I loved the Elden Ring mechanic. In earlier DS it was always nice to be running low on resources and finally come onto a bonfire. The relief and sense of achievement was great. But it also meant staying on the path, not go exploring and often running past enemies that weren’t worth the hassle. With the open world of Elden Ring this would have become a huge issue. There would have been this entire world to explore, but without resources that quickly becomes tedious. Rewarding players for engaging with the world and the enemies is just what was needed.

I do feel they went a bit overboard with the bonfires in ER tho, sometimes you get one within sight of the previous one. One could argue this is to prevent run backs but the Stakes of Marika already fixed that. It’s pretty jarring to go back to earlier DS and be like there had better be a bonfire right around the corner, because I’m about to die.