What Returning to Dark Souls Taught Me About Elden Ring

Elden Ring made me appreciate how fair ds3 bosses are

On healing: in dark souls you usually die because you finished your estus, in elden ring you usually die because the boss managed to take away all your health in single combo

Going back to Dark Souls taught me that sometimes Less is More.

In Dark Souls you actually see enemies stop attacking and turn towards the player after every combo, in Elden Ring the FIRST BOSS has a back-hit to catch players used to this

I never got the idea that Smough getting stuck on a pillar was a glitch. I mean, the pillars are there for a reason, they are supposed to provide cover for you from both of them

After the sheer psychotic madness that Elden Ring's bosses are, going back to Dark Souls is like a therapy session where everything feels nice and relaxing.

It's nice to hear someone talking about the leveling in this game. Killing a boss and not even getting enough xp to level up has just never sat right with me

Agreed - bosses in DS games felt like: "How can we make an entirely unique experience based on this area and apply lore to attacks and design?" Whereas bosses in ER feels like: "How can we make a really, REALLY hard boss?"

Really great to hear someone wrap up my thoughts on the endgame of Elden Ring so well. Also a good reminder that those old FromSoft games still rock :)

My problem with ER is that sometimes you'll find a boss thats super tough, then find a much weaker version elsewhere. Very strange feeling for progression

My biggest problem with elden ring is how hard it is to find a good balance of difficulty. You can make the game incredibly difficult and tedious by deciding not to use spirit summons, but if you do it turns most bosses into an absolute cakewalk

Nothing will beat that feeling dark souls has to me

Pro tip: helping others beat a boss that you’re at least decent at is one of the best ways to level up and help others at the same time. Maliketh got me from 110 to 150 with a level up every two victories and you don’t lose your ruins on death of a coop session. It’s also a great way to get good at every boss in the game.

I actually just got my buddy into Dark Souls 1, and he found things I've never even seen before. In the undead Parish, he somehow got the Berenike knight to kill himself just by running for Andre's bonfire, and a bit later he found a super Evil Vagrant - in the Parish, no less. Shortly after, in the Moonlight Butterfly fight, he managed to get the butterfly to use its rare laser attack three times in a row, followed by the equally rare carpet bomb attack. I love that different playstyles can coax out different reactions from the entire world at large.

Going back to Dark Souls after Elden Ring shows that the From Soft formula works FAR better with intentionally built levels instead of an open world.

My biggest problem with ER was the sudden huge spike in difficulty after the capital and especially after the mountaintops. I beat radahn at release and he felt, then, like a massive (but fair) challenge. That's more than I could say for a lot of the late game bosses and area's.

As someone whose favorite souls games are those early ones in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1, this game perfectly encapsulates my feelings. I love the open world exploration and lore of Elden Rings. Its some of the best open world content out there. But I miss the slower pace, tactical gameplay of the earlier titles.

once i re-familiarized myself with Dark Souls, it felt like i had unlocked the matrix. it was all so much more deliberate, that i felt like i could beat anything easily. even the DLC i ran through easily, only dying once, to Manus. and it was so much fun. it was what made me finally decide to get every achievement and do the 2 and a half-ish playthroughs on one character to do that. in conclusion, Dark Souls rules.

Incredible video, thank you. I just started Dark Souls: Remastered. Enjoying the pain.

On point. I love Souls games. Starting Elden Ring, I was in awe but the more it went, the more I realized how much Dark Souls and Bloodborne were evocative and a test of will and skill.