After two long years of silence, the teams behind Elden Ring, the development studio FromSoftware and its publisher Bandai Namco, lift the veil on their action-RPG game which will be released on February 25, 2022 on all current platforms (Xbox, PC and PlayStation 4 & 5).
FromSoftware's Gary Gillet talks about how this game came to be, inspired by the studio's other major titles: Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Expect the same kind of challenge...and difficulty.
On the story side, very heavy, because George RR Martin created the lore of this universe, as well as the links that unite the different characters (rather than writing the end of Game of Thrones!). Hidetaka Miyazaki then worked on the script, in order to make the whole coherent and suitable for a video game. We are thus going to discover the Inter-Earth, a strange world, between the living and the dead, where chaos reigns following the destruction of the circle of Elden. Its fragments were scattered and retrieved by demigods, who were corrupted by their power. The objective of our hero, an exile who has no fragments, will be to recover these fragments, in order to gain power, and to be able to repair the circle to bring peace to this kingdom, of which he incidentally wants to become the sovereign. .
The landscapes are magnificent: cursed fortresses, creepy catacombs, mysterious caves... Our hero can count on his faithful mount, Torrent, a spectral horse, to cover more distance. In addition to the open world, kinds of dungeons, called "Legacies" await the more adventurous, each offering different styles of exploration and combat. In particular, the verticality of the terrain will offer various options for defeating enemies.
Customization is of course on the agenda, with ten classes available at launch. However, this choice is not final, in order to offer the player the possibility of drawing from a large inventory of weapons, spells, shields, armor, and arts. Beyond the ability to customize the gaming experience, it will also be important to adapt your equipment to each enemy, especially for bosses. Expect epic battles, with attack patterns to memorize, failure after failure, until victory.
As these challenges might be too difficult for a lonely hero, it is possible to count on help. Summoning spirits allows computer-controlled fallen fighters to be summoned in an offensive or defensive role. It is also possible to count on the help of friends or illustrious strangers thanks to the multiplayer option (which incidentally supports cross-play).
Bertrand Mangin then details the content of the demo, the “closed network test”, scheduled for November 12 to 15 on consoles (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S). Only a few classes are available, but there is already enough fun to learn about the different combat styles, whether ranged or melee.
Offering the first hours of the game, this will therefore be the beginning of the adventure, with first of all the Cave of Knowledge ("Cave of Knowledge"), a scripted tutorial which presents the new features of the game. departure, the north of Limgrave.
Multiplayer will be functional, supporting up to four simultaneous players. To activate it, nothing could be simpler, just go to summoning pools (or any other prettier term they choose in the FR version for "Summoning pools"). These small statues of martyrs allow you to summon others. A password allows you to restrict access to certain people, so that you can only play with defined friends.
The journey around the world is between safe places, called "Sites of Grace". Shrines to advance time (if you don't like walking around at night), rest, and use the fast travel feature. Kinds of iridescent lights indicate the location of the sites, just follow these traces to get there. If you explore the world enough, you'll even have the chance to meet your trusty steed, a gift from the strange Melina. And the more adventurous can discover the first legacy dungeon, Stormveil Castle, guarded by its terrible doorman, the villainous Margit.
While waiting for the demo, a gameplay session to discover now:
