Elden Ring Round 2: I Finally Finished it.
In Preparation for Shadow of the Erdtree
I did it.
After watching a bunch of lore videos and watching explanation videos, I’m still not really sure what “it” is, but I did “it” (thanks Comet Azur for taking all of the stress out of the game).
I’m back to Elden Ring to analyze The Lands Between after diving into some supplementary lore videos and seeing a lot of the mid-end game environments, I was much more impressed by what I saw. Special shoutout to Tarnished Archaeologist for creating and or compiling a lot of great theories around the ruins and historic architecture and what they could mean in the game. I’m going to avoid rehashing a lot of their theories, BUT they provide in depth analyses around architectural styles of different areas, the proposed timelines and events, and why there are matchy-matchy buildings a continent away from each other.
What I want to focus on is one of the best abuses of prospect-refuge theory mixed with incredible monumentality, as well as a dash of atmosphere.
PROSPECT:
I designed schools in America for 7 years, so one thing that became engrained in my design vernacular is creating a sense of safety by allowing views of ones surroundings. This is often referred to as the “prospect” aspect of prospect-refuge theory. Before I delve too deeply into this, I do want to point out that I recently stumbled on to this nearly decade old meta analysis of prospect-refuge theory at multiple scales and their conclusion is that the sense of safety is mostly derived from prospect rather than refuge. I think Elden Ring makes that point as well, as I don’t think there is such a thing as refuge (with the exception of some sites of grace)in The Lands Between, but there are many moments that create a sense of safety through prospect.
Elden Ring is a difficult and unrelenting journey, equal parts frustrating and confusing. The number of times I finally beat a difficult enemy only to get slaughtered by an unseen enemy crouching behind a wall right before you complete a dungeon is maddening (not sure how many “shame on me’s” I deserve at this point). Enemies can be extremely tough (unless you are a magical coward (like me)) and moments of safety are SO refreshing. These moments are almost always some variation of awe-inspiring, fore-shadowing, and curious. Running through a gauntlet of death to be greeted by a Byzantine skyline seemingly under attack by a petrified dragon made me say “gee willikers!”. The gold roofs, gray mystery, and storytelling creates a unique feeling that took my breath away dozens of times (or maybe I was still out of breath drenched in sweat from those 2 or 3 zombies I had to work my way through). I love that these moments are that coupled with the difficulty (of 2 or 3 zombies, they really were pretty hard), you want to spend some time here, not only to take it all in, and not only to wipe the sweat from your brow, but also to try and figure out what happened here and to formulate your plan of action.
ATMOSPHERE:
The second thing that I think I touched on in my first writing (I don’t actually remember as it was a bit of clickbaity cringe and I don’t want to reread it out of embarrassment) is that the Lands Between features some *raises the sultry eyebrows* At-mo-sphere.
There are so many moments where the use of fog silhouettes buildings, enemies, etc. and reminds me of J.M.W. Turner’s ability to obscure and his depth of color. This depth of experience enhances the emotion of every difficult boss fight and major event. It is the only thing that kept my spirits high when times got frustrating. It makes it a lot easier to sprint through a dozen enemies to a boss for the 30th time, when it looks this good (I had to keep myself from flirting with the tornado on the way to Dragonlord Placidusax).
Atmosphere often goes hand in hand with Prospect as well. The moments of safety are deepened. Like this one below (IYKYK).
Elden Ring also shares DNA with a lot of open world games with different Biomes in that the lore often explains why zones feature certain colors and aesthetics. It does a good job, but if you don’t do a crap load of research outside of the game it feels a bit random. I personally like games with outside lore, but I shouldn’t have to watch a 30 hour video to understand what the hell I just spent 100 hours doing. Honestly, I still have no clue what I was doing and I’m not even really sure I had fun, but I am glad I did it.
