How Elden Ring's Open World Succeeds

No spoilers beyond Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula.

Credits:

♪ Castle (Prod. by Lukrembo)

#EldenRing #FromSoftware #DarkSouls

[Oceaniz]

No spoilers beyond Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula.

[skippersquirtel]

Elden ring is really one of two open world games that I think actually live up to the name. The other being breath of the wild. So apparently the way to make a good open world game is to come out after a horizon game lol

[solidpython]

Also technically, there is even a way to skip Margit and Godrick and enter the second region, Liurnia, if you explore enough and find this alternate path.

[MasukoXIII]

I will never forget how my friends and I played for days without speaking about it. Then when trying to talk about it without spoilers; "Did you find the ruins etc etc this direction?" Realized we all ran around roughly in the same areas but never in the same exact path so we collectively discovered things we all missed. It was a fantastic feeling

[LPChipi]

2:02 I've played Skyrim for more hs than I care to count, and something I'll never forget is when I found a Novice Necromancer enchanting a chicken in the woods for practice. It felt so beautifully unnecessary and fun. I loved that tiny moment.

[Skwadley]

I love BOTW but it definitely did the whole “I have an important overarching quest I need to be doing right now but instead I am picking mushrooms”. Poor Zelda has been fighting off Ganon for like 100 years and Link is taking his sweet time.

[dafire]

The "northernmost stronghold" isnt mandatory, as you can just explore further up and you'll get taken to the relevant zone even without defeating the boss in the stronghold!

[sgregory]

Rewards are far rarer in this game than many other open world games, and this makes explorations more important. Every single equipment you obtain was through hard work and tenacity, and that feeling of accomplishing something really pays off after finding a weapon you always wanted after clearing a dungeon.

[cosmic]

Speaking technically, even the two "mandatory" bosses in the region are optional. You can actually completely bypass Stormveil Castle (granted ofc, you can manage being underleveled for Liurnia)

[durandus]

HUD vanishing when no enemy Aggro and such going on to let you chew all on that scenery was brilliant. Elden ring is on my my favorite games now, with Gravity rush and childhood nostalgia games. Made me feel 10 again

[NourArt]

You said something very clever at the end of the video "Exploration is your story" .. that's what makes FromSoft recent games unique, each and everyone who play these games had their own unique experience with the game, even tho it's the same game. and that is truly amazing

[HateSonneillon]

Elden Ring doesn't just not flex its size. If you pay attention to the map, its doing everything it can to hide how big its map is.
When you get your first map, it is a square just containing west Limgrave and a black cutoff all around the square. Trying to make you believe that is the extend to this map. Faded edges and fog of war cover parts of the map, but the black square cutoff is saying, "thats all there is here, nothing beyond this border". Once you start getting more map pieces the black cutoff eventually goes away. Even the way the roundtable hold scales up and down on the map and moves closer to Limgrave when thats the only piece you have is again to trick you into thinking that it is not a very big world.

[VVabsa]

Although I'm almost 40 hours I'm still mostly in the beginner areas and still finding new stuff and optional bosses. The day/night system actually makes a difference here in what you encounter.

[Kakomss]

it's insane that there are actually *no* mandatory bosses in Limgrave nor the Weeping Peninsula. I think there are only about 10 mandatory bosses in the entire game. Absolutely insane

[guiyerod]

The thing I love the most of fromsoftware games is the way the game tells you nothing regarding sidequests and item locations which gives me a feeling of nostalgia. Back in the early 2000s when the internet didn't have enough game info so most games you played you went blind into it and you had to solve everything by yourself and I just love that freedom the games gives you to explore and be rewarded not just to unlock the map or fill a progression bar, it is just amazing.

[MythlyInari]

I loved the freeform of Elden Ring.
I didn't even find Weeping Pensula at first; I avoided the castle and ended up into Caelid.
Caelid seriously worked me into shape, and imagine my surprise finding Pensula later.

[jonmarxen]

I love how Vaati has become an essential part of the Souls community at this point, kinda like "this looks interesting, I don't understand it though, let's wait for Vaati to clear it up".

[potao]

Almost have 80 hours in the game already. I’ve never had this much dedication and fun with a video games since breath of the wild and I absolutely love it. (This was also my first souls game and it’s great!!)

[edgedrick]

I think so far my favorite moment of playing ER is when I made it to the Hallowhorn Grounds and slowly pieced together how this ancient tribe was wiped out and buried underground
I didn't even go there on purpose I was just farming runes so I could level up and fight Margit and I was tired of fighting those weird crystal spear guys
Fucking incredible game

[deanmorgan]

This game is amazing and I absolutely love it but I'm not shortchanging myself by not playing Skyrim, Witcher 3, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2, Fallout 3 through 4, etc. I still enjoyed them all. I just love open world games in general.