Edited by Rachel Heung
Elden Ring, a highly anticipated open-world RPG was released just under two weeks ago.
Elden Ring is a game where one plays as a descendant of a group of banished heroes named the Tarnished, native to the “Lands Between”, the world in which the game takes place. The ruler of the “Lands Between”, Queen Marika the Eternal, has kept an ancient artifact, the Elden Ring, shattered into pieces, it sends them to different corners of the realm. It is the player’s job to track down and claim all of these pieces to restore the world to its former grace that the Elden Ring provided from the Erdtree: a colossal angelic tree where the ring was once stored (The Indian Express, 2022).
Elden Ring has been in the making for around 13 years by FromSoftware, a Japanese game company behind other familiar games such as the entire Dark Souls series. With such a monstrous production time, Elden Ring had to live up to many expectations from fans of the soulsborne games. With producer Hidetaka Miyazaki, George R.R. Martin, a famous writer behind books such as A Game of Thrones, helped write the game’s narrative and storyline, only increasing the hype tenfold around the already long-awaited game.
There have been 6 games prior to the release of Elden Ring that had a huge influence the genre and gameplay. Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls I, II, and III, Sekiro, and Bloodborne (Wired, 2022). These 6 games all share the same RPG third-person playstyle in addition to the dark, medieval, gritty aesthetic of the world. While all had fantastic gameplay, they all excelled at different aspects of a whole that could have been greater, such as Dark Souls featuring phenomenal world-building and storytelling, whereas Seikiro focused a little more on the combat. Elden Ring is the culmination of all of these excellent features in one product, improving upon and expanding on each predecessor’s strengths.
Currently on track to be the game of the year, Elden Ring has overwhelmingly positive reviews with a 10/10 on IGN (IGN, 2022). It’s exciting to see old classics like Dark Souls resurrected as a brand new world, and who knows what’s in store for other iconic titles.
Bibliography
Tech Desk. (2022, February 28). Elden Ring now available to play: Everything to know about
Miyazaki's new souls-like. The Indian Express. Retrieved 2022, from
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/gaming/elden-ring-is-out-now-everything-
to-know-about-miyazakis-new-souls-like-7789358/
Wired. (2022, February 24). 'Elden Ring' Is the Game of the Year. Wired. Retrieved March 1,
2022, from https://www.wired.com/story/elden-ring-review/
Saltzman, M., & IGN. (2022, February 25). Elden Ring Review. IGN. Retrieved March 1,
2022, from https://www.ign.com/articles/elden-ring-review
Bandai Namco Entertainment. (n.d.). Elden Ring. Elden Ring | Official Website.
https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/elden-ring/elden-ring
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