Elden Ring will have much easier boss run backs, but no boss rematch feature

Running back to a boss fight after dying can be tough in the Dark Souls games, much more so in Demon’s Souls where going back to a boss if often more difficult than the fight itself, but FromSoftware has confirmed that boss run backs will be easier in Elden Ring.

In a recent media roundtable with Producer, Yasuhiro Kitao, we were able to ask him about the checkpoint placement before bosses. This is because, in the Elden Ring Network Test, most of the main bosses had a close Site of Grace (aka Bonfire) or Stake of Marika (the game’s version of checkpoints).

“While it’s not all bosses, it’s certainly the case that we were more mindful of this distance between the Sites of Grace and the Stakes of Marika in each boss fight,” said Kitao. “We wanted to reduce the stress of repeating the trek to the boss room, and we feel like with a much more expansive world in Elden Ring, this would definitely result in stress if we were to have a long run back to the boss every single time. The Stakes of Marika in particular, are placed strategically in order for us to alleviate that stress when exploring in the open and to encourage exploration.”

“Having the checkpoints just before the boss also lets players tune their builds and tune their characters a little bit, or level up a little bit in order to try a different strategy before facing the boss again,” added Kitao.

The more generous checkpoint and save point locations should make fighting bosses again after dying less stressful. After all, a lot of players resort to just running past enemies just to get back to a boss in the previous Souls games or in Bloodborne.

While boss run backs are easier, Kitao mentioned that Elden Ring will not have a boss replay or a boss rush feature that’s found in Sekiro Game of the Year edition.

“There will not be a boss rush or boss rematch mode in Elden Ring and we’re not currently planning on adding one,” said Kitao.