50 Years of Video Games: Quality Time: Elden Ring (Xbox Series X)

For some years it can be difficult to identify which games might go on to become important and successful. Some games made by respected companies with huge fanbases can release to surprising issues or disappointing new directions, but on the other hand, some games end up blowing expectations out of the water. Elden Ring was always bound to be rather successful, publisher Bandai Namco believed it would achieve a rather hefty 4 million sales after its first month on the market, but after hitting 12 million in a little over 2 weeks, it became clear that Elden Ring was a far bigger hit than first anticipated, one that actually served as a culmination to the slowly growing appreciation for the work of developer FromSoftware.

 

Back in 2009, FromSoftware released Demon’s Souls, a game with punishing but satisfying difficulty and role-playing game systems that helped players gradually overcome the tough bosses and harsh medieval fantasy world’s brutal creatures. Things got off to a rocky start, Sony not even wanting to publish it outside Japan, but when other companies stepped in and released it in the West, a small but passionate fanbase was found. When a sequel called Dark Souls released, the good word of mouth from excited fans lead to the series achieving greater renown and in turn greater appreciation, two more sequels and two remakes continuing an upward trend as each new Souls games was moving closer to mainstream favor. FromSoftware would take their difficult but mostly fair approach to combat in other directions with games like Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, their specific formula now firmly cemented and leading to imitators as well in a genre that became known as the Soulslike. Still, critical acclaim and good sales also came with a caveat that the challenging design often put off potential players. For whatever reason though, be it a greater eye on new game releases after a global pandemic, the slow growth of the genre’s fanbase, or a shift to open world design, Elden Ring ended up launching to extreme success, one that will certainly make its difficulty-focused play less likely to be labeled as niche in the future.

 

There is much more to Elden Ring though than tough fights, FromSoftware creating a world that is captivating to explore and fascinating to learn about despite how little it directly demands the player’s attention to tell its story. Its battles are more than simply facing down a heavy hitting foe, the options players are given for battle expansive and varied while still mostly valid thanks to the careful attention given to how enemies attempt to attack the player. An open-ended approach to letting the player pick where they travel in a massive world not only leads to countless intriguing discoveries but allows the player to cool down if a specific fight frustrates them by seeking more adventure elsewhere. Elden Ring is not only the culmination of the growing appreciation for a certain style of game design, but it is a refinement of many of the systems experimented with along the way while simultaneously opening the door wider so more types of players can find a foothold. It still certainly thrives on skill-focused battles with a heavy focus on reflexes, but Elden Ring is much more than its surprisingly numerous boss battles.

 

THE LANDS BETWEEN

When Elden Ring begins, it doesn’t put too much of its story forward, making sure mostly that the player understands the core tenets of the world they’re entering and putting them on the main path that can lead to one of the game’s endings. The Lands Between were once protected by the Elden Ring, a manifestation of the order that held the lands together. While there were certainly wars under its rule and it by no means prevented suffering and sadness, the shattering of the Elden Ring leads to even greater peril and pain for the people of its world. Part of this comes from those who snatched up the Great Runes that comprised the ring, gaining incredible power that let them exert their will over the chaotic wars that followed. However, The Lands Between have also become a place where few true forms of civilization still stand, many buildings and towns falling into ruin and those villages that still stand often in the process of being wiped out or thriving only on the madness that sustains its violent residents. However, those Shardbearers who took the Great Runes also offer a twisted sort of protection, their claimed lands able to function better due to the threat posed by the powerful beings at the top and their machinations to ensure their continued rule.

 

To complicate this world’s dire state further is an odd sort of immortality life seems to be locked in. Death has lost its permanence in the Lands Between. Were someone to be slain, there body and soul would one day be reshaped back into their form to continue life once more. What this means for the player is that their hero, known as the Tarnished and customizable in appearance to a considerable degree, can always bounce back from a death, but this too means that any enemies were killed since last you lived will return to life as well. Major enemies, bosses, and if you’re feeling sinister even helpful characters can still achieve a functional end since the manner of resurrection takes much longer with beings of such import and renown, but this simple way to explain away why the character and basic enemies don’t permanently stay dead is woven into the lore of the world and things get even deeper as you start to meet more characters, find important items, and observe the world around you.

Elden Ring’s setting is one that can be dark, depraved, and depressing at times, but it is not a world made only of bleak stories and sorrowful sorts. When you first begin your life as the Tarnished you step out into Limgrave, a place of simple natural beauty that is accented by the ruins scattered between its gold-leafed trees and lush yet rocky grasslands. Here the ruined structures do not seem to tell the story of a land descended in chaos but instead mirror that austere somberness that ruins in real life often exude, an echo of the past that does not give up the stories it participated in but also does not speak of whatever fate lead to its complete abandonment. Limgrave has beaches, a dense misty forest, and shallow lakes to walk across, many of its dangers large wildlife like enormous crabs, bats, and bears or soldiers who seem to be dressed in fairly clean armor. Most importantly though is the enormous glowing golden bough of the Erdtree that towers above all, this tree that once housed the Elden Ring reaching so high it can be seen from most any exterior area on the map. While you know this world can be cruel and there are some grotesque creatures to be found later on your journey, Limgrave gives an important introduction that shows you the you will not just be mired in a land of misery as you journey, areas of beauty perhaps enhanced by the fact they keep company with gloomy sights.

 

Limgrave alone is already an expansive area that can take hours upon hours to truly explore, underground caves, overworld bosses, characters squeaking out what lives they can manage, and unique landmarks drawing the player to new experiences. Once you begin to explore the world more though, you’ll find a variety of settings that each contain their own plethora of special situations and intricate indoor locations. The capital of Leyndell has you walking through a massive city where many buildings still stand, cramped streets and open buildings making finding all the foes to face and items to uncover a daunting but rewarding task. The Academy of Raya Lucaria stands above a lake, the town that once surrounded it now half-submerged as its ruins are filled with strange creatures but the academy itself a stronghold for those gifted in sorcery. Beneath the Lands Between are subterranean worlds, some like Siofra River almost looking like they exist beneath a starry night sky with the glittering lights hanging in the cavern’s air. Other locations will have you walking across tree branches above perilous falls, the player now dwarfed as even the bodies of giants can turn into ground you must walk upon. Large walking towers patrol parts of the world, enemy camps break up roads, and tight canyons serve as ambush spots from unexpected monsters and crafty men. One part of the world, Caelid, is scoured by a crimson affliction that infects those that live there but give the place an ethereal and almost alien feel. There are large stretches of plains in many locations for you to ride across on your spectral steed Torrent and many moments of exploration can be about quietly but carefully navigating those spaces, but they too are occupied with aggressive foes who must be dealt with to get deeper into a location or to reach the useful tools that might be hidden around the corner.

What makes Elden Ring’s world even more captivating though is the exquisite environmental story telling on offer, Volcano Manor perhaps one of the strongest locations for such things. While you will learn much of this place’s history from speaking with those who reside in it, this mansion that very much does sit within a volcano is also about uncovering its deeper secrets. While you hear that its position has lead to many long and futile wars being fought to take it, the climb up Mt. Gelmir to reach it shows you how dire those fights were. Multiple military encampments where it seems each inch of ground was fought for, corpses strewn up as warnings or left to rot in piles, the soldiers still fighting against the manor often turning to scavenging their fallen allies just to survive. Around Volcano Manor is a prison town where you find out how “guests” are truly treated by the family that openly claims to want to violently defy the godly Shardbearers and those who serve the Erdtree. In fact, seeing the dark side of the world in places like this can almost numb the player a bit, so when you enter the tunnels of enormous ants it might not even register as horrific that much of the area around you is comprised of the bloody bones of their former prey. If a player needed any motivation for wanting to restore order to this land, it is the frequent sights of suffering that have come as a result of the shattering of the Elden Ring.

Elden Ring isn’t without its glimmers of hope and even humor though, and when you meet other characters trying to make their way in the world, it is perhaps more inspiring that they do so in spite of the many dark fates that could await them. Iron Fist Alexander is a large living pot who wants to become a great warrior even though he shatters with ease, his polite and respectful behavior making him stand out in a world where so many others attack the moment they see you. The Lunar Princess Ranni opposes a world ruled by the whims of gods and features one of the longer associated quest lines as you help her try to bring about her vision. Rya, a scout for the Volcano Manor, is actually innocently unaware of its darker activities and proves to be a surprisingly pure and innocent occupant of a world that has turned even good people into the kind that might have to compromise their morals to get by or make change for the better. There are other characters who of course engage in the depravity of the world without restraint or mask their true intentions until you dig deeper into their personal stories, but there are individuals who do not receive bad endings who you can actually assist in getting on a better path or at least ensure they achieve their aims and go out on their own terms. These moments of inspiring perseverance and true kindness in a harsh world are brought out even better thanks to some quality voice acting work, although the fact that some quests advance in odd ways may limit how easily you engage with them. Sometimes you will be told where a character intends to head for the next part of their ongoing story, but others you must come across them by chance and there are a fair few spaces you likely won’t retread after clearing them, potentially severing a story line from reaching its interesting conclusion. An update patch at least marks some of their locations on your incredibly large map, but some stories can even skip steps if you face certain foes or advance other plots. There is often at least some effort to have their quests follow the expected path the player will take into new areas for the core story of restoring the Elden Ring so that you may start a new era of progress as Elden Lord.

 

What makes Elden Ring’s world all the more impressive is how much of it is technically optional though. Only two of the Shardbearer bosses must be defeated to access the absolutely required areas and battles meaning entire regions of the map technically don’t need to be entered at all. You can complete the game without ever visiting the rotted wastes of Caelid or even discovering the Volcano Manor exists. You never need to step foot on the branches of the Haligtree nor do you even need to head below to the vast open cave networks with their own rivers and cities beneath the Lands Between. Important bosses with their own connection to the greater lore can be entirely skipped if you so wish, but the quality of such content is so compelling that it ends up less about what is required and more about experiencing new incredible locations with unique foes. Since the game is a role-playing game with a level up system and tons of equipment you will likely want to increase your power and capabilities by heading to every area you can anyway, although there are a few areas with flagrant reuse of assets. Entering the mines can often reveal entire reused chunks of space and the hero’s graves will even create labyrinths where identical halls are part of the navigational challenge despite it not being too interesting to puzzle out those twists and turns. The reuse of a spiked chariot hazard also becomes a little irritating, the waiting to get around the massive instant kill danger in multiple different dungeons weakening some of the appeal of clearing those locations. This is certainly where having so much optional content benefits the game as you can often safely skip these areas and instead explore the larger, more unique spaces and know you probably didn’t miss anything too great, and if you did, you can always return when memories of similar locations aren’t so fresh or you feel you’re powerful enough to clear things out more quickly despite rehashed environmental design.

Those moments of cost-effective repetition are small compared to how much more of the world tries to draw you in with creative new concepts and themes. While you can’t enter every building or climb every mountain, there are many enormous structures you later get to explore every room inside and you can find ways to scale down into ravines far below a bridge or explore the plateau that seems inaccessible from your current position. As said before you can read the darker stories of the land by what you find there, but at others times things can seem more at peace or practically serene, Elden Ring choosing to instead put a lot of information not out in the open but instead tying it to things like the items you find. The descriptions of these items will start to clue you in more on things that no character might have sufficient reason to explain, even self-proclaimed masters of knowledge like Gideon Ofnir the All-Knowing or the supernaturally gifted Finger Maidens who can commune with godly forces. Starscourge Radahn, a hulking giant of a warrior with massive blades and even the power to hurl himself at you like a meteorite, can at first seem like a savage for how you face him, but in items you find you learn he learned his powerful gravity magic not to harm others, but because his beloved horse was becoming too small for him to ride safely and he wished to ease its burden. Radahn was actually once a well-respected warrior whose only stains were the realities of fighting in a war, but when another Shardbearer marked him with the scarlet rot and corrupted his whole land just to win the fight, Radahn became a beastly sort. What seems on the surface like a fearsome foe becomes a tragic sort just by reading a few item descriptions, and while it can be a little frustrating to need the right item to understand what’s going on when a boss introduces themselves with a scene that you have little context for, it also makes you feel more like a true visitor in this world, one who isn’t being spoon fed every detail since few would deem it necessary to freely share their history. However, you do gradually begin to uncover deeper tales of how the world fell to ruin and how the various Shardbearers further jeopardize it with their squabbles, many of them bound by family ties but guided by selfish aims. The political underpinnings become little surprise when you learn that Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin provided some world-building guidance, and while even a thorough playthrough of the game might not uncover everything there is to know about the world, it is one filled with subtle stories as well as enough out in the open to abate potential confusion on the most important of details.

 

Of course, there is more to Elden Ring’s world than merely traveling about learning more about it. There are moments of exploration where platforming is required to reach important areas, the jumping involved not always the cleanest whether you’re doing it on foot or on Torrent’s back. Usually you won’t need to do it in a hurry though unless you’re deliberately trying to outrun hostile enemies at your back, so spacing a jump or making Torrent’s special double jump work properly can be given special attention. The environment can be used to your advantage as well in a fight, planning a stealthy approach for a powerful back stab to start an encounter or granting you a perch where foes can’t reach you so long as you’re willing to take the risk of standing on a precarious ledge yourself. There are hidden items for poking around more but also areas where you might need to hop across roof tops or hide from powerful archers, movement emphasized but this kind of traversal isn’t so much about skill as it is a means of deepening how you engage with the many areas Elden Ring offers. While this will be your key to exploring, Elden Ring’s core is still about the battles you participate in, so it’s about time we get to know just what the Tarnished can do…

 

GO FORTH, YE TARNISHED, AND BECOME ELDEN LORD

The Tarnished, your character, is a human being at heart, even if you get creative with appearance customization and change their proportions and coloration. In a battle, there is one major universal tool of survival and conquest, that being the dodge roll. While its speed changes depending on how much equipment you wear, a dodge roll is the most important ability you have, as with it you are granted a brief period of pure invincibility to any attack that heads your way. When facing a foe with a weapon it makes some degree of sense that rolling out of its path spares you any damage it could have inflicted, but as the adventure goes on you’ll find this roll can overcome all sorts of incoming damage. A dragon may sweep at you with its tail, sliding it across the ground as it does so, but with a well-timed roll you are inexplicably able to pass through it so you are neither moved out of position nor hurt by the attack that should seem impossible to avoid. Rolling is by no means a perfect way of getting out of danger free, some attacks having lingering effects like a strike to the ground that then sends a shockwave out after to catch you if you roll with bad timing. Some effects like fire or poison will coat the ground and you’ll need to actually move out of them and many foes will follow up one attack with many more so you need to keep dodging to stay safe. Timing is often pretty precise as well, a dodge too early or late not negating that incoming strike and thus foolishly and frantically dodging might miss the important window of safety. What’s more, the roll uses some of your stamina, stamina also required for any swing of a weapon you wish to take. If you dodge around too much you won’t have the energy for an attack or, even worse, you’ll run out before you need to dodge an even more dangerous incoming blow.

 

However, the dodge roll is a major equalizer, the player able to survive even when far weaker than a foe if they can identify when a foe’s blow is about to hit and rolling just in time to avoid the pain. No matter what else you do with your character, some degree of mastery is required with this maneuver, and so much of Elden Ring is learning a foe’s move set so you can reliably dodge at the right time and find openings for your attacks. A huge variety of basic enemies and bosses ensure you are frequently tested throughout, but getting down the timing can lead to a satisfying shift in fortunes as an adversary who once stymied you with powerful blows soon fails to land even one thanks to your canny movement. Jumps and proper positioning can also be mixed in when it comes to evading foes and positioning can be key to getting around attacks specifically designed to catch careless dodgers off-guard, and while a few enemies do have some auto-targetting or homing attacks to try and overcome your advantages, there is always some counter in place and only rarely does the game feel like it’s expecting truly perfect timing to survive.

Beyond dodging another tool that most every Tarnished will find themselves relying on are the flasks. The Flask of Crimson Tears provides a huge surge of healing, the Flask of Cerulean Tears similarly providing a burst of magical energy to refill your reserves used for sorcery, incantations, and special attacks. The healing one is certainly the more useful as the learning process involved in understanding a powerful opponent will lead to heavy damage and exploring areas often involves facing many small foes that you’ll need to heal up after battling. Even the basic enemies in Elden Ring can pack quite a punch, and even if you get late into the game there are still basic foes who can shear through your health quickly despite all your upgrades and armor. The flask system is what helps mitigate this though, the entire world able to still feel dangerous while having a relief valve in place to offset those moments you are hit by powerful foes or caught off guard by an ambush. Flasks are limited in their use but can be upgraded over time, but more importantly, they are refilled not only on death, but any time you visit a Site of Grace. Sites of Grace are scattered all around the Lands Between, their placement often accounting for the types of danger ahead while also providing a travel-free way of instantly warping to previously visited locations. A Site of Grace will refill your health, your flasks, and even let you increase your power with the runes that flow out of foes you’ve defeated, the reward for a kill increasing in number based on the difficulty and location of the vanquished enemy or boss. While resting at such a site will respawn enemies in the area, these sites of reprieve are also placed near boss areas and after enemy gauntlets to ensure you can wind down and recover before heading out to face the next challenge. Death is not free of consequence though, as those runes you can use to level up and even serve as currency for buying items and upgrading equipment are left behind wherever you died. With some allowances like placing them somewhere safe if you died by falling, the runes will still be retrievable in the area you died, and since they are invaluable to increasing your abilities and acquiring new things there is still tension in trying to fight your way back to grab them as they will completely disappear if you die again before grabbing them.

 

Stakes of Marika provide some assistance in smaller form, a respawn point away from a Site of Grace that usually lets you retry a boss fight but without the benefits of leveling up and teleportation, but the flasks refreshing on death still mean you have your most important asset for survival and the refusal to put a Site of Grace nearby also means you might be retrying a boss specifically to save those runes you left in their arena. The generous placement of the Stakes and Sites of Grace give the player hope as they press through the hardest areas full of strong enemies and offsets the potential frustration involved in learning the attacks of a tough boss since progress can be lost but not to such a degree that it feels like you’re retreading huge amounts of ground constantly. In fact, there are quite a few areas you might first fight your way through as you learn them but on death you’ll know the shortcuts or which foes can be run past to ensure you grab the runes and make progress rather than wasting time taking on every enemy along the way.

Exploring a castle or cave becomes more palatable thanks to this smart segmentation that allows you to recuperate and utilize your aides often enough, but we’ve still only talked about the universally useful ideas. Elden Ring has a wide range of weapon types that have different swing combos and advantages. A sword and shield combo is solid and simple, guarding with the shield using stamina but potentially leaving a foe open for strikes after. However, with the right sword type you can attack with the shield up to mix defense and offense or even two-hand a sword instead for a huge power boost to each swing. Daggers can be sliced swiftly and are good for small openings, but with colossal hammers you really need to find that right opening to bring the thing down for huge damage. Whips and spears reach out further than many basic weapons, but strong attacks can give certain weapons unique functions like the spinning spiked wheel almost working like a saw. Scythes, axes, flails, and claws continue to add to a pile of ever-growing weapon options where the player can find what mix of power, reach, and speed suits their preferred approach to battle, although while riding on horseback many of them do simplify to simple swings or holding your weapon out to the side for damage. Honing your skill with the tool of choice will be necessary since beating bosses isn’t only a matter of outlasting them, but weapons are not the only wide-reaching part of your arsenal.

 

Magic can be used even by builds that focus mostly on strength, although those more invested in sorceries and incantations can utilize the more powerful spells and deal more damage with them. The magic of Elden Ring covers an even wider range of abilities than the weapons, and while it has some limitations like needing to have your staff out for sorcery or seal on for an incantation, they do expand your options considerably. Long range attacks made of light, fire, stone, and more, some homing in on the foes, others leaving a lingering effect, and some even working briefly like a weapon itself as a blade of magic manifests much larger than what you can otherwise wield. The player can heal themselves up, power themselves up, or even offset building statuses like poison or rot. Perhaps more interesting though is the deeper magics that begin to reproduce attacks that bosses have used against you. The dragon isn’t the only one that can breathe fire once you learn to manifest the head of one to belch out flames, bosses with large beams of magic that can cross the entire arena will soon become victim to the same tactic if you acquire that spell, and while you can have special effects on your weapons like increased chance to inflict poison for gradual damage or make an enemy bleed for a huge sudden chunk of damage, spells can also dish out this effect from afar and can be cast repeatedly to ensure the status takes hold, many of even the strongest foes susceptible to such tactics.

Ashes of War take things a step further as your weapons can now have a special ability attached to them. Players can turn their dodge rolls into an electrical attack, stomp forward to unleash a wave of frost, slash forward with new techniques, deflect magic, draw foes in with gravity magic, send magma spewing out by slamming the ground, and many more unique attacks. You are limited to only having one set to a weapon so picking the right ability for your play style is key, but it opens up another route of finding advantages against your foes be they huge groups of small foes or the massive bosses who dominate the battlefield. More and more the play field can become leveled as you invest in certain abilities and learn how to weave them into the battle effectively, some skill certainly still necessary to survive the incoming attacks but other times the right skills can decimate enemies with little issue. While you can already wait until you’re stronger to face certain foes in Elden Ring in order to offset some difficulty, the right abilities used in the right way can change the flow of a fight as you find your opening for the new strategy, and in this way even already exciting and heart-pounding battles become more complex as your part of them can be wildly different from other players, all while multiple tactics are equally valid approaches. Some powers certainly rise above others in terms of usefulness, but your personal path through the game may still mean interesting powers few others have touched may be your go-to until you come across those exceptional skills that most people end up funneled towards.

 

That funneling is perhaps more pronounced in the similarly named but very different Spirit Ash system. While often not usable during battles with regular foes and in special boss arenas, Spirit Ashes give you the ability to summon AI-controlled allies who fight for your cause. Starting off these are fairly simple assistants like a pack of wolves or a magical jellyfish and their contribution is often more giving a tough foe someone else besides you to attack as you heal up or cast a spell. As you face tougher bosses who can squash such spirits with ease though, you’ll likely start investing in later found spirits which can consist of named characters or more specialized groups. Archers who pester a boss from afar for consistent damage, shieldmen who can survive heavy damage and serve mostly as distractions due to their low damage, and creatures who focus on inflicting statuses all have their niches, and with the right upgrading they can stick in the fight even against much tougher foes. However, the raw efficacy of certain Spirit summons are hard to resist, the Mimic Tear creating a mildly weaker copy of the player to fight alongside them. Even with me picking up the game after a patch weakened the Mimic Tear it still seems invaluable in being durable but capable of dishing out decent damage, but there are still some high end Spirits that might be more situationally useful since the AI that controls your spectral allies isn’t always the smartest and might focus on survival or aggression differently. Having any sort of ally in a battle can remove some pressure on the player or increase the chance of a useful status afflicting a foe, so once again we are given a tool that helps overcome some degree of the game’s difficulty without entirely invalidating it.

Elden Ring is, in essence, a game that pushes so hard against you because it knows you have the tools to push back just as hard. When you first come across a giant Lake of Rot you must wade through, ever increasing the gradual onset of Scarlet Rot that will drain your health faster than even poison, it might seem daunting or even impossible. However, the right spell might make this affliction something easily suppressed as you explore, a hearty build from strengthening yourself elsewhere might mean you can even heal through all the damage until you’ve crossed it, or you might finally dip into yet another asset the player is given: crafting. Crafting perhaps best encapsulates one element of Elden Ring that crops up often, something not feeling all that important until it suddenly finds its importance through a unique situation. While this can sometimes mean beating a boss or finding a well hidden treasure is underwhelming since it’s an item that seems inferior to your current choices, when a use case emerges you might just cherish the fact you did all that work elsewhere. Crafting doesn’t let you craft anything too wildly powerful, although if you invest in fighting with a bow you might use it often to refill your arrows or even produce ones with special effects. However, that Lake of Rot might look a lot less daunting when all those materials you can passively collect while exploring now can be crafted into a big batch of scarlet rot cures, and if you want to be able to inflict some damage on bosses you’re afraid to approach, filling pots or tipping darts with special materials will give builds of all types an easy way to integrate a new attack style they don’t need to deeply invest in. You have quite a few ways to access items in a fight that are quick and accessible, although pausing during a battle to set new items or craft is hurt by the fact pausing doesn’t freeze gameplay. While this prevents any absurd strategies from being utilized like rapid weapon and armor swaps, it does mean sometimes you might just need to leave a character standing in place if you have to go do something in real life really quick. However, a small limitation in a game that otherwise heaps options upon you for turning things in your favor is hardly going to be a dealbreaker, crafting also opening up routes for increasing your power with consumables or casting magic without the actual spells.

 

Now that we know the many ways Elden Ring provides for the player though, it is time we look at what exactly stands in their path…

 

OVER 100 GREAT FOES STAND BEFORE THEE

While the exact number of bosses in Elden Ring is up for debate thanks to things like bosses that are essentially identical and whether or not something like the invaders that are essentially game-controlled Tarnished characters count, Elden Ring manages to include an impressive amount of major foes to take down while still managing to space out their placement in its massive world so that it doesn’t even need to pack them in tight. A full night’s worth of play might not even hit double digits in terms of how many bosses you encounter, some appearing out in the open world while others lie at the end of long dungeons or deep within caves. As said very few are absolutely necessary for completion of the story but you’ll likely face a lot of them in the process of reaching new areas or strengthening your character so you can better tackle the required bosses, these confrontations the ultimate test of all the work you’ve put into understanding your particular repertoire of abilities while also reacting properly to what the boss brings to the table.

 

Some foes are creative in concept even before the battle begins. The disgraced Godrick the Grafted has sought power by attaching the limbs of fallen foes to his body, giving him the ability to wield a variety of weapons and attack from unexpected angles. Those known as the Godskins come in a few different forms but their seemingly holy white robes actually bear the features of the gods they’ve flayed, these warriors able to twist their own flesh to stretch out or move in unexpected ways. Some fights have special concepts at their core, Radahn’s taking place on a massive battlefield where you can call in a small army of characters you’ve met to assist in toppling the warrior. Some bosses begin with a set of moves that expands once you’ve worn them down enough, unleashing more dangerous attacks or even warping their bodies to unlock some hidden potential like the seemingly simple Queen Rennala transporting you to a moonlit arena where she unleashes her true mastery of sorcery.

Some foes can be fought on horseback like the Tree Sentinel and Flying Dragon Agheel, your dodge not quite as clean to use while on horseback but the extra speed and mobility allowing you to pick your moments to charge in or dash away. Fighting on foot can even be preferred for these fights though if you’ve learned the attacker’s moves well enough, and even a giant serpent whose body is coiled over top lava can be beat with more traditional means despite the game providing a special spear just for the fight. Your flexibility opens up the ways you can tackle these foes but the fights are still heart-pounding affairs as they whip out attacks that play with your mind or introduce new complications. The Lord of Blood Mohg opens his second phase with three unavoidable bursts of damage, but once you know they exist you can heal through them, use a special defensive option with the Flask of Wondrous Physick you can acquire and mix for special effects, or even just try to rush down Mohg to stun or kill him before he can pull off the attack. Certain bosses play with your expectations, slow attacks baiting out the dodge before they go for the actual strike or a combo meaning you need to dodge at the right times or you’ll exhaust yourself and be left open. The most difficult boss in the game pushes this a bit too far with such attacks and the ability to heal with each hit she lands on you, but she is meant to be an incredibly hard optional boss whereas most achieve a better balance in terms of giving the player the opportunity to turn the tables once they know what they’re up against.

 

Since even regular enemies can sometimes kill the player in a few hits, bosses do sometimes take this even further. A fair few have what amounts to an instant death attack, these usually hugely telegraphed with long wind ups so you can avoid them, but there are a few attack chains that are functionally instant kills as well that aren’t so kind since an attack may leave you stunned so the others can hit. Usually you can at least slip away and down a flask to offset their heavy hitting moves or dodge even after one or two strikes hit so the full combo won’t do you in and forgiving ideas like the Stakes of Marika mean once you know such a move exists you can dodge it on the next fight with that boss, but it is one of the weaker ideas for difficulty considering the bosses can have otherwise superb move sets. Weaving around massive blasts of magic, dodging each swing of a blade, and moving in to land your own blows leads to some battles that truly feel like duels between two skilled warriors. The Ancient Hero of Zamor has swift sword slashes as well as Frost magic attacks that require you to really learn how he moves and find your openings, and the Magma Wyrm Makar dominates his cave with lava spilling from his maw and his massive body and blade but you can learn his tells and score plenty of hits after he leaves himself vulnerable with each move. Phenomenal music with weighty choral backing can make these skirmishes feel even more epic, especially when the game saves its most bombastic compositions for the foes of greatest consequence and danger.

 

Admittedly not every boss is strong in concept. A few bosses are upgraded versions of regular foes like the Runebear who takes the already fairly formidable giant bear enemy, puts them in a tight space, and gives them a few more moves. Others like the many dragons you face all derive from a similar template and are usually give some special techniques so they’re not the exact same fight, but you won’t need to change up your attacking tactics too much save for the truly unique twists like Lichdragon Fortissax who will stand on his rear legs and start wielding crimson lightning like spears. These retooled boss concepts and upgraded enemies are usually fairly good fights still despite being less unique than truly impressive foes like the Shardbearers, but the only place it feels like there might be a true flub is with bosses where numbers substitute in for difficulty. The Godskin Duo takes two Godskin bosses that are interesting fights on their own and combines them with little consideration for how the two foes will fight alongside each other, thus leaving some situations where the player is in a pickle thanks to the AI not really taking into account how their ally is fighting. On the other hand, Elden Ring sometimes pulls off this concept much more intelligently, the Valiant Gargoyle battle beginning with you against only one and the second showing up when you’ve got the first down to half health. This means you can try to focus down that first gargoyle to eliminate one consideration, but also when they’re both in play one might hang back and belch out a poison mist which still must be avoided but means there aren’t two giant foes swinging weapons at you constantly.

Commander O’Neil is another good example of an effective multi-enemy battle as he calls in groups of spectral archers and warriors to assist him, but his attacks are simple and focused on strengthening his allies while you can race around the battlefield on Torrent to avoid getting cornered. Commander Niall on the other hand takes the idea in the wrong direction, trapping you in a small arena where two powerful spectral knights can hardly be avoided as they unleash quick attacks, but crafting can give you an incredible situational advantage as the Bewitching Branch that turns small enemies to your side finally has a scenario where the targets available and battlefield allow for quite a reversal in who is getting unfairly ganged up on. Sometimes though a foe like the Tibia Mariner or Spirit-Calling Snail actually distracts you with foes you don’t need to fight that offset that difficulty in trying to dodge too many strong foes at once by allowing you to give the danger a wide berth while you focus on the summoner.

 

Regular enemies can sometimes put up as much of a fight as a boss in terms of needing to get your dodges down right, players especially needing to be wary of well-adorned knights who do sword combos and magical attacks that require more focus than the usual small foes. Since much of the game will involve exploring and facing off with lighter enemies it is crucial that some of these fights prove exciting on their own, and some may even put up a bigger fight than certain simpler boss concepts. While scaling a mountainside you might hear the beautiful Latin singing of human-faced bats, the build-up haunting and the fight often requiring good management of multiple foes who aren’t strong on top of that more dangerous leader bat. Enormous lobsters will doggedly pursue you if you catch their eye, and items may be guarded by giant golems who are slow but hit with incredible power. Giant hands that crawl on their fingers and move around quickly, shapeshifting blobs that manifest different weapons, man-serpents with whips of lava, and large metallic iron maidens with scythe and saw appendages that roll out across the ground make some of the foes as special and dangerous as major bosses even though they’ll be dealt with more swiftly. This tougher regular foes are good training though, keeping the player canny and capable before they encounter the big ticket battles with more difficult foes.

 

Before we wrap up though, Elden Ring still has one aspect that shifts the experience quite a bit, a special approach to multiplayer that goes beyond just playing with others.

 

WE JOURNEY ALONE, YET TOGETHER

While there is some sense of loneliness in traversing the Lands Between broken up only by the rare character to talk to or the conditional companionship of something like the Spirit Ashes, the online community of Elden Ring is an ever-present aspect of the game. As you explore the world there will be white messages left by other players on the ground, these built from a large set of terms and phrases but meant to guide you on your own journey through Elden Ring. These can be helpful, drawing attention to a well-hidden ledge you need to drop down onto or pointing you towards an illusory wall masking a hidden item. Others time though, the human propensity for mischief may take hold, and people might leave a message implying an invisible bridge lies ahead so that you step forward and tumble to your death. An appraisal system does mean helpful messages appear more often and just as often a message warning about another message might appear, but these give a broader sense of not being alone on your adventure while also drawing some attention to the game’s more obscure secrets.

 

While you do get a small heal if a player rates your message as helpful, most of the time these seem to be done out of pure good will, assistance provided to others because this harsh world will be a bit more manageable with a small guiding light. At other times, these messages will be used for silly jokes that can break up the quiet exploration or instead make you reflect on what lies before you. People will leave messages of shared sorrow near tough emotional moments in character quests or leave messages of support or mutual suffering outside the door of a particularly difficult boss, and it’s always cute to see a message celebrating a win when the trial is finally overcome. You may not know who left those words, but a sense of camaraderie with those who went before can easily develop, especially when people come together over something simple. That might be marveling at the harmless wildlife of the world like getting excited over tiny crabs or calling tortoises dogs or it might be something more moving like a simple bit of environmental storytelling. At a cliffside a dead man in chair overlooks the horizon as a lonely wolf sleeps by his side, this not seeming to have any greater narrative significance but messages all around it are touched by that simple sense of loyalty a non-essential little design choice exudes.

 

The messaging system is the most present form of multiplayer, but there are other ways to see how people play at the same time. At times spectral versions of other players will appear in your world mimicking their actions from their play session. They can’t be touched or harm any enemies, but it shows you how someone else is approaching the game and gives a bit more life to areas that might otherwise seem empty, dingy, or too hostile to even enter. Blood stains can give a very different picture of how others players have fared though, the player needing to activate these and then able to witness a red phantom enact the actions of another player who met an untimely end. Sometimes these can warn you of dangers ahead simply by the number of stains near an area while others might help you determine if a trap lies up ahead, but again the adventure feels less harsh when you know you aren’t the only one who might be struggling with a foe or dying again and again to a rough bit of platforming or tough batch of enemies.

 

While these informational uses of multiplayer are certainly a special way of connecting with other Elden Ring players, there are more traditional means of playing with other people both on the same side or as adversaries. By using summoning signs, you can bring in players to join your current session, although there are quite a few limitations and its main purpose is to assist with clearing specific areas or fighting bosses. Having another person in the battle with you can ease some of the difficulty in managing a boss’s focus or even open your eyes to new strategies, and while there are some rewards for assisting other players in battle, it again seems to be a matter of things done out of the good of other player’s heart because of the mutual understanding of the dangers such powerful enemies pose. Going into battle with other players adds yet another option to your bag of tricks for taking down even the most difficult fight, and while communication with your allies is somewhat limited, the goals are usually straightforward since a summoning sign is placed by those wishing to help others and they can try to pick spots where they know help is needed.

On the other hand though, players can invade other player’s worlds and try to kill them. Rewards for doing so do exist but are again not too huge and more importantly you need to open your world for other players to have a chance of being invaded, but battling other humans actually links together well with the fights you’ve had on your adventure. Not only do some characters like AI controlled invaders appear to prepare you for fighting people of similar capabilities, but the general tricks of dodging and stamina management still hold true when trying to kill another Tarnished. Here is also where some of these nifty boss attacks you can learn yourself can really shine, although the fact player versus player fighting exists also means some balancing was attempted. Some bosses can still be easily overcome with the right powers, but you are limited some simply because such powers need to be avoidable by other humans players, thus preventing you from ever tipping the scale too strongly in your favor.

 

Elden Ring’s story can be wrapped up in a reasonable time depending on which ending you’re shooting for, but already it has enough content to fill over a hundred hours of play with places to explore and bosses to face despite some reheated ideas. Adding in these multiplayer options also gives you something to do after you’ve exhausted as much of the world as you’re interested in though, be it helping others on their journeys like a kind mentor or popping in to test your mettle against the truly unpredictable and varied foes that are your fellow players.

 

THE CONCLUSION

At times, Elden Ring is about a seemingly unending sense of discovery, many creative locations with dangerous and unique foes awaiting you as you explore an enormous map. At others, the game tightens down to a heart-pounding skirmish between you and a massive foe that tests your limits. These two sides of the experience blend together though as your skill in avoiding the attacks of the most difficult bosses starts to make the still formidable normal enemies easier to overcome and the rewards for scouring the Lands Between open up a plethora of options on how you can tackle any danger that lies ahead. Multiplayer adds an intriguing sense of community and a new way to play as you enter other player’s worlds, but even the core game has an incredible array of unique ideas and enemy designs that both test your skill and stoke your curiosity as the environment and treasures build up your knowledge of this bleak but sometimes beautiful world. Certain battles don’t skew the balance well, but your ever-growing set of options means you can offset some of the difficulty if you go and engage with other excellent content until you’re ready for the next attempt.

 

A few reused ideas like reskinned bosses or the reuse of large chunks of mines and hero’s graves in future dungeons is unfortunate and things can start off a bit rough before you’ve nailed down the mechanics at play due to the often rather high damage even simple foes dish out, but reusing a few ideas in a game as massive as this might not even be noticed unless you truly dig in deep and a learning curve is hardly the worst thing to exist in a game that goes on to provide many helpful tools while still nailing that satisfying sense of accomplishment earned from besting a difficult boss. Your powers may invalidate some bosses once you’ve built them up, but you’ve assuredly done so by fighting difficult battles to acquire those skills or level ups needed to simplify wins elsewhere. Certain foes still remain tough even at your greatest strength, some using the odd damage balance to do so but others instead providing the kind of intricate battle situation that requires you to pay attention to the fight closely to achieve victory.

Those moments where you aren’t fighting some pulse-pounding foe where you’re always on the precipice of death are just as important though. There are a lot of little things to find in the world that can help you out, provide a breath-taking sight, or introduce you to more about this world that is intricately conceived yet does not dump the details on you so that uncovering the truth ends up more meaningful for it. The characters you meet aren’t often interacted with for long or even that often but can still stand out as a friendly face in a world that offers very few, their tales still compelling because of their reserved but carefully plotted nature even though finishing them will likely lead you to consult an online guide due to odd placement of important story steps. The main adventure still gives you a good amount of detail to understand the basics of the Lands Between and the skirmishes that made it reach such a state of decline, but a land marked by dark acts and depraved individuals also has hope, humor, and the marks of others on the same quest to keep it from ever bogging you down with a dreary tone.

 

Beautiful world design both in visual appeal and in how navigation is realized despite some movement control quibbles, excellent music to back both moments of quiet discovery and the battles of enormous gravity, combat that is as sharp as the weapons you wield while also having a considerable amount of well-realized depth, and an understated lore that brings together what you experience into an intriguing setting that is hard to pull your mind away from. Elden Ring is the kind of game where when you stop playing you’ll be left thinking where you might go next, which boss you should attempt, how you might change your approach, all while feeling like no intricate planning is needed since your skill and responsiveness can make many different approaches to the action work.

Concluding the 50 Years of Video Games review series was always going to be in an odd spot since going from 1972 to 2022 technically leaves me with 51 reviews, but whether you believe this to be the proper finale or an epilogue, Elden Ring is certainly a phenomenal conclusion to this retrospective on the medium. In Pong you only had a paddle to move up and down to knock a ball about, but 50 years later you can enter an enormous bespoke world filled with meticulous attention given to even small details. You can wield a huge variety of weapons and powers against foes of all shapes and sizes. You can play with others or on your own and even see how others play as glimmers in your own world. More skill is required to topple the titanic monsters and overcome the varied techniques they bring to bear in Elden Ring than is needed to win a round of Pong, but both bring us into a situation different from our normal lives. The amazing creativity that makes video games so magnificent and fascinating is expressed all throughout Elden Ring’s design, but all its forebears, be they from the broader history of gaming or FromSoftware’s older catalogue, lead to this excellent experience, and perhaps more interestingly, Elden Ring will join them in also helping influence the games that come after.

 

Elden Ring achieves a phenomenal level of scale that even future games may struggle to reach, but it is not size that makes its spectacular. The craftmanship that went into honing the systems of Elden Ring ensure its quality regardless of size, the quality at the heart of this interactive experience emerging from that commitment to ensuring its foundational ideas and mechanics are refined and able to provide exceptional play despite whatever little issues might impact individual moments. The imaginative concepts and mechanical excellence on show are what truly make Elden Ring a fantastic video game, those qualities ensuring it is the type of enduring experience that remains tough yet enjoyable no matter how gaming might evolve going forward.