If you have been a fan of the FROMSOFTWARE games or are new to them you might wonder if Elden Ring is as hard as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro? This question is nothing new as many people have been comparing these games even before Elden Ring came out. So it only makes sense that this game joins the war of which game is the hardest. Today we will try to answer these questions for you.
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Is Elden Ring as Hard as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro?
The answer to this question is both yes and no. As the game isn’t exactly the same as the others but shares a lot of mechanisms. Hence some mechanisms are harder in Elden Ring as compared to the other Soulsborne games, while some are easier. Let us check the two biggest aspects of the game when compared to other games.
- Easy things about Elden Ring
- Hard thing about Elden Ring
Remember the above-mentioned points are not to show which game is harder than the others just what makes Elden Ring easy or hard in certain situations. The difficulty can never be directly gauged as it is subjective. Also, the biggest thing that makes these games easy or hard is their learning curve. So now let us check these points.
Easy things about Elden Ring as compared to Dark Souls, Bloodborne, & Sekiro
- Spirit Ashes: If you are new to the series then boss fights have never been easier than this. Note this is not to say that the boss fights are easy, even after summoning spirit ashes you can lose very easily. The catch is if you upgrade your spirit ashes properly and know how to use your summon then the boss fights can get surprisingly easy. Let’s take the example of Mimic Tear. Having a Mimic Tear + 10 was so broken, it was like the boss was fighting two of you instead of one. And when you take Mimic Tear with Terra Magica and Comet Azur you get the cheese for plenty of bosses in the game. This Spirit Ashes was so broken the game nerfed it. And despite the nerf it is still considered to be one of the best Spirit Ashes in the game even now.
- Fast Travel to save/use runes: Saving your runes is super easy now thanks to fast travel. You can just open your map and quickly fast travel to any site of grace to use your runes if you feel you might get in danger. This wasn’t the case in the first Dark Souls. In Dark Souls if you wanted to use your souls and weren’t near a bonfire then you had to use the Homeward bone. It would then take you to the bonfire you last interacted with. So if you ran out of Homeward bone the only other option would be to traverse back. That is also a problem if you didn’t clear every enemy in your path.
Hard thing about Elden Ring
- Exploration and the huge world: I don’t mean this as it being as something bad for the game. The huge world is something beautiful to explore, especially because of your steed Torrent. And, the addition of the map makes the exploration all the more fun. But it also adds new complexity and confusion as to where you should go next. Even with the golden lines guiding as to where to go, it is super easy to get lost. While the problem of exploration isn’t exclusive to this game and was common with Dark Souls, the huge world just makes it tougher.
Quick comparison of Elden Ring with other Soulsborne games
Elden Ring is closest to the Dark Souls games as compared to Bloodborne or Sekiro. It follows the same versatility that Dark Souls gave to its players in terms of classes and weapons. The combat is also much more similar between these games. Bloodborne is more fast-paced but still felt somewhat aligned to Dark Souls. Sekiro on the other hand had completely different mechanisms. From the posture-based boss fights to the use of combat Arts. Sekiro is a completely different game when you compare it with these other games.
That covers this guide on whether Elden Ring is as hard as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. If you haven’t started playing this game then you should check our Elden Ring section. Here you will find many guides on different boss fights, builds, and more for this game.