Darks Souls and Elden Ring fans will probably be aware that backstabs have been a bit of thorn in the side of FromSoftware for a long time. It seems like no matter what the developer does to try and balance them properly, they're either so busted that backstab fishing causes PvP combat to become an absolute nightmare, or so nerfed that they're too clunky to bother trying at all.
Elden Ring had finally managed to deliver a middle ground of sorts, but the game's latest update has brought back one of the most egregious backstab methods the Dark Souls series has ever produced. Dark Souls 3 was a fantastic game by almost every metric, but backstabs were seriously broken, to the point where a lot of time an opposing player would somehow manage a backstab despite being right in front of you. It wasn't a popular method of PvP, but Elden Ring's latest update seems to have accidentally brought them back.
As displayed on the Elden Ring subreddit by u/Lagideath2 (thanks GamesRadar), they show off how easy it is to perform the legendary fronstab backstab, as they quickly circle their opponent and perform a backstab even though they're face to face before the sword strikes. Instead, they're whipped around, shanked in the back, and thrown to the floor, as they become yet another victim to the infamous Dark Souls 3 backstab. At least they give the backstabber a round of applause afterwards though.
Whiule the video itself is fairly lighthearted, the comments are anything but. There are a bunch of Elden Ring fans lamenting about the return of the frontstab backstab, claiming that "backstab fishing is not a fun meta to play against". Others aren't a fan of the "janky animation transition" that takes place if you do happen to get a backstab whilst face to face with someone, and many think this will slightly ruin PvP as more people resort to backstab fishing.
Like I said, this method of backstabbing was fairly unpopular amongst the community back in Dark Soul 3, so it's a little difficult to see why FromSoftware would intentionally bring it back. Elden Ring's latest update switched up a bunch of other PvP mechanics at the same time, so it's possible something could've been accidentally changed to make backstabs a lot easier, though we'll have to wait and see whether this is the case. A lot of people seem to think that Elden Ring finally has backstabs in a good place, so let's hope that FromSoftware listens to its community and reverts the change soon.