Summary
BeforeElden Ringwas released, the initial announcement that it was going to have an open world was a bit worrisome for many fans ofElden Ring’s predecessors. In the end though, this turned out to be no cause for concern. Now that many players have had a chance to explore all the far corners ofElden Ring’s Lands Between, most feel that the move to an open world proved to be a good upgrade for FromSoftware’s Souls-style games.
Given how well-received the open-world format has been forElden Ring, future FromSoftware Souls-style games should follow suit with this feature. Not only that, butElden Ring’s DLC and future content should also double down on open areas. The open world formula established by Elden Ring feels like the right direction for the genre to go in, but at the same time, the new transition to open-world environments leaves some areas for future games to improve upon. In particular, FromSoftware should find a way to make its next game more replayable.
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Future FromSoftware Games Should Double Down on Replay Value
Elden Ring’s combination of both traditional linear and new open-world environments was a breath of fresh air for the genre, and it also helped new fans to experience the genre for this entry. Souls-style games are known for having a punishingly high difficulty, butElden Ringhas done many things to make that difficulty as optional as players want it to be. Aside from Spirit Summons,Ashes of War, and Legendary gear,Elden Ring’s open-world formula generally allows players to progress in a new direction whenever they hit a roadblock in the game.
However, there is considerably lesser replay value inElden Ringcompared to theDark Soulsgames, and the open-world map is a contributing factor to this. InDark Souls 3, certain items were only available on the second and third playthroughs of the game. For many fans who expectedElden Ringto also offer new items on each additional playthrough, it surprisingly doesn’t. After players fully complete their firstElden Ringplaythrough, the only things that additional playthroughs offer are duplicate items, increased Rune drop rates, tougher enemies, and another chance to complete the questlines. Players can take advantage of using duplicate items by dual-wieldingpowerful weapons inElden Ring, but otherwise, the game only needs to be fully explored on a single playthrough.
There are only so many places to go, and even then, some of the locations are still quite linear. The questlines inElden Ringpair very well with the open-world format, except they all kind of blend together at certain points in the game.Elden Ring’s different endingsare all fairly similar and bring players to complete most of the same events until the very end, too, making several of the endings something to look up online instead of something worth working to unlock.
Most of the areas inElden Ring’s map can be explored without involving a questline, but the few areas that do involve quests still don’t have much replayability. This is in part due to the fact thatElden Ring’s side quests can almost all be completed in a single playthrough. A few questlines have a point of no return that locks players out of other quests, but this happens so late in the game that the only consequence is in which ofElden Ring’s endings players chose to complete. While introducing conflicting requirements to explore certain questlines and areas could be counterintuitive to an open-world experience, it would encourage more replayability.
Future FromSoftware games afterElden Ringshould consider how the open-world format has affected the replayability of the game. Bringing back unique items on additional playthroughs, exclusive questlines, and locations could improve the game’s replay value. While it may be too late for any ofElden Ring’s DLCto innovate upon the game’s open-world formula, future FromSoftware games that borrow the format ofElden Ringshould step up to the challenge and prioritize replay value.
Elden Ringis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
