Geoff Keighley and Summer Games Fest brought the goods today, finally revealing the release date for highly anticipated From Software project Elden Ring. It’s coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on January 21, 2022.
The brief yet very appreciated gameplay reveal showcased a world very much like the ones seen in the Dark Souls series. Elden Ring looks to continue From Software’s legacy of combining engrossing, gothic landscapes with a deep, mysterious lore that sets them apart from everything else in the action role-playing genre.
As for what was actually in the Elden Ring reveal, well…it was a lot. Ruins, dragons, and apparent boss battles with giants and other massive creatures abound in the short video. There were also hints that the game might incorporate Dark Souls-like multiplayer, with players hopping in and out of each other’s worlds to help or hinder progress. In short, longtime From Software fans are eating good today.
Elden Ring was first revealed at E3 2019 with a bombastic, mysterious teaser in the common From Software style. Little was shared about the open-world game, but the studio did note that famed Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki would again be taking point, this time in collaboration with George R. R. Martin, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series that spawned the (ultimately disappointing) TV sensation Game of Thrones.
Since then, both From Software and publisher Bandai Namco have said very little about the upcoming game, prompting the fanbase to take matters into their own hands. This resulted in the creation of vast amounts of fake Elden Ring lore as well as an entire YouTube channel dedicated to sharing Elden Ring “news,” which for a long time jokingly mirrored the developers’ radio silence on the matter with equally meager videos. It got so bad that some fans even believed random noises in the PlayStation 5 remake of Demon’s Souls were tied to the new game until Sony told Kotaku the sound effects were just glitches.
We have, however, been privy to some Elden Ring gameplay before today. Back in March, brief snippets of an internal Bandai Namco presentation leaked online, showcasing a few of the game’s environments and enemies. The videos were rough, poor quality, and apparently from an early build, but even taken out of context, they were enough to reinvigorate excitement for the game. Many of these vignettes were included in today’s gameplay reveal, though thankfully they looked much better this time around.
That said, Elden Ring is still an unknown quantity. While the From Software pedigree is obviously there, the studio’s silence (even in the face of the covid-19 pandemic, which has ruined pretty much everything) is definitely concerning. Miyazaki hasn’t let me down yet; let’s just hope today’s reveal means the end of the Elden Ring drought.
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