elden ring has arrived and offers an exciting adventure for FromSoft veterans and newcomers alike. As the most accessible entry in the developer's grueling RPG series, Elden Ring has been praised for bringing the boss battles and lore-drenched world into the open-world format. But in doing so, FromSoftware faced significant challenges.
Open world games, by design, often have quality of life issues that make completing quests, traversing the world, or just getting the various items and resources you need a chore, especially during the 10 or hundreds of hours that they take time to complete. But miraculously, Elden Ring manages to avoid all these pitfalls and offers one of the most immersive and free worlds we've had the pleasure of exploring.
No stamina drain outside of battle
While this one is certainly starting to gradually die out across the genre, Elden Ring manages to avoid a particularly annoying open-world issue by ensuring your stamina, which depletes when running, dodging, laminationand attack in combat: unaffected when out of combat.
In most cases, you'll use your trusty spectral steed, Torrent, to help you traverse great distances in The Lands Between, but sometimes you'll want, or need, to explore on foot. Not having this drain when you start running makes things a lot more... liberating.
It complements the game's core design mechanic that encourages aimless exploration by simply ensuring you can do it at your own pace and not have to worry about your character stopping and running out of air every 10 seconds.
We may be tarnished, but we have a good cardio workout and we love it.
Fast travel convenience and on-demand torrent
Even when you're not on foot, the Elden Ring makes sure you're not left in the middle of nowhere without the means to be able to escape in an instant, be it the aforementioned Torrent or fast travel to a place of grace.
Torrent can literally be summoned out of nowhere with the press of a button (if you bind it to a quick slot) which has saved our screens from the blood red 'You Died' splashing across our screens more times than we can count.
But even then, where other open world games force you to visit a campfire (cough, Forbidden Horizon Westcough), or use some type of consumable to fast travel up to a point you've already unlocked, Elden Ring says "fuck it, free fast travel for everyone, everywhere!"
There's no real barrier to using either of these traversal methods, and it makes exploring The Lands Between even more engaging. Get completely lost in some big dungeon or collide with an enemy that Really shouldn't you be drinking yet? Then Torrent and the fast travel system will combine to get you back to safety, ready for you to venture off in another direction, just to hang out.
No weapon degradation
I liked The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but if there was one thing that kept him from exploring his version of Hyrule and taking on various Moblins, Guardians, and Lizalfos, it was the weapon downgrading system. Everything he picked up, with the exception of the Master Sword, would break after what seemed like a handful of hits.
While some will argue that weapon downgrading adds to the immersive feeling of existing in a world and encourages further exploration before embarking on main quests, others, myself included, simply find it infuriating. I just found an amazing weapon, let me enjoy it without worrying about when I should and shouldn't use it. I already think about it too much. I don't need the possibility of my sword breaking into a bazillion pieces to add to the pile.
Breath of the Wild isn't the only game to ever use a weapon downgrade system, but given the other similarities between it and Elden Ring, it's an obvious example to use here.
Elden Ring once again forgets about this trap. What double sheet that you have found will be as strong and durable 100 hours into your adventure after the blood of 20 bosses covers its silver blades as it was when you first picked it up. An enemy's flaming projectiles will not incinerate your shield on contact. They will just bounce (and send you backwards).
The lack of weapon downgrading is yet another example of FromSoftware avoiding all the obstacles that would prevent you from enjoying exploring The Lands Between. It doesn't matter if you accidentally wander through a huge dungeon full of enemies with only one weapon in your inventory, you'll be able to take them all on competently.
No search bookmark anxiety
Everyone opened up their map in an open world game only to find it littered with quest markers, fast travel points, collectible markers, and whatever else the game insists they go and take a look at and just felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety. ? Do you want to see everything. You want to check off each marker, each one bringing you one step closer to that sense of relief that comes from knowing you haven't inadvertently missed out on a fantastic mission or surprise that everyone else will be talking about in a few weeks. hour.
Well, Elden Ring does away with predefined bookmarks altogether, allowing you to place your own custom bookmarks to jot down sights you want to explore or return to at a later date.
This may sound like it would cause even more anxiety-induced FOMO, but it justโฆ isn't. By giving you complete freedom to explore the world and run into the weird and wonderful cast of NPCs, you will create your own story in The Lands Between and make the open world more engaging and interesting as a result. You're not just making a straight line from one marker to another. You are carefully walking through ruins, cautiously lighting your way through a complex dungeon system and writing your own legend.
Each Tarnished's journey through The Lands Between should be different outside of the main story bosses. The game's lack of guidance only serves to create a community of water coolers among players, each sharing their own hilarious tales of woe or fantastic finds and advice on what to do next.
Knowing that you are destined to experience Elden Ring at your own pace and with your own unique adventures, that anxiety melts away, opening the door to aimless exploration and an abundance of memorable moments.
Easy collection of resources
With open worlds often comes crafting; And with crafting comes resources, and with resources come countless hours scouring the world to find them. Every time you find something you want to pick up, you have to sit through a second-long animation of your character kneeling to pick it up or reaching out to pick it up. After 10 times it's a bit annoying, after 100 times it's completely frustrating.
Elden Ring allows you to gather resources with the push of a button. No jarring animation. You don't need to get off the saddle. Just press the button and continue. It might seem incredibly minor, but it's very liberating and just encourages you to collect everything you find around the world in the hope that it will come in handy later on.
Or you can just sell those 200 Erdleaf you have to some poor merchant for a small fortune of Runes.
Less Fetch Questing, more interesting NPCs
We mentioned before that the NPCs made Elden Rings' anxiety-free quests even better, and that's thanks to a combination of excellent writing and fantastic world-building that makes every conversation with a random NPC you encounter feel unique and genuinely interesting. . I've rarely wanted to keep talking to an NPC in a game other than to be told what pointless quest quest they're assigning me.
Not so much in Elden Ring. While they will inevitably tell you the same thing once you've exhausted their dialogue options. Talking to them once is often not enough, and trying to chat with them again will usually result in them telling you a few more details or handing you a useful item.
Even the quests you're sent on, with the lack of an in-game journal to document the side quests you've chosen, feel like epic quests on their own. Instead of just heading to a marker to get a random item, fighting a few enemies along the way, the NPCs in The Lands Between will tell you that you'll want to go somewhere in a vague direction, look for these guys and see what you find.
You have no idea if they are genuine, what item you will find, or what enemy (or how many of them) you will face. It's that same sense of wonder and mystery that Elden Ring exudes, and while I feel lost at times, I wouldn't have it any other way.
