The gamers have been out in full force since the release of Elden Ring. While I gave FromSoftware’s latest a masterful five stars in my review and labeled it as my favourite game in quite some time, I also understand that it absolutely is not for everybody.
It’s challenging, uncompromising, and builds upon many of the systems first established in Demon’s Souls over ten years ago. It is 100 percent one of those games, meaning that those who bounced off the likes of Dark Souls and Sekiro probably won’t gel with it. Despite this being obvious and many of my friends and colleagues bouncing off the game because of its impenetrable nature, hardcore fans love to defend every little problem as a grand signature of the game’s artistic vision.
Now sometimes this defence is valid. I believe that Elden Ring doesn’t hold your hand in terms of exploration, combat, or objective markers because it wants you to stake your claim on The Lands Between. It is a desperately hostile place, so holding your hand through it all would be both mechanically and thematically discordant. But there’s nothing wrong with facilitating that vision by improving upon the game with a more approachable interface and mechanics that aren’t obscured by weird menus and bad design decisions.
Today saw FromSoftware release Patch 1.3 for Elden Ring shortly after it was announced the game had sold a staggering 12 million copies. The audience is bigger than it could have ever predicted, and thus begins the process of fixing bugs, delivering nerfs, and making the game even better with subtle but meaningful improvements. This includes a few additions to the game’s map, which is otherwise very minimal in the information it provides. Now the location of NPCs will be shown, making it easier to continue quest lines and figure out exactly where certain characters are. This was impossible without a guide before, and will make seeing everything Elden Ring has to offer that much easier.
Just like past Soulsborne games, there are a number of questlines that can only be completed by being in the right place at the right time. Execute a sequence of actions in the wrong order and a character could either die or disappear forever. Given a new playthrough is required to recover these mistakes, it can be more than a little annoying. This has always sucked, and FromSoftware finally acknowledging that and implementing a miniscule change to make things easier will mean the world to a lot of people. But some will inevitably turn their noses up at it, worried that the studio is bowing down to the mainstream instead of sticking to its artistic vision. The thing is, FromSoft made the decision to introduce this change, so wouldn’t that be part of their overall vision too? Checkmate, gamers.
The patch also builds upon the world of Elden Ring with new NPCs and additional steps to certain quests, hinting that perhaps this world and the adventures we’ll have within it are only just getting started. A press release from earlier this week hints that Elden Ring will be the start of a successful multimedia franchise, so this won’t be the first change introduced to make the game more approachable, or just to make basic enhancements to parts of the game that are either lacking or could use more concrete explanation. You can choose to ignore their presence if you’d rather tackle the game a certain way, but it’s hard to argue that the most basic of quest markers being added is a bad thing.
One of the biggest discussions about Elden Ring following its release was the lack of clarification built into its user interface. Those who take a few seconds to analyse the environment instead of rushing ahead will find a world with visual cues designed to lead you in the right direction. That’s beautiful art design, but also not enough for some who prefer a more guided experience. Having the option to make things clearer from an aesthetic point of view wouldn’t compromise on the game’s difficulty or sense of discovery, if anything it would draw in more people because fewer obstacles stand in the way.
We shouldn’t need to pass an exam or prove we are worthy to enjoy a game like this. At times, it just won’t gel with certain people, but if FromSoftware wants to address that reputation by introducing small quality-of-life changes I can’t help but see that as a positive thing. An artistic vision is a malleable thing, a changing philosophy that is never concrete in what it hopes to depict. The studio is changing, and I don’t think it will ever abandon the exploration and challenge that defines many of its games, but it will make them more approachable, and further adaptable to the mainstream identity it’s now adopting.
