Elden Ring

Elden Ring is an action role-playing game set in third-person perspective. It includes elements that are similar to those in other FromSoftware-developed games, such as the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The game is set in an open world; players can freely explore the Lands Between and its six main areas, which include Limgrave—an area of grassy plains and ancient ruins—and Caelid, a wasteland that is home to undead monsters.^[1] The open world is explored using the character's mount Torrent as the main mode of transportation, though players may use fast travel outside combat. Throughout the game, players encounter non-player characters (NPCs) and enemies, including demigods who rule each main area and serve as the game's main bosses.^[2][3] Aside from the main areas, Elden Ring has hidden dungeons, catacombs, tunnels, and caves where players can fight bosses and gather helpful items.^[4]

At the game's start, the player chooses a character class, which determines their starting spells, equipment, and attributes.^[5] Combat with enemies can be within melee, or from a distance using ranged weapons. Enemy attacks can be dodged or blocked using shields. Spells allow players to enhance their weapons, fight enemies from afar, and restore lost hit points. The player can memorize a limited amount of these spells, which can be cast using a staff or sacred seal item.^[6][7] Weapons can be improved using ashes of war, which are obtainable "enchantments" that grant weapons new capabilities. Ashes of war can be applied to or removed from weapons, and each Ash adds a weapon art, a special ability that can be used during combat.^[8] Aside from direct combat, stealth mechanics can be used to avoid enemies or allow the targeting of foes with critical hits while hidden.^[9][10] Staggering enemies and parrying their attacks can also create opportunities for critical hits.^[11][12]

Checkpoints called sites of grace are located throughout the game; in these places, characters can increase the power of their attributes, change memorized spells, swap ashes of war, or walk to using fast travel. Upon death, players respawn at the last site of grace they interacted with. Alternatively, they may choose to respawn at certain locations highlighted by "stakes of Marika" provided they died nearby.^[8][13][14] To increase their attributes at sites of grace, the player must spend runes, an in-game currency that is acquired by defeating enemies.^[15] Runes can be used to buy items, and improve weapons and armor. Dying in Elden Ring causes the player to lose all collected runes at the location of death; if the player dies again before retrieving the runes, they will be lost forever.^[16]

Elden Ring contains crafting mechanics; the creation of items requires materials. Recipes, which are required for the crafting of items, can be found inside collectibles called cookbooks, which are scattered throughout the world. Materials can be collected by defeating enemies, exploring the game's world, or by trading with merchant NPCs. Crafted items include poison darts, exploding pots, and consumables that temporarily increase the player's combat strength.^[17][18] Similar to the Dark Souls games, the player can summon friendly NPCs called spirits to fight enemies.^[19] Summoning each type of spirit requires its equivalent Spirit Ash; different types of Spirit Ashes can be discovered as the player explores the game world. Spirits can only be summoned near structures called Rebirth Monuments, which are primarily found in large areas and inside boss fight arenas.^[20]

Elden Ring has a multiplayer system that allows players to be summoned for both cooperative and player-versus-player (PvP) play over the Internet.^[21] Cooperative play involves the placing of a summon sign on the ground, which causes the sign to become visible to online players who have used a corresponding item. If another player interacts with the sign, the player who placed the sign is summoned into their world. Cooperative players remain in the same world until the boss of the area is defeated or until a summoned player dies and is returned to their home world. In PvP combat, a summon sign is used to challenge another player to a duel, or the player can use additional items to invade the worlds of others. World hosts may use a "taunter's tongue" to increase the likelihood their world will be invaded by others and to decrease the time between invasions.^[22][23][24]

Premise

Elden Ring takes place in the Lands Between, a fictional realm over which several demigods rule. It was previously ruled over by the immortal Queen Marika, who acted as keeper of the Elden Ring, a powerful force that manifested itself as the physical concept of order. When Marika shattered the Elden Ring and disappeared, her demigod children began fighting over pieces of the Ring in an event called The Shattering. Each demigod has a shard of the Ring called a Great Rune, which corrupts them with power. In the game, the player character is a Tarnished, one of a group of exiles from the Lands Between who are summoned back after the Shattering. The player must traverse the realm to repair the Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord.

Plot

Early in their journey to repair the Elden Ring, the player-character Tarnished encounters a maiden named Melina. Because the Tarnished is maidenless, Melina offers to act as their maiden, granting them the ability to turn runes into strength and giving the Tarnished a steed named Torrent. In exchange, Melina requires the Tarnished to take her to the Erdtree, the home of the Elden Ring. Melina later takes the Tarnished to the Roundtable Hold, a gathering place for other Tarnished seeking to repair the Elden Ring. The Hold's benefactor, the Two Fingers, instructs the Tarnished to collect the Great Runes and bring them to the Erdtree, where they can be used to repair the Elden Ring.

The Tarnished travels into the Lands Between, investigating its locales and defeating the demigods. After recovering at least two Great Runes, the Two Fingers allows them to battle Morgott the Grace-Given, the demigod guarding the Erdtree. The Tarnished defeats Morgott but finds a wall of thorns blocking the Erdtree's interior. Melina arrives and advises the Tarnished to find the Flame of Ruin, which they can use to ignite the Erdtree and destroy the thorns. The Tarnished is free to travel towards the Flame of Ruin or search for a way to harness the equally powerful Frenzied Flame.

If, upon obtaining the Flame of Ruin, the Tarnished did not gain the power of the Frenzied Flame, Melina takes the Flame of Ruin and sacrifices herself to set alight the Erdtree. If the Tarnished gained the power of the Frenzied Flame, Melina abandons the Tarnished, forcing them to use the Frenzied Flame to set alight the Erdtree. While the Erdtree burns, the Tarnished is transported to the ruined city Farum Azula. After defeating Maliketh the Black Blade and using his Rune of Death to fuel the fire, the Tarnished is returned to the foot of the scorched Erdtree. Inside, they fight Radagon, Queen Marika's consort cohabitating her body, and the tree's guardian the Elden Beast. After both are vanquished, the Tarnished gains access to Marika's shattered corpse, which contains the remains of the Elden Ring. Depending on the Tarnished's actions during the game, six different endings can be achieved; the primary of which include the Tarnished becoming the Elden Lord, the Elden Ring being destroyed by Ranni the Witch, and the Tarnished using the Frenzied Flame to destroy the Lands Between. The three alternate endings include an Age of Order, brought about by perfecting the Elden Ring, the Age of the Duskborn, embedding the principle of "Life within Death" into Order, and the Blessing of Despair, overtaking the lands between with a reviled curse.

Elden Ring was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki (top) with worldbuilding provided by fantasy writer George R. R. Martin (bottom)

FromSoftware's Dark Souls series of games is noted for its high level of difficulty.^[25][26] Director Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted to create an open world game, intending Elden Ring as a mechanical evolution of Dark Souls. Elden Ring was designed to have a more-expansive environment than the narrow dungeons of FromSoftware's previous games; Miyazaki hoped the grander scale would add freedom and depth to exploration. FromSoftware approached American author George R. R. Martin, creator of the fantasy-novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, to provide worldbuilding for Elden Ring. Miyazaki, a fan of Martin's work, hoped his contributions would produce a more-accessible narrative than those the studio's earlier games.^[27][28][29]

Miyazaki remained lead writer for the game's main storyline but gave Martin creative freedom to write about events that occurred before the main narrative. Miyazaki compared the process to using a "dungeon master's handbook in a tabletop [role-playing game]".^[30][29] As with many of FromSoftware's previous games, the story was designed to be poorly explained; the developers wanted players to interpret the story for themselves via flavor text and optional discussions with non-player characters (NPCs). Miyazaki said he enjoyed writing NPCs with more detail, believing they are more compelling than those in his earlier works.^[29][31] In an interview with IGN, Miyazaki said he chose to give Martin control over the backstory because of the restrictions FromSoftware's method of storytelling placed on writers. He noted FromSoftware did not want a linear or story-focused game, and by giving Martin oversight of a backstory with which the player is not directly involved, he could allow Martin to freely design his contributions.^[28] Some staff from Game of Thrones, a television series adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, assisted with the game's development.^[32]

Production of the game began in early 2017 following the release of The Ringed City, a piece of downloadable content (DLC) for Dark Souls III. Elden Ring was developed alongside Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which Miyazaki also directed. He said although the combat in Elden Ring has similarities to that in Sekiro, neither game directly inspired the mechanics of the other.^[33][34] FromSoftware simultaneously developed both games using a "co-director" structure in which each of the games had a staff member acting as director through its first stages of development. Miyazaki would then provide direction on the game's mechanics, art, and music.^[28] Yui Tanimura, who previously directed Dark Souls II and co-directed Dark Souls III, served as co-director for the game.^[35] The design team of Elden Ring concentrated on environmental scale, roleplaying, and storytelling as the main elements. Developers credited the scale with responsibility for creating a sense of diversity, and intended the roleplaying elements to allow for a variety of player-environment interactions. Increasing the game's scale required the creation of several explorable structures, which the team conjoined in the open world.^[36] Miyazaki named Shadow of the Colossus, The Elder Scrolls, The Witcher 3, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as design influences for Elden Ring. He credited the tabletop role-playing game RuneQuest, and the novels The Lord of the Rings and The Eternal Champion as inspirations for the game's story.^[37][38] Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazawa, Tai Tomisawa, Yuka Kitamura, and Yoshimi Kudo composed Elden Ring's original soundtrack.^[39]

Elden Ring was revealed during an Xbox games conference at E3 2019.^[40][41] Some information about the game had previously been leaked online due to a vulnerability of the servers at Bandai Namco Entertainment.^[42] Elden Ring was widely anticipated on announcement but no further material was released until a trailer was shown in June 2021.^[43] Playtesting was facilitated by Bandai Namco, which in November 2021 initially released the game as a closed beta that players could sign up to test.^[44] The game's full release was scheduled for January 21, 2022, but was postponed to February 25 the same year.^[45][46] Elden Ring had performance issues at launch; players complained of an insufficient frame rate.^[47][48] Bandai Namco addressed some of these problems through software patches and updates.^[49][50] In February 2023, an expansion called Shadow of the Erdtree was announced for release at a later date.^[51] A trailer for the expansion was launched on February 21, 2024, announcing a release date for June 21, 2024.^[52]

Elden Ring received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator website Metacritic.^[53][54][55] The game drew nearly 900,000 viewers within 24 hours of release on the live streaming platform Twitch, putting it among the most-popular debuts on the platform.^[71]

The game's open world setting received acclaim; reviewers praised the exploration mechanics. Tamoor Hussain of GameSpot praised the Lands Between as the most-expansive of FromSoftware's settings, calling exploration and discovery the game's main appeal.^[72] Mitchell Saltzman of IGN lauded Elden Ring for rewarding exploration in every part of the map.^[73] Simon Parkin of The Guardian called the game's environments "intriguing and inventive".^[74] Some reviewers liked the open landscape's provision of opportunities to discover and try multiple challenges.^[75][76] The game's exploration drew many favorable comparisons with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.^[72][73][77] The game's environments were also praised for their artistic designs; reviewers positively rated their execution in an open setting and appreciated the designs of linear dungeons.^[72][78][79]

Similarly to many of FromSoftware's earlier games, Elden Ring's difficulty provoked much commentary; reviewers both praised and criticized its lack of easy modes.^[80][81][82] Other reviewers considered Elden Ring the most-accessible Souls game, saying the player can choose to avoid difficult threats and return with more experience.^[75][76][77] The combat of Elden Ring was praised for offering options for fighting enemies while keeping the game challenging.^[76][78][83] Torrent and fast travel were well-received features, with reviewers citing them as large improvements towards making the game easier to explore.^[75][76][84] The placing of checkpoints was praised as helpful to the game's approachability.^[85][83][86]

Some reviewers criticized a number of the game's menu and accessibility systems.^[87][88] Reviewers complained about the poor performance of the Windows version; framerate issues were commonly mentioned.^[84][89] Reviewers noted the story of Elden Ring lacks Martin's writing style. Kyle Orland of Ars Technica said the game's storytelling is "characteristically sparse and cryptic", and differs from the expectations of Martin's fans.^[79] Chris Carter of Destructoid called the story "low key" but said it is better-told than those of previous FromSoftware games.^[83] Aoife Wilson of Eurogamer said George R. R. Martin's heavy inclusion in the marketing was "baffling" when his contributions to the overall narrative were unclear.^[75] Mitchell Saltzman did not mind the lack of Martin's style, saying the side-stories rather than any grand, overarching plot kept him "enthralled".^[73]

Journalists have covered the game's speedrunning community.^[90][91] Shortly after release, players discovered a glitch called the "zip glitch" which allows players to warp across the map.^[91] The glitch was removed by the developers, leading speedrunners to use older version of the game for speedruns.^[91] The game has been beaten in under five minutes using the glitch.^[92]

Sales

Elden Ring sold 13.4 million copies worldwide by the end of March 2022,^[93] and 23 million by February 2024.^[94] It was the best-selling game in several regions between February and March 2022,^[95][96] and is the fastest-selling Bandai Namco game of all time.^[97][98] It was the second-bestselling game of 2022 in the US after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II,^[99] the third-bestselling in Europe,^[100] and the tenth-bestselling in Japan at retail.^[101]

Awards

Elden Ring won many awards and accolades. It was listed as the 2022's Game of the Year by several publications, including Ars Technica,^[102] Destructoid,^[103] EGM,^[104] Eurogamer,^[105] Game Informer,^[106] GamesRadar+,^[107] GameSpot,^[108] IGN,^[109] PC Gamer,^[110] and Polygon.^[111] It is among the most awarded games in history with 324 Game of the Year awards.^[112][113]

• Official website
• Elden Ring at MobyGames