Image: FromSoftware
Everyone who plays a FromSoftware game gets to that point where it feels like they’re just smashing their head into a brick wall over and over again. It can come early in a playthrough or toward the end. Some people give up while others persevere. 28 Years Later writer Alex Garland, who’s also directing the upcoming Elden Ring movie, recently explained his secret to getting good at Dark Souls and the games that followed.
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Asked who he thought the the hardest boss was in Elden Ring in an interview with IGN, Garland said “Radahn’s really easy” and instead it was “Malenia who’s the tough one.” Now on his seventh playthrough of the hit 2022 open-world RPG, he shared how he eventually overcame FromSoftware’s toughest skill checks, and it wasn’t by watching a bunch of YouTube videos.
“I just throw myself at them again, and again, and again, and again,” he said. “That was the technique I learned with Dark Souls. It’s not that you get better, it’s more like monkeys and typewriters. You just keep doing it, and eventually, one day they’re dead.”
That wisdom might sound useless for most players struggling with a particular boss fight or frame-perfect dodge-timing, but it’s actually an inspiring message for anyone out there who’s been put off by Soulslikes and their notoriously punishing difficulty curves: keep trying and eventually, through practice or just dumb luck, you’ll succeed. Not everyone has that sort of time, but it’s an outlook that certainly takes the pressure off of actually feeling like you need to get better or show progress for all those failed attempts. Just keep playing and let destiny take the wheel.
Garland was otherwise tightlipped on his actual plans for the Elden Ring movie. Deadline reported that Kit Connor, who appeared in this year’s Warfare which was co-written and co-directed by Garland, was in the running for the Tarnished role, though everything’s just rumor and speculation at this point. Garland’s intimate experience with the game itself will certainly give him extra credibility with the fans no matter what direction he decides to take the adaptation in. He’s previously espoused his love of FromSoftware’s uniquely esoteric brand of storytelling, likening it to an “existential dream.” We’ll see how that translates to the big screen.
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