Since the cryptic cinematic reveal in 2019, players haven’t heard or seen anything official from From Software’s Elden Ring. With the dynamite success of Sekiro, Dark Souls III, and the rest of the Souls saga, expectations are high for From Software’s next contribution to the subgenre they put on the map with Demon’s Souls a decade ago. Recently, some blurry snippets of what’s purported to be Elden Ring footage have leaked, as these things sometimes do. Bloodborne aka Project Beast was famously leaked prior to release, showing off what would be an incredible and horrific dive into the unknown.
After Sekiro, we’ve all had tons of questions about Elden Ring. How will it iterate on From’s dark fantasy formula? Well, if these alleged clips are something to go on, we can answer a couple of those burning inquiries. Please note that this footage was likely ancient in game development terms, never meant to be screened to the public, and any number of these elements could be changed or completely nonexistent when we finally see the game for real. There are often huge changes in development that players never know about. That said, let’s look at a few elements…
There’s A Jump Button
Souls jumping is the stuff memes are made of, with thousands of clips out there where players take blundersome tumbles off walls, ledges, cliffs, and anything else you can fall of of. A dedicated jump button was featured prominently in Sekiro, letting players embrace traversal and speed options. However, it’s been absent in the Souls games, where if you want to cross a gap you basically held down sprint and prayed for everything to work out. A small snippet of gameplay shows a character executing what appears to be a standard jump, so that could be exciting for exploration possibilities.
You Can Ride A Horse. And Fight On It!
Mounted combat is here. Given the expected scale and scope of Elden Ring’s world, getting around on a mount is probably going to be a nice way to travel when you need to. Potentially more exciting is a few frames that feature actual attacking on horseback, which could let you set up assaults on high priority targets before making an important getaway as deadlier enemies come your way. The horseback riding against vistas like snowy mountains and more looks really awesome.
We’re Going To Fight Dragons
Shocking absolutely no one, there’s a giant fire-breathing dragon in the clips. Hidetaka Mizazaki has a thing for dragons, especially dragons on bridges, so I’m guessing we’ll have at least two to take on. That’s a guess based on nothing except Souls game dragon math, and the fact we see a giant dragon in the leaked footage.
There’s a Lot Of Dark Souls DNA Here
In the footage, we see a lot of Dark Souls essence. Backstabbing, swordfighting skeletons, homing soulmass spell, rolling, giant door opening, and more. The released reel looks incredibly Souls-like, so much that you could easily insert the frames into some Dark Souls 3 DLC and not even miss a beat. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Give us that open world Dark Souls experience we always wanted!
There’s Probably Going TO Be a Dark, Rickety Environment
The snippets of footage give us a look at a rickety, hard to traverse area of planks and wood, which is an environmental concept we’ve seen since Valley of Defilement, Blighttown, and more. The torch itself plays prominently in several clips, so it’s possible that lighting mechanics could be being toyed with again, an aspect that was originally going to play a much bigger role in Dark Souls 2 but was essentially pared down to being meaningless in final release.
What do you expect to see in Elden Ring? Did you check out the leaks or are you waiting for an official reveal? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Game Informer 5 Takeaways From The Elden Ring Leaks