By all accounts, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a incredible sequel. Digital Developments’ assessment highlights how including sky islands, an enormous cavern beneath Hyrule, and creation talents give gamers instruments to create their very own puzzle options and blow the sport open. It doubles down on all of Breath of the Wild’s strengths however builds upon them in revolutionary ways in which make this sequel really feel really totally different from its predecessor. If, or when, Elden Ring will get a follow-up, I hope its sequel does the identical.
Whereas not formally introduced, FromSoftware proprietor Kadokawa Group has outright acknowledged that it’s “pursuing the maximization of revenue by prolonging the lifetime of IP.” That makes a sequel to Elden Ring really feel inevitable. The upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree enlargement will possible introduce some concepts of its personal, however a sequel is the place FromSoftware has a possibility to vary issues up.
And if that chance for an Elden Ring sequel does come to fruition, I hope that FromSoftware is as boldly bold with Elden Ring 2’s design as Nintendo was with Tears of the Kingdom.
What makes for an amazing sequel?
I’m not the most important fan of Elden Ring, however I nonetheless acknowledge how monumental of a launch it was for the sport {industry}. It was an enormous bounce from Darkish Souls 3 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, taking FromSoftware’s confirmed Souls method and unleashing it on a Breath of the Wild-like open world. Elden Ring might nonetheless really feel unapproachable at occasions, however there’s no denying that this can be a good evolution of a method that the Darkish Souls sequence had pushed to the boundaries.
As a result of Elden Ring was so successful, there’s a requirement for extra. And the simplest solution to capitalize on that may be to pump out sequels shortly that refine the core method however don’t try this a lot that’s new. FromSoftware might undoubtedly discover success that approach, and that model of Elden Ring 2 might nonetheless be fairly good, however a recreation as vital as Elden Ring deserves the identical sequel remedy that Nintendo gave Breath of the Wild.
Equally to Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild was a revelation in comparison with most of the Zelda video games that got here earlier than it, eschewing sequence conventions to attempt one thing new. The outcome was probably the greatest video games of all time and warranted a sequel, however Nintendo didn’t need to do extra of the identical. At first look, the truth that Tears of the Kingdom shares many visible property and even some map design with Breath of the Wild could appear unambitious and disappointing. That couldn’t be farther from the reality.
As an alternative, Nintendo used Breath of the Wild similarities to, as Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi places it, “create new gameplay.” That meant deepening the methods gamers work together with the world, whether or not by fusing any of the objects they choose up or constructing an Ultrahand contraption that the sport didn’t inform you about to unravel a puzzle.
It’s a method that’s labored wonders in immersive sims, and making use of it to an open-world action-adventure recreation has additionally labored wonders. Nintendo didn’t play it protected with Breath of the Wild, regardless that it nonetheless might have bought hundreds of thousands of copies doing so, and that’s very commendable. In flip, it additionally makes me need to see the builders of different lauded video games do the identical.
I’m not saying {that a} potential Elden Ring 2 wants its personal model of Ultrahand or Fuse; that may really feel by-product. I’ll go away arising with genius new design concepts to the builders who make these nice video games. Nonetheless, a give attention to creating new and revolutionary gameplay experiences whereas additionally honoring what got here earlier than is the method that leads to the perfect sequels.
Sequels to nice video games ought to really feel just like the leap from Darkish Souls 3 to Elden Ring, not the bounce from Darkish Souls to Darkish Souls II. If I simply wished extra of Elden Ring, I might play the sport once more as a brand new class or ultimately attempt its enlargement. When FromSoftware follows up Elden Ring, it must be doing one thing bold and industry-changing with it.
We’ve seen Tears of the Kingdom pull that off whereas following up Breath of the Wild, so an Elden Ring 2 that seems like something lower than that may really feel disappointing. That’s a excessive bar for Elden Ring 2 to fulfill, however FromSoftware has confirmed that it’s a proficient sufficient group to be up for that problem.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is accessible now for Nintendo Swap. Elden Ring is accessible for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X/S.
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