Elden Ring will have a gameplay mechanic that sounds unlike anything FromSoftware has done before, allowing you to collect the souls of your enemies and summon them in battle. Kind of like Pokemon. But during a hands-off preview and Q&A, FromSoftware assured us that this new mechanic has been carefully balanced to not make Elden Ring easier.
“What we’ve tried to do is design the spirit summons where they’re placed throughout the game and how you will level them up throughout the game in a way that doesn’t make the game just drastically easier whenever you bring them out,” FromSoftware said during a media Q&A event.
In an interview with IGN earlier this year, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki explained a new mechanic in Elden Ring where you can summon defeated enemies to help you in battle. These aren’t player NPCs you can summon like in other FromSoft RPGs, but offline AI with their own progression elements.
Summoning AI or online player help during boss fights can make a big difference, but FromSoft says that because of the way summons in Elden Ring are designed, there is a trade-off to using them in the first place.
“It’s up to the player what summons they choose and when, but it’s also up to the player to invest their stat points into the summons if they so choose or into their own character, so it’s a bit of a trade-off there.”
Furthermore, the summons you collect are determined by how you explore and progress through Elden Ring’s massive world, “So it’s not intended to lower the difficulty drastically.”
If past FromSoftware RPGs are any indication, the effect of summoning spirits in your game will likely be down mainly to how you choose to use the system. Summoning AI and online players do help considerably when facing challenging bosses in Dark Souls but it's also a completely optional system. And while it sounds like you can level your summons at the expense of your experience points, any additional tool in your arsenal can only help you in the end.
You can find out more info about Elden Ring in our hands-off preview, how the world-building and lore will now come from the game's many NPCs, and how director Hidetaka Miyazaki is leading the in-game text you'll see in the game.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.