Elden Ring brings the challenging, deep fantasy world fans have come to love in FromSoftware games with an incredible array of well-thought-out details that improve the player experience immensely in comparison to prior entries. Some aspects of the studio's games have left players with rage-fueled discontent, but Elden Ring, while remaining true to its roots, smooths out the rough edges with new and refined mechanics.
Some of the best small details don't appear in particular quests or isolated moments, but rather breathe incredible life into a world through solid game logic and a fair balance between risk and reward for the player.
10 Status Buildup: Rolling VS Jumping
Fans of Dark Souls 3 are familiar with the Farron Keep area, riddled with swamps and poison-spewing cretins ready to ruin your day. While it was encouraged to quickly roll through the swamps, Elden Ring players will know that rolling won't fly in areas like the Lake of Rot. In fact, rolling through the Lake of Rot is not the fastest way to traverse it, but rather is the fastest way to build up Scarlet Rot and perish to HP drain.
Running and jumping through the Rot should allow you to traverse this moat without suffering as much from Rot. Logically, this makes sense that the less you touch the Scarlet Rot, the better off you will be, and despite how difficult this area is to navigate, the methodology for crossing the Lake is satisfying.
9 PVP: Choosing Your Invasion
Longtime fans of FromSoftware previously memorized their favorite PvP hotspots in each game, but Elden Ring makes PvP easier than ever with a means of checking hotspots on the map. On top of this, you can even select to invade a player regardless of their location on the map, making it easier than ever to torment your fellow Tarnished.
PvP has always been a mercurial feature as it was typically reserved for specific players keeping themselves at specific levels and hanging around certain locations just to get a whiff of some action. Elden Ring's PvP system makes the option much more approachable as finding and engaging in PvP has never been simpler, but the competitive spirit is just as high.
8 Boss Fights: Dialogue And Lore
The best parts of any FromSoftware game are the boss fights — challenging, unforgiving, and packed with uncertainty. Elden Ring's boss fights offer a pleasant surprise in the breadth of information and lore your enemies share while you fight them. In a strange way, dying to a boss presents a moment to hear what they think of you or of being challenged.
The Beast Clergyman and Maliketh have some of the best lore insights, especially when you are defeated or finally claim victory: "Why covet Destined Death? To Kill What?" is one line that echoes and calls into question the reasoning behind our blood-soaked journey to become Elden Lord. Such questions give us brief moments to consider our actions and enjoy the sprinkle of story that each intense standoff brings to the forefront.
7 Boss Fights: Weaknesses
As a game with over 150 bosses to fight, it's no surprise that Elden Ring offers some incredibly tough challenges, like everyone's favorite Valkyrie: Malenia. Despite the borderline impossible base difficulty for some Demigod fights, each major adversary comes with exploitable weaknesses to make their encounter more feasible.
While using Blood Loss against Malenia is far from an instant victory, identifying and exploiting a boss' weakness is a huge quality of life enhancement for those who struggle with certain encounters. Summoning your Spirit Ashes also allows the opportunity to inflict status reliably without waiting for the perfect counter-attacking moment in order to make progress on a hefty HP bar.
6 Armor: Amazing Detail For Boss Cosplay
Boss armor and weapons have always been highly-coveted rewards for defeating the series' toughest bosses, but they have not always been as gorgeous as they are now. This is not the first FromSoftware game that flaunts cosplay, but it is easily the best for the level of detail and care put into making armor like Radahn's or Maliketh's look fabulous on your much smaller Tarnished.
Cosplaying as a boss has never felt more fulfilling due to the combination of beautiful armor, superbly-modeled weapons, and even signature incantations, like Malenia's Scarlet Aeonia that make you feel like a boss yourself.
5 Skills: Reallocating With Rennala
Dark Souls 3 made reallocating your skills easier than ever, but Elden Ring makes it feel more integral to the story, necessary, and accessible than any prior entry. Rennala's associated quest line also actually plays an important role in one of the game's endings.
Designating Rennala as the source of skill reallocation was exceptionally helpful as she is a required boss you encounter relatively early in your playthrough, making it convenient, and rewarding to defeat her. Players who like to swap builds or those who made a horrible decision with their level-ups will rejoice at this relieving design choice.
4 Sites Of Grace: Location Hints
One of the most subtle forms of achievement in Elden Ring comes from finding your next Site of Grace, a small indicator of your continued story progress and exploration. While previous series entries include far too few, or in the case of DS3, far too many save spots, Elden Ring strikes an excellent balance.
Elden Ring's usage of Sites of Grace icons with merchant information further aids your fast traveling without needing to remember everything's location. Add in the directional hints each Site of Grace displays when close to another Site, and it becomes very satisfying to navigate this open-world experience using the lines when you're just a little lost.
3 A Central Hub: The Roundtable Hold
Central Hubs can feel very different across FromSoftware games, from bleak and abandoned to vibrant and active. Elden Ring's Roundtable Hold sits firmly among the latter. The Roundtable Hold feels incredibly alive with visitors coming, going, or changing locations depending on your choices and actions in the story.
While most of the characters have brief, set periods of time they hang around or remain alive, there is a reason to converse with pretty much everyone you see at the Hold, even the mysterious Two Fingers and Finger Maiden, who speak in vague prophecies, offer immersive contributions. Luckily, you won't miss out on any of the inventories of the vendor NPCs who die as they will drop their stock in the form of a bell-bearing.
2 You Died: Stakes Of Marika
One of the worst feelings in gaming is knowing that your defeat to a boss comes with an unnecessarily difficult run through the entire level to simply make another attempt. Luckily, Elden Ring remedies this pain point with an excellent solution: Stakes of Marika. These statues of the once-Queen Marika serve as checkpoints that cut out the annoying boss runs of previous FromSoftware titles.
Stakes of Marika change the way we can approach boss fights, allowing players to dive headfirst, taking risks and looking for openings in a boss' attack pattern rather than spamming roll to hang on for dear life, desperately attempting to whittle a boss' health down with little HP left of our own. These quick reset points show respect for player time and value engaging with boss patterns like never before.
1 Always Swing First: No Mimic Chests
Perhaps the greatest detail that Elden Ring gets right is its complete lack of Mimic Chests, instead altering the enemy type entirely to be Mimic Tears. Mimic Chests are perhaps the most infuriating way to die in any FromSoftware game, giving players a horrible surprise of death where there should be a reward. Nothing is more frustrating than being tricked and required to redo an area instead of claiming an item and moving on with your quest.
Mimic Chests were nothing short of a joke that had been told 100 times too many — coaxing groans and eye rolls out of countless frustrated adventurers. While Elden Ring hangs on to its trickster spirit in the form of transporter chests that take you to another location when opened, they are nowhere near as anti-fun as being eaten by a walking treasure chest.