parts, the player sees the coast line, the major roads, and small markers that look like columns or pillars. The player can also see any special locations or sites of grace in those regions if they visited them. Only when the player finds a map fragment is the terrain revealed. Despite my complaint earlier, I'd rather have terrain than not. Knowing the terrain is necessary to explore. Terrain, like rivers, cliffs, ravines, and mountains block movement, while bridges, artificial or natural, elevators, or caves provide a way around obstacles. Here is the trick to unlocking the map. The small markers that look like pillars are the locations of the map fragments.

Elden Ring is an open world version of Dark Souls. Dark Souls III felt open, but the developers employed walls, ravines, or other barriers to obstruct movement. In comparison, Elden Ring allows a breadth of movement unrivaled, and it feels full of stuff, and yet is often empty of relevant stuff to do. There are so many hidden alcoves, caves, and secret locations, but many of them are filled with fluff. 90% of the time the obstacles within are not challenging, are too short, and provide an item that your current build can't use. Meanwhile the map doesn't show where the player has visited.

I didn't want to miss anything. I still missed many things, both small and large. But to avoid missing things, I had a two step program. One; in a new area, travel directly to the location of a map fragment. Do nothing on the way there. Do not fight enemies. Ignore treasure or items. Don't even gaze at the view. Only with the map fragment in hand do I explore every inch of the new region. I walk in a zig-zag pattern so tight I almost trip over my own feet. Call me obsessive or a perfectionist, but I tried to touch every blade of grass, every tree, every rock, and every grain of sand.

I rarely traveled on foot. At an early Site of Grace, the woman from the introduction gives you her ox/horse steed, Torrent. The player summons and dismisses this beast with an item. Torrent moves quickly, aided by a double jump and speed burst. Torrent is essential for traveling quickly. His jump also enables otherwise impassibly steep ascents and descents. Though indispensable, his dashing speed and sudden turns gave me headaches. Torrent can turn on a dime, even when double jumping in midair. Unfortunately, the player spends roughly the last third of Elden Ring on foot, with Torrent unavailable. The player is prohibited from riding Torrent in many areas, especially Legacy Dungeons. It wouldn't be a problem (Dark Souls didn't have a horse), but it feels necessary crossing the vast expanses of the Lands Between.

Because exploration is the most significant change from Dark Souls to Elden Ring, the next article will continue to explore it.