Much ado has been made about Elden Ring's large, open map. The fictional world known as The Lands Between is the biggest FromSoftware has ever created, and many were excited to find out that Elden Ring's areas can be explored in any order, though there will still be a recommended route through the game. This was a pleasant surprise, since some of FromSoftware's recent action-RPGs, such as Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne, have been fairly linear in design. This is, however, not an entirely new concept to the developer's games, since the first Dark Souls has many available routes for the player to take.
Elden Ring's open world has been a major focal point for the game's limited promotion thus far. Even without the repeated assurances that it will be larger than any previous Souls game, just the existence of ridable horses means the map will have to be much more open than that of Dark Souls. Although Elden Ring boasts an ambitiously large world for a FromSoftware game, its emphasis on player agency is not all that different from Dark Souls.
Dark Souls also has a recommended route, which is fairly easy to figure out since trial and error will result in exceptionally quick deaths, but the game is known for not explicitly telling the player what to do. After the tutorial level in the Undead Asylum, most players will figure out that the "correct" route to proceed along is up an aqueduct into the Undead Burg. This will eventually lead players to a boss battle against the Taurus Demon, but that is only one of eight possible first boss fights after the tutorial.
No matter what, Dark Souls players are able to reach two different bosses once they've been deposited at Firelink Shrine. Players can proceed to the Taurus Demon in the Undead Burg, or brave the Catacombs way under-leveled to reach Pinwheel. The other six require the Master Key to have been chosen as the player's gift during character creation. Without the Master Key, the beginning of the game can feel rather linear, since it will shepherd players to the Taurus Demon, after which the game opens up of its own accord. Picking the Master Key as a starting gift really lets Dark Souls' level design shine, though.
Going down a tower in the Undead Burg to Havel instead of up toward the Taurus Demon will allow players with the Master Key access to Darkroot Basin. From Darkroot Basin, going into Darkroot Garden allows players to fight the Moonlight Butterfly or go straight to Dark Souls' saddest boss fight, Great Grey Wolf Sif. Alternatively, the route through Darkroot Garden can also lead back to the Undead Parish, skipping the Taurus Demon and opening up the Bell Gargoyles boss fight. Instead of going up toward the Gargoyles, it's also possible to ride the Parish elevators down to Firelink, hop off before the bottom, and climb up to the crow's nest to be taken back to the Undead Asylum for a showdown with the Stray Demon. The Basement Key can also be grabbed in the Undead Parish, letting players open the way to the feces-susceptible Capra Demon. Finally, using the Master Key to open up the Valley of the Drakes from New Londo will let players go all the way down to Blighttown and fight Chaos Witch Quelaag first.
Granted many of these first, post-Asylum boss encounters are only possible if the player has the Master Key and the map knowledge to navigate through multiple areas, but the fact that it's possible to play Dark Souls in so many different orders is a testament to the game's world design. From how Elden Ring's Firelink Shrine-like hub area is described, it sounds like Elden Ring might be explorable in much the same way, only on a larger scale. Strangely, the joke that Elden Ring is just "big Dark Souls" becomes more prescient with every newly revealed detail.
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