Scaling difficulty

The commercial imperative of making a game that appeals to the widest possible audience would seem to be incongruent with the Soulsborne formula of demanding players achieve technical mastery or die – and die and die – trying. The closest thing to a conventional easy mode in the Dark Souls series has always been the magic build. Like bringing a gun to a knife fight, there is a guilty pleasure in spamming Soul Arrows from range while a hollowed undead stumbles in vain toward you, unable to close the gap before dying. Elden Ring offers an even wider tray of options for the cheese connoisseur who finds close-quarters combat overly stressful. While perched atop Torrent, gallop within range of an earthbound footsoldier and let the magical blades of Glintsword Arch auto-track your enemy like a pack of swarming missiles from an attack helicopter. Or use Lone Wolf Ashes to summon three phantom wolves to tank for you while you hack at the boss’s flank. Or don’t. Elden Ring builds upon Dark Souls’ casting crutch, allowing you to scale your difficulty dynamically based upon how many aids you enlist at any given time.