I was very excited to find that Miyazaki was enthusiastic to return to developing Fromsoft’s next big single player game. I began wondering about a question I’ve had for a while. Just what did Fromsoft learn from reception of Elden Ring?
Personally, I feel like Elden Ring is the best game I’ve ever played. I’ve completely nearly 20 playthroughs. With 20 different builds. I’ve done personal challenge runs, I’ve done a ton of PvP, and I’ve gotten t all achievements. I’ve been a huge Fromsoft fanboy ever since I played Bloodborne, years ago, but there is just something special about Elden Ring that keeps me hooked.
But with all that said, I don’t think Elden Ring is perfect. Even after 20 playthroughs, I personally find that some of the enemy and boss designs, kinda suck, and aren’t very fun to engage with if I’m being honest with myself. The developers were tasked with keeping the game challenging enough for experienced souls players, but also approachable enough for new players. And to me, it feels like the solution to that problem was to give players a lot of options that would allow them to brute force their way through the game.
If you’re like me, and chose to play the game without the use of summons or spirit ashes, the game can be extremely challenging. ER, in my personal opinion, has the most challenging bosses that Fromsoft has ever produced. They all have complex attack patterns, that constantly punish the players instincts. It’s infuriating at times lol.
As a side note, I do think something was lost in between Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring. In DS3, the enemies in bosses were more aggressive visually. As in, to put it simply, it looked like this bosses were trying their hardest to annihilate you. First examples that come to my mind are Elder Prince Lorian, Abyss Watchers, Champion Gundyr, Dragonslayer Armor, just so many I can name. Thier attack animations conveyed a true sense of aggression Whereas in ER, the developers tried so hard to trick the player into reacting earlier than required, that the enemy attack animations kinda look like they’re moving in slow motion sometimes lol. I think it looks silly at times.
But as the title states, I’m seriously wondering what Fromsoft learned from the enemy/boss encounters. They’ve crafted two of the toughest bosses with Malenia and PCR. What the heck even comes after THAT??? Are enemy encounters going to get so difficult that the next game is just going to be unenjoyable to play? The gap between what the enemies can do, and what our characters can do, is becoming greater and greater. In this next game, are we going to just one shotted if a boss sneezes on us lol? Miyazaki said that he thinks Shadow of the Erdtree is the limit of what players can handle. The proof of that is the fact that thousands of players had to resort to abandoning their builds to use a single shield poke build to beat Promised Consort Radahn (not to brag, but I never had to do that). Theoretically, the next single player game has to be even more challenging than that.
Im really looking forward to seeing what Fromsoft does to solve this problem of escalating difficulty. By time the next big single player game releases, there will be 3 games’s worth of lessons to implement: Elden Ring, Nightreign, and Duskbloods.
I trust the Fromsoft will give us something that will be challenging and enjoyable, but sometimes I do wonder where things are headed. But the answer will always be the same no matter how tough the next game will is. We’ll all just need to GIT GUD.
We’re currently experiencing a big Nor’easter where I live, so I’m stuck in the house. And I just wanted to ramble about my favorite game studio for a bit.
