The base game of Elden Ring has a massive collection of weapons for players to earn, even before mentioning the variety of Sorceries and Incantations players can learn. So, when the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC took things to a whole new extreme by introducing more new weapons, as well as entirely new types of weapons, this was a big moment for fans of Elden Ring, and one that both PvE and PvP players alike will revel in for countless more playthroughs.
Elden Ring truly went all-in on offering a wide variety of weaponry, setting a high bar for FromSoftware’s future Souls games. However, instead of trying to one-up Elden Ring with an even larger variety of weapons, the studio’s next Souls game could potentially go in the opposite direction, presenting a smaller and more focused variety of weapons, or no weapons at all. Elden Ring’s Dryleaf Arts weapon type scratches the surface of what this could ultimately look like, but the ball is in the court of future Souls games to realize this weapon type’s full potential.
After Elden Ring’s Dryleaf Arts, FromSoftware Could Continue Exploring Hand-to-Hand Combat
The Dryleaf Arts weapon is by no means one of the weakest weapons in Elden Ring, but it is still oddly simple. On the one hand, Dryleaf Arts has a highly unique set of animations and some exclusive Ashes of War skills. However, this is true for any given weapon type in Elden Ring, and more importantly, this entire weapon type only consists of one weapon, which makes it stand out from any other weapon type in the game.
Elden Ring’s Dryleaf Arts Conspiracy Theory
This is purely speculation, and it may be a bit of a stretch, but Elden Ring’s new Dryleaf Arts weapon could very well be FromSoftware hiding its next Souls game’s gimmick in plain sight, giving players a taste of what’s to come. In other words, the reason why Elden Ring’s Dryleaf Arts is such a minimalist weapon type may be so that it can pave the path for future Souls games to feature a similar hand-to-hand combat system without traditional weapons. Conspiracy or not, Elden Ring’s Dryleaf Arts weapon type has a lot of room to grow, and considering that the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is said to be the game’s last major content update, the pressure to further explore this weapon type is naturally passed on to FromSoftware’s next Souls game.
This would make FromSoftware’s next Souls game after Elden Ring feel distinct from the studio’s past games. It’s ultimately not that far of a stretch either, considering that Elden Ring went a little overboard by offering an extensive variety of weapons, so the follow-up to Elden Ring could reasonably go in the opposite direction and focus on a much smaller variety of weapons, or a lack thereof. This same pattern happened for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which limited players to using a single weapon after the Dark Souls games gave players a relatively unrestricted variety of weapons similar to Elden Ring.
Given how combat is a finely crafted, core feature of the Souls games, it makes sense for FromSoftware to continue to experiment with new weapon types throughout future games, and one particular weapon type that the studio hasn’t fully explored yet is hand-to-hand combat. Ultimately, it seems like only a matter of time until one of FromSoftware’s future Souls games eventually features a combat system inspired by real-world martial arts styles, so Elden Ring’s Dryleaf Arts could be just the tip of the iceberg.
