Elden Ring has an enemy type called wandering nobles that are pretty interesting to me. The nobles are shriveled, miserable looking dudes in stupid hats that stumble around the open world. Some of them have weapons, and will attack you on sight, but many of them do not. All they can do in your presence is cower.
The interesting thing to me about the nobles is that no other game in this lineage of From Software's games that act like that. Bloodborne and Dark Souls are games that put you in a hostile world where even the weakest enemies might fuck your shit up if you lose your focus, but Elden Ring peppers its world with these worthless fools who don't even present the barest threat to you. I think it helps to demonstrate the difference in the themes of the games: in Dark Souls you are the lowest of the low, Bloodborne you're an animal in a violent world, but in Elden Ring you're a figure of myth. To you, a mere mortal is so far beneath you as to not even register until you need something to test your blade against.
