Elden Ring Review: Rise! You Foul Tarnished!

By Leih Shinto

        Elden Ring is an Action RPG with open world elements developed by FromSoftware Inc. and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment on Windows, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XboxOne and Xbox Series X/S on February 25th of 2022.

        The brilliant minds of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin came together to create a vibrant and grand open world now known as Elden Ring. Miyazaki being a fan of Martin’s work, decided to come in contact with him to work on this project giving him freedom of choice for writing the backstory of the Elden Ring universe. Staff from the Game of Thrones television series also assisted with the development of the game. As with previous FromSoftware games the story is told through NPC dialogue, item descriptions and the very few cutscenes throughout the game. At the start you create your tarnished warrior who will traverse the lands and defeat the shardbarers to repair the elden ring and become elden lord. After the beautiful opening cutscene you are thrown into a broken down church and make your way out following the linear path. As with most of Miyazaki’s games, there is a boss waiting for you at the end of the road. This is the first of many grafted scions you fight in the game. If you’re an absolute gamer, you’ll be able to kill this boss no problem, however this boss is supposed to kill you. When you die you end up in a dark cave where you meet a stranger riding a horse later on revealing the cloaked figure as Melina and your noble steed Torrent.

        This game feels exactly what you paid for, there is no paid cosmetics or battle pass. If there is a piece of armor you want, no need for countless hours of farming you can go and get it from an enemy or purchase it from a merchant. There is no difficulty setting in the game however it is very accessible to everyone. Having a very difficult time with a boss fight? Take a look at your stats, maybe your health is a bit too low or maybe you are running out of stamina quickly? You could also use Spirit Summoning Ashes, which is a mechanic in the game where you can summon spectral creatures to aid you in battle.

The very few problems I have with this game revolves around multiplayer issues such as invasions and co-op. No game will ever have zero bugs on release and there are always some people exploiting them. For example on release there was a huge pvp bug where meeting certain requirements and having the right equipment players were able to walk up to players and instantly kill them with. As of the recent patch that has been fixed however another bug has risen from nowhere and basically is the same thing.

        The only other issue I have is when defeating a main boss of an area you are locked out of co-op for that area excluding dungeons. Although this has been a core mechanic of the FromSoft game series, I wish I was still able to explore the world with friends even after defeating a main boss. Aside from everything, I can in good conscience recommend this game to anyone even if it is your first FromSoftware game! Elden Ring is beautifully executed and offers freedom of choice from your build to exploration of various locales.

Reviewed on PS5.