Elden Ring’s Jump Button Changes Everything

thegamer.com:

Jumping has been a core part of video games for decades. It’s a mechanic we largely take for granted, something we’ve grown so accustomed to that its absence in any major release is met with visible confusion. Despite its prevalence in the medium, FromSoftware seemingly wasn’t aware of its existence until the release of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne all feature brooding protagonists who were as capable of lifting their feet off the ground as they were capable of smiling - it was an impossible feat for them. Granted, they’d be wearing heavy armour or blood-soaked rags most of the time, so achieving such a level of momentum while under duress probably isn't the easiest thing in the world. Yet its absence was noticeable, so much so that the introduction of jumping in Sekiro makes it hard to go back now.

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I wish I could leap over the Asylum Demon’s head instead of relying on clumsy momentum for a drop attack, while Bloodborne’s more aggressive approach to combat would work wonders if I had a chance to go airborne. Sekiro opened up the potential for faster movement, stealth, and battles that could span entire stages as you encouraged enemies to follow you across a castle’s interior while engaging in a nail-biting duel. There’s a chance they might even lose sight of you, meaning you could easily jump into the rafters only to murder them with a single strike from the shadows. These possibilities were endless, and they all return in Elden Ring.

It feels silly to describe a jump button as revolutionary in 2022, but Elden Ring is able to propel it to such heights because of how much it does with such a thing. The Lands Between is sprawling