An Elden Ring player has started a petition to allow armor for the players' horse in the game. While the Dark Souls-like game has received high ratings, Elden Ring is already considered the most popular game of this year. Some players have pointed out some technical issues in Elden Ring as well as other minor improvements that could be made.
The Lands Between is vast and full of threatening and dangerous enemies that can kill the Tarnished quickly. While working towards the goal of becoming the Elden Lord, players are tasked with exploring the expanse of land and defeating their opponents both big and small along the way. The open-world game Elden Ring allows for the player to travel in any direction they want after the beginning of the game, but it is vital to retrieving the protagonist's Spectral Steed named Torrent in order to efficiently explore. Not only does unlocking Torrent allow players to move around quickly and reach areas they wouldn't normally be able to, but horseback combat can be used and the horse, unfortunately, lacks in armor.
Recently a fan of the game known as Gloriousroyal Hampter on Change.org started a petition to FromSoftware requesting for the inclusion of horse armor for Torrent, saying this addition would make Elden Ring a better game. So far the petition has received around 50 signatures, with the signers providing reasonings that agree with Gloriousroyal Hampster's plea for armor. It's also worth noting that enemy mob horses already have their own armor, seemingly placing the player and their horse at a disadvantage in a game where enemies, in general, are already relentlessly difficult to defeat.
Since horseback combat is a key feature of Elden Ring and the horse (just like the player) takes massive amounts of damage, armor for Torrent seems like a necessity. Funnily enough, Elden Ring animals and their safety have been a point of contention previously, including PETA giving players tips on how to avoid causing animals any harm. Although players adore Torrent, the reasoning behind this petition may have less to do with animal cruelty and more about the extreme difficulty of the game.
As the petition receives more signatures, it will be interesting to see if FromSoftware actually considers protecting the Spectral Steed Torrent with its own horse armor. However, given the reputation of the Japanese developer's previous games such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, they may not be willing to decrease the difficulty level of the game in any way. Despite the lack of armor for the beloved horse Torrent, Elden Ring has very reasonably become the best-selling game of 2022 in the US.
Elden Ring is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Source: Gloriousroyal Hampter/Change.org