The upcoming game Elden Ring borrows gameplay features from Dark Souls as well as other FromSoftware titles, but at least one feature won’t be returning. The game will still let players roll to evade attacks, drink from a flask to recover health and summon other players for online cooperation. However, Elden Ring seems to have omitted an unforgiving feature from Dark Souls: fall damage.
Fall damage in Dark Souls makes traversing any kind of elevated terrain perilous. Falling from even a short height can reduce a player’s health considerably, and a careless roll off of a cliff can mean certain doom. Certain pieces of equipment and magic such as the Silvercat Ring and the Fall Control sorcery can stop a player from incurring fall damage, but such methods are not always available right away. Elden Ring, by contrast, has apparently made jumping from heights a less harrowing experience.
The way in which Elden Ring changes Dark Souls‘ fall damage gameplay mechanic can be viewed in the gameplay preview for Elden Ring on BANDAI NAMCO Europe’s YouTube channel. At numerous points during the preview, the Tarnished can be seen traversing the environment by jumping from great heights to the ground below, sometimes repeatedly. Though no health bar is shown during these gameplay segments, the player-character seems unfazed by these falls which would otherwise cause serious damage in Dark Souls, nor are they shown healing after multiple falls. Even when falling on horseback, the player’s horse seems capable of a second midair jump prior to landing, resulting in no incurred damage or break in stride.
Removing Dark Souls’ Fall Damage Makes Elden Ring Easier
The removal of fall damage is an understandable choice given Elden Ring‘s open world, a unique feature for a FromSoftware title. The game boasts an immense world map with a myriad of accessible terrains, whereas the locales of Dark Souls are often made up of narrow and restrictive pathways. Locations in Elden Ring also seem to have been created with verticality in mind, such as towering cliffs and tall castle walls. Navigating such an environment while managing fall damage could inhibit the player’s freedom of movement, giving ample reason for the change.
While there is no direct confirmation that fall damage has been completely removed from Elden Ring, it seems to have at least been limited to a manageable level to maximize exploration. Though fall damage added to the overall difficulty of Dark Souls, this newest entry to the Souls series will likely still be recognizably challenging to fans of the franchise. Overall, the removal of fall damage, along with Elden Ring‘s horseback riding feature, promises to make Elden Ring the most easily-traversable FromSoftware game to date.
Elden Ring will release for Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on February 25, 2022.
Source: BANDAI NAMCO Europe/YouTube
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