The Biggest Difference Between Elden Ring And Breath Of The Wild Is The Value In Combat

thegamer.com:

I’m now 40 or so hours into Elden Ring and can comfortably say that no open world game has reeled me in as quickly and totally as FromSoftware’s latest offering. Despite its unintuitive UI/UX, it encourages exploration in a way the series never has before, and it coincided with the Euphoria finale in a way that really helped me deal with how I view my own substance abuse issues. It’s not flawless, but it’s a masterpiece, that’s for damn sure. So why do I dislike the other genre-defining open world masterpiece that came out a few years before, Breath of the Wild?

The fundamentals of each game seem similar enough at first glance. Both have (deep breath now) a vast map to explore and uncover piece-by-piece, an end goal but little overall direction, little to no hand-holding, innumerable secrets and mysteries hidden away everywhere you look, and most importantly of all, crafting. Yet whenever I’ve tried to start Link’s adventure I bounce off it after a few hours. I initially put it down to just not being much of a Zelda stan, but I’ve now realised it’s much more than that.

RELATED: FromSoftware Employees Deserve Better After The Success Of Elden Ring

In Elden Ring, one of the first main enemy encampments is the Gatefront Ruins, just at the start of the path leading to Stormveil Castle. There are a load of knights patrolling, sitting, and doing knight stuff. I went in all sneaky beaky and cleared a few out, but then a big dude with a lance speared straight through me. I ran back in to grab my runes, levelled up my Strength, and tried again, repeating the process and getting a little further through each time. In the end I managed to emerge triumphant.

Contrast this to BOTW where getting killed trying to raid a Bokoblin camp