Is Elden Ring Like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Demon's Souls? (2024)

Elden Ring is here! Now that it's finally out, gamers are wondering exactly what the experience is like. Is it just another Souls game? Is it like other popular RPGs, like Witcher or Bethesda games? Don't worry! In this article, we're going to explain whether or not Elden Ring is like Skyrim, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Demon's Souls and if so, how much.

The short answer is no, it's not. These are both big, action-heavy RPGs, but there are few similarities beyond the superficial between the two experiences.

In Skyrim, the main gameplay loop is built around questing. Quests get you to explore the map which gets you to fight stuff which, eventually, gives you rewards use can use to take on more quests, explore more of the map, and fight more stuff to get even better rewards.

The joy of playing Skyrim doesn't come from its gameplay or character build at all, really: It's all about the worldbuilding and immersing yourself in a living, breathing place you can explore and quest in to your heart's content.

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Elden Ring doesn't have traditional quests, characters, or even really all that much dialogue at all. There aren't any cities or many NPCs to interact with. The main point of Elden Ring is its gameplay and understanding the gameplay well enough to overcome challenges.

You can definitely explore the world of Elden Ring and find much to appreciate alongside interesting characters and quests; however, Elden Ring isn't really about roleplaying. You get to choose your stats, skills, and gear, but there isn't much more to it than that. It's all about the gameplay, not your character.

Is Elden Ring Like Dark Souls?

Yes, but it really depends which Dark Souls game you're thinking about. Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 are incredibly slow games. You start with only enough stamina to roll a couple of times before it'll have to recharge, and movement, while responsive, is slow.

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These games are about steady exchanges of blows, careful watching of the stamina bar, and making smart decisions in real-time based on how much stamina you have. Accordingly, enemies and bosses are a bit slow, they telegraph their attacks fairly obviously, and combat has an overall methodical pace to it.

Elden Ring doesn't play like this, Elden Ring plays like Dark Souls 3. Dark Souls 3 is a much faster game. You start with tons of stamina, you roll quickly, and you usually have enough stamina to swing your weapon a bunch, block a good number of hits, or roll around a ton.

Accordingly, enemies in Dark Souls 3 move quickly and attack quickly. They're often aggressive, get up in your face, and don't telegraph their attacks so obviously. Fighting them is more about knowing their movesets and taking advantage of openings, reacting quickly and using the ample stamina you have.

Elden Ring plays like Dark Souls 3 with much more build variety. It's a faster-paced game than Dark Souls or Dark Souls 2.

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Is Elden Ring Like Bloodborne?

Sort of, but not really. Bloodborne is another fast-paced FromSoftware game, so in that respect, there are definitely similarities, but the games play very differently from one another.

In Bloodborne, there's essentially no build variety. You aren't using shields or spells or even really ranged damage-dealing weapons. For the majority of the time, you're using a melee weapon and a gun you use to essentially parry enemies to open them up to a critical attack.

Surrounding all of this is Bloodborne's regain system where you can earn health back if you damage an enemy quickly enough after being damaged yourself. This incentivizes constant, aggressive play. In the way Dark Souls was built around getting players to avoid damage, Bloodborne wants you to take damage because you can negate the damage you take by fighting.

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Accordingly, Bloodborne is an extremely fast-paced game. Not only is movement quick, but oftentimes the best way to fight is by getting up close, taking damage, and earning health back by fighting. Elden Ring has no regain mechanic, and there are a ton of different ways to approach combat situations.

Bloodborne and Sekiro are like FromSoftware games built around the idea of a very specific build, a very specific playstyle, while the Souls games oftentimes give the player many options in how they want to play. Elden Ring is much more like Souls than Bloodborne or Sekiro in this respect.

Is Elden Ring Like Demon's Souls?

In a very specific sense, yes, but overall, no. In short, Elden Ring contains many Demon's Souls worth of content within it, but it also has much more than just that.

Demon's Souls is essentially a bunch of FromSoftware Souls levels littered with various enemies, traps, bosses, and items to acquire that you go from level to level playing until you play all the levels and get tired of the combat.

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Entire levels of the scale of the Boletarian Palace, for example, can simply be stumbled upon in Elden Ring's open-world. The locations you might see in Demon's Souls are mere places you can come across in Elden Ring, while in Demon's Souls, they're the whole game.

Elden Ring is a much larger, much more ambitious game than Demon's Souls, which more simply introduced the general style of combat the Souls games are known for in the context of a series of classically FromSoftware levels.

Plus, Demon's Souls plays slow, just like Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, so there are fewer combat similarities between Elden Ring and Demon's Souls than there are between Elden Ring and, say, Dark Souls 3.

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