Beyond fighting equally challenging and terrifying bosses, exploring the worlds of Soulsborne games is one of the most impressive aspects in each adventure. Whether it’s stepping foot into Lordran, Yharnam, or Ashina, slowly becoming familiar with the intersecting, metroidvania-esque world helps players gather their bearings and find the next milestone. This is all in service to FromSoftware’s trademark progression and discovery, which is important for anySoulsgame, but it also doesn’t balance well with accessibility.Elden Ringis arguably one of the most accessible FromSoftware games to date, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t benefit from some modernization.
In all fairness, accessibility has never been the mantra of theDark Soulsexperience.Dark Souls,Sekiro,Bloodborne, and to an extentElden Ring, are all based on the concept of intentional vagueness and persistent design. Whether it’s gameplay mechanics, or even more so with lore, FromSoftware very rarely leaves no stone unturned. However, part of that has led to FromSoftware games remaining stalwart in a lot of the series' design. While there are some aspects of accessibility throughoutElden Ringthat streamline the gameplay experience, the controls and keybinds are one pain point ofSouls games that remain an issue with FromSoftware’s latest title.
RELATED:Japanese Elden Ring Players Confused By Fortnite Messages
Sparse Customization For Controls in Elden Ring
Dark Soulsgames are mechanically designed with gamepads and controllers in mind primarily, though the option to play on mouse and keyboard is available for players on PC.Same goes forElden Ringas well, which means multiple actions end up being bound to buttons, differentiated between button presses and holds, as well as combinations. Because of this, despite being able to rebindmostof the actions, combined actions cannot be separated out into separate keybinds. That means sprinting and rolling can’t be separated out to two different keybinds, which is perhaps the most polarizing example, compared to other combined actions.
To a degree, it makes sense for gamepad controllers because of the obvious limitations; less buttons mean less real estate for binding actions. However, there are stillDark Souls(and other action RPG players/fans) that would prefer to play these types of games on mouse and keyboard instead of controller. Having to hold down the Space bar to sprint, but also press Space to dodge, is a bit awkward. Obviously something like the “Event Action” keybind doing multiple things makes a lot of sense, since that’s the player’s main method of interacting with switches/objects/etc. inElden Ring, but even on controller, being locked out of fully customizable actions is inconvenient.
RELATED:The Cultural Influences of Each Elden Ring Class
Other Elden Ring PC Port/Accessibility Shortcomings
Additional gripes with the game’s accessibility mostly apply to the PC version of the game, since most consoles players will intend to play with controller. ThePC version ofElden Ringdoes have some unfortunate omissions that the average settings in a PC port tend to have. The main issue stems from inventory items and quick item management, something that’s pretty intuitive and simple on controller, but could be a lot better on mouse and keyboard. Other than the pouch, which is bound to the arrow keys on mouse and keyboard, items cannot be bound to specific hotkeys in-game.
Especially for an RPG, this is a very inconvenient lack of support that does not translate well for keyboard and mouse players. Utilizing the default binding alone would necessitate using your right hand, which means letting go of the mouse entirely just to use an item. Obviously fora game likeElden Ring, where any boss fight can be intense and fast-paced, having to eliminate several actions just to use an item makes very little sense from a gameplay standpoint. It’s an unintentional restriction that controller players don’t have to deal with at all, making the experience far inferior for anyone playing on mouse and keyboard primarily.
There are other minor quirks that also make theElden Ringexperience less convenient for players on mouse and keyboard. The main menu and map button prompts are unfortunately hard coded to Escape and G, respectively. These cannot be changed, even though previousDark Soulsgames on PC let you adjust them. Input mapping andprompts don’t auto-detect inElden Ring, and display either controller or keyboard and mouse prompts, rather than auto-correcting depending on input like most modern PC games.
Obviously, for the average player, these issues won’t necessarily be a problem. Pretty muchevery FromSoftware Soulsborne game has functioned and played exactly the sameon controller in the last decade, with the exception of a few tweaks here and there as the series has evolved.However, even putting aside the inherent lack of accessibility inDark Soulsgames,Elden Ringis still missing some bare minimum customization that could genuinely help fans play the game their way. Especially for PC players on mouse and keyboard, even though it’s not the worst example of support, the inconvenience is disappointing.
These are issues that can be updated/patched in the future, but considering FromSoftware has delivered PC ports on almost every mainlineDark Soulsgame (as well asSekiro), one would think these pain points could’ve been ironed out already. Considering controller is the “preferred” way to play Soulsborne games, it’s not likely these changes will come any time soon.
Elden Ringis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:FromSoftware and the Power of Good Art Direction
