Elden Ring is once again at the centre of a Big discussion about the difficulty level of video games and I’m already pretty bored of it. Not only do we have the same conversation over and over again, but it often feels like the incorrect conversation too. However, there is a twist in this latest round that has piqued my curiosity because it deals with FromSoftware’s Philosophy around boss fightsand how each of them in the Shadow of the Earth Tree The extension seems to have endless combinations.
To be clear, this is not a bold new claim about FromSoft or Elden RingA quick search reveals many complaints about this approach, such as this Reddit post from two years ago complained about the length of enemy combos when the game first came out. But it has recently changed after the release of Shadow of the Earth Treethe much more difficult expansion, which is a completely new level system and a Suite of Chefs that drive the community crazy.
Spoilers for some of the Shadow of the Earth TreeThe boss fights follow.
For some, Shadow of the Earth TreeThe grueling boss battles are too inspired by what they consider to be FromSoft’s worst game design tendencies. Posts keep appearing – either on Reddit or X (formerly Twitter) – about the sheer length of the attack strings the bosses unleash on players, and the relatively short window of time in which they can take revenge. Whether it is the Swordmaster Our, Messmer himself or Rellana, some people are fed up with FromSoft’s never-ending onslaught.
The frustrations have sparked at least some discussion about how these bosses fit into FromSoft’s work, and now many miss simpler times. One post compares Elden Ring‘s overly complicated attack patterns Dark Souls’ more methodical fight and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twicewhich at least in most cases put them on a par with their enemies. In comparison Elden Ring (and in a broader sense, Shadow of the Earth Tree) seems overwhelming. There is now a whole genre of posts making fun of enemies that incessantly attack players in Elden Ring and the differences in encounters with FromSoft bosses over the years.
Not everyone thinks that these fights are more strenuous than usual or that there is something wrong with the long combos. One Redditor does not believe that this is “bad boss design”, and argues that you can like it or not, but that there is not just one way to interpret the situation. Another post on X (formerly Twitter) claims in response to the illustration I quoted earlier that “basically every fight in Elden Ring is designed to deceive players who expect an intuitive sense of the pace of combat,” and ultimately found it “just as satisfying to learn as [FromSoft’s] other games.”
And of course, there’s the tried and tested philosophy that most players have internalized in one way or another: these boss fights are meant to be hard and challenge you in this extraordinary way so that the triumph over them is all the sweeter.
I myself hate dealing with long combosand a lot of the crap I saw in Shadow of the Earth Tree is the stuff nightmares are made of. I may have put all my skill points into a dexterity build for my Bloodhound Fang, but I’m not that skilled myself and I’m just getting older. I can’t smash around on dodges like I used to and skip certain techniques just to find a split-second window to throw in an attack, and pretty much every encounter probably shouldn’t feel like this!
But I love the superhuman feeling that I Do by conquering these things, and by and large there are systems in place in these games to make this possible, be it Scadutree Blessings, damage-reducing armor and talismans, or just the act of summoning. These games are as hard as you make them, you are not their victim!
And then there’s the matter of FromSoft’s philosophy having changed significantly over the years. As FromSoft has continually changed its formula over the years, each successive title has been significantly different from the others, and this is no different. Dark Souls 2 was strange for the fans of the first game, Blood transfused leaned towards a speed and aggressiveness that flew into the face of the whole Souls Series and Sekiro has pushed back most of the habits that FromSoft’s games collectively encouraged. Elden Ring is, like the rest of FromSoft’s legendary catalog, a game with a flavor all its own, even if it plays within similar conventions and aesthetics. Although it can be exhausting to face such versatile and powerful opponents – which is fair considering literal gods They are often confronted with – expectations created by playing previous FromSoft titles simply should not influence or dominate the understanding of what Elden Ring has always been this way and always will be this way.