Ohhhh, Elden Ring. The hot takes about FromSoftware's latest critically acclaimed open-world adventure will simply not stop flowing, particularly when it comes to its design. Over the weekend, game developers from other companies became the target of ridicule after taking public potshots at the game, but before that, another game developer kicked off a debate about the first five minutes of the game when joking about the way Elden Ring handles its tutorial.

this is probably the funniest level design of the year to me pic.twitter.com/HqZ9rAUarV

— Bruno ☠️ Dias (@NotBrunoAgain) March 2, 2022

Last Wednesday, Bruno Dias, a developer at Failbetter Games, joked about how at the start of Elden Ring, players are almost certainly murdered and teleported into a cave. There, a ghostly NPC and a developer message reading "The Cave of Knowledge Lies Below" will point players towards a hole that contains the game's combat tutorial. To the left, however, is a golden door that marks the start of the game proper. Many players opted to skip the big scary cave and head towards the inviting golden door, unintentionally skipping the guide on how to play the game entirely.

For FromSoft veterans, missing the tutorial isn't a huge deal, as Elden Ring plays very similarly to other games in the Dark Souls series. It could be a bigger problem for new players, however, leading to yet another debate about the accessibility of FromSoft games, with some arguing that the design of the opening area encourages new players to explore and others arguing the game should make the tutorial area less hidden.

it's not. it's bad

they noted it in the network test and tried to make it more obvious, but that didn't work either

sometimes mistakes are just mistakes, try not to read so much into them

— chris 'let me go' pollock 死神 (@chhopsky) March 2, 2022

I don’t think it’s terrible game design when 1) there’s an npc telling you to jump 2) you can literally look into the hole and see whats at the bottom. This entry is about exploring, figuring out quests & where to go & such on your own. It isn’t supposed to hold your hand.

— Jared Nastrom (@jcnastrom) March 3, 2022

How is my fault for skipping it if i didn't know it was a tutorial and not instant death

— Ko (@KoDudeOk) March 3, 2022

Not people defending the incredibly easy to miss tutorial in Elden Ring lmao

I'm loving it as much as everyone else, it's fantastic, but I swear you lot will bend over backwards to call anything Fromsoft do the pinnacle of game design lmao

— Wheels (KubeWhelan) <a href="https://twitter.com/KubeWhelan/status/1499704165739675652?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My final words on the Elden Ring tutorial debate. I thought it was obvious with the glowing man telling you to jump, but the fact that people are missing it means it could be designed better. That being said, it being treated like some serious design flaw is ridiculous lol</p>&mdash; The Lore Hunter (TheLoreHunter) March 4, 2022

It's hilarious that a lot of people missed Elden Ring's tutorial because they assumed the NPC saying 'go down here to learn things' was lying and it was a trap.

On one hand, good to be cautious, but perhaps not THAT cautious.

— Dominic Tarason (@DominicTarason) March 3, 2022

In many ways, the discourse of Elden Ring echoes that of Dark Souls when it first began growing popular. Many players (yours truly, included) first took a stab at Dark Souls because of the hype, but the game's unforgiving difficulty and obtuse design elements turned some off. Elden Ring certainly recaptures that feeling, although it does offer players a reprieve by allowing them to simply go somewhere else if they hit a difficulty wall. Furthermore, if players are truly getting stomped because they missed the tutorial, they can always fast travel back to the starting location to complete it whenever they want.

At any rate, it's obvious we will not hear the end of discourse surrounding Elden Ring's difficulty and design any time soon. One shudders to think about the hot takes that will fly once new players finally encounter Radahn.