I’ve been ranking the From games I’ve played now that I’ve had some time to seetle down post-Elden Ring. I’m still playing it, but it’s been a year-and-a-half, so I think it’s fair to place it on the list. Not completely, though, because we have not yet seen the DLC, but I can at least rank the main game. In the last post, I was compraing Elden Ring and Dark Souls III because those are my two favorite From games. Dark Souls III has been at the top of my least since I finished playing it and had time to think about it.
Then, Elden Ring came along. It was brilliant in its own way, but it never quite eked out Dark Souls III at the top of my list, though it got awfully close. Then I started my current playthrough which is so different than my other ones, and I really started to see the depth of Elden Ring.
It’s not hyperbole to say that you can play it in drastically different ways. Yes, that’s true to some extent with the Souls games (specifically the Dark Souls trilogy), but it’s exponentially true for this game.
One of the biggest plus as a caster in Elden Ring is the change to how you get spell slots. In the old games, you had to level up Attunement, and I never had more than five slots. Six with a ring that gave you one more slot. No, wait. It’s four with Attunement and one more with the ring to make five total in Dark Souls III. Levels were so expensive in that game. They are dirt cheap in Elden Ring. I know why, but it’s wild to me that I had something like 150 levels by the end of the game. Well, by the time I beat the final boss. That’s roughly the same as Dark Souls II, though. That game made it easy to level up.
Anyway, in Elden Ring, there are memory stones rather than spell slots. You start out with two and then get others through a variety of means. In a chest at the top of a tower. For beating certain bosses. You can buy one from the Twin Husk Maidens. By the end of the game, I had ten total, and there was a talisman that gave you two extra. You read that right. You can have a whopping 12 spell slots in this game. That is such luxury! Right now, I’m doing a death build and I have, ah, eight slots I think? It’s so amazing to fill my slots with an array of spells and incantations, not having to be stingy.
This game definitely wants you to experiment with spells and incantations. My first time through it, I stuck to mostly incantations–but not pyros. That’s funny as hell because I am a Pyro. I have one character who currently is using mostly Pyros. But there are so many lush spells and incantations, I haven’t really fully embraced the Pyros.
With my death build, I am using Ancient Death Rancor, Rancorcall, Night Maiden’s Mist, Night Comet, Eternal Darkness, and Unseen Form. And I still have two slots left. I have used the Tibia’s Summons, which is a sorcery that summons skeletons. It’s powerful, but very finicky. I have put in a utility incantation in the other slot, such as the Lightning Spear or Swarm of Flies.
That is so many spells! I appreciate that From has uncoupled leveling up and spell slots, and they did it without comment. I’m sure that was partly because of the drive to make the game more newbie-friendly.
I will admit that I found it amusing when people gushed about the magicks in this game. Not that in and of itself because there are way more spells and incantations in this game than in the previous ones, but because of the ones they gushed about. The swords around your head that targeted an enemy once they fired off? They were in the other games, but as crystal balls. The large sword that chomps down on the enemy? Also in the previous games.
There is no denying, though, that there are so many more spells and incantations in this game, plus a vider variety. Oh, also, Comet and all the comet variants including Comet Azure was in the past games, too. But not the ability to just stream it endlessly for ten seconds (because of the Flask of Wondrous Physick).
I also need to gush about the map a bit more. I was skeptical about a map beacuse none of the previous games had one. I understood why there was a need for one, but I was worried about how they would implement it. I could not imagine an unobtrusive way that they would do it, but I was interested to see what they came up with.
The map is nothing short of brilliant. Here’s how it works. You open the map and it’s all fogged out. You can see faint outlines of different landmarks, including steles where the map pieces are. They are usually in a camp, and you have to fight a bunch of enemies to get them. Then, when you pick it up, it shows you that part of the map. There was something wondrous about seeing the map expand outwards in all directions. My eyes got wide as it continued to get bigger and bigger. I want a physical representation of the map so I can put it on my wall.
One thing t hat Dark Souls III has over Elden Ring, though, is the level design. Because the latter is open world, it’s not as tightly knitted. The legacy dungeons are incredible, yes, but the fact that there is so long to go between each of them, they don’t feel connected. That’s probably part of the design, but that puts a plus in the Dark Souls III column. Itself, it’s not quite as connected as the first game, but the level design is still excellent. If you see it, you’ll be able to go to it.
The open world aspect worried me before the game was released, and I felt a bit of that afterwards, too. I don’t like open world games in general because at least the way they are being done these days, they stir up anxiety in me. When I open a map and see all the things you’re supposed to do marked on a regular open world game map, I get so anxious. This one doesn’t do that because it has minimal markers.
The areas in Dark Souls III are goregous. So are the areas in Elden Ring, but I’m not as impressed with the open world bits. Let me rephrase that. I think Elden Ring did the open world about as well as you can do it. I loved how distinct each area was, but the stuff dotted around the areas did get repettive after awhile. I mean, the caves and catacombs, plus the repetitive field bosses. The first time I fought an Erdtree Avatar, it was epic and amazing! By the fourth or fifth time, I was over it. When there was the two of them, well, I just rolled my eyes in exasperation. And when they became a normal enemy, I had had enough.
I honestly think the game could have been cut by a quarter and it would have been better for it. Cut the caves/catacombs in half, cut the copy/paste bosses by the same at least, and don’t make them common enemies. That was the case in other games, too, but it wasn’t as egregious because you would not run into them again and again. Well, you did run into seven or so Taurus Demons in the Demon Ruins along with tons of Capra Demons, but that was just because that’s where they came from.
I felt like the copy/paste bosess were filler, and the game did not need that. It would have benefitted from tightening up the end game. Or the middle game. I would have cut Caelid by a third, the Mountaintops of the Giants by half, and gotten rid of the Haligtree completely. Put Malenia in the Mountaintops of the Giants and call it a day.
In contrast, there is not an area in Dark Souls III that I would cut out. That’s because it’s not padded. Well, it is a tiny bit, but I can forgive that.
I’m running long yet again. I will get to the third and probably final post tomorrow. And maybe I’ll actually rank the two games. Who knows?