Elden Ring's six possible endings all lie at the end of unique questlines, but few seem to be truly good outcomes for The Lands Between.
Highlights
- Elden Ring's vast array of options in The Lands Between has contributed to its status as one of the best RPGs of its generation.
- The game's branching storyline and multiple endings offer various outcomes for the Tarnished, with most endings being dark and desolate.
- The Age of Stars and the Age of Order are the more optimistic endings, each offering a different vision for the world of Elden Ring.
Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Elden Ring ahead. Proceed at your own risk.
Elden Ring is likely to be remembered as one of the best RPGs of its entire generation, and the vast array of options available in The Lands Between has played a large role in earning this status. The latest of FromSoftware's titles that pioneered the Soulsborne genre, Elden Ring brought qualities of past Dark Souls titles and games like Bloodborne and Sekiro together to create the most successful release by the developer yet. Still a top seller more than a year after its initial release, one of Elden Ring’s RPG staple features has contributed to its replayability.
The narrative of Elden Ring is the culmination of studio director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s long career in creating worlds and a collaboration with fantasy icon George R.R. Martin, and it lives up to the iconic lore of the Dark Souls series that preceded it through its branching storyline surrounding the Golden Order. In the vein of the genre's focus on player choice, Elden Ring's multiple endings offer various outcomes for the story of the Tarnished following the defeat of Radagon and the Elden Beast. Six possible endings may seem like a potential source of controversy regarding which is the ideal conclusion, but the dark nature of most endings leads players to have a relatively unanimous opinion.
RELATED: The Next Doom Should Take Inspiration From Elden Ring
The Bleak Nature of Most Elden Ring Endings
The variation on Elden Ring's finale is determined by the player's choice regarding using mending Runes on the Elden Ring itself, with each different Rune lying at the end of a respective questline. It is generally agreed that the Age of the Duskborn, Blessing of Despair, and Lord of the Frenzied Flame endings are all clearly bad outcomes that see the Tarnished becoming corrupted somehow, but each offers a different flavor of desolation. Between breaking the cycle of life and death, afflicting everyone with the Dung Eater’s curse, and literally burning the entire world in a chaotic blaze, pursuing any of these outcomes requires an indulgence into dark urges.
If half of Elden Ring’s conclusions end on a less than positive note, it should reason that the remaining half reflect the opposite in a more optimistic tone. In truth, however, even the default Age of Fracture ending that fulfills Melina’s will has a sinister undertone that casts a shadow on the player’s status as Elden Lord. The Tarnished’s power over the Elden Ring following its mending may be a better alternative to the corrupt rule of Marika and Radagon that plagued The Lands Between before, but the player character’s good morals are not something that FromSoftware’s worlds typically allow to persist.
Elden Ring's Most Underrated Ending
The Age of Stars achieved through Ranni's questline is generally seen as the best ending by most players, but the Age of Order is a lesser known positive outcome for the world. Reached through using the Rune obtained from Goldmask after his discovery of Marika and Radagon's true nature as one and the same, the Age of Order results in the corrupted nature of the world's imperfect gods being purged, as opposed to the complete departure of the Elden Ring's influence from The Lands Between as seen in Ranni’s plan. Depending on the player's perspective, either change for the Lands Between could be seen as the best ending of the game.
With the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC looming on the horizon, there's even a chance that new endings could be introduced along with the expansion in similar fashion to previous FromSoftware titles. Until then, however, both of Elden Ring’s more optimistic endings are valid in their new vision for the game’s world following Marika’s fall. The removal of all godly influence seen in the Age of Stars means freedom for all, but a world of gods incapable of senseless conflict as envisioned in the Age of Order is just as appealing for those who choose to seek it out.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
