It has been three weeks since Elden Ring's launch and the hype for FromSoftware's latest game refuses to die down. Earlier this week, it was revealed that more than 12 million of you have picked up a copy so far. While direct comparisons to the first few weeks of other Soulsborne games are yet to be made, it's probably safe to say Elden Ring has taken the genre to new heights. But what is it about Elden Ring that has got so many people flocking to it? Even those who had never heard of or perhaps been frightened to try out Souls games in the past.
Psychological-Worry3 posed that question on Reddit, and Souls newbies have been offering up an array of interesting answers. Top of the bill is Elden Ring being more approachable a Souls game than any other to have come before it. While it is still upsettingly difficult at times by design, there's no getting around Elden Ring being far better equipped to accept newcomers than previous FromSoftware games.
One of the most popular reasons put forward by a Soulsborne newbie who has tried to get into the genre before is the ability to duck out of a difficult boss fight and explore. “Just knowing that if I was stuck on a boss I could go do something else instead of trying it again and again and again,” the comment reads. A reply highlights that in previous games you had to keep running up against that brick wall, whereas in Elden Ring there could be ten brick walls, but that still doesn't prevent you from doing something else.
Perhaps most interesting of all is the number of players who didn't even realize Elden Ring was a Souls game at all. The build to its launch and the trailers made it look similar to Skyrim to a lot of people who have since fallen in love with it, not discovering it was a Souls game until it was too late and they were already hopelessly addicted to exploring The Lands Between. The marketing for it has been a stroke of genius in that regard, hence the 12 million copies sold in less than three weeks.
Suffice to say, the success of Elden Ring may indicate the start of an interesting and exciting new chapter in the video game world. Soulsborne games, although popular before now, have been something of a niche genre. Odds are we will see other developers have a crack at them and perhaps borrow elements of Elden Ring for different genres. Hopefully, we don't see too big an influx of games attempting to replicate the magic Elden Ring has created, because unless it's FromSoftware doing the work, that probably isn't going to happen.