The downfall of RPGs and how FromSoftware capitalized

Will future RPGs take FromSoft’s approach?

Developers have decided they want to build games how they want to and expect us to like them. The same way that the Producers of The Witcher on Netflix have blamed fans for noticing the quality of the show has declined. While gaming should be about the love of the games, it’s become more about the money. Games like Assassin’s Creed and to a much larger extent Battlefront and Battlefield have been games designed to be pay-to-win or for microtransactions. Elden Ring has taken the approach to give fans what they want and give them everything out of the box.

This, of course, is not to say they are perfect but they understand what gamers want. From Demon Souls to Elden Ring, you can see the similarities but also the differences. Elden Ring multiple things from other games and gave us combat that is much more fluid. They encouraged players to fight what they see in sight by rewarding us with refills on the flasks. They also gave us the ability to craft things from what we find in the world encouraging exploration. They also gave us weapon arts with Ashes of War like in Dark Souls II where they were important but also treated combat like Bloodborne where the enemies are aggressive. They gave us the upgrade style and open world area that Dark Souls III had but also the traversal with Torrent that Sekiro had. Elden Ring is a culmination of all the great things FromSoftware has accomplished put into one game.

FromSoftware has created a place where gamers can go to have consistency with challenges. Not only have they created worlds where we can be adults and have our own time and be treated as an adult, the idea of tough but fair (sometimes unfair) is a trend that I hope more game developers adopt. Despite dying over 9 billion times, Elden Ring is still alive and well.