Is Elden Ring the best of the Souls series?

For over a decade FromSoftware have created an iconic system of gameplay that influenced countless other games.

For over a decade FromSoftware have created an iconic system of gameplay that influenced countless other games and inspired players of all ages.  

Let’s take a look at how ELDEN RING has elevated and perfected the original Souls series formula and explore if ELDEN RING could be the best of the entire Souls series.

What are the characteristics of the Souls series that defined it as an iconic point of reference?

The majority of the games were designed by Hidetaka Miyazaki to give players the experience of exploring dark and majestic fantasy worlds full of danger. 

There’s also a strong focus on difficulty, world structure, boss fights, and player builds.

Let’s look at these elements more closely.

Combat and Difficulty Design

The difficulty of the Souls series stems from their combat design. They emphasize deliberate attack and evasion in response to enemy movement, which tends to be quick, fierce, and punishing for players who find themselves out of position at the wrong moment. Players need to carefully observe and learn their foes’ patterns, then react to exploit certain specific attack openings without leaving themselves open as well.

This type of careful, evasive gameplay mimics the danger and strategy of real hand-to-hand combat and the high stakes keeps the tension and excitement rising in each fight. It’s not as simple as playing out a power fantasy where enemies easily fall to repeated mindless button mashing. For most players, this difficulty means that the feeling of mastering Souls series combat is a rush of pure accomplishment.

World Structure and Exploration

In the earlier Souls series games, levels are massive, interconnected linear paths. These paths often have several branching paths that reward exploration and puzzle solving, but are limited in terms of true open field exploration, as it’s necessary to follow a specific set order of levels, usually connected by a hub area where players can regroup, level up and open new paths, to progress throughout the game.

In the best Souls series games, carefully studying the environment and enemy behavior can lead to hidden areas or items, a particular strength of the Dark Souls series, and many players consider level design that rewards careful exploration to be a critical feature of Dark Souls-like games.  

Boss Battles and Player Builds

Throughout the Souls series, boss battles are powerful climatic moments that put a player’s abilities to the test. In the Dark Souls series, specifically, from the Asylum Demon to Slave Knight Gael, the Dark Souls bosses are encounters that inspire fear, awe, pity, and wonder.

Bosses also act as progression gates that require a certain level of fluency with the game’s combat system before the player can continue to explore. Once a player reaches a boss gate, they must either muster the skill to defeat that boss, or continue to practice and grind on earlier enemies.

Unlike the average enemy that players must face in a limited area not much wider than a typical hallway, bosses are frequently found in massive arenas. Bosses in the Souls series also tend to have enhanced abilities that require the player to adapt to attacks that cover huge areas or have extended reach. This ferocity and enlarged battlefield gives the designers space to create exciting, multi-phase duels that are unforgettably intense.

These boss fights also act as a check on the player’s build. No matter which weapons or elements a player prefers, massive and powerful bosses require adaptation.

Experienced players understand how each type of stat affects their damage output and they use all of the gear at their disposal to create a move set that fits their style and is powerful enough to take down bosses.

The Souls series titles also give players dozens of weapon and gear options so they can craft unique and personalized builds for both PvE and PvP.   

How Elden Ring reinvented the foundations of the Souls series

Open-World Freedom

Originally, the Souls series games were essentially quite linear. Even though complex and branching paths through large levels gave players several options for how to tackle a specific area, technical limitations kept the areas more constrained than the FromSoftware design team would have ideally preferred.

These limitations also meant that if a player was stuck on a boss, there were relatively few  options for them to hone their skills or improve their build. Generally in the Dark Souls series, a certain amount of grinding was necessary if you were stuck and players might find the path back to the boss nearly as challenging as the boss themselves.

ELDEN RING alleviated this issue by opening up the world and allowing players to tackle challenges in the order that they preferred, while still requiring that players meet a certain level of skill or build proficiency to progress between major areas of the game.   

Greater Player Choice

Opening up the world of ELDEN RING for free exploration also meant that players would need even more options for how to tackle the secrets of the Lands Between. This isn’t just about the character build options, which are vast and esoteric; ELDEN RING also offers far more in terms of different activities and types of gameplay than previous Souls series games.

Every legacy dungeon offers multiple entrances and routes, each with their own pros and cons. Most players will have this explained to them at the gates of Stormveil, where the gate attendant Gostock offers you the chance to go in through the main gate, tackling a difficult gauntlet of ballistas head on or sneaking around the back for a less dramatic entrance. However, even those options are not the only possibility and the more you explore, the more choices you reveal.

ELDEN RING  is also generous with upgrade materials for weapons, which makes it simple for players to change directions quickly if they fall out of step with a build or want to experiment and try new things out.

In older Souls games, you might only have enough upgrade materials to max out one or two weapons per game, which is never the case in ELDEN RING. And with dozens of types of weapons from the lightest dagger to the heaviest colossal weapon there’s lots to try, including off-beat options like the Jar Cannon, Venomous Fang, or Magma Whip Candlestick, just to name a few.

Expanded Accessibility Without Lowering the Challenge

One of the biggest choices ELDEN RING offers the player is how they want to engage with its difficulty. It’s no secret that the tough bosses of ELDEN RING are some of the most difficult ever faced by Souls series fans, maybe some of the most difficult in all of gaming. The classic Souls series combat has been expanded and refined in ELDEN RING, but it remains true to its roots: a combat system that needs a good sense of timing, observation, and patience to master.

There are no settings that can adjust this difficulty, no button you can press to activate ‘easy mode’ in the options. At the same time, the game offers a wide range of tools that can help players tackle this challenge however they’d like, without being stuck in one place. However, they are tools that need to be learned and cultivated, much like skill in the combat system or your character’s build.

One tool is based on a system that has been part of the Souls series from the start - summoning other players to join your game. Having another pair of eyes and another sword by your side as you explore has always been one way to handle the challenge of the Souls series games, and ELDEN RING is no exception. And, at the very least, having a good friend at your side may make a difficult fight easier to handle, emotionally.

Summons in ELDEN RING don’t have to be players, either. The Spirit Ashes system gives you the power to summon certain enemies to fight by your side. Finding and leveling up new Spirit Ashes is one of the ways exploration allows players to dynamically adapt the difficulty of the game to their liking, as they have full control of when they use Ashes and which Ashes to use.

As we’ve already discussed, the other major tool that helps players adjust difficulty without removing challenge is the open world itself. No matter what type of challenge a player might find too tough, there are solutions to be found elsewhere in the world. It could be leveling up or a new Ash of War or weapon or piece of equipment, an upgrade to your healing flasks or a new recipe for a consumable to protect your character. The more you discover new areas and fight new enemies, the better your character will be.

And if players find their characters a little too over-tuned after exploration, there’s always New Game Plus, which allows you to start over with tougher enemies. Self-directed challenges like no-hit or no-healing are also quite popular in the ELDEN RING community if your mastery of the game has evolved beyond mechanical limitations.  

How It compares to other Dark Souls-like games

Building on the Legacy of Dark Souls

ELDEN RING continues the tradition of Miyazaki’s dark fantasy worlds. The Lands Between and the Land of Shadow are dense with magic and horrors, wonder and death. The enemies that roam the lands are trying to survive in a shattered world that has suffered through a brutal war of succession and oppression.

Once again, players are thrust into this beautiful darkness and asked to overcome impossible odds to impose their own vision of fate on what remains, but this time, the scope is even broader, the enemies more powerful, and the options for players even more varied than ever before.

Miyazaki himself has expressed that ELDEN RING has allowed him to refine the genre he defined, thanks to decades of experience including the Dark Souls games.  

Setting a New Standard for the Best Souls Series Game

Without a doubt, ELDEN RING is the new gold standard for games in the Souls series. The game itself is still challenging and requires mastery, but the open world also allows players the freedom to learn on their own without the pain of boredom. Better than that, the journey to mastery is one that rewards curiosity and experimentation.

We’ve used the word exploration a lot in this article, but the Lands Between truly do live up to the feelings of wonder and discovery that so many other open worlds lack. There are secrets in every corner. There are breathtaking views that inspire your imagination.

There are mysteries that you can investigate. You can climb to the top of the world and delve to the bottom of creation. And each of these discoveries open up new possibilities for your build and abilities as a player. All of these things combine to make ELDEN RING feel limitless and infinite in the best possible way.

The richness and beauty of the world makes facing the difficulty of the enemies a rare treat, and the bosses themselves are engaging, captivating battles that require your full attention, demanding that you stay in the moment, present, active, and alive.

ELDEN RING is the greatest example of how the best Souls games can use immersion and difficulty to give you the feeling of genuine mastery, no matter if you are starting as a completely inexperienced newbie or you’re a hardened expert. 

So, is Elden Ring the best of the Souls series?

Ultimately, the final determination of ‘the best game’ is always in the hands of the player and it depends on their individual taste. Even so, in terms of scale, enemies, player options, developer legacy, and overall evolution of the genre, the case for ELDEN RING as the best of the Souls series is nearly as difficult to beat as its most challenging encounters. 

The only way to settle the question for yourself is to begin your journey to the Lands Between. We hope to see you there soon.

How can I get started with the best of the Souls series?

The debate about the best Souls series game may never be fully settled, but more players are about to have the chance to decide for themselves. 

The complete Lands Between experience is coming to the Switch 2.

The Nintendo Switch 2 ELDEN RING Edition includes the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree, the critically acclaimed DLC that expands the world into the Land of Shadow. It’s a haunting new region packed with new bosses, new weapons, new lore, and some of the most punishing encounters in the entire genre.   

Preorder NOW!

For those who have never played the Souls series before, ELDEN RING on Switch 2 is the ideal starting point. For veterans returning to the Lands Between, it’s the perfect reason to begin the journey again.

The best of FromSoftware’s most iconic series is now available to a whole new generation of Tarnished.

Try it soon, your legacy awaits.