I’m now 40 or so hours into Elden Ring and can comfortably say that no open world game has reeled me in as quickly and totally as FromSoftware’s latest offering. Despite its unintuitive UI/UX, it encourages exploration in a way the series never has before, and it coincided with the Euphoria finale in a way that really helped me deal with how I view my own substance abuse issues. It’s not flawless, but it’s a masterpiece, that’s for damn sure. So why do I dislike the other genre-defining open world masterpiece that came out a few years before, Breath of the Wild?
The fundamentals of each game seem similar enough at first glance. Both have (deep breath now) a vast map to explore and uncover piece-by-piece, an end goal but little overall direction, little to no hand-holding, innumerable secrets and mysteries hidden away everywhere you look, and most importantly of all, crafting. Yet whenever I’ve tried to start Link’s adventure I bounce off it after a few hours. I initially put it down to just not being much of a Zelda stan, but I’ve now realised it’s much more than that.
In Elden Ring, one of the first main enemy encampments is the Gatefront Ruins, just at the start of the path leading to Stormveil Castle. There are a load of knights patrolling, sitting, and doing knight stuff. I went in all sneaky beaky and cleared a few out, but then a big dude with a lance speared straight through me. I ran back in to grab my runes, levelled up my Strength, and tried again, repeating the process and getting a little further through each time. In the end I managed to emerge triumphant.
Contrast this to BOTW where getting killed trying to raid a Bokoblin camp just sends you back to a spawn point, maybe minus some weapons that were broken during the chaos. Each setback feels like the game not so subtly saying that you aren’t ready for this yet. I’m okay with an open world not actually being immediately accessible in its entirety, but the lack of a sense of progression irks me.
In Elden Ring, even the failed fight I mentioned above gave me something: Runes. I use these to level up, buy stuff, or upgrade my weapons, meaning even failure makes me iteratively stronger. With BOTW, failure just means I’ve failed. I should go explore and find more shrines to level up my health or stamina, or try to find armour or better weapons that will end up breaking on me anyway, but this never feels as satisfying as the gradual changes I see in my Tarnished. Especially when there aren’t any shrines around and I still can’t do something, because that means I have to just fuck off and come back later when I’ve already forgotten what I was going for in the first place. And what do I even get for clearing those Hobokin camps? Seriously, I can’t even remember so it must not have been anything special.
Rewarding combat in Elden Ring gives the game a tangible feeling of progression, whereas in Breath of the Wild it just signals whether or not I’m strong enough yet to face the challenges before me. It’s the checkmark for progression rather than something that aids it. That means I just avoid it for the most part, and while I think the world is stunning, without the need for tense fights I quickly lose interest. I’m fine with Breath of the Wild not being my thing, variety is good, but it’s interesting that despite their similarities, one mechanic can make these games feel so different.