In 2022, From Software did it again: They compelled the gaming community to collectively swallow their pride and bow in unison to the greatness of their newest game: Elden Ring. Then two years later, in 2024, they released a DLC called “Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree”, which was showered with praise and with a Metacritic score of 95, is the highest rated DLC ever.
We’re sure that as Souls experts study the game with the dedication of a nuclear physicist, they will find a lot of things to admire about it for years to come. But so far, a lot of its qualities – and some of its flaws – have been talked about extensively and since Shadow of the Erdtree was published, it seems the package is complete and we can talk about it as a whole.
Brief Overview of Elden Ring
Elden Ring is a culmination of every From Software game published since Demon’s Souls. It contains every different playstyle from the previous game and puts all of them at the forefront; it features the biggest world to explore and contains the most amount of content. It’s hard to imagine how From Software can go bigger after Elden Ring, but they will probably find a way, because recently, Hidetaka Miyazaki has been quoted, saying: “I’m still in the process of making my ideal fantasy RPG. While Elden Ring is not quite it, it’s pretty close. It’s getting close.” If Miyazaki still thinks he can do better than this, we’ll be watching his career with great interest.
Introduction to the “Shadow of the Erdtree” Expansion
Shadow of the Erdtree is the first DLC for Elden Ring, and according to reports, will be the only DLC for the game. From Software games have always heavily relied on their DLCs to feel “complete” and many of the DLCs by the company –“Artorias of the Abyss” for Dark Souls and “The Old Hunters” for Bloodborne” – are considered to be all-time classics.
In typical From Software fashion, this DLC is accessed by a highly obscure method that you most probably will not find by yourself and have to rely on Internet guides or in-game messages to discover. This DLC features a whole new area to explore which is separate from the main game and is accessed through a warp. The area is quite big and its size has been compared to the totality of Dark Souls 1.
An interesting factoid is that the DLC was review-bombed upon release on Steam because of performance issues and unfair difficulty. The difficulty of From Software games has always inspired hot debate and it seems the debate is going to continue for a long time. Because From Software is not backing down, but doubling down.
Gameplay Enhancements of Elden Ring
As mentioned before, Elden Ring is a culmination of everything From Software has been building so far. But apart from expanding what was already there, the game introduces some new features that were not explored in previous games. Some of these new features are
- Mounted game-play in the form of Torrent; your trusty steed. The game also has mounted combat, but this feature has been criticized because you constantly have to gallop around the enemy and the constant camera circling makes you feel dizzy and confused.
- Vertical exploration. While the previous From Software game had verticality, Elden Ring takes it to a whole new level by adding so many areas that are only accessible by going up and down. Also jumps and double jumps are added to your mount, abilities that you can use to reach far-off platforms.
- Stealth Game Mechanics are added, which are reminiscent of Sekiro’s Ninja moments, like crouching, hiding in tall grass, and performing high-damage stealth attacks, possibly one-shotting enemies.
- Ashes of War are special items that allow you to customize your weapons with different skills and attributes. Thanks to these items, you can do some crazy moves with your weapons. While the feature existed in Dark Souls 3, it’s highly expanded in Elden Ring.
- The dynamic weather system and day & night cycle, which is common among open-world games, is used to great effect. Some enemies are stronger at night or only appear at night. Also, some hidden paths only reveal themselves at a certain time or during certain weather conditions.
However, the real improvement is done on a much deeper level, an improvement that is not so easily quantifiable. We are talking about the vastly improved game feel of Elden Ring.
Elden Ring’s Game Feel: The Key to Its Success
What we’re talking about is an art in game design that is conveniently called “Game Feel” or “Game Juice” or “Game Spunk”, if you’re feeling saucy. Game Feel is all about the little details and effects that make a game satisfying.
Game Feel is that pool of blood that hangs in the air when you shotgun an enemy in slow motion in F.E.A.R.; Game Feel is those little sparks that fill the air when you combo an enemy into oblivion in Devil May Cry; Game Feel is that crunchy sound you hear in Dark Souls when you land a hit with those big bastards of a sword that look like a lamppost.
As you can guess, there is a very intricate art to all of this, because there is no big picture that you can implement when it comes to Game Feel. You just have to find that special little something in the audio-visual department that seems to massage your brain every time (and we mean EVERY TIME) it occurs.
That’s hard a thing to do, because it’s such an intuitive thing and it’s so easy for your attempt at game feel to result in “meh”, rather than “yeah, that hit the spot”, but this little something is so crucial that in many cases, it can make or break a game.
Effective usage of it can sometimes go as far as to create addiction loops, meaning that you like certain sounds and visual effects so much that you keep doing the same old stuff for hundreds, if not thousands of hours just to experience them again and again.
We would go as far as to claim that games that revolve around repetition, from dumb “match 3” mobile games to big shot MOBAs, would fall apart if it wasn’t for their intricately designed Game Feel effects.
If you explain to a non-MOBA player that a huge bulk of the gameplay is farming minions and last hitting them, they might think you’re insane to spend hundreds of hours doing something so boring, but they will never understand that the game sound design of coins clinking and the sight of yellow numbers appearing on screen never get old. (Although when it comes to a MOBA player, insanity should never be completely ruled out).
Now, From Software is a studio that has perfected this art throughout the years. Soulsborne games are a master lesson in terms of designing Game Feel because every damn thing you do in these games is satisfying, from slashing and rolling around to blocking and backstabbing.
Even the jankiness of the whole backstabbing animation, which makes it seem like the enemy is standing still so you can rip their spine apart, is satisfying in its way. Because if you can sneak behind those pesky knights, you sure deserve that privilege and they know it.
A huge reason why From Software games are so good at Game Feel is that they create a perfect balance between the grim realism of medieval warfare and the ridiculous extravaganza of anime fights, a duality that perhaps was perfected in the breathtaking combat of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, due to the more “directed” and “predetermined” nature of the game.
However, this duality is still quite strong in other Soulsborne games. The most notable example is probably Elden Ring. Elden Ring has an impressively large variety of weapons, ranging from normal RPG weapons like swords and bows to some really peculiar ones like Ghiza’s Wheel, which is technically a Chainsaw reimagined as a sword/spear, and the Grafted Blade Greatsword, which is Iron Throne from A Song of Ice and Fire turned into a sword.
It’s this mixture of “realistic” and “ridiculous” in Soulsborne games that not only is a huge part of their aesthetic charm but opens a lot of room for “game feel” goodness in them. Elden Ring has adopted a great addition in Dark Souls 3 called “Skills” Or “Weapons Arts”, which are now called “Ashes of War”. Thanks to Ashes of War, you can perform a special move with your weapons.
This special move ranges from something realistic, like thrusting forward with your spear or drawing your short bow longer to deal more damage, to something straight out of anime, like Ordovis’ Vortex, in which you twirl your sword like a total boss, and then smash it on the ground, creating a very satisfying shockwave. You can charge up your twirls for the designated “over 9000” experience, and of course, more damage.
Every single weapon type (32 in the main game and 40 with DLC) and every single skill (92 in the main game and 117 with DLC) creates a whole different feel to the combat. One could argue that thanks to Ashes of War, Elden Ring allows you to customize the way Game Feel works for you. You can wield the most enjoyable weapon, apply the most enjoyable Ashes of War to it, and maximize the enjoyment you get out of the game. However, you should consider some Ashes of War exclusively belong to a certain weapon, like the aforementioned Ordovis’ Vortex, which can only be performed by Ordovis’s Greatsword.
Read Also: Forging the Arsenal | Weapon Design for Video Games
As we said, this game is the culmination of everything From Software has been learning in the past decade about making a Soulslike game. In a way, the greatness of Elden Ring doesn’t lie in adding new great elements to the formula, but by expanding what was already great in the formula to unimaginable proportions. Yes, the Ashes of War system was already present in Dark Souls 3 and the weapon types you see in the picture above were mostly present in previous Soulsborne games in one shape or the other. But it’s the sheer number of these weapons, their skills and the different feel they provide that truly shines. When it comes to Elden Ring, bigger IS better.
Story and Lore
We’re not going to lie; Elden Ring’s lore and plot are convoluted as hell. We can provide a Wikipedia summary here, but you probably won’t get much out of it. Instead, we suggest you watch vaatividya videos on Elden Ring. He’s the ultimate fandom authority on From Software lore.
However, the Reddit user Jasonmoofang has done a wonderful job summarizing the lore down to the very basics, which we quote here:
Who are “you”?
Foul maidenless Tarnished, obviously 🙂 Well wtf is a Tarnished? Ages ago, the warrior Hoarah Loux became the consort of Queen Marika, taking the title of First Elden Lord and the name Godfrey. Queen Marika is a goddess figure – different people will tell you different things about her – but suffice for this writeup that she is The Goddess.
Back to Tarnished. The Tarnished were once followers of Lord Godfrey. At some point, for reasons not entirely clear, Marika withdrew the light of grace that guided Godfrey and his followers, sending them into exile, in an event known as the Long March. So, we followed Godfrey on the long march into foreign lands, where we all battled without grace and eventually died.
But, as Marika promised before the exile, we eventually return to life and are drawn back to the Lands Between, our grace restored. That is where the story begins – we awake along with the other Tarnished and fumble back into the Lands Between, where it seems the light of grace bids us to seek out the Elden Ring in order to be Elden Lord.
The world as we find it
In the interim period between us being dead and showing back up, lots of shit happened in the Lands Between. This is related to most of the stuff in the game. Marika smashed the Elden Ring at some point, and following that event there was eventually a massive war fought between the demigods that are her offspring one way or another, a war known as “The Shattering”. Nobody really won this war, and we end in a state where a bunch of demigods each held on to a shard of the Elden Ring.
So, what we do in this game at its most basic level is, in order to mend the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord, we bonk enough demigods to get enough shards to be able to put the Elden Ring back together again.
Of course, there is a lot more going on than this summary – there’s also the whole deal with Godwyn and the Nigh of the Black Knives and Those who live in Death, the whole deal with the curse and the Omens, Mogh’s creepy little cult, and all, but I would say this is the most basic background.
In Shadow of the Erdtree, you follow a guy called Miquella to the Land of Shadow, which has been separated from the Lands Between, the main setting of the game. The Lands Between is a realm blessed by an unknowable god named the Greater Will. The magical laws that govern this the laws of this land are called the Elden Ring and they were sent by the Greater Will. It’s important to note that the Elden Ring is not a physical ring, but a collection of rules that are represented by runes. Erdtree, another gift by the Greater Will, is a big, golden tree that powers the inhabitants of the Lands Between.
What was George R.R. Martin’s Contribution to the Elden Ring?
Geroge R.R. Martin’s name, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, had been famously, or rather infamously, used in the promotional material for Elden Ring before its release. But ever since the game’s release, many people have started to doubt whether this contribution was substantial, or even used, at all, and whether Martin’s name was just used for clout.
To make matters clear, Martin DID contribute to Elden Ring’s story. He was asked to write a setting and a backstory for the game’s world. Then Miyazaki took the backstory he wrote about queens and warriors and their struggles and then imagined how all of that look like if it all became corrupted and destroyed. So essentially, Martin wrote a Dark Fantasy backstory, and then Miyazaki revised it as a post-apocalyptic fare. None of the things you see in the game were written by Martin. But the skeleton behind them was part of his vision.
All and all, it was an interesting collaboration and a new way of world-building. Writer #1 creates a world; writer #2 would imagine how that world would look like if it all went to crap.
Elden Ring Graphics: A New Milestone in Fantasy Visual Design
Elden Ring’s art direction is being hailed as one of the best throughout all of gaming. As a matter of fact, some people consider it to be a milestone in the Fantasy genre itself, meaning that in the future, we might see Elden Ring’s art design mentioned in the same breath as Frank Frazetta’s artwork or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings as fantasy work that enriched the collective imagination of the genre.
The reason behind Elden Ring’s excellent art design is that it doesn’t feel bound to reality or earthly logic. Many creatures, environments, and buildings in the game look impossibly weird, like something straight out of a dream. But that’s exactly what makes it so good. Playing through Elden Ring is like getting immersed in a beautiful, but haunting dream. This quality existed in Dark Souls games and it has reached the apex of its creativity in this game. Modern hardware has also helped.
Read Also: Game art outsourcing
Shadow of the Erdtree: Maybe a Little Too Difficult?
From Software’s fascination with making jaw-dropping spectacles has always compelled people to invest in their games far more than they would invest in games from other studios.
But sometimes, no matter how invested you are in something that demands a lot from you – and gives a lot in return – you might feel like you’ve had enough of its Sadism. That was the initial reaction many people showed to Shadow of the Erdtree.
From Software games, including Elden Ring, have always been accused of being unfairly difficult and frustrating. But so many people have come to their games’ defense, saying the difficulty is always fair considering all the leverage the game offers you, like being able to summon a soul to help you before a boss fight or being able to grind out souls or runes to overpower yourself.
In Elden Ring, thanks to the game’s rich variety of tools, weapons, and magic spells at your disposal, you can find strategies that feel almost like cheating. Miyazaki has officially endorsed using them, saying that he is a bad gamer himself and has used all of the leverage the game offers – and also his knowledge as the architect of this whole experience – to beat Elden Ring as preparation for developing Shadow of the Erdtree.
However, some people have complained that despite all of that, Shadow of the Erdtree is way too difficult. No matter how overpowered you are in the main game, you will quickly get humbled in the DLC and the way the DLC throws challenges at you is not fair. For example, some of the bosses have attack patterns that are way too unpredictable and chaotic. The only defense you have against them is memorization through numerous defeats, not intuitive strategizing.
There is some truth to this criticism. From Software sometimes makes attack patterns way too random, to a degree where it seems like they’re trolling the player. Not being able to find any sort of logic in the way enemies move makes getting hit by them feel unfair and stupid. This has made the player feel that their success is dependent on luck or memorization, rather than skill and moment-to-moment reaction timing.
Final Thoughts
Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, combined, seem to be the crowning achievement of From Software so far. Although some fans will always prefer the more focused, tight-knit structure of games like Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne, if we put aside taste and preference, Elden Ring is the de facto From Software game. Shadow of the Erdtree, alongside the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk 2077, seems to be the new standard by which all future DLCs will be judged. All and all, until Miyazaki creates his “perfect” fantasy RPG, Elden Ring is as good as it gets.
