Most gamers who have played any of the Dark Souls games know the pain they endured to finish them. They aren’t necessarily hard games; they are games you need a lot of patience and perseverance to get through. These games aren’t for everyone, but with the recent release of Elden Ring, it is more accessible for brand-new players.
It can be easier than most of the other FromSoft titles and allows you to play at your own pace. It also has a pretty decent tutorial at the beginning of the game to show new players how it works. If you are new to these types of games, Elden Ring is probably the best game to start with.
Some people even said that they didn’t like Dark Souls, but they enjoyed Elden Ring. This is because it gives you a more fleshed-out open-world version of all that FromSoft has learned from the past 13 years since Demon’s Souls. It is the best game for new players in this series of games.
1. You can play it at your own pace
Pacing in soul-like games has always been an important aspect of people’s playthroughs. Most people didn’t enjoy the Dark Souls games because they always felt forced to follow a specific path. That is entirely true, and it gets frustrating when you are stuck in a boss or area.
Elden Ring is much different in this regard. Once you get outside after creating a new character, you are welcomed by a beautiful view. You can go wherever and do whatever you want at your own pace. Even if the game had Limgrave, it would still have much content.
There is much to explore, and it doesn’t force you to defeat a boss or explore one specific area. It is extremely lenient, and there is no time limit. Some areas are called Legacy Dungeons, allowing you to explore them freely at your own pace.
Elden Ring doesn’t hold back when it comes to giving the player the freedom they want. If you are new and worried about getting stuck somewhere, don’t worry; you can always leave and return later. There is always something new to find and explore.
2. It teaches you how the game works
The longer tutorial is a big addition to these types of games that Dark Souls doesn’t have. In Dark Souls, the tutorial was just a bunch of signs on the ground that told you the basic moving mechanics. You then had to figure out how to do the more complicated stuff. In Elden Ring, they teach you pretty much everything you need to know.
From Guard Counters to Backstabs, Elden Ring will show you how to do it. They even added crouching and jumping as a normal mechanic in this game. We aren’t saying that Dark Souls is bad because we love those games, but there is something about Elden Ring’s mechanics that makes the game extremely smooth.
If you are new to the game, jump down the hole and play the tutorial. It will teach you pretty much everything you need to know. We have seen Streamers and YouTubers new to these games skip the tutorial. It usually ends with rage-quitting because they don’t know how the game works.
3. It can be the easiest FromSoft game
We worded this reason in a specific way for a reason. We didn’t say this is the easiest FromSoft game. We said it could be the easiest FromSoft game. There is a big difference between these two statements. This game can either be the hardest or easiest FromSoft game you can play. It depends on how you play the game.
If you rush through the game and don’t explore the optional areas, you will have a difficult time with everything. The whole point of the game is to explore and level up. You need to find all the good gear and materials needed to upgrade said gear. If you play the game and are having trouble, you are likely not ready for that area.
The best advice we can give you is not to rush through your playthrough. You will not only get frustrated, but you will also get mad at other people saying the game is easy. Yes, it might be easy for some people, but those people have probably spent a ton of time exploring and leveling up. It is entirely your fault if you are having much trouble with the game.
4. There are fewer consequences to dying
One of the arguments people have about Dark Souls games is that they did a lot. Many people consider this a bad thing, but it is, in fact, a good thing. You should be looking at dying in these games as something you should learn from instead of something annoying. If you died, you probably messed up somewhere or weren’t ready for the enemy attacks.
The best part about Elden Ring is how there are fewer consequences for dying to an enemy or a boss than in other games. There are more Sites of Grace, which is this game’s version of Bonfires, and a new type of respawning beacon. Outside the most important areas, there are the Stakes of Marika.
These serve as respawn beacons, but not like the Sites of Grace. You can’t rest on them, but they keep you from having to run to your objective every time you fail. Not every place has these, but most do. They are by far one of the best additions to these types of games, making new players enjoy the game a lot more.
5. Enemies are easier to avoid
We aren’t talking about their attacks when we refer to how they are easier to avoid. We are referring to how you don’t have to fight every enemy you see. You can try to fight specific enemies, but if they are too difficult, you can run past them and fight them later if you want to. There are many optional areas with unique enemies, which can all be avoided if you don’t want to do them.
There are the main bosses you have to fight, but pretty much everything else in the world is optional. You can only follow the story bosses and beat the game, but that will make the game extremely difficult. We would highly recommend making markers for the enemies that you run past so you can come back later.
There are a ton of optional bosses just out in the world. Place a marker on the ones you find and don’t defeat yet, so you don’t forget where they are. If you didn’t know, bosses in the game don’t respawn, so you don’t have to worry about them again once you defeat them. Just know that most are optional so you don’t have to fight them.
6. There is a build for everyone
You need to know that there are so many builds you can create in the game. There is a build for everyone who wants to play the game. From Mage builds with Dragon Incantations to Colossal Weapons with Heavy Armor, there are soo many variations that you can do. All you need to do is explore for a bit and find the items that work well with each other.
The thing about this game is how much of everything the game gives you. When we talk about other FromSoft titles, you probably could upgrade 3-4 weapons per playthrough, and it didn’t give much to you for experimentation. Elden Ring lets you upgrade over 25 weapons, as we know per playthrough. This allows you to experiment with a ton of new builds.
You can even go into NG+, which is called Journey 2. This allows you to play the game with all the gear and weapons you have collected, but it makes it a bit harder. If you are new, try to choose a starting class with good stats so that you can try different weapons early on.
7. The mechanics are easy to learn
This might be controversial, but the mechanics are easy to learn. When people say the game is difficult because of the mechanics, they don’t spend more than an hour playing it. There is a lock-on button, jump button, heavy attack, light attack, skill button, block, and roll. Those are the only buttons you need to learn.
You only need to play the game to learn the controls, and if people say that the game is clunky, they haven’t put in the small amount of time it takes to learn the controls. Don’t listen to the people that say this game is bad. They can have their own opinion, but it is up to you to determine if a game will be fun to play or not.
The game is easy to learn but hard to master. The game’s mechanics are pretty simple, but it is the implementation in the game that makes it difficult. If you are new to these types of games, Elden Ring has by far the easiest mechanics of all the other games by FromSoft.
8. Summons are more accessible
There are two types of Summons in the game. There is the co-op Summons that other people place down, but we are more focused on the other type of Summon. There is a new type added to these types of games called Spirit Ashes. These are NPC Spirits that you can Summon near a Spirit Monument.
Summon them during boss fights and enemy encounters to take some of the aggro off of you. There are many of them in the game, and they are by far the best addition to the game for new and veteran players. You can even get one called the Mimic Tear later that summons an exact copy of you to help you fight.
If you are struggling, don’t overlook the Spirit Summons, they will change your life. They will not only help you through the game, but they will also decrease your rage and automatically make the game more fun for you. If you are new, get the Spirit calling Bell from Ranni the Witch.