Is Elden Ring Kinda Like Skyrim? A Deep Dive Comparison
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The short answer? Yes, and no. While Elden Ring and Skyrim both offer vast, open worlds ripe for exploration, their core gameplay experiences are fundamentally different. Imagine two chefs using similar ingredients but creating wildly different dishes. That’s the essence of the relationship between these two acclaimed games. To truly understand their similarities and differences, we need to delve deeper.
Open World Exploration: Shared DNA, Different Execution
Both Elden Ring and Skyrim are renowned for their massive, interconnected worlds. In both, you can wander seemingly endlessly, discovering hidden caves, ruins, and secrets around every corner. However, the way these worlds are designed and the way players interact with them are where the divergences begin.
Skyrim: The Freedom to Wander
Skyrim emphasizes player agency and a sense of freeform exploration. The world is peppered with settlements, dungeons, and points of interest, often leading to quests and side stories. You can often travel enormous distances without encountering combat if you choose, letting you immerse yourself in the world’s lore and beauty. The narrative is relatively flexible, allowing players to tackle quests in almost any order and pursue diverse storylines.
Elden Ring: A Challenging Landscape
Elden Ring, on the other hand, has a more deliberate and perilous open world. While there’s freedom to explore, the game’s difficulty means players are constantly facing the threat of combat. The vast open fields and breathtaking vistas often conceal incredibly challenging enemies and locations. This creates a sense of tension and reward, as successfully exploring a new area often leads to valuable items or encounters that improve your character. The narrative is more fragmented, requiring players to piece together the story through exploration, item descriptions, and cryptic NPC interactions.
Combat Systems: Where the Paths Diverge
The combat systems are a primary source of difference between these two games.
Skyrim’s Flexible Approach
Skyrim’s combat is more forgiving and action-oriented. You can often overpower enemies with brute force, and there’s a wide variety of combat styles you can mix and match. With its skill trees and adaptable class system, you can transition between sword-wielding warrior and stealthy archer on a whim. The combat is intentionally accessible, encouraging casual players to jump in and enjoy the adventure.
Elden Ring’s Precise and Punishing Battles
Elden Ring’s combat, deeply rooted in the ‘Souls’ genre, is far more demanding and precise. Every encounter, whether it’s a lowly grunt or a towering boss, requires careful timing, strategy, and a firm understanding of enemy patterns. One wrong move can be fatal, leading to an unforgiving but incredibly rewarding experience. It’s a combat system that demands mastery and patience, appealing to those who appreciate a significant challenge.
Difficulty: A Key Distinguishing Factor
This leads us to one of the most significant differences: difficulty.
Skyrim: A Relaxed Experience
Skyrim, generally considered one of the easier games in its series, allows players to tailor the difficulty to their preference. Even at higher difficulty settings, skilled players can often dominate combat encounters. It’s designed to be a fun, accessible experience, allowing players to get lost in its open world.
Elden Ring: A Ruthless Challenge
Elden Ring is notoriously difficult, often hailed as one of the toughest modern games. While the open-world provides opportunities to grind and improve your character, the challenges are relentless. FromSoftware’s design philosophy emphasizes punishment and reward, making the feeling of overcoming a difficult boss incredibly satisfying.
Key Similarities: Bridging the Gap
Despite their differences, there are some intriguing similarities.
Horses as Travel Aids
Both games feature horses as a primary mode of transportation, though Elden Ring’s spectral steed, Torrent, is notably more agile and integral to combat in certain situations. In Skyrim, your horse is a simple way to travel the world, while in Elden Ring, Torrent is often involved in boss battles, especially in the open world.
Crafting and Collecting
Both games feature robust crafting systems and allow for the collection of resources, although they’re implemented very differently. Skyrim uses crafting to improve armor and weapons, while in Elden Ring crafting serves a more diverse purpose, such as making consumable items and status-altering effects.
Magic and Dragons
Both Skyrim and Elden Ring feature magic systems, though Elden Ring is more spell focused, while Skyrim is more melee based with a magic assist. Both feature dragon encounters, though Elden Ring’s dragons are often terrifying and challenging boss fights, while those in Skyrim are more varied in difficulty.
Conclusion: Different Flavors of Open World
In conclusion, while both games offer the allure of exploration within expansive open worlds, Elden Ring and Skyrim cater to vastly different player preferences. Skyrim is a sprawling sandbox with a focus on freedom and accessibility, while Elden Ring provides a challenging and rewarding experience with precise, demanding combat. The comparison can be summarised as: Elden Ring is the Skyrim of Dark Souls, but Skyrim is not the Elden Ring of The Elder Scrolls.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is Elden Ring harder than Skyrim?
Yes, significantly. Elden Ring is known for its punishing difficulty, requiring precise timing and strategic thinking. Skyrim, on the other hand, is generally considered an easier game.
2. Is Elden Ring as big as Skyrim?
Yes, even larger. Elden Ring’s map is roughly twice the size of Skyrim, offering a massive world to explore.
3. What is Elden Ring comparable to?
Elden Ring is most comparable to the Dark Souls series, particularly Dark Souls 3, but with a much larger and more open world.
4. Is Elden Ring good for a first-time “Souls” player?
Yes, surprisingly so. Elden Ring is considered the most approachable FromSoftware game, offering more opportunities to level up and explore than previous titles in the genre.
5. Can a casual gamer enjoy Elden Ring?
Yes, with patience. While difficult, Elden Ring is accessible to casual gamers who are willing to learn and explore. Grinding and summoning friends can also mitigate some of the difficulties.
6. Why is Elden Ring so difficult?
Elden Ring is designed to be unforgiving, with enemies that can punish players for even small mistakes. This intentional design makes each victory feel earned.
7. How many hours does it take to beat Elden Ring?
On average, focusing on the main objectives takes about 58 hours, while a 100% completion can take approximately 133 hours.
8. Does Elden Ring have different endings?
Yes, it does. Elden Ring has multiple endings, requiring multiple playthroughs to experience them all.
9. Should I play Elden Ring if I haven’t played Dark Souls?
Absolutely. Elden Ring is an excellent entry point to FromSoftware games, even if you’ve never played Dark Souls.
10. Is there crafting in Elden Ring?
Yes. Elden Ring has a robust crafting system, allowing players to create consumables and other items.
11. What makes Elden Ring so popular?
Elden Ring gained popularity due to its challenging gameplay, vast open world, and stunning visuals. It was also the Game of the Year 2022.
12. What is the hardest character to start with in Elden Ring?
The Wretch class is generally considered the hardest start due to its lack of equipment and low base stats.
13. How much of the game do players complete?
Approximately 50% of players on Steam have finished the game at least once. This is considerably higher than most other AAA titles.
14. Is Skyrim considered a hard game?
No, not really. Skyrim is widely regarded as one of the easiest games in The Elder Scrolls series.
15. What is the largest game bigger than Skyrim?
Starfield has 1,000 planets, each with a few square miles, making it far larger than Skyrim, despite being from the same developer.