I came across an article recently urging Soulslike designers to remove boss runbacks, along with other “purely negative features plaguing the genre.”

Many modern Soulslikes seem to agree, replacing long runs to bosses with instant retries. These runs are seen as pure inconvenience, included only to bolster a reputation for difficulty. And yet, if they’re so obviously bad, why did FromSoftware put them in Dark Souls in the first place?

We can imagine what Dark Souls would feel like if you could instantly retry every fight: Boss runs give space to reflect on the mistakes that led to defeat and make each death sting. Without them, you might get more attempts but less time to adapt mentally.

Elden Ring largely erased boss runs, instead making bosses longer, harder, and often multi-phased. Players are also free to walk away entirely, leaving the fight in the back of their mind — a different kind of reflection.

In the newest entry, Elden Ring: Nightreign, FromSoftware has in many ways doubled down on Dark Souls-era boss runs. While most Soulslikes move away from them, Nightreign’s runs can last up to 40 minutes. But as a roguelite, it sidesteps the real problem of repetition: you’re not trudging through the same enemies in the same hallways, but forging a new path to the boss each time.

Rather than simply removing these runs, Elden Ring explores two different approaches that each preserve the original purpose, while eliminating the pain points that might have made Dark Souls inaccessible to a wider audience.

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