The panda GIF was not deceiving. The Elden Ring gameplay trailer is finally here, after nearly two years of silence (save for a little leak a few months ago). It debuted during the Summer Games Fest and shows off what appears to be Big Dark Souls, which I’m OK with.
A release date of January 21, 2022 was also confirmed, implying that we won’t have to wait much longer to play it.
The clip has a lot going on, and much of it will be recognizable to anybody who has played a Souls game in the previous decade. Elden Ring is reminiscent of Dark Souls, with its ruined cathedrals, ugly beasts, and narrators who could use a drink of water.
Here are a few essential elements to remember, or at least those that struck out to me:
- Blue Phantoms are back, which indicates PvP and co-op are back in familiar form too. Do we get a phantom horse?
- Our guy does a lot of flips, indicating something like Dark Souls 3’s weapon arts system is still here, maybe taking a more elegant Sekiro-inspired form.
- Mounted combat looks rad—also, our horse can fuckin jump. Skyrim’s horses are over.
- Are we taking a trip to a different reality? It’s a common theme in From’s games, and the shattered, floating vestiges of a cathedral suggest we’ll do the same here.
- Werewolves and fallen kings—Elden Ring’s looking like a Dark Souls and Bloodborne mashup.
A story synopsis appeared on Bandai Namco’s Elden Ring page today as well. It reads:
The Golden Order has been broken.
Rise, Tarnished, and be guided by grace to brandish the power of the Elden Ring and become an Elden Lord in the Lands Between.
In the Lands Between ruled by Queen Marika the Eternal, the Elden Ring, the source of the Erdtree, has been shattered.
Marika’s offspring, demigods all, claimed the shards of the Elden Ring known as the Great Runes, and the mad taint of their newfound strength triggered a war: The Shattering. A war that meant abandonment by the Greater Will.
And now the guidance of grace will be brought to the Tarnished who were spurned by the grace of gold and exiled from the Lands Between. Ye dead who yet live, your grace long lost, follow the path to the Lands Between beyond the foggy sea to stand before the Elden Ring.
And become the Elden Lord.
According to what I’ve gathered, we’re going to murder the power-hungry demigod children of an all-powerful god queen, grab their ring shards, rebuild the ring, and take over the place. That’s incredible.
