Elden Ring combat as fast-paced as Dark Souls 3, shares FromSoftware

Demon’s Souls and the first Dark Souls games all had a slower, more deliberate pace, while Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 both had faster combat; but what about the pace of combat in Elden Ring?

In a recent interview with Yasuhiro Kitao of FromSoftware, he confirmed that Elden Ring will have a pace that’s similar to Dark Souls 3, meaning it will play faster, especially when compared to the older Souls games.

“We’d say the sense of speed of combat is closer to Dark Souls 3,” said Kitao. “If you remember we had Dark Souls 1 and 2 released with the more steady, deliberate combat speed. Then Bloodborne came out which really kind of changed that and added a lot more speed and aggression. We saw that the fans really responded well to that, so we wanted to incorporate a bit of that speed into Dark Souls 3, and that was met quite well. So we’ve used that as a base, sort of a starting point for Elden Ring.”

Along with the game’s speed, Elden Ring will also have a stamina system that’s similar to Dark Souls 3, but with a unique twist.

“You can expect stamina to work in a similar way to how it did in Dark Souls 3, [except in the overworld],” shared Kitao. “As we want to alleviate the stress of traversing the huge overworld, stamina management only comes into play during combat, and within dungeons. So, when you’re out roaming the Lands Between and you’re not in combat, you can hold down the sprint button indefinitely without consuming stamina. We wanted to give the player a stress-free experience as much as we could.”

Given the game’s similar pace to that of the third Dark Souls, we expect that Dark Souls 3 veteran would feel right at home in Elden Ring. Of course, this doesn’t mean the game will be a cakewalk as FromSoftware’s new game still promises to pose a major challenge.

Elden Ring releases on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on January 22, 2022.