FromSoftware should learn a lesson from Elden Ring's torrent

Although there will be many things to learn from Elden Ring As FromSoftware's first attempt at merging open-world and Soulslike designs, a key lesson must come from Torrent and its approach to world navigation. Unlike FromSoftware's previous Soulslike games, Elden Ring broke the mold in many ways with an open-world design and a Spectral Steed mount among the more obvious examples.

Even with rumors that FromSoftware's next game will break away from open worlds and return to a traditional linear design, there is still the possibility that future development will return to this world design due to its importance in gaming. With this in mind, Elden Ring it's a testing ground for FromSoftware on what worked and what didn't work for a Soulslike open world, especially regarding Torrent. After all, with Soulslikes being renowned for its difficult yet rewarding gameplay, an in-game mount for open-world navigation needs to ensure that it balances well with the rest of the game and its mechanics.

Whenever FromSoftware returns to the Open-World genre, it should avoid repeating this shadow of the Erdtree mistake

A boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree had less of an impact than expected, and future open world Souls games should avoid missteps.

Breakdown of how Elden Ring's torrent works and doesn't work in a Soulslike

As a core design philosophy in Soulslike games, essential mechanics are attributed to key elements in the game, such as how players regain health using the Estus Flask in Dark souls series or the Healing Gourd in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. by extension, Elden Ring took a similar approach with his Spectral Steed Whistle item that players must summon on Torrent. If players want to summon Torrent easily without going into their inventory, then the whistle can be allocated to item slots such as those in the Pouch.

Elden Ring anticipated how much torrenting would affect the Soulslike game

Based on this approach, it seems that FromSoftware is aware of how much Elden RingHis in-game mount pushes the boundaries when it comes to previous ideas and designs in Soulslike games. For example, players could use Torrent to their advantage, such as facing bigger or faster enemies, or running away from fights that are too difficult or when they are low on health. Requiring players to downgrade an item slot for the whistle is a step FromSoftware is taking to balance Torrent with traditional Soulslike gameplay.

Elden Ring drops the ball as Torrent returns

However, while other features, such as allowing players to use only one hand at a time when riding, go further to balance Elden RingIts mounted combat, Torrent's player-independent health, is where FromSoftware's next open-world game could learn its lesson. Although it cures Torrent in Elden Ring it's not the biggest problem, problems occur when Torrent has been killed and needs to be revived to be summoned again. This can be done by using the whistle and spending one of the Flask of Crimson Tears charges, but a game-breaking immersion-breaking prompt forces players to confirm this.

FromSoftware's next open-world game should learn from Elden Ring's torrent

Despite the fact that it seems like a small detail, forcing this request on the players was enough to cause frustration inside Elden Ringhis community, even leading to mods that revive Torrent by default or social media memes like the one below.

Here, the changes present a lesson FromSoftware could learn from Elden RingTorrent, allowing players to disable requests through in-game options. Alternatively, to spare players missing Flash of Crimson Tears fees, FromSoftware's next Soulslike game could include an upgrade to the next game's whistle replacement, similar to Estus Flask's own updates, where players can eventually remove any costs or requests and immediately recover their mount. .