Elden Ring and EverQuest

tim-cain system-design elden-ring everquest open-world difficulty game-comparison dark-souls morrowind

Abstract

Problem: Why would a veteran developer who bounced off Dark Souls fall in love with Elden Ring — and why does it remind him of a 1999 MMO?

Approach: Tim Cain walks through a point-by-point comparison of Elden Ring and EverQuest, examining shared design patterns across combat, exploration, player freedom, and system opacity.

Findings: Despite being different genres and eras, both games share a remarkable number of design philosophies: punishing-but-fair combat, high-level enemies in low-level zones, class-dependent difficulty, obtuse systems that drive players online, and an open world that lets you go anywhere at your own risk.

Key insight: The open world is what made Elden Ring click where Dark Souls didn't — player agency over where to go, what to fight, and how to build your character transforms punishing combat from a frustrating corridor into an exciting frontier.

1. Why Dark Souls Didn't Click

Tim explains he was never really into the Dark Souls games. He didn't hate them, but found them very linear with choreographed combat — the same reason he didn't enjoy WoW's raids. Fights felt like memorized dance routines: attack, roll, stand behind pillar, wait, step out, attack. That specific gameplay loop didn't appeal to him.

So when he told a friend that Elden Ring was one of his favorite games of 2022, the friend was baffled. Tim's explanation: "I like Elden Ring for the same reasons I like EverQuest."

2. Brutally Hard but Fair Combat

Both games feature punishingly hard combat where mistakes mean death. But critically, in both games you usually know why you died, and it's usually your fault — you saw the cast animation and didn't dodge, or you didn't execute the combo fast enough. Tim prefers this over deaths caused by lag or RNG.

3. High-Level Enemies in Low-Level Zones

Elden Ring's Tree Sentinel right outside the starting area reminded Tim directly of the Griffin in East Commonlands in EverQuest. You're level four or five, you've only fought low-level skeletons, you walk through a forest, and BAM — one-shotted by a griffin you never saw coming. Both games keep you on edge no matter where you are, and Tim found that tension appealing.

4. Class-Dependent Difficulty

Both games are soloable, but some classes are dramatically easier than others. In EverQuest, Necromancers (strong pets) and Druids (kiting) had it easy. Tim had the same experience in Elden Ring — he struggled with a melee class, then switched to a magic class and "mowed through several zones" that had given him trouble.

Both games also get orders of magnitude easier with multiplayer or summons, but both suffer from other players griefing you — and Tim noticed Elden Ring players using the exact same griefing techniques he'd seen 25 years earlier in EverQuest: tricking you into deadly areas, telling you somewhere is safe when it isn't, or attacking from unreachable positions.

5. Controversial Design Decisions

Tim carefully notes that both games include system design elements "many people call bad" that he considers simply well-known patterns people historically don't enjoy:

  • Losing progress on death — Elden Ring's rune loss and EverQuest's XP loss on death. WoW started with it and removed it. Nobody really likes losing a level because they died. Both games have passionate fanbases that defend this choice.
  • Obtuse weapon comparison — Elden Ring's letter grades (A through E, plus S which is better than A) are confusing. EverQuest weapons were so complex that players built online comparison tools. "Way too complicated."
  • Critical systems hidden behind obscure triggers — Tim was four hours into Elden Ring before he could level up. He had to look online to learn you needed to find a specific Site of Grace, rest at it, and trigger a cinematic. "The most basic function of any RPG — leveling up — starts the game locked off."
  • Hidden spell locations — Both games make magic users search for spells with no indication of what's available or where. Everyone just looks it up online. Tim suggests making spells "aspirational" — when you get one, the NPC could hint where the next one is.

6. Wildly Inconsistent Combat Difficulty

Both games are inconsistent across level, class, and situation. Some low-level creatures are tougher than high-level ones. Bosses that one class finds trivial, another finds impossible. Some Elden Ring fights are easy on horseback but brutal on foot. Some summons make bosses trivial while others actively hurt you. EverQuest at least had a /consider command to hint at difficulty, but even that was unreliable.

7. Go Anywhere, Do Anything

Tim loved that both games let you go to any zone at any time without blocking you off. Combined with the inconsistent difficulty, you could usually find something you could kill in a higher-level zone — though you were always at risk of getting one-shot. That combination of freedom and danger is core to the appeal.

8. The Mimic Veil Moment

The clincher was finding Elden Ring's Mimic Veil, which transforms you into a nearby inanimate object. This was exactly what Tim's favorite EverQuest class, the Enchanter, could do — casting a spell to turn into a torch, a campfire, or a shrubbery. That item made him step back and realize how much the game was reminding him of EverQuest.

9. A Morrowind Connection Too

Tim also notes parallels to Morrowind: a big open world, no quest markers, having to find and remember quest givers, no indication of how decisions affect you long-term, and "big annoying birds that could attack you from above and kill you."

10. Why Elden Ring Won Him Over

Despite sounding "kind of negative," Tim genuinely loved Elden Ring. The open world — choosing where to go, what to attack, how to build your character — made it far more appealing than the linear Souls games. Player agency transforms punishing design from frustrating to exciting.

Source: Tim Cain — "Elden Ring and EverQuest"

11. References