If you’ve played much of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware’s back catalogue, you’ll probably be familiar with the games’ challenging and dressed-down classes. Dark Souls has the Deprived while Bloodborne has Waste of Skin – both are low-stat options that have you scavenging for your own kit right from the get-go, making them starting classes for the truly determined. It seems Elden Ring will be no different, with its own difficult “naked one”, which director Hidetaka Miyazaki reckons isn’t the best choice if you’re a newbie.
“In general, I’d like new players to feel unpressured and that they can approach the game at their pace,” Miyazaki says in a new PlayStation Blog post. “I don’t want to enforce any playstyle or particular route because I’d like them to experience that sense of freedom. And I realise that, while we offer games with a high level of challenge, we design them in a way that feels fulfilling to overcome. But I don’t want new players to worry or stress about that difficulty too much.”
That said, the esteemed director does have some pointers on which class might be the least optimal for those divining into a Soulslike experience for the first time. “As for a starting class, it’s entirely up to the player. It’s an RPG, and they can approach it however they like and choose whichever looks the coolest to them,” Miyazaki says. However, he adds he “would recommend against choosing the naked one (known as the Wretch). As before, it’s probably the most difficult starting class!”
If you’ve tried tackling the famously challenging Dark Souls games or Bloodborne with their own equivalents of this “Wretch” class, you’ll know well that this is sound advice for newbies. As our senior news writer Ian Boudreau has been demonstrating in his ongoing series of Dark Souls diaries, the Souls games are no picnic at the best of times, and if Elden Ring’s anything similar, it’s probably be best to stick with a more specialist starting class, who can help you set off on the right foot.
If you’re keen to hear more of Miyazaki’s views on the game ahead of its arrival next month, head to the interview linked above. We also have the Elden Ring system requirements if you’re keen to see if your PC is up to the task, and we now know it’ll take around 30 hours to beat, though there are many more hours’ worth of playtime beyond this.
The Elden Ring release date is February 25, 2022.