A Deeply Surface-Level Look At Elden Ring

Totally Professional Review, I Swear

I Played This Game For 96 Hours So Far... 

The hit sensation that’s been sweeping the nation, Elden Ring is From Software's newest Dark Souls game that is not a Dark Souls game. The company produced Elden Ring in collaboration with Bandai Namco, and even partnered with George R.R. Martin to draft the story (I have not read the Game of Thrones series, but if it is anything like the Elden Ring plotline, I am considering at least looking at the first book.) I will not lie to you and say that this glimpse into the game is unbiased, I am quite the big Soulsborne fanatic, so I had interesting expectations going into Elden Ring (more on that later.) What I can say is that my point of view comes from someone who has seen a majority of what Elden Ring has to offer, rather than just rushing out a “first impressions” post. Did I lose out on a potential wave of publicity that I will never see again? Sure. Was it worth it to talk about the game in full? Absolutely. 

Warning, spoilers for a good chunk of Elden Ring ahead, if you do not like spoilers turn back now!!! 

In The Beginning 

In Elden Ring, you play as a Tarnished, FromSoftware’s newest line of “endlessly dying zombie that's destined for important things.” You are tasked with traveling to the Land Between, ascending to the Elden Throne, and becoming the Elden Lord. The ruler of the land, Queen Marika, messed up horribly by smashing the Elden Ring, a sacred relic gifted by the highest beings in this world, known only as the Greater Will.  

Unlike many other FromSoftware games, however, the Elden Lord plan becomes complex very quickly. You are soon traveling all over the Land Between, gathering Great Runes by killing Demi-Gods and questioning why you have been taking guidance from giant pairs of fingers.  

Now, the introduction for Elden Ring is, quite simply, good. You get some background lore of the setting you are going into; you get your ass beat in the first 10 minutes of the game so that you know that this is a FromSoftware game, and then you are thrust into the world, free to do as you please. 

 I had seen the reveal trailer and gameplay demo that showed a good chunk of the opening area, and while I was a bit off-put by some recycled content that Elden Ring brought over from previous games (more on that later,) the depth of the world caught my attention and made me curious about all there was to see. Throughout the areas of Limgrave, Caelid, and the Atlus Plateau, I was amazed by the wide views, content-rich areas, and challenging main and side bosses.  

It was official, Elden Ring had me hooked. It was only natural, then, that I would immediately begin to see the problems arising in my new fascination. 

The Cracks Start to Show 

I will first address the elephant in the room. I am aware that in my list of early-mid game areas, I left one place out, Lunaria. I did this intentionally, and its exclusion leads me to my first problem with this game: there is way too much fucking filler content in Elden Ring.  

In my opinion, FromSoftware could have cut 80 percent of the content present in Lunaria, and simply left the side quest NPCs and the Academy of Raya Lucaria, and the game would be so much better off for it. Now, was this a problem that all areas faced, even the areas I had listed? Yes, multiple areas suffer from having a bit too much bloat. I know that this was a fear response from the developers, a way to ensure that the open world did not seem barren, but this compromise does not help much either.  

For every epic dragon boss fight, there is a random ass cave that contains a gladiator boss that you have already seen three times before, but “Ooooo, this one has twin hammer and a rage weapon art!” This problem gets so bad that there is even a recycled main boss in the game, Margit and Morgott. While Morgott has a slightly more advanced move set, their character models are almost identical, and they each have the same fighting style, that of using summoned weapons. 

A Grand Finale 

With a segway like that, I am sure you are expecting me to tear the endgame of Elden Ring a new one, right? 

Wrong. The Elden Ring endgame and finale was one of the most cinematically amazing things I have seen in a From Soft game, period. When I talk about the endgame, I am referring to the side Demigod fights (Malenia, Mohg, and Rykard) and the events that unfold after you set the Erdtree on fire (no, not the Faram Azula. Faram Azula is another instance of terrible copy-paste work, regardless of how much I enjoyed the final boss of that area.) The cutscenes that introduce these bosses and seeing them transform into their second phases is breath-taking. The music was so great that I legitimately died while fighting Godfrey just so I could listen to the music again.  

Of course, there is also the lore that was packed into the areas and cutscenes leading up to these fights. So many details are dropped, from the Demigod’s motivations to stand against the Erdtree and the Greater Will, what their plans truly are, and what it means for the Land Between if you do not stop them (Rykard interested me, the fact that he will eventually come back and continue his plans is not something that From Soft has really played with in past games.) 

Overall, the endgame of Elden Ring was phenomenal. In fact, the endgame was so good that it almost made the grind leading up to it worth it. The keyword there is, of course, almost.  

Dark Souls 3.5 Final Mix 

Bosses within the game were not the only things that Elden Ring recycled. My worst fears about this game came true, with a wide variety of sounds, animations, and skins from Dark Souls 3 just being directly carried over to the new title. These sounds include, but are not limited to: 

• Parry/ Riposte/Backstab animations and sounds 

• Standard Chest skin and opening animation 

• Quickstep Animation and sounds 

• Certain damage sound effects (particularly when the Tarnished or enemies take physical damage) 

• Enemy skins, animations, and sounds 

• Weapon skins 

• Death animations 

While there is plenty of new in Elden Ring, this game has a bit too much Dark Souls 3 for my liking. If this game were titled Dark Souls 4, I would understand the urge to transfer over resources that worked in previous games (and even then, that would be a reach, as Dark Souls games have major changes made to them between sequels while keeping what worked,) but this is a new IP. I chalk most of this recycling up to the COVID lockdowns and having to create a game remotely, but even still, justification does not change the result, it just provides context to the problem. The problem is still here, and I really hope that From Soft moves to avoid this problem in the future, either with their next game or with any potential DLC for Elden Ring. 

Closing Thoughts 

Now, do not let my criticisms of this game fool you. Elden Ring is one of the better games that I have played in an exceptionally long time, and it was nice to use it as a break from work and responsibilities. When this article is all wrapped up, I will mostly start the game back up and jump back in (I am in New Game Plus right now, grabbing what I missed and finding the updated content that From Soft added in the 1.03 update.) However, I feel like it is healthy to take a step back at the things that you genuinely love and point out the things that could be better. Elden Ring was an amazing experience.... it is just that 20 hours of my playthrough in repetitive content could have been cut, and the game would have been better off for it.