The combat in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice heavily set itself apart from the rest of the FromSoftware catalogue. However, this update to the formula required the addition of a whole new way of teaching players how to interact with the game. Elden Ring needs something similar to help FromSoftware keep up with the hype the upcoming title has garnered.
This new form of teaching in Sekiro came with an NPC who cannot die and gives players the ability to consistently practice several aspects of combat, including attacking, guarding, and dodging. As FromSoftware moves into its next big title, Elden Ring should take this addition that helps make the new game more accessible and push some of the advanced techniques to the forefront of the game.
RELATED: How FromSoftware Utilizes Mythology and Religion in Every Souls Game
The character who Sekiro introduced to be the in-game tutorial is Hanbei The Undying, an ex-Ashina soldier cursed with immortality who the player can kill over and over to practice fighting. Players can train how to break down their opponent's poise against Hanbei by breaking through his defenses with a steady rhythm of attacks, or properly deflect strikes to survive and beat down enemies. However, the character isn't only there to be beaten down forever, as Hanbei has an ongoing narrative throughout Sekiro.
Players can choose late in the game to finally kill Hanbei for good, both freeing the character from his undying curse and giving up the ability to keep training in a safe area. Additionally, a side story comic released a few months after Sekiro launched dives further into the character's backstory. While Hanbei has become a fan-favorite character, he doesn't perfectly make the game easy to pick up for both newcomers and players struggling to combat the differences between Sekiro and other Souls-like titles.
While players can master the rhythm needed to beat Hanbei over and over, learning that one technique does not perfectly prepare a player for every difficulty Sekiro has to throw at the player. This wouldn't be much of a problem for mid-to-late game enemies, as it's perfectly expected for combat to ramp up as the game goes on, and for newly introduced opponents to be more difficult. However, the problem first shows up early on, and reappears throughout the game with little to no indication from the tutorials as to how to get around it.
The most notable place where the tutorial falls short is on grabs, and one early enemy that has a notoriously deceptive grab comes from the Chained Ogre mini-boss fight. This is an enemy that, according to trophy and achievement data from various versions of the game, is the cause for many players to give up early on. While plenty of players will be able to push through this enemy and eventually make it out of the fight with enough tries, the massive reach on the Chained Ogre's grab can make the fight seem impossible at first.
This primarily comes down to the way Sekiro's combat handles the two types of dodging available to the player, on top of the blocking and parrying mechanic that handles most incoming attacks. Dodging the Chained Ogre's grab requires the player to dodge into the enemy's arms, a consistent method that works against most any grabs from the Guardian Ape to Emma, The Gentle Blade, if players choose to fight her. The tactic works because the forward dodge has the highest invincibility frames and can move through most grabs and even the seemingly endless charge of enemies like the Burning Bull – though the jump dodge has more frames of animation attributed to the action.
In the case of Hanbei's training, players aren't told about this extended invincibility window when dodging forward, and the in-game text implies that dodging in any direction will work as well as any other. It's a low-level bit of tech, or player technique, that can be required in order to survive a variety of attacks, but the tutorial fails to inform players of the differences. So, as Elden Ring prepares for release, FromSoftware might want to look at how Hanbei attempted to increase accessibility without sacrificing the game's difficulty and give players more information necessary to succeed.
RELATED: Elden Ring – Release Date, News, Rumors, Screenshots, And Trailers
Conceptually, Hanbei is an impressive counter to the argument of difficulty in Souls-like titles, especially for new players who come into the latest title as it releases and feel punished harder than returning players might. He offers a way for players to learn the basic mechanics in a comfortable environment that won't punish them for dying the way the rest of Sekiro introduces Dragon Rot as a punishment. Taking that concept and tweaking it to push the type of advanced tech that might already be second nature to longtime fans of FromSoftware's games could help bridge the gap for more players to enjoy that difficulty.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Elden Ring's characters need to completely open up about combo canceling, or the best real-time strategies to beat every single boss. That wouldn't be much fun for players looking to solve a puzzling combat. Instead, the doling out of information should come piece-by-piece as the player begins to run into more enemies that are built around mastering different types of tech.
At the very least, it might help if FromSoftware breaks the fourth wall entirely and opens up about invincibility frames and directional advantages from different types of dodges, blocks, and counters – that is assuming Elden Ring's gameplay will be anything like what fans have come to expect from its developer. Regardless, there is a lot of potential in the new standard that Sekiro has set for accessibility with Hanbei, and FromSoftware might be the best developer to continue pushing it in a way that leads to better success in the future.
Elden Ring is set to release January 21, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE: Elden Ring Should Learn From Metroid: Other M's Mistakes