By: Bryce L. Jackson

If you’re adjacent to anyone that spends considerable time gaming, You may have heard a set compound of words pop up every once in a while in conversation or just out of earshot: “Elden Ring”. This mysterious title may have garnered more attention in the last few days because now they know what it is (I assure you they didn’t beforehand). But what is Elden Ring? And why is there such fanfare for it?

Elden Ring is described as an action RPG set in a fantasy world where magic, dragons, and monsters abide. What makes this world special is that it’s the brainchild of a collaboration between Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin and game studio FromSoftware, the makers of the Soulsborne (Demon’s Souls et.al., Bloodbourne) and Sekiro games.

The game started development in 2017 and was first teased at E3 2019 at the height of Game of Thrones fervor. Since then, there has been radio silence on the project. Until Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest where they released the first gameplay trailer.

The game looks as expected of something coming from studio FromSoftware: giant monsters, stunning visuals and combat that intend to break your will. Elden Ring’s combat is expected to be just as hard as FromSoftware’s predecessors, but each game manages to have a unique quirk to it. With a January 21st, 2022 release date, there is plenty of time to see more of the game and what niche it will fill in FromSoftware’s catalog.