Despite its sprawling open world, Elden Ring does have a main quest with a critical path, telling a story of the Tarnished arriving in the Lands Between, fighting their way through the Shardbearers who hold pieces of the titular Elden Ring, and then rising to become Elden Lord.
This story spans over much of any run, with the player free to indulge in as much or as little of the additional area and open world as they please. The main quest has proven popular with fans, with several things to recommend it – but it isn't perfect, and does have a couple of flaws.
8 Best: It's Very Flexible As To Where The Player Goes
Unusually for a FromSoftware game, Elden Ring has fairly open and flexible progression, particularly at the beginning. The player simply has to defeat two Shardbearers, and from there they will be allowed into Leyndell, the Royal Capital, and into the dungeons and areas that make up the endgame.
Ultimately, the player can defeat any two Shardbearers of their choice. Even early-game bosses that seem mandatory like Godrick the Grafted have ways to bypass them, and so the game has very few non-optional bosses. Players are likely to fight Godrick, Renalla, and General Radahn, but could make their way into the endgame with other, less obvious Shardbearers.
7 Worst: It Interacts Minimally With The Open World
One of Elden Ring's selling points is the combination of Dark Souls-esque gameplay with a full, open world. Its design has proven wildly
successful, with glowing praise heaped on the game's open-world structure, and the wide variety of areas and places to explore within it.
However, the game's main story only interacts very minimally with its open world. Fundamentally, the main quest leads the player through Legacy Dungeon after Legacy Dungeon, even having roads leading between most of them. The only place it really engages with the open world is in finding a Glintstone Key for Raya Lucaria, leaving the vast majority of the game's content entirely optional.
6 Best: Some Absolutely Beloved Boss Fights
Boss fights have always been one of the primary lures of FromSoft games, the pinnacle of their challenge and design, testing all of a player's skills to survive. Elden Ring has a vast number of boss fights, but many of these are reused due to the game's open-world structure.
Going through the main quest gives a selection of diverse and unique boss battles. Many of these are well-liked, including the fights against Margit the Fell Omen, Godrick the Grafted, Starscourge Radahn, and Horah Loux, Warrior.
5 Worst: The Main Quest Only Gives A Few Endings
Elden Ring outdoes previous FromSoft games by having as many as six endings that have been discovered so far. Four of them involve the Tarnished becoming Marika's consort as Elden Lord and repairing the ring with several variations, whilst the other two are distinctly odder.
The game's main quest is likely to lead to the Age of Fracture ending, or perhaps point them towards the Age of Order ending due to Goldmask appearing along the main quest's route. To get the other endings, players need to go off the beaten path, without any indication in the main quest of how to do so.
4 Best: There Is More Guidance Than Most FromSoft Games
FromSoftware games are known for being somewhat opaque and leaving it fairly unclear where the player is meant to go – rewarding trial-and-error gameplay and listening closely to NPCs. There is a vast amount of this in Elden Ring, particularly with its open world, but there is also explicit guidance given on the critical path.
On the map and in the game world, the player can see arrows pointing in a certain direction from specific Sites of Lost Grace. Known outright as Guidance of Grace, these arrows don't necessarily point out the main quest path, but they point to Legacy Dungeons, many of which are key areas in the quest.
3 Worst: A Severe Underuse Of Melina
Melina is clearly intended to be a main character in Elden Ring. She appears and offers to serve as the player's Maiden, giving them the ability to level up and letting them visit Roundtable Hold. She is also said to travel with the Tarnished, and has a fairly significant role later in the story, sacrificing herself to help the Tarnished proceed.
However, the game underuses her. She is clearly meant to be a counterpart to characters like the Doll from Bloodborne or the Firekeeper from Dark Souls III, but the player speaks with her far less – with her conversations being easily-missable prompts at specific Sites of Grace. As such, many players feel like they don't form much of a bond with her, making her sacrifice later heavily blunted in its emotional stakes.
2 Best: Trips To Some Of The Game's Best Areas
Particularly with its open-world design, areas are at least as important to Elden Ring as its boss fights are. With their wide-open design, unique aesthetics, and distinctive enemies, most regions of the Lands Between are easy to tell apart from one another and very fun to travel and fight through.
The areas the player has to travel through in the main quest are some of the game's best – despite a couple of hiccups. As much as some players struggle with areas like Crumbling Farum Azula, many more heap praise on Limgrave, Caelid, Liurnia, the Altus Plateau, and the other areas heavily involved with the main quest.
1 Worst: Later Bosses Can Border On The Unfair
As much as many of the main quest bosses are well-liked, there are some the players are much less fond of. In the endgame, the focus seems to be more on difficulty than making the fights fun, and players have reported struggling with certain fights far more than is enjoyable.
In particular, the Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, and the Elden Beast are considered some of the worse bosses in the game. The Fire Giant is disliked for his speed, strength, and absurd durability; the Godskin Duo are considered unbalanced together, and the Elden Beast for his mobility and is almost impossible to keep up with. These fights – two of the few that are mandatory – get more complaints than many others in the game.