5 Reasons Elden Ring Should Be FromSoftware’s Next Trilogy (& Why Bloodborne Deserves Another Chance)

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring is releasing in less than a year and has a lot of potential for a trilogy, but Bloodborne might deserve another chance.

You Are Reading :5 Reasons Elden Ring Should Be FromSoftwares Next Trilogy (& Why Bloodborne Deserves Another Chance)

After roughly two years of radio silence, fans were finally reassured that FromSoftware’s next dark-fantasy epic Elden Ring is, indeed, real. The first gameplay trailer elated many and has a solid amount of goodwill backing it up. FromSoftware has a healthy track record when it comes to quality games, starting with the Souls-like, action-RPG progenitor Demon’s Souls in 2009.

With Dark Souls III having closed a trilogy in 2016, some may be wondering if FromSoft is planning for another long-running series nearly six years later. Though, Bloodborne could be argued to deserve some love in this department. Elden Ring has plenty of hype and potential, but the acclaimed PS4 game has become a favorite in many “Soulsborne” community circles.

10 Elden Ring: Dark Souls’ Open-World “Evolution”

Following Elden Ring’s gameplay trailer premiere, it’s established as a spiritual successor of sorts to the Dark Souls trilogy. FromSoftware has done an excellent job crafting games with worlds that are cohesive, creative, and feel immersive while not being open-world, proving that games shouldn’t shoe-horn in that format for the sake of it.

With six Souls-likes under their belt, tackling “open-world” inspires confidence that an “evolution” of what Dark Souls was will be effectively fulfilled. It may be more compelling to have this new, ambitious project spawn its own trilogy of open-world dark-fantasy games. It’s a new frontier for them, and with Hidetaka Miyazaki at the helm, it could become another series that actually benefits from open worlds instead of chasing a trend.

9 Bloodborne: A Gothic-Horror Change Of Scenery

FromSoft has been honing in on the medieval dark-fantasy setting, but Bloodborne kept both the action-RPG and Souls-like genre while giving fans a new flavor to chew on. It overall stuck to western-themed fantasy but added in Victorian-era gothic horror. Even aside from the high-octane combat gameplay, Bloodborne was a haunting visual feast in the environment, character, and monster designs.

The scenery that’d potentially be on display with gothic architecture and nightmarish forests–and obligatory swamps–would make for some thrilling variety in a bigger setting. Seeing Bloodborne and its world expand into sequels might be more worthwhile in being a more refreshing change of pace.

8 Elden Ring: Mountain Of Lore From Martin & Miyazaki

A big selling point for Elden Ring was that Miyazaki/FromSoft collaborated with George R.R. Martin of A Song of Ice and Fire, which fits right at home with the developers’ approach to dark fantasy. Martin built the foundation of lore and worldbuilding for this new universe, with Miyazaki and co. building off it. Given their work on their Souls-likes from 2009 onward, there must be virtually boundless opportunities to follow up this game in addition to throwing Martin’s flair into the mix.

While western fantasy, the Soulsborne titles also use post-apocalyptic elements when it comes to storytelling by having the player trying to piece together what happened and what needs to be mended. With this narrative approach combining Martin and Miyazaki’s brains in crafting lore, sheer potential alone might make an Elden Ring trilogy more exciting.

7 Bloodborne: It’s Been Waiting For It’s Time In The Sun

The game received critical acclaim back in 2015 when it launched, but it’s also received surprisingly little recognition ever since from Sony. The Bloodborne IP was given to FromSoft by Sony, so unlike Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Sekiro, the former doesn’t have the same level of control over it.

At this point, fans would be happy with a more simple PS5 performance boost patch if a remaster or sequel continues to elude them–and it’s new enough where it doesn’t warrant a remake. Turning this IP into a full-scale series could realistically invite more excitement given the built-in fanbase for it. Even Sony/PlayStation at least acknowledges it as a PS4 “legacy” title, and this would be treating it as such.

6 Elden Ring: Bloodborne Works Fine As A One-Off

A series would surely be celebrated, but playing devil’s advocate, Bloodborne can be argued as justified being a one-off. With Miyazaki and co.’s direction, there’d likely be no issues in broadening the scope of the lore to fill out more games, but what it portrayed was satisfying in a single self-contained game.

FromSoft teams have grown and their projects are steadily getting more inventive and ambitious. Perhaps it’s for the best then that Elden Ring fills the space that the revered Dark Souls trilogy left, especially since it is its natural thematic successor. A 4K/60fps performance patch/remaster/PC port might be enough for Bloodborne in the future.

5 Bloodborne: Its Own Spiritual Successor/Sequel

It’s definitely pushing what it would mean to be a “series,” but if a direct sequel(s) to the PS4 game isn’t in the cards, perhaps it can receive spiritual sequels or successors similar to the transition from Demon’s Souls to Dark Souls. The latter two aren’t directly connected, but the essence of the 2009 classic carried on, so there’s no reason to think something like that for Bloodborne couldn’t be done.

The writing part of the team could lean more into spiritual sequels than successors should they opt for making these part of the same universe. Spiritual sequels would be more loosely connected to the original, which would at least make for an “indirect” trilogy of games.

4 Elden Ring: “Next-Gen” Exclusive Sequels

While “next-gen” is currently out, the state of the market has the PS5, XSX, and new Nvidia and AMD GPUs remaining mostly inaccessible. That’s why it’s perfectly reasonable for Elden Ring to be a cross-gen game–especially since it was announced two years ago.

But given FromSoft’s new evolving direction of the Souls formula, it’d be great to see this exclusively on “next-gen” hardware. Potential sequels wouldn’t force the developers to work on both older and newer technology. Rather, it’d allow them to take full advantage of what this new generation of gaming can bring to their style of action-RPGs.

3 Bloodborne: Apply The Lessons From Elden Ring

Changing pace back to the Victorian horrors of Bloodborne, applying what Miyazaki and the rest of the team learn from Elden Ring could make for a mouth-watering series, particularly with the implementation of an open-world setting. The game benefitted notably from the several ravaged urban locations in Yharnam, but it’s not unfathomable to grow an open world from this.

There could be a main Yharnam-like city and further out some smaller towns, villages, etc. In between, there could be forests–and obligatory swamps–with lore and treasures to discover, with roaming enemies and mini-bosses. Elden Ring could be an excellent blueprint for this going forward.

2 Elden Ring: Its Own Built-In Fanbase

It’s a bit wild to think about considering the game isn’t released, but Elden Ring already has its own built-in fanbase as well. You would think a game that went through a two-year period of radio silence would have its hype die down significantly. But, while the wait was excruciating for fans, the gameplay trailer alone lit up social media–as if rekindling its own “Age of Fire.”

The Elden Ring subreddit, a largely fun-spirited corner of the fandom, leaned into its self-deprecating humor and arguably helped contribute to the game’s relevance during these quiet times. Soulsborne fans are dedicated, and these games have long since broken their way into the mainstream. Assuming FromSoft delivers the Souls-like quality they’ve been so consistent with since 2009, the wave of hype could easily carry this world into a series.

1 Bloodborne: Its Lore Can Be Expanded

Bloodborne working as a concise one-off IP is a valid point and, as mentioned, portrayed story and lore that felt satisfying start to finish. Even more so after The Old Hunters DLC expanding on the Hunter’s Nightmare and closing on its connection to Kos and the Orphan of Kos.

That being said, the lore could allow for some liberties in telling more stories in a couple more games depending on things like time and setting. Characters like Gehrman would make an interesting focal point for a prequel, as he’s the First Hunter. Similarly, the lore and intrigue of the Great Ones could withstand the time after the game and remain relevant even centuries later.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/fromsoftware-next-trilogy-elden-ring-vs-bloodborne/