They’re short, optional challenges usually centered around a boss fight. These little zones feel a bit like Zelda’s shrines. It’s another moment where Breath of the Wild’s DNA is most felt. I then take the only other path available until I find a level that unlocks that door, and then head back. In one area, I walk until I find a locked boss door. I’m not exploring large chasms and finding a bunch of secrets and shortcuts. The ones I find during my demo are fairly linear micro areas. As I explore, I begin to find little caves tucked away. Rather than winding through tight corridors, I’m largely traveling through the wide-open plains of Limgrave. The game’s approach to world design is quite different than other Souls games in ways that might prove a little polarizing to longtime fans. It’s the opening of Breath of the Wild, beat for beat. Instead, I safely emerge into a sprawling plain that triggers a sublime sensation. As I walk through it, searching for an exit, I assume I’m going to be jumped by some low-level monsters.

The game seems to take cues from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, starting from its opening moment. Take a walk on the wild sideĮlden Ring makes a lot of tweaks to the standard Dark Souls formula, but the most obvious change is its pivot to open-world gameplay. Then I stopped playing it like a Dark Souls game. I was once again preparing to feel like a contrarian outcast as I anticipated a wave of previews declaring it the next Ocarina of Time. Fights required superhuman patience, swordplay was arduous, and I often felt like I was fighting the camera more than the giant boss in front of me. As enamored as I was with its gorgeous open world, parts of it still felt like torture.

I’ve simply never understood the appeal of Dark Souls and other FromSoftware games and, at first, it seemed like Elden Ring wasn’t going to change that. Six hours into my hands-on Elden Ring demo, I was miserable.

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