5 Elden Ring Mod Features FromSoftware NEEDS To Implement In Its Next Soulslike

Elden Ring collectively blew the gaming community’s mind when it first came out almost two years ago. It’s quite rare that you see a game that has an insurmountable level of hype attached to it. But despite all that, it still somehow manages to deliver and meet players’ unbelievably high expectations. That said, even with all its great qualities, the fact is, no game is perfect.

After spending hundreds of hours in the game, players have discovered that there are certain areas where the game simply falls short. Thankfully, thanks to the wonderful world of modding, fans are able to pick up the slack. NexusMods is one of the most popular modding communities for Elden Ring. Even 2 years after the game’s release, fans continue to release new mods for the title.

This not only includes bug fixes and visual adjustments but even entire overhauls that change multiple aspects of the game. While the quality of these mods can vary, some of them are certainly worth writing home about. In fact, I believe a few of these are so good, FromSoftware just has to consider making these features a mainstay in its next Soulslike title. Here are 5 such mods. 

Posture Bar Mod

This mod does exactly what it says on the box. It shows you the Posture Bars for enemies. Now, that might sound like a simple change. But having played with it myself, I’ve got to say, this is a dramatically game-altering mod. The thing is, Posture is a mechanic that, like every previous Soulslike game, exists in Elden Ring. But for some reason, there has never been a way in these titles to actually see an enemy’s posture level.

The only game where this is actually implemented is Sekiro, where breaking the enemy’s posture is a much more involved process than it is in the Soulslike titles. After Sekiro’s success, I expected FromSoftware to just make this a baseline feature in Elden Ring too. Seeing your opponent’s Posture bar allows you to make more tactical choices during gameplay.

You have more knowledge as to how close you are to breaking their posture, leading to a strong critical attack. This adds a nice element of risk/reward while fighting enemies in the game, especially the bosses. I often found myself being a bit extra greedy when the enemies had low Posture, trying to get that one extra attack in to break their Posture and get a critical attack in.

Interestingly, there are enemies in the game such as the Crystallians, where the entire objective is to break their Posture before you can deal any significant damage to them. The issue is, that because Posture is simply not a visible status in the base game, players are often at a loss on how to deal with these enemies. This leads to a lot of frustration, when in fact, they’re some of the easiest enemies in the game. 

With how effectively the mod by Mordrog on NexusMods works, it’s clear the functionality for such a feature was always present. But FromSoftware simply didn’t bother to implement it. This feels like a huge missed opportunity. Hopefully, the next Soulslike makes this a baseline feature. For now, at least we’ve got this really cool mod to keep us company in the Lands Between. 

A Field Of View Slider

Any Souls veteran can tell you, that one of the hardest bosses in many of these titles, is the game’s camera itself. Over the years, FromSoftware has gotten better at how it positions its cameras during enemy encounters. However, Elden Ring still has a camera that feels painfully janky, especially when you’re fighting against giant enemy bosses. Which, in this game, is quite often.

Against bosses like Dragonkin Soldier, it truly feels like you can barely see any of its attacks. Most of the time, you’re forced to predict the bosses’s movements because its feet are the only things that cover 90 percent of the screen. This ends up making encounters like these needlessly frustrating. It’s all the more sad because the fix to this is a simple Field of View slider.

There are multiple such mods available on NexusMods, so it doesn’t make sense why FromSoftware couldn’t simply just implement it into the base game. It makes bosses like Dragonkin Soldier, and other giants of his kind, a lot more fun. After all, you’re not simply dodging and praying you avoid a bunch of attacks you can barely even see. 

It’s unsure what kind of combat system will be adopted for FromSoftware’s next game. But there’s no doubt that some inspiration will be drawn from the studio’s previous titles. Hopefully, if there are any fights involving giants (which we almost know for certain there will be), FromSoft will do us all a favor by adding a FoV slider. It’d save fans a ton of headaches. 

Better Graphic Settings

This isn’t a singular mod feature, but still, it’s unbelievable how many basic graphic settings Elden Ring is missing. FromSoftware isn’t exactly known for its PC ports. In fact, in a lot of cases, they’ve been utterly terrible. However, with how big the studio has gotten over the years, you’d think it’d pay more attention to its PC player base. Sadly, it feels like essential features still need to be modded in by fans after the game’s release.

This includes basic things such as removing chromatic aberration from the game. But extends to other visual changes like reducing the needlessly harsh vignetting. Additionally, there is also no way to raise the game’s frame rate to go beyond 60 while playing on PC. A long time ago, fans used to believe that in Souls games, the character’s speed was tied to framerate.

is there any way to have unlocked/ 60+ fps without turning off eac?
byu/BluntMachete18 inEldenRingMods

But with the several mods out there that allow you to uncap your framerate in Elden Ring, this has been proven to be false. Gamers have machines that can go way beyond 60 frames per second nowadays. So it really makes no sense to lock the game to such an arbitrary restriction. Especially when mods can bypass it within hours of a game’s release anyway.

First Person Mode

Here me out for this one. While there has yet to be a Soulslike that offers a first person mode, a fan has proven that it’s technically possible. The First Person Souls mod by Dasaav does exactly this. And against all odds, it’s surprisingly functional. While it’s certainly much different from your typical Souls experience, it’s clear the groundwork for such a feature is already done.

FromSoftware could make a big adjustment to their typical Soulslike formula by introducing such a mode. It’d be a great callback to their King’s Field roots. For those who might not know, before Dark Souls, or even Demon Souls, FromSoftware released the King’s Field series. This was the spiritual ancestor to all the Soulslike titles, featuring many of the same features. The one big difference was that King’s Field was a first-person title.

That said, fans who want to scratch their King’s Field itch can relive the world of Elden Ring in first-person. It’s the next best thing. This amazing mod will really make you approach encounters in a new way, being much more aware of your surroundings as you traverse the Lands Between. While there are still some bugs that need ironing, it’s still a great experience.

A Pause Button

This honestly feels like a long overdue request for Soulslike games. FromSoftware’s insistence on depriving their games of this basic feature is definitely a headscratcher. Players have been quick to add a Pause button in just about every previous Soulslike title. So it’s clear there’s no technical limitation holding the studio behind. It just comes down to a design philosophy. Which, to me, personally, remains a mystery.

But hey, FromSoftware’s next title could be a big shift from their typical Soulslike entries. And maybe, there will be room for a Pause button in the game. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Until then, pause freely and openly with the help of the mod made by TechieW on NexusMods, and many other modders just like him. Now, it’s gotta be said.

While these features are all great, that’s not to say Elden Ring isn’t a great enough game already. I mean, there’s a reason why it won Game of the Year, over other titles like God of War Ragnarok. But after Elden Ring, fans just even higher expectations with FromSoftware’s next title. And so, they definitely need to make sure they’re covering the essentials at least.