Elden Ring & the mystery of going left
An analysis of finding the "happy path" in the beginning of Elden Ring's open world.
Being a game designer looks hard—from designing progression mechanics in RPGs to creating levels for 2D platformers, there’s so much that goes into the development process.
Of the many problems game designers must solve, teaching the player how to make progress via a specific path looks especially tricky.
Some refer to this as the “happy path”, and for old-school games like Super Mario Bros., communicating which direction to go was probably easy: create a hard barrier to the left, and then pray that the player goes right.
Over time, this design structure becomes a pattern, and after 2-3 levels, the player will most likely start running to the right from the get-go. This also presents the opportunity to hide some goodies to the left, like a free 1-UP or mushroom, which adds another layer of discovery for the player to enjoy.
However, for an open-world game like Elden Ring, designing the happy path, or several, seems far more complicated.
Sure, the freedom of traversal is what makes playing open-world games so much fun, but players will eventually need to be corralled into a specific path to progress the main story or complete a side quest (unless the game is just an open-world sandbox).
Given all this, the question then becomes: if a player fails to see the happy path, or decides not to take it, was the design inadequate?
Maybe, maybe not.
One example of this disconnect between the happy path and the not-so-happy path occurs early on in Elden Ring:
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxaz15vULrsQXHNiQkGBUnm2bHcqKEYw-5
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxCqwdvmeLRzwf7qINj-Oq3TCAoGc69o4O
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxo5pzvGAs8bg3DI8Gq3KGQ2fqgvF8P_8E
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx1V5NE9v6-lNCcxDDoUg2EDgkz1mBRJQ1
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxH4635bQmb6cB2-zX9nA5o1w4orFeHnwh
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxUZ-x1Uzu1oLgjRqk1sZyAc1zOOhq0_NN
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxPwXGFxN83IYR2WGADS9Z3FCljeRBbXF6
As the clips above show, heading left is a popular option.
And yes, I’m quite aware that not everyone goes left—some players do decide to run straight—but I think you would be hard-pressed to find a player that ran right.
But why? Why is heading left (and straight) so common, but no one seems to want to go right?
Was this intentional? Or an accident of design?
Let’s look to see if we can find some answers.
Too much to take in
The first moments of Elden Ring’s open world are overwhelming, to say the least:
A lot is going on in this scene, and perhaps that’s the problem.
Tell me, can you decipher the happy path from this screenshot?
At first glance, you might assume that the happy path is forward—towards the site of grace and the person dressed in white.
However, these two elements don’t exactly stand out, and depending on your eyesight or even the calibration of your TV/monitor, you might miss them entirely due to the scene’s color palette.
They call me mellow yellow
Indeed, the site of grace and the person standing next to it is a little hard to see thanks to everything being so yellow.
Granted, this color scheme, when combined with the soundtrack, does imbue the scene with a sense of tension and suspense; however, the drawback is that everything blends together, and I think this is where the problems with discovering the happy path begin.
Now, I’m not saying that this color scheme should be abandoned; on the contrary, I rather like the way this opening area looks. It gives me the feeling of walking around Haddonfield from John Carpenter’s 1978 classic “Halloween”, and check it out, there’s even a guy in a white mask being a total creeper!
But I do wonder if the color palette could be adjusted so that the elements placed in the foreground are a bit easier to differentiate from everything else in the scene.
But the lack of contrast in the scene is only part of the issue, the other part is the path itself.
Deciphering the path
Building a path for the player doesn’t need to be complicated; in fact, I think you’ll find that most game designers prefer to keep it simple.
And truth be told, there are many instances in the world of Elden Ring where the path forward is easy to find.
Indeed, not only do the sites of grace point you in a particular direction, but there are also dirt paths, bridges, stairs, and several other design elements scattered across the open world that make finding the different points of interest less of a hassle.
However, this opening section of Elden Ring features some design decisions that seem to hide the happy path.
From the placement of the site of grace and the person standing next to it, I think it’s safe to assume that the game designers intended for the players to head straight.
Moreover, the person standing next to the site of grace has some valuable information for the player, like where to go, how grace works, and the fact that you’re maidenless (womp womp)—so heading straight seems ideal.
But despite the placement of these elements, players still seem to want to go left.
As mentioned earlier, part of the problem could be the fact that these two elements are difficult to see, but there are some other design quirks at play here:
First, we can see that there isn’t a well-defined path for the player to go from the top of the stairs to the site of grace. This isn’t to say that the path needs to be fenced off or that it needs a giant sign in the shape of a finger pointing where to go, but having some visual cues to tell the player that they should head straight would be useful.
A simple fix could be to eliminate the rocks laid horizontally on the ground and replace them with grass. This path of grass could also have some additional “soft” barriers on the left and right (like taller grass, flowers, or bushes), which should guide players toward the site of grace.
Those bushes above the horrible slab of rock should also be removed or minimized, as I believe they add to the feeling of a hard barrier.
The other reason why players may opt to not go forward, at least not right away, is the fact that the background is so overwhelming.
Help me I’m scared
From the cliff-side castle to the crumbling bridge and the giant golden tree, it’s not hard to understand why many players appear to be frozen in place once they enter the open world.
FromSoftware outdid themselves here; however, I do wonder if perhaps it’s too much for the player to handle, especially when the first point of interest (POI), the site of grace, requires a bit of traversal.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, traversal? It’s literally right there!
You’re right, of course, but consider the fact that by going left, the player could ultimately never activate this site of grace and instead head south. Elden Ring is an open world after all, and if the player never interacts with this site of grace, it could cause some problems with the overall flow of the game.
Instead, I do wonder if it would’ve been better if the game waited to present this opening vista to players until they had already found this site of grace. On the other hand, maybe the first site of grace just needs to be closer to the stairs.
Regardless, the lack of a clear path combined with the emotional impact of the background is what I believe causes the player to search for a more viable route, which of course, leads us to the decision to go left.
Safety first
When the player eventually looks to the left, what do they see?
First, there does appear to be a well-defined path:
See that game between the small tree and the rock? I believe this to be a clear signal to the player that going left is something that you might want to do.
Furthermore, the fact that there are two eagles in the distance that are almost perfectly framed by this soft path is another indicator that you should head in that direction.
What’s more, this area looks relatively safe—there’s no scary castle looming in the background; there’s no creeper dressed in white; and there’s no golden knight riding a horse.
And those eagles? Well, murdering them was a nice confidence booster, but I digress.
Interestingly, these eagles are also the first “enemies” in the game that the player can lock onto in the open world, which is just another element that pulls the player in.
All this sounds fine and dandy, but here’s the problem: is it really worth going left?
Nothing to see here, or is there?
Sure, there are some materials to gather, some eagles to kill, and a nice view of the ocean, but that’s about it.
Granted, the view of the ocean is revealing:
This in itself may be enough to justify the player going left; however, there’s still the issue of making first contact with the site of grace and the person standing next to it.
And while allowing players to miss things is practically a FromSoftware specialty, I do think special consideration needs to be paid to the opening of video games so that players don’t miss key interactions.
And to be frank, I think FromSoftware would agree—they did, after all, modify the intro of their game to include a pop-up message telling players about the tutorial section.
Before this message was added, many players (myself included), completely missed the tutorial, but it didn’t matter too much since I already had played Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3.
As such, allowing the player to miss the open world’s first site of grace and the conversation with the masked man seems like a miss.
And I have to ask, is a view of the beach and the island off in the distance enough to warrant this little area?
The game starts with an overwhelming view of Elden Ring’s impressive open world, and the fact that going left leads to another vista of sorts seems like a weird redundancy.
Gameplay is all about pacing and variety, and sandwiching two identical gameplay mechanics back to back feels odd to me.
Almost finished, I promise
Let’s take a quick look at a game that I think handles the happy path a little better:
Notice anything?
Finding the happy path in BOTW, at least in this opening section, is a little easier due to several factors.
Aside from the game telling you where to go via a forced in-game cinematic, there’s a little less clutter on the ground, which makes it easier to decipher which path to take.
What’s more, the campfire, unlike the site of grace in Elden Ring, really pops and is easily distinguishable from the environment.
Additionally, there’s not a whole lot to distract the player in this opening area: sure, there are some trees to climb, but there are several hard barriers that push the player towards the campfire (e.g., the cliffside and mountains).
Interestingly, if the player does decide to go left, they’re greeted with some mushrooms, which is the same trick Nintendo has been doing since the 80s and early 90s.
So, even if the developers included alternative paths that would allow players to bypass this interaction, I think players would have a more intuitive understanding of where they need to go to make progress.
Why no one goes right
One more thing: I mentioned earlier that no one in the opening section of Elden Ring goes right, but I didn’t give a reason why.
I think the reason for this is clear enough: the bushes shown below create a hard barrier for players that discourages them from going right:
Additionally, the position of the building you come out of, in relation to the plateau it sits on, means that the camera is physically limited as to how much it can show you.
Finally, the fact that there’s a golden knight riding a horse down the only visible path to the right is a huge detriment to heading in that direction.
In Sum
Elden Ring is easily one of the greatest games I’ve ever played; however, I think it’s worth looking at these kinds of issues.
The opening moments of a video game tend to leave a huge impact on the player, so making sure every little detail is perfect is worth it in my book.
This is especially true for the Soulsborne games, as the difficulty is a major component of the experience.
I can’t help but think of the opening moments of Dark Souls 1 and ask myself, how many players gave up after heading toward the skeleton graveyard?
Would the game be better if FromSoftware made it clearer that players should head toward Undead Burg first?
And believe me, I love the fact that the Soulsborne games are difficult, but smoothing out some of the rough edges to finding the happy path will go a long way to keeping players of all skill levels engaged.