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Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Eldon Circle of Law.
My feelings about FromSoftware (FS) have always been mixed.
Like many players, I've tried to break through the dark dungeons of Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, but they all failed. Fortunately, the gothic alleys of "Bloodborne Curse" immersed me in it, and the appearance of "Only Wolf: Shadow Death Twice" confirmed that my love for FS is not just lip service. But my gaming experience is still fragmented, on the one hand, FS can coldly launch excellent works that I can't love, but at the same time, all the Dark Souls series works make me miserable, and I can't stick to it.
As the studio's latest epic masterpiece, The Eldon's Ring of Law gives me a first experience similar to Dark Souls, both warm and swallowed. But after 60 hours of fun, I seemed to have suddenly realized, and while realizing the wonderful features of Eldon's Circle of Law, I also understood the Dark Souls that I had not played before.
Seeing the volume of "Eldon's Ring of Law", I was scared for three points. Although FS's previous works will deliberately obscure the player's next destination, fortunately, there are only a few roads, and it is not impossible to find. But in the open world of The Ring of Eldon, from the first second, I was able to walk around and have difficulty choosing. The guiding light emitted by the blessing could not help much, after all, a low-level rookie like me could not handle the boss on the other side of the golden light. It was hard to touch the tomb, and after a hard battle, I was able to retreat with my whole body, but the reward I got was a bow that I couldn't use later, which was really annoying.
I don't like the loose and overly free structure of today's open-world games, even with the indicator markers that fill the map. Therefore, I was worried that I would not be able to play against the "Eldon Ring of Law", so I set a play strategy that prioritized the main line. After all, I am also a veteran of FS games, and I am still confident in my personal skills - first set the genre to go, and then find the appropriate props, which should be able to brush without brushing.
I heard that the famous knife moon hidden magic is the "version of the answer", and it is really good to experience it, cutting down the "evil omen demon" Malkitt, driving straight into Stoneville City, and finally eliminating the "relay" Greg. After that, I felt that my rank was a bit low, and I was discouraged when I rode around on horseback and repeatedly hit a wall. Fortunately, after some exploration, I still came to Lienia of the Lake and stepped into the gate of the Rea Lucaria Academy, but at this time, I was "pressed" to continue playing, thinking only to play the games in front of me like those works before FS, after all, that is what I like.
After 20 hours of hard work, I finally defeated the "Queen of the Full Moon" Rena La, unlocking two new options: to wash the characters and start the quest of the La ni line.
I actually don't like the "Zhimin" stream in the early stage, but it is too easy to use, and I really dare not change it easily. But out of curiosity, I still ran to pick up a very large sword called "Giant Sword" and prepared to study the way to play. I chose "Prisoner" at the beginning, and the addition of the point itself was not suitable for the flow of power, so I could only wash it off and start over. In an instant, I became a mighty character with heavy armor and two tall swords on his shoulders.
I wasn't sure how powerful the new genre would be, so I practiced "hands" with the task of the Rani Line, and yes, the spider-like "hands" that crawled all over the walled city of Kalia. I chopped melons and chopped vegetables all the way and it went very smoothly. Sure enough, that's the way to play. I met La ni with my new toy and rushed to Guelled to defeat the "Shattered Star General" Ratane. After this battle, I unlocked two of his large knives and bought the general's armor, perfect cos into this mighty demigod riding a pony, and did not change this outfit until the end of the game.
In the Rattan style of play, I had an epiphany and experienced the consistency of this game and previous FS works. Each battle put me together with enemies who attacked much more frequently, forcing me to choose a more aggressive response. But if I swing my sword recklessly without understanding the rhythm of the combo, I'm going to lose.
Twenty hours later, I finally found my own fun in Eldon's Ring of Law.
To put it more broadly, the previous unpleasantness is not the problem of the game itself, I have to blame myself. When playing Dark Souls, I felt that the various genres of play were a bit too much. Although I had a lot of fun playing the "main attack, no shield" genre, I always felt that I had deviated from the main formula of FS. For many players, genre is undoubtedly an advantage, but in my case, it has a negative effect, making people lose the momentum to plunge into it.
In "Blood Source Curse", strange props are at your disposal, but the recommended gameplay is very obvious and easy to understand: the main defense, the punishment is many; the main attack, the reward is a lot. So, whether you have a hunter's axe, a telescopic cane, or (my favorite) Ludwig's holy sword, you don't have any defenses, it's very simple and rude. Only Wolves: Shadow Gone Twice has a similarly clean design, and I really like the setting of "only one primary weapon is provided". The weapons are unchanged, in order to make the game experience deeper, more refined, the tools are given to the player's hands, want to step on the difficulties and obstacles? Then work on your own!
In terms of genre complexity, Eldon's Ring of Law is more "soul" than Dark Souls. When I have hundreds of props in front of me, I can't help but feel irritable in my heart. But after finding the weapon of my choice and washing it smoothly, my mentality will be very different. In fact, in the world of Eldon's Ring, or even Dark Souls, you can play as much as you want, and there is no right or wrong at all. The charm of these works lies in the innumerable choices they offer, and more importantly, each of them is fully valid. Bosses and normal enemies often play Yin (such as continuing to attack after you fall to the ground, or blowing you up with one blow), but FS also gives players a lot of practical tools in order to balance the game.
However, the reason why I personally can't push "Dark Souls" is not the same as the reason for other people's "persuasion". I was discouraged because I couldn't reconcile with Dark Souls halfway. For example, I actually liked the Demon Souls remake, but that enthusiasm quickly faded after rubbing the armored spider with a bow. The feeling of "skipping class" made me so distracted that I couldn't play the game. But "Eldon's Ring" tells me that as long as you adjust the genre and props according to the situation, and then play according to your own style, this is the essence of successful passing.
After pushing a stretch of the Lani line with a new genre, I started exploring the area I had skipped before. For me now, every dungeon and horned collection can not be missed, perhaps a key component of the new genre, no matter how bad, the difficult boss battle may also be used. That is to say, some spells and weapons are only temporarily out of line with my current vision, but that doesn't mean they're chicken ribs.
In the rest of the game, I still use a huge gravity sword, but will evaluate the one-on-one "gold content" with the boss, and if a person is not interesting, he will summon the ashes and use a magic. Although I don't use it much, I will still rivet my efforts to collect cool spells and ashes, after all, it is really easy to use, maybe I can use it at any time. When I fought with the ashes and defeated the Valkyrie, I didn't feel like "cheating and skipping class" in my heart.
After the perfect conclusion of Eldon's Ring, I should be returning to the world of Dark Souls. Although it is very likely that I will still be a "great swordsman", I will not reject other possibilities this time. Maybe one day you can throw away the guilt of not being able to win, play a few spells, or use your brain to snipe the enemy to death with a bow.
Eldon's Circle of Law helped me get rid of my self-limiting mindset and encouraged me to improve my brute-force playing style and laugh to the end with more ingenuity. As the saying goes, the most important thing about playing a game is to be happy.
Translation: Zhou Xiao
Edit: Zoe