Do you keep in mind when Elden Ring was first introduced? That stunning second again throughout E3 2019, when FromSoftware — at that time using the excessive of Darkish Souls‘ and Bloodborne‘s acclaim — introduced a recent spin on its signature hardcore fantasy RPG formulation. It was like Darkish Souls, however not fairly. A brand new world, with a brand new spin. That second earlier than we have been in a position to leap into this new journey was really particular, and it is a feeling I would fairly prefer to expertise once more. And once more, and once more.
Quick ahead to right now and never solely have we been in a position to play Elden Ring, however its main growth in Shadow of the Erdtree. When you’re like me, you have gorged your self on the brand new lore, and experimented like a mad scientist with new weapons and talismans. Elden Ring is successful. There isn’t any approach round it. However reasonably than return again to The Lands Between and capitalize on its absurd recognition, I would reasonably FromSoftware return to the kitchen and cook dinner up one thing new as soon as once more.
I’ll conceed that there are thrilling avenues that FromSoftware may stroll down with a hypothetical Elden Ring 2. The narrative group has achieved an important job of teasing the world past the shores of Limgrave, and if one leaves the plain solely, they’re going to discover a complete cosmic stage manufacturing of competing forces which can be undoubtedly intriguing. The Formless Mom, the sealed god of Scarlet Rot. The very stars themselves have ambition and motives, their path via the sky being a march in the direction of celestial destiny. Seeing extra of those figures, — in addition to the future of The Lands Between lengthy after Marika’s Golden Order — is tantalizing, however in the end pointless.
Not solely as a result of it might steal a number of the shine from the participant’s selection of recent order throughout Elden Ring’s ending, forcing every in the direction of a single place to begin from which a brand new recreation should begin, but in addition as a result of a lot of Elden Ring’s attraction stems from a decent pack of notable characters. Marika’s kin, principally useless by the conclusion of the sport, are such a major a part of what makes the sport particular. Caelid is dope, and never solely attributable to its rad dungeons, boss fights, and vistas. It is cool as a result of it is seeped in a really private lore. The battle between Radahn and Malenia, their forces preventing on amidst the devastation, and the participant’s function in uncovering the reality behind such occasions.
When you depart from this setting — not simply the land itself however the time — you separate from the juice that makes Elden Ring so wealthy and candy. You’d want a complete new forged, a recent narrative on the same scale, new background tales of warfare and betrayal. And in case you’re going as far as to try this, you might as nicely pack up camp and arrange someplace completely new.
And with that transfer, FromSoftware is ready to do one thing it is wonderful at. Enhancing, evolving. Taking concepts from earlier video games and taking them to bizarre and attention-grabbing locations. Take a look at the Smithscript weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree and the varied hand-to-hand weapons and Spirit Ashes they’ve included. Take a step again previously for extra macro examples – blowing up the principally linear Soulslike format into an huge open world that rewards exploration higher than most video games I can consider. Creating Solaire-level NPC questlines not simply as soon as, however a number of occasions. By no means has a FromSoftware recreation been such a feast.
It is these jumps in high quality that preserve FromSoftware in such excessive regard in my books. The power to tug a Bloodborne or Sekiro out of its hat, to convey out motion RPGs that preserve stunning each new gamers and long-time FromSoftware followers. Certain, these leaps do happen between sequels. We noticed it with Darkish Souls 2, and the climactic (if a bit fan-serviceable) Darkish Souls 3. However, these gameplay enhancements appear to really feel extra substantive, extra celabratory, when engulfed within the golden wrapping paper a completely new IP gives.
Maybe this opinion discovered its dwelling in my lore-strucken coronary heart. I do love booting up a brand new Souls recreation and attempting to determine the whole lot out, attempting to place the items collectively earlier than large VaatiVidya or another grasp of the scrolls descends down onto my YouTube homepage with a two-hour video. I like new frontiers, and I am fairly an enormous fan of FromSoftware’s method to recreation design. It is my style for these two that has me hungry for brave new adventures in wealthy new worlds.
