Elden Ring is deadly. The next horror lurks everywhere, ready to snuff out the light in the blink of an eye. Still, for MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski, the action RPG is a pure oasis of calm right now. Elden Ring completely changed her perspective on what a “relaxing” game design can be.
I have never touched a Souls game because the entire DNA of the series does not appeal to me at all. I don’t want to be grinding my teeth from monster to monster, constantly getting stuck, losing everything repeatedly, dying a thousand deaths – that’s not how I envision a fulfilling gaming experience.
I understand the appeal of fighting through a tough game and feeling the euphoria of having succeeded. But I prefer to leave that to others. Especially in recent years, when my job and personal life became more demanding, I increasingly evolved into a casual gamer.
Just give me quest markers, preferably a whole navigation system, a foolproof tutorial, a linear experience that hardly exposes me to the danger of a misstep, and then wastes my precious time! That’s the only way I can lose myself and switch off in a game today.
Oh, how I deceived and misled myself for years.
My greatest fear: An open world that doesn’t tell me what to do
I actually didn’t plan to play Elden Ring. However, after the game press overwhelmed with top scores, my professional ambition kicked in to understand this phenomenon and get my hands on the controller myself. The download was soon initiated.
Especially the highly praised open world made me anxious. In so many tests, it was said that the world of Elden Ring is so free that you can go anywhere, anytime. Now you must know that I am quite a directionally challenged person and I often get lost.
A game world without my beloved quest marker only triggers a feeling of discomfort in me, instead of freedom. And yes, the thing with endless freedom: How could that not lead to total overwhelm? Without a helpful quest log to cling to.
After I chose the astrologer in the class selection, I found myself in a dungeon. A small tutorial taught me basic functions like jumping, sneaking, or attacking. Before I had a chance to gain any understanding, Elden Ring threw me out of the nest like a fledgling chick, and I had to leave the dungeon.
I stood alone outside. In the vast, wide world of Elden Ring.
And now?
What I had feared occurred sooner than I liked. I immediately didn’t know what to do with myself. I stood there for a while, sulking, watching pretty glowing trees in the distance.
With every death, despair grows
I didn’t want to fail right at the beginning! So I ventured out into the unknown, trudging through the tall, deep green grass that gently swayed in the wind. An old ruin flashed behind a hill, and I headed towards it.
At the edge of the ruin, I spotted three farmers kneeling in the grass, working. Surely they would talk to me and maybe even have a quest! Happily, I ran towards them. Suddenly they stood up and ran towards me. Up close, the diligent farmers transformed into rotting zombie figures. They aren’t running towards me; they are chasing me!
I heard myself scream for the first time in shock in Elden Ring. Death.
Stabbed by zombie farmers.
There would be many more shock screams and unexpected deaths to follow.
Because Elden Ring, like all Souls games, has the trait of throwing unexpected dangers at you from all sides:
- Grim riders who rain lightning down on you from a distance.
- Gigantically large crabs that crush you from behind with their claws while you were trying to look at something in your inventory.
- Indeterminate things that fall on your head and kill you so quickly that you don’t know what hit you.
I could list many such moments. You understand what I mean. My experience in Elden Ring up to that point consisted of being terrified by surprise attacks and dying immediately.
No progress.
In Elden Ring, you collect experience points through runes that enemies drop upon their death. The runes can be exchanged for leveling up. If you die yourself, you lose these runes and can try to get them back. This only works to some extent near difficult opponents.
The few small enemies I was able to defeat hardly helped here. I had already played for hours and hadn’t even gained a measly level.
So I picked up my secondary weapon, a sword. For half an hour, I did nothing but slay a weak sponge creature after another.
Strike. Wait for the spores to settle. Strike. Wait for the spores to settle. Strike and victory!
With this method, I finally gathered enough runes to level up for the first time! I am sure this is neither the smartest nor most efficient way to level up, but it was MY way.
I suddenly understood what the open world can mean to me without a foolproof guide.
The subconscious stress disappeared
Initially, looking at the world map of Elden Ring caused me irritation. Slowly, I began to see it with different eyes.
No markers blink for the main quest and numerous side quests. I don’t have to feel guilty for promising an NPC to find his lost son and suddenly getting distracted by another quest.
My quest log isn’t filling up with a slew of unfinished tasks. No collectibles are blinking at the edges of the screen that I will never finish collecting.
All these unfinished tasks that my games usually constantly remind me of actually cause stress. It took a while to understand that. But now I enjoy that the most about Elden Ring.
Nothing has changed in the fact that I still scream occasionally when a foe startles me and I wander through the world of Elden Ring with a certain paranoia.
However, I now perceive the whole thing more like my evening walk, during which I sometimes get a fright. Deaths are no longer so frustrating. If I don’t feel like getting caught up with an enemy, I can just farm small monsters or explore a new area.
My internal pressure to progress quickly is gone.
I believe this is one of the reasons why the reviews of Elden Ring have been so extremely high. We are not really used to such game design anymore. For my part, I had forgotten how to enjoy a game that doesn’t constantly hold my hand.
Nevertheless, Elden Ring remains a challenging experience and can be frustrating. I still wouldn’t tackle a linear Souls game.
But I don’t want to miss my evening walk in Elden Ring at the moment. Let’s see where the journey takes me next.
I am in no hurry anymore.
Elden Ring makes me totally paranoid and that’s good
The only thing Elden Ring had given me up to that point was frustration, despair, and the feeling of just being too bad for this game.
How a burden becomes a powerful breakthrough
The atmosphere and vastness of Elden Ring drew me back in despite my frustration. With my astrologer, I sat by the fire for a while, pondering what I should do next.
I remembered what my dear colleague Irie said to me in our podcast about Elden Ring: It doesn’t really matter what I do. You can simply go somewhere and continue. That is the strength of Elden Ring’s open world. For those who do not prioritize following any quest line.
Something clicked in my head. Determined, I rose from my campfire, with a goal in mind. On my journey, I encountered egg-shaped, gelatinous creatures standing in waters. The only threat they posed were deadly spores. They spread when you hit their eggheads. Not harmless, but manageable. Therefore, they also drop few runes.
With my wand, I killed aggressive crabs that were close to the sponge creatures. My mana was empty. I didn’t yet know how to refill that without resting, which would respawn all enemies.
So I picked up my secondary weapon, a sword. For half an hour, I did nothing but slay a weak sponge creature after another.
Strike. Wait for the spores to settle. Strike. Wait for the spores to settle. Strike and victory!
With this method, I finally gathered enough runes to level up for the first time! I am sure this is neither the smartest nor most efficient way to level up, but it was MY way.
I suddenly understood what the open world can mean to me without a foolproof guide.
The subconscious stress disappeared
Initially, looking at the world map of Elden Ring caused me irritation. Slowly, I began to see it with different eyes.
No markers blink for the main quest and numerous side quests. I don’t have to feel guilty for promising an NPC to find his lost son and suddenly getting distracted by another quest.
My quest log isn’t filling up with a slew of unfinished tasks. No collectibles are blinking at the edges of the screen that I will never finish collecting.
All these unfinished tasks that my games usually constantly remind me of actually cause stress. It took a while to understand that. But now I enjoy that the most about Elden Ring.
Nothing has changed in the fact that I still scream occasionally when a foe startles me and I wander through the world of Elden Ring with a certain paranoia.
However, I now perceive the whole thing more like my evening walk, during which I sometimes get a fright. Deaths are no longer so frustrating. If I don’t feel like getting caught up with an enemy, I can just farm small monsters or explore a new area.
My internal pressure to progress quickly is gone.
I believe this is one of the reasons why the reviews of Elden Ring have been so extremely high. We are not really used to such game design anymore. For my part, I had forgotten how to enjoy a game that doesn’t constantly hold my hand.
Nevertheless, Elden Ring remains a challenging experience and can be frustrating. I still wouldn’t tackle a linear Souls game.
But I don’t want to miss my evening walk in Elden Ring at the moment. Let’s see where the journey takes me next.
I am in no hurry anymore.
