I wrote a post yesterday listing some of the criteria I use to rank my favorite FromSoft games. I talked a lot about the map in Elden Ring, which I thought was a brilliant way to handle their first real map in a game. I mentioned in the last post that I should never doubt Miyazaki, and I want to elaborate on that.
The mark of a true genius is how he tackles things in such different ways. As I said in the last post, I was one of the people who was doubtful that they would be able to add a map in at thoughtful and seamless way. I was thinking about how other open world games do it, and I hate it with all my heart. I played about an hour of Horizon Zero Dawn (well after it released), and within five minutes, the map was giving me heart palpitations.
Guerrilla Games is the developer of HZD, and one of their develapers (and developers for Ubisoft) tweeted criticisms about Elden Ring’s UI and map quests (or lack thereof). Interesting, a lot of these tweets and posts about it have been disappeared into a black hole. The guy from Guerilla Games is the one who dissed the quest design for not having the quest flags littering the map. Which, I mean. The UX does have issues. That’s not a strong point of FromSoft. The UI/UX. Oh wait. I’m confusing UI and UX. UI is what FromSoft needs to work on. UX is what it is. It’s not great, but it’s not as terrible as the criticism suggests.
Also, the fact that the dev from Ubisoft sounded really salty and bitter about Elden Ring (which, I’m guessing he might not even have played) without acknowledging and/or realizing that different people want different things from their games. I hate the Ubisoft formula, even though I’ve only started a few of them and nearly finished one. It’s. Fucking. Boring. But I would hastened to add, to me. I know plenty of people like that formula and find it comforting.
Elden Ring, on the other hand, was such a breath of fresh air. No map markers. It was up to you to see what was in the world–or not. This has been a hallmark of every game they’ve made. They have huge optional areas that you can skip entirely if you want. In the first season of Prepare To Try, they did a secrets episode in which Krupa showed Gav and Rory a few things you most likely will not stumble on in your first playthrough–at least not without following a guide.
The one that sticks in my mind is Ash Lake. In order to find Ash Lake, you have to go to the Blighttown swamp and find the great tree in the middle of it. You have to go up the tree branch and hit the wall to make it disappear. There’s a chest, but then again, you have to hit the wall behind it to get to a bonfire (save point). Then, you have to descend down a huge tree with so many traps along the way. And if you don’t have the Lord Vessel, if you die after lighting the bonfire in Ash Lake, you have to climb your way back up.
As Krupa was showing it to Rory and Gav, Rory said, “Imagine if this was the first game you ever played. It would play your tiny mind and ruin you for every other game.”
He was so right. Dark Souls was the first hard ‘hardcore’ game I played. And the first I played with a controller. And, yes, it’s spoiled me for all other games. I’m trying out a soulslike (which I’ll write about in another post), and I’m unreasonably unhappy that the interaction button is on X. And during combat, wehnt you want to heal (which I haven’t done yet), you press Y for items and then choose who you want to heal.
Not a fan of that. X is heal. That’s so imprinted on my brain, I can’t do anything else. At least dodge is B, the correct button, in the soulslike because anything other than that would be untenable. And the buttons are not rebindable, which is one of my few criticisms for that game.
The one thing I’m struck with every time I play Elden Ring is how many incremental upgrades FromSoft has made to the QOL aspects of the games. Now, let me be clear. Elden Ring was their breakout game. It was aimed at the mainstream, which was one reason the hardcore fans were mad about it.
Another big change was a dedicated jump button (A). Yes, there was one in Sekiro, but it didn’t really add that much in that game. I mean, it helped in combat (ostensibly), but it really didn’t do much for the traversal. Granted, there was a grapling hook in that game, so it wasn’t like you needed to jump much.
In Elden Ring, I can’t tell you how much I use the jump button. Not just for traversal, but also in combat. Jump attacks are powerful, and I use them all the time. Along with the guard counter, which was another great addition. It takes the place of the parry, and I’m sure it was another concession to the fact that the game was aimed for the mainstream. You hold up your shield and after a block, you hit RT for a riposte (of sorts). If you do it correctly, you get the parry/riposte sound and it’s SO satisfying. I have used that so much, and I appreciate the addition.
It’s a tribute to the team (and Miyazaki, specifically) that I can name one significant improvement to each game. Dark Souls II was fast-travel from the start. Bloodborne was no shield and Blood Vials instead of Estus Flasks. Dark Souls III was the Ashen Estus Flask. Sekiro was the deflect combat. Elden Ring was the open world. And the jump button. And the fact that you got flasks back when you killed an enemy horde.
I am really curious to see how Nightreign innovates once it drops. It’s so not my thing, but I’m going to give it a try, of course. Man. I just read a few Reddit posts about it, and the vibe is mostly negative. I was not expecting that. Huh. This is something different from FromSoft, and we’ll see if they’ve nailed it. I will admit I’m skeptical, but people who have played it have enjoyed it. I don’t think it’ll be for me, which makes me sad. Then, the fact that the next FromSoft game is a Switch 2 exclusive makes me think that my time as a FromSoft fan might be over.
Now that I’ve depressed myself even further, I’m going to call it a night. I’ll pick this up again tomorrow.