I’m Obsessed With What Is Arguably Elden Ring’s Worst Feature, & DLC Won’t Fix It

My first run through took about 115 hours, but it probably could've been a bit quicker if it weren't for my obsession with the game's co-op. Unfortunately for me, the cooperative multiplayer is clunky and ill-suited to the advancements made over its FromSoftware predecessors. It doesn't make it any less fun necessarily, but it's perhaps the one area I wish could be improved in what I consider an almost flawless game. Anticipation for 's expansion has already dragged me back to the game, and I'm once again embroiled in constant co-op, a situation I expect to find myself in once again when the DLC drops.

My obsession with FromSoftware's particular brand of co-op multiplayer started with (I wouldn't go back to until a couple of years later), where I went into the game knowing nothing aside from its daunting reputation for being «tough but fair.» I didn't even know had multiplayer when I started, and its obtuse method of matchmaking with different colors of items called Soapstones was just one of many bizarre design choices in a game that would fundamentally change my understanding of how video games can be fun.

Despite the crushingly lonely atmosphere of games like,,, and, there's a peculiar sort of life given to their game worlds by the players. Messages cobbled together from preset words and phrases litter the ground, ghostly apparitions of other players pass you in dimly lit dungeon corridors, and bloodstains all around show how some unfortunate player met a violent end. Glowing summon signs are the most tangible signs of life, though, especially once the monochrome phantom bursts through the floor and gives a courteous bow.

The inspiration for such a system, which has remained largely unaltered since its debut in, actually came from a real-life experience Hidetaka Miyazaki shared in an old interview:

The origin of that idea is actually due to a personal experience where a car suddenly stopped on a hillside after some heavy snow and started to slip. The car