Elden Ring isn't far away now, and with the game getting closer and closer to release, we're, naturally, getting more and more details, like its playtime and its difficulty adjustments.
The Souls-Games are hard af. But, they're hard af in a way that you want to be hard af: Satisfying. And while that's a massive sexual innuendo, and I'm ingenious for sneaking the word 'massive' in there, it is also true. Beating Dark Souls is satisfying because you feel like you're accomplishing something. You improve, and improve, and improve, and finally you beat that boss' ass, and not your gear or your how-to-guide. The same satisfying loop applies to games like Hades and Curse of the Dead Gods (which you should play if you're into feeling accomplished in your games) and obviously it also applies to FromSoftware's newest game Elden Ring.
However, Elden Ring does come with some difficulty adjustments that are new to the Souls-Games franchise:
Elden Ring Difficulty Will Reduce Player Stress
Now, the feeling of satisfaction I mentioned above, is obviously balanced against the agonizing stress of failure. Interestingly, Elden Ring is looking to downgrade the stress-factor, without diminishing your feeling of accomplishment: Enemies will not get weaker. Instead, Elden Ring is difficult in the right places and is simply gentler in letting you reach them:
With the game's world being so large, that can produce real depth and breadth of enjoyment, but it can also lead to unnecessary stress for some players. The dev team has been very careful to avoid that where possible.
Translation: With the game being open-world, you can pick and choose more specifically when to go for that difficult boss encounter and when not to. In previous, linear Souls-Games, you had no choice but to keep on pushing until you beat that boss. In Elden Ring, you can just re-route and come back later. Especially since you have your horse, you can just breeze around the map with ease, and explore other parts of the large world.
Oh, speaking of large... (Remember the intro? See what I did there?)
Elden Ring Playtime Revealed
Elden Ring can be finished in 30 hours, but will offer dozens of hours of extra content to complete. That's final, and not subject to change, since Elden Ring has officially gone gold, and will not be delayed again, with the release date of February 25 being locked in 100%.