Elden leaks

Look up at the leaks; they burn!

Perhaps one of the most tragically devoted communities out there in today's gaming climate are Soulsbourne fans, because those guys have the sort of itch that no-one else can scratch. Addicted to that special brand of tough gameplay, existential lore bits and esoteric plots which only spawn from the enigmas mind palace of Hidetake Miyazaki. You give them hard games, confusing games, introspective games, and they'll always be unsatisfied; it's FromSoftware or nothing; there's no replacement. The only time I've seen these fans flock to literally any other developer, it was Bluepoint when they adapting a FromSoftware product, so they're pretty much as 'ride or die' as it gets. Thus it's been curious to watch this fandom tear itself apart at the seams whilst the flounder about waiting for Elden Ring news, any Elden Ring news, to satiate that vampiric thirst. Every single gaming event over the past 2 years has been flooded with hopeful fans eager to seen even the slightest hint of actual gameplay, (or, heck, they'd probably even take another teaser at this point) only to be met with a 'not this time.' Even promises that the game is still being made have all come from second hand sources; FromSoftware proper are so engrossed in getting this game absolutely right that they can't maintain a public communication. And you know what? Good, you guys get that game right. However, it does lead to such lamentable situations such as recently when grainy footage of the Elden Ring trailer leaked all over the Internet.

I imagine it must always be heart-breaking to see their creation get out in the public before it's got it's face on, when it's still in those early experimental stages before the polish has really begun to glean. But then as an undeniably huge fan I will say that went out of my way to look up these leaks the second they hit the web because, darn it, it's been too long! I just wanna see what my favourite genre is doing in it's spare time, all these 'souls-like's are getting jarring, I need the real thing! Of course, I recognise this is a pretty big breach in privacy that I'm glorifying out of selfishness, but I've never sweat stuff like that personally. (My moral compass is irredeemable anyway. Did you hear I even went on WhatCulture the other day?) If you've any moral qualms with such, however, I respect you and urge that you give this blog a skip because I'm going to be talking all about those leaks. (What little there is, the thing was rather bare in terms of story) But before we dive into this, let's go over exactly what Elden Ring is according to all we officially know.

Elden Ring is a fresh RPG Souls game form the genre's developers that is being written alongside George R. R. Martin. (Fingers crossed it actually has a finale written, then.) As these games tend to be ludicrously intricate and difficult to comprehend even when you have the full game at your fingertips, thus it's quite foolhardy to even try to piece together a story from the teaser trailer, but I tried anyway. Yet in short it appears to be another Dark Fantasy world that perhaps steps a little away from the Medieval influence of Dark Souls. Although even that is a gutsy assumption to make given that it's based upon a lack of evidence for that sort of setting rather than evidence indicating other settings. Simply put, there's pretty much nothing to go off regarding what this game might be about, all that can be said for sure is that it'll be like FromSoftware's other games.

Even after the leak that very much remains the case, so I'm sure that the several months of people creating their own speculative Fan art and rampantly theory crafting about the colour of tea leaves is hardly going to change anytime soon in the wake of this. In fact, from the footage that we can see (The majority of which appearing to be from some mock-up trailer which never made it to the public) a lot of the game looks very similar to Dark Souls 3. Some have claimed to notice a few borrowed assets; (Although looking at the resolution, I'd call that into question) but what I saw were those animations and how they really seemed to resemble what Dark Souls was shooting for. Bloodborne tended to be more agile with it's animations and Sekiro felt like an entirely different game-type a times; but this footage looks more familiar to me than I was honestly expecting. Oh, that is to say with one huge exception...

The game has horses! And horse combat! Obviously, it's hardly shocking for me to say that those shots looked entirely alien to me because we've never see a mount in a Souls game before, there's just never really been a need for it. That, of course, leads into a sense of the world this game offers that a lot of people are picking up from the context of this leaked trailer. You can almost see it in the sweeping vista shots, the ponderous galloping moments; this looks like a world very much built for open play, making this the very first Souls open world game. (If assumptions are to be believed) Now this fact alone sits uneasy with me, because the tight almost-castlevanian design of the Souls worlds is often some of their greatest assets; I have to wonder if that spirit will become lost in a larger canvas, but I'll never be one to tell someone not to experiment. If the FromSoftware team think they can nail an openworld game whilst still mastering that irreplaceable charm, then who am I to call foul? (I will still mark this down as my first legitimate concern regarding this game, just so that I never lose my footing.)

As for the rest of the footage, it's all pretty much what you'd expect. Hulking giant slave beasts evoke Dark Souls 2 memories, swooping fire breathing dragons evoke Dark Souls Artorias of the Abyss vibes and heavy great sword plunging attacks evoke every single Souls game ever made. Although I will single out that dragon encounter as taking place on an open field and thus really looking more like something out of Dragon's Dogma in scope. It will be nice to finally take an a flying lizard that doesn't confusingly alternate between lazy claw attacks directly in front of itself and a ground focused flame spout. (Those guys literally got fire glands in their lungs, don't they? Why don't they light everything up more?) I suppose the one genuinely brand new thing regarding lore which we can take away from all this is in the snippet of Dialogue which confirms the McGuffin of the plot is indeed the Elden Ring. And, in fact, it's apparently something to be sought. Oh wait, what am I talking about? Stealth was also revealed; duh. Actual sneak attacks are coming to Souls games. Heck yeah!

Unfortunately for those who convinced themselves that this leak was the smoking gun indicating we'd be getting an Elden Ring trailer imminently, reports seemed to suggest this is not the case. The footage is apparently from a build of the game that's over a year old, and the trailer clearly would have been much updated since then, so we'll likely never see HQ renders of these leaks. Whatsmore, you can kind of tell that from the footage itself, despite it being in such an iffy recording. Some quirk to the movement and composition of the trailers just doesn't posses that same aura of perfectionism that I expect from From Software. I'd imagine this was probably more of an internal project that got around a bit further than was intended thanks to lockdown and impromptu file sharing. But that's just my speculation. Also, reports slate us for a 2022 release, so don't be surprised if this is the only Elden Ring news of the year.

I don't envy the dev team right now, but I hope that having this confirmation that their game exists is enough to sustain the From Soft crowd for a bit so that the rest of us can enjoy the season of game announcements. It's getting pretty annoying to hear them complain about how every game isn't this all last year. For my part, however, I will admit that nothing has quite blown me away from a pure presentation standpoint in the same way that Sekiro did. It's a subtle feeling, not an overwhelming sense, but it's something I can't shake all the same. Nothing seems like it 'wows', and that's despite one shot seemingly being a new boss's introduction scene. So perhaps that's a consequence of this footage being unburnished, or maybe of the game itself not being different enough for it's own good. It's hard, and unfair, to judge from such little material. My excitement's still there, don't get me wrong, it's just closer to tepid than boiling right now. Hopefully in a year that's an early inclination that I laugh at for it's foolishness. Hopefully.