The release of Elden Ring is just around the corner. We at MeinMMO have looked at how the game differs from its spiritual predecessors like Bloodborne and Dark Souls. We have identified 6 points for you.
What is Elden Ring? This is the next major project from FromSoftware, who created an entire genre with Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. The developers are known for brutally difficult, dark, and complex action role-playing games.
With Elden Ring, the creators under the direction of legendary developer and game director Hidetaka Miyazaki aim to take the next step.
The gameplay also strongly resembles the aforementioned titles from FromSoftware, but there are some differences. We want to present these to you here.
Elden Ring has a “real” open world
What’s new: While games like the Dark Souls series or Bloodborne also had a relatively explorable game world, whose various sections are interconnected.
However, these game worlds were rather linear, tight, and nested.
Elden Ring now features a “real” open world with the Lands Between, which you might know from Assassin’s Creed or Horizon Zero Dawn. It will be significantly more spacious and larger.
What we know about the Lands Between:
- There are 6 different regions
- Which order you visit these regions is up to you
- However, some areas cannot be fully explored right away
- The game world features a day-night cycle, dynamic weather, and various events that happen randomly
- You can discover hidden secrets in the open world or start quests
- Hostile creatures roam randomly and traverse the various regions
- Despite everything, there should be a common thread in the story, so you never lose sight of your goal.
Are there no locations like those found in SoulsBorne? While Elden Ring relies on an open world, fans of traditional level design should still be satisfied.
On the one hand, there is much to discover in the open world; on the other hand, the Legacy Dungeons provide places where veterans from Bloodborne, Sekiro, or Dark Souls can feel at home.
These dungeons are particularly important locations found in the various regions of the Lands Between. These can be castles or other particularly tight and convoluted labyrinths. The “popular” traps return as well.
In the dungeons, there should even be puzzle sections.
You now have a mount by your side
What’s new: While exploring the world, you now receive a useful means of transport. With a kind of “spirit horse,” you can quickly travel from one place to another.
- This horse can be summoned at any time, or disappears as soon as you dismount.
- You can also fight from your horse and jump over steep slopes in gigantic leaps.
- However, there is no requirement to fight on horseback.
- Some battles may be easier from your horse’s back.
- One downside exists in coop and PvP: Your horse is not available when you summon other players or are attacked by others. Thus, you are only on foot online.
If you find this too slow: There will be a kind of fast travel system.
You can now jump properly in Elden Ring
What’s new: This may sound unremarkable at first, but Elden Ring gets a jumping mechanic. This was only present in Bloodborne and Dark Souls in a stripped-down form as “roll jump” and was first introduced in Sekiro.
This seemingly “small” change could have a big impact on movement and exploration in the game world, as well as on combat.
You can perform aerial attacks and easily climb to elevated places. In Dark Souls and Bloodborne, you could only dodge and hardly overcome low obstacles.
Although there will likely be no grappling hook like in Sekiro, exploring the game world should be significantly more enjoyable and offer even more to discover than before.
Moreover, you can plan your approach and scout enemies. The jumping mechanic is not the only thing developer FromSoftware is adopting from Sekiro.
Elden Ring adopts the stealth system from Sekiro
What’s new: In Elden Ring, you can crouch and stealthily move through the game world. This also gives you the option to sneak up on enemies and perform a stealth attack.
Weaker enemies can be easily eliminated from behind. Especially when you find enemy camps in the game world filled with foes, the stealth function can be helpful to minimize their numbers. Bloodborne and Dark Souls did not have a proper stealth mechanic; stealthy movement was rarely necessary.
Elden Ring will not become a stealth game, but it offers new approaches.
Elden Ring now has skills that you can combine nearly freely with weapons
What’s new: Dark Souls and Bloodborne offered certain weapons some special moves, attacks, or even changeable weapons.
Elden Ring does not completely abandon this, but separates these features partly from their weapons and now refers to them as “Ash of War.” These can be found in the game world.
Here’s how it works: Ashes of War come in specific categories. Some can be attached to all types of weapons, while others only to greatswords or spears.
There should be over 100 ashes of war, significantly increasing player freedoms. So you don’t necessarily have to find a specific weapon to use a particular skill.
You can find the ashes of war everywhere in the game world and also from NPC merchants.
NPC Summons through new item
What’s new: In Bloodborne or Dark Souls, you could summon phantoms of NPC characters at specific places in the game who would then assist you in combat. These were usually found right before boss fights or at tricky points and could serve as a kind of coop replacement.
In Elden Ring, this principle is now expanded with a kind of summoning, as you can also summon the spirits of certain defeated enemies, who then assist you against other foes. This includes not only bosses but also normal monsters in the open world.
There are specific areas where particularly strong or numerous enemies are present. You will see a symbol lighting up that indicates: “Here you can summon helpers.”
This could be, for example, a pack of wolves or a single, but very tough soldier. The variety of options is huge, but the stronger the summoned spirit, the more FP (mana) you will need to summon them.
There are also some adjustments in coop, but they are not significant enough to list as a separate point. Overall, coop in Elden Ring works very similarly to how it did in Dark Souls or Bloodborne. You can summon players to your world who then assist you in combat. Or you can be summoned by others and in turn help them with their goals.
Unlike in older titles, you are not limited to an area in the open world. The Lands Between can be explored together in a group.
Unfortunately, there is no seamless transition into the Legacy Dungeons, where you have to summon players inside. Nevertheless, this is a step forward from earlier, where comrades could only assist you in a certain area.
Unlike before, the whole process should be easier and no longer require resource consumption to the same extent for playing coop.
When will Elden Ring be released? The action RPG is set to come out on February 25 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. On PC, the game will be available via Steam.
Then you will be able to find out for yourself how much the differences ultimately turn out to be.
What do you think of the innovations? Do you find them meaningful, or do you see some of the differences negatively?
If you want to know more, you can find everything important in our overview of Elden Ring: All info on the action RPG with coop and PvP – Release, gameplay, system requirements
