Elden Ring.
Let me just repeat that.
Elden Ring.
Roughly twenty minutes of gameplay was released today and I. Am. Stoked. I am on my third watching of the footage and will probably continue to watch it all day long.
Let’s rewind a bit. A month before I went into the hospital, there was talk that a release trailer was going to drop during Geoff Keighley’s summer games fest thing. I didn’t get my hopes up too high because we had been teased before–specifically by him. And as the fest went on, it seemed less and less likely that the trailer was going to drop. Until, at the very end, it did. And it was wonderful. I had tears in my eyes as I watched it because it was everything I wanted–and more. I started planning how I was going to do two characters. One was going to be a solo character, a Pyro if possible, or a magicks-user if Pyro wasn’t available. Strengthcasting is my jam and it seems more viable than ever in Elden Ring.
In the past games, magic felt as if it was separate from melee. There was casting time and in some games, you had to level up in order to use certain spells/miracles/pyros. In this game, it seems as if you can switch from melee to magic seamlessly, which would be right up my alley. I had to laugh, however, because there’s a raining arrows spell that is lifted directly out of Dark Souls III (a boss used it).
Side Note: I speak of the Dark Souls fanbase as if it’s one unit, but it’s not. There are as many opinions in the community as there are people, if not more. But, there are some common beliefs that run through the community, such as you have to beat all the bosses solo in order to be a true Souls fan. And that magic is for pussies. Oh, and shields are for babies. All bosses are easy if you just fight them with the exact build you are not, and you must be a parry king in order to win any Souls game. My tongue is firmly in my cheek, but there are very firm ideas of what you should and shouldn’t do in a Souls game. Here is my Souls edict: Play it however you want and enjoy it. Play it your way–that’s what I do. My way is considered the hardest way because I do everything exactly the opposite of what is deemed proper. I don’t parry (or any of the other combat systems in the FromSoft games0 and I rely heavily on magicks. Then, along the line, I added strength so now I’m a strengthcaster.
Anyway, down the line, along came Bloodborne and then, of course, Sekiro. Both of them were faster-paced than the Souls games and neither had shields. Or rather, there’s a joke shield in BB and you can block with your sword in Sekiro, but both of them are meant to be played without a shield. And rolling isn’t really a thing, either. There’s a quickstep in BB and a grapple in Sekiro to get away from your enemies, but no proper roll.
Now there is a split in the FromSoft community between the Souls fans and the BB/Sekiro fans. The former, of which I am a member, prefer the methodical, plodding pace of the Souls games (and a shield!). The latter like the quick pace and fast combat of the latter games, which left me cold. I played and finished both of them (solo, except for 3 of the 5 bosses in BB‘s DLC), but I’ve played both of them much less than I did any of the Souls games. If BB was on the PC, I would definitely play it more than I have, but I played Sekiro on the PC and never made it through NG+.
Anyway. My point is that there are some in the latter faction who are not pleased that Elden Ring looks like an open world Dark Souls. Which is exactly what I like about it! But it does seem to have incorporated some of the quicker aspect of the other games. In other words, it’s the best of all worlds. But, some of the BB/Sekiro fans are disgruntled. “It’s just Dark Souls IV,” they grump. Well, yes. What did you expect? I mean, this is their bread and butter–Dark Souls, I mean. It’s what put them on the map–speaking of maps, there’s an actual map in this game. That’s mindboggling because only in Sekiro was there a map of sorts. It was an map of the overview world, which was no help in the game itself. In addition, it was hidden in controls somewhere so it was nearly impossible to find. It was hilarious!–and it makes sense that when they decided to make their first open world game, it would rely on the Souls formula.
Let’s talk about that map for a hot second. I was worried when it was announced that there was going to be a nap because part of the joy/agony of a FromSoft game is getting lost in the world–literally and figuratively. I can tell you every twist and turn in all three of the Dark Souls games because I’ve gone through every area so many times. In the original game, I can talk you through the path from Firelink Shrine to the Taurus Demon without faltering. I can tell you where every enemy is going to be and maybe even what weapon they’re wielding. Part of the reason I know this is because I died so many times to these enemies in the Undead Burg. It’s one way to get really good at the games because you’ll die otherwise.
So the idea of a map was off-putting to me. Look, I get that FromSoft wants to reach new people as well as please their hardcore fans. I want more people to discover the wonder of these games and enjoy them as I do. Enjoy is a strong word, but you get the general gist. That means a tricky balance between keeping the difficulty that longtime fans enjoy and finding an in for newer players who might be intimidated by the games. So, a map makes sense. But for those of us who played the other games, it felt weird. It turns out, though, that it’s not as straightforward as them giving you a map because of course it’s not–it’s FromSoft. They don’t do anything straightforward. From what I’ve gleaned is that you get parts of the map as you traverse the world. So, while you know where you’ve been, you may not necessarily know where you’re going. I think that’s a nice compromise for the old fans and the newcomers.
Another interesting new aspect is spirit summons. From what I’ve gathered, it’s like the using a Pokeball to catch them all. It’s the spirit of enemies you have defeated with varying abilities. FromSoft is being coy as to how you actually summon them and for how long and under what circumstances, but it looks super-cool. I’m not one for summoning in general but if it’s part of the game, then it’s part of the game.
Side Note II: All the edicts about how you are supposed to play the games fits into a bigger discussion about the acceptability of cheese. Cheese is when you abuse the boundaries of a game to get around an obstacle in a way that wasn’t necessarily meant to happen. For example. Dark Sun Gwyndolin, an optional boss. He keeps going back an seemingly-endless corridor, only to stop and snipe you every few seconds. You’re supposed to chase him down the corridor and smack him one or two times when he stops. When I was doing my non-plat of the game, part of the way I made it fun was to cheese the bosses with the known cheeses. For Dark Sun Gwyndolin, that’s buying several hundred poisoned arrows (probably didn’t need that much, but I’m always prepared) and then go into the boss room enough to trigger the fight, but then stop. DSG will go to his first point and do his bullshit moves. Then, you shoot him with the poisoned arrows and watch as his HP drips away, painfully slow. When the poison wears off, you repeat the process. It takes roughly twenty minutes to kill DSG (and I can do it in half that time the normal way), but it’s the novelty of it that makes it amusing.
I don’t do the cheese until I’ve beaten the boss proper–which means solo. There is a camp that believes cheesing is unacceptable, but fuck those people. I won’t do it on the first time, but if it’s in the game, it’s acceptable. In addition, I want as many people to play these games as possible. That means finding ways to make them accessible for the newcomers while keeping them difficult enough for the old-timers.
Even though I don’t play the games for the difficulty, they would not be the same without the challenge. That’s part of the appeal of the games, at least for me. Before the hospital, I was planning on having one character who played the games as I always play them–with as much challenge as possible. Now ,however, after my life-changing experience, I only have one goal in playing the game–experiencing a gorgeous new world (an open world!) created by Hidetaka Miyazaki. I hope it’s all I could ever hope for.