The Ways Elden Ring Surpassed The Open-World Genre

Summary

Elden Ring's open-world design offers more accessibility with fewer gates, making it one of the most inviting Soulslike games.
The game provides plenty of opportunities for power leveling and exploitation through its open-world system.
Elden Ring's innovative features, such as horseback boss battles and diverse NPC interactions, set it apart from other open-world games.

The now-iconic company FromSoftware began in 1986, and while they found success with games over the years, they wouldn’t hit their peak until 2009’s Demon’s Souls. This was the start of the Soulslike era of the company, which brought them new fortunes and praise from fans around the globe.

FromSoftware produced good games for a decade, set in their ways. Then, the next revolution happened in 2022: Elden Ring. It brought Soulslike games into the open-world genre, which benefited both genres. What makes Elden Ring so impressive as an open-world game? Can FromSoftware ever go back to previous models? Let’s dive in and find out why this game rules.

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An Open Area Makes It More Accessible

Attack Or Avoid Bosses

Overlooking enemies from a cliff in Elden Ring

Soulslike games typically have a Metroidvania-like design to them. A game like Dark Souls starts in one area, and then branches out, connecting multiple pathways as players continue through their journey. While there can be branching paths, there’s also a lot of linearity, which can be frustrating for players who can’t get past a certain section.

Elden Ring solved that issue with its open world, giving players the freedom to tackle any number of trials whenever they wanted. Granted, there are still some areas that gate progress, but they are few and far between, which makes Elden Ring one of the most inviting Soulslikes around.

Plenty To Exploit

Power Leveling Like A Pro

Shooting enemies with a bow in Elden Ring

For players who like to cheese RPG systems and get ahead, Elden Ring offers plenty of exploitation opportunities thanks to its open-world design. It was technically easy to reach areas that could kill players in one hit, but there were reasons to go there regardless. With the right builds, players can safely attack from a distance in multiple areas to net large amounts of Runes, Elden Ring’s version of EXP.

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There are dozens, if not hundreds, of articles and videos detailing secret Rune exploits that FromSoftware has patched or left alone over the years. That’s what makes the Soulslike community so strong, especially with Elden Ring, as players love to share. Not many open-world games have extensive secrets like this or giant communities willing to share that knowledge.

Play With Friends

Going Beyond Boss Fights

Beyond a good community, Elden Ring also made it easy to group up with friends. There was still a bit of a learning curve, as it wasn’t as easy as matching with randoms or friends in Call of Duty, but it was an improvement over past Soulslike games.

Exploring with two other people in the world made it easier to deal with random monsters, and allies stuck around for boss battles too. There aren’t a lot of open-world games with co-op, especially RPGs, for better or worse. It can be more fun to explore an open-world game alone to get more engrossed, but co-op is still a praiseworthy feature of Elden Ring.

Battles On Horseback

A New Way To Engage Bosses

Randoms or friends weren’t the only ally players can summon in the game. They also get a horse named Torrent in Elden Ring that they can summon out of the blue. This added a whole new dimension to boss battles in the Soulslike universe, as many of them were best faced while on Torrent. It was a learning curve like the multiplayer options, but now that fans have gotten a taste of horseback boss fights, they crave more.

Elden Ring is certainly not the first open-world game to offer horses or horse-based boss battles, but it can be praised for creating more dynamic encounters. FromSoftware has always been great about creating memorable boss fights, and Elden Ring’s horseback encounters are no exception.

Horsing Around The World

Did That Horse Really Double Jump?

Fighting bosses is not the only innovative thing about Torrent. It can also jump and then double jump. Besides platforming icons like Mario, how many horses can double jump in games? While it’s not as cool as being able to climb anything or glide in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, double jumping around with Torrent in Elden Ring is still fun and unique. Learning to master this ability can help with boss battles too, especially for dodging purposes.

The Greatest Weapon And Spell System To Date

Something For Everyone

Elden Ring, like most Soulslike games, technically has a class system, but it’s only a guiding template. After their start, players can build their Elden Ring character into any type of adventurer they want, be it a big, brutal knight or a nimble wizard. The amount of weapons and spells players can acquire goes above and beyond what previous Soulslike games offered, and most open-world games too.

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For spell casters, many fans loved summoning spells to dominate their foes. For melee fans, the dual-bladed Twinblade weapons were a favorite. However gamers like to play their RPGs, there’s something for everyone in Elden Ring.

More NPCs Than Ever Before

Who To Trust?

Most NPCs in previous Soulslike games like to hang out in hub areas, and in open-world games, they stick to towns. The NPCs are spread out in Elden Ring and are more mysterious and diverse than ever before. It’s hard to tell whether players should help out someone trapped in a prison or weird potted men.

The mystery is thrilling as it can deeply mess a player up, given the wrong choice. There’s a risk-reward mentality when it comes to helping NPCs, and that danger gives the open world of Elden Ring an exciting feeling like no other.

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