How accessible is Elden Ring? A disabled gamer’s perspective

metro.co.uk:

Elden Ring is a difficult game for anybody to play but does it do enough to ensure that disabled players aren’t at unfair disadvantage?

FromSoftware has long considered the difficulty of their games to be part of their brand. Their Dark Souls franchise is famously punishing and requires a considerable amount of patience, skill, and dedication to defeat its notoriously difficult bosses. Elden Ring, their new open world action role-playing game, is no exception and was not designed for those looking to play something easy or gentle. This game was designed for masochists. And as a disabled gamer, I am a veteran when it comes to pain.

There is a point to be made that everyone, irrespective of whether you have a disability or not, will find a game like Elden Ring difficult, especially if you are new to the concept. Dying comes with the territory in this brutal, beautiful world that is full of wonder and terror. Upon walking out into The Lands Between and peering over The First Step, a rugged landscape with a wispy, silver Erdtree, you’re barely given the chance to appreciate the game’s incredible graphics before you are thrown straight into the action.

Within the first five minutes of playing, I approached the Tree Sentinel – a huge, seemingly friendly knight with a sword the size of the moon, armoured and on horseback. Surely, I would not be expected to fight such a huge foe this early on, right? At this point, I was still dressed in rags. How wrong I was. I was dead in two swings, before I’d even thought about parrying.

This kind of experience is normal with a FromSoftware game. Elden Ring is frustrating and a lot of fun in equal measures. Learning the mechanics and figuring out how to overcome challenges will take some players