Shadow of the Erdtree finally got revealed!

 

After approximately several thousand years of waiting, we can finally look upon the face of that product which was promised in our previous lifetimes. Thawed out of the iceberg after a hundred years of hibernation just when the world needed it most- we can finally put our hats together and celebrate the coming of Hollow Knight Sil- huh? Oh wait, this is the other thing that we've waited all our adult lives to release. My bad. No, this was actually the trailer for the DLC of Elden Ring which was so belated I assumed that FromSoftware simply forgot they ever announced it and had moved onto their next game. But no, we have one last adventure to go on in The Land Between, on that journey to drive a wedge into the powers vying for the throne of Elden Lord in gaming's own answer to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Right away from the very first screenshot that released for the DLC upon it's announcement about a year ago, we pretty much had a decent idea where the DLC would be heading. Well- "under the Erdtree" was a decent guess with the name 'Shadow of the Erdtree' to work off, but I mean even further than that-slueths could deduce who's rune we were going for. The golden haired figure riding saddle on a white horse? Yeah, that was going to be Miquella, the missing demi-god of the Elden Ring line-up best known for being kidnapped by the twisted Mohg (from whom we actually take Miquella's rune given his absence) and for being name dropped by his big sis Malenia every time she skewers you from four different angles through her iconic waterfall dance. A plague upon that whole family for hosting two of the most annoyingly painful boss fights in FromSoftware history; I can only imagine Miquella will prove just as frustrating.

And yes, to the surprise of no one Miquella is indeed present in this trailer in some form, proving that the grossly disproportionate limb sticking out of Mohg's cocoon is both accurate to the disfigured form of the ungrowing child, and that the limb does not actually belong to the boy. God, I'm always so excited to peel back some of the ever reclusive FromSoftware lore and peek on the goodies within! What I was quite surprised about, however, was the fact we actually get to see Miquella in this trailer, with his bizarre snake-balancing body- and even spy a glimpse of what appears to be his boss fight! I can only interpret this as either some sort of bait and switch or the team are holding back one of those crazy second-stage transformations that Elden Ring seems to love so much- because otherwise that would be a spoiler for one of the coolest parts of any FromSoftware game- the memorable bosses!

As expected considering the artists we're working with here the trailer is resplendent with unnerving imagery, monsters pulling swords out of their eyes and being generally disfigured in appropriately creative and thoughtful ways; although to be absolutely honest- I think the team are holding back majorly. Nothing I've seen thusfar pertains to any kind of absolute showstopper monster that I simply have to fight. Even Miquella looked a little lowkey in what little of his battle we witnessed. The most crazy looking creature here is the giant candelabra that spews fire out of it's head- but that's a Torrent fight and those tend to be less exciting and challenging in practice than they seem like they'll be initially. Probably because Torrent isn't that agile so FromSoftware can't get too crazy with their attack cycles. Then again the Fire Giant is a stand-out whilst also being a Torrent fight, so there's definitely potential there somewhere!

'The Shadow' portion of the title does not, surprisingly, seem to refer to a location underneath the famous tree of life around which every single JRPG that isn't Final Fantasy is based. (I wonder what sort of devil sacrament Final Fantasy had to perform in order to publish a game where the 'world tree' trope was replaced with a 'world Crystal' instead.) Instead we are literally going under the canopy of the Erdtree (or is it behind the Haling Tree?)- in view of the gnarled and twisted roots of the primordial deity but unable to bask in it's sun-like light. What we experience instead are these drapes of light that, as people are already starting to notice on Twitter, hang like the curtains of Queen Marika's bedchambers- fitting given this is said to be where Marika first stepped when she came to The Lands Between.

It is striking. Already Shadow of the Erdtree delivers something to us not yet present in the vast and varied world of the base game, teasing at darker and deeper conjurations yet to be dreamed of. Who would find themselves in The Land of Shadows, untouched by the grace of the tree around which the world's order is meant to reside? I mean beyond the ever-young Miquella who famously turned to the Haling Tree in an attempt to age himself and establish an alternative world power strong enough to cure Malenia's Scarlet Rot where the Golden Order could not. And I wonder what our purpose could be seeking out there, if his Rune has already been discarded and recovered from Mohg? Oh... and I guess this means killing Mohg is necessary for accessing the DLC, doesn't it? Bugger. (I can here the 'Nihil's now...)

What I'm curious of most of all is actually whether or not this will count among the very few FromSoftware DLCs that present a new ending to the game, as there have been surprisingly few. Dark Souls 2's Scholar of the First Sin presented the ability to turn away from the throne, and in doing so provided any alternate ending to a game which previously only had one. And aside from that... I don't they've ever actually presented a ending changing DLC. But this would be such a great opportunity for one! Elden Ring's core narrative is all about weighing up the interests of the various duelling factions that all wish to seize the god-like powers of the Elden Ring in order to shape The Lands Between for themselves- but aside from literally becoming the embodiment of a vengeful god of ultimate destruction, there's no way to break the land free from control of the order. (Unless you side with best-doll Ranni but let's be honest- that girl's got her whole own dictatorship in mind!) Creating the ability to side with Miquella, a royal consort who rejected the Golden Order whole heartedly, might just present such an opportunity! (And I love an alternate ending path. Particularly one like 'Phantom Liberty' which reminded us why a risky life with everything to live for is better than a safer one with nothing to ground you.)

Shadow of the Erdtree has a lot of expectations to meet given the pedigree of the game it is coming to compliment, but at the very least it is really coming to fruition. Unlike another long beleaguered product which haunts our every waking moment- I might actually get to play this DLC someday! (I know that Silksong is no longer DLC but an actual standalone now, but the comparison still stands up, I think.) As the final underlying chapter of the epic that is Elden Ring, I expect to be wowed to some significant degree- and of course to be met with an boss so brutal it'll scare me back into fighting Malenia just to try a fight I have a chance of winning. That's all I want out of my FromSoftware games- a total diminishment of my ego until I feel as ugly and detestable as I truly am. So humble me once more, Elden Ring, I'm literally asking for it!

Is Miyazaki a filthy casual?

 Or did he git too good?

As with any auteur video game director out there, the name Hidetaka Miyazaki has stretched beyond the confines of his position and very much coloured the works of all From Software games. And it makes sense, often we're told how large chunks of the heart of Souls games originate in his reference-addled psyche, and it's the testament of his team's skills to be his scribes that they can consistently  and faithfully recreate his mad dreams for his project. That's why he's called the Father of Dark Souls. Without him there would be no Souls series like we know it today and likely no Souls mini subgenre, which means no Bloodborne, no Elden Ring, no 'Salt and Sanctuary', no Blasphemous and, worst of all, no Hollow Knight! So his is a legacy worth defending and commending in equal measures, such to the extent that we all blindly worship the ground he walks on and never dare to ask the question: has Miyzaki beaten Dark Souls?

It seems odd, almost sacrilegious, to even raise such a query, and yet that very idea was thrust upon us just recently when snippets of a Miyazaki interview started appearing around the web. And well, you'd just assume that he had, right? Isn't it internet bottom-feeder shorthand to say that if you haven't beaten Dark Souls then you can't be a high tier gamer? (Because gaming is obviously segmented into the commonly known 'tier system' which we all agreed on back in the day.) So that very simple barrier to gaming worthiness, that gate for which one needs to bypass it's keeper, (if you will) should surely have been childsplay for the father of Dark Souls himself. Right? I mean he can likely beat the game in his sleep. He probably does a full broken sword speedrun every night instead of closing his eyes. It's his baby, he knows it inside and out. And he does, but he doesn't.

Doesn't play his games, that is. So he likely has never beaten Dark Souls. This comes as something of a shock, obviously, because it's not as though Miyazaki is one of those work-a-holic addicts who loses all time in his life for anything other than making games. We know he's a big fan of Magic the Gathering, such to the point he created his own unaffiliated fan game and called it 'Bloodborne'. The guy does like to kill free time having fun, which is likely the only way how he can lead design games razor focused to ride the gap between challenging and rewarding. Except that he doesn't sit down and enjoy the finished product himself, bask in the journey he laid down and scale the mountains he placed. Our man is a Dark Souls unbeliever, in a way, and somehow I find that just fascinating. So many of those classic fan-loved studios have that exact same mission statement to "Make games that we wanna play", but here's a director who just hasn't got the time or love for that goal.

Of course he has a reason, it would be quite weird if he just left it at that and walked away. He says that this policy comes because Miyazaki doesn't feel there's anything left to discover in a game that he helped create. Which makes some sense given the amount of creative control he's said to have over the majority of creative decisions that go into this franchise. He lays out the story, designs the conceptualisation of the monsters and locations and apparently even gets down and dirty with the balancing of the bosses if the story about him personally nerfing Dark Souls III's Pontiff holds any weight. These games are his baby, but a baby he has nurtured excessively to the point where he has no investment watching it thrive in the world. Imagine pulling enough weight that your parents are finally proud of you, only for them to immediately lose interest because they played such a role in your raising that you hold no surprises to them. It's just a lose-lose all around, huh.

Which isn't to say that Miyazaki necessarily has never played his own games at all- I think it would take a pigheadedly stringent policy for the man to somehow avoid ever grabbing a controller throughout the development process, for early build testing at the very least. I guess he just thinks that the very moment the thing goes off to test for gold status that he's done with it forever. Although that does also mean that he apparently doesn't have time for games that others make, such as the incredible Demon Souls remake by Bluepoint. He commended their work, says they reached heights the team could only dream of, but won't actually play the thing itself for the emotions and memories it dredges up. (Talk about 'tortured artists' syndrome.) So... what does mean about Dark Souls II then? He didn't direct that game, and it's not a remake of a game he made a decade ago... so has he played that? Or did he too hear about the Frigid Outskirts and just thought "You know what? There's more to life than this."

But just because I might reach some understanding for why Miyazaki feels the way that he does when it comes to Dark Souls and his relationship with that- you best bet that doesn't mean I'm happy with it. Oh no. Because whereas he is depriving himself of a polished playthrough of an incredibly influential back catalogue of his own games, he's also denying himself the punishment that every developer needs  to suffer- the bite of their mistakes. That's right, even Dark Souls is not a perfect game, and beyond annoying enemies and questionable level layouts (Blighttown) we have a single boss who I think can easily be crowned the worst in the franchise. The Bed of Chaos. What a mess. A boss who forsakes the entire game of timing and build management before and after it, asking instead for the player to undergo an impromptu platforming challenge with these woefully undercooked controls and be happy about it. The fight is so bad that it's the only fight in the entire franchise for which the game saves your process, so that the many times that you are expected to die, you can ride right back into the fray and only struggle with the remaining awful jumping tasks. That boss is an abomination, and it's only just now I'm realising that it's one Miyazaki dumped on his fans and didn't even suffer himself. What a villain.

There was a silver lining to this interview, underlying the actual point of all this talk regarding which past game Miyazaki would play. (apparently none of them. Not even King's Field.) Because when on the topic of Elden Ring, the man not only crowned it the best game that From have ever made (sure, it's the idea to keep getting better with each game, I guess) but went so far as to suggest that if he were to ever play his own games- this would be the one to win him over. Which I guess either speaks to the amount of overarching world lore that George R.R Martin contributed to the script, or just the general dynamism captured in this new open-world infrastructure. (I suspect the latter.) Even Miyazaki, mister 'I control everything' could find something new to love and discover in this game. Theoretically, that is, he still probably won't play it so that he can spend time mastering some new Magic booster deck metagame or something. 

Which I guess just goes to show how important it is that even men such as Miyazaki, giants in their respective fields, have a talented and passionate team working under them not only to bring their wild dreams to fruition, but apparently also to playtest the finished product in order to ensure it's all come together. Although I have to ask, how many other famous directors just aren't interested in their own games? Kojima usually puts himself in his games, is that in lieu of him actually picking up the controller and donning the shoes of the avatar in those games? Did Ken Levine sit down to slap his wrench about Rapture? Does Todd Howa- actually, I'm pretty sure Todd Howard doesn't even have a physical body outside of his Beach- he probably can't play games. Maybe all the best directors are so good they don't even play games anymore. Food for thought.

Elden Ring is real!

 The Tarnished will soon return, guided by grace once lost

I must have been really out of it this E3 Cycle, because I didn't even know that there was going to be an event on Thursday, let alone that it was going to feature Elden Ring of all things. But then again, even if I had heard that rumour I'd hardly have believed it, for this wouldn't have been the first time that a promised Elden Ring reveal would have amounted to nothing but smoke and mirrors. I wouldn't have believed you if you promised me with your dying breath that Elden Ring would make it to a conference like this, even though in hindsight I guess it makes sense that Geoff Keighley would be able to book the folks over at FromSoftware; he doesn't have the baggage of "Uh, I guess this is an exclusive now" that other hosts will be subject to. Anyway, I'm glad to be wrong and that now, after 350+ days of rumour, leaks and mostly silence, we have a real game to look at and speculate on. No more dancing with myself in the dark, now we have a fire to light our waltz. Hmm? Oh right, this isn't Dark Souls... no fire.

Although you'd have to forgive me for making that mistake, because just as we got a glimpse at from those leaks, there does seem to be some residual Dark Souls spirit with this game. (Or, as is more likely, another inspiration borne out of love for Beserk) Perhaps some of that perception comes from the rather noticeable way that this game is last gen, and thus a noticeable visual downstep from the stunning Bluepoint Demon Souls remake. Though this has inspired a little grumbling, I'm not too fussed because no one really comes to Souls games for their visual fidelity, but even then I must admit I would have liked seeing brand new vistas and a shining world realized with Bluepoint's exacting graphical standards. (Hey, maybe this trailer was built using the last gen versions and the next gen one's will at least go some way to bridge the gap between the two standards, it's hard to say.)

The big initial difference which is unavoidable from this trailer, proving something we'd heard talks of during the dark periods of no gameplay on Elden Ring, is the openness of the world. No longer are we looking at a game built of interconnected corridors throughout a world that's always closer together than you think, now we have open plains. This is embodied in the new steed summonable in the game, a horned Norse-looking mount with the leg muscles to really launch itself across the terrain into battle. Of course that means there's going to be horse-mounted combat, and at least one incredibly cool looking Horse-back boss fight against a winged Dragon that looks like one big callback to Seath the Scaleless. It has the whole 'split-wings' aesthetic going on, and there's a specific shot of it summoning a bolt of lighting to it's hand before slamming that into the ground, distinctly indicative of the Dark Souls intro movie. In fact, I saw a lot of these parallels (with that being the most explicit) making me both feel comforted with the familiarity and slightly perturbed by it as well. I don't necessarily want to be looking at a new FromSoftware game and thinking "I recognise this", I was promised a brand new world from George R.R. Martin and Miyazaki.

Then again maybe a large part of that unease is entirely self-inflicted upon my immediate notice that the game, through employing a lighter colour palette whilst retaining both the engine and bleakness characteristic to FromSoftware games, seems to have the exact same hue to it that Dark Souls 2 had. All the day scenes have that copper sky, awash with murky, windy clouds that make it impossible to judge what time of day it's meant to be. Now as I've said before I'm not one of those who deeply hate Dark Souls 2 and feels it's a tarnish upon the franchise, but it's also definitely a very flawed title that does not represent the best of the franchise by a long shot. Invoking that spirit, even accidentally, left the slightest sour taste in my mouth that it's hard to shake. (If things play out the Dark Souls way, this entire game will lead you on with the promise of finding this 'Elder Ring', then actually have you go around fighting time-travelling Giants or something.)

But those are all just my own conjured misgivings, on it's own merits the game shines and was easily the belle of the Summer Games Fest ball. Just witnessing the sheer fantastical wonder of a Souls game with a firmer foot in the fantasy genre was a wonder all of it's own. I particularly loved the sense of scale we see here that seems to rival some of Dark Souls' most memorable moments. There's a passive turtle-bell creature that almost looks like something out of Shadow of the Colossus, and the aforementioned dragon duel is simply dipping with the epic scale we thirst from from the most exciting battles. Then there's the huge glowing tree which seems to be the backdrop of every outdoor scene in this game, I suspect that all the openworld will be splayed around this thing, and it's likely linked to the 'Elden Ring' itself, given that the symbol of the ring resembles a tree where it's circles converge.

Aesthetically I noticed that a lot of the game still reminds me of the Norse influences I caught whiff of in the original CGI announcement. The horned steed reminds me of old horned Viking head gear that we like to envision from popular culture, as well as evokes the soul of the two giant goats that Thor keeps as his pets in myth. Then there's the helmet worn by the player character, which has that Norwegian 10th century shape and construction to it, of course coupled with a glorious mane out the back for those aspirants to the Soulsian god of war: The Nameless King. The world and the enemies themselves aren't exactly dripping with obvious Nordic influence to them, but I'll bet they'll be shades here and there to pick up on, as I'm pretty sure that Norse sort of mythology is at the centre of what this game is going for. There's a giant world tree in the middle of map, afterall, like Yggdrasil herself.

One aspect I didn't get an entirely conclusive view on, but which I am deeply fascinated by, is how the feel of combat will evolve itself once again. Since Dark Souls first came out, no two FromSoftware franchises have played the same, despite featuring similar concepts, and that has been on the developer's strengths. Dark Souls featured block and roll heavy combat, whilst Bloodbourne focused heavily on parrying and revenge healthpoints. Sekiro forced players to play fast and brutal, and now comes Elden Ring which, lacking any extended gameplay footage of itself, appears to be at a middle grounds. There's a grounded nature to the combat, but the movements themselves are very fluid and cover so much ground. I've seen shots of the player literally launching themselves into an attack before jumping back, reminiscent of Sekiro but carrying the weight of Dark Souls. Whatsmore, I suspect this will be another FromSoftware title with a purposeful lack of shields. A few were shown in the trailer but they all seemed smaller and probably aren't meant to be relied upon.

Here we persist in this bizarre timeline where Elden Ring is actually real, and I'm buzzing with anticipation. It's not like I'm saying that I never thought this game would see the light of day, but George R. R. Martin was involved with the development and he does have a bit of a reputation... but it's here and we don't need to fret about what might have been ever again! Or at least, it will soon be here, because FromSoftware was nice enough to provide a release date which likely won't be hit in January next year, proving that true to Microsoft's word, AAA developers will continue to develop for both generations of consoles leading past the first anniversary of the generation. Even now that I can finally see, and thus imagine, it, Elden Ring's mystery lingers on and it's the call of every Souls fan to start unravelling it. A more tantalising journey I can't imagine undertaking this gaming year. Good luck living up to this one, all the rest of E3.

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.

Where does Dark Souls 2 fit into the canon? Seriously.

It's all so wrong but so right!

Yeah, this is another one of those blogs where I'm going to go in on something that only I care about, but that's what my entire online writing persona has been so far, so why change a good thing? So recently I've found myself thinking about Dark Souls, and that's been because it's shown up all over my Youtube recommendations for some reason. (Okay, I know the reason. I looked up Gwyn's theme to listen to it and that apparently opened the floodgates) And when you have a series with the level of complexity, nuance and esoteric context to it that Dark Souls does, when you start the thought train it's easy to derail into a rabbit hole. In fact, things grew so much that I literally redownloaded Dark Souls last night and am currently trying to do a light-armoured pyromancer run. (It's taking some adjusting but I'm getting there.) However, I'm not always thinking about the series in blind reverence of it. Sometimes my mind is grasped with other ponderous thoughts to the tune of "How in the heck does this work" or "Where does this fit in?" 

Of course, the beauty of Dark Souls is that these are the sorts of questions that you can debate about for hours without any resolution. For example; the theory of tracking down where the real Ornstein ended up, after coming to the contentious conclusion that the one who was guarding Gwynevere is apparently an illusion cooked up by her brother. (So her brother created an illusion to guard an illusion? Pretty metal.) One thread that came to my attention said, and bear with me here, Ornstein is actually the Stormdrake that The Nameless King rides into battle against you in Dark Souls 3. (Yeah, that's my reaction to.) Apparently based on the legend that one person managed to actually transform into a dragon a long time ago (something that the Dragon cults have been trying to replicate throughout the entire franchise) somepeople think that Ornstein also pulled it off and that's how his armour can be found discarded at Archdragon Peak and the reason why he became the student of The Nameless King, the reviled Dragon sympathiser that he was. (Like I said, Dark Souls lore gets freaking wild.) 

But if there's one question about Dark Souls in general that I think no amount of item descriptions, Titante slab rune deciphering, or wild half-baked metamorphosis-based theories can come to terms with, it's the question of where in the hell Dark Souls 2 fits in the franchise, because let's be honest, it doesn't. Recently James Davenport for PCGamer, who I assume had the exact same sudden reinterest in this franchise, also wrote a story about the spectacularly creative weirdness of Dark Souls, (Which is rather funny if you're interested; here) and I knew I had to voice my thoughts too. Now whereas he spoke about the thematic differences that Dark Souls 2 has to the franchise, I've been gripped by the narrative differences, but I think with both angles in mind you can really get an idea of what a weird game Dark Souls 2 really is in the grand scheme of things.

Firstly, allow me to hit you all with spoilers as I talk about the franchise as a whole. When you strip it down to it's base essence, Dark Souls is a story about the Age of Fire and its inevitable end. The Age of Ancients which preceded it was burnt away by this coming of the new order, and those who instigated that change are now terrified of the same happening to them and wiping away all that they accomplished. And if you think there's potentially some sort of analogue there, Janus Rose (sick name, by-the-by) of Vice wrote a pretty interesting piece on how Dark Souls can be seen as analogy for living in a modern world with capitalism. (Another recommended read, which you can see here) The first flame, the entity which is responsible for birthing all the powerful souls that give this world it's relevance, is the centre of almost every corner of this story and the question of whether to keep it alive, let it die or help in it's perishing, is the dilemma of the franchise.

Lord Gwyn, god of sunlight, rallied against the dying of the first flame and tried to do all he could to keep it alive. He ended up sacrificing his own brilliant soul to reignite things and keep it going but sometime before then he cursed those descendants of the Dark Soul, humans, with undeath for some unknown purpose. For the first game we are merely driven by legend and rumour about how the quest of the undead is to gather the Lord Souls and feed them to the flames, but by the final game it is the expected duty of the undead. In fact, those creatures of undeath that are condemned in the first game are regarded with honour in Dark Souls 3, because they alone hold the ability to keep the flame burning just that bit longer. So with that established, each Dark Souls story in some way should revolve around the duty of prolonging the flame of existence and what exactly such an act means, right?

Well not Dark Souls 2, apparently. Dark Souls 2 begins with the Bearer of the Curse being fraught with slivers of their life before undeath, visions that they end up chasing through the transitory plane of Things Betwixt. There they go in search of a curious goal when placed up against the rest of Dark Souls; a cure for undeath. Strangely personal of a quest in a franchise that usually tackles much more lofty concepts, huh? Once there, the Bearer is directed to the land of Drangleic to seek their answers, and one might be forgiven in thinking this will be a very straightforward tale of self discovery. For you see, that was just the sales pitch to get you through the door, from there everything goes out the window and the story becomes an insane free-for-all. (Forgive me if I forget some of the finer details, unlike with Davenport, this entire narrative blends into an insane dream to me.)

First of all you get told that you ain't getting into the Drangleic without first dealing with a few bosses that are scattered around the place, normal Dark Souls affair but not really tied with the discovery of a cure. Then once you get into Drangleic you get told, "uh-uh, You wanna be king then you gotta first deal with our Giant problem, because your Soul isn't big enough or something, I dunno." At which point you'll likely think something along the lines of, "No way, I already killed a dude called 'The Last Giant' in order to get here in the first place!" And then suddenly you realise that won't do, and you have to travel back in time and kill that same guy but back when he was strong. Oh, and you have to gather other Giant Souls too. Including one that belongs to a Dragon for some reason. (I guess he was a Giant Dragon, huh.) 

If you have the DLC then you'll find yourself dragged into another wild hunt that is only tangentially linked to whole 'arise to the throne' plot. You find yourself travelling to other kingdoms around Drangleic and find they've all fallen to ruin, not because of the fading of the flame like is the case of all the other stories in this franchise, but because of active sabotage by various Queens in these nations who, if you care enough to dig into it, are revealed to be fragments of Manus, Father of the Abyss, from Dark Souls 1's DLC. (Including the Queen of Drangleic, it should be said, so there's your connection.) So suddenly it's up to the Bearer to finish Artorias and the Chosen Undead's mission from the first Dark Souls and slay Manus for good. Great stuff, so then what happens at the end? Well with the DLC installed you have the choice to either sit upon the throne and await your eventual duty to relight the First Flame one day (That's right; you don't even get to do the one thing the series is all about!) or suddenly slap yourself in the face and realise, "Wait a minute, I came here looking for the cure to Undeath! This whole 'take the throne' garbage was sprung on me out of nowhere, that hag from Things Betwixt swindled me! I'm outta here!" That's right, the entirety of Dark Souls 2 is essentially a side quest.

Now I don't mean to rail on Dark Souls 2, I do still love the game afterall, but I just find it wild how literally nothing you do aides the wider narrative of the franchise at all. The whole plot about killing Manus' fragments merely works to resolve a problem that this story itself invented, Manus was as good as dead by the first game's story. The time-travelling battle with the giants is a strange diatribe in fighting and winning a war for a nation that, in the present day, falls to ruin anyway, so why bother? And the First Flame just feels like such an afterthought that Next Gen remasters of the game had to thrown in a new NPC who butts his way into the story after you slay each main boss in order to ramble about Lord Gwyn for five minutes so you can remember what franchise you're playing. Honestly, if Dark Souls 2 didn't have the name I think you could be forgiven for assuming it was a well done, but unrelated, spin off.

Usually people find themselves debating about whether or not Dark Souls 2 is a prequel or a Sequel to Dark Souls 1 and honestly, with how little it contributes to the overall narrative it doesn't even matter which it is! (Although, narratively it would be cleaner for it to be set afterwards because otherwise it tells the story of some doofus who accidentally gets himself set-up into being the successor to Lord Gwyn but then failed off-screen.) I just find it wild to think that a storyteller who appears as mysterious and meticulous as Miyazaki allowed the hilariously unfocused jaunt into the wild that was Dark Souls 2 to get made. (As that was the one Dark Souls he didn't direct) Although you know what, with how much it makes me smile to talk about, I wouldn't change a single thing about the nonsense plot or the crazy imaginative world. (With a stark exception given to 'Frigid Outskirts' from the Ivory King DLC. Literally the worst designed location in the entire franchise, bitterly hated that place.) I can only hope that future From Software and Miyazaki ventures leave room for the silliness of Dark Souls 2 in the future, it never hurts to go off on one now-and-then.

Elden Ring. Oh, Elden Ring!

I doubt I could even imagine it.

This is perhaps the first time I've written it but it shall not be the last; I love stories. Moreover, I love storytelling. Stories have been a part of human culture ever since we first discovered how to communicate. Stories are how we teach, how we learn and how we speculate. A story told right is one that will last for generations.

We experience stories and storytelling every day in our books, on TV, at the movies and in games. Each medium has its own special quirks unique to it that makes it difficult to translate elsewhere. That isn't to say that games can't have moments that can be 'cinematic'; but that you can't tell a story you told in a movie the same way you tell it in video games, and vice versa. Just look at video game movies; like the mess that was the Assassins Creed movie. Games are expected to be 10-20 hours long on average, giving the story plenty of time to juggle two entirely unrelated stories such as an assassin in the present and his ancestor. However, in the movie there was just no time and so all the moments of the movie set in old Spain were stripped of story and left as just impressive feats of action with no context. Storytellers must always be cognizant of the medium they are utilizing and always play to its strengths, or else the final product suffers.

This brings me to Hidetaka Miyazaki. Miyazaki is renowned as a visionary game director and storyteller who greatly benefits each project he heads. So much so that he has built a reputation for his company, From Software, as being master craftsmen responsible for a slew of high concept masterpieces. Dark Souls in particular absolutely enamoured me with its unique take on storytelling, told in a way that one could only do by utilising the strengths of storytelling in games. At some point I intend to write a full blog on the specific ways that Dark Souls  revolutionises storytelling whilst simultaneously returning the art form to its spiritual roots. For now I just want to establish that this is man who is a master of his craft and who understands how to work within his medium.

Enter George R. R. Martin. Another renowned storyteller in his own field. Say what you will about season 8 of Game of Thrones, (And 7 while we're at it.) but for all the time the show was directly adapting his work it was a one-of-a-kind rollercoaster that pushed the art of TV shows further than they had ever gone before. And the books are good too. George R. R. Martin has a long and rich career of writing for films, TV and, of course, books. He is an incredibly talented and subversive storyteller who respects his audience enough to deliver them tales that ring with the utmost authenticity.

What do these two auteurs have in common? Elden Ring of course! Elden Ring is the latest From Software project to get a sly tease and a vague trailer. Marketed as a meeting of two great narrative minds, Elden Ring promises to deliver a challenging story, with classic souls gameplay and a concept that is 'bigger' than anything From Software have produced before. Whatever that means. All I know is that as an amateur writer I find the collaboration of one of my heroes with an author I greatly respect to be absolutely fascinating. That is why I will now proceed to break down the stark, haunting, weird teaser that was dropped during the Xbox conference for any nugget of insight I might glean.

First I decided to provide a transcript of the disparaging old man who narrates the trailer:

I doubt you could even imagine it,

That which commanded the stars

Giving life its fullest brilliance.

The Elden Ring.

Oh, Elden Ring!

Shattered by someone, or something.

Don't tell me you don't see it.

Look up at the sky, it burns!

Then I realised that all sounds more like a sermon then anything concrete enough to draw actual information from. But it's all we have to go on so let amateur analysis commence!

Right away the viewer is berated for being a dullard and told of the importance of this seemingly omniscient, godly presence known as the Elden Ring. I feel that it's important to note the reverence in the tone and feel of the trailer suggesting an almost religious feverance within the speaker. Whatever this Elden Ring is, the trailer man seems to hold it in as high regard as the first flame from Dark Souls, A lynch pin the holds the whole world together. Or rather held.

'Someone or something' (Real specific there, pal) managed to break this force of such omnipotent power and the backlash of this event appears to be have caused something catastrophic. 'The Sky... burns!'

Now I'm done listing the bleeding obvious, lets dive into rampant speculation.

When the voice first speaks, we're greeted with the image of this old man sporting about five arms too many and holding a severed forearm above his crowned head. For me, this image immediate evokes the concept of creationism, with the many armed figure reminding me of beings like Kali from Hinduism or... well... Arceus from Pokemon. Okay, hear me out! Arceus was another character based heavily around the idea of the creator deity represented in many religious cultures. And he had 1000 arms. Allegedly. We never saw them.

If this image is supposed to represent a creator of some kind, is it so far to assume that he might be some form or representation of the 'unimaginble' concept that is the Elden Ring? Unlikely. Chances are he is just our narrator and the man who will greet us at the beginning before giving us a whisper of a motive and sending us on our merry way. But I can speculate.

Also, there is a moment when the servered arm twitches as though it is still alive. I don't know what this is meant to denote but it might be a reflection of what I have gathered to be the core theme. Familiarity with Hidetaka Miyazaki's work had taught me that it ain't a Miyazaki game without the theme of decay. But perhaps with 'Ring' in the title we could be looking at a theme of renewal too. Like the ouroboros, the serpent eating its tail, The Elden Ring could be the process of death and rebirth symbolised by... a twitching severed arm... Yes I know I'm grasping here, just work with me.

Now we see the smith, hard at work at his forge. Several of the shots of this trailer revolve around showing him off, so he or his work is clearly of importance here. The man himself appears to be cracked and burnt as though his skin is made of porcelain and at the moment he finishes whatever it is he is forging, the man falls to his knees like his toils have finished him off.

What is he crafting? It's hard to say as the shots are specifically constructed in order to block the viewer from seeing but the obvious answer would be the Elden Ring. I know that clashes with my earlier theory but we're going to treat it as an open relationship. I can't shake the vibes of Lord of the Rings this shot gives me, either, as though The Smith is pounding away at the one ring like some hairy Nordic Celebrimbor. I'm not a big fan of the idea that The Elden Ring is just a piece of jewelry but with a shot like this is hard not to draw Tolkien parallels. I know George R. R. Martin is a Tolkien fan so this may just be a thematic send up but the prominence of this image in the trailer implies something more concrete.

One hypothesis I have is that this Smith is a god, or The God, crafting the divine entity that is the Elden Ring. Hence the cracked, porcelain skin to indicate that he isn't human and the intentionally obscured perspective to indicate that he works at something beyond earthly comprehension.

Another observation I made is that one shot shows The Smith striking his anvil, and at the moment after he does the cracks and his back grow as though the act of making this ring is destroying him with every strike.

Next we get a couple of enduring images of two individuals that I have decided to label The Burnt Lady and 'Gilgamesh'. I named the former for her burnt hand and fiery plume and the latter for his resemblance to Gilgamesh as he appeared in Final Fantasy Type 0. These two are perhaps the only human characters we seen in the entire trailer and are indicated as such by their wear and tear. The Burnt Lady has a badly scolded arm and fits what seems to be a prosthetic onto her left shoulder. 'Gilgamesh' is seen staring up and screaming into the heavens as the narrator equates the shattering of The Elden Ring and the burning of the sky. As he screams, 'Gilgamesh's' garments seem to be beginning to catch ablaze, as though the narrator was being literal about the whole sky thing.

Perhaps this references a mechanic in which the longer the player remains within the force of the red sky the more they catch on fire.

Tenuous, I know. 

Maybe the absence of the sun within these shots is also important. If The Elden Ring 'Commanded the stars' and the Ring ain't around no more, the sun might be decaying as a result. We do get a glimpse of something beyond the sky when The Shatterer charges but I will get more into my theory on that, next.

'Gilgamesh' seems to be a lone survivor sitting amidst some sort of battlefield (Just like in Final Fantasy Type 0) with some very large weaponry nearby. He looks almost as though he is surrendering to his fate as the burning sky swallows him up. This tell me that the world we are being shown is undergoing some sort of doomsday scenario in the absence of The Elden Ring. Maybe this is the world players will get to explore; but I suspect that, given Miyazaki's previous bodies of work, that what we see is the prequel to our story. We will likely see the world in the aftermath of it's apocalypse and walk among the dead, just like dark souls.

I chose to separate The Shatterer from The Burnt Lady and 'Gilgamesh' because I believe this scene comes from earlier than those two. For one, he is the only character we see outside who is not burnt, for two, he is the character we see when our narrator mentions the 'something or someone' who shattered The Elden Ring. Also, we even see the sun clearly behind him as he charges not faded like it is in 'Gilgamesh's' shot.

The Shatterer (Assuming he is the one who shatters The Elden Ring) seems reminiscent of Dark Souls' iconic Black Knights from their matching scorched obsidian armour and shared penchant for long halberd's. In Dark Souls, the Black Knights were the spirits of Lord Gwyn's silver army sacrificed in the linking of the first flame. Perhaps this Shatterer is a dark reflection on them, a being that lives in a world of enlightenment who shatters The Elden Ring and brings darkness upon the land.

Do note that I do not believe that the scene the see depicts the shattering of the Elden Ring, The Shatterer appears to be ganking some poor golden armoured guy who doesn't even have a guard up, but I have chosen to equate him with the words that accompanied him. Of course he could just be a nobody and I'm looking into him way too much. That is likely. I should move on.

The trailer concludes how I have already described. The Smith finishes his work and falls to his knees spent/ possibly dead, some otherworldly presence seems to ooze from his workspace and we get a fleeting glimpse at a lady overseeing his work. The Forewoman, as I have called her, seems godly too. She is present within this dark abyssal void, for one, and she shares The Smith's pale, milky complexion. Beyond that her presence is an absolute mystery. The narrator has already trailed off to go chase kids off his lawn by the time she shows up and we see so little of her that it's hard to even guess at her role. I suppose her relevance will remain one of the many mysteries that this game raises. And maybe even answers. If we're lucky and eat our greens.

Needless to say I'm already heavily invested in this game. I've always loved the dreamy, ethereal essence of the From Software trailers and the way the seem to beg you to unravel its layers of secrets. Now I can say I've devoted a blog's worth of speculation to the matter and perhaps now my hungry heart can rest until more is revealed. Don't count on it though.

If you have any ideas yourself, please comment down below. From my nonsensical ramblings you can see that there are no wrong guesses here. At least none that are any more wrong.