FromSoftware Should Learn One Lesson From Elden Ring’s Torrent

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 11, 2024 31 Views 5 Min Read
FromSoftware Should Learn One Lesson From Elden Ring’s Torrent



While there will be many things to learn from Elden Ring as FromSoftware’s first attempt at blending open-world and Soulslike designs, one key lesson needs to come from Torrent and its approach to world navigation. Unlike FromSoftware’s previous Soulslike games, Elden Ring broke the mold in many ways with an open-world design and a Spectral Steed mount among more obvious examples.




Even with rumors that FromSoftware’s next game will break from open worlds and return to a traditional linear design, there is still the likelihood of future development returning to this world design due to its prominence in gaming. With this in mind, Elden Ring is a testing ground for FromSoftware about what did and didn’t work for a Soulslike open world, especially regarding Torrent. After all, with Soulslikes being infamous for difficult yet rewarding gameplay, an in-game mount for open-world navigation needs to ensure it balances well with the rest of the game and its mechanics.

Whenever FromSoftware Returns to the Open-World Genre, It Should Avoid Repeating This Shadow of the Erdtree Mistake

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Whenever FromSoftware Returns to the Open-World Genre, It Should Avoid Repeating This Shadow of the Erdtree Mistake

One boss in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree made less of an impact than intended, and future open world Souls games should avoid its missteps.

Breaking Down How Elden Ring’s Torrent Does and Doesn’t Work in a Soulslike


As a staple design philosophy in Soulslike games, essential mechanics are attributed to key in-game items, such as how players regain health using the Estus Flask from the Dark Souls series or the Healing Gourd in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. By extension, Elden Ring took a similar approach with its Spectral Steed Whistle item which players need to summon Torrent. Should players want to readily summon Torrent without going into their inventory, then the whistle can be assigned to item slots such as those in their Pouch.

Elden Ring Anticipated How Much Torrent Would Influence Soulslike Gameplay

Based on this approach, it seems that FromSoftware is aware of how much Elden Ring‘s in-game mount pushes boundaries when it comes to previous ideas and designs in Soulslike games. For instance, players could use Torrent to their advantage, such as by taking on larger or faster enemies, or by fleeing fights that are too difficult or when they’re low on health. Requiring players to relegate an item slot for the whistle is one step FromSoftware takes to balance Torrent with traditional Soulslike gameplay.


Elden Ring Drops the Ball When Reviving Torrent

However, while other features such as only allowing players to use one hand at a time when riding go further to balance Elden Ring’s mounted combat, Torrent’s health independent of the player is where FromSoftware’s next open-world game might learn its lesson. Though healing Torrent in Elden Ring is not its biggest issue, problems arise when Torrent has been killed and requires reviving in order to be summoned again. This can be done using the whistle and expending one of the Flask of Crimson Tears’ charges, but an immersion-breaking prompt interrupting gameplay forces players to confirm this.

FromSoftware’s Next Open-World Game Should Learn from Elden Ring’s Torrent

Despite seeming like a small detail, forcing this prompt on players has been enough to cause frustration within Elden Ring’s community, even leading to mods that revive Torrent by default or memes on social media like the one below.


Here, mods outline one lesson FromSoftware could learn from Elden Ring’s Torrent, allowing players to disable prompts through in-game options. Alternatively, to spare players wasting Flash of Crimson Tears’ charges, FromSoftware’s next Soulslike game could include an upgrade to the next game’s whistle replacement, similar to the Estus Flask’s own upgrades, where players can eventually remove any costs or prompts and immediately revive their mount.

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