How From Software Turned Obtuseness Into A Feature, Not A Bug

Elden Ring is out- and it’s record sales among From Software’s pantheon of Souls games show that it’s broken out as the studio’s most mainstream success.

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Some could argue the Open World genre-shift helped – people love the genre, as seen by studios like Ubisoft practically being known for the genre and Breath of the Wild being held as the gold standard of the genre.

Heck, between games like Horizon Forbidden West, Genshin Impact and Breath of the Wild, there’ve been enough popular Open World games that most people have the rough idea of what comes with an open world game.

That expectation is what we’re talking about today: Elden Ring creepily laughs in the face of all of these, creating an open world that’s both rich in exploration while also bucking almost every trend first popularized in Assassin’s Creed 2 back in the days when school counselors were telling me writing a newsletter on video games would never take off and that I should be a doctor instead.

A Decade In The Making

Contrary to popular belief, Elden Ring didn’t come out of nowhere- it’s the culmination of over a decade of From Software refining the Souls formula- their series of challenging dark fantasy RPGs that all kinda look like Berserk. As games became more about verbally telling players what you needed to do, Souls games have always shyed from it- you’ve warped into Boletarian Palace, good luck figuring out where to go next. It’s worked well in previous From games specifically because, while they may look like giant palaces, the games are actually various winding corridors.

Elden Ring’s big success was somehow carrying this model and putting it in a more typical view of the open world. Big sprawling fields, a huge map that only seems to get even larger every time you pick up a map fragment, and yet somehow this game still feels just as much Souls as the dankest of corridors in Bloodborne.

To the offense of some developers, it even does this without what was previously thought to be the golden rule of open world games- a minimap. Aside from a compass up top, there’s no way to ever see where you are in The Lands Between at a glance. Instead, you’ll have to open the big map, which means not being targeted by any enemies.

Similarly, the game also lacks any kind of quest tracker. The heresy! How ever will I be motivated to explore that cave if Jimbo Schlimbo wasn’t going to tell me to explore the cave for a purple bow, all neatly recorded on the top corner of my screen? And why isn’t the Tarnished saying anything about it?

If you took any other open world game and launched without these features, you’d call the game devoid of quality of life and throw it into a pile of bad games to be bought by a YouTuber during the steam sale for his Summer Content Push. Yet with Elden Ring, From Software cut all those necessary features out and got praised as one of the greatest games to ever come out.

The Secret Ingredient

Surprisingly enough, the secret to From Software’s praise isn’t that people love them despite their obtuseness, they love them explicitly for it. The Souls series offers a satisfying gameplay loop not because you got some Legendary Loot, it’s satisfying because playing the game is actually satisfying.

During the closed beta, I was stuck on Margit, The Fell Omen for three days. Every day included a two-hour Margit session where the old man taunted my “foolish ambitions” as he chucked magic daggers at me if I tried to heal before smashing me into the ground with a magic hammer.

By day 3 I’d done what’s called a download- figured out every move he had, and the optimal action to counter it. His jump attack? He delays it so roll exactly one beat after he jumps. He died, and I felt a joy wash over me like my favorite Vtuber just said my name.

The game is not hard, it’s challenging. The dopamine hit is from killing the boss, not opening the chest behind him.

Once you instill that in your players, guess what? They’re gonna want the next hit. “Oh look, Limgrave tunnel!” I say to myself. “Bet there’s something to kill in here!”

The lack of an instructional UI further helps this along, too- I’m sure we’ve all had the story of thinking to ourselves, “hmm I should probably do the dishes” only to have our mother come in and say “please do the dishes”, turning an act of self-care into a chore. By not having a UI that’s always telling you where to go, you really feel like the world is your sandbox- and you really start to feel like you’re heading into that tunnel for you, not because some jerk told you to.

Less Quest, More Encounter

This does apply to Elden Ring’s quest design, too. The game lacks any kind of quest tracker- you encounter these strange weirdos in the world and just do things for them as they ask it. Rather than give you frivolous things like killing 5 boar though, From makes sure that these encounters are meaningful. D, Hunter of the Dead warns you that the undead have taken over the area ahead, and they’re accompanied by a Tibia Mariner. Blaidd the Half-Wolf (who’s totally not Guts, stop asking) tells you that the Bloodhound Knight Darriwil needs to be put down. Do you get anything out of this? Yes, a sick boss fight.

These are more than just one-note quests too, since they have full stories as you keep encountering them in the wild. The trick is you’re not meant to actively be chasing them for their quests- the NPCs in Elden Ring are treated more like recurring characters in a story. I made my way up to meet Ranni the Witch and it turns out she reunited me with Blaidd, progressing his own quest. While weeks from now you’ll be able to look it all up in a guide the launch experience was absolutely meant to be one about discovery.

Heck you even see it in the multiplayer. There’s no matchmaking, you’re just meant to find other player’s summon signs. From Software really likes the idea of you being a lonely soul on a journey, and for but a brief moment your life intersects with other people. It’s been their M.O since Demon’s Souls, and they’ve gotten really good at it.

At The End of the Day

That’s not to say Elden Ring is immune to criticism- I do wish they kept some sort of journal that just told me what each NPC said last, since writing it all down in my phone is a bit of a hassle. It’s also a pain if you’re playing it at launch- in Dark Souls 3, a character named Sirris of the Sunless Realms would basically call you a jerk and leave if you ever used the game’s PVP features, failing her quest. The joke was that a week in no one knew what her quest even *was*, since the Souls games have such a strong PVP scene.

But I think rather than get frustrated over why it can’t be more like modern games., it’s better to look at any weird game that’s bucking a trend and see if there’s actually a reason they’re doing it, even if it’s not executed well.

Takeaways:

-Souls games are about mechanical satisfaction, not reward

-Sometimes, telling a player to do something makes it feel more like a chore than play

-Give players control of the game’s pace and they’ll feel more attached to their character.

W. Amirul Adlan is a card-carrying Souls addict who has actually turned down dates to play Elden Ring on at least one occasion