Elden Ring review: Open-world Dark Souls successor is a massive success

Demon’s Souls Dark SoulsHidetaka Mizaki, game director of these games, hasn’t taken the comparisons to The Legend of Zelda with joy. “I feel deeply unworthy of the comparison,” Miyazaki has said, calling the early Zelda games “monumental” works. But it is hard not to see the Zelda series’ influence, particularly the groundbreaking open-world adventure The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, on his company FromSoftware’s new game, Elden Ring.

Nintendo’s 2017 Zelda game appears to have had a powerful, and overwhelmingly positive, impact on FromSoftware’s beloved style of action-RPG. Elden Ring is a deeply impressive adventure of incredible breadth and depth, blending From’s style of rich, challenging combat with exploration, discovery, and new levels of player freedom.

It all begins with the Tree Sentinel. The Tree Sentinel is the first person you will encounter. Elden Ring’s vast fantasy world, the Lands Between. He’s nigh-impossible to defeat in your weak starting state. There is also a church nearby that can provide refuge and other supplies. And there’s a castle just a little further. There are abundant woods nearby that provide natural resources for crafting curative items. Elden Ring communicates quickly that your means of survival require exploration, learning, growth, and returning to face challenges, like the Tree Sentinel, when you’re physically and mentally ready for them.

Anyone who’s ever faced down a Lynel in Take a deep breath of the wildYou will be able to see the results.

Image via Polygon: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco

Elden Ring is a clear continuation of Miyazaki’s Souls series, and it hits many of the same notes: A quiet, blank-slate warrior travels to a far-off, blighted land, where man and beast alike are cursed by some awesome power and cataclysmic event. While Elden Ring starts its conversation with the player in ways familiar to anyone who’s played those renowned games, the conversation quickly changes only minutes into Elden Ring.

The game’s massive map — and yes, there is an honest-to-goodness on-screen map this time — is only barely revealed to you at the beginning. You will find enemies encampments and dungeons as you travel on foot or on horseback. There are also caravans of soldiers and friendly faces. You can grow through the experience and material rewards of every discovery made in the world. For example, I find an easy-to-find catacomb on a nearby limestone cliffside that can restore precious health points for critical hits. In an enemy camp, I find a better shield that fully absorbs enemies’ strikes. Golden Seeds can be found at glowing saplings. They add additional charges to my healing flasks. Every power that I uncover makes my next task a bit easier.

There are many challenges to overcome Elden RingThey are extremely difficult. Margit the Fell Omen: A twisted, stocky and stick-wielding soldier who seems to be on the verge of becoming a tree. He is alone when you confront him in the morning. Elden RingThis seems almost impossible. I have the ability to summon three ghostlywolves that will assist me in combat, as well as enlist an amazing warrior spirit to join me. Neither makes Margit a cakewalk; boss battles in FromSoftware games are notoriously difficult — and Margit’s immediate successor is even more challenging — but Elden RingIt gives me many tools that make it easier to be more competent in stressful situations. For my war weapons to be even stronger, I have the option of visiting a Hub area that is geographically far from the Lands Between. This hub area is called the Roundtable Hold.

Image by FromSoftware/Bandai Namco

It has been 45 hours. Elden Ring, I’ve defeated three of the game’s major bosses. They’ve granted me powerful runes, which I can temporarily use to empower my character. I also have a broad arsenal of weapons — swords, pikes, clubs, bows, even a rusted anchor — and magic at my disposal. I’ve learned how to cast healing spells, and how to perform pyromancies. To poison my enemies, I am able to concoct dangerous perfumes. I have the ability to summon a ghostly jellyfish and a snakeman to help me. Unsavory recipes made with mushrooms, animal livers and wild fruits can be prepared. They are able to cure or temporarily buff me. Elden Ring’s toolset for growing more capable against daunting odds is deep and impressively varied — but it has not made me a god.

Which is to say that FromSoftware’s signature high level of challenge remains intact in Elden Ring. Just as From has given me a deep well of tools I can use to tailor my playstyle, it has also compensated by deploying some of the hardest, most frustrating enemies it’s ever created. But I have found respite riding my steed Torrent through the game’s open-world areas, discovering caves and catacombs and wrecked little towns where I find even more tools with which to arm myself. Just recently, I was able to summon a disembodied flame-breathing dragonhead at the end my arm. That feels awesome.

There are many destinations in the Lands Between. While there are many maze-like castles I can explore, there are also tunnels and mines underground that allow me to farm materials or battle bosses of lower difficulty. I’m measurably improving in the in-between moments before harder and harder boss battles. The Lands Between offer a wide range of landscapes, from magnificent medieval fortresses, to poison-flooded forts, beautiful autumnal scenery, and caverns populated with skinned bodies. Caelid is a dark, reddish-skinned area that’s so disturbing it can be difficult to believe. ExistingIt felt tiring. FromSoftware raises the bar again for those who want to live in miserable fantasies.

Image by FromSoftware/Bandai Namco

Although the Lands Between is often dark and depressing to the point that it becomes almost depressing, they can also offer a magical world. You can take, for example, four-legged walking cathedrals with mysterious bells. They clomp along plains and shallow lakeshores and ring their bells to a purpose I’m still trying to figure out. There are many strange things in the world. Elden Ring’s vast world, these beings also represent a puzzle to solve — and should these self-contained tiny mysteries become too perplexing, there is often a merchant or helpful resident nearby who can sell me a clue. They may also sell me recipe cards or give me a job to complete for a reward. There are massive dragons, towering golems, and massive sentient pots out in the open world, to be sure — but the smaller details work wonders. These details feel more like a way to add color and less like completing a list.

Elden Ring eschews traditional open-world video game bloat. There are no strict directives about where to go and what to do — merely suggestions and guidance from the Light of Grace at places of rest. Rarely does anyone I meet put a challenge on me or ask for my help. Instead, I add details to the map, finding castles and keep for myself and marking new places and points of interest. Elden RingEncourages me to explore the world and make my own discoveries.

Progress is not a barrier to the open land of Lands Between. My steed Torrent allows me to travel almost anywhere and at any time. And by using Sites of Grace — Elden Ring’s version of Dark Souls bonfires — I can quickly move around the game’s continent in mere seconds.

It is also extremely convenient. I just need to pull up my map, and I can teleport to the location I desire. Likewise, anytime I find myself stuck on a particular problem — let’s say, for example, a damnable knight who can telekinetically throw his sword at me from across the room — I go do something else. There’s AlwaysThere are other things to do.

Image by FromSoftware/Bandai Namco

Elden Ring’s story is, like many FromSoftware games, opaque, and often tangential to the immediate action. George R.R. is a fantasy author. Martin, who contributed to the game’s lore, has done little to alter how From tells a story. You can still see it in conversation, in item descriptions and even in the actual landscape. Nearly everywhere that you travel is in ruins; churches have been destroyed and castles are crumbling, so only the strongest survive. Martin seems to have been generous. Elden RingThis fictional story is more grounded in the concepts of familial relationships and the lust for power. It also shows how that power can have enormous repercussions on those who are under its control. But it’s hard to gauge the real impact of Martin’s contributions here, particularly since I have yet to finish its story, or stitch together its piecemeal lore. While the characters I’ve met in Elden RingIt is more complex than past FromSoftware games. Much of which is to say that if you’re coming to Elden Ring for Game of Thrones-style drama — a vast fantasy epic spread across a similarly vast open world — you will not be served that — instead, whispers of a wider narrative and a mostly clear mission: Slay everyone and become the Elden Lord yourself.

Elden RingFromSoftware has taken the next natural step in this direction, after last creating a fantasy world as large and successful as this. Dark Souls 3. This game offered a wide-ranging, interconnected universe, an enormous armory, as well as an immense amount to explore, use, and learn. Elden Ring is that game amplified — it plucks the best from BloodborneWith its small, puzzle-like minidungeons and a streamlined layout,. Sekiro: Shadows Die TwiceIt offered greater mobility and quicker action.

FromSoftware did more than remix their earlier games to add open-world influences. Elden Ring. The studio’s conversation with the player goes in fascinating new directions, and there are great surprises here for longtime fans of Souls games; From clearly knows what we expect of its castles, its boss encounters, the random out-of-nowhere ambushes, and it plays with those expectations. Sometimes it means I die unexpectedly. It can also make me laugh.

Elden RingFebruary 25th, 2015, will see the release of The Last Guardian on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. Bandai Namco Entertainment provided a code for the download of the game to be reviewed on PS5. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions on products sold via affiliate links. Find out more. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.