As a series known for its good intentions, Hidetaka Miyazaki's latest work, Elden's Ring of Law, has made great changes to the original soul game, adding many elements that have not been owned in the past, so that the entire gamer base is oriented towards a more diverse player. In addition to facing the original die-hard soul players, it also allows lightweight players to experience the fun of being a faded person, and it is easier to integrate into the ranks of the old thief's soul system.
And not only the system changes, even the popularity and topicality are far more than any previous soul work, and some even review media even give full scores. So, is The Eldon's Ring of Law overrated? This time, we will talk about this soul work out of the circle through the characteristics and advantages and disadvantages of the work.
A vast world of exciting adventures and challenges
In the past, the map was a meticulous and complex dungeon connected to each other, some high difficulty areas and low difficulty areas were only separated by a door distance, when exploring the level paragraph, they would realize that this was the original door that could not be opened, from the function of a shortcut, which also allowed players to maintain a sense of surprise with the map all the time. The game has changed the previous maze style and added the "open world" attribute of a vast play area, so the scope of the entire game is no longer limited to the eerie dungeons, but adds more vast plains, tranquil lakes, cold snow fields and other wide terrain, so that players can enjoy the beauty of the road while moving to the next destination.
In addition, the Elden Ring of Law splits the previously tightly connected areas into several separate large areas, such as the city of Stonewell in Nyingfu or the Magic Academy of Lienia on the Lake, each of which is far apart, but with more elaborate routes and monster arrangements, the completeness of the quest is taken to a higher level. In addition to the epic dungeons that are the symbols of the area, the area is also scattered with small dungeons such as large and small underground cemeteries, crystal pits, and ruins for players to explore, which is definitely far more than the works of previous generations in terms of the number of dungeons.
A narrative rich in depth but broken
Although from the moment you enter the game, the narrator will tell the player in the form of CG: you are a fader, the Eldon Ring is broken, and you are now going to repair the Ring of Law and restore the original order. Although the main goal of the trip is clear enough, there is no way for the player to understand the whole story at the beginning, such as: Why is the falun gong broken? Why broken? What is a blessing? What is the position of the French Ring in the story?
Soul plots usually split the overall story and distribute them in scattered corners that can be explored, such as the description of props, the scenes of the dungeon, the dialogue between the characters, and the presentation of CG obscure performances. Players must compare the information collected in many ways to understand the beginning and end of the event, and this technique is called "fragmented narrative".
For example, the boss "successor" Greg, although he claims to be the "Golden King" of Stoneville City, but through the various scenes in the map, it can be seen that the statues, decorations, and portraits everywhere are not Greg's, which can't help but make careful players wonder if there has been some change in this castle? Was Greg really the monarch of Stoneville?
Through the fragmentation of the story, the original plot is more confusing, showing the vague sense that the backstory should present, prompting players to think further, and also making the events in the game more three-dimensional. Just like the history in reality, the parts retained are also quite limited, and the truth can be gradually restored through the patchwork of historians bit by bit, but there is no way to truly restore it one hundred percent. Of course, this is not entirely a good thing, and for players who do not want to delve into the story, fragmented narratives can become a disaster.
Read the boss's movements and gain insight into the gaps in the attack
Usually there is a very interesting phenomenon in the discussion board of the soul game: when the player complains bitterly in the discussion board and complains that the game is too difficult, the veteran usually calmly states that it is quite simple. Although the views are completely opposed, the statements of both sides are not wrong, which is also the charm of the soul game.
In common RPGs, the number of characters often determines everything, but this is less obvious in Eldon's Ring of Law. Of course, this does not mean that the upgrade system of this game is meaningless, but that the values and levels are no longer so important. More often than the monster leveling up, the player's own experience through several failures is more important. This is also the reason why the gap between the mentality of new and old players is so large, in the case of not being able to see the boss action, any move is deadly and fast. Only after hard work and unremitting practice, gradually able to see the posture of the action, predict and dodge the boss's attack, and then make a corresponding counterattack, and finally defeat the boss, can you truly appreciate the charm of the soul system.
Through the difficult game challenge, gradually improve the self, and finally successfully defeat the boss, the process of self-growth through the role is reflected in the player, painful and happy, I am afraid this is to describe the soul of the player.
Powerful ashes and ashes system
The combat system also appears in the series, and the weapon skills of The Ring of Eldon are called "War Ash", and they are more relaxed and free than before. Players can obtain weapon ashes through battles or quests, and then mount the obtained ashes on weapons, allowing them to change their attributes and use the corresponding ashes. Since the ashes can be changed at will, the derivative changes are more diverse, in addition to using skills according to your preferences when exploring, but also add many unpredictable variables to the PVP mode.
In addition to the free use of weapon ashes, this game also added a new "ashes" system that summons souls to assist in battle, after obtaining the ashes of mobs, you can summon souls to assist in battle in designated areas. This also encourages players to be lazy in disguise, if there is no way to resist the boss's attack head-on, you can also choose to explore the smaller underground graveyard first, get more ashes, and then through the enhancement system, let the soul become a powerful boost to the boss battle.
Lower difficulty threshold than previous generations
As mentioned above, this time The Eldon Circle of Law has added many new items to make the entire game experience more open. In other words, the methods of being able to perfunctory bosses have become more diverse.
From the original "Demon Souls" and "Dark Souls" most simply relying on weapons and spells to consume boss health bit by bit, to "Blood Source Curse", "Dark Souls 3" gradually evolved weapon skills, and "Only Wolf" in the ninja influence on the boss, this time "Eldon's Ring" has a super variety of ways to defeat the boss. Of course, you can also choose to resist boss attacks head-on like a tough guy, or summon anti-punch ashes and use them as the back row for output; or limit the boss's actions by obtaining key items for a specific boss.
Such a variety of tactics, as if the producer Hidetaka Miyazaki said in your ear: just as the so-called willow dark flowers are another village, life is not only a way to break through, if you can't face it like a tough guy, you may be able to get unexpected surprises by taking a detour.
There are so many features mentioned above, but that doesn't mean Eldon's Ring of Law is flawless. It is precisely because of these advantages that many disadvantages have been derived.
The open world brings a number of dungeons
Since The Ring of Eldon is an open world, the explorable areas are unmatched by previous generations of works, and in addition to the main quests of the six major areas, there are also a large number of small quests waiting for players to attack.
But most of these small quests use duplicate map structures and similar monster configurations, and even boss battles are battles with two mobs here and three elite monsters there. Exploring dungeons in order to get items is inevitable, but repetitive map modules and styles will cause players to fatigue aesthetically, and finally simply give up exploring and go straight to the main line.
Design of plural boss battles
The game also adds a lot of boss battles that target complex numbers, and these complex bosses just throw two elite monsters into a small space and call them boss battles. And AI has not been specially handled, there are often two or three bosses are moving fast or very slow, these boss battles will be difficult, but usually tedious and annoying.
This kind of situation also occurs frequently during Dark Souls 2, and the ideal soul system difficulty is carefully designed through reasonable configuration and punishment of light enemy players. Instead of throwing a bunch of difficult mobs into a boss room in a shoddy way, calling it a boss battle, or using a design of a large number of mobs to beat up the player, this difficulty is called "stupid difficulty", and many monsters also have the problem of brainless reading instructions, which is really uncomfortable.
To take a positive example, the "Demon Prince" and "Father Eleder and Sister Fridd" in Dark Souls 3, the plural bosses are fast and slow, one has a strong desire to attack, one hides behind and puts cold arrows, switching attack modes with each other to cover each other. It is precisely because of the imperfection of the two bosses that they complement each other, and achieve the effect of coping with multiple bosses at the same time, but the combat style is homogeneous.
And in "Eldon's Ring of Law", as the crystallization of the elite monster, the physical resistance is extremely high, and it must be knocked out to hit the normal damage, one is easy to deal with, then have you tried to deal with two at the same time? After dealing with two, can you deal with three at the same time? Hero Gargoyle, one is easy to deal with, although it will use the attack mode of multiple weapons, but after recognizing the action, you can also deal with it alone, so have you ever tried to deal with two at the same time? This is no longer a question of whether you can see the action clearly, but the attack action of the plural BOSS is different, and the two bosses make moves at the same time, even if you are strong, there is a high probability that you will be directly killed by the chaotic sword.
summary
While these shortcomings are all parts that can still be improved, the game already offers a variety of ways to circumvent some of these drawbacks, such as summoning ashes to assist in combat, using restrained weapon types, and so on. Therefore, I personally believe that this is the most friendly work for novices in the soul system game, compared to the works of the past, the various challenge methods and auxiliary tools of the "Eldon Law Ring" can make it easier for novice players to get started with the soul system combat method, and the die-hard players who are originally soul systems are not to miss the authentic sequel of the new generation of soul games.
But at the same time, novices must also be mentally prepared before choosing to enter the pit, because most of the goals of soul games are not guided, and even side quests need to understand the motivation of the characters in order to know where to go next, so in the absence of autonomy to push the progress, it may turn into a sense of loss that the progress is impossible to start. Not to mention that the world of Eldon's Law Ring is so big, there is not only one way to go, if you can't plan your own strategy goals and translate them into internal game motivations, you may become overwhelmed.
Finally, back to the opening question, is Eldon's Ring of Law overstated? Obviously, it is indeed a bit of a reputation to evaluate this work in terms of full or close to full marks, but from the overall point of view, "Eldon's Ring of Law" is definitely a rare masterpiece.