{"id":361991,"date":"2022-05-29T15:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T15:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/361991\/"},"modified":"2022-05-29T15:00:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T15:00:02","slug":"what-returning-to-dark-souls-taught-me-about-elden-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/361991\/","title":{"rendered":"What Returning to Dark Souls Taught Me About Elden Ring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0-BMdK5ZtS4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\nSupport the show on Patreon &#8211; http:\/\/patreon.com\/writingongames<\/p>\n<p>Podcast &#8211; http:\/\/anchor.fm\/writingongamescast<\/p>\n<p>Twitch &#8211; http:\/\/twitch.com\/writingongames<\/p>\n<p>Second Channel &#8211; https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC1xxfS_HILi09yaELQdmV1A<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Elden Ring is, deservedly, widely considered to be the peak of developer From Software&#8217;s creative output\u2014featuring the most fluid combat and the most densely packed, deeply interconnected world yet. This got me thinking\u2014with these obvious refinements, wouldn&#8217;t it be fairly difficult to go back to the early days of this franchise, with all the clunkiness (both technical and inherent to the game&#8217;s design) that comes with it? Well, I decided to go back to 2011&#8217;s Dark Souls\u2014analysing boss and world design, levelling, combat mechanics, etc.\u2014to find out. Interestingly, it turns out that while both games share obvious visual and mechanical DNA, they could not feel more different from one another\u2014a revelation that has further complicated my views on both an old favourite, and a new classic. <\/p>\n<p>0:00 &#8211; Intro<br \/>\n0:22 &#8211; Context<br \/>\n1:50 &#8211; Why I went back to Dark Souls<br \/>\n4:51 &#8211; The evolution of speed and aggression<br \/>\n7:43 &#8211; Stamina<br \/>\n9:57 &#8211; Tactical play and i-frames<br \/>\n11:33 &#8211; Boss battles<br \/>\n13:28 &#8211; &#8220;Playing the right way&#8221; and exploits<br \/>\n16:31 &#8211; My problems with Elden Ring&#8217;s bosses<br \/>\n20:17 &#8211; The problem with more options<br \/>\n22:11 &#8211; Elden Ring&#8217;s late game<br \/>\n23:48 &#8211; Gaming the numbers<br \/>\n27:11 &#8211; Exploration, world design and purpose<br \/>\n34:50 &#8211; Bonfires and Lost Grace<br \/>\n36:48 &#8211; Elden Ring is shockingly streamlined<br \/>\n37:51 &#8211; Conclusion<br \/>\n39:25 &#8211; Outro<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Thumbnail by hotcyder &#8211; http:\/\/twitter.com\/hotcyder<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/youtube.com\/hotcyder<\/p>\n<p>Intro text animation by Isaac Holland &#8211; http:\/\/twitter.com\/drazgames<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Support the show on Patreon &#8211; http:\/\/patreon.com\/writingongames Podcast &#8211; http:\/\/anchor.fm\/writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":361992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7883,9369,39832,212,2825,203,7191,64429,7200,175254,175255,7209,352,348,2234,15,1693],"class_list":{"0":"post-361991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rpg","8":"tag-bandai-namco","9":"tag-bloodborne","10":"tag-critique","11":"tag-dark-souls","12":"tag-dark-souls-3","13":"tag-dark-souls-remastered","14":"tag-dark-souls-retrospective","15":"tag-discussion","16":"tag-elden-ring","17":"tag-elden-ring-dark-souls-analysis","18":"tag-elden-ring-dark-souls-comparison","19":"tag-from-software","20":"tag-pc","21":"tag-ps5","22":"tag-review","23":"tag-rpg","24":"tag-sekiro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/games\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}