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Three months have passed since the online testing of Eldon's Ring of Law, and players are still haunted by this new and grand world of adventure. Before the game officially met with the majority of players, we experienced the full version of the game in advance at the invitation of SIE China and found many surprises outside the online beta version. For now, this 6-hour trial tour is far from enough compared to the overall volume of the game.
FromSoftware features an open world
Since the game's release, the release of Eldon's Circle of Law has always emphasized the open world element. Although players in the online beta have already had their first taste of the open world of the game, you can only truly appreciate the ambitions of the development team after seeing a more complete "narrow place".
As with the beta version, the initial stages of the game are unfolded in Nyingover. In the beta version, there are air walls that limit the player's active area, while officially we can go to more places to explore. Even in the large map of Nyingev, the different areas follow the overall style of unity, and have a variety of design concepts, which can bring freshness in both visual and exploration experience, but will not contradict. At the same time, we can also see a very rich enemy design.
If compared horizontally to other open-world games, the size of the single map in Eldon's Circle of Law is not particularly large, and with the teleportation and spirit horse riding functions, the process of opening up the wilderness map will not seem lengthy and boring. But that doesn't mean the game has less open map content. Obviously, Nymgoff is only a very early part of the game world, and we cross the edge of Nyingover to a wider area through the running map. In the previous interview, Miyazaki Hidetaka revealed that there will be "aerial maps" and "underground worlds" in the game, we found an elevator device in the trial, after a very long ride to a new area, in the map interface directly displayed as a new underground world different from the surface world. In addition, some portals (not blessed teleportations) can be found in the game to teleport the player to new scenes.
In addition to the open world, FromSoftware's best dungeon design is not absent. In the dungeons in the depths of the open wilderness and the scenes closely related to the main plot, you can still feel the classic map design level of the Soul series, including the kind of peak circuit turn, the sense of surprise of finding a different hole after opening the shortcut, which has also been retained in this game. In addition, in the full version, we can go to an area called the Round Table Hall, which should be similar to the setting of the Fire Sacrifice Field.
There is no very specific and intuitive visual guidance set up in the game, but considering the asynchronous message mechanism commonly used in the series, the future fader mutual aid (mutual deception) is believed to create a different landscape.
The battle is still at the heart
Difficult and oppressive battles have always been an important part of the Soul series. After Bloodborne Curse and Only Wolves moved toward a faster, more intense action experience, Eldon's Ring of Laws returned to Dark Souls 3's combat mode, with rhythms between Dark Souls 1, 2, and Bloodborne Curse.
The battles in this game are also an important part of the open world. Many other open-world titles use various collecting elements or main and side quests to guide the player through the dynamics of the game world, while Eldon's Ring of Law uses "battle" to connect the entire world. In the process of exploring the galloping horses in the wild, it is often found that a tube of blood suddenly appears under the screen, followed by a strong enemy. This seamless encounter experience has also become an important driver for players to explore and challenge. In addition to encounters in the wild, we can also find devices similar to seals or portals in some scenes, and we can also open duels with difficult enemies.
After defeating an enemy, you can restore the number of times the Holy Grail Drop Bottle is used depending on the size and type of enemy, and in the wild, you can also encounter a shell lang who can restore the number of holy grail drop bottle use after defeat. This new feature provides endurance support for combat and exploration to some extent, allowing players to appropriately reduce the frequency of sitting blessings and reduce the impact on the rhythm of play.
Judging from the two main bosses we can reach in this trial, the boss has a blessing in front of the door very close to the door, which can also be regarded as the pity of the development team. However, compared to the boss encountered in the wild, the boss intensity of the main plot is relatively large, especially the second boss we met, "The Connector" Greg, has a relatively large difficulty increase compared with the "Bad Omen" Malkitt. This intensity setting also indirectly drives players to explore the corresponding areas at different stages, rather than blindly advancing the main line.
A more RPG-oriented story of sword and magic
Eldon's Ring of Law can be called an extension of Dark Souls 3 from a gameplay point of view. The team built on this by reinforcing the RPG part of the game. The addition of the Ash Mechanic has greatly increased the diversity of weapon systems, and players have more freedom to match weapons according to their play style and character attributes. If you choose to take the magic route, the spell system of this game will be more refined, and even distinguish between different genres. The material collected in the wild can be used to make a wealth of items for combat and exploration, and the elixir blending system is further improved on this basis. The item "Sewing Needle" allows the player to modify the appearance of the equipment.
In just 6 hours of play, we encountered more than 10 NPCs, which is far more than the number of previous Souls series works compared to the corresponding game stages, and more NPCs will inevitably mean more stories and side content (and more helpers). According to official feedback, these NPCs will continue to appear in subsequent stories, not all at once.
The game is similar to "A Song of Ice and Fire" author George R. The co-creation of the story background by R. Martin is another big selling point of the game. From the actual experience and the official introduction, Martin is more involved in the world view design of the game, mainly reflected in the legendary part. The story after the actual player enters the game is created by FromSoftware, retaining the narrative style of the soul series in the past. But this time we'll find more of the boss's lines before the boss in the main battle line. Overall, this time the story will be easier to understand.
Differences from the details of the web beta
When we first started playing, we thought we could quickly complete the initial part of the content by relying on the experience of the online beta version. But then we found that there are still many details differences between the content of the full version and the web beta version. The most obvious of these is the distribution of individual enemies and pick-up items in the wild. Some of the very powerful weapons and equipment in the online beta version, as well as the ashes (especially the falling mines), have been temporarily missing this time. Some of the previous methods of soul brushing and material brushing are no longer applicable. In addition, if you want to activate the ashes replacement function at the Blessing Place, you need to obtain the item "Stone Knife" first.
Boss "Bad Omen" Marcite's move order has been fine-tuned, the most significant is that the original move after the first rebound has changed, the network beta version of the must be the right side sweep to make the player easy two consecutive bullets of the situation no longer exists, need to adjust the rebound rhythm according to the action.
When creating characters, the class of origin has been greatly adjusted, and the current 10 types of "Wandering Knight", "Swordsman", "Brave", "Thief", "Stargazer", "Prophet", "Samurai", "Prisoner", "Secret Agent", and "Destitute" have been deleted in the online beta version of "Magic Knight" and "White Wolf Warrior".
In addition, the health bar energy bar UI that players complained about the most in the online beta version was optimized in the full version, which is also reassuring to everyone.
The content of the 6-hour demo experience is just the tip of the iceberg. The Eldon's Ring of Law will undoubtedly present players with the most massive and powerful adventure ever in the Souls series. For soul lovers, this game will also be a different, soul-filled open world game. With two weeks to go until the game's official release, everyone is ready to meet the Eldon Ring and become the king of Eldon!