By all accounts, The Legend of Zelda: Tears from the Kingdom is an excellent sequel. Digital Trends review highlights how adding sky islands, an enormous cavern below Hyrule, and creation abilities give players tools to produce their own puzzle solutions and blow the sport open. It doubles recorded on all of Breath from the Wilds strengths but builds upon them in innovative methods making this sequel feel truly not the same as its predecessor. If, or when, Elden Ring Items receives a follow-up, I hope its sequel does exactly the same.
While not officially announced, FromSoftware owner Kadokawa Group has outright stated that it's pursuing the maximization of profit by prolonging the life span of IP. That makes a sequel to Elden Ring feel inevitable. The upcoming Shadow from the Erdtree expansion will probably introduce ideas of its very own, but a sequel is how FromSoftware comes with an opportunity to change things up.
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And in the event, that opportunity for an Elden Ring sequel does arrive at fruition, I hope that FromSoftware is really as boldly ambitious with Elden Ring 2s design as Nintendo was with Tears from the Kingdom.
What creates a great sequel?
Im not the largest fan of Elden Ring, but I still recognize how monumental of the release it had been for the sports industry. It was an enormous jump from Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, taking FromSoftwares proven Souls formula and unleashing it on the Breath from the Wild-like open world. Elden Ring could still feel unapproachable sometimes, but theres no denying this is a brilliant evolution of the formula the Dark Souls series had pushed toward the limits.
Because Elden Ring was this type of success, theres a requirement for more. And the simplest way to take advantage of that would be to pump out sequels quickly that refine the core formula but dont do this much thats new. FromSoftware could undoubtedly find success this way, which version of Elden Ring 2 could be quite good, but a game title as important as Elden Ring deserves exactly the same sequel treatment that Nintendo gave Breath from the Wild.
Similarly to Elden Ring, Breath from the Wild would be a revelation when compared with many from the Zelda games that came before it, eschewing series conventions to test something new. The result was one of the best games ever and warranted a sequel, but Nintendo didnt wish to accomplish more from the same. At first glance, the truth that Tears from the Kingdom shares many visual assets as well as some map design with Breath from the Wild might seem unambitious and disappointing. That couldnt be more wrong.
Instead, Nintendo used Breath from the Wild similarities to, as Tears from the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi puts it, create new gameplay. That meant deepening the ways players connect to the world, whether by fusing any of the items they get or building an Ultrahand contraption that the sport didnt let you know about to solve a puzzle.
Its an equation thats worked wonders in immersive sims, and putting it onto an open-world action-adventure game has additionally worked wonders. Nintendo didnt be cautious with Breath from the Wild, though it still might have sold an incredible number of copies doing this, whichs very commendable. In turn, additionally, it makes me need to see the developers of other lauded games do exactly the same.
Im not to imply that a potential Elden Ring 2 needs its very own version of Ultrahand or Fuse; that will feel derivative. Ill leave picking out genius new design ideas to the developers who make these great games. Still, an emphasis on creating new and innovative gameplay experiences whilst honoring what came before may be the formula that leads to the best sequels.
Sequels to great games should seem like the leap from Dark Souls 3 to Elden Ring, not the jump from Dark Souls to Dark Souls II. If I wanted more of Elden Ring, I could play the sport again like a new class or eventually try its expansion. When FromSoftware follows up Elden Ring, it must be doing something ambitious and industry-changing by using it.
Weve seen Tears from the Kingdom pull that off while following up Breath from the Wild, so an Elden Ring 2 that feels as though anything less than that will feel disappointing. Thats a higher bar for Elden Ring 2 to satisfy, but FromSoftware has proven its a competent enough team to become up for your challenge.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears from the Kingdom can be obtained now for Nintendo Switch. cheap elden ring items can be obtained for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
