Elden Ring has arrived and offers up an enthralling adventure for FromSoft veterans and newcomers alike. As the most accessible entry in the developer’s series of grueling RPGs, Elden Ring has been praised for bringing punishing boss battles and lore-drenched world into the open-world format. But in doing so, FromSoftware faced significant challenges.
Open-world games, by design, often have Quality of Life problems that make completing quests, traversing the world, or simply obtaining the various items and resources you need a chore, especially over the 10s or hundreds of hours they take to complete. But, miraculously, Elden Ring manages to avoid all of these pitfalls, delivering one of the most immersive and freeing worlds we’ve ever had the joy of exploring.
No Stamina Drain Outside of Battle
While this one’s certainly starting to get phased out across the genre, Elden Ring manages to avoid a particularly pesky open-world problem by ensuring your stamina — which depletes when sprinting, dodging, rolling, and attacking in combat — isn’t affected when you’re out of battle.
In most cases, you’ll be using your trusty spectral steed, Torrent, to help you traverse great distances over The Lands Between, but sometimes you’ll want — or need — to explore on-foot instead. Not having this drain when you begin sprinting just makes things so much more… freeing.
It compliments the game’s core design mechanics which encourage aimless exploration by simply ensuring you can do so at your own pace, and not have to worry about your character grinding to a halt and gasping for air every 10 seconds.
We may be a Tarnished, but we’ve got good cardio, and we love it.
