Elden Ring 2 deserves the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom treatment

By all accounts,The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis a fantastic sequel.Digital Trends’ reviewhighlights how adding sky islands, a massive cavern below Hyrule, and creation abilities give players tools to create their own puzzle solutions and blow the game open. It doubles down on all ofBreath of the Wild’sstrengths but builds upon them in innovative ways that make this sequel feel truly different from its predecessor. If, or when,Elden Ringgets a follow-up, I hope its sequel does the same.

While not officially announced, FromSoftware ownerKadokawa Group has outright statedthat it is “pursuing the maximization of profit by prolonging the life of IP.” That makes a sequel toElden Ringfeel inevitable. The upcomingShadow of the Erdtreeexpansion will likely introduce some ideas of its own, but a sequel is where FromSoftware has an opportunity to change things up.

And if that opportunity for anElden Ringsequel does come to fruition, I hope that FromSoftware is as boldly ambitious withElden Ring 2’s design as Nintendo was withTears of the Kingdom.

What makes for a great sequel?

I’mnot the biggest fan ofElden Ring, but I still recognize how monumental of a release it was for the game industry. It was a massive jump fromDark Souls 3andSekiro: Shadows Die Twice, taking FromSoftware’s provenSoulsformula and unleashing it on aBreath of the Wild-like open world.Elden Ringcould still feel unapproachable at times, but there’s no denying that this is a brilliant evolution of a formula that theDark Soulsseries had pushed to the limits.

BecauseElden Ringwas such a success, there’s a demand for more. And the easiest way to capitalize on that would be to pump out sequels quickly that refine the core formula but don’t do that much that’s new. FromSoftware could undoubtedly find success that way, and that version ofElden Ring 2could still be quite good, but a game as important asElden Ringdeserves the same sequel treatment that Nintendo gaveBreath of the Wild.

Similarly toElden Ring, Breath of the Wildwas a revelation compared to many of theZeldagames that came before it, eschewing series conventions to try something new. The result was one of the best games of all time and warranted a sequel, but Nintendo didn’t want to do more of the same. At first glance, the fact thatTears of the Kingdomshares many visual assets and even some map design withBreath of the Wildmay seem unambitious and disappointing. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Instead, Nintendo used Breath of the Wild similarities to, asTears of the KingdomdirectorHidemaro Fujibayashi puts it, “create new gameplay.” That meant deepening the ways players interact with the world, whether by fusing any of the items they pick up or building an Ultrahand contraption that the game didn’t tell you about to solve a puzzle.

It’s a formula that’s worked wonders in immersive sims, and applying it to an open-world action-adventure game has also worked wonders. Nintendo didn’t play it safe withBreath of the Wild,even though it still could have sold millions of copies doing so, and that’s very commendable. In turn, it also makes me want to see the developers of other lauded games do the same.

I’m not saying that a potentialElden Ring 2needs its own version of Ultrahand or Fuse; that would feel derivative. I’ll leave coming up with genius new design ideas to the developers who make these great games. Still, a focus on creating new and innovative gameplay experiences while also honoring what came before is the formula that results in the best sequels.

Sequels to great games should feel like the leap fromDark Souls 3toElden Ring, not the jump fromDark SoulstoDark Souls II.If I just wanted moreof Elden Ring, I could play the game again as a new class or eventually try its expansion. When FromSoftware follows upElden Ring, it needs to be doing something ambitious and industry-changing with it.

We’ve seenTears of the Kingdompull that off while following upBreath of the Wild, so anElden Ring 2that feels like anything less than that would feel disappointing. That’s a high bar forElden Ring 2to meet, but FromSoftware has proven that it’s a talented enough team to be up for that challenge.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis available now for Nintendo Switch.Elden Ringis available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.